Browse Resources: reference article

The achievements of the weavers, dyers, embroiderers, and pattern designers in the lands of Islam have been acclaimed for more than fifteen hundred years. Textiles were the mainstay of many premodern societies, and they continue to be important in…

After the death of the Prophet Muhammad in 632 , strong differences arose over the method of choosing the leader of the Muslim community. These disagreements ultimately resulted in the division of Muslims into two major groups—Sunni and Shi'i.…

The mathematical sciences occupy a prominent place in Islamic intellectual history. Historically called ʿulūm riyāḍīyah (mathematical sciences) or ʿulūm taʿlīmīyah (pedagogical sciences), they comprised the four main…

Because of its immediate social significance, medieval sources provide a wealth of information on the theory and practice of Arabic medicine. In addition to numerous medical treatises, many sources also shed light on the lives of scientists, the…

The art made by artists or artisans whose religion was Islam, for patrons who lived in predominantly Muslim lands, or for purposes that are restricted or peculiar to a Muslim population or a Muslim setting. This article discusses the definition of…

The Persian word for “market” (bāzār) refers to a range of economic and architectural forms from covered bazaars, periodic rural markets, and small neighborhood strips of shops in alleys to abstract understandings of markets as sectors…

Traditional Forms Islamic gardens from India to Morocco have fascinated architects, historians, and travelers since the fifteenth century C.E. and have been the subject of exuberant descriptions and representations. Today, unfortunately, few of the…

Capital city of the Spanish province of the same name, on the north bank of the River Guadalquivir. It has a population (2005) of c. 321,000. As the capital of Islamic Spain, it became perhaps the most civilized city in medieval Europe, renowned for…

Transnational Connections on the Old Silk Road Although scholars once believed that the early civilizations of the Eurasian continent were fairly isolated from each other, recent archaeological, textual, and historical evidence suggests that the…

Islam in Africa to 1800 Islam moved into Africa from three directions. It came from North Africa across the Sahara to Bilad al-Sudan (The Lands of the Black People), which is between the Atlantic Ocean and Lake Chad. Despite six centuries of…

The Kaaba is seen as the most sacred space in the Muslim world, the site to which hundreds of millions of Muslims throughout the world turn each day when they pray. Located inside the compound of the Grand Mosque at Mecca, the Kaaba (literally,…

The "Qur'an Verse Lookup" provides side-by-side translations by A. J. Arberry and M. A. S. Abdel Haleem for comparison, searchable by numbered Qur'anic chapter and verse. It is a feature of the Oxford Islamic Studies Onlinethat requires access to the…

Muslim writers argue that the international and diplomatic realms are incorporated in the very comprehensiveness of Islam, and analogues to the concepts of international relations exist in Islamic history. The Prophet's compacts with the Medinans…

According to the Qur'an, a mosque is God's “sacred house,” a setting for Muslims to perform rituals, and a “meeting place for the people.” The term mosque derives from the Arab word masjid, meaning a “place for (ritual)…

Calling themselves Osmanlis, after tribal chieftain Osman I, the Ottomans were Turks from Central Asia. They created a vast empire that encompassed southeastern Europe to northern Hungary, the Middle East to Iran, and most of the North African coast.…

The Five Pillars of Islam (arkan al-Islam), which are presented systematically for the first time in the Hadith of Gabriel, are relatively simple to carry out and can easily be learned by the person who wishes to convert to Islam. The first pillar of…

The Arabic term sunnah since pre-Islamic times has signified established custom, precedent, the conduct of life, and cumulative tradition. In a general sense, such tradition encompasses knowledge and practices believed to have been passed down from…

Although there are no reliable statistics on the number of Muslims currently living in the West, a 1986 estimate placed about twenty-three million Muslims in Europe. The majority lived in the Balkans and southeastern Europe; they were Slavic converts…

There are today more than fifty Muslim states, extending from the Atlas Mountains in the West to the Malay Archipelago in the East, and from Sub-Saharan Africa to the steppes of Central Asia. They include some of the most populous countries in the…

In its most common usage, the term harem refers to the section of a house where a Muslim leader's wives live. More broadly, a harem serves as the quarters restricted to female members of a family. The term also refers to the women themselves. The…

Communication has been an instrumental and integral part of Islam since its inception as a religio-political movement. Over the centuries, Islamic culture and civilization have been influential in the development of three major pillars of human…

Communication patterns in the Islamic world have undergone considerable change since the advent of broadcasting in the twentieth century. When broadcasting systems were introduced to many parts of the world between 1910 and 1930, only a few Islamic…

The Islamic Republic of Pakistan (Islāmī Jumhūrīya-e Pākistān), with a population of 164 million (2006 estimate), is the second largest Muslim state in the world, after Indonesia. Although they belong to five distinct ethnic…

Iranians have always called their country Iran (Land of the Aryans, “noble people”), but outsiders long used “Persia” (Parsa; Gk., Persis), referring to Pars, now Fars, a southern province. “Persia” remained in use…

[Calligraphy is] The art of fine writing with pen or brush and ink, frequently used as a means of artistic expression and decoration as well as written communication.The calligrapher and his art were central to Islamic culture. The Koran, the word of…

The Alhambra is the name given to the Red Castle (al-Qasr al-Hamrāʿ) built by fourteenth-century rulers of the Nasrid dynasty atop the Sabikah hill overlooking Granada, in southern Spain. The architectural complex consists today of three parts: the…

In Lebanon 's remarkably diverse society, eighteen separate sects or confessional groups are recognized within the political system. In addition to a variety of Christian sects, which account for no more than 35 percent of the country 's…

Faith: What do Muslims do on the pilgrimage to Mecca? Those who participate in the pilgrimage wear simple garments. Men wear two seamless white cloths, and women wear an outfit that entirely covers the body, except the face and hands. These…

Most often translated as “Islamic law,” the term sharia describes both Muslim practices that relate to law in Western understanding and others that do not. It is better understood as the Muslim conception of a life in conformity with…

The Moors were the Muslim inhabitants of Islamic Spain, or al-Andalus. The term Moor is a late-antique and medieval Western European usage to indicate dark-skinned North Africans of Arab and/or Berber origin who were responsible for the invasion of…