Islamic leaders, their biographies and accomplishments. Saul Silas Fathi

threat from the Mongol hordes. As it transpired, the Mongols soon overran the fragile defense put up by the Muslims and marched into Baghdad, the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate, in 1258 and reduced the great city to rubble.

      Unlike, for example, Jalal al-Din Rumi or Ibn al-Arabi, Shadhili did not write any books or treatises. The main focus of his teachings was the attainment of inner purification and spiritual illumination through the incessant practice of dhikr, or invocation of Divine Names and Attributes (al-asma wa’l Sifat). After Shadhili’s death at the age of sixty-one, collections of his invocations, or litanies (Adkhar), were published by his prominent disciples (such as Abul Abbas al-Mursi) and later became the bedrock of Shadhiliyyah teachings.

      Buried in the village of Humaithra on the coast of the Red Sea, Imam Shadhili’s enduring message of Islamic morality, ethics, spirituality and gnosis continues to influence millions of Muslims across North Africa, Egypt, Sudan, Turkey, Iran, parts of East Africa and the Balkans to this day.

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Abul Qasim al-Zahrawi (936-1013): After the Umayyads were ousted from power by the Abbasids in 750, Prince Abd al-Rahman ibn Muawiyah fled Damascus and arrived in North Africa. From there he reached Cordova, the capital of al-Andalus (Muslim Spain) in 756, and swiftly assumed control of that country. By unifying Spain under his able leadership, he also inaugurated one of the most memorable periods in European history. Under the guidance of his descendants such as Abd al-Rahman II and Muhammad I, Spain became one of the most advanced European nations of the time. Caliph Abd al-Rahman III and his successors turned Cordova into a thriving center of intellectual, cultural and literary activities. Al-Zahrawi was one such outstanding scholar and scientist whose contribution and achievement in the field of medicine and surgery was unique and unprecedented.

      Abul Qasim Khalaf ibn Abbas al-Zahrawi, known in medieval Europe as Abulcasis, was born in the royal suburb of al-Zahra in Cordova during the glorious reign of Caliph Abd al-Rahman III. After completing his early education in Arabic and aspects of Islamic and physical sciences, al-Zahrawi developed a keen interest in the medical sciences. He went on to serve the Caliph in the capacity of personal physician until the latter died in 961 at the age of seventy-one, having ruled Islamic Spain for no less than half a century. Al-Zahrawi was barely twenty-five when al-Hakam ascended the throne in Cordova and asked him to serve as hi personal physician.

      The libraries of Cordova were packed with books and manuscripts on all the sciences of the day. Such was al-Hakam’s enthusiasm for learning and scholarship that the historians have compared him with the Abbasid Caliph Abdullah al-Ma’mun who was also a formidable champion of higher education and learning.

      As a pioneer of surgical anatomy, al-Zahrawi performed a large number of operations, ranging from simple Caesarean sections, to more complex and delicate eye operations. He not only invented a large number of surgical tools, but also performed numerous operations using the same tools and equipment. He also trained midwives to carry out emergency Caesarean operations and other clinical procedures on women. As an accomplished dentist, he was thoroughly familiar with all aspects of oral hygiene and dentistry.

      After a lifetime devoted to medical research and surgery, al-Zahwari eventually decided to write a book on the subject. Consisting of thirty chapters, this book was in fact a massive encyclopedia on medicine and surgery and soon after its publication it became one of the most sought-after surgical textbooks of its time. This book was rated so highly by the Europeans that it was prescribed to all medical students at Europe’s leading universities until as late as the eighteenth century.

      Al-Zahrawi became famous in the West as the ‘father of surgery’. He died at the age of seventy-seven and was buried in his native Cordova.

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Abyssinian Campaigns (1935-1941): Conflicts between Italy, Abyssinia (Ethiopia), and later Britain. War broke out from Italy’s unfulfilled ambition of 1894-96 to link Eritrea with Somalia, and from Mussolini’s aim to provide colonies to absorb Italy’s surplus unemployed population. In 1934 and 1935 incident5s, possibly contrived, took place at Walwal and elsewhere. On 3 October 1935 an Italian army attacked the Ethiopian forces from the north and east. Eventually the Ethiopians mustered 40,000 men, but there were helpless against the highly trained troops and modern weapons of the Italians.

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Aflaq, Michel (1910-1989): Syrian political thinker and politician. Born into a Greek Orthodox family in Damascus Aflaq received his higher education at the University of Sorbonne, Paris, where he came under leftist influence. Back in Damascus in 1934, he taught history at a prestigious secondary school. Together with Salah al Din Bitar a fellow teacher in 1940, he established a study circle called the Movement of Arab Renaissance. They published pamphlets in which they expanded revolutionary, socialist Arab nationalism, committed to achieving Arab unity as the first step. In 1942 Aflaq devoted himself full time to politics. During the Iran-Iraq war Aflaq was the butt of many attacks by Iran, anxious to depict Iraq, guided by a Christian, as a state that had deviated from Islam. Significantly, after his death in 1989 the Iraqi media disclosed that Aflaq had converted to Islam before his demise.

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Aga Khan ( Turkish, aga, ‘master’, khan, ‘ruler’). Title borne by leaders of the Nizari or eastern branch of the Ismaili sect of Shiite Islam. The first Aga Khan, Hassan Ali Shah of Kirman (d. 1881), fled to Afghanistan and Sind after leading an unsuccessful revolt in Iran in 1838. Winning British favor he settled in Bombay, where in 1866 the Arnold judgment gave him control of the affairs of the Indian Khoja community. His grandson, Sultan Muhammad Shah (1877-1957), played an active part in Indian politics, attempting to secure Muslim support for British rule, particularly as President of the All-India Muslim League (1913). He was leader of the Muslim delegation to the Round Table Conference in 1930-32. He was succeeded by his grandson, Prince Karim. A title used by the Ismaili Imams of the Nizari line.

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Ahmad ibn Hanbal (778-855): Islamic history is replete with scholars who distinguished themselves by the breadth of their learning and courage. They also endured considerable personal and financial hardship, and were often made to suffer for their faith and conviction, but they never bowed before a King or Queen. To them, the life of this world was like an illusion; without a reality of its own. Ahmad ibn Hanbal was one such towering scholar and reformer who emerged to defend traditional Islam at a critical time in Islamic history, and thereby left his indelible mark in the annals of Islam.

      Abu Abdullah Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Hanbal al-Shaybani was born into the noble Arab tribe of al-Shayban. Ahmad’s grandfather, Hanbal ibn Hilal, occupied a prominent position as governor of the province of Sarakhs under the Umayyads, while his father, Muhammad, was a valiant warrior who participated in a jihad (military expedition) led by the Umayyads and died on the battlefield while he was in his thirties. Ahmad was about two years old when his father died. He attended his local schools and successfully committed the entire Qur’an to memory before he was ten. He thus combined his education in Fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) and Hadith under the guidance of Abu Yusuf Yaqub ibn Ibrahim with his extra-curricula activities.

      Ahmad then studied Hadith and Fiqh for another four years under the guidance of Haytham ibn Bishr, who was one of the foremost scholars of Hadith in Baghdad. After completing his studies under the renowned scholars of Baghdad, he travelled to other major centers of Islamic learning (including Basrah, Kufah, Makkah, Madinah, Yemen and Syria) in pursuit of Hadith. Ahmad became widely recognized as an eminent scholar of Hadith, having mastered all the nuances and intricacies of this subject under the tutelage of the Yemeni scholar Abd al-Razzaq ibn Hammam, the author of the highly rated Musannaf.

      Since Ahmad’s main preoccupation in life was the pursuit of knowledge, he happily travelled long distances in search of Islamic knowledge and wisdom. His critical examination of Hadith literature enabled him to ascertain their relevance to Islamic law and legal theory. He started teaching Hadith and Fiqh at the age of forty, and soon gathered around him a large following. Unflustered by the mass attention he now received,