SAFAVID DYNASTY. The Safavid dynasty ruled Iran from 1501 to 1722, its end occasioned by the Afghan invasion. After 1722 a few members of the Safavid family, particularly between 1729 and 1736 and between 1749 and 1773, were nominally shah, but in fact they were without real power. The Turkish-speaking Safavids came from Azerbaijan, although
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RUSHDIE AFFAIR. On 26 September 1988, Viking Penguin published The Satanic Verses in London. The author, Salman Rushdie, was already a well-known and esteemed writer. On 5 October, the Indian government, acceding to the requests of its Muslim deputies, forbade the sale and distribution of the book in India. This decision was followed by similar
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RITES OF PASSAGE. Rituals conducted at different stages of life, from conception until death and after, are means through which human beings live and act religiously. The terms “life-cycle rituals” or “rites de passage,” as described by Arnold van Gennep, embrace ritualistic ceremonies associated with conception, birth, puberty, marriage, death, and other significant events. The
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The Risale-i Nur Collection is a tafsir (Islamic exegesis) on the Qur’an written by Bediuzzaman Said Nursi between the 1910s and 1950s in Turkey. The commentary does not keep to the order of the ayah as is done in classic Islamic exegesis, as it makes comments on their meanings. It is rather a thematic tafsir
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RIGHTLY GUIDED CALIPHS. Sunni Muslims see the first four successors of the Prophet as caliphs who were “rightly guided” or “following the right path,” and refer to them by the appellation al-khulafd’ al-rashidun. (Shi’is in general reject the legitimacy of the first three successors.) The usage was adopted from the dominant Sunni tradition by modern
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RIFA’IYAH. The Sunni Sufi order known as the Rifa’iyah played an important role in the institutionalization of Sufism. In all likelihood, until the fifteenth century it was the most prevalent Sufi order. Thereafter the popularity of the Rifa’iyah continued in the Arab world, where at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of
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Dealing with interest is a major sin in Islam Riba is a concept in Islamic banking that refers to charged interest. It is forbidden under Sharia, Islamic religious law, because it is thought to be exploitive. Depending on the interpretation, riba may only refer to excessive interest; however to others, the whole concept of interest
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REVOLUTION. In contemporary Islamic discourse, there are various terms that bear on the social-science concept of revolution as a rising up against constituted authority. However, from a classical Muslim point of view, revolution has pejorative connotations, since it signifies impious attempts to overthrow the order established by believers who are following the commands of Allah.
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REVIVAL AND RENEWAL. The Arabic terms ihya’ (revival) and tajdid (renewal) are often used in the context of modern Islamic movements, but they also have important premodern roots. Premodern renewal was usually associated with a specifically designated purifier who, according to the hadiths (Prophetic traditions), would come at the “head of each century” to renew
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REVELATION. At the basis of Islam is the idea that God periodically reveals his will, providing precise information to guide human affairs and to lead to a happy afterlife. The term wahy, from the Arabic verb waha, “to put in the mind,” is sometimes understood as “inspiration”; the Qur’an uses this term not only for
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