Category: P

POETRY

POETRY. See Devotional Poetry; and articles on specific languages and literature.

PIR

PIR. A word of Persian origin meaning “old man,” the term pir (Ar., pir) has been taken up into Sufi discourse as a common title […]

PILLARS OF ISLAM

PILLARS OF ISLAM. The foundations (arkan) upon which the religion of Islam rests are known as the five pillars, a belief based in a saying […]

PILGRIMAGE

PILGRIMAGE. See Hajj; Ziyarah.   HAJJ. Unique among the world’s great pilgrimages, the hajj is in many ways also the most important.

PHILOSOPHY

PHILOSOPHY. From its genesis twelve hundred years ago to today, Islamic philosophy (al-hikmah; alfalsafah) has been one of the major intellectual traditions within the Islamic […]

PHILIPPINES

PHILIPPINES. In 1990. the Muslim population of the Philippines comprised between five and six million, or about 8.5 percent of the country’s sixty-six million inhabitants. […]

PESANTREN

PESANTREN. A type of school in Southeast Asia offering second-level training in Islamic subjects is termed pesantren on Java, surau on Sumatra, pondok on the […]

PERSIAN LITERATURE

PERSIAN LITERATURE is a body of poetic and other literary works created principally, but not exclusively, in Iran. Beyond the present political boundaries of Iran […]

PERKIM

PERKIM. An acronym for Pertubuhan Kebajikan Islam SeMalaysia, or All Malaysia Muslim Welfare Association, PERKIM was founded in 1960 by the first prime minister of […]

PEOPLE OF THE BOOK

PEOPLE OF THE BOOK. Qur’anic in origin, the term ahl al-kitdb refers mainly to Jews, Christians, and (less frequently) the Sabaeans as possessors of previous […]