MĀL ẒĀMINĪ (مال ضامنى). Bail for property. A legal term. (Hidāyah, vol. ii. p. 568). Bail for the person is ḥāẓir ẓāminī.
MAMĀT (ممات). “Death”; e.g. [Sūrah vi. 163]: “My prayers, my sacrifice, my life, and my death, belong to God.” [[MAUT].]
MAMLŪK (مملوك), pl. mamālīk. “A slave.” A term used in Muslim law for a bond-slave, the word ʿabd signifying both “a slave” and “a servant of God.” It occurs only once in the Qurʾān, [Sūrah xvi. 77]: “God propounds a comparison between a slave (mamlūk) and the property of his master.”
This word has become historic in the Mamlukes, or that military body of slaves who for a long time ruled Egypt. These military slaves were first organized by Mālik aṣ-Ṣālih, who purchased many thousands of slaves in the markets of Asia, and brought them to Egypt in the 13th century. They were by him embodied into a corps of 12,000 men, but in A.D. 1254, they revolted, and killed Turan Shah, the last prince of the Aiyūb dynasty. They then raised to the throne of Egypt al-Muʿizz, who was himself a Turkoman slave. The Mamlukes continued the ruling power in Egypt till A.D. 1517, when Salīm I. defeated them and put to death Tumaun Bey, the last of the Mamluke dynasty. They were, however, maintained in Egypt as a military aristocracy, and were a powerful body at the time of the French invasion. Muḥammad ʿAlī Pasha of Egypt destroyed their power and influence by murdering many of them in A.D. 1811.
MAʿMŪDĪYAH (معمودية). A word used by the commentator al-Baiẓāwī for Christian Baptism. In remarking on [Sūrah ii. 132], “the baptism of God” (Ṣibg͟hatu ʾllāh), he says, “The Nazarenes used to dip their children in yellow water, and they called it Maʿmūdīyah; and they said, whoever was dipped in Maʿmūdīyah was purified, and that it was a sign of his becoming a Nazarene.” (See Tafsīru ʾl-Baiẓāwī, in loco.)
MANĀRAH (منارة). Anglice minaret. From manār, “a place were a fire is lit, lighthouse, pillar.” The lofty turret of a mosque, from which the Muʾaẕẕin, or “caller to prayer,” invites the people to prayer. In the early days of Islām there were no minarets to the mosques, those at Qūbāʾ and al-Madīnah being erected by ʿUmar ibn ʿAbdi ʾl-ʿAzīz, A.H. 86. [[MOSQUE].]
MANĀSIK (مناسك). From mansik, “a place of sacrifice.” The sacred rites and ceremonies attending the pilgrimage. [[HAJJ].]
MANĀT (منات). An idol mentioned in the Qurʾān, [Sūrah liii. 19, 20]: “What think ye, then, of al-Lāt and al-ʿUzzā, and Manāt, the third idol besides.”
According to Ḥusain, it was an idol of the tribes of Huẕail and K͟hazāʿah. For a discussion of the subject, see the article on [LAT].
AL-MĀNIʿ (المانع). “The Withholder.” One of the ninety-nine names or attributes of God. It does not occur in the Qurʾān, but is given in the Ḥadīs̤.