say See hajj; umra.
sayyid (seyyed)
One of the most important titles of honor given
to a man in a Muslim society is that of sayyid, for
a woman it is sayyida. In Arabic it has been used
since pre-Islamic times to signify that someone has
high status and dignity, a “lord” or “master” (alter-
nately, “lady” or “mistress”) and is nearly syn-
onymous with the term sharif. Ancient arab tribal
chieftains were known as sayyids, but its most
widespread use in Islam has been with reference
to the ahl al-bayt, those regarded as members of
Muhammad’s family and their direct descendants.
According to the hadith, Muhammad (d. 632)
referred to members of his family by this title. Over
time it was used particularly for descendants of
hUsayn ibn ali (d. 680), while sharif was used pri-
marily for descendants of Husayn’s brother Hasan.
People claiming descent from the ahl al-bayt have
migrated throughout Muslim lands, where their
families have multiplied. In Shii societies sayyids
qualify to receive a special tax payment from the
faithful known as the khums. Respected Sufi mas-
ters were also known as sayyids, or, in popular
usage sidi (“my lord”). The tombs of sayyids, men
and women, have become pilgrimage shrines in
many countries. In recent times that term has
come to be used more loosely as a title of respect
in Middle Eastern societies. The Andalusian noble-
man and warrior, Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar (d. 1099),
was known as El Cid, based on the Arabic al-sid.
Romances were written about him in Latin and
Spanish, and an epic film starring Charlton Heston
as the title character premiered in 1961.
See also honor and shame; saint; shiism; ziyara.
Further reading: Michael Gilsenan, Recognising Islam:
Religion and Society in the Modern Middle East (London:
Croom Helm, 1982).
Sayyid Qutb See qUbt, sayyid.
school See azhar, al-; education; kuttab;
madrasa; student; university.
science
During ancient and medieval times, sciences (or
hard sciences) were indistinguishable from phi-
losophy. Therefore, sciences hereafter are taken to
mean intellectual endeavors outside the fields of
theology and literature. Sciences flourished in the
Arabo-Islamic empire since the ninth century. The
most significant thrust came from a movement of
translation of other scientific and philosophical
traditions into Arabic. caliphs and high officials
were usually the sponsors of this movement, and
of scholarship in general. Prominent among them
is the Abbasid caliph al-Mamun (ninth century),
who commissioned the building of the famous
library and translation house of Bayt al-Hikmah
in baghdad. Other famous centers of learning and
scholarship in the empire were Gundishapur and
Harran, damascUs, cairo, and cordoba.
Although all scientific works were translated
into or written in Arabic, all ethnic (Greeks, Anato-
lians, Syriacs, Persians, Arabs) and religious (Chris-
tians, Jews, Sabians, Muslims) communities of the
empire produced scholars who contributed to
sciences. Taking the term Arabo-Islamic to denote
belonging to a political entity rather than to a reli-
gious, ethnic, or linguistic entity, these scholars will
be referred to hereafter as the Arabo-Islamic schol-
ars. Scientific and philosophical works were trans-
lated from the Greek, Syriac, Sanskrit and Persian
languages by such scholars as Ishaq ibn Hunayn
(d. ca. 911), Thabit ibn Qurra (d. 901), the Banu
Musa brothers (ninth century), al-Khawarizmi (d.
ca. 850), and al-birUni (d. 1048).
The contribution of the Arabo-Islamic schol-
ars to the genesis of modern sciences constitutes
a passionately debated topic of research (see Huff
and Sabra), and in many encyclopedias of science
and its history, the Arabo-Islamic scholars are
credited only with preserving Greek learning for
European medieval scholars. However, the debate
is slightly misguided because the work of any
scholar should be studied with reference to his/
her own culture, and not only to how it impacted
modern culture and sciences.
Because of its importance to religious duties
(for example, calculating the qibla and prayerscience 609 J