Wednesday, March 8, 2023

2023: Jacob - Jalayrids

 Jacob

Jacob. See Isra'il.


Jadid, Salah
Jadid, Salah (Salah Jadid) (1926 — August 19, 1993).  Syrian politician and soldier.  He was the most influential politician in Syria from early 1966 to late 1970, when allies of Hafez al-Assad had him arrested. 

Jadid was born in Duwayr Ba’abda  in 1926.  In 1958, he was transferred to Egypt, following the establishment of the United Arab Republic.  In 1959, together with Hafez al-Assad and two other officers from the Ba’th Party, Jadid formed the secret Military Committee. 

In 1961, Jadid participated in actions taken by the Military Committee which forced Syria to leave the United Arab Republic.

In March of 1963, Jadid was central in the Ba’th takeover of Syrian politics.  In October of the same year, Jadid was promoted to chief of staff of the Syrian military forces.

In 1964, Jadid lost his position due to a power struggle in the Ba’th Party.  In February of 1966, Jadid used his military allies to take back power, and became the most powerful person in Syrian politics.  He had Nuriddin Attasi appointed prime minister.

In June of 1967, the Syrian defeat at the hands of Israel in the Six Day War dealt a heavy blow to the public opinion of Jadid’s regime.  Thus, in February of 1969, Hafez al-Assad became the real ruler of Syria, although Jadid continued to hold a strong and central position in Syrian politics.

In September of 1970, with the start of combat between the PLO and the Jordanian army, Jadid dispatched Palestinian troops, based in Syria, into Jordan in order to help the PLO.  This action was not supported by the Syrian air forces, which were under Assad’s control.  The end result was failure. 

In November 1970, Jadid attempted to fire Assad and his supporter Mustafa Tlass, which in turn caused Assad to launch an intra-party coup against Jadid, dubbed the Corrective Movement.  On November 12, 1970, Jadid was arrested by Assad’s men, and removed from power.  Jadid was subsequently imprisoned.

In 1983, Jadid was released from prison, but was placed under civil surveillance.

The politics of Jadid were strong socialist attempts to reform Syrian society.  During his period of political influence, Syria removed itself from the countries in the West, and closer to the communist bloc.


Salah Jadid see Jadid, Salah


Ja‘far al-Sadiq
Ja‘far al-Sadiq (Jaʿfar ibn Muhammad al-Sādiq) (702-765).  Last Imam recognized by both “Sevener” and “Twelver” Shi‘as.  Ja‘far al-Sadiq was the sixth imam in both Twelver and Isma‘ili traditions of Shi‘a Islam.   He was one of the most widely respected imams, respected by both Shi‘i and Sunni alike for his learning and piety.  Ja‘far al-Sadiq (the truthful) was an influential teacher, theologian and jurist.  Among his students were Abu Hanifa and Malik ibn Anas who were instrumental in the development of Sunni Islam.  While an active Shi‘a theologian, Ja‘far appears to have had a liberal view of learning and maintained an active discourse with many scholars of differing views.  While he stayed out of politics, he was imprisoned and persecuted on several occasions by the Abbasid Caliphs.

His eldest son, Isma‘il, who had been selected to be his successor, died before Jafar, resulting in a confusion in the succession.  The Isma‘ilis maintain that Isma‘il was the seventh imam even though he had no opportunity to exercise that role.

Musa al-Kazim succeeded Jafar al-Sadiq in the Twelver tradition.

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Imam
Ja'far al-Sadiq
Sixth imam of Twelver Shi'ism and Isma'ilism
جعفر الصادق
Now-destroyed zarih formerly covering the grave of Ja'far al-Sadiq in the Mausoleum of Shia Imams in Al-Baqi Cemetery
6th Shia imam
In office
732–765
Preceded byMuhammad al-Baqir
Succeeded by
Personal life
Bornc. 702 (c. 83 AH)[1]
Medina, Hejaz, Umayyad Caliphate
Died765 (aged 63–64) 148 AH[1]
Medina, Abbasid Caliphate
Resting placeAl-Baqi, Medina, present-day Saudi Arabia
24°28′1″N 39°36′50.21″E
Spouse
  • Fāṭima bint al-Ḥusayn
  • Ḥamīda Khātūn[2]
Children
List
Parents
EraLate Ummayad – early Abbasid
Other namesJaʿfar ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī
Religious life
ReligionShia Islam
LineageAhl al-Bayt (Husaynid) Banu Hashim

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If the acquisition and dissemination of knowledge are noble and praiseworthy deeds, then the ability to acquire profound insight into religious teachings and mold one's life according to that teaching is yet more superior.  Though a perceptive and penetrating mind is a heavenly gift which is bestowed on only a chosen few, the ability to move from the exterior to the interior , -- and from the form to the substance -- and develop an intimate knowledge and understanding of the essence of Islamic spirituality, moral and ethical teachings and values, and remain completely focused on that path throughout one's life is, by all accounts, a truly great achievement.  One man who attained this exalted ability through his single-minded devotion and dedication in Islamic principles and practices, notwithstanding all the obstacles that were placed in his path by his enemies and detractors, was the celebrated Ja'far al-Sadiq. 

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Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq (born 699/700 or 702/703, Medina, Arabia [now in Saudi Arabia]—died 765, Medina) was the sixth imam, or spiritual successor to the Prophet Muhammad, of the Shiʿi branch of Islam and the last to be recognized as imam by all the Shiʿi sects. Theologically, he advocated a limited predestination and proclaimed that Hadith (traditional sayings of the Prophet), if contrary to the Qurʾān, should be rejected.

Jaʿfar was the son of Muḥammad al-Bāqir, the fifth imam, and great-grandson of the fourth caliph, ʿAlī, who is considered to have been the first imam and founder of Shiʿi. On his mother’s side, Jaʿfar was descended from the first caliph, Abū Bakr, whom Shiʿis usually consider a usurper. This may explain why he would never tolerate criticism of the first two caliphs.

There is some doubt whether the Shiʿi conception of an infallible religious leader, or imam, was really formulated before the 10th century, except possibly in some sort of “underground movement.” But the Shiʿah certainly felt that the political leadership of Islam exercised by the caliph should belong to the direct descendants of ʿAlī. Moreover, this political leadership was not clearly separated from religious leadership, and, to the end of the Umayyad regime, the caliphs sometimes preached in the mosque, using the sermon to reinforce their authority. Consequently, after his father’s death, sometime between 731 and 743, Jaʿfar became a possible claimant to the caliphate and a potential danger to the Umayyads.

The Umayyad regime was already threatened by other hostile elements, including the Iranians, who resented Arab domination. The spread of Shiʿism throughout Iran from a mixture of religious, racial, and political motives compounded the opposition. The successful revolt of 749–750 that overthrew the Umayyads, however, was under the leadership of the Abbasid family, descended from one of the Prophet’s uncles, and they, not the family of ʿAlī, founded the new ruling dynasty.

The new caliphs were, understandably, worried about Jaʿfar. Al-Manṣūr (reigned 754–775) wanted him in his new capital, Baghdad, where he could keep an eye on him. Jaʿfar preferred to stay in Medina and reportedly justified this by quoting a saying he ascribed to the Prophet that, though the man who leaves home to make a career may achieve success, he who remains at home will live longer. After the defeat and death of the ʿAlid rebel Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh in 762, however, Jaʿfar thought it prudent to obey the caliph’s summons to Baghdad. After a short stay, however, he convinced al-Manṣūr that he was no threat and was allowed to return to Medina, where he died.

A just assessment of Jaʿfar is made difficult by later Shiʿi accounts, which depict every imam as a sort of superman. He undoubtedly was both politically astute and intellectually gifted, keeping out of politics and not openly claiming the imamate. He gathered around him learned pupils including Abū Ḥanīfah and Mālik ibn Anas, founders of two of the four recognized Islamic legal schools, the Ḥanafiyyah and Mālikiyyah, and Wāṣil ibn ʿAtaʾ, founder of the Muʿtazilī school. Equally famous was Jābir ibn Hayyān, the alchemist known in Europe as Geber, who credited Jaʿfar with many of his scientific ideas and indeed suggested that some of his works are little more than records of Jaʿfar’s teaching or summaries of hundreds of monographs written by him. As to the manuscripts of half a dozen religious works bearing Jaʿfar’s name, scholars generally regard them as spurious. It seems likely that he was a teacher who left writing to others.

Various Muslim writers have ascribed three fundamental religious ideas to him. First, he adopted a middle road about the question of predestination, asserting that God decreed some things absolutely but left others to human agency—a compromise that was widely adopted. Second, in the science of Hadith, he proclaimed the principle that what was contrary to the Qurʾān (Islamic scripture) should be rejected, whatever other evidence might support it. Third, he described Muhammad’s prophetic mission as a ray of light, created before Adam and passed on from Muhammad to his descendants.

Quick Facts
Also called:
 
Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad
Born:
 
699/700 or 702/703, Medina, Arabia [now in Saudi Arabia]
Died:
 
765, Medina
Subjects Of Study:
 
Hadith
 
predestination

Shiʿi divisions date from Jaʿfar’s death. His eldest son, Ismāʿīl, predeceased him, but the “Seveners,” represented today chiefly by the Ismāʿīliyyah (followers of Ismāʿīl)—argued that Ismāʿīl merely disappeared and would reappear one day. Three other sons also claimed the imamate; of these, Mūsā al-Kāẓim gained widest recognition. Shiʿi sects not recognizing Ismāʿīl are mostly known as “Twelvers”; they trace the succession from Jaʿfar to the 12th imam, who disappeared and is expected to return at the Last Judgment.

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Ja'far ibn Muhammad al-Sadiq (Arabic: جعفر ابن محمد الصادق, romanized: Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad al-Ṣādiq; c. 702–765) was a Muslim scholar, jurist, hadith transmitter and the sixth and last agreed-upon Shia Imam amongst Twelvers and Isma'ilis.[4] Known by the title al-Sadiq ("The Truthful"), Ja'far was the eponymous founder of the Ja'fari school of Islamic jurisprudence. In the canonical Twelver hadith collections, more traditions are cited from Ja'far than that of the other Imams combined, although their attribution to him is questionable, making it hard to determine his actual teachings.[5] Among the theological contributions ascribed to him are the doctrine of nass (divinely inspired designation of each Imam by the previous Imam) and isma (the infallibility of the Imams), as well as that of taqiya (religious dissimulation under persecution).[1]

Al-Sadiq is also revered by Sunni Muslims as a reliable transmitter of hadith,[6][7] and a teacher to the Sunni scholars Abu Hanifa and Malik ibn Anas, the namesakes of the Hanafi and Maliki schools of jurisprudence.[8] Al-Sadiq also figures prominently in the initiatic chains of many Sufi orders.[9] A wide range of religious and scientific works were attributed to him, though no works penned by al-Sadiq remain extant.[7][10][11]

Ja'far al-Sadiq was born around 700, perhaps in 702.[1] He was about thirty-seven when his father, Muhammad al-Baqir, died after designating him as the next Imam.[12][13] As the sixth Shia Imam, al-Sadiq kept aloof from the political conflicts that embroiled the region,[14][1] evading the requests for support that he received from rebels.[15][16] He was the victim of some harassment by the Abbasid caliphs and was eventually, according to Shia sources, poisoned at the instigation of the caliph al-Mansur.[17][18] The question of succession after al-Sadiq's death divided the early Shi'a community. Some considered the next Imam to be his eldest son, Isma'il al-Mubarak, who had predeceased his father. Others accepted the Imamate of his younger son and brother of Isma'il, Musa al-Kazim. The first group became known as the Isma'ili, whereas the second and larger group was named Ja'fari or the Twelvers.[6]

Life

Birth and early life

Ja'far ibn Muḥammad ibn Ali al-Sadiq was born in Medina around 700, and 702 is given in most sources, according to Gleave.[1] Ja'far was the eldest son of Muhammad al-Baqir,[12] the fifth Shīʿīte Imam, who was a descendant of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law, and Fatima, Muhammad's daughter. Ja'far's mother, Umm Farwa, was a great-granddaughter of the first Rashidun caliph, Abu Bakr.[19][20] During the first fourteen years of his life, Ja'far lived alongside his grandfather, Ali ibn Husayn Zayn al-Abidin, the fourth Shīʿīte Imam, and witnessed the latter's withdrawal from politics[21] and his limited efforts amid the popular appeal of Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyya. Ja'far also noted the respect that the famous scholars of Medina held toward Zayn al-Abidin.[19] In his mother's house, Ja'far also interacted with his grandfather, Qasim ibn Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr, a famous traditionalist of his time. The Umayyad rule reached its peak in this period, and the childhood of al-Sadiq coincided with the growing interest of Medinans in religious sciences and the interpretations of the Quran. With the death of Zayn al-Abidin, Ja'far entered his early manhood and participated in his father's efforts as the representative of the Household of Muhammad (Ahl al-Bayt).[19] Ja'far performed the hajj ritual with his father, al-Bāqir, and accompanied him when the latter was summoned to Damascus by the Umayyad caliph Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik for questioning.[6][1]

Under the Umayyad rulers

Most Umayyad rulers are often described by Muslim historians as corrupt, irreligious, and treacherous.[22] The widespread political and social dissatisfaction with the Umayyad Caliphate was spearheaded by Muhammad's extended family, who were seen by Muslims as God-inspired leaders in their religious struggle to establish justice over impiety.[23][24][25] Al-Sadiq's imamate extended over the latter half of the Umayyad Caliphate, which was marked by many (often Shia) revolts and eventually witnessed the violent overthrow of the Umayyads by the Abbasids, the descendants of Muhammad's paternal uncle Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib.[1] Al-Sadiq maintained his father's policy of quietism in this period and, in particular, was not involved in the uprising of his uncle, Zayd ibn Ali, who enjoyed the support of the Mu'tazilites and the traditionalists of Medina and Kufa.[26] Al-Sadiq also played no role in the Abbasid overthrow of the Umayyads.[1] His response to a request for help from Abu Muslim, the Khorasani rebel leader, was to burn his letter, saying, "This man is not one of my men, this time is not mine."[15][16] At the same time, al-Sadiq did not advance his claims to the caliphate, even though he saw himself as the divinely designated leader of the Islamic community (umma).[27][1][28] This spiritual, rather than political, imamate of al-Sadiq was accompanied by his teaching of the taqiya doctrine (religious dissimulation) to protect the Shia against prosecution by Sunni rulers.[29][27][30] In this period, al-Sadiq taught quietly in Medina and developed his considerable reputation as a scholar, according to Momen.[12]

Under the Abbasid rulers

The years of transition from the Umayyads to the Abbasids was a period of weak central authority, allowing al-Sadiq to teach freely. Some four thousand scholars are thus reported to have studied under al-Sadiq.[31][12][29] Among these were Abu Ḥanifa and Malik ibn Anas, founders of the Hanafi and Maliki schools of law in Sunni Islam.[32][29][33][34] Wasil ibn Ata, founder of the Mu'tazila school of thought, was also among his pupils.[17][34] After their overthrow of the Umayyad Caliphate, the Abbasids violently prosecuted their former Shia allies against the Umayyads.[6][35][18] Because they had relied on the public sympathy for the Ahl al-Bayt to attain power,[36] the Abbasids considered al-Sadiq a potential threat to their rule.[6][17] As the leader of the politically quiet branch of the Shia,[37] he was summoned by al-Mansur to Baghdad but was reportedly able to convince the caliph to let him stay in Medina by quoting the hadith, "The man who goes away to make a living will achieve his purpose, but he who sticks to his family will prolong his life."[17][38] Al-Sadiq remained passive in 762 to the failed uprising of his nephew, Muhammad al-Nafs al-Zakiyya.[15][17][36] Nevertheless, he was arrested and interrogated by al-Mansur and held in Samarra, near Baghdad, before being allowed to return to Medina.[17][18][39][6] His house was burned by order of al-Mansur, though he was unharmed,[38] and there are reports of multiple arrests and attempts on his life by the caliph.[30][18][40]

Imamate

Main article: Imamate in Shia doctrine
Ja'far al-Sadiq (middle-right) depicted among other Shiite Imams

Ja'far al-Sadiq was about thirty-seven when his father, al-Bāqir, died after designating him as the next Shīʿīte Imam.[12][13] He held the Imamate for at least twenty-eight years.[13] His Imamate coincided with a crucial period in the history of Islam, as he witnessed both the overthrow of the Umayyad Caliphate by the Abbasids in the mid-8th century (661–750) and later the Abbasids' prosecution of their former Shiite allies against the Umayyads. The leadership of the early Shia community was also disputed among its different factions.[6][1] In this period, the various Alid uprisings against the Umayyads and later the Abbasids gained considerable support among the Shia. Among the leaders of these movements were Zayd ibn Ali (al-Sadiq's uncle), Yahya bin Zayd (al-Sadiq's cousin), Muhammad al-Nafs al-Zakiyya and his brother (al-Sadiq's nephews).[15][27][36][41] These claimants saw the imamate and caliphate as inseparable for establishing the rule of justice, according to Jafri.[42] In particular, Zayd ibn Ali argued that the imamate could belong to any descendant of Hasan ibn Ali or Husayn ibn Ali who is learned, pious, and revolts against the tyrants of his time.[43][44][23] In contrast, similar to his father and his grandfather, al-Sadiq adopted a quiescent attitude and kept aloof from politics.[14] He viewed the imamate and caliphate as separate institutions until such time that God would make the Imam victorious. This Imam, who must be a descendant of Muhammad through Ali and Fatima, derives his exclusive authority not from political claims but from nass (divinely inspired designation by the previous Imam) and he also inherits the special knowledge (ilm) which qualifies him for the position. Al-Sadiq did not originate this theory of imamate, which was already adopted by his predecessors, Zayn al-Abidin and al-Baqir.[45][1] Rather, al-Sadiq leveraged the sudden climate of political instability to freely propagate and elaborate the Shia teachings, including the theory of imamate.[46][47][48][a]

Succession

After the death of Ja'far al-Sadiq, his following fractured, and the largest group, who came to be known as the Twelvers, followed his younger son, Musa al-Kadhim.[1] It also appears that many expected the next Imam to be al-Sadiq's eldest son, Isma'il ibn Ja'far, who predeceased his father.[30] This group, which later formed the Isma'ili branch, either believed that Isma'il was still alive or instead accepted the imamate of Isma'il's son, Muhammad ibn Isma'il.[1][17] While the Twelvers and the Isma'ilis are the only extant Jaf'ari Shia sects today,[49][50] there were more factions at the time: Some followers of al-Sadiq accepted the imamate of his eldest surviving son, Abdullah al-Aftah.[29] Several influential followers of al-Sadiq are recorded to have first followed Abdullah and then changed their allegiance to Musa.[30] As Abdullah later died childless, the majority of his followers returned to Musa.[29] A minority of al-Sadiq's followers joined his other son, Muhammad al-Dibaj, who led an unsuccessful uprising against Caliph al-Ma'mun, after which he abdicated and publicly confessed his error.[51] A final group believed that al-Sadiq was not dead and would return as Mahdi, the promised savior in Islam.[29]

Death

The historical tomb of al-Baqi was destroyed in 1926 during and by the Wahhabi movement in Saudi Arabia. Ja'far al-Sadiq is one of four Shia Imams buried there.

Al-Sadiq died in 765 (148 AH) at sixty-four or sixty-five.[1][52] His death in Shia sources is attributed to poisoning at the instigation of al-Mansur.[30][6] According to Muhammad Husayn Tabatabai, after being detained in Samarra, al-Sadiq was allowed to return to Medina, where he spent the rest of his life in hiding until he was poisoned by order of al-Mansur.[18] He was buried in the al-Baqi Cemetery, being one of the 4 Imams to be buried in the cemetery (the other Imams being Hasan Ibn Ali,[53] Ali al-Sajjad[54] and Muhammad al-Baqir[12]), in Medina, and his tomb was a place of pilgrimage until Demolition of al-Baqi in 1926. When the Wahhabis, led by Ibn Saud, conquered Medina for the second time and razed all the tombs except that of the Islamic prophet.[55][6][56] According to Tabatabai, upon hearing the news of his death, al-Mansur ordered the governor of Medina to behead al-Sadiq's heir, the future Imam. The governor, however, learned that al-Sadiq had chosen four people, rather than one, to administer his will: al-Mansur himself, the governor, the Imam's oldest (surviving) son Abdullah al-Aftah, and Musa al-Kazim, his younger son. Al-Mansur's plot was thus thwarted.[57]

Family

Al-Sadiq married Fatima, a descendant of Hasan, with whom he had two sons, Isma'il ibn Ja'far (the sixth Isma'ili Imam) and Abdullah al-Aftah. He also married Hamida Khatun, a slave-girl from the Maghreb or Al-Andalus, who bore al-Sadiq three more sons: Musa al-Kazim (the seventh Twelver Imam), Muhammad al-Dibaj, and Ishaq al-Mu'tamin.[58] She was known as Hamida the Pure and respected for her religious learning. Al-Sadiq often referred other women to learn the tenets of Islam from her.[59] He is reported to have praised her, "Hamida is removed from every impurity like an ingot of pure gold."[60] Ishaq al-Mu'tamin, is said to have married Sayyida Nafisa, a descendant of Hasan ibn Ali.[61]

Contributions

After Ali,[12] al-Sadiq is possibly the most famed religious scholar of the House of Muhammad,[20][13][62] widely recognised as an authority in Islamic law, theology, hadith, and esoteric and occult sciences.[6] Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi considers him possibly the most brilliant scholar of his time,[63] and the variety of (at times contradictory) views ascribed to al-Sadiq suggest that he was an influential figure in the history of early Islamic thought, as nearly all the early intellectual factions of Islam (except perhaps the Kharijites) wished to incorporate al-Sadiq into their history in order to bolster their schools' positions.[7] He is cited in a wide range of historical sources, including the works of al-Tabari, Ya'qubi, al-Masudi, and Ibn Khallikan.[20][64] This popularity, however, has hampered the scholarly attempts to ascertain al-Sadiq's actual views.[7] A number of religious and scientific works also bear al-Sadiq's name, though scholars generally regard them as inauthentic. It seems likely that he was a teacher who left writing to others.[17][7][48] The most extensive contributions of al-Sadiq were to the Twelver Shia, helping establish them as a serious intellectual force in the late Umayyad and early Abbasid periods, according to Gleave.[7] Muhammad Husayn Tabataba'i writes that the number of traditions left behind by al-Sadiq and his father, al-Baqir, were more than all the hadiths recorded from Muhammad and the other Shia Imams combined.[18] Shia thought has continued to develop based on the teachings of the Shia Imams, including al-Sadiq.[65] According to Sa'id Akhtar Rizvi, al-Sadiq preached against slavery.[66]

Doctrine of imamate

Following his predecessors, Zayn al-Abidin and al-Baqir,[45][1] al-Sadiq further elaborated the Shia doctrine of imamate,[45] which has become the hallmark of the Twelver and Isma'ili Shia theologies,[50][67] but rejected by the Zaydis.[1] In this doctrine, Imam is a descendant of Muhammad through Ali and Fatima who derives his exclusive authority not from political claims but from nass, that is, divinely-inspired designation by the previous Imam.[45][1] As the successor of Muhammad, the Imam has an all-inclusive mandate for temporal and religious leadership of the Islamic community,[68] though this doctrine views the imamate and caliphate as separate institutions until such time that God would make the Imam victorious.[45] The Imam also inherits from his predecessor the special knowledge (ilm), which qualifies him for the position.[45][1] Similar to Muhammad,[69] Imam is believed to be infallible thanks to this unique knowledge,[70] which also establishes him as the sole authorised source for interpreting the revelation and guiding the Muslims along the right path.[71][41] This line of Imams in Shia Islam is traced back to Ali, who succeeded Muhammad through a divine decree.[72]

Ja'fari school of law

Law in Islam is an all-embracing body of ordinances that govern worship and ritual in addition to a proper legal system.[20] Building on the work of his father,[73] al-Sadiq is remembered as the eponymous founder of the Ja'fari school of law (al-Madhab al-Ja'fari), followed by the Twelver Shia.[29][6][7] According to Lalani, the Isma'ili jurisprudence (fiqh), as codified by Al-Qadi al-Nu'man, is also primarily based on the large corpus of statements left behind by al-Sadiq and his father, al-Baqir.[20][1] Al-Sadiq denounced the contemporary use of opinion (ray), personal juristic reasoning (ejtehad), and analogical reasoning (qias) as human attempts to impose regularity and predictability onto the laws of God.[7][74] He argued that God's law is occasional and unpredictable and that Muslims should submit to the inscrutable will of God as revealed by the Imam. He also embraced a devolved system of legal authority:[7] it is ascribed to al-Sadiq that, "It is for us [the Imams] to set out foundational rules and principles (usul), and it is for you [the learned] to derive the specific legal rulings for actual cases."[75] Similarly, when asked how legal disputes within the community should be solved, al-Sadiq described the state apparatus as evil (tagut) and encouraged the Shia to refer to "those who relate our [i.e., the Imams'] hadiths" because the Imams have "made such a one a judge (hakam) over you."[7] The Sunni jurisprudence is based on the three pillars of the Quran, the practices of Muhammad (sunna), and consensus (ijma'),[76] whereas the Twelver Shia jurisprudence adds to these pillars a fourth pillar of reasoning (aql) during the occultation of Mahdi. In Shia Islam, sunna also includes the practices of the Shia Imams.[77]

Doctrine of taqiya

Main article: Taqiya

Taqiya is a form of religious dissimulation,[30] where an individual can hide one's beliefs under persecution.[78] Taqiya was introduced by al-Baqir[79] and later advocated by al-Sadiq to protect his followers from prosecution at the time when al-Mansur, the Abbasid caliph, conducted a brutal campaign against the Alids and their supporters.[30][78] This doctrine is based on verse 16:106 of the Quran, where the wrath of God is said to await the apostate "except those who are compelled while their hearts are firm in faith."[80][78] According to Amir-Moezzi, in the early sources, taqiya means "the keeping or safeguarding of the secrets of the Imams' teaching,"[81] which may have resulted at times in contradictory traditions from the Imams.[81][78] In such cases, if one of the contradictory reports matches the corresponding Sunni doctrine, it would be discarded because the Imam must have had agreed with Sunnis to avoid prosecution of himself or his community.[78] Karen Armstrong suggests that taqiya also kept conflict to a minimum with those religious scholars (ulama) who disagreed with the Shia teachings.[82]

Free will

On the question of predestination and free will, which was under much discussion at the time,[83] al-Sadiq followed his father, portraying human responsibility but preserving God's autocracy,[20] asserting that God decreed some things absolutely but left others to human agency.[17] This compromise, widely adopted afterward,[17] is highlighted when al-Sadiq was asked if God forces His servants to do evil or whether He had delegated power to them: he answered negatively to both questions and instead suggested, "The blessings of your Lord are between these two."[7] Al-Sadiq taught "that God the Most High decreed some things for us and He has likewise decreed some things through our agency: what He has decreed for us or on our behalf He has concealed from us, but what He has decreed through our agency He has revealed to us. We are not concerned, therefore, so much with what He has decreed for us as we are with what He has decreed through our agency."[83] Al-Sadiq is also credited with the statement that God does not "order created beings to do something without providing for them a means of not doing it, though they do not do it or not do it without God's permission." Al-Sadiq declared, "Whoever claims that God has ordered evil, has lied about God. Whoever claims that both good and evil are attributed to him, has lied about God."[7] In his prayers, he often said, "There is no work of merit on my own behalf or on behalf of another, and in evil there is no excuse for me or for another."[48]

Quranic exegesis

Al-Sadiq is attributed with what is regarded as the most important principle for judging traditions, that a hadith should be rejected if it contradicts the Quran, whatever other evidence might support it.[83][17] In his books Haqaeq al-Tafsir and Ziadat Ḥaqaeq al-Tafsir, the author Abd-al-Raḥman Solami cites al-Ṣadiq as one of his major (if not the major) sources.[7] It is said that al-Sadiq merged the inner and the outer meanings of the Quran to reach a new interpretation of it (ta'wil).[20] It is ascribed to al-Sadiq that, "The Book of God [Quran] comprises four things: the statement set down (ibarah), the implied purport (isharah), the hidden meanings, relating to the supra-sensible world (lata'ij), and the exalted spiritual doctrines (haqaiq). The literal statement is for the ordinary believers (awamm). The implied purport is the concern of the elite (khawass). The hidden meanings pertain to the Friends of God (awliya'). The exalted spiritual doctrines are the province of the prophets (anbiya')". These remarks echo the statement of Ali, the first Shia Imam.[84]

Views

Ja'far al-Sadiq's significance in the formation of early Muslim thought is demonstrated by the fact that his name is used as a reference in Sufi, scientific, Sunni legal, Ismaili, and ghulāt circles. Most of these groups desired to use his legacy for their own agendas. However, the Imami Shia tradition is the most comprehensive source for his teachings.[7]

Shia Islam

While the Sunnis respect al-Sadiq as a transmitter of hadith and a jurist (Faqīh), Shiites view him as an imam and therefore infallible and record his sayings and actions in the works of hadith and jurisprudence (Fiqh). In the Shia writings of the Imamiyya, his legal rulings constitute the most important source of Imamiyya law. In fact, the Imam's legal doctrine is called Ja'fari jurisprudence (Madhhab Ja'fari) by both the Imamis and the Sunnis in order to refer to his legal authority.[1][85] The Shias considered al-Sadiq the only legitimate person who could represent the Sharia in his time and have the authority to rule.[4] According to Imami Shi'as, Ja'far al-Sadiq, is the sixth imam who was responsible for turning the imamiya into a powerful intellectual movement during the late Umayyad and early Abbasid eras.[7] Al-Sadiq is presented by Ya'qubi as one of the most respected personalities of his epoch, adding that it was customary to refer to al-Sadiq as "the learned one".[13][83]

Sunni Islam

Early Islamic scholars

Al-Sadiq is respected in Sunni Islam as a jurist and a master teacher of hadith sciences,[6][7] who is cited in several isnads (chains of transmissions).[86] He was one of the Shiekhs (masters) of Imam Malik ibn Anas and he has narrated several narrations in Muwatta Imam Malik. He was also a teacher to Imam Sufyan al-Thawri. According to Jafri, the famous Sunni jurist Malik ibn Anas would quote al-Sadiq as "The truthful (thiqa) Ja'far ibn Muhammad himself told me that..." (A similar attitude is reported from Abu Hanifa.[13]). The Sunni scholar al-Dhahabi recognises al-Sadiq's contribution to Sunni tradition,[20][64] and al-Shahrastani, the influential Sunni historian, pays al-Sadiq a high tribute in his work.[16][37][13] There are also many Sunni traditions in which al-Sadiq and other descendants of Ali ibn Abi Talib deny any Shia affiliation. Sunnis also point to several Shia narrations in which al-Sadiq denies any affiliation with Shias and denies claiming to be the Imam. The Hadith Scholar Yahya ibn Ma'in said "If reliable transmitters transmit hadith from Ja'far Al-Sadiq, then his [Ja'far's] hadith is steadfast; but if the likes of Ma'tab and Hammad b. Isa transmit from him, then it is worthless".[87]

Sufism

Al-Sadiq holds a special prominence among Sufi orders:[9][20] a number of early Sufi figures are associated with al-Sadiq; he is praised in the Sufi literature for his knowledge of ṭariqat (lit. 'path'), and numerous sayings and writings about spiritual progress are ascribed to him in Sufi circles.[9] He is also viewed at the head of the Sufi line of saints and mystics by the Sufi writers Abu Nu'aym al-Isfahani and Attar of Nishapur.[20][9] Attar praises al-Sadiq as the one "who spoke more than the other imams concerning the ṭariqat", who "excelled in writing on innermost mysteries and truths and who was matchless in expounding the subtleties and secrets of revelation."[9] However, some of the material attributed to al-Sadiq in the Sufi literature is said to be apocryphal. Among others, the Shia Ahmad ibn Muhammad Ardabili has thus dismissed the alleged links between al-Sadiq and Sufism as an attempt to gain the authority of al-Sadiq for Sufi teachings.[9] Gleave and Bowering suggest that Tafsir al-Quran, Manafe' Sowar al-Quran and Kawass al-Qoran al-Azam, three mystical commentaries of the Quran attributed to al-Sadiq, were composed after his death because these works demonstrate a mastery of the recent lexicon of Muslim mysticism.[7] Alternatively, Taylor is certain that the traditions in the Quranic exegesis edited by the mystic Dhu al-Nun Misri can be traced back to the Imam.[88] Given the appeal and influence of al-Sadiq outside the circle of his Shia supporters, Algar suggests that he likely played some role in the formation of Sufism. Both Abu Nu'aym and Attar narrate several encounters between al-Sadiq and contemporary proto-Sufis to highlight his asceticism (zuhd).[9] One encounter describes how Sofyan Ṯawri, the jurist and ascetic, allowed himself to reproach the Imam for his silken robe, only for the Imam to reveal beneath it a modest white woolen cloak, explaining that the finery was for men to behold and the woolen cloak for God. The Imam thus displayed the former and concealed the latter.[9][89]

Ghulat

Main article: Ghulat
Two lines from the end of the ghulāt work Kitab al-Haft wa-l-azilla ("Book of the Seven and the Shadows"). Manuscript of unknown provenance.[90]
"Thus is finished the concealed book called the Book of the Seven, which was a gift of grace from our lord Ja'far al-Sadiq, peace be upon us from him,"

One of the distinctive features of the ghulāt is the imam's deification. One group of them called the Mufawidda, preached that God gave Muhammad and the imams the authority to create and take care of all living things.[91] Many Twelver Shi'i traditions state that al-Baqir and al-Sadiq did not have supernatural abilities and did not perform the miracles attributed to them.[92] Despite these denials, a number of hadiths that contained ghulāt concepts found their way into Twelver Shiite hadith collections.[92]

According to some early Imami heresiographers, Abu al-Khattab (died 755)[93] asserted that he had been chosen to serve as al-Sadiq's envoy and had been given access to his hidden doctrines. It seems that Abu al-Khattab's views on al-Sadiq's divinity and his own status as a prophetic messenger of God eventually led al-Sadiq to repudiate him in 748. His adherents were referred to as Khattabiyya. Later Twelver tradition disavows any connection between al-Sadiq and the views of Abu al-Khattab.[1]

The same Imami heresiographers also claim that al-Mufaddal ibn Umar al-Ju'fi (died before 799) and his followers, the Mufaddaliya, likewise regarded al-Sadiq as a god and themselves as his prophets.[7] However, it is not certain whether the Mufaddaliya ever existed,[94] and in Twelver hadith al-Mufaddal consistently appears as the intimate companion of Ja'far al-Sadiq and his son Musa al-Kazim, with the exception of the brief period of disgrace with Jaʿfar al-Sadiq due to his Khattabiyya leanings.[91] According to Twelver traditions, al-Mufaddal was even appointed by al-Sadiq to control the excesses of Khattabiyya.[7] Nevertheless, al-Mufaddal's status as a close confidant of Ja'far al-Sadiq led to a large number of writings being attributed to him by later authors, including major ghulāt works such as the Kitab al-Haft wa-l-Azilla ("Book of the Seven and the Shadows") and the Kitab al-Sirat ("Book of the Path").[94]

Yarsanism

In Yarsanism, Ja'far al-Sadiq is regarded as an incarnation of one of the angels belonging to the group known as the "Haft Sardār" (The Seven Commanders).[95]

According to the Yaresan text Doureh-ye Bahlul, the Yaresan saint Bahlul Mahi visited Ja'far al-Sadiq in Baghdad and studied under him.[96]

Works

A large number of religious books bear al-Sadiq's name as their author, but none of them can be attributed to al-Sadiq with certainty.[17] It has been suggested that al-Sadiq was a writer who left the work of writing to his students.[85][29][10] In this regard, some of the works attributed to Jabir ibn Hayyan (c. 850 – c. 950) also claim to be mere expositions of al-Sadiq's teachings.[85][29][10]

A Quran commentary (tafsir), a book on divination (Ketb al-Jafr), numerous drafts of his will, and several collections of legal dicta are among the works attributed to al-Sadiq.[1]

Exegesis

Most of the extant writings attributed to al-Sadiq are commentaries (tafsir) on the Quran: in Sufi circles, a number of mystical Quranic exegeses are attributed to al-Sadiq, such as Tafsir al-Quran, Manafe' Sowar al-Quran, and Kawass al-Quran al-Azam.[7][6]

Another attributed work is the book of Jafr, a mystical commentary which according to Ibn Khaldun was written by al-Sadiq about the hidden (batin) meanings of the Quran.[10][6][7] According to Ibn Khaldun this book was transmitted from al-Sadiq and written down by Hārūn ibn Saʿīd al-ʿIjlī.[97]

Perhaps the most influential mystical exegesis attributed to al-Sadiq is the Ḥaqāʾiq al-tafsīr, composed by Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī (d. 330/942). This text was first introduced to modern scholarship by Louis Massignon, and was later published in a critical edition by Paul Nwyia.[b] Another version was published by ʿAlī Zayʿūr.[c] One of the outstanding features of this exegesis is its emphasis on letter mysticism.[58][97] It is considered to be the oldest mystical commentary of the Quran after Sahl al-Tustari's exegesis.[97]

Tafsīr al-Nuʿmānī is another exegesis attributed to al-Sadiq, which he supposedly narrated on the authority of Ali from Muhammad. This treatise was compiled by Muhammad ibn Ibrahim al-Nu'mani – known as Ibn Abi Zainab. The 17th-century scholar Mohammad-Baqer Majlesi recorded it in his Bihar al-Anwar. A summary of it has also been attributed to the Twelver theologian Sharif al-Murtaza and was published under the title Risālat al-Muḥkam wa-l-Mutashābih.[97]

Tafsīr al-Imām al-Ṣādiq is another commentary attributed to al-Sadiq, which Agha Bozorg Tehrani mentions it in his book al-Dharī'a under the title Tafsir al-Imam Ja'far bin Muhammad al-Sadiq and it is believed that one of Sadiq's students narrated it from him. Fuat Sezgin calls this work Tafsīr al-Qurʾān. A copy of it with the title Tafsīr al-Imām al-Ṣādiq, according to Bankipur Oriental Library's catalogue, is written by al-Nuʿmānī based on the sayings of al-Sadiq. This commentary is arranged according to the Surahs of the Quran and covers only the words of the Quran that require explanation. This commentary, which is a type of mystical commentary, deals with both the exoteric (ẓāhir) and the esoteric (bāṭin) aspects of the Quran. It is mostly about God and his relationship with mankind, also man's knowledge of God and the relationship between Muhammad and God.[97]

Tawhid al-Mufaddal

Main article: Tawhid al-Mufaddal

The Tawḥīd al-Mufaḍḍal ('Declaration by al-Mufaddal of the Oneness of God'), also known as the Kitāb fī Badʾ al-Khalq wa-l-Hathth ʿalā al-Iʿtibār ("Book on the Beginning of Creation and the Incitement to Contemplation"),[98] is a ninth-century treatise concerned with proving the existence of God, attributed to Ja'far al-Sadiq's financial agent al-Mufaddal ibn Umar al-Ju'fi (died before 799). The work presents itself as a dialogue between al-Mufaddal and Ja'far al-Sadiq, who is the main speaker.[94]

Like most other works attributed to al-Mufaddal, the Tawḥīd al-Mufaḍḍal was in fact written by a later, anonymous author who took advantage of al-Mufaddal's status as one of the closest confidants of Ja'far al-Sadiq in order to ascribe their own ideas to the illustrious Imam.[99] However, it differs from other treatises attributed to al-Mufaddal by the absence of any content that is specifically Shi'i in nature, a trait it shares with only one other Mufaddal work — also dealing with a rational proof for the existence of God — the Kitāb al-Ihlīlaja ("Book of the Myrobalan Fruit"). Though both preserved by the 17th-century Shi'i scholar Muhammad Baqir al-Majlisi (died 1699), the only thing that connects the Tawḥīd al-Mufaḍḍal and the Kitāb al-Ihlīlaja to Shi'ism more generally is their ascription to Ja'far al-Sadiq and al-Mufaddal. Rather than by Shi'i doctrine, their content appears to be influenced by Mu'tazilism, a rationalistic school of Islamic speculative theology (kalām).[94]

The Tawḥīd al-Mufaḍḍal is in fact a revised version of a work falsely attributed to the famous Mu'tazili litterateur al-Jahiz (died 868) under the title Kitāb al-Dalāʾil wa-l-Iʿtibār ʿalā al-Khalq wa-l-Tadbīr ("Book of Proofs and Contemplation on Creation and Administration").[100] Both the Tawḥīd al-Mufaḍḍal and pseudo-Jahiz's Kitāb al-Dalāʾil likely go back on an earlier 9th-century text,[101] which has sometimes been identified as the Kitāb al-Fikr wa-l-Iʿtibār ("Book of Thought and Contemplation") written by the 9th-century Nestorian Christian Jibril ibn Nuh ibn Abi Nuh al-Nasrani al-Anbari.[102]

The teleological argument for the existence of God used in the Tawḥīd al-Mufaḍḍal is inspired by Syriac Christian literature (especially commentaries on the Hexameron), and ultimately goes back on Hellenistic models such as the pseudo-Aristotelian De mundo ("On the Universe", 3rd/2nd century BCE) and Stoic theology as recorded in Cicero's (106–43 BCE) De natura deorum.[103]

Other works

Main article: al-Mufaddal ibn Umar al-Ju'fi § Kitāb al-Ihlīlaja (Book of the Myrobalan Fruit)

Misbah al-Sharia and Miftah al-Haqiqah is another work attributed to al-Sadiq. It is on personal conduct, with chapters on various topics such as legal interests interspersed with general moral issues, and advice on how to lead a spiritual life and thus purify the soul.[7]

As the first person who came across this book in the 7th century A.H., Sayyed Ibn Tawus described it as a collection of hadiths of Jafar al-Sadiq. It includes a prediction of future events and sufferings.[58] There is a specific Shia chapter in "Knowledge of the Imams" in which the names of all the Imams (both before al-Sadiq and after him) are mentioned during the exchange of reports between Muhammad and Salman the Persian.[7] Mohammad Baqer Majlesi considered this work to have been written by Shaqiq al-Balkhi, who supposedly quoted it from "one of the people of knowledge", and not explicitly from Ja'far al-Sadiq.[7] Despite Majlesi's doubts about its authenticity, this work remains very popular as a manual of personal worship and has been the subject of a number of commentaries by prominent Shia and Sufi scholars. It has also been translated into different languages.[7] Its manuscript is available in the library of Gotha.[58]

There is also a book on dream interpretation that is attributed to al-Sadiq and is known by the name Taqsim al-roʾyā. It is identical to the work Ketāb al-taqsim fi taʿbir al-ḥolm, which is credited to Ja'far al-Sadiq. Eighty various types of dream sightings, ranging from the religious (dreams of God, angels, prophets, and imams) to the profane (dreams of meat, fat, and cheese), are interpreted by Ja'far al-Sadiq in this book. According to Robert Gleave, it is not always clear whether they can be regarded as works attributed to Jafar al-Sadiq or works attributed to Ali ibn Abi Talib that is transmitted through Ja'far al-Sadiq. From a Shia perspective, this is not problematic because there is no discernible difference between the knowledge of one imam and that of another from a religious perspective.[7]

The Kitāb al-Ihlīlaja is presented as al-Sadiq's opinions transmitted through al-Mufaddal. The work is allegedly a response to al-Mufaddal's request for a refutation of atheists.

Jafar al-Sadiq describes his own argument with an atheist Indian doctor in it. The discussion took place as the doctor prepared a myrobalan plant-based medication (known in Arabic as Ihlīlaj, and hence the title of the work).[7]

Shia disciples

Momen contends that of the few thousand students who are said to have studied under al-Sadiq, only a few could have been Shia, considering that al-Sadiq did not openly advance his claims to the imamate.[12] Notable Shia students of al-Sadiq included:

  • Hisham ibn al-Hakam was a famous disciple of al-Sadiq, who proposed a number of doctrines that later became orthodox in the Twelver theology, including the rational necessity of the divinely-guided imam in every age to teach and lead God's community.[7]
  • Aban ibn Taghlib was an outstanding jurist and traditionist and an associate of al-Sadiq in Kufa, but also of Zayn al-Abidin and al-Baqir. The latter is reported to have praised Aban, "Sit in the mosque of Kufa and give legal judgment to the people. Indeed I would like to see among my Shia people like you".[104]
  • Burayd ibn Mu'awiya al-'Ijli in Kufa was a famous disciple of al-Baqir and later al-Sadiq, who later became a key authority in the Shia jurisprudence (fiqh). Al-Baqir praised him (along with Abu Basir Moradi, Muhammad bin Muslim, and Zurarah) as worthy of the paradise.[105]
  • Abu Basir al-Asadi was considered one of the poles of the intellectual leadership of the Imami community of Kufa. His name is included in the number of six companions of al-Baqir and al-Sadiq that hadiths narrated by any one of them is considered authentic by many Shi'a scholars. Some consider Abu Basir al-Moradi as one of those six people instead of Abu Basir al-Asadi.[106][107]
  • Abu Basir Moradi, a famous Shia jurist (faqih) and traditionist, was another associate of al-Baqir and al-Sadiq. Al-Sadiq is believed to have told Moradi, Zurarah, Burayd, and Muhammad ibn Muslim that the prophetic hadiths would have been lost without them.[105]
  • Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Nu'man known as Mu'min al-Taq was a distinguished theologist in Kufa and a devoted follower of al-Baqir and al-Sadiq, whose debates about imamate are famous. Kitab al-Imamah and Kitab al-Radd alla al-Muazila fi Imamat al-Mafdul are among his works.[108]
  • Zurarah ibn A'yan in Kufa was a disciple of al-Hakam ibn Utayba before joining al-Baqir. As a prominent traditionist and theologian, Zurarah played an important role in developing the Shia thought. Zurarah lived long enough to also become a close disciple of Ja'far al-Sadiq.[109]
  • Fudayl ibn Yasar is another notable associate of both al-Baqir and al-Sadiq, about whom al-Sadiq said what Muhammad had said about Salman the Persian, that "Fudayl is from us, the Ahl al-Bayt."[105]
  • Maymun ibn al-Aswad al-Qaddah was a devout supporter of al-Baqir and his son, al-Sadiq. Not educated but with an impressive personality, Maymun probably committed to writing what he heard from the Imams. His son, Abd Allah, is the alleged ancestor of the Isma'ili imams.[110]

Selected quotes

  • "The most perfect of men in intellect is the best of them in ethics."[111]
  • "Charity is the zakat (alms) of blessings, intercession is the zakat of dignity, illnesses are the zakat of bodies, forgiveness is the zakat of victory, and the thing whose zakat is paid is safe from taking (by God)."[111]
  • "He who answers all that he is asked, surely is mad."[111]
  • "Whoever fears God, God makes all things fear him; and whoever does not fear God, God makes him fear all things."[112]
  • "God Almighty has said: people are dear to me as family. Therefore, the best of them is the one who is nicer to others and does his best to resolve their needs."[113]
  • "One of the deeds God Almighty appreciates the most is making his pious servants happy. This can be done through fulfilling their hunger, sweeping away their sorrows, or paying off their debts."[113]

See also

Notes

  1.  Sunni sources, however, claim that doctrines such as imamate were formulated many years after al-Sadiq and wrongly ascribed to him.[29]
  2.  see "Le Tafsir mystique attribué à Ğaʿfar Ṣādiq - Édition critique" (Nwiya, Le Tafsir mystique, 179-230)
  3.  He published a corrected version under the title alTafsīr al-Ṣūfī lil-Qurʾān ʿinda l-Ṣādiq

References

  1.  Gleave 2008.
  2.  A Brief History of The Fourteen Infallibles. Qum: Ansariyan Publications. 2004. pp. 123, 131. ISBN 964-438-127-0.
  3.  Ibn Ḥajar al-Haytamī, al-Ṣawāʿiq al-miḥriqa, vol. 2, p. 586.
  4.  Hodgson 1999, p. 374.
  5.  Buckley 2022a.
  6.  Campo 2009.
  7.  Gleave 2012.
  8.  Chambers & Nosco 2015, p. 142.
  9.  Algar 2012.
  10.  De Smet 2012.
  11.  Kazemi Moussavi 2012.
  12.  Momen 1985, p. 38.
  13.  Jafri 1979, p. 181.
  14.  Amir-Moezzi 1994, pp. 64, 65.
  15.  Amir-Moezzi 1994, p. 65.
  16.  Donaldson 1933, p. 130.
  17.  Haywood 2022.
  18.  Tabatabai 1977, p. 204.
  19.  Jafri 1979, p. 180.
  20.  Lalani 2006.
  21.  Lalani 2004, p. 31.
  22.  Momen 1985, p. 10.
  23.  Jafri 1979, p. 184.
  24.  Hawting 2006.
  25.  Dakake 2012, p. 177.
  26.  Jafri 1979, p. 186.
  27.  Armstrong 2002, p. 57.
  28.  Daftary 2013, p. 48.
  29.  Takim 2004a.
  30.  Momen 1985, p. 39.
  31.  Tabatabai 1977, pp. 203, 204.
  32.  Adamec 2017, p. 224.
  33.  Abd-Allah 2013, p. 44.
  34.  Donaldson 1933, p. 132.
  35.  Momen 1985, pp. 39, 71.
  36.  Mavani 2013, p. 121.
  37.  Taylor 1966, p. 98.
  38.  Donaldson 1933, p. 131.
  39.  Momen 1985, pp. 38, 39.
  40.  Taylor 1966, p. 99.
  41.  Stewart et al. 2004, p. 625.
  42.  Jafri 1979, pp. 195, 196.
  43.  Momen 1985, pp. 49, 50.
  44.  Jenkins 2010, p. 55.
  45.  Jafri 1979, p. 197.
  46.  Tabatabai 1977, p. 203.
  47.  Buckley 2022b.
  48.  Donaldson 1933, p. 137.
  49.  Lalani 2004, p. 14.
  50.  Stewart et al. 2004.
  51.  Daftary 2020, p. 35.
  52.  Donaldson 1933, p. 141.
  53.  Madelung 2003.
  54.  Madelung 1985, pp. 137, 138.
  55.  Adamec 2017, p. 53.
  56.  Daftary 2013, p. 56.
  57.  Tabatabai 1977, pp. 204, 205.
  58.  Pakatchi 2019.
  59.  Abbas 2021, pp. 175, 176.
  60.  Rizvi 2001, p. 51.
  61.  Kassam & Blomfield 2015, p. 219.
  62.  Daftary 2013, p. 46.
  63.  Amir-Moezzi 1994, p. 64.
  64.  Taylor 1966, p. 97.
  65.  Tabatabai 1977, p. 109.
  66.  Rizvi 2001, p. 11.
  67.  Momen 1985, p. 69.
  68.  Mavani 2013, pp. 43, 44.
  69.  Mavani 2013, p. 7.
  70.  Mavani 2013, p. 52.
  71.  Daftary 2013, pp. 53, 54.
  72.  Jafri 1979, p. 199.
  73.  Daftary 2013, p. 51.
  74.  Taylor 1966, p. 109.
  75.  Mavani 2013, p. 136.
  76.  Fadil 2006.
  77.  Momen 1985, p. 185.
  78.  Gleave 2004.
  79.  Daftary 2013, p. 44.
  80.  Adamec 2017, p. 102.
  81.  Amir-Moezzi 1994, p. 26.
  82.  Armstrong 2002, p. 66.
  83.  Donaldson 1933, p. 135.
  84.  Corbin 2014, p. 6.
  85.  Hodgson 1999, p. 375.
  86.  Lalani 2004.
  87.  (Lisan Al-Mizan 8/105, 127).
  88.  Taylor 1966, pp. 102, 103.
  89.  Taylor 1966, p. 106.
  90.  Photographic reproduction by Ghālib 1964, p. 202 (edited text on p. 198).
  91.  Asatryan 2000–2012.
  92.  Jafri 1979, pp. 209, 210.
  93.  On whom, see Sachedina 1983–2012; Amir-Moezzi 2013.
  94.  Asatryan 2000–2012.
  95.  Hamzee, M. Rezaa (1990), The Yaresan: A Sociological, Historical, and Religio-Historical Study of a Kurdish Community, Berlin, Germany: Islamkundliche Untersuchungen, p. 100, ISBN 978-3-922968-83-2
  96.  Hamzee, M. Rezaa (1990), The Yaresan: A Sociological, Historical, and Religio-Historical Study of a Kurdish Community, Berlin, Germany: Islamkundliche Untersuchungen, pp. 43–44, ISBN 978-3-922968-83-2
  97.  Buckley 2018.
  98.  The Tawḥīd al-Mufaḍḍal is probably identical with the Kitāb fī badʾ al-khalq wa-l-ḥathth ʿalā al-iʿtibār mentioned by the Twelver Shi'i bibliographer Ahmad ibn Ali al-Najashi (c. 982–1058); see Chokr 1993, deuxième partie, chapitre I, 3 Deux ouvrages attribués à Ǧa'far al-Ṣādiq, 10; Modaressi 2003, p. 334. According to Chokr 1993, the true title as given in the work itself is Kitāb al-Adilla ʿalā al-khalq wa-l-tadbīr wa-l-radd ʿalā al-qāʾilīn bi-l-ihmāl wa-munkirī al-ʿamd. Arabic text in al-Majlisi 1983, vol. 3, pp. 57–151.
  99.  Asatryan 2017, p. 59.
  100.  Asatryan 2000–2012, referring to Chokr 1993, pp. 85–87, 100–102.
  101.  Chokr 1993, deuxième partie, chapitre I, 3 Deux ouvrages attribués à Ǧa'far al-Ṣādiq, 12.
  102.  Daiber 2014, p. 172, referring to Daiber 1975, 159f; Van Ess 1980, pp. 65, 79 note 7. Daiber and van Ess speak only about pseudo-Jahiz's Kitāb al-Dalāʾil and its later adaptations, ignoring the Tawḥīd al-Mufaḍḍal.
  103.  Daiber 2014, pp. 171–178; Chokr 1993, deuxième partie, chapitre I, 3 Deux ouvrages attribués à Ǧa'far al-Ṣādiq, 10–17.
  104.  Lalani 2004, pp. 108, 109.
  105.  Lalani 2004, p. 110.
  106.  Rizvi, Saeed Akhtar (1988). The Qur'ân and Hadíth. Bilal Muslim Mission of Tanzania. p. 90. ISBN 9976-956-87-8. Archived from the original on 9 March 2023. Retrieved 26 September 2022.
  107.  Pakatchi 2020.
  108.  Lalani 2004, p. 111.
  109.  Lalani 2004, p. 109.
  110.  Lalani 2004, p. 112.
  111.  al-Husayn al-Muzaffar, Mohammed (1998). Imam Al-Sadiq. Translated by Jasim al-Rasheed. Qum: Ansariyan Publications. pp. 165–166, 230–247. ISBN 964-438-011-8.
  112.  Donaldson 1933, p. 136.
  113.  Muhammadi Reishahri, Muhammad (2010). Mizan al-Hikmah. Vol. 2. Qum: Dar al-Hadith. pp. 433, 435.

Bibliography

Further reading

  • Fahd, Toufic, ed. (6–9 May 1968), "Ğa'far aṣ-Ṣâdiq et la Tradition Scientifique Arabe [Ja'far aṣ-Ṣâdiq and the Arabic Scientific Tradition]", Le Shî'isme Imâmite (in French), Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, Colloque de Strasbourg, pp. 131–142

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Ja'far al-Sadiq is widely revered for his incalculable service to traditional Islamic learning and scholarship.  However, within the ithna 'ashari (Twelver) Shi'a branch, he occupies the position of the sixth Imam.  The other five Shi'a Imams include Caliph 'Ali, his sons Hasan, Hussain, Ali Zain al-Abideen and Muhammad al-Baqir, the father of Ja'far al-Sadiq.  According to the Shi'a, the Prophet Muhammad communicated some special knowledge (including that of the unseen) to Ali, and this knowledge passes from one generation to another through a chain of twelve hereditary Imams, of which Ja'far was the sixth.  Since the Shi'a branch of Islam is divided into a number of sects and sub-sects their understanding of the doctrine of Imamate, and who is entitled to occupy that position, varies from one group to another.  By contrast, the Sunnis, who form the vast majority of the world's Muslim population, do not subscribe to the doctrine of Imamate; they consider Ja'far to be one of the Muslim world's most gifted scholars and sages. 

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Sadiq, Ja'far al- see Ja‘far al-Sadiq
The Truthful see Ja‘far al-Sadiq
Jaʿfar ibn Muhammad al-Sādiq see Ja‘far al-Sadiq


Ja‘far Celebi
Ja‘far Celebi (1459-1515). Ottoman statesman and man of letters of Amasya.  He was also a famous calligrapher and patron of poets.


Ja‘fari
Ja‘fari. Arabic term which refers to an adept of twelver Shi‘ism.  The Ja‘fari recognize the descendants of Musa, one of Ja‘far al-Sadiq’s sons and the sixth imam, as their imam.  Ja’fari is the Ithna Ashari (Twelver) Shi‘ite school of Islamic law.  It was named after Ja’far al-Sadiq (d. 765), the sixth of the Twelver imams, who is believed to be its founder.  The period of Ja’far’s leadership coincided with a period of intellectual activity in Islam, especially the systematization of the shari’a through collection of the hadith literature.  The eminent figures Abu Hanifa (d. 768) and Malik (d. 795) were occupied by the attempt to fulfill this need in Sunni Islam.  Ja‘far al-Sadiq’s Fatimid ancestry greatly enhanced his prominence in Medina, and he in effect became the fountainhead not only of the Ja‘fari school of law, but of all Shi‘ite intellectual as well as traditional sciences.  His prestigious and generally acknowledged leadership gave ultimate recognition to the line of the Husainid imams among the Shi‘ites, whereas his enlistment as an authentic transmitter of the prophetic traditions in the Sunni “chains of transmission” (isnads) gave recognition to the Ja‘fari school of law as a valid interpretation of Islamic revelation.  The emphasis on aql (the intellect) as a major source of Islamic law has become a distinguishing mark of Ja‘fari legal theory.  Today, the Ja‘fari school is regarded by the Sunni scholars of al-Azhar as the “fifth school” in addition to the four Sunni ones.


Ja‘far ibn Abi Talib
Ja‘far ibn Abi Talib (Jafar at-Tayyar) (d. 629).  Cousin of the Prophet and the elder brother of ‘Ali.  He took part in the so-called first Hijra to Abyssinia, and fell in the battle of Mu’ta.

Ja‘far ibn Abī Tālib was the son of Abu Talib ibn 'Abdul Muttalib (the uncle of the Islamic prophet Muhammad), and the elder brother of the fourth Sunni Khalīfah, Ali ibn Abi Talib. Jafar was raised by his uncle, Abbas ibn 'Abdul Muttalib, for his father was a poor man and had to support a large family.

According to the Qur'an, there was a great resemblance between Jafar and Muhammad, both in his appearance and ethics. Muhammad called him, "The father of the poor", because he used to help and support the poor with all the money he had..

Jafar left his uncle Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib’s house when he became a young man and got married to Asma bint Umays. They were among the very first persons to embrace Islam, and as a result suffered greatly at the hands of the Quraish. The Quraish restricted their movements and freedom until they could not bear it anymore. That is why Jafar went to Muhammed and obtained his permission to immigrate to Ethiopia along with a small group of Sahabas.

They settled down in this new land under the protection of Negus Ashama ibn Abjar, and for the first time since they had become Muslims they knew what freedom was, and could worship Allah without any hindrances. However, the Quraish would not let them enjoy freedom and peace for long. Soon they sent Abdullah ibn Abu Rabiah and another man from the Quraish in order to negotiate with Negus and get all the Muslims back to Mecca.

They took a lot of presents to the Negus, which pleased him a lot, and then told him that there is a group of wicked men moving about freely in his country and asked him to capture them before they caused any harm to his kingship as they did in Quraish. But the Negus refused to do that until he called them and questioned them regarding the Quraish’s allegations. So he asked the group of Muslims, among which was Jafar ibn Abu Talib, to come and meet him and the Muslims chose Jafar to be their spokesman.

The Negus asked them “what is this religion that has cut you off from your people, and made you in no need of our religion”..?

Jafar answered him saying “we were living in darkness and this religion came and commanded us to speak the truth, to honor our promises, to be kind to our relations, to cease all forbidden acts, to abstain from bloodshed. To avoid obstinacies and false witness, nor to appropriate an orphan's property or slander chaste women, Muhammed ordered us to worship Allah only and not to associate any god with Him, to uphold Salat, to give Zakat and fast in the month of Ramadan, so we believed in him and what he brought to us from Allah and we follow him in what he has asked us to do and we keep away from what he forbade us from doing.”

The Negus was eager to know more about what Jafar said, and so he asked Jafar to read him a part from what Muhammad brought concerning Allah. Jafar recited for him the first portion of Surah Maryam, which narrates the story of Jesus and his mother Mary. On hearing the words of the Quran, the Negus was moved and the bishops around him began to weep. The Negus said that he would never harm them.

However, the two Quraish emissaries did not stop at that.  They went to the Negus again and told him that the Muslims say that Jesus is a slave, and asked him to call them and ask them what they think of Jesus.

The Negus called the Muslims and asked them, so Jafar answered him saying, "Our Prophet says that Jesus is Allah’s prophet." The Negus gave back the gifts to Amr so he and his companion left broken and frustrated.

Jafar and his wife Asma spent about ten years in Ethiopia, which became a second home for them. There Asma gave birth to three children whom they named Abdullah, Muhammad and Awn. In the seventh year of the Hijra, Jafar and his family left Abyssinia with a group of Muslims and headed for Medina.

On their arrival at Medina, Muhammad was returning from the Battle of Khaybar and on seeing Jafar he was very happy and said, "I don't know which event is more cheerful - Jafar's coming or the Conquest of Khaybar!"

Muslims in general and the poor among them specifically were as happy with the return of Jafar as Muhammad was. And quickly Jafar became well known as a person who was much concerned with the welfare of the poor.

Jafar did not stay in Medina for long. In the eighth year of the Hijra, Muhammad mobilized an army to confront Byzantine forces in Syria, because a Byzantine governor had treacherously killed one of his emissaries. He appointed Zayd ibn Harithah as commander of the army and gave the following instructions: "If Zayd is wounded or killed, Jafar ibn Abu Talib would take over the command. If Jafar ibn Abu Talib is killed or wounded, then your commander would be Abdullah ibn Rawahah. If Abdullah ibn Rawahah is killed, then let the Muslims choose for themselves a commander."

Despite all the hardship they faced, the Muslim army battled the Byzantines. Zayd ibn Harithah, the beloved companion of Muhammad, was among the first Muslims who was killed in the battle. Jafar ibn Abu Talib then assumed command. Mounted on his horse, he penetrated deep into the Byzantine ranks. As he spurred his horse on, he called out: "How wonderful is Paradise as it draws near! How pleasant and cool is its drink! Punishment for the Byzantines is not far away!" Jafar continued to fight vigorously but was eventually slain.

In the battle of Mu'tah, Ja'far at-Tayyar carried the Banner of Islam and was out-numbered by the enemies and killed. The two arms of one of Muhammad's bravest followers and his army's standard-bearer, Jafar-e-Tayyar (the brother of Ali ibn Abi Talib) were cut off in the battle and he was martyred. When the news reached Muhammad he cried and prayed for Jafar's soul and the angel Gabriel came down and consoled (Muhammad), saying "Jafar was a brave and loyal soldier. God has given him everlasting life, and in place of his arms which were cut off in the battle, the Lord has given him a pair of wings".

The news of the death of the three commanders reached Muhammad in Medina. The pain and grief he felt was intense. He went to Jafar's house and met his wife Asma. She was somehow prepared to receive her absent husband. Asma said: "When the Messenger of Allah approached us, I saw a veil of sadness shrouding his noble face and I became very apprehensive. But I did not dare ask him about Jafar for fear that I would hear some unpleasant news. He greeted and asked, 'Where are Jafar's children?' I called them for him and they came and crowded around him happily, each one wanting to claim him for himself. He leaned over and hugged them while tears flowed from his eyes.

O Messenger of Allah,' I asked, 'why do you cry? Have you heard anything about Jafar and his two companions?

Yes,' he replied. 'They have attained martyrdom. The smiles and the laughter vanished from the faces of the little children when they heard their mother crying and wailing.

The tomb of Jafar was enclosed in an ornate shrine made of gold and silver made by Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin.

The sons, daughters-in-law, and grandchildren of Jafar include:

    * Abdullah ibn Ja'far married Zaynab bint Ali. Their sons were martyred in the battle of Karbala.
    * Muhammad ibn Ja'far.
    * Awn ibn Ja'far and he married Umm Kulthum bint Ali.
    * Yahya ibn Umar-  a descendant who led a rebellion.


Jafar at-Tayyar see Ja‘far ibn Abi Talib
Tayyar, Jafar at- see Ja‘far ibn Abi Talib


Ja‘far ibn Abi Yahya
Ja‘far ibn Abi Yahya (d. 1177).  Zaydi scholar and judge of Yemen.  He played the most conspicuous role in the introduction in Yemen of the religious literature of the Caspian Zaydi community.


Jafar ibn Uthman al-Mushafi
Jafar ibn Uthman al-Mushafi (Ja‘far Sharif). (d. 982)  Arab poet.  Nineteenth century author of an authoritative account of Indian popular Islam.
Ja'far Sharif see Jafar ibn Uthman al-Mushafi


Jaghmini, al-
Jaghmini, al-.  The name of a thirteenth century Arab astronomer and a fourteenth century Persian physician.

The Arab astronomer al-Jaghmini  (d. 1221) wrote a treatise of astronomy which was frequently commented upon by scholars. The treatise was titled al-Mulakhkhas fi al-hay'ah (Compendium of the Science of Astronomy).

The Persian Mahmud ibn Muhammad ibn Umar Jaghmini, or al-Jaghmini  (d. 1344) was a 14th century Persian physician. He was born at Jaghmin, a village in Khwarezm (Khiva), current day Uzbekistan.

Little is known of his life. He is known only through his very short epitome of The Canon of Medicine by Avicenna that was written in Persian and titled Qanunshah. It proved so popular as to become the subject of commentaries, and several attempts were made to set the Qanunshah in verse.

There is considerable testimony to its being used in schools for teaching medicine in the eastern provinces of the Islamic world.

Mahmud ibn Muhammad ibn Umar Jaghmini see Jaghmini, al-.


Jah, Mukarram

Nizam Mir Barkat Ali Khan Siddiqi Mukarram Jah, Asaf Jah VIII (b. October 6, 1933, Hilafet Palace, Nice, France – d. January 15, 2023, Istanbul, Turkey), less formally known as Mukarram Jah, was the Nizam of Hyderabad between 1967 and 1971. He was the head of the House of Asaf Jah until his death in 2023.


Born as the eldest son of Azam Jah and Durrusehvar Sultan, he was named successor to the title of Nizam of Hyderabad by his grandfather Mir Osman Ali Khan. Upon Osman's death in 1967, he became the titular Nizam. He lost his titles and the privy purses (the sovereign's private income from royal lands) in 1971, when the 26th Amendment to the Indian constitution was passed.


Jah subsequently moved to Australia, where he stayed at the Murchison House Station.  While the prince remained in Australia, his palaces in Hyderabad were encroached upon and fell into disrepair. Numerous divorce settlements and failed business ventures led to the loss of the majority of his fortune. In 1996, he moved to Turkey where he remained until his death in 2023. Jah was buried in Hyderabad at the Mecca Masjid.


Jah chaired the H.E.H. The Nizam's Charitable Trust and the Mukarram Jah Trust for Education & Learning (MJTEL).


Mukarram Jah was born to Azam Jah, the son and heir of Osman Ali Khan, the last reigning Nizam of Hyderabad state, by his wife Princess Durru Shehvar, daughter of the last Caliph of the Ottoman Empire, Abdulmejid II. Jah was educated in India at the Doon School in Dehradun and in England at Harrow and Peterhouse, Cambridge.  He also studied at the London School of Economics and at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. 


Jah stayed at Teen Murti Bhavan in New Delhi for a while and briefly served as an honorary aide-de-camp of Jawaharlal Nehru. He became the titular Nizam of Hyderabad after the death of his grandfather in 1967.


In 1972, Jah visited Australia and came across the Murchison House Station. He bought the farm and permanently moved to Australia.


In 1996, Jah sold the farm and moved to Turkey shortly thereafter.


Due to the efforts of his former wife, Princess Esra Birgin, the  two main palaces in Hyderabad, Chowmahalla and Falaknuma,  have been restored and opened to the public, the former as a museum showcasing the era of the Nizams and the latter as a luxury hotel. The Taj Falaknuma Palace Hotel opened in February 2010, having been leased to the Taj Group, after some ten years of renovations.


Like his grandfather, Mukarram was the richest man in India until the 1980s. However, in the 1990s, he lost some assets to divorce settlements. His net worth was nevertheless estimated at $US 2 billion.


Jah died on January 15, 2023, at the age of 89. According to Jah's wish his funeral took place in Hyderabad which was the former capital of Hyderabad State and of the Nizam of Hyderabad on January 18, 2023.  His remains were laid in state at the Chowmahalla Palace, where family members and government officials paid their respects. In the evening of January 18, 2023, Jah was buried at the Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad. 


Mukarram Jah married five times. His first wife was a Turkish noble woman, Esra Birgin (b. 1936), and they married in 1959. In 1972, Jah left his Hyderabad palace for a sheep station in the Australian outback and divorced his wife, who did not want to move with him. In 1979, he married a former air hostess and employee of the BBC, Helen Simmons (b. 1949 – d. 1989). She converted to Islam and changed her name to Aysha. After Aysha's death, he married Manolya Onur (b. 1954 – d. 2017), a former Miss Turkey in 1992, and divorced her after a five-year marriage in 1997.


Jah also married Jameela Boularous (b. 1972), from Morocco, in 1992, and, in 1994, he married Princess Ayesha Orchedi (b. 1959), who is Turkish.

 

Jah had six children from his marriages:


By Esra Birgin, Mukarram Jah had one son and one daughter:

  • Walashan Nawab Sahibzada Mir Azmat Ali Khan Siddiqi Bayafendi Bahadur (b. 1960), also known as Azmat Jah; and
  • Sahibzadi Shehkyar Unisa Begum (b. 1964);

By Helen Simmons, he had two sons:

  • Walashan Nawab Sahibzada Mir Alexander Azam Khan Siddiqi Bayafendi Bahadur (b. 1979): and
  • Walashan Nawab Sahibzada Mir Mohammod Umar Khan Siddiqi Bayafendi Bahadur (b. 1984 - d. 2004);

By Manolya Onur, he had a daughter:

  • Sahebzadi Nilufer Unisa Begum (b. 1992); and

By Jameela Boularous, he had a daughter:

  • Sahebzadi Zairin Unisa Begum (b. 1994).



Jahangir
Jahangir (1569-1627) (Nur-ud-din Salim Jahangir)  (Al-Sultan al-'Azam wal Khaqan al-Mukarram, Khushru-i-Giti Panah, Abu'l-Fath Nur-ud-din Muhammad Jahangir Padshah Ghazi [Jannat-Makaani]) (September 20, 1569 – November 8, 1627) (OS August 31, 1569  – NS November 8, 1627). Ruler of the Mughal Empire from 1605 until his death in 1627. The name Jahangir is from Persian, meaning "Conqueror of the World". Nur-ud-din or Nur al-Din is an Arabic name which means " Light of the Faith."

The son of Akbar, in 1599, Jahangir revolted against his father, but was nevertheless confirmed as his successor. 

Jahangir was born to a Rajput princess, daughter of the raja of Amber.  Akbar named him Muhammad Sultan Salim after the famous saint Shaikh Salim Chishti, whose blessings he had sought for the birth of a son.  Eminent tutors such as Abdur Rahim Khan-i Khanan looked after Salim’s education.  During the last years of Akbar’s reign court intrigues forced Salim to rebel against his father but he soon became reconciled with him.  On Akbar’s death in 1605, with the support of nobles like Nawab Murtaza Khan, Salim ascended the throne as Nuruddin Muhammad Jahangir.  He soon remitted certain taxes and duties, allowed regular inheritance of the property of nobles, prohibited the cutting of limbs of criminals, and built many hospitals.

Jahangir married Nur Jahan, widow of Sher Afghan, in 1611.  Gradually Nur Jahan became a power in politics, her relatives rose to important positions in the administration, and the Irani faction came to dominate the nobility.  Politics at the court led to the revolt by Jahangir’s son Shah Jahan, an attempted coup by the noble Mahabat Khan, and other contumacious activities.  Jahangir’s eldest son, Khusraw, who revolted in 1606, had been supported by the Sikh Guru Arjun, who was then put to death by the emperor.  This punishment laid the foundations of the deep-rooted hostility which has continued to embitter the relations between the Indian Muslims and the Sikhs over the centuries. 

Jahangir subjugated Mewar (in 1614), conquered Ahmadnagar (in 1616), captured Kangra (in 1620), but lost Qandahar (Kandahar) (in 1622).  He maintained good relations with the Portuguese, the Jesuits, and the English, whose envoys visited his court.  Some cases of conflict with the Europeans are also recorded.  He did not interfere in religion and abandoned Akbar’s experiments in religious leadership.  Jahangir was a kind-hearted person with a deep sense of justice.  He was also devoted to the arts.  Under him painting reached a high-point of development, Persian and Hindi literature flourished, and architecture was patronized.  His memoirs throw interesting light on his policies and personality.


Nur-ud-din Salim Jahangir see Jahangir
"Conqueror of the World" see Jahangir
"Light of the Faith" see Jahangir

Jahangir, Asma
Asma Jilani Jahangir (Urdu: عاصمہ جہانگیر‬‎, transliteration 'Asimah Jahangir,  January 27, 1952 – February 11, 2018) was a Pakistani human rights lawyer and social activist who co-founded and chaired the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.  She was widely known for playing a prominent role in the Lawyers' Movement and served as the United Nations Special Rapporteur  on Freedom or Belief and as a trustee at the International Crisis Group.
Born and raised in Lahore, Jahangir studied at the Convent of Jesus and Mary before receiving her B.A. from Kinnaird and LLB from the Punjab University in 1978. In 1980, she was called to the Lahore High Court, and to the Supreme Court in 1982. In the 1980s, Jahangir became a democracy activist and was imprisoned in 1983 for participating in the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy against the military regime of Zia-ul-Haq. In 1986, she moved to Geneva, and became the vice-chair of the Defence for Children International and remained until 1988 when she moved back to Pakistan.
In 1987, Jahangir co-founded the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and became its Secretary General until 1993 when she was elevated as the commission's chairperson. She was again put under house arrest in November 2007 after the imposition of emergency. After serving as one of the leaders of the Lawyers' Movement, she became Pakistan's first woman to serve as the President of Supreme Court Bar Association. She co-chaired South Asia Forum for Human Rights and was the vice president of International Federation for Human Rights. Jahangir served as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion from August 2004 to July 2010, including serving on the United Nations panel for inquiry into Sri Lankan human rights violations and on a fact-finding mission on Israeli settlements.  In 2016, she was named as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Iran, remaining until her death in February 2018.
Jahangir's prominent writings include The Hudood Ordinance: A Divine Sanction? and Children of a Lesser God.

Jahanka
Jahanka.  In the purest sense of the word, the Jahanka (Jahanke, Jahaanke, Diakhanke) are not an ethnic group.  They do not speak a language widely considered as their own, nor do they inhabit a particular area thought clearly to be “Jahanka territory.”  The Jahanka are a group of clans, originally Soninke, who over a period of several centuries have come to recognize their unique identity.  This identity is based in part on a common heritage, in part on close lineage relationships and in part on the strongest Muslim clerical, educational and magical tradition in all of West Africa.

Understanding the nature of Jahanka ethnicity requires knowledge of their history and of their long tradition of Islamic scholarship, education and magical activity.  The Jahanka claim their place of origin to have been Ja (Dia), in Masina on the Niger River in modern Mali, but they uniformly look to a period of residence in Jahaba (“Great Jaha”), on the Baling River east of the modern Mali-Senegal border as the formative period of their ethnicity.  It was in Jahaba, living together, that four major Soninke lineages came under the religious influence of one of West Africa’s greatest clerics of all time, al-Hajj Salim Suwari.  The most persuasive evidence suggests that this influential residence took place late in the fifteenth or early in the sixteenth century. 

Carrying with them the prestige of Suwari’s teachings, the Jahanka (which means “the people of Jaha”) spread from Jahaba south towards Futa Jalon and west towards the mouth of the Gambia River.  In these regions, they established their own villages and took on the status of being the region’s most specialized clerical elite.  Jahanka clericalism was not like any other, however.  It was based upon Suwari’s esoteric interpretation of Muslim scriptures and upon his staunchly held principles of avoidance of political affiliation and pacifism.  In a region that witnessed widespread Muslim militancy, the Jahanka disdained jihad, and they never felt driven to proselytize.  Their specialty became what might loosely be called “Suwarian magic,” which includes divination, offering prayers, making charms and practicing medicine for others -- all grounded in Suwari’s symbolic interpretation of scriptures and his special ways of construing charms and healing.

As with many West African groups, slavery among the Jahanka is an institution that was once widely recognized but is now not so openly discussed.  Large Jahanka famiilies sometimes measured their wealth and status by the numbers of slaves they possessed.  For these reasons, the Jahanka clung to the institution long after colonial governments made slavery illegal.  In fact, according to scholars who lived and studied the Jahanka slavery was still commonly practiced among the Jahanka as late as the 1970s.  For many purposes the institution of slavery (among the Jahanka) continues to exist today and slave families remain distinctly separate from the free-born.




Jahanke see Jahanka.
Jahaanke see Jahanka.
Diakhanke see Jahanka.


Jahan-suz, ‘Ala’ al-Din
Jahan-suz, ‘Ala’ al-Din (‘Ala’ al-Din Jahan-suz).  Ghurid ruler (r. 1149-1161) and poet.  He is notorious for his burning of Ghazna in 1151.
'Ala' al-Din Jahan-suz see Jahan-suz, ‘Ala’ al-Din


Jahirids
Jahirids (Banu Jahir).  Name of a dynasty of viziers during the protectorate of the Great Saljuqs between 1150 and 1240.


Banu Jahir see Jahirids
Jahir, Banu see Jahirids

Jahiz
Jahiz (Al-Jahiz) (Abu ‘Uthman ‘Amr ibn Bahr al-Basri al-Jahiz) (Abu ‘Uthman ‘Amr ibn Bahr al-Kinani al-Fuqaimi al-Basri al-Jahiz) (Abu Uthman Amr ibn Bahr al-Kinani al-Fuqaimi al-Basri) (776/781 – December 868/January 869). A famous Arab scholar. One of his grandparents was a Zanj slave.  He was born in Basra.  The name al-Jahiz (“The Goggle-Eyed”) was actually the nickname of ‘Amr ibn Bahr of Basra (Iraq).  Al-Jahiz was the grandson of an African (Zanj) slave.  He studied in Basra, a major intellectual center, under several well known Islamic scholars.  Al-Jahiz belonged to an average working class family.  During his late teens while continuing his study, he helped his father in the fish market.  Recognizing his more productive talents, one day his mother presented him with a tray of paper notebooks suggesting that he earn his living by means of writing.  This incident helped to launch what was to become an illustrious career that lasted more than sixty years.

Al-Jahiz’s earliest writing on the Institution of the Caliphate was well received at the court of Baghdad.  Around 815, al-Jahiz moved to Baghdad, a city founded about fifteen years before his birth as the seat of the Abbasid Caliphate and the capital of the Islamic Empire (excluding Andalusia, i.e., Spain, Portugal and southern France).  He continued to write on a variety of subjects and was well respected at the Caliph’s court.  Although he was admired by court officials, he never worked for them nor held any official position.

Al-Jahiz wrote more than two hundred works but only thirty are extant.  His works included zoology, Arabic grammar, poetry, rhetoric and lexicography.  He is considered to be one of the few Muslim scientists who wrote on scientific and complex subjects for the non-specialists and common people.  His writings contain many anecdotes regardless of the subject he is discussing to make his point and to bring out both sides of an argument.  Some of his famous books are: The Book of Animals, The Art of Keeping One’s Mouth Shut, Against Civil Servants, Arab Food, In Praise of Merchants,  and Levity and Seriousness.  Al-Jahiz’s most famous book Kitab al-Hayawan (Book of Animals) is an encyclopedia of seven large volumes.  He was rewarded with 5,000 gold dinars from the court official to whom he dedicated the Book of Animals. 

Kitab al-Hayawan contains an amazing array of scientific information that was not to be fully developed until the first half of the twentieth century.  Al-Jahiz discusses his observation in detail on the social organization of ants, animal communication and psychology, and the effects of diet and climate.  He described how ants store and preserve grain in their nests during the rainy season.  He suggested an ingenious way of expelling mosquitoes and flies from a room based on his observation that some insects are responsive to light.  Al-Jahiz expounded on the degree of intelligence of animal species and insects.  He also observed that certain parasites adapt to the color of their host, and expounded on the effects of diet and climate not only on men but also on animals and plants.

Eighty-seven folios of The Book of Animals (about one-tenth of the original text by al-Jahiz) are preserved in Ambrosiana Library in Milan.  This collection (a copy of the original) dates from the 14th century and bears the name of the last owner ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Maghribi and the year 1615.  These folios of The Book of Animals contain more than 30 illustrations in miniature. 

As was common with writings of Muslim scientists of the golden age (eighth to tenth centuries), al-Jahiz recognized the signs of Allah (The One and Only God) in the creation.  In The Book of Animals, al-Jahiz wrote that a pebble proves the existence of Allah just as much as a mountain, and the human body is evidence as strong as the universe -- for the small and slight carries as much weight as the great and vast.

Al-Jahiz was also a famous Arab prose writer.  A master of the Arabic language, he wrote on literature, Mu’tazili theology and politico-religious polemics, showing a thirst for learning, a remarkably inquisitive mind and a great sense of humor.  Among his main prose works are The Book of Elegance of Expression and Clarity of Exposition and The Book of Misers.

Al-Jahiz was a theologian -- some of his theological treatises survive -- but he is better known as an exponent of belles-lettres.  Al-Jahiz was also one of the first writers of what came to be known as “Adab” – “Culture” or “Romance” -- literature.   Adab originated for the purpose of providing handbooks of etiquette and useful information for court secretaries, but it quickly developed, and Adab works became encyclopedias of useful and entertaining knowledge for the educated man.

Arabic literature is very largely compilatory.  A great number of books consist almost entirely of quotations from other authors.  This reflects, in other fields, the importance attached by Muslims to a reliable authority for any religious tradition. 

Al-Jahiz’s greatest works, The Book of Eloquence and Exposition and The Book of Animals, are large compilations containing a quantity of more or less related information concerning, in the first case, the Arabic language, in the second, animals.  Information of scientific value is interspersed with anecdotes, scraps of verse and frequent scarcely relevant digressions.  The object of these works seems to be as much to entertain as to instruct, but they did provide a mass of information otherwise difficult to find, since manuscripts of certain works might not be readily available, and there was, in any case, no way of referring to a page when the pagination of no two manuscripts corresponded.

Al-Jahiz’s books, like those of so many Arab authors, seem to be formless.  Little importance seems to have been attached to form, in a book, or even in a sentence.  It is considered only when a work of conscious artistry is being composed, such as the Maqamat of al-Hamadhani or al-Hariri.  Even then the artistic unit is very small, and the author is concerned only with the arrangement of his words and figures of speech in a sentence, or at most in a paragraph. Digression is always likely in Arabic literature since Arab writers seem far more interested in imparting information than in composing an artistic whole.

Al-Jahiz is often considered one of the most entertaining of Arab authors.  Among the many shorter treatises that are attributed to al-Jahiz are The Book of Misers, The Merits of the Turks, The Superiority of Speech to Silence and The Book of the Crown.   

Al-Jahiz
returned to Basra after spending more than fifty years in Baghdad.  He died in Basra in 868 as a result of an accident in which he was crushed to death by a collapsing pile of books in his private library.

As the first important Arabic prose writer, al-Jahiz employed his vast erudition and innovative stylistic technique to free the Arabic language from its theological and philological restraints, making it a tool for the long-term cultural cohesion of the diverse cutures of Islam.

Al-Jahiz may have been the child of East African slaves, who were numerous in southern Iraq in the eighth and ninth centuries.  His ancestry is uncertain, however.  The sobriquet al-Jahiz (goggle-eyed) refers to a remarkable physical condition which observers may have attributed to African origins.  People of his time described al-Jahiz as an exceptionally ugly individual.

Al-Jahiz studied in his hometown of Basra, then went off to Baghdad for advanced education.  He appears to have been employed early as a clerical official or copyist for the government.  His unusual stylistic flair came to the attention of high officials, and the Abbasid caliph al-Ma’mun (813-833) commissioned him to write a series of essays justifying the Abbasid seizure of power from the previous Umayyad dynasty in Damascus around 750.  According to some sources, the caliph once considered employing al-Jahiz as a personal tutor for his sons, but was so unnerved by his physical appearance that he decided against him.  (In fairness to the caliph, it should be noted that al-Jahiz also had a reputation for having a bitter and irascible temperament.)

Al-Jahiz was an active and productive individual, involved, like many Muslim intellectuals of this time, in a variety of arenas.  He followed the rationalist Mutazilite school of Islamic thought, which reveled in logical analysis and lively debate; the Mutazilite sect which he founded appears to have espoused some radical theological views.  Al-Jahiz was fond of defending unpopular positions in public debate even when he did not personally agree with them.  He also dabbled in the natural sciences.  His zoological treatise, Kitab al-hayawan (Book of Animals), constituted one of the earliest attempts in Islam to formulate orders of living things.  Of the more than 120 works attributed to al-Jahiz by thirteenth century geographer/biographer Yaqut, however, only a few are extant. 

Al-Jahiz, who was fluent in Greek as well as Arabic, borrowed heavily from the Hellenistic tradition, frequently quoting or citing Aristotle and other Greek intellectual figures.  Among Arabic scholars of his time, he was one of the most inclined to acknowledge his debt to Greek learning. 

The literary career of al-Jahiz owes much to the development in Islam of the concept of adab, or high culture.  Adab demanded of its practitioners not only an eclectic knowledge base but also certain mannerisms and styles of expression considered appropriate to a cultivated intellectual elite.  The content of adab might vary according to the personality of the individual. Theology and Islamic canon law (shari‘a) were considered appropriate subject matter.  The keystone of adab, however, was literary and rhetorical expression.  Eloquence was considered one of the essential virtues.  Indeed, in rigorously pious circles the spoken word was one of the few forms of emotional expression to which one might manifest visible reaction.  Conventions of verbal elegance soon came to be applied in literary practice as well, so that good writing was elevated alongside rhetoric as a quality of the cultivated.

The evolution of adab raised difficulties concerning the heretofore restricted and unimaginative use of Arabic in written form.  Written Arabic often adhered slavishly to Qur’anic expression and, in al-Jahiz’s age, prose style was rigid and inflexible.  Writers were essentially clerks and secretaries who compiled rather than created.  There was a heavy emphasis on such traditional topics as the life of Muhammad and early Islam, as well as a consuming regard for philology at the expense of experiment.  Matters of everyday life and those not directly related to the Qur’an or canon law were addressed only in poetry.

Al-Jahiz sensed that Arabic literary expression was at a dead end -- that if the then current trends continued, Arabic would soon be relegated to use in religious observances only.  To overcome this problem, he struck out in new directions with a prose style intended, as he described it, to be both educational and entertaining and to reach a broader segment of the literate public.  Al-Jahiz combined a witty and satirical style with his breadth of learning to produce a large corpus of works on all aspects of contemporary life.  He made extensive use of anecdotes to make his writing accessible by varying its structure and pace.  Al-Jahiz’s frequent use of a rhymed, cadenced prose style call saj’ deeply influenced adab culture even in media such as personal correspondence.  He was also one of the first Arabic writers to employ irony as a literary device.

Among the surviving works of al-Jahiz, one that well illustrates his style is Kitab al-bukhala’ (Book of Misers), in which he rebukes members of the Persian urban middle class, contrasting their behavior with the generosity of the Arabs.  It is not the dubious ethnic stereotypes that make this work interesting, however, but rather the manner of presentation.  Marked by witty, vibrant prose, the work is filled with anecdotes about well-known past and contemporary figures who serve as negative examples of the virtue of generosity.  Some have suggested that the format and style of the work continues in Arabic a tradition going back to Theophrastus’ Characteres ethikoi (The Moral Characters, c. 319 B.C.T., also known as The Moral Characters of Theophrastus or Characters).  These comments are made because al-Jahiz replicates the Greek philosopher’s brief and vigorous descriptions of moral character types.

Never one to dodge controversy, al-Jahiz wrote on a wide variety of issues of the time.  In his Kitab al-Bayan wa-al-Tabyin (Book of Eloquence and Exposition), he attacked the populist Shu‘ubi movement, which proclaimed the superiority of non-Arabs over Arabs in religius and cultural achievement.  Not surprisingly, many Shu‘ubis were Persians, who, in the view of al-Jahiz, were most responsible for the clerical and bureaucratic pedantry to which Arabic literature had been reduced.  Besides an essay which extolled the virtues of the Turks, al-Jahiz wrote one on black Africans and several on corruption and venality in government.

If al-Jahiz was something of a muckraker, he was also a devout Muslim.  Deeply convinced by what he saw as a growing cynicism and infidelity among the literate classes, he never lost an opportunity to weave theology into his commentaries on everyday life and his descriptions of exemplary behavior.

As a scholar and man of letters, al-Jahiz had a lasting effect on Islamic culture.  His zoological treatise which, though wide-ranging and imaginative, treats zoology almost as a branch of philology and literature, found many emulators.  Among them were the cosmographer al-Qazwini and the thirteenth century Egyptian scientist al-Damiri, generally regarded as the greatest Muslim figure in early zoology.

Al-Jahiz changed for all time the nature and function of Arabic prose.  Without al-Jahiz, the development of Arabic secular writing would have been almost unthinkable.  No longer would Arabic be restricted merely to government reports, theology, and the recounting of the life of Muhammad and the Arab conquests.  No longer would Arabic literacy be limited to a privileged few.  Al-Jahiz showed that Arabic is a subtle and supple literary language, able to express the entire spectrum of human activity and desire, a vehicle in which literary devices could be exploited to their fullest effect.

Al-Jahiz was to become something of a cultural hero in Muslim Spain, settling of one of the greatest cultural flowerings in the medieval world.  Spanish Muslims who traveled to Syria and Iraq to study heard al-Jahiz lecture and eagerly sought copies of his manuscripts to take home, where they became models of literary style for several centuries to come.





Abu 'Uthman 'Amr ibn Bahr al-Kinani al-Fuqaimi al-Basri al-Jahiz see Jahiz
The Goggle-Eyed see Jahiz
'Amr ibn Bahr see Jahiz
Abu 'Uthman 'Amr ibn Bahr al-Basri al-Jahiz see Jahiz
Abu Uthman Amr ibn Bahr al-Kinani al-Fuqaimi al-Basri see Jahiz


Jahshiyari, Abu ‘Abd Allah al-
Jahshiyari, Abu ‘Abd Allah al- (Abu ‘Abd Allah al-Jahshiyari).  Tenth century scholar of Kufa.  He wrote a work on the history of the viziers until 908.
Abu 'Abd Allah al-Jahshiyari see Jahshiyari, Abu ‘Abd Allah al-


Jaish-e-Mohammed
Jaish-e-Mohammed (Army of Mohammed) (Jaish-e-Muhammed) (Jaish-e-Mohammad) (Jaish-e-Muhammad),.  Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JEM) was greatly expanded after Maulana Masood Azhar, a former ultra-fundamentalist Harakat ul-Ansar (HUA) leader, formed the group in February 2000.  The group’s aim was to unite Kashmir with Pakistan.  It was politically aligned with the radical, pro-Taliban, political party, Jamiat-i Ulema-i Islam (JUI-F).  The JEM maintained training camps in Afghanistan.  Most of the JEM’s cadre and material resources were drawn from the militant groups Harakat ul-Jihad al-Islami (HUJI) and the Harakat ul-Mujahedin (HUM).  The JEM had close ties to Afghan Arabs and the Taliban.  Osama bin Laden was suspected of giving funding to the JEM.  A group by this name claimed responsibility for the U.S.S. Cole attack.

Jaish-e-Mohammed was a major Islamic mujahedeen organization based in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. The group's primary motive was to separate Kashmir from India and it carried out several attacks primarily in Indian-administered Kashmir. It was banned in Pakistan after 2002, yet continued to operate several facilities in Pakistan.

Jaish-e-Mohammed was viewed by some as the principal terrorist organization in Jammu and Kashmir. The group was regarded as a terrorist organization by several countries, including India, the United States and the United Kingdom.

Jaish-e-Mohammed was formed in the mid 1990s in Pakistan after supporters of Maulana Masood Azhar split from Harkat-ul-Mujahideen. The group, in coordination with Lashkar-e-Tayiba, was implicated in the 2001 Indian Parliament attack in New Delhi.
It was also suspected in the murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl in Karachi.
   
An informant, posing as a member of Jaish-e-Mohammed, helped police to arrest four people allegedly plotting to bomb a New York City synagogue as well as to shoot Stinger missiles at military aircraft in the United States. The arrest of the four took place in May 2009. One of the four, by the name of James Cromitie, allegedly expressed the desire to join Jaish-e-Mohammed. This expression allegedly took place approximately a year prior to the arrests.

On December 9, 2009, five Muslim Americans, who knew each other from the ICNA Center in Arlington, Virginia, were detained in Pakistan during a police raid. The men had met with Jaish-e-Muhammed in Pakistan and offered their assistance in jihadi attacks. The house they were detained in was occupied by Khalid Farooq, the father of one of the men. He was suspected of ties to Jaish-e-Muhammed, to which the house itself was also linked.

Army of Mohammed see Jaish-e-Mohammed
JEM see Jaish-e-Mohammed
Jaish-e-Muhammed see Jaish-e-Mohammed
Jaish-e-Mohammad see Jaish-e-Mohammed
Jaish-e-Muhammad see Jaish-e-Mohammed


Jajarmi, Muhammad ibn Badr
Jajarmi, Muhammad ibn Badr (Muhammad ibn Badr Jajarmi). Fourteenth century Persian poet.  He is known for his extensive anthology of poetry, the autograph of which attracted the attention of art historians for its miniatures.
Muhammad ibn Badr Jajarmi see Jajarmi, Muhammad ibn Badr


Jalal al-Dawla, Abu Tahir
Jalal al-Dawla, Abu Tahir (Abu Tahir Jalal al-Dawla) (Abu Tahir Jalal al-Daula) (993/994-March 1044). Member of the Buyid dynasty.  He was governor of Basra and fought the Buyid ruler Abu Kalijar al-Marzuban and, in the end, left the Buyid kingdom in a state of the deepest degradation.

Abu Tahir Jalal al-Daula was the Buyid amir of Iraq (1027-1044). He was the son of Baha' al-Daula.

In 1012, Jalal al-Daula's father died. His brother, Sultan al-Daula came to the throne and appointed him as governor of Basra. He ruled there up until Musharrif al-Daula, who had taken control of Iraq, died in 1025. His death caused a succession crisis. The army took more than two years before choosing Jalal al-Daula as his successor in June of 1027. He subsequently became involved in a bitter fight with his nephew Abu Kalijar, who controlled Fars and Kerman. The two Buyids were not always enemies; for example, Jalal al-Daula provided support to Abu Kalijar when the Ghaznavids invaded Kerman in 1033.

Jalal al-Daula was, however, also forced to deal with problems in his own realm, which consisted of little more than Baghdad and Wasit following Abu Kalijar's seizure of Basra. His army was continually hostile, a situation which devolved to the point where the caliph often acted as a mediator between the amir and his troops. A mutiny led by a Turk named Barstoghan in 1036 or 1037 was, therefore, not surprising. The revolt provided Abu Kalijar with an opportunity to invade. He failed to take Baghdad, but gained Jalal al-Daula's allegiance. The latter, however, had the support of the Uqailid amir of Mosul and the Arab tribe of the Asadids, and he was soon restored to his full power as an independent ruler. Jalal al-Daula continued his rule in Iraq until his death in 1044, following which Abu Kalijar managed to gain control of Iraq.
Dawla, Abu Tahir Jalal al- see Jalal al-Dawla, Abu Tahir
Abu Tahir Jalal al-Dawla see Jalal al-Dawla, Abu Tahir
Abu Tahir Jalal al-Daula see Jalal al-Dawla, Abu Tahir


Jalal al-Din ‘Arif
Jalal al-Din ‘Arif (Celaleddin Arif) (1875-1930).  Turkish lawyer and statesman. 
'Arif, Jalal al-Din see Jalal al-Din ‘Arif
Arif, Celaleddin see Jalal al-Din ‘Arif
Celaleddin Arif see Jalal al-Din ‘Arif


Jalal al-Din Khwarazm-Shah
Jalal al-Din Khwarazm-Shah (Mingburnu or Mangubirti).  Last ruler of the dynasty of the Khwarazm-Shahs (r. 1220-1231).  Pursued by the Mongol Jenghiz Khan, he escaped across the Indus, fought in Azerbaijan and Georgia and met his death near Mayyafariqin.

Jalal ad-Din Mingburnu. also known as Jelal ad-Din Manguberdi or Minkburny in the east (Persian: جلال الدین منگبرنی) was the last ruler of the Khwarezmid Empire. Following the defeat of his father, Ala ad-Din Muhammad II by Genghis Khan in 1220, Jelal ad-Din Manguberdi came to power but he rejected the title shah that his father had assumed and called himself simply sultan. Due to the Mongol invasion and sacking of Samarkand, he was forced to flee to India with an escort of only five thousand men. At the river Indus however, the Mongols caught up with him and killed his forces and thousands of refugees at the Battle of Indus. He escaped and sought asylum in the Sultanate of Delhi. Iltumish however denied this to him in deference to the relationship with the Abassid caliphs.

Jalal ad-Din Mingburnu spent three years in exile in India before returning to Persia. He gathered an army and re-established a kingdom. He never consolidated his power however, and he spent the rest of his days struggling against Mongols, pretenders to the throne and the Seljuk Turks of Rum. He lost his power over Persia in a battle against the Mongols in the Alborz Mountains and fled to the Caucasus, to capture Azerbaijan in 1225, setting up their capital at Tabriz. In 1226 he attacked Georgia and sacked Tbilisi, destroying all the churches.[1]

Jalal had a brief victory over the Seljuks and captured the town Akhlat from Ayyubids. However, he was later defeated by Sultan Kayqubad I at Erzincan on the Upper Euphrates at the Battle of Yassi Chemen in 1230, from where he escaped to Diyarbakir while the Mongols captured Azerbaijan in the ensuing confusion. He was murdered in 1231 in Diyarbakir by a Kurdish assassin hired by the Seljuks or possibly by Kurdish highwaymen.[citation needed]
[edit] Notes
Khwarazm-Shah, Jalal al-Din see Jalal al-Din Khwarazm-Shah
Mingburnu  see Jalal al-Din Khwarazm-Shah
Mangubirti see Jalal al-Din Khwarazm-Shah


Jalal al-Din Rumi
Jalal al-Din Rumi.  See Rumi, Jalal ad-Din. 


Jalal Al-i Ahmad
Jalal Al-i Ahmad (Sayyid Jalal Al-i Ahmad) (Jalal Al-e-Ahmad) (December 2, 1923 - September 9, 1969).  Iranian prose writer and ideologist.  He wrote literary fiction, essays and reports, and regional monographs.

Jalal Al-e-Ahmad was a prominent Iranian writer, thinker, and social and political critic. Jalal Al-e-Ahmad was born into a religious family in Tehran. His father was an Islamic cleric originally from the small village of Owrazan in Taleghan mountains. After elementary school Al-e-Ahmad was sent to earn a living in the Tehran bazaar, but also attended Marvi Madreseh for a religious education, and without his father's permission, night classes at the Tehran Polytechnic. He became acquainted with the speech and words of Ahmad Kasravi and was unable to commit to the clerical career his father and brother had hoped he would take, describing it as a snare in the shape of a cloak and an aba.

In 1946, Jalal Al-e-Ahmad earned a master's degree in Persian literature from Tehran Teachers College and became a teacher, at the same time making a sharp break with his religious family that left him completely on his own resources. He pursued academic studies further and enrolled in a doctoral program of Persian literature at Tehran University but quit before he had defended his dissertation in 1951. In 1950, he married Simin Daneshvar, a well-known Persian novelist. Jalal and Simin were infertile, a topic that was reflected in some of Jalal's works. He died in Asalem, a rural region in the north of Iran, inside a cottage which was built almost entirely by himself. He was buried in Firouzabadi mosque in Ray, Iran.

Al-e-Ahmad is perhaps most famous for coining the term Gharbzadegi - variously translated in English as westernstruck, westoxification, occidentosis - as in a book by the same name Occidentosis: A Plague from the West, clandestinely published in Iran in 1962. In the book, Al-e-Ahmad developed a stinging critique of western technology, and by implication of Western civilization itself. He argued that the decline of traditional Iranian industries such as carpet-weaving were the beginning of Western economic and existential victories over the East.

His message was embraced by the Ayatollah Khomeini and became part of the ideology of the 1979 Iranian Revolution which emphasized nationalization of industry, independence in all areas of live from both the Soviet and the Western world, and self-sufficiency in economics.

Al-e-Ahmad joined the Tudeh Party along with his mentor Khalil Maleki shortly after World War II. They were too independent for the party and resigned in protest over the lack of democracy and the pro-Soviet support for Soviet demands for oil concessions and occupation of Iranian Azerbaijan. They formed an alternative party, the Socialist Society of the Iranian Masses in January 1948 but disbanded it a few days later when Radio Moscow attacked it, unwilling to publicly oppose what they considered the world's most progressive nations. Nonetheless, the dissent of Al-e-Ahmad and Maleki marked the end of the near hegemony of the party over intellectual life.

Al-e-Ahmad later helped found the pro-Mossadegh Toilers Party, one of the component parties of the National Front, and then in 1952 a new party called the Third Force. Following the 1953 Iranian coup d'état, Al-e-Ahmad was imprisoned for several years and so completely lost faith in party politics that he signed a letter of repentance published in an Iranian newspaper declaring that he had resigned from the Third Force, and completely abandoned politics.

Al-e-Ahmad used a colloquial style in prose. In this sense, he is a follower of avant-garde Persian novelists like Mohammad-Ali Jamalzadeh. Since the subjects of his works (novels, essays, travelogues and ethnographic monographs) are usually cultural, social and political issues, symbolic representations and sarcastic expressions are regular characteristics of his books. A distinct characteristic of his writings is his honest examination of subjects, regardless of possible reactions from political, social or religious powers.

On invitation of Richard Nelson Frye, Al-e-Ahmad spent a summer at Harvard University, as part of a Distinguished Visiting Fellowship program established by Henry Kissinger for supporting promising Iranian intellectuals.

Al-e-Ahmad rigorously supported Nima Yushij (father of modern Persian poetry) and had an important role in the acceptance of Nima's revolutionary style.

The works of Al-e-Ahmad include the following:

Novels and novellas

    * The School Principal
    * By the Pen
    * The Tale of Beehives
    * The Cursing of the Land
    * A Stone upon a Grave

Short stories

    * "The setar"
    * "Of our suffering"
    * "Someone else's child"
    * "Pink nail-polish"
    * "The Chinese flower pot"
    * "The postman"
    * "The treasure"
    * "The Pilgrimage"
    * "Sin"

Critical essays

    * "Seven essays"
    * "Hurried investigations"
    * "Plagued by the West" (Gharbzadegi)

Monographs

Jalal traveled to far-off, usually poor, regions of Iran and tried to document their life, culture and problems. Some of these monographs are:

    * "Owrazan"
    * "Tat people of Block-e-Zahra"
    * "Kharg Island, the unique pearl of the Persian Gulf"

Travelogues

    * A Straw in Mecca
    * A Journey to Russia
    * A Journey to Europe
    * A Journey to the Land of Israel
    * A Journey to America

Translations

    * The Gambler by Fyodor Dostoyevsky,
    * L'Etranger by Albert Camus,
    * Les mains sales by Jean-Paul Sartre,
    * Return from the U.S.S.R. by André Gide,
    * Rhinoceros by Eugène Ionesco,

Ahmad, Jalal Al-i  see Jalal Al-i Ahmad
Ahmad, Sayyid Jalal Al-i  see Jalal Al-i Ahmad
Sayyid Jalal Al-i Ahmad see Jalal Al-i Ahmad


Jalayrids
Jalayrids (Jalayirids). Mongol dynasty in Iraq (Mesopotamia), western Iran, and Azerbaijan (r. 1336-1432).  Their main capitals were Baghdad and, from 1358 to 1388, Tabriz.  The important Mongol tribe of Jalayir (of the founding father Ilka) in Transoxiana did not belong to Jenghiz Khan’s federation.  Having arrived in Iran in 1256, they rose to high office under the Ilkhanids and, following the Ilkhanids downfall (in 1335), constituted the major power in Iraq and parts of Persia.  Sheikh Hasan Buzurg the Great (r. 1336-1356) seized power in Baghdad in 1336 and ruled from 1340 as an independent ruler.  His son, Sheikh Uwais (r. 1356-1374), conquered northwest Iran in 1358 (Tabriz-Sultaniyya area) and Azerbaijan in 1360 from the Golden Horde and occupied Mosul and Diyar Bakr in 1365.  Sheikh Uwais was a leading patron of the arts with a splendid household.  His son, Husain (r. 1374-1382), fought violent battles against the Muzaffarids in Iran and the Qara Qoyunlu in Diyar Bakr.  Husain’s brother, Ahmad (r. 1382-1410), fought against Timur, who expelled him from Baghdad in 1393.  Ahmad’s return in 1395 led to the destruction of Baghdad by Timur  in 1401.  Back in Baghdad from 1406, the Jalayirids were finally driven out by the Qara Qoyunlu in 1411.  The last Jalayirids stayed in Basra and Khuzistan until 1432, when they were once again ousted by the Qara Qoyunlu.

The Jalayirids were a Mongol Jalayir dynasty which ruled over Iraq and western Persia after the breakup of the Mongol Khanate of Persia (or Ilkhanate) in the 1330s. The Jalayirid sultanate lasted about fifty years, until disrupted by Tamerlane's conquests and the revolts of the "Black sheep" Turks or Kara Koyunlu . After Tamerlane's death in 1405, there was a brief attempt to re-establish the sultanate in southern Iraq and Khuzistan. The Jalayirids were finally eliminated by Kara Koyunlu in 1432.

The rulers of Jalayirid Sultanate were:

    * Hasan Buzurg (1336 - 1356)
    * Shaikh Uvais I (1356 - 1374)
    * Hasan (1374)
    * Husain I (1374 - 1382)
    * Bayazid (1382 - 1383)
    * Ahmad (1383 - 1410)
    * Shah Walad (1410-1411)
    * Mahmud (1411-1415)
    * Uwais II (1415-1421)
    * Mohammed (1421-1422)
    * Mahmud II (1422-1424)
    * Husain II (1424-1432)

Jalayirids see Jalayrids

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