Glossary Terms
A mountainous region in central Syria between Hama and the mediterranean coastline southwest of Jabal al–Summaq.
Compulsion, predestination, fate, determination. see Jabriya.
Name applied to those alleged to hold the doctrine of jabr (compulsion), according to which it is not man who actually acts, but only God. Mu‘tazilis and Maturidis accused the Ash‘aris, who denied the notion of qadar (free will), of believing in jabr. The Ash‘aris considered their doctrine of kasb (acquisition) a mean between jabr and qadar. Also mujbira.
A Muslim dynasty which ruled Iraq, Kurdistan and Azerbaijan (1336–1432 CE), and succeeded by the Qara Qoyunlu.
Assembly or religious congregation; also a term used by the Nizari Ismailis for their individual communities.
Assembly or religious congregation; also a term used by the Nizari Ismailis for their individual communities.
Jama‘a is from Arabic which means group or community, and khana is from Persian meaning house, lit., ‘the house of the community’. It means a place where people of certain Sunni and Shi‘i Muslim communities come together for prayers and communal gatherings. Though primarily associated with the activities of Sufi groups, the Jama‘at Khanas are one of the many types of spaces of worship in diverse Muslim contexts. It also refers to the places of worship and communal gatherings in the Shi‘i Ismaili context.
A rank in the early Ismaili da‘wa .
Adherents of an early Shi‘i group which recognised Ibn. Mu‘awiya, a descendant of Ja‘far b. Abi Talib, the brother of ‘Ali b. Abi Talib , as their Imam.
Lit. ‘islands of the earth,’ this phrase was used by the Fatimid Ismaili da‘wa for the twelve geographical regions in which its mission was active.
Lit. ‘island,’ peninsula or a territory situated between large rivers. Applied to each of the 12 territories in which the pre–Fatimid Ismaili organisation is reported to have divided the world for its operations, and which were defined by geographic, ethnic and linguistic parameters. In the Fatimid period, al-Qadi al-Nu‘man (d. 974) lists the lands of the Arabs, Byzantines, Slavs, Nubians (or Turks), Khazars, Hindis, Sindhis, East Africans, Abyssinians, Chinese, Persians and Berbers. Later, in the Anjudan period (15th–17th centuries) it was used for the regions inhabited by the Nizari community.
Northwest and west–central Persia.
The name of the angel that appears in the Bible as sent by God to Daniel and in the Qur’an as bringing the message down to Muhammad’s ‘heart’ (Q 2:97). In hadith and sira literature, Gabriel appears as the constant counsellor and helper of Muhammad. According to authors such as al–Kisa’i (d. 12th c.), Gabriel was sent to every prophet from Adam to Muhammad.
Mostly used in Muslim writing to denote ‘holy war.’ However, in mystical literature, this term was interpreted in its root sense of ‘exertion’ and came to mean an inner struggle for purification.
A local Muslim dynasty of Daylam in northern Persia which ruled over Rudbar, Daylam and other surrounding regions at the turn of the 8th/9th century CE.