Acar, Kayahan
Kayahan Açar, stage name Kayahan, (March 29, 1949 – April 3, 2015) was a Turkish pop music singer and songwriter. He was an accomplished composer, consistently ranking among the best-selling Turkish musicians of all time. Kayahan composed all of his own material and released more than eight best-selling albums during a career spanning three decades.
Kayahan was born in Izmir, Turkey, on March 29, 1949. He spent his childhood and young adulthood years in Ankara before moving to Istanbul.
Kayahan, whose full name was Kayahan Acar, released his first album in 1975 and went on to release nearly two dozen more. Best known for his love songs, he built his musical legacy on his use of idiomatic Turkish to describe emotions. Many of his songs are considered pop classics.
He first won global recognition at the 1986 International Mediterranean Music Contest in Antalya, a Turkish Mediterranean town, and in 1990 he represented Turkey in the Eurovision Song Contest with his composition "Gozlerinin Hapsindeyim" (“I Am Entrapped by Your Eyes”). The song did not win, but it became a hit in Turkey.
Açar was married three times. He made his first marriage to Nur in 1973. From this marriage, which lasted 24 years long, he became father of a daughter Beste (Turkish for music composition), born in 1975. Beste was runner-up for Miss Turkey in 1995. Kayahan remarried to Lale Yılmaz in 1990. The couple divorced in 1996. In 1999, at age fifty, he remarried to his third wife,1976-born İpek Tüter. In August 2000, İpek gave birth to their daughter Aslı Gönül.
Acehnese
Acehnese (Achehnese). One of the indigenous peoples of the northernmost part of the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. The Acehnese dominate the province of Daerah Istimewa Aceh, which includes the islands of Pulo Weh. The Acehnese are known throughout Indonesia for the zealousness of their belief in Islam.
Adherence to Islam is perhaps the primary factor in a person’s identification as Acehnese, one of the indigenous peoples of the northernmost part of the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. This devotion to Islam takes precedence over language and custom (adat).
Islam (Sunni Islam) seems to have arrived in the area about the middle of the twelfth century, although there is speculation that it may have arrived as early as the seventh century when Chinese sources indicate the presence of “Arab” settlements on the west coast of Sumatra. It is, however, an arguable point whether such a presence can be interpreted as Islamic influence, if indeed these outsiders themselves were Muslims.
The kingdom of Pasai (1270) appears to have been Islamic, although the Hikayat Raja Raja Pasai (Chronicle of the Kings of Pasai) still shows considerable Hindu influence in this kingdom. From Pasai, Islam spread to other parts of Aceh. The first sultan of Aceh appeared in the sixteenth century. His sultanate has been characterized as a harbor kingdom in which the sultan controlled the port region but the hinterland was in the hands of his ulee-balangs (lords).
In the early seventeenth century, Sultan Muda unified Aceh and incorporated into it the area of Pidie, which until that time had either dominated Aceh or been independent of it. This was Aceh’s golden age.
After the surrender of the last sultan, Tuanku Muhamad Dawud, to the Dutch in 1603, the state underwent a steady decline. European influence was first felt in the sixteenth century with the arrival of the Portuguese (c. 1509) and the Dutch (c. 1599). By 1601, Dutch influence prevailed, although Holland’s relationship with Aceh never became stable. As the Acehnese resisted colonization, a state of war continued officially until 1903, although in reality conditions remained turbulent long after.
At the beginning of World War II, Acehnese leaders actively invited the Japanese with the aim of using them to drive out the Dutch. Soon, however, disenchantment arose with the Japanese as well. After the war, the Acehnese were semi-autonomous, although in theory they were part of the Republic of Indonesia, which declared its independence on August 17, 1945.
After the traditional leaders, some of whom had sided with the Dutch, were killed or driven out in what is known as the Cumbok affair, and until sovereignty was transferred, Aceh was governed by Islamic leaders such as Daud Beureueh. Until 1961, conditions in Aceh remained unstable as various factions vied for influence and power in the area. In 1961, Aceh was recognized as a special area and designated Daerah Istimewa Aceh by the government of Indonesia.
Aceh has been trying to regain its political independence ever since it joined Indonesia. Indonesian, under President Sukarno, had at various periods undermined the rights of the Acehnese people including the dissolution of Aceh into the province of North Sumatra in the 1950s and the failure to keep the promise it made to Aceh with regards to its religious freedom. Brutal repressions of their political struggle by Jakarat have further hardened the Acehnese resolve for a political separation.
Aceh received international attention as being one of the hardest hit regions of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami that resulted in the loss of 120,000 lives.
Achehnese see Acehnese
Acehnese (Achehnese). One of the indigenous peoples of the northernmost part of the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. The Acehnese dominate the province of Daerah Istimewa Aceh, which includes the islands of Pulo Weh. The Acehnese are known throughout Indonesia for the zealousness of their belief in Islam.
Adherence to Islam is perhaps the primary factor in a person’s identification as Acehnese, one of the indigenous peoples of the northernmost part of the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. This devotion to Islam takes precedence over language and custom (adat).
Islam (Sunni Islam) seems to have arrived in the area about the middle of the twelfth century, although there is speculation that it may have arrived as early as the seventh century when Chinese sources indicate the presence of “Arab” settlements on the west coast of Sumatra. It is, however, an arguable point whether such a presence can be interpreted as Islamic influence, if indeed these outsiders themselves were Muslims.
The kingdom of Pasai (1270) appears to have been Islamic, although the Hikayat Raja Raja Pasai (Chronicle of the Kings of Pasai) still shows considerable Hindu influence in this kingdom. From Pasai, Islam spread to other parts of Aceh. The first sultan of Aceh appeared in the sixteenth century. His sultanate has been characterized as a harbor kingdom in which the sultan controlled the port region but the hinterland was in the hands of his ulee-balangs (lords).
In the early seventeenth century, Sultan Muda unified Aceh and incorporated into it the area of Pidie, which until that time had either dominated Aceh or been independent of it. This was Aceh’s golden age.
After the surrender of the last sultan, Tuanku Muhamad Dawud, to the Dutch in 1603, the state underwent a steady decline. European influence was first felt in the sixteenth century with the arrival of the Portuguese (c. 1509) and the Dutch (c. 1599). By 1601, Dutch influence prevailed, although Holland’s relationship with Aceh never became stable. As the Acehnese resisted colonization, a state of war continued officially until 1903, although in reality conditions remained turbulent long after.
At the beginning of World War II, Acehnese leaders actively invited the Japanese with the aim of using them to drive out the Dutch. Soon, however, disenchantment arose with the Japanese as well. After the war, the Acehnese were semi-autonomous, although in theory they were part of the Republic of Indonesia, which declared its independence on August 17, 1945.
After the traditional leaders, some of whom had sided with the Dutch, were killed or driven out in what is known as the Cumbok affair, and until sovereignty was transferred, Aceh was governed by Islamic leaders such as Daud Beureueh. Until 1961, conditions in Aceh remained unstable as various factions vied for influence and power in the area. In 1961, Aceh was recognized as a special area and designated Daerah Istimewa Aceh by the government of Indonesia.
Aceh has been trying to regain its political independence ever since it joined Indonesia. Indonesian, under President Sukarno, had at various periods undermined the rights of the Acehnese people including the dissolution of Aceh into the province of North Sumatra in the 1950s and the failure to keep the promise it made to Aceh with regards to its religious freedom. Brutal repressions of their political struggle by Jakarat have further hardened the Acehnese resolve for a political separation.
Aceh received international attention as being one of the hardest hit regions of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami that resulted in the loss of 120,000 lives.
Achehnese see Acehnese
Achakzai
Achakzai. Sub-tribe of the Durranis, located in an area east of Kandahar (Afghanistan). The eponymic ancestor of the Achakzai was Achak Khan, a grandson of Barak Khan. Smaller communities of Achakzai are also found in Herat and Farah as well as in Chaman, Pakistan.
Achakzai is the name of a group of families who belong to the Pashtun subtribe of the Tareen-Abdal Tareen clan. Members of this group use Achakzai as their title or last name so that they can keep record of their family tree and to easily recognize one another. The Achakzais are found primarily in southern Afghanistan and the region around Quetta, Pakistan. The tribe has a reputation in some circles for its raiding and smuggling activities since at least the time of Elphinstone. Achakzai do not have a whole lot of population as compared to other Durrani tribes in Afghanistan. They are more loyal to Pakistan than their homeland of Afghanistan.
This tribe is mainly divided into three subtribes: (1) Ali Sher, (2) Badin, and (3) Gujjan. These tribes are further divided into various other sub-groups. There are other subtribes within the three subclans. Examples are: Asheyzai, Malayzai, Adozai, Shamshozai, Sultanzai, Matakzai, Ishaqzai, Alizai, Shakarzai, Hamidzai, and Ghabizai. These sub-groups are mainly settled in Pakistan.
The home area of teh Achakzai is mainly in Southern Kandahar District Afghanistan and the bordering areas in Baluchistan Province, Pakistan. Major cities of the Achakzai are Spin Boldak in Afghanistan and Chaman and Qilla Abdullah in Pakistan. They are also in Gulistan, Toba Achakzai, Ghazi Abdullah Khan and Quetta.
Ghazi Abdullah Khan Achakzai was one of the leaders of the Afghan War of Independence of 1839. This war resulted in the destruction of a British Army that was 18,000 strong. The lone survivor was a doctor who made it to the fort of Jalalabad.
Ghazi Maedad Khan Achakzai was a commander of the Afghan Army in the second Anglo-Afghan War. He was given the duty to collect warriors of the Achakzai tribe and command them in the second Anglo-Afghan war against the British army. He fought on the side of Ghazi Ayub Khan in the Battle of Maiwand and was injured in this battle. Maedad Khan Achakzai was the son of Badin Khan Achakzai, grandson of Gul Mohammad Khan Achakzai. He belonged to the Tharhatzai sub-tribe of Hamidzai Achakzais and was born in the Jilga district of Toba Achakzai. He died in the province of Herat where he had been serving in the Afghan Army.
Madat Khan Ghabizai was chief of the Ghabizai sub-tribe of Achakzai who was living in Gulistan and fought a war against the British alongside Tareens and Syed.
Esmat Muslim was an Achakzai of the Adozai sub-clan and was a renowned military leader of the Soviet-backed regime in Afghanistan. His role in the conflict remains controversial, however, as he frequently changed sides between the Government and the rebels. He refused to work for the Americans and also opposed Hekmatyar's group. Because of this, he was pressured and compelled to leave Pakistan to join the regime of Najibullah in Kabul.
The Achakzais have been active in the Pashtun nationalist movement. They are demanding, among other things, a separate province for the Pashtuns living in Pakistan to be named Pashtunistan, which includes: Quetta, Qilia Abdullah, Mianwali and the Pashtun parts of Balochistan, NWFP, FATA. Historically, the Achakzais have always fought for their land and most of the Achakzais are good in negotiation and conflict resolution. In addition, Achakzais are famous for their outspokenness.
Achakzai. Sub-tribe of the Durranis, located in an area east of Kandahar (Afghanistan). The eponymic ancestor of the Achakzai was Achak Khan, a grandson of Barak Khan. Smaller communities of Achakzai are also found in Herat and Farah as well as in Chaman, Pakistan.
Achakzai is the name of a group of families who belong to the Pashtun subtribe of the Tareen-Abdal Tareen clan. Members of this group use Achakzai as their title or last name so that they can keep record of their family tree and to easily recognize one another. The Achakzais are found primarily in southern Afghanistan and the region around Quetta, Pakistan. The tribe has a reputation in some circles for its raiding and smuggling activities since at least the time of Elphinstone. Achakzai do not have a whole lot of population as compared to other Durrani tribes in Afghanistan. They are more loyal to Pakistan than their homeland of Afghanistan.
This tribe is mainly divided into three subtribes: (1) Ali Sher, (2) Badin, and (3) Gujjan. These tribes are further divided into various other sub-groups. There are other subtribes within the three subclans. Examples are: Asheyzai, Malayzai, Adozai, Shamshozai, Sultanzai, Matakzai, Ishaqzai, Alizai, Shakarzai, Hamidzai, and Ghabizai. These sub-groups are mainly settled in Pakistan.
The home area of teh Achakzai is mainly in Southern Kandahar District Afghanistan and the bordering areas in Baluchistan Province, Pakistan. Major cities of the Achakzai are Spin Boldak in Afghanistan and Chaman and Qilla Abdullah in Pakistan. They are also in Gulistan, Toba Achakzai, Ghazi Abdullah Khan and Quetta.
Ghazi Abdullah Khan Achakzai was one of the leaders of the Afghan War of Independence of 1839. This war resulted in the destruction of a British Army that was 18,000 strong. The lone survivor was a doctor who made it to the fort of Jalalabad.
Ghazi Maedad Khan Achakzai was a commander of the Afghan Army in the second Anglo-Afghan War. He was given the duty to collect warriors of the Achakzai tribe and command them in the second Anglo-Afghan war against the British army. He fought on the side of Ghazi Ayub Khan in the Battle of Maiwand and was injured in this battle. Maedad Khan Achakzai was the son of Badin Khan Achakzai, grandson of Gul Mohammad Khan Achakzai. He belonged to the Tharhatzai sub-tribe of Hamidzai Achakzais and was born in the Jilga district of Toba Achakzai. He died in the province of Herat where he had been serving in the Afghan Army.
Madat Khan Ghabizai was chief of the Ghabizai sub-tribe of Achakzai who was living in Gulistan and fought a war against the British alongside Tareens and Syed.
Esmat Muslim was an Achakzai of the Adozai sub-clan and was a renowned military leader of the Soviet-backed regime in Afghanistan. His role in the conflict remains controversial, however, as he frequently changed sides between the Government and the rebels. He refused to work for the Americans and also opposed Hekmatyar's group. Because of this, he was pressured and compelled to leave Pakistan to join the regime of Najibullah in Kabul.
The Achakzais have been active in the Pashtun nationalist movement. They are demanding, among other things, a separate province for the Pashtuns living in Pakistan to be named Pashtunistan, which includes: Quetta, Qilia Abdullah, Mianwali and the Pashtun parts of Balochistan, NWFP, FATA. Historically, the Achakzais have always fought for their land and most of the Achakzais are good in negotiation and conflict resolution. In addition, Achakzais are famous for their outspokenness.
Adam
Adam (Aadam). The name of the first human creature in the creation narratives found in the Hebrew scriptures -- the Old Testament. The word "adam" may refer to the fact that this being was an “earthling” formed from the red-hued clay of the earth. Indeed, in Hebrew, "adom" means “red” and "adamah" means “earth.”
Adam is the first prophet of Islam and is mentioned in the Qur'an as the husband of Eve (Hawwa).
Adam is mentioned in the Qur'an as the first man created by Allah. A verse in Sura al-Imran states: "The similitude of Jesus before Allah is as that of Adam: He created him from dust, then said to him: 'Be' ... and he was." (3:59)
Eve is not mentioned by name in the Qur'an, but is referred to as Adam's spouse. Islamic tradition refers to her as "Hawwa," an etymologically similar name. Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari recounts the tale of her creation, stating that she was named because she was created from a living thing (since the Arabic word meaning "living" is "hayy").
The early Islamic commentator Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari adds a number of details to the Torah, based on claimed hadith as well as specific Jewish traditions (so-called isra'iliyat). Tabari records that when it came time to create Adam, God sent Gabriel (Jibril), then Michael (Mika'il), to fetch clay from the earth. However, the earth complained, saying "I take refuge in God from you, if you have come to diminish or deform me." So the angels returned empty-handed. Tabari goes on to state that God responded by sending the Angel of Death, who took clay from all regions, hence providing an explanation for the variety of appearances of the different races of mankind.
According to Tabari's account, after receiving the breath of God, Adam remained a dry body for 40 days, then gradually came to life from the head downwards, sneezing when he had finished coming to life, saying "All praise be to God, the Lord of all beings." Having been created, Adam, the first man, is described as having been given dominion over all the lower creatures, which he proceeds to name. As one of the people to whom God is said to have spoken to directly, Adam is sent as a prophet in Islam.
At this point, Adam takes a prominent role in Islamic traditions concerning the fall of Shaytan (Satan), which is not recorded in the Torah, but in the Book of Enoch which is used in Oriental Orthodox churches. In these, when God announces his intention of creating Adam, some of the angels express dismay, asking why he would create a being that would do evil. Teaching Adam the names reassures the angels as to Adam's abilities, though commentators dispute which particular names were involved; various theories say they were the names of all things animate and inanimate, the names of the angels, the names of his own descendants, or the names of God.
When God orders the angels to bow to Adam one of those present, Shaytan Iblis in Islam, a Djinn who said, "why should I bow to Adam one of those present, Shaytan Iblis in Islam, a Djinn who said "why should I bow to man, I am made of pure fire"), refuses due to his pride, and is summarily banished from the Heavens. Liberal movements within Islam have viewed God's commanding the angels to bow before Adam as an exaltation of humanity, and as a means of supporting human rights, others view it as an act of showing Adam that the biggest enemy of humans on earth will be their ego.
More extended versions of the fall of Shaytan also exist in works such as that of Tabari, and the Shi'a commentator al-Qummi. In these explanations, Iblis is sent against the jinn, who had angered God by sin and fighting. In such versions where Satan leads the battle on God's behalf, rather than his own, it is the pride and conceit resulting from his victory which results in his expulsion, since pride is seen as a sin. Islamic traditions further record that, in vengeful anger, Iblis promises God that he will lead as many humans astray as he can, to which God replies that it is the choice of humans -- those who so desire will follow Satan, while those who so desire will follow God.
Eve is referred to in the Qur'an as Adam's spouse, and Islamic tradition refers to her by an etymologically similar name Hawwa. In fact, although her creation is not recounted in the Qur'an, Tabari recounts the biblical tale of her creation, stating that she was named because she was created from a living thing (her name means living). The Torah gives an etymology for woman since she was taken out of man (ish in Hebrew). The etymology is regarded as implausible by most semitic linguists. The Qur'an blames both Adam and Eve for eating the forbidden fruit and as a punishment they were both banished from Heaven to the Earth. Muslims therefore interpret that this event does not pose a problem of women inferiority to men intrinsically. The concept of original sin does not exist in Islam. Adam and Eve were forgiven after they repented on Earth.
Al-Qummi records the opinion that Eden was not entirely earthly, and so, having been sent to earth, Adam and Eve first arrived at mountain peaks outside Mecca, Adam on Safa, and Eve on Marwa. In this Islamic tradition, Adam remained weeping for forty (40) days, until he repented, at which point God rewarded him by sending down the Kaaba, and teaching him the hajj.
The Qur'an also describes the two sons oof Adam (named Qabil and Habil in Islamic tradition) that correspond to Cain and Abel.
Eve is said in local folklore to be buried in "Eve Grave" in Jeddah, KSA.
According to some Islamic traditions, Adam is buried beneath the site of the Kaaba in Mecca. Shi'a Muslims on the other hand, believe that Adam is buried next to Ali, within Imam Ali Mosque in Najaf, Iraq.
In the Qur’an, Adam appears in a number of passages. Those passages are:
Sura 2:25-35
Sura 3:30-35
Sura 3:50-60
Sura 7:10-30
Sura 19:55-60
worshipped by the angels
Sura 2:25-35
Sura 7:10-15
Sura 15:25-45
Sura 17:60-65
Sura 18:45-55
Sura 20:115-120
Sura 38:70-80
expelled from Paradise
Sura 2:25-35
Sura 7:20-30
Sura 20:120-125
children of Adam
Sura 7:25-35
Sura 7:170-175
Sura 17:70-75
Sura 36:60-65
Aadam see Adam
When God orders the angels to bow to Adam one of those present, Shaytan Iblis in Islam, a Djinn who said, "why should I bow to Adam one of those present, Shaytan Iblis in Islam, a Djinn who said "why should I bow to man, I am made of pure fire"), refuses due to his pride, and is summarily banished from the Heavens. Liberal movements within Islam have viewed God's commanding the angels to bow before Adam as an exaltation of humanity, and as a means of supporting human rights, others view it as an act of showing Adam that the biggest enemy of humans on earth will be their ego.
More extended versions of the fall of Shaytan also exist in works such as that of Tabari, and the Shi'a commentator al-Qummi. In these explanations, Iblis is sent against the jinn, who had angered God by sin and fighting. In such versions where Satan leads the battle on God's behalf, rather than his own, it is the pride and conceit resulting from his victory which results in his expulsion, since pride is seen as a sin. Islamic traditions further record that, in vengeful anger, Iblis promises God that he will lead as many humans astray as he can, to which God replies that it is the choice of humans -- those who so desire will follow Satan, while those who so desire will follow God.
Eve is referred to in the Qur'an as Adam's spouse, and Islamic tradition refers to her by an etymologically similar name Hawwa. In fact, although her creation is not recounted in the Qur'an, Tabari recounts the biblical tale of her creation, stating that she was named because she was created from a living thing (her name means living). The Torah gives an etymology for woman since she was taken out of man (ish in Hebrew). The etymology is regarded as implausible by most semitic linguists. The Qur'an blames both Adam and Eve for eating the forbidden fruit and as a punishment they were both banished from Heaven to the Earth. Muslims therefore interpret that this event does not pose a problem of women inferiority to men intrinsically. The concept of original sin does not exist in Islam. Adam and Eve were forgiven after they repented on Earth.
Al-Qummi records the opinion that Eden was not entirely earthly, and so, having been sent to earth, Adam and Eve first arrived at mountain peaks outside Mecca, Adam on Safa, and Eve on Marwa. In this Islamic tradition, Adam remained weeping for forty (40) days, until he repented, at which point God rewarded him by sending down the Kaaba, and teaching him the hajj.
The Qur'an also describes the two sons oof Adam (named Qabil and Habil in Islamic tradition) that correspond to Cain and Abel.
Eve is said in local folklore to be buried in "Eve Grave" in Jeddah, KSA.
According to some Islamic traditions, Adam is buried beneath the site of the Kaaba in Mecca. Shi'a Muslims on the other hand, believe that Adam is buried next to Ali, within Imam Ali Mosque in Najaf, Iraq.
In the Qur’an, Adam appears in a number of passages. Those passages are:
Sura 2:25-35
Sura 3:30-35
Sura 3:50-60
Sura 7:10-30
Sura 19:55-60
worshipped by the angels
Sura 2:25-35
Sura 7:10-15
Sura 15:25-45
Sura 17:60-65
Sura 18:45-55
Sura 20:115-120
Sura 38:70-80
expelled from Paradise
Sura 2:25-35
Sura 7:20-30
Sura 20:120-125
children of Adam
Sura 7:25-35
Sura 7:170-175
Sura 17:70-75
Sura 36:60-65
Aadam see Adam
Adama
Adama (1771-1848). Founder and first ruler of the Fula emirate of Adamawa (Nigeria) (r.1806 to1848). The large emirate of Adamawa was the southeasternmost district of the empire of Fula revolutionary ‘Uthman dan Fodio. Adama was the son of a Fula noble who had been killed in battle with his Bata landowners around 1803, before ‘Uthman’s call to arms. Adama had studied in Bornu and in Sokoto, ‘Uthman’s homeland, where he had earned the title of modibo (learned one). When ‘Uthman declared the jihad (holy war), Adama and leaders from his home went to him to receive the green flag indicating that they were his official representatives in the campaign. Adama at first permitted another leader to take command, but on learning of this man’s dishonesty in dealing with ‘Uthman, he went back and received a flag himself. He returned home in 1806 accompanied by a band of Fula followers and Hausa mercenaries, and spent the next forty-two years extending the emirate and putting down revolts. As with many of the other leaders of the Fula jihad, he is said to have preferred the role of scholar to warrior. He died at age seventy-seven and was succeeded by four of his sons in turn.
modibo see Adama
learned one see Adama
Adama (1771-1848). Founder and first ruler of the Fula emirate of Adamawa (Nigeria) (r.1806 to1848). The large emirate of Adamawa was the southeasternmost district of the empire of Fula revolutionary ‘Uthman dan Fodio. Adama was the son of a Fula noble who had been killed in battle with his Bata landowners around 1803, before ‘Uthman’s call to arms. Adama had studied in Bornu and in Sokoto, ‘Uthman’s homeland, where he had earned the title of modibo (learned one). When ‘Uthman declared the jihad (holy war), Adama and leaders from his home went to him to receive the green flag indicating that they were his official representatives in the campaign. Adama at first permitted another leader to take command, but on learning of this man’s dishonesty in dealing with ‘Uthman, he went back and received a flag himself. He returned home in 1806 accompanied by a band of Fula followers and Hausa mercenaries, and spent the next forty-two years extending the emirate and putting down revolts. As with many of the other leaders of the Fula jihad, he is said to have preferred the role of scholar to warrior. He died at age seventy-seven and was succeeded by four of his sons in turn.
modibo see Adama
learned one see Adama
Aden-Abyan Islamic Army
Aden-Abyan Islamic Army (AAIA). The Aden-Abyan Islamic Army is allegedly affiliated with the Yemeni Islamic Jihad and has been implicated in acts of violence with the stated goal to “hoist the banner of al-Jihad, and fight secularism in Yemen and the Arab countries.” Aden-Abyan Islamic Army leader Zein al-Abideen al-Mehdar was executed on October 19, 2001, for participating in the December 1998 kidnapping of 16 Western tourists. Four of the hostages were killed and remaining hostages were freed when Yemeni security forces attacked the place where the hostages were being held. In March 1999, the group warned the United States and British ambassadors in Yemen to leave immediately.
The Aden-Abyan Islamic Army was believed to have been involved in the 2000 USS Cole bombing in Aden.
AAIA see Aden-Abyan Islamic Army
Aden-Abyan Islamic Army (AAIA). The Aden-Abyan Islamic Army is allegedly affiliated with the Yemeni Islamic Jihad and has been implicated in acts of violence with the stated goal to “hoist the banner of al-Jihad, and fight secularism in Yemen and the Arab countries.” Aden-Abyan Islamic Army leader Zein al-Abideen al-Mehdar was executed on October 19, 2001, for participating in the December 1998 kidnapping of 16 Western tourists. Four of the hostages were killed and remaining hostages were freed when Yemeni security forces attacked the place where the hostages were being held. In March 1999, the group warned the United States and British ambassadors in Yemen to leave immediately.
The Aden-Abyan Islamic Army was believed to have been involved in the 2000 USS Cole bombing in Aden.
AAIA see Aden-Abyan Islamic Army
‘Adid li-Din Allah, al-
‘Adid li-Din Allah, al- (1151-1171). The last Fatimid caliph of Egypt (r.1160-1171). He died a few days after Saladin had the Sunni Caliph of Baghdad, al-Mustadi, proclaimed in Cairo.
‘Adid li-Din Allah, al- (1151-1171). The last Fatimid caliph of Egypt (r.1160-1171). He died a few days after Saladin had the Sunni Caliph of Baghdad, al-Mustadi, proclaimed in Cairo.
‘Adil-Shahs
‘Adil-Shahs. Muslim dynasty which ruled over Bijapur (r. 1489-1686). They were great patrons of art and literature.
The Adil Shah dynasty ruled the Sultanate of Bijapur in the Western area of the Deccan region of Southern India from 1489 to 1686. Bijapur had been a province of the Bahmani Sultanate (1347-1518), before its political decline in the last quarter of the 15th century and eventual break-up in 1518. The Bijapur Sultanate was absorbed into the Mughal Empire on September 12, 1686, after its conquest by the Emperor Aurangzeb.
‘Adil-Shahs. Muslim dynasty which ruled over Bijapur (r. 1489-1686). They were great patrons of art and literature.
The Adil Shah dynasty ruled the Sultanate of Bijapur in the Western area of the Deccan region of Southern India from 1489 to 1686. Bijapur had been a province of the Bahmani Sultanate (1347-1518), before its political decline in the last quarter of the 15th century and eventual break-up in 1518. The Bijapur Sultanate was absorbed into the Mughal Empire on September 12, 1686, after its conquest by the Emperor Aurangzeb.
Adivar, Halide Edib
Adivar, Halide Edib (Halide Edib Adivar) (Halide Edip Adivar) (1883-1964). Turkish novelist. Halide Edib Adivar was educated at the American Girls’ College, Uskudar. She was thus one of the few prominent figures of her generation to be educated in an Anglo-Saxon rather than in a French environment.
Halide Edip Adivar was a Turkish novelist and feminist political leader. Best known for her novels criticizing the low social status of Turkish women and what she saw as the disinterest of most women in changing their situation, she also served as a soldier in the Turkish military during the Turkish War of Independence. As follower of Young Turkish politics, she participated in the re-education of Armenian Genocide orphans in 1916 in Lebanon.
Halide Edip was born in Istanbul, Ottoman Empire, as a girl, she studied Arabic and mathematics, and graduated from the American College for Girls in 1901. The college was an influential force for reformist social change at the time. Halide Edip Adivar was only 15 years old in 1897 and translated Mother by Jacob Abbott and was awarded by Ottoman Sultan Abdulhamid II with The Order of Charity (Nishan-i-Shafakat/Sefkat Nisani).
With her first husban, Salih Zeki, she had two children before they divorced.
Halide Edip's first novel, Seviye Talip, was published in 1909. She remarried, to Adnan Adivar, in 1917, and the next year took a job as a lecturer in literature at Istanbul's Faculty of Letters. It was during this time that she became increasingly active in Turkey's nationalist movement.
As Young Turkish headmaster she re-educated Armenian orphans in 1916. After the end of World War I, she and her husband travelled to Anatolia to fight in the War for Independence. She served first as a corporal and then as a sergeant in the nationalist military.
After the fighting ended, she and her husband moved to Western Europe. The would live in the French Third Republic and the United Kingdom from 1926 to 1939. She travelled widely, teaching and lecturing repeatedly in the United States and in British Raj India. After returning to Turkey in 1939, she became a professor in English literature at the Faculty of Letters in Istanbul. In 1950, she was elected to Parliament, resigning in 1954; this was the only formal political position she ever held.
Common themes in Halide Edip's novels were strong, independent female characters who succeeded in reaching their goals against strong opposition. She was also a strong Turkish nationalist, and several stories highlighted the central role of women in the fight for Turkish Independence.
Adivar became known as an ardent patriot and feminist because of her impetuous political novels, Yeni Turan and Khandan. Yeni Turan and Khandan were both published in 1912. After World War I, Adivar and her husband, the scholar Adnan Adivar, joined Mustafa Kemal in Anatolia and worked devotedly for the nationalist cause. Adivar’s experiences at this time produced the novel Atesten Gomlek (The Daughter of Smyrna) which was published in 1922.
After Turkey became a republic, Adivar and her husband lived abroad. They lived in France, England, the United States and even India.
In 1938, Adivar and her husband returned to Turkey and Adivar became Professor of English Literature at the University of Istanbul.
During her years away from Turkey, Adivar wrote two books of reminiscences, Memoirs of Halide Edib and The Turkish Ordeal. Memoirs of Halide Edib was published in 1926 and covered Adivar’s life through 1918. The Turkish Edib was published in 1928 and dealt with Adivar’s experiences during the Turkish War of Independence. Both Memoirs of Halide Edib and The Turkish Ordeal provide invaluable glimpses into the Turkey of those years as seen through the eyes of a Western educated Turkish patriot who was also a woman.
One other notable work by Adivar was The Clown and his Daughter. The Clown and his Daughter was published in 1935 and examined Istanbul life at the turn of the century and the tension between the Western and Islamic outlooks.
Halide Edib Adivar see Adivar, Halide Edib
Halide Edip Adivar see Adivar, Halide Edib
Adivar, Halide Edib (Halide Edib Adivar) (Halide Edip Adivar) (1883-1964). Turkish novelist. Halide Edib Adivar was educated at the American Girls’ College, Uskudar. She was thus one of the few prominent figures of her generation to be educated in an Anglo-Saxon rather than in a French environment.
Halide Edip Adivar was a Turkish novelist and feminist political leader. Best known for her novels criticizing the low social status of Turkish women and what she saw as the disinterest of most women in changing their situation, she also served as a soldier in the Turkish military during the Turkish War of Independence. As follower of Young Turkish politics, she participated in the re-education of Armenian Genocide orphans in 1916 in Lebanon.
Halide Edip was born in Istanbul, Ottoman Empire, as a girl, she studied Arabic and mathematics, and graduated from the American College for Girls in 1901. The college was an influential force for reformist social change at the time. Halide Edip Adivar was only 15 years old in 1897 and translated Mother by Jacob Abbott and was awarded by Ottoman Sultan Abdulhamid II with The Order of Charity (Nishan-i-Shafakat/Sefkat Nisani).
With her first husban, Salih Zeki, she had two children before they divorced.
Halide Edip's first novel, Seviye Talip, was published in 1909. She remarried, to Adnan Adivar, in 1917, and the next year took a job as a lecturer in literature at Istanbul's Faculty of Letters. It was during this time that she became increasingly active in Turkey's nationalist movement.
As Young Turkish headmaster she re-educated Armenian orphans in 1916. After the end of World War I, she and her husband travelled to Anatolia to fight in the War for Independence. She served first as a corporal and then as a sergeant in the nationalist military.
After the fighting ended, she and her husband moved to Western Europe. The would live in the French Third Republic and the United Kingdom from 1926 to 1939. She travelled widely, teaching and lecturing repeatedly in the United States and in British Raj India. After returning to Turkey in 1939, she became a professor in English literature at the Faculty of Letters in Istanbul. In 1950, she was elected to Parliament, resigning in 1954; this was the only formal political position she ever held.
Common themes in Halide Edip's novels were strong, independent female characters who succeeded in reaching their goals against strong opposition. She was also a strong Turkish nationalist, and several stories highlighted the central role of women in the fight for Turkish Independence.
Adivar became known as an ardent patriot and feminist because of her impetuous political novels, Yeni Turan and Khandan. Yeni Turan and Khandan were both published in 1912. After World War I, Adivar and her husband, the scholar Adnan Adivar, joined Mustafa Kemal in Anatolia and worked devotedly for the nationalist cause. Adivar’s experiences at this time produced the novel Atesten Gomlek (The Daughter of Smyrna) which was published in 1922.
After Turkey became a republic, Adivar and her husband lived abroad. They lived in France, England, the United States and even India.
In 1938, Adivar and her husband returned to Turkey and Adivar became Professor of English Literature at the University of Istanbul.
During her years away from Turkey, Adivar wrote two books of reminiscences, Memoirs of Halide Edib and The Turkish Ordeal. Memoirs of Halide Edib was published in 1926 and covered Adivar’s life through 1918. The Turkish Edib was published in 1928 and dealt with Adivar’s experiences during the Turkish War of Independence. Both Memoirs of Halide Edib and The Turkish Ordeal provide invaluable glimpses into the Turkey of those years as seen through the eyes of a Western educated Turkish patriot who was also a woman.
One other notable work by Adivar was The Clown and his Daughter. The Clown and his Daughter was published in 1935 and examined Istanbul life at the turn of the century and the tension between the Western and Islamic outlooks.
Halide Edib Adivar see Adivar, Halide Edib
Halide Edip Adivar see Adivar, Halide Edib
Adli Yakan
Adli Yakan (Adli Yakan Pasha) (Adly Pasha) (January 18, 1864 - October 22, 1933). The great grandnephew of Muhammad Ali Pasha, Adli Yakan was Egypt’s Prime Minister in 1921. He served as Prime Minister of Egypt between 1921 and 1922, again between 1926 and 1927, and finally in 1929. He held several prominent political posts including Foreign Minister, Interior Minister and Speaker of the Senate. He died in Paris, France.
Yakan, Adli see Adli Yakan
Adli Yakan Pasha see Adli Yakan
Adly Pasha see Adli Yakan
Adli Yakan (Adli Yakan Pasha) (Adly Pasha) (January 18, 1864 - October 22, 1933). The great grandnephew of Muhammad Ali Pasha, Adli Yakan was Egypt’s Prime Minister in 1921. He served as Prime Minister of Egypt between 1921 and 1922, again between 1926 and 1927, and finally in 1929. He held several prominent political posts including Foreign Minister, Interior Minister and Speaker of the Senate. He died in Paris, France.
Yakan, Adli see Adli Yakan
Adli Yakan Pasha see Adli Yakan
Adly Pasha see Adli Yakan
‘Adnan
‘Adnan. The name of the ancestor of the Northern Arabs, the Adnani (Neo-Arabs), as opposed to the Qahtani of Southern Arabia who descend from Qahtan. Adnan is said to be a descendant of Ishmael through his son Nebaioth. His descendants are said to have included Muhammad.
‘Adnan. The name of the ancestor of the Northern Arabs, the Adnani (Neo-Arabs), as opposed to the Qahtani of Southern Arabia who descend from Qahtan. Adnan is said to be a descendant of Ishmael through his son Nebaioth. His descendants are said to have included Muhammad.
Adonis
Adonis (Adunis) ('Ali Ahmad Sa'id Asbar) (b. 1930). Syrian poet.
Adonis was born in Kassabin (Al Qassabin), near Latakia, Syria, into an Alawite family. From an early age, he worked in the fields, but his father regularly had him memorize poetry, and he began to compose poems of his own. In 1947, he had the opportunity to recite a poem for Syrian president Shukri al-Kuwatli, that led to a series of scholarships, first to a school in Latakia and then to the Syrian University in Damascus, where he received a degree in Philosophy in 1954.
'Ali Ahmad picked the name Adonis for himself after being rejected by a number of magazines under his real name. In 1955, he was imprisoned for six months for being a member of the radical pan-Syrian Syrian Social Nationalist Party. Following his release from prison in 1956, he settled in Beirut, Lebanon, where in 1957 he and Syro-Lebanese poet Yusuf al-Khal founded the magazine Shi'r (Shiar) ("Poetry"). At this time, he abandoned Syrian nationalism in favor of pan-Arabism. He also became a less political writer.
Adonis received a scholarship to study in Paris from 1960 to 1961. From 1970 to 1975, he was professor of Arabic literature at the University of Lebanon. In 1976, he was a visiting professor at the University of Damascus. In 1980, he emigrated to Paris to escape the Lebanese Civil War. In 1980-1981, he was professor of Arabic at the Sorbonne in Paris.
From 1957 to 1963, Adonis co-edited the literary magazine, Shiar. In 1967, following the Six Day War, which shaked the entire Arab world, much interest was given to Adonis and his poems, which depicted a hope in the future.
From 1968 to 1978, Adonis published the magazine Mawaqif.
Adonis is considered to be among the most important modern Arab poets. Using the basis of traditional poetic styles, he developed a new manner of expressing modern sentiments. Adonis was influenced by classical Shi‘a poets, but started at a relatively early age (his twenties) to experiment with the prose poem, giving it density, tension, metaphors and rhythm. He also broke with the diction and style of traditional poems, and introduced a new and powerful syntax. He used myths from older religions, where the resurrecting gods of Tammuz, Adonis and Phoenix were central symbols.
Similar to most other poets using the Arabic language, Adonis employs the technique of tarab. Tarab aims at a sort of ecstasy reached when the musicality of the verse corresponds with the visions and thoughts expressed in the poem.
Adonis has written over twenty books in his native Arabic. The works of Adonis include Songs of Mihyar, the Damascene (1961); Introduction of Arab Poetry (1971); The Shock of Modernity (1978); and Manifesto of Modernity (1980). Several of his poetry collections have been translated into English.
Adonis is today considered to be a pioneer of modern Arabic poetry. He is often seen as a rebel, an iconoclast who follows his own rules. He was considered to be a candidate for the 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 Nobel Prize in Literature. However, the awards went to British playwright Harold Pinter, Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk, British novelist Doris Lessing and French novelist J. M. G. Le Clezio.
In 2007, Adonis was awarded the Bjornson Prize.
'Ali Ahmad Sa'id Asbar see Adonis
Asbar, 'Ali Ahmad Sa'id see Adonis
Adunis see Adonis
Adonis (Adunis) ('Ali Ahmad Sa'id Asbar) (b. 1930). Syrian poet.
Adonis was born in Kassabin (Al Qassabin), near Latakia, Syria, into an Alawite family. From an early age, he worked in the fields, but his father regularly had him memorize poetry, and he began to compose poems of his own. In 1947, he had the opportunity to recite a poem for Syrian president Shukri al-Kuwatli, that led to a series of scholarships, first to a school in Latakia and then to the Syrian University in Damascus, where he received a degree in Philosophy in 1954.
'Ali Ahmad picked the name Adonis for himself after being rejected by a number of magazines under his real name. In 1955, he was imprisoned for six months for being a member of the radical pan-Syrian Syrian Social Nationalist Party. Following his release from prison in 1956, he settled in Beirut, Lebanon, where in 1957 he and Syro-Lebanese poet Yusuf al-Khal founded the magazine Shi'r (Shiar) ("Poetry"). At this time, he abandoned Syrian nationalism in favor of pan-Arabism. He also became a less political writer.
Adonis received a scholarship to study in Paris from 1960 to 1961. From 1970 to 1975, he was professor of Arabic literature at the University of Lebanon. In 1976, he was a visiting professor at the University of Damascus. In 1980, he emigrated to Paris to escape the Lebanese Civil War. In 1980-1981, he was professor of Arabic at the Sorbonne in Paris.
From 1957 to 1963, Adonis co-edited the literary magazine, Shiar. In 1967, following the Six Day War, which shaked the entire Arab world, much interest was given to Adonis and his poems, which depicted a hope in the future.
From 1968 to 1978, Adonis published the magazine Mawaqif.
Adonis is considered to be among the most important modern Arab poets. Using the basis of traditional poetic styles, he developed a new manner of expressing modern sentiments. Adonis was influenced by classical Shi‘a poets, but started at a relatively early age (his twenties) to experiment with the prose poem, giving it density, tension, metaphors and rhythm. He also broke with the diction and style of traditional poems, and introduced a new and powerful syntax. He used myths from older religions, where the resurrecting gods of Tammuz, Adonis and Phoenix were central symbols.
Similar to most other poets using the Arabic language, Adonis employs the technique of tarab. Tarab aims at a sort of ecstasy reached when the musicality of the verse corresponds with the visions and thoughts expressed in the poem.
Adonis has written over twenty books in his native Arabic. The works of Adonis include Songs of Mihyar, the Damascene (1961); Introduction of Arab Poetry (1971); The Shock of Modernity (1978); and Manifesto of Modernity (1980). Several of his poetry collections have been translated into English.
Adonis is today considered to be a pioneer of modern Arabic poetry. He is often seen as a rebel, an iconoclast who follows his own rules. He was considered to be a candidate for the 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 Nobel Prize in Literature. However, the awards went to British playwright Harold Pinter, Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk, British novelist Doris Lessing and French novelist J. M. G. Le Clezio.
In 2007, Adonis was awarded the Bjornson Prize.
'Ali Ahmad Sa'id Asbar see Adonis
Asbar, 'Ali Ahmad Sa'id see Adonis
Adunis see Adonis
‘Adud al-Dawla
‘Adud al-Dawla ('Adud al-Daula) (Azod od-Dowleh Fana Khusraw) (September 24, 936 - March 26, 983). The greatest emir of the Buyid dynasty (r. 949-983). He ruled in Iraq and Iran, and was a builder and patron of the learned, and of poets.
The son of Rukn al-Dawla, Fana Khusrau was given the title of 'Adud al-Dawla by the 'Abbasid caliph in 948 when he was made emir of Fars after the death of his childless uncle 'Imad al-Dawla, after which Rukn al-Dawla became the senior emir of the Buwayhids. In 974, 'Adud al-Dawla was sent by his father to crush a rebellion by his cousin 'Izz al-Dawla. After defeating his cousin's forces, he claimed the emirate of Iraq for himself, angering his father, though he would become the senior emir after the death of his father.
'Adud al-Dawla became emir of Iraq while the capital of Baghdad was suffering from violence and instability owing to sectarian conflict. In order to bring peace and stability to the city, he ordered the banning of public demonstrations and polemics. At the same time, he patronized a number of Shi'a scholars such as al-Mufid, and he sponsored the renovation of a number of important Shi'a shrines.
In addition, 'Adud al-Dawla is credited with sponsoring and patronizing other scientific projects during his time. An observatory was built on his orders in Isfahan where Azophi worked. Al-Muqaddasi also reports of a great dam be built under his orders between Shiraz, Iran and Istakhr in 960. The dam irrigated some 300 villages in Fars province and became known as Band-i Amir.
'Adud al-Dawla also founded the Bimaristan-i Adhudi (Al-Adudi Hospital) which is where the great Rhazes spent his last days practicing medicine.
'Adud al-Dawla died in 983 and is buried in Najaf.
Dawla, 'Adud al- see ‘Adud al-Dawla
Azod od-Dowleh Fana Khusraw see ‘Adud al-Dawla
'Adud al-Daula see ‘Adud al-Dawla
‘Adud al-Dawla ('Adud al-Daula) (Azod od-Dowleh Fana Khusraw) (September 24, 936 - March 26, 983). The greatest emir of the Buyid dynasty (r. 949-983). He ruled in Iraq and Iran, and was a builder and patron of the learned, and of poets.
The son of Rukn al-Dawla, Fana Khusrau was given the title of 'Adud al-Dawla by the 'Abbasid caliph in 948 when he was made emir of Fars after the death of his childless uncle 'Imad al-Dawla, after which Rukn al-Dawla became the senior emir of the Buwayhids. In 974, 'Adud al-Dawla was sent by his father to crush a rebellion by his cousin 'Izz al-Dawla. After defeating his cousin's forces, he claimed the emirate of Iraq for himself, angering his father, though he would become the senior emir after the death of his father.
'Adud al-Dawla became emir of Iraq while the capital of Baghdad was suffering from violence and instability owing to sectarian conflict. In order to bring peace and stability to the city, he ordered the banning of public demonstrations and polemics. At the same time, he patronized a number of Shi'a scholars such as al-Mufid, and he sponsored the renovation of a number of important Shi'a shrines.
In addition, 'Adud al-Dawla is credited with sponsoring and patronizing other scientific projects during his time. An observatory was built on his orders in Isfahan where Azophi worked. Al-Muqaddasi also reports of a great dam be built under his orders between Shiraz, Iran and Istakhr in 960. The dam irrigated some 300 villages in Fars province and became known as Band-i Amir.
'Adud al-Dawla also founded the Bimaristan-i Adhudi (Al-Adudi Hospital) which is where the great Rhazes spent his last days practicing medicine.
'Adud al-Dawla died in 983 and is buried in Najaf.
Dawla, 'Adud al- see ‘Adud al-Dawla
Azod od-Dowleh Fana Khusraw see ‘Adud al-Dawla
'Adud al-Daula see ‘Adud al-Dawla
Afar
Afar (Danakil) (Adal). People of the eastern Horn of Africa. The Afar are tribal Muslims who are also known by their Arabic name, Danakil, or the Amharic name, Adal. Most Afar live in Ethiopia and in Djibouti.
The Afar are tribal Muslims who are among the least known people in the eastern Horn of Africa. Their forbidding desert homeland and their reputation for ferocity (it is widely reported that an Afar male cannot be considered an adult until he has killed an enemy) prevented successful exploration of their country by Europeans until the early 1930s.
The Afar began to convert to Islam in the tenth century of the Christian calendar after contact with Arab merchants from the Arabian Peninsula. The earliest surviving written mention of the Afar was in the 13th century by the Arab writer Ibn Sa'id, who reported that they lived in the area from around the port of Suakin as far south as Mandeb, near Zeila. They are mentioned intermittently in Ethiopian records, first as helping Emperor Amda Seyon in a campaign beyond the Awash River, then over a century later when they assisted Emperor Baeda Maryam when he campaigned against their neighbors the Dobe'a. In the late 17th century, the Aussa Sultanate had emerged, which became the first amongst equals of the Afar rulers.
Prior to the late nineteenth century expansion of Amhara domination under King Menelik II, contacts between Muslim Afar and the Christian farmers of Ethiopia’s central plateau and eastern escarpment were sporadic and predominantly hostile. During periods of dynastic strength on the plateau, Christian rulers tried to expand their power into the Afar lowlands. Conversely, whenever it seemed possible, Muslims attempted to overrun the highlands.
Afar fought in the vanguards of such Muslim rulers as Mahfuz of Zeila (who ruled Adal, a coastal Afar-Somali kingdom) and the Amir of Harar, Ahmad Gran, both of whom devastated the highlands in the sixteenth century. A major East Africa-Arabia slave route traversed Afar country, and as recently as 1928 the Afar were active participants in the trans-Red Sea slave trade, mainly as guides to the Arab slavers.
On the whole, though, in comparison to Middle Eastern nomadic peoples, the Afar were relatively self-sufficient economically. They lived mainly on meat -- both domestic and wild -- and dairy products supplemented by agricultural produce stolen or, less frequently, obtained in peaceful trade from villagers of the adjacent Rift Valley escarpment and the highlands. The building of the railroad from Addis Adaba to the city of Djibouti in what was then French territory in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and the resettling of highlanders on the fringes of Afar country under the “Pax Amharica” served to weaken somewhat the economic and cultural insularity of the Afar, as more trade goods and agricultural produce became available to them.
In 1975, the Afar Liberation Front (ALF) began in Ethiopia after an unsuccessful rebellion led by a former Afar sultan. The Derg established the Autonomous Region of Assab (now called Aseb and located in Eritrea), although low level insurrection continued until the early 1990s. In Djibouti, a similar movement simmered throughout the 1980s, eventually culminating in the Afar Insurgency in 1991.
Danakil see Afar
Adal see Afar
Afar (Danakil) (Adal). People of the eastern Horn of Africa. The Afar are tribal Muslims who are also known by their Arabic name, Danakil, or the Amharic name, Adal. Most Afar live in Ethiopia and in Djibouti.
The Afar are tribal Muslims who are among the least known people in the eastern Horn of Africa. Their forbidding desert homeland and their reputation for ferocity (it is widely reported that an Afar male cannot be considered an adult until he has killed an enemy) prevented successful exploration of their country by Europeans until the early 1930s.
The Afar began to convert to Islam in the tenth century of the Christian calendar after contact with Arab merchants from the Arabian Peninsula. The earliest surviving written mention of the Afar was in the 13th century by the Arab writer Ibn Sa'id, who reported that they lived in the area from around the port of Suakin as far south as Mandeb, near Zeila. They are mentioned intermittently in Ethiopian records, first as helping Emperor Amda Seyon in a campaign beyond the Awash River, then over a century later when they assisted Emperor Baeda Maryam when he campaigned against their neighbors the Dobe'a. In the late 17th century, the Aussa Sultanate had emerged, which became the first amongst equals of the Afar rulers.
Prior to the late nineteenth century expansion of Amhara domination under King Menelik II, contacts between Muslim Afar and the Christian farmers of Ethiopia’s central plateau and eastern escarpment were sporadic and predominantly hostile. During periods of dynastic strength on the plateau, Christian rulers tried to expand their power into the Afar lowlands. Conversely, whenever it seemed possible, Muslims attempted to overrun the highlands.
Afar fought in the vanguards of such Muslim rulers as Mahfuz of Zeila (who ruled Adal, a coastal Afar-Somali kingdom) and the Amir of Harar, Ahmad Gran, both of whom devastated the highlands in the sixteenth century. A major East Africa-Arabia slave route traversed Afar country, and as recently as 1928 the Afar were active participants in the trans-Red Sea slave trade, mainly as guides to the Arab slavers.
On the whole, though, in comparison to Middle Eastern nomadic peoples, the Afar were relatively self-sufficient economically. They lived mainly on meat -- both domestic and wild -- and dairy products supplemented by agricultural produce stolen or, less frequently, obtained in peaceful trade from villagers of the adjacent Rift Valley escarpment and the highlands. The building of the railroad from Addis Adaba to the city of Djibouti in what was then French territory in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and the resettling of highlanders on the fringes of Afar country under the “Pax Amharica” served to weaken somewhat the economic and cultural insularity of the Afar, as more trade goods and agricultural produce became available to them.
In 1975, the Afar Liberation Front (ALF) began in Ethiopia after an unsuccessful rebellion led by a former Afar sultan. The Derg established the Autonomous Region of Assab (now called Aseb and located in Eritrea), although low level insurrection continued until the early 1990s. In Djibouti, a similar movement simmered throughout the 1980s, eventually culminating in the Afar Insurgency in 1991.
Danakil see Afar
Adal see Afar
Afdal ibn Badr al-Jamali, al-
Afdal ibn Badr al-Jamali, al- (al-Malik al-Afdal ibn Badr al-Jamali Shahanshah) (al-Afdal Shahanshan) (1066 - December 11, 1121). The Fatimid vizier in Egypt for twenty-seven years. During his office, the country enjoyed internal tranquility, although in 1103 Acre fell to the Crusaders.
Afdal ibn Badr al-Jamali was born in Acre, the son of Badr al-Jamali, an Armenian Mameluke. Badr was vizier for the Fatimids in Cairo from 1074 until his deth in 1094, when al-Afda succeeded him. Caliph Ma'ad al-Mustansir Billah died soon afterwards, and al-Afdal appointed as caliph al-Musta'li, a child, instead of al-Mustali's much older brother Nizar. Nizar revolted and was defeated in 1095. His supporters, led by Hassan-i-Sabah, fled west, where Hassan established the Ismai'li community, sometimes erroneously called the Hashashin, or Assassins.
At this time, Fatimid power in Palestine had been reduced by the arrival of the Seljuk Turks. In 1097, he captured Tyre from the Seljuks, and in 1098 he took Jerusalem, expelling its Ortoqid governor Ilghazi in place of a Fatimid. Al-Afdal restored most of Palestine to Fatimid control, at least temporarily.
Al-Afdal misunderstood the Crusaders as Byzantine mercenaries. This misperception caused al-Afdal to conclude that the crusaders would make for natural allies, as each were enemies of the Seljuk Turks. Fatimid overtures for an alliance with the Crusaders were rebuffed, and the crusaders continued southward from Antioch to capture Jerusalem from Fatimid control in 1099.
When it became apparent that the Crusaders would not rest until they had control of the city, al-Afdal marched out from Cairo, but was too late to rescue Jerusalem, which fell on July 15, 1099. On August 12, the Crusaders under Godfrey of Bouillon surprised al-Afdal at the Battle of Ascalon and completely defeated him. Al-Afdal would reassert Fatimid control of Ascalon, as the Crusaders did not attempt to retain it, and utilize it as a staging ground for later attacks on the crusader states.
Al-Afdal marched out every year to attack the nascent Kingdom of Jerusalem, and in 1105 attempted to ally with Damascus against them, but was defeated at the Battle of Ramla. Al-Afdal and his army enjoyed success only so long as no European fleet interfered, but they gradually lost control of their coastal strongholds. In 1109, Tripoli was lost, despite the fleet and supplies sent by al-Afdal, and the city became the center of an important Crusader county. In 1110, the governor of Ascalon, Shams al-Khalifa, rebelled against al-Afdal with the intent of handing over the city to Jerusalem (for a large price). Al-Khalifa's Berber troops assassinated him and sent his head to al-Afdal. The Crusaders later took Tyre and Acre as well, and remained in Jerusalem until the arrival of Saladin decades later.
Al-Afdal also introduced tax (iqta) reform in Egypt, which remained in place until Saladin took over Egypt. Al-Afdal was nicknamed Jalal al-Islam) ("Glory of Islam") and Nasir al-Din ("Protector of the Faith"). Ibn al-Qalanisi describes him as "a firm believer in the doctrines of Sunnah, upright in conduct, a lover of justice towards both troops and civil population, judicious in counsel and plan, ambitious and resolute, of penetrating knowledge and exquisite tact, of generous nature, accurate in his intuitions, and possessing a sense of justice which preserved him from wrongdoing and led him to shun all tyrannical methods."
Al-Afdal was murdered during Eid ul-Adha in 1121. According to Ibn al-Qalanisi, "it was asserted that the Batinis (Hashshashin) were responsible for this assassination, but this statement is not true. On the contrary it is an empty pretence and an insubstantial calumny." The real cause was the growing boldness of the caliph al-Amir Bi-Ahkamillah, who had succeeded al-Musta'li in 1101, and his resentment of al-Afdal's control. Ibn al-Qalanisi states that "all eyes wept and all hearts sorrowed for him; time did not produce his like after him, and after his loss the government fell into disrepute." He was succeeded as vizier by al-Ma'mun.
In Latin, his name was rendered as "Lavendalius" or "Elafdalio."
Malik al-Afdal ibn Badr al-Jamali Shahanshah, al- see Afdal ibn Badr al-Jamali, al-
Afdal Shahanshan, al- see Afdal ibn Badr al-Jamali, al-
Jalal al-Islam see Afdal ibn Badr al-Jamali, al-
Glory of Islam see Afdal ibn Badr al-Jamali, al-
Nasir al-Din see Afdal ibn Badr al-Jamali, al-
Protector of the Faith see Afdal ibn Badr al-Jamali, al-
Afdal ibn Badr al-Jamali, al- (al-Malik al-Afdal ibn Badr al-Jamali Shahanshah) (al-Afdal Shahanshan) (1066 - December 11, 1121). The Fatimid vizier in Egypt for twenty-seven years. During his office, the country enjoyed internal tranquility, although in 1103 Acre fell to the Crusaders.
Afdal ibn Badr al-Jamali was born in Acre, the son of Badr al-Jamali, an Armenian Mameluke. Badr was vizier for the Fatimids in Cairo from 1074 until his deth in 1094, when al-Afda succeeded him. Caliph Ma'ad al-Mustansir Billah died soon afterwards, and al-Afdal appointed as caliph al-Musta'li, a child, instead of al-Mustali's much older brother Nizar. Nizar revolted and was defeated in 1095. His supporters, led by Hassan-i-Sabah, fled west, where Hassan established the Ismai'li community, sometimes erroneously called the Hashashin, or Assassins.
At this time, Fatimid power in Palestine had been reduced by the arrival of the Seljuk Turks. In 1097, he captured Tyre from the Seljuks, and in 1098 he took Jerusalem, expelling its Ortoqid governor Ilghazi in place of a Fatimid. Al-Afdal restored most of Palestine to Fatimid control, at least temporarily.
Al-Afdal misunderstood the Crusaders as Byzantine mercenaries. This misperception caused al-Afdal to conclude that the crusaders would make for natural allies, as each were enemies of the Seljuk Turks. Fatimid overtures for an alliance with the Crusaders were rebuffed, and the crusaders continued southward from Antioch to capture Jerusalem from Fatimid control in 1099.
When it became apparent that the Crusaders would not rest until they had control of the city, al-Afdal marched out from Cairo, but was too late to rescue Jerusalem, which fell on July 15, 1099. On August 12, the Crusaders under Godfrey of Bouillon surprised al-Afdal at the Battle of Ascalon and completely defeated him. Al-Afdal would reassert Fatimid control of Ascalon, as the Crusaders did not attempt to retain it, and utilize it as a staging ground for later attacks on the crusader states.
Al-Afdal marched out every year to attack the nascent Kingdom of Jerusalem, and in 1105 attempted to ally with Damascus against them, but was defeated at the Battle of Ramla. Al-Afdal and his army enjoyed success only so long as no European fleet interfered, but they gradually lost control of their coastal strongholds. In 1109, Tripoli was lost, despite the fleet and supplies sent by al-Afdal, and the city became the center of an important Crusader county. In 1110, the governor of Ascalon, Shams al-Khalifa, rebelled against al-Afdal with the intent of handing over the city to Jerusalem (for a large price). Al-Khalifa's Berber troops assassinated him and sent his head to al-Afdal. The Crusaders later took Tyre and Acre as well, and remained in Jerusalem until the arrival of Saladin decades later.
Al-Afdal also introduced tax (iqta) reform in Egypt, which remained in place until Saladin took over Egypt. Al-Afdal was nicknamed Jalal al-Islam) ("Glory of Islam") and Nasir al-Din ("Protector of the Faith"). Ibn al-Qalanisi describes him as "a firm believer in the doctrines of Sunnah, upright in conduct, a lover of justice towards both troops and civil population, judicious in counsel and plan, ambitious and resolute, of penetrating knowledge and exquisite tact, of generous nature, accurate in his intuitions, and possessing a sense of justice which preserved him from wrongdoing and led him to shun all tyrannical methods."
Al-Afdal was murdered during Eid ul-Adha in 1121. According to Ibn al-Qalanisi, "it was asserted that the Batinis (Hashshashin) were responsible for this assassination, but this statement is not true. On the contrary it is an empty pretence and an insubstantial calumny." The real cause was the growing boldness of the caliph al-Amir Bi-Ahkamillah, who had succeeded al-Musta'li in 1101, and his resentment of al-Afdal's control. Ibn al-Qalanisi states that "all eyes wept and all hearts sorrowed for him; time did not produce his like after him, and after his loss the government fell into disrepute." He was succeeded as vizier by al-Ma'mun.
In Latin, his name was rendered as "Lavendalius" or "Elafdalio."
Malik al-Afdal ibn Badr al-Jamali Shahanshah, al- see Afdal ibn Badr al-Jamali, al-
Afdal Shahanshan, al- see Afdal ibn Badr al-Jamali, al-
Jalal al-Islam see Afdal ibn Badr al-Jamali, al-
Glory of Islam see Afdal ibn Badr al-Jamali, al-
Nasir al-Din see Afdal ibn Badr al-Jamali, al-
Protector of the Faith see Afdal ibn Badr al-Jamali, al-
Afghan
Afghan. The Persian designation applied to the western tribes of Afghanistan, the eastern ones being called Pathan, the Indianized form of the native name Pashtun. For the language and the literature of the people of Afghanistan the term Pashto is generally used.
Afghan. The Persian designation applied to the western tribes of Afghanistan, the eastern ones being called Pathan, the Indianized form of the native name Pashtun. For the language and the literature of the people of Afghanistan the term Pashto is generally used.
Afghani Arabs
Afghani Arabs. Radical Islamists, mostly of Arab nationality, but also from other Muslim countries, who gained fighting experience in the Soviet-Afghan war and returned to their countries with the intention of toppling their governments and establishing an “Islamic State.” They are said to include Saudis, Yemenis, Egyptians, Algerians, Tunisians, Iraqis, Libyans, Jordanians as well as citizens of other Muslim countries. They were a serious threat to the military regime in Algeria, started terrorist activities in Egypt, and fought as volunteers in regional wars from Bosnia to Kashmir and in the Philippines. Between 1987 and 1993, as many as 3,340 registered Arabs left Pakistan, but some 2,800 remained in Afghanistan and in the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan. Most of the Afghani Arabs fought in the ranks of Hekmatyar, Sayyaf, and Jamilurrahman. Osama bin Laden, a wealthy Saudi citizen, financed a number of Islamist groups. He and one Islamboli, a relative of the assassin of President Anwar al-Sadat of Egypt, found shelter in Afghanistan.
Apart from entering Afghanistan during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Arabs entered the area today known as Afghanistan in earlier centuries in two distinct waves. During the Islamic conquest of Afghanistan, many Arabs settled throughout the region, while another wave arrived during the Bolshevik Revolution. "Afghan Arabs" who entered Afghanistan during the Soviet-Afghan War began arriving in the early 1980s.
Sheikh Abdullah Yusuf Azzam (1941-1989) is often credited with creating enthusiasm for the Afghan mujahideen cause in the Arab Muslim and greater Muslim world. When the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979, Shaikh Azzam issued a fatwa declaring defense jihad in Afghanistan fard ayn -- a personal obligation -- for all Muslims. The fatwa was supported by other sheikhs including Saudi Arabia's Grand Mufti (highest religious scholar), Abd al-Aziz bin Bazz.
Sometime after 1980, Abdullah Azzam established Maktab al-Khadamat (Services Office) to organize guest houses in Peshawar just across the Afghan border in Pakistan and paramilitary training camps in Afghanistan to prepare international recruits for the Afghan front. Using financing of Saudi Arabi and a wealthy young Saudi recruit, Osama bin Laden, Maktab al-Khadamat paid for "air tickets and accommodation, dealt with paperwork with Pakistani authorities and provided other such services for the jihad fighters" from the Muslim world. During the 1980s, Azam had forged close links with two of the Afghan mujahideen faction-leaders, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar the Pakistan favorite, and Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, an Islamic scholar from Afghanistan whom the Saudis had sent to Peshawar to promote Wahhabism.
Abdullah Azzam toured not only the Musim world but also the United States, in search of funds and young Muslim recruits. He inspired young Muslims with stories of miraculous deeds, mujahideen who defeated vast columns of Soviet troops virtually single-handed, who had been run over by tanks but survived, who were shot, but were unscathed by bullets. Angels were said to ride into battle on horseback, and falling bombs were intercepted by birds, which raced ahead of the jets to form a protective canopy over the warriors.
It is estimated that Azzam organized paramilitary training for more than 20,000 Muslim recruits from about 20 countries around the world.
By 1986, the Soviets were talking about withdrawing from Afghanistan. As it became clear the Mujahideen's fight against the Soviet's had been a success, it became more popular with Muslims worldwide, and drew more of them to volunteer in Afghanistan. Consequently, many of the Afghan Arabs arrived to fight the Soviets when they were least needed. The late arrivals were reportedly twice the number who came for the war against the Soviet occupation.
Many of the later volunteers were different from the early "Afghan" Arab volunteers inspired by Sheikh Azzam's tours, and were criticized for being less serious, or more sectarian and undisciplined in their violence. Violence escalated in Peshwar Pakistan, the mujahideen staging area and center of Afghan Arab activity.
Sometime after August 1988, Sheikh Azzam was replaced as the leader of the Arab Afghans in Peshwar by Osama bin Laden. Sheikh Azzam himself was assassinated there in November 1989 by roadside bomb that some think was the work of the radical jihadi Egyptian Islamic Jihad and his opponent Ayman al-Zawahiri.
These later expatriate volunteers included many sectarian Salafi and Wahhabi who alienated their hosts with their aloof manner and disdain for the Sufi Islam practiced by most Afghans. While the first Arab Afghans were "for the most part" welcomed by native Afghan mujahideen, by the end of the Soviet-Afghan war, there was a great deal of mutual antagonism between the two groups. The Afghan mujahideen resented "being told they were not good Muslims" and called the expatriate volunteers "Ikhwanis" or "Wahhabis." This hostility may have played an important role in the relatively easy manner in which the United States overthrew the Taliban in 2001 when Afghans turned against these foreigners.
However minimal the impact of the Afghan Arabs on the war against the Soviets, the return of the volunteers to their home countries was not. The Afghan Arabs saw the Soviet defeat as a victory for Islam against a superpower that had invaded a Muslim country. Estimates of the number of Afghan Arabs who fought in Afghanistan begin in the low thousands. Some spent years in combat, while others came only towards the end in what amounted to a jihad "vacation." Nevertheless, the Afghan Arabs gained legitimacy and prestige from their triumph both within the militant community and among ordinary Muslims, as well as the confidence to carry their jihad to other countries where they believed Muslims required assistance. When veterans of the guerrilla campaign returned home with their experience, ideology, and weapons, they destabilized once peaceful countries and inflamed already unstable ones.
After the war, many foreign mujahideen stayed in Afghanistan and took Afghan wives. The Afghan Arabs served as the essential core of the foot soldiers of Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda, with Bin Laden being seen as the undisputed leader of the Afghan Arabs by fall of 1989. Others returned with their experience, ideology, and weapons, to their countries, often proceeding to fight jihad against the government there. The most extreme case was Algeria where jihadis fought the government in a bloody civil war that cost 150,000 - 200,000 lives. Also, many of them went to Bosnia to fight against Bosnian Serbs and Croats.
In the mid- and late- 1990s, the Afghan Arabs, in the form of the Wahhabi-oriented Al-Qaeda, became more influential in Afghanistan helping and influencing the Taliban. Several hundred Afghan Arabs participated in the 1997 and 1998 Taliban offensives in the north and helped the Taliban carry out the massacres of the Shia Hazaras there. Several hundred more Afghan Arabs, based in the Rishkor army garrison outside Kabul, fought on the Kabul front against General Ahmed Shah Massoud. At the same time, the Taliban's ideology changed. Until the Taliban's contact with the Afghan Arabs and their pan-Islamic ideology was non-existent.
By 1996 and 1998, Al Qaeda felt comfortable enough in the sanctuary given to them to issue a declaration of war against Americans and later a fatwa to kill Americans and their allies. The Afghan Arabs had come full circle. From being mere appendages of the Afghan jihad and the Cold War in the 1980s they had taken center stage for the Afghans, neighboring countries and the west in the 1990s. This was followed by Al Qaeda's 1998 American embassy bombings in Africa and the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Following the 9/11 attack, America attacked Afghanistan and deposed the Taliban, ending the heyday of the Afghan Arabs. During the American campaign in Afghanistan in late 2001, many coherent units of Arab fighters were destroyed. Some Afghan Arab fighters were also captured and held by Afghan tribesmen for ransom -- ransom to be paid by Americans.
Arab Afghans see Afghani Arabs.
Afghani Arabs. Radical Islamists, mostly of Arab nationality, but also from other Muslim countries, who gained fighting experience in the Soviet-Afghan war and returned to their countries with the intention of toppling their governments and establishing an “Islamic State.” They are said to include Saudis, Yemenis, Egyptians, Algerians, Tunisians, Iraqis, Libyans, Jordanians as well as citizens of other Muslim countries. They were a serious threat to the military regime in Algeria, started terrorist activities in Egypt, and fought as volunteers in regional wars from Bosnia to Kashmir and in the Philippines. Between 1987 and 1993, as many as 3,340 registered Arabs left Pakistan, but some 2,800 remained in Afghanistan and in the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan. Most of the Afghani Arabs fought in the ranks of Hekmatyar, Sayyaf, and Jamilurrahman. Osama bin Laden, a wealthy Saudi citizen, financed a number of Islamist groups. He and one Islamboli, a relative of the assassin of President Anwar al-Sadat of Egypt, found shelter in Afghanistan.
Apart from entering Afghanistan during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Arabs entered the area today known as Afghanistan in earlier centuries in two distinct waves. During the Islamic conquest of Afghanistan, many Arabs settled throughout the region, while another wave arrived during the Bolshevik Revolution. "Afghan Arabs" who entered Afghanistan during the Soviet-Afghan War began arriving in the early 1980s.
Sheikh Abdullah Yusuf Azzam (1941-1989) is often credited with creating enthusiasm for the Afghan mujahideen cause in the Arab Muslim and greater Muslim world. When the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979, Shaikh Azzam issued a fatwa declaring defense jihad in Afghanistan fard ayn -- a personal obligation -- for all Muslims. The fatwa was supported by other sheikhs including Saudi Arabia's Grand Mufti (highest religious scholar), Abd al-Aziz bin Bazz.
Sometime after 1980, Abdullah Azzam established Maktab al-Khadamat (Services Office) to organize guest houses in Peshawar just across the Afghan border in Pakistan and paramilitary training camps in Afghanistan to prepare international recruits for the Afghan front. Using financing of Saudi Arabi and a wealthy young Saudi recruit, Osama bin Laden, Maktab al-Khadamat paid for "air tickets and accommodation, dealt with paperwork with Pakistani authorities and provided other such services for the jihad fighters" from the Muslim world. During the 1980s, Azam had forged close links with two of the Afghan mujahideen faction-leaders, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar the Pakistan favorite, and Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, an Islamic scholar from Afghanistan whom the Saudis had sent to Peshawar to promote Wahhabism.
Abdullah Azzam toured not only the Musim world but also the United States, in search of funds and young Muslim recruits. He inspired young Muslims with stories of miraculous deeds, mujahideen who defeated vast columns of Soviet troops virtually single-handed, who had been run over by tanks but survived, who were shot, but were unscathed by bullets. Angels were said to ride into battle on horseback, and falling bombs were intercepted by birds, which raced ahead of the jets to form a protective canopy over the warriors.
It is estimated that Azzam organized paramilitary training for more than 20,000 Muslim recruits from about 20 countries around the world.
By 1986, the Soviets were talking about withdrawing from Afghanistan. As it became clear the Mujahideen's fight against the Soviet's had been a success, it became more popular with Muslims worldwide, and drew more of them to volunteer in Afghanistan. Consequently, many of the Afghan Arabs arrived to fight the Soviets when they were least needed. The late arrivals were reportedly twice the number who came for the war against the Soviet occupation.
Many of the later volunteers were different from the early "Afghan" Arab volunteers inspired by Sheikh Azzam's tours, and were criticized for being less serious, or more sectarian and undisciplined in their violence. Violence escalated in Peshwar Pakistan, the mujahideen staging area and center of Afghan Arab activity.
Sometime after August 1988, Sheikh Azzam was replaced as the leader of the Arab Afghans in Peshwar by Osama bin Laden. Sheikh Azzam himself was assassinated there in November 1989 by roadside bomb that some think was the work of the radical jihadi Egyptian Islamic Jihad and his opponent Ayman al-Zawahiri.
These later expatriate volunteers included many sectarian Salafi and Wahhabi who alienated their hosts with their aloof manner and disdain for the Sufi Islam practiced by most Afghans. While the first Arab Afghans were "for the most part" welcomed by native Afghan mujahideen, by the end of the Soviet-Afghan war, there was a great deal of mutual antagonism between the two groups. The Afghan mujahideen resented "being told they were not good Muslims" and called the expatriate volunteers "Ikhwanis" or "Wahhabis." This hostility may have played an important role in the relatively easy manner in which the United States overthrew the Taliban in 2001 when Afghans turned against these foreigners.
However minimal the impact of the Afghan Arabs on the war against the Soviets, the return of the volunteers to their home countries was not. The Afghan Arabs saw the Soviet defeat as a victory for Islam against a superpower that had invaded a Muslim country. Estimates of the number of Afghan Arabs who fought in Afghanistan begin in the low thousands. Some spent years in combat, while others came only towards the end in what amounted to a jihad "vacation." Nevertheless, the Afghan Arabs gained legitimacy and prestige from their triumph both within the militant community and among ordinary Muslims, as well as the confidence to carry their jihad to other countries where they believed Muslims required assistance. When veterans of the guerrilla campaign returned home with their experience, ideology, and weapons, they destabilized once peaceful countries and inflamed already unstable ones.
After the war, many foreign mujahideen stayed in Afghanistan and took Afghan wives. The Afghan Arabs served as the essential core of the foot soldiers of Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda, with Bin Laden being seen as the undisputed leader of the Afghan Arabs by fall of 1989. Others returned with their experience, ideology, and weapons, to their countries, often proceeding to fight jihad against the government there. The most extreme case was Algeria where jihadis fought the government in a bloody civil war that cost 150,000 - 200,000 lives. Also, many of them went to Bosnia to fight against Bosnian Serbs and Croats.
In the mid- and late- 1990s, the Afghan Arabs, in the form of the Wahhabi-oriented Al-Qaeda, became more influential in Afghanistan helping and influencing the Taliban. Several hundred Afghan Arabs participated in the 1997 and 1998 Taliban offensives in the north and helped the Taliban carry out the massacres of the Shia Hazaras there. Several hundred more Afghan Arabs, based in the Rishkor army garrison outside Kabul, fought on the Kabul front against General Ahmed Shah Massoud. At the same time, the Taliban's ideology changed. Until the Taliban's contact with the Afghan Arabs and their pan-Islamic ideology was non-existent.
By 1996 and 1998, Al Qaeda felt comfortable enough in the sanctuary given to them to issue a declaration of war against Americans and later a fatwa to kill Americans and their allies. The Afghan Arabs had come full circle. From being mere appendages of the Afghan jihad and the Cold War in the 1980s they had taken center stage for the Afghans, neighboring countries and the west in the 1990s. This was followed by Al Qaeda's 1998 American embassy bombings in Africa and the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Following the 9/11 attack, America attacked Afghanistan and deposed the Taliban, ending the heyday of the Afghan Arabs. During the American campaign in Afghanistan in late 2001, many coherent units of Arab fighters were destroyed. Some Afghan Arab fighters were also captured and held by Afghan tribesmen for ransom -- ransom to be paid by Americans.
Arab Afghans see Afghani Arabs.
Afghani, Jamal al-Din al-
Afghani, Jamal al-Din al- (Sayyid Jamaluddin Afghani) (Sayyid Muhammad ibn Safdar al-Husayn) (Sayyid Jamal-al-din Asadabadi) (1838 - March 9, 1897). Muslim reformer, apologist, and anti-colonialist who is known as the “Father of the Pan-Islamic Movement.”
Afghani was born near Hamadan and educated in Iran and the Shi‘ite shrine cities of Ottoman Iraq. Educated in rationalist philosophy, taught more in Iran than elsewhere in the Muslim world, Afghani was also influenced by the philosophically oriented and innovative Shaikhi school of Shi‘ism. Around 1857, he went to India, where he seems to have acquired his lifelong hatred of British imperialism. After a trip, probably via Mecca and Iraq, he went to Afghanistan and entered the counsels of the Afghan emir, advising him to fight the British. When his patron was defeated by Amir Shir Ali, the latter expelled Afghani.
Afghani went briefly to India and Cairo, and then to Istanbul, where he became a friend of the head of the Dar al-Fonun, a new university. In 1870, Afghani gave a lecture at the university. He compared philosophy to prophecy and implied that prophecy was a craft, thus giving the Ottoman ulama (religious scholars), already hostile to the secular university, an excuse to attack the university and bring on Afghani’s expulsion.
Afghani stayed then in Cairo from 1871 to 1879. There he did his most fruitful work. He was given a stipend by the Egyptian government to teach young Egyptians. Among his disciples was the later great Muslim reformer Muhammad Abduh. From 1875 onwards, Afghani entered politics by (1) leading an Arab Masonic lodge, which he tried to use to achieve the abdication of Isma‘il in favor of his son Tawfiq, (2) promoting the formation of political newspapers by his disciples, and (3) giving effective mass orations, directed especially against Westerners in Egypt. When Tawfiq took power with Franco-British aid in 1879 and Afghani continued to attack the British, he was exiled to India in August 1879.
In India, Afghani went to the Muslim principality of Hyderabad, where he published several Persian articles and his one treatise, known as the Refutation of the Materialists, which was aimed mainly at the pro-British Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan and his school. After detention by the British in Calcutta, Afghani left for Paris, stopping in London. In London and Paris, Afghani wrote articles against the British occupation of Egypt, and also wrote the irreligious French “Answer to Renan,”a notable defense of Islam against Ernest Renan. He got Abduh to join him in Paris, where they published the reformist and anti-British paper, Al-urwa al-wuthqa, in 1884. It was at this time that Afghani first expressed the pan-Islamic views most often associated with him. Until then, he had spoken rather in terms of regional nationalisms.
In 1886, Afghani sailed to the Iranian port of Bushehr, where his books and papers had been sent from Egypt. He planned to go to Russia, where the Slavophile editor Mikhail Katkov had invited him, but the Iranian minister of press invited him to Tehran. Jamal al-Din stayed with the wealthy Amin al-Zarb. His anti-foreign talk evidently disturbed the shah, who asked Amin al-Zarb to take Afghani with him to Russia, which he did. There he made futile attempts to convince Russia to fight Britain. Afghani overtook the shah’s party in Munich in 1889, and after a brief return to Russia he came back to Iran, where the prime minister refused to see him. Afghani then began to encourage secret organization and leaflets against the government, and forestalled expulsion by taking sanctuary at a shrine. In January 1891, he was expelled from Iran after a leaflet attacked the government for its concessions (especially the tobacco concession) to foreigners. When the Qajar Shah (Nasir al-Din) had Afghani forcibly removed from a place near Tehran which had been regarded as an inviolable sanctuary (in Persian, bast) Afghani developed feelings of hatred and a desire for vengeance towards the shah.
Afghani went to Iraq, and when the Tobacco Rebellion broke out in Iran, a mujtahid expelled from Shiraz visited Afghani, who wrote a letter against the shah and the tobacco concession to the leading mujtahid, Mirza Hasan Shirazi, who was important in the concession’s cancellation.
Frequently opposed by the ulama (the Muslim clergy) and suspected as dissident by the temporal powers, Afghani was often on the run. In 1891 and 1892, Afghani spent months speaking and writing in England with Malkom Khan. In 1892, Afghani was invited to be the guest of the Ottoman Sultan Abdulhamid in Istanbul. In Istanbul, Afghani was employed by Sultan Abdulhamid (‘Abd al-Hamid II) to promulgate pan-Islamic ideals. There he worked with a group of Iranians and Shi‘ites to get Shi‘ites to recognize Abdulhamid’s claim to be caliph of all Muslims.
In 1896, Afghani’s disciple, Mirza Riza Kirmani, visited Afghani. Afghani inspired Mirza to kill Nasir al-Din Shah on May 1, 1896. The friendship between Afghani and the Sultan subsequently cooled, essentially because of Afghani’s complicity in the assassination of the Persian ruler. Indeed, Afghani was placed under house arrest by the Sultan. Iran’s futile efforts to extradite Afghani ended with Afghani’s death in 1897.
Afghani died on March 9, 1897 in Istanbul and was buried there. However, in late 1944, at the request of the Afghan government, his remains were taken to Afghanistan and laid to rest in Kabul inside the Kabul University where a mausoleum was erected for him.
Jamal al-Din al-Afghani was most effective as a pamphleteer, journalist, orator, and revolutionary activist. As a Muslim modernist and political propagandist, he advocated unity of the Islamic world and selective borrowing from the West for the purpose of stemming the tide of Western imperialism. He was the adviser of Muslim rulers in many parts of the Islamic world and a political activist in Iran, Afghanistan, Egypt, and the Ottoman empire. With him, began the reform movement which gave rise to the Salafiyya and, later on, to the Muslim Brothers.
Afghani, above all else, called for unity amongst all Muslims. However, he did not believe that all Muslims ought to unify under one ruler, or Caliph. Instead, cooperation amongst Muslims was his answer to the weakness that had allowed Muslims to be colonized by the Europeans (namely Britain, Russia, and France). He believed that, in fact, Islam (and its revealed law) was compatible with rationality and thus, Muslims could become politically unified whilst still maintaining their faith based on a religious social morality. These beliefs had a profound effect on Muhammad 'Abduh, who went on to expand on the notion of using rationality in the human relations aspect of Islam (mu'amalat).
Afghani’s development of the philosophical bases for Islamic modernism was left to his most illustrious pupil from the Cairo period, Muhammad ‘Abduh. However, in Afghanistan, Afghans revere his memory and believe him to be a descendant of a family of Sayyids from Asadabad in Kunar Province of Afghanistan, even though most Western scholars agree on Afghani’s Iranian origin.
As a believer in reform and as a pioneer in various forms of political activisim and agitation in many countries, Afghani had an important influence that continues in the Muslim world today.
Jamal al-Din al-Afghani see Afghani, Jamal al-Din al-
Sayyid Jamaluddin Afghani see Afghani, Jamal al-Din al-
“Father of the Pan-Islamic Movement” see Afghani, Jamal al-Din al-
Sayyid Muhammad ibn Safdar al-Husayn see Afghani, Jamal al-Din al-
Sayyid Jamal-al-din Asadabadi see Afghani, Jamal al-Din al-
Afghani, Jamal al-Din al- (Sayyid Jamaluddin Afghani) (Sayyid Muhammad ibn Safdar al-Husayn) (Sayyid Jamal-al-din Asadabadi) (1838 - March 9, 1897). Muslim reformer, apologist, and anti-colonialist who is known as the “Father of the Pan-Islamic Movement.”
Afghani was born near Hamadan and educated in Iran and the Shi‘ite shrine cities of Ottoman Iraq. Educated in rationalist philosophy, taught more in Iran than elsewhere in the Muslim world, Afghani was also influenced by the philosophically oriented and innovative Shaikhi school of Shi‘ism. Around 1857, he went to India, where he seems to have acquired his lifelong hatred of British imperialism. After a trip, probably via Mecca and Iraq, he went to Afghanistan and entered the counsels of the Afghan emir, advising him to fight the British. When his patron was defeated by Amir Shir Ali, the latter expelled Afghani.
Afghani went briefly to India and Cairo, and then to Istanbul, where he became a friend of the head of the Dar al-Fonun, a new university. In 1870, Afghani gave a lecture at the university. He compared philosophy to prophecy and implied that prophecy was a craft, thus giving the Ottoman ulama (religious scholars), already hostile to the secular university, an excuse to attack the university and bring on Afghani’s expulsion.
Afghani stayed then in Cairo from 1871 to 1879. There he did his most fruitful work. He was given a stipend by the Egyptian government to teach young Egyptians. Among his disciples was the later great Muslim reformer Muhammad Abduh. From 1875 onwards, Afghani entered politics by (1) leading an Arab Masonic lodge, which he tried to use to achieve the abdication of Isma‘il in favor of his son Tawfiq, (2) promoting the formation of political newspapers by his disciples, and (3) giving effective mass orations, directed especially against Westerners in Egypt. When Tawfiq took power with Franco-British aid in 1879 and Afghani continued to attack the British, he was exiled to India in August 1879.
In India, Afghani went to the Muslim principality of Hyderabad, where he published several Persian articles and his one treatise, known as the Refutation of the Materialists, which was aimed mainly at the pro-British Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan and his school. After detention by the British in Calcutta, Afghani left for Paris, stopping in London. In London and Paris, Afghani wrote articles against the British occupation of Egypt, and also wrote the irreligious French “Answer to Renan,”a notable defense of Islam against Ernest Renan. He got Abduh to join him in Paris, where they published the reformist and anti-British paper, Al-urwa al-wuthqa, in 1884. It was at this time that Afghani first expressed the pan-Islamic views most often associated with him. Until then, he had spoken rather in terms of regional nationalisms.
In 1886, Afghani sailed to the Iranian port of Bushehr, where his books and papers had been sent from Egypt. He planned to go to Russia, where the Slavophile editor Mikhail Katkov had invited him, but the Iranian minister of press invited him to Tehran. Jamal al-Din stayed with the wealthy Amin al-Zarb. His anti-foreign talk evidently disturbed the shah, who asked Amin al-Zarb to take Afghani with him to Russia, which he did. There he made futile attempts to convince Russia to fight Britain. Afghani overtook the shah’s party in Munich in 1889, and after a brief return to Russia he came back to Iran, where the prime minister refused to see him. Afghani then began to encourage secret organization and leaflets against the government, and forestalled expulsion by taking sanctuary at a shrine. In January 1891, he was expelled from Iran after a leaflet attacked the government for its concessions (especially the tobacco concession) to foreigners. When the Qajar Shah (Nasir al-Din) had Afghani forcibly removed from a place near Tehran which had been regarded as an inviolable sanctuary (in Persian, bast) Afghani developed feelings of hatred and a desire for vengeance towards the shah.
Afghani went to Iraq, and when the Tobacco Rebellion broke out in Iran, a mujtahid expelled from Shiraz visited Afghani, who wrote a letter against the shah and the tobacco concession to the leading mujtahid, Mirza Hasan Shirazi, who was important in the concession’s cancellation.
Frequently opposed by the ulama (the Muslim clergy) and suspected as dissident by the temporal powers, Afghani was often on the run. In 1891 and 1892, Afghani spent months speaking and writing in England with Malkom Khan. In 1892, Afghani was invited to be the guest of the Ottoman Sultan Abdulhamid in Istanbul. In Istanbul, Afghani was employed by Sultan Abdulhamid (‘Abd al-Hamid II) to promulgate pan-Islamic ideals. There he worked with a group of Iranians and Shi‘ites to get Shi‘ites to recognize Abdulhamid’s claim to be caliph of all Muslims.
In 1896, Afghani’s disciple, Mirza Riza Kirmani, visited Afghani. Afghani inspired Mirza to kill Nasir al-Din Shah on May 1, 1896. The friendship between Afghani and the Sultan subsequently cooled, essentially because of Afghani’s complicity in the assassination of the Persian ruler. Indeed, Afghani was placed under house arrest by the Sultan. Iran’s futile efforts to extradite Afghani ended with Afghani’s death in 1897.
Afghani died on March 9, 1897 in Istanbul and was buried there. However, in late 1944, at the request of the Afghan government, his remains were taken to Afghanistan and laid to rest in Kabul inside the Kabul University where a mausoleum was erected for him.
Jamal al-Din al-Afghani was most effective as a pamphleteer, journalist, orator, and revolutionary activist. As a Muslim modernist and political propagandist, he advocated unity of the Islamic world and selective borrowing from the West for the purpose of stemming the tide of Western imperialism. He was the adviser of Muslim rulers in many parts of the Islamic world and a political activist in Iran, Afghanistan, Egypt, and the Ottoman empire. With him, began the reform movement which gave rise to the Salafiyya and, later on, to the Muslim Brothers.
Afghani, above all else, called for unity amongst all Muslims. However, he did not believe that all Muslims ought to unify under one ruler, or Caliph. Instead, cooperation amongst Muslims was his answer to the weakness that had allowed Muslims to be colonized by the Europeans (namely Britain, Russia, and France). He believed that, in fact, Islam (and its revealed law) was compatible with rationality and thus, Muslims could become politically unified whilst still maintaining their faith based on a religious social morality. These beliefs had a profound effect on Muhammad 'Abduh, who went on to expand on the notion of using rationality in the human relations aspect of Islam (mu'amalat).
Afghani’s development of the philosophical bases for Islamic modernism was left to his most illustrious pupil from the Cairo period, Muhammad ‘Abduh. However, in Afghanistan, Afghans revere his memory and believe him to be a descendant of a family of Sayyids from Asadabad in Kunar Province of Afghanistan, even though most Western scholars agree on Afghani’s Iranian origin.
As a believer in reform and as a pioneer in various forms of political activisim and agitation in many countries, Afghani had an important influence that continues in the Muslim world today.
Jamal al-Din al-Afghani see Afghani, Jamal al-Din al-
Sayyid Jamaluddin Afghani see Afghani, Jamal al-Din al-
“Father of the Pan-Islamic Movement” see Afghani, Jamal al-Din al-
Sayyid Muhammad ibn Safdar al-Husayn see Afghani, Jamal al-Din al-
Sayyid Jamal-al-din Asadabadi see Afghani, Jamal al-Din al-
Afrasiyab
Afrasiyab. The legendary king of the Turanians according to Iranian tradition. It is also the name of the founder of a line of governors of Basra (r. 1612-1668).
Afrasiyab. The legendary king of the Turanians according to Iranian tradition. It is also the name of the founder of a line of governors of Basra (r. 1612-1668).
Afrasiyabids
Afrasiyabids. A minor dynasty of Mazandaran (r. 1349-1503). The eponym of the clan, Afrasiyab ibn Kiya Hasan, put an end to the rule of the Bawandids. In 1503, Shah Isma‘il I forced the last Afrasiyabid ruler to surrender.
Afrasiyabids. A minor dynasty of Mazandaran (r. 1349-1503). The eponym of the clan, Afrasiyab ibn Kiya Hasan, put an end to the rule of the Bawandids. In 1503, Shah Isma‘il I forced the last Afrasiyabid ruler to surrender.
Afridi
Afridi. Pashtu-speaking tribe of the North-West Frontier Province in Pakistan, inhabiting the Afghan-Pakistan border region, a mountainous area that contains the Khyber Pass. The tribe is related linguistically and ethnologically to the Pathans, a people of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Herodotus, the Greek historian, mentions the "Aprytae," the tribe of Osman who called himself “God’s Creature” (afrideh-ye khoda) whom some Afghan scholars consider the eponymic ancestor of the Afridis. For centuries, the Afridis saw themselves as the “guardians” of the gate to India because, since ancient times, invaders have found it preferable to pay for passage rather than fight their way through the Khalibar.
The Afridis are said to have been initially converted to Islam during the time of Mahmud of Ghazni, and then during the time of Muhammad of Ghor. At times, Afridis entered the services of Afghan rulers, primarily as bodyguards and tribal militias, and in conflicts between Afghanistan and British India supported the Afghans; although they could not resist the temptation to loot the Afghan arsenal when the British bombed Jalalabad in 1919.
At the end of the Third Anglo-Afghan War in 1919, Sir Hamilton Grant, chief commissioner of the North-West Frontier, complained to the viceroy of India that “the constant raiding by Afridi gangs into the Peshawar District is sorely discrediting our administration. It is astounding that such a state of affairs should be possible with the number of troops we have got in the Peshawar Valley and shows how very difficult it would be to make any military operation of trans-frontier area really successful.” He added that only subjugation of the Afridis would help, but this would be “a most formidable and undesirable undertaking.”
In the 1960s, the Afridis were said to be able to muster an armed force of 50,000 men. A British officer described them as “wiry, shaven-headed, full-bearded, Pashtu-speaking hillmen of uncertain origin”. During the 1980s, the Kabul government attempted to enlist Afridis into a militia to attack the supply lines of the mujahedin, and the Afridis accepted their pay but did not perform their assigned functions.
"The guardians of the gate to India" see Afridi.
"Aprytae" see Afridi.
Afridi. Pashtu-speaking tribe of the North-West Frontier Province in Pakistan, inhabiting the Afghan-Pakistan border region, a mountainous area that contains the Khyber Pass. The tribe is related linguistically and ethnologically to the Pathans, a people of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Herodotus, the Greek historian, mentions the "Aprytae," the tribe of Osman who called himself “God’s Creature” (afrideh-ye khoda) whom some Afghan scholars consider the eponymic ancestor of the Afridis. For centuries, the Afridis saw themselves as the “guardians” of the gate to India because, since ancient times, invaders have found it preferable to pay for passage rather than fight their way through the Khalibar.
The Afridis are said to have been initially converted to Islam during the time of Mahmud of Ghazni, and then during the time of Muhammad of Ghor. At times, Afridis entered the services of Afghan rulers, primarily as bodyguards and tribal militias, and in conflicts between Afghanistan and British India supported the Afghans; although they could not resist the temptation to loot the Afghan arsenal when the British bombed Jalalabad in 1919.
At the end of the Third Anglo-Afghan War in 1919, Sir Hamilton Grant, chief commissioner of the North-West Frontier, complained to the viceroy of India that “the constant raiding by Afridi gangs into the Peshawar District is sorely discrediting our administration. It is astounding that such a state of affairs should be possible with the number of troops we have got in the Peshawar Valley and shows how very difficult it would be to make any military operation of trans-frontier area really successful.” He added that only subjugation of the Afridis would help, but this would be “a most formidable and undesirable undertaking.”
In the 1960s, the Afridis were said to be able to muster an armed force of 50,000 men. A British officer described them as “wiry, shaven-headed, full-bearded, Pashtu-speaking hillmen of uncertain origin”. During the 1980s, the Kabul government attempted to enlist Afridis into a militia to attack the supply lines of the mujahedin, and the Afridis accepted their pay but did not perform their assigned functions.
"The guardians of the gate to India" see Afridi.
"Aprytae" see Afridi.
Afshar, Haleh
Haleh Afshar (b. May 21, 1944, Tehran, Pahlavi Iran – d. May 12, 2022, Heslington, England) was a British life peer in the House of Lords.
Haleh Afshar was born as the eldest of the four children born to Hassan Afshar and Pouran Khabir on May 21, 1944 in Tehran. Afshar was a professor of politics and women's studies at the University of York, England, and a visiting professor of Islamic law at the Faculté internationale de droit comparé (international faculty of comparative law) at Robert Schuman University in Strasbourg, France. Afshar served on several bodies, notably the British Council and the United Nations Association, of which she was honorary president of international services. She was appointed to the board of the Women's National Commission in September 2008. She served as the chair for the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies. Afshar was a founding member of the Muslim Women's Network. She served on the Home Office's working groups, on "engaging with women" and "preventing extremism together".
Afshar was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2005 Birthday Honours for services to equal opportunities. On October 18, 2007, it was announced that she would be made a baroness and join the House of Lords as a cross-bench life peer. She was formally introduced into the House of Lords on December 11, 2007, as Baroness Afshar, of Heslington in the County of North Yorkshire.
In March 2009, Afshar was named as one of the twenty most successful Muslim women in the United Kingdom on the Muslim Women Power List 2009. The list was a collaboration between the Equality and Human Rights Commission, Emel Magazine, and The Times, to celebrate the achievements of Muslim women in the United Kingdom.
In April 2009, she was appointed an academician of the Academy of Social Sciences.
Afshar died from kidney failure at her home in Heslington on May 12, 2022 at the age of 77.
In 2011, Afshar received an honorary doctorate from the University of Essex.
In January 2013, Afshar was nominated for the Services to Education award at the British Muslim Awards.
In 2017, Afshar received an honorary doctorate from the University of Bradford.
Afsharids
Afsharids. Afghan dynasty in Persia (Iran) and Afghanistan (r.1736-1796). Their main capital was Mashhad. The dynasty was founded by General Nadir Shah Afshar from the Afghan Qizilbash tribe, part of the Afshars. Nadir advanced as the military leader of a Safavid shadow shah, expelled the Afghans (Ghalzai) from Persia in 1730 with the conquest of Isfahan, and finally rose to the throne himself as Nadir Shah (1736-1747).
Nadir’s empire, at its zenith, included the whole of Iran and Afghanistan, with vassals in Iraq, Central Asia (Khiva), and northern India. After his death, the rule of his successors was soon confined to the city of Mashhad and the metropolitan province of Khurasan.
Nadir’s last years were punctuated by rebellions throughout his empire. His nephew Ali Quli Khan, sent to quell a revolt in Sistan, joined the rebels and was already marching on Mashhad when Nadir was assassinated in June of 1747. Ali Quli Khan was proclaimed king under the regnal name Adil Shah (“the just king”). Having secured Nadir’s fortress of Kalat, he massacred all his uncle’s male issue, preserving only Shahrukh, a teenage grandson by a daughter of the last Safavid monarch, as a hedge against a pro-Safavid coup. Adil sent his younger brother Ibrahim to govern western Iran from the old Safavid capital of Isfahan. He himself remained in Mashhad. Most of Nadir’s tribal levies, however, were returned home, especially to the hinterland of Isfahan. Ibrahim used these reinforcements in a bid for power and defeated Adil Shah’s forces near Zanjan in June 1748.
Ibrahim was proclaimed shah at Tabriz in December, but meanwhile Shahrukh, the grandson of Nadir, had been raised to the throne in Mashhad by a junta of Kurd and other tribal chiefs. In the spring of 1749, Ibrahim’s army evaporated on the advance of Shahrukh’s forces. Ibrahim was taken to Mashhad (together with his brother, Adil, whom Ibrahim had already blinded) and executed.
Mir Sayyid Muhammad -- like Shahrukh a grandson of the last Safavid shah and an influential figure as warden of the shrine mosque at Mashhad -- became the figurehead of a popular insurrection orchestrated by yet another military faction. Shahrukh Shah was deposed (and later blinded), and in January 1750 the sayyid was crowned Shah Sulayman II of the Safavid dynasty. He soon alienated his patrons by disbursing Nadir’s waning treasury to parasitical relatives. Within three months, Shah Sulayman had been deposed and blinded. Shahrukh was reinstalled and ruled nominally for a further forty-five years.
By 1750, Iran’s political center of gravity had shifted to Isfahan and Shiraz, under Karim Khan Zand. Afghanistan and Mughal India were ruled by Ahmad Shah Durrani, who had escaped with his Afghan contingent from the debacle of Nadir’s assassination to be elected first shah of Afghanistan. Afsharid Khurasan remained an impoverished buffer zone between these states, ravaged by continuing power struggles between tribal chieftains and Shahrukh’s sons Nasr Allah Mirza and Nadir Mirza, and invaded three times by Ahmad Shah. The booty Nadir had brought from India was long dissipated, and Shahrukh’s sons resorted to stripping the shrine of ornaments to pay their fickle forces. Although Mashhad retained its prestige as a Shi‘ite shrine, chronic anarchy reduced commercial and pilgrim traffic and plunged Khurasan into an economic depression that lasted well into the nineteenth century. In 1796, Aqa Muhammad Qajar, having secured western Iran, stormed Mashhad and tortured Shahrukh to death to reveal the remnants of the fabled Afsharid jewels.
Afsharids. Afghan dynasty in Persia (Iran) and Afghanistan (r.1736-1796). Their main capital was Mashhad. The dynasty was founded by General Nadir Shah Afshar from the Afghan Qizilbash tribe, part of the Afshars. Nadir advanced as the military leader of a Safavid shadow shah, expelled the Afghans (Ghalzai) from Persia in 1730 with the conquest of Isfahan, and finally rose to the throne himself as Nadir Shah (1736-1747).
Nadir’s empire, at its zenith, included the whole of Iran and Afghanistan, with vassals in Iraq, Central Asia (Khiva), and northern India. After his death, the rule of his successors was soon confined to the city of Mashhad and the metropolitan province of Khurasan.
Nadir’s last years were punctuated by rebellions throughout his empire. His nephew Ali Quli Khan, sent to quell a revolt in Sistan, joined the rebels and was already marching on Mashhad when Nadir was assassinated in June of 1747. Ali Quli Khan was proclaimed king under the regnal name Adil Shah (“the just king”). Having secured Nadir’s fortress of Kalat, he massacred all his uncle’s male issue, preserving only Shahrukh, a teenage grandson by a daughter of the last Safavid monarch, as a hedge against a pro-Safavid coup. Adil sent his younger brother Ibrahim to govern western Iran from the old Safavid capital of Isfahan. He himself remained in Mashhad. Most of Nadir’s tribal levies, however, were returned home, especially to the hinterland of Isfahan. Ibrahim used these reinforcements in a bid for power and defeated Adil Shah’s forces near Zanjan in June 1748.
Ibrahim was proclaimed shah at Tabriz in December, but meanwhile Shahrukh, the grandson of Nadir, had been raised to the throne in Mashhad by a junta of Kurd and other tribal chiefs. In the spring of 1749, Ibrahim’s army evaporated on the advance of Shahrukh’s forces. Ibrahim was taken to Mashhad (together with his brother, Adil, whom Ibrahim had already blinded) and executed.
Mir Sayyid Muhammad -- like Shahrukh a grandson of the last Safavid shah and an influential figure as warden of the shrine mosque at Mashhad -- became the figurehead of a popular insurrection orchestrated by yet another military faction. Shahrukh Shah was deposed (and later blinded), and in January 1750 the sayyid was crowned Shah Sulayman II of the Safavid dynasty. He soon alienated his patrons by disbursing Nadir’s waning treasury to parasitical relatives. Within three months, Shah Sulayman had been deposed and blinded. Shahrukh was reinstalled and ruled nominally for a further forty-five years.
By 1750, Iran’s political center of gravity had shifted to Isfahan and Shiraz, under Karim Khan Zand. Afghanistan and Mughal India were ruled by Ahmad Shah Durrani, who had escaped with his Afghan contingent from the debacle of Nadir’s assassination to be elected first shah of Afghanistan. Afsharid Khurasan remained an impoverished buffer zone between these states, ravaged by continuing power struggles between tribal chieftains and Shahrukh’s sons Nasr Allah Mirza and Nadir Mirza, and invaded three times by Ahmad Shah. The booty Nadir had brought from India was long dissipated, and Shahrukh’s sons resorted to stripping the shrine of ornaments to pay their fickle forces. Although Mashhad retained its prestige as a Shi‘ite shrine, chronic anarchy reduced commercial and pilgrim traffic and plunged Khurasan into an economic depression that lasted well into the nineteenth century. In 1796, Aqa Muhammad Qajar, having secured western Iran, stormed Mashhad and tortured Shahrukh to death to reveal the remnants of the fabled Afsharid jewels.
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