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Al-Jahiz
Abu Uthman Amr ibn Bahr al-Kinani al-Basri (; ), commonly known as al-Jahiz (), was an Arab polymath and author of works of literature (including theory and criticism), theology, zoology, philosophy, grammar, dialectics, rhetoric, philology, linguistics, and politico-religious polemics. His extensive zoological work has been credited with describing principles related to natural selection, ethology, and the functions of an ecosystem. Ibn al-Nadim lists nearly 140 titles attributed to al-Jahiz, of which 75 are extant. The best known are ''Kitāb al-Ḥayawān'' (The Book of Animals), a seven-part compendium on an array of subjects with animals as their point of departure; ''Kitāb al-Bayān wa-l-tabyīn'' (The Book of Eloquence and Exposition), a wide-ranging work on human communication; and ''Kitāb al-Bukhalāʾ'' (The Book of Misers), a collection of anecdotes on stinginess. Tradition claims that he was smothered to death when a vast amount of books fell over him. Life The a ...
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Arabic Literature
Arabic literature ( / ALA-LC: ''al-Adab al-‘Arabī'') is the writing, both as prose and poetry, produced by writers in the Arabic language. The Arabic word used for literature is ''Adab (Islam), Adab'', which comes from a meaning of etiquette, and which implies politeness, culture and enrichment. Arabic literature, primarily transmitted orally, began to be documented in written form in the 7th century, with only fragments of written Arabic appearing before then. The Qur'an would have the greatest lasting effect on Arab culture and its literature. Arabic literature flourished during the Islamic Golden Age, but has remained vibrant to the present day, with poets and prose-writers across the Arab world, as well as in the Arab diaspora, achieving increasing success. History Pre-Islamic poetry Pre-Islamic Arabic poetry is referred to in traditional Arabic literature as ''al-shiʿr al-Jāhilī'', "poetry from the Jahiliyyah". In pre-Islamic Arabia, markets such as Souk Okaz ...
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Islamic Philosophy
Islamic philosophy is philosophy that emerges from the Islamic tradition. Two terms traditionally used in the Islamic world are sometimes translated as philosophy—''falsafa'' (), which refers to philosophy as well as logic, mathematics, and physics; and ''kalam'' (), which refers to a Rationalism, rationalist form of Schools of Islamic theology#ʿIlm_al-Kalām, Scholastic Islamic theology which includes the schools of Maturidiyah, Ashari, Ashaira and Mu'tazila. Early Islamic philosophy began with al-Kindi in the 2nd century of the Islamic calendar (early 9th century CE) and ended with Averroes, Ibn Rushd (Averroes) in the 6th century AH (late 12th century CE), broadly coinciding with the period known as the Islamic Golden Age, Golden Age of Islam. The death of Averroes effectively marked the end of a specific discipline of Islamic philosophy usually called the Islamic peripatetic school, and philosophical activity declined significantly in the west of the Islamic world, includ ...
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Islamic Theology
Schools of Islamic theology are various Islamic schools and branches in different schools of thought regarding creed. The main schools of Islamic theology include the extant Mu'tazili, Ash'ari, Maturidi, and Athari schools; the extinct ones include the Qadari, Jahmi, Murji', and Batini schools. The main schism between Sunni, Shia, and Khariji branches of Islam was initially more political than theological, but theological differences have developed over time throughout the history of Islam. Divinity schools in Islamic theology According to the '' Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān'' (2006), Modern scholars of the history of Islam and Islamic studies say that some instances of theological thought were already developed among polytheists in pre-Islamic Arabia, such as the belief in fatalism (''ḳadar''), which reoccurs in Islamic theology regarding the metaphysical debates on the attributes of God in Islam, predestination, and human free-will. The original schi ...
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Islamic Golden Age
The Islamic Golden Age was a period of scientific, economic, and cultural flourishing in the history of Islam, traditionally dated from the 8th century to the 13th century. This period is traditionally understood to have begun during the reign of the Abbasid Caliphate, Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid (786 to 809) with the inauguration of the House of Wisdom, which saw Ulama, scholars from all over the Muslim world flock to Baghdad, the world's largest city at the time, to translate the known world's classical knowledge into Arabic and Persian language, Persian. The period is traditionally said to have ended with the collapse of the Abbasid caliphate due to Mongol invasions and conquests, Mongol invasions and the Siege of Baghdad (1258), Siege of Baghdad in 1258. There are a few alternative timelines. Some scholars extend the end date of the golden age to around 1350, including the Timurid Renaissance within it, while others place the end of the Islamic Golden Age as late as the en ...
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Arab
Arabs (,  , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years. In the 9th century BCE, the Assyrians made written references to Arabs as inhabitants of the Levant, Mesopotamia, and Arabia. Throughout the Ancient Near East, Arabs established influential civilizations starting from 3000 BCE onwards, such as Dilmun, Gerrha, and Magan (civilization), Magan, playing a vital role in trade between Mesopotamia, and the History of the Mediterranean region, Mediterranean. Other prominent tribes include Midian, ʿĀd, and Thamud mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, Bible and Quran. Later, in 900 BCE, the Qedarites enjoyed close relations with the nearby Canaan#Canaanites, Canaanite and Aramaeans, Aramaean states, and their territory extended from Lower Egypt to the Southern Levant. From 1200 BCE to 110 BCE, powerful ...
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Mu'tazila
Mu'tazilism (, singular ) is an Islamic theological school that appeared in early Islamic history and flourished in Basra and Baghdad. Its adherents, the Mu'tazilites, were known for their neutrality in the dispute between Ali and his opponents after the death of the third caliph, Uthman. By the 10th century the term ''al-muʿtazilah'' had come to refer to a distinctive Islamic school of speculative theology ('' kalām'').Muʿtazilah
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This school of was founded by

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Natural Selection
Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype. It is a key mechanism of evolution, the change in the Heredity, heritable traits characteristic of a population over generations. Charles Darwin popularised the term "natural selection", contrasting it with selective breeding, artificial selection, which is intentional, whereas natural selection is not. Genetic diversity, Variation of traits, both Genotype, genotypic and phenotypic, exists within all populations of organisms. However, some traits are more likely to facilitate survival and reproductive success. Thus, these traits are passed the next generation. These traits can also become more Allele frequency, common within a population if the environment that favours these traits remains fixed. If new traits become more favoured due to changes in a specific Ecological niche, niche, microevolution occurs. If new traits become more favoured due to changes in the ...
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Zoology
Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the anatomy, structure, embryology, Biological classification, classification, Ethology, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinction, extinct, and how they interact with their ecosystems. Zoology is one of the primary branches of biology. The term is derived from Ancient Greek , ('animal'), and , ('knowledge', 'study'). Although humans have always been interested in the natural history of the animals they saw around them, and used this knowledge to domesticate certain species, the formal study of zoology can be said to have originated with Aristotle. He viewed animals as living organisms, studied their structure and development, and considered their adaptations to their surroundings and the function of their parts. Modern zoology has its origins during the Renaissance and early modern period, with Carl Linnaeus, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, Robert Hooke, Charles Darwin, Gregor Mendel a ...
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Ibn Al-Nadim
Abū al-Faraj Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq an-Nadīm (), also Ibn Abī Yaʿqūb Isḥāq ibn Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq al-Warrāq, and commonly known by the '' nasab'' (patronymic) Ibn an-Nadīm (; died 17 September 995 or 998), was an important Muslim bibliographer and biographer of Baghdad who compiled the encyclopedia '' Kitāb al-Fihrist'' (''The Book Catalogue''). Biography Much known of an-Nadim is deduced from his epithets. 'an-Nadim' (), 'the Court Companion' and 'al-Warrāq () 'the copyist of manuscripts'. Probably born in Baghdad ca. 320/932 he died there on Wednesday, 20th of Shaʿban A.H. 385. He was a Persian or perhaps an Arab. Little is known about Ibn an-Nadīm's life. Some historians say that he was of Persian descent , but this is not certain. However, the choice of the rarely used Persian word pehrest (fehrest/fehres/fahrasat) meaning "The List" as the title for a handbook on Arabic literature is noteworthy in this context. From age six, he may have attended a ''mad ...
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Philology
Philology () is the study of language in Oral tradition, oral and writing, written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also defined as the study of literary texts and oral and written records, the establishment of their authentication, authenticity and their original form, and the determination of their meaning. A person who pursues this kind of study is known as a philologist. In older usage, especially British, philology is more general, covering comparative linguistics, comparative and historical linguistics. Classical philology studies classical languages. Classical philology principally originated from the Library of Pergamum and the Library of Alexandria around the fourth century BC, continued by Greeks and Romans throughout the Roman Empire, Roman and Byzantine Empire. It was eventually resumed by European scholars of the Renaissance humanism, Renaissance, ...
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Mawali
''Mawlā'' (, plural ''mawālī'' ), is a polysemous Arabic word, whose meaning varied in different periods and contexts.A.J. Wensinck, Encyclopedia of Islam 2nd ed, Brill. "Mawlā", vol. 6, p. 874. Before the Islamic prophet Muhammad, the term applied to any form of tribal association. In the Quran and hadiths it is used in multiple senses, including 'lord', 'guardian', and 'trustee'. After Muhammad's death, the Umayyad dynasty accepted new converts to Islam into Arab-Muslim society and the word ''mawali'' gained currency as an appellation for converted non-Arab Muslims in the early Islamic caliphates. Etymology The word ''mawla'', which was used by the Islamic prophet Muhammad about Ali in the Ghadir Khumm speech, is derived from the root ''w-l-y'', meaning "to be close to" or "to have power over". ''Mawla'' can have reciprocal meanings, depending on whether it is used in the active or passive voice: "master" Originally, ''mawāli'' were clients of an Arab people, ...
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Banu Kinanah
Kinana () is an Arab tribe based around Mecca in the Tihama coastal area and the Hejaz mountains. The Quraysh of Mecca, the tribe of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, was an offshoot of the Kinana. A number of modern-day tribes throughout the Arab world trace their lineage to the tribe. Location The traditional tribal territory of the Kinana extended from the part of the Tihama coastline near Mecca northeastward to the borders of the territory of their tribal relatives, the Banu Asad. History Origins and branches In the Arab genealogical tradition, the eponymous ancestor of the tribe was Kinana, a son of Khuzaymah ibn Mudrikah. The tribe traced its ancestry to Ishmael, who married a woman of the Yemenite Jurhum tribe and settled in the vicinity of Mecca according to Islamic tradition. The Kinana were polytheists, with their worship centering on the goddess al-Uzza. Islamic tradition holds that the Kinana and the other descendants of Ishmael gradually dispersed throughout ...
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