Encyclopedia of Islam

movements, it is that the only legitimate govern- ment is that which recognizes the absolute unity and sovereignty of God. In th ...

all but eliminated, the city has survived mostly as a tourist attraction. See also colonialism; morocco; West aFrica. Further re ...

ality, edited by John C. Reeves, 61–85 (Atlanta: Society for Biblical Literature, 2003). tradition See customary law; hadith; ij ...

is Arabic, but French is often used, especially in commerce. In the millennia since it was first settled, Tunisia has been used ...

Bourguiba’s foreign relations also provoked some unrest. His foreign policy was generally pro-Western; for example, during the A ...

alist policies sought to build a strong Turkish identity, which involved attempts at assimilating non-Turkish Muslim peoples suc ...

The earliest written Turkish is found in the form of inscriptions on stone monuments in Mongolia dating from the eighth century ...

adherents. The largest Twelver populations are located in iran and iraq, where there are about 58.9 million (90 percent, est. 20 ...

the next Imam and became known as the Ismailis. Twelve-Imam Shiism, however, stemmed from the Shia who recognized Musa al-Kazim ...

considered to be the best of men and the foremost members of the ahl al-bayt (Muhammad’s descen- dants). Indeed, they are though ...

are permitted to combine the five daily prayers into three (morning, afternoon, and evening), and, in remembrance of the events ...

favored building bridges with Sunni Muslims with respect to law and doctrine, his success was seen as a political threat by Sunn ...

Revolution (Princeton, N.J.: Markus Wiener Publishers, 1997); S.H.M. Jafri, The Origins and Early Development of Shia Islam (Lon ...

683 J:AF ulama (also ulema; Arabic: plural of alim, “possessor of knowledge”) The chief religious authorities in Islam are the u ...

More is known about the ulama than any other social group in Islamic history, thanks to the voluminous amount of biographical li ...

rashid rida (d. 1935), and the deoband move- ment in Indo-Pakistan. Despite these efforts, the ulama found themselves blamed for ...

644, Umar was assassinated by a slave who had a personal grudge against him. Umar is said to have appointed a committee to choos ...

(r. 644–655), the third caliph, and the acces- sion of ali ibn abi talib (r. 656–661). Uthman’s cousin, Muawiya, who was governo ...

that they are united into a single community, or umma, by a shared system of Islamic beliefs and practices concerning a single, ...

observed. Worldly authority was wielded by the ruling elites, while the ulama wielded authority in religious matters, especially ...