In the Shadow of the Sword: The Birth of Islam and the Rise of the Global Arab Empire

Glossary

Abbasids

The second dynasty to rule the Caliphate, after the toppling of the Umayyads in 750.

Ahriman

The evil spirit in Zoroastrianism, opposed to Ohrmazd.

Al-’Uzza

An Arab goddess who served as patron of the Lakhmids and is mentioned dismissively in the Qur’an.

Amir

Arabic for “Commander.”

Anahita

An Iranian warrior goddess with a major shrine at Istakhr in Persia. She was cast by Zoroastrians as a lieutenant of Ohrmazd, the supreme benevolent deity of Zoroastrianism.

Arian

A supporter of the Christian priest Arius, who argued in the early fourth century that God the Father had existed before God the Son. His teachings were condemned as heretical at the Council of Nicaea in 325.

Ascetic

A word that derived from the Greek for “training” and referred originally to Christian hermits who practised spectacular feats of self-mortification.

Asha

The Zoroastrian principle of Truth and Order.

Byzantine

A word used after the foundation of Constantinople to describe a citizen of the city. Many modern historians—although not me—refer to the late Roman Empire as “Byzantine.”

Caliph

Anglicisation of the Arabic

khalifa

—a word that appears twice in the Qur’an, where it seems to have meant “man.” Subsequently, it came to mean “deputy.” When Abd al-Malik laid claim to the title of

Khalifat Allah

, he was describing himself as the “Deputy of God.” Confusingly, the word can also mean “successor”: the title of

Khalifat Rasul Allah

—“Successor of the Prophet of God”—was retrospectively applied to all the early leaders of the Arab Empire.

Caliphate

The Arab—and then Muslim—Empire.

Catholic

From the Greek word for “universal.” It was used, like “Orthodox,” as a self-description by supporters of the Council of Chalcedon—which served, in turn, to cast those opposed to it as mere factionalists.

Chalcedonian

Someone who subscribes to the doctrinal formulations of the Council of Chalcedon, held in 451. It is a measure of the triumph of the Chalcedonians over their various rivals in the Christian Church that they succeeded in appropriating the adjectives “Catholic” and “Orthodox.” Today’s Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Protestant Churches are all Chalcedonian.

Dar-al-Islam

Literally, the “House of Islam”—the lands where Muslims are in authority.

Drug

“The Lie”—in Zoroastrianism, the principle opposed to

Asha

.

Dushara

A god widely worshipped by the pagan Arabs as their principal deity.

Ebionites

A sect of Christians who claimed descent from the original Jewish Church.

Ecclesia

Greek for “church.” Originally, it referred to an assembly of citizens.

Farr

The supernatural mark of a Persian king’s majesty.

Fitna

Arabic for “time of trial”—shorthand for civil war.

Foederati

A Latin word used to designate barbarian troops employed by the Romans as mercenaries, generally beyond the frontiers of the empire.

Gentile

A non-Jew.

Ghassanids

An Arab warrior dynasty employed by the Romans against the

Shahanshah

.

Gnostics

Intellectual mystics who believed that

gnosis

—the Greek word for “knowledge”—would provide them with salvation from the material world.

Gog and Magog

Kitten-eating savages imprisoned by Alexander the Great behind gates of brass, and destined to be set free at the end of time.

Hadith

The report of a saying or an action of Muhammad—or, in the early years of Islam, of a Companion of Muhammad. In Islam,

hadith

s are second in authority only to the Qur’an.

Haram

Arabic for “hallowed space.”

Hijra

The Arabic equivalent of “exodus”—a migration. In Muslim tradition, Muhammad’s

hijra

from Mecca to Medina in 622 is the event that brought the Islamic order of time into being.

Imam

In pre-Islamic Arabia, the “founding father” of a tribe or people; but under Islam, the word increasingly came to signify a religious leader.

Iranshahr

“The Dominion of the Aryans”: the name given by the Sasanian kings to their empire.

Isnad

The chain of informants stretching back to the time of Muhammad that serves to validate his sayings.

Ius

Latin for “law.”

Jahiliyya

A word that derives from the Arabic for ignorance—

jahl

—and refers, in Muslim tradition, to the “Age of Ignorance” that existed before Islam.

Jinn

Supernatural creatures bred of fire that haunt the mythology of both pre-Islamic and Islamic Arabia.

Jizya

The poll-tax imposed on Jews and Christians by order of the Qur’an.

Ka’ba

Arabic for “cube”—a shape that the pre-Islamic Arabs seem to have associated strongly with the sacred. Not to be confused with

ka’iba

, meaning “virgin,” and certainly not with

ku’ba

, meaning “breasts.” The most celebrated

ka’ba

stands to this day in the centre of the sanctuary of Mecca.

Kai

An ancient Persian title, meaning “king.”

Karin

A Parthian aristocratic dynasty.

Kayanids

A legendary dynasty from Persian mythology, celebrated for their wondrous exploits and heroic record as fighters of barbarians.

Khalifat Allah

See “Caliph.”

Kharijites

An early Muslim sect celebrated equally for their piety and ferocity.

Lakhmids

An Arab warrior dynasty employed by the

Shahanshah

against the Romans.

Magaritai

The Greek form of the Arab word

muhajirun

.

Manichaeism

A religion that fused Jewish, Christian, Zoroastrian and Buddhist teachings, first taught in the third century AD by a prophet from near Ctesiphon named Mani, and savagely persecuted almost everywhere.

Maqom

Hebrew for “place.” The Arabic equivalent is

maqam

.

Mathran

An ancient Persian word meaning “prophet.”

Mazdakite

A follower of Mazdak, a Persian prophet who preached a radical religious message of communism in the early sixth century AD.

Mihr

An ancient Iranian god with special responsibility for the punishment of oath-breakers. His home was the Alburz Mountains in northern Iran, and his sacred colour was green. Zoroastrians regarded him as being, like Anahita, a lieutenant of Ohrmazd; but there were many, in the remoter reaches of

Iranshahr

, who worshipped him as a great god in his own right.

Mihran

A Parthian aristocratic dynasty.

Minim

A Hebrew word that the rabbis applied to heretics; sometimes used as shorthand for “Christians.”

Monophysite

An insulting term that Chalcedonians applied to their opponents in the Christian Church who held that the divine and human natures of Christ had been so interfused as to constitute a

mone physis

—Greek for “single nature.”

Mowbed

A Zoroastrian priest.

Muhajirun

An Arab word meaning “those who go on a

hijra

”—therefore, “emigrants.” In the early years of the Arab Empire, religiously motivated conquerors seem to have used it in preference to “Muslims” as a self-designation.

Mushrikun

“Those who are guilty of

shirk

”: the opponents of the Prophet in the Qur’an.

Nazoreans

A sect of Christians, like the Ebionites, who claimed descent from the original Jewish Church.

Nestorians

A word applied by their opponents to those Christians who believed that the two natures of Christ, the divine and the human, had existed distinct within his earthly body. Nestorius, a Bishop of Constantinople, was condemned for heresy in the first half of the fifth century.

Ohrmazd

The supreme God of Truth and Light in Zoroastrianism.

Orthodox

From the Greek words for “correct belief.”

Palladium

The image of the goddess Pallas Athena supposedly taken from Troy to Rome, and from Rome to Constantinople.

Parthians

An Iranian people who lived mainly in the north of Iran. The dynasty overthrown by the Sasanians was Parthian, but so were other aristocratic dynasties that flourished well into the Islamic period.

Qibla

The direction of prayer. In mosques, it is generally indicated by a niche in a wall called a

mihrab

.

Quraysh

The tribe into which, according to Muslim tradition, Muhammad was born.

Rashidun

“Rightly guided.” An adjective used, from the third Muslim century (ninth century AD) onwards, to describe the first four Caliphs: Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali.

Sabaeans

A mysterious people who are mentioned in the Qur’an alongside Jews and Christians as one of the three “Peoples of the Book.” The most widely supported theory is that they were Manichaeans.

Sahabah

The personal associates and followers of Muhammad—literally, his “companions.”

Shahanshah

The title of the Sasanian kings: “King of Kings.”

Shekhinah

A Hebrew word that refers to God’s dwelling place on earth.

Shi’a

An Arab word—literally “party”—that came to be applied to the followers of Ali and his descendants.

Shirk

Associating gods or other supernatural beings with the One True God—in Islam, the ultimate crime.

Shirkat

Arabic for “partnership.”

Sira

An Arab word—literally “exemplary behaviour”—used for a biography of Muhammad.

Stylites

Christian hermits who spent lengthy periods of time—often years—on top of pillars.

Sunna

An Arab word meaning “custom” or “achievement.” In Islam, it refers to the collection of

hadith

s that constitutes the body of sacred law.

Syriac

Prior to its replacement by Arabic, the most widely spoken common language in the Middle East.

Tafsir

A commentary on the Qur’an.

Talmud

The written record of rabbinical learning, composed in Palestine and Mesopotamia during late antiquity.

Tanakh

Hebrew for the body of scriptures known by Christians as the “Old Testament.”

Theotokos

A Greek title—meaning “the one who gives birth to God”—bestowed by many, although not all, eastern Christians on the Virgin Mary.

Torah

From the Hebrew for “instruction,” the shorthand term for the sacred law of the Jews.

Ulama

Muslim scholars and lawyers.

Umayyads

The first dynasty to rule the Caliphate.

Umma

A word used in the Qur’an to mean “community” or “people.”

Yeshiva

A rabbinical school. The most famous

yeshiva

s were in Sura and Pumpedita, in Mesopotamia, and Tiberias, in Galilee.

Zuhhad

Muslim ascetics.