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HĀDI SABZAVĀRI, Shaikh Mollā (b. Sabzavār, 1212/1797, d. Sabzavār, 28 Ḏu’l-ḥejja 1289/26 February 1873; Figure 1), the most famous Islamic philosopher of the Qajar period, as well as an outstanding theologian and a notable poet. Life. Ḥāji Mollā Hādi b. Mahdi b. Ḥājj Mirzā Hādi Sabzavāri, known simply as Hāji…

ḤADIQATAL-ḤAQIQA WA ŠARIʿAT AL-ṬARIQA a Persian didactical maṯnawi by Ḥakim Majdud b. Ādam Sanāʾi. The poem, written in the meter ḵafif-e mosaddas-e maḵbun-e maḥḏuf, was dedicated to the Ghaznavid sultan Bahrāmšāh (q.v.) shortly before the death of the poet, which probably occurred in 525/1131. Apparently, Sanāʾi did not complete a…

HADIŠ, the Avestan name of a minor Zoroastrian divinity, glossed in Pahlavi (tr. of Visprad 1:9) by Mēnōg ī xānag “Spirit of the house.” The Old Iranian common noun hadiš, from the verb had- “seat oneself, sit; abide, dwell” (Air Wb., cols. 1753-54; Mayrhofer, Dictionary III, p. 473), is used…

HADITH. i. A General Introduction ii. Hadith in Shiʿism iii. Hadith in Ismaʿilism iv. Hadith in Sufism v. Hadith as Influenced by Iranian Ideas and Practices

HADITH i. A GENERAL INTRODUCTION Hadith literature (often called in Western scholarship “Muslim tradition”) is understood to be the repository of the sonna (normative conduct; pl. sonan) of the Prophet, which is regarded as second in authority only to the Koran as a source of Divine truth. The Hadith, in…

HADITH ii. HADITH IN SHIʿISM The Twelver Shiʿite conception of Hadith is generally in line with that of the Sunnites as discussed in Section i above. In Shiʿism, however, in addition to Hadith about the Prophet those about the Imams are authoritative as well. To a certain extent this is…

HADITH iii. HADITH IN ISMAʿILISM Ismaʿilis had neither a Hadith collection of their own nor a distinct Ismaʿili law before the establishment of the Fatimid dynasty in North Africa in 297/909. As Ismaʿili law began taking definite shape under the patronage of the Fatimid caliphs, the need for a separate…

HADITH iv. HADITH IN SUFISM   In keeping with all other categories of Islamic literature, the writings of the Sufis are replete with not only Koranic citations but also quotations of Hadith. This holds true not only for prose texts but also for poetry, to such an extent that the…

HADITH v. HADITH AS INFLUENCED BY IRANIAN IDEAS AND PRACTICES   The contact of Arabia with ancient Iran started even before Islam, and there are definite traces of the presence of Iranian religious notions in the Koran. Several points demonstrating this presence were listed by Alessandro Bausani (pp. 138 ff.),…

HĀDŌXT NASK (Book of scriptures), the sixth of the seven Gaθic nasks (Gāsānīg) of the Sasanian Avesta, according to the Dēnkard (8.45.1). The summary of it given in the Dēnkard is, however, too brief, and also too vague and too abstract to provide a clear idea of its original content….

HADRIAN (Publius Aelius Hadrianus), born 76 C.E. of an eminent family of Italian colonists at Italica (near Seville); Roman emperor 117-38 (Figure 1). Trajan, a cousin of his father, became one of his guardians and looked after his education and career. He was military tribune and quaestor under Trajan, married…

HAFEZ (Ḥāfeẓ), Šams-al-Din Moḥammad, of Shiraz (ca. 715-792/1315-1390), celebrated Persian lyric poet. i. An overview. ii. Hafez’s life and times. iii. Hafez’s poetic art. iv. Lexical structure of Hafez’s ghazals. v. Manuscripts of Hafez. vi. Printed editions of the divān of Hafez. vii. Hafez and ʿerfān. See Supplement. viii. Hafez…

HAFEZ i. AN OVERVIEW   Hafez is the most popular of Persian poets. If a book of poetry is to be found in a Persian home, it is likely to be the Divān (collected poems) of Hafez. Many of his lines have become proverbial sayings, and there are few who…

HAFEZ ii. HAFEZ’S LIFE AND TIMES   Ḵᵛāja Šams-al-Din Moḥammad Širāzi (b. Shiraz ca. 715/1315; d. Shiraz ca. 792/1390) is one of the greatest poets of Persia with perhaps a more profound effect on Persian life and culture in general than any other, not excepting such great figures as Ferdowsi,…