Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Tughril II - 'Umar ibn al-Khattab

Tughril II
Tughril II (Rukn al-Din Tughril II ibn Muhammad) (b.1109).  Great Saljuq ruler in Iraq and western Persia (r.1132-1134).  He plotted against his brother the Great Saljuq Mahmud II and sought refuge with the Great Saljuq Sanjar who installed Tughril as sultan in 1132.  The latter however was not a match for his brother Mas‘ud.
Rukn al-Din Tughril II ibn Muhammad see Tughril II

Tughril III
Tughril III (Rukn al-Din Tughril III ibn Arslan) (b. 1168).  Last of the Great Saljuqs in Iraq and western Persia  (r.1175-1194).  He made arrangements with a number of Turkish amirs and seized the Saljuq capital Hamadhan.  In 1188, he defeated an army sent from Baghdad, led by the vizier Ibn Yunus, but was taken prisoner by the Ildenizid Qizil Arslan ‘Uthman (r.1186-1191) of Azerbaijan.  Tughril III fell in a battle against the Khwarazm Shah Tekish.
Rukn al-Din Tughril III ibn Arslan see Tughril III

Tughril-Shah ibn Qilij Arslan II
Tughril-Shah ibn Qilij Arslan II (d.1225). Rum Saljuq.  When his father divided his kingdom among his many sons, Tughril-Shah received the town of Elbistan.  In 1200 his brother Rukn al-Din Sulayman II conquered Erzurum, which he handed over to Tughril Shah.  He was a vassal of the Georgian king Georgi III Lasha in Tiflis.

Tughtigin ibn ‘Abd Allah, Amin al-Dawla
Tughtigin ibn ‘Abd Allah, Amin al-Dawla (Amin al-Dawla Tughtigin ibn ‘Abd Allah) (Zahir ad-Din Toghtekin) (Tuğtekin) (Toghtekin) (d. February 12, 1128).  Founder of the Burid dynasty (r.1104-1128).  He became actual ruler after the death of the Saljuq Duqaq (r.1095-1104), thrusting aside the latter’s brother Ertash, who entered into negotiations with king Baldwin I of Jerusalem.  He is described by historians as an able and just ruler, and as one of the most dreaded enemies of the Christians.  

Toghtekin was a Turkic military leader, who was atabeg of Damascus from 1104 to 1128. He was the founder of the Burid dynasty of Damascus.

Zahir ad-Din Toghtekin was a junior officer to Tutush I, Seljuk ruler of Damascus and Syria. After the former's death in 1095, civil war erupted, and Toghtekin supported Tutush's son Duqaq as emir of the city against Radwan, the emir of Aleppo. In the chaotic years which ensued Toghtekin was sent to reconquer the town of Jebleh, which had rebelled against the qadi of Tripoli, but he was unable to accomplish his task.

On October 21, 1097, a Crusader army appeared at the gates of Antioch. The local emir, Yaghi-Siyan, though nominally under Radwan's suzerainty, appealed to Duqaq to send an armed force to their rescue. Duqaq sent Toghtekin, but on December 31, 1097, he was defeated by Bohemund of Taranto and Robert Curthose, and was forced to retreat. Another relief attempt was made by a joint force under Kerbogha, the emir of Mosul, and Toghtekin, which was also crushed by the Crusaders on June 28, 1098.

When the Crusaders moved southwards from the newly-conquered Antioch, the qadi of Jebleh sold his town to Duqaq, who installed Toghtekin's son, Taj al-Mulk Buri, as its ruler. His tyrannical rule, however, led to his quick downfall. In 1103 Toghtekin was sent by Duqaq to take possession of Homs at the request of its inhabitants, after the emir Janah al-Dawla had been assassinated by order of Radwan.

The following year Duqaq died and Toghtekin, now acting as regent and de facto ruler, had the former's junior son Tutush II proclaimed emir, while he married Duqaq's widow and reserved for himself the title of atabeg. After deposing Tutush II he had another son of Duqaq, Baqtash, named emir, but soon afterward he had him exiled. Baqtash, with the support of Aitekin, the sahib of Bosra, tried to reconquer Damascus, but was pushed back by Toghtekin and forced to find help at the court of King Baldwin I of Jerusalem.

Around 1106 Toghtekin intervened to momentarily raise the siege of Tripoli by the Crusaders, but could not prevent the definitive capture of the city. In May 1108 he was able to defeat a small Christian force under Gervaise of Bazoches, lord of Galilee. Gervaise was proposed to be freed in exchange for his possession, but he refused and was executed. In April 1110 Toghtekin besieged and captured Baalbek and named his son Buri as governor.

Late in November 1111, the town of Tyre, which was besieged by Baldwin's troops, put itself under Toghtekin's protection. Toghtekin, supported by Fatimid forces, intervened, forcing the Franks to raise the siege on April 10, 1112. However, he refused to take part in the anti-Crusade effort launched by Mawdud of Mosul, fearing that the latter could take advantage of it to gain rule over the whole of Syria.

Nonetheless, in 1113 the two Muslim commanders allied in reply to the ravages of Baldwin of Jerusalem and Tancred of Hauteville. Their army besieged Tiberias, but they were unable to conquer it despite a sound victory at the Battle of Al-Sannabra, and they were forced to retreat to Damascus when Christian reinforcements arrived and supplies began to run out. During his sojourn in the city, Mawdud was killed by the Hashshashin (October 2, 1113); the inhabitants accused Toghtekin of the deed. In 1114 he signed an alliance against the Franks with the new emir of Aleppo, Alp Arslan, but the latter was also assassinated a short time later.

In 1115 Toghtekin decided to ally himself with the Kingdom of Jerusalem against the Seljuk general Aq Sonqor Bursuqi, who had been sent by the Seljuk sultan to fight the Crusaders. The following year, judging the Franks too powerful, he visited Baghdad to obtain a pardon from the sultan, though never forgetting to remain independent himself between the two main forces.

Allied with Ilghazi of Aleppo, he attacked Athareb in the Christian Principality of Antioch, but was defeated at Hab on August 14, 1119. In the June of the following year he sent help to Ilghazi, who was again under peril of annihilation in the same place. In 1122 the Fatimids, no longer able to defend Tyre, sold it to Toghtekin, who installed a garrison there, but the garrison was unable to prevent its capture by the Christians on July 7, 1124.

In 1125, Bursuqi, now in control of Aleppo, appeared in the Antiochean territory with a large army which Toghtekin joined. However, the two were defeated at the Battle of Azaz on June 11, 1125. The following January Toghtekin also had to repel an invasion by Baldwin II of Jerusalem. In late 1126 he again invaded the Principality of Antioch with Bursuqi, but again with no results.

Toghtekin died in 1128. He was succeeded by his son Buri.

In the Old French cycle of crusade chansons, Toghtekin is known as "Dodequin".
Amin al-Dawla Tughtigin ibn ‘Abd Allah see Tughtigin ibn ‘Abd Allah, Amin al-Dawla
Zahir ad-Din Toghtekin see Tughtigin ibn ‘Abd Allah, Amin al-Dawla
Tuğtekin see Tughtigin ibn ‘Abd Allah, Amin al-Dawla
Toghtekin see Tughtigin ibn ‘Abd Allah, Amin al-Dawla
Dodequin see Tughtigin ibn ‘Abd Allah, Amin al-Dawla

Tujibids (Banu Tujib).  Name of an Arab family, who ruled in Saragossa (r.1019-1029).  They became divided into the Banu Hisham of Saragossa and the Banu Sumadih of Almeria.

The Banu Tujibi were a dynasty that were appointed to govern Catalayud in 872, and in 886 were given Saragossa (Zaragoza). This they held as governors (sometimes only nominally, carrying out their own foreign policy) under the Umayyads. The collapse of the Caliphate of Córdoba allowed them to found the Taifa of Zaragoza, which they ruled from 1018 until they were expelled by a rival dynasty, the Banu Hud, in 1039.
Banu Tujib see Tujibids

Tukulor (Tukolor) (Toucouleur) (in Arabic, Takrur).  Muslim theocracy of the nineteenth century in the western Sudan.  The name is a corruption of the local Tokoror or Tokolor and denotes, strictly speaking, the Futa of Senegal.  The term may have been derived from the name Takrur, a town in ancient middle Senegal.  Islam penetrated to the Futa around 1050 under the influence of the Almoravid movement, and Tukulor became synonymous with Muslim.

The theocratic Tukulor state was founded by Sulayman Bal, who succeeded in casting off Futa suzerainty in 1775.  In 1841, a treaty of friendship was signed with France.  The state lasted until 1890, when it was annexed to the French colony of Senegal.

The French adopted this term to refer to sedentary peoples who speak Peuhl, but who are of multiple ethnic origins, who settled in the middle valley of the Senegal River (Futa Toro).  The Tukolor call themselves the Futanke (“the people of Futa”) or the Hal-Pularen (“those who speak Peuhl”).  The term Futankobe is the plural of the term Futanke

In 1801, the Tukulor Usman dan Fodio founded the state of Sokoto.  Another Tukulor state was founded by al-Hajj ‘Umar Tal.  It was destroyed by the French in 1893.

Tukulor refers to an ethnic group of Muslims in West Africa.  Arab geographers called them Takarir, inhabitants of the kingdom of Tekrur.  As for themselves, the Tukulor use the term “Haopholaren” (Pholarphone) or “Futankobe,” if they come from Senegal.  They speak Fulani (Fulfulde), a West Atlantic language of the Niger-Congo family.  They are distinguished from the Fulani by the important role thy played in the history of West African Islam and their sedentary occupations, which contrast with Fulani pastoral nomadism.  They are a mixed group through intermarriage with Fulani and, to a lesser extent, Moors and Soninke.  The Tukulor’s main concentration is in Senegal, where they inhabit both banks of the Dagana (a tributary of the Senegal River) to halfway between Matam and Bakel.  They are numerous also in and around Kayes, Nioro-du-Sahel, in the region of Segu on the Niger River, in eastern Massina and Dinginray.  

Islam came to the Tukulor in the eleventh century with the conversion of the ruling class.  The common people followed during the next few centuries, and today nearly all Tukulor are Muslims.

In the past the Tukulor have been associated with various Sufi orders.  Early in the nineteenth century, the Shadhili was introduced among them by a Fulani cleric, Ali As-Sufi, but they ultimately adopted the Tijani upon the rise of Al-Hajj Umar.

The Tukolor are a Muslim people who mainly inhabit Senegal, with smaller numbers in western Mali. Their origins are complex: they seem basically akin to the Serer and Wolof peoples, and contacts with the Fulani have greatly influenced their development. They speak the Fulani language, called Fula, which belongs to the Atlantic branch of the Niger-Congo language family.

From the 10th to the 18th century the Tukulor were organized in the kingdom of Tekrur, which, until the emergence of a Tukulor empire in the 18th century, was ruled by a succession of non-Tukulor groups. In the mid-19th century, many Tukulor supported a religious war against other groups in the area and, unsuccessfully, against the French. Defeated, many fled to present-day Mali, where they continue to live.

The Tukulor embraced Islam in the 11th century and take great pride in their strong Islamic tradition. Their social structure is highly stratified and is based primarily on male lineage (patrilineage) groups, which are usually scattered among several villages. The typical household comprises a segment of a patrilineage (usually a father, his sons, and grandchildren), their wives, children, and sometimes more distant kin. The Tukulor are polygynous, although only some 20 percent of males have more than one wife. A bride-price, often substantial if the bride enjoys high social status, is required. High status attaches to membership in a noble lineage or a prosperous family; low status is associated with membership in certain artisan castes or with slave ancestry. Leadership in Muslim religious brotherhoods has in recent times assumed importance in status rankings.

The Tukulor economy rests equally on stock raising, fishing, and cultivating such crops as millet and sorghum. A corollary of the hierarchical social structure is a marked inequality in the distribution of land; and this, together with a steadily rising population, has resulted in the emigration of considerable numbers of youth to the cities.

The Toucouleur Empire (also known as the Tijaniyya Jihad state or the Segu Tukulor/Toucouleur Empire) was founded in the nineteenth century by El Hadj Umar Tall of the Toucouleur people, in part of present-day Mali.

Umar Tall returned from the Hajj in 1836 with the titles of El Hadj and caliph of the Tijaniyya brotherhood of the Sudan. After a long stay in Fouta-Toro (present day Senegal), he moved to Dinguiraye (to the east of Fouta Djallon in present-day Guinea), which became the staging ground for his 1850 jihad.

Abandoning his assault on the French colonial army after an 1857 failure to conquer Medina fort, Umar Tall struck out against the Bambara kingdoms with much greater success - first Kaarta and then Segou. Following a decisive victory in the Battle of Segou on March 10, 1861, he made Segou the capital of his empire. A year later he left its management to his son Ahmadu Tall to go conquer Hamdullahi, capital of the Fula empire of Massina. Umar Tall again tasted defeat in a failed attempt to conquer Timbuktu, and retreated to Deguembéré, near Bandiagara of the Dogon region. In 1864, he died there in an explosion of his gunpowder reserves.

His nephew Tidiani Tall succeeded him and installed the capital of the Toucouleur Empire at Bandiagara. At Segou, Ahmadu Tall continued to reign, successfully suppressing the attempts of several neighboring cities to break away, but he found himself in increasing conflict with his brothers.

In 1890, the French, allied with the Bambara, entered Ségou, and Ahmadu fled to Sokoto in present-day Nigeria, marking the effective end of the empire.
Tukolor see Tukulor
Toucouleur see Tukulor
Takrur see Tukulor

Tulayha ibn Khuwaylid ibn Nawfal
Tulayha ibn Khuwaylid ibn Nawfal (Tulayha ibn Khuwaylid ibn Nawfal al-Asadi).  One of the tribal leaders who headed the so-called “apostasy” (in Arabic, ridda) under Caliph Abu Bakr after the Bedouin tribes had renounced their personal allegiance to the Prophet.  Tulayha was defeated in the expedition of Qatan in 625, took part in the siege of Medina in 626, but submitted to the Prophet in 630.  In 631, he rebelled again, assuming the role of prophet.  After the Prophet’s death he was defeated by Khalid ibn al-Walid in 632.  On ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab’s election as caliph in634, he came to pay homage, and later took a valiant part in the battles of al-Qadisiyya, Jalula and Nihawand.

Tulayha ibn Khuwaylid ibn Nawfal al-Asadi belonged to the Bani Assad tribe. He was a wealthy chief and a great warrior. In 625, he was defeated in the Expedition of Qatan (against the Muslims). He also took part in the Battle of the Trench in 627. In 630, he submitted to Muhammad. However, he rebelled against Muhammad in 631 when he claimed to be a prophet and the recipient of divine revelation. Thus, Tulayha became the third person to claim prophethood among the Arabs against Muhammad. Many tribes acknowledged him as a prophet, which made him sufficiently strong and powerful to lead a confederacy of numerous tribes against the Muslims. Thereafter, Khalid ibn al-Walid was sent to crush him and his confederacy. The armies of Khalid and Tulayha met at a place named Buzaka in 632. In this engagement, the army of Tulayha was defeated in the Battle of Buzakha. Following this battle, many of the rebellious tribes surrendered and accepted Islam. However, Tulayha escaped from Buzaka and sought refuge in Syria. But when Syria was conquered by the Muslims, Tulayha accepted Islam. In 634, he personally paid homage to Umar after the latter’s assumption of the position of Caliph. Later on, Tulayha enthusiastically took part in the Battle of Jalula, the Battle of al-Qādisiyyah and the Battle of Nahāvand alongside the Muslim armies and later died as a Muslim.
Tulayha ibn Khuwaylid ibn Nawfal al-Asadi  see Tulayha ibn Khuwaylid ibn Nawfal

Tulaytili, Abu’l-Qasim Sa‘id al-
Tulaytili, Abu’l-Qasim Sa‘id al- (Abu'l-Qasim Sa'id al-Tulaytili) (Qadi Sa‘id, al) (1029-1070). Spanish Muslim jurist, historian, mathematician and astronomer.  He was judge at Toledo during the rule of the Dhu’l-Nunids, and compiled a history of the sciences, later considered as a first-hand source of information.  
Abu'l-Qasim Sa'id al-Tulaytili see Tulaytili, Abu’l-Qasim Sa‘id al-
Qadi Sa‘id, al see Tulaytili, Abu’l-Qasim Sa‘id al-

Tulunids. Arabized Turkish dynasty in Egypt, Syria, and Palestine (r.868-905).  Their main capital was Fustat.  The founder of the dynasty was the Turkish military slave Tulun, who rose to the office of commander of the household troops at the court of the Abbasids. His son, Ahmad (r.868-884), inherited this office in 854, and in 868 became deputy governor and resident of the caliph in Egypt, where he immediately gained independence.  In 877, he occupied Syria and Palestine with the help of mercenary armies. Ahmad ibn Tulun (r.868-884) created a strong army and a naval base at Acre and succeeded in uniting Egypt and Syria under his rule, in virtual independence of the caliphate in Baghdad.     His son, Khumavaraih (r. 884-895), gained recognition as governor of Egypt, Syria, and northern son, Harun (896-904), there was a fall from power and battle against the Qaramita.  In 905, the Tulunid territory was reconquered by the caliph’s troops in Baghdad. The Tulunid period was one of marked material prosperity and progress, and was in afterdays recalled as a golden age.  The dynasty was brought to an end by the caliphal general Muhammad ibn Sulayman.

The Tulunid dynasty was the first local dynasty of Egypt and Syria to exist independently of the ʿAbbāsid caliphate in Baghdad, ruling 868–905. Its founder, Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn, a Turk, arrived in Egypt in 868 as vice governor and promptly (868–872) established a military and financial foothold in the province by organizing an independent Egyptian army and securing the management of the Egyptian and Syrian treasuries. Insufficient payment of tribute brought caliphal troops against him in 877, but Aḥmad maintained his position by occupying Syria (878). During his rule (868–884), the most significant in Ṭūlūnid history, the provinces developed agriculturally, commerce and industry were encouraged, and the artistic traditions of the ʿAbbāsids of Baghdad and Sāmarrāʾ were introduced into western Islām. A public building program was initiated, in which Al-Qaṭāʾīʿ, the Ṭūlūnid capital, and the great Mosque of Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn were constructed. The mosque, modeled after the Great Mosque of al-Mutawakkil in Sāmarrāʾ, is made of brick and plaster, materials rarely used previously in Egyptian architecture but popular in Iraq.

The subsequent Ṭūlūnids, Khumārawayh (884–896), Jaysh (896), Hārūn (896–905), and Shaybān (905), were ineffectual rulers, totally reliant on a Turkish-black military caste. Under the administration of Khumārawayh, Aḥmad’s son, the Syro-Egyptian state’s financial and military stability was destroyed, and the state finally reverted to the ʿAbbāsids in 905.

After the fall of the Ṭūlūnids, the arts in Egypt deteriorated and did not recover until the Fāṭimids took power. They were strongly influenced by the Ṭūlūnids and, by the 11th century, had made Egypt the cultural center of western Islām.

The Tulunids were the first independent dynasty in Islamic Egypt (868–905 AD), when they broke away from the central authority of the Abbasid dynasty that ruled the Islamic Caliphate during that time. In the 9th century, internal conflict amongst the Abbasids meant that control of the outlying areas of the empire was increasingly tenuous, and in 868 the Turkic officer Ahmad ibn Tulun established himself as an independent governor of Egypt. He subsequently achieved nominal autonomy from the central Abbasids. During his reign (868–884) and those of his successors, the Tulunid domains were expanded to include Palestine and Syria, as well as small holdings in Asia Minor. Ahmad was succeeded by his son Khumarawayh, whose military and diplomatic achievements made him a major player in the Middle Eastern political stage. The Abbasids affirmed their recognition of the Tulunids as legitimate rulers, and the dynasty's status as vassals to the caliphate. After Khumarawayh's death, his successor emirs were ineffectual rulers, allowing their Turkic and black slave-soldiers to run the affairs of the state. In 905, the Tulunids were unable to resist an invasion by the Abbasid troops, who restored direct caliphal rule in Syria and Egypt.[1][2]

The Tulunid period was marked by economic and administrative reforms alongside cultural ones. Ahmad ibn Tulun changed the taxation system and aligned himself with the merchant community. He also established the Tulunid army. The capital was moved from Fustat to al-Qatta'i, where the celebrated mosque of Ibn Tulun was constructed.

Tuman Bay II, al-Ashraf
Tuman Bay II, al-Ashraf (al-Ashraf Tuman Bay II).  Last of the Mameluke sultans (r.1516-1517).  After the defeat of his predecessor Qansawh al-Ghawri by the Ottoman Sultan Selim I at Marj Dabiq in 1516, he restored order and was unanimously elected sultan.  Sultan Selim offered peace, wanting only to be recognized as suzerain.  Tuman Bay wished to submit, but Selim’s envoys were put to death by the Egyptian amirs, making the continuation of the war inevitable.  The Mameluke army was defeated and Cairo plundered.  Tuman Bay fled to Upper Egypt, again entered into negotiation with Selim I, who promised to retire provided his name was put on the coins and mentioned in the Friday service.  But the Ottoman envoys again were put to death, and the war continued.  After an initial Mameluke success, Tuman Bay’s forces were crushed by the Turkish artillery, a new weapon despised by the Mamelukes.  The Mamelukes sultan finally was betrayed by a Bedouin chief.  Selim I was impressed by his noble bearing and was inclined to give him his life, but had him hanged at Bab Zuwaylain Cairo on the advice of the Egyptian amirs who had gone over to him.

As late as 1968, some Copts still observed the anniversary of Tuman's death as "Holy Friday."
Ashraf Tuman Bay II, al- see Tuman Bay II, al-Ashraf

Tunisi, Muhammad ibn ‘Umar ibn Sulayman al-
Tunisi, Muhammad ibn ‘Umar ibn Sulayman al- (Muhammad ibn ‘Umar ibn Sulayman al-Tunisi) (1789-1857).  Tunisian Arab scholar.  Born in Tunis, he stayed for a number of years in Dar Fur and returned to Tunis in 1813.  From there he moved to Cairo where he entered the service of Muhammad ‘Ali Pasha. He left valuable descriptions of Dar Fur and Wada’i.
Muhammad ibn 'Umar ibn Tunisi see Tunisi, Muhammad ibn ‘Umar ibn Sulayman al-
Muhammad ibn 'Umar ibn Sulayman al-Tunisi see Tunisi, Muhammad ibn ‘Umar ibn Sulayman al-

Tunjur (Tungur). Tradition, supported by archaeological remains, records the existence of a Tunjur kingdom seated in northern Darfur (Sudan), powerful in the sixteenth century and destroyed by the rising power of the Fur at the beginning of the seventeenth century.  A perhaps less important Tunjur kingdom flourished in Wadai (Chad) at about the same time until it was ended by the Maba supporters of Abd al-Karim early in the seventeenth century.  The Tunjur, or at least some of them, migrated to the west and settled among the Kanembu of Mao (Kanem), where they failed in trying to found an autonomous kingdom.

It is their pride in past glories and bitterness against those who later oppressed them which today prevent the few remaining Tunjur from disappearing altogether.

The Tunjur are zealous Muslims and may be described as orthodox Sunni following the Maliki school of jurisprudence and following mainly the teachings of the Risala.  Traces of pre-Islamic rituals do exist and deserve further research, but this is a difficult and sensitive matter.

The Tunjur are a Muslim people, living in central Darfur, a province of Sudan. They are mainly farmers, and closely associated with the Fur, even if differently from these they have been fully Arabized. Like the Fur and the Zaghawa, after the start of the Darfur conflict in February 2003, many Tunjur were displaced and some killed. A number of Tunjur took part to the fight against the Sudanese government fighting under the banners of the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM).

Historically, the Tunjur were one of the ruling dynasties of Darfur, circa 1200-1600. Little is known about them, or about their predecessors (the Daju) or their successors (the Keira), beyond the fact that they were probably centralized, slave-based polities sharing a fondness for stone walling.  The precise timing of Islamization is unclear.

It is not known why the Tunjur dynasty collapsed, apparently in the late sixteenth century. Oral tradition suggests that the last Tunjur ruler Shau Dorshid was driven out by his own subjects because of his dispiriting habit of making them cut the tops off mountains for him to build palaces on. His capital is said to have been the site of Ain Farah, which lies in the Furnung Hills some 130 kilometers north-west of El Fasher and comprises large-scale stone and brick walling. It has an enduring appeal and has been visited or described many times. Ain Farah moved one author to quote Macaulay – “like an eagle’s nest that hangs on the crest”, for it is built some 100 meters above the spring, is characterized by several hundred brick and stone structures and terraces, and is defended by steep ridges and by a massive stone wall three or four kilometers long. There is a brick and stone edifice which appears to have served as a mosque, a large stone group which may have served as a public building, and a main group on the highest point of the ridge, described variously as a royal residence or military defense.

Tungur see Tunjur

Tun Mahmud
Tun Mahmud.  Raja muda of Johor (1708-1718).  The younger brother of Sultan Abdul Jalil Riayat Syah, Tun Mahmud was a highly able and ambitious ruler.  His aggressive policy was designed to legitimize the new regime by gaining wealth and power through control of the internal traffic of the straits and by drawing foreign trade to Johor’s port-capital, which he re-established at Riau.  His policies antagonized Dutch Melaka and alienated two groups of recent immigrants to the straits area, the Minangkabau of Siak, who resented his interference in their trade with Melaka, and the Bugis of Selangor.  These conflicts, combined with the weakness of the new regime, led to his defeat and death in a rebellion of 1718.
Mahmud, Tun see Tun Mahmud.

Turabi, Hasan al-
Turabi, Hasan al-  (Hasan al-Turabi) (Hassan Turabi) (Hassan al-Turabi) (Hassan 'Abd Allah al-Turabi) (al-Duktūr Ḥassan 'Abd Allah at-Turābī) (Hassan al-Tourabi) (b. 1932).  Sudanese Islamist and political leader.  Hasan al-Turabi was born in central Sudan and grew up in a particularly devout Muslim family.  He received an Islamic education from his father as well as a standard modern education, going on to study law at the universities of Khartoum, London, and the Sorbonne.  He joined Sudan’s Muslim Brotherhood as a student in the early 1950s and came to prominence during the popular uprising of October 1964.  The brotherhood subsequently founded a small but vociferous party, the Islamic Charter Front, through which al-Turabi pushed for an Islamic constitution.

The military coup of 1969 was a setback, and al-Turabi later went into exile, but in 1977 President Ja‘far Nimeiri sought reconciliation with al-Turabi and his brother-in-law Sadiq al-Mahdi.  Al-Turabi became attorney general and encouraged the Muslim Brothers to move into many areas of public life, including the new Islamic banks and the armed forces.  Many Sudanese believed al-Turabi was behind Nimeiri’s introduction of Islamic law in September 1983.  However, Nimeiri broke with al-Turabi and imprisoned him shortly before the popular uprising of 1985 in which Nimeiri was overthrown.

In the 1986 elections al-Turabi’s party, now known as the National Islamic Front (NIF), came third, but it was clearly the rising force in Sudanese politics.  For the next three years the NIF was in an out of Sadiq al-Mahdi’s weak coalition governments, but the party remained determined to develop Sudan as an Islamic state, even at the expense of perpetuating the civil war in the south.  It was widely believed that it was the prospect of a secularizing compromise with the south which precipitated the NIF backed coup of June 30, 1989 (although al-Turabi was briefly imprisoned along with other leaders of the officially banned parties).  Since 1989, he has been seen as the mastermind behind Sudan’s effort to establish an Islamic state, even though he has held no formal position in the government.

Al-Turabi never published a comprehensive account of his thought, but his various writings and pronouncements presented a relatively liberal interpretation of Islam, including a belief in democracy and pluralism.  He did not repudiate this line of thought.  However, the regime for which he regularly spoke, both in Sudan and abroad, was widely seen as the most restrictive since independence in 1956.  Parliamentary democracy was abolished by the military, which forcibly repressed not only political parties but also many independent groups in civil society in promoting its Islamic revolution.  The Muslim Brotherhood became dominant not only in government but also in the civil service, the professions, and the economy.  Feared by neighborning Arab states as a promoter of radical Islamic activism, the new regime cooperated in turn with Libya, Iraq, and Iran; and the latter connection in particular supported government victories in the civil war in the south in 1992.

Al-Turabi  won a reputation for pragmatism and flexibility in the pursuit of resurgent Islam, which he sought expand not only in Sudan but also in neighboring African and Arab countries.  His success in building the Muslim Brotherhood in Sudan before 1989 enabled the military regime to pursue its islamizing policies.  These actions entrenched the brotherhood within the country and made it a wider force for the promotion of radical Islamic fundamentalism throughout North and East Africa.

After receiving a law degree at Gordon Memorial College (later the University of Khartoum)—where, in the early 1950s, he joined the Sudanese branch of the Muslim Brotherhood—he pursued graduate studies at the University of London and the Sorbonne in Paris. While teaching law at the University of Khartoum, he participated in the 1964 revolution that ended military rule. He later served in the national legislature (1965–67). He supported the 1985 overthrow of Gaafar Mohamed el-Nimeiri. That same year he formed the National Islamic Front (NIF), an incarnation of the Muslim Brotherhood. In 1989 the NIF supported a coup that brought ʿUmar Ḥasan al-Bashīr to power. He later served as speaker of the National Assembly (1996–99), but political hostilities between Turābī and Bashīr led to the dissolution of parliament and a subsequent power struggle. Turābī was arrested and imprisoned in 2001; although he was freed in October 2003, he was arrested over an alleged coup plot several months after his release and held until mid-2005. Conflict with Bashīr persisted thereafter, and Turābī continued to experience periodic arrests and detainment in the years that followed.

After a political falling out with President Omar al-Bashir in 1999, Turabi was imprisoned based on allegations of conspiracy before being released in October 2003. He was again imprisoned in the Kober (Cooper) prison in Khartoum in March 2004. He was released on June 28, 2005.

In 2004, Turabi was reported to have been associated with the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), an Islamist armed rebel group involved in the Darfur conflict. Turabi himself denied these claims.

In 2006, al-Turabi made international headlines when he issued a fatwa allowing Muslim women to marry non-Muslim men, in contradiction to the accepted Sharia law.

After the JEM attacked Khartoum and Omdurman on May 10, 2008, Turabi was arrested on the morning of May 12, 2008, along with other members of his Popular Congress Party (PCP). He said that he had expected the arrest, which occurred while he was returning to Khartoum from a PCP gathering in Sennar. He was questioned and released without charge later in the day, after about 12 hours in detention.

Presidential advisor Mustaf Osman Ismail said that Turabi's name had been found on JEM documents, but he denied that Turabi had been arrested, asserting that he had merely been "summoned" for questioning. Turabi, however, said that it was an arrest and that he had been held at Kober. According to Turabi, he was questioned regarding the relationship between the PCP and JEM, but he did not answer this question, although he denied that there was a relationship after his release. Turabi also said that he was asked why he did not condemn the rebel attack. He said that the security officers questioning him had "terrified" him and that, although they claimed to have proof against him, they did not show him this proof when he asked to see it.

In an interview on May 17, 2008, Turabi described the JEM's attack on Khartoum as "positive" and said that there was "so much misery in Darfur, genocidal measures actually". He also said that the JEM attack could spark more unrest.

On January 12, 2009, Turabi called on Bashir to surrender himself to the International Criminal Court for the sake of the country, while holding Bashir politically responsible for war crimes in Darfur. He was then arrested on January 14 and held in prison for two months (until March 8) at the Kober prison before being moved to Port Sudan prison. During this time members of his family expressed concern about his health and his being held in solitary confinement at least some of the time. Amnesty International also released a statement about Turabi's arrest on January 16, describing it as "arbitrary" and politically motivated. Noting Turabi's advanced age and his need for medication and a special diet. The Sudanese Media Center reported on January 19 that Turabi would be put on trial for his alleged assistance to the JEM.

On March 8, 2009, Turabi was released only days after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant against Omar al-Bashir. On April 11, 2009, the PCP called for the creation of a transitional government to lead Sudan to the planned 2010 election, and Turabi suggested that he would not stand as a candidate due to his advanced age. He emphasized the importance of leadership coming from younger generations and said that he did not have enough energy to run. In April al-Turabi was stopped at Khartoum airport and prevented from travelling to Paris for medical tests despite having obtained permission to travel from the interior ministry.

Turabi announced on January 2, 2010, that the PCP had designated his deputy, Abdullah Deng Nial, as its candidate for the 2010 presidential election. Turabi was again arrested in mid May 2010, but was released on July 1, 2010.

Hasan al-Turabi see Turabi, Hasan al-
Hassan Turabi see Turabi, Hasan al-
Hassan al-Turabi see Turabi, Hasan al-
Hassan 'Abd Allah al-Turabi see Turabi, Hasan al-
Duktūr Ḥassan 'Abd Allah at-Turābī, al- see Turabi, Hasan al-
Hassan al-Tourabi see Turabi, Hasan al-

Turan-Shah ibn Ayyub
Turan-Shah ibn Ayyub (Turan-Shah ibn Ayyub al-Malik al-Mu'azzam Shams ad-Dawla Fakhr ad-Din) (Turan-Shah) (d. 1180).  Founder of the Ayyubid dynasty of Yemen (r.1174-1176).  His brother Saladin sent him to Yemen, where he conquered Zabid, Aden and San‘a’.  Not feeling comfortable there, he urgently requested Saladin for a transfer, and became governor of Damascus in 1176, where he spent three years. He died at Alexandria.

Turan-Shah was the Ayyubid governor of Yemen (1174-1176), then Damascus (1176-1179). He is noted for strengthening the position of his younger brother, Saladin, in Egypt and playing the leading role in the Ayyubid conquests of both Nubia and Yemen. Like many of the Ayyubids, little is known of his early life before his arrival in Egypt.

Nur ad-Din Zangi, the Sultan of Syria at the time, allowed Turan-Shah to join Saladin in Egypt where he was vizier to the Fatimid caliph in 1171 when tensions between Nur al-Din and Saladin were rising. Nur al-Din empowered Turan-Shah to supervise Saladin, hoping to provoke dissension between the brothers. However, this attempt failed as Turan-Shah was immediately granted an immense amount of lands by Saladin who was in the process of reforming the power structure of the Fatimid state around him and his relatives. The iqta' or "fief" given to Turan-Shah composed of the major cities of Qus and Aswan in Upper Egypt as well as the Red Sea port of Aidab. Turan-Shah was the main force behind the deposition of a revolt staged in 1171 by the Black African garrisons of the Fatimid army in 1171.

Turan-Shah developed a close relationship with the poet courtier 'Umara, who had been a power player in Fatimid politics before Saladin's ascendancy to the vizierate in 1169. On September 11, 1171, the last Fatimid caliph al-Adid died and the Ayyubid dynasty gained official control of Egypt. A number of accusations of murder against Turan-Shah arose following his death. According to a eunuch in the service of al-Adid's widow, al-Adid died after hearing that Turan-Shah was in the palace looking for him. In another version, Turan-Shah is said to have killed al-Adid himself after the latter refused to reveal the location of state treasures that were hidden in the palace. After his death, Turan-Shah settled in Cairo in a quarter formerly occupied by Fatimid emirs.

The Nubians and Egyptians had long been engaged in a series of skirmishes along the border region of the two countries in Upper Egypt. After the Fatimids were deposed, tensions rose as Nubian raids against Egyptian border towns grew bolder ultimately leading to the siege of the valuable city of Aswan by former Black Fatimid soldiers in late 1172-early 1173. The governor of Aswan, a former Fatimid loyalist, requested help from Saladin.

Saladin dispatched Turan-Shah with a force of Kurdish troops to relieve Aswan, but the Nubian soldiers had already departed. Nonetheless, Turan-Shah conquered the Nubian town of Ibrim and began to conduct a series of raids against the Nubians. His attacks appear to have been highly successful, resulting in the Nubian king based in Dongola, requesting an armistice with Turan-Shah. Apparently eager for conquest, he was unwilling to accept the offer until his own emissary had visited the King of Nubia and reported that the entire country was poor and not worth occupying. Although the Ayyubids would be forced to take future actions against the Nubians, Turan-Shah set his sights on more lucrative territories. He managed to acquire considerable wealth in Egypt after his campaign against Nubia, bringing back with him many Nubian and Christian slaves.

Following his success in Nubia, Turan-Shah still sought to establish a personal holding for himself while Saladin was facing an ever increasing amount of pressure from Nur al-Din who seemed to be attempting to invad.e Egypt. Baha ad-Din ibn Shaddad, Saladin's aide, suggested that there was a heretical leader in Yemen who was claiming to be the messiah, and that this was the principal reason that Saladin dispatched Turan-Shah to conquer the region. While this is likely, it also appears 'Umara had considerable influence on Turan-Shah's desire to conquer Yemen and may have been the one who pushed him to gain Saladin's approval to use such a large part of the military forces in Egypt when the showdown with Nur al-Din seemed to be so near. Turan-Shah's departure from Egypt did not bode well for his adviser, 'Umara, however, as the poet found himself caught up in an alleged conspiracy against Saladin and was executed

Turan-Shah set out in 1174 and quickly conquered the town of Zabid in May and the strategic port city of Aden (a crucial link in trade with India, the Middle East, and North Africa) later that year. In 1175, he drove out the Hamdanid emir, Ali ibn Hakim al-Wahid, from Sana'a after the latter's army was weakened by continuous raids from the Zaidi tribes of Sa'dah. Turan-Shah then devoted much of his time to securing the whole of southern Yemen and bringing it firmly under the control of the Ayyubids. Although al-Wahid managed to escape Yemen through its northern highlands, Yasir, the head of the Shia Banu Karam tribe that had ruled Aden was arrested and executed on Turan-Shah's orders. The Kharijite rulers of Zabid—Mahdi Abd al-Nabi and his two brothers—shared the same fate. Turan-Shah's conquest held great significance for Yemen which was previously divided into three states (Sana'a, Zabid, and Aden) and was united by the Ayyubid occupation.

Although Turan-Shah had succeeded in acquiring his own territory in Yemen, he had clearly done so at the expense of his power in Cairo. Saladin rewarded him with rich estates in Yemen as his personal property. Turan-Shah did not feel comfortable in Yemen, however, and repeatedly requested from his brother to be transferred. In 1176, he obtained a transfer to Syria which he governed from Damascus. In addition, he was given large fiefs in Baalbek that used to belong to his father Najm ad-Din Ayyub.

Upon leaving Yemen, the administrator of his estates there was unable to promptly transfer the revenue from his properties to Turan-Shah. Instead, he left Turan-Shah behind roughly 200,000 dinars in debt, but this was paid off by Saladin. In 1179, he was transferred to govern Alexandria and died soon after on June 27, 1180. His body was taken by his sister Sitt al-Sham Zumurrud to be buried beside a madrasa built by her in Damascus.
Turan-Shah ibn Ayyub al-Malik al-Mu'azzam Shams ad-Dawla Fakhr ad-Din see Turan-Shah ibn Ayyub
Turan-Shah see Turan-Shah ibn Ayyub

Turkic-speaking peoples
Turkic-speaking peoples.  More than 100 million Turkic speaking peoples of Europe and Asia, here called Turks, occupy an almost continuous band of territory extending from the Balkans to northeastern Siberia.  While the peripheries of their lands are but sparsely populated by Turks, they comprise the predominant ethnic communities in the Anatolian peninsula and in the Central Asian borderlands of the Soviet Union, Iran, Afghanistan and China.

The primordial homeland of the Turks is generally thought to have been in the eastern portion of the Eurasian plain, approximately in the area now occupied by the Mongolian People’s Republic.  Thus, the ancestral Turks would have faced Tungus and Paleo-Siberian tribes on the north and east, Mongols to the south and Tocharian and Iranic-speaking peoples on the west.

The present disposition of the Turks is largely the result of a series of migrations out of the original homeland.  One of these movements, that of the Yakut, whose northward exodus to their present habitat in Siberia probably began in the twelfth century, is of little consequence to the historiography of the Muslim world.  The other migrations consisted of four overlapping waves of Turks and other Altaic people, whose penetrations into Central Asia, the Middle East and Europe exerted an enormous influence on world history.  The four migrations were those of the Huns, the Oguz Turks, the Kipchaks and the Mongols.

The Hunnic Empire, which thrust itself westward until checked in France at the Batal of Catalaunian Fields in 451 C.C., was comprised of numerous ethnic groups, including Turks, who formed the nucleus of the Bulgar and Khazar states in the Russian steppe lands between the fifth and tenth centuries.  Meanwhile, a confederation of Turks consolidated power in the area formerly occupied by the Huns, between the Amur and Irtysh rivers.  The westward advance of these Turks brought them increasingly into contact with Indo-Europeans under the domination of the Persian Sassanid dynasty.  The subsequent history of Central Asia is largely concerned with the defeat and assimilation of the Bactrians, Sogdians and others by the Turks, whose westward progress continued without serious interruption, even though the internal politcal status of the Turks underwent frequent and radical alterations.  The Tajiks, the former Sogdians, retained their Persian speech, but most of the outlying Iranic peoples were assimilated to the language of the Turks, while at the same time assimilating many of the Turks to their more sedentary cultures.  Even today the extensive intermingling of the western Turks with Persians is reflected in the predominantly Caucasian features of the Turks living west of the Amu Darya, as opposed to the mainly Mongoloid features of the Turks living east of the region.  The Persian influence is also manifested in the strong Zoroastrian underlying the Muslim practices of many Turks.  

In the area between the basins of the Volga and Don rivers, the Turkic Khazars had established a khanate which, with the assistance of Byzantium, dominated the area until the eleventh century, when the Kipchak Turks defeated and assimilated the Khazars.  Meanwhile, west of the Khazars the Turkic Bulgars had advanced to the western shore of the Black Sea, where most were Slavicized by their sedentary subjects within two centuries.  Some, however, were able to maintain their Turkic speech, which was subsequently altered and augmented by later influxes of Turks.

A new and important element was injected into the Turkic migrations by the Arabs, whose armies marched into Central Asia in the eighth century, captured Samarkand and Bukhara and imposed Islam on the subject peoples.  Their proselytizing was continued under the Islamic Seljuk confederation, composed of Oguz Turks, which dominated most of Turkestan from the eleventh century to the Mongol conquest of the area in the early years of the thirteenth century.  The Oguz Turks, constituting the second important wave of Turks, held sway over Persia, Transcaucasus, Mesopotamia, and much of Asia Minor by the end of the eleventh century.

The northern element of the Oguz, the Pechenegs, was soon displaced by the third wave of Turks, that of the Kipchaks, whose position in Central Asia and in the Volga basin was strengthened by their alliance with the Mongols, who advanced their conquests to the gates of Vienna. The establishment of the mainly Turkic Golden Horde at the border of Europe and Asia, the conquests of Tamerlane (Timur Lenk, or Timur the Lame) and his successors and the establishment of the Moghul dynasty in India were fundamentally extensions of the expansionism initiated by Genghiz Khan and those who succeeded him.

The period between the thirteenth century, when the Altaian alliance burst into the heart of Europe, and the fifteenth century, when the empire of Tamerlane was at its height and the Ottomans conquered Byzantium and the Balkans, constitutes the high-water mark in the geo-political fortunes of the Turks.  Their subsequent history is largely one of retrenchment from national independence movements and subjugation at the hands of the revivified empires of Russia, China and Persia.

Turkmen (Turcomen) (Turkomen).  Turkish term designating Turkish tribes, nomadic or semi-nomadic, and later the dynasties created by some of these tribes.  Turkmen are a Turkish people, the majority of whom nowadays live in Turkmenistan, while there are large groups in northern Iran, in northeastern and northwestern Afghanistan, in central Turkey, and small groups in northern Iraq and Syria.  From the tenth century onwards, the name is applied to a large section of the Oghuz peoples, more specifically to those who were the descendants of the groups which followed the Saljuqs to the west in eleventh century.  They played an important part in the rise of dynasties such as the Rum Saljuqs and the Great Saljuqs, the Artuqids of Diyarbakr, the Salghurids of Fars, the Danishmendids and the Qaramanids of central Anatolia, the Ottomans, the Qara Qoyunlu and the Aq Qoyunlu.  There were also many Turkmen tribes in the empire of the Mamelukes from Diyarbakr to Gaza.  In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Turkmen suffered a great deal from the attacks of the Kalmuks, the founders of the last great nomad empire in central Asia.  The nomadic Turkmen did not form a state of their own, but maintained their independence in various kingdoms, such as Persia, Khwarazm, Bukhara, and still in eighteenth century Afghanistan.  The treaties following the Russian conquests in central Asia (1869-1885) settled the distribution of the Turkmen in Russia, Persia and Afghanistan.  The literature of the Turkmen, previously only oral, consists of lyric poems and epics, poetry of a religious and didactic nature as well as popular romances.  Well-known poets like Ahmad Yasawi (d. 1166), Nesimi, Mir ‘Ali Shir Nawa’i, Fuduli and Makhdum Quli “Firaqi” (d. 1782), who wrote in Chagatay Turkish, were of Turkmen origin.

The majority of the Turkmen reside in the area surrounding the Kara Kum (“Black Sand”) desert east of the Caspian Sea, between the Amu Darya River and the mountains bordering the northern edge of the Iranian plateau.  The Kara Kum itself is too arid to support a human population of any significant size, the the semi-arid fringes of this low altitude desert can support a population through livestock production and, in some areas, agriculture.  

The people’s name for themselves is Turkmen, a word which in Anglicized form can be either Turkmen or Turkman.  (The fact that the last syllable of this word, “men” or “man,” appears to be an English word is purely coincidental.)  An alternative spelling is Turkoman, Turcoman, derived from the Persian, Turkuman.

The nineteenth and twentieth centuries witnessed the demise of Turkmen political independence and military prowess. From the middle of the nineteenth century on, the sort of irregular cavalry the Turkmen could put together was no longer effective against the well organized armies and artillery of czarist Russia.  Later, they also proved ineffective against the modernized Iranian army established by Reza Shah.  Most of the Turkmen came under Russian control.  The Russian conquest of Merv in 1884 marked the end of any internationally recognized Turkmen polity.  However, the transition to effective control by sedentary states was gradual and characterized by occasional reversals.  The Turkmen of Iran maintained de facto independence until 1925, and some Iranian Turkmen reasserted de facto independence during World War II and again after the Iranian Revolution of 1978.  During the Russian Revolution, many Turkmen asserted independence temporarily as part of the so-called Basmachi movement.  Despite this, however, the general trend for all Turkmen has been effective control by government dominated by other ethnic groups -- Persians, Pushtun or Russians.  These governments are not especially sympathetic with Turkmen traditions and are suspicious of possible desires for an independent Turkmenistan.  Sentiment for the preservation of Turkmen identity is not at present translated into an active movement for independence.

Loss of political independence robbed nomadism of its political and military value, and most Turkmen have responded by adopting either a sedentary or a semi-sedentary residence pattern.

Turks.  The word Turk first appears as the name of a nomad people in the sixth century.  The two brothers Bu-min and Istemi founded two empires stretching from Mongolia and the northern frontier of China to the Black Sea, distinguished by the Chinese as the Northern and Western Turks.  In the seventh century both empires had to submit to the nominal suzerainty of the Chinese T’ang dynasty (r.618-907).

Between 682 and 744, the Northern Turks were again independent, and it is to this empire that belong the so-called “Orkhon inscriptions”, named after the river Orkhon in Mongolia, which are the oldest monument of the Turkish language.  

The kingdom of the Western Turks, led by the Turgesh tribe, was ended by the Arabs under Nasr ibn Sayyar in 739.  In the Arab, geographical literature of ninth and tenth centuries five Turkish peoples are mentioned who spoke one language and could understand each other: the Toghuzghuz, the Kirgiz, the Kimek, the Oghuz and the Karluk.  The lands on the Upper Yenisei marked the limits of the world as known to the Arabs.

Islam was adopted by the Turks in the tenth century of their own free will.  The spread of Islam in Central Asia was not checked by the foundation of the non-Muslim Karakhitai around 1130.  Turkish culture was brought to Asia Minor and Azerbaijan by the Saljuqs in the eleventh century while Saladin brought bodies of Turkish troops to Egypt whence some of them found their way to North Africa and Spain.

The Mongol Empire, and especially the foundation of the Golden Horde, was of great significance for the Turks. From the latter were formed the “Tatar” kingdoms of Qazan, Astrakhan and of the Crimea.  In the first half of the sixteenth century, all the lands from the Balkan Peninsula to the Chinese frontier were under the rule of Muslim Turks, but they could not cope with the rising power of Russia.  On the other hand, Islam as a religion and Turkish as a language have made new progress under Russian rule.

Different literary languages began to develop in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the most important being Chagatay and Ottoman Turkish.  The former developed in the lands of the Timurids, which consisted of the domain of Chagatay, the second son of Jenghiz Khan, while the latter has been intimately connected with the political and cultural development of the Ottoman Empire.
At present, there are some 70 million speakers of a Turkic language.

Turks are a people who make up around eighty percent of the population of Turkey.  However, the term Turks is a description used for several important peoples in Central Asia.

There are around 100 million Turks in the whold world.  The Turks of Turkey are descendants of immigrants from Central Asia in the first centuries of this millennium.  They are now ethnically mixed with the indigenous population of Asia Minor as well as peoples that have immigrated to the Ottoman Empire up through history.   People from the Balkans, Caucasia, the Levant, North Africa and Mesopotamia.  For all these people, Turkish language has been the ticket to full association with their new country.

Turks of Turkey speak the language simply known as Turkish, which after all these centuries still resembles the Turkic languages of Central Asia. Communication is here still possible, even if many words have been taken from Persian and Arabic.  Turkish language was originally written with Arabic writing, but a reform of 1928, involved the implementation of Latin writing.

Turks, Anatolian
Turks, Anatolian.  To most of the world, Turks are citiznes of the Republic of Turkey, occupying that historic bridge of land called Anatolia (and part of Thrace) which links Europe to Asia and where many civilizations have flourished and waned.

Kemal Ataturk, born Mustafa in 1881 and given a second name of Kemal by a schoolteacher, came onto the national scene at the end of World War I.  No single leader in modern times has so influenced his people.  Nearly 45 years after his death in 1938, the edicts he handed down relating to Turkish culture are still in force and constantly working towards bringing a twentieth-century life style to the village and town Turk.

Ataturk helped bring an end to the control of rural landlords in Anatolia.  These were men who evolved by the end of the nineteenth century from tribal leadership, a process that began in the eleventh century when the Seljuk Turks migrated out of the east and conquered most of the Christian Byzantine Empire.  The Seljuks, with their capital in Konya, ruled for nearly two centuries and firmly implanted Islam and Turkish culture into the existing population.  More migrating Turks entered Anatolia, among them a tribal leader, Ertoghrul, whose tribesmen grew stronger as the Seljuks grew weaker and eventually disappeared from the scene.  Ertoghrul’s son, Osman, became tribal emir in 1299, fought the Greeks of western Anatolia, acquired territory and a following and finally in 1326 established the seat of his domain in Bursa, then the largest Christian city in Asia.  So began the Ottoman (Osmanli) Empire, which expanded to rule over the entire Middle East and Eastern Europe until the twentieth century.

The 600 year history of the Ottoman Empire left a heritage to modern day Turks which gives them a militant pride in being Turkish.  Under great leaders, such as Muhammad II (The Conqueror), who captured Constantinople in 1453 and Suleiman I (The Magnificent) who captured Belgrade in 1521, Turkish soldiers and sailors, the youth of Anatolia, carried war and diplomacy into the eastern Arabian lands, across North Africa, through Greece and the Balkans to the gates of Vienna.  They fought against Napoleon, the Italians, the British and the Russians, who persistently tried to acquire land to give them a port on the Mediterranean Sea (Turks feel that the Russians still want that land.)

Early Ottoman sultans, ruling from Constantinople, established competent and effective administrative control over the vast territories under their suzerainty, combining the assumed religious role of caliph with their temporal power.  Minorities within the empire were left free to govern themselves, provided they paid their taxes and kept the peace.  Christians and other non-Turks, including slaves, rose to high administrative positions in the Ottoman military monarchy.

By the end of the sixteenth century and with the rise of industrialization in Europe, the seams in the Ottoman ship began to crack.  Corruption in the capital and military losses overseas weakened the authority and prestige of the government.  One subjugated country after another rose in successful revolt -- Serbia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and, finally, Greece.  Successively more despotic sultans imposed such harsh rule on Turkish society that the Turks themselves began to seek reform.

Just before and during World War I, which Turkey joined on the side of Germany, Turkish intellectuals wanted for Turks what Europeans had -- a national, political state with a constitution guaranteeing basic political rights.  These intellectuals, called Young Turks, succeeded in setting the stage for Turkey’s true revolution.  This began with Turkey’s military defeat abroad and the Turkish army’s success in Anatolia in driving out the invading Greeks and Italians.  The army’s leader was Mustafa Kemal, who had earlier led the Turks in defeating the British at Gallipoli.

Kemal was a dictator or, more precisely, a social revolutionist, determined to rid by force if necessary the power of non-Turks in the Turkish “homeland” of Anatolia, whether British, Greek, Armenian or Kurd.  He voiced a revulsion common to Turks by then of overseas adventures.  He wanted a modern, democratic Turkey, based on current American and European nationalist, secular and republican principles.

Ataturk's revolutionary program abolished the calphate and closed religious schools and Shariah courts, declaring Turkey a secular state.  He made the town of Ankara to the Anatolian heartland, rather than the imperial city of Constantinople, the new republic’s capital.  He outlawed the Sufi orders, the turuq so famous in Turkey because of the singular role of Jalaladin Rumi of Konya (during Seljuk times) in developing the mystic philosophy of the brotherhoods.  Drawing on Swiss, German and Italian commercial, penal and civil codes, he declared polygyny illegal and introduced civil marriage.  Sunday, instead of Friday, became the legal holiday.

Kemal decreed that no longer would names follow the traditional pattern of “son of father, ” but that each person would adopt a family name, to continue through the generations.  Mustafa Kemal himself became Kemal Ataturk, “Father of Turks.”

His banishments touched all Turks personally, but some with more effect than others.  Forbidden was the conical red fez, worn by Turkish Muslims as a symbol of their loyalty to the caliph.  European clothing in general was recommended, and brimmed felt hats for men were mandatory (in 1972 a Turk in Bursa was arrested for wearing a brimless hat).  The fezzes rapidly disappeared, but Ataturk’s attempt to emancipate women met stiffer resistance.  City women discarded their veils soon enough, took to European dress and in many other ways enjoyed new found freedom.  Village women were not veiled, but they continued to clutch their head coverings over their faces in the presence of strangers, and their traditional place in society remained subservient.  The degree of change in towns depended on the character of the town -- whether it was a small city or a large village -- and the amount of urban contact.

Another drastic and dramatic change ordered by Ataturk involved the Turkish language.  Osmanli, or Anatolian Turkish, had been written in Arabic script.  Ataturk introduced Roman script with a modified Latin alphabet, more suited to Turkish language sounds.  Ataturk personally went on tour to demonstrate the intricacies of the new alphabet, sometimes standing in the village square before a blackboard and a cluster of curious onlookers.  Along with this change, Ataturk attempted to “Turkify” the language by purging words derived from Arabic or Persian and supplanting them with “pure”. Turkish ones (today English and French words with Turkish spelling have crept in especially into city usage).

Three sentiments guided Ataturk’s course of government until he died in 1938, and these continue today in varying degrees: nationalism, industrialization and secularization.

The first of these is the strongest.  Turks are loyal and devoted to their country.  Following World War I, attempts were made to wrap all Turkic speaking peoples in the same blanket and create a political unity among the Uzbek, Kirghiz, Turkmen, Kazakhs, Azeri and all those groups speaking Turkic languages, particularly in the new Communist dominated areas of the Caucasus and Central Asia.  Pan-Turanism was a dream that never came to reality, not only because the Soviet Union would have no part of it but also because the Anatolian Turks came to identify themselves exclusively with their new Republic of Turkey.

Industrialization did not overtake the whole of the country in the same manner as nationalism, but impressive gains were made.  Education reached the rural areas in varying degrees, modern technical schools produced thousands of engineers and businessmen and cities grew with new industry.  The urban Turks of Istanbul, Izmir, Adana, Zonguldak, Samsun, Trabson, Exkisehir and Ankara differ not too much from French, German, British and American urbanites.  While maintaining strong family ties, they nevertheless generally marry partners of their own choosing (usually in their own social stratum), observe office hours, commute from their homes to their jobs along clogged avenues and go out to restaurants, movies, beaches and parks for recreation.  They maintain their health and seek their security through public institutions, they join labor unions and the Kiwanis and participate with intensity in party politics.

Secularization is the least successful part of Ataturk’s revolution.  About 85 percent of Turks are Sunni of the Hanafi rite; 15 percent are Alawi or Shia.  Traditionally, the hoca was an inspirational figure in Turkish communities, leading services in the mosques, reading the Qur’an, teaching the young and presiding over life-cycle ceremonies.  When their sultan was also the caliph, hocas spoke with great authority.

Bit by bit, Ataturk’s revolutionaries clipped away at the religious fabric, abolishing the caliphate and the sharia courts.  Many, if not most, of the hocas were made government servants.  Religious instruction, government controlled, was offered in the primary schools, not private madrasas.  As recently as 1982, the military government banned head scarves on female teachers and students, despite strong protests.

Anatolian Turks see Turks, Anatolian.

Turks, Rumelian
Turks, Rumelian.  Rumelian Turks are literally the Turks of Roman lands.  The term “Rumeli” in Turkish refers to the Balkans, which were, before their occupation by the Ottomans, in the hands of the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire.  The Balkan peninsula includes the moder states of Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Albania and Yugoslavia.  Historically, the lands of Rumeli also encompassed Hungary, Cyprus, Rhodes and Crete, as well as the smaller Greek islands.  The term “Rumelian Turk,” then, refers to those Turks who came to Eastern Europe from Anatolia, along with Turkmen and others from Central Asia and the Crimea.  It also has come to apply to Circassians from the Caucasus who settled in the Balkans.

The earliest recorded settlement of Muslim Turks in Rumelian lands occurred in 1249.  Sultan Izzeddin Kayka’us , ruler of the Seljuks of Anatolia, having lost his crown to his brothers, took refuge in Byzantium and was given land by the Byzantines in Dobruja.  He was followed by about 30 to 40 obas, or small groups of closely related families, of nomadic Turkmen from Anatolia, who settled there. When Dobruja and Bessarabia fell to the Mongols of the Golden Horde who mingled with the Turkmen and became Muslim.  Under the pressure of the Christian Bulgars, the majority of these early Turkish Mongol settlers returned to Anatolia in the fourteenth century.  Those who stayed became converts to the Greek Orthodox religion.

The more permanent and large scale settlement of Turks in the Balkans took place during the long period of Ottoman domination of the peninsula, beginning in 1350.  The lands gained in Europe by Ottomans were united until the mid-sixteenth century under one administrative system, and the Rumeli territory was headed by a beylerbeyi or “lord of the lords.”  He retained a status equivalent to that of a vizier and attended cabinet meetings at the Ottoman court in Constantinople.  After 1550, the Balkans were divided into smaller administrative territories, following more or less ethnic divisions of the area, such as Bosnia, Macedonia or Morea.

Although Ottomans were the rulers in Rumeli until about the mid-nineteenth century, or until various Balkan nations gained their independence, Turks have always been in the minority except in Turkish Thrace.  Because of religious, linguistic, and social differences, Turkish settlers in the Balkans did not intermarry in large numbers or mix with the indigenous Christian and Albanian or Bosnian populations.  Probably such intermarriage as occurred involved men marrying non-Turkish women.  The Turks were mostly settled in towns in the Balkans and served as military personnel and administrators, and as artisans.  Land was granted to individuals, usually of the military class, as fiefs in the Balkans from the Ottoman crown holdings.  Since ownership of such land was not inherited, it eventually reverted back to the state.  Therefore, no Turkish landed noble class developed, and Turkish peasants in the Balkans were rare, with the exception of Dobruja.  After annexation of the Crimean khanate to czarist Russia in the late eighteenth century, many Tatars from the Crimea and Circassians from the Caucasus migrated to Dobruja andwere given land by the Ottoman government, where they formed villages and became farmers.  The Dobruja Turks remain a distinctive cultural entity to this day.

Rumelian Turks see Turks, Rumelian.

Tursun Beg
Tursun Beg (Lebibi).  Ottoman historian of the sixteenth century.  He wrote a history of the reign of Muhammad II and of the first years of his successor Bayezid II.
Lebibi see Tursun Beg

Tusi, Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-
Tusi, Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al- (Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Tusi) (995-1067).  Shi‘a scholar.  He studied with Shaykh al-Mufid and al-Sayyid al-Murtada.  Public agitation drove him from Baghdad to al-Najaf, where he died.  He wrote a commentary on the Qur’an, and works on hadith, Shi‘a law and creed, and on prayers and pious rites.  He is considered as one of the great Shi‘a scholars.
Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Tusi see Tusi, Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-

Tusi, Nasir al-Din Abu Ja‘far al-
Tusi, Nasir al-Din Abu Ja‘far al- (Nasir al-Din Abu Ja‘far al-Tusi) (Abu Jafar Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn al-Hasan Nasir al-Din al-Tusi)  (Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥasan Ṭūsī) (b. February 18, 1201, Ṭūs, Khorasan – d. June 26, 1274, al-Kāżimiyyah, Baghdad).  Astronomer and Shi‘a politician.  In 1256, he lured the Assassin leader Rukn al-Din Khurshah into the hands of the Il-Khan Hulegu, accompanied the latter to Baghdad and founded the observatory of Maragha.  He had a strong sympathy with the Twelver Shi‘a, to whom a certain degree of mercy was shown during the Mongol holocaust and whose sanctuaries were spared.  He wrote on dogmatics, logic and philosophy, law and belles-lettres, and above all on the sciences, in particular on astronomy.

Al-Tusi was one of the greatest scientists, mathematicians, astronomers, philosophers, theologians and physicians of his time.  He was a prolific writer.  He wrote many treatises on such varied subjects as algebra, arithmetic, trigonometry, geometry, logic, metaphysics, medicine, ethics, and theology.  

Abu Jafar Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn al-Hasan Nasir al-Din al-Tusi was born in Tus, Khurasan (present day Iran) in 1201.  He studied sciences and philosophy under the tutelage of Kamal al-Din ibn Yunus.  Al-Tusi was kidnapped by the Isma‘ili Hasan ibn Sabah’s agents and sent to Alamut where he remained until its capture by the Mongol Hulegu Khan in 1256.

Impressed by al-Tusi’s exceptional abilities and astrological competency, Il-Khanid Hulegu Khan appointed him as one of his ministers.  Later, he served as an administrator of Auqaf.  In 1262, he built an observatory at Meragha and directed its activity.  It was equipped with the best instruments from Baghdad and other Islamic centers of learning.  It contained a twelve foot wall quadrant made from copper and an azimuth quadrant and turquet invented by al-Tusi.  Other instruments included astrolabes, representations of constellation, epicycles and shapes of spheres.  Al-Tusi designed several other instruments for the observatory.

Al-Tusi produced a very accurate table of planetary movements and a star catalogue, and he published it under the title al-Zij Ilkhani which was dedicated to the Ilkhan, Hulegu Khan.  The tables were developed from observations over a twelve year period and were primarily based on original observations.  Al-Tusi calculated the value of 51 feet for the precession of equinoxes.  Al-Tusi was among the first of several Muslim astronomers who pointed out several serious shortcomings in Ptolemy’s models based on mechanical principles and modified it.  His critique on the Ptolemy’s theories convinced future astronomers of the need to develop an alternative model ending in Copernicus’ famous work.  The al-Zij Ilkhani was the most popular book among astronomers until fifteenth century.  His memoir on astronomy entitled Tadhkira fi Ilm al-Hayy, includes his ingenious device for generating rectilinear motion along the diameter of the outer circle from two circular motions.  At the end of his long outstanding career, he moved to Baghdad and died within a year in 1274 in Kadhimain (near Baghdad, in present day Iraq).

Al-Tusi pioneered spherical trigonometry which includes six fundamental formulas for the solution of spherical right angled triangles.  One of his most important mathematical contributions was the treatment of trigonometry as a new mathematical discipline.  He wrote on binomial coefficients which Pascal later introduced.

Al-Tusi revived the philosophy of Ibn Sina.  His book Akhlaq-i-Nasri (Nasirean Ethics) was regarded as the most important book on ethics and was popular for centuries.  Al-Tusi’s Tajrid-al-‘Aqaid was an excellent work on Islamic scholastic philosophy.  He also composed a few verses of poetry.

Al-Tusi was a prolific writer.  He wrote his works in Arabic and Persian.  Sixty-four treatises are known to have survived.  Al-Tusi’s works were translated into Latin and other European languages in the Middle Ages.  Al-Tusi’s book Shaq al-Qatta was translated into Latin by the title Figura Cata.  Among al-Tusi’s well-known students are Nizam al-Araj, who wrote a commentary on the Almagest, and Qutb ad-Din ash-Shirazi, who gave the first satisfactory mathematical explanation of the rainbow.

Nasir al-Din Abu Ja'far al-Tusi see Tusi, Nasir al-Din Abu Ja‘far al-
Abu Jafar Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn al-Hasan Nasir al-Din al-Tusi see Tusi, Nasir al-Din Abu Ja‘far al-
Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥasan Ṭūsī see Tusi, Nasir al-Din Abu Ja‘far al-

Tutush ibn Alp Arslan, Taj al-Dawla
Tutush ibn Alp Arslan, Taj al-Dawla (Taj al-Dawla Tutush ibn Alp Arslan) (Tutush I) (Abu Sa'id Taj ad-Dawla Tutush I)  (1058-1095).  Saljuq ruler of Syria (r.1079-1095).  Syria was allotted to him by his brother the Great Saljuq Malik-Shah I.  He had to fight the Turkmen Atsiz who had taken the whole of Palestine including Jerusalem from the Fatimids, who however continued to claim the country.  While making conquests around Aleppo, the ‘Uqaylid Muslim ibn Quraysh drove the Mirdasids out of the town and got his rule recognized by Malik Shah.  Muslim ibn Quraysh fell in a battle with Sulayman ibn Qutlumish, the founder of the Rum Saljuqs, who now became Tutush’s rival for Aleppo.  After Sulayman’s death, Malik Shah gave the town to the amir Aqsunqur, and Edessa to the amir Buzan. Together with them, Tutush made notable conquests in Syria.  After the sudden death of Malik Shah, the amirs had to pay homage to Tutush, and supported him in the conquest of Nisibis, Diyarbakr, Mayyafariqin and Mosul.  When Malik Shah’s son Berkyaruq came forward as his father’s rightful heir, the amirs joined him.  They were defeated by Tutush in 1094, but the latter was conquered by Berkyaruq in 1095. Aleppo then passed to Ridwan, and Damascus to Duqaq, both sons of Tutush.

Abu Sa'id Taj ad-Dawla Tutush I was the Seljuk ruler (probably sultan or emir) of Damascus from 1079 to 1095, succeeding Abaaq al-Khwarazmi. He took control of Syria in 1085 from his brother, the Great Seljuk Sultan Malik Shah I, but lost it in 1086, only to recapture it in 1094. After his death in 1095, his younger son Duqaq inherited Damascus, causing Duqaq's older brother Radwan to revolt, splitting their father's realm.

Taj al-Dawla Tutush ibn Alp Arslan see Tutush ibn Alp Arslan, Taj al-Dawla
Tutush I see Tutush ibn Alp Arslan, Taj al-Dawla
Abu Sa'id Taj ad-Dawla Tutush I see Tutush ibn Alp Arslan, Taj al-Dawla

Twelvers.  See Ithna-‘ashari.

Tyabji, Badruddin
Tyabji, Badruddin (Badaruddin Taiyabji) (Tyab Ali) (1844-1906).  Indian lawyer, politician, and jurist.  An adherent of the Sulaimani Bohras, a small Isma’ili sect, Tyabji was the most prominent of the many members of the Tyabji-Fyzee clan who distinguished themselves at the Bombay Bar.  The Tyabjis were socially and religiously “liberal” and deeply involved in the civic associations of nineteenth century Bombay.  Before his appointment as a justice of the Bombay High Court in 1895 ended his public political career, Tyabji was one of the few Muslim leaders to involve himself seriously in the Indian National Congress, serving as its president from 1887 to 1888.  He engaged in a lengthy debate with Sayyid Ahmad Khan and AmirAli over whether Muslims should stay out of the Congress. His support of the organization was, however, qualified.  He believed that its role should be limited to the discussion of topics on which Hindus and Muslims completely agreed.  

Badruddin Tyabji was the third President of the Indian National Congress. He was succeeded by George Yule.  He was born on October 10, 1844 in Bombay (now Mumbai), India. He was the son of Mullah Tyab Ali Bhai Mian, a Sulaimani Bohra, and a scion of an old Cambay emigrant Arab family.

He passed the London Matriculation and joined the Middle Temple. He became the first Indian Barrister in Bombay in April, 1867. He accepted a Judgeship of the Bombay High Court in 1895. In 1902, he became the first Indian to hold the post of Chief Justice in Bombay.
Badruddin Tyabji see Tyabji, Badruddin

Tyeddo. Term which refers to the name of the warrior elite in Senegambia.

Ubaydallah (Ubayd Allah al-Mahdi Billah).  Founder of the Fatimid dynasty.  Ubaydallah had his capital at Mahdiyah, near modern Tunis.  Ubaydallah was called “the Mahdi” (the rightly guided) by his followers.

Ubayd Allah al-Mahdi Billah (r. 909-934) is the founder of the Fatimid dynasty, the only major Shi'ite caliphate in Islam.  Ubaydallah established Fatimid rule throughout much of North Africa.


He began his conquest by establishing his headquarters at Salamiyah and began riding towards north-western Africa, which at the time was under Aghlabid rule, following the propagandist success of his chief dai', Abu 'Abdullah Al-Husayn Al-Shi'i. Al-Shi'i, along with laying claim to being the precursor to the Mahdi, was instrumental in sowing the seeds of sedition among the Berber tribes of North Africa, specifically the Kutamah tribe.

It was Al-Shi'i's success which was the signal to Sa'id who set off from Salamyah disguised as a merchant. However, he was captured by the Aghlabid ruler Ziyadat-Allah and thrown into a dungeon in Sijilmasah. Al-Shi'i was then required to rescue Sa'id in 909 after which the Aghlabid dynasty, the last stronghold of Sunni Islam in North Africa, was expelled from region.

'Ubaydallah Al-Mahdi, as Sa'id was now to be known, established himself at the former Aghlabid residence at Raqqadah, a suburb of Al-Qayrawan in Tunisia. Two years after he achieved power, 'Abdullah had his missionary-commander Al-Shi'i executed. After that his power only grew. At the time of his death he had extended his reign to Morocco of the Idrisids, as well as Egypt itself. In 920, 'Abdullah took up residence at the newly established capital of the empire, Al-Mahdiyyah, which he founded on the Tunisian coast sixteen miles south-east of Al-Qayrawan, and which he named after himself.

After his death, 'Abdullah was succeeded by his son, Abu Al-Qasim Muhammad Al-Qaim, who continued his expansionist policy.

Ubayd Allah al-Mahdi Billah see Ubaydallah

‘Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad
 ‘Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad (d.686).  Umayyad governor.  A son of Ziyad ibn Abihi, he was appointed governor of Khurasan and advanced as far as Bukhara.  In 675, he became governor of Basra, where he subdued the Kharijites, and in 679 also of Kufa.  It was he who sent troops against al-Husayn ibn ‘Ali, who lost his life at the battle of Karbala’ in 683.  ‘Ubayd Allah had to flee from Kufa and went to Syria.  At the battle of Marj Rahit in 684, he commanded the left wing of the Umayyad Caliph Marwan I ibn al-Hakam and in the following year he was sent to Qarqisiya in order to subdue Iraq.  In 686, he suffered near Mosul a disastrous defeat against al-Mukhtar ibn Abi ‘Ubayd al-Thaqafi.

Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad was a son of Ziyad ibn Abi Sufyan after whose death in 673 he became the Governor of Kufa and Basra and later Khurasan.  He also minted coinage, which survives to this day. In 674 he crossed the Amu Darya and defeated the forces of Bukhar Khuda of Bukhara in what would become the first known invasion of the city by Muslim Arabs.

In 680, Yazid I ordered Ubayd Allah to keep order in Kufa as a reaction to the popularity there of the grandson of the Prophet, Husayn ibn Ali. Ubayd Allah appointed his brother Uthman as deputy and marched to Kufa. Ubayd Allah executed Hussain ibn Ali’s cousin Muslim ibn Aqeel and put out the right eye of Hussain ibn Ali’s supporter Al-Mukhtar. He was also one of the leaders of the army of Yazid I during the battle of Karbala.

Yazid left a vacuum in Iraq upon his death in 683. Ubayd Allah abdicated the governor's mansion in Basra and took up shelter with Mas'ud ibn Amr al-Azdi. The Azd were a Yemenite tribe who then supported the Umayyads against the rebellion of Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr. But Basra's new governor Abd Allah ibn al-Harith sided with Ibn al-Zubayr, and had Mas'ud killed the following spring. Some traditions add, probably accurately, that Ubayd Allah and Mas'ud had complained about Ibn al-Harith's corruption (again, probably accurately - but the Basrans did not then care) with a view to regaining for Ubayd Allah his command. Ubayd Allah fled the city for Syria - leaving his wife and family behind.

While Ubayd Allah was in Syria, he persuaded Marwan ibn al-Hakam not to recognize Ibn al-Zubayr. Meanwhile the messianic rebel Al-Mukhtar wrested Kufa from Ibn al-Zubayr in 685. Seeing his chance, or so he thought, Ubayd Allah sent an army against Mukhtar. Mukhtar met [Ubayd Allah] Ibn Ziyad's legions with a militia composed of 13,000 lightly-armed freedmen on foot at the river Khazir near Nineveh. Ubayd Allah died in that battle.

‘Ubayd Zakani, Nizam al-Din
‘Ubayd Zakani, Nizam al-Din (Nizam al-Din ‘Ubayd Zakani)  (Nezam od-Din Ubeydollah Zâkâni) (Ubayd-i Zākāni) ('Ubayd Zakani) (1300-1370/1371). Persian poet from Qazwin. He was a satirical and erotic poet, who wrote such works as The Morals of Aristocracy and The Book of the Beard, a dialogue between the poet and the beard, regarded as a destroyer of youthful beauty.

'Ubayd Zākāni was a Persian poet and satirist of the 14th century (Timurid Period) from the city of Qazvin. He studied in Shiraz, Iran under the best masters of his day, but eventually moved back to his native town of Qazvin. He however preferred Shiraz to Qazvin, as he was a court poet in Shiraz for Shah Abu Ishaq, where a young Hafez was present as well.

His work is noted for its satire and obscene verses, often political or bawdy, and often cited in debates involving homosexual practices. He wrote the Resaleh-ye Delgosha, as well as Akhlaq al-Ashraf ("Ethics of the Aristocracy") and the famous humorous fable Masnavi Mush-O-Gorbeh (Mouse and Cat), which was a political satire. His non-satirical serious classical verses have also been regarded as very well written, in league with the other great works of Persian literature. He is one of the most remarkable poets, satirists and social critics of Iran (Persia), whose works have not received proper attention in the past. His books are translated into Russian, Danish, Italian, English, and German.

While pursuing his studies in Shiraz, Ubayd became one of the most accomplished men of letters and learning of his time, acquiring complete proficiency in every art, and compiling books and treatises thereon. He subsequently returned to Qazvin, where he had the honor of being appointed to a judgeship and was chosen as the tutor and teacher of sundry young gentlemen. At that time the Turks in Persia had left no prohibited or vicious act undone, and the character of the Persian people, by reasons of association and intercourse with them, had become so changed and corrupted that 'Ubayd-i-Zakani, disgusted at the contemplation thereof, sought by every means to make known and bring home to them the true conditions of affairs. Therefore, as an example of the corrupt morals of the age and its people, he composed the treatise known as Akhlaq-i-Ashraf (Ethics of the Aristocracy), which was not intended as mere ribaldry, but as a satire containing serious reflections and wise warnings. So, likewise, in order to depict the level of intelligence and degree of knowledge of the leading men of Qazwin each one of whom was a mass of stupidity and ignorance, he included in his Risala-i-Dilqusha (Joyous Treatise) many anecdotes of which each contains a lesson for persons of discernment.

As a measure of his accomplishments, experience, learning and worldly wisdom, his Risala-i-Sad (Tract of a Hundred Counsels) and his Ta'rifat (Definitions) are a sufficient proof. Moreover he composed a treatise 'Ilm-i-Ma'ni u Bayan (Rhetoric) which he desired to present to the King. The courtiers and favorites, however, told him that the King had no need for such rubbish. Then he composed a fine panegyric, which he desired to recite, but they informed him that His Majesty did not like to be mocked with the lies, exaggerations and fulsome flattery of poets. Thereupon 'Ubayd-i-Zakani said, 'In that case I, too, will pursue the path of impudence, so that by these means I may obtain access to the King's most intimate society, and may become one of his courtiers and favorites', which he accordingly did.

Then he began recklessly to utter the most shameless sayings and the most unseemly and extravagant jests, whereby he obtained innumerable gifts and presents, which none dared to pose and contend with him. Thus 'Ubayd-i-Zakani a serious writer, a moralist and a panegyrist was compelled by circumstances to become a ribald satirist.

The most striking feature of the serious poems of 'Ubayd-i-Zakani is the constant references to Fars and its capital Shiraz, which evidently held the affection of the poet far more than his native city of Qazvin.

Ubayd wrote religious poems, praise of God, the Prophet and the Four Rashidun Caliphs; but he neither claimed nor desired to lead a virtuous life.

Poverty and debt were the usual lots of 'Ubayd.

Because of the ribald and often homoerotic quality of his verse, 'Ubayd was widely censored.

Nizam al-Din ‘Ubayd Zakani see ‘Ubayd Zakani, Nizam al-Din
Nezam od-Din Ubeydollah Zâkâni see ‘Ubayd Zakani, Nizam al-Din
Ubayd-i Zākāni see ‘Ubayd Zakani, Nizam al-Din
'Ubayd Zakani see ‘Ubayd Zakani, Nizam al-Din

‘Udhra, Banu
‘Udhra, Banu (Banu ‘Udhra) is an Arab tribe belonging to the great subdivision of the Quda‘a and established in the north of the Hejaz in the Wadi’l-Qura.  They exercised control over the road between the Hejaz and Syria.  In 623, the Prophet sent them a letter and in 630 they dispatched an official embassy to Medina.  The played no part in politics and did not give any personage of note to the history of Islam.  They achieved however a fame without equal for their love of poetry, giving their name to the so-called “Udhri love.”
Banu 'Udhra see ‘Udhra, Banu

Uighur (Uyghur) (Weiwu’er) (Uygur).  Turkic people of northwestern China, who ruled a large and sophisticated kingdom in the eighth and ninth centuries.

Uighurs are a Sunni Muslim Turkic-speaking people inhabiting northwestern China in Xinjiang, the largest province in the People’s Republic of China.  The Uighurs rate among the four most important Turkic populations in the world.  They are the largest non-Chinese nationality existing within China’s borders.  The Uighurs have a long tradition of scholarship and high culture that continues to this day.  In the past, they have served as a bridge between East and West; in modern times they have been a cultural mediator between the cultures of South Asia and Europe and Russia.

The first mention of Uighurs in written sources occurs in the third century of the Christian calendar, when they were one of the many nomadic tribes to migrate from northern Mongolia to Inner Asia.  With the founding of an empire in 744, the Uighurs consolidated their ethnic identity.  The second emperor, Moyanchuo, built a capital city and an imperial palace beside the Orkhon River.

Prior to the establishment of their empire, the Uighurs practiced their autochthonous religion.  After Sogdian traders became influential at the Uighur court, the official religion of the Uighurs became Manichaeism, although many were Buddhists.  In the tenth century, a Uighur prince, Sadiq Burhan al-Din, converted to Islam, but not until the fourteenth century did Islam become the primary Uighur religion.

During their imperial period the Uighurs developed their own language and script by adapting the Sogdian alphabet.  At this time the Uighurs abandoned the entirely nomadic existence of their ancestors for a more sedentary urban life in which commerce and agriculture were important.  When the Mongol Khans ruled Central Asia, they borrowed the Uighur alphabet and adapted it to Mongolian phonetics.  In the eleventh and twelfth centureies the Uighur script was gradually replaced with the Arabic alphabet.

Before the consolidation of their empire, the Uighurs already had a traditional alliance with the Chinese.  Uighur emperors sent horsemen and archers to help the Chinese put down several rebellions as well as an invasion by Tibetan nomads.  Since the Chinese treated their Uighur allies as barbarians, and since the Uighurs exploited their power over the Chinese by looting and pillaging rebel held Chinese cities after battle, the relationship between the two peoples was full of resentment.  The trade of Chinese silk for Uighur horses was the basis of their commercial relationship.

After the empire fell to the Kirghiz in 840, the Uighurs migrated to the southern part of the Tarim Basin and settled in the Turfan Oasis.  Here they established the Kocho kingdom, which became a vassal state of the Karakhanids in the twelfth century.  The Karakhanids were ousted by Jenghiz Khan and the Mongols in the thirteenth century.  In the fifteenth century, Uighuristan made up a part of Mogulistan.  In 1566, one of the first in a series of Khoja khans took over the area.  These Muslim prelates, who came out of Bukhara and Samarkand, claimed direct descent from the Prophet Muhammad.

In 1760 the Chinese claimed the Uighur state as a part of China and named the area Xinjiang, or New Dominion.  As a result of the oppression of their Chinese rulers, Muslim warlords were able to lead several rebellions, yet all were crushed by China’s armies.

Not only the Chinese wanted to control Eastern Turkestan, as it was called by the Europeans.  At the end of the nineteenth century Germany, England, Russian, and even the United States were seeking to establish their power in the area.  The Russians and the British were the most aggressive, spurred on by the reports of gold in the cities of Yarkand and Khotan as well as the strategic importance of Xinjiang.  After the Russian Revolution, the Soviets sought to extend their revolutionary ideals into Central Asia.  In the early 1930s, Uighur nationalists, with Soviet backing, founded the independent Eastern Turkestan Republic.  This was quickly taken over by Chinese warlords.  Since most Western publications available to Uighurs at the time came out of Russia, the Russians also had a great cultural influenc.  Mao’s armies defeated the Guomindang (Kuomintang) troops stationed in Xinjiang in 1949, and the Xinjian-Uighur Autonomous Region was formed in 1955.

Today most Uighurs live in the Xinjiang-Uighur Autonomous Region of China.  This area is China’s main site for oil and minerla production and as such is a sensitive area.

In Xinjiang, China has greatly imrpved the irrigation systems and created a transportation network of railroad and air travel.  As of 1985, Xinjiang operated its own airline.  A thriving commerce based on agriculture, animal husbandry, and the extraction and refinement of oil and minerals has increased the standard of living of the average Uighur.  In the early 1980s the Chinese opened the area to tourists.

The Chinese government has reformed many of the restrictions on the Uighur people that grew out of the Cultural Revolution.  The rich literary and musical heritage of the Uighur people continues today.  Uighurs publish books in their own language, from ancient historical epics to modern comedies.  Urumqi houses the Uighur National Opera.  Traditional Uighur musicians and dancers travel to Europe and the United States.

In late 1985, Uighur students staged demonstrations in Beijing, Shanghai, and Urumqi, calling for an end to nuclear testing in Xinjiang, the relaxation of family planning regulations, and increased minority rights.

The Chinese government has often referred to Uyghur nationalists as "terrorists" and received more global support for what it claims to be the Chinese contribution to the "war on terror".  Human Rights Watch alleged that China was taking advantage of a "post-9/11 environment" to suppress peaceful cultural and religious messages in Xinjiang. Rebiya Kadeer, a Uyghur nationalist leader, advocated a separate state for Uyghurs in Xinjiang. The Chinese government accused her of masterminding the July 2009 Ürümqi riots to this end. Nine Uyghur detainees in Guantanamo Bay also feared a backlash from China because of their separatist sympathies, so the United States resettled them in a third country rather than back to China.

Many Uyghurs in the diaspora supported Pan-Turkic groups. Several organizations such as the East Turkestan Party provided support for the Turkic Uyghurs.  Some Uyghur political groups supported peaceful Uyghur nationalism and independence. However, the Chinese Government claimed two separatist groups: the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, blamed for 200 attacks between 1990 and 2001, and the recent and still disputed East Turkestan Liberation Organization.

Uyghur see Uighur
Weiwu'er see Uighur
Uygur see Uighur

‘ulama’ (ulema).  The learned of Islam, i.e., the religious teachers, canon lawyers, judges, and high state religious officials like the Shaykh al-Islam.  They came to have, in a wide and vague fashion, the ultimate decision on all questions of constitution, canon law and theology.  They might be government functionaries, either controlled by the government or keeping the government in a certain awe; or they might be private and independent students of canon law and theology.

The Arabic word ‘ulama’ is the plural of the word ‘alim.  The word ‘alim means “one who knows, an expert, or a scholar.”  The term ‘ulama’ is the collective designation for Muslim religious scholars, “those who possess [right] knowledge (‘ilm)” and thus are authorities for all aspects of Islamic life.  Apparently from the beginning of Islam, Muslims looked for direction to those men and women noted for their competence in the quadrivium of Islamic learning.  The quadrivium of Islamic learning consists of: (1) Arabic language (grammar and lexicology), (2) Qur’an and Qur’anic studies, (3) hadith and hadith studies, and (4) fiqh (religious law).  Often the foci of pious opposition to political authority perceived as unjust, the ‘ulama’ were also those to whom rulers and administrators turned for guidance and for legitimation.  What began, however, as the informal and consensual role of the most learned -- as custodians of the sunna and critics of its neglect -- gradually became institutionalized, so that the ‘ulama’ became a recognized professional class.  So uniform did their role throughout Islam become that a fourteenth century ‘alim could move from Andalusia to Egypt or even India and be accepted and employed at once.  In many areas they formed an aristocratic and sometimes endogamous social class.

There were two major factors in this transformation to a professional role.  (1) The crystallization of religious law (fiqh), through which ‘ilm became less a personal quality and more a mastery of particular data and methods.  The ‘ulama’ became the arbiters of the now authoritative ijma’ as well as conservators of the tradition of Qur’an and hadith interpretation and perpetuators of taqlid -- the system of binding legal precedent.  (2) The increasingly important role of the ‘ulama’  in society.  Particularly after the tenth century decline of stable central government, the ‘ulama’  came to be powerful both as representatives of the universally acknowledged sharia and as mediators of lawsuits, administrators of inheritances and endowments, large property holders, teachers, preachers, and judges.  The elaboration of the madrasa system of education consolidated their position and standardized their training.  

It is not then surprising that the renascent central authorities of the Ottomans, Safavids, and Mughals attempted to control or suppress the ‘ulama’.  The Ottomans, for example, organized them into a regimented hierarchy.  Those who wanted official position were promoted through standard grades and, in the madrasas, ranked by status.  All ‘ulama’ came under direction of the Shaikh al-Islam, the supreme judiciary authority of the empire, who had power to judge the legitimacy of civil law by recourse to the broader and higher standards of the sharia.

Despite governmental efforts to control the, the ‘ulama’ remain today a kind of fulcrum between the people and their rulers.  This is most evident in Shi‘ite Iran, where the ‘ulama’ are uniquely powerful.  The events there during the 1970s present the classical model of the ‘ulama’ uniting a demoralized people to repudiate an oppressive civil authority in the name of Islamic ideals.

‘Ulama’ is a term in Islam meaning the community of learned men.  The direct translation would be “the ones possessing knowledge.” ‘Ulama’ is a plural term, and the singular is ‘alim.  The term ‘alim can be translated into “learned, knowing man.”

Normally, ‘ulama’ is used for the group of men with religious education and religiously related professions.  ‘Ulama’ is the group of men expressing the true content of Islam towards both the people and the rulers.  Men belonging to ulama have education in the Qur’an, the Sunna, and sharia.  

The ulama has considerable power in many Muslim countries, but their influence on the society often depends on how strong the secular authorities are.  In most cases, the ulama cooperates with the rulers and plays often the role of defending or silently accepting the government’s politics.

The ulama has great influence on most Muslims, but this influence is easily destroyed when the ulama loses its credibility.  The credibility of the ulama depends very much on their level of independence.  If there is too much cooperation with the rulers, people will turn away from the ulama to find their religious guidance somewhere else, resulting in an ulama without power.  An ulama which do not cooperate at all with the governments will face suppression and economic difficulties.  There are cases where the ulama has overthrown the governments, as did happen in 1979 in Iran.

The growth of modern state structures in the Muslim world have weakened the ulama.  While the ulama under weak rulers practised many activities normally connected to a state.  The juridical ones, the modern state have limited the range of activities of the ulama.  Because of this, the modern ulama are more than ever spiritual leaders.    

Ulama, also spelt ulema, refers to the educated class of Muslim legal scholars engaged in the several fields of Islamic studies. They are best known as the arbiters of shari‘a law. While the ulama are well versed in legal jurisprudence being Islamic lawyers, some of them also go on to specialize in other fields, such as philosophy, dialectical theology or Quranic hermeneutics or explanation. The fields studied, and the importance given them, will vary from tradition to tradition, or even from seminary to seminary.

ulema see ‘ulama’

Ulama.  In Brazil, a highly respected Islamic teacher among Muslim slaves.

Uleebalang. Term which refers to an intermediary administrative official in the Malayan Sultanates.

Uli (Uli I) (Ouli) (Ali) (Wali).  Thirteenth century ruler of the Mali Empire.  He succeeded his father, the famous Sundjata.  The Arab historian Ibn Khaldun described him as one of the greatest kings of Mali and noted that he performed the pilgrimage to Mecca.  It was probably during his rule that Mali captured the important trading cities of Timbuktu, Gao and Walata.  He was succeeded by a brother, Wati.

Mansa Uli (French: Ouli), also known as Ali or Wali in Arab sources, was the second mansa of the Mali Empire.

Born under the name Yérélinkon, he was the only biological son of the legendary Sundiata Keita. The mansas that followed Uli, Ouati and Khalifa, were the children of Mandinka generals and adopted by the emperor to be raised as members of the Keita clan.

According to oral sources Sundiata's brother, Manding Bory (alias Abubakari I), was supposed to ascend to the throne since Uli was too young to ascend the throne at the time of his father's death. Instead, the ambitious prince seized the throne for himself in 1255 and began a campaign of territorial expansion into West Africa.

Mansa Uli Keita also significantly increased the empire's agricultural production. On an economic and political level, Uli set a precedent by making the Hajj to Mecca during his reign. Unlike his father, Mansa Uli had no blood heirs leaving the throne to be fought over by his adopted brothers. During the ensuing power struggle, Ouati Keita seized the throne sidelining Manding Bory again.
Ouli see Uli
Ali see Uli
Wali see Uli

Ulugh Beg
Ulugh Beg (Muhammad Turghay Ulugh Beg) (Muhammad Targai Ulugh Beg) (Ulug Beg)Ulugh Beg (Mīrzā Muhammad Tāriq bin Shāhrukh Uluġ Beg) (b. 1393/1394, Solṭānīyeh (Sultaniyeh), Timurid Iran (Persia) - d. October 27, 1449, Samarkand, Timurid empire [now in Uzbekistan]).  Timurid ruler in Samarkand (r.1447-1449).  A son of Shah Rukh Mirza, he became governor of a part of Khurasan and Mazandaran in 1407, and in 1408 of Turkestan.  But he was first of all a man of letters, an artist and a poet.  Being able to recite the Qur’an by heart according to all seven “readings,” he was also a great bibliophile and a learned mathematician, fond of poetry and history.  He enriched Samarkand with superb buildings.  Above all he was an astronomer, who built an observatory and invented new and powerful instruments for researches he carried out with other astronomers.  He sought to correct Ptolemy’s computations, and compiled an astronomical almanac, known as “the new almanac of the sultan,” which became celebrated in Europe in the seventeenth century.  Less happy in war and politics, he had to fight his son ‘Abd al-Latif, who in the end defeated his father and had him executed.

Ulugh Beg was a grandson of Timur (known in the West as Tamerlane), a Tartar prince and ruler of Turkestan.  He was an exceptional astronomer and mathematician of the fifteenth century.  Ulugh Beg was the son of the Timurid king Shah Rukh and was born in 1393 at Sultaniyya in Central Asia.  He was a Hafiz -- someone who can recite the Qur’an by heart.

Ulugh Beg made Samarkand famous as one of the leading cities of Muslim civilization.  In 1424, he constructed a madrasa, an institution of higher learning, where astronomy was taught.  Later in 1428, Ulugh Beg began the construction of a magnificent three story observatory in Samarkand.  It was more than two hundred fifty feet in diameter and one hundred twenty feet high.  He appointed Ali-Kudsi, a Muslim astronomer as the director of the Observatory.  Several well-known mathematicians and astronomers including al-Kashi and Kadizada worked there.



Ulugh Beg computed the length of the year as 365 years, 5 hours, 49 minutes, 15 seconds, a fairly accurate value.  In addition, he prepared Tables of Planetary Motions which were very popular and in demand throughout the astronomical community.  Ulugh Beg studied the yearly movements of the five bright planets: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus and Mercury.  His data is still considered very accurate.  In 1437, Ulugh Beg also compiled a star catalog giving the positions of 992 stars.  His compilation of tables of sines and tangents at one degree intervals are accurate to eight decimal places.

Ulugh Beg was a cultivated and scholarly man.  His capital, Samarkand, became a great center of Islamic culture under his patronage.  He embellished the city with numerous architectural monuments, among them a madrasa bearing his name and an astronomical observatory regarded by contemporaries as one of the wonders of the world.  Keenly interested in mathematics and astronomy, he assembled around him the best astronomers of his day and compiled a new set of astronomical tables in which he sought to correct Ptolemy’s computations and which became famous in Europe. His rule, however, saw the growth of religious reaction led by a faction of the Naqshbandi order, as well as the encroachment of the nomadic Uzbeks.  His death in 1449, at the hands of his son, Abd al-Latif, ushered in a new period of internecine struggles within the Timurid dynasty.


Under the brief rule of Ulugh Beg, the Timurid dynasty of Iran reached its cultural peak.  His father, Shāh Rokh, captured the city of Samarkand and gave it to Ulūgh Beg, who made it a center of Muslim culture. There he wrote poetry and history and studied the Qurʾān. His greatest interest was astronomy, and he built an observatory (begun in 1428) at Samarkand. In his observations he discovered a number of errors in the computations of the 2nd-century Alexandrian astronomer Ptolemy, whose figures were still being used.

Ulūgh Beg was a failure in more mundane affairs. On his father’s death in 1447 he was unable to consolidate his power, though he was Shāh Rokh’s sole surviving son. Other Timurid princes profited from his lack of action, and he was put to death at the instigation of his son, ʿAbd al-Laṭīf.

Muhammad Turghay Ulugh Beg see Ulugh Beg
Muhammad Targai Ulugh Beg see Ulugh Beg
Ulug Beg see Ulugh Beg
Mīrzā Muhammad Tāriq bin Shāhrukh Uluġ Beg see Ulugh Beg

Uluj ‘Ali
Uluj ‘Ali  (Ochialy) (Uluc Ali Reis) (Uluç Ali Paşa) (Kılıç Ali Paşa) (Occhiali) (Uchali) (Giovanni Dionigi Galeni) (1519 - June 21, 1587).  Turkish corsair and admiral. Born in Calabria, he was captured and became a galley slave.  Having converted to Islam, he was lieutenant to the Turkish admiral Turghud ‘Ali Pasha (d. 1565) during Charles V’s expedition against the island of Jerba, became Turghud’s successor as viceroy of Tripolis and later of Algiers.  He took part in maritime expeditions against the Venetians and the Maltese, and commanded the left wing of the Ottoman fleet at the battle of Lepanto in 1571.  He brought a part of the fleet safely back to Istanbul and became Grand Admiral until his death.

Uluj Ali was a Muslim corsair of Italian origin, who converted to Islam and later became an Ottoman admiral (Reis) and Chief Admiral (Kaptan-ı Derya) of the Ottoman Fleet in the 16th century.

He was also known by several other names in the Christian countries of the Mediterranean, and in the literature also appears under various names. He was often, especially in Italy, referred to as Occhiali, and Miguel de Cervantes called him Uchali in chapter XXXIX of his Don Quixote de la Mancha. Elsewhere he was simply called Ali Pasha. John Wolf, in his The Barbary Coast, refers to him as Euldj Ali.

Uluj Ali was born as Giovanni Dionigi Galeni, the son of seaman Birno Galeni and his wife Pippa de Cicco, in the village of Le Castella (near modern Isola Capo Rizzuto) in Calabria, Southern Italy. His father wanted him to receive a religious education, but on April 29, 1536, Giovanni was captured by Ali Ahmed, one of the corsair captains of Barbarossa Hayreddin Pasha, and was forced to serve as a galley slave. After several years, he converted to Islam and joined the corsairs. This was by no means unusual.  Many Muslim corsairs in this period were converts from Christian lands.

Uluj Ali was a very able mariner and soon rose in the ranks, gaining sufficient prize booty to buy a share in a corsair brigantine sailing out of Algiers. Further success soon enabled him to become the captain and owner of a galley, and he gained a reputation as one of the boldest corsair reis on the Barbary Coast. He joined Turgut Reis, who was then the most feared corsair in the Mediterranean as well as an Ottoman admiral and Bey of Tripoli. Sailing with Turgut Reis, he also impressed the Ottoman admiral Piyale Pasha, with whom Turgut joined forces on a number of occasions. Due to his success in battles, the administration of the island of Samos in the Aegean Sea was awarded to him in 1550. In 1565 he was promoted to the rank of Beylerbey (Chief Governor) of Alexandria. The same year he joined the Siege of Malta with the Ottoman Egyptian fleet, and when Turgut Reis was killed during the siege, Piyale Pasha appointed Uluj Ali to become Turgut's successor as Bey of Tripoli. Uluj took Turgut's body to Tripoli for burial, assumed control of the province, and was subsequently confirmed as Pasha of Tripoli by Sultan Suleiman I. In the following years, he conducted numerous raids on the coasts of Sicily, Calabria and Naples.

In March 1568, the vice-regency of Algiers fell vacant, and upon the recommendation of Piyale Pasha, Sultan Selim II appointed Uluj Ali to become the Pasha and Beylerbey of Algiers, the most powerful of the increasingly semi-independent corsair states in North Africa. In October 1569 he turned upon the Hafsid Sultan Hamid of Tunis, who had been restored to his throne by Spain. Marching overland with an army of some 5000, he quickly sent Hamid and his forces fleeing and made himself ruler of Tunis. Hamid found refuge in the Spanish fort at La Goulette outside Tunis.

In July 1570, while ostensibly en route to Istanbul to ask the Sultan for more ships and men in order to evict the Spaniards from all of North Africa, Uluj Ali encountered five Maltese galleys, commanded by Francisco de Sant Clement, then the captain-general of the Order's galleys, near Cape Passaro in Sicily and captured four of them. (Sant Clement escaped, but on returning to Malta was condemned, strangled and his body put in a sack and dumped into the harbor.) This victory caused Uluj to change his mind and return to Algiers in order to celebrate. There, in early 1571, he was faced with a mutiny of the janissaries who demanded overdue pay. He decided to put to sea, leaving the mutinous soldiers to take their pay from anyone they could find and rob. Having learned of the presence of a large Turkish fleet at Coron in the Morea, he decided to join it. It was the fleet commanded by Müezzinzade Ali Pasha that was to meet disaster at Lepanto a few months later.

On October 7, 1571, Uluj Ali commanded the left flank of Ali Pasha's fleet in the Battle of Lepanto. He kept his squadron together in the melee, outmaneuvered his direct opponent, Gian Andrea Doria, and captured the flagship of the Maltese Knights with its great banner. When the Turkish defeat became obvious, he succeeded in extricating his ships, and gathered up the scattered remaining ships of the Ottoman fleet (some forty galleys and fustas) and others along the way to Istanbul, where he arrived with 87 vessels. There he presented the great flag of the Maltese Knights to the Sultan who gave him the honorary title of Kılıç (Sword) and on October 29, 1571 appointed him as Kaptan-ı Derya (Chief Admiral) and Beylerbey of the Isles. He was subsequently known as Kilic Ali Pasha (Turkish: Kılıç Ali Paşa).

Piyale Pasha and Kilic Ali Pasha almost immediately began to rebuild the Ottoman fleet. Kilic Ali placed special emphasis on the construction of a number of heavier ships modeled upon the Venetian galleasses, heavier artillery for the galleys, and firearms for the soldiers on board. In June 1572, now Chief Admiral, he set out with 250 galleys and a large number of smaller ships to seek revenge for Lepanto. He found the Christian fleet anchored in an inlet of Morea, but his strategy of trying to lure the enemy out and inflicting damage through repeated quick thrusts meant that a full-fledged battle never materialized, because the Christian fleet was too cautious to be trapped and encircled.

In 1573 Kilic Ali Pasha commanded the naval campaign on the coasts of Italy. In that same year, the regency of Algiers was transferred to Arab Ahmed, and Don Juan of Austria, the victor of Lepanto, recaptured Tunis. In 1574 Kilic Ali sailed to Tunis with a fleet of 250 galleys and a large army under the command of Cigalazade Sinan Pasha, captured the port fortress of La Goleta on August 25 and city of Tunis on September 13. He then proceeded to Morocco and on July 26, 1574 constructed a Turkish castle on the coastline facing Spain. In 1576 he raided Calabria and in 1578 put down another mutiny of the janissaries at Algiers who had assassinated Arab Ahmed. In 1584 he commanded a naval expedition to Crimea. In 1585 he put down revolts in Syria and Lebanon with the Ottoman Egyptian fleet based in Alexandria.

Kilic Ali Pasha died on June 21, 1587 in Istanbul. He is buried at the Kılıç Ali Paşa Mosque (1580), designed by the architect Mimar Sinan.

Part of the legacy of Ulij Ali (Kilic Ali Pasa) include:

    * Construction of the Kılıç Ali Paşa Mosque (1580) and Baths (1583) in Istanbul.
    * Several warships and submarines of the Turkish Navy being named after him.
    * A statue in the center square of Le Castella in Calabria, Italy, where he was born.

Ochialy see Uluj ‘Ali 
Uluc Ali Reis see Uluj ‘Ali 
Uluc Ali Pasa see Uluj ‘Ali 
Kilic Ali Pasa see Uluj ‘Ali 
Giovanni Dionigi Galeni see Uluj ‘Ali 
Galeni, Giovanni Dionigi see Uluj ‘Ali

Umara.  Plural of amir (“noble”), a term used for the governing class of the two main political entities of medieval India, the Delhi sultanate (1206-1526) and the Mughal Empire (1526-1857).  The character and composition of the nobility changed over time, in response either to political pressures or to the personal predilections of rulers.  The early Turkish sultans recruited the umara mainly from the Turks, and Iltutmish consolidated them into “forty families.”  The Khaljis, however, admitted non-Turks and Muslim converts to the nobility.  Under Muhammad bin Tughluq scions of religious families and Alai nobles, converts, Afghans, and Hindus were inducted into the nobility.  The land assignments (iqta) held by the nobles during the sultanate period were more in the nature of a bureaucratic institution than a feudal fief.

With the advent of the Mughals, the nobility underwent further changes.  Akbar organized the nobles on the basis of mansab (rank), which determined their status, fixed their pay, and laid a concomitant duty of maintaining a certain number of troopers and horses.  All mansabdars were directly subordinate to the emperoro.  The mansab was represented by two numbers; one indicated zat (personal pay) and the other sawar (cavalry).  Toward the end of Akbar’s reign zat was used to designate a mansabdar’s position in the official hierarchy and helped to determine his pay.  The sawar rank indicated the number of troopers the mansabdar was required to maintain.  During Akbar’s time mansabdars having commands of two hundred or more were entitled to be called umara.  Under Shah Jahan, the limit was raised to five hundred.

The Mughal nobility was composed of Turks, Persians, Afghans, Rajputs, and other native born Indians.  Under Akbar, Rajputs gained in importance.  During the later Mughal period Iranis and Turanis became the two main groupings, and during the eighteenth century the two were in constant conflict.

The Mughal nobility was not hereditary, but the sons of deceased nobles were often taken into service.  The law of escheat operated and hence the property of the nobles could be confiscated on death.

‘Umara ibn Abi’l-Hasan
‘Umara ibn Abi’l-Hasan (1121-1174).  Arab man of letters from Yemen.  He studied and taught at Zabid, and was engaged in trade, which brought him in contact with the Najahids.  After 1157, he settled in Egypt, where he dedicated his poems to the autocratic viziers Tala’i’ ibn Ruzzik, Ruzzik ibn Tala’i’, Dirgham (d. 1164) and Shirkuh.  His sympathies inclined to the Fatimids, for whom he wrote a qasida of lament.  He took part in a conspiracy to restore them, and as a result was put to death by Saladin.  He wrote a history of the Egyptian viziers, and one of Yemen.

‘Umar ibn ‘Abd al-‘Aziz ibn Marwan
‘Umar ibn ‘Abd al-‘Aziz ibn Marwan (Umar ibn Abdul Aziz) (Umar II) (November 2, 682 - February, 720).  Umayyad caliph (r. 717-720).  In 706, he became governor of the Hejaz and settled at Medina where he formed an advisory council.  He became famous for his piety and frugality, feeling no obligation to spread Islam by the sword.  He preferred peaceful missionary activity, which method proved successful among the Berbers and in Sind.  He adopted a kindly attitude towards the ‘Alids, the Christians, the Jews and the Zoroastrians, and reduced discrimination against non-Arab converts to Islam.  His most important measure was the reform of taxation.  The ever-increasing conversion to Islam of non-Arabs led to more and more subjects being exempt from taxation.  Furthermore, agriculture suffered to a great extent as a result of many converts settling in the cities.  Al-Hajjaj therefore had imposed the land-tax (in Arabic, kharaj) also upon Muslim landowners and prohibited immigration to the cities. ‘Umar, however, adhered to the principle that Muslims should pay no tribute and propounded that conquered land was the common property of the Muslim community and conquered land was the common property of the Muslim community and could not be transformed into immune private property by sale to individual Muslims.  In 718, he forbade Muslims to buy land which should pay tribute and permitted immigration of new converts into the cities.  In course of time a whole cycle of pious legends gathered round his name.  Even the historians of the ‘Abbasid period give him the highest praise, and his tomb at Dayr Sam‘an near Aleppo was left undisturbed after the ‘Abbasid triumph.


Umar was born around 682. Some traditions state that he was born in Medina while others claim that he was born in Egypt.

According to a Sunni Muslim tradition, Umar's lineage to Umar ibn al-Khattab stems from a famous event during the second Caliph's rule. During one of his frequent disguised journeys to survey the condition of his people, Umar overheard a milkmaid refusing to obey her mother's orders to sell adulterated milk. He sent an officer to purchase milk from the girl the next day and learned that she had kept her resolve; the milk was unadulterated. Umar summoned the girl and her mother to his court and told them what he had heard. As a reward, he offered to marry the girl to his son Asim. She accepted, and from this union was born a girl named Layla that would in due course become the mother of Umar ibn Abdul Aziz.


Unlike most rulers of that era, Umar formed a council with which he administered the province. His time in Medina was so notable that official grievances sent to Damascus all but ceased. In addition, many people emigrated to Medina from Iraq seeking refuge from their harsh governor, Al-Hajjaj bin Yousef. This angered Al-Hajjaj, and he pressed al-Walid to remove Umar. Much to the dismay of the people of Medina, al-Walid bowed to Hajjaj's pressure and dismissed Umar from his post. However, by this time, Umar had developed an impeccable reputation across the Islamic empire.

Umar continued to live in Medina through the remainder of al-Walid's reign and that of Walid's brother Suleiman. Suleiman, who was Umar's cousin and had always admired him, ignored his own brothers and son when it came time to appoint his successor and instead nominated Umar. Umar reluctantly accepted the position after trying unsuccessfully to dissuade Suleiman, and he approached it unlike any other Ummayad caliph before him.

Umar was extremely pious and disdainful of worldly luxuries. He preferred simplicity to the extravagance that had become a hallmark of the Umayyad lifestyle, depositing all assets and finery meant for the caliph into the public treasury. He abandoned the caliphate palace to the family of Suleiman and instead preferred to live in modest dwellings. He wore rough linens instead of royal robes, and often went unrecognized.

According to a Muslim tradition, a female visitor once came to Umar's house seeking charity and saw a raggedly-dressed man patching holes in the building's walls. Assuming that the man was a servant of the caliph, she asked Umar's wife, "Don't you fear God? Why don't you veil in the presence of this man?" The woman was shocked to learn that the "servant" was in fact the caliph himself.

Though he had the people's overwhelming support, he publicly encouraged them to elect someone else if they were not satisfied with him (an offer no one ever took him up on). Umar confiscated the estates seized by Ummayad officials and redistributed them to the people, while making it a personal goal to attend to the needs of every person in his empire. Fearful of being tempted into bribery, he rarely accepted gifts, and when he did; he promptly deposited them in the public treasury. He even encouraged his own wife—who had been daughter, sister and wife to three caliphs in their turn—to donate her jewelry to the public treasury. He is widely known for reinforcing the Zakat and according to Muslim tradition, at the end of his rule, there were scarcely any poor people to receive the charity money.

At one point Umar almost ordered the Great Umayyad Mosque in Damascus to be stripped of its precious stones and expensive fixtures in favor of the treasury, but he desisted on learning that the Mosque was a source of envy to his Byzantine rivals in Constantinople. These moves made him unpopular with the Umayyad court, but endeared him to the masses, so much so that the court could not move against him in the open.

Umar made a number of important religious reforms. According to both Sunni and Shi'i sources, he abolished the long-standing Umayyad and Khawaarij custom of cursing Ali ibn Abi Talib, at the end of Friday sermons and ordered the following Qu'ranic verse be recited instead:

- Surely God enjoins justice, doing of good and giving to kinsfolk.

In addition, Umar was keen to enforce the Sharia, pushing to end drinking and bathhouses where men and women would mix freely. He continued the welfare programs of the last few Umayyad caliphs, expanding them and including special programs for orphans and the destitute. He would also abolish the Jizya tax for converts to Islam, who were former dhimmis, who used to be taxed even after they had converted under other Umayyad rulers.


Though Umar did not place as much of an emphasis on expanding the Empire's borders as his predecessors had, he was not passive. He sent Ibn Hatim ibn al-Nu'man to repel Turks invading Azerbaijan. He faced a Kharijite uprising and preferred negotiations to armed conflict, personally holding talks with two Kharijite envoys shortly before his death. He recalled the troops besieging Constantinople. These were led by his cousin Maslama. This Second Arab siege of Constantinople had failed to take the city and was sustaining heavy losses at the hands of allied Byzantine and Bulgarian forces. Its defeat was a serious blow to Umayyad prestige.

Umar's reforms in favor of the people greatly angered the nobility of the Umayyads, and they would eventually bribe a servant into poisoning his food. Umar learned of this on his death bed and pardoned the culprit, collecting the punitive payments he was entitled to under Islamic Law but depositing them in the public treasury. He died in February, 720, in Aleppo.  He was succeeded by his cousin Yazid II.

Although Umar's reign was very short (three years), he is very highly regarded in Muslim memory. He is considered one of the finest rulers in Muslim history, second only to the Four Rightly Guided Caliphs. In fact, in some circles, he is affectionately referred to as the Fifth and the last Rightly Guided Caliph.

Umar ibn Abdul Aziz see ‘Umar ibn ‘Abd al-‘Aziz ibn Marwan
Umar II see ‘Umar ibn ‘Abd al-‘Aziz ibn Marwan

‘Umar ibn Abi Rabi‘a
‘Umar ibn Abi Rabi‘a (Umar ibn Abi Rabi'ah)  ('Umar ibn Abi Rabi'ah al-Makhzumi) ('Umar ibn 'Abd Allah ibn Abi Rabi'ah al-Makhzumi) (November, 644, Mecca, Arabia [now in Saudi Arabia] - 712/719, Mecca).  Greatest love poet of the Arabs.  He was from a wealthy family in Mecca, and served for a time as governor in Yemen.  He was the first townsman poet in Arabic.

'Umar ibn Abi Rabi'ah al-Makhzumi is known for his love poetry and for being one of the originators of the literary form ghazel in Islamic literature.

ʿUmar belonged to the wealthy merchant family of Makhzūm, a member of the Meccan tribe of Quraysh (of which the Prophet Muhammad was also a member). He spent most of his life in Mecca, also traveling to southern Arabia, Syria, and Mesopotamia. Little is known about his life, for the numerous anecdotes related about him are manifestly literary fabrications. The internal evidence of his poetry, however, gives a valuable picture of the social life of the Meccan and Medinan aristocracy of his time.

His poetry centers on his own life and emotions, eschewing the traditional themes of journeys, battles, and tribal lore, and celebrates his love affairs with the noble Arab ladies who came to Mecca on pilgrimage. Although this genre had been sporadically practiced before his time, ʿUmar ibn Abī Rabīʿah was the first to perfect it with a light meter and an accurate emotional perception.

Umar ibn Abi Rabi'ah see ‘Umar ibn Abi Rabi‘a
'Umar ibn Abi Rabi'ah al-Makhzumi see ‘Umar ibn Abi Rabi‘a
'Umar ibn 'Abd Allah ibn Abi Rabi'ah al-Makhzumi see ‘Umar ibn Abi Rabi‘a

‘Umar ibn ‘Ali al-Misri
‘Umar ibn ‘Ali al-Misri (Ibn al-Farid) (Ibn Farid) (Sharaf al-Dīn Abū Ḥafṣ ʿUmar ibn al-Fāriḍ)
 ( b. March 22, 1181/March 11, 1182, Cairo - 1234/January 23, 1235, Cairo).  Sufi poet.  The outer and inner meanings of his poems are so interwoven that they may be read as love poems or as mystical hymns.  But the collection of his works also contains two purely mystical odes, one on divine love, the other on “the Pilgrim’s Progress.”

Ibn al-Farid was born in Cairo. He lived for some time in Mecca and died in Cairo. His poetry is entirely Sufic, and he was esteemed the greatest mystic poet of the Arabs. Some of his poems are said to have been written in ecstasies.

Son of a Syrian-born inheritance-law functionary, Ibn al-Fāriḍ studied for a legal career but abandoned law for a solitary religious life in the Muqaṭṭam hills near Cairo. He spent some years in or near Mecca, where he met the renowned Sufi al-Suhrawardī of Baghdad. Venerated as a saint during his lifetime, Ibn al-Fāriḍ was buried in the Muqaṭṭam hills, where his tomb is still visited.

Many of Ibn al-Fāriḍ’s poems are qaṣīdah (“odes”) on the lover’s longing for reunion with his beloved. He expresses through this convention his yearning for a return to Mecca and, at a deeper level, a desire to be assimilated into the spirit of Muhammad. He developed this theme at length in Naẓm as-sulūk (The Poem of the Way). Almost equally famous is his “Khamrīyah” (“Wine Ode”). This long qaṣīdah describes the effects of the wine of divine love. Although Ibn al-Fāriḍ’s poetry is mannered in style, with rhetorical embellishments and conventional imagery, his poems contain passages of striking beauty and deep religious feeling.


Ibn al-Farid see ‘Umar ibn ‘Ali al-Misri
Ibn Farid see ‘Umar ibn ‘Ali al-Misri
Sharaf al-Dīn Abū Ḥafṣ ʿUmar ibn al-Fāriḍ see ‘Umar ibn ‘Ali al-Misri

‘Umar ibn al-Khattab
 ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab ('Umar I) (Omar) (Umar the Great) (Farooq the Great) (b.c. 586-592, Mecca, Arabia [now in Saudi Arabia]  – d.  November 3/7, 644, Medina, Arabia).  Second Rashidun caliph and founder of the Arab empire (r. 634-644).  At first, he was a declared enemy of the Prophet’s message.  Hadith places his conversion to Islam in 618 when he was 26 years old.  He belonged to the Banu ‘Adi ibn Ka‘b who enjoyed no political influence at Mecca.  Due to his strength of will, his influence began in Medina after the Hijra, in perfect agreement with Abu Bakr.  He became the Prophet’s father-in-law when the Prophet married his daughter Hafsa.  He took part in the battles of Badr, Uhud and later ones, although his part was that of a counsellor rather than of a soldier.

Umar ibn al-Khattab was a devoted companion of Muhammad and was the initiator of the administrative mechanisms which made the Islamic empire possible.  Throughout Muhammad’s Medinan career, ‘Umar seems to have been in complete harmony with the policies of both the Prophet and Abu Bakr, the first caliph, with whom he shared the honor of being father-in-law of Muhammad.  No military exploits were credited to him, but he was involved in the revelation of portions of the Qur’an {see Sura 2:125; 33:53; and 66:6}.  

After the death of Abu Bakr, ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab was recognized as the latter’s successor by the majority of the Companions, there being dissatisfaction only on the side of the party of ‘Ali and of the “Helpers,” who had already suffered defeat when Abu Bakr became caliph two years earlier.  At the death of Abu Bakr, there seems to have been no formal designation of ‘Umar as successor, but his rule received almost unanimous acceptance, the only opposition deriving from supporters of Ali.  Once in office, he assumed the title Commander of the Faithful, and dared to dismiss Khalid ibn al-Walid, early Islam’s most successful general.  Khalid ibn al-Walid had challenged the authority of ‘Umar.

During the great expansion of Muslim conquests, which had already begun, ‘Umar never lost control of his generals.  He dismissed Khalid ibn al-Walid and treated ‘Amr ibn al-‘As with tact.  He also made use of the powerful family of the Umayyads.  All the political institutions by which the Muslim state was later to be ruled had their origin in his caliphate.

‘Umar instituted a system of checks on provincial administrators by dividing the authority between the military and civil commander and the fiscal officer.  He established the pension register and the office of judge, regulated worship in the mosques, and established a number of military centers, which later developed into famous Islamic cities.  

The regulations for the non-Muslim subjects, the institution of a register of those having right to military pensions, the founding of military centers out of which were to grow the future great cities of Islam, and the creation of the office of judge (qadi), were all the work of  ‘Umar ibn Khattab.  Religious ordinances, such as the prayer of Ramadan and the obligatory pilgrimage, as well as civic and penal ordinances, such as the era of the hijra, the punishment of drunkenness, and stoning as a punishment for adultery, go back to him.

‘Umar is said to have substituted in 640 the title of “Commander of the Believers” (in Arabic, amir al-mu’minin) for that of khalifa –“deputy.”  He fell in 644 by the dagger of Abu Lu’lu’a.  As a motive for the murder, hadith gives the very heavy tax against which the slave had appealed in vain to the caliph.  

‘Umar was assassinated by the disgruntled slave, Abu Lu’lu’a, before providing for a successor.  Despite rumors, there is no indication of a conspiracy to kill him.  However, the histories are unanimous that ‘Umar was more feared than liked, particularly because he expected all to adhere to his own severe ascetic standards.

‘Umar really was the second founder of Islam, but the Shi‘a have never concealed their antipathy to him because he was the first to thwart the claims of ‘Ali.

Umar was born in Mecca.  A brief timeline of his life reads as follows:

In 615, Umar converted to Islam, but according to some traditions, the coversion may have been as late as 618.

In 622, Umar participated in the hijra, the escape to Medina.  By this time, he had become one of Muhammad’s chief advisors.

In 624, Umar participated in the battle of Badr, but judging from the sources, he was not a central figure.

In 625, Umar participated in the battle of Uhud, but again his role was a marginal one.  However, in 625, Muhammad married Umar’s daughter Hafsa.

In 632, following the death of Muhammad, Umar campaigned for Abu Bakr to become the leader of the Muslim community.  Umar and Abu Bakr worked closely together, and according to some traditions Abu Bakr nominated Umar to be his successor.  It is, however, clear that there was no form of formal nomination.

In 634, Abu Bakr died, and Umar became leader of the Muslims.

In 636, Umar founded Basra as a military station.

In 638, Jerusalem was conquered, and Umar promised to protect the Christian population in the city.

In 641, Umar took the title “amir al-mu’minin,” -- “Prince of the true believers.”

On November 3, 644, Umar died in Medina after being assassinated by the Christian Persian slave Abu Lu’lu’a.  Umar had not arranged for a successor, but would be succeeded by Uthman, who was appointed by a six man strong council.  




In his work for developing the administration, Umar also laid the foundations for a legal system, which would eventually develop into sharia.  Among Umar’s regulations was to ban non-Muslims from the land of Arabia, punishment for drunkenness and it is also claimed by some traditions that it is Umar who made adultery punishable by stoning.  Umar institutionalized the prayer, the month of Ramadan, the obligatory pilgrimage, and defined the Hijra calendar system.  

Umar was a strict Muslim, hard on himself as well as on offenders.  He never claimed to be anything except a representative for the only rightful ruler, Muhammad.  He was generally highly respected by his contemporaries, as well as by later generations of Sunni Muslims.  The Shi ‘a regard him with suspicion, considering him an opponent of Ali.


'Umar was the most powerful of the four Rashidun Caliphs and one of the most powerful and influential Muslim rulers. He was a sahabi (companion) of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. He succeeded Caliph Abu Bakr (632–634) as the second Caliph of Rashidun Caliphate on 23 August 634. He was an expert jurist and is best known for his justice, that earned him the title Al-Farooq (The one who distinguishes between right and wrong) and his house as Darul Adal (house of justice). Also, Umar was the first Caliph to be called Amir al-Mu'minin (Commander of the Faithful or Prince of the Believers).

Under Umar the Islamic empire expanded at an unprecedented rate ruling the whole Sassanid Persian Empire and more than two thirds of the Eastern Roman Empire. His legislative abilities, his firm political and administrative control over a rapidly expanding empire and his brilliantly coordinated multi-prong attacks against the Sassanid Persian Empire that resulted in the conquest of the Persian empire in less than two years, marked his reputation as a great political and military leader. It was Umar who for the first time in 500 years since expulsion of Jews from the Holy Land, allowed the Jews to practice their religion freely and live in Jerusalem.

Religiously a controversial figure in the Shia Muslim world, Umar is regarded by Sunni Muslims as one of the four Rashidun or rightly guided caliphs who were true successors of Muhammad.  In stark contrast, 'Umar is regarded by Shi'a Muslims as unjust in his usurpation of Ali's right to the caliphate and is viewed as the principal political architect of the opposition to Ali.

Umar is regarded as one of the greatest political geniuses in history.  Under his leadership, the Islamic empire expanded at a unprecedented rate, while at the same time 'Umar also began to build the political structure that would hold together the vast empire that was being built. He undertook many administrative reforms and closely oversaw public policy. He established an advanced administration for the newly conquered lands, including several new ministries and bureaucracies, and ordered a census of all the Muslim territories. During his rule, the garrison cities (amsar) of Basra and Kufa were founded or expanded. In 638, he extended and renovated the Masjid al-Haram (Grand Mosque) in Mecca and the Al-Masjid al-Nabawi (Mosque of the Prophet) in Medina. Umar also ordered the expulsion of the Christian and Jewish communities of Najran and Khaybar allowing them to reside in Syria or Iraq. He issued orders that these Christians and Jews should be treated well and allotted them the equivalent land in their new settlements. Umar also forbade non-Muslims to reside in the Hejaz for longer than three days. He was first to establish the army as a state department. Umar was founder of Fiqh, the Islamic jurisprudence. He is regarded by Sunni Muslims to be one of the greatest Faqih. 'Umar as a jurist started the process of codifying Islamic Law (Shari'a). In 641, he established Bayt al-mal, a financial institution and started annual allowance for Muslims. A year later he also started allowance for the poor, underprivileged and old non-Muslim citizens of the empire. As a leader, 'Umar was known for his simple, austere lifestyle. Rather than adopt the pomp and display affected by the rulers of the time, he continued to live much as he had when Muslims were poor and persecuted. In 639, his fourth year as caliph and the seventeenth year after the Hijra, he decreed that the Islamic calendar should be counted from the year of the Hijra of Muhammad from Mecca to Madinah (Medina).

'Umar married a total of 9 women in his lifetime and had 14 children, 10 sons and 4 daughters. The details are as follow:


            Son: Abdullah ibn Umar
            Son: Abdulrahman ibn 'Umar (The Older)
            Son: Abdulrahman ibn 'Umar
            Daughter: Hafsa bint Umar

        Wife: Umm Kulthum bint Jarwila Khuzima (divorced)

            Son: Ubaidullah ibn Umar
            Son: Zayd ibn 'Umar


            Daughter: Fatima bint 'Umar


            Son: Asim ibn Umar

        Wife: Atikah bint Zayd ibn Amr ibn Nifayl (cousin of Umar and former wife of Abdullah ibn Abu Bakr married 'Umar in the year 12 AH and after 'Umar was murdered, she married az-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam)

            Son: Iyaad ibn 'Umar

        Wife: Umm Kulthum bint 'Ali (the daughter of Ali ibn Abi Talib)

            Son: Zayd ibn 'Umar, (famously known as Ibnul Khalifatayn; the son of the two Caliphs i.e Umar and Ali).
            Daughter: Ruqayyah bint 'Umar



        Wife: Fukayhah (as Umm Walad)



'Umar I see  ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab
Omar see  ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab
Umar the Great see  ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab
Farooq the Great see  ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab
Farooq, al- see  ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab

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