Tag: encyclopedia

MODERNISM

MODERNISM. Islamic modernists advocate flexible, continuous reinterpretation of Islam so that Muslims may develop institutions of education, law, and politics suitable to modern conditions. Modernizing […]

MI`RAJ

MI`RAJ. Muhammad’s ascent to God and return to the world is known as the mi`raj, literally, “ladder.” This specialized term is sometimes used synonymously with […]

MINORITIES

MINORITIES. [This entry comprises two articles. The first is a historical survey of the status and treatment of nonMuslim minorities (principally Jews and Christians) in […]

MILLET

MILLET. This term is most commonly used in Islamic history to mean “religious community.” It is derived from the Arabic word millah, which was employed […]

MEVLEVI

MEVLEVI. This Turkish/Ottoman Sufi order, known also by its Arabic name Mawlawiyah, takes its name from the epithet of its founder Muhammad Jalal al-Din Rumi […]

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 […]