Encyclopedia of Islam

Thousand and One Nights

---

all but eliminated, the city has survived mostly as 

a tourist attraction.

See also 

colonialism

; m

orocco

; W

est

 a

Frica

.

Further reading: R. A. Adeleye, Power and Diplomacy in 

Northern Nigeria, 1804–1906 (London: Longman Group 

Limited, 1971); Beverly B. Mack and Jean Boyd, One 

Woman’s Jihad: Nana Asma’u, Scholar and Scribe (Bloom-

ington: Indiana University Press, 2000); Elias N. Saad, 

Social History of Timbuktu: The Role of Muslim Scholars 

and Notables, 1400–1900 (Cambridge: Cambridge Uni-

versity Press, 1983); Ibraheem Sulaiman, The Islamic 

State and the Challenge of History (London: Mansell 

Publishing, 1987).

Tirmidhi,  Abu  Isa  Muhammad  al-

  See

hadith

.

Torah

 

(Hebrew: instruction, teaching; 

Arabic: 

Tawrat)

The Torah is the Jewish holy book, believed to 

have been revealed to m

oses

 on Mount Sinai. The 

written Torah consists of the first five books of 

the Hebrew Bible (known to Christians as the Old 

Testament): Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, 

and Deuteronomy. Many Jews use the term in an 

expanded sense with respect to the entire Hebrew 

Bible (including the books of the prophets and 

other writings) and the oral Torah of Moses, also 

known as the Talmud (Hebrew: study). The Torah 

is mentioned explicitly 18 times in the q

Uran

, in 

addition to a number of indirect references. On the 

basis of statements in the Quran, Muslims agree 

that it is the holy book of the Jews revealed to 

Moses on Mount Sinai, and that it is why they con-

sider Jews to be p

eople

 

oF

 

the

 b

ook

 (for example, 

Q 5:44, 68). Sometimes referred to as the “tablets” 

(Q 7:145, 150, 154), the Torah is seen as a 

cov

-

enant

 between God and the Children of Israel, 

who, following the biblical and quranic theme, 

violate its commandments (Q 2:63–64, 83–85). 

The Quran declares that they will be punished on 

J

Udgment

  d

ay

 for this, as well as suffer burden-

some restrictions in this life, such as the Jewish 

dietary

 

laWs

. The Quran also alleges that Jews and 

other People of the Book have changed or cor-

rupted God’s word (for example, Q 4:46; 5:12–13), 

which Muslims used to support the doctrine that 

the Quran is the uncorrupted 

revelation

. Later 

commentators asserted that the Jews had changed 

the Torah in order to conceal references to m

Uham

-

mad

, believed by most Muslims to be the final 

prophet. The existence of different translations 

of the Torah was used to support allegations that 

it had been corrupted or distorted. This meant, 

in part, that even though the Torah must still be 

regarded as a sacred scripture, its laws were not 

binding for Muslims. In medieval g

ranada

 Jews 

involved in court cases before a Muslim judge were 

allowed to swear by it, thus attesting to its sacred 

status in the eyes of the 

sharia

 nonetheless. Mus-

lims as a rule know the Torah only on the basis 

of what is said in the Quran, commentaries, and 

hadith literature. Nevertheless, Hunayn ibn Ishaq 

(d. 873), the well-known Christian translator of 

Greek philosophical works, translated it from the 

Greek into Arabic, and Saadia (d. 940), the head 

of the Jewish community in i

raq

, translated it into 

Arabic from the Hebrew. These translations, how-

ever, were not read widely by Muslim scholars. It is 

noteworthy that the Masoretic text of the Hebrew 

Bible, which has all the diacritical markings for 

correct pronunciation, was assembled during the 

early centuries of Muslim rule, and completed in 

the rabbinic academies of Iraq and Palestine dur-

ing the 10th century 

c

.

e

.

See also 

holy

 

books

; J

Udaism

 

and

 i

slam

; 

proph

-

ets

 

and

 

prophecy

.