1996); Majid Fakhry, Al-Farabi: Founder of Islamic Neo-
platonism (Oxford: Oneworld, 2002); Oliver Leaman,
An Introduction to Classical Islamic Philosophy. 2d ed.
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002); Ian
Richard Netton, Al-Farabi and His School (London:
Routledge, 1992).
Faraizi movement (Persian spelling;
Arabic, Faraidi movement)
The Faraizis were a religious renewal and anti-
British protest movement that arose in the Bengal
region of india in the early 19th century. Their
name is based on the Arabic for “religious duties”
(faraid), which emphasizes their advocacy of a
return to the core requirements of Islamic prac-
tice. The movement’s founder was Hajji Shariat
Allah (ca. 1781–1840), who performed the haJJ
from eastern Bengal in his late teens and resided
in mecca for about 20 years. It is likely that he
was influenced by Wahhabism and other revivalist
Islamic ideas while in residence there, for it was
after his return to Bengal from Arabia in the early
1800s that he launched the movement. From the
1760s, Bengal had been under the control of the
English East India Company, whose economic
and agricultural policies were having devastating
effects on the indigenous textile industry and the
livelihood of the region’s farmers. The local popu-
lation, which was mostly Muslim, had grown res-
tive under the British administration’s exploitative
land and taxation policies that favored the British
and Hindu landholders and speculators. Bengali
Muslims were therefore receptive to the formation
of a resistance movement.
Shariat Allah told Bengali Muslims to return to
what he considered to be the true Islamic practices
and to give up Shii and Sufi saint worship and
certain marriage and funerary customs. Further-
more, he taught that Muslims should not perform
communal prayers as long as they did not have a
legitimate Muslim ruler governing them. At the
same time, he supported landless Bengali peas-
ants in their protests against wealthy landlords
by urging them to reject forced labor and to not
pay their taxes. With its reformist and egalitarian
message, the Faraizi movement he launched was
then able to establish a base of popular support
in rural eastern Bengal, particularly under the
leadership of Shariat Allah’s son, Dudu Miyan
(1819–63). The latter even declared India to be a
dar al-harb (house of war) as long as it was ruled
by non-Muslims such as the British and came into
open clashes with British authorities. Landlords
and the British rallied to oppose the movement
and accused Shariat Allah and his son of trying
to create their own kingdom. The Faraizis were
held in check by their opponents, and they lost
support among many Muslims because of their
rejection of popular religious practices and their
condemnation of Muslims who did not agree
with Faraizi doctrines. With the imprisonment of
Dudu Miyan at the time of the great 1857 uprising
against British rule, the Faraizi movement ceased
to be politically active. Nevertheless, it continued
to exist as a religious revival movement until the
early 20th century.
See also bangladesh; colonialism; dar al-islam
and dar al-harb; reneWal and reForm movements.Further reading: Nurul H. Choudhury, Peasant Radi-
calism in 19th Century Bengal: The Faraizi, Indigo, and
Pabna Movements (Dhaka: Asiatic Society of Bangla-
desh, 2001); Muin-ud-Din Ahamd Khan, History of
the Faraidi Movement in Bengal, 1818–1906 (Karachi:
Pakistan Historical Society, 1965).Farrakhan, Louis (1933– ) controversial
African-American leader of the Nation of Islam from
1977
Born Louis Eugene Walcott, the son of a domes-
tic worker and immigrant, Farrakhan grew up in
Boston. As a youth, Farrakhan played the violin,
excelled academically in high school, and became
actively Episcopalian. In 1955, during a trip to
Chicago for a musical performance, Farrakhan
attended one of the Nation of Islam’s conven-K 226 Faraizi movement