Abu al Fath Jalal al Din Muhammad Akbar Abu Ali al Husayn ibn Abd Allah ibn Sina Abu al Qasim Mansur Abu Mazen Abu Bakr Abu Dhabi Abu Zabi Abu Hanifah al Numan ibn Thabit Abu Muslim Abu Qir Bay Abu Simbel Abu Zayd Nasr Hamid Ashari Abu al Hasan al Bukhari Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Ismail al Abu Said ibn Abi al Hasan Yasar al Basri Abu Muhammad Ali ibn Ahmad ibn Said ibn Hazm Abu Zayd Abd al Rahman ibn Khaldun Mutanabbi Abu al tayyib Ahmad ibn Husayn al Abu Ali Hasan ibn Ali Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariyya al Razi Shafii Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Idris al Abu Jafar Muhammad ibn Jarir al tabari Abu al Walid Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Rushd Abu Hamid Muhammad ibn Muhammad al tusi al Ghazali Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Abd Allah al Lawati al tanji ibn BaTTuTah Ghiyath al Din Abu al Fath Umar ibn Ibrahim al Neyshaburi al Khayyami
An Arabic word for a holy man or saint from any religion that is used mostly by archaeologists Arabs of today use the word as a slang term to describe the head of a family or father of children Back to Abu reading
born , 767, Arabia died Jan. 20, 820, Al-Fus, Egypt Muslim legal scholar and founder of the Shfiiyyah school of law. A distant relative of Muhammad, he was brought up in poverty in Mecca and studied with Islamic scholars across Arabia and the Levant. His great contribution was the creation of a synthesis of Islamic legal thought that put into coherent form many familiar but unsystematized ideas. He dealt primarily with the identification of the sources of Islamic law and their application to contemporary events. His book, the Rislah ( 817), earned him the title "father of Muslim jurisprudence
born July 19, 810, Bukhara, Central Asia died Aug. 31, 870, Khartank, near Samarkand Muslim compiler and scholar of Hadth. He began his study as a child in Central Asia and traveled as far as Mecca and Cairo to learn about Muhammad and his utterances. Of the 600,000 traditions he collected, he deemed 7,275 authentic and included them in Kitb al-jmi al-a ("Entirety of the Genuine"). His Kitb al-tarkh al-kabr ("The Great History") contains biographies of those who passed on the oral traditions from the days of the Prophet to Bukhr's own era
born , 767, Arabia died Jan. 20, 820, Al-Fus, Egypt Muslim legal scholar and founder of the Shfiiyyah school of law. A distant relative of Muhammad, he was brought up in poverty in Mecca and studied with Islamic scholars across Arabia and the Levant. His great contribution was the creation of a synthesis of Islamic legal thought that put into coherent form many familiar but unsystematized ideas. He dealt primarily with the identification of the sources of Islamic law and their application to contemporary events. His book, the Rislah ( 817), earned him the title "father of Muslim jurisprudence
born 573, Mecca, Hejaz, Arabian Peninsula died Aug. 23, 634, Medina One of the close Companions of the Prophet Muhammad and the first Muslim caliph. Some Muslim traditions say he was the first male convert to Islam after Muhammad. He became caliph after Muhammad's death in 632, and during his two years in that office he consolidated central Arabia under Muslim control, engaging in the wars of apostasy (riddah). He also realized the urgency of expanding the regions under Muslim control in order to maintain peace among Arab tribes
Arabic Ab ab City (pop., 1995: 398,695), capital of Ab Zab emirate and national capital of the United Arab Emirates. It occupies most of the small island of Ab ab, which is connected to the mainland by a bridge. Settled in 1761, it was of little importance until the discovery of oil in 1958. Oil royalties thereafter revolutionized its political and economic position, and it has grown into a modern city
born 699, Kfah, Iraq died 767, Baghdad Muslim jurist and theologian. The son of a merchant in Kfah, he gained wealth in the silk trade and studied law under the noted jurist ammd. After ammd's death (738), Ab anfah became his successor. He was the first to develop systematic legal doctrines from the accumulated Islamic legal tradition. Primarily a scholar, he neither accepted a judgeship nor took direct part in court politics; he supported the successors of Al over the ruling Umayyad and Abbsid dynasties. His doctrinal system became one of four canonical schools of Islamic law (Sharia) and is still widely followed in India, Pakistan, Turkey, Central Asia, and Arab countries
born 699, Kfah, Iraq died 767, Baghdad Muslim jurist and theologian. The son of a merchant in Kfah, he gained wealth in the silk trade and studied law under the noted jurist ammd. After ammd's death (738), Ab anfah became his successor. He was the first to develop systematic legal doctrines from the accumulated Islamic legal tradition. Primarily a scholar, he neither accepted a judgeship nor took direct part in court politics; he supported the successors of Al over the ruling Umayyad and Abbsid dynasties. His doctrinal system became one of four canonical schools of Islamic law (Sharia) and is still widely followed in India, Pakistan, Turkey, Central Asia, and Arab countries
{i} Mahmoud Abbas (born 1935), elected President and Chairman of the Palestinian National Authority, one of the founders of the Fatah faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization
(d. 755) Leader of a revolutionary movement in Khorsn whose efforts brought down the Umayyad dynasty. Born into the mawl (non-Arab Muslim) class and of humble origins, he met an agent of the Abbsid family while in prison (741). After his arranged release, he was sent to Khorsn (745-746) to instigate a revolt. Recruiting from various discontented groups, he succeeded in overthrowing the last Umayyad caliph, Marwn II (750), and was rewarded with the governorship of Khorsn. His popularity led the second Abbsid caliph, al-Manr, to view him as a threat and have him put to death. See also Abbsid dynasty
Inlet of the Mediterranean Sea, lying near the Rosetta mouth of the Nile along the coast of Egypt. It was the scene of the Battle of the Nile (1798), in which an English fleet under Horatio Nelson defeated the French fleet of Napoleon I
a village in southern Egypt, famous for its ancient rock temples (=holy buildings). Site of two temples built by Ramses II in the 13th century BC. The area, at the southern frontier of pharaonic Egypt, lies near Egypt's current border with The Sudan. The temples were unknown to the outside world until their rediscovery in 1813. The larger temple displays four 67-ft (20-m) seated figures of Ramses; the smaller was dedicated to Queen Nefertari. When the reservoir created by the building of Aswn High Dam threatened to submerge the site in the early 1960s, an international team disassembled both temples and reconstructed them 200 ft (60 m) above the riverbed
or Abu Dhabi Largest constituent emirate (pop., 2001 est.: 1,186,000) of the United Arab Emirates. Bounded to the north by the Persian Gulf, to the south and west by Saudi Arabia, and to the east by Oman, it has an area of 28,210 sq mi (73,060 sq km). It has numerous offshore islands, and internally it surrounds Dubayy and has a short boundary with Al-Shriqah (Sharjah). Since the 18th century the l B Fal, a clan of the Ban Ys, has held power. In 1761 they found wells of potable water at the site of Abu Dhabi city, and they made their headquarters there from 1795. In the 19th century territorial conflicts with Masqat and Oman and with the Sad dynasty (which now rules Saudi Arabia) led to border disputes that have remained largely unsettled. Ab ab signed an agreement with Great Britain in 1892, placing its foreign affairs under British control. When Britain withdrew from the Persian Gulf in 1968, the emirate and the other Trucial States formed the United Arab Emirates. Its rich oil fields make it, after Dubayy, the federation's most prosperous emirate
born 873/874, Basra, Iraq died 935/936, Baghdad Muslim Arab theologian. He probably belonged to the family of Ab Ms al-Ashar, one of the Companions of the Prophet. He joined the Mutazilah school and compiled scholarly opinions in his Maqlt al-Islmyn ("Theological Opinions of the Muslims"). At about age 40 he concluded that his method had led to sterile concepts of God and humanity, and he turned to more orthodox theology. He expanded his Maqlt and authored Kitb al-Luma ("The Luminous Book"). Reflecting on the ideas of al-Muhsib and others, he created his own school, which became known as the Khorsn, or Asharite, school. See also Ashariyyah
born 915, Al-Kfah, Iraq died Sept. 23, 965, near Dayr al-ql Poet regarded by many as the greatest in the Arabic language. Al-Mutanabb received an education, unusual for his time and rank, because of his poetic talent. He lived among the Bedouin and, claiming to be a prophet, led an unsuccessful Muslim revolt in Syria. After two years' imprisonment he recanted and became a wandering poet, eventually leaving Syria for Egypt and Iran. He primarily wrote panegyrics in a flowery, bombastic style marked by improbable metaphors. His poetic voice is proud and arrogant in tone, and his verse is crafted with consummate skill and artistry. His powerful influence on Arabic poetry persisted into modern times
He was one of the greatest companions of Muhammad (pbuh) His full name is Abu Bakr as-Siddiq Muhammad (pbuh) called him as-Siddiq because he always believed in him (pbuh), without any reservation He was the first of the four rightly guided Khalifaas (Caliphs) He was Caliph from 11 to 13 AH (633 to 635 CE) Also spelled Abi Bakr
a small gang of terrorist thugs claiming to seek a separate Islamic state for the Muslim minority in the Philippines; uses bombing and assassination and extortion and kidnapping; "In 2001 Abu Sayyaf kidnapped twenty people and beheaded one of the American captives
born Oct. 7, 1943, an, Egypt Egyptian scholar. He attended Cairo University and received a Ph.D. in Arab and Islamic studies. His research and writings on Quranic exegesis, including his well-known Critique of Islamic Discourse (1995), offended some Islamic fundamentalists. In 1993 a colleague denounced him in a major Cairo mosque, and Islamic radicals successfully sought a nullification of his marriage from an Egyptian family court on the grounds that his writings demonstrated his apostasy (and under Egyptian law a Muslim woman may not be married to a non-Muslim man). Though the court declined to pass judgment, an appeals court divorced Ab Zayd and his wife, a decision confirmed by the Egyptian Supreme Court. The case attracted widespread concern among intellectuals and human rights groups. Since 1995 Ab Zayd and his wife have lived in exile in The Netherlands