Produced by Jeroen Hellingman, Édith Nolot, and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net/ for
Project Gutenberg (This file was produced from images
generously made available by The Internet Archive/American
Libraries.)









                                   A
                          DICTIONARY OF ISLAM

                                 BEING

           A CYCLOPÆDIA OF THE DOCTRINES, RITES, CEREMONIES,
                AND CUSTOMS, TOGETHER WITH THE TECHNICAL
                     AND THEOLOGICAL TERMS, OF THE
                          MUHAMMADAN RELIGION.


                                   BY

                 THOMAS PATRICK HUGHES, B.D., M.R.A.S.

                      WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS.


                                LONDON:
         W. H. ALLEN & CO., 18, WATERLOO PLACE, PALL MALL. S.W.

                                 1885.









                               DEDICATED
                           (WITH PERMISSION)

                                   TO

 THE RIGHT REVEREND THOMAS VALPY FRENCH, D.D., FIRST BISHOP OF LAHORE,
  WITH MUCH AFFECTION AND ESTEEM, BY HIS LORDSHIP'S OBEDIENT SERVANT,
                         THOMAS PATRICK HUGHES.









PREFACE.


The increased interest manifested in relation to all matters
affecting the East, and the great attention now given to the study of
comparative religion, seem to indicate that the time has come when an
attempt should be made to place before the English-speaking people
of the world a systematic exposition of the doctrines of the Muslim
Faith. The present work is intended to supply this want, by giving,
in a tabulated form, a concise account of the doctrines, rites,
ceremonies, and customs, together with the technical and theological
terms, of the Muhammadan religion.

Although compiled by a clergyman who has had the privilege of being
engaged in missionary work at Peshawar for a period of twenty years,
this "Dictionary of Islam" is not intended to be a controversial
attack on the religious system of Muhammad, but rather an exposition
of its principles and teachings.

Divided, as the Muslim world is, into numerous sects, it has been
found impossible to take into consideration all the minor differences
which exist amongst them. The Dictionary is, for the most part, an
exposition of the opinions of the Sunni sect, with explanations of
the chief points on which the Shiah and Wahhabi schools of thought
differ from it. Very special attention has been given to the views
of the Wahhabis, as it is the Author's conviction that they represent
the earliest teachings of the Muslim Faith as they came from Muhammad
and his immediate successors. When it is remembered that, according
to Mr. Wilfrid Blunt's estimate, the Shiah sect only numbers some
ten millions out of the one hundred and seventy-five millions
of Muhammadans in the world, it will be seen that, in compiling
a Dictionary of Muhammadanism, the Shiah tenets must of necessity
occupy a secondary place in the study of the religion. Still, upon all
important questions of theology and jurisprudence, these differences
have been noticed.

The present book does not profess to be a Biographical Dictionary. The
great work of Ibn Khallikan, translated into English by Slane,
supplies this. But short biographical notices of persons connected
with the early history of Islam have been given, inasmuch as many of
these persons are connected with religious dogmas and ceremonies;
the martyrdom of Husain, for instance, as being the foundation of
the Muharram ceremonies; Abu Hanifah, as connected with a school
of jurisprudence; and the Khalifah `Umar as the real founder of the
religious and political power of Islam. In the biographical notice
of Muhammad, the Author has expressed his deep obligations to Sir
William Muir's great work, the Life of Mahomet.

It is impossible for anyone to write upon the subject of Muhammadanism
without being largely indebted, not only to Sir William Muir's books,
but also to the works of the late Mr. Lane, the author of Modern
Egyptians, new editions of which have been edited by Mr. Stanley Lane
Poole. Numerous quotations from these volumes will be found in the
present work.

But whilst the Author has not hesitated in this compilation to avail
himself of the above and similar works, he has, during a long residence
amongst Muhammadan peoples, been able to consult very numerous Arabic
and Persian works in their originals, and to obtain the assistance
of very able Muhammadan native scholars of all schools of thought
in Islam.

He is specially indebted to Dr. F. Steingass, of the University
of Munich, the author of the English-Arabic and Arabic-English
Dictionaries, for a careful revision of the whole work. The interesting
article on WRITING is from the pen of this distinguished scholar,
as well as some valuable criticisms on the composition of the QUR'AN,
and a biographical sketch of the Khalifah `Umar.

Orientalists may, perhaps, be surprised to find that Sikhism has been
treated as a sect of Islam, but the Compiler has been favoured with
a very able and scholarly article on the subject by Mr. F. Pincott,
M.R.A.S., in which he shows that the "religion of Nanak was really
intended as a compromise between Hinduism and Muhammadanism, if it
may not even be spoken of as the religion of a Muhammadan sect,"--the
publication of which in the present work seemed to be most desirable.

At the commencement of the publication of the work, the Author
received very valuable assistance from the Rev. F. A. P. Shirreff,
M.A., Principal of the Lahore Divinity College, as well as from other
friends, which he must gratefully acknowledge.

Amongst the numerous suggestions which the Author received for the
compilation of this Dictionary, was one from a well-known Arabic
scholar, to the effect that the value of the work would be enhanced
if the quotations from the Qur'an, and from the Traditions, were
given in their original Arabic. This, however, seemed incompatible
with the general design of the book. The whole structure of the
work is intended to be such as will make it available to English
scholars unacquainted with the Arabic language; and, consequently,
most of the information given will be found under English words rather
than under their Arabic equivalents. For example, for information
regarding the attributes of the Divine Being, the reader must refer
to the English God, and not to the Arabic ALLAH; for all the ritual
and laws regarding the liturgical service, to the English PRAYER,
and not to the Arabic SALAT; for the marriage laws and ceremonies,
to the English MARRIAGE, and not to the Arabic NIKAH. It is hoped
that, in this way, the information given will be available to those
who are entirely unacquainted with Oriental languages, or, indeed,
with Eastern life.

The quotations from the Qur'an have been given chiefly from Palmer's
and Rodwell's translations; and those in the Qur'anic narrative
of Biblical characters (MOSES for example) have been taken from
Mr. Stanley Lane Poole's edition of Lane's Selections. But, when
needful, entirely new translations of quotations from the Qur'an have
been given.

The "Dictionary of Islam" has been compiled with very considerable
study and labour, in the hope that it will be useful to many;--to the
Government official called to administer justice to Muslim peoples; to
the Christian missionary engaged in controversy with Muslim scholars;
to the Oriental traveller seeking hospitality amongst Muslim peoples;
to the student of comparative religion anxious to learn the true
teachings of Islam;--to all, indeed, who care to know what are those
leading principles of thought which move and guide one hundred and
seventy-five millions of the great human family, forty millions of whom
are under the rule of Her Most Gracious Majesty the Empress of India.


July 23rd, 1885.







[Transcriber's note: The remainder of this book has only been prepared
as an HTML file, which, due to including numerous phrases in Arabic,
Hebrew, and Greek script, as well as numerous tables, would be hard to
present as plain text.]








End of Project Gutenberg's A Dictionary of Islam, by Thomas Patrick Hughes