God's Terrorists

by Charles Allen

  Sayyid Nazir Husain Sayyid Nazir Husain Muhaddith of Delhi, leading successor to Shah Muhammad Ismail, suspected leader of Wahhabis in Delhi in 1857, co-founder of Jamiat Ahl-i-Hadith.

  Shah Abdul Aziz Shah Abdul Aziz Delhavi, eldest son of Shah Waliullah, succeeded him as principal of Madrassah-i-Rahimiya.

  Shah Abdul Hai Son-in-law of Shah Abdul Aziz, Syed Ahmad’s second disciple.

  Shah Muhammad Ishaq Son of Shah Abdul Aziz of Delhi and his successor, devoted to Syed Ahmad, if not a follower.

  Shah Muhammad Ismail Nephew of Shah Abdul Aziz, Syed Ahmad’s first disciple.

  Shah Waliullah Shah Waliullah Delhavi, Naqshbandi Sufi student of Muhammad Hayat, influenced by Ibn Taymiyya, founded Madrassah-i-Rahimiya, father of Shah Abdul Aziz.

  Shariatullah Hajji Shariatullah of Bengal, returned from Mecca in 1818 to found Faraizi movement.

  Sharif Husayn Sharif Husayn ibn Ali, Hashemite Emir of the Hijaz, guardian of Mecca and Medina, sought to become ruler of Arabia but deposed in 1924.

  Shere Ali Afridi mounted orderly, found guilty of murder and transported, in 1872 assassinated Viceroy Lord Mayo.

  Syad Ahmad Khan Student of Shah Muhammad Ishaq and Sayyid Nazir Husain, modernising founder of Alighar university.

  Syed Ahmad Shah Syed Ahmad of Rae Bareli, born Syed Ghullam Muhammad in Rae Bareli, revivalist and revolutionary, founder of Wahhabi movement in India and first of the Hindustani Fanatics.

  Titu Mir Born Mir Nasir Ali of Bengal, became follower of Syed Ahmad in Arabia, led Wahhabi rebellion in 1831 and killed in battle.

  Turki ibn Saud Grandson of Muhammad ibn Saud, Emir of Nejd 1842-63, sought to restore Wahhabi empire.

  Wilayat Ali Maulvi Wilayat Ali, son of Fatah Ali and elder brother of Inayat Ali, early convert to Wahhabism, revived Indian Wahhabis after death of Syed Ahmad.

  Yahya Ali Son of Elahi Bux, younger brother of Ahmadullah, leading Wahhabi in 1850s and 1860s.

  Zaidulla Khan Zaidulla Khan of Daggar, Buner chief who briefly gave British forces at Ambeyla his protection in 1863.

  Appendix 1: The roots of the Al-Saud–Al-Wahhab family alliance

  Appendix 2: The ‘Wahhabi’ family tree in India

  Glossary

  For ease of reading Arabic, Persian and Pushtu words are shown without stress guides. Archaic spellings are included.

  Aal as-Sheikh the Family of the Sheikhs, descendants of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab.

  Ad Dawa lil Tawhid ’the Call to Unity’, the name given to his doctrines by Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, founder of Wahhabism.

  ahl people, thus Ahl al-Kitab - ‘People of the Book’, those who share a revealed book with Islam, thus Christians and Jews; Ahl-i-Hadith - ‘People of the Hadith’; see Jamiat Ahl-i-Hadith.

  Akhund teacher, used to describe Abdul Ghaffur, the Akhund of Swat.

  Al-muwahhidun unitarian or monotheist, the name by which the Wahhabis call themselves.

  Al-Qaeda ’the [military] Base’, the formal title of a loose network of global terrorism headed by Osama bin Laden, drawing on Wahhabi, Salafi, and Ikhwan-ul-Muslimeen politico-religious philosophy by way of the Jamaat al-Takfir wa al-Hijra.

  Ali son-in-law and cousin of the Prophet, whose followers broke away to form the Shia community.

  alim one learned in the ways of Islam; plural ulema.

  amir commander, governor, local ruler; thus Amir- ul-Momineen - Commander of the Faithful, official title of the Caliphs, and Amir-e-Sharia - Leader of the Law.

  badal blood feud among Pathans.

  Badawin camel-owners, Bedouin, as distinct from Arab-sheep-owners.

  badmash bad character.

  badshah see padshah.

  baiat oath of religious allegiance.

  Barelvi a Hanafi Sunni religious school established in India in 1870s that incorporated traditional Sufi beliefs and practices and regards the Deobandis as kaffir.

  bidat innovation, a great sin in the eyes of Wahhabis.

  Bunerwals men of Buner, made up of several Yusufzai tribes.

  burqa coverall worn by Muslim women.

  Caliph see khalifa.

  cantonment standing camp or military quarter of the station in British India.

  Chamlawals men of Chamla.

  daffadar sergeant in Indian cavalry.

  daftar, dufter office or register.

  dak post, system of post-relays established in India by the Mughals; thus dak-bungalows for travellers.

  dar domain, thus dar ul-Islam - ‘domain of Faith’, a land under Islamic sharia; dar ul-harb - ‘domain of war or enmity’, a land opposed to the cause of Islam; dar ul-jahiliya - land of ignorance; dar ul-kufr - land of unbelief; dar ul-ulum - domain of Islamic learning, the honorific title accorded to the Deoband Madrassah in 1879.

  darb path; see also tariq.

  darrah mountain pass.

  dawa call, invitation.

  Deen the Way (of Islam).

  Deoband the religious school established at Deoband in northern India in 1866 by a group of quasi-Wahhabis. It condemns aspects of Sufism and other practices as bidat and promotes a strictly fundamentalist form of Sunni Islam derived from Shah Waliullah and Syed Ahmad; thus Deobandi; see Salafi.

  emir see amir, local ruler in Arabia and north Africa.

  Eid Muslim festival marking the end of Ramadan.

  fakir holy man.

  faraiz obligatory duty.

  fatwa legal ruling of a mujtahid or mufti on a matter of Islamic sharia.

  fedayeen men of sacrifice.

  fiqh Islamic jurisprudence.

  firman written order.

  fitna discordance within the Muslim community due to such activities as polytheism.

  ghar mountain, thus Spin Ghar, the White Mountain.

  ghazu war party in the cause of religion; thus ghazi - ‘champion of the Faith’, in British eyes a ‘religious fanatic’.

  Hadith ‘Tradition’, the established statements and examples of conduct of the Prophet as remembered by his Companions, gathered together into a corpus to become, together with the Quran, the basis of sharia; see also Sunnah.

  Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca; one of the five Pillars of Islam; thus Hajji - one who has made the pilgrimage.

  hakim judge or doctor.

  Hanbali the Sunni school of law established by Ahmad bin Hanbal (d. AD 855), the last of the four schools of law accepted in Sunni Islam and regarded by many as the most intolerant and reactionary.

  haram forbidden.

  hegira see hijra.

  Hijaz Arabian province beside the Red Sea containing the holy places of Mecca and Medina and the sea port of Jedda, traditionally ruled over by the Sharifs of Mecca.

  hijra, hijrat retreat, withdrawal, thus the name given to the migration of the Prophet from Mecca to Medina in the year 622 of the Christian calendar, later chosen to mark the beginning of Islamic history, which starts with the first year of the Islamic calendar, usually written AH.

  Hindustan the land of the Hindus east of the Indus, thus Hindustani - an inhabitant of that India, and the lingua franca spoken there.

  hizb party or group, thus Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami - Party of Islamic Liberation, formed to restore the caliphate and establish sharia throughout the world.

  ibn/bin son of.

  ijma doctrine of community consensus, the mainstay of Sunni Islam.

  ijtihad the use of independent reasoning in interpreting a matter of sharia, it being agreed that by about AD 900 all issues had been agreed by ijma, thus ‘the gates of ijtihad were closed’; see mujtahid.

  Ikhwan ’Brotherhood’; name given to themselves by Wahhabi revivalists of Nejd in about 1912, whose conquest of Arabia under the tribal chief Abdul Aziz ibn Saud led to the formation of Saudi Arabia. In the 1930s the name was taken up in Egypt by the Ikhwan-ul- Muslimeen - Muslim Brotherhood, a politico-religious revolutionary party formed to liberate Islamic states.

  imam leader of public prayers but also a title denoting a spiritual leader; among Shias th
e spiritual and temporal head of their community by virtue of his direct descent from the Prophet; Shias and some Sunnis also believe that a last or ‘Hidden’ Imam is still to come, heralding the final victory of Islam and the end of the world; see Mahdi.

  irtidad apostasy, under sharia a capital offence.

  ISI Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, Pakistan’s equivalent of the CIA, which played a major role in the training and arming of the mujahedeen in the 1980s and the Taliban in the mid-1990s.

  Islam ’submission’, thus submission to the will of God as set out in the Shahada, one of the Five Pillars of Islam.

  jahiliyah ’state of ignorance’, thus the time before the Prophet received God’s revelations, but also used by fundamentalists to describe govern ments they regard as un-Islamic.

  jamaat/jamiat assembly, political party, thus Jamiat Ahl-i-Hadith-Party of the People of Tradition, politico-religious group, founded by Sayyid Nazir Husain in India c. 1870; Jamaat-i-Islami (JI), Islamic Party, Pakistani political party with Deobandi roots; Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islam (JUI), Assembly of Islamic Scholars, extremist Pakistani political party with Deobandi roots linked to Al-Qaeda and Taliban; Jamaat-ul-Dawa, Party for Invitation (to Islam), political party with Wahhabi roots; Tablighi Jamaat - Preaching Society, Pakistani political party with Deobandi roots; Jamaat al-Takfir wa al- Hijra - Party of Excommunication and Emigration, Egyptian revolutionary group set up in Egypt in the 1980s that drew on both Wahhabi and Ikhwan-ul-Muslimeen politico-religious philosophy and called for the overthrow of rulers in the Muslim world it regarded as betrayers of Islam; etc.

  jemadar camel keeper, in Indian Army a junior Indian officer.

  jezail long-barrelled flintlock, the standard weapon of the Afghans and Pathans until the First World War.

  jihad ’striving’, thus ‘striving in the path of God’, often interpreted as holy war against non- Muslims but, more accurately, a striving to the utmost in the cause of Allah; made up of two main elements: Jihad Akbar or the Great Jihad - to strive against self (an inner struggle against the forces of Satan); and Jihad Kabeer or Jihad Asghar, also known as the Lesser Jihad - to strive physically against the forces of Satan and all who oppose the spread of Islam, sometimes referred to as ‘Jihad of the Sword’; thus jihadi - one who strives, commonly referred to as a ‘holy warrior’. Many Muslims incorrectly regard jihad as the sixth Pillar of Islam.

  jirga tribal assembly or deputation among the Pathans; thus loya jirga - inter-tribal assembly.

  jiziyah poll tax paid by non-Muslims in an Islamic state.

  kaffiya Arab head-cloth.

  kafila caravan, usually of camels.

  kafr, kufr paganism; thus kaffir, kuffir - pagans, heathens.

  khalifa deputy, thus successor to the Prophet, ruler of the Islamic world community as caliph; thus khalifat - the caliphate or Islamic state ruled over by successors to the Prophet.

  khan lord, head of the clan or tribe among the Pathans.

  khassadar paramilitary police in tribal areas.

  khatib preacher.

  Koran see Quran.

  kotal summit of a pass.

  kutcherry district officer’s office or court house.

  lashkar Afghan/Pathan tribal army or war party.

  lathi staff, thus lathial - a stick-carrier or ‘enforcer’.

  madrassah college for the teaching of Islam and sharia, plural madaris (but here written madrassahs); in Pakistan known as deeni madaris - schools of the Faith.

  Mahabun ’great forest’, a mountain massif in Buner.

  Mahdi ’expected one’, the divinely-appointed saviour of Islam, the Twelfth or Hidden Imam who will reappear in the last days to establish the rule of Islam on earth, a belief popular among Shias, thus Mahdism; a title taken by Muhammad Ahmad ibn Abdullah, who declared himself al-Mahdi al-Muntazar, successor of God’s Messenger, in the Sudan in June 1881; rejected by many orthodox Sunnis because the Quran makes no mention of a Mahdi, the concept still finds popular acceptance; see also imam.

  majlis assembly, council (Arabia).

  malik king, but headman among the Pathans.

  masjid mosque, the place of Friday prayers.

  maulana Muslim teacher more learned than the mullah.

  maulvi Muslim cleric more learned than the mullah.

  melmastia code of hospitality among Pathans.

  mian saint who abstains from politics and violence.

  mufti jurist, senior judge in Arabia who issues fatwa.

  muhajir one who emigrates.

  mujahedeen those who strive or undertake militant jihad for the Faith; singular mujaheed; sometimes interpreted as a ‘holy warrior’. Those who fought the Russians in Afghanistan were deemed mujahedeen but when they turned on each other the term was felt to have become corrupted.

  mujtahid scholar competent to exercise ijtihad.

  mullah, maula ’one who shows’, thus religious teacher, leader of prayers at a mosque; see also maulana, maulvi.

  Mumineen ’the faithful’, thus Muslims.

  munshi scribe, translator or language teacher.

  murid follower.

  mushriq one who commits shirk, worshipper of false gods, thus polytheist.

  Muslim ’one who submits’ (to the will of God); more correctly muslimun; thus Musulmans.

  mutawihin ’those who obey’, thus enforcers of public morality; an order of religious commissars instituted by Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab in Nejd.

  nanawati code of sanctuary among Pathans.

  nang code of honour among Pathans.

  Naqshbandi strict Sufi order originating in Bokhara that gained popularity in India among followers of Shah Waliullah.

  Naqshbari Sufi order seeking esoteric knowledge through contemplation while upholding Sunni values, tracing its heritage back to Abu Bakr, the first Caliph.

  Nasrani Nazarenes, thus Christians.

  nawab ’deputy’, thus ruler of a province or state under Muslim law.

  padshah supreme shah or king of kings.

  pagri turban or headcloth.

  Pakhtun, Pashtun see Pathans.

  Pakhtunwali ’the way of the Pakhtuns’, the social code of the Pathans.

  Pathans a large group of tribes predominant in the Afghanistan/Pakistan border regions with shared origins, language and culture.

  pindaris bands of marauders of mainly Pathan/Afghan origin who ravaged central India through the 18th and early 19th centuries.

  pir a saint, head of a Sufi order.

  pirzada descendant of a pir.

  powinda nomad, the name given to the Mullah Powindah.

  Prophet the respectful term used to describe Muhammad, ‘seal of the Prophets’, born in Mecca in about the year 570 of the Christian era. In Islamic terms Moses and Jesus are rassul – messengers of God – whereas Muhammad is a nabi – universal prophet. After his teachings led to his persecution he fled to Medina in the year 622, later returned to conquer Mecca and establish the first Islamic state. His dictated revelations from God were set down as the Quran, while his sayings and actions as remembered by his Companions were set down as Hadith. Muhammad died in Medina in 632.

  purdah curtain, the state of concealment required of women in some Islamic cultures.

  qadi, kadi, qazi magistrate.

  Quran ’recitation’; the holy scripture of Islam containing the authentic words and revelations of God as dictated by the angel Gabril to the Prophet.

  Qutbee follower of the political philosophy of the Egyptian Islamist revolutionary Sayyid Qutb.

  Ramadan month of fasting, one of the Five Pillars of Islam.

  Rashidun ’rightly guided ones’; title given to the first four Caliphs who followed the Prophet as religious and political leaders of the Islamic world, seen by reformers as exemplary rulers of Islam’s golden age.

  rawaj Pathan customary law, which traditionally took precedence over sharia.

  rissaldar see subedar.

  sahib, saheb ’master’, Arabic title applied to m
an of rank, in British India came to be applied to Europeans.

  salaam ’peace’, thus salaam alaikum – ‘peace be upon you’, the traditional Muslim greeting.

  salaf ’forefathers’, from al-Salaf al-Salih – ‘the Righteous Forefathers’, the Prophets Companions and the scholars of the two generations who came after them; thus salafi – ‘following the forefathers’, and salafiyya – ‘followers of the forefathers’. The ideal of emulating the forefathers of early Islam was first proposed by Ibn Taymiyya. In modern Islam the term has wider connotations although is still associated with fundamentalists who seek to emulate the early Muslims and reject bidat and shirk.

  salat obligatory five daily prayers; one of the Five Pillars of Islam.

  sangar stone breastwork in mountain warfare.

  sarai traveller’s rest house, thus caravanserai; palace (in Arabia).

  sawm fasting during the month of Ramadan; one of the Five Pillars of Islam.

  saiyyed, sayyed, syed descendant of the Prophet; see also Sayyeds.

  Sayyeds a tribe of questionable origin occupying the Khagan valley in northern Hazara who claim descent from the Prophet.

  sepoy infantry soldier in Indian Army.

  shah king, title of respect accorded to saiyyeds.

  shahadah profession of faith in God and his Prophet. ‘There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his Apostle’; one of the Five Pillars of Islam.

  shaheed martyr.

  shaykh, sheikh leader of Arabic stock, learned man.

  sharia ’the path’; the divinely ordained laws of Islam governing all aspects of Muslim behaviour. By about AD 900 it became accepted among Sunnis that all issues had been resolved by the four schools of the understanding of sharia - Hanafi, Shafii, Maliki and Hanbali - leaving no further room for the exercise of ijtihad.

  sharif, sherif one who has direct descent from the Prophet; member of Arab tribal aristocracy; ruler of holy places.

  Shia ’the party’; the largest minority sect of Muslims, which regards Imam Ali and his descendants as the legitimate descendants of the Prophet and thus leaders of the umma; itself divided into a number of lesser sects, and regarded as heretical by the Sunnis because it rejects the doctrine of ijma and turns instead to the authority of imams from the line of Ali.