The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (309 page)

 
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Awliya’
(pl., friends of God):

see
WAL
.

 
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Axial age
.

Period around the 6th cent. BCE, when religions were instrumental in effecting great changes in history and civilization. The term was used by Karl Jaspers to draw attention to the rise to prominence of great religious leaders and innovations which established the basis of the great civilizations until the disturbance of those patterns by the European enlightenment and expansion of trade and empire. He drew attention to
Zoroaster
, the
Upani
ads
, the
Buddha
,
Mah
v
ra
,
Confucius
, the emergence of
Taoism
.

 
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Axis mundi
.

The central pivot of the earth or of the entire cosmos. For examples, see
BODHIMA
A
;
TEMPLE (JAIN)
;
MERU
. The idea is applied in the
S
f
qutb
.