Encyclopedia of Islam

Further reading: Farid Ud-Din Attar, The Conference 

of the Birds (New York: Penguin Books, 1984); Carl W. 

Ernst, The Shambhala Guide to Sufism (Boston: Shamb-

hala, 1997); Ali ibn Uthman al-Hujwiri, The Kashf al-

Mahjub: The Oldest Persian Treatise on Sufism. Translated 

by R. A. Nicholson (1959. Reprint, New Delhi: Taj 

Printers, 1997); Francis E. Peters, The Hajj: The Muslim 

Pilgrimage to Mecca and the Holy Places (Princeton, N.J.: 

Princeton University Press, 1994): 6–9, 16–17; Michael 

Sells, Early Islamic Mysticism: Sufi, Quran, Miraj, Poetic 

and Theological Writings (New York: Paulist Press, 

1996), 102–103.

market

  See 

bazaar

.

martyrdom

Martyrdom (shahada) in Islam is intimately linked 

to the obligation of 

Jihad

 (“struggle” for the 

Faith

). 

Traditionally, the martyr (Av. sing shahid), has sev-

eral contexts of meaning in Islam. (1) The martyr 

can offer up his/her life to defend Islam and the 

Sunni 

umma

, or majority religious community,