GASPRINSKII, ISMAIL BEY (1851-1914), Crimean Tatar reformer, educator, and publicist, regarded as an architect of modernism among Muslim Turkic subjects of the Russian Empire. Born in a small Crimean village to a family that had served in the Russian military for two generations, Ismail Bey was schooled first in a local maktab and then in
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GARDENS AND LANDSCAPING. [This entry comprises two articles. The first considers the history and development of traditional forms of the Islamic garden and assesses the current state of scholarly understanding; the second focuses specifically on contemporary gardens and landscaping practices in the arid climate of the Middle East and North Africa.] Traditional Forms Islamic gardens
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GAMES AND SPORT. Islam recognizes that human beings need to eat, drink, relax, and enjoy themselves. Hanzalah, a companion and scribe of the Prophet, said “there is a time for this and a time for that.” Muslims enjoy humor, laughter, play, and sport. Various activities can relax their bodies and minds. The mind gets tired
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GAMBIA. The history of Islam in the present Republic of the Gambia goes back to the days of the medieval empires of Ghana and Mali. When the Ghana empire ruled the Sahel, Muslim traders and their African counterparts had some contact with peoples who are now the inhabitants of the Gambia. Composed largely of ethnic
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ARABIC LITERATURE. [This entry comprises two articles on Islamic themes and values in modern Arabic literature. The first presents a general overview; the second focuses specifically on issues of gender in fiction and poetry.] An Overview From the beloved pre-Islamic odes, the mu’allaqat, to the contemporary novel, literature written in Arabic spans centuries, continents, and
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Islam knows no creed, no formal profession of faith that every Muslim is required to proclaim as a sign of membership in the Islamic community. A number of Muslims have attempted to elaborate such an `aqidah (creed) to supply the immediate doctrinal needs of some moment of Islamic history, but none has won the ecumencial
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ABU DHARR AL-GHIFARI (d. 652), companion of the prophet Muhammad and focus of modern ideological debate. As in the case of many other companions of the Prophet, we have a few reports about Abfi Dharr’s life and his relation to the early Islamic community. Most of these reports, however, reflect the early schisms of Islamic
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