utraquists and utraquism 713disguising it in ways similar to those devised by Chris-
tians. Such actually rare activity, by then surfaced in the
popular rationale of anti-Jewish riots and pogroms. For
Muslims usury, or riba,was also defined as “the charging
of interest on a loan,” which was forbidden in the QURAN
in very clear terms. Its prohibition was only partially
enforced and various devices or hiyalwere employed to
give it some kind of cover. The argument of equality of
risk and profit of the partners to a transaction was used
to justify investment and banking activities. For ISLAM
MONEYalso had no time value.
See also BANKS AND BANKING; ECONOMIC THOUGHT
AND JUSTICE; MERCHANTS.
Further reading:John W. Baldwin, Masters, Princes
and Merchants: The Social Views of Peter the Chanter and
His Circle,2 vols. (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University
Press, 1970); John T. Gilchrist, The Church and Economic
Activity in the Middle Ages(New York: St. Martin’s Press,
1969); Benjamin Nelson, The Idea of Usury: From Tribal
Brotherhood to Universal Otherhood,2d ed. (Chicago: Uni-
versity of Chicago Press, 1969); John T. Noonan Jr., The
Scholastic Analysis of Usury(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
University Press, 1957); Abraham L. Udovitch, Partner-
ship and Profit in Medieval Islam(Princeton, N.J.: Prince-
ton University Press, 1970).
Uthman ibn Affan (Othman)(r. 644–656)companion
of the Prophet, third caliph
Uthman was a member of the Umayyad clan, a family
who initially opposed MUHAMMAD. A wealthy MERCHANT,
Uthman, among the first converts to ISLAM, married two
daughters of Muhammad, Ruqayya (d. 624) and then
Umm Kulthum (d. 630). He played a minor role in the
growth of Islam while Muhammad was still alive and did
not take part in the battles, being famously wary of
bloodshed then and during his reign. Despite his lack of
experience, he was elected caliph by a committee
appointed by his predecessor, UMARI, on his deathbed in
- He was perhaps the only alternative to ALI IBNABU
TALIB.
Muslim historians have tended to view Uthman’s 12-
year reign as six years of good rule and six years of bad
rule. Not much of an administrator, he had a religious
vision and made the first efforts to standardize the sacred
text of the QURANand attempted to have all the variant
collections destroyed. His name remained on that version
of the text. He was accused of ruling ineptly, making ille-
gal and arbitrary grants of lands, and practicing nepotism
by appointing many relatives to high positions. Uthman
was then faced with strong popular discontent that led to
a military mutiny. He was assassinated in MEDINAin 656.
The nomination of Ali as his successor led to the first
civil war in Islam.
Further reading:“Wilfred Madelung, Uthma ̄n: The
Vicegerent of God and the Reign of Abd Shams,” in The
Succession to Muhammad: A Study of the Early Caliphate
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 78–140;
W. Montgomery Watt, The Formative Period of Islamic
Thought(Oxford: Oneworld, 1998).utraquists and utraquism Utraquism in the Middle
Ages was the belief that it was permissible and prefer-
able to receive communion or the Eucharist in both
kinds or under both species. In other words, the LAITY
could, and should, receive at communion both the con-
secrated bread and the wine, or the body and the blood
of Christ. This concept was one of the few common
points among the different sects of Hussites in BOHEMIA
and MORAVIA. It was the main difference that they had
with the rest of the church under the leadership of
the pope. The Catholic Church of the time allowed
only the bread to be given to the lay communicant.
Only the priest partook of both species a tradition
called subunism.
The Councils of CONSTANCEin 1415 and BASELin
1432 both condemned utraquism. To the Hussites,
utraquism confirmed the equality of all Christians before
GOD. It was also justifiable to them as a practice of the
early church. The first distribution of communion in
both kinds to Czech lay people took place in the autumn
of 1414. Taking the chalice became one of the essential
points of the Hussite program in the Four Articles of
Pragueof 1420.
The utraquists did not consider themselves to be in
heresy from the Roman church, but only more perfect
Catholics. A more moderate group was called the Calix-
tines, referring to the Latin word for the “chalice.” The
success of utraquism became tied to the course of the
Hussite wars in Bohemia. After the defeat of the most
radical wing of the utraquists at the Battle of Lipany in
1435, a pact worked out in 1436 limited utraquist prac-
tice to Bohemia and Moravia. Pope PIUSII later cancelled
this permission in 1462; but it was maintained by the
Bohemian Diet until 1567. The idea lived on among the
Moravian Brethren and resurfaced in various reform
movements of the 16th century.
See alsoHUS,JOHN; SEVEN SACRAMENTS;TABORITES.
Further reading:Frantisek Michálek Bartosˇ, The Hus-
site Revolution, 1424–1437,trans. John M. Klassen (New
York: Columbia University Press, 1986); Howard Kamin-
sky, A History of the Hussite Revolution(Berkeley: Univer-
sity of California Press, 1967); Josef Macek, The Hussite
Movement in Bohemia (New York: AMS Press, 1980);
David V. Zdeneˇk, Finding the Middle Way: the Utraquists’
Liberal Challenge to Rome and Luther(Baltimore: Johns
Hopkins University Press, 2003).