ABBA SIDES

Arabic al-ʿAbbāsīyah ( العباسية‎ ). The name of a dynasty of K͟halīfahs descended from al-ʿAbbās, the son of ʿAbdu ʾl-Mut̤t̤alib, and a paternal uncle of Muḥammad. On account of their descent from so near a relation of the Prophet, the Abba sides had, ever since the introduction of Islām, been very high in esteem amongst the Arabs, and had at an early period begun to excite the jealousy of the Umaiyade K͟halīfahs, who after the defeat of ʿAlī occupied the throne of the Arabian Empire. The Abba sides had for some time a erted their claims to the Khalifate, and in A.D . 746 they commenced open hostilities. In 749 the Abbaside K͟halīfah Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās, surnamed as-Saffāḥ, “the blood-shedder,” was recognized as K͟halīfah at al-Kūfah, and Marwān II., the last of the Umaiyade K͟halīfahs, was defeated and slain. Thirty-seven K͟halīfahs of the Abbaside dynasty reigned over the Muḥammadan empire, extending over the period from A.H . 132 ( A.D . 749–50) to A.H . 656 ( A.D . 1258). The names of the Abbaside K͟halīfahs are:—Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās as-Saffāḥ ( A.D . 749), al-Manṣūr ( A.D . 754), al-Mahdī ( A.D . 775), al-Hādī ( A.D . 785), Hārūn ar-Rashīd ( A.D . 786), al-Amīn ( A.D . 809), al-Maʾmūn ( A.D . 813), al-Muʿtaṣim ( A.D . 833), al-Wās̤iq ( A.D . 842), al-Mutawakkil ( A.D . 847), al-Muntaṣir ( A.D . 861), al-Mustaʿīn ( A.D . 862), al-Muʿtazz ( A.D . 866), al-Muhtadī ( A.D . 869), al-Muʿtamid ( A.D . 870), al-Muʿtaẓid ( A.D . 892) , al-Muktafī ( A.D . 902), al-Muqtadir ( A.D . 908), al-Qāhir ( A.D . 932), ar-Rāẓī ( A.D . 934), al-Muttaqī ( A.D . 940), al-Mustaqfī ( A.D . 944), al-Mut̤īʿ ( A.D . 945), at̤-T̤āiʿ ( A.D . 974), al-Qādir ( A.D . 994), al-Qāim ( A.D . 1031), al-Muqtadī ( A.D . 1075), al-Mustaz̤hir ( A.D . 1094), al-Mustarshid ( A.D . 1118), ar-Rāshid ( A.D . 1135), al-Muqtafī ( A.D . 1136), al-Mustanjid ( A.D . 1160), al-Mustaẓī ( A.D . 1170), an-Nāṣir ( A.D . 1180), az̤-Z̤āhir ( A.D . 1225), al-Mustanṣir ( A.D . 1226), al-Mustaʿṣim ( A.D . 1242 to A.D . 1258). In the reign of al-Mustaʿṣim Hūlākū, grandson of Jingīz K͟hān, entered Persia and became Sultan A.D . 1256. In 1258 he took Bag͟hdād and put the K͟halīfah al-Mustaʿṣim to death. [ KHALIFAH .] ABDĀL ( ابدال‎ ). “Substitutes,” pl. of Badal . Certain persons by whom, it is said, God continues the world in existence. Their number is seventy, of whom forty reside in Syria, and thirty elsewhere. When one dies another takes his place, being so appointed by God. It is one of the signs of the last day that the Abdāl will come from Syria. ( Mishkāt , xxiii. c. 3.) No one pretends to be able to identify these eminent persons in the world. God alone knows who they are, and where they are. ʿABDU ʾLLĀH ( عبدالله‎ ). The father of Muḥammad. He was the youngest son of ʿAbdu ʾl-Mut̤t̤alib. During the pregnancy of his wife Āmin ah, he set out on a mercantile expedition to Gaza in the south of Palestine, and on his way back he sickened and died at al-Madīnah, before the birth of his son Muḥammad. ( Kātibu ʾl-Wāqidī , p. 18; Muir’s Life of Mahomet , vol. i. p. 11.) ʿABDU ʾLLĀH IBN SAʿD ( عبدالله بن سعد‎ ). One of Muḥammad’s secretaries. It is related that, when Muḥammad instructed ʿAbdu ʾllāh to write down the words ( Sūrah xxiii. 12–14 ), “We (God) have created man from an extract of clay … then we produced it another creation,” ʿAbdu ʾllāh exclaimed, “And ble ed be God, the best of creators”; and Muḥammad told him to write that down also. Whereupon ʿAbdu ʾllāh boasted that he had been inspired with a sentence which the Prophet had acknowledged to be part of the Qurʾān. It is of him that it is written in the Qurʾān, Sūrah vi. 93 , “Who is more unjust than he who devises against God a lie, or says, ‘I am inspired,’ when he is not inspired at all.” ʿABDU ʾL-MUT̤T̤ALIB ( عبدالمطلب‎ ). Muḥammad’s grandfather and his guardian for two years. He died, aged 82, A.D . 578. His sons were ʿAbdu ʾllāh (Muḥammad’s father), al-Ḥāris̤ , az-Zuhair, Abū T̤ālib, Abū Lahab, al-ʿAbbās, and Ḥamza. ʿABDU ʾL-QĀDIR AL-JĪLĀNĪ ( عبدالقادر الجيلانى‎ ). The celebrated founder of the Qādirīyah order of darweshes, surnamed Pīr-Dastagīr. He died and was buried at Bag͟hdād , A.H . 561. ʿABDU ʾR-RAḤMĀN IBN ʿAUF ( عبدالرحمن بن عوف‎ ). One of the Companions who embraced Islām at a very early period, and was one of those who fled to Ethiopia. He also accompanied Muḥammad in all his battles, and received twenty wounds at Uḥud. He died A.H . 32, aged 72 or 75, and was buried at Baqīʿu ʾl-Gharqad, the graveyard of al-Madīnah.