Islam in Credo: People & Places

As the founder of Judaism, he is said to have instituted the rite of circumcision as a sign of the covenant between God and the Jews, who are descended from Isaac, son of Abraham's old age. In the Bible, progenitor of the Hebrews and the founder of Judaism. In the Qur'an, ancestor of the Arabs through his son Ishmael. Abraham is further regarded as an ancestor of Muhammad.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
1st caliph, friend, father-in-law, and successor of Muhammad. He was probably Muhammad's first convert outside the Prophet's family and alone accompanied Muhammad on the Hegira.

From Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World
Allah is the Arabic equivalent of the English word God and is the term employed not only among Arabicspeaking Muslims but also by Christians and Jews and in Arabic translations of the Bible. A contraction of al-ilah, meaning “the god,” Allah is cognate with the generic pan-Semitic designation for “God” or “deity” (Israelite/Canaanite El, Akkadian ilu) and is particularly close to the common Hebrew term Elohim and the less frequent Eloah. It is thus, strictly speaking, not a proper name but a title.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Son of Abraham and Hagar; ancestor of 12 tribes in N Arabia. Through Sara's jealousy he and his mother were sent into the desert, where the angel of the Lord encountered them at a spring.

Hebrew lawgiver, probably b. Egypt. The prototype of the prophets, he led his people in the 13th cent. B.C. out of bondage in Egypt. Moses was the leader of the Israelites in their departure from Egypt and plays a central role in receiving the covenant from God.

Arab prophet and religious leader who founded Islam. He was born in Mecca. At the age of 25 he began working as a trading agent.

The title of the religious leader and imam of the Ismaili Nizari sect of Islam, originally bestowed by the Persian shah Fath Ali on Hasan Ali Shah, 1800–1881, the 46th Ismaili imam.

From Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable
A title given to any of a class of Shi'ite religious leaders in Iran.

The rulership of Islam; caliph (kălʹĭf), the spiritual head and temporal ruler of the Islamic state. In principle, Islam is theocratic: when Muhammad died, a caliph [Arab.,=successor] was chosen to rule in his place.

In Islam, a recognized leader or a religious teacher. Among the Sunni the term refers to the leader in the Friday prayer at the mosque; any pious Muslim may function as imam.

From The American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language
The crier who calls the faithful to prayer five times a day.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
In Islamic law, attorney or judicial/religious scholar who writes his opinion (fatwa) on legal subjects for private clients or to assist judges in deciding cases.

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
Muslim title applied to a scholar or religious leader, especially in the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent. It means ‘lord’ and has also been used in North Africa as an honorific attached to the name of a king, sultan, or member of the nobility.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
City (1987 pop. 309,010), S central Iraq, on a lake near the Euphrates River. The city is also called Mashad Ali, after the tomb (in a mosque) of Ali, son-in-law of Muhammad the Prophet.

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia
Islamic shrine in Jerusalem dating from the 7th century AD that surrounds a great rock altar (an outcrop of rock) that was part of Solomon's Temple of Jerusalem. The place from which, in Muslim tradition, Muhammad ascended to heaven on his Night Journey.

[Gr.,=Holy Wisdom] or Santa Sophia, Turkish Aya Sofia, originally a Christian church at Constantinople (now Istanbul), later a mosque, and now converted into a museum. For centuries the most important church in Eastern Orthodoxy, in Constantinople (today's Istanbul), it was a symbol of the greatness of the Byzantine Empire.

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia
Holy site in Jerusalem where the Muslim shrine, the Dome of the Rock, and the al-Aqsa mosque are situated.

Heb. Yerushalayim, Arab. Al Quds; the capital of Israel. Jerusalem is an administrative, religious, educational, cultural, and market center. Occupied as far back as the 4th millennium B.C. After Solomon built the Temple on Mt. Moriah in the 10th cent. B.C., Jerusalem became the spiritual and political capital of the Hebrews.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
The central, cubic, stone structure, covered by a black cloth, within the Great Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. The sacred nature of the site predates Islam: tradition says that the Kaaba was built by Adam and rebuilt by Abraham and the descendants of Noah.

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia
Holy city of the Shiite Muslims and administrative centre of the governorate of the same name, in Iraq, 96 km/60 mi southwest of Baghdad; population (2007 est) 449,000.

City in Saudi Arabia and, as birthplace of Muhammad, the holiest city of the Islamic world and a place of annual pilgrimage (the hajj).

Saudi Arabian city, about 355 km/220 mi north of Mecca. It is the second holiest city in the Islamic world after Mecca, and contains the tomb of Muhammad, a focus for Muslim pilgrims during the hajj (annual pilgrimage).

A Muslim place of worship, usually having one or more minarets and often decorated with elaborate tracery and texts from the Koran. Muhammad's house in Medina (A.D. 622), with its surrounding courtyard and hall with columns, became the prototype for the mosque where the faithful gathered for prayer.

It is considered one of the most beautiful buildings in the world and the finest example of the late style of Indian Islamic architecture.

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia
The Blue Mosque, also known as the Mosque of Sultan Ahmed I, in Istanbul, Turkey. Renowned for its distinctively coloured tilework and six fluted minarets, the Blue Mosque was built in the early 17th century by the architect Sedefkar Mehmed Agha.

From Architectural Excellence: 500 Iconic Buildings
This outstandingly beautiful mosque in Isfahan — the holy city that became the capital of the Safavid Empire in 1592 — was built on the orders of Abbas the Great — the fifth Safavid shah of what was then Persia — to honor his father-in-law, who was also a renowned cleric.

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
House of worship built on the site of Muhammad's house in Medina, considered one of the three holiest places of Islam.

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia The Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque and Kampong Ayer (Water Village), Brunei. The mosque was built in 1958 at the edge of an artificial lagoon, and has a gold-plated dome.