Aligarh: A small city southeast of Delhi, site of the famous Aligarh Muslim University.
Ambala: A city north of Delhi, in modern Haryana, close to the Punjab border.
Ammi: Zakir’s name for his mother. “Ammi” is something like “Mom.”
Amritsar: The Indian city located right across the border from Lahore, home to jallianwala bagh.
Anarkali: Lahore’s most famous old market, filled with a maze of tiny lanes where almost anything can be bought.
Appearance: The emergence of the Hidden Imam from concealment, an apocalyptic event awaited by many Shiites.
are: An exclamation of surprise.
Ayub dictatorship: The military government headed by General Ayub Khan, which seized power from the civilian government in 1958 and ruled until Ayub was deposed by General Yahya Khan in 1969.
Baba Farid: An affectionate way of referring to Shaikh Farid ud-Din Ganj-e Shakar, the great twelfth-century saint and mystic of North India.
Baghbanpura: A neighborhood in the northeast part of Lahore.
Bahadur Shah: The last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah (1775–1862) used the pen-name “Zafar” in his poetry, and was forced to live as a British pensioner. During the rebellion of 1857 he was made titular head of the rebels; court politics then led to the replacement of Bakht Khan, the most effective general, by Mirza Mughal and Mirza Ghaus, two of the emperor’s useless sons.
Bakht Khan: See Bahadur Shah.
Basic Democracy: A multi-layered system instituted by the Ayub regime in 1959, in which only the bottom layer, consisting of thousands of representatives called Basic Democrats, was directly elected; the system was presented as a nonpolitical one for achieving rural education and uplift.
Batuclass="underline" KHALAH JAN’s real name.
Bhisham: See Mahabharat.
Bi Amma: Zakir’s name for his paternal grandmother. “Bi” is a short form of “Bibi.” “Amma” means “mother.”
Bibi: A polite form of address for a woman.
binot: An indigenous Indic form of martial art, which relies on dexterity and swift movement rather than on elaborate weapons.
birbani: In Indic folk tradition, a woman who has been killed by witchcraft, and whose spirit is used by the witch for magical purposes.
Brahma-ji: In Hindu mythology, the World-creator.
Brindaban: See KRISHAN.
Bulandshahr: A city east of Delhi, on the road to Aligarh.
Chacha Jan: Zakir’s uncle, his father’s younger brother.
Danpur: A town in Bulandshahr district, in Uttar Pradesh; the home of Zakir’s great-uncle.
Data Ganj Bakhsh: A famous eleventh-century saint and mystic, buried in Lahore and considered to be a patron of the city.
Dulhan Bi: Sharifan’s name for Ammi Jan, referring to her as the “bride” she was when she came to the house long ago.
dupattah: A very long, wide, lightweight scarf worn by women. It was draped over the shoulders and bosom, and sometimes over the head as well, with the two ends often hanging down in back.
Emigration: The 1947 Partition of British-controlled India into two states, India and Pakistan, caused many Muslim families like Zakir’s to leave their old homes on the Indian side of the line and cross the border into the new Muslim nation of Pakistan. For this experience they use the religiously meaningful word “hijrat,” which evokes memories of the Prophet’s journey from Mecca to Medina.
faqir: A Muslim ascetic, usually a solitary wanderer living on the voluntary gifts of the pious.
Fatihah: The opening chapter of the Quran; it is traditionally recited over the graves of the dead.
Fatimah: The Prophet’s daughter, wife of Ali and mother of Hasan and Husain.
’57: 1857, the year of the famous, desperate rebellion in North India against British power.
Frontier Maiclass="underline" A famous train that runs between Bombay and Amritsar.
Gamal Abdel Nasser: The Egyptian President who took responsibility for his country’s 1967 defeat by Israel, and resigned from the Presidency.
Ghalib: Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib (1797–1869) was one of the two greatest classical Urdu poets; he lived through the siege of Delhi in 1857 and saw its terrible aftermath.
Gwalior: A city south of Agra, in northern Madhya Pradesh.
hai hai: An exclamation of sorrow and mourning, frequently used by women when a death occurs.
Hakim: A respectful title for a practitioner of traditional Islamic (i.e., Greek) medicine.
Hakim Nabina: A famous early-twentieth-century HAKIM of Delhi. He was blind; “nabina” means blind.
Hare-bhare Shah: A popular saint whose tomb is in Delhi near the Jama Masjid.
Hasan: The older brother of HUSAIN; he had already died before the battle of Karbala took place.
Hazrat: A title expressing veneration, generally used for religious personages.
Hazrat Sajjad: A respectful title for Zain ul-Abidin, a son (or nephew, according to other accounts) of HUSAIN.
Howrah Express: A famous train that crosses North India from Calcutta to Delhi.
Humayun’s Tomb: An elaborate monument in Delhi where the second Mughal emperor, Humayun (d.1556), is buried.
huqqah: A form of pipe with a large stationary bowl in which tobacco is burned, a curved tube to pass the smoke through water to cool it, and a mouthpiece on a long flexible hose that can be passed easily from hand to hand.
Hur: A general sent out against HUSAIN by his Umayyid enemies; but he fought on Husain’s side instead, and was one of the first to be martyred at Karbala.
Husain: The son of Fatimah and Ali, thus the Prophet’s grandson. He was martyred on the field of KARBALA by political opponents who refused to recognize his right to succeed to the Caliphate.
Id: The greatest Muslim religious festival; following a month of dawn-to-dusk fasting, on this feast day families visit with their neighbors. “Id” is pronounced to rhyme with “heed.”
Imam: A reverent title given to HUSAIN, and to certain of his successors venerated by Shiites. The title is also used for certain prominent religious personalities, and for someone who leads the prayer in a mosque.
Imambarah: A religious building used as the destination of processions during MUHARRAM, and as the site of MAJLIS gatherings.
Imperiaclass="underline" A large Western-style hotel in Lahore, well-known during the colonial era but no longer in existence.
“innovation”: A theological term for an illegitimate change made in the SHARIAT.
Iqbaclass="underline" Sir Muhammad Iqbal (1877–1938), the greatest Urdu and Indo-Persian poet of the twentieth century, was also a philosopher and statesman. He began as a secular nationalist, but later called for the formation of Pakistan.
Iqlima: This daughter of Adam and Eve is not mentioned in the Quran, and occurs only in certain Muslim folk traditions.
Jabir bin Abdullah Ansari: One of the Prophet’s companions during his stay in Medina.
Jahanabad: A name for that part of the old city of Delhi which was built by Shah Jahan (r. 1627–1658).
jalebi: A kind of curly sweet shaped like a pretzel; made of batter, it is first deep-fried, then soaked in sugar water.
Jallianwala Bagh: A park in Amrisar, site of an episode in 1919 in which a crowd of nonviolent nationalist demonstrators trapped in a walled garden were repeatedly fired upon by soldiers under a British general, leaving hundreds dead.
Jama Masjid: The magnificent Delhi mosque, also occasionally used for important public assemblies; it was built by Shah Jahan (r. 1627–1658).
Janamashtami: A popular Hindu festival that celebrates the eighth day after KRISHAN’s birth.
Jhansi: A city in Uttar Pradesh, north of Gwalior. It was annexed by the British in 1853, when its king died childless. His widow, the famous Rani of Jhansi, armed herself as a warrior during the rebellion of 1857 and died heroically, fighting the British.