(See Hegira)

From Arabic khalifa, meaning head of the Islamic community in the line of the Prophet's successors. This title is used to designate the successor of the Prophet in that person's capacity as temporal and spiritual leader of the Islamic community.

Traditional Islam has developed, to a remarkable degree, rituals associated with death. Rules for burial are elaborate and strict, and the architecture of tombs and mausoleums includes many masterpieces of Islamic art. Funerals follow the pattern laid down by the Prophet.

Rifat Chadirji is one of those rare architects who has imbued his work with a deep understanding of the roots of authentic regional expression, as well as a true appreciation of modernism and its principles. Chadirji has shown a unique capacity for the synthesis of form and function that translates traditional architectural idioms into contemporary expressions. He has worked with materials of the 20th century, producing an architecture this is uniquely and distinctively recognizable both as his own and as Middle Eastern -- if not a universally Islamic one.

Chadirji's contributions transcend a mere body of work, important as that may be, for he also is a major figure in one of the most important and influential architectural schools in the Arab world. The Baghdad School of Architecture, where Chadirji taught for many years, has keenly felt Chadirji's influence. Rejecting the use of the forms of the past that others espoused, Chadirji devised a synthesis of form that could translate into a new and contemporary urban aesthetic -- one that would guide the articulations of a genuinely modern Iraqi town-scape in the latter part of the 20th century.

Not only has Chadirji influenced many younger architects in Iraq, Turkey, Egypt, and elsewhere, but he also has labored long and hard at developing a deep and thoughtful critical sense of what constitutes architectural practice in today's Arab world. His description and understanding of the deep processes that underlie the intellectual enterprise of architectural design were central to his work. The originality of his work emanates from an understanding and discernment seldom encountered among the architects in his region.

Religious practice consisting of walking around a sacred place as a sign of veneration and piety. Islamic circumambulation is practiced around the Ka'ba in Mekka, the Rock of Mount Moriah in Jerusalem, and in many mausoleums and shrine where the sages of Islam are revered.