ĀB “water.” ii. Water in Muslim Iranian culture Water constitutes an essential element in Islamic ritual, as a means of…

ʿAYYĀŠĪ, ABU’L-NAŻR MOḤAMMAD B. MASʿŪD B. MOḤAMMAD B. AL-ʿAYYĀŠ AL-SOLAMĪ SAMARQANDĪ, Imami jurist and scholar of the 3rd-4th/9th-10th centuries. It…

APOCALYPTIC (that which has been revealed): i. In Zoroastrianism. ii. In Muslim Iran.   i. In Zoroastrianism The use of…

AMRĪ ŠĪRĀZĪ, ABU’L-QĀSEM MOḤAMMAD (d. 999/1590-91 [?], poet and Sufi from Kūhpāya, a village near Isfahan. In one of his…

ʿALĪ B. ABĪ ṬĀLEB (b. ca. 600, d. 40/661), cousin and son-in-law of the prophet Moḥammad, first Shiʿite Imam, father…

ABLUTION, ISLAMIC (vożūʾ), the minor ritual purification performed before prayers, circumambulation of the Kaʿba, recitation of the Koran, and the…