Encyclopaedia of Islam, First Edition (1913-1936)
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Subject: Middle East and Islamic Studies
Edited by: M. Th.Houtsma, T.W.Arnold, R.Basset and R.Hartmann
The Encyclopaedia of Islam First Edition Online (EI1) was originally published in print between 1913 and 1936. The demand for an encyclopaedic work on Islam was created by the increasing (colonial) interest in Muslims and Islamic cultures during the nineteenth century. The scope of the Encyclopedia of Islam First Edition Online is philology, history, theology and law until early 20th century. Such famous scholars as Houtsma, Wensinck, Gibb, Snouck Hurgronje, and Lévi-Provençal were involved in this scholarly endeavor. The Encyclopedia of Islam First Edition Online offers access to 9,000 articles.
Subscriptions: see brill.com
The Encyclopaedia of Islam First Edition Online (EI1) was originally published in print between 1913 and 1936. The demand for an encyclopaedic work on Islam was created by the increasing (colonial) interest in Muslims and Islamic cultures during the nineteenth century. The scope of the Encyclopedia of Islam First Edition Online is philology, history, theology and law until early 20th century. Such famous scholars as Houtsma, Wensinck, Gibb, Snouck Hurgronje, and Lévi-Provençal were involved in this scholarly endeavor. The Encyclopedia of Islam First Edition Online offers access to 9,000 articles.
Subscriptions: see brill.com
Ḥā
(164 words)
, the 6th letter of the Arab alphabet with the numerical value 8. It is a guttural characteristic of the Semitic languages, approximating to the unvoiced sound corresponding to
ʿain [q. v., i. 211b], as
ʿain passes into
ḥāʾ, where it dialectically drops its voiced pronunciation; e. g. in Egyptian Arabic by assimilation (
arbaḥṭāšar, 14 from
arbaʿtaʿšar) and in Maltese throughout when final (
dumūḥ from
dumūʿ). Our knowledge of the nature of this sound is no more complete than that of the related
ʿain. A discussion of the various views may be found in E. Mattesson,
Études phonologiques sur le…
Hā
(169 words)
, the 26th letter of the Arab alphabet with the numerical value 5, our
h; it has survived everywhere except in Maltese where it has become
Aamza or
h. As a feminine termination (
hāʾ al-taʾnīt̲h̲) with the pronunciation
t the character receives the two points of the letter
tāʾ. In reality the written form is here based on the
ah pronunciation of the feminine termination
at in pausa, while the pronunciation
at (as in Hebrew) has survived in combination with a vowel following. The transition from
at to
ah in pause did not, however, take place at the same time throughout the whole of t…
al-Ḥabaṭ
(165 words)
, the name in South Arabia for a sacred area, which is under the protection of a saint, who is usually buried there, and is a place of refuge. No one who seeks asylum on this holy ground may be slain or attacked there. The verb
ḥabaṭa in South Arabia means “to hold back” “to restrain”. The most important
ḥabaṭ in South Arabia is that of Ḏj̲ebel Kadūr, which lies to the south of the village of Liḥya (Laḥya) on the Wādī Ḥabbān in the land of the Wāḥidī [q. v.]. Four saints (
mas̲h̲āʾik̲h̲ of the tribe of Bā Marḥūl, to whom Liḥya belongs, are buried there. This
habaṭ therefore is also known as Ḥabaṭ al-Ar…
Ḥabba
(461 words)
, literally grain or kernel, a fraction in the Troy weight system of the Arabs, of undefined weight. Most Arab authors describe the ḥabba as 1/60 of the unit of weight adopted, as a 1/10 of the
dānaḳ (which in Arab metrology is a sixth part of the unit, see i. 912b), but there are other estimates which vary from 1/48 to 1/12. The habba thus means something very different according to the unit of weight; there is a habba of the silver measure, a ḥabba of the gold measure, a habba of the mit̲h̲ḳāl, later of the dirham etc. On the supposition that …
Ḥabbān
(299 words)
(Abban), a town in South Arabia, the capital of the territory of the Upper Wāḥidī [q. v.], situated in the wādī of the same name. According to Miles it has about 4000 inhabitants, but this figure seems to be too high. The Sulṭān of the Wāḥidī dwells here in the Castle of Maṣnaʿa Ḥāḳir, which is built on a small isolated hill in the midst of the city and surrounded by a wall. The town itself has no walls and only two watchtowers at each end of it. The houses are strongly built like little fortres…
Ḥabīb
(225 words)
b. Maslama, a Meccan of the clan of Banū Fihr, one of the Caliph Muʿāwiya’s greatest generals. He is generally recognised as a companion of the Prophet except by the Medīna school, who are infatuated by their anti-Umaiyad prejudices. The chronology confirms the correctness of this view. For, as he must have been about 15 years old at Muḥammad’s death, there is no reason to suppose that he was not personally acquainted with him. He very early took part in the first fighting in Syria and vigorously…
Ḥabīb al-Nad̲j̲d̲j̲ār
(333 words)
(the carpenter), the saint of Anṭākiya, after whom Mount Silpius ¶ is called by the Arabs, because a much visited grave, alleged to be his, is said to be there (cf. above i. 360a). This Muslim saint is no other than the Agabus mentioned in
Acts xi. 27—30 and xxi. 10
et seq., and his, legend, which is related in Sūra xxxvi. 12
et seq., although his name is not mentioned, is consequently of Christian origin. When Allāh, as is there related, sent two apostles (according to the expositors, Yaḥyā and Yūnus) and afterwards a third (S̲h̲amʿun) to convert the inhabi…
Hābīl and Ḳāḅīl
(496 words)
, the names given by Muhammadans to the two sons of Adam, mentioned, but not by name, in the Ḳorʾān, who brought an offering to God. Jealous that his sacrifice was rejected the one slew his brother. A raven sent by God, which scratched upon the ground, showed him how he could dispose of the body (Sūra, v. 30—34). As this account in the Ḳorʾān, following the Bible narrative, appears bald and uninteresting, Ḳorʾānic exegesis, like the Biblical, endeavours to discover the psychological motives unde…
Ḥadat̲h̲
(130 words)
(a.), ritual impurity. The law recognises two conditions of ritual impurity which are distinguished from one another as “major” and “minor”
ḥadat̲h̲. A Muslim in a condition of ḥadat̲h̲ can only regain his ritual purity (
ṭahāra) by the prescribed ritual ablutions (
g̲h̲usl or
wuḍūʾ respectively); cf. d̲j̲anāba, g̲h̲usl and wuḍūʾ. Not only is a
muḥdit̲h̲ (a person in a condition of “minor” ḥadat̲h̲) forbidden to perform the
ṣalāt, but also he is not allowed to make the
ṭawāf around the Kaʿba nor to touch a copy of the Ḳorʾān; further the
ṣalāt and
ṭawāf of a
muḥdit̲h̲ are legally invalid. Th…
al-Ḥadat̲h̲
(565 words)
, also al-Ḥadat̲h̲ al-Ḥamrāʾ, a border fortress often mentioned in the wars between the Arabs and the Byzantines. The exact situation of al-Ḥadat̲h̲, the ῎Αδατα of the Greeks, has not yet been ascertained, because the town (see below) has been utterly deserted for over six centuries, but there can be no doubt that it is to be located not far from Inekli on the Aḳsu. It is the Aḳsu that Yāḳūt (iv. 838) means by the Nahr Ḥūrīt̲h̲, which according to him rises in the Lake of al-Ḥadat̲h̲ and flows into…
Ḥadd
(470 words)
(a., plural
ḥudūd), boundary, limit, stipulation, also barrier, obstacle. As a scientific term the word is used in several senses. In the Ḳorʾān, where it is always found in the plural, it means the “limits” laid down by God, i. e. the provisions of the Law, whether commands or prohibitions. It appears in this sense at the end of several verses, which contain legal provisions, e. g. Sūra ii. 183, where it is said after the exposition of the rules regarding fasts: “These are God’s
ḥudūd (the bounds prescribed by God), come not too near them” (lest ye be in danger of crossing them…
Hadendoa
(381 words)
, a Hamitic tribe in N. E. Africa belonging to the Bed̲j̲a [q. v., i. 687b] group and closely allied to the Bis̲h̲ārī, Hālanga and Banī ʿĀmir tribes. They live in the country between the river Atbara and the Red Sea and extend towards the South as far as the borders of Eritrea and Abyssinia. Politically nearly the whole tribe belongs to the Red Sea and Kassala provinces of the Anglo-Egyptian Sūdān. They are a nomadic or semi-nomadic tribe of camel-owners and caravan-guides; in their general characteristics and customs they do not differ materially from the rest of t…
Ḥad̲h̲f
(125 words)
, the act of cutting off,
e. g., the tail of a beast, hair, or part of a garment. Then, 1. as a grammatical term, the elision especially of a weak letter (
ḥarf al-ʿilla),
e. g., yahabu from
wahaba, ḳum from
yaḳūmu, yarmi from
yarmī; 2. the omission of part of a sentence;
e.g., the subject or predicate, protasis or apodosis (Baiḍāwī on Ḳur. x, 81
and passim); 3. in prosody, the cutting off of a final closed syllable (
sabab k̲h̲afīf), so that
fāʿilātun becomes
fāʿilun, and so on. (T. H. Weir) Bibliography Yāzid̲j̲ī,
Faṣl al-Ḵh̲iṭāb, III, 4 Freytag,
Darstellung der arabischen Verskunst, p. 86 Sprenger…
al-Hādī
(47 words)
(a.), the guide, one of the names of God, thence a favourite epithet of S̲h̲īʿī rulers, e. g. of the Imams of Ṣanʿāʾ and Ṣaʿda; it was first adopted by the ʿAbbāsid Mūsā. The full expression is
al-Hādī ila ’l-Ḥaḳḳ, the guide to truth (God).
Ḥaḍīḍ
(143 words)
(a.), the lowest part, in astronomy, the perigee or the nearness to the earth of the sun, moon or a planet; its opposite, the apogee, or distance from the earth is usually expressed by the Persian word
awd̲j̲ [q. v., i. 517a] which corresponds to the Sanskrit
ucca (height, highest point). These are the points in the eccentric orbit, i. e. the orbit in which the sun, or in the case of the moon and planets the centre of the epicycle, move, which are least or most distant from the earth, the termini of the Apsis. In the later astronomers, al-Bard̲j̲andī, al-Ḏj̲ag̲h̲mīnī, etc., several varieties of
ḥaḍī…
al-Ḥadīd
(266 words)
, iron. According to the
Sūrat al-Ḥadīd (lvii. 25) God sent iron down to earth for the detriment and advantage of man, for weapons and tools are alike made from it. According to the belief of the Ṣābians, it is allotted to Mars. It is the hardest and strongest of metals and the most capable of resisting the effects of fire, but it is the quickest to rust. It is corroded by acids; for example, with the fresh rind of a pomegranate it forms a black fluid, with vinegar a red fluid and with salt a yellow. Collyrium (
al-kuḥl) burns it and arsenic makes it smooth and white. Ḳazwīnī distinguishes th…
al-Ḥāḍina
(144 words)
, a small independent territory in South Arabia, north of the Wāḥidī. It is one of the most interesting and most fertile territories in South Arabia. The products of the soil, which is artificially irrigated by canals from the Wādī ʿAbadān are
hawīr (indigo),
d̲h̲ura (a kind of maize) and
duk̲h̲n (millet). Al-Ḥāḍina is inhabited by the tribe al-Ḵh̲alīfa, which claims descent from the Hilāl [q. v.]. On the migration of the Hilāl they remained in South Arabia, whence ¶ their name Ḵh̲alīfa. They number about 1000 fighting men and are ruled by an ʿAḳīl whose residence is in th…