Ma Huan
Ma Huan (Chung-dao) (Mountain woodcutter) (c. 1380-1460). Chinese Muslim interpreter and traveller. He was born in Hui Ji county of Zhejiang province. He is the author of an account of the Ming Chinese maritime expeditions to Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Arabian Peninsula and East Africa. Ma Huan was a Chinese Muslim interpreter who accompanied the eunuch admiral Zheng He on three of his seven maritime missions to Southeast Asia in the early fifteenth century.
On the 1413 expedition (Zheng He's third), he visited Champa, Java, Sumatra, Palembang, Siam, Kochi and Hormuz; on the 1421 expedition, he visited Malacca, Aru, Sumatra, Ceylon, Kochi, Calicut, Zufar, and Hormuz; and on the 1431 expedition, he visited Bengal, Chittagong, Sonargaon, Gaur, and Calicut. From Calicut, he was sent by the eunuch Hong Bao as emissary to Mecca.
He wrote about his experiences on these voyages in the Yingyai shenglan (Description of the Coasts of the Ocean or Overall Survey of the Ocean's Shores), which he originally compiled in 1416 and later expanded. It was published in 1451. This text, together with the Xiyang fanguo zhi (Record of the Western Barbarians) of Gongzhen (1434), who accompanied the expedition of 1431-1433 as a secretary, and the Xingcha shenglan (Description of the Starry Raft) by the Confucian scholar Feixin (1436), provides valuable firsthand descriptions of Zheng He’s efforts to solicit foreign trade in the South China Sea, the Indian Ocean, and beyond, under the third Ming dynasty emperor. Among these Ma Huan’s account is considered by scholars to have the highest standard of factual accuracy. His account is especially valuable as a source of information on the small states in the Strait of Melaka region. He describes the founding of Melaka in 1403 and records its early fifteenth-century history.
During Ma's travels, he took notes about the geography, politics, weather conditions, environment, economy, local customs, and even method of punishment for criminals. Returned home on his first expedition, he began writing a book about his expedition, the first draft of which was ready around 1416. He expanded and modified his draft during later expeditions, the final version was ready around 1451. The title of his book was Yingyai shenglan. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, there were many printed and hand-copied editions of this work. The Yingyai shenglan is considered by many sinologists worldwide as a primary source for the history of the Ming dynasty naval expeditions, along with the history of South East Asia and the history of India.
Huan, Ma see Ma Huan
Chung-dao see Ma Huan
Mountain Woodcutter see Ma Huan
On the 1413 expedition (Zheng He's third), he visited Champa, Java, Sumatra, Palembang, Siam, Kochi and Hormuz; on the 1421 expedition, he visited Malacca, Aru, Sumatra, Ceylon, Kochi, Calicut, Zufar, and Hormuz; and on the 1431 expedition, he visited Bengal, Chittagong, Sonargaon, Gaur, and Calicut. From Calicut, he was sent by the eunuch Hong Bao as emissary to Mecca.
He wrote about his experiences on these voyages in the Yingyai shenglan (Description of the Coasts of the Ocean or Overall Survey of the Ocean's Shores), which he originally compiled in 1416 and later expanded. It was published in 1451. This text, together with the Xiyang fanguo zhi (Record of the Western Barbarians) of Gongzhen (1434), who accompanied the expedition of 1431-1433 as a secretary, and the Xingcha shenglan (Description of the Starry Raft) by the Confucian scholar Feixin (1436), provides valuable firsthand descriptions of Zheng He’s efforts to solicit foreign trade in the South China Sea, the Indian Ocean, and beyond, under the third Ming dynasty emperor. Among these Ma Huan’s account is considered by scholars to have the highest standard of factual accuracy. His account is especially valuable as a source of information on the small states in the Strait of Melaka region. He describes the founding of Melaka in 1403 and records its early fifteenth-century history.
During Ma's travels, he took notes about the geography, politics, weather conditions, environment, economy, local customs, and even method of punishment for criminals. Returned home on his first expedition, he began writing a book about his expedition, the first draft of which was ready around 1416. He expanded and modified his draft during later expeditions, the final version was ready around 1451. The title of his book was Yingyai shenglan. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, there were many printed and hand-copied editions of this work. The Yingyai shenglan is considered by many sinologists worldwide as a primary source for the history of the Ming dynasty naval expeditions, along with the history of South East Asia and the history of India.
Huan, Ma see Ma Huan
Chung-dao see Ma Huan
Mountain Woodcutter see Ma Huan
Mai
Mai. Title of the rulers of the thousand year Sefawa dynasty of the Kanem-Bornu empire. From about the tenth century, the mai was considered a divine king. The twelfth mai, Humai (c. 1190), was the first to convert to Islam. Sefawa rule ended when al-Kanemi took over Bornu in the 19th century.
The Duguwa dynasty is the line of kings (mai) of the Kanem Empire prior to the rise of the Islamic Seyfawa dynasty in 1081. According to the Girgam, the Duguwa kings were Zaghawa.
The Duguwa dynasty mais of the Kanem period were:
Sef c. 700
Dugu c. 785 (son of Sef, namesake of the dynasty)
Fune c. 835
Aritso c. 893
Katuri c. 942
Ayoma c. 961
Bula c. 1019
Arki c. 1035
Shu c. 1077
Abd al-Dhel c. 1081
Mai. Title of the rulers of the thousand year Sefawa dynasty of the Kanem-Bornu empire. From about the tenth century, the mai was considered a divine king. The twelfth mai, Humai (c. 1190), was the first to convert to Islam. Sefawa rule ended when al-Kanemi took over Bornu in the 19th century.
The Duguwa dynasty is the line of kings (mai) of the Kanem Empire prior to the rise of the Islamic Seyfawa dynasty in 1081. According to the Girgam, the Duguwa kings were Zaghawa.
The Duguwa dynasty mais of the Kanem period were:
Sef c. 700
Dugu c. 785 (son of Sef, namesake of the dynasty)
Fune c. 835
Aritso c. 893
Katuri c. 942
Ayoma c. 961
Bula c. 1019
Arki c. 1035
Shu c. 1077
Abd al-Dhel c. 1081
Maimonides
Maimonides. See Ibn Maymun.
Maimonides. See Ibn Maymun.
Mai Tatsine
Mai Tatsine (Mohammed Marwa Maitatsine) (Muhammadu 'Arab) (Muhammadu Marwa) (1927?-1980). Leader of a separatist sect in Kano, Nigeria. Mai Tatsine was the nickname given by people in Kano to Muhammadu Marwa (also known as Muhammadu ‘Arab), the leader of an Islamic sect that was involved in violent disturbances in that city in December 1980. The name is derived from a Hausa phrase he commonly employed against his detractors, Alla ya tsine maka albarka (“May God deprive you of his blessing”). His followers were known as the ‘Yan Tatsine. Because the group was intensely suspicious of outsiders, and because the disturbances gave rise to many wild rumors and apocryphal stories, little reliable knowledge exists of the movement or its leader.
Muhammadu Marwa was reportedly born in the region of Marwa, a city in northern Cameroon, probably in the 1920s. (A Nigerian passport that he acquired gave the date 1927.) He is commonly thought to have been Kirdi by origin, a member of one of the small hill peoples, followers of indigenous religions, who inhabit the region, the plains of which have been dominated by Muslim Fulani since the jihad of the early nineteenth century. But there are also reports that at least one of his parents belonged to the Shuwa, an Arabic speaking group living in the region. In the 1920s and 1930s, there was a large scale emigration of young Kirdi men from the hills to the plains, driven by poverty and, in 1931, by a severe famine. The young Muhammadu Marwa may have been among them. He reportedly became the servant of a Muslim scholar who inspired his conversion to Islam. On that occasion, he took his Muslim name, Muhammadu. He may have been exposed to Mahdist ideas. In the 1890s this region served as the base for the Mahdist movement led by Hayat Bin Sa‘id (d. 1899), a member of the Sokoto royal family.
Muhammadu Marwa is said to have come to Kano in 1945, but nothing is known of his activities there until the early 1960s. By this time, he had acquired a reputation for tafsir, or Qur’anic commentary, and so was given the nickname “Mallam Mai Tafsiri.” This presumably was the origin of his later derogatory nickname. The political and religious life of Kano in the years just after Nigeria’s independence in 1960 was turbulent, and Muhammadu Marwa joined in the fray. In 1962, Emir Muhammadu Sanusi (r.1953-1963) had him brought before a Muslim judge on charges of illegal preaching and an offense known in the Arabic legal records as shatimah, or abusive language. The latter offense was severely -- and frequently -- punished in Kano at the time, since the exchange of insults by political or religious groups often led to violence. The judge gave Marwa a three-month prison term, to be followed by deportation to his native Cameroon.
The Nigerian military takeover of 1966 brought an end to the formal powers of the emirs and in general weakened traditional social controls. This change made it possible for Marwa to return to Kano in the late 1960s. In 1971, he was issued a Nigerian passport in order to perform the pilgrimage to Mecca.
By the late 1970s, the petroleum boom had brought a major new injection of wealth to Kano, and with it came rapid social change. For many of the established residents of the city this meant accelerated incorporation into the modern sector of Nigerian society, especially through the state-run secular school system. At the same time, young men were drawn from the countryside in increasing numbers. Many of them followed a traditional pattern in the region, leaving their families to become Qur’anic students (Hausa, almajirai) and supporting themselves and their teacher through begging (Hausa, bara) and casual labor. The economic and educational changes of the 1970s made this group increasingly marginal. Such youth were the main recruiting ground for the ‘Yan Tatsine. Groups affiliated with them sprang up in other towns in northern Nigeria and developed their own separate ritual centers.
Starting in 1977, the aggressive preaching of Marwa’s disciples and the growth of his commnity of followers inspired vociferous public complaints. The approach of the turn of the Islamic century (fourteenth century AH) in 1979, an event associated with the arrival of a renewer of the faith, apparently inspired Marwa to announce his claim to prophethood. In 1978, as Nigeria returned to civilian rule, Kano state elected a governor from the People’s Redemption Party, Abubakar Rimi. The Nigerian presidency, however, was captured by this party’s conservative rival in northern politics, the National Party of Nigeria. The distrust between the federal and state levels of government hampered efforts to control the ‘Yan Tatsine.
On November 26, 1980, Governor Rimi issued an ultimatum demanding the dispersal of the large group of followers who had gathered around Marwa’s compound in ‘Yan Awaki Quarters, just outside the old walled city. At this time, the arrival of Libyan troops in the Chadian capital of Njamena added to public anxiety. Governor Rimi took no immediate action on the expiration of the ultimatum. Rumors circulated that the ‘Yan Tatsine planned to take over the city’s two main mosques at congregational prayers on Friday, December 19. The day before, however, a group of ‘Yan Tatsine entered into a violent confrontation with the police at Shahuci Field, near the emir’s palace. With bows and machetes, they drove off the police, captured weapons, and burned trucks.
Ten days of heavy fighting ensued in which more than four thousand people were killed. Many were victims of vigilante groups that sprang up around the city and attacked anyone they suspected of belonging to the ‘Yan Tatsine. The Nigerian army finally was called in to quell the disturbances. Marwa and his followers fled their stronghold on December 29. Marwa himself was killed in the process and some one thousand of his followers arrested. In October 1982, violent disturbances linked to the ‘Yan Tatsine occurred in the city of Maiduguri in northeastern Nigeria. Other disturbances followed at Yola (March 1984) and Gombe (April 1985).
The ‘Yan Tatsine follows a pattern common in Muslim West Africa that may be termed “religious separatism,” or, in the phrase of Jean-Paul Charnay (1980), “closed Islam.” Such groups embrace heterodox practices and esoteric interpretations of the Qur’an. They emphasixe their own purity and refuse contact with the rest of society. Muhammadu Marwa was especially known for his condemnation of all modern innovations from bicycles to radios and buttons. He reportedly accepted only the Qur’an as a valid source of religious teaching, yet as a prophet claimed the right to issue new religious injunctions, or at least new interpretations of the Qur’an. He had no known links with other Islamic groups of either Sufi or Wahhabi orientation.
Tatsine, Mai see Mai Tatsine
Mohammaed Marwa Maitatsine see Mai Tatsine
Muhammadu 'Arab see Mai Tatsine
Muhammadu Marwa see Mai Tatsine
Mallam Mai Tafsiri see Mai Tatsine
Mai Tatsine (Mohammed Marwa Maitatsine) (Muhammadu 'Arab) (Muhammadu Marwa) (1927?-1980). Leader of a separatist sect in Kano, Nigeria. Mai Tatsine was the nickname given by people in Kano to Muhammadu Marwa (also known as Muhammadu ‘Arab), the leader of an Islamic sect that was involved in violent disturbances in that city in December 1980. The name is derived from a Hausa phrase he commonly employed against his detractors, Alla ya tsine maka albarka (“May God deprive you of his blessing”). His followers were known as the ‘Yan Tatsine. Because the group was intensely suspicious of outsiders, and because the disturbances gave rise to many wild rumors and apocryphal stories, little reliable knowledge exists of the movement or its leader.
Muhammadu Marwa was reportedly born in the region of Marwa, a city in northern Cameroon, probably in the 1920s. (A Nigerian passport that he acquired gave the date 1927.) He is commonly thought to have been Kirdi by origin, a member of one of the small hill peoples, followers of indigenous religions, who inhabit the region, the plains of which have been dominated by Muslim Fulani since the jihad of the early nineteenth century. But there are also reports that at least one of his parents belonged to the Shuwa, an Arabic speaking group living in the region. In the 1920s and 1930s, there was a large scale emigration of young Kirdi men from the hills to the plains, driven by poverty and, in 1931, by a severe famine. The young Muhammadu Marwa may have been among them. He reportedly became the servant of a Muslim scholar who inspired his conversion to Islam. On that occasion, he took his Muslim name, Muhammadu. He may have been exposed to Mahdist ideas. In the 1890s this region served as the base for the Mahdist movement led by Hayat Bin Sa‘id (d. 1899), a member of the Sokoto royal family.
Muhammadu Marwa is said to have come to Kano in 1945, but nothing is known of his activities there until the early 1960s. By this time, he had acquired a reputation for tafsir, or Qur’anic commentary, and so was given the nickname “Mallam Mai Tafsiri.” This presumably was the origin of his later derogatory nickname. The political and religious life of Kano in the years just after Nigeria’s independence in 1960 was turbulent, and Muhammadu Marwa joined in the fray. In 1962, Emir Muhammadu Sanusi (r.1953-1963) had him brought before a Muslim judge on charges of illegal preaching and an offense known in the Arabic legal records as shatimah, or abusive language. The latter offense was severely -- and frequently -- punished in Kano at the time, since the exchange of insults by political or religious groups often led to violence. The judge gave Marwa a three-month prison term, to be followed by deportation to his native Cameroon.
The Nigerian military takeover of 1966 brought an end to the formal powers of the emirs and in general weakened traditional social controls. This change made it possible for Marwa to return to Kano in the late 1960s. In 1971, he was issued a Nigerian passport in order to perform the pilgrimage to Mecca.
By the late 1970s, the petroleum boom had brought a major new injection of wealth to Kano, and with it came rapid social change. For many of the established residents of the city this meant accelerated incorporation into the modern sector of Nigerian society, especially through the state-run secular school system. At the same time, young men were drawn from the countryside in increasing numbers. Many of them followed a traditional pattern in the region, leaving their families to become Qur’anic students (Hausa, almajirai) and supporting themselves and their teacher through begging (Hausa, bara) and casual labor. The economic and educational changes of the 1970s made this group increasingly marginal. Such youth were the main recruiting ground for the ‘Yan Tatsine. Groups affiliated with them sprang up in other towns in northern Nigeria and developed their own separate ritual centers.
Starting in 1977, the aggressive preaching of Marwa’s disciples and the growth of his commnity of followers inspired vociferous public complaints. The approach of the turn of the Islamic century (fourteenth century AH) in 1979, an event associated with the arrival of a renewer of the faith, apparently inspired Marwa to announce his claim to prophethood. In 1978, as Nigeria returned to civilian rule, Kano state elected a governor from the People’s Redemption Party, Abubakar Rimi. The Nigerian presidency, however, was captured by this party’s conservative rival in northern politics, the National Party of Nigeria. The distrust between the federal and state levels of government hampered efforts to control the ‘Yan Tatsine.
On November 26, 1980, Governor Rimi issued an ultimatum demanding the dispersal of the large group of followers who had gathered around Marwa’s compound in ‘Yan Awaki Quarters, just outside the old walled city. At this time, the arrival of Libyan troops in the Chadian capital of Njamena added to public anxiety. Governor Rimi took no immediate action on the expiration of the ultimatum. Rumors circulated that the ‘Yan Tatsine planned to take over the city’s two main mosques at congregational prayers on Friday, December 19. The day before, however, a group of ‘Yan Tatsine entered into a violent confrontation with the police at Shahuci Field, near the emir’s palace. With bows and machetes, they drove off the police, captured weapons, and burned trucks.
Ten days of heavy fighting ensued in which more than four thousand people were killed. Many were victims of vigilante groups that sprang up around the city and attacked anyone they suspected of belonging to the ‘Yan Tatsine. The Nigerian army finally was called in to quell the disturbances. Marwa and his followers fled their stronghold on December 29. Marwa himself was killed in the process and some one thousand of his followers arrested. In October 1982, violent disturbances linked to the ‘Yan Tatsine occurred in the city of Maiduguri in northeastern Nigeria. Other disturbances followed at Yola (March 1984) and Gombe (April 1985).
The ‘Yan Tatsine follows a pattern common in Muslim West Africa that may be termed “religious separatism,” or, in the phrase of Jean-Paul Charnay (1980), “closed Islam.” Such groups embrace heterodox practices and esoteric interpretations of the Qur’an. They emphasixe their own purity and refuse contact with the rest of society. Muhammadu Marwa was especially known for his condemnation of all modern innovations from bicycles to radios and buttons. He reportedly accepted only the Qur’an as a valid source of religious teaching, yet as a prophet claimed the right to issue new religious injunctions, or at least new interpretations of the Qur’an. He had no known links with other Islamic groups of either Sufi or Wahhabi orientation.
Tatsine, Mai see Mai Tatsine
Mohammaed Marwa Maitatsine see Mai Tatsine
Muhammadu 'Arab see Mai Tatsine
Muhammadu Marwa see Mai Tatsine
Mallam Mai Tafsiri see Mai Tatsine
Majd al-Dawla, Abu Talib Rustam
Majd al-Dawla, Abu Talib Rustam (Abu Talib Rustam Majd al-Dawla) (b. 989). Ruler of the northern Buyid amirate of Rayy and Jibal (r.997-1029). The amirate was overrun by the Ghaznavid Mahmud ibn Sebuktigin.
Abu Taleb Rostam, known as Majd al-Dawla, was the Buyid amir of Ray, a city in Iran. He was the eldest son of Fakhr al-Daula. His reign saw the removal of the Buyids as a power in central Iran.
Abu Taleb Rostam succeeded his father upon the latter's death in 997. At the time, he was four years old. His younger brother, Abu Taher ("Shams al-Daula"), meanwhile, became the ruler of Hamadan. Since both brothers were in the age of minority, power was assumed by their mother Sayyida. Both sons initially declared themselves independent and assumed the title of Shâhanshâh, but by 1009 or 1010 at the latest had recognized the authority of Baha' al-Daula, who controlled Fars and Iraq, and abandoned the title.
In 1006 or 1007, with the assistance of his vizier Abu 'Ali ibn 'Ali, Majd al-Daula attempted to throw off the regency of his mother. Sayyida, however, escaped to the Kurd Abu Najr Badr ibn Hasanuya, and together with Shams al-Daula they put Ray under siege. After several battles, the city was taken and Majd al-Daula was captured. He was imprisoned by his mother in the fort of Tabarak, while Shams al-Daula took to power in Ray. After a year, Majd al-Daula was released and reinstated in Ray; Shams al-Daula returned to Hamadan. Power continued to be held by his mother.
Majd al-Daula's reign saw the gradual shrinking of Buyid holdings in central Iran. Gorgan and Tabaristan had been lost to the Ziyarids in 997, while several of the western towns were seized by the Sallarids of Azerbaijan. There were also internal troubles, such as a revolt in 1016 or 1017. Towards the end of her life, Sayyida had to prevent Shams al-Daula from seizing Ray from his brother.
When Sayyida died in 1028, the consequences of the political seclusion of Majd al-Daula became apparent. He was soon faced with a revolt by his Dailamite soldiers, and requested the assistance of Mahmud of Ghazni in dealing with them. Mahmud came to Ray, deposed Majd al-Daula as ruler, and sacked the city, bringing an end to Buyid rule there. One of his sons, Fana-Khusrau, would attempt to restore the power of the Buyids in the following years, but failed.
Abu Talib Rustam Majd al-Dawla see Majd al-Dawla, Abu Talib Rustam
Majd al-Dawla, Abu Talib Rustam (Abu Talib Rustam Majd al-Dawla) (b. 989). Ruler of the northern Buyid amirate of Rayy and Jibal (r.997-1029). The amirate was overrun by the Ghaznavid Mahmud ibn Sebuktigin.
Abu Taleb Rostam, known as Majd al-Dawla, was the Buyid amir of Ray, a city in Iran. He was the eldest son of Fakhr al-Daula. His reign saw the removal of the Buyids as a power in central Iran.
Abu Taleb Rostam succeeded his father upon the latter's death in 997. At the time, he was four years old. His younger brother, Abu Taher ("Shams al-Daula"), meanwhile, became the ruler of Hamadan. Since both brothers were in the age of minority, power was assumed by their mother Sayyida. Both sons initially declared themselves independent and assumed the title of Shâhanshâh, but by 1009 or 1010 at the latest had recognized the authority of Baha' al-Daula, who controlled Fars and Iraq, and abandoned the title.
In 1006 or 1007, with the assistance of his vizier Abu 'Ali ibn 'Ali, Majd al-Daula attempted to throw off the regency of his mother. Sayyida, however, escaped to the Kurd Abu Najr Badr ibn Hasanuya, and together with Shams al-Daula they put Ray under siege. After several battles, the city was taken and Majd al-Daula was captured. He was imprisoned by his mother in the fort of Tabarak, while Shams al-Daula took to power in Ray. After a year, Majd al-Daula was released and reinstated in Ray; Shams al-Daula returned to Hamadan. Power continued to be held by his mother.
Majd al-Daula's reign saw the gradual shrinking of Buyid holdings in central Iran. Gorgan and Tabaristan had been lost to the Ziyarids in 997, while several of the western towns were seized by the Sallarids of Azerbaijan. There were also internal troubles, such as a revolt in 1016 or 1017. Towards the end of her life, Sayyida had to prevent Shams al-Daula from seizing Ray from his brother.
When Sayyida died in 1028, the consequences of the political seclusion of Majd al-Daula became apparent. He was soon faced with a revolt by his Dailamite soldiers, and requested the assistance of Mahmud of Ghazni in dealing with them. Mahmud came to Ray, deposed Majd al-Daula as ruler, and sacked the city, bringing an end to Buyid rule there. One of his sons, Fana-Khusrau, would attempt to restore the power of the Buyids in the following years, but failed.
Abu Talib Rustam Majd al-Dawla see Majd al-Dawla, Abu Talib Rustam
Majid ibn Sa‘id
Majid ibn Sa‘id (b. c. 1832 - October 7, 1870). Sultan of Zanzibar and of the Al Bu-Sa‘id dynasty. He ruled Zanzibar from October 19, 1856 to October 7, 1870. After his father Sa‘id ibn Sultan had died in 1856, Majid’s eldest brother Thuwayni, designated by his father as sultan in Oman, attempted to gain control of the African dominions of the sultanate of Oman and Zanzibar, but his armed expedition was turned back at sea by a British man-of-war. The dispute, settled by the Award of Lord Canning, Viceroy of India, and recognized by an Anglo-French Declaration in 1862, led to the independence of Zanzibar from Oman.
Sayyid Majid Ibn Sa‘id was the second Busaidi ruler of Zanzibar (Tanzania). Majid was the first son of Sayyid Sa‘id to reign as the Sultan of Zanzibar and to hold his father’s title Sayyid -- an Islamic honorific title taken by learned men which was adopted as a dynastic title by the Busaidi dynasty of Zanzibar.
Upon his succession in 1856, Sayyid Sa‘id’s commercial empire was divided between Majid in the materially wealthy lands of east Africa and his half-brother Thuwayni (Thuwain) in the previous Busaidi capital of Muscat in southern Arabia. Majid relied greatly on the support of the British consular officials to maintain his position vis-a-vis his jealous brother. Majid became beholden to the British navy for its assistance in foiling an attempted invasion by Thuwain in 1859. In 1861, the dispute between Majid and Thuwain was resolved by British arbitrators. The arbitration affirmed Zanzibar’s independence from Muscat but required Majid to pay an annual tribute to Thuwain in to compensate Thuwain for their economically unequal inheritance. The payment of these tributary amounts ended in 1866 when Thuwain was assassinated by his own son. It was this termination of the payment of the tributary amounts which enabled Majid to embark upon a period of construction on the Tanzanian mainland.
During Majid’s tenure as Sultan of Zanzibar, the first serious attempts were made by Zanzibar to dominate the Tanzanian mainland. Majid began to develop Dar es Salaam as a future capital, but died before the project was completed.
Upon his death in 1870, Majid was peacefully succeeded by another brother, Barghash.
Today, Dar es Salaam, the pride of Sayyid Majid Ibn Said is the largest town and main port of Tanzania. It is Majid’s greatest legacy.
Majid ibn Sa‘id (b. c. 1832 - October 7, 1870). Sultan of Zanzibar and of the Al Bu-Sa‘id dynasty. He ruled Zanzibar from October 19, 1856 to October 7, 1870. After his father Sa‘id ibn Sultan had died in 1856, Majid’s eldest brother Thuwayni, designated by his father as sultan in Oman, attempted to gain control of the African dominions of the sultanate of Oman and Zanzibar, but his armed expedition was turned back at sea by a British man-of-war. The dispute, settled by the Award of Lord Canning, Viceroy of India, and recognized by an Anglo-French Declaration in 1862, led to the independence of Zanzibar from Oman.
Sayyid Majid Ibn Sa‘id was the second Busaidi ruler of Zanzibar (Tanzania). Majid was the first son of Sayyid Sa‘id to reign as the Sultan of Zanzibar and to hold his father’s title Sayyid -- an Islamic honorific title taken by learned men which was adopted as a dynastic title by the Busaidi dynasty of Zanzibar.
Upon his succession in 1856, Sayyid Sa‘id’s commercial empire was divided between Majid in the materially wealthy lands of east Africa and his half-brother Thuwayni (Thuwain) in the previous Busaidi capital of Muscat in southern Arabia. Majid relied greatly on the support of the British consular officials to maintain his position vis-a-vis his jealous brother. Majid became beholden to the British navy for its assistance in foiling an attempted invasion by Thuwain in 1859. In 1861, the dispute between Majid and Thuwain was resolved by British arbitrators. The arbitration affirmed Zanzibar’s independence from Muscat but required Majid to pay an annual tribute to Thuwain in to compensate Thuwain for their economically unequal inheritance. The payment of these tributary amounts ended in 1866 when Thuwain was assassinated by his own son. It was this termination of the payment of the tributary amounts which enabled Majid to embark upon a period of construction on the Tanzanian mainland.
During Majid’s tenure as Sultan of Zanzibar, the first serious attempts were made by Zanzibar to dominate the Tanzanian mainland. Majid began to develop Dar es Salaam as a future capital, but died before the project was completed.
Upon his death in 1870, Majid was peacefully succeeded by another brother, Barghash.
Today, Dar es Salaam, the pride of Sayyid Majid Ibn Said is the largest town and main port of Tanzania. It is Majid’s greatest legacy.
Majlisi, Muhammad Baqir
Majlisi, Muhammad Baqir (Mullah Muhammad Baqir Majlisi) (Majlesi-ye Thani -- Majlesi the Second)(‘Allama Majlisi) (1616-1698). Authoritative jurist and a prolific collector of traditions and an unprecedentedly influential author of the Twelver Shi‘a. Under the Safavid Shah Suleiman, he was, in effect, the ruler of Iran. Muhammad Baqir Majlisi was an Iranian religious scholar, strongly exoteric in outlook, who exerted considerable influence on the Safavid state and left behind an important corpus of writings still studied in Iran.
Born in Isfahan in 1616, his father, Mullah Muhammad Taqi al-Majlisi, was a cleric of Islamic jurisprudence. The genealogy of his family is traced back to Bu Noaym Ahamad bin Abdallah Esfahani, the author, inter alia, of a History of Isfahan, entitled Zekr-e akhbar-e Esfahan.
By the age of 14, Muhammad Baqir gained certification of "riwayat" from Mulla Sadra to teach. He is said to have completed studies under twenty-one masters (ustadh). He is reported to have trained 181 students to become masters themselves.
Gaining fame as a prodigy of erudition, he swiftly advanced to the position of mullabashi (“chief mulla,” -- head of the religious hierarchy), from which he was able to set the Safavid state on what would be a disastrous course of confrontation with the Sunni Afghans. His main scholarly accomplishment was a vast collection of Shi‘ite traditions, Bihar al-anwar (Oceans of Lights). Noteworthy, too, are the shorter handbooks of religious practice he wrote, in Persian, for a broader audience.
In 1678, the Safavid King, Shah Suleiman, appointed "Sheikh ul-Islam" (Chief Religious Leader of the land) in Isfahan, the capital of the Persian Empire (Iran). In this influential position, he was given a free hand by the Sultan to encourage and to punish as he saw fit. The three inter-related areas in which Majlisi exerted his efforts were the suppression of Sufism, mystical philosophies, and philosophic rationalism known as Falsafah; the propagation of a legalistic form of Twelver Shi'ism and "the suppression of Sunnism and other religious groups."
Majlisi's era marked a breaking point, as he successfully undercut the influence of Sufism and philosophic rationalism in Shi'ism. Up to the time of Majlisi, Shiism and Sufism were closely linked and indeed Sufism had been a vehicle for pro-Shi'a sentiment among the Sunnis. Even the most eminent members of the Shi'a 'ulama' in the preceding centuries had come under the influence of Sufism. After the death of Majlisi, this process continued along the succeeding generations of 'ulama' so that Sufism became divorced from Shi'ism and ceased to influence the main stream of Shi'a development. Philosophy was also downgraded and ceased to be an important part of studies at the religious institutions.
Majlisi was not successful in suppressing Sunnism. Though he waged a relentless campaign of persecution wherever he found any Sunnis, the pockets of Sunnism in Iran he targeted remained.
Majlisi was a leading Iranian Shi‘a scholar of the late Safavid period. He was born in Isfahan, the capital of the Safavid state, into a family of ‘ulama’ (religious scholars). His father, Muhammad Taqi al-Majlisi, was a noted religious figure. It is said the Majlisis were related to the ‘Amilis of south Lebanon (Jabal ‘Amil) who, when Shah Isma‘il founded the Shi‘a Safavid state in Iran in 1501, flocked to Iran to participate in the flowering of a new era of Shi‘a scholarship. Al-Majlisi’s life and works marked the end of this “golden age.” He died in Isfahan and was buried in the great old mosque of the city.
The most readily accessible biography of Majlisi is to be found in Muhammd Baqir Khwansari’s well-known nineteenth-century biographical dictionary, Rawdat al-jannat. In narrating the life and works of Majlisi, Khwansari, as is his usual style, quotes from contemporary and later sources. He refers to him as “Shaykh al-Islam” of the Safavid capital, adding that “he was the chief figure (ra’is) in religious and secular matters.” During the reign of the last Safavid ruler, Shah Sultan Husayn, the affairs of the state had deteriorated to such a degree that it was only thanks to Majlisi’s activities that the country maintained a semblance of unity. The end came soon after Majlisi’s death.
Aside from his religious duties as a member of the ‘ulama’, which the sources describe in exaggerated detail, Majlisi’s position in regard to the government and the shah is unclear. He was not a statesman.
In addition to the material in Khwansari’s work, the earliest life of Majlisi is included in Mir’at al-ahval-i Jahan-nama, written by Ahmad ibn Muhammad ‘Ali Bihbahani (d. 1819 or 1820) and recently published in Tehran, edited by ‘Ali Davvani. This work served as the basis for a more elaborate biography of Majlisi written in 1884 by Husayn ibn Muhammad Taqi ibn ‘Ali ibn Muhammad al-Nuri al-Tabarsi, entitled Al-fayd al-qudsi fi tarjamat al-‘Allamah al-Majlisi. This work was published as part of volume 105 of the new edition of Majlisi’s Bihar al-anwar. After a short introduction, the biography deals with Majlisi’s personal characteristics, his works, his teachers and students, his ancestors, his descendants, and his life and visions of him after his death.
The sources stress two aspects of Majlisi’s life: his strong opposition to Sufism and his attempt at popularizing Shi’a thought among Iranians by writing several of his works in Persian rather than Arabic. His major work, however, Bihar al-anwar, a compendium of Shi‘a knowledge, is in Arabic. A new (second) edition of this work, which began to appear in Tehran in the 1960s is in 110 volumes. Karl-Heinz Pampus wrote a doctoral dissertation on Bihar al-anwar in 1970. The first part of Pampus’s work is a comprehensive biography of Majlisi; the rest is a detailed analysis of Bihar.
Majlisi is said to have written as many as thirteen books in Arabic and fifty-three in Persian. Some of these compositions are short treatises dealing with such topics as belief, prayer, ethics, and morality, many of which intended to teach the common person. In Shi‘a thought and scholarship, Majlisi represents the culminating point in the Ithna ‘Ashari revival that can be said to have begun with the rise of the Safavid dynasty. The continuity in Shi‘a learning that the Safavid rulers provided for Ithna ‘Ashari scholars (thus linking them with their predecessors of the late Middle Ages, such as Ibn al-Mujtahar al-Hilli, Ibn Makki al-‘Amili, Ibn Fahd al-Hilli and others) is counterbalanced with the continuity that Majlisi himself provided for future generations of Shi‘a scholars, linking the Safavid period with that of the Qajar dynasty in the nineteenth century -- all the way to the present Islamic Republic of Iran.
No modern scholar today dealing with Islamic thought, Shi’a or otherwise, can afford to ignore the writings of Muhammad Baqir al-Majilisi. Majlisi, al-Hurr al-‘Amili, and Mulla Muhsin Fayd constitute the so-called Three Later Muhammads who, with the “Three Early Muhammads” (Kulayni, Ibn Babuyah, and Shaykh al-Ta’ifah al-Tusi), share among themselves the most important writings of the teachings of the Shi‘a tradition of Islam.
Majlisi re-established clerical authority under his leadership, and renewed the impetus for conversion from Sunnism to Shi'ism. Majlisi is credited with propagating numerous Shi'a rituals that Iranians regularly practice, such as mourning ceremonies for fallen imams, particularly the martyrdom of Husayn ibn Ali at Karbala; and pilgrimages to shrines of imams and their families.
Majlisi fervently upheld the concepts of enjoining the good and prohibiting evil, and in so doing endeavored to provide fatwa (judgments) for all of the hypothetical situations a true believer could or might face. In one exposition of virtues of proper behavior, he gave directions on everything from how to wear clothes to sexual intercourse and association with females, clipping fingernails, sleeping, waking, bathroom functions, enemas, sneezing, entering and leaving a domicile, and treatments and cures for many illnesses and diseases.
More controversially, Majlisi defined science very narrowly as knowledge of the clear, secure ayat (verses of the Qur'an); of the religious duties and obligations which God has fixed in his Justice; and of the Prophetic Traditions (Hadith), which are valid until the day of Resurrection. Beyond this, he warned, the seeking of knowledge is a waste of one's life, and worse would generally lead to apostasy and heresy, in which case the likelihood of salvation is remote. Majlisi opposed the school of mystical philosophy developed by Mir Damad and Mulla Sadra, who argued that the Qur'an was always open to re-interpretation, and valued insights that came from intuition and ecstasy rather than reason.
Majlisi is also controversial for his close relationship with Indian Mughal ruler Aurangzeb Alamgir who was known commonly for his anti-Shi'a inclinations. Aurangzeb is said to have referred to Majlisi as the real leader of all true Muslims of Persia. Majlisi visited India on nine occasions between 1660 and 1695 and was awarded the respect of a government emissary thereby offending the Shah of Iran. Shah Suleiman made a futile effort of winning over Majlisi against Aurangzeb by giving him a high level post in his court but failed to win his support for his wars against the latter.
Mullah Muhammad Baqir Majlisi see Majlisi, Muhammad Baqir
Majlesi-ye Thani see Majlisi, Muhammad Baqir
Majlesi the Second see Majlisi, Muhammad Baqir
Thani, Majlesi-ye see Majlisi, Muhammad Baqir
'Allama Majlisi see Majlisi, Muhammad Baqir
Majlisi, Muhammad Baqir (Mullah Muhammad Baqir Majlisi) (Majlesi-ye Thani -- Majlesi the Second)(‘Allama Majlisi) (1616-1698). Authoritative jurist and a prolific collector of traditions and an unprecedentedly influential author of the Twelver Shi‘a. Under the Safavid Shah Suleiman, he was, in effect, the ruler of Iran. Muhammad Baqir Majlisi was an Iranian religious scholar, strongly exoteric in outlook, who exerted considerable influence on the Safavid state and left behind an important corpus of writings still studied in Iran.
Born in Isfahan in 1616, his father, Mullah Muhammad Taqi al-Majlisi, was a cleric of Islamic jurisprudence. The genealogy of his family is traced back to Bu Noaym Ahamad bin Abdallah Esfahani, the author, inter alia, of a History of Isfahan, entitled Zekr-e akhbar-e Esfahan.
By the age of 14, Muhammad Baqir gained certification of "riwayat" from Mulla Sadra to teach. He is said to have completed studies under twenty-one masters (ustadh). He is reported to have trained 181 students to become masters themselves.
Gaining fame as a prodigy of erudition, he swiftly advanced to the position of mullabashi (“chief mulla,” -- head of the religious hierarchy), from which he was able to set the Safavid state on what would be a disastrous course of confrontation with the Sunni Afghans. His main scholarly accomplishment was a vast collection of Shi‘ite traditions, Bihar al-anwar (Oceans of Lights). Noteworthy, too, are the shorter handbooks of religious practice he wrote, in Persian, for a broader audience.
In 1678, the Safavid King, Shah Suleiman, appointed "Sheikh ul-Islam" (Chief Religious Leader of the land) in Isfahan, the capital of the Persian Empire (Iran). In this influential position, he was given a free hand by the Sultan to encourage and to punish as he saw fit. The three inter-related areas in which Majlisi exerted his efforts were the suppression of Sufism, mystical philosophies, and philosophic rationalism known as Falsafah; the propagation of a legalistic form of Twelver Shi'ism and "the suppression of Sunnism and other religious groups."
Majlisi's era marked a breaking point, as he successfully undercut the influence of Sufism and philosophic rationalism in Shi'ism. Up to the time of Majlisi, Shiism and Sufism were closely linked and indeed Sufism had been a vehicle for pro-Shi'a sentiment among the Sunnis. Even the most eminent members of the Shi'a 'ulama' in the preceding centuries had come under the influence of Sufism. After the death of Majlisi, this process continued along the succeeding generations of 'ulama' so that Sufism became divorced from Shi'ism and ceased to influence the main stream of Shi'a development. Philosophy was also downgraded and ceased to be an important part of studies at the religious institutions.
Majlisi was not successful in suppressing Sunnism. Though he waged a relentless campaign of persecution wherever he found any Sunnis, the pockets of Sunnism in Iran he targeted remained.
Majlisi was a leading Iranian Shi‘a scholar of the late Safavid period. He was born in Isfahan, the capital of the Safavid state, into a family of ‘ulama’ (religious scholars). His father, Muhammad Taqi al-Majlisi, was a noted religious figure. It is said the Majlisis were related to the ‘Amilis of south Lebanon (Jabal ‘Amil) who, when Shah Isma‘il founded the Shi‘a Safavid state in Iran in 1501, flocked to Iran to participate in the flowering of a new era of Shi‘a scholarship. Al-Majlisi’s life and works marked the end of this “golden age.” He died in Isfahan and was buried in the great old mosque of the city.
The most readily accessible biography of Majlisi is to be found in Muhammd Baqir Khwansari’s well-known nineteenth-century biographical dictionary, Rawdat al-jannat. In narrating the life and works of Majlisi, Khwansari, as is his usual style, quotes from contemporary and later sources. He refers to him as “Shaykh al-Islam” of the Safavid capital, adding that “he was the chief figure (ra’is) in religious and secular matters.” During the reign of the last Safavid ruler, Shah Sultan Husayn, the affairs of the state had deteriorated to such a degree that it was only thanks to Majlisi’s activities that the country maintained a semblance of unity. The end came soon after Majlisi’s death.
Aside from his religious duties as a member of the ‘ulama’, which the sources describe in exaggerated detail, Majlisi’s position in regard to the government and the shah is unclear. He was not a statesman.
In addition to the material in Khwansari’s work, the earliest life of Majlisi is included in Mir’at al-ahval-i Jahan-nama, written by Ahmad ibn Muhammad ‘Ali Bihbahani (d. 1819 or 1820) and recently published in Tehran, edited by ‘Ali Davvani. This work served as the basis for a more elaborate biography of Majlisi written in 1884 by Husayn ibn Muhammad Taqi ibn ‘Ali ibn Muhammad al-Nuri al-Tabarsi, entitled Al-fayd al-qudsi fi tarjamat al-‘Allamah al-Majlisi. This work was published as part of volume 105 of the new edition of Majlisi’s Bihar al-anwar. After a short introduction, the biography deals with Majlisi’s personal characteristics, his works, his teachers and students, his ancestors, his descendants, and his life and visions of him after his death.
The sources stress two aspects of Majlisi’s life: his strong opposition to Sufism and his attempt at popularizing Shi’a thought among Iranians by writing several of his works in Persian rather than Arabic. His major work, however, Bihar al-anwar, a compendium of Shi‘a knowledge, is in Arabic. A new (second) edition of this work, which began to appear in Tehran in the 1960s is in 110 volumes. Karl-Heinz Pampus wrote a doctoral dissertation on Bihar al-anwar in 1970. The first part of Pampus’s work is a comprehensive biography of Majlisi; the rest is a detailed analysis of Bihar.
Majlisi is said to have written as many as thirteen books in Arabic and fifty-three in Persian. Some of these compositions are short treatises dealing with such topics as belief, prayer, ethics, and morality, many of which intended to teach the common person. In Shi‘a thought and scholarship, Majlisi represents the culminating point in the Ithna ‘Ashari revival that can be said to have begun with the rise of the Safavid dynasty. The continuity in Shi‘a learning that the Safavid rulers provided for Ithna ‘Ashari scholars (thus linking them with their predecessors of the late Middle Ages, such as Ibn al-Mujtahar al-Hilli, Ibn Makki al-‘Amili, Ibn Fahd al-Hilli and others) is counterbalanced with the continuity that Majlisi himself provided for future generations of Shi‘a scholars, linking the Safavid period with that of the Qajar dynasty in the nineteenth century -- all the way to the present Islamic Republic of Iran.
No modern scholar today dealing with Islamic thought, Shi’a or otherwise, can afford to ignore the writings of Muhammad Baqir al-Majilisi. Majlisi, al-Hurr al-‘Amili, and Mulla Muhsin Fayd constitute the so-called Three Later Muhammads who, with the “Three Early Muhammads” (Kulayni, Ibn Babuyah, and Shaykh al-Ta’ifah al-Tusi), share among themselves the most important writings of the teachings of the Shi‘a tradition of Islam.
Majlisi re-established clerical authority under his leadership, and renewed the impetus for conversion from Sunnism to Shi'ism. Majlisi is credited with propagating numerous Shi'a rituals that Iranians regularly practice, such as mourning ceremonies for fallen imams, particularly the martyrdom of Husayn ibn Ali at Karbala; and pilgrimages to shrines of imams and their families.
Majlisi fervently upheld the concepts of enjoining the good and prohibiting evil, and in so doing endeavored to provide fatwa (judgments) for all of the hypothetical situations a true believer could or might face. In one exposition of virtues of proper behavior, he gave directions on everything from how to wear clothes to sexual intercourse and association with females, clipping fingernails, sleeping, waking, bathroom functions, enemas, sneezing, entering and leaving a domicile, and treatments and cures for many illnesses and diseases.
More controversially, Majlisi defined science very narrowly as knowledge of the clear, secure ayat (verses of the Qur'an); of the religious duties and obligations which God has fixed in his Justice; and of the Prophetic Traditions (Hadith), which are valid until the day of Resurrection. Beyond this, he warned, the seeking of knowledge is a waste of one's life, and worse would generally lead to apostasy and heresy, in which case the likelihood of salvation is remote. Majlisi opposed the school of mystical philosophy developed by Mir Damad and Mulla Sadra, who argued that the Qur'an was always open to re-interpretation, and valued insights that came from intuition and ecstasy rather than reason.
Majlisi is also controversial for his close relationship with Indian Mughal ruler Aurangzeb Alamgir who was known commonly for his anti-Shi'a inclinations. Aurangzeb is said to have referred to Majlisi as the real leader of all true Muslims of Persia. Majlisi visited India on nine occasions between 1660 and 1695 and was awarded the respect of a government emissary thereby offending the Shah of Iran. Shah Suleiman made a futile effort of winning over Majlisi against Aurangzeb by giving him a high level post in his court but failed to win his support for his wars against the latter.
Mullah Muhammad Baqir Majlisi see Majlisi, Muhammad Baqir
Majlesi-ye Thani see Majlisi, Muhammad Baqir
Majlesi the Second see Majlisi, Muhammad Baqir
Thani, Majlesi-ye see Majlisi, Muhammad Baqir
'Allama Majlisi see Majlisi, Muhammad Baqir
Majlisi-yi Awwal, Muhammad Taqi
Majlisi-yi Awwal, Muhammad Taqi (Muhammad Taqi Majlisi-yi Awwal) (1594-1659). Shi‘a religious leader and author. He was the father of Mulla Muhammad Baqir Majlisi.
Muhammad Taqi Majlisi-yi Awwal see Majlisi-yi Awwal, Muhammad Taqi
Awwal, Muhammad Taqi Majlisi-yi see Majlisi-yi Awwal, Muhammad Taqi
Majlisi-yi Awwal, Muhammad Taqi (Muhammad Taqi Majlisi-yi Awwal) (1594-1659). Shi‘a religious leader and author. He was the father of Mulla Muhammad Baqir Majlisi.
Muhammad Taqi Majlisi-yi Awwal see Majlisi-yi Awwal, Muhammad Taqi
Awwal, Muhammad Taqi Majlisi-yi see Majlisi-yi Awwal, Muhammad Taqi
Majnun-Layla
Majnun-Layla (“The Madman of Layla”) ("Layla's Lunatic"). Name given to the hero of a romantic love story, the original form of which could date back as far as the second half of the seventh century. The tale is known in Arabic, Persian, Kurdish, Pashto, Turkish and Urdu literatures.
The story of Layla and Majnun is based on the real story of a young man called Qays ibn al-Mulawwah from the northern Arabian Peninsula, in the Umayyad era during the 7th century. There were two Arabic versions of the story at the time. In one version, Majnun spent his youth together with his cousin, Layla, tending their flocks. In the other version, upon seeing Layla he fell passionately in love with her. In both versions, however, Majnun went mad when her father prevented him from marrying her. For that reason, Majnun came to be called Majnun-Layla, which means "Driven mad by Layla." To Majnun were attributed a variety of incredibly passionate romantic Arabic poems, considered among the foremost examples of the Udhari school.
Qays ibn al-Mulawwah ibn Muzahim, a Bedouin poet, was from the Bani Aamir tribe of Arabia. He fell in love with Layla bint Mahdi ibn Sa'd from the same tribe, better known as Layla Al-Aamiriya. He soon began creating poems about his love for her, mentioning her name often. When he asked for her hand in marriage her father refused as this would mean a scandal for Layla according to Arab traditions. Soon after, Layla married another man.
When Qays heard of her marriage, he fled the tribe camp and began wandering the surrounding desert. His family eventually gave up on his return and left food for him in the wilderness. He could sometimes be seen reciting poetry to himself or writing in the sand with a stick.
Layla moved to Iraq with her husband, where she became ill and eventually died. Qays was later found dead in the wilderness in 688 near an unknown woman's grave. He had carved three verses of poetry on a rock near the grave, which are the last three verses attributed to him.
From Arab and Habib folklore, the story passed into Persian literature, and in the 12th century, Nizami wrote a famous adaptation of Layla and Majnun in Persian. In Nizami's adaptation, the young lovers become acquainted at school and fell desperately in love. However, they could not see each other due to a family feud, and Layla's family arranged for her to marry another man. It is a tragic story of undying love much like the later Romeo and Juliet, which was itself said to have been inspired by a Latin version of Layla and Majnun.
The type of love exhibited by Layla and Majnun is known in Arabic culture as "Virgin Love", because the lovers never married or made love. Other famous Virgin Love stories are the stories of "Qays and Lubna", "Kuthair and Azza", "Marwa and Al Majnoun Al Faranasi" and "Antara and Abla." The literary motif itself is common throughout the world, notably in the Muslim literature of South Asia, such as Urdu ghazals.
The Azerbaijani Turkish adaptation of the story, Dastan-i Leyli vu Mecnun ("The Epic of Layla and Majnun") was written in the 16th century by Fuzuli. Fuzuli's version was borrowed by the renowned Azerbaijani composer Uzeyir Hajibeyov, who used the material to create what became the Middle East's first opera. It premiered in Baku on January 25, 1908. The story had previously been brought to the stage in the late 19th century, when Ahmed Shawqi wrote a poetic play about the tragedy, now considered one of the best in modern Arab poetry.
The enduring popularity of the legend of Layla and Majnun has exerted great influence on Middle Eastern literature, especially Sufi writers, in whose literature the name Layla refers to their concept of the Beloved. The original story is featured in Baha'ullah's writings, the Seven Valleys. Etymologically, the word "Layla" is related to the Hebrew and Arabic words for "night," and is thought to mean "one who works by night." This is an apparent allusion to the fact that the romance of the star-crossed lovers was hidden and kept secret. In the Persian and Arabic languages, the word "Majnun" means "crazy." In addition to this creative use of language, the tale has also made at least one linguistic contribution, inspiring a Turkish collquialism: to "feel like Layla" is to feel completely dazed, as might be expected of a person who is literarlly madly in love.
In contemporary times, the name "Layla" served as the inspiration for the title of Derek and the Dominos' famous album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs and its title track.
The Madman of Layla see Majnun-Layla
Layla's Lunatic see Majnun-Layla
Majnun-Layla (“The Madman of Layla”) ("Layla's Lunatic"). Name given to the hero of a romantic love story, the original form of which could date back as far as the second half of the seventh century. The tale is known in Arabic, Persian, Kurdish, Pashto, Turkish and Urdu literatures.
The story of Layla and Majnun is based on the real story of a young man called Qays ibn al-Mulawwah from the northern Arabian Peninsula, in the Umayyad era during the 7th century. There were two Arabic versions of the story at the time. In one version, Majnun spent his youth together with his cousin, Layla, tending their flocks. In the other version, upon seeing Layla he fell passionately in love with her. In both versions, however, Majnun went mad when her father prevented him from marrying her. For that reason, Majnun came to be called Majnun-Layla, which means "Driven mad by Layla." To Majnun were attributed a variety of incredibly passionate romantic Arabic poems, considered among the foremost examples of the Udhari school.
Qays ibn al-Mulawwah ibn Muzahim, a Bedouin poet, was from the Bani Aamir tribe of Arabia. He fell in love with Layla bint Mahdi ibn Sa'd from the same tribe, better known as Layla Al-Aamiriya. He soon began creating poems about his love for her, mentioning her name often. When he asked for her hand in marriage her father refused as this would mean a scandal for Layla according to Arab traditions. Soon after, Layla married another man.
When Qays heard of her marriage, he fled the tribe camp and began wandering the surrounding desert. His family eventually gave up on his return and left food for him in the wilderness. He could sometimes be seen reciting poetry to himself or writing in the sand with a stick.
Layla moved to Iraq with her husband, where she became ill and eventually died. Qays was later found dead in the wilderness in 688 near an unknown woman's grave. He had carved three verses of poetry on a rock near the grave, which are the last three verses attributed to him.
From Arab and Habib folklore, the story passed into Persian literature, and in the 12th century, Nizami wrote a famous adaptation of Layla and Majnun in Persian. In Nizami's adaptation, the young lovers become acquainted at school and fell desperately in love. However, they could not see each other due to a family feud, and Layla's family arranged for her to marry another man. It is a tragic story of undying love much like the later Romeo and Juliet, which was itself said to have been inspired by a Latin version of Layla and Majnun.
The type of love exhibited by Layla and Majnun is known in Arabic culture as "Virgin Love", because the lovers never married or made love. Other famous Virgin Love stories are the stories of "Qays and Lubna", "Kuthair and Azza", "Marwa and Al Majnoun Al Faranasi" and "Antara and Abla." The literary motif itself is common throughout the world, notably in the Muslim literature of South Asia, such as Urdu ghazals.
The Azerbaijani Turkish adaptation of the story, Dastan-i Leyli vu Mecnun ("The Epic of Layla and Majnun") was written in the 16th century by Fuzuli. Fuzuli's version was borrowed by the renowned Azerbaijani composer Uzeyir Hajibeyov, who used the material to create what became the Middle East's first opera. It premiered in Baku on January 25, 1908. The story had previously been brought to the stage in the late 19th century, when Ahmed Shawqi wrote a poetic play about the tragedy, now considered one of the best in modern Arab poetry.
The enduring popularity of the legend of Layla and Majnun has exerted great influence on Middle Eastern literature, especially Sufi writers, in whose literature the name Layla refers to their concept of the Beloved. The original story is featured in Baha'ullah's writings, the Seven Valleys. Etymologically, the word "Layla" is related to the Hebrew and Arabic words for "night," and is thought to mean "one who works by night." This is an apparent allusion to the fact that the romance of the star-crossed lovers was hidden and kept secret. In the Persian and Arabic languages, the word "Majnun" means "crazy." In addition to this creative use of language, the tale has also made at least one linguistic contribution, inspiring a Turkish collquialism: to "feel like Layla" is to feel completely dazed, as might be expected of a person who is literarlly madly in love.
In contemporary times, the name "Layla" served as the inspiration for the title of Derek and the Dominos' famous album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs and its title track.
The Madman of Layla see Majnun-Layla
Layla's Lunatic see Majnun-Layla
Makassar
Makassar. See Makassarese.
Makassarese see Makassar.
Makassar. See Makassarese.
Makassarese see Makassar.
Makassarese
Makassarese. The Makassarese (or Mangkasara’, as they call themselves) form one of the major groups in the Indonesian province of South Sulawesi (formerly South Celebes). They inhabit the coastal plains and mountainous interior of the southern regions as well as the island of Salayar lying off the south coast. Ujung Pandang, called Makassar until 1971, which is the capital and largest city of this province, is located in the Makassarese area. About half of its population is Makassarese.
The Makassarese have a longstanding tradition of seafaring, fishing and overseas trade. In the seventeenth century, Gowa, the main Makassar kingdom, expanded into a maritime empire dominating the South Sulawesi peninsula, the coasts of the whole of Sulawesi and some neighboring islands. Its power was based on the wealth accumulated through an overseas trade extending over the entire Indonesian archipelago and beyond.
Malay traders began visiting the port of Makassar in the 1540s and helped it dominate rival ports on the trade route to the Maluku -- Bantaeng, Bira, and Selayar. The economic foundation for Makassar’s greatness was laid by Karaeng Matoaya, ruler of Tallo (1593-1637) and prime minister of Makassar, who expanded local rice production to supply the Maluku in exchange for cloves and nutmeg. As the Dutch East India Company (VOC) asserted a monopoly over spices from Maluku, other Europeans based themselves in Makassar, where they could buy from Malay and Makassarese traders prepared to defy Dutch claims. The British (1613) and the Danes (1618) established factories, and Golconda, Aceh, and Spanish Manila sent their agents. Makassar became the major Portuguese base in Southeast Asia after the loss of Melaka in 1641, when three thousand Portuguese and four churches were reported in the city.
Matoaya was also responsible for Makassar’s acceptance of Islam (1605) and the subsequent wars (1608-1611) in which the Bugis states accepted Islam and Makassar hegemony. Makassar’s power also extended to Sumbawa (1617), Buton, and eastern Borneo. As a result of the humiliating Treaty of Bungaya (1667) and series of defeats by an alliance of Dutch and Bugis (1666-1669), Sultan Hasan-uddin (1653-1669) became the last ruler of a strong Makassar empire. His successors ruled only Goa. The large urban population was dispersed. The Dutch renamed the northerly Makassarese fort of Ujung Pandang Fort Rotterdam and fortified it strongly. A much smaller city of Dutch, Eurasians, Chinese, Malays and Bugis grew around the fort to work in the declining Dutch trade to the Malukus and handle local exports, consisting mostly of Bugis slaves.
After this Makassar empire was destroyed by the Dutch in 1669, large Makassar fleets for years roamed the intra-island seas in search of spoils and action.
A Makassar venture combining fishery and commerce was first started in the eighteenth century, when there was a growing demand for trepang or beche-de-mer, a small edible marine animal, for the Chinese cuisine. Makassarese fishermen took part in collecting trepang from where it grew on the seabed in shallow water and brought large quantities to Makassar, mainly for export to China. Their search for trepang led them to the southern seas and eventually to the coastal waters of northern Australia, which became their principal trepang grounds. For about a century and a half, until 1906, when Australia closed its coasts to them, a fleet of their vessels used to set out annually from Makassar with the northwest monsoon and return six months later with the southeast wind. Artifacts found on the northern Australia coasts and traces of Makassarese influence on the culture and languages of the local aborigines testify to their former presence and activities there.
Ever since the king of Gowa adopted Islam in 1605, the life and society of the Makassarese have been marked by this religion, including its more and its less rigidly orthodox elements. The most revered saint is the seventeenth century mystic Shaikh Yusuf (1626-1699), whose tomb in the center of the old kingdom of Gowa is an object of pilgrimage. He not only was a learned Sufi who had studied in Mecca but also is commemorated as a national hero. He was one of the leaders of the resistance against the Dutch in Java until his capture and banishment first to Ceylon and later to South Africa. He is venerated as a great Muslim leader both in South Africa, where he died and was buried, and in South Sulawesi, where his remains were transferred in 1705. One of the local Sufi orders, the Khalwatiyya Yusuf, traces its origins to Shaikh Yusuf. The people of certain villages even believe that a visit to his grave is the equivalent to a pilgrimage to Mecca.
Mangkasara' see Makassarese.
Makassarese. The Makassarese (or Mangkasara’, as they call themselves) form one of the major groups in the Indonesian province of South Sulawesi (formerly South Celebes). They inhabit the coastal plains and mountainous interior of the southern regions as well as the island of Salayar lying off the south coast. Ujung Pandang, called Makassar until 1971, which is the capital and largest city of this province, is located in the Makassarese area. About half of its population is Makassarese.
The Makassarese have a longstanding tradition of seafaring, fishing and overseas trade. In the seventeenth century, Gowa, the main Makassar kingdom, expanded into a maritime empire dominating the South Sulawesi peninsula, the coasts of the whole of Sulawesi and some neighboring islands. Its power was based on the wealth accumulated through an overseas trade extending over the entire Indonesian archipelago and beyond.
Malay traders began visiting the port of Makassar in the 1540s and helped it dominate rival ports on the trade route to the Maluku -- Bantaeng, Bira, and Selayar. The economic foundation for Makassar’s greatness was laid by Karaeng Matoaya, ruler of Tallo (1593-1637) and prime minister of Makassar, who expanded local rice production to supply the Maluku in exchange for cloves and nutmeg. As the Dutch East India Company (VOC) asserted a monopoly over spices from Maluku, other Europeans based themselves in Makassar, where they could buy from Malay and Makassarese traders prepared to defy Dutch claims. The British (1613) and the Danes (1618) established factories, and Golconda, Aceh, and Spanish Manila sent their agents. Makassar became the major Portuguese base in Southeast Asia after the loss of Melaka in 1641, when three thousand Portuguese and four churches were reported in the city.
Matoaya was also responsible for Makassar’s acceptance of Islam (1605) and the subsequent wars (1608-1611) in which the Bugis states accepted Islam and Makassar hegemony. Makassar’s power also extended to Sumbawa (1617), Buton, and eastern Borneo. As a result of the humiliating Treaty of Bungaya (1667) and series of defeats by an alliance of Dutch and Bugis (1666-1669), Sultan Hasan-uddin (1653-1669) became the last ruler of a strong Makassar empire. His successors ruled only Goa. The large urban population was dispersed. The Dutch renamed the northerly Makassarese fort of Ujung Pandang Fort Rotterdam and fortified it strongly. A much smaller city of Dutch, Eurasians, Chinese, Malays and Bugis grew around the fort to work in the declining Dutch trade to the Malukus and handle local exports, consisting mostly of Bugis slaves.
After this Makassar empire was destroyed by the Dutch in 1669, large Makassar fleets for years roamed the intra-island seas in search of spoils and action.
A Makassar venture combining fishery and commerce was first started in the eighteenth century, when there was a growing demand for trepang or beche-de-mer, a small edible marine animal, for the Chinese cuisine. Makassarese fishermen took part in collecting trepang from where it grew on the seabed in shallow water and brought large quantities to Makassar, mainly for export to China. Their search for trepang led them to the southern seas and eventually to the coastal waters of northern Australia, which became their principal trepang grounds. For about a century and a half, until 1906, when Australia closed its coasts to them, a fleet of their vessels used to set out annually from Makassar with the northwest monsoon and return six months later with the southeast wind. Artifacts found on the northern Australia coasts and traces of Makassarese influence on the culture and languages of the local aborigines testify to their former presence and activities there.
Ever since the king of Gowa adopted Islam in 1605, the life and society of the Makassarese have been marked by this religion, including its more and its less rigidly orthodox elements. The most revered saint is the seventeenth century mystic Shaikh Yusuf (1626-1699), whose tomb in the center of the old kingdom of Gowa is an object of pilgrimage. He not only was a learned Sufi who had studied in Mecca but also is commemorated as a national hero. He was one of the leaders of the resistance against the Dutch in Java until his capture and banishment first to Ceylon and later to South Africa. He is venerated as a great Muslim leader both in South Africa, where he died and was buried, and in South Sulawesi, where his remains were transferred in 1705. One of the local Sufi orders, the Khalwatiyya Yusuf, traces its origins to Shaikh Yusuf. The people of certain villages even believe that a visit to his grave is the equivalent to a pilgrimage to Mecca.
Mangkasara' see Makassarese.
Makhdum al-Mulk
Makhdum al-Mulk (Makhdoom-ul-Mulk). Title of ‘Abd Allah Sultanpuri.
Makhdoom is a Muslim Sufi title in South Asia and Central Asia. This title is now used by the descendents of the Sufi masters who are mostly Pirs, politicians and landlords in southern Punjab and Sindh in Pakistan. Hazrat Abbas, respectable maternal uncle of the Prophet Muhammad, usually visited Mecca and Medina. The Prophet Muhammad received him and always addressed him with the title of Makhdoom. From that time Arab people descended from that family are especially called "Makhdoom" which means one who is served. Quraishis in Punjab and Sindh provinces of Pakistan use this title as sacerdotal dignity.
People with the title Makhdoom include:
* Makhdoom Muhammad Ameen Faheem, Pakistani politician, and central leader of PPP.
* Makhdoom Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat, Pakistani politician affiliated with PML-Q, and former Interior Minister of Pakistan.
* Hamza Makhdum, Sufi saint from Kashmir (d. 1563 AD)
* Makhdoom Muhammad Javed Hashmi, Pakistani politician, and central leader of PML-N.
* Junaydollo Makhdoom Hodeq, Uzbekistan, Tajik poet
* Makhdoom Abdul Baqa bin Khawaja Baha Al Din bin Khawaja Ahmed, Naqsbandi saint, author of Jame al Maqamat
* Makhdoom Abhari, Darya Khan Sind, preacher of rational sciences
* Makhdoom Abul Fateh Hosayni Jorjani, Shia Jurist
* Makhdoom Ahmed Danes, Sufi, Engineer, Historian and progressive Tajik Writer in Bukhara
* Makhdoom Ahmed Nawaz, Landlord of Mianwali and Bhakkar Punjab.
* Makhdoom Ali Hijvari Almaroof Datta Gunj Bhaksh, a famous Sufi of Punjab Pakistan.
* Makhdoom Ali Khan, Former Attorney General of Pakistan.
* Makhdoom Ali Mahimi, Sufi saint from the Konkan in India.
* Makhdoom Bah ud din Zakria, Sufi
* Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs within Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2004 to 2007.
* Makhdoom Mohammad Rafique, Grammarian, Dramatist, Communist Mazdoor Kissan Party
* Makhdoom Mohiuddin, Urdu poet and Marxist politician from India.
* Makhdoom Muhammad Aslam, Landlord of Mianwali and Bhakkar Punjab.
* Makhdoom Muhammad Sadiq, Landlord of Mianwali and Bhakkar Punjab.
* Makhdoom Shaikh Jala al Din Bokari, Almaroof Makhdoom-e-Jahanian and Jahangast, Sufi
* Makhdoom Syed Akhtar Husain Shah, Pakistani politician in affiliation with PPP, former MPA Sindh.
* Makhdoom Syed Bashir Ahmed Shah, Political leader affiliated with PPP, and former Minister for Food, Agriculture and Forests during the Zulfikar Ali Bhutto government.
* Makhdoom Syed Muhammad Hashim Thattvi Sindhi, Renowned Islamic scholar
* Makhdoom-e-Azam Ahmed Khajagi bin Jalal Al din Kasani, Sufi, and author of about 30 treatises.
* Makhdoom-ul-mulk Hazrat Shaikh Sharafuddin Ahmad bin Yahya Maneri of Biharsharif 1263 - 1379 AD
* Makhdoom Mian Mir, Sufi from Lahore At the request of Sikh High priests laid first foundation of Golden Temple.
* Sayed Makhdoom Raheen, Afghanistan Ambassador in India And former Information Minister of Afghanistan.
* Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Pakistani politician, current Foreign Minister of Pakistan and president of PPP Punjab.
* Makhdoom Muhammad Zaman Talib-ul-Mola, Founding member of Pakistan Peoples Party, famous Sindhi poet, Ex. Sajjadah Nasheen of Dargah Sarwar Nooh, Hala Sindh.
* Makhdoom Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani, Prime Minister of Pakistan and Vice-Chairman of PPP
'Abd Allah Sultanpuri see Makhdum al-Mulk
Sultanpuri, 'Abd Allah see Makhdum al-Mulk
Makhdoom-ul-Mulk see Makhdum al-Mulk
Makhdum al-Mulk (Makhdoom-ul-Mulk). Title of ‘Abd Allah Sultanpuri.
Makhdoom is a Muslim Sufi title in South Asia and Central Asia. This title is now used by the descendents of the Sufi masters who are mostly Pirs, politicians and landlords in southern Punjab and Sindh in Pakistan. Hazrat Abbas, respectable maternal uncle of the Prophet Muhammad, usually visited Mecca and Medina. The Prophet Muhammad received him and always addressed him with the title of Makhdoom. From that time Arab people descended from that family are especially called "Makhdoom" which means one who is served. Quraishis in Punjab and Sindh provinces of Pakistan use this title as sacerdotal dignity.
People with the title Makhdoom include:
* Makhdoom Muhammad Ameen Faheem, Pakistani politician, and central leader of PPP.
* Makhdoom Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat, Pakistani politician affiliated with PML-Q, and former Interior Minister of Pakistan.
* Hamza Makhdum, Sufi saint from Kashmir (d. 1563 AD)
* Makhdoom Muhammad Javed Hashmi, Pakistani politician, and central leader of PML-N.
* Junaydollo Makhdoom Hodeq, Uzbekistan, Tajik poet
* Makhdoom Abdul Baqa bin Khawaja Baha Al Din bin Khawaja Ahmed, Naqsbandi saint, author of Jame al Maqamat
* Makhdoom Abhari, Darya Khan Sind, preacher of rational sciences
* Makhdoom Abul Fateh Hosayni Jorjani, Shia Jurist
* Makhdoom Ahmed Danes, Sufi, Engineer, Historian and progressive Tajik Writer in Bukhara
* Makhdoom Ahmed Nawaz, Landlord of Mianwali and Bhakkar Punjab.
* Makhdoom Ali Hijvari Almaroof Datta Gunj Bhaksh, a famous Sufi of Punjab Pakistan.
* Makhdoom Ali Khan, Former Attorney General of Pakistan.
* Makhdoom Ali Mahimi, Sufi saint from the Konkan in India.
* Makhdoom Bah ud din Zakria, Sufi
* Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs within Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2004 to 2007.
* Makhdoom Mohammad Rafique, Grammarian, Dramatist, Communist Mazdoor Kissan Party
* Makhdoom Mohiuddin, Urdu poet and Marxist politician from India.
* Makhdoom Muhammad Aslam, Landlord of Mianwali and Bhakkar Punjab.
* Makhdoom Muhammad Sadiq, Landlord of Mianwali and Bhakkar Punjab.
* Makhdoom Shaikh Jala al Din Bokari, Almaroof Makhdoom-e-Jahanian and Jahangast, Sufi
* Makhdoom Syed Akhtar Husain Shah, Pakistani politician in affiliation with PPP, former MPA Sindh.
* Makhdoom Syed Bashir Ahmed Shah, Political leader affiliated with PPP, and former Minister for Food, Agriculture and Forests during the Zulfikar Ali Bhutto government.
* Makhdoom Syed Muhammad Hashim Thattvi Sindhi, Renowned Islamic scholar
* Makhdoom-e-Azam Ahmed Khajagi bin Jalal Al din Kasani, Sufi, and author of about 30 treatises.
* Makhdoom-ul-mulk Hazrat Shaikh Sharafuddin Ahmad bin Yahya Maneri of Biharsharif 1263 - 1379 AD
* Makhdoom Mian Mir, Sufi from Lahore At the request of Sikh High priests laid first foundation of Golden Temple.
* Sayed Makhdoom Raheen, Afghanistan Ambassador in India And former Information Minister of Afghanistan.
* Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Pakistani politician, current Foreign Minister of Pakistan and president of PPP Punjab.
* Makhdoom Muhammad Zaman Talib-ul-Mola, Founding member of Pakistan Peoples Party, famous Sindhi poet, Ex. Sajjadah Nasheen of Dargah Sarwar Nooh, Hala Sindh.
* Makhdoom Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani, Prime Minister of Pakistan and Vice-Chairman of PPP
'Abd Allah Sultanpuri see Makhdum al-Mulk
Sultanpuri, 'Abd Allah see Makhdum al-Mulk
Makhdoom-ul-Mulk see Makhdum al-Mulk
Makhfi
Makhfi (Zib al-Nisa’ Begum) (Zeb-un-Nisa) (Zebunnisa) (Zeb-ul-Nissa) (Zeb-un-Nisa Makhfi) (1637-1702). Daughter of the Mughal Emperor Aurangzib. Competent in Arabic and Persian and skilled in calligraphy, she was a great lover of books.
The name Zeb-un-Nisa is derived from two words. "Zeb" means "beauty" or "ornament" in Persian. "Nisa" means "women" in Arabic. Combined the name "Zeb-un-Nisa" means "most beautiful of all women."
Zeb-un-Nisa was the eldes daughter of the Mughal Emperor Aurangzib (known as Alamgir). She was born during the reign of Shah Jahan. Her mother was Delras Baneo, daughter of Shahnawaz Safavid.
Aurangzeb charged Mariam, one of the women of the court, with the education of Zeb-un-Nisa. Through her efforts, Zeb-un-Nisa memorized the Qur'an in three years. Then she studied the sciences of the time with Mohammad Saeed Ashraf Mazandarani. Zeb-un-Nisa also studied philosophy, astronomy, and literature while becoming fluent in Persian, Arabic and Urdu.
Zeb-un-Nisa began to narrate poems in Persian from the age of 14, but as her father did not like poetry, she would write secretly. Ustad Bayaz, one of her teachers, found her poems and then encouraged her to continue narrating poems. It is reported that in the court of Aurangzeb, there were literary and poetry parties and the great poets like Ghani Kashmiri, Naimatullah Khan and Aqil Khan Razi, and Zeb-un-Nisa participated secretly in these parties.
When Aurangzeb became the emperor after Shah Jahan, Zeb-un-Nisa was 21 years old. Aurangzeb came to appreciate the talent and ability of his daughter, Zeb-un-Nisa. Aurangzeb discussed affairs of state with Zeb-un-Nisa and listened to her opinions. It has been mentioned in some books that Aurangzeb sent all the royal princes for the reception of Zeb-un-Nisa each time she entered the court. Zeb-un-Nisa had four other sisters: Zeenat-un-Nisa, Badr-un-Nisa, Mehr-un-Nisa and Zehdat-un-Nisa. Among them, Zeenat-un-Nisa and Zebdat-un-Nisa wrote poems too.
Zeb-un-Nisa did not get married and remained single until her death, despite the fact she had many suitors. She devoted all her life on literary works and poetry.
Zeb-un-Nisa selected the name "Makhfi" (meaning "Hidden One" in Persian) as her literary pen name. In addition to her poetic book or collection of poems, called Diwan, which contains approximately 5,000 verses, she also wrote "Monis-ul-Roh", "Zeb-ul Monsha'at" and "Zeb-ul-Tafasir."
Zeb-un-Nisa died in 1702 in Shahjahanabad (old Delhi, India), while Aurangzeb was on a trip to the Deccan. Her tomb was originally in the garden of "Thirty thousand trees", outside of the Kabuli Gate. However, when the railway line was laid out at Delhi, her tomb was shifted to Akhbar's mausoleum at Sikandara, Agra.
Zib al-Nisa' Begum see Makhfi
Begum, Zib al-Nisa' see Makhfi
Zeb-un-Nisa see Makhfi
Zebunnisa see Makhfi
Zeb-ul-Nissa see Makhfi
Zeb-un-Nisa Makhfi see Makhfi
Makhfi (Zib al-Nisa’ Begum) (Zeb-un-Nisa) (Zebunnisa) (Zeb-ul-Nissa) (Zeb-un-Nisa Makhfi) (1637-1702). Daughter of the Mughal Emperor Aurangzib. Competent in Arabic and Persian and skilled in calligraphy, she was a great lover of books.
The name Zeb-un-Nisa is derived from two words. "Zeb" means "beauty" or "ornament" in Persian. "Nisa" means "women" in Arabic. Combined the name "Zeb-un-Nisa" means "most beautiful of all women."
Zeb-un-Nisa was the eldes daughter of the Mughal Emperor Aurangzib (known as Alamgir). She was born during the reign of Shah Jahan. Her mother was Delras Baneo, daughter of Shahnawaz Safavid.
Aurangzeb charged Mariam, one of the women of the court, with the education of Zeb-un-Nisa. Through her efforts, Zeb-un-Nisa memorized the Qur'an in three years. Then she studied the sciences of the time with Mohammad Saeed Ashraf Mazandarani. Zeb-un-Nisa also studied philosophy, astronomy, and literature while becoming fluent in Persian, Arabic and Urdu.
Zeb-un-Nisa began to narrate poems in Persian from the age of 14, but as her father did not like poetry, she would write secretly. Ustad Bayaz, one of her teachers, found her poems and then encouraged her to continue narrating poems. It is reported that in the court of Aurangzeb, there were literary and poetry parties and the great poets like Ghani Kashmiri, Naimatullah Khan and Aqil Khan Razi, and Zeb-un-Nisa participated secretly in these parties.
When Aurangzeb became the emperor after Shah Jahan, Zeb-un-Nisa was 21 years old. Aurangzeb came to appreciate the talent and ability of his daughter, Zeb-un-Nisa. Aurangzeb discussed affairs of state with Zeb-un-Nisa and listened to her opinions. It has been mentioned in some books that Aurangzeb sent all the royal princes for the reception of Zeb-un-Nisa each time she entered the court. Zeb-un-Nisa had four other sisters: Zeenat-un-Nisa, Badr-un-Nisa, Mehr-un-Nisa and Zehdat-un-Nisa. Among them, Zeenat-un-Nisa and Zebdat-un-Nisa wrote poems too.
Zeb-un-Nisa did not get married and remained single until her death, despite the fact she had many suitors. She devoted all her life on literary works and poetry.
Zeb-un-Nisa selected the name "Makhfi" (meaning "Hidden One" in Persian) as her literary pen name. In addition to her poetic book or collection of poems, called Diwan, which contains approximately 5,000 verses, she also wrote "Monis-ul-Roh", "Zeb-ul Monsha'at" and "Zeb-ul-Tafasir."
Zeb-un-Nisa died in 1702 in Shahjahanabad (old Delhi, India), while Aurangzeb was on a trip to the Deccan. Her tomb was originally in the garden of "Thirty thousand trees", outside of the Kabuli Gate. However, when the railway line was laid out at Delhi, her tomb was shifted to Akhbar's mausoleum at Sikandara, Agra.
Zib al-Nisa' Begum see Makhfi
Begum, Zib al-Nisa' see Makhfi
Zeb-un-Nisa see Makhfi
Zebunnisa see Makhfi
Zeb-ul-Nissa see Makhfi
Zeb-un-Nisa Makhfi see Makhfi
Makhrama, Ba
Makhrama, Ba (Ba Makhrama) (Abu Makhrama). South Arabian Himyarite clan of Shafi‘i jurists and Sufis who lived in Hadhramaut and Aden in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
Bamakhrama is a tribe from Hadhramaut state in the Republic of Yemen. This family is one of the tribes which constitute the "Hemiyar" tribe. Hemiyar is one of the largest tribes in the Arabian Peninsula. Bamakhrama is famous for its scientists, judges, and scholars. For thousands of years Bamakhrama was responsible for the "justice" affairs between Hemiyar tribes.
Here are some of the most famous scholars from Bamakhrama:
- Ahmed bin Abdullah bin Ahmed Bamakhrama: Born in Aden on 1461. He studied Islamic Fiqh, mathematics and became famous scholar and scientist. He died on 1505.
- El-Tayeb bin Abdullah bin Ahmed Bamakhrama: Born in Aden on 1465. He studied Islamic Fiqh, mathematics, Arabic and became the judge of Aden until he died on 1540.
- Abdullah bin Ahmed bin Ali Bamakhrama: Born in Hajrin, Hadhramaut on 1429, then he moved to Aden for study. He studied Islamic fiqh, mathematics, engineering, Arabic, Tafseer, and Arabic grammar. After that he became the judge of Aden. He wrote books in Islamic fiqh, engineering and mathematics, and Arabic.
Ba Makhrama see Makhrama, Ba
Abu Makhrama see Makhrama, Ba
Bamakhrama see Makhrama, Ba
Makhrama, Ba (Ba Makhrama) (Abu Makhrama). South Arabian Himyarite clan of Shafi‘i jurists and Sufis who lived in Hadhramaut and Aden in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
Bamakhrama is a tribe from Hadhramaut state in the Republic of Yemen. This family is one of the tribes which constitute the "Hemiyar" tribe. Hemiyar is one of the largest tribes in the Arabian Peninsula. Bamakhrama is famous for its scientists, judges, and scholars. For thousands of years Bamakhrama was responsible for the "justice" affairs between Hemiyar tribes.
Here are some of the most famous scholars from Bamakhrama:
- Ahmed bin Abdullah bin Ahmed Bamakhrama: Born in Aden on 1461. He studied Islamic Fiqh, mathematics and became famous scholar and scientist. He died on 1505.
- El-Tayeb bin Abdullah bin Ahmed Bamakhrama: Born in Aden on 1465. He studied Islamic Fiqh, mathematics, Arabic and became the judge of Aden until he died on 1540.
- Abdullah bin Ahmed bin Ali Bamakhrama: Born in Hajrin, Hadhramaut on 1429, then he moved to Aden for study. He studied Islamic fiqh, mathematics, engineering, Arabic, Tafseer, and Arabic grammar. After that he became the judge of Aden. He wrote books in Islamic fiqh, engineering and mathematics, and Arabic.
Ba Makhrama see Makhrama, Ba
Abu Makhrama see Makhrama, Ba
Bamakhrama see Makhrama, Ba
Makhzum, Banu
Makhzum, Banu (Banu Makhzum). Clan of Quraysh which achieved a prominent position in pre-Islamic MeccBanū Makhzūm was one of the wealthy clans of Quraysh, the Arab tribe of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.
Famous individuals of the Banū Makhzūm include
* Amr ibn Hishām better known as Abu Al-Hakam or Abu Jahl
* Walid ibn al-Mughira
* Umm Salama Hind bint Abi Umayya
* Khalid ibn al-Walid
* Mughira ibn Abd-Allah
* Hisham ibn al-Mughirah
* Ibn Zaydún
Banu Makhzum see Makhzum, Banu
Makhzum, Banu (Banu Makhzum). Clan of Quraysh which achieved a prominent position in pre-Islamic MeccBanū Makhzūm was one of the wealthy clans of Quraysh, the Arab tribe of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.
Famous individuals of the Banū Makhzūm include
* Amr ibn Hishām better known as Abu Al-Hakam or Abu Jahl
* Walid ibn al-Mughira
* Umm Salama Hind bint Abi Umayya
* Khalid ibn al-Walid
* Mughira ibn Abd-Allah
* Hisham ibn al-Mughirah
* Ibn Zaydún
Banu Makhzum see Makhzum, Banu
Makin ibn al-‘Amid, Jirjis al-
Makin ibn al-‘Amid, Jirjis al- (Jirjis al-Makin ibn al-‘Amid) (George Elmacin) (Girgis al-Makin) (Ibn Amid) (1205-1273). Arabic-speaking Coptic historian. His History, covering the period from the creation of the world to the accession of the Mameluke Sultan Baybars in 1260, was one of the first medieval Arabic chronicles to become known in Europe.
Girgis al-Makin, also known as Ibn Amid, was an Arabic Christian historian. The details of his life come from passages at the end of his own history. He was born in Cairo in Egypt in 1205. His full name in His great grandfather was a merchant from Tikrit in Iraq who settled in Egypt.
He was a Coptic Christian and was known in the east as Ibn-Amid. He held high office in the military office (dīwān alğayš) in Cairo.
Such a position carried risks. He was twice imprisoned, possibly because of links to the contemporary unrest in Syria at the time of the Mongol invasion; in one case for over a decade.
After his release, he wrote his chronicle in the years 1262-8, after his career (and his time in prison) was over. Later he moved to Damascus, where he died in 1273.
His sole surviving work is a world chronicle in two parts, entitled al-Majmu` al-Mubarak (The blessed collection). The first portion runs from Adam down to the 11th year of Heraclius. The second half is a history of the Saracens, which extends from the time of Mohammed to the accession of the Mameluke Sultan Baybars in 1260. The second half is mainly derived from the Persian writer Al-Tabari, as the author tells us, and was used by later Muslim and Christian writers.
In the first half, the work is structured as a series of numbered biographies of the most important men of the time, with Adam as the first. Down to 586 B.C.T., the history is based on the Bible. Later data is based on various sources. The first half ends with a list of Patriarchs of the church of Alexandria.
Ibn Amid's work was not hugely original. He drew on earlier sources, including the world history of Ibn al-Rahib. But it was very influential in both East and West. It was used by the 14-15th century Muslim historians Ibn Khaldun, al-Qalqashandi, and al-Maqrizi.
The second half was published in Arabic and Latin at Leiden in 1625. The Latin version is a translation by Erpenius (van Erpen), under the title, Historia saracenica, and from this a French translation was made by Wattier as L'Histoire mahomtane (Paris, 1657). An abbreviated English translation was also made from the Latin by Purchas. The translation by Erpenius was one of the first ever made of an Arabic text in modern times, and suffers accordingly from the lack of Lexica and difficulties with the language.
A continuation of the Chronicle also exists, written by Al-Muffadal ibn abi Al-Fada`il, who was also a Copt and may have been the author's great-nephew. It continues the text to the death of al-Malik al-Nasir in 1341. This contains only limited references to events in the Coptic community, and is mainly a secular history concerned with Muslim affairs. The continuation survives in only a single manuscript, and was apparently written for personal use.
Jirjis al-Makin ibn al-'Amid see Makin ibn al-‘Amid, Jirjis al-
Girgis al-Makin see Makin ibn al-‘Amid, Jirjis al-
George Elmacin see Makin ibn al-‘Amid, Jirjis al-
Ibn Amid see Makin ibn al-‘Amid, Jirjis al-
Makin ibn al-‘Amid, Jirjis al- (Jirjis al-Makin ibn al-‘Amid) (George Elmacin) (Girgis al-Makin) (Ibn Amid) (1205-1273). Arabic-speaking Coptic historian. His History, covering the period from the creation of the world to the accession of the Mameluke Sultan Baybars in 1260, was one of the first medieval Arabic chronicles to become known in Europe.
Girgis al-Makin, also known as Ibn Amid, was an Arabic Christian historian. The details of his life come from passages at the end of his own history. He was born in Cairo in Egypt in 1205. His full name in His great grandfather was a merchant from Tikrit in Iraq who settled in Egypt.
He was a Coptic Christian and was known in the east as Ibn-Amid. He held high office in the military office (dīwān alğayš) in Cairo.
Such a position carried risks. He was twice imprisoned, possibly because of links to the contemporary unrest in Syria at the time of the Mongol invasion; in one case for over a decade.
After his release, he wrote his chronicle in the years 1262-8, after his career (and his time in prison) was over. Later he moved to Damascus, where he died in 1273.
His sole surviving work is a world chronicle in two parts, entitled al-Majmu` al-Mubarak (The blessed collection). The first portion runs from Adam down to the 11th year of Heraclius. The second half is a history of the Saracens, which extends from the time of Mohammed to the accession of the Mameluke Sultan Baybars in 1260. The second half is mainly derived from the Persian writer Al-Tabari, as the author tells us, and was used by later Muslim and Christian writers.
In the first half, the work is structured as a series of numbered biographies of the most important men of the time, with Adam as the first. Down to 586 B.C.T., the history is based on the Bible. Later data is based on various sources. The first half ends with a list of Patriarchs of the church of Alexandria.
Ibn Amid's work was not hugely original. He drew on earlier sources, including the world history of Ibn al-Rahib. But it was very influential in both East and West. It was used by the 14-15th century Muslim historians Ibn Khaldun, al-Qalqashandi, and al-Maqrizi.
The second half was published in Arabic and Latin at Leiden in 1625. The Latin version is a translation by Erpenius (van Erpen), under the title, Historia saracenica, and from this a French translation was made by Wattier as L'Histoire mahomtane (Paris, 1657). An abbreviated English translation was also made from the Latin by Purchas. The translation by Erpenius was one of the first ever made of an Arabic text in modern times, and suffers accordingly from the lack of Lexica and difficulties with the language.
A continuation of the Chronicle also exists, written by Al-Muffadal ibn abi Al-Fada`il, who was also a Copt and may have been the author's great-nephew. It continues the text to the death of al-Malik al-Nasir in 1341. This contains only limited references to events in the Coptic community, and is mainly a secular history concerned with Muslim affairs. The continuation survives in only a single manuscript, and was apparently written for personal use.
Jirjis al-Makin ibn al-'Amid see Makin ibn al-‘Amid, Jirjis al-
Girgis al-Makin see Makin ibn al-‘Amid, Jirjis al-
George Elmacin see Makin ibn al-‘Amid, Jirjis al-
Ibn Amid see Makin ibn al-‘Amid, Jirjis al-
Makramids
Makramids. Family which held the spiritual and political leadership of the Banu Yam and the Sulaymani Isma‘ili community in Najran and Yemen since the seventeenth century.
Makramids. Family which held the spiritual and political leadership of the Banu Yam and the Sulaymani Isma‘ili community in Najran and Yemen since the seventeenth century.
Makua
Makua. Largest tribal group of Muslims in Mozambique. The Makua also have a large population residing in the Masasi District of the Mtwara Region in southern Tanzania. They live in the region to the north of the Zambezi River.
Most Makua are Christians or Sunni Muslims, with some animists.
There are some Makua people known to be residing in South Africa. They first lived in the Durban township called Bluff. However, due to the Group Areas Act, they were forcibly removed from Bluff and settled in Bayview, Chatsworth, and Durban in 1960. Although the majority of the Makua people in South Africa were settled in Bayview, some live in Wentworth, Marianhill, Marianridge, Umlazi, Newlands East and West, Pietermaritzburg, Cape Town and Johannesburg.
The Makua people in South Africa are predominantly Muslims. The Makua language, a Niger-Congo language, is still spoken among the people, alongside Afrikaans and Zulu (in South Africa), Portuguese in Mozambique, some Swahili by the elders of the community but still spoken by many on the Tanzania-Mozambican border, and English in South Africa and Tanzania.
The Makua are the largest ethnic group in northern Mozambique, and also have a large population across the border in the Masasi District of Mtwara Region in southern Tanzania. They live in the region to the north of the Zambezi River.
Makua. Largest tribal group of Muslims in Mozambique. The Makua also have a large population residing in the Masasi District of the Mtwara Region in southern Tanzania. They live in the region to the north of the Zambezi River.
Most Makua are Christians or Sunni Muslims, with some animists.
There are some Makua people known to be residing in South Africa. They first lived in the Durban township called Bluff. However, due to the Group Areas Act, they were forcibly removed from Bluff and settled in Bayview, Chatsworth, and Durban in 1960. Although the majority of the Makua people in South Africa were settled in Bayview, some live in Wentworth, Marianhill, Marianridge, Umlazi, Newlands East and West, Pietermaritzburg, Cape Town and Johannesburg.
The Makua people in South Africa are predominantly Muslims. The Makua language, a Niger-Congo language, is still spoken among the people, alongside Afrikaans and Zulu (in South Africa), Portuguese in Mozambique, some Swahili by the elders of the community but still spoken by many on the Tanzania-Mozambican border, and English in South Africa and Tanzania.
The Makua are the largest ethnic group in northern Mozambique, and also have a large population across the border in the Masasi District of Mtwara Region in southern Tanzania. They live in the region to the north of the Zambezi River.
Mala’ika
Mala’ika (Malaekah). Arabic word which means “angels”. Given its form and and the confusion of the root in the singular with the Arabic word for king (malik), the word mala’ika is probably borrowed from the Northwest Semitic word mal’ak which means “messenger.” This Semitic word was then adopted by pre-Islamic Arabic.
The plural word mala’ika occurs frequently in the Qur’an, but the singular only twelve times. In accord with usual Middle Eastern views, angels are described as winged, with two, three, or four wings. All angels have defined functions. There is an Angel of Death, unnamed in the Qur’an, and a keeper of Hell, called Malik, a probable derivative from the common noun.
The angels Michael and Gabriel are messengers. Gabriel is deemed to be the most important of all the angels because of his role as bearer of the Qur’an to Muhammad.
The Qur’an spends little time in descriptions of angels but devotes attention to their role and function. The Qur’anic attitude assumes a knowledge and understanding of angels on the part of the reader, but later commentary expanded on the brief accounts of the angels and added elements derived from Judeo-Christian tradition and from folklore.
Of some concern in the Qur’an and its commentaries is the status of Iblis -- Satan -- the Devil. In one passage, Iblis is termed a jinn, but, in another passage, Iblis is called an angel. This dual designation for Iblis has led to jinn and angels being equated in the minds of some commentators. In Sura 2:30, the story of the submission of the angels to the will of Allah is given along with the account of the rebellion of Iblis and his band. In hadith from ‘A’isha, Muhammad is supposed to have said that angels were created from light and the jinn from fire, the words having the same root in Arabic. The two angels Harut and Marut (see Sura 2:102) and their association with magic have caused the commentators some problems, as have the two angels Munkar and Nakir, not mentioned in the Qur’an but only in the commentaries, who have the duty of questioning the dead in the grave to determine whether or not they will be punished or rewarded. Angels are guardians of humankind but also recorders of human deeds.
The writers of kalam sought by combining passages from the Qur’an, hadith, and ideas derived from philosophy to further define the nature of angels. The Neoplatonists made some of the angels into the animating forces of the spheres, and there was much discussion about whether the angels could be classed as animals.
An angel whose legend has no basis in the Qur’an or in prophetic tradition, but who is prominent in later eschatological discussion, is Israfil. He is assigned the task of reading the divine decree and of blowing the trumpet to signal the Day of Judgment.
Malaekah see Mala’ika
Angels see Mala’ika
Mala’ika (Malaekah). Arabic word which means “angels”. Given its form and and the confusion of the root in the singular with the Arabic word for king (malik), the word mala’ika is probably borrowed from the Northwest Semitic word mal’ak which means “messenger.” This Semitic word was then adopted by pre-Islamic Arabic.
The plural word mala’ika occurs frequently in the Qur’an, but the singular only twelve times. In accord with usual Middle Eastern views, angels are described as winged, with two, three, or four wings. All angels have defined functions. There is an Angel of Death, unnamed in the Qur’an, and a keeper of Hell, called Malik, a probable derivative from the common noun.
The angels Michael and Gabriel are messengers. Gabriel is deemed to be the most important of all the angels because of his role as bearer of the Qur’an to Muhammad.
The Qur’an spends little time in descriptions of angels but devotes attention to their role and function. The Qur’anic attitude assumes a knowledge and understanding of angels on the part of the reader, but later commentary expanded on the brief accounts of the angels and added elements derived from Judeo-Christian tradition and from folklore.
Of some concern in the Qur’an and its commentaries is the status of Iblis -- Satan -- the Devil. In one passage, Iblis is termed a jinn, but, in another passage, Iblis is called an angel. This dual designation for Iblis has led to jinn and angels being equated in the minds of some commentators. In Sura 2:30, the story of the submission of the angels to the will of Allah is given along with the account of the rebellion of Iblis and his band. In hadith from ‘A’isha, Muhammad is supposed to have said that angels were created from light and the jinn from fire, the words having the same root in Arabic. The two angels Harut and Marut (see Sura 2:102) and their association with magic have caused the commentators some problems, as have the two angels Munkar and Nakir, not mentioned in the Qur’an but only in the commentaries, who have the duty of questioning the dead in the grave to determine whether or not they will be punished or rewarded. Angels are guardians of humankind but also recorders of human deeds.
The writers of kalam sought by combining passages from the Qur’an, hadith, and ideas derived from philosophy to further define the nature of angels. The Neoplatonists made some of the angels into the animating forces of the spheres, and there was much discussion about whether the angels could be classed as animals.
An angel whose legend has no basis in the Qur’an or in prophetic tradition, but who is prominent in later eschatological discussion, is Israfil. He is assigned the task of reading the divine decree and of blowing the trumpet to signal the Day of Judgment.
Malaekah see Mala’ika
Angels see Mala’ika
Malak Hifni Nasif
Malak Hifni Nasif (Bahithat al-Badiya) (Malak Hifni Nassif) (1886-1918). Pen-name of Bahithat al-Badiya, a pioneer protagonist of women’s rights in Egypt. In her ideas on emancipation, she was influenced by the writings of Qasim Amin, though her goals usually remained more moderate and her concern with proper Islamic norms was strong. She defended the veil but was bitterly opposed to polygamy.
An Egyptian Muslim, Malak Hifni Nasif publicly advocated women's advancement in the early twentieth century during the al-nahda al-nisa'iyya (women's awakening). This was a period in which women were increasingly able to publish essays, stories, and letters in the nascent women's press and also in the general press. The women's press and the writers who contributed to it played an important role in the development of feminism and the reform of social institutions in a number of Middle Eastern countries. Nasif, along with prominent figures such as May Ziadeh, were active in literary and social groups through which they contributed to the intellectual and public debate about nationalism and how to define Egyptian and Arab political and cultural identity under the British colonial government.
Nasif articulated one of the founding discourses of feminism that emerged in Egypt during the first third of the twentieth century. Her strain of feminism remained secondary to that embodied in the work of Huda al-Sha'rawi (1882-1947) until the final decades of the twentieth century. In contrast to Sha'rawi's secular and Western-oriented feminism, Nasif's feminism, expressed in her collection of talks and essays, Al-nisa'iyyat (Women's affairs, 1910), de-emphasized Western values as it attempted to affirm and improve women's lives and experience through increased educational and work opportunities within a reformed Islamic context.
Bahithat al-Badiya see Malak Hifni Nasif
Nasif, Malak Hifni see Malak Hifni Nasif
Malak Hifni Nassif see Malak Hifni Nasif
Nassif, Malak Hifni see Malak Hifni Nasif
Badiya, Bahithat al- see Malak Hifni Nasif
Malak Hifni Nasif (Bahithat al-Badiya) (Malak Hifni Nassif) (1886-1918). Pen-name of Bahithat al-Badiya, a pioneer protagonist of women’s rights in Egypt. In her ideas on emancipation, she was influenced by the writings of Qasim Amin, though her goals usually remained more moderate and her concern with proper Islamic norms was strong. She defended the veil but was bitterly opposed to polygamy.
An Egyptian Muslim, Malak Hifni Nasif publicly advocated women's advancement in the early twentieth century during the al-nahda al-nisa'iyya (women's awakening). This was a period in which women were increasingly able to publish essays, stories, and letters in the nascent women's press and also in the general press. The women's press and the writers who contributed to it played an important role in the development of feminism and the reform of social institutions in a number of Middle Eastern countries. Nasif, along with prominent figures such as May Ziadeh, were active in literary and social groups through which they contributed to the intellectual and public debate about nationalism and how to define Egyptian and Arab political and cultural identity under the British colonial government.
Nasif articulated one of the founding discourses of feminism that emerged in Egypt during the first third of the twentieth century. Her strain of feminism remained secondary to that embodied in the work of Huda al-Sha'rawi (1882-1947) until the final decades of the twentieth century. In contrast to Sha'rawi's secular and Western-oriented feminism, Nasif's feminism, expressed in her collection of talks and essays, Al-nisa'iyyat (Women's affairs, 1910), de-emphasized Western values as it attempted to affirm and improve women's lives and experience through increased educational and work opportunities within a reformed Islamic context.
Bahithat al-Badiya see Malak Hifni Nasif
Nasif, Malak Hifni see Malak Hifni Nasif
Malak Hifni Nassif see Malak Hifni Nasif
Nassif, Malak Hifni see Malak Hifni Nasif
Badiya, Bahithat al- see Malak Hifni Nasif
Malayo-Polynesians
Malayo-Polynesians. The East Indonesian province of Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT) is one of two in this “Muslim” country in which Muslims are a minority (the other is Bali). According to the 1980 census, 8.5 percent of the NTT population was Muslim. Despite their numbers, the diverse Muslim peoples of NTT are of interest because of their long historical association with Islam dating from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
More than 80 percent of the Muslim population of NTT is concentrated in five regencies, or kabupaten: (1) East Flores, which includes the islands of Solor, Adonara and Lembara; (2) Alor, which includes the island of Pantar; (3) Ende on the south central coast of the island of Flores; (4) Manggarai on the western end of Flores and (5) Kupang, the regency at the western end of Timor which incorporates the present provincial capital. These regencies are precisely the areas with the oldest links to Islam.
Islam reached these islands from various directions in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries at a time when the Muslim community consisted of peoples of many ethnic groups whose specific origins were less important than their adherence to Islam. Historical evidence suggests that one of the earliest sources of contact with Islam was with Muslim traders from the north coast of Java, particularly Gresik. A second source of contact was with Muslims from the sultanate of Ternate in the northern Moluccas. A third source was with Muslims from the sultanate of Bima on the island of Sumbawa. Since both Ternate and Bima looked to the north coast of Java for their religious traditions, these three sources of contact represent a similar tradition. The Sultan of Ternate claimed sovereignty over Timor and the islands to the east of Flores, whereas the Sultan of Bima claimed Flores and the island of Sumba. Later, in the seventeenth century, Islamic influence emanating from Makassar came to predominate as Makassarese, Bugis and Butonese sailors, accompanied by groups of Bajau, began to penetrate the area and occasionally settle in or near established Muslim communities.
The Portuguese reached these islands by the middle of the sixteenth century, just as Islam was beginning to become established in various coastal settlements. The Portuguese established Christian settlements in opposition to Islam, and this resulted in clashes involving the local population, particularly on the islands of Sotor and Adonara and on the south coast of Flores and Ende. The Dutch arrived early in the seventeenth century and immediately aligned themselves with the Muslims in opposition to their trading rivals, the Portuguese. They signed contracts of trade and alliance with the Sultans of Ternate and Bima as well as with the Muslim rulers of Solor and Adonara, but eventually they were able to compel the sultans of Ternate and Bima to relinquish their claims to these islands, and thereafter the Dutch dealt exclusively with local Muslim rulers. When, in the middle of the seventeenth century, they founded their principal settlement at Kupang on Timor, they ceded a portion of beach near their fort to their Muslim allies. This beach, known as Pantai Solor with its associated settlement, Kampung Solor, has remained an Islamic residence to this day.
The complicated history of Dutch, Portuguese and Islamic relations accounts for the location and distribution of the Muslim peoples of NTT as well as the occurrence of Christian and Muslim members of the same ethnic group. Furthermore, the scattering of Muslim communities throughout the islands has facilitated the historical migration of Bugis and Makassarese, which has increased considerably in recent years. The traditional and still predominant occupations of the Muslim peoples of NTT as fishermen, sailors and traders also have their bases in the history of these islands.
Throughout NTT most Muslims are settled along the coast. Few live in the interior, and virtually none of the population of the interior has converted to Islam. One exception occurred just after 1965 when a sizable group of Timorese or Atoni Pah Meto in the highland district of East Amanuban in the regency of South Central Timor converted to Islam.
Malayo-Polynesians. The East Indonesian province of Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT) is one of two in this “Muslim” country in which Muslims are a minority (the other is Bali). According to the 1980 census, 8.5 percent of the NTT population was Muslim. Despite their numbers, the diverse Muslim peoples of NTT are of interest because of their long historical association with Islam dating from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
More than 80 percent of the Muslim population of NTT is concentrated in five regencies, or kabupaten: (1) East Flores, which includes the islands of Solor, Adonara and Lembara; (2) Alor, which includes the island of Pantar; (3) Ende on the south central coast of the island of Flores; (4) Manggarai on the western end of Flores and (5) Kupang, the regency at the western end of Timor which incorporates the present provincial capital. These regencies are precisely the areas with the oldest links to Islam.
Islam reached these islands from various directions in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries at a time when the Muslim community consisted of peoples of many ethnic groups whose specific origins were less important than their adherence to Islam. Historical evidence suggests that one of the earliest sources of contact with Islam was with Muslim traders from the north coast of Java, particularly Gresik. A second source of contact was with Muslims from the sultanate of Ternate in the northern Moluccas. A third source was with Muslims from the sultanate of Bima on the island of Sumbawa. Since both Ternate and Bima looked to the north coast of Java for their religious traditions, these three sources of contact represent a similar tradition. The Sultan of Ternate claimed sovereignty over Timor and the islands to the east of Flores, whereas the Sultan of Bima claimed Flores and the island of Sumba. Later, in the seventeenth century, Islamic influence emanating from Makassar came to predominate as Makassarese, Bugis and Butonese sailors, accompanied by groups of Bajau, began to penetrate the area and occasionally settle in or near established Muslim communities.
The Portuguese reached these islands by the middle of the sixteenth century, just as Islam was beginning to become established in various coastal settlements. The Portuguese established Christian settlements in opposition to Islam, and this resulted in clashes involving the local population, particularly on the islands of Sotor and Adonara and on the south coast of Flores and Ende. The Dutch arrived early in the seventeenth century and immediately aligned themselves with the Muslims in opposition to their trading rivals, the Portuguese. They signed contracts of trade and alliance with the Sultans of Ternate and Bima as well as with the Muslim rulers of Solor and Adonara, but eventually they were able to compel the sultans of Ternate and Bima to relinquish their claims to these islands, and thereafter the Dutch dealt exclusively with local Muslim rulers. When, in the middle of the seventeenth century, they founded their principal settlement at Kupang on Timor, they ceded a portion of beach near their fort to their Muslim allies. This beach, known as Pantai Solor with its associated settlement, Kampung Solor, has remained an Islamic residence to this day.
The complicated history of Dutch, Portuguese and Islamic relations accounts for the location and distribution of the Muslim peoples of NTT as well as the occurrence of Christian and Muslim members of the same ethnic group. Furthermore, the scattering of Muslim communities throughout the islands has facilitated the historical migration of Bugis and Makassarese, which has increased considerably in recent years. The traditional and still predominant occupations of the Muslim peoples of NTT as fishermen, sailors and traders also have their bases in the history of these islands.
Throughout NTT most Muslims are settled along the coast. Few live in the interior, and virtually none of the population of the interior has converted to Islam. One exception occurred just after 1965 when a sizable group of Timorese or Atoni Pah Meto in the highland district of East Amanuban in the regency of South Central Timor converted to Islam.
Malayo-Polynesian speaking peoples
Malayo-Polynesian speaking peoples. Several different geographical groups are represented by populations that speak Malayo-Polynesian languages. Although these various populations speak languages of a single family of languages and share certain cultural traits associated with an ancient horticultural technology, they are culturally diverse.
Islam spread into Southeast Asia within a century or two of the Prophet’s lifetime, but it was not immediately successful. Marco Polo noted that it was the religion of Pasai, in northern Sumatra, at the end of the thirteenth century, but Hindu-Buddhism was elsewhere the major religion. Probably, native chiefs came to view Islam as an ideology that might focus support for overthrowing traditional empires, such as Javanese Majapahit, that were overbearing and that interfered with chiefly interests in local and long-distance sea trade. Moreover, Islam provided a means for claiming special trading privileges with Gujarati, Arab, Persian and Turkish traders who controlled so much of Western commerce in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Melaka was not the first city state in the area to become Islamic, but it was the most successful and was most responsible for the further spread of Islam throughout Southeast Asia. The Acehnese were probably converted earlier to Islam, and they developed an important trading empire that existed along with that of Johore and Portugal after the fall of Melaka to the Portuguese in 1511. The Acehnese did not succeed in assimilating many other ethnic groups to their culture, not even those whom they conquered, such as the Gayo (who still maintain much of their Batak culture) or the northern Minangkabau, but their capital city, Kota Raja, did become a center of Islamic learning that was important not only to Southeast Asia but to the Islamic world generally.
Malayo-Polynesian speaking peoples. Several different geographical groups are represented by populations that speak Malayo-Polynesian languages. Although these various populations speak languages of a single family of languages and share certain cultural traits associated with an ancient horticultural technology, they are culturally diverse.
Islam spread into Southeast Asia within a century or two of the Prophet’s lifetime, but it was not immediately successful. Marco Polo noted that it was the religion of Pasai, in northern Sumatra, at the end of the thirteenth century, but Hindu-Buddhism was elsewhere the major religion. Probably, native chiefs came to view Islam as an ideology that might focus support for overthrowing traditional empires, such as Javanese Majapahit, that were overbearing and that interfered with chiefly interests in local and long-distance sea trade. Moreover, Islam provided a means for claiming special trading privileges with Gujarati, Arab, Persian and Turkish traders who controlled so much of Western commerce in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Melaka was not the first city state in the area to become Islamic, but it was the most successful and was most responsible for the further spread of Islam throughout Southeast Asia. The Acehnese were probably converted earlier to Islam, and they developed an important trading empire that existed along with that of Johore and Portugal after the fall of Melaka to the Portuguese in 1511. The Acehnese did not succeed in assimilating many other ethnic groups to their culture, not even those whom they conquered, such as the Gayo (who still maintain much of their Batak culture) or the northern Minangkabau, but their capital city, Kota Raja, did become a center of Islamic learning that was important not only to Southeast Asia but to the Islamic world generally.
Malays
Malays. People of Southeast Asia who are Sunni Muslims. The Malays are an ethnic group of Austronesian peoples predominantly inhabiting the Malay Peninsula, the east coast of Sumatra, the coast of Borneo, and the smaller islands between these locations. The Malay ethnic group is distinct from the concept of a Malay race, which encompasses a wider group of people, including most of Indonesia and the Philippines.
The ancestor of Malays are believed to be seafarers who moved from island to island in great distances between New Zealand and Madagascar, and they served as navigation guide, crew and labor to Indian, Persian and Chinese traders for nearly 2000 years, and over the years they settled at various places and adopted various cultures and religions. Notable Malay seafarers of today are Moken and Orang laut.
Some historians suggest that the Malays were descendants of Austronesian-speakers who migrated from the Philippines and originally from Taiwan. Malay culture reached its golden age during Srivijayan times and they practiced Buddhism, Hinduism, and their native Animism before converting to Islam in the 15th century.
The oldest Malay texts which show Muslim influences come from Trengganu in West Malaysia and Atjeh in Sumatra. Both date from the fourteenth century. The oldest literary manuscripts, written in Arabic letters, date from the last years of the sixteenth century. Malay, as a modern literary language, is generally said to begin with the writings of Abdullah ibn Abdul Kadir Munshi, known as Munshi Abdullah (d. 1854).
Malays call themselves Orang Melayu (Malay persons). Others refer to them as Melayu (or a cognate term, such as Malay in English). The basic meaning of melayu, except as it applies to Malays and to their ancient center of empire near present day Djambi in Sumatra, is lost. Various folk explanations of the term depend on the possible meanings of the apparent root word layu in related dialects and languages, such as “flee,” “fade,” “parch” or “sail.” The word Melayu began in use during the time of the Sultanate of Melaka, founded by the fleeing prince Parameswara, from the declining Melayu Kingdom of Srivijaya in Palembang. The word was in popular use in the 17th century onwards.
During the European colonization, the word "Malay" was adopted into English via the Dutch word "Malayo", itself from the Portuguese "Malaio", which originated from the Malay word "Melayu".
Geographical dispersal has been as effective as assimilation of other populations in creating diversity within Malay culture. The dispersal of Malays was well underway by the fifth century of the Christian calendar when they began to dominate local trade in Southeast Asia and long distance sea trade between northwestern Indian and southern China. Their domination of sea trade continued until the sixteenth century, and even into the early European colonial period before the onset of the Industrial Revolution.
Malays founded several trading empires, among which Sri Vijaya, Melayu and Melaka were most important, and their language became the major language of commerce in Southeast Asian ports. Melaka, successor of fourteenth century Melayu, which lost its empire to the Javanese kingdom of Majapahit, was instrumental in converting many Southeast Asian kingdoms to Islam in the fifteenth century.
In the idiom of the Malay language, to be converted to the Islamic faith is to enter Malay ethnicity (masok melayu). And many non-Malays have become Malays through conversion to Islam and residence in a Malay community. According to folk definition and according to the constitution of the Federation of Malaysia, anyone who habitually speaks Malay language, follows Malay custom, and adheres to the religion of Islam is a Malay. The folk ideal is that all Malays are Muslims.
Various Islamic reform movements have been represented in the Malay world during the twentieth century, but the most revolutionary in its effect was the dakwah “missionary” movement of the 1970s, which convinced some devout Malays that parts of their own traditional world as well as the modern Westernized world are not in conformity with the orthodox practice of Islam. Malays interested in retaining their Malay culture as well as their devotion to Islam comprise a social category separate from that of the dakwahs, and both of these are distinct from “secular” Malays, who are concerned with modernization. The dakwah movement is heavily involved in a persuasive missionary campaign. One manifestation of this is the magazine Dakwah, which began publication in 1977.
Except in rare instances, such as in Sungei Penchala (within the limits of the metropolitan area of Kuala Lumpur), the dakwah movement has not resulted in physically separating Malay communities. Traditional, dakwah and secular Malays live side by side in the same communities. Throughout this ideological fissioning they have remained together residentially and segregated from other ethnic communities of Malaysia. Malay ethnic identity has become more important during this period in part because of the government’s efforts to provide opportunities to recover from the low economic status they held as colonial wards of the British before independence. Many members of the other ethnic communities, principally the Chinese and Indians, object to the present advantages afforded Malays.
Malays. People of Southeast Asia who are Sunni Muslims. The Malays are an ethnic group of Austronesian peoples predominantly inhabiting the Malay Peninsula, the east coast of Sumatra, the coast of Borneo, and the smaller islands between these locations. The Malay ethnic group is distinct from the concept of a Malay race, which encompasses a wider group of people, including most of Indonesia and the Philippines.
The ancestor of Malays are believed to be seafarers who moved from island to island in great distances between New Zealand and Madagascar, and they served as navigation guide, crew and labor to Indian, Persian and Chinese traders for nearly 2000 years, and over the years they settled at various places and adopted various cultures and religions. Notable Malay seafarers of today are Moken and Orang laut.
Some historians suggest that the Malays were descendants of Austronesian-speakers who migrated from the Philippines and originally from Taiwan. Malay culture reached its golden age during Srivijayan times and they practiced Buddhism, Hinduism, and their native Animism before converting to Islam in the 15th century.
The oldest Malay texts which show Muslim influences come from Trengganu in West Malaysia and Atjeh in Sumatra. Both date from the fourteenth century. The oldest literary manuscripts, written in Arabic letters, date from the last years of the sixteenth century. Malay, as a modern literary language, is generally said to begin with the writings of Abdullah ibn Abdul Kadir Munshi, known as Munshi Abdullah (d. 1854).
Malays call themselves Orang Melayu (Malay persons). Others refer to them as Melayu (or a cognate term, such as Malay in English). The basic meaning of melayu, except as it applies to Malays and to their ancient center of empire near present day Djambi in Sumatra, is lost. Various folk explanations of the term depend on the possible meanings of the apparent root word layu in related dialects and languages, such as “flee,” “fade,” “parch” or “sail.” The word Melayu began in use during the time of the Sultanate of Melaka, founded by the fleeing prince Parameswara, from the declining Melayu Kingdom of Srivijaya in Palembang. The word was in popular use in the 17th century onwards.
During the European colonization, the word "Malay" was adopted into English via the Dutch word "Malayo", itself from the Portuguese "Malaio", which originated from the Malay word "Melayu".
Geographical dispersal has been as effective as assimilation of other populations in creating diversity within Malay culture. The dispersal of Malays was well underway by the fifth century of the Christian calendar when they began to dominate local trade in Southeast Asia and long distance sea trade between northwestern Indian and southern China. Their domination of sea trade continued until the sixteenth century, and even into the early European colonial period before the onset of the Industrial Revolution.
Malays founded several trading empires, among which Sri Vijaya, Melayu and Melaka were most important, and their language became the major language of commerce in Southeast Asian ports. Melaka, successor of fourteenth century Melayu, which lost its empire to the Javanese kingdom of Majapahit, was instrumental in converting many Southeast Asian kingdoms to Islam in the fifteenth century.
In the idiom of the Malay language, to be converted to the Islamic faith is to enter Malay ethnicity (masok melayu). And many non-Malays have become Malays through conversion to Islam and residence in a Malay community. According to folk definition and according to the constitution of the Federation of Malaysia, anyone who habitually speaks Malay language, follows Malay custom, and adheres to the religion of Islam is a Malay. The folk ideal is that all Malays are Muslims.
Various Islamic reform movements have been represented in the Malay world during the twentieth century, but the most revolutionary in its effect was the dakwah “missionary” movement of the 1970s, which convinced some devout Malays that parts of their own traditional world as well as the modern Westernized world are not in conformity with the orthodox practice of Islam. Malays interested in retaining their Malay culture as well as their devotion to Islam comprise a social category separate from that of the dakwahs, and both of these are distinct from “secular” Malays, who are concerned with modernization. The dakwah movement is heavily involved in a persuasive missionary campaign. One manifestation of this is the magazine Dakwah, which began publication in 1977.
Except in rare instances, such as in Sungei Penchala (within the limits of the metropolitan area of Kuala Lumpur), the dakwah movement has not resulted in physically separating Malay communities. Traditional, dakwah and secular Malays live side by side in the same communities. Throughout this ideological fissioning they have remained together residentially and segregated from other ethnic communities of Malaysia. Malay ethnic identity has become more important during this period in part because of the government’s efforts to provide opportunities to recover from the low economic status they held as colonial wards of the British before independence. Many members of the other ethnic communities, principally the Chinese and Indians, object to the present advantages afforded Malays.
No comments:
Post a Comment