1.
Al-Qassim Region
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Al-Qassim Region, also spelled Qassim, Al-Qaseem, Al-Qasim, or Gassim internationally, is one of the thirteen administrative regions of Saudi Arabia. Located at the heart of the country, and almost in the center of the Arabian Peninsula, it has a population of 1,370,727 and it is known to be the alimental basket of the country, for its agricultural assets. Al-Qassim is the richest region per capita in Saudi Arabia and it is the seventh most populated region in the country after Jizan and the fifth most densely populated. It has more than 400 cities, towns, villages, and Bedouin settlements and its capital city is Buraydah, which is inhabited by approximately 49% of the regions total population. The governor of the province from 1992 to 29 January 2015 was Prince Faisal bin Bandar, Al Qassim is derived from the word Qassimah, a reference to قصائم الغضا, meaning the regions sand dunes from which the white saxaul trees grow. The region is known to contain a group of Calligonum plants such as comosum. The province is located in the center of Saudi Arabia approximately 400 km northwest of Riyadh and it is bordered by Riyadh Region to the south and east, by Hail Region to the north, and by Al Madinah Region to the west. The region is connected to almost every part of Saudi Arabia by a complicated network of highways. The regional airport, Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz Regional Airport, connects Al Qassim to the provinces of the country. There is not much known about Al Qassim the province in the times of Pre-Islamic Arabia. Unaizah was repeatedly mentioned as a watering hole in the poems of Imru Al Qais. Moreover, AlJiwa, which is about 60 km north of Unzaizah, was mentioned by the heroic Absi poet Antarah bin Shaddad, Al Qassim Province had some important foyers on the road of pilgrims and traders coming from the east in the era of the Abbasid Empire. The Zubeida road was a long road that started from the city of Kufa in Iraq. The road was constructed in the reign of Harun Al Rashid and was named after his wife Zubeida and it had pilgrims foyers in many of the regions cities including Unaizah. The Al Abu Olayan - dynasty from the Banu Tamim tribe established the emirate of Buraydah in the late 16th century by its leader and he built Buraydah and made it the provinces capital. However, Unaizah was ruled by Al Sulaim dynasty, the emirate was later captured by Muhanna Salih Abalkhail, the leader of the Abalkhail dynasty. In 1890, the Rashidi dynasty based in Hail annexed the province, in 1904, the Abalkhail recaptured the province. In 1907, the province was integrated under the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the province is Saudi Arabias most conservative region
2.
Pre-Islamic Arabia
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Pre-Islamic Arabia refers to the Arabian Peninsula prior to the rise of Islam in the 630s. Pre-Islamic religion in Arabia consisted of indigenous beliefs, Ancient Arabian Christianity, Nestorian Christianity. In the latter stages of the era, Christianity gained converts with some unorthodox sects, such as the gnostics. Archaeological exploration in the Arabian Peninsula has been sparse but fruitful, the most recent detailed study of pre-Islamic Arabia is Arabs and Empires Before Islam, published by Oxford University Press in 2015. This book collects a range of ancient texts and inscriptions for the history of the region during this time period. Ubaid period - could have originated in Eastern Arabia, umm an-Nar Culture Sabr culture Magan is attested as the name of a trading partner of the Sumerians. It is often assumed to have located in Oman. The Aadids established themselves in South Arabia, settling to the east of the Qahtan tribe and they established the Kingdom of ʿĀd around the 10th century BCE to the 3rd century CE. The ʿĀd nation were known to the Greeks and Egyptians, claudius Ptolemys Geographos refers to the place by a Hellenized version of the inhabitants of the capital Ubar. The sedentary people of pre-Islamic Eastern Arabia were mainly Aramaic speakers, in pre-Islamic times, the population of Eastern Arabia consisted of Christianized Arabs, Aramean Christians, Persian-speaking Zoroastrians and Jewish agriculturalists. Nestorian Christianity was the dominant religion in pre-Islamic Eastern Arabia, Zoroastrianism was also present, the Zoroastrians of Eastern Arabia were known as Majoos in pre-Islamic times. The sedentary dialects of Eastern Arabia, including Bahrani Arabic, were influenced by Akkadian, Aramaic, the Dilmun civilization was an important trading centre which at the height of its power controlled the Persian Gulf trading routes. The Sumerians regarded Dilmun as holy land, Dilmun is regarded as one of the oldest ancient civilizations in the Middle East. The Sumerians described Dilmun as a garden in the Epic of Gilgamesh. The Sumerian tale of the paradise of Dilmun may have been an inspiration for the Garden of Eden story. Dilmun appears first in Sumerian cuneiform clay tablets dated to the end of fourth millennium BCE, found in the temple of goddess Inanna, in the city of Uruk. The adjective Dilmun is used to describe a type of axe and one specific official, Dilmun was an important trading center from the late fourth millennium to 1800 BCE. At the height of Dilmuns power, Dilmun controlled the Persian Gulf trading routes, Dilmun was very prosperous during the first 300 years of the second millennium
3.
Uyun AlJiwa governorate
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Uyun AlJiwa is a Saudi governorate that is located in northwestern Al-Qassim Region less than 30 kilometres northwest of Buraydah, the province capital city. The name literally translates to The Valleys Ponds, and it derives from the ponds which used to surround the area. It is most famous for the past societies which used to live in the area, people of Al Jiwa are distinguished from other people in Al-Qassim Region by their unique accent. Many historic as well as societies have settled in the Al Jiwa land. One example is Banu Abs who gave birth to the knight, adventurer, lover. Moreover, Al Jiwa contains many Thamudic patterns, in recent history, many of the region inhabitants forefathers were among who are called Al Oqilat, which was a group that traveled long distances to trade, work for money, and bring back merchandise. Others were farmers and worked either in harvest or raising livestock and they were known for their loyalty, honesty, and hard work. This not only proves that Al Jiwa long-time existed, but it proves that it held a type of status in the past. Besides that, the governorate consist of 8 other towns such as Ghaf Al Jiwa, Rawdh Al Jiwa, Authal, the families living in these different towns have had-and still do share strong ties with each other. Several old and Thamudic rock arts around Al Jiwa area, some are vertical, some are horizontal, and two are diagonally drawn. They were found mainly in two sites, Al-Hanadir, Lies 15 kilometres west of the city, drawings on two rocks were discovered there. Hasat Al-Nusla, A precarious boulder next to a rock formation located in northern Ghaf Al Jiwa. The site sustains two historic significations, Historic Texts and Thamudic Art are engraved on parts of the surface, the legendary meeting place of the famous soldier and poet Antarah with his love Abla. AlMargab, an old watchtower built with mud and adobe & located on the highest plateau in Uyun AlJiwa, mainly, it was used to watch for approaching enemies far in distance and shout calling warnings from atop. It was recently reconstructed by Uyun AlJiwa municipality, the Old Souq, An old Saudi heritage market, the shops of which are aligned forming a circle. The Old Uyun, A collection of old mud houses built with adobe, clay, past generations of the city lived there before there were paved streets. Even though most of them were demolished, some of them survived the rain torrents therefor preserved as a historic site. The trench in northern Authal, It was dug when Banu Hilal tribe lived in the region, farmers grow and harvest many kinds of vegetable and fruit, such as dates, carrots, okra, and leeks, and they also raise livestock in Al Jiwa
4.
Arab world
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The Arab world, also known as the Arab nation or the Arab states, consists of the 22 Arabic-speaking countries of the Arab League. The contemporary Arab world has a population of around 422 million inhabitants. In the Middle Ages, the Arab world was synonymous with the historic Arab empires and caliphates, Arab nationalism arose in the second half of the 19th century along with other nationalist movements within the Ottoman Empire. The Arab League was formed in 1945 to represent the interests of Arab people and especially to pursue the political unification of the Arab countries, the linguistic and political denotation inherent in the term Arab is generally dominant over genealogical considerations. In Arab states, Modern Standard Arabic is the language used by the government. The language of a nation is called Darija, which means everyday/colloquial language. Although no globally accepted definition of the Arab world exists, all countries that are members of the Arab League are generally acknowledged as being part of the Arab world. This standard territorial definition is seen to be inappropriate or problematic. These parameters may be applied to the states and territories of the Arab League, typical parameters that may be applied include, whether Arabic is widely spoken, whether Arabic is an official or national language, or whether an Arabic cognate language is widely spoken. While Arabic dialects are spoken in a number of Arab League states, several states have declared Arabic to be an official or national language, although Arabic is today not as widely spoken there. As members of the Arab League, however, they are considered part of the Arab world under the territorial definition. Somalia has two official languages today, Arabic and Somali, both of which belong to the larger Afro-Asiatic language family, although Arabic is widely spoken by many people in the north, Somali is the most widely used language, and contains many Arabic loan words. Similarly, Djibouti has two languages, Arabic and French. It also has several formally recognized national languages, besides Somali, many people speak Afar, the majority of the population speaks Somali and Afar, although Arabic is also widely used for trade and other activities. Comoros has three languages, Arabic, Comorian and French. Comorian is the most widely spoken language, with Arabic having a religious significance, Israel is not part of the Arab world. By some definitions, Arab citizens of Israel may concurrently be considered a constituent part of the Arab world, Iran has about 1.5 million Arabic speakers. Iranian Arabs are mainly found in Ahvaz, a region in the Khuzestan Province, others inhabit the Bushehr Qushasha and Hipi-Lipi Hormozgan provinces
5.
Arabic poetry
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Arabic poetry is the earliest form of Arabic literature. Present knowledge of poetry in Arabic dates from the 6th century, Arabic poetry is categorized into two main types, rhymed or measured, and prose, with the former greatly preceding the latter. The rhymed poetry falls within fifteen different meters collected and explained by al-Farahidi in The Science of ‘Arud, al-Akhfash, a student of al-Farahidi, later added one more meter to make them sixteen. The meters of the poetry are known in Arabic as seas. The measuring unit of seas is known as taf‘īlah, and every sea contains a number of tafilas which the poet has to observe in every verse of the poem. The measuring procedure of a poem is very rigorous, sometimes adding or removing a consonant or a vowel can shift the bayt from one meter to another. Also, in rhymed poetry, every bayt has to end with the same throughout the poem. Researchers and critics of Arabic poetry usually classify it in two categories, classical and modern poetry, Classical poetry was written before the Arabic renaissance. Thus, all poetry that was written in the style is called classical or traditional poetry since it follows the traditional style. It is also known as horizontal poetry in reference to its horizontal parallel structure, modern poetry, on the other hand, deviated from classical poetry in its content, style, structure, rhyme and topics. The first major poet in the era is Imru al-Qais. Although most of the poetry of that era was not preserved, Poetry held an important position in pre-Islamic society with the poet or shair filling the role of historian, soothsayer and propagandist. Words in praise of the tribe and lampoons denigrating other tribes seem to have some of the most popular forms of early poetry. The shair represented an individual tribes prestige and importance in the Arabian peninsula, ukaz, a market town not far from Mecca, would play host to a regular poetry festival where the craft of the shairs would be exhibited. Alongside the shair, and often as his apprentice, was the rawi or reciter. The job of the rawi was to learn the poems by heart and to them with explanations. This tradition allowed the transmission of these works and the practice was later adopted by the huffaz for their memorisation of the Quran. At some periods there have been unbroken chains of illustrious poets, each one training a rawi as a bard to promote his verse, and then to take over from them and continue the poetic tradition
6.
Saleh
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Saleh or Salih was a prophet of ancient Arabia mentioned in the Quran, who prophesied to the tribe of Thamud. Saleh is sometimes equated with Shelakh, a figure from the Hebrew Bible, the Thamudi people are believed to have been the successors to the ancient tribe of ʿĀd. Their ancestor may have been ‘Eber ibn Shelakh the descendant of Noah, with the advance of material civilization, the people of Thamud became materialistic and arrogant as well as godless. Thus, God sent the prophet and seer Saleh, to them about the impending doom they would face if they did not mend their sinful ways. In later Islamic history, when Muhammad led his expedition to Tabuk against the Romans, on a reported Roman invasion from the Levant, the prophet and his companions walked past the land of Thamud. Historic Petra had several places of worship, and the mountain at the site. The narrow gorge leading to the site, known as the Siq, can sometimes channel the wind to produce a loud trumpet-like sound, and it is known by local Bedouin as the trumpet of God. The name of Saleh may originate in the name of the city, as it was known as Sela, a word deriving from the Hebrew term Selah, meaning rock. The prophet Saleh is not mentioned in any other Abrahamic scripture or contemporary historical text, salehs life in his community had been so righteous that the people of Thamud virtually relied upon him for support. In fact, he might have chosen as their leader or king if he had too followed their idolatrous ways. But Saleh was chosen by God as a prophet and he was born for a mission, to preach against the selfishness of the wealthy. Although Saleh preached the message for a period of time. Saleh kept informing his people to look around them and remember the numerous miracles God had bestowed upon them, in monologues of preaching, Saleh reminded his people of the countless castles and palaces they built, and of their technological superiority over neighboring communities. Furthermore, he told them about their ancestors, the ʿĀd tribe, as usually happened in such events, the poor and the needy were the steadfast believers from the community and the suppressive were the rich and arrogant townsfolk. As Saleh took the side of the underprivileged, the chieftains of the tribe reviled the prophet, thus, God gave Thamud tribe a she-camel, to provide them with sustenance, as both a blessing and a test. Pasture was considered a gift of God, and the camel would be a trial to see if the arrogant. The rich, instead of accepting the test of God, hamstrung the she-camel, nine of the worst people were involved in the slaying of the camel, which invited the wrath of God. The people of Thamud had three days for further repentance to God
7.
Muhammad Mahdi al-Jawahiri
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Muhammad Mahdi Al-Jawahiri was an Iraqi poet. Muhammad Mahdi Al-Jawahiri was born in 1899 in Najaf in Iraq and his father, Abd al-Husayn was a religious scholar among the clergy in Najaf who wanted his son to be a cleric as well. So he dressed him in an clerics Abaya and turban at the age of ten, the origin of “Al-Jawahiri” goes back to his Najafi, Iraqi family. The books were referred to as the jewel of speech in explaining the laws of Islam” and was composed of 44 volumes. Afterwards he was known as the “owner of the jewels, ”, Muhammad Mahdi read the holy Quran and did not memorize it at an early age. Then his father sent him to great teachers to teach him reading, writing, grammar, rhetoric and his father and others planned for him to learn speech from Nahj al-Balagha and poetry from the works of Abu Tayyib al-Mutanabi. Learning was organized at an age and even in his childhood he displayed an inclination for literature. He began to read the Book of Eloquence and Demonstration by Al-Jahiz and the Muqaddimah by Ibn Khaldun and it was early in his life when he first wore the clothing of a religious man and he participated in the 1920 revolution against the British authorities. Then he worked for a period in the court of King Faysal I when he was crowned king of Iraq. Then he left the clergy just as he work in Faysals court. After he left Najaf for Baghdad, he went to work in the press, and put out a group of papers – among them Al-Furat, Al-Inqilab and he was elected head of the union of Iraqi writers on several occasions. His brother Jaafar was killed during the Al-Wathbah uprising of 1948 and he recited the poem at Haydarkhana mosque to an audience of Sunnis, Shia and Jews during the same month of the massacre. A verse from the poem, Do you know or do you not know/ that the wounds of victims are a mouth, became an icon of modern Iraqi poetry. Muhammad Mahdi Al-Jawahiri Network Muhammad Mahdi Al-Jawahiri Center My Brother Jaafar in Arabic
8.
Abd al-Wahhab Al-Bayati
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Abd al-Wahhab al-Bayati was an Iraqi poet. He was a pioneer in his field and defied conventional forms of poetry that had been common for centuries and he was born in Baghdad, near the shrine of the 12th century Sufi Abdel Qadir al-Jilani. In this respect, al-Bayati is unique among his peers, most of whom share pastoral roots, London, Moscow, Madrid and Baghdad are all represented in his poetry. He attended Baghdad University, and became a teacher after graduating from Dar Al-Muallimin in 1950, in addition to teaching in public schools, al-Bayati also edited the popular and widely circulated cultural magazine Al-Thaqafa A-Jadida. In 1954 he left Iraq after being dismissed from his positions because of his radical communist political views and anti-government activity, although he returned to Damascus at the end of his life, his early wanderings also took him to Cairo, Beirut and a number of Western capitals. Always involved in affairs, some of al-Bayatis poems are in fact addressed to international figures such as TS Eliot. Not much information is available about his personal life, before his exile, he married, but his wife and four children are mentioned only in passing in the few available biographies. This may be because they remained in Iraq after his departure, the new republican government gave him a post in the Ministry of Education, after which he went to Moscow as a cultural attache representing the Iraqi embassy. Al-Bayati resigned from this post in 1961, but did not return to Iraq right away and he continued to live in Russia, teaching at the Asian and African Peoples Institute of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. He stayed in Eastern Europe, traveling often, and returned briefly to Iraq in 1964, in the mid-1970s Al-Bayati moved between Cairo, Paris, London, Madrid, Jeddah and Delphi, never staying in one place long but always returning to the Middle East. For the remainder of his life, Al-Bayati moved between his homeland and the rest of the world, ive always searched for the suns springs, he said, When a human being stays in one place, hes likely to die. People too stagnate like water and air, therefore the death of nature, of words, of the spirit has prompted me to keep travelling, so as to encounter new suns, new springs, new horizons. A whole new world being born, although Al-Bayati was philosophical about his wandering, it was not solely a personal choice. His communist politics made trouble for him throughout his whole life, when the pan-Arab, socialist Baath Party took control of Iraq from the Arif party in 1968, Al-Bayati returned home only to flee a brutal campaign against liberals a few years later. He returned in 1972 to receive honors from the new government, when Husseins government invaded Kuwait in 1990, Al-Bayati left Spain and took refuge in Jordan and later Syria. In 1995, Hussein revoked his citizenship as punishment for Al-Bayatis participation in a Saudi Arabian cultural festival, Al-Bayatis difficulty with Iraq over the course of his life became the subject of much of his writing. There is a story that he explained it by drawing comparisons between his relationship with Iraq and the story of Prometheus. Of course, Al-Bayati said, my relations with Iraqi governments were never conciliatory, I belong to the Iraqi people
9.
Mohammed Ridha Al-Shabibi
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Sheikh Mohammed Ridha Al-Shabibi was an Iraqi national figure, statesman, poet and educator. A member of the prominent Al-Shabibi family of Najaf he studied religion and literature and he lived from 1889 until 1965, and played a major role for Iraq to achieve independence after World War I. This was a step as he publicized formally outside Iraq the desire of Iraqs self-determination. This was the start of a process that led to Iraqs independence on 3 October 1932. Mohammed Ridha Al-Shabibi also served in parliament from the 1920s through the 1940s and he was elected president of the Iraqi Academy in 1928–1929 and in the 1930s became a member of the Arabic Language Academy in Cairo. He authored a number of books on Iraqi history, the Iraqi dialect, Mohammed Ridha Al-Shabibi married Shamsa Rahmatalla in 1926. They had 4 sons and 6 daughters, asad Al-Shabibi his elder son was abducted by the Iraqi Baathist regime for his political views on the morning of November 26,1980
10.
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
Baynes, T.S., ed. (1878), "Antara", Encyclopædia Britannica, 2 (9th ed.), New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, p. 100
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