BAY ‘A. The oath of political allegiance given to the caliph.
BID ‘A. An innovation in religious practice usually viewed as unorthodox.
DA‘WA. A religious or political call by a leader or a new social movement.
FAY’. The immovable portion of the spoils of war (mainly agricultural lands).
FITNA (PL. FITAN). Trial or temptation; originally a religious reference to discord, but more commonly applied in the chronicles to political sedition or civil war.
ḤADĪTH (PL. AḤĀDĪTH). The sayings or traditions of the Prophet. ḥadīth is sometimes used in the plural sense to refer to the genre.
HĀSHIMITES. Descendants of Hāshim, the ancestor of the Prophet. The term referred to various branches of the family of the Prophet, including the ‘Abbāsids (descended from al-‘Abbās, the Prophet’s uncle) and the ‘Alids (decendants of ‘Alī b. Abī Ṭālib, the Prophet’s cousin and son-in-law).
ḤIMĀ. A certain type of economic reserve in the early caliphate pertaining to agricultural surplus or grazing pastures for horses or camels of the military.
ḤIZB. A group or faction.
IMĀM. In basic terms a leader of a congregation in prayer, but in wider terms also an inspired religious guide or a leader in comprehensive terms (both secular and religious).
IQṬĀ ‘.A proto-feudal type of land assignment to a conquering army or a political elite.
ISNĀD. Chain of transmitters of ḥadīth texts.
JĀHILIYYA. The period preceding the coming of Islam in Arabia.
JAMĀ ‘A. The community of believers or the concept of a collectivity or unanimity.
QURRĀ’. The Qur’ān reciters.
RA’Y . LIT. “opinion,” but in classical usage often referring to sound judgment. In juristic terms it also applied to the method of exercising reason to interpret a canonical religious text.
RIDDA. The war against a movement of apostasy from Islam that occurred during the reign of Abū Bakr, mainly in central Arabia.
SAWĀD. The rich agricultural land in central and southern Iraq.
SHĪ‘A . One of several terms referring to a group of followers or a faction. Eventually the term came to refer mainly to the followers of ‘Alī.
SULṬĀN ALLĀH . A reference in abstract terms to divine authority on earth (e.g., the purview of the law); less commonly in the early Islamic period it referred to a caliph as the symbol of divine authority. This latter usage did not gain currency until well after the ninth century.
SUNNA. LIT. “the well-trodden path,” referring to the practices of the Prophet, and very often including the practices of his most important companions, especially Abū Bakr and ‘Umar.
TAHKĪM. LIT. “the Arbitration.” This reference in early Islam is to the culmination of the standoff between the armies of ‘Alī and Mu‘āwiya at the Battle of Ṣiffin with a political arbitration between their respective representatives (Abū Mūsā al-Ash‘arī and ‘Amr b. al-‘Āṣ). Dissatisfaction with having such an arbitration between a caliph and a governor caused the secession of the Khārijites from ‘Alī’s camp.
TA’WĪL. One of several terms that referred to religious interpretation. The term was applied to an indirect explanation of a religious text, to a less common and often individualistic interpretation, or to a gnostic interpretation by a Shī‘ī imām or a Ṣufī scholar.
WAṢIYYA. LIT. “a testament for a successor.” The term refers more specifically to the Shī‘ī principle of formal religious designation from one imām to the next within the line of twelve imāms who succeeded ‘Alī.