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Thābit ibn Qurra | In mathematics, Thābit derived an equation for determining amicable numbers. His proof of this rule is presented in the Treatise on the Derivation of the Amicable Numbers in an Easy Way. This was done while writing on the theory of numbers, extending their use to describe the ratios between geometrical quantities, a step which the Greeks did not take. Thābit's work on amicable numbers and number theory helped him to invest more heavily into the Geometrical relations of numbers establishing his Transversal (geometry) theorem.
Thābit described a generalized proof of the Pythagorean theorem. He provided a strengthened extension of Pythagoras' proof which included the knowledge of Euclid's fifth postulate. This postulate states that the intersection between two straight line segments combine to create two interior angles which are less than 180 degrees. The method of reduction and composition used by Thābit resulted in a combination and extension of contemporary and ancient knowledge on this famous proof. Thābit believed that geometry was tied with the equality and differences of magnitudes of lines and angles, as well as that ideas of motion (and ideas taken from physics more widely) should be integrated in geometry.
The continued work done on geometric relations and the resulting exponential series allowed Thābit to calculate multiple solutions to chessboard problems. This problem was less to do with the game itself, and more to do with the number of solutions or the nature of solutions possible. In Thābit's case, he worked with combinatorics to work on the permutations needed to win a game of chess.
In addition to Thābit's work on Euclidean geometry there is evidence that he was familiar with the geometry of Archimedes as well. His work with conic sections and the calculation of a paraboloid shape (cupola) show his proficiency as an Archimedean geometer. This is further embossed by Thābit's use of the Archimedean property in order to produce a rudimentary approximation of the volume of a paraboloid. The use of uneven sections, while relatively simple, does show a critical understanding of both Euclidean and Archimedean geometry. Thābit was also responsible for a commentary on Archimedes' Liber Assumpta. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C4%81bit_ibn_Qurra |
Nizam al-Mulk | Around the year of 1043, Abu Ali Hasan stopped serving the Ghaznavids and entered the service of the Seljuk Turks. He later became chief administrator of the entire Khorasan province by 1059. When Tughril died childless in the city of Ray, he was succeeded by his nephew Suleiman which was contested by Alp Arslan, both of them sons of Tughril's brother Chaghri. His cousin Kutalmish who had both been a vital part of his campaigns and later a supporter of Yinal's rebellion also put forth a claim. Alp Arslan, with the aid of Abu Ali Hasan, defeated Kutalmish and succeeded him on April 27, 1064.
After Alp Arslan had consolidated his power in the Sejluk realm, he appointed Abu Ali Hasan as his vizier who would remain in that position throughout the reigns of Alp Arslan (1063–1072) and Malik-Shah I (1072–1092). Abu Ali Hasan was also given the title of "Nizam al-Mulk" ("Order of the Realm").
Alp Arslan's strength lays in the military realm. Domestic affairs were handled by Nizam al-Mulk, who also founded the administrative organization that characterized and strengthened the sultanate during the reigns of Alp Arslan and his son, Malik Shah I. Military iqtā’ (fiefs), governed by Seljuk princes, were established to provide support for the soldiery and to accommodate the nomadic Turks to the established Anatolian agricultural scene. This type of military fiefdom enabled the nomadic Turks to draw on the resources of the sedentary Iranians, and other established cultures within the Seljuk realm, and allowed Alp Arslan to field a huge standing army without depending on tribute from conquest to pay his soldiers. He not only had enough food from his subjects to maintain his military, but the taxes collected from traders and merchants added to his coffers sufficiently to fund his continuous wars.
Nizam accompanied Alp Arslan in all his campaigns and journeys, except a few. In February/March 1064 Alp Arslan, along with his son Malik-Shah I and Nizam al-Mulk, campaigned in Byzantine Armenia, where they managed to capture Ani. Several minor rulers then acknowledged Seljuk authority, while Alp Arslan and Nizam continued to penetrate deeper into the Caucasus, reaching Georgia. The Georgian ruler Bagrat IV, managed to make peace with Alp Arslan by giving his niece to him in marriage.
Nizam also made some expeditions on his own and conquered the citadel of Estakhr from the Shabankara chieftain Fadluya in 1067, and made another expedition in Fars. These successful conquests are said to have greatly increased his reputation. On August 26 of 1071, the decisive Battle of Manzikert was fought, which Nizam al-Mulk had missed because he had been sent to Persia with a convoy of materials. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nizam_al-Mulk |
Palestinian fedayeen | The tactic of exporting their struggle against Israel beyond the Middle East was first adopted by the Palestinian fedayeen in 1968. According to John Follain, it was Wadie Haddad of the PFLP who, unconvinced with the effectiveness of raids on military targets, masterminded the first hijacking of a civilian passenger plane by Palestinian fedayeen in July 1968. Two commandos forced an El Al Boeing 747 en route from Rome to Tel Aviv to land in Algiers, renaming the flight "Palestinian Liberation 007". While publicly proclaiming that it would not negotiate with terrorists, the Israelis did negotiate. The passengers were released unharmed in exchange for the release of sixteen Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
The first hijacking of an American airliner was conducted by the PFLP on 29 August 1969. Robert D. Kumamoto describes the hijacking as a response to an American veto of a United Nations Security Council resolution censuring Israel for its March 1969 aerial attacks on Jordanian villages suspected of harbouring fedayeen, and for the impending delivery of American Phantom jets to Israel. The flight, en route to Tel Aviv from Rome, was forced to land in Damascus where, Leila Khaled, one of the two fedayeen to hijack the plane proclaimed that, "this hijacking is one of the operational aspects of our war against Zionism and all who support it, including the United States ...[;] it was a perfectly normal thing to do, the sort of thing all freedom fighters must tackle." Most of the passengers and crew were released immediately after the plane landed. Six Israeli passengers were taken hostage and held for questioning by Syria. Four women among them were released after two days, and the two men were released after a week of intensive negotiations between all the parties involved. Of this PFLP hijacking and those that followed at Dawson's field, Kumamoto writes: "The PFLP hijackers had seized no armies, mountaintops, or cities. Theirs was not necessarily a war of arms; it was a war of words – a war of propaganda, the exploitation of violence to attract world attention. In that regard, the Dawson's Field episode was a publicity goldmine."
George Habash, leader of the PFLP, explained his view of the efficacy of hijacking as a tactic in a 1970 interview, stating, "When we hijack a plane it has more effect than if we killed a hundred Israelis in battle." Habash also stated that after decades of being ignored, "At least the world is talking about us now." The hijacking attempts did indeed continue. On 8 May 1972, a Sabena Airlines 707 was forced to land in Tel Aviv after it was commandeered by four Black September commandos who demanded the release of 317 fedayeen fighters being held in Israeli jails. While the Red Cross was negotiating, Israeli paratroopers disguised as mechanics stormed the plane, shot and killed two of hijackers and captured the remaining two after a gunfight that injured five passengers and two paratroopers.
The tactics employed by the Black September group in subsequent operations differed sharply from the other "run-of-the-mill PLO attacks of the day". The unprecedented level of violence evident in multiple international attacks between 1971 and 1972 included the Sabena airliner hijacking (mentioned above), the assassination of the Jordanian Prime Minister in Cairo, the Massacre at Lod airport, and the Munich Olympics massacre. In The Dynamics of Armed Struggle, J. Bowyer Bell contends that "armed struggle" is a message to the enemy that they are "doomed by history" and that operations are "violent message units" designed to "accelerate history" to this end. Bell argues that despite the apparent failure of the Munich operation which collapsed into chaos, murder, and gun battles, the basic fedayeen intention was achieved since, "The West was appalled and wanted to know the rationale of the terrorists, the Israelis were outraged and punished, many of the Palestinians were encouraged by the visibility and ignored the killings, and the rebels felt that they had acted, helped history along." He notes the opposite was true for the 1976 hijacking of an Air France flight redirected to Uganda where the Israelis scored an "enormous tactical victory" in Operation Entebbe. While their death as martyrs had been foreseen, the fedayeen had not expected to die as villains, "bested by a display of Zionist skill." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_fedayeen |
Rumi | The Mewlewī Sufi order was founded in 1273 by Rumi's followers after his death. His first successor could have been Salah-eddin Zarkoub who served Rumi for a decade and Rumi revered him highly in his poets. Zarkoub was illiterate and uttered some words incorrectly. Rumi used some of these incorrect words in his poems to express his support and humility towards Zarkoub. Rumi named him his successor but Zarkoub died sooner than him. So Rumi's first successor in the rectorship of the order was "Husam Chalabi" and, after Chalabi's death in 1284, Rumi's younger and only surviving son, Sultan Walad (d. 1312), popularly known as author of the mystical Maṭnawī Rabābnāma, or the Book of the Rabab was installed as grand master of the order. The leadership of the order has been kept within Rumi's family in Konya uninterruptedly since then.
The Mewlewī Sufis, also known as Whirling Dervishes, believe in performing their dhikr in the form of Sama. During the time of Rumi (as attested in the Manāqib ul-Ārefīn of Aflākī), his followers gathered for musical and "turning" practices.
According to tradition, Rumi was himself a notable musician who played the robāb, although his favourite instrument was the ney or reed flute. The music accompanying the samāʿ consists of settings of poems from the Maṭnawī and Dīwān-e Kabīr, or of Sultan Walad's poems. The Mawlawīyah was a well-established Sufi order in the Ottoman Empire, and many of the members of the order served in various official positions of the Caliphate. The centre for the Mevlevi was in Konya. There is also a Mewlewī monastery (درگاه, dargāh) in Istanbul near the Galata Tower in which the samāʿ is performed and accessible to the public. The Mewlewī order issues an invitation to people of all backgrounds:
During Ottoman times, the Mevlevi produced a number of notable poets and musicians, including Sheikh Ghalib, Ismail Rusuhi Dede of Ankara, Esrar Dede, Halet Efendi, and Gavsi Dede, who are all buried at the Galata Mewlewī Khāna (Turkish: Mevlevi-Hane) in Istanbul. Music, especially that of the ney, plays an important part in the Mevlevi.
With the foundation of the modern, secular Republic of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk removed religion from the sphere of public policy and restricted it exclusively to that of personal morals, behaviour and faith. On 13 December 1925, a law was passed closing all the tekkes (dervish lodges) and zāwiyas (chief dervish lodges), and the centres of veneration to which visits (ziyārat) were made. Istanbul alone had more than 250 tekkes as well as small centres for gatherings of various fraternities; this law dissolved the Sufi Orders, prohibited the use of mystical names, titles and costumes pertaining to their titles, impounded the Orders' assets, and banned their ceremonies and meetings. The law also provided penalties for those who tried to re-establish the Orders. Two years later, in 1927, the Mausoleum of Mevlâna in Konya was allowed to reopen as a Museum.
In the 1950s, the Turkish government began allowing the Whirling Dervishes to perform once a year in Konya. The Mewlānā festival is held over two weeks in December; its culmination is on 17 December, the Urs of Mewlānā (anniversary of Rumi's death), called Šab-e Arūs (Persian: شبِ عُرس) (Persian meaning "nuptial night"), the night of Rumi's union with God. In 1974, the Whirling Dervishes were permitted to travel to the West for the first time. In 2005, UNESCO proclaimed "The Mevlevi Sama Ceremony" of Turkey as one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.
Rumi and his mausoleum were depicted on the reverse of the 5000 Turkish lira banknotes of 1981–1994. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumi |
List of stories within One Thousand and One Nights | Al-Malik al-Zahir Rukn al-Din Bibars al-Bundukdari and the Sixteen Captains of Police
Breslau (930–940)
First Constable's History
Second Constable's History
Third Constable's History
Fourth Constable's History
Fifth Constable's History
Sixth Constable's History
Seventh Constable's History
Eighth Constable's History
The Thief's Tale
Ninth Constable's History
Tenth Constable's History
Eleventh Constable's History
Twelfth Constable's History
Thirteenth Constable's History
Fourteenth Constable's History
A Merry Jest of a Clever Thief
Tale of the Old Sharper
Fifteenth Constable's History
Sixteenth Constable's History
Tale of Harun al-Rashid and Abdullah bin Nafi'
Breslau (941–957)
Tale of the Damsel Torfat al-Kulub and the Caliph Harun al-Rashid
To this tale Burton added an extensive footnote about circumcision.
Women's Wiles
Calcutta edition (196–200)
Nur al-Din Ali of Damascus and the Damsel Sitt al-Milah
Breslau (958–965)
Tale of King Ins bin Kays and His Daughter with the Son of King Al-'Abbas
Breslau (966–979)
Alternate ending from the Breslau edition of tale of Shahrazad and Shahryar, with the remaining tales being told after night 1001
Tale of the Two kings and the Wazir's Daughters
The Concubine and the Caliph
The Concubine of Al-Maamun
In the remainder of this volume W. A. Clouston presents "variants and analogues" of the supplemental nights.
The Sleeper and the Waker
The Ten Wazirs; or the History of King Azadbakht and His Son
King Dadbin and His Wazirs
King Aylan Shah and Abu Tamman
King Sulayman Shah and His Niece
Firuz and His Wife
King Shah Bakht and His Wazir Al-Rahwan
On the Art of Enlarging Pearls
The Singer and the Druggist
Persian version
Ser Giovanni's version
Straparola's version
The King Who Kenned the Quintessence of Things
Indian version
Siberian version
Hungarian version
Turkish analogue
The Prince Who Fell In Love With the Picture
The Fuller, His Wife, and the Trooper
The Simpleton Husband
The Three Men and our Lord Isa
The Melancholist and the Sharper
The Devout Woman accused of Lewdness
The Weaver Who Became A Leach By Order of His Wife
The King Who Lost Kingdom, Wife, and Wealth
Kashmiri version
Panjàbí version
Tibetan version
Legend of St. Eustache
Old English "Gesta" version
Romance of Sir Isumbras
Al-Malik al-Zahir and the Sixteen Captains of Police
The Thief's Tale
The Ninth Constable's Story
The Fifteenth Constable's Story
The Damsel Tuhfat al-Kulub
Women's Wiles
Nur al-Din and the Damsel Sitt al-Milah
King Ins Bin Kays and his Daughter
Additional Notes
Firuz and His Wife
The Singer and the Druggist
The Fuller, His Wife, and the Trooper | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_stories_within_One_Thousand_and_One_Nights |
Astronomy in the medieval Islamic world | Brass astrolabes were an invention of Late Antiquity. The first Islamic astronomer reported as having built an astrolabe is Muhammad al-Fazari (late 8th century). Astrolabes were popular in the Islamic world during the "Golden Age", chiefly as an aid to finding the qibla. The earliest known example is dated to 927/8 (AH 315).
The device was incredibly useful, and sometime during the 10th century it was brought to Europe from the Muslim world, where it inspired Latin scholars to take up an interest in both math and astronomy.
The largest function of the astrolabe is it serves as a portable model of space that can calculate the approximate location of any heavenly body found within the solar system at any point in time, provided the latitude of the observer is accounted for. In order to adjust for latitude, astrolabes often had a second plate on top of the first, which the user could swap out to account for their correct latitude. One of the most useful features of the device is that the projection created allows users to calculate and solve mathematical problems graphically which could otherwise be done only by using complex spherical trigonometry, allowing for earlier access to great mathematical feats. In addition to this, use of the astrolabe allowed for ships at sea to calculate their position given that the device is fixed upon a star with a known altitude. Standard astrolabes performed poorly on the ocean, as bumpy waters and aggressive winds made use difficult, so a new iteration of the device, known as a Mariner's astrolabe, was developed to counteract the difficult conditions of the sea.
The instruments were used to read the time of the Sun rising and fixed stars. al-Zarqali of Andalusia constructed one such instrument in which, unlike its predecessors, did not depend on the latitude of the observer, and could be used anywhere. This instrument became known in Europe as the Saphea.
The astrolabe was arguably the most important instrument created and used for astronomical purposes in the medieval period. Its invention in early medieval times required immense study and much trial and error in order to find the right method of which to construct it to where it would work efficiently and consistently, and its invention led to several mathematic advances which came from the problems that arose from using the instrument. The astrolabe's original purpose was to allow one to find the altitudes of the sun and many visible stars, during the day and night, respectively. However, they have ultimately come to provide great contribution to the progress of mapping the globe, thus resulting in further exploration of the sea, which then resulted in a series of positive events that allowed the world we know today to come to be. The astrolabe has served many purposes over time, and it has shown to be quite a key factor from medieval times to the present.
The astrolabe required the use of mathematics, and the development of the instrument incorporated azimuth circles, which opened a series of questions on further mathematical dilemmas. Astrolabes served the purpose of finding the altitude of the sun, which also meant that they provided one the ability to find the direction of Muslim prayer (or the direction of Mecca). Aside from these purposes, the astrolabe had a great influence on navigation, specifically in the marine world. This advancement made the calculation of latitude simpler, which led to an increase in sea exploration, and indirectly led to the Renaissance revolution, an increase in global trade activity, and ultimately the discovery of several of the world's continents. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomy_in_the_medieval_Islamic_world |
Blockade of the Gaza Strip | On 20 June 2010, Israel's Security Cabinet approved a new system governing the blockade that would allow practically all non-military or dual-use items to enter the Gaza strip. According to a cabinet statement, Israel would "expand the transfer of construction materials designated for projects that have been approved by the Palestinian Authority, including schools, health institutions, water, sanitation and more – as well as (projects) that are under international supervision." Despite the easing of the land blockade, Israel will continue to inspect all goods bound for Gaza by sea at the port of Ashdod.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the decision enabled Israel to focus on real security issues and would eliminate "Hamas' main propaganda claim," and that it would strengthen the case for keeping the sea blockade in place. He also said the decision would have been coordinated with the United States and with Tony Blair, the representative of the Quartet for the Middle East. Blair characterized the decision as a "very significant step forward", but added that the decision needs to be implemented. In a statement, the Quartet said that the situation remained "unsustainable and unacceptable" and maintained that a long-term solution was urgently needed. The UNRWA called for a complete lift of the Gaza blockade, expressing concern that the new policy would continue to limit Gaza's ability to develop on its own. The European Union's representative for foreign policy, Catherine Ashton, welcomed the decision. She called the step "a significant improvement" and expressed the expectation that the measures take effect as soon as possible, adding that "more work remains to be done." The U.S. government welcomed the decision, expressing the belief that the easing would significantly improve the lives of Gaza Strip residents and prevent weapons smuggling. It expressed its intention to contribute to an international effort to "explore additional ways to improve the situation in Gaza, including greater freedom of movement and commerce between Gaza and the West Bank." Hamas dismissed the measures as trivial and "media propaganda", and demanded a complete lifting of the blockade, including the removal on all restrictions on the import of construction material. Israeli Arab member of Knesset Hanin Zoabi commented that the easing of the blockade would prove that "it is not a security blockade, but a political one," adding that the flotilla "succeeded in undermining the blockade's legitimacy."
The U.S., United Nations, European Union and Russia in 2010 were jointly consulting with Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Egypt on additional measures, described by the United States Department of State as a "fundamental change in policy" toward the Gaza strip. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockade_of_the_Gaza_Strip |
Kayseri | Republic Square
Kayseri Castle
Kayseri Clock Tower
Bürüngüz Mosque
Hunat Mosque
Kayseri Bazaar (Kapali Carsi)
Forum Kayseri
Surp Asdvadzadzin Virgin Mary Church Research Library (Surp Asdvadzadzin Meryem Ana Kilisesi Araştırma Kütüphanesi)
Atatürk House Museum
The National Struggle Museum
Inside the centre of Kayseri the most unmissable reminder of the past are the huge basalt walls that once enclosed the old city. Dating back to the sixth century and the reign of the Emperor Justinian, they have been repeatedly repaired, by the Seljuks, by the Ottomans and more recently by the current Turkish government. In 2019 Kayseri Archaeology Museum moved from an outlying location to a new site inside the walls.
The Grand Mosque (Ulu Cami) was started by the Danişmend emir Melik Mehmed Gazi who is buried beside it although it was only completed by the Seljuks after his death.
There are many magnificent reminders of the Seljuk supremacy in and around the walls as well as many much smaller kümbets (domed tombs) of which the most impressive is the Döner Kümbet (Revolving Tomb). The oldest surviving Seljuk place of worship – and the oldest Seljuk mosque built in Turkey – is the Hunat Hatun Mosque complex which still includes a functioning hamam with separate sections for men and women dating back to 1238.
Near the mosque is the Sahabiye Medresesi, a theological school dating back to 1267 with a magnificent portal typical of Seljuk architecture. Very similar is the Avgunlu (Havuzlu) Medresesi which now serves as a large bookshop-cum-cafe in a park.
In Mimar Sinan Park stands the Çifte Medresesi, a pair of Seljuk-era theological schools that eventually served as a hospital for those with psychiatric disorders. They were commissioned by the Seljuk sultan Giyasettin I Keyhüsrev and his sister, Gevher Nesibe Sultan, who is buried inside. Today the buildings house the Museum of Seljuk Civilisations.
Another Seljuk survivor is the grand Halikılıç Mosque complex which has two spectacular entrance portals. It dates back to 1249 but was extensively restored three centuries later.
Post-dating the Seljuks is the Güpgüpoğlu Mansion which dates back to the early 15th century but is open to the public with the furnishings it would have had in the late 19th century when it was home to the poet and politician Ahmed Midhad Güpgüpoğlu.
Close to the walls is Kayseri's own Kapalı Çarşı (Covered Market), still a bustling commercial centre selling cheap clothes, shoes and much else. Deep inside it is the older and very atmospheric Vezir Han which was commissioned in the early 18th century by Nevşehir-born Damad İbrahim Paşa who became a grand vizier to Sultan Ahmed III before being assassinated in 1730. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kayseri |
Ayyubid dynasty | Rather than establishing a centralized empire, Saladin had established hereditary ownership throughout his lands, dividing his empire among his kinsmen, with family members presiding over semi-autonomous fiefs and principalities. Although these princes (emirs) owed allegiance to the Ayyubid sultan, they maintained relative independence in their own territories. Upon Saladin's death, az-Zahir took Aleppo from al-Adil per the arrangement and al-Aziz Uthman held Cairo, while his eldest son, al-Afdal retained Damascus, which also included Palestine and much of Mount Lebanon. Al-Adil then acquired al-Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia), where he held the Zengids of Mosul at bay. In 1193, Mas'ud of Mosul joined forces with Zangi II of Sinjar and together the Zengid coalition moved to conquer al-Jazira. However, before any major results could be achieved, Mas'ud fell ill and returned to Mosul, and al-Adil then compelled Zangi to make a quick peace before the Zengids suffered territorial losses at the hands of the Ayyubids. Al-Adil's son al-Mu'azzam took possession of Karak and Transjordan.
Soon, however, Saladin's sons squabbled over the division of the empire. Saladin had appointed al-Afdal to the governorship of Damascus with the intention that his son should continue to see the city as his principal place of residence in order to emphasize the primacy of the jihad (struggle) against the Crusader states. Al-Afdal, however, found that his attachment to Damascus contributed to his undoing. Several of his father's subordinate emirs left the city for Cairo to lobby Uthman to oust him on claims he was inexperienced and intended to oust the Ayyubid old guard. Al-Adil further encouraged Uthman to act in order prevent al-Afdal's incompetence putting the Ayyubid empire in jeopardy. Thus, in 1194, Uthman openly demanded the sultanate. Uthman's claim to the throne was settled in a series of assaults on Damascus in 1196, forcing al-Afdal to leave for a lesser post at Salkhad. Al-Adil established himself in Damascus as a lieutenant of Uthman, but wielded great influence within the empire.
When Uthman died in a hunting accident near Cairo, al-Afdal was again made sultan (although Uthman's son al-Mansur was the nominal ruler of Egypt), al-Adil having been absent in a campaign in the northeast. Al-Adil returned and managed to occupy the Citadel of Damascus, but then faced a strong assault from the combined forces of al-Afdal and his brother az-Zahir of Aleppo. These forces disintegrated under al-Afdal's leadership and in 1200, al-Adil resumed his offensive. Upon Uthman's death, two clans of mamluks (slave soldiers) entered into conflict. They were the Asadiyya and Salahiyya, both of which Shirkuh and Saladin had purchased. The Salahiyya backed al-Adil in his struggles against al-Afdal. With their support, al-Adil conquered Cairo in 1200, and forced al-Afdal to accept internal banishment. He proclaimed himself Sultan of Egypt and Syria afterward and entrusted the governance of Damascus to al-Mu'azzam and al-Jazira to his other son al-Kamil. Also around 1200, a sharif (tribal head related to the Islamic prophet Muhammad), Qatada ibn Idris, seized power in Mecca and was recognized as the emir of the city by al-Adil.
Al-Afdal attempted unsuccessfully to take Damascus his final time. Al-Adil entered the city in triumph in 1201. Thereafter, al-Adil's line, rather than Saladin's line, dominated the next 50 years of Ayyubid rule. However, az-Zahir still held Aleppo and al-Afdal was given Samosata in Anatolia. Al-Adil redistributed his possessions between his sons: al-Kamil was to succeed him in Egypt, al-Ashraf received al-Jazira, and al-Awhad was given Diyar Bakr, but the latter territory shifted to al-Ashraf's domain after al-Awhad died.
Al-Adil aroused open hostility from the Hanbali lobby in Damascus for largely ignoring the Crusaders, having launched only one campaign against them. Al-Adil believed that the Crusader army could not be defeated in a direct fight. Prolonged campaigns also involved the difficulties of maintaining a coherent Muslim coalition. The trend under al-Adil was the steady growth of the empire, mainly through the expansion of Ayyubid authority in al-Jazira and incorporation of Shah-Armen domains (in eastern Anatolia). The Abbasids eventually recognized al-Adil's role as sultan in 1207.
By 1208 Kingdom of Georgia challenged Ayyubid rule in eastern Anatolia and besieged Khilat (possessions of al-Awhad). In response al-Adil assembled and personally led large Muslim army that included the emirs of Homs, Hama and Baalbek as well as contingents from other Ayyubid principalities to support al-Awhad. During the siege, Georgian general Ivane Mkhargrdzeli accidentally fell into the hands of the al-Awhad on the outskirts of Khilat and was released in 1210, only after the Georgians agreed to sign a Thirty Years' Truce. The truce ended the Georgian menace to Ayyubid Armenia, leaving the Lake Van region to the Ayyubids of Damascus.
A Crusader military campaign was launched on 3 November 1217, beginning with an offensive towards Transjordan. Al-Mu'azzam urged al-Adil to launch a counter-attack, but he rejected his son's proposal. In 1218, the fortress of Damietta in the Nile Delta was besieged by the Crusaders. After two failed attempts, the fortress eventually capitulated on 25 August. Six days later al-Adil died of apparent shock at Damietta's loss.
Al-Kamil proclaimed himself sultan in Cairo, while his brother al-Mu'azzam claimed the throne in Damascus. Al-Kamil attempted to retake Damietta, but was forced back by John of Brienne. After learning of a conspiracy against him, he fled, leaving the Egyptian army leaderless. Panic ensued, but with the help of al-Mu'azzam, al-Kamil regrouped his forces. By then, however, the Crusaders had seized his camp. The Ayyubids offered to negotiate for a withdrawal from Damietta, offering the restoration of Palestine to the Kingdom of Jerusalem, with the exception of the forts of Mont Real and Karak. This was refused by the leader of the Fifth Crusade, Pelagius of Albano, and in 1221, the Crusaders were driven out of the Nile Delta after the Ayyubid victory at Mansura. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayyubid_dynasty |
Kharijites | Many Kharijites were well-versed in traditional Arabic eloquence and poetry, which the orientalist Giorgio Levi Della Vida attributes to the majority of their early leaders being from Bedouin stock. The sermons and poems of many Kharijite leaders were compiled into collections (diwans). Kharijite poetry is mainly concerned with religious beliefs, with piety and activism, martyrdom, selling life to God (shira), and afterlife being some of the most prominent themes, though the themes of heroism and courage are also evident. Referring to his rebellion, Abu Bilal Mirdas said: "Fear of God and the dread of the fire made me go out, and selling my soul for which has no price [paradise]".
Some poems encouraged militant activism. Imran ibn Hittan, whom the Arabist Michael Cooperson calls the greatest Kharijite poet, sang after Abu Bilal's death: "Abū Bilāl has increased my disdain for this life; and strengthened my love for the khurūj [rebellion]". The poet Abu'l-Wazi al-Rasibi addressed Ibn al-Azraq, before the latter became activist, with the lines: Your tongue does no harm to the enemy you will only gain salvation from distress by means of your two hands.
The government was often labelled as tyrannical and obedience to it was criticized. The Kharijite poet Isa ibn Fatik al-Khatti thus sang: You obeyed the orders of the stubborn tyrant but no obedience is due to oppressors.
Many poems were written to eulogize fallen Kharijite activists, and thus represent the romanticized version of actual historical events. The Muhakkima are thus valorized and remembered at many places. The poet Aziz ibn al-Akhnas al-Ta'i eulogized them in the following lines: I complain to God that from every tribe of people, battle has annihilated the best.
Similarly, Ali's assassin Ibn Muljam was exalted by the poet Ibn Abi Mayyas al-Muradi in the following: You upon whom be blessings, we have struck Ḥaydar ['the lion'; a nickname for Ali] Abū Ḥasan [Ali] with a blow to the head and he was split apart.
Kharijite poetry has survived mainly in the non-Kharijite sources, and hence may have been subject to alteration by its transmitters. Nevertheless, the historian Fred Donner believes that Kharijite poetry may have suffered a lesser and "different kind" of interpolation than the historical accounts about the Kharijites. According to Hagemann, poetry is seemingly "the only genuinely Khārijite material" in existence. A modern compilation of Kharijite poetry was published by Ihsan Abbas in 1974. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kharijites |
Maghreb | Islam arrived in 647 and challenged the domination of Christianity. The first permanent foothold of Islam was the founding in 667 of the city of Kairouan, in present-day Tunisia. Carthage fell to Muslims in 698 and the remainder of the region fell by 709. Islamization proceeded slowly.
From the end of the 7th century, over a period of more than 400 years, the region's peoples converted to Islam. Many left during this time for Italy, although surviving letters showed correspondence from regional Christians to Rome up until the 12th century. Christianity was still a living faith. Although there were numerous conversions after the conquest, Muslims did not become a majority until some time late in the 9th century. During the 10th century, Islam became by far the dominant religion in the region. Christian bishoprics and dioceses continued to be active and continued their relations with the Christian Church of Rome. As late as the reign of Pope Benedict VII (974–983), a new Archbishop of Carthage was consecrated. From the 10th century, Christianity declined in the region. By the end of the 11th century, only two bishops were left in Carthage and Hippo Regius. Pope Gregory VII (1073–85) consecrated a new bishop for Hippo. Christianity seems to have suffered several shocks that led to its demise. First, many upper-class, urban-dwelling, Latin-speaking Christians left for Europe after the Muslim conquest. The second major influence was the large-scale conversions to Islam from the end of the 9th century. Many Christians of a much reduced community departed in the mid-11th century, and remnants were evacuated in the 12th by the Norman rulers of Sicily. The Latin-African language lingered a while longer.
There was a small but thriving Jewish community, as well as a small Christian community. Most Muslims follow the Sunni Maliki school. Small Ibadi communities remain in some areas. A strong tradition of venerating marabouts and saints' tombs is found throughout regions inhabited by Berbers. This practice was also common among the Jews of the region. Any map of the region demonstrates the tradition by the proliferation of "Sidi"s, showing places named after the marabouts. This tradition has declined through the 20th century. A network of zaouias traditionally helped teach basic literacy and knowledge of Islam in rural regions. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maghreb |
Denshawai incident | Egypt was under effective control of Lord Cromer. He believed that Egyptians were untrustworthy witnesses. He argued that floggings and other methods of torture were required to uncover the truth of what happened. Additionally, Major-General Bullock, the Commanding Officer of the Army of Occupation, requested that the accused be tried under Khedival Decree rather than the reformed, Egyptian penal code. This decree was established in 1895 to "deal very swiftly and summarily" with crimes by the "natives" against officers of the occupying army. It allowed more severe punishments than was possible under the Egyptian justice system.
The day following the incident, the British Army arrested fifty-two men in the village (identified as members of the involved scuffle). Five judges were assigned to adjudicate: Boutros Pasha Ghali (who was also the Minister of Justice), Ahmed Fathy Zaghlul, William Hayter, Lieutenant Colonel Ludlow, and Mr Bond. Only one of the judges was a Muslim.
The trial happened on 24 June 1906. No minutes were taken. The defendants were indicted under charges of pre-meditated murder and robbery with violence. All 52 defendants testified for a total of 34 minutes, barely enough time to state their names and alibis. Hassan Aly Mahfouz (owner of the pigeons), Youssef Hussein Selim, El Sayed Issa Salem, and Mohamed Darweesh Zahran, were convicted of pre-meditated murder of the officer who had died of heatstroke, with the claim that their actions had put him in that deadly position. It was necessary to convict them with pre-mediated murder in order to sentence them to death. It was reported in the Al Muqattam at the time that the gallows were erected in Denshawai before the trial was concluded. Twelve other villagers were found guilty and sentenced to various prison terms. Eight men were sentenced to be whipped 50 times.
Hassan was hanged in front of his own house in front of his family, which was uncharacteristic of the usual protocol in capital punishment. This decision sparked outrage among the Egyptian public and was described by the nationalist press as being especially cruel and an "outright symbol of tyranny".
Darweesh's last words from the gallows were: "May God compensate us well for this world of meanness, for this world of injustice, for this world of cruelty". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denshawai_incident |
Muammar Gaddafi | In June 1973, Gaddafi created a political ideology as a basis for the Popular Revolution: Third International Theory. This approach regarded both the US and the Soviet Union as imperialist and thus rejected Western capitalism as well as Marxist–Leninist atheism. In this respect, it was similar to the Three Worlds Theory developed by China's political leader Mao Zedong. As part of this theory, Gaddafi praised nationalism as a progressive force and advocated the creation of a pan-Arab state which would lead the Islamic and Third Worlds against imperialism. Gaddafi saw Islam as having a key role in this ideology, calling for an Islamic revival that returned to the origins of the Qur'an, rejecting scholarly interpretations and the Hadith; in doing so, he angered many Libyan clerics. During 1973 and 1974, his government deepened the legal reliance on sharia, for instance by introducing flogging as punishment for those convicted of adultery or homosexual activity.
Gaddafi summarized Third International Theory in three short volumes published between 1975 and 1979, collectively known as The Green Book. Volume one was devoted to the issue of democracy, outlining the flaws of representative systems in favour of direct, participatory GPCs. The second dealt with Gaddafi's beliefs regarding socialism, while the third explored social issues regarding the family and the tribe. While the first two volumes advocated radical reform, the third adopted a socially conservative stance, proclaiming that while men and women were equal, they were biologically designed for different roles in life. During the years that followed, Gaddafists adopted quotes from The Green Book, such as "Representation is Fraud", as slogans. Meanwhile, in September 1975, Gaddafi implemented further measures to increase popular mobilization, introducing objectives to improve the relationship between the Councils and the ASU.
In 1975, Gaddafi's government declared a state monopoly on foreign trade. Its increasingly radical reforms, coupled with the large amount of oil revenue being spent on foreign causes, generated discontent in Libya, particularly among the country's merchant class. In 1974, Libya saw its first civilian attack on Gaddafi's government when a Benghazi army building was bombed. Much of the opposition centred around RCC member Umar Muhayshi. With fellow RCC members Bashir Saghir al-Hawaadi and Awad Ali Hamza, he began plotting a coup against Gaddafi. In 1975, their plot was exposed and Muhayshi fled to Tunisia, eventually receiving asylum from Sadat's Egypt. Hawaadi, Hamza, and Omar El-Hariri were arrested. Most of the other conspirators were executed in March 1976. Another RCC member, foreign minister Abdul-Munim al-Huni, also fled to Egypt. In the aftermath, only five RCC members remained: Gaddafi, Jalloud, Abu-Bakr Yunis Jabr, Mustafa Kharubi, and Kweldi al-Hamidi. Thus, power was further concentrated in Gaddafi's hands. This ultimately led to the RCC's official abolition in March 1977.
In September 1975, Gaddafi purged the army, arresting around 200 senior officers, and in October he founded the clandestine Office for the Security of the Revolution. In April 1976, he called upon his supporters in universities to establish "revolutionary student councils" and drive out "reactionary elements". During that year, anti-Gaddafist student demonstrations broke out at the universities of Tripoli and Benghazi, resulting in clashes with both Gaddafist students and police. The RCC responded with mass arrests and introduced compulsory national service for young people. In January 1977, two dissenting students and a number of army officers were publicly hanged; Amnesty International condemned it as the first time in Gaddafist Libya that dissenters had been executed for purely political crimes. Dissent also arose from conservative clerics and the Muslim Brotherhood, who accused Gaddafi of moving towards Marxism and criticized his abolition of private property as being against the Islamic sunnah; these forces were then persecuted as anti-revolutionary, while all privately owned Islamic colleges and universities were shut down. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muammar_Gaddafi |
Rationale for the Iraq War | The failure to find stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq caused considerable controversy, particularly in the United States. US President George W. Bush and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Tony Blair defended their decision to go to war, alleging that many nations, even those opposed to war, believed that the Saddam Hussein government was actively developing weapons of mass destructions.
Critics such as Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean charged that the Bush and Blair administrations deliberately falsified evidence to build a case for war. These criticisms were strengthened with the 2005 release of the so-called Downing Street memo, written in July 2002, in which the former head of British Military Intelligence wrote that "the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy" of removing Saddam Hussein from power.
While the Downing Street memo and the yellowcake uranium scandal lent credence to claims that intelligence was manipulated, two bipartisan investigations, one by the Senate Intelligence Committee and the other by a specially-appointed Iraq Intelligence Commission chaired by Charles Robb and Laurence Silberman, found no evidence of political pressure applied to intelligence analysts. An independent assessment by the Annenberg Public Policy Center found that Bush administration officials did misuse intelligence in their public communications. For example, Vice President Dick Cheney's September 2002 statement on Meet the Press that "we do know, with absolute certainty, that he (Saddam) is using his procurement system to acquire the equipment he needs in order to enrich uranium to build a nuclear weapon", was inconsistent with the views of the intelligence community at the time.
A study coauthored by the Center for Public Integrity found that in the two years after September 11, 2001, the president and top administration officials had made 935 false statements, in an orchestrated public relations campaign to galvanize public opinion for the war, and that the press was largely complicit in its uncritical coverage of the reasons adduced for going to war. PBS commentator Bill Moyers had made similar points throughout the lead-up to the Iraq War, and prior to a national press conference on the Iraq War Moyers correctly predicted "at least a dozen times during this press conference he [the President] will invoke 9/11 and al-Qaeda to justify a preemptive attack on a country that has not attacked America. But the White House press corps will ask no hard questions tonight about those claims." Moyers later also denounced the complicity of the press in the administration's campaign for the war, saying that the media "surrendered its independence and skepticism to join with [the US] government in marching to war", and that the administration "needed a compliant press, to pass on their propaganda as news and cheer them on".
Many in the intelligence community expressed sincere regret over the flawed predictions about Iraqi weapons programs. Testifying before Congress in January 2004, David Kay, the original director of the Iraq Survey Group, said unequivocally that "It turns out that we were all wrong, probably in my judgment, and that is most disturbing." He later added in an interview that the intelligence community owed the President an apology.
In the aftermath of the invasion, much attention was also paid to the role of the press in promoting government claims concerning weapons of mass destruction production in Iraq. Between 1998 and 2003, The New York Times and other influential US newspapers published numerous articles about suspected Iraqi rearmament programs with headlines like "Iraqi Work Toward A-Bomb Reported" and "Iraq Suspected of Secret Germ War Effort". It later turned out that many of the sources for these articles were unreliable, and that some were tied to Ahmed Chalabi, an Iraqi exile with close ties to the Bush administration who was a consistent supporter of an invasion.
Some controversy also exists regarding whether the invasion increased or decreased the potential for nuclear proliferation. For example, hundreds of tons of dual-use high explosives that could be used to detonate fissile material in a nuclear weapon were sealed by the IAEA at the Al Qa'qaa site in January 2003. Immediately before the invasion, UN Inspectors had checked the locked bunker doors, but not the actual contents; the bunkers also had large ventilation shafts that were not sealed. By October, the material was no longer present. The IAEA expressed concerns that the material might have been looted after the invasion, posing a nuclear proliferation threat. The US released satellite photographs from March 17, showing trucks at the site large enough to remove substantial amounts of material before US forces reached the area in April. Ultimately, Major Austin Pearson of Task Force Bullet, a task force charged with securing and destroying Iraqi ammunition after the invasion, stated that the task force had removed about 250 tons of material from the site and had detonated it or used it to detonate other munitions. Similar concerns were raised about other dual use materials, such as high strength aluminum; before the invasion, the US cited them as evidence for an Iraqi nuclear weapons program, while the IAEA was satisfied that they were being used for permitted industrial uses; after the war, the IAEA emphasized the proliferation concern, while the Duelfer report mentioned the material's use as scrap. Possible chemical weapons laboratories have also been found which were built subsequent to the 2003 invasion, apparently by insurgent forces.
On August 2, 2004, President Bush stated "Knowing what I know today we still would have gone on into Iraq. ... The decision I made is the right decision. The world is better off without Saddam Hussein in power." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rationale_for_the_Iraq_War |
Thabit number | For integer b ≥ 2, a Thabit number base b is a number of the form (b+1)·bn − 1 for a non-negative integer n. Also, for integer b ≥ 2, a Thabit number of the second kind base b is a number of the form (b+1)·bn + 1 for a non-negative integer n.
The Williams numbers are also a generalization of Thabit numbers. For integer b ≥ 2, a Williams number base b is a number of the form (b−1)·bn − 1 for a non-negative integer n. Also, for integer b ≥ 2, a Williams number of the second kind base b is a number of the form (b−1)·bn + 1 for a non-negative integer n.
For integer b ≥ 2, a Thabit prime base b is a Thabit number base b that is also prime. Similarly, for integer b ≥ 2, a Williams prime base b is a Williams number base b that is also prime.
Every prime p is a Thabit prime of the first kind base p, a Williams prime of the first kind base p+2, and a Williams prime of the second kind base p; if p ≥ 5, then p is also a Thabit prime of the second kind base p−2.
It is a conjecture that for every integer b ≥ 2, there are infinitely many Thabit primes of the first kind base b, infinitely many Williams primes of the first kind base b, and infinitely many Williams primes of the second kind base b; also, for every integer b ≥ 2 that is not congruent to 1 modulo 3, there are infinitely many Thabit primes of the second kind base b. (If the base b is congruent to 1 modulo 3, then all Thabit numbers of the second kind base b are divisible by 3 (and greater than 3, since b ≥ 2), so there are no Thabit primes of the second kind base b.)
The exponent of Thabit primes of the second kind cannot congruent to 1 mod 3 (except 1 itself), the exponent of Williams primes of the first kind cannot congruent to 4 mod 6, and the exponent of Williams primes of the second kind cannot congruent to 1 mod 6 (except 1 itself), since the corresponding polynomial to b is a reducible polynomial. (If n ≡ 1 mod 3, then (b+1)·bn + 1 is divisible by b2 + b + 1; if n ≡ 4 mod 6, then (b−1)·bn − 1 is divisible by b2 − b + 1; and if n ≡ 1 mod 6, then (b−1)·bn + 1 is divisible by b2 − b + 1) Otherwise, the corresponding polynomial to b is an irreducible polynomial, so if Bunyakovsky conjecture is true, then there are infinitely many bases b such that the corresponding number (for fixed exponent n satisfying the condition) is prime. ((b+1)·bn − 1 is irreducible for all nonnegative integer n, so if Bunyakovsky conjecture is true, then there are infinitely many bases b such that the corresponding number (for fixed exponent n) is prime)
Pierpont numbers
3
m
⋅
2
n
+
1
{\displaystyle 3^{m}\cdot 2^{n}+1}
are a generalization of Thabit numbers of the second kind
3
⋅
2
n
+
1
{\displaystyle 3\cdot 2^{n}+1}
. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thabit_number |
Alavi Bohras | When Saiyedna Jivabhai Ziyauddin saheb, the 32nd Da'i al-Mutlaq migrated from Ahmedabad to Vadodara in 1110 AH/1699 AD, Saiyedi Shaikhali from Surat along with his son Noorbhai visited Saiyedna saheb when he was busy constructing the mosque at the corner of Badri Mohalla named Masjid-e-Ziyaai. During that time Noorbhai was very young and with pure intellect he witnessed the spiritual supremacy of Saiyedna saheb. Saiyedna saheb ordered Saiyedi Shaikhali to leave Noorbhai in Vadodara for religious education and training and granted him all the permissions to carry out community responsibilities of Surat. Saiyedi Shaikhali was a successful merchant but at the same time an ardent follower of Saiyedna saheb. Along with many Alavi Bohra families, he stayed in Noorpura Mohalla near Jhapa bazaar. In the same area there was a mosque, graveyard and musaafir-khaana that were managed by Saiyedi Shaikhali. After his death, Alavi Bohras of Surat relied upon Noorbhai for all Da’wat affairs as he was among the most trusted Hudood of Saiyedna saheb, the 33rd Da'i Hebatullaah Mo'ayyaduddin.
Saiyedna Hebatullaah Mo'ayyaduddin, conferred him the status of Mukaasir by bestowing him the epithet of "Nuruddin-نورالدین (the light of religion)". He often visited Vadodara along with the people of Surat and used to give oath of loyalty to Saiyedna saheb. Surat city became the centre of Alavi Bohras, though for a short period of time i.e. 19 years was only because of the pure heartedness and trustworthiness of Noorbhai Nuruddin, the 35th Da'i of Alavi Bohras. This was the time when Surat witnessed the transition period from Mughal rule to British dominion and the place where Saiyedna Noorbhai Nuruddin lived in the railway station area near Tapti River is considered the oldest area of the city and it is from here that the development of the city started in the early 20th century AD. After his death in 1178 AH/1764 AD, his son Shaikh Adam stayed in Surat and looked after the community like his father and grandfather. During this time there were around 50 Alavi Bohra families staying in Surat. The centre again got transferred to Vadodara and majority of Alavi Bohras migrated there along with their identity and surname as “Surtis”. Today the tomb of Saiyedna Noorbhai Nuruddin is the most revered place where mosque, community hall and musaafir-khaana are situated. For divine blessings every Alavi Bohra visit this place once in a year. Every year on the occasion of ‘Urs Mubaarak (death anniversary) of Saiyedna Noorbhai Nuruddin in Moharram a grand function is held in Surat where Alavi Bohras participate with great fervor and faith. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alavi_Bohras |
Slavery in Africa | Early records of the trans-Saharan slave trade come from ancient Greek historian Herodotus in the 5th century BC. The Garamentes were recorded by Herodotus as engaging in the trans-Saharan slave trade and enslaving cave-dwelling "Ethiopians" (Ethiopian being a Greek term for Black as opposed to being from the region of Ethiopia), or Troglodytae. The Berber Garamentes relied heavily on the labour of slaves from sub-Saharan Africa, and used slaves in their own communities to construct and maintain underground irrigation systems known to Berbers as foggara.
In the early Roman Empire, the city of Lepcis established a slave market to buy and sell slaves from the African interior. The empire imposed a customs tax on the trade of slaves. In 5th century AD, Roman Carthage was trading in black slaves brought across the Sahara. Black slaves seem to have been valued in the Mediterranean as household slaves for their exotic appearance. Some historians argue that the scale of slave trade in this period may have been higher than in medieval times due to the high demand for slaves in the Roman Empire.
Slave trading in the Indian Ocean goes back to 2500 BC. Ancient Assyrians and Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks, Indians and Persians all traded slaves on small scale across the Indian Ocean (and sometimes the Red Sea). Slave trading in the Red Sea around the time of Alexander the Great is described by Agatharchides. Strabo's Geographica (completed after 23 AD) mentions Greeks from Egypt trading slaves at the port of Adulis and other ports on the Somali coast. Pliny the Elder's Natural History (published in 77 AD) also described Indian Ocean slave trading. In the 1st century AD, Periplus of the Erythraean Sea advised of slave trading opportunities in the region, particularly in the trading of "beautiful girls for concubinage." According to this manual, slaves were exported from Omana (likely near modern-day Oman) and Kanê to the west coast of India. The ancient Indian Ocean slave trade was enabled by building boats capable of carrying large numbers of human beings across the Persian Gulf with wood imported from India. This shipbuilding goes back to Assyrian, Babylonian and Achaemenid times.
After the involvement of the Byzantine Empire and Sassanian Empire in slave trading in the 1st century, it became a major enterprise. Cosmas Indicopleustes wrote in his Christian Topography (550 AD) that slaves captured in Ethiopia would be imported into Byzantine Egypt via the Red Sea. He also mentioned the import of non African eunuchs by the Byzantines from Mesopotamia and India. After the 1st century, the export of black Africans became a "constant factor". Under the Sassanians, the Indian Ocean trade transported not just slaves, but also scholars and merchants. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_Africa |
Bahrain | In 1521, the Portuguese Empire allied with Hormuz and seized Bahrain from the Jabrid ruler Muqrin ibn Zamil, who was killed during the takeover. Portuguese rule lasted for around 80 years, during which time they depended mainly on Sunni Persian governors. The Portuguese were expelled from the islands in 1602 by Abbas I of the Safavid Iran, which gave impetus to Shia Islam. For the next two centuries, Persian rulers retained control of the archipelago, interrupted by the 1717 and 1738 invasions of the Ibadis of Oman. During most of this period, they resorted to governing Bahrain indirectly, either through the city of Bushehr or through immigrant Sunni Arab clans. The latter were tribes returning to the Arabian side of the Persian Gulf from Persian territories in the north who were known as Huwala. In 1753, the Huwala clan of Nasr Al-Madhkur invaded Bahrain on behalf of the Iranian Zand leader Karim Khan Zand and restored direct Iranian rule.
In 1783, Al-Madhkur lost the islands of Bahrain following his defeat by the Bani Utbah clan and allied tribes at the 1782 Battle of Zubarah. Bahrain was not new territory to the Bani Utbah; they had been a presence there since the 17th century. During that time, they started purchasing date palm gardens in Bahrain; a document shows that 81 years before the arrival of the Al Khalifa, one of the sheikhs of the Al Bin Ali tribe (an offshoot of the Bani Utbah) had bought a palm garden from Mariam bint Ahmed Al Sanadi in Sitra island.
The Al Bin Ali were the dominant group controlling the town of Zubarah on the Qatar peninsula, originally the centre of power of the Bani Utbah. After the Bani Utbah gained control of Bahrain, the Al Bin Ali had a practically independent status there as a self-governing tribe. They used a flag with four red and three white stripes, called the Al-Sulami flag in Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, and the Eastern province of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Later, different Arab family clans and tribes from Qatar moved to Bahrain to settle after the fall of Nasr Al-Madhkur of Bushehr. These families included the House of Khalifa, Al-Ma'awdah, Al-Buainain, Al-Fadhil, Al-Kuwari, Al-Mannai, Al-Noaimi, Al-Rumaihi, Al-Sulaiti, Al-Sadah, Al-Thawadi and other families and tribes.
The House of Khalifa moved from Qatar to Bahrain in 1799. Originally, their ancestors were expelled from Umm Qasr in central Arabia by the Ottomans due to their predatory habits of preying on caravans in Basra and trading ships in Shatt al-Arab waterway until Turks expelled them to Kuwait in 1716, where they remained until 1766.
Around the 1760s, the Al Jalahma and House of Khalifa, both belonging to the Utub Federation, migrated to Zubarah in modern-day Qatar, leaving Al Sabah as the sole proprietors of Kuwait. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahrain |
Israeli hip hop | Although Native Hebrew hip hop gained popularity only during the 1990s, stemming from global influences, traces of it could be found during the mid-1980s. Yair Nitzani, then a member of the Israeli rock group, "Tislam", released an old school hip hop parody album under the name "Hashem Tamid". Nitzani was mainly influenced from New York old school Hip Hop. In 1993, Nigel Haadmor and Yossi Fine, influenced by Eric B & Rakim and Flame-3 of the TPA Crew and other late 1980s Hip Hop, produced the album "Humus Metamtem", which was released by Yair Nitzani. Yossi Fine later immigrated to New York, where he played as a bassist with artists such as David Bowie, Naughty by Nature and Lou Reed. Nigel Haadmor is the pseudonym of Yehoshua Sofer, a Jewish-Jamaican Broslov Hasidic Jew who was born in Jamaica and raised in Jamaica, the U.S., and Israel. Influenced by his mother, who listened to Jamaican ska at home, Haadmor produced a unique sound based on his Caribbean roots living in the Jewish state.
In 1995, the Beastie Boys toured Israel and were interviewed by Quami de la Fox (Eyal Freedman) on Galgalatz, the Israeli Army's radio station and most popular radio station of that time. After the interview, Quami de la Fox created a Hebrew parody of their song “So What’cha Want” to promote their tour in Israel. Later that year Quami de la Fox collaborated with DJ Liron Teeni, also a host on the Galgalatz station, to produce Esek Shachor (Black Business) – the first all hip hop radio show in Israel. Playing a mix of Hebrew, Arabic and English hip hop, by 2000 Esek Shachor “was the most popular program on Galgalatz and today remains a leader in Israel’s hip-hop world.”
Just as Kool Herc is credited in America as being a founding father of hip hop, DJ Liron Teeni is given similar credit as the pioneer of Israeli hip-hop. His major role in the process of making Israeli hip hop the popular genre it is in Israel today was the transformation of the lyrics to the mother tongue of Hebrew. Kids would come on his show on the army radio station in order to showcase their rapping skills, but when they would start rapping in English, he would make them translate it into Hebrew. Because rappers began to rap in English, it was seen as an American export which was not authentic to the music of Israel.
Popular rock band Shabak Samech is credited with being the first Israeli hip hop group, and began rapping in Hebrew in 1995. Influenced by the Beastie Boys, their lyrics did not have any specific political or social message and were mostly party lyrics. Israeli listeners initially rejected their music. Chemi Arzi, one of the band members, recalls, “‘They said you just can’t rap in Hebrew; it doesn’t sound good.’” Shabak Samech continued to produce Hebrew-language rap songs in efforts to promote this new style of Hebrew and Mediterranean hip hop. The band was initially marginalized due to the belief of Israeli DJs that their audiences would be lost, but they eventually reached success.
While Israeli hip hop may be seem to have common underlying themes with US hip hop and they share the main elements of hip hop, mainstream hip hop in Israel tends to deal mainly with the situation in the country, spirituality, or politics. Israeli rappers talk about more personal issues such as the struggles of growing up in Israel. Most Jewish Rappers tends to disregard the political situation between Arabs and Jews, yet they refer frequently to the economic situations in the country. Since 2001, with the rising of new Hip Hop acts, most issues are dealing with creation, essence of Hip Hop, street culture, drugs, hedonism, etc.
Some of the songs also gear towards more religious themes since many of the rappers are Jewish or Muslim. Israeli hip hop has such a motivational theme behind it that local governments support the Hip Hop movement that has exploded among Israeli youth. The government has even supported Hip Hop groups who travel to other countries, viewing it as a good outlet for the rest of the world to view them through. Israeli Hip Hop is creating several positive movements among the people of the country that will continue to grow and become even more popular. Some of the things the Israeli rappers rap about can tend to be controversial as well. As far as media exposure of artists who address real issues like child abuse or the future of the state of Israel is concerned, Israeli artists seem to have the same problems getting heard as artists in America; they address current issues but don't get much attention from the radio stations that play popular music or television stations. Before Hip Hop was considered a genre in Israel, pop and disco music were the only genres being played on the radio. When Hip Hop songs started becoming popular, the radio stations refused to play them. They felt that Hip Hop didn't make people feel good so they would not play it. The songs spoke of everything from terrorism and religion to children speaking up about abuse in their home. And as far as the ongoing conflict between the Arab population and the Jewish population, hip hop music seems to document this more accurately from various viewpoints than any other popular music or news medium in Israel. Even the conflict between Arab and Israeli rappers is documented in films such as Channels of Rage which showcases Subliminal and an Arab-Israeli named MC Tamer Nafer whose friendship ended due to political tension. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_hip_hop |
Al-Farghani | The most influential work produced by al-Farghani was his textbook Kitāb fī Jawāmiʿ ʿIlm al-Nujūm (كتاب في جوامع علم النجوم A Compendium of the Science of the Stars) or Elements of astronomy on the celestial motions, written sometime between about 833 and 857. Elements was a descriptive summary of Ptolemy's Almagest that included the findings and revised values of earlier Islamic astronomers. Among the revisions included in the book were corrections to calculations of the circumference of the Earth, the Earth's axial tilt, and the apsides of the Sun and the Moon. Though al-Farghani's summary of Almagest contained these numerical corrections, the summary itself did not emphasize the mathematics of Ptolemy's astronomical theory and was instead focused more on conveying the conceptual parts of the theory in an easily-understood manner. Al-Farghani's book was translated into Latin in the 12th century by John of Seville in 1135 and later by Gerard of Cremona prior to 1175. These translations remained very popular in Europe until the time of Regiomontanus. Dante Alighieri's knowledge of Ptolemaic astronomy, which is evident in his Divina Commedia as well as other works such as the Convivio, seems to have been drawn from his reading of Alfraganus. Elements was also translated into Hebrew by Jacob Anatoli sometime from 1231 to 1235. This translation of Elements contains an additional section discussing Ptolemy's 48 constellations, which was probably also written by al-Farghani, but is not found in other translations of the book. Drawing primarily from Anatoli's Hebrew translation, but also from John of Seville's previous Latin translation, Jacob Christmann translated yet another Latin translation of Elements in 1590. In the 17th century the Dutch orientalist Jacob Golius published the Arabic text on the basis of a manuscript he had acquired in the Near East, accompanied by Golius' own Latin translation, the last recorded, and extensive notes and revisions.
Al-Farghani also wrote several documents about astronomical instruments. His most famous is his treatise on the astrolabe, which is the oldest surviving document that details the theoretical construction and use of the tool. Although historical sources indicate that there were probably other documents regarding the theory of astrolabes (including one written by al-Khwarizmi) circulating around the time that al-Farghani wrote his treatise, al-Farghani notes in his treatise that he was not aware of any such documents, suggesting that his treatise was a purely original work. Al-Farghani's treatise on the astrolabe provides the mathematical basis for the construction of the astrolabe, along with tables containing thousands of data points enabling the construction of astrolabes that function at varying lines of longitude. Though a theoretical basis for the construction of an astrolabe is presented in this work, the treatise lacked specific methods for physical construction because the purpose of the treatise was not to give instructions for building an astrolabe, but rather to provide mathematical justification for the functionality of the astrolabe. The work Kitāb al-Fihrist by Ibn al-Nadim suggests that al-Farghani was also responsible for writing a book about the use and function of sundials, though no copies exist in the present day.
In the 15th century, Christopher Columbus used al-Farghani's estimate for the Earth's circumference as the basis for his voyages to America. However, Columbus mistook al-Farghani's 7091-foot Arabic mile to be a 4856-foot Roman mile. This error caused him to underestimate the Earth's circumference, leading him to sail to North America while he believed that he was taking a shortcut to Asia. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Farghani |
Egyptian–Hittite peace treaty | The peace treaty of Ramesses II and Hattušiliš III is known as one of the most important official "international" peace treaties between two great powers from the ancient Near East because its exact wording is known to us. Divided into points, the treaty flows between the Egyptians and Hittites as each side makes pledges of brotherhood and peace to the other in terms of the objectives. The treaty can be seen as a promise of peace and alliance since both powers make the mutual guarantee that they would not invade the other's land. That provision ensured that both participants would act in harmony regarding the disputed Syrian holdings and, in effect, established boundaries for the two conflicting claims. No longer, according to the treaty, would costly Syrian campaigns be waged between the two Near Eastern powers, as a formal renunciation of further hostilities is made.
A second clause promoted alliance by making reassurances of aid, most likely military support, if either party was attacked by a third party or by internal forces of rebellion or insurgency. The other stipulations coincide with Hattušiliš's aims (consult Hittite aims section) in that the Hittite ruler placed great emphasis on establishing legitimacy for his rule. Each country swore to the other to extradite political refugees back to their home country, and in the Hittite version of the treaty, Ramesses II agreed to provide support to Hattušiliš' successors to hold the Hittite throne against dissenters. After the conclusion of the provision detailing the extradition of emigrants to their land of origin, both rulers call upon the respective gods of Hatti and Egypt to bear witness to their agreement. The inclusion of the gods is a common feature in major pieces of international law since only a direct appeal to the gods could provide the proper means to guarantee adherence to the treaty. Their noted ability to bestow curses and blessings to people was a serious penalty that would be imposed in case of a violation.
It is the only ancient Near Eastern treaty for which the versions of both sides have survived, which enables the two to be compared directly. It was structured to be almost-entirely symmetrical by treating both sides equally and requiring them to undertake mutual obligations. There are a few differences, however; for instance, the Hittite version adopts a somewhat evasive preamble, asserting that "as for the relationship between land of Egypt and the Hatti land, since eternity the god does not permit the making of hostility between them because of a treaty valid forever." By contrast, the Egyptian version states straightforwardly that the two states had been at war.
The treaty proclaimed that both sides would forever remain at peace and bound the children and grandchildren of the parties. They would not commit acts of aggression against each other, they would repatriate each other's political refugees and criminals and they would assist each other in suppressing rebellions. Each would come to the other's aid if it was threatened by outsiders: "And if another enemy come [against] the land of Hatti... the great king of Egypt shall send his troops and his chariots and shall slay his enemy and he shall restore confidence to the land of Hatti."
The text concludes with an oath before "a thousand gods, male gods and female gods" of the lands of Egypt and Hatti, witnessed by "the mountains and rivers of the lands of Egypt; the sky; the earth; the great sea; the winds; the clouds." If the treaty was ever violated, the oath-breaker would be cursed by the gods who "shall destroy his house, his land and his servants." Conversely, if he maintained his vows, he would be rewarded by the gods, who "will cause him to be healthy and to live." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian%E2%80%93Hittite_peace_treaty |
Morocco–United States relations | In April 2009, 229 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, a clear majority and over 50 more than signed the letter in 2007, called on President Barack Obama to support Morocco's peace plan and to assist in drawing the conflict to a close. The signers included Democratic Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Republican Minority Leader John Boehner. In addition to noting that Western Sahara has become a recruiting post for Radical Islamists, the letter affirmed that the conflict is “the single greatest obstacle impending the security and cooperation necessary to combat” terrorism in the Maghreb. The letter referenced UN Security Council Resolution 1813 (2008), and encouraged President Obama to follow the policy set by President Clinton and followed by President Bush stating, “Genuine autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty [is] the only feasible solution." The Congressmen expressed concerns about Western Sahara's viability. They referenced a UN fact-finding mission to Western Sahara which confirmed the State Department's view that the Polisario proposal, which ultimately stands for independence, would lead to a non-viable state. In closing, the letter stated, “We remain convinced that the U.S. position, favoring autonomy for Western Sahara under Moroccan sovereignty is the only feasible solution. We urge you to both sustain this longstanding policy, and to make clear, in both words and actions, that the United States will work to ensure that the UN process continues to support this framework as the only realistic compromise that can bring this unfortunate and longstanding conflict to an end."
Members of the U.S. Senate, realizing similar "worrisome trends" in the region, also drafted a letter of support for Morocco. In March 2010, a bipartisan majority of U.S. Senators signed a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton calling for the United States to support Morocco's autonomy plan. Similar to the House of Representatives letter to President Obama, the 54 bipartisan Senators (30 Democrats and 24 Republicans) who signed the letter stated concerns about growing instability in the region, including a terrorist threat. The letter openly called on Secretary Clinton and the Obama Administration to provide: "…more sustained American attention to one of the region's most pressing political issues, the Western Sahara." The letter further stated: "As you acknowledged in your remarks in Morocco last November, it has been the policy of the United States to support a resolution of this conflict based on this formula since the Administration of President Clinton. We support this bipartisan U.S. policy and the efforts of the United Nations to bring all parties together to resolve this matter peacefully at the negotiating table." Signers included Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and ranking Intelligence Committee member Senator Kit Bond (R-MO). In regards to Morocco's autonomy plan, Senator Feinstein said, "The way I feel about it, Morocco has been a staunch ally of the United States, this is a big problem, and this is a reasonable way to settle it."
On December 10, 2020, President Donald Trump announced that the United States would officially recognize Morocco's claims over Western Sahara, as a result of Morocco's agreement to normalize relations with Israel. Morocco annexed much of the territory in 1975. The following day, the Trump administration moved forward with $1 billion in sales of drones and other precision-guided weapons. On January 15, 2021, during a visit to the White House, King Mohammed VI awarded President Trump the Order of Muhammad, and Trump in return awarded the King with the Legion of Merit, degree of Chief Commander. A US consulate in Dakhla was announced, with a ceremony held to start the process of initiating it the same month. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morocco%E2%80%93United_States_relations |
Islamic Military Counter Terrorism Coalition | State
Bangladesh: Bangladesh was one of the early members to join the alliance doing so on 15 December 2015. The country confirmed its membership in a joint statement by the founder nations that stated "a duty to protect the Islamic nation from the evils of all terrorist groups and organizations whatever their sect and name which wreak death and corruption on earth and aim to terrorize the innocent." However Bangladesh ruled out any military support.
China: China has expressed its willingness to cooperate with the alliance to fighting terrorism and appreciated Saudi efforts to create alliance.
Egypt: Egypt's Al-Azhar University called the alliance's formation "historic."
Germany: Germany's defense minister Ursula von der Leyen welcomed the alliance against terrorism but also stressed that it should be a part of the Vienna process involving all countries fighting against IS like the U.S., Europe, Russia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, but also including Iran and China.
Malaysia: Malaysian Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein expressed support for the alliance, but ruled out any military support from Malaysia.
Pakistan: After initial ambiguity Pakistan welcomed the initiative; its government confirmed its participation and stated that the country is waiting for further details in order to decide the extent of its participation in the different activities of the alliance.
Turkey: Turkey's Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu called it the "best response to those who are trying to associate terror and Islam".
United States: The new alliance has been welcomed by the United States, with then U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter saying, "We look forward to learning more about what Saudi Arabia has in mind in terms of this coalition. But in general it appears it is very much in line with something we've been urging for quite some time, which is greater involvement in the campaign to combat ISIL by Sunni Arab countries.
Other
Army of the Men of the Naqshbandi Order: Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri the leader of the Naqshbandi Army released a statement in 2016 praising the alliance and calling on what he called Mujahideen to fight Shia militias in Iraq backed by Iran, while also saying "We consider everything that is happening in Iraq from Iran, its agents, militias, and its security apparatus, is the responsibility of the United States". He added: "If it [U.S.] did not move to save Iraq and its people from Iran's hegemony, control and occupation, and to stop bloodshed, destruction, burning and the changing demographic, then Iraqi people should resist [the occupation]." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_Military_Counter_Terrorism_Coalition |
Hadharem | Abaza, Mona (2009). "M. Asad Shahab: A Portrait of an Indonesian Hadrami Who Bridged the Two Worlds". In Tagliacozzo, Eric (ed.). Southeast Asia and the Middle East: Islam, Movement, and the Longue Durée. NUS Press. pp. 250–274. ISBN 9789971694241. OCLC 260294282.
Abushouk, Ahmed Ibrahim; Ibrahim, Hassan Ahmed, eds. (2009). The Hadhrami diaspora in Southeast Asia: Identity maintenance or assimilation?. Brill. ISBN 9789004172319. ISSN 1385-3376. OCLC 568619869.
AHMED BIN SALAM BAHIYAL who came from hadramaut to MAHABUBNAGAR (HYDERABAD) INDIA, 1821
Ali, Shanti Sadiq (1996). "Chapter 9: The Importation of Arabs and Africans into Hyderabad". The African Dispersal in the Deccan: From Medieval to Modern Times. Orient Blackswan. pp. 193–202. ISBN 9788125004851.
Aljunied, Syed Muhd Khairudin (2007). "The Role of Hadramis in Post-Second World War Singapore – A Reinterpretation". Immigrants & Minorities. 25 (2): 163–183. doi:10.1080/02619280802018165. ISSN 0261-9288. S2CID 144316388.
Al-Saqqaf, Abdullah Hassan (2008). "The Linguistics of Loanwords in Hadrami Arabic". International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. 9 (1): 75–93. doi:10.1080/13670050608668631. ISSN 1367-0050. S2CID 145299220.
Al-Saqqaf, Abdullah Hassan (2012). "Arabic Literature in Diaspora: An Example from South Asia". In Raj, Rizio Yohannan (ed.). Quest of a Discipline: New Academic Directions for Comparative Literature. India: Foundation Books. pp. 191–212. doi:10.1017/cbo9788175969346.018. ISBN 9788175969339.
Bang, Anne K. (2003). Sufis and scholars of the sea: Family networks in East Africa, 1860-1925. Routledge. ISBN 9780415317634. OCLC 51879622.
Boxberger, Linda (2002). On the edge of empire: Hadhramawt, emigration, and the Indian Ocean, 1880s-1930s. SUNY Press. ISBN 9780791452172. ISSN 2472-954X. OCLC 53226033.
Freitag, Ulrike (1999). "Hadhramaut: A Religious Centre for the Indian Ocean in the Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries?". Studia Islamica (89): 165–183. doi:10.2307/1596090. JSTOR 1596090.
Freitag, Ulrike (2009). "From Golden Youth in Arabia to Business Leaders in Singapore: Instructions of a Hadrami Patriarch". In Tagliacozzo, Eric (ed.). Southeast Asia and the Middle East: Islam, movement, and the Longue Durée. NUS Press. pp. 235–249. ISBN 9789971694241. OCLC 260294282.
Jacobsen, Frode F. (2008). Hadrami Arabs in present-day Indonesia: An Indonesia-oriented group with an Arab signature. Routledge. ISBN 9780203884614. OCLC 310362117.
Khalidi, Omar (1996). "The Arabs of Hadramawt in Hyderabad: Mystics, Mercenaries and Money-lenders". In Kulakarṇī, A. Rā; Nayeem, M. A.; Souza, Teotonio R. De (eds.). Mediaeval Deccan History: Commemoration Volume in Honour of Purshottam Mahadeo Joshi. Bombay, India: Popular Prakashan. ISBN 9788171545797.
Manger, Leif; Assal, Munzoul A. M., eds. (2006). "A Hadrami Diaspora in the Sudan". Diasporas within and without Africa: Dynamism, heterogeneity, variation. Stylus Pub Llc, Nordiska Afrikainstitutet. p. 61. ISBN 9789171065636. OCLC 74650767.
Manger, Leif (2007). "Hadramis in Hyderabad: From Winners to Losers". Asian Journal of Social Science. 35 (4): 405–433. doi:10.1163/156853107x240279. ISSN 1568-5314.
Manger, Leif (2010). The Hadrami diaspora: Community-building on the Indian Ocean rim. Berghahn Books. ISBN 9781845459789. OCLC 732958389.
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Mobini-Kesheh, Natalie (1999). The Hadrami awakening: Community and identity in the Netherlands East Indies, 1900-1942. SEAP Publications. ISBN 9780877277279. OCLC 43269837.
Romero, Patricia W. (1997). Lamu: History, society, and family in an East African port city. Markus Wiener. pp. 93–108, 167–184. ISBN 9781558761070. OCLC 35919259.
Talib, Ameen Ali (1997). "Hadramis in Singapore". Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs. 17 (1): 89–96. doi:10.1080/13602009708716360. ISSN 1360-2004.
Walker, Iain (2008). "Hadramis, Shimalis and Muwalladin: Negotiating Cosmopolitan Identities between the Swahili Coast and Southern Yemen". Journal of Eastern African Studies. 2 (1): 44–59. doi:10.1080/17531050701846724. ISSN 1753-1055. S2CID 143463975.
Yimene, Ababu Minda (2004). An African Indian Community in Hyderabad: Siddi Identity, Its Maintenance and Change. Cuvillier Verlag. p. 204. ISBN 9783865372062. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadharem |
Regency of Algiers | Algerian corsairs captured many people on land and at sea from Mediterranean shores to Atlantic high seas. and brought them to the slave market in Algiers, through which passed between 25,000 and 36,000 slaves of many nationalities, totalling over one million European slaves in the early modern period. This trade made slavery the cornerstone of the Algerine economy.
After they were paraded naked, examined and inspected to assess their qualities, social position and value, captured individuals were divided into three groups:
Those believed ransomable: Usually rich and better referred to as "captives", they were an important source of revenue. Their owners spared them the hardest tasks to preserve their value, as they were to be ransomed as quickly as possible. "The captive was a piece of merchandise which it was to no one's interest to damage," noted Julien.
Those not believed ransomable: Poorer-class and lower-priced like their Muslim counterparts in France, these prisoners often became galley slaves, or were assigned to other forced labor like moving rocks. A few were chosen as household domestic slaves.
Those freed without ransom, in exchanges for Muslim captives, to honor prior agreements between states, or because of a war had been lost.
Government-owned captives were held in prisons called "bagnos". Six of these operated in Algiers. Privately owned captives were housed by their owners, often rich individuals or privateering collectives.
In Spain, France and the Dutch Republic, ransom funds came from the captive's family, the state, or religious orders of the Catholic church who negotiated in Algiers for the captives. Missions such as the Trinitarians and the Mercedarians were instructed to identify captives in danger of apostasy, captives whose family and friends had raised money, and valuable individuals before reachine a ransom agreement. Captives who could buy their own freedom were allowed to move freely in Algiers, and often managed its taverns.
Christians were exchanged for small sums in the early 16th century. In the 17th century however, redemptionist missions paid 100 and 200 to 300 pounds or more for their freedom. Persons of distinction were almost priceless: the governor of the Canary Islands bought himself back in 1670 for 60,000 pounds.
After ransom was paid, additional fees for customs duties were still required, over fifty percent of the agreed ransom:
10% for customs
15% for the pasha or dey
4% for the khaznaji (secretary of state)
7% for the wakil al-kharaj (harbourmaster)
17% for prison guards
Slaves with special skills, such as surgeons and master carpenters who built or repaired ships, often could not be ransomed at any price. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regency_of_Algiers |
Revival of the Hebrew language | With the rise of Jewish nationalism in 19th-century Europe, Eliezer Ben-Yehuda was captivated by the innovative ideas of Zionism. At that time, it was believed that one of the criteria needed to define a nation worthy of national rights was its use of a common language spoken by both the society and the individual. On 13 October 1881, while in Paris, Ben-Yehuda began speaking Hebrew with friends in what is believed to be the first modern conversation using the language. Later that year, he made aliyah and came to live in Jerusalem.
In Jerusalem, Ben-Yehuda tried to garner support for the idea of speaking Hebrew. He determined that his family would only speak Hebrew, and raised his children to be native Hebrew speakers. His first child, a son named Itamar Ben-Avi, who was born in Jerusalem on 31 July 1882, became the first native speaker of Modern Hebrew. Ben-Yehuda attempted to convince other families to do so as well, founded associations for speaking Hebrew, began publishing the Hebrew newspaper HaZvi, and for a short while taught at Hebrew schools, for the first time making use of the method of "Hebrew in Hebrew". In 1889, there were plays in Hebrew and schools teaching children to speak Hebrew. Ben-Yehuda's efforts to persuade Jewish families to use only Hebrew in daily life at home met very limited success. According to Ben-Yehuda, ten years after his immigration to Palestine, there were only four families in Jerusalem that used Hebrew exclusively. According to the Hashkafa newspaper, there were ten such families in 1900.
On the other hand, during the Ottoman era, widespread activity began in the moshavot, or agricultural settlements, of the First Aliyah, which was concentrated in the Hebrew schools. A Hebrew boarding school was established by Aryeh Leib Frumkin in 1884, where religious studies were conducted in Hebrew and students spoke Hebrew with their teachers and among themselves. In 1886, the Haviv elementary school was established in the Jewish settlement of Rishon LeZion, where the classes were taught exclusively in Hebrew. The Haviv school is recognized as the first Hebrew school of modern times. From the 1880s onward, schools in the agricultural settlements gradually began teaching general subjects in Hebrew. In 1889, Israel Belkind opened a school in Jaffa that taught Hebrew and used it as the primary language of instruction. It survived for three years. The Literature Council, which was based on the Clear Language Society was founded in 1890 to experiment in the municipal and rural schools. It showed the possibility to make Hebrew the only language in the settlement. At this point, progress was slow, and it encountered many difficulties: parents were opposed to their children learning in an impractical language, useless in higher education; the four-year schools for farmers' children were not of a high caliber; and a great lack of linguistic means for teaching Hebrew plus the lack of words to describe day-to-day activities, not to mention the absence of Hebrew schoolbooks. Added to these, there was no agreement on which accent to use, as some teachers taught Ashkenazi Hebrew while others taught Sephardi Hebrew.
In 1889, Ben-Yehuda, together with rabbis Yaakov Meir and Chaim Hirschensohn and educator Chaim Kalmi, founded the Clear Language Society, with the goal of teaching Hebrew. The company taught Hebrew and encouraged Hebrew education in schools, heders, and yeshivas. Initially, it hired Hebrew-speaking women to teach Jewish women and girls spoken and written Hebrew. In 1890, the company established the Hebrew Language Committee, which coined new Hebrew words for everyday use and for a wide variety of modern uses and encouraged the use of grammatically correct Hebrew. Although the organization collapsed in 1891, the Hebrew Language Committee continued to function. It published books, dictionaries, bulletins, and periodicals, inventing thousands of new words. The Hebrew Language Committee continued to function until 1953, when it was succeeded by the Academy of the Hebrew Language.
A Hebrew boys' school opened in Jaffa in 1893, followed by a Hebrew girls' school. Although some subjects were taught in French, Hebrew was the primary language of instruction. Over the next decade, the girls' school became a major center of Hebrew education and activism. In 1898, the first Hebrew kindergarten opened in Rishon LeZion. It was followed by a second one in Jerusalem in 1903.
In 1903, the Union of Hebrew Teachers was founded, and sixty educators participated in its inaugural assembly. Though not extremely impressive from a quantitative viewpoint, the Hebrew school program did create a nucleus of a few hundred fluent Hebrew speakers and proved that Hebrew could be used in the day-to-day context. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revival_of_the_Hebrew_language |
Palestinian nationalism | Zachary J. Foster argued in a 2015 Foreign Affairs article that "based on hundreds of manuscripts, Islamic court records, books, magazines, and newspapers from the Ottoman period (1516–1918), it seems that the first Arab to use the term 'Palestinian' was Farid Georges Kassab, a Beirut-based Orthodox Christian." He explained further that Kassab’s 1909 book Palestine, Hellenism, and Clericalism noted in passing that "the Orthodox Palestinian Ottomans call themselves Arabs, and are in fact Arabs", despite describing the Arabic speakers of Palestine as Palestinians throughout the rest of the book." The Palestinian Arab Christian Falastin newspaper had addressed its readers as Palestinians since its inception in 1911 during the Ottoman period.
Foster later revised his view in a 2016 piece published in Palestine Square, arguing that already in 1898 Khalil Beidas used the term "Palestinian" to describe the region's Arab inhabitants in the preface to a book he translated from Russian to Arabic. In the book, Akim Olesnitsky's A Description of the Holy Land, Beidas explained that the summer agricultural work in Palestine began in May with the wheat and barley harvest. After enduring the entire summer with no rain at all—leaving the water cisterns depleted and the rivers and springs dry—"the Palestinian peasant waits impatiently for winter to come, for the season's rain to moisten his fossilized fields." Foster explained that this is the first instance in modern history where the term 'Palestinian' or 'Filastini' appears in Arabic. He added, though, that the term Palestinian had already been used decades earlier in Western languages by the 1846–1863 British Consul in Jerusalem, James Finn; the German Lutheran missionary Johann Ludwig Schneller (1820–1896), founder of the Syrian Orphanage; and the American James Wells.
In his 1997 book, Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness, historian Rashid Khalidi notes that the archaeological strata that denote the history of Palestine—encompassing the Biblical, Roman, Byzantine, Umayyad, Fatimid, Crusader, Ayyubid, Mamluk and Ottoman periods—form part of the identity of the modern-day Palestinian people, as they have come to understand it over the last century, but derides the efforts of some Palestinian nationalists to attempt to "anachronistically" read back into history a nationalist consciousness that is in fact "relatively modern." Khalidi stresses that Palestinian identity has never been an exclusive one, with "Arabism, religion, and local loyalties" playing an important role. He argues that the modern national identity of Palestinians has its roots in nationalist discourses that emerged among the peoples of the Ottoman Empire in the late 19th century which sharpened following the demarcation of modern nation-state boundaries in the Middle East after World War I. He acknowledges that Zionism played a role in shaping this identity, though "it is a serious mistake to suggest that Palestinian identity emerged mainly as a response to Zionism." Khalidi describes the Arab population of British Mandatory Palestine as having "overlapping identities", with some or many expressing loyalties to villages, regions, a projected nation of Palestine, an alternative of inclusion in a Greater Syria, an Arab national project, as well as to Islam. He writes that, "local patriotism could not yet be described as nation-state nationalism."
Israeli historian Haim Gerber, a professor of Islamic History at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, traces Arab nationalism back to a 17th-century religious leader, Mufti Khayr al-Din al-Ramli (1585–1671) who lived in Ramla. He claims that Khayr al-Din al-Ramli's religious edicts (fatwa, plural fatawa), collected into final form in 1670 under the name al-Fatawa al-Khayriyah, attest to territorial awareness: "These fatawa are a contemporary record of the time, and also give a complex view of agrarian relations." The 1670 collection mentions the concepts Filastin, biladuna (our country), al-Sham (Syria), Misr (Egypt), and diyar (country), in senses that appear to go beyond objective geography. Gerber describes this as "embryonic territorial awareness, though the reference is to social awareness rather than to a political one."
Baruch Kimmerling and Joel Migdal consider the 1834 Arab revolt in Palestine as the first formative event of the Palestinian people, whereas Benny Morris attests that the Arabs in Palestine remained part of a larger Pan-Islamist or Pan-Arab national movement.
In his book The Israel–Palestine Conflict: One Hundred Years of War, James L. Gelvin states that "Palestinian nationalism emerged during the interwar period in response to Zionist immigration and settlement." However, this does not make Palestinian identity any less legitimate: "The fact that Palestinian nationalism developed later than Zionism and indeed in response to it does not in any way diminish the legitimacy of Palestinian nationalism or make it less valid than Zionism. All nationalisms arise in opposition to some "other." Why else would there be the need to specify who you are? And all nationalisms are defined by what they oppose."
Bernard Lewis argues it was not as a Palestinian nation that the Palestinian Arabs of the Ottoman Empire objected to Zionists, since the very concept of such a nation was unknown to the Arabs of the area at the time and did not come into being until later. Even the concept of Arab nationalism in the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire "had not reached significant proportions before the outbreak of World War I."
Daniel Pipes asserts that "No 'Palestinian Arab people' existed at the start of 1920 but by December it took shape in a form recognizably similar to today's." Pipes argues that with the carving of the British Mandate of Palestine out of Greater Syria, the Arabs of the new Mandate were forced to make the best they could of their situation, and therefore began to define themselves as Palestinian.
Benny Morris concurs, suggesting that the emergence of the Palestinian national identity can be traced through the successive postwar Palestine Arab Congresses. The First Congress, held in January 1919, resolved that "We see Palestine as part of Arab Syria," while the third, meeting in December 1920, called upon the British to establish a "native government," making no further mention of "Southern Syria." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_nationalism |
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749 Galilee earthquake | The historian Theophanes the Confessor (9th century) is one of the major sources for the 8th century. He lists two earthquakes that affected Palestine and the Levant in the mid-8th century. The first earthquake is dated to 18 January of the year 6238 of the Byzantine calendar (the year 747 in Anno Domini era). Theophanes reports that the earthquake affected Palestine by the Jordan River, and all of Syria. Churches and monasteries reportedly collapsed in the desert of the Holy City (Jerusalem).
Theophanes reports that a second earthquake took place in the year 6241 (749/750 in the Anno Domini system). He does not give an exact date for the event, but the earthquake narrative immediately follows Theophanes' entry on the birth of Leo IV the Khazar. Leo IV was a son of Constantine V and his birth is safely dated to 25 January, 750.
This second earthquake destroyed some cities in Syria, and damaged others. A number of cities reportedly slid down from mountainous positions to "low laying plains". The moving cities reportedly stopped at a distance of about 6 mi (9.7 km) from their original positions. Eyewitness accounts from Mesopotamia reported that the ground was split at a distance of 2 mi (3.2 km). From this new chasm emerged a different type of soil, "very white and sandy". The reports also spoke of a mule-like animal emerging from the chasm and speaking in a human voice.
The distances in Theophanes' account are scaled up. Otherwise this is a credible account of the earthquake causing landslides, surface rupture, and sand boils in a semi-arid area. Such events would be more common during the year's wet season. The only clearly fantastical element of the narrative is the talking animal.
Theophanes is thought to have used as his source a Melkite chronicle written c. 780 in Palestine, and later transported by monks who fled religious persecution in Palestine. Theophanes' information on Iraq and North Syria may have been based on local sources using the Seleucid era, but which had started their counting from the Spring of 311 BC, rather than the Fall of 312 BC. A resulting transcription error may explain why Theophanes dates his second earthquake to 750 rather than 749.
Nikephoros I of Constantinople (9th century) gives a nearly identical description of the 750 earthquake. The 747 earthquake is not described in the currently extant text of Theophanes, though this may be due to a lacuna in the relevant section of the manuscript.
The 747 earthquake is described in the Great Chronographer and the Minor Chronicles, while events connected to the 750 earthquake are depicted there among a series of "wondrous events" which followed the birth of Leo IV. Accounts of both earthquakes appear in other chronicles, such as those written by Paul the Deacon (8th century), Anastasius Bibliothecarius (9th century), and George Kedrenos (12th century).
Both earthquakes are absent in the chronicles of Eutychius of Alexandria (10th century), Michael Glykas (12th century), and Leo Grammaticus (13th century). George Hamartolos (9th century) repeated verbatim Theophanes' account of the 749/750 earthquake, and only commented on the oracle-like mule. Joannes Zonaras (14th century) dates the earthquake as having followed the fall of Germanikeia (modern Kahramanmaraş) at the hands of Constantine V. This siege event is dated to 745/746 by Theophanes. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/749_Galilee_earthquake |
British Empire | During the 1760s and early 1770s, relations between the Thirteen Colonies and Britain became increasingly strained, primarily because of resentment of the British Parliament's attempts to govern and tax American colonists without their consent. This was summarised at the time by the colonists' slogan "No taxation without representation", a perceived violation of the guaranteed Rights of Englishmen. The American Revolution began with a rejection of Parliamentary authority and moves towards self-government. In response, Britain sent troops to reimpose direct rule, leading to the outbreak of war in 1775. The following year, in 1776, the Second Continental Congress issued the Declaration of Independence proclaiming the colonies' sovereignty from the British Empire as the new United States of America. The entry of French and Spanish forces into the war tipped the military balance in the Americans' favour and after a decisive defeat at Yorktown in 1781, Britain began negotiating peace terms. American independence was acknowledged at the Peace of Paris in 1783.
The loss of such a large portion of British America, at the time Britain's most populous overseas possession, is seen by some historians as the event defining the transition between the "first" and "second" empires, in which Britain shifted its attention away from the Americas to Asia, the Pacific and later Africa. Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, published in 1776, had argued that colonies were redundant, and that free trade should replace the old mercantilist policies that had characterised the first period of colonial expansion, dating back to the protectionism of Spain and Portugal. The growth of trade between the newly independent United States and Britain after 1783 seemed to confirm Smith's view that political control was not necessary for economic success.
The war to the south influenced British policy in Canada, where between 40,000 and 100,000 defeated Loyalists had migrated from the new United States following independence. The 14,000 Loyalists who went to the Saint John and Saint Croix river valleys, then part of Nova Scotia, felt too far removed from the provincial government in Halifax, so London split off New Brunswick as a separate colony in 1784. The Constitutional Act of 1791 created the provinces of Upper Canada (mainly English speaking) and Lower Canada (mainly French-speaking) to defuse tensions between the French and British communities, and implemented governmental systems similar to those employed in Britain, with the intention of asserting imperial authority and not allowing the sort of popular control of government that was perceived to have led to the American Revolution.
Tensions between Britain and the United States escalated again during the Napoleonic Wars, as Britain tried to cut off American trade with France and boarded American ships to impress men into the Royal Navy. The United States Congress declared war, the War of 1812, and invaded Canadian territory. In response, Britain invaded the US, but the pre-war boundaries were reaffirmed by the 1814 Treaty of Ghent, ensuring Canada's future would be separate from that of the United States. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Empire |
Baal | Baʿal Berith ("Lord of the Covenant") was a god worshipped by the Israelites when they "went astray" after the death of Gideon according to the Hebrew Scriptures. The same source relates that Gideon's son Abimelech went to his mother's kin at Shechem and received 70 shekels of silver "from the House of Baʿal Berith" to assist in killing his 70 brothers from Gideon's other wives. An earlier passage had made Shechem the scene of Joshua's covenant between all the tribes of Israel and "El Yahweh, our god of Israel" and a later one describes it as the location of the "House of El Berith". It is thus unclear whether the false worship of the "Baʿalim" being decried is the worship of a new idol or rites and teachings placing Yahweh as a mere local god within a larger pantheon. The Hebrew Scriptures record the worship of Baʿal threatening Israel from the time of the Judges until the monarchy. However, during the period of Judges such worship seems to have been an occasional deviation from a deeper and more constant worship of Yahweh:
Throughout all the stories of Judges the popular faith in YHWH runs as a powerful current. This faith raises the judges, and inspires poets, prophets, and Nazirites. ... Worship of Baals and Ashtoreths has been schematically interspersed between these chapters, but no trace of a vital, popular belief in any foreign gods can be detected in the stories themselves. Baal prophets appeared in Israel centuries later; but during the age of the judges when Israel is supposed to have been most deeply affected by the religion of Canaan, there are no Baal priests or prophets, nor any other intimation of a vital effect of polytheism in Israel’s life.
The Deuteronomist and the present form of Jeremiah seem to phrase the struggle as monolatry or monotheism against polytheism. Yahweh is frequently identified in the Hebrew scriptures with El Elyon, however, this was after a conflation with El in a process of religious syncretism. ’El (Hebrew: אל) became a generic term meaning "god", as opposed to the name of a worshipped deity, and epithets such as El Shaddai came to be applied to Yahweh alone, while Baal's nature as a storm and weather god became assimilated into Yahweh's own identification with the storm. In the next stage the Yahwistic religion separated itself from its Canaanite heritage, first by rejecting Baal-worship in the 9th century, then through the 8th to 6th centuries with prophetic condemnation of Baal, sun-worship, worship on the "high places", practices pertaining to the dead, and other matters. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baal |
Al-Amir bi-Ahkam Allah | On 7 October 1130, al-Amir was assassinated by Nizari agents. He left only his six-month-old son, al-Tayyib, to succeed him, with no designated regent or serving vizier. Al-Amir's murder not only undid his attempts to once again concentrate power in the caliph's hands instead of over-mighty generals and ministers, but also, given the fragility of succession, endangered the very survival of the Fatimid dynasty.
Al-Tayyib was quickly sidelined, and his fate is unknown; modern historians speculate that he died in infancy or was killed. A new regime was installed under the regency of al-Amir's cousin, Abd al-Majid, which at first claimed to rule in the name of an unborn son by one of al-Amir's concubines. Within a fortnight, an army mutiny brought al-Afdal's last surviving son, Kutayfat, to power. Kutayfat abolished the Fatimid imamate and imprisoned Abd al-Majid, but was himself assassinated by Fatimid loyalists in December 1131. With no other heir available, Abd al-Majid took over as imam and caliph with the regnal name al-Hafiz li-Din Allah in January 1132, proclaiming that he had secretly received the designation by al-Amir before he had died.
Al-Hafiz' succession broke a continuous line of father-to-son succession of ten generations, something extremely rare in the Islamic world and much remarked upon by medieval authors. Al-Hafiz' accession thus represented an unprecedented departure from the accepted norm, and caused yet another schism in Isma'ilism, as the Musta'li sect was divided into those who accepted al-Hafiz's succession (the "Hafizis") and those who did not, upholding instead the imamate of the vanished al-Tayyib (the "Tayyibis"). The Hafizis were mostly concentrated in the Fatimid-controlled territories in Egypt, Nubia, and the Levant, while the Tayyibis resided in the Yemen, where Queen Arwa took up a leading role in forming a separate Tayyibi da'wa that survives to the present day.
The Tayyibis hold that al-Tayyib was entrusted by al-Amir to a certain Ibn Madyan, and that Ibn Madyan and his helpers hid the infant when Kutayfat came to power. Ibn Madyan was killed by Kutayfat, but his brother-in-law escaped with al-Tayyib, who went into concealment. Al-Tayyib is held to have died while still in concealment, and his offspring have continued as hidden imams to the present day. The public leadership of the Tayyibi community was instead assumed by a succession of 'absolute missionaries' (da'i al-mutlaq). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Amir_bi-Ahkam_Allah |
Lebanon | In 1516, Lebanon became part of the Ottoman Empire, with governance administered indirectly through local emirs. Lebanon's area was organized into provinces: Northern and Southern Mount Lebanon, Tripoli, Baalbek and Beqaa Valley, and Jabal Amil.
In 1590, Druze tribal leader Fakhr al-Din II succeeded Korkmaz in southern Mount Lebanon and quickly asserted his authority as the paramount emir of the Druze in the Shouf region. Eventually, he was appointed Sanjak-bey, overseeing various Ottoman sub-provinces and tax collection. Expanding his influence extensively, he even constructed a fort in Palmyra. However, this expansion raised concerns for Ottoman Sultan Murad IV, leading to a punitive expedition in 1633. Fakhr al-Din II was captured, imprisoned for two years, and subsequently executed in April 1635, along with one of his sons. Surviving members of his family continued to govern a reduced area under closer Ottoman supervision until the late 17th century. On the death of the last Maan emir, various members of the Shihab clan ruled Mount Lebanon until 1830.
While the history of Druze-Christian relations in Lebanon has generally been marked by harmony and peaceful coexistence, there were occasional periods of tension, notably during the 1860 Mount Lebanon civil war, during which around 10,000 Christians were killed by the Druze. Shortly afterwards, the Emirate of Mount Lebanon, which lasted about 400 years, was replaced by the Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate, as a result of a European-Ottoman treaty called the Règlement Organique. The Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate (1861–1918, Arabic: متصرفية جبل لبنان; Turkish: Cebel-i Lübnan Mutasarrıflığı) was one of the Ottoman Empire's subdivisions following the Tanzimat reform. After 1861 there existed an autonomous Mount Lebanon with a Christian mutasarrıf, which had been created as a homeland for the Maronites under European diplomatic pressure following the 1860 massacres. The Maronite Catholics and the Druze founded modern Lebanon in the early eighteenth century, through the ruling and social system known as the "Maronite-Druze dualism" in Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate.
The Baalbek and Beqaa Valley and Jabal Amel was ruled intermittently by various Shia feudal families, especially the Al Ali Alsagheer in Jabal Amel that remained in power until 1865 when Ottomans took direct ruling of the region. Youssef Bey Karam, a Lebanese nationalist played an influential role in Lebanon's independence during this era.
Lebanon experienced profound devastation in the First World War when the Ottoman army assumed direct control, disrupting supplies and confiscating animals, ultimately leading to a severe famine. During the war, approximately 100,000 people in Beirut and Mount Lebanon died due to starvation. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebanon |
Hasmonean dynasty | The author of the First Book of Maccabees regarded the Maccabean revolt as a rising of pious Jews against the Seleucid king who had tried to eradicate their religion and against the Jews who supported him. The author of the Second Book of Maccabees presented the conflict as a struggle between "Judaism" and "Hellenism", words that he was the first to use. Modern scholarship tends to the second view.
Most modern scholars argue that the king was intervening in a civil war between traditionalist Jews in the countryside and Hellenised Jews in Jerusalem. According to Joseph P. Schultz, modern scholarship, "considers the Maccabean revolt less as an uprising against foreign oppression than as a civil war between the orthodox and reformist parties in the Jewish camp." In the conflict over the office of High Priest, traditionalists with Hebrew/Aramaic names like Onias contested against Hellenisers with Greek names like Jason or Menelaus. Other authors point to social and economic factors in the conflict. What began as a civil war took on the character of an invasion when the Hellenistic kingdom of Syria sided with the Hellenising Jews against the traditionalists. As the conflict escalated, Antiochus prohibited the practices of the traditionalists, thereby, in a departure from usual Seleucid practice, banning the religion of an entire people. Other scholars argue that while the rising began as a religious rebellion, it was gradually transformed into a war of national liberation.
The two greatest twentieth-century scholars of the Maccabean revolt, Elias Bickermann and Victor Tcherikover, each placed the blame on the policies of the Jewish leaders and not on the Seleucid ruler, Antiochus IV Epiphanes, but for different reasons.Bickermann saw the origin of the problem in the attempt of "Hellenised" Jews to reform the "antiquated" and "outdated" religion practised in Jerusalem, and to rid it of superstitious elements. They were the ones who egged on Antiochus IV and instituted the religious reform in Jerusalem. One suspects that [Bickermann] may have been influenced in his view by an antipathy to Reform Judaism in 19th- and 20th-century Germany. Tcherikover, perhaps influenced by socialist concerns, saw the uprising as one of the rural peasants against the rich elite.
According to I and II Maccabees, the priestly family of Mattathias (Mattitiyahu in Hebrew), which came to be known as the Maccabees, called the people forth to holy war against the Seleucids. Mattathias' sons Judas (Yehuda), Jonathan (Yonoson/Yonatan), and Simon (Shimon) began a military campaign, initially with disastrous results: one thousand Jewish men, women, and children were killed by Seleucid troops because they refused to fight, even in self-defence, on the Sabbath. Other Jews then reasoned that they must fight when attacked, even on the Sabbath. The institution of guerrilla warfare practices by Judah over several years led to victory against the Seleucids:
It was now, in the fall of 165, that Judah's successes began to disturb the central government. He appears to have controlled the road from Jaffa to Jerusalem, and thus to have cut off the royal party in Acra from direct communication with the sea and thus with the government. It is significant that this time the Syrian troops, under the leadership of the governor-general Lysias, took the southerly route, by way of Idumea.
Towards the end of 164, Judah felt strong enough to enter Jerusalem and the formal religious worship of Yahweh was re-established. The feast of Hanukkah was instituted to commemorate the recovery of the temple. Antiochus, who was away on a campaign against the Parthians, died at about the same time in Persis. Antiochus was succeeded by Demetrius I Soter, the nephew whose throne he had usurped. Demetrius sent the general Bacchides to Israel with a large army, in order to install Alcimus with the office of high priest. Bacchides subdued Jerusalem and returned to his King. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hasmonean_dynasty |
Umayyad Caliphate | During the pre-Islamic period, the Umayyads or Banu Umayya were a leading clan of the Quraysh tribe of Mecca. By the end of the 6th century, the Umayyads dominated the Quraysh's increasingly prosperous trade networks with Syria and developed economic and military alliances with the nomadic Arab tribes that controlled the northern and central Arabian desert expanses, affording the clan a degree of political power in the region. The Umayyads under the leadership of Abu Sufyan ibn Harb were the principal leaders of Meccan opposition to the Islamic prophet Muhammad, but after the latter captured Mecca in 630, Abu Sufyan and the Quraysh embraced Islam. To reconcile his influential Qurayshite tribesmen, Muhammad gave his former opponents, including Abu Sufyan, a stake in the new order. Abu Sufyan and the Umayyads relocated to Medina, Islam's political centre, to maintain their new-found political influence in the nascent Muslim community.
Muhammad's death in 632 left open the succession of leadership of the Muslim community. Leaders of the Ansar, the natives of Medina who had provided Muhammad safe haven after his emigration from Mecca in 622, discussed forwarding their own candidate out of concern that the Muhajirun, Muhammad's early followers and fellow emigrants from Mecca, would ally with their fellow tribesmen from the former Qurayshite elite and take control of the Muslim state. The Muhajirun gave allegiance to one of their own, the early, elderly companion of Muhammad, Abu Bakr (r. 632–634), and put an end to Ansarite deliberations. Abu Bakr was viewed as acceptable by the Ansar and the Qurayshite elite and was acknowledged as caliph (leader of the Muslim community). He showed favor to the Umayyads by awarding them command roles in the Muslim conquest of Syria. One of the appointees was Yazid, the son of Abu Sufyan, who owned property and maintained trade networks in Syria.
Abu Bakr's successor Umar (r. 634–644) curtailed the influence of the Qurayshite elite in favor of Muhammad's earlier supporters in the administration and military, but nonetheless allowed the growing foothold of Abu Sufyan's sons in Syria, which was all but conquered by 638. When Umar's overall commander of the province Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah died in 639, he appointed Yazid governor of Syria's Damascus, Palestine and Jordan districts. Yazid died shortly after and Umar appointed his brother Mu'awiya in his place. Umar's exceptional treatment of Abu Sufyan's sons may have stemmed from his respect for the family, their burgeoning alliance with the powerful Banu Kalb tribe as a counterbalance to the influential Himyarite settlers in Homs who viewed themselves as equals to the Quraysh in nobility, or the lack of a suitable candidate at the time, particularly amid the plague of Amwas which had already killed Abu Ubayda and Yazid. Under Mu'awiya's stewardship, Syria remained domestically peaceful, organized and well-defended from its former Byzantine rulers. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umayyad_Caliphate |
Arabic nouns and adjectives | In the colloquial spoken varieties of Arabic, much of the inflectional and derivational grammar of Classical Arabic nouns and adjectives is unchanged. The colloquial varieties have all been affected by a change that deleted most final short vowels (also final short vowels followed by a nunation suffix -n), and shortened final long vowels.
Loss of case
The largest change is the total lack of any grammatical case in the colloquial variants. When case endings were indicated by short vowels, these are simply deleted. Otherwise, the pausal form of the original oblique case has been usually generalized to all cases (however, in "long construct" nouns, it is nominative -ū that has been generalized). The original nunation ending indicating the indefinite state is also lost in most varieties, and where it persists it has different functions (e.g. in conjunction with a modifier such as an adjective or relative clause). The distinction between triptote and diptote has vanished, as has the distinction between defective -an and invariable -ā, which are both rendered by -a (shortened from -ā); similarly, defective -in nouns now have an ending -i, shortened from pausal/definite -ī.
Even in Classical Arabic, grammatical case appears not to have been completely integrated into the grammar. The word order was largely fixed — contrary to the usual freedom of word order in languages with case marking (e.g. Latin, Russian) — and there are few cases in the Koran where omission of case endings would entail significant ambiguity of meaning. As a result, the loss of case entailed relatively little change in the grammar as a whole. In Modern Standard Arabic, case functions almost entirely as an afterthought: Most case endings are not pronounced at all, and even when the correct use of case endings is necessary (e.g. in formal, prepared speeches), the text is composed without consideration of case and later annotated with the correct endings.
Despite the loss of case, the original indefinite accusative ending -an survives in its adverbial usage.
Restriction of the dual number
The dual number is lost except on nouns, and even then its use is no longer functionally obligatory (i.e. the plural may also be used when referring to two objects, if the duality of the objects is not being emphasized). In addition, many varieties have two morphologically separate endings inherited from the Classical dual, one used with dual semantics and the other used for certain objects that normally come in pairs (e.g. eyes, ears) but with plural semantics. (It is sometimes suggested that only the latter variety was actually directly inherited, whereas the former variety was a late borrowing from the Classical language.) In some varieties (e.g. Moroccan Arabic), the former, semantic dual has nearly disappeared, and is used only with a limited number of nouns, especially those referring to cardinal numbers and units of measurement.
Changes to elative adjectives
Elative adjectives (those adjectives having a comparative and superlative meaning) are no longer inflected; instead, the masculine singular serves for all genders and numbers. Note that the most common way of saying e.g. "the largest boy" is أَكْبَر وَلَد ʼakbar walad, with the adjective in the construct state (rather than expected اَلْوَلَدُ ٱلْأَكْبَرُ *al-waladu l-ʼakbaru, with the adjective in its normal position after the noun and agreeing with it in state).
Preservation of remainder of system
Other than the above changes, the system is largely stable. The same system of two genders, sound and broken plurals, and the use of multiple stems to complete the declension of some nouns and adjectives still exists, and is little changed in its particulars.
The singular of feminine nouns is normally marked in -a. Former -in nouns are marked in -i, while former -an and -ā nouns are marked in -a, causing a formal merger in the singular with the feminine (but nouns that were masculine generally remain that way). The former "long feminine" marked with pausal -āh normally is marked with -āt in all circumstances (even outside of the construct state). Sound masculine plurals are marked with -īn, and sound feminine plurals with -āt; duals often use -ēn (< -ayn, still preserved in the occasional variety that has not undergone the changes ay > ē, aw > ō).
The system of three states also still exists. With loss of final -n, the difference between definite and indefinite simply comes down to presence or absence of the article al-. The construct state is distinguished by lack of al-, and in feminines in -a by a separate ending -at (or -it). The "older dual" (used for the plural of certain body parts, e.g. eyes and ears), which is often -ēn (< -ayn), has a separate construct form -ē (which becomes -ayya in combination with clitic suffix -ya "my"). Other duals, as well as sound plurals, do not normally have a construct state, but instead use an analytical genitive construction, using a particle with a meaning of "of" but whose form differs greatly from variant to variant, and which is used in a grammatical construction that exactly parallels the analytical genitive in English constructions such as "the father of the teacher". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_nouns_and_adjectives |
Slavery | Slavery was widespread in Africa, which pursued both internal and external slave trade. In the Senegambia region, between 1300 and 1900, close to one-third of the population was enslaved. In early Islamic states of the western Sahel, including Ghana, Mali, Segou, and Songhai, about a third of the population were enslaved.
In European courtly society, and European aristocracy, black African slaves and their children became visible in the late 1300s and 1400s. Starting with Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, black Africans were included in the retinue. In 1402 an Ethiopian embassy reached Venice. In the 1470s black Africans were painted as court attendants in wall paintings that were displayed in Mantua and Ferrara. In the 1490s black Africans were included on the emblem of the Duke of Milan.
During the trans-Saharan slave trade, slaves from West Africa were transported across the Sahara desert to North Africa to be sold to Mediterranean and Middle eastern civilizations. During the Red Sea slave trade, slaves were transported from Africa across the Red Sea to the Arabian Peninsula. The Indian Ocean slave trade, sometimes known as the east African slave trade, was multi-directional. Africans were sent as slaves to the Arabian Peninsula, to Indian Ocean islands (including Madagascar), to the Indian subcontinent, and later to the Americas. These traders captured Bantu peoples (Zanj) from the interior in present-day Kenya, Mozambique and Tanzania and brought them to the coast. There, the slaves gradually assimilated in rural areas, particularly on Unguja and Pemba islands.
Some historians assert that as many as 17 million people were sold into slavery on the coast of the Indian Ocean, the Middle East, and North Africa, and approximately 5 million African slaves were bought by Muslim slave traders and taken from Africa across the Red Sea, Indian Ocean, and Sahara Desert between 1500 and 1900. The captives were sold throughout the Middle East. This trade accelerated as superior ships led to more trade and greater demand for labour on plantations in the region. Eventually, tens of thousands of captives were being taken every year. The Indian Ocean slave trade was multi-directional and changed over time. To meet the demand for menial labour, Bantu slaves bought by east African slave traders from southeastern Africa were sold in cumulatively large numbers over the centuries to customers in Egypt, Arabia, the Persian Gulf, India, European colonies in the Far East, the Indian Ocean islands, Ethiopia and Somalia.
According to the Encyclopedia of African History, "It is estimated that by the 1890s the largest slave population of the world, about 2 million people, was concentrated in the territories of the Sokoto Caliphate. The use of slave labour was extensive, especially in agriculture." The Anti-Slavery Society estimated there were 2 million slaves in Ethiopia in the early 1930s out of an estimated population of 8 to 16 million.
Slave labour in East Africa was drawn from the Zanj, Bantu peoples that lived along the East African coast. The Zanj were for centuries shipped as slaves by Arab traders to all the countries bordering the Indian Ocean during the Indian Ocean slave trade. The Umayyad and Abbasid caliphs recruited many Zanj slaves as soldiers and, as early as 696, there were slave revolts of the Zanj against their Arab enslavers during their slavery in the Umayyad Caliphate in Iraq. The Zanj Rebellion, a series of uprisings that took place between 869 and 883 near Basra (also known as Basara), against the slavery in the Abbasid Caliphate situated in present-day Iraq, is believed to have involved enslaved Zanj that had originally been captured from the African Great Lakes region and areas further south in East Africa. It grew to involve over 500,000 slaves and free men who were imported from across the Muslim empire and claimed over "tens of thousands of lives in lower Iraq".
The Zanj who were taken as slaves to the Middle East were often used in strenuous agricultural work. As the plantation economy boomed and the Arabs became richer, agriculture and other manual labour work was thought to be demeaning. The resulting labour shortage led to an increased slave market.
In Algiers, the capital of Algeria, captured Christians and Europeans were forced into slavery. In about 1650, there were as many as 35,000 Christian slaves in Algiers. By one estimate, raids by Barbary slave traders on coastal villages and ships extending from Italy to Iceland, enslaved an estimated 1 to 1.25 million Europeans between the 16th and 19th centuries. However, this estimate is the result of an extrapolation which assumes that the number of European slaves captured by Barbary pirates was constant for a 250-year period:
There are no records of how many men, women and children were enslaved, but it is possible to calculate roughly the number of fresh captives that would have been needed to keep populations steady and replace those slaves who died, escaped, were ransomed, or converted to Islam. On this basis it is thought that around 8,500 new slaves were needed annually to replenish numbers – about 850,000 captives over the century from 1580 to 1680. By extension, for the 250 years between 1530 and 1780, the figure could easily have been as high as 1,250,000.
Davis' numbers have been refuted by other historians, such as David Earle, who cautions that true picture of Europeans slaves is clouded by the fact the corsairs also seized non-Christian whites from eastern Europe. In addition, the number of slaves traded was hyperactive, with exaggerated estimates relying on peak years to calculate averages for entire centuries, or millennia. Hence, there were wide fluctuations year-to-year, particularly in the 18th and 19th centuries, given slave imports, and also given the fact that, prior to the 1840s, there are no consistent records. Middle East expert, John Wright, cautions that modern estimates are based on back-calculations from human observation. Such observations, across the late 16th and early 17th century observers, account for around 35,000 European Christian slaves held throughout this period on the Barbary Coast, across Tripoli, Tunis, but mostly in Algiers. The majority were sailors (particularly those who were English), taken with their ships, but others were fishermen and coastal villagers. However, most of these captives were people from lands close to Africa, particularly Spain and Italy. This eventually led to the bombardment of Algiers by an Anglo-Dutch fleet in 1816.
Under Omani Arabs, Zanzibar became East Africa's main slave port, with as many as 50,000 African slaves passing through every year during the 19th century. Some historians estimate that between 11 and 18 million African slaves crossed the Red Sea, Indian Ocean, and Sahara Desert from 650 to 1900 AD. Eduard Rüppell described the losses of Sudanese slaves being transported on foot to Egypt: "after the Daftardar bey's 1822 campaign in the southern Nuba mountains, nearly 40,000 slaves were captured. However, through bad treatment, disease and desert travel barely 5,000 made it to Egypt." W.A. Veenhoven wrote: "The German doctor, Gustav Nachtigal, an eye-witness, believed that for every slave who arrived at a market three or four died on the way ... Keltie (The Partition of Africa, London, 1920) believes that for every slave the Arabs brought to the coast at least six died on the way or during the slavers' raid. Livingstone puts the figure as high as ten to one."
Systems of servitude and slavery were common in parts of Africa, as they were in much of the ancient world. In many African societies where slavery was prevalent, the slaves were not treated as chattel slaves and were given certain rights in a system similar to indentured servitude elsewhere in the world. The forms of slavery in Africa were closely related to kinship structures. In many African communities, where land could not be owned, enslavement of individuals was used as a means to increase the influence a person had and expand connections. This made slaves a permanent part of a master's lineage and the children of slaves could become closely connected with the larger family ties. Children of slaves born into families could be integrated into the master's kinship group and rise to prominent positions within society, even to the level of chief in some instances. However, stigma often remained attached and there could be strict separations between slave members of a kinship group and those related to the master. Slavery was practiced in many different forms: debt slavery, enslavement of war captives, military slavery, and criminal slavery were all practiced in various parts of Africa. Slavery for domestic and court purposes was widespread throughout Africa.
When the Atlantic slave trade began, many of the local slave systems began supplying captives for chattel slave markets outside Africa. Although the Atlantic slave trade was not the only slave trade from Africa, it was the largest in volume and intensity. As Elikia M'bokolo wrote in Le Monde diplomatique:
The African continent was bled of its human resources via all possible routes. Across the Sahara, through the Red Sea, from the Indian Ocean ports and across the Atlantic. At least ten centuries of slavery for the benefit of the Muslim countries (from the ninth to the nineteenth).... Four million enslaved people exported via the Red Sea, another four million through the Swahili ports of the Indian Ocean, perhaps as many as nine million along the trans-Saharan caravan route, and eleven to twenty million (depending on the author) across the Atlantic Ocean.
The trans-Atlantic slave trade peaked in the late 18th century, when the largest number of slaves were captured on raiding expeditions into the interior of West Africa.
These expeditions were typically carried out by African kingdoms, such as the Oyo Empire (Yoruba), the Ashanti Empire, the kingdom of Dahomey, and the Aro Confederacy. It is estimated that about 15 percent of slaves died during the voyage, with mortality rates considerably higher in Africa itself in the process of capturing and transporting indigenous peoples to the ships. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery |
Al-Khwarizmi | Al-Jabr (The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing, Arabic: الكتاب المختصر في حساب الجبر والمقابلة al-Kitāb al-mukhtaṣar fī ḥisāb al-jabr wal-muqābala) is a mathematical book written approximately 820 CE. It was written with the encouragement of Caliph al-Ma'mun as a popular work on calculation and is replete with examples and applications to a range of problems in trade, surveying and legal inheritance. The term "algebra" is derived from the name of one of the basic operations with equations (al-jabr, meaning "restoration", referring to adding a number to both sides of the equation to consolidate or cancel terms) described in this book. The book was translated in Latin as Liber algebrae et almucabala by Robert of Chester (Segovia, 1145) hence "algebra", and by Gerard of Cremona. A unique Arabic copy is kept at Oxford and was translated in 1831 by F. Rosen. A Latin translation is kept in Cambridge.
It provided an exhaustive account of solving polynomial equations up to the second degree, and discussed the fundamental method of "reduction" and "balancing", referring to the transposition of terms to the other side of an equation, that is, the cancellation of like terms on opposite sides of the equation.
Al-Khwārizmī's method of solving linear and quadratic equations worked by first reducing the equation to one of six standard forms (where b and c are positive integers)
squares equal roots (ax2 = bx)
squares equal number (ax2 = c)
roots equal number (bx = c)
squares and roots equal number (ax2 + bx = c)
squares and number equal roots (ax2 + c = bx)
roots and number equal squares (bx + c = ax2)
by dividing out the coefficient of the square and using the two operations al-jabr (Arabic: الجبر "restoring" or "completion") and al-muqābala ("balancing"). Al-jabr is the process of removing negative units, roots and squares from the equation by adding the same quantity to each side. For example, x2 = 40x − 4x2 is reduced to 5x2 = 40x. Al-muqābala is the process of bringing quantities of the same type to the same side of the equation. For example, x2 + 14 = x + 5 is reduced to x2 + 9 = x.
The above discussion uses modern mathematical notation for the types of problems that the book discusses. However, in al-Khwārizmī's day, most of this notation had not yet been invented, so he had to use ordinary text to present problems and their solutions. For
example, for one problem he writes, (from an 1831 translation)
If some one says: "You divide ten into two parts: multiply the one by itself; it will be equal to the other taken eighty-one times." Computation: You say, ten less a thing, multiplied by itself, is a hundred plus a square less twenty things, and this is equal to eighty-one things. Separate the twenty things from a hundred and a square, and add them to eighty-one. It will then be a hundred plus a square, which is equal to a hundred and one roots. Halve the roots; the moiety is fifty and a half. Multiply this by itself, it is two thousand five hundred and fifty and a quarter. Subtract from this one hundred; the remainder is two thousand four hundred and fifty and a quarter. Extract the root from this; it is forty-nine and a half. Subtract this from the moiety of the roots, which is fifty and a half. There remains one, and this is one of the two parts.
In modern notation this process, with x the "thing" (شيء shayʾ) or "root", is given by the steps,
(
10
−
x
)
2
=
81
x
{\displaystyle (10-x)^{2}=81x}
100
+
x
2
−
20
x
=
81
x
{\displaystyle 100+x^{2}-20x=81x}
x
2
+
100
=
101
x
{\displaystyle x^{2}+100=101x}
Let the roots of the equation be x = p and x = q. Then
p
+
q
2
=
50
1
2
{\displaystyle {\tfrac {p+q}{2}}=50{\tfrac {1}{2}}}
,
p
q
=
100
{\displaystyle pq=100}
and
p
−
q
2
=
(
p
+
q
2
)
2
−
p
q
=
2550
1
4
−
100
=
49
1
2
{\displaystyle {\frac {p-q}{2}}={\sqrt {\left({\frac {p+q}{2}}\right)^{2}-pq}}={\sqrt {2550{\tfrac {1}{4}}-100}}=49{\tfrac {1}{2}}}
So a root is given by
x
=
50
1
2
−
49
1
2
=
1
{\displaystyle x=50{\tfrac {1}{2}}-49{\tfrac {1}{2}}=1}
Several authors have published texts under the name of Kitāb al-jabr wal-muqābala, including Abū Ḥanīfa Dīnawarī, Abū Kāmil, Abū Muḥammad al-'Adlī, Abū Yūsuf al-Miṣṣīṣī, 'Abd al-Hamīd ibn Turk, Sind ibn 'Alī, Sahl ibn Bišr, and Sharaf al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī.
Solomon Gandz has described Al-Khwarizmi as the father of Algebra:
Al-Khwarizmi's algebra is regarded as the foundation and cornerstone of the sciences. In a sense, al-Khwarizmi is more entitled to be called "the father of algebra" than Diophantus because al-Khwarizmi is the first to teach algebra in an elementary form and for its own sake, Diophantus is primarily concerned with the theory of numbers.
Victor J. Katz adds :
The first true algebra text which is still extant is the work on al-jabr and al-muqabala by Mohammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi, written in Baghdad around 825.
John J. O'Connor and Edmund F. Robertson wrote in the MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive:
Perhaps one of the most significant advances made by Arabic mathematics began at this time with the work of al-Khwarizmi, namely the beginnings of algebra. It is important to understand just how significant this new idea was. It was a revolutionary move away from the Greek concept of mathematics which was essentially geometry. Algebra was a unifying theory which allowed rational numbers, irrational numbers, geometrical magnitudes, etc., to all be treated as "algebraic objects". It gave mathematics a whole new development path so much broader in concept to that which had existed before, and provided a vehicle for future development of the subject. Another important aspect of the introduction of algebraic ideas was that it allowed mathematics to be applied to itself in a way which had not happened before.
Roshdi Rashed and Angela Armstrong write:
Al-Khwarizmi's text can be seen to be distinct not only from the Babylonian tablets, but also from Diophantus' Arithmetica. It no longer concerns a series of problems to be solved, but an exposition which starts with primitive terms in which the combinations must give all possible prototypes for equations, which henceforward explicitly constitute the true object of study. On the other hand, the idea of an equation for its own sake appears from the beginning and, one could say, in a generic manner, insofar as it does not simply emerge in the course of solving a problem, but is specifically called on to define an infinite class of problems.
According to Swiss-American historian of mathematics, Florian Cajori, Al-Khwarizmi's algebra was different from the work of Indian mathematicians, for Indians had no rules like the restoration and reduction. Regarding the dissimilarity and significance of Al-Khwarizmi's algebraic work from that of Indian Mathematician Brahmagupta, Carl B. Boyer wrote: It is true that in two respects the work of al-Khowarizmi represented a retrogression from that of Diophantus. First, it is on a far more elementary level than that found in the Diophantine problems and, second, the algebra of al-Khowarizmi is thoroughly rhetorical, with none of the syncopation found in the Greek Arithmetica or in Brahmagupta's work. Even numbers were written out in words rather than symbols! It is quite unlikely that al-Khwarizmi knew of the work of Diophantus, but he must have been familiar with at least the astronomical and computational portions of Brahmagupta; yet neither al-Khwarizmi nor other Arabic scholars made use of syncopation or of negative numbers. Nevertheless, the Al-jabr comes closer to the elementary algebra of today than the works of either Diophantus or Brahmagupta, because the book is not concerned with difficult problems in indeterminant analysis but with a straight forward and elementary exposition of the solution of equations, especially that of second degree. The Arabs in general loved a good clear argument from premise to conclusion, as well as systematic organization – respects in which neither Diophantus nor the Hindus excelled. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Khwarizmi |
Darfur genocide | The United Nations issued a hybrid United Nations-African Union mission (UNAMID) to maintain peace in Darfur. It was established on 31 July 2007 with the adoption of Security Council resolution 1769. However, it formally took over on 31 December 2007. The Mission's headquarters is in El Fasher, North Darfur. It has sector headquarters in El Geneina (West Darfur), Nyala (South Darfur), Zalingei (Central Darfur) and Ed Daein (East Darfur). The Mission has 35 deployment locations throughout the five Darfur states.
The African Union (AU) and the United Nations (UN) produced a framework document for intensive diplomatic and political peacekeeping efforts. Sudan's acceptance of the African Union Hybrid Operation in Darfur derived from intensive negotiations by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and several actors in the international community. According to the UNAMID website, "the mandate is renewed yearly, and the adoption of Security Council Resolution 2296 extended it until 30 June 2017."
The peacekeeping mission is confronted with several challenges from security to logistical constraints. The troops that have been deployed operate in unforgiving, complex, and often hostile political environments. Also, the missions are faced with many shortages in equipment, infrastructure, transportation, and aviation assets. As the budget of UNAMID is $1,039,573.2 for the fiscal year 2016–2017.
Yet, with the limited resources and hostile environment, the troops still manage to provide protection to the locals in Darfur and assist the progress of the humanitarian aid operation. UNAMID contributes to promote peace, address the critical roots of the conflict and help end the violence considering "the mission carries out more than 100 patrols daily".
The peacekeepers facilitate cooperation and maintain peace by:
Protecting civilians without prejudice to the responsibility of the Government of Sudan.
Delivering humanitarian assistance by UN agencies and other aid actors and the safety and security of humanitarian personnel.
Intervening between the Government of Sudan and non-signatory movements.
Resolving community conflict through measures of addressing its root causes.
The mission had an authorized strength of 25,987 uniformed peacekeepers on 31 July 2007. The operation included 19,555 troops, 360 military observers and liaison officers, 3,772 police advisers and 2,660 formed police units (FPU).
In mid-2011, UNAMID stood at 90 percent of its full authorized strength, making it one of the largest UN peacekeeping operations. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darfur_genocide |
Timeline of the name Palestine | Writers during this period also used the term Palestine to refer to the entire region between Syria and Egypt, with numerous references to the Jewish areas within Palestine. It has been contended that some first century authors associated the term with the southern coastal region.
c. 30 BCE: Tibullus, Tibullus and Sulpicia: The Poems: "Why tell how the white dove sacred to the Syrians flies unharmed through the crowded cities of Palestine?"
c. 2 CE: Ovid, Ars Amatoria: "the seventh-day feast that the Syrian of Palestine observes."
c. 8 CE: Ovid, Metamorphoses: (1) "...Dercetis of Babylon, who, as the Palestinians believe, changed to a fish, all covered with scales, and swims in a pool" and (2) "There fell also Mendesian Celadon; Astreus, too, whose mother was a Palestinian, and his father unknown."
c. 17 CE: Ovid, Fasti (poem): "When Jupiter took up arms to defend the heavens, came to Euphrates with the little Cupid, and sat by the brink of the waters of Palestine."
c. 40 CE: Philo of Alexandria, (1) Every Good Man is Free: "Moreover Palestine and Syria too are not barren of exemplary wisdom and virtue, which countries no slight portion of that most populous nation of the Jews inhabits. There is a portion of those people called Essenes."; (2) On the Life of Moses: "[Moses] conducted his people as a colony into Phoenicia, and into the Coele-Syria, and Palestine, which was at that time called the land of the Canaanites, the borders of which country were three days' journey distant from Egypt."; (3) On Abraham: "The country of the Sodomites was a district of the land of Canaan, which the Syrians afterwards called Palestine."
c. 43 CE: Pomponius Mela, De situ orbis (Description of the World): "Syria holds a broad expanse of the littoral, as well as lands that extend rather broadly into the interior, and it is designated by different names in different places. For example, it is called Coele, Mesopotamia, Judaea, Commagene, and Sophene. It is Palestine at the point where Syria abuts the Arabs, then Phoenicia, and then—where it reaches Cilicia—Antiochia. [...] In Palestine, however, is Gaza, a mighty and well fortified city."
c. 78: Pliny the Elder, Natural History, Volume 1, Book V: Chapter 13: "Next to these countries Syria occupies the coast, once the greatest of lands, and distinguished by many names; for the part which joins up to Arabia was formerly called Palaestina, Judaea, Coele, and Phoenice. The country in the interior was called Damascena, and that further on and more to the south, Babylonia."; Chapter 14: "After this, at the point where the Serbonian Bog becomes visible, Idumea and Palaestina begin. This lake, which some writers have made to be 150 miles in circumference, Herodotus has placed at the foot of Mount Casius; it is now an inconsiderable fen. The towns are Rhinocorura and, in the interior, Rafah, Gaza, and, still more inland, Anthedon: there is also Mount Argaris"; Book XII, Chapter 40: "For these branches of commerce, they have opened the city of Carræ, which serves as an entrepot, and from which place they were formerly in the habit of proceeding to Gabba, at a distance of twenty days' journey, and thence to Palæstina, in Syria."
c. 80: Marcus Valerius Probus, Commentary on Georgics: "Edomite palms from Idumea, that is Judea, which is in the region of Syria Palestine."
c. 85: Silius Italicus, Punica: "While yet a youth, he [Titus] shall put an end to war with the fierce people of Palestine."
c. 90: Dio Chrysostom, quoted by Synesius, refers to the Dead Sea as being in the interior of Palestine, in the very vicinity of "Sodoma."
c. 94: Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews: "...these Antiquities contain what hath been delivered down to us from the original creation of man, until the twelfth year of the reign of Nero, as to what hath befallen us Jews, as well is Egypt as in Syria, and in Palestine."
c. 94: Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews: "...the children of Mesraim, being eight in number, possessed the country from Gaza to Egypt, though it retained the name of one only, the Philistim; for the Greeks call part of that country Palestine."
c. 94: Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews: "... Aram had the Aramites, which the Greeks called Syrians; as Laud founded the Laudites, which are now called Lydians. Of the four sons of Aram, Uz founded Trachonitis and Damascus: this country lies between Palestine and Coelesyria."
c. 97: Josephus, Against Apion: "Nor, indeed, was Herodotus of Halicarnassus unacquainted with our nation, but mentions it after a way of his own... This, therefore, is what Herodotus says, that "the Syrians that are in Palestine are circumcised." But there are no inhabitants of Palestine that are circumcised excepting the Jews; and, therefore, it must be his knowledge of them that enabled him to speak so much concerning them."
c. 100: Statius, Silvae, refers to "liquores Palestini" and "Isis, ...gently with thine own hand lead the peerless youth, on whom the Latian prince hath bestowed the standards of the East and the bridling of the cohorts of Palestine, (i.e., a command on the Syrian front) through festal gate and sacred haven and the cities of thy land."
c. 100: Plutarch, Parallel Lives: "Armenia, where Tigranes reigns, king of kings, and holds in his hands a power that has enabled him to keep the Parthians in narrow bounds, to remove Greek cities bodily into Media, to conquer Syria and Palestine, to put to death the kings of the royal line of Seleucus, and carry away their wives and daughters by violence." and "The triumph [of Pompey] was so great, that though it was divided into two days, the time was far from being sufficient for displaying what was prepared to be carried in procession; there remained still enough to adorn another triumph. At the head of the show appeared the titles of the conquered nations; Pontus Armenia, Cappadocia, Paphlagonia, Media, Colchis, the Iberians, the Albanians, Syria, Cilicia, Mesopotamia, Phoenicia, Palestine, Judea, Arabia, the pirates subdued both by sea and land."
c. 100: Achilles Tatius, Leucippe and Cleitophon and other love stories in eight books: "Your father did not return from his absence in Palestine until two days later; and he then found a letter had arrived from Leucippe's father—it had come the very day after our flight—betrothing his daughter to you." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_name_Palestine |
Morocco–United States relations | Since gaining independence from France on March 2, 1956, Morocco has been committed to nurturing a special relationship with the United States, based on both nations' historical ties and on a succession of personal friendships between Mohammed V, Hassan II, and now Mohammed VI and their American Presidential counterparts. Morocco has also played a critical role in explaining the larger role of Arab policy to the United States. This was particularly true under the reign of King Hassan II. The United States' continued support for Morocco was further driven by the former's interest in regional stability and the latter's phosphate reserves.
After Morocco gained independence, President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent a congratulatory message to King Mohammed V: “My Government renews its wishes for the peace and prosperity of Morocco, and has asked me to express its gratification that Morocco has freely chosen, as a sovereign nation, to continue in the path of its traditional friendships.”
In November 1957, King Mohammed V traveled to Washington to pay an official call on President Eisenhower. Two years later, Eisenhower's vice president, Richard Nixon, traveled to Rabat to meet with the King.
In 1961, King Hassan II, Mohammed V's successor, made the first of several diplomatic visits to the United States to confer with President John F. Kennedy. King Hassan II would later journey to Washington to meet Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and Bill Clinton.
During the Cold War, Morocco remained officially non-aligned. However, unlike most other Arab states, Morocco displayed pro-western sympathies. Indeed, one month after conducting joint military exercises with Morocco off the coast of Western Sahara in 1986, then-Secretary of Defense, Caspar Weinberger, visited Morocco to thank King Hassan II for his efforts in the Arab-Israeli peace process, and for seeking to mediate the United States' clash with Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi. In 1987 the Moroccan government agreed to the use of an old abandoned U.S. Strategic Air Command Base at Ben Guérir as a transoceanic abort landing site for NASA's space shuttles during emergencies. On the military side, Morocco signed agreements with the U.S. government allowing U.S. forces access and transit rights to Moroccan Air Force bases.
Moreover, Morocco was a major beneficiary of U.S. aid throughout the Cold War, receiving more than 400 million dollars in American aid between 1957 and 1963. In 1966, Morocco became the fifth-largest recipient of US agricultural assistance; the country had obtained more than $1 billion in military assistance and $1.3 billion in economic assistance by 1990, which amounted to more than one-fifth of the entire U.S. aid to all African countries during this period. In return, the Moroccan authorities signed a secret agreement permitting the United States to maintain powerful radio transmitters near Tangier, which served as communication and spying tools in the western Mediterranean. The CIA and the NSA acted with impunity from Hassan II's regime in return for their assistance.
President Clinton flew to Rabat in July 1999 to attend King Hassan II's funeral, and to meet the son who succeeded him, King Mohammed VI. Upon taking the throne, King Mohammed VI made it quite clear that he wanted to continue his nation's centuries-old friendship with the United States. In his first speech as King in 1999, King Mohammed VI reaffirmed his father's policy of defending the nation's territorial integrity and strengthening ties with African nations, friends in Europe, and the United States. One year later, King Mohammed VI made his first official visit to Washington.
The leading Moroccan foreign policy official in recent times has been Taieb Fassi-Fihri who originally served under Hassan II as Minister-Delegate for Foreign Affairs, later Minister of Foreign Affairs. Serving as adviser to King Mohammed VI after 2012, he overshadows the foreign minister, Mohammed Ben Aissa. Fassi-Fihri takes the lead on certain aspects of Moroccan foreign policy including relations with the United States. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morocco%E2%80%93United_States_relations |
Islamic marital practices | Malay wedding traditions (Malay: Adat Perkahwinan Melayu; Jawi script: عادة ڤركهوينن ملايو), such as those that occur in Brunei, Singapore, Malaysia, and parts of Indonesia and Thailand, normally include the lamaran or marriage proposal, the betrothal, the determination of the bridal dowry known as the hantaran agreed upon by both the parents’ of the groom and the bride (usually done one year before the solemnization of marriage), delivery of gifts and the dowry (istiadat hantar belanja), the marriage solemnization (upacara akad nikah) at the bride's home or in a mosque, the henna application ritual known as the berinai, the costume changing of the couple known as the tukar pakaian for photography sessions, followed by wedding reception, a feast-meal for guests (pesta pernikahan or resepsi pernikahan) usually took place in the weekend (Saturday or Sunday), and the bersanding or the sitting-in-state ceremony when the couple sit in elaborate pelaminan (wedding throne) at their own home, or in wedding hall during the wedding reception.
Prior to being able to meet his bride, sometimes a mak andam, a “beautician”, or any member of the family of the bride will intercept the groom to delay the joining of the would-be spouses; only after the groom was able to pay a satisfactory “entrance fee” could he finally meet his bride. The wedding ceremony proper is usually held on a weekend, and involves exchanging of gifts, Quranic readings and recitation, and displaying of the couple while within a bridal chamber. While seated at their pelaminan “wedding throne”, the newly-weds are showered with uncooked rice and petals, objects that signify fertility. The guests of the wedding celebration are typically provided by the couple with gifts known as the bunga telur (“egg flower”). The gifted eggs are traditionally eggs dyed with red coloring and are placed inside cups or other suitable containers bottomed with glutinous rice. These eggs also symbolize fertility, a marital wish hoping that the couple will bear many offspring. However, these traditional gifts are now sometimes replaced by non-traditional chocolates, jellies, or soaps.
The marriage contract that binds the marital union is called the Akad Nikah, a verbal agreement sealed by a financial sum known as the mas kahwin, and witnessed by three persons. Unlike in the past when the father of the bride customarily acts as the officiant for the ceremonial union, current-day Muslim weddings are now officiated by the kadhi, a marriage official and Shariat (or) Syariah Court religious officer. In Indonesia Muslim weddings are officiated and led by the penghulu, the official of Kantor Urusan Agama (KUA or Office of Religious Affairs). The Akad Nikah might be performed in the Office of Religious Affairs, or the penghulu is invited to a ceremonial place outside the Religious Affair Office (mosque, bride's house or wedding hall). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_marital_practices |
Headscarf | The Bible, in 1 Corinthians 11:4–13, instructs women to wear a head covering, while men are to pray and worship with their heads uncovered. In the early Church, Christian head-covering with an opaque cloth veil was universally taught by the Church Fathers and practiced by Christian women. The practice continues in many parts of the world, such as Romania, Russia, Ukraine, Ethiopia, India, Pakistan, and South Korea.
The Early Church Father John Chrysostom (c. 347 – 407) delineated Saint Paul's teaching, explaining that Paul said a man praying with a head covering "dishonoureth his head", while Christian women should always wear a cloth head covering. Paul compared a woman not wearing a veil to her being shaven, which Chrysostom stated is "always dishonourable".
The Church Fathers taught that because the hair of a woman has sexual potency, it should only be for her husband to see and covered the rest of the time. To some extent, the covering of the head depended on where the woman was, but it was usual outside and on formal occasions, especially when praying at home and worshipping in church. Certain styles of Christian head coverings were an indication of married status; the "matron's cap" is a general term for these.
Many Anabaptist Christian women (Amish/Para-Amish, Schwarzenau Brethren, Bruderhof, Hutterites, River Brethren, Apostolic Christians, Charity Christians and Mennonites) wear their headscarf at all times, except when sleeping; these head coverings are usually in the form of a hanging veil or kapp.
In countries with large Eastern Orthodox Christian population such as Romania or Russia headscarves and veils are used by Christian women in the Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodox Church, Assyrian Church of the East, and Roman Catholic Church. A few years back, all women in Russia who attended Divine Liturgy wore head-coverings. A woman having her head covered means that she honors the Lord. Head-coverings also symbolizes that a woman is married and that her husband is the head of the family. Little girls also have their heads covered when they go to Mass at church, not because they are married, but in order to honor the Lord. Today, young Russian Orthodox women and little girls still cover their heads when going to church, although it differs in style from those worn by women of older age (grandmothers).
The Roman Catholic Church required all women to wear a head covering over their hair in church until the 1980s; in Spain, these take the form of the mantilla. Women meeting the Pope in formal audiences are still expected to wear them. Martin Luther, the German Reformer, as well as John Calvin, a major figure in the Reformed Churches, also expected women to cover their heads in church, as did John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Churches.
In many rural areas, women, especially widows, continue to observe the traditional Christian custom of head-covering, especially in the Mediterranean, as well as in eastern and southern Europe; in South Asia, it is common for Christian women to wear a head covering called a dupatta. At times the styles of covering using simple cloth became very elaborate, with complicated layers and folding, held in place with hair pins. Among the many terms for head-coverings made of flexible cloth are wimple, hennin, kerchief, gable hood, as well as light hats, mob caps and bonnets.
Some English speakers use the word "babushka" (the word for "grandma" in Russian: ) to indicate a headscarf tied below the chin, as still commonly worn in rural parts of Europe. In many parts of Europe, headscarves are used mainly by elderly women, and this led to the use of the term "babushka", an East Slavic word meaning "grandmother". Some types of head coverings that Russian women wear are: circlet, veil, and wimple. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headscarf |
Mary, mother of Jesus | Despite Martin Luther's harsh polemics against his Roman Catholic opponents over issues concerning Mary and the saints, theologians appear to agree that Luther adhered to the Marian decrees of the ecumenical councils and dogmas of the church. He held fast to the belief that Mary was a perpetual virgin and Mother of God. Special attention is given to the assertion that Luther, some 300 years before the dogmatization of the Immaculate Conception by Pope Pius IX in 1854, was a firm adherent of that view. Others maintain that Luther in later years changed his position on the Immaculate Conception, which, at that time was undefined in the church, maintaining however the sinlessness of Mary throughout her life. For Luther, early in his life, the Assumption of Mary was an understood fact, although he later stated that the Bible did not say anything about it and stopped celebrating its feast. Important to him was the belief that Mary and the saints do live on after death. "Throughout his career as a priest-professor-reformer, Luther preached, taught, and argued about the veneration of Mary with a verbosity that ranged from childlike piety to sophisticated polemics. His views are intimately linked to his Christocentric theology and its consequences for liturgy and piety."
Luther, while revering Mary, came to criticize the "Papists" for blurring the line between high admiration of the grace of God wherever it is seen in a human being, and religious service given to another creature. He considered the Roman Catholic practice of celebrating saints' days and making intercessory requests addressed especially to Mary and other departed saints to be idolatry. His final thoughts on Marian devotion and veneration are preserved in a sermon preached at Wittenberg only a month before his death:
Therefore, when we preach faith, that we should worship nothing but God alone, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, as we say in the Creed: 'I believe in God the Father almighty and in Jesus Christ,' then we are remaining in the temple at Jerusalem. Again,'This is my beloved Son; listen to him.' 'You will find him in a manger'. He alone does it. But reason says the opposite:
What, us? Are we to worship only Christ? Indeed, shouldn't we also honor the holy mother of Christ? She is the woman who bruised the head of the serpent. Hear us, Mary, for thy Son so honors thee that he can refuse thee nothing. Here Bernard went too far in his Homilies on the Gospel: Missus est Angelus. God has commanded that we should honor the parents; therefore I will call upon Mary. She will intercede for me with the Son, and the Son with the Father, who will listen to the Son. So you have the picture of God as angry and Christ as judge; Mary shows to Christ her breast and Christ shows his wounds to the wrathful Father. That's the kind of thing this comely bride, the wisdom of reason cooks up: Mary is the mother of Christ, surely Christ will listen to her; Christ is a stern judge, therefore I will call upon St. George and St. Christopher. No, we have been by God's command baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, just as the Jews were circumcised.
Certain Lutheran churches such as the Anglo-Lutheran Catholic Church continue to venerate Mary and the saints in the same manner that Roman Catholics do, and hold all Marian dogmas as part of their faith. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary,_mother_of_Jesus |
Sasanian Empire | Christians in the Sasanian Empire belonged mainly to the Nestorian Church (Church of the East) and the Jacobite Church (Syriac Orthodox Church). Although these churches originally maintained ties with Christian churches in the Roman Empire, they were quite different from them: the liturgical language of the Nestorian and Jacobite Churches was Syriac rather than Greek. Another reason for a separation between Eastern and Western Christianity was strong pressure from the Sasanian authorities to sever connections with Rome, since the Sasanian Empire was often at war with the Roman Empire.
Christianity was recognized by Yazdegerd I in 409 as an allowable faith within the Sasanian Empire.
The major break with mainstream Christianity came in 431, due to the pronouncements of the First Council of Ephesus. The Council condemned Nestorius, the patriarch of Constantinople, for teaching a view of Christology in accordance with which he refused to call Mary, mother of Jesus, "Theotokos" or Mother of God. While the teaching of the Council of Ephesus was accepted within the Roman Empire, the Sasanian church disagreed with the condemnation of Nestorius' teachings. When Nestorius was deposed as patriarch, a number of his followers fled to the Sasanian Empire. Persian emperors used this opportunity to strengthen Nestorius' position within the Sasanian church (which made up the vast majority of the Christians in the predominantly Zoroastrian Persian Empire) by eliminating the most important pro-Roman clergymen in Persia and making sure that their places were taken by Nestorians. This was to assure that these Christians would be loyal to the Persian Empire, and not to the Roman.
Most of the Christians in the Sasanian empire lived on the western edge of the empire, predominantly in Mesopotamia, but there were also important extant communities in the more northern territories, namely Caucasian Albania, Lazica, Iberia, and the Persian part of Armenia. Other important communities were to be found on the island of Tylos (present day Bahrain), the southern coast of the Persian Gulf, and the area of the Arabian kingdom of Lakhm. Some of these areas were the earliest to be Christianized; the kingdom of Armenia became the first independent Christian state in the world in 301. While a number of Assyrian territories had almost become fully Christianized even earlier during the 3rd century, they never became independent nations. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sasanian_Empire |
Jabir ibn Hayyan | Note that Paul Kraus, who first catalogued the Jabirian writings and whose numbering is followed here, conceived of his division of Jabir's alchemical writings (Kr. nos. 5–1149) as roughly chronological in order.
The Great Book of Mercy (Kitāb al-Raḥma al-kabīr, Kr. no. 5): This was considered by Kraus to be the oldest work in the corpus, from which it may have been relatively independent. Some 10th-century skeptics considered it to be the only authentic work written by Jabir himself. The Persian physician, alchemist and philosopher Abū Bakr al-Rāzī (c. 865–925) appears to have written a (lost) commentary on it. It was translated into Latin in the 13th century under the title Liber Misericordiae.
The One Hundred and Twelve Books (al-Kutub al-miʾa wa-l-ithnā ʿashar, Kr. nos. 6–122): This collection consists of relatively independent treatises dealing with different practical aspects of alchemy, often framed as an explanation of the symbolic allusions of the 'ancients'. An important role is played by organic alchemy. Its theoretical foundations are similar to those of The Seventy Books (i.e., the reduction of bodies to the elements fire, air, water and earth, and of the elements to the 'natures' hot, cold, moist, and dry), though their exposition is less systematic. Just like in The Seventy Books, the quantitative directions in The One Hundred and Twelve Books are still of a practical and 'experimental' rather than of a theoretical and speculative nature, such as will be the case in The Books of the Balances. The first four treatises in this collection, i.e., the three-part Book of the Element of the Foundation (Kitāb Usṭuqus al-uss, Kr. nos. 6–8, the second part of which contains an early version of the famous Emerald Tablet attributed to Hermes Trismegistus) and a commentary on it (Tafsīr kitāb al-usṭuqus, Kr. no. 9), have been translated into English.
The Seventy Books (al-Kutub al-sabʿūn, Kr. nos. 123–192) (also called The Book of Seventy, Kitāb al-Sabʿīn): This contains a systematic exposition of Jabirian alchemy, in which the several treatises form a much more unified whole as compared to The One Hundred and Twelve Books. It is organized into seven parts, containing ten treatises each: three parts dealing with the preparation of the elixir from animal, vegetable, and mineral substances, respectively; two parts dealing with the four elements from a theoretical and practical point of view, respectively; one part focusing on the alchemical use of animal substances, and one part focusing on minerals and metals. It was translated into Latin by Gerard of Cremona (c. 1114–1187) under the title Liber de Septuaginta.
Ten books added to the Seventy (ʿasharat kutub muḍāfa ilā l-sabʿīn, Kr. nos. 193–202): The sole surviving treatise from this small collection (The Book of Clarification, Kitāb al-Īḍāḥ, Kr. no. 195) briefly discusses the different methods for preparing the elixir, criticizing the philosophers who have only expounded the method of preparing the elixir starting from mineral substances, to the exclusion of vegetable and animal substances.
The Ten Books of Rectifications (al-Muṣaḥḥaḥāt al-ʿashara, Kr. nos. 203–212): Relates the successive improvements (“rectifications”, muṣaḥḥaḥāt) brought to the art by such 'alchemists' as 'Pythagoras' (Kr. no. 203), 'Socrates' (Kr. no. 204), 'Plato' (Kr. no. 205), 'Aristotle' (Kr. no. 206), 'Archigenes' (Kr. nos. 207–208), 'Homer' (Kr. no. 209), 'Democritus' (Kr. no. 210), Ḥarbī al-Ḥimyarī (Kr. no. 211), and Jabir himself (Kr. no. 212). The only surviving treatise from this small collection (The Book of the Rectifications of Plato, Kitāb Muṣaḥḥaḥāt Iflāṭūn, Kr. no. 205) is divided into 90 chapters: 20 chapters on processes using only mercury, 10 chapters on processes using mercury and one additional 'medicine' (dawāʾ), 30 chapters on processes using mercury and two additional 'medicines', and 30 chapters on processes using mercury and three additional 'medicines'. All of these are preceded by an introduction describing the laboratory equipment mentioned in the treatise.
The Twenty Books (al-Kutub al-ʿishrūn, Kr. nos. 213–232): Only one treatise (The Book of the Crystal, Kitāb al-Billawra, Kr. no. 220) and a long extract from another one (The Book of the Inner Consciousness, Kitāb al-Ḍamīr, Kr. no. 230) survive. The Book of the Inner Consciousness appears to deal with the subject of specific properties (khawāṣṣ) and with talismans (ṭilasmāt).
The Seventeen Books (Kr. nos. 233–249); three treatises added to the Seventeen Books (Kr. nos. 250–252); thirty unnamed books (Kr. nos. 253–282); The Four Treatises and some related treatises (Kr. nos. 283–286, 287–292); The Ten Books According to the Opinion of Balīnās, the Master of Talismans (Kr. nos. 293–302): Of these, only three treatises appear to be extant, i.e., the Kitāb al-Mawāzīn (Kr. no. 242), the Kitāb al-Istiqṣāʾ (Kr. no. 248), and the Kitāb al-Kāmil (Kr. no. 291).
The Books of the Balances (Kutub al-Mawāzīn, Kr. nos. 303–446): This collection appears to have consisted of 144 treatises of medium length, 79 of which are known by name and 44 of which are still extant. Though relatively independent from each other and devoted to a very wide range of topics (cosmology, grammar, music theory, medicine, logic, metaphysics, mathematics, astronomy, astrology, etc.), they all approach their subject matter from the perspective of "the science of the balance" (ʿilm al-mīzān, a theory which aims at reducing all phenomena to a system of measures and quantitative proportions). The Books of the Balances are also an important source for Jabir's speculations regarding the apparition of the "two brothers" (al-akhawān), a doctrine which was later to become of great significance to the Egyptian alchemist Ibn Umayl (c. 900–960).
The Five Hundred Books (al-Kutub al-Khamsumiʾa, Kr. nos. 447–946): Only 29 treatises in this collection are known by name, 15 of which are extant. Its contents appear to have been mainly religious in nature, with moral exhortations and alchemical allegories occupying an important place. Among the extant treatises, The Book of the Glorious (Kitāb al-Mājid, Kr. no. 706) and The Book of Explication (Kitāb al-Bayān, Kr. no. 785) are notable for containing some of the earliest preserved Shi'ite eschatological, soteriological and imamological doctrines. Intermittent extracts from The Book of Kingship (Kitāb al-Mulk, Kr. no. 454) exist in a Latin translation under the title Liber regni.
The Books on the Seven Metals (Kr. nos. 947–956): Seven treatises which are closely related to The Books of the Balances, each one dealing with one of Jabir's seven metals (respectively gold, silver, copper, iron, tin, lead, and khārṣīnī or "chinese metal"). In one manuscript, these are followed by the related three-part Book of Concision (Kitāb al-Ījāz, Kr. nos. 954–956).
Diverse alchemical treatises (Kr. nos. 957–1149): In this category, Kraus placed a large number of named treatises which he could not with any confidence attribute to one of the alchemical collections of the corpus. According to Kraus, some of them may actually have been part of The Five Hundred Books. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jabir_ibn_Hayyan |
Leclerc tank | Séries 1: original production model, 134 produced.
S1OP Série 1 Opérationnelle: refers to the 82 serviceable Leclerc S1 that were upgraded to the RT5 standard.
Séries 2: perfected model with the ability to be deployed in desert environments, 176 produced.
new NBC system which integrates a hybrid air conditioner.
independent air conditioning unit installed on the back roof behind the gunner's hatch.
In order to balance the turret with the addition of the air conditioner, the turret frontal armor is thickened a few centimeters ahead of the commander's station.
revised sprocket cooling fins.
extra splash guard added to the front hull.
Remote operated hydraulic track tensioner.
bolt-on appliqué armour on each hull sponsons.
Athos thermal camera on the gunner's sight is replaced by the new Iris thermal camera since the block 9 (T9).
SIT ICONE battlefield management system added in 2009
S2OP Série 2 Opérationnelle: refers to the 137 serviceable Leclerc S2.
Séries XXI: 96 produced.
New composite front armour package containing titanium. Turret bustle composite armor has been replaced by a lighter explosive reactive armour.
Turret storage bins have been tailored for the larger armor package.
The commander has now the HL 120 panoramic sight which now features a laser rangefinder and the Iris thermal camera.
Higher electrical turret output.
IFF indicator.
SIT ICONE battlefield management system.
Leclerc XLR: modernization project of the French Army Leclerc S2 and SXXI. 18 Leclerc will be retrofitted to the XLR standard in 2023, 200 Leclerc XLR are expected by 2029.
Common SCORPION vetronics such as the SICS battlefield management system and CONTACT radio and Blue force tracking.
New fire control system adapted to the new 120 mm HE M3M multi-mode programmable high-explosive round.
FN Herstal T2B remote weapon station.
Obsolescence management of the V8X1500 engine, especially its Turboméca TM-307B gas turbine.
Mine protection belly plate.
BARRAGE IED jammer.
Add-on composite side armour modules from the AZUR urban warfare kit.
Slat armour.
Tropicalized Leclerc version sold to the UAE; it is fitted with:
EuroPowerPack with the 1,100 kW MT883 diesel engine built by the German MTU Friedrichshafen company - the UAE has interests in this company and preferred the engine to be built by them.
Extended hull with increased fuel capacity.
Externally mounted diesel auxiliary power unit with a tank infantry telephone fitted on its armored box.
Redesigned engine compartment (louver, access panels).
Engine-driven mechanical heavy-duty air-conditioning mounted in the left part of the hull.
HL-80 commander panoramic sight with Alis thermal camera and laser rangefinder.
ATO (Armement Télé-Opéré) remote-controlled weapon station for a 7.62 mm FN MAG machine-gun operated under-armour by the HL-80 panoramic sight.
Leclerc Battlefield Management System (LBMS).
Completely automated driving and turret functions with pictograms on the buttons for use by crew with only basic training.
Thermal tarp.
Some bustle storage bins are replaced by baskets.
Leclerc T4: Prototype with an elongated turret built in 1996. It was armed with a 140 mm smoothbore gun designed by the arsenal of Bourges (EFAB). In order to avoid being scrapped, the prototype turret was restored in the 2010s and mounted on a former Leclerc hull which was used in its last years as a towing vehicle. Following its restoration, the tank was nicknamed Terminateur (Terminator) by the director of the technical section of the French Army (Section Technique de l'Armée de Terre or STAT), who did everything to preserve this technological demonstrator.
In 2017, the Terminateur was presented with the experimental Scorpion camouflage.
Leclerc EPG Engin Principal du Génie: "main engineering vehicle": armoured engineering, one prototype built in 2001
Leclerc MARS (Moyen Adapté de Remorquage Spécifique): Leclerc S1 converted into an armoured recovery vehicle due to decreased order of Leclerc DNG (20 instead of 30). The main gun, the sights and the autoloader are removed to make it 5 tonnes lighter.
Leclerc DNG Dépanneur Nouvelle Génération: recovery tank deployed as of 2004
Leclerc AZUR Action en Zone URbaine: urban warfare kit for actions in urban areas. Some elements of the kit such as the add-on composite armour were bought by the UAE Army for their tropicalized Leclerc operating in Yemen. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leclerc_tank |
Palestinian National Security Forces | According to The Guardian, based on the Palestine Papers, in 2003, British Prime Minister Tony Blair approved a plan of the Secret Intelligence Service MI6 for a US-led "counter-insurgency surge" against Hamas. MI6 proposed a secret plan to crush Hamas and other armed groups on the West Bank. It included internment of leaders and activists, closure of radio stations and replacement of imams in mosques. The plan recommended inter alia
"Degrading the capabilities of the rejectionists – Hamas, PIJ [Palestinian Islamic Jihad] and the [Fatah-linked] Al Aqsa Brigades – through the disruption of their leaderships' communications and command and control capabilities; the detention of key middle-ranking officers; and the confiscation of their arsenals and financial resources".
Also the internment of leading Hamas and PIJ figures should have been explored. The plan aimed to implement the Road map for peace.
In March 2005, a secret British "Palestinian Security Plan" was presented with detailed proposals for a new security taskforce, based on "trusted PA contacts" outside the control of "traditional security chiefs", a British/US security "verification team", and "direct lines" to Israeli intelligence. The document notes that Israel was not content with the functioning of the NSF and opposed enhancement of the organisation with munitions and surveillance equipment. In a "subtle approach", the “old guard” could be retired with honour, "with subtle timing, once the decisions are made and the new structures are emerging" ... "The Israeli occupation has totally destroyed the capability of the NSF itself [in the West Bank] and inflicted significant damage on its infrastructure. NSF personnel are not permitted to bear arms or to move between areas in uniforms ... The NSF, being unarmed, are in no position to confront the militants."
On 2 April 2005, President Abbas dismissed West Bank national security chief General Haj Ismail Jaber. The reason given was a shooting incident on 30 March inside Abbas’ headquarters in which militants fired into the air. Abbas also fired Ramallah security chief Yunis al-Has. Abbas placed the security services in Ramallah on a “state of alert”. A large-scale reform of the security services followed that month. On 22 April, head of the Gaza Security Forces Moussa Arafat was replaced by Suleiman Heles. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_National_Security_Forces |
Abdel Fattah el-Sisi | Unlike Hosni Mubarak, el-Sisi is protective of the privacy of his family, even though two of his sons hold positions in the government. He is married to his cousin Entissar Amer, and is the father of three sons and one daughter. One of his sons is married to the daughter of former Egyptian army chief Mahmoud Hegazy.
El-Sisi comes from a religious family and frequently quotes Quranic verses during informal conversations; El-Sisi's wife wears the hijab, though usually a casual kind that covers the hair but not the neck. El-Sisi is known to be quiet and is often called the Quiet General. Even as a young man he was often called "General Sisi" due to his perceived orderly demeanor.
According to Sherifa Zuhur, a professor at the War College, when el-Sisi attended, many American officers expressed doubts that Muslims could be democratic. El-Sisi disputed this opinion; he and others were critical of decisions made in Iraq and Libya. El-Sisi wrote his term paper at the War College on democracy and its applications in the Middle East. In his paper, he argues in favour of democracy based on its past successes. Zuhur also had the impression that el-Sisi supported a gradual move towards pluralism. While at the War College, Sisi sometimes led Friday prayers at the local mosque.
Sisi described himself as "a doctor whose diagnoses are sought after by top philosophers and prominent world leaders". Upon his ascension to the presidency, Sisi's public persona was characterized by British newspaper The Guardian as one marked by "calmness and piety with a mixture of austerity and warmth".
In 2013, El-Sisi became one of the most popular political figures in Egypt. Since becoming president his popularity has slowly decreased, with him being labeled authoritarian by several individuals. His economic policies, including the increasing price of the United States dollar, first in 2016, then in the early 2020s has been scrutinised. El-Sisi's handling of the 2023 Israel-Hamas war has also been criticised by some figures, specifically his refusal to let Palestinian refugees enter Egypt. El-Sisi has been nicknamed "the Mexican" by Egyptians critical of his leadership, owing to the similarity between his name and the word "El-Meksisi", and also in reference to Joe Biden erroneously calling Sisi the president of Mexico. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdel_Fattah_el-Sisi |
Somalia | Somalia's network of roads is 22,100 km (13,700 mi) long. As of 2000, 2,608 km (1,621 mi) streets are paved and 19,492 km (12,112 mi) are unpaved. A 750 km (470 mi) highway connects major cities in the northern part of the country, such as Bosaso, Galkayo and Garowe, with towns in the south.
The Somali Civil Aviation Authority (SOMCAA) is Somalia's national civil aviation authority body. After a long period of management by the Civil Aviation Caretaker Authority for Somalia (CACAS), SOMCAA is slated to re-assume control of Somalia's airspace by 31 December 2013.
Sixty-two airports across Somalia accommodate aerial transportation; seven of these have paved runways. Among the latter, four airports have runways of over 3,047 metres (9,997 ft); two are between 2,438 and 3,047 m (7,999 and 9,997 ft) and one is 1,524 to 2,437 m (5,000 to 7,995 ft) long. There are fifty-five airports with unpaved landing areas. One has a runway of over 3,047 m; four are between 2,438 m and 3,047 m in length; twenty are 1,524 m to 2,437 m; twenty-four are 914 m to 1,523 m; and six are under 914 metres (2,999 ft). Major airports in the nation include the Aden Adde International Airport in Mogadishu, the Hargeisa International Airport in Hargeisa, the Kismayo Airport in Kismayo, the Baidoa Airport in Baidoa, and the Bender Qassim International Airport in Bosaso.
Established in 1964, Somali Airlines was the flag carrier of Somalia. It suspended operations during the civil war. However, a reconstituted Somali government later began preparations in 2012 for an expected relaunch of the airline, with the first new Somali Airlines aircraft scheduled for delivery by the end of December 2013. According to the Somali Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the void created by the closure of Somali Airlines has since been filled by various Somali-owned private carriers. Over six of these private airline firms offer commercial flights to both domestic and international locations, including Daallo Airlines, Jubba Airways, African Express Airways, East Africa 540, Central Air and Hajara.
Possessing the longest coastline on the continent, Somalia has several major seaports. Maritime transport facilities are found in the port cities of Mogadishu, Bosaso, Berbera, Kismayo and Merca. There is also one merchant marine. Established in 2008, it is cargo-based. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somalia |
Almoravid dynasty | The Almoravids, sometimes called "al-mulathamun" ("the veiled ones", from litham, Arabic for "veil".) trace their origins back to several Saharan Sanhaja nomadic tribes, dwelling in an area that stretches between the Senegal River in the south and the Draa river in the north. The first and main Almoravid founding tribe was the Lamtuna. It occupied the region around Awdaghust (Aoudaghost) in the southern Sahara according to contemporary Arab chroniclers such as al-Ya'qubi, al-Bakri and Ibn Hawqal. According to French historian Charles-André Julien: "The original cell of the Almoravid empire was a powerful Sanhaja tribe of the Sahara, the Lamtuna, whose place of origin was in the Adrar in Mauritania." The Tuareg people are believed to be their descendants.
These nomads had been converted to Islam in the 9th century. They were subsequently united in the 10th century and, with the zeal of new converts, launched several campaigns against the "Sudanese" (pagan peoples of sub-Saharan Africa). Under their king Tinbarutan ibn Usfayshar, the Sanhaja Lamtuna erected (or captured) the citadel of Awdaghust, a critical stop on the trans-Saharan trade route. After the collapse of the Sanhaja union, Awdaghust passed over to the Ghana Empire; and the trans-Saharan routes were taken over by the Zenata Maghrawa of Sijilmasa. The Maghrawa also exploited this disunion to dislodge the Sanhaja Gazzula and Lamta out of their pasturelands in the Sous and Draa valleys. Around 1035, the Lamtuna chieftain Abu Abdallah Muhammad ibn Tifat (alias Tarsina), tried to reunite the Sanhaja desert tribes, but his reign lasted less than three years.
Around 1040, Yahya ibn Ibrahim, a chieftain of the Gudala (and brother-in-law of the late Tarsina), went on pilgrimage to Mecca. On his return, he stopped by Kairouan in Ifriqiya, where he met Abu Imran al-Fasi, a native of Fez and a jurist and scholar of the Sunni Maliki school. At this time, Ifriqiya was in ferment. The Zirid ruler, al-Mu'izz ibn Badis, was openly contemplating breaking with his Shi'ite Fatimid overlords in Cairo, and the jurists of Kairouan were agitating for him to do so. Within this heady atmosphere, Yahya and Abu Imran fell into conversation on the state of the faith in their western homelands, and Yahya expressed his disappointment at the lack of religious education and negligence of Islamic law among his southern Sanhaja people. With Abu Imran's recommendation, Yahya ibn Ibrahim made his way to the ribat of Waggag ibn Zelu in the Sous valley of southern Morocco, to seek out a Maliki teacher for his people. Waggag assigned him one of his residents, Abdallah ibn Yasin.: 122
Abdallah ibn Yasin was a Gazzula Berber, and probably a convert rather than a born Muslim. His name can be read as "son of Ya-Sin" (the title of the 36th surah of the Quran), suggesting he had obliterated his family past and was "re-born" of the Holy Book. Ibn Yasin certainly had the ardor of a puritan zealot; his creed was mainly characterized by a rigid formalism and a strict adherence to the dictates of the Quran, and the Orthodox tradition. (Chroniclers such as al-Bakri allege Ibn Yasin's learning was superficial.) Ibn Yasin's initial meetings with the Guddala people went poorly. As he had more ardor than depth, Ibn Yasin's arguments were disputed by his audience. He responded to questioning with charges of apostasy and handed out harsh punishments for the slightest deviations. The Guddala soon had enough and expelled him almost immediately after the death of his protector, Yahya ibn Ibrahim, sometime in the 1040s.
Ibn Yasin, however, found a more favorable reception among the neighboring Lamtuna people. Probably sensing the useful organizing power of Ibn Yasin's pious fervor, the Lamtuna chieftain Yahya ibn Umar al-Lamtuni invited the man to preach to his people. The Lamtuna leaders, however, kept Ibn Yasin on a careful leash, forging a more productive partnership between them. Invoking stories of the early life of Muhammad, Ibn Yasin preached that conquest was a necessary addendum to Islamicization, that it was not enough to merely adhere to God's law, but necessary to also destroy opposition to it. In Ibn Yasin's ideology, anything and everything outside of Islamic law could be characterized as "opposition". He identified tribalism, in particular, as an obstacle. He believed it was not enough to urge his audiences to put aside their blood loyalties and ethnic differences, and embrace the equality of all Muslims under the Sacred Law, it was necessary to make them do so. For the Lamtuna leadership, this new ideology dovetailed with their long desire to refound the Sanhaja union and recover their lost dominions. In the early 1050s, the Lamtuna, under the joint leadership of Yahya ibn Umar and Abdallah ibn Yasin—soon calling themselves the al-Murabitin (Almoravids)—set out on a campaign to bring their neighbors over to their cause.: 123 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almoravid_dynasty |
Oman | After deposing his father in 1970, Sultan Qaboos opened up the country, removed "Muscat and" from the country's name, embarked on economic reforms, and followed a policy of modernisation marked by increased spending on health, education and welfare. Saudi Arabia invested in the development of the Omani education system, sending Saudi teachers on its own expense. Slavery, once a cornerstone of the country's trade and development, was outlawed in 1970.
In 1971, Oman joined the United Nations, as did Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
In 1981, Oman became a founding member of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council. Political reforms were eventually introduced. The country adopted its present national flag in 1995, resembling the previous flag but with a thicker stripe. In 1997, a royal decree was issued granting women the right to vote, and stand for election to the Majlis al-Shura, the Consultative Assembly of Oman. Two women were duly elected to the body. In 2002, voting rights were extended to all citizens over the age of 21, and the first elections to the Consultative Assembly under the new rules were held in 2003. In 2004, the Sultan appointed Oman's first female minister with portfolio, Sheikha Aisha bint Khalfan bin Jameel al-Sayabiyah, to the post of National Authority for Industrial Craftsmanship. Despite these changes, there was little change to the actual political makeup of the government. The Sultan continued to rule by decree. Nearly 100 suspected Islamists were arrested in 2005 and 31 people were convicted of trying to overthrow the government. They were ultimately pardoned in June of the same year.
Before the Beijing Olympics, Oman became the stop of the Middle East's torch relay on 14 April 2008, covering 20 kilometres.
Inspired by the Arab Spring uprisings that were taking place throughout the region, protests occurred in Oman during the early months of 2011. While they did not call for the ousting of the regime, demonstrators demanded political reforms, improved living conditions and the creation of more jobs. They were dispersed by riot police in February 2011. Sultan Qaboos reacted by promising jobs and benefits. In October 2011, elections were held to the Consultative Assembly, to which Sultan Qaboos promised greater powers. The following year, the government began a crackdown on internet criticism. In September 2012, trials began of 'activists' accused of posting "abusive and provocative" criticism of the government online. Six were given jail terms.
In 2013, Oman achieved its status as the elimination of malaria diagnoses, according to the World Health Organization.
Qaboos, the Arab world's longest-serving ruler, died on 10 January 2020. Leaving no heir on succession, on 11 January 2020 Qaboos was succeeded by his first cousin Haitham bin Tariq.
On 12 January 2021, Theyazin bin Haitham, Sultan Haithan's oldest son became the crown prince as first in line to succeed his father under new fundamental law. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oman |
Storm Daniel | The disaster was seen as the worst to hit the Cyrenaica region since the 1963 Marj earthquake. Conflicting figures emerged regarding the number of casualties. As of 26 September 2023, at least 4,199 people are known to have died from the storm in Libya according to Libyan authorities, with at least 170 deaths reported outside Derna, while Libyan authorities say between 10,000 and 100,000 others are missing, including seven members of the Libyan National Army. Prior to that, it was initially reported that more than 11,000 people had died according the United Nations, which in turn based its figures from the Libyan Red Crescent. However, the latter agency rejected the claims, saying that official numbers were released by Libyan authorities. About 7,000 people were reportedly injured and 46,000 were displaced, including more than 16,000 children. 117 schools were also affected, with four schools being totally destroyed and 80 others suffering partial damage. Ten hospitals and 20 other medical facilities were forced out of service by the storm. Three volunteers of the Libyan Red Crescent were killed while responding to the floods. Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, the de facto ruler of eastern Libya, called the damage "huge" and "hard to describe or measure".
The Libyan Football Federation confirmed the deaths of four players in its leagues, namely Shaheen Al-Jamil, a member of Premier League club Al Tahaddi based in Benghazi, Monder Sadaqa, from Premier-League club Darnes based in Derna, and brothers Saleh and Ayoub Sasi, who were members of Darnes' youth team. A fifth player, Ibrahim Al-Qaziri of Second Division club Nusour Martouba, was also reported by the BBC to have been killed. Derna Stadium also suffered severe damage from the floods.
More than 400 foreign nationals were killed during the floods, including at least 276 migrants from Sudan, A member of the Sudanese community in Derna said that 700 Sudanese families in the city had been displaced by the floods. 145 Egyptian citizens, seventy-five of whom were from the village of Al-Sharif in Beni Suef, and 23 Palestinians. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimated that at least 42 Syrians also died in the storm, adding that the total number of deaths could reach 150.
The World Meteorological Organization said that the casualties caused by the floods could have been prevented had a functional weather service been in place in Libya and that satellite earth observations have provided a better response to monitoring soil erosion that increased flow destructive power.
The United Nations' aid chief Martin Griffiths said on 14 September that an estimated 884,000 people in the country were in need of assistance, while almost 300,000 children were at risk of exposure to post-flood diseases, violence and exploitation.
The Libyan Post Telecommunications and Information Technology Company said that the storm cut off the submarine internet cable linking Libya to Europe, "completely" destroying the country's international communications gateway. Libya's Roads and Bridges Authority assessed that 70% of civilian infrastructure in the affected areas was destroyed by the storm, with 80% of the water system going out of service and 50% of all roads impassable, while a total of 11 bridges collapsed. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storm_Daniel |
Judiciary of Egypt | Egypt based its criminal codes and court operations primarily on British, Italian, and Napoleonic models. Criminal court procedures had been substantially modified by the heritage of Islamic legal and social patterns and the legacy of numerous kinds of courts that formerly existed. The divergent sources and philosophical origins of these laws and the inapplicability of many borrowed Western legal concepts occasioned difficulties in administering Egyptian law.
The criminal code listed three main categories of crime: contraventions (minor offenses), misdemeanors (offenses punishable by imprisonment or fines), and felonies (offenses punishable by penal servitude or death). Lower courts handled the majority of the cases that reached adjudication and levied fines in about nine out of ten cases. At their discretion, courts could suspend fines or imprisonment (when a sentence did not exceed one year).
Capital crimes that carried a possible death sentence included murder, manslaughter occurring in the commission of a felony, arson or the use of explosives that caused death, rape, treason, and endangerment of state security. Few convictions for capital crimes, however, resulted in execution.
Egypt's laws require that a detained person be brought before a magistrate and formally charged within forty-eight hours or released. An accused is entitled to post bail and had the right to be defended by legal counsel.
The Emergency Law of 1958 outlined special judicial procedures for some cases. The law enabled authorities to circumvent the increasingly independent regular court system in cases where people were charged with endangering state security. The law applied primarily to Islamic radicals but also covered leftists suspected of political violence, drug smugglers, and illegal currency dealers. It also allowed detention of striking workers, pro-Palestinian student demonstrators, and relatives of fugitives.
The Emergency Law of 1958 authorized the judicial system to detain people without charging them or guaranteeing them due process while an investigation was under way. After thirty days, a detainee could petition the State Security Court to review the case. If the court ordered the detainee's release, the minister of interior had fifteen days to object. If the minister overruled the court's decision, the detainee could petition another State Security Court for release after thirty more days. If the second court supported the detainee's petition, it released the detainee. The minister of interior could, however, simply re-arrest the detainee. The government commonly engaged in this practice in cases involving Islamic extremists. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judiciary_of_Egypt |
Meknes | Grand mosque of Meknes: The old city's most important mosque and one of its oldest, covering about 3,500 square meters and was founded in the 12th century by the Almoravids, although renovated multiple times since.
Madrasa Bou Inania: The city's most famous madrasa (school for higher learning in Islamic sciences) was established by the Marinid sultan Abu al-Hasan in 1335-36 but is now named after his son Abu Inan (who may have later restored it). Open to tourists today, it is one of the most richly decorated buildings in the city.
Nejjarine Mosque: Often reputed to be the oldest in the city, this mosque also dates back to the Almoravid period, though it has been modified multiple times.: 212–213
Lalla Aouda Mosque: The main mosque of the city's former kasbah and of Moulay Isma'il's palaces, it was first founded in the Marinid era but completely rebuilt by Moulay Isma'il between 1672 and 1678. Its prominent minaret is visible from the adjoining Place Lalla Aouda (Lalla Awda Square).
Bab Berda'in Mosque: The mosque, located near the northern gate of the medina (Bab Berda'in) was completed in 1709 on the orders of Morocco's first female minister, Khnata bent Bakkar. The mosque was the site of a tragedy in 2010 when its historic minaret collapsed, killing 41 people. The mosque has since been repaired and its minaret rebuilt.
Ar-Roua Mosque: The largest mosque in Meknes, it was built by Sultan Muhammad ibn Abdallah between 1757 and 1790. It is located near the Heri al-Mansur palace in the southern part of the Kasbah of Moulay Isma'il.
Zitouna Mosque: A large mosque founded by Sultan Moulay Isma'il around 1687.: 244
Zawiya of Sidi Mohammed Ben Aissa: Also known as the Mausoleum of Sheikh al-Kamel. An important mausoleum and religious complex (zawiya) just outside the city walls to the northwest, originally dating from the late 18th century but restored later.: 65 Mohamed ben 'Aissa, founder of the Aissawiya, a major Sufi brotherhood in Morocco, is buried here. He is considered the patron saint of Meknes, and his annual moussem (festival) is one of the most intense and was historically known for its displays of self-mutilation.
Zawiya of Sidi Kaddour el-Alami: A richly-decorated mosque and religious complex honoring the tomb of Sidi Kaddour el-Alami, a famous Moroccan poet who died in 1850.: 179 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meknes |
Al-Azhar University | 10th–17th centuries
Sibt al-Maridini (1423 – 1506) Arab physicist, mathematician and astronomer
Abd al-'Aziz al-Wafa'i (15th century) Arab physicist, mathematician and astronomer
Abdul Qadir al-Baghdadi (1620–1682 AD) author, philologist, grammarian, magistrate, bibliophile and a leading literary figure of the Ottoman era
19th – early 20th centuries
Muhammad Abduh and Sayd Jamal edin Afghani, founder of Islamic Modernism
Izz ad-Din al-Qassam, founder and leader of Black Hand
Mohammad Amin al-Husayni, Mufti of Jerusalem
Ahmed Orabi, Egyptian nationalist and army general who led the Urabi Revolt against Khedive Tewfik
1910s–1950s
Hassan al-Banna, founder of the Muslim Brotherhood (he graduated from Dar al-Ulum which is an affiliate of Cairo University)
Syed Mujtaba Ali, Bangladeshi author, journalist, travel enthusiast, academic, scholar and linguist; studied at the Al-Azhar University in Cairo during 1934–1935.
Dr. Ayub Ali, Bangladeshi Islamic scholar and educationist
Mehmed Handžić, a leader of Bosnian revivalists, one of authors of Resolution of Sarajevo Muslims and chairman of the Committee of National Salvation
Omar Abdel Rahman, leader of Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, which has been designated a terrorist group by the governments of the United States and Egypt; currently serving a life term for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing
Taqiuddin al-Nabhani, the leader and founder of The Islamic Political Party, Hizb ut-Tahrir (The Party of Liberation)
Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, co-founder and leader of Hamas
Saad Zaghlul, leader of 1919 revolution in Egypt
Taha Hussein, Egyptian writer and intellectual
Muhammad Ma Jian, translator of the Qur'an into the Chinese language
Ahmad Meshari Al-Adwani, Kuwaiti poet and writer of Kuwait's national anthem Al-Nasheed Al-Watani
Ahmad al-Ghumari, Moroccan cleric, enrolled in 1921, dropped out due to a death in the family
Abdullah al-Ghumari, Moroccan cleric, graduated from Azhar in 1931
Abu Turab al-Zahiri, Indian-born Saudi Arabian writer
1950–present
Aliko Dangote, Nigerian business mogul, studied business at Al-Azhar
Akhtar Raza Khan, former Grand Mufti of India.
Sayyid Abdurahman Imbichikoya Thangal Al-Qasimi, Al-Baqavi, Al Azhari (1922-2015) - former president of Samastha Kerala Jamiat-ul-Ulema (1995-2004)
Zaib-un-Nissa Hamidullah, Pakistani journalist who in 1955 became the first woman to give a speech at the university
Mohammed Burhanuddin, Dai of Dawoodi Bohra researched and rediscovered Al-Azhar University's past history, awarded PhD from Al-Azhar University.
Abdullah Yusuf Azzam founder of the terrorist group Al-Qaeda, and a Palestinian Sunni Islamic scholar and theologian
Shire Jama Ahmed, Somali linguist who devised a Latin script for the Somali language
Mahmud Shaltut, Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar, issued in 1959 a Fatwa, declaring that Al-Azhar recognizes Shi'ism as a valid branch of Islam
Mahmoud Khalil Al-Hussary, Qari and Qur'anic scholar
Abdel-Halim Mahmoud, Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar, introduced the study of Sufism as a science through his writings and lectures on the matter
Ahmed Subhy Mansour, Islamic scholar, cleric, and founder of the Quranists, who was exiled from Egypt, lived in the United States as a political refugee
Taha Jabir Alalwani, president of Cordoba University (Ashburn, VA, USA), former chairman of the Fiqh Council of North America, and the president of the International Institute of Islamic Thought in Herndon, Virginia (USA)
Abdurrahman Wahid, former President of Indonesia
Muhammad Sayyid Tantawy, former Grand Imam of Al-Azhar (17 March 1996 to 10 March 2010)
Ahmed el-Tayeb, Grand Imam of Al-Azhar.
Muhammad Metwally Al Shaarawy
Egyptian Muslim jurist
Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, former President of The Republic of Maldives.
Sayyid Abdurahman Imbichikoya Thangal Al-Aydarusi Al-Azhari Al-Qasimi, Al-Baqavi, Islamic scholar from Indian state, Kerala; former President of Samastha Kerala Jamiat-ul-Ulema,(1995-2004), writer of [Al Arab Wal Arabiyya(Arabs And Arabic Language)(Arabic: العرب والعربية )]
Abdulla Saeed, Former Chief Justice, and Justice Supreme Court of The Republic of Maldives
Abdulla Mohamed, chief judge, Criminal Court of The Republic of Maldives.
Salamat P. Hashim, founder and leader of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in the Philippines.
Sheikh Khalifa Usman Nando, co-founder of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in the Philippines and Wa'lī of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
Fathulla Jameel, former Foreign Minister of Maldives.
Burhanuddin Rabbani, former Soviet–Afghan War Mujahideen leader and president of Afghanistan
Muhammad Jameel Didi, Maldives author and writer
Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat Mursyidul Am (spiritual leader) of the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) and former Menteri Besar (Chief Minister) of the Malaysian state of Kelantan
Abdul Hadi Awang president of the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) and former Menteri Besar (Chief Minister) of the Malaysian state of Terengganu
Omar Maute, co-founder and leader of the Maute terrorist organization in Marawi, Philippines
Panakkad Shihab Thangal, Muslim religious leader, politician and Islamic scholar from the Indian state of Kerala; Qazi to hundreds of mahals in Kerala, President IUML Kerala 1975–2009
Saeed-ur-Rahman Azmi Nadvi, principal of Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulama and chancellor of Integral University
Timothy Winter, founder of the Cambridge Muslim College, Aziz Foundation Professor of Islamic Studies at Cambridge Muslim College and Ebrahim College, director of studies (theology and religious studies) at Wolfson College, Cambridge, and Shaykh Zayed Lecturer in Islamic Studies in the Faculty of Divinity at the University of Cambridge
Mahmud Saedon, Bruneian muslim scholar
Mustafa Khattab, English translator of the Qur'an and author of 'The Clear Quran' Series
Tariq Najm, Iraqi politician
Quraish Shihab, Indonesian muslim scholar in the sciences of Quran and former minister of Religion affairs in Indonesia.
Alwi Shihab, Indonesian President's special envoy to the Middle East and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Azhar_University |
Arab world | Many of the modern borders of the Arab World were drawn by European imperial powers during the 19th and early 20th century. However, some of the larger states (in particular Egypt and Syria) have historically maintained geographically definable boundaries, on which some of the modern states are roughly based. The 14th-century Egyptian historian Al-Maqrizi, for instance, defines Egypt's boundaries as extending from the Mediterranean in the north to lower Nubia in the south; and between the Red Sea in the east and the oases of the Western/Libyan desert. The modern borders of Egypt, therefore, are not a creation of European powers, and are at least in part based on historically definable entities which are in turn based on certain cultural and ethnic identifications.
At other times, kings, emirs or sheikhs were placed as semi-autonomous rulers over the newly created nation states, usually chosen by the same imperial powers that for some drew the new borders, for services rendered to European powers like the British Empire, e.g. Sherif Hussein ibn Ali. Many African states did not attain independence until the 1960s from France after bloody insurgencies for their freedom. These struggles were settled by the imperial powers approving the form of independence given, so as a consequence almost all of these borders have remained. Some of these borders were agreed upon without consultation of those individuals that had served the colonial interests of Britain or France. One such agreement solely between Britain and France (to the exclusion of Sherif Hussein ibn Ali), signed in total secrecy until Lenin released the full text, was the Sykes-Picot Agreement. Another influential document written without the consensus of the local population was the Balfour Declaration.
As former director of the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, Efraim Halevy, now a director at the Hebrew University said,
The borders, which if you look on the maps of the middle-east are very straight lines, were drawn by British and French draftsmen who sat with maps and drew the lines of the frontiers with rulers. If the ruler for some reason or other moved on the map, because of some person's hand shaking, then the frontier moved (with the hand).
He went on to give an example,
There was a famous story about a British consul, a lady named Gertrude Bell who drew the map between Iraq and Jordan, using transparent paper. She turned to talk to somebody and as she was turning the paper moved and the ruler moved and that added considerable territory to the (new) Jordanians.
Historian Jim Crow, of Newcastle University, has said:
Without that imperial carve-up, Iraq would not be in the state it is in today...Gertrude Bell was one of two or three Britons who were instrumental in the creation of the Arab states in the Middle East that were favourable to Britain. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_world |
Salafi jihadism | In several places and times, jihadis have taken control of an area and they have ruled it as an Islamic state, such as ISIL in Syria and Iraq.
Among jihadists, establishing an uncompromising form of sharia law is a core value and goal, but strategies differ over how quickly this should be done. Observers such as the journalist Robert Worth have described jihadis as being torn between wanting to build a truly Islamic order gradually from the bottom up in order to avoid alienating non-jihadi Muslims (the desire of Osama bin Laden), and not wanting to wait for the creation of an Islamic state.
In Zinjibar, Yemen, AQAP established an "emirate" which lasted from May 2011 until the summer of 2012. It emphasized (and publicized with a media campaign) "uncharacteristically gentle" good governance over its conquered territory rather than strict enforcement of sharia law—rebuilding infrastructure, quashing banditry, and resolving legal disputes. One jihadi veteran of Yemen described its approach towards the local population:
You have to take a gradual approach with them when it comes to religious practices. You can't beat people for drinking alcohol when they don't even know the basics of how to pray. We have to first stop the great sins, and then move gradually to the lesser and lesser ones. ... Try to avoid enforcing Islamic punishments as much as possible unless you are forced to do so.
However AQAP's "clemency drained away under the pressure of war", and the area was taken back by the government. The failure of this model (according to New York Times correspondent Robert Worth), may have "taught" jihadis a lesson on the need to instill fear.
ISIS is believed to have used a manifesto which is titled "The Management of Savagery" as its model. The manifesto emphasizes the need to create areas of "savagery"—i.e., lawlessness—in enemy territory. Once the enemy was too exhausted and weakened from the lawlessness (particularly terrorism) to continue to try to govern its territory, the nucleus of a new caliphate could be established in its place. The author of "The Management of Savagery", did not place a lot of emphasis on winning the sympathy of local Muslims, instead, he placed a lot of emphasis on the use of extreme violence, writing that: "One who previously engaged in jihad knows that it is naught but violence, crudeness, terrorism, frightening [others] and massacring – I am talking about jihad and fighting, not about Islam and one should not confuse them." (Social-media posts from ISIS territory "suggest that individual executions happen more or less continually, and mass executions occur every few weeks", according to journalist Graeme Wood.) | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salafi_jihadism |
History of Egypt under Hosni Mubarak | Mubarak maintained Egypt's commitment to the Camp David peace process, while restoring relations with other Arab states. Mubarak also restored relations with USSR three years after Sadat's expulsion of Soviet experts. In January 1984, Egypt was readmitted to the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation; in November 1987, an Arab summit resolution allowed other Arab countries to resume diplomatic relations with Egypt; and in 1989 Egypt was readmitted to the Arab League. Egypt also played a moderating role in international forums such as the United Nations and the Non-Aligned Movement.
Under Mubarak, Egypt was a staunch ally of the United States, whose aid to Egypt has averaged $1.5 billion a year since the 1979 signing of the Camp David Peace Accords. Egypt was a member of the allied coalition in the 1991 Gulf War, and Egyptian infantry were some of the first to land in Saudi Arabia to evict Iraqi forces from Kuwait. Egypt's involvement in the coalition was deemed by the George H. W. Bush administration as crucial in garnering wider Arab support for the liberation of Kuwait.
Although unpopular among Egyptians, the participation of Egyptian forces brought financial benefits for the Egyptian government. Reports that sums as large as $500,000 per soldier were paid or debt forgiven were published in the news media. According to The Economist:
The programme worked like a charm: a textbook case, says the IMF. In fact, luck was on Hosni Mubarak's side; when the US was hunting for a military alliance to force Iraq out of Kuwait, Egypt's president joined without hesitation. After the war, his reward was that America, the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, and Europe forgave Egypt around $14 billion of debt.
Egypt acted as a mediator between Syria and Turkey in a 1998 dispute over boundaries, Turkey's diversion of water, and alleged Syrian support for Kurdish rebels.
Mubarak did not support the 2003 invasion of Iraq by the US, arguing that the Israeli–Palestinian conflict should have been resolved first. In 2009, when the Obama administration "indicated it would consider" extending protection to its Middle Eastern allies "if Iran continues its disputed nuclear activities", Mubarak stated "Egypt will not be part of any American nuclear umbrella intended to protect the Gulf countries." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Egypt_under_Hosni_Mubarak |
Aden | Aden is an ancient port and was mentioned by the Greeks under the name (Ancient Greek: Αραβία Εμπόριον, romanized: Arabia Emporion), which means an Arabic trade port. The port's convenient position on the sea route between India and Europe has made Aden desirable to rulers who sought to possess it at various times throughout history. Known as Eudaemon (Ancient Greek: Ευδαίμων, meaning "blissful, prosperous,") in the 1st century BC, it was a transshipping point for the Red Sea trade, but fell on hard times when new shipping practices by-passed it and made the daring direct crossing to India in the 1st century AD, according to the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. The same work describes Aden as "a village by the shore," which would well describe the town of Crater while it was still little-developed. There is no mention of fortification at this stage, Aden was more an island than a peninsula as the isthmus (a tombolo) was not then so developed as it is today. Aden was explicitly mentioned by this name in the Book of Ezekiel, which talks about Jerusalem, and it says:"The merchants of Sheba and Raamah are your merchants. They set up your markets with the finest perfumes and every precious stone and gold. Harran, Qena, and Aden are the merchants of Sheba, and Assyria and Kilmud are your merchants."At its beginning, the city was a small peninsula with no significant natural resources, but its location between Egypt and India made it important in the ancient global trade route. The city was the home of the ancient Kingdom of Osan from the eighth to seventh centuries BC. In the beginning of the seventh century BC, Karbil Watar I, king of the Kingdom of Sheba, launched a campaign against Osan during which, according to the Sabaean texts, sixteen thousand people were killed, forty thousand people were enslaved, and the kings of Awsan made offerings to the god. al-Maqah, according to the inscription that Karbiel Watar I left in Sirwah, commemorating his victory.
In the second half of the first century BC, the Roman Emperor Augustus Caesar determined to control Arabia Felix and reach the Indian Ocean. The Roman governor of Egypt, Aelius Gallus, was sent in 25 BC. The campaign ended with disastrous results and the annihilation of the Roman army in front of the walls of Ma'rib. The Himyarites overthrew the Kingdom of Sheba in 275 AD and took control of Aden. Recent incomplete archaeological studies suggest that the Himyarites were the ones who built the huge water cisterns currently known as the “Cisterns of Aden,” which stored approximately 136,382,757 liters of water.
The Himyarite Kingdom fell in the first quarter of the sixth century AD. Yusuf Dhu Nuwas mentioned Bab al-Mandab in one of his writings. The forces of the Kingdom of Aksum were entering Yemen through it. The Byzantine Emperor Justinian I sent a fleet to fight the Himyarite Jews and support the Kingdom of Aksum and the Christians of Najran. The fleet entered through Aden. Byzantine sources indicate that the Sasanian Empire took control of the city in 671 AD.
A local legend in Yemen states that Aden may be as old as human history itself. Some also believe that Cain and Abel are buried somewhere in the city. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aden |
International Security Assistance Force | On 8 December 2005, meeting at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, the Allied Foreign Ministers endorsed a plan that paved the way for an expanded ISAF role and presence in Afghanistan. The first element of this plan was the expansion of ISAF to the south in 2006, also known as Stage 3. After this stage, the ISAF assumed command of the southern region of Afghanistan from U.S.‑led Coalition forces, expanding its area of operations to cover an additional six provinces – Day Kundi, Helmand, Kandahar, Nimroz, Uruzgan, and Zabul – and taking on command of four additional PRTs. The expanded ISAF led a total of 13 PRTs in the north, west, and south, covering some three-quarters of Afghanistan's territory. The number of ISAF forces in the country also increased significantly, from about 10,000 before the expansion to about 20,000 after.
On 4 May 2006, United Kingdom General David Richards assumed command of the ISAF IX force in Afghanistan. The mission was led by the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps.
On 31 July 2006, Stage 3 was completed; the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force also assumed command in six provinces of the south. Regional Command South was established at Kandahar. Led by Canada, 8,000 soldiers were positioned there.
With the Taliban regrouping, especially in its birthplace of Kandahar province bordering Pakistan, NATO launched its biggest offensive against the guerrillas on the weekend of 2 and 3 September 2006 (Operation Medusa). NATO reported that it had killed more than 250 Taliban fighters, but the Taliban stated that NATO casualty estimates were exaggerated.
On 7 September 2006, a British soldier was killed and six were wounded when their patrol strayed into an unmarked minefield in Helmand, the major opium poppy-growing province west of Kandahar.
On 28 September 2006, the North Atlantic Council gave final authorization for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (NATO-ISAF) to expand its area of operations to 14 additional provinces in the east of Afghanistan, boosting NATO's presence and role in the country. With this further expansion, NATO-ISAF assisted the Government of Afghanistan in providing security throughout the entire country. The expansion saw the NATO-ISAF controlling 32,000 troops from 37 countries, although by this stage, the alliance was struggling to find extra troops to hold off a spiraling Taliban-led insurgency in the volatile south. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Security_Assistance_Force |
History of the Jews in Syria | After the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492, Sephardi Jews settled in many of the Islamic countries bordering the Mediterranean, including Syria, which then formed part of the Mameluke sultanate of Egypt. For the most part they founded their own communities, but they often assumed positions of rabbinic and communal leadership in their new homes. A social distinction remained between the newly arrived Sephardim and the native communities, the Musta'arabi Jews, which took several decades to accept them. Aleppo Jews of Spanish descent have a special custom, not found elsewhere, of lighting an extra candle at Hanukkah: it is said that this custom was established in gratitude for their acceptance by the local community. In both Aleppo and Damascus, the two communities supported a common Chief Rabbinate. Chief Rabbis were usually but not always from Spanish-descended families: in Aleppo there were five in a row from the Laniado family.
The Sephardic presence was greater in Aleppo than in Damascus which maintained closer ties to the Holy Land. In particular, the Damascus community was strongly influenced by the Safed Kabbalistic school of Isaac Luria, and contributed several notable personalities, including ִHayim Vital and Israel Najara. This explains certain differences in customs between the two cities.
Captain Domingo de Toral, who visited Aleppo in 1634, mentions over 800 houses of Jews who spoke Castilian. An anonymous Jewish traveler who arrived a few years after the Spanish immigration, found at Damascus 500 Jewish households; also a Karaite community whose members called themselves "Muallim-Tsadaqah"; and a more important Rabbanite community, composed of three groups and possessing three beautiful synagogues. One of these belonged to the Sephardim; another, to the Moriscos (Moorish Jews) or natives; and the third, to the Sicilians. In each synagogue there was a preacher, who read the works of Maimonides to the pious every day after the prayer. The preacher of the Sephardim was Isִhaq Mas'ud, that of the natives Shem-ִTob al-Furani, and that of the Sicilians Isaac ִHaber. There were also two small schools for young students of the Talmud, containing respectively thirty and forty pupils.
Sixty Jewish families were living in the village of Jobar, 1.6 kilometres (0.99 mi) from Damascus, who had a very beautiful synagogue. "I have never seen anything like it," says the author; "it is supported by thirteen columns. Tradition says that it dates from the time of the prophet Elisha, and that he here anointed King Hazael. R. Eleazar ben Arach (a tannaite of the 1st century) repaired this synagogue." In order to indicate, finally, that the city was even then under the Ottoman rule, the narrator adds that the people of Damascus had just received a governor ("na'ib") from Constantinople. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Syria |
Emirate of Granada | Constantly under threat by both the Christian kingdoms to the north and the Muslim Marinid Sultanate to the south, the population of the Emirate of Granada developed a "siege mentality". The country consequently maintained a strong military. Its border territories were dotted with castles maintained by frontier warriors (thagri) led by armoured elite warriors who were influenced by and comparable to the Christian knights. However, the core of the emirate's army consisted of highly mobile light cavalry as well as light infantry.
The Granadan army was ethnically and culturally mixed. A large part were recruited locally through the jund system in which families with military obligations were registered and conscripted for service. In addition, the Granadan rulers encouraged North African warriors to migrate to the country and serve as ghazi. These immigrants were mostly Zenata (or Zanata) Berbers and eventually organized as Volunteers of the Faith, a factually autonomous and very powerful unit within the Granadan military. The Zenata served as light cavalry, which gave rise to the Spanish term jinete (derived from the name 'Zenata'), which denoted this type of light cavalry. They formed the backbone of the Granadan army, serving both in crucial battles as well as in regular raids inside Christian territory. They were highly mobile on the field, armed with lances, javelins, and small round shields known for their flexibility, and used their own characteristic set of tactics. They sometimes also served as auxiliaries in Castilian armies, sent by the Nasrid emirs of Granada to aid their allies. They were recruited and led by exiled members of the Marinid family and settled within the kingdom of Granada. Their Marinid commander was known as the shaykh al-ghuzāt ('chief of the ghazis'), but in 1374 Muhammad V suppressed this office due to their political interference, after which they were commanded by a Nasrid or Andalusi general.
Muhammad V reduced the status of the Volunteers and reformed the military, strengthening instead the Andalusian components of the Granadan military. The smallest part of the regular Granadan military were Christians and ex-Christians who had been hired by the emirs or defected to them. These were often Spanish knights and termed Mamluks; these warriors were organized as elite bodyguards by some emirs. To augment their army, the Granadans also hired foreign mercenaries.
In regard to its organization, the Granadan military was formally headed by the emir and divided into several units. The frontier areas were possibly commanded by rais, while each important frontier garrison was led by a shaykh khassa. The army was divided into major divisions, each led by a wali, under whom military emirs served as leaders for 5,000 troops, followed by qaid leading 1,000, naqib leading 200, and finally nazir leading eight. The Volunteers of the Faith were initially commanded by the shaykh al-ghuzat. In addition, there existed a Gendarmerie-like shurta in Granada city, commanded by the sahib al-shurta. The Granadan army was usually accompanied by a corps of guides (dalil), religious figures who tended to morale, armourers, medics, and some poets as well as orators. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emirate_of_Granada |
Aššur-etil-ilāni | Aššur-etil-ilāni ascended the throne after the death of his father Ashurbanipal in 631 BC. A land grant from Aššur-etil-ilāni to his rab šaqi (a general serving him since he was a young boy) Sîn-šumu-līšir suggests that Ashurbanipal died a natural death. As in many other successions in Assyrian history, Aššur-etil-ilāni's rise to the Assyrian throne was initially met with opposition and unrest. The same land grant to Sîn-šumu-līšir references the actions of an Assyrian official called Nabu-riḫtu-uṣur who with the help of another official, Sîn-šar-ibni, attempted to usurp the Assyrian throne. Sin-shum-lishir probably assisted the king with stopping Nabu-riḫtu-uṣur and Sîn-šar-ibni. As no sources indicate the opposite, the conspiracy appears to have been crushed relatively quickly. Excavations at Nineveh from the time around Ashurbanipal's death show fire damage, indicating that the plot perhaps resulted in some violence and unrest within the capital itself.
The spread of inscriptions by Aššur-etil-ilāni in Babylonia suggest that he exercised the same amount of control in the southern provinces as his father Ashurbanipal had, having a vassal king (Kandalanu) but exercising actual political and military power there himself. His inscriptions are known from all the major cities, including Babylon, Dilbat, Sippar and Nippur. Too few inscriptions of Aššur-etil-ilāni survive to make any certain assumptions about his character. Excavations of his palace at Kalhu, one of the more important cities in the empire and a former capital, may indicate that he was less boastful than his father as it had no reliefs or statues similar to those that his predecessors had used to illustrate their strength and success. The lack of such depictions may partly be because there are no records of Aššur-etil-ilāni ever conducting a military campaign or going on a hunt. His Kalhu palace was quite small with unusually small rooms by Assyrian royal standards. It is possible that some of Assyria's vassals used the reign of what they perceived to be a weak ruler to break free of Assyrian control and even attack Assyrian outposts. In c. 628 BC, Josiah, ostensibly an Assyrian vassal and the king of Judah in the Levant, extended his land so that it reached the coast, capturing the city of Ashdod and settling some of his own people there.
It is frequently assumed, without any supporting evidence, that Aššur-etil-ilāni's brother Sîn-šar-iškun fought with him for the throne. Although the exact circumstances of Aššur-etil-ilāni's death and the rise of his brother Sîn-šar-iškun to the throne are unknown, there is no evidence to suggest that Aššur-etil-ilāni was deposed and/or killed in a coup. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A%C5%A1%C5%A1ur-etil-il%C4%81ni |
Rosetta Stone | Calls for the Rosetta Stone to be returned to Egypt were made in July 2003 by Zahi Hawass, then Secretary-General of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities. These calls, expressed in the Egyptian and international media, asked that the stele be repatriated to Egypt, commenting that it was the "icon of our Egyptian identity". He repeated the proposal two years later in Paris, listing the stone as one of several key items belonging to Egypt's cultural heritage, a list which also included: the iconic bust of Nefertiti in the Egyptian Museum of Berlin; a statue of the Great Pyramid architect Hemiunu in the Roemer-und-Pelizaeus-Museum in Hildesheim, Germany; the Dendera Temple Zodiac in the Louvre in Paris; and the bust of Ankhhaf in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. In August 2022, Zahi Hawass reiterated his previous demands.
In 2005, the British Museum presented Egypt with a full-sized fibreglass colour-matched replica of the stele. This was initially displayed in the renovated Rashid National Museum, an Ottoman house in the town of Rashid (Rosetta), the closest city to the site where the stone was found. In November 2005, Hawass suggested a three-month loan of the Rosetta Stone, while reiterating the eventual goal of a permanent return. In December 2009, he proposed to drop his claim for the permanent return of the Rosetta Stone if the British Museum lent the stone to Egypt for three months for the opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum at Giza in 2013.
As John Ray has observed: "The day may come when the stone has spent longer in the British Museum than it ever did in Rosetta."
National museums typically express strong opposition to the repatriation of objects of international cultural significance such as the Rosetta Stone. In response to repeated Greek requests for return of the Elgin Marbles from the Parthenon and similar requests to other museums around the world, in 2002, over 30 of the world's leading museums—including the British Museum, the Louvre, the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, and the Metropolitan Museum in New York City—issued a joint statement:
Objects acquired in earlier times must be viewed in the light of different sensitivities and values reflective of that earlier era...museums serve not just the citizens of one nation but the people of every nation. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosetta_Stone |
French invasion of Egypt and Syria | The printing press was first introduced to Egypt by Napoleon. He brought with his expedition a French, Arabic, and Greek printing press, which were far superior in speed, efficiency and quality to the nearest presses used in Istanbul. In the Middle East, Africa, India and even much of Eastern Europe and Russia, printing was a minor, specialised activity until the 18th century at least. From about 1720, the Mutaferrika Press in Istanbul produced substantial amounts of printing, some of which the Egyptian clerics were aware of at the time. Juan Cole reports that, "Bonaparte was a master of what we would now call spin, and his genius for it is demonstrated by reports in Arabic sources that several of his more outlandish allegations were actually taken seriously in the Egyptian countryside."
Bonaparte's initial use of Arabic in his printed proclamations was rife with error. In addition to much of the awkwardly translated Arabic wording being unsound grammatically, often the proclamations were so poorly constructed that they were undecipherable. The French Orientalist Jean Michel de Venture de Paradis, plausibly with the help of Maltese assistants, was responsible for translating the first of Napoleon's French proclamations into Arabic. The Maltese language is distantly related to the Egyptian dialect; and classical Arabic differs greatly in grammar, vocabulary, and idiom. Venture de Paradis, who had lived in Tunis, understood Arabic grammar and vocabulary, but did not know how to use them idiomatically.
The Sunni Muslim clerics of the Al-Azhar University in Cairo reacted incredulously to Napoleon's proclamations. Abd al-Rahman al-Jabarti, a Cairene cleric and historian, received the proclamations with a combination of amusement, bewilderment, and outrage. He berated the French's poor Arabic grammar and the infelicitous style of their proclamations. Over the course of Napoleon's invasion of Egypt, al-Jabarti wrote a wealth of material regarding the French and their occupation tactics. Among his observations, he rejected Napoleon's claim that the French were "muslims" (the wrong noun case was used in the Arabic proclamation, making it a lower case "m") and poorly understood the French concept of a republic and democracy – words which did not exist at the time in Arabic. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_invasion_of_Egypt_and_Syria |
Israel Defense Forces | The Israel Defense Forces has several types of uniforms:
Service dress (מדי אלף Madei Alef – Uniform "A") – the everyday uniform, worn by everybody.
Field dress (מדי ב Madei Bet – Uniform "B") – worn into combat, training, work on base.
The first two resemble each other but the Madei Alef is made of higher quality materials in a golden olive while the madei bet is in olive drab. The dress uniforms may also exhibit a surface shine
Officers / Ceremonial dress (מדי שרד madei srad) – worn by officers, or during special events/ceremonies.
Dress uniform and mess dress – worn only abroad. Several dress uniforms are depending on the season and the branch.
The service uniform for all ground forces personnel is olive green; navy and air force uniforms are beige/tan (also once worn by the ground forces). The uniforms consist of a two-pocket shirt, combat trousers, sweater, jacket or blouse, and shoes or boots. The navy also has an all-white dress uniform. The green fatigues are the same for winter and summer and heavy winter gear is issued as needed. Women's dress parallels the men's but may substitute a skirt for trousers and a blouse for a shirt.
Headgear included a service cap for dress and semi-dress and a field cap or "Kova raful" bush hat worn with fatigues. Many IDF personnel once wore the tembel as a field hat. IDF personnel generally wear berets instead of the service cap and there are many beret colours issued to IDF personnel. Paratroopers are issued a maroon beret, Golani brown, Givati purple, Nahal lime green, Kfir camouflage, Combat Engineers grey, navy blue for IDF Naval and dark grey for IDF Air Force personnel.
In combat uniforms, the Orlite helmet has replaced the British Brodie helmet Mark II/Mark III, RAC Mk II modified helmet with chin web jump harness (used by paratroopers and similar to the HSAT Mk II/Mk III paratrooper helmets), US M1 helmet, and French Modèle 1951 helmet – previously worn by Israeli infantry and airborne troops from the late 1940s to the mid-1970s and early 1980s.
Some corps or units have small variations in their uniforms – for instance, military police wear a white belt and police hat, Naval personnel have dress whites for parades, paratroopers are issued a four pocket tunic (yarkit/yerkit) worn untucked with a pistol belt cinched tight around the waist over the shirt. The IDF Air Corps has a dress uniform consisting of a pale blue shirt with dark blue trousers.
Most IDF soldiers are issued black leather combat boots, certain units issue reddish-brown leather boots for historical reasons — the paratroopers, combat medics, Nahal and Kfir Brigades, as well as some Special Forces units (Sayeret Matkal, Oketz, Duvdevan, Maglan, and the Counter-Terror School). Women were also formerly issued sandals, but this practice has ceased. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Defense_Forces |
Rumi | It is undeniable that Rumi was a Muslim scholar and took Islam seriously. Nonetheless, the depth of his spiritual vision extended beyond narrow sectarian concerns. One quatrain reads:
According to the Quran, Muhammad is a mercy sent by God. In regards to this, Rumi states:
"The Light of Muhammad does not abandon a Zoroastrian or Jew in the world. May the shade of his good fortune shine upon everyone! He brings all of those who are led astray into the Way out of the desert."
Rumi, however, asserts the supremacy of Islam by stating:
"The Light of Muhammad has become a thousand branches (of knowledge), a thousand, so that both this world and the next have been seized from end to end. If Muhammad rips the veil open from a single such branch, thousands of monks and priests will tear the string of false belief from around their waists."
Many of Rumi's poems suggest the importance of outward religious observance and the primacy of the Qur'an.
Flee to God's Qur'an, take refuge in it
there with the spirits of the prophets merge.
The Book conveys the prophets' circumstances
those fish of the pure sea of Majesty.
Rumi states:
Rumi also states:
I "sewed" my two eyes shut from [desires for] this world and the next – this I learned from Muhammad.
On the first page of the Masnavi, Rumi states:
"Hadha kitâbu 'l- mathnawîy wa huwa uSûlu uSûli uSûli 'd-dîn wa kashshâfu 'l-qur'ân."
"This is the book of the Masnavi, and it is the roots of the roots of the roots of the (Islamic) Religion and it is the Explainer of the Qur'ân."
Hadi Sabzavari, one of Iran's most important 19th-century philosophers, makes the following connection between the Masnavi and Islam, in the introduction to his philosophical commentary on the book:
It is a commentary on the versified exegesis [of the Qur’ān] and its occult mystery, since all of it [all of the Mathnawī] is, as you will see, an elucidation of the clear verses [of the Qur’ān], a clarification of prophetic utterances, a glimmer of the light of the luminous Qur’ān, and burning embers irradiating their rays from its shining lamp. As respects to hunting through the treasure-trove of the Qur’ān, one can find in it [the Mathnawī] all [the Qur’ān's] ancient philosophical wisdom; it [the Mathnawī] is all entirely eloquent philosophy. In truth, the pearly verse of the poem combines the Canon Law of Islam (sharīʿa) with the Sufi Path (ṭarīqa) and the Divine Reality (ḥaqīqa); the author's [Rūmī] achievement belongs to God in his bringing together of the Law (sharīʿa), the Path, and the Truth in a way that includes critical intellect, profound thought, a brilliant natural temperament, and integrity of character that is endowed with power, insight, inspiration, and illumination.
Seyyed Hossein Nasr states:
One of the greatest living authorities on Rûmî in Persia today, Hâdî Hâ'irî, has shown in an unpublished work that some 6,000 verses of the Dîwân and the Mathnawî are practically direct translations of Qur'ânic verses into Persian poetry.
Rumi states in his Dīwān:
The Sufi is hanging on to Muhammad, like Abu Bakr. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumi |
Fig | The edible fig is one of the first plants that were cultivated by humans. Nine subfossil figs of a parthenocarpic (and therefore sterile) type dating to about 9400–9200 BC were found in the early Neolithic village Gilgal I (in the Jordan Valley, 13 km north of Jericho). The find precedes the domestication of wheat, barley, and legumes, and may thus be the first known instance of agriculture. It is proposed that this sterile but desirable type was planted and cultivated intentionally, one thousand years before the next crops were domesticated (wheat and rye). In ancient Palestine, fig-cakes were often produced from selected ripe figs.
Figs were widespread in ancient Greece, and their cultivation was described by both Aristotle and Theophrastus. Aristotle noted that as in animal sexes, figs have individuals of two kinds, one (the cultivated fig) that bears fruit, and one (the wild caprifig) that assists the other to bear fruit. Further, Aristotle recorded that the fruits of the wild fig contain psenes (fig wasps); these begin life as larvae, and the adult psen splits its "skin" (pupa) and flies out of the fig to find and enter a cultivated fig, saving it from dropping. Theophrastus observed that just as date palms have male and female flowers, and that farmers (from the East) help by scattering "dust" from the male onto the female, and as a male fish releases his milt over the female's eggs, so Greek farmers tie wild figs to cultivated trees. They do not say directly that figs reproduce sexually, however.
Figs were also a common food source for the Romans. Cato the Elder, in his c. 160 BC De Agri Cultura, lists several strains of figs grown at the time he wrote his handbook: the Mariscan, African, Herculanean, Saguntine, and the black Tellanian. The fruits were used, among other things, to fatten geese for the production of a precursor of foie gras. Rome's first emperor, Augustus, was reputed to have been poisoned with figs from his garden smeared with poison by his wife Livia. For this reason, or perhaps because of her horticultural expertise, a variety of fig known as the Liviana was cultivated in Roman gardens.
It was cultivated from Afghanistan to Portugal, also grown in Pithoragarh in the Kumaon hills of India. From the 15th century onwards, it was grown in areas including Northern Europe and the New World. In the 16th century, Cardinal Reginald Pole introduced fig trees to Lambeth Palace in London.
In 1769, Spanish missionaries led by Junipero Serra brought the first figs to California. The Mission variety, which they cultivated, is still popular. The fact that it is parthenocarpic (self-pollinating) made it an ideal cultivar for introduction.
The Kadota cultivar is even older, being mentioned by the Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder in the 1st century A.D. Pliny recorded thirty varieties of figs.
The name Kadota name did not exist in the era of Pliny the Elder nor is it mentioned in Pliny's works. Also only 29 figs were recorded in his work; Pliny the Elder, The Natural History, English translation by John Bostock and H.T. Riley, Book XV, CHAP. 19. (18.)—TWENTY-NINE VARIETIES OF THE FIG.
The Kadota name was created in the early 20th century in California, USA, to name a "sport" or genetic deviation from a Dotatto fig tree as documented in The Kadota Fig: A Treatise On Its Origin, Planting And Care by W. Sam Clark. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fig |
Al-Baqara | Q2:8-20 in Surah Al Baqarah refer to the hypocrites (Munafiqun). In the Meccan phase of Muhammad, there existed two groups, the Believers and the Mushrikeen (non-believers). However, after Hijrah (Emigration to Medina) Muhammad had to deal with the opposition of those who openly accepted Islam while secretly plotting against Muslims. Their leader was Abd-Allah ibn Ubayy who was about to be crowned king before the arrival of Muhammad in Medina. The hypocrites benefitted from the Muslims while not losing their association with the disbelievers. They were considered disloyal to both parties and inclined towards those who benefited them the most in the worldly sense
The surah also sheds light on the concept of Nifaq, which is opposite of sincerity. It is of two types:
1) Nifaq in belief: outwardly showing belief however in reality there is no belief
2) Nifaq in practice: where people believe however they act like hypocrites. The signs of a hypocrite are lying, breaking promises, not keeping an amaanah or trust and when they argue they curse or use bad language.
According to a prominent scholar, Kamaluddin Ahmed, Nifaq is something that is within the heart, hence no one knows of its existence except God. Therefore, no one can be called a hypocrite or Munaafiq through one's own self-assessment. This would amount to making Takfeer i.e. calling someone a Kafir (non-believer) since Nifaq (hypocrisy) in belief is kufr.
26 Commences with ۞ (rubʿ al-ḥizb), an Islamic symbol.
87-105 is preserved in the Ṣan‘ā’1 lower text.
Indeed, We gave Moses the Book and sent after him successive messengers. And We gave Jesus, son of Mary, clear proofs and supported him with the holy spirit. Why is it that every time a messenger comes to you ˹Israelites˺ with something you do not like, you become arrogant, rejecting some and killing others?(2:84)
Condemnation of alcoholic beverages and gambling is also first found in the chapter, and it is one of only four chapters in the Quran to refer to Christians as Nazarenes instead of the more frequent terms People of the Book or "Helpers of Christ."
Al-Baqarah contains several verses dealing with the subject of warfare. Q2:190-194 are quoted on the nature of battle in Islam.
The surah includes a few Islamic rules related to varying subjects, such as: prayers, fasting, striving on the path of God, the pilgrimage to Mecca, the change of the direction of prayer (Qiblah) from Jerusalem to Mecca, marriage and divorce, commerce, debt, and a great many of the ordinances concerning interest or usury. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Baqara |
Oman | Sultan Said bin Taimur expressed his interest in occupying the Imamate right after the death of Imam Alkhalili, thus taking advantage of any potential instability that might occur within the Imamate when elections were due, to the British government. The British political agent in Muscat believed that the only method of gaining access to the oil reserves in the interior was by assisting the sultan in taking over the Imamate. In 1946, the British government offered arms and ammunition, auxiliary supplies and officers to prepare the sultan to attack the interior of Oman. In May 1954, Imam Alkhalili died and Ghalib Alhinai was elected Imam. Relations between the Sultan Said bin Taimur, and Imam Ghalib Alhinai frayed over their dispute about oil concessions.
In December 1955, Sultan Said bin Taimur sent troops of the Muscat and Oman Field Force to occupy the main centres in Oman, including Nizwa, the capital of the Imamate of Oman, and Ibri. The Omanis in the interior led by Imam Ghalib Alhinai, Talib Alhinai, the brother of the Imam and the Wali (governor) of Rustaq, and Suleiman bin Hamyar, who was the Wali (governor) of Jebel Akhdar, defended the Imamate in the Jebel Akhdar War against British-backed attacks by the Sultanate. In July 1957, the Sultan's forces were withdrawing, but they were repeatedly ambushed, sustaining heavy casualties. Sultan Said, however, with the intervention of British infantry (two companies of the Cameronians), armoured car detachments from the British Army and RAF aircraft, was able to suppress the rebellion. The Imamate's forces retreated to the inaccessible Jebel Akhdar.
Colonel David Smiley, who had been seconded to organise the Sultan's Armed Forces, managed to isolate the mountain in autumn 1958 and found a route to the plateau from Wadi Bani Kharus. On 4 August 1957, the British Foreign Secretary gave the approval to carry out air strikes without prior warning to the locals residing in the interior of Oman. Between July and December 1958, the British RAF made 1,635 raids, dropping 1,094 tons and firing 900 rockets at the interior of Oman targeting insurgents, mountain top villages, water channels and crops. On 27 January 1959, the Sultanate's forces occupied the mountain in a surprise operation. Imam Ghalib, his brother Talib and Sulaiman managed to escape to Saudi Arabia, where the Imamate's cause was promoted until the 1970s. The exiled partisans of the now abolished Imamate of Oman presented the case of Oman to the Arab League and the United Nations. On 11 December 1963, the UN General Assembly decided to establish an Ad-Hoc Committee on Oman to study the 'Question of Oman' and report back to the General Assembly. The UN General Assembly adopted the 'Question of Oman' resolution in 1965, 1966 and again in 1967 that called upon the British government to cease all repressive action against the locals, end British control over Oman and reaffirmed the inalienable right of the Omani people to self-determination and independence. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oman |
Sogdia | Achaemenid ruler Cyrus the Great conquered Sogdiana while campaigning in Central Asia in 546–539 BC, a fact mentioned by the ancient Greek historian Herodotus in his Histories. Darius I introduced the Aramaic writing system and coin currency to Central Asia, in addition to incorporating Sogdians into his standing army as regular soldiers and cavalrymen. Sogdia was also listed on the Behistun Inscription of Darius. A contingent of Sogdian soldiers fought in the main army of Xerxes I during his second, ultimately-failed invasion of Greece in 480 BC. A Persian inscription from Susa claims that the palace there was adorned with lapis lazuli and carnelian originating from Sogdiana.
During this period of Persian rule, the western half of Asia Minor was part of the Greek civilization. As the Achaemenids conquered it, they met persistent resistance and revolt. One of their solutions was to ethnically cleanse rebelling regions, relocating those who survived to the far side of the empire. Thus Sogdiana came to have a significant Greek population.
Given the absence of any named satraps (i.e. Achaemenid provincial governors) for Sogdiana in historical records, modern scholarship has concluded that Sogdiana was governed from the satrapy of nearby Bactria. The satraps were often relatives of the ruling Persian kings, especially sons who were not designated as the heir apparent. Sogdiana likely remained under Persian control until roughly 400 BC, during the reign of Artaxerxes II. Rebellious states of the Persian Empire took advantage of the weak Artaxerxes II, and some, such as Egypt, were able to regain their independence. Persia's massive loss of Central Asian territory is widely attributed to the ruler's lack of control. However, unlike Egypt, which was quickly recaptured by the Persian Empire, Sogdiana remained independent until it was conquered by Alexander the Great. When the latter invaded the Persian Empire, Pharasmanes, an already independent king of Khwarezm, allied with the Macedonians and sent troops to Alexander in 329 BC for his war against the Scythians of the Black Sea region (even though this anticipated campaign never materialized).
During the Achaemenid period (550–330 BC), the Sogdians lived as a nomadic people much like the neighboring Yuezhi, who spoke Bactrian, an Indo-Iranian language closely related to Sogdian, and were already engaging in overland trade. Some of them had also gradually settled the land to engage in agriculture. Similar to how the Yuezhi offered tributary gifts of jade to the emperors of China, the Sogdians are recorded in Persian records as submitting precious gifts of lapis lazuli and carnelian to Darius I, the Persian king of kings. Although the Sogdians were at times independent and living outside the boundaries of large empires, they never formed a great empire of their own like the Yuezhi, who established the Kushan Empire (30–375 AD) of Central and South Asia. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sogdia |
Al-Walid I | Al-Walid initially kept Abd al-Malik's appointee, Hisham ibn Isma'il al-Makhzumi, as governor of the Hejaz and leader of the Hajj pilgrimage. Both offices were of great prestige owing to the central religious importance of Mecca and Medina, the two holiest cities of Islam. Al-Walid dismissed him in 706 as punishment for flogging and humiliating the prominent Medinan scholar Sa'id ibn al-Musayyib for refusing to give the oath of allegiance to al-Walid as heir apparent during Abd al-Malik's reign. Although Hisham's act was in support of al-Walid, he considered it an abusive excess. According to the historian M. E. McMillan, other than al-Walid's "sense of righteous indignation", dynastic politics motivated his dismissal order. Hisham was the maternal grandfather of al-Walid's half-brother Hisham, who was a contender for the caliphal succession, which al-Walid coveted for his son Abd al-Aziz. Rather than leaving such a close relative of his brother Hisham at the helm of the Islamic holy cities, al-Walid installed his cousin Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz, who was the husband of al-Walid's sister Fatima and brother to al-Walid's wife Umm al-Banin, the mother of Abd al-Aziz. On al-Walid's orders, Umar had Hisham publicly humiliated, an unprecedented motion against a sacked governor of Medina, which set "a dangerous precedent", according to McMillan.
Umar maintained friendly ties to the holy cities' religious circles. He led the Hajj for at least four of the six years he was in office, with al-Walid's son Umar leading it in 707 and al-Walid leading it in 710, the only time he left Syria during his caliphate. Umar provided safe haven to Iraqis evading the persecution of al-Hajjaj. Umar informed al-Walid of al-Hajjaj's abuses, while al-Hajjaj advised the caliph to dismiss Umar for hosting Iraqi rebels. Al-Walid, wary of the Hejaz once again developing into a center of anti-Umayyad activity as it had during the Second Muslim Civil War, dismissed Umar in 712. He split the governorship of the Hejaz, appointing al-Hajjaj's nominees Khalid ibn Abdallah al-Qasri to Mecca and Uthman ibn Hayyan al-Murri to Medina. Neither was ever appointed to lead the Hajj, al-Walid reserving that office for Maslama and his own sons. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Walid_I |
Zina | All Sunni Muslim jurists agree that anal sex is haram (prohibited), based on the hadith of Muhammad. In contrast, according to Twelver Shia Muslim jurists, anal sex is considered makruh (strongly disliked) but is permissible with the consent of the wife.
Many scholars point to the story of Lot in the Quran as an example of sodomy being an egregious sin. However multiple others hold the view that the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was not specifically due to the sodomy practiced in those towns, but as a combination of multiple transgressions. The death by stoning for people of Sodom and Gomorrah is similar to the stoning punishment stipulated for illegal heterosexual sex. There is no punishment for a man who sodomizes a woman because it is not tied to procreation. However, other jurists insist that any act of lust in which the result is the injecting of semen into another person constitutes sexual intercourse.
Sodomy often falls under that same category as sex between an unmarried man and woman engaging in sexual acts. Male-male intercourse is referred to as liwat while female-female intercourse is referred to as sihaq. Both are considered reprehensible acts but there is no consensus on punishment for either. Some jurists define zināʾ exclusively as the act of unlawful vaginal penetration, hence categorizing and punishing anal penetration in different ways. Other jurists included both vaginal and anal penetration within the definition of zināʾ and hence extended the punishment of the one to the other.
Religious discourse has mostly focused on such sexual acts, which are unambiguously condemned. The Quran refers explicitly to male-male sexual relations only in the context of the story of Lot, but labels the Sodomites's actions (universally understood in the later tradition as anal intercourse) an "abomination" (female-female relations are not addressed). Reported pronouncements by Muhammad (hadith) reinforce the interdiction on male-male sodomy, although there are no reports of his ever adjudicating an actual case of such an offence; he is also quoted as condemning cross-gender behaviour for both sexes and banishing them from local places, but it is unclear to what extent this is to be understood as involving sexual relations. Several early caliphs, confronted with cases of sodomy between males, are said to have had both partners executed, by a variety of means. While taking such precedents into account, medieval jurists were unable to achieve a consensus on this issue; some legal schools prescribed capital punishment for sodomy, but others opted only for a relatively mild discretionary punishment. There was general agreement, however, that other homosexual acts (including any between females) were lesser offences, subject only to discretionary punishment. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zina |
Theatre | The city-state of Athens is where Western theatre originated. It was part of a broader culture of theatricality and performance in classical Greece that included festivals, religious rituals, politics, law, athletics and gymnastics, music, poetry, weddings, funerals, and symposia.
Participation in the city-state's many festivals—and mandatory attendance at the City Dionysia as an audience member (or even as a participant in the theatrical productions) in particular—was an important part of citizenship. Civic participation also involved the evaluation of the rhetoric of orators evidenced in performances in the law-court or political assembly, both of which were understood as analogous to the theatre and increasingly came to absorb its dramatic vocabulary. The Greeks also developed the concepts of dramatic criticism and theatre architecture. Actors were either amateur or at best semi-professional. The theatre of ancient Greece consisted of three types of drama: tragedy, comedy, and the satyr play.
The origins of theatre in ancient Greece, according to Aristotle (384–322 BCE), the first theoretician of theatre, are to be found in the festivals that honoured Dionysus. The performances were given in semi-circular auditoria cut into hillsides, capable of seating 10,000–20,000 people. The stage consisted of a dancing floor (orchestra), dressing room and scene-building area (skene). Since the words were the most important part, good acoustics and clear delivery were paramount. The actors (always men) wore masks appropriate to the characters they represented, and each might play several parts.
Athenian tragedy—the oldest surviving form of tragedy—is a type of dance-drama that formed an important part of the theatrical culture of the city-state. Having emerged sometime during the 6th century BCE, it flowered during the 5th century BCE (from the end of which it began to spread throughout the Greek world), and continued to be popular until the beginning of the Hellenistic period.
No tragedies from the 6th century BCE and only 32 of the more than a thousand that were performed in during the 5th century BCE have survived. We have complete texts extant by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. The origins of tragedy remain obscure, though by the 5th century BCE it was institutionalized in competitions (agon) held as part of festivities celebrating Dionysus (the god of wine and fertility). As contestants in the City Dionysia's competition (the most prestigious of the festivals to stage drama) playwrights were required to present a tetralogy of plays (though the individual works were not necessarily connected by story or theme), which usually consisted of three tragedies and one satyr play. The performance of tragedies at the City Dionysia may have begun as early as 534 BCE; official records (didaskaliai) begin from 501 BCE, when the satyr play was introduced.
Most Athenian tragedies dramatize events from Greek mythology, though The Persians—which stages the Persian response to news of their military defeat at the Battle of Salamis in 480 BCE—is the notable exception in the surviving drama. When Aeschylus won first prize for it at the City Dionysia in 472 BCE, he had been writing tragedies for more than 25 years, yet its tragic treatment of recent history is the earliest example of drama to survive. More than 130 years later, the philosopher Aristotle analysed 5th-century Athenian tragedy in the oldest surviving work of dramatic theory—his Poetics (c. 335 BCE).
Athenian comedy is conventionally divided into three periods, "Old Comedy", "Middle Comedy", and "New Comedy". Old Comedy survives today largely in the form of the eleven surviving plays of Aristophanes, while Middle Comedy is largely lost (preserved only in relatively short fragments in authors such as Athenaeus of Naucratis). New Comedy is known primarily from the substantial papyrus fragments of Menander. Aristotle defined comedy as a representation of laughable people that involves some kind of blunder or ugliness that does not cause pain or disaster.
In addition to the categories of comedy and tragedy at the City Dionysia, the festival also included the Satyr Play. Finding its origins in rural, agricultural rituals dedicated to Dionysus, the satyr play eventually found its way to Athens in its most well-known form. Satyr's themselves were tied to the god Dionysus as his loyal woodland companions, often engaging in drunken revelry and mischief at his side. The satyr play itself was classified as tragicomedy, erring on the side of the more modern burlesque traditions of the early twentieth century. The plotlines of the plays were typically concerned with the dealings of the pantheon of Gods and their involvement in human affairs, backed by the chorus of Satyrs. However, according to Webster, satyr actors did not always perform typical satyr actions and would break from the acting traditions assigned to the character type of a mythical forest creature. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre |
Mohammad Mokhber | Mansurun Group (~1971-78) -
As a teenager, Mokhber helped lay the groundwork for the Iranian Revolution in his home city of Dezful by joining the Mansurun Group, a guerrilla organization which worked to combat the Pahlavi regime. Through Mansurun, he collaborated with prominent figures in the IRGC and current conservative politicians including Ali and Mohammad Jahanara, Ali Shamkhani, Mohsen Rezaei, Mohammad Forouzandeh, Mohammad Baqer Zulqader and Seyed Ahmed Avai.
IRGC Medical Officer, Telecoms and Governance (~1980-2000) -
During the Iran-Iraq war, Mokhber became a medical officer with the IRGC in his home town of Dezful. In the 1990s, Mokhber was the CEO of Dezful Telecommunications, then deputy governor of Khuzestan Province.
Mostazafan Foundation (~2000-07) -
In the early 2000s Mokhber's influence expanded considerably when he became Vice President of Mostazafan Foundation, the second largest commercial enterprise in Iran behind the state-owned National Iranian Oil Company and biggest holding company in the Middle East. He was additionally made CEO of the foundation's Trade and Transport organization and placed on the board of two entities apparently linked to the foundation: Sina Bank, 84% of which is owned by Mostazafan, and MTN Irancell. While Iranian corporate records are not available to substantiate MTN Irancell's true ownership, a lawsuit filed by Turkcell in 2004 alleges 51% of the company is owned by Mostazafan. Both Sina Bank and MTN Irancell were involved in international scandals concerning activities that took place during Mokhber's tenure, which contributed to sanctions of Mokhber, Sina Bank and Mostazafan (see Corruption and Abuse of Power, and Sanctions).
Sina Bank -
As chairperson of Sina Bank's board, Mokhber oversaw its financing of Iran's ballistic missile and nuclear programs. This led directly to EU sanctions against both Mokhber and Sina Bank in 2010. In that same year, the U.S. also designated Sina Bank as an Iranian government-owned organization. In 2018 the U.S. Department of Treasury also sanctioned Sina Bank (see Sanctions).
Execution of Imam Khomeini's Order (EIKO), Head of Executive Staff (2007–21) -
On 16 July 2007, Mokhber was appointed head of the EIKO by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Mokhber’s appointment put him at the head of a powerful conglomerate which controls over $95 billion in assets built on "the systematic seizure of thousands of properties belonging to ordinary Iranians," according to Reuters.
Under his leadership, it executed a number of privatization efforts and played an important role in Iran's response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Shortly after Mokhber became EIKO's leader, it established the Barakat Foundation and its subsidiary, the Barakat Pharmaceutical Group. Under Mokhber's EIKO leadership, the Barakat Medical complex promised to develop, manufacture, and deliver 120 million doses of vaccine for $1 billion. It took the money, but only produced 5 million doses (see Corruption and Abuse of Power). As the leader of EIKO, Mokhber also spearheaded multiple privatization efforts, most notably that of 65 subsidiaries of the EIKO and Barakat. In 2019 the U.S. sanctioned Mokhber, EIKO, and its subsidiaries (see Sanctions).
First Vice President of Iran and Member of the Expediency Council (2021–24) -
On 8 August 2021, President Ebrahim Raisi appointed Mokhber first vice president of Iran. He is the seventh person to hold the office. Mokhber was the first person selected by former president Ebrahim Raisi after he took office in early August 2021. During his tenure as first Vice President, Mokhber was also appointed to Iran's Expediency Discernment Council, an advisory body to the supreme leader created by Khomenei in 1988.
These appointments placed him in control of multiple facets of the Iranian economy, such as the development of a strategic industrial plan and the promotion of domestic production, and at least one large privatization effort. In January 2023 the expediency discernment council placed him at the head of a seven-man commission tasked with managing the sale of government properties worth approximately $275 million. This commission has incurred allegations of corruption, and generated widespread alarm due to Iran's history of opaque privatization efforts which benefit the security establishment and powerful elites (see Corruption and Abuse of Power).
In addition to economic activities, as first vice president, Mokhber was responsible for the implementation of the Supreme Leader's domestic and foreign policy priorities and conducted diplomatic meetings with public and military officials throughout the region, notably commanders from the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad_Mokhber |
Comoros | According to legend, in 632, upon hearing of Islam, islanders are said to have dispatched an emissary, Mtswa-Mwindza, to Mecca—but by the time he arrived there, the Islamic prophet Muhammad had died. Nonetheless, after a stay in Mecca, he returned to Ngazidja, where he built a mosque in his home town of Ntsaweni, and led the gradual conversion of the islanders to Islam.
In 933, the Comoros was referred to by Omani sailors as the Perfume Islands.
Among the earliest accounts of East Africa, the works of Al-Masudi describe early Islamic trade routes, and how the coast and islands were frequently visited by Muslims including Persian and Arab merchants and sailors in search of coral, ambergris, ivory, tortoiseshell, gold and slaves. They also brought Islam to the people of the Zanj including the Comoros. As the importance of the Comoros grew along the East African coast, both small and large mosques were constructed. The Comoros are part of the Swahili cultural and economic complex and the islands became a major hub of trade and an important location in a network of trading towns that included Kilwa, in present-day Tanzania, Sofala (an outlet for Zimbabwean gold), in Mozambique, and Mombasa in Kenya.
The Portuguese arrived in the Indian Ocean at the end of the 15th century and the first Portuguese visit to the islands seems to have been that of Vasco da Gama's second fleet in 1503. For much of the 16th century the islands provided provisions to the Portuguese fort at Mozambique and although there was no formal attempt by the Portuguese crown to take possession, a number of Portuguese traders settled and married local women.
By the end of the 16th century local rulers on the African mainland were beginning to push back and, with the support of the Omani Sultan Saif bin Sultan they began to defeat the Dutch and the Portuguese. One of his successors, Said bin Sultan, increased Omani Arab influence in the region, moving his administration to nearby Zanzibar, which came under Omani rule. Nevertheless, the Comoros remained independent, and although the three smaller islands were usually politically unified, the largest island, Ngazidja, was divided into a number of autonomous kingdoms (ntsi).
The islands were well placed to meet the needs of Europeans, initially supplying the Portuguese in Mozambique, then ships, particularly the English, on the route to India, and, later, slaves to the plantation islands in the Mascarenes. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comoros |
Ahmed Yassin | Ahmed Yassin was born in al-Jura, a small village near the city of Ashkelon, in the Mandatory Palestine. His date of birth is not known for certain: according to his Palestinian passport, he was born on 1 January 1929, but he claimed to have actually been born in the summer of 1936. His father, Abdullah Yassin, died when he was three years old. Afterward, he became known in his neighborhood as Ahmad Sa'ada after his mother Sa'ada al-Habeel. This was to differentiate him from the children of his father's other three wives. Together, Yassin had four brothers and two sisters. He and his entire family fled to Gaza, settling in al-Shati Camp after his village was ethnically cleansed by the Israel Defense Forces during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.
Yassin came to Gaza as a refugee. When he was 12, he sustained a severe spinal injury while wrestling his friend Abdullah al-Khatib. His neck was kept in plaster for 45 days. The damage to his spinal cord rendered him a quadraplegic for the rest of his life. Fearing a rift between his family and al-Khatib's, Yassin initially told his family that he sustained his injuries while playing leapfrog during a sports lesson with his school friends on the beach.
Although Yassin applied to and attended Al-Azhar University in Cairo, he was unable to pursue his studies there due to his deteriorating health. He was forced to be educated at home where he read widely, particularly on philosophy and on religion, politics, sociology, and economics. His followers believe that his worldly knowledge made him "one of the best speakers in the Gaza Strip". During this time, he began delivering weekly sermons after Friday prayers, drawing large crowds of people.
After years of unemployment, he got a post as an Arabic language teacher at an elementary school in Rimal, Gaza. Headmaster Mohammad al-Shawa initially had reservations about Yassin, concerning the reception he would receive from the pupils due to his disability. However, according to al-Shawa, Yassin handled them well and his popularity grew, especially among the more scholarly children. His teaching methods reportedly provoked mixed reactions among parents because he encouraged his students to attend the mosque an additional two times a week. Having a regular job gave Yassin financial stability, and he married one of his relatives Halima Yassin in 1960 at the age of 22. The couple had eleven children. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Yassin |
Sultan | In Indonesia (formerly in the Dutch East Indies):
On Kalimantan
Sultanate of Banjar
Sultanate of Berau
Sultanate of Bulungan
Sultanate of Gunung Tabur
Sultanate of Kubu
Kutai Kartanegara Sultanate
Sultanate of Mempawah
Sultanate of Paser
Sultanate of Pontianak
Sultanate of Sambaliung
Sultanate of Sambas
On Sulawesi
Sultanate of Buton
Sultanate of Bone
Sultanate of Gowa
Sultanate of Luwu
Sultanate of Soppeng
Sultanate of Wajoq
On Java
Sultanate of Banten
Sultanate of Cirebon - the rulers in three of the four palaces (kraton), from which divided Cirebon was ruled: Kraton Kasepuhan, Kraton Kanoman and Kraton Kacirebonan (only in Kraton Kaprabonan was the ruler's title Panembahan)
Sultanate of Demak
Sultanate of Pajang
Sumedang Larang Sultanate
Sultanate of Mataram (was divided into two kingdoms: the Sultanate of Yogyakarta and Sunanan Surakarta)
Sultanate of Yogyakarta
Sunanate of Surakarta (susuhunan, a high-ranked monarch, equivalent to emperor)
In the Maluku Islands
Sultanate of Iha (Saparua)
Sultanate of Honimoa/ Siri Sori (Saparua)
Sultanate of Huamual (West Seram)
Sultanate of Negeri Soya (Ambon)
Sultanate of Tanah Hitu (Ambon)
Sultanate of Ternate
Sultanate of Tidore
Sultanate of Bacan
Sultanate of Jailolo
Sultanate of Loloda (North Halmahera)
In the Nusa Tenggara
Bima Sultanate on Sumbawa island
In the Riau Archipelago: Sultanate of Riau-Lingga by secession in 1818 under the expelled sultan of Johore (on Malaya) Sultan Abdul Rahman Muadzam Syah ibni al-Marhum Sultan Mahmud
In Sumatra
Aceh Sultanate (full style Sultan Berdaulat Zillullah fil-Alam)
Sultanate of Asahan
Awak Sungai, established 17th century at the split in four of Minangkabau, in 1816 extinguished by Netherlands East Indies colonial government
Sultanate of Deli
Sultanate of Indragiri
Sultanate of Langkat (previous style Raja)
Palembang Sultanate (Darussalam), also holding the higher title of Susuhunan
Sultanate of Pagaruyung
Sultanate of Perleuak
Riau-Lingga Sultanate
Samudera Pasai Sultanate
Sultanate of Serdang
Sultanate of Siak
In Malaysia:
In Peninsular Malaysia, where all seven of the country's present sultanates are located:
Sultanate of Perlis
Sultanate of Johor
Sultanate of Kedah
Sultanate of Kelantan
Sultanate of Pahang
Sultanate of Perak
Sultanate of Selangor
Sultanate of Terengganu
Furthermore, the ruler of Luak Jelebu, one of the constitutive states of the Negeri Sembilan confederation, had the style Sultan in addition to his principal title Undang Luak Jelebu.
Sultanate of Malacca
Sultanate of Sarawak
In Brunei:
Sultan of Brunei, Brunei (on Borneo island)
In China:
Dali, Yunnan, capital of the short-lived Panthay Rebellion
Furthermore, the Qa´id Jami al-Muslimin (Leader of the Community of Muslims) of Pingnan Guo ("Pacified South State", a major Islamic rebellious polity in western Yunnan province) is usually referred to in foreign sources as Sultan.
Ili Sultanate
In the Philippines:
Sultanate of Buayan
Sultanate of Maguindanao
Sultanate of Sulu (Sulu, Basilan, Palawan and Tawi-Tawi islands and part of eastern Sabah on North Borneo)
In Thailand:
Sultanate of Patani
Sultanate of Singgora | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sultan |
Rafic Hariri | Hariri was well regarded among international leaders, for example, he was a close friend of French President Jacques Chirac. Chirac was one of the first foreign dignitaries to offer condolences to Hariri's widow in person at her home in Beirut. The Special Tribunal for Lebanon was also created at his instigation. Syria was initially accused of the assassination, which led to the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon following widespread protests.
Major General Jamil Al Sayyed, then head of Lebanese General Security, Brigadier General Mustafa Hamdan, Major General Ali Hajj and Brigadier General Raymond Azar were all arrested in August 2005 at the request of German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, who was carrying out the UN investigation about the assassination. Sayyed was one of the persons who decided to assassinate Rafik Hariri according to a leaked draft version of the Mehlis report along with other Syrian high-rank intelligence and security officers and officials, namely Assef Shawkat, Maher Assad, Hassan Khalil and Bahjat Suleyman. However, later reports about the assassination did not repeat the allegations against Jamil Al Sayyed and other three Lebanese generals. Four Lebanese generals were held in Roumieh prison, northeast of Beirut from 2005 to 2009. They were released from the prison due to lack of evidence in 2009.
Following Hariri's death, there were several other bombings and assassinations against minor anti-Syrian figures. These included Samir Kassir, George Hawi, Gebran Tueni, Pierre Amine Gemayel, Antoine Ghanem and Walid Eido. Assassination attempts were made on Elias Murr, May Chidiac, and Samir Shehade (who was investigating Hariri's death).
An indictment against alleged Hezbollah members Salim Jamil Ayyash, Mustafa Amine Badreddine, Hussein Hassan Oneissi, and Assad Hassan Sabra was issued and confirmed by the Pre-Trial Judge of the United Nations special tribunal (see Special Tribunal for Lebanon) in 2011. In February 2014, the case against Hassan Habib Merhi was joined with the Ayyash et al. case. Proceedings against the accused Mustafa Badreddine were terminated in July 2016 following credible reports of his death. Salim Jamil Ayyash, Hassan Habib Merhi, Hussein Hassan Oneissi, and Assad Hassan Sabra currently remain on trial in absentia.
Hezbollah accused Israel of the assassination of Hariri. According to Hezbollah officials, the assassination of Hariri was planned by the Mossad as a means of expelling the Syrian army from Lebanon. In August 2010, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah presented evidence, consisting of intercepted Israeli spy-drone video footage, which he said implicated Israel in the assassination of Hariri. After an altercation between male Tribunal staff and women at a gynecology clinic in October 2010, Hezbollah demanded that the Lebanese government stop all cooperation with the Special Tribunal, claiming the tribunal to be an infringement on Lebanese sovereignty by western governments. On 1 November 2010, a report was leaked by Al Akhbar, a local secular, leftist newspaper, stating that Hezbollah drafted plans for a quick takeover of the country in the case an indictment against its members is issued by the UN Special Tribunal. The report states that Hezbollah conducted a simulation of the plan on 28 October, immediately following a speech by its secretary general.
On the other side, it was revealed by leaked US embassy cables that then Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate director Omar Suleiman reported that Syria "desperately" wanted to stop the investigation of the Tribunal. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafic_Hariri |
Cinema of Egypt | By the 1970s, Egyptian films struck a balance between politics and entertainment. Films such as 1972's Watch Out for ZouZou by Hassan el-Imam, starring "the Cinderella of Arab cinema", Soad Hosny, sought to balance politics and audience appeal. Zouzou integrated music, dance, and contemporary fashions into a story that balanced campus ferment with family melodrama.
The early 1970s was filled with films depicting the reasons behind Egypt's defeat in the 1967 War, especially the era between the defeat and the victory in the 1973 war. Films such as Hussein Kamal's Chitchat on the Nile in 1971, based on the 1966 book Adrift on the Nile by Naguib Mahfouz, the film encounters the society for the defeat. The reason behind the defeat was depicted in Thalal Ala al-Janib al-Akhar by Ghalib Shaath. Over 20 Another important films depicted the same issue, such as 1972's Dawn Visitor, which dealt with the excess security grip against opposition. The factors involved in this social and intellectual crisis were also treated in three important films of Youssef Chahine. In The Choice (1970), Chahine explores what he describes as the schizophrenia of the contemporary Arab intellectual, who on one hand is committed to romantic notions of the revolution and social change, and on the other is tied to personal selfish ambitions and goals, remnants of a colonial formation. In The Sparrow, which was not released by the censors until after the October War in 1973. Chahine reasserts his contention that the defeat was indeed internal, a product of the defects of the society itself Other films were criticizing the Nasserist era such as the 1975 film Karnak, as well as We Are the Bus in 1979 and others. All of these films attempt to clarify Methods of suppressing opposition.
After the victory in the 1973 War, several films depicted the war and its prelude as well as the dramatic events that took place during the war such as The Bullet is Still in My Pocket in 1974, as well as Badour and Sons of Silence, both released in 1974, and Life is a Moment in 1978. In Until the end of Life by Ashraf Fahmy, it dealt with a humanitarian angle away from battle scenes. This decade saw light comedy films which performed well in the box-office such as 1974's In Summer We Must Love starring Salah Zulfikar, one of this era's greatest bankable stars who starred in Virgo, and the psychological drama film The Other Man of 1973, all of which were box-office hits. Also the Box-Office King Hassan el-Imam directed films such as the 1975's I Love This, I Want That and Truth Has a Voice in 1976. Other films encountered corruption such as the 1975 film Whom Should We Shoot? by Kamal El Sheikh.
In mid-1971, the General Cinema Foundation was liquidated and a public body was established that included cinema, theater and music. The Authority stopped film production, contenting itself with financing the private sector, and the state's role in cinema began to decline until it completely ended novel production. Only two companies remained with the state, one for studios and the other for distribution and theaters. However, the average number of films produced remained 40 films until 1974, then it rose to 50. films, and the number of theaters continued to decline until it reached 190 in 1977.
Notable 1970s titles include; Sunset and Sunrise, The Guilty, I Want a Solution, Whom Should We Shoot?, Alexandria... Why?, Shafika and Metwali. Hassan Ramzi's 1975 Egyptian film Al-Rida’ al-Abyad was released in the Soviet Union in 1976, selling 61 million tickets in the country. This made it the highest-grossing foreign film of the year and the seventh highest-grossing foreign film ever in the Soviet Union. This also made it the highest-grossing Egyptian film of all time, with its Soviet ticket sales surpassing the worldwide ticket sales of all other Egyptian films, achieving revenue over $28,700,000 in 1975. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinema_of_Egypt |
Islamic economics | Addas, Waleed (2008). Methodology of Economics: Secular versus Islamic. IIUM. ISBN 978-983-3855-28-5.
Al-Amine, Muhammad al-Bashir Muhammad (2008). Risk Management in Islamic Finance: An Analysis of Derivatives Instruments in Commodity Markets. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-15246-5.
Ali, S. Nazim (2008). "Islamic finance and economics as reflected in research and publications". Review of Islamic Economics. 12 (1): 151–168.
Bakhash, Shaul (1984). The Reign of the Ayatollahs. Basic Books.
Behdad, Sohrab; Nomani, Farhad, eds. (2006). Islam and the Everyday World: Public Policy Dilemmas. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-36823-0.
Carvalho, J.P.; Iyer, S.; Rubin, J., eds. (2019). Advances in the Economics of Religion. International Economic Association Series. Palgrave Macmillan.
Chaney, E. "Religion, Political Power and Human Capital Formation: Evidence from Islamic History". In Carvalho, Iyer & Rubin (2019).
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Haaretz | Haaretz was first published in 1918 as a newspaper sponsored by the British military government in Palestine. In 1919, it was taken over by a group of socialist-oriented Zionists, mainly from Russia. The newspaper was established on 18 June 1919 by a group of businessmen including the philanthropist Isaac Leib Goldberg, initially called Hadashot Ha'aretz ("News of the Land"). Later, the name was shortened to Haaretz. The literary section of the paper attracted leading Hebrew writers of the time.
The newspaper was initially published in Jerusalem. From 1919 to 1922, the paper was headed by a succession of editors, among them Leib Yaffe. It was closed briefly due to a budgetary shortfall and reopened in Tel Aviv at the beginning of 1923 under the editorship of Moshe Glickson, who held the post for 15 years. The Tel Aviv municipality granted the paper financial support by paying in advance for future advertisements.
Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, Haaretz's liberal viewpoint was to some degree associated with the General Zionist "A" faction, which later helped form the Progressive Party, though it was nonpartisan and careful not to espouse any specific party line. It was considered the most sophisticated of the Yishuv's dailies.
Salman Schocken, a Jewish businessman who left Germany in 1934 after the Nazis had come to power, bought the paper in December 1935. Schocken was active in Brit Shalom, also known as the Jewish–Palestinian Peace Alliance, a body supporting co-existence between Jews and Arabs which was sympathetic to a homeland for both peoples. His son, Gershom Schocken, became the chief editor in 1939 and held that position until his death in 1990.
The Schocken family were the sole owners of the Haaretz Group until August 2006, when they sold a 25% stake to German publisher M. DuMont Schauberg. The deal was negotiated with the help of the former Israeli ambassador to Germany, Avi Primor. This deal was seen as controversial in Israel as DuMont Schauberg's father, Kurt Neven DuMont, was member of the Nazi Party and his publishing house promoted Nazi ideology.
On 12 June 2011, it was announced that Russian-Israeli businessman Leonid Nevzlin had purchased a 20% stake in the Haaretz Group, buying 15% from the family and 5% from M. DuMont Schauberg. In December 2019, members of the Schocken family bought all of the Haaretz stock belonging to M. DuMont Schauberg. The deal saw the Schocken family reach 75% ownership, with the remaining 25% owned by Leonid Nevzlin.
In October 2012, a union strike mobilized to protest planned layoffs by the Haaretz management, causing a one-day interruption of Haaretz and its TheMarker business supplement. According to Israel Radio, it was the first time since 1965 that a newspaper did not go to press on account of a strike. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haaretz |
Central Atlas Tamazight | Central Atlas Tamazight is one of the four most-spoken Berber languages, in addition to Kabyle, Tachelhit, and Riffian, and it comes second as the most-spoken Berber language after Tachelhit in Morocco. Differentiating these dialects is complicated by the fact that speakers of other languages may also refer to their language as 'Tamazight'. The differences between all three groups are largely phonological and lexical, rather than syntactic. Tamazight itself has a relatively large degree of internal diversity, including whether spirantization occurs.
Central Atlas Tamazight speakers refer to themselves as Amazigh (pl. Imazighen), an endonymic ethnonym whose etymology is uncertain, but may translate as "free people". The term Tamazight, the feminine form of Amazigh, refers to the language. Both words are also used self-referentially by other Berber groups, although Central Atlas Tamazight speakers use them regularly and exclusively.
In older studies, Central Atlas Tamazight is sometimes referred to as "Braber" / "Beraber", a dialectical Arabic term, or its Tamazight equivalent "Taberbrit". This is related to the Standard Arabic and English term "Berber", used to refer to all Berber dialects/languages, though eschewed by many Berbers because its etymology is pejorative.
Tamazight belongs to the Berber branch of the Afroasiatic language family; Afroasiatic subsumes a number of languages in North Africa and Southwest Asia including the Semitic languages, the Egyptian language, and the Chadic and Cushitic languages. Along with most other Berber languages, Tamazight has retained a number of widespread Afroasiatic features, including a two-gender system, verb–subject–object (VSO) typology, emphatic consonants (realized in Tamazight as pharyngealized), a templatic morphology, and a causative morpheme /s/ (the latter also found in other macrofamilies, such as the Niger–Congo languages). Within Berber, Central Atlas Tamazight belongs, along with neighbouring Tashelhiyt, to the Atlas branch of the Northern Berber subgroup.
Tamazight is in the middle of a dialect continuum between Riff to its north-east and Shilha to its south-west. The basic lexicon of Tamazight differs markedly from Shilha, and its verbal system is more similar to Riff or Kabyle. Moreover, Tamazight has a greater amount of internal diversity than Shilha.
Tamazight's dialects are divided into three distinct subgroups and geographic regions: those spoken in the Middle Atlas mountains; those spoken in the High Atlas mountains; and those spoken in Jbel Saghro and its foothills. Although the characteristic spirantization of /b/ > [β]; /t/ > [θ] or [h]; /d/ > [ð]; /k/ > [ç] or [ʃ]; and /ɡ/ > [ʝ], [ʃ] or [j] is apparent in Berber languages in central and northern Morocco and Algeria, as in many Middle Atlas dialects, it is more rare in High Atlas Tamazight speakers, and is absent in Tamazight speakers from the foothills of Jbel Saghro. Southern dialects (e.g. Ayt Atta) may also be differentiated syntactically: while other dialects predicate with the auxiliary /d/ (e.g. /d argaz/ "it's a man"), Southern dialects use the typically (High Atlas, Souss-Basin rural country, Jbel Atlas Saghro) auxiliary verb /g/ (e.g. /iga argaz/ "it's a man"). The differences between each of the three groups are primarily phonological.
Groups speaking Tamazight include: Ait Ayache, Ait Morghi, Ait Alaham, Ait Youb, Marmoucha, Ait Youssi, Beni Mguild, Zayane, Zemmour, Ait Rbaa, Ait Seri, Guerouane, Ait Segougou, Ait Yafelman, Ait Sikhmane, Ayt Ndhir (Beni Mtir).
There is some ambiguity as to the eastern boundary of Central Atlas Tamazight. The dialect of the Ait Seghrouchen and Ait Ouarain tribes are commonly classed as Central Atlas Tamazight, and Ait Seghrouchen is reported to be mutually intelligible with the neighbouring Tamazight dialect of Ait Ayache. Genetically, however, they belong to the Zenati subgroup of Northern Berber, rather than to the Atlas subgroup to which the rest of Central Atlas Tamazight belongs, and are therefore excluded by some sources from Central Atlas Tamazight. The Ethnologue lists another group of Zenati dialects, South Oran Berber (ksours sud-oranais), as a dialect of Central Atlas Tamazight, but these are even less similar, and are treated by Berber specialists as a separate dialect group. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Atlas_Tamazight |
Arabs | The Quran, the main holy book of Islam, had a significant influence on the Arabic language, and marked the beginning of Arabic literature. Muslims believe it was transcribed in the Arabic dialect of the Quraysh, the tribe of Muhammad. As Islam spread, the Quran had the effect of unifying and standardizing Arabic.
Not only is the Quran the first work of any significant length written in the language, but it also has a far more complicated structure than the earlier literary works with its 114 suwar (chapters) which contain 6,236 ayat (verses). It contains injunctions, narratives, homilies, parables, direct addresses from God, instructions and even comments on how the Quran will be received and understood. It is also admired for its layers of metaphor as well as its clarity, a feature which is mentioned in An-Nahl, the 16th surah.
Al-Jahiz (born 776, in Basra – December 868/January 869) was an Arab prose writer and author of works of literature, Mu'tazili theology, and politico-religious polemics. A leading scholar in the Abbasid Caliphate, his canon includes two hundred books on various subjects, including Arabic grammar, zoology, poetry, lexicography, and rhetoric. Of his writings, only thirty books survive. Al-Jāḥiẓ was also one of the first Arabian writers to suggest a complete overhaul of the language's grammatical system, though this would not be undertaken until his fellow linguist Ibn Maḍāʾ took up the matter two hundred years later.
There is a small remnant of pre-Islamic poetry, but Arabic literature predominantly emerges in the Middle Ages, during the Golden Age of Islam. Imru' al-Qais was a king and poet in the 6th century, he was the last king of Kindite. He is among the finest Arabic poetry to date, as well sometimes considered the father of Arabic poetry. Kitab al-Aghani by Abul-Faraj was called by the 14th-century historian Ibn Khaldun the register of the Arabs. Literary Arabic is derived from Classical Arabic, based on the language of the Quran as it was analyzed by Arabic grammarians beginning in the 8th century.
A large portion of Arabic literature before the 20th century is in the form of poetry, and even prose from this period is either filled with snippets of poetry or is in the form of saj or rhymed prose. The ghazal or love poem had a long history being at times tender and chaste and at other times rather explicit. In the Sufi tradition the love poem would take on a wider, mystical and religious importance.
Arabic epic literature was much less common than poetry, and presumably originates in oral tradition, written down from the 14th century or so. Maqama or rhymed prose is intermediate between poetry and prose, and also between fiction and non-fiction. Maqama was an incredibly popular form of Arabic literature, being one of the few forms which continued to be written during the decline of Arabic in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Arabic literature and culture declined significantly after the 13th century, to the benefit of Turkish and Persian. A modern revival took place beginning in the 19th century, alongside resistance against Ottoman rule. The literary revival is known as al-Nahda in Arabic, and was centered in Egypt and Lebanon. Two distinct trends can be found in the nahda period of revival.
The first was a neo-classical movement which sought to rediscover the literary traditions of the past, and was influenced by traditional literary genres—such as the maqama—and works like One Thousand and One Nights. In contrast, a modernist movement began by translating Western modernist works—primarily novels—into Arabic. A tradition of modern Arabic poetry was established by writers such as Francis Marrash, Ahmad Shawqi and Hafiz Ibrahim. Iraqi poet Badr Shakir al-Sayyab is considered to be the originator of free verse in Arabic poetry. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabs |
Mass media in Saudi Arabia | According to the estimation of the Word Bank in 2017, near about 50% of the population of the world uses the mobile phone. Out of 4.77 billion people that have been taken into consideration, 2.32 billion users use the smartphone. The people are getting connected with the society and for the business user. With the increase in the usage of the smartphone, the usage of the internet also gets increased. According to the recent survey, almost 95% population of Saudi Arabia uses the smartphone, and 85% of the population are subscribed to the mobile broadband people. Saudi Arabia is one of the most active countries that use the social network. Many Saudi Arabians have been getting involved with multiple social media platforms, and about almost half the population use Twitter. Along with Twitter they also have a large wave of people other applications such as Path, Keek, and Instagram which are the most popular social media sites used in Saudi Arabia.
Social media has morphed from a networking platform to a potent force for social change in Saudi Arabia. The government uses the social media platform to connect with the citizens all over the state. The social media applications help them to gauge public consciousness. The important government members of Saudi Arabia are taken to their respective Facebook account as well as Twitter accounts to drive for reforms across Saudi Arabia state. Members of the Saudi Arabia ruling government such as Tawfiq Al-Rabiah, Minister of Commerce and Industry and Abdulaziz Khoja, Minister of Culture and Information utilize their own social media websites or platform to spread information related to government initiatives and policies.
The younger generation of Saudi Arabia uses the Internet more in comparison to the older people. They use the internet mainly for the entertainment purposes and chatting purposes. Another survey has been conducted, and it verifies that most of the internet users are men. However, the women of Saudi Arabia desire to have rights like the modern women everywhere. The women want to use the internet and the social media. Hala Al-Dosari, an activist utilizes the power of social media to work to induce King Salman to stop the male guardianship practice. Near about 15,000 signatures have been accumulated after a Twitter campaign with hashtag the #IAmMyOwnGuardian.
The numbers of social media users have risen significantly in recent years. Saudi Arabia is considered as the largest markets for the social network located in the Middle East. Facebook and WhatsApp are the popular social networking sites used in Saudi Arabia. 97% of the users who live in Saudi Arabia use Facebook as 81% of them use WhatsApp. The Facebook and the WhatsApp provide the platform through which the users can express their ideas and thoughts, and people of Saudi Arabia use these platforms to communicate and stay interlinked with each other. The Saudi Arabians with the help of these platforms get more freedom of speech. Facebook has about 12 million users all over the world, and 2 million out of those 12 million users are from Saudi Arabia. At the moment there are about 70% YouTube users, and they watch 90 million videos on a daily basis. In Saudi Arabia, twitter is the most visited website, their users tweet 5 times per day on an average.
There is another point that must be taken into consideration. In 2016, Saudi Arabia was one of the fastest-growing Twitter markets in the world. Studies from Omnicom Media Group (OMG) confirm that Saudi Arabia currently has the highest Twitter penetration in the entire world. OMG also states that every three out of seven people search for the social network before anything else. Saudi Arabians also use the social media for other means; individuals use it as a platform for job searching, they also use the platform as a source selling products and promoting brands. King Abdulaziz University conducts research and explains all the adverse effects of using social media. The users are becoming overly dependent on the social network. The users are getting isolated from the normal social communication. Only 29% of the users prefer to visit their relatives because of the social network. The people of Saudi Arabia tend to share knowledge, videos, pictures and news on the social media channels. The users spend too much of their time on their electronics and they share relative information and personal information with the relatives, family and the closed ones. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_media_in_Saudi_Arabia |
Saladin | Briggs, M. S. (1921). "The Architecture of Saladin and the Influence of the Crusades (A.D. 1171–1250)". The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs. 38 (214): 10–20. JSTOR 861268.
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Hawwara | The Hawwara are the heirs of the ancient western Bavarians, in antiquity the Hawwara were one of the principal tribes located within the Masaesyli state. The traditional territory that was called Avaritana/Abaritana provincia by Quodvultdeus of Carthage later became known as “bilad Haouara”, country of the Haouara (of the Aurès) in the middle ages. During the Byzantine period the area called “Abaritana atque Getulia provincia” was a tribal principality and the Hawwara were one of the two major ruling confederations. Medieval historians have also attested the presence of the Hawwara in the Aurès region well before the arrival of the Arabs in the 7th century. Edrici placed the location of the Hawwara in the plains of M’Sila. From the 8th century to 12th century, the eastern boundaries of their land ran through Tawergha, Waddan, and Zella. Hawwara's territory was bordered to the east by the Mazata tribe.
Families originating from the Hawwara founded and ruled small Islamic kingdoms in Al-Andalus (present-day Spain) during the 11th century, including the Dhulnunid dynasty which ruled the Taifa of Toledo and the Banu Razin who ruled the Taifa of Albarracín. The latter still being the name of a Spanish town named Albarracín or Al Banu Razin, a sub-tribe of Hawwara. Other Spanish cities including Alhaurín el Grande and Alhaurín de la Torre also get there name from the Hawwara (Al Hawwariyin).
A fraction of the Hawwara were part the Fatimid army that conquered Egypt, Syria, Palestine and Jordan. After the conquest, they were given land grants by the Fatimid caliphs. The Hawwara tribe became dominant in al-Buhayra in Egypt. In 1380/1381, Barquq, Sultan of the Mamluks, established some Hawwara groups in Upper Egypt and granted the Iqta' of Girga to the Hawwari chief, Isma'il ibn Mazin. Isma'il was succeeded by Umar, the eponymous of the Banu Umar clan. According to Al-Maqrizi in his book ‘kitāb as-sulūk’, a group of Hawwara together with a group of Arabs from Upper Egypt attacked the wali of Aswan in the month of Rajab 798 (April 1396 A.D.) and made an alliance with the Arab tribe of Banu Kanz who inhabited Aswan. Al-Maqrizi also writes in his book ‘Al Khetat’ that in the month of Muharram 815 (1412 A.D.) the Hawwara tribesmen proceeded to Aswan and attacked the Banu Kanz Arabs. The Arab men fled, but many of them were killed while the women and children were taken into slavery. They destroyed the walls of the city and left it in ruins, without inhabitants. After sacking al-Fayyum in 1485, the Hawwara tribes became the true rulers of Upper Egypt.
In Egypt's history, the Southern region is the cradle of tribal settlements. By the 19th century, Southern Egypt and Northern Nubia were completely ruled-over by the Egyptian Hawwara tribe. Governance had become decentralized as the Hawwara spread their sovereignty over ten provinces and parts of the other remaining twenty-one provinces in Upper Egypt. The Egyptian Hawwara branch was deemed to be the de facto rulers of Upper Egypt and their authority spanned across North Africa, up until the campaigns of Ibrahim Pasha in 1813, which finally crushed their dominant influence, and made them flee in masses to the Sudan.
In past times, and before fleeing into Sudan due to the campaigns of Ibrahim Pasha targeting them, during the Mamluk era in Egypt, the Hawwara were the most influential tribe in Upper Egypt under the leadership of Sheikh Hammam. Sultan Barquq made relationships with the Hawwara in order to keep the Arab tribes from becoming powerful. Towards the end of the Mamluk dynasty, the Hawwara and Arabs began cooperating to kill Mamluks. Due to their cooperation, the Mamluks labelled the Hawwara as being Arab. Although like many they are rather arabized, the term "Sheikh of the Arabs" is usually bestowed upon any tribal leaders, however, according to Burckhardt, the Hawwara claim their ancient origin to be from the Maghreb region. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawwara |
2009 Mauritanian presidential election | On 15 September 2008, the National Assembly adopted plans to hold "free and fair elections" within 12–14 months, setting the election date in late 2009 at the latest. The chosen date of 6 June 2009 was announced by the official media on 23 January 2009.
Months before the election, it was widely expected that Abdel Aziz would stand as a candidate; Abdel Aziz said that retired officers should be allowed to run, fuelling speculation that he might retire from the army and run as a civilian. On 4 February 2009, while still expressing support for the coup and saying that Abdallahi should not be restored to the Presidency, Ahmed Ould Daddah—the country's main opposition leader, who heads the Rally of Democratic Forces (RFD) and placed second in the 2007 presidential election—proposed that the army give up power and that anyone who was serving in the military at the time of the coup should not be allowed to run in the presidential election. Abdel Aziz announced that he would run in the election on 29 March 2009, as was widely expected, and said that he would resign as Head of State (to be succeeded by the President of the Senate) in order to stand as a candidate.
On 8 April, Abdel Aziz told France 24 that he intended to resign prior to 22 April, as necessary for him to stand as a candidate. He also said that the election would be held as planned on 6 June, contradicting rumors of a delay that could facilitate possible mediation aimed at securing the participation of opposition parties. According to Abdel Aziz, the election was desired by 90% of the population. Later on 8 April, members of the pro-Abdallahi National Front for the Defense of Democracy (FNDD), including the President of the National Assembly, Massaoud Ould Boulkheir, held a protest in Nouakchott. Boulkheir denounced the "unilateral electoral agenda of the putschists" and warned that "neither tanks, nor guns nor live bullets can stop our fight against the usurpation of power by force". The announcement of a new electoral commission, headed by Cheikh Saadbouh Camara, also occurred on 8 April.
Opposition parties announced they would boycott the elections. The Alliance for Justice and Democracy/Movement for Renewal (AJD/MR), led by Ibrahima Sarr, expressed support for the military junta, and Sarr announced on April 11, 2009, that he would be a candidate in the election. Sarr said that "the conditions are there for a free poll" and that Mauritania did not have democracy under Abdallahi's presidency. Kane Hamidou Baba, Vice-President of the National Assembly and Vice-President of the RFD, also sought to stand as a candidate, although he did so without the approval of the RFD. Due to Baba's friendly attitude towards the junta, he was expelled from the FNDD coalition. Another candidate was Sghair Ould M'Bareck, who served as Prime Minister under President Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya from 2003 to 2005.
Abdel Aziz resigned on 15 April 2009 and was succeeded by Ba Mamadou Mbaré as Acting President. The deadline for the registration of presidential candidacies expired on 22 April; by that point none of the major opposition leaders, including RFD President Daddah, had registered, as they were all participating in the boycott. Observers concluded that the lack of a credible challenger meant that Abdul Aziz would easily win the election, although they noted that the credibility of the election itself could be threatened by the opposition boycott.
The Constitutional Court approved four candidacies on 27 April: those of Abdel Aziz, Ibrahima Sarr, Kane Hamidou Baba, and Sghair Ould M'Bareck. All of these candidates were sympathetic to the coup. The Union for the Republic (UPR) political party elected Abdel Aziz as its President at the party's constituent assembly on 5 May 2009; the UPR holds a parliamentary majority.
Abdel Aziz met with Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade and envoys from the African Union on 14 May 2009; although they reportedly wanted the election to be delayed in order to encourage the opposition to participate, Abdel Aziz said after the meeting that there would be no delay. Wade also met separately with Abdallahi and Daddah. Daddah said at a press conference on 26 May that there could be no talks unless the junta agreed to release political prisoners and suspend the electoral timetable.
Shortly before the scheduled date of the election, in reconciliation talks on 31 May 2009 it was agreed to postpone the election to 21 July and 4 August; this was later denied by the government, and on 2 June 2009 it was announced that it had been postponed to 18 July and 1 August. A final agreement between the junta and the opposition was signed on 4 June. The agreement provided for Abdallahi's formal resignation as President, the installation of a national unity government that would serve briefly prior to the election, and set the date of the election as 18 July. As a result of the agreement, all of the major parties were expected to participate in the election.
Ely Ould Mohamed Vall, who headed the 2005–2007 military junta, announced on 6 June 2009 that he would be a presidential candidate, running as an independent. He condemned the 2008 coup, asserting that it was "wrong and there was no reason for it" and that it had "provoked a particularly dangerous situation in our country". He stressed, however, that his candidacy was not directed against any particular individual, and he said that his goal, if elected, was "to build a reconciled country that is politically and economically viable and stable". He also said that he would "probably no longer be interested in public affairs" if not for the 2008 coup. The RFD announced on 9 June that Daddah had been designated as the party's presidential candidate by a special party congress. Observers considered Abdel Aziz, Daddah, and Vall to be the key candidates.
The moderate Islamist National Rally for Reform and Development (RNRD), which opposed the coup and participated in the FNDD, designated its President, Mohamed Jemil Ould Mansour, as its candidate on 14 June. Although the party chose to run its own candidate, it said that it would continue coordinating with the FNDD. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Mauritanian_presidential_election |
Oil-for-Food Programme | Other beneficiaries have been alleged:
Austria:
The Arab-Austrian Society (chaired by Fritz Edlinger) – 1,000,000 barrels (160,000 m3).
Belarus:
Liberal Party – 1,000,000 barrels (160,000 m3)
The Communist Party of Belarus – 1,000,000 barrels (160,000 m3)
Brazil:
The Revolutionary Movement 8th October, a Brazilian Communist group – 4,500,000 barrels (720,000 m3)
Canada:
Arthur Millholland, president and CEO of the Oilexco company
FR Yugoslavia (De facto:Serbia and Montenegro):
The Yugoslav Left party – 9,500,000 barrels (1,510,000 m3)
The Socialist Party – 1,000,000 barrels (160,000 m3)
The Italian Party – 1,000,000 barrels (160,000 m3)
"kokstuntsha" – possibly Kostunica's party – 1,000,000 barrels (160,000 m3)
Other parties:
The Romanian Labor Party – 5,500,000 barrels (870,000 m3)
The Party of the Hungarian Interest – 4,700,000 barrels (750,000 m3)
The Bulgarian Socialist Party – 12,000,000 barrels (1,900,000 m3)
The Communist Party of Slovakia – 1,000,000 barrels (160,000 m3)
France:
The French-Arab Friendship Association – 15,100,000 barrels (2,400,000 m3)
Former French Interior Minister Charles Pasqua – 12,000,000 barrels (1,900,000 m3)
Patrick Maugein, the Trafigura company – 25,000,000 barrels (4,000,000 m3)
Michel Grimard, "founder of the French-Iraqi Export Club" – 17,100,000 barrels (2,720,000 m3).
Egypt:
Khaled Gamal Abd Al-Nasser, "son of the late Egyptian president" – 16,600,000 barrels (2,640,000 m3)
Imad Al-Galda, "a businessman and a member of the Egyptian parliament from President Mubarak's National Democratic Party" – 14,000,000 barrels (2,200,000 m3)
Abd Al-Azim Mannaf, "editor of the Sout Al-Arab newspaper" – 6,000,000 barrels (950,000 m3)
Muhammad Hilmi, "editor of the Egyptian paper Sahwat Misr" – an undisclosed number of barrels.
The United Arab Company – 6,000,000 barrels (950,000 m3)
The Nile and Euphrates Company – 3,000,000 barrels (480,000 m3)
The Al-Multaqa Foundation for Press and Publication – 1,000,000 barrels (160,000 m3).
Libya:
Prime Minister Shukri Ghanem – 1,000,000 barrels (160,000 m3)
India:
The Indian National Congress – 1,000,000 barrels (160,000 m3)
Indonesia:
Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri – 1,000,000 barrels (160,000 m3)
Italy:
The Italian Petrol Union – 1,000,000 barrels (160,000 m3)
West Petrol, an Italian company that trades crude oil and oil products – 1,000,000 barrels (160,000 m3)
Roberto Formigoni, possibly the president of Lombardia – 1,000,000 barrels (160,000 m3)
Salvatore Nicotra, an oil merchant – 1,000,000 barrels (160,000 m3)
Myanmar:
Myanmar's Forestry Minister – 1,000,000 barrels (160,000 m3)
Palestine:
The Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) – 4,000,000 barrels (640,000 m3)
The PLO Political Bureau – 5,000,000 barrels (790,000 m3)
Abu Al-Abbas – 11,500,000 barrels (1,830,000 m3)
Abdallah Al-Horani – 8,000,000 barrels (1,300,000 m3)
The PFLP – 5,000,000 barrels (790,000 m3)
Wafa Tawfiq Al-Sayegh – 4,000,000 barrels (640,000 m3)
Qatar:
Qatari Horseracing Association Chairman Hamad bin Ali Aal Thani – 14,000,000 barrels (2,200,000 m3)
Gulf Petroleum – 2,000,000 barrels (320,000 m3)
Spain:
Basem Qaqish, "a member of the Spanish Committee for the Defense of the Arab Cause" – 1,000,000 barrels (160,000 m3)
Ali Ballout, "a pro-Saddam Lebanese journalist" – 1,000,000 barrels (160,000 m3)
Javier Robert – 1,000,000 barrels (160,000 m3)
Syria:
Farras Mustafa Tlass, "the son of Syrian Defense Minister Mustafa Tlass" – 6,000,000 barrels (950,000 m3)
Audh Amourah – 18,000,000 barrels (2,900,000 m3)
Ghassan Zakariya – 6,000,000 barrels (950,000 m3)
Anwar Al-Aqqad – 2,000,000 barrels (320,000 m3)
Hamida Na'Na', the owner of the Al Wefaq Al-Arabi periodical – 1,000,000 barrels (160,000 m3).
Switzerland:
Glencore, the largest commodity trader in Switzerland – 12,000,000 barrels (1,900,000 m3)
Taurus Petroleum – 1,000,000 barrels (160,000 m3)
Petrogas, which is "listed under three sub-companies – Petrogas Services, Petrogas Distribution, and Petrogas Resources – and is associated with the Russian company Rosneftegazetroy" – 1,000,000 barrels (160,000 m3)
Alcon, "listed in Lichtenstein and associated with larger oil companies" – 1,000,000 barrels (160,000 m3)
Finar Holdings, which is "listed in Lugano, Switzerland, and is under liquidation" – received 1,000,000 barrels (160,000 m3)
Ukraine:
The Social Democratic Party – 1,000,000 barrels (160,000 m3).
The Communist Party – 6,000,000 barrels (950,000 m3).
The Socialist Party – 1,000,000 barrels (160,000 m3).
The FTD oil company – 1,000,000 barrels (160,000 m3), as did other Ukrainian companies.
United Kingdom:
George Galloway – 1,000,000 barrels (160,000 m3)
Fawwaz Zreiqat – 1,000,000 barrels (160,000 m3). Zreiqat also appears in the Jordanian section as having received 6,000,000 barrels (950,000 m3)
The Mujahideen Khalq – 1,000,000 barrels (160,000 m3)
United States:
Samir Vincent, "organized a delegation of Iraqi religious leaders to visit the U.S. and meet with former president Jimmy Carter" – 10,500,000 barrels (1,670,000 m3)
Shaker Al-Khafaji, "the pro-Saddam chairman of the 17th conference of Iraqi expatriates" – 1,000,000 barrels (160,000 m3).
Other beneficiaries were companies and individuals from the Sudan, Yemen, Cyprus, Turkey, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Pakistan, Romania, the UAE, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Panama, Thailand, Chad, China, Nigeria, Kenya, Ireland, Bahrain, and the Philippines as well as two Saudi Arabian companies. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil-for-Food_Programme |
Israelites | In the 12th century BCE, many Israelite settlements appeared in the central hill country of Canaan, which was formerly an open terrain. These settlements lacked evidence of pork consumption, compared to Philistine settlements, have four-room houses and lived by an egalitarian ethos, which was exemplified by the absence of elaborate tombs, governor's mansions, certain houses being bigger than others etc. They followed a mixed economy, which prioritized self-sufficiency, cultivation of crops, animal husbandry and small-scale craft production. New technologies such as terraced farming, silos for grain storage and cisterns for rainwater collection were simultaneously introduced.
These settlements were built by inhabitants of the "general Southland" (i.e. modern Sinai and the southern parts of Israel and Jordan), who abandoned their pastoral-nomadic ways. Canaanites who lived outside the central hill country were tenuously identified as Danites, Asherites, Zebulunites, Issacharites, Naphtalites and Gadites. These inhabitants do not have a significant history of migration besides the Danites, who allegedly originate from the Sea Peoples, particularly the Dan(an)u. Nonetheless, they intermingled with the former nomads, due to socioeconomic and military factors. Their interest in Yahwism and its concern for the underprivileged was another factor. Possible allusions to this historical reality in the Hebrew Bible include the aforementioned tribes, except for Issachar and Zebulun, descending from Bilhah and Zilpah, who were viewed as "secondary additions" to Israel.
El worship was central to early Israelite culture but currently, the number of El worshippers in Israel is unknown. It is more likely that different Israelite locales held different views about El and had 'small-scale' sacred spaces.
Himbaza et. al (2012) states that Israelite households were typically ill-equipped to handle conflicts between family members, which may explain the harsh sexual taboos enforced against acts like incest, homosexuality, polygamy etc. in Leviticus 18–20. Whilst the death penalty was legislated for these ‘secret crimes’, they functioned as a warning, where offenders would confess out of fear and make appropriate reparations. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israelites |
Alawites | After the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War which began in 2011, the Ba'athist state imposed forced conscription of able-bodied men, mainly the youth. Due to the Assad government's fear of mass defections in military ranks, it prefers to send Alawite recruits for active combat on the frontlines and the conscriptions disproportionately targeted Alawite regions. This has resulted in a large number of 'Alawite casualties and Alawite villages in the coastal areas have suffered immensely as a result of their support for the Assad government. Many Alawites, particularly the younger generation who believes that the Ba'athists have held their community hostage, have reacted with immense anger at Assad government's corruption and hold the government responsible for the crisis. There have been rising demands across Alawite regions to end the conflict by achieving reconciliation with the Syrian opposition and preventing their community from being perceived as being associated with the Assad government.
Some have claimed many Alawite loyalists fear a negative outcome for the government may result in an existential threat to their community. In May 2013, pro-opposition SOHR stated that out of 94,000 Syrian regime soldiers killed during the war, at least 41,000 were Alawites. Reports estimate that up to a third of 250,000 young Alawite men of fighting age has been killed in the conflict by 2015, due to being disproportionately sent to fight in the frontlines by the Assad government. In April 2017, a pro-opposition source claimed 150,000 young Alawites had died. Another report estimates that around 100,000 Alawite youths were killed in combat by 2020.
Many Alawites feared significant danger during the Syrian Civil War; particularly from Islamic groups who were a part of the opposition, though denied by secular opposition factions. Alawites have also been wary of the increased Iranian influence in Syria since the Syrian civil war, viewing it as a threat to their long-term survival due to Khomeinist conversion campaigns focused in Alawite coastal regions. Many Alawites, including Assad loyalists, criticize such activities as a plot to absorb their ethno-religious identity into Iran's Twelver Shia umbrella and spread religious extremism in the country. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alawites |
Muhammad | Following the emigration, the people of Mecca seized property of Muslim emigrants to Medina. War would later break out between the people of Mecca and the Muslims. Muhammad delivered Quranic verses permitting Muslims to fight the Meccans. According to the traditional account, on 11 February 624, while praying in the Masjid al-Qiblatayn in Medina, Muhammad received revelations from God that he should be facing Mecca rather than Jerusalem during prayer. Muhammad adjusted to the new direction, and his companions praying with him followed his lead, beginning the tradition of facing Mecca during prayer.
Muhammad ordered a number of raids to capture Meccan caravans, but only the 8th of them, the Raid of Nakhla, resulted in actual fighting and capture of booty and prisoners. In March 624, Muhammad led some three hundred warriors in a raid on a Meccan merchant caravan. The Muslims set an ambush for the caravan at Badr. Aware of the plan, the Meccan caravan eluded the Muslims. A Meccan force was sent to protect the caravan and went on to confront the Muslims upon receiving word that the caravan was safe. Due to being outnumbered more than three to one, a spirit of fear ran throughout the Muslim camp; Muhammad tried to boost their morale by telling them he had a dream in which God promised to send 1,000 angels to fight with them. From a tactical standpoint, Muhammad placed troops in front of all of the wells so the Quraysh would have to fight for water, and positioned other troops in such a way that would require the Quraysh to fight uphill while also facing the sun. The Battle of Badr commenced, and the Muslims ultimately won, killing at least forty-five Meccans with fourteen Muslims dead. They also succeeded in killing many Meccan leaders, including Abu Jahl. Seventy prisoners had been acquired, many of whom were ransomed. Muhammad and his followers saw the victory as confirmation of their faith and Muhammad ascribed the victory to the assistance of an invisible host of angels. The Quranic verses of this period, unlike the Meccan verses, dealt with practical problems of government and issues like the distribution of spoils.
The victory strengthened Muhammad's position in Medina and dispelled earlier doubts among his followers. As a result, the opposition to him became less vocal. Pagans who had not yet converted were very bitter about the advance of Islam. Two pagans, Asma bint Marwan of the Aws Manat tribe and Abu 'Afak of the 'Amr b. 'Awf tribe, had composed verses taunting and insulting the Muslims. They were killed by people belonging to their own or related clans, and Muhammad did not disapprove of the killings. This report, however, is considered by some to be a fabrication. Most members of those tribes converted to Islam, and little pagan opposition remained.
Muhammad expelled from Medina the Banu Qaynuqa, one of three main Jewish tribes, but some historians contend that the expulsion happened after Muhammad's death. According to al-Waqidi, after Abd-Allah ibn Ubaiy spoke for them, Muhammad refrained from executing them and commanded that they be exiled from Medina. Following the Battle of Badr, Muhammad also made mutual-aid alliances with a number of Bedouin tribes to protect his community from attacks from the northern part of Hejaz. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad |
QatarEnergy | In 1973, the state seized a 25 percent stake in onshore concessions of QPC and offshore concessions of SCQ. As part of the agreement, the government stake would increase by 5 percent every year until it reached 51 percent in 1981. However, in early 1974, the initial agreement was repealed after QPC agreed to a new agreement which would allow the state to increase its share in both companies to 60 percent.
In December 1974, the government officially announced its intent to acquire SCQ's and QPC's remaining shares. A government decree passed in 1975 declared government ownership of the remaining shares. Negotiations throughout the following years resulted in the government assuming full ownership of QPC's onshore concessions in September 1976 and the SCQ's offshore activities in February 1977, thus fully nationalizing the oil sector.
In 1991, Qatar Petroleum initiated an upgrade program for oil production facilities. The program included bringing the Diyab structure (Dukhan) online and enhanced oil recovery (EOR), particularly at the Dukhan field. QP expects to boost capacity at Dukhan from 335,000 bbl/d (53,300 m3/d) in 2006 to 350,000 bbl/d (56,000 m3/d) in 2008. QP is carrying out similar work at several smaller fields, including the offshore Bul Hanine and Maydam Mahzam. Prospects for new discoveries are limited. QP carried out much exploration activity during the early 1980s but exploration declined as the oil glut of the mid-1980s gathered pace. Since then, QP has encouraged foreign operators to apply for exploration licenses. Although the number of wells drilled grew significantly towards the end of the 1980s, there was little success. Most new exploration and production (E&P) is done offshore by international oil companies, including ExxonMobil, Chevron, and Total. While substantial E&P is underway, there have not been any major oil discoveries in Qatar during the last decade. Most anticipated new oil production will come from Maersk Oil (Denmark), which operates the Al Shaheen field. Maersk reached an agreement with Qatar Petroleum in December 2005, under which the company intends to drill more than 160 production and water injection wells and establish three offshore platforms. The total oil production from Al Shaheen is planned to be gradually increased from 240,000 bbl/d (38,000 m3/d) at the beginning of 2006 to 300,000 bbl/d (48,000 m3/d) by the end of 2009. When completed, Qatar would have more than 1,100,000 bbl/d (170,000 m3/d) in crude production capacity.
In August 2019, French multinational integrated oil and gas company Total confirmed signing deals over transferring some of its assets in Kenya, Guyana and Namibia to Qatar Petroleum. With the deals, QP will hold a 30% interest in Block 2913B and 28.33% in Block 2912 of Namibia. QP will also have 40% of the company holding Total's existing 25% interests in the Orinduik and Kanuku blocks of Guyana and 25% interest in Blocks L11A, L11B and L12 of Kenya. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QatarEnergy |
Sufism | Sufis believe the sharia (exoteric "canon"), tariqa ("order") and haqiqa ("truth") are mutually interdependent. Sufism leads the adept, called salik or "wayfarer", in his sulûk or "road" through different stations (maqāmāt) until he reaches his goal, the perfect tawhid, the existential confession that God is One. Ibn Arabi says, "When we see someone in this Community who claims to be able to guide others to God, but is remiss in but one rule of the Sacred Law—even if he manifests miracles that stagger the mind—asserting that his shortcoming is a special dispensation for him, we do not even turn to look at him, for such a person is not a sheikh, nor is he speaking the truth, for no one is entrusted with the secrets of God Most High save one in whom the ordinances of the Sacred Law are preserved. (Jamiʿ karamat al-awliyaʾ)".
It is related, moreover, that Malik, one of the founders of the four schools of Sunni law, was a strong proponent of combining the "inward science" ('ilm al-bātin) of mystical knowledge with the "outward science" of jurisprudence. For example, the famous twelfth-century Maliki jurist and judge Qadi Iyad, later venerated as a saint throughout the Iberian Peninsula, narrated a tradition in which a man asked Malik "about something in the inward science", to which Malik replied: "Truly none knows the inward science except those who know the outward science! When he knows the outward science and puts it into practice, God shall open for him the inward science – and that will not take place except by the opening of his heart and its enlightenment." In other similar traditions, it is related that Malik said: "He who practices Sufism (tasawwuf) without learning Sacred Law corrupts his faith (tazandaqa), while he who learns Sacred Law without practicing Sufism corrupts himself (tafassaqa). Only he who combines the two proves true (tahaqqaqa)".
The Amman Message, a detailed statement issued by 200 leading Islamic scholars in 2005 in Amman, specifically recognized the validity of Sufism as a part of Islam. This was adopted by the Islamic world's political and temporal leaderships at the Organisation of the Islamic Conference summit at Mecca in December 2005, and by six other international Islamic scholarly assemblies including the International Islamic Fiqh Academy of Jeddah, in July 2006. The definition of Sufism can vary drastically between different traditions (what may be intended is simple tazkiah as opposed to the various manifestations of Sufism around the Islamic world). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sufism |
Metropolitan Museum of Art | On the death of banker Robert Lehman in 1969, his Foundation donated 2,600 works of art to the museum, which had been collected by Robert and his father. Housed in the "Robert Lehman Wing", on the ground floor and the basement level, the museum refers to the collection as "one of the most extraordinary private art collections ever assembled in the United States". To emphasize the personal nature of the Robert Lehman Collection, the Met housed the collection in a special set of galleries, some of which evoked the interior of Lehman's richly decorated townhouse at 7 West 54th Street. This intentional separation of the Collection as a "museum within the museum" met with mixed criticism and approval at the time, though the acquisition of the collection was seen as a coup for the Met. Some have argued that it would be educationally more beneficial to have works from given schools of painting in the same section of the museum.
Unlike other departments at the Met, the Robert Lehman collection does not concentrate on a specific style or period of art; rather, it is a reflection of Lehman's personal collecting interests. The Lehmans concentrated heavily on paintings of the Italian Renaissance, particularly the Sienese school. Sienese highlights include multiple major paintings by Ugolino da Siena, Simone Martini, Sano di Pietro, and Giovanni di Paolo, as well as a remarkable work by the Osservanza Master. Other choice Italian paintings in the collection include masterpieces like Botticelli's Annunciation, a pair of stunning portraits by Jacometto Veneziano, and a stellar Madonna and Child by Giovanni Bellini. The Northern school of painting is represented by Petrus Christus, Hans Memling, the Master of Moulins (Jean Hey), Hans Holbein, and Lucas Cranach and his studio. Dutch and Spanish Baroque highlights include the Spanish painters El Greco and Goya, and the Dutch masters Rembrandt, Ter Borch, and de Hooch.
Lehman's collection of 700 drawings by the Old Masters, featuring works by Rembrandt and Dürer, is particularly valuable for its breadth and quality. The collection also has French 18th and 19th century drawings, as well as nearly two-hundred 18th century Venetian drawings, mostly by the Tiepolos.
The collection of bronzes, furniture, Renaissance majolica, Venetian glass, enamels, jewelry, textiles, and frames is outstanding. The Lehman collection of Italian majolica is regarded as the best in the country.
Robert Lehman also collected many nineteenth and twentieth century paintings. These include works by Ingres, Corot, the Barbizon School, Monet, Renoir, Cezanne, Gauguin, Van Gogh, Seurat, and a number of Fauve painters, including Matisse. Princeton University Press has documented the massive collection in a multi-volume book series published as The Robert Lehman Collection Catalogues. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Museum_of_Art |
Hyksos | The length of time the Hyksos ruled is unclear. The fragmentary Turin King List says that there were six Hyksos kings who collectively ruled 108 years, however in 2018 Kim Ryholt proposed a new reading of as many as 149 years, while Thomas Schneider proposed a length between 160 and 180 years. The rule of the Hyksos overlaps with that of the native Egyptian pharaohs of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Dynasties, better known as the Second Intermediate Period.
The area under direct control of the Hyksos was probably limited to the eastern Nile delta. Their capital city was Avaris at a fork on the now-dry Pelusiac branch of the Nile. Memphis may have also been an important administrative center, although the nature of any Hyksos presence there remains unclear.
According to Anna-Latifa Mourad, other sites with likely Levantine populations or strong Levantine connections in the Delta include Tell Farasha and Tell el-Maghud, located between Tell Basta and Avaris, El-Khata'na, southwest of Avaris, and Inshas. The increased prosperity of Avaris may have attracted more Levantines to settle in the eastern Delta. Kom el-Hisn at the edge of the Western Delta, shows Near-Eastern goods but individuals mostly buried in an Egyptian style, which Mourad takes to mean that they were most likely Egyptians heavily influenced by Levantine traditions or, more likely, Egyptianized Levantines. The site of Tell Basta (Bubastis), at the confluence of the Pelusiac and Tanitic branches of the Nile, contains monuments to the Hyksos kings Khyan and Apepi, but little other evidence of Levantine habitation. Tell el-Habwa (Tjaru), located on a branch of the Nile near the Sinai, also shows evidence of non-Egyptian presence, however the majority of the population appears to have been Egyptian or Egyptianized Levantines. Tell El-Habwa would have provided Avaris with grain and trade goods.
In the Wadi Tumilat, Tell el-Maskhuta shows a great deal of Levantine pottery and an occupation history closely correlated to the Fifteenth Dynasty, nearby Tell el-Rataba and Tell el-Sahaba show possible Hyksos-style burials and occupation, Tell el-Yahudiyah, located between Memphis and the Wadi Tumilat, contains a large earthwork that may have been built by the Hyksos, as well as evidence of Levantine burials from as early as the Thirteenth Dynasty. The Hyksos settlements in the Wadi Tumilat would have provided access to Sinai, the southern Levant, and possibly the Red Sea.
The sites Tell el-Kabir, Tell Yehud, Tell Fawziya, and Tell Geziret el-Faras are noted by scholars other than Mourad to contain "elements of 'Hyksos culture'", but there is no published archaeological material for them.
The Hyksos claimed to be rulers of both Lower and Upper Egypt; however, their southern border was marked at Hermopolis and Cusae. Some objects might suggest a Hyksos presence in Upper Egypt, but they may have been Theban war booty or attest simply to short term raids, trade, or diplomatic contact. The nature of Hyksos control over the region of Thebes remains unclear. Most likely Hyksos rule covered the area from Middle Egypt to southern Palestine. Older scholarship believed, due to the distribution of Hyksos goods with the names of Hyksos rulers in places such as Baghdad and Knossos, that Hyksos had ruled a vast empire, but it seems more likely to have been the result of diplomatic gift exchange and far-flung trade networks. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyksos |
National Institute of Statistics and Applied Economics | Actuarial Sciences and Finance
The rapid development of financial markets worldwide, has expanded considerably to the theory of finance, so the banking, insurance and large companies need "experts" in this field.
In this perspective, INSEA began training engineers actuarial funding status since 1998, engineers familiar with the new financial theories, while mastering tools, mathematics and statistics at top level.
A state engineer holds a Diploma in Actuarial INSEA-finance can work in multiple markets such as market operators: they take positions and manage mission-oriented investment, hedging or speculation on behalf of institutions or customers; official who follows the market activities and control risk; fund manager: making investment choices, or take positions to ensure better use of the wallet, within the constraints of legislation and contracts spent with clients, managing assets / liabilities: Advisor of the Directorate General in the asset and liabilities, or organizer: adaptation and modernization of tools and methods.
Biostatistics, Demography, and Big Data
The aim of the Biostatistics, Demography, and Big Data program is to equip students with multidisciplinary skills for careers that combine Statistics (and its counterpart "Big Data"), Demography, Biomedical Sciences, and Big Data tools (languages and platforms). The curriculum provides a multidisciplinary education characterized by a breadth of advanced courses in Statistics/Biostatistics, Demography, Sociology, and Sustainable Development, survey methodology, forecasting techniques, and the ability to utilize both conventional data and unconventional sources such as data from web traces (Internet of Things, Social Networks, satellite data, mobile telephony...) with added value from knowledge and methods of machine learning for Big Data utilization.
Data Science
The objective of the program is to train a specialized profile in the management and sharp analysis of massive data, "Big Data." This sought-after profile, namely the "Data Scientist," integrates the profiles of "Data Analyst" and "Data Engineer"; they are capable of generating predicted values from raw data. Based on multiple, scattered, and unstructured data sources, they determine prediction models and indicators allowing the implementation of a strategy addressing a specific problem. They are therefore specialized in Computer Science, Statistics, and Applied Mathematics.
The engineer also benefits from courses in Economics, Entrepreneurship, Sociology, Communication, and languages to reinforce soft skills.
This triply versatile training allows the Data Scientist engineer from INSEA to analyze any type of problem related to massive data, propose suitable and quality computing solutions and prediction models, easily integrate into the professional world, and intervene in all areas and specializations of Data Science.
Data and Software Engineering
Recent developments in computer science are increasingly shifting software development activities towards integrating large-scale data processing technologies, aiming to obtain systems based on robust and scalable architecture. The knowledge imparted in the Data and Software Engineering program follows this trend and is designed to enable future engineers to quickly access roles such as data engineer or software development consultant. Thus, this program significantly broadens the spectrum of opportunities available to our students, especially since INSEA remains one of the few Moroccan engineering institutions to offer such a curriculum.
Operational Research
Operations research is the application of scientific method to master the complex problems encountered in the direction and management systems in industry, commerce and administration. The aim is to take an aid to decision making. The curriculum at INSEA attempts to provide both: a preparation for life in Operations Research, research and preparation of OR in the following areas: Combinatorial optimization, Graphs and Combinatorics and Discrete Mathematics.
Through cross-training acquired in INSEA, the engineer in OR is as much an expert analysis of organizational processes and phenomena that specializes in the management, design and operation of systems information.
It can therefore work in the following areas: computerization of a business information management (job description), analysis of financial flows (work schedule), designing databases, development of Master Plan (quality control ) management of telecommunications (forecast) and also in the system design decision support (inventory management).
Applied Economics, Statistics, and Big Data
The objective of this program is to train students in various techniques to acquire a profile as a statistician-economist engineer whose skills can be applied in all sectors of the economy, industry, and services. Upon completion of this training, students will be capable of adapting to issues arising from different sectors of activity, innovating, and employing new methods of data collection, processing, and statistical and econometric analysis to carry out projects meeting the needs of the administration or the private sector: industry, banking sector, polling institutes, services, etc. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Institute_of_Statistics_and_Applied_Economics |
Muhammad Iqbal | Muhammad Iqbal's The Call of the Marching Bell (بانگِ درا, bang-e-dara), his first collection of Urdu poetry, was published in 1924. It was written in three distinct phases of his life. The poems he wrote up to 1905—the year he left for England—reflect patriotism and the imagery of nature, including the Urdu language patriotic "Saare Jahan se Accha". The second set of poems date from 1905 to 1908, when Iqbal studied in Europe, and dwell upon the nature of European society, which he emphasised had lost spiritual and religious values. This inspired Iqbal to write poems on the historical and cultural heritage of Islam and the Muslim community, with a global perspective. Iqbal urges the entire Muslim community, addressed as the Ummah, to define personal, social and political existence by the values and teachings of Islam.
Iqbal's works were in Persian for most of his career, but after 1930 his works were mainly in Urdu. His works in this period were often specifically directed at the Muslim masses of India, with an even stronger emphasis on Islam and Muslim spiritual and political reawakening. Published in 1935, Bal-e-Jibril بالِ جبریل (Wings of Gabriel) is considered by many critics as his finest Urdu poetry and was inspired by his visit to Spain, where he visited the monuments and legacy of the kingdom of the Moors. It consists of ghazals, poems, quatrains and epigrams and carries a strong sense of religious passion.
Zarb-i-Kalim ضربِ کلیم (or The Rod of Moses) is another philosophical poetry book of Allama Iqbal in Urdu, it was published in 1936, two years before his death. In which he described as his political manifesto. It was published with the subtitle "A Declaration of War Against the Present Times. Muhammad Iqbal argues that modern problems are due to the godlessness, materialism, and injustice of modern civilization, which feeds on the subjugation and exploitation of weak nations, especially the Indian Muslims.
Iqbal's final work was Armughan-e-Hijaz ارمغانِ حجاز (The Gift of Hijaz), published posthumously in 1938. The first part contains quatrains in Persian, and the second part contains some poems and epigrams in Urdu. The Persian quatrains convey the impression that the poet is travelling through the Hijaz in his imagination. The profundity of ideas and intensity of passion are the salient features of these short poems.
Iqbal's vision of mystical experience is clear in one of his Urdu ghazals, which was written in London during his student days. Some verses of that ghazal are:
At last, the silent tongue of Hijaz has
announced to the ardent ear the tiding
That the covenant which had been given to the
desert-[dwellers] is going to be renewed
vigorously:
The lion who had emerged from the desert and
had toppled the Roman Empire is
As I am told by the angels, about to get up
again (from his slumbers.)
You the [dwellers] of the West, should know that
the world of God is not a shop (of yours).
Your imagined pure gold is about to lose its
standard value (as fixed by you).
Your civilization will commit suicide with its
own daggers.
For a house built on a fragile bark of wood is not longlasting | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Iqbal |
Diriyah | Although the location is sometimes identified with an ancient settlement mentioned by Yaqut and Al-Hamadani known as "Ghabra", the history of Diriyah proper dates back to the 15th century. According to the chroniclers of Nejd, the city was founded in 1446–47 by Mani' Al-Muraydi (مانع المريدي), an ancestor of the Saudi royal family. Mani and his clan had come from the area of Al-Qatif in eastern Arabia, upon the invitation of Ibn Dir' (ابن درع), who was then the ruler of a group of settlements that now make up Riyadh. Ibn Dir' is said to have been a relative of Mani' Al-Mraydi, and Mani's clan is believed to have left the area of Wadi Hanifa at some unknown date and were merely returning to their country of origin.
Initially, Mani' and his clan, known as the Mrudah, settled in Ghusaybah (الغصيبة) and Al-Mulaybeed (المليبيد). The entire settlement was named Al-Dir'iyah, after Mani's benefactor Ibn Dir'. Later on, the district of Turaif (طُريف) was settled. Many families from other towns or from the Bedouin tribes of the nearby desert eventually settled in the area and by the 18th century Diriyah had become a well-known town in Nejd.
At that time, Muhammad ibn Saud emerged from a struggle within the ruling family of Al-Diriyah, the Al Miqrin (مقرن, sons of Miqrin, a descendant of Mani'), and became the emir, or ruler, of Al-Diriyah. In 1744, Ibn Saud took in a religious scholar named Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, who hailed from the town of Al-Uyaynah, lying on the same wadi some 30 miles upstream. Ibn Saud agreed to implement al-Wahhabi religious views, and what later became known as the First Saudi State, with its capital at Diriyah, was born. Within the next several decades, Ibn Saud and his immediate descendants managed to subjugate all of Nejd, as well as the eastern and western regions of Arabia, and sent raids into Iraq. Diriyah quickly swelled in size and increased in wealth, becoming the largest town in Nejd and a major city in Arabia by the standards of the time. However, the Saudis' conquest of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina drew the ire of the Ottoman Empire, the major Islamic power at the time, which led to the Ottoman-Saudi War of 1811–1818 and an invasion of Arabia by the Ottoman Empire and Egyptian forces. They brought the Saudi state to an end in 1818, with Diriyah capitulating after a nearly-year-long siege. The leader of the invading force, Ibrahim Pasha, ordered the destruction of Diriyah. However, when a member of the local nobility tried to revive the Wahhabi state in Diriyah, Ibrahim ordered his troops to destroy the town even further and set whatever was left of it on fire. When the Saudis revived their fortunes in 1824 and again in 1902, they made their capital further south in Riyadh, which has remained their capital ever since.
The Ottoman Empire viewed the Arab challenge with alarm, especially after the loss of Mecca and Medina, and the removal of the Ottoman emperor's name from Friday prayers. An Egyptian army under Ibrahim Pasha was sent to recover lost territory. In 1818 the army entered Diriyah and after a six-month siege penetrated the defences on the Turaif, totally destroyed the houses and cut down every tree in the palm groves. The Egyptians were estimated to have lost 10,000 men in the siege, and the Saudi forces 1,800.
The town's original inhabitants left Diriyah after 1818, with the bulk of them moving to Riyadh. In The Kingdom (first published in 1981), British author Robert Lacey observed that the Al Saud had "left the shell of their old capital behind them, an enduring reminder of the frontiers of the possible" and compared the old Diriyah to "a sand-blown Pompeii". However, the area was resettled in the late 20th century, mostly by former nomads (Bedouin), and a new city was founded by the Saudi government in the late 1970s. This new city of Diriyah grew in size and is now a small but modern town and the seat of its own governorate. The ruins remain a tourist attraction and are subject to a slow restoration project on the part of the Saudi government. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diriyah |
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