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
Wakap
(221 words)
(Mal., Jav., the form, or with slight modifications, taken by
waḳf [q. v.] among the Muslim peoples of the east Indian Archipelago). The institution is well known; estates made
wakap are however of isolated occurrence only: they always serve religious purposes. The prescriptions of the law are complied with. Clashing with native law results in there being no wakap where single individuals have no private rights (Minangkabau, Central Sumatra) and wherever the individual right to land is restricted by a higher law, no pieces …
Waḳār
(787 words)
, Mīrzā Aḥmad S̲h̲īrāzī with the
tak̲h̲alluṣ Waḳār (Browne vocalises it Wiḳār), a Persian poet, the eldest of the six sons of the poet Wiṣāl. His five brothers also attained fame as poets. Specimens of the poetry of the father Wiṣāl are given in the
Mad̲j̲ma ʿ al-Fuṣaḥāʾ of Riḍā Ḳulī Ḵh̲ān, ii. 528
sqq. and in Browne,
Persian Literature in Modern Times, p. 318; in the last named work on p. 301, 319
sqq. and 323
sqq. are also specimens of the work of Dāwarī and Farhang, two brothers of Waḳār. In the
Mad̲j̲maʿ, ii. 103
sqq. are two further poems of Wiṣāl’s second son Maḥmūd Ḥakīm and in ii. 3…
Waḳf
(7,773 words)
or Ḥabs (a.) is properly an Arabic
maṣdar meaning “to prevent, restrain”. In Muslim legal terminology it means primarily “to protect a thing, to prevent it from becoming the property of a third person (
tamlīk)” (Sarak̲h̲sī.
Mabsūṭ, xii. 27). By it is meant I. state land, which on being conquered passed to the Muslim community either by force or by treaty and remained in possession of the previous owners on payment of the
k̲h̲arād̲j̲ and could neither be sold nor pledged by them (cf. e. g. Mawardī,
Aḥkām, ed. Enger, p. 237
sq.) and 2. commonly a pious endowment, which is defined in vari…
Wak̲h̲ān
(942 words)
(in Arabie Wak̲h̲k̲h̲ān), a district to the south of the Pāmīr [q. v.]. Wak̲h̲ān is a long and narrow valley which runs from east to west and is watered by the upper course of the Oxus (Pand̲j̲a) and by the river Wak̲h̲ān-daryā, which is the most southern source of the Oxus [cf. amū-daryā]. The length of Wak̲h̲ān along the Oxus is 67 miles and of the Wak̲h̲ān-daryā (from Langar-kis̲h̲ to the Wak̲h̲d̲j̲īr pass) 113 miles, Afg̲h̲an sources put the distance from Is̲h̲kās̲h̲im to Sarḥadd at 66
kurōh = 22 farsak̲h̲s. To the south of Wak̲h̲ān rises the wall of the Hindū-Kus̲h̲ through whic…
al-Wāḳiʿa
(185 words)
(a.), the name of Sūra lvi. The title “the befalling, suddenly happening” which is the subject of the first verse is generally taken to refer to the
ḳiyāma (q. v. where the word is translated “the event”) or
sāʿa, both periphrases for the Day of Judgment. The content of the Sūra is in keeping with this. Opinions differ as to the date of its origin. Nöldeke and Schwally put it in the first Meccan period but add that Ḥasan al-Baṣrī regards it as Medlnese. That some verses are Medlnese seems to be generally acknowledged in tradition wh…
al-Wāḳidī
(1,564 words)
, Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad b. ʿUmar, an Arab historian born in 130 in Medīna; according to
Ag̲h̲ānī, vii. 189, his mother was a great-grand-daughter of Ṣāʾib who introduced music into Medīna. Al-Wāḳidī was so called after his grandfather al-Wāḳid, al-Aslamī as a mawlā of ʿAbd Allāh b. Buraida who belonged to the Medīnese family of Aslam. On the occasion of Hārūn’s pilgrimage in 170 (see Ṭabarī, iii. 605) he was recommended to him as the best authority on the holy places of his native town and acted as guide to th…
Wakīl
(23 words)
(a.), mandatary, solicitor, agent, vicegerent, see wakāla ; also one of the names of Allāh, “the Guardian”, see allāh , ii. ¶
Waḳwāḳ or Wāḳwāḳ
(4,141 words)
, in Arabic orthography , or . The pagination which follows the names of Arab authors or titles of Oriental works refers, unless otherwise stated, to G. Ferrand’s
Relations de voyages et textes géographiques arabes, persans et turks (cf. the
Bibliography). I. Wāḳwāḳ of the South or Wāḳwāḳ of Africa The islands of Wāḳwāḳ are situated in the Lārwī sea which washes the western coast of India and the lands inhabited by the Zand̲j̲ (Yaʿḳūbī, p. 49). The Wāḳwāḳ of the south is different from that of China (Ibn al-Faḳīh, p. 55). The lands of Sofāla an…
Walī
(2,438 words)
(a.) 1. From the Arabie root
wala, to be near, and
waliya, to govern, to rule, to protect someone. In ordinary use this word means protector, benefactor, companion, friend and is applied also to near relatives, especially in Turkish [cf. the art. ʿaṣaban wilāya]. When used in a religious connection walī corresponds very much to our title “saint”; but the idea behind it has given rise to a regular theory and in practice has attained sufficient importance for it to be necessary to explain the use of the term. In the Ḳurʾān this theory does not yet exist; the term
walī is found there with several…
al-Walīd
(607 words)
b. Yazīd, Umaiyad Caliph. He was about 35 (Feb. 743) when he succeeded his uncle, the Caliph His̲h̲ām b. ʿAbd al-Malik. “If only for his personal courage, liberality, love of letters and patronage and practice of poetry, Walīd was bound to shine in the first rank among the Umaiyads”. Such is the judgment of the
Kitāb al-Ag̲h̲ānī (vi. 101) the author of which could not be suspected of partiality for the Umaiyads. An artistic and remarkably cultivated young man, which none of his predecessors had been, the son of the hysterical caliph Yazīd II, he was …
al-Walīd
(694 words)
b. ʿAbd al-Malik, Umaiyad Caliph (88—98 = 705—715). On the death of his father, the caliph ʿAbd al-Malik (Oct. 705), al-Walīd, his successor, was over 30. A prince of only average culture, he brought to the throne an aristocratic outlook and a display of religious fervour unknown among his predecessors. In the history of the Umaiyads he ranks as the great builder of the dynasty. One of his first cares was to give his capital Damascus a magnificent mosque. Walīd cast his eyes on the basilica of St.…
al-Walīd
(631 words)
b. al-Mug̲h̲īra b. ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿOmar b. Mak̲h̲zūm, an opponent of Muḥammad. Little is known of his life but it is certain that he was one of the most powerful men in Mecca and one of the most ardent opponents of ¶ he Prophet. As head of the numerous and prominent family of the Mak̲h̲zūm he naturally represented the aristocratic interests in the city of Muḥammad’s birth and that he was himself very prosperous is evident from the fact that, according to traditionists, he owned a garden in Ṭāʾif which he planted for pleasure only and nev…
Wālide Sulṭān
(6,333 words)
(a.) Turkish pronunciation
vālide or
valde sulṭān; the two words are in apposition, according to Turkish syntax), “the sulṭān Valide” or “sulṭāna mother”, a title borne in the old Ottoman empire by the mother of the reigning sulṭān and only for the duration of her son’s reign. The political history of the Wālide Sulṭān is fairly well known from the Turkish historians, at least as far as those are concerned who took part openly in the government of the country, for example Nūr Bānū, Ṣafīye, Māh-Peiker Kösem and Turk̲h̲an Ḵh̲adīd̲j̲e. We are by no means so well informed about the condi…
Wālihī
(161 words)
, the name of two Ottoman poets of the xth (xvith) century: 1. Wālihī Kurd-zāde of Adrianople (an alleged Wālihī from Gisr Erkene or Ergene Köprü is the same man). On the conclusion of his studies he came as a ḳāḍī to Cairo and was admitted into the Güls̲h̲anī order by Saiyid Ḵh̲ayālī, the son of Ibrāhīm Güls̲h̲anī, the founder of the order. Returning to Adrianople, he worked there as a Ṣūfī preacher, celebrated for his eloquence and command of language. He was given to drinking. He died in 994 (1586) in Adri…
Wāmiḳ Wa-ʿad̲h̲rā
(373 words)
, a Persian romance alleged to come from a Pahlawī original. It is said to have been presented in Nīs̲h̲āpūr to the emīr ʿAbd Allāh b. Ṭāhir (d. in 230 = 844) in the form of an old book dedicated to Ḵh̲usraw I Anūs̲h̲arwān (531—579 a. d.) and the governor is said to have ordered it to be destroyed, because it had been written by Zoroastrians. In any case, it was put into verse by ʿUnṣurī [q. v.] and again by Faṣīḥī of Ḏj̲ūrd̲j̲ān in 441 (1049). In addition to ʿUnṣurī’s version, Ethé (
Grundriss d. iron. Philol., ii. 240) mentions no less than six versions which are all lost. At the end of the xiith (xviiith) …
Wān
(2,087 words)
, a town in Turkey on the Armenian plateau on the eastern shore of Lake Wān. The name Wān is not found in the Arabic sources which deal with the Muslim conquest. Lake Wān is usually named by the Arabs after the towns on the northern shore, Ard̲j̲īs̲h̲ and Ak̲h̲lāṭ. Ibn Ḥawḳal alone (p. 250) mentions the Artsrunid Ibn Dairānī, lord of Zawazān, of Wān and Wosṭān. Yāḳūt, iv. 895, mentions a fortress of Wān but makes it a dependency of Erzerum and locates it between Ak̲h̲lāṭ and Tiflis (?). For the Muslim conquest of Armenia see that article. The important fact is the campaign of Bug̲h̲ā…
Wānḳūli̊
(278 words)
, Meḥmed b. Muṣṭafā al-Wānī, a famous Ottoman jurist in the time of Murād III (982—1003 = 1574—1595) who especially distinguished himself in the field of
fiḳh, lexicography and literature. Born in Wān, he acted in a number of towns (Constantinople, Rhodes, Manissa, Salonika, Amasia, Kutahia, Yenis̲h̲ehir) as müderris, ḳāḍī and mollā and died in 1000 (1591—1592) as mollā of Medīna, to which he had come in 998 (1590) in succession to Suʿūdī. In his long period of 30 years’ service, he displayed great activity in writing and translating. His principal work is the translation of the
Ṣaḥāḥ or
Ṣiḥā…
al-Wans̲h̲arīsī
(590 words)
,
nisba from the land of Wans̲h̲arīs, a mountainous area in western Algeria to the south of the Wādī S̲h̲alaf (Chélif) known to modern geographers in the corrupt transcription Ouarsenis. 1. Abu ’l-ʿabbās aḥmad b. yaḥyā b. Muḥammad b. ʿabd al-wāḥid b. ʿalī al-tilimsānī al-wans̲h̲arīsī, a famous Mālikī jurist of the Mag̲h̲rib, born at Tlemsen, studied under celebrated teachers, like Ibn Marzūḳ al-Kafīf and Abu ’l-Faḍl ¶ Ḳāsim al-ʿUḳbānī. In 874 (1469) after some trouble with the government of Tlemsen of which we do not know the details, he left his native town t…