The
Muslim Compendium
2020
A
Daily Introduction
to
Muslim
History and Culture
2020
{1441/1442 AH}
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The Islamic, Muslim, or Hijri calendar is a lunar calendar consisting of 12 months in a year of 354 or 355 days. The Islamic calendar is used in Muslim countries to determine the proper days of Islamic holidays and rituals, such as the annual period of fasting (Ramadan) and the proper time for the pilgrimage to Mecca (the hajj). In contemporary times, for the most part in the everyday life of Muslim countries, the Western or Gregorian calendar is used. Rents, wages, etc. are paid by the Gregorian calendar, which is also used for agriculture if no traditional solar calendars are used for this purpose like the Berber calendar or the Coptic calendar. This preference for the Gregorian calendar is because the Islamic calendar, being a lunar calendar, is not well suited for agricultural work.
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The Islamic calendar employs the Hijri year as its beginning year. The Hijri year (and the Hijri era) began in the Gregorian calendar year of 622 AD/CE. During that year, the Prophet Muhammad and his followers migrated from Mecca to Yathrib (now Medina) and established the first Muslim community (ummah), an event commemorated as the Hijra. In the West, dates in the Hijri era are usually denoted AH. "AH" stands for the Latin words "Anno Hegirae" which mean "in the year of the Hijra". The usage of "AH" parallels to the Christian usage of "AD", the Common usage of "CE", and the Jewish usage of "AM". In English, years prior to the Hijra and the Hijri era are designated as "BH". "BH" stands for "Before the Hijra".
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{1441/1442 AH}
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The Islamic, Muslim, or Hijri calendar is a lunar calendar consisting of 12 months in a year of 354 or 355 days. The Islamic calendar is used in Muslim countries to determine the proper days of Islamic holidays and rituals, such as the annual period of fasting (Ramadan) and the proper time for the pilgrimage to Mecca (the hajj). In contemporary times, for the most part in the everyday life of Muslim countries, the Western or Gregorian calendar is used. Rents, wages, etc. are paid by the Gregorian calendar, which is also used for agriculture if no traditional solar calendars are used for this purpose like the Berber calendar or the Coptic calendar. This preference for the Gregorian calendar is because the Islamic calendar, being a lunar calendar, is not well suited for agricultural work.
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The Islamic calendar employs the Hijri year as its beginning year. The Hijri year (and the Hijri era) began in the Gregorian calendar year of 622 AD/CE. During that year, the Prophet Muhammad and his followers migrated from Mecca to Yathrib (now Medina) and established the first Muslim community (ummah), an event commemorated as the Hijra. In the West, dates in the Hijri era are usually denoted AH. "AH" stands for the Latin words "Anno Hegirae" which mean "in the year of the Hijra". The usage of "AH" parallels to the Christian usage of "AD", the Common usage of "CE", and the Jewish usage of "AM". In English, years prior to the Hijra and the Hijri era are designated as "BH". "BH" stands for "Before the Hijra".
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Wednesday
{yawm
al-arbi‘a’ (the fourth day)}
January 1
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January 1
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The
Five Pillars of Islam
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(1)
Shahada
{The Muslim Statement of Faith}
(2)
Salat
{Daily Prayer}
(3)
Zakat
{Almsgiving}
(4)
Ramadan
{The Month of Daytime Fasting}
(5)
Hajj
{The Pilgrimage to Mecca}
January
2
Thursday
{yawm
al-khamis (the fifth day)}
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Shahada
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{lā ʾilāha ʾillā llāh muḥammadun rasūlu llāh}
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“There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is the
Prophet of Allah.”
or
“There is no God but God, and Muhammad is the
Prophet of God.”
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The
Shahada is one of the Five Pillars of Islam.
It is the Muslim statement of faith, or Islamic creed. The Shahada is a personal testimony of belief
in the oneness of God (tawhid) and the acceptance of Muhammad as God’s prophet.
January
3
Friday
{yawm
al-jum‘a (the day of congregation)}
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Salat
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Salat
is one of the Five Pillars of Islam.
Salat refers to the obligatory religious duty of every Muslim to pray
five times daily. Salat is deemed to be
a physical, mental, and spiritual act of worship. Salat is performed before dawn, at noon, at
mid-afternoon, before sunset, and at mid-evening. The Friday midday prayer is
performed in the mosque (jam‘i). This
Friday salat is followed by the khutba – the sermon preached by the official
preacher (the khatib) from the minbar (the high seat in the mosque).
January
4
Saturday
{yawm
al-sabt (the day of rest)}
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Zakat
is one of the Five Pillars of Islam.
Zakat is the Arabic term for almsgiving. Zakat (almsgiving) is treated in Islam as a
religious obligation which, by Quranic ranking, is next after prayer in
importance. Zakat is mandatory and is considered to be a tax. The payment of, and disputes on, zakat have
played a major role in the history of Islam, most notable during the Ridda wars
(the Wars of Apostasy) that occurred after Muhammad’s death in 632.
January
5
Sunday
{yawm
al-ahad (the first day)}
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January 17
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Muhammad Ali
2005 Presidential Medal of Freedom
2001 Presidential Citizen's Medal
1999 Time Magazine's List of 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century
1999 Sport's Illustrated Sportsman of the Century
1999 British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Sports Personality of the Century
Three-Time World Heavyweight Boxing Champion
1960 Olympic Light-Heavyweight Gold Medal Boxing Champion
b. January 17, 1942, Louisville, Kentucky, United States
d. June 3, 2016, Scottsdale, Arizona, United States
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Muhammad Ali, born Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr., was an American professional boxer, activist and philanthropist. Nicknamed "The Greatest", Muhammad Ali is widely regarded as one of the most significant and celebrated sports figures of the 20th century and one of the greatest boxers of all time.
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Muhammad Ali was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky. He began training as an amateur boxer when he was 12 years old. At the age of 18, he won the gold medal in the light heavyweight division at the 1960 Summer Olympics held in Rome, Italy. Ali turned professional later that year before converting to Islam in 1961. At the age of 22, in 1964, Ali won the world heavyweight championship from Sonny Liston in a major upset. He then changed his name from Cassius Clay, which he called his "slave name", to Muhammad Ali. Ali set an example of racial pride for African Americans and resistance to white (European American) domination during the Civil Rights Movement.
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In 1966, two years after winning the heavyweight title, Ali further antagonized the white (European American) establishment by refusing to be drafted into the United States military, citing his religious beliefs, and opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War. Ali was eventually arrested, found guilty of draft evasion charges, and stripped of his boxing titles. He successfully appealed the decision to the United States Supreme Court, which overturned his conviction in 1971. Ali's actions as a conscientious objector to the Vietnam War made him an icon for the larger counterculture generation.
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January 29
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Mohammad Abdus Salam
1979 Nobel Prize in Physics
b. January 29, 1926, Jhang, Punjab, British India
d. November 21, 1996, Oxford, United Kingdom
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Mohammad Abdus Salam was a Pakistani physicist. The 1979 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded jointly to Sheldon Lee Glashow of the United States, Steven Weinberg of the United States, and Mohammad Abdus Salam of Pakistan "for their contributions to the theory of the unified weak and electromagnetic interaction between elementary particles, including, inter alia, the prediction of the weak neutral current." Mohammad Abdus Salam was the first Pakistani scientist to be awarded the Nobel Prize. He was a member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community and, as such, was not considered a Muslim by the government of Pakistan.
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February 7
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Tawakel Karman
2011 Nobel Peace Prize
b. February 7, 1979, Taiz Governorate, Yemen Arab Republic
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January 17
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Muhammad Ali
2005 Presidential Medal of Freedom
2001 Presidential Citizen's Medal
1999 Time Magazine's List of 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century
1999 Sport's Illustrated Sportsman of the Century
1999 British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Sports Personality of the Century
Three-Time World Heavyweight Boxing Champion
1960 Olympic Light-Heavyweight Gold Medal Boxing Champion
b. January 17, 1942, Louisville, Kentucky, United States
d. June 3, 2016, Scottsdale, Arizona, United States
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Muhammad Ali, born Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr., was an American professional boxer, activist and philanthropist. Nicknamed "The Greatest", Muhammad Ali is widely regarded as one of the most significant and celebrated sports figures of the 20th century and one of the greatest boxers of all time.
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Muhammad Ali was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky. He began training as an amateur boxer when he was 12 years old. At the age of 18, he won the gold medal in the light heavyweight division at the 1960 Summer Olympics held in Rome, Italy. Ali turned professional later that year before converting to Islam in 1961. At the age of 22, in 1964, Ali won the world heavyweight championship from Sonny Liston in a major upset. He then changed his name from Cassius Clay, which he called his "slave name", to Muhammad Ali. Ali set an example of racial pride for African Americans and resistance to white (European American) domination during the Civil Rights Movement.
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In 1966, two years after winning the heavyweight title, Ali further antagonized the white (European American) establishment by refusing to be drafted into the United States military, citing his religious beliefs, and opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War. Ali was eventually arrested, found guilty of draft evasion charges, and stripped of his boxing titles. He successfully appealed the decision to the United States Supreme Court, which overturned his conviction in 1971. Ali's actions as a conscientious objector to the Vietnam War made him an icon for the larger counterculture generation.
In 1966, two years after winning the heavyweight title, Ali further antagonized the white establishment by refusing to be drafted into the U.S. military, citing his religious beliefs, and opposition to American involvement in the Vietnam War.[6][8] He was eventually arrested, found guilty of draft evasion charges, and stripped of his boxing titles. He successfully appealed the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, which overturned his conviction in 1971, by which time he had not fought for nearly four years and thereby lost a period of peak performance as an athlete. Ali's actions as a conscientious objector to the war made him an icon for the larger counterculturegeneration.[9][10]
Ali was one of the leading heavyweight boxers of the 20th century, and remains the only three-time lineal champion of that division. His records of beating 21 boxers for the world heavyweight title (shared with Joe Louis), as well as winning 14 unified title bouts (shared with former welterweight champion José Napoles), were unbeaten for 35 years. Ali is the only boxer to be named The Ring magazine Fighter of the Year six times. He has been ranked the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time.[11][12] He was also ranked as the greatest athlete of the 20th century by Sports Illustrated, the Sports Personality of the Century by the BBC, and the third greatest athlete of the 20th century by ESPN SportsCentury. Nicknamed "The Greatest", he was involved in several historic boxing matches.[13] Notable among these were the Liston fights; the "Fight of the Century", "Super Fight II" and the "Thrilla in Manila" against his rival Joe Frazier; and The Rumble in the Jungle against George Foreman.
At a time when most fighters let their managers do the talking, Ali thrived in and indeed craved the spotlight, where he was often provocative and outlandish.[14][15][16] He was known for trash-talking, and often freestyled with rhyme schemes and spoken word poetry, both for his trash-talking in boxing and as political poetry for his activism, anticipating elements of rap and hip hop music.[17][18][19] As a musician, Ali recorded two spoken word albums and a rhythm and blues song, receiving two Grammynominations.[19] As an actor, he performed in several films and a Broadway musical. Ali wrote two autobiographies, one during and one after his boxing career.
As a Muslim, Ali was initially affiliated with Elijah Muhammad's Nation of Islam (NOI) and advocated their black separatist ideology. He later disavowed the NOI, adhering to Sunni Islam, practicing Sufism, and supporting racial integration, like his former mentor Malcolm X.
After retiring from boxing in 1981, at age 39, Ali focused on religion and charity. In 1984, he was diagnosed with Parkinson's syndrome, which some reports attribute to boxing-related injuries,[20] though both Ali and his physician disputed the claim.[21] As his condition worsened, Ali made limited public appearances, and was cared for by his family until his death on June 3, 2016, in Scottsdale, Arizona.
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January 29
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Mohammad Abdus Salam
1979 Nobel Prize in Physics
b. January 29, 1926, Jhang, Punjab, British India
d. November 21, 1996, Oxford, United Kingdom
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Mohammad Abdus Salam was a Pakistani physicist. The 1979 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded jointly to Sheldon Lee Glashow of the United States, Steven Weinberg of the United States, and Mohammad Abdus Salam of Pakistan "for their contributions to the theory of the unified weak and electromagnetic interaction between elementary particles, including, inter alia, the prediction of the weak neutral current." Mohammad Abdus Salam was the first Pakistani scientist to be awarded the Nobel Prize. He was a member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community and, as such, was not considered a Muslim by the government of Pakistan.
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February 7
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Tawakel Karman
2011 Nobel Peace Prize
b. February 7, 1979, Taiz Governorate, Yemen Arab Republic
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Tawakel Karman is a human rights activist based in Yemen. She was a prominent leader in the Arab Spring of 2011.
The 2011 Nobel Peace Prize was jointly given to Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, Leymah Gbowee of Liberia, and Tawakel Karman of Yemen "for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work."
Tawakel Karman was the first Arab woman and the first Yemeni to receive a Nobel Prize.
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February 16
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Mahershala Ali
2018 Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture, Golden Globe Awards
2016 Best Supporting Actor, Academy Awards
2016 Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role, Screen Actors Guild Awards
2016 Best Supporting Actor in a Movie, Critics' Choice Awards
b. February 16, 1974, Oakland, California, United States
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Mahershalalhashbaz Ali, known professionally as Mahershala Ali, is an American actor. Ali began his career as a regular on television series such as Crossing Jordan and Threat Matrix, before his breakthrough role as Richard Tyler in the science fiction series The 4400.
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Mahershala Ali's first major film release was in the 2008 David Fincher-directed romantic fantasy drama film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and his other notable films include Predators, Moonlight, The Place Beyond the Pines, Free State of Jones, Hidden Figures, and as Boggs in The Hunger Games series. Ali is also known for his roles in the Netflix series House of Cards as Remy Danton and as Cornell "Cottonmouth" Stokes in Marvel's Luke Cage.
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For his performance as Juan in the drama film Moonlight (2016), Mahershala Ali received universal acclaim from critics and won the Academy Award, the Screen Actors Guild Award and the Critics' Choice Award for Best Supporting Actor, and also received Golden Globe and British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Award nominations. Mahershala Ali's win at the 89th Academy Awards made him the first Muslim actor to win an Oscar for acting.
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February 26
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Ahmed Zewail
1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
b. February 26, 1946, Damanhour, Egypt
d. August 2, 2016, Pasadena, California, United States
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Ahmed Zewail was an Egyptian chemist who is known as the "father of femtochemistry." Femtochemistry is the area of physical chemistry that studies chemical reactions on extremely short timescales in order to study the very act of atoms within molecules (reactants) rearranging themselves to form new molecules. The 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Ahmed Zewail "for his studies of the transition states of chemical reactions using femtosecond spectroscopy." Ahmed Zewail was the first Muslim chemist to be awarded the Nobel Prize and the second Muslim scientist. The first Muslim scientist to be awarded the Nobel Prize was Mohammad Abdus Salam of Pakistan in 1979.
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March 8
13 Rajab, 1441 AH
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March 14
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Maryam Mirzakhani
2014 Fields Medal
b. May 12, 1977, Tehran, Iran
d. July 14, 2017, Stanford, California, United States
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Maryam Mirzakhani was an Iranian mathematician and professor of mathematics at Stanford University. Her research topics included Teichmuller theory, hyperbolic geometry, ergodic theory and symplectic geometry. On August 13, 2014, Maryam Mirzakhani was honored with the Fields Medal, the most prestigious award in mathematics. She became both the first woman and the first Iranian to be honored with the award. The award committee cited her work in "the dynamics and geometry of Riemann surfaces and their moduli spaces."
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Pi Day
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Pi Day is an annual celebration of the mathematical constant known as pi. Pi Day is observed on March 14 (3/14 in the month/day format) in recognition of 3, 1, and 4 being the first three significant digits of pi.
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May 12
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Maryam Mirzakhani
2014 Fields Medal
b. May 12, 1977, Tehran, Iran
d. July 14, 2017, Stanford, California, United States
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Maryam Mirzakhani was an Iranian mathematician and professor of mathematics at Stanford University. Her research topics included Teichmuller theory, hyperbolic geometry, ergodic theory and symplectic geometry. On August 13, 2014, Maryam Mirzakhani was honored with the Fields Medal, the most prestigious award in mathematics. She became both the first woman and the first Iranian to be honored with the award. The award committee cited her work in "the dynamics and geometry of Riemann surfaces and their moduli spaces."
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June 7
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Orhan Pamuk
2006 Nobel Prize in Literature
b. June 7, 1952, Istanbul, Turkey
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Orhan Pamuk is a Turkish writer best known for his novels, My Name is Red and Snow. The 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Orhan Pamuk of Istanbul, Turkey, "who in the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures." Orhan Pamuk is the first Turk to receive the Nobel Prize.
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June 17
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Mohamed El Baradei
2005 Nobel Peace Prize
b. June 17, 1942, Cairo, Egypt
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Mohamed El Baradei is an Egyptian diplomat. The 2005 Nobel Peace Prize was jointly awarded to El Baradei and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) "for their efforts to prevent nuclear energy from being used for military purposes and to ensure that nuclear energy for peaceful purposes is used in the safest possible way. El Baradei was the second Egyptian to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. The first was Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1978.
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June 21
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Shirin Ebadi
2003 Nobel Peace Prize
b. June 21, 1947, Hamadan, Iran
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Shirin Ebadi is an Iranian human rights activist. The 2003 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Shirin Ebadi "for her efforts for democracy and human rights. She has focused especially on the struggle for the rights of women and children" in Iran. Shirin Ibadi is the first Iranian, and the first Muslim woman, to receive a Nobel Prize.
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June 28
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Muhammad Yunus
2006 Nobel Peace Prize
b. June 28, 1940, Chittagong, Bengal Presidency, British India
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Muhammad Yunis is a Bangladeshi economist and the founder of the Grameen Bank. The 2006 Nobel Peace Prize was jointly awarded to Muhammad Yunis and the Grameen Bank "for their efforts to create economic and social development from below." Muhammad Yunus is the first
Bangladeshi, and the first Bengali Muslim, Nobel laureate.
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July 12
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Malala Yousafzai
2014 Nobel Peace Prize
b. July 12, 1997, Mingora, Swat, Pakistan
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Malala Yousafzai is a Pakistani activist who works for the right to education for children, and especially for girls, in Pakistan. The 2014 Nobel Peace Prize was jointly given to Kailash Satyarthi of India and Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan "for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education."
Having received the Nobel Peace Prize at the age of 17, Malala Yousafzai is the youngest Nobel Prize recipient ever. She is also the second Pakistani, and the first ethnic Pashtun, to be awarded a Nobel Prize.
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July 14
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Maryam Mirzakhani
2014 Fields Medal
b. May 12, 1977, Tehran, Iran
d. July 14, 2017, Stanford, California, United States
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Maryam Mirzakhani was an Iranian mathematician and professor of mathematics at Stanford University. Her research topics included Teichmuller theory, hyperbolic geometry, ergodic theory and symplectic geometry. On August 13, 2014, Maryam Mirzakhani was honored with the Fields Medal, the most prestigious award in mathematics. She became both the first woman and the first Iranian to be honored with the award. The award committee cited her work in "the dynamics and geometry of Riemann surfaces and their moduli spaces."
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July 30
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Nadia Murad
2018 Nobel Peace Prize
b. 1993, Kocho, Sinjar, Iraq
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Nadia Murad is an Iraqi Yazidi human rights activist. In 2014, she was kidnapped from her hometown of Kocho and held by the Islamic State for three months. She was enslaved, beaten and raped by her captors. In 2018, Nadia Murad of Iraq and Denis Mukwege of the Democratic Republic of the Congo were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict." Nadia Murad is the first Iraqi and the first Yazidi to be awarded a Nobel Prize.
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August 2
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Ahmed Zewail
1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
b. February 26, 1946, Damanhour, Egypt
d. August 2, 2016, Pasadena, California, United States
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Ahmed Zewail was an Egyptian chemist who is known as the "father of femtochemistry." Femtochemistry is the area of physical chemistry that studies chemical reactions on extremely short timescales in order to study the very act of atoms within molecules (reactants) rearranging themselves to form new molecules. The 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Ahmed Zewail "for his studies of the transition states of chemical reactions using femtosecond spectroscopy." Ahmed Zewail was the first Muslim chemist to be awarded the Nobel Prize and the second Muslim scientist. The first Muslim scientist to be awarded the Nobel Prize was Mohammad Abdus Salam of Pakistan in 1979.
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August 13
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Maryam Mirzakhani
2014 Fields Medal
b. May 12, 1977, Tehran, Iran
d. July 14, 2017, Stanford, California, United States
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Maryam Mirzakhani was an Iranian mathematician and professor of mathematics at Stanford University. Her research topics included Teichmuller theory, hyperbolic geometry, ergodic theory and symplectic geometry. On August 13, 2014, Maryam Mirzakhani was honored with the Fields Medal, the most prestigious award in mathematics. She became both the first woman and the first Iranian to be honored with the award. The award committee cited her work in "the dynamics and geometry of Riemann surfaces and their moduli spaces."
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August 20
{1 Muharram, 1442 AH}
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Islamic New Year
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The Islamic New Year, also known as the Arabic New Year or the Hijri New Year, is the day that marks the beginning of a new Islamic calendar year, and is the day on which the year count is increased by one. The first day of the year is observed on the first day of Muharram, the first month in the Islamic calendar. The first Islamic year began in 622 of the Common Era (CE) with the emigration of the Prophet Muhammad from Mecca to Medina. This emigration is known as the Hijra. For the Muslim or Islamic calendar, the years are usually designated with the letters "AH" coming after the year number. The "AH" represents the words "After Hijra" indicating the years after Muhammad's emigration.
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August 24
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Yasser Arafat
1994 Nobel Peace Prize
b. August 24, 1929, Cairo, Egypt
d. November 11, 2004, Clamart, Hauts-de-Seine, France
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Yasser Arafat was a Palestinian political leader and the long time Chairman (1969 to 2004) of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded jointly to Shimon Peres of Israel, Yitzhak Rabin of Israel, and Yasser Arafat of Palestine "for their efforts to create peace in the Middle East."
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August 29
{10 Muharram, 1442 AH}
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Ashura
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Ashura is the tenth day of Muharram, the first month in the Islamic calendar. For the majority of Shia Muslims, Ashura marks the climax of the Remembrance of Muharram and commemorates the death of Husayn ibn Ali, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad at the Battle of Karbala on 10 Muharram in the year 61 AH (October 10, 680 CE). Sunni Muslims have the same accounts of these events. However, ceremonial mourning did not become a Sunni custom, although poems, eulogizing and recounting the events were, and continue to be common. Mourning for the incident began almost immediately after the Battle of Karbala. Popular elegies were written by poets to commemorate the Battle of Karbala during the Umayyad and Abbasidera and earliest public mourning rituals occurred in 963 CE during the Buyid dynasty. In Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. Ashura has become a national holiday, and many ethnic and religious communities participate in it.
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In Sunni Islam, Ashura also marks the day that Moses and the Israelites were saved from Pharaoh by God creating a path through the Red Sea, and is the Islamic equivalent to Yom Kippur. Other commemorations include Noah leaving the Ark and the Prophet Muhammad's arrival in Medina.
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August 30
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Naguib Mahfouz
1988 Nobel Prize in Literature
b. December 11, 1911, Cairo, Khedivate of Egypt
d. August 30, 2006, Cairo, Egypt
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Naguib Mahfouz was an Egyptian writer noted for his contributions to Arabic literature. The 1988 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Naguib Mahfouz "who, through works rich in nuance -- now clear-sightedly realistic, now evocatively ambiguous -- has formed an Arabian narrative art that applies to all mankind." Naguib Mahfouz was the first Muslim writer to win a Nobel Prize in Literature.
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September 8
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Aziz Sancar
2015 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
b. September 8, 1946, Savur, Mardin, Turkey
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Aziz Sancar is a Turkish American biochemist and molecular biologist specializing in DNA repair, cell cycle checkpoints, and circadian clock. The 2015 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Aziz Sancar "for mechanistic studies of DNA repair." Aziz Sancar is the first Turkish born chemist, the second Turkish born person (the first being the novelist Orhan Pamuk in 2006), and the third Muslim scientist (following Mohammad Abdus Salam of Pakistan in 1979 and Ahmed Zewail of Egypt in 1999) to be awarded a Nobel Prize.
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October 6
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Anwar Sadat
1978 Nobel Peace Prize
b. December 25, 1918, Monufia, Sultanate of Egypt
d. October 6, 1981, Cairo, Egypt
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Anwar Sadat was the President of Egypt from 1970 to 1981. Anwar Sadat of Egypt, along with Menachem Begin of Israel, was awarded the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize "for their contribution to the two frame agreements on peace in the Middle East, and on peace between Egypt and Israel, which were signed at Camp David on September 17, 1978." Anwar Sadat was the first Muslim to receive a Nobel Prize.
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October 10
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The Battle of Karbala
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The Battle of Karbala took place on 10 Muharram, in the year 61 AH of the Islamic calendar (October 10, 680 CE) in Karbala, in what is present-day Iraq. The battle took place between a small group of supporters and relatives of Muhammad's grandson, Husayn ibn Ali, and a larger military detachment from the forces of Yazid I, the Umayyad caliph.
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When the first Umayyad caliph Muawiyah died in 680 CE, Husayn did not give allegiance to his son, Yazid I, who had been appointed as Umayyad caliph by Muawiyah. The people of Kufa sent letters to Husayn, asking his help and pledging allegiance to him, but they later did not support him. As Husayn traveled towards Kufa at a nearby place known as Karbala, his caravan was intercepted by Yazid's army. In the ensuing battle, Husayn was killed and beheaded along with most of his family and companions.
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The dead are widely regarded as martyrs by Sufi, Sunni, and Shia Muslims. The battle has a central place in Shia history, tradition and theologyh and it has frequently been recounted in Shia Islamic literature. The Battle of Karbala is commemorated during an annual ten day period held every Muharram by Shia, culminating on its tenth day, known as the Day of Ashura. Shia Muslims commemorate these events by mourning, holding public processions, organizing majlis (sectarian councils), striking the chest and in some cases self-flagellation.
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The Battle of Karbala played a central role in shaping the identity of the Shia and turned them into a sect with its own rituals and collective memory. For the Shia, Husayn's suffering and death became a symbol of sacrifice in the struggle for right against wrong, and for justice and truth against wrongdoing and falsehood. Accordingly, the battle became more than a politically formative moment of the Shia faith within Islam, it came to define the theological origin of the Shia martyr ethos.
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November 11
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Yasser Arafat
1994 Nobel Peace Prize
b. August 24, 1929, Cairo, Egypt
d. November 11, 2004, Clamart, Hauts-de-Seine, France
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Yasser Arafat was a Palestinian political leader and the long time Chairman (1969 to 2004) of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded jointly to Shimon Peres of Israel, Yitzhak Rabin of Israel, and Yasser Arafat of Palestine "for their efforts to create peace in the Middle East."
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November 21
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Mohammad Abdus Salam
1979 Nobel Prize in Physics
b. January 29, 1926, Jhang, Punjab, British India
d. November 21, 1996, Oxford, United Kingdom
*****
Mohammad Abdus Salam was a Pakistani physicist. The 1979 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded jointly to Sheldon Lee Glashow of the United States, Steven Weinberg of the United States, and Mohammad Abdus Salam of Pakistan "for their contributions to the theory of the unified weak and electromagnetic interaction between elementary particles, including, inter alia, the prediction of the weak neutral current." Mohammad Abdus Salam was the first Pakistani scientist to be awarded the Nobel Prize. He was a member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community and, as such, was not considered a Muslim by the government of Pakistan.
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November 25
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Nadia Murad
2018 Nobel Peace Prize
b. 1993, Kocho, Sinjar, Iraq
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Nadia Murad is an Iraqi Yazidi human rights activist. In 2014, she was kidnapped from her hometown of Kocho and held by the Islamic State for three months. She was enslaved, beaten and raped by her captors. In 2018, Nadia Murad of Iraq and Denis Mukwege of the Democratic Republic of the Congo were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict." Nadia Murad is the first Iraqi and the first Yazidi to be awarded a Nobel Prize.
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International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women
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The United Nations General Assembly has designated November 25 as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (Resolution 54/134). The premise of the day is to raise awareness of the fact that women around the world are subject to rape, domestic violence and other forms of violence. Additionally, one of the aims of the day is to highlight that the scale and true nature of the issue is often hidden.
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December 9
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Nadia Murad
2018 Nobel Peace Prize
b. 1993, Kocho, Sinjar, Iraq
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Nadia Murad is an Iraqi Yazidi human rights activist. In 2014, she was kidnapped from her hometown of Kocho and held by the Islamic State for three months. She was enslaved, beaten and raped by her captors. In 2018, Nadia Murad of Iraq and Denis Mukwege of the Democratic Republic of the Congo were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict." Nadia Murad is the first Iraqi and the first Yazidi to be awarded a Nobel Prize.
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International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide and of the Prevention of this Crime
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In September 2015, the United Nations General Assembly established December 9 as the International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide and of the Prevention of this Crime. December 9 is the anniversary of the adoption of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (the "Genocide Convention"). The purpose of the day is to raise awareness of the Genocide Convention and its role in combating and preventing the crime of genocide, as defined in the Convention, and to commemorate and honor its victims. In adopting the resolution, without a vote, the 193-member Assembly reiterated the responsibility of each individual State to protect its populations from genocide, which entails the prevention of such a crime, including incitement to it.
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December 11
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Naguib Mahfouz
1988 Nobel Prize in Literature
b. December 11, 1911, Cairo, Khedivate of Egypt
d. August 30, 2006, Cairo, Egypt
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Naguib Mahfouz was an Egyptian writer noted for his contributions to Arabic literature. The 1988 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Naguib Mahfouz "who, through works rich in nuance -- now clear-sightedly realistic, now evocatively ambiguous -- has formed an Arabian narrative art that applies to all mankind." Naguib Mahfouz was the first Muslim writer to win a Nobel Prize in Literature.
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December 25
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Anwar Sadat
1978 Nobel Peace Prize
b. December 25, 1918, Monufia, Sultanate of Egypt
d. October 7, 1981, Cairo, Egypt
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Anwar Sadat was the President of Egypt from 1970 to 1981. Anwar Sadat of Egypt, along with Menachem Begin of Israel, was awarded the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize "for their contribution to the two frame agreements on peace in the Middle East, and on peace between Egypt and Israel, which were signed at Camp David on September 17, 1978." Anwar Sadat was the first Muslim to receive a Nobel Prize.
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Tawakel Karman is a human rights activist based in Yemen. She was a prominent leader in the Arab Spring of 2011.
The 2011 Nobel Peace Prize was jointly given to Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, Leymah Gbowee of Liberia, and Tawakel Karman of Yemen "for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work."
Tawakel Karman was the first Arab woman and the first Yemeni to receive a Nobel Prize.
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February 16
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Mahershala Ali
2018 Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture, Golden Globe Awards
2016 Best Supporting Actor, Academy Awards
2016 Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role, Screen Actors Guild Awards
2016 Best Supporting Actor in a Movie, Critics' Choice Awards
b. February 16, 1974, Oakland, California, United States
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Mahershalalhashbaz Ali, known professionally as Mahershala Ali, is an American actor. Ali began his career as a regular on television series such as Crossing Jordan and Threat Matrix, before his breakthrough role as Richard Tyler in the science fiction series The 4400.
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Mahershala Ali's first major film release was in the 2008 David Fincher-directed romantic fantasy drama film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and his other notable films include Predators, Moonlight, The Place Beyond the Pines, Free State of Jones, Hidden Figures, and as Boggs in The Hunger Games series. Ali is also known for his roles in the Netflix series House of Cards as Remy Danton and as Cornell "Cottonmouth" Stokes in Marvel's Luke Cage.
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For his performance as Juan in the drama film Moonlight (2016), Mahershala Ali received universal acclaim from critics and won the Academy Award, the Screen Actors Guild Award and the Critics' Choice Award for Best Supporting Actor, and also received Golden Globe and British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Award nominations. Mahershala Ali's win at the 89th Academy Awards made him the first Muslim actor to win an Oscar for acting.
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February 26
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Ahmed Zewail
1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
b. February 26, 1946, Damanhour, Egypt
d. August 2, 2016, Pasadena, California, United States
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Ahmed Zewail was an Egyptian chemist who is known as the "father of femtochemistry." Femtochemistry is the area of physical chemistry that studies chemical reactions on extremely short timescales in order to study the very act of atoms within molecules (reactants) rearranging themselves to form new molecules. The 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Ahmed Zewail "for his studies of the transition states of chemical reactions using femtosecond spectroscopy." Ahmed Zewail was the first Muslim chemist to be awarded the Nobel Prize and the second Muslim scientist. The first Muslim scientist to be awarded the Nobel Prize was Mohammad Abdus Salam of Pakistan in 1979.
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March 8
13 Rajab, 1441 AH
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March 14
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Maryam Mirzakhani
2014 Fields Medal
b. May 12, 1977, Tehran, Iran
d. July 14, 2017, Stanford, California, United States
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Maryam Mirzakhani was an Iranian mathematician and professor of mathematics at Stanford University. Her research topics included Teichmuller theory, hyperbolic geometry, ergodic theory and symplectic geometry. On August 13, 2014, Maryam Mirzakhani was honored with the Fields Medal, the most prestigious award in mathematics. She became both the first woman and the first Iranian to be honored with the award. The award committee cited her work in "the dynamics and geometry of Riemann surfaces and their moduli spaces."
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Pi Day
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Pi Day is an annual celebration of the mathematical constant known as pi. Pi Day is observed on March 14 (3/14 in the month/day format) in recognition of 3, 1, and 4 being the first three significant digits of pi.
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May 12
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Maryam Mirzakhani
2014 Fields Medal
b. May 12, 1977, Tehran, Iran
d. July 14, 2017, Stanford, California, United States
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Maryam Mirzakhani was an Iranian mathematician and professor of mathematics at Stanford University. Her research topics included Teichmuller theory, hyperbolic geometry, ergodic theory and symplectic geometry. On August 13, 2014, Maryam Mirzakhani was honored with the Fields Medal, the most prestigious award in mathematics. She became both the first woman and the first Iranian to be honored with the award. The award committee cited her work in "the dynamics and geometry of Riemann surfaces and their moduli spaces."
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June 7
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Orhan Pamuk
2006 Nobel Prize in Literature
b. June 7, 1952, Istanbul, Turkey
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Orhan Pamuk is a Turkish writer best known for his novels, My Name is Red and Snow. The 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Orhan Pamuk of Istanbul, Turkey, "who in the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures." Orhan Pamuk is the first Turk to receive the Nobel Prize.
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June 17
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Mohamed El Baradei
2005 Nobel Peace Prize
b. June 17, 1942, Cairo, Egypt
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Mohamed El Baradei is an Egyptian diplomat. The 2005 Nobel Peace Prize was jointly awarded to El Baradei and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) "for their efforts to prevent nuclear energy from being used for military purposes and to ensure that nuclear energy for peaceful purposes is used in the safest possible way. El Baradei was the second Egyptian to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. The first was Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1978.
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June 21
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Shirin Ebadi
2003 Nobel Peace Prize
b. June 21, 1947, Hamadan, Iran
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Shirin Ebadi is an Iranian human rights activist. The 2003 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Shirin Ebadi "for her efforts for democracy and human rights. She has focused especially on the struggle for the rights of women and children" in Iran. Shirin Ibadi is the first Iranian, and the first Muslim woman, to receive a Nobel Prize.
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June 28
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Muhammad Yunus
2006 Nobel Peace Prize
b. June 28, 1940, Chittagong, Bengal Presidency, British India
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Muhammad Yunis is a Bangladeshi economist and the founder of the Grameen Bank. The 2006 Nobel Peace Prize was jointly awarded to Muhammad Yunis and the Grameen Bank "for their efforts to create economic and social development from below." Muhammad Yunus is the first
Bangladeshi, and the first Bengali Muslim, Nobel laureate.
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July 12
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Malala Yousafzai
2014 Nobel Peace Prize
b. July 12, 1997, Mingora, Swat, Pakistan
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Malala Yousafzai is a Pakistani activist who works for the right to education for children, and especially for girls, in Pakistan. The 2014 Nobel Peace Prize was jointly given to Kailash Satyarthi of India and Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan "for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education."
Having received the Nobel Peace Prize at the age of 17, Malala Yousafzai is the youngest Nobel Prize recipient ever. She is also the second Pakistani, and the first ethnic Pashtun, to be awarded a Nobel Prize.
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July 14
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Maryam Mirzakhani
2014 Fields Medal
b. May 12, 1977, Tehran, Iran
d. July 14, 2017, Stanford, California, United States
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Maryam Mirzakhani was an Iranian mathematician and professor of mathematics at Stanford University. Her research topics included Teichmuller theory, hyperbolic geometry, ergodic theory and symplectic geometry. On August 13, 2014, Maryam Mirzakhani was honored with the Fields Medal, the most prestigious award in mathematics. She became both the first woman and the first Iranian to be honored with the award. The award committee cited her work in "the dynamics and geometry of Riemann surfaces and their moduli spaces."
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July 30
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Nadia Murad
2018 Nobel Peace Prize
b. 1993, Kocho, Sinjar, Iraq
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Nadia Murad is an Iraqi Yazidi human rights activist. In 2014, she was kidnapped from her hometown of Kocho and held by the Islamic State for three months. She was enslaved, beaten and raped by her captors. In 2018, Nadia Murad of Iraq and Denis Mukwege of the Democratic Republic of the Congo were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict." Nadia Murad is the first Iraqi and the first Yazidi to be awarded a Nobel Prize.
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World Day Against Trafficking in Persons
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Human trafficking is a crime that exploits women, children, and men for numerous purposes including forced labor and sex. The International Labour Organization estimates that 21 million people are victims of forced labor globally. This estimate also includes victims of human trafficking for labor and sexual exploitation. While it is not known how many of these victims were trafficked, the estimate implies that currently there are millions of trafficking victims in the world. In 2013, the United Nations General Assembly adopted resolution that designated July 30 as the World Day Against Trafficking in Persons. This resolution declared that such a day was necessary to "raise awareness of the situation of victims of human trafficking and for the promotion and protection of their rights."
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August 2
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Ahmed Zewail
1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
b. February 26, 1946, Damanhour, Egypt
d. August 2, 2016, Pasadena, California, United States
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Ahmed Zewail was an Egyptian chemist who is known as the "father of femtochemistry." Femtochemistry is the area of physical chemistry that studies chemical reactions on extremely short timescales in order to study the very act of atoms within molecules (reactants) rearranging themselves to form new molecules. The 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Ahmed Zewail "for his studies of the transition states of chemical reactions using femtosecond spectroscopy." Ahmed Zewail was the first Muslim chemist to be awarded the Nobel Prize and the second Muslim scientist. The first Muslim scientist to be awarded the Nobel Prize was Mohammad Abdus Salam of Pakistan in 1979.
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August 13
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Maryam Mirzakhani
2014 Fields Medal
b. May 12, 1977, Tehran, Iran
d. July 14, 2017, Stanford, California, United States
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Maryam Mirzakhani was an Iranian mathematician and professor of mathematics at Stanford University. Her research topics included Teichmuller theory, hyperbolic geometry, ergodic theory and symplectic geometry. On August 13, 2014, Maryam Mirzakhani was honored with the Fields Medal, the most prestigious award in mathematics. She became both the first woman and the first Iranian to be honored with the award. The award committee cited her work in "the dynamics and geometry of Riemann surfaces and their moduli spaces."
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August 20
{1 Muharram, 1442 AH}
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Islamic New Year
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The Islamic New Year, also known as the Arabic New Year or the Hijri New Year, is the day that marks the beginning of a new Islamic calendar year, and is the day on which the year count is increased by one. The first day of the year is observed on the first day of Muharram, the first month in the Islamic calendar. The first Islamic year began in 622 of the Common Era (CE) with the emigration of the Prophet Muhammad from Mecca to Medina. This emigration is known as the Hijra. For the Muslim or Islamic calendar, the years are usually designated with the letters "AH" coming after the year number. The "AH" represents the words "After Hijra" indicating the years after Muhammad's emigration.
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August 24
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Yasser Arafat
1994 Nobel Peace Prize
b. August 24, 1929, Cairo, Egypt
d. November 11, 2004, Clamart, Hauts-de-Seine, France
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Yasser Arafat was a Palestinian political leader and the long time Chairman (1969 to 2004) of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded jointly to Shimon Peres of Israel, Yitzhak Rabin of Israel, and Yasser Arafat of Palestine "for their efforts to create peace in the Middle East."
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August 29
{10 Muharram, 1442 AH}
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Ashura
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Ashura is the tenth day of Muharram, the first month in the Islamic calendar. For the majority of Shia Muslims, Ashura marks the climax of the Remembrance of Muharram and commemorates the death of Husayn ibn Ali, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad at the Battle of Karbala on 10 Muharram in the year 61 AH (October 10, 680 CE). Sunni Muslims have the same accounts of these events. However, ceremonial mourning did not become a Sunni custom, although poems, eulogizing and recounting the events were, and continue to be common. Mourning for the incident began almost immediately after the Battle of Karbala. Popular elegies were written by poets to commemorate the Battle of Karbala during the Umayyad and Abbasidera and earliest public mourning rituals occurred in 963 CE during the Buyid dynasty. In Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. Ashura has become a national holiday, and many ethnic and religious communities participate in it.
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In Sunni Islam, Ashura also marks the day that Moses and the Israelites were saved from Pharaoh by God creating a path through the Red Sea, and is the Islamic equivalent to Yom Kippur. Other commemorations include Noah leaving the Ark and the Prophet Muhammad's arrival in Medina.
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August 30
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Naguib Mahfouz
1988 Nobel Prize in Literature
b. December 11, 1911, Cairo, Khedivate of Egypt
d. August 30, 2006, Cairo, Egypt
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Naguib Mahfouz was an Egyptian writer noted for his contributions to Arabic literature. The 1988 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Naguib Mahfouz "who, through works rich in nuance -- now clear-sightedly realistic, now evocatively ambiguous -- has formed an Arabian narrative art that applies to all mankind." Naguib Mahfouz was the first Muslim writer to win a Nobel Prize in Literature.
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September 8
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Aziz Sancar
2015 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
b. September 8, 1946, Savur, Mardin, Turkey
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Aziz Sancar is a Turkish American biochemist and molecular biologist specializing in DNA repair, cell cycle checkpoints, and circadian clock. The 2015 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Aziz Sancar "for mechanistic studies of DNA repair." Aziz Sancar is the first Turkish born chemist, the second Turkish born person (the first being the novelist Orhan Pamuk in 2006), and the third Muslim scientist (following Mohammad Abdus Salam of Pakistan in 1979 and Ahmed Zewail of Egypt in 1999) to be awarded a Nobel Prize.
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October 6
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Anwar Sadat
1978 Nobel Peace Prize
b. December 25, 1918, Monufia, Sultanate of Egypt
d. October 6, 1981, Cairo, Egypt
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Anwar Sadat was the President of Egypt from 1970 to 1981. Anwar Sadat of Egypt, along with Menachem Begin of Israel, was awarded the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize "for their contribution to the two frame agreements on peace in the Middle East, and on peace between Egypt and Israel, which were signed at Camp David on September 17, 1978." Anwar Sadat was the first Muslim to receive a Nobel Prize.
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October 10
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The Battle of Karbala
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The Battle of Karbala took place on 10 Muharram, in the year 61 AH of the Islamic calendar (October 10, 680 CE) in Karbala, in what is present-day Iraq. The battle took place between a small group of supporters and relatives of Muhammad's grandson, Husayn ibn Ali, and a larger military detachment from the forces of Yazid I, the Umayyad caliph.
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When the first Umayyad caliph Muawiyah died in 680 CE, Husayn did not give allegiance to his son, Yazid I, who had been appointed as Umayyad caliph by Muawiyah. The people of Kufa sent letters to Husayn, asking his help and pledging allegiance to him, but they later did not support him. As Husayn traveled towards Kufa at a nearby place known as Karbala, his caravan was intercepted by Yazid's army. In the ensuing battle, Husayn was killed and beheaded along with most of his family and companions.
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The dead are widely regarded as martyrs by Sufi, Sunni, and Shia Muslims. The battle has a central place in Shia history, tradition and theologyh and it has frequently been recounted in Shia Islamic literature. The Battle of Karbala is commemorated during an annual ten day period held every Muharram by Shia, culminating on its tenth day, known as the Day of Ashura. Shia Muslims commemorate these events by mourning, holding public processions, organizing majlis (sectarian councils), striking the chest and in some cases self-flagellation.
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The Battle of Karbala played a central role in shaping the identity of the Shia and turned them into a sect with its own rituals and collective memory. For the Shia, Husayn's suffering and death became a symbol of sacrifice in the struggle for right against wrong, and for justice and truth against wrongdoing and falsehood. Accordingly, the battle became more than a politically formative moment of the Shia faith within Islam, it came to define the theological origin of the Shia martyr ethos.
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November 11
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Yasser Arafat
1994 Nobel Peace Prize
b. August 24, 1929, Cairo, Egypt
d. November 11, 2004, Clamart, Hauts-de-Seine, France
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Yasser Arafat was a Palestinian political leader and the long time Chairman (1969 to 2004) of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded jointly to Shimon Peres of Israel, Yitzhak Rabin of Israel, and Yasser Arafat of Palestine "for their efforts to create peace in the Middle East."
November 21
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Mohammad Abdus Salam
1979 Nobel Prize in Physics
b. January 29, 1926, Jhang, Punjab, British India
d. November 21, 1996, Oxford, United Kingdom
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Mohammad Abdus Salam was a Pakistani physicist. The 1979 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded jointly to Sheldon Lee Glashow of the United States, Steven Weinberg of the United States, and Mohammad Abdus Salam of Pakistan "for their contributions to the theory of the unified weak and electromagnetic interaction between elementary particles, including, inter alia, the prediction of the weak neutral current." Mohammad Abdus Salam was the first Pakistani scientist to be awarded the Nobel Prize. He was a member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community and, as such, was not considered a Muslim by the government of Pakistan.
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November 25
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Nadia Murad
2018 Nobel Peace Prize
b. 1993, Kocho, Sinjar, Iraq
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Nadia Murad is an Iraqi Yazidi human rights activist. In 2014, she was kidnapped from her hometown of Kocho and held by the Islamic State for three months. She was enslaved, beaten and raped by her captors. In 2018, Nadia Murad of Iraq and Denis Mukwege of the Democratic Republic of the Congo were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict." Nadia Murad is the first Iraqi and the first Yazidi to be awarded a Nobel Prize.
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International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women
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The United Nations General Assembly has designated November 25 as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (Resolution 54/134). The premise of the day is to raise awareness of the fact that women around the world are subject to rape, domestic violence and other forms of violence. Additionally, one of the aims of the day is to highlight that the scale and true nature of the issue is often hidden.
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December 9
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Nadia Murad
2018 Nobel Peace Prize
b. 1993, Kocho, Sinjar, Iraq
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Nadia Murad is an Iraqi Yazidi human rights activist. In 2014, she was kidnapped from her hometown of Kocho and held by the Islamic State for three months. She was enslaved, beaten and raped by her captors. In 2018, Nadia Murad of Iraq and Denis Mukwege of the Democratic Republic of the Congo were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict." Nadia Murad is the first Iraqi and the first Yazidi to be awarded a Nobel Prize.
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International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide and of the Prevention of this Crime
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In September 2015, the United Nations General Assembly established December 9 as the International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide and of the Prevention of this Crime. December 9 is the anniversary of the adoption of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (the "Genocide Convention"). The purpose of the day is to raise awareness of the Genocide Convention and its role in combating and preventing the crime of genocide, as defined in the Convention, and to commemorate and honor its victims. In adopting the resolution, without a vote, the 193-member Assembly reiterated the responsibility of each individual State to protect its populations from genocide, which entails the prevention of such a crime, including incitement to it.
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December 11
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Naguib Mahfouz
1988 Nobel Prize in Literature
b. December 11, 1911, Cairo, Khedivate of Egypt
d. August 30, 2006, Cairo, Egypt
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Naguib Mahfouz was an Egyptian writer noted for his contributions to Arabic literature. The 1988 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Naguib Mahfouz "who, through works rich in nuance -- now clear-sightedly realistic, now evocatively ambiguous -- has formed an Arabian narrative art that applies to all mankind." Naguib Mahfouz was the first Muslim writer to win a Nobel Prize in Literature.
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December 25
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Anwar Sadat
1978 Nobel Peace Prize
b. December 25, 1918, Monufia, Sultanate of Egypt
d. October 7, 1981, Cairo, Egypt
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Anwar Sadat was the President of Egypt from 1970 to 1981. Anwar Sadat of Egypt, along with Menachem Begin of Israel, was awarded the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize "for their contribution to the two frame agreements on peace in the Middle East, and on peace between Egypt and Israel, which were signed at Camp David on September 17, 1978." Anwar Sadat was the first Muslim to receive a Nobel Prize.
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