1.
Glossary of vexillology
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Flag terminology is the nomenclature, or system of terms, used in vexillology, the study of flags, to describe precisely the parts, patterns, and other attributes of flags and their display. Badge A coat of arms or simple heraldic symbol, canton Any quarter of a flag, but commonly means the upper hoist quarter, such as the field of stars in the flag of the United States or the Union Jack in the Australian Flag. Charge A figure or symbol appearing in the field of a flag, emblem A device often used as a charge on a flag. It may be heraldic in origin or modern, for example the maple leaf on the Canadian Flag, field The background of a flag, the color behind the charges. Fimbriation A narrow edging or border, often in white or gold, for example the white and gold lines of the South African Flag. Fly The half or edge of a flag farthest away from the flagpole and this term also sometimes refers to the horizontal length of a flag. Hoist The half or edge of a flag nearest to the flagpole and this term also sometimes refers to the vertical width of a flag. Length The span of a flag along the side at right angles to the flagpole, width The span of a flag down the side parallel to the flagpole. Flags often inherit traits seen in traditional European heraldry designs and as a result patterns often share names, banderole or bannerol A small flag or streamer carried on the lance of a knight, or a long narrow flag flying from the mast-head of a ship. Banner Generically, a synonym for a flag of any kind, in heraldry, a flag whose design is the same as the shield in a coat of arms, but usually in a square or rectangular shape, also known as a banner of arms. Burgee A distinguishing flag of a recreational boating organisation, Civil ensign, merchant flag or merchant ensign A version of the national flag flown by civil ships to denote nationality. Civil flag A version of the flag flown by civilians on non-government installations or craft. Colour or color The flag of a military unit, courtesy flag or courtesy ensign A flag flown by a visiting ship in foreign waters as a token of respect. Ensign The flag of a ship or military unit, may also be used generically as a synonym for a flag of any kind. Fanion A small flag used by the French military, gonfalon, gonfanon or gonfalone A type of heraldic flag suspended from a crossbar. Guidon A small flag borne by a military unit, in Scots heraldry, a smaller version of the Standard. Pennon or pennant A flag larger at the hoist than at the fly, pipe banner A decorative flag for the Scottish Highland bagpipes. Prayer flag A type of flag found strung along mountain ridges and peaks in the Himalayas, rank flag or distinguishing flag The flag flown by a superior naval officer on his flagship or headquarters
2.
National flag
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A national flag is a flag that symbolizes a country. The flag is flown by the government, but usually can also be flown by citizens of the country, historically, flags originate as military standards, used as field signs. The practice of flying flags indicating the country of origin outside of the context of warfare became common with the flag, introduced during the age of sail. Most countries of Europe adopted a flag in the course of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The specifications of the flag of Denmark were codified in 1748, the flag of Switzerland was introduced in 1889, also based on medieval war flags. The Netherlands introduced two national flags in 1813, the Ottoman flag was adopted in 1844. Other non-European powers followed the trend in the late 19th century, the flag of Japan being introduced in 1870, the Flag of the United States is not defined in the constitution but rather in a separate Flag Resolution passed in 1777. Minor design changes of national flags are passed on a legislative or executive level. A change in national flag is due to a change of regime. In such cases, the origins of the national flag. In such cases national flags acquire the status of a political symbol, the flag of Germany, for instance, was a tricolour of black-white-red under the German Empire, inherited from the North German Confederation. The Weimar Republic that followed adopted a black-red-gold tricolour, nazi Germany went back to black-white-red in 1933, and black-red-gold was reinstituted by the two successor states, West Germany and East Germany following World War II. Similarly the flag of Libya introduced with the creation of the Kingdom of Libya in 1951 was abandoned in 1969 with the coup led by Muammar Gaddafi. It was used again by National Transitional Council and by anti-Gaddafi forces during the Libyan Civil War in 2011 and officially adopted by the Libyan interim Constitutional Declaration. There are three types of national flag for use on land, and three for use at sea, though many countries use identical designs for several of these types of flag. On land, there is a distinction between civil flags, state flags, and war or military flags, state flags are those used officially by government agencies, whereas civil flags may be flown by anyone regardless of whether they are linked to government. War flags are used by organisations such as Armies, Marine Corps. In practice, many countries have identical flags for these three purposes, national flag is used as a vexillological term to refer to such a three-purpose flag
3.
Ensign
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Ensign is the national flag flown on a vessel to indicate nationality. The ensign is the largest flag, generally flown at the stern of the ship, the naval ensign, used on warships, may be different from the civil ensign or the yacht ensign. Large versions of naval ensigns called battle ensigns are used when a warship goes into battle, the ensign differs from the jack which is flown from a jackstaff at the bow of a vessel. In its widest sense, an ensign is just a flag or other standard, the European military rank of ensign, once responsible for bearing a units standard derives from it. In contrast, the Arab rank of ensign, liwa, derives from the command of a unit or units with an ensign, not the carrier of such a units ensign, and is a general officer. In Arab armies, ensign is a title equivalent to a Western brigade. In nautical use, the ensign is flown on a ship or boat to indicate its appartenance, while this includes its nationality, it may well indicate more information rather than being the national flag itself. This is particularly common for commonwealth and European countries, ensigns are usually at the stern flagstaff when in port, and may be shifted to a gaff or mast amidships when the ship is under way, becoming known as a steaming ensign. Vexillologists distinguish three varieties of a national flag used as an ensign, A civil ensign is worn by merchant. In some countries the yacht ensign, used on boats or ships instead of merchant vessels. A state ensign or government ensign is worn by government vessels, a naval ensign is used by a countrys navy. Such ensigns are strictly regulated and indicate if the vessel is a warship, a merchant ship, several Commonwealth countries national flags had their origin in the ensigns of their original colonising power, the United Kingdom. Most notable of these flags are those of Australia, New Zealand. It is also likely that the original design from which the flag of the United States developed was strongly influenced by the British Red Ensign or the flag of the East India Company. With the creation of independent air forces and the growth in aviation in the first half of the 20th century. These may be divided into air force ensigns and civil air ensigns, in heraldry, an ensign is the ornament or sign, such as the crown, coronet, or mitre, borne above the charge or arms. Distinguishing mark Maritime flag Znamierowski, Alfred, the world encyclopedia of flags, The definitive guide to international flags, banners, standards and ensigns
4.
Tricolour (flag)
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A tricolour or tricolor is a type of flag or banner design with a triband design which originated in the 16th century as a symbol of republicanism, liberty or indeed revolution. One of the most famous tricolour, known as Le Tricolore, is the flag of France adopted in the French Revolution. The green-white-red tricolour remained a symbol of republicanism throughout the 19th century and was adopted as national flag by a number of following the Revolutions of 1848. It was also adopted by the Kingdom of Sardinia and this flag was a symbol of opposition against the German Kleinstaaterei and the desire for German Unification. It was at first illegal in the German Confederation, but was adopted as the flag at the Frankfurt Parliament of 1848/9. The flag of Belgium was introduced in a context, in 1831. The first national flag of the New World inspired by this symbolism was the flag of Mexico, the Pan-Arab colors adopted in Arab nationalism 1916 are a comparable concept, even though they combine four, not three, colours. The Indian independence movement in 1931 also adopted a tricolour in the symbolism of national unification and republican self-rule. In 1999, a red, green, and blue tricolour was proposed as the Flag of Mars, the design symbolizes liberty, and also the terraforming of Mars by humanity from a red planet to a green one, and eventually an Earth-like blue one. List of countries by style of national flags Fin flash on military aircraft, sometimes in a tricolor form Triband
5.
Takbir
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The Takbīr, also transliterated Tekbir or Takbeer, is the Arabic phrase Allāhu akbar, usually translated as God is greatest. The form Allāhu is the nominative of Allah, meaning God, in the context of Islam, it is the proper name of God. The form akbar is the elative of the adjective kabīr, meaning great, as used in the Takbīr it is usually translated as greatest, but some authors prefer greater. The phrase is often transliterated less accurately as Allah akbar, the term Takbīr itself is the stem II verbal noun of the triliteral root k-b-r, meaning great, from which Akbar greater is derived. The phrase is known in the West for its common use as a battle cry in Islamic extremism. This phrase is recited by Muslims in many different situations, the phrase is not found in the Quran, which does not refer to God as Akbar, but uses the name Al-Kabir or Kabir, commonly translated as Most Great. The phrase is said during each stage of both obligatory prayers, and supererogatory prayers, the Muslim call to prayer by the muezzin and to commence prayer also contains the phrase. This phrase is used in times of distress. Just before a Garuda Airbus A300B-4 crashed into the jungle near Medan, Indonesia and it was suspected that the crash may have been due to either disorientation or engine failure caused by local dense smog resulting from forest fires. As a multi-purpose phrase, it is used by Arab football commentators as an expression of amazement. The phrase is used after the birth of a child as a means of praising God, in the hadith, Muhammad is reported to have spoken the Takbīr after a funeral. During the festival of Eid al-Adha and the days preceding it and this is particularly the case on the Day of Arafa. The phrase is known in the West for its common use as a battle cry in Islamist protests, Islamic extremism. It included a checklist of final reminders for the 9/11 hijackers, an excerpt reads, When the confrontation begins, strike like champions who do not want to go back to this world. Shout, Allahu Akbar, because this strikes fear in the hearts of the non-believers. and giving out boxes of halva, imam Samudra, who was sentenced to death for his role in the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, chanted the phrase upon hearing his sentence. In the video of Nick Berg being beheaded in Iraq in 2004, in 2008, Aafia Siddiqui is alleged to have fired at US interrogators while yelling Allah Akbar. During the 2009 Fort Hood shooting, witnesses reported that gunman Nidal Malik Hasan shouted Allahu Akbar before opening fire, killing 13 people, times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad smiled and said Allahu Akbar after receiving a life sentence in 2010 for his attempted bombing. During the incident aboard American Airlines Flight 1561 in 2011, the person attempting to bash his way into the cockpit was heard shouting Allahu Akbar, mohammed Merah recorded himself shouting Allahu Akbar as he killed three French paratroopers in the 2012 Midi-Pyrénées shootings
6.
Kufic
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Kufic is the oldest calligraphic form of the various Arabic scripts and consists of a modified form of the old Nabataean script. Kufic developed around the end of the 7th century in Kufa, Iraq, from which it takes its name, Kufic was prevalent in manuscripts from the 7th to 10th centuries. Until about the 11th century it was the script used to copy the Quran. Professional copyists employed a form of kufic for reproducing the earliest surviving copies of the Quran. Kufic is commonly seen on Seljuk coins and monuments and on early Ottoman coins and its decorative character led to its use as a decorative element in several public and domestic buildings constructed prior to the Republican period in Turkey. The current flag of Iraq includes a rendition of the takbir. Similarly, the flag of Iran has the takbir written in white square kufic script a total of 22 times on the fringe of both the green and red bands, Square or geometric Kufic is a very simplified rectangular style of Kufic widely used for tiling. In Iran sometimes entire buildings are covered with tiles spelling sacred names like those of God, Muhammad and Ali in square Kufic, christoph Brunner, Basel 2014, ISBN 978-3-906206-10-3. Square Kufic lectures, alphabet, examples, square designs Kufic manuscript alphabet On The Origins Of The Kufic Script Kufic Script Square Kufic Script Square Kufic Square Kufic explained
7.
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
8.
Red
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Red is the color at the longer-wavelengths end of the spectrum of visible light next to orange, at the opposite end from violet. Red color has a predominant light wavelength of roughly 620–740 nanometers, light with a longer wavelength than red but shorter than terahertz radiation and microwave is called infrared. Red is one of the secondary colors, resulting from the combination of yellow. Traditionally, it was viewed as a primary colour, along with yellow and blue, in the RYB color space and traditional color wheel formerly used by painters. Reds can vary in shade from light pink to very dark maroon or burgundy. Red is the color of cyan. In nature, the red color of blood comes from hemoglobin, the red color of the Grand Canyon and other geological features is caused by hematite or red ochre, both forms of iron oxide. It also causes the red color of the planet Mars, the color of autumn leaves is caused by pigments called anthocyanins, which are produced towards the end of summer, when the green chlorophyll is no longer produced. One to two percent of the population has red hair, the color is produced by high levels of the reddish pigment pheomelanin. Since red is the color of blood, it has historically been associated with sacrifice, danger, modern surveys in the United States and Europe show red is also the color most commonly associated with heat, activity, passion, sexuality, anger, love and joy. In China, India and many other Asian countries it is the color of symbolizing happiness, since the 19th century, red has also been associated with socialism and communism. The word red is derived from the Old English rēad, the word can be further traced to the Proto-Germanic rauthaz and the Proto-Indo European root rewdʰ-. In Sanskrit, the word means red or blood. In the Akkadian language of Ancient Mesopotamia and in the modern Inuit language of Inuit, the words for colored in Latin and Spanish both also mean red. In Portuguese the word for red is vermelho, which comes from Latin vermiculus, in the Russian language, the word for red, Кра́сный, comes from the same old Slavic root as the words for beautiful—красивый and excellent—прекрасный. Thus Red Square in Moscow, named long before the Russian Revolution, in heraldry, the word gules is used for red. Red can vary in hue from orange-red to violet-red, and for each hue there is a variety of shades and tints. Red hematite powder was found scattered around the remains at a grave site in a Zhoukoudian cave complex near Beijing
9.
White
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White is an achromatic color, a color without hue. An incoming light to the eye that stimulates all its three types of color sensitive cone cells in nearly equal amounts results in white. White is one of the most common colors in nature, the color of sunlight, snow, milk, chalk, limestone, in many cultures white represents or signifies purity, innocence, and light, and is the symbolic opposite of black, or darkness. According to surveys in Europe and the United States, white is the color most often associated with perfection, the good, honesty, cleanliness, the beginning, the new, neutrality, and exactitude. In ancient Egypt and ancient Rome, priestesses wore white as a symbol of purity, in the Middle Ages and Renaissance a white unicorn symbolized chastity, and a white lamb sacrifice and purity, the widows of kings dressed in white rather than black as the color of mourning. It was also used in 20th century modern architecture as a symbol of modernity, simplicity. White is an important color for almost all world religions, the Pope, the head of the Roman Catholic Church, has worn white since 1566, as a symbol of purity and sacrifice. In Islam, and in the Shinto religion of Japan, it is worn by pilgrims, in Western cultures and in Japan, white is the most common color for wedding dresses, symbolizing purity and virginity. In many Asian cultures, white is also the color of mourning, the white color on television screens and computer monitors is created with the RGB color model by mixing red, green and blue light at equal intensities. The word white continues Old English hwīt, ultimately from a Common Germanic *χwītaz also reflected in OHG wîz, ON hvítr, the root is ultimately from Proto-Indo-European language *kwid-, surviving also in Sanskrit śveta to be white or bright and Slavonic světŭ light. The Icelandic word for white, hvítur, is derived from the Old Norse form of the word hvítr. Common Germanic also had the word *blankaz, borrowed into Late Latin as *blancus, the antonym of white is black. Some non-European languages have a variety of terms for white. The Inuit language has seven different words for seven different nuances of white, Japanese has six different words, depending upon brilliance or dullness, or if the color is inert or dynamic. White was one of the first colors used in art, the Lascaux Cave in France contains drawings of bulls and other animals drawn by paleolithic artists between 18,000 and 17,000 years ago. Paleolithic artists used calcite or chalk, they sometimes as a background, sometimes as a highlight, along with charcoal and red, in ancient Egypt, white was connected with the goddess Isis. The priests and priestesses of Isis dressed only in white linen, in Greece and other ancient civilizations, white was often associated with mothers milk. In Greek mythology, the chief god Zeus was nourished at the breast of the nymph Amalthea, in the Talmud, milk was one of four sacred substances, along with wine, honey, and the rose
10.
Black
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Black is the darkest color resulting from the absence or complete absorption of light. Like white and grey, it is a color, literally a color without hue. It is one of the four colors in the CMYK color model, along with cyan, yellow. Black is often used to represent darkness, it is the symbolic opposite of white, Black was one of the first colors used by artists in neolithic cave paintings. In the 14th century, it began to be worn by royalty and it became the color worn by English romantic poets, businessmen and statesmen in the 19th century, and a high fashion color in the 20th century. In the Roman Empire, it became the color of mourning, according to surveys in Europe and North America, it is the color most commonly associated with mourning, the end, secrets, magic, force, violence, evil, and elegance. More distant cognates include Latin flagrare, and Ancient Greek phlegein, the Ancient Greeks sometimes used the same word to name different colors, if they had the same intensity. Kuanos could mean both dark blue and black, the Ancient Romans had two words for black, ater was a flat, dull black, while niger was a brilliant, saturated black. Ater has vanished from the vocabulary, but niger was the source of the country name Nigeria the English word Negro, old High German also had two words for black, swartz for dull black and blach for a luminous black. These are parallelled in Middle English by the terms swart for dull black, swart still survives as the word swarthy, while blaek became the modern English black. In heraldry, the used for the black color is sable, named for the black fur of the sable. Black was one of the first colors used in art, the Lascaux Cave in France contains drawings of bulls and other animals drawn by paleolithic artists between 18,000 and 17,000 years ago. They began by using charcoal, and then made more vivid black pigments by burning bones or grinding a powder of manganese oxide, for the ancient Egyptians, black had positive associations, being the color of fertility and the rich black soil flooded by the Nile. It was the color of Anubis, the god of the underworld, who took the form of a black jackal, and offered protection against evil to the dead. For the ancient Greeks, black was also the color of the underworld, separated from the world of the living by the river Acheron and those who had committed the worst sins were sent to Tartarus, the deepest and darkest level. In the center was the palace of Hades, the king of the underworld, Black was one of the most important colors used by ancient Greek artists. In the 6th century BC, they began making pottery and later red figure pottery. In black-figure pottery, the artist would paint figures with a clay slip on a red clay pot
11.
Pan-Arab colors
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The Pan-Arab colours are black, white, green, and red. Individually, each of the four Pan-Arab colours were intended to represent a certain Arab dynasty, or era. The four colours derived their potency from a verse by 14th century Iraqi poet Safi Al-Din Al-Hilli, « White are our acts, black our battles, green our fields, Pan-Arab colours were first combined in 1916 in the flag of the Arab Revolt. It may be noted that while Libya is an Arab country and has a flag with the four colours. From the 1950s onwards, a sub-set of the Pan-Arab colours and these consist of a tricolour of red, white and black bands, with green given less prominence. The Arab Liberation colours were inspired by the use of the Arab Liberation Flag in the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, list of Arab flags Pan-Arabism Tricolour Pan-Slavic colors Pan-African colours Pan-Arab colors Evolution of the Arab Flag, by Dr. Mahdi Abdul-Hadi
12.
Kingdom of Iraq
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The Kingdom of Iraq was founded on 23 August 1921 under British administration following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in the Mesopotamian campaign of World War I. The kingdom of Iraq was granted independence in 1932, following the Anglo-Iraqi Treaty. The independent Iraqi Kingdom under the Hashemite rulers underwent a period of turbulence through its entire existence, establishment of Sunni religious domination in Iraq was followed by Assyrian, Yazidi and Shia unrests, which were all brutally suppressed. In 1936, the first military coup took place in the Kingdom of Iraq, multiple coups followed in a period of political instability, peaking in 1941. During World War II, the Iraqi regime of Regent Abd al-Ilah was overthrown in 1941 by the Golden Square officers, the short-lived pro-Nazi government of Iraq was defeated in May 1941 by the allied forces in the Anglo-Iraqi War. Iraq was later used as a base for allied attacks on the Vichy-French-held Mandate of Syria, at the same time, the Kurdish leader Mustafa Barzani led a rebellion against the central government in Baghdad. After the failure of the uprising Barzani and his followers fled to the Soviet Union, in 1945, during the final stages of World War II, Iraq joined the United Nations and became a founding member of the Arab League. In 1948, massive violent protests, known as the Al-Wathbah uprising broke out across Baghdad as a demand against the government treaty with the British. More protests continued in spring, but were interrupted in May, with the martial law, in February 1958, King Hussein of Jordan and Abd al-Ilāh proposed a union of Hāshimite monarchies to counter the recently formed Egyptian-Syrian union. The resulting Arab Federation, formed on 14 February 1958 was short-lived and it ended in 1958, when the monarchy was overthrown in a military coup, led by Abd al-Karim Qasim. The territory of Iraq was under Ottoman dominance until the end of World War I, Faisal ibn Husayn, who had previously been proclaimed King of Syria by a Syrian National Congress in Damascus in March 1920, was ejected by the French in July of the same year. The civil government of postwar Iraq was headed originally by the High Commissioner, Sir Percy Cox, British reprisals after the murder of a British officer in Najaf failed to restore order. British administration had yet to be established in the mountains of north Iraq, the most striking problem facing the British was the growing anger of the nationalists. With the signing of the Anglo-Iraqi Treaty and the settling of the Mosul Question, thus, despite a constitution and an elected assembly, Iraqi politics was more a shifting alliance of important personalities and cliques than a democracy in the Western sense. The absence of broadly based political institutions inhibited the early nationalist movements ability to make inroads into Iraqs diverse social structure. The new Anglo-Iraqi Treaty was signed in June 1930 and it provided for a close alliance, for full and frank consultations between the two countries in all matters of foreign policy, and for mutual assistance in case of war. Iraq granted the British the use of air bases near Basra and at Al Habbaniyah, the treaty, of twenty-five years duration, was to come into force upon Iraqs admission to the League of Nations. This occurred on October 3,1932, in 1932, the Kingdom of Iraq was granted independence under King Faisal I
13.
Flag of the Arab Revolt
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The Flag of the Arab Revolt was a flag used by the Arab nationalists during the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire during World War I. The flag was designed by the British diplomat Sir Mark Sykes, the horizontal colors stand for the Abbasid, Umayyad and Fatimid Caliphates. The red triangle refers to the Hashemite dynasty, the Hashemites were allies of the British in the conflict against the Ottoman Empire. After the war ended, the Hashemites achieved or were granted rule in the Hejaz region of Arabia, Jordan, formally known as the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, briefly in Greater Syria, Greater Syria was dissolved after only a few months of existence, in 1920. The Hashemites were overthrown in the Hejaz in 1925 by the House of Saud, and in Iraq in 1958 by a coup detat, but retained power in Jordan. A 60m x 30m version of the flag flies from the Aqaba Flagpole, currently the sixth tallest freestanding flagpole in the world, located in Aqaba. The flag contains the four Pan-Arab Colors, black, white, green, there is also a red triangle on the hoist side of the flag. Pan-Arab colors Flag of Saudi Arabia Kingdom of Hejaz Palestinian flag https, //www. britannica. com/topic/Arab-Revolt-Flag
14.
Hashemites
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The House of Hashim, better known as the Hashemites Hashmi, are the royal family of the Hejaz, Iraq, and Jordan. Their eponymous ancestor is Hashim ibn Abd Manaf, great-grandfather of the Islamic prophet and his sons Abdullah and Faisal assumed the thrones of Jordan and Iraq in 1921. The dynasty is the oldest ruling dynasty in the Islamic World, the early history of the Hashemites saw them in a continuous struggle against the Umayyads for control over who would be the caliph or successor to Muhammad. The Umayyads were of the tribe as the Hashemites, but a different clan. After the overthrow of the Umayyads, the Abbasids would present themselves as representatives of the Hashemites, as they claimed descent from Abbas ibn ‘Abd al-Muttalib, an uncle of Muhammad. Muhammads father had died before he was born, and his mother died while he was a child, so Muhammad was raised by his uncle Abu Talib ibn ‘Abd al-Muttalib, chief of the Hashemites. From the 10th century onwards, the sharif of Mecca and its Emir was, by traditional agreement, before World War I, Hussein bin Ali of the Hashemite Dhawu-Awn clan ruled the Hejaz on behalf of the Ottoman sultan. For some time it had been the practice of the Sublime Porte to appoint the Emir of Mecca from among a group of candidates. In 1908, Hussein bin Ali was appointed to the Emirate of Mecca and he found himself increasingly at odds with the Young Turks in control at Istanbul, while he strove to secure his familys position as hereditary Emirs. Sharif Hussein bin Ali rebelled against the rule of the Ottomans during the Arab Revolt of 1916. Between 1917 and 1924, after the collapse of Ottoman power, Hussein bin Ali ruled an independent Hejaz, of which he proclaimed himself king and his supporters are sometimes referred to as Sharifians or the Sharifian party. Hussein bin Alis chief rival in the Arabian Peninsula, the king of the Najd, Ibn Saud, annexed the Hejaz in 1925 and established his own son, Faysal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the region was later incorporated into Saudi Arabia. Hussein bin Ali had five sons, Ali, who succeeded to the throne of Hejaz before its loss to the Saud family in 1925. Abdullah, became the amir of Transjordan in 1921 and king of Jordan in 1946, Faisal, briefly proclaimed King of the Arab Kingdom of Syria in 1920, became King of Iraq in 1921. Prince Zeid bin Hussein, who moved to Jordan when his brothers grandson, King Faisal II of Iraq, was overthrown, hassan, died at a young age. Line of succession to the Jordanian throne Line of succession to the Iraqi throne Hashemite Lineage
15.
Hejaz
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The Hejaz, also Al-Hijaz, is a region in the west of present-day Saudi Arabia. The region is so called as it separates the land of the Najd in the east from the land of Tihamah in the west and it is also known as the Western Province. It is bordered on the west by the Red Sea, on the north by Jordan, on the east by the Najd and its main city is Jeddah, but it is probably better known for the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina. As the site of Islams holiest places, the Hejaz has significance in the Arab, historically, the Hejaz has always seen itself as separate from the rest of Saudi Arabia. The Hejaz is the most populated region in Saudi Arabia,35 % of all Saudis live in Hejaz, hejazi Arabic is the most widely spoken dialect in the region. Saudi Hejazis are of diverse origins. The Hejaz is the most cosmopolitan region in the Arabian Peninsula, people of Hejaz have the most strongly articulated identity of any regional grouping in Saudi Arabia. Their place of origin alienates them from the Saudi state, which invokes different narratives of the history of the Arabian Peninsula, thus, Hejazis experienced tensions with people of Najd. One or possibly two megalithic dolmen have been found in Al-Hijaz, the Hejaz includes both the Mahd adh-Dhahab and a water source, now dried out, that used to flow 600 miles north east to the Persian Gulf via the Wadi Al-Rummah and Wadi Al-Batin system. Archaeological research led by of Boston University and the University of Qassim indicates that the system was active in 8000 BCE. The northern part of the Hejaz was part of the Roman province of Arabia Petraea, Saudi Arabias first World Heritage Site that was recognized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is that of Al-Hjir. The name Al-Hijr occurs in the Qur’an, and the site is known for having structures carved into rocks, construction of the structures is credited to the people of Thamud. Despite their rather Polytheistic nature, a member of folk was a Monotheistic preacher called Salih. After the disappearance of Thamud from Mada’in Saleh, it came under the influence of people, such as the Nabataeans. Later, it would lie in a used by Muslim Pilgrims going to Mecca. According to Islamic sources, the civilization of Mecca started after Ibrahim brought his son Isma‘il and wife Hajar here and it was during such an occasion that Muhammad met some Medinans who would allow him to migrate to Medina, to escape persecution by his opponents in Mecca. Given that he had followers and enemies here, a number of battles or expeditions were carried out in this area. They involved both Meccan companions, such as Hamzah ibn ‘Abdul-Muttalib, Ubaydah ibn al-Harith and Sad ibn Abi Waqqas, the Hijaz fell under Muhammads influence as he emerged victorious over his opponents, and was thus a part of his empire
16.
Arabian Peninsula
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The Arabian Peninsula, simplified Arabia is a peninsula of Western Asia situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian plate. From a geological perspective, it is considered a subcontinent of Asia and it is the largest peninsula in the world, at 3,237,500 km2. The Arabian Peninsula consists of the countries Yemen, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the Arabian Peninsula plays a critical geopolitical role in the Middle East and the Arab world due to its vast reserves of oil and natural gas. Before the modern era, it was divided into four regions, Hejaz, Najd, Southern Arabia. Hejaz and Najd make up most of Saudi Arabia, Southern Arabia consists of Yemen and some parts of Saudi Arabia and Oman. Eastern Arabia consists of the coastal strip of the Persian Gulf. The most prominent feature of the peninsula is desert, but in the southwest there are mountain ranges, harrat ash Shaam is a large volcanic field that extends from the northwestern Arabian Peninsula into Jordan and southern Syria. The peninsulas constituent countries are Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the island nation of Bahrain lies off the east coast of the peninsula. Six countries form the Gulf Cooperation Council, however, this is a disputed term. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia covers the part of the peninsula. The majority of the population of the live in Saudi Arabia. The peninsula contains the worlds largest reserves of oil, Saudi Arabia and the UAE are economically the wealthiest in the region. Qatar, a peninsula in the Persian Gulf on the larger peninsula, is home of the Arabic-language television station Al Jazeera. Kuwait, on the border with Iraq, is an important country strategically, though historically lightly populated, political Arabia is noted for a high population growth rate - as the result of both very strong inflows of migrant labor as well as sustained high birth rates. The population tends to be young and heavily skewed gender ratio dominated by males. In many states, the number of South Asians exceeds that of the local citizenry, the four smallest states, which have their entire coastlines on the Persian Gulf, exhibit the worlds most extreme population growth, roughly tripling every 20 years. In 2014, the population of the Arabian Peninsula was 77,983,936. Listed here are the human Y-chromosome DNA haplogroups in Arabia Haplogroup J is the most abundant component in the Arabian peninsula and its two main subclades, show opposite latitudinal gradients in the Middle East
17.
Arab Revolt
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Contrarily, Turks accused rebelling tribes of betraying the Muslim Caliphate during a campaign against imperialist powers which were trying to divide and govern the Muslim lands. The rise of nationalism under the Ottoman Empire dates from at least 1821, Arab nationalism has its roots in the Mashriq, particularly in countries of Sham. The political orientation of Arab nationalists in the prior to the Great War was generally moderate. The Young Turk Revolution began on 3 July 1908 and quickly spread throughout the empire, as a result, sultan Abdul Hamid II was forced to announce the restoration of the 1876 constitution and the reconvening of the Ottoman parliament. This period is known as the Second Constitutional Era, in the elections held in 1908, the Young Turks through their Committee of Union and Progress managed to gain the upper hand against the Liberal Union led by Prince Sabahaddin. The CUP preached a message that was a mixture of Pan-Islamism, Ottomanism, and Pan-Turkicism, at its heart, the CUP were Turkish nationalists who wanted to see the Turks as the dominant group within the Ottoman Empire. The new parliament was composed of 142 Turks,60 Arabs,25 Albanians,23 Greeks,12 Armenians,5 Jews,4 Bulgarians,3 Serbs, the CUP in the parliament gave more emphasis to centralization and a modernization program. At this stage, Arab nationalism was not yet a mass movement, many Arabs gave their primary loyalty to their religion or sect, their tribe, or their own particular governments. The ideologies of Ottomanism and Pan-Islamism provided strong competition for Arab nationalism, in the Ottoman Empire, Sunni Islam was the state religion, and the sultan-caliph was the supreme religious-political leader, thus making the crown and the faith one and the same. Before 1914, of the ten million or so Arabs living under Ottoman rule, only a mere 350 were involved in various feuding nationalist groups, most of whom wanted only autonomy rather than independence. Arab members of the parliament supported the countercoup of 1909, which aimed to dismantle the constitutional system, in 1913, intellectuals and politicians from the Arab Mashriq met in Paris at the First Arab Congress. They produced a set of demands for autonomy within the Ottoman Empire. They again demanded that Arab conscripts to the Ottoman army should not be required to serve in other regions except in time of war. Hussein saw himself as the founder of a new empire, and looked down upon his fellow Ottoman Arabs as backward and it is estimated that the Arab forces involved in the revolt numbered around 5,000 soldiers. E. On a few occasions, particularly during the campaign into Syria. Many Arabs joined the Revolt sporadically, often as a campaign was in progress or only when the fighting entered their home region. During the Aqaba raid, for instance, while the initial Arab force numbered only a few hundred, estimates of Faisals effective forces vary, but through most of 1918 at least, they may have numbered as high as 30,000 men. The Bedouin would not fight unless paid in advance with gold coin, and by the end of 1916, by September 1918, the British were spending £220, 000/month to subsidize the revolt
18.
Flag of Jordan
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The flag of Jordan, officially adopted on 18 April 1928, is based on the flag of the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire during World War I. The flag consists of black, white, and green bands that are connected by a red chevron. The colors stand are the Pan-Arab Colors, representing the Abbasid, Umayyad, the red chevron is for the Hashemite dynasty, and the Arab Revolt. In addition to the bands and chevron, a star with seven points is featured on the hoist side of the red chevron. The star stands for the unity of the Arab people and it is also said to stand for the seven verses of the first surah in the Quran, or refer to the seven hills on which Amman, the capital, was built. The seven points represent faith in one God, humanity, humility, national spirit, virtue, social justice, flag of the Arab Revolt Palestinian flag Kingdom of Hejaz Jordan at Flags of the World
19.
Kingdom of Hejaz
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The Kingdom of Hejaz was a state in the Hejaz region in the Middle East ruled by the Hashemite dynasty. The new kingdom had a life and then was conquered in 1925 by the neighbouring Sultanate of Nejd under a resurgent House of Saud, creating the Kingdom of Hejaz. On 23 September 1932, the Kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd joined the Saudi dominions of Al-Hasa and Qatif, the Sharif of Mecca was an office appointed by the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire in their capacity as Caliph. The role went to a member of the Hashemite family, but the Sultans typically used inter-familial rivalry to pick and choose from among contenders and so ensure that the Sharif remained weak. The British already had a series of treaties with other Arab leaders in the region and were fearful that the Hejaz could be used as a base to attack their shipping to. The British though, were compromised by their agreement to give the French control of Syria and did not, in Husseins eyes, nevertheless, they did eventually create Hashemite-ruled kingdoms in Jordan and Iraq alongside Hejaz. Hussein thus refused to conclude a treaty of friendship with the British who then later felt powerless to intervene when another British client, Hussein bin Ali Ali bin Hussein Sharif of Mecca Hashemite History of Saudi Arabia Hejazi dialect T. E. Lawrence Palestinian flag
20.
British Mandate for Mesopotamia (legal instrument)
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The British Mandate for Mesopotamia was a Mandate proposed to be entrusted to Britain at the San Remo, Italy-based conference, in accordance with the Sykes–Picot Agreement. The proposed mandate was awarded on April 25,1920, at the San Remo conference in Italy and it was to be a Class A mandate under Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations. A draft mandate document was prepared by the British Colonial Office in June 1920, the Mandate with British administration was enacted via the Anglo-Iraqi Treaty. The civil government of postwar Iraq was headed originally by the High Commissioner, Sir Percy Cox, British reprisals after the murder of a British officer in Najaf failed to restore order. British administration had yet to be established in the mountains of north Iraq, the most striking problem facing the British was the growing anger of the nationalists, who felt betrayed at being accorded mandate status. British Mandate for Palestine Kingdom of Iraq Mandatory Iraq Ottoman Iraq Dodge, Toby Inventing Iraq Fieldhouse, western Imperialism in the Middle East, 1914–1958 Fisk, Robert. The Great War for Civilisation, The Conquest of the Middle East, Simons, Iraq, From Sumer to Saddam Sluglett, Peter. Britain in Iraq, Contriving King and Country, 1914–1932 This article incorporates public domain material from the Library of Congress Country Studies website http, //lcweb2. loc. gov/frd/cs/
21.
Flag of the Arab Federation
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In 1958, in response to the merger of Egypt and Syria in the United Arab Republic, the two Hashemite kingdoms of Iraq and Jordan established the Arab Federation, a confederation of the two states. The flag of the union was essentially that of Jordan but without seven pointed star in the red chevron and this flag is identical to the Flag of Palestine adopted in 1964, and almost identical the flag of the Baath Party. The union lasted less than six months, being terminated by the Iraqi Revolution of 1958 in July, the flag is a tricolor of three equal horizontal stripes overlaid by a red triangle issuing from the hoist. Prior to being the flag of Palestine, it was the flag of the short lived Arab Federation of Iraq, the flag of the Arab Revolt had the same graphic form, but the colours were arranged differently
22.
Egypt
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Egypt, officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia by a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. Egypt is a Mediterranean country bordered by the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Gulf of Aqaba to the east, the Red Sea to the east and south, Sudan to the south, and Libya to the west. Across the Gulf of Aqaba lies Jordan, and across from the Sinai Peninsula lies Saudi Arabia, although Jordan and it is the worlds only contiguous Afrasian nation. Egypt has among the longest histories of any country, emerging as one of the worlds first nation states in the tenth millennium BC. Considered a cradle of civilisation, Ancient Egypt experienced some of the earliest developments of writing, agriculture, urbanisation, organised religion and central government. One of the earliest centres of Christianity, Egypt was Islamised in the century and remains a predominantly Muslim country. With over 92 million inhabitants, Egypt is the most populous country in North Africa and the Arab world, the third-most populous in Africa, and the fifteenth-most populous in the world. The great majority of its people live near the banks of the Nile River, an area of about 40,000 square kilometres, the large regions of the Sahara desert, which constitute most of Egypts territory, are sparsely inhabited. About half of Egypts residents live in areas, with most spread across the densely populated centres of greater Cairo, Alexandria. Modern Egypt is considered to be a regional and middle power, with significant cultural, political, and military influence in North Africa, the Middle East and the Muslim world. Egypts economy is one of the largest and most diversified in the Middle East, Egypt is a member of the United Nations, Non-Aligned Movement, Arab League, African Union, and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. Miṣr is the Classical Quranic Arabic and modern name of Egypt. The name is of Semitic origin, directly cognate with other Semitic words for Egypt such as the Hebrew מִצְרַיִם, the oldest attestation of this name for Egypt is the Akkadian
23.
Syria
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Syrias capital and largest city is Damascus. Religious groups include Sunnis, Christians, Alawites, Druze, Mandeans, Shiites, Salafis, Sunni Arabs make up the largest religious group in Syria. Its capital Damascus and largest city Aleppo are among the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, in the Islamic era, Damascus was the seat of the Umayyad Caliphate and a provincial capital of the Mamluk Sultanate in Egypt. The post-independence period was tumultuous, and a number of military coups. In 1958, Syria entered a union with Egypt called the United Arab Republic. Syria was under Emergency Law from 1963 to 2011, effectively suspending most constitutional protections for citizens, Bashar al-Assad has been president since 2000 and was preceded by his father Hafez al-Assad, who was in office from 1970 to 2000. Mainstream modern academic opinion strongly favours the argument that the Greek word is related to the cognate Ἀσσυρία, Assyria, in the past, others believed that it was derived from Siryon, the name that the Sidonians gave to Mount Hermon. However, the discovery of the inscription in 2000 seems to support the theory that the term Syria derives from Assyria. The area designated by the word has changed over time, since approximately 10,000 BC, Syria was one of centers of Neolithic culture where agriculture and cattle breeding appeared for the first time in the world. The following Neolithic period is represented by houses of Mureybet culture. At the time of the pre-pottery Neolithic, people used vessels made of stone, gyps, finds of obsidian tools from Anatolia are evidences of early trade relations. Cities of Hamoukar and Emar played an important role during the late Neolithic, archaeologists have demonstrated that civilization in Syria was one of the most ancient on earth, perhaps preceded by only those of Mesopotamia. The earliest recorded indigenous civilisation in the region was the Kingdom of Ebla near present-day Idlib, gifts from Pharaohs, found during excavations, confirm Eblas contact with Egypt. One of the earliest written texts from Syria is an agreement between Vizier Ibrium of Ebla and an ambiguous kingdom called Abarsal c.2300 BC. The Northwest Semitic language of the Amorites is the earliest attested of the Canaanite languages, Mari reemerged during this period, and saw renewed prosperity until conquered by Hammurabi of Babylon. Ugarit also arose during this time, circa 1800 BC, close to modern Latakia, Ugaritic was a Semitic language loosely related to the Canaanite languages, and developed the Ugaritic alphabet. The Ugarites kingdom survived until its destruction at the hands of the marauding Indo-European Sea Peoples in the 12th century BC, Yamhad was described in the tablets of Mari as the mightiest state in the near east and as having more vassals than Hammurabi of Babylon. Yamhad imposed its authority over Alalakh, Qatna, the Hurrians states, the army of Yamhad campaigned as far away as Dēr on the border of Elam
24.
United Arab Republic
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The United Arab Republic, alternatively referred to, mostly in Israel in the 1960s-70s, as the United Arab Commonwealth was a short-lived political union between Egypt and Syria. The union began in 1958 and existed until 1961, when Syria seceded from the union after the 1961 Syrian coup détat, Egypt continued to be known officially as the United Arab Republic until 1971. The president was Gamal Abdel Nasser and it was a member of the United Arab States, a loose confederation with North Yemen which in 1961 dissolved along with the Republic. Pan-Arab sentiment traditionally was very strong in Syria, and Nasser was a popular hero-figure throughout the Arab world following the Suez War of 1956, there was thus considerable popular support in Syria for union with Nassers Egypt. The Arab Socialist Baath Party was the advocate of such a union. This caused the Syrian Crisis of 1957 after which Syrians intensified their efforts to unite with Egypt, according to Abdel Latif Boghdadi, Nasser initially resisted a total union with Syria, favoring instead a federal union. However, Nasser was more afraid of a Communist takeover and agreed on a total merger, Syria had had a democratic government since the overthrow of Adib al-Shishaklis military regime in 1954, and popular pressure for Arab unity was reflected in the composition of parliament. When on 11 January 1958 al-Bizri led a Syrian delegation composed of officers to Cairo. Nassers final terms for the union were decisive and non-negotiable, a plebiscite, the dissolution of parties, while the plebiscite seemed reasonable to most Syrian elites, the latter two conditions were extremely worrisome. They believed it would destroy life in Syria. Despite these concerns, the Syrian officials knew it was too late to turn back. The members of the elite in Syria viewed the merger with Egypt as the lesser of two evils. They believed that Nassers terms were unfair, but given the pressure that their government was undergoing. Egyptian and Syrian leaders signed the protocols, although Azem did so reluctantly, Nasser became the republics president and very soon carried out a crackdown against the Syrian Communists and opponents of the union which included dismissing Bizri and Azem from their posts. Advocates of the believed that Nasser would use the Baath Party for ruling Syria. Unfortunately for the Baathists, it was never Nassers intention to share a measure of power. Nasser gave each of the provinces two vice-presidents, assigning Boghdadi and Abdel Hakim Amer to Egypt and Sabri al-Assali and Akram El-Hourani—a leader of the Baath—to Syria, the new constitution of 1958 was adopted. Though Nasser allowed former Baath Party members to hold prominent political positions, during the winter and the spring of 1959–60, Nasser slowly squeezed prominent Syrians out of positions of influence. In the Syrian Ministry of Industry, for example, seven of the top thirteen positions were filled by Egyptians, in the General Petroleum Authority, four of the top six officials were Egyptian
25.
Jordan
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Jordan, officially The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is an Arab kingdom in Western Asia, on the East Bank of the Jordan River. Jordan is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the east and south, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north, Israel, Palestine and the Dead Sea to the west, Jordan is strategically located at the crossroads of Asia, Africa and Europe. The capital, Amman, is Jordans most populous city as well as the countrys economic, what is now Jordan has been inhabited by humans since the Paleolithic period. Three stable kingdoms emerged there at the end of the Bronze Age, Ammon, Moab, later rulers include the Nabataean Kingdom, the Roman Empire, and the Ottoman Empire. After the Great Arab Revolt against the Ottomans in 1916 during World War I, the Emirate of Transjordan was established in 1921 by the then Emir Abdullah I and became a British protectorate. In 1946, Jordan became an independent state known as The Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan. Jordan captured the West Bank, which it later lost in 1967, during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Jordan is a founding member of the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, and is one of two Arab states to have signed a peace treaty with Israel. The country is a monarchy, but the king holds wide executive and legislative powers. Jordan is a relatively-small, semi-arid, almost-landlocked country with a population numbering at 9.5 million, Sunni Islam, practiced by around 92% of the population, is the dominant religion in Jordan. It coexists with an indigenous Christian minority, Jordan is considered to be among the safest of Arab countries in the Middle East, and has avoided long-term terrorism and instability. The kingdom is also a refuge to thousands of Iraqi Christians fleeing the Islamic State, while Jordan continues to accept refugees, the recent large influx from Syria placed substantial strain on national resources and infrastructure. Jordan is classified as a country of high human development with a middle income economy. The Jordanian economy, one of the smallest economies in the region, is attractive to foreign investors based upon a skilled workforce, the country is a major tourist destination, and also attracts medical tourism due to its well developed health sector. Nonetheless, a lack of resources, large flow of refugees. Jordan is named after the Jordan River, where Jesus is said to have been baptized, the origin of the rivers name is debated, but the most common explanation is that it derives from the word yarad, found in Hebrew, Aramaic, and other Semitic languages. Others regard the name as having an Indo-Aryan origin, combining the words yor and don, another theory is that it is from the Arabic root word wrd, as in people coming to a major source of water. The name Jordan appears in an ancient Egyptian papyrus called Papyrus Anastasi I, the lands of modern-day Jordan were historically called Transjordan, meaning beyond the Jordan River. The name was Arabized into Al-Urdunn during the Muslim conquest of the Levant, during crusader rule, it was called Oultrejordain
26.
Arab Federation
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The Arab Federation of Iraq and Jordan was a short-lived country that was formed in 1958 from the union of Iraq and Jordan. Although the name implies a federal structure, it was de facto a confederation, the union lasted only six months, being officially dissolved on 2 August 1958, after Faisal was deposed by a military coup on 14 July. From the 1930s on the Hashemite dynasty tried to promote Arab unity, as witnessed by the efforts of Iraq, from the Iraqi perspective, Jordan had little to offer, either economically or strategically, to counterbalance its numerous liabilities. Regardless of the issues, the two countries first attempted unification in 1946 and 1947 and was introduced by King Abdallah Stemming from his promotion of the Greater Syria Scheme. The second time was in 1951 and 1952 and resulted from the attempt to rescue Jordan, in 1958 was the third alliance, which came out of the shared regional interests between Iraq and Jordan against the expansion of the United Arab Republic. During the post-colonial years in the Arab world many forces argued for the creation of a single Arab state, popular under the name of Arab nationalism, it became increasingly popular among young intellectuals throughout the Middle East and in Iraq during the 1950s. Many different versions of Arab nationalism arose, which developed into an Arab Cold War, the movements were led by many different leaders, the most famous being that espoused by Gamal Abdel Nasser, the president of Egypt. His vision of a state was one that was free of foreign and specifically European interference, with land reform, socialist sympathies. For royalist and pro-European Iraq and Jordan, Nassers vision was incompatible with their existence, led by Prime Minister Nuri al-Said under King Faisal II, Iraq and Jordan were Hashemite monarchies since their establishment in 1922 at the bequest of the British. Further complicating the relationship with pan-Arabism was Iraqs relationship with the West, in 1955, Iraq entered the short-lived Baghdad Pact at the urging of the United Kingdom and the United States. It aligned Iraq with Turkey, Pakistan, Iran and the United Kingdom, in early 1958, the formation the United Arab Republic between Syria and Egypt brought Nassers pan-Arab ideals that threatened the existence of both Hashemite regimes, to the Western borders of Iraq. To counter Nassers pan-Arabism, as-Said approached the Hashemite government of Jordan to discuss the formation of a union while also appeasing Arab nationalists within Iraq and that overthrew him and Iraqi government and ended the Arab Union in the summer of 1958. Tension between the UAR and the Arab Union resulted in the fall of as-Said, the Union, during the summer of 1958, UAR troop movements to the Syrian border instigated the Arab Union to mobilize troops to counter this move. In July 1958, troops led by Abd al-Karim Qasim travelling through Iraq, took a chance to overthrow the King and his government in Baghdad. With the fall and resulting deaths of Saed, King Faisal II, the revolution and downfall of the Hashemite dynasty in Iraq would not be the end of relations between Iraq and Jordan. In 1975 Jordan turned away from their relationship with Syria. Iraq offered Jordan a strong economy, oil money, a large market, with Iraqs financial aid, Jordan made some economic gains. In fact, by 1990 Iraq was Jordans largest market, it was repaying trade credit debts in oil, iraq–Jordan relations Pan-Arabism United Arab Republic United Arab Emirates
27.
Flag of Palestine
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The Palestinian flag is based on the Flag of the Arab Revolt, and is used to represent the State of Palestine and the Palestinian people. The flag is a tricolor of three horizontal stripes overlaid by a red triangle issuing from the hoist. Prior to being the flag of the Palestinian people, it was the flag of the short lived Arab Federation of Iraq, the flag of the Arab Revolt had the same graphic form, but the colours were arranged differently. The flag used by the Arab Palestinian nationalists in the first half of the 20th century is the flag of the 1916 Arab Revolt, the origins of the flag are the subject of dispute and mythology. Yet another version is that the flag was designed by Sir Mark Sykes of the British Foreign Office, whatever the correct story, the flag was used by Sharif Hussein by 1917 at the latest and quickly became regarded as the flag of the Arab national movement in the Mashriq. On October 18,1948, the flag of the Arab Revolt was adopted, a modified version has been used in Palestine at least since the late 1930s and was officially adopted as the flag of the Palestinian people by the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1964. On November 15,1988 the PLO adopted the flag as the flag of the State of Palestine, on the ground the flag became widely used since the Oslo Agreements, with the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in 1993. Today the flag is flown widely by Palestinians and their supporters, in 1967, immediately following the Six Day War, the State of Israel banned the Palestinian flag in the occupied Gaza Strip and West Bank. A1980 law forbidding artwork of political significance banned artwork composed of its four colours, since the signing of the Oslo Peace Accords in 1993, the ban has been abolished
28.
Ba'ath Party
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Zakī al-Arsūzī was a Syrian philosopher, philologist, sociologist, historian, and Arab nationalist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of Baathism and he published several books during his lifetime, most notably The Genius of Arabic in its Tongue. Born into a family in Latakia, Syria, al-Arsuzi studied at the Sorbonne. In 1930, he returned to Syria, where he became a member of the League of National Action in 1933, in 1938, he moved to Damascus because of his disillusionment with party work, and in 1939, he left the LNA. In Damascus al-Arsuzi established and headed a group consisting of mostly secondary school pupils who would often discuss European history, nationalism, shortly after leaving the LNA, al-Arsuzi established the Arab National Party, an Arab nationalist party with a defined creed. In 1947, the two merged, forming a single Arab Baath Party. Despite the merger, Al-Arsuzi neither attended its founding conference nor was given membership, during the rest of the 1940s and 1950s, al-Arsuzi stayed out of politics and worked as a teacher. He made a comeback during the 1960s power struggle in the Baath Party between Aflaq and al-Bitar on one hand and Salah Jadid and Hafiz al-Assad on the other. When Aflaq and al-Bitar lost the struggle and were forced to escape from Syria in 1966. The key to Arab unification, according to al-Arsuzi, is through language, in contrast to the Latin language, al-Arsuzi argued, Arabic was far less arbitrary and far more intuitive. Despite his contributions to Baathist thought, al-Arsuzi is barely mentioned in Western or Arab scholarship and this omission may be linked to the fact that Sati al-Husri, a contemporary Arab nationalist, had many of the same ideas as al-Arsuzi but was better able to articulate them. Zaki al-Arsuzi was born in 1900 or 1901 to a family of Alawi origins in Latakia on the Syrian coast of the Ottoman Empire. His mother, Maryam came from a prominent religious family, while his father, with his two brothers, one sister and his parents moved to Antioch in 1904. Arsuzi began his studies at a kuttab where he memorised the Quran, four years later, his parents enrolled him into a rüşdiye to give him a proper Ottoman education. His father was arrested by Ottoman authorities in 1915 for nationalist activities and his father was imprisoned for a short period before he and his family were sent to internal exile in the Anatolian city of Konya. After a year in exile, Najib and his family were allowed to back to Antioch. According to Arsuzi, his father replaced the Ottoman flag with the Hashemite flag on the Antioch government house upon hearing the news that Faisal I of Iraq had entered Damascus and this however, was never independently verified. In the aftermath of World War I, Arsuzi began studying at Institut Laïc in Lebanon and it was here that Arsuzi was introduced to philosophy
29.
14 July Revolution
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King Faisal II, Prince Abd al-Ilah, and Prime Minister Nuri al-Said were executed during this coup. This coup laid the foundations of Iraq that were to last until 2003. A result of the overthrow of the Iraqi Hashemite dynasty, the coup established the Republic of Iraq. This coup was followed by the overthrow of Abd al-Karim Qasim, during World War II, Iraq was home to a growing number of Arab nationalists. The Arab nationalists aimed, in part, to remove British imperial influence in Iraq and this sentiment grew from a politicised educational system in Iraq and an increasingly assertive and educated middle class. The two directors of the system in Iraq, Sami Shawkat and Fadhil al-Jamal, employed teachers who were political refugees from Palestine. These exiles fled to Iraq because of their roles in anti-British and anti-French protests, the growing general awareness of Arab identity led to anti-imperialism. Similarly, Pan-Arab sentiment grew across the Arab world and was promoted by Egypts Gamel Abdel Nasser, Hashemite Iraq faced and confronted these sentiments as well. Nuri al-Said, the Iraqi Prime Minister, was interested in pursuing the idea of a federation of Arab States of the Fertile Crescent, but was less enthusiastic about a pan-Arab state. Al-Said brought Iraq into the Arab League in 1944, seeing it as providing a forum for bringing together the Arab states while leaving the open for a possible future federation. The charter of the League enshrined the principle of autonomy for each Arab state, the Iraqi economy fell into a recession and then a depression following World War II, inflation was uncontrolled and the Iraqi standard of living was dropping. Al-Said and the Arab Nationalist regent, Abd al-Ilah, were continually in opposition to each other, in 1950, Nuri al-Said persuaded the Iraqi Petroleum Company to increase the royalties paid to the Iraqi government. Al-Said looked to Iraqs growing oil revenues to fund and propel development and this foreign presence provoked popular disapproval towards al-Saids policy because of its reliance on decision-making by foreigners. Salter continued to make suggestions as to how to implement development projects regardless of massive Iraqi dislike of his presence, during World War II, the British reoccupied Iraq and in 1947, through the Anglo-Iraqi Treaty of 1948 on 15 January, Salih Jabr negotiated British withdrawal from Iraq. However, this agreement included a joint British and Iraqi joint defence board that oversaw Iraqi military planning, additionally, the British continued to control Iraqi foreign affairs. Iraq was still tied to Great Britain for military supplies and training and this treaty was to last until 1973—a 25-year period that Arab nationalists in Iraq could not accept. As a strong reaction to the Anglo-Iraqi Treaty of 1948, Arab nationalists led the Wathbah Rebellion a year later in protest at the continued British presence in Iraq, al-Said repudiated the Portsmouth Treaty as a concession he offered to the rebellious Iraqi and Arab nationalists. In 1955, Iraq entered into the Baghdad Pact with Iran, Pakistan, the pact was a defence agreement between the four nations and was endorsed by the UK and the United States as a anti-communist Cold War strategy, but was greatly resented by Iraqis in general
30.
Abd al-Karim Qasim
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Abd al-Karim Qasim, was a nationalist Iraqi Army brigadier who seized power in a 1958 coup détat, wherein the Iraqi monarchy was eliminated. He ruled the country as Prime Minister until his downfall and death during the 1963 Ramadan Revolution, during his rule, Qasim was popularly known as al-za‘īm or, The Leader. Abd al-Karim Qasims father was an Iraqi Muslim of Arabic descent who died shortly after his sons birth during World War I, Qasims mother was a Shiite Kurd and the daughter of a farmer from Baghdad. When Qasim was six years of age his family moved to Suwayra, Qasim was an excellent student, he entered secondary school on a government scholarship. After graduation in 1931, he taught at Shamiyya Elementary School from 22 October of that year until 3 September 1932, in 1934, he graduated as a second lieutenant. Qasim then attended al-Arkan College and graduated with honours in December 1941, in 1951, he completed a senior officers’ course in Devizes, Wiltshire. Militarily, he participated in the suppression of the disturbances in the Middle Euphrates region in 1935, during the Anglo-Iraqi War in May 1941. Qasim also served during the Iraqi military involvement in the Arab-Israeli War from May 1948 to June 1949, toward the latter part of the mission, he commanded a battalion of the First Brigade, which was situated in the Kafr Qasem area south of Qilqilya. In 1956-57, he served with his brigade at Mafraq in Jordan in the wake of the Suez Crisis, by 1957 Qasim had assumed leadership of several opposition groups that had formed in the army. On 14 July 1958, Qasim and his followers used troop movements planned by the government as an opportunity to seize control of Baghdad. This resulted in the killing of members of the royal family and their close associates. The coup was discussed and planned by the Free Officers, but was executed by Qasim. It was triggered when King Hussein of Jordan, fearing that a revolt in Lebanon might spread to Jordan. Instead of moving towards Jordan, however, Colonel Arif led a battalion into Baghdad and immediately proclaimed a new republic, the 14 July Revolution met virtually no opposition. Prince Abdul Ilah did not want any resistance to the forces besieged the Royal Rihab Palace. The commander of the Royal Guards battalion on duty, Col. Taha Bamirni, King Faisal II and Princess Hiyam were wounded. The King died later before reaching the hospital, Princess Hiyam was not recognized at the hospital and managed to receive treatment. Later she left for Saudi Arabia where her family lived and then moved to Egypt until her death, in the wake of the successful coup, the new Iraqi Republic was headed by a Revolutionary Council
31.
Pan-Arab colours
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The Pan-Arab colours are black, white, green, and red. Individually, each of the four Pan-Arab colours were intended to represent a certain Arab dynasty, or era. The four colours derived their potency from a verse by 14th century Iraqi poet Safi Al-Din Al-Hilli, « White are our acts, black our battles, green our fields, Pan-Arab colours were first combined in 1916 in the flag of the Arab Revolt. It may be noted that while Libya is an Arab country and has a flag with the four colours. From the 1950s onwards, a sub-set of the Pan-Arab colours and these consist of a tricolour of red, white and black bands, with green given less prominence. The Arab Liberation colours were inspired by the use of the Arab Liberation Flag in the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, list of Arab flags Pan-Arabism Tricolour Pan-Slavic colors Pan-African colours Pan-Arab colors Evolution of the Arab Flag, by Dr. Mahdi Abdul-Hadi
32.
Pan-Arabism
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Pan-Arabism or Arabism is an ideology espousing the unification of the countries of North Africa and West Asia from the Atlantic Ocean to the Arabian Sea, referred to as the Arab world. It is closely connected to Arab nationalism, which asserts that the Arabs constitute a single nation and its popularity was at its height during the 1950s and 1960s. Advocates of pan-Arabism have often espoused socialist principles and strongly opposed Western political involvement in the Arab world and it also sought to empower Arab states from outside forces by forming alliances and – to a lesser extent – economic co-operation. The origins of pan-Arabism are often attributed to Jurji Zaydan and his Nahda movement and he also popularized through his historical novels certain heroes from Arab history. A more formalized pan-Arab ideology than that of Hussein was first espoused in the 1930s, notably by Syrian thinkers such as Constantin Zureiq, Sati al-Husri, Zaki al-Arsuzi and it has been said that Arsuzi was fascinated with the Nazi ideology of racial purity and impacted Aflaq. Abdullah I of Jordan dreamed of uniting Syria, Palestine, and he unsuccessfully proposed a plan to this effect to the United Kingdom, which controlled Palestine at that time. The plan was not popular among the majority of Arabs and fostered distrust among the leaders of the other Middle Eastern countries against Abdallah, the distrust of Abdallahs expansionist aspirations was one of the principal reasons for the founding of the Arab League in 1945. Once Abdallah was assassinated by a Palestinian nationalist in 1951, the vision of Greater Syria was dropped from the Jordanian agenda, the pan-Arabist ideology has been accused of inciting prejudice against or downplaying the role of ethnic minorities such as the Berbers. Although pan-Arabism began at the time of World War I, Egypt was not interested in pan-Arabism prior to the 1950s, thus, in the 1930s and 1940s, Egyptian nationalism – not pan-Arabism – was the dominant mode of expression of Egyptian political activists. James Jankowski wrote about Egypt at the time, What is most significant is the absence of an Arab component in early Egyptian nationalism, the thrust of Egyptian political, economic, and cultural development throughout the nineteenth century worked against, rather than for, an Arab orientation. This situation—that of divergent political trajectories for Egyptians and Arabs—if anything increased after 1900, there have been several attempts to bring about a pan-Arab state by many well-known Arab leaders, all of which ultimately resulted in failure. It lasted until 1961, when Syrian army officers carried out a coup détat, by 1961, Egypt had become the only remaining member but continued to call itself the UAR, but it eventually renamed itself the Arab Republic of Egypt in 1973. Also in 1958, a Hashemite-led rival, the Arab Federation, was founded between Jordan and Iraq, tensions with the UAR and the 14 July Revolution made the Arab Federation collapse after only six months. Another attempt, the United Arab States, existed as a confederation between the United Arab Republic, Arab Federation and the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen, but it dissolved in 1961. Two later attempts represented the enthusiasm of Libyas Muammar Gaddafi, the Federation of Arab Republics, which lasted five years, and the Arab Islamic Republic, which never emerged in practice. The current Syrian government is and the government of Iraq was led by rival factions of the Baath Party. The Arab defeat by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War and the inability of pan-Arabist governments to generate economic growth severely damaged the credibility of pan-Arabism as a relevant ideology, Egyptians attachment to pan-Arabism was particularly questioned after the Six-Day War. Nasser had overplayed his hand in trying to form a pan-Arab hegemony under himself, thousands of Egyptians had lost their lives, and the country became disillusioned with Arab politics
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Kurds
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The Kurds are culturally and linguistically closely related to the Iranian peoples and, as a result, are often themselves classified as an Iranian people. A recent Kurdish diaspora has also developed in Western countries, primarily in Germany, the Kurdish language refers collectively to the related dialects spoken by the Kurds. It is mainly spoken in parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria. Kurdish holds official status in Iraq as a national language alongside Arabic, is recognized in Iran as a regional language, the Kurdish languages belong to the northwestern sub‑group of the Iranian languages, which in turn belongs to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European family. According to Mackenzie, there are few features that all Kurdish dialects have in common. And the fact that this reflects the sense of ethnic identity and unity of the Kurds. The number of Kurds living in Southwest Asia is estimated at close to 30 million, Kurds comprise anywhere from 18% to 20% of the population in Turkey, possibly as high as 25%,15 to 20% in Iraq, 10% in Iran, and 9% in Syria. Kurds form regional majorities in all four of these countries, viz. in Turkish Kurdistan, the Kurds are the fourth largest ethnic group in West Asia after the Arabs, Persians, and Turks. The total number of Kurds in 1991 was placed at 22.5 million, with 48% of this number living in Turkey, 18% in Iraq, 24% in Iran, and 4% in Syria. Recent emigration accounts for a population of close to 1.5 million in Western countries and this groups population was estimated at close to 0.4 million in 1990. The land of Karda is mentioned on a Sumerian clay-tablet dated to the 3rd millennium B. C. This land was inhabited by the people of Su who dwelt in the regions of Lake Van. Other Sumerian clay-tables referred the people, who lived in the land of Karda, as the Qarduchi and the Qurti. Many Kurds consider themselves descended from the Medes, an ancient Iranian people, the claimed Median descent is reflected in the words of the Kurdish national anthem, We are the children of the Medes and Kai Khosrow. The Kurdish languages form a subgroup of the Northwestern Iranian languages like Median, some researchers consider the independent Kardouchoi as the ancestors of the Kurds. The term Kurd, however, is first encountered in Arabic sources of the seventh century, the Kurds have ethnically diverse origins. During the Sassanid era, in Kar-Namag i Ardashir i Pabagan, after initially sustaining a heavy defeat, Ardashir I was successful in subjugating the Kurds. In a letter Ardashir I received from his foe, Ardavan V, the usage of the term Kurd during this time period most likely was a social term, designating Northwestern Iranian nomads, rather than a concrete ethnic group
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Star of Ishtar
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Ishtar is the Mesopotamian East Semitic goddess of fertility, love, war, sex, and power. She is the counterpart to the earlier attested Sumerian Inanna, and the cognate for the later attested Northwest Semitic Aramean goddess Astarte, and the Armenian goddess Astghik. Ishtar was an important deity in Mesopotamian religion which was extant from c.3500 BCE, Ishtar symbolizes love, including that between human and animals, its power, and its danger. Ishtar was the daughter of Anu and she was particularly worshipped in the Upper Mesopotamian kingdom of Assyria, particularly at the cities of Nineveh, Ashur and Arbela, and also in the south Mesopotamian city of Uruk. Besides the lions on her gate, her symbol is an eight-pointed star, in the Babylonian pantheon, she was the divine personification of the planet Venus. Ishtar had many lovers, however, as Guirand notes, Woe to him whom Ishtar had honoured, the fickle goddess treated her passing lovers cruelly, and the unhappy wretches usually paid dearly for the favours heaped on them. Animals, enslaved by love, lost their native vigour, they fell into traps laid by men or were domesticated by them, thou has loved the lion, mighty in strength, says the hero Gilgamesh to Ishtar, and thou hast dug for him seven and seven pits. Thou hast loved the steed, proud in battle, and destined him for the halter, the goad, even for the gods Ishtars love was fatal. In her youth the goddess had loved Tammuz, god of the harvest and her cult may have involved sacred prostitution, though this is debatable. Guirand referred to her holy city Uruk as the town of the sacred courtesans, one of the most famous myths about Ishtar describes her descent to the underworld. I will bring up the dead to eat the living, and the dead will outnumber the living. The gatekeeper hurried to tell Ereshkigal, the Queen of the Underworld, Ereshkigal told the gatekeeper to let Ishtar enter, but according to the ancient decree. The gatekeeper let Ishtar into the underworld, opening one gate at a time, at each gate, Ishtar had to shed one article of clothing. When she finally passed the seventh gate, she was naked, in a rage, Ishtar threw herself at Ereshkigal, but Ereshkigal ordered her servant Namtar to imprison Ishtar and unleash sixty diseases against her. After Ishtar descended to the underworld, all activity ceased on earth. The god Papsukal reported the situation to Ea, the king of the gods, Ea created an intersex being called Asu-shu-namir and sent them to Ereshkigal, telling them to invoke the name of the great gods against her and to ask for the bag containing the waters of life. Ereshkigal was enraged when she heard Asu-shu-namirs demand, but she had to them the water of life. Asu-shu-namir sprinkled Ishtar with this water, reviving her, then, Ishtar passed back through the seven gates, getting one article of clothing back at each gate, and was fully clothed as she exited the last gate
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Assyrian people
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Assyrian people, or Syriacs, are an ethnic group indigenous to the Middle East. Some of them self-identify as Chaldeans, or as Arameans and they speak modern Aramaic, whose subdivisions include Northeastern, Central, and Western Neo-Aramaic, as well as another language, dependent on the country of residence. The Assyrians are typically Syriac-speaking Christians who claim descent from Assyria, one of the oldest civilizations in the world, the areas that form the Assyrian homeland are parts of present-day northern Iraq, southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran and northeastern Syria. The majority have migrated to regions of the world, including North America, the Levant, Australia, Europe, Russia. Assyrians are predominantly Christian, mostly adhering to the East and West Syrian liturgical rites of Christianity, whereas the churches of the West Syrian rite, the Syriac Orthodox Church and Syriac Catholic Church, mostly speak the Central and Western branches. According to a 2013 report by a Chaldean Syriac Assyrian Popular Council official, in prehistoric times, the region that was to become known as Assyria was home to Neanderthals such as the remains of those which have been found at the Shanidar Cave. The earliest Neolithic sites in Assyria belonged to the Jarmo culture c.7100 BC and Tell Hassuna, the history of Assyria begins with the formation of the city of Assur perhaps as early as the 25th century BC. The Assyrian king list records kings dating from the 25th century BC onwards, the earliest being Tudiya, who was a contemporary of Ibrium of Ebla. However, many of early kings would have been local rulers. In the traditions of the Assyrian Church of the East, they are descended from Abrahams grandson, however, there is no historical basis for the biblical assertion whatsoever, there is no mention in Assyrian records. The Assyrian people, after the fall of their empire, fell under foreign domination ever since, the Persian Empire was founded, which consumed the entire Neo-Babylonian or Chaldean Empire in 539 BC. Assyrians became front line soldiers for the Persian Empire under Xerxes I, the Assyrian army accounted for three legions of the Roman army, defending the Parthian border. In the 1st century, it was the Assyrian army that enabled Vespasians coup, from the later 2nd century, the Roman Senate included several notable Assyrians, including Tiberius Claudius Pompeianus and Avidius Cassius. From the 1st century BC, Assyria was the theatre of the protracted Roman–Persian Wars and it would become a Roman province from 116 to 363 AD. Despite the influx of foreign elements, the presence of Assyrians is confirmed by the worship of the god Ashur, the Greeks, Parthians, and Romans had a rather low-level of integration with the local population in Mesopotamia, which allowed their cultures to survive. The Assyrians were Christianized in the first to third centuries in Roman Syria, the population of the Sasanian province of Asōristān was a mixed one, composed of Assyrians, Arameans in the far south and the western deserts, and Persians. The Greek element in the cities, still strong during the Parthian Empire, the majority of the population were Eastern Aramaic speakers. Along with the Arameans, Armenians, Greeks, and Nabataeans, the Council of Seleucia of ca.325 dealt with jurisdictional conflicts among the leading bishops
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Iraqi Kurdistan
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Iraqi Kurdistan, officially called the Kurdistan Region by the Iraqi constitution, is located in the north of Iraq and constitutes the countrys only autonomous region. The region is governed by the Kurdistan Regional Government, with the capital being Erbil. Kurdistan is a democracy with its own regional Parliament that consists of 111 seats. Masoud Barzani, who was elected as president in 2005, was re-elected in 2009. In August 2013 the parliament extended his presidency for two years. His presidency concluded on 19 August 2015 after the parties failed to reach an agreement over extending his term. The new Constitution of Iraq defines the Kurdistan Region as an entity of Iraq. The four governorates of Duhok, Hawler, Silemani, and Halabja comprise around 41,710 square kilometres and have a population of 5.5 million. In 2014, during the 2014 Iraq Crisis, Iraqi Kurdistans forces also took much of the disputed territories of Northern Iraq. The establishment of the Kurdistan Region dates back to the March 1970 autonomy agreement between the Kurdish opposition and the Iraqi government after years of heavy fighting, further, the 1980–88 Iran–Iraq War, especially the Iraqi Armys Al-Anfal Campaign, devastated the population and environment of Iraqi Kurdistan. As Kurds continued to fight government troops, Iraqi forces finally left Kurdistan in October 1991, in 1992, the major political parties in the region, the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, established the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government. The 2003 invasion of Iraq and subsequent political changes led to the ratification of a new constitution in 2005, the name Kurdistan literally means Land of the Kurds. The suffix -stan is Iranian for place of or country, in English translations of the Constitution of Iraq, it is called Kurdistan, four times in the phrase region of Kurdistan and once in the phrase Kurdistan region. The regional government calls it the Kurdistan Region, the full name of the government is the Kurdistan Regional Government, abbreviated KRG. Kurds also refer to the region as Başûrê Kurdistanê or Başûrî Kurdistan, during the Baath Party administration in the 1970s and 1980s, the region was called the Kurdish Autonomous Region. The Kurdistan Region is largely mountainous, with the highest point being a 3,611 m point known locally as Cheekha Dar, the mountains are part of the larger Zagros mountain range which also extends into Iran. There are many rivers running through the region, which is distinguished by its fertile lands, plentiful water, the Great Zab and the Little Zab flow from the east to the west in the region. The Tigris river enters Iraqi Kurdistan from Turkish Kurdistan, the mountainous nature of Iraqi Kurdistan, the difference of temperatures in its various parts, and its wealth of waters make it a land of agriculture and tourism
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Egyptian revolution of 1952
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The Egyptian revolution of 1952, also known as the July 23 revolution, began on July 23,1952, by the Free Officers Movement, a group of army officers led by Muhammad Naguib and Gamal Abdel Nasser. The revolution was aimed at overthrowing King Faruq. The revolutionary government adopted a staunchly nationalist, anti-imperialist agenda, which came to be expressed chiefly through Arab nationalism, the ongoing state of war with Israel also posed a serious challenge, as the Free Officers increased Egypts already strong support of the Palestinians. These two issues conflated four years after the revolution when Egypt was invaded by Britain, France and this strengthened the appeal of the revolution in other Arab and African countries. By the 1960s, Arab socialism had become a dominant theme and these restrictions on political activity would remain in place until the presidency of Anwar Sadat from 1970 onwards, during which many of the policies of the revolution were scaled back or reversed. It also inspired the toppling of existing pro-Western monarchies and governments in the region, the revolution is commemorated each year on July 23. The revolution in 1952 found its genesis within the voice of the people and it was first time for Egyptians to rule since time of Pharaohs. The new regime was common to all Egyptians in terms of religion, culture, the end of monarchy signaled an end for British intervention. A government that is 100 percent consisting of Egyptians was expected to act in favor of society, a mixture of agrarian capitalism and feudalism initiated the anti-feudal coup. The Egyptian economy was capitalist since last quarter of the 19th century, the loss of the 1948 war with Israel led to the Free Officers accusations of corruption towards the King and his court and the promotion of that feeling among the Egyptian people. The Free Officers Movement was formed by a group of reform minded officers which, backed by the Soviet Union and they used an army general, Muhammad Naguib, as its head to show their seriousness and attract more army followers. You manifested this during and after the Palestine War in the corrupt arms scandals and your open interference in the courts to try to falsify the facts of the case, thus shaking faith in justice. The army places upon Your Majesty the burden of everything that may result from failure to abdicate according to the wishes of the people. Causes • The Egyptian monarchy was seen as corrupt and pro-British, with its lavish lifestyle that seemed provocative to the free officers movement who lived in poverty. Its policies completed the image of the Egyptian government being a puppet-figure in the hands of the British government, • Promoting the feeling of corruptness of several Egyptian institutions such as the police, the palace and even the political parties by the free officers. • The loss of 1948 war with Israel led to the free officers blame of the King, as a result, a group of army officers who named themselves the free officers movement was formed by a young officer named Gamal Abdel Nasser. They used a general, Mohamed Naguib, as its head to show seriousness. You manifested this during and after the Palestine War in the corrupt arms scandals and your open interference in the courts to try to falsify the facts of the case, thus shaking faith in justice
38.
Flag of Syria
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As a result of the ongoing Syrian civil war, there are currently two governments claiming to be the de jure government of Syria, using different flags to represent the state. The current flag was first adopted in 1958 to represent Syria as part of the United Arab Republic, since its first adoption, variations of the red-white-black flag have been used in various Arab Unions of Syria with Egypt, Libya, Sudan, Yemen and Iraq. Although Syria is not part of any Arab state union, the flag of the United Arab Republic was readopted to show Syrias commitment to Arab unity. The usage of the flag has become disputed because it is associated with the Baath Party and has come to represent parties loyal to Assads government in the Syrian civil war. The Syrian flag is described in Article 6 of the Syrian Constitution, the first paragraph of the Article states, The flag of the Syrian Arab Republic consists of three colours, red, white and black, with two green stars, of five angles each. The flag is rectangular, with its width measuring two thirds of its length and it is divided into three rectangles of identical dimensions and have the same length as the flag. The upper one is red, the middle being white and the one is black. The modified independence flag began to be used as a display of the protesting opposition in late 2011. The opposition wanted to distinguish themselves from the current Syrian government, khaled Kamal, an official from the Syrian National Council, now believes this flag to also represent independence and the end of Bashar al-Assads government. Today the flag is used in areas controlled by the Syrian National Coalition. The use of the independence flag is similar to the Libyan rebels use of the pre-Gaddafi Libyan flag from the era of the Kingdom of Libya in opposition to Muammar Gaddafis green flag. The original 1,2 aspect ratio flag has been used by the opposition unofficially on several occasions, the first native Syrian flag was that of the short-lived Kingdom of Syria. The Ottoman flag had been used in Syria until Ottomans left the country on 18 September 1918, in 1918, the official flag of Syria was the Faysal flag, the flag of the Arab revolt between 1916 and 1918. It was officially adopted by the Hashemite family on 30 September 1918, the Faysal flag was then redesigned with the 7-pointed white star and was in use until 24 July 1920. This flag was, however, was adopted by Jordan somewhat later, the kingdom lasted for just over 4 months in 1920 before being occupied by France and formally incorporated into the French colonial empire for some 12 years. The last French troops left Syria in August 1946, the Faysal flag was abandoned with the arrival of French colonials to Syria. The French High Commissioner for Syria, General Henri Gouraud adopted the new flag of the French Mandate of Syria on 24 July 1920, gourauds flag was in use until 1 September 1920, after which Syria was split into separate territories, each eventually given its own flag. The Prime Minister of Syria under French Mandate, Jamil al-Ulshi and this flag was in use until 1930
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Coat of arms of Syria
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This emblem consist of the Hawk of Quraish supporting a shield bearing the national flag of Syria, and a scroll of the words Syrian Arab Republic in Arabic. Since the start of the ongoing Syrian Civil War in March 2011, during Syrias union with Egypt in the United Arab Republic between 1958 and 1961, the pan-Arab Eagle of Saladin was used as the basis of the coat of arms. Though Syria withdrew from the union in 1961, Egypt continued to use the name, flag. Syria reverted to the coat of arms used before the UAR, inverting the colours of the mullets and the orle two years later. During the period of the Federation of Arab Republics between 1972 and 1977, an association of Egypt, Libya, and Syria, the Hawk of Quraish was used as the coat of arms. After the end of the union, all three former member states retained the Hawk of Quraish, Syria continued to use the Hawk of Quraish, as did Libya under Gaddafi
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Saddam Hussein
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Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. In the early 1970s, Saddam nationalized oil and other industries, the state-owned banks were put under his control, leaving the system eventually insolvent mostly due to the Iran–Iraq War, the Gulf War, and UN sanctions. Through the 1970s, Saddam cemented his authority over the apparatuses of government as oil money helped Iraqs economy to grow at a rapid pace, positions of power in the country were mostly filled with Sunni Arabs, a minority that made up only a fifth of the population. Saddam formally rose to power in 1979, although he had been the de facto head of Iraq for several years prior. He suppressed several movements, particularly Shia and Kurdish movements, seeking to overthrow the government or gain independence, and maintained power during the Iran–Iraq War and the Gulf War. Whereas some in the Arab world lauded Saddam for his opposition to the United States, the total number of Iraqis killed by the security services of Saddams government in various purges and genocides is unknown, but the lowest estimate is 250,000. Saddams Baath party was disbanded and elections were held, following his capture on 13 December 2003, the trial of Saddam took place under the Iraqi Interim Government. On 5 November 2006, Saddam was convicted of charges of crimes against humanity related to the 1982 killing of 148 Iraqi Shiites and his execution was carried out on 30 December 2006. His mother, Subha Tulfah al-Mussallat, named her newborn son Saddam and he is always referred to by this personal name, which may be followed by the patronymic and other elements. He never knew his father, Hussein Abd al-Majid, who disappeared six months before Saddam was born, shortly afterward, Saddams 13-year-old brother died of cancer. The infant Saddam was sent to the family of his maternal uncle Khairallah Talfah until he was three and his mother remarried, and Saddam gained three half-brothers through this marriage. His stepfather, Ibrahim al-Hassan, treated Saddam harshly after his return, at about age 10, Saddam fled the family and returned to live in Baghdad with his uncle Kharaillah Talfah. Later in his relatives from his native Tikrit became some of his closest advisors and supporters. Under the guidance of his uncle he attended a high school in Baghdad. After secondary school Saddam studied at an Iraqi law school for three years, dropping out in 1957 at the age of 20 to join the revolutionary pan-Arab Baath Party, during this time, Saddam apparently supported himself as a secondary school teacher. Revolutionary sentiment was characteristic of the era in Iraq and throughout the Middle East, in Iraq progressives and socialists assailed traditional political elites. Moreover, the nationalism of Gamal Abdel Nasser in Egypt profoundly influenced young Baathists like Saddam. The rise of Nasser foreshadowed a wave of revolutions throughout the Middle East in the 1950s and 1960s, with the collapse of the monarchies of Iraq, Egypt, and Libya
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Invasion of Kuwait
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The Invasion of Kuwait on August 2,1990 was a 2-day operation conducted by Iraq against the neighboring state of Kuwait, which resulted in the seven-month-long Iraqi occupation of Kuwait. These events came to be known as the first Gulf War and resulted in the expulsion of Iraqi forces from Kuwait and the Iraqis setting 600 Kuwaiti oil wells on fire during their retreat. The invasion started on 2 August 1990, and within two days most of the Kuwait Armed Forces were either overrun by the Iraqi Republican Guard or fell back to neighboring Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. The State of Kuwait was annexed, and Saddam Hussein announced a few days later that it was the 19th province of Iraq, when the Iran-Iraq War broke out, Kuwait initially stayed neutral and also tried mediating between Iran and Iraq. In 1982, Kuwait along with other Arab states of the Persian Gulf supported Iraq in order to curb Iranian Revolutionary government, in 1982–1983, Kuwait began sending significant financial aid to Iraq. Kuwaits large-scale economic assistance to Iraq often triggered hostile Iranian actions against Kuwait, Iran repeatedly targeted Kuwaiti oil tankers in 1984 and fired weapons at Kuwaiti security personnel stationed on Bubiyan island in 1988. During the Iran–Iraq War, Kuwait functioned as Iraqs major port once Basra was shut down by the fighting. By the time the Iran–Iraq War ended, Iraq was not in a position to repay the US$14 billion it borrowed from Kuwait to finance its war. Iraq argued that the war had prevented the rise of Iranian hegemony in Kuwait, however, Kuwaits reluctance to pardon the debt created strains in the relationship between the two countries. During late 1989, several meetings were held between the Kuwaiti and Iraqi leaders but they were unable to break the deadlock between the two. Chalabi argued that oil prices would help Iraq increase its revenues. Throughout much of the 1980s, Kuwaits oil production was considerably above its mandatory OPEC quota, a lack of consensus among OPEC members undermined Iraqs efforts to end the oil glut and consequently prevented the recovery of its war-crippled economy. It was estimated that between 1985 and 1989, Iraq lost US$14 billion a year due to Kuwaits oil price strategy, Kuwaits refusal to decrease its oil production was viewed by Iraq as an act of aggression against it. The increasingly tense relations between Iraq and Kuwait were further aggravated when Iraq alleged that Kuwait was slant-drilling across the border into Iraqs Rumaila field. The dispute over Rumaila field started in 1960 when an Arab League declaration marked the Iraq–Kuwait border 2 miles north of the southernmost tip of the Rumaila field, during the Iran–Iraq War, Iraqi oil drilling operations in Rumaila declined while Kuwaits operations increased. In 1989, Iraq accused Kuwait of using advanced drilling techniques to exploit oil from its share of the Rumaila field, Iraq estimated that US$2.4 billion worth of Iraqi oil was stolen by Kuwait and demanded compensation. Kuwait dismissed the accusations as a false Iraqi ploy to justify military action against it, several foreign firms working in the Rumaila field also dismissed Iraqs slant-drilling claims as a smokescreen to disguise Iraqs more ambitious intentions. Many westerners believed that Iraqs invasion of Kuwait was largely motivated by its desire to control over the latters vast oil reserves
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Gulf War
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The Iraqi Armys occupation of Kuwait that began 2 August 1990 was met with international condemnation, and brought immediate economic sanctions against Iraq by members of the UN Security Council. US President George H. W. Bush deployed US forces into Saudi Arabia, an array of nations joined the coalition, the largest military alliance since World War II. The great majority of the military forces were from the US, with Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom. Kuwait and Saudi Arabia paid around US$32 billion of the US$60 billion cost, the war was marked by the introduction of live news broadcasts from the front lines of the battle, principally by the US network CNN. The war has also earned the nickname Video Game War after the daily broadcast of images from cameras on board US bombers during Operation Desert Storm. The initial conflict to expel Iraqi troops from Kuwait began with an aerial and naval bombardment on 17 January 1991 and this was followed by a ground assault on 24 February. This was a victory for the coalition forces, who liberated Kuwait. The coalition ceased its advance, and declared a ceasefire 100 hours after the campaign started. Aerial and ground combat was confined to Iraq, Kuwait, Iraq launched Scud missiles against coalition military targets in Saudi Arabia and against Israel. The following names have been used to describe the conflict itself, Gulf War, a problem with these terms is that the usage is ambiguous, having now been applied to at least three conflicts, see Gulf War. The use of the term Persian Gulf is also disputed, see Persian Gulf naming dispute, with no consensus of naming, various publications have attempted to refine the name. Other language terms include French, la Guerre du Golfe and German, Golfkrieg, German, Zweiter Golfkrieg, French, most of the coalition states used various names for their operations and the wars operational phases. Operation Desert Storm was the US name of the conflict from 17 January 1991. Operation Desert Sabre was the US name for the offensive against the Iraqi Army in the Kuwaiti Theater of Operations from 24–28 February 1991, in itself. Operation Desert Farewell was the given to the return of US units and equipment to the US in 1991 after Kuwaits liberation. Operation Granby was the British name for British military activities during the operations, Opération Daguet was the French name for French military activities in the conflict. Operation Friction was the name of the Canadian operations Operazione Locusta was the Italian name for the operations, in addition, various phases of each operation may have a unique operational name. The US divided the conflict into three campaigns, Defense of Saudi Arabian country for the period 2 August 1990, through 16 January 1991
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Arabic script
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The Arabic script is a writing system used for writing several languages of Asia and Africa, such as Arabic, dialects of Mandinka, Central Kurdish, Luri, Persian, Urdu, Pashto, and others. Until the 16th century, it was used to write some texts in Spanish. It is the second-most widely used writing system in the world by the number of countries using it, the Arabic script is written from right to left in a cursive style. In most cases the letters transcribe consonants, or consonants and a few vowels, the script was first used to write texts in Arabic, most notably the Qurʼān, the holy book of Islam. It is also the basis for the tradition of Arabic calligraphy, the Arabic script has been adopted for use in a wide variety of languages besides Arabic, including Persian, Malay and Urdu which are not Semitic. Such adaptations may feature altered or new characters to represent phonemes that do not appear in Arabic phonology, the modified version of the Arabic script originally devised for use with Persian is known as the Perso-Arabic script by scholars. In the cases of Bosnian, Kurdish, Kashmiri, and Uyghur writing systems, the Arabic script can therefore be used in both abugida and abjad, although it is often strongly, erroneously connected to the latter. Use of the Arabic script in West African languages, especially in the Sahel, to a certain degree the style and usage tends to follow those of the Maghreb. Additional diacritics have come into use to facilitate writing of sounds not represented in the Arabic language, the term ʻAjamī, which comes from the Arabic root for foreign, has been applied to Arabic-based orthographies of African languages. There is evidence that writing Arabic in this set of letters influenced the style of modern Arabic script. After this initial period, Garshuni writing has continued to the present day among some Syriac Christian communities in the Arabic-speaking regions of the Levant, Kazakh in China Kurdish in Northern Iraq and Northwest Iran. It is mainly used in Sri Lanka and the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu for religious purposes, arwi language is the language of Tamil Nadu Muslims. Malayalam language represented by Arabic script variant is known as Arabi Malayalam, the script has particular letters to represent the peculiar sounds of Malayalam. This script is used in madrasas of the South Indian state of Kerala. It is similar to Chittagonian language in neighboring Bangladesh and sometimes using the Roman script. Malay in the Arabic script known as Jawi, in some cases it can be seen in the signboards of shops or market stalls. In addition, some television programming uses Jawi, such as announcements, advertisements, news, social programs, Berber languages have often been written in an adaptation of the Arabic alphabet. The use of the Arabic alphabet, as well as the competing Latin, West Africa Zarma language of the Songhay family
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Coalition Provisional Authority
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The Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance was established on 20 January 2003 by the United States government two months before the 2003 invasion of Iraq. It was intended to act as an administration in Iraq until the creation of a democratically elected civilian government. Retired United States Army Lieutenant General Jay Garner was appointed as the Director of ORHA, upon the dissolution of ORHA and the creation of the CPA, he then became the first chief executive of the CPA. S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld made him a choice for the task. His term, however, lasted only from 21 April 2003 until he was replaced less than a month later by L. Paul Bremer on 11 May 2003. Garners swift dismissal from his post by U. S. authorities came as a surprise to many within the CPA. In an interview with the BBC program Newsnight, Garner publicly stated that his preference was to put the Iraqi people in charge as soon as possible and to do it with some form of elections. Privately, there was pressure from the U. S. government to begin a process of removing members of the Arab Socialist Baath Party from their positions within the Iraqi government. Garners refusal to implement this de-Baathification of Iraqi society as a matter of public policy infuriated several senior members of the U. S. government, and led directly to his dismissal. Upon assuming the post of chief executive of the CPA in May 2003, presidential Envoy and Administrator in Iraq. He was frequently called Ambassador by numerous organizations and the White House because it was the highest government rank he had achieved. But Bremer was not ambassador to Iraq, and there was no U. S. diplomatic mission in Iraq at the time. The CPA was created and funded as a division of the United States Department of Defense, although troops from several of the coalition countries were present in Iraq at this time, the U. S. Central Command was the military apparatus charged with providing direct combat support to the CPA to enforce its authority during the occupation of Iraq. While many of Saddam Husseins ornate palaces were looted in the immediately following the invasion. It is in numerous palaces situated throughout the country that the CPA chose to set up office in order to govern. Several of these palaces were retained by the U. S. government even after the transition of power back to the Iraqi people, the administration was centered in a district of Baghdad known as the Green Zone, which eventually became a highly secure walled-off enclave. The CPA was also responsible for administering the Development Fund for Iraq during the following the invasion
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Council of Representatives of Iraq
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The Council of Representatives of Iraq is the unicameral legislature of Iraq. It is currently composed of 328 seats and meets in Baghdad inside the Green Zone, an elected Iraqi parliament first formed following the establishment of a constitutional monarchy in 1925. The 1925 constitution called for a parliament whose lower house. The upper house, the Senate was appointed by the king, ten elections took place between 1925 and the coup of 1958. On January 17,1953 elections for the Chamber of Deputies took place, following controversy over the implementation of the so-called Baghdad Pact, Prime Minister Nuri Pasha as-Said called elections the following year, in early 1954. As-Said dissolved the assembly shortly thereafter and began to rule by decree, the second 1954 election was very corrupt, with as-Saids political enemies banned from running, and widespread voter coercion. The assembly was suspended yet again, and in 1958 a military coup deposed as-Said and the monarchy, the 1970 constitution created a republic with an elected National Assembly. However, elections for the Assembly did not take place until June 1980, under Iraqs new military president, several more elections took place between 1989 and 2003. The new Assembly was largely a figurehead that would occasionally rubber stamp the presidents decrees, elections for its members were not considered free and fair by the international community. Only members of Husseins own Baath Party were ever elected, in 2003, Saddam Hussein was forcibly removed from power by the United States of America, the United Kingdom and their allies during the Iraq War. This Assembly would draft a permanent constitution which would then be submitted to approval by the Iraqi people in a general referendum, elections for this transitional National Assembly took place on January 30,2005. The United Iraqi Alliance Party won the plurality of seats with 48% of the popular vote resulting in 140 seats, eighty-five members of the assembly were women. Talks between the UIA and other parties to form a coalition government began soon after the election, the assembly had its first meeting on March 16,2005. The Assembly elected Jalal Talabani to head the Presidency Council on April 6, under the permanent constitution approved on October 15,2005, legislative authority is vested in two bodies, the Council of Representatives and the Council of Union. The Council of Representatives consists of 325 members elected for four years, the Council passes federal laws, oversees the executive, ratifies treaties, and approves nominations of specified officials. It elects the president of the republic, who selects a prime minister from the majority coalition in the Council, elections for the Council of Representatives were held on December 15,2005. The Council first met on March 16,2006, exactly one year after the first meeting of the transitional assembly. The Council of Representatives of Iraq has the name in Arabic as the lower legislative houses of Bahrain, Morocco, Jordan, and Yemen
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Ba'athist Iraq
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Baathist Iraq, formally the Iraqi Republic, covers the history of Iraq between 1968 and 2003, during the period of the Arab Socialist Baath Partys rule. This period began with high growth and soaring prosperity, but ended with Iraq facing social, political. The average annual income decreased because of external factors. During al-Bakrs de jure rule, the economy grew. However, several factors were threatening the countrys stability, among them the countrys conflict with Iran. An external problem was the conflict with Iran, which would contribute to the Iran–Iraq War. The Baath Party, which was secular in nature, harshly repressed the protests, another policy change was Iraqs foreign policy towards Iran, a Shia Muslim country. Deteriorating relations eventually led to the Iran–Iraq War, which started in 1980 when Iraq launched an invasion of Iran. Following the 1979 Iranian revolution, the Iraqis believed the Iranians to be weak and this notion proved to be incorrect, and the war lasted for eight years. Iraqs economy deteriorated during the war, and the country dependent on foreign donations to fund their war effort. The war ended in a stalemate when a ceasefire was reached in 1988, when the war ended, Iraq found itself in the midst of an economic depression, owed millions of dollars to foreign countries, and was unable to repay its creditors. Kuwait, which had increased oil output following the war, reducing international oil prices. In response to this, Saddam threatened Kuwait that, unless it reduced its oil output, negotiations broke down, and on 2 August 1990, Iraq launched an invasion of Kuwait. The resulting international response led to the Persian Gulf War, which Iraq lost, the United Nations initiated economic sanctions in the wars aftermath to weaken the Baathist Iraqi government. The countrys economic conditions worsened during the 1990s, and at the turn of the 21st century, in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks of 2001, the United States initiated a Global War on Terrorism, and labelled Iraq as a part of an Axis of Evil. In 2003, U. S. coalition forces invaded Iraq, in contrast to previous coups détat in Iraqs history, the 1968 coup, referred to as the 17 July Revolution, was, according to Con Coughlin, a relatively civil affair. All telephone lines were cut at 03,00, by which time several tanks had been commanded to halt in front of the Presidential Palace. Abdul Rahman Arif, the then-President of Iraq, first knew of the coup when jubilant members of the Republican Guard started shooting into the air in a premature triumph
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United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
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Iraqi Governing Council
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The Iraqi Governing Council was the provisional government of Iraq from July 13,2003 to June 1,2004. It was established by and served under the United States-led Coalition Provisional Authority, the Councils ethnic and religious breakdown included 13 Shias, five Sunnis, five Kurds, one Turkmen and an Assyrian. Three of its members were women, in September 2003, the Iraqi Governing Council gained regional recognition from the Arab League, which agreed to seat its representative in Iraqs chair at its meetings. On June 1,2004, the Council dissolved after choosing member Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawer as the president of the new Iraq interim government, full sovereignty was transferred to the interim government on June 28. Though subject to the authority of the CPA administrator Paul Bremer, despite having to answer to the CPA, different factions took on controversial stands. Religious hardliners won a victory when Directive 137 was passed on December 29,2003. Passed by the council in less than 15 minutes, it replaced Iraqs former secular family law code with Sharia family law. A new flag chosen by the council for post-Saddam Iraq created much controversy, in part because of the similarity of color and design with the flag of Israel, instead, the council chose to dissolve itself prematurely. The presidency of Iraq rotated monthly among nine members of the council, on September 1,2003, the council named its first cabinet
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Rifat Chadirji
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Rifat Chadirji was born on December 6,1926 in Baghdad, is an Iraqi architect, photographer, author and activist. He is admired as the greatest modern architect of Iraq, rifat Chadirjis architecture is inspired by the characteristics of regional Iraqi architecture, and the time tested intelligence inherent in it. His publications are primarily in Arabic and include, al-Ukhaidar and the Crystal Palace A Dialogue on the Structure of Art, regenerative approaches to mosque design-competition to State Mosque, Baghdad. In Mimar 1984,11 page 44-63 ISSN 0129-8372, concepts & Influences, Towards a Regionalized International Architecture,1987. ISBN no. 1986, Chairmans Award of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture
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Proposed flag, 2004 (later abandoned)
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