Mazlum Explained

Mazlum (maẓlūm) is an Arabic term for "oppressed, ill-treated, injured, sinned-against" (the antonym being ẓālim "oppressor"; root ẓlm "to oppress").

In Shiism, the term adopted a meaning of "pietistic" tolerance, given as a byname to Husayn ibn Ali, who was killed in the Battle of Karbala. The term is used for a person who is unwilling to act against an injustice, not out of cowardice but out of generosity or forbearance.^[1]

It came to be used as a male given name in the Perso-Arabic cultural sphere, and later also in Turkish, pronounced as /tr/.

People named Mazlum include:

• Mazlum Çimen, Turkish musician
• Mazlum Demir (born 2003), Turkish racewalker
• Mazlum Doğan, Kurdish activist
• Mazlum Kayalar, Turkish politician
• a character in the medieval Arabic drama Delhemma

See also

• Hasan-e Mazlum, village in Iran

Notes and References

1. Hamid Enayat, Modern Islamic Political Thought, I.B.Tauris, 2005, p. 183. Expectation of the Millennium: Shi'ism in History, eds. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Hamid Dabashi, Seyyed Vali Reza Nasr, SUNY Press, 1989, p. 54.