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138 results
The Supreme Method and the Pure Source on the Rules of Notarization
Aḥmad ibn Yaḥyá al-Wansharīsī (1430 or 1431–1508) was a jurist and scholar of the Maliki school of Islamic jurisprudence. He was born in Jabal Wansharīs, but his family moved when he was a child to nearby Tilimcen in present-day western Algeria, where he studied and later taught Maliki law. His relationship with Tilimcen ruler Sultan Muhammad IV of the Banu Abd al-Wad dynasty soured under circumstances that are unclear, and he consequently fled to Fez, Morocco. With the help of his former student Muhammad ibn al-Gardīs, al-Wansharīsī was able ...
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King Abdulaziz University Library
The Luminous Treasure with Acceptable Answers to Matters of Faith
Aḥmad ibn ʻAbd al-Laṭīf ibn Aḥmad al-Bashbīshī (1631–85) was an Islamic jurist of the Shāfiʻī school of jurisprudence. He was born and died in the village of Bashbīsh in the region of Al-Mahalla in the Nile delta of Egypt. He studied Islamic jurisprudence in Cairo and taught at the Cairo-based Al-Azhar Mosque, long considered the foremost institution in the Islamic world for the study of Sunni theology. Al-Tuhfa al-Saniyya bi Ajwibat al-Masaa’il al-Mardhiyya (The luminous treasure with acceptable answers to matters of faith) is a collection of writings ...
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King Abdulaziz University Library
Holy Qur'an
According to Islamic belief, the Holy Qur'an was revealed by God to the Prophet Mohammad (570–632) by the Angel Gabriel over a period of 22 years. The Qur'an speaks in powerful, moving language about the reality and attributes of God, the spiritual world, God's purposes with mankind, man's relationship and responsibility to God, the coming of the Day of Judgment, and the life hereafter. It also contains rules for living, stories of earlier prophets and their communities, and vital insights and understandings concerning the meaning ...
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National Library and Archives of the Islamic Republic of Iran
The Wonders of Creation
Zakarīyā ibn Muhammad al-Qazwīnī (circa 1203–83), was a distinguished Iranian scholar who was conversant in poetry, history, geography, and natural history. He served as legal expert and judge in several localities in Iran and at Baghdad. After traveling throughout Mesopotamia and Syria, he wrote his famous Arabic-language cosmography, 'Aja'eb ol-makhluqat wa qara'eb ol-mowjudat (The wonders of creation, or literally, Marvels of things created and miraculous aspects of things existing). This treatise, frequently illustrated, was immensely popular and is preserved today in many copies. It has been translated ...
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National Library and Archives of the Islamic Republic of Iran
Molla Sadra’s Miscellany
Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm Ṣadr al-Dīn Shīrāzī (1571–1640), commonly known as Molla Sadra, was a Persian Islamic philosopher, theologian, and mystic who led the Iranian cultural renaissance in the 17th century. The foremost exemplar of the Illuminationist, or Eshraqi, school of philosopher-mystics, Molla Sadra is commonly regarded by Iranians as the greatest philosopher that Iran has produced and is arguably the single most important and influential philosopher in the Muslim world of the last four centuries. His school of philosophy is called Transcendent Theosophy. Molla Sadra's philosophy and ontology ...
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National Library and Archives of the Islamic Republic of Iran
Treatise on Holy War
The first Persian printing press in Iran was established in 1816 in Tabriz, and the first book published by the press was Jihādīyyah (Treatise on holy war), written by Abu al-Qasim ibn 'Isá Qa'im'maqam Farahani (circa 1779–1835), the prime minister of Persia at that time. During the reign of King Fath Ali Shah (1772–1834, reigned 1797–1834), while the Qajar government was absorbed with managing domestic turmoil, rival European colonial powers sought to establish themselves in the region. The British competed for influence in the south ...
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National Library and Archives of the Islamic Republic of Iran
Al-Bukhāri's Abridged Collection of Authentic Hadith
This work is the earliest Arabic manuscript in the National Library of Bulgaria. Incomplete and fragmentary, it is a 1017 copy of Volume 3 of Sahīh al-Bukhārī (Al-Bukhārī’s authentic hadiths). Muhammad ibn Ismā‘īl al-Bukhārī (810–70) was born in Bukhara, in present-day Uzbekistan, and died in Khartank, near Samarkand. He is considered by Sunni Muslims to be the most authoritative collector of hadiths—reports of statements or deeds attributed to the Prophet Muhammad. This work, completed in 846, is al-Bukhārī’s best-known collection. It was the first work ...
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National Library of Bulgaria
The Compendium of Graces and Fountain of Charms
This 17th-century manuscript contains the text of Majmoo’a al-Latā’if wa-Yanbu‘ al-Zarā’if (The compendium of graces and fountain of charms), a collection of esoteric and mystic prayers. The work is divided into many chapters, unnumbered and typically only a few pages long, with rubrications indicating the beginning of each chapter. The work discusses the spiritual expediency of praying in a certain manner; on a certain Islamic month, day of the week, or religious occasion, citing sayings of the Prophet Muhammad and other Islamic tradition as supporting arguments. The ...
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National Library of Bulgaria
Chinese Mosque Official Wearing a Spherical Hat with a Tassel. Hami, Xinjiang, China, 1875
In 1874-75, the Russian government sent a research and trading mission to China to seek out new overland routes to the Chinese market, report on prospects for increased commerce and locations for consulates and factories, and gather information about the Dungan Revolt then raging in parts of western China. Led by Lieutenant Colonel Iulian A. Sosnovskii of the army General Staff, the nine-man mission included a topographer, Captain Matusovskii; a scientific officer, Dr. Pavel Iakovlevich Piasetskii; Chinese and Russian interpreters; three non-commissioned Cossack soldiers; and the mission photographer, Adolf Erazmovich ...
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National Library of Brazil
Letter to the Warring Tribes
Timbuktu, founded around 1100 as a commercial center for trade across the Sahara Desert, was also an important seat of Islamic learning from the 14th century onward. The libraries of Timbuktu contain many important manuscripts, in different styles of Arabic scripts, which were written and copied by Timbuktu’s scribes and scholars. These works constitute the city’s most famous and long-lasting contribution to Islamic and world civilization. In this work, the author, a scholar and religious leader, urges warring factions to make peace and live in peace. He supports ...
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Mamma Haidara Commemorative Library
Prayers for Safety and Success
This calligraphic fragment includes verses in Persian praying for the patron's personal well-being and the prosperity of his kingdom. The verses read: "May the world be (your) fortune and the firmament (your) friend / May the World-Creator (God) protect (you) / May all your works be successful / May God of the World look after you / May your heart and your kingdom be collected and well-frequented / May division stay far away from your realm." The verses are executed in black nasta'liq script on beige paper. They are framed by cloud bands ...
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Library of Congress
Qur'anic Verses
This calligraphic fragment includes verses 10-11 of the 48th chapter of the Qur'an, entitled Surat al-Fath (Victory). This surah dates from the Medinan period and contains 29 verses. It describes how triumph comes from courage, faith, and patience if the believer stays true to God: anyone who violates His [God's] oath, does so to the harm of his own soul, and anyone who fulfils what he has convenanted with God, God will soon grant him a reward (48:10). The text is executed in Kufi script with black ...
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Library of Congress
Qur'anic Verses
This calligraphic fragment includes verses 85-88 of the 6th chapter of the Qur'an entitled Surat al-An'am (The Cattle). This late Meccan surah describes the nature of God and how He reveals Himself. Verses 85-88 in particular describe a number of prophets such as Jesus, Elias, and Jonah as capable of guiding believers to the "straight path" (al-sirat al-mustaqim). The text is executed in Kufi script in black ink, at six lines per page, surrounded by a gold painted frame. Verses on the fragment's recto have worn off ...
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Library of Congress
Tripoli – Sentries
This photograph of a sentry post in Tripoli, Libya, is from the George Grantham Bain Collection at the Library of Congress. The collection contains approximately 40,000 glass plate negatives and 50,000 photographic prints, most dating from the 1900s to the mid-1920s. Bain, who was born in 1865 and died in 1944, founded the New York-based Bain News Service in 1898. Specializing in news about New York City and to a lesser degree the eastern United States, Bain distributed its own pictures and those purchased from other commercial agencies ...
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Library of Congress
Ruins of Old Mosque, Baalbek
The American Colony in Jerusalem was founded in 1881 as a Christian utopian community by Chicago natives Anna and Horatio Spafford. In addition to pursuing its religious goal of emulating the spirit and practices of the early Christians, the community engaged in humanitarian relief efforts, notably during the difficult years of World War I. The American Colony’s photographic department traced its beginnings to the community’s 1898 purchase of a camera to document a visit to Jerusalem of the German Kaiser, Wilhelm II. Over the years, the colony’s ...
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Library of Congress
Mosque of Abder-Rahman, Algiers, Algeria
This photochrome print is from “Views of People and Sites in Algeria” in the catalog of the Detroit Photographic Company. It depicts the Sidi Abder-Rahman [Abdul Rahman, Abdel Rahman, Abdurrahman] Mosque in Algiers, Algeria, circa 1899. According to Cook’s Practical Guide to Algiers, Algeria, and Tunisia (1904), “With the exception of the Djama el Kebir…this is the oldest religious building in Algiers…. The marabout [popular saint] Abd er Rahman et Thalebi was born in 1387 and died in 1471. The mosque was built between these dates and contains ...
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Library of Congress
Qur'anic Verses
This eighth century calligraphic fragment from the collections of the Library of Congress is most likely the oldest Islamic text in North America, one that could have been touched by the youngest companions of the Prophet Muhammad. The fragment includes verses 53-54 of the 34th chapter of the Qur'an entitled Surat Saba' (Sheba), as well as the first ten verses of the 35th chapter of the Qur'an entitled Surat al-Fatir (The originator). Surat al-Fatir is an early Meccan surah that deals with the mystery of creation and angels ...
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Library of Congress
Mosque of St. Catherine, Tunis, Tunisia
This photochrome print from around 1899 is from “Views of Architecture and People in Tunisia” in the catalog of the Detroit Photographic Company. It depicts the Mosque of Youssef Sahib at-Taba'a (sometimes called the Halfouine Mosque), in Place Halfouine, Tunis. Construction of the mosque began in 1812 but was not completed until 1970. It is described by Baedeker’s The Mediterranean: Handbook for Travelers (1911) as being “founded on blocks of stone from Carthage.” The Detroit Photographic Company was launched as a photographic publishing firm in the late 1890s ...
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Library of Congress
At Prayer in the Mosque, Damascus, Syria
This card from around 1908 depicts Muslim men at prayer in the Great Umayyad Mosque of Damascus (Jāmi' al-Umawī al-Kabīr). Constructed in the eighth century on the site of earlier places of worship, the mosque is a site of spiritual significance to both Sunni and Shi’a Muslims. It is also said to house the head of John the Baptist. The card is a “stereo view,” produced by the Stereo Travel Company of Corona, Long Island, New York, which was active in the early years of the 20th century. Popular ...
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Library of Congress
A Guide for the Good
This Muslim prayer book is a 1785 copy of an original 15th-century manuscript. The work includes a panorama of Mecca and Medina, the holy cities of Islam in Saudi Arabia. Mecca, where the Prophet Muhammad was born and lived for the first 50 years of his life, is the most sacred city in Islam. It is also where the Ka`bah is found, the holiest sanctuary in Islam and called the "house of God" (Bayt Allah). Muslims throughout the world pray facing in the direction of Mecca and the Ka ...
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Library of Congress
Damascus. The Great Mosque and View of Damascus.
This photograph by the firm of Maison Bonfils depicts the Great Umayyad Mosque of Damascus (Jāmi' al-Umawī al-Kabīr) as it appeared in the late 19th century. Constructed in the eighth century on the site of earlier places of worship, the mosque is a site of spiritual significance to both Sunni and Shi’a Muslims. It also is said to house the head of John the Baptist. Maison Bonfils was the extraordinarily prolific venture of the French photographer Félix Bonfils (1831-85), his wife Marie-Lydie Cabanis Bonfils (1837-1918), and their son, Adrien ...
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Library of Congress