Aleppo
Aleppo is a city in Syria, serving as the capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Syrian governorate. With an official population of 4.6 million in 2010, Aleppo was the largest Syrian city before the Syrian Civil War. Aleppo is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. Excavations at Tell as-Sawda and Tell al-Ansari, just south of the old city of Aleppo, show that the area was occupied by Amorites since at least the latter part of the 3rd millennium BC; this is when Aleppo is first mentioned in cuneiform tablets unearthed in Ebla and Mesopotamia, in which it is a part of the Amorite state of Yamhad, is noted for its commercial and military proficiency. Such a long history is attributed to its strategic location as a trading center midway between the Mediterranean Sea and Mesopotamia. For centuries, Aleppo was the largest city in the Syrian region, the Ottoman Empire's third-largest after Constantinople and Cairo; the city's significance in history has been its location at one end of the Silk Road, which passed through central Asia and Mesopotamia.
When the Suez Canal was inaugurated in 1869, trade was diverted to sea and Aleppo began its slow decline. At the fall of the Ottoman Empire after World War I, Aleppo ceded its northern hinterland to modern Turkey, as well as the important railway connecting it to Mosul. In the 1940s, it lost its main access to the sea, Antakya and İskenderun to Turkey; the isolation of Syria in the past few decades further exacerbated the situation. This decline may have helped to preserve the old city of Aleppo, its medieval architecture and traditional heritage, it won the title of the "Islamic Capital of Culture 2006", has had a wave of successful restorations of its historic landmarks. The Battle of Aleppo occurred in the city during the Syrian Civil War, many parts of the city suffered massive destruction. Affected parts of the city are undergoing reconstruction. Modern-day English-speakers refer to the city as Aleppo, it was known in antiquity as Khalpe, to the Greeks and Romans as Beroea. During the Crusades, again during the French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon of 1923–1946, the name Alep was used.
Aleppo represents the Italianised version of this. The original ancient name, has survived as the current Arabic name of the city, it is of obscure origin. However, the term Ḥalab might be derived from related to a folktale of Abraham, who milked his sheep to feed the poor. Others have proposed that Ḥalab means "iron" or "copper" in Amorite languages, since the area served as a major source of these metals in antiquity. Another possibility is that Ḥalab means'white', as this is the word for'white' in Aramaic, the local language which preceded regional Arabization; this may explain how Ḥalab became the Hebrew word for milk or vice versa, as well as offers a possible explanation for the modern-day Arabic nickname of the city, ash-Shahbaa, which means "the white-colored mixed with black" and derives from the famous white marble of Aleppo. Abraham is said to have camped on the acropolis which, long before his time, served as the foundation of a fortress where the Aleppo citadel is standing now, he milked his grey cow there, hence Aleppo's name "Halab Al-Shahba".
From the 11th century it was common rabbinic usage to apply the term "Aram-Zobah" to the area of Aleppo, many Syrian Jews continue to do so. Aleppo has scarcely been touched by archaeologists; the site has been occupied from around 5000 BC. Aleppo appears in historical records as an important city much earlier than Damascus; the first record of Aleppo comes from the third millennium BC, in the Ebla tablets when Aleppo was referred to as Ha-lam. Some historians, such as Wayne Horowitz, identify Aleppo with the capital of an independent kingdom related to Ebla, known as Armi, although this identification is contested; the main temple of the storm god Hadad was located on the citadel hill in the center of the city, when the city was known as the city of Hadad. Naram-Sin of Akkad mention his destruction of Ebla and Armani/Armanum, in the 23rd century BC. but the identification of Armani in the inscription of Naram-Sim as Armi in the Eblaite tablets is debated, as there was no Akkadian annexation of Ebla or northern Syria.
In the Old Babylonian and Old Assyrian Empire period, Aleppo's name appears in its original form as Ḥalab for the first time. Aleppo was the capital of the important Amorite dynasty of Yamḥad; the kingdom of Yamḥad, alternatively known as the'land of Ḥalab,' was one of the most powerful in the Near East during the reign of Yarim-Lim I, who formed an alliance with Hammurabi of Babylonia against Shamshi-Adad I of Assyria. Yamḥad was devastated by the Hittites under Mursilis I in the 16th century BC. However, it soon resumed its leading role in the Levant when the Hittite power in the region waned due to internal strife. Taking advantage of the power vacuum in the region, king of the Hurrian kingdom of Mitanni instigated a rebellion that ended the life of Yamhad last king Ilim-Ilimma I in c. 1525 BC, Parshatatar conquered Aleppo and the city found itself on the frontline in the struggle between the Mitanni, the Hittites and Egypt. Niqmepa of Alalakh who descends from the old Yamhadite kings controlled the city as a vassal to Mitanni and was attacked by Tudhaliya I of the Hittites as a retaliation for his alliance to
Fars Province
Fars Province known as Pars or Persia in the Greek sources in historical context, is one of the thirty-one provinces of Iran and known as the cultural capital of the country. It is in the south of the country, in Iran's Region 2, its administrative center is Shiraz, it has an area of 122,400 km². In 2011, this province had a population of 4.6 million people, of which 67.6% were registered as urban dwellers, 32.1% villagers, 0.3% nomad tribes. The etymology of the word Persian, found in many ancient names associated with Iran, is derived from the historical importance of this region. Fars Province is the original homeland of the Persian people; the Persian word Fârs is the Arabized form of the earlier form Pârs, in turn derived from Pârsâ, the Old Persian name for the Persis region. The ancient Persians were present in the region from about the 10th century BC, became the rulers of the largest empire the world had yet seen under the Achaemenid dynasty, established in the mid 6th century BC, at its peak stretching from Thrace-Macedonia, Bulgaria-Paeonia and Eastern Europe proper in the west, to the Indus Valley in its far east.
The ruins of Persepolis and Pasargadae, two of the four capitals of the Achaemenid Empire, are located in Fars. The Achaemenid Empire was defeated by Alexander the Great in 333 BC, incorporating most of their vast empire. Shortly after this the Seleucid Empire was established; however it never extended its power in Fars beyond the main trade routes, by the reign of Antiochus I or later Persis emerged as an independent state that minted its own coins. The Seleucid Empire was subsequently defeated by the Parthians in 238 BC, but by 205 BC, the Seleucid king Antiochus III had extended his authority into Persis and it ceased to be an independent state. Babak was the ruler of a small town called Kheir. Babak's efforts in gaining local power at the time escaped the attention of Artabanus IV, the Parthian Arsacid Emperor of the time. Babak and his eldest son Shapur; the subsequent events are due to the sketchy nature of the sources. It is however certain that following the death of Babak around 220, Ardashir who at the time was the governor of Darabgird, got involved in a power struggle of his own with his elder brother Shapur.
The sources tell us. At this point, Ardashir moved his capital further to the south of Persis and founded a capital at Ardashir-Khwarrah. After establishing his rule over Persis, Ardashir I extended the territory of his Sassanid Persian Empire, demanding fealty from the local princes of Fars, gaining control over the neighboring provinces of Kerman, Isfahan and Mesene. Artabanus marched a second time against Ardashir I in 224, their armies clashed at Hormizdegan. Ardashir was crowned in 226 at Ctesiphon as the sole ruler of Persia, bringing the 400-year-old Parthian Empire to an end, starting the equally long rule of the Sassanian Empire, over an larger territory, once again making Persia a leading power in the known world, only this time along with its arch-rival and successor to Persia's earlier opponents; the Sassanids ruled for 425 years. Afterwards, the Persians started to convert to Islam, this making it much easier for the new Muslim empire to continue the expansion of Islam. Persis passed hand to hand through numerous dynasties, leaving behind numerous historical and ancient monuments.
The ruins of Bishapur and Firouzabad are all reminders of this. Arab invaders brought about a decline of Zoroastrian rule and made Islam ascendant from the 7th century. Fars province is located in the south of Iran, it neighbours Bushehr Province to the west, Hormozgān Province to the south and Yazd provinces to the east, Isfahan province to the north and Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province to the northwest. According to the latest divisions, the province contains the following counties: Abadeh, Jahrom, Rostam, Darab, Bavanat, Larestan and Karzin, Lamerd, Fasa, Zarrin Dasht, Shiraz, Sepidan, Pasargad, Khonj, Gerash, Mohr. There are three distinct climatic regions in the Fars Province. First, the mountainous area of the north and northwest with moderate cold winters and mild summers. Secondly, the central regions, with rainy mild winters, hot dry summers; the third region located in the south and southeast, has cold winters with hot summers. The average temperature of Shiraz is 16.8 °C, ranging between 4.7 °C and 29.2 °C.
The geographical and climatic variation of the province causes varieties of plants. Additional to the native animals of the province, many kinds of birds migrate to the province every year. Many kinds of ducks and swallows migrate to this province in an annual parade; the main native animals of the province are gazelle, mountain wild goat, ram and many kinds of birds. In the past, like in Khuzestan Plain, the Persian lion had occurred here; the province of Fars includes many protected wildlife zones. The most important protected zones are: Toot Siah Hunt Forbidden Zone, whi
Shiraz
Shiraz is the fifth-most-populous city of Iran and the capital of Fars Province. At the 2016 census, the population of the city was 1,869,001 and its built-up area with "Shahr-e Jadid-e Sadra" was home to 1,565,572 inhabitants. Shiraz is located in the southwest of Iran on the "Rudkhaneye Khoshk" seasonal river, it has been a regional trade center for over a thousand years. Shiraz is one of the oldest cities of ancient Persia; the earliest reference to the city, as Tiraziš, is on Elamite clay tablets dated to 2000 BC. In the 13th century, Shiraz became a leading center of the arts and letters, due to the encouragement of its ruler and the presence of many Persian scholars and artists, it was the capital of Persia during the Zand dynasty from 1750 until 1800. Two famous poets of Iran and Saadi, are from Shiraz, whose tombs are on the north side of the current city boundaries. Shiraz is known as the city of poets, literature and flowers, it is considered by many Iranians to be the city of gardens, due to the many gardens and fruit trees that can be seen in the city, for example Eram Garden.
Shiraz has had major Christian communities. The crafts of Shiraz consist of inlaid mosaic work of triangular design. In Shiraz industries such as cement production, fertilizers, textile products, wood products and rugs dominate. Shirāz has a major oil refinery and is a major center for Iran's electronic industries: 53% of Iran's electronic investment has been centered in Shiraz. Shiraz is home to Iran's first solar power plant; the city's first wind turbine has been installed above Babakuhi mountain near the city. The earliest reference to the city is on Elamite clay tablets dated to 2000 BCE, found in June 1970, while digging to make a kiln for a brick factory in the south western corner of the city; the tablets written in ancient Elamite name a city called Tiraziš. Phonetically, this is interpreted as /tiračis/ or /ćiračis/; this name became Old Persian /širājiš/. The name Shiraz appears on clay sealings found at a 2nd-century CE Sassanid ruin, east of the city. By some of the native writers, the name Shiraz has derived from a son of Tahmuras, the third Shāh of the world according to Ferdowsi's Shāhnāma.
Shiraz is most more than 6,000 years old. The name Shiraz is mentioned in cuneiform inscriptions from around 2000 BC found in southwestern corner of the city. According to some Iranian mythological traditions, it was erected by Tahmuras Diveband, afterward fell to ruin. In the Achaemenian era, Shiraz was on the way from Susa to Pasargadae. In Ferdowsi's Shāhnāma it has been said that Artabanus V, the Parthian Emperor of Iran, expanded his control over Shiraz. Ghasre Abu-Nasr, from Parthian era is situated in this area. During the Sassanid era, Shiraz was in between the way, connecting Bishapur and Gur to Istakhr. Shiraz was an important regional center under the Sassanians; the city became a provincial capital in 693, after Arab invaders conquered Istakhr, the nearby Sassanian capital. As Istakhr fell into decline, Shiraz grew in importance under several local dynasties; the Buwayhid empire made it their capital, building mosques, palaces, a library and an extended city wall. It was ruled by the Seljuks and the Khwarezmians before the Mongol conquest.
The city was spared destruction by the invading Mongols, when its local ruler offered tributes and submission to Genghis Khan. Shiraz was again spared by Tamerlane, when in 1382 the local monarch, Shah Shoja agreed to submit to the invader. In the 13th century, Shiraz became a leading center of the arts and letters, thanks to the encouragement of its ruler and the presence of many Persian scholars and artists. For this reason the city was named by classical geographers Dar al - ` the House of Knowledge. Among the Iranian poets and philosophers born in Shiraz were the poets Sa'di and Hafiz, the mystic Ruzbehan, the philosopher Mulla Sadra, thus Shiraz has been nicknamed "The Athens of Iran". As early as the 11th century, several hundred thousand people inhabited Shiraz. In the 14th century Shiraz had sixty thousand inhabitants. During the 16th century it had a population of 200,000 people, which by the mid-18th century had decreased to only 55,000. In 1504, Shiraz was captured by the forces of the founder of the Safavid dynasty.
Throughout the Safavid empire Shiraz remained a provincial capital and Emam Qoli Khan, the governor of Fars under Shah Abbas I, constructed many palaces and ornate buildings in the same style as those built during the same period in Isfahan, the capital of the Empire. After the fall of the Safavids, Shiraz suffered a period of decline, worsened by the raids of the Afghans and the rebellion of its governor against Nader Shah; the city was besieged for many months and sacked. At the time of Nader Shah's murder in 1747, most of the historical buildings of the city were damaged or ruined, its population fell to 50,000, one-quarter of that during the 16th century. Shiraz soon returned to prosperity under the rule of Karim Khan Zand, who made it his capital in 1762. Employing more than 12,000 workers, he constructed a royal district with a fortress, many administrative buildings, a mosque and one of the finest covered bazaars in Iran, he had a moat built around the city
Palestinians
The Palestinian people referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs, are an ethnonational group comprising the modern descendants of the peoples who have lived in Palestine over the centuries, including Jews and Samaritans, who today are culturally and linguistically Arab. Despite various wars and exoduses one half of the world's Palestinian population continues to reside in historic Palestine, the area encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Israel. In this combined area, as of 2005, Palestinians constituted 49% of all inhabitants, encompassing the entire population of the Gaza Strip, the majority of the population of the West Bank and 20.8% of the population of Israel proper as Arab citizens of Israel. Many are Palestinian refugees or internally displaced Palestinians, including more than a million in the Gaza Strip, about 750,000 in the West Bank and about 250,000 in Israel proper. Of the Palestinian population who live abroad, known as the Palestinian diaspora, more than half are stateless, lacking citizenship in any country.
Between 2.1 and 3.24 million of the diaspora population live in neighboring Jordan, over 1 million live between Syria and Lebanon and about 750,000 live in Saudi Arabia, with Chile's half a million representing the largest concentration outside the Middle East. Palestinian Christians and Muslims constituted 90% of the population of Palestine in 1919, just before the third wave of Jewish immigration under the post-WW1 British Mandatory Authority, opposition to which spurred the consolidation of a unified national identity, fragmented as it was by regional, class and family differences; the history of a distinct Palestinian national identity is a disputed issue amongst scholars. Legal historian Assaf Likhovski states that the prevailing view is that Palestinian identity originated in the early decades of the 20th century, when an embryonic desire among Palestinians for self-government in the face of generalized fears that Zionism would lead to a Jewish state and the dispossession of the Arab majority crystallised among most editors and Muslim, of local newspapers.
"Palestinian" was used to refer to the nationalist concept of a Palestinian people by Palestinian Arabs in a limited way until World War I. After the creation of the State of Israel, the exodus of 1948 and more so after the exodus of 1967, the term came to signify not only a place of origin but the sense of a shared past and future in the form of a Palestinian state. Modern Palestinian identity now encompasses the heritage of all ages from biblical times up to the Ottoman period. Founded in 1964, the Palestine Liberation Organization is an umbrella organization for groups that represent the Palestinian people before international states; the Palestinian National Authority established in 1994 as a result of the Oslo Accords, is an interim administrative body nominally responsible for governance in Palestinian population centers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Since 1978, the United Nations has observed an annual International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. According to Perry Anderson, it is estimated that half of the population in the Palestinian territories are refugees and that they have collectively suffered US$300 billion in property losses due to Israeli confiscations, at 2008–09 prices.
The Greek toponym Palaistínē, with which the Arabic Filastin is cognate, first occurs in the work of the 5th century BCE Greek historian Herodotus, where it denotes the coastal land from Phoenicia down to Egypt. Herodotus employs the term as an ethnonym, as when he speaks of the'Syrians of Palestine' or'Palestinian-Syrians', an ethnically amorphous group he distinguishes from the Phoenicians. Herodotus makes other inhabitants of Palestine; the Greek word reflects an ancient Eastern Mediterranean-Near Eastern word, used either as a toponym or ethnonym. In Ancient Egyptian Peleset/Purusati has been conjectured to refer to the "Sea Peoples" the Philistines. Among Semitic languages, Akkadian Palaštu is used of 7th-century Philistia and its, by four city states. Biblical Hebrew's cognate word Plištim, is translated Philistines. Syria Palestina continued to be used by historians and geographers and others to refer to the area between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, as in the writings of Philo and Pliny the Elder.
After the Romans adopted the term as the official administrative name for the region in the 2nd century CE, "Palestine" as a stand-alone term came into widespread use, printed on coins, in inscriptions and in rabbinic texts. The Arabic word Filastin has been used to refer to the region since the time of the earliest medieval Arab geographers, it appears to have been used as an Arabic adjectival noun in the region since as early as the 7th century CE. The Arabic newspaper Falasteen, published in Jaffa by Issa and Yusef al-Issa, addressed its readers as "Palestinians". During the Mandatory Palestine period, the term "Palestinian" was used to refer to all people residing there, regardless of religion or ethnicity, those granted citizenship by the British Mandatory authorities were granted "Palestinian citizenship". Other examples include the use of the term Palestine Regiment to refer to the Jewish Infantry Brigade Group of the British Army during World War II, the term "Palestinian Talmud", an alternative nam
Kerman
Kerman is the capital city of Kerman Province, Iran. At the 2011 census, its population was 821,394, in 221,389 households, making it the 10th most populous city of Iran, it is the largest and most developed city in Kerman Province and the most important city in the southeast of Iran. It is one of the largest cities of Iran in terms of area. Kerman is famous for strong cultural heritage; the city is home to Zoroastrian fire temples. Kerman became the capital city of Iranian dynasties several times during its history, it is located on 800 km south-east of Tehran, the capital of Iran. Kerman was founded as a defensive outpost, with the name Veh-Ardashir, by Ardashir I, founder of the Sasanian Empire, in the 3rd century AD. After the Battle of Nahāvand in 642, the city came under Muslim rule. At first the city's relative isolation allowed Kharijites and Zoroastrians to thrive there, but the Kharijites were wiped out in 698, the population was Muslim by 725. In the eighth century the city was famous for its manufacture of cashmere wool shawls and other textiles.
The Abbasid Caliphate's authority over the region was weak, power passed in the tenth century to the Buyid dynasty, which maintained control when the region and city fell to Mahmud of Ghazni in the late tenth century. The name Kerman was adopted at some point in the tenth century. Under the rule of the Seljuq Turks in the 11th and 12th centuries, Kerman remained independent, conquering Oman and Fars; when Marco Polo visited Kerman in 1271, it had become a major trade emporium linking the Persian Gulf with Khorasan and Central Asia. Subsequently, the city was sacked many times by various invaders. Kerman expanded during the Safavid dynasty. Carpets and rugs were exported to Germany during this period. In 1793 Lotf Ali Khan defeated the Qajars, in 1794 he captured Kerman, but soon after he was besieged in Kerman for six months by Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar. When the city fell to Agha Mohammad Khan, angered by the popular support that Lotf Ali Khan had received,many of the male inhabitants were killed or blinded, a pile was made out of 20,000 detached eyeballs and poured in front of the victorious Agha Mohammad Khan.
Many women and children were sold into slavery, in ninety days the city turned into ruins. However, the Zoroastrians of Kerman, strong supporters of Lotf Ali Khan suffered the wrath of the founder of Qajar dynasty the most during this period; the present city of Kerman was rebuilt in the 19th century to the northwest of the old city, but the city did not return to its former size until the 20th century. Kerman is located on a high margin of Kavir-e Lut in the south-central part of Iran; the city is surrounded by mountains. Kerman is located along the Saheb Al Zman mountain; the city is 1,755 m above sea level. Winter brings cold nights to Kerman. Mountains in the south and southeast Jftan Joopar and Plvar and Kerman have snow all year round. Kerman is located at latitude 30.29 and longitude 57.06. Kerman cool to cold winters. Precipitation is scarce throughout the year; the city's many districts are surrounded by mountains that bring variety to Kerman's year-round weather pattern. The northern part of the city is located in an arid desert area, while the highland of the southern part of the city enjoys a more moderate climate.
The mean elevation of the city is about 1,755 m above sea level. The city of Kerman has a moderate climate; the average annual rainfall is 142 mm. Otherwise, its climate is cool. For Iranian paleontologists, Kerman has always been considered a fossil paradise; the discovery of new dinosaur footprints in 2005 renewed hopes for better understanding the history of this area. The economy of Kerman is based on farming, notably nut farming and mining. Sarchashmeh Copper mine is the second biggest copper mine in the world after the one located in Chile. Pistachios are an important part of the economy in Kerman, with Kerman Province being the largest producer of pistachios in Iran and the world. Carpet weaving is one of the main industries of the city, the carpets produced there are renowned internationally. Carpet weaving is a old tradition in Kerman; the oldest carpet discovered in Kerman, dates from about 500 years ago. Cotton textiles and goats-wool shawls are manufactured. A number of modern establishments such as textile mills and brickworks have been constructed.
The province's mineral wealth includes coal. Kerman is among several cities in Iran with a strong cultural heritage, expressed in the local accent, local music and customs that Kerman has introduced to the world; the only anthropology Iran museum of Zoroastrians in the world, which showcases the ancient history of Zoroastrians, is in Kerman’s Fire Temple. The idea of launching the museum along with the library of Kerman’s Zoroastrian Society came to light in 1983, when the head of the society, Parviz Vakhashouri, the former head of the library, Mehran Gheibi, collected cultural heritage artifacts of Kerman’s Zoroastrian community; these two officials added many other objects to this collection. The museum was inaugurated during Jashn-e Tirgan in 2005 by Iran’s Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization. Jashn-e Tirgan or Tiregan is an ancient Iranian rain festival observed on July 1; the festivity refers to archangel Tir (liter
Abbasid Caliphate
The Abbasid Caliphate was the third of the Islamic caliphates to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abdul-Muttalib, from whom the dynasty takes its name, they ruled as caliphs for most of the caliphate from their capital in Baghdad in modern-day Iraq, after having overthrown the Umayyad Caliphate in the Abbasid Revolution of 750 CE. The Abbasid Caliphate first centred its government in Kufa, modern-day Iraq, but in 762 the caliph Al-Mansur founded the city of Baghdad, near the ancient Sasanian capital city of Ctesiphon; the Abbasid period was marked by reliance on Persian bureaucrats for governing the territories as well as an increasing inclusion of non-Arab Muslims in the ummah. Persianate customs were broadly adopted by the ruling elite, they began patronage of artists and scholars. Baghdad became a centre of science, culture and invention in what became known as the Golden Age of Islam. Despite this initial cooperation, the Abbasids of the late 8th century had alienated both non-Arab mawali and Iranian bureaucrats.
They were forced to cede authority over al-Andalus to the Umayyads in 756, Morocco to the Idrisid dynasty in 788, Ifriqiya to the Aghlabids in 800 and Egypt to the Isma'ili-Shia caliphate of the Fatimids in 969. The political power of the caliphs ended with the rise of the Iranian Buyids and the Seljuq Turks, who captured Baghdad in 945 and 1055, respectively. Although Abbasid leadership over the vast Islamic empire was reduced to a ceremonial religious function, the dynasty retained control over its Mesopotamian domain; the Abbasids' period of cultural fruition ended in 1258 with the sack of Baghdad by the Mongols under Hulagu Khan. The Abbasid line of rulers, Muslim culture in general, re-centred themselves in the Mamluk capital of Cairo in 1261. Though lacking in political power, the dynasty continued to claim religious authority until after the Ottoman conquest of Egypt in 1517; the Abbasid caliphs were Arabs descended from Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib, one of the youngest uncles of Muhammad and of the same Banu Hashim clan.
The Abbasids claimed to be the true successors of Prophet Muhammad in replacing the Umayyad descendants of Banu Umayya by virtue of their closer bloodline to Muhammad. The Abbasids distinguished themselves from the Umayyads by attacking their moral character and administration in general. According to Ira Lapidus, "The Abbasid revolt was supported by Arabs the aggrieved settlers of Merv with the addition of the Yemeni faction and their Mawali"; the Abbasids appealed to non-Arab Muslims, known as mawali, who remained outside the kinship-based society of the Arabs and were perceived as a lower class within the Umayyad empire. Muhammad ibn'Ali, a great-grandson of Abbas, began to campaign in Persia for the return of power to the family of Prophet Muhammad, the Hashimites, during the reign of Umar II. During the reign of Marwan II, this opposition culminated in the rebellion of Ibrahim the Imam, the fourth in descent from Abbas. Supported by the province of Khorasan though the governor opposed them, the Shia Arabs, he achieved considerable success, but was captured in the year 747 and died assassinated, in prison.
On 9 June 747, Abu Muslim, rising from Khorasan initiated an open revolt against Umayyad rule, carried out under the sign of the Black Standard. Close to 10,000 soldiers were under Abu Muslim's command when the hostilities began in Merv. General Qahtaba followed the fleeing governor Nasr ibn Sayyar west defeating the Umayyads at the Battle of Gorgan, the Battle of Nahāvand and in the Battle of Karbala, all in the year 748; the quarrel was taken up by Ibrahim's brother Abdallah, known by the name of Abu al-'Abbas as-Saffah, who defeated the Umayyads in 750 in the battle near the Great Zab and was subsequently proclaimed caliph. After this loss, Marwan fled to Egypt; the remainder of his family, barring one male, were eliminated. After their victory, As-Saffah sent his forces to Central Asia, where his forces fought against Tang expansion during the Battle of Talas; the noble Iranian family Barmakids, who were instrumental in building Baghdad, introduced the world's first recorded paper mill in the city, thus beginning a new era of intellectual rebirth in the Abbasid domain.
As-Saffah focused on putting down numerous rebellions in Mesopotamia. The Byzantines conducted raids during these early distractions; the first change the Abbasids, under Al-Mansur, made was to move the empire's capital from Damascus, in Syria, to Baghdad in Iraq. This was to both appease as well to be closer to the Persian mawali support base that existed in this region more influenced by Persian history and culture, part of the Persian mawali demand for less Arab dominance in the empire. Baghdad was established on the Tigris River in 762. A new position, that of the vizier, was established to delegate central authority, greater authority was delegated to local emirs; this meant that many Abbasid caliphs were relegated to a more ceremonial role than under the Umayyads, as the viziers began to exert greater influence, the role of the old Arab aristocracy was replaced by a Persian bureaucracy. During Al-Mansur's time control of Al-Andalus was lost, the Shia revolted and were defeated a year at the Battle of Bakhamra.
The Abbasids had depended on the support of Persians in their overthrow of the Umayyads. Abu al-'Abbas' successor, Al-Mansur welcomed non-Arab Musli
Greater Khorasan
Khorasan, sometimes called Greater Khorasan, is a historical region lying in northeast of Greater Persia, including part of Central Asia and Afghanistan. The name means "East, Orient" and loosely includes the territory of the Sasanian Empire north-east of Persia proper. Early Islamic usage regarded everywhere east of so-called Jibal or what was subsequently termed'Iraq Ajami', as being included in a vast and loosely-defined region of Khorasan, which might extend to the Indus Valley and Sindh. During the Islamic period, Khorasan along with Persian Iraq were two important territories; the boundary between these two was the region surrounding the cities of Qumis. In particular, the Ghaznavids and Timurids divided their empires into Iraqi and Khorasani regions; the main cities of Khorasan in the Islamic period were Balkh and Herat and Nishapur, Merv and Nisa, Bukhara and Samarkand. The cities of Merv and Nisa have since been abandoned but the other cities remain integral parts of their respective states.
The term Khorasan tended to further extend from these urban centers into the rural regions of their respective west, east and south. Sources from the 10th-century onwards refer to areas in the south of the Hindu Kush as the Khorasan Marches, forming a frontier region between Khorasan and Hindustan. Greater Khorasan is today sometimes used to distinguish the larger historical region from the modern Khorasan Province of Iran, which encompassed the western half of the historical Greater Khorasan. First established in the 6th-century as one of four administrative division by the Sassanids, the scope of the region has varied during its nearly 1,500-year history; the Khorasan division of the Sassanid empire covered the north-eastern military gains of the empire, at its height including cities such as Nishapur, Merv, Talaqan, Bukhara, Abiward, Tus and Gurgan. With the rise of the Umayyad Caliphate, the designation was inherited and streched as far as their military gains in the east, starting off with the military installations at Nishapur and Merv expandning eastwards into Tokharistan and Sogdia.
Under the Caliphs, Khorasan was the name of one of the three political zones under their dominion. Under the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates, Khorasan was divided into four major sections or quarters, each section based on a single major city: Nishapur, Merv and Balkh. By the 10th-century, Ibn Khordadbeh and the Hudud al-'Alam mentions what encompasses the previous regions of Abarshahr and Sogdia as Khwarasan proper, they further report the southern part of the Hindu Kush, i.e. the regions of Sistan, Rukhkhudh and Kabul etc. to make up the Khwarasan marches, a frontier region between Khwarasan and Hindustan which at the time would have been in a process of Islamization. By the late Middle Ages, the term lost its administrational significance, in the west only being loosely applied among the Turko-Persian dysnasties of modern Iran to all its territories that lay east and north-east of the Dasht-e Kavir desert, it was therefore subjected to constant change. In the east, Khwarasan became a term associated with the great urban centers of Central Asia.
It is mentioned in the Memoirs of Babur that: "The people of Hindustān call every country beyond their own Khorasān, in the same manner as the Arabs term all except Arabia, Ajem. On the road between Hindustān and Khorasān, there are two great marts: the one Kābul, the other Kandahār. Caravans, from Ferghāna, Tūrkestān, Balkh, Bokhāra, Hissār, Badakhshān, all resort to Kābul; this country lies between Hindustān and Khorasān." In modern times, the term has been source of great nostalgia and nationalism amongst the Tajiks of Central Asia. Many Tajiks regard Khorasan as an integral part of their national myth, which has preserved an interest in the term, including its meaning and cultural significance, both in common discussion and academia, despite its falling out of political use in the region. According to Ghulam Mohammad Ghobar, Afghanistan's current Persian-speaking territories formed the major portion of Khorasan, as two of the four main capitals of Khorasan are now located in Afghanistan.
Ghobar uses the terms "Proper Khorasan" and "Improper Khorasan" in his book to distinguish between the usage of Khorasan in its strict sense and its usage in a loose sense. According to him, Proper Khorasan contained regions lying between Balkh in the east, Merv in the north, Sistan in the south, Nishapur in the west and Herat, known as the Pearl of Khorasan, in the center. Improper Khorasan's boundaries extended to as far as Hazarajat and Kabul in the east, Baluchistan in the south and Khwarezm in the north, Damghan and Gorgan in the west. History of Iran, History of Turkmenistan, History of Afghanistan, History of Uzbekistan, History of Tajikistan Before the region fell to Alexander the Great in 330 BC, it was part of the Persian Achaemenid Empire and prior to that it was occupied by the Medes; the land that became known as Khorasan in geography of Eratosthenes was recognized as Ariana by Greeks at that time, which made up Greater Iran or the land where Zoroastrianism was the dominant religion.
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