and moses. The Shia link Gabriel to key events in
their versions of the lives of Muhammad, ali ibn
abi talib, Fatima, and other Shii Imams. Thus,
Gabriel was present when Fatima and Ali were
married. He also conveyed to Muhammad a testa-
ment that was to be transmitted to the Imams, and
he announced to Muhammad that his grandson
Husayn (d. 680), the foremost of the martyrs,
would be killed by fellow Muslims.
Accounts differ as to Gabriel’s appearance. As
an angel, he was a being of pure light. According
to some traditions, he had a human form (as in Q
19:17–21) and could even ride a horse into battle as
a turbaned warrior. rUzbihan baqli (d. 1209), the
Persian mystic, saw Gabriel as “a bridegroom, like
a moon among the stars,” wearing a red garment
with green silk trim (Baqli 47). Persian and Turkish
illustrated manuscripts of the 15th to 18th centu-
ries usually portray Gabriel in a human form with
wings, elegant garments, and a crown, surrounded
by flames. In some of the early hadith and other
texts, he was given a more awesome appearance—a
being with six wings, each of which had 600 wings
that could stretch across the horizons of the earth.
See also adam and eve; holy books; hUsayn ibn
ali; imam; night JoUrney and ascent; shiism.
Further reading: Ruzbihan Baqli, The Unveiling of
Secrets: Diary of a Sufi Master. Translated by Carl W.
Ernst (Chapel Hill, N.C.: Parvardigar Press, 1997); F.
E. Peters, A Reader on Classical Islam (Princeton, N.J.:
Princeton University Press, 1994), 51–53, 65–66; Abu
Ishaq Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Ibrahim al-Thalabi,
Arais al-Majalis fi Qisas al-Anbiya, or “Lives of the
Prophets.” Translated by William M. Brinner (Leiden:
E.J. Brill, 2002).
Gandhi, Mohandas Karamchand (1869–
1948) political and spiritual leader of Indian
nationalist movement for independence from British
colonial rule
Known as Mahatma (Sanskrit, “great soul”), Gan-
dhi was instrumental in the successful struggle for
Indian independence from British imperial rule
through his methods of nonviolent resistance.
Gandhi was born in the Indian state of Gujurat in
1869 into the vaishya caste (merchants, traders,
and farmers) and was influenced by a variety of
Indian religions, including Jainism. From 1888
to 1891, he studied law in London, where he was
exposed to the Theosophical movement and influ-
enced by the writings of Leo Tolstoy (d. 1910).
In 1893, he began practicing law in South Africa,
where he was deeply influenced by the political
oppression of Indians by the British and, as a
result, began developing his unique strategies of
pacifist tactics based on the Indian religious prin-
ciples of satyagraha (Skt., truth-force) and ahimsa
(Skt., nonharm, nonviolence). Gandhi returned
to india in 1914 and garnered mass support for
the independence movement’s political party, the
Indian National Congress. Through his Satyagraha
campaigns of 1920–22 and 1927–34 and in other
strategies of nonviolent noncooperation such as
the Salt March in 1930, in which he mobilized a
diversity of Indians and brought their struggle for
independence to the world’s attention, Gandhi’s
methods of passive resistance exposed the moral
untenability of British colonial rule in India. Gan-
dhi remained formally affiliated with the Congress
Party only through the mid-1930s but continued
to serve as the independence movement’s sym-
bolic leader up through India’s independence in
August 1947.
Gandhi saw each of India’s religious tradi-
tions as encompassing similar truths and believed
that each religious community of India deserved
political representation in a future independent
India. Nonetheless, he articulated his political
vision for an independent India in Hindu sym-
bolism, which cultivated distrust among India’s
largest religious minority, its Muslims, who were
represented politically by the Muslim League led
by mUhammad ali Jinnah (1876–1948). Unlike
Jinnah, who represented the position that Mus-
lims were a unique cultural, religious, and social
entity deserving of political autonomy in a futureGandhi, Mohandas Karamchand 255 J