MAHKAMAH. Meaning a “place of judgment,” the term mahkamah has come to refer to all forms of law court in the Arabic-speaking world. In traditional […]
Category: Encyclopedia
MAHDIYAH
MAHDIYAH. In the last twenty years of the nineteenth century, the northern territories of the presentday Democratic Republic of the Sudan were dominated by a […]
MAHDI
MAHDI. The term mahdi (“divinely guided one”) has come to denote an eschatological figure whose presence will usher in an era of justice and true […]
MADRASAH
MADRASAH. An establishment of learning where the Islamic sciences are taught, the madrasah is a college for higher studies. During the tenth and eleventh centuries, […]
Modern Legal Reform
Modern Legal Reform Reforms affecting Islamic law in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries were more far-reaching than any undertaken previously. The impetus for reform came […]
LAND TENURE
LAND TENURE. Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries land tenure in the Islamic world was heavily affected by political factors, although this was hardly new. […]
KUFR
KUFR. A key concept in Islamic tradition is denoted by the Arabic term Kufr, “disbelief.” It derives from the root k-f-r, whose basic sense is […]
KHUTBAH
KHUTBAH. An address called a khutbah is delivered by a khatib (orator), usually in a masjid (mosque), during the Friday service, celebration of religious festivals, […]
KHUMS
KHUMS. The khums (“fifth”) as a tax developed in very early Islam and was based on the principle that one-fifth of war booty taken by […]
KHAWARIJ
KHAWARIJ. The third major sectarian grouping in Islam, neither Sunnis nor Shi`is, came into existence as a consequence of “the great fitnah” between 656 and […]