195 Fun Facts About Islam

Who is the only woman the Quran mentions by name?

Mary, the mother of Jesus, is the only woman the Quran names, and its nineteenth chapter bears her name; Eve appears in the text only as Adam's wife, never by name.

Ramadan, the month of fasting, is which month of the Islamic calendar?

Ninth: the Islamic year is shorter than the 365-day year, so Ramadan falls a little earlier each year and passes through every season in a cycle of about 33 years.

Mecca, home of the Kaaba, lies in which region of western Saudi Arabia?

Hejaz, the Red Sea strip around Mecca, was briefly a kingdom of its own: the sharif of Mecca proclaimed himself its king in 1916, and Ibn Saud conquered it in 1925 on the way to founding Saudi Arabia.

How many times a day are Muslims required to pray?

Five: tradition holds that fifty daily prayers were first commanded during Muhammad's Night Journey, and that the number was cut to five after Moses urged him to plead for fewer.

Eid al-Adha falls on the tenth day of which Islamic month?

Dhu al-Hijjah means 'the month of the pilgrimage': the Hajj takes place in its second week, and the feast marks the culmination of the pilgrimage rites.

What is the Islamic declaration of faith called?

The Shahada declares that there is no god but God and that Muhammad is his messenger; reciting it aloud, sincerely and with understanding, is what makes a person a Muslim.

Which prophet-king does the Quran say was taught the language of birds?

Solomon, David's heir in the Quran, says he has been taught the language of birds; in one scene he overhears an ant warning its colony to get out of his army's way, and smiles.

What does the Arabic word 'Islam' mean?

Submission: 'Islam' means surrender to the will of God, and 'Muslim' means one who surrenders; 'salam', peace, grows from the same root but is a different word.

What is the name of the celebration that marks the end of Ramadan?

Eid al-Fitr, meaning 'Festival of Breaking the Fast,' is celebrated at the end of Ramadan. It typically lasts one to three days and involves special prayers, feasting, and giving to charity.

What is the Islamic term for charitable giving, one of the Five Pillars?

Zakat is the obligatory alms, distinct from voluntary sadaqah; the word carries the sense of purity, because giving a share to the poor is held to cleanse the wealth that remains.

Which sultan of Egypt and Syria crushed the Crusader army at the Horns of Hattin in 1187?

Saladin, a Kurdish-born sultan, destroyed the Crusader field army at Hattin in July 1187 and took Jerusalem that autumn, letting its Christians leave on payment of a ransom.

What is the name of the angel who revealed the Quran to Prophet Muhammad?

Gabriel, Jibril in Arabic, is said to have first appeared to Muhammad in 610; shaken by the encounter, he hurried home, where his wife Khadija reassured him that the revelation was genuine.

How many chapters (surahs) are in the Quran?

114 surahs make up the Quran, ordered roughly from longest to shortest rather than by date of revelation, so the book does not read as a chronological story.

What event does Eid al-Adha commemorate?

Abraham offering to sacrifice his son gives Eid al-Adha, the 'Festival of Sacrifice', its name: a ram was accepted in the boy's place, and families still share an animal's meat with the poor.

What is the name of Muhammad's migration from Mecca to Medina in 622 CE?

The Hijra took Muhammad and his followers from Mecca to Medina in 622 after years of persecution; the Islamic calendar counts its years from it, which is why its dates are marked AH.

What is the first surah (chapter) of the Quran?

Al-Fatiha, 'The Opening', is a seven-verse prayer for guidance that begins every cycle of the daily prayers and is closed with 'amin'; it is often likened to the Lord's Prayer.

The split between Sunni and Shia Muslims began as a dispute over what?

Who should lead after Muhammad died in 632 divided the community: one party held that leadership belonged within his family, the other that the community should choose for itself.

What is the term for Islamic religious law based on the Quran and the traditions of the Prophet?

Sharia is held to be God's law itself, while fiqh is the jurists' human effort to work out its rulings, which is why the legal schools can disagree with one another and all be accepted.

What is the raised pulpit from which the imam delivers the sermon in a mosque called?

The minbar began humbly: Muhammad first preached leaning against a palm trunk in his mosque, and later from a wooden seat with two steps, which his successors kept as a symbol of authority.

During Ramadan, Muslims fast from dawn until what time?

During Ramadan, Muslims abstain from food and drink from dawn until sunset, breaking the fast each evening, often with dates and water.

Which Islamic scholar is known as the 'father of algebra'?

Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi (c. 780-850 CE) wrote 'The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing,' which introduced algebra as a distinct mathematical discipline. The word 'algebra' derives from 'al-jabr' in the title.

Which American activist broke with the Nation of Islam and made the pilgrimage to Mecca in 1964?

Malcolm X came home from the Hajj as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, saying that worshipping beside Muslims of all colours had changed how he saw race; he was assassinated in 1965.

What famous palace complex in Granada, Spain, is a masterpiece of Islamic architecture?

The Alhambra takes its name from the Arabic for 'the red', probably after the reddish rammed earth of its walls; the Nasrid sultans built it on a hill above Granada in the 13th and 14th centuries.

Which Islamic scholar wrote 'The Canon of Medicine,' a medical encyclopedia used in Europe for centuries?

Ibn Sina (Avicenna) had memorised the Quran by ten and was treating patients in his teens; after he cured the Samanid ruler of Bukhara, he was rewarded with the run of the royal library.

What is the name of the pre-dawn meal eaten before fasting during Ramadan?

Suhoor must be finished before first light, when the day's fast begins; a saying of Muhammad recorded by al-Bukhari urges believers to eat it, 'as there is a blessing in it'.

What is the term for food that is permissible under Islamic dietary laws?

Halal means 'permissible'; for meat it requires that God's name be invoked and the animal's throat cut in one swift stroke, so that the blood drains away.

In Islamic belief, which beings did God create from smokeless fire?

Jinn, the Quran says, were made from smokeless fire as humans were from clay; its 72nd chapter is named after them and tells of a group who listened to the Quran being recited and believed.

What is the recorded collection of Prophet Muhammad's sayings and actions called?

Hadith are the recorded reports of Muhammad's words and deeds, sifted by later scholars: al-Bukhari is said to have examined some 600,000 and accepted only about 7,000 as sound.

Kairouan, a holy city of Islam, lies in which country, once home to Carthage?

Tunisia's Kairouan was founded around 670 by the Arab general Uqba ibn Nafi as the camp from which North Africa was conquered; it grew into one of the holy cities of Islam.

Which Islamic ornament style is built from scrolling, interlacing stems and leaves?

Arabesque ornament spread across mosques and manuscripts because Islamic religious art avoided human and animal figures, leaving plant scrolls and geometry to carry the decoration.

Muhammad's night journey is the Isra; what is his ascension through the heavens called?

The Miraj has Muhammad rise with an angel as his guide through the seven heavens, meeting earlier prophets such as Adam, Jesus and Abraham on the way to the throne of God.

Which caliph is considered the first of the 'Rightly Guided Caliphs' in Sunni Islam?

Abu Bakr al-Siddiq (c. 573-634), one of Muhammad's closest companions, became the first caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate in 632 and held the community together through the Ridda (apostasy) wars.

What does the word 'Quran' literally mean in Arabic?

The Recitation: 'Quran' comes from the verb qara'a, to read or recite; it was first delivered and memorised aloud, and only after Muhammad's death was it gathered into a single written book.

Which Islamic empire captured Constantinople in 1453?

The Ottoman Empire, under Sultan Mehmed II (Mehmed the Conqueror), captured Constantinople on May 29, 1453, ending the Byzantine Empire. The city was gradually renamed Istanbul and became the Ottoman capital for nearly 500 years.

What revered object in the eastern corner of Islam's holiest shrine do pilgrims try to kiss as they circle it?

The Black Stone was carried off by Qarmatian raiders in 930 and held for ransom for about twenty years; today its fragments are bound together in a silver frame.

Which city served as the capital of the Umayyad Caliphate?

Damascus became the capital in 661 because Mu'awiya, the dynasty's founder, had governed Syria for some twenty years and kept his power base there rather than rule from Arabia.

What does the Arabic word 'jihad' literally mean?

Struggle, or effort, is the literal sense of jihad, though the West often renders it 'holy war'; tradition calls the inner struggle against one's own impulses the 'greater jihad' and fighting the 'lesser'.

Which famous Sufi poet wrote the 'Masnavi,' often called the 'Quran in Persian'?

Rumi began the Masnavi at the urging of his disciple Husam al-Din Chelebi, who wrote the verses down as the poet recited them; its six books run to some 25,000 couplets.

Nastaliq and Maghrebi are styles of which art form, highly venerated in the Islamic world?

Calligraphy is venerated because it gives visible form to the words of the Quran, so fine script decorates mosques, tiles, coins and metalwork where other traditions might use pictures.

Tradition places Muhammad's birth in a year named after which animal, brought by an army marching on Mecca?

Elephant: the Year of the Elephant, about 570, is named for the beasts that Abraha, the Christian ruler of Yemen, is said to have led against Mecca; the Quran's 105th chapter tells of flocks of birds pelting that army with stones.

Which 14th-century historian's 'Muqaddimah' is seen by many scholars as a forerunner of modern sociology?

Ibn Khaldun argued in the Muqaddimah that dynasties rise on asabiyyah, the solidarity of a tight-knit group, and decay as it fades, so that civilisations rise and fall in cycles.

Abbasid Baghdad's House of Wisdom is linked with translating the learning of which ancient civilisation into Arabic?

Ancient Greece: with the caliphs' backing, works by Aristotle, Galen and Ptolemy were put into Arabic in a translation drive that ran in Baghdad for some two centuries.

Al-Idrisi drew his famous world map of 1154 for Roger II, the Norman king of which island?

Sicily's Norman king Roger II employed the Arab geographer al-Idrisi, who finished his atlas of the known world in 1154 and engraved the map on a great silver disc, which was later lost.

What does Laylat al-Qadr, the Night of Power, commemorate?

The Quran's first revelation is held to have come on Laylat al-Qadr; its exact date is uncertain, so it is sought in Ramadan's last ten nights, most often on the 27th by Sunnis and the 23rd by Shia.

Which Islamic philosopher, known as Averroes in Europe, wrote influential commentaries on Aristotle?

Ibn Rushd wrote so many commentaries on Aristotle that Latin scholars called him simply 'the Commentator', as they called Aristotle 'the Philosopher'; he also worked as a judge and a physician.

Which English word comes from the Latinised name of a 9th-century Baghdad mathematician?

Algorithm comes from 'Algoritmi', the Latin form of the author's name on a medieval translation of his book on Indian numerals, the text that helped carry the digits we use today to Europe.

What is the name of the semi-circular niche in a mosque wall that indicates the direction of Mecca?

The mihrab marks the qibla, the direction of Mecca, which governs more than prayer: the dead are buried facing it too, and the imam stands before the niche to lead the congregation.

Which 11th-century scientist is often called the 'father of modern optics' for his work on light and vision?

Ibn al-Haytham showed that we see because light enters the eye, not because the eye sends out rays; legend has it he wrote his Book of Optics under house arrest in Cairo after feigning madness to escape a caliph's anger.

What is the term for the 'consensus of scholars' as a source of Islamic jurisprudence?

Ijma, the agreed opinion of qualified jurists, draws its authority from sayings of Muhammad that his community would never agree on an error, so a ruling settled this way is treated as certain.

The Quran's longest chapter is named after which animal that the Israelites are told to sacrifice?

Cow: Al-Baqarah, 'The Cow', takes its name from verses 67 to 71, where the Israelites question the order so many times, asking the animal's age and colour, that they almost fail to carry it out.

Which three-verse chapter is the shortest in the entire Quran?

Al-Kawthar, 'Abundance', runs to just ten Arabic words: it promises Muhammad abundance, tells him to pray and sacrifice, and ends by saying that it is the one who hates him who is 'cut off'.

Which surah is traditionally described as the 'heart of the Quran'?

Ya-Sin, the 36th surah, is named after the two Arabic letters that open it; its title 'heart of the Quran' comes from a saying attributed to Muhammad.

Which Abbasid caliph, a son of Harun al-Rashid, was the great patron of Baghdad's House of Wisdom?

Al-Ma'mun built observatories and backed the scholars and translators of the House of Wisdom, yet in 833 he also began the Mihna, an inquisition that punished scholars who would not affirm that the Quran was created.

Al-Azhar in Cairo, one of the world's oldest universities, was founded around 970 by which dynasty?

Fatimid caliphs, an Ismaili Shia dynasty, founded Al-Azhar soon after establishing Cairo in 969; their rule ended in 1171, and under the Sunni dynasties that followed it became a centre of Sunni learning.

Which rite of the Hajj consists of walking back and forth between the hills of Safa and Marwa?

Sa'i is seven lengths between the two hills, which are now enclosed within the Grand Mosque itself and joined by a long air-conditioned gallery.

Which 16th-century chief imperial architect designed the Süleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul?

Mimar Sinan was born into a Christian family, was conscripted into the Janissaries and spent years as a military engineer before becoming chief imperial architect; more than 300 buildings are credited to him.

Which caliph introduced the Islamic calendar around 638, counting its years from Muhammad's arrival in Medina?

Umar fixed the calendar's starting point about seventeen years after the migration; a governor in Basra is said to have complained that undated letters made it impossible to tell which order was the latest.

Which caliph ordered the standardised written Quran, the codex that bears his name?

Uthman had a single text of the Quran prepared around 650 after reports of differing recitations, sent copies to the main cities and garrison towns, and ordered variant versions destroyed.

Which 11th-century theologian wrote 'The Incoherence of the Philosophers' (Tahafut al-Falasifa)?

Al-Ghazali wrote it around 1095 while chief professor at Baghdad's Nizamiyya college, charging the philosophers with error on twenty points; Ibn Rushd later answered with 'The Incoherence of the Incoherence'.

Which figure do Twelver Shia hold to be the twelfth Imam, in occultation since the 870s?

Muhammad al-Mahdi, son of the eleventh Imam Hasan al-Askari, is held to have gone into hiding as a child when his father died in 874; Twelvers believe he lives on unseen and will return to bring justice.

What is secluding oneself in a mosque for worship, especially in Ramadan's last ten days, called?

I'tikaf is a retreat into the mosque for worship; Muhammad is reported to have kept it for ten days every Ramadan, and for twenty days in the year he died.

Which angular Arabic script, named after an Iraqi city, long dominated Quran copying?

Kufic is named after Kufa in Iraq, though its actual link to the city is unclear; it was the main Quran script until about the 11th century, when rounder cursive hands took over.

The Umayyad prince Abd al-Rahman I escaped the Abbasids and founded an emirate with which Spanish city as his capital?

Córdoba: Abd al-Rahman I fled when the Abbasids overthrew and hunted down his family in 750, reached Spain after years on the run, defeated its governor and made the city his capital.

Standing on which plain on the ninth day of the pilgrimage month is the essential rite of the Hajj?

Arafat is where Muhammad is said to have given his Farewell Sermon; pilgrims stand there in prayer through the afternoon, and anyone who misses it has not performed the Hajj.

Muhammad was born into which Meccan tribe?

Quraysh, the ruling tribe of Mecca, produced both Muhammad and his fiercest opponents; when he returned with an army in 630 he offered an amnesty and entered the city almost unopposed.

Muhammad was raised by his grandfather and which paternal uncle?

Abu Talib, head of the Hashim clan, protected his nephew from his enemies in Mecca; when he died in 619, the same year as Khadija, Muhammad lost that shield.

Muhammad's first wife Khadija ran a thriving business in which trade?

Khadija ran a caravan commerce business sending goods to Syria; Muhammad worked as her agent on a trading journey before she proposed marriage to him.

In which mountain cave near Mecca did Muhammad seclude himself for prayer?

The cave of Hira, on Jabal al-Nour outside Mecca, is where tradition holds Muhammad received his first revelation in about 610.

The city Muhammad migrated to in 622 was then known by what name?

Yathrib was the oasis town's name before Muhammad's arrival in 622; it is said to have been renamed Madinat al-Nabi, 'city of the Prophet', and is known simply as Medina, from the Arabic for 'city'.

Which monk, in Islamic narratives, foretold the boy Muhammad's prophethood on a trip to Syria?

Bahira, in the best-known telling a Christian monk at Bosra, is said to have recognised the boy as a future prophet and urged his guardian to hurry him home for his safety.

What does the name Muhammad mean in Arabic?

Praised: the name comes from the Arabic root h-m-d, to praise, the same root heard in 'alhamdulillah'; for all its fame, the Quran uses the name itself only four times.

Where in March 624 did the Muslims win their first major clash with the Meccans?

Badr began as a raid on a Meccan caravan returning from Syria; instead the 300 or so Muslims met and defeated the larger force that Mecca had sent out to protect it.

Muhammad's uncle Hamza was killed in 625 in fighting near which mountain?

Uhud, north of Medina, is where a battle the Muslims were winning is said to have turned when their archers left a hillside post to collect spoils and the Meccan cavalry swept in behind them.

Which 628 pact between the Muslims and the Meccans preceded the conquest of Mecca?

The Treaty of Hudaybiyyah, signed in 628, set a ten-year truce between the Muslims and the Meccans; its breach by Meccan allies within two years opened the way to the conquest of Mecca.

Which oasis north of Medina, farmed by Jewish tribes, did Muhammad's army capture after besieging its forts?

Khaybar surrendered after its forts were besieged; its Jewish farmers were left on the land in return for a share of the harvest, set by tradition at one half.

Which wife of Muhammad was the daughter of Umar ibn al-Khattab?

Hafsa bint Umar married Muhammad after being widowed; her father later left the first written collection of the Quran in her keeping.

In Islam, what is the name of the scripture given to Jesus (Isa)?

Injil is the Gospel that Muslims believe was revealed to Jesus himself; most Muslim scholars hold it is not the four Gospels of the New Testament, which they see as later writings that did not preserve it.

Which name does the Quran use for the biblical Job?

Ayyub is the Quran's Job, who keeps trusting God through years of affliction; told to strike the ground with his foot, he finds a cool spring to wash in and drink from.

Which daily Islamic prayer is performed at dawn, the first of the day?

Fajr is the dawn prayer, just two units long; in Sunni practice its call adds a line heard at no other time of day, 'prayer is better than sleep'.

On which day of the week is the Jumu'ah congregational prayer held?

Friday's noon prayer is replaced by Jumu'ah, a congregational service with a sermon; the Quran tells believers to leave off trade and hurry to it when the call is made.

Which freed slave is regarded as the first muezzin in Islam?

Bilal ibn Rabah was tortured under a hot boulder in Mecca for refusing to give up Islam until a fellow believer bought his freedom; Muhammad later picked him to give the call to prayer.

What is the second call to prayer, summoning those already inside the mosque, called?

The iqama is recited faster and more quietly than the first call, since everyone it addresses is already inside; its one extra line announces that 'the prayer has been established'.

Which body part is washed or wiped last in wudu, the ablution before prayer?

Feet come last in wudu, after the hands, mouth, nose, face, forearms and head; where there is no water, the Quran allows wiping the face and hands with clean earth instead.

Ashura falls on the tenth day of which Islamic month?

Ashura is the tenth of Muharram, the first month of the Islamic year; for Shia Muslims it is a day of mourning for Husayn ibn Ali, killed at Karbala in 680.

Mawlid, celebrated by many Muslims, commemorates what event?

Mawlid marks Muhammad's birthday, kept by most Sunnis on 12 Rabi al-Awwal with processions and songs in his praise; Salafi and Wahhabi scholars reject the festival as a later innovation.

The Islamic calendar's year of about 354 days makes it which type of calendar?

Lunar: twelve moon-months and no leap month give a year of 354 or 355 days, so Ramadan arrives about eleven days earlier each solar year and drifts through every season in roughly 33 years.

Which school of Islamic law, named for the sixth Imam, do Twelver Shia follow?

Ja'fari law takes its name from Ja'far al-Sadiq, the sixth Imam; Abu Hanifa, who gave his name to the Sunni Hanafi school, is said to have studied under him.

Which Sunni school of law predominates in North and West Africa?

The Maliki school follows Malik ibn Anas, who treated the living practice of Medina's people as a guide to the Prophet's way; his students made it the law of Muslim Spain and North Africa.

Ali ibn Abi Talib, the fourth caliph, was assassinated in 661 by a member of which sect?

Ibn Muljam, one of the Kharijites, struck Ali with a poisoned sword in the mosque at Kufa in 661; his death allowed Mu'awiya to found the Umayyad Caliphate.

Ali was related to Muhammad as his cousin and what else?

Son-in-law: Ali married Muhammad's daughter Fatima; years earlier he had slept in Muhammad's bed as a decoy on the night the Prophet slipped out of Mecca.

Husayn ibn Ali was killed in 680 at Karbala by the army of which Umayyad caliph?

Yazid I demanded Husayn's allegiance on succeeding his father Mu'awiya; Husayn refused, was intercepted at Karbala with a small band of followers and killed, a death Shia mourn each year on Ashura.

Which country is home to the largest Ibadi Muslim community?

Oman is the one country where Ibadi Islam predominates, and its ruling family is Ibadi; Ibadis are also found in Zanzibar, which Oman's sultans ruled and made their capital in the 19th century.

Which former Soviet republic has a Shia Muslim majority?

Azerbaijan became Shia in the 16th century, when the Safavid shah Ismail I made it the state creed; the Soviets later closed most of its mosques, and the country remains officially secular.

Which Iraqi city grew up around the shrine where Shia Muslims believe Ali is buried?

Najaf grew up around Ali's shrine; tradition says he asked for his grave to be kept secret from his enemies, and it became publicly known only under the caliph Harun al-Rashid, over a century later.

The Mevlevi Sufi order, famous for whirling dervishes, originated in which Turkish city?

Konya is where the order's founding poet died in 1273; his son and followers organised the Mevlevi around his tomb there, and the order was led for centuries by his descendants.

Which 8th-century woman was among the earliest Sufi mystics and poets?

Rabia al-Adawiyya of Basra taught love of God for its own sake; a famous story has her carrying a torch and a pail of water to burn paradise and douse hell, so that neither would be a motive.

Which Andalusian mystic, 'the Greatest Shaykh', began his 'Meccan Openings' while on pilgrimage?

Ibn Arabi left Spain around 1200 to make the pilgrimage, began the work in Mecca and never went home; he spent his last years teaching in Syria, where he died in 1240.

The Ahmadiyya movement was founded in 1889 by whom?

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian in Punjab took his first pledges of allegiance in 1889, claiming to be the promised Messiah and Mahdi; most other Muslims reject that claim.

In which US city was the Nation of Islam founded in 1930?

Wallace Fard Muhammad founded the Nation of Islam in Detroit in 1930; after he disappeared in 1934, Elijah Muhammad took over and moved its headquarters to Chicago.

The 9th-century Great Mosque of Samarra in Iraq is famous for a tower of what shape?

A spiral ramp winds up the outside of the 52-metre Malwiya tower; in 2005 a bomb blew off its top section after US soldiers had used it as a lookout post.

Hagia Sophia, a church and then a mosque, was what from 1935 to 2020?

A museum from 1935 under Turkey's secular republic, Hagia Sophia became a mosque again in July 2020 after a court annulled the decree that had changed its status.

The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, opened in 2007, is in which city?

Abu Dhabi's Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque is named for the UAE's founding president, who launched the project, died in 2004 before it was finished and is buried in its courtyard.

The mud-brick Great Mosque of Djenné, re-plastered every year, stands in which African country?

Mali's Great Mosque of Djenné was rebuilt around 1907; the palm-wood sticks that bristle from its walls serve as ready-made scaffolding for the yearly festival when the whole town repairs it.

Which Moroccan city's Hassan II Mosque stands on a promontory jutting into the Atlantic Ocean?

Casablanca's Hassan II Mosque, completed in 1993, was sited over the sea because King Hassan II wanted it built on the water, citing the Quran's image of God's throne upon the water.

Which sultan built Istanbul's Blue Mosque?

Ahmed I began his mosque at 19 and paid for it from the treasury, having no war booty to spend, over the protests of the religious scholars; he died in 1617, the year it was finished.

Which name for Jerusalem's Temple Mount plaza means 'Noble Sanctuary' in Arabic?

Haram al-Sharif crowns the hill Jews call the Temple Mount; the Dome of the Rock was completed there in 691–92 over the rock from which Muhammad is believed to have risen to heaven.

Which mount carried Muhammad from Mecca to Jerusalem on the Night Journey?

Buraq, a white steed 'smaller than a mule and bigger than a donkey', is believed to have been tethered at the wall Muslims call the Buraq Wall, known to Jews as the Western Wall.

Roughly what share of the world's Muslims are Shia?

About 10%: Pew's 2009 study put Shia at 10–13% of all Muslims; though a minority worldwide, they form the majority in a handful of countries, among them Iraq and Bahrain.

What share of the world's population was Muslim in 2020, per Pew?

Pew put Muslims at 25.6% of humanity in 2020, about one in four; their numbers grew by 347 million in a decade, more than all other religions combined, lifting their share by 1.8 points.

Al-Biruni, a scholar at the court of Ghazni in Afghanistan, wrote a famous study of which neighbouring land?

India is the subject of Al-Biruni's 'Kitab al-Hind', finished around 1030; he learned Sanskrit and studied with Hindu scholars so that he could read their scientific and religious texts for himself.

Which Persian poet-astronomer designed the Jalali solar calendar?

Omar Khayyam led the astronomers who devised the Jalali calendar for Sultan Malik-Shah, adopted in 1079; its leap-year scheme is the basis of the Persian solar calendar still in use.

Which Persian physician was among the first to distinguish smallpox from measles?

Al-Razi, known in Latin as Rhazes, is also said to have chosen the site for a Baghdad hospital by hanging meat around the city and building where it rotted most slowly.

Which Andalusian surgeon wrote the 30-volume Kitab al-Tasrif?

Al-Zahrawi, known in Latin as Abulcasis, pictured some 200 surgical instruments in its volume on surgery; translated into Latin, that volume served Europe as a standard surgery textbook for centuries.

Al-Kindi's 9th-century manuscript on deciphering messages introduced which code-breaking method?

Frequency analysis cracks a cipher by counting how often each symbol appears and matching the commonest to a language's commonest letters; the treatise was lost for centuries until it surfaced in a Turkish library.

Which philosopher was known as the 'Second Teacher', after Aristotle?

Al-Farabi was called the Second Teacher for his systematic commentaries on Aristotle's logic; he also wrote 'The Virtuous City' on the ideal state.

Which Malian ruler's fabled wealth came largely from taxing the gold and salt trade?

Mansa Musa, who ruled Mali from about 1312 to 1337, drew his wealth from taxing gold and salt caravans; his 1324 pilgrimage to Mecca spent so much gold that it depressed prices in Cairo.

What title is given to a person who has memorized the entire Quran?

A hafiz has committed the entire Quran to memory; the 14th-century Persian poet Hafez took his pen name from the title, having learned the Quran by heart himself.

Which is the only surah of the Quran that opens without the Basmala?

At-Tawbah, chapter 9, opens without the Basmala; by the traditional account Muhammad's scribes were never told to write it there, so the Companions who compiled the written Quran left it out.

Whose desperate search for water for her infant son does tradition link to the origin of the Zamzam well?

Hagar, left in the dry valley with her baby, is said to have searched between two hills until a spring appeared beside the child; pilgrims at Mecca still retrace her steps and drink from the well.

What is the two-piece unsewn white garment worn by male Hajj pilgrims called?

Ihram is two plain white sheets, one wrapped round the waist and one draped over the torso; because every man wears the same, rank and wealth cannot be told apart.

During the Hajj, pilgrims throw pebbles at three walls in which town near Mecca?

Mina, a valley near Mecca nicknamed the City of the Tents, holds the three Jamarat walls that pilgrims stone in memory of Abraham driving off Satan.

Tawaf involves circling the Kaaba how many times?

Seven anticlockwise circuits make one tawaf, the first three at a hurried pace and the rest at a walk; moving round the Kaaba as one crowd is meant to show the unity of believers before one God.

Which 'lesser pilgrimage' to Mecca, unlike the Hajj, can be made at any time of year?

Umrah can be completed in a few hours: pilgrims circle the Kaaba and walk between two nearby hills, but it leaves out the Hajj's rites outside the city and never counts as a substitute for it.

What is the chain of transmitters behind a report about the Prophet called?

The isnad names who heard a report from whom, back to the Prophet; a whole discipline, the 'science of narrators', grew up to check the honesty and memory of every link in the chain.

A jurist who issues fatwas is known by what title?

A mufti is a jurist qualified to issue fatwas, non-binding legal opinions; a qadi, by contrast, is a judge whose rulings are enforced.

Islam's obligatory annual alms are customarily what percentage of a Muslim's savings?

2.5%, one-fortieth, is due each year on cash, gold, silver and trade goods above a minimum threshold; it is treated as a duty owed to the poor rather than a voluntary gift.

Which colour is most closely associated with Islam and appears on many Muslim countries' flags?

Green is the colour most associated with Islam; the Quran describes the people of paradise in green garments, and it dominates the flags of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.

What name is given to the centuries-long Christian campaign that ended Muslim rule in Iberia in 1492?

The Reconquista ended in January 1492 when Granada's last emir, Boabdil, surrendered the city; the spot where he is said to have looked back on it for the last time is still called the Moor's Last Sigh.

Which Frankish leader defeated an Umayyad army at the Battle of Tours in 732?

Charles Martel's infantry held firm between Tours and Poitiers; the Umayyad commander al-Ghafiqi was killed, and at dawn the Franks found the enemy's tents still standing but empty.

What is the kiswah?

The cloth covering the Kaaba is black brocade embroidered with Quranic verses in gold; a new kiswah is draped every year, and the old one is cut into pieces.

The 14th-century Muslim traveller Ibn Battuta came from which city?

Ibn Battuta left Tangier at 21 in 1325 simply to make the pilgrimage to Mecca; he kept travelling and did not see Morocco again for 24 years.

Ibn Battuta's account of his journeys is commonly known by what title?

The Rihla was dictated, not written, by its hero: on the Moroccan sultan's orders Ibn Battuta told his story from memory to the scholar Ibn Juzayy, who completed the text in 1355.

Which widow of Muhammad rode with the army that fought Ali at the Battle of the Camel in 656?

Aisha watched the fighting near Basra from a litter on her camel, which gave the battle its name; her side lost, and she was escorted back to Arabia afterwards.

Muslims believe the Kaaba was built by Abraham and which son?

Ishmael, Ismail in Arabic, is named in the Quran raising the Kaaba's foundations with his father; a stone kept beside it, the Station of Abraham, is said to bear Abraham's footprints from the work.

What is the meal that breaks the daily fast during Ramadan called?

Iftar traditionally opens with dates and water, following Muhammad's own practice, before the main meal; it is often communal, with mosques and community groups hosting large shared meals.

Which Islamic month begins with the festival that ends the fast?

Shawwal follows Ramadan, so its first day is the feast; fasting on that day is forbidden, and a gift for the poor is due before the festival prayer so that everyone can celebrate.

Which caliph founded Baghdad in 762 and made it the Abbasid capital?

Al-Mansur, the second Abbasid caliph, laid out Baghdad in 762 as a perfectly round city; his court astrologers chose the day on which building should begin.

Which Mughal emperor commissioned the Taj Mahal for his wife Mumtaz Mahal?

Shah Jahan began the tomb after Mumtaz Mahal died in 1631 giving birth to their fourteenth child; deposed by his son Aurangzeb, he spent his last years confined in the fort at Agra.

Babur founded the Mughal Empire in 1526 after a victory at which place?

At the First Battle of Panipat, north of Delhi, in April 1526, Babur's field guns and cavalry routed Ibrahim Lodi, the last Sultan of Delhi, who died on the field.

Salat al-Janazah is the Islamic prayer performed for what occasion?

A funeral prayer for a deceased Muslim, it has no bowing or prostration; it is a communal duty, so once some of the community have performed it the rest are excused.

Which country's constitution names Twelver Shia Islam as the official state religion?

Iran was largely Sunni until the Safavid shahs, who took power in 1501, imposed Twelver Shia Islam; the 1979 constitution keeps it as the official religion and sets a senior jurist over the state.

Which Arabic term names the faith that Sunni teaching sums up in six articles of belief?

Iman is summed up as belief in God, angels, scriptures, prophets, the Last Day and divine decree; the list is traced to a report in which a stranger questions Muhammad and proves to be an angel.

Which Turkish leader abolished the caliphate in 1924?

Kemal Atatürk's movement abolished the sultanate in November 1922 but kept a caliph with reduced authority; on 3 March 1924 the assembly ended the caliphate too and deposed Abdulmejid II.

In Islamic law, what is the term for extending an existing ruling to a new case by analogy?

Qiyas extends a ruling to a new case by analogy: because wine is banned for intoxicating, jurists ruled other intoxicants such as drugs forbidden too; the literalist Zahiri school rejects the method.

On which day after a child's birth is the Islamic aqiqah ceremony traditionally performed?

The seventh day is when the family sacrifices a sheep and shares the meat with relatives, neighbours and the poor; the baby's head is shaved and the hair's weight in silver is given to charity.

Who is the only woman mentioned by name in the Quran, where an entire chapter carries her name?

Mary, the mother of Jesus, is told by angels in the Quran that God has chosen her above the women of all the worlds. Every other woman in the text goes unnamed.

According to the Quran, which unseen creatures were created from smokeless fire, while humans were shaped from clay?

Jinn have free will in Islamic belief, so they can do good or evil and are held to account for it as humans are. The Quran's 72nd chapter, Al-Jinn, is named after them.

Which territory at the mouth of the Mediterranean is named after Tariq ibn Ziyad, who led the Muslim invasion of Spain?

Gibraltar is a worn-down form of Jabal Tariq, 'the Mount of Tariq'. His largely Berber army crossed from North Africa in 711 and went on to conquer most of Iberia.

Which drink did 15th-century Sufis in Yemen brew to stay alert through their night-time prayers?

Coffee plants grew wild in Ethiopia, but the roasted and brewed drink began in Yemen. Sufis there used it to concentrate while chanting the name of God.

Which sultan of Kurdish origin recaptured Jerusalem from the Crusaders after winning the Battle of Hattin?

Saladin let Jerusalem's Christians leave in return for a ransom, and ordered that the elderly who could not pay be freed. The city's fall prompted the Third Crusade.

Following the example of Muhammad, many Muslims break each day's Ramadan fast by first eating which fruit?

Dates, traditionally three of them with water, come first because Muhammad is said to have broken his own fast that way. The custom is encouraged, not required.

Which American activist left the Nation of Islam, made the pilgrimage to Mecca and returned as el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz?

Malcolm X said that seeing Muslims of all colours treat one another as equals on the 1964 pilgrimage led him to see Islam as a way past racial problems.

Which British singer of 'Wild World' and 'Moonshadow' became a Muslim and took the name Yusuf Islam?

Cat Stevens nearly drowned off Malibu in 1976 and said he cried out that he would work for God if he was saved. He stated that a wave then carried him back to shore.

Bilqis, the queen who visits Solomon in the Quran after a hoopoe's report on her realm, ruled which land?

Sheba is identified by modern historians with a South Arabian kingdom in what is now Yemen. A Sabaean temple near Ma'rib there is known as Mahram Bilqis, her 'sanctuary'.

The name of the Kaaba, the shrine at the centre of Mecca's Grand Mosque, means what in Arabic?

Cube describes the Kaaba only loosely, since the building is taller than it is wide. Its basic shape has not changed since it was rebuilt in the 690s.

Alongside carrion and blood, the Quran forbids Muslims to eat the flesh of which animal?

Pig meat becomes lawful only under necessity: the same Quranic verses add that someone forced by need, not desire, does no wrong by eating it.

Which Arabic word, used in the Quran for a curtain or partition, now names the headscarf worn by many Muslim women?

Hijab never means clothing in the Quran itself: one verse uses it for the curtain that separated Muhammad's wives from visitors.

The greeting 'As-salamu alaykum', answered with 'wa alaykumu s-salam', means what in English?

Peace be upon you is traced in Islamic tradition to the first human, Adam, who is said to have greeted the angels with these words.

Which Arabic phrase, added when speaking of future plans, means 'if God wills'?

Inshallah is not only a Muslim phrase: Arab Christians and other Arabic speakers use it too, much as English speakers say 'hopefully'.

Which symbol, used in Greek Byzantium long before Islam, appears on the flags of Turkey, Pakistan and Algeria?

Star and crescent was a prominent symbol of the Ottoman Empire, and lands once under Ottoman rule such as Tunisia and Algeria also adopted it. Some Muslims reject it as a symbol of their faith.

By which phrase does the Quran refer to Jews and Christians together?

People of the Book marks them as communities that received earlier scriptures. It also covers the Sabians, and most jurists later granted Zoroastrians a partial version of the same status.

Which title, translated as 'Sign of God', is given to high-ranking Twelver Shia clerics?

Ayatollah is a surprisingly recent title: it only came into widespread use in the 20th century. Holders are specialists in jurisprudence who often teach in seminaries.

The title 'caliph', borne by rulers from Baghdad to Córdoba, comes from an Arabic word meaning what?

Successor is the usual sense of khalifa, traditionally read as short for 'successor of the messenger of God'. The word can also mean deputy or steward.

Islamic religious art traditionally avoids depicting which subjects, a custom known as aniconism?

People and animals are avoided partly to guard against idolatry and partly from a belief that creating living forms is God's prerogative. The Quran itself contains no such ban.

Muhammad's birth year is traditionally named after which animal brought by an army marching on Mecca?

Elephant gives the year its name because the ruler Abraha is said to have marched on the Kaaba with war elephants. The Quran's chapter Al-Fil recalls his army's defeat.

Which Jerusalem mosque, whose name means 'the farthest', is widely regarded as the third-holiest site in Islam?

Al-Aqsa takes its name from 'the farthest mosque', where the Quran's account of Muhammad's Night Journey from Mecca ends.

Jannah, where the Quran promises rivers of milk and honey, is an Arabic word with which literal meaning?

Garden imagery runs through the English word too: 'paradise' goes back to an Old Iranian term later used for the walled gardens of the Persian kings.

In the Quran, who is cast out of heaven for refusing to bow before the newly created Adam?

Iblis argued that he was made of fire and so outranked a creature of clay. His name appears eleven times in the Quran, nine of them about this refusal.

What is the Arabic name for the Islamic call to prayer, which a muezzin recites aloud to summon worshippers?

Adhan gains an extra line before the dawn prayer in Sunni practice: 'Prayer is better than sleep.' Shia versions leave it out.

Which Arabic word, which simply means 'school', is used in English for colleges of Islamic learning?

Madrasa carries no religious meaning in Arabic, where it covers any school at all, state or private, Muslim or secular.

Which 16th-century sultan, 'the Magnificent' to Europeans, was known to his own subjects as Kanuni, 'the Lawgiver'?

Suleiman I earned the home-grown title by issuing a single legal code that lasted more than three hundred years. His reign was the longest of any sultan in his dynasty.

Which wife of Muhammad later became a leading scholar and rode with an army at the Battle of the Camel?

Aisha rode onto the field in an armoured litter on a red camel, which gave the battle its name. She is also credited with narrating over 2,000 hadiths.

Which daughter of Muhammad was the mother of his grandsons Hasan and Husayn?

Fatima is the one child through whom Muhammad's family line has survived. Her descendants are honoured with the title sayyid.

Which Abbasid caliph, who sent Charlemagne a water clock, appears as a character in the Thousand and One Nights?

Harun al-Rashid's gift marked the hours by dropping bronze balls into a bowl while mechanical knights emerged from little doors. Charlemagne's retinue is said to have taken a clock of his for a conjuration.

Which Mughal emperor, a grandson of Babur who never learned to read, opened a hall for debates between religions?

Akbar had books read aloud to him in the evenings, and his Ibadat Khana, the 'House of Worship', was opened to followers of every religion and to atheists as well.

The Quran's 29th chapter, Al-Ankabut, is named after which creature, whose home it calls the flimsiest of all?

Spider webs stand in the chapter for false protectors: those who rely on anyone but God are likened to a spider sheltering in its web. Other chapters are named after the ant and the bee.

When no water is available, Muslims may instead purify themselves before prayer through tayammum, using what?

Clean earth or sand stands in for water: the worshipper wipes the face and hands with it. The same dry rite is allowed when illness makes washing harmful.

The Arabic word masjid, which reached English through French as 'mosque', literally means a place of what?

Prostration, or sujud, means kneeling and bowing until the forehead, nose, hands, knees and toes all rest on the ground.

As-Sirat, described in Islamic tradition as thinner than a hair and sharper than a sword, is what?

A bridge over Hell, As-Sirat must be crossed by every soul on the Day of Judgment. The saved pass over it, while the damned are said to fall into the fire below.

Which Moroccan city is home to the Hassan II Mosque, which stands partly over the waters of the Atlantic?

Casablanca's vast mosque has a roof that slides open to the sky, and a laser on its 210-metre tower points toward Mecca after dark.

Which admiral, born into a Muslim family in Yunnan, led the Ming treasure fleets as far as East Africa?

Zheng He brought a giraffe home from Malindi on the African coast, and the Ming court took it for a qilin, a mythical beast that signalled heaven's favour.

Islamic banks share profit and loss with customers to avoid riba, a forbidden practice widely understood as what?

Charging interest on loans is the usual reading of riba, a word roughly meaning 'usury'. The first modern Islamic bank on record opened in rural Egypt in 1963, built on profit-sharing.

Which extra night prayers, said in congregation by Sunni Muslims, are performed only during the month of Ramadan?

Tarawih prayers involve long recitations, and many mosques aim to complete the whole Quran over the month. Shia Muslims regard the congregational form as a later innovation.

Dhul-Qarnayn, who walls in Gog and Magog in the Quran, is most often identified with which ancient conqueror?

Alexander the Great appears on coins wearing the ram's horns of Zeus-Ammon, a match for a title meaning 'the two-horned one'. Some modern commentators argue for Cyrus of Persia instead.

Which hereditary title, first bestowed by a Persian king, is held by the imam of the Nizari Ismaili Muslims?

Aga Khan was first held by Hasan Ali Shah, the 46th imam of the line, who received it from Persia's Fath-Ali Shah. Each holder is believed by his followers to be a descendant of Muhammad.

The Quran names which mountain, not Ararat, as the place where Noah's ark came to rest?

Mount Judi rises near the headwaters of the Tigris in south-east Turkey. Early Christians of the region placed the landing there too, before a taller peak took the name Ararat in the Middle Ages.

Which general, who first fought against the early Muslims, was later given the title 'Sword of God' by Muhammad?

Khalid ibn al-Walid led the horsemen who routed Muhammad's forces in 625, the only battle the Meccans won against him. After converting he commanded the campaigns in Iraq and Syria.

Which companion of Muhammad, nicknamed 'father of the kitten', passed on more of his sayings than anyone else?

Abu Hurayra is said to have earned the name by carrying a stray kitten in his sleeve. He lived on for more than forty years after Muhammad's death, passing down traditions.

Which Arabic word names the worldwide community of Muslims, bound together by faith instead of nationality or tribe?

Ummah is also the everyday Arabic word for 'nation': the United Nations is al-Umam al-Muttahidah, using its plural.

Which archangel, never named in the Quran, will sound the trumpet on the Day of Judgment in Islamic tradition?

Israfil is pictured waiting with the trumpet already at his mouth, ready to blow when the world's time is complete. He is often seen as the counterpart of the archangel Raphael.

Which figure of Islamic tradition damages a ship and rebuilds a wall to teach Moses patience in the Quran?

Khidr is never named in the Quran, which calls him only a servant of God who was taught special knowledge. He ends the journey by explaining the hidden reason behind each act.

Which chapter of the Quran, 'The Clot', opens with 'Read!', traditionally the first word revealed to Muhammad?

Al-Alaq is also known as Iqra, 'Read'. Tradition holds that Muhammad answered 'But I cannot read!' before its opening verses were revealed to him.

Which honeycomb-like vaulting, often likened to stalactites, decorates domes and niches in many Islamic buildings?

Muqarnas grew out of the squinch, the corner support that lets a round dome sit on a square room. It most likely first developed in eleventh-century Iraq.

Which city, whose name means 'place of martyrdom', grew up around the shrine of the eighth Shia imam, Imam Reza?

Mashhad outgrew the villages around it as pilgrims came to the tomb. Shia tradition holds that the imam was martyred there in 818.

Which uncle of Muhammad, a bitter opponent in Mecca, is traditionally held to be cursed in a chapter of the Quran?

Abu Lahab, 'Father of Flame', was the only member of Muhammad's own clan to side with a boycott against it. His father is said to have given him the nickname for his glowing red cheeks.