Encyclopedia of Islam

1975–90

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  Lebanese Civil War.

1975

¶

  Death of Elijah Muhammad, leader of Nation of 

Islam among African Americans; Warith Deen 

Mohammad takes charge of the movement and 

renames it World Community of Islam in the 

West (changed to American Muslim Mission in 

1978).

1977

¶

  Death of Ali Shariati, Shii religious thinker.

1978

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  Anwar al-Sadat, Egypt’s president, shares Nobel 

Peace Prize with Manachem Begin, Israel’s prime 

minister.

1979

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  Iranian monarchy replaced by a revolutionary 

Islamic republic with Ayatollah Ruhallah Kho-

meini as its supreme leader.

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  Death of Abu al-Ala Mawdudi, founder of the 

Jamaat-i Islami of India and Pakistan.

¶

  Sacred Mosque in Mecca seized by Sunni reviv-

alists proclaiming arrival of the Mahdi.

¶

  Soviet Union invades Afghanistan.