Category: I

Islam in China

Islam in China Islam in China has been propagated over the past thirteen hundred years primarily among the people now known as “Hui,” but many of the issues confronting them are also relevant to the Turkic and Indo-European Muslims on China’s Inner Asian frontier. “Hui teaching” (Hui jiao) was the term once used in Chinese

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Islam in Central Asia and the Caucasus

Islam in Central Asia and the Caucasus: Islam came to Central Asia and the Caucasus not long after its birth in the seventh century. The Arab conquest spanned roughly the period 600-800 CE, with further penetration via traders until 1200. The Mongol empire threatened Islam in the thirteenth century, but the faith withstood this and

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Islam in the Middle East and North Africa

Islam in the Middle East and North Africa Revelation in the Middle East comes in a variety of versions. Islam is one of them and, like Judaism and Christianity, it is constitutive of an entire civilization. Islamic civilization evolved according to its own dynamics, covering the periods of sacred foundation (634-750), scriptural formation (750-1050), classicism

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ISLAM

ISLAM. [This entry consists of an overview of the origins and development of the classical Islamic tradition and eight historical surveys that trace the spread of Islam throughout the world: An Overview Islam in the Middle East and North Africa Islam in Sub-Saharan Africa Islam in Central Asia and the Caucasus Islam in China Islam

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ISLAH

ISLAH. The Arabic term for “reform,” islah has come to denote the reform movement in the Islamic world in the last three centuries. In a modern Islamic context, the term primarily refers to the work and writings of Muhammad `Abduh and his disciple, Rashid Rida. The lexicographic and Qur’anic origins of the word also imply

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ISHAKI, AYAZ

ISHAKI, AYAZ (1878-1954), Tatar political activist and writer. Born on 23 February 1878 into the family of Giylajetdin, the mullah of Yaushirma village in Kazan guberniya, Ayaz (or Gayaz) Ishaki received a traditional education at the Chistay madrasah (1890-1893) and then at the Kulbue madrasah (1893-1898) of Kazan. In 1898 he entered the Kazan Teachers’

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IRAQ

IRAQ. As an Ottoman province, Iraq suffered in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries from the waning of Istanbul’s influence and from its geographical position at the center of four major historic confluences: in the south, the desert areas were prone to the raids of Najd tribes at a time when the Wahhabiyah movement was on

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IRANIAN REVOLUTION OF 1979

IRANIAN REVOLUTION OF 1979. Like all great social upheavals, the Iranian Revolution of 1979 was many years in the making. Its effects will resound throughout history. In simple terms, the regime of Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlavi was overthrown by a coalition of opposition forces dominated by Shi’i Muslim fundamentalists. The acknowledged leader of the revolution

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IRAN

IRAN. Iranians have always called their country Iran (Land of the Aryans, or “noble people”), but outsiders long used the name Persia (Parsa; Gk., Persis), referring to Pars, now Fars, the southern part of the country. The name Persia remained in use until 1935, when the government in Tehran formally requested the world community to

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IQBAL, MUHAMMAD

IQBAL, MUHAMMAD (1877-1938), Indo-Pakistani political and religious writer and poet. The poetphilosopher of Islam and Pakistan was born on 9 November 1877 at Sialkot, a border town of the Punjab. Iqbal’s grandfather, Shaykh Muhammad Rafiq, had left his ancestral village of Looehar in Kashmir not long after 1857, as part of a mass migration of

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