LOYA JIRGA. Councils summoned by Afghan rulers over the past century to consolidate their authority and nationalist programs have been called by this term, which means “grand assembly” in Pashtu. Modernist Afghans and historians have attempted to trace loya jirga into the distant past and indigenous tribal custom, but loya jirga differ from tribal jirga
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LIBYA. Islam in nineteenth-century Libya-known at the time as the regions of Cyrenaica, Tripolitania, and Fazzan-was marked by Sunni orthodoxy in its urban areas (primarily Tripoli, Benghazi and the mercantile centers of Sabha and Murzuq in Fazzan) and by a number of heterodox and more populist interpretations in the rural hinterlands and among the nomadic
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LIBRARIES. Like Islamic civilization in general, Islamic libraries have a glorious past to which present-day Muslims are struggling to measure up. The Muslims’ love of learning naturally produced a culture of literacy and the preservation of books. The vastness of modern literature has brought different challenges as Muslim librarians seek adequate ways to manage it
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LIBERATION MOVEMENT OF IRAN. A political party whose program is based on a modernist interpretation of Islam, the Liberation Movement of Iran (LMI) was founded in May 1961 by leaders of the former National Resistance Movement (NRM). A few days after the ouster of Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh (Muhammad Musaddiq) in August 1953, with his
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LEBANON. In Lebanon’s remarkably diverse society eighteen separate sects or confessional groups are recognized within the political system. In addition to a variety of Christian sects, which account for about 40 percent of the country’s population, five Muslim sects are found in the country: Sunnis, Shfis, Druze, `Alawis, and Isma’ilis. As of 1992 the first
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Modern Legal Reform Reforms affecting Islamic law in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries were more far-reaching than any undertaken previously. The impetus for reform came both from within the Islamic tradition, as specialists in Islamic law sought to reform laws in the face of changing attitudes and social needs, and from without, as political leaders
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1-see Law 2-see sunni school of Law 3-Shi`i Schools of Law Shiism maintained a strong eschatological and legalist tradition through its central doctrine regarding continued divine guidance available through the living imam, whether manifest or concealed. Muslim eschatology taught that the Mahdi among the descendants of the Prophet would come as the ultimate ideal ruler
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continue from LAW The beginnings of the schools of law in Islam go back to the late Umayyad period, or about the beginning of the second Islamic century, when Islamic legal thought started to develop out of the administrative and popular practice as shaped by the religious and ethical precepts of the Qur’an and
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LAW. [To treat the interaction between religions, this entry comprises four articles: Legal Thought and Jurisprudence Sunni Schools of Law .Shi’i Schools of Law Modern Legal Reform.The first surveys the historical development of religious in Islam; the second and third trace the rise of schools of law in the Sunni and Shi `i traditions; and
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LAND TENURE. Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries land tenure in the Islamic world was heavily affected by political factors, although this was hardly new. The three main influences on land tenure are the rules and choices imposed by political elites, Islamic law, and customary provisions, including pre-Islamic systems and adaptations to specific environments. Land
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