Explore Iranica

JAŽN-Ā JAMĀʿIYA (Feast of the Assembly), the great communal festival of the Yazidis. The feast is also called ʿaydā mazin (great feast), and is celebrated at the main sanctuary of Yazidis at Lāleš valley, located in a mountain area, 62 km northeast of Mosul in Iraqi Kurdistan. The feast lasts…

JAʿFAR AL-ṢĀDEQ, ABU ʿABD-ALLĀH, the sixth imam of the Imami Shiʿites. He was the eldest son of Imam Moḥammad al-Bāqer (q.v.) and, on the side of his mother, Omm Farwa, a descendent of Abu Bakr by four generations (Ṭabari, III/IV, p. 2509; Yaʿqubi, II, p. 458; Ebn Qotayba, p. 215)….

JAʿFAR AL-ṢĀDEQ i. Life The most extensive biographical sources for Jaʿfar al-Ṣādeq are to be found amongst the various Shiʿite branches, though the exact date of his birth, or his accession to the imamate are uncertain. Most sources mention 83/702 for his birth (though 80/699 and 86/705 are also recorded;…

JAʿFAR AL-ṢĀDEQ ii. Teachings Any attempt to summarize Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādeq’s teaching is hampered by the fact that his views are reported in support of a number of contradictory theological and legal positions. These conflicting reports emerged as scholars from different schools of thought used his legacy for their own…

JAʿFAR AL-ṢĀDEQ iii. And Sufism With a single exception, that of the Naqšbandiya, all the Sufi orders claim initiatic descent from the Prophet exclusively through ʿAli b. Abi Ṭāleb, the first imam of the Ahl al-Bayt (q.v.), and many speak also of a selselat al-ḏahab (golden chain), linking them with…

JAʿFAR AL-ṢĀDEQ iv. Esoteric sciences Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādeq, a major figure in Shiʿite esotericism, is purported to be the founder of occult science in Islam. According to Imami-Shiʿite tradition, his knowledge concerned “the exoteric (al-ẓāher), the esoteric (al-bāṭen), and the esoteric of the esoteric (bāṭen al-bāṭen)” (Āmoli, p. 33; Corbin,…

JAʿFAR AL-ṢĀDEQ v. Herbal Medicine Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādeq’s work on medicine (Ṭebb al-Emām al-Ṣādeq) belongs to a genre of traditional herbal medicine attributed to the Shiʿite imams and known as the Medicine of the imams (ṭebb al-aʾemma), whose salient figure is Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādeq. Imam Ṣādeq’s narrated dictums (Hadith) are…

JAʿFAR B. MANṢUR-AL-YAMAN, a high-ranking Ismaʿili author who flourished during the reigns of the first four Fatimid caliphs. His father, Ebn Ḥawšab (d. 302/914), originated from a learned Shiʿite family of Kufa, and pioneered the Ismaʿili daʿwa (see FATIMIDS) in the Yemen, where his conquests earned him the honorific title…

JAʿFAR B. MOḤAMMAD B. ḤARB, ABU’L-FAŻL AL-HAMDĀNI (d. 236/850 at the age of 59), also called al-Ašajj (‘scar-face’ or ‘skull-broken’), Muʿtazilite theologian who lived in Baghdad. His family was of Yemeni descent, as is shown by the nesba (cf. Masʿudi, Moruj, ed. Pellat, V, p. 21), and the reading Hamaḏāni,…

JAʿFAR ḴĀN AZ FARANG ĀMADA (Ja’far Khan has returned from the West, Tehran, 1922), acclaimed satirical drama in one act by ʿAli Nowruz, a pen name of the playwright Ḥasan Moqaddam (1895-1925). Modern Persian drama had its beginnings in the 19th century, when educated Persians became acquainted with, and tried…

JAʿFARI, ŠAʿBĀN (known in Persia as Šaʾbān Bimoḵ [simple-minded]; b. Tehran 1921, d. Santa Monica, Calif., 19 August 2006), a luṭi of the jāhel variety, athlete, and rightwing political agent from the early 1940s to the early 1950s, who later headed Persia’s traditional sports establishment (zur-ḵāna). Early years. Šaʿbān Jaʿfari was…

JEBĀL, in Arabic, the plural of jabal “mountain,” a geographical term used in early Islamic times for the western part of Persia, roughly corresponding to ancient Media (Ar. māh, see below). It received its name from its mountain and upland plateau topography, embracing as it did the central part of…