Encyclopedia of Islam

the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Oman. The landmass occupied by these states collectively is 1.8 million square miles, or hal ...

five smaller Arab Gulf States, plus Saudi Arabia, formed the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) on May 25, 1981. For political and s ...

which has been in power since the 18th century. The ruler was originally called a sayyid, but this title was later changed to sU ...

By some estimates, nonnationals may even out- number UAE citizens. The majority of the coun- try’s populace follows Sunni Islam ...

also invoked, with little success, the symbolism of the Shii Imams ali ibn abi talib (d. 661) and Husayn in order to maintain th ...

With the air campaign well under way, a ground attack, known as Desert Saber, was launched from Saudi Arabia into Kuwait and sou ...

States was not going to help the rebels, Husayn’s elite Revolutionary Guard acted with deadly force to end the rebellion. In les ...

of conclusive evidence that Iraq, in fact, still had such weapons. Weapons inspections and intel- ligence assessments conducted ...

278 J:AF hadd See crime and punishment. hadith (Arabic: speech, report, narrative) A hadith is a short report, story, or traditi ...

[haram].” It thus complements and expands upon the Quran’s ban against drinking wine. In addition to matters of belief and pract ...

Generations of the Sufis (Al-Tabaqat al-sufiyya), al-Sulami (d. 1091) links the sayings of prominent mystics to the hadith of Mu ...

where she encountered an angel who told her to return to Abraham’s household to give birth to their son Ishmael (Gen. 16:1–16). ...

are performed in and around the city of Mecca. They include 1) statement of intention and purifi- cation of the body, 2) inaugur ...

pilgrimage. Later Muslim rulers were responsible for supporting the pilgrimage and maintaining the holy sites in Mecca. They hel ...

Nishapur (d. 1074), al-Ansari of Harat (d. 1089), and al-ghazali of Tus (d. 1111). See also allah; sUFism. Further reading: Ali ...

discussions of clothing, hair, home furnishings, pets, employment, business, bathing, male and female relations, child rearing, ...

versial and pervasive force among Palestinians in the late 20th century. The Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood had a history of opp ...

of Persian heritage, who was credited by later generations of legal scholars to be its founder. The school originated in the tur ...

Hanbali Legal School The Hanbali Legal School (madhhab) began in baghdad during the ninth century. It was the last of the four m ...

In Arabic and Islamic rhetoric, haqiqa refers to the essential meaning of a word or expression, as opposed to its metaphorical m ...