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Palestine and the United Nations | By September 2012, with their application for full membership stalled due to the inability of Security Council members to 'make a unanimous recommendation', the Palestine Authority had decided to pursue an upgrade in status from "observer entity" to "non-member observer state". On November 27 it was announced that the appeal had been officially made, and would be put to a vote in the General Assembly on 29 November, where their status upgrade was expected to be supported by a majority of states. In addition to granting Palestine "non-member observer state status", the draft resolution "expresses the hope that the Security Council will consider favorably the application submitted on 23 September 2011 by the State of Palestine for admission to full membership in the United Nations, endorses the two-state solution based on the pre-1967 borders, and stresses the need for an immediate resumption of negotiations between the two parties."
On Thursday, 29 November 2012, In a 138–9 vote (with 41 abstaining) General Assembly resolution 67/19 adopted, upgrading Palestine to "non-member observer state" status in the United Nations. The new status equates Palestine's with that of the Holy See. The change in status was described by The Independent as "de facto recognition of the sovereign state of Palestine".
The vote was an important move for the State of Palestine, whilst it was a diplomatic setback for Israel and the United States. Status as an observer state in the UN will allow the State of Palestine to join treaties and specialized UN agencies, such as the International Civil Aviation Organisation, the Law of the Seas Treaty and the International Criminal Court. It shall permit Palestine to claim legal rights over its territorial waters and air space as a sovereign state recognized by the UN. It shall also provide Palestine with the right to sue for control of disputed territory in the International Court of Justice and bring war-crimes charges, mainly those relating to Israel's occupation of the State of Palestine, against Israel in the International Criminal Court.
The UN has permitted Palestine to title its representative office to the UN as 'The Permanent Observer Mission of the State of Palestine to the United Nations', and Palestine has started to re-title its name accordingly on postal stamps, official documents and passports, whilst it has instructed its diplomats to officially represent 'The State of Palestine', as opposed to the 'Palestine National Authority'. Additionally, on 17 December 2012, UN Chief of Protocol Yeocheol Yoon decided that "the designation of 'State of Palestine' shall be used by the Secretariat in all official United Nations documents", thus recognising the PLO-proclaimed State of Palestine as being sovereign over the territories of Palestine and its citizens under international law. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestine_and_the_United_Nations |
Neolithic | Settled life, encompassing the transition from foraging to farming and pastoralism, began in South Asia in the region of Balochistan, Pakistan, around 7,000 BC. At the site of Mehrgarh, Balochistan, presence can be documented of the domestication of wheat and barley, rapidly followed by that of goats, sheep, and cattle. In April 2006, it was announced in the scientific journal Nature that the oldest (and first Early Neolithic) evidence for the drilling of teeth in vivo (using bow drills and flint tips) was found in Mehrgarh.
In South India, the Neolithic began by 6500 BC and lasted until around 1400 BC when the Megalithic transition period began. South Indian Neolithic is characterized by Ash mounds from 2500 BC in Karnataka region, expanded later to Tamil Nadu.
In East Asia, the earliest sites include the Nanzhuangtou culture around 9500–9000 BC, Pengtoushan culture around 7500–6100 BC, and Peiligang culture around 7000–5000 BC. The prehistoric Beifudi site near Yixian in Hebei Province, China, contains relics of a culture contemporaneous with the Cishan and Xinglongwa cultures of about 6000–5000 BC, Neolithic cultures east of the Taihang Mountains, filling in an archaeological gap between the two Northern Chinese cultures. The total excavated area is more than 1,200 square yards (1,000 m2; 0.10 ha), and the collection of Neolithic findings at the site encompasses two phases. Between 3000 and 1900 BC, the Longshan culture existed in the middle and lower Yellow River valley areas of northern China. Towards the end of the 3rd millennium BC, the population decreased sharply in most of the region and many of the larger centres were abandoned, possibly due to environmental change linked to the end of the Holocene Climatic Optimum.
The 'Neolithic' (defined in this paragraph as using polished stone implements) remains a living tradition in small and extremely remote and inaccessible pockets of West Papua. Polished stone adze and axes are used in the present day (as of 2008) in areas where the availability of metal implements is limited. This is likely to cease altogether in the next few years as the older generation die off and steel blades and chainsaws prevail.
In 2012, news was released about a new farming site discovered in Munam-ri, Goseong, Gangwon Province, South Korea, which may be the earliest farmland known to date in east Asia. "No remains of an agricultural field from the Neolithic period have been found in any East Asian country before, the institute said, adding that the discovery reveals that the history of agricultural cultivation at least began during the period on the Korean Peninsula". The farm was dated between 3600 and 3000 BC. Pottery, stone projectile points, and possible houses were also found. "In 2002, researchers discovered prehistoric earthenware, jade earrings, among other items in the area". The research team will perform accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dating to retrieve a more precise date for the site. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neolithic |
Democratic Constitutional Rally | In 1920, Tunisian nationalists formed the Destour (Constitutional) Party in opposition to French rule. As the party developed, a schism occurred within the party, leading to the founding of the Neo Destour Party in 1934 by Habib Bourguiba and several younger members of the old Destour. Under his leadership, the Neo Destour Party successfully garnered independence from France in 1956. As it was, for all intents and purposes, the only well-organized party in the country, it swept the Constituent Assembly elections held later that year. A year later, Tunisia was declared a republic with Bourguiba as first president.
In 1963, the Neo Destour was formally declared the only legally permitted party in Tunisia, though for all intents and purposes, party and state had been one since independence. In 1964, the Neo Destour Party became the Destourian Socialist Party (PSD).
Opposition parties were legalized once again in 1981. From then on, the PSD faced opposition from Hizb ut-Tahrir, the Islamic Tendency Movement, the Tunisian Communist Party, the Movement for Popular Unity and student groups. Although its influence was slightly weakened, the RCD still effectively ruled Tunisia as a one-party state; it continued to sweep all elections to the legislature until 1994.
On 7 November 1987, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, who had been named Prime Minister only a month earlier, became president after Bourguiba was declared medically unfit for office. The following year, President Ben Ali instituted economic reforms increasing economic privatization and renamed the party the Democratic Constitutional Rally (RCD). Ben Ali did not face an opponent for reelection until 1999, but even then was reelected by implausibly high margins. While opposition parties finally managed to enter the legislature for the first time in 1994, they never won more than 24 percent of the seats, and there was little meaningful opposition to presidential decisions. For all intents and purposes, the RCD continued to hold complete political control over the country.
In the 2009 general election, the last held before the revolution, the RCD won 161 of 214 seats with the remaining 53 seats going to minority parties. Ben Ali was elected to a fifth full term with 89.6 percent of the vote. These elections, like virtually all others in the country since independence, were widely seen as fraudulent. The outcry over the elections proved to be a major cause of the revolution which forced Ben Ali to resign and flee into exile.
In response to the RCD's attempt to suppress the protests, the Socialist International expelled the RCD on 17 January 2011—three days after Ben Ali fled the country. In order to placate protesters and designated coalition participants, the incumbent president and prime minister resigned from their memberships in the RCD on 18 January and all remaining RCD-aligned ministers resigned their party memberships on 20 January, the effect of which left the RCD with only a parliamentary majority. On 27 January, Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi carried out a major reshuffle, removing all former RCD members other than himself from the government.
The interior ministry suspended the party's operations on 6 February, a little less than a month after Ben Ali fled into exile. On 9 March, the party was dissolved by the Tunisian courts. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Constitutional_Rally |
Mary, mother of Jesus | In Christianity, Mary is commonly referred to as the Virgin Mary, in accordance with the belief that the Holy Spirit impregnated her, thereby conceiving her first-born son Jesus miraculously, without sexual relations with her betrothed Joseph, "until her son [Jesus] was born". The word "until" has inspired considerable analysis on whether Joseph and Mary produced siblings after the birth of Jesus or not.
Among her many other names and titles are the Blessed Virgin Mary (often abbreviated to "BVM" after the Latin Beata Maria Virgo), Saint Mary (occasionally), the Mother of God (primarily in Western Christianity), the Theotokos (primarily in Eastern Christianity), Our Lady (Medieval Italian: Madonna), and Queen of Heaven (Regina caeli; see also here). The title "queen of heaven" had previously been used as an epithet for a number of goddesses, such as Isis, or Ishtar.
Titles in use vary among Anglicans, Lutherans and other Protestants, as well as Mormons, Catholics, Orthodox and other Christians.
The three main titles for Mary used by the Orthodox are Theotokos (Θεοτόκος or "God-bearer"), Aeiparthenos (ἀειπαρθένος) which means ever-virgin, as confirmed in the Second Council of Constantinople in 553, and Panagia (Παναγία) meaning "all-holy". Catholics use a wide variety of titles for Mary, and these titles have in turn given rise to many artistic depictions.
The title Theotokos, which means "God-bearer", was recognized at the Council of Ephesus in 431. The direct equivalents of title in Latin are Deipara and Dei Genitrix, although the phrase is more often loosely translated into Latin as Mater Dei ("Mother of God"), with similar patterns for other languages used in the Latin Church. However, this same phrase in Greek (Μήτηρ Θεοῦ), in the abbreviated form ΜΡ ΘΥ, is an indication commonly attached to her image in Byzantine icons. The Council stated that the Church Fathers "did not hesitate to speak of the holy Virgin as the Mother of God".
Some Marian titles have a direct scriptural basis. For instance, the title "Queen Mother" has been given to Mary, as she was the mother of Jesus, sometimes referred to as the "King of Kings" due to his ancestral descent from King David. This is also based on the Hebrew tradition of the "Queen-Mother", the Gebirah or "Great Lady". Other titles have arisen from reported miracles, special appeals, or occasions for calling on Mary. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary,_mother_of_Jesus |
George Hawi | George Hawi was born in the village of Bteghrine, Lebanon on 5 November 1938 to a Lebanese family. Although born into an Antiochian Greek Orthodox Christian family, Hawi professed to be an atheist.
He became active in student politics in his early years at university, participating in numerous strikes and demonstrations and in several popular movements. He joined the LCP in 1955 and became one of the main leaders of its Student League by the end of the decade. In 1955 he became a member of the LCP which had been illegal in Lebanon.
In 1964, he was imprisoned for his involvement in a strike against Lebanon's state-controlled tobacco manufacturer. In 1969 he was again in prison for participation in a demonstration on 23 April in support of the Palestinian cause, and again in 1970 for his part in attacking an army detachment.
Hawi was briefly expelled from the LCP in 1967 for calling for more independence from the policies of the Soviet Union. He rejoined the Party and was elected a member of its political bureau in the second and third congresses in 1968 and 1972. Hawi was elected as the general secretary of the Lebanese Communist Party after its fourth congress in 1979 – a position he kept until 1993 when he resigned. He was the fourth general secretary of the party following Fuad Shemali, Farajallah el-Helou and Nicolas Shawi. He was succeeded by Farouk Dahrouj.
During the Lebanese Civil War Hawi, who used the kunya-style nom de guerre "Abu Anis", established the Popular Guard, the LCP militia, which was aligned with the Lebanese National Movement (LNM) of Druze leader Kamal Jumblatt in its opposition to the Maronite-dominated government and Christian-backed militias.
The LCP was also active in the guerrilla warfare against Israel and its proxy militia, the South Lebanon Army (SLA), in southern Lebanon, after the Israeli invasion in 1982. During the invasion he created the Lebanese National Resistance Front together with Muhsin Ibrahim. LNRF was commanded by Elias Atallah. At later stages of the war, the LCP under Hawi allied with Syria, which had entered Lebanon in 1976, but was to stay in the country for nearly 30 years.
He became a critic of the influence of Damascus on Lebanon late in his life, after having left the LCP in 2000. In 2004, he supported the foundation of the leftist Democratic Left Movement (DLM), that was against the Syrian presence in Lebanon and participated in the Independence Uprising of 2005. Murdered journalist Samir Kassir was a prominent member and co-founder of this group.
In June 2005, Hawi claimed in an interview with Al Jazeera, that Rifaat al-Assad, brother of Hafez al Assad and uncle of Syria's current President Bashar al-Assad, had been behind the killing of Jumblatt. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Hawi |
Coconut | The two most common harvesting methods are the climbing method and the pole method. Climbing is the most widespread, but it is also more dangerous and requires skilled workers. Manually climbing trees is traditional in most countries and requires a specific posture that exerts pressure on the trunk with the feet. Climbers employed on coconut plantations often develop musculoskeletal disorders and risk severe injury or death from falling.
To avoid this, coconuts workers in the Philippines and Guam traditionally use bolos tied with a rope to the waist to cut grooves at regular intervals on the coconut trunks. This basically turns the trunk of the tree into a ladder, though it reduces the value of coconut timber recovered from the trees and can be an entry point for infection. Other manual methods to make climbing easier include using a system of pulleys and ropes; using pieces of vine, rope, or cloth tied to both hands or feet; using spikes attached to the feet or legs; or attaching coconut husks to the trunk with ropes. Modern methods use hydraulic elevators mounted on tractors or ladders. Mechanical coconut climbing devices and even automated robots have also been recently developed in countries like India, Sri Lanka, and Malaysia.
The pole method uses a long pole with a cutting device at the end. In the Philippines, the traditional tool is known as the halabas and is made from a long bamboo pole with a sickle-like blade mounted at the tip. Though safer and faster than the climbing method, its main disadvantage is that it does not allow workers to examine and clean the crown of coconuts for pests and diseases.
Determining whether to harvest is also important. Gatchalian et al 1994 developed a sonometry technique for precisely determining the stage of ripeness of young coconuts.
A system of bamboo bridges and ladders directly connecting the tree canopies are also utilized in the Philippines for coconut plantations that harvest coconut sap (not fruits) for coconut vinegar and palm wine production. In other areas, like in Papua New Guinea, coconuts are simply collected when they fall to the ground.
A more controversial method employed by a small number of coconut farmers in Thailand and Malaysia use trained pig-tailed macaques to harvest coconuts. Thailand has been raising and training pig-tailed macaques to pick coconuts for around 400 years. Training schools for pig-tailed macaques still exist both in southern Thailand and in the Malaysian state of Kelantan.
The practice of using macaques to harvest coconuts was exposed in Thailand by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) in 2019, resulting in calls for boycotts on coconut products. PETA later clarified that the use of macaques is not practiced in the Philippines, India, Brazil, Colombia, Hawaii, and other major coconut-producing regions. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coconut |
History of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt | Following the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 that overthrew Hosni Mubarak, the Brotherhood was legalized and emerged as "the most powerful group" and the "most cohesive political movement" in Egypt with "an unparalleled ability to mobilize its followers". Its newly formed political party—the Freedom and Justice Party—won almost half the seats in the 2011–12 parliamentary election (far more than any other party), and its presidential candidate Mohammed Morsi won the 2012 presidential election. However within a year there were mass protests against his rule and he was overthrown by the military.
In the January–February 2011 uprising itself, the Brotherhood remained "on the sidelines", despite having much to gain from a freer political environment, and the breaking off of some activist splinter groups from the Brotherhood. (Sources in the Brotherhood maintain state security forces threatened to arrest supreme guide Mohammed Badie if any Brethren participated.)
On 30 April 2011, it launched a new party called the Freedom and Justice Party. The party rejected "the candidacy of women or Copts for Egypt's presidency", although it did not oppose their taking cabinet positions. The party won 235 (including 22 allies) out of 498 seats in the 2011–12 Egyptian parliamentary election, almost double the next biggest vote-getting party.
In the first couple of years after the revolution, there was both cooperation and tension between the Brotherhood and (secular oriented) military. The Brotherhood supported the constitutional referendum in March which was also supported by the Egyptian army and opposed by Egyptian liberals, causing some Egyptians to speculate about deal between the military and the MB. The Brotherhood has denied reports of secret meetings with the ruling SCAF as "pure lies and imagination." There was further criticism of the military after Brotherhood silence in the midst of violent clashes between revolutionaries and the military in late 2011. The refusal of the Muslim Brotherhood to join protests against military rule is said to have stopped the "second revolution". With regard to the continuance of thousands of secretive military trials, Human Rights Watch criticised the Brotherhood and other Islamists for only noticing what happened to their fellow Islamists, "and not to the thousands of civilians standing military trial or sent to military jails". Egyptian author Ezzedine C. Fishere wrote:
The Brotherhood, led by the old and the hardliners, has managed to alienate its revolutionary and democratic partners and to scare important segments of society, especially women and Christians. Neither the Brotherhood nor the generals showed willingness to share power and both were keen on marginalising the revolutionary and democratic forces. It is as if they were clearing the stage for their eventual showdown.
In mid-June 2012, the SCAF dissolved the parliament dominated by the Brotherhood and other Islamists.
Despite earlier remarks by Supreme Guide Mohammed Badie that the Brotherhood would not "field a candidate for presidency" as victory and the position of a member of the Brotherhood "at the helm of power" might give a foreign power (Israel or the US) a pretext to attack Egypt, a former high level Brotherhood official ran for president in 2012 presidential election. Mohammed Morsi defeated Ahmed Shafiq, a former military officer and prime minister of Mubarak, in the run off. Not waiting for the official result, the Brotherhood declared their candidate the victor and filled Tahrir Square with demonstrators both in opposition to broad powers issued by the military that preclude the latter's subordination to a civilian government, and in fear that SCAF would announce Shafiq the winner of the election and new president. Tensions abated when Morsi was officially declared the election winner on 24 June.
During the one year Morsi served as president serious public opposition developed within months. In late November 2012 Morsi 'temporarily' granted himself unlimited powers on the ground that he would "protect" the nation from the power structure left over from the Mubarak-era and the power to legislate without judicial oversight or review of his acts. He also put a draft constitution to a referendum that opponents complained was "an Islamist coup." These issues brought hundreds of thousands of protesters to the streets in the 2012 Egyptian protests.
Other complaints included the prosecutions of journalists, the unleashing of pro-Brotherhood gangs on nonviolent demonstrators; the continuation of military trials; and new laws that permitted detention without judicial review for up to 30 days, According to the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), an independent organization, under Morsi "the Muslim Brotherhood is laying the foundations for a new police state by exceeding the Mubarak regime's mechanisms to suppress civil society." Persecution of minorities by Islamic radicals was ignored by Morsi. Two cases being the April 2013 firing on a funeral of Coptic Christians who had themselves been killed in sectarian attacks in the days before, and the June 2013 lynching in public view of four Shiites by (Sunni) Islamists
By April 2013, according to the Associated Press,
Egypt has become increasingly divided between two camps, with President Mohammed Morsi and Islamist allies on one side and an opposition made up of moderate Muslims, Christians and liberals on the other, a schism essentially over the country's political future after decades of dictatorship. Opponents accuse Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood of seeking to monopolize power, while Morsi's allies say the opposition is trying to destabilize the country to derail the elected leadership.
Adding to the unrest were severe fuel shortages and electricity outages—which evidence suggests were orchestrated by Mubarak-era Egyptian elites.
In late April, the Tamarod (rebellion) movement was founded to campaign to collect signatures calling for Morsi to step down. On 29 June, it announced it had collected more than 22 million signatures. A day later somewhere between 17 and 33 million Egyptian protesters demonstrated across Egypt urging Morsi to step down A lesser number demonstrated in support of him. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Muslim_Brotherhood_in_Egypt |
History of the Comoros (1978–1989) | Abdallah complemented his political maneuvers by employing a GP officered by many of the same mercenaries who had helped him take power in 1978. Denard led this force, and also became heavily involved in Comoran business activities, sometimes acting in partnership with President Abdallah or as a front for South African business interests, which played a growing role in the Comoran economy during the Abdallah regime.
Although Denard had made a ceremonial departure from the Comoros following the 1978 coup, by the early 1980s he was again openly active in the islands. The GP, whose numbers were reported to range from 300 to 700 members, primarily indigenous Comorans, were led by about thirty French and Belgian mercenaries, mostly comrades of Denard's in the post-World War II conflicts that accompanied the decolonization of Africa and Asia. Answerable only to the president, the GP operated outside the chain of command of the French-trained 1,000-member Comoran Armed Forces, a situation that caused resentment among the regular military, Comoran citizens, and other African states.
The GP's primary missions were to protect the president and to deter attempts to overthrow his government. During the July 1983 elections to the three islands' legislative councils, the GP beat and arrested demonstrators protesting the republic's one-party system. During elections to the National Assembly in March 1987, the GP—which had become known as les affreux, "the frighteners"—replaced several hundred dissident poll watchers who had been arrested by the army. On March 8, 1985, one of the most serious attempts to overthrow the Abdallah government began as a mutiny by about thirty Comoran troops of the GP against their European officers. The disaffected guards had formed ties to the Democratic Front (Front Démocratique, FD), one of the more nationalistic of the republic's many banned political parties. The mutiny was quickly squelched; three of the rebellious guards were killed, and the rest were taken prisoners.
President Abdallah used the uprising as an opportunity to round up dissidents, primarily FD members, whose leadership denied involvement in the coup attempt. Later in 1985, seventy-seven received convictions; seventeen, including the FD's secretary general, Mustapha Said Cheikh, were sentenced to life imprisonment at hard labor. Most of the prisoners were released in 1986 following Amnesty International charges of illegal arrests, torture, and other abuses. France had also exerted pressure by temporarily withholding new aid projects and purchases of Comoran vanilla.
Perhaps the most notorious action of the GP on behalf of the Abdallah government occurred in November 1987. After an apparent attempt by dissidents to free some political prisoners, an event quickly labeled a coup attempt by the Abdallah regime, the GP arrested fourteen alleged plotters and tortured seven of them to death. Officials of the Comoran government apparently were not allowed to participate in the prisoners' interrogation. President Abdallah was on a state visit to Egypt at the time.
With Abdallah's acquiescence and occasional participation, Denard and the other GP officers used their connections to the head of state to make themselves important players in the Comoran economy. Denard was a part owner of Établissements Abdallah et Fils, the Comoros' largest import-export firm, whose primary owner was President Abdallah. Denard also owned and operated a highly profitable commercial shuttle between South Africa and the Comoros, and owned Sogecom, a private security firm with contracts to protect South African hotels being built in the islands.
The GP officers, sympathetic to South Africa's apartheid government, established themselves as a conduit of South African investment and influence in the Comoros. An official South African trade representative conceded that a number of his country's investment projects, including a 525-hectare experimental farm, housing, road construction, and a medical evacuation program, were brokered and managed by guard officers at the mercenaries' insistence.
The GP also arranged for South African commercial aircraft to fly in the Middle East and parts of Africa under the aegis of the Comoran national airline, in contravention of international sanctions against South Africa. Furthermore, the GP provided for South African use of Comoran territory as a base for intelligence gathering in the Mozambique Channel and as a staging area for the shipment of arms to rightist rebels in Mozambique. The GP was widely understood to be funded by South Africa, at the rate of about US$3 million per year. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Comoros_(1978%E2%80%931989) |
History of Syria | The ruins of Ebla, near Idlib in northern Syria, were discovered and excavated in 1975. Ebla appears to have been an East Semitic speaking city-state founded around 3000 BCE. At its zenith, from about 2500 to 2400 BCE, it may have controlled an empire reaching north to Anatolia, east to Mesopotamia and south to Damascus. Ebla traded with the Mesopotamian states of Sumer, Akkad and Assyria, as well as with peoples to the northwest. Gifts from Pharaohs, found during excavations, confirm Ebla's contact with Egypt. Scholars believe the language of Ebla was closely related to the fellow East Semitic Akkadian language of Mesopotamia and to be among the oldest known written languages.
From the third millennium BCE, Syria was occupied and fought over successively by Sumerians, Eblaites, Akkadians, Assyrians, Egyptians, Hittites, Hurrians, Mitanni, Amorites and Babylonians.
Ebla was probably conquered into the Mesopotamian Akkadian Empire (2335–2154 BCE) by Sargon of Akkad around 2330 BCE. The city re-emerged, as the part of the nation of the Northwest Semitic speaking Amorites, a few centuries later, and flourished through the early second millennium BCE until conquered by the Indo-European Hittites. The Sumerians, Akkadians and Assyrians of Mesopotamia referred to the region as Mar.Tu or The land of the Amurru (Amorites) from as early as the 24th century BCE.
Parts of Syria were controlled by the Neo-Sumerian Empire, Old Assyrian Empire and Babylonian Empire between the 22nd and 18th centuries BCE.
The region was fought over by the rival empires of the Hittites, Egyptians, Assyrians and Mitanni between the 15th and 13th centuries BCE, with the Middle Assyrian Empire (1365–1050 BCE) eventually left controlling Syria.
When the Middle Assyrian Empire began to deteriorate in the late 11th century BCE, Canaanites and Phoenicians came to the fore and occupied the coast, and Arameans and Suteans supplanted the Amorites in the interior, as part of the general disruptions and exchanges associated with the Bronze Age Collapse and the Sea Peoples. During this period the bulk of Syria became known as Eber Nari and Aramea.
From the 10th century BCE the Neo-Assyrian Empire (935–605 BCE) arose, and Syria was ruled by Assyria for the next three centuries, until the late 7th century BCE, and was still known as Eber-Nari and Aram throughout the period. It is from this period that the name Syria first emerges, but not in relation to modern Syria, but as an Indo-European corruption of Assyria, which in fact encompassed the modern regions of northern Iraq, north east Syria, south east Turkey and the northwestern fringe of Iran. (see Etymology of Syria)
After this empire finally collapsed, Mesopotamian dominance continued for a time with the short lived Neo-Babylonian Empire (612–539 BCE), which ruled the region for almost 75 years. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Syria |
Love | Philosophically, there four types of love that are distinguished: love as a union; love as robust concern; love as valuing; and love as an emotion. Love as a union suggests that love involves the formation of a union between the two individuals, creating a "we". Roger Scruton and Mark Fisher emphasize the union of concerns, where the distinction between the lover's different interests disappears and a new shared care and concern emerges. Robert C. Solomon views love as a literal fusion between the two individuals, resulting in a shared identity and mutual definition. Robert Nozick argues that love creates a new "we" through the pooling of well-being and autonomy, as well as the adoption of a joint identity. Critics argue that love as a union undermines individual autonomy and the lovers become unintelligible. However, Nozick and Fisher claim that this loss is a desirable aspect of love. Michael Friedman proposes a federation model, where love creates a new unified entity without erasing individual identities, thus allowing for the concern for the beloved's sake.
Love as a robust concern posits that love is primarily defined by caring about the beloved's sake, without creating a "we" or any type of union between the lovers. This perspective emphasizes the willing aspect of love, where one's desire and motivations are shaped by concern for the beloved's well-being. Critics of this view argue that the definition is too passive, in the sense that the conception of the beloved overlooks the interactive nature of love, as well as the emotional responsiveness to the beloved. However, defenders argue that promoting the beloved's well-being requires respecting their autonomy and emotional responses. Furthermore, critics claim that the robust concern focus solely on desires and concerns for the beloved's welfare, making it too strict of a definition. Defenders counter that the desire for the beloved's well being is an essential aspect to love. Monique Wonderly suggests that the concept of attachment can complement the robust concern view, capturing the idea that the beloved is not only important for their own sake but also to the lover.
Love as valuing has two main approaches: love as appraisal of value and love as bestowal of value. J. David Velleman proposes that the former involves acknowledging and responding uniquely to the value of the beloved. Kantian distinctions are drawn between dignity and price, dignity being that the value of something is not comparable, and price being that it is comparable; thus people possess dignity due to their rational nature. Love, on this view, responds to the dignity of persons, but it differs from respect in that it disarms emotional defenses, making one vulnerable to the beloved. However, critics argue that Velleman's account struggles to explain the selectivity and constancy of love, as well as the role of emotions in appraisal. Peter Singer claims that love as a bestowal of value involves bestowing intrisic value upon the beloved. Unlike appraisal, which responds to pre-existing value, bestowal creates value in the beloved. Singer argues that love is non-teleological and cannot be justified, but rather involves attachment and commitment to the beloved. However, critics question how bestowal accounts for the selectivity of love and its discerning nature.
Finally, love as an emotion is divided in two perspectives: love as emotion proper and love as emotion complex. The former sees love as a particular motivational response to an object, similar to other emotions. However, critics argue that defining love solely as an emotion oversimplifies its nature. James Robert Brown suggests that love evaluates the beloved as worthwhile, but this perspective fails to capture the complexity of love compared to other evaluative responses like admiration or respect, according to critics. Love as emotion complex understands love as a complex emotional attitude towards another person, involving historical patterns concerning of one's emotional responsiveness to the beloved. It emphasizes the dynamic nature of love, where the lover's identity is continually transformed by loving the beloved. Emotional responses are interconnected and tied to the historical narrative of the relationship. Annette Baier and Neera K. Badhwar emphasize emotional interdependence, while Paul Helm suggests that love involves intimate identification, where sharing the values of the beloved is central. Critics argue that these views do not answer how to distinguish loving relationship from other relationships and what constitues the characteristic narrative history of love. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love |
17 October Revolution | On the night of 6 August 2020, protests against the government resumed, following the explosion in Beirut two days prior that killed 218 people and wounded more than 7,000. The protesters gathered near the parliament building calling for the resignation of Lebanese government officials. The health ministry disclosed that despite search and rescue experts taking over the search for remaining survivors, at least 21 people were still missing. The protests turned violent, with officers using tear gas, and several people were wounded. 17 ambulances were dispatched by the Lebanese Red Cross to the protest site in order to assist those who were wounded. That same day, Emmanuel Macron arrived in Beirut. He was the first foreign head of state to do so since the blast. He promised France would donate to relief efforts and urged Lebanon's leaders to implement reforms.
More than 60,000 signed a petition to reintegrate Lebanon as a French colony for 10 years, but Macron rejected the idea and told the Lebanese people that it was up to them to fix their country.
On 8 August 2020, thousands of protesters stormed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Bustros Palace) during demonstrations. Security forces opened fire and clashed with the protesters, wounding more than 238 people, sixty-three of whom were taken to hospital; Saudi news channel Al-Hadath confirmed that a policeman was killed in an accident. Protesters also broke into the Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Energy, and Association of Banks. They also broke into the offices of the ministries of housing and transport, the US News added. A Human Rights Watch investigation documented security forces employing metal pellets in multiple instances against protesters in the August 8 demonstration. All security forces have rejected the claims. In response to the protests and calls for the termination of his government, Prime Minister Diab promised to hold early elections, maintaining that his government would stay for two months until major parties can make a decision.
On 9 August, as the protests entered their second day, the fire reportedly broke out at the entrance of the parliament square, when angry protesters attempted breaking into the building. The broadcast was shown live on Lebanese TV, with security forces using tear gas to disperse hundreds of anti-government protesters gathered outside the building. By Sunday, three ministers stepped down following the explosion. The Lebanese Information Minister Manal Abdel Samad described Diab's government as a failure in terms of meeting the demands of the people of Lebanon. Also, Environment Minister Damianos Kattar lamented that the regime is incompetent and has missed chances for ensuring reforms.
On 11 August, findings by Amnesty International suggested that Lebanese security forces had applied unlawful use of force against protesters, during protests after the explosion in Beirut. Medical documents also showed evidence that protesters were targeted with live rounds and rubber bullets. Medics were also reportedly attacked on the scene, as they were attending to the wounded during the clash.
On 26 August, Human Rights Watch revealed that excessive use of force and live ammunition was applied against anti-government protesters by Lebanese security forces during demonstrations that took place after the Beirut explosion. They also added that some protesters were aimed at directly with tear gas, hitting some in the neck and head. Following these findings, HRW called for an independent investigation into the misconduct carried out by the Lebanese security forces. Lebanese security forces fired metal pellets at least two Lebanese protesters in early September, adding to a growing suspicion that police are employing previously unused tactics that impose serious and possibly deadly injuries.
As Lebanon turned 100 years old on September 1, 2020, riled protesters gathered to demand justice for those impacted by the port blast. They flung rocks and attempted to mount over the walls around Lebanon's heavily guarded Parliament in Beirut as law enforcement agents successfully shot tear gas and rubber bullets in order to scatter the crowd. The protest was the first significant rally since August 8, which left thousands of anti-government protesters injured as they were met with tear gas, rubber bullets, and live ammunition from security forces. During the protests, at least two protesters were said to have been injured as a result of metal pellets used by the Lebanese security forces, according to Al Jazeera.
On 3 September, 30 days after the devastating Beirut explosion, a rescue dog reportedly smelled something that the Chilean rescue thought might possibly be a heartbeat. A piece of equipment was deployed which was said to have picked up a pulse of 18 to 19 beats per minute, though rescuers say that despite the possibility of the pulse meaning someone is alive or in a coma, it could also be just an object producing a signal. Rescue teams dug through the rubble for hours, but unfortunately, they had to temporarily suspend the operation due to the fear that the building could collapse. Separately, the army revealed that four containers with 4.3 tonnes of ammonium nitrate were discovered outside Beirut's seaport, according to the BBC. The military disclosed that army experts had been invited in order to carry out an inspection of the containers with the dangerous chemical. However, the details of the owners or source of the chemicals was not disclosed, the Times of Israel added.
On 10 September, a huge fire reportedly broke out at Beirut's port which was believed to have originated from a warehouse where oil and tires were kept, the Lebanese army disclosed. The cause of the fire was not yet confirmed, CNN added. Although the fire was not yet extinguished, it was brought under control by the Lebanese civil defense fighters, with no casualties reported. However, the head of Lebanon's Red Cross George Kettaneh, stated that some people were experiencing shortness of breath.
On 12 September, the Lebanese Army reportedly clashed with anti-government protesters near the presidential palace in the suburb of Baabda. In an attempt to break up the gathering of protesters, the Lebanese soldiers were said to have fired rubber bullets and live rounds in the air, in order to prevent the protesters from reaching the presidential palace. The protesters criticized the lack of accountability by the authorities to look into the August 4 explosion that devastated the capital, as some of them held up black versions of the Lebanese flag as a sign of mourning those killed in the blast. Anti-government protesters were also reported to have clashed with rival protesters backing President Michel Aoun, Arab News added. Several Lebanese soldiers were said to have been wounded as a result of stones and tree branches thrown at them by some protesters.
On 15 September, following Beirut's August 4 explosion, a third fire erupted again in a Zaha Hadid-designed shopping centre in Beirut. Firefighters were able to bring the situation under control, as they managed to extinguish the flames, according to the Lebanese Civil Defense. The cause of the fire is yet to be determined, Al Jazeera added. So far, no casualties have been reported during the incident.
On 27 September 2020, Gebran Bassil's party said he was infected with a "mild" case of COVID-19 as cases continued to surge throughout Lebanon.
On 9 October 2020, a fuel tanker exploded, leaving at least four people dead and twenty injured. The blast occurred after the tank caught fire in the Tariq-al-Jdide district.
On 1 February 2021, fresh evidence revealed by Amnesty International suggested that the Lebanese security forces applied unlawful use of force and excessive tear gas to disperse protesters during the 2020 Beirut explosion protests in Lebanon. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/17_October_Revolution |
Stone Age | Tools of the Oldowan tradition first came to archaeological attention in Europe, where, being intrusive and not well defined, compared to the Acheulean, they were puzzling to archaeologists. The mystery would be elucidated by African archaeology at Olduvai, but meanwhile, in the early 20th century, the term "Pre-Acheulean" came into use in climatology. C.E.P, Brooks, a British climatologist working in the United States, used the term to describe a "chalky boulder clay" underlying a layer of gravel at Hoxne, central England, where Acheulean tools had been found. Whether any tools would be found in it and what type was not known. Hugo Obermaier, a contemporary German archaeologist working in Spain, quipped:Unfortunately, the stage of human industry which corresponds to these deposits cannot be positively identified. All we can say is that it is pre-Acheulean. This uncertainty was clarified by the subsequent excavations at Olduvai; nevertheless, the term is still in use for pre-Acheulean contexts, mainly across Eurasia, that are yet unspecified or uncertain but with the understanding that they are or will turn out to be pebble-tool.
There are ample associations of Mode 2 with H. erectus in Eurasia. H. erectus – Mode 1 associations are scantier but they do exist, especially in the Far East. One strong piece of evidence prevents the conclusion that only H. erectus reached Eurasia: at Yiron, Israel, Mode 1 tools have been found dating to 2.4 mya, about 0.5 my earlier than the known H. erectus finds. If the date is correct, either another Hominan preceded H. erectus out of Africa or the earliest H. erectus has yet to be found.
After the initial appearance at Gona in Ethiopia at 2.7 mya, pebble tools date from 2.0 mya at Sterkfontein, Member 5, South Africa, and from 1.8 mya at El Kherba, Algeria, North Africa. The manufacturers had already left pebble tools at Yiron, Israel, at 2.4 mya, Riwat, Pakistan, at 2.0 mya, and Renzidong, South China, at over 2 mya. The identification of a fossil skull at Mojokerta, Pernung Peninsula on Java, dated to 1.8 mya, as H. erectus, suggests that the African finds are not the earliest to be found in Africa, or that, in fact, erectus did not originate in Africa after all but on the plains of Asia. The outcome of the issue waits for more substantial evidence. Erectus was found also at Dmanisi, Georgia, from 1.75 mya in association with pebble tools.
Pebble tools are found the latest first in southern Europe and then in northern. They begin in the open areas of Italy and Spain, the earliest dated to 1.6 mya at Pirro Nord, Italy. The mountains of Italy are rising at a rapid rate in the framework of geologic time; at 1.6 mya they were lower and covered with grassland (as much of the highlands still are). Europe was otherwise mountainous and covered over with dense forest, a formidable terrain for warm-weather savanna dwellers. Similarly there is no evidence that the Mediterranean was passable at Gibraltar or anywhere else to H. erectus or earlier hominans. They might have reached Italy and Spain along the coasts.
In northern Europe, pebble tools are found earliest at Happisburgh, United Kingdom, from 0.8 mya. The last traces are from Kent's Cavern, dated 0.5 mya. By that time H. erectus is regarded as having been extinct; however, a more modern version apparently had evolved, Homo heidelbergensis, who must have inherited the tools. He also explains the last of the Acheulean in Germany at 0.4 mya.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, archaeologists worked on the assumption that a succession of Hominans and cultures prevailed, that one replaced another. Today the presence of multiple hominans living contemporaneously near each other for long periods is accepted as proven true; moreover, by the time the previously assumed "earliest" culture arrived in northern Europe, the rest of Africa and Eurasia had progressed to the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic, so that across the earth all three were for a time contemporaneous. In any given region there was a progression from Oldowan to Acheulean, Lower to Upper, no doubt. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_Age |
Al-Biruni | Biruni's fame as an Indologist rests primarily on two texts. Biruni wrote an encyclopedic work on India called Taḥqīq mā li-l-Hind min maqūlah maqbūlah fī al-ʿaql aw mardhūlah (variously translated as Verifying All That the Indians Recount, the Reasonable and the Unreasonable, or The book confirming what pertains to India, whether rational or despicable, in which he explored nearly every aspect of Indian life. During his journey through India, military and political history were not Biruni's main focus: he decided rather to document the civilian and scholarly aspects of Hindu life, examining culture, science, and religion. He explored religion within a rich cultural context. He expressed his objectives with simple eloquence: He also translated the yoga sutras of Indian sage Patanjali with the title Tarjamat ketāb Bātanjalī fi’l-ḵalāṣ men al-ertebāk:
I shall not produce the arguments of our antagonists in order to refute such of them, as I believe to be in the wrong. My book is nothing but a simple historic record of facts. I shall place before the reader the theories of the Hindus exactly as they are, and I shall mention in connection with them similar theories of the Greeks in order to show the relationship existing between them.
An example of Biruni's analysis is his summary of why many Hindus hate Muslims. Biruni notes in the beginning of his book how the Muslims had a hard time learning about Hindu knowledge and culture. He explains that Hinduism and Islam are totally different from each other. Moreover, Hindus in 11th century India had suffered waves of destructive attacks on many of its cities, and Islamic armies had taken numerous Hindu slaves to Persia, which – claimed Biruni – contributed to Hindus becoming suspicious of all foreigners, not just Muslims. Hindus considered Muslims violent and impure, and did not want to share anything with them. Over time, Biruni won the welcome of Hindu scholars. Al-Biruni collected books and studied with these Hindu scholars to become fluent in Sanskrit, discover and translate into Arabic the mathematics, science, medicine, astronomy and other fields of arts as practiced in 11th-century India. He was inspired by the arguments offered by Indian scholars who believed earth must be globular in shape, which they felt was the only way to fully explain the difference in daylight hours by latitude, seasons and Earth's relative positions with Moon and stars. At the same time, Biruni was also critical of Indian scribes, who he believed carelessly corrupted Indian documents while making copies of older documents. He also criticized the Hindus on what he saw them do and not do, for example finding them deficient in curiosity about history and religion.
One of the specific aspects of Hindu life that Biruni studied was the Hindu calendar. His scholarship on the topic exhibited great determination and focus, not to mention the excellence in his approach of the in-depth research he performed. He developed a method for converting the dates of the Hindu calendar to the dates of the three different calendars that were common in the Islamic countries of his time period, the Greek, the Arab/Muslim, and the Persian. Biruni also employed astronomy in the determination of his theories, which were complex mathematical equations and scientific calculation that allows one to convert dates and years between the different calendars.
The book does not limit itself to tedious records of battle because Biruni found the social culture to be more important. The work includes research on a vast array of topics of Indian culture, including descriptions of their traditions and customs. Although he tried to stay away from political and military history, Biruni did indeed record important dates and noted actual sites of where significant battles occurred. Additionally, he chronicled stories of Indian rulers and told of how they ruled over their people with their beneficial actions and acted in the interests of the nation. His details are brief and mostly just list rulers without referring to their real names, and he did not go on about deeds that each one carried out during their reign, which keeps in line with Biruni's mission to try to stay away from political histories. Biruni also described the geography of India in his work. He documented different bodies of water and other natural phenomena. These descriptions are useful to today's modern historians because they are able to use Biruni's scholarship to locate certain destinations in modern-day India. Historians are able to make some matches while also concluding that certain areas seem to have disappeared and been replaced with different cities. Different forts and landmarks were able to be located, legitimizing Biruni's contributions with their usefulness to even modern history and archeology.
The dispassionate account of Hinduism given by Biruni was remarkable for its time. He stated that he was fully objective in his writings, remaining unbiased like a proper historian should. Biruni documented everything about India just as it happened. But, he did note how some of the accounts of information that he was given by natives of the land may not have been reliable in terms of complete accuracy, however, he did try to be as honest as possible in his writing. Eduard Sachau compares it to "a magic island of quiet, impartial research in the midst of a world of clashing swords, burning towns, and plundered temples."
Biruni's writing was very poetic, which may diminish some of the historical value of the work for modern times. The lack of description of battle and politics makes those parts of the picture completely lost. However, many have used Biruni's work to check facts of history in other works that may have been ambiguous or had their validity questioned. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Biruni |
Sultanate of Ifat | Ifat's inhabitants, according to Nehemia Levtzion Randall Pouwels, and Ulrich Brakumper include nomadic groups such as Somalis, Afars and Warjih people whom were already Muslims by the thirteenth century, the Hararis, Argobbas, the extinct Doba and Harla. Arabic was Lingua franca but the inhabitants of Ifat spoke Cushitic and Ethio-Semitic languages.
Ifat or Yifat, once the easternmost district of Shewa Sultanate, is located in a strategic position between the central highlands and the sea, and includes diverse population. Its predecessor state Shewa Sultanate is believed to be the first inland Muslim state and by the time it was incorporated into Ifat much of the inhabitants of Shewa land were Muslims. According to the chronicle of Shewa Sultanate converting the inhabitants in the area begun in 1108, and the first to convert were the Gbbah people whom Trimingham suggested them being the ancestors of Argobbas. A few years later after the conversion of the Gbbah people, the chronicle of Shewa sultanate mentions that in 1128 the Amhara fled from the land of Werjih. The Werjih were a pastoral people, and in the fourteenth century they occupied the Awash Valley east of Shewan Plateau.
By the mid-fourteenth century, Islam expanded in the region and the inhabitants north of Awash river were the Muslim people of Zaber and Midra Zega (located south of modern Merhabete); the Gabal (or Warjeh people today called Tigri Worji); and much of the inhabitants of Ankober, were under the Sultanate of Ifat. Tegulat, previously the capital of Shewa Sultanate, is situated on a mountain 24 km north of Debre Berhan and was known by Muslims as Mar'ade. The chronicle of Amda Tsion even mentions Khat being widely consumed by Muslims in the city of Marade. Tegulat, later became the seat of Emperor Amde Tsion, thereby, making it the capital of the empire. The emperor then appointed the descendants of Walasmas as the king of all the Muslim lands.
Ifat or Yifat, once the easternmost district of Shewa Sultanate, is located in a strategic position between the central highlands and the sea, and includes diverse population. Its predecessor state Shewa Sultanate is believed to be the first inland Muslim state and by the time it was incorporated into Ifat much of the inhabitants of Shewa land were Muslims. According to the chronicle of Shewa Sultanate converting the inhabitants in the area begun in 1108, and the first to convert were the Gbbah people whom Trimingham suggested them being the ancestors of Argobbas. A few years later after the conversion of the Gbbah people, the chronicle of Shewa sultanate mentions that in 1128 the Amhara fled from the land of Werjih. The Werjih were a pastoral people, and in the fourteenth century they occupied the Awash Valley east of Shewan Plateau.
By the mid-fourteenth century, Islam expanded in the region and the inhabitants north of Awash river were the Muslim people of Zaber and Midra Zega (located south of modern Merhabete); the Gabal (or Warjeh people today called Tigri Worji); and much of the inhabitants of Ankober, were under the Sultanate of Ifat. Tegulat, previously the capital of Shewa Sultanate, is situated on a mountain 24 km north of Debre Berhan and was known by Muslims as Mar'ade. The chronicle of Amda Tsion even mentions Khat being widely consumed by Muslims in the city of Marade. Tegulat, later became the seat of Emperor Amde Tsion, thereby, making it the capital of the empire. The emperor then appointed the descendants of Walasmas as the king of all the Muslim lands. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sultanate_of_Ifat |
2004 Summer Olympics | The Games were concluded on 29 August 2004. The closing ceremony was held at the Athens Olympic Stadium, where the Games had been opened 16 days earlier. Around 70,000 people gathered in the stadium to watch the ceremony.
The initial part of the ceremony interspersed the performances of various Greek singers, and featured traditional Greek dance performances from various regions of Greece (Crete, Thessaly, etc.). The event was meant to highlight the pride of the Greeks in their culture and country for the world to see.
A significant part of the closing ceremony was the exchange of the Olympic flag of the Athens Games between the mayor of Athens and the mayor of Beijing, host city of the next Olympics. After the flag exchange a presentation from the Beijing delegation presented a glimpse into Chinese culture for the world to see. Beijing University students (who were at first incorrectly cited as the Twelve Girls Band) sang Mo Li Hua (Jasmine Flower) accompanied by a ribbon dancer, then some male dancers did a routine with tai chi and acrobatics, followed by dancers from the Peking Opera and finally, a little Chinese girl Chen Tianjia singing a reprise of Mo Li Hua and concluded the presentation by saying "Welcome to Beijing!"
The medal ceremony for the last event of the Olympics, the men's marathon, was conducted, with Stefano Baldini from Italy as the winner. The bronze medal winner, Vanderlei Cordeiro de Lima of Brazil, was simultaneously announced as a recipient of the Pierre de Coubertin Medal for his bravery in finishing the race despite being attacked by a rogue spectator while leading with 7 km to go.
A flag-bearer from each nation's delegation then entered along the stage, followed by the competitors en masse on the floor. All of them were led by Pyrros Dimas (weightlifter) and Liu Xiang (hurdler).
Short speeches were presented by Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, President of the Organising Committee, and by President Dr. Jacques Rogge of the IOC, in which he described the Athens Olympics as "unforgettable, dream Games".
Dr. Rogge had previously declared he would be breaking with tradition in his closing speech as President of the IOC and that he would never use the words of his predecessor Juan Antonio Samaranch, who used to always say 'these were the best ever games'. Dr. Rogge had described Salt Lake City 2002 as "superb games" and in turn would continue after Athens 2004 and describe Turin 2006 as "truly magnificent games."
The national anthems of Greece and China were played in a handover ceremony as both nations' flags were raised. The Mayor of Athens, Dora Bakoyianni, passed the Olympic Flag to the Mayor of Beijing, Wang Qishan. After a short cultural performance by Chinese actors, dancers, and musicians directed by eminent Chinese director Zhang Yimou, Rogge declared the 2004 Olympic Games closed. The Olympic flag was next raised again on 10 February 2006 during the opening ceremony of the next Winter Olympics in Torino.
A young Greek girl, 10-year-old Fotini Papaleonidopoulou, lit a symbolic lantern with the Olympic Flame and passed it on to other children before "extinguishing" the flame in the cauldron by blowing a puff of air. The ceremony ended with a variety of musical performances by Greek singers, including Dionysis Savvopoulos, George Dalaras, Haris Alexiou, Anna Vissi, Sakis Rouvas, Eleftheria Arvanitaki, Alkistis Protopsalti, Antonis Remos, Michalis Hatzigiannis, Marinella, and Dimitra Galani, as thousands of athletes carried out symbolic displays on the stadium floor. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Summer_Olympics |
Saudi-led intervention in the Yemeni civil war | In March 2015, in a joint statement, the member-states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (with the exception of Oman) said they had decided to intervene against the Houthis at the request of Hadi's government.
The coalition declared Yemeni airspace to be a restricted area, with King Salman declaring the RSAF to be in full control of the zone. Saudi Arabia began airstrikes, reportedly relying on US intelligence reports and surveillance images to select and hit targets, including weapons, aircraft on the ground and air defences. Al Jazeera reported that Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, a Houthi commander appointed in February as president of the Revolutionary Committee, was injured and three other Houthi commanders were killed by airstrikes in Sanaʽa.
Strikes on 26 March also hit Al Anad Air Base, a former US special operations forces facility in Lahij Governorate seized by Houthis earlier in the week. The targets reportedly included the Houthi-controlled missile base in Sanaʽa and its fuel depot. Strikes overnight also targeted Houthis in Taiz and Sa'dah. Thousands demonstrated in Sanaʽa against the intervention, which ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh also condemned. In Taiz thousands came out supporting Hadi and Saudi Arabia.
The scope of strikes expanded further on 27 March, with a radar installation in the Marib Governorate and an airbase in the Abyan Governorate coming under air attack. The commander of the operation dismissed reports of civilian casualties, saying airstrikes were being carried out with precision. Additional strikes early on the next day hit targets in Al Hudaydah, Sa'dah and the Sanaʽa area, as well as Ali Abdullah Saleh's main base. Rumours indicated Saleh fled to Sanhan, on the outskirts of the Houthi-controlled capital. An Aden government official said Saudi strikes destroyed a long-range missile facility controlled by the Houthis.
The Houthis claimed to have shot down a Sudanese Air Force plane over northern Sanaʽa and captured its pilot on 28 March. The Sudanese government denied that any of its four warplanes had come under fire or been shot down. On the previous day, the Houthis claimed to have shot down a "hostile" Saudi drone in Sanaʽa.
Airstrikes hit an arms depot, military airbase and special forces headquarters in Sanaʽa early on 29 March. A weapons depot outside Sanaʽa was destroyed, causing damage to an airport and planes on the ground. Sa'dah and Al Hudaydah were targeted as well. Brigadier General Ahmed Asiri, the coalition's spokesman, said Saudi artillery and Apache attack helicopters were mobilised to "deter" Houthi fighters massing on the border with Saudi Arabia.
On 30 March, at least 40 people including children were killed and 200 were injured by an airstrike that hit Al-Mazraq refugee camp near a military installation in northern district of Haradh, international organizations said. Airstrikes also hit areas near the presidential palace in Sanaʽa, as well as Aden International Airport.
Food storage of Yemen Economic Corporation in Hodeidah was destroyed by three coalition strikes on 31 March. Airstrikes were not limited to the Yemeni mainland. Missiles struck homes on the island of Perim, according to residents who fled by boat to Djibouti. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saudi-led_intervention_in_the_Yemeni_civil_war |
Saadi Sultanate | Relatively little is known of Saadian-period art beyond architecture, with the relative exception of decorated manuscripts. Western Maghrebi books, including Qur'ans, had by this point established a calligraphic tradition of writing in the Maghrebi script, which continued well after the medieval (pre-16th century) era. The Saadian sultans were also responsible for compiling large libraries, a practice that became especially marked during the long and prosperous reign of Ahmad al-Mansur. Al-Mansur's increased relations with the Ottoman Empire, particularly during the reign of Mehmed III (1595–1603), resulted in numerous embassies to the Ottoman court which exchanged gifts, including richly-produced Qur'an manuscripts. Older manuscripts produced in Al-Andalus were seen as especially dignified gifts and many such examples in the library of Topkapi Palace today may have come from Saadian embassies. In return, the Saadian libraries acquired an even larger number of Ottoman or Middle Eastern manuscripts, some of which remain in Moroccan royal libraries today. Another major and important collection of royal manuscripts, the Zaydani Library, was taken from Sultan Moulay Zaydan by the Spanish in 1612 and has been kept in the library of El Escorial up to the present day. Among other volumes, it contains a richly-produced royal Qur'an dated to 1599, commissioned by Ahmad al-Mansur but known as the Qur'an of Moulay Zaydan (or Koran de Muley Zaidan in Spanish).
Another richly-decorated royal Qur'an, written for Sultan Abdallah al-Ghalib and dated to 1568, is kept by the British Library. Although the script was written generally in black ink, various orthographic signs (such as vowels and diacritics) were written in red, blue, or orange. Chapter headings were in gold Kufic (a practice widely used in illuminated Qur'an), with the empty spaces between or within letters filled with blue. This multi-colouring practice is widely found in historic Qur'an copies from this region and traces its origins to Abbasid manuscripts. Blue and gold ornamentation, consisting of specific shapes filled with arabesque motifs, is also painted in the margins to mark other divisions in the text: ornate palmettes marked chapter divisions, roundels marked every ten verses, and teardrop shapes marked every five verses. The beginning and end of the manuscript are decorated with illuminated interlacing motifs similar to that seen in some Andalusi examples centuries earlier.
The increased cultural contacts with the Ottoman Empire are also apparent in the experimentation of Maghrebi authors with eastern traditions of manuscript production and calligraphy. For example, the use of thuluth, an eastern script adapted into a regional variation known as Maghrebi thuluth, was used in Marinid and Nasrid art (13th-15th centuries) or even earlier. However, in the late 16th century it became more systematized in manuscripts, often used for important words or for illuminated titles. Additionally, the repertoire of decorative motifs drew in Ottoman influences by increasing the use of vegetal and especially floral motifs, while geometric motifs, formerly dominant, were less emphasized. The most iconic Ottoman floral motif, the tulip, began to be adapted to Maghrebi manuscripts starting in the 17th century. Nonetheless, while manuscript art of this period showed a greater openness to outside influences, the Andalusi-Maghrebi artistic traditions established since the Almohad period (12th-13th centuries) were essentially preserved and perpetuated until the 19th century.
After the Qur'an, the most popular text transcribed in this period was the Dala'il al-Khayrat, a collection of prayers for Muhammad, composed by Muhammad ibn Sulayman al-Jazuli (also known as Sidi Ben Sliman or simply al-Jazuli), a Sufi figure of Berber origin from the Sous region. Some of the oldest known manuscripts of this text were produced in the 16th century and subsequently made their way as far as India and Afghanistan. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saadi_Sultanate |
Tribes of Yemen | Since the 1960s, Hashid sheikhs close to the Saudi ruling family have been receiving huge monthly sums totaling $60–80 million annually, as pointed out by Dr. Gregory Goss, a professor of international relations at the University of Vermont, USA., The funds were disbursed through the so-called “Special Committee," a Saudi intelligence committee It was created to obstruct the Republic and save the Kingdom of Yemen but it was soon able to gain the loyalty of the tribal leaders participating in the 26 September Revolution, especially Sheikh Abdullah bin Hussein al-Ahmar Sheikh of the Sheikhs of Hashed, who had great influence and influence on the reality of political, social and economic life in Yemen.
The Irish researcher Fred Halliday mentioned that the imprint of President Ibrahim al-Hamdi was his rejection of foreign interference in Yemen's internal affairs, Indeed, as soon as Al-Hamdi was assassinated, Ahmed Al-Ghashmi who was from Hashed requested the return of monthly salaries, Al-Hamdi's intention was not hostile to Saudi Arabia. He wanted to adopt a foreign policy compatible with Riyadh, but he adopted an internal policy hostile to the interests of the tribal sheikhs and the Hashid. Specifically, through which the Saudi regime exerted its influence on Yemen, “Aid” was not limited to tribal sheikhs, but rather to members of political parties, as the Saudi patronage network increased in Yemen. Since the beginning of the eighties, the amount of this "aid" has reached three and a half billion dollars annually, and the number of people directly linked to Saudi Arabia is estimated at thousands within the country. As tribal elites play the largest role in Saudi-Yemeni relations to weaken the centrality of the state, It was stated in the memoirs of Sinan Abu Lahoum, Sheikh Sheikhs Bakil about how Saudi employees in Yemen communicated with tribal leaders and allocated monthly salaries, including Sinan himself, and about the Saudi advisors’ indication to King Faisal to stop supporting the House of Hamid al-Din because they were able to "buy" the Republican sheikhs.
In South Yemen, the circumstances were different. Relations between Saudi Arabia and The People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (South Yemen) were tense, and Saudi Arabia did not have the same influence within that country as the North. The Socialist Party has succeeded in limiting the role of the tribal and religious leaders in the south of the country, but this does not negate Saudi Arabia's relations with “southern Yemeni" parties that were hostile to the Socialist Party, most notably the sultans and sheikhdoms that existed before the October 14 Revolution, but that did not prevent them. "Tense relations" due to support for the separatist forces led by Ali Salem al-Bayd in 1994, Where Saudi Arabia wanted a longer war and more money and weapons for the separatists. The white supporters lost quickly, but Saudi Arabia wanted to arm and support the tribes in the south, and they say to the Americans, "You don't know the tribes." Saudi Arabia was the only one that recognized the Democratic Republic of Yemen, which was declared by the Whites in 1994. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribes_of_Yemen |
Occupation of Iraq (2003–2011) | As of October 2008, thirteen provinces had successfully completed transition to provincial Iraqi control: Muthanna, Dhi Qar, Najaf, Maysan, Dahuk, Erbil, Sulaymaniyah, Karbala, Basra, Al-Qādisiyyah, Al Anbar, Babil and Wasit.
Muthanna was the first, on 13 July 2006, when Australian, Japanese and British forces from Multi-National Division-South East transferred responsibility to the Governor and local authorities. With a small and homogeneous Shia population, there had been very little militia violence and few attacks on Coalition forces in the preceding months, encouraging good progress in developing the capacity of the Iraqi armed forces and Ministry of Interior forces there. Equally, the Governor of Muthanna enjoyed a good local mandate, having been re-elected in local elections in January 2005.
Dhi Qar, also within the area of responsibility of the British-led MND-SE and the responsibility of the Italian and Romanian brigade, was handed over on 21 September 2006.
. Australian troops in MND-SE remained available to provide security support to the Iraqis in both Muthanna and Dhi Qar, should they request it.
Najaf, which had been garrisoned by first Polish, then US forces, was handed over on 20 December 2006.
In April 2007, Maysan Governorate became the fourth to transition to provincial Iraqi control.
On 30 May 2007, the three provinces making up the Kurdistan Regional Government transitioned to provincial Iraqi control, bringing the total count to 7.
In October 2007, Karbala became the eighth province to transfer to provincial Iraqi control. The transfer of Basra in December 2007 marked the half-way point in transferring all provincial security over to Iraqi security forces.
In July 2008 the tenth province, Al-Qādisiyyah, also transferred to Iraqi control.
On 1 September 2008, in the wake of the decreasing levels of violence, the US Army transferred control of the expansive Al-Anbar province over to Provincial Iraqi Control. A limited US presence will be maintained to ensure security. Al-Anbar is the 11th province to be transferred to Iraqi security.
In October 2008, Babil province became the twelfth province to return to Iraqi control, whilst Wasit was transferred later in the month, making it the thirteenth province to be transferred. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupation_of_Iraq_(2003%E2%80%932011) |
Sunni Islam | One of the earliest supporting documents for ahl as-sunna derives from the Basric scholar Muhammad Ibn Siri (d. 728). His is mentioned in the Sahih of Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj quoted with: "Formerly one did not ask about the Isnad. But when the fitna started, one said: 'Name us your informants'. One would then respond to them: If they were Sunnah people, you accept their hadith. But if they are people of the Innovations, the hadith was rejected." G.H.A. Juynboll assumed, the term fitna in this statement is not related to the first Civil War (665–661) after murder of ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān, but the second Civil War (680–692) in which the Islamic community was split into four parties (Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr, the Umayyads, the Shia under al-Mukhtār ibn Abī ʿUbaid and the Kharijites). The term ahl as-sunna designated in this situation whose, who stayed away from heretic teachings of the different warring parties.
The term ahl as-sunna was always a laudatory designation. Abu Hanifa (d. 769), who sympathized with Murdshia, insisted that this were "righteous people and people of the Sunnah" (ahl al-ʿadl wa-ahl as-sunna). According to Josef van Ess this term did not mean more than "honorable and righteous believing people". Among Hanafits the designation ahl as-sunna and ahl al-ʿadl (people of the righteous) remained interchangeable for a long time. Thus the Hanafite Abū l-Qāsim as-Samarqandī (d. 953), who composed a catechism for the Samanides, used sometimes one expression and sometimes another for his own group.
Singular to ahl as-sunna was ṣāḥib sunna (adherent to the sunnah). This expression was used for example by ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mubārak (d. 797) for a person, who distances himself from the teachings of Shia, Kharijites, Qadarites and Murjites. In addition, the Nisba adjective sunnī was also used for the individual person. Thus it has been recorded, the Kufic scholar of the Quran Abū Bakr ibn ʿAyyāsh (d. 809) was asked, how he was a "sunni". He responded the following: "The one who, when the heresies are mentioned, doesn't get excited about any of them." The Andalusiaian scholar Ibn Hazm (d. 1064) taught later, that whose who confess to Islam can be divided into four groups: ahl as-sunna, Mutazilites, Murjites, Shites, Kharijites. The Muʿtazilites replaced the Qadarites here.
In the 9th century, one started to extent the term ahl as-sunna with further positive additions. Abu al-Hasan al-Ashari used for his own group expressions like ahl as-sunna wa-l-istiqāma ("people of Sunna and Straightness"), ahl as-sunna wa-l-ḥadīṯ ("people of Sunnah and of the Hadith") or ahl al-ḥaqq wa-s-sunna ("people of Truth and of the Sunnah"). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunni_Islam |
Mosaic | Under Roman and Byzantine influence the Jews also decorated their synagogues with classical floor mosaics. Many interesting examples were discovered in Galilee and the Judean Desert.
The remains of a 6th-century synagogue have been uncovered in Sepphoris, which was an important centre of Jewish culture between the 3rd–7th centuries and a multicultural town inhabited by Jews, Christians and pagans. The mosaic reflects an interesting fusion of Jewish and pagan beliefs. In the center of the floor the zodiac wheel was depicted. Helios sits in the middle, in his sun chariot, and each zodiac is matched with a Jewish month. Along the sides of the mosaic are strips depicting Biblical scenes, such as the binding of Isaac, as well as traditional rituals, including a burnt sacrifice and the offering of fruits and grains.
Another zodiac mosaic decorated the floor of the Beit Alfa synagogue which was built during the reign of Justin I (518–27). It is regarded one of the most important mosaics discovered in Israel. Each of its three panels depicts a scene – the Holy Ark, the zodiac, and the story of the sacrifice of Isaac. In the center of the zodiac is Helios, the sun god, in his chariot. The four women in the corners of the mosaic represent the four seasons.
A third superbly preserved zodiac mosaic was discovered in the Severus synagogue in the ancient resort town of Hammat Tiberias. In the center of the 4th-century mosaic the Sun god, Helios sits in his chariot holding the celestial sphere and a whip. Nine of the 12 signs of the zodiac survived intact. Another panel shows the Ark of Covenant and Jewish cultic objects used in the Temple at Jerusalem.
In 1936, a synagogue was excavated in Jericho which was named Shalom Al Yisrael Synagogue after an inscription on its mosaic floor ("Peace on Israel"). It appears to have been in use from the 5th to 8th centuries and contained a big mosaic on the floor with drawings of the Ark of the Covenant, the Menorah, a Shofar and a Lulav. Nearby in Naaran, there is another synagogue (discovered in 1918) from the 6th century that also has a mosaic floor.
The synagogue in Eshtemoa (As-Samu) was built around the 4th century. The mosaic floor is decorated with only floral and geometric patterns. The synagogue in Khirbet Susiya (excavated in 1971–72, founded in the end of the 4th century) has three mosaic panels, the eastern one depicting a Torah shrine, two menorahs, a lulav and an etrog with columns, deer and rams. The central panel is geometric while the western one is seriously damaged but it has been suggested that it depicted Daniel in the lion's den. The Roman synagogue in Ein Gedi was remodeled in the Byzantine era and a more elaborate mosaic floor was laid down above the older white panels. The usual geometric design was enriched with birds in the center. It includes the names of the signs of the zodiac and important figures from the Jewish past but not their images suggesting that it served a rather conservative community.
The ban on figurative depiction was not taken so seriously by the Jews living in Byzantine Gaza. In 1966 remains of a synagogue were found in the ancient harbour area. Its mosaic floor depicts King David as Orpheus, identified by his name in Hebrew letters. Near him were lion cubs, a giraffe and a snake listening to him playing a lyre. A further portion of the floor was divided by medallions formed by vine leaves, each of which contains an animal: a lioness suckling her cub, a giraffe, peacocks, panthers, bears, a zebra and so on. The floor was paved in 508/509. It is very similar to that of the synagogue at Maon (Menois) and the Christian church at Shellal, suggesting that the same artist most probably worked at all three places.
The House of Leontius in Bet She'an (excavated in 1964–72) is a rare example of a synagogue which was part of an inn. It was built in the Byzantine period. The colorful mosaic floor of the synagogue room had an outer stripe decorated with flowers and birds, around medallions with animals, created by vine trellises emerging from an amphora. The central medallion enclosed a menorah (candelabrum) beneath the word shalom (peace).
A 5th-century building in Huldah may be a Samaritan synagogue. Its mosaic floor contains typical Jewish symbols (menorah, lulav, etrog) but the inscriptions are Greek. Another Samaritan synagogue with a mosaic floor was located in Bet She'an (excavated in 1960). The floor had only decorative motifs and an aedicule (shrine) with cultic symbols. The ban on human or animal images was more strictly observed by the Samaritans than their Jewish neighbours in the same town (see above). The mosaic was laid by the same masters who made the floor of the Beit Alfa synagogue. One of the inscriptions was written in Samaritan script.
In 2003, a synagogue of the 5th or 6th century was uncovered in the coastal Ionian town of Saranda, Albania. It had exceptional mosaics depicting items associated with Jewish holidays, including a menorah, ram's horn, and lemon tree. Mosaics in the basilica of the synagogue show the facade of what resembles a Torah, animals, trees, and other biblical symbols. The structure measures 20 by 24 m. and was probably last used in the 6th century as a church. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosaic |
Education in Qatar | Prior to the 20th century, Qatari society did not place any specific emphasis on formal education. This was common in traditional Bedouin culture. Rather, Quranic education was highly valued in urban society, and to a lesser extent, rural society. Most children living in urban settlements were taught how to memorize, understand and read the Quran. This type of education was typically completed by the age of 10, whereupon the child's family would celebrate al khatma, or the end of memorizing the Quran. By the 18th century, Zubarah, the most important town in the peninsula, had developed into a center of Islamic education.
Islamic schools were divided into three categories known as mosques, kuttabs and madrasas. Mahmud Shukri Al-Alusi, an Islamic scholar, stated that between 1878 and 1913, there were around 20 kuttabs, 30 madrasahs and 400 mosques in the al-Hasa region, which included Qatar.
Sheikh Abdullah was interested in education, which led to the opening of Al-Athria school in 1913. It was closed later in 1926.
Mosques, in addition to serving as places of prayer, were also regarded as educational facilities as they provided Muslims with religious instruction and advice.
Kuttabs, which were also known as mutta or muttawa, were split into two sub-sections. The first type of kuttab taught only the Quran and basic religious principles and were very wide spread in both rural and urban areas. Children of both sexes could attend them, although they were gender segregated. Male children were taught in public areas or mosques, whereas females were taught privately in houses. The other variation of kuttab taught reading, writing and arithmetic in addition to the Quran. They were found only in large urban settlements, such as Doha, and were attended by children of wealthy families. There were several limitations on kuttabs, many of stemmed from the lack of qualifications of the instructors who staffed them.
Madrasas were advanced educational institutes which taught Islamic sciences and Arabic literature. They were located primarily in urban settlements. The country's most reputable madrasa in the early 20th century, Al-Madrasa al-Sheikh Muhammad Abdulaziz Al-Ma'na, was established in 1918 by a Bahraini sheikh. Its staff was composed of many highly educated instructors. The syllabus had an emphasis on Arabic literature and the Arabic language. There was no fixed number of years for a student to graduate. The madrasa produced some of the country's most highly skilled individuals, including a number of poets and government officials. It was closed in 1938. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Qatar |
Ivory | Both the Greek and Roman civilizations practiced ivory carving to make large quantities of high value works of art, precious religious objects, and decorative boxes for costly objects. Ivory was often used to form the white of the eyes of statues.
There is some evidence of either whale or walrus ivory used by the ancient Irish. Solinus, a Roman writer in the 3rd century claimed that the Celtic peoples in Ireland would decorate their sword-hilts with the 'teeth of beasts that swim in the sea'. Adomnan of Iona wrote a story about St Columba giving a sword decorated with carved ivory as a gift that a penitent would bring to his master so he could redeem himself from slavery.
The Syrian and North African elephant populations were reduced to extinction, probably due to the demand for ivory in the Classical world.
The Chinese have long valued ivory for both art and utilitarian objects. Early reference to the Chinese export of ivory is recorded after the Chinese explorer Zhang Qian ventured to the west to form alliances to enable the eventual free movement of Chinese goods to the west; as early as the first century BC, ivory was moved along the Northern Silk Road for consumption by western nations. Southeast Asian kingdoms included tusks of the Indian elephant in their annual tribute caravans to China. Chinese craftsmen carved ivory to make everything from images of deities to the pipe stems and end pieces of opium pipes.
In Japan, ivory carvings became popular in the 17th century during the Edo period, and many netsuke and kiseru, on which animals and legendary creatures were carved, and inro, on which ivory was inlaid, were made. From the mid-1800s, the new Meiji government's policy of promoting and exporting arts and crafts led to the frequent display of elaborate ivory crafts at World's fair. Among them, the best works were admired because they were purchased by Western museums, wealthy people, and the Japanese Imperial Family.
The Buddhist cultures of Southeast Asia, including Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia, traditionally harvested ivory from their domesticated elephants. Ivory was prized for containers due to its ability to keep an airtight seal. It was also commonly carved into elaborate seals utilized by officials to "sign" documents and decrees by stamping them with their unique official seal.
In Southeast Asian countries, where Muslim Malay peoples live, such as Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, ivory was the material of choice for making the handles of kris daggers.
In the Philippines, ivory was also used to craft the faces and hands of Catholic icons and images of saints prevalent in the Santero culture.
Tooth and tusk ivory can be carved into a vast variety of shapes and objects. Examples of modern carved ivory objects are okimono, netsukes, jewelry, flatware handles, furniture inlays, and piano keys. Additionally, warthog tusks, and teeth from sperm whales, orcas and hippos can also be scrimshawed or superficially carved, thus retaining their morphologically recognizable shapes.
As trade with Africa expanded during the first part of the 1800s, ivory became readily available. Up to 90 percent of the ivory imported into the United States was processed, at one time, in Connecticut where Deep River and Ivoryton in 1860s became the centers of ivory milling, in particular, due to the demand for ivory piano keys.
Ivory usage in the last thirty years has moved towards mass production of souvenirs and jewelry. In Japan, the increase in wealth sparked consumption of solid ivory hanko – name seals – which before this time had been made of wood. These hanko can be carved out in a matter of seconds using machinery and were partly responsible for massive African elephant decline in the 1980s, when the African elephant population went from 1.3 million to around 600,000 in ten years. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivory |
Umayyad Caliphate | After Uthman's assassination, Ali was recognized as caliph in Medina, though his support stemmed from the Ansar and the Iraqis, while the bulk of the Quraysh was wary of his rule. The first challenge to his authority came from the Qurayshite leaders al-Zubayr and Talha, who had opposed Uthman's empowerment of the Umayyad clan but feared that their own influence and the power of the Quraysh, in general, would dissipate under Ali. Backed by one of Muhammad's wives, A'isha, they attempted to rally support against Ali among the troops of Basra, prompting the caliph to leave for Iraq's other garrison town, Kufa, where he could better confront his challengers. Ali defeated them at the Battle of the Camel, in which al-Zubayr and Talha were slain and A'isha consequently entered self-imposed seclusion. Ali's sovereignty was thereafter recognized in Basra and Egypt and he established Kufa as the caliphate's new capital.
Although Ali was able to replace Uthman's governors in Egypt and Iraq with relative ease, Mu'awiya had developed a solid power-base and an effective military against the Byzantines from the Arab tribes of Syria. Mu'awiya did not claim the caliphate but was determined to retain control of Syria and opposed Ali in the name of avenging his kinsman Uthman, accusing the caliph of culpability in his death. Ali and Mu'awiya fought to a stalemate at the Battle of Siffin in early 657. Ali agreed to settle the matter with Mu'awiya by arbitration, though the talks failed to achieve a resolution. The decision to arbitrate fundamentally weakened Ali's political position as he was forced to negotiate with Mu'awiya on equal terms, while it drove a significant number of his supporters, who became known as the Kharijites, to revolt. Ali's coalition steadily disintegrated and many Iraqi tribal nobles secretly defected to Mu'awiya, while the latter's ally Amr ibn al-As ousted Ali's governor from Egypt in July 658. In July 660 Mu'awiya was formally recognized as caliph in Jerusalem by his Syrian tribal allies. Ali was assassinated by a Kharijite dissident in January 661. His son Hasan succeeded him but abdicated in return for compensation upon Mu'awiya's arrival to Iraq with his Syrian army in the summer. At that point, Mu'awiya entered Kufa and received the allegiance of the Iraqis. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umayyad_Caliphate |
Italian Tripolitania | The Italian Fascist Party came to power in 1922, it was agreed that fraternising with local Libyan Leaders was a failure of the previous colonial practice. Instead, the fascists opted for to 'pacify' the local population. Their ideas was based upon racial supremacy and Social Darwinism. The belief in a hierarchy of races meant that the Italians therefore had a 'duty' to colonise African nations. This led to the subjugation of Libyans, as policies before 1922 were dismissed, such as the colonial official's push to "Italianise" its colony's education. For example, they censored Italian culture from the native population, banned education after the sixth grade and terminated teaching Italian in classrooms, replacing it with Arabic. Libyans were only allowed to work as Labourers. The banning of Italian in class was with the intention to 'protect' Italian culture, and exclude Libyans.
Benito Mussolini gave General Rodolfo Graziani responsibility for the pacification of Libya, due to previous success in the reoccupation of Tripolitania and Fezzan. Tripolitanian resistance was not as substantial, as various tribes cooperated with Italians. However, Graziani saw Cyrenaica as a problem due to the united force of Cyrenaican tribesmen and merchants. As well as 70 years worth of gathering with the religious and social movement, Sanusiyya. As a consequence they were able to forge a unified front that shared an anti-colonial, pan-Islamic ideology that successfully resisted colonialism.
Guerrilla warfare in 1924, by Shaykh Rida, brother of Sayyid Idris, was able to contain Italians, with a force of 2,00 to 6,000 tribalmen. In December 1925, an agreement between Great Britain cemented Italy's jurisdiction on Jaghbub and Kufra.This made guerrilla attacks more tortuous, as Italians established control by making it impossible for Rida to attack. The Italians did this by constructing fences across the border and patrolling with aircraft and cars. Shaykh Rida was arrested in January 1928 and exiled to Sicily.
The resistance was later led by 'Umar Al-Mukhtar. The Al-Mukhtar resistance notably included a network of spies in Italian enforced towns. It was estimated by Graziani that the native guerrillas numbered around 3.000 and they owned about 20,000 guns. Al-Mukhtar and the Cyrenacians had advantages over the Italians as they knew the terrain, and used the mountains and trails as a trump card. In 1931, Al-Mukhtar engaged in 250 attacks with the Italian army, Italian officials attempted to bribe 'Umar al-Mukhtar, with salary and retirement but were rejected.
Resistance in both Cyrenaica and Tripolitania was not uniquely based on religious motives but instead was a virtue of the colonial struggle, especially within Cyrenaica, they fought with both religious order and tribal support, the latter being immensely supportive. In 1915, Italian domination was declining, with forces being held only within coastal cities.On the 29th of April 1915, they experienced a heavy defeat at the battle of Gasr Bu Hadi, when a presumed ally Ramadan al-Suwayhli, defeated an Italian column.
The Italian defeat and engrossment with the war in Europe meant that Tripolitania and Cyrenaica were able to have political agency. Arab nationalism was trending, and after several attempts at regaining power in Tripolitania Al-Suwayhil was able to create the Tripolitanian Republic in 1918 with Ahmad Al-Murayyid of Tarhuna, Abd Al-Nabi Bilkhayr of Warfalla, Sulayman Al-Baruni. Al-Suwayhil's advisor was also Abd al-Rahman Azzam Bey, an Egyptian nationalist, who later became the first secretary general of the Arab League.The Tripolitanian Republic shortly failed after disagreements among rival factions and Italian pressures, however, it showed the first attempt at a republican government in the Arab world as well as the impact of resistance.
The resistance came to a stop with Umar Al-Mukhtar's capture on the 11th of September 1931, his trial ran personally by General Rodolfo Graziani.Within five days the trial ended with the public hanging of the Al-Mukhtar, Concluding the era of organised resistance. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_Tripolitania |
Adana | In the early 20th century the local economy thrived and the Armenian population doubled as people fled the Hamidian massacres. When the revolution of July 1908 brought about the end of Abdul Hamid II's autocratic rule, the Armenian community felt empowered to imagine an autonomous Cilicia. The CUP's post-revolution mismanagement of the vilayets caused the pro-diversity Vali Bahri Pasha to be removed from office in late 1908. He was replaced by the weak Cevad Bey. Taking advantage of this, Bağdadizade Abdülkadir (later Paksoy), the local leader of the Cemiyet-i Muhammediye, took almost complete control of the local government and led an action plan to "punish" Armenians throughout Cilicia. Rumours of an upcoming Armenian attack, raised tension in the Turkish neighbourhoods. As soon as news of the countercoup reached Cilicia, enraged members of the Cemiyet-i Muhammediye and dissatisfied peasants left out of work by mechanisation flocked to the city on market day. After staying overnight in the city, the groups and their local supporters started attacking Armenian shops on the morning of 14 April 1909. Later in the day the attacks were also directed at Armenian dwellings and spread to the rest of Cilicia. Armed Armenians defended themselves and the clashes lasted until April 17.
After a week of silence, 850 soldiers from regiments of the Ottoman Army arrived in the city on April 25. Shots were fired at the campground and a rumour immediately spread that the Armenians had opened fire from a church tower. Without even investigating the rumour, the military commander Mustafa Remzi Pasha directed soldiers and bashi-bazouks towards the Armenian quarters and for three days they shot people, destroyed buildings and burned down Christian neighbourhoods. The pogroms of 25–27 April were on a much greater scale than the clashes of 14–17 April, and almost all the casualties were Christian.
The Adana massacre of April 1909 resulted in the deaths of 18,839 Armenians, 1,250 Greeks, 850 Assyrians, 422 Chaldeans and 620 Muslims. Adding in the roughly 2,500 Hadjinian and other seasonal workers who disappeared, the death toll in the entire Vilayet is estimated to have been around 25,500. Over the summer 2,000 children died of dysentery and a few thousand adults died of injuries or from epidemics. The massacre orphaned 3,500 children and caused heavy destruction of Christian properties. Cevad Bey and Mustafa Remzi Pasha were sacked and given light sentences for abuse of power, and on 8 August 1909, Djemal Pasha was appointed the new Vali. He quickly rebuilt relations with the surviving Armenian community and gathered financial support to found a new neighbourhood for Armenians called Çarçabuk (now Döşeme). He also ordered the construction of two orphanages and the restoration of destroyed buildings.
The Cilicia section of the Berlin–Baghdad railway had opened in 1912, connecting Adana to the Middle East. Within a few years, the city had regained its momentum and by the turn of 1915, the Armenian population numbered up to 30,000, not far short of the figure from before 1909. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adana |
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Spaulding, Jay; Abu Salim, Muhammad Ibrahim (1989). Public Documents from Sinnar. Michigan State University. ISBN 0870132806.
Waddington, George; Hanbury, Barnard (1822). Journal of a Visit to some Parts of Ethiopia. William Clowes.
Werner, Roland (2013). Das Christentum in Nubien. Geschichte und Gestalt einer afrikanischen Kirche ["Christianity in Nubia. History and shape of an African church"] (in German). Lit. ISBN 978-3-643-12196-7.
Zurawski, Bogdan (2012). Banganarti on the Nile. An archaeological guide (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 September 2018. Retrieved 26 January 2019.
Zurawski, Bogdan (2014). Kings and Pilgrims. St. Raphael Church II at Banganarti, mid-eleventh to mid-eighteenth century. IKSiO. ISBN 978-83-7543-371-5. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funj_Sultanate |
Al-Walid I | Compared to his brothers, al-Walid had an "exceptional number of marriages", at least nine, which "reflect both his seniority in age ... and his prestige as a likely successor" to Abd al-Malik, according to the historian Andrew Marsham. The marriages were intended to forge political alliances, including with potential rival families like those of the descendants of the fourth caliph, Ali (r. 656–661), and the prominent Umayyad statesman, Sa'id ibn al-As. Al-Walid married two of Ali's great-granddaughters, Nafisa bint Zayd ibn al-Hasan and Zaynab bint al-Hasan ibn al-Hasan. He married Sa'id's daughter, Amina, whose brother al-Ashdaq had been removed from the line of succession by Marwan and was killed in an attempt to topple Abd al-Malik. One of his wives was a daughter of a Qurayshite leader, Abd Allah ibn Muti, who was a key official under Ibn al-Zubayr. Among his other wives was a woman of the Qaysi Banu Fazara tribe, with whom he had his son Abu Ubayda.
Marsham notes al-Walid's marriage to his first cousin, Umm al-Banin, "tied the fortunes" of Abd al-Malik and her father, Abd al-Aziz ibn Marwan. From her al-Walid had his sons Abd al-Aziz, Muhammad, Marwan, and Anbasa, and a daughter, A'isha. From another Umayyad wife, Umm Abd Allah bint Abd Allah ibn Amr, a great-granddaughter of Caliph Uthman (r. 644–656), al-Walid had his son Abd al-Rahman. He also married Umm Abd Allah's niece, Izza bint Abd al-Aziz, whom he divorced.
Out of his twenty-two children, fifteen were born to slave concubines, including al-Abbas, whose mother was Greek. According to al-Tabari, the mother of al-Walid's son Yazid III (r. 744–744) was Shah-i-Afrid (also called Shahfarand), the daughter of the Sasanian prince Peroz III and granddaughter of the last Sasanian king, Yazdegerd III (r. 632–651). She had been taken captive in the conquest of Transoxiana and was gifted to al-Walid by al-Hajjaj. The mother of his son Ibrahim (r. 744–744) was a concubine named Su'ar or Budayra. His other sons by concubines were Umar, Bishr, Masrur, Mansur, Rawh, Khalid, Jaz, Maslama, Tammam, Mubashshir, Yahya, and Sadaqa.
In 744, around a dozen of al-Walid's sons, probably resentful at being sidelined from the caliphal succession, conspired with other Umayyad princes and elites under Yazid III to topple their cousin Caliph al-Walid II (r. 743–744). His assassination in April 744 sparked the Third Muslim Civil War (744–750). Yazid III acceded but died six months later, after which he was succeeded by his half-brother Ibrahim. The latter did not attain wide recognition and was overthrown in December 744 by a distant Umayyad kinsman, Marwan II (r. 744–750). Several descendants of al-Walid, progeny of his son Rawh, were executed during the Abbasid Revolution which toppled Umayyad rule in 750. Others from the lines of his sons al-Abbas and Umar survived, including the Habibi family, which attained prominence in the Umayyad emirate of al-Andalus after its establishment in 756. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Walid_I |
Ottoman architecture | During the 1740s a new Ottoman or Turkish "Baroque" style emerged in its full expression and rapidly replaced the style of the Tulip Period. This shift signaled the final end to the classical style. The political and cultural conditions which led to the Ottoman Baroque trace their origins in part to the Tulip Period, when the Ottoman ruling class opened itself to Western influence. After the Tulip Period, Ottoman architecture openly imitated European architecture, so that architectural and decorative trends in Europe were often mirrored in the Ottoman Empire at the same time or after a short delay. Changes were especially evident in the ornamentation and details of new buildings rather than in their overall forms, though new building types were eventually introduced from European influences as well. The term "Turkish Rococo", or simply "Rococo", is also used to describe the Ottoman Baroque, or parts of it, due to the similarities and influences from the French Rococo style in particular, but this terminology varies from author to author.
The first structures to exhibit the new Baroque style are several fountains and sebils built by elite patrons in Istanbul in 1741–1742. The most important monument heralding the new Ottoman Baroque style is the Nuruosmaniye Mosque complex, begun by Mahmud I in October 1748 and completed by his successor, Osman III (to whom it is dedicated), in December 1755. Doğan Kuban describes it as the "most important monumental construction after the Selimiye Mosque in Edirne", marking the integration of European culture into Ottoman architecture and the rejection of the classical Ottoman style. It also marked the first time since the Sultan Ahmed I Mosque (early 17th century) that an Ottoman sultan built his own imperial mosque complex in Istanbul, thus inaugurating the return of this tradition.
The Ayazma Mosque in Üsküdar was built between 1757–8 and 1760–1. It is essentially a smaller version of the Nuruosmaniye Mosque, signaling the importance of the latter as a new model to emulate. Although smaller, it is relatively tall for its proportions, enhancing its sense of height. This trend towards height was pursued in later mosques.
In Topkapı Palace, the Ottoman sultans and their family continued to build new rooms or remodel old ones throughout the 18th century, introducing Baroque and Rococo decoration in the process. Some examples include the Baths of the Harem section, probably renovated by Mahmud I around 1744, As in the preceding centuries, other palaces were built around Istanbul by the sultan and his family. Previously, the traditional Ottoman palace configuration consisted of different buildings or pavilions arranged in a group, as was the case at Topkapı Palace, the Edirne Palace, and others. However, at some time during the 18th century there was a transition to palaces consisting of a single block or single large building.
Beyond Istanbul, the greatest palaces were built by powerful local families, but they were often built in regional styles that did not follow the trends of the Ottoman capital. The Azm Palace in Damascus, for example, was built around 1750 in a largely Damascene style. In eastern Anatolia, near present-day Doğubayazıt, the Ishak Pasha Palace is an exceptional and flamboyant piece of architecture that mixes various local traditions including Seljuk Turkish, Armenian, and Georgian. It was begun in the 17th century and generally completed by 1784.
The Nusretiye Mosque, Mahmud II's imperial mosque, was built between 1822 and 1826 at Tophane. The mosque is the first major imperial work by Krikor Balyan. It is sometimes described as belonging to the Empire style, but is considered by Godfrey Goodwin and Doğan Kuban as one of the last Baroque mosques, while Ünver Rüstem describes the style as moving away from the Baroque and towards an Ottoman interpretation of Neoclassicism. Goodwin also describes it as the last in a line of imperial mosques that started with the Nuruosmaniye. Despite its relatively small size the mosque's tall proportions creates a sense of height, which may the culmination of a trend that began with the Ayazma Mosque. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_architecture |
African art | Ethiopian art from the 4th century until the 20th can be divided into two broad groupings. First comes a distinctive tradition of Christian art, mostly for churches, in forms including painting, crosses, icons, illuminated manuscripts, and other metalwork such as crowns. Secondly there are popular arts and crafts such as textiles, basketry and jewellery, in which Ethiopian traditions are closer to those of other peoples in the region. Its history goes back almost three thousand years to the kingdom of D'mt. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church has been the predominant religion in Ethiopia for over 1500 years, for most of this period in a very close relation, or union, with the Coptic Christianity of Egypt, so that Coptic art has been the main formative influence on Ethiopian church art.
Prehistoric rock art comparable to that of other African sites survives in a number of places and, until the arrival of Christianity, stone stelae, often carved with simple reliefs, were erected as grave-markers and for other purposes in many regions; Tiya is one important site. The "pre-Axumite" Iron Age culture of about the 5th century BCE to the 1st century CE was influenced by the Kingdom of Kush to the north, and settlers from Arabia, and produced cities with simple temples in stone, such as the ruined one at Yeha, which is impressive for its date in the 4th or 5th century BCE.
The powerful Kingdom of Aksum emerged in the 1st century BCE and dominated Ethiopia until the 10th century, having become very largely Christian from the 4th century. Although some buildings and large, pre-Christian stelae exist, there appears to be no surviving Ethiopian Christian art from the Axumite period. However, the earliest works remaining show a clear continuity with Coptic art of earlier periods. There was considerable destruction of churches and their contents in the 16th century when the country was invaded by Muslim neighbours. The revival of art after this was influenced by Catholic European art in both iconography and elements of style, but retained its Ethiopian character. In the 20th century, Western artists and architects began to be commissioned by the government, and to train local students, and more fully Westernized art was produced alongside continuations of traditional church art.
Church paintings in Ethiopia were likely produced as far back as the introduction of Christianity in the 4th century AD, although the earliest surviving examples come from the church of Debre Selam Mikael in the Tigray Region, dated to the 11th century AD. However, the 7th-century AD followers of the Islamic prophet Muhammad who fled to Axum in temporary exile mentioned that the original Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion was decorated with paintings. Other early paintings include those from the rock-hewn churches of Lalibela, dated to the 12th century AD, and in nearby Geneta Maryam, dated to the 13th century AD. However, paintings in illuminated manuscripts predate the earliest surviving church paintings; for instance, the Ethiopian Garima Gospels of the 4th–6th centuries AD contain illuminated scenes imitating the contemporary Byzantine style.
Ethiopian painting, on walls, in books, and in icons, is highly distinctive, though the style and iconography are closely related to the simplified Coptic version of Late Antique and Byzantine Christian art. From the 16th century, Roman Catholic church art and European art in general began to exert some influence. However, Ethiopian art is highly conservative and retained much of its distinct character until modern times. The production of illuminated manuscripts for use continued up to the present day.
Another important form of Ethiopian art, also related to Coptic styles, are crosses made from wood and metal. They are usually copper alloy or brass, plated (at least originally) with gold or silver. The heads are typically flat cast plates with elaborate and complex openwork decoration. The cross motif emerges from the decoration, with the whole design often forming a rotated square or circular shape, though the designs are highly varied and inventive. Many incorporate curved motifs rising from the base, which are called the "arms of Adam". Except in recent Western-influenced examples, they usually have no corpus, or figure of Christ, and the design often incorporates numerous smaller crosses. Engraved figurative imagery has sometimes been added. Crosses are mostly either processional crosses, with the metal head mounted on a long wooden staff, carried in religious processions and during the liturgy, or hand crosses, with a shorter metal handle in the same casting as the head. Smaller crosses worn as jewellery are also common.
Ethiopia has great ethnic and linguistic diversity, and styles in secular traditional crafts vary greatly in different parts of the country. There are a range of traditions in textiles, many with woven geometric decoration, although many types are also usually plain. Ethiopian church practices make a great deal of use of colourful textiles, and the more elaborate types are widely used as church vestments and as hangings, curtains and wrappings in churches, although they have now largely been supplanted by Western fabrics. Examples of both types can be seen in the picture at the top of the article. Icons may normally be veiled with a semi-transparent or opaque cloth; very thin chiffon-type cotton cloth is a speciality of Ethiopia, though usually with no pattern.
Colourful basketry with a coiled construction is common in rural Ethiopia. The products have many uses, such as storing grains, seeds and food and being used as tables and bowls. The Muslim city of Harar is well known for its high-quality basketry, and many craft products of the Muslim minority relate to wider Islamic decorative traditions. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_art |
Sharia | The domain of furūʿ al-fiqh (lit. branches of fiqh) is traditionally divided into ʿibādāt (rituals or acts of worship) and muʿāmalāt (social relations). Many jurists further divided the body of substantive jurisprudence into "the four quarters", called rituals, sales, marriage and injuries. Each of these terms figuratively stood for a variety of subjects. For example, the quarter of sales would encompass partnerships, guaranty, gifts, and bequests, among other topics. Juristic works were arranged as a sequence of such smaller topics, each called a "book" (kitab). The special significance of ritual was marked by always placing its discussion at the start of the work.
Some historians distinguish a field of Islamic criminal law, which combines several traditional categories. Several crimes with scripturally prescribed punishments are known as hudud. Jurists developed various restrictions which in many cases made them virtually impossible to apply. Other crimes involving intentional bodily harm are judged according to a version of lex talionis that prescribes a punishment analogous to the crime (qisas), but the victims or their heirs may accept a monetary compensation (diya) or pardon the perpetrator instead; only diya is imposed for non-intentional harm. Other criminal cases belong to the category of taʿzīr, where the goal of punishment is correction or rehabilitation of the culprit and its form is largely left to the judge's discretion. In practice, since early on in Islamic history, criminal cases were usually handled by ruler-administered courts or local police using procedures which were only loosely related to Sharia.
The two major genres of furūʿ literature are the mukhtasar (concise summary of law) and the mabsut (extensive commentary). Mukhtasars were short specialized treatises or general overviews that could be used in a classroom or consulted by judges. A mabsut, which usually provided a commentary on a mukhtasar and could stretch to dozens of large volumes, recorded alternative rulings with their justifications, often accompanied by a proliferation of cases and conceptual distinctions. The terminology of juristic literature was conservative and tended to preserve notions which had lost their practical relevance. At the same time, the cycle of abridgement and commentary allowed jurists of each generation to articulate a modified body of law to meet changing social conditions. Other juristic genres include the qawāʿid (succinct formulas meant to aid the student remember general principles) and collections of fatwas by a particular scholar.
Classical jurisprudence has been described as "one of the major intellectual achievements of Islam" and its importance in Islam has been compared to that of theology in Christianity. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharia |
House of Wisdom | Under the sponsorship of Caliph al-Ma'mun (r. 813–833), economic support of the House of Wisdom and scholarship in general was greatly increased. Al-Ma'mun, under the tutelage of his father, Caliph Harun al-Rashid, memorized the Quran word for word under the eyes of leading religious scholar of the court. Al-Ma'mun's mistakes were instantly corrected. It was a common trait amongst Muslim poets, scientists, and authors to memorize their original texts for public lectures, which were typically done inside a mosque. This practice appeared to be ingrained inside al-Ma'mun's intellectual capabilities.
His love for science was so great that it was said that he preferred scientific texts as the spoils of war. Furthermore, Abbasid society itself came to understand and appreciate the value of knowledge, and support also came from merchants and the military. It was easy for scholars and translators to make a living, and an academic life was indicative of high status in society; scientific knowledge was considered so valuable that books and ancient texts were sometimes preferred as war booty rather than riches. Indeed, Ptolemy's Almagest was claimed as a condition for peace by al-Ma'mun after a war between the Abbasids and the Eastern Roman Empire.
The House of Wisdom was much more than an academic center removed from the broader society. Its experts served several functions in Baghdad. Scholars from the Bayt al-Hikma usually doubled as engineers and architects in major construction projects, kept accurate official calendars, and were public servants. They were also frequently medics and consultants.
Al-Ma'mun was personally involved in the daily life of the House of Wisdom, regularly visiting its scholars and inquiring about their activities. He would also participate in and arbitrate academic debates. One of the reasons that al-Ma'mun loved the pursuit of knowledge was said to be from a dream that he once had. In the dream, he was said to have been visited by Aristotle, where they had a discussion on what was good. Inspired by Aristotle, al-Ma'mun regularly initiated discussion sessions and seminars among experts in Kalām; Kalām being an art of philosophical debate, which al-Ma'mun carried on from his Persian tutor, Ja’far. During such debates, scholars would discuss their fundamental Islamic beliefs and doctrines in an open, intellectual atmosphere. He would often organize groups of sages, from the Bayt al-Hikma, into major research projects to satisfy his own intellectual curiosities. For example, he commissioned the mapping of the world, the confirmation of data from the Almagest and the deduction of the real size of the Earth (see section on the main activities of the House). He also promoted Egyptology and personally participated in excavations at the pyramids of Giza. Al-Ma’mun built the first astronomical observatories in Baghdad, and he was also the first ruler to fund and monitor the progress of major research projects involving teams of scholars and scientists. In this way he was the first ruler to fund "big science".
Following his predecessors, al-Ma'mun would send expeditions of scholars from the House of Wisdom to collect texts from foreign lands. In fact, one of the directors of the House was sent to Constantinople with this purpose. During this time, Sahl ibn Harun, a Persian poet and astrologer, was the chief librarian of the Bayt al-Hikma. Hunayn ibn Ishaq (809–873), an Arab Nestorian Christian physician and scientist, was the most productive translator, producing 116 works for the Arabs. As "Sheikh of the translators," he was placed in charge of the translation work by the caliph. Hunayn ibn Ishaq translated the entire collection of Greek medical books, including famous pieces by Galen and Hippocrates. The Sabian Thābit ibn Qurra (826–901) also translated great works by Apollonius, Archimedes, Euclid and Ptolemy. Translations of this era were superior to earlier ones, since the new Abbasid scientific tradition required better and better translations, and the emphasis was many times put on incorporating new ideas to the ancient works being translated. By the second half of the ninth century, al-Ma'mun's Bayt al-Hikma was the greatest repository of books in the world and had become one of the greatest hubs of intellectual activity during the Medieval era, attracting the most brilliant Arab and Persian minds. The House of Wisdom eventually acquired a reputation as a center of learning, although universities as they are modernly known did not yet exist at this time—knowledge was transmitted directly from teacher to student without any institutional surrounding. Maktabs soon began to develop in the city from the 9th century on and, in the 11th century, Nizam al-Mulk founded the Al-Nizamiyya of Baghdad, one of the first institutions of higher education in Iraq. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Wisdom |
Shia Islam in the Indian subcontinent | After Zia's takeover in 1977, the influence of socialism and modernism started to wane and religious parties felt empowered by Zia's islamization program. They began to recruit workers and volunteers. In February 1978, Ali Basti, a Shia neighborhood in Karachi, was attacked by a Deobandi mob and 5 men were killed. Next Muharram, in 1978, Azadari processions were attacked in Lahore and Karachi leaving 22 Shias dead. After Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, the country became a safe haven for Shia phobic militants. They could now train in the name of Afghan Jihad, kill Shias and go to Afghanistan in hiding. The number of hate crimes against the Shias increased. During Muharram 1980, the Afghan Refugees settled near Parachinar attack Shia villages and in 1981, they expelled Shias from Sada. At that time, Kurram Militia was employed in Kurram Agency, they successfully contained this violence. In 1983, Shias neighbourhoods of Karachi were attacked on Eid Milad-un-Nabi. 94 houses were set on fire, 10 Shias were killed. On Muharram 1983, there were again attacks on Shias in Karachi. On 6 July 1985, police opened fire on a Shia demonstration in Quetta, killing 17 Shias. Shias responded and 11 attackers were killed. According to police report, among the 11 attackers who died in the clash only 2 were identified as police sepoys and 9 were civilian Deobandis wearing fake police uniforms. In Muharram 1986, 7 Shias were killed in Punjab, 4 in Lahore, 3 in Layyah. In July 1987, Shias of Parachinar were attacked by the Afghan Mujahideen again, who were ready to defend and as a result, 52 Shias and 120 attackers died. In 1988, Shia procession was banned in Dera Ismail Khan and 9 unarmed Shia civilians were shot dead while defying the ban. The government had to restore the procession. In the 1988 Gilgit Massacre, Osama bin Laden-led Sunni tribals assaulted, massacred and raped Shia civilians in Gilgit after being inducted by the Pakistan Army to quell a Shia uprising in Gilgit.
It is important to note here that it was not Zia, but Liaquat Ali Khan who had patronised the perpetrators of Lucknow sectarianism and started the process of Islamization. Ayyub Khan not only alienated Bengalis but also promoted a historical narrative of Ghulam Ahmad Pervaiz, a conspiracy theorist who attacked Shias in his books like Shahkaar-e-Risalat. Long before Zia, the two-nation theory of Jinnah had been attributed to Ahmad Sirhindi and Shah Waliullah. These hate preachers were presented as heroes and real founders of Pakistan in Syllabus.
Other significant event was the Islamic revolution of Iran. It indirectly strengthened the Islamists in Pakistan. Molana Maududi's Jamaat-e-Islami shared common ideas of political Islamism. They were the first to support it and publish Khomeini's writings and speeches in Pakistan. Shias did not support this revolution until 1985, when Molana Arif al-Hussaini assumed leadership of the Shia organisation Tehreek-e-Jafariya. Molana Manzoor Ahmad Naumani had been writing against Jamaat-e-Islami for long time. Fearing that this revolution might actually empower Jamaat-i-Islami and the Shias, he obtained funding from Rabta Aalam-i-Islami of Saudi Arabia and wrote a book against Shias and Khomeini. Meanwhile, Molana Nurul Hasan Bukhari and Attaullah Shah Bukhari had died and Taznim-e-Ahle-Sunnat (TAS) was in a bad shape. The need for its re-organization was met by another Deobandi cleric of lower rank, Molana Haq Nawaz Jhangvi from Punjab. With same ideology and support base, he chose the name Anjuman Sipah-e-Sahaba (ASS) and later changed it to Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shia_Islam_in_the_Indian_subcontinent |
Somali Civil War | By mid-1990, United Somali Congress (USC) rebels had captured most towns and villages surrounding Mogadishu, which prompted some to give Barre the ironic title 'Mayor of Mogadishu.' In December the USC entered Mogadishu. Four weeks of battle between Barre's remaining troops and the USC ensued, during which the USC brought more forces into the city. By January 1991, USC rebels defeated the Red Berets, Barre's special forces, toppling Barre's hold on the government. The remainder of the government's forces then finally collapsed. Some became irregular regional forces and clan militias. After the USC's victory over Barre's troops, the other rebel groups declined to cooperate with it, as each instead drew primary support from its own constituency. Among these other opposition movements were the Somali Patriotic Movement (SPM) and Somali Democratic Alliance (SDA), a Gadabuursi group which had been formed in the northwest to counter the Somali National Movement Isaaq militia. For its part, the SNM initially refused to accept the legitimacy of the provisional government that the USC had established, but in March 1991 the SNM's former leader Ahmed Mohamed Silanyo proposed a power-sharing framework between the SNM and USC under a new transitional government.
Many of the opposition groups subsequently began competing for influence in the power vacuum that followed the ousting of Barre's government. In the south, armed factions led by USC commanders General Mohamed Farah Aidid and Ali Mahdi Mohamed, in particular, clashed as each sought to exert authority over the capital.
In the northwest, at the Burao conference of April–May 1991, the SNM declared an independent Republic of Somaliland in the region that had constituted the British Somaliland before independence and unification with the former colony of Italian Somaliland in 1960 electing Abdirahman Ahmed Ali Tuur as president.
Violence flared up in Mogadishu on 17 November 1991, when the Aidid-aligned faction of the USC attacked Mahdi-aligned forces in the city. They seized part of the city, but could not push Mahdi's forces out of northern Mogadishu. In 1992, after four months of heavy fighting for control of Mogadishu, a ceasefire was agreed between Ali Mahdi Mohamed and Mohamed Farah Aideed. Neither had seized control of the capital, and as a result, a 'greenline' was established between east and west that divided their areas of control. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somali_Civil_War |
Banque du Liban | Ottoman domination of Lebanon, which lasted for more than four centuries, was brought to an end on October 6, 1918, with the entry of the Levant Marine Division into Beirut. The paper money issued by the Turkish Treasury, with a forced exchange rate, suffered the same fate.
In order to normalize economic life in the occupied territories and cover the expenses of the allied forces, British authorities imposed the banknotes of the National Bank of Egypt, the Egyptian currency having been, since October 30, 1916, closely linked to sterling and entirely covered by securities issued in sterling.
In accordance with the convention signed between the French and the British governments on September 15, 1919, a new occupying authority started to rule Lebanon. French troops replaced the British, under the command of General Gouraud, who was appointed on October 12, 1919, as "High-Commissioner of the French Republic in Syria and Cilicia, and Commander-in-Chief of the Levant Army". Consequently, the use of the Egyptian currency, suitable for the British Treasury, became inappropriate. To obtain Egyptian pounds, France, being the sole occupying power, had to offer increasing amounts of francs.
During World War I, the French franc had maintained its status thanks to advances from the British and American treasuries. However, in 1919, the French franc registered a drop because of the British government's decision to stop these advances, thus breaking the alliance between the franc, sterling and the dollar, and also because of the United States Government's decision to suspend its regulating role of the associated change rates. In order to replace the Egyptian pound, the French government decided, by Decree N° 129 issued by the High Commissioner on March 13, 1920, to endow Syria with a national currency.
On September 1, 1920, the representative of France proclaimed Great Lebanon. In 1920, the Banque de Syrie et Liban ("Bank of Syria and of Lebanon"), which had been created for that purpose by the French-controlled Ottoman Bank, was granted the concession of issuing the Syrian–Lebanese currency, which became legal tender on May 1, 1920. Banknotes issued by this bank were reimbursable to the bearer or at sight by checks drawn on Paris, at the rate of FF 20 for £S 1 .
As a consequence, an independent, currency-issuing department was established at the Banque de Syrie et Liban. It was responsible for putting in circulation and withdrawing banknotes. Issuances were made either on behalf of the Treasury in Paris or on behalf of the Bank itself.
Concerning commercial operations, the Issuing Department was to provide the Banque de Syrie with banknotes only in exchange of foreign currencies or foreign securities, which constituted, together with the credits granted by the Treasury in Paris, the coverage of the currency in circulation. The Banque de Syrie et du Liban's Issuing Department would later form the basis for the establishment of the Banque du Liban. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banque_du_Liban |
Israel–Hamas war | The attacks took place during the Jewish holidays of Simchat Torah and Shemini Atzeret on Shabbat, and one day after the 50th anniversary of the start of the Yom Kippur War, which also began with a surprise attack on Israel. At around 6:30 a.m. IDT (UTC+03:00) on 7 October 2023, Hamas announced the start of what it called "Operation Al-Aqsa Flood", stating it had fired over 5,000 rockets from the Gaza Strip into Israel within a span of 20 minutes. Israeli sources reported that at least 3,000 projectiles had been launched from Gaza. At least five people were killed by the rocket attacks. Explosions were reported in areas surrounding the strip and in cities in the Sharon plain including Gedera, Herzliya, Tel Aviv, and Ashkelon. Air raid sirens were activated in Beersheba, Jerusalem, Rehovot, Rishon LeZion, and Palmachim Airbase.
Hamas employed tactics such as using aerial drones to disable Israeli observation posts, paragliders for infiltration into Israel, and motorcycles, which was unusual for Hamas. Palestinian militants opened fire on Israeli boats, while clashes broke out between Palestinians and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) along the Gaza perimeter fence. In the evening, Hamas launched another barrage of 150 rockets towards Israel, with explosions reported in Yavne, Givatayim, Bat Yam, Beit Dagan, Tel Aviv, and Rishon LeZion. Simultaneously, around 3,000 Hamas militants infiltrated Israel from Gaza using trucks, motorcycles, bulldozers, speedboats, and paragliders. They took over checkpoints at Kerem Shalom and Erez, and created openings in the border fence in five other places. Hamas militants also carried out an amphibious landing in Zikim.
Militants killed civilians at Nir Oz, Be'eri, and Netiv HaAsara, and other agricultural communities, where they took hostages and set fire to homes. 52 civilians were killed in the Kfar Aza massacre, 108 in the Be'eri massacre (a loss of 10% of the kibbutz's population) and 15 in the Netiv HaAsara massacre. In Sderot, gunmen targeted civilians and set houses ablaze. In Ofakim, hostages were taken during Hamas's deepest incursion. In Be'eri, Hamas militants took up to 50 people hostage. At least 325 people were killed and more injured at an outdoor music festival near Re'im and Hamas took at least 37 attendees hostage. Israeli authorities screened graphic bodycam footage of the Hamas attack for journalists, which included an attempt to decapitate someone and a still image of a decapitated IDF soldier. Around 240 people were taken hostage during the attacks, mostly civilians. Captives in Gaza included children, festivalgoers, peace activists, caregivers, elderly people, and soldiers. Hamas militants also reportedly engaged in mutilation, torture, and sexual and gender-based violence, including rape and sexual assault by Hamas or other Gazan militants.
A briefing in The Economist noted that "the assault dwarf[ed] all other mass murders of Israeli civilians", reasoning that "the last time before October 7th that this many Jews were murdered on a single day was during the Holocaust."
Hamas stated that its attack was a response to the blockade of the Gaza Strip, the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements, rising Israeli settler violence and recent escalations at Al-Aqsa. Intelligence and security officials from multiple Western countries, along with Hamas political officials, claimed that the 7 October attack was a calculated effort to create a "permanent" state of war and revive interest in the Palestinian cause. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel%E2%80%93Hamas_war |
Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel | Prior to the 2008–2009 Gaza War, polls conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR) showed consistently high levels of support for the rocket attacks among the Palestinian public.
September 2004: 75% of Palestinians support "the firing of rockets from Beit Hanoun", though 59% of the residents of Beit Hanoun reject the practice.
July 2006 Jerusalem Media & Communication Centre poll: 60.4% of Palestinians "support the continuation of firing rockets against Israeli targets as a suitable response within the current political conditions", whereas 36% "reject them and find them harmful to the Palestinian national interests".
September 2006: 63% of Palestinians agree "that Palestinians should emulate Hizbullah's methods by launching rockets at Israeli cities", and 35% disagree.
March 2008: 64% of Palestinians support "launching rockets from the Gaza Strip against Israeli towns and cities such as Sderot and Ashkelon", and 33% oppose.
Conversely, polls conducted after the Gaza War indicated weaker support for the attacks and relatively broad support for attempts to prevent them.
January 2010 Palestinian Center for Public Opinion (PCPO) poll: 62.2% of Palestinians oppose "the re-firing of Al-Qassam rockets from Gaza at Israel" while 29.1% are in favor.
July 2010 PCPSR poll: 57% of Palestinians support Hamas attempts to prevent rocket launching against Israeli towns and 38% oppose.
July 2010 Arab World for Research and Development (AWRAD) poll: 68% of Palestinians do not want Hamas to resume its rocket attacks on Israel, while 25.5% believe the attacks should be resumed.
October 2010 PCPO poll: 49.4% of Palestinians oppose "the re-firing of al-Qassam rockets from Gaza at Israel" while 46.2% are in favor.
April 2011 JMCC poll: 38.6% of Palestinians say that "the locally-made rockets fired from Gaza Strip towards Israeli regions" "harm... Palestinian goals" and 25.4% say that the rockets "help... Palestinian goals".
May 2011 PCPO poll: 69.6% of Palestinians oppose the resumption "of launching Al-Qassam missiles from Gaza into Israel" and 29.8% support it.
November 2011 JMCC poll: 40.8% of Palestinians say that the rockets harm Palestinian goals and 27% say that they help Palestinian goals.
December 2012 JMCC poll: 9.7% say that "locally-made rockets fired from Gaza strip towards Israeli regions" harm Palestinian goals and 74% say they help them.
March 2013 JMCC poll: 38% support firing rockets at Israel from the Gaza Strip. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_rocket_attacks_on_Israel |
Economy of Morocco | The shift to an environment-conscious approach in Morocco has brought about scores of investment opportunities, most being in the utility and renewable energy industries. In addition to the rise in sales of photovoltaic panels, the business of wind turbines is also surging despite soaring prices on international markets because of the growing demand. To work towards a programme of sustainable development, a number of technological updates need to be made, including improvements to automobiles, the quality of energy products and increasing the number of renewable energy-producing plants. The government also needs to promote water conservation and efficiency in order to prevent further scarcity. Despite these challenges, Morocco is working to conserve and protect its environment and its efforts were recognised when its Mohammed VI Foundation for Environment won the environmental prize National Energy Globe Award in Brussels in 2007.
While Morocco is already a model of water management in the MENA region, upgrades to its water system under the National Wastewater Management Programme should further improve wastewater treatment and maximise efficient water usage. Authorities are promoting better water rationalisation in agriculture, which uses 80% of water resources, by replacing existing irrigation systems with micro- irrigation and drip networks. A net energy importer, Morocco launched the National Renewable Energy and Efficiency Plan in February 2008 to develop alternative energy to meet 15% of its domestic needs and increase the use of energy-saving methods. It is expected to create more than 40,000 jobs and stimulate over €4.5 billion in investment by 2020. The National Plan for the Development of Solar Thermal Energy, formulated in 2001, aims to install 440,000 solar-powered water heaters by 2012, of which 235,000 are completed.
In May 2009, the World Bank approved a €121m loan to help finance the implementation of the kingdom's solid-waste management programme, which targets a 90% waste disposal rate for urban areas by 2021. The government is taking measures to mitigate the harmful effects of tourism on Morocco's natural resources, while increasing incentives for a growing niche of ecotourism projects. As of January 2008, hotels with good environmental practices will receive a Green Key label as part of a programme by the Mohammed VI Foundation for the Protection of the Environment. Under a ten-year plan for the protection of natural resources, 40,000 to 50,000 ha of forests are replanted annually with indigenous palm trees. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Morocco |
Raphael (archangel) | Raphael (Arabic: إسرافيل, romanized: ʾIsrāfīl, alternate spellings: Israfel, Esrafil) is a venerated archangel according to Islamic tradition. In Islamic eschatology, Israfil will blow the trumpet from a holy rock in Jerusalem to announce the Day of Judgment (Yawm al-Qiyāmah). The trumpet is constantly poised at his lips, ready to be blown when God so orders.
The name "Israfil" (or "Israfel", "Esrafil") is not specifically written in the Quran, although there is mention of an unnamed trumpet-angel assumed to identify this figure:
And the trumpet shall be blown, so all those that are in the heavens and all those that are in the earth shall swoon, except him whom Allah will; then it shall be blown again, then they shall stand up awaiting.
Certain Islamic sources indicate that, created at the beginning of time, Israfil possesses four wings, and is so tall as to be able to reach from the earth to the pillars of heaven. A beautiful angel who is a master of music, Israfil sings praises to God in a thousand different languages, the breath of which is used to inject life into hosts of angels who add to the songs themselves. Further he is probably the highest angel, since he also mediates between God and the other archangels, reading on the Preserved Tablet (al-lawh al-mahfooz) to transmit the commands of God. Although disputed, some reports assert he visited Muhammad prior to the archangel Gabriel.
According to Sufi traditions reported by Imam Rafa'il, the Ghawth or Qutb ('perfect human being'), is someone who has a heart that resembles that of the archangel Israfil, signifying the loftiness of this angel. The next in rank are the saints who are known as the Umdah or Awtad, amongst whom the highest ones have their hearts resembling that of archangel Mikhail (archangel Michael), and the rest of the lower ranking saints having the heart of Jibrail (archangel Gabriel), and that of the previous prophets before the Islamic prophet Muhammad. The earth is believed to always have one of the Qutb.
In another account, Rafāʾīl (Arabic: رفائيل) is mentioned by name in the Islamic tradition narrated by Ath-Tha'labi from Ali. He is said to have met Dhu al-Qarnayn who is mentioned in the last part of Surah 18 of the Quran, al-Kahf ("The Cave"). Dhu al-Qarnayn (The Two Horned One) is believed by some to be Alexander The Great.
The angel told Dhu al-Qarnayn about the Water of Life (Ayn al-Hayat). Hearing that there was such a spring, Dhu al-Qarnayn wanted to drink the Water of Life, but the only one who had succeeded in drinking it was his cousin, Khidr. In Islamic tradition, Khidr is the mystical guide popularly quoted especially in Sufi traditions who has attained a long life and appears to selected Islamic saints throughout the times. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raphael_(archangel) |
United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon | Among Israel's criticisms of UNIFIL are that it maintains dialogue with Hezbollah, which it views as a terrorist organization, and treats Israeli and Hezbollah violations of UNSC Resolution 1701 equally, while Israel views its violations of Lebanese airspace as less severe than Hezbollah's violations including crossings of the blue line and rocket launches, namely because the presence of Hezbollah in southern Lebanon in and of itself is in violation of Resolution 1701. Israel and its primary allies in the west consider Hezbollah to be a terrorist organization and not a legitimate political party or representative of Lebanon. UNIFIL was accused of complicity in the fatal abduction of IDF soldiers in October 2000, and Israel further blamed it for obstructing its investigation by initially denying the existence of the attack and, upon the leaking of the incident's occurrence, refusing to supply videos for several months.
Prior to the July 2006 Lebanon War, Israel had been lobbying for UNIFIL to either take a more active role vis-a-vis Hezbollah—for example, preventing Hezbollah from stationing near UNIFIL posts to fire at the IDF and into northern Israel—or to step out of the region, which would thereby void the Lebanese government's excuse for not deploying Lebanese Armed Forces along the border.
UNIFIL also came under criticism during the 2006 Lebanon War for broadcasting detailed reports of Israeli troop movements, numbers, and positions on their website which "could have exposed Israeli soldiers to grave danger", while making no such reports about Hezbollah. UNIFIL's actions could have been motivated by the fact that Israel was, as a response to Hezbollah rocket fire (which Hezbollah alleges to have been a reaction to Israeli "border violations") and to the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers, conducting a ground invasion of Lebanon at that time. Israel was concerned when it was reported that Indonesia was being considered to replace Italy as commander of UNIFIL's naval force. As Indonesia does not recognize Israel, and the two countries have no diplomatic or military relations, Israel expressed concern that cooperation with the IDF, especially the Israeli Navy, could deteriorate.
A 2010 book published by Norwegian journalist Odd Karsten Tveit revealed that the Norwegian Army was complicit in the escape of two Lebanese men who were arrested by the Israeli Army and being held in Khiam prison. According to the book, in 1992, two detained Lebanese men escaped from Khiam prison. Fearing that they would face torture or execution if caught by the Israel Defense Forces or South Lebanon Army, the soldiers dressed the detainees in UN uniforms, and placed them in a UNIFIL convoy which left Southern Lebanon through Israeli roadblocks. Shortly afterward, Israeli Army commander Moshe Tamir visited the Norwegian battalion's camp, and accused Norwegian commander Hagrup Haukland of "sheltering terrorists". Immediately after the confrontation, the Lebanese men were smuggled onto a bus used by Norwegian peacekeepers on leave, which took them to Beirut. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Interim_Force_in_Lebanon |
Senegal River | Drawing from Classical legend and Arab sources, the "River of Gold" found its way into European maps in the 14th century. In the Hereford Mappa Mundi (c. 1300), there is a river labelled "Nilus Fluvius" drawn parallel to the coast of Africa, albeit without communication with Atlantic (it ends in a lake). It depicts some giant ants digging up gold dust from its sands, with the note "Hic grandes formice auream serican [or servant] arenas" ("Here great ants guard gold sands"). In the mappa mundi made by Pietro Vesconte for the c. 1320 atlas of Marino Sanuto, there is an unnamed river stemming from the African interior and opening in the Atlantic ocean. The 1351 Medici-Laurentian Atlas shows both the Egyptian Nile and the western Nile stemming from the same internal mountain range, with the note that "Ilic coligitur aureaum". The portolan chart of Giovanni da Carignano (1310s-20s) has the river with the label, iste fluuis exit de nilo ubi multum aurum repperitur.
In the more accurately-drawn portolan charts, starting with the 1367 chart of Domenico and Francesco Pizzigano and carried on in the 1375 Catalan Atlas, the 1413 chart of the Catalan converso Mecia de Viladestes, etc. the "River of Gold" is depicted (if only speculatively), draining into the Atlantic Ocean somewhere just south of Cape Bojador. The legend of Cape Bojador as a terrifying obstacle, the 'cape of no return' to European sailors, emerged around the same time (possibly encouraged by Trans-Saharan traders who did not want to see their land route sidestepped by sea).
The river is frequently depicted with a great river island midway, the "Island of Gold", first mentioned by al-Masudi, and famously called "Wangara" by al-Idrisi and "Palolus" in the 1367 Pizzigani brothers chart. It is conjectured that this riverine "island" is in fact just the Bambuk-Buré goldfield district, which is practically surrounded on all sides by rivers - the Senegal river to the north, the Falémé River to the west, the Bakhoy to the east and the Niger and Tinkisso to the south.
The 1413 portolan chart of Mecia de Viladestes gives perhaps the most detailed depiction of the early state of European knowledge about the Senegal River prior to the 1440s. Viladestes labels it "River of Gold" ("riu del or") and locates it a considerable distance south of Cape Bojador (buyeter) - indeed, south of a mysterious "cap de abach" (possibly Cape Timris). There are extensive notes about the plentifulness of ivory and gold in the area, including a note that reads
"This river is called Wad al-Nil and also is called the River of Gold, for one can here obtain the gold of Palolus. And know that the greater part of those that live here occupy themselves collecting gold on the shores of the river which, at its mouth, is a league wide, and deep enough for the largest ship of the world."
The galley of Jaume Ferrer is depicted off the coast on the left, with a quick note about his 1346 voyage. The golden round island at the mouth of the Senegal River is the indication (customary on portolan charts) of river mouth bars or islands - in this case, probably a reference to the Langue de Barbarie or the island of Saint-Louis). The first town, by the mouth of the Senegal, is called "isingan" (arguably the etymological source of the term "Senegal"). East of that, the Senegal forms a riverine island called "insula de bronch" (Île à Morfil). By its shores lies the city of "tocoror" (Takrur). Above it is a depiction of the Almoravid general Abu Bakr ibn Umar ("Rex Bubecar") on a camel. Further east, along the river, is the seated emperor (mansa) of Mali ("Rex Musa Meli", prob. Mansa Musa), holding a gold nugget. His capital, "civitat musa meli" is shown on the shores of the river, and the range of the Emperor of Mali's sway is suggested by all the black banners (an inscription notes "This lord of the blacks is called Musa Melli, Lord of Guinea, the greatest noble lord of these parts for the abundance of the gold which is collected in his lands". Curiously, there is a defiant gold-bannered town south of the river, labelled "tegezeut" (probably the Ta'adjast of al-Idrisi), and might be an ichoate reference to Djenné.
East of Mali, the river forms a lake or "Island of Gold" shown here studded with river-washed gold nuggets (this is what the Pizzigani brothers called the island of "Palolus", and most commentators take to indicate the Bambuk-Buré goldfields). It is connected by many streams to the southerly "mountains of gold" (labelled "montanies del lor", the Futa Djallon/Bambouk Mountains and Loma Mountains of Sierra Leone). It is evident the Senegal river morphs east, unbroken, into the Niger River - the cities of "tenbuch" (Timbuktu), "geugeu" (Gao) and "mayna" (Niamey? or a misplaced Niani?) are denoted along the same single river. South of them (barely visible) are what seem like the towns of Kukiya (on the eastern shore of the Island of Gold), and east of that, probably Sokoto (called "Zogde" in the Catalan Atlas) and much further southeast, probably Kano.
North of the Senegal-Niger are the various oases and stations of the trans-Saharan route ("Tutega" = Tijigja, "Anzica" = In-Zize, "Tegaza" = Taghaza, etc.) towards the Mediterranean coast. There is an unlabeled depiction of a black African man on a camel traveling from "Uuegar" (prob. Hoggar) to the town of "Organa" ("ciutat organa", variously identified as Kanem or Ouargla or possibly even a misplaced depiction of Ghana - long defunct, but, on the other hand, contemporaneous with the depicted Abu Bakr). Nearby sits its Arab-looking king ("Rex Organa") holding a scimitar. The River of Gold is sourced at a circular island, what seem like the Mountains of the Moon (albeit unlabeled here). From this same source also flows north the White Nile towards Egypt, which forms the frontier between the Muslim "king of Nubia" ("Rex Onubia", his range depicted by crescent-on-gold banners) and the Christian Prester John ("Preste Joha"), i.e. the emperor of Ethiopia in the garb of a Christian bishop (coincidentally, this is the first visual depiction of Prester John on a portolan chart).
Uniquely, the Viladestes map shows another river, south of the Senegal, which it labels the "flumen gelica" (poss. angelica), which some have taken to depict the Gambia River. In the 1459 mappa mundi of Fra Mauro, drawn a half-century later, after the Portuguese had already visited the Senegal (albeit still trying to respect Classical sources), shows two parallel rivers running east to west, both of them sourced from the same great internal lake (which, Fra Mauro asserts, is also the same source as the Egyptian Nile). Mauro names the two parallel rivers differently,calling one "flumen Mas ("Mas River"), the other the "canal dal oro" ("Channel of Gold"), and makes the note that "Inne larena de questi do fiume se trova oro de paiola" ("In the sands of both these rivers gold of 'palola' may be found"), and nearer to the sea, "Qui se racoce oro" ("Here gold is collected"), and finally, on the coast, "Terra de Palmear" ("Land of Palms"). It is notable that Fra Mauro knew of the error of Henry the Navigator's captains about the Daklha inlet, which Mauro carefully labels "Reodor" ("Rio do Ouro", Western Sahara), distinctly from the "Canal del Oro" (Senegal River). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senegal_River |
Roman Empire | The Imperial cult of ancient Rome identified emperors and some members of their families with divinely sanctioned authority (auctoritas). The rite of apotheosis (also called consecratio) signified the deceased emperor's deification. The dominance of the emperor was based on the consolidation of powers from several republican offices. The emperor made himself the central religious authority as pontifex maximus, and centralized the right to declare war, ratify treaties, and negotiate with foreign leaders. While these functions were clearly defined during the Principate, the emperor's powers over time became less constitutional and more monarchical, culminating in the Dominate.
The emperor was the ultimate authority in policy- and decision-making, but in the early Principate, he was expected to be accessible and deal personally with official business and petitions. A bureaucracy formed around him only gradually. The Julio-Claudian emperors relied on an informal body of advisors that included not only senators and equestrians, but trusted slaves and freedmen. After Nero, the influence of the latter was regarded with suspicion, and the emperor's council (consilium) became subject to official appointment for greater transparency. Though the Senate took a lead in policy discussions until the end of the Antonine dynasty, equestrians played an increasingly important role in the consilium. The women of the emperor's family often intervened directly in his decisions.
Access to the emperor might be gained at the daily reception (salutatio), a development of the traditional homage a client paid to his patron; public banquets hosted at the palace; and religious ceremonies. The common people who lacked this access could manifest their approval or displeasure as a group at games. By the 4th century, the Christian emperors became remote figureheads who issued general rulings, no longer responding to individual petitions. Although the Senate could do little short of assassination and open rebellion to contravene the will of the emperor, it retained its symbolic political centrality. The Senate legitimated the emperor's rule, and the emperor employed senators as legates (legati): generals, diplomats, and administrators.
The practical source of an emperor's power and authority was the military. The legionaries were paid by the Imperial treasury, and swore an annual oath of loyalty to the emperor. Most emperors chose a successor, usually a close family member or adopted heir. The new emperor had to seek a swift acknowledgement of his status and authority to stabilize the political landscape. No emperor could hope to survive without the allegiance of the Praetorian Guard and the legions. To secure their loyalty, several emperors paid the donativum, a monetary reward. In theory, the Senate was entitled to choose the new emperor, but did so mindful of acclamation by the army or Praetorians. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Empire |
Knights Hospitaller | In 603, Pope Gregory I commissioned the Ravennate Abbot Probus, who was previously Gregory's emissary at the Lombard court, to build a hospital in Jerusalem to treat and care for Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land. In 800, Emperor Charlemagne enlarged Probus' hospital and added a library to it. About 200 years later, in 1009, the Fatimid caliph al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah destroyed the hospital and three thousand other buildings in Jerusalem.
Merchants from Amalfi in southern Italy were given permission by the Egyptian Fatimid Caliph al-Mustansir Billah (r. 1036–1094) to build a monastery in Jerusalem, near the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The monastery, known as the abbey of St Mary of the Latins (to distinguish them from local Syriac Orthodox Church hierarchy), was served by the Order of Saint Benedict and took in Christian pilgrims travelling to visit the Christian holy sites. The increase in the number of pilgrims led the Benedictine monks to establish two hospitals in the late 1060s, one for men and one for women, with the former known as the Hospital of St John. They did this with the support of a wealthy Amalfian named Mauro of Pantaleone. In the early 1070s the hospital was visited by Archbishop John of Amalfi during his pilgrimage. In later centuries, to help raise money in Europe, the Order of St John made claims that the hospital had been founded more than a century before Christ by the high priest Menelaus and the Greek King Antiochus of Jerusalem, with financing from Judas Maccabeus, and that it was first headed by Saint Stephen and had been visited by Christ and the Apostles. A historian of the Order in the 13th century wrote that this version was not true. In any case, the Hospitallers rose to fame and prestige in a short amount of time.
By the time of the success of the First Crusade in 1099, the Hospital of St John was already well known among pilgrims and was regarded as a separate organization from the monastery of St Mary. The monastic brothers at the hospital saw it as their duty to provide the best possible treatment to the poor. They were given an endowment by Godfrey of Bouillon, the leader of the First Crusade, before he died in 1100. The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Ghibbelin of Arles, formally recognized it as a separate entity from the monastery when he reformed the Catholic hierarchy in Palestine, and a step towards this was taken by Pope Paschal II when he recognized the abbey of St Mary as a church of the Holy See, placing it under his protection and exempting it from paying tithes on its land, on 19 June 1112. The monastic Hospitaller Order was formally created when the Pope issued the papal bull Pie postulatio voluntatis on 15 February 1113 to the head of the Hospital of St John, Blessed Gerard de Martigues. The Pope subordinated the hospital to his own authority and exempted it from paying tithes on the lands it owned, and gave the right to its professed brothers to elect their master. He also placed several other hospitals and hospices in southern Italy under the governance of the Hospital of St John in Jerusalem, as they were located at port cities from which pilgrims traveled to the Holy Land.
Gerard acquired territory and revenues for his order throughout the Kingdom of Jerusalem and beyond. Under his successor, Raymond du Puy, the original hospice was expanded to an infirmary and by then was subordinated to the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Around this time the Hospital of St John became connected with that Church, and documents often referred to "the Holy Sepulchre and the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem." Initially, the Hospitallers cared for pilgrims as well as others (including Muslims and Jews) in Jerusalem, but the order soon extended to provide pilgrims with an armed escort before eventually becoming a significant military force. Thus, the Order of St. John imperceptibly became militaristic without losing its charitable character.
It is possible that the Hospital of St John hired knights or foot soldiers after the First Crusade to provide security, before it formally established its own military organization. Knights in western Europe left their horses and weapons to the Hospitallers in their wills in the 1120s, and in the early 1140s Pope Innocent II mentioned that the Hospitallers had "servants" to protect pilgrims. An account from a Hospitaller priest in 16th century stated that as the Order of St John became more wealthy it hired knights to defend its hospitals and pilgrims, and these knights eventually became Hospitallers themselves. It is known that secular knights and soldiers were hired by institutions in Jerusalem to provide protection after 1099, including churches, and some of them later joined military orders. The Order of Knights Templar was founded around 1119-1120 and it is likely that the Hospitallers were inspired by them to have their own knights. A charter made for a gift to the Hospital of St John in a Christian army on 17 January 1126 recorded that a brother from the Order was present as a witness and that he held a military title.
Raymond du Puy, who succeeded Gerard as master of the hospital in 1120, is credited with establishing the military element of the Order. Raymond decided some time before 1136 that Hospitallers could fight to defend the kingdom or to besiege a pagan city. The Knights Hospitaller, like the other military orders, organized its fighting members into the ranks of knight and sergeant. In 1130, Pope Innocent II gave the order its coat of arms, a plain silver cross in a field of red, to differentiate them from the Templars. The other symbol of the Hospitallers, the "eight-pointed cross," is said to have originated in the Byzantine Empire before reaching the Duchy of Amalfi in Italy, and it was later used in Jerusalem by the monks that founded the Hospital of St John. After the Hospitallers moved to Malta, it became known as the Maltese cross.
King Fulk of Jerusalem constructed several castles to defend the kingdom's southern border from attacks by the Fatimid garrison at Ascalon, and allowed the Hospitallers to manage one of them in 1136, the castle of Bethgibelin. This castle also allowed them to defend the pilgrim route between Jaffa and Jerusalem. Later in the century, the Hospitallers were given control over more castles in Syria than they had in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. In the next several decades after 1136 the Order was granted more castles and towns by nobles that needed assistance in defending them, especially in the County of Tripoli and the Principality of Antioch. Those notably included the Krak des Chevaliers in 1142, which they received from Raymond II, Count of Tripoli. According to one estimate the Hospitallers had 25 castles as of 1180. In addition to defending them, the Hospitallers also undertook construction projects to build new castles or repair and expand existing ones, with an example of the latter being Krak des Chevaliers.
One of the first battles that the Knights Hospitaller fought in was the Siege of Ascalon in 1153. After a group of Knights Templar, led by their Grand Master, Bernard de Tremelay, entered the besieged fortress and were all killed, King Baldwin III of Jerusalem wanted to withdraw, but Raymond du Puy convinced him to continue, and the fort surrendered to the Crusaders on 22 August 1153. It is not clear if the role of the Hospitallers was only advisory or if they were involved in the fighting at Ascalon.
The Hospitallers and the Knights Templar became the most formidable military orders in the Holy Land. Frederick Barbarossa, the Holy Roman Emperor, pledged his protection to the Knights of St. John in a charter of privileges granted in 1185.
The statutes of Roger de Moulins (1187) deal only with the service of the sick; the first mention of military service is in the statutes of the ninth grand master, Fernando Afonso of Portugal (about 1200). In the latter, a marked distinction is made between secular knights, externs to the order, who served only for a time, and the professed knights, attached to the order by a perpetual vow, and who alone enjoyed the same spiritual privileges as the other religious. The order numbered three distinct classes of membership: the military brothers, the brothers infirmarians, and the brothers chaplains, to whom was entrusted the divine service.
In 1248, Pope Innocent IV (1243–1254) approved a standard military dress for the Hospitallers to be worn during battle. Instead of a closed cape over their armour (which restricted their movements), they wore a red surcoat with a white cross emblazoned on it.
Many of the more substantial Christian fortifications in the Holy Land were built by the Templars and the Hospitallers. At the height of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the Hospitallers held seven great forts and 140 other estates in the area. The two largest of these, their bases of power in the Kingdom and in the Principality of Antioch, were the Krak des Chevaliers and Margat in Syria. The property of the Order was divided into priories, subdivided into bailiwicks, which in turn were divided into commanderies.
As early as the late 12th century, the order had begun to achieve recognition in the Kingdom of England and Duchy of Normandy. As a result, buildings such as St John's Jerusalem and the Knights Gate, Quenington in England were built on land donated to the order by local nobility. An Irish house was established at Kilmainham, near Dublin, and the Irish Prior was usually a key figure in Irish public life.
The Knights also received the "Land of Severin" (Terra de Zeurino), along with the nearby mountains, from Béla IV of Hungary, as shown by a charter of grant issued on 2 June 1247. The Banate of Severin was a march, or border province, of the Kingdom of Hungary between the Lower Danube and the Olt River, today part of Romania, and back then bordered across the Danube by a powerful Bulgarian Empire. The Hospitaller hold on the Banate was only brief. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_Hospitaller |
Mihrab | The origin of the word miḥrāb is complicated and multiple explanations have been proposed by different sources and scholars. It may come from Old South Arabian (possibly Sabaic) 𐩣𐩢𐩧𐩨 mḥrb meaning a certain part of a palace, as well as "part of a temple where 𐩩𐩢𐩧𐩨 tḥrb (a certain type of visions) is obtained," from the root word 𐩢𐩧𐩨 ḥrb "to perform a certain religious ritual (which is compared to combat or fighting and described as an overnight retreat) in the 𐩣𐩢𐩧𐩨 mḥrb of the temple." It may also possibly be related to Ethiopic ምኵራብ məkʷrab "temple, sanctuary," whose equivalent in Sabaic is 𐩣𐩫𐩧𐩨 mkrb of the same meaning, from the root word 𐩫𐩧𐩨 krb "to dedicate" (cognate with Akkadian 𒅗𒊒𒁍 karābu "to bless" and related to Hebrew כְּרוּב kerūḇ "cherub (either of the heavenly creatures that bound the Ark in the inner sanctuary)").
Arab lexicographers traditionally derive the word from the Arabic root ح ر ب (Ḥ-R-B) relating to "war, fighting or anger," (which, though cognate with the South Arabian root, does not however carry any relation to religious rituals) thus leading some to interpret it to mean a "fortress", or "place of battle (with Satan)," the latter due to mihrabs being private prayer chambers. The latter interpretation though bears similarity to the nature of the 𐩢𐩧𐩨 ḥrb ritual.
The word mihrab originally had a non-religious meaning and simply denoted a special room in a house; a throne room in a palace, for example. The Fath al-Bari (p. 458), on the authority of others, suggests the mihrab is "the most honorable location of kings" and "the master of locations, the front and the most honorable." The Mosques in Islam (p. 13), in addition to Arabic sources, cites Theodor Nöldeke and others as having considered a mihrab to have originally signified a throne room.
The term was subsequently used by the Islamic prophet Muhammad to denote his own private prayer room. The room additionally provided access to the adjacent mosque, and Muhammad entered the mosque through this room. This original meaning of mihrab – i.e. as a special room in the house – continues to be preserved in some forms of Judaism where mihrabs are rooms used for private worship. In the Qur'an, the word (when in conjunction with the definite article) is mostly used to indicate the Holy of Holies. The term is used, for example, in the verse "then he [i.e.
Zechariah] came forth to his people from the mihrab"[19:11].: 4 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mihrab |
Brethren of Purity | Among the Isma'ili groups and missionaries who favored the Encyclopedia, authorship was sometimes ascribed to one or another "Hidden Imam"; this theory is recounted in al-Qifti's biographical compendium of philosophers and doctors, the "Chronicle of the Learned" (Akhbār al-Hukamā or Tabaqāt-al-Hukamā).
Some modern scholars have argued for an Ismaili origin to the writings. Ian Richard Netton writes that: "The Ikhwan's concepts of exegesis of both Quran and Islamic tradition were tinged with the esoterism of the Ismailis." According to Yves Marquet, "It seems indisputable that the Epistles represent the state of Ismaili doctrine at the time of their compositions". Bernard Lewis was more cautious, ranking the Epistles among books which, though "closely related to Ismailism" may not actually have been Ismaili, despite their batini inspiration. Ibn Qifti (d.646/1248), reporting in the 7th/13th century in Taʾrīkh ḥukamāʾ al-islām (p. 82) that, "Opinions differed about the authors of the Epistles. Some people attributed to an Alid Imam, proffering various names, whereas other put forward as author some early Mutazilite theologians."
Among Syrian Ismailis, the earliest reference to the Encyclopedia and its relation with the Ismailis is given in the Kitab Fusul wa'l Akhbar by Nurudin bin Ahmad (d. 233/849). Another important work, Al-Usul wa'l-Ahkam by Abu l-Ma'ali Hatim bin Imran bin Zuhra (d. 498/1104), writes that, "These da'is, and other da'is with them, collaborated in composing long Epistles, fifty-two in number, on various branches of learning." It implies the Epistles being the product of the joint efforts of the Ismaili da'is.
Among the Yemenite traces, the earliest reference of the Epistles is found in the fragments of "Sirat Ibn Hawshab" by Ja'far ibn Mansur al-Yaman, who writes: "He (Imam Wafi Ahmed) 8th Imam of Ismaili sect went through many a difficulty and fear and the destruction of his family, whose description cannot be lengthier, until he issued (ansa'a) the Epistles and was contacted by a man called Abu Gafir from among his dais. He charged him with the mission as was necessary and asked him to keep his identity concealed." This source not only asserts the connection of the Epistles with the Ismailis, but also indicates that the Imam himself was not the sole author (sahibor mu'allif), but only the issuer or presenter (al-munsi). It suggests that the text of the philosophical deliberations was given a final touching by the Imam, and the approved text was delivered to Abu Gafir to be forwarded possibly to the Ikhwan in Basra secretly. Since the orthodox circles and the ruling power had portrayed a wrong image of Ismailism, the names of the (six) compilers were concealed.
Notwithstanding the uncertainties in the source, the prominent members of the secret association seem to have included Abul Hasan al-Tirmizi, Abdullah bin Mubarak, Abdullah bin Hamdan, Abdullah bin Maymun, Sa'id bin Hussain. The other Yemenite source connecting the Epistles with the Ismailis was the writing of the Tayyibi Isma'ili Da'i al-Mutlaq Ibrahim ibn al-Husayn al-Hamidi (d. 557/1162), who wrote Kanz al-Walad. After him, there followed Al-Anwar al-Latifa by Muhammad ibn Tahir (d. 584/1188), Tanbih al-Ghafilin by Hatim ibn Ibrahim (d. 596/1199), Damigh al-Batil wa hatf ul-Munaazil by Ali ibn Muhammad ibn al-Walid al-Anf (d. 612/1215), "Risalat al-Waheeda" by al-Hussayn ibn Ali (d. 667/1268) and Uyun al-Akhbar by Idris Imad al-Din (d. 872/1468) etc. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brethren_of_Purity |
Islam in Armenia | The Ottoman Empire ruled in accordance to Islamic law. As such, the People of the Book (the Christians and the Jews) had to pay a tax to fulfill their status as dhimmi and in return were guaranteed religious autonomy. While the Armenians of Constantinople benefitted from the Sultan's support and grew to be a prospering community, the same could not be said about the ones inhabiting historic Armenia. During times of crisis the ones in the remote regions of mountainous often also had to suffer (alongside the settled Muslim population) raids by nomadic Kurdish tribes. Armenians, like the other Ottoman Christians (though not to the same extent), had to transfer some of their healthy male children to the Sultan's government due to the devshirme policies in place.
During the Ottoman period many Armenians were forced to convert to Islam throughout Western Armenia through massacres, social pressure, and harsh taxation. Many conversions were noted across eastern Anatolia, particularly in Hamshen, Yusufeli, Tortum, İspir, Bayburt, Erzincan. Notably a mass conversion to Islam was described by Armenian cleric Hakob (Yakob) Karnetsi. In the region of Tayk centered around Tortum, a Muslim cleric named Mullah Jaffar was given charge from the Ottoman government to take census of the Erzurum province and to levy taxes. After Mullah Jaffar placed excessively heavy taxes, the Chalcedonian Armenians who belonged to the Georgian Orthodox Church and made up half of the population in the Tortum valley converted to Islam while the Apostolic Armenians did not, as described by Karnetsi.
In the region of İspir (Sper in Armenian), 100 Armenian villages were burned down in 1723 and much of the population was converted to Islam by force. In the region of Yusufeli (Pertakrak in Armenian), Armenian Catholic priest Inchichian writes that most of the Muslim population was Armenian in origin but had converted to Islam to escape heavy taxation and oppression in the early 1700s; Inchichian visited the village of Khewag (Yaylalar) and met Islamized Armenians in the village. The Armenians of Yusufeli were mostly Chalcedonian like the Armenians of Tortum before their islamization. In the province of Urfa, there were three Islamized Armenian villages recorded to have been speaking a dialect that was similar to classical Armenian. Inchichian also wrote that the region of Kemah in Erzincan used to be Armenian and that its Muslim inhabitants were also of Islamized Armenian descent.
In the early 1500s, the Ottomans brutally enforced taxation by massacring 10,000 Armenians in Bayburt, Erzincan, Ispir, Erzurum, and forcibly converted another 50,000 to Islam. In the region of Dersim, the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople reported that groups of Armenians had converted to Alevi Islam and had assimilated with Kurdish Zazas who had migrated to Armenia during Ottoman rule. similarly in the region of Palu some Armenian villages converted to Sunni Islam and assimilated into the Sunni Zaza community.
Periodic forced conversions created a class of crypto-Christian Armenians called Kes-kes (Half-half) who practiced both Christian and Muslim rituals. The Armenians who converted to Islam lost their Armenian identity because they switched millets, but many kept the Armenian language and culture. In eastern Anatolia, however, they were eventually Turkified except for the Armenians of Hamshen who kept their language in the isolated Pontic Mountains until Turkish Muslim schools were opened in the 1800s and the western Hemshin became Turkified as the Armenian language was condemned as sinful by Muslim teachers. In Turkey only the Hopa Hemshin have preserved their language, which constitutes the Homshetsi dialect of Armenian, in the modern era.
During the Hamidian massacres when Kurdish tribes were incited by the Ottoman government to attack and destroy Armenian settlements many Armenian were forced to convert to Islam throughout eastern Anatolia. In Diyarbakir 20,000 were converted, while many also converted in Mush, Van, and Erzurum. Although some converted back to Christianity after the massacres ended, many remained Muslims and became Kurdified and Turkified. In the region of Sivas in the early 19th century many Armenian villages were forcefully converted to Islam by the local government. The village of Cancova (Cancik) in Zara was a village of 400 Armenian families in 1877, but only 48 families remained Christian by the 20th century. The Catholic Armenians of Perkinik has reported that their neighboring village of Glkhategh (now Uzuntepe) was an Armenian village and the Armenians were forcibly converted to Islam and Turkified.
During the Armenian genocide of 1915, many Armenians converted to Islam to escape deportation and massacre. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_Armenia |
China–Somalia relations | Following the establishment of the Federal Government of Somalia in mid-2012, the Chinese authorities reaffirmed their support for the Somali government and called on the international community to strengthen its commitment to the Somali peace process. China's Permanent Representative to the UN, Li Baodong, also emphasized his administration's support for the Somali federal government's stabilization plan, including the latter's efforts at "implementing an interim Constitution, carrying out its six-point plan, strengthening institutional capacity, exercising government functions and extending effective authority over all its national territory."
In August 2013, follow a meeting with Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang, Somalia's Foreign Minister Fowziya Yusuf Haji Adan announced that the Somali authorities looked forward to cooperation with the Chinese government in the energy, infrastructure, national security and agriculture sectors, among others. Wang also praised the traditional friendship between both nations and re-affirmed China's commitment to the Somali peace process.
In June 2014, during the Arab-China Summit in Beijing, Somali Foreign Minister Abdirahman Duale Beyle met with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi to discuss bilateral cooperation between Somalia and China. The meeting was held at the Chinese foreign ministry center and focused on trade, security and reconstruction. Among the issues discussed were the various Chinese development projects that were in the process of being implemented in Somalia. Beyle also indicated that the Chinese authorities were slated to broaden their support for Somalia, which would serve to create new employment opportunities. Additionally, Wang commended the Somali federal government on its peace-building efforts. He likewise reaffirmed the historically close diplomatic ties between both territories, recalling China's recognition of the nascent Somali Republic in 1960 and Somalia's subsequent campaigning which helped China obtain a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council. On 30 June 2014, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei announced that China would dispatch a diplomatic team on 1 July to reopen the Chinese embassy in Mogadishu. He described the move as both recognition that the Somali authorities were making progress in their national reconstruction efforts and a symbol of the importance that the Chinese government attaches to its bilateral relations with Somalia. On 3 July 2014, Chargé d'Affaires of the Embassy of the People's Republic of China Wei Hongtian presented his credentials to Foreign Minister of Somalia Abdirahman Duale Beyle at an event in the Somali capital. Beyle similarly hailed the appointment as a sign of the nation's strengthening security and foreign diplomatic relations. On 12 October 2014, the new Chinese embassy officially opened in Mogadishu. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China%E2%80%93Somalia_relations |
Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church | The Ethiopian Church places a heavier emphasis on Old Testament teachings than one might find in Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic or Protestant churches, and its followers adhere to certain practices that one finds in Orthodox or Conservative Judaism. Ethiopian Christians, like some other Eastern Christians, traditionally follow dietary rules that are similar to Jewish Kashrut, specifically with regard to the slaughter of animals. Similarly, pork is prohibited, though unlike Rabbinical Kashrut, Ethiopian cuisine does mix dairy products with meat, which in turn makes it even closer to Karaite and Islamic dietary laws (see Halal). Women are prohibited from entering the church temple during menses; they are also expected to cover their hair with a large scarf (or shash) while in church, as described in 1 Corinthians, chapter 11. As with Orthodox synagogues, men and women sit separately in the Ethiopian church, with men on the left and women on the right (when facing the altar). (Women covering their heads and separation of the sexes in churches officially is common to few other Christian traditions; it is also the rule in some non-Christian religions, Islam and Orthodox Judaism among them).
Before praying, the Ethiopian Orthodox wash their hands and face, in order to be clean before and present their best to God; shoes are removed in order to acknowledge that one is offering prayer before a holy God. Ethiopian Orthodox worshippers remove their shoes when entering a church temple, in accordance with Exodus 3:5 (in which Moses, while viewing the burning bush, was commanded to remove his shoes while standing on holy ground). Furthermore, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church upholds a form of Sabbatarianism, observing the seventh-day Sabbath (Saturday), in addition to the Lord's Day (Sunday), although more emphasis, because of the Resurrection of Christ, is laid upon Sunday.
The Ethiopian Church does not call for circumcision, yet it is a cultural practice. It is not regarded as being necessary to salvation. The liturgy explicitly mentions, "let us not be circumcised like the Jews."
The Ethiopian Orthodox Church prescribes several kinds of hand washing and traditionally follow rituals that are similar to Jewish netilat yadayim, for example after leaving the latrine, lavatory or bathhouse, or before prayer, or after eating a meal. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church observes days of ritual purification. People who are ritually unclean may approach the church but are not permitted to enter it; they instead stand near the church door and pray during the liturgy.
Rugare Rukuni and Erna Oliver identify the Nine Saints as Jewish Christians, and attribute the Judaic character of Ethiopian Christianity, in part, to their influence.: 6, 8 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopian_Orthodox_Tewahedo_Church |
Byzantine music | The characteristic of these books is that their collection were over-regional. The probably oldest fully notated chant book is the heirmologion of the Great Lavra on Mount Athos (GR-AOml Ms. β 32) which has been written about the turn to the 11th century. With 312 folios it has much more canons than later redactions notated in Middle Byzantine notation. It was notated in archaic Chartres notation and was organised in canon order. Each canon within an echos section was numbered through and has detailed ascriptions concerning the feast and the author who was believed to have composed poetry and music of the heirmos:
In exceptional cases, some of these canons were marked as prosomoia and written out with notation. In comparison, later heirmologia just notated the heirmoi with the text they were remembered (referred by an incipit), while the akrosticha composed over the model of the heirmos had been written in the text book menaion. Already the famous heirmologion of Paris, Ms. 220 of the fonds Coislin which gave the name to "Coislin notation" and written about 100 years later, seems to collect almost half the number of heirmoi. But within many heirmoi there are one or even two alternative versions (ἄλλος "another one") inserted directly after certain odes, not just with different neumes, but also with different texts. It seems that several former heirmoi of the same author or written for the same occasion had been summarised under one heirmos and some of the odes of the canon could be replaced by others. But the heirmoi for one and the same feast offered the option to singers to choose between different schools (the Sabaite represented by Andrew, Cosmas and John "the monk" and his nephew Stephen, the Constantinopolitan represented by Patriarch Germanos, and the one of Jerusalem by George of Nicomedia and Elias), different echoi, and even different heirmoi of the same author.
Apart from this canonisation which can be observed in the process of redaction between the 12th and 14th centuries, one should also note that the table above compares two different redactions between the 11th and 12th centuries: the one of Constantinople and Athos (Chartres notation) and another one at the scriptoria of Jerusalem (especially the Patriarchate and the Monastery of Saint Sabbas) and Sinai within the Patriarchate of Alexandria written in Coislin notation. Within the medium of Middle Byzantine notation which combined signs stemming from both Old Byzantine notation systems, there was a later process of unification during the 14th century, which combined both redactions, a process which was preceded by the dominance of Coislin notation by the end of the 12th century, when the more complex Chartres notation came out of use, even at Constantinopolitan scriptoria. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_music |
Mamluk Sultanate | Selim I, the new Ottoman sultan, defeated the Safavids decisively at the Battle of Chaldiran in 1514. Soon after, he attacked and defeated the Dulkadirids, a Mamluk vassal, for refusing to aid him against the Safavids. Secure now against Ismail I, in 1516 he drew together a great army aiming at conquering Egypt, but to obscure the fact he presented the mobilisation of his army as being part of the war against Ismail I. The war started in 1516 which led to the later incorporation of Egypt and its dependencies in the Ottoman Empire, with Mamluk cavalry proving no match for the Ottoman artillery and the janissaries. On 24 August 1516, at the Battle of Marj Dabiq, the Ottomans were victorious against an army led by al-Ghuri himself. Khayr Bak, the governor of Aleppo, had secretly conspired with Selim and betrayed al-Ghuri, leaving with his troops part-way during the battle. In the subsequent chaos, al-Ghuri was killed. The surviving Mamluk forces returned to Aleppo but were denied entry to the city and marched back to Egypt, harassed along the way. Syria passed into Ottoman possession, and the Ottomans were welcomed in many places as deliverance from the Mamluks.
The Mamluk Sultanate survived a little longer until 1517. Tuman Bay, whom al-Ghuri had left as deputy in Cairo, was hastily and unanimously proclaimed sultan on 10 October 1516. The emirs rejected his plan to confront the next Ottoman advance at Gaza, so instead he prepared a final defense at al-Raydaniyya to the north of Cairo. In the early days of 1517, Tuman Bay received news that a Mamluk army was defeated at Gaza. The Ottoman attack at al-Raydaniyya overwhelmed the defenders on 22 January 1517 and reached Cairo. Over the following days, furious fighting continued between Mamluks, locals, and Ottomans, resulting in much damage to the city and three days of pillaging. Selim proclaimed an amnesty on 31 January, at which point many of the remaining Mamluks surrendered. Tuman Bay fled to Bahnasa in Middle Egypt with some of his remaining forces.
Selim initially offered the Mamluk sultan peace as an Ottoman vassal, but his messengers were intercepted and killed by mamluks. Tuman Bay, with 4,000 cavalry and some 8,000 infantry, confronted the Ottomans in a final bloody battle near Giza on 2 April 1517, where he was defeated and captured. Selim intended to spare him, but Khayr Bak and Janbirdi al-Ghazali, another former Mamluk commander, persuaded the Ottoman sultan that Tuman Bay was too dangerous to keep alive. Accordingly, the last Mamluk sultan was executed by hanging at Bab Zuwayla, one of Cairo's gates, on 13 April 1517. In reward for his betrayal at Marj Dabiq, Selim installed Khayr Bak as Ottoman governor of Egypt. Janbirdi was appointed governor of Damascus. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mamluk_Sultanate |
Gaza War (2008–2009) | At 11:30 am on 27 December 2008, Israel launched the campaign titled Operation Cast Lead. It began with an opening wave of airstrikes in which F-16 fighter jets and AH-64 Apache attack helicopters simultaneously struck 100 preplanned targets within a span of 220 seconds. There was a 95% success rate with zero misses in the opening attack according to the Israeli Air Force. Thirty minutes later, a second wave of 64 jets and helicopters struck at an additional 60 targets. The air strikes hit Hamas headquarters, government offices and 24 police stations. An Israeli UAV airstrike on the police headquarters of Gaza City killed 40 people, including several dozen police cadets at their graduation ceremony. Approximately 140 members of Hamas were killed, including Tawfik Jaber, head of Gaza's police force. Another estimate puts the death toll of the police academy strike at 225 Hamas militants killed and 750 injured. Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told reporters that Israel would strike all targets associated with what she called the "illegitimate, terrorist government of Hamas".
At least 225–230 Palestinians were killed and more than 700 injured on the first day of air strikes. Civilians, including children, were among the casualties. Although media reported that most of the dead were "Hamas security forces" or "Hamas operatives", police officers are, according to B'Tselem, presumed to be civilians and likely not legitimate objects of attack under international humanitarian law. Human rights groups critically note that the attacks began around the time children were leaving school. The Israeli attack was the deadliest one-day death toll in 60 years of conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians, a day that was called the "Massacre of Black Saturday" by Palestinians in Gaza. Hamas responded with a rocket barrage on Southern Israel, and Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip kept Southern Israel under constant rocket fire during the entire war. Beersheba suffered two rocket attacks, the farthest Palestinian rockets had ever reached. Palestinian rocket fire killed three Israeli civilians and one soldier in the early days of the conflict.
In the weeks following the initial air raids F-16Is and AH-64 Apaches continued to target Hamas facilities while also inflicting severe damage to Palestinian infrastructure. Israel used the 2000-pound Mark 84 Joint Direct Attack Munition to attack buildings and tunnels along the Gaza-Sinai border. The 500-pound variant was used against underground bunkers. Israel also used the new PB500A1 laser-guided hard-target penetration bomb, which was developed by Israel Military Industries, and is based on the 1000-pound Mark 83. There were unconfirmed reports of the IAF also using the GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb for the first time. Israeli aircraft also used synthetic aperture radar targeting pods and high-resolution imaging pods. After being grounded six months prior, the Israeli fleet of AH-1F Cobra helicopter gunships were rushed back into service for the operation.
According to the IAF, 80% of the bombs used by the IAF were precision weapons, and 99% of the air strikes hit their targets. A study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies points out that when possible, IAF executed strikes using the smallest precision-guided weapons, and coordinated air strikes and the use of artillery weapons using GPS, in a systematic effort to limit collateral damage. In a 2009 interview, Major General Ido Nehushtan said that the only use of non-precision-guided munitions from the Israeli Air Force was in open areas. He went on to say: "We had to find ways to do things as precisely and proportionately as possible, while focusing on how to differentiate between terrorists and uninvolved civilians."
The IDF also targeted homes of Hamas commanders, noting: "Destruction of hundreds of Hamas leaders' homes [is] one of the keys to the offensive's success. The homes serve as weapons warehouses and headquarters, and shelling them has seriously hindered Hamas capabilities." Several high-ranking Hamas commanders were killed, including Nizar Rayan, Abu Zakaria al-Jamal, and Jamal Mamduch. Hamas leaders often died along with their families in their homes. According to a Hamas spokesperson and Rayyan's son, the IDF warned Rayan, by contacting his cell phone, that an attack on his house was imminent. Israel alleged that Hamas leaders hid in the basements of the Shifa Hospital complex in Gaza City in the belief that they would be protected by human shields. Hamas Interior Minister Said Seyam, Hamas Interior Ministry Security Director Saleh Abu Sharkh, and local Hamas militia leader Mahmoud Abu Watfah were killed on 15 January in an Israeli airstrike in Jabalia.
Among IDF's measures to reduce civilian casualties were the extensive use of leaflets and phone messages to warn Palestinians, including families in high-risk areas and families of Hamas personnel, to leave the area or to avoid potential targets. Israel used A-4 Skyhawks to deliver more than 2 million leaflets urging the population to evacuate. In a practice codenamed roof knocking, the IDF issued warning calls before air strikes on civilian buildings. Typically, Israeli intelligence officers and Shin Bet security servicemen contacted residents of a building in which they suspected storage of military assets and told them that they had 10–15 minutes to flee the attack. At several instances, the IDF has also used a sound bomb to warn civilians before striking homes. In some cases, IDF commanders called off airstrikes, when residents of suspected houses have been able to gather on its roof. IAF developed small bomb that is designed not to explode as it was aimed at empty areas of the roofs to frighten residents into leaving the building. Israel's military used low-explosive missiles to warn civilians of imminent attack and to verify that buildings were evacuated before attacks. Some of the attacks took place sooner than the warning suggested and many calls were not followed up with attacks.
By 3 January 2009, the Palestinian death toll stood at 400, with 25% estimated to be civilian casualties. The air offensive continued throughout the ground invasion that followed, and as of 15 January Israeli forces had carried out 2,360 air strikes. No safe haven or bomb shelters existed, making this one of the rare conflicts where civilians had no place to flee. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaza_War_(2008%E2%80%932009) |
Assyria | The main evidence concerning the lives of ordinary women in ancient Assyria is in administrative documents and law codes. There was no legal distinction between men and women in the Old Assyrian period and they had more or less the same rights in society. Since several letters written by women are known from the Old Assyrian period, it is evident that women were free to learn how to read and write. Both men and women paid the same fines, could inherit property, participated in trade, bought, owned, and sold houses and slaves, made their own last wills, and were allowed to divorce their partners. Records of Old Assyrian marriages confirm that the dowry to the bride belonged to her, not the husband, and it was inherited by her children after her death. Although they were equal legally, men and women in the Old Assyrian period were raised and socialized differently and had different social expectations and obligations. Typically, girls were raised by their mothers, taught to spin, weave, and help with daily tasks and boys were taught trades by masters, later often following their fathers on trade expeditions. Sometimes the eldest daughter of a family was consecrated as a priestess. She was not allowed to marry and became economically independent.
Wives were expected to provide their husbands with garments and food. Although marriages were typically monogamous, husbands were allowed to buy a female slave in order to produce an heir if his wife was infertile. The wife was allowed to choose that slave and the slave never gained the status of a second wife. Husbands who were away on long trading journeys were allowed to take a second wife in one of the trading colonies, although with strict rules that must be followed: the second wife was not allowed to accompany him back to Assur and both wives had to be provided with a home to live in, food, and wood.
The status of women decreased in the Middle Assyrian period, as can be gathered from laws concerning them among the Middle Assyrian Laws. Among these laws were punishments for various crimes, often sexual or marital ones. Although they did not deprive women of all their rights and they were not significantly different from other ancient Near Eastern laws of their time, the Middle Assyrian Laws effectively made women second-class citizens. However, it is not clear how strongly these laws were enforced. These laws gave men the right to punish their wives as they wished. Among the harshest punishments written into these laws, for a crime not even committed by the woman, was that a raped woman would be forcibly married to her rapist. These laws also specified that certain women were obliged to wear veils while out on the street, marital status being the determining factor. Some women, such as slave women and ḫarımtū women, were prohibited from wearing veils and others, such as certain priestesses, were only allowed to wear veils if they were married.
Not all laws were suppressive against women; women whose husbands died or were taken prisoner in war, and who did not have any sons or relatives to support them, were guaranteed support from the government. The ḫarımtū women have historically been believed to have been prostitutes, but today, are interpreted as women with an independent social existence, i.e. not tied to a husband, father, or institution. Although most ḫarımtū appear to have been poor, there were noteworthy exceptions. The term appears with negative connotations in several texts. Their mere existence makes it clear that it was possible for women to live independent lives, despite their lesser social standing during that period.
During the Neo-Assyrian period that followed, royal and upper-class women experienced increased influence. Women attached to the Neo-Assyrian royal court sent and received letters, were independently wealthy, and could buy and own lands of their own. The queens of the Neo-Assyrian Empire are better attested historically than queens of preceding periods of the culture. Under the Sargonid dynasty, they were granted their own military units, sometimes they are known to have partaken alongside other units in military campaigns.
Among the most influential women of the Neo-Assyrian period were Shammuramat, queen of Shamshi-Adad V (r. 824–811 BC), who in the reign of her son Adad-nirari III (r. 811–783 BC) might have been regent and participated in military campaigns. Another is Naqi'a, who influenced politics in the reigns of Sennacherib, Esarhaddon, and Ashurbanipal. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assyria |
FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup | The first world cup of beach soccer was held in Brazil, in 1995, organised by the precursors to the modern-day founders of the standardised rules, Beach Soccer Worldwide, held under the title Beach Soccer World Championships. The last edition took place in 2004.
In 2005, FIFA paired up with BSWW to co-organise a new world cup competition under FIFA's name. They kept the tradition of holding the world cup in Rio de Janeiro and continued to allow 12 teams to participate, following on from the 2004 competition. It was Eric Cantona's France that won the competition after beating Portugal on penalties in the final.
The tournament was deemed a "major success" and therefore, for the 2006 competition and beyond, FIFA decided to standardise the participants to 16 countries. It was then that the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup qualifiers were also established that would take place throughout the year.
By the end of the 2007 World Cup, the tournament had become more popular, with the FIFA board taking over the competition, driving more countries to recognize beach soccer as a "major" sport. FIFA decided to have a change of venue. It was voted to extend the sport's popularity that the 2008 World Cup would take place in Marseille, France, and the 2009 World Cup would take place in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. These tournaments would be the first to take place outside Brazil.
The 2008 competition was the first time that Brazil would have to qualify for the tournament since they weren't the hosts. The 2009 World Cup is the Beach Soccer World Cup's 15th birthday, with Brazil continuing their dominance.
Before the final of the 2009 World Cup, FIFA announced that a new format would see the World Cup now take place every two years, starting from the 2011 World Cup. FIFA justified the decision by stating that they wanted Confederations to have more time to develop the sport, therefore allowing a year in between World Cups for Confederations to organise their own local tournaments. This was a mutual decision between the confederations and FIFA. In March 2010 FIFA confirmed that the 2011 World Cup would take place in Italy and the 2013 World Cup would take place in Tahiti.
In 2013, FIFA extended the FIFA Champions Badge to the winners of the competition, where it was won by Russia. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_Beach_Soccer_World_Cup |
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Long, Matthew (2011). Islamic Beliefs, Practices, and Cultures. Marshall Cavendish Corporation. ISBN 978-0-7614-7926-0. Retrieved 2 September 2014.
Maariful Quran (exegesis of the Quran) by Muhammad Shafi Usmani. Karachi.
Nigosian, S. A. (2004). Islam: Its History, Teaching, and Practices. Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-21627-3.
Rassool, G.Hussein, ed. (2014). Cultural Competence in Caring for Muslim Patients. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9781137358417
Shibli Nomani. Sirat-un-Nabi. Lahore.
Stefon, Matt, ed. (2010). Islamic Beliefs and Practices. New York: Britannica Educational Publishing. ISBN 978-1-61530-060-0. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morality_in_Islam |
Abu Bakr al-Razi | This is al-Razi's most famous book. Here he gives systematic attention to basic chemical operations important to the history of pharmacy. In this book al-Razi divides the subject of "matter' into three categories, as in his previous book Al-Asrar.
Knowledge and identification of the medical components within substances derived from plants, animals, and minerals, and descriptions of the best types for medical treatments.
Knowledge of equipment and tools of interest to and used by either alchemists or apothecaries.
Knowledge of seven alchemical procedures and techniques: sublimation and condensation of mercury, precipitation of sulfur, and arsenic calcination of minerals (gold, silver, copper, lead, and iron), salts, glass, talc, shells, and waxing.
This last category contains additional descriptions of other methods and applications used in transmutation:
The added mixture and use of solvent vehicles.
The amount of heat (fire) used, 'bodies and stones', (al-ajsad and al-ahjar) that can or cannot be transmuted into corporal substances such of metals and salts (al-amlah).
The use of a liquid mordant which quickly and permanently colors lesser metals for more lucrative sale and profit.
Similar to the commentary on the 8th century text on amalgams ascribed to Jabir ibn Hayyan, al-Razi gives methods and procedures of coloring a silver object to imitate gold (gold leafing) and the reverse technique of removing its color back to silver. Gilding and silvering of other metals (alum, calcium salts, iron, copper, and tutty) are also described, as well as how colors will last for years without tarnishing or changing.
Al-Razi classified minerals into six divisions:
Four spirits (al-arwah): mercury, sal ammoniac, sulphur, and arsenic sulphide (orpiment and realgar).
Seven bodies (al-ajsad): silver, gold, copper, iron, black lead (plumbago), zinc (kharsind), and tin.
Thirteen stones (al-ahjar): Marcasite (marqashita), magnesia, malachite, tutty (tutiya, zinc oxide), talcum, lapis lazuli, gypsum, azurite, haematite (iron oxide), arsenic oxide, mica, asbestos, and glass (then identified as made of sand and alkali of which the transparent crystal damascene is considered the best).
Seven vitriols (al-zajat): alum (al-shabb الشب), and white (qalqadis القلقديس), black, red (suri السوري), and yellow (qulqutar القلقطار) vitriols (the impure sulfates of iron, copper, etc.), green (qalqand القلقند).
Seven borates: natron, and impure sodium borate.
Eleven salts (al-amlah): including brine, common salt, ashes, naphtha, live lime, and urine, rock, and sea salts. Then he separately defines and describes each of these substances, the best forms and colours of each, and the qualities of various adulterations.
Al-Razi gives also a list of apparatus used in alchemy. This consists of 2 classes:
Instruments used for the dissolving and melting of metals such as the blacksmith's hearth, bellows, crucible, thongs (tongue or ladle), macerator, stirring rod, cutter, grinder (pestle), file, shears, descensory, and semi-cylindrical iron mould.
Utensils used to carry out the process of transmutation and various parts of the distilling apparatus: the retort, alembic, shallow iron pan, potters kiln and blowers, large oven, cylindrical stove, glass cups, flasks, phials, beakers, glass funnel, crucible, aludel, heating lamps, mortar, cauldron, hair-cloth, sand- and water-bath, sieve, flat stone mortar and chafing-dish. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Bakr_al-Razi |
Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate | The principles reached by the delegates were written in an official form known as the "Protocol of 1861" (also known as the Beyoglu Protocol) and signed on 9 June of the same year. It was also agreed that the system stipulated in the protocol would be put to trial until 1864, and Dawud Pasha, an Ottoman career diplomat of Armenian origin, would be appointed as administrator for a period of three years, at the end of which he would report on the validity and success of this system. When Dawud Pasha's experimental mandate ended in 1864, he carried to Constantinople a report requesting the amendment of some texts of the statute. The Sublime Porte agreed to a part of his proposals, and his mandate was renewed for another five years. The Basic Law of Mount Lebanon, after being amended and signed by the great powers, was published on the sixth of September 1864 in eighteen articles, which included the organization of the administration in the Mutasarrifate, and the most important of which was stated:
Mount Lebanon shall be administered by a non-Turkish, non-Lebanese Ottoman Christian administrator who is appointed by the Ottoman government and whose source to follow is the Sublime Porte directly, that is, he is not affiliated with the governor of Sidon, Acre, Beirut or Damascus, as was the case with the Ma’anid princes, the Shihabis, and the previous double Qa’im-Maqamate. He must maintain security, appoint judges, and collect taxes.
The mountain shall have a board of directors of twelve members as follows: 4 for the Maronites, 3 for the Druze, 2 for the Greek Orthodox, and one for each of the Sunnis, Shiites, and Melkite Greek Catholics. Its task is to distribute taxes, regulate imports, and express an opinion on issues presented to it by the administrator.
All feudal privileges are abolished, and the equality of all before the law is proclaimed. All other articles of the Basic Law provide for the various court systems, the method for appointing judges, etc. The fourteenth article stipulates that security shall be preserved by Lebanese soldiers, as for the Beirut-Damascus road, and the coastal road between Sidon and Tripoli, they are maintained by the Ottoman soldiers. The currency in circulation was the same as that of the Ottomans. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Lebanon_Mutasarrifate |
Ormus | "It was during the reign of Mir Bahrudin Ayaz Seyfin, fifteenth king of Hormoz, that the Seljuks raided the kingdom of Kerman and from there to that of Hormoz. The wealth of Hormoz attracted raids so often that the inhabitants sought refuge off the mainland and initially moved to the island of Qeshm. Mir Bahrudin then visited the island of Jerun and obtained it from Neyn (Na'im), King of Keys (Kish), to whom all the islands in the area belonged. After undertaking the Hajj pilgrimage, Mir Bahrudin became widely known as Haji Bahrudin in the lands of Hormuz."
Risso writes: "In the eleventh century, Saljûq Persia developed at the expense of what was left of Buwayhid Mesopotamia and the Saljûqs controlled ‘Umânî ports from about 1065 to 1140. Fatimid Egypt attracted trade to the Red Sea route and away from the Persian Gulf. These shifts in power marked the end of the [Persian] Gulf's heyday, but the island ports of Qays and then the mainland port of Hormoz (at first tributary to Persia) became renowned entrepôts. The Hurmuzî rulers developed Qalhât on the ‘Umânî coast in order to control both sides of the entrance to the Persian Gulf. Later, in 1300, the Hurmuzî merchants cast off Persian overlordship. and reorganized their entrepôt on the island also called Hurmuz and there amassed legendary wealth. The relationship. between the Nabâhina and the Hurmuzîs is obscure".
Abbe Guillaume Thomas François Raynal is quoted as giving the following account of Hormoz:
Hormoz became the capital of an empire which comprehended a considerable part of Arabia on one side, and Persia on the other. At the time of the arrival of the foreign merchants, it afforded a more splendid and agreeable scene than any city in the East. Persons from all parts of the globe exchanged their commodities and transacted their business with an air of politeness and attention, which are seldom seen in other places of trade. The streets were covered with mats and in some places with carpet, and the linen awnings which were suspended from the tops of the houses, prevented any inconvenience from the heat of the sun. India cabinets ornamented with gilded vases, or china filled with flowering shrubs or aromatic plants adorned their apartments. Camels laden with water were stationed in the public squares. Persian wines, perfumes, and all the delicacies of the table were furnished in great abundance, and they had the music of the East in its highest perfection ... In short, universal opulence, an extensive commerce, politeness in the men and gallantry in the women, united all their attractions to make this city the seat of pleasure.
Hormuz enjoyed a long period of autonomy under the suzerainty of kings of Iran from the foundation of the kingdom in the 11th century to the coming of the Portuguese. It was ruled by the children of Muhammad Deramku (Deramkub "Dirham minter") who founded the kingdom as a dependency of the Kingdom of Kerman after the collapse of the Buyid kingdom, reaching its apogee under the rule of the Mongol dynasty of the Ilkhanids. In the medieval period, the kingdom was well known as an international emporium controlling both sides of the Persian Gulf and much of the coastal area of the Arabian Sea and well known in Europe as a commercial hub. Its success in fact led to its fame, prompting the Portuguese to launch attacks on it and conquer it in the early 16th century.
In the early 15th century, Hormuz was one the kingdoms that was visited by the Chinese expeditionary fleet commanded by Admiral Zheng He during the Ming treasure voyages and was the final destination of the fleet during the fourth voyage. Ma Huan, an interpreter serving in the crew, described Hormuz society in a positive light in the Yingya Shenglan, writing for example about the people that "the limbs and faces of the people are refined and fair [...] and they are stalwart and fine-looking; their clothing and hats are handsome, distinctive and elegant." Fei Xin, another crew member, made an account of Hormuz in the Xingcha Shenglan. It included, for instance, observations suggesting that Hormuz society had a high standard of living, writing that "the lower classes are wealthy", and on local dressing habits such as the long robes worn by both men and women, the veils that women wore over their head and face when going out, and the jewels worn by the well-to-do. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ormus |
Israeli settlement | An early evacuation took place in 1982 as part of the Egypt–Israel peace treaty, when Israel was required to evacuate its settlers from the 18 Sinai settlements. Arab parties to the conflict had demanded the dismantlement of the settlements as a condition for peace with Israel. The evacuation was carried out with force in some instances, for example in Yamit. The settlements were demolished, as it was feared that settlers might try to return to their homes after the evacuation.
Israel's unilateral disengagement from the Gaza Strip took place in 2005. It involved the evacuation of settlements in the Gaza Strip and part of the West Bank, including all 21 settlements in Gaza and four in the West Bank, while retaining control over Gaza's borders, coastline, and airspace. Most of these settlements had existed since the early 1980s, some were over 30 years old; the total population involved was more than 8,000. There was significant opposition to the plan among parts of the Israeli public, and especially those living in the territories. George W. Bush said that a permanent peace deal would have to reflect "demographic realities" in the West Bank regarding Israel's settlements.
The Israeli human rights group GISHA maintains that despite the disengagement, Israel continues to occupy Gaza because it maintains its control over the area. For example, Israel maintains control over Gaza's airspace and waters, its borders (specifically, passage of goods and people to and from Gaza), the population registry, its telecommunications networks, and the collection of customs and tax on imports. GISHA also reports that Israel continues to control Gaza's infrastructure through its control over the supply of resources such as electricity. In addition, under the disengagement plan, Israel can prevent the PA from reopening its airport or seaport.
Within the former settlements, almost all buildings were demolished by Israel, with the exception of certain government and religious structures, which were completely emptied. Under an international arrangement, greenhouses were left to assist the Palestinian economy although half had been demolished by the settlers two months prior to the disengagement. The reduction in greenhouse space and increased restrictions on exports reduced the viability of the project. After the redeployment of Israeli troops to the Gaza border, 30% of the greenhouses suffered various degrees of damage due to Palestinian looters stealing, for example, hoses and irrigation equipment. Following the withdrawal, many of the former synagogues were torched and destroyed by Palestinians.
Some believe that settlements need not necessarily be dismantled and evacuated, even if Israel withdraws from the territory where they stand, as they can remain under Palestinian rule. These ideas have been expressed both by left-wing Israelis, and by Palestinians who advocate the two-state solution, and by extreme Israeli right-wingers and settlers who object to any dismantling and claim links to the land that are stronger than the political boundaries of the state of Israel.
The Israeli government has often threatened to dismantle outposts. Some have actually been dismantled, occasionally with use of force; this led to settler violence. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_settlement |
Protestantism and Islam | Fundamentally, the Protestant Dutch had strong antagonisms to both the Catholics and the Muslims. In some cases however, alliances, or attempts at alliance between the Dutch and the Muslims were made possible, as when the Dutch allied with the Muslims of the Moluccas to oust the Portuguese, and the Dutch became rather tolerant of the Islamic religion in their colonial possessions after the final subjugation of Macassar in 1699.
During the Dutch Revolt, the Dutch were under such a desperate situation that they looked for help from every nationality, and "indeed even a Turk", as wrote the secretary of Jan van Nassau. The Dutch saw Ottoman successes against the Habsburgs with great interest, and saw Ottoman campaigns in the Mediterranean as an indicator of relief on the Dutch front. William wrote around 1565:
The Turks are very threatening, which will mean, we believe, that the king will not come to the Netherlands this year.
The Dutch looked expectantly at the development of the Siege of Malta (1565), hoping that the Ottomans "were in Valladolid already", and used it as a way to obtain concessions from the Spanish crown.
Contacts soon became more direct. William of Orange sent ambassadors to the Ottoman Empire for help in 1566. When no other European power would help, "the Dutch cause was offered active support, paradoxically enough, only by the Ottoman Turks". One of the Sultan principal advisers Joseph Miques, Duke of Naxos, delivered a letter to the Calvinists in Antwerp pledging that "the forces of the Ottomans would soon hit Philip II's affairs so hard that he would not even have the time to think of Flanders". The death of Suleiman the Magnificent later in 1566 however, meant that the Ottoman were unable to offer support for several years after. In 1568, William of Orange again sent a request to the Ottomans to attack Spain, without success. The 1566-1568 revolt of the Netherlands finally failed, largely due to the lack of foreign support.
In 1574, William of Orange and Charles IX of France, through his pro-Huguenot ambassador François de Noailles, Bishop of Dax, tried again to obtain the support of the Ottoman ruler Selim II. Selim II sent his support through a messenger, who endeavoured to put the Dutch in contact with the rebellious Moriscos of Spain and the pirates of Algiers. Selim also sent a great fleet which conquered Tunis in October 1574, thus succeeding in reducing Spanish pressure on the Dutch, and leading to negotiations at the Conference of Breda. After the death of Charles IX in May 1574 however, contacts weakened, although the Ottomans are said to have supported the 1575-1576 revolt, and establish a Consulate in Antwerp (De Griekse Natie). The Ottomans made a truce with Spain, and shifted their attention to their conflict with Persia, starting the long Ottoman–Safavid War (1578–1590).
The British author William Rainolds (1544–1594) wrote a pamphlet entitled "Calvino-Turcismus" in criticism of these rapprochements.
The phrase Liever Turks dan Paaps ("Rather a Turk than a Papist") was a Dutch slogan during the Dutch Revolt of the end of the 16th century. The slogan was used by the Dutch mercenary naval forces (the "Sea Beggars") in their fight against Catholic Spain. The banner of the Sea Beggars was also similar to that of the Turks, with a crescent on a red background. The phrase "Liever Turks dan Paaps" was coined as a way to express that life under the Ottoman Sultan would have been more desirable than life under the King of Spain. The Flemish noble D'Esquerdes wrote to this effect that he:
would rather become a tributary to the Turks than live against his conscience and be treated according to those [anti-heresy] edicts.
The slogan Liever Turks dan Paaps seems to have been largely rhetorical however, and the Dutch hardly contemplated life under the Sultan at all. Ultimately, the Turks were infidels, and the heresy of Islam alone disqualified them from assuming a more central (or consistent) role in the rebels' program of propaganda.
During the early 17th century the Dutch trading ports housed many Muslims, according to a Dutch traveler to Persia there would be no use in describing the Persians as "they are so numerous in Dutch cities". Dutch paintings from that time often show Turks, Persians and Jews strolling through the city. Officials that were sent to the Netherlands included Zeyn-Al-Din Beg of the Saffavid empire in 1607 and Ömer Aga of the Ottoman Empire in 1614. Like the Venetians en Genoese before them, the Dutch and English established a trade network in the eastern Mediterranean and had regular interactions with the ports of the Persian Gulf. Many Dutch painters even went to work in Isfahan, central Iran.
From 1608, Samuel Pallache served as an intermediary to discuss an alliance between Morocco and the Low Countries. In 1613, the Moroccan Ambassador Al-Hajari discussed in La Hague with the Dutch Prince Maurice of Orange the possibility of an alliance between the Dutch Republic, the Ottoman Empire, Morocco and the Moriscos, against the common enemy Spain. His book mentions the discussion for a combined offensive on Spain, as well as the religious reasons for the good relations between Islam and Protestantism at the time:
Their teachers [Luther and Calvin] warned them [Protestants] against the Pope and the worshippers of Idols; they also told them not to hate the Muslims because they are the sword of God in the world against the idol-worshippers. That is why they side with the Muslims.
During the Thirty Years War (1618–1648), the Dutch would strengthen contacts with the Moriscos against Spain. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestantism_and_Islam |
Islamic socialism | Islamic socialism was also essential to the ideology of Pakistan, as its founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, to a crowd in Chittagong on 26 March 1948 declared that "you are only voicing my sentiments and the sentiments of millions of Musalmans when you say that Pakistan should be based on sure foundations of social justice and Islamic socialism which emphasizes equality and brotherhood of man", while Pakistan's first Prime Minister, Liaquat Ali Khan, on 25 August 1949, said in the same vein that:
There are a number of 'isms' being talked about now-a-days, but we are convinced that for us there is only one 'ism', namely Islamic Socialism, which in a nutshell, means that every person in this land has equal rights to be provided with food, shelter, clothing, education and medical facilities. Countries which cannot ensure these for their people can never progress. The economic programme drawn up some 1,350 years back is still the best economic programme for us. In fact, whatever systems people may try out they all ultimately return to Islamic Socialism by whatever name they may choose to call it.
Jinnah's Muslim League, which was the first ruling party in Pakistan, contained a number of Islamic socialists, although they were relatively marginal in the party. Also influential in Pakistan was Ghulam Ahmed Perwez, an Islamic scholar who advocated Qur'anism and a focus on the study of modern sciences. Although he was criticised by more conservative scholars, he became aligned with Jinnah and Muhammad Iqbal, the former of whom appointed him as the editor of the magazine Talu-e-Islam, where he wrote and published articles espousing a socialistic interpretation of the Qur'an, arguing that "socialism best enforces Qur'anic dictums on property, justice and distribution of wealth", and advocating a progressive, non-theocratic government and the application of science and agrarian reform to further economic development. Perwez, as a part of his application of qur'anic thought to political ideology, stated that hell was a "... society in which men, dominated by its evil socio-economic system, struggle to accumulate wealth."
During the presidency of Muhammad Ayub Khan in Pakistan in the 1960s, Hanif Ramay led a group of intellectuals in Lahore in developing Islamic socialist ideas, drawing on the thought of Perwez and Khalifa Abdul Hakim, along with Ba'athist thinkers such as Michel Aflaq. Ramay and his co-thinkers influenced Zulfikar Ali Bhutto when he founded the Pakistan Peoples Party with Jalaludin Abdur Rahim, and they were the primary ideological influence on the party's manifesto. Ramay outlined the priorities for the PPP's brand of Islamic socialism as including elimination of feudalism and uncontrolled capitalism, greater state regulation of the economy, nationalisation of major banks, industries and schools, encouraging participatory management in factories and building democratic institutions. They contextualised these policies as a modern extension of principles of equality and justice contained in the Qur'an and practiced under the authority of Muhammad in Medina and Mecca. However, during Bhutto's time in power during the 1970s, he scaled back his reform programme and deepened Pakistan's ties with the conservative, oil-rich Gulf monarchies following the 1973 oil crisis, and purged the PPP's radical left and made concessions to Islamist parties in an effort to appease them. The party in 1967 adopted the slogan "Islam is our faith; democracy is our politics; socialism is our economy; all power to the people." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_socialism |
Names and titles of Muhammad | Muhammad is often referenced with these titles or epithets:
Seal of the prophets (Arabic: خاتم النبيين, romanized: Khātam al-Nabiyyīn)
The Prophet, (Arabic: أَلْنَّبِيّ, romanized: an-Nabī), also, the Prophet of Prophets.
Messenger of God, (Arabic: رسول الله, romanized: Rasūl’Allāh)
The Beloved (Arabic: الحَبِيبُ, romanized: al-Ḥabīb) or The Beloved of God (Arabic: حَبِيبُ اللهِ, romanized: Ḥabīb Allāh)
The Chosen or The Appointed (Arabic: المُصْطَفَى, romanized: al-Muṣṭafā)
The Genuine, The Trustworthy, or The Faithful (Arabic: الأَمِينُ, romanized: al-Amīn)
The Honest, The Righteous, or The Truthful (Arabic: الصِّدِّيقُ, romanized: as-Ṣiddīq)
Kind, Compassionate, or Affectionate (Arabic: رَءُوف, romanized: Raʾūf)
Model (of Conduct, Merit, or Virtue) (Arabic: أُسْوَةٌ حَسَنَة, romanized: Uswatun Ḥasanah)
The Perfect (Arabic: أَلْكَامِل, romanized: al-Kāmil)
The Best of Mankind (Arabic: خَيْرُ البَشَرِ, romanized: Khayr al-Bashar)
Mercy to the Worlds (Arabic: الرَّحْمَةُ لِلْعَالَمِينَ, romanized: ar-Raḥmah lil-ʿĀlamīn)
al-Mubashir, "The Bearer of Good Tidings"
an-Nadhir, "The Warner"
al-Mudhakkir, "The Reminder"
ad-Dā‘ī, "The One Who Calls (unto God)"
al-Bashir, "The Announcer"
an-Nūr, "The Light Personified"
al-Misbah, "The Lamp/ Lantern" (lit. "Bringer of Light – Dawn") – i.e.: as-Siraaj al-Muneer, "The Lamp of Illuminated, Ever-glowing, Ever-Enlightening, Incandescent"
as-Siraaj, "The Lamp/ Lantern" – i.e.: as-Siraaj al-Muneer, "The Lamp of Illuminated, Ever-glowing, Ever-Enlightening, Incandescent"
Ni‘mat-Ullah, "The Divine Favour"
al-Ummiyy, "The Untaught", i.e.: An-Nabiyyu l-Ummiyy, "The Prophet who was untaught by human race"
al-'Aqib, "The Last (Prophet)"
al-Mutawakkil, "The One who Puts his Trust (in God)"
al-Mahi, "The Remover (of Disbelief)"
al-Hanif, "The One of Primordial Religion"
Nâbîyyu at-Tawbah, "The Prophet of Penitence"
al-Mu`azzaz, "The Strengthened One, the One Made Invulnerable"
al-Muwaqqar, "Held in Awe"
al-Fatih, "The Opener"
al-Hashir, "The Gatherer (First to be Resurrected) on the Day of Judgement"
al-Shafî`, "The Intercessor"
Kareem, Noble and Generous (Arabic: كريمٍ),
Shahid/Shahed (Arabic: شَاهِدًا), A Witness
al-Mushaffa`, The One Whose Intercession Shall be Granted
al-Mujtaba, The Chosen (Arabic: اَلْـمُـجْـتَـبَى)
‘Abd’Allah, Servant of God
Akhir, 'The Final, that is, the final prophet, "Last Messenger"
al-Amin, "The Reliable One"
Muhammad is sometimes addressed by designations deriving from his state at the time of the address: thus he is referred to as the enwrapped (Al-Muzzammil) in Quran 73:1 and the shrouded (al-muddaththir) in Quran 74:1.
He is also known by these epithets:
Ibn ‘Abd al-Muttalib, descendant of Abd al-Muttalib
Abu ’l-Qasim (Arabic: أَبـو الـقَـاسـم, father of Qasim ibn Muhammad), a son by his first wife Khadija bint Khuwaylid.
Abu ‘Abd’Ullah, father of Abdullah ibn Muhammad, also a son by Khadija.
Abu Ibrahim, father of Ibrahim ibn Muhammad, a son by Maria al-Qibtiyya.
Abu ’t-Tahir, father of the Pure
Abu ’t-Tayyib, father of the Pleasant
In Iran, Central Asia and South Asia, Turkey and the Balkans, he is often called Hadrat (His Presence or His Holiness) Arabic: حضرت, romanized: ḥadhrat) or Messenger (Persian: پيغمبر, romanized: peygamber).
Islamic scholars strongly emphasize the need for Muslims to follow the name of Muhammad, whether spoken or written, with the honorific phrase "peace be upon him", often abbreviated to PBUH or SAW, from Arabic: صلى الله عليه وسلم, romanized: sallallahu alayhe wasallam or written ﷺ. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_and_titles_of_Muhammad |
Halabja massacre | Saddam Hussein was not charged by the Iraqi Special Tribunal for crimes against humanity based on the events at Halabja. However, Iraqi prosecutors had "500 documented baskets of crimes during the Hussein regime" and Hussein was condemned to death based on just one case, the 1982 Dujail Massacre. Among several documents revealed during the trial of Saddam Hussein, one was a 1987 memo from Iraq's military intelligence seeking permission from the president's office to use mustard gas and the nerve agents sarin and tabun against Kurds. A second document said in reply that Saddam had ordered military intelligence to study the possibility of a "sudden strike" using such weapons against Iranian and Kurdish forces. An internal memo written by military intelligence confirmed it had received approval from the president's office for a strike using "special ammunition" and emphasized that no strike would be launched without first informing the president. Saddam himself told the court: "In relation to Iran, if any military or civil official claims that Saddam gave orders to use either conventional or special ammunition, which as explained is chemical, I will take responsibility with honor. But I will discuss any act committed against our people and any Iraqi citizen, whether Arab or Kurdish. I don't accept any insult to my principles or to me personally." Kurdish survivors had no doubt Saddam was personally responsible and were disappointed he was being tried only over the killings in Dujail. Saddam was executed by hanging on 30 December 2006.
Saddam's cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid (who commanded Iraqi forces in northern Iraq during that period, which earned him a nickname of 'Chemical Ali') was condemned to death by hanging by an Iraqi court in January 2010, after being found guilty of orchestrating the Halabja massacre. Al-Majid was first sentenced to hang in 2007 for his role in a 1988 military campaign against ethnic Kurds, codenamed Anfal, and in 2008 he also twice received a death sentence for his crimes against the Iraqi Shia Muslims, in particular for his role in crushing the 1991 uprisings in southern Iraq and his involvement in the 1999 killings in the Sadr City district of Baghdad (then called Saddam City). Al-Majid did not express remorse at his trials, stating his actions were in the interests of Iraqi security. He was executed by hanging on 25 January 2010. Among many other captured Iraqi government documents proving Iraqi responsibility for the attack, there is a recording of al-Majid boasting about the Kurds: "I will kill them all with chemical weapons. Who is going to say anything? The international community? Fuck the international community and those who listen to them!" | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halabja_massacre |
Iranian Revolution | Internationally, the initial impact of the revolution was immense. In the non-Muslim world, it changed the image of Islam, generating much interest in Islam—both sympathetic and hostile—and even speculation that the revolution might change "the world balance of power more than any political event since Hitler's conquest of Europe."
The Islamic Republic positioned itself as a revolutionary beacon under the slogan "neither East nor West, only Islamic Republic" ("Na Sharq, Na Gharb, Faqat Jumhuri-e Islami," i.e., neither Soviet nor American / West European models) and called for the overthrow of capitalism, American influence, and social injustice in the Middle East and the rest of the world. Revolutionary leaders in Iran gave and sought support from non-Muslim activists such as the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in Ireland and the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa, even favoring far-left revolutionaries over Islamist (but ideologically different and strategically harmful) causes such as the neighboring Afghan Mujahideen. The revolution itself was supported by the Palestine Liberation Organization. In terms of future relevance, the conflicts that originated from the Iranian Revolution continued to define geo-politics for the following decades.
In February 1981, the Iranian Republic supported Hunger strikes in the H-Block of the HM Prison Maze by Irish Republicans including Bobby Sands. Following the death of Sands in May 1981, the street in Tehran the British Embassy is on was renamed from "Winston Churchill Street" to "Bobby Sands Street". The IRA saw the Iranian revolution as aspirational, an example of mass action as a way to meet goals. Both the Iranian government and their opposition supported the hunger strikes, creating a competition for the favor of the IRA. The support by the government came after the UK sided with Iraq and Saddam Hussein in the Iran–Iraq war. Oppositional groups like Mojahedin-e-Khalq claimed solidarity with the hunger strike and connected their Marxist influences. The Iranian government, Iranian leftist groups, and the IRA saw Britain as a colonizing force in both regions. For a time, Mojahedin-e-Khalq and the Provisional Sinn Féin (the political arm of the Provisional IRA) had consistent contact. Contact ended in June 1981 after fear of offending the Iranian Government.
The Islamic Republic changed the foreign policy of the Pahlavi dynasty by supporting third worldist movements like the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa. The Pahlavis and South Africa had relations dating back to when Reza Shah went there in exile. After the first Shah's ousting by the Soviets and British during World War II, he spent the remainder of his life in Johannesburg. Pre-revolution Iran provided 90% of South Africa's oil. After the revolution, Iran cut South Africa off from its oil supply and financially supported the African National Congress. This was part of the larger want by Khomeini to support the "downtrodden" of the world, including,non-aligned countries. In 1980, the ANC attended the "Gather of World Liberation" hosted in Tehran for the third worldist movement. In 2015, the International Relations and Cooperation minister of South Africa said of Iran, "The Islamic Republic stood by us during our darkest days, cutting ties with the apartheid regime. Your revolution was our revolution. You showed us that emancipation was possible, whatever the odds". A connection with the ANC continued even when tested during the apartheid era and the Iran–Iraq war. In 1985, Iran and South Africa traded weapons for oil. The belief in third-worldism seemed to have superseded the change in behavior by Iran. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_Revolution |
Geography of Oman | According to the Köppen climate classification, Oman has four different climates (BWh, BWk, BSk, BSh), however is highly dominated by the BWh (hot desert) climate.
With the exception of Dhofari region, which has a strong monsoon climate and receives warm winds from the Indian Ocean, the climate of Oman is extremely hot and dry most of the year.
Summer begins in March and lasts until September. The highest temperatures are registered in the interior, where readings up to a maximum of 50.8 °C (123.4 °F) have been recorded. On the Batinah coastal plain, summer temperatures seldom exceed 47 °C (116.6 °F), but, because of the low elevation, the humidity may be as high as 90 percent. The mean summer temperature in Muscat is 33 °C (91.4 °F), but the gharbī (Arabic: غَرْبِي, lit. 'western'), a strong wind that blows from the Rub' al-Khali, can raise temperatures from the towns on the Gulf of Oman by 6 °C (10.8 °F) to 10 °C (18 °F).
Winter temperatures in December and January are mild and pleasant, ranging between 18 and 26 °C (64.4 and 78.8 °F).
Precipitation on the coasts and on the interior plains ranges from 20 to 100 millimeters (0.8 to 3.9 in) a year and falls during mid- and late winter. Rainfall in the mountains, particularly over Jebel Akhdar, is much higher and may reach 900 millimeters (35.4 in).
Because the plateau of Jebel Akhdar is porous limestone, rainfall seeps quickly through it, and the vegetation, which might be expected to be more lush, is meager. However, a huge reservoir under the plateau provides springs for low-lying areas. In addition, an enormous wadi channels water to these valleys, making the area agriculturally productive in years of good rainfall.
Dhofar, benefiting from a southwest monsoon between June and September, receives heavier rainfall and has constantly running streams, which make the region Oman's most fertile area.
Occasionally, a cyclone from the North Indian Ocean makes landfall, bringing with it heavy rain, such as Cyclone Kelia did in 2011. Oman was hit by Cyclone Gonu on 6 June. Large areas in the capital area region in the Governorate of Muscat and in Amerat and Quriyat were severely affected. Gonu first hit the southern city of Sur late on 5 June 2007.
Cyclone Mekunu is the strongest and only Major Cyclone to make Landfall in the nation and Whole Arabian Peninsula. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_Oman |
Holy Land | In the Quran, the term Al-Ard Al-Muqaddasah (Arabic: الأرض المقدسة, English: 'Holy Land') is used in a passage about Musa (Moses) proclaiming to the Children of Israel: "O my people! Enter the Holy Land which Allah has destined for you ˹to enter˺. And do not turn back or else you will become losers."[Quran 5:21] The Quran also refers to the land as being 'Blessed'.
Jerusalem (referred to as Al-Quds, Arabic: الـقُـدس, 'The Holy') has particular significance in Islam. The Quran refers to Muhammad's experiencing the Isra and Mi'raj as "Glory be to the One Who took His servant ˹Muḥammad˺ by night from the Sacred Mosque to the Farthest Mosque whose surroundings We have blessed, so that We may show him some of Our signs".[Quran 17:1] Ahadith infer that the "Farthest Masjid" is in Al-Quds; for example, as narrated by Abu Hurairah: "On the night journey of the Apostle of Allah, two cups, one containing wine and the other containing milk, were presented to him at Al-Quds (Jerusalem). He looked at them and took the cup of milk. Angel Gabriel said, 'Praise be to Allah, who guided you to Al-Fitrah (the right path); if you had taken (the cup of) wine, your Ummah would have gone astray'." Jerusalem was Islam's first Qiblah (direction of prayer) in Muhammad's lifetime, however, this was later changed to the Kaaba in the Hijazi city of Mecca, following a revelation to Muhammad by the Archangel Jibril. The current construction of the Al-Aqsa mosque, which lies on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, is dated to the early Umayyad period of rule in Palestine. Architectural historian K. A. C. Creswell, referring to a testimony by Arculf, a Gallic monk, during his pilgrimage to Palestine in 679–82, notes the possibility that the second caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate, Umar ibn al-Khattab, erected a primitive quadrangular building for a capacity of 3,000 worshipers somewhere on the Haram ash-Sharif. However, Arculf visited Palestine during the reign of Mu'awiyah I, and it is possible that Mu'awiyah ordered the construction, not Umar. This latter claim is explicitly supported by the early Muslim scholar al-Muthahhar bin Tahir. According to the Quran and Islamic traditions, Al-Aqsa Mosque is the place from which Muhammad went on a night journey (al-isra) during which he rode on Buraq, who took him from Mecca to al-Aqsa. Muhammad tethered Buraq to the Western Wall and prayed at al-Aqsa Mosque and after he finished his prayers, the angel Jibril (Gabriel) traveled with him to heaven, where he met several other prophets and led them in prayer. The historical significance of the al-Aqsa Mosque in Islam is further emphasized by the fact that Muslims turned towards al-Aqsa when they prayed for a period of 16 or 17 months after migration to Medina in 624; it thus became the qibla ('direction') that Muslims faced for prayer.
The exact region referred to as being 'blessed' in the Quran, in verses like 17:1, 21:71 and 34:18, has been interpreted differently by various scholars. Abdullah Yusuf Ali likens it to a wide land-range including Syria and Lebanon, especially the cities of Tyre and Sidon; Az-Zujaj describes it as "Damascus, Palestine, and a bit of Jordan"; Muadh ibn Jabal as "the area between al-Arish and the Euphrates"; and Ibn Abbas as "the land of Jericho". This overall region is referred to as "Ash-Shām" (Arabic: الـشَّـام). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Land |
University of al-Qarawiyyin | UNESCO has previously described al-Qarawiyyin to be the "oldest university in the world" in the World Heritage Sites entry for Medina of Fez. UNESCO describes the University of Bologna (founded in 1088 and usually recognized as the oldest medieval European university) as the "oldest university of the Western world". Some historians and scholars also refer to al-Qarawiyyin as the world's oldest existing university.: 137 The claim is also published by the Guinness World Records, under its entry for "[o]ldest higher-learning institution, oldest university", where it describes al-Qarawiyyin as the "oldest existing, and continually operating educational institution in the world", while the University of Bologna is described as the "oldest one in Europe". Similarly, the Encyclopædia Britannica dates al-Qarawiyyin University's foundation to the mosque's foundation in 859 and generally considers that "universities" existed outside Europe before the advent of the European university model. Other sources also refer to the historical or pre-modern al-Qarawiyyin as a "university" or an "Islamic university".
Many scholars consider the term university to be applicable only to the educational institutions that initially took form in medieval Christian Europe, and argue that the first universities were located in Western Europe, with those of Paris and Bologna often cited as the earliest examples. The modern Western university model is thus widely argued to descend from this European tradition, even if other models of higher education existed in other parts of the world. Jacques Verger says that while the term university is occasionally applied by scholars to madrasas and other pre-modern higher learning institutions out of convenience, the European university marked a major disruption between earlier institutions of higher learning and was the earliest true modern university. Many scholars consider that the university was only adopted outside the West, including into the Islamic world, in the course of modernization programs or under European colonial regimes since the beginning of the 19th century.
Among opposing views, Yahya Pallavicini claims that the university model did not spread in Europe until the 12th century and that it was found throughout the Muslim world from the founding of al-Qarawiyyin in the 9th century until at least European colonialism. Some scholars, noting certain parallels between such madrasas and European medieval universities, have proposed that the latter may have been influenced by the madrasas of the Muslim world, in particular via Islamic Spain and the Emirate of Sicily. Other scholars have questioned this, citing the lack of evidence for an actual transmission from the Islamic world to Christian Europe and highlighting the differences in the structure, methodologies, procedures, curricula and legal status of the madrasa versus the European university.
Some scholars consider that al-Qarawiyyin operated essentially as an Islamic madrasa until after World War II. These scholars date al-Qarawiyyin's transformation into a university to its modern reorganization in 1963. In the wake of these reforms, al-Qarawiyyin was officially renamed "University of Al Quaraouiyine" two years later. Organization at the pre-modern al-Qarawiyyin differed from European universities and other Muslim institutions at al-Azhar (in Cairo) and al-Zaytouna (in Tunis) in that there was no defined scholastic year, registration was not imposed, study durations were not fixed, and there was no examination to ratify studies. Students were expected to attend courses for a minimum of five years and would receive an ijazah if they were proven to have reached a high level of expertise.: 457
The earliest date of formal teaching at al-Qarawiyyin is also uncertain. The most relevant major historical texts like the Rawd al-Qirtas and the Zahrat al-As do not provide clear details on the history of teaching at the mosque.: 453 In the Rawd al-Qirtas, Ibn Abi Zar mentions the mosque but not its educational function. Al-Jazna'i, the 14th-century author of the Zahrat al-As, mentions that teaching had taken place there well before his time, but with no other details.: 175 Otherwise, the earliest mentions of halaqa for learning and teaching may not have been until the 10th or the 12th century. Moroccan historian Mohammed Al-Manouni believes that it was during the reign of the Almoravids (1040–1147) that the mosque acquired its function as a teaching institution. French historian Évariste Lévi-Provençal dates the beginning of the madrasa and teaching to the later Marinid period (1244–1465). Another Moroccan historian, Abdelhadi Tazi, indicated the earliest evidence of teaching at al-Qarawiyyin in 1121. Upon reviewing the evidence in Abdelhadi Tazi's work, Abdul Latif Tibawi states that:
This is considerably later than the beginning of instruction at the al-Azhar under the Fatimids. So it is very difficult to sustain the claim that the University of Qarawiyyin is the "oldest university", and not only in the Muslim world! The mosque school or college did not assume the name of university until 1960 when in a ceremony Muhammad V invested it with that dignified title. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_al-Qarawiyyin |
1948 Palestine war | At 19:00 on 18 July, the second truce of the conflict went into effect after intense diplomatic efforts by the UN. On 16 September, a new partition plan for Palestine was proposed but it was rejected by both sides.
During the truce, the Egyptians regularly blocked the passage of supply convoys to the beleaguered northern Negev settlements by firing on them, contrary to the truce terms. On 15 October, they attacked another supply convoy, and the already planned Operation Yoav was launched. Its goal was to drive a wedge between the Egyptian forces along the coast and the Beersheba-Hebron-Jerusalem road, and to open the road to the encircled Negev settlements. Yoav was headed by Southern Front commander Yigal Allon. The operation was a success, shattering the Egyptian army ranks and forcing Egyptian forces to retreat from the northern Negev, Beersheba, and Ashdod. Meanwhile, on 19 October, Operation Ha-Har commenced operations in the Jerusalem Corridor.
On 22 October, the third truce went into effect.
Before dawn on 22 October, in defiance of the UN Security Council ceasefire order, ALA units stormed the IDF hilltop position of Sheikh Abd, overlooking Kibbutz Manara. The kibbutz was now besieged. Ben-Gurion initially rejected Moshe Carmel’s demand to launch a major counteroffensive. He was wary of antagonising the United Nations on the heels of its ceasefire order. During 24–25 October, ALA troops regularly sniped at Manara and traffic along the main road. In contacts with UN observers, Fawzi al-Qawuqji demanded that Israel evacuate neighbouring Kibbutz Yiftah and thin out its forces in Manara. The IDF demanded the ALA's withdrawal from the captured positions and, after a "no" from al-Qawuqji, informed the UN that it felt free to do as it pleased. On 24 October, the IDF launched Operation Hiram and captured the entire upper Galilee, originally attributed to the Arab state by the Partition Plan. It drove the ALA back to Lebanon. At the end of the month, Israel had captured the whole Galilee and had advanced 5 miles (8.0 km) into Lebanon to the Litani River.
On 22 December, large IDF forces started Operation Horev. Its objective was to encircle the Egyptian Army in the Gaza Strip and force the Egyptians to end the war. The operation was a decisive Israeli victory, and Israeli raids into the Nitzana area and the Sinai Peninsula forced the Egyptian army into the Gaza Strip, where it was surrounded. Israeli forces withdrew from Sinai and Gaza under international pressure and after the British threatened to intervene against Israel. The Egyptian government announced on 6 January 1949 that it was willing to enter armistice negotiations. Allon persuaded Ben-Gurion to continue as planned, but Ben-Gurion told him: "Do you know the value of peace talks with Egypt? After all, that is our great dream!" He was sure that Transjordan and the other Arab states would follow suit. On 7 January 1949, a truce was achieved.
On 5 March, Israel launched Operation Uvda; by 10 March, the Israelis reached Umm Rashrash (where Eilat was built later) and took it without a battle. The Negev Brigade and Golani Brigade took part in the operation. They raised a hand-made flag ("The Ink Flag") and claimed Umm Rashrash for Israel. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_Palestine_war |
Philae temple complex | The most conspicuous feature of both islands was their architectural wealth. Monuments of various eras, extending from the Pharaohs to the Caesars, occupy nearly their whole area. The principal structures, however, lay at the south end of the smaller island.
The most ancient was a temple for Isis, built in the reign of Nectanebo I during 380-362 BC, which was approached from the river through a double colonnade. Nekhtnebef was his ancient Egyptian royal titulary and he became the founding pharaoh of the Thirtieth and last native dynasty when he deposed and killed Nepherites II.
For the most part, the other ruins date from the Ptolemaic Kingdom, more especially with the reigns of Ptolemy II Philadelphus, Ptolemy V Epiphanes, and Ptolemy VI Philometor (282-145 BC), with many traces of Roman work in Philae dedicated to Ammon-Osiris.
In front of the propyla were two colossal lions in granite, behind which stood a pair of obelisks, each 13 metres (43 ft) high. The propyla were pyramidal in form and colossal in dimensions. One stood between the dromos and pronaos, another between the pronaos and the portico, while a smaller one led into the sekos or adyton. At each corner of the adytum stood a monolithic shrine, the cage of a sacred hawk. Of these shrines one is now in the Louvre, the other in the Museum at Florence.
Beyond the entrance into the principal court are small temples, one of which, dedicated to Isis, Hathor, and a wide range of deities related to midwifery, is covered with sculptures representing the birth of Ptolemy Philometor, under the figure of the god Horus. The story of Osiris is everywhere represented on the walls of this temple, and two of its inner chambers are particularly rich in symbolic imagery. Upon the two great propyla are Greek inscriptions intersected and partially destroyed by Egyptian figures cut across them.
The monuments in both islands indeed attested, beyond any others in the Nile valley, the survival of pure Egyptian art centuries after the last of the Pharaohs had ceased to reign. Great pains have been taken to mutilate the sculptures of this temple. The work of demolition is attributable, in the first instance, to the zeal of the early Christians, and afterward, to the policy of the Iconoclasts, who curried favour for themselves with the Byzantine court by the destruction of heathen images as well as Christian ones. Images/icons of Horus are often less mutilated than the other carvings. In some wall scenes, every figure and hieroglyphic text except that of Horus and his winged solar-disk representation have been meticulously scratched out by early Christians. This is presumably because the early Christians had some degree of respect for Horus or the legend of Horus - it may be because they saw parallels between the stories of Jesus and Horus (see Jesus in comparative mythology#Iconography and #Dying-and-rising god archetype).
The soil of Philae had been prepared carefully for the reception of its buildings–being leveled where it was uneven, and supported by masonry where it was crumbling or insecure. For example, the western wall of the Great Temple, and the corresponding wall of the dromos, were supported by very strong foundations, built below the pre-inundation level of the water, and rested on the granite which in this region forms the bed of the Nile. Here and there steps were hewn out from the wall to facilitate the communication between the temple and the river.
At the southern extremity of the dromos of the Great Temple was a smaller temple, apparently dedicated to Hathor; at least the few columns that remained of it are surmounted with the head of that goddess. Its portico consisted of twelve columns, four in front and three deep. Their capitals represented various forms and combinations of the palm branch, the doum palm branch, and the lotus flower. These, as well as the sculptures on the columns, the ceilings, and the walls were painted with the most vivid colors, which, owing to the dryness of the climate, have lost little of their original brilliance. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philae_temple_complex |
Druze | With the advent of the Ottoman Turks and the conquest of Syria by Sultan Selim I in 1516, the Ma'ans were acknowledged by the new rulers as the feudal lords of southern Lebanon. Druze villages spread and prospered in that region, which under Ma'an leadership so flourished that it acquired the generic term of Jabal Bayt-Ma'an (the mountain home of the Ma'an) or Jabal al-Druze. The latter title has since been usurped by the Hawran region, which since the middle of the 19th century has proven a haven of refuge to Druze emigrants from Lebanon and has become the headquarters of Druze power.
Under Fakhr-al-Dīn II (Fakhreddin II), the Druze dominion increased until it included Lebanon-Phoenicia and almost all Syria, extending from the edge of the Antioch plain in the north to Safad in the south, with a part of the Syrian desert dominated by Fakhr-al-Din's castle at Tadmur (Palmyra), the ancient capital of Zenobia. The ruins of this castle still stand on a steep hill overlooking the town. Fakhr-al-Din became too strong for his Turkish sovereign in Constantinople. He went so far in 1608 as to sign a commercial treaty with Duke Ferdinand I of Tuscany containing secret military clauses. The Sultan then sent a force against him, and he was compelled to flee the land and seek refuge in the courts of Tuscany and Naples in 1613 and 1615 respectively.
In 1618, political changes in the Ottoman sultanate had resulted in the removal of many enemies of Fakhr-al-Din from power, signaling the prince's triumphant return to Lebanon soon afterwards. Through a clever policy of bribery and warfare, he extended his domains to cover all of modern Lebanon, some of Syria and northern Galilee.
In 1632, Küçük Ahmed Pasha was named Lord of Damascus. Küçük Ahmed Pasha was a rival of Fakhr-al-Din and a friend of the sultan Murad IV, who ordered the pasha and the sultanate's navy to attack Lebanon and depose Fakhr-al-Din.
This time the prince decided to remain in Lebanon and resist the offensive, but the death of his son Ali in Wadi al-Taym was the beginning of his defeat. He later took refuge in Jezzine's grotto, closely followed by Küçük Ahmed Pasha who eventually caught up with him and his family.
Fakhr-al-Din was captured, taken to Istanbul, and imprisoned with two of his sons in the infamous Yedi Kule prison. The Sultan had Fakhr-al-Din and his sons killed on 13 April 1635 in Istanbul, bringing an end to an era in the history of Lebanon, which would not regain its current boundaries until it was proclaimed a mandate state and republic in 1920. One version recounts that the younger son was spared, raised in the harem and went on to become Ottoman Ambassador to India.
Fakhr-al-Din II was the first ruler in modern Lebanon to open the doors of his country to foreign Western influences. Under his auspices the French established a khān (hostel) in Sidon, the Florentines a consulate, and Christian missionaries were admitted into the country. Beirut and Sidon, which Fakhr-al-Din II beautified, still bear traces of his benign rule. See the new biography of this Prince, based on original sources, by TJ Gorton: Renaissance Emir: a Druze Warlord at the Court of the Medici (London, Quartet Books, 2013), for an updated view of his life.
Fakhr ad Din II was succeeded in 1635 by his nephew Mulhim Ma'n, who ruled through his death in 1658. (Fakhr ad Din's only surviving son, Husayn, lived the rest of his life as a court official in Constantinople.) Emir Mulhim exercised Iltizam taxation rights in the Shuf, Gharb, Jurd, Matn, and Kisrawan districts of Lebanon. Mulhim's forces battled and defeated those of Mustafa Pasha, Beylerbey of Damascus, in 1642, but he is reported by historians to have been otherwise loyal to Ottoman rule.
Following Mulhim's death, his sons Ahmad and Korkmaz entered into a power struggle with other Ottoman-backed Druze leaders. In 1660, the Ottoman Empire moved to reorganize the region, placing the sanjaks (districts) of Sidon-Beirut and Safed in a newly formed province of Sidon, a move seen by local Druze as an attempt to assert control. Contemporary historian Istifan al-Duwayhi reports that Korkmaz was killed in act of treachery by the Beylerbey of Damascus in 1662. Ahmad however emerged victorious in the power struggle among the Druze in 1667, but the Maʿnīs lost control of Safad and retreated to controlling the iltizam of the Shuf mountains and Kisrawan. Ahmad continued as local ruler through his death from natural causes, without heir, in 1697.
During the Ottoman–Habsburg War (1683–1699), Ahmad Ma'n collaborated in a rebellion against the Ottomans which extended beyond his death. Iltizam rights in Shuf and Kisrawan passed to the rising Shihab family through female-line inheritance. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Druze |
Byzantine music | By the end of the seventh century with the reform of 692, the kontakion, Romanos' genre was overshadowed by a certain monastic type of homiletic hymn, the canon and its prominent role it played within the cathedral rite of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem. Essentially, the canon, as it is known since 8th century, is a hymnodic complex composed of nine odes that were originally related, at least in content, to the nine Biblical canticles and to which they were related by means of corresponding poetic allusion or textual quotation (see the section about the biblical odes). Out of the custom of canticle recitation, monastic reformers at Constantinople, Jerusalem and Mount Sinai developed a new homiletic genre whose verses in the complex ode meter were composed over a melodic model: the heirmos.
During the 7th century kanons at the Patriarchate of Jerusalem still consisted of the two or three odes throughout the year cycle, and often combined different echoi. The form common today of nine or eight odes was introduced by composers within the school of Andrew of Crete at Mar Saba. The nine odes of the kanon were dissimilar by their metrum. Consequently, an entire heirmos comprises nine independent melodies (eight, because the second ode was often omitted outside Lenten period), which are united musically by the same echos and its melos, and sometimes even textually by references to the general theme of the liturgical occasion—especially in acrosticha (ἀκρόστιχα) composed over a given heirmos, but dedicated to a particular day of the menaion. Until the 11th century, the common book of hymns was the tropologion and it had no other musical notation than a modal signature and combined different hymn genres like troparion, sticheron, and canon.
The earliest tropologion was already composed by Severus of Antioch, Paul of Edessa and Ioannes Psaltes at the Patriarchate of Antioch between 512 and 518. Their tropologion has only survived in Syriac translation and revised by Jacob of Edessa. The tropologion was continued by Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, but especially by Andrew of Crete's contemporary Germanus I, Patriarch of Constantinople who represented as a gifted hymnographer not only an own school, but he became also very eager to realise the purpose of this reform since 705, although its authority was questioned by iconoclast antagonists and only established in 787. After the octoechos reform of the Quinisext Council in 692, monks at Mar Saba continued the hymn project under Andrew's instruction, especially by his most gifted followers John of Damascus and Cosmas of Jerusalem. These various layers of the Hagiopolitan tropologion since the 5th century have mainly survived in a Georgian type of tropologion called "Iadgari" whose oldest copies can be dated back to the 9th century.
Today the second ode is usually omitted (while the great kanon attributed to John of Damascus includes it), but medieval heirmologia rather testify the custom, that the extremely strict spirit of Moses' last prayer was especially recited during Lenten tide, when the number of odes was limited to three odes (triodion), especially patriarch Germanus I contributed with many own compositions of the second ode. According to Alexandra Nikiforova only two of 64 canons composed by Germanus I are present in the current print editions, but manuscripts have transmitted his hymnographic heritage. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_music |
2017 Shayrat missile strike | Syrian state media condemned the strike, calling it an "act of aggression", and claiming it caused unspecified losses. The Syrian Army said that its response will be to continue to "crush terrorism" and restore "peace and security to all Syrians". The Governor of Homs, Talal Barazi, said that the strike proves that the United States is supporting terrorism within Syria. Barazi told the Syrian News Channel that "they are not surprised today to see the supporting parties interfering directly after the failure of terrorists in targeting Syria".
The spokesperson for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad called the missile strikes "unjust and arrogant aggression", and an "outrageous act", and that the attack "does not change the deep policies" of the Syrian government. The Syrian Ambassador Bashar Jaafari at the UN Security Council session stated that "this act makes America a partner of ISIL, Al-Nusra and other terrorist groups", and it was a violation of the U.N. Charter. President Assad later told the Agence France-Presse that the chemical attack was "100% fabricated" and accused the United States of being "hand-in-glove with the terrorists" over the chemical attack. He also explained that the chemical attack was made up in order to give the United States an excuse to bomb the Shayrat airbase in retaliation.
Najib Ghadbian, a representative of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, welcomed the strikes: "They are first good steps but we would like them to be part of a bigger strategy that would put an end to the mass killing, an end to impunity and eventually we hope that they will lead to a kind of a political transition [in Syria]." The pro-Turkish Kurdish National Council welcomed the missile strikes in Syria. "All Syrian people, including the Kurds, are happy and welcoming such an air campaign by the United States", a leader in the Kurdish Unity Party, part of the KNC, stated.
Salih Muslim Muhammad, co-leader of the Democratic Union Party, stated that the attack "must yield positive results since the parties who did not believe in a political solution" will "reconsider" and "see that there is no military solution", and the US was "forced" to execute the attack. The PYD "hoped" that the US will not only attack the Syrian government, but "other parties have also used it, in Sheikh Maqsood, in Rojava, and Raqqa". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Shayrat_missile_strike |
Egypt in the Middle Ages | In 868, Caliph al-Mu'tazz (r. 866–869) gave charge of Egypt to the Turkish general Bakbak. Bakbak in turn sent his stepson Ahmad ibn Tulun as his lieutenant and resident governor. This appointment ushered in a new era in Egypt's history: hitherto a passive province of an empire, under Ibn Tulun it would re-emerge as an independent political centre. Ibn Tulun would use the country's wealth to extend his rule into the Levant, in a pattern followed by later Egypt-based regimes, from the Ikhshidids to the Mamluk Sultanate.
The first years of Ibn Tulun's governorship were dominated by his power struggle with the powerful head of the fiscal administration, the Ibn al-Mudabbir. The latter had been appointed as fiscal agent (ʿāmil) already since c. 861, and had rapidly become the most hated man in the country as he doubled the taxes and imposed new ones on Muslims and non-Muslims alike. By 872 Ibn Tulun had achieved Ibn al-Mudabirbir's dismissal and taken over the management of the fisc himself, and had managed to assemble an army of his own, thereby becoming de facto independent of Baghdad. As a sign of his power, he established a new palace city to the northeast of Fustat, called al-Qata'i, in 870. The project was a conscious emulation of, and rival to, the Abbasid capital Samarra, with quarters assigned to the regiments of his army, a hippodrome, hospital, and palaces. The new city's centrepiece was the Mosque of Ibn Tulun. Ibn Tulun continued to emulate the familiar Samarra model in the establishment of his administration as well, creating new departments and entrusting them to Samarra-trained officials. His regime was in many ways typical of the "ghulām system" that became one of the two main paradigms of Islamic polities in the 9th and 10th centuries, as the Abbasid Caliphate fragmented and new dynasties emerged. These regimes were based on the power of a regular army composed of slave soldiers or ghilmān, but in turn, according to Hugh N. Kennedy, "the paying of the troops was the major preoccupation of government". It is therefore in the context of the increased financial requirements that in 879, the supervision of the finances passed to Abu Bakr Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Madhara'i, the founder of the al-Madhara'i bureaucratic dynasty that dominated the fiscal apparatus of Egypt for the next 70 years. The peace and security provided by the Tulunid regime, the establishment of an efficient administration, and repairs and expansions to the irrigation system, coupled with a consistently high level of Nile floods, resulted in a major increase in revenue. By the end of his reign, Ibn Tulun had accumulated a reserve of ten million dinars.
Ibn Tulun's rise was facilitated by the feebleness of the Abbasid government, threatened by the rise of the Saffarids in the east and by the Zanj Rebellion in Iraq itself, and divided due to the rivalry between Caliph al-Mu'tamid (r. 870–892) and his increasingly powerful brother and de facto regent, al-Muwaffaq. Open conflict between Ibn Tulun and al-Muwaffaq broke out in 875/6. The latter tried to oust Ibn Tulun from Egypt, but the expedition sent against him barely reached Syria. In retaliation, with the support of the Caliph, in 877/8 Ibn Tulun received responsibility for the entirety of Syria and the frontier districts of Cilicia (the Thughūr). Ibn Tulun occupied Syria but failed to seize Tarsus in Cilicia, and was forced to return to Egypt due to the abortive revolt of his eldest son, Abbas. Ibn Tulun has Abbas imprisoned, and named his second son, Khumarawayh, as his heir. In 882, Ibn Tulun came close to having Egypt become the new centre of the Caliphate, when al-Mu'tamid tried to flee to his domains. In the event, however, the Caliph was overtaken and brought him back to Samarra (February 883) and under his brother's control. This opened anew the rift between the two rulers: Ibn Tulun organized an assembly of religious jurists at Damascus which denounced al-Muwaffaq a usurper, condemned his maltreatment of the Caliph, declared his place in the succession as void, and called for a jihād against him. Al-Muwaffaq was duly denounced in sermons in the mosques across the Tulunid domains, while the Abbasid regent responded in kind with a ritual denunciation of Ibn Tulun. Ibn Tulun then tried once more, again without success, to impose his rule over Tarsus. He fell ill on his return journey to Egypt, and died at Fustat on 10 May 884.
At Ibn Tulun's death, Khumarawayh, with the backing of the Tulunid elites, succeeded without opposition. Ibn Tulun bequeathed his heir "with a seasoned military, a stable economy, and a coterie of experienced commanders and bureaucrats". Khumarawayh was able to preserve his authority against the Abbasid's attempt to overthrow him at the Battle of Tawahin and even made additional territorial gains, recognized in a treaty with al-Muwaffaq in 886 that gave the Tulunids the hereditary governorship over Egypt and Syria for 30 years. The accession of al-Muwaffaq's son al-Mu'tadid as Caliph in 892 marked a new rapprochement, culminating in the marriage of Khumarawayh's daughter to the new Caliph, but also the return of the provinces of Diyar Rabi'a and Diyar Mudar to caliphal control. Domestically, Khumarawayh's reign was one of "luxury and decay" (Hugh N. Kennedy), but also a time of relative tranquility in Egypt as well as in Syria, a rather unusual occurrence for the period. Nevertheless, Khumarawayh's extravagant spending exhausted the fisc, and by the time of his assassination in 896, the Tulunid treasury was empty. Following Khumarawayh's death, internal strife sapped Tulunid power. Khumarawayh's son Jaysh was a drunkard who executed his uncle, Mudar ibn Ahmad ibn Tulun; he was deposed after only a few months and replaced by his brother Harun ibn Khumarawayh. Harun too was a weak ruler, and although a revolt by his uncle Rabi'ah in Alexandria was suppressed, the Tulunids were unable to confront the attacks of the Qarmatians who began at the same time. In addition, many commanders defected to the Abbasids, whose power revived under the capable leadership of al-Muwaffaq's son, Caliph al-Mu'tadid (r. 892–902). Finally, in December 904, two other sons of Ibn Tulun, Ali and Shayban, murdered their nephew and assumed control of the Tulunid state. Far from halting the decline, this event alienated key commanders in Syria and led to the rapid and relatively unopposed reconquest of Syria and Egypt by the Abbasids under Muhammad ibn Sulayman al-Katib, who entered Fustat in January 905. With the exception of the Great Mosque of Ibn Tulun, the victorious Abbasid troops pillaged al-Qata'i and razed it to the ground. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egypt_in_the_Middle_Ages |
Fall of Baghdad (1917) | There were no setbacks for the British on this campaign. General Maude proceeded cautiously, advancing on both sides of the Tigris River. He earned his nickname Systematic Joe. The Ottoman forces contested a fortified place called the Khadairi Bend which the British captured after two weeks of siege work (6 January to 19 January 1917). The British then had to force the Ottoman forces out of a strong defensive line along the Hai River. This took them two more weeks (from 25 January till 4 February). Another Ottoman position, called Dahra Bend, was taken on 16 February. Finally, the British re-captured Kut on 24 February 1917 in the Second Battle of Kut.
The local Ottoman commander, Karabekir Bey, did not let his army become trapped in Kut, as General Townshend had been in the First Battle of Kut.
The march on Baghdad resumed on 5 March 1917. Three days later, Maude's corps reached the Diyala River on the outskirts of the city.
Khalil Pasha chose to defend Baghdad at the confluence of the Diyala and the Tigris, some 35 miles south of Baghdad. The Ottoman troops resisted the initial British assault on 9 March. General Maude then shifted the majority of his army north. He believed that he could outflank the Ottoman positions and strike directly for Baghdad. Khalil Pasha responded by shifting his army out of its defensive positions to mirror the move of the British on the other side of the river. A single regiment was left to hold the original Diyala River defences. The British crushed this regiment with a sudden assault on 10 March 1917. This sudden defeat unnerved Khalil Pasha and he ordered his army to retreat north to Baghdad.
The Ottoman authorities ordered the evacuation of Baghdad at 8 p.m. on 10 March, but the situation was rapidly moving beyond Khalil Pasha's control. The British followed close on the heels of the Ottoman troops and captured Baghdad without a fight on 11 March. A week later, General Maude issued the Proclamation of Baghdad, which included the line, "Our armies do not come into your cities and lands as conquerors or enemies, but as liberators". Some 9,000 Ottoman troops were caught in the confusion and became prisoners of the British.
The British were worried that the Ottoman government might try to flood the Tigris plain. As it happened, this fear was unfounded. The Ottoman troops never attempted to flood the area. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_of_Baghdad_(1917) |
Ancient Egypt | Egyptian society was highly stratified, and social status was expressly displayed. Farmers made up the bulk of the population, but agricultural produce was owned directly by the state, temple, or noble family that owned the land. Farmers were also subject to a labor tax and were required to work on irrigation or construction projects in a corvée system. Artists and craftsmen were of higher status than farmers, but they were also under state control, working in the shops attached to the temples and paid directly from the state treasury. Scribes and officials formed the upper class in ancient Egypt, known as the "white kilt class" in reference to the bleached linen garments that served as a mark of their rank. The upper class prominently displayed their social status in art and literature. Below the nobility were the priests, physicians, and engineers with specialized training in their field. It is unclear whether slavery as understood today existed in ancient Egypt; there is difference of opinions among authors.
The ancient Egyptians viewed men and women, including people from all social classes, as essentially equal under the law, and even the lowliest peasant was entitled to petition the vizier and his court for redress. Although slaves were mostly used as indentured servants, they were able to buy and sell their servitude, work their way to freedom or nobility, and were usually treated by doctors in the workplace. Both men and women had the right to own and sell property, make contracts, marry and divorce, receive inheritance, and pursue legal disputes in court. Married couples could own property jointly and protect themselves from divorce by agreeing to marriage contracts, which stipulated the financial obligations of the husband to his wife and children should the marriage end. Compared with their counterparts in ancient Greece, Rome, and even more modern places around the world, ancient Egyptian women had a greater range of personal choices, legal rights, and opportunities for achievement. Women such as Hatshepsut and Cleopatra VII even became pharaohs, while others wielded power as Divine Wives of Amun. Despite these freedoms, ancient Egyptian women did not often take part in official roles in the administration, aside from the royal high priestesses, apparently served only secondary roles in the temples (not much data for many dynasties), and were not so probably to be as educated as men. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Egypt |
Amorites | The term Amorites is used in the Bible to refer to certain highland mountaineers who inhabited the land of Canaan, described in Genesis as descendants of Canaan, the son of Ham (Gen. 10:16). This aligns with Akkadian and Babylonian traditions that equated Syro-Palestine with the "land of the Amorites". They are described as a powerful people of great stature "like the height of the cedars" (Amos 2:9) who had occupied the land east and west of the Jordan. The height and strength mentioned in Amos 2:9 has led some Christian scholars, including Orville J. Nave, who wrote the Nave's Topical Bible, to refer to the Amorites as "giants".
In Deuteronomy, the Amorite king, Og, was described as the last "of the remnant of the Rephaim" (Deut 3:11). The terms Amorite and Canaanite seem to be used more or less interchangeably but sometimes, Amorite refers to a specific tribe living in Canaan
The Biblical Amorites seem to have originally occupied the region stretching from the heights west of the Dead Sea (Gen. 14:7) to Hebron (Gen. 13:8; Deut. 3:8; 4:46–48), embracing "all Gilead and all Bashan" (Deut. 3:10), with the Jordan valley on the east of the river (Deut. 4:49), the land of the "two kings of the Amorites", Sihon and Og (Deut. 31:4 and Joshua 2:10; 9:10). Sihon and Og were independent kings whose people were displaced from their land in battle with the Israelites (Numbers 21:21–35)—though in the case of the war led by Og/Bashan it appears none of them survived and the land became part of Israel (Numbers 21:35). The Amorites seem to have been linked to the Jerusalem region, and the Jebusites may have been a subgroup of them (Ezek. 16:3). The southern slopes of the mountains of Judea are called the "mount of the Amorites" (Deut. 1:7, 19, 20).
The Book of Joshua speaks of the five kings of the Amorites were first defeated with great slaughter by Joshua (Josh. 10:5). Then, more Amorite kings were defeated at the waters of Merom by Joshua (Josh. 11:8). It is mentioned that in the days of Samuel, there was peace between them and the Israelites (1 Sam. 7:14). The Gibeonites were said to be their descendants, being an offshoot of the Amorites who made a covenant with the Hebrews (2 Samuel 21:2). When Saul later broke that vow and killed some of the Gibeonites, God is said to have sent a famine to Israel (2 Samuel 21:1).
In 2017, Philippe Bohstrom of Haaretz observed similarities between the Amorites and the Jews, since both historically existed as well-connected diasporic communities. He also believes that Abraham was among the Amorites who migrated to the Levant, around the same time that the Amorites conquered Ur at 1750 BC, due to his north Syrian heritage and shepherding-based lifestyles. Nonetheless, the Biblical authors only applied the Amorite ethnonym to the pre-Israelite inhabitants of the high mountains. Reasons include the polemical need to associate them with the "barbaric raw meat eating" Amorites that the Sumerians imagined them as. The authors also wanted to portray these inhabitants as having an ancient history. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amorites |
Agriculture in Sudan | The right to own property, to bequeath it to heirs, and to inherit it was established by the 1973 constitution (then known as the Permanent Constitution), although that right was suspended in 1985. Sudan has long had a system of land registration through which an individual, an enterprise, or the government can establish title to a piece of land. Such registration was extensive in Northern Sudan, especially in the then-states of Al-Khartoum, Al-Awsat, and Ash Shamali. Before 1970 all other land (unregistered) belonged to the state, which held ownership in trust for the people, who had customary rights to it.
The Unregistered Land Act of 1970 declared that all waste, forest, and unregistered lands were government land. Private land was limited to that registered before 1970 under a 1929 land ordinance and was limited to agricultural land along the Nile and a few areas along other water courses. Such land amounted to only about 1 percent of all land. Individuals could, however, lease land from the government and gain usufruct rights.
The government owned most of the land used by the modern agricultural sector and leased it to tenants (for example, in the Gezira Scheme) or to private entrepreneurs, such as most operators of large-scale mechanized rain-fed farming. The lease rights were for specified periods of time; for example, leases rights for the large mechanized farms were typically for 25 years.
There were also many variants of land tenure. The communal land used for pasture and for subsistence cultivation was owned by the government but under the control of the community or local leader, who allocated it to households of the village or ethnic group for their exclusive cultivation. The rights to such land might be passed on to heirs, but ordinarily the land could not be sold or otherwise disposed of, nor used as collateral. The right was also retained to land left fallow, although in Bahr al-Ghazal, Upper Nile, and Equatoria there were communities where another individual could claim such land by clearing it.
Among the transhumant communities of the North, the rights to cultivated land were much the same, but the dominant position of livestock in community activities introduced certain other communal rights that included common rights to grazing land, the right-of-way to water and grazing land, the right to grass on agricultural land unless the occupier cut and stacked it, and the right to crop residues unless similarly treated. In the western savannas, private ownership of stands of hashab (gum arabic) trees could be registered, an exception to the usual government ownership of the forests, but dead wood for domestic fuel and the underlying grass were common property. Water, a matter of greatest importance to stock raisers, was open to all if free standing, but wells and the associated drinking troughs were private property and retained by the digger season after season. In Northern Sudan, especially in the western region where increasing population and animal numbers placed pressure on the land, violations of customary laws and conflicts between ethnic groups over rights to pasturage and water increased during the 1990s and early 2000s. These were major factors behind the warfare that began in Western Sudan in early 2003. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agriculture_in_Sudan |
Azerbaijani literature | The literary editions of the Union of Writers – " Newspaper of Literature", "Azerbaijan", "Ulduz", "Gobustan" and "Literaturniy Azerbaijan " in Russian began to operate after the X congress of the Union of Writers of Azerbaijan, which was held in October 1997 with the participation of Heydar Aliyev. Also, Mingachevir, Aran, and Moscow departments of the Writers Union of Azerbaijan were created after that congress.
For the first time in 1995, the "Istiglal" order was given to Bakhtiyar Vahabzade by Heydar Aliyev. Mammad Araz and Khalil Rza Uluturk were also awarded the "Istiglal" Order.
The literary activity of National writer Anar Rzayev has been awarded the “Heydar Aliyev Prize” by Ilham Aliyev.
The book "Heydar Aliyev and Azerbaijan Literature", prepared by the ANAS Institute of Literature in 2010, was awarded the State Prize in 2014. The publicist novel of "Heydar Aliyev: Personality and Time" with 6 volumes written by Elmira Akhundova and in 2016 Fikrat Goca's Works – 10 volumes were awarded that State Prize.
Sabir Rustamkhanli, Nariman Hasanzade and Zelimkhan Yaqub were awarded “National poets” by Ilham Aliyev in 2005. Maqsud and Rustam Ibrahimbeyov's brothers, Movlud Suleymanli were awarded the title of "National Writer" by the President. In general, there are 22 “National poets” and 25 “National writers” in the country. Chingiz Abdullayev was awarded both the honorary title "Glory" and the "National Writer" by the decree of the President in 2009 when he was 50 years old.
Ilham Aliyev signed a decree on holding 100th anniversary of S. Vurgun, S.Rustam, M. Jalal, M.Huseyn, A.Alekbarzade, M.Ibrahimov, R. Rza, Ilyas Afandiyev. He also signed a decree on holding 100th anniversary of Almas Yildirim on April 16, 2007, and Mikayil Mushfiq in 2008 who are the victims of repression. Ilham Aliyev signed decrees to hold the 125th, 130th and 135th anniversary of Hussein Javid.
S.Rahimov and M.Adadzadeh were celebrated the 110th anniversary, M. Rasulzadeh – the 130th anniversary, A.Huseynzade – 150th anniversary. The celebration of these writers' anniversaries at the state level also serves to promote them throughout the world.
On November 10, 2008 Mehriban Aliyeva, President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, spoke at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of M.Pashayev.
Hundreds of books have been published based on the decree of the President, dated 12 January 2004, on “The implementation of mass editions in the Azerbaijani language (Latin)". In addition, 150 volumes of examples from the World Literature Library have been translated. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azerbaijani_literature |
Aterian | The technological character of the Aterian has been debated for almost a century, but has until recently eluded definition. The problems defining the industry have related to its research history and the fact that a number of similarities have been observed between the Aterian and other North African stone tool industries of the same date. Levallois reduction is widespread across the whole of North Africa throughout the Middle Stone Age, and scrapers and denticulates are ubiquitous. Bifacial foliates moreover represent a huge taxonomic category and the form and dimension of such foliates associated with tanged tools is extremely varied. There is also a significant variation of tanged tools themselves, with various forms representing both different tool types (e.g., knives, scrapers, points) and the degree tool resharpening.
More recently, a large-scale study of North African stone tool assemblages, including Aterian assemblages, indicated that the traditional concept of stone tool industries is problematic in the North African Middle Stone Age. Although the term Aterian defines Middle Stone Age assemblages from North Africa with tanged tools, the concept of an Aterian industry obfuscates other similarities between tanged tool assemblages and other non-Aterian North African assemblages of the same date. For example, bifacial leaf points are found widely across North Africa in assemblages that lack tanged tools and Levallois flakes and cores are near ubiquitous. Instead of elaborating discrete industries, the findings of the comparative study suggest that North Africa during the Last Interglacial comprised a network of related technologies whose similarities and differences correlated with geographical distance and the palaeohydrology of a Green Sahara. Assemblages with tanged tools may therefore reflect particular activities involving the use of such tool types, and may not necessarily reflect a substantively different archaeological culture to others from the same period in North Africa. The findings are significant because they suggest that current archaeological nomenclatures do not reflect the true variability of the archaeological record of North Africa during the Middle Stone Age from the Last Interglacial, and hints at how early modern humans dispersed into previously uninhabitable environments. This notwithstanding, the term still usefully denotes the presence of tanged tools in North African Middle Stone Age assemblages.
Tanged tools persisted in North Africa until around 20,000 years ago, with the youngest sites located in Northwest Africa. By this time, the Aterian lithic industry had long ceased to exist in the rest of North Africa due to the onset of the Ice Age, which in North Africa, resulted in hyperarid conditions. Assemblages with tanged tools, 'the Aterian', therefore have a significant temporal and spatial range. However, the exact geographical distribution of this lithic industry is uncertain. The Aterian's spatial range is thought to have existed in North Africa up to the Nile Valley Possible Aterian lithic tools have also been discovered in Middle Paleolithic deposits in Oman and the Thar Desert.
Most engraved Bubaline rock art appear in the northern region of Tassili, at Wadi Djerat. Levallois instruments in the area may indicate that Bubaline rock art was developed by Aterians.
In the Sahara, Aterians camped near lakes, rivers, and springs, and engaged in the activity of hunting (e.g., antelope, buffalo, elephant, rhinoceros) and some gathering. As a result of a hyper-aridification event of Saharan Africa, which occurred around the time of Europe's Würm glaciation event, Aterian hunter-gatherers may have migrated into areas of tropical Africa and coastal Africa. More specifically, amid aridification in MIS 5 and regional change of climate in MIS 4, in the Sahara and the Sahel, Aterians may have migrated southward into West Africa (e.g., Baie du Levrier, Mauritania; Tiemassas, Senegal; Lower Senegal River Valley). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aterian |
Nile | There are two theories about the age of the integrated Nile. One is that the integrated drainage of the Nile is of young age and that the Nile basin was formerly broken into series of separate basins, only the most northerly of which fed a river following the present course of the Nile in Egypt and Sudan. Rushdi Said postulates that Egypt supplied most of the waters of the Nile during the early part of its history.
The other theory is that the drainage from Ethiopia via rivers equivalent to the Blue Nile, the Atbara and the Takazze flowed to the Mediterranean via the Egyptian Nile since well back into Tertiary times.
Salama suggests that during the Paleogene and Neogene Periods (66 million to 2.588 million years ago) a series of separate closed continental basins each occupied one of the major parts of the Sudanese Rift System: Mellut rift, White Nile rift, Blue Nile rift, Atbara rift and Sag El Naam rift.
The Mellut Basin is nearly 12 kilometers (7.5 mi) deep at its central part. This rift is possibly still active, with reported tectonic activity in its northern and southern boundaries. The Sudd swamp which forms the central part of the basin may still be subsiding. The White Nile Rift system, although shallower than the Bahr el Arab rift, is about 9 kilometers (5.6 mi) deep. Geophysical exploration of the Blue Nile Rift System estimated the depth of the sediments to be 5–9 kilometers (3.1–5.6 mi). These basins were not interconnected until their subsidence ceased, and the rate of sediment deposition was enough to fill and connect them.
The Egyptian Nile connected to the Sudanese Nile, which captures the Ethiopian and Equatorial headwaters during the current stages of tectonic activity in the Eastern, Central and Sudanese Rift systems. The connection of the different Niles occurred during cyclic wet periods. The Atbarah overflowed its closed basin during the wet periods that occurred about 100,000 to 120,000 years ago. The Blue Nile connected to the main Nile during the 70,000–80,000 years B.P. wet period. The White Nile system in Bahr El Arab and White Nile Rifts remained a closed lake until the connection of the Victoria Nile to the main system some 12,500 years ago during the African humid period. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nile |
Al Ayam (Bahrain) | The first issue of the Al Ayam in Arabic was published on 7 March 1989 and after that the daily Bahrain Tribune in English was published on 7 March 1997. Al Ayam group also published an entertainment weekly magazine Sada Al Osbou and a monthly magazine Gulf Panorama.
According to the latest surveys and studies that is made by specialized companies Al Ayam is the leading and the No.1 circulated newspaper in the Kingdom of Bahrain because of the variety of ideologies, credibility and the extensive coverage of local and international news.
Al Ayam was the first newspaper in the MENA region to use the modern Information Technology in editing, executing and publishing and one of the first Arabic newspapers which launched a website on the internet.
Al Ayam has a dedicated sports, kids and business supplement pullout along with the daily. The paper is a member of the project “Kitab Fi Jarida” – A book in a newspaper – which is one of the programs of the UNESCO. The publication is active in the cultural filed and it owns a distribution company and one of the most important and popular commercial bookshop in Bahrain. It uses one of the most modern presses in the Middle East that has the ability to print all types of newspaper, books and different types of publications.
Al Ayam celebrated its 21st anniversary in March 2010 and on this occasion AlAyam Media Center was launched, which offices all the departments and the modern printing press in an area of more than 15,000 sq meter and is located on Shaikh Isa bin Salman Highway – Janabiyah, close to entry of King Fahd Causeway to Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in a very strategic location.
AlAyam is starting a new era in media and publishing sector and trust fully will continue its success as the leading media organization in the Kingdom of Bahrain. The paper is part of AlAyam Publishing Group. Nabeel Al Hamer who is the former information ministry official and was the information affairs advisor to King Hamad in 2006 is the first editor-in-chief of AlAyam.
In 2001 AlAyam was the best selling newspaper in Bahrain with a circulation of 36,000 copies. The paper's online version was the 40th most visited website for 2010 in the MENA region. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Ayam_(Bahrain) |
Al-Muqtataf (magazine) | Al-Muqtataf was founded in 1876 by the Arabic Christians Yaqūb Ṣarrūf (1852-1927) and Fāris Nimr (1856-1951) at the Syrian Protestant College (SPC, today American University of Beirut) in Beirut. Both of them graduated there with a bachelor of arts degree in science and worked afterwards as lecturers. Ṣarrūf, who had made a name himself as an important science journalist and promoter of the modern Arabic literature, was interested predominantly in scientific and literary topics. Nimr, on the other hand, dedicated himself additionally to current politics. The third publisher Šāhīn Makāriyūs (1853-1910) who was also a journalist, was responsible for the printing technology, and he developed this already in the production of the journals Našra al-Usbūʿīya (1871) and aṭ- Ṭabīb (1884-1885).
The publishing course was apparently not planned from the beginning since the volumes are not furnished with a date till the fourth year. The chronology was published until 1885 only according to Gregorian calendar later the Islamic dating was also added. Besides Syria and Egypt the issues were also distributed in Iraq, Iran, Yemen and were spread in numerous European countries, in the USA, Canada, Latin America, Australia as well as in India and China.
In 1882, the journal attracted controversy when it published a speech by an SPC professor named Edwin Lewis. The speech made favorable references to Darwinism, and was opposed by religiously conservative authorities at SPC. In addition, another Christian journal Al Bashir's editor Louis Cheikho harshly criticised the articles on Darwin published in Al-Muqtataf. The editors of Al-Muqtataf were accused of being atheists by Al Bashir. The accusations of two journals each other lasted until 1884, and the incident became known not only in the region, but also in Europe. The problem was solved the same year only through the intervention of the Ottomans who asked the editors through the Directorate of Foreign Affairs and Publications in Beirut to stop accusing each other if they did not want to be subject to the bans or penalty. Such oppositions led Ṣarrūf and Nimr to migrate to Cairo in 1883 where they produced the journal in a private printing press owned by Makāriyūs. One of the contributors in Cairo was May Ziadeh, a Palestinian feminist writer. In addition, Ṣarrūf and Nimr published simultaneously the daily newspaper al-Muqaṭṭam (1889-1952), the monthly journal al-Laṭāʾif (1886-1896) and Ǧarīdat as-Sūdān (The Sudan Times, 1903) in Cairo.
Al-Muqtataf ended publication in 1952. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Muqtataf_(magazine) |
Israeli-occupied territories | In two cases decided shortly after independence, in the Shimshon and Stampfer cases, the Supreme Court of Israel held that the fundamental rules of international law accepted as binding by all "civilized" nations were incorporated in the domestic legal system of Israel. The Nuremberg Military Tribunal determined that the articles annexed to the Hague IV Convention of 1907 were customary law that had been recognized by all civilized nations. In the past, the Supreme Court has argued that the Geneva Convention insofar it is not supported by domestic legislation "does not bind this Court, its enforcement being a matter for the states which are parties to the Convention". They ruled that "Conventional international law does not become part of Israeli law through automatic incorporation, but only if it is adopted or combined with Israeli law by enactment of primary or subsidiary legislation from which it derives its force". However, in the same decision the Court ruled that the Fourth Hague Convention rules governing belligerent occupation did apply, since those were recognized as customary international law.
The Israeli High Court of Justice determined in the 1979 Elon Moreh case that the area in question was under occupation and that accordingly only the military commander of the area may requisition land according to Article 52 of the Regulations annexed to the Hague IV Convention. Military necessity had been an after-thought in planning portions of the Elon Moreh settlement. That situation did not fulfill the precise strictures laid down in the articles of the Hague Convention, so the Court ruled the requisition order had been invalid and illegal. In recent decades, the government of Israel has argued before the Supreme Court of Israel that its authority in the territories is based on the international law of "belligerent occupation", in particular the Hague Conventions. The court has confirmed this interpretation many times, for example in its 2004 and 2005 rulings on the separation fence.
In its June 2005 ruling upholding the constitutionality of the Gaza disengagement, the Court determined that "Judea and Samaria" [West Bank] and the Gaza area are lands seized during warfare, and are not part of Israel:
The Judea and Samaria Area is held by the State of Israel in belligerent occupation. The long arm of the state in the area is the military commander. He is not the sovereign in the territory held in belligerent occupation (see The Beit Sourik Case, at p. 832). His power is granted him by public international law regarding belligerent occupation. The legal meaning of this view is twofold: first, Israeli law does not apply in these areas. They have not been "annexed" to Israel. Second, the legal regime which applies in these areas is determined by public international law regarding belligerent occupation (see HCJ 1661/05 The Gaza Coast Regional Council v. The Knesset et al. (yet unpublished, paragraph 3 of the opinion of the Court; hereinafter – The Gaza Coast Regional Council Case). In the center of this public international law stand the Regulations Concerning the Laws and Customs of War on Land, The Hague, 18 October 1907 (hereinafter – The Hague Regulations). These regulations are a reflection of customary international law. The law of belligerent occupation is also laid out in IV Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War 1949 (hereinafter – the Fourth Geneva Convention). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli-occupied_territories |
Economy of Egypt | On the revenues side, total revenues of the government were E£89.1 billion in FY2002 and are projected to reach E£184.7 bn in FY2008. Much of the increase came from a rise in customs, excise and tax revenues, particularly personal income and sales, entertainment, and vice taxes which constituted the bulk of total domestic taxes, due to recent tax reforms. This trend is likely to gradually widen the tax base in the forthcoming years. Revenues, however, have remained more or less constant (about 21% ) as a percentage of the GDP over the past few years.
On the expenditures side, strong expenditure growth has remained a main feature of the budget. This is mainly a result of continued strong expansion of (1) the public-sector wages driven by government pledges. Wages and Compensations increased from E£30.5 bn in FY2002 to E£59.6 bn in FY2008; (2) high interest payments on the public debt stock. Interest payments rose from E£21.8 bn in FY2002 to E£52.0 bn in FY2008. Importantly, dramatic increase in domestic debt which is projected to be roughly 62% of GDP in FY2008 up from 58.4% in FY2002; and (3) the costs of food and energy subsidies, which rose from E£18.0 bn in FY2002 to E£64.5 bn in FY2008.
The overall deficit, after adjusting for net acquisition of financial assets, remains almost unchanged from the cash deficit. The budget's overall deficit of E£43.8 bn or −10.2% of GDP for FY2002 has become E£49.2 bn in FY2007, so that is narrowed to −6.7% of GDP. Deficit is financed largely by domestic borrowing and revenue from divestment sales, which became a standard accounting practice in budget Egypt. The government aims at more sales of State assets in FY2008.
Recently, the fiscal conduct of the government faced strong criticism and heated debate in the Egyptian Parliament. Remarks were made about weak governance and management, loose implementation of tax collection procedures and penalties for offenders, and improper accounting of the overall system of basic subsidies and domestic debt, leading to domestic market disruptions, high inflation, increased inefficiencies and waste in the domestic economy.
Treasury bonds and notes issued to the Central Bank of Egypt constitute the bulk of the government domestic debt. Since FY2001, net government domestic debt (i.e. after excluding budget sector deposits) has been rising at a fluctuating but increasing rate. In 2014, it reached 77% up from 54.3% of GDP in 2001. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Egypt |
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Sumerian language | The modal prefixes express modality. Some of them are generally combined with certain TAs; in other cases, the meaning of a modal prefix can depend on the TA.
/Ø-/ is the prefix of the simple indicative mood; in other words, the indicative is unmarked.
E.g.: 𒅔𒅥 in-gu7 {Ø-i-n-gu} "He ate it."
𒉡 nu- and 𒆷 la-, 𒇷 li- (𒉌 li2- in Ur III spelling) have negative meaning and can be translated as "not". The allomorphs /la-/ and /li-/ are used before the "conjugation prefixes" 𒁀 ba- and 𒉈 bi2-, respectively. A following vowel /i/ or /e/ is contracted with the preceding /u/ of nu- with compensatory lengthening (which is often graphically unexpressed): compare 𒉌𒁺 i3-du "he is walking", but /nu-i-du/ > /nuː-du/ 𒉡𒅇𒁺 nu(-u3)-du "he isn't walking". If followed by a consonant, on the other hand, the vowel of nu- appears to have been assimilated to the vowel of the following syllable, because it occasionally appears written as 𒈾 /na-/ in front of a syllable containing /a/.
E.g.: 𒉡𒌦𒅥 nu(-u3)-un-gu7 {nu-i-n-gu} "He didn't eat it."
𒄩 ḫa- / 𒃶 ḫe2- has either precative/optative meaning ("let him do X", "may you do X") or affirmative meaning ("he does this indeed"), partly depending on the type of verb. If the verbal form denotes a transitive action, precative meaning is expressed with the marû form, and affirmative with the ḫamṭu form. In contrast, if the verbal form is intransitive or stative, the TA used is always ḫamṭu. Occasionally the precative/optative form is also used in a conditional sense of "if" or "when". According to Jagersma, the base form is 𒄩 ḫa-, but in open syllables the prefix merges with a following conjugation prefix i3- into 𒃶 ḫe2-. Beginning in the later Old Akkadian period, the spelling also shows assimilation of the vowel of the prefix to 𒃶 ḫe2- in front of a syllable containing /e/; in the Ur III period, there is a tendency to generalize the variant 𒃶 ḫe2-, but in addition further assimilation to 𒄷 ḫu- in front of /u/ is attested and graphic expressions of the latter become common in the Old Babylonian period. Other scholars have contended that 𒃶 ḫe2- was the only allomorph in the Archaic Sumerian period and many have viewed it as the main form of the morpheme.
E.g.: 𒃶𒅁𒅥𒂊 ḫe2-eb-gu7-e {ḫa-ib-gu7-e} "let him eat it!"; 𒄩𒀭𒅥 ḫa-an-gu7 "He ate it indeed."
𒂵 ga- has cohortative meaning and can be translated as "let me/us do X" or "I will do X". Occasional phonetic spellings show that its vowel is assimilated to following vowels, producing the allomorphs written 𒄄 gi4- and 𒄘 gu2-. It is only used with ḫamṭu stems, but nevertheless uses personal prefixes to express objects, which is otherwise characteristic of the marû conjugation: 𒂵𒉌𒌈𒃻 ga-ni-ib2-g̃ar "let me put it there!". The plural number of the subject was not specially marked until the Old Babylonian period, during which the 1st person plural suffix began to be added: 𒂵𒉌𒌈𒃻𒊑𒂗𒉈𒂗 ga-ni-ib2-g̃ar-re-en-de3-en "let us put it there!".
E.g.: 𒂵𒀊𒅥 ga-ab-gu7 "Let me eat it!"
𒅇 u3- has prospective meaning ("after/when/if") and is also used as a mild imperative "Please do X". It is only used with ḫamṭu forms. In open syllables, the vowel of the prefix is assimilated to i3- and a- in front of syllables containing these vowels. The prefix acquires an additional /l/ when located immediately before the stem, resulting in the allomorph 𒅇𒌌 u3-ul-.
E.g.: 𒌦𒅥 un-gu7 "If/when he eats it..."
𒈾 na- has prohibitive / negative optative meaning ("Do not do it!"/"He must not do it!"/"May he not do it!") or affirmative meaning ("he did it indeed"), depending on the TA of verb: it almost always expresses negative meaning with the marû TA and affirmative meaning with the ḫamṭu TA. In its negative usage, it can be said to function as the negation of the precative/optative ḫa-. In affirmative usage, it has been said to signal an emphatic assertion, but some have also claimed that it expresses reported speech (either "traditional orally transmitted knowledge" or someone else's words) or that it introduces following events/states to which it is logically connected ("as X happened (na-), so/then/therefore Y happened"). According to Jagersma and others, "negative na-" and "affirmative na-" are actually two different prefixes, since "negative na-" has the allomorph /nan-/ before a single consonant (written 𒈾𒀭 na-an- or, in front of the labial consonants /b/ and /m/, 𒉆 nam-), whereas "affirmative na-" does not.
E.g.: 𒈾𒀊𒅥𒂊 na-ab-gu7-e "He must not eat it!"; 𒈾𒀭𒅥 na-an-gu7 "He ate it indeed."
𒁀𒊏 ba-ra- has emphatic negative meaning ("He certainly does/will not do it") or vetitive meaning ("He should not do it!"), although some consider the latter usage rare or non-existent. It can often function as the negation of cohortative ga- and of affirmative ḫa-. It is combined with the marû TA if the verb denies an action (always present or future), and with the ḫamṭu TA if it denies a state (past, present or future) or an action (always in the past). The vetitive meaning requires it to be combined with the marû TA, at least if the action is transitive.
E.g.: 𒁀𒊏𒀊𒅥𒂗 ba-ra-ab-gu7-en "I certainly will not eat it!"; 𒁀𒊏𒀭𒅥 ba-ra-an-gu7 "He certainly didn't eat it."
𒉡𒍑 nu-uš- is a rare prefix that has been interpreted as having "frustrative" meaning, i.e. as expressing an unrealizable wish ("If only he would do it!"). It occurs both with ḫamṭu and with marû.
E.g.: 𒉡𒍑𒌈𒅥𒂊 nu-uš-ib2-gu7-e "If only he would eat it!"
𒅆 ši-, earlier 𒂠 še3-, is a rare prefix, with unclear and disputed meaning, which has been variously described as affirmative ("he does it indeed"), contrapunctive ("correspondingly", "on his part"), as "reconfirming something that already ha(s) been stated or ha(s) occurred", or as "so", "therefore". It occurs both with ḫamṭu and with marû. In Southern Old Sumerian, the vowel alternated between /e/ before open vowels and /i/ before close ones in accordance with the vowel harmony rule of that dialect; later, it displays assimilation of the vowel in an open syllable, depending on the vowel of the following syllable, to /ša-/ (𒊭 ša- / 𒁺 ša4-) and (first attested in Old Babylonian) to 𒋗 šu-.
E.g.: 𒅆𒅔𒅥 ši-in-gu7 "So/correspondingly/accordingly(?), he ate it."
Although the modal prefixes are traditionally grouped together in one slot in the verbal chain, their behaviour suggests a certain difference in status: only nu- and ḫa- exhibit morphophonemic evidence of co-occurring with a following finite "conjugation prefix", while the others do not and hence seem to be mutually exclusive with it. For this reason, Jagersma separates the first two as "proclitics" and groups the others together with the finite prefix as (non-proclitic) "preformatives". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumerian_language |
Jordan | Jordan was home to 2,175,491 Palestinian refugees as of December 2016; most of them, but not all, had been granted Jordanian citizenship. The first wave of Palestinian refugees arrived during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War and peaked in the 1967 Six-Day War and the 1990 Gulf War. In the past, Jordan had given many Palestinian refugees citizenship, however recently Jordanian citizenship is given only in rare cases. 370,000 of these Palestinians live in UNRWA refugee camps. Following the capture of the West Bank by Israel in 1967, Jordan revoked the citizenship of thousands of Palestinians to thwart any attempt to permanently resettle from the West Bank to Jordan. West Bank Palestinians with family in Jordan or Jordanian citizenship were issued yellow cards guaranteeing them all the rights of Jordanian citizenship if requested.
Up to 1,000,000 Iraqis moved to Jordan following the Iraq War in 2003, and most of them have returned. In 2015, their number in Jordan was 130,911. Many Iraqi Christians (Assyrians/Chaldeans) however settled temporarily or permanently in Jordan. Immigrants also include 15,000 Lebanese who arrived following the 2006 Lebanon War. Since 2010, over 1.4 million Syrian refugees have fled to Jordan to escape the violence in Syria, the largest population being in the Zaatari refugee camp. The kingdom has continued to demonstrate hospitality, despite the substantial strain the flux of Syrian refugees places on the country. The effects are largely affecting Jordanian communities, as the vast majority of Syrian refugees do not live in camps. The refugee crisis effects include competition for job opportunities, water resources and other state provided services, along with the strain on the national infrastructure.
In 2007, there were up to 150,000 Assyrian Christians; most are Eastern Aramaic speaking refugees from Iraq. Kurds number some 30,000, and like the Assyrians, many are refugees from Iraq, Iran and Turkey. Descendants of Armenians that sought refuge in the Levant during the 1915 Armenian genocide number approximately 5,000 persons, mainly residing in Amman. A small number of ethnic Mandeans also reside in Jordan, again mainly refugees from Iraq. Around 12,000 Iraqi Christians have sought refuge in Jordan after the Islamic State took the city of Mosul in 2014. Several thousand Libyans, Yemenis and Sudanese have also sought asylum in Jordan to escape instability and violence in their respective countries. The 2015 Jordanian census recorded that there were 1,265,000 Syrians, 636,270 Egyptians, 634,182 Palestinians, 130,911 Iraqis, 31,163 Yemenis, 22,700 Libyans and 197,385 from other nationalities residing in the country.
There are around 1.2 million illegal, and 500,000 legal migrant workers and expatriates in the kingdom. Thousands of foreign women, mostly from the Middle East and Eastern Europe, work in nightclubs, hotels and bars across the kingdom. American and European expatriate communities are concentrated in the capital, as the city is home to many international organisations and diplomatic missions. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan |
Seleucus I Nicator | In spring 334 BC, as a young man of about twenty-three, Seleucus accompanied Alexander into Asia. By the time of the Indian campaigns beginning in late in 327 BC, he had risen to the command of the elite infantry corps in the Macedonian army, the "Shield-bearers" (Hypaspistai, later known as the "Silvershields"). It is said by Arrian that when Alexander crossed the Hydaspes river on a boat, he was accompanied by Perdiccas, Ptolemy I Soter, Lysimachus and also Seleucus. During the subsequent Battle of the Hydaspes (326 BC), Seleucus led his troops against the elephants of King Porus. It is unknown the extent in which Seleucus participated in the actual planning of the battle, as he is not mentioned as holding any major independent position during the battle. This contrasts with Craterus, Hephaistion, Peithon and Leonnatus – each of whom had sizable detachments under their control. Seleucus' Royal Hypaspistai were constantly under Alexander's eye and at his disposal. They later participated in the Indus Valley campaign, in the battles fought against the Malli and in the crossing of the Gedrosian desert.
At the great marriage ceremony at Susa in the spring of 324 BC, Seleucus married Apama, daughter of Spitamenes. They had his eldest son and successor Antiochus I Soter, at least two legitimate daughters (Laodice and Apama) and possibly another son (Achaeus). At the same event, Alexander married the daughter of the late Persian King Darius III while several other Macedonians married Persian women. After Alexander's death (323 BC), when the other senior Macedonian officers unloaded their "Susa wives" en masse, Seleucus was one of the very few who kept his wife, and Apama remained his consort (later Queen) for the rest of her life.
Ancient sources report several anecdotes about Seleucus' activities during the life of Alexander. In the first of these episodes, he participated in a sailing trip near Babylon, where Alexander's diadem was blown off his head and landed on some reeds near the tombs of Assyrian kings. Seleucus swam to fetch the diadem back, placing it on his own head while returning to the boat to keep it dry. The validity of the story is dubious. In the second, he took part in the dinner party of Medeios the Thessalian with Alexander. The story of the dinner party of Medeios may be true, but the plot to poison the King is unlikely. In the final story, Seleucus reportedly slept in the temple of the god Serapis shortly before Alexander's death in the hope that his health might improve. The validity of this story is also questionable, as the Graeco-Egyptian Serapis had not yet been invented at the time. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seleucus_I_Nicator |
BP | In May 1908, a group of British geologists discovered a large amount of oil at Masjed Soleyman located in the Khuzestan Province in the southwest of Persia (Iran). It was the first commercially significant find of oil in the Middle East. William Knox D'Arcy, by contract with Ali-Qoli Khan Bakhtiari, obtained permission to explore for oil for the first time in the Middle East, an event which changed the history of the entire region. The oil discovery led to petrochemical industry development and also the establishment of industries that strongly depended on oil. On 14 April 1909, the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC) was incorporated as a subsidiary of Burmah Oil Company. Some of the shares were sold to the public. The first chairman and minority shareholder of the company became Lord Strathcona.
Immediately after establishing the company, the British government asked Percy Cox, British resident to Bushehr, to negotiate an agreement with Sheikh Khaz'al Ibn Jabir of Arabistan for APOC to obtain a site on Abadan Island for a refinery, depot, storage tanks, and other operations. The refinery was built and began operating in 1912. In 1914, the British government acquired a controlling interest (50.0025%) in the company, at the urging of Winston Churchill, the then First Lord of the Admiralty, and the British navy quickly switched from coal to oil for the majority of their war ships. APOC also signed a 30-year contract with the British Admiralty for supplying oil for the Royal Navy at the fixed price. In 1915, APOC established its shipping subsidiary the British Tanker Company and in 1916, it acquired the British Petroleum Company which was a marketing arm of the German Europäische Petroleum Union in Britain. In 1919, the company became a shale-oil producer by establishing a subsidiary named Scottish Oils which merged remaining Scottish oil-shale industries.
After World War I, APOC started marketing its products in Continental Europe and acquired stakes in the local marketing companies in several European countries. Refineries were built in Llandarcy in Wales (the first refinery in the United Kingdom) and Grangemouth in Scotland. It also acquired the controlling stake in the Courchelettes refinery in France and formed, in conjunction with the Government of Australia, a partnership named Commonwealth Oil Refineries, which built the Australian's first refinery in Laverton, Victoria. In 1923, Burmah employed Winston Churchill as a paid consultant to lobby the British government to allow APOC have exclusive rights to Persian oil resources, which were subsequently granted by the Iranian monarchy.
APOC and the Armenian businessman Calouste Gulbenkian were the driving forces behind the creation of Turkish Petroleum Company (TPC) in 1912, to explore oil in Mesopotamia (now Iraq); and by 1914, APOC held 50% of TPC shares. In 1925, TPC received concession in the Mesopotamian oil resources from the Iraqi government under British mandate. TPC finally struck oil in Iraq on 14 October 1927. By 1928, the APOC's shareholding in TPC, which by now was named Iraq Petroleum Company (IPC), was reduced to 23.75%; as the result of the changing geopolitics post Ottoman empire break-up, and the Red Line Agreement. Relations were generally cordial between the pro-west Hashemite Monarchy (1932–58) in Iraq and IPC, in spite of disputes centred on Iraq's wish for greater involvement and more royalties. During the 1928–68 time period, IPC monopolised oil exploration inside the Red Line; excluding Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.
In 1927, Burmah Oil and Royal Dutch Shell formed the joint marketing company Burmah-Shell. In 1928, APOC and Shell formed the Consolidated Petroleum Company for sale and marketing in Cyprus, South Africa and Ceylon, which in 1932 followed by a joint marketing company Shell-Mex and BP in the United Kingdom. In 1937, AIOC and Shell formed the Shell/D'Arcy Exploration Partners partnership to explore for oil in Nigeria. The partnership was equally owned but operated by Shell. It was later replaced by Shell-D'Arcy Petroleum Development Company and Shell-BP Petroleum Development Company (now Shell Petroleum Development Company).
In 1934, APOC and Gulf Oil founded the Kuwait Oil Company as an equally owned partnership. The oil concession rights were awarded to the company on 23 December 1934 and the company started drilling operations in 1936. In 1935, Reza Shah requested the international community to refer to Persia as 'Iran', which was reflected in the name change of APOC to the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC).
In 1937, Iraq Petroleum Company, 23.75% owned by BP, signed an oil concession agreement with the Sultan of Muscat that covers the entire region of the Sultanate, which was in fact limited to the coastal area of present-day Oman. After several years of failure to discover oil in the Sultanate's region, IPC presumed that oil was more likely to be found in the interior region of Oman, which was part of the Imamate of Oman. IPC offered financial support to raise an armed force that would assist the Sultanate in occupying the interior region of Oman. Later, in 1954, the Sultan of Muscat, backed by the British government and the financial aid he received from IPC, started occupying regions within the interior of Oman, which led to the outbreak of Jebel Akhdar War that lasted for more than 5 years.
In 1947, British Petroleum Chemicals was incorporated as a joint venture of AIOC and The Distillers Company. In 1956, the company was renamed British Hydrocarbon Chemicals.
Following World War II, nationalistic sentiments were on the rise in the Middle East; most notable being Iranian nationalism, and Arab Nationalism. In Iran, the AIOC and the pro-western Iranian government led by Prime Minister Ali Razmara resisted nationalist calls to revise AIOC's concession terms in Iran's favour. In March 1951, Razmara was assassinated and Mohammed Mossadeq, a nationalist, was elected as the new prime minister by the Majlis of Iran (parliament). In April 1951, the Iranian government nationalised the Iranian oil industry by unanimous vote, and the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) was formed, displacing the AIOC. The AIOC withdrew its management from Iran, and Britain organised an effective worldwide embargo of Iranian oil. The British government, which owned the AIOC, contested the nationalisation at the International Court of Justice at The Hague, but its complaint was dismissed.
Prime Minister Churchill asked President Eisenhower for help in overthrowing Mossadeq. The anti-Mossadeq plan was orchestrated under the code-name 'Operation Ajax' by CIA, and 'Operation Boot' by SIS (MI6). The CIA and the British helped stage a coup in August 1953, the 1953 Iranian coup d'état, which established pro-Western general Fazlollah Zahedi as the new PM, and greatly strengthened the political power of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The AIOC was able to return to Iran. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BP |
Moorish architecture | The Almoravids made use of Andalusi craftsmen throughout their realms, thus helping to spread the highly ornate architectural style of al-Andalus to North Africa.: 115–119 : 26–30 Almoravid architecture assimilated the motifs and innovations of Andalusi architecture, such as the complex interlacing arches of the Great Mosque in Cordoba and of the Aljaferia palace in Zaragoza, but it also introduced new ornamental techniques from the east, such as muqarnas, and added its own innovations, such as the lambrequin arch and the use of pillars instead of columns in mosques.: 26–30 Stucco-carved decoration began to appear more and more as part of these compositions and would become even more elaborate in subsequent periods.: 155 Almoravid patronage thus marks a period of transition for architecture in the region, setting the stage for future developments.: 30
Some of the oldest and most significant surviving examples of Almoravid religious architecture, although with later modifications, are the Great Mosque of Algiers (1096–1097), the Great Mosque of Tlemcen (1136), and the Great Mosque of Nedroma (1145), all located in Algeria today. The highly ornate, semi-transparent plaster dome in front of the mihrab of the Great Mosque of Tlemcen, dating from the reign of Ali ibn Yusuf (r. 1106–1143), is one of the highlights of this period. The design of the dome traces its origins to the earlier ribbed domes of Al-Andalus and, in turn, it probably influenced the design of similar ornamental domes in later mosques in Fez and Taza.: 116
In Morocco, the only notable remnants of Almoravid religious architecture are the Qubba Ba'adiyyin, a small but highly ornate ablutions pavilion in Marrakesh, and the Almoravid expansion of the Qarawiyyin Mosque in Fez. These two monuments also contain the earliest clear examples of muqarnas decoration in the region, with the first complete muqarnas vault appearing in the central nave of the Qarawiyyin Mosque.: 114–120 The Almoravid palace of Ali Ibn Yusuf in Marrakesh, excavated in the 20th century, contains the earliest known example of a riad garden (an interior garden symmetrically divided into four parts) in Morocco.: 71 : 404
In present-day Spain, the oldest surviving muqarnas fragments were found in a palace built by Muhammad Ibn Mardanish, the independent ruler of Murcia (1147–1172). The remains of the palace, known as al-Qasr al-Seghir (or Alcázar Seguir in Spanish) are part of the present-day Monastery of Santa Clara in Murcia. The muqarnas fragments are painted with images of musicians and other figures.: 98–100 Ibn Mardanish also constructed what is now known as the Castillejo de Monteagudo, a hilltop castle and fortified palace outside the city that is one of the best-preserved examples of Almoravid-era architecture in the Iberian Peninsula. It has a rectangular plan and contained a large riad garden courtyard with symmetrical reception halls facing each other across the long axis of the garden.: 98–100 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moorish_architecture |
Battle of Perire | During the Old and Middle Kingdom of Egypt, Libya to the west was not a major security concern for the Egyptian pharaohs aside of occasional raiding warfare. The situation appears to have changed under the late Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, as the Egyptian military invested more resources in securing the western borders of Egypt. From the early Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt, fortresses were built west of modern-day Alexandria to shield the Nile Delta from Libyan (Libu) incursions. However, at least one of these new bastions, Zawyet Umm El Rakham, was quickly abandoned. Egyptologist Ian Shaw argued that Zawyet Umm El Rakham's short existence suggests that the Libyan tribes increasingly pushed eastward, forcing the Egyptians to evacuate the fortress; this push ultimately culminated in the Libyan invasion during Merneptah's reign.
In the late 13th century BC, a famine in Libya compelled many of the tribes in the region to unite under the leadership of a chief known as Meryey. The Libyan alliance included Tjehenu and Meshwesh. Together these tribes prepared to invade Egypt. Their exact intentions are unclear but they most likely wished to conquer territory within the borders of Egypt, including Memphis. Meryey's coalition probably numbered tens of thousands. Furthermore, the Libyans allied with or hired a substantial contingent of Sea Peoples, including Shekelesh, Teresh, Ekwesh, Lukka, and Sherden; members of the last group also served in the Egyptian military. The Libyans possibly used their wealth, gained through control of trade from Central Africa to the Mediterranean Sea, to hire the Sea Peoples as mercenaries.
The Libyans first captured an oasis to the west of Egypt; modern researchers have speculated that this oasis may have been the Bahariya or Siwa Oasis. From there, the Libyan force advanced to Farafra. This was a strategically central location in the region, as holding of Farafra allowed the Libyans to control the routes between the local oases, send messages to Nubia, and to strike at several part of Egypt. According to Egyptologist Colleen Darnell, this showcases that Meryey was pursuing a grand strategy: As Farafra allowed them access to at least three invasion routes, the Libyans could surprise the Egyptians despite the latter's knowledge of their military preparations. In addition, Meryey possibly contacted Libo-Nubians south of Farafra and enlisted them in his plan. The latter is indicated by the Amada Stela which records Nubian raids in Upper Egypt two days before the Battle of Perire. Darnell speculated that the contemporaryness of the raids and battle hint at a wider alliance in which Meryey's Libyans and the Libo-Nubians cooperated to divide Egypt between them, with Meryey claiming the Nile Delta and the Libo-Nubians conquering the rich, Egyptian-held regions of Nubia.
After making their preparations, Meryey's Libyans moved from Farafra to Perire, most likely a city in the Nile Delta region. As a result of the scarcity of resources in the desert, the Libyans possibly split into a number of columns instead of operating as a single army. The Karnak Inscription poetically suggests that Meryey's main contingent advanced from Farafra to Bahariya, then into the Faiyum, before entering the delta around Memphis. Another Libyan column possibly crossed the Nile in Middle Egypt and then marched into the eastern delta, as the Karnak Inscription states that the Libyan vanguard camped at Perbarset in the east. Such an operation would have disrupted the Egyptian communications and supply routes, cutting off Memphis, Thebes, and Pi-Ramesses from each other. Finally, the inscription hints at another column marching along the Mediterranean coast, as several Egyptian fortresses are mentioned as being destroyed. Such bastions were mainly concentrated along the coast. The Libyan column were accompanied by their families and possessions, further strengthening the assumption that they intended to settle in conquered territories instead of just plundering them.
Meryey's army occupied parts of the western Nile Delta for about a month before the battle at Perire erupted. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Perire |
Israel | Education is highly valued in the Israeli culture and was viewed as a fundamental block of ancient Israelites. In 2015, the country ranked third among OECD members for the percentage of 25–64 year-olds that have attained tertiary education with 49% compared with the OECD average of 35%. In 2012, the country ranked third in the number of academic degrees per capita (20 percent of the population).
Israel has a school life expectancy of 16 years and a literacy rate of 97.8%. The State Education Law (1953) established five types of schools: state secular, state religious, ultra orthodox, communal settlement schools, and Arab schools. The public secular is the largest school group, and is attended by the majority of Jewish and non-Arab pupils. Most Arabs send their children to schools where Arabic is the language of instruction. Education is compulsory for children between the ages of three and eighteen. Schooling is divided into three tiers—primary school (grades 1–6), middle school (grades 7–9), and high school (grades 10–12)—culminating with Bagrut matriculation exams. Proficiency in core subjects such as mathematics, the Hebrew language, Hebrew and general literature, the English language, history, Biblical scripture and civics is necessary to receive a Bagrut certificate.
Israel's Jewish population maintains a relatively high level of educational attainment where just under half of all Israeli Jews (46%) hold post-secondary degrees. Israeli Jews (among those ages 25 and older) have average of 11.6 years of schooling making them one of the most highly educated of all major religious groups in the world. In Arab, Christian and Druze schools, the exam on Biblical studies is replaced by an exam on Muslim, Christian or Druze heritage. In 2020, 68.7% of all Israeli twelfth graders earned a matriculation certificate.
Israel has a tradition of higher education where its quality university education has been largely responsible in spurring the nation's modern economic development. Israel has nine public universities subsidized by the state and 49 private colleges. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem houses the National Library of Israel, the world's largest repository of Judaica and Hebraica. The Technion and the Hebrew University consistently ranked among world's 100 top universities by ARWU ranking. Other major universities include the Weizmann Institute of Science, Tel Aviv University, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Bar-Ilan University, the University of Haifa, and the Open University of Israel. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel |
Syrian Electronic Army | 1 January 2014: SEA hacked Skype's Facebook, Twitter and blog, posting an SEA related picture and telling users not to use Microsoft's e-mail service Outlook.com —formerly known as Hotmail—claiming that Microsoft sells user information to the government.
11 January 2014: SEA hacked the Xbox Support Twitter pages and directed tweets to the group's website.
22 January 2014: SEA hacked the official Microsoft Office Blog, posting several images and tweeted about the attack.
23 January 2014: CNN's HURACAN CAMPEÓN 2014 official Twitter account showed two messages, including a photo of the Syrian Flag composed of binary code. CNN removed the Tweets within 10 minutes.
3 February 2014: SEA hacked the websites of eBay and PayPal UK. One source reported the hackers said it was just for show and that they took no data.
6 February 2014: SEA hacked the DNS of Facebook. Sources said the registrant contact details were restored and Facebook confirmed that no traffic to the website was hijacked, and that no users of the social network were affected.
14 February 2014: SEA hacked the Forbes website and their Twitter accounts.
26 April 2014: SEA hacked the information security-related RSA Conference website.
18 June 2014: SEA hacked the websites of British newspapers The Sun (United Kingdom) and The Sunday Times.
22 June 2014: The Reuters website was hacked a second time and showed a SEA message condemning Reuters for "publishing false articles about Syria". Hackers compromised the website, corrupting ads served by Taboola.
27 November 2014: SEA hacked hundreds of sites through hijacking Gigya's comment system of prominent websites, displaying a message "You've been hacked by the Syrian Electronic Army(SEA)." Affected websites included the Aberdeen Evening Express, Logitech, Forbes, The Independent UK Magazine, London Evening Standard, The Telegraph, NBC, the National Hockey League, Finishline.com, PCH.com, Time Out New York and t3.com (a tech website), stv.com, Walmart Canada, PacSun, Daily Mail websites, bikeradar.com (cycling website), SparkNotes, millionshort.com, Milenio.com, Mediotiempo.com, Todobebe.com and myrecipes.com, Biz Day SA, BDlive South Africa, muscleandfitness.com, and CBC News. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrian_Electronic_Army |
Seyyed Hossein Nasr | Nasr says that every integral religion "possesses at once an external or exoteric dimension" and "an inner or esoteric dimension". The first is "concerned with the external and formal aspect of human life" with a view to the posthumous salvation of those "who follow the precepts" of their religion and who "have faith in its truths". The second concerns "the formless and the essential" with a view to the realization of "the Supreme Essence, here and now".
These two dimensions unfold in "a hierarchy of levels from the most outward to the most inward which is the Supreme Center". Nasr thus distinguishes three modes of "approaching ultimate Reality": "the ways of work, love and knowledge", which correspond to as many predispositions of human nature. The most interiorizing paths integrate those which are less so, but the latter, not necessarily possessing the capacity "to understand what is beyond them", sometimes become the causes of "tensions" within the same religion. Nasr adds that "all human beings can be saved if only they follow religion according to their own nature and vocation". And he warns "on the social level, on the level of human action, the barriers and conditions established by the exoteric dimension of the religion should not be transgressed", including by those who "follow the path of esoterism, the inward or mystical path".
Since there are "questions that exoterism cannot answer," it is important "for religion to keep alive the reality and the significance of esoterism for people who have the capability and need to understand the inner or esoteric dimension of the tradition". This is what Islam, for example, continues to accomplish today with its inner dimension, Sufism, which remains a living tradition. On the other hand,
what happened in Christianity, which is a great tragedy, I believe, for both Christianity and Western civilization, and in fact for the rest of the world, is that after the Renaissance, gradually a wall was created, and Western Christianity's inner dimension became more or less inaccessible and to a large extent eclipsed. It is not accidental that during the last two or three hundred years, Christianity has not produced figures such as a Meister Eckhart, Tauler, or Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, and we could go down the list of hundreds of earlier great saints and mystics. [...] today so many people of Christian background look to Buddhism, Islam, and Hinduism for the inner dimension of religion. (interview) | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seyyed_Hossein_Nasr |
Spanish architecture | The creation in 1928 of the GATCPAC group in Barcelona, followed by the foundation of GATEPAC (1930) by architects mainly from Zaragoza, Madrid, San Sebastián and Bilbao, established two groups of young architects practicing Modern architecture in Spain. Josep Lluis Sert, Fernando García Mercadal, Jose María de Aizpurúa and Joaquín Labayen among others were organised in three regional groups.
Other architects explored the Modern style with their personal views: Casto Fernández Shaw with his visionary work, most of it on paper, Josep Antoni Coderch, with his integration of the Mediterranean housing and the new style concepts or Luis Gutiérrez Soto, mostly influenced by the Expressionist tendencies.
At the 1929 Barcelona International Exposition, the German pavilion designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe became an instant icon, amalgamating Rohe's minimalism and notions of truth to materials with a De Stijl influenced treatment of planes in space. The large overhanging roof famously 'hovers' apparently unsupported.
During and after the Spanish Civil War and World War II, Spain found herself both politically and economically isolated. The consequent effect of which, in tandem with Franco's preference for "a deadening, nationalistic sort of classical kitsch", was to largely suppress progressive modern architecture in Spain. Nevertheless, some architects were able to reconcile advances in construction with official approval, notably in the prolific output of Gutiérrez Soto whose interest in topology and rational distribution of space effectively alternated historical revivals and rationalist imagery with ease. Luis Moya Blanco's achievements in the construction with brick vaults deserve also a mention. His interest in traditional brick construction led him to a deep investigation into the modern formal possibilities of that material.
In the last decades of the Franco's life, a new generation of architects rescued the legacy of the GATEPAC with strength: Alejandro de la Sota was the pioneer in that new way, and young architects as Francisco Javier Sáenz de Oiza, Fernando Higueras and Miguel Fisac, often with modest budgets, investigated in prefabrication and collective housing typos.
The death of Franco and the return of democracy brought a new architectural optimism to Spain in the late 1970s and 1980s. Critical regionalism became the dominant school of thought for serious architecture. The influx of money from EU funding, tourism and a flowering economy strengthened and stabilised Spain's economic base, providing fertile conditions for Spanish architecture. A new generation of architects emerged, amongst whom were Enric Miralles, Carme Pinós, and the architect/engineer Santiago Calatrava. The 1992 Barcelona Olympics and the World's Fair in Seville, further bolstered Spain's reputation on the international stage, to the extent that many architects from countries suffering from recessions, moved to Spain to assist in the boom. In recognition of Barcelona's patronage of architecture, the Royal Institute of British Architects awarded the Royal Gold Medal to Barcelona in 1999, the first time in its history the award was made to a city.
Bilbao attracted the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation to construct a new art museum, which opened in 1997. Designed by Frank Gehry in a deconstructivist manner, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao became world-famous and single-handedly raised the profile of Bilbao on the world stage. Such was the success of the museum that the construction of iconic architecture in towns aspiring to raise their international profile has become a recognised town planning strategy known as the "Bilbao effect".
In 2003, the Prince of Asturias, Felipe de Borbón opened in the city of Santa Cruz de Tenerife (Canary Islands), the modern building of the Auditorio de Tenerife, designed by Santiago Calatrava between 1997-2003. For this event was attended by various correspondents and newspapers around the world. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_architecture |
Isma'ilism | The Dawoodi Bohras are a very close-knit community who seeks advice from Dai on spiritual and temporal matters.
Dawoodi Bohras is headed by the Dāʻī al-Mutlaq, who is appointed by his predecessor in office. The Dāʻī al-Mutlaq appoints two others to the subsidiary ranks of māzūn (Arabic Maʾḏūn مأذون) "licentiate" and Mukāsir (Arabic: مكاسر). These positions are followed by the rank of ra'sul hudood, bhaisaheb, miya-saheb, shaikh-saheb, and mulla-saheb, which are held by several of Bohras. The 'Aamil or Saheb-e Raza who is granted the permission to perform the religious ceremonies of the believers by the Dāʻī al-Mutlaq and also leads the local congregation in religious, social, and community affairs, is sent to each town where a sizable population of believers exists. Such towns normally have a masjid (commonly known as a mosque) and an adjoining jamaa'at-khaana (assembly hall) where socio-religious functions are held. The local organizations which manage these properties and administer the social and religious activities of the local Bohras report directly to the central administration of the Dāʻī al-Mutlaq.
While the majority of Dawoodi Bohras have traditionally been traders, it is becoming increasingly common for them to become professionals. Some choose to become Doctors, consultants or analysts as well as a large contingent of medical professionals. Dawoodi Bohras are encouraged to educate themselves in both religious and secular knowledge, and as a result, the number of professionals in the community is rapidly increasing. Dawoodi Bohras believe that the education of women is equally important as that of men, and many Dawoodi Bohra women choose to enter the workforce. Al Jamea tus Saifiyah (The Arabic Academy) in Mumbai, Surat, Nairobi and Karachi is a sign to the educational importance in the Dawoodi community. The academy has an advanced curriculum that encompasses religious and secular education for both men and women.
Today there are approximately one million Dawoodi Bohra. The majority of these reside in India and Pakistan, but there is also a significant diaspora residing in the Middle East, East Africa, Europe, North America and the Far East.
The ordinary Bohra is highly conscious of his identity, and this is especially demonstrated at religious and traditional occasions by the appearance and attire of the participants. Dawoodi Bohra men wear a traditional white three-piece outfit, plus a white and gold cap (called a topi), and women wear the rida, a distinctive form of the commonly known burqa which is distinguished from other forms of the veil due to it often being in color and decorated with patterns and lace. The rida's difference from the burqa, however, is significant beyond just the colour, pattern, and lace. The rida does not call for covering of women's faces like the traditional veil. It has a flap called the 'pardi' that usually hangs on the back like the hood of a jacket but it is not used to conceal the face. This is representative of the Dawoodi Bohra community's values of equality and justice for women, which they believe, is a tenet of the Fatimid Imamate's evolved understanding of Islam and the true meaning of women's chastity in Islam. The Dawoodi Bohra community also do not prevent their women from coming to mosques, attending religious gatherings or going to places of pilgrimage. It is often regarded as the most peaceful sect of Islam and an example of true Sufism; it has been critically acclaimed on several occasions even by Western governments such as those of the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, and particularly the United States for its progressive outlook towards gender roles, adoption of technology, promotion of literature, crafts, business and secular values. However, the Dawoodi Bohras are highly single-minded about inter-caste or inter-faith marriage. They do not oppose it but do not encourage it either. If a Dawoodi Bohra member does marry into another caste or religion, he or she is usually advised to ask his or her spouse to convert to Islam and, specifically, into the community.
They believe that straying away from the community implies straying away from Ma'ad – the ultimate objective of this life and the meaning of the teachings of Islam, which is to return to where all souls come from and re-unite with Allah. Besides, converting someone to Islam has high spiritual and religious significance as doctrines espouse that making someone a Muslim or Mu'min confers the Sawab (the reward of good deeds) equivalent to that of 40 Hajjs and 40 Umrahs (visiting Mecca and the Kaaba during days other than that of Hajj).
The position of Da'i al-Mutlaq is currently disputed after the demise of the 52nd Da'i al-Mutlaq of the Dawoodi Bohra community, Mohammed Burhanuddin. Two claimants emerged for the position of 53rd Da'i al-Mutlaq, Mufaddal Saifuddin and Khuzaima Qutbuddin, and a case is pending in the Bombay High Court to resolve the matter. Qutbuddin has since died and appointed his son Taher Fakhruddin as his successor. Ultimately the court ruled in favor of Mufaddal Saifuddin as the righteous successor of the community
Besides speaking the local languages, the Dawoodis have their own language called Lisānu l-Dāʻwat "Tongue of the Dāʻwat". This is written in the Persian alphabet but is derived from Urdu, Gujarati, and Arabic and Persian. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isma%27ilism |
Oromo language | The Oromo people use a highly developed oral tradition. In the 19th century, scholars began writing in the Oromo language using Latin script. In 1842, Johann Ludwig Krapf began translations of the Gospels of John and Matthew into Oromo, as well as a first grammar and vocabulary. The first Oromo dictionary and grammar was produced by German scholar Karl Tutschek in 1844. The first printing of a transliteration of Oromo language was in 1846 in a German newspaper in an article on the Oromo in Germany.
After Abyssinia annexed Oromo's territory, the language's development into a full-fledged writing instrument was interrupted. The few works that had been published, most notably Onesimos Nesib's and Aster Ganno's translations of the Bible from the late 19th century, were written in the Ge'ez alphabet. Following the 1974 Revolution, the government undertook a literacy campaign in several languages, including Oromo, and publishing and radio broadcasts began in the language. All Oromo materials printed in Ethiopia at that time, such as the newspaper Bariisaa, Urjii and many others, were written in the traditional Ethiopic script.
Plans to introduce Oromo language instruction in schools, however, were not realized until the government of Mengistu Haile Mariam was overthrown in 1991, except in regions controlled by the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF). With the creation of the regional state of Oromia under the new system of ethnic federalism in Ethiopia, it has been possible to introduce Oromo as the medium of instruction in elementary schools throughout the region, including areas where other ethnic groups live speaking their languages, and as a language of administration within the region. Since the OLF left the transitional Ethiopian government in the early 1990s, the Oromo Peoples' Democratic Organization (OPDO) continued developing Oromo in Ethiopia.
Radio broadcasts began in the Oromo language in Somalia in 1960 by Radio Mogadishu. The programme featured music and propaganda. A song Bilisummaan Aannaani (Liberation is Milk) became a hit in Ethiopia. To combat Somali wide-reaching influence, the Ethiopian Government initiated an Oromo language program radio of their own. Within Kenya there has been radio broadcasting in Oromo (in the Borana dialect) on the Voice of Kenya since at least the 1980s. The Borana Bible in Kenya was printed in 1995 using the Latin alphabet, but not using the same spelling rules as in Ethiopian Qubee. The first comprehensive online Oromo dictionary was developed by the Jimma Times Oromiffa Group (JTOG) in cooperation with SelamSoft. Voice of America also broadcasts in Oromo alongside its other horn of Africa programs. In May 2022, Google Translate added Afaan Oromo as translation. Oromo and Qubee are currently utilized by the Ethiopian government's state radios, TV stations and regional government newspaper. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oromo_language |
Spread of Islam | In Balkan history, historical writing on the topic of conversion to Islam was, and still is, a highly charged political issue. It is intrinsically linked to the issues of formation of national identities and rival territorial claims of the Balkan states. The generally accepted nationalist discourse of the current Balkan historiography defines all forms of Islamization as results of the Ottoman government's centrally organized policy of conversion or dawah. The truth is that Islamization in each Balkan country took place in the course of many centuries, and its nature and phase was determined not by the Ottoman government but by the specific conditions of each locality. Ottoman conquests were initially military and economic enterprises, and religious conversions were not their primary objective. True, the statements surrounding victories all celebrated the incorporation of territory into Muslim domains, but the actual Ottoman focus was on taxation and making the realms productive, and a religious campaign would have disrupted that economic objective.
Ottoman Islamic standards of toleration allowed for autonomous "nations" (millets) in the Empire, under their own personal law and under the rule of their own religious leaders. As a result, vast areas of the Balkans remained mostly Christian during the period of Ottoman domination. In fact, the Eastern Orthodox Churches had a higher position in the Ottoman Empire, mainly because the Patriarch resided in Istanbul and was an officer of the Ottoman Empire. In contrast, Roman Catholics, while tolerated, were suspected of loyalty to a foreign power (the Papacy). It is no surprise that the Roman Catholic areas of Bosnia, Kosovo and northern Albania, ended up with more substantial conversions to Islam. The defeat of the Ottomans in 1699 by the Austrians resulted in their loss of Hungary and present-day Croatia. The remaining Muslim converts in both elected to leave "lands of unbelief" and moved to territory still under the Ottomans. Around this point in time, new European ideas of romantic nationalism started to seep into the Empire, and provided the intellectual foundation for new nationalistic ideologies and the reinforcement of the self-image of many Christian groups as subjugated peoples.
As a rule, the Ottomans did not require followers of Greek Orthodoxy to become Muslims, although many did so in order to avert the socioeconomic hardships of Ottoman rule. One by one, the Balkan nationalities asserted their independence from the Empire, and frequently the presence of members of the same ethnicity who had converted to Islam presented a problem from the point of view of the now dominant new national ideology, which narrowly defined the nation as members of the local dominant Orthodox Christian denomination. Some Muslims in the Balkans chose to leave, while many others were forcefully expelled to what was left of the Ottoman Empire. This demographic transition can be illustrated by the decrease in the number of mosques in Belgrade, from over 70 in 1750 (before Serbian independence in 1815), to only three in 1850. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spread_of_Islam |
History of Zanzibar | There are many political parties in Zanzibar, but the most popular parties are the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) and the Civic United Front (CUF). Since the early 1990s, the politics of the archipelago have been marked by repeated clashes between these two parties.
The results of the past elections held under the multiparty system are as follows:
Contested elections in October 2000 led to a massacre on 27 January 2001 when, according to Human Rights Watch, the army and police shot into crowds of protestors, killing at least 35 and wounding more than 600. Those forces, accompanied by ruling party officials and militias, also went on a house-to-house rampage, indiscriminately arresting, beating, and sexually abusing residents. Approximately 2,000 temporarily fled to Kenya.
Violence erupted again after another contested election on 31 October 2005, with the CUF claiming that its rightful victory had been stolen from it. Nine people were killed.
Following 2005, negotiations between the two parties aiming at the long-term resolution of the tensions and a power-sharing accord took place, but they suffered repeated setbacks. The most notable of these took place in April 2008, when the CUF walked away from the negotiating table following a CCM call for a referendum to approve of what had been presented as a done deal on the power-sharing agreement.
In November 2009, the then-president of Zanzibar, Amani Abeid Karume, met with CUF secretary-general Seif Sharif Hamad at the State House to discuss how to save Zanzibar from future political turmoil and to end the animosity between them. This move was welcomed by many, including the United States. It was the first time since the multi-party system was introduced in Zanzibar that the CUF agreed to recognize Karume as the legitimate president of Zanzibar.
A proposal to amend Zanzibar's constitution to allow rival parties to form governments of national unity was adopted by 66.2 percent of voters on 31 July 2010.
Nowadays,The Alliance for Change and Transparency-Wazalendois (ACT-Wazalendo) is considered the main opposition political party of semi-autonomous Zanzibar. The constitution of Zanzibar requires the party that comes in second in the polls to join a coalition with the winning party. ACT-Wazalendo joined a coalition government with the islands’ ruling party Chama Cha Mapinduzi in December 2020 after Zanzibar disputed elections. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Zanzibar |
Atenism | Amenhotep IV initially introduced Atenism in the fifth year of his reign (1348/1346 BC), raising Aten to the status of supreme god, initially permitting continued worship of the traditional gods. Later, during the reign of Akhenaten, he forbade the worship of other gods, a radical departure from the centuries of Egyptian religious practice. To emphasise the change, Aten's name was written in the cartouche form normally reserved for Pharaohs, an innovation of Atenism. The religious reformation appears to coincide with the proclamation of a Sed festival, a sort of royal jubilee intended to reinforce the Pharaoh's divine powers of kingship. Traditionally held in the thirtieth year of the Pharaoh's reign, it possibly was a festival in honour of Amenhotep III. Some Egyptologists think that he had a coregency with Amenhotep IV of 2–12 years.
The fifth year is believed to mark the beginning of Amenhotep IV's construction of a new capital, Akhetaten (Horizon of the Aten), at the site known today as Amarna. Evidence appears on three of the boundary stelae used to mark the boundaries of this new capital. Then, Amenhotep IV officially changed his name to Akhenaten (Spirit of the Aten) as evidence of his new worship. The date given for the event has been estimated to fall around January 2 of that year. In the seventh year of his reign (1346/1344 BC), the capital was moved from Thebes to Akhetaten, but construction of the city seems to have continued for two more years. In shifting his court from the traditional ceremonial centres, he was signalling a dramatic transformation in the focus of religious and political power.
The move separated the Pharaoh and his court from the influence of the priesthood and from the traditional centres of worship, but his decree had deeper religious significance too. Taken in conjunction with his name change, it is possible that the move to Amarna was also meant as a signal of Akhenaten's symbolic death and rebirth. It may also have coincided with the death of his father and the end of the coregency. In addition to constructing a new capital in honor of Aten, Akhenaten also oversaw the construction of some of the most massive temple complexes in ancient Egypt, including one at Karnak and one at Thebes, close to the old temple of Amun.
In the ninth year of his reign (1344/1342 BC), Akhenaten declared a more radical version of his new religion, declaring Aten not merely the supreme god of the Egyptian pantheon but the only God of Egypt, with himself as the sole intermediary between the Aten and the Egyptian people. Key features of Atenism included a ban on idols and other images of the Aten, with the exception of a rayed solar disc in which the rays (commonly depicted ending in hands) appear to represent the unseen spirit of Aten. Aten was addressed by Akhenaten in prayers, such as the Great Hymn to the Aten: "O sole God beside whom there is none". Aten's name is also written differently after the ninth year of the Pharaoh's rule to emphasise the radicalism of the new regime. Aten, instead of being written with the symbol of a rayed solar disc, now became spelled phonetically.
The details of Atenist theology are still unclear. The exclusion of all but one god and the prohibition of idols was a radical departure from Egyptian tradition, but some scholars see Akhenaten as a practitioner of monolatry or henotheism rather than monotheism, as he did not actively deny the existence of other gods. He simply refrained from worshipping any but Aten. These reforms were later reversed by his successor Pharaoh Tutankhamen.
Some historians argue that only Akhenaten and Nefertiti could worship Aten directly. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atenism |
Westcar Papyrus | The first story, told by an unknown son of Khufu (possibly Djedefra), is missing everything but the conclusion, in which Khufu orders blessed offerings to king Djoser. It seems to have been a text detailing a miracle performed by a lector priest in the reign of king Djoser, possibly the famous Imhotep.
The second story, told by Khafre, is set during the reign of one of Khufu's predecessors. King Nebka's chief lector Ubaoner finds that his wife is having a love affair with a townsman of Memphis, and he fashions a crocodile in wax. Upon learning that his unfaithful wife is meeting her lover, he casts a spell for the figurine to come to life upon contact with water, and sets his caretaker to throw it in the stream by which the townsman enters and leaves the lector's estate undiscovered. Upon catching the townsman, the crocodile takes him to the bottom of the lake, where they remain for seven days as the lector entertains the visiting pharaoh. When he tells Nebka the story, and calls the crocodile up again, the king orders the crocodile to devour the townsman once and for all. Then he has the adulterous wife brought forth, set on fire, and thrown in the river.
The third story, told by another son named Baufra, is set during the reign of his grandfather Sneferu. The king is bored and his chief lector Djadjaemankh advises him to gather twenty young women and use them to sail him around the palace lake. Sneferu orders twenty beautiful oars made, and gives the women nets to drape around them as they sail. However, one of the girls loses an amulet - a fish pendant made of turquoise so dear to her that she will not even accept a substitute from the royal treasury, and until it is returned to her neither she nor any of the other women will row. The king laments this, and the chief lector folds aside the water to allow the retrieval of the amulet, then folds the water back.
The fourth story, told by Hordjedef, concerns a miracle set within Khufu's own reign. A townsman named Dedi apparently has the power to reattach a severed head onto an animal, to tame wild lions, and knows the number of secret rooms in the shrine of Thoth. Khufu, intrigued, sends his son to invite this wise man to the court, and upon Dedi's arrival he orders a goose, an undefined waterbird, and a bull beheaded. Dedi reattaches the heads. Khufu then questions him on his knowledge on the shrine of Thoth, and Dedi answers that he does not know the number of rooms, but he knows where they are. When Khufu asks for the wheres and hows, Dedi answers that he is not the one who can give Khufu access, but the first of the three future kings in the womb of the woman Rededjet is. This is a prophecy detailing the beginnings of the Fifth Dynasty, starting with Userkaf.
The final story breaks from the format and moves the focus to Rededjet giving birth to her three sons. Upon the day of her children's birth, Ra orders Isis, Nephthys, Meskhenet, Heket, and Khnum to aid her. They disguise themselves as musicians and hurry to Rededjet's house to help her with the difficult birth. The three children are born, each described as strong and healthy, with limbs covered in gold and wearing headdresses of lapis lazuli. The maidservant of Rededjet later has an argument with her mistress, receives a beating and flees, vowing to tell king Khufu what had happened. But on the way, she meets her brother and tells the story to him. Displeased, he beats her, too, and sends her on a path to the water's edge where a crocodile catches her. The brother then goes to see Rededjet, who is crying over the loss of his sister. The brother starts to confess what has happened and at this point the papyrus story ends. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westcar_Papyrus |
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