Tuesday, September 19, 2023

2023: Zubeira - Zuray'ids

 Zubeiru

Zubeiru (d. 1903).  Ruler of the Fula emirate of Adamawa created by his father, Adama.  Zubeiru ruled from 1890 to 1893 and during his reign he resisted British encroachment and was forced to spend his last years as a renegade.

When Zubeiru succeeded his brother, Sanda, he was considered unstable, and probably suffered from epilepsy.  He began a program of Islamic fundamentalist reform.  These reforms along with the perception of him held by his people, made Zubeiru unpopular and weakened his ability to withstand the challenge of Hayatu ibn Sa’id.

Hayatu was a great-grandson of the Fula Islamic revolutionary ‘Uthman dan Fodio who had created the empire of which Adamawa was a part.  Hayatu came to Adamawa and attracted a large following.  Zubeiru felt compelled to fight him but was disastrously defeated in 1892.  Hayatu was unable to follow up his victory, however, and later was killed in Bornu.

Afterwards, Zubeiru’s chief concern was limiting the encroachment of George Goldie’s Royal Niger Company, which had assumed that its 1886 treaty with Sokoto, the seat of the empire, permitted trade with Adamawa.  Zubeiru refused to acknowledge the treaty, however, and signed separate agreements in 1893 and 1897. 

In 1900, the British under Frederick Lugard took over the administration of Northern Nigeria from the Royal Niger Company, but Zubeiru refused to submit to British authority.  Lugard considered him the worst slave trader in Africa and determined to bring Adamawa under British control. 

In 1901, British forces stormed and captured Yola, Zubeiru’s capital, but Zubeiru escaped.  He was replaced there by his brother.

Zubeiru and his followers kept on the move.  He briefly attempted to ally with the French and Germans in neighboring Chad and Cameroon but ended up fighting the Germans who massacred most of his remaining troops.    

Early in 1903, Zubeiru had the German resident at Marua assassinated.  Zubeiru began raiding again, as the British kept him on the run. 

Zubeiru was killed in 1903 by Lala warriors who were hunting down slave raiders.

Zuhayr ibn Abi Sulma
Zuhayr ibn Abi Sulma (b. c. 520-d. c. 609).  Pre-Islamic Arab poet.  Along with Imru’ al-Qays ibn Hujr and al-Nabigha al-Dhubyani, Zuhayr ibn Abi Sulma is considered one of the great poets of the pre-Islamic period.

Zuhayr, also Zuhair, full name Zuhayr ibn Abî Sûlmâ, belonged to the Muzaynah tribe. His father was a poet. His elder son, Ka'b bin Zuhayr, was also a poet and read poems to Muhammad.

His poems can be found in Hammad Ar-Rawiya's anthology, the Mu'allaqat ("the Suspended"), a collection of pre-Islamic poetry. He was one of the Seven Hanged Poets who were reputed to have been honored by hanging copies of their work in the Kaaba at Mecca. He was Umar ibn Khattab's favorite poet.

Zuhayr's poetry was written when two Bedouin tribes ended a longstanding hostility. His poems deal with raids and other subjects of nomadic desert life. He also wrote satirical poems and poems about the glory of his tribe, but in his verses, he was less satiric than most of his brother poets. He strove to express deep thoughts in simple words, to be clear and by his clear phrases to teach his people high and noble ideas. He was a man of rank and wealth, the foremost of a family noted for their poetic skill and religious earnestness. In brief, Zuhayr was the gentleman-philosopher among pre-Islamic Arab poets.

Although Zuhayr was from the Muzaynah tribe, he lived among the Ghaṭafān. Zuhayr’s father was a poet, his first wife the sister of a poet, and two of his sons were poets. The elder son, Kaʿb, is famous for the poem he recited for the Prophet Muhammad, thereby signalling his acceptance of Islam. Zuhayr’s poem in Al-Muʿallaqāt praises the men who brought peace between the clans of ʿAbs and Dhubyān. In the poem, war is compared to a millstone that grinds those who set it moving, and the poet speaks as one who from a long life has learned humankind’s need for morality. Zuhayr’s extant poetry, available in several Arabic editions, includes other poems of praise and satires.

Zuhayr see Zuhayr ibn Abi Sulma
Zuhair see Zuhayr ibn Abi Sulma


Zuhri, Muhammad ibn Muslim al-
Zuhri, Muhammad ibn Muslim al- (Muhammad ibn Muslim al-Zuhri) (Muhammad ibn Muslim ibn Ubaydullah ibn Shihab al-Zuhri)(Abu Shihab) (d. 741/2).  Celebrated traditionist.  He collected a great amount of hadith and is described as the first to fix hadith in writing.  He also dealt with chronology, was a critic of poetry and was one of the chief authorities for the biography of the Prophet Muhammad, written by his pupil, Ibn Ishaq.

Muhammad ibn Muslim ibn Ubaydullah ibn Shihab al-Zuhri, usually called simply Ibn Shihab or al-Zuhri, was if not the founder of Islamic scholarship, then its earliest luminary.

As a youth, al-Zuhri left his home in Madinah (Medina), went to Damascus to seek his fortune and was recruited into the administration of the Caliph, Abd al-Malik. The Caliph observed that al-Zuhri's father had supported Ibn al-Zubayr against him in the then recent civil war. However, the Caliph'a policy toward the Zubayrites was reconciliation and his father's politics were not held against him.

Abd al-Malik died in 705 but al-Zuhri continued to serve the Umayyid court for the rest of his life. He died in AH 124 (741–2).

Some accuse al-Zuhri of having flattered the Umayyads. He taught the son of Caliph Hisham (died AH 125/743). but this did not mean that he supported the Umayyads uncritically. His relationship with the heir to the caliphate, Walid (who ruled for one year after al-Zuhri's death) was so bad that Walid was only restrained from killing him by the Caliph's intervention.

Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri is regarded as one of the greatest Sunni authorities on Hadith. The leading critics of Hadith such as Ibn al-Madini, Ibn Hibban, Abu Hatim, Al-Dhahabi and Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani are all agreed upon his indisputable authority. He received hadith from many Sahaba (Companions) and numerous scholars among the first and second generations after the Companions narrated from him.

Muhammad ibn Muslim al-Zuhri see Zuhri, Muhammad ibn Muslim al-
Muhammad ibn Muslim ibn Ubaydullah ibn Shihab al-Zuhri see Zuhri, Muhammad ibn Muslim al-
Abu Shihab see Zuhri, Muhammad ibn Muslim al-
Ibn Shihab see Zuhri, Muhammad ibn Muslim al-
Zuhri, al- see Zuhri, Muhammad ibn Muslim al-

Zuhuri, Nur al-Din Muhammad
Zuhuri, Nur al-Din Muhammad (Nur al-Din Muhammad Zuhuri) (d. 1615).  Persian poet of the school of Herat.  His poetry is admired in India where he lived for a long time.

Nur al-Din Muhammad Zuhuri see Zuhuri, Nur al-Din Muhammad

Zuray‘ids 
Zuray‘ids (Banu’l-Karam).  Dynasty from Aden, which was in power in Yemen from 1138 until the arrival of the Ayyubids in 1174.

Banu'l-Karam see Zuray‘ids

No comments:

Post a Comment