AYATOLLAH.

AYATOLLAH. Derived from the terms dyat (sign, testimony, miracle, verses of the Qur’an) and Allah (God), ayatollah (“sign of God”), is an honorific title with […]

AWAMI LEAGUE

AWAMI LEAGUE. As one of Bangladesh’s two major political parties, the Awami (“people’s”) League led the country’s war of independence against Pakistan in 1971, under […]

AVRUPA MILLI GORUS TESKILATI

AVRUPA MILLI GORUS TESKILATI. In the early 19’70S the first branches of the “National Vision” (Milli GORUS) organization were founded by Turkish labor migrants in […]

AUTHORITY AND LEGITIMATION

AUTHORITY AND LEGITIMATION. Most Muslim rulers try to legitimize their authority through Islam; however, there are today only two regimes in Sunni Islamic countries in […]

ATATIORK, MUSTAFA KEMAL

ATATIORK, MUSTAFA KEMAL (1881-1938), founding father of the Turkish Republic. Born of modest Turkish parentage in the cosmopolitan Ottoman port of Selanik (now Thessalonliki in […]

ATABAT

ATABAT. The Shi`i shrine cities of Iraq, Najaf, Karbala, Kazimayn, and Samarra-comprising the tombs of six of the imams-are important centers of devotion, pilgrimage, scholarship, […]

ASTRONOMY

ASTRONOMY. One of the greatest astronomers of Islam, al-Battani (the Albatenius, Albategni, or Albategnius of the Latin West, d. c.929 CE), declares that astronomy is […]

ASTROLOGY

ASTROLOGY. To say that a belief in astrology is a feature of the popular culture of the modern Islamic world is to make a trivial […]

ASHURA

`ASHURA’. The tenth day of the Muslim month of Muharram, `Ashura’ had been considered by early Muslims to be a very auspicious and joyous day, […]