AL-MASJIDU ʾL-JĀMIʿ (المسجد الجامع‎). Lit. “The collecting mosque.” A title given to the chief mosque of any city in which people assemble for the Friday prayer and k͟hut̤bah. [KHUTBAH.]

MASJIDU ʾL-K͟HAIF (مسـجـد الخيف‎). A mosque at Minā, three miles from Makkah. Here, according to the Arabs, Adam is buried, “his head being at one end of a long wall, and his feet at another, whilst the dome covers his omphalic region.” (Burton’s Pilgrimage, vol. ii. p. 203.)

MASJIDU ʾN-NABĪ (مسجد النبى‎). “The Prophet’s Mosque” at al-Madīnah. It is held to be the second mosque in Islām in point of seniority, and the same, or, according to others the first, in dignity, ranking with the Sacred Mosque at Makkah.

The following is Captain R. F. Burton’s account of its history:—

“Muḥammad ordered to erect a place of worship there, sent for the youths to whom it belonged and certain Anṣār, or auxiliaries, their guardians; the ground was offered to him in free gift, but he insisted upon purchasing it, paying more than its value. Having caused the soil to be levelled and the trees to be felled, he laid the foundation of the first mosque.

“In those times of primitive simplicity its walls were made of rough stone and unbaked bricks, and trunks of date-trees supported a palm-stick roof, concerning which the Archangel Gabriel delivered an order that it should not be higher than seven cubits, the elevation of Solomon’s temple. All ornament was strictly forbidden. The Anṣār, or men of Medinah, and the Muhājirīn, or fugitives from Mecca, carried the building materials in their arms from the cemetery Bakīʿ, near the well of Aiyūb, north of the spot where Ibrahīm’s mosque now stands, and the Prophet was to be seen aiding them in their labours, and reciting for their encouragement:

“The length of this mosque was fifty-four cubits from north to south, and sixty-three in breadth, and it was hemmed in by houses on all sides save the western. Till the seventeenth month of the new era, the congregation faced towards the northern wall. After that time a fresh ‘revelation’ turned them in the direction of Makkah—southwards; on which occasion the Archangel Gabriel descended and miraculously opened through the hills and wilds a view of the Kaʿbah, that there might be no difficulty in ascertaining its true position.

“After the capture of K͟haibar in A.H. 7, the Prophet and his first three successors restored the mosque, but Muslim historians do not consider this a second foundation. Muḥammad laid the first brick, and Abu-Hurayrah declares that he saw him carry heaps of building material piled up to his breast. The K͟halīfahs, each in the turn of his succession, placed a brick close to that laid by the Prophet, and aided him in raising the walls. Tabrāni relates that one of the Anṣār had a house adjacent, which Muḥammad wished to make part of the place of prayer; the proprietor was offered in exchange for it a home in Paradise, which he gently rejected, pleading poverty. His excuse was admitted, and ʿUs̤mān, after purchasing the place for 10,000 dirhams, gave it to the Prophet on the long credit originally offered. The mosque was a square of 100 cubits. Like the former building, it had three doors: one on the south side, where the Miḥrābu ʾn-Nabawī, or the ‘Prophet’s niche,’ now is, another in the place of the present Bābu ʾr-Raḥmah, and the third at the Bābu ʿUs̤mān, now called the ‘Gate of Gabriel.’ Instead of a miḥrāb or prayer niche, a large block of stone, directed the congregation. At first it was placed against the northern wall of the mosque, and it was removed to the southern when Makkah became the Qiblah. In the beginning the Prophet, whilst preaching the k͟hut̤bah or Friday sermon, leaned, when fatigued, against a post. The mimbar, or pulpit, was the invention of a Madīnah man of the Banū Najjār. It was a wooden frame, two cubits long by one broad, with three steps, each one span high; on the topmost of these the Prophet sat when he required rest. The pulpit assumed its present form about A.H. 90, during the artistic reign of Walīd.

“In this mosque Muḥammad spent the greater part of the day with his companions, conversing, instructing, and comforting the poor. Hard by were the abodes of his wives, his family, and his principal friends. Here he prayed, hearkening to the Aẕān, or devotion call, from the roof. Here he received worldly envoys and embassies, and the heavenly messages conveyed by the Archangel Gabriel. And within a few yards of the hallowed spot, he died, and found, it is supposed, a grave.

“The theatre of events so important to Islām, could not be allowed—especially as no divine decree forbade the change—to remain in its pristine lowliness. The first K͟halīfah contented himself with merely restoring some of the palm pillars, which had fallen to the ground. ʿUmar, the second successor, surrounded the Ḥujrah, or ʿĀyishah’s chamber, in which the Prophet was buried, with a mud wall, and in A.H. 17, he enlarged the mosque to 140 cubits by 120, taking in ground on all sides except the eastern, where stood the abodes of the ‘Mothers of the Moslems’ (Ummu ʾl-Muʾminīn). Outside the northern wall he erected a ṣuffah, called Batha—a raised bench of wood, earth, or stone, upon which the people might recreate themselves with conversation and quoting poetry, for the mosque was now becoming a place of peculiar reverence to men.

“The second Masjid was erected A.H. 29 by the third K͟halīfah, ʿUs̤mān, who, regardless of the clamours of the people, overthrew the old one, and extended the building greatly towards the north, and a little towards the west; but he did not remove the eastern limit on account of the private houses. He made the roof of Indian teak, and erected walls of hewn and carved stone. These innovations caused some excitement, which he allayed by quoting a tradition of the Prophet, with one of which he appears perpetually to have been prepared. The saying in question was, according to some, ‘Were this my mosque extended to Ṣafā, it verily would still be my mosque’; according to others, ‘Were the Prophet’s mosque extended to Ẕū ʾl-Ḥulafāʾ, it would still be his.’ But ʿUs̤mān’s skill in the quotation of tradition did not prevent the new building being in part a cause of his death. It was finished on the 1st Muḥarram, A.H. 30.

“At length, Islām, grown splendid and powerful, determined to surpass other nations in the magnificence of its public buildings. In A.H. 88, al-Walid the First, twelfth K͟halīfah of the Banī Umayah race, after building the noble Jāmiʿ-Masjid of the Ommiades at Damascus, determined to display his liberality at al-Madīnah. The governor of the place, ʿUmar ibn ʿAbdu ʾl-ʿAzīz, was directed to buy for 7,000 dinars all the hovels of raw brick that hedged in the eastern side of the old mosque. They were inhabited by descendants of the Prophet and of the early K͟halīfahs, and in more than one case, the ejection of the holy tenantry was effected with considerable difficulty. Some of the women (ever the most obstinate on such occasions) refused to take money, and ʿUmar was forced to the objectionable measure of turning them out of doors with exposed faces in full day. The Greek Emperor, applied to by the magnificent K͟halīfah, sent immense presents, silver lamp chains, valuable curiosities, forty loads of small cut stones for pietra-dura, and a sum of 80,000 dinars, or, as others say, 40,000 mishkals of gold. He also despatched forty Coptic and forty Greek artists to carve the marble pillars and the casings of the walls, and to superintend the gilding and the mosaic work.

“One of these Christians was beheaded for sculpturing a hog on the Qiblah wall, and another, in an attempt to defile the roof, fell to the ground, and his brains were dashed out. The remainder apostatized, but this did not prevent the older Arabs murmuring that their mosque had been turned into a kanīsah (or Church). The Ḥujrah, or chamber, where, by Muḥammad’s permission, ʿIzrāʾīl, the Angel of Death, separated his soul from his body, whilst his head was lying in the lap of ʿĀyishah, his favourite wife, was now for the first time taken into the mosque. The raw brick enceinte which surrounded the three graves was exchanged for one of carved stone, enclosed by an outer precinct with a narrow passage between. These double walls were either without a door, or had only a small blocked-up wicket on the northern side, and from that day (A.H. 90), no one has been able to approach the sepulchre. A minaret was erected at each corner of the mosque. The building was enlarged to 200 cubits by 167, and was finished in A.H. 91. When Walīd, the K͟halīfah, visited it in state, he inquired of his lieutenant why greater magnificence had not been displayed in the erection; upon which ʿUmar informed him, to his astonishment, that the walls alone had cost 45,000 dinars.

“The fourth mosque was erected in A.H. 191, by al-Mahdī, third prince of the Banū ʿAbbās or Baghdad K͟halīfahs—celebrated in history only for spending enormous sums upon a pilgrimage. He enlarged the building by adding ten handsome pillars of carved marble, with gilt capitals, on the northern side. In A.H. 202, al-Maʾmūn made further additions to this mosque.

“It was from al-Mahdī’s Masjid that Ḥakīm ibn Amri ʾllāh, the third Fāt̤imite K͟halīfah of Egypt, and the deity of the Druse sect, determined to steal the bodies of the Prophet and his two companions. About A.H. 412, he sent emissaries to al-Madīnah; the attempt, however, failed, and the would be violators of the tomb lost their lives. It is generally supposed that Ḥakīm’s object was to transfer the visitation to his own capital; but in one so manifestly insane it is difficult to discover the spring of action. Two Christians, habited like Maghrabī pilgrims, in A.H. 550, dug a mine from a neighbouring house into the temple. They were discovered, beheaded, and burned to ashes. In relating these events, the Muslim historians mix up many foolish preternaturalisms with credible matter. At last, to prevent a recurrence of such sacrilegious attempts, Māliku ʾl-ʿĀdil Nūru ʾd-dīn, of the Baharite Mamluk Sultans, or, according to others, Sultan Nūru ʾd-dīn Shāhid Maḥmūd bin Zengi, who, warned by a vision of the Prophet, had started for al-Madīnah only in time to discover the two Christians, surrounded the holy place with a deep trench, filled with molten lead. By this means Abū Bakr and ʿUmar, who had run considerable risks of their own, have ever since been enabled to occupy their last home undisturbed.

“In A.H. 654, the fifth mosque was erected in consequence of a fire, which some authors attribute to a volcano that broke out close to the town in terrible eruption; others, with more fanaticism and less probability, to the schismatic Banū Ḥusain, then the guardians of the tomb. On this occasion the Ḥujrah was saved, together with the old and venerable copies of the Qurʾān there deposited, especially the Cufic MSS., written by Us̤mān, the third K͟halīfah. The piety of three sovereigns, Mustaʿṣim (last K͟halīfah of Bag͟hdad) Muz̤affir Shems-ud-dīn-Yūsuf, chief of Yaman, and Z̤āhir Beybars, Baharite Sultan of Egypt, completed the work in A.H. 688. This building was enlarged and beautified by the princes of Egypt, and lasted upwards of 200 years.

“The sixth mosque was built, almost as it now stands, by Kaid Bey, nineteenth Sultan of the Circassian Mamluk kings of Egypt, in A.H. 888. Mustaʿṣim’s mosque had been struck by lightning during a storm; thirteen men were killed at prayers, and the destroying element spared nothing but the interior of the Ḥujrah. The railing and dome were restored; niches and a pulpit were sent from Cairo, and the gates and minarets were distributed as they are now. Not content with this, Kaid Bey established ‘waqf’ (bequests) and pensions, and introduced order among the attendants on the tomb. In the tenth century, Sultan Sulaiman the Magnificent paved with fine white marble the Rauẓah or garden, which Kaid Bey, not daring to alter, had left of earth, and erected the fine minaret that bears his name. During the dominion of the later Sultans and of Mohammad Ali, a few trifling presents of lamps, carpets, wax candles, and chandeliers, and a few immaterial alterations have been made.” (See Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to El Medinah and Meccah, by Richard F. Burton, 2nd edition, vol. i. p. 345.)

MASJIDU ʾT-TAQWĀ (مسجد التقوى‎). Lit. “The Mosque of Piety.” The mosque at Qubāʾ, a place about three miles south-east of al-Madīnah. It was here that it is said that the Prophet’s camel, al-Qaṣwā rested on its way from Makkah to al-Madīnah, on the occasion of the Flight. And when Muḥammad desired the Companions to mount the camel, Abū Bakr and ʿUmar did so, but she still remained on the ground; but when ʿAlī obeyed the order, she arose. Here the Prophet decided to erect a place for prayer. It was the first mosque erected in Islām. Muḥammad laid the first brick, and with an iron javelin marked out the direction for prayer. The Prophet, during his residence at al-Madīnah, used to visit it once a week on foot, and he always made a point of praying there the morning prayer on the 17th of Ramaẓān. A prayer in the mosque of Qubāʾ is said to be equal in merit to a Lesser Pilgrimage to Makkah, and the place itself bears rank after the mosques of Makkah and al-Madīnah and before that of Jerusalem. It was originally a square building of very small size, but the K͟halīfah ʿUs̤mān enlarged it. Sultān ʿAbdu ʾl-Ḥamīd rebuilt the place, but it has no pretensions to grandeur. (See Burton’s Pilgrimage, vol. i. p. 390.)

MASNŪN (مسنون‎). That which is founded upon the precept or practice of Muḥammad. [SUNNAH.]

AL-MATĪN (المتين‎). “The Strong” (as a fortification is strong). One of the ninety-nine names or attributes of God. It occurs in the Qurʾān, Sūrah li. 58: “God is the provider, endowed with power, the Strong.”

MATN (متن‎). The text of a book. The notes, or commentary upon the text are called the sharḥ. A word frequently used by Muḥammadans in theological books.

MAʾŪDAH (موءودة‎). From waʾad, “to bury alive.” A damsel buried alive. A custom which existed before the time of Muḥammad in ancient Arabia, but which was forbidden by him. Sūrah xvii. 33: “Kill not your children from fear of want.” See also Sūrahs xvi. 61; lxxxi. 8.

MAULĀ (مولى‎), pl. mawālī. A term used in Muslim law for a slave, but in the Qurʾān for “a protector or helper,” i.e. God Almighty.

Sūrah viii. 41: “Know ye that God is your protector.”

Sūrah ii. 386: “Thou (God) art our protector.”

Sūrah xlvii. 12: “God is the protector of those who believe.”

The plural form occurs in the Qurʾān, Sūrah iv. 37, where it is translated by Palmer thus: “To everyone have we appointed kinsfolk” (mawālī).

MAULAWĪ (مولوى‎). From maulā, “a lord or master.” A term generally used for a learned man.

MAULID (مولد‎). The birthday, especially of a prophet or saint. The birthday of Muḥammad, which is known as Maulidu ʾn-Nabī, is celebrated on the 12th of Rabīʿu ʾl-Awwal. It is a day observed in Turkey and Egypt and in some parts of Hindustān, but not in Central Asia, by the recital of numerous ẕikrs, and by distribution of alms.

Mr. Lane, in his Modern Egyptians, vol. ii. p. 171, gives the following specimen of a ẕikr recited in the Maulidu ʾn-Nabī: “O God bless our lord Muḥammad among the latter generations; and bless our lord Muḥammad in every time and period, and bless our lord Muḥammad among the most exalted princes, unto the Day of Judgment; and bless all the prophets and apostles among the inhabitants of the heavens, and of the earth, and may God (whose name be blessed and exalted) be well pleased with our lords and our masters, those persons of illustrious estimation, Abū Bakr, and ʿUmar, and ʿUs̤mān, and ʿAlī, and with all the other favourites of God. God is our sufficiency, excellent is the Guardian. And there is no strength nor power but in God, the High, the Great. O God, O our Lord, O Thou liberal of pardon, O Thou most bountiful of the most bountiful, O God. Amīn.”

MĀʾU ʾL-QUDS (ماء القدس‎). Lit. “Water of Holiness.” A term used by the Ṣūfīs for such holy influences on the soul of man as enable him to overcome the lusts of the flesh, and to become holy. (See ʿAbdu ʾr-Razzāq’s Dict. of Ṣūfī Terms.)

AL-MĀʿŪN (الماعون‎). Lit. “Necessaries.” The title of the CVIIth Sūrah of the Qurʾān, in the last verse of which the word occurs.

MAUT (موت‎). “Death.” Heb. ‏מָוֶת‎. The word is always used in the Qurʾān in its literal sense, meaning the departure of the spirit from the body, e.g. Sūrah ii. 182: “Every soul must taste of death.” But amongst the Ṣūfīs it is employed in a figurative sense, e.g. al-mautu ʾl-abyaẓ, or “the white death,” is held to mean abstinence from food, or that feeling of hunger which purifies the soul. A person who frequently abstains from food is said to have entered this state of death. Al-mautu ʾl-ak͟hẓar, “the green death,” the wearing of old clothes in a state of voluntary poverty. When a person has given up wearing purple and fine linen, and has chosen the garments of poverty, he is said to have entered this state of death. Al-mautu ʾl-aswad, “the black death,” the voluntary taking up of trouble, and submitting to be evil spoken of for the truth’s sake. When a Muslim has learnt to submit to such troubles and persecutions, he is said to have entered into this state of death. (See ʿAbdu ʾr-Razzāq’s Dict. of Ṣūfī Terms.) [MAMAT.]

MAʾẔŪN (ماذون‎). A licensed or privileged slave. A slave who has received a remission of all the inhibitions attending his state of bondage.

MEAT. [FOOD.]

MECCA. [MAKKAH.]

MEDICINE. Arabic dawāʾ (دوا‎). The only medicine recommended in the Qurʾān is honey. See Sūrah xvi. 71: “From its (the bee’s) belly cometh forth a fluid of varying hues, which yieldeth medicine to man.”

MEDINA. [AL-MADINAH.]

MEDITATION. [MURAQABAH.]

MENSTRUATION. Arabic maḥīẓ (محيض‎). The catamenia, or menses, is termed ḥayẓ. The woman in this condition is called ḥāʾiẓ or ḥāʾiẓah. All books of Muḥammadan theology contain a chapter devoted to the treatment of women in this condition. During the period of menstruation, women are not permitted to say their prayers, or to touch or read the Qurʾān, or enter a mosque, and are forbidden to their husbands. But it is related in the traditions that Muḥammad abrogated the law of Moses which set a menstruous woman entirely apart for seven days. (Leviticus xv. 19). And Anas says that when the Jews heard this they said, “This man opposes our customs in everything.”

(See Qurʾān, Sūrah ii. 222; Mishkātu ʾl-Maṣābiḥ, Hamilton’s ed. vol. i. p. 121; Arabic ed. Bābu ʾl-Ḥaiẓ.)

When the period of menses ceases, bathing must be performed and prayer said.

MERCY. Arabic Raḥmah (رحمة‎). Heb. ‏רַחַם‎. The attribute of mercy is specially mentioned in the Qurʾān as one which characterizes the Divine Being; each chapter of that book (with the exception of the IXth), beginning with the superscription, Bismillāhi ʾr-Raḥmāni ʾr-Raḥīm, “In the name of God the Merciful, the Compassionate.” In the Tafsīr-i-Raufī it is said that ar-Raḥmān is only applicable to God, whilst ar-Raḥīm may be applied to the creature as well as to God; but the Jalālān say the two terms are synonymous, and on this account they are used together. Al-Baiẓāwī remarks that the attribute of mercy expresses “softness of heart” (riqqatu ʾl-qalb), and “a turning with kindness and favour towards a person,” and in this way it expresses God’s sympathy with mankind, although the terms are not strictly applicable to an unchangeable Being. In the Qurʾān, Job is described as speaking of God as “the most merciful of merciful ones.” (Sūrah xxi. 83). And the angels who bear the throne, and those around it who celebrate God’s praises, cry out: “Our Lord! thou dost embrace all things in mercy and knowledge!” (Sūrah xl. 7.) The “Treasuries of the mercies of the Lord,” are often referred to in the Qurʾān (e.g. Sūrahs xvii. 102; xviii. 81). The word Raḥmah, “a mercy,” is a term used for a divine book; it is frequently applied to the Qurʾān, which is called “a mercy and a guidance” (Sūrahs x. 58; xvii. 84), and also to the books of Moses (Sūrahs xi. 20; xii. 111). In one place it is used for Paradise, “They are in God’s mercy” (Sūrah iii. 103). The bounty of God’s mercy is the constant theme both of the Qurʾān and the Traditions; e.g. Sūrah vii. 155: “My mercy embraceth everything.” To despair of God’s mercy is a cardinal sin. Sūrah xxxix. 54: “Be not in despair of the mercy of God; verily, God forgives sins, all of them.” Sūrah xv. 56: “Only those who err despair of the mercy of their Lord.”

In the Traditions, Muḥammad is related to have said: “When God created the world He wrote a book, which is with Him on the exalted throne, and therein is written, ‘Verily my mercy overcomes my anger.’ ” And, again, “Verily, God has one hundred mercies; one mercy hath he sent down to men and genii, but He hath reserved ninety-nine mercies, by which He will be gracious to His people.” (Mishkāt, book x. ch. 4.)

The LVth Sūrah of the Qurʾān is entitled the Sūratu ʾr-Raḥmān, or the “Chapter of the Merciful,” in which are set forth the “bounties of the Lord.” It is a chapter which is sadly marred by its concluding description of the sensual enjoyments of Muḥammad’s paradise.

The Christians are spoken of in the Qurʾān, Sūrah lvii. 27, as those in whose hearts God “placed mercy (raḥmah) and compassion (raʾfah).”

MICHAEL. In Muḥammadan works generally, the Archangel Michael is called Mīkāʾīl (ميكائيل‎), Heb. ‏מִיכָאֵל‎; but in the Qurʾān, in which his name once occurs, he is called Mīkāl (ميكال‎). Al-Baiẓāwī says that a Jew named ʿAbdu ʾllāh ibn Ṣūrīyāʾ, objected to Muḥammad’s assertion that the Archangel Gabriel revealed the Qurʾān to him, because he was an avenging angel, and said that if it had been sent by Michael, their own guardian angel (Daniel xii. 1), they might have believed. This assertion called forth the following verses from Muḥammad in Sūrah ii. 92:—

“Whoso is the enemy of Gabriel—For he it is who by God’s leave hath caused the Qurʾān to descend on thy heart, the confirmation of previous revelations, and guidance, and good tidings to the faithful—Whoso is an enemy to God or his angels, or to Gabriel, or to Michael, shall have God as his enemy: for verily God is an enemy to the infidels. Moreover, clear signs have we sent down to thee, and none will disbelieve them but the perverse.”

MIDIAN. [MADYAN.]

MIFTĀḤU ʾL-JANNAH (مـفـتاح الجنة‎). “The Key of Paradise.” A term used by Muḥammad for prayer. (Mishkāt, book iii. ch. i.)

MIḤJAN (محجن‎). A hook-headed stick about four feet long, which, it is said, the Prophet always carried; now carried by men of religious pretensions.

MIḤRĀB (محراب‎). A niche in the centre of a wall of a mosque, which marks the direction of Makkah, and before which the Imām takes his position when he leads the congregation in prayer. In the Masjidu ʾn-Nabī, or Prophet’s mosque, at al-Madīnah, a large black stone, placed against the northern wall, facing Jerusalem, directed the congregation, but it was removed to the southern side when the Qiblah was changed to Makkah.

The Miḥrāb, as it now exists, dates from the days of al-Walīd (A.H. 90), and it seems probable that the K͟halīfah borrowed the idea from the Hindus, such a niche being a peculiarly Hindu feature in sacred buildings.

The word occurs four times in the Qurʾān, where it is used for a chamber (Sūrahs iii. 32, 33; xix. 12; xxxviii. 20), and its plural, maḥārīb, once (Sūrah xxxiv. 12).

MĪKĀʾĪL (ميكائيل‎). [MICHAEL.]

MILLAH (ملة‎). A word which occurs in the Qurʾān fifteen times. Eight times for the religion of Abraham (Sūrahs ii. 124, 129; iii. 89; iv. 124; vi. 162; xii. 38; xvi. 124; xxii. 77); twice for the religion of former prophets (Sūrahs xiv. 16; xxxviii. 6); once for the religion of the seven children of the cave (Sūrah xviii. 19); three times for idolatrous religions (Sūrahs xii. 37; vii. 86, 87); and once for the religion of Jews and Christians (Sūrah ii. 114). The word is used in the Traditions for the religion of Abraham (Mishkāt, book x. ch. v.).

According to the Kitābu ʾt-Taʿrīfāt, it is expressive of religion as it stands in relation to the prophets, as distinguished from Dīn (دين‎), which signifies religion as it stands in relation to God, or from Maẕhab (مذهب‎), which signifies religion with reference to the learned doctors. [RELIGION.] Sprenger and Deutsch have invested the origin and meaning of this word with a certain amount of mystery, which is interesting.

Dr. Sprenger says (Das Leben und die Lehre des Mohammad, vol. ii. p. 276 n):—“When Mohammad speaks of the religion of Abraham, he generally uses the word Milla (Millah) and not Dīn. Arabian philologists have tried to trace the meaning of the word from their mother tongue, thus, Malla (Mallah) signifies fire or hot ashes in Arabic and Zaggag says (Thālaby, vol. ii. p. 114), that religion is called Milla because of the impression which it makes, and which may be compared to that which fire makes upon the bread baked in ashes. Since the Arabs are unable to give a better explanation, we must presume that milla is a foreign word, imported by the teachers of the “Milla of Abraham” in the Hijāz. Philo considered Abraham the chief promoter of the doctrine of the Unity of God, and doubtless, even before Philo, Jewish thought, in tracing the doctrine of the true religion, not only as far back as Moses, but even to the father of their nation, emancipated the indispensability of the form of the law, and so prepared the road to Essaism and Christianity.”

Mr. Emanuel Deutsch, in his article on Islām (Literary Remains, p. 130), says: “The word used in the Qurān for the religion of Abraham is generally Milla. Sprenger, after ridiculing the indeed absurd attempts made to derive it from an Arabic root, concludes that it must be a foreign word introduced by the teachers of the ‘Milla of Abraham’ into the Hijāz. He is perfectly right. Milla = Memra = Logos, are identical; being the Hebrew, Chaldee (Targum, Peshito in slightly varied spelling), and Greek terms respectively for the ‘Word,’ that surrogate for the Divine name used by the Targum, by Philo, by St. John. This Milla or ‘Word,’ which Abraham proclaimed, he, ‘who was not an astrologer but a prophet,’ teaches according to the Haggadah, first of all, the existence of one God, the Creator of the Universe, who rules this universe with mercy and loving kindness.”

MILK. Arabic laban (لبن‎). The sale of milk in the udder is unlawful (Hidāyah, vol. ii. p. 433). In the Qurʾān it is mentioned as one of God’s special gifts. “Verily, ye have in cattle a lesson: we give you to drink from that which is in their bellies betwixt chyme and blood—pure milk—easy to swallow for those who drink.” (Sūrah xvi. 68.)

MINĀ منى‎. Lit. “A wish.” A sacred valley near Makkah, in which part of the Pilgrimage ceremonies take place. According to ʿAbdu ʾl-Ḥaqq, it was so called because Adam wished for paradise in this valley.

MINARET. [MANARAH.]

MINBAR. Generally pronounced mimbar (منبر‎). The pulpit in a mosque from which the k͟hut̤bah (or sermon) is recited. It consists of three steps, and is sometimes a moveable wooden structure, and sometimes a fixture of brick or stone built against the wall. Muḥammad, in addressing the congregation, stood on the uppermost step, Abū Bakr on the second, and ʿUmar on the third or lowest. ʿUs̤mān fixed upon the middle step, and since then it has been the custom to preach from that step. The Shīʿahs have four steps to their mimbars.

The mimbars in the mosques of Cairo are elevated structures, but in Asia they are of a more primitive character.

Burton says: “In the beginning the Prophet leaned, when fatigued, against a post, whilst preaching the k͟hut̤bah or Friday sermon. The mimbar, or pulpit, was an invention of a Madīnah man of the Banū Najjār. It was a wooden frame, two cubits long by one broad, with three steps, each one span high; on the topmost of these the Prophet sat when he required rest. The pulpit assumed its present form about A.H. 90, during the artistic reign of El Walid.”

MINES. Arabic maʿdin (معدن‎), pl. maʿādin. In Zakāt, mines are subject to a payment of one fifth. (Hidāyah, vol. i. 39.)

MINḤAH (منحة‎). A legal term for a portion of camel’s or sheep’s milk which another is allowed to draw, but afterwards to restore the animal to its original owner.

MINORITY. [PUBERTY.]