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165-564: The origin of the Baharna is debated; there are different theories regarding their origins. Several Western scholars believe the Baharna originate from Bahrain's ancient population and pre-Islamic population which consisted of partially-Christianized Arabs , Aramaic -speaking agriculturalists, Persian Zoroastrians , and a small amount of Jews . According to one historian, Arab settlements in Bahrain may have begun around 300 B.C. and control of

330-480: A liturgical language . The Bahrani dialect might have borrowed the Akkadian, Aramaic and Syriac features from Mesopotamian Arabic . According to Robert Bertram Serjeant , the Baharna may be the last of the "descendants of converts from the original population of Christians ( Aramaeans ), Jews and ancient Persians/Iranians ( Majus ) inhabiting the island and cultivated coastal provinces of Eastern Arabia at

495-590: A Hidraj from Mecca to Medina. According to the testimony of the transoxanian scholar Abu al-Yusr al-Bazdawi (d. 1099) the Kullabites (followers of the Basrian scholar Ibn Kullab (d. 855)) dayed about themselves, that they are among the ahl as-sunna wa l-jama too. Abu al-Hasan al-Ashari used the expression ahl as-sunna wa l-jamāʿah rarely, and preferred another combination. Later Asharites like al-Isfaranini (d. 1027) nad Abd al-Qahir al-Baghdadi (d. 1078) used

660-501: A Khateeb (one who speaks). A study conducted by the Pew Research Center in 2010 and released January 2011 found that there are 1.62 billion Muslims around the world, and it is estimated over 85–90% are Sunni. Regarding the question which dogmatic tendencies are to be assigned to Sunnism, there is no agreement among Muslim scholars. Since the early modern period, is the idea that a total of three groups belong to

825-626: A certain act as a religious obligation, another may see the same act as optional. These schools are not regarded as sects; rather, they represent differing viewpoints on issues that are not considered the core of Islamic belief . Historians have differed regarding the exact delineation of the schools based on the underlying principles they follow. Many traditional scholars saw Sunni Islam in two groups: Ahl al-Ra'y , or "people of reason", due to their emphasis on scholarly judgment and discourse; and Ahl al-Hadith , or "people of traditions", due to their emphasis on restricting juristic thought to only what

990-575: A dynastic absolute monarchy that championed the reformist doctrines of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab ; the eponym of the Wahhabi movement . This was followed by a considerable rise in the influence of the Wahhabi , Salafiyya , Islamist and Jihadist movements that revived the doctrines of the Hanbali theologian Taqi Al-Din Ibn Taymiyyah (1263–1328 C.E/ 661–728 A.H), a fervent advocate of

1155-470: A famous follower of Ali , encouraged during the Battle of Siffin with the expression, Ali's political rival Mu'awiya kills the sunna . After the battle, it was agreed that "the righteous Sunnah , the unifying, not the divisive" (" as-Sunna al-ʿādila al-ǧāmiʿa ġair al-mufarriqa ") should be consulted to resolve the conflict. The time when the term sunna became the short form for " Sunnah of

1320-580: A government under the leadership of Mohammed Omar , who was addressed as the Emir of the faithful, an honorific way of addressing the caliph. The Taliban regime was recognised by Pakistan and Saudi Arabia till after 9/11 , perpetrated by Osama bin Laden – a Saudi national by birth and harboured by the Taliban – took place, resulting in a war on terror launched against the Taliban. The sequence of events of

1485-534: A measure of communal autonomy, to be entitled to Muslim state's protection from outside aggression, to be exempted from military service , and to be exempted from the zakat . Like Arab Muslims , Arab Christians refer to God as " Allah ". As with the Christians of Malta , this practice is distinguished from the Islamic use of the word "Allah" which refers to the personal name of God in that faith. The use of

1650-423: A movement called ahl al-hadith under the leadership of Ahmad ibn Hanbal . In matters of faith, they were pitted against Mu'tazilites and other theological currents, condemning many points of their doctrine as well as the rationalistic methods they used in defending them. In the 10th century AD al-Ash'ari and al-Maturidi found a middle ground between Mu'tazilite rationalism and Hanbalite literalism, using

1815-491: A native Christian Himyarite, Sumyafa Ashwa , as his viceroy. The Aksumites thus conquered Himyar and their rule lasted until 575. The Abyssinians spread Christianity and their rulers built an extravagant building in honor of the Martyrs of Najran. It was known by its contemporaries for its beauty, adorned with ornaments, jewels, and prominent archways. Arabs called it the “Kaaba of Najran”. The Yemenis later rebelled against

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1980-657: A number of early Arab kingdoms and tribes adopted Christianity, including the Nabataeans , Lakhmids , Salihids , Tanukhids , ʿIbādī of al-Hira , and the Ghassanids . In modern times, Arab Christians have played important roles in the Nahda movement, and they have significantly influenced and contributed to the fields of literature , politics, business, philosophy , music, theatre and cinema, medicine, and science. Today Arab Christians still play important roles in

2145-598: A prominent role in the development of Arab culture. It is agreed amongst historians the importance the roles played by the Arab Christians in this renaissance, and their role in the prosperity through participation in the diaspora. Given this role in politics and culture, Ottoman ministers began to include them in their governments. In the economic sphere, a number of Christian families like the Greek Orthodox Sursock family became prominent. Thus,

2310-688: A result of bombardment. The 1860 civil conflict in Mount Lebanon and Damascus was a civil conflict and later massacre during Ottoman rule, started by skirmishes occurring between the Maronites and the Druze of Mount Lebanon . Following decisive victories and massacres against Christians, the conflict spilled over into other parts of Ottoman Syria , particularly the city Damascus , where over ten thousand Christian residents of various denominations were killed by Druze and Muslim militiamen. With

2475-475: A scholar of Islamic law ( sharia ) or Islamic theology ( Kalām ). Both religious and political leadership are in principle open to all Muslims. According to the Islamic Center of Columbia , South Carolina , anyone with the intelligence and the will can become an Islamic scholar. During Midday Mosque services on Fridays, the congregation will choose a well-educated person to lead the service, known as

2640-414: A significant role in promoting Shia beliefs. The Qarmatians, a radical Ismaili Shia sect, established a strong presence in Bahrain around the 9th and 10th centuries. They ruled over Bahrain for several centuries, promoting their distinct form of Shia Islam, which had a significant impact on the local population. The Qarmatians’ influence and their promotion of Shia beliefs contributed to the gradual shift of

2805-633: Is a Christian broadcasting network that was founded in 1995; it targets primarily Arab Christians in North Africa and the Middle East . These media networks produce dozens of Arabic-language Christian films , musical works, as well as radio and television programmes. Syro-Lebanese Melkite Saleem Takla and his brother Beshara founded the Al-Ahram newspaper in 1875 in Alexandria ; now

2970-514: Is also found in the Qur'an , according to Sunnis. Therefore, narratives of companions are also reliably taken into account for knowledge of the Islamic faith. Sunnis also believe that the companions were true believers since it was the companions who were given the task of compiling the Qur'an . Sunni Islam does not have a formal hierarchy. Leaders are informal, and gain influence through study to become

3135-711: Is also used on Western research literature to denote the Sunni-Shia contrast. One of the earliest supporting documents for ahl as-sunna derives from the Basric scholar Muhammad Ibn Siri (d. 728). His is mentioned in the Sahih of Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj quoted with: "Formerly one did not ask about the Isnad . But when the fitna started, one said: 'Name us your informants'. One would then respond to them: If they were Sunnah people, you accept their hadith. But if they are people of

3300-512: Is forbidden even if it verifies the truth. They engage in a literal reading of the Qur'an , as opposed to one engaged in ta'wil (metaphorical interpretation). They do not attempt to conceptualize the meanings of the Qur'an rationally, and believe that their realities should be consigned to God alone ( tafwid ). In essence, the text of the Qur'an and Hadith is accepted without asking "how" or " Bi-la kaifa ". Traditionalist theology emerged among scholars of hadith who eventually coalesced into

3465-752: Is found in scripture. Ibn Khaldun defined the Sunni schools as three: the Hanafi school representing reason, the Ẓāhirīte school representing tradition, and a broader, middle school encompassing the Shafi'ite , Malikite and Hanbalite schools. During the Middle Ages , the Mamluk Sultanate in Egypt delineated the acceptable Sunni schools as only Hanafi , Maliki , Shafi'i and Hanbali , excluding

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3630-665: Is known among his followers as caliph and Amir-al-mu'mineen , "The Commander of the Faithful". Jihadism is opposed from within the Muslim community (known as the ummah in Arabic) in all quarters of the world as evidenced by turnout of almost 2% of the Muslim population in London protesting against ISIL. Following the puritan approach of Ibn Kathir , Muhammad Rashid Rida , etc. many contemporary Tafsir (exegetic treatises) downplay

3795-438: Is motivated by political discourse or by traditionalist thought alone. The usage of tafsir'ilmi is another notable characteristic of modern Sunni tafsir. Tafsir'ilmi stands for alleged scientific miracles found in the Qur'an. In short, the idea is that the Qur'an contains knowledge about subjects an author of the 7th century could not possibly have. Such interpretations are popular among many commentators. Some scholars, such as

3960-520: Is not contradicted by the Quran. Therefore, when God states in the Quran, "He who does not resemble any of His creation", this clearly means that God cannot be attributed with body parts because He created body parts. Ash'aris tend to stress divine omnipotence over human free will and they believe that the Quran is eternal and uncreated. Founded by Abu Mansur al-Maturidi (d. 944), the Maturidiyyah

4125-551: Is recorded by Masrūq ibn al-Adschdaʿ (d. 683), who was a Mufti in Kufa , a need to love the first two caliphs Abū Bakr and ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb and acknowledge their priority ( Fadā'il ). A disciple of Masrūq, the scholar ash-Shaʿbī (d. between 721 und 729), who first sided with the Shia in Kufa during Civil War, but turned away in disgust by their fanaticism and finally decided to join

4290-808: Is the Christian cemetery outside the Medina towards the well of 'Anbasa, confirmed by al-Maqdisi , as well as the conversion to Christianity by some members of the Quraish . Following the fall of large portions of former Byzantine and Sasanian provinces to the Arab armies, a large indigenous Christian population of varying ethnicities came under Arab Muslim dominance. Historically, a number of minority Christian sects were persecuted as heretic under Byzantine rule (such as non-Chalcedonians ). The Islamic conquests set forth two processes affecting these Christian communities:

4455-604: Is to assume that Sunni Islam represents a normative Islam that emerged during the period after Muhammad's death, and that Sufism and Shi'ism developed out of Sunni Islam. This perception is partly due to the reliance on highly ideological sources that have been accepted as reliable historical works, and also because the vast majority of the population is Sunni. Both Sunnism and Shiaism are the end products of several centuries of competition between ideologies. Both sects used each other to further cement their own identities and doctrines. The first four caliphs are known among Sunnis as

4620-512: Is to be excluded from Ahl al-Sunna wal Jama'ah , unless they openly disapprove of the doctrines of the Salaf ( mad'hab as-Salaf ). According to Albani: "I do not share [the view of] some of the noble scholars of the past and present that we say about a group from the [many] Islamic groups that it is not from Ahlus-Sunnah due to its deviation in one issue or another... as for whether the Ash’aris or

4785-561: Is used, for example, in the final document of the Grozny Conference . Only those "people of the Hadith" are assigned to Sunnism who practice tafwīḍ , i.e. who refrain from interpreting the ambiguous statements of the Quran. Founded by Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari (873–935). This theological school of Aqeedah was embraced by many Muslim scholars and developed in parts of the Islamic world throughout history; al-Ghazali wrote on

4950-802: Is used, the Ashʿarites and Māturīdites are meant. This position was also taken over by the Egyptian Fatwa Office in July 2013. In Ottoman times, many efforts were made to establish a good harmony between the teachings of the Ashʿarīya and the Māturīdīya. Finally, there were also scholars who regarded the Ashʿarites alone as Sunnis. For example, the Moroccan Sufi Ahmad ibn ʿAdschiba (d. 1809) stated in his commentary on Fatiha : "As far as

5115-485: Is valuable to historians, as it is the only account written by a survivor of a mob attack. Emir Abdelkader al-Jazairi , the exiled Algerian Muslim military leader, ordered his sons and soldiers to protect and shelter Damascene Christians from impending interpersonal violence that was spreading throughout the city, thereby saving thousands, preserving this ancient community from complete devastation. Melkite Greek Catholic and Maronite Christians suffered negligence from

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5280-629: Is what distinguishes the Sufis from Sunnis according to as-Saksakī their orientation to the hidden inner meaning of the Qur'an and the Sunnah . In this, he said, they resemble the Bātinites . According to the final document of the Grozny Conference, only those Sufis are to be regarded as Sunnis who are "people of pure Sufism" ( ahl at-taṣauwuf aṣ-ṣāfī ) in the knowledge, ethics and purification of

5445-416: The sahaba , tabi'in , and tabi al-tabi'in as the salaf (predecessors). The Arabic term sunna , according to which Sunnis are named, is old and roots in pre-Islamic language. It was used for traditions which a majority of people followed. The term got greater political significance after the murder of the third caliph Uthman ( r.  644–656 ). It is said Malik al-Ashtar ,

5610-614: The Falastin newspaper in 1911. The paper was Palestine's most consistent critic of the early Zionist movement. In Lebanon, the influential Greek Orthodox Tueni family founded the An-Nahar newspaper in 1933, also one of the leading newspapers today. Shireen Abu Akleh worked as a reporter for the Arabic -language channel Al Jazeera for 25 years. Popular Lebanese singer Fairuz has over 150 million records sold worldwide, making her

5775-526: The Qur'an and sunnah . The name derives from "tradition" in its technical sense as translation of the Arabic word hadith . It is also sometimes referred to as athari as by several other names . Adherents of traditionalist theology believe that the zahir (literal, apparent) meaning of the Qur'an and the hadith have sole authority in matters of belief and law; and that the use of rational disputation

5940-652: The Arab world , but are concentrated in the Eastern Mediterranean region of the Levant and Egypt , with smaller communities present throughout the Arabian Peninsula and North Africa . The history of Arab Christians coincides with the history of Eastern Christianity and the history of the Arabic language ; Arab Christian communities either result from pre-existing Christian communities adopting

6105-777: The Banu Abdul Qays , who were mostly Nestorian Christians before the seventh century, as-well as the Anizah tribe which is a cousin tribe the Abd Al-Qays and are both part of the greater Rab’ia tribe . Many are also from the Bani Tamim tribe, such as the ruler of Bahrain during the early islamic era, and Al-Azd . The Bahrani Arabic dialect exhibits Akkadian , Aramaic and Syriac features. The sedentary people of pre-Islamic Bahrain were Aramaic speakers and to some degree Persian speakers , while Syriac functioned as

6270-835: The Fertile Crescent . The Christian Arab presence predates the early Muslim conquests , and there were many Arab tribes that converted to Christianity, beginning in the 1st century. The interests of the Arabs before the 9th century A.D. were focused primarily on the recording and translating of pre-Islamic poetry . The early Arab Christians recorded Syriac hymns , Arabic poetry, ecclesiastical melodies, proverbs, and ḥikam (rules of governance). They did not otherwise record religion, which gave way to conflicting accounts and sparse evidence for specific practices over several centuries. From classical antiquity to modern times, Arab Christians have played important roles contributing to

6435-829: The Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem , Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch , Melkite Greek Catholic Church, Maronite Church , and Oriental Orthodox Churches , though some are also members of other churches, including the Catholic Latin Church and Protestant Churches , such as the Lutheran, Anglican, and Reformed traditions. Modern: Saint Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral , Cairo, Egypt Modern: Bkerké , Lebanon Modern: Mariamite Cathedral , Damascus , Syria Modern: Cathedral of Saint George , Damascus, Syria ; (historically Mor Hananyo Monastery , Tur Abdin ) Modern: Cathedral of Our Lady of

6600-508: The Hanafi school while followers of the Shafi and Maliki schools within the empire followed the Ash'ari and Athari schools of thought. Thus, wherever can be found Hanafi followers, there can be found the Maturidi creed. Traditionalist or Athari theology is a movement of Islamic scholars who reject rationalistic Islamic theology ( kalam ) in favor of strict textualism in interpreting

6765-669: The Innovations , the hadith was rejected." G.H.A. Juynboll assumed, the term fitna in this statement is not related to the first Civil War (665–661) after murder of ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān , but the second Civil War (680–692) in which the Islamic community was split into four parties ( Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr , the Umayyads , the Shia under al-Mukhtār ibn Abī ʿUbaid and the Kharijites). The term ahl as-sunna designated in this situation whose, who stayed away from heretic teachings of

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6930-633: The Iraq war . The Mahjar (one of its more literal meanings being "the Arab diaspora") was a literary movement that succeeded the Nahda movement. It was started by Christian Arabic-speaking writers who had emigrated to America from Lebanon, Syria and Palestine at the turn of the 20th century. The writers of the Mahjar movement were stimulated by their personal encounter with the Western world and participated in

7095-584: The Kaaba of Mecca and Ghamdan Palace . On the organizational level, the Archbishop of Yemen held the title " Catholicos " which follows the " Patriarch " in rank. The spread of Christianity amongst Arabs reached Upper Mesopotamia , where Banu Bakr and Banu Mudar lived, both famous for their staunch Christian beliefs and for honoring Sergius the Military Saint . Ibn Khallikan mentioned that all

7260-557: The Koran – Scholars, 6. the Sufi ascetics ( az-zuhhād aṣ-ṣūfīya ), 7. those who perform the ribat and jihad against the enemies of Islam, 8. the general crowd. According to this classification, the Sufis are one of a total of eight groups within Sunnism, defined according to their religious specialization. The Tunisian scholar Muhammad ibn al-Qāsim al-Bakkī (d. 1510) also included

7425-430: The Nabataeans alone reached forty according to Ibn Duraid . The first Arab bishop of the Arabs, Saint Moses , spent many years in the 4th century as a hermit between Syria and Egypt. His piety impressed Mavia , Arab warrior- queen of the Tanukhids , and she made his consecration as a bishop over her people a condition to any truce with Rome. The Jordan Valley and the Balqa was under Arab Christian rule by

7590-430: The Ottoman authorities and a naval blockade from France and Britain, resulting in the Great Famine of Mount Lebanon (1915–1918) during World War I , which ran in conjunction with the Armenian genocide , the Assyrian genocide and the Greek genocide . The Mount Lebanon famine caused the highest fatality rate by population during World War I . Around 200,000 people starved to death when the population of Mount Lebanon

7755-458: The Palestinian diaspora and 6–7 million Brazilians are estimated to have Lebanese ancestry. Mass Arab immigration started in the 1890s as Lebanese and Syrian people fled from the political and economic instability which was caused by the collapse of the Ottoman Empire . These early immigrants were known as Syro-Lebanese, Lebanese and Palestinians, or Turks . According to the United States census , there were at least 3.5 million Arabs living in

7920-427: The Prophet " (S unnat an-Nabī ) is still unknown. During the Umayyad Caliphate , several political movements, including the Shia and the Kharijites rebelled against the formation of the state. They led their battles in the name of "the book of God ( Qur'an ) and the Sunnah of his Prophet". During the second Civil War (680–92) the Sunna-term received connotations critical of Shi'i doctrines ( Tashayyu' ). It

8085-412: The Qur'an , but does not refer to the modern island—originally known to the Arabs as "Awal". Today, Bahrain's "two seas" are instead generally taken to be the bay east and west of the island, the seas north and south of the island, or the salt and fresh water present above and below the ground. In addition to wells, there are places in the sea north of Bahrain where fresh water bubbles up in the middle of

8250-497: The Rāshidun or "Rightly-Guided Ones". Sunni recognition includes the aforementioned Abu Bakr as the first, Umar as the second, Uthman as the third, and Ali as the fourth. Sunnis recognised different rulers as the caliph , though they did not include anyone in the list of the rightly guided ones or Rāshidun after the murder of Ali, until the caliphate was constitutionally abolished in Turkey on 3 March 1924. The seeds of metamorphosis of caliphate into kingship were sown, as

8415-480: The SSNP ) against insurgents today. When the conflict in Syria began, it was reported that Christians were cautious and avoided taking sides, but that due to the increased violence in Syria and ISIL's growth, Arab Christians have shown support for Assad, fearing that if Assad is overthrown, they will be targeted. Christians support the Assad regime based on fear that the end of the current government could lead to instability. The Carnegie Middle East Center stated that

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8580-410: The Sufis are also part of Sunnism. This view can already be found in the Shafi'ite scholar Abu Mansur al-Baghdadi (d. 1037). In his heresiographical work al-Farq baina l-firaq he divided the Sunnis into eight different categories ( aṣnāf ) of people: 1. the theologians and Kalam Scholars, 2. the Fiqh scholars, 3. the traditional and Hadith scholars, 4. the Adab and language scholars, 5.

8745-427: The companions of Muhammad to be reliable transmitters of Islam, since God and Muhammad accepted their integrity. Medieval sources even prohibit cursing or vilifying them. This belief is based upon prophetic traditions such as one narrated by Abdullah, son of Masud , in which Muhammad said: "The best of the people are my generation, then those who come after them, then those who come after them." Support for this view

8910-426: The history of Christianity and the history of the Arabic language ; Arab Christian communities result either from pre-existing Christian communities adopting the Arabic language, or from pre-existing Arabic-speaking communities adopting Christianity. Arab Christians include the indigenous Christian communities of Western Asia who became majority Arabic-speaking after the consequent seventh-century Muslim conquests in

9075-521: The iPod and co-inventor of the iPhone Tony Fadell , mathematician Michael Atiyah , professor Charles Elachi , intellectual Edward Said , and Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry Elias James Corey and Nobel Prize winner in Physiology or Medicine Peter Medawar . Other notables include legendary White House reporter Helen Thomas , activist and presidential candidate Ralph Nader , judge Rosemary Barkett , and US governor and academic administrator Mitch Daniels . Arab Christians mainly belong to

9240-414: The nature of God and the divine attributes, the Ash'ari rejected the Mu'tazili position that all Quranic references to God as having real attributes were metaphorical. The Ash'aris insisted that these attributes were as they "best befit His Majesty". The Arabic language is a wide language in which one word can have 15 different meanings, so the Ash'aris endeavor to find the meaning that best befits God and

9405-509: The principles of jurisprudence developed by the traditional legal schools . In matters of creed , the Sunni tradition upholds the six pillars of iman (faith) and comprises the Ash'ari and Maturidi schools of kalam (theology) as well as the textualist Athari school. Sunnis regard the first four caliphs Abu Bakr ( r.  632–634 ), Umar ( r.  634–644 ), Uthman ( r.  644–656 ) and Ali ( r.  656–661 ) as rashidun (rightly-guided) and revere

9570-489: The "association" that was accompanied by the birth of Arab nationalism and the demand for reformation in the Ottoman Empire . This led to the calling of the establishment of modern states based on Europe. It was during this stage that the first compound of the Arabic language was introduced along with the printing of it in letters, and later the movement influenced the fields of music, sculpture, history, humanities, economics and human rights. This cultural renaissance during

9735-462: The 19th century, Bahrain continued to experience internal conflicts, especially between the ruling Al Khalifa family and the Baharna population. Disputes over land, taxation, and sectarian discrimination pushed more Baharna to seek better conditions elsewhere. During this period, additional Baharna families migrated to Khuzestan, where they joined the earlier waves of migrants. By this time, they had established strong ties with local Arab tribes, including

9900-446: The 20th century has led to resentment in some quarters of the Sunni community due to the loss of pre-eminence in several previously Sunni-dominated regions such as the Levant , Mesopotamia , the Balkans , the North Caucasus and the Indian sub continent . The latest attempt by a radical wing of Salafi-Jihadists to re-establish a Sunni caliphate was seen in the emergence of the militant group ISIL , whose leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi

10065-419: The 9th century. It is recorded that the disciple of Ahmad ibn Hanbal Harb ibn Ismail as-Sirjdshani (d. 893) created a writing with the title as-Sunna wa l-Jamāʿah , to which the Mutazilite Abu al-Qasim al-Balchi wrote a refutation later. Al-Jubba'i (d. 916) tells in his Kitāb al-Maqālāt , that Ahmad ibn Hanbal attributed to his students the predicate sunnī jamāʿah ("Jammatic Sunnite"). This indicates that

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10230-455: The Abyssinians and demanded independence. History records Christian influence from Ethiopia to Arab lands in pre-Islamic times, and some Ethiopian Christians may have lived in Mecca . Yemen had an important share in ancient Christianity. In the second century, the Greek theologian Pantaenus left Alexandria and headed towards Yemen as a missionary after his conversion. Historians such as Rufinus and Orosius mentioned that Matthew

10395-458: The Apostle was the missionary of Yemen and Abyssinia. A special relationship developed between the people of Yemen and the Syrian Church , as inferred by the works of Ephrem the Syrian , the biography of Simeon Stylites , and the historian Philostorgius , who said that some villages and settlements established in Yemen were Syriac -speaking. The famous Al-Qalis Church in Sana'a was built to serve aderents and to attract pilgrims travelling to

10560-428: The Arab hinterland as their political lodestar. In 1982 Israel invaded Lebanon with the aim of destroying the PLO , which it besieged in West Beirut . Israel was later obliged to withdraw as a result of multiple guerrilla attacks by the Lebanese National Resistance Front and increasing hostility across all forces in Lebanon to their presence. With the events of the Arab Spring , the Syrian Arab Christian community

10725-556: The Arab world have made significant contributions to Arab civilization since the introduction of Islam, and they have had a notable impact contributing the culture of the Mashriq . Many Arab Christians today are physicians, entertainers, philosophers, government officials and people of literature. Arab Christians throughout history have been noted for their impact on academia and literature. Arabic-speaking Christian scholars wrote extensive theological and philosophical works and treatises in Arabic in which they not only responded to

10890-434: The Arab world, and are relatively wealthy, well educated, and politically moderate. Emigrants from Arab Christian communities also make up a significant proportion of the Middle Eastern diaspora, with sizable population concentrations across the Americas, most notably in Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, Colombia, and the US. However those emigrants to the Americas, especially from the first wave of emigration, have often not passed

11055-434: The Arabic language to their descendants. The concept of an Arab Christian identity remains contentious, with some Arabic-speaking Christian groups in the Middle East , such as Assyrians , Armenians , Greeks and others, rejecting an Arab identity . Individuals from Egypt's Coptic Christian community and Lebanon's Maronite community sometimes assume a non-Arab identity. The history of Arab Christians coincides with

11220-412: The Arabic language, or from pre-existing Arabic-speaking communities adopting Christianity. The jurisdictions of three of the five patriarchates of the Pentarchy primarily became Arabic-speaking after the early Muslim conquests – the Church of Alexandria , the Church of Antioch and the Church of Jerusalem – and over time many of their adherents adopted the Arabic language and culture. Separately,

11385-420: The Asharites from the circle of Sunnis in the special sense and took the view that only the pious ancestors ( as-salaf aṣ-ṣāliḥ ) who have agreed on the Sunnah belonged to this circle. The Muʿtazilites are usually not regarded as Sunnis. Ibn Hazm , for example, contrasted them with the Sunnis as a separate group in his heresiographic work al-Faṣl fi-l-milal wa-l-ahwāʾ wa-n-niḥal . In many medieval texts from

11550-439: The Baharnah from Sunni to Shia Islam. The Safavid dynasty, which established Shia Islam as the state religion in Persia (modern-day Iran) in the 16th century, had a further influence on the Shia communities of Bahrain. Bahrain’s close proximity to Persia, along with political and religious ties, made it easier for Shia Islam to further spread in the region. Persian influence, particularly in trade and religious exchanges, reinforced

11715-476: The Book ", Christians in the region were accorded certain rights under Islamic law to practice their religion (including having Christian law used for rulings, settlements or sentences in court). In contrast to Muslims , who paid the zakat tax, they paid the jizya , an obligatory tax. The jizya was not levied on slaves, women, children, monks, the old, the sick, hermits , or the poor. In return, non-Muslim citizens were permitted to practice their faith, to enjoy

11880-625: The Christian Salihids and Ghassanid Kingdom . There are poetic verses by the pre-Islamic poet al-Nabigha in which he praises the kings of Ghassan, congratulating them on Palm Sunday . Bordering Syria, the Sinai was administratively affiliated with the Egyptian Church based in Alexandria . There are documents from the late third century of Dionysius , Pope of Alexandria , in which he mentions his Arab Christian subjects in

12045-491: The Christian Armenians and applied to the Christians in Mount Lebanon." During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War , a number of Palestinian Greek Orthodox and Melkite communities were ethnically cleansed and driven out of their towns, including al-Bassa , Ramla , Lod , Safed , Kafr Bir'im , Iqrit , Tarbikha , Eilabun and Haifa . Many Christian towns or neighborhoods were ethnically cleansed and destroyed during

12210-594: The Commentators of Al-Azhar University , reject this approach, arguing the Qur'an is a text for religious guidance, not for science and scientific theories that may be disproved later; thus tafsir'ilmi might lead to interpreting Qur'anic passages as falsehoods. Modern trends of Islamic interpretation are usually seen as adjusting to a modern audience and purifying Islam from alleged alterings, some of which are believed to be intentional corruptions brought into Islam to undermine and corrupt its message. Sunnis believe

12375-599: The Dormition , Damascus , Syria Modern: Cathedral of Mary Mother of Sorrows , Baghdad , Iraq Modern: Cathedral of Evangelismos , Alexandria, Egypt Modern: Ankawa , Erbil , Iraq Modern: Syriac Catholic Cathedral of Saint Paul , Damascus , Syria Modern: Cathedral of Our Lady of Egypt , Cairo , Egypt Sunni Islam Others In terms of Ihsan : Sunni Islam ( / ˈ s uː n i / ; Arabic : أهل السنة , romanized :  Ahl as-Sunnah , lit.   'The People of

12540-565: The Hanbalis were the first to use the phrase ahl as-sunna wa l-jamāʿah as a self-designation. The Karramiyya founded by Muhammad ibn Karram (d. 859) referred to the sunnah and community. They passed down in praise of their school founder a hadith, according to which Muhammad predicted that at the end of times a man named Muhammad ibn Karram will appear, who will restore the sunna and the community ( as-sunna wa l-jamāʿah ) and take Hidraj from Chorasan to Jerusalem, just how Muhammad himself took

12705-536: The Hanbalites. The late Ottoman thinker İsmail Hakkı İzmirli  [ tr ] (d. 1946), who agreed to dividing Sunnis into these three groups, called the traditionalist group Salafiyya , but also used Athariyya as an alternative term. For the Maturidiyya he gives Nasafīyya as a possible alternative name. Another used for the traditionalist-oriented group is "people of Hadith " ( ahl al-ḥadīṯ ). It

12870-580: The House of Ghannam and the Al Hilalat. The journey of return for some Baharnah to their homeland of Bahrain began in 1951, following the intensification of Persian harassment campaigns against the Arabs of Muhammarah . Some of them were politically active within the ranks of the Arab national movement, which aimed to restore Arab rule. Over the centuries, the Baharnah people increasingly identified with

13035-754: The Islamic East, the Ahl as-Sunna are also differentiated to the Muʿtazilites. In 2010 the Jordanian fatwa office ruled out in a fatwa that the Muʿtazilites, like the Kharijites, represent a doctrine that is contrary to Sunnism. Ibn Taymiyya argued that the Muʿtazilites belong to the Sunnis in the general sense because they recognize the caliphate of the first three caliphs. There is broad agreement that

13200-682: The Israeli and Palestinian communist party . Nayif Hawatmeh is the founder and leader of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine , and Kamal Nasser and Hanan Ashrawi were members of the PLO Executive Committee . Christians developed Arabic-speaking Christian media , including various newspapers, radio stations, and television networks such as Télé Lumière , Aghapy TV , CTV , and SAT-7 , which

13365-496: The Maaturidis are from Ahlus-Sunnah wal-Jamaa’ah , I say that they are from Ahlus-Sunnah wal-Jamaa’ah in many things related to aqidah but in other aqidah issues they have deviated away from Ahlus-Sunnah wal-Jamaa’ah.. I don't hold that we should say that they are not from Ahlus-Sunnah wal-Jamaa’ah whatsoever" The Hanbali scholar Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 1328) distinguished in his work Minhāj as-sunna between Sunnis in

13530-485: The Nahda led the Muslims and Christians to a cultural renaissance and national general despotism. This solidified Arab Christians as one of the pillars of the region and not a minority on the fringes. The Massacre of Aleppo of 1850 often referred to simply as The Events was a riot perpetrated by Muslim residents of Aleppo , largely from the eastern quarters of the city, against Christian residents, largely located in

13695-566: The New Testament as the Apostle Paul references his journey to Arabia following his conversion (Galatians 1: 15–17). Later, Eusebius discusses a bishop named Beryllus in the see of Bostra , the site of a synod c. 240 AD and two Councils of Arabia . The New Testament signals an early entry of Christianity among the Arabs; in addition to what was narrated by al-Tabari , Abu al-Fida , al-Maqrizi , Ibn Khaldun and al-Masoudi ,

13860-597: The Persian rulers who were aligned with the Baharna. This shift in power led to increased sectarian tensions, as the predominantly Sunni Al Khalifa rulers imposed their authority over the Shia Baharna population. Many Baharna felt marginalized and oppressed under the new rule. Consequently, a significant number of Baharna families migrated to Khuzestan during the late 18th century, where they settled and integrated with Arab tribes like Banu Kaab and Banu Kanaan. Throughout

14025-556: The Qadarites here. In the 9th century, one started to extent the term ahl as-sunna with further positive additions. Abu al-Hasan al-Ashari used for his own group expressions like ahl as-sunna wa-l-istiqāma ("people of Sunna and Straightness"), ahl as-sunna wa-l-ḥadīṯ ("people of Sunnah and of the Hadith") or ahl al-ḥaqq wa-s-sunna ("people of Truth and of the Sunnah"). When the expression 'ahl as-sunna wa l-jama'ah appeared for

14190-740: The Qur’an . Another sect called "The Davidians" ( Al-Dāwudiyyūn ) were known for their exaggerations in honoring King David . Some contemporary historians classified it as a Judeo-Christian heresy. In Mecca , the Banu Jurhum embraced Christianity at the hands of their sixth king, Abd al-Masih ibn Baqia, and supervised the service of the Haram for a period of time. Banu Azd and Banu Khuza’a became Christians with them according to Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani . The earliest indications of Christianity in Mecca

14355-469: The Shia community, in part due to the social and political dynamics of the region. Shia Islam was often seen as a unifying force against the Sunni rulers or dominant forces in the region, such as the various local ruling families or the Ottoman Empire. As Shia Islam became more integrated into the local identity of the Baharnah, it strengthened the community's sense of unity and distinctiveness within

14520-645: The Sinai and the persecution they faced during the days of the pagan Roman emperor Diocletian . Later, forty martyrs fell in 309 in Mount Sinai during a raid by pagan Arabs on their hermitages . The monks fortified their new monasteries, and the most fortified is still in use today, Saint Catherine's Monastery , built by the commission of Roman emperor Justinian in 565. It has hosted a number of Church bishops and theologians, Ghassanid and Lakhmid kings, and pre-Islamic poets. The southern Arabian city of Najran

14685-464: The Sufis from Sunnism. The Yemeni scholar ʿAbbās ibn Mansūr as-Saksakī (d. 1284) explained in his doxographic work al-Burhān fī maʿrifat ʿaqāʾid ahl al-adyān ("The evidence of knowledge of the beliefs of followers of different religions") about the Sufis: "They associate themselves with the Sunnis, but they do not belong to them, because they contradict them in their beliefs, actions and teachings." That

14850-461: The Sufis in Sunnism. He divided the Sunnis into the following three groups according to their knowledge ( istiqrāʾ ): Similarly, Murtadā az-Zabīdī stated elsewhere in his commentary on Ghazzali's Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm ad-dīn that the Sunnis consisted of four groups (firaq ), namely the hadith scholars ( muḥaddiṯhūn), the Sufis, the Ashʿarites and the Māturīdites. Some ulema wanted to exclude

15015-594: The Sunnah';) is the largest branch of Islam , followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims , and simultaneously the largest religious denomination in the world. Its name comes from the word Sunnah , referring to the tradition of Muhammad . The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagreement over the succession to Muhammad and subsequently acquired broader political significance, as well as theological and juridical dimensions. According to Sunni traditions, Muhammad left no successor and

15180-518: The Sunni Creed by at-Tahawi (d. 933), the term jama contrasts several times the Arabic term furqa ("division, sectarianism"). Thus at-Tahāwī explains that jama is considered as true or right ( ḥaqq wa-ṣawāb ) and furqa as aberration and punishment ( zaiġ wa-ʿaḏāb ). Ibn Taymiyyah argues, that jama as opposite term to furqa inherents the meaning of iǧtimāʿ ("Coming together, being together, agreement"). Furthermore, he connects it with

15345-666: The Sunnis are concerned, it is the Ashʿarites and those who follow in their correct belief." Conversely, there were also scholars who excluded the Ashʿarites from Sunnism. The Andalusian scholar Ibn Hazm (d. 1064) said that Abu l-Hasan al-Ashʿarī belonged to the Murji'a , namely those who were particularly far removed from the Sunnis in terms of faith. Twentieth-century Syrian - Albanian Athari Salafi theologian Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani rejected extremism in excluding Ash'aris from Sunni Islam. He believed that despite that their fundamental differences from Atharis, not every Ash'ari

15510-531: The Sunnis: 1. those named after Abu l-Hasan al-Aschʿari (d. 935) Ashʿarites , 2. those named after Abu Mansur al-Maturidi (d. 941) named Maturidites and 3. a differently named third group, which is traditionalistic-oriented and rejects the rational discourse of Kalām advocated by the Maturidites and Ashʿarites. The Syrian scholar ʿAbd al-Baqi Ibn Faqih Fussa (d. 1661) calls this third traditionalist group

15675-542: The Umayyad Caliph ʿAbd al-Malik , popularized the concept of Sunnah . It is also passed down by asch-Shaʿbī, that he took offensive at the hatred on ʿĀʾiša bint Abī Bakr and considered it a violation of the Sunnah . The term Sunna instead of the longer expression ahl as-sunna or ahl as-sunnah wa l-jamāʻah as a group-name for Sunnis is a relatively young phenomenon. It was probably Ibn Taymiyyah , who used

15840-554: The United States in the year 2000, with around 40% of them originating from Lebanon . The majority of them are members of the Christian faith, making up 63% of the overall Arab American population. Historical events that caused the mass-emigration of Arab Christians include: 1860 civil conflict in Mount Lebanon and Damascus , 1915–1918 Great Famine of Mount Lebanon , 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight , 1956–57 exodus and expulsions from Egypt , Lebanese civil war , and

16005-740: The Yemeni Arabs in Iraq converted to Christianity, including Taym al-Lat , Kalb , Lakhm and Tanukh , and many had moved towards Bahrain by the fourth century. In Medina there was a Christian sect that was rejected by the official church and considered heretical. They deified the Virgin Mary and gave her offerings. This sect was mentioned by a number of historians, including Epiphanius and Ibn Taymiyyah , who called them "The Marians" ( Al-Maryamiyyun ). Likewise, al-Zamakhshari and al-Baydawi referred to this sect in their interpretation of

16170-538: The broader Islamic world. Language and culture Geography Bahrani People Arab Christians Arab Christians ( Arabic : ﺍﻟْﻤَﺴِﻴﺤِﻴُّﻮﻥ ﺍﻟْﻌَﺮَﺏ , romanized :  al-Masīḥiyyūn al-ʿArab ) are ethnic Arabs , Arab nationals, or Arabic speakers, who follow Christianity . The number of Arab Christians who live in the Middle East was estimated in 2012 to be between 10 and 15 million. Arab Christian communities can be found throughout

16335-549: The caliphate to an end. This resulted in Sunni protests in far off places including the Khilafat Movement in India, which was later on upon gaining independence from Britain divided into Sunni dominated Pakistan and secular India . Pakistan, the most populous Sunni state at its dawn, was later partitioned into Pakistan and Bangladesh . The demise of Ottoman caliphate also resulted in the emergence of Saudi Arabia ,

16500-524: The concept of an afterlife. Ethics on the other hand, do not need prophecy or revelation, but can be understood by reason alone. One of the tribes, the Seljuk Turks , migrated to Turkey , where later the Ottoman Empire was established. Their preferred school of law achieved a new prominence throughout their whole empire although it continued to be followed almost exclusively by followers of

16665-466: The connivance of the military authorities and Turkish soldiers, Druze and allied paramilitary groups organised pogroms in Damascus which lasted three days (9–11 July). By the war's end, around 20,000 Christians had been killed, and many villages and churches were destroyed. The Christian quarter of old Damascus was destroyed and houses were plundered. Historian Mikhail Mishaqas' memoir of the massacre

16830-542: The creed discussing it and agreeing upon some of its principles. Ash'ari theology stresses divine revelation over human reason. Contrary to the Mu'tazilites, they say that ethics cannot be derived from human reason, but that God's commands, as revealed in the Quran and the Sunnah (the practices of Muhammad and his companions as recorded in the traditions, or hadith ), are the sole source of all morality and ethics. Regarding

16995-699: The culture of the Mashriq , in particular those in the Levant, Egypt and Iraq. The New Testament has a biblical account of Arab conversion to Christianity recorded in the Book of Acts . When Saint Peter preaches to the people of Jerusalem, they ask, And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born? [...] Arabians , we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God. (Acts 2:8, 11 KJV ) The first mention of Christianity in Arabia occurs in

17160-434: The different warring parties. The term ahl as-sunna was always a laudatory designation. Abu Hanifa (d. 769), who sympathized with Murdshia , insisted that this were "righteous people and people of the Sunnah" ( ahl al-ʿadl wa-ahl as-sunna ). According to Josef van Ess this term did not mean more than "honorable and righteous believing people". Among Hanafits the designation ahl as-sunna and ahl al-ʿadl (people of

17325-651: The disciples of Christ (including Matthew , Bartholomew and Thaddeus ) were the ones who went to Arabia as preachers of the religion. Sozomen of Gaza said that the Arabs converted to Christianity through the efforts of priests and monks who spread to Arab regions, and the strength of Christianity increased with the conversion of the major tribes. The religion was organised in many dioceses controlled by bishops and archbishops . The Arab bishops were divided into types: urban bishops residing in cities, and “tent bishops” who resided in tents and moved with their tribes from one place to another. The number of Arab bishops among

17490-834: The distinction between a broader and narrower circle of Sunnis from Ibn Taimiya, said that Kullabiyya and the Ashʿarīyya are Sunnis in the general sense, while the Salafiyya represent Sunnis in the specific sense. About the Maturidiyya he only says that they are closer to the Salafiyya than the Ashʿariyya because they excel more in Fiqh than in Kalām . The Saudi scholar Muhammad Ibn al-ʿUthaimin (d. 2001), who like Ibn Taimiya differentiated between Sunnis in general and special senses, also excluded

17655-483: The earlier significance of Biblical material ( Isrā'iliyyāt ). Half of the Arab commentaries reject Isrā'iliyyāt in general, while Turkish tafsir usually partly allow referring to Biblical material. Nevertheless, most non-Arabic commentators regard them as useless or not applicable. A direct reference to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict could not be found. It remains unclear whether the refusal of Isrā'iliyyāt

17820-439: The egalitarian society formed as a result of Muhammad's revolution to a society stratified between haves and have-nots as a result of nepotism , and in the words of El-Hibri through "the use of religious charity revenues ( zakāt ) to subsidise family interests, which Uthman justified as ' al-sila ' (pious filial support)". Ali, during his rather brief regime after Uthman maintained austere life style and tried hard to bring back

17985-533: The egalitarian system and supremacy of law over the ruler idealised in Muhammad's message, but faced continued opposition, and wars one after another by Aisha - Talhah - Zubair , by Muāwiya and finally by the Khārjites . After he was murdered, his followers immediately elected Hasan ibn Ali his elder son from Fātima to succeed him. Hasan shortly afterward signed a treaty with Muāwiya relinquishing power in favour of

18150-476: The establishment of firm dynastic rule of Banu Umayya after Husain , the younger son of Ali from Fātima , was killed at the Battle of Karbalā . The rise to power of Banu Umayya, the Meccan tribe of elites who had vehemently opposed Muhammad under the leadership of Abu Sufyān , Muāwiya's father, right up to the conquest of Mecca by Muhammad, as his successors with the accession of Uthman to caliphate, replaced

18315-522: The expression ahl as-sunna wa l-jamāʿah too and used them in their works to designate the teachings of their own school. According to al-Bazdawi all Asharites in his time said they belong to the ahl as-sunna wa l-jamāʿah . During this time, the term has been used as a self-designation by the hanafite Maturidites in Transoxiania, used frequently by Abu al-Layth al-Samarqandi (d. 983), Abu Schakur as-Salimi (d. 1086) and al-Bazdawi himself. They used

18480-644: The first Arab nationalists. As early as 1877, Maronite leader Youssef Bey Karam proposed to Emir Abdelkader the separation of the Arabic-speaking provinces from the Ottoman Empire using the terms al-gins al-'arabi ("Arab race") and gaba'il al-arabiya ("Arab tribes"). In the early 20th century, many prominent Arab nationalists were Christians, like the Syrian intellectual Constantin Zureiq , Ba'athism proponent Michel Aflaq , and Jurji Zaydan , who

18645-406: The first time, is not entirely clear. The Abbasite Caliph Al-Ma'mūn (reigned 813–33) criticized in his Mihna edict a group of people, who related themselves to the sunnah ( nasabū anfusa-hum ilā s-sunna ) and claimed, they are the "people of truth, religion and community" ( ahl al-ḥaqq wa-d-dīn wa-l-jamāʿah ). Sunna and jamāʿah are already connected here. As a pair, these terms already appear in

18810-578: The founders of the four schools viz, Abu Hanifa , Malik ibn Anas , Shāfi'i and Ahmad bin Hanbal all practised during this time, so also did Jafar al Sādiq who elaborated the doctrine of imāmate , the basis for the Shi'a religious thought. There was no clearly accepted formula for determining succession in the Abbasid caliphate. Two or three sons or other relatives of the dying caliph emerged as candidates to

18975-525: The general sense ( ahl as-unna al-ʿāmma ) and Sunnis in the special sense ( ahl as-sunna al-ḫāṣṣa ). Sunnis in the general sense are all Muslims who recognize the caliphate of the three caliphs ( Abū Bakr , ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb and ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān ). In his opinion, this includes all Islamic groups except the Shiite Rafidites . Sunnis in the special sense are only the "people of the hadith" ( ahl al-ḥadīṯ ). İsmail Hakkı İzmirli, who took over

19140-534: The highest selling Middle-Eastern artist of all time. Other Lebanese singers include Majida El Roumi , legendary folk veteran Wadih El Safi , 'Queen of Arab pop' Nancy Ajram , and Lydia Canaan . Syrian notables include George Wassouf and Nassif Zeytoun . Palestinians include Lina Makhul , Fadee Andrawos , and Israeli singer Mira Awad . The Nahda (meaning "the Awakening" or "the Renaissance ")

19305-434: The interior, according to Method as practiced by al-Junaid Al- Baghdadi and the "Imams of Guidance" ( aʾimma al-hudā ) who followed his path. In the 11th century, Sufism, which had previously been a less "codified" trend in Islamic piety, began to be "ordered and crystallized" into Tariqahs (orders) which have continued until the present day. All these orders were founded by a major Sunni Islamic saint , and some of

19470-453: The island was maintained by the Rabyah tribe, who converted to Islam in 630 A.D. Local anecdotal evidence suggests that the Baharna's ancestry is diverse as some word variants spoken in the dialects of the native people of the villages of Bani Jamra and A'ali are only used in places as far as Yemen and Oman, indicating southern Arabian ancestry. Many Baharna families descended from members of

19635-935: The largest and most widespread included the Qadiriyya (after Abdul-Qadir Gilani [d. 1166]), the Rifa'iyya (after Ahmed al-Rifa'i [d. 1182]), the Chishtiyya (after Moinuddin Chishti [d. 1236]), the Shadiliyya (after Abul Hasan ash-Shadhili [d. 1258]), and the Naqshbandiyya (after Baha-ud-Din Naqshband Bukhari [d. 1389]). Contrary to popular Orientalist depictions, neither the founders of these orders nor their followers considered themselves to be anything other than orthodox Sunni Muslims, Many of

19800-534: The late Ottoman rule was a quantum leap for Arabs in the post-industrial revolution, and is not limited to the individual fields of cultural renaissance in the nineteenth century, as the Nahda only extended to include the spectrum of society and the fields as a whole. Christian colleges (accepting of all faiths) like Saint Joseph University , American University of Beirut (Syrian Protestant College until 1920) and Al-Hikma University in Baghdad amongst others played

19965-539: The later part of Safavid rule, some Baharna families left Bahrain and sought refuge in Khuzestan, particularly when political instability and conflicts with neighbouring Sunni tribes increased. This phase of migration happened in the 17th century. After the Safavid Empire fell in the early 18th century, Bahrain became vulnerable to invasions and shifts in power. The Omani invasion of Bahrain in 1717 destabilized

20130-432: The latter, with a condition inter alia, that one of the two who will outlive the other will be the caliph, and that this caliph will not appoint a successor but will leave the matter of selection of the caliph to the public. Subsequently, Hasan was poisoned to death and Muawiya enjoyed unchallenged power. Dishonouring his treaty with Hasan, he nominated his son Yazid to succeed him. Upon Muāwiya's death, Yazid asked Husain,

20295-639: The mainly Muslim and Arab nationalist 'leftist' National Movement , supported by the Druze, Greek Orthodox and the Palestinian community. The war was characterized by the kidnap, rape and massacre of those caught in the wrong place as each side eliminated 'enemy' enclaves – mainly Christian or Muslim low-income areas. In Lebanon, Maronites and Melkites looked to France and the Mediterranean world, whereas most Muslims and Greek Orthodox Christians looked to

20460-664: The majority of Christians are more in support of the regime because they fear a chaotic situation or to be under the control of the Islamist Western and Turkish backed armed groups. Millions of people are descended from Arab Christians and they live outside the Middle East, in the Arab diaspora . They mainly reside in the Americas , but many people of Arab Christian descent also reside in Europe , Africa and Oceania . Among them, one million Palestinian Christians live in

20625-480: The massacre of Karbalā, but Banu Umayya were able to quickly suppress them all and ruled the Muslim world, till they were finally overthrown by Banu Abbās . The rule of and "caliphate" of Banu Umayya came to an end at the hands of Banu Abbās a branch of Banu Hāshim, the tribe of Muhammad, only to usher another dynastic monarchy styled as caliphate from 750 CE. This period is seen formative in Sunni Islam as

20790-498: The methodology with regard to each school. While conflict between the schools was often violent in the past, the four Sunni schools recognize each other's validity and they have interacted in legal debate over the centuries. There are many intellectual traditions within the field of Shari'ah ( Islamic law ), often referred to as Madh'habs (legal schools). These varied traditions reflect differing viewpoints on some laws and obligations within Islamic law. While one school may see

20955-641: The most eminent defenders of Islamic orthodoxy, such as 'Abd al-Qadir Jilani , Al-Ghazali , Sultan Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn Al-Ayyubi ( Saladin ) were connected with Sufism." The Salafi and Wahhabi strands of Sunnism do not accept many mystical practices associated with the contemporary Sufi orders. Interpreting Islamic law by deriving specific rulings – such as how to pray – is commonly known as Islamic jurisprudence . The schools of law all have their own particular tradition of interpreting this jurisprudence. As these schools represent clearly spelled out methodologies for interpreting Islamic law, there has been little change in

21120-443: The most widely circulated Egyptian daily newspaper. Similarly, Lebanese Protestant Faris Nimr co-founded Al Muqattam in 1888, a leading Cairo -based newspaper in circulation until 1954. In Palestine, Najib Nassar 's newspaper Al-Karmil was the first anti-Zionist weekly newspaper. It appeared in Haifa in 1908 and was shut down by the British in the 1940s. Likewise, the Arab Orthodox El-Issa family from Jaffa founded

21285-456: The northern suburbs of the predominantly Christian neighbourhood Judayde (Jdeideh) and Salibeh. The Events are considered by historians to be particularly important in Aleppian history, for they represent the first time disturbances pitted Muslims against Christians in the region. The patriarch of the Syriac Catholic Church Peter VII Jarweh was fatally wounded in the attacks and died a year later. 20–70 people died from rioting and 5,000 died as

21450-527: The orthodox Sunni faith. In the modern era, it has had a disproportionate impact on Islamic theology, having been appropriated by Wahhabi and other traditionalist Salafi currents and have spread well beyond the confines of the Hanbali school of law. There were also Muslim scholars who wanted to limit the Sunni term to the Ash'arites and Māturīdites alone. For example, Murtadā az-Zabīdī (d. 1790) wrote in his commentary on al-Ghazalis "Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm ad-dīn": "When (sc. The term)" ahl as-sunna wal jamaʿa

21615-581: The participants of the Saqifah event appointed Abu Bakr as the next-in-line (the first caliph ). This contrasts with the Shia view , which holds that Muhammad appointed his son-in-law and cousin Ali ibn Abi Talib as his successor. The Quran , together with hadith (especially the Six Books ) and ijma (juristic consensus), form the basis of all traditional jurisprudence within Sunni Islam. Sharia rulings are derived from these basic sources, in conjunction with analogical reasoning , consideration of public welfare and juristic discretion , using

21780-466: The period between 1948 and 1953. All the Christian residents of Safed , Beisan , Tiberias were removed, and a big percentage displaced in Haifa , Jaffa , Lydda and Ramleh . Arab Christian Constantin Zureiq was the first to coin the term "Nakba" in reference to the 1948 Palestinian exodus. In 1975, the Lebanese Civil War occurred between two broad camps, the mainly Christian 'rightist' Lebanese Front consisting of Maronites and Melkites, and

21945-660: The polemics of their Muslim adversaries, but also provided systematic apologetic discussions of the Christian faith and practice. Notable Lebanese academics in the modern era include Carmelite linguist Anastas al-Karmal , novelist Tawfiq Yusuf 'Awwad , and philologist Ibrahim al-Yaziji , whose Bible translations were among the first in the modern Arabic language. There are many New Testament translations or portions into regional colloquial forms of Arabic. Noted Palestinian physician and ethnographer Tawfiq Canaan 's academic work serves as valuable resources to researchers of Palestinian history. Jordanian historian Suleiman Mousa

22110-433: The practice of Twelver Shia Islam among the Baharnah. Between 1501-1800 the Safavid Empire , which controlled parts of the Gulf region, including Bahrain, was a Shia-majority empire. The Baharna, being predominantly Shia, generally aligned with the Safavids. However, the region experienced ongoing political and sectarian tensions between the Safavids and their rivals, such as the Ottomans and various Sunni Arab tribes. During

22275-454: The principle of Ijma , a third juridical source after the Book (Quran), and the Sunnah. The Ottoman scholar Muslih ad-Din al-Qastallani (d. 1495) held the opinnion that jama means "Path of the Sahaba " ( ṭarīqat aṣ-ṣaḥāba ). The modern Indonesian theologican Nurcholish Madjid (d. 2005) interpreted jama as an inclusivistic concept: It means a society open for pluralism and dialogue but does not emphasize that much. One common mistake

22440-559: The process of Arabization, causing them gradually to adopt Arabic as a spoken, literary, and liturgical language (often alongside their ancestral tongues), and the much slower, yet persistent process of Islamization. As Muslim army commanders expanded their empire and attacked countries in Asia, North Africa and southern Europe, they would offer three conditions to their enemies: convert to Islam, pay jizya (tax) every year, or face war to death. Those who refused war and refused to convert were deemed to have agreed to pay jizya. As " People of

22605-494: The rationalistic methods championed by Mu'tazilites to defend most tenets of the traditionalist doctrine. Although the mainly Hanbali scholars who rejected this synthesis were in the minority, their emotive, narrative-based approach to faith remained influential among the urban masses in some areas, particularly in Abbasid Baghdad . While Ash'arism and Maturidism are often called the Sunni "orthodoxy", traditionalist theology has thrived alongside it, laying rival claims to be

22770-461: The region, causing internal strife and pressure on the Shia Baharna population. The uncertainty and insecurity in Bahrain led some Baharna to migrate to Khuzestan, where they found refuge among local Arab tribes, such as the Muhammarah. This migration was more sporadic but occurred during the early 18th century. In 1783, the Al Khalifa family , who were Sunni Arabs from the Najd region (modern-day Saudi Arabia), took control of Bahrain after defeating

22935-564: The renewal of Arabic literature, hence their proponents referred to as writers of the "late Nahda". The Pen League was the first Arabic-language literary society in North America, formed initially by Syrians Nasib Arida and Abd al-Masih Haddad . Members of the Pen League included: Kahlil Gibran , Elia Abu Madi , Mikhail Naimy , and Ameen Rihani . Eight out of the ten members were Greek Orthodox and two were Maronite Christians. The league dissolved following Gibran's death in 1931 and Mikhail Naimy 's return to Lebanon in 1932. Naimy

23100-420: The righteous) remained interchangeable for a long time. Thus the Hanafite Abū l-Qāsim as-Samarqandī (d. 953), who composed a catechism for the Samanides , used sometimes one expression and sometimes another for his own group. Singular to ahl as-sunna was ṣāḥib sunna (adherent to the sunnah). This expression was used for example by ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mubārak (d. 797) for a person, who distances himself from

23265-428: The rise of Islam in the 7th century, Bahrain became an important region under the early Islamic Caliphates. The region was originally part of the Rashidun Caliphate, and later the Umayyads and Abbasids. It was during this period that Islam began to spread throughout the Arabian Peninsula. Bahrain's population, including the Baharnah, were initially Sunni Muslims , as they were in line with the broader Islamic traditions of

23430-401: The salt water, noted by visitors since antiquity. An alternate theory offered by al-Ahsa was that the two seas were the Persian Gulf and a peaceful lake on the mainland Near Al-Ahsa, known as Al-Asfar Lake ; still another provided by Ismail ibn Hammad al-Jawhari is that the more formal name Bahri (lit. "belonging to the sea") would have been misunderstood and so was opted against. After

23595-412: The second caliph Umar had feared, as early as the regime of the third caliph Uthman, who appointed many of his kinsmen from his clan Banu Umayya , including Marwān and Walid bin Uqba on important government positions, becoming the main cause of turmoil resulting in his murder and the ensuing infighting during Ali's time and rebellion by Muāwiya , another of Uthman's kinsman. This ultimately resulted in

23760-477: The second century AD. The Nabataeans , natives of the southern Levant, also converted to Christianity in the Late Roman Period . In Palmyra and near al-Qaryatayn there are Christian monuments and the remains of churches and inscriptions that indicate the spread of the religion into Syria proper. The administration of Jordan under Roman rule was given to the Quda'a tribe. This tribe had embraced Christianity according to Ya'qubi , and were later succeeded by

23925-536: The short-term for the first time. It was later popularized by pan-Islamic scholars such as Muhammad Rashid Rida in his treatise as-Sunna wa-š-šiʿa au al-Wahhābīya wa-r-Rāfiḍa: Ḥaqāʾiq dīnīya taʾrīḫīya iǧtimaʿīya iṣlaḥīya ("The Sunna and the Shia, Or Wahhabism and Rāfidism : Religious history, sociological und reform oriented facts") published in 1928–29. The term "Sunnah" is usually used in Arabic discourse as designation for Sunni Muslims, when they are intended to be contrasted with Shias. The word pair "Sunnah-Shia"

24090-598: The teachings of Shia, Kharijites , Qadarites and Murjites . In addition, the Nisba adjective sunnī was also used for the individual person. Thus it has been recorded, the Kufic scholar of the Quran Abū Bakr ibn ʿAyyāsh (d. 809) was asked, how he was a "sunni". He responded the following: "The one who, when the heresies are mentioned, doesn't get excited about any of them." The Andalusiaian scholar Ibn Hazm (d. 1064) taught later, that whose who confess to Islam can be divided into four groups: ahl as-sunna , Mutazilites , Murjites, Shites, Kharijites. The Muʿtazilites replaced

24255-462: The term Ajam , as well as from the Sunni Arabs in Bahrain who are known as Al Arab ("Arabs"), such as Bani Utbah . In the United Arab Emirates , the Baharna make up 5% of Emiratis and are generally descended from Baharna coming around 100–200 years ago. In Arabic, bahrayn is the dual form of bahr ("sea"), so al-Bahrayn means "the Two Seas". However, which two seas were originally intended remains in dispute. The term appears five times in

24420-642: The term Allah in Arab churches predates Islam . During the Islamic Golden Age , Christians contributed to the Islamic civilization in various fields, and the institution known as the House of Wisdom employed Christian scholars to translate works into Arabic and to develop new knowledge. Arab Christians have always been the go-between the Islamic world and the Christian West, mainly down to mutual religious affinity. The Greek Orthodox share Orthodox ties with Russia and Greece ; whilst Melkites and Maronites share Catholic bonds with Italy, Vatican and France. Scholars and intellectuals agree Christians in

24585-506: The term as a contrast from their enemies among them Hanafites in the West, who have been followers of the Mutazilites. Al-Bazdawī also contrasted the Ahl as-Sunnah wa l-Jamāʻah with Ahl al-Ḥadīth , "because they would adhere to teachings contrary to the Quran". According to Schams ad-Dīn al-Maqdisī (end of the 10th century) was the expression ahl as-sunna wa l-jamāʿah a laudatory term during his time, similar to ahl al-ʿadl wa-t-tawḥīd ("people of Righteousness and Divine Unity"), which

24750-445: The throne, each supported by his own party of supporters. A trial of strength ensued and the most powerful party won and expected favours of the caliph they supported once he ascended the throne. The caliphate of this dynasty ended with the death of the Caliph al-Ma'mun in 833 CE, when the period of Turkish domination began. The fall, at the end of World War I of the Ottoman Empire , the biggest Sunni empire for six centuries, brought

24915-403: The time of the Arab conquest ". Bahrani people are mostly (around 37~50%) eastern peninsular Arabs and (around 30%~) North West Asian ( Iranian , Caucasian , and Mespotamian ) according to their genes. Further DNA testing is required. The term Bahrani serves to distinguish the Bahrana from other Kuwaiti or Bahraini ethnic groups , such as the ethnic Bahraini-Iranians who fall under

25080-409: The time. The spread of Shia Islam in Bahrain is thought to have gained momentum from the 9th century onward. During this period, political and religious dynamics in the region were shifting, especially with the growing influence of the Ismaili and Twelver Shia movements. The rise of Shia political power in the region, such as the establishment of the Qarmatian state in Bahrain in the 9th century, played

25245-426: The traditions of the Sunni Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal . The expediencies of Cold War resulted in the radicalisation of Afghan refugees in Pakistan who fought the communist regime backed by USSR forces in Afghanistan giving birth to the Taliban movement . After the fall of communist regime in Afghanistan and the ensuing civil war , Taliban wrestled power from the various Mujahidin factions in Afghanistan and formed

25410-402: The younger brother of Hasan, Ali's son and Muhammad's grandson, to give his allegiance to Yazid, which he plainly refused. His caravan was cordoned by Yazid's army at Karbalā and he was killed with all his male companions – total 72 people, in a day long battle after which Yazid established himself as a sovereign, though strong public uprising erupted after his death against his dynasty to avenge

25575-420: Was a cultural renaissance that began in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It began in the wake of the exit of Muhammad Ali of Egypt from the Levant in 1840. Beirut , Cairo , Damascus and Aleppo were the main centers of the renaissance and this led to the establishment of schools, universities, theater and printing presses. This awakening led to the emergence of a politically active movement known as

25740-440: Was entirely Christian when Dhu al-Nawas converted to Judaism , and that the people of Najran refused to convert to his faith, so he massacred them. The victims were mentioned by Ibn Ishaq and named in the Quran as the " People of the Ditch ". The Byzantine emperor Justin I was enraged and encouraged Kaleb of Axum to occupy Yemen and eliminate the Jewish king. Dhu al-Nawas was later deposed and killed, prompting Kaleb to appoint

25905-477: Was estimated to be 400,000 people. The Lebanese diaspora in Egypt funded the shipping of food supplies to Mount Lebanon, sent via the Syrian Island town of Arwad . On 26 May 1916, Lebanese-American writer Khalil Gibran wrote a letter to Mary Haskell that read: "The famine in Mount Lebanon has been planned and instigated by the Turkish government. Already 80,000 have succumbed to starvation and thousands are dying every single day. The same process happened with

26070-407: Was heavily hit in line with other Christian communities of Syria, being victimized by the war and specifically targeted as a minority by Jihadist forces. Many Christians, including Arab Christians, were displaced or fled Syria over the course of the Syrian Civil War , however the majority stayed and continue to fight with the Syrian Armed Forces and the allied Eagles of the Whirlwind (armed wing of

26235-488: Was made famous by the religious persecution of Christians by one of the kings of Yemen, Dhu Nuwas , who was an enthusiastic convert to Judaism . The leader of the Arabs of Najran during the period, al-Ḥārith, was canonized by the Catholic Church as Arethas . Aretas was the leader of the Christians of Najran in the early 6th century and was executed during the massacre of Christians by the king in 523. Ibn Khaldun , Ibn Hisham and Yaqut al-Hamawi mentioned that Najran

26400-758: Was made famous internationally for his spiritual writings, most notably The Book of Mirdad . Notable diaspora figures include Swiss businessman of Lebanese Greek Orthodox descent Nicolas Hayek , and Mexican business magnate of Maronite descent, Carlos Slim . From 2010 to 2013, Slim was ranked as the richest person in the world by the Forbes magazine. Figures in entertainment include actors Omar Sharif (Melkite-born), Jamie Farr , Salma Hayek , Tony Shalhoub , Vince Vaughn , Danny Thomas , Oscar award winner F. Murray Abraham and film director Youssef Chahine . Figures in academics include plant biologist Joanne Chory , scholar Nassim Nicholas Taleb , cardiac and vascular surgeon Michael DeBakey , inventor of

26565-495: Was reputed to be the first Arab nationalist. Khalil al-Sakakini , a prominent Palestinian Jerusalemite , was Arab Orthodox, as was George Antonius , Lebanese author of The Arab Awakening . Grégoire Haddad , known as the "Red Bishop of Beirut", founded the "Lebanese Social Movement" with Shiite Imam Musa al-Sadr in 1960, and promoted in the following years Islamic-Christian dialogue. The first Syrian nationalists were also Christian. Although both Lebanese, Antoun Saadeh

26730-538: Was the founder behind the Syrian Social Nationalist Party and Butrus al-Bustani is considered to be the first Syrian nationalist. Sa'adeh rejected Pan-Arabism and argued instead for the creation of a "United Syrian Nation" or "Natural Syria" . George Habash , founder of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine was Arab Orthodox, and so was Wadie Haddad , the leader of the PFLP's armed wing. Influential Palestinian Christians such as Tawfik Toubi , Daud Turki , Emile Touma and Emile Habibi became leaders of

26895-411: Was the major tradition in Central Asia based on Hanafi -law. It is more influenced by Persian interpretations of Islam and less on the traditions established within Arabian culture. In contrast to the traditionalistic approach, Maturidism allows to reject hadiths based on reason alone. Nevertheless, revelation remains important to inform humans about that is beyond their intellectual limits, such as

27060-451: Was the only author to write about Lawrence of Arabia and show the Arab perspective. Mousa noted that there were many books written to praise Lawrence, and all of them exaggerated his part in the Arab Revolt and failed to do justice to the Arabs themselves. Syrian writers include scholar Francis Marrash and writer Hanna Mina , described in Literature from the "Axis of Evil" as the country's most prominent. Arab Christians were among

27225-475: Was used for Mutazilites or generally designations like Mu'minūn ("Believer") or aṣḥāb al-hudā ("people of guidance") for Muslims, who has been seen as rightoues believers. Since the expression ahl as-sunna wa l-jamāʿah was used with a demand on rightoues belief, it was used in academic researches translated as "orthodox". There are different opinions regarding what the term jama in the phrase ahl as-sunna wa l-jama actually means, among Muslim scholars. In

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