A

                          DICTIONARY OF ISLAM



                                 BEING



           A CYCLOP├ćDIA OF THE DOCTRINES, RITES, CEREMONIES,

                AND CUSTOMS, TOGETHER WITH THE TECHNICAL

                     AND THEOLOGICAL TERMS, OF THE

                          MUHAMMADAN RELIGION.





                                   BY



                 THOMAS PATRICK HUGHES, B.D., M.R.A.S.



                      WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS.





                                LONDON:

         W. H. ALLEN & CO., 18, WATERLOO PLACE, PALL MALL. S.W.



                                 1885.



















                               DEDICATED

                           (WITH PERMISSION)



                                   TO



 THE RIGHT REVEREND THOMAS VALPY FRENCH, D.D., FIRST BISHOP OF LAHORE,

  WITH MUCH AFFECTION AND ESTEEM, BY HIS LORDSHIP'S OBEDIENT SERVANT,

                         THOMAS PATRICK HUGHES.



















PREFACE.





The increased interest manifested in relation to all matters

affecting the East, and the great attention now given to the study of

comparative religion, seem to indicate that the time has come when an

attempt should be made to place before the English-speaking people

of the world a systematic exposition of the doctrines of the Muslim

Faith. The present work is intended to supply this want, by giving,

in a tabulated form, a concise account of the doctrines, rites,

ceremonies, and customs, together with the technical and theological

terms, of the Muhammadan religion.



Although compiled by a clergyman who has had the privilege of being

engaged in missionary work at Peshawar for a period of twenty years,

this "Dictionary of Islam" is not intended to be a controversial

attack on the religious system of Muhammad, but rather an exposition

of its principles and teachings.



Divided, as the Muslim world is, into numerous sects, it has been

found impossible to take into consideration all the minor differences

which exist amongst them. The Dictionary is, for the most part, an

exposition of the opinions of the Sunni sect, with explanations of

the chief points on which the Shiah and Wahhabi schools of thought

differ from it. Very special attention has been given to the views

of the Wahhabis, as it is the Author's conviction that they represent

the earliest teachings of the Muslim Faith as they came from Muhammad

and his immediate successors. When it is remembered that, according

to Mr. Wilfrid Blunt's estimate, the Shiah sect only numbers some

ten millions out of the one hundred and seventy-five millions

of Muhammadans in the world, it will be seen that, in compiling

a Dictionary of Muhammadanism, the Shiah tenets must of necessity

occupy a secondary place in the study of the religion. Still, upon all

important questions of theology and jurisprudence, these differences

have been noticed.



The present book does not profess to be a Biographical Dictionary. The

great work of Ibn Khallikan, translated into English by Slane,

supplies this. But short biographical notices of persons connected

with the early history of Islam have been given, inasmuch as many of

these persons are connected with religious dogmas and ceremonies;

the martyrdom of Husain, for instance, as being the foundation of

the Muharram ceremonies; Abu Hanifah, as connected with a school

of jurisprudence; and the Khalifah `Umar as the real founder of the

religious and political power of Islam. In the biographical notice

of Muhammad, the Author has expressed his deep obligations to Sir

William Muir's great work, the Life of Mahomet.



It is impossible for anyone to write upon the subject of Muhammadanism

without being largely indebted, not only to Sir William Muir's books,

but also to the works of the late Mr. Lane, the author of Modern

Egyptians, new editions of which have been edited by Mr. Stanley Lane

Poole. Numerous quotations from these volumes will be found in the

present work.



But whilst the Author has not hesitated in this compilation to avail

himself of the above and similar works, he has, during a long residence

amongst Muhammadan peoples, been able to consult very numerous Arabic

and Persian works in their originals, and to obtain the assistance

of very able Muhammadan native scholars of all schools of thought

in Islam.



He is specially indebted to Dr. F. Steingass, of the University

of Munich, the author of the English-Arabic and Arabic-English

Dictionaries, for a careful revision of the whole work. The interesting

article on WRITING is from the pen of this distinguished scholar,

as well as some valuable criticisms on the composition of the QUR'AN,

and a biographical sketch of the Khalifah `Umar.



Orientalists may, perhaps, be surprised to find that Sikhism has been

treated as a sect of Islam, but the Compiler has been favoured with

a very able and scholarly article on the subject by Mr. F. Pincott,

M.R.A.S., in which he shows that the "religion of Nanak was really

intended as a compromise between Hinduism and Muhammadanism, if it

may not even be spoken of as the religion of a Muhammadan sect,"--the

publication of which in the present work seemed to be most desirable.



At the commencement of the publication of the work, the Author

received very valuable assistance from the Rev. F. A. P. Shirreff,

M.A., Principal of the Lahore Divinity College, as well as from other

friends, which he must gratefully acknowledge.



Amongst the numerous suggestions which the Author received for the

compilation of this Dictionary, was one from a well-known Arabic

scholar, to the effect that the value of the work would be enhanced

if the quotations from the Qur'an, and from the Traditions, were

given in their original Arabic. This, however, seemed incompatible

with the general design of the book. The whole structure of the

work is intended to be such as will make it available to English

scholars unacquainted with the Arabic language; and, consequently,

most of the information given will be found under English words rather

than under their Arabic equivalents. For example, for information

regarding the attributes of the Divine Being, the reader must refer

to the English God, and not to the Arabic ALLAH; for all the ritual

and laws regarding the liturgical service, to the English PRAYER,

and not to the Arabic SALAT; for the marriage laws and ceremonies,

to the English MARRIAGE, and not to the Arabic NIKAH. It is hoped

that, in this way, the information given will be available to those

who are entirely unacquainted with Oriental languages, or, indeed,

with Eastern life.



The quotations from the Qur'an have been given chiefly from Palmer's

and Rodwell's translations; and those in the Qur'anic narrative

of Biblical characters (MOSES for example) have been taken from

Mr. Stanley Lane Poole's edition of Lane's Selections. But, when

needful, entirely new translations of quotations from the Qur'an have

been given.



The "Dictionary of Islam" has been compiled with very considerable

study and labour, in the hope that it will be useful to many;--to the

Government official called to administer justice to Muslim peoples; to

the Christian missionary engaged in controversy with Muslim scholars;

to the Oriental traveller seeking hospitality amongst Muslim peoples;

to the student of comparative religion anxious to learn the true

teachings of Islam;--to all, indeed, who care to know what are those

leading principles of thought which move and guide one hundred and

seventy-five millions of the great human family, forty millions of whom

are under the rule of Her Most Gracious Majesty the Empress of India.





July 23rd, 1885.















[Transcriber's note: The remainder of this book has only been prepared

as an HTML file, which, due to including numerous phrases in Arabic,

Hebrew, and Greek script, as well as numerous tables, would be hard to

present as plain text.]

















End of Project Gutenberg's A Dictionary of Islam, by Thomas Patrick Hughes