MARAGHI, MUSTAFA AL- (1881-1945), Egyptian reformist and rector of al-Azhar (1928-1929 and 1935-1945) Shaykh Mustafa al-Maraghi is the link between the reforms of his mentor Muhammad `Abduh and such subsequent leaders of al-Azhar as Mustafa `Abd al-Raziq, `Abd al-Halim Mahmfid, and Mahmfid Shaltut; the last, his professed disciple, later transformed al-Azhar by compromising with the
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MAMLUK STATE. A regime controlled by slave soldiers (sg. mamluk, pl. mamalik; “one owned”) governed Egypt, Syria, southeastern Asia Minor, and western Arabia (al-Hijaz; the Hejaz) from 1250 to 1517 CE. Founded by officers (amirs) of the last Ayyubid sultan al-Salih Ayyub (d. 1249), the Mamluk State was born under the shadow of usurpation. Fearing
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MALKOM KHAN (1833/34-1908), or Malkom Khan, an enigmatic figure in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Iranian history. He was an advocate of progress and reform, but he was often motivated by self-aggrandizement and self-interest. He called for political and governmental changes as well as cultural ones that included Persian language and alphabet reform. As one
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MALI. The region now within the Republic of Mali has been exposed to Islam for more than nine hundred years. In present-day Mali the Islamic presence has grown to the point where 8o to 90 percent of the population of approximately 9 million is Muslim, the most significant minority faiths being Catholic Christianity and so-called
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MALCOLM X (May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965), born Malcolm Little, also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz; African American Muslim leader, civil and human rights advocate, Pan-Africanist and Pan-Islamist. The life of America’s most conspicuous Muslim in the 1960s was shaped by resentment of white (European American) racism and a determination to improve the lives of African
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MALAYSIA. The Malay Peninsula before the imposition of British rule in the late nineteenth century was made up of traditional Malay states under the control of hereditary Malay sultans. In these states Islam, which spread to this part of the world during the twelfth to fourteenth centuries, was already strongly established at all levels of
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MALAY AND INDONESIAN LITERATURE. Ever since the emergence of the Srivijaya empire on the east coast of Sumatra around 700 CE, the Malay language has played a dual role in Southeast Asia. It has first been the language of alam Melayu, the Malay world-the coastal areas around the Strait of Malacca, the South China Sea,
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MAJLISI, MUHAMMAD BAQIR AL- (1616-1698/1700), leading Iranian Shi’i scholar of the late Safavid period. He was born in Isfahan, the capital of the Safavid state, into a family of `ulama’ (religious scholars). His father, Muhammad Tagi al-Majlisi, was a noted religious figure. It is said the Majlisls were related to the `Amilis of south Lebanon
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MAJLIS. An Arabic term that seems to have been used in pre-Islamic Arabia to indicate either a tribal council or council of tribes, majlis, after the advent of Islam and the foundation of the caliphate, denoted the audience chamber of the caliph and, later on, that of one of the sultans. It also referred to
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MAI TATSINE (1927?-1980), leader of a separatist sect in Kano, Nigeria. Mai Tatsine was the nickname given by people in Kano to Muhammadu Marwa (also known as Muhammadu `Arab), the leader of an Islamic sect that was involved in violent disturbances in that city in December 1980. The name is derived from a Hausa phrase
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