‖ Sunni
(ˈsʌniː)
Also 7–9 Sunnee (7 Sonnj, 8 Sooni, -ey), 9 Sonnee, (Soonee, Soonnee, Suni).
[a. Arab. sunnī lawful, f. Sunna.]
collect. The orthodox Muslims, who accept the Sunna as of equal authority with the Koran. Also sing. an orthodox Muslim, a Sunnite.
| 1626 [see shiah 1]. 1634 Sir T. Herbert Trav. 159 The Turkes..call..themselues Sonnj, and Mussulmen, which is truly faithfull. 1753 Hanway Trav. (1762) II. iv. ii. 106 The sect of Sunni comprehends the Turks, the Tartars, the subjects of the Moghol, with some other nations of less note. Ibid. v. ii. 134, I am a Sunni, as my ancestors were. 1800 Asiat. Ann. Reg. p. xxiii, Two Sects, the one of whom assumed the Title of Sooney (or Orthodox), and who branded the opposite Party with the opprobrious Epithet of Shiah (or Heterodox). 1836 Partington's Brit. Cycl. Lit., etc. III. 769/2 The Mohammedans [in Sinde] are all Soonees, and most of them of the sect of Haneefee. 1913 19th Cent. May 1157 Both Shiahs and Sunnis have been known to lend at usury. |
b. attrib. or as adj.
| 1827 Buckingham Trav. Mesopot. II. 487 The inhabitants he [sc. a Dervish] described as mostly Mohammedans, and of the Soonnee sect. 1833 A. Crichton Hist. Arabia I. vii. 334 Pillars of the Sonnee faith. 1841 Elphinstone Hist. India xii. iii. II. 651 The Sunni religion. |