Ghazw (plural ghazawāt) is an Arabic word meaning an armed incursion for the purposes of conquest, plunder, or the capture of slaves and is cognate with the terms ghāziya and maghāzī. In pre-Islamic times it signified the plundering raids organized by nomadic Bedouin warriors against either rival tribes or wealthier, sedentary neighbors. In English language literature the word often appears as razzia, deriving from the French word razzier (rezzou) which entered the language at the time of the French colonization of North Africa, and which is itself a transliteration of the colloquial Arabic word ghazya. Arabic (العربية al-arabiyyah, or less formally arabi) is the largest member of the Semitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family (classification: South Central Semitic) and is closely related to Hebrew and Aramaic. ... The Buxton Memorial Fountain, celebrating the emancipation of slaves in the British Empire in 1834, London. ... Cognates are words that have a common origin. ...   Islam? (Arabic: الإسلام al-islām) the submission to God is a monotheistic faith, one of the Abrahamic religions, and the worlds second largest religion. ... Bedouin resting at Mount Sinai Bedouin, derived from the Arabic badawi بدوي, a generic name for a desert-dweller, is a term generally applied to Arab nomadic groups, who are found throughout most of the desert belt extending from the Atlantic coast of the Sahara via the Western Desert, Sinai, and... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... // French rule in Algeria, 1830–1962 Most of Frances actions in Algeria, not least the invasion of Algiers, were propelled by contradictory impulses. ... Transliteration in a narrow sense is a mapping from one system of writing into another. ...

Ghazi Warrior

In its active participle form of ghāzī ("one who takes part in a ghāziya"), the word is technical term for a Muslim frontier/march warrior whose constant attacks against a neighboring infidel power open the way for the expansion of Islam. Thus as an institution the ghāziya fits entirely within the conceptual framework of jihad: Mark or march (or various plural forms of these words) are derived from the Frankish word marka (boundary) and refer to an area along a border, e. ... FutÅ«h (singular fath) is an Arabic word with the literal meaning of openings. When appearing in classical Islamic literature it signifies the early Arab-Muslim conquests which facilitated the spread of Islam and Islamic civilization. ... Jihad (jihād جهاد) is an Islamic term, from the Arabic root jhd (to exert utmost effort, to strive, struggle), which connotes a wide range of meanings: anything from an inward spiritual struggle to attain perfect faith to a political or military struggle to further the Islamic cause. ...

For the ghāzīs in the marches, it was a religious duty to ravage the countries of the infidels who resisted Islam, and to force them into subjection.

Cambridge History of Islam, p. 283

Also:

After the conquests had come to an end, the legal specialists laid down that the caliph had to raid enemy territory at least once a year in order to keep the idea of jihad alive.

Peters, Jihad in Classical and Modern Islam: A Reader, p. 3

The ghāzī warrior dates to at least the Samanid period, where he appears as a mercenary and frontier fighter in Khorasan and Transoxiana. Later, up to 20,000 of them took part in the Indian campaigns of Mahmud of Ghazni. Ulema (Arabic: علماء) is the community of legal scholars of Islam and the Sharia. ... The Samanid dynasty (819-999) was a Persian dynasty in Central Asia, named after its founder Saman Khuda. ... A mercenary is a soldier who fights, or engages in warfare primarily for private gain, usually with little regard for ideological, national or political considerations. ... Khorasan (also spelled Khurasan and Khorassan; خراسان in Persian) is an area, located in eastern and northeastern Iran. ... Transoxiana (sometimes spelled Transoxania) is the largely obsolete name used for the portion of Central Asia corresponding approximately with modern-day Uzbekistan and southwest Kazakhstan. ... Mahmud of Ghazni (971–April 30, 1030), also known as Yamin ul-Dawlah Mahmud (in full: Yamin ul-Dawlah Abd ul-Qasim Mahmud Ibn Sebük Tigin) was the ruler of Ghazni from 997 until his death. ...

Ghāzī warriors depended upon plunder for their livelihood, and were prone to brigandage and sedition in times of peace. The corporations into which they organized themselves attracted adventurers, zealots, and religious and political dissidents of all ethnicities. In time, though, soldiers of Turkic ethnicity predominated, mirroring the Turkic rise to military and later political dominance throughout the Muslim world. Butch Cassidy, a famous outlaw An outlaw, a person living the lifestyle of outlawry, is most familiar to contemporary readers as a stock character in Western movies. ... Sedition refers to a legal designation of non-overt conduct that is deemed by a legal authority as being acts of treason, and hence deserving of legal punishment. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Zealotry. ... Turkic peoples are Northern and Central Eurasian peoples who speak languages belonging to the Turkic family of languages and which share in varying degrees, ethnic, cultural and historical traits. ...

In the west, Turkic ghāzīs made continual incursions along the Byzantine frontier zone, finding in the (often co-ethnic) akritai their counterparts. After the Battle of Manzikert these incrusions intensified, and also saw the ghāzī corporations coalesce into semi-chivalric fraternities, with the white cap and the club as their emblems. These organizations were fluid, however, reflecting their popular character, and ghāzī warriors would jump between them depending upon the prestige and success of a particular emir. It was from these Anatolian territories conquered during the ghazw that the Ottoman Empire emerged, and in its legendary traditions it is said that its founder, Osman I, came forward as a ghāzī thanks to the inspiration of Shaikh Ede Bali. The Battle of Manzikert (Turkish Malazgirt Savaşı) occurred on August 26, 1071 between the Byzantine Empire and Seljuk Turkish forces led by Alp Arslan, resulting in the defeat of the Byzantine Empire and the capture of Emperor Romanus IV Diogenes. ... See also order of chivalry Woman under the Safeguard of Knighthood, allegorical Scene. ... Entrance to the emirs palace in Bukhara. ... Anatolia (Greek: ανατολή anatolÄ“ or anatolí; see also List of traditional Greek place names), rising of the sun or East; compare Orient and Levant, by popular etymology Turkish falsely associated with Anadolu to ana mother and dolu filled), also called by the Latin name of Asia Minor, is a region of... Sultan Osman I Osman I (1258–1326) (Ottoman عُثمَان ʿUthmān) was the founder of the Ottoman Empire. ... Shaikh (Arabic: شيخ ),(also rendered as Sheik, Shaykh or Sheikh) is a word in the Arabic language meaning an elder or a revered old man. ...

In later periods of Islamic history the honorific title of ghāzī was assumed by those Muslim rulers who showed conspicuous success in extending the domains of Islam, and eventually the honorific became exclusive to them, much as the Roman title imperator became the exclusive property of the supreme ruler of the Roman state and his family. The Latin word imperator was a title originally roughly equivalent to commander during the period of the Roman Republic. ...

The Ottomans were probably the first to adopt this practice, and in any case the institution of ghazw reaches back to the beginnings of their state: the House of Osman, ruled the Ottoman Empire from 1281 to 1923, beginning with Osman I (not counting his father, ErtuÄŸrul), though the dynasty was not proclaimed until 1383 when Murad I declared himself sultan. ...

By early Ottoman times it had become a title of honor and a claim to leadership. In an inscription of 1337 [concerning the building of the Bursa mosque], Orhan, second ruler of the Ottoman line, describes himself as "Sultan, son of the Sultan of the Gazis, Gazi son of Gazi... march lord of the horizons." The Ottoman poet Ahmedi, writing ca. 1402, defines a gazi as "the instruments of God's religion, a servant of God who cleanses the earth from the filth of polytheism... the sword of God."

Lewis, The Political Language of Islam, pp. 147-148 (note 8)

Because of the political legitimacy that would accrue to those bearing this title, Muslim rulers vied amongst themselves for preeminence in the ghāziya, with the Ottoman sultans generally acknowledged as excelling all others in this feat: Bursa (formerly known as Brusa or Prusa) is the capital of the Bursa Province in northwestern Turkey. ... Orhan I Orhan, Orhan Gazi or Orkhan (died 1359)was the second bey (chief) of the newborn Ottoman Empire (at the time known as the Osmanli tribe) from 1326 to 1359. ...   Islam? (Arabic: الإسلام al-islām) the submission to God is a monotheistic faith, one of the Abrahamic religions, and the worlds second largest religion. ... Polytheism is belief in, or worship of, multiple gods or divinities. ...

For political reasons the Ottoman sultans attached the greatest importance to safeguarding and strengthening the reputation which they enjoyed as ghāzīs in the Muslim world. When they won victories in the ghazā in the Balkans they used to send accounts of them (sing., feth-nāme) as well as slaves and booty to eastern Muslim potentates. Knights captured by Bāyezīd I at his victory over the Crusaders at Nicopolis in 798/1396, and sent to Cairo, Baghdad and Tabriz were paraded through the streets, and occasioned great demonstrations in favour of the Ottomans.

Cambridge History of Islam, p. 290

Beyazid I Beyazid I (ca 1354–1403; Bayezıt, nicknamed Yıldırım, the Thunderbolt) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1389 to 1402. ... The Battle of Nicopolis took place on September 25, 1396, between a French-Hungarian alliance and the Ottoman Empire. ...

Maghāzī Literature

Maghāzī, which literally means "campaigns", is typically used within Islamic literature to signify the military campaigns conducted by the Prophet Muhammed during the post-Hijra phase of his career. The record of these campaigns, usually conducted as traditional plundering raids, constitutes its own genre of prophetic biography within Islamic literature distinct from the sira. A famous example of the genre is the Maghāzī of al-Waqidi. The historiography of early Islam is the study of how various historians have treated the events of the first two centuries of Islamic history. ... Muhammad (Arabic محمد, also transliterated Mohammad, Mohammed, and formerly Mahomet, following the Latin) is revered by Muslims as the final prophet of God. ... For other uses see Hijra. ... This article is not about the group of British engineering companies called Sira; see Sira (group of British companies). ... al-Waqidi الواقدي (d. ...

Operationally

When performed within the context of Islamic jihad warfare, the ghazw's function was to weaken the enemy's defenses in preparation for his eventual conquest and subjugation. Because the typical ghazw raiding party often did not have the size or strength to seize military or territorial objectives, this usually meant sudden attacks on weakly defended targets (e.g. villages) with the intent of terrorizing/demoralizing their inhabitants and destroying material which could support the enemy's military forces. Though Islam's rules of warfare offered some protection to non-combatants such as women, monastics, and peasants (in that, generally speaking, they could not be slain), their property could still be looted or destroyed, and they themselves could be abducted and enslaved (Cambridge History of Islam, p. 269): A Dhimmi, or Zimmi (Arabic ذمّي), as defined in classical Islamic legal and political literature, is a person living in a Muslim state who is a member of an officially tolerated non-Islamic religion. ... The rules of war in Islam are the basic religious laws of war governing the military conduct of the mujahideen (Muslim struggler, often translated in the West as Holy Warrior). These rules are part of a broader Islamic military doctrine encompassed by what muslims call Lesser Jihad or what most... Monasticism (from Greek: monachos—a solitary person) is the religious practice of renouncing all worldly pursuits in order to fully devote ones life to spiritual work. ... In a detail of Brueghels Land of Cockaigne (1567) a soft-boiled egg has little feet to rush to the luxuriating peasant who catches drops of honey on his tongue, while roast pigs roam wild: the 16th century was a good time for European peasants A peasant, from 15th...

The only way of avoiding the onslaughts of the ghāzīs was to become subjects of the Islamic state. Non-Muslims could then enjoy the status of dhimmīs, living under its protection. Most Christian sources confuse these two stages in the Ottoman conquests. The Ottomans, however, were careful to abide by these rules... Faced with the terrifying onslaught of the ghāzīs, the population living outside the confines of the empire, in the 'abode of war', often renounced the ineffective protection of Christian states, and sought refuge in subjection to the Ottoman empire. Peasants in open country in particular lost nothing by this change.

Cambridge History of Islam, p. 285

A good source on the conduct of the traditional ghazw raid are the medieval Islamic jurists, whose discussions as to which conduct is allowed and which is forbidden in the course of warfare reveal some of the practices of this institution. One such source is Averroes' Bidāyat al-Mujtahid wa-Nihāyat al-Muqtasid (translated in Peters, Jihad in Classical and Modern Islam: A Reader, Chapter 4). A Dhimmi, or Zimmi (Arabic ذمّي), as defined in classical Islamic legal and political literature, is a person living in a Muslim state who is a member of an officially tolerated non-Islamic religion. ... The Byzantine Empire is the term conventionally used to describe the Greek-speaking Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centred at its capital in Constantinople. ... Dar al-Harb (Arabic: house of war) is a term used in many Islamic countries to refer to those areas outside Muslim rule. ... Averroes Averroes (Ibn Rushd) (1126-December 10, 1198) was an Andalusian-Arab philosopher and physician, a master of philosophy and Islamic law, mathematics, and medicine. ...

Related Terms

• akinji: raider, a later replacement for ghāzī
• al-'Awāsim: the Syrio-Anatolian frontier area between the Byzantine and various caliphal empires
• ribāt: fortified convent used by a militant religious order; most commonly used in North Africa
• thughūr: an advanced/frontier fortress
• uj: Turkish term for frontier; uj begi (march lord) was a title assumed by early Ottoman rulers; later replaced by serhadd (frontier)

Anatolia (Greek: ανατολή anatolē or anatolí; see also List of traditional Greek place names), rising of the sun or East; compare Orient and Levant, by popular etymology Turkish falsely associated with Anadolu to ana mother and dolu filled), also called by the Latin name of Asia Minor, is a region of... Categories: Stub | Ottoman Empire | Titles ...

Contemporary Manifestations

Darfur

The conflict in Darfur provides perhaps a near-perfect recreation of the classical Islamic ghazw, despite the fact that many of its victims are themselves Muslims. In particular, the Janjaweed tactics of quick raids, destruction of property, and enslavement of non-combatants match the primary features of this institution exactly. Also in line with an aspect of the classical ghazw is the use of these raids to extend the domains of an Islamic state. The country of Sudan The Darfur conflict is an ongoing conflict in the Darfur region of western Sudan, mainly between the Janjaweed, a government-supported militia recruited from local Arab tribes, and the non-Arab peoples of the region. ... Janjaweed The Janjaweed (variously spelled Janjawid, Jingaweit, Jinjaweed, Janjawiid, Janjiwid, etc. ... The National Islamic Front is the political organization that controls Sudan. ...

Islamic Terrorism

With its use to denote the July 7th London bombings in a statement claiming responsibility for the attacks, term ghazw became associated with contemporary Islamic terrorism. On Thursday 7 July 2005 a series of four bomb attacks struck Londons public transport system during the morning rush hour. ... On Thursday 7 July 2005 a series of four bomb attacks struck Londons public transport system during the morning rush hour. ... Islamist terrorism, sometimes called Islamic terrorism, is terrorism that is carried out to further the political and religious ambitions of a segment of the Muslim community. ...

The degree of resemblance between the two phenomena is a contentious issue. Among the key differences are Islamic terrorism's lack of discrete military function (i.e. territorial conquest) within the purview of a Muslim state, and its failure to obey certain traditional Islamic rules of warfare, including prohibitions against attacks on non-combatants. Yet these prohibitions were never understood as absolute by the classical jurists, who often conceived of them in conditional/prudential terms (see Averroes' Bidāyat). In any case attacks to demoralize/terrorize the enemy were allowed, and in its adoption of this function Islamic terrorism's resemblance to the traditional ghazw is greatest.

See Also

• Jihad
• Fedayeen
• Akritai
• Islamic terrorism

Jihad (jihād جهاد) is an Islamic term, from the Arabic root jhd (to exert utmost effort, to strive, struggle), which connotes a wide range of meanings: anything from an inward spiritual struggle to attain perfect faith to a political or military struggle to further the Islamic cause. ... Fedayeen (from the Arabic fidāī (plural fidāīyīn), one who is ready to sacrifice his life for the cause) describes several distinct, primarily Arab groups at different times in history. ... Islamist terrorism, sometimes called Islamic terrorism, is terrorism that is carried out to further the political and religious ambitions of a segment of the Muslim community. ...

References

• Encyclopedia of Islam, edition CD-ROM v. 1.0 (1999). Article: Ghazw
• Encyclopedia of Islam, edition CD-ROM v. 1.0 (1999). Article: Ghāzī
• Lewis, Bernard (1991) The Political Language of Islam, University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0226476936, p. 74
• Firestone, Reuven (1999) Jihad: The Origins of Holy War in Islam, Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195125800, p. 34
• Peters, Rudolph (1996) Jihad in Classical and Modern Islam: A Reader, Markus Wiener Publishers. ISBN 1558761098
  • Averroes, Bidāyat al-Mujtahid wa-Nihāyat al-Muqtasid
• Witek, Paul; & Heywood, Colin, translator (2002) The Rise of the Ottoman Empire, Curzon Press. ISBN 0700715002
• Holt, Peter M., ed. (1970) The Cambridge History of Islam: Volume 1, The Central Islamic Lands, Cambridge University Press. ISBN 052107567X
• Robinson, Chase (2002) Islamic Historiography, Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521629365