Key Figures in the History of Islam. 195
All al-Rida: the Eighth Shii Imam. Caliph al-Mamun appointed him
as his successor in 818 in an attempt to court the malcontent Shiis
in his empire, but it was an unpopular move, and al-Rida died—
possibly murdered - the following year.
Ali Zayn al-Abidin (d. 714): the Fourth Shii Imam, a mystic, who lived
in retirement in Medina and took no active role in politics.
Aqa Muhammad Khan (d. 1797): the founder of the Qajar dynasty in
Iran.
Aurengzebe: Moghul emperor (1658-1 707) who reversed the tolerant
policies of Akbar, and inspired Hindu and Sikh rebellions.
Baibars, Rukn ad-Din (d. 1277): Mamluk sultan who defeated the
Mongol hordes at Ain Jalut in northern Palestine, and eliminated
most of the last Crusader strongholds on the Syrian coast.
Banna, Hasan al- (1906-49): an Egyptian reformer and founder of the
Society of Muslim Brothers. He was assassinated by the secularist
government of Egypt in 1949.
Bhutto, Zulfaqir Ali: prime minister of Pakistan (1971-77) who made
concessions to the Islamists but was overthrown by the more devout
Zia ul-Haqq.
Bistami, Abu Yazid al- (d. 874): one of the earliest of the "drunken
Sufis," who preached the doctrine of fanah (annihilation) in God,
and discovered the divine in the deepest recesses of his being after
prolonged mystical exercises.
Bukhari, al- (d. 870): the author of an authoritative collection of ahadith.
Chelebi, Abu al-Sund Khola (1490-1574): worked out the legal prin-
ciples of the Ottoman Shariah state.
Farabi, Abu Nasr al- (d. 950): the most rationalistic of all the Faylasufs,
who was also a practising Sufi and who worked as the court musician
in the Hamdanid court in Aleppo.
Ghannouchi, Rashid al- (1941-): Tunisian leader of the exiled Renais-
sance Party, who describes himself as a "democratic Islamist."
Ghazzali, Abu Hamid Muhammad (d. 11 11): the Baghdad theologian
who gave definitive expression to Sunni Islam, and brought Sufism
into the mainstream of piety.
Hagar: in the Bible, she is the wife of Abraham and the mother of
Abraham's son Ishmael (in Arabic Ismail, q.v.), who became the fa-
ther of the Arab peoples. Hence Hagar is revered as one of the ma-
triarchs of Islam and remembered with especial reverence in the
ceremonies of the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca.