Islam in World Cultures: Comparative Perspectives - Islamic Books ...

3 3 8Islam i n World Cult u r e stion within one’s ahli can establish an individual’s connections to dozens ofhouseholds throughout the town and further abroad.Ahmadiyya (10)A group established in the late nineteenth century in the Punjab region of Indiaby Ghulam Ahmad, who proclaimed himself to be a “renewer” of religion,the Christian messiah, and the Islamic M a h d i . In most majority Muslim societies,the Ahmadiyya tend to be regarded as heretical. However, because oftheir active missionary programs and emphasis on distributing English translationsof the Q u r ’ a n , they have sometimes had more success in spreading theirmessage in some majority non-Muslim societies, including the United States,than have other Muslim groups.Ahung (6)Traditional Muslim teachers in China. Often these were itinerant scholars whomoved from one Muslim settlement to another, rarely staying in one place forlonger than a few years. The word is derived from the Persian a k h u n d , w h i c hwas used in Iran to refer to members of the I t h n a ’ a s h a r i Shi’ite clergy.Akbariyya (1)Followers of the Sufi teachings of Ibn Arabi (d. 1240), who is sometimes referredto as the Shaykh al-Akbar, or “the Greatest Master.”Alim (10)A traditionally trained Muslim religious scholar. The word a l i m is the singularform of u l a m a .AllahThe Arabic word for “God,” in the sense of the monotheistic deity worshippedby Jews and Christians as well as Muslims.Amhara/Amharic (8)The people, most of whom are Orthodox Christians, generally regarded as thehistoric rulers of Ethiopia. Their Semitic language, Amharic, is spoken by about30 million people and is the national language of Ethiopia. Its earliest writtensources are fourteenth-century songs from the Ethiopian imperial court.Amir (8)Arabic political or military title generally meaning “commander,” “prince,” or“ c h i e f . ”Apartheid (9)The system of institutionalized racial segregation promulgated under white