Mugtasila

MUGTASILA. The Mugtasila or the Washers were a religious body which flourished about 215 A.D. on the Lower Tigris near the Arabian frontier. They seem to have been the ancestors of the Mandnans. Fatak, the father of Manes or Mani (see MANICH2EISM), may have founded the sect. In any case, he joined it, and Mani lived among the Mugtasila for some years. The descendants of the Mugtasila, the modern Mandreans, have a sacred book, " The Treasure " or " Great Book " or " Book of Adam," which " shows that in the doctrine of these baptizers there was a certain blending of old Babylonian legends with the teachings of the Bible " (Duchesne). Duchesne thinks that "a strange form of Christianity, recalling that of the serpent-worshipping sects, and Elkasaism especially, must have arisen in the second century, upon the ruins of the old Chaldean civilization." See Duchesne, Hist.; Wace and Piercy, s.n., " Manes." MUHAI'lMADANISM. The religion founded by Muhammad, son of Abdu]lah, of the Arab tribe of the Quraish, who was born at Mecca in 570 A.D. Left an orphan when he was five or six years old, Muhammad became the ward, first of his grandfather, and then of his uncle Abil Talib. When twelve years old his uncle took him as a companion through parts of Syria, and on this journey he is said to have met a Christian monk who prophesied his future greatness. At the age of twenty-five he married a rich widow Khadijah, who became one of his earliest converts. Soon after he was forty years old he began to receive revelations. " From these revelations, treasured up, written down, and finally compared together and brought into harmony, the Qur'an was formed, as it is known and read by the millions of adherents of Islam at the present day. No attempt, however, seems ever to have been made to preserve the chronological sequence of the revelations. It is tradition alone that associates the various utterances with partic ular epochs or circumstances of the Prophet's experience, and in tracing in outline the history of his outward life, and the development of his doctrine and character, it is upon tradition, more or less reliable and consistent, that dependence has to be placed " (A. S. Geden, Studies). It has been thought that he could neither read nor write (cp. Qur'an, vii. 156), but this is not likely. And since, especially in later life, his inspired utterances fell from him while he was in a trance, it has been held •that he suffered from some nervous disorder. Weil, in 1862, tried to prove that his symptoms pointed to epilepsy as opposed to catalepsy. " More recently Professor Margoliouth, in his Life of Muhammad (p. 46), has urged the same based on such symptoms as this unconsciousness, the sound of a bell, the belief that someone is present, a resultant headache, violent perspiration, and others, such as turn ing of the head to one side, foaming at the mouth, reddening or whitening of the face, all which are char acteristics of epilepsy. But as Sprenger (Vol. III., p. 65) rightly points out, the traditions are too contradictory to afford a sure basis. What is certain is the existence of some pathological condition in Muhammad, resulting in trances, and it is not at all impossible that Sprenger's judgment (Vol. I. pp. 207f.) that it was some form of hysteria under which he suffered, may be correct " (D. B. Macdonald, R.A.L.I.). The Quraish showed such hostility to Muhammad's followers that in 615 A.D. some of them with his permission sought refuge in Abyssinia (the First Hijrah). Others (about 100) followed them less than a year later. In 622 A.D. the prophet himself was obliged to leave Mecca—this is the Hijrah or Flight which forms the starting-point of Muhammadan chrono logy throughout the world. His wife and uncle had died, and he had married a second wife `Ayishah, daughter of Abil Bakr. He went from Mecca to Medina, a cos mopolitan city, in which he came into touch with and felt the influence of Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians. Here the number of his adherents (Muhdrijdn, or " emigrants" from Mecca; and Ansdr," helpers," or con verts won in Medina) grew, in spite of the continued opposition of the Quraish, who now resorted to armed warfare. In 630 A.D. Muhammad marched against Mecca with an army and took possession of it. From this time his power and authority extended until they were established over practically the whole of Arabia. Before the prophet. died (632 A.D.) he designated Abu Bakr as his successor. " The cardinal doctrine of alohamnied was the oneness and aloneness of God, whom he called Allah, ' The God.' The one God was conceived by him as a great human being or a transcendent man. He had hands, eyes, and human attributes. He was thought to be all-wise and all-powerful, and to be the absolute despot of the world. It was useless for man to hope to understand him, but God would be merciful if man submitted to him. Next in importance to the doctrine of God was the doctrine of the prophetic function of Mohammed. Through Mohammed, God made his final revelation; Mohammed was the seal of the prophets; no prophet was to come after him. . . . To these doctrines Mohammed added, from the time of his earliest ministry, a doctrine of material rewards and punish ments. Believers were to be rewarded with a material paradise, and unbelievers were to be tortured in a very material hell. . . . The outward duties of believers were to pray five times a day, as well as to be just and kind to the poor. The doctrines of angels and of Satan were taken over from Judaism, though the figure of Satan was blurred by conceptions of the jinn inherited from Arabian heathenism " (G. A. Barton, R.TV.). Abfi Bakr's succession was accepted by the Sunnis, the tradi tionalists, who follow the orthodox traditions of Islam, but was contested by the Shi'ahs, who contend that the right of succession belonged to Ali, the son-in-law of the Prophet. Of the first four Khalifs (successors), Abu Bakr, Omar, Othman, and Ali, therefore, all but the last are held by the Shrahs to have been usurpers. When Othman died, Mu`awiya, the governor of Syria and Damascus, refused to recognise Ali as his successor. The result was civil war, and Ali moved his capital from Medina to Kiifa, not far from ancient Babylon. Hama, Ali's elder son, succeeded his father, but soon abdicated in favour of Mu'awiya. Husain, his younger son, who had settled at Mecca, relying on help from Kfifa, con tested the rule of Mu'awiya's son and successor Yazid unsuccessfully, and was killed by the Khalifs horsemen on the tenth of Muharram, the first month of the Muhammadan year, A.H. 61 (Oct. 10, 6S0 A.D.). " Husain is regarded as a martyr by the Shi'ah sect of the Muslims, who reverence him and his father with a passionate devotion. The memory of his name and fate is kept alive on the anniversary of his death by the yearly festival of the Muharram, with services and processions and lamentation " (Geden). The Khalifs of the Qurai-sh dynasty were succeeded by the Umayyads (661-750 A.D.), who took their name from Umayya, the great-grandfather of Mu'awiya, and reigned at Damascus. At the close of this dynasty Muhammadanism had spread throughout North Africa and the south-western half of Spain, and in parts of Southern France. " The armies of this caliphate also carried the conquests eastwards to the borders of India and into Turkestan and Samareand beyond the Oxus and Jaxartes rivers " (Barton). In 750 A.D. the Ummayad dynasty was overthrown by Abul Abbas, a descendant of Abbas, an uncle of Muhammad, and the 'Abbasids were established in its place. The first of the Abbasid Khalifs, Saffah, held his court at Anbaz on the east bank of the Euphrates: but his suc cessor, Mansur, founded the city of Baghdad, Which became the centre of Abbasid power for five centuries— until the end of the dynasty, in fact. The Muslims of North Africa and Spain, however, refused to recognise the 'Abbasids. Abd-er-Rahman, a scion of the Umayyad house, was made ruler In Spain, and his descendants established a Spanish Khalifate, which lasted until 1027 A.D. At Baghdad and Cordova literature and philosophy

flourished, and a brilliant period of Intellectual life began. The study of philosophy produced many sceptics, who were often called Mu'tazilites or Seceders. The power of the 'Abbasids gradually waned, and practically came to an end when Baghdad was captured by Mongol hordes in 1258 A.D. Another Khalifate risen at Kirwan in North Africa in 909 A.D., and had conquered Egypt in 96S. This was known as the Fatimid Khalifate. These Khalifs who exercised a more or less independent rule at Cairo from 1258-1517 A.D., claimed to be directly descended from Fatimah, the daughter of the Prophet. In 1517, when Egypt was conquered by the Ottoman Turks, the office of Khalif was sold to the Sultan of Turkey, who thus came to be regarded as the of the Prophet. Muhammadanism has made, and is still making, great missionary efforts. " In the course of the centuries it has penetrated India, China, Africa, and the isles of the Pacific, and has made many converts. . . . It is estimated that at present there are about 240,000,000 Mohammedans in the world. If this is true, they constitute nearly one-sixth of the population of the globe " (Barton). The sacred book of the l'clnhammadans is of course the Qur'an (q.v.). "The Qur'an is written in rhymed prose throughout. The portions rhymed, verses as we may call them, vary greatly in length. In the earlier chapters these verses are short, just as the style is lively and fiery; in the later chapters they are of lumbering length, prosaic and slow, and the rhyme comes in with often a most absurd effect. It is very plain that Muhammad's first utterances were in genuine kahin, form and kdhin, spirit [i.e., in the form and spirit of the Arab soothsayer]; that they boiled forth from him as though under uncontrollable external pressure" (D. B. Macdonald). His utterances seem therefore to have taken that form of language which is peculiar to the ecstatic life. There are other sources of authority for Muhammadan faith and practice besides the Qur'an. These are the Sunnat, which means " usage " or " rule," and embraces the rule of faith or observance founded on the traditions; the Ijma', which means " unanimity," and denotes the unanimous consent of the early doctors and teachers regarding new rules and precedents; and the Qiyas, which means " measure " or " comparison," and is applied to analogical reasoning or inference based upon, and supplementary to, the Qur'an, Sunnat, or Ijma'. Muhammadan law above and beyond the revealed law of the Qur'an was developed by four great orthodox schools, the leaders (Imams) of which were Abfi Hanifah (d. about 768 A.D.), Ibn Malik ibn Anas (b. 716 A.D.), Ash-Shafi'l (d. about S20 A.D.), and Ahmad ibn Hanbal (b. 780 A.D.). There are five so-called " pillars of religion." The first of these is the recital of the Kalimah or creed " There is no god but God, and Muhammad is the Prophet of God " (cp. Qur'an xlvii. 21, xlviii. 29). The second is Saldt or prayer (the five daily prayers). The third is Fasting, particularly the thirty days' fast of the month Ramadhan. The fourth is Zakat or alms giving. The fifth is the Hall or pilgrimage to Mecca in the twelfth month of the Muhammadan year. This statement looks simple enough, but Muhammadan theologians and philosophers have found plenty of material for exposition and speculation in the doctrine of the unity of God. One of the most famous of these theologians and philosophers is al-Ghazzali (1059-1109), who began by being a sceptic or Mn'tazilite, was con verted. and ended by being a Sufi or mystic and a defender of the faith (see Macdonald for an interesting account of his religious experiences). The prayers may be offered individually and privately, or in a mosque (with a leader, Imdm). " The form observed consists in the recital of passages from the Qur'an. with other formulae or expressions of faith such as God is great,' accompanied by bowings and prostrations of the body. The summons to prayer is given by the mit'arzin from the minaret, or if there is no minaret from the side of the mosque " (Geden). Muhammadanism has produced many sects. The Shi'ahs, who quarrelled with the orthodox Sunnis over the succession to the Khalifate, have been mentioned already. The Shi'abs were mostly Persians, and the Persians are still Shi'ahs. The Isma'ilians took their name from the adopted son of ibn Maimun, the sixth Imam. They are a sub-sect of the Shillh-s, and are sometimes called the " Seveners," because they claim that Ismail (and not Musa) was rightfully the seventh and last Imam. The Druses or Druzes owe their name to ad-Duruzi, who was the Persian minister of al Hakim (996-1020 A.D.), the sixth Fatimid Khalif. They revere al-Hakim as the last and greatest incarnation of God. Their tenets, however, are those of a teacher named Hamzah rather than those of ad-Daruzi, who came to be regarded as a heretic. The Druses are still a numerous sect in the Hauran and mountains of Lebanon. The Assassins is a name given by Europeans to the Hashahashin, devotees of the drug hashshish. They were the followers of Hasan, the " Old Man of the Mountain," who claimed to be an incarnation of God. In the time of the Crusaders Whey were a terror throughout Syria, and well earned the name Assassins. The §ilfrs, who were influenced by Gnosticism and Greek mysticism, are mystics who attained to union with God through an " inner light." They rely upon knowledge gained by ilhant (a kind of inspiration) rather than upon that acquired by study. "Books and proofs they shun. Their path (prig), rather, is to cleave to spiritual striving, to remove blameworthy qualities, to sever all ties, to advance with the utmost zeal toward God. Whenever these things take place, God takes charge of the heart of his creature, and illumines it with know ledge, and opens the breast of the seeker so that he accepts guidance and trusts God; there is revealed to him the secret of the heavenly kingdom and there is cleared away from the surface of his heart the veil of error, and so the essences of divine things shine in it. All that he has to do is to prepare himself by simple purifying, by showing zeal joined to pure will, by thirsting and watching and expecting. If any turn thus to God, God will turn to him " (Macdonald). From among the Sfifis the various orders of Darwlshes (Der vishes) have arisen, such as the Qadiriyah; the Maula wiyah, or " dancing Darwishes "; the Rufa`iyah, or " howling Darwishes "; the Bakhtashiyah, who are mostly soldiers; the Samisiyah, who show great hostility to European civilization. The Wahhabis, who belong to the close of the eighteenth and beginning of the nine teenth centuries, represent a military and fanatical reform movement in Arabia. In recent years the Babis and Bahais of Persia have attracted great attention. The founder of the Babis, Mirza 'All Muhammad (b. 1820), claimed to be the Bab or the " Door " through which it was possible to communicate with the " Con cealed Imam (the twelfth Imam, who disappeared at the beginning of the fourth century after the Hijrah, 940-1 A.D.). Afterwards he proclaimed himself an incarnation of God. The Ba'hais were the result of a schism after the death of the Bab. They were founded by Baha'ullah (d. 1892), who proclaimed himself " He whom God mani fests," and claimed that his coming had been foretold by the Bab. Bahaism claims to be a universal religion. While Babism has declined In numbers and influence, Bahaism has grown in importance, and 'has had con siderable success in America. See, in addition to the works mentioned above, D. B. Macdonald, Muslim Theology, 1903; D. S. IlIargolionth, Mohammedanism in the " Home University Library "; I. Goldziher, Moham med and Islam, 1917; F. W. Bussell.