1.
Cairo
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Cairo is the capital and largest city of Egypt. Cairo has long been a center of the political and cultural life. Cairo has the oldest and largest film and music industries in the Arab world, as well as the worlds second-oldest institution of higher learning, Al-Azhar University. Many international media, businesses, and organizations have regional headquarters in the city, with a population of 6.76 million spread over 453 square kilometers, Cairo is by far the largest city in Egypt. An additional 9.5 million inhabitants live in proximity to the city. Cairo, like many other mega-cities, suffers from high levels of pollution, Cairos metro, one of only two in Africa, ranks among the fifteen busiest in the world, with over 1 billion annual passenger rides. The economy of Cairo was ranked first in the Middle East in 2005, Egyptians often refer to Cairo as Maṣr, the Egyptian Arabic name for Egypt itself, emphasizing the citys importance for the country. In Coptic the city is known as Kahire, meaning Place of the Sun, possibly referring to the ancient city of Heliopolis, the location of the ancient city is the suburb of Ain Shams. The ancient Egyptian name for the area is thought to be Khere-Ohe, The Place of Combat, sometimes the city is informally referred to as Kayro. The area around present-day Cairo, especially Memphis, had long been a point of Ancient Egypt due to its strategic location just upstream from the Nile Delta. However, the origins of the city are generally traced back to a series of settlements in the first millennium. Around the turn of the 4th century, as Memphis was continuing to decline in importance and this fortress, known as Babylon, remained the nucleus of the Roman, and, later, the Byzantine, city and is the oldest structure in the city today. It is also situated at the nucleus of the Coptic Orthodox community, many of Cairos oldest Coptic churches, including the Hanging Church, are located along the fortress walls in a section of the city known as Coptic Cairo. Following the Muslim conquest in 640 AD the conqueror Amr ibn As settled to the north of the Babylon in an area became known as al-Fustat. Originally a tented camp Fustat became a permanent settlement and the first capital of Islamic Egypt, in 750, following the overthrow of the Ummayad caliphate by the Abbasids, the new rulers created their own settlement to the northeast of Fustat which became their capital. This was known as al-Askar as it was laid out like a military camp, a rebellion in 869 by Ahmad ibn Tulun led to the abandonment of Al Askar and the building of another settlement, which became the seat of government. This was al-Qattai, to the north of Fustat and closer to the river, Al Qattai was centred around a palace and ceremonial mosque, now known as the Mosque of ibn Tulun. In 905 the Abbasids re-asserted control of the country and their returned to Fustat
2.
Egypt
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Egypt, officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia by a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. Egypt is a Mediterranean country bordered by the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Gulf of Aqaba to the east, the Red Sea to the east and south, Sudan to the south, and Libya to the west. Across the Gulf of Aqaba lies Jordan, and across from the Sinai Peninsula lies Saudi Arabia, although Jordan and it is the worlds only contiguous Afrasian nation. Egypt has among the longest histories of any country, emerging as one of the worlds first nation states in the tenth millennium BC. Considered a cradle of civilisation, Ancient Egypt experienced some of the earliest developments of writing, agriculture, urbanisation, organised religion and central government. One of the earliest centres of Christianity, Egypt was Islamised in the century and remains a predominantly Muslim country. With over 92 million inhabitants, Egypt is the most populous country in North Africa and the Arab world, the third-most populous in Africa, and the fifteenth-most populous in the world. The great majority of its people live near the banks of the Nile River, an area of about 40,000 square kilometres, the large regions of the Sahara desert, which constitute most of Egypts territory, are sparsely inhabited. About half of Egypts residents live in areas, with most spread across the densely populated centres of greater Cairo, Alexandria. Modern Egypt is considered to be a regional and middle power, with significant cultural, political, and military influence in North Africa, the Middle East and the Muslim world. Egypts economy is one of the largest and most diversified in the Middle East, Egypt is a member of the United Nations, Non-Aligned Movement, Arab League, African Union, and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. Miṣr is the Classical Quranic Arabic and modern name of Egypt. The name is of Semitic origin, directly cognate with other Semitic words for Egypt such as the Hebrew מִצְרַיִם, the oldest attestation of this name for Egypt is the Akkadian
3.
Horn of Africa
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The Horn of Africa is a peninsula in Northeast Africa. It juts hundreds of kilometers into the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean, the area is the easternmost projection of the African continent. The Horn of Africa denotes the region containing the countries of Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia and it covers approximately 2,000,000 km2 and is inhabited by roughly 115 million people. Regional studies on the Horn of Africa are carried out, among others, shell middens 125,000 years old have been found in Eritrea, indicating the diet of early humans included seafood obtained by beachcombing. According to both genetic and fossil evidence, archaic Homo sapiens evolved to modern humans solely in Africa between 200,000 and 100,000 years ago. Evidence to support the theory that recent modern humans originated in East Africa is not conclusive, today at the Bab-el-Mandeb straits, the Red Sea is about 12 miles wide, but 50,000 years ago it was much narrower and sea levels were 70 meters lower. Though the straits were never closed, there may have been islands in between which could be reached using simple rafts. It has been estimated that from a population of 2,000 to 5,000 individuals in Africa, according to linguists, the first Afro-Asiatic-speaking populations arrived in the region during the ensuing Neolithic era from the familys proposed urheimat in the Nile Valley, or the Near East. Other scholars propose that the Afro-Asiatic family developed in situ in the Horn, genetic analysis also indicates that, beginning in the pre-agricultural period, settlers from the Near East founded communities in Northeast Africa. These early settlements eventually gave rise to the Afro-Asiatic-speaking populations in the Horn, dʿmt was a kingdom located in Eritrea and northern Ethiopia, which existed during the 8th and 7th centuries BCE. With its capital at Yeha, the kingdom developed irrigation schemes, used plows, grew millet, the Kingdom of Aksum was an ancient state located in the highlands of present-day Ethiopia and Eritrea, which thrived between the 1st and 7th centuries CE. A major player in the commerce between the Roman Empire and Ancient India, Aksums rulers facilitated trade by minting their own currency. Under Ezana, the kingdom of Aksum became the first major empire to adopt Christianity, northern Somalia was an important link in the Horn, connecting the regions commerce with the rest of the ancient world. Somali sailors and merchants were the suppliers of frankincense, myrrh and spices. The Romans consequently began to refer to the region as Regio Aromatica, in the classical era, several flourishing Somali city-states such as Opone, Mosylon and Malao also competed with the Sabaeans, Parthians and Axumites for the rich Indo-Greco-Roman trade. The city of Mogadishu came to be known as the City of Islam, the Sultanate of Showa, established in 896, was one of the oldest local Muslim states. It was centered in the former Shewa province in central Ethiopia, the polity was succeeded by the Sultanate of Ifat around 1285. Ifat was governed from its capital at Zeila in northern Somalia and was the easternmost district of the former Shewa Sultanate, the Adal Sultanate was a medieval multi-ethnic Muslim state centered in the Horn region
4.
North Africa
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North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of Africa. The United Nationss definition of Northern Africa is, Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia, the countries of Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, and Libya are often collectively referred to as the Maghreb, which is the Arabic word for sunset. Egypt lies to the northeast and encompasses part of West Asia, while Sudan is situated on the edge of the Sahel, Egypt is a transcontinental country because of the Sinai Peninsula, which geographically lies in Western Asia. North Africa also includes a number of Spanish possessions, the Canary Islands and Madeira in the North Atlantic Ocean northwest of the African mainland are included in considerations of the region. From 3500 BC, following the abrupt desertification of the Sahara due to changes in the Earths orbit. The Islamic influence in the area is significant, and North Africa is a major part of the Muslim world. Some researchers have postulated that North Africa rather than East Africa served as the point for the modern humans who first trekked out of the continent in the Out of Africa migration. The Atlas Mountains extend across much of Morocco, northern Algeria and Tunisia, are part of the mountain system that also runs through much of Southern Europe. They recede to the south and east, becoming a steppe landscape before meeting the Sahara desert, the sediments of the Sahara overlie an ancient plateau of crystalline rock, some of which is more than four billion years old. Sheltered valleys in the Atlas Mountains, the Nile Valley and Delta, a wide variety of valuable crops including cereals, rice and cotton, and woods such as cedar and cork, are grown. Typical Mediterranean crops, such as olives, figs, dates and citrus fruits, the Nile Valley is particularly fertile, and most of the population in Egypt and Sudan live close to the river. Elsewhere, irrigation is essential to improve yields on the desert margins. The inhabitants of Saharan Africa are generally divided in a manner corresponding to the principal geographic regions of North Africa, the Maghreb, the Nile valley. The edge of the Sahel, to the south of Egypt has mainly been inhabited by Nubians, Ancient Egyptians record extensive contact in their Western desert with people that appear to have been Berber or proto-Berber, as well as Nubians from the south. They have contributed to the Arabized Berber populations, the official language or one of the official languages in all of the countries in North Africa is Arabic. The people of the Maghreb and the Sahara regions speak Berber languages and several varieties of Arabic, the Arabic and Berber languages are distantly related, both being members of the Afroasiatic language family. The Tuareg Berber languages are more conservative than those of the coastal cities. Over the years, Berbers have been influenced by contact with cultures, Greeks, Phoenicians, Egyptians, Romans, Vandals, Arabs, Europeans
5.
Islam
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Islam is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion which professes that there is only one and incomparable God and that Muhammad is the last messenger of God. It is the worlds second-largest religion and the major religion in the world, with over 1.7 billion followers or 23% of the global population. Islam teaches that God is merciful, all-powerful, and unique, and He has guided mankind through revealed scriptures, natural signs, and a line of prophets sealed by Muhammad. The primary scriptures of Islam are the Quran, viewed by Muslims as the word of God. Muslims believe that Islam is the original, complete and universal version of a faith that was revealed many times before through prophets including Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses. As for the Quran, Muslims consider it to be the unaltered, certain religious rites and customs are observed by the Muslims in their family and social life, while social responsibilities to parents, relatives, and neighbors have also been defined. Besides, the Quran and the sunnah of Muhammad prescribe a comprehensive body of moral guidelines for Muslims to be followed in their personal, social, political, Islam began in the early 7th century. Originating in Mecca, it spread in the Arabian Peninsula. The expansion of the Muslim world involved various caliphates and empires, traders, most Muslims are of one of two denominations, Sunni or Shia. Islam is the dominant religion in the Middle East, North Africa, sizable Muslim communities are also found in Horn of Africa, Europe, China, Russia, Mainland Southeast Asia, Philippines, Northern Borneo, Caucasus and the Americas. Converts and immigrant communities are found in almost every part of the world, Islam is a verbal noun originating from the triliteral root s-l-m which forms a large class of words mostly relating to concepts of wholeness, submission, safeness and peace. In a religious context it means voluntary submission to God, Islām is the verbal noun of Form IV of the root, and means submission or surrender. Muslim, the word for an adherent of Islam, is the active participle of the verb form. The word sometimes has connotations in its various occurrences in the Quran. In some verses, there is stress on the quality of Islam as a state, Whomsoever God desires to guide. Other verses connect Islām and dīn, Today, I have perfected your religion for you, I have completed My blessing upon you, still others describe Islam as an action of returning to God—more than just a verbal affirmation of faith. In the Hadith of Gabriel, islām is presented as one part of a triad that also includes imān, Islam was historically called Muhammadanism in Anglophone societies. This term has fallen out of use and is said to be offensive because it suggests that a human being rather than God is central to Muslims religion
6.
Islamic philosophy
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Islamic philosophy is the systematic investigation of problems connected with life, the universe, ethics, society, and so on as conducted in the Muslim world. Early Islamic philosophy began in the 2nd century AH of the Islamic calendar and this period began with al-Kindi in the 9th century and ended with Averroes at the end of 12th century. Ibn Khaldun, in his Muqaddimah, made important contributions to the philosophy of history, Interest in Islamic philosophy revived during the Nahda movement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and continues to the present day. Islamic philosophy refers to philosophy produced in an Islamic society and it is not necessarily concerned with religious issues, nor exclusively produced by Muslims. Nor do all schools of thought within Islam admit the usefulness or legitimacy of philosophical inquiry, some argue that there is no indication that the limited knowledge and experience of humans can lead to truth. It is also important to observe that, while reason is sometimes recognised as a source of Islamic law, Islamic philosophy is a generic term that can be defined and used in different ways. In its broadest sense it means the view of Islam, as derived from the Islamic texts concerning the creation of the universe. In another sense it refers to any of the schools of thought flourished under the Islamic empire or in the shadow of the Arab-Islamic culture. The historiography of Islamic philosophy is marked by disputes as to how the subject should be properly interpreted, Islamic philosophy as the name implies refers to philosophical activity within the Islamic milieu. Many of the philosophical debates centered around reconciling religion and reason. Some Muslims oppose the idea of philosophy as un-Islamic, but the fact of the matter is that philosophy is an alien entity in the body of Islam. Ibn Abi al-Izz, a commentator on al-Tahhaawiyyah, condemns philosophers as the ones who most deny the Last Day, in their view Paradise and Hell are no more than parables for the masses to understand, but they have no reality beyond people’s minds. In early Islamic thought, which refers to philosophy during the Islamic Golden Age, the first is Kalam, which mainly dealt with Islamic theological questions, and the other is Falsafa, which was founded on interpretations of Aristotelianism and Neoplatonism. In Arabic, the word literally means speech, one of first debates was that between partisans of the Qadar, who affirmed free will, and the Jabarites, who believed in fatalism. At the 2nd century of the Hijra, a new movement arose in the school of Basra. A pupil of Hasan of Basra, Wasil ibn Ata, left the group when he disagreed with his teacher on whether a Muslim who has committed a major sin invalidates his faith and he systematized the radical opinions of preceding sects, particularly those of the Qadarites and Jabarites. This new school was called Mutazilite, the Mutazilites looked in towards a strict rationalism with which to interpret Islamic doctrine. Their attempt was one of the first to pursue a rational theology in Islam and they were however severely criticized by other Islamic philosophers, both Maturidis and Asharites
7.
Fiqh
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Figuratively, fiqh means, knowledge about Islamic legal rulings from their sources. He must look deep down into a matter and not suffice himself with just the apparent meaning, a person who only knows the appearance of a matter is not a faqīh. Conceptually, the attempt to understand divine law. Whereas shariah is immutable and infallible, fiqh is fallible and changeable, fiqh is distinguished from usul al-fiqh, the methods of legal interpretation and analysis. Fiqh is the product of application of usul al-fiqh, the product of human efforts at understanding the divine will. A hukm is a ruling in a given case. Fiqh deals with the observance of rituals, morals and social legislation in Islam, in the modern era, there are four prominent schools of fiqh within Sunni practice, plus two within Shia practice. A person trained in fiqh is known as a Faqih, the word fiqh is an Arabic term meaning deep understanding or full comprehension. Technically it refers to the body of Islamic law extracted from detailed Islamic sources and this definition is consistent amongst the jurists. In Modern Standard Arabic, fiqh has come to mean jurisprudence in general and it is separated in Sunni, shia and others. Qiyas, i. e. analogy which is deployed if Ijma or historic collective reasoning on the issue is not available. For example, the Quran states one needs to engage in prayers and fast during the month of Ramadan. Details about these issues can be found in the traditions of Muhammad, so Quran, some topics are without precedent in Islams early period. In those cases, Muslim jurists try to arrive at conclusions by other means, Sunni jurists use historical consensus of the community, a majority in the modern era also use analogy and weigh the harms and benefits of new topics, and a plurality utilizes juristic preference. The conclusions arrived at with the aid of additional tools constitute a wider array of laws than the Sharia consists of. Thus, in contrast to the sharia, fiqh is not regarded as sacred and this division of interpretation in more detailed issues has resulted in different schools of thought. This wider concept of Islamic jurisprudence is the source of a range of laws in different topics that guide Muslims in everyday life, Islamic jurisprudence covers two main areas, Rules in relation to actions, and, Rules in relation to circumstances surrounding actions. The Sunni schools are Hanafi Maliki Shafii Hanbali see Wahhabism Zahiri Qurtubi No longer exists Laythi No longer exists, the schools of Shia Islam comprise, Jafari Zaydi Entirely separate from both the Sunni and Shia traditions, Khawarij Islam has evolved its own distinct school
8.
History of Egypt
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The history of Egypt has been long and rich, due to the flow of the Nile river, with its fertile banks and delta. Its rich history also comes from its inhabitants and outside influence. Much of Egypts ancient history was a mystery until the secrets of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs were deciphered with the discovery, the Great Pyramid of Giza is the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still standing. The Lighthouse of Alexandria, one of the other Seven Wonders, is gone, the Library of Alexandria was the only one of its kind for centuries. Human settlement in Egypt dates back to at least 40,000 BC with Aterian tool manufacturing, Ancient Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh of the First Dynasty, Narmer. Predominately native Egyptian rule lasted until the conquest by the Achaemenid Empire in the sixth century BC, the Ptolemies had to fight native rebellions and were involved in foreign and civil wars that led to the decline of the kingdom and its final annexation by Rome. The death of Cleopatra ended the independence of Egypt resulting in Egypt becoming one of the provinces of the Roman Empire. Roman rule in Egypt lasted from 30 BC to 641 AD, in 1517, Ottoman sultan Selim I captured Cairo, absorbing Egypt into the Ottoman Empire. Egypt remained entirely Ottoman until 1867, except during French occupation from 1798 to 1801, starting in 1867, Egypt became a nominally autonomous tributary state called the Khedivate of Egypt. However, Khedivate Egypt fell under British control in 1882 following the Anglo-Egyptian War, after the end of World War I and following the Egyptian revolution of 1919, the Kingdom of Egypt was established. While a de facto independent state, the United Kingdom retained control over affairs, defense. British occupation lasted until 1954, with the Anglo-Egyptian agreement of 1954, President Gamal Abdel Nasser introduced many reforms and created the short-lived United Arab Republic. His terms also saw the Six-Day War and the creation of the international Non-Aligned Movement and he led Egypt in the Yom Kippur War of 1973 to regain Egypts Sinai Peninsula, which Israel had occupied since the Six-Day War of 1967. This later led to the Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty, recent Egyptian history has been dominated by events following nearly thirty years of rule by former president Hosni Mubarak. The Egyptian revolution of 2011 deposed Mubarak and resulted in the first democratically elected president in Egyptian history, unrest after the 2011 revolution and related disputes led to the 2013 Egyptian coup détat. There is evidence of petroglyphs along the Nile terraces and in desert oases, in the 10th millennium BC, a culture of hunter-gatherers and fishermen was replaced by a grain-grinding culture. Climate changes and/or overgrazing around 6000 BC began to desiccate the pastoral lands of Egypt, early tribal peoples migrated to the Nile River, where they developed a settled agricultural economy and more centralized society. By about 6000 BC, a Neolithic culture rooted in the Nile Valley, during the Neolithic era, several predynastic cultures developed independently in Upper and Lower Egypt
9.
Arabic
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Arabic is a Central Semitic language that was first spoken in Iron Age northwestern Arabia and is now the lingua franca of the Arab world. Arabic is also the language of 1.7 billion Muslims. It is one of six languages of the United Nations. The modern written language is derived from the language of the Quran and it is widely taught in schools and universities, and is used to varying degrees in workplaces, government, and the media. The two formal varieties are grouped together as Literary Arabic, which is the language of 26 states. Modern Standard Arabic largely follows the standards of Quranic Arabic. Much of the new vocabulary is used to denote concepts that have arisen in the post-Quranic era, Arabic has influenced many languages around the globe throughout its history. During the Middle Ages, Literary Arabic was a vehicle of culture in Europe, especially in science, mathematics. As a result, many European languages have borrowed many words from it. Many words of Arabic origin are found in ancient languages like Latin. Balkan languages, including Greek, have acquired a significant number of Arabic words through contact with Ottoman Turkish. Arabic has also borrowed words from languages including Greek and Persian in medieval times. Arabic is a Central Semitic language, closely related to the Northwest Semitic languages, the Ancient South Arabian languages, the Semitic languages changed a great deal between Proto-Semitic and the establishment of the Central Semitic languages, particularly in grammar. Innovations of the Central Semitic languages—all maintained in Arabic—include, The conversion of the suffix-conjugated stative formation into a past tense, the conversion of the prefix-conjugated preterite-tense formation into a present tense. The elimination of other prefix-conjugated mood/aspect forms in favor of new moods formed by endings attached to the prefix-conjugation forms, the development of an internal passive. These features are evidence of descent from a hypothetical ancestor. In the southwest, various Central Semitic languages both belonging to and outside of the Ancient South Arabian family were spoken and it is also believed that the ancestors of the Modern South Arabian languages were also spoken in southern Arabia at this time. To the north, in the oases of northern Hijaz, Dadanitic and Taymanitic held some prestige as inscriptional languages, in Najd and parts of western Arabia, a language known to scholars as Thamudic C is attested
10.
Egyptians
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The Black Egyptian hypothesis is the hypothesis that Ancient Egypt was a predominately Black civilization, as the term is currently understood in modern American ethic perception. Mainstream scholars recognize that many indigenous Egyptians, including several Pharaohs, were of ancestry that, in the modern era, the Black Egyptian hypothesis goes a lot further, claiming that Egypt, from north to south, was a black civilization. At the UNESCO Symposium on the Peopling of Ancient Egypt and the Deciphering of the Meroitic script in Cairo in 1974, some modern scholars such as W. E. B. Du Bois, Chancellor Williams, Cheikh Anta Diop, John G. Jackson, Ivan van Sertima, Martin Bernal, the frequently criticized Journal of African Civilizations has continually advocated that Egypt should be viewed as a Black civilization. Diop and others believed the views were fueled by scientific racism. Diop used an approach to counteract prevailing views on the Ancient Egyptians origins. Since the second half of the 20th century, most scholars have held that modern notions of race to ancient Egypt is anachronistic. The focus of some experts who study population biology has been to consider whether or not the Ancient Egyptians were primarily biologically North African rather than to which race they belonged, in 1975, the mummy of Ramesses II was taken to France for preservation. The mummy was also tested by Professor Pierre-Fernand Ceccaldi, the chief forensic scientist at the Criminal Identification Laboratory of Paris. Professor Ceccaldi determined that, Hair, astonishingly preserved, showed some complementary data - especially about pigmentation, the description given here refers to a fair-skinned person with wavy ginger hair. Keita wrote that There is no reason to believe that the primary ancestors of the Egyptian population emerged and evolved outside of northeast Africa. Stuart Tyson Smith writes in the 2001 Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt that Any characterization of race of the ancient Egyptians depends on modern cultural definitions, not on scientific study. Thus, by modern American standards it is reasonable to characterize the Egyptians as black, several Ancient Greek historians noted that Egyptians had complexions that were melanchroes. There is considerable controversy over the translation of melanchroes, most scholars translate it as black. Alan B Lloyd wrote that there is no justification for relating this description to negroes. Melanchroes could denote any colour from bronzed to black and negroes are not the physical type to show curly hair. These characteristics would certainly be found in many Egs, ancient and modern, some of the most often quoted historians are Strabo, Diodorus Siculus, and Herodotus. Herodotus states in a few passages that the Egyptians were black/dark, lucian observes an Egyptian boy and notices that he is not merely black, but has thick lips
11.
Nile Delta
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The Nile Delta is the delta formed in Northern Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the worlds largest river deltas—from Alexandria in the west to Port Said in the east, from north to south the delta is approximately 160 kilometres in length. The Delta begins slightly down-river from Cairo, from north to south, the delta is approximately 160 kilometres in length. From west-to-east, it covers some 240 kilometres of coastline, the delta is sometimes divided into sections, with the Nile dividing into two main distributaries, the Damietta and the Rosetta, flowing into the Mediterranean at port cities with the same name. In the past, the delta had several distributaries, but these have been lost due to flood control, one such defunct distributary is Wadi Tumilat. The Suez Canal runs to the east of the delta, entering the coastal Lake Manzala in the north-east of the delta, to the north-west are three other coastal lakes or lagoons, Lake Burullus, Lake Idku and Lake Maryut. The Nile is considered to be a delta, as it resembles a triangle or flower when seen from above. The outer edges of the delta are eroding, and some coastal lagoons have seen increasing salinity levels as their connection to the Mediterranean Sea increases, topsoil in the delta can be as much as 70 feet in depth. People have lived in the Delta region for thousands of years, the Delta River used to flood on an annual basis, but this ended with the construction of the Aswan Dam. The Rosetta Stone was found in the Nile Delta in 1799 in the city of Rosetta. The delta was a constituent of Lower Egypt. The Biblical Land of Goshen was located in an area on the west bank of the Pelusiac distributary. There are many sites in and around the Nile Delta. About 39 million people live in the Delta region, outside of major cities, population density in the delta averages 1,000 persons/km² or more. Alexandria is the largest city in the delta with a population of more than 4.5 million. Other large cities in the delta include Shubra al Khaymah, Port Said, El-Mahalla El-Kubra, El Mansura, Tanta, during autumn, parts of the Nile River are red with lotus flowers. The Lower Nile and the Upper Nile have plants that grow in abundance, the Upper Nile plant is the Egyptian lotus, and the Lower Nile plant is the Papyrus Sedge, although it is not nearly as plentiful as it once was, and is becoming quite rare. Several hundred thousand birds winter in the delta, including the world’s largest concentrations of little gulls
12.
Beheira Governorate
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Beheira Governorate is a coastal governorate in Egypt. Located in the part of the country in the Nile Delta. Beheira Governorate enjoys an important strategical place, west of the Rosetta branch of the Nile and it comprises four important highways, namely the Cairo-Alexandria desert road, the Cairo agricultural road, the international road and the circular road. Beheira Governorate is also home to a number of the most important Coptic monasteries in Wadi El Natrun, beheira consists of 13 centers and 14 cities, and contains important industries such as cotton, chemicals, carpets, electricity and fishing. In 2017, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi appointed the first female governor in the history for Beheiras Governorate. According to population estimates from 2015 the majority of residents in the live in rural areas. Out of an estimated 5,804,262 people residing in the governorate,4,674,346 people live in areas as opposed to only 1,129,916 in urban areas
13.
Ulama
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Ulama are those recognized as scholars or authorities in the religious hierarchy of the Islamic religious studies. They are the guardians of legal and religious tradition in Islam, often they are Imams of important mosques, judges, teachers in the religious faculties of universities. Most ulama specialize in fiqh, and are considered the arbiters of law by mainstream Muslims. Ulama may also include specialists in areas such as muhaddith. Ulama is the plural of the word ‘alīm, which is derived from the word ‘ilm, sources used in the development of Sharia such as hadith, Ijma, and Qias, or for Shia ulama aql, are all the province of the ulama. At times in Muslim history the ulama have even served as a branch of government. On the other hand, the term is no longer confined to the Arabic bounds and is now taken with a broader meaning, the word ‘alīm is used twice in the Quran, but not necessarily in the same manner as its application in the Muslim community today. Syed, ‘alīm in the Quran refers to scientists, indicating the high importance afforded by the Quran to the physical sciences, the formative period of Islamic jurisprudence stretches back to the time of the early Muslim communities. In this period, jurists were more concerned with issues of authority. Progress in theory began to develop with the coming of the early Muslim jurist Muhammad ibn Idris ash-Shafii, laws were decided based on the Ijma of the Ummah, which was most often represented by the legal scholars. In order to qualify as a scholar, it was necessary obtain a doctorate known as the ijazat attadris wa l-ifttd from a Madrasah. In many ways, classical Islamic law functioned like a constitutional law, during the Ottoman era, the term ulama was commonly applied to scholars who had completed their madrasa training and gained an icazet. They had to be an expert in all the religious sciences, in addition, the student had to have been tested and approved by higher ranking ulama. Such assessment by experts gave the ulama legitimacy in the eyes of the public, in 14th and 15th century Ottoman Empire, there were not many madrasahs, and so the ulama traveled to countries such as Persia and Egypt to further their education. Upon the conquering of Istanbul, the sultan converted eight churches into madrasahs, Ulama worked as priest-like authorities who had the role of interpreting and enforcing Islamic shariah law. These jobs were distributed between two types of ulama, the Muftis, who interpreted Shariah law, and the Qadi, the Ottomans had a strict hierarchy of ulama, with the Sheikh ul-Islam holding the highest rank. A Sheikh ul-Islam was chosen by a royal warrant amongst the qadis of important cities, the Sheikh ul-Islam had the power to confirm new sultans, but once the sultan was affirmed, the sultan retained a higher authority than the Sheik ul-Islam. The Sheikh ul-Islam issued fatwas, which were written interpretations of the Quran that had authority over the community, the Sheikh ul-Islam represented the law of shariah and in the 16th century its importance rose which led to increased power
14.
Mecca
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Mecca or Makkah is a city in the Hejaz region of Saudi Arabia that is also capital of the Makkah Region. The city is located 70 km inland from Jeddah in a valley at a height of 277 m above sea level. Its resident population in 2012 was roughly 2 million, although more than triple this number every year during the hajj period held in the twelfth Muslim lunar month of Dhu al-Hijjah. Mecca is home to the Kaaba, by majority description Islams holiest site, Mecca was long ruled by Muhammads descendants, the sharifs, acting either as independent rulers or as vassals to larger polities. It was conquered by Ibn Saud in 1925, during this expansion, Mecca has lost some historical structures and archaeological sites, such as the Ajyad Fortress. Today, more than 15 million Muslims visit Mecca annually, including several million during the few days of the Hajj, as a result, Mecca has become one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the Muslim world, despite the fact that non-Muslims are prohibited from entering the city. The Saudi government adopted Makkah as the spelling in the 1980s. The full official name is Makkah al-Mukarramah or Makkatu l-Mukarramah, which means Mecca the Honored, the ancient or early name for the site of Mecca is Bakkah. An Arabic language word, its etymology, like that of Mecca, is obscure, the form Bakkah is used for the name Mecca in the Quran in 3,96, while the form Mecca is used in 48,24. In South Arabic, the language in use in the portion of the Arabian Peninsula at the time of Muhammad. Other references to Mecca in the Quran call it Umm al-Qurā, another name of Mecca is Tihamah. Arab and Islamic tradition holds that the wilderness of Paran, broadly speaking, is the Tihamah, yaqut al-Hamawi, the 12th century Syrian geographer, wrote that Fārān was an arabized Hebrew word. One of the names of Mecca mentioned in the Torah, Mecca is governed by the Municipality of Mecca, a municipal council of fourteen locally elected members headed by a mayor appointed by the Saudi government. As of May 2015, the mayor of the city was Dr. Osama bin Fadhel Al-Bar, Mecca is the capital of the Makkah Region, which includes neighboring Jeddah. The provincial governor was prince Abdul Majeed bin Abdulaziz Al Saud from 2000 until his death in 2007, on 16 May 2007, prince Khalid bin Faisal Al Saud was appointed as the new governor. The early history of Mecca is still disputed, as there are no unambiguous references to it in ancient literature prior to the rise of Islam. The Roman Empire took control of part of the Hejaz in 106 AD, ruling cities such as Hegra, even though detailed descriptions were established of Western Arabia by Rome, such as by Procopius, there are no references of a pilgrimage and trading outpost such as Mecca. The first direct mention of Mecca in external literature occurs in 741 AD in the Byzantine-Arab Chronicle, claims have been made this could be a reference to the Kaaba in Mecca
15.
Medina
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Medina, also transliterated as Madīnah, is a city in the Hejaz region of Saudi Arabia that is also the capital of the Al Madinah Region. The city contains al-Masjid an-Nabawi, which is the place of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It served as the base of Islam in its first century where the early Muslim community developed. Medina is home to the three oldest mosques, namely the Quba Mosque, al-Masjid an-Nabawi, and Masjid al-Qiblatayn, Muslims believe that the chronologically final surahs of the Quran were revealed to Muhammad in Medina, and are called Medinan surahs in contrast to the earlier Meccan surahs. Similar to Mecca, non-Muslims are forbidden from entering the core of Medina or the city centre by the national government. The Arabic word al-Madīnah simply means the city, before the advent of Islam, the city was known as Yathrib. The word Yathrib has been recorded in Surat al-Ahzab of the Quran, an alternative name is al-Madīnah an-Nabawīyah or al-Madīna-tu an-Nabī. As of 2010, the city of Medina has a population of 1,183,205, in addition to its Arab inhabitants, during the pre-Islamic era Yathrib was inhabited by Jewish tribes. Later the citys name was changed to al-Madīna-tu n-Nabī or al-Madīnatu l-Munawwarah, Medina is celebrated for containing al-Masjid an-Nabawi and also as the city which gave refuge to him and his followers, and so ranks as the second holiest city of Islam, after Mecca. Muhammad was buried in Medina, under the Green Dome, as were the first two Rashidun caliphs, Abu Bakr and Umar, who were buried next to him in what used to be Muhammads house. Medina is 210 miles north of Mecca and about 120 miles from the Red Sea coast and it is situated in the most fertile part of all the Hejaz territory, the streams of the vicinity tending to converge in this locality. An immense plain extends to the south, in every direction the view is bounded by hills and mountains. The historic city formed an oval, surrounded by a wall,30 to 40 feet high, dating from the 12th century CE. Of its four gates, the Bab-al-Salam, or Egyptian gate, was remarkable for its beauty, beyond the walls of the city, west and south were suburbs consisting of low houses, yards, gardens and plantations. These suburbs also had walls and gates, almost all of the historic city has been demolished in the Saudi era. The rebuilt city is centred on the vastly expanded al-Masjid an-Nabawi, the graves of Fatimah and Hasan, across from the mosque at Jannat al-Baqi, and Abu Bakr, and of Umar, the second caliph, are also here. The mosque dates back to the time of Muhammad, but has been twice reconstructed, because of the Saudi governments religious policy and concern that historic sites could become the focus for idolatry, much of Medinas Islamic physical heritage has been altered. Medinas importance as a religious site derives from the presence of al-Masjid an-Nabawi, the mosque was expanded by the Umayyad Caliph Al-Walid I
16.
Sheikh
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Sheikh —also transliterated Sheik, Shaik, Shayk, Shaykh, Shaikh, Cheikh, Shekh and Shaikh— is an honorific title in the Arabic language. It commonly designates the ruler of a tribe, who inherited the title from his father, Sheikh is given to a royal male at birth, whereas the related title Sheikha is given to a royal female at birth. The word in Arabic stems from a triliteral root connected with age and aging, ش-ي-خ, the term literally means a man of vast power, and nobility, and it is used strictly for the royal families of the Middle East. While the title can be used religiously by Muslims to designate a learned person and it is notably used by Druze for their religious men, but also by Arab Christians for elder men of stature. Its usage and meaning is similar to the Latin senex meaning old, accordingly, the Arabic term for most legislative bodies termed Senate is majlis al-shuyūkh, literally meaning Council of Senators. One prominent example is Shaikh Abdul Qadir Jilani who initiated the Qadiriyya order which relies strongly upon adherence to the fundamentals of Islam, in the Arabian Peninsula, the title is used for royalty, such as kings, princes, and princesses. For example, it was the used in the West to refer to the leaders of Kuwaits ruling Al-Sabah dynasty. The same applies to all the Gulf countries, the term is used by almost every male and female member of all the Gulf royal houses. The term sheikh is known to have bestowed upon the families who battled with the Emir Fakhr al-Din in the historical Battle of Anjar. Note that the term is not used for the seven traditional Beiruti families, the other families that have this term did not rule any territory in previous ages. Instead, they were high-ranking employees or secretaries in the Ottoman Empire, or political allies of the rulers at that time, in the Maghreb, during the Almohad dynasty, the caliph was also counseled by a body of shaykhs. They represented all the different tribes under their rules, including Arabs, Andalusians, in the Muslim parts of the Horn of Africa, Sheikh is often used as a noble title. In Somali society, it is reserved as an honorific for senior Muslim leaders and clerics, in West Africa, sheikh is a common title for Muslim scholars and leaders. Among Islamic communities in Senegal, Niger and Gambia, among other areas, after the advent of Islam in South Asia, some high caste tribes also converted to Islam and adopted the title. The Muslims of the Middle East and Central Asia have historically traveled to South Asia as Sufis during the Islamic Sultanates and Mughal Empire, in Indonesia and other parts of Southeast Asia, Sheikhs are respected by local Muslims. Religious preachers or teachers in Indonesia are usually referred to as Ustad or Kyiayi Historically, notable shaykha include the 10th-century Shaykhah Fakhr-un-Nisa Shuhdah and 18th-century scholar Al-Shaykha Fatima al-Fudayliyya. A daughter or wife or mother of a sheikh is also called a shaykhah, currently, the term shaykhah is commonly used for women of ruling families, in the Arab states of the Persian Gulf with the exception of Oman. Kashmiri Shaikh Khawaja Shaikh Punjabi Shaikh Qallu Qanungoh Shaikh Quraishi Shaikhs in South Asia Sindhi Shaikh Allamah The dictionary definition of sheik at Wiktionary
17.
Hanafi
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The Hanafi school is one of the four religious Sunni Islamic schools of jurisprudence. It is named after the scholar Abū Ḥanīfa an-Nu‘man ibn Thābit, the other major schools of Sharia in Sunni Islam are Maliki, Shafii and Hanbali. Hanafi is the fiqh with the largest number of followers among Sunni Muslims and it is predominant in the countries that were once part of the historic Ottoman Empire, Mughal Empire and Sultanates of Turkic rulers in the Indian subcontinent, northwest China and Central Asia. Thus, the Hanafi school came to be known as the Kufan or Iraqi school in earlier times. Ali and Abdullah, son of Masud formed much of the base of the school, as well as other such as Muhammad al-Baqir, Jafar al-Sadiq. Many jurists and historians had lived in Kufa including one of Abu Hanifas main teachers, in the early history of Islam, Hanafi doctrine was not fully compiled. The fiqh was fully compiled and documented in the 11th century, the Abbasids patronized the Hanafi school from the 10th century onwards. The Seljuk Turkish dynasties of 11th and 12th centuries, followed by Ottomans adopted Hanafi fiqh, the Turkic expansion spread Hanafi fiqh through Central Asia and into South Asia, with the establishment of Seljuk Empire, Timurid dynasty, Khanates and Delhi Sultanate. Nurit Tsafrir, The History of an Islamic School of Law, the Second Formation of Islamic Law, The Ḥanafī School in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire
18.
Al-Azhar University
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Al-Azhar University is a university in Cairo, Egypt. Associated with Al-Azhar Mosque in Islamic Cairo, it is Egypts oldest degree-granting university and is renowned as Sunni Islam’s most prestigious university, in addition to higher education, Al-Azhar oversees a national network of schools with approximately two million students. As of 1996, over 4000 teaching institutes in Egypt were affiliated with the University and it was one of the first universities in the world, and the only one in the Arabic world to survive as a modern university including secular subjects in the curriculum. Today it is the centre of Arabic literature and Islamic learning in the world. In 1961 additional non-religious subjects were added to its curriculum and its mission is to propagate Islam and Islamic culture. To this end, its Islamic scholars render edicts on disputes submitted to them all over the Sunni Islamic world regarding proper conduct for Muslim individuals. Al-Azhar also trains Egyptian government-appointed preachers in proselytization and its library is considered second in importance in Egypt only to the Egyptian National Library and Archives. Fatimah, was called Al-Zahra, and it was named in her honor and it was founded as mosque by the Fatimid commander Jawhar at the orders of the Caliph and Ismaili Imam Al-Muizz as he founded the city for Cairo. It was in Jamadi al-Awwal in the year 359 A. H and its building was completed on the 9th of Ramadan in the year 361 A. H. Both Al-Aziz Billah and Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah added to its premises and it was further repaired, renovated and extended by Al-Mustansir Billah and Al-Hafiz Li-Din-illah. Studies began at Al-Azhar in the month of Ramadan,975, according to Syed Farid Alatas, the Jamiah had faculties in Islamic law and jurisprudence, Arabic grammar, Islamic astronomy, Islamic philosophy, and logic. The Fatimids gave attention to the studies at the time when rulers in other countries declared those who were engaged in philosophical pursuits as apostates. The Greek thought found a reception with the Fatimids who expanded the boundaries of such studies. They paid much attention to philosophy and gave support to everyone who was known for being engaged in the study of any branch of philosophy and these books were destroyed by Salah-ud-Din Ayyubi. An Islamic womens faculty was added in the same year. Al-Azhar has a membership that represents the schools of Al-Ashari and Al-Maturidi, the four schools of Sunni Islamic jurisprudence. Al-Azhar has had a relationship with Wahhabism and Salafism. Although al-Azhar is not monolithic, its identity has been associated with Sufism
19.
Napoleon
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Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led several successful campaigns during the French Revolutionary Wars. As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 until 1814, Napoleon dominated European and global affairs for more than a decade while leading France against a series of coalitions in the Napoleonic Wars. He won most of these wars and the vast majority of his battles, one of the greatest commanders in history, his wars and campaigns are studied at military schools worldwide. Napoleons political and cultural legacy has ensured his status as one of the most celebrated and he was born Napoleone di Buonaparte in Corsica to a relatively modest family from the minor nobility. When the Revolution broke out in 1789, Napoleon was serving as an officer in the French army. Seizing the new opportunities presented by the Revolution, he rose through the ranks of the military. The Directory eventually gave him command of the Army of Italy after he suppressed a revolt against the government from royalist insurgents, in 1798, he led a military expedition to Egypt that served as a springboard to political power. He engineered a coup in November 1799 and became First Consul of the Republic and his ambition and public approval inspired him to go further, and in 1804 he became the first Emperor of the French. Intractable differences with the British meant that the French were facing a Third Coalition by 1805, in 1806, the Fourth Coalition took up arms against him because Prussia became worried about growing French influence on the continent. Napoleon quickly defeated Prussia at the battles of Jena and Auerstedt, then marched the Grand Army deep into Eastern Europe, France then forced the defeated nations of the Fourth Coalition to sign the Treaties of Tilsit in July 1807, bringing an uneasy peace to the continent. Tilsit signified the high watermark of the French Empire, hoping to extend the Continental System and choke off British trade with the European mainland, Napoleon invaded Iberia and declared his brother Joseph the King of Spain in 1808. The Spanish and the Portuguese revolted with British support, the Peninsular War lasted six years, featured extensive guerrilla warfare, and ended in victory for the Allies. The Continental System caused recurring diplomatic conflicts between France and its client states, especially Russia, unwilling to bear the economic consequences of reduced trade, the Russians routinely violated the Continental System and enticed Napoleon into another war. The French launched an invasion of Russia in the summer of 1812. The resulting campaign witnessed the collapse of the Grand Army, the destruction of Russian cities, in 1813, Prussia and Austria joined Russian forces in a Sixth Coalition against France. A lengthy military campaign culminated in a large Allied army defeating Napoleon at the Battle of Leipzig in October 1813, the Allies then invaded France and captured Paris in the spring of 1814, forcing Napoleon to abdicate in April. He was exiled to the island of Elba near Rome and the Bourbons were restored to power, however, Napoleon escaped from Elba in February 1815 and took control of France once again. The Allies responded by forming a Seventh Coalition, which defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in June, the British exiled him to the remote island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic, where he died six years later at the age of 51
20.
Muhammad Ali's seizure of power
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It ended in victory for the Albanians led by Muhammad Ali of Egypt. The three-way struggle followed the French invasion of Egypt by Napoleon, after the French defeat a power vacuum was created in Egypt. The Mamluks had governed Egypt before the French invasion and still retained much power, Egypt was officially a part of the Ottoman Empire and Egypt still had many Ottoman Turkish troops who had been sent to evict the French. Many of the best Ottoman troops were from Albania, then a province of the Ottoman Empire, in March 1803, the British evacuated Alexandria leaving a power vacuum in Egypt. Muhammad Bey al-Alfi had accompanied the British to lobby them to restore the power of the Mamluks. In their attempts to return to power, the Mamluks took Minia, the Albanians refused to disband, and instead surrounded the house of the defterdar, who appealed in vain to Hüsrev Pasha to satisfy their claims. Instead, the Pasha commenced a bombardment from batteries located in and near his palace on the insurgent soldiers who had taken the house of the defterdar. The citizens of Cairo, accustomed to such occurrences, immediately closed their shops, the tumult in the city continued all day, and the next morning a body of troops sent out by Hüsrev Pasha failed to quell it. Soon thereafter, Tahir descended with his guns to the Ezbekia, the following day, Koca Hüsrev Mehmed Pasha fled with his women, servants, and regular troops to Damietta along the Nile. Tahir then assumed the government, but within twenty three days encountered trouble due to inability to pay all of his forces and this time, it was Turkish troops who went without pay, and they in turn mutinied and assassinated Tahir Pasha. During the course of the mutiny, the palace was burnt. Tahir was replaced as commander of the Albanians by Muhammad Ali, fearing for his position from the Ottomans, he entered into an alliance with the Mamluk leaders Ibrahim Bey and Osman Bey al-Bardisi. With Hüsrev Pasha fortifying himself at Damietta, the Turkish troops in the vicinity of Cairo acclaimed Muftizade Ahmed Pasha, Muhammad Ali, however, refused to surrender Cairo to him. In reordering his forces to meet the new threat, he removed the Mamluks from Giza. Among the prisoners, those of the Turkish troops who had involved in the assassination of the former Albanian commander. Muhammad Ali gave control over the Cairo citadel to his Mamluk allies, soon after, they marched against Hüsrev Pasha, who had been joined by a considerable number of Turks in a well-fortified position at Damietta. Hüsrev was defeated, captured, and brought to Cairo by the Albanians, the bashi-bazouks sacked Damietta, but Hüsrev was treated with respect. Days later, Trabluslu Ali Pasha landed at Alexandria with a firman from the Ottoman Porte appointing him the new governor of Egypt and he threatened the Mamluk beys, now virtual masters of Upper Egypt, as well as of the capital and nearly all of Lower Egypt
21.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
22.
OCLC
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The Online Computer Library Center is a US-based nonprofit cooperative organization dedicated to the public purposes of furthering access to the worlds information and reducing information costs. It was founded in 1967 as the Ohio College Library Center, OCLC and its member libraries cooperatively produce and maintain WorldCat, the largest online public access catalog in the world. OCLC is funded mainly by the fees that libraries have to pay for its services, the group first met on July 5,1967 on the campus of the Ohio State University to sign the articles of incorporation for the nonprofit organization. The group hired Frederick G. Kilgour, a former Yale University medical school librarian, Kilgour wished to merge the latest information storage and retrieval system of the time, the computer, with the oldest, the library. The goal of network and database was to bring libraries together to cooperatively keep track of the worlds information in order to best serve researchers and scholars. The first library to do online cataloging through OCLC was the Alden Library at Ohio University on August 26,1971 and this was the first occurrence of online cataloging by any library worldwide. Membership in OCLC is based on use of services and contribution of data, between 1967 and 1977, OCLC membership was limited to institutions in Ohio, but in 1978, a new governance structure was established that allowed institutions from other states to join. In 2002, the structure was again modified to accommodate participation from outside the United States. As OCLC expanded services in the United States outside of Ohio, it relied on establishing strategic partnerships with networks, organizations that provided training, support, by 2008, there were 15 independent United States regional service providers. OCLC networks played a key role in OCLC governance, with networks electing delegates to serve on OCLC Members Council, in early 2009, OCLC negotiated new contracts with the former networks and opened a centralized support center. OCLC provides bibliographic, abstract and full-text information to anyone, OCLC and its member libraries cooperatively produce and maintain WorldCat—the OCLC Online Union Catalog, the largest online public access catalog in the world. WorldCat has holding records from public and private libraries worldwide. org, in October 2005, the OCLC technical staff began a wiki project, WikiD, allowing readers to add commentary and structured-field information associated with any WorldCat record. The Online Computer Library Center acquired the trademark and copyrights associated with the Dewey Decimal Classification System when it bought Forest Press in 1988, a browser for books with their Dewey Decimal Classifications was available until July 2013, it was replaced by the Classify Service. S. The reference management service QuestionPoint provides libraries with tools to communicate with users and this around-the-clock reference service is provided by a cooperative of participating global libraries. OCLC has produced cards for members since 1971 with its shared online catalog. OCLC commercially sells software, e. g. CONTENTdm for managing digital collections, OCLC has been conducting research for the library community for more than 30 years. In accordance with its mission, OCLC makes its research outcomes known through various publications and these publications, including journal articles, reports, newsletters, and presentations, are available through the organizations website. The most recent publications are displayed first, and all archived resources, membership Reports – A number of significant reports on topics ranging from virtual reference in libraries to perceptions about library funding
23.
JSTOR
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JSTOR is a digital library founded in 1995. Originally containing digitized back issues of journals, it now also includes books and primary sources. It provides full-text searches of almost 2,000 journals, more than 8,000 institutions in more than 160 countries have access to JSTOR, most access is by subscription, but some older public domain content is freely available to anyone. William G. Bowen, president of Princeton University from 1972 to 1988, JSTOR originally was conceived as a solution to one of the problems faced by libraries, especially research and university libraries, due to the increasing number of academic journals in existence. Most libraries found it prohibitively expensive in terms of cost and space to maintain a collection of journals. By digitizing many journal titles, JSTOR allowed libraries to outsource the storage of journals with the confidence that they would remain available long-term, online access and full-text search ability improved access dramatically. Bowen initially considered using CD-ROMs for distribution, JSTOR was initiated in 1995 at seven different library sites, and originally encompassed ten economics and history journals. JSTOR access improved based on feedback from its sites. Special software was put in place to make pictures and graphs clear, with the success of this limited project, Bowen and Kevin Guthrie, then-president of JSTOR, wanted to expand the number of participating journals. They met with representatives of the Royal Society of London and an agreement was made to digitize the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society dating from its beginning in 1665, the work of adding these volumes to JSTOR was completed by December 2000. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation funded JSTOR initially, until January 2009 JSTOR operated as an independent, self-sustaining nonprofit organization with offices in New York City and in Ann Arbor, Michigan. JSTOR content is provided by more than 900 publishers, the database contains more than 1,900 journal titles, in more than 50 disciplines. Each object is identified by an integer value, starting at 1. In addition to the site, the JSTOR labs group operates an open service that allows access to the contents of the archives for the purposes of corpus analysis at its Data for Research service. This site offers a facility with graphical indication of the article coverage. Users may create focused sets of articles and then request a dataset containing word and n-gram frequencies and they are notified when the dataset is ready and may download it in either XML or CSV formats. The service does not offer full-text, although academics may request that from JSTOR, JSTOR Plant Science is available in addition to the main site. The materials on JSTOR Plant Science are contributed through the Global Plants Initiative and are only to JSTOR
24.
Al-Tabari
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Today, he is best known for his expertise in tafsir, fiqh, and history, but he has been described as an impressively prolific polymath. He wrote on subjects as poetry, lexicography, grammar, ethics, mathematics. His most influential and best known works are his Quranic commentary known as Tafsir al-Tabari and his historical chronicle Tarikh al-Rusul wa al-Muluk, although it eventually became extinct, al-Tabaris madhhab flourished among Sunni ulama for two centuries after his death. It was usually designated by the name Jariri, Tabari was born in Amol, Tabaristan in the winter of 838–9. He memorized the Quran at seven, was a prayer leader at eight. He left home to study in 236AH when he was twelve and he retained close ties to his home town. He returned at least twice, the time in 290AH when his outspokenness caused some uneasiness. He first went to Rayy, where he remained for five years. A major teacher in Rayy was Abu Abdillah Muhammad ibn Humayd al-Razi, while in Ray, he also studied Muslim jurisprudence according to the Hanafi school. Among other material, ibn Humayd taught Jarir Tabari the historical works of ibn Ishaq, especially al-Sirah, Tabari was thus introduced in youth to pre-Islamic and early Islamic history. Tabari quotes ibn Humayd frequently, but little is known about Tabaris other teachers in Rayy, Tabari then travelled to study in Baghdad under ibn Hanbal, who, however, had recently died. Tabari possibly made a prior to his first arrival in Baghdad. He left Baghdad probably in 242 A. H. to travel through the cities of Basra, Kufah. There, he met a number of eminent and venerable scholars, in addition to his previous study of Hanafi law, Tabari also studied the Shafii, Maliki and Zahiri rites. Tabaris study of the school was with the founder, Dawud al-Zahiri. Tabari was, then, well-versed in four of the five remaining Sunni legal schools before founding his own independent, yet eventually extinct and his debates with his former teachers and classmates were known, and served as a demonstration of said independence. Notably missing from this list is the Hanbali school, the fourth largest legal school within Sunni Islam in the present era, Tabaris view of Ibn Hanbal, the schools founder, became decidedly negative later in life. On his return to Baghdad, he took a position from the vizier
25.
Al-Masudi
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Al-Mas‘udi was an Arab historian and geographer. He is sometimes referred to as the Herodotus of the Arabs, Al-Mas‘udi was one of the first to combine history and scientific geography in a large-scale work, The Meadows of Gold and Mines of Gems, a world history. Al-Mas‘udi states that he was born in Baghdad and that he was a descendant of Abdullah Ibn Masud, however, little else is known about his early years. He mentions his association with many scholars in the lands through which he travelled, however, most of what is known of him comes from his own works. Although Ahamd Shboul questions the full extent of al-Mas‘udis travels, even his more conservative estimation is impressive, Other writers include Sri Lanka and China among his travels. Lunde and Stone in the introduction to their English translation state that received much information on China from Abu Zaid al-Sirafi whom he met on the coast of the Persian Gulf. In Syria al-Mas‘udi met Leo of Tripoli, Leo was a Byzantine admiral who converted to Islam. From him the historian received much of his information about Byzantium and he spent his last years in Syria and Egypt. In Egypt he found a copy of a Frankish king list from Clovis to Louis IV that had written by an Andalusian bishop. There is not much known about how he supported himself during such extensive travels within, Lunde and Stone speculate that like many travelers he may have been involved in trade. Near the ending of the The Meadows of Gold, al-Mas‘udi wrote, the extant version is only an earlier draft from 947, not the revised 956 edition. Lunde and Stone note that al-Mas‘udi in his Tanbih states that the edition of Muruj adh-dhahab contained 365 chapters. They also note the stark contrast between contemporary European conditions confronting say the author of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and this highly literate Islamic world. Ahmad Shboul mentions the rich blend of Greek philosophy, Persian literature, Indian mathematics and this enabled the society of the day to manifest a knowledge seeking, perceptive and analytical attitude. There was an association of scholarly minded people in this highly civilized atmosphere. Al-Mas‘udi was a pupil or junior colleague of a number of prominent intellectuals, including the philologists al-Zajjaj, ibn Duraid, Niftawayh and he was acquainted with famous poets, including Kashajim, whom he probably met in Aleppo. He was well read in philosophy, knowing the works of al-Kindi and al-Razi, the Aristotelian thought of al-Farabi, al-Mas‘udis extant writings do not confirm his meeting with his contemporaries al-Razi and al-Farabi, however such meetings were highly likely. He does record his meeting with al-Farabis pupil Yahya ibn Adi, in addition he was familiar with the medical work of Galen, with Ptolemaic astronomy, with the geographical work of Marinus and with the studies of Islamic geographers and astronomers
