Mahra
Mahra. Tribe living in the southeastern part of the Arabian Peninsula, in a stretch of land along the coast of the Indian Ocean between Hadhramaut and Oman, and in the hinterland belonging to that region.
The Mahra Sultanate was a sultanate that included both the historical region of Mahra and the Indian Ocean island of Socotra in what is now eastern Yemen. It was ruled by the Banu Afrar dynasty and is sometimes called Mahra State in English.
The capitals of Mahra were Qishn in Mahra and Tamrida (Hadiboh) on Socotra. During 1886, the sultanate became a British protectorate and later became a part of the Aden Protectorate. In the 1960s, Mahra declined to join the Federation of South Arabia but remained under British protection as part of the Protectorate of South Arabia. In 1967, the sultanate was abolished and Mahra became part of newly independent South Yemen which united with North Yemen in 1990 to become the Republic of Yemen. Today the Mahra area (without Socotra) is the Al Mahrah Governorate of Yemen.
The Mahra Sultanate of Qishn and Socotra (Arabic: Salṭanat Mahrah fī Qishn wa Suquṭrah) or sometimes the Mahra Sultanate of Ghayda and Socotra (Arabic: Salṭanat Mahrah fī-l Ghayḍā’ wa Suquṭrah]) was a sultanate that included both the historical region of Mahra and the Indian Ocean island of Socotra in what is now eastern Yemen.
The capitals of Mahra were Qishn in Mahra and Tamrida (Hadiboh) on Socotra. During 1886, the sultanate became a British protectorate and later became a part of the Aden Protectorate. In the 1960s, Mahra declined to join the Federation of South Arabia but remained under British protection as part of the Protectorate of South Arabia. In 1967, the sultanate was abolished and Mahra became part of newly independent South Yemen which united with North Yemen in 1990 to become the Republic of Yemen. Today the Mahra area (without Socotra) is the Al Mahrah Governorate of Yemen.
In addition to Arabic, Mehri, a Modern South Arabian language is spoken in Mahra. Mahra shares with the neighboring Dhofar in Oman cultural treats such as the modern South Arabian language spoken, the importance of frankincense and geographic and climatic ties as well, which distinguish these regions from the desert surrounding them, mostly due to the beneficial action of the khareef monsoon.
The Mahra are a Jat clan, found in the Punjab province of Pakistan. According to their traditions, they were originally Mughal, and settled near Delhi. About 10 or 12 generations ago, the whole tribe was exterminated with the exception of a boy who was found lying among the slain, hence the name Mara (which means the dead in the local Saraiki language). He and his descendants then migrated to the banks of the Indus River. By contracting marriages with the local Jat community, they also became Jat. They are a Saraiki speaking community.
The Mahra are found mainly in Dera Ghazi Khan, Multan, Muzaffargarh and Layyah districts of Punjab.
Their main villages include Kot Mahra in Multan District, Bahadur Mahra, Mahra Faraz and Mahra Sharqi in Muzaffargarh District
The Mahra Sultanate was a sultanate that included both the historical region of Mahra and the Indian Ocean island of Socotra in what is now eastern Yemen. It was ruled by the Banu Afrar dynasty and is sometimes called Mahra State in English.
The capitals of Mahra were Qishn in Mahra and Tamrida (Hadiboh) on Socotra. During 1886, the sultanate became a British protectorate and later became a part of the Aden Protectorate. In the 1960s, Mahra declined to join the Federation of South Arabia but remained under British protection as part of the Protectorate of South Arabia. In 1967, the sultanate was abolished and Mahra became part of newly independent South Yemen which united with North Yemen in 1990 to become the Republic of Yemen. Today the Mahra area (without Socotra) is the Al Mahrah Governorate of Yemen.
The Mahra Sultanate of Qishn and Socotra (Arabic: Salṭanat Mahrah fī Qishn wa Suquṭrah) or sometimes the Mahra Sultanate of Ghayda and Socotra (Arabic: Salṭanat Mahrah fī-l Ghayḍā’ wa Suquṭrah]) was a sultanate that included both the historical region of Mahra and the Indian Ocean island of Socotra in what is now eastern Yemen.
The capitals of Mahra were Qishn in Mahra and Tamrida (Hadiboh) on Socotra. During 1886, the sultanate became a British protectorate and later became a part of the Aden Protectorate. In the 1960s, Mahra declined to join the Federation of South Arabia but remained under British protection as part of the Protectorate of South Arabia. In 1967, the sultanate was abolished and Mahra became part of newly independent South Yemen which united with North Yemen in 1990 to become the Republic of Yemen. Today the Mahra area (without Socotra) is the Al Mahrah Governorate of Yemen.
In addition to Arabic, Mehri, a Modern South Arabian language is spoken in Mahra. Mahra shares with the neighboring Dhofar in Oman cultural treats such as the modern South Arabian language spoken, the importance of frankincense and geographic and climatic ties as well, which distinguish these regions from the desert surrounding them, mostly due to the beneficial action of the khareef monsoon.
The Mahra are a Jat clan, found in the Punjab province of Pakistan. According to their traditions, they were originally Mughal, and settled near Delhi. About 10 or 12 generations ago, the whole tribe was exterminated with the exception of a boy who was found lying among the slain, hence the name Mara (which means the dead in the local Saraiki language). He and his descendants then migrated to the banks of the Indus River. By contracting marriages with the local Jat community, they also became Jat. They are a Saraiki speaking community.
The Mahra are found mainly in Dera Ghazi Khan, Multan, Muzaffargarh and Layyah districts of Punjab.
Their main villages include Kot Mahra in Multan District, Bahadur Mahra, Mahra Faraz and Mahra Sharqi in Muzaffargarh District
Mahsati
Mahsati (Mahsati Ganjavi) (b. c. 1089, Ganja — c. 1159). Persian female poet who lived sometime between the eleventh and twelfth centuries. An original collection of her quatrains is not known to exist. The current collections of her poetry are modern compilations from many different sources. Usually, she is represented as a singer, a musician and a court poet.
Mahsati is a compound of two words "Maah" (Moon) and "Sati" (Lady) and the name appears in the works of Saadi, Nizami, and Sanai. As an eminent poetess, she was composer of quatrains (ruba'is). Originated from Ganja, she was said to have associated with both Omar Khayyam and Nizami. She is also said to have been a companion of Sultan Sanjar. Her alleged free way of living and peddled verses stamped her as a Persian Madame Sans-Gene. Her purported love affairs are recounted in the works of Jauhari of Bukhara.
No details about her life are documented except that she was born in Ganja and was highly esteemed at the court of Sultan Sanjar of the Seljuk dynasty. She is said to have attracted the notice and gained the favor of Sanjar by the following verse, which she extemporized one evening when the King, on going out from his audience-hall to mount his horse found that a sudden fall of snow had covered the ground.
It is also known that Mahsati was persecuted for her courageous poetry condemning religious obscurantism, fanaticism, and dogmas. Her only works that have come down to us are philosophical and love quatrains (rubaiyat), glorifying the joy of living and the fullness of love.
About 200 works of Mahsati remain. A monument to Mahsati was erected in Ganja in 1980.
Mahsati Ganjavi see Mahsati
Ganjavi, Mahsati see Mahsati
Mahsati (Mahsati Ganjavi) (b. c. 1089, Ganja — c. 1159). Persian female poet who lived sometime between the eleventh and twelfth centuries. An original collection of her quatrains is not known to exist. The current collections of her poetry are modern compilations from many different sources. Usually, she is represented as a singer, a musician and a court poet.
Mahsati is a compound of two words "Maah" (Moon) and "Sati" (Lady) and the name appears in the works of Saadi, Nizami, and Sanai. As an eminent poetess, she was composer of quatrains (ruba'is). Originated from Ganja, she was said to have associated with both Omar Khayyam and Nizami. She is also said to have been a companion of Sultan Sanjar. Her alleged free way of living and peddled verses stamped her as a Persian Madame Sans-Gene. Her purported love affairs are recounted in the works of Jauhari of Bukhara.
No details about her life are documented except that she was born in Ganja and was highly esteemed at the court of Sultan Sanjar of the Seljuk dynasty. She is said to have attracted the notice and gained the favor of Sanjar by the following verse, which she extemporized one evening when the King, on going out from his audience-hall to mount his horse found that a sudden fall of snow had covered the ground.
It is also known that Mahsati was persecuted for her courageous poetry condemning religious obscurantism, fanaticism, and dogmas. Her only works that have come down to us are philosophical and love quatrains (rubaiyat), glorifying the joy of living and the fullness of love.
About 200 works of Mahsati remain. A monument to Mahsati was erected in Ganja in 1980.
Mahsati Ganjavi see Mahsati
Ganjavi, Mahsati see Mahsati
Mahsud
Mahsud (Masood) (Mahsood) (Masud) (Maseed) . Pathan (Pashtun) tribe on the northwest frontier of Pakistan. In British Indian times, they were the fiercest opponents of British rule.
The Mahsud tribe lives in the very center of Waziristan, Pakistan. They are divided into three great clans namely Alizai, Bahlolzai, and Shaman Khel.
In 1860, 3000 Mahsud tribesmen attacked the British regiment base in Tank (in present day Waziristan). The British struggled to defeat them.
In 1897, Mahsud tribesmen again stood up against the British all the way from Chitral to Quetta and the British experienced difficulty while engaging them. It was during this time that the name of Mullah Powindah emerged. Over time, Mullah Powindah grew more popular and famous. He emerged as a legendary figure among the people of the region and beyond.
In 1907, the Wazir and Mahsud tribesmen were blocked from entry into any government controlled territory. Economic sanctions were placed on them so that even basic amenities such as food and medicine could be blocked from going into their hands. Various areas were searched to arrest Mullah Powindah but to no avail.
Mullah Powindah died in 1913. Upon his death, his son Shah Fazal Din was given leadership and his son-in-law, Mulla Abdul Hakeem, was appointed his adviser.
When the First World War began, the English were concerned that they would be engaged in battle on more than one front. This was a threat to their safety and economy so they decided to close fronts of lesser significance. The British abandoned their "Forward Policy" and sent a message of friendship and peace to the tribes. The tribes did not trust the British and rejected these peace proposals. Instead, the Mahsuds put in place a Lashkar to attack the British.
At this time, the British had established an airforce in the subcontinent which was used to harass the tribesmen and as a result the tribe's hatred of the British increased. Due to their sufferings, they were bent upon taking revenge and hence their morale increased. a series of attacks were made by the Mahsuds inflicting heavy losses on the enemy. An attack on the Marhatta Regiment resulted in the deaths of hundreds of Sepoys and five British officers. In the attack on the Punjab Regiment, Ghazis slaughtered everyone. the aerial bombardments had inflicted significant losses on the tribesmen but they were content that they were also doing well and had killed around 250 of the enemy forces.
After the end of the First World War, the British returned to Waziristan. This time, they constructed an airport in Razmak. Instead of flying all the way from India, their aircraft would fly from Razmak Airport and bomb the countryside. Because of this, the countryside of Makin was totally devastated. The Mahsuds deemed it appropriate to agree to a ceasefire because this tactic adopted by the British was inflicting wide scale losses on their side. The ceasefire would also enable them to devise a strategy of how to counter the latest British advances.
In 1925, the Royal Air Force successfully put down a Mahsud rebellion by strafing the tribes' mountain strongholds. The action, which came to be known as Pink's War led to the tribal leaders seeking peace terms.
After independence, many social, economic and demographic changes occurred in Wazaristan. A large number of Mahsuds joined mainstream Pakistani society. When the Hindu traders of Tank left after the Partition of India in 1947, most of their shops were taken over by Mahsuds. Now Mahsuds are employed in the militia and regular army, state bureaucracy, and involved in business all around the country. Many of them are now living far away from their native lands.
Immediately after independence, Mahsuds raised a tribal lashkar which entered Kashmir. They quickly reached the outskirts of Srinagar defeating the Maharaja's troops.
Historically, the Wazirs and Mahsuds always looked toward Afghanistan as their home, and throughout the British Colonial period, they supported Afghan kings in their wars against the British. On many occasions, the Afghan throne was saved with the help of the Mahsuds and Wazirs from Waziristan. Of those who fought during this time, most of them came back to their homeland, but those who stayed were given high ranks of office such as Faiz Muhammad Mahsud who later became equivalent to the title of prime minister during the 1970s. The majority are still in the province of Logar with the title of Waziri, but by caste, they are Mahsuds. The majority of these are Manzai with a sub-caste of Dramankel, Faridi, and others. When the Soviet-Afghan War started, some of these families came back to Waziristan but could not stay there, so they moved to cities like Peshawar and Karachi.
Masood see Mahsud
Mahsood see Mahsud
Masud see Mahsud
Maseed see Mahsud
Mahsud (Masood) (Mahsood) (Masud) (Maseed) . Pathan (Pashtun) tribe on the northwest frontier of Pakistan. In British Indian times, they were the fiercest opponents of British rule.
The Mahsud tribe lives in the very center of Waziristan, Pakistan. They are divided into three great clans namely Alizai, Bahlolzai, and Shaman Khel.
In 1860, 3000 Mahsud tribesmen attacked the British regiment base in Tank (in present day Waziristan). The British struggled to defeat them.
In 1897, Mahsud tribesmen again stood up against the British all the way from Chitral to Quetta and the British experienced difficulty while engaging them. It was during this time that the name of Mullah Powindah emerged. Over time, Mullah Powindah grew more popular and famous. He emerged as a legendary figure among the people of the region and beyond.
In 1907, the Wazir and Mahsud tribesmen were blocked from entry into any government controlled territory. Economic sanctions were placed on them so that even basic amenities such as food and medicine could be blocked from going into their hands. Various areas were searched to arrest Mullah Powindah but to no avail.
Mullah Powindah died in 1913. Upon his death, his son Shah Fazal Din was given leadership and his son-in-law, Mulla Abdul Hakeem, was appointed his adviser.
When the First World War began, the English were concerned that they would be engaged in battle on more than one front. This was a threat to their safety and economy so they decided to close fronts of lesser significance. The British abandoned their "Forward Policy" and sent a message of friendship and peace to the tribes. The tribes did not trust the British and rejected these peace proposals. Instead, the Mahsuds put in place a Lashkar to attack the British.
At this time, the British had established an airforce in the subcontinent which was used to harass the tribesmen and as a result the tribe's hatred of the British increased. Due to their sufferings, they were bent upon taking revenge and hence their morale increased. a series of attacks were made by the Mahsuds inflicting heavy losses on the enemy. An attack on the Marhatta Regiment resulted in the deaths of hundreds of Sepoys and five British officers. In the attack on the Punjab Regiment, Ghazis slaughtered everyone. the aerial bombardments had inflicted significant losses on the tribesmen but they were content that they were also doing well and had killed around 250 of the enemy forces.
After the end of the First World War, the British returned to Waziristan. This time, they constructed an airport in Razmak. Instead of flying all the way from India, their aircraft would fly from Razmak Airport and bomb the countryside. Because of this, the countryside of Makin was totally devastated. The Mahsuds deemed it appropriate to agree to a ceasefire because this tactic adopted by the British was inflicting wide scale losses on their side. The ceasefire would also enable them to devise a strategy of how to counter the latest British advances.
In 1925, the Royal Air Force successfully put down a Mahsud rebellion by strafing the tribes' mountain strongholds. The action, which came to be known as Pink's War led to the tribal leaders seeking peace terms.
After independence, many social, economic and demographic changes occurred in Wazaristan. A large number of Mahsuds joined mainstream Pakistani society. When the Hindu traders of Tank left after the Partition of India in 1947, most of their shops were taken over by Mahsuds. Now Mahsuds are employed in the militia and regular army, state bureaucracy, and involved in business all around the country. Many of them are now living far away from their native lands.
Immediately after independence, Mahsuds raised a tribal lashkar which entered Kashmir. They quickly reached the outskirts of Srinagar defeating the Maharaja's troops.
Historically, the Wazirs and Mahsuds always looked toward Afghanistan as their home, and throughout the British Colonial period, they supported Afghan kings in their wars against the British. On many occasions, the Afghan throne was saved with the help of the Mahsuds and Wazirs from Waziristan. Of those who fought during this time, most of them came back to their homeland, but those who stayed were given high ranks of office such as Faiz Muhammad Mahsud who later became equivalent to the title of prime minister during the 1970s. The majority are still in the province of Logar with the title of Waziri, but by caste, they are Mahsuds. The majority of these are Manzai with a sub-caste of Dramankel, Faridi, and others. When the Soviet-Afghan War started, some of these families came back to Waziristan but could not stay there, so they moved to cities like Peshawar and Karachi.
Masood see Mahsud
Mahsood see Mahsud
Masud see Mahsud
Maseed see Mahsud
Ma Hua-lung
Ma Hua-lung (Ma Ch’ao-ching) (Ma Hualong) (d. March 2, 1871). Chinese Muslim leader. He was an exponent of the “New Teaching,” a neo-orthodox reformist movement in Chinese Islam that originated in northwest China in the latter half of the eighteenth century. He played an important part in the great mid-nineteenth century Muslim uprisings against the Ch’ing dynasty. Ma led a rebellion in Kansu and Shessi from 1862 to 1877 and tried to establish a Muslim state.
Ma Hualong was the fifth leader (jiaozhu) of the Jahriyya, a Sufi order (menhuan) in northwestern China. From the beginning of the anti-Qing Muslim Rebellion in 1862, and until his surrender and death in 1871, he was one of the main leaders of the rebellion.
Ma Hualong became the leader of the Jahriyya around 1849, succeeding the menhuan's fourth shaykh, Ma Yide (late 1770s - 1849). Although the Jahriyya had been originally created by Ma Mingxin in the central Gansu, by the time of Ma Hualong's succession to the leadership position the order was centered in the northern Ningxia (which in the 19th century was also part of Gansu Province), its headquarters being located in Jinjipu, a few kilometers south from today's Wuzhong City. The town of Jinjipu became an important religious and commercial center, and the menhuan's leaders grew wealthy thanks to the order's profitable participation in the caravan trade across Inner Mongolia, between Baotou, Huhhot and Beijing.
Since the beginning of the Muslim Rebellion in 1862, Ma Hualong was based at the Jahriyya headquarters in Jinjipu. The area of his direct influence included the Jahriyya-heavy eastern parts of the 19th-century Gansu Province, i.e. today's Ningxia and easternmost sections of today's Gansu. While the rebels elsewhere within the 19th-century borders of Gansu had their own leaders - notably, Ma Zhan'ao in Hezhou (now Linxia), Ma Guiyuan in Xining, and Ma Wenlu in Suzhou (Jiuquan), who, in the view of modern historians, were acting essentially independent from each other, there were Jahriyya members (all owing allegiance to Ma Hualong) participating in the rebellion throughout the region.
At some points during the rebellion, Ma Hualong negotiated with the authorities, and at least once he even surrendered, taking a new name, "Ma Chaoqing" ("one who attends on the Qing"). However, instead of disbanding his militias, he continued fortifying Jinjipu, and collaborating with the rebels who had retreated to Gansu from Shaanxi.
Ma was besieged in Jinjipu in July 1869 by the Qing forces led by General Zuo Zongtang. After fortifications outside of the town itself had been captured by the government troops, and starvation started inside the walls, Ma Hualong surrendered in January 1871, hoping to spare the lives of his people. However, once Zuo's troops entered Jinjipu, a massacre followed, with over a thousand people losing their lives. and the town being destroyed.
Existing accounts on Ma Hualong's death differ. It is likely that he was executed on Zuo's orders on March 2, 1871, along with his son Ma Yaobang and over eighty rebel officials (supposedly, Zuo sentenced them to death by slicing), although it was said by some that he had been murdered by a traitor from within his own ranks.
Few of Ma Hualong's family survived the massacre at Jinjipu. Two of his grandsons, Ma Jincheng and Ma Jinxi, were sentenced to castration upon reaching the age of 12. Ma Jincheng ended his days as a eunuch slave in Kaifeng in 1890, although the new Jahriyya leader, Ma Yuanzhang (the 1850s - 1920), managed to secretly provide him with some support until his death. The younger grandson, Ma Jinxi, was spirited away, intact, from his Xi'an confinement by Ma Yuanzhang, and was hidden at a Hui household in Hangzhou.
Many years later, Ma Yuanzhang managed to obtain a pardon for Ma Jinxi, and Ma Hualong's grandson returned to Ningxia. A split within the Jahriyya followed, with some members becoming followers of Ma Jinxi, and others holding for Ma Yuanzhang (who claimed descent from the order's founder Ma Mingxin, and was also related to Ma Hualong's family through his marriage).
According to Jahriyya adherents in Ningxia, Ma Hualong's grave is in Dongta Town, which now is a suburb of Wuzhong City. Accordingly, a tomb shrine called Siqiliangzi gongbei was established there. More than 10,000 people from all over China attended a commemoration ceremony (ermaili) at that site in 1985.
Adherents of a rival tradition within Jahriyya, however, believe that Ma Hualong's true tomb is in Xuanhuagang, in Gansu's Zhangjiachuan County, which, coincidentally, was the base of Ma Hualong's successor, Ma Yuanzhang.
Some authors try to reconcile the two traditions, by saying that Ma Hualong's body is in Dongta, and the head is in Zhangjiachuan.
Ma Ch'ao-ching see Ma Hua-lung
Ch'ao-ching, Ma see Ma Hua-lung
Hua-lung, Ma see Ma Hua-lung
Ma Hualong see Ma Hua-lung
Hualong, Ma see Ma Hua-lung
Ma Hua-lung (Ma Ch’ao-ching) (Ma Hualong) (d. March 2, 1871). Chinese Muslim leader. He was an exponent of the “New Teaching,” a neo-orthodox reformist movement in Chinese Islam that originated in northwest China in the latter half of the eighteenth century. He played an important part in the great mid-nineteenth century Muslim uprisings against the Ch’ing dynasty. Ma led a rebellion in Kansu and Shessi from 1862 to 1877 and tried to establish a Muslim state.
Ma Hualong was the fifth leader (jiaozhu) of the Jahriyya, a Sufi order (menhuan) in northwestern China. From the beginning of the anti-Qing Muslim Rebellion in 1862, and until his surrender and death in 1871, he was one of the main leaders of the rebellion.
Ma Hualong became the leader of the Jahriyya around 1849, succeeding the menhuan's fourth shaykh, Ma Yide (late 1770s - 1849). Although the Jahriyya had been originally created by Ma Mingxin in the central Gansu, by the time of Ma Hualong's succession to the leadership position the order was centered in the northern Ningxia (which in the 19th century was also part of Gansu Province), its headquarters being located in Jinjipu, a few kilometers south from today's Wuzhong City. The town of Jinjipu became an important religious and commercial center, and the menhuan's leaders grew wealthy thanks to the order's profitable participation in the caravan trade across Inner Mongolia, between Baotou, Huhhot and Beijing.
Since the beginning of the Muslim Rebellion in 1862, Ma Hualong was based at the Jahriyya headquarters in Jinjipu. The area of his direct influence included the Jahriyya-heavy eastern parts of the 19th-century Gansu Province, i.e. today's Ningxia and easternmost sections of today's Gansu. While the rebels elsewhere within the 19th-century borders of Gansu had their own leaders - notably, Ma Zhan'ao in Hezhou (now Linxia), Ma Guiyuan in Xining, and Ma Wenlu in Suzhou (Jiuquan), who, in the view of modern historians, were acting essentially independent from each other, there were Jahriyya members (all owing allegiance to Ma Hualong) participating in the rebellion throughout the region.
At some points during the rebellion, Ma Hualong negotiated with the authorities, and at least once he even surrendered, taking a new name, "Ma Chaoqing" ("one who attends on the Qing"). However, instead of disbanding his militias, he continued fortifying Jinjipu, and collaborating with the rebels who had retreated to Gansu from Shaanxi.
Ma was besieged in Jinjipu in July 1869 by the Qing forces led by General Zuo Zongtang. After fortifications outside of the town itself had been captured by the government troops, and starvation started inside the walls, Ma Hualong surrendered in January 1871, hoping to spare the lives of his people. However, once Zuo's troops entered Jinjipu, a massacre followed, with over a thousand people losing their lives. and the town being destroyed.
Existing accounts on Ma Hualong's death differ. It is likely that he was executed on Zuo's orders on March 2, 1871, along with his son Ma Yaobang and over eighty rebel officials (supposedly, Zuo sentenced them to death by slicing), although it was said by some that he had been murdered by a traitor from within his own ranks.
Few of Ma Hualong's family survived the massacre at Jinjipu. Two of his grandsons, Ma Jincheng and Ma Jinxi, were sentenced to castration upon reaching the age of 12. Ma Jincheng ended his days as a eunuch slave in Kaifeng in 1890, although the new Jahriyya leader, Ma Yuanzhang (the 1850s - 1920), managed to secretly provide him with some support until his death. The younger grandson, Ma Jinxi, was spirited away, intact, from his Xi'an confinement by Ma Yuanzhang, and was hidden at a Hui household in Hangzhou.
Many years later, Ma Yuanzhang managed to obtain a pardon for Ma Jinxi, and Ma Hualong's grandson returned to Ningxia. A split within the Jahriyya followed, with some members becoming followers of Ma Jinxi, and others holding for Ma Yuanzhang (who claimed descent from the order's founder Ma Mingxin, and was also related to Ma Hualong's family through his marriage).
According to Jahriyya adherents in Ningxia, Ma Hualong's grave is in Dongta Town, which now is a suburb of Wuzhong City. Accordingly, a tomb shrine called Siqiliangzi gongbei was established there. More than 10,000 people from all over China attended a commemoration ceremony (ermaili) at that site in 1985.
Adherents of a rival tradition within Jahriyya, however, believe that Ma Hualong's true tomb is in Xuanhuagang, in Gansu's Zhangjiachuan County, which, coincidentally, was the base of Ma Hualong's successor, Ma Yuanzhang.
Some authors try to reconcile the two traditions, by saying that Ma Hualong's body is in Dongta, and the head is in Zhangjiachuan.
Ma Ch'ao-ching see Ma Hua-lung
Ch'ao-ching, Ma see Ma Hua-lung
Hua-lung, Ma see Ma Hua-lung
Ma Hualong see Ma Hua-lung
Hualong, Ma see Ma Hua-lung
Ma Huan
Ma Huan (Chung-dao) (Mountain woodcutter) (c. 1380-1460). Chinese Muslim interpreter and traveller. He was born in Hui Ji county of Zhejiang province. He is the author of an account of the Ming Chinese maritime expeditions to Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Arabian Peninsula and East Africa. Ma Huan was a Chinese Muslim interpreter who accompanied the eunuch admiral Zheng He on three of his seven maritime missions to Southeast Asia in the early fifteenth century.
On the 1413 expedition (Zheng He's third), he visited Champa, Java, Sumatra, Palembang, Siam, Kochi and Hormuz; on the 1421 expedition, he visited Malacca, Aru, Sumatra, Ceylon, Kochi, Calicut, Zufar, and Hormuz; and on the 1431 expedition, he visited Bengal, Chittagong, Sonargaon, Gaur, and Calicut. From Calicut, he was sent by the eunuch Hong Bao as emissary to Mecca.
He wrote about his experiences on these voyages in the Yingyai shenglan (Description of the Coasts of the Ocean or Overall Survey of the Ocean's Shores), which he originally compiled in 1416 and later expanded. It was published in 1451. This text, together with the Xiyang fanguo zhi (Record of the Western Barbarians) of Gongzhen (1434), who accompanied the expedition of 1431-1433 as a secretary, and the Xingcha shenglan (Description of the Starry Raft) by the Confucian scholar Feixin (1436), provides valuable firsthand descriptions of Zheng He’s efforts to solicit foreign trade in the South China Sea, the Indian Ocean, and beyond, under the third Ming dynasty emperor. Among these Ma Huan’s account is considered by scholars to have the highest standard of factual accuracy. His account is especially valuable as a source of information on the small states in the Strait of Melaka region. He describes the founding of Melaka in 1403 and records its early fifteenth-century history.
During Ma's travels, he took notes about the geography, politics, weather conditions, environment, economy, local customs, and even method of punishment for criminals. Returned home on his first expedition, he began writing a book about his expedition, the first draft of which was ready around 1416. He expanded and modified his draft during later expeditions, the final version was ready around 1451. The title of his book was Yingyai shenglan. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, there were many printed and hand-copied editions of this work. The Yingyai shenglan is considered by many sinologists worldwide as a primary source for the history of the Ming dynasty naval expeditions, along with the history of South East Asia and the history of India.
Huan, Ma see Ma Huan
Chung-dao see Ma Huan
Mountain Woodcutter see Ma Huan
Ma Huan (Chung-dao) (Mountain woodcutter) (c. 1380-1460). Chinese Muslim interpreter and traveller. He was born in Hui Ji county of Zhejiang province. He is the author of an account of the Ming Chinese maritime expeditions to Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Arabian Peninsula and East Africa. Ma Huan was a Chinese Muslim interpreter who accompanied the eunuch admiral Zheng He on three of his seven maritime missions to Southeast Asia in the early fifteenth century.
On the 1413 expedition (Zheng He's third), he visited Champa, Java, Sumatra, Palembang, Siam, Kochi and Hormuz; on the 1421 expedition, he visited Malacca, Aru, Sumatra, Ceylon, Kochi, Calicut, Zufar, and Hormuz; and on the 1431 expedition, he visited Bengal, Chittagong, Sonargaon, Gaur, and Calicut. From Calicut, he was sent by the eunuch Hong Bao as emissary to Mecca.
He wrote about his experiences on these voyages in the Yingyai shenglan (Description of the Coasts of the Ocean or Overall Survey of the Ocean's Shores), which he originally compiled in 1416 and later expanded. It was published in 1451. This text, together with the Xiyang fanguo zhi (Record of the Western Barbarians) of Gongzhen (1434), who accompanied the expedition of 1431-1433 as a secretary, and the Xingcha shenglan (Description of the Starry Raft) by the Confucian scholar Feixin (1436), provides valuable firsthand descriptions of Zheng He’s efforts to solicit foreign trade in the South China Sea, the Indian Ocean, and beyond, under the third Ming dynasty emperor. Among these Ma Huan’s account is considered by scholars to have the highest standard of factual accuracy. His account is especially valuable as a source of information on the small states in the Strait of Melaka region. He describes the founding of Melaka in 1403 and records its early fifteenth-century history.
During Ma's travels, he took notes about the geography, politics, weather conditions, environment, economy, local customs, and even method of punishment for criminals. Returned home on his first expedition, he began writing a book about his expedition, the first draft of which was ready around 1416. He expanded and modified his draft during later expeditions, the final version was ready around 1451. The title of his book was Yingyai shenglan. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, there were many printed and hand-copied editions of this work. The Yingyai shenglan is considered by many sinologists worldwide as a primary source for the history of the Ming dynasty naval expeditions, along with the history of South East Asia and the history of India.
Huan, Ma see Ma Huan
Chung-dao see Ma Huan
Mountain Woodcutter see Ma Huan
Mai
Mai. Title of the rulers of the thousand year Sefawa dynasty of the Kanem-Bornu empire. From about the tenth century, the mai was considered a divine king. The twelfth mai, Humai (c. 1190), was the first to convert to Islam. Sefawa rule ended when al-Kanemi took over Bornu in the 19th century.
The Duguwa dynasty is the line of kings (mai) of the Kanem Empire prior to the rise of the Islamic Seyfawa dynasty in 1081. According to the Girgam, the Duguwa kings were Zaghawa.
The Duguwa dynasty mais of the Kanem period were:
Sef c. 700
Dugu c. 785 (son of Sef, namesake of the dynasty)
Fune c. 835
Aritso c. 893
Katuri c. 942
Ayoma c. 961
Bula c. 1019
Arki c. 1035
Shu c. 1077
Abd al-Dhel c. 1081
Mai. Title of the rulers of the thousand year Sefawa dynasty of the Kanem-Bornu empire. From about the tenth century, the mai was considered a divine king. The twelfth mai, Humai (c. 1190), was the first to convert to Islam. Sefawa rule ended when al-Kanemi took over Bornu in the 19th century.
The Duguwa dynasty is the line of kings (mai) of the Kanem Empire prior to the rise of the Islamic Seyfawa dynasty in 1081. According to the Girgam, the Duguwa kings were Zaghawa.
The Duguwa dynasty mais of the Kanem period were:
Sef c. 700
Dugu c. 785 (son of Sef, namesake of the dynasty)
Fune c. 835
Aritso c. 893
Katuri c. 942
Ayoma c. 961
Bula c. 1019
Arki c. 1035
Shu c. 1077
Abd al-Dhel c. 1081
Maimonides
Maimonides. See Ibn Maymun.
Maimonides. See Ibn Maymun.
Mai Tatsine
Mai Tatsine (Mohammed Marwa Maitatsine) (Muhammadu 'Arab) (Muhammadu Marwa) (1927?-1980). Leader of a separatist sect in Kano, Nigeria. Mai Tatsine was the nickname given by people in Kano to Muhammadu Marwa (also known as Muhammadu ‘Arab), the leader of an Islamic sect that was involved in violent disturbances in that city in December 1980. The name is derived from a Hausa phrase he commonly employed against his detractors, Alla ya tsine maka albarka (“May God deprive you of his blessing”). His followers were known as the ‘Yan Tatsine. Because the group was intensely suspicious of outsiders, and because the disturbances gave rise to many wild rumors and apocryphal stories, little reliable knowledge exists of the movement or its leader.
Muhammadu Marwa was reportedly born in the region of Marwa, a city in northern Cameroon, probably in the 1920s. (A Nigerian passport that he acquired gave the date 1927.) He is commonly thought to have been Kirdi by origin, a member of one of the small hill peoples, followers of indigenous religions, who inhabit the region, the plains of which have been dominated by Muslim Fulani since the jihad of the early nineteenth century. But there are also reports that at least one of his parents belonged to the Shuwa, an Arabic speaking group living in the region. In the 1920s and 1930s, there was a large scale emigration of young Kirdi men from the hills to the plains, driven by poverty and, in 1931, by a severe famine. The young Muhammadu Marwa may have been among them. He reportedly became the servant of a Muslim scholar who inspired his conversion to Islam. On that occasion, he took his Muslim name, Muhammadu. He may have been exposed to Mahdist ideas. In the 1890s this region served as the base for the Mahdist movement led by Hayat Bin Sa‘id (d. 1899), a member of the Sokoto royal family.
Muhammadu Marwa is said to have come to Kano in 1945, but nothing is known of his activities there until the early 1960s. By this time, he had acquired a reputation for tafsir, or Qur’anic commentary, and so was given the nickname “Mallam Mai Tafsiri.” This presumably was the origin of his later derogatory nickname. The political and religious life of Kano in the years just after Nigeria’s independence in 1960 was turbulent, and Muhammadu Marwa joined in the fray. In 1962, Emir Muhammadu Sanusi (r.1953-1963) had him brought before a Muslim judge on charges of illegal preaching and an offense known in the Arabic legal records as shatimah, or abusive language. The latter offense was severely -- and frequently -- punished in Kano at the time, since the exchange of insults by political or religious groups often led to violence. The judge gave Marwa a three-month prison term, to be followed by deportation to his native Cameroon.
The Nigerian military takeover of 1966 brought an end to the formal powers of the emirs and in general weakened traditional social controls. This change made it possible for Marwa to return to Kano in the late 1960s. In 1971, he was issued a Nigerian passport in order to perform the pilgrimage to Mecca.
By the late 1970s, the petroleum boom had brought a major new injection of wealth to Kano, and with it came rapid social change. For many of the established residents of the city this meant accelerated incorporation into the modern sector of Nigerian society, especially through the state-run secular school system. At the same time, young men were drawn from the countryside in increasing numbers. Many of them followed a traditional pattern in the region, leaving their families to become Qur’anic students (Hausa, almajirai) and supporting themselves and their teacher through begging (Hausa, bara) and casual labor. The economic and educational changes of the 1970s made this group increasingly marginal. Such youth were the main recruiting ground for the ‘Yan Tatsine. Groups affiliated with them sprang up in other towns in northern Nigeria and developed their own separate ritual centers.
Starting in 1977, the aggressive preaching of Marwa’s disciples and the growth of his commnity of followers inspired vociferous public complaints. The approach of the turn of the Islamic century (fourteenth century AH) in 1979, an event associated with the arrival of a renewer of the faith, apparently inspired Marwa to announce his claim to prophethood. In 1978, as Nigeria returned to civilian rule, Kano state elected a governor from the People’s Redemption Party, Abubakar Rimi. The Nigerian presidency, however, was captured by this party’s conservative rival in northern politics, the National Party of Nigeria. The distrust between the federal and state levels of government hampered efforts to control the ‘Yan Tatsine.
On November 26, 1980, Governor Rimi issued an ultimatum demanding the dispersal of the large group of followers who had gathered around Marwa’s compound in ‘Yan Awaki Quarters, just outside the old walled city. At this time, the arrival of Libyan troops in the Chadian capital of Njamena added to public anxiety. Governor Rimi took no immediate action on the expiration of the ultimatum. Rumors circulated that the ‘Yan Tatsine planned to take over the city’s two main mosques at congregational prayers on Friday, December 19. The day before, however, a group of ‘Yan Tatsine entered into a violent confrontation with the police at Shahuci Field, near the emir’s palace. With bows and machetes, they drove off the police, captured weapons, and burned trucks.
Ten days of heavy fighting ensued in which more than four thousand people were killed. Many were victims of vigilante groups that sprang up around the city and attacked anyone they suspected of belonging to the ‘Yan Tatsine. The Nigerian army finally was called in to quell the disturbances. Marwa and his followers fled their stronghold on December 29. Marwa himself was killed in the process and some one thousand of his followers arrested. In October 1982, violent disturbances linked to the ‘Yan Tatsine occurred in the city of Maiduguri in northeastern Nigeria. Other disturbances followed at Yola (March 1984) and Gombe (April 1985).
The ‘Yan Tatsine follows a pattern common in Muslim West Africa that may be termed “religious separatism,” or, in the phrase of Jean-Paul Charnay (1980), “closed Islam.” Such groups embrace heterodox practices and esoteric interpretations of the Qur’an. They emphasixe their own purity and refuse contact with the rest of society. Muhammadu Marwa was especially known for his condemnation of all modern innovations from bicycles to radios and buttons. He reportedly accepted only the Qur’an as a valid source of religious teaching, yet as a prophet claimed the right to issue new religious injunctions, or at least new interpretations of the Qur’an. He had no known links with other Islamic groups of either Sufi or Wahhabi orientation.
Tatsine, Mai see Mai Tatsine
Mohammaed Marwa Maitatsine see Mai Tatsine
Muhammadu 'Arab see Mai Tatsine
Muhammadu Marwa see Mai Tatsine
Mallam Mai Tafsiri see Mai Tatsine
Mai Tatsine (Mohammed Marwa Maitatsine) (Muhammadu 'Arab) (Muhammadu Marwa) (1927?-1980). Leader of a separatist sect in Kano, Nigeria. Mai Tatsine was the nickname given by people in Kano to Muhammadu Marwa (also known as Muhammadu ‘Arab), the leader of an Islamic sect that was involved in violent disturbances in that city in December 1980. The name is derived from a Hausa phrase he commonly employed against his detractors, Alla ya tsine maka albarka (“May God deprive you of his blessing”). His followers were known as the ‘Yan Tatsine. Because the group was intensely suspicious of outsiders, and because the disturbances gave rise to many wild rumors and apocryphal stories, little reliable knowledge exists of the movement or its leader.
Muhammadu Marwa was reportedly born in the region of Marwa, a city in northern Cameroon, probably in the 1920s. (A Nigerian passport that he acquired gave the date 1927.) He is commonly thought to have been Kirdi by origin, a member of one of the small hill peoples, followers of indigenous religions, who inhabit the region, the plains of which have been dominated by Muslim Fulani since the jihad of the early nineteenth century. But there are also reports that at least one of his parents belonged to the Shuwa, an Arabic speaking group living in the region. In the 1920s and 1930s, there was a large scale emigration of young Kirdi men from the hills to the plains, driven by poverty and, in 1931, by a severe famine. The young Muhammadu Marwa may have been among them. He reportedly became the servant of a Muslim scholar who inspired his conversion to Islam. On that occasion, he took his Muslim name, Muhammadu. He may have been exposed to Mahdist ideas. In the 1890s this region served as the base for the Mahdist movement led by Hayat Bin Sa‘id (d. 1899), a member of the Sokoto royal family.
Muhammadu Marwa is said to have come to Kano in 1945, but nothing is known of his activities there until the early 1960s. By this time, he had acquired a reputation for tafsir, or Qur’anic commentary, and so was given the nickname “Mallam Mai Tafsiri.” This presumably was the origin of his later derogatory nickname. The political and religious life of Kano in the years just after Nigeria’s independence in 1960 was turbulent, and Muhammadu Marwa joined in the fray. In 1962, Emir Muhammadu Sanusi (r.1953-1963) had him brought before a Muslim judge on charges of illegal preaching and an offense known in the Arabic legal records as shatimah, or abusive language. The latter offense was severely -- and frequently -- punished in Kano at the time, since the exchange of insults by political or religious groups often led to violence. The judge gave Marwa a three-month prison term, to be followed by deportation to his native Cameroon.
The Nigerian military takeover of 1966 brought an end to the formal powers of the emirs and in general weakened traditional social controls. This change made it possible for Marwa to return to Kano in the late 1960s. In 1971, he was issued a Nigerian passport in order to perform the pilgrimage to Mecca.
By the late 1970s, the petroleum boom had brought a major new injection of wealth to Kano, and with it came rapid social change. For many of the established residents of the city this meant accelerated incorporation into the modern sector of Nigerian society, especially through the state-run secular school system. At the same time, young men were drawn from the countryside in increasing numbers. Many of them followed a traditional pattern in the region, leaving their families to become Qur’anic students (Hausa, almajirai) and supporting themselves and their teacher through begging (Hausa, bara) and casual labor. The economic and educational changes of the 1970s made this group increasingly marginal. Such youth were the main recruiting ground for the ‘Yan Tatsine. Groups affiliated with them sprang up in other towns in northern Nigeria and developed their own separate ritual centers.
Starting in 1977, the aggressive preaching of Marwa’s disciples and the growth of his commnity of followers inspired vociferous public complaints. The approach of the turn of the Islamic century (fourteenth century AH) in 1979, an event associated with the arrival of a renewer of the faith, apparently inspired Marwa to announce his claim to prophethood. In 1978, as Nigeria returned to civilian rule, Kano state elected a governor from the People’s Redemption Party, Abubakar Rimi. The Nigerian presidency, however, was captured by this party’s conservative rival in northern politics, the National Party of Nigeria. The distrust between the federal and state levels of government hampered efforts to control the ‘Yan Tatsine.
On November 26, 1980, Governor Rimi issued an ultimatum demanding the dispersal of the large group of followers who had gathered around Marwa’s compound in ‘Yan Awaki Quarters, just outside the old walled city. At this time, the arrival of Libyan troops in the Chadian capital of Njamena added to public anxiety. Governor Rimi took no immediate action on the expiration of the ultimatum. Rumors circulated that the ‘Yan Tatsine planned to take over the city’s two main mosques at congregational prayers on Friday, December 19. The day before, however, a group of ‘Yan Tatsine entered into a violent confrontation with the police at Shahuci Field, near the emir’s palace. With bows and machetes, they drove off the police, captured weapons, and burned trucks.
Ten days of heavy fighting ensued in which more than four thousand people were killed. Many were victims of vigilante groups that sprang up around the city and attacked anyone they suspected of belonging to the ‘Yan Tatsine. The Nigerian army finally was called in to quell the disturbances. Marwa and his followers fled their stronghold on December 29. Marwa himself was killed in the process and some one thousand of his followers arrested. In October 1982, violent disturbances linked to the ‘Yan Tatsine occurred in the city of Maiduguri in northeastern Nigeria. Other disturbances followed at Yola (March 1984) and Gombe (April 1985).
The ‘Yan Tatsine follows a pattern common in Muslim West Africa that may be termed “religious separatism,” or, in the phrase of Jean-Paul Charnay (1980), “closed Islam.” Such groups embrace heterodox practices and esoteric interpretations of the Qur’an. They emphasixe their own purity and refuse contact with the rest of society. Muhammadu Marwa was especially known for his condemnation of all modern innovations from bicycles to radios and buttons. He reportedly accepted only the Qur’an as a valid source of religious teaching, yet as a prophet claimed the right to issue new religious injunctions, or at least new interpretations of the Qur’an. He had no known links with other Islamic groups of either Sufi or Wahhabi orientation.
Tatsine, Mai see Mai Tatsine
Mohammaed Marwa Maitatsine see Mai Tatsine
Muhammadu 'Arab see Mai Tatsine
Muhammadu Marwa see Mai Tatsine
Mallam Mai Tafsiri see Mai Tatsine
Majd al-Dawla, Abu Talib Rustam
Majd al-Dawla, Abu Talib Rustam (Abu Talib Rustam Majd al-Dawla) (b. 989). Ruler of the northern Buyid amirate of Rayy and Jibal (r.997-1029). The amirate was overrun by the Ghaznavid Mahmud ibn Sebuktigin.
Abu Taleb Rostam, known as Majd al-Dawla, was the Buyid amir of Ray, a city in Iran. He was the eldest son of Fakhr al-Daula. His reign saw the removal of the Buyids as a power in central Iran.
Abu Taleb Rostam succeeded his father upon the latter's death in 997. At the time, he was four years old. His younger brother, Abu Taher ("Shams al-Daula"), meanwhile, became the ruler of Hamadan. Since both brothers were in the age of minority, power was assumed by their mother Sayyida. Both sons initially declared themselves independent and assumed the title of Shâhanshâh, but by 1009 or 1010 at the latest had recognized the authority of Baha' al-Daula, who controlled Fars and Iraq, and abandoned the title.
In 1006 or 1007, with the assistance of his vizier Abu 'Ali ibn 'Ali, Majd al-Daula attempted to throw off the regency of his mother. Sayyida, however, escaped to the Kurd Abu Najr Badr ibn Hasanuya, and together with Shams al-Daula they put Ray under siege. After several battles, the city was taken and Majd al-Daula was captured. He was imprisoned by his mother in the fort of Tabarak, while Shams al-Daula took to power in Ray. After a year, Majd al-Daula was released and reinstated in Ray; Shams al-Daula returned to Hamadan. Power continued to be held by his mother.
Majd al-Daula's reign saw the gradual shrinking of Buyid holdings in central Iran. Gorgan and Tabaristan had been lost to the Ziyarids in 997, while several of the western towns were seized by the Sallarids of Azerbaijan. There were also internal troubles, such as a revolt in 1016 or 1017. Towards the end of her life, Sayyida had to prevent Shams al-Daula from seizing Ray from his brother.
When Sayyida died in 1028, the consequences of the political seclusion of Majd al-Daula became apparent. He was soon faced with a revolt by his Dailamite soldiers, and requested the assistance of Mahmud of Ghazni in dealing with them. Mahmud came to Ray, deposed Majd al-Daula as ruler, and sacked the city, bringing an end to Buyid rule there. One of his sons, Fana-Khusrau, would attempt to restore the power of the Buyids in the following years, but failed.
Abu Talib Rustam Majd al-Dawla see Majd al-Dawla, Abu Talib Rustam
Majd al-Dawla, Abu Talib Rustam (Abu Talib Rustam Majd al-Dawla) (b. 989). Ruler of the northern Buyid amirate of Rayy and Jibal (r.997-1029). The amirate was overrun by the Ghaznavid Mahmud ibn Sebuktigin.
Abu Taleb Rostam, known as Majd al-Dawla, was the Buyid amir of Ray, a city in Iran. He was the eldest son of Fakhr al-Daula. His reign saw the removal of the Buyids as a power in central Iran.
Abu Taleb Rostam succeeded his father upon the latter's death in 997. At the time, he was four years old. His younger brother, Abu Taher ("Shams al-Daula"), meanwhile, became the ruler of Hamadan. Since both brothers were in the age of minority, power was assumed by their mother Sayyida. Both sons initially declared themselves independent and assumed the title of Shâhanshâh, but by 1009 or 1010 at the latest had recognized the authority of Baha' al-Daula, who controlled Fars and Iraq, and abandoned the title.
In 1006 or 1007, with the assistance of his vizier Abu 'Ali ibn 'Ali, Majd al-Daula attempted to throw off the regency of his mother. Sayyida, however, escaped to the Kurd Abu Najr Badr ibn Hasanuya, and together with Shams al-Daula they put Ray under siege. After several battles, the city was taken and Majd al-Daula was captured. He was imprisoned by his mother in the fort of Tabarak, while Shams al-Daula took to power in Ray. After a year, Majd al-Daula was released and reinstated in Ray; Shams al-Daula returned to Hamadan. Power continued to be held by his mother.
Majd al-Daula's reign saw the gradual shrinking of Buyid holdings in central Iran. Gorgan and Tabaristan had been lost to the Ziyarids in 997, while several of the western towns were seized by the Sallarids of Azerbaijan. There were also internal troubles, such as a revolt in 1016 or 1017. Towards the end of her life, Sayyida had to prevent Shams al-Daula from seizing Ray from his brother.
When Sayyida died in 1028, the consequences of the political seclusion of Majd al-Daula became apparent. He was soon faced with a revolt by his Dailamite soldiers, and requested the assistance of Mahmud of Ghazni in dealing with them. Mahmud came to Ray, deposed Majd al-Daula as ruler, and sacked the city, bringing an end to Buyid rule there. One of his sons, Fana-Khusrau, would attempt to restore the power of the Buyids in the following years, but failed.
Abu Talib Rustam Majd al-Dawla see Majd al-Dawla, Abu Talib Rustam
Majid ibn Sa‘id
Majid ibn Sa‘id (b. c. 1832 - October 7, 1870). Sultan of Zanzibar and of the Al Bu-Sa‘id dynasty. He ruled Zanzibar from October 19, 1856 to October 7, 1870. After his father Sa‘id ibn Sultan had died in 1856, Majid’s eldest brother Thuwayni, designated by his father as sultan in Oman, attempted to gain control of the African dominions of the sultanate of Oman and Zanzibar, but his armed expedition was turned back at sea by a British man-of-war. The dispute, settled by the Award of Lord Canning, Viceroy of India, and recognized by an Anglo-French Declaration in 1862, led to the independence of Zanzibar from Oman.
Sayyid Majid Ibn Sa‘id was the second Busaidi ruler of Zanzibar (Tanzania). Majid was the first son of Sayyid Sa‘id to reign as the Sultan of Zanzibar and to hold his father’s title Sayyid -- an Islamic honorific title taken by learned men which was adopted as a dynastic title by the Busaidi dynasty of Zanzibar.
Upon his succession in 1856, Sayyid Sa‘id’s commercial empire was divided between Majid in the materially wealthy lands of east Africa and his half-brother Thuwayni (Thuwain) in the previous Busaidi capital of Muscat in southern Arabia. Majid relied greatly on the support of the British consular officials to maintain his position vis-a-vis his jealous brother. Majid became beholden to the British navy for its assistance in foiling an attempted invasion by Thuwain in 1859. In 1861, the dispute between Majid and Thuwain was resolved by British arbitrators. The arbitration affirmed Zanzibar’s independence from Muscat but required Majid to pay an annual tribute to Thuwain in to compensate Thuwain for their economically unequal inheritance. The payment of these tributary amounts ended in 1866 when Thuwain was assassinated by his own son. It was this termination of the payment of the tributary amounts which enabled Majid to embark upon a period of construction on the Tanzanian mainland.
During Majid’s tenure as Sultan of Zanzibar, the first serious attempts were made by Zanzibar to dominate the Tanzanian mainland. Majid began to develop Dar es Salaam as a future capital, but died before the project was completed.
Upon his death in 1870, Majid was peacefully succeeded by another brother, Barghash.
Today, Dar es Salaam, the pride of Sayyid Majid Ibn Said is the largest town and main port of Tanzania. It is Majid’s greatest legacy.
Majid ibn Sa‘id (b. c. 1832 - October 7, 1870). Sultan of Zanzibar and of the Al Bu-Sa‘id dynasty. He ruled Zanzibar from October 19, 1856 to October 7, 1870. After his father Sa‘id ibn Sultan had died in 1856, Majid’s eldest brother Thuwayni, designated by his father as sultan in Oman, attempted to gain control of the African dominions of the sultanate of Oman and Zanzibar, but his armed expedition was turned back at sea by a British man-of-war. The dispute, settled by the Award of Lord Canning, Viceroy of India, and recognized by an Anglo-French Declaration in 1862, led to the independence of Zanzibar from Oman.
Sayyid Majid Ibn Sa‘id was the second Busaidi ruler of Zanzibar (Tanzania). Majid was the first son of Sayyid Sa‘id to reign as the Sultan of Zanzibar and to hold his father’s title Sayyid -- an Islamic honorific title taken by learned men which was adopted as a dynastic title by the Busaidi dynasty of Zanzibar.
Upon his succession in 1856, Sayyid Sa‘id’s commercial empire was divided between Majid in the materially wealthy lands of east Africa and his half-brother Thuwayni (Thuwain) in the previous Busaidi capital of Muscat in southern Arabia. Majid relied greatly on the support of the British consular officials to maintain his position vis-a-vis his jealous brother. Majid became beholden to the British navy for its assistance in foiling an attempted invasion by Thuwain in 1859. In 1861, the dispute between Majid and Thuwain was resolved by British arbitrators. The arbitration affirmed Zanzibar’s independence from Muscat but required Majid to pay an annual tribute to Thuwain in to compensate Thuwain for their economically unequal inheritance. The payment of these tributary amounts ended in 1866 when Thuwain was assassinated by his own son. It was this termination of the payment of the tributary amounts which enabled Majid to embark upon a period of construction on the Tanzanian mainland.
During Majid’s tenure as Sultan of Zanzibar, the first serious attempts were made by Zanzibar to dominate the Tanzanian mainland. Majid began to develop Dar es Salaam as a future capital, but died before the project was completed.
Upon his death in 1870, Majid was peacefully succeeded by another brother, Barghash.
Today, Dar es Salaam, the pride of Sayyid Majid Ibn Said is the largest town and main port of Tanzania. It is Majid’s greatest legacy.
Majlisi, Muhammad Baqir
Majlisi, Muhammad Baqir (Mullah Muhammad Baqir Majlisi) (Majlesi-ye Thani -- Majlesi the Second)(‘Allama Majlisi) (1616-1698). Authoritative jurist and a prolific collector of traditions and an unprecedentedly influential author of the Twelver Shi‘a. Under the Safavid Shah Suleiman, he was, in effect, the ruler of Iran. Muhammad Baqir Majlisi was an Iranian religious scholar, strongly exoteric in outlook, who exerted considerable influence on the Safavid state and left behind an important corpus of writings still studied in Iran.
Born in Isfahan in 1616, his father, Mullah Muhammad Taqi al-Majlisi, was a cleric of Islamic jurisprudence. The genealogy of his family is traced back to Bu Noaym Ahamad bin Abdallah Esfahani, the author, inter alia, of a History of Isfahan, entitled Zekr-e akhbar-e Esfahan.
By the age of 14, Muhammad Baqir gained certification of "riwayat" from Mulla Sadra to teach. He is said to have completed studies under twenty-one masters (ustadh). He is reported to have trained 181 students to become masters themselves.
Gaining fame as a prodigy of erudition, he swiftly advanced to the position of mullabashi (“chief mulla,” -- head of the religious hierarchy), from which he was able to set the Safavid state on what would be a disastrous course of confrontation with the Sunni Afghans. His main scholarly accomplishment was a vast collection of Shi‘ite traditions, Bihar al-anwar (Oceans of Lights). Noteworthy, too, are the shorter handbooks of religious practice he wrote, in Persian, for a broader audience.
In 1678, the Safavid King, Shah Suleiman, appointed "Sheikh ul-Islam" (Chief Religious Leader of the land) in Isfahan, the capital of the Persian Empire (Iran). In this influential position, he was given a free hand by the Sultan to encourage and to punish as he saw fit. The three inter-related areas in which Majlisi exerted his efforts were the suppression of Sufism, mystical philosophies, and philosophic rationalism known as Falsafah; the propagation of a legalistic form of Twelver Shi'ism and "the suppression of Sunnism and other religious groups."
Majlisi's era marked a breaking point, as he successfully undercut the influence of Sufism and philosophic rationalism in Shi'ism. Up to the time of Majlisi, Shiism and Sufism were closely linked and indeed Sufism had been a vehicle for pro-Shi'a sentiment among the Sunnis. Even the most eminent members of the Shi'a 'ulama' in the preceding centuries had come under the influence of Sufism. After the death of Majlisi, this process continued along the succeeding generations of 'ulama' so that Sufism became divorced from Shi'ism and ceased to influence the main stream of Shi'a development. Philosophy was also downgraded and ceased to be an important part of studies at the religious institutions.
Majlisi was not successful in suppressing Sunnism. Though he waged a relentless campaign of persecution wherever he found any Sunnis, the pockets of Sunnism in Iran he targeted remained.
Majlisi was a leading Iranian Shi‘a scholar of the late Safavid period. He was born in Isfahan, the capital of the Safavid state, into a family of ‘ulama’ (religious scholars). His father, Muhammad Taqi al-Majlisi, was a noted religious figure. It is said the Majlisis were related to the ‘Amilis of south Lebanon (Jabal ‘Amil) who, when Shah Isma‘il founded the Shi‘a Safavid state in Iran in 1501, flocked to Iran to participate in the flowering of a new era of Shi‘a scholarship. Al-Majlisi’s life and works marked the end of this “golden age.” He died in Isfahan and was buried in the great old mosque of the city.
The most readily accessible biography of Majlisi is to be found in Muhammd Baqir Khwansari’s well-known nineteenth-century biographical dictionary, Rawdat al-jannat. In narrating the life and works of Majlisi, Khwansari, as is his usual style, quotes from contemporary and later sources. He refers to him as “Shaykh al-Islam” of the Safavid capital, adding that “he was the chief figure (ra’is) in religious and secular matters.” During the reign of the last Safavid ruler, Shah Sultan Husayn, the affairs of the state had deteriorated to such a degree that it was only thanks to Majlisi’s activities that the country maintained a semblance of unity. The end came soon after Majlisi’s death.
Aside from his religious duties as a member of the ‘ulama’, which the sources describe in exaggerated detail, Majlisi’s position in regard to the government and the shah is unclear. He was not a statesman.
In addition to the material in Khwansari’s work, the earliest life of Majlisi is included in Mir’at al-ahval-i Jahan-nama, written by Ahmad ibn Muhammad ‘Ali Bihbahani (d. 1819 or 1820) and recently published in Tehran, edited by ‘Ali Davvani. This work served as the basis for a more elaborate biography of Majlisi written in 1884 by Husayn ibn Muhammad Taqi ibn ‘Ali ibn Muhammad al-Nuri al-Tabarsi, entitled Al-fayd al-qudsi fi tarjamat al-‘Allamah al-Majlisi. This work was published as part of volume 105 of the new edition of Majlisi’s Bihar al-anwar. After a short introduction, the biography deals with Majlisi’s personal characteristics, his works, his teachers and students, his ancestors, his descendants, and his life and visions of him after his death.
The sources stress two aspects of Majlisi’s life: his strong opposition to Sufism and his attempt at popularizing Shi’a thought among Iranians by writing several of his works in Persian rather than Arabic. His major work, however, Bihar al-anwar, a compendium of Shi‘a knowledge, is in Arabic. A new (second) edition of this work, which began to appear in Tehran in the 1960s is in 110 volumes. Karl-Heinz Pampus wrote a doctoral dissertation on Bihar al-anwar in 1970. The first part of Pampus’s work is a comprehensive biography of Majlisi; the rest is a detailed analysis of Bihar.
Majlisi is said to have written as many as thirteen books in Arabic and fifty-three in Persian. Some of these compositions are short treatises dealing with such topics as belief, prayer, ethics, and morality, many of which intended to teach the common person. In Shi‘a thought and scholarship, Majlisi represents the culminating point in the Ithna ‘Ashari revival that can be said to have begun with the rise of the Safavid dynasty. The continuity in Shi‘a learning that the Safavid rulers provided for Ithna ‘Ashari scholars (thus linking them with their predecessors of the late Middle Ages, such as Ibn al-Mujtahar al-Hilli, Ibn Makki al-‘Amili, Ibn Fahd al-Hilli and others) is counterbalanced with the continuity that Majlisi himself provided for future generations of Shi‘a scholars, linking the Safavid period with that of the Qajar dynasty in the nineteenth century -- all the way to the present Islamic Republic of Iran.
No modern scholar today dealing with Islamic thought, Shi’a or otherwise, can afford to ignore the writings of Muhammad Baqir al-Majilisi. Majlisi, al-Hurr al-‘Amili, and Mulla Muhsin Fayd constitute the so-called Three Later Muhammads who, with the “Three Early Muhammads” (Kulayni, Ibn Babuyah, and Shaykh al-Ta’ifah al-Tusi), share among themselves the most important writings of the teachings of the Shi‘a tradition of Islam.
Majlisi re-established clerical authority under his leadership, and renewed the impetus for conversion from Sunnism to Shi'ism. Majlisi is credited with propagating numerous Shi'a rituals that Iranians regularly practice, such as mourning ceremonies for fallen imams, particularly the martyrdom of Husayn ibn Ali at Karbala; and pilgrimages to shrines of imams and their families.
Majlisi fervently upheld the concepts of enjoining the good and prohibiting evil, and in so doing endeavored to provide fatwa (judgments) for all of the hypothetical situations a true believer could or might face. In one exposition of virtues of proper behavior, he gave directions on everything from how to wear clothes to sexual intercourse and association with females, clipping fingernails, sleeping, waking, bathroom functions, enemas, sneezing, entering and leaving a domicile, and treatments and cures for many illnesses and diseases.
More controversially, Majlisi defined science very narrowly as knowledge of the clear, secure ayat (verses of the Qur'an); of the religious duties and obligations which God has fixed in his Justice; and of the Prophetic Traditions (Hadith), which are valid until the day of Resurrection. Beyond this, he warned, the seeking of knowledge is a waste of one's life, and worse would generally lead to apostasy and heresy, in which case the likelihood of salvation is remote. Majlisi opposed the school of mystical philosophy developed by Mir Damad and Mulla Sadra, who argued that the Qur'an was always open to re-interpretation, and valued insights that came from intuition and ecstasy rather than reason.
Majlisi is also controversial for his close relationship with Indian Mughal ruler Aurangzeb Alamgir who was known commonly for his anti-Shi'a inclinations. Aurangzeb is said to have referred to Majlisi as the real leader of all true Muslims of Persia. Majlisi visited India on nine occasions between 1660 and 1695 and was awarded the respect of a government emissary thereby offending the Shah of Iran. Shah Suleiman made a futile effort of winning over Majlisi against Aurangzeb by giving him a high level post in his court but failed to win his support for his wars against the latter.
Mullah Muhammad Baqir Majlisi see Majlisi, Muhammad Baqir
Majlesi-ye Thani see Majlisi, Muhammad Baqir
Majlesi the Second see Majlisi, Muhammad Baqir
Thani, Majlesi-ye see Majlisi, Muhammad Baqir
'Allama Majlisi see Majlisi, Muhammad Baqir
Majlisi, Muhammad Baqir (Mullah Muhammad Baqir Majlisi) (Majlesi-ye Thani -- Majlesi the Second)(‘Allama Majlisi) (1616-1698). Authoritative jurist and a prolific collector of traditions and an unprecedentedly influential author of the Twelver Shi‘a. Under the Safavid Shah Suleiman, he was, in effect, the ruler of Iran. Muhammad Baqir Majlisi was an Iranian religious scholar, strongly exoteric in outlook, who exerted considerable influence on the Safavid state and left behind an important corpus of writings still studied in Iran.
Born in Isfahan in 1616, his father, Mullah Muhammad Taqi al-Majlisi, was a cleric of Islamic jurisprudence. The genealogy of his family is traced back to Bu Noaym Ahamad bin Abdallah Esfahani, the author, inter alia, of a History of Isfahan, entitled Zekr-e akhbar-e Esfahan.
By the age of 14, Muhammad Baqir gained certification of "riwayat" from Mulla Sadra to teach. He is said to have completed studies under twenty-one masters (ustadh). He is reported to have trained 181 students to become masters themselves.
Gaining fame as a prodigy of erudition, he swiftly advanced to the position of mullabashi (“chief mulla,” -- head of the religious hierarchy), from which he was able to set the Safavid state on what would be a disastrous course of confrontation with the Sunni Afghans. His main scholarly accomplishment was a vast collection of Shi‘ite traditions, Bihar al-anwar (Oceans of Lights). Noteworthy, too, are the shorter handbooks of religious practice he wrote, in Persian, for a broader audience.
In 1678, the Safavid King, Shah Suleiman, appointed "Sheikh ul-Islam" (Chief Religious Leader of the land) in Isfahan, the capital of the Persian Empire (Iran). In this influential position, he was given a free hand by the Sultan to encourage and to punish as he saw fit. The three inter-related areas in which Majlisi exerted his efforts were the suppression of Sufism, mystical philosophies, and philosophic rationalism known as Falsafah; the propagation of a legalistic form of Twelver Shi'ism and "the suppression of Sunnism and other religious groups."
Majlisi's era marked a breaking point, as he successfully undercut the influence of Sufism and philosophic rationalism in Shi'ism. Up to the time of Majlisi, Shiism and Sufism were closely linked and indeed Sufism had been a vehicle for pro-Shi'a sentiment among the Sunnis. Even the most eminent members of the Shi'a 'ulama' in the preceding centuries had come under the influence of Sufism. After the death of Majlisi, this process continued along the succeeding generations of 'ulama' so that Sufism became divorced from Shi'ism and ceased to influence the main stream of Shi'a development. Philosophy was also downgraded and ceased to be an important part of studies at the religious institutions.
Majlisi was not successful in suppressing Sunnism. Though he waged a relentless campaign of persecution wherever he found any Sunnis, the pockets of Sunnism in Iran he targeted remained.
Majlisi was a leading Iranian Shi‘a scholar of the late Safavid period. He was born in Isfahan, the capital of the Safavid state, into a family of ‘ulama’ (religious scholars). His father, Muhammad Taqi al-Majlisi, was a noted religious figure. It is said the Majlisis were related to the ‘Amilis of south Lebanon (Jabal ‘Amil) who, when Shah Isma‘il founded the Shi‘a Safavid state in Iran in 1501, flocked to Iran to participate in the flowering of a new era of Shi‘a scholarship. Al-Majlisi’s life and works marked the end of this “golden age.” He died in Isfahan and was buried in the great old mosque of the city.
The most readily accessible biography of Majlisi is to be found in Muhammd Baqir Khwansari’s well-known nineteenth-century biographical dictionary, Rawdat al-jannat. In narrating the life and works of Majlisi, Khwansari, as is his usual style, quotes from contemporary and later sources. He refers to him as “Shaykh al-Islam” of the Safavid capital, adding that “he was the chief figure (ra’is) in religious and secular matters.” During the reign of the last Safavid ruler, Shah Sultan Husayn, the affairs of the state had deteriorated to such a degree that it was only thanks to Majlisi’s activities that the country maintained a semblance of unity. The end came soon after Majlisi’s death.
Aside from his religious duties as a member of the ‘ulama’, which the sources describe in exaggerated detail, Majlisi’s position in regard to the government and the shah is unclear. He was not a statesman.
In addition to the material in Khwansari’s work, the earliest life of Majlisi is included in Mir’at al-ahval-i Jahan-nama, written by Ahmad ibn Muhammad ‘Ali Bihbahani (d. 1819 or 1820) and recently published in Tehran, edited by ‘Ali Davvani. This work served as the basis for a more elaborate biography of Majlisi written in 1884 by Husayn ibn Muhammad Taqi ibn ‘Ali ibn Muhammad al-Nuri al-Tabarsi, entitled Al-fayd al-qudsi fi tarjamat al-‘Allamah al-Majlisi. This work was published as part of volume 105 of the new edition of Majlisi’s Bihar al-anwar. After a short introduction, the biography deals with Majlisi’s personal characteristics, his works, his teachers and students, his ancestors, his descendants, and his life and visions of him after his death.
The sources stress two aspects of Majlisi’s life: his strong opposition to Sufism and his attempt at popularizing Shi’a thought among Iranians by writing several of his works in Persian rather than Arabic. His major work, however, Bihar al-anwar, a compendium of Shi‘a knowledge, is in Arabic. A new (second) edition of this work, which began to appear in Tehran in the 1960s is in 110 volumes. Karl-Heinz Pampus wrote a doctoral dissertation on Bihar al-anwar in 1970. The first part of Pampus’s work is a comprehensive biography of Majlisi; the rest is a detailed analysis of Bihar.
Majlisi is said to have written as many as thirteen books in Arabic and fifty-three in Persian. Some of these compositions are short treatises dealing with such topics as belief, prayer, ethics, and morality, many of which intended to teach the common person. In Shi‘a thought and scholarship, Majlisi represents the culminating point in the Ithna ‘Ashari revival that can be said to have begun with the rise of the Safavid dynasty. The continuity in Shi‘a learning that the Safavid rulers provided for Ithna ‘Ashari scholars (thus linking them with their predecessors of the late Middle Ages, such as Ibn al-Mujtahar al-Hilli, Ibn Makki al-‘Amili, Ibn Fahd al-Hilli and others) is counterbalanced with the continuity that Majlisi himself provided for future generations of Shi‘a scholars, linking the Safavid period with that of the Qajar dynasty in the nineteenth century -- all the way to the present Islamic Republic of Iran.
No modern scholar today dealing with Islamic thought, Shi’a or otherwise, can afford to ignore the writings of Muhammad Baqir al-Majilisi. Majlisi, al-Hurr al-‘Amili, and Mulla Muhsin Fayd constitute the so-called Three Later Muhammads who, with the “Three Early Muhammads” (Kulayni, Ibn Babuyah, and Shaykh al-Ta’ifah al-Tusi), share among themselves the most important writings of the teachings of the Shi‘a tradition of Islam.
Majlisi re-established clerical authority under his leadership, and renewed the impetus for conversion from Sunnism to Shi'ism. Majlisi is credited with propagating numerous Shi'a rituals that Iranians regularly practice, such as mourning ceremonies for fallen imams, particularly the martyrdom of Husayn ibn Ali at Karbala; and pilgrimages to shrines of imams and their families.
Majlisi fervently upheld the concepts of enjoining the good and prohibiting evil, and in so doing endeavored to provide fatwa (judgments) for all of the hypothetical situations a true believer could or might face. In one exposition of virtues of proper behavior, he gave directions on everything from how to wear clothes to sexual intercourse and association with females, clipping fingernails, sleeping, waking, bathroom functions, enemas, sneezing, entering and leaving a domicile, and treatments and cures for many illnesses and diseases.
More controversially, Majlisi defined science very narrowly as knowledge of the clear, secure ayat (verses of the Qur'an); of the religious duties and obligations which God has fixed in his Justice; and of the Prophetic Traditions (Hadith), which are valid until the day of Resurrection. Beyond this, he warned, the seeking of knowledge is a waste of one's life, and worse would generally lead to apostasy and heresy, in which case the likelihood of salvation is remote. Majlisi opposed the school of mystical philosophy developed by Mir Damad and Mulla Sadra, who argued that the Qur'an was always open to re-interpretation, and valued insights that came from intuition and ecstasy rather than reason.
Majlisi is also controversial for his close relationship with Indian Mughal ruler Aurangzeb Alamgir who was known commonly for his anti-Shi'a inclinations. Aurangzeb is said to have referred to Majlisi as the real leader of all true Muslims of Persia. Majlisi visited India on nine occasions between 1660 and 1695 and was awarded the respect of a government emissary thereby offending the Shah of Iran. Shah Suleiman made a futile effort of winning over Majlisi against Aurangzeb by giving him a high level post in his court but failed to win his support for his wars against the latter.
Mullah Muhammad Baqir Majlisi see Majlisi, Muhammad Baqir
Majlesi-ye Thani see Majlisi, Muhammad Baqir
Majlesi the Second see Majlisi, Muhammad Baqir
Thani, Majlesi-ye see Majlisi, Muhammad Baqir
'Allama Majlisi see Majlisi, Muhammad Baqir
Majlisi-yi Awwal, Muhammad Taqi
Majlisi-yi Awwal, Muhammad Taqi (Muhammad Taqi Majlisi-yi Awwal) (1594-1659). Shi‘a religious leader and author. He was the father of Mulla Muhammad Baqir Majlisi.
Muhammad Taqi Majlisi-yi Awwal see Majlisi-yi Awwal, Muhammad Taqi
Awwal, Muhammad Taqi Majlisi-yi see Majlisi-yi Awwal, Muhammad Taqi
Majlisi-yi Awwal, Muhammad Taqi (Muhammad Taqi Majlisi-yi Awwal) (1594-1659). Shi‘a religious leader and author. He was the father of Mulla Muhammad Baqir Majlisi.
Muhammad Taqi Majlisi-yi Awwal see Majlisi-yi Awwal, Muhammad Taqi
Awwal, Muhammad Taqi Majlisi-yi see Majlisi-yi Awwal, Muhammad Taqi
Majnun-Layla
Majnun-Layla (“The Madman of Layla”) ("Layla's Lunatic"). Name given to the hero of a romantic love story, the original form of which could date back as far as the second half of the seventh century. The tale is known in Arabic, Persian, Kurdish, Pashto, Turkish and Urdu literatures.
The story of Layla and Majnun is based on the real story of a young man called Qays ibn al-Mulawwah from the northern Arabian Peninsula, in the Umayyad era during the 7th century. There were two Arabic versions of the story at the time. In one version, Majnun spent his youth together with his cousin, Layla, tending their flocks. In the other version, upon seeing Layla he fell passionately in love with her. In both versions, however, Majnun went mad when her father prevented him from marrying her. For that reason, Majnun came to be called Majnun-Layla, which means "Driven mad by Layla." To Majnun were attributed a variety of incredibly passionate romantic Arabic poems, considered among the foremost examples of the Udhari school.
Qays ibn al-Mulawwah ibn Muzahim, a Bedouin poet, was from the Bani Aamir tribe of Arabia. He fell in love with Layla bint Mahdi ibn Sa'd from the same tribe, better known as Layla Al-Aamiriya. He soon began creating poems about his love for her, mentioning her name often. When he asked for her hand in marriage her father refused as this would mean a scandal for Layla according to Arab traditions. Soon after, Layla married another man.
When Qays heard of her marriage, he fled the tribe camp and began wandering the surrounding desert. His family eventually gave up on his return and left food for him in the wilderness. He could sometimes be seen reciting poetry to himself or writing in the sand with a stick.
Layla moved to Iraq with her husband, where she became ill and eventually died. Qays was later found dead in the wilderness in 688 near an unknown woman's grave. He had carved three verses of poetry on a rock near the grave, which are the last three verses attributed to him.
From Arab and Habib folklore, the story passed into Persian literature, and in the 12th century, Nizami wrote a famous adaptation of Layla and Majnun in Persian. In Nizami's adaptation, the young lovers become acquainted at school and fell desperately in love. However, they could not see each other due to a family feud, and Layla's family arranged for her to marry another man. It is a tragic story of undying love much like the later Romeo and Juliet, which was itself said to have been inspired by a Latin version of Layla and Majnun.
The type of love exhibited by Layla and Majnun is known in Arabic culture as "Virgin Love", because the lovers never married or made love. Other famous Virgin Love stories are the stories of "Qays and Lubna", "Kuthair and Azza", "Marwa and Al Majnoun Al Faranasi" and "Antara and Abla." The literary motif itself is common throughout the world, notably in the Muslim literature of South Asia, such as Urdu ghazals.
The Azerbaijani Turkish adaptation of the story, Dastan-i Leyli vu Mecnun ("The Epic of Layla and Majnun") was written in the 16th century by Fuzuli. Fuzuli's version was borrowed by the renowned Azerbaijani composer Uzeyir Hajibeyov, who used the material to create what became the Middle East's first opera. It premiered in Baku on January 25, 1908. The story had previously been brought to the stage in the late 19th century, when Ahmed Shawqi wrote a poetic play about the tragedy, now considered one of the best in modern Arab poetry.
The enduring popularity of the legend of Layla and Majnun has exerted great influence on Middle Eastern literature, especially Sufi writers, in whose literature the name Layla refers to their concept of the Beloved. The original story is featured in Baha'ullah's writings, the Seven Valleys. Etymologically, the word "Layla" is related to the Hebrew and Arabic words for "night," and is thought to mean "one who works by night." This is an apparent allusion to the fact that the romance of the star-crossed lovers was hidden and kept secret. In the Persian and Arabic languages, the word "Majnun" means "crazy." In addition to this creative use of language, the tale has also made at least one linguistic contribution, inspiring a Turkish collquialism: to "feel like Layla" is to feel completely dazed, as might be expected of a person who is literarlly madly in love.
In contemporary times, the name "Layla" served as the inspiration for the title of Derek and the Dominos' famous album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs and its title track.
The Madman of Layla see Majnun-Layla
Layla's Lunatic see Majnun-Layla
Majnun-Layla (“The Madman of Layla”) ("Layla's Lunatic"). Name given to the hero of a romantic love story, the original form of which could date back as far as the second half of the seventh century. The tale is known in Arabic, Persian, Kurdish, Pashto, Turkish and Urdu literatures.
The story of Layla and Majnun is based on the real story of a young man called Qays ibn al-Mulawwah from the northern Arabian Peninsula, in the Umayyad era during the 7th century. There were two Arabic versions of the story at the time. In one version, Majnun spent his youth together with his cousin, Layla, tending their flocks. In the other version, upon seeing Layla he fell passionately in love with her. In both versions, however, Majnun went mad when her father prevented him from marrying her. For that reason, Majnun came to be called Majnun-Layla, which means "Driven mad by Layla." To Majnun were attributed a variety of incredibly passionate romantic Arabic poems, considered among the foremost examples of the Udhari school.
Qays ibn al-Mulawwah ibn Muzahim, a Bedouin poet, was from the Bani Aamir tribe of Arabia. He fell in love with Layla bint Mahdi ibn Sa'd from the same tribe, better known as Layla Al-Aamiriya. He soon began creating poems about his love for her, mentioning her name often. When he asked for her hand in marriage her father refused as this would mean a scandal for Layla according to Arab traditions. Soon after, Layla married another man.
When Qays heard of her marriage, he fled the tribe camp and began wandering the surrounding desert. His family eventually gave up on his return and left food for him in the wilderness. He could sometimes be seen reciting poetry to himself or writing in the sand with a stick.
Layla moved to Iraq with her husband, where she became ill and eventually died. Qays was later found dead in the wilderness in 688 near an unknown woman's grave. He had carved three verses of poetry on a rock near the grave, which are the last three verses attributed to him.
From Arab and Habib folklore, the story passed into Persian literature, and in the 12th century, Nizami wrote a famous adaptation of Layla and Majnun in Persian. In Nizami's adaptation, the young lovers become acquainted at school and fell desperately in love. However, they could not see each other due to a family feud, and Layla's family arranged for her to marry another man. It is a tragic story of undying love much like the later Romeo and Juliet, which was itself said to have been inspired by a Latin version of Layla and Majnun.
The type of love exhibited by Layla and Majnun is known in Arabic culture as "Virgin Love", because the lovers never married or made love. Other famous Virgin Love stories are the stories of "Qays and Lubna", "Kuthair and Azza", "Marwa and Al Majnoun Al Faranasi" and "Antara and Abla." The literary motif itself is common throughout the world, notably in the Muslim literature of South Asia, such as Urdu ghazals.
The Azerbaijani Turkish adaptation of the story, Dastan-i Leyli vu Mecnun ("The Epic of Layla and Majnun") was written in the 16th century by Fuzuli. Fuzuli's version was borrowed by the renowned Azerbaijani composer Uzeyir Hajibeyov, who used the material to create what became the Middle East's first opera. It premiered in Baku on January 25, 1908. The story had previously been brought to the stage in the late 19th century, when Ahmed Shawqi wrote a poetic play about the tragedy, now considered one of the best in modern Arab poetry.
The enduring popularity of the legend of Layla and Majnun has exerted great influence on Middle Eastern literature, especially Sufi writers, in whose literature the name Layla refers to their concept of the Beloved. The original story is featured in Baha'ullah's writings, the Seven Valleys. Etymologically, the word "Layla" is related to the Hebrew and Arabic words for "night," and is thought to mean "one who works by night." This is an apparent allusion to the fact that the romance of the star-crossed lovers was hidden and kept secret. In the Persian and Arabic languages, the word "Majnun" means "crazy." In addition to this creative use of language, the tale has also made at least one linguistic contribution, inspiring a Turkish collquialism: to "feel like Layla" is to feel completely dazed, as might be expected of a person who is literarlly madly in love.
In contemporary times, the name "Layla" served as the inspiration for the title of Derek and the Dominos' famous album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs and its title track.
The Madman of Layla see Majnun-Layla
Layla's Lunatic see Majnun-Layla
No comments:
Post a Comment