MAKKAH (مكة). The capital of Arabia, and the most sacred city of the Muslims. It is celebrated as the birth-place of Muḥammad, and as the site of the Kaʿbah, or Sacred Cube, building. Muḥammad is related to have said of Makkah, “What a splendid city thou art! If I had not been driven out of thee by my tribe, I would dwell in no other place but in thee.” “It is not man but God who has made Makkah sacred.” “My people will be always safe in this world and the next as long as they respect Makkah.” (Mishkāt, book xl. ch. xv.)
Makkah (the ancient name of which was Bakkah) is situated in about 21° 30′ N. lat., 40° 20′ E. long., and 70 miles from the Red Sea, in a sandy valley running north and south, and from 100 to 70 paces broad. The chief part of the city is placed where the valley is widest. In the narrower part there are single rows of houses only, or detached shops. The town itself covers a space of about 1,500 paces in length, but the whole extent of ground comprehended under the denomination of Makkah, amounts to 3,500 paces in length. The surrounding rocky hills are from 200 to 500 feet in height, barren, and destitute of trees. Most of the town is situated in the valley itself, but there are some parts built on the sides of the hills. The streets are in general broader than those of Eastern cities, for the purpose of accommodating the vast number of pilgrims who resort to it. The houses are lofty and of stone, and the numerous windows that face the streets give to these quite a European aspect. Many of the houses are three stories high.
The only public place in the body of the town is the large square of the great mosque, which is enlivened during the Ḥajj (Pilgrimage) by a great number of well-stored shops. The streets are all unpaved, and in summer the sand and dust are as great a nuisance as the mud is in the rainy season, during which they are scarcely passable after a storm.
Makkah is badly provided with water. There are a few cisterns for receiving rain, and the well-water is brackish. The famous well of Zamzam, in the great mosque, is indeed copious enough to supply the whole town, but the water is not well tasted. The best water is brought by an aqueduct from the vicinity of ʿArafah, six or seven miles distant. There are two places in the interior of the city, where the aqueduct runs above ground, and in these parts it is let off into small channels or fountains, at which some slaves of the Sharīf (the ruler of the city) are stationed to exact a toll from persons who fill their water-skins.
All the houses in Makkah except those of the principal and richest inhabitants, are constructed for the accommodation of lodgers, and divided into numerous separate apartments, each consisting of a sitting-room and a small kitchen. Except four or five houses belonging to the Sharīf, two colleges, and the sacred mosque, Makkah has no public edifices of any importance.
The inhabitants of Makkah, with few exceptions, are Arabians. They have two kinds of employment, trade and the service of the temple. During the Ḥajj, Makkah becomes one of the largest fairs in the East, and certainly the most interesting, from the variety of nations which frequent it. The merchants of the place make large profits during this time by their merchandise. They have also a considerable trade with the Beduins and with other parts of Arabia. The greatest profit, however, is derived from supplying food for 60,000 pilgrims and 20,000 camels. The only articles of manufacture are some pottery and beads; there are a few dyeing-houses in the city.
Makkah is governed by a Sharīf, who is chosen from the Saiyids (or descendants of the Prophet) settled in the Ḥijāz, who were once numerous, but are now reduced to a few families in Makkah. Although he obtains his office by the choice of his people, or by force, he holds his authority from the Turkish Sult̤ān.
Makkah was the seat of government during the reigns of the first five K͟halīfahs.
(For an account of the sacred temple, see the article on MASJIDU ʾL-HARAM.)
MAKKAH. (From Stanley Lane-Poole’s edition of Lane’s “Selections.”)
MAKRŪH (مكروه). Lit. “That which is hateful and unbecoming.” A term used in the religious, civil, and ceremonial law of Islām, for an act the unlawfulness of which is not absolutely certain, but which is considered improper and unbecoming.
The author of the Hidāyah remarks that the doctors of the Ḥanafī sect have disagreed as to the extent to which the term can be received.
The Imām Muḥammad is of opinion that makrūh is unlawful, but as he could not draw any convincing argument in favour of his opinion from either the Qurʾān or Traditions, he renounced the general application of “unlawfulness” with respect to such things or acts, and classed them under those which are merely improper.
The Imāms Abū Ḥanīfah and Abū Yūsuf hold that the term applies to that which in its qualities nearly approaches to unlawful, without it being actually so. (Hidāyah, vol. iv. p. 86.)
In the Kitābu ʾt-Taʿrifāt, that which is makrūh is divided into makrūh taḥrīmī, “that which is nearly unlawful”; and makrūh tanzīhī, “that which approaches the lawful.”
In all works on Muḥammadan law, a section is devoted to the consideration of things which are held to be makrūh.
AL-MALĀʾIKAH (الملائكه). Lit. “The Angels.” The title of the XXXVth Chapter of the Qurʾān in the first verse of which the word occurs:—“Who employeth the angels as envoys.” It is also called Sūratu ʾl-Fāt̤ir, the “Chapter of the Originator.”
MALAK (ملك). [ANGEL.]
MALAKU ʾL-MAUT (ملك الموت). “The Angel of Death.” See Qurʾān, Sūrah xxxii. 11: “The angel of death who is charged with you shall cause you to die: then ye shall be returned to your Lord.” He is also called ʿIzrāʾīl.
MALANG (مـلـنـگ). An order of Muḥammadan faqīrs or darveshes, who are the descendants and followers of Jaman Juti, a follower of Zindu Shah Madār. They usually wear the hair of the head very full and matted and formed into a knot behind. The order is a very common one in India. (Herklots’ Musalmans, p. 290.)
AL-MĀLIK (المالك). “The Possessor, lord, ruler.” One of the ninety-nine names or attributes of God. It frequently occurs in the Qurʾān, e.g. in the first Sūrah, “Ruler of the Day of Judgment.”
MĀLIK (مالك). Lit. “One in authority, a possessor.” The angel who is said to preside over hell, and superintend the torments of the damned. He is mentioned in the Qurʾān, Sūrah xliii. 77: “And they shall cry out, O Mālik! let thy Lord make an end of us; he shall say, Verily, tarry here.” Perhaps the same as מֹלֶך Molech, the fire-god and tutelary deity of the children of Ammon.
MĀLIK (مالك). The founder of a sect of Sunnī Muslims.
The Imām Abū ʿAbdi ʾllāh Mālik ibn Anas, the founder of one of the four orthodox sects of Sunnīs, was born at al-Madīnah, A.H. 94 (A.D. 716). He lived in the same place and received his earliest impressions of Islām from Sahl ibn Saʿd, the almost sole survivor of the Companions of the Prophet. He was considered to be the most learned man of his time, and his self-denial and abstinence were such that he usually fasted four days in the week. He enjoyed the advantages of a personal acquaintance and familiar intercourse with the Imām Abū Ḥanīfah, although differing from him on many important questions regarding the authority of the Traditions. His pride, however, was at least equal to his literary endowments. In proof of this, it is related of him that when the great K͟halīfah Hārūnu ʾr-Rashīd came to al-Madīnah to visit the tomb of the Prophet, Mālik having gone forth to meet him, the K͟halīfah addressed him, “O Mālik! I entreat as a favour that you will come every day to me and my two sons, Amīn and Maʾmūn, and instruct us in traditional knowledge.” To which the sage haughtily replied, “O K͟halīfah, science is of a dignified nature, and instead of going to any person, requires that all should come to it.” The story further says that the sovereign, with much humility, asked his pardon, acknowledged the truth of his remark, and sent both his sons to Mālik, who seated them among his other scholars without any distinction.
With regard to the Traditions, his authority is generally quoted as decisive; in fact, he considered them as altogether superseding the judgment of a man, and on his death-bed severely condemned himself for the many decisions he had presumed to give on the mere suggestion of his own reason. The Qurʾān and the Sunnah excepted, the only study to which he applied himself in his latter days, was the contemplation of the Deity; and his mind was at length so much absorbed in the immensity of the Divine attributes and perfections, as to lose sight of all more insignificant objects! Hence he gradually withdrew himself from the world, became indifferent to its concerns, and after some years of complete retirement, died at al-Madīnah, A.H. 179 (A.D. 795). His authority is at present chiefly received in Barbary and the other northern states of Africa. Of his works, the only one upon record is one of tradition, known as the Muwat̤t̤aʾ. His principal pupil was ash-Shāfiʿī, who afterwards himself gave the name to a sect.
MĀLIKU ʾL-MULK (مالك الملك). “The Lord of the Kingdom.” One of the ninety-nine names or attributes of God. It occurs once in the Qurʾān, Sūrah iii. 25: “Say, O God, Lord of the Kingdom, Thou givest the kingdom to whomsoever Thou pleasest, and strippest the kingdom from whomsoever Thou pleasest.”
MĀL ẒĀMINĪ (مال ضامنى). Bail for property. A legal term. (Hidāyah, vol. ii. p. 568). Bail for the person is ḥāẓir ẓāminī.
MAMĀT (ممات). “Death”; e.g. Sūrah vi. 163: “My prayers, my sacrifice, my life, and my death, belong to God.” [MAUT.]
MAMLŪK (مملوك), pl. mamālīk. “A slave.” A term used in Muslim law for a bond-slave, the word ʿabd signifying both “a slave” and “a servant of God.” It occurs only once in the Qurʾān, Sūrah xvi. 77: “God propounds a comparison between a slave (mamlūk) and the property of his master.”
This word has become historic in the Mamlukes, or that military body of slaves who for a long time ruled Egypt. These military slaves were first organized by Mālik aṣ-Ṣālih, who purchased many thousands of slaves in the markets of Asia, and brought them to Egypt in the 13th century. They were by him embodied into a corps of 12,000 men, but in A.D. 1254, they revolted, and killed Turan Shah, the last prince of the Aiyūb dynasty. They then raised to the throne of Egypt al-Muʿizz, who was himself a Turkoman slave. The Mamlukes continued the ruling power in Egypt till A.D. 1517, when Salīm I. defeated them and put to death Tumaun Bey, the last of the Mamluke dynasty. They were, however, maintained in Egypt as a military aristocracy, and were a powerful body at the time of the French invasion. Muḥammad ʿAlī Pasha of Egypt destroyed their power and influence by murdering many of them in A.D. 1811.
MAʿMŪDĪYAH (معمودية). A word used by the commentator al-Baiẓāwī for Christian Baptism. In remarking on Sūrah ii. 132, “the baptism of God” (Ṣibg͟hatu ʾllāh), he says, “The Nazarenes used to dip their children in yellow water, and they called it Maʿmūdīyah; and they said, whoever was dipped in Maʿmūdīyah was purified, and that it was a sign of his becoming a Nazarene.” (See Tafsīru ʾl-Baiẓāwī, in loco.)
MANĀRAH (منارة). Anglice minaret. From manār, “a place were a fire is lit, lighthouse, pillar.” The lofty turret of a mosque, from which the Muʾaẕẕin, or “caller to prayer,” invites the people to prayer. In the early days of Islām there were no minarets to the mosques, those at Qūbāʾ and al-Madīnah being erected by ʿUmar ibn ʿAbdi ʾl-ʿAzīz, A.H. 86. [MOSQUE.]
MANĀSIK (مناسك). From mansik, “a place of sacrifice.” The sacred rites and ceremonies attending the pilgrimage. [HAJJ.]
MANĀT (منات). An idol mentioned in the Qurʾān, Sūrah liii. 19, 20: “What think ye, then, of al-Lāt and al-ʿUzzā, and Manāt, the third idol besides.”
According to Ḥusain, it was an idol of the tribes of Huẕail and K͟hazāʿah. For a discussion of the subject, see the article on LAT.
AL-MĀNIʿ (المانع). “The Withholder.” One of the ninety-nine names or attributes of God. It does not occur in the Qurʾān, but is given in the Ḥadīs̤.
MANĪḤAH (منيحة). A legal term for a camel lent, with permission to use its milk, its hair, and its young, but on condition of returning the camel itself. Such an animal cannot be sacrificed. (Mishkāt, book iv. ch. 50.)
MANLĀ (منلا). A learned man. A Muḥammadan priest. The Egyptian form of Maulavī or Mulla.
MAN-LĀ-YASTAḤẒIRAHU ʾL-FAQĪH (من لا يستحضره الفقيه). A book of Shīʿah traditions compiled by Saiyid Rāzī, A.H. 406.
MANNA. Arabic mann (من); Heb. מָן mān; Greek μάννα. The giving of manna to the children of Israel is mentioned three times in the Qurʾān.
Sūrah ii. 54: “And we overshadowed them with the cloud, and sent down manna and the quails.”
Sūrah xx. 82: “We caused the manna and the quails to descend upon you.”
Sūrah vii. 160: “We caused clouds to overshadow them, and sent down upon them the manna and the quails.”
ʿAbdu ʾl-ʿAzīz, in his commentary, says it was like white sugar.
MANSLAUGHTER. [MURDER.]
MANUMISSION. Arabic ʿItq (عتق). [SLAVERY.]
MAQĀM MAḤMŪD (مـقـام محمود). “A glorious station,” or place in heaven, said to be reserved for Muḥammad. It is mentioned in the XVIIth chapter of the Qurʾān, verse 81: “It may be that thy Lord will raise thee to a glorious station.”
Religious Muslims always pray that God will grant the Maḥmūd to their Prophet, when they hear the Aẕān recited. [AZAN.]
MAQĀMU IBRAHĪM (مقام ابرهيم). “The place or station of Abraham.” Mentioned twice in the Qurʾān.
Sūrah iii. 91: “In it (Makkah) are evident signs, even the place of Abraham.”
Sūrah ii. 119: “Take ye the station of Abraham for a place of prayer.”
It is a place at Makkah within the Masjid boundary, supposed to have the impression of the foot-marks of Abraham. Burckhardt says this is a small building, supported by six pillars about eight feet high, four of which are surrounded from the top to bottom by a fine iron railing, while they leave the space behind the two hind pillars open. Within the railing is a frame about five feet square, terminating in a pyramidal top, and said to contain the sacred stone upon which Abraham stood when he built the Kaʿbah.
MAQSŪRAH (مقصورة). A closet or place of retirement. A place set apart in mosques, enclosed with curtains, where devout men recite their supererogatory prayers, and perform ẕikr. [ZIKR.]
MĀRIYATU ʾL-QIBT̤ĪYAH (مارية القبطية). [MARY THE COPT.]