ROSARY Arabic subhah سبحة
The rosary amongst Muslims consists of 100 beads, and is used by them for counting the ninety-nine attributes of God, together with the essential name Allah [GOD]; or the repetition of the Tasbih (“O Holy God!”), the Tahmid (“Praised be God!”), and the Takbir (” God is Great!”), or for the recital of any act of devotion. It is called in Persian and in Hindustani the Tasbih تسبيح
The introduction of the rosary into Christendom is ascribed by Pope Pius V., in a Bull, A.D. 1596, to Dominic the founder of the Black Friars (A.D. 1221), and it is related that Paul of Phorma, an Egyptian ascetic of the fourth century, being ordered to recite 300 prayers, collected as many pebbles which he kept in his bosom, and threw out one by one at every prayer, which shows that the rosary was probably not in use at that period.
‘Abdu l-Haqq, the commentator on the Mishkatu l’-Masabih, says that in the early days. of Islam the Muslims counted God’s praises on small pebbles, or on the fingers, from which the Wabhabis maintain that their Prophet did not use a rosary. It seems probable that the Muslims borrowed the rosary from the Buddhists, and that the Crusaders copied their Muslim opponents and introduced it into Christendom.
The rosary amongst Muslims consists of 100 beads, and is used by them for counting the ninety-nine attributes of God, together with the essential name Allah [GOD]; or the repetition of the Tasbih (“O Holy God!”), the Tahmid (“Praised be God!”), and the Takbir (” God is Great!”), or for the recital of any act of devotion. It is called in Persian and in Hindustani the Tasbih تسبيح
The introduction of the rosary into Christendom is ascribed by Pope Pius V., in a Bull, A.D. 1596, to Dominic the founder of the Black Friars (A.D. 1221), and it is related that Paul of Phorma, an Egyptian ascetic of the fourth century, being ordered to recite 300 prayers, collected as many pebbles which he kept in his bosom, and threw out one by one at every prayer, which shows that the rosary was probably not in use at that period.
‘Abdu l-Haqq, the commentator on the Mishkatu l’-Masabih, says that in the early days. of Islam the Muslims counted God’s praises on small pebbles, or on the fingers, from which the Wabhabis maintain that their Prophet did not use a rosary. It seems probable that the Muslims borrowed the rosary from the Buddhists, and that the Crusaders copied their Muslim opponents and introduced it into Christendom.
Based on Hughes, Dictionary of Islam
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