The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (36 page)

(1126–98 (AH 520–94).
S
f
poet, teacher, and adept. Born in Spain, he settled in Biijayah (Bougie) in Algeria, where disciples gathered to him. He was recognized as the
qutb
al-Ghawth (the axis on whom the mystical support of the world turns), and he remains the spiritual guardian of Algeria.

 
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(Ethiopic and Arab., ‘our father’). The
patriarch
of the
Ethiopian church
.

 
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(d. 653 (AH 32)).
A notable Quraysh aristocrat, a wealthy merchant and financier, with hardly any equals in
Mecca
for intelligence and business acumen. Like most of the Meccan merchants, he was originally hostile to Mu
ammad and Islam, but he became a Muslim at the fall of Mecca, and then supported Islam with vigour and enterprise. The Prophet made him governor of Najr
n, and later, during the Islamic conquests, he saw active service against the Byzantines as a military general. He fought in the historic battle of Yarmuk (636 CE), and died in Palestine.

 
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