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ʿAbd al-Raziq, Ali  

Ellis Goldberg

Egyptian jurist, government official, and author of one of the most important and controversial books of the twentieth century on Islam and politics, Islam and the Foundations of Governance. This short book, published in 1925, caused a storm of protest, and ʿAbd al-Raziq was arraigned before a jury of Egyptian religious leaders (including the grandfather of the late-twentieth-century al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri) and officially stripped of his status as a religious scholar (ʿalim).

Abd al-Raziq was born in the Upper Egyptian province of Minya to a well-known and relatively well-off family. He studied at Al-Azhar University. Although he was too young to have known the prominent Egyptian ʿalim Muhammad Abduh (d. 1905), his work appears to have been influenced by Abduh’s break with prevailing orthodoxy. Abduh was the highest jurisconsult (mufti) in Egypt at the time of his death. In 1915 ʿAbd al Raziq became a ...

Article

ʿAbu Yaʿqub Yusuf  

Stephen Cory

sixth sultan of the Moroccan Marinid dynasty, seized power in 1286 after his father, Abu Yusuf Yaʿqub, had consolidated Marinid authority throughout Morocco. With this seemingly secure base, ʿAbu Yaʿqub spent most of his reign engaging in external battles. The Moroccan sultan was involved in the numerous struggles of southern Spain for several years, seeking to strengthen the Marinid position in that key area. In the final twelve years of his reign, ʿAbu Yaʿqub sought to expand Marinid rule throughout the Maghreb by bringing down the neighboring Zayyanid dynasty, which had often been a thorn in the side of earlier Marinid sultans. Although he initially made some progress on these two fronts, in neither case was ʿAbu Yaʿqub fully able to achieve his aims.

Like his father before him ʿAbu Yaʿqub spent his first two years as sultan putting down revolts within Morocco His main opponents were family members who ...

Article

Abu Yusuf  

Ness Creighton

Mamluk bey of Upper Egypt and head of the Hawwara (a Berber people), was the emir and the de facto ruler of Upper Egypt during the mid-eighteenth century who was part of the opposition to ʿAli Bey’s rule of Egypt. Abu Yusuf and the tribe belonged to Nisf Haram, which would become closely associated with the Qasimmi Mamluks. His full name was Humam ibn Yusuf ibn Ahmad al-Hawwari, also sometimes given as Humam Abu Yusuf.

Like previous Hawwara leaders, the power base of Abu Yusuf was in Farshut, in the province of Qena. From here, their influence extended westward, encompassing large sections of the Saʾid. Initially, Hawwara claims under Abu Yusuf came into conflict with both the Bardisi and the Akhmim claims. Humam was successful in eventually eliminating both of these rivals.

Abu Yusuf oversaw a brief period of comparative prosperity and tranquility in the history of Upper Egypt during ...

Article

Abu, Bakr ibn ʿAbd al-Rahman al-Khalwani  

Russell Hopley

Islamic jurist born to an Arab family with origins in the region of Jazira Sharik present day Cap Bon Tunisia A close companion and later rival of the North African jurist Abu ʿImran al Fasi d 1039 Abu Bakr ibn ʿAbd al Rahman was fortunate to receive his early education in al Qayrawan under two eminent scholars of Islamic law Ibn Abi Zayd al Qayrawani d 996 and Abu al Hasan al Qabisi d 1012 Abu Bakr was considered to be among the most talented of al Qabisi s many pupils and it was under his tutelage that Abu Bakr learned to compose Islamic legal opinions otherwise known as fatwas He subsequently embarked on the journey eastward in 987 both to undertake the pilgrimage to Mecca and to further his education with established scholars in the cultural capitals of the Islamic east Abu Bakr is reported to have spent time ...

Article

Abu, ʿInan Faris  

Stephen Cory

eleventh sultan of the Moroccan Marinid dynasty, claimed the sultanate by rebelling against his father, Abu al-Hasan ʿAli, in 1348 while the latter was fighting a rebellion in Tunisia. Reassembling his forces in Algiers, Abu al-Hasan faced off against a larger army led by Abu ʿInan in 1349. Following a crushing defeat, Abu al-Hasan retreated to the desert town of Sijilmasa, where he was welcomed by the tribal leader Ouenzemmar. But his ally soon abandoned him when Abu ʿInan’s troops descended upon Sijilmasa, so Abu al-Hasan fled to Marrakech. There, he recruited supporters from among Masmouda Berbers and local Arabs. In May 1350 the army of Abu al Hasan battled the forces of Abu ʿInan near the Umm al Rabia River where Abu ʿInan was again victorious After being rescued by one of his soldiers Abu al Hasan was provided refuge among the Hintata peoples of the High ...

Article

Adams, Grantley Herbert  

Shani Roper

chief minister of Barbados (1948–1958); premier of Barbados (1954–1958); and prime minister of the West Indian Federation (1958–1962), was born on 28 April 1898 in Government Hill, Barbados. The third of seven children born to Fitz Herbert and Rosa Adams (née Turney), Adams attended St. Giles’ Primary and later Harrison College. In 1918 Adams was awarded the Barbados Scholarship, which enabled him to attend Oxford University to study law. At Oxford, he regularly participated in political debates and became a member of the Liberal Party there. He campaigned for the Liberal candidate Frank Gray in 1922–1923 and canvassed for C. B. Fry in 1924. He returned to Barbados in 1925. Adams met and eventually married Grace Thorne in 1929 One year later she gave birth to their only child John Michael Geoffrey Adams otherwise known as Tom Adams prime minister of ...

Article

Adams, John Michael Geoffrey Manningham  

Leslie R. James

popularly known as “Tom,” was born on 24 September 1931 into the politically prominent Barbadian Adams family. He was the son of Sir Grantley Adams, a Barbadian lawyer who later served as the only Premier of the failed West Indian Federation (1958–1962) and Grace Thorne. Tom Adams’s political philosophy and career were significantly influenced by his father, Sir Grantley Adams, his early Barbadian education and upbringing, study at Oxford University, work at the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), and membership and leadership of the Barbados Labour Party (BLP).

The political upheavals of the 1930s altered the political landscape of the Caribbean and impacted the role that the Adams family and Barbados played in the region’s political evolution. By 1938 Tom s father Grantley Adams became a leading political figure in the struggle for civil rights in Barbados when he founded the Barbados Progressive League later called the Barbados ...

Article

Adams, Robert  

Leticia Franqui-Rosario

was born Wilfred Robert Adams, in Georgetown, British Guiana (now Guyana), the son of Robert Adams, a boat builder. He was educated in Georgetown at St. Stephen’s Scots School, and St. Joseph’s Intermediate. He studied engineering drafting, but then trained as a teacher at the leading British West Indian teachers’ training college, Mico College in Jamaica. After his marriage broke down, he left for England, arriving there in September 1930. Failing to study law because of a lack of the necessary qualifications, he did a number of menial jobs and even became a professional wrestler with the name “The Black Eagle” (there is a 1934 painting by William Roberts of one of his bouts).

Acting then took over. His stage debut, with Paul Robeson in Stevedore, received favorable reviews. A year later he played Jean-Jacques Dessalines to Robeson’s Toussaint Louverture in C. L. R. James’s Toussaint Louverture ...

Article

Adderley, Alfred Francis  

Patricia Glinton-Meicholas

was born in Nassau, The Bahamas, on 16 November 1891, the son of Wilfred Parliament (W. P.) Adderley (1861–1944) and his wife, Letitia Eliza (née McMinn; d. 1939). Letitia’s first husband had died, leaving her with two sons and a daughter. Alfred became one of the most distinguished members of an outstanding Bahamian family of African descent. Adderley’s accomplishments belied race-based strictures in a country where the ambitions of people of color were often scuttled by prejudice, economics, and law.

The family was founded by Alliday, a West African Yoruba whom the British Navy had liberated from a slave ship circa 1838. Despite his inauspicious start in The Bahamas, Alliday was a man of considerable property and social standing at the time of his death in 1885 Four of his descendants would become members of Parliament including his son William Campbell Adderley His grandson ...

Article

Adderley, Paul Lawrence  

Patricia Glinton-Meicholas

was born in Nassau, Bahamas, on 15 August 1928 to Alfred Francis Adderley (A. F.), a prominent attorney and politician, and his wife Ethel (née Lunn). Paul’s elder brother Francis Ethelbert (1926–1996) became a physician. The family’s founder was a man named Alliday, a West African Yoruba, whom the British Navy had liberated from a slave ship, and brought to The Bahamas circa 1838. At his death in 1885, Alliday was a man of considerable property and social standing.

A F and Paul Adderley are widely regarded as two of the most accomplished Bahamians of the twentieth century and the son s education career civic pursuits and achievements mirrored his father s in many ways but exceeded them in others Paul received his primary and secondary education at the private Mrs Maude Wright s School and the Government High School At St Catharine s College University ...

Article

Akuffo-Addo, Edward  

Ebenezer Ayesu

lawyer, chief judge, and president of Ghana, was born at Dodowa in the Greater Accra region of the Gold Cost (now Ghana) on 26 June 1906. His father was William Martin Addo-Danquah of Akropong, Akuapem. His mother was Theodora Amuafi, also from Akropong, Akuapem. After receiving his elementary education at the Presbyterian primary and middle schools at Dodowa, he enrolled in Achimota College in 1929, from where he was awarded scholarship to study mathematics, philosophy, and politics at Saint Peter’s College, Oxford University. Akuffo-Addo was one of the first students at Saint Peter’s College, matriculating in 1930, a year after the college was established. He went on to graduate with honors in philosophy and politics in 1933. He was later made an honorary fellow of the college, and in 1971 he was made a doctor of civil law at Oxford University.

In 1940 Akuffo Addo ...

Article

Albizu Campos, Pedro  

Mónica A. Jiménez

was born in the Tenerías barrio of Ponce, Puerto Rico, on 12 September 1891 to Alejandro Albizu Romero, the son of a Basque sugar planter who worked as a US customs officer, and Juliana Campos, the daughter of a former slave who worked as a domestic in the residence of Albizu Romero.

A brilliant student, he graduated from Ponce High School in 1912 and attended the University of Vermont on a scholarship. In 1913 he transferred to Harvard University, where he studied literature and chemistry. Upon graduation, he enrolled in Harvard Law School, but took a leave in 1917 to join the US armed forces during World War I. He was assigned to the all-black 375th Regiment and stationed in Ponce, where he trained noncommissioned officers. He achieved the rank of first lieutenant before being honorably discharged in 1919 and returning to Harvard to complete his legal studies He ...

Article

Alcazar, Henry A.  

Bridget Brereton

was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad, on 30 September 1860, into a light-skinned, mixed-race family of the upper middle class. His parents’ names were John and Pauline (née Durand de Beauval). He was educated at the Roman Catholic high school, St. Mary’s College, in Port of Spain, and qualified as a barrister at Gray’s Inn, London, being called to the Bar in Trinidad in 1882.

As a barrister engaged in private practice in Trinidad from 1882 to his death in 1930, he enjoyed the largest such practice in Trinidad in the first decades of the twentieth century, with important companies among his clients. He was appointed Queen’s (later King’s) Counsel—that is, he was recognized as a senior member of the Trinidad Bar—at the unusually young age of 37 (1897).

Alcazar entered the public life of colonial Trinidad as a young man He was elected ...

Article

Alemseged, Tesfai  

Christine Matzke

Eritrean lawyer, writer, and researcher, was born on 19 October in the southern Eritrean market town of Adi Quala. His father was Tesfai Gebremichael, a government employee, his mother, Hiwet Tesfabruk, a housewife. Alemseged was the sixth of seven siblings, four boys and three girls. From the age of six he attended various elementary and secondary schools in Eritrea and Ethiopia before matriculating in 1962 from Haile Selassie Secondary School in the Eritrean capital, Asmara. After a nine-month work experience as a junior clerk with Ethiopian Airlines in Asmara (to avoid forced conscription into the Ethiopian military academy), he joined the Faculty of Law at Haile Selassie I University in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, graduating in September 1969 with an LLB (bachelor of laws). Thereafter Alemseged was briefly employed as a legal expert in the Ethiopian Ministry of Finance, a post he left in May 1970 to pursue ...

Article

Alfonsín, Raúl Ricardo  

María de Lourdes Ghidoli

Alfonsín was born on 12 March 1927 in the city of Chascomús, Buenos Aires Province, with Spanish and German heritage on his father’s side and British on his mother’s. He was the eldest of Ana María Foulkes and Serafín Raúl Alfonsín’s six children. He married María Lorenza Barreneche on 4 February 1949, and they also had six children: Raúl Felipe, Ana María, Ricardo Luis, Marcela, María Inés, and Javier Ignacio. Only Ricardo followed in his father’s footsteps, though he entered politics in the 1990s, after his father’s presidency.

Alfonsín spent his childhood in Chascomús, where he attended primary school. As an adolescent, he entered the Liceo Militar General San Martín (General San Martín Military High School), located in Villa Ballester (Greater Buenos Aires). From there, he graduated in 1945 at the level of second lieutenant of the reserve Later he studied at the law school of the Universidad ...

Article

Alier, Abel  

Matthew LeRiche

Sudanese judge and politician, was born in Bor, then a district of Upper Nile Province. Alier emerged as a prominent member of the Bor Dinka tribe and the southern Sudanese community more generally. He attended the renowned Rumbek Secondary School, which educated many southern Sudanese leaders. He also attended the Wad Saidna school in northern Sudan. His success in early education lead Alier to attend law school at the University of Khartoum and upon high achievement there was able to undertake and receive a Masters degree from the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, Yale University, in the United States. He was also a research fellow in Land Law in the School of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London, from 1961 to 1962. In recognition for his role in government and achievements in academia the universities of Khartoum and Juba gave Alier an honorary doctor of laws.

After completing his ...

Article

Alliali, Camille  

Cyril Daddieh

Ivorian lawyer diplomat politician mayor and cabinet minister was born in Toumodi a town about 25 miles from Yamoussoukro Ivory Coast s capital The son of an ordinary Baoulé peasant he attended a public primary school in Toumodi run by Kablan Koizan one of the very first Ivorian primary school teachers in the colony He attended middle school in Bingerville and the École Normale William Ponty in Dakar While in Senegal he met Richard Mollard a visiting French professor who encouraged him to study law He recommended the University of Grenoble because the climate was more congenial and Grenoble s serene surroundings were conducive to serious academic studies Alliali did not want to go down the path of becoming a colonial administrator an agent of oppression at a time when the anticolonial struggle led by the Parti Démocratique de Côte d Ivoire Rassemblement Démocratique Africain PDCI RDA was in full ...

Article

ʿAlluba, Muhammad ʿAli  

James Jankowski

Egyptian lawyer, politician, and champion of Arab and Muslim causes, was probably born between 1875 and 1878 (he himself was not sure of the date) in al-Minya province, where his father was a school principal. The family later moved to Asyut where his father entered commerce and became a mill owner. After attending a kuttab, in 1890 he enrolled in the Khedivial Secondary School in Cairo. He graduated in 1895 and progressed to the Khedivial School of Law, from which he graduated in 1899 and entered law practice in Asyut. Known for much of his life simply as Muhammad ʿAli, “ʿAlluba” was a surname he had legally registered in 1931 to distinguish him from others.

ʿAlluba’s political sympathies originally lay with the Nationalist Party founded by Mustafa Kamil. He entered national politics when he was elected to the new Legislative Assembly in 1914 At the end of World ...

Article

Almeida, Germano de  

Terza Silva Lima-Neves

lawyer and author, was born on 31 July 1945 on Boa Vista Island in the Republic of Cape Verde Germano de Almeida was one of ten children of Anacleto Dias Almeida and Eugenia da Cruz Almeida His father was a carpenter and his mother was a stay at home mother who took care of the children It was very difficult for his parents to support ten children Cape Verde was a small and poor country under Portuguese rule There were not many jobs available When Germano was sixteen years old his father passed away after being sick for many years Germano started working as a carpenter to help his family He was very smart really enjoyed school and because of this Germano was chosen to be his teacher s assistant He wanted to continue with school and be successful even if he did not receive support from his parents ...

Article

Andani II Ya-Na Yakubu  

Abdulai Abubakari

king of Dagombas and victim of murder at Yendi, the capital of the Dagomba traditional area, was born in August 1945 at Saganarigu, a suburb of Tamale in present-day northern Ghana. His father was Andani Yakubu, also the king of Dagbon, who reigned from 1968 to 1969, and his mother was Zenabu Mahama, who hailed from Savelugu. He was named after his grandfather, Na Yakubu I (1824–1849). He was the first son of his father, who had about thirty children, and the only child of his mother. He attended Yendi Primary and Middle schools and taught as a pupil teacher for several years.

He became the Ya-Na, the title given to the king of the Dagombas, in 1974. The previous incumbent, Ya-Na Mahamadu Abdulai IV (1969–1974 was said to have been improperly installed as king The matter was contested in court amid great tension ...