Makassar
Makassar. See Makassarese.
Makassarese see Makassar.
Makassar. See Makassarese.
Makassarese see Makassar.
Makassarese
Makassarese. The Makassarese (or Mangkasara’, as they call themselves) form one of the major groups in the Indonesian province of South Sulawesi (formerly South Celebes). They inhabit the coastal plains and mountainous interior of the southern regions as well as the island of Salayar lying off the south coast. Ujung Pandang, called Makassar until 1971, which is the capital and largest city of this province, is located in the Makassarese area. About half of its population is Makassarese.
The Makassarese have a longstanding tradition of seafaring, fishing and overseas trade. In the seventeenth century, Gowa, the main Makassar kingdom, expanded into a maritime empire dominating the South Sulawesi peninsula, the coasts of the whole of Sulawesi and some neighboring islands. Its power was based on the wealth accumulated through an overseas trade extending over the entire Indonesian archipelago and beyond.
Malay traders began visiting the port of Makassar in the 1540s and helped it dominate rival ports on the trade route to the Maluku -- Bantaeng, Bira, and Selayar. The economic foundation for Makassar’s greatness was laid by Karaeng Matoaya, ruler of Tallo (1593-1637) and prime minister of Makassar, who expanded local rice production to supply the Maluku in exchange for cloves and nutmeg. As the Dutch East India Company (VOC) asserted a monopoly over spices from Maluku, other Europeans based themselves in Makassar, where they could buy from Malay and Makassarese traders prepared to defy Dutch claims. The British (1613) and the Danes (1618) established factories, and Golconda, Aceh, and Spanish Manila sent their agents. Makassar became the major Portuguese base in Southeast Asia after the loss of Melaka in 1641, when three thousand Portuguese and four churches were reported in the city.
Matoaya was also responsible for Makassar’s acceptance of Islam (1605) and the subsequent wars (1608-1611) in which the Bugis states accepted Islam and Makassar hegemony. Makassar’s power also extended to Sumbawa (1617), Buton, and eastern Borneo. As a result of the humiliating Treaty of Bungaya (1667) and series of defeats by an alliance of Dutch and Bugis (1666-1669), Sultan Hasan-uddin (1653-1669) became the last ruler of a strong Makassar empire. His successors ruled only Goa. The large urban population was dispersed. The Dutch renamed the northerly Makassarese fort of Ujung Pandang Fort Rotterdam and fortified it strongly. A much smaller city of Dutch, Eurasians, Chinese, Malays and Bugis grew around the fort to work in the declining Dutch trade to the Malukus and handle local exports, consisting mostly of Bugis slaves.
After this Makassar empire was destroyed by the Dutch in 1669, large Makassar fleets for years roamed the intra-island seas in search of spoils and action.
A Makassar venture combining fishery and commerce was first started in the eighteenth century, when there was a growing demand for trepang or beche-de-mer, a small edible marine animal, for the Chinese cuisine. Makassarese fishermen took part in collecting trepang from where it grew on the seabed in shallow water and brought large quantities to Makassar, mainly for export to China. Their search for trepang led them to the southern seas and eventually to the coastal waters of northern Australia, which became their principal trepang grounds. For about a century and a half, until 1906, when Australia closed its coasts to them, a fleet of their vessels used to set out annually from Makassar with the northwest monsoon and return six months later with the southeast wind. Artifacts found on the northern Australia coasts and traces of Makassarese influence on the culture and languages of the local aborigines testify to their former presence and activities there.
Ever since the king of Gowa adopted Islam in 1605, the life and society of the Makassarese have been marked by this religion, including its more and its less rigidly orthodox elements. The most revered saint is the seventeenth century mystic Shaikh Yusuf (1626-1699), whose tomb in the center of the old kingdom of Gowa is an object of pilgrimage. He not only was a learned Sufi who had studied in Mecca but also is commemorated as a national hero. He was one of the leaders of the resistance against the Dutch in Java until his capture and banishment first to Ceylon and later to South Africa. He is venerated as a great Muslim leader both in South Africa, where he died and was buried, and in South Sulawesi, where his remains were transferred in 1705. One of the local Sufi orders, the Khalwatiyya Yusuf, traces its origins to Shaikh Yusuf. The people of certain villages even believe that a visit to his grave is the equivalent to a pilgrimage to Mecca.
Mangkasara' see Makassarese.
Makassarese. The Makassarese (or Mangkasara’, as they call themselves) form one of the major groups in the Indonesian province of South Sulawesi (formerly South Celebes). They inhabit the coastal plains and mountainous interior of the southern regions as well as the island of Salayar lying off the south coast. Ujung Pandang, called Makassar until 1971, which is the capital and largest city of this province, is located in the Makassarese area. About half of its population is Makassarese.
The Makassarese have a longstanding tradition of seafaring, fishing and overseas trade. In the seventeenth century, Gowa, the main Makassar kingdom, expanded into a maritime empire dominating the South Sulawesi peninsula, the coasts of the whole of Sulawesi and some neighboring islands. Its power was based on the wealth accumulated through an overseas trade extending over the entire Indonesian archipelago and beyond.
Malay traders began visiting the port of Makassar in the 1540s and helped it dominate rival ports on the trade route to the Maluku -- Bantaeng, Bira, and Selayar. The economic foundation for Makassar’s greatness was laid by Karaeng Matoaya, ruler of Tallo (1593-1637) and prime minister of Makassar, who expanded local rice production to supply the Maluku in exchange for cloves and nutmeg. As the Dutch East India Company (VOC) asserted a monopoly over spices from Maluku, other Europeans based themselves in Makassar, where they could buy from Malay and Makassarese traders prepared to defy Dutch claims. The British (1613) and the Danes (1618) established factories, and Golconda, Aceh, and Spanish Manila sent their agents. Makassar became the major Portuguese base in Southeast Asia after the loss of Melaka in 1641, when three thousand Portuguese and four churches were reported in the city.
Matoaya was also responsible for Makassar’s acceptance of Islam (1605) and the subsequent wars (1608-1611) in which the Bugis states accepted Islam and Makassar hegemony. Makassar’s power also extended to Sumbawa (1617), Buton, and eastern Borneo. As a result of the humiliating Treaty of Bungaya (1667) and series of defeats by an alliance of Dutch and Bugis (1666-1669), Sultan Hasan-uddin (1653-1669) became the last ruler of a strong Makassar empire. His successors ruled only Goa. The large urban population was dispersed. The Dutch renamed the northerly Makassarese fort of Ujung Pandang Fort Rotterdam and fortified it strongly. A much smaller city of Dutch, Eurasians, Chinese, Malays and Bugis grew around the fort to work in the declining Dutch trade to the Malukus and handle local exports, consisting mostly of Bugis slaves.
After this Makassar empire was destroyed by the Dutch in 1669, large Makassar fleets for years roamed the intra-island seas in search of spoils and action.
A Makassar venture combining fishery and commerce was first started in the eighteenth century, when there was a growing demand for trepang or beche-de-mer, a small edible marine animal, for the Chinese cuisine. Makassarese fishermen took part in collecting trepang from where it grew on the seabed in shallow water and brought large quantities to Makassar, mainly for export to China. Their search for trepang led them to the southern seas and eventually to the coastal waters of northern Australia, which became their principal trepang grounds. For about a century and a half, until 1906, when Australia closed its coasts to them, a fleet of their vessels used to set out annually from Makassar with the northwest monsoon and return six months later with the southeast wind. Artifacts found on the northern Australia coasts and traces of Makassarese influence on the culture and languages of the local aborigines testify to their former presence and activities there.
Ever since the king of Gowa adopted Islam in 1605, the life and society of the Makassarese have been marked by this religion, including its more and its less rigidly orthodox elements. The most revered saint is the seventeenth century mystic Shaikh Yusuf (1626-1699), whose tomb in the center of the old kingdom of Gowa is an object of pilgrimage. He not only was a learned Sufi who had studied in Mecca but also is commemorated as a national hero. He was one of the leaders of the resistance against the Dutch in Java until his capture and banishment first to Ceylon and later to South Africa. He is venerated as a great Muslim leader both in South Africa, where he died and was buried, and in South Sulawesi, where his remains were transferred in 1705. One of the local Sufi orders, the Khalwatiyya Yusuf, traces its origins to Shaikh Yusuf. The people of certain villages even believe that a visit to his grave is the equivalent to a pilgrimage to Mecca.
Mangkasara' see Makassarese.
Makhdum al-Mulk
Makhdum al-Mulk (Makhdoom-ul-Mulk). Title of ‘Abd Allah Sultanpuri.
Makhdoom is a Muslim Sufi title in South Asia and Central Asia. This title is now used by the descendents of the Sufi masters who are mostly Pirs, politicians and landlords in southern Punjab and Sindh in Pakistan. Hazrat Abbas, respectable maternal uncle of the Prophet Muhammad, usually visited Mecca and Medina. The Prophet Muhammad received him and always addressed him with the title of Makhdoom. From that time Arab people descended from that family are especially called "Makhdoom" which means one who is served. Quraishis in Punjab and Sindh provinces of Pakistan use this title as sacerdotal dignity.
People with the title Makhdoom include:
* Makhdoom Muhammad Ameen Faheem, Pakistani politician, and central leader of PPP.
* Makhdoom Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat, Pakistani politician affiliated with PML-Q, and former Interior Minister of Pakistan.
* Hamza Makhdum, Sufi saint from Kashmir (d. 1563 AD)
* Makhdoom Muhammad Javed Hashmi, Pakistani politician, and central leader of PML-N.
* Junaydollo Makhdoom Hodeq, Uzbekistan, Tajik poet
* Makhdoom Abdul Baqa bin Khawaja Baha Al Din bin Khawaja Ahmed, Naqsbandi saint, author of Jame al Maqamat
* Makhdoom Abhari, Darya Khan Sind, preacher of rational sciences
* Makhdoom Abul Fateh Hosayni Jorjani, Shia Jurist
* Makhdoom Ahmed Danes, Sufi, Engineer, Historian and progressive Tajik Writer in Bukhara
* Makhdoom Ahmed Nawaz, Landlord of Mianwali and Bhakkar Punjab.
* Makhdoom Ali Hijvari Almaroof Datta Gunj Bhaksh, a famous Sufi of Punjab Pakistan.
* Makhdoom Ali Khan, Former Attorney General of Pakistan.
* Makhdoom Ali Mahimi, Sufi saint from the Konkan in India.
* Makhdoom Bah ud din Zakria, Sufi
* Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs within Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2004 to 2007.
* Makhdoom Mohammad Rafique, Grammarian, Dramatist, Communist Mazdoor Kissan Party
* Makhdoom Mohiuddin, Urdu poet and Marxist politician from India.
* Makhdoom Muhammad Aslam, Landlord of Mianwali and Bhakkar Punjab.
* Makhdoom Muhammad Sadiq, Landlord of Mianwali and Bhakkar Punjab.
* Makhdoom Shaikh Jala al Din Bokari, Almaroof Makhdoom-e-Jahanian and Jahangast, Sufi
* Makhdoom Syed Akhtar Husain Shah, Pakistani politician in affiliation with PPP, former MPA Sindh.
* Makhdoom Syed Bashir Ahmed Shah, Political leader affiliated with PPP, and former Minister for Food, Agriculture and Forests during the Zulfikar Ali Bhutto government.
* Makhdoom Syed Muhammad Hashim Thattvi Sindhi, Renowned Islamic scholar
* Makhdoom-e-Azam Ahmed Khajagi bin Jalal Al din Kasani, Sufi, and author of about 30 treatises.
* Makhdoom-ul-mulk Hazrat Shaikh Sharafuddin Ahmad bin Yahya Maneri of Biharsharif 1263 - 1379 AD
* Makhdoom Mian Mir, Sufi from Lahore At the request of Sikh High priests laid first foundation of Golden Temple.
* Sayed Makhdoom Raheen, Afghanistan Ambassador in India And former Information Minister of Afghanistan.
* Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Pakistani politician, current Foreign Minister of Pakistan and president of PPP Punjab.
* Makhdoom Muhammad Zaman Talib-ul-Mola, Founding member of Pakistan Peoples Party, famous Sindhi poet, Ex. Sajjadah Nasheen of Dargah Sarwar Nooh, Hala Sindh.
* Makhdoom Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani, Prime Minister of Pakistan and Vice-Chairman of PPP
'Abd Allah Sultanpuri see Makhdum al-Mulk
Sultanpuri, 'Abd Allah see Makhdum al-Mulk
Makhdoom-ul-Mulk see Makhdum al-Mulk
Makhdum al-Mulk (Makhdoom-ul-Mulk). Title of ‘Abd Allah Sultanpuri.
Makhdoom is a Muslim Sufi title in South Asia and Central Asia. This title is now used by the descendents of the Sufi masters who are mostly Pirs, politicians and landlords in southern Punjab and Sindh in Pakistan. Hazrat Abbas, respectable maternal uncle of the Prophet Muhammad, usually visited Mecca and Medina. The Prophet Muhammad received him and always addressed him with the title of Makhdoom. From that time Arab people descended from that family are especially called "Makhdoom" which means one who is served. Quraishis in Punjab and Sindh provinces of Pakistan use this title as sacerdotal dignity.
People with the title Makhdoom include:
* Makhdoom Muhammad Ameen Faheem, Pakistani politician, and central leader of PPP.
* Makhdoom Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat, Pakistani politician affiliated with PML-Q, and former Interior Minister of Pakistan.
* Hamza Makhdum, Sufi saint from Kashmir (d. 1563 AD)
* Makhdoom Muhammad Javed Hashmi, Pakistani politician, and central leader of PML-N.
* Junaydollo Makhdoom Hodeq, Uzbekistan, Tajik poet
* Makhdoom Abdul Baqa bin Khawaja Baha Al Din bin Khawaja Ahmed, Naqsbandi saint, author of Jame al Maqamat
* Makhdoom Abhari, Darya Khan Sind, preacher of rational sciences
* Makhdoom Abul Fateh Hosayni Jorjani, Shia Jurist
* Makhdoom Ahmed Danes, Sufi, Engineer, Historian and progressive Tajik Writer in Bukhara
* Makhdoom Ahmed Nawaz, Landlord of Mianwali and Bhakkar Punjab.
* Makhdoom Ali Hijvari Almaroof Datta Gunj Bhaksh, a famous Sufi of Punjab Pakistan.
* Makhdoom Ali Khan, Former Attorney General of Pakistan.
* Makhdoom Ali Mahimi, Sufi saint from the Konkan in India.
* Makhdoom Bah ud din Zakria, Sufi
* Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs within Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2004 to 2007.
* Makhdoom Mohammad Rafique, Grammarian, Dramatist, Communist Mazdoor Kissan Party
* Makhdoom Mohiuddin, Urdu poet and Marxist politician from India.
* Makhdoom Muhammad Aslam, Landlord of Mianwali and Bhakkar Punjab.
* Makhdoom Muhammad Sadiq, Landlord of Mianwali and Bhakkar Punjab.
* Makhdoom Shaikh Jala al Din Bokari, Almaroof Makhdoom-e-Jahanian and Jahangast, Sufi
* Makhdoom Syed Akhtar Husain Shah, Pakistani politician in affiliation with PPP, former MPA Sindh.
* Makhdoom Syed Bashir Ahmed Shah, Political leader affiliated with PPP, and former Minister for Food, Agriculture and Forests during the Zulfikar Ali Bhutto government.
* Makhdoom Syed Muhammad Hashim Thattvi Sindhi, Renowned Islamic scholar
* Makhdoom-e-Azam Ahmed Khajagi bin Jalal Al din Kasani, Sufi, and author of about 30 treatises.
* Makhdoom-ul-mulk Hazrat Shaikh Sharafuddin Ahmad bin Yahya Maneri of Biharsharif 1263 - 1379 AD
* Makhdoom Mian Mir, Sufi from Lahore At the request of Sikh High priests laid first foundation of Golden Temple.
* Sayed Makhdoom Raheen, Afghanistan Ambassador in India And former Information Minister of Afghanistan.
* Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Pakistani politician, current Foreign Minister of Pakistan and president of PPP Punjab.
* Makhdoom Muhammad Zaman Talib-ul-Mola, Founding member of Pakistan Peoples Party, famous Sindhi poet, Ex. Sajjadah Nasheen of Dargah Sarwar Nooh, Hala Sindh.
* Makhdoom Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani, Prime Minister of Pakistan and Vice-Chairman of PPP
'Abd Allah Sultanpuri see Makhdum al-Mulk
Sultanpuri, 'Abd Allah see Makhdum al-Mulk
Makhdoom-ul-Mulk see Makhdum al-Mulk
Makhfi
Makhfi (Zib al-Nisa’ Begum) (Zeb-un-Nisa) (Zebunnisa) (Zeb-ul-Nissa) (Zeb-un-Nisa Makhfi) (1637-1702). Daughter of the Mughal Emperor Aurangzib. Competent in Arabic and Persian and skilled in calligraphy, she was a great lover of books.
The name Zeb-un-Nisa is derived from two words. "Zeb" means "beauty" or "ornament" in Persian. "Nisa" means "women" in Arabic. Combined the name "Zeb-un-Nisa" means "most beautiful of all women."
Zeb-un-Nisa was the eldes daughter of the Mughal Emperor Aurangzib (known as Alamgir). She was born during the reign of Shah Jahan. Her mother was Delras Baneo, daughter of Shahnawaz Safavid.
Aurangzeb charged Mariam, one of the women of the court, with the education of Zeb-un-Nisa. Through her efforts, Zeb-un-Nisa memorized the Qur'an in three years. Then she studied the sciences of the time with Mohammad Saeed Ashraf Mazandarani. Zeb-un-Nisa also studied philosophy, astronomy, and literature while becoming fluent in Persian, Arabic and Urdu.
Zeb-un-Nisa began to narrate poems in Persian from the age of 14, but as her father did not like poetry, she would write secretly. Ustad Bayaz, one of her teachers, found her poems and then encouraged her to continue narrating poems. It is reported that in the court of Aurangzeb, there were literary and poetry parties and the great poets like Ghani Kashmiri, Naimatullah Khan and Aqil Khan Razi, and Zeb-un-Nisa participated secretly in these parties.
When Aurangzeb became the emperor after Shah Jahan, Zeb-un-Nisa was 21 years old. Aurangzeb came to appreciate the talent and ability of his daughter, Zeb-un-Nisa. Aurangzeb discussed affairs of state with Zeb-un-Nisa and listened to her opinions. It has been mentioned in some books that Aurangzeb sent all the royal princes for the reception of Zeb-un-Nisa each time she entered the court. Zeb-un-Nisa had four other sisters: Zeenat-un-Nisa, Badr-un-Nisa, Mehr-un-Nisa and Zehdat-un-Nisa. Among them, Zeenat-un-Nisa and Zebdat-un-Nisa wrote poems too.
Zeb-un-Nisa did not get married and remained single until her death, despite the fact she had many suitors. She devoted all her life on literary works and poetry.
Zeb-un-Nisa selected the name "Makhfi" (meaning "Hidden One" in Persian) as her literary pen name. In addition to her poetic book or collection of poems, called Diwan, which contains approximately 5,000 verses, she also wrote "Monis-ul-Roh", "Zeb-ul Monsha'at" and "Zeb-ul-Tafasir."
Zeb-un-Nisa died in 1702 in Shahjahanabad (old Delhi, India), while Aurangzeb was on a trip to the Deccan. Her tomb was originally in the garden of "Thirty thousand trees", outside of the Kabuli Gate. However, when the railway line was laid out at Delhi, her tomb was shifted to Akhbar's mausoleum at Sikandara, Agra.
Zib al-Nisa' Begum see Makhfi
Begum, Zib al-Nisa' see Makhfi
Zeb-un-Nisa see Makhfi
Zebunnisa see Makhfi
Zeb-ul-Nissa see Makhfi
Zeb-un-Nisa Makhfi see Makhfi
Makhfi (Zib al-Nisa’ Begum) (Zeb-un-Nisa) (Zebunnisa) (Zeb-ul-Nissa) (Zeb-un-Nisa Makhfi) (1637-1702). Daughter of the Mughal Emperor Aurangzib. Competent in Arabic and Persian and skilled in calligraphy, she was a great lover of books.
The name Zeb-un-Nisa is derived from two words. "Zeb" means "beauty" or "ornament" in Persian. "Nisa" means "women" in Arabic. Combined the name "Zeb-un-Nisa" means "most beautiful of all women."
Zeb-un-Nisa was the eldes daughter of the Mughal Emperor Aurangzib (known as Alamgir). She was born during the reign of Shah Jahan. Her mother was Delras Baneo, daughter of Shahnawaz Safavid.
Aurangzeb charged Mariam, one of the women of the court, with the education of Zeb-un-Nisa. Through her efforts, Zeb-un-Nisa memorized the Qur'an in three years. Then she studied the sciences of the time with Mohammad Saeed Ashraf Mazandarani. Zeb-un-Nisa also studied philosophy, astronomy, and literature while becoming fluent in Persian, Arabic and Urdu.
Zeb-un-Nisa began to narrate poems in Persian from the age of 14, but as her father did not like poetry, she would write secretly. Ustad Bayaz, one of her teachers, found her poems and then encouraged her to continue narrating poems. It is reported that in the court of Aurangzeb, there were literary and poetry parties and the great poets like Ghani Kashmiri, Naimatullah Khan and Aqil Khan Razi, and Zeb-un-Nisa participated secretly in these parties.
When Aurangzeb became the emperor after Shah Jahan, Zeb-un-Nisa was 21 years old. Aurangzeb came to appreciate the talent and ability of his daughter, Zeb-un-Nisa. Aurangzeb discussed affairs of state with Zeb-un-Nisa and listened to her opinions. It has been mentioned in some books that Aurangzeb sent all the royal princes for the reception of Zeb-un-Nisa each time she entered the court. Zeb-un-Nisa had four other sisters: Zeenat-un-Nisa, Badr-un-Nisa, Mehr-un-Nisa and Zehdat-un-Nisa. Among them, Zeenat-un-Nisa and Zebdat-un-Nisa wrote poems too.
Zeb-un-Nisa did not get married and remained single until her death, despite the fact she had many suitors. She devoted all her life on literary works and poetry.
Zeb-un-Nisa selected the name "Makhfi" (meaning "Hidden One" in Persian) as her literary pen name. In addition to her poetic book or collection of poems, called Diwan, which contains approximately 5,000 verses, she also wrote "Monis-ul-Roh", "Zeb-ul Monsha'at" and "Zeb-ul-Tafasir."
Zeb-un-Nisa died in 1702 in Shahjahanabad (old Delhi, India), while Aurangzeb was on a trip to the Deccan. Her tomb was originally in the garden of "Thirty thousand trees", outside of the Kabuli Gate. However, when the railway line was laid out at Delhi, her tomb was shifted to Akhbar's mausoleum at Sikandara, Agra.
Zib al-Nisa' Begum see Makhfi
Begum, Zib al-Nisa' see Makhfi
Zeb-un-Nisa see Makhfi
Zebunnisa see Makhfi
Zeb-ul-Nissa see Makhfi
Zeb-un-Nisa Makhfi see Makhfi
Makhrama, Ba
Makhrama, Ba (Ba Makhrama) (Abu Makhrama). South Arabian Himyarite clan of Shafi‘i jurists and Sufis who lived in Hadhramaut and Aden in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
Bamakhrama is a tribe from Hadhramaut state in the Republic of Yemen. This family is one of the tribes which constitute the "Hemiyar" tribe. Hemiyar is one of the largest tribes in the Arabian Peninsula. Bamakhrama is famous for its scientists, judges, and scholars. For thousands of years Bamakhrama was responsible for the "justice" affairs between Hemiyar tribes.
Here are some of the most famous scholars from Bamakhrama:
- Ahmed bin Abdullah bin Ahmed Bamakhrama: Born in Aden on 1461. He studied Islamic Fiqh, mathematics and became famous scholar and scientist. He died on 1505.
- El-Tayeb bin Abdullah bin Ahmed Bamakhrama: Born in Aden on 1465. He studied Islamic Fiqh, mathematics, Arabic and became the judge of Aden until he died on 1540.
- Abdullah bin Ahmed bin Ali Bamakhrama: Born in Hajrin, Hadhramaut on 1429, then he moved to Aden for study. He studied Islamic fiqh, mathematics, engineering, Arabic, Tafseer, and Arabic grammar. After that he became the judge of Aden. He wrote books in Islamic fiqh, engineering and mathematics, and Arabic.
Ba Makhrama see Makhrama, Ba
Abu Makhrama see Makhrama, Ba
Bamakhrama see Makhrama, Ba
Makhrama, Ba (Ba Makhrama) (Abu Makhrama). South Arabian Himyarite clan of Shafi‘i jurists and Sufis who lived in Hadhramaut and Aden in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
Bamakhrama is a tribe from Hadhramaut state in the Republic of Yemen. This family is one of the tribes which constitute the "Hemiyar" tribe. Hemiyar is one of the largest tribes in the Arabian Peninsula. Bamakhrama is famous for its scientists, judges, and scholars. For thousands of years Bamakhrama was responsible for the "justice" affairs between Hemiyar tribes.
Here are some of the most famous scholars from Bamakhrama:
- Ahmed bin Abdullah bin Ahmed Bamakhrama: Born in Aden on 1461. He studied Islamic Fiqh, mathematics and became famous scholar and scientist. He died on 1505.
- El-Tayeb bin Abdullah bin Ahmed Bamakhrama: Born in Aden on 1465. He studied Islamic Fiqh, mathematics, Arabic and became the judge of Aden until he died on 1540.
- Abdullah bin Ahmed bin Ali Bamakhrama: Born in Hajrin, Hadhramaut on 1429, then he moved to Aden for study. He studied Islamic fiqh, mathematics, engineering, Arabic, Tafseer, and Arabic grammar. After that he became the judge of Aden. He wrote books in Islamic fiqh, engineering and mathematics, and Arabic.
Ba Makhrama see Makhrama, Ba
Abu Makhrama see Makhrama, Ba
Bamakhrama see Makhrama, Ba
Makhzum, Banu
Makhzum, Banu (Banu Makhzum). Clan of Quraysh which achieved a prominent position in pre-Islamic MeccBanū Makhzūm was one of the wealthy clans of Quraysh, the Arab tribe of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.
Famous individuals of the Banū Makhzūm include
* Amr ibn Hishām better known as Abu Al-Hakam or Abu Jahl
* Walid ibn al-Mughira
* Umm Salama Hind bint Abi Umayya
* Khalid ibn al-Walid
* Mughira ibn Abd-Allah
* Hisham ibn al-Mughirah
* Ibn Zaydún
Banu Makhzum see Makhzum, Banu
Makhzum, Banu (Banu Makhzum). Clan of Quraysh which achieved a prominent position in pre-Islamic MeccBanū Makhzūm was one of the wealthy clans of Quraysh, the Arab tribe of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.
Famous individuals of the Banū Makhzūm include
* Amr ibn Hishām better known as Abu Al-Hakam or Abu Jahl
* Walid ibn al-Mughira
* Umm Salama Hind bint Abi Umayya
* Khalid ibn al-Walid
* Mughira ibn Abd-Allah
* Hisham ibn al-Mughirah
* Ibn Zaydún
Banu Makhzum see Makhzum, Banu
Makin ibn al-‘Amid, Jirjis al-
Makin ibn al-‘Amid, Jirjis al- (Jirjis al-Makin ibn al-‘Amid) (George Elmacin) (Girgis al-Makin) (Ibn Amid) (1205-1273). Arabic-speaking Coptic historian. His History, covering the period from the creation of the world to the accession of the Mameluke Sultan Baybars in 1260, was one of the first medieval Arabic chronicles to become known in Europe.
Girgis al-Makin, also known as Ibn Amid, was an Arabic Christian historian. The details of his life come from passages at the end of his own history. He was born in Cairo in Egypt in 1205. His full name in His great grandfather was a merchant from Tikrit in Iraq who settled in Egypt.
He was a Coptic Christian and was known in the east as Ibn-Amid. He held high office in the military office (dīwān alğayš) in Cairo.
Such a position carried risks. He was twice imprisoned, possibly because of links to the contemporary unrest in Syria at the time of the Mongol invasion; in one case for over a decade.
After his release, he wrote his chronicle in the years 1262-8, after his career (and his time in prison) was over. Later he moved to Damascus, where he died in 1273.
His sole surviving work is a world chronicle in two parts, entitled al-Majmu` al-Mubarak (The blessed collection). The first portion runs from Adam down to the 11th year of Heraclius. The second half is a history of the Saracens, which extends from the time of Mohammed to the accession of the Mameluke Sultan Baybars in 1260. The second half is mainly derived from the Persian writer Al-Tabari, as the author tells us, and was used by later Muslim and Christian writers.
In the first half, the work is structured as a series of numbered biographies of the most important men of the time, with Adam as the first. Down to 586 B.C.T., the history is based on the Bible. Later data is based on various sources. The first half ends with a list of Patriarchs of the church of Alexandria.
Ibn Amid's work was not hugely original. He drew on earlier sources, including the world history of Ibn al-Rahib. But it was very influential in both East and West. It was used by the 14-15th century Muslim historians Ibn Khaldun, al-Qalqashandi, and al-Maqrizi.
The second half was published in Arabic and Latin at Leiden in 1625. The Latin version is a translation by Erpenius (van Erpen), under the title, Historia saracenica, and from this a French translation was made by Wattier as L'Histoire mahomtane (Paris, 1657). An abbreviated English translation was also made from the Latin by Purchas. The translation by Erpenius was one of the first ever made of an Arabic text in modern times, and suffers accordingly from the lack of Lexica and difficulties with the language.
A continuation of the Chronicle also exists, written by Al-Muffadal ibn abi Al-Fada`il, who was also a Copt and may have been the author's great-nephew. It continues the text to the death of al-Malik al-Nasir in 1341. This contains only limited references to events in the Coptic community, and is mainly a secular history concerned with Muslim affairs. The continuation survives in only a single manuscript, and was apparently written for personal use.
Jirjis al-Makin ibn al-'Amid see Makin ibn al-‘Amid, Jirjis al-
Girgis al-Makin see Makin ibn al-‘Amid, Jirjis al-
George Elmacin see Makin ibn al-‘Amid, Jirjis al-
Ibn Amid see Makin ibn al-‘Amid, Jirjis al-
Makin ibn al-‘Amid, Jirjis al- (Jirjis al-Makin ibn al-‘Amid) (George Elmacin) (Girgis al-Makin) (Ibn Amid) (1205-1273). Arabic-speaking Coptic historian. His History, covering the period from the creation of the world to the accession of the Mameluke Sultan Baybars in 1260, was one of the first medieval Arabic chronicles to become known in Europe.
Girgis al-Makin, also known as Ibn Amid, was an Arabic Christian historian. The details of his life come from passages at the end of his own history. He was born in Cairo in Egypt in 1205. His full name in His great grandfather was a merchant from Tikrit in Iraq who settled in Egypt.
He was a Coptic Christian and was known in the east as Ibn-Amid. He held high office in the military office (dīwān alğayš) in Cairo.
Such a position carried risks. He was twice imprisoned, possibly because of links to the contemporary unrest in Syria at the time of the Mongol invasion; in one case for over a decade.
After his release, he wrote his chronicle in the years 1262-8, after his career (and his time in prison) was over. Later he moved to Damascus, where he died in 1273.
His sole surviving work is a world chronicle in two parts, entitled al-Majmu` al-Mubarak (The blessed collection). The first portion runs from Adam down to the 11th year of Heraclius. The second half is a history of the Saracens, which extends from the time of Mohammed to the accession of the Mameluke Sultan Baybars in 1260. The second half is mainly derived from the Persian writer Al-Tabari, as the author tells us, and was used by later Muslim and Christian writers.
In the first half, the work is structured as a series of numbered biographies of the most important men of the time, with Adam as the first. Down to 586 B.C.T., the history is based on the Bible. Later data is based on various sources. The first half ends with a list of Patriarchs of the church of Alexandria.
Ibn Amid's work was not hugely original. He drew on earlier sources, including the world history of Ibn al-Rahib. But it was very influential in both East and West. It was used by the 14-15th century Muslim historians Ibn Khaldun, al-Qalqashandi, and al-Maqrizi.
The second half was published in Arabic and Latin at Leiden in 1625. The Latin version is a translation by Erpenius (van Erpen), under the title, Historia saracenica, and from this a French translation was made by Wattier as L'Histoire mahomtane (Paris, 1657). An abbreviated English translation was also made from the Latin by Purchas. The translation by Erpenius was one of the first ever made of an Arabic text in modern times, and suffers accordingly from the lack of Lexica and difficulties with the language.
A continuation of the Chronicle also exists, written by Al-Muffadal ibn abi Al-Fada`il, who was also a Copt and may have been the author's great-nephew. It continues the text to the death of al-Malik al-Nasir in 1341. This contains only limited references to events in the Coptic community, and is mainly a secular history concerned with Muslim affairs. The continuation survives in only a single manuscript, and was apparently written for personal use.
Jirjis al-Makin ibn al-'Amid see Makin ibn al-‘Amid, Jirjis al-
Girgis al-Makin see Makin ibn al-‘Amid, Jirjis al-
George Elmacin see Makin ibn al-‘Amid, Jirjis al-
Ibn Amid see Makin ibn al-‘Amid, Jirjis al-
Makramids
Makramids. Family which held the spiritual and political leadership of the Banu Yam and the Sulaymani Isma‘ili community in Najran and Yemen since the seventeenth century.
Makramids. Family which held the spiritual and political leadership of the Banu Yam and the Sulaymani Isma‘ili community in Najran and Yemen since the seventeenth century.
Makua
Makua. Largest tribal group of Muslims in Mozambique. The Makua also have a large population residing in the Masasi District of the Mtwara Region in southern Tanzania. They live in the region to the north of the Zambezi River.
Most Makua are Christians or Sunni Muslims, with some animists.
There are some Makua people known to be residing in South Africa. They first lived in the Durban township called Bluff. However, due to the Group Areas Act, they were forcibly removed from Bluff and settled in Bayview, Chatsworth, and Durban in 1960. Although the majority of the Makua people in South Africa were settled in Bayview, some live in Wentworth, Marianhill, Marianridge, Umlazi, Newlands East and West, Pietermaritzburg, Cape Town and Johannesburg.
The Makua people in South Africa are predominantly Muslims. The Makua language, a Niger-Congo language, is still spoken among the people, alongside Afrikaans and Zulu (in South Africa), Portuguese in Mozambique, some Swahili by the elders of the community but still spoken by many on the Tanzania-Mozambican border, and English in South Africa and Tanzania.
The Makua are the largest ethnic group in northern Mozambique, and also have a large population across the border in the Masasi District of Mtwara Region in southern Tanzania. They live in the region to the north of the Zambezi River.
Makua. Largest tribal group of Muslims in Mozambique. The Makua also have a large population residing in the Masasi District of the Mtwara Region in southern Tanzania. They live in the region to the north of the Zambezi River.
Most Makua are Christians or Sunni Muslims, with some animists.
There are some Makua people known to be residing in South Africa. They first lived in the Durban township called Bluff. However, due to the Group Areas Act, they were forcibly removed from Bluff and settled in Bayview, Chatsworth, and Durban in 1960. Although the majority of the Makua people in South Africa were settled in Bayview, some live in Wentworth, Marianhill, Marianridge, Umlazi, Newlands East and West, Pietermaritzburg, Cape Town and Johannesburg.
The Makua people in South Africa are predominantly Muslims. The Makua language, a Niger-Congo language, is still spoken among the people, alongside Afrikaans and Zulu (in South Africa), Portuguese in Mozambique, some Swahili by the elders of the community but still spoken by many on the Tanzania-Mozambican border, and English in South Africa and Tanzania.
The Makua are the largest ethnic group in northern Mozambique, and also have a large population across the border in the Masasi District of Mtwara Region in southern Tanzania. They live in the region to the north of the Zambezi River.
Mala’ika
Mala’ika (Malaekah). Arabic word which means “angels”. Given its form and and the confusion of the root in the singular with the Arabic word for king (malik), the word mala’ika is probably borrowed from the Northwest Semitic word mal’ak which means “messenger.” This Semitic word was then adopted by pre-Islamic Arabic.
The plural word mala’ika occurs frequently in the Qur’an, but the singular only twelve times. In accord with usual Middle Eastern views, angels are described as winged, with two, three, or four wings. All angels have defined functions. There is an Angel of Death, unnamed in the Qur’an, and a keeper of Hell, called Malik, a probable derivative from the common noun.
The angels Michael and Gabriel are messengers. Gabriel is deemed to be the most important of all the angels because of his role as bearer of the Qur’an to Muhammad.
The Qur’an spends little time in descriptions of angels but devotes attention to their role and function. The Qur’anic attitude assumes a knowledge and understanding of angels on the part of the reader, but later commentary expanded on the brief accounts of the angels and added elements derived from Judeo-Christian tradition and from folklore.
Of some concern in the Qur’an and its commentaries is the status of Iblis -- Satan -- the Devil. In one passage, Iblis is termed a jinn, but, in another passage, Iblis is called an angel. This dual designation for Iblis has led to jinn and angels being equated in the minds of some commentators. In Sura 2:30, the story of the submission of the angels to the will of Allah is given along with the account of the rebellion of Iblis and his band. In hadith from ‘A’isha, Muhammad is supposed to have said that angels were created from light and the jinn from fire, the words having the same root in Arabic. The two angels Harut and Marut (see Sura 2:102) and their association with magic have caused the commentators some problems, as have the two angels Munkar and Nakir, not mentioned in the Qur’an but only in the commentaries, who have the duty of questioning the dead in the grave to determine whether or not they will be punished or rewarded. Angels are guardians of humankind but also recorders of human deeds.
The writers of kalam sought by combining passages from the Qur’an, hadith, and ideas derived from philosophy to further define the nature of angels. The Neoplatonists made some of the angels into the animating forces of the spheres, and there was much discussion about whether the angels could be classed as animals.
An angel whose legend has no basis in the Qur’an or in prophetic tradition, but who is prominent in later eschatological discussion, is Israfil. He is assigned the task of reading the divine decree and of blowing the trumpet to signal the Day of Judgment.
Malaekah see Mala’ika
Angels see Mala’ika
Mala’ika (Malaekah). Arabic word which means “angels”. Given its form and and the confusion of the root in the singular with the Arabic word for king (malik), the word mala’ika is probably borrowed from the Northwest Semitic word mal’ak which means “messenger.” This Semitic word was then adopted by pre-Islamic Arabic.
The plural word mala’ika occurs frequently in the Qur’an, but the singular only twelve times. In accord with usual Middle Eastern views, angels are described as winged, with two, three, or four wings. All angels have defined functions. There is an Angel of Death, unnamed in the Qur’an, and a keeper of Hell, called Malik, a probable derivative from the common noun.
The angels Michael and Gabriel are messengers. Gabriel is deemed to be the most important of all the angels because of his role as bearer of the Qur’an to Muhammad.
The Qur’an spends little time in descriptions of angels but devotes attention to their role and function. The Qur’anic attitude assumes a knowledge and understanding of angels on the part of the reader, but later commentary expanded on the brief accounts of the angels and added elements derived from Judeo-Christian tradition and from folklore.
Of some concern in the Qur’an and its commentaries is the status of Iblis -- Satan -- the Devil. In one passage, Iblis is termed a jinn, but, in another passage, Iblis is called an angel. This dual designation for Iblis has led to jinn and angels being equated in the minds of some commentators. In Sura 2:30, the story of the submission of the angels to the will of Allah is given along with the account of the rebellion of Iblis and his band. In hadith from ‘A’isha, Muhammad is supposed to have said that angels were created from light and the jinn from fire, the words having the same root in Arabic. The two angels Harut and Marut (see Sura 2:102) and their association with magic have caused the commentators some problems, as have the two angels Munkar and Nakir, not mentioned in the Qur’an but only in the commentaries, who have the duty of questioning the dead in the grave to determine whether or not they will be punished or rewarded. Angels are guardians of humankind but also recorders of human deeds.
The writers of kalam sought by combining passages from the Qur’an, hadith, and ideas derived from philosophy to further define the nature of angels. The Neoplatonists made some of the angels into the animating forces of the spheres, and there was much discussion about whether the angels could be classed as animals.
An angel whose legend has no basis in the Qur’an or in prophetic tradition, but who is prominent in later eschatological discussion, is Israfil. He is assigned the task of reading the divine decree and of blowing the trumpet to signal the Day of Judgment.
Malaekah see Mala’ika
Angels see Mala’ika
Malak Hifni Nasif
Malak Hifni Nasif (Bahithat al-Badiya) (Malak Hifni Nassif) (1886-1918). Pen-name of Bahithat al-Badiya, a pioneer protagonist of women’s rights in Egypt. In her ideas on emancipation, she was influenced by the writings of Qasim Amin, though her goals usually remained more moderate and her concern with proper Islamic norms was strong. She defended the veil but was bitterly opposed to polygamy.
An Egyptian Muslim, Malak Hifni Nasif publicly advocated women's advancement in the early twentieth century during the al-nahda al-nisa'iyya (women's awakening). This was a period in which women were increasingly able to publish essays, stories, and letters in the nascent women's press and also in the general press. The women's press and the writers who contributed to it played an important role in the development of feminism and the reform of social institutions in a number of Middle Eastern countries. Nasif, along with prominent figures such as May Ziadeh, were active in literary and social groups through which they contributed to the intellectual and public debate about nationalism and how to define Egyptian and Arab political and cultural identity under the British colonial government.
Nasif articulated one of the founding discourses of feminism that emerged in Egypt during the first third of the twentieth century. Her strain of feminism remained secondary to that embodied in the work of Huda al-Sha'rawi (1882-1947) until the final decades of the twentieth century. In contrast to Sha'rawi's secular and Western-oriented feminism, Nasif's feminism, expressed in her collection of talks and essays, Al-nisa'iyyat (Women's affairs, 1910), de-emphasized Western values as it attempted to affirm and improve women's lives and experience through increased educational and work opportunities within a reformed Islamic context.
Bahithat al-Badiya see Malak Hifni Nasif
Nasif, Malak Hifni see Malak Hifni Nasif
Malak Hifni Nassif see Malak Hifni Nasif
Nassif, Malak Hifni see Malak Hifni Nasif
Badiya, Bahithat al- see Malak Hifni Nasif
Malak Hifni Nasif (Bahithat al-Badiya) (Malak Hifni Nassif) (1886-1918). Pen-name of Bahithat al-Badiya, a pioneer protagonist of women’s rights in Egypt. In her ideas on emancipation, she was influenced by the writings of Qasim Amin, though her goals usually remained more moderate and her concern with proper Islamic norms was strong. She defended the veil but was bitterly opposed to polygamy.
An Egyptian Muslim, Malak Hifni Nasif publicly advocated women's advancement in the early twentieth century during the al-nahda al-nisa'iyya (women's awakening). This was a period in which women were increasingly able to publish essays, stories, and letters in the nascent women's press and also in the general press. The women's press and the writers who contributed to it played an important role in the development of feminism and the reform of social institutions in a number of Middle Eastern countries. Nasif, along with prominent figures such as May Ziadeh, were active in literary and social groups through which they contributed to the intellectual and public debate about nationalism and how to define Egyptian and Arab political and cultural identity under the British colonial government.
Nasif articulated one of the founding discourses of feminism that emerged in Egypt during the first third of the twentieth century. Her strain of feminism remained secondary to that embodied in the work of Huda al-Sha'rawi (1882-1947) until the final decades of the twentieth century. In contrast to Sha'rawi's secular and Western-oriented feminism, Nasif's feminism, expressed in her collection of talks and essays, Al-nisa'iyyat (Women's affairs, 1910), de-emphasized Western values as it attempted to affirm and improve women's lives and experience through increased educational and work opportunities within a reformed Islamic context.
Bahithat al-Badiya see Malak Hifni Nasif
Nasif, Malak Hifni see Malak Hifni Nasif
Malak Hifni Nassif see Malak Hifni Nasif
Nassif, Malak Hifni see Malak Hifni Nasif
Badiya, Bahithat al- see Malak Hifni Nasif
Malayo-Polynesians
Malayo-Polynesians. The East Indonesian province of Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT) is one of two in this “Muslim” country in which Muslims are a minority (the other is Bali). According to the 1980 census, 8.5 percent of the NTT population was Muslim. Despite their numbers, the diverse Muslim peoples of NTT are of interest because of their long historical association with Islam dating from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
More than 80 percent of the Muslim population of NTT is concentrated in five regencies, or kabupaten: (1) East Flores, which includes the islands of Solor, Adonara and Lembara; (2) Alor, which includes the island of Pantar; (3) Ende on the south central coast of the island of Flores; (4) Manggarai on the western end of Flores and (5) Kupang, the regency at the western end of Timor which incorporates the present provincial capital. These regencies are precisely the areas with the oldest links to Islam.
Islam reached these islands from various directions in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries at a time when the Muslim community consisted of peoples of many ethnic groups whose specific origins were less important than their adherence to Islam. Historical evidence suggests that one of the earliest sources of contact with Islam was with Muslim traders from the north coast of Java, particularly Gresik. A second source of contact was with Muslims from the sultanate of Ternate in the northern Moluccas. A third source was with Muslims from the sultanate of Bima on the island of Sumbawa. Since both Ternate and Bima looked to the north coast of Java for their religious traditions, these three sources of contact represent a similar tradition. The Sultan of Ternate claimed sovereignty over Timor and the islands to the east of Flores, whereas the Sultan of Bima claimed Flores and the island of Sumba. Later, in the seventeenth century, Islamic influence emanating from Makassar came to predominate as Makassarese, Bugis and Butonese sailors, accompanied by groups of Bajau, began to penetrate the area and occasionally settle in or near established Muslim communities.
The Portuguese reached these islands by the middle of the sixteenth century, just as Islam was beginning to become established in various coastal settlements. The Portuguese established Christian settlements in opposition to Islam, and this resulted in clashes involving the local population, particularly on the islands of Sotor and Adonara and on the south coast of Flores and Ende. The Dutch arrived early in the seventeenth century and immediately aligned themselves with the Muslims in opposition to their trading rivals, the Portuguese. They signed contracts of trade and alliance with the Sultans of Ternate and Bima as well as with the Muslim rulers of Solor and Adonara, but eventually they were able to compel the sultans of Ternate and Bima to relinquish their claims to these islands, and thereafter the Dutch dealt exclusively with local Muslim rulers. When, in the middle of the seventeenth century, they founded their principal settlement at Kupang on Timor, they ceded a portion of beach near their fort to their Muslim allies. This beach, known as Pantai Solor with its associated settlement, Kampung Solor, has remained an Islamic residence to this day.
The complicated history of Dutch, Portuguese and Islamic relations accounts for the location and distribution of the Muslim peoples of NTT as well as the occurrence of Christian and Muslim members of the same ethnic group. Furthermore, the scattering of Muslim communities throughout the islands has facilitated the historical migration of Bugis and Makassarese, which has increased considerably in recent years. The traditional and still predominant occupations of the Muslim peoples of NTT as fishermen, sailors and traders also have their bases in the history of these islands.
Throughout NTT most Muslims are settled along the coast. Few live in the interior, and virtually none of the population of the interior has converted to Islam. One exception occurred just after 1965 when a sizable group of Timorese or Atoni Pah Meto in the highland district of East Amanuban in the regency of South Central Timor converted to Islam.
Malayo-Polynesians. The East Indonesian province of Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT) is one of two in this “Muslim” country in which Muslims are a minority (the other is Bali). According to the 1980 census, 8.5 percent of the NTT population was Muslim. Despite their numbers, the diverse Muslim peoples of NTT are of interest because of their long historical association with Islam dating from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
More than 80 percent of the Muslim population of NTT is concentrated in five regencies, or kabupaten: (1) East Flores, which includes the islands of Solor, Adonara and Lembara; (2) Alor, which includes the island of Pantar; (3) Ende on the south central coast of the island of Flores; (4) Manggarai on the western end of Flores and (5) Kupang, the regency at the western end of Timor which incorporates the present provincial capital. These regencies are precisely the areas with the oldest links to Islam.
Islam reached these islands from various directions in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries at a time when the Muslim community consisted of peoples of many ethnic groups whose specific origins were less important than their adherence to Islam. Historical evidence suggests that one of the earliest sources of contact with Islam was with Muslim traders from the north coast of Java, particularly Gresik. A second source of contact was with Muslims from the sultanate of Ternate in the northern Moluccas. A third source was with Muslims from the sultanate of Bima on the island of Sumbawa. Since both Ternate and Bima looked to the north coast of Java for their religious traditions, these three sources of contact represent a similar tradition. The Sultan of Ternate claimed sovereignty over Timor and the islands to the east of Flores, whereas the Sultan of Bima claimed Flores and the island of Sumba. Later, in the seventeenth century, Islamic influence emanating from Makassar came to predominate as Makassarese, Bugis and Butonese sailors, accompanied by groups of Bajau, began to penetrate the area and occasionally settle in or near established Muslim communities.
The Portuguese reached these islands by the middle of the sixteenth century, just as Islam was beginning to become established in various coastal settlements. The Portuguese established Christian settlements in opposition to Islam, and this resulted in clashes involving the local population, particularly on the islands of Sotor and Adonara and on the south coast of Flores and Ende. The Dutch arrived early in the seventeenth century and immediately aligned themselves with the Muslims in opposition to their trading rivals, the Portuguese. They signed contracts of trade and alliance with the Sultans of Ternate and Bima as well as with the Muslim rulers of Solor and Adonara, but eventually they were able to compel the sultans of Ternate and Bima to relinquish their claims to these islands, and thereafter the Dutch dealt exclusively with local Muslim rulers. When, in the middle of the seventeenth century, they founded their principal settlement at Kupang on Timor, they ceded a portion of beach near their fort to their Muslim allies. This beach, known as Pantai Solor with its associated settlement, Kampung Solor, has remained an Islamic residence to this day.
The complicated history of Dutch, Portuguese and Islamic relations accounts for the location and distribution of the Muslim peoples of NTT as well as the occurrence of Christian and Muslim members of the same ethnic group. Furthermore, the scattering of Muslim communities throughout the islands has facilitated the historical migration of Bugis and Makassarese, which has increased considerably in recent years. The traditional and still predominant occupations of the Muslim peoples of NTT as fishermen, sailors and traders also have their bases in the history of these islands.
Throughout NTT most Muslims are settled along the coast. Few live in the interior, and virtually none of the population of the interior has converted to Islam. One exception occurred just after 1965 when a sizable group of Timorese or Atoni Pah Meto in the highland district of East Amanuban in the regency of South Central Timor converted to Islam.
Malayo-Polynesian speaking peoples
Malayo-Polynesian speaking peoples. Several different geographical groups are represented by populations that speak Malayo-Polynesian languages. Although these various populations speak languages of a single family of languages and share certain cultural traits associated with an ancient horticultural technology, they are culturally diverse.
Islam spread into Southeast Asia within a century or two of the Prophet’s lifetime, but it was not immediately successful. Marco Polo noted that it was the religion of Pasai, in northern Sumatra, at the end of the thirteenth century, but Hindu-Buddhism was elsewhere the major religion. Probably, native chiefs came to view Islam as an ideology that might focus support for overthrowing traditional empires, such as Javanese Majapahit, that were overbearing and that interfered with chiefly interests in local and long-distance sea trade. Moreover, Islam provided a means for claiming special trading privileges with Gujarati, Arab, Persian and Turkish traders who controlled so much of Western commerce in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Melaka was not the first city state in the area to become Islamic, but it was the most successful and was most responsible for the further spread of Islam throughout Southeast Asia. The Acehnese were probably converted earlier to Islam, and they developed an important trading empire that existed along with that of Johore and Portugal after the fall of Melaka to the Portuguese in 1511. The Acehnese did not succeed in assimilating many other ethnic groups to their culture, not even those whom they conquered, such as the Gayo (who still maintain much of their Batak culture) or the northern Minangkabau, but their capital city, Kota Raja, did become a center of Islamic learning that was important not only to Southeast Asia but to the Islamic world generally.
Malayo-Polynesian speaking peoples. Several different geographical groups are represented by populations that speak Malayo-Polynesian languages. Although these various populations speak languages of a single family of languages and share certain cultural traits associated with an ancient horticultural technology, they are culturally diverse.
Islam spread into Southeast Asia within a century or two of the Prophet’s lifetime, but it was not immediately successful. Marco Polo noted that it was the religion of Pasai, in northern Sumatra, at the end of the thirteenth century, but Hindu-Buddhism was elsewhere the major religion. Probably, native chiefs came to view Islam as an ideology that might focus support for overthrowing traditional empires, such as Javanese Majapahit, that were overbearing and that interfered with chiefly interests in local and long-distance sea trade. Moreover, Islam provided a means for claiming special trading privileges with Gujarati, Arab, Persian and Turkish traders who controlled so much of Western commerce in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Melaka was not the first city state in the area to become Islamic, but it was the most successful and was most responsible for the further spread of Islam throughout Southeast Asia. The Acehnese were probably converted earlier to Islam, and they developed an important trading empire that existed along with that of Johore and Portugal after the fall of Melaka to the Portuguese in 1511. The Acehnese did not succeed in assimilating many other ethnic groups to their culture, not even those whom they conquered, such as the Gayo (who still maintain much of their Batak culture) or the northern Minangkabau, but their capital city, Kota Raja, did become a center of Islamic learning that was important not only to Southeast Asia but to the Islamic world generally.
Malays
Malays. People of Southeast Asia who are Sunni Muslims. The Malays are an ethnic group of Austronesian peoples predominantly inhabiting the Malay Peninsula, the east coast of Sumatra, the coast of Borneo, and the smaller islands between these locations. The Malay ethnic group is distinct from the concept of a Malay race, which encompasses a wider group of people, including most of Indonesia and the Philippines.
The ancestor of Malays are believed to be seafarers who moved from island to island in great distances between New Zealand and Madagascar, and they served as navigation guide, crew and labor to Indian, Persian and Chinese traders for nearly 2000 years, and over the years they settled at various places and adopted various cultures and religions. Notable Malay seafarers of today are Moken and Orang laut.
Some historians suggest that the Malays were descendants of Austronesian-speakers who migrated from the Philippines and originally from Taiwan. Malay culture reached its golden age during Srivijayan times and they practiced Buddhism, Hinduism, and their native Animism before converting to Islam in the 15th century.
The oldest Malay texts which show Muslim influences come from Trengganu in West Malaysia and Atjeh in Sumatra. Both date from the fourteenth century. The oldest literary manuscripts, written in Arabic letters, date from the last years of the sixteenth century. Malay, as a modern literary language, is generally said to begin with the writings of Abdullah ibn Abdul Kadir Munshi, known as Munshi Abdullah (d. 1854).
Malays call themselves Orang Melayu (Malay persons). Others refer to them as Melayu (or a cognate term, such as Malay in English). The basic meaning of melayu, except as it applies to Malays and to their ancient center of empire near present day Djambi in Sumatra, is lost. Various folk explanations of the term depend on the possible meanings of the apparent root word layu in related dialects and languages, such as “flee,” “fade,” “parch” or “sail.” The word Melayu began in use during the time of the Sultanate of Melaka, founded by the fleeing prince Parameswara, from the declining Melayu Kingdom of Srivijaya in Palembang. The word was in popular use in the 17th century onwards.
During the European colonization, the word "Malay" was adopted into English via the Dutch word "Malayo", itself from the Portuguese "Malaio", which originated from the Malay word "Melayu".
Geographical dispersal has been as effective as assimilation of other populations in creating diversity within Malay culture. The dispersal of Malays was well underway by the fifth century of the Christian calendar when they began to dominate local trade in Southeast Asia and long distance sea trade between northwestern Indian and southern China. Their domination of sea trade continued until the sixteenth century, and even into the early European colonial period before the onset of the Industrial Revolution.
Malays founded several trading empires, among which Sri Vijaya, Melayu and Melaka were most important, and their language became the major language of commerce in Southeast Asian ports. Melaka, successor of fourteenth century Melayu, which lost its empire to the Javanese kingdom of Majapahit, was instrumental in converting many Southeast Asian kingdoms to Islam in the fifteenth century.
In the idiom of the Malay language, to be converted to the Islamic faith is to enter Malay ethnicity (masok melayu). And many non-Malays have become Malays through conversion to Islam and residence in a Malay community. According to folk definition and according to the constitution of the Federation of Malaysia, anyone who habitually speaks Malay language, follows Malay custom, and adheres to the religion of Islam is a Malay. The folk ideal is that all Malays are Muslims.
Various Islamic reform movements have been represented in the Malay world during the twentieth century, but the most revolutionary in its effect was the dakwah “missionary” movement of the 1970s, which convinced some devout Malays that parts of their own traditional world as well as the modern Westernized world are not in conformity with the orthodox practice of Islam. Malays interested in retaining their Malay culture as well as their devotion to Islam comprise a social category separate from that of the dakwahs, and both of these are distinct from “secular” Malays, who are concerned with modernization. The dakwah movement is heavily involved in a persuasive missionary campaign. One manifestation of this is the magazine Dakwah, which began publication in 1977.
Except in rare instances, such as in Sungei Penchala (within the limits of the metropolitan area of Kuala Lumpur), the dakwah movement has not resulted in physically separating Malay communities. Traditional, dakwah and secular Malays live side by side in the same communities. Throughout this ideological fissioning they have remained together residentially and segregated from other ethnic communities of Malaysia. Malay ethnic identity has become more important during this period in part because of the government’s efforts to provide opportunities to recover from the low economic status they held as colonial wards of the British before independence. Many members of the other ethnic communities, principally the Chinese and Indians, object to the present advantages afforded Malays.
Malays. People of Southeast Asia who are Sunni Muslims. The Malays are an ethnic group of Austronesian peoples predominantly inhabiting the Malay Peninsula, the east coast of Sumatra, the coast of Borneo, and the smaller islands between these locations. The Malay ethnic group is distinct from the concept of a Malay race, which encompasses a wider group of people, including most of Indonesia and the Philippines.
The ancestor of Malays are believed to be seafarers who moved from island to island in great distances between New Zealand and Madagascar, and they served as navigation guide, crew and labor to Indian, Persian and Chinese traders for nearly 2000 years, and over the years they settled at various places and adopted various cultures and religions. Notable Malay seafarers of today are Moken and Orang laut.
Some historians suggest that the Malays were descendants of Austronesian-speakers who migrated from the Philippines and originally from Taiwan. Malay culture reached its golden age during Srivijayan times and they practiced Buddhism, Hinduism, and their native Animism before converting to Islam in the 15th century.
The oldest Malay texts which show Muslim influences come from Trengganu in West Malaysia and Atjeh in Sumatra. Both date from the fourteenth century. The oldest literary manuscripts, written in Arabic letters, date from the last years of the sixteenth century. Malay, as a modern literary language, is generally said to begin with the writings of Abdullah ibn Abdul Kadir Munshi, known as Munshi Abdullah (d. 1854).
Malays call themselves Orang Melayu (Malay persons). Others refer to them as Melayu (or a cognate term, such as Malay in English). The basic meaning of melayu, except as it applies to Malays and to their ancient center of empire near present day Djambi in Sumatra, is lost. Various folk explanations of the term depend on the possible meanings of the apparent root word layu in related dialects and languages, such as “flee,” “fade,” “parch” or “sail.” The word Melayu began in use during the time of the Sultanate of Melaka, founded by the fleeing prince Parameswara, from the declining Melayu Kingdom of Srivijaya in Palembang. The word was in popular use in the 17th century onwards.
During the European colonization, the word "Malay" was adopted into English via the Dutch word "Malayo", itself from the Portuguese "Malaio", which originated from the Malay word "Melayu".
Geographical dispersal has been as effective as assimilation of other populations in creating diversity within Malay culture. The dispersal of Malays was well underway by the fifth century of the Christian calendar when they began to dominate local trade in Southeast Asia and long distance sea trade between northwestern Indian and southern China. Their domination of sea trade continued until the sixteenth century, and even into the early European colonial period before the onset of the Industrial Revolution.
Malays founded several trading empires, among which Sri Vijaya, Melayu and Melaka were most important, and their language became the major language of commerce in Southeast Asian ports. Melaka, successor of fourteenth century Melayu, which lost its empire to the Javanese kingdom of Majapahit, was instrumental in converting many Southeast Asian kingdoms to Islam in the fifteenth century.
In the idiom of the Malay language, to be converted to the Islamic faith is to enter Malay ethnicity (masok melayu). And many non-Malays have become Malays through conversion to Islam and residence in a Malay community. According to folk definition and according to the constitution of the Federation of Malaysia, anyone who habitually speaks Malay language, follows Malay custom, and adheres to the religion of Islam is a Malay. The folk ideal is that all Malays are Muslims.
Various Islamic reform movements have been represented in the Malay world during the twentieth century, but the most revolutionary in its effect was the dakwah “missionary” movement of the 1970s, which convinced some devout Malays that parts of their own traditional world as well as the modern Westernized world are not in conformity with the orthodox practice of Islam. Malays interested in retaining their Malay culture as well as their devotion to Islam comprise a social category separate from that of the dakwahs, and both of these are distinct from “secular” Malays, who are concerned with modernization. The dakwah movement is heavily involved in a persuasive missionary campaign. One manifestation of this is the magazine Dakwah, which began publication in 1977.
Except in rare instances, such as in Sungei Penchala (within the limits of the metropolitan area of Kuala Lumpur), the dakwah movement has not resulted in physically separating Malay communities. Traditional, dakwah and secular Malays live side by side in the same communities. Throughout this ideological fissioning they have remained together residentially and segregated from other ethnic communities of Malaysia. Malay ethnic identity has become more important during this period in part because of the government’s efforts to provide opportunities to recover from the low economic status they held as colonial wards of the British before independence. Many members of the other ethnic communities, principally the Chinese and Indians, object to the present advantages afforded Malays.
Malcolm X
Malcolm X (Malcolm Little) (El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz) (May 19, 1925 - February 21, 1965). Icon of the black power movement. Malcolm X, was born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska.
Malcolm Little was the son of a Baptist minister who was an avid supporter of Marcus Garvey’s United Negro Improvement Association. While living in Omaha, the Little family was often harassed. At one point, the family’s house was set afire.
In 1929, the Little family moved to Lansing, Michigan. While in Michigan, Malcolm’s father was killed -- his body severed in two by a streetcar and his head smashed. In his autobiography, written with Alex Haley, Malcolm asserted that his father may have been killed by members of the Ku Klux Klan. Malcolm’s mother, stricken by the death of her husband and the demands of providing for the family, was committed to a mental institution.
Leaving school after the eighth grade, Malcolm made his way to New York City, working for a time as a waiter at Smalls Paradise in Harlem. Malcolm began selling and using drugs. He also began to engage in burglary. It was for burglary that Malcolm was sentenced to a ten-year prison term in 1946.
While in prison, Malcolm became acquainted with the Black Muslim sect, then headed by Elijah Muhammad. Malcolm soon became a convert to the Nation of Islam. Not long afterwards, Malcolm Little became Malcolm X.
Following his parole in 1952, Malcolm became an outspoken defender of Black Muslim doctrines, accepting the basic argument that evil was an inherent characteristic of the “white man’s Christian world.”
Unlike his mentor Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X sought publicity, making provocative and inflammatory statements to predominantly European American civic groups and college campus audiences. Branding European Americans as “devils,” Malcolm X spoke bitterly of a philosophy of vengeance and “an eye for an eye.” When, in 1963, Malcolm characterized the Kennedy assassination as a case of “chickens coming home to roost,” he was suspended from the Nation of Islam by Elijah Muhammad.
Disillusioned with Elijah Muhammad’s teachings (and with Elijah Muhammad’s personal indiscretions), Malcolm formed his own organizations, the Organization of Afro-American Unity and the Muslim Mosque, Inc. In 1964, Malcolm made a pilgrimage to Islam’s holy city, Mecca. After his experiences in Mecca, Malcolm underwent another spiritual metamorphosis. Malcolm became a more orthodox practitioner of Islam and adopted the name El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz.
As a believer in the more orthodox tenets of Islam, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz adopted views that were not popular with other black nationalists, including the view that not all Europeans and European Americans were evil and that Africans and African Americans could make gains by working through established channels.
As a result of his new views, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz became the recipient of death threats. On February 14, 1965, his home was firebombed. His wife and children escaped unharmed. A week later, on February 21, 1965, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz was shot and killed at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem, while preparing to speak. Three of the men arrested were later identified as members of the Nation of Islam.
As Malcolm X, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz had a profound influence on both African Americans and European Americans. Many African Americans responded to a feeling that he was a man of the people, experienced in the ways of the street rather than the pulpit or the college campus, which traditionally had provided the preponderance of African American leaders. Many young European Americans responded to Malcolm’s blunt, colorful language and unwillingness to retreat in the face of hostility.
During the 1960s, as Malcolm X, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz was considered to be a violent fanatic by mainstream America and mainstream Afro-America. Over time, his image as Malcolm X was transformed into one in which the Malcolm X persona became an advocate of self-help, self-defense, and education.
However, the most enduring legacy
may not be the one that is commonly accepted. It should be remembered that just as Malcolm X tried to put his past as Malcolm Little behind so too did El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz try to put his past as Malcolm X behind him. It is important to understand that the man known as Malcolm X was buried under the name El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, and El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz was a devout Sunni Muslim who believed in justice and in the brotherhood of man.
Compounding the misunderstanding concerning the legacy of El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz is the 1992 theatrical release of a movie directed by Spike Lee, a movie entitled Malcolm X. As titled, the movie Malcolm X is respectful iconolatry of a man who evolved into the more fully developed El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz. However, because of the importance of distinguishing historical fact from cinematic myth, some of the historical discrepancies with the movie Malcolm X are discussed here.
The first historical discrepancy centers on the movie's portrayal of Earl Little. In the film, Earl Little is portrayed as a race leader -- a man willing to stand up against European American racists to promote Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association. As a defiant African American in a racist America, the film Malcolm X leaves little doubt that European American racists murdered Earl Little.
However, in The Autobiography of Malcolm X, which was written with Alex Haley’s assistance and was published posthumously, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz paints a far less idealized portrait of his father. As remembered by El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, Earl Little was an abusive husband and father who “savagely” beat his children, except for his favored son, Malcolm. As recalled by El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, “I actually believe that as anti-white as my father was, he was subconsciously so afflicted with the white man’s brainwashing of Negroes that he inclined to favor the light one.”
"My father was a big, six-foot-four, very black man. He had only one eye. How he had lost the other one I have never known. He was from Reynolds, Georgia, where he had left school after the third or maybe fourth grade. ... One of the reasons I’ve always felt that my father favored me was that to the best of my remembrance, it was only me that he sometimes took with him to the Garvey U.N.I.A. meetings which he held quietly in people’s homes. ... I noticed how differently they all acted, although sometimes they were the same people who jumped and shouted in church. But in these meetings both they and my father were more intense, more intelligent and down to earth, it made me feel the same way. ... I remember how the meetings always closed with my father saying, several times, and the people chanting after him, “Up, you mighty race, you can accomplish what you will!”" -- From The Autobiography of Malcolm X.
Only six at the time of Earl Little’s death in 1931, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz could only remember “a vague commotion, the house filled up with people crying, saying bitterly that the white Black Legion had finally gotten him.”
Much of the movie Malcolm X glamorizes the criminal career of Malcolm Little and the fiery speeches of Malcolm X. Unlike the Autobiography, the movie spends little time reflecting on the significance of the final year in the life of El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz. Instead of focusing on the mature political perspective that El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz developed, the movie Malcolm X emphasizes Malcolm’s cynicism, racial pessimism, and uncritical acceptance of the teachings of Elijah Muhammad. The film treats Malcolm’s break with Muhammad as a son’s disillusionment with a morally flawed surrogate father, but Malcolm left the Nation of Islam for political as well as personal reasons. Malcolm’s Autobiography makes it very clear that before Malcolm learned of Elijah Muhammad’s marital infidelities, Malcolm had already become dissatisfied with his leader’s policy of nonengagement, -- a policy which not only prevented members of the Nation of Islam from participating in civil rights protests but even prohibited Nation of Islam members from voting. The blistering verbal attacks that Malcolm X makes on national civil rights leaders are highlighted in the film without showing the ties that El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz made with those same civil rights leaders in the last year of his life.
As the southern civil rights movement grew in scale during 1963, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz came to recognize that Elijah Muhammad’s nonengagement policy was hurting the Nation of Islam’s recruitment efforts in African American communities. Indeed, in the Autobiography, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz admitted his disappointment with the failure of the Nation of Islam in becoming involved in the expanding freedom struggle. El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz said, “I felt that, wherever black people committed themselves, the Little Rocks and the Birminghams and other places, militantly disciplined Muslims should also be there -- for all the world to see, and respect, and discuss. It could be heard increasingly in the Negro communities: ‘Those Muslims talk tough, but they never do anything, unless somebody bothers Muslims.’”
One of the more dramatic scenes in the movie underscores the limitations placed upon those in the Nation of Islam but in the manner portrayed is rather misleading. In the film, Malcolm X is shown demanding and getting hospital treatment for a member of the Nation of Islam named Brother Johnson (Johnson Hinton), who was beaten by New York City police in 1957. Although the incident confirms the notion that the Nation of Islam did not engage in militant action unless its members were threatened, Lee stages the event to suggest that the Nation was far more willing to challenge European American authority than it actually was.
El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz initially defended Elijah Muhammad’s nonengagement policy and fiercely attacked Martin Luther King, Jr.’s strategy of nonviolent resistance. However, he later recognized that the Nation of Islam offered no real alternative for African American civil rights activists who were then facing vicious European American racists in the South. It was far easier to talk about armed self-defense in Harlem than it ever was to face unarmed Bull Connor’s police dogs in Birmingham, Alabama.
Even though the film ignores this fact, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz knew that the Nation of Islam was not above making deals with the “white devils” when such deals served its leaders’ interests. Near the end of his life, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz admitted that, even while criticizing civil rights activists for working with European American liberals, he once, on Elijah Muhammad’s orders, negotiated a mutual non-interference agreement with Ku Klux Klan leaders in Atlanta.
Although Spike Lee’s film depicts Malcolm’s period of independence from the Nation mainly through scenes of foreboding, such as repeated threatening telephone calls, his final months consisted of much more than waiting for martyrdom. Among the many important episodes from the last year of El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz which the film overlooks include (1) the brief meeting with Martin Luther King, Jr., at the United States Capitol; (2) the crucial “The Ballot or the Bullet” speech delivered at a symposium sponsored by the Congress of Racial Equality; (3) the meeting of the Organization of African Unity and subsequent talks with leaders of Egypt, Tanzania, Nigeria, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, and Uganda; (4) the day long October 1964 meeting in Nairobi with leaders of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the resulting cooperation between SNCC and El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz’s newly formed Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU); and (5) the December 1964 appearance of Fannie Lou Hamer and other Mississippi civil rights activists as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz’s honored guests at an OAAU meeting in Harlem.
The film shows El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz watching televised scenes of civil rights activities but fails to mention his February 1965 trip to Selma, Alabama, where he addressed young protesters and expressed support for the voting rights struggle. While in Selma, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz met with Coretta Scott King, whose husband was then in jail. El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz affirmed his desire to assist King’s voting rights efforts, explaining that if European Americans knew that Malcolm X was the alternative, “It might be easier for them to accept Martin’s proposals.” El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz’s increasing political involvement was further indicated in the weeks before his assassination by the telegram he sent to the head of the American Nazi party: “I am no longer held in check from fighting white supremacists by Elijah Muhammad’s separationists Black Muslim Movement, and if your present racist agitation of our people there in Alabama causes physical harm to Reverend King or any other Black Americans ... you and your KKK friends will be met with maximum physical retaliation.”
El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz’s political militancy led to increasing governmental interest and escalating threats from members of the Nation of Islam. The new political course caused El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz to attract very powerful and very deadly enemies.
The movie Malcolm X shows various members of the Nation of Islam preparing to kill El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, while also intimating that European American government agents may have also been involved. El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz is depicted as being followed, presumably by CIA agents, while on his trip to Mecca and Africa. The movie shows a hidden microphone in El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz’s New York City hotel room. In the movie, when El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz and his wife, Betty, discuss the many threats they had received, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz speculates, “The more I keep thinking about the things that have been happening lately, I’m not at all sure it’s solely the Muslims. I trained them, I know what they can and cannot do, and they can’t do some of the stuff that’s recently been going on.”
It is somewhat ironic that after the assassination of President Kennedy, Malcolm X had remarked that the killing of Kennedy was a case of the chickens coming home to roost. In an oddly reciprocal way, the assassination of El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz was a case of the chickens coming home to roost. For years as Malcolm X, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz had helped foster a mentality that encouraged members of the Nation of Islam to define other African Americans as race traitors. As Malcolm X, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz espoused an often vicious rhetorical militancy which created an environment where the death of the traitor could be deemed appropriate. Once El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz left the Nation of Islam and began criticizing it, he too became the object for rhetorical vilification. Indeed, one of his former proteges, a certain Louis X (now known as Louis Farrakhan) went so far as to label El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz as a Judas “worthy of death.” Within such a climate of animosity, the assassination of El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz became almost inevitable.
Despite the historical inaccuracies, the director Spike Lee must be commended for the effort that was involved in developing and producing a movie such as Malcolm X. Indeed, one of the more encouraging trends of the last decade of the twentieth century, was the fact that such stories about the African and African American experience could finally be made. However, while presenting an entertaining story about the life and career of the man known as Malcolm X, the movie ultimately fails to adequately address the seeds of destruction which Malcolm X himself had sown. Additionally, by glamorizing the rebelliousness of Malcolm Little, and the subsequent racist demagoguery of Malcolm X, the meaning of the mature statesmanship of El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz is obscured and the true lesson of Malcolm's life -- the true lesson of his “entire” life -- is missed.
Part of the lesson of Malcolm's life, is also found tragically in the story of the family that he left behind. In 1958, Malcolm X married Betty X (nee Betty Jean Sanders) in Lansing, Michigan. The couple had six daughters. Their names were Attalah, Qubilah, Ilyasah, Gamilah Lumumba, Malaak, and Malikah. After the death of El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, his widow, Betty Shabazz, received financial support from a number of benefactors and celebrities. She was able to raise her children in upper class affluence, sending her children to private, predominantly European American schools.
In 1994, Betty Shabazz openly criticized Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam, of having been involved in the assassination of El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz. Farrakhan denied any involvement and blamed the assassination on the turbulence of the times. Subsequently, in 1995, Qubilah, the daughter of Betty Shabazz and El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, was implicated in a murder for hire plot to kill Farrakhan. As it turned out, the man that Qubilah had contacted was an undercover law enforcement agent.
Surprisingly, Louis Farrakhan, the target of the murder for hire plot, came to the defense of Qubilah. Farrakhan accused the government of manipulating Qubilah into engaging in the murder for hire plot. Farrakhan even sponsored a fundraiser for Qubilah's legal defense. Farrakhan's actions led to a reconciliation between himself and Betty Shabazz. Betty Shabazz even spoke at the 1995 Million Man March.
Qubilah was not imprisoned for her actions but was ordered to undergo two years of psychological counseling and therapy for her drug addiction and alcohol abuse. During this two year period, Qubilah's son, Malcolm, lived with his grandmother, Betty Shabazz. Malcolm proved to be a rebellious child who resented having to live with his grandmother. In retaliation, on June 1, 1997, Malcolm then twelve years old, set his grandmother's house on fire with his grandmother, Betty Shabazz, in it. On June 23, 1997, Betty Shabazz died from the burns she endured. Malcolm, the namesake grandchild of El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, was sentenced to eighteen months in juvenile detention for manslaughter.
It cannot be escaped that the one of the lessons of the life of Malcolm X, and of El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, is one marked by tragedy. While his militant stance against oppression became an inspiration for many, his embracing of violence as a viable force against oppression also became an indelible part of his legacy, and sadly it is this legacy of violence which continues to manifest itself in African American families and communities to this day.
X, Malcolm see Malcolm X
Little, Malcolm see Malcolm X
El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz see Malcolm X
Shabazz, El-Hajj Malik El- see Malcolm X
Compounding the misunderstanding concerning the legacy of El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz is the 1992 theatrical release of a movie directed by Spike Lee, a movie entitled Malcolm X. As titled, the movie Malcolm X is respectful iconolatry of a man who evolved into the more fully developed El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz. However, because of the importance of distinguishing historical fact from cinematic myth, some of the historical discrepancies with the movie Malcolm X are discussed here.
The first historical discrepancy centers on the movie's portrayal of Earl Little. In the film, Earl Little is portrayed as a race leader -- a man willing to stand up against European American racists to promote Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association. As a defiant African American in a racist America, the film Malcolm X leaves little doubt that European American racists murdered Earl Little.
However, in The Autobiography of Malcolm X, which was written with Alex Haley’s assistance and was published posthumously, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz paints a far less idealized portrait of his father. As remembered by El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, Earl Little was an abusive husband and father who “savagely” beat his children, except for his favored son, Malcolm. As recalled by El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, “I actually believe that as anti-white as my father was, he was subconsciously so afflicted with the white man’s brainwashing of Negroes that he inclined to favor the light one.”
"My father was a big, six-foot-four, very black man. He had only one eye. How he had lost the other one I have never known. He was from Reynolds, Georgia, where he had left school after the third or maybe fourth grade. ... One of the reasons I’ve always felt that my father favored me was that to the best of my remembrance, it was only me that he sometimes took with him to the Garvey U.N.I.A. meetings which he held quietly in people’s homes. ... I noticed how differently they all acted, although sometimes they were the same people who jumped and shouted in church. But in these meetings both they and my father were more intense, more intelligent and down to earth, it made me feel the same way. ... I remember how the meetings always closed with my father saying, several times, and the people chanting after him, “Up, you mighty race, you can accomplish what you will!”" -- From The Autobiography of Malcolm X.
Only six at the time of Earl Little’s death in 1931, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz could only remember “a vague commotion, the house filled up with people crying, saying bitterly that the white Black Legion had finally gotten him.”
Much of the movie Malcolm X glamorizes the criminal career of Malcolm Little and the fiery speeches of Malcolm X. Unlike the Autobiography, the movie spends little time reflecting on the significance of the final year in the life of El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz. Instead of focusing on the mature political perspective that El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz developed, the movie Malcolm X emphasizes Malcolm’s cynicism, racial pessimism, and uncritical acceptance of the teachings of Elijah Muhammad. The film treats Malcolm’s break with Muhammad as a son’s disillusionment with a morally flawed surrogate father, but Malcolm left the Nation of Islam for political as well as personal reasons. Malcolm’s Autobiography makes it very clear that before Malcolm learned of Elijah Muhammad’s marital infidelities, Malcolm had already become dissatisfied with his leader’s policy of nonengagement, -- a policy which not only prevented members of the Nation of Islam from participating in civil rights protests but even prohibited Nation of Islam members from voting. The blistering verbal attacks that Malcolm X makes on national civil rights leaders are highlighted in the film without showing the ties that El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz made with those same civil rights leaders in the last year of his life.
As the southern civil rights movement grew in scale during 1963, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz came to recognize that Elijah Muhammad’s nonengagement policy was hurting the Nation of Islam’s recruitment efforts in African American communities. Indeed, in the Autobiography, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz admitted his disappointment with the failure of the Nation of Islam in becoming involved in the expanding freedom struggle. El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz said, “I felt that, wherever black people committed themselves, the Little Rocks and the Birminghams and other places, militantly disciplined Muslims should also be there -- for all the world to see, and respect, and discuss. It could be heard increasingly in the Negro communities: ‘Those Muslims talk tough, but they never do anything, unless somebody bothers Muslims.’”
One of the more dramatic scenes in the movie underscores the limitations placed upon those in the Nation of Islam but in the manner portrayed is rather misleading. In the film, Malcolm X is shown demanding and getting hospital treatment for a member of the Nation of Islam named Brother Johnson (Johnson Hinton), who was beaten by New York City police in 1957. Although the incident confirms the notion that the Nation of Islam did not engage in militant action unless its members were threatened, Lee stages the event to suggest that the Nation was far more willing to challenge European American authority than it actually was.
El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz initially defended Elijah Muhammad’s nonengagement policy and fiercely attacked Martin Luther King, Jr.’s strategy of nonviolent resistance. However, he later recognized that the Nation of Islam offered no real alternative for African American civil rights activists who were then facing vicious European American racists in the South. It was far easier to talk about armed self-defense in Harlem than it ever was to face unarmed Bull Connor’s police dogs in Birmingham, Alabama.
Even though the film ignores this fact, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz knew that the Nation of Islam was not above making deals with the “white devils” when such deals served its leaders’ interests. Near the end of his life, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz admitted that, even while criticizing civil rights activists for working with European American liberals, he once, on Elijah Muhammad’s orders, negotiated a mutual non-interference agreement with Ku Klux Klan leaders in Atlanta.
Although Spike Lee’s film depicts Malcolm’s period of independence from the Nation mainly through scenes of foreboding, such as repeated threatening telephone calls, his final months consisted of much more than waiting for martyrdom. Among the many important episodes from the last year of El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz which the film overlooks include (1) the brief meeting with Martin Luther King, Jr., at the United States Capitol; (2) the crucial “The Ballot or the Bullet” speech delivered at a symposium sponsored by the Congress of Racial Equality; (3) the meeting of the Organization of African Unity and subsequent talks with leaders of Egypt, Tanzania, Nigeria, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, and Uganda; (4) the day long October 1964 meeting in Nairobi with leaders of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the resulting cooperation between SNCC and El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz’s newly formed Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU); and (5) the December 1964 appearance of Fannie Lou Hamer and other Mississippi civil rights activists as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz’s honored guests at an OAAU meeting in Harlem.
The film shows El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz watching televised scenes of civil rights activities but fails to mention his February 1965 trip to Selma, Alabama, where he addressed young protesters and expressed support for the voting rights struggle. While in Selma, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz met with Coretta Scott King, whose husband was then in jail. El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz affirmed his desire to assist King’s voting rights efforts, explaining that if European Americans knew that Malcolm X was the alternative, “It might be easier for them to accept Martin’s proposals.” El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz’s increasing political involvement was further indicated in the weeks before his assassination by the telegram he sent to the head of the American Nazi party: “I am no longer held in check from fighting white supremacists by Elijah Muhammad’s separationists Black Muslim Movement, and if your present racist agitation of our people there in Alabama causes physical harm to Reverend King or any other Black Americans ... you and your KKK friends will be met with maximum physical retaliation.”
El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz’s political militancy led to increasing governmental interest and escalating threats from members of the Nation of Islam. The new political course caused El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz to attract very powerful and very deadly enemies.
The movie Malcolm X shows various members of the Nation of Islam preparing to kill El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, while also intimating that European American government agents may have also been involved. El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz is depicted as being followed, presumably by CIA agents, while on his trip to Mecca and Africa. The movie shows a hidden microphone in El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz’s New York City hotel room. In the movie, when El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz and his wife, Betty, discuss the many threats they had received, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz speculates, “The more I keep thinking about the things that have been happening lately, I’m not at all sure it’s solely the Muslims. I trained them, I know what they can and cannot do, and they can’t do some of the stuff that’s recently been going on.”
It is somewhat ironic that after the assassination of President Kennedy, Malcolm X had remarked that the killing of Kennedy was a case of the chickens coming home to roost. In an oddly reciprocal way, the assassination of El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz was a case of the chickens coming home to roost. For years as Malcolm X, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz had helped foster a mentality that encouraged members of the Nation of Islam to define other African Americans as race traitors. As Malcolm X, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz espoused an often vicious rhetorical militancy which created an environment where the death of the traitor could be deemed appropriate. Once El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz left the Nation of Islam and began criticizing it, he too became the object for rhetorical vilification. Indeed, one of his former proteges, a certain Louis X (now known as Louis Farrakhan) went so far as to label El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz as a Judas “worthy of death.” Within such a climate of animosity, the assassination of El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz became almost inevitable.
Despite the historical inaccuracies, the director Spike Lee must be commended for the effort that was involved in developing and producing a movie such as Malcolm X. Indeed, one of the more encouraging trends of the last decade of the twentieth century, was the fact that such stories about the African and African American experience could finally be made. However, while presenting an entertaining story about the life and career of the man known as Malcolm X, the movie ultimately fails to adequately address the seeds of destruction which Malcolm X himself had sown. Additionally, by glamorizing the rebelliousness of Malcolm Little, and the subsequent racist demagoguery of Malcolm X, the meaning of the mature statesmanship of El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz is obscured and the true lesson of Malcolm's life -- the true lesson of his “entire” life -- is missed.
Part of the lesson of Malcolm's life, is also found tragically in the story of the family that he left behind. In 1958, Malcolm X married Betty X (nee Betty Jean Sanders) in Lansing, Michigan. The couple had six daughters. Their names were Attalah, Qubilah, Ilyasah, Gamilah Lumumba, Malaak, and Malikah. After the death of El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, his widow, Betty Shabazz, received financial support from a number of benefactors and celebrities. She was able to raise her children in upper class affluence, sending her children to private, predominantly European American schools.
In 1994, Betty Shabazz openly criticized Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam, of having been involved in the assassination of El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz. Farrakhan denied any involvement and blamed the assassination on the turbulence of the times. Subsequently, in 1995, Qubilah, the daughter of Betty Shabazz and El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, was implicated in a murder for hire plot to kill Farrakhan. As it turned out, the man that Qubilah had contacted was an undercover law enforcement agent.
Surprisingly, Louis Farrakhan, the target of the murder for hire plot, came to the defense of Qubilah. Farrakhan accused the government of manipulating Qubilah into engaging in the murder for hire plot. Farrakhan even sponsored a fundraiser for Qubilah's legal defense. Farrakhan's actions led to a reconciliation between himself and Betty Shabazz. Betty Shabazz even spoke at the 1995 Million Man March.
Qubilah was not imprisoned for her actions but was ordered to undergo two years of psychological counseling and therapy for her drug addiction and alcohol abuse. During this two year period, Qubilah's son, Malcolm, lived with his grandmother, Betty Shabazz. Malcolm proved to be a rebellious child who resented having to live with his grandmother. In retaliation, on June 1, 1997, Malcolm then twelve years old, set his grandmother's house on fire with his grandmother, Betty Shabazz, in it. On June 23, 1997, Betty Shabazz died from the burns she endured. Malcolm, the namesake grandchild of El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, was sentenced to eighteen months in juvenile detention for manslaughter.
It cannot be escaped that the one of the lessons of the life of Malcolm X, and of El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, is one marked by tragedy. While his militant stance against oppression became an inspiration for many, his embracing of violence as a viable force against oppression also became an indelible part of his legacy, and sadly it is this legacy of violence which continues to manifest itself in African American families and communities to this day.
X, Malcolm see Malcolm X
Little, Malcolm see Malcolm X
El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz see Malcolm X
Shabazz, El-Hajj Malik El- see Malcolm X
Males
Males. In Brazil, a Muslim black slave; a term employed by the Berbers and Arabs for the Mandingo blacks. These slaves worshipped Allah and were very fond of wearing a talisman engraved with fragments of verse from the Qur’an in Arabic script. Many males were literate and were trained in different crafts. The planters considered them their most valuable slaves, even though they were rebellious and were ever ready to flee to the wilderness. In 1805, it was estimated that one-third of the blacks in Bahia were males. The term males also refers to a vigorous and flourishing Muslim sect with temples, leaders, and well-organized congregations; still active at the turn of the nineteenth century all over northeastern Brazil.
Males. In Brazil, a Muslim black slave; a term employed by the Berbers and Arabs for the Mandingo blacks. These slaves worshipped Allah and were very fond of wearing a talisman engraved with fragments of verse from the Qur’an in Arabic script. Many males were literate and were trained in different crafts. The planters considered them their most valuable slaves, even though they were rebellious and were ever ready to flee to the wilderness. In 1805, it was estimated that one-third of the blacks in Bahia were males. The term males also refers to a vigorous and flourishing Muslim sect with temples, leaders, and well-organized congregations; still active at the turn of the nineteenth century all over northeastern Brazil.
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