In many Muslim countries special shrines have been constructed honoring famous Sufi leaders or “saints” vho, it is believed, could work miracles during their ives and even after their death. This kind of shrine may be called darih, mazar, zdwiyah or maqam in Arabic. In some areas it is called qubbah after the cupola that
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Sufi orders represent one of the most important forms of personal piety and social organization in the Islamic world. In most areas, an order is called a tariqah (pl., turuq), which is the Arabic word for “path” or “way.” The term tariqah is used for both the social organization and the special devotional exercises that
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SUFISM. [This entry comprises three articles: Sufi Thought and Practice Sufi Orders Sufi Shrine Culture The first provides an overview of the traditional themes, practices, literatures, and institutions of Sufism; the second surveys the development and spread of Sufi orders throughout the Muslim world; and the third treats the spiritual, social, and political significance of
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SUDAN. Islam entered the region of the Sudan, as it is known today, decisively in the sixteenth century CE. Today approximately 70 percent of Sudan’s 22 million people are Muslims, living in the northern two-thirds of Africa’s largest country. Non-Muslim minority peoples are found in the Nuba Mountains and southern Sudan where they follow indigenous
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SUAVI, ALI (1839-1878), a popular reformist figure of the nineteenth-century Ottoman Empire. Suavi exemplifies the ideas of conservative Ottomans who were drawn into a struggle for the expression of the popular will. Although trained in the modern educational system of the rusdiye, the secular postprimary schools established during the Tanzimat reforms, he assumed the role
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STEREOTYPES IN MASS MEDIA. Numerous Americans come to know approximately 250 million Arabs and more than one billion Muslims from mainstream mass media, in particular, television programs and motion pictures, which provide virtually most images citizens have of the peoples of the world. Thorough examination of more than 500 feature films and hundreds of television
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SOUTH AFRICA. The 1993 South African apartheid census figures divided the population into four categories: Africans, 32 million; Coloureds, 5 million; Indians, I million; and Whites, 5 million. The total number of Muslims is currently more than half a million, of whom 2.5 percent are Africans, 49.8 percent Coloureds, 47 percent Indians, and .7 percent
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SOMALIA. The Muslims of Somalia constitute almost 99 percent of an estimated population of eight to ten million. Four Sufi orders-the Qadiriyah, Ahmadiyah, Salihiyah and Rifa’iyah-have greatly influenced Somali Islamic practices. As in other cultures, Somali Islam has incorporated some pre-Islamic customs, for example, obligatory prayers for rain often involving young children. Somali lore divides
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SOKOTO CALIPHATE. Founded in the early nineteenth century by Usuman Dan Fodio, the Sokoto Caliphate continues to exert strong cultural influence in Nigeria. Three historical phases of the caliphate can be identified: the establishment of the caliphate (1803-1837), its transformation (1837-1960), and the current era (since 1960). The savannah states of Hausaland in West Africa
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SOCIAL SCIENCES. A strong interest in the social order was manifested from the earliest period of Islamic history. Society was to be patterned according to the guidelines laid down in the Qur’an. The emergence of the schools of law (madhahabs) indicated the serious concern with social issues; the interests of the individual were placed within
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