Jahiliyyah
Also known as al-Asr al-Jahiliy, period of jahiliyya, Al-jahiliyyah, al-Jahili era, Arab history, Pre-Islamic period in Arabia, Jahili era
In Islamic salvation history, the Jāhiliyyah (Age of Ignorance) is an Arabic expression for an era of pre-Islamic Arabia as a whole or only of the Hejaz leading up to the lifetime of Muhammad.
Article
16 sectionsContents
- Etymology
- Jahili society
- Jahili poetry
- Evolution of the Jahiliyyah narrative
- Pre-Islamic Arabic poetry
- Quran
- Classical Arabic dictionaries
- Quran commentaries
- Positive portrayals
- Jahiliyyah concept in contemporary theology
- See also
- References
- Citations
- Sources
- Further reading
- External links
In Islamic salvation history, the Jāhiliyyah (Age of Ignorance) is an Arabic expression for an era of pre-Islamic Arabia as a whole or only of the Hejaz leading up to the lifetime of Muhammad.
The expression serves as a form of grand narrative to paint pre-Islamic Arabians as barbarians in a morally corrupt social order. Its people (the jahl, sing. jāhil) lacked religious knowledge (ʿilm) and civilized qualities (ḥilm). As a result, they practiced polytheism, idol worship, and allegedly committed female infanticide, had societies rife with tyranny, injustice, despotism, and anarchy, and prejudice resulted in vainglorious tribal antagonisms.