Encyclopedia of Islam

Further reading: Jacob Lassner, The Topography of 

Baghdad in the Early Middle Ages (Detroit: Wayne State 

University Press, 1970); Gulru Necipoglu, Architec-

ture, Ceremonial, and Power: The Topkapi Palace in the 

Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries (New York: Architec-

tural History Foundation, 1991); D. Fairchild Ruggles, 

Gardens, Landscape, and Vision in the Palaces of Islamic 

Spain (University Park; Pennsylvania State University 

Press, 2000). 

Gaza

  See p

alestine

.

genie

  See 

jinni

.

Ghadir Khumm

Ghadir Khumm is one of the most important 

religious holidays for the Shia. It is named after a 

spring located between m

ecca

 and m

edina

 in the 

Hijaz (western Arabia) where m

Uhammad

 stopped 

with his companions after performing his fare-

well pilgrimage to Mecca in 632. At that location, 

Muhammad stood next to his cousin and son-in-

law a

li

 

ibn

 a

bi

 t

alib

 (d. 661) and told his listen-

ers to consider Ali their master (mawla). This 

event is recounted in Sunni and Shii sources, but 

there are different versions of it; each community 

interprets it differently. According to accounts 

favored by the Shia, Muhammad delivered a 

sermon in which he stated that he would soon 

depart this world and that he was leaving his fol-

lowers two things: the q

Uran

 and the 

ahl

 

al

-

bayt

,

his family. Taking Ali by the hand, he asked his 

audience if he, Muhammad, did not have priority 

over other believers. When they agreed that he 

did, Muhammad then declared, “Ali is the mas-

ter [mawla] of whomever I am the master.” The 

Shia therefore understand this declaration as the 

divinely inspired transfer of 

aUthority

 to Ali and 

the other holy 

imam

s, whom they consider to be 

the true leaders of the Muslim community. It also 

serves as a precedent for their belief in nass, the 

God-given power that an imam has to designate 

his successor. The Sunnis, however, do not accept 

this interpretation of what happened at Ghadir