Ulama

Ulama (/ˈuːləˌmɑː/; Arabic: علماء‎ ʿUlamāʾ, singular عالِم ʿĀlim, "scholar", also spelled ulema; female is alimah (singular) and uluma (plural)), is defined as the "those recognized as scholars or authorities" in the "religious hierarchy" of the Islamic religious sciences. The guardians of legal and religious tradition in Islam. Often they are "Imams of important mosques, judges, teachers in the religious faculties of universities", or the body of Muslim Islamic scholars have been trained in the whole body of Islamic law and in other Islamic disciplines, but may also be used to include the village mullahs and imams on the lowest rungs of the ladder of Islamic scholarship.In as much they correspond most closely to the class of the Scribes or Rabbis in Judaism.

Most ulama specialize in fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) (these are known as fuqaha or muftis), and are considered the arbiters of sharia law by mainstream Muslims (though the closeness of some ulama to rulers may prevent them from being universally accepted). Ulama may also include specialists in other areas such as muhaddith (concerned with the study of hadith) and mufassir (concerned with tafsir of the Quran).

Ulama (disambiguation)

Ulama could refer to:

In Islam

Other

Ulama (game)

Ulama ([uˈlama]) is a ball game played in a few communities in the Mexican state of Sinaloa. Descended from the Aztec version of the Mesoamerican ballgame, the game is one of the oldest continuously played sports in the world and is notable for the fact that it is the oldest known game using a rubber ball.

History

The word ulama comes from the Nahuatl word ōllamaliztli [oːlːamaˈlistɬi] a combination of ōllamas [ˈoːlːama] (playing of a game with a ball) and ōllei [ˈoːlːi] (rubber). Ōllamaliztli was the Aztec name for the Mesoamerican ballgame, whose roots extended back to at least the 2nd millennium BC and evidence of which has been found in nearly all Mesoamerican cultures in an area extending from modern-day Mexico to El Salvador, and possibly in modern-day Arizona and New Mexico. Archaeologists have uncovered rubber balls dating to at least 1600 BC, ballgamer figures from at least 1200 BC, and nearly 1500 ancient ball courts.

However, due to its religious and ritual aspects, Spanish Catholics suppressed the game soon after the Spanish conquest, leaving it to survive in areas such as Sinaloa, where Spanish influence was less pervasive.