ABSTRACT
Art and Architecture, Islamic Scholars have debated at length over those features which make a piece of art or architecture specifically Islamic. Its relation to, or infusion by, Islam as a religion must be one, albeit simplistic, answer. Further informa tion about diverse aspects of Islamic Art and Architecture will be gleaned from the following entries among many others in this Dictionary: 'Abd al-Malik b. Marwān; Ablaq; al-Aqsā, alMasjid; Arabesque; Delhi; Dikka; Hammām; Hilāl; Isfahān; Īwān; al-Kūfa; Masjid; al-Masjid al-Harām; Mīga'a; Mihrāb; Minbar; Muqarnas; Qubba; Qubbat al-Sakhra; Qutb Mīnār; Sabīl; Sahn; Sāmarrā; Sawma'a; Shīrāz; Sinān Pasha; Taj Mahal. For further material the interested reader is directed to Ettinghausen & Grabar, The Art and Architecture of Islam: 650-1250. (See back of this Dictionary for full biblio graphical details.)
'Asabiyya (Ar.) Group solidarity, kinship ethos. The term was popularized by the great late-mediaeval Arab historian Ibn Khaldūn (q.v.). 40
Asad
Asad Clan of the tribe of Quraysh (q.v.), to which Khadīga bint Khuwaylid (q.v.) (Muhammad's first wife), and Waraqa b. Nawfal (q.v.) (Khadīja's cousin), belonged.
