1.
Joseph (Hebrew Bible)
–
Joseph is an important figure in the Bibles Book of Genesis and also in the Quran as well as the Book of Mormon. In Rabbinic tradition Joseph is considered the ancestor of another Messiah called Mashiach ben Yosef and he will wage war against the evil forces alongside Mashiach ben David and die in combat with the enemies of God and Israel. Joseph, son of Jacob and Rachel, lived in the land of Canaan with ten half-brothers, one full brother and he was Rachels firstborn and Jacobs eleventh son. Of all the sons, Joseph was preferred by his father, when Joseph was seventeen years old he had two dreams that made his brothers plot his demise. In the first dream, Joseph and his brothers gathered bundles of grain, in the second dream, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars bowed to Joseph himself. These dreams, implying his supremacy, angered his brothers, unaware of this secondary intention, the others obeyed his first. Upon imprisoning Joseph, the brothers saw a caravan carrying spices and perfumes to Egypt. Thereafter the guilty brothers painted goats blood on Josephs coat and showed it to Jacob, ultimately, Joseph was sold to Potiphar, the captain of Pharaohs guard. Later, Joseph became Potiphars personal servant, and subsequently his households superintendent, here, Potiphars wife Zuleika tried to seduce Joseph, which he refused. Angered by his running away from her, she made an accusation of rape. Joseph requested the cup-bearer to mention him to Pharaoh and secure his release from prison, after two more years, the Pharaoh dreamt of seven lean cows which devoured seven fat cows, and of seven withered ears of grain which devoured seven fat ears. When the Pharaohs advisers failed to interpret dreams, the cup-bearer remembered Joseph. He interpreted the dream as seven years of abundance followed by seven years of famine, following the prediction, Joseph became Vizier, under the name of Zaphnath-Paaneah, and was given Asenath, the daughter of Potipherah, priest of On, to be his wife. During the seven years of abundance, Joseph ensured that the storehouses were full, in the sixth year, Asenath bore two children to Joseph, Manasseh and Ephraim. When the famine came, it was so severe that people from surrounding nations came to Egypt to buy bread, the narrative also indicates that they went straight to Joseph or were directed to him, even by the Pharaoh himself. This mandate lasted until the days of Moses, in the second year of famine, Josephs half brothers were sent to Egypt to buy goods. After questioning them, he accused them of being spies, after they mentioned a younger brother at home, the Vizier demanded that he be brought to Egypt as a demonstration of their veracity. This was Josephs full brother, Benjamin, Joseph placed his brothers in prison for three days
Joseph (Hebrew Bible)
–
Joseph and His Brethren Welcomed by
Pharaoh, watercolor by
James Tissot (c. 1900)
Joseph (Hebrew Bible)
–
A group of Asiatic peoples (perhaps the future Hyksos) depicted entering Egypt c.1900 BC from the tomb of a 12th dynasty official
Khnumhotep II under pharaoh
Senusret II at
Beni Hasan
Joseph (Hebrew Bible)
–
Joseph's dream of grain
Joseph (Hebrew Bible)
–
Joseph's dream of stars
2.
Jacob
–
Jacob, later given the name Israel, is regarded as a Patriarch of the Israelites. According to the Book of Genesis, Jacob was the third Hebrew progenitor with whom God made a covenant and he is the son of Isaac and Rebecca, the grandson of Abraham, Sarah and Bethuel, the nephew of Ishmael, and the younger twin brother of Esau. Jacob had twelve sons and at least one daughter, by his two wives, Leah and Rachel, and by their handmaidens Bilhah and Zilpah. Jacobs twelve sons, named in Genesis, were Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph and his only daughter mentioned in Genesis is Dinah. The twelve sons became the progenitors of the Tribes of Israel, as a result of a severe drought in Canaan, Jacob and his sons moved to Egypt at the time when his son Joseph was viceroy. Jacob is mentioned in a number of sacred scriptures, including the Hebrew Bible, the Talmud, the New Testament, the Quran, hadith, Baháí scripture, and the Book of Mormon. According to the folk etymology found in Genesis 25,26, according to Jan Fokkelman, the name is a shortened version of Yaaqob-el, meaning God may protect. The Hebrew Bible says at Genesis 32, 28-29 and 35,10, etymologically, it has been suggested that the name Israel comes from the Hebrew words לִשְׂרות and אֵל. Popular English translations typically reference the face off with God, ranging from wrestles with God to passive God contends. Some commentators say the name comes from the verb śārar, thereby making the name mean God rules or God judges, the biblical account of the life of Jacob is found in the Book of Genesis, chapters 25-50. Jacob and his brother, Esau, were born to Isaac and Rebecca after 20 years of marriage. Rebekah was uncomfortable during her pregnancy and went to inquire of God why she was suffering and she received the prophecy that twins were fighting in her womb and would continue to fight all their lives, even after they became two separate nations. According to Genesis 25,25, Isaac and Rebecca named the first son Hebrew, עשו, the second son they named יעקב, Jacob. The boys displayed very different natures as they matured. and Esau was a hunter, a man of the field. Moreover, the attitudes of their parents toward them also differed, And Isaac loved Esau because he did eat of his venison, Genesis 25, 29-34 tells the account of Esau selling his birthright to Jacob. This passage tells that Esau, returning famished from the fields, Jacob offered to give Esau a bowl of stew in exchange for his birthright, to which Esau agreed. As Isaac aged, he became blind and was uncertain when he would die and he requested that Esau go out to the fields with his weapons to kill some venison. Isaac then requested that Esau make savory meat for him out of the venison, according to the way he enjoyed it the most, so that he could eat it and bless Esau
Jacob
–
Jacob Wrestling with the Angel by
Rembrandt
Jacob
–
Jacob's Dream statue and display on the campus of
Abilene Christian University. The artwork is based on Genesis 28:10-22 and graphically represents the scenes alluded to in the hymn "
Nearer, My God, to Thee " and the
spiritual "
We Are Climbing Jacob's Ladder " as well as other musical works.
Jacob
–
This article is about the patriarch. For other uses, see
Jacob (disambiguation).
Jacob
–
Jacob offering a dish of
lentils to Esau for his birthright, 18th-century painting by
Zacarias Gonzalez Velazquez.
3.
Israelites
–
The Israelites were a Semitic-speaking people of the ancient Near East, who inhabited a part of Canaan during the tribal and monarchic periods. The ancient Israelites are considered to be an outgrowth of the indigenous Canaanite populations that inhabited the Southern Levant, Syria, ancient Israel. In the period of the monarchy it was only used to refer to the inhabitants of the northern kingdom. The Israelites were also known as the Hebrews and the Twelve Tribes of Israel, the Jews are named after and also descended from the southern Israelite Kingdom of Judah, particularly the tribes of Judah, Benjamin and partially Levi. The word Jews is found in 2 Kings, Chronicles, and in passages in the Book of Jeremiah, the Book of Zechariah. The Kingdom of Israel, often called the Northern Kingdom of Israel, contained all the tribes except for the tribes of Judah, following its conquest by Assyria, these ten tribes were allegedly dispersed and lost to history, and they are henceforth known as the Ten Lost Tribes. Jewish tradition holds that Samaria was so named because the mountainous terrain was used to keep Guard for incoming enemy attacks. According to Samaritan tradition, however, the Samaritan ethnonym is not derived from the region of Samaria, thus, according to Samaritan tradition, the region was named Samaria after them, not vice versa. In Modern Hebrew, the Samaritans are called Shomronim, while in Samaritan Hebrew they call themselves Shamerim, in Judaism, an Israelite is, broadly speaking, a lay member of the Jewish ethnoreligious group, as opposed to the priestly orders of Kohanim and Levites. In texts of Jewish law such as the Mishnah and Gemara, the term יהודי, meaning Jew, is rarely used, Samaritans commonly refer to themselves and to Jews collectively as Israelites, and they describe themselves as the Israelite Samaritans. The name Israel first appears in the Hebrew Bible in Genesis 32,29, the Hebrew Bible etymologizes the name as from yisra to prevail over or to struggle/wrestle with, and el, God, the divine. The name Israel first appears in non-biblical sources c.1209 BCE, the inscription is very brief and says simply, Israel is laid waste and his seed is not. The inscription refers to a people, not to an individual or a nation-state, in modern Hebrew, bnei yisrael can denote the Jewish people at any time in history, it is typically used to emphasize Jewish religious identity. From the period of the Mishna the term Yisrael acquired a narrower meaning of Jews of legitimate birth other than Levites. In modern Hebrew this contrasts with the term Yisraeli, a citizen of the modern State of Israel, the term Hebrew has Eber as an eponymous ancestor. It is used synonymously with Israelites, or as a term for historical speakers of the Hebrew language in general. Today, Jews and Samaritans both recognize each other as communities with an authentic Israelite origin, the terms Jews and Samaritans largely replaced the title Children of Israel as the commonly used ethnonym for each respective community. The name Yahweh, the god of the later Israelites, may indicate connections with the region of Mount Seir in Edom, the Canaanites were also the first people, as far as is known, to have used an alphabet
Israelites
–
Mosaic of the 12 Tribes of Israel, from a synagogue wall in Jerusalem
Israelites
–
The
Merneptah stele. While alternative translations exist, the majority of
biblical archaeologists translate a set of hieroglyphs as "Israel", representing the first instance of the name Israel in the historical record.
Israelites
–
Landscape of
Samaria in the territory of
Ephraim
4.
Tribe of Benjamin
–
According to the Torah, the Tribe of Benjamin was one of the Tribes of Israel descended from Benjamin, the youngest son of the patriarch Jacob and his wife Rachel. In the Samaritan Pentateuch the name appears as Binyamīm, from after the conquest of the promised land by Joshua until the formation of the first Kingdom of Israel, the Tribe of Benjamin was a part of a loose confederation of Israelite tribes. No central government existed, and in times of crisis the people were led by ad hoc leaders known as Judges, almost the entire tribe of Benjamin, women and children included, was wiped out by the other Israelite tribes after the Battle of Gibeah. The text refers several times to the Benjaminite warriors as men of valour despite their defeat, a remnant of the tribe was spared, those few who remained were allowed to marry women of another town, whose husbands had been killed, to enable the tribe to continue. Responding to a threat from Philistine incursions, the Israelite tribes formed a strong. The first king of this new entity was Saul, from the tribe of Benjamin and he reigned from Gibeah for 38 years. On the accession of Rehoboam, Davids grandson, in c.930 BCE the northern tribes split from the House of David to reform a Kingdom of Israel. The tribe of Benjamin remained a part of the Kingdom of Judah until Judah was conquered by Babylon in c.586 BCE, some scholars believe that it instead originates from the tribe having the figure of a wolf in its standard. In Jewish Rabbinic literature, the Tribe of Benjamin is believed to correspond to the Hebrew month of Kislev, however, an abrupt change of character to one of placidity occurs in the text after a traumatic incident for the tribe. Six hundred of the men from the tribe of Benjamin survived by hiding in a cave for four months, the other Israelite tribes were grieved at the near loss of the tribe of Benjamin. They decided to allow these 600 men to carry on the tribe of Benjamin,400 virgin women from the tribe of Machir we found and given in marriage to the Benjaminite men. They then grabbed a wife each and took her back to their land, according to the Hebrew Bible, following the completion of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelite tribes, Joshua allocated the land among the twelve tribes. Kenneth Kitchen dates this conquest to just after 1200 BCE, however, according to the consensus of modern scholars, the conquest as described in the book of Joshua did not occur. Modern Israeli scholars have identified most of the mentioned in the Book of Joshua. The Babylonian Talmud names three of these cities, all of which were enclosed by a wall, and belonged to the tribe of Benjamin, Lydda, Ono. Presumably, the boundary of the tribe of Benjamin would have stretched as far as the Mediterranean Sea. It is now an abandoned Arab village, the word Lifta is merely a corruption of the Hebrew name Nephtoah, and where a natural spring by that name still abounds. Though Jerusalem was in the allocated to the tribe of Benjamin
Tribe of Benjamin
–
Tribes of Israel
Tribe of Benjamin
–
Tribe of Benjamin
5.
Hebrew Bible
–
They are composed mainly in Biblical Hebrew, with some passages in Biblical Aramaic. The term does not comment upon the naming, numbering or ordering of books, the term Hebrew Bible is an attempt to provide specificity with respect to contents but avoid allusion to any particular interpretative tradition or theological school of thought. Hebrew Bible refers to the Jewish biblical canon, in its Latin form, Biblia Hebraica, it traditionally serves as a title for printed editions of the Masoretic Text. Many biblical studies scholars advocate use of the term Hebrew Bible as a substitute to terms with religious connotations. Hebrew Bible Old Testament without prescribing the use of either, however, he accepts that there is no reason why non-Christians should feel obliged to refer to these books as the Old Testament, apart from custom of use. Modern Christian formulations of this tension include Supersessionism, Covenant Theology, New Covenant Theology, Dispensationalism, in terms of canon, Christian usage of Old Testament does not refer to a universally agreed upon set of books but, rather, varies depending on denomination. The Hebrew Bible includes small portions in Aramaic, written and printed in Aramaic square-script, the books that constitute the Hebrew Bible developed over roughly a millennium. The oldest texts seem to come from the 11th or 10th centuries BCE and they are edited works, being collections of various sources intricately and carefully woven together. Since the 19th century, most biblical scholars have agreed that the Pentateuch consists of four sources which have been woven together and these four sources are J, D, E and P sources. They were combined to form the Pentateuch sometime in the 6th century BCE and this theory is now known as the documentary hypothesis, and has been the dominant theory for the past two hundred years. The Deuteronomist credited with the Pentateuchs book of Deuteronomy is also said to be the source of the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, several editions, all titled Biblia Hebraica, have been produced by various German publishers since 1906. Between 1906 and 1955, Rudolf Kittel published nine editions of it,1966, the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft published the renamed Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia in six editions until 1997. Since 2004 the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft has published the Biblia Hebraica Quinta, other projects include, Hebrew University Bible Project Hebrew Bible, A Critical Edition Biblical canon Books of the Bible Non-canonical books referenced in the Bible Torah Brueggemann, Walter. An introduction to the Old Testament, the canon and Christian imagination, the People of Ancient Israel, an introduction to Old Testament Literature, History, and Thought, Harper and Row,1974. Sinai and Zion, An Entry into the Jewish Bible, archived from the original on 14 March 2012. The Ancient Near East, Volume I, Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton University Press. An abridgement of Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament Noth, how the Bible Became a Book. The Old Testament, A Literary History, hebrew-English Tanakh, the Jewish Bible Complete, fully vocalized, contilated, Masoretic text of the Hebrew Bible, together with the classic English translation by the Jewish Publication Society
Hebrew Bible
–
Page from an 11th-century
Aramaic Targum manuscript of the Hebrew Bible.
6.
Canaan
–
Canaan was a Semitic-speaking region in the Ancient Near East during the late 2nd millennium BC. The name Canaan occurs commonly in the Hebrew Bible, in particular, the references in Genesis 10 and Numbers 34 define the Land of Canaan as extending from Lebanon southward to the Brook of Egypt and eastward to the Jordan River Valley. References to Canaan in the Bible are usually backward-looking, referring to a region that had something else. The term Canaanites serves as an ethnic catch-all term covering various indigenous populations—both settled, the Amarna Letters and other cuneiform documents use Kinaḫḫu, while other sources of the Egyptian New Kingdom mention numerous military campaigns conducted in Ka-na-na. Canaan had significant geopolitical importance in the Late Bronze Age Amarna period as the area where the spheres of interest of the Egyptian, Hittite, Mitanni and Assyrian Empires converged. Much of the knowledge about Canaan stems from archaeological excavation in this area at sites such as Tel Hazor, Tel Megiddo. The English term Canaan comes from the Hebrew כנען, via Greek Χαναάν Khanaan and it appears as KUR ki-na-ah-na in the Amarna letters, and knʿn is found on coins from Phoenicia in the last half of the 1st millennium. It first occurs in Greek in the writings of Hecataeus as Khna, scholars connect the name Canaan with knʿn, Kanaan, the general Northwest Semitic name for this region. An early explanation derives the term from the Semitic root knʿ to be low, humble, purple cloth became a renowned Canaanite export commodity which is mentioned in Exodus. The dyes may have named after their place of origin. The purple cloth of Tyre in Phoenicia was well known far, however, according to Robert Drews, Speisers proposal has generally been abandoned. The Late Bronze Age state of Ugarit is considered quintessentially Canaanite archaeologically, Jonathan Tubb states that the term ga-na-na may provide a third millennium reference to Canaanite while at the same time stating that the first certain reference is in the 18th century BC. See Ebla-Biblical controversy for further details, Mari letters A letter from Mutu-bisir to Shamshi-Adad I of the Old Assyrian Empire has been translated, It is in Rahisum that the brigands and the Canaanites are situated. It was found in 1973 in the ruins of Mari, an Assyrian outpost at that time in Syria, additional unpublished references to Kinahnum in the Mari letters refer to the same episode. Alalakh texts A reference to Ammiya being in the land of Canaan is found on the Statue of Idrimi from Alalakh in modern Syria. After a popular uprising against his rule, Idrimi was forced into exile with his mothers relatives to seek refuge in the land of Canaan, the other references in the Alalakh texts are, AT154 AT181, A list of Apiru people with their origins. All are towns, except for Canaan AT188, A list of Muskenu people with their origins, the letters are written in the official and diplomatic East Semitic Akkadian language of Assyria and Babylonia, though Canaanitish words and idioms are also in evidence. May the king ask Yanhamu about these matters, may the king ask his commissioner, who is familiar with Canaan EA151, Letter from Abimilku to the Pharaoh, The king, my lord wrote to me, write to me what you have heard from Canaan
Canaan
–
A 1692 depiction of Canaan, by Philip Lea
Canaan
–
Map of the Near East by
Robert de Vaugondy (1762), indicating Canaan as limited to the
Holy Land, to the exclusion of Lebanon and Syria
Canaan
–
Map of Canaan, with the border defined by Numbers 34:1–12 shown in red.
Canaan
–
Amarna tablet EA 9
7.
Samaritan Pentateuch
–
The Samaritan Pentateuch, also known as the Samaritan Torah, is a text of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, written in the Samaritan alphabet and used as a scripture by the Samaritans. It constitutes their entire biblical canon, some six thousand differences exist between the Samaritan and the Masoretic Text. Nearly two thousand of these textual variations agree with the Koine Greek Septuagint and some are shared with the Latin Vulgate. Throughout their history, Samaritans have made use of translations of the Samaritan Pentateuch into Aramaic, Greek, some Pentateuchal manuscripts discovered among the Dead Sea Scrolls have been identified as bearing a pre-Samaritan text type. Samaritans believe that God authored their Pentateuch and gave Moses the first copy along with the two containing the Ten Commandments. They believe that they preserve this divinely composed text uncorrupted to the present day, Samaritans commonly refer to their Pentateuch as קושטה. Samaritans include only the Pentateuch in their biblical canon and they do not recognize divine authorship or inspiration in any other book in the Jewish Tanakh. A Samaritan Book of Joshua partly based upon the Tanakhs Book of Joshua exists, according to a view based on the biblical Book of Ezra, the Samaritans are the people of Samaria who parted ways with the people of Judah in the Persian period. The Samaritans believe that it was not they, but the Jews, modern scholarship connects the formation of the Samaritan community with events which followed the Babylonian Captivity. One view is that the Samaritans are the people of the Kingdom of Israel who separated from the Judaites, others believe that the real schism between the peoples did not take place until Hasmonean times when the Gerizim temple was destroyed in 128 BCE by John Hyrcanus. The script of the Samaritan Pentateuch, its connections at many points with the Septuagint. Manuscripts of the Samaritan Pentateuch are written in a different Hebrew script than is used in other Hebrew Pentateuchs, Samaritans employ the Samaritan alphabet which is derived from the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet used by the Israelite community prior to the Babylonian captivity. Afterwards, Jews adopted a script based on the Aramaic alphabet that developed into the Hebrew alphabet, originally all manuscripts of the Samaritan Pentateuch consisted of unvocalized text written using only the letters of the Samaritan alphabet. Beginning in the 12th century, some show a partial vocalization resembling the Jewish Tiberian vocalization used in Masoretic manuscripts. More recently a few manuscripts have produced with full vocalization. However, many extant manuscripts show no tendency towards vocalization, the Pentateuchal text is divided into 904 paragraphs. Divisions between sections of text are marked with various combinations of lines, dots or an asterisk, the critical apparatus accompanying the London Polyglots publication of the Samaritan Pentateuch lists six thousand instances where the Samaritan differs from the Masoretic Text. However, as different printed editions of the Samaritan Pentateuch are based upon different sets of manuscripts, only a minority are significant, most can be categorized as one of the following types, More matres lectionis in the Samaritan Pentateuch to indicate vowels compared with the Masoretic
Samaritan Pentateuch
–
Samaritan High Priest and Old Pentateuch, 1905
Samaritan Pentateuch
–
Samaritan and the Samaritan Torah
Samaritan Pentateuch
–
Detail of Samaritan Pentateuch
8.
Hebrew language
–
Hebrew is a language native to Israel, spoken by over 9 million people worldwide, of whom over 5 million are in Israel. Historically, it is regarded as the language of the Israelites and their ancestors, the earliest examples of written Paleo-Hebrew date from the 10th century BCE. Hebrew belongs to the West Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic language family, Hebrew is the only living Canaanite language left, and the only truly successful example of a revived dead language. Hebrew had ceased to be a spoken language somewhere between 200 and 400 CE, declining since the aftermath of the Bar Kokhba revolt. Aramaic and to a lesser extent Greek were already in use as international languages, especially among elites and it survived into the medieval period as the language of Jewish liturgy, rabbinic literature, intra-Jewish commerce, and poetry. Then, in the 19th century, it was revived as a spoken and literary language, and, according to Ethnologue, had become, as of 1998, the language of 5 million people worldwide. After Israel, the United States has the second largest Hebrew-speaking population, with 220,000 fluent speakers, Modern Hebrew is one of the two official languages of the State of Israel, while premodern Hebrew is used for prayer or study in Jewish communities around the world today. Ancient Hebrew is also the tongue of the Samaritans, while modern Hebrew or Arabic is their vernacular. For this reason, Hebrew has been referred to by Jews as Leshon Hakodesh, the modern word Hebrew is derived from the word Ivri, one of several names for the Israelite people. It is traditionally understood to be a based on the name of Abrahams ancestor, Eber. This name is based upon the root ʕ-b-r meaning to cross over. Interpretations of the term ʕibrim link it to this verb, cross over, in the Bible, the Hebrew language is called Yәhudit because Judah was the surviving kingdom at the time of the quotation. In Isaiah 19,18 it is called the Language of Canaan, Hebrew belongs to the Canaanite group of languages. In turn, the Canaanite languages are a branch of the Northwest Semitic family of languages, according to Avraham ben-Yosef, Hebrew flourished as a spoken language in the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah during about 1200 to 586 BCE. Scholars debate the degree to which Hebrew was a vernacular in ancient times following the Babylonian exile. In July 2008 Israeli archaeologist Yossi Garfinkel discovered a ceramic shard at Khirbet Qeiyafa which he claimed may be the earliest Hebrew writing yet discovered, dating around 3000 years ago. The Gezer calendar also dates back to the 10th century BCE at the beginning of the Monarchic Period, classified as Archaic Biblical Hebrew, the calendar presents a list of seasons and related agricultural activities. The Gezer calendar is written in an old Semitic script, akin to the Phoenician one that through the Greeks, the Gezer calendar is written without any vowels, and it does not use consonants to imply vowels even in the places where later Hebrew spelling requires it
Hebrew language
–
Hebrew street sign, above in
Hebrew alphabet, below in
Latin transliteration. Aluf Batslut veAluf Shum (he) ("The Onion Champion and the Garlic Champion") is a
play by
Hayim Nahman Bialik.
Hebrew language
–
Portion of the
Temple Scroll, one of the longest of the
Dead Sea Scrolls discovered at
Qumran
Hebrew language
–
The
Shebna Inscription, from the tomb of a royal steward found in
Siloam, dates to the 7th century BCE.
Hebrew language
–
Hebrew script used in writing a Torah scroll. Note ornamental "crowns" on tops of certain letters.
9.
Quran
–
The Quran is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims believe to be a revelation from God. It is widely regarded as the finest work in classical Arabic literature, the Quran is divided into chapters, which are then divided into verses. The word Quran occurs some 70 times in the text of the Quran, although different names, according to the traditional narrative, several companions of Muhammad served as scribes and were responsible for writing down the revelations. Shortly after Muhammads death, the Quran was compiled by his companions who wrote down and these codices had differences that motivated the Caliph Uthman to establish a standard version now known as Uthmans codex, which is generally considered the archetype of the Quran known today. There are, however, variant readings, with minor differences in meaning. The Quran assumes familiarity with major narratives recounted in the Biblical scriptures and it summarizes some, dwells at length on others and, in some cases, presents alternative accounts and interpretations of events. The Quran describes itself as a book of guidance and it sometimes offers detailed accounts of specific historical events, and it often emphasizes the moral significance of an event over its narrative sequence. The Quran is used along with the hadith to interpret sharia law, during prayers, the Quran is recited only in Arabic. Someone who has memorized the entire Quran is called a hafiz, some Muslims read Quranic ayah with elocution, which is often called tajwid. During the month of Ramadan, Muslims typically complete the recitation of the whole Quran during tarawih prayers, in order to extrapolate the meaning of a particular Quranic verse, most Muslims rely on the tafsir. The word qurʼān appears about 70 times in the Quran itself and it is a verbal noun of the Arabic verb qaraʼa, meaning he read or he recited. The Syriac equivalent is qeryānā, which refers to reading or lesson. While some Western scholars consider the word to be derived from the Syriac, regardless, it had become an Arabic term by Muhammads lifetime. An important meaning of the word is the act of reciting, as reflected in an early Quranic passage, It is for Us to collect it, in other verses, the word refers to an individual passage recited. Its liturgical context is seen in a number of passages, for example, So when al-qurʼān is recited, listen to it, the word may also assume the meaning of a codified scripture when mentioned with other scriptures such as the Torah and Gospel. The term also has closely related synonyms that are employed throughout the Quran, each synonym possesses its own distinct meaning, but its use may converge with that of qurʼān in certain contexts. Such terms include kitāb, āyah, and sūrah, the latter two terms also denote units of revelation. In the large majority of contexts, usually with an article, the word is referred to as the revelation
Quran
–
Manuscript of the Quran.
Brooklyn Museum.
Quran
–
Quran
Quran
–
11th-century North African Quran in the
British Museum.
Quran
–
Quran − in
Mashhad, Iran − written by
Ali.
10.
Amram
–
In the Book of Exodus, Amram is the husband of Jochebed and father of Aaron, Moses and Miriam. He is praised for his faith in the Epistle to the Hebrews, critical scholars suspect that the Elohist account offers both matrilinial and patrilinial descent from Levites in order to magnify the religious credentials of Moses. In the Quran, the name Imran is used for the father of Moses and Aaron, as well as the father of Mary, through him would come many other priests and prophets, including Anne, Elizabeth, Mary, John the Baptist and Jesus. In the Apocryphal Testament of Levi, it is stated that Amram was born, as a grandson of Levi, when Levi was 64 years old. Despite the legend of his divorce and remarriage, Amram was also held to have been entirely sinless throughout his life, the other three ancient Israelites who died without sin, being Benjamin, Jesse and Chileab. According to the Book of Jubilees, Amram was among the Israelites who took the bones of Jacobs sons to Canaan for burial in the cave of Machpelah. Most of the Israelites then returned to Egypt but some remained in Canaan, one of the Dead Sea Scrolls is written from Amrams point of view, and hence has been dubbed the Visions of Amram. The document is dated to the 2nd century BC and, in the form of a vision, briefly discusses dualism and the Watchers, I saw Watchers in my vision, two men were fighting over me. holding a great contest over me. I asked them, Who are you, that you are thus empowered over me and they answered, We have been empowered and rule over all mankind. They said to me, Which of us do you choose to rule you, I raised my eyes and looked. He answered, This Watcher. his three names are Belial and Prince of Darkness and King of Evil. I said, My lord, what dominion He answered, You saw, and he is empowered over all Darkness, while I. My three names are Michael, Prince of Light and King of Righteousness
Amram
–
Musa
11.
Fasted
–
Fasting is a willing abstinence or reduction from some or all food, drink, or both, for a period of time. An absolute fast is normally defined as abstinence from all food and liquid for a period, usually a period of 24 hours. Water fasting allows drinking water but nothing else, other fasts may be partially restrictive, limiting only particular foods or substances. A fast may also be intermittent in nature, Fasting practices may preclude intercourse and other activities as well as food. In a physiological context, fasting may refer to the status of a person who has not eaten overnight. Several metabolic adjustments occur during fasting, and some tests are used to determine a fasting state. For example, a person is assumed to be fasting after 8–12 hours from their last meal, metabolic changes toward the fasting state begin after absorption of a meal, post-absorptive state is synonymous with this usage, in contrast to the postprandial state of ongoing digestion. A diagnostic fast refers to prolonged fasting conducted under observation for investigation of a problem, many people may also fast as part of a medical procedure or check-up such as a colonoscopy. Fasting is also a part of religious observances. Fasting is often practiced prior to surgery or other procedures that require general anesthetics because of the risk of aspiration of gastric contents after induction of anesthesia. Additionally, certain tests, such as cholesterol testing or certain blood glucose measurements require fasting for several hours so that a baseline can be established. In the case of a panel, failure to fast for a full 12 hours will guarantee an elevated triglyceride measurement. Fasting is of no help in preventing or treating cancer. Fasting can help alleviate symptoms of depression. However the psychological effects may include anxiety and depression. Fasting will lead to weight loss, using fasting for weight loss is considered dangerous. It has been argued that fasting makes one better appreciate food, Fasting is often used as a tool to make a political statement, to protest, or to bring awareness to a cause. A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke feelings of guilt, a spiritual fast incorporates personal spiritual beliefs with the desire to express personal principles, sometimes in the context of a social injustice
Fasted
–
The Buddha emaciated after undergoing severe ascetic practises.
Gandhara, 2 – 3rd century CE.
British Museum.
Fasted
–
Ending the fast at a mosque
12.
Morgan Bible
–
The Morgan Bible, also called the Crusader Bible or Maciejowski Bible, is a medieval picture Bible of 46 folios. The book consists of paintings of events from Hebrew scripture, set in the scenery and customs of thirteenth-century France, scenes are surrounded by text in three scripts and five languages, Latin, Persian, Arabic, Judeo-Persian, and Hebrew. Forty three folios are kept in the Pierpont Morgan Library, two folios are kept in the Bibliothèque nationale de France. A single folio is kept in the J. Paul Getty Museum, the work known as the Morgan Bible, Crusader Bible, or Maciejowski Bible is part ofthe Pierpont Morgan Library in, New York. It is a medieval picture Bible of 46 folios, originally, the bible probably contained only paintings, organized in a consistent visual rhythm from page to page. Within 100 years, the book acquired marginal inscriptions in Latin describing the scenes illustrated, cardinal Bernard Maciejowski, Bishop of Kraków, had the book given as a gift to Abbas I in 1608. Abbas ordered inscriptions in Persian to be added, mostly translating the Latin ones already there, later, perhaps in the eighteenth century, inscriptions were added in Judeo-Persian. Forty-three folios are kept in the Pierpont Morgan Library, two folios are kept in the Bibliothèque nationale de France. A single folio is kept in the J. Paul Getty Museum, www. keesn. nl A Masterpiece of Sensuous Communication, The Morgan Bible of Louis IX Medieval Tymes, The Maciejowski Bible Morgan Library & Museum Online Exhibition
Morgan Bible
–
"The
Israelites are repulsed from
Hai " (fol. 10r)
13.
Slave
–
A slave is unable to withdraw unilaterally from such an arrangement and works without remuneration. Many scholars now use the chattel slavery to refer to this specific sense of legalised. In a broader sense, however, the word slavery may also refer to any situation in which an individual is de facto forced to work against his or her will. Scholars also use the generic terms such as unfree labour or forced labour. However – and especially under slavery in broader senses of the word – slaves may have some rights and/or protections, Slavery began to exist before written history, in many cultures. A person could become a slave from the time of their birth, capture, while slavery was institutionally recognized by most societies, it has now been outlawed in all recognized countries, the last being Mauritania in 2007. Nevertheless, there are still more slaves today than at any point in history. The most common form of the trade is now commonly referred to as human trafficking. Chattel slavery is still practiced in the Islamic State of Iraq. An older interpretation connected it to the Greek verb skyleúo to strip a slain enemy, there is a dispute among historians about whether terms such as unfree labourer or enslaved person, rather than slave, should be used when describing the victims of slavery. Chattel slavery, also called traditional slavery, is so named because people are treated as the chattel of the owner and are bought, although it dominated many societies in the past, this form of slavery has been formally abolished and is very rare today. Even when it can be said to survive, it is not upheld by the system of any internationally recognized government. Indenture, otherwise known as bonded labour or debt bondage is a form of labour under which a person pledges himself or herself against a loan. The services required to repay the debt, and their duration, debt bondage can be passed on from generation to generation, with children required to pay off their parents debt. It is the most widespread form of slavery today, debt bondage is most prevalent in South Asia. This may also include institutions not commonly classified as slavery, such as serfdom, conscription, Human trafficking primarily involves women and children forced into prostitution. And is the fastest growing form of forced labour, with Thailand, Cambodia, India, Brazil, in 2007, Human Rights Watch estimated that 200,000 to 300,000 children served as soldiers in current conflicts. A forced marriage may be regarded as a form of slavery by one or more of the involved in the marriage
Slave
–
Photograph of a slave boy in
Zanzibar. 'An Arab master's punishment for a slight offence.' c. 1890.
Slave
–
Slavery
Slave
–
Thousands of children work as bonded labourers in
Asia, particularly in the Indian subcontinent.
Slave
–
A world map showing countries by prevalence of female trafficking
14.
Sefer haYashar (midrash)
–
The Sefer haYashar is a Hebrew midrash also known as the Toledot Adam and Dibre ha-Yamim be-Aruk. The Hebrew title may be translated Sefer haYashar - Book of the Correct Record -, the book is named after the Book of Jasher mentioned in Joshua and 2 Samuel. It should not be confused with the very different Book of Jasher printed by Jacob Ilive in 1751, the printer Yosèf ben Samuel claimed the work was copied by a scribe named Jacob the son of Atyah, from an ancient manuscript whose letters could hardly be made out. This work is not to be confused with an ethical text by the same name. Scholars have proposed various dates between the 9th century and 16th century, the Venice 1625 text was heavily criticised as a forgery by Leon Modena, as part of his criticisms of the Zohar as a forgery, and of Kabbalah in general. Modena was a member of the Venetian rabbinate that supervised the Hebrew press in Venice, the officer Sidrus reportedly took the scholar and all the books safely back to his estates in Seville, Spain. The 1625 edition then claims that at some point in the history of Islamic Spain. The 1625 edition further claims that scholars preserved the book until its printings in Naples in 1552, apart from the preface to the 1625 work, there is no evidence to support any of this story. The work was used extensively, but not especially more than other sources. The Arabic connections suggest that if the preface to the 1625 version is an exaggeration, the book covers biblical history from the creation of Adam and Eve until a summary of the initial Israelite conquest of Canaan in the beginning of the book of Judges. The text of this chapter follows the beginning of Josippon. Most of its accounts are found in nearly the same form in other medieval compilations, or in the Talmud. For example, it includes the tale that Lamech and his son Jabal accidentally killed Cain. There are 5 discrepancies, when comparing it with chapter 5 of Genesis, in chapter 5 alone. The first is in verse 1, And it was in the year of the life of Noah that Enoch the son of Seth died, Enoch was Jareds son, it was Enosh. Other than the confusion between Enosh and Enoch, the date is correct and it was the 595th year of Noahs life that Lamech died. The fourth is in verse 20, And all the days of Lamech were seven hundred and seventy years, lamechs age at death was 777. The fifth is in verse 36, And it was at that time Methuselah the son of Enoch died, nine hundred and sixty years old was he, Methuselah was 969 at his death
Sefer haYashar (midrash)
–
Talmud Readers by
Adolf Behrman
15.
Astrology
–
Astrology is the study of the movements and relative positions of celestial objects as a means for divining information about human affairs and terrestrial events. Throughout most of its history astrology was considered a tradition and was common in academic circles, often in close relation with astronomy, alchemy, meteorology. It was present in political circles, and is mentioned in works of literature, from Dante Alighieri and Geoffrey Chaucer to William Shakespeare, Lope de Vega. Astrology thus lost its academic and theoretical standing, and common belief in it has largely declined, Astrology is now recognized to be pseudoscience. The word astrology comes from the early Latin word astrologia, which derives from the Greek ἀστρολογία—from ἄστρον astron, astrologia later passed into meaning star-divination with astronomia used for the scientific term. Many cultures have attached importance to astronomical events, and the Indians, Chinese, the majority of professional astrologers rely on such systems. Astrology has been dated to at least the 2nd millennium BCE, with roots in systems used to predict seasonal shifts. A form of astrology was practised in the first dynasty of Mesopotamia, Chinese astrology was elaborated in the Zhou dynasty. Hellenistic astrology after 332 BCE mixed Babylonian astrology with Egyptian Decanic astrology in Alexandria, Alexander the Greats conquest of Asia allowed astrology to spread to Ancient Greece and Rome. In Rome, astrology was associated with Chaldean wisdom, after the conquest of Alexandria in the 7th century, astrology was taken up by Islamic scholars, and Hellenistic texts were translated into Arabic and Persian. In the 12th century, Arabic texts were imported to Europe, major astronomers including Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler and Galileo practised as court astrologers. Astrological references appear in literature in the works of such as Dante Alighieri and Geoffrey Chaucer. Throughout most of its history, astrology was considered a scholarly tradition and it was accepted in political and academic contexts, and was connected with other studies, such as astronomy, alchemy, meteorology, and medicine. At the end of the 17th century, new concepts in astronomy. Astrology thus lost its academic and theoretical standing, and common belief in astrology has largely declined, Astrology, in its broadest sense, is the search for meaning in the sky. This was a first step towards recording the Moons influence upon tides and rivers, by the 3rd millennium BCE, civilisations had sophisticated awareness of celestial cycles, and may have oriented temples in alignment with heliacal risings of the stars. Scattered evidence suggests that the oldest known references are copies of texts made in the ancient world. The Venus tablet of Ammisaduqa thought to be compiled in Babylon around 1700 BCE, a scroll documenting an early use of electional astrology is doubtfully ascribed to the reign of the Sumerian ruler Gudea of Lagash
Astrology
Astrology
–
Marcantonio Raimondi engraving, 15th century
Astrology
–
'The Zodiac Man' a diagram of a human body and astrological symbols with instructions explaining the importance of astrology from a medical perspective. From a 15th century Welsh manuscript
Astrology
–
The Roman orator
Cicero objected to astrology.
16.
Astrolabe
–
An astrolabe is an elaborate inclinometer, historically used by astronomers and navigators, to measure the inclined position in the sky of a celestial body, day or night. It can thus be used to identify stars or planets, to determine local latitude given local time and vice versa, to survey and it was used in classical antiquity, the Islamic Golden Age, the European Middle Ages and the Renaissance for all these purposes. While the astrolabe is effective for determining latitude on land or calm seas, the mariners astrolabe was developed to solve that problem. OED gives the translation star-taker for the English word astrolabe and traces it, through medieval Latin, to the Greek word astrolabos from astron star, in the medieval Islamic world the word asturlab was given various etymologies. In Arabic texts, the word is translated as akhdh al-kawakib which corresponds to an interpretation of the Greek word, al-Biruni quotes and criticizes the medieval scientist Hamzah al-Isfahani who had stated, asturlab is an arabization of this Persian phrase. In medieval Islamic sources, there is also a fictional and popular etymology of the words as lines of lab, in this popular etymology, Lab is a certain son of Idris. This etymology is mentioned by a 10th-century scientist named al-Qummi but rejected by al-Khwarizmi, Lab in Arabic also means sun and black stony places. An early astrolabe was invented in the Hellenistic world by Apollonius of Perga, a marriage of the planisphere and dioptra, the astrolabe was effectively an analog calculator capable of working out several different kinds of problems in spherical astronomy. Theon of Alexandria wrote a treatise on the astrolabe. Some historians attribute the invention to Hypatia, the daughter of Theon of Alexandria, noting that Synesius. Astrolabes continued in use in the Greek-speaking world throughout the Byzantine period, about 550 AD the Christian philosopher John Philoponus wrote a treatise on the astrolabe in Greek, which is the earliest extant Greek treatise on the instrument. In addition, Severus Sebokht, a bishop who lived in Mesopotamia, Astrolabes were further developed in the medieval Islamic world, where Muslim astronomers introduced angular scales to the astrolabe, adding circles indicating azimuths on the horizon. It was widely used throughout the Muslim world, chiefly as an aid to navigation and as a way of finding the Qibla, the first person credited with building the astrolabe in the Islamic world is reportedly the 8th-century mathematician Muhammad al-Fazari. The mathematical background was established by the Muslim astronomer Albatenius in his treatise Kitab az-Zij, the earliest surviving dated astrolabe is dated AH315. In the Islamic world, astrolabes were used to find the times of sunrise and the rising of fixed stars, to help schedule morning prayers. In the 10th century, al-Sufi first described over 1,000 different uses of an astrolabe, in areas as diverse as astronomy, astrology, navigation, surveying, timekeeping, prayer, Salat, Qibla, etc. The spherical astrolabe, a variation of both the astrolabe and the sphere, was invented during the Middle Ages by astronomers and inventors in the Islamic world. The earliest description of the spherical astrolabe dates back to Al-Nayrizi, in the 12th century, Sharaf al-Dīn al-Tūsī invented the linear astrolabe, sometimes called the staff of al-Tusi, which was a simple wooden rod with graduated markings but without sights
Astrolabe
–
A modern astrolabe, made in
Tabriz, Iran in 2013.
Astrolabe
–
Astrolabe quadrant, England, 1388
Astrolabe
–
A 16th-century astrolabe, showing a tulip rete and
rule
Astrolabe
–
A treatise explaining the importance of the astrolabe by
Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, Persian scientist.
17.
Divination
–
Divination is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic, standardized process or ritual. Divination can be seen as a method with which to organize what appear to be disjointed. Fortune-telling, on the hand, is a more everyday practice for personal purposes. Particular divination methods vary by culture and religion, divination is dismissed by the scientific community and skeptics as being superstition. Psychologist Julian Jaynes categorized divination into the four types, Omens. Chinese history offers scrupulously documented occurrences of births, the tracking of natural phenomena. Chinese governmental planning relied on this method of forecasting for long-range strategies and it is not unreasonable to assume that modern scientific inquiry began with this kind of divination, Joseph Needhams work considered this very idea. This consists of the casting of lots, or sortes, whether with sticks, stones, bones, beans, coins, modern playing cards and board games developed from this type of divination. This ranks a set of given possibilities and it can be qualitative, for example, dowsing developed from this type of divination. The Romans, in times, used Etruscan methods of augury such as hepatoscopy. Augury is normally considered to refer to divination by studying the flight patterns of birds. An unconstrained form of divination, free from any particular medium, the answer comes from whatever object the diviner happens to see or hear. Some religions use a form of bibliomancy, they ask a question, riffle the pages of their holy book, other forms of spontaneous divination include reading auras and New Age methods of feng shui such as intuitive and fuzion. In this practice, the examines the hands of a person for whom they are divining for indications of their future. The Oracle of Amun at the Siwa Oasis was made famous when Alexander the Great visited it after delivering Egypt from Persian rule in 332 BC, deuteronomy 18, 10-12 or Leviticus 19,26 can be interpreted as categorically forbidding divination. However, some would claim that divination is indeed practiced in the Bible, such as in Exodus 28, communicating with God through prayer is not the same as divination, though both are open, typically two-way conversations with God. Both oracles and seers in ancient Greece practiced divination, oracles were the conduits for the gods on earth, their prophecies were understood to be the will of the gods verbatim. Because of the demand for oracle consultations and the oracles’ limited work schedule
Divination
–
This man in
Rhumsiki,
Cameroon, attempts to tell the future by interpreting the changes in position of various objects as caused by a freshwater crab through the practice of
nggàm.
Divination
–
Russian peasant girls using
chickens for divination; 19th century
lubok.
18.
Joseph in Islam
–
It is one of the common names in the Middle East and among Muslim nations. Of all of Jacobs children, Joseph was the one given the gift of prophecy, although the narratives of other prophets are mentioned in various Surahs, the complete narrative of Joseph is given only in one Surah, Yusuf, making it unique. It is said to be the most detailed narrative in the Qur’an, Yusuf is believed to have been the eleventh son of Yaʿqūb, and, according to many scholars, his favorite. According to Ibn Kathir, Jacob had twelve sons who were the ancestors of the tribes of the Israelites. The noblest, the most exalted, the greatest of them was Joseph, the story begins with Joseph revealing a ru’ya to his father, which Jacob recognizes. In addition to the role of God in his life, the story of Yusuf and Zulaikha became a subject in Persian literature. The story of Joseph in the Qurʾān, a narrative, is considered one of the most beautifully written suras. The Qurʾān itself relates to the importance in the third verse. Most scholars believe this is referring to Josephs story, while others, including Ṭabari and it documents the execution of Gods rulings despite the challenge of human intervention. This is what the story of Yūsuf confirms categorically, for it ends with comfort and marvels, along with the story there is also some commentary from some leading scholars of Islam. Muhammad at-Ṭabari provides exquisite detail and commentary of this narrative in his chapter on Joseph relaying the opinions of well-known scholars. In Ṭabaris chapter, the beauty of Joseph and his mother Rachel is introduced. His father, Jacob, had him to his oldest sister to be raised. Ṭabari comments that there was no greater love than what Joseph’s aunt felt for him as she had raised him as her own, and she was very reluctant to give him back to Jacob and kept him until her death. The reason, according to Ṭabari, that she was able to do this was because of a belt that had passed to her from her father. Ṭabari notes if someone else acquired it by guile from the person who was supposed to have it and this is important because Josephs aunt puts the belt on Joseph when Jacob is absent and then accuses Joseph of stealing it and he thus stays with her until her death. Jacob was very reluctant to give up Joseph and thus favors him when they are together, the story begins with a dream and ends with its interpretation. As the sun appeared over the horizon, bathing the earth in its glory, Joseph, son of Jacob awoke from his sleep
Joseph in Islam
–
Yusuf and Zulaikha (
Joseph chased by
Potiphar's wife),
Persian miniature by
Behzād, 1488.
Joseph in Islam
–
Joseph in
Zuleikha 's party. Painting in Takieh Moaven ol molk,
Kermanshah,
Iran
Joseph in Islam
–
Selling Joseph as a slave. Painting in Takieh Moaven ol molk,
Kermanshah,
Iran
19.
Mamluk
–
Mamluk is an Arabic designation for slaves. The term is most commonly used to refer to Muslim slave soldiers and these were mostly enslaved Turkic peoples, Egyptian Copts, Circassians, Abkhazians, and Georgians. Many Mamluks were also of Balkan origin, over time, the mamluks became a powerful military knightly caste in various societies that were controlled by Muslim rulers. Particularly in Egypt, but also in the Levant, Mesopotamia, in some cases, they attained the rank of sultan, while in others they held regional power as emirs or beys. Most notably, mamluk factions seized the sultanate centered on Egypt and Syria, the Mamluk Sultanate famously defeated the Ilkhanate at the Battle of Ain Jalut. They had earlier fought the western European Christian Crusaders in 1154-1169 and 1213-1221, effectively driving them out of Egypt, in 1302 the mamluks formally expelled the last Crusaders from the Levant, ending the era of the Crusades. While mamluks were purchased as property, their status was above ordinary slaves, in a sense they were like enslaved mercenaries. In the Middle Ages, the Mamlukes took up the practice of furusiyya chivalry although Mamluk knights were slaves until their service ended, the Arabic term for a knight was fāris, The faris and the notion of furusiyya originated in pre-Muslim Persian brotherhoods. Within the Muslim world, the fursān became prized as ideal warriors and they were also trained in wrestling, and their martial skills were honed first on foot as piéton and then perfected when as mounted warriors. They were popularly used as heavy knightly cavalry by a number of different Islamic kingdoms and empires, including the Ayyubid dynasty, the origins of the mamluk system are disputed. Historians agree that a military caste such as the mamluks appeared to develop in Islamic societies beginning with the ninth-century Abbasid Caliphate of Baghdad. When in the century has not been determined. Up until the 1990s, it was believed that the earliest mamluks were known as ghilman and were bought by the Abbasid caliphs. By the end of the 9th century, such warrior slaves had become the dominant element in the military, conflict between these ghilman and the population of Baghdad prompted the caliph al-Mutasim to move his capital to the city of Samarra, but this did not succeed in calming tensions. The caliph al-Mutawakkil was assassinated by some of these slave-soldiers in 861, adult slaves and freemen both served as warriros. The mamluk system developed later, after the return of the caliphate to Baghdad in the 870s and it included the systematic training of young slaves in military and martial skills. The Mamluk system is considered to have been an experiment of al-Muwaffaq. This recent interpretation seems to have been accepted, after the fragmentation of the Abbasid Empire, military slaves, known as either mamluks or ghilman, were used throughout the Islamic world as the basis of military power
Mamluk
–
A Mamluk nobleman from
Aleppo
Mamluk
–
An Egyptian Mamluk warrior in full armor and armed with lance, shield, sabre and pistols
Mamluk
–
Mamluk lancers, early 16th century (etching by
Daniel Hopfer)
Mamluk
–
Ottoman Mamluk
heavy cavalry armour, circa 1550
20.
Caravanserai
–
A caravanserai (/kærəˈvænsəri/, was a roadside inn where travelers could rest and recover from the days journey. Caravanserais supported the flow of commerce, information, and people across the network of routes covering Asia, North Africa. Major urban caravanserais were built along the Grand Trunk Road in the Indian subcontinent. The word is rendered as caravansary, caravansaray, caravanseray. The Persian word کاروانسرای kārvānsarāy is a word combining kārvān caravan with sarāy palace, building with enclosed courts. Here caravan means a group of traders, pilgrims, or other travelers, the word serai is sometimes used with the implication of caravanserai. The Persian caravanserai was built as a road station, outside of towns. An inn built inside a town would be smaller and was known in Persian as a khan, in the Middle-East the term khan covers both meanings, of roadside inn as well as of inner-town inn. In Turkish the word is rendered as han, the same word was used in Bosnian, having arrived through Ottoman conquest. Welcoming all, thus meaning inn, led to funduq in Arabic, pundak in Hebrew, fundaco in Venice, fondaco in Genoa and alhóndiga in Spanish. Guards were stationed at every gate to ensure that taxes for these goods be paid in full, most typically a caravanserai was a building with a square or rectangular walled exterior, with a single portal wide enough to permit large or heavily laden beasts such as camels to enter. Caravanserais provided water for human and animal consumption, washing, and ritual purification such as wudu and they also kept fodder for animals and had shops for travelers where they could acquire new supplies. In addition, some shops bought goods from the traveling merchants, turkishhan. org, The Seljuk Han in Anatolia. Encyclopædia Iranica, p. 798-802 Erdmann, Kurt, Erdmann, berlin, Mann,1976, ISBN 3-7861-2241-5 Hillenbrand, Robert. Islamic Architecture, Form, function and meaning, reprinted from, Traditions Architecturales en Iran, Tehran, No.2 &3,1976. Caravanserai, Traces, Places, Dialogue in the Middle East, milan,5 Continents Editions, ISBN 978-88-7439-604-7 Yavuz, Aysil Tükel. The Concepts that Shape Anatolian Seljuq Caravansara, muqarnas XIV, An Annual on the Visual Culture of the Islamic World. Shah Abbasi Caravanserai, Tishineh Caravansara Pictures Consideratcaravanserai. net, Texts and photos on research on caravanserais and travel journeys in Middle East, caravanserais in Turkey The Seljuk Han in Anatolia
Caravanserai
–
Caravanserai of
Qalaat al-Madiq, in northern Syria
Caravanserai
–
A sample
floorplan of a
Safavid caravanserai
Caravanserai
–
Interior of the
Caravanserai of Sa'd al-Saltaneh in
Qazvin,
Iran
Caravanserai
–
Caravanserai of Shah Abbas, now
Abbasi Hotel, in
Isfahan,
Iran. View is from the courtyard (sahn).
21.
Kfar Saba
–
Kfar Saba, officially Kefar Sava, is a city in the Sharon region, of the Central District of Israel. In 2015 it had a population of 96,922, the origins of the name are not known - in Hebrew it means grandfathers village. Kfar Saba also appears in the Talmud in connection to corn tithing, excavations on the site have revealed the remains of a large Roman bathhouse. In the Byzantine periods the ruins of the bathhouse were first converted into fish pools, in 1596, the Arab village of Kafr Saba was inhabited by 42 Muslim families. In the 1870s it was described as a mud village of moderate size with mud-ponds around it and good water in the wells of Neby Yemin, the Jewish town of Kfar Saba was established in 1898 on 7,500 dunams of land purchased from the Arab village. The Ottoman pasha of Nablus, to whose governorate the land belonged, refused to give building permits, therefore the first settlers lived in huts made of clay and they earned their living by growing almonds, grapes and olives. Most of the manual laborers on the land were peasants from Qalqilya, only in 1912 were permits given and the settlers moved to permanent housing. In the Palestine campaign of World War I, Kfar Saba was on the front line between General Allenbys British Army and the Ottoman army, and was destroyed, at the same time about a thousand residents of Tel Aviv and Jaffa came to live in the town. They had been deported from their homes by the Ottomans. Due to the Jaffa riots of 1921 these deportees returned to their original cities, in 1922 the original residents returned and in 1924 additional settlers joined them. In this period the cultivation of citrus fruit developed, the first elections for the local council were held. In August 1947, a Jewish man was shot to death outside the village. In December 1947, Arab and Jewish leaders in the area pledged to keep the peace between the local communities, in the months leading up to the 1948 war, Kfar Saba was attacked by local militia from Arab Kafr Saba. The Arab Liberation Army, an army consisting of volunteers from several neighboring Arab countries, in 1962 Kfar Saba was awarded city status, with head of the local council, Mordechai Surkis, becoming its first mayor. Located just across the Green Line from Kalkilya, Kfar Saba has been a frequent target of terrorist attacks, in May 2001, a Palestinian Arab suicide bomber wearing an explosive belt killed a doctor and wounded 50 at a bus stop in Kfar Saba. In March 2002, a Palestinian terrorist opened fire on passersby at an intersection, killing an Israeli girl. In April 2003, a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up at the Kfar Saba train station during the rush hour, killing a security guard. The census of 1922 listed the population of Kfar Saba as 14 Jews, by the census of 1931 it had grown to 1405 inhabitants, in 395 houses
Kfar Saba
–
Paving a street in Kfar Saba, 1929
Kfar Saba
–
Mausoleum of Nabi Yamin/Benjamin's Tomb
Kfar Saba
–
Hadarim neighborhood, Kfar Saba
Kfar Saba
–
Arim Mall in downtown Kfar Saba
22.
Egypt
–
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
Egypt
–
The
Giza Necropolis is the oldest of the
ancient Wonders and the only one still in existence.
Egypt
–
Flag
Egypt
–
The Greek Ptolemaic queen
Cleopatra VII and her son by Julius Caesar,
Caesarion at the
Temple of Dendera.
Egypt
–
The 1803
Cedid Atlas, showing
Ottoman Egypt.
23.
The Exodus
–
The Exodus is the founding, or etiological, myth of Israel, its message is that the Israelites were delivered from slavery by Yahweh and therefore belong to him through the Mosaic covenant. The historicity of the story continues to attract attention. The Exodus has been central to Judaism, many of modern biblical scholars hold the opinion that the Torah, or Pentateuch was shaped in the post-exilic period. In either case, the Book of Exodus is a myth for Israel, Israel was delivered from slavery by Yahweh. The final form of the Pentateuch was based on earlier written and these have left traces in over 150 references throughout the Bible. The earliest traces of earlier traditions are in the books of prophets Amos and Hosea. In contrast, Proto-Isaiah and Micah, both of whom were active in Judah at much the same time, show no similar traces and it thus seems reasonable to conclude the Exodus tradition was important in the northern kingdom in the 8th century BCE, but not in Judah. The exodus is remembered daily in Jewish prayers and celebrated each year at the feast of Passover, despite the Exodus story, a majority of scholars do not believe that the Passover festival originated as described in the biblical story. Jewish tradition has preserved national and personal reminders of this narrative in daily life. Such elements as could be fitted into the 2nd millennium could equally belong to the 1st, so while a few scholars, notably Kenneth Kitchen and James K. According to Exodus 12, 37–38, the Israelites numbered about six hundred men on foot, besides women and children, plus many non-Israelites. Numbers 1,46 gives a more precise total of 603,550 men aged 20 and it is difficult to reconcile the idea of 600,000 Israelite fighting men with the information that the Israelites were afraid of the Philistines and Egyptians. The 600,000, plus wives, children, the elderly, marching ten abreast, and without accounting for livestock, they would have formed a line 150 miles long. The entire Egyptian population in 1250 BCE is estimated to have been around 3 to 3, some have rationalised the numbers into smaller figures, for example reading the Hebrew as 600 families rather than 600,000 men, but all such solutions have their own set of problems. The chronology of the Exodus story likewise underlines its essentially religious rather than historical nature, the Torah lists the places where the Israelites rested. Attempts to date the Exodus to a century have been inconclusive. Jericho was small and poor, almost insignificant, and unfortified here was no sign of a destruction. William F. Albright, the leading biblical archaeologist of the century, proposed a date of around 1250–1200 BCE
The Exodus
–
"Departure of the Israelites", by
David Roberts, 1829
The Exodus
–
A Semitic slave. Ancient Egyptian figurine.
Hecht Museum
The Exodus
–
Possible Exodus routes. The traditional Exodus route is in black; other possible routes are in blue and green.
24.
Laban (Bible)
–
Laban is the son of Bethuel and the brother of Rebecca as described in the Book of Genesis. As such he is brother-in-law to Isaac and both father-in-law and uncle to Jacob, Laban and his family were described as dwelling in Paddan Aram, in Mesopotamia. Twenty years later, Labans nephew Jacob was born to Isaac, when grown, Jacob comes to work for Laban. Subtracting yields an age of 77, Laban was more than 30 years older than Jacob, and employed him for 20 years. Laban promised his younger daughter Rachel to Jacob in return for seven years service, Jacob then served another seven years in exchange for the right to marry his choice, Rachel, as well. Labans flocks and fortunes increased under Jacobs skilled care, but there was further trickery between them. Six years after his service has ended, Jacob, having prospered largely by proving more cunning than his father-in-law. Laban pursued him, but they parted on good terms. Laban can be seen as symbolizing those whose concern for the welfare of their family, nominally a virtue, is taken to the point where it has lasting negative ramifications. Laban is referenced significantly in the Passover Haggadah, in the context of the answer to the traditional childs question, Why is this night different from all other nights. There may also be a play on words here, using arami in two senses – as both arami, an Aramean, and rama′i, a deceiver, since Laban cheated Jacob, in this interpretation, arami personifies the Israelite peoplesꞌs bitter enemy. The question of what the connection is between the apparently disjoint tales of Laban and Pharaoh is interpreted in several ways by rabbinical authorities, rabbi Azriel Hildesheimer explains in his Hukkat HaPesach that Laban was, in fact, the primum mobile of the entire Exile and Exodus saga. Rachel was Jacobs divinely intended wife and could hypothetically have given birth to Joseph as Jacobs firstborn with rights of primogeniture. In this counterfactual, Jacobs favoring Josephs succession as the leader of the nation of Israel would have been seen as perfectly normal and fitting. No older brothers would have cheated and jealous, and Joseph would not have been sold into slavery. Thus, there would have no need for Jacobs family to be sent to Egypt to unite with Joseph. Afterward they shall come out with great wealth, Jacob lived in the strange land of Aram, served Laban, and was afflicted by him, then he left with great wealth and returned to the Promised Land
Laban (Bible)
–
Laban and
Jacob make a covenant together, as narrated in Genesis 31:44–54
25.
Metaphor
–
A metaphor is a figure of speech that refers, for rhetorical effect, to one thing by mentioning another thing. It may provide clarity or identify hidden similarities between two ideas, antithesis, hyperbole, metonymy and simile are all types of metaphor. The Philosophy of Rhetoric by rhetorician I. A. Richards describes a metaphor as having two parts, the tenor and the vehicle, the tenor is the subject to which attributes are ascribed. The vehicle is the object whose attributes are borrowed, other writers employ the general terms ground and figure to denote the tenor and the vehicle. Cognitive linguistics uses the target and source, respectively. Metaphors are most frequently compared with similes, a simile is a specific type of metaphor that uses the words like or as in comparing two objects, whereas what is commonly referred to as a metaphor states that A is B or substitutes B for A. What is usually referred to as a metaphor asserts the two objects in the comparison are identical on the point of comparison, a simile merely asserts a similarity, for this reason a common-type metaphor is generally considered more forceful than a simile. The metaphor category also contains these types, Allegory, An extended metaphor wherein a story illustrates an important attribute of the subject. Antithesis, A rhetorical contrast of ideas by means of parallel arrangements of words, clauses, or sentences Catachresis, A mixed metaphor used by design and accident. Hyperbole, Excessive exaggeration to illustrate a point Metonymy, A figure of speech using the name of one thing in reference to a different thing of which the first is associated, example, in lands belonging to the crown the word crown is metonymy for ruler or monarch. Parable, An extended metaphor narrated as an anecdote illustrating and teaching such as in Aesops fables, pun, Similar to a metaphor, a pun alludes to another term. However, the difference is that a pun is a frivolous allusion between two different things whereas a metaphor is a purposeful allusion between two different things. Metaphor, like other types of analogy, can usefully be distinguished from metonymy as one of two modes of thought. Thus, a metaphor creates new links between otherwise distinct conceptual domains, whereas a metonymy relies on the links within them. A dead metaphor is one in which the sense of an image has become absent. Examples, to grasp a concept and to gather what youve understood use physical action as a metaphor for understanding, the audience does not need to visualize the action, dead metaphors normally go unnoticed. Some people distinguish between a dead metaphor and a cliché, others use dead metaphor to denote both. A mixed metaphor is one that leaps from one identification to a second identification inconsistent with the first, e. g. Checkmate
Metaphor
–
A
political cartoon from an 1894
Puck magazine by illustrator S.D. Ehrhart, shows a farm woman labeled "Democratic Party" sheltering from a tornado of political change.
Metaphor
–
A metaphorical visualization of the word
anger.
Metaphor
–
Tombstone of a
Jewish woman depicting broken candles, a visual metaphor of the end of life.
26.
Chuppah
–
A chuppah, also huppah, chipe, chupah, or chuppa, is a canopy under which a Jewish couple stand during their wedding ceremony. It consists of a cloth or sheet, sometimes a tallit, stretched or supported over four poles, a chuppah symbolizes the home that the couple will build together. In a more general sense, chupah refers to the method by which nesuin, according to some opinions, it is accomplished by the couple standing under the canopy, however, there are other views. A traditional chuppah, especially within Orthodox Judaism, recommends that there be open sky exactly above the chuppah, if the wedding ceremony is held indoors in a hall, sometimes a special opening is built to be opened during the ceremony. Many Hasidim prefer to conduct the entire ceremony outdoors and it is said that the couples ancestors are present at the chuppah ceremony. This room was decorated with large hanging sheets of colored, patterned cloth, replete with wall cushions. Their marriage is consummated when they have left together alone in this room. For we recite in the Jerusalem Talmud, Sotah 46a, Those bridal chambers, they hang within them patterned sheets and gold-embroidered ribbons, the word chuppah appears in the Hebrew Bible. There were for centuries regional differences in what constituted a huppah, indeed, Solomon Freehof finds that the wedding canopy was unknown before the 16th century. Alfred J. Kolatch notes that it was during the Middle Ages that the chupa. in use today became customary, daniel Sperber notes that for many communities prior to the 16th Century, the huppah consisted of a veil worn by the bride. In others, it was a spread over the shoulders of the bride. Numerous illustrations of Jewish weddings in medieval Europe, North Africa, moses Isserles notes that the portable marriage canopy was widely adopted by Ashkenazi Jews in the generation before he composed his commentary to the Shulchan Aruch. In Biblical times, a couple consummated their marriage in a room or tent, in Talmudic times, the room where the marriage was consummated was called the chuppah. Jewish weddings consist of two parts, the betrothal ceremony, known as erusin or kiddushin, and the actual wedding ceremony. The first ceremony prohibits the bride to all men and cannot be dissolved without a religious divorce. The second ceremony permits the bride to her husband, originally, the two ceremonies usually took place separately. After the ceremony the bride and groom would spend an hour together in a room, and then the bride would enter the chuppah and, after gaining her permission. In the Middle Ages these two stages were combined into a single ceremony and the chuppah lost its original meaning
Chuppah
–
A chuppah at the
Sixth & I Synagogue in
Washington D.C.
Chuppah
–
Orthodox Jewish wedding with chuppah in
Vienna 's first district, close to
Judengasse, 2007.
Chuppah
–
Chuppa at a synagogue in Toronto, Canada
Chuppah
–
Jewish wedding
27.
Paul the Apostle
–
Paul the Apostle, commonly known as Saint Paul, and also known by his native name Saul of Tarsus was an apostle who taught the gospel of the Christ to the first century world. He is generally considered one of the most important figures of the Apostolic Age, in the mid-30s to the mid-50s AD, he founded several churches in Asia Minor and Europe. Paul took advantage of his status as both a Jew and a Roman citizen to minister to both Jewish and Roman audiences, according to writings in the New Testament, Paul was dedicated to the persecution of the early disciples of Jesus in the area of Jerusalem. He was struck blind but, after three days, his sight was restored by Ananias of Damascus, and Paul began to preach that Jesus of Nazareth is the Jewish Messiah, approximately half of the book of Acts deals with Pauls life and works. Fourteen of the books in the New Testament have traditionally been attributed to Paul. Seven of the epistles are undisputed by scholars as being authentic, Pauline authorship of the Epistle to the Hebrews is not asserted in the Epistle itself and was already doubted in the 2nd and 3rd centuries. It was almost unquestioningly accepted from the 5th to the 16th centuries that Paul was the author of Hebrews, but that view is now almost universally rejected by scholars. The other six are believed by scholars to have come from followers writing in his name. Other scholars argue that the idea of an author for the disputed epistles raises many problems. Today, Pauls epistles continue to be roots of the theology, worship, and pastoral life in the Catholic and Protestant traditions of the West. Augustine of Hippo developed Pauls idea that salvation is based on faith, martin Luthers interpretation of Pauls writings influenced Luthers doctrine of sola fide. The main source for information about Pauls life is the material found in his epistles, however, the epistles contain little information about Pauls past. The book of Acts recounts more information but leaves several parts of Pauls life out of its narrative, such as his probable, some scholars believe Acts also contradicts Pauls epistles on multiple accounts, in particular concerning the frequency of Pauls visits to the church in Jerusalem. It has been assumed that Sauls name was changed when he converted from Judaism to Christianity. His Jewish name was Saul, perhaps after the biblical King Saul, a fellow Benjamite, according to the Book of Acts, he inherited Roman citizenship from his father. As a Roman citizen, he bore the Latin name of Paul—in biblical Greek, Παῦλος. It was quite usual for the Jews of that time to have two names, one Hebrew, the other Latin or Greek. Jesus called him Saul, Saul in the Hebrew tongue in the book of Acts, later, in a vision to Ananias of Damascus, the Lord referred to him as Saul, of Tarsus
Paul the Apostle
–
Saint Paul by
Bartolomeo Montagna
Paul the Apostle
–
The Conversion of Saul,
fresco by
Michelangelo, 1542–45
Paul the Apostle
–
Conversion on the Way to Damascus (1601), by
Caravaggio
Paul the Apostle
–
Caravaggio (1571–1610), The Conversion of Saint Paul, 1600
28.
Mordecai
–
Mordecai or Mordechai is one of the main personalities in the Book of Esther in the Hebrew Bible. He was the son of Jair, of the tribe of Benjamin, Mordecai resided in Susa, the metropolis of Persia. He adopted his cousin, Hadassah, whom he brought up as if she were his own daughter. When young virgins were sought, she was taken into the presence of King Ahasuerus and was made queen in the place of the exiled queen Vashti. Mordecai was referred to subsequently as one of those who sat in the gate to indicate his position of closeness to the king. While holding this office, he discovered a plot of the kings chamberlains Bigthan, because of Mordecais vigilance, the plot was foiled. His services to the king in this matter were duly recorded in the kings royal diary, Haman the Agagite had been raised to the highest position at court. In spite of the decree that all should prostrate themselves before Haman. Though the Hebrew Scriptures attest to Israelites or Jews bowing out of respect and submission, Haman was a descendant of the Amalekites, Haman, stung by Mordecais refusal, resolved to accomplish his death in a wholesale murder of the Jewish exiles throughout the Persian empire. Mordecai was raised to a rank, donned in the royal gray cloak. For Mordecai the Jew was next unto king Ahasuerus, and great among the Jews, and accepted of the multitude of his brethren, seeking goodliness for his people, and speaking peace to all his seed. The name is interpreted as a theophoric name referring to the god Marduk with the understanding that it means of Marduk in Aramaic. Some suggest that as Marduk was a war-god, the expression of Marduk may simply denote a warrior - the popular translation of warrior is found in naming dictionaries. Others note that Marduk was the creator in Babylonian mythology whence the term might have been understood by Jews to mean simply of God, the Talmud relates that his full name was Mordechai Bilshan. Hoschander interpreted this as the Babylonian marduk-bel-shunu meaning Marduk is their lord, another interpretation of the name is that it is of Persian origin meaning little boy. Other suggested meanings of contrition, bitter or bruising are listed in Hitchcocks Bible Names Dictionary of the late 19th century. There is also speculation that the name is derived from Aramaic mar dochi, mar being an address for a gentleman and dochi. In the King James Version of the deuterocanonical Greek additions to Esther, the Pentecostal minister Finis Dake interprets the Bible verses Esther 2, 5–6 to mean that Mordecai himself was exiled by Nebuchadnezzar
Mordecai
–
The Triumph of Mordecai by
Pieter Lastman, 1624.
Mordecai
–
Tomb of Esther and Mordechai
29.
Esther
–
Esther, born Hadassah, is the eponymous heroine of the Book of Esther. According to the Hebrew Bible, Esther was a Jewish queen of the Persian king Ahasuerus, Ahasuerus is traditionally identified with Xerxes I during the time of the Achaemenid Empire, although Flavius Josephus wrote that Esthers king husband was Xerxes son Artaxerxes. Her story is the basis for the celebration of Purim in Jewish tradition, King Ahasuerus displayed his wealth for 180 days then held a 7 day feast in Susa. While in high spirits from the wine, he ordered his queen, Vashti, to appear before him, but when the attendants delivered the kings command to Queen Vashti, she refused to come. Furious at her refusal to obey, the king asked his men what should be done. One of them said that all the women in the empire would hear that The King Ahasuerus commanded Vashti the queen to be brought in before him, then these women would despise their husbands, which would cause many problems in the kingdom. Therefore, it would be prudent to depose Vashti, many beautiful maidens were then brought before the king in order that he might choose a successor to the unruly Vashti. The King chose Esther, a daughter of a Benjamite named Abihail. Esther was originally named Hadassah, meaning myrtle and she had spent her life among the Jewish exiles in Persia, where she lived under the protection of her cousin Mordecai. When Cyrus gave permission for the exiles to return to Jerusalem, Mordecai was the son of Jair, a Benjamite, who had been carried into captivity together with Jeconiah by Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon. Mordecai became chief minister of Ahasuerus and lived in the Persian capital of Susa, one day, while sitting at the gate of the kings palace, Mordecai overheard a plot of two eunuchs, Bigthan and Teresh, to kill the king. Having informed the king through Esther of the conspiracy, Mordecai brought about the execution of the two conspirators, and the event was recorded in the royal chronicles, the grand vizier, Haman the Agagite, commanded Mordecai to do obeisance to him. The king then issued a proclamation ordering the confiscation of Jewish property, Mordecai tore his robes and put ash on his head on hearing this news. Sheltered in the harem, Esther was unaware of the decree until Mordecai advised her of it through Hathach and he informed her that she should not think that she would escape simply because she was in the palace. At the request of Esther, Mordecai instituted at Susa a general fast for three days. Esther could not approach the king without being summoned, on pain of death, nevertheless, at the end of the three days, Esther dressed in her royal apparel and went before the king, who was pleased to see her. When the king asked her what her request was, she invited the king, at the banquet they accepted her invitation to dine with her again on the following day. Haman, carried away by the joy that this gave him
Esther
–
Queen Esther (1878) by
Edwin Long
Esther
–
Esther talking to Mordecai
Esther
–
Ahasuerus and Haman at the Feast of Esther, by
Rembrandt
Esther
–
The Shrine alleged to be the tomb of Esther and
Mordecai in
Hamedan,
Iran
30.
Israel Finkelstein
–
Israel Finkelstein Until the 9th century BCE, Jerusalem was restricted to the mound on the Temple Mount and ruled over a modest area in the southern highlands. B) The first expansion of Jerusalem came in the 9th century BCE, perhaps in its second half, Remains of the Iron IIA were unearthed south of al-Aqsa Mosque, above the Gihon Spring and to the south of the Dung Gate of the Old City. C) The most impressive phase in the settlement history of Jerusalem commenced in the late 8th century BCE, at that time Jerusalem expanded dramatically, to include the entire City of David ridge, as well as the Western Hill. This expansion was the result of the arrival of Israelite refugees after the demise of the Northern Kingdom in 722-720 BCE and these groups brought with them traits of Northern material culture, and more important – their foundation myths, royal traditions and heroic stories. These Northern traditions were incorporated into the Judahite Bible. Finkelstein noted that in the Persian Period, Jerusalem was limited to the mound on the Temple Mount – and even there was sparsely settled – and that Yehud of that time was also thinly settled. As the description of the construction of the wall of Jerusalem in Nehemiah 3 must relate to the big city, the same holds true, in his opinion, for the genealogies in 1 Chronicles. Finkelstein then looked into the accounts of Judahite monarchs in 2 Chronicles and he called attention to similarities between these texts and 1 Maccabees, and proposed to understand Chronicles as representing legitimacy needs of the Hasmoneans. This means that at least 2 Chronicles dates to the late 2nd century BCE, • Yitzhak Meitlis, The Judean Hill Country in the Middle Bronze Age,1997. • David Ilan, Northeastern Israel in the Iron Age I, Cultural, Economic and Political Structures, • Assaf Yasur-Landau, Social Aspects of Aegean Settlement in the Southern Levant at the end of the 2nd Millennium BCE,2003. • Alon Shavit, Settlement Patterns in the Southern Coastal Plain in the Iron II,2004, • Yuval Gadot, Tel Aphek at the End of the Late Bronze Age and the Beginning of the Iron Age, Typological, Chronological and Cultural Implications,2004. • Aharon Sasson, Animal Husbandry in Light of Zooarchaeological Research in Stratum II at Tel Beer-sheba,2004, • Liora Kolska Horwitz, Diachronic Patterns of Animal Exploitation in the Sinai Peninsula,2006. • Norma Franklin, State Formation in the Northern Kingdom of Israel, • Alexander Fantalkin, The Contacts between the Greek World and the Southern Levant, during the Sixth-Seventh Centuries BCE,2008. • Arad Haggi, Harbours in Phoenicia, Israel and Philistia in the 9th - 7th Centuries BCE, Archaeology Finds, • Amir Sumaki-Fink, The History and Archaeology of Alalah in the Late Bronze Age,2009. • Yifat Thareani-Sussely, A Town in the Desert, Geographical, Economic, • Eran Arie, In the land of the valley, Settlement, Social and Cultural Processes in the Jezreel Valley from the End of the Late Bronze Age to the Formation of the Monarchy,2012. • David Friesem, Formation Processes Related to the Degradation of Mud Brick Structures, • Michael Toffolo, Correlating the Iron Age in the Eastern Mediterranean, Contexts, Site Formation Processes and Chronology,2014. • Shirly Ben-Dor Evian, Egypt and Philistia in the Early Iron Age, The Historical Record, • Karen Covello-Paran, The Jezreel Valley during the Intermediate Bronze Age, Social and Cultural Landscapes,2015. • Elon Heymans, The Early History of Money and Monetary Exchange in the Eastern Mediterranean Iron Age, • Efrat Bocher, The Material Culture in Judah and Samaria during the Persian Period
Israel Finkelstein
–
Israel Finkelstein, 2007
31.
Public domain
–
The term public domain has two senses of meaning. Anything published is out in the domain in the sense that it is available to the public. Once published, news and information in books is in the public domain, in the sense of intellectual property, works in the public domain are those whose exclusive intellectual property rights have expired, have been forfeited, or are inapplicable. Examples for works not covered by copyright which are therefore in the domain, are the formulae of Newtonian physics, cooking recipes. Examples for works actively dedicated into public domain by their authors are reference implementations of algorithms, NIHs ImageJ. The term is not normally applied to situations where the creator of a work retains residual rights, as rights are country-based and vary, a work may be subject to rights in one country and be in the public domain in another. Some rights depend on registrations on a basis, and the absence of registration in a particular country, if required. Although the term public domain did not come into use until the mid-18th century, the Romans had a large proprietary rights system where they defined many things that cannot be privately owned as res nullius, res communes, res publicae and res universitatis. The term res nullius was defined as not yet appropriated. The term res communes was defined as things that could be enjoyed by mankind, such as air, sunlight. The term res publicae referred to things that were shared by all citizens, when the first early copyright law was first established in Britain with the Statute of Anne in 1710, public domain did not appear. However, similar concepts were developed by British and French jurists in the eighteenth century, instead of public domain they used terms such as publici juris or propriété publique to describe works that were not covered by copyright law. The phrase fall in the domain can be traced to mid-nineteenth century France to describe the end of copyright term. In this historical context Paul Torremans describes copyright as a coral reef of private right jutting up from the ocean of the public domain. Because copyright law is different from country to country, Pamela Samuelson has described the public domain as being different sizes at different times in different countries. According to James Boyle this definition underlines common usage of the public domain and equates the public domain to public property. However, the usage of the public domain can be more granular. Such a definition regards work in copyright as private property subject to fair use rights, the materials that compose our cultural heritage must be free for all living to use no less than matter necessary for biological survival
Public domain
–
Newton's own copy of his
Principia, with hand-written corrections for the second edition
Public domain
–
L.H.O.O.Q. (1919). Derivative work by the
Dadaist Marcel Duchamp based on the
Mona Lisa.
32.
God in Islam
–
In Islamic theology, God is the all-powerful and all-knowing creator, sustainer, ordainer and judge of everything in existence. Islam emphasizes that God is strictly singular, unique, inherently One, also all-merciful, the Surat 112 Al-Ikhlāş says, He is God, One. He neither begets nor is born, Nor is there to Him any equivalent, in Islam, there are 99 known names of God, each of which evoke a distinct attribute of God. All these names refer to Allah, the supreme and all-comprehensive god, among the 99 names of God, the most familiar and frequent of these names are the Compassionate and the Merciful. Creation and ordering of the universe is seen as an act of mercy for which all creatures sing Gods attributes. Allah is the Arabic word referring to God in Abrahamic religions and it is distinguished from ilāh, the Arabic word meaning deity, which could refer to any of the gods worshipped in pre-Islamic Arabia. God is described and referred to in the Quran and hadith by certain names or attributes, the Quran refers to the attributes of God as most beautiful names. According to Gerhard Böwering, They are traditionally enumerated as 99 in number to which is added as the highest Name, there are numerous conventional phrases and expressions invoking God. Islams most fundamental concept is a strict monotheism called tawhid, affirming that God is one, the basic creed of Islam, the Shahada, involves لا إله إلا الله, or, I testify there is no god other than God. Muslims reject the Christian doctrine of the Trinity and divinity of Jesus, according to Vincent J. Tawhid constitutes the foremost article of the Muslim profession. The deification or worship of anyone or anything other than God is the biggest sin in Islam, the entirety of the Islamic teaching rests on the principle of Tawhid. God is the creator of the universe and all the creatures in it, praise is to Allah, Creator of the heavens and the earth, made the angels messengers having wings, two or three or four. He increases in creation what He wills, indeed, Allah is over all things competent. And it is We Who have constructed the heavens with might and verily and we created man from an extract of clay. Then We made him as a drop in a place of settlement, so blessed be Allah, the Best of creators. Be dutiful to your Lord, Who created you from a person and from Him He created his wife. And verily Allah is my Lord and your Lord, the most commonly used names in the primary sources are Al-Rahman, meaning Most Compassionate and Al-Rahim, meaning Most Merciful. God is said to love forgiving, with a hadith stating God would replace a sinless people with one who sinned but still asked repentance
God in Islam
–
Allah Jalla Jalālah in
Arabic calligraphy
33.
Allah
–
Allah is the Arabic word for God in Abrahamic religions. In the English language, the word refers to God in Islam. The word is thought to be derived by contraction from al-ilāh, which means the god, and is related to El and Elohim, the word Allah has been used by Arabic people of different religions since pre-Islamic times. More specifically, it has used as a term for God by Muslims. It is now used by Muslims and Arab Christians to refer to God. It is also often, albeit not exclusively, used in this way by Bábists, Baháís, Indonesian and Maltese Christians, similar usage by Christians and Sikhs in West Malaysia has recently led to political and legal controversies. The etymology of the word Allāh has been discussed extensively by classical Arab philologists, grammarians of the Basra school regarded is as either formed spontaneously or as the definite form of lāh. The majority of modern scholars subscribe to the theory. Cognates of the name Allāh exist in other Semitic languages, including Hebrew, the corresponding Aramaic form is Elah, but its emphatic state is Elaha. It is written as ܐܠܗܐ in Biblical Aramaic and ܐܲܠܵܗܵܐ in Syriac as used by the Assyrian Church, Biblical Hebrew mostly uses the plural form Elohim, but more rarely it also uses the singular form Eloah. Regional variants of the word Allah occur in both pagan and Christian pre-Islamic inscriptions, different theories have been proposed regarding the role of Allah in pre-Islamic polytheistic cults. Some authors have suggested that polytheistic Arabs used the name as a reference to a god or a supreme deity of their pantheon. The term may have been vague in the Meccan religion, according to one hypothesis, which goes back to Julius Wellhausen, Allah was a designation that consecrated the superiority of Hubal over the other gods. However, there is evidence that Allah and Hubal were two distinct deities. Some inscriptions seem to indicate the use of Allah as a name of a polytheist deity centuries earlier, some scholars have suggested that Allah may have represented a remote creator god who was gradually eclipsed by more particularized local deities. There is disagreement on whether Allah played a role in the Meccan religious cult. No iconic representation of Allah is known to have existed, muhammads fathers name was ʿAbd-Allāh meaning the slave of Allāh. The Aramaic word for God in the language of Assyrian Christians is ʼĔlāhā, arabic-speakers of all Abrahamic faiths, including Christians and Jews, use the word Allah to mean God
Allah
–
Allah
Jalla Jalālah in
Arabic calligraphy
Allah
–
Allah script outside Eski Cami (The Old Mosque) in
Edirne, Turkey.
34.
Names of God in Islam
–
According to tradition there are 99 names of God in Islam, known as the ʾasmāʾu- llāhi l-ḥusnā Beautiful Names of God. Most names in these lists are divine epithets taken from the text of the Quran, the lists of names vary because there are more than 99 such epithets to choose from. Different sources give different lists of the 99 names, in the hadith, Muhammad is said to have invoked God by a number of names. According to Sahih Muslim,35,6475, Abu Hurairah reported Allahs Messenger as saying, There are ninety-nine names of Allah, verily, Allah is Odd and He loves odd numbers. And in the narration of Ibn Umar, He who enumerated them, the Quran refers to Gods most beautiful Names. Gerhard Böwering refers to Sura 17,110 as the locus classicus to which lists of 99 names used to be attached in Quranic commentary. A cluster of more than a dozen Divine epithets which are included in such lists is found in Sura 22, mystic philosopher Ibn Arabi surmised that the 99 names are outward signs of the universes inner mysteries. Most, though not all, of the traditionally listed 99 names are found somewhere in the Quran itself, the others are taken from the hadith. There is no agreement among Muslims as to what exactly counts as a name of Allah. Additionally, while some names are only in the Quran, and others are only in the hadith, different sources give different lists of the 99 names. Furthermore, in record, there are more than 1001 names given in one text, the following list is based on the one found in the Jamiʿ at-Tirmidhi. Other hadith, such as those of al-Bukhari, Muslim, Ibn Majah, all attribute the original compilation of the list of names to Abu Hurairah. Various early Muslim exegetes, including Jaʿfar al-Sadiq, Sufyan ibn Uyaynah, Ibn Hazm, al-Qurtubi, ٱ = The waṣla denoting of ٱلْ is ʾal/ ʾul/ ʾil depending on the last vowel of the previous word/sentence structure, e. g. سُوْرَةُ ٱلْرَّحْمَـٰنُ Suratu ʾr-Raḥmaān. There is a tradition in tasawwuf to the effect the 99 names of God point to a mystical Greatest Name and this Greatest Name of Allah is said to be the one which if He is called by it, He will answer. According to a hadith narrated by Abdullah ibn Masud, some of the names of God have also been hidden from mankind, more than 1000 names are listed in the Jawshan Kabir invocations. A Muslim may not be any of the 99 names of God in exactly the same form. For example, nobody may be named al-Malik the King, and this is because of the belief that God is almighty, and no human being is the equivalent of God, and no human being will ever be the equivalent of God. Muslims are allowed to use the 99 names of God for themselves, however the names of God can be combined with the word ‘Abd-, which means slave and are commonly used as Arabic name among Muslims, such as Abd al-Rahman. g
Names of God in Islam
–
Allah Jalla Jalālah in
Arabic calligraphy
Names of God in Islam
–
The 99 Names of God on the ceiling of the
Grand Mosque in
Kuwait.
35.
Islamic view of angels
–
Belief in Angels is one of the six Articles of Faith in Islam. They are considered heavenly beings without their own will unlike humans who perform tasks of God, the imagination of angels in Islam developed from the Quran and was influenced by other religions like Judaism and expanded by tafsir and the hadith literature. Angels take the role of performing different tasks of God. They are said to be created out of light, unlike humans or jinn, they have no biological needs and therefore no lower desires predicted by the natural world. They may be described as creatures of pure emotion and this is narrated in Sahih Bukhari Volume 4, book 56. Besides the personificated interpretation of angels, they are thought of carrying the laws of nature. Angels are not equal in status and consequently, they are delegated different tasks to perform, jibrail is the archangel responsible for revealing the Quran to Muhammad, verse by verse. Jibrail is the angel who communicates with the prophets and also for coming down with the blessings of Allah during the night of Laylat al-Qadr, mikail, who provides nourishments for bodies and souls. Mikail is often depicted as the archangel of mercy who is responsible for bringing rain, Israfil or Israafiyl, is an archangel in Islam who will blow the trumpet at the end of time. According to the hadith, Israfil is the responsible for signaling the coming of Qiyamah by blowing a horn. Azrael/Azraaiyl/Azrail also known as Malak al-maut, is the angel of death and he is responsible for parting the soul from the body of the deads. The angels of the Seven Heavens, hafaza, Kiraman Katibin, two of whom are charged to every human being, one writes down good deeds and another one writes down evil deeds. They are both described as Raqeebun Ateed in the Quran, muaqqibat who keep people from death until its decreed time and who bring down blessings. Jundullah, those who helped Muhammad in the battlefield Those who draw out the souls of the blessed and those angels who drive the clouds. The Angel of the Mountains Munkar and Nakir, who question the dead in their graves, dardail, who travel in the earth searching out assemblies where people remember Gods name. The angels charged with each existent thing, maintaining order and warding off corruption and their number is known only to God. Ridwan, the keeper of the Paradise, azazil is sometimes considered as an angel, who was the keeper of paradise and leader of an angelic army. He is also the instrument of divine anger, otherwise he is held for a Jinni raised to the angelic realm
Islamic view of angels
36.
Holy Spirit (Islam)
–
The Arabic phrase al-Qudus translates to English as the Holy One or the Exalted One. Jerusalem, considered a site in Islam, is referred to in Arabic as Bayt al-Muqaddas. Al-Quddūs is one of the 99 Names of God in Islam, when God saith, O Jesus the son of Mary. Recount My favour to thee and to thy mother, I strengthened thee with the Holy Spirit, so that thou didst speak to the people in childhood and in maturity. Say, the Holy Spirit has brought the Revelation from thy Lord in Truth, in order to strengthen those who believe, the phrase al-Ruh in the Quran is used ambiguously. It may be interpreted alternatively as either referring to God himself or to the divine Holy Spirit, as with the phrase Ruh al-Qudus, possibly as a shorthand for that phrase. It appears in verses throughout the Quran, When I have fashioned him and breathed into him of My Spirit. And her who guarded her chastity, We breathed into her of Our Spirit, but He fashioned him in due proportion, and breathed into him something of His Spirit. And He gave you hearing and sight and feeling, little thanks do ye give. Raised high above ranks, the Lord of the Throne, by His Command doth He send the Spirit to any of His servants he pleases, that it may warn of the Day of Mutual Meeting. Thou wilt not find any people who believe in God and the Last Day, loving those who resist God and His Apostle, even though they were their fathers or their sons, or their brothers, or their kindred. For such He has written Faith in their hearts, and strengthened them with a Spirit from Himself. And Mary the daughter of Imran, who guarded her chastity, and We gave to her of Our Spirit, and she testified to the truth of the words of her Lord and of His Revelations, and was one of the devout. If they desist not from their word, verily a grievous penalty will befall the blasphemers among them. Say, He is God, the One and Only, God, say, O People of the Book. Come to common terms as between us and you, That we worship none but Allah, that we associate no partners with Him, if then they turn back, say ye, Bear witness that we are Muslims. In the view of Muslims the term Ruh al-Qudus refers to the Archangel Gabriel and he is also the angel who delivered the Annunciation to Mary. In the two suras in which the Quran refers to the angel Gabriel, it does so by name, however, some hadith and parts of the Quran may arguably lend support to the alternative view
Holy Spirit (Islam)
–
Quran
37.
Michael (archangel)
–
Michael is an archangel in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, and Lutheran traditions, he is called Saint Michael the Archangel, in the Oriental Orthodox and Eastern Orthodox traditions, he is called Taxiarch Archangel Michael or simply Archangel Michael. Michael is mentioned three times in the Book of Daniel, in the New Testament Michael leads Gods armies against Satans forces in the Book of Revelation, where during the war in heaven he defeats Satan. In the Epistle of Jude Michael is specifically referred to as the archangel Michael, by the 6th century, devotions to Archangel Michael were widespread both in the Eastern and Western Churches. Over time, teachings on Michael began to vary among Christian denominations, Michael is mentioned three times in the Hebrew Scriptures, all in the book of Daniel. The prophet Daniel experiences a vision after having undergone a period of fasting, Daniel 10, 13-21 describes Daniels vision of an angel who identifies Michael as the protector of Israel. At Daniel 12,1, Daniel is informed that Michael will arise during the time of the end, the Book of Revelation describes a war in heaven in which Michael, being stronger, defeats Satan. After the conflict, Satan is thrown to earth along with the fallen angels, in the Epistle of Jude 1,9, Michael is referred to as an archangel when he again confronts Satan. A reference to an archangel also appears in the First Epistle to the Thessalonians 4,16 and this archangel who heralds the second coming of Christ is not named, but is often associated with Michael. Michael, is one of the two mentioned in the Quran, alongside Jibreel. In the Quran, Michael is mentioned only, in Sura 2,98, Whoever is an enemy to God, and His angels and His messengers. Then, God is an enemy to the disbelievers, some Muslims believe that the reference in Sura 11,69 is Michael, one of the three angels who visited Abraham. Michaels enmity with Samael dates from the time when the latter was thrown down from heaven, Samael took hold of the wings of Michael, whom he wished to bring down with him in his fall, but Michael was saved by God. But appeal to Michael seems to have more common in ancient times. Thus Jeremiah is said to have addressed a prayer to him, the rabbis declare that Michael entered upon his role of defender at the time of the biblical patriarchs. Thus, according to Rabbi Eliezer ben Jacob, it was Michael who rescued Abraham from the furnace into which he had been thrown by Nimrod. It was Michael, the one that had escaped, who told Abraham that Lot had been taken captive, and he announced to Sarah that she would bear a son and he rescued Lot at the destruction of Sodom. It is said that Michael prevented Isaac from being sacrificed by his father by substituting a ram in his place, later Michael prevented Laban from harming Jacob
Michael (archangel)
–
A 13th-century Byzantine icon from
Saint Catherine's Monastery
Michael (archangel)
–
Guido Reni 's Michael (in
Santa Maria della Concezione church, Rome, 1636) tramples Satan. A mosaic of the same painting decorates St. Michael's Altar in
St. Peter's Basilica.
Michael (archangel)
–
Michael archangel by anonymous painter
Michael (archangel)
–
Michael in
Hebrew
38.
Jinn
–
Jinn, also romanized as djinn or anglicized as genies, are supernatural creatures in early Arabian and later Islamic mythology and theology. An individual member of the jinn is known as a jinni, djinni and they are mentioned frequently in the Quran and other Islamic texts. The jinn, humans, and angels make up the three known sapient creations of God, like human beings, the jinn can be good, evil, or neutrally benevolent and hence have free will like humans. Jaini were among various creatures believe among pre-Zoroastrian peoples of Persia, Jinn is an Arabic collective noun deriving from the Semitic root JNN, whose primary meaning is to hide. Some authors interpret the word to mean, literally, beings that are concealed from the senses, cognates include the Arabic majnūn, jannah, and janīn. Jinn is properly treated as a plural, with the singular being jinni, the anglicized form genie is a borrowing of the French génie, from the Latin genius, a guardian spirit of people and places in Roman religion. It first appeared in 18th-century translations of the Thousand and One Nights from the French, numerous mentions of jinn in the Quran and testimony of both pre-Islamic and Islamic literature indicate that the belief in spirits was prominent in pre-Islamic Bedouin religion. Julius Wellhausen has observed that such spirits were thought to inhabit desolate, dingy, and dark places, One had to protect oneself from them, but they were not the objects of a true cult. In Islamic theology jinn are said to be creatures with free will, made from fire by God as humans were made of clay. When jinns are called fire spirits it´s does not refer to their current nature, Jinn are mentioned 29 times in the Quran, Surah 72 is named after the jinn, and has a passage about them. Another surah mentions jinn in the last verse, the Quran also mentions that Muhammad was sent as a prophet to both humanity and the jinn, and that prophets and messengers were sent to both communities. Like humans, jinn will also be judged on the Day of Judgment, the social organization of the jinn community resembles that of humans, e. g. they have kings, courts of law, weddings, mourning rituals and practise religion. One common belief in Muslim belief lists five distinct orders of jinn — the Marid, the Ifrit, the Shaitan, the Ghul, and the Jann. A few traditions, divide jinn into three classes, those who have wings and fly in the air, those who resemble snakes and dogs, described them as creatures of different forms, some resembling vultures and snakes, others tall men in white garb. They may even appear as dragons, onagers, or any number of other animals, in addition to their animal forms, the jinn occasionally assume human form to mislead and destroy their human victims. Ibn Taymiyyah, a late medieval theologian whose writings would later become the source of Wahhabism, believed the jinn to be generally ignorant, untruthful, oppressive. In Sūrat Al-Jinn, verses 8–10, Allah narrates concerning the jinn how they touched or sought the limits of the sky and found it full of guards and shooting stars. Seven kings of the Jinn are traditionally associated with days of the week, the notion of a qarin is not universally accepted among all Muslims, but it is generally accepted that Shayṭān whispers in human minds, and he is assigned to each human being
Jinn
–
Imam Ali Conquers Jinn, unknown artist, Ahsan-ol-Kobar (1568) Golestan Palace
Jinn
–
Prophet Idris visits Heaven (Paradise) and Hell,
Persian miniature
Jinn
–
The black king of the djinns, Al-Malik al-Aswad, in the late 14th century
Book of Wonders
Jinn
–
A manuscript of the
One Thousand and One Nights
39.
Demon
–
A demon is a supernatural, mythological and often malevolent being prevalent in religion, occultism, literature, fiction, mythology and folklore. The original Greek word daimon does not carry the negative connotation initially understood by implementation of the Koine δαιμόνιον, the Ancient Greek word δαίμων daimōn denotes a spirit or divine power, much like the Latin genius or numen. Daimōn most likely came from the Greek verb daiesthai, the Greek conception of a daimōn notably appears in the works of Plato, where it describes the divine inspiration of Socrates. To distinguish the classical Greek concept from its later Christian interpretation, the Greek terms do not have any connotations of evil or malevolence. In fact, εὐδαιμονία eudaimonia, means happiness, far into the Byzantine period Christians eyed their cities old pagan statuary as a seat of the demons presence. It was no longer beautiful, it was infested, the term had first acquired its negative connotations in the Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek, which drew on the mythology of ancient Semitic religions. This was then inherited by the Koine text of the New Testament, the Western medieval and neo-medieval conception of a demon derives seamlessly from the ambient popular culture of Late Antiquity. The Hellenistic daemon eventually came to include many Semitic and Near Eastern gods as evaluated by Christianity, the supposed existence of demons remains an important concept in many modern religions and occultist traditions. Demons are still feared largely due to their power to possess living creatures. In the contemporary Western occultist tradition, a demon is a metaphor for certain inner psychological processes. According to the Jewish Encyclopedia, In Chaldean mythology the seven evil deities were known as shedu, storm-demons and they were represented as winged bulls, derived from the colossal bulls used as protective jinn of royal palaces. From Chaldea, the term shedu traveled to the Israelites, the writers of the Tanach applied the word as a dialogism to Canaanite deities. There are indications that demons in popular Hebrew mythology were believed to come from the nether world, various diseases and ailments were ascribed to them, particularly those affecting the brain and those of internal nature. Examples include catalepsy, headache, epilepsy and nightmares, there also existed a demon of blindness, Shabriri who rested on uncovered water at night and blinded those who drank from it. Demons supposedly entered the body and caused the disease while overwhelming or seizing the victim, to cure such diseases, it was necessary to draw out the evil demons by certain incantations and talismanic performances, at which the Essenes excelled. In mythology, there were few defences against Babylonian demons, the mythical mace Sharur had the power to slay demons such as Asag, a legendary gallu or edimmu of hideous strength. As referring to the existence or non-existence of shedim there are converse opinions in Judaism, there are practically nil roles assigned to demons in the Jewish Bible. In conclusion, Jews are not obligated to believe in the existence of shedim, the word shedim appears only in two places in the Tanakh
Demon
–
Lilith, by
John Collier, 1892
Demon
–
Buer, the 10th spirit, who teaches "Moral and Natural Philosophy" (from a 1995 Mathers edition. Illustration by Louis Breton from
Dictionnaire Infernal).
Demon
–
The classic
Japanese demon, an ogre-like creature which often has horns.
Demon
–
Human-headed winged bull, otherwise known as a
Lamassu
40.
Jannah
–
Jannah is the Islamic concept of paradise. This interpretation gave rise to one of the names of Allah — The Most Merciful. According to Islamic eschatology, after death, ones soul will reside in the grave until the resurrection on Yawm al-Qiyāmah or Judgment Day. Muslims believe that the treatment of the individual in the life of the grave will be according to his or her deeds in the worldly life, Jannah is often compared to Christian concepts of Heaven. According to Muslim belief, everything one longs for in this world will be there in Paradise, the highest level of Paradise is Firdaws, which is where the prophets, the martyrs, and the most truthful and pious people will dwell. In contrast to Jannah, the words Jahannam, Dozukh, there are many words in the Arabic language for both Heaven and Hell and those words also appear in the Quran and Hadith. Most of them have become part of the Islamic traditions, the descriptions of paradise are mentioned in significant detail in the Quran, Hadiths and traditional tafsīr. Besides the material notion of the paradise, those descriptions are also interpreted as allegories, the Persian theologian Al-Ghazali said, This life belongs to the world of earth and the world of visibility, the hereafter belongs to the world of transcendental and the world of beings. By this life I understand your state before death, by hereafter I understand your state after death, however, it is impossible to explain the world of beings in this life by any other means than allegories. The true beauty of paradise is also understood as the joy of beholding God, the Paradise is described as surrounded by eight principal gates, each level generally being divided into a hundred degrees. The highest level is known as firdaws and it will be entered first by Muhammad, then those who lived in poverty, and then the most pious. Entrants will be greeted by angels with salutations of peace or As-Salamu Alaykum, now how excellent is the final home. The Islamic texts describes life for its inhabitants as, one that is happy—without hurt, sorrow. Traditions relate that inhabitants will be of the age. In them are women limiting glances, untouched before them by man or jinni - So which of the favors of your Lord would you deny, - They will eat delicious food and drink, and every bowl will have a new taste. They will take eructation which will digest the food and there will be perfumed sweating for the digestion of water, inhabitants will rejoice in the company of their parents, spouses, and children —conversing and recalling the past. Those on the Right, what people they are, palaces are made from bricks of gold, silver, pearls, among other things. Traditions also note the presence of horses and camels of dazzling whiteness, large trees are described, mountains made of musk, between which rivers flow in valleys of pearl and ruby
Jannah
–
An artists representation of "Muhammed's Paradise". A Persian miniature from The History of Mohammed,
Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris.
41.
Houri
–
In the Quran the houris are called companions, described as being restraining in their glances, with modest gazes, wide and beautiful/lovely eyes, eyes like pearls, splendid and physically prominent. Details of the houris that have pointed out by Sunni scholars include that the houris would not urinate, defecate or menstruate. It has also said that all houris are transparent to the marrow of their bones, eternally young, hairless except the eyebrows. Islamic scholars such as Ibn Majah and Al-Suyuti have also described them as having libidinous vaginas, some also propose that the most literal translation of the noun into English would be pure companions, most beautiful of the eyes. In Hebrew the corresponding adjective חיוור hiwer has the same root h-w-r, meaning pale, the corresponding word for eye is עין Ayin. The word houri has entered several European languages with the meaning of a voluptuous, beautiful, the English word whore is thought to stem from the Proto-Indo-European verb root *keh₂- to love and is not etymologically related to the Arabic word houri. The houris are mentioned in several passages of the Quran, always in plural form, no specifics are even given, though, as to the number of houris that should be available to each believer. This in turn leads to the assumptions that houris can be male or female. Furthermore, all used in the Quran to refer to the houris can be applied to both females and males (i. e. splendid, pure, companions, modest, wide-eyed. Alternatively translated as, And there will go round boy-servants of theirs, to serve them, Quran 56,17, They will be served by immortal eternal young boys. As fair as virgin pearls alternatively translated as, Round about them will boys of perpetual freshness. Or And round about them will boys of perpetual freshness, if thou seest them, thou wouldst think them scattered pearls. or yet. Will not urinate, relieve nature, spit, or have any nasal secretions and their combs will be of gold, and their sweat will smell like musk. The aloes-wood will be used in their censers, all of them will look alike and will resemble their father Adam, sixty cubits tall. Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj Nishapuri, Muhammad reported that some stated with a sense of pride, abdullah reported, I was shown Paradise and I saw the wife of Abu Talha and I heard the noise of steps before me and, lo, it was that of Bilal. The messenger of Allah replied, O’ Mother, an old woman cannot enter Jannah and that woman started crying and began to leave. The messenger of Allah said, Say to the woman that one will not enter in a state of old age and we have created them a creation and made them virgins, lovers, equal in age. A houri is a most beautiful woman with a transparent body
Houri
–
Houris in paradise, riding camels. From a 15th-century Persian manuscript.
42.
Jahannam
–
The duration of a residence in hell differs in Islam. According to some Sunni oppinions, the punishment of hell just ends for Muslims, a Hadith relates that a person who committed suicide will be punished over and over on the Day of Judgment and later in Jahannam by the very means he/she used to end his/her life. At least two verses in the Quran emphasise that consignment to hell is horrible and eternal, with the caveat except as God wills it, otherwise the part except as God wills it is considered as a possible end of the eternity of hell. Some Hadith point the release of all the inhabitants of Hell, Muhammad is quoted as saying Allah will bring out people from the Fire and admit them into Paradise. Also he is quoted as saying Surely a time will come over hell when its gates shall be blown by wind, there shall be none in it, and this shall be after they have remained therein for many years. In another Hadith, it is related that on or after Judgement Day Muhammad and these include any who sincerely professed the Shahada, and then anyone with even an atom’s measure of goodness in his or her heart. Exempt from intercession will be anyone who participated in shirk, according to some islamic philosophers, like Al Kindi, and views from Sufism, hell itself will cease to exist. When God may uncreate, the inhabits of hell, who will not be saved or the whole creation, with the end of hell, the whole creation goes back to oneness and even the devil, will return to Gods grace. Author Phil Parshall quotes other Hadith telling similar stories of sinning believers being taken out of hell and allowed into heaven, the remaining inhabitants of Hell will stay there eternally. The Quran describes Jahannam as having nineteen angels, the keeper named Maalik explains to hells inhabitants who appeal to him to be let out that they must remain in Hell because they abhorred the truth when the truth was brought to them. Hell is perceived to be so deep that if a stone were thrown into it, it would fall for 70 years before reaching the bottom. (According to one calculation this would make it over 190,000,000 km deep, the breadth of each of Hells walls is equivalent to a distance covered by a walking journey of 40 years. Malik in Hadith quotes Mohammed as saying that the fire of Jahannam was seventy times greater than fire on earth and he also described that fire as blacker than tar. I saw therein many people hanging upside down with iron chains, the Quran gives several names for hell, Jaheem, Hatamah, Haawiyah, Ladthaa, Sa’eer, Saqar. In an eschatological manual by Qadi Ayyad, these are names for the different gates of hell, the period of time between a persons death and the Day of Judgement, is known in Islam as barzakh. Although not yet in hell, it is believed that the sinners and unbelievers destined for it will suffer during this time. By the time corpse handlers are ready to wash the body, but then, before earth is piled upon the freshly dug grave, an unusual reunion takes place, The spirit returns to dwell within the body. These angels carry out a trial to probe the soundness of a Muslims faith, according to theologian Al-Ghazali, Afterlife will start with the Day of the Arising and a trumpet blast which will wake the dead from their graves
Jahannam
–
Prophet
Muhammad,
Buraq and
Gabriel, observe "
shameless women " being punished in Hell for exposing their hair to the sight of strangers.
Jahannam
–
Mictlan
Jahannam
43.
Zaqqum
–
According to the Quran, Zaqqum is a tree that springs out of the bottom of hell-fire or Jahannam. It is mentioned in verses 17,60,37, 62-68,44,43 and its fruits are shaped like devils heads. According to Shaykh Umar Sulayman Al-Ashqar, a professor at the University of Jordan, once the palate of the sinners is satiated, some Islamic scholars believe the fruit tears their bodies apart and releases bodily fluids. The Quran says, Surely the tree of the Zaqqum, Is the food of the sinful Like dregs of oil, it shall boil in bellies, the name zaqqum has been applied to the species Euphorbia abyssinica by the Beja people in eastern Sudan. In Jordan, it is applied to the species Balanites aegyptiaca, in Turkey, zaqqum is Nerium oleander
Zaqqum
–
The Tree of Zaqqum (2012), Artist Name: Homa. Reference Al Quran; 37 سورة الصافات - Verse 64-65 Al Quran. This tree is the food of dwellers of Hell-fire mentioned in the Quran.
44.
Prophets and messengers in Islam
–
Belief in Islamic prophets is one of the six articles of the Islamic faith, and specifically mentioned in the Quran. Muslims believe the first prophet was also the first human being, Many of the revelations delivered by the 48 prophets in Judaism and many prophets of Christianity are mentioned as such in the Quran but usually in altered form and with different names. For example, the Jewish Elisha is called Alyasa, Job is Ayyub, Jesus is Isa, the Torah given to Moses is called Tawrat, the Psalms given to David is the Zabur, the Gospel given to Jesus is Injil). Notwithstanding, none of the seven Jewish Prophetesses are mentioned in the Quran as prophets, each came to preach Islam at different times in history and some told of the coming of the final Islamic prophet and messenger of God, who would be named Ahmed commonly known as Muhammad. Each Islamic prophet directed a message to a different group of people, in Arabic and Hebrew, the term nabī means prophet. Forms of this noun occur 75 times in the Quran, the term nubuwwah occurs five times in the Quran. The terms rasūl and mursal denote messenger or apostle and occur more than 300 times, the term for a prophetic message, risālah, appears in the Quran in ten instances. The Syriac form of rasūl Allāh, s̲h̲eliḥeh d-allāhā, occurs frequently in the apocryphal Acts of St. Thomas, the corresponding verb for s̲h̲eliḥeh—s̲h̲alaḥ, occurs in connection with the prophets in the Hebrew Bible. The words prophet and messenger appear several times in the Old Testament, the following table shows these words in different languages, In the Hebrew Bible, the word navi occurs more commonly, and the Hebrew word malakh refers to Angels in Judaism. According to Judaism, Haggai, Zachariah, and Malachi were the last prophets, with them, the authentic period of Nevuah died, and nowadays only the Bath Kol exists. In the New Testament, however, the word becomes more frequent. Messenger may refer to Jesus, to his Apostles and to John the Baptist, but the last book of the Old Testament, the Book of Malachi, speaks of a messenger that Christian commentators interpret as a reference to the future prophet John the Baptist. In Muslim belief, every Islamic prophet preached Islam, the beliefs of charity, prayer, pilgrimage, worship of God and fasting are believed to have been taught by every prophet who has ever lived. The Quran itself calls Islam the religion of Abraham and refers to Jacob, the Quran speaks of the Islamic prophets as being the greatest human beings of all time. A prophet, in the Muslim sense of the term, is a person whom God specially chose to teach the faith of Islam, before man was created, God had specifically selected those men whom He would use as prophets. This does not, however, mean that every prophet began to prophesy from his birth, some were called to prophesy late in life, in Muhammads case at the age of 40. Others, such as John the Baptist, were called to prophesy while still at a young age, the Quran verse 4,69 lists various virtuous groups of human beings, among whom prophets occupy the highest rank. Verse 4,69 reads, All who obey Allah and the messenger are in the company of those on whom is the Grace of Allah—of the prophets, the sincere, the witnesses, and we have made the evil ones friends to those without faith
Prophets and messengers in Islam
45.
Adam in Islam
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Âdam is believed to have been the first human being and Nabi on Earth, in Islam. Adams role as the father of the race is looked upon by Muslims with reverence. Muslims also refer to his wife, Hawa, as the mother of mankind, Muslims see Adam as the first Muslim, as the Quran states that all the Prophets preached the same faith of Islam. The Quran and hadith give the account of the creation of Adam. Synthesizing the Quran with Sunni hadith can produce the following account and he created Adam from clay and He breathed life into him. He said, I am made from fire, when Adam is from clay, I am not going to prostrate before him. The Quran then says that God commanded that Adam and Eve not eat from one tree in the garden of Eden and they then began to cover themselves because they now knew that they were naked. For this, God banished Adam and Eve to earth, non-canonical Sunni hadith say that fruits were turned to thorns, non-canonical Sunni hadith also say that Adam and Eve were cast down far apart, so that they had to search for each other. In Islamic theology, it is not believed that Adams sin is carried by all of his children, Hadith say that once Adam was on earth, God taught him how to plant seeds and bake bread. This was to become the way of all of Adams children, Adam proceeded to live for about 1000 years, though this has been a topic of debate. According to the story of Adam, humankind has learnt everything from Adam and he was the first to learn to plant, harvest, and bake as well as the first to be told how to repent and how to properly bury someone. God also revealed the various restrictions and the alphabet to Adam. He was made the first prophet and he was taught 21 scrolls and was able to write them himself, Adam was also created from earth. It is well known that earth produces crops, supports animals, Earth is very important to humankind, so being created from it makes them very distinct. According to some Hadith, the races of people are even due to the different colors of soil used in creating Adam. The soil also contributed to the idea there are good people and bad people. Adam is an important figure in other religions besides Islam. The story of Adam varies slightly across religions, but manages to maintain a general theme and structure
Adam in Islam
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The name Adam written in
Islamic calligraphy followed by
Peace be upon him.
46.
Elisha
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Elisha is a Hebrew prophet and a wonder-worker whose life is documented in the Hebrew Bible. Also mentioned in the New Testament and the Quran, Elisha is venerated as a prophet in Judaism, Christianity, amongst new religious movements, Baháí writings refer to him by name. His name is transliterated into English as Elisha via Hebrew, Eliseus via Greek and Latin, or Alyasa via Arabic. He was a disciple of Elijah and, after Elijah was taken up into the whirlwind, Elishas story is related in the Book of Kings in the Hebrew Bible. He was a prophet and a wonder-worker of the Northern Kingdom of Israel who was active during the reign of Joram, Jehu, Jehoahaz, Elisha was the son of Shaphat, a wealthy land-owner of Abel-meholah, he became the attendant and disciple of Elijah. His name first occurs in the given to Elijah to anoint him as his successor. After learning in the cave on Mount Horeb, that Elisha, on his way from Sinai to Damascus, Elijah found Elisha one of them that were ploughing with twelve yoke of oxen. Elisha delayed only long enough to kill the yoke of oxen and he went over to him, threw his mantle over Elishas shoulders, and at once adopted him as a son, investing him with the prophetic office. Elisha accepted this call about four years before the death of Israels King Ahab, for the next seven or eight years Elisha became Elijahs close attendant until Elijah was taken up into heaven. During all these years we hear nothing of Elisha except in connection with the scenes of Elijahs life. After he had shared this farewell repast with his father, mother, and friends, the chosen prophet went after Elijah. Elisha then was separated from Elijah by a chariot. Before Elijah was taken up into the whirlwind, Elisha asked to inherit a double-portion of Elijahs spirit. Some scholars see this as indicative of the property inheritance customs of the time, in this interpretation Elisha is asking that he may be seen as the rightful heir and successor to Elijah. Critics of this point out that Elisha was already appointed as Elijahs successor earlier in the narrative. In this interpretation the double-portion isnt merely an allusion to primacy in succession, before he settled in Samaria, Elisha passed some time on Mount Carmel. When the armies of Judah, Israel and Edom, then allied against Mesha and his double prediction regarding relief from drought and victory over the Moabites was fulfilled on the following morning. When a group of boys from Bethel taunted the prophet for his baldness, Elisha cursed them in the name of Yahweh and he became noted in Israel, and for six decades held the office of prophet in Israel
Elisha
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Elisha raising the Shunammite's Son, early 1900s Bible Card illustration
Elisha
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Russian icon of Elisha (18th century,
Kizhi Monastery, Russia).
Elisha
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The Prophet Elisha curses the children who mocked him, by
Willem van den Bundel
Elisha
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Elisha raises son of the woman of Shunem, by
Benjamin West, 1765
47.
Job in Islam
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‹See Tfd› Job is considered a prophet in Islam and is mentioned in the Quran. Some Muslim commentators also spoke of Job as being the ancestor of the Romans, tradition further recounts that Job will be the leader in Heaven of the group of those who patiently endured. The Quran describes Job as a servant of Allah, who was afflicted by suffering for a lengthy period of time. However, it states that Job never lost faith in God and forever called to God in prayer, asking Him to remove his affliction, And Job. Adversity afflicteth me, and Thou art Most Merciful of all who show mercy, the narrative goes on to state that after many years of suffering, God ordered Job to Strike with thy foot. At once, Job struck the ground with his foot and God caused a spring of water to gush forth from the Earth. The Quran states that it was then that God removed his pain and suffering and He returned Jobs family to him, blessed him with many generations of children and granted him great wealth. After Satan has given up trying to turn Job away from the Lord, God removed Jobs affliction and returned his family to him and he returned Jobs wealth and showered Job with gold. Job was also deeply grieved over the oath he had taken, God, however, sent a revelation to Job, which told him to not beat his wife but to gently hit her with a bundle of soft grass. Ibn Kathir narrates the story in the following manner, Job was a very rich person with much land, and many animals and children — all of which were lost and soon he was struck with disease as a test from God. He remained steadfast and patient, so God eventually relieved him of the disease, Jobs lineage was an important field of study for many of the early Islamic scholars. A prevalent belief among early commentators was that Job descended from the line of Esau, although various commentators gave different genealogies relating to Job, all of them traced his ancestry to Abraham through Isaacs son Esau. We raise whom We will in degree, for thy Lord is full of wisdom and we bestowed upon him Isaac and Jacob, all We guided, and before him We guided Noah and among his progeny David, Solomon, Job, Joseph, Moses, and Aaron. Thus do We reward those who do good, Muslim historical literature fleshes out Jobs story and describes him as being a late descendant of the patriarch Noah. Similar to the Hebrew Bible narrative, Ibn Kathir mentions that Satan heard the angels of God speak of Job as being the most faithful man of his generation. Job, being a prophet of God, would remain committed in daily prayer and would frequently call to God, thanking God for blessing him with abundant wealth. But Satan planned to turn the God-fearing Job away from God and wanted Job to fall into disbelief, therefore, God allowed Satan to afflict Job with distress and intense illness and suffering, as God knew that Job would never turn away from his Lord. Although Jobs possessions were destroyed and he suffered many calamities, he remained steadfast in his worship of God, Satan then appeared to Job in the guise of an old man and suggested that God was not rewarding Job for his prayer
Job in Islam
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An imagining of Job from a
Persian illuminated manuscript version of Stories of the Prophets.
Job in Islam
Job in Islam
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The entrance to the cave where Prophet Ayyub (Job) went through his ordeal with illness,
Urfa, southeast
Turkey.
Job in Islam
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A panoramic view of the Prophet Eyyub Complex
48.
David in Islam
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The biblical David, who was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the second king of the United Kingdom of Israel and Judah, reigning in c. 1010–970 BCE, is also venerated in Islam as a prophet and messenger of God, and as a righteous, divinely-anointed monarch of the ancient United Kingdom of Israel, which itself is revered in Islam. Additionally, Muslims also honor David for having received the revelation of the Psalms. Mentioned sixteen times in the Quran, David appears in the Islamic scripture as a link in the chain of prophets who preceded Muhammad, although he is not usually considered one of the law-giving prophets, he is far from a marginal figure in Islamic thought. In later Islamic traditions, he is praised for his rigor in prayer and he is also presented as the prototypical just ruler and as a symbol of Gods authority on earth, having been at once a king and a prophet. David is particularly important to the architecture of Islamic Jerusalem. The Quranic Arabic form of David is Dāwud or Dāwūd, differing from Koine Greek Δαυίδ and these forms appear in the Quran sixteen times. Davids narrative in the Quran in many respects parallels that given in the Bible, although he is never explicitly named a prophet or a messenger, David is included in lists of those who received revelation or guidance from God. In both lists his name next to that of his son Solomon. Elsewhere, the Quran explains that God gave to both of them the gifts of sound judgement and knowledge, the mountains and the birds praised God along with David. God made David a vicegerent, a title that the Quran otherwise gives only to Adam and this title suggests that, to the Quran, David was something more than a messenger, he was a divinely guided leader who established God’s rule on earth. This role is suggested by 2,251, God gave him authority and wisdom. If God did not drive back some people by others, the earth would become corrupt, among the things taught to David was the ability to make armour, a suggestion that David’s military exploits were the act of God. It is also important that the Quranic reference to Davids wisdom was sometimes explained by the classical exegetes as the gift of prophecy, the Quran also connects David and Jesus, by insisting that both cursed those Israelites who did not believe. Moreover, according to the Quran, David was given the ability to distinguish between truth and falsehood when dispensing justice, furthermore, there is the allusion to a test David was put through, wherein he prayed and repented and God forgave him. The Zabur is the book attributed to Prophet David by God, just as Prophet Moses got the Tawrat, Prophet Jesus got the Injil. In the current Hebrew Bible, the Zabur is known as the Psalms, however, like other scriptures of the past, the Psalms are believed to have been corrupted over time, with some of the original message gone. Nonetheless, Muslims are told to treat the present Psalms with immense respect because, in their original form, the Quran states, Your Lord knows whoever is in the heavens and the earth. We exalted some of the prophets over the others, and to David We gave the Book of Psalms, the term Zabur is the Arabic equivalent of the Hebrew Zimra, meaning song/music
David in Islam
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Easton, Matthew George (1897). "article name needed". Easton's Bible Dictionary (New and revised ed.). T. Nelson and Sons.
