Since early last decade, Defense Ministry teams have scoured local archives and removed troves of historic documents to conceal proof of the Nakba Hagar Shezaf | Haaretz.com Four years ago, historian Tamar Novick was jolted by a document she found in the file of Yosef Waschitz, from the Arab Department of the left-wing Mapam Party, […]

Shaykh Suhail Motala Sayyiduna ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Abbas (radiyallahu ‘anhuma) says that ‘Umar ibn Khattab set out for Syria. When he got as far as ‘Sargh’, the commanders of the army, Abu ‘Ubaydah ibn Jarrah and his companions met ‘Umar and told him that a plague had broken out in Syria. Sayyiduna ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Abbas said, ‘Umar […]

Ibn Ishaq (d.768) and Ibn Hisham (d. 218/833) Early Muslim historical writing was primarily concerned with the biography of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) (Sirat Rasul Allah) and the first wars of Islam (Al-Maghazi). Muhammad Ibn Ishaq related the first known biography (Sira) of the Prophet (pbuh). This work no longer exists in its original form, but […]

Ibn Sahl b. Rabbān al-Ṭabarī (d. after 240/ 855), Christian doctor who converted to Islam; lived in Sāmarrā’. Ibn Qutayba (d. 276 / 889), theologian, traditionist, and jurist; lived much of his life in Baghdad. Thābit b. Qurra (d. 288/ 901), doctor, mathematician, and astronomer from Ḥarrān; flourished and died in Baghdad. Muḥammad b. Zakariyyā […]

Ibn Sina (known as Avicenna in Latin and in the West) in his masterpiece The Canon of Medicine (United States National Library of Medicine, MS A 53) states that “Body secretions of a host organism (e.g., human being) are contaminated by tainted foreign organisms that are not visible by naked eye before the infection.” Let’s […]

The Persian scholar of medicine, Ibn Sina (980-1037) suspected that some diseases were spread by microorganisms. To prevent human-to-human contamination, he came up with the method of isolating people for 40 days. He called this method al-Arba’iniya (“the forty”). Traders from Venice heard of his successful method and took this knowledge back to contemporary Italy. […]

During the pandemic of 1918/19, over 50 million people died worldwide and a quarter of the British population were affected. The death toll was 228,000 in Britain alone. Global mortality rate is not known, but is estimated to have been between 10% to 20% of those who were infected.   “I had a little bird […]

1 April 2020 As Hajj pilgrimage is under risk of cancellation for this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, people ask: is it the first lockdown in history? Minister of Hajj and Umrah of Saudi Arabia urged Muslims on Tuesday to wait for a while before making plans to make the annual Hajj pilgrimage until […]

Question: I noticed a few troubling quotes in Tabari, such as a narration about Abu Bakr ordering Fatima’s house to be attacked. Can you please tell me: how authentic or reliable of a source do we Sunnis view Tabari? Answer: In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All Praise is due […]

Pensions were allowed only to women in strained circumstances, and to those whose husbands had ‘performed really good service’.   Indian soldiers forming the escort for the Gilgit Mission 1885-’86, from the album of George Michael James Giles. | British Library     The terrible plight of the widows of Indian soldiers in the period […]

By Shaykh Muhammad Saalih al-Munajjid   بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيم     Firstly: The noble Sahaabi Mu‘aawiyah (may Allah be pleased with him) was one of the scribes who wrote down the Revelation; he was well known for forbearance, knowledge and virtue, and his achievements and good characteristics were many. And it is not permissible […]

By Shahid Siddiqui The 1857 war of freedom brought together different strata of society to liberate India from foreign rule. A number of religious leaders, who were descendents of Shah Waliullah, took an active part in the freedom struggle. Maulana Imdadullah Makki, Maulana Rasheed Ahmed Gangohi and Maulana Qasim Nanautvi fought the war of freedom […]

He was an adventurer, a scholar, and possibly a spy — but as Dutchman Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje proved with his rare 1885 photographs and sound recordings of Mecca, he was also a pioneering multimedia journalist. Snouck’s extraordinary collection of sepia-tinted images of Mecca in a bygone age have gone on display in Dubai ahead of […]

Without Muslims there would be no sugar or Shakespeare in England. Jerry Brotton’s “The Sultan and the Queen” traces Islam’s profound influence over English culture during the half-millennium between the Crusades and the rise of the British Empire in the Middle East. By ALAN MIKHAIL Portraits from 1622 by van Dyck of the adventurer-diplomat Sir […]

Some three million Indians died in the famine of 1943. The majority of the deaths were in Bengal.    In a shocking new book, Churchill’s Secret War, journalist Madhusree Mukherjee blames Mr Churchill’s policies for being largely responsible for one of the worst famines in India’s history.   By Soutik Biswas – online correspondent for BBC […]

The Battle Of Tabuk [1] Some of the tribes were still trapped in the delusion that the rise of Islam was transient like a cloudburst, whose tide would be stemmed before long. It was therefore necessary to warn or even threaten such people before they device an opportunity to strike at the Muslims. The expedition […]

A Study of Anti-British Resistance in 1857 Dr. Syed Mohd Amir Jamia’s Premchand Archives & Literary Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia University, New Delhi – 110025 In the summer of 1857, British power in large parts of India was suddenly and violently subverted. The ‘insurrection’ was so severe that it shook the very foundation of the […]

Some of the leading Muslim luminaries, both men and women, who lead and fought against British rule. To free India from tyrannical rule of the British. Nawab Sirajuddoula Sher E Maysoor TIPU SULTAN Hazrat Shah Waliullah Muhddith Dehlwi Hazrat Shah Abdul Aziz Muhaddith Dehlwi Hazrat Syed Ahmed Shaheed Hazrat Moulana Vilayet Ali Sadiqpuri Abu zafar […]

By  Dr. Aslam Abdullah   Belltower of St. Catherine Monastery   Under the guidance of Pope John Paul II the Catholic Church provided significant leadership in promoting peace, justice and harmony among religions. Now the new Pope, the most revered figure in the Catholic world, infallible to his followers and the representative of God to […]

The JC Essay  May 24, 2012 By David J Wasserstein Islam saved Jewry. This is an unpopular, discomforting claim in the modern world. But it is a historical truth. The argument for it is double. First, in 570 CE, when the Prophet Mohammad was born, the Jews and Judaism were on the way to oblivion. And […]