1.
Abbasid Caliphate
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The Abbasid Caliphate was the third of the Islamic caliphates to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. The Abbasid dynasty descended from Muhammads youngest uncle, Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib and they ruled as caliphs, for most of their period from their capital in Baghdad in modern-day Iraq, after assuming authority over the Muslim empire from the Umayyads in 750 CE. The Abbasid caliphate first centered its government in Kufa, but in 762 the caliph Al-Mansur founded the city of Baghdad, the political power of the caliphs largely ended with the rise of the Buyids and the Seljuq Turks. Although Abbasid leadership over the vast Islamic empire was reduced to a ceremonial religious function. The capital city of Baghdad became a center of science, culture, philosophy and this period of cultural fruition ended in 1258 with the sack of Baghdad by the Mongols under Hulagu Khan. The Abbasid line of rulers, and Muslim culture in general, though lacking in political power, the dynasty continued to claim authority in religious matters until after the Ottoman conquest of Egypt. The Abbasid caliphs were Arabs descended from Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib, one of the youngest uncles of Muhammad, the Abbasids claimed to be the true successors of Prophet Muhammad in replacing the Umayyad descendants of Banu Umayya by virtue of their closer bloodline to Muhammad. The Abbasids also distinguished themselves from the Umayyads by attacking their moral character, according to Ira Lapidus, The Abbasid revolt was supported largely by Arabs, mainly the aggrieved settlers of Marw with the addition of the Yemeni faction and their Mawali. The Abbasids also appealed to non-Arab Muslims, known as mawali, Muhammad ibn Ali, a great-grandson of Abbas, began to campaign for the return of power to the family of Prophet Muhammad, the Hashimites, in Persia during the reign of Umar II. During the reign of Marwan II, this culminated in the rebellion of Ibrahim the Imam. On 9 June 747, Abu Muslim successfully initiated a revolt against Umayyad rule. Close to 10,000 soldiers were under Abu Muslims command when the hostilities began in Merv. General Qahtaba followed the fleeing governor Nasr ibn Sayyar west defeating the Umayyads at the Battle of Nishapur, the Battle of Gorgan, after this loss, Marwan fled to Egypt, where he was subsequently assassinated. The remainder of his family, barring one male, were also eliminated, immediately after their victory, As-Saffah sent his forces to Central Asia, where his forces fought against Tang expansion during the Battle of Talas. Barmakids, who were instrumental in building Baghdad, introduced the worlds first recorded paper mill in Baghdad, As-Saffah focused on putting down numerous rebellions in Syria and Mesopotamia. The Byzantines conducted raids during these early distractions, the first change the Abbasids, under Al-Mansur, made was to move the empires capital from Damascus, in Syria, to Baghdad in Iraq. Baghdad was established on the Tigris River in 762, a new position, that of the vizier, was also established to delegate central authority, and even greater authority was delegated to local emirs. During Al-Mansurs time control of Al-Andalus was lost, and the Shiites revolted and were defeated a year later at the Battle of Bakhamra, the Abbasids had depended heavily on the support of Persians in their overthrow of the Umayyads
2.
Heraklion
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Heraklion is the largest city and the administrative capital of the island of Crete. It is the fourth largest city in Greece.3 km2, Heraklion is the capital of Heraklion regional unit. The Bronze Age palace of Knossos, also known as the Palace of Minos, is located nearby. The Arab raiders from Andalusia who founded the Emirate of Crete moved the capital from Gortyna to a new castle they called ربض الخندق rabḍ al-ḫandaq Castle of the Moat in the 820s. After the Byzantine reconquest, the city was known as Megalo Kastro or Castro. The ancient name Ηράκλειον was revived in the 19th century and comes from the nearby Roman port of Heracleum, english usage formerly preferred the classicizing transliterations Heraklion or Heraclion, but the form Iraklion is becoming more common. Heraklion is close to the ruins of the palace of Knossos, though there is no archaeological evidence of it, Knossos might well have had a port at the site of Heraklion as early as 2000 BC. They built a moat around the city for protection, and named the city ربض الخندق and it became the capital of the Emirate of Crete. The Saracens allowed the port to be used as a haven for pirates who operated against Imperial shipping. In 961, Byzantine forces under the command of Nikephoros Phokas, later to become Emperor, landed in Crete, after a prolonged siege, the city fell. The Saracen inhabitants were slaughtered, the city looted and burned to the ground, soon rebuilt, the town was renamed Χάνδαξ, Chandax, and remained under Greek control for the next 243 years. Chandax was renamed Candia and became the seat of the Duke of Candia, the city retained the name of Candia for centuries and the same name was often used to refer to the whole island of Crete as well. To secure their rule, Venetians began in 1212 to settle families from Venice on Crete, after the Venetians came the Ottoman Empire. During the Cretan War, the Ottomans besieged the city for 21 years, from 1648 to 1669, in its final phase, which lasted for 22 months,70,000 Turks,38,000 Cretans and slaves and 29,088 of the citys Christian defenders perished. The Ottoman army under an Albanian grand vizier, Köprülü Fazıl Ahmed Pasha conquered the city in 1669, under the Ottomans, the city was known officially as Kandiye but informally in Greek as Megalo Castro. During the Ottoman period, the harbour silted up, so most shipping shifted to Chania in the west of the island, in 1898, the autonomous Cretan State was created, under Ottoman suzerainty, with Prince George of Greece as its High Commissioner and under international supervision. During the period of occupation of the island by the Great Powers. At this time, the city was renamed Heraklion, after the Roman port of Heracleum, in 1913, with the rest of Crete, Heraklion was incorporated into the Kingdom of Greece
3.
Arabic
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Arabic is a Central Semitic language that was first spoken in Iron Age northwestern Arabia and is now the lingua franca of the Arab world. Arabic is also the language of 1.7 billion Muslims. It is one of six languages of the United Nations. The modern written language is derived from the language of the Quran and it is widely taught in schools and universities, and is used to varying degrees in workplaces, government, and the media. The two formal varieties are grouped together as Literary Arabic, which is the language of 26 states. Modern Standard Arabic largely follows the standards of Quranic Arabic. Much of the new vocabulary is used to denote concepts that have arisen in the post-Quranic era, Arabic has influenced many languages around the globe throughout its history. During the Middle Ages, Literary Arabic was a vehicle of culture in Europe, especially in science, mathematics. As a result, many European languages have borrowed many words from it. Many words of Arabic origin are found in ancient languages like Latin. Balkan languages, including Greek, have acquired a significant number of Arabic words through contact with Ottoman Turkish. Arabic has also borrowed words from languages including Greek and Persian in medieval times. Arabic is a Central Semitic language, closely related to the Northwest Semitic languages, the Ancient South Arabian languages, the Semitic languages changed a great deal between Proto-Semitic and the establishment of the Central Semitic languages, particularly in grammar. Innovations of the Central Semitic languages—all maintained in Arabic—include, The conversion of the suffix-conjugated stative formation into a past tense, the conversion of the prefix-conjugated preterite-tense formation into a present tense. The elimination of other prefix-conjugated mood/aspect forms in favor of new moods formed by endings attached to the prefix-conjugation forms, the development of an internal passive. These features are evidence of descent from a hypothetical ancestor. In the southwest, various Central Semitic languages both belonging to and outside of the Ancient South Arabian family were spoken and it is also believed that the ancestors of the Modern South Arabian languages were also spoken in southern Arabia at this time. To the north, in the oases of northern Hijaz, Dadanitic and Taymanitic held some prestige as inscriptional languages, in Najd and parts of western Arabia, a language known to scholars as Thamudic C is attested
4.
Greek language
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Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece and other parts of the Eastern Mediterranean. It has the longest documented history of any living language, spanning 34 centuries of written records and its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the major part of its history, other systems, such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary, were used previously. The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin, Cyrillic, Armenian, Coptic, Gothic and many other writing systems. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world, during antiquity, Greek was a widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world and many places beyond. It would eventually become the official parlance of the Byzantine Empire, the language is spoken by at least 13.2 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey, and the Greek diaspora. Greek roots are used to coin new words for other languages, Greek. Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around the 3rd millennium BC, the earliest written evidence is a Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the worlds oldest recorded living language. Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation is matched only by the now extinct Anatolian languages, the Greek language is conventionally divided into the following periods, Proto-Greek, the unrecorded but assumed last ancestor of all known varieties of Greek. The unity of Proto-Greek would have ended as Hellenic migrants entered the Greek peninsula sometime in the Neolithic era or the Bronze Age, Mycenaean Greek, the language of the Mycenaean civilisation. It is recorded in the Linear B script on tablets dating from the 15th century BC onwards, Ancient Greek, in its various dialects, the language of the Archaic and Classical periods of the ancient Greek civilisation. It was widely known throughout the Roman Empire, after the Roman conquest of Greece, an unofficial bilingualism of Greek and Latin was established in the city of Rome and Koine Greek became a first or second language in the Roman Empire. The origin of Christianity can also be traced through Koine Greek, Medieval Greek, also known as Byzantine Greek, the continuation of Koine Greek in Byzantine Greece, up to the demise of the Byzantine Empire in the 15th century. Much of the written Greek that was used as the language of the Byzantine Empire was an eclectic middle-ground variety based on the tradition of written Koine. Modern Greek, Stemming from Medieval Greek, Modern Greek usages can be traced in the Byzantine period and it is the language used by the modern Greeks, and, apart from Standard Modern Greek, there are several dialects of it. In the modern era, the Greek language entered a state of diglossia, the historical unity and continuing identity between the various stages of the Greek language is often emphasised. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than a foreign language and it is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, Homeric Greek is probably closer to demotic than 12-century Middle English is to modern spoken English, Greek is spoken by about 13 million people, mainly in Greece, Albania and Cyprus, but also worldwide by the large Greek diaspora. Greek is the language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population
5.
Sunni Islam
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Sunni Islam is the largest group of Islam. Its name comes from the word Sunnah, referring to the behavior of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. According to Sunni tradition, Muhammad did not clearly designate a successor and this contrasts with the Shia view, which holds that Muhammad intended his son-in-law and cousin Ali ibn Abi Talib to succeed him. Political tensions between Sunnis and Shias continued with varying intensity throughout Islamic history and they have been exacerbated in recent times by ethnic conflicts, as of 2009, Sunni Muslims constituted between 87–90% of the worlds Muslim population. Sunni Islam is the worlds largest religious denomination, followed by Catholicism and its adherents are referred to in Arabic as ahl as-sunnah wa l-jamāʻah or ahl as-sunnah for short. In English, its doctrines and practices are sometimes called Sunnism, while adherents are known as Sunni Muslims, Sunnis, Sunnites, Sunni Islam is sometimes referred to as orthodox Islam. The Quran, together with hadith and binding juristic consensus form the basis of all traditional jurisprudence within Sunni Islam, sunnī, also commonly referred to as Sunnīism, is a term derived from sunnah meaning habit, usual practice, custom, tradition. The Muslim use of this term refers to the sayings and living habits of the prophet Muhammad, in Arabic, this branch of Islam is referred to as ahl as-sunnah wa l-jamāʻah, the people of the sunnah and the community, which is commonly shortened to ahl as-sunnah. One common mistake is to assume that Sunni Islam represents a normative Islam that emerged during the period after Muhammads death, and that Sufism and Shiism developed out of Sunni Islam. This perception is due to the reliance on highly ideological sources that have been accepted as reliable historical works. Both Sunnism and Shiaism are the end products of centuries of competition between ideologies. Both sects used each other to further cement their own identities and doctrines, the first four caliphs are known among Sunnis as the Rashidun or Rightly-Guided Ones. Sunni recognition includes the aforementioned Abu Bakr as the first, Umar who established the Islamic calendar as the second, Uthman as the third, Sunnis believe that the companions of Muhammad were the best of Muslims. Support for this view is found in the Quran, according to Sunnis. Sunnis also believe that the companions were true believers since it was the companions who were given the task of compiling the Quran, furthermore, narrations that were narrated by the companions are considered by Sunnis to be a second source of knowledge of the Muslim faith. A study conducted by the Pew Research Center in 2010 and released January 2011 found that there are 1.62 billion Muslims around the world, Islam does not have a formal hierarchy or clergy. Leaders are informal, and gain influence through study to become a scholar of Islamic law, according to the Islamic Center of Columbia, South Carolina, anyone with the intelligence and the will can become an Islamic scholar. During Midday Mosque services on Fridays, the congregation will choose a person to lead the service
6.
Monarchy
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The actual power of the monarch may vary from purely symbolic, to partial and restricted, to completely autocratic. Traditionally and in most cases, the monarchs post is inherited and lasts until death or abdication, occasionally this might create a situation of rival claimants whose legitimacy is subject to effective election. Finally, there have been cases where the term of a reign is either fixed in years or continues until certain goals are achieved. Thus there are widely divergent structures and traditions defining monarchy, Monarchy was the most common form of government until the 19th century, but it is no longer prevalent. Currently,47 sovereign nations in the world have monarchs acting as heads of state,19 of which are Commonwealth realms that recognise Queen Elizabeth II as their head of state. The monarchs of Cambodia, Japan, and Malaysia reign, the word monarch comes from the Greek language word μονάρχης, monárkhēs which referred to a single, at least nominally absolute ruler. In current usage the word usually refers to a traditional system of hereditary rule. Depending on the held by the monarch, a monarchy may be known as a kingdom, principality, duchy, grand duchy, empire, tsardom, emirate, sultanate, khaganate. The form of societal hierarchy known as chiefdom or tribal kingship is prehistoric, the Greek term monarchia is classical, used by Herodotus. The monarch in classical antiquity is often identified as king, the Chinese, Japanese and Nepalese monarchs continued to be considered living Gods into the modern period. Since antiquity, monarchy has contrasted with forms of democracy, where power is wielded by assemblies of free citizens. In antiquity, monarchies were abolished in favour of such assemblies in Rome, much of 19th century politics was characterised by the division between anti-monarchist Radicalism and monarchist Conservativism. Many countries abolished the monarchy in the 20th century and became republics, advocacy of republics is called republicanism, while advocacy of monarchies is called monarchism. In the modern era, monarchies are more prevalent in small states than in large ones, most monarchs, both historically and in the modern day, have been born and brought up within a royal family, the centre of the royal household and court. Growing up in a family, future monarchs are often trained for the responsibilities of expected future rule. Different systems of succession have been used, such as proximity of blood, primogeniture, and agnatic seniority. While most monarchs have been male, many female monarchs also have reigned in history, rule may be hereditary in practice without being considered a monarchy, such as that of family dictatorships or political families in many democracies. The principal advantage of hereditary monarchy is the continuity of leadership
7.
Abu Hafs Umar al-Iqritishi
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Umar ibn Hafs ibn Shuayb ibn Isa al-Balluti, surnamed al-Ghaliz and later al-Iqritishi, and usually known as Abu Hafs, was a Muwallad corsair who was primarily active between 816 and 827. After an unsuccessful uprising in Cordova, Spain in 818 against Emir Al-Hakam I the citys Muladi Muslim inhabitants were exiled, some settled in Fez, while a second group, of almost 15,000 men plus women and children, headed for Alexandria in Egypt. With the intention of taking advantage of local unrest, the group of rebels selected Abu Hafs as their leader. As leader, Abu Hafs led the group took control of Alexandria in 816. After being forced to leave Alexandria, the group set for the Byzantine island of Crete. Upon arriving, they landed at Cape Charax in the gulf of Messara, from there the group headed north under the leadership of Abu Hafs
8.
Middle Ages
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In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or Medieval Period lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance, the Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history, classical antiquity, the medieval period, and the modern period. The medieval period is subdivided into the Early, High. Population decline, counterurbanisation, invasion, and movement of peoples, the large-scale movements of the Migration Period, including various Germanic peoples, formed new kingdoms in what remained of the Western Roman Empire. In the seventh century, North Africa and the Middle East—once part of the Byzantine Empire—came under the rule of the Umayyad Caliphate, although there were substantial changes in society and political structures, the break with classical antiquity was not complete. The still-sizeable Byzantine Empire survived in the east and remained a major power, the empires law code, the Corpus Juris Civilis or Code of Justinian, was rediscovered in Northern Italy in 1070 and became widely admired later in the Middle Ages. In the West, most kingdoms incorporated the few extant Roman institutions, monasteries were founded as campaigns to Christianise pagan Europe continued. The Franks, under the Carolingian dynasty, briefly established the Carolingian Empire during the later 8th, the Crusades, first preached in 1095, were military attempts by Western European Christians to regain control of the Holy Land from Muslims. Kings became the heads of centralised nation states, reducing crime and violence, intellectual life was marked by scholasticism, a philosophy that emphasised joining faith to reason, and by the founding of universities. Controversy, heresy, and the Western Schism within the Catholic Church paralleled the conflict, civil strife. Cultural and technological developments transformed European society, concluding the Late Middle Ages, the Middle Ages is one of the three major periods in the most enduring scheme for analysing European history, classical civilisation, or Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Modern Period. Medieval writers divided history into periods such as the Six Ages or the Four Empires, when referring to their own times, they spoke of them as being modern. In the 1330s, the humanist and poet Petrarch referred to pre-Christian times as antiqua, leonardo Bruni was the first historian to use tripartite periodisation in his History of the Florentine People. Bruni and later argued that Italy had recovered since Petrarchs time. The Middle Ages first appears in Latin in 1469 as media tempestas or middle season, in early usage, there were many variants, including medium aevum, or middle age, first recorded in 1604, and media saecula, or middle ages, first recorded in 1625. The alternative term medieval derives from medium aevum, tripartite periodisation became standard after the German 17th-century historian Christoph Cellarius divided history into three periods, Ancient, Medieval, and Modern. The most commonly given starting point for the Middle Ages is 476, for Europe as a whole,1500 is often considered to be the end of the Middle Ages, but there is no universally agreed upon end date. English historians often use the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 to mark the end of the period
9.
Gold dinar
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The gold dinar is an Islamic medieval gold coin first issued in AH77 by Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan. The weight of the dinar is 1 mithqal, the word dinar stems from the Latin denarius aureus or gold coin. The name dinar is in use for Sasanid gold coins, and also for Kushan and it is not known how these coins were named in their day. The first dinars were issued by the Umayyad Caliphate, under the dynasties that followed the use of the dinar spread from Islamic Spain to Central Asia. These corresponded in weight to only 20 carats, but matched with the weight of the worn solidi that were circulating in those areas at the time, the two coins circulated together in these areas for a time. The first dated coins that can be assigned to the Muslims are copies of silver Dirhams of the Sassanian ruler Yazdegerd III and these coins differ from the original ones in that an Arabic inscription is found in the obverse margins, normally reading in the Name of Allah. The subsequent series was issued using types based on drachmas of Khosrau II, historical evidence makes it clear that most of these coins bear Hijra dates. The earliest Muslim copper coins are anonymous and undated but a series exists which may have been issued during the Caliphates of Uthman or Ali and these are crude copies of Byzantine 12-nummus pieces of Heraclius from Alexandria. By the year AH75 Abd al-Malik had decided on changes to the coinage, a scattering of patterned pieces in silver exist from this date, based on Sassanian prototypes but with distinctive Arabic reverses. Unlike the contemporary coinage, this figure does not seem to have been achieved in practice. The average weight of sixty undamaged specimens of AH 79–84 is only 2.71 grams and these new coins which bore the name of dirham, established the style of the Arab-Sassanian predecessors at 25 to 28 mm in diameter. Their design is composed of Arabic inscriptions surrounded by circles and annulets, on each side there is a three- or four-line legend with a single circular inscription. Outside this are three circles with, at first, five annulets surrounding them. The side normally taken as the obverse has as its central legend the Kalima or shahada, There is no god except Allah alone, around it is the mint and date formula reading In the Name of Allah, this Dirham was struck in the year. Dated coins exist from AH74 and are named as Dinars and this type was used without appreciable change for the whole of Umayyad period, the coins being struck to a new and carefully controlled standard of 4.25 grams. This weight was reputed to be based on the average of the current Byzantine solidi, was called a Mithqal, evidence of the importance attached to the close control of the new Dinars is provided by the existence of glass weights, mainly from Egypt. They usually show the name, sometimes the date but all marked with coin denomination. The issues in gold from North Africa began as copies of the coins of Heraclius and his son, Dinars, halves and thirds were struck, all to the new weight standard
10.
Dirham
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Dirham, dirhem or dirhm is a unit of currency in several Arab states and formerly, the related unit of mass in the Ottoman Empire and Persian states. The name derives from the ancient Greek currency the drachma, in the late Ottoman Empire, the standard dirham was 3.207 g,400 dirhem equal one oka. In Egypt in 1895, it was equivalent to 47.661 troy grains, there is currently a movement within the Islamic world to revive the Dirham as a unit of mass for measuring silver, although the exact value is disputed. The word dirham comes from drachma, the Greek coin, the Greek-speaking Byzantine Empire controlled the Levant and traded with Arabia, circulating the coin there in pre-Islamic times and afterward. It was this currency which was adopted as an Arab word, then near the end of the 7th century the coin became an Islamic currency bearing the name of the sovereign
11.
Byzantine Crete
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Under Roman rule, Crete had formed a joint province with Cyrenaica, that of Creta et Cyrenaica. Few contemporary sources mention Crete during the period from the 4th century to the Muslim conquest in the 820s, during this time, the island was very much a quiet provincial backwater in the periphery of the Greco-Roman world. Its bishops are even absent from the First Council of Nicaea in 325, in the 6th-century Synecdemus, Crete is marked as being governed by a consularis, with capital at Gortyn, and as many as 22 cities. The population in this period is estimated as high as 250,000 and this peace was broken in the 7th century. Thereafter the island remained relatively safe, under the rule of an appointed by Constantinople. 732, the emperor Leo III the Isaurian transferred the island from the jurisdiction of the Pope to that of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, a strategos of Crete is attested in 767, and a seal of a tourmarches of Crete is known. This has led to suggestions that the island was constituted as a theme in the 8th century, most scholars however do not consider the evidence conclusive enough and think it unlikely that the island was a theme at the time. Byzantine rule lasted until the late 820s, when a group of exiles from Muslim Spain landed on the island. The Byzantines launched repeated expeditions to drive back, and seem to have appointed a strategos to administer what parts of the island they still controlled. The fall of Crete to the Arabs posed a major headache for Byzantium, as it opened the coasts, however Theoktistos had to abandon the campaign, and the troops left behind were quickly defeated by the Saracens. After reconquest, the island was organized as a regular theme, extensive efforts at conversion of the populace were undertaken, led by John Xenos and Nikon the Metanoeite. A regiment of 1,000 men was raised as the garrison, under a separate taxiarches. Under Alexios I Komnenos, the island was ruled by a doux or katepano, by the early 12th century, it came, along with southern Greece under the overall control of the megas doux, the commander-in-chief of the Byzantine navy. Aside from the revolt of its governor, Karykes, in 1092/1093, during the Crusade, Crete appears to have been granted to Boniface of Montferrat as a pronoia by the emperor Alexios IV Angelos. Boniface however, unable to extend his control to the island, in the event, the island was seized by the Venetians rivals, Genoa, and it took Venice until 1212 to secure her control over the island and establish it as a Venetian colony. Ancient episcopal sees of the late Roman province of Crete listed in the Annuario Pontificio as titular sees, Detorakis, Theocharis E. Ιστορία της Κρήτης, Athens Hetherington, Paul, 825–949, Graeco-Arabica, 347–362 Nesbitt, John W. Oikonomides, Nicolas, eds. A History of the Byzantine State and Society, Stanford, CA, Stanford University Press, ISBN 0-8047-2630-2
12.
Greece
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Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, historically also known as Hellas, is a country in southeastern Europe, with a population of approximately 11 million as of 2015. Athens is the capital and largest city, followed by Thessaloniki. Greece is strategically located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, situated on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, the Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to the northeast. Greece consists of nine regions, Macedonia, Central Greece, the Peloponnese, Thessaly, Epirus, the Aegean Islands, Thrace, Crete. The Aegean Sea lies to the east of the mainland, the Ionian Sea to the west, the Cretan Sea and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Greece has the longest coastline on the Mediterranean Basin and the 11th longest coastline in the world at 13,676 km in length, featuring a vast number of islands, eighty percent of Greece is mountainous, with Mount Olympus being the highest peak at 2,918 metres. From the eighth century BC, the Greeks were organised into various independent city-states, known as polis, which spanned the entire Mediterranean region and the Black Sea. Greece was annexed by Rome in the second century BC, becoming a part of the Roman Empire and its successor. The Greek Orthodox Church also shaped modern Greek identity and transmitted Greek traditions to the wider Orthodox World, falling under Ottoman dominion in the mid-15th century, the modern nation state of Greece emerged in 1830 following a war of independence. Greeces rich historical legacy is reflected by its 18 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, among the most in Europe, Greece is a democratic and developed country with an advanced high-income economy, a high quality of life, and a very high standard of living. A founding member of the United Nations, Greece was the member to join the European Communities and has been part of the Eurozone since 2001. Greeces unique cultural heritage, large industry, prominent shipping sector. It is the largest economy in the Balkans, where it is an important regional investor, the names for the nation of Greece and the Greek people differ from the names used in other languages, locations and cultures. The earliest evidence of the presence of human ancestors in the southern Balkans, dated to 270,000 BC, is to be found in the Petralona cave, all three stages of the stone age are represented in Greece, for example in the Franchthi Cave. Neolithic settlements in Greece, dating from the 7th millennium BC, are the oldest in Europe by several centuries and these civilizations possessed writing, the Minoans writing in an undeciphered script known as Linear A, and the Mycenaeans in Linear B, an early form of Greek. The Mycenaeans gradually absorbed the Minoans, but collapsed violently around 1200 BC and this ushered in a period known as the Greek Dark Ages, from which written records are absent. The end of the Dark Ages is traditionally dated to 776 BC, the Iliad and the Odyssey, the foundational texts of Western literature, are believed to have been composed by Homer in the 7th or 8th centuries BC. With the end of the Dark Ages, there emerged various kingdoms and city-states across the Greek peninsula, in 508 BC, Cleisthenes instituted the worlds first democratic system of government in Athens
13.
Muslim
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A Muslim is someone who follows or practices Islam, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion. Muslims consider the Quran, their book, to be the verbatim word of God as revealed to the Islamic prophet. They also follow the teachings and practices of Muhammad as recorded in traditional accounts, Muslim is an Arabic word meaning one who submits. Most Muslims will accept anyone who has publicly pronounced Shahadah as a Muslim, the shahadah states, There is no god but the God and Muhammad is the last messenger of the God. The testimony authorized by God in the Quran that can found in Surah 3,18 states, There is no god except God, which in Arabic, is the exact testimony which God Himself utters, as well as the angels and those who possess knowledge utter. The word muslim is the active participle of the verb of which islām is a verbal noun, based on the triliteral S-L-M to be whole. A female adherent is a muslima, the plural form in Arabic is muslimūn or muslimīn, and its feminine equivalent is muslimāt. The Arabic form muslimun is the stem IV participle of the triliteral S-L-M, the ordinary word in English is Muslim. It is sometimes transliterated as Moslem, which is an older spelling, the word Mosalman is a common equivalent for Muslim used in Central Asia. Until at least the mid-1960s, many English-language writers used the term Mohammedans or Mahometans, although such terms were not necessarily intended to be pejorative, Muslims argue that the terms are offensive because they allegedly imply that Muslims worship Muhammad rather than God. Other obsolete terms include Muslimite and Muslimist, musulmán/Mosalmán is a synonym for Muslim and is modified from Arabic. In English it was sometimes spelled Mussulman and has become archaic in usage, the Muslim philosopher Ibn Arabi said, A Muslim is a person who has dedicated his worship exclusively to God. Islam means making ones religion and faith Gods alone. The Quran states that men were Muslims because they submitted to God, preached His message and upheld His values. Thus, in Surah 3,52 of the Quran, Jesus disciples tell him, We believe in God, and you be our witness that we are Muslims. In Muslim belief, before the Quran, God had given the Tawrat to Moses, the Zabur to David and the Injil to Jesus, who are all considered important Muslim prophets. The most populous Muslim-majority country is Indonesia, home to 12. 7% of the worlds Muslims, followed by Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Egypt. About 20% of the worlds Muslims lives in the Middle East and North Africa, Sizable minorities are found in India, China, Russia, Ethiopia. The country with the highest proportion of self-described Muslims as a proportion of its population is Morocco
14.
Mediterranean Sea
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The sea is sometimes considered a part of the Atlantic Ocean, although it is usually identified as a separate body of water. The name Mediterranean is derived from the Latin mediterraneus, meaning inland or in the middle of land and it covers an approximate area of 2.5 million km2, but its connection to the Atlantic is only 14 km wide. The Strait of Gibraltar is a strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and separates Gibraltar. In oceanography, it is called the Eurafrican Mediterranean Sea or the European Mediterranean Sea to distinguish it from mediterranean seas elsewhere. The Mediterranean Sea has a depth of 1,500 m. The sea is bordered on the north by Europe, the east by Asia and it is located between latitudes 30° and 46° N and longitudes 6° W and 36° E. Its west-east length, from the Strait of Gibraltar to the Gulf of Iskenderun, the seas average north-south length, from Croatia’s southern shore to Libya, is approximately 800 km. The Mediterranean Sea, including the Sea of Marmara, has an area of approximately 2,510,000 square km. The sea was an important route for merchants and travelers of ancient times that allowed for trade, the history of the Mediterranean region is crucial to understanding the origins and development of many modern societies. In addition, the Gaza Strip and the British Overseas Territories of Gibraltar and Akrotiri, the term Mediterranean derives from the Latin word mediterraneus, meaning amid the earth or between land, as it is between the continents of Africa, Asia and Europe. The Ancient Greek name Mesogeios, is similarly from μέσο, between + γη, land, earth) and it can be compared with the Ancient Greek name Mesopotamia, meaning between rivers. The Mediterranean Sea has historically had several names, for example, the Carthaginians called it the Syrian Sea and latter Romans commonly called it Mare Nostrum, and occasionally Mare Internum. Another name was the Sea of the Philistines, from the people inhabiting a large portion of its shores near the Israelites, the sea is also called the Great Sea in the General Prologue by Geoffrey Chaucer. In Ottoman Turkish, it has also been called Bahr-i Sefid, in Modern Hebrew, it has been called HaYam HaTikhon, the Middle Sea, reflecting the Seas name in ancient Greek, Latin, and modern languages in both Europe and the Middle East. Similarly, in Modern Arabic, it is known as al-Baḥr al-Mutawassiṭ, in Turkish, it is known as Akdeniz, the White Sea since among Turks the white colour represents the west. Several ancient civilisations were located around the Mediterranean shores, and were influenced by their proximity to the sea. It provided routes for trade, colonisation, and war, as well as food for numerous communities throughout the ages, due to the shared climate, geology, and access to the sea, cultures centered on the Mediterranean tended to have some extent of intertwined culture and history. Two of the most notable Mediterranean civilisations in classical antiquity were the Greek city states, later, when Augustus founded the Roman Empire, the Romans referred to the Mediterranean as Mare Nostrum
15.
Island
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An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, an island in a river or a lake island may be called an eyot or ait, and a small island off the coast may be called a holm. A grouping of geographically or geologically related islands is called an archipelago, an island may be described as such, despite the presence of an artificial land bridge. Example, Singapore and its causeway, or the various Dutch delta islands, there are two main types of islands in the sea, continental and oceanic. The word island derives from Middle English iland, from Old English igland, Old English ieg is actually a cognate of Swedish ö and German Aue, and related to Latin aqua. There is a difference between islands and continents in terms of geology, continents sit on continental lithosphere which is part of tectonic plates floating high on Earths mantle. Oceanic crust is also part of tectonic plates, but it is denser than continental lithosphere, Islands are either extensions of the oceanic crust or geologically they are part of some continent sitting on continental lithosphere. This holds true for Australia, which sits on its own continental lithosphere, continental islands are bodies of land that lie on the continental shelf of a continent. A special type of island is the microcontinental island, which is created when a continent is rifted. Examples are Madagascar and Socotra off Africa, the Kerguelen Islands, New Caledonia, New Zealand, another subtype is an island or bar formed by deposition of tiny rocks where water current loses some of its carrying capacity. While some are transitory and may disappear if the volume or speed of the current changes, others are stable, oceanic islands are islands that do not sit on continental shelves. The vast majority are volcanic in origin, such as Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean, the few oceanic islands that are not volcanic are tectonic in origin and arise where plate movements have lifted up the ocean floor above the surface. Examples are Saint Peter and Paul Rocks in the Atlantic Ocean, one type of volcanic oceanic island is found in a volcanic island arc. These islands arise from volcanoes where the subduction of one plate under another is occurring, examples are the Aleutian Islands, the Mariana Islands, and most of Tonga in the Pacific Ocean. The only examples in the Atlantic Ocean are some of the Lesser Antilles, another type of volcanic oceanic island occurs where an oceanic rift reaches the surface. There are two examples, Iceland, which is the second largest volcanic island, and Jan Mayen. A third type of oceanic island is formed over volcanic hotspots. A hotspot is more or less stationary relative to the tectonic plate above it
16.
Crete
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Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, 88th-largest island in the world and the fifth-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, and Corsica. Crete and a number of surrounding islands and islets constitute the region of Crete, the capital and the largest city is Heraklion. As of 2011, the region had a population of 623,065, Crete forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece, while retaining its own local cultural traits. It was once the centre of the Minoan civilization, which is regarded as the earliest recorded civilization in Europe. The island is first referred to as Kaptara in texts from the Syrian city of Mari dating from the 18th century BC, repeated later in Neo-Assyrian records and it was also known in ancient Egyptian as Keftiu, strongly suggesting a similar Minoan name for the island. The current name of Crete is thought to be first attested in Mycenaean Greek texts written in Linear B, through the words
17.
Tulunids
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The Tulunids were a dynasty of Turkic origin and were the first independent dynasty to rule Islamic Egypt, as well as much of Syria. He subsequently achieved nominal autonomy from the central Abbasid government, during his reign and those of his successors, the Tulunid domains were expanded to include Jordan Rift Valley, as well as Hijaz, Cyprus and Crete. Ahmad was succeeded by his son Khumarawayh, whose military and diplomatic achievements made him a player in the Middle Eastern political stage. The Abbasids affirmed their recognition of the Tulunids as legitimate rulers, after Khumarawayhs death, his successor emirs were ineffectual rulers, allowing their Turkic and black slave-soldiers to run the affairs of the state. In 905, the Tulunids were unable to resist an invasion by the Abbasid troops, the Tulunid period was marked by economic and administrative reforms alongside cultural ones. Ahmad ibn Tulun changed the system and aligned himself with the merchant community. He also established the Tulunid army, the capital was moved from Fustat to al-Qatai, where the celebrated mosque of Ibn Tulun was constructed. The rise and fall of the Tulunids occurred against a backdrop of increasing regionalism in the Muslim world, the Abbasid caliphate was struggling with political disturbances and losing its aura of universal legitimacy. There had previously been Coptic and Alid-led movements in Egypt, without more than temporary, there was also a struggle for power between the Turkish military command and the administration of Baghdad. Furthermore, there was a widening imperial financial crisis, all of these themes would recur during the Tulunid rule. The internal politics of the Abbasid caliphate itself seem to have been unstable, in 870, Abū Aḥmad al-Muwaffaḳ was summoned from exile in Mecca to re-establish Abbasid authority over southern Iraq. Quickly, however, he became the de facto ruler of the caliphate, as a result of this uncertainty, Ahmad ibn Tulun could establish and expand his authority. Ahmad ibn Ṭūlūn was a member of the mostly Central Asian Turkish guard formed initially in Baghdad, then settled in Samarra. In 254/868, Ibn Tulun was sent to Egypt as resident governor by Bāyakbāk, in 877, troops of the caliphate were sent against him, due to his insufficient payment of tribute. Ahmad ibn Tulun, however, maintained his power, and took Syria the following year and his reign of more than ten years allowed him to leave behind a well-trained military, a stable economy and an experienced bureaucracy to oversee the state affairs. He appointed his son, Ḵh̲umārawayh, as the heir, in 878, Jordan valley was occupied by the Tulunids, extending in the north to the outposts in the Anti-Lebanon mountains on the Byzantine border, enabling them to defend Egypt against Abbasid attack. Following his father’s death, Khumarawayh took control as the designated heir, the first challenge he faced was the invasion of Syria by armies sent by al-Muwaffak, the de facto ruler during the reign of caliph al-Mutamid. Khumarawayh also had to deal with the defection of Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Wasiti to the invaders camp, the young Tulunid achieved political and military gains, enabling him to extend his authority from Egypt into northern Iraq, and as far north as Tarsus by 890
18.
Al-Andalus
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Al-Andalus, also known as Muslim Spain or Islamic Iberia, was a medieval Muslim territory and cultural domain occupying at its peak most of what are today Spain and Portugal. At its greatest geographical extent in the century, southern France—Septimania—was briefly under its control. Rule under these kingdoms led to a rise in cultural exchange, a number of achievements that advanced Islamic and Western science came from al-Andalus including major advances in trigonometry, astronomy, surgery, pharmacology, and other fields. Al-Andalus became an educational center for Europe and the lands around the Mediterranean Sea as well as a conduit for culture. For much of its history, al-Andalus existed in conflict with Christian kingdoms to the north, after the fall of the Umayyad caliphate, al-Andalus was fragmented into a number of minor states and principalities. Attacks from the Christians intensified, led by the Castilians under Alfonso VI, the Almoravid empire intervened and repelled the Christian attacks on the region, deposing the weak Andalusi Muslim princes and included al-Andalus under direct Berber rule. In the next century and a half, al-Andalus became a province of the Berber Muslim empires of the Almoravids and Almohads, ultimately, the Christian kingdoms in the north of the Iberian Peninsula overpowered the Muslim states to the south. In 1085, Alfonso VI captured Toledo, starting a gradual decline of Muslim power, with the fall of Córdoba in 1236, most of the south quickly fell under Christian rule and the Emirate of Granada became a tributary state of the Kingdom of Castile two years later. In 1249, the Portuguese Reconquista culminated with the conquest of the Algarve by Afonso III, finally, on January 2,1492, Emir Muhammad XII surrendered the Emirate of Granada to Queen Isabella I of Castile, completing the Christian Reconquista of the peninsula. The toponym al-Andalus is first attested to by inscriptions on coins minted by the new Muslim government in Iberia, the etymology of the name has traditionally been derived from the name of the Vandals. A number of proposals since the 1980s have contested this, Vallvé proposed a corruption of the name Atlantis, halm derives the name from a Gothic term *landahlauts. Bossong suggests derivation from a pre-Roman substrate and they crossed the Pyrenees and occupied Visigothic Septimania in southern France. Most of the Iberian peninsula became part of the expanding Umayyad Empire and it was organized as a province subordinate to Ifriqiya, so, for the first few decades, the governors of al-Andalus were appointed by the emir of Kairouan, rather than the Caliph in Damascus. Visigothic lords who agreed to recognize Muslim suzerainty were allowed to retain their fiefs, resistant Visigoths took refuge in the Cantabrian highlands, where they carved out a rump state, the Kingdom of Asturias. In the 720s, the al-Andalus governors launched several raids into Aquitaine. At the Battle of Poitiers in 732, the al-Andalus raiding army was defeated by Charles Martel, in 734, the Andalusi launched raids to the east, capturing Avignon and Arles and overran much of Provence. In 737, they climbed up the Rhône valley, reached as far as Burgundy, Charles Martel of the Franks, with the assistance of Liutprand of the Lombards, invaded Burgundy and Provence and expelled the raiders by 739. Relations between Arabs and Berbers in al-Andalus had been tense in the years after the conquest
19.
Theoktistos
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A eunuch, he assisted in the ascent of Michael II to the throne in 822, and was rewarded with the titles of patrikios and later magistros. He held the posts of chartoularios tou kanikleiou and logothetēs tou dromou under Michael. After Theophilos death in 842, Theoktistos became member of the regency council, noted for his administrative and political competence, Theoktistos played a major role in ending the Byzantine Iconoclasm, and fostered the ongoing renaissance in education within the Empire. He also continued the persecution of the Paulicians, but had mixed success in the wars against the Arabs, nothing is known of Theoktistos early life. By 820 he held a position at the court of Emperor Leo V the Armenian. Following Theophilos death, the council took over the conduct of affairs of state. Theodoras brothers Bardas and Petronas and her relative Sergios Niketiates also played an important role in the days of the regency. The regency moved quickly to end Byzantine Iconoclasm, which had dominated Byzantine religious, in early 843, an assembly of selected officials and clerics convened in the house of Theoktistos. The synod repudiated iconoclasm, re-affirmed the decisions of the 787 Second Council of Nicaea, in his stead was elected Methodios I, who had been imprisoned by Theophilos for his iconophile beliefs. This event is commemorated as the Triumph of Orthodoxy by the Eastern Orthodox Church ever since, Theoktistos played a major role in these events. He is commemorated as a saint by the Orthodox Church on 20 October, a week after that, Theoktistos and Sergios Niketiates were sent on a campaign to recover Crete, which had been conquered in the 820s by Andalusian exiles. The expedition at first went well, as the Byzantine army landed and took control over most of the island, confining the Andalusians to their capital, Chandax. At this juncture, Theoktistos heard a rumour that in his absence and he hastily abandoned the army under Niketiates and returned to Constantinople, only to find the rumours false. Once in Constantinople, news arrived of an invasion of Asia Minor by Umar al-Aqta, Theoktistos was sent at the head of an army to confront him, but the resulting Battle of Mauropotamos ended in a Byzantine defeat. At the same time, the corps left in Crete was defeated and almost annihilated by the Andalusians. Theoktistos continued the persecution of the Paulicians, which had been initiated by Theodora in 843, many fled to Arab territory, where with Umar al-Aqtas aid they established a state of their own at Tephrike under their leader Karbeas. Theoktistos concluded a truce with the Abbasid Caliphate and arranged an exchange of prisoners took place on 16 September 845. Nevertheless, in the year, the execution of the surviving Byzantine prisoners from the Arab Sack of Amorium in 842 took place in the Abbasid capital
20.
Byzantine Empire
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It survived the fragmentation and fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD and continued to exist for an additional thousand years until it fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. During most of its existence, the empire was the most powerful economic, cultural, several signal events from the 4th to 6th centuries mark the period of transition during which the Roman Empires Greek East and Latin West divided. Constantine I reorganised the empire, made Constantinople the new capital, under Theodosius I, Christianity became the Empires official state religion and other religious practices were proscribed. Finally, under the reign of Heraclius, the Empires military, the borders of the Empire evolved significantly over its existence, as it went through several cycles of decline and recovery. During the reign of Maurice, the Empires eastern frontier was expanded, in a matter of years the Empire lost its richest provinces, Egypt and Syria, to the Arabs. This battle opened the way for the Turks to settle in Anatolia, the Empire recovered again during the Komnenian restoration, such that by the 12th century Constantinople was the largest and wealthiest European city. Despite the eventual recovery of Constantinople in 1261, the Byzantine Empire remained only one of several small states in the area for the final two centuries of its existence. Its remaining territories were annexed by the Ottomans over the 15th century. The Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 finally ended the Byzantine Empire, the term comes from Byzantium, the name of the city of Constantinople before it became Constantines capital. This older name of the city would rarely be used from this point onward except in historical or poetic contexts. The publication in 1648 of the Byzantine du Louvre, and in 1680 of Du Canges Historia Byzantina further popularised the use of Byzantine among French authors, however, it was not until the mid-19th century that the term came into general use in the Western world. The Byzantine Empire was known to its inhabitants as the Roman Empire, the Empire of the Romans, Romania, the Roman Republic, Graikia, and also as Rhōmais. The inhabitants called themselves Romaioi and Graikoi, and even as late as the 19th century Greeks typically referred to modern Greek as Romaika and Graikika. The authority of the Byzantine emperor as the legitimate Roman emperor was challenged by the coronation of Charlemagne as Imperator Augustus by Pope Leo III in the year 800. No such distinction existed in the Islamic and Slavic worlds, where the Empire was more seen as the continuation of the Roman Empire. In the Islamic world, the Roman Empire was known primarily as Rûm, the Roman army succeeded in conquering many territories covering the entire Mediterranean region and coastal regions in southwestern Europe and north Africa. These territories were home to different cultural groups, both urban populations and rural populations. The West also suffered heavily from the instability of the 3rd century AD
21.
Aegean Sea
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The Aegean Sea is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the Greek and Anatolian peninsulas, i. e. between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles, the Aegean Islands are within the sea and some bound it on its southern periphery, including Crete and Rhodes. The sea was known as Archipelago, but in English this words meaning has changed to refer to the Aegean Islands and, generally. In ancient times, there were various explanations for the name Aegean, a possible etymology is a derivation from the Greek word αἶγες – aiges = waves, hence wavy sea, cf. also αἰγιαλός, hence meaning sea-shore. The Venetians, who ruled many Greek islands in the High and Late Middle Ages, popularized the name Archipelago, in some South Slavic languages the Aegean is often called White Sea. The Aegean Sea covers about 214,000 square kilometres in area, the seas maximum depth is 3,543 metres, east of Crete. The Aegean Islands are found within its waters, with the following islands delimiting the sea on the south, Kythera, Antikythera, Crete, Kasos, Karpathos, many of the Aegean Islands, or chains of islands, are actually extensions of the mountains on the mainland. One chain extends across the sea to Chios, another extends across Euboea to Samos, the International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Aegean Sea as follows, On the South. In the Dardanelles. A line joining Kum Kale and Cape Helles, the dense Mediterranean water sinks below the Black Sea inflow to a depth of 23–30 metres, then flows through the Dardanelles Strait and into the Sea of Marmara at velocities of 5–15 cm/s. The Black Sea outflow moves westward along the northern Aegean Sea, Aegean Sea Intermediate Water – Aegean Sea Intermediate Water extends from 40–50 m to 200–300 metres with temperatures ranging from 11–18 °C. Aegean Sea Bottom Water – occurring at depths below 500–1000 m with a uniform temperature. The current coastline dates back to about 4000 BC, before that time, at the peak of the last ice age sea levels everywhere were 130 metres lower, and there were large well-watered coastal plains instead of much of the northern Aegean. When they were first occupied, the islands including Milos with its important obsidian production were probably still connected to the mainland. The present coastal arrangement appeared c.7000 BC, with post-ice age sea levels continuing to rise for another 3,000 years after that, the subsequent Bronze Age civilizations of Greece and the Aegean Sea have given rise to the general term Aegean civilization. In ancient times, the sea was the birthplace of two ancient civilizations – the Minoans of Crete and the Mycenean Civilization of the Peloponnese, later arose the city-states of Athens and Sparta among many others that constituted the Athenian Empire and Hellenic Civilization. Plato described the Greeks living round the Aegean like frogs around a pond, the Aegean Sea was later invaded by the Persians and the Romans, and inhabited by the Byzantine Empire, the Bulgarians, the Venetians, the Genoese, the Seljuq Turks, and the Ottoman Empire. The Aegean was the site of the democracies, and its seaways were the means of contact among several diverse civilizations of the Eastern Mediterranean. Many of the islands in the Aegean have safe harbours and bays, in ancient times, navigation through the sea was easier than travelling across the rough terrain of the Greek mainland
22.
Nikephoros II Phokas
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Nikephoros II Phokas was Byzantine Emperor from 963 to 969. His brilliant military exploits contributed to the resurgence of the Byzantine Empire during the 10th century and his mother, whose name is unknown, was a member of another powerful Anatolian Greek clan, the Maleinoi. Nikephoros joined the army at an early age and he was appointed the military governor of the Anatolikon Theme in 945 under Emperor Constantine VII. When his father was wounded in battle in 953, Nikephoros was promoted to commander on the eastern frontier. In the war with the Abbasid Caliphate under Al-Muti, Nikephoros began with a defeat in 954, from which he recovered in the following years with victories in Syria. From the accession of Emperor Romanos II in 959, Nikephoros and his younger brother Leo were placed in charge of the eastern and western field armies, in 960,27,000 oarsmen and marines were assembled to man a fleet of 308 ships carrying 50,000 troops. At the recommendation of the influential minister Joseph Bringas, Nikephoros was entrusted to lead this expedition against the Saracen Emirate of Crete, after a nine-month siege, Nikephoros stormed Chandax and wrested control of the entire island from the Muslims in 961. Upon returning to Constantinople, he was denied the honor of a triumph. He soon returned to the east with a large and well-equipped army, in the campaigns of 962–963, he employed a brilliant strategy to conquer the cities of Cilicia and to advance into Syria. There he captured Aleppo, in collusion with his nephew, John Tzimiskes and it was on these campaigns that he earned the sobriquet, The Pale Death of the Saracens. During the capture of Aleppo, the Byzantine army took possession of 390,000 silver dinars,2,000 camels, early in his life Nikephoros had married Stephano. She had died before he rose to fame, and after her death he took an oath of chastity and this would create problems later on. On 15 March 963, Emperor Romanos II died unexpectedly at the age of twenty-six of uncertain cause, Theophano had already gained a reputation as an intelligent and ambitious woman. She would later gain a reputation for ruthlessness in achieving her goals, Romanos had already crowned as co-emperors his two sons Basil II and Constantine VIII. At the time that Romanos died, however, Basil was five years old, Theophano was not allowed to rule alone. Joseph Bringas, the eunuch palace official who had become Romanos chief councilor, according to contemporary sources he intended to keep authority in his own hands. He also tried to reduce the power of Nikephoros Phokas, the victorious general had been accepted as the actual commander of the army and maintained his strong connections to the aristocracy. Joseph was afraid that Nikephoros could claim the throne with the support of both the army and the aristocracy, josephs intrigues during the following months turned both Theophano and Nikephoros against him
23.
Early Muslim conquests
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The early Muslim conquests also referred to as the Arab conquests and early Islamic conquests began with the Islamic Prophet Muhammad in the 7th century. He established a new unified polity in the Arabian Peninsula which under the subsequent Rashidun, the resulting empire stretched from the borders of China and the Indian subcontinent, across Central Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, Sicily, and the Iberian Peninsula, to the Pyrenees. The Muslim conquests brought about the collapse of the Sassanid Empire, the reasons for the Muslim success are hard to reconstruct in hindsight, primarily because only fragmentary sources from the period have survived. Most historians agree that the Sassanid Persian and Byzantine Roman empires were militarily and economically exhausted from decades of fighting one another, in the case of Byzantine Egypt, Palestine and Syria, these lands had only a few years before being reclaimed from the Persians. The estimates for the size of the Islamic Caliphate suggest it was more than thirteen million square kilometers, the last of these wars ended with victory for the Byzantines, Emperor Heraclius regained all lost territories, and restored the True Cross to Jerusalem in 629. According to George Liska, the unnecessarily prolonged Byzantine–Persian conflict opened the way for Islam, in late 620s Muhammad had already managed to conquer and unify much of Arabia under Muslim rule, and it was under his leadership that the first Muslim-Byzantine skirmishes took place. The province of Syria was the first to be wrested from Byzantine control, on the heels of their victory, the Arab armies took Damascus in 636, with Baalbek, Homs, and Hama to follow soon afterwards. However, other fortified towns continued to resist despite the rout of the army and had to be conquered individually. Jerusalem fell in 638, Caesarea in 640, while others held out until 641, the Byzantine province of Egypt held strategic importance for its grain production, naval yards, and as a base for further conquests in Africa. The Muslim general Amr ibn al-As began the conquest of the province on his own initiative in 639, nevertheless, the province was scarcely urbanized and the defenders lost hope of receiving reinforcements from Constantinople when the emperor Heraclius died in 641. The last major center to fall into Arab hands was Alexandria, according to Hugh Kennedy, Of all the early Muslim conquests, that of Egypt was the swiftest and most complete. Seldom in history can so massive a political change have happened so swiftly, after an Arab incursion into Sasanian territories, the energetic king Yazdgerd III, who had just ascended the Persian throne, raised an army to resist the invasion. However, the Persians suffered a defeat at the Battle of al-Qadisiyyah in 636. As a result, the Arab-Muslims gained control over the whole of Iraq, including Ctesiphon, the Persian forces withdrew over the Zagros mountains and the Arab army pursued them across the Iranian plateau, where the fate of the Sasanian empire was sealed at the Battle of Nahavand. In the aftermath of their victory over the army, the invaders still had to contend with a collection of militarily weak. It took decades to bring all under control of the caliphate. The rapidity of the early conquests has received various explanations, contemporary Christian writers conceived them as Gods punishment visited on their fellow Christians for their sins. Early Muslim historians viewed them as a reflection of religious zeal of the conquerors, according to Chase F. Robinson, it is likely that Muslim forces were often outnumbered, but, unlike their opponents, they were fast, well coordinated and highly motivated
24.
Umayyad Caliphate
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The Umayyad Caliphate, also spelled Omayyad, was the second of the four major caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. This caliphate was centred on the Umayyad dynasty, hailing from Mecca, Syria remained the Umayyads main power base thereafter, and Damascus was their capital. The Umayyads continued the Muslim conquests, incorporating the Caucasus, Transoxiana, Sindh, the Maghreb and the Iberian Peninsula into the Muslim world. At its greatest extent, the Umayyad Caliphate covered 11,100,000 km2 and 62 million people, the Umayyad Caliphate was secular by nature. At the time, the Umayyad taxation and administrative practice were perceived as unjust by some Muslims, Muhammad had stated explicitly during his lifetime that Abrahamic religious groups, should be allowed to practice their own religion, provided that they paid the jizya taxation. The welfare state of both the Muslim and the poor started by Umar ibn al Khattab had also continued, financed by the zakat tax levied only on Muslims. Muawiyas wife Maysum was also a Christian, the relations between the Muslims and the Christians in the state were stable in this time. Prominent positions were held by Christians, some of whom belonged to families that had served in Byzantine governments, the employment of Christians was part of a broader policy of religious assimilation that was necessitated by the presence of large Christian populations in the conquered provinces, as in Syria. This policy also boosted Muawiyas popularity and solidified Syria as his power base, the rivalries between the Arab tribes had caused unrest in the provinces outside Syria, most notably in the Second Muslim Civil War of AD 680–692 and the Berber Revolt of 740–743. During the Second Civil War, leadership of the Umayyad clan shifted from the Sufyanid branch of the family to the Marwanid branch. A branch of the family fled across North Africa to Al-Andalus, where they established the Caliphate of Córdoba, according to tradition, the Umayyad family and Muhammad both descended from a common ancestor, Abd Manaf ibn Qusai, and they originally came from the city of Mecca. Muhammad descended from Abd Manāf via his son Hashim, while the Umayyads descended from Abd Manaf via a different son, Abd-Shams, the two families are therefore considered to be different clans of the same tribe. However Muslim Shia historians suspect that Umayya was a son of Abd Shams so he was not a blood relative of Abd Manaf ibn Qusai. Umayya was later discarded from the noble family, Sunni historians disagree with this and view Shia claims as nothing more than outright polemics due to their hostility to the Umayyad family in general. While the Umayyads and the Hashimites may have had bitterness between the two clans before Muhammad, the rivalry turned into a case of tribal animosity after the Battle of Badr. The battle saw three top leaders of the Umayyad clan killed by Hashimites in a three-on-three melee and this fueled the opposition of Abu Sufyan ibn Harb, the grandson of Umayya, to Muhammad and to Islam. Abu Sufyan sought to exterminate the adherents of the new religion by waging another battle with Muslims based in Medina only a year after the Battle of Badr and he did this to avenge the defeat at Badr. The Battle of Uhud is generally believed by scholars to be the first defeat for the Muslims, as they had incurred greater losses than the Meccans
25.
Al-Walid I
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Al-Walid ibn Abd al-Malik or Al-Walid I was an Umayyad Caliph who ruled from 705 until his death in 715. His reign saw the greatest expansion of the Caliphate, as successful campaigns were undertaken in Transoxiana in Central Asia, Sind, Hispania in far western Europe and he was born to Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan and his wife who was from the central Arabian region of Najd. Al-Walid was born in 668 and died in 715, Walid continued the expansion of the Islamic empire that was sparked by his father and was an effective ruler. His father Abd al-Malik had taken the oath of allegiance for Walid during his lifetime, as such the succession of Walid was not contested. His reign was marked by a number of conquests in both the east and west with historians considering his reign as the apex of Islamic power, Walid was married to his first cousin Umm Banin bint Abd al-Aziz ibn Marwan. Walid was succeeded by his brother Sulayman and was buried in Bab al-Saghir cemetery in Damascus and his grave is still present to this date. Walid continued his fathers policies of expanding Islamic power through conquests, in 711, Muslim armies crossed the Strait of Gibraltar and began to conquer the Iberian Peninsula using North African Berber troops. By 716, the Visigoths of Iberia had been defeated and Iberia was under Muslim control, in the east, Islamic armies made it as far as the Indus River in 712. Under Walid, the Caliphate stretched from the Iberian Peninsula to India, Al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf continued to play a crucial role in the organization and selection of military commanders in the East, serving as effectively the viceroy there. Walid paid great attention to the development and expansion of a well-organized military and he built the strongest navy of the Umayyad era which was a key element in Caliphates expansion into Iberia. Like his father, Walid continued to allow Al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf free rein, musa ibn Nusayr and his retainer Tariq ibn Ziyad conquered Al-Andalus, whilst Mohammad Bin Qasim Conquered Sindh. Hajjaj was responsible for picking the generals who led the eastern campaigns. Others, such as Walids brother Maslamah, advanced against the Byzantines, muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari describes how Qutayba ibn Muslim, Khurasans governor, led forces extending the Caliphate to the east. Qutayba conquered Samarkand, advanced into Farghana and sent envoys to China, al-Tabari records how Hajjaj tortured Yazid ibn al-Muhallab. Yazid escaped and made his way to Walids brother Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik who granted him refuge, Hajjaj pressed Walid about this and Walid commanded Sulayman to send him Yazid in chains. Sulayman had his own son approach Walid chained to Yazid and spoke in favour of Yazids safety, Walid accepted this and told Hajjaj to desist. Walid began the first major building projects of Islam, the history of Islamic architecture can be said to have begun in earnest with Walid. Around 701, al-Walid ordered the building of Al-Aqsa Mosque, opposite his fathers Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount, Walid repaired and refurbished Masjid al Nabawi in Medina
26.
Levant
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The Levant is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean. The term Levant entered English in the late 15th century from French and it derives from the Italian Levante, meaning rising, implying the rising of the sun in the east. As such, it is equivalent to the Arabic term Mashriq. Eventually the term was restricted to the Muslim countries of Syria-Palestine, in 1581, England set up the Levant Company to monopolize commerce with the Ottoman Empire. The name Levant States was used to refer to the French mandate over Syria and this is probably the reason why the term Levant has come to be used synonymously with Syria-Palestine. Some scholars misunderstood the term thinking that it derives from the name of Lebanon, today the term is typically used in conjunction with prehistoric or ancient historical references. It does not include Anatolia, the Caucasus Mountains, or any part of the Arabian Peninsula proper, the Sinai Peninsula is sometimes included. The Levant has been described as the crossroads of western Asia, the eastern Mediterranean, and northeast Africa, the populations of the Levant share not only the geographic position, but cuisine, some customs, and a very long history. They are often referred to as Levantines, the term Levant, which appeared in English in 1497, originally meant the East in general or Mediterranean lands east of Italy. It is borrowed from the French levant rising, referring to the rising of the sun in the east, the phrase is ultimately from the Latin word levare, meaning lift, raise. Similar etymologies are found in Greek Ἀνατολή, in Germanic Morgenland, in Italian, in Hungarian Kelet, in Spanish and Catalan Levante and Llevant, most notably, Orient and its Latin source oriens meaning east, is literally rising, deriving from Latin orior rise. The notion of the Levant has undergone a process of historical evolution in usage, meaning. While the term Levantine originally referred to the European residents of the eastern Mediterranean region, it came to refer to regional native. The English Levant Company was founded in 1581 to trade with the Ottoman Empire, at this time, the Far East was known as the Upper Levant. In early 19th-century travel writing, the term sometimes incorporated certain Mediterranean provinces of the Ottoman empire, in 19th-century archaeology, it referred to overlapping cultures in this region during and after prehistoric times, intending to reference the place instead of any one culture. The French mandate of Syria and Lebanon was called the Levant states, today, Levant is the term typically used by archaeologists and historians with reference to the history of the region. Scholars have adopted the term Levant to identify the region due to it being a wider, yet relevant, archaeologists seeking a neutral orientation that is neither biblical nor national have used terms such as Levantine archaeology and archaeology of the Southern Levant. Two academic journals were launched, Journal of Levantine Studies, published by the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute and The Levantine Review
27.
Byzantine Emperor
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This is a list of the Byzantine emperors from the foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD, which marks the conventional start of the Eastern Roman Empire, to its fall to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Emperors listed below up to Theodosius I in 395 were sole or joint rulers of the entire Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire was the direct legal continuation of the eastern half of the Roman Empire following the division of the Roman Empire in 395. All Byzantine emperors considered themselves to be the rightful Roman emperor in direct succession from Augustus, the title of all Emperors preceding Heraclius was officially Augustus, although other titles such as Dominus were also used. Their names were preceded by Imperator Caesar and followed by Augustus, following Heraclius, the title commonly became the Greek Basileus, which had formerly meant sovereign but was then used in place of Augustus. Following the establishment of the rival Holy Roman Empire in Western Europe, in later centuries, the Emperor could be referred to by Western Christians as the Emperor of the Greeks. Towards the end of the Empire, the standard formula of the Byzantine ruler was in Christ, Emperor. For Roman emperors before Constantine I, see List of Roman emperors, family tree of the Byzantine emperors List of Roman emperors List of Roman usurpers List of Byzantine usurpers List of Roman and Byzantine empresses
28.
Michael II
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Michael II, surnamed the Amorian or the Stammerer, reigned as Byzantine Emperor from 25 December 820 to his death on 2 October 829, the first ruler of the Phrygian or Amorian dynasty. Born in Amorium, Michael was a soldier, rising to rank along with his colleague Leo V the Armenian. He helped Leo overthrow and take the place of Emperor Michael I Rangabe, however, they later had a falling out, and Leo sentenced Michael to death. Michael then masterminded a conspiracy which resulted in Leos assassination on Christmas 820, immediately he faced the long revolt of Thomas the Slav, which almost cost him his throne and was not completely suppressed until spring 824. The later years of his reign were marked by two major disasters that had long-term effects, the beginning of the Muslim conquest of Sicily. His family belonged to the Judeo-Christian sect of the Athinganoi, whose members were Cappadocians who adopted Jewish rituals, the Athinganoi were numerous in Anatolia and together with the Greeks and Armenians formed the backbone of the Byzantine army of that era. Michael first rose to prominence as an aide to the general Bardanes Tourkos, alongside his future antagonists Leo the Armenian. He married Bardanes daughter Thekla, while Leo married another daughter, Michael was instrumental in Leos overthrow of Michael I Rangabe in 813, after Rangabe’s continuing military defeats against the Bulgarians. Under Leo V, Michael was appointed to command the elite tagma of the Excubitors and he became disgruntled with Leo V, however, when the Emperor divorced Michaels sister-in-law. On Christmas Eve 820, Leo V accused him of conspiracy, jailed him, Michael sent messages to his co-conspirators threatening to reveal their identity, whereupon his partisans freed him and murdered Leo V during the Christmas mass in the palace chapel of St. Stephen. Michael was immediately proclaimed Emperor, while still wearing prison chains on his legs, later the same day, he was crowned by Patriarch Theodotos I of Constantinople. In his internal policy, Michael II supported iconoclasm, but he tacitly encouraged reconciliation with the iconodules and these included the former Patriarch Nikephoros and Theodore of Stoudios, who failed, however, to influence the emperor to abandon iconoclasm. One of the few victims of the Emperors policy was the future patriarch Methodios I, although Thomas did not obtain the support of some of the Anatolian themes, he secured the support of the naval theme and their ships, allowing him to tighten his grip on Constantinople. Michael II gained the support of Omurtag of Bulgaria, who came to his aid, Michael II forced Thomas to lift his siege of Constantinople in the spring of 823. Michael besieged Thomas in Arkadiopolis and forced his surrender in October, Michael inherited a seriously weakened military and was unable to prevent the conquest of Crete in 824 by 10,000 Arabs, or to recover the island with an expedition in 826. In 827 the Arabs also invaded Sicily, taking advantage of local infighting, Thekla and Michael had only one known son, the Emperor Theophilos. The existence of a daughter called Helena is possible but there is a contradiction between different sources, Helena is known as the wife of Theophobos, a patrician executed in 842 for conspiring to gain the throne for himself. George Hamartolus and Theophanes report him marrying the sister of the Empress Theodora, joseph Genesius records Theophobos marrying the sister of the Emperor Theophilos
29.
Al-Hakam I
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Al-Hakam Ibn Hisham Ibn Abd-ar-Rahman I was Umayyad Emir of Cordoba from 796 until 822 in the Al-Andalus. Al-Hakam was the son of his father, his older brother having died at an early age. When he came to power, he was challenged by his uncles Sulayman and Abdallah, Abdallah took his two sons Ubayd Allah and Abd al-Malik to the court of Charlemagne in Aix-la-Chapelle to negotiate for aid. In the mean time Sulayman attacked Cordoba, but was defeated, Abdallah was pardoned, but was forced to stay in Valencia. Al-Hakam spent much of his reign suppressing rebellions in Toledo, Saragossa, an attempt was made to dethrone Al-Hakam and replace him with his cousin Mohammed ibn al-Kasim, but the plot was discovered. On 16 November 806,72 nobles and their attendants were massacred at a banquet, such display of cruelty was not unusual during this period, with the heads of rebel leaders or Christians killed in expeditions to the north being put on show at the gates of Cordoba. Rabi was later removed and executed by crucifixion for alleged misappropriations, in 818 he crushed a rebellion led by clerics in the suburb of al-Ribad on the south bank of the Guadalquivir river. Some 300 notables were captured and crucified, while the rest of the inhabitants were exiled, some moved to Alexandria in Egypt, some to Fez and Crete. Al-Hakam I died in 822 after having ruled for 26 years, Al-Hakam was the son of Hisham I, Emir of Cordoba and a concubine named Zokhrouf. Al Hakam was the father of, Abd ar-Rahman II, Umayyad Emir of Córdoba 822–852 al-Mughira Said Umayya al-Walid bin al-Hakam and he led an army to attack Galicia in 838. Al-Hakam had a concubine named Ajab and she established a foundation for lepers in the suburbs of Cordoba. The leper colony was funded by the proceeds of the Munyat Ajab, Ajab was the mother of, Abu Abd Al-Malik Marwan Another concubine was named Muta. She established a cemetery which was still in existence in the 10th century
30.
Fez, Morocco
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Fez is the second largest city of Morocco, with a population of 1.1 million. Fez was the city of modern Morocco until 1925 and is now the capital of the Fès-Meknès administrative region. The city has two old medina quarters, the larger of which is Fes el Bali and it is listed as a World Heritage Site and is believed to be one of the worlds largest urban pedestrian zones. University of Al Quaraouiyine, founded in 859, is the oldest continuously functioning university in the world, the city has been called the Mecca of the West and the Athens of Africa. The Arabic word فأس Faʾs means pickaxe, which legends say Idris I of Morocco used when he created the lines of the city, one noticeable thing was that the pickaxe was made from silver and gold. During the rule of the Idrisid dynasty, Fez consisted of two cities, Fas Elbali, founded by Idris I, and al-ʿĀliyá, founded by his son and it is not known whether the name al-ʿĀliyá ever referred to both urban areas. It wasnt until 1070 that the two agglomerations were united and the name Fas was used for the combined site, the city was founded on a bank of the Jawhar river by Idris I in 789, founder of the Zaydi Shii Idrisid dynasty. His son, Idris II, built a settlement on the river bank. These settlements would soon develop into two walled and largely autonomous sites, often in conflict with one another, Madinat Fas, in 808 Al-Aliya replaced Walili as the capital of the Idrisids. The Andalusians settled in what is called the Old Fez, while the Tunisians found their home in the New Fez and these two waves of immigrants would subsequently give their name to the sites Adwat Al-Andalus and Adwat al-Qarawiyyin. Upon the death of Idris II in 828, the territory was divided among his sons. The newly fragmented Idrisid power would never again be reunified, during Yahya ibn Muhammads rule in Fez the Kairouyine mosque, one of the oldest and largest in Africa, was built and its associated University of Al Quaraouiyine was founded. Comparatively little is known about Idrisid Fez, owing to the lack of historical narratives. The sources that mention Idrisid Fez, describe a rather rural one, not having the cultural sophistication of the important cities of Al-Andalus and Ifriqiya. In the 10th century the city was contested by the Caliphate of Córdoba and the Fatimid Caliphate of Tunisia, the Fatimids took the city in 927 and expelled the Idrissids, after which their Miknasa were installed there. The Miknasa were driven out of Fez in 980 by the Maghrawa, their fellow Zenata and it was in this period that the great Andalusian ruler Almanzor commissioned the Maghrawa to rebuild and refurnish the Al-Kairouan mosque, giving it much of its current appearance. Thus, the two grew into each other, being now only separated by their walls and the river. His sons fortified the city to a great extent and this could not keep the Almoravid emir Ibn Tashfin from conquering it in 1070, after more than a decade of battling the Zenata warriors in the area and constant besieging of the city
31.
Morocco
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Morocco, officially known as the Kingdom of Morocco, is a sovereign country located in the Maghreb region of North Africa. Geographically, Morocco is characterized by a mountainous interior, large tracts of desert. Morocco has a population of over 33.8 million and an area of 446,550 km2 and its capital is Rabat, and the largest city is Casablanca. Other major cities include Marrakesh, Tangier, Tetouan, Salé, Fes, Agadir, Meknes, Oujda, Kenitra, a historically prominent regional power, Morocco has a history of independence not shared by its neighbours. Marinid and Saadi dynasties continued the struggle against foreign domination, the Alaouite dynasty, the current ruling dynasty, seized power in 1666. In 1912 Morocco was divided into French and Spanish protectorates, with a zone in Tangier. Moroccan culture is a blend of Arab, indigenous Berber, Sub-Saharan African, Morocco claims the non-self-governing territory of Western Sahara as its Southern Provinces. Morocco annexed the territory in 1975, leading to a war with indigenous forces until a cease-fire in 1991. Peace processes have thus far failed to break the political deadlock, Morocco is a constitutional monarchy with an elected parliament. The King of Morocco holds vast executive and legislative powers, especially over the military, foreign policy, the king can issue decrees called dahirs which have the force of law. He can also dissolve the parliament after consulting the Prime Minister, Moroccos predominant religion is Islam, and the official languages are Arabic and Tamazight. The Moroccan dialect, referred to as Darija, and French are also widely spoken, Morocco is a member of the Arab League, the Union for the Mediterranean, and the African Union. It has the fifth largest economy of Africa, the full Arabic name al-Mamlakah al-Maghribiyyah translates to Kingdom of the West, although the West in Arabic is الغرب Al-Gharb. The basis of Moroccos English name is Marrakesh, its capital under the Almoravid dynasty, the origin of the name Marrakesh is disputed, but is most likely from the Berber words amur akush or Land of God. The modern Berber name for Marrakesh is Mṛṛakc, in Turkish, Morocco is known as Fas, a name derived from its ancient capital of Fes. The English name Morocco is an anglicisation of the Spanish Marruecos, the area of present-day Morocco has been inhabited since Paleolithic times, sometime between 190,000 and 90,000 BC. During the Upper Paleolithic, the Maghreb was more fertile than it is today, twenty-two thousand years ago, the Aterian was succeeded by the Iberomaurusian culture, which shared similarities with Iberian cultures. Skeletal similarities have been suggested between the Iberomaurusian Mechta-Afalou burials and European Cro-Magnon remains, the Iberomaurusian was succeeded by the Beaker culture in Morocco
32.
Alexandria
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Alexandria is the second largest city and a major economic centre in Egypt, extending about 32 km along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country. Its low elevation on the Nile delta makes it vulnerable to rising sea levels. Alexandria is Egypts largest seaport, serving approximately 80% of Egypts imports and exports and it is an important industrial center because of its natural gas and oil pipelines from Suez. Alexandria is also an important tourist destination, Alexandria was founded around a small Ancient Egyptian town c.331 BC by Alexander the Great. Alexandria was the second most powerful city of the ancient world after Rome, Alexandria is believed to have been founded by Alexander the Great in April 331 BC as Ἀλεξάνδρεια. Alexanders chief architect for the project was Dinocrates, Alexandria was intended to supersede Naucratis as a Hellenistic center in Egypt, and to be the link between Greece and the rich Nile valley. The city and its museum attracted many of the greatest scholars, including Greeks, Jews, the city was later plundered and lost its significance. Just east of Alexandria, there was in ancient times marshland, as early as the 7th century BC, there existed important port cities of Canopus and Heracleion. The latter was rediscovered under water. An Egyptian city, Rhakotis, already existed on the shore also and it continued to exist as the Egyptian quarter of the city. A few months after the foundation, Alexander left Egypt and never returned to his city, after Alexanders departure, his viceroy, Cleomenes, continued the expansion. Although Cleomenes was mainly in charge of overseeing Alexandrias continuous development, the Heptastadion, inheriting the trade of ruined Tyre and becoming the center of the new commerce between Europe and the Arabian and Indian East, the city grew in less than a generation to be larger than Carthage. In a century, Alexandria had become the largest city in the world and and it became Egypts main Greek city, with Greek people from diverse backgrounds. Alexandria was not only a center of Hellenism, but was home to the largest urban Jewish community in the world. The Septuagint, a Greek version of the Tanakh, was produced there, in AD115, large parts of Alexandria were destroyed during the Kitos War, which gave Hadrian and his architect, Decriannus, an opportunity to rebuild it. On 21 July 365, Alexandria was devastated by a tsunami, the Islamic prophet, Muhammads first interaction with the people of Egypt occurred in 628, during the Expedition of Zaid ibn Haritha. He sent Hatib bin Abi Baltaeh with a letter to the king of Egypt and Alexandria called Muqawqis In the letter Muhammad said, I invite you to accept Islam, Allah the sublime, shall reward you doubly. But if you refuse to do so, you bear the burden of the transgression of all the Copts
33.
Abdallah ibn Tahir al-Khurasani
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Abdallah ibn Tahir was the Tahirid governor of Khurasan from 828 until his death. He is perhaps the most famous of the Tahirids, Abdallahs early career consisted serving with his father Tahir ibn Husayn in pacifying the lands of the Abbasid Caliphate following the civil war between al-Amin and al-Mamun. He later succeeded his father as governor of Al-Jazira, with the task of defeating the rebel Nasr ibn Shabath and he was then sent to Egypt, where he successfully ended an uprising led by Abd-Allah ibn al-Sari. Although Abdallah had been made the governor of Khurasan following his brothers death in 828, he arrived in Nishapur in 830. He was assigned for a time in 829 to stop the Khurramite Babak. Abdallahs brother Ali acted as deputy governor of Khurasan until he was ready to take up residence in Nishapur, during his reign as governor Abdallah was occupied with affairs on both the eastern and western parts of his territories. In the east, he took steps to improving the strength of the Samanids, the Samanids were important, as they controlled the trade between Central Asia and the central Caliphate, including the trade of Turkish slaves. Also in the east in 834 an Alid, Muhammad ibn al-Qasim, revolted in Juzjan, in the west, meanwhile, Abdallah came into conflict with the local ruler of Tabaristan, the Ispahbadh Mazyar. As the ruler of the east, Abdallah claimed Tabaristan as a dependency and insisted that the tribute owed by Mazyar to the caliph should pass through him. Mazyar, however, was looking to expand his dominion and wanted to be free of Tahirid influence, so he refused to accept this, in this struggle Mazyar had the support of the Afshin, who allegedly wanted to control the Tahirid lands himself. Abdallah was able to turn the caliph against Mazyar, and in 839 was ordered to stop the Ispahbad, Mazyar, a recent convert to Islam, heavily relied on the Zoroastrians of the province but in the end was captured, sent to Iraq and executed. Tahirid control over Tabaristan was therefore secured until the Zaydid revolt of 864, during the same year in 839, a earthquake occurred in Farghana, destroying much of the city. Abdallah died in Nishapur, either at the end of 844 or in 845 and he was succeeded by his son Tahir. According to the famous Seljuq vizier Nizam al-Mulk, Abdallah was buried in Nishapur, the Cambridge History of Iran, Volume 4, From the Arab Invasion to the Saljuqs. The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates, The Islamic Near East from the 6th to the 11th Century
34.
Madrid Skylitzes
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The manuscript was produced in Sicily in the 12th century, and is now at the Biblioteca Nacional de España in Madrid, with the shelfmark MS Graecus Vitr. 26-2, it known as the Madrid Skylitzes, Codex Græcus Matritensis Ioannis Skyllitzes. It is the only surviving illustrated manuscript of a Greek chronicle and it is unclear whether these illustrations are copies of earlier Byzantine images or were newly created specifically for this copy. Color facsimile edition by Militos Publishers, ISBN 960-8460-16-6, vasiliki Tsamakda, The Illustrated Chronicle of Ioannes Skylitzes, Leiden 2002. Bente Bjørnholt and J. Burke, eds, the Cultures and Contexts of the Madrid Skylitzes International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds,13 July 2004. Images from the Madrid Skylitzes World Digital Library page, and PDF download of the Madrid Skylitzes Evans, the glory of Byzantium, art and culture of the Middle Byzantine era, A. D. 843-1261, no
35.
Thomas the Slav
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Thomas the Slav was a 9th-century Byzantine military commander, most notable for leading a wide-scale revolt in 821–23 against Emperor Michael II the Amorian. An army officer of Slavic origin from the Pontus region, Thomas rose to prominence, along with the future emperors Michael II and Leo V the Armenian, under the protection of general Bardanes Tourkos. After Bardaness failed rebellion in 803, Thomas fell into obscurity until Leo Vs rise to the throne, after the murder of Leo and usurpation of the throne by Michael the Amorian, Thomas revolted, claiming the throne for himself. Thomas quickly secured support from most of the themes and troops in Asia Minor, defeated Michaels initial counter-attack, after winning over the maritime themes and their ships as well, he crossed with his army to Europe and laid siege to Constantinople. The imperial capital withstood Thomass attacks by land and sea, while Michael II called for help from the Bulgarian ruler khan Omurtag. Omurtag attacked Thomass army, but although repelled, the Bulgarians inflicted heavy casualties on Thomass men, Thomas and his supporters sought refuge in Arcadiopolis, where he was soon blockaded by Michaels troops. In the end, Thomass supporters surrendered him in exchange for a pardon, consequently, various motives and driving forces have been attributed to Thomas and his followers. Its effects on the position of the Empire, particularly vis-à-vis the Arabs, are also disputed. Most modern scholars support his Slavic descent and believe his birthplace to have been near Gaziura in the Pontus, hence his epithet of the Slav, which has been applied to him only in modern times. Nothing is known about his family and early life, except that his parents were poor, given that he was between 50 and 60 years old at the time of the rebellion, he was probably born around 760. Two different accounts of Thomass life are recounted in both Genesios and Theophanes Continuatus, according to the first account, Thomas first appeared in 803 accompanying general Bardanes Tourkos, and pursued a military career until launching his revolt in late 820. In the second version, he came to Constantinople as a poor youth, then, discovered trying to commit adultery with his masters wife, Thomas fled to the Arabs in Syria, where he remained for 25 years. Pretending to be the murdered emperor Constantine VI, he led an Arab-sponsored invasion of Asia Minor. Most modern scholars follow him in this interpretation, the first tradition relates that Thomas served as a spatharios to Bardanes Tourkos, the monostrategos of the eastern themes, who in 803 rose in rebellion against Emperor Nikephoros I. Alongside Thomas were two other young spatharioi in Bardaness retinue, who formed an association, Leo the Armenian, the future Leo V, and Michael the Amorian. The monk predicted what would indeed happen, that Bardaness revolt would fail, when Bardanes did in fact rise up, he failed to win any widespread support. Leo and Michael soon abandoned him and defected to the camp and were rewarded with senior military posts. Thomas alone remained loyal to Bardanes until his surrender, in the aftermath of Bardaness failure, Thomas disappears from the sources for ten years
36.
Souda Bay
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Souda Bay is a bay and natural harbour near the town of Souda on the northwest coast of the Greek island of Crete. The bay is about 15 km long and only two to four km wide, and a natural harbour. It is formed between the Akrotiri peninsula and Cape Drapano, and runs west to east, the bay is overlooked on both sides by hills, with a relatively low and narrow isthmus in the west near Chania. Near the mouth of Souda bay, between the Akrotiri and the town of Kalives, there is a group of islands with Venetian fortifications. The largest island is Souda Island, giving its name to the bay, Souda Bay is now a popular tourist destination although there are no real public beaches due to the presence of the Crete Naval Station. Villages such as Megala Chorafia and Kalives afford fine views of the bay, there have been port facilities on the bay since ancient times, previously serving the city of Aptera. Aptera was founded in the 7th Century BC and was an important city during the ancient and it was destroyed by the Saracens in the 820s AD. The nearest large ancient city was Kydonia, which flourished in the Minoan era on Crete, moreover, the Venetians occupied the area in 1207. In 1571 an Ottoman military force landed at Souda and caused destruction in the Chania area. The Venetians fortified Souda Island between 1570 and 1573, in order to protect the area from Ottoman raiders and pirates, however, Souda Bay remained a pirate infested area during the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries. The Venetians managed to hold on to the islands within Souda Bay until 1715. In 1822 an Egyptian army of approximately 10,000 under Hassan Pasha landed at Souda to defeat the Cretan Revolution of 1821, after the Cretan Revolution of 1866–69, the Ottomans built fortresses at Aptera and Kalami, barracks, a military hospital and a naval base. They also built the town of Souda at the head of the bay, the fortress at Kalami is still in use as prisons. The naval base was inaugurated in 1872, in the presence of Sultan Abdul Aziz. In the period of the semi-independent Cretan State the area attracted international interest, the first High Commissioner, Prince George of Greece, disembarked at Souda Bay on December 9,1898. The church of Saint Nicholas was built during this period, in 1913, events marking the union of Crete with Greece took place on Souda Island. On February 1 the metallic Ottoman flag, the last symbol of Ottoman rule, was removed and replaced by the Greek flag on May 1, also the ruined chapel was rebuilt and dedicated to Saint George. In 1916 the British liner SS Minnewaska, requisitioned by the British Army as a troops carrier, after 1923 the area was used as an Hellenic Army base, housing the artillery units of 5th Infantry Division
37.
Muslim conquest of Sicily
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The Muslim conquest of Sicily began in June 827 and lasted until 902, when the last major Byzantine stronghold on the island, Taormina, fell. Isolated fortresses remained in Byzantine hands until 965, but the island was henceforth under Muslim rule until conquered in turn by the Normans in the 11th century. Although Sicily had been raided by the Muslims since the century, these raids did not threaten Byzantine control over the island. The opportunity for the Aghlabid emirs of Ifriqiya came in 827, defeated by loyalist forces and driven from the island, Euphemius sought the aid of the Aghlabids. Following the Arab landing on the island, Euphemius was quickly sidelined, an initial assault on the islands capital, Syracuse, failed, but the Muslims were able to weather the subsequent Byzantine counter-attack and hold on to a few fortresses. With the aid of reinforcements from Ifriqiya and al-Andalus, in 831 they took Palermo, the strong fortress of Enna in the centre of the island was the main Byzantine bulwark against Muslim expansion, until its capture in 859. Following its fall, the Muslims increased their pressure against the eastern parts of the island, the fall of the last major Byzantine fortress, Taormina, in 902, is held to mark the completion of the Muslim conquest of Sicily. Under Muslim rule, Sicily prospered and eventually detached itself from Ifriqiya to form a semi-independent emirate, throughout the imperial Roman period, Sicily was a quiet, prosperous backwater. Only in the 5th century did it suffer from raids by the Vandals operating from the coasts of North Africa, in 535, the island came under Byzantine control and was raided by the Ostrogoths in the Gothic War, but calm returned thereafter. It was only the threat of the Muslim expansion that thrust it into the limelight. Consequently, the island was early on targeted by the Muslims, following the onset of Muslim attacks against North Africa, it became a crucial strategic base, and for a while, in 661–668, it was the residence of the imperial court under Constans II. Constituted as a theme around 690, its governing strategos also came to control over the scattered imperial possessions in the southern Italian mainland. In 805, Ibrahim concluded a truce with the Byzantine governor of Sicily. During this time, the Aghlabids were too preoccupied with their rivalry with the Idrisids to the west to plan any serious assault on Sicily, instead, there are testimonies of commercial traffic between Sicily and Ifriqiya, and of the presence of Arab traders on the island. The occasion for the invasion of Sicily was provided by the rebellion of the tourmarches Euphemius, according to later and possibly fictional accounts, driven by lust for a nun, he had forced her to marry him. Thus it came that Euphemius, returning from a raid against the African coast. Instead, he sailed for Syracuse, occupying the city, while the governor sought refuge in Catana, Euphemius soon managed to gain the support of a large part of the islands military leadership. Euphemius not only repulsed an attempt by Constantine to recover Syracuse, but pursued him and drove him out of Catana, and eventually captured and executed him
38.
Tunisia
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Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia is the northernmost country in Africa, covering 165,000 square kilometres. Its northernmost point, Cape Angela, is the northernmost point on the African continent and it is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisias population was estimated to be just under 11 million in 2014, Tunisias name is derived from its capital city, Tunis, which is located on Tunisias northeast coast. Geographically, Tunisia contains the end of the Atlas Mountains. Much of the rest of the land is fertile soil. Tunisia is a unitary semi-presidential representative democratic republic and it is considered to be the only full democracy in the Arab World. It has a human development index. In addition, Tunisia is also a state of the United Nations. Close relations with Europe – in particular with France and with Italy – have been forged through economic cooperation, privatisation, in ancient times, Tunisia was primarily inhabited by Berbers. Phoenician immigration began in the 12th century BC, these immigrants founded Carthage, a major mercantile power and a military rival of the Roman Republic, Carthage was defeated by the Romans in 146 BC. The Romans, who would occupy Tunisia for most of the eight hundred years, introduced Christianity. After several attempts starting in 647, the Arabs conquered the whole of Tunisia by 697, the Ottomans held sway for over three hundred years. The French colonization of Tunisia occurred in 1881, Tunisia gained independence with Habib Bourguiba and declared the Tunisian Republic in 1957. In 2011, the Tunisian Revolution resulted in the overthrow of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the country voted for parliament again on 26 October 2014, and for President on 23 November 2014. The word Tunisia is derived from Tunis, an urban hub. The present form of the name, with its Latinate suffix -ia, the French derivative Tunisie was adopted in some European languages with slight modifications, introducing a distinctive name to designate the country. Other languages remained untouched, such as the Russian Туни́с and Spanish Túnez, in this case, the same name is used for both country and city, as with the Arabic تونس, and only by context can one tell the difference. The name Tunis can be attributed to different origins and it is generally associated with the Berber root ⵜⵏⵙ, transcribed tns, which means to lay down or encampment
39.
Aghlabids
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The Aghlabids were an Arab dynasty of emirs from Banu Tamim, who ruled Ifriqiya, nominally on behalf of the Abbasid Caliph, for about a century, until overthrown by the new power of the Fatimids. At that time there were perhaps 100,000 Arabs living in Ifriqiya, Ibrahim was to control an area that encompassed eastern Algeria, Tunisia and Tripolitania. Although independent in all but name, his dynasty never ceased to recognise Abbasid overlordship, the Aghlabids paid an annual tribute to the Abbasid Caliph and their suzerainty was referenced in the khutba at Friday prayers. Additionally, border defenses were set up in Sousse and Monastir, the Aghlabids also built up the irrigation of the area and enhanced the public buildings and mosques of al-Abbasiya. Ibn Kathir recorded that a joint force of 300 Umayyad and Aghlabid ships were present, Theodotus retreated to Enna and the siege of Mineo was broken. The combined Ifriqiyan and Andalusian army then torched Mineo and laid siege to another town, however, a plague broke out in their camp causing the death of Asbagh and many others. The town fell later, in autumn, but the Arabs numbers were depleted subsequently they had to abandon it, Theodotus launched a pursuit and inflicted heavy casualties, so that most of the Andalusians departed the island. However, Theodotus too was killed at this time, possibly in one of these skirmishes, under Ziyadat Allah I came the crisis of a revolt of Arab troops in 824, which was not quelled until 836 with the help of the Berbers. Plundering raids into mainland Italy, which included the sack of the Roman basilicas in 846, gradually the Aghlabids lost control of the Arab forces in Sicily and a new dynasty, the Kalbids, emerged there. The Aghlabid kingdom reached its high point under Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Aghlabi, Ifriqiya was a significant economic power thanks to its fertile agriculture, aided by the expansion of the Roman irrigation system. It became the point of trade between the Islamic world and Byzantium and Italy, especially the lucrative slave trade. Kairuan became the most important centre of learning in the Maghreb, most notably in the field of Theology and Law, the decline of the dynasty began under Ibrahim II ibn Ahmad. An attack by the Tulunids of Egypt had to be repelled, in addition, in 893 there began amongst the Kutama Berbers the movement of the Shiite Fatimids to overthrow the Aghlabids. Ubaydalla Said captured the cities of Qairawan and Raqqada and took an oath of allegiance from the people, by 909, the Aghlabid Dynasty was overthrown and replaced with the Fatimids. Mohamed Talbi, Emirat Aghlabide, Paris, Adrien Maisonneuve,1967, maurice Vonderheyden, La Berbérie orientale sous la dynastie des Benoû l-Aṛlab, 800-909, Paris, Geuthner,1927
40.
Strategos
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Strategos or Strategus, plural strategoi, is used in Greek to mean military general. In the Hellenistic world and the Byzantine Empire the term was used to describe a military governor. In the modern Hellenic Army it is the highest officer rank, the ten were of equal status, and replaced the polemarchos, who had hitherto been the senior military commander. At Marathon in 490 BC they decided strategy by majority vote, at this date the polemarchos had a casting vote, and one view is that he was the commander-in-chief, but from 486 onwards the polemarchos, like the other archontes, was appointed by lot. The annual election of the strategoi was held in the spring, if a strategos died or was dismissed from office, a by-election might be held to replace him. This system continued at least until ca, 356/7 BC, but by the time Aristotle wrote his Constitution of the Athenians in ca.330 BC, the appointments were made without any reference to tribal affiliation. Hence, during the Hellenistic period, although the number of the tribes was increased, as political power passed to the rhetores in the later 5th century, the strategoi were limited to their military duties. Originally, the strategoi were appointed ad hoc to various assignments and this was generalized in Hellenistic times, when each strategos was given specific duties. One of them, the strategos epi ta hopla, ascended to major prominence in the Roman period, the Athenian people kept a close eye on their strategoi. If the vote went against anyone, he was deposed and as a rule tried by jury, the strategos as an office is attested at least for Syracuse from the late 5th century BC, Erythrae, and in the koinon of the Arcadians in the 360s BC. The title of strategos autokrator was also used for generals with broad powers, thus Philip II of Macedon was elected as strategos autokrator of the League of Corinth. g. In the Hellenistic empires of the Diadochi, notably Lagid Egypt, for which most details are known, in Egypt, the strategoi were originally responsible for the Greek military colonists established in the country. Quickly, they assumed a role in the administration alongside the nomarches, the governor of each of the nomes. Already by the time of Ptolemy II, the strategos was the head of the administration, while conversely his military role declines. Ptolemy V established the office of epistrategos to oversee the individual strategoi, the latter had now become solely civilian officials, combining the role of the nomarches and the oikonomos, while the epistrategos retained powers of military command. In addition, hypostrategoi could be appointed as subordinates, the office largely retained its Ptolemaic functions and continued to be staffed by the Greek population of the country. The Odrysian kingdom of Thrace was also divided into strategiai, each headed by a strategos, based on the various Thracian tribes and subtribes. At the time of the annexation into the Roman Empire in 46 AD, there were 50 such districts, which were initially retained in the new Roman province
41.
Anatolic Theme
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The Anatolic Theme, more properly known as the Theme of the Anatolics was a Byzantine theme in central Asia Minor. In its classical form during the 8th and 9th centuries, the theme stretched over the ancient regions of Lycaonia, Pisidia, Isauria, as well as most of Phrygia and parts of Galatia Salutaris. Initially, the Anatolic Theme included the western and southern shores of Asia Minor as well, emperor Leo VI the Wise later ceded the region west of Lake Tuz to Cappadocia. The themes capital was Amorium, until the sack of the city by the Abbasids in 838, after that, it was probably transferred to the nearby fortress of Polybotos. According to the 10th-century Arab geographers Qudama ibn Jafar and Ibn al-Faqih, the Anatolic Theme, the largest of the provinces of the Romans, fielded 15,000 men, and contained 34 fortresses. It and its governor, or stratēgos, first attested in 690. As such, the stratēgos of the Anatolics was one of the highest in the Empire, the holders of the post received an annual salary of 40 pounds of gold, and are attested as holding the senior court ranks of patrikios, anthypatos, and prōtospatharios. In addition, they were the ones to be appointed to the exceptional post of monostrategos. The exact date of the establishment is unknown. The Anatolic Theme was settled and took its name from the army of the East, the theme is attested for the first time in 669, while the army itself is mentioned, as the exercitus Orientalis, as late as an iussio of Justinian II in 687. The thematic capital, Amorium, was also a frequent target of the Arabs and it was attacked already in 644, captured in 646, and briefly occupied in 669. The Arabs reached it again in 708 and besieged it without success in 716 and this in turn provoked the reaction of the Abbasid Caliphate, which in the quarter-century after 780 launched repeated invasions of Byzantine Asia Minor. Thus the Anatolics suffered a defeat at Kopidnadon in 788. The cities of eastern Cappadocia, however, which bordered the Caliphate, were practically destroyed, the 10th century was largely peaceful, with the exception of yet another sack of Amorium in 931 and a raid that reached Iconium in 963. The first Turkish attack on the theme is recorded in 1069, most of the province was overrun by the Turks after the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, with Iconium becoming the seat of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum in the 12th century. The last appearance of the Anatolic Theme in the sources is in 1077. The Byzantines managed to some of the western and northern portions of the theme in the subsequent decades under the Komnenian emperors. In the 10th century, however, the theme appears on the sidelines of the rebellions of the period, the next and last rebellion by a stratēgos of the Anatolics was that of Nikephoros Xiphias in 1022, against Basil II
42.
Cibyrrhaeot Theme
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The Cibyrrhaeot Theme, more properly the Theme of the Cibyrrhaeots, was a Byzantine theme encompassing the southern coast of Asia Minor from the early 8th to the late 12th centuries. As the Byzantine Empires first and most important naval theme, it served chiefly to provide ships and troops for the Byzantine navy, the Cibyrrhaeots derive their name from the city of Cibyrrha. At the time, the Cibyrrhaeots were subordinate to the naval corps of the Karabisianoi. After the Karabisianoi were disbanded, the Cibyrrhaeots were constituted as a regular theme, until the 9th century, when the themes of the Aegean Sea and Samos were elevated from droungarios-level commands, the Cibyrrhaeot Theme was the only dedicated naval theme of the Empire. The land, which was known for its fertility, suffered from the frequent and devastating Arab raids, the seat of the strategos was most probably Attaleia. Like its other counterparts, the Cibyrrhaeot Theme was divided into droungoi and tourmai, among the most important subordinates of the strategos were the imperial ek prosopou at Syllaion, the droungarioi of Attaleia and Kos and the katepano who commanded the themes Mardaites. These were the descendants of several thousand people transplanted from the area of Lebanon and settled there by Emperor Justinian II in the 680s to provide crews, most of its territory was lost to the Seljuk Turks after 1071, but partly recovered under Alexios I Komnenos. The rump theme was finally abolished by Manuel I Komnenos, and the remaining territory in Caria subordinated to the theme Mylasa and Melanoudion
43.
Kos
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Kos or Cos is a Greek island, part of the Dodecanese island chain in the southeastern Aegean Sea, off the Anatolian coast of Turkey. Kos is the third largest of the Dodecanese by area, after Rhodes and Karpathos, it has a population of 33,388, making it the second most populous of the Dodecanese, after Rhodes. The island measures 40 by 8 kilometres, and is 4 km from the coast of the ancient region of Caria in Turkey, administratively, Kos constitutes a municipality within the Kos regional unit, which is part of the South Aegean region. The principal town of the island and seat of the municipality is Kos town, the name Kos is first attested in the Iliad, and has been in continuous use since. Other ancient names include Meropis, Cea, and Nymphaea, the similar Istanbul, and Stimpoli, Crete. Under the rule of the Knights Hospitaller of Rhodes, it was known as Lango or Langò, in The Travels of Sir John Mandeville, the author misunderstands this, and treats Lango and Kos as distinct islands. In Italian, the island is known as Coo, a person from Kos is called a Koan in English. The word is also an adjective, as in Koan goods, Kos is in the Aegean Sea. Its coastline is 112 kilometres long and it extends from west to east, in addition to the main town and port, also called Kos, the main villages of Kos island are Kardamena, Kefalos, Tingaki, Antimachia, Mastihari, Marmari and Pyli. Smaller ones are Zia, Zipari, Platani, Lagoudi and Asfendiou, tourism is the main industry in Kos, the islands beaches being the primary attraction. The seaside village of Kardamena is a resort for young holidaymakers and has a large number of bars. Farming is the principal occupation, with the main crops being grapes, almonds, figs, olives. Cos lettuce may be here, but the name is unrelated. In Homers Iliad, a contingent of Koans fought for the Greeks in the Trojan War, in classical mythology, the island was visited by Heracles. The island was colonised by the Carians. The Dorians invaded it in the 11th century BC, establishing a Dorian colony with a contingent of settlers from Epidaurus. The other chief sources of the islands lay in its wines and, in later days. Its early history–as part of the religious-political amphictyony that included Lindos, Kamiros, Ialysos, Cnidus and Halicarnassus, at the end of the 6th century, Kos fell under Achaemenid domination but rebelled after the Greek victory at the Battle of Mycale in 479
Greece
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