Category: Encyclopedia

METALWORK

METALWORK. Traditional Islamic metalwork techniques, shapes, decorations, hardstones, and gems continued into the nineteenth and twentieth centuries with the same conservative styles of the Ottoman, […]

MESSIANISM

MESSIANISM. In the sense of divine intervention in human history-through the appointment of a mahdi (rightly guided person) to deliver the people from tyranny and […]

MESSALI AL-HAJJ

MESSALI AL-HAJJ (1898 in Tlemcen, French Algeria – June 3, 1974 in Paris, France), more fully Ahmed Messali al-Hajj and often spelled Messali Hadj, the first Algerian nationalist leader in […]

MERNISSI, FATIMA

FATIMA MERNISSI (b. 1940), Moroccan sociologist and writer. Born in Fez to a middle-class family, Mernissi studied at the Mohammed V University in Rabat and later […]

MEDINA

MEDINA. In pre-Islamic times called Yathrib, Medina (Madinah) became Muhammad’s home after the Hijrah. An oasis 275 miles north of Mecca, it was originally an […]

MEDICINE

MEDICINE. [This entry comprises two articles. The first considers the roots and development of traditional Islamic medicine and its historic interaction with methods of healing […]

MECELLE

MECELLE. The Arabic term majallah originally meant a book containing wisdom or, by extension, any kind of writing; its Turkish derivative mecelle refers more specifically […]

MECCA

MECCA. A holy site since the beginning of Arab memory of the place, Mecca (Makkah) is the goal of the annual pilgrimage that the Qur’an […]

MAWLID

MAWLID. Derived from the triliteral Arabic root w-l-d, mawlid means “birth.” Al-Mawlid al-Nabawi alSharif, for example, refers to the twelfth day of Rabi’ al-Awwal of […]

MAWLAY

MAWLAY. The Arabic word mawlay (also transliterated moulay and mulay) means “my lord” or “my master”; in North Africa it is frequently used in this […]