Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 13.djvu/751

* MOHAMMEDAN SECTS. 673 MOHAVE. Such wfie tho nuiiu'ious sccls against which oi'tlioil<i.,lohanimcdanisiii was forced to contend; but, although .Sliiite doctrines more than once tlireati^ned to gain thu ascendency. Sunnism re- mained the victor in the end. The four sects into which the Sunnites are divided — the lliinhalilix, Mdlikitcs, Hani/iles, and tilwfi'ilcs — dill'er only in regard to a few points of minor ini])ortance connected with religious observances and civil and religious jurisprudence. These sects have remained almost without change since their foundation under the Abbasside dynasty. Never- theless, certain innovations had crept into the life of orthodox Jlohammedans, principally an exaggeration of the reverence paid to the numerous saints, which amounted often to actual worship. It was against such abuses, as well as against all forms of luxury in everyday life, tobacco-smoking, etc.. that Abd al-Wahhab and his followers (the Wahabls) arose in the latter half of the eighteenth century. From Nejd they carried on an iconoclastic warfare throughout the country; they conquered Mecca and Medina, and in destroying the many sanctu- aries there did not even spare the grave of Mo- hammed. Previous to this they had taken Kerbela, a holy city of the Shiites in Mesopo- tamia. They were defeated finally by Egj-ptian troops, and driven back into the interior of the peninsula, and the Wahabis lost their im- portance. They still exist, however, as a sect. BiuLioGRAPHY. Consult: Shalirastani. Boo/.- of Srrts, translated into German by Haarbriicker I llalle. 1850) ; Stciner. Die Mu'taziliten (I^cip- /ig, 1865) ; Briinnow. Die Charidischten vnter iliii ersten Omuyi/aden (Leyden, 1884) ; Kremer, Geschiclite der herrschendcn Idccti drs Isiliim (l.eipzig, 18G8) ; Spitta, Ziir Geschichh- Ahu 'l-Hasan al As'ari's (ib.. 1876) : Schmijldcrs. Essai stir les ccoJes philosophiriucs ckcz Ics Arahcs (Paris, 1842) ; Krehl. Britnige sur Charakteristik der Lehre rom Glavhen im Islam (Leipzig, 1877) ; Tholuck, Sufisnins sii-r Theosophia Persarum Pantheistica (IJerlin, 1S21); id., Bliithetisammhin;/ aus der morgen- i-iiitdischcn Mystik (ib., 1825) ; Merx, Idee tind GnnuUinien riiier aUgemeinen Geschichle der Mystik (Halle, 180.3) ; Goldziher. Mohnmme- dunische Htudien- (ib.. 1880-90) ; id.. Die Za- hiritcn- (Leipzig. 1884) ; Do Goeje, Memoire sur Ics Cannathes de Bnhra'in et Im Fntimides I Leyden, 1886); Sylvestre de Sacy, Expos/' de la religion des Druzes (Paris, 1828) ; (Joldziher. Beitriige zur Litteratnrgeseliielite der .SV/nV; imd (III- snnnitischen Polemik (Vienna, 1874) ; Guy- ard. Fragments relaiifs a la doetrine des Is- iiiii'ilis (Paris, 1874) : Burckhardt. l^^otes on the Bedouins and Wahhahis (London. 1820); Go- bineau, Les religions et les pliilosophies dc I'Asie eentrale (Paris. 1805) ; E. G. Browne, A Year Among the Persians (London, 1803); id., A 'ir Historg of the Bah (Cambridge, 1803): L hantepie de la .Saussaye. Lehrhiirh der Rell- ■gionsfiesehichte, vol. i. (Freiburg, 1887) : De Boer. Gesehiehle der Philosophie im Islam (Stuttgart. 1001); Dussaud. Histoire des Nosairis (Paris, 1000) ; Macdonald, Development of ^fuslim Theoloqti, Jurispriidener. anil Constitiilional 7'/icor;/ (Xew York, 1803). MOHAMMED BEN MOHAMMED BEN YAHAYA, y:i'lia-ya, Arit, W'kfa. or Wafa (940-908). An Arabic mathematician and as- tronomer, born at Buzjan, and generally known as Abul Wefa. He translated and commented upon works of several Greek mathematicians, and calculated a table of sines at intervals of half a degree, and also a table of tangents, which, however, was used only for determining the al- sin a titude of the sun. The ratio, ■, was called cos a by him the 'shadow.' He is, however, most fa- mous for having made the oldest known attempt to solve geometric problems with only one open- ing of the compasses, and wrot«? a book contain- ing 12 chapters on geometrical constructions. Our knowledge of this work is due to a Persian translation of an Arabic manuscript, written bj' a pupil of Abul Wefa. The problems may be divided into three groups : ( 1 ) Those deal- ing with the solution of geometrical prob- lems by one opening of the compasses ; ( 2 ) to divide a given square in a given number of squares, and to construct a square equal to a number of given squares; this is done by juxta- position, and not by the Pythagorean method; (3) problems having for aim the construction of regular polyhedra. In the problem-duel between Tartaglia (q.v.), on one hand, and Cardan (q.v.) and Ferrari, on the other, inoblems of the first group were given for solution and appear in the w-orks of Leonardo da Vinci and Cardan. They also occur in several other ivorks of the sixteenth century, but first found accurate scientific ex- pression in Steiner's Geometrisrhe Constriie- tionen, etc, (1883), Consult: Volpcke, Journal Asiatiqiie. vol. v. (1855) : Cantor. Gesehiclite der ilathenialik, vol. i. (Leipzig. 1000). MOHAM'MED IBN MU'SA AL-KHTT- WARIZMI. .See Al-Khuwarizmi. MOHAMMED KUDAH BUNDAH KHAN, kiTTi'dii lioTTn'd.i Ivan. See MoxoOL Dyx.sties. MOHAMMERAH, mrt-hani'ma-ra. A town in Southwestern Persia, Province of Khuzistan, situated on a canal leading from the Karun Ilivcr to the Shat-el-Arab, 35 miles from the Persian Gulf (Map: Persia, C 5). The surround- ing region produces excellent dates. The harbor is accessible for large ships, and the town has an active trade, which has become especially im- portant since the opening of the Karun to inter- national navigation in 1889. Population. 15.000. MOHAVE, m6-h;i'va. An interesting tribe of Yuman stock (q.v.), residing along both banks of the lower Colorado River, in Arizona and California. Their popular name, corrujited from hamok-habi, signifies 'three mountains.' in allu- sion to the three buttes known as the Xeedles. which they regard as the central point of their ancient territory. They are agricultural, al- though somewhat nomadic in habit, and in phys- ical type they rank among the finest specimens of the American aborigine. They live in low wikiups of brushwood covered with sand, make pottery and baskets, and cultivate corn, pump- kins, melons, and beans, which, with fish and niesquite beans, give them an abundant subsis- tence. They practice tattooing and cremate their dead. They have certain hereditary family names, and a cliiefship heredit;irv in the male line, but do not seem to have the true clan sys- tem. They are warlike, and avoid intimacy with other tribes or with the whites, and still pre- serve most of their ]irimilive characteristics. k