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Aisha (Aishah)
Daughter of first caliph, Abu Bakr; youngest and reputedly favorite wife of Muhammad. With Muhammad when he died. Renowned for knowledge of medicine, history, and rhetoric. Important transmitter of ...
al- Madīna
Yathrib, ‘the town’ to which Muḥammad made the hijra at the invitation of its inhabitants. It is situated in the Ḥijāz, and is the place where the earliest organized forms ...
ʿAlī b. Abī Tālib
(d. 661 (ah 40).Cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Muḥammad, and the fourth Caliph (Khalīfa) in Islam. ʿAlī was one of the ten to whom paradise was promised by ...
ʿamr
(Ἄμρος, Ἄμβρος), more fully ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ; Muslim conqueror of Byz. Egypt; born Mecca between ca.575 and 595, died al-Fusṭāṭ (Cairo) 6 Jan. 664. He converted to Islam between 627 ...
Bilal
Also known as “The Black.” Muhammad's former slave, who became a close associate and supporter of Islam in the seventh century. Appointed by Muhammad as first muezzin. In the twentieth century, Bilal ...
caliph
The chief Muslim civil and religious ruler, regarded as the successor of Muhammad. The caliph ruled in Baghdad until 1258 and then in Egypt until the Ottoman conquest of 1517; the title was then held ...
caliphate
Formerly, the central ruling office of Islam. The first caliph (Arabic, khalifa, “deputy of God” or “successor of his Prophet”) after the Prophet Muhammad's death in 632 was his father-in-law Abu ...
Companions
(Arab. Aṣḥāb or Ṣaḥāba).The men closest to Muḥammad during his time in Mecca and Madīna; foremost among these, the first four caliphs (khalīfa): Abu Bakr, ʿUmar, ʿUthmān, and ʿAlī b. Abī Tālib. See ...
Fatima
Daughter of Muhammad and Khadijah, wife of the fourth caliph, Ali ibn Abi Talib, and mother of Hasan and Husayn. Known as “Mother of the Imams,” in accordance with Shii belief that only descendants ...
Hegira
(Arabic hijra, ‘exodus’, ‘migration’, or ‘breaking of ties’)Muhammad's secret departure from Mecca in 622, accompanied by Abu Bakr, to live among the people of Yathrib, later called Medina, thus ...
Khālid
(Ξάλεδος), more fully Khālid ibn al-Walīd; a prominent early Muslim commander and conqueror of Byz. Syria who was known as “the Sword of God.” An early opponent of Muḥammad, Khālid ...
Kharijites
Muslim revolutionary group founded by partisans of Ali who ‘departed’ (kharaja) from his camp following the battle of Siffin (657) during a truce with Muawiya. Rejecting the authority of both ...
Muhammad
(c. 570–632),Arab prophet and founder of Islam. He was born in Mecca, where c.610 he received the first of a series of revelations which, as the Koran, became the doctrinal and legislative basis of ...
Omar
(c. 581–644),Muslim caliph 634–44. Converted to Islam in 617, after becoming caliph he conquered Syria, Palestine, and Egypt, in the course of which (c.641) the library at Alexandria was burnt.
Qur'ān
The sacred book of Islam, which Muhammad claimed had been revealed to him as the Word of God, through the mediation of the archangel Gabriel.
Ridda (Riddah), War of al-
Literally, war of ‘apostasy’; series of battles with the Arabian tribes that rebelled against the Muslim state before Muhammad’s death and during Abu Bakr’s caliphate (632–4). Many tribes were led ...
Rightly Guided Caliphs
For Sunnis, the first four successors of Muhammad: Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, Umar ibn al-Khattab, Uthman ibn Affan, and Ali ibn Abi Talib. All were prominent Companions of Muhammad and belonged to the ...
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