1.
Samara Mosque
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The New Mosque in Samara is one of the largest mosques in Russia. It was built in the late 1990s in red brick, the main cupola is 13.5 metres in diameter. The minaret rises to a height of 67 meters, the building was designed by Rasim Walshin, an architect from Samara. There is an orchard by the walls. The New Mosque should not be confused with the pre-revolutionary mosque dating back to 1891, islam in Russia List of mosques in Russia List of mosques in Europe
2.
Al-Askari Shrine
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Al ‘Askarī Shrine or the ‘Askariyya Shrine is a Shī‘ah Muslim holy site in the Iraqi city of Sāmarrā125 km from Baghdad. It is one of the most important Shī‘ah Shrines in the world, adjacent to the shrine is a mosque, which is called Al-Askari Mosque. The remaining clock tower was destroyed in July 2007. The dome and minarets were repaired and the mosque reopened in April 2009, the remains of the 10th and 11th Shī‘ah Imāms, ‘Alī al-Hādī and his son Hasan al-‘Askarī, known as, al-‘Askariyyain, rest at the shrine. Also buried within the Mosque are, Hakimah Khātūn, sister of ‘Alī al-Hādī, and Narjis Khātūn, adjacent to this shrine is another mosque, built over the location where the Twelfth or Hidden Imām, Muħammad al-Mahdī first entered the Minor Occultation. The ‘Askariyya Shrine is also known as the Tomb or Mausoleum of the Two Imāms, time magazine reported at the time of the 2006 bombing that, al-Askari one of Shiite Islams holiest sites, exceeded in veneration only by the shrines of Najaf and Karbala. Even Samarras Sunnis hold al-Askari in high esteem, the expression to swear by the shrine is routinely used by both communities. The Imāms ‘Alī al-Hādī and Hassan al-‘Askarī lived under house arrest in the part of Samarra that had been Caliph al-Mutasims military camp, as a result, they are known as the ‘Askariyyain Dwellers in the Camp. They died and were buried in their house on Abī Ahmad Street near the mosque built by Mu‘tasim, a later tradition attributes their deaths to poison. Nasir ad-Din Shah Qajar undertook the latest remodelling of the shrine in 1868, covered in 72,000 gold pieces and surrounded by walls of light blue tiles, the dome was a dominant feature of the Samarra skyline. It was approximately 20 m in diameter by 68 m high, on 22 February 2006, at 6,55 am local time explosions occurred at the mosque, effectively destroying its golden dome and severely damaging the mosque. Two bombs were set off by five to seven men dressed as personnel of the Iraqi Special Forces who entered the shrine during the morning. At around 8 am on 13 June 2007, operatives belonging to al-Qaeda in Iraq destroyed the two remaining 36 m -high golden minarets flanking the domes ruins, in late 2007, the Iraqi government conducted a contract with a Turkish company to rebuild the mosque. The Iraqi government later cancelled the contract due to delays by the Turkish company, as of April 2009, the golden dome and the minarets have been restored and the shrine reopened to visitors. Bab Saghir Destruction of early Islamic heritage sites in Saudi Arabia Damage to Baghdad during the 2003 Iraq War Holiest sites in Islam Jannatul Baqee Jannatul Mualla Hammer, Joshua, Becherer, Max. Abstract, In 2006, sectarian violence engulfed Iraq after terrorists destroyed the Mosque of the Golden Dome, today, Sunnis and Shiites are working together to restore the shrine and the war-torn city. ICOMOS Heritage at Risk 2006/2007, Iraq, Askariya Shrine Ernst Herzfeld Papers, Records of Samarra Expeditions, Shiite Shrine Complex Collections Search Center, S. I. R. I. S. Ernst Herzfeld Papers, Series 7, Records of Samarra Expeditions, 1906–1945 Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, images of the destruction, before and after BBC picture gallery BBC video NYT picture gallery Disappointment in Samarra
3.
Samarra
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Sāmarrā is a city in Iraq. It stands on the east bank of the Tigris in the Saladin Governorate,125 kilometers north of Baghdad, in 2003 the city had an estimated population of 348,700. Samarra was once in the Sunni Triangle of violence during the violence in Iraq. In the medieval times, Samarra was the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate, in 2007, UNESCO named Samarra one of its World Heritage Sites. The remains of prehistoric Samarra were first excavated between 1911 and 1914 by the German archaeologist Ernst Herzfeld, Samarra became the type site for the Samarra culture. Since 1946, the notebooks, letters, unpublished excavation reports and photographs have been in the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington, the civilization flourished alongside the Ubaid period, as one of the first town states in the Near East. It lasted from 5,500 BCE and eventually collapsed in 3,900 BCE, a city of Sur-marrati is insecurely identified with a fortified Assyrian site of Assyrian at al-Huwaysh on the Tigris opposite modern Samarra. The State Archives of Assyria Online identifies Surimarrat as the site of Samarra. In 836 the Abbasid Caliph Al-Mutasim founded a new capital at the banks of the Tigris, here he built extensive palace complexes surrounded by garrison settlements for his guards, mostly drawn from Central Asia and Iran or North Africa. Although quite often called Mamluk slave soldiers, their status was quite elevated, for his son al-Mutazz he built the large palace Bulkuwara. Samarra remained the residence of the caliph until 892, when al-Mutadid eventually returned to Baghdad, the city declined but maintained a mint until the early 10th century. After the collapse of the Abbasid empire in about 940 Samarra was abandoned and its population returned to Baghdad and the city rapidly declined. Its field of ruins is the only metropolis of late antiquity which is available for serious archaeology. This has made it an important pilgrimage centre for the Twelvers, in addition, Hakimah and Narjis, female relatives of the Muhammad and the Imams, held in high esteem by Muslims, are buried there, making this mosque one of the most significant sites of worship. In the eighteenth century, one of the most bloody battles of the 1730–1735 Ottoman–Persian War, the Battle of Samarra, took place, the engagement decided the fate of Ottoman Iraq and kept it under Istanbuls suzerainty until the First World War. Many local people were displaced by the dam, resulting in an increase in Samarras population, Samarra is a key city in Saladin Governorate, a major part of the so-called Sunni Triangle where insurgents were active during the Iraq War. Though Samarra is famous for its Shii holy sites, including the tombs of several Shii Imams, tensions arose between Sunnis and the Shia during the Iraq War. On February 22,2006, the dome of the al-Askari Mosque was bombed, setting off a period of rioting
4.
Iraq
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The capital, and largest city, is Baghdad. The main ethnic groups are Arabs and Kurds, others include Assyrians, Turkmen, Shabakis, Yazidis, Armenians, Mandeans, Circassians, around 95% of the countrys 36 million citizens are Muslims, with Christianity, Yarsan, Yezidism, and Mandeanism also present. The official languages of Iraq are Arabic and Kurdish, two major rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, run south through Iraq and into the Shatt al-Arab near the Persian Gulf. These rivers provide Iraq with significant amounts of fertile land, the region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, historically known as Mesopotamia, is often referred to as the cradle of civilisation. It was here that mankind first began to read, write, create laws, the area has been home to successive civilisations since the 6th millennium BC. Iraq was the centre of the Akkadian, Sumerian, Assyrian and it was also part of the Median, Achaemenid, Hellenistic, Parthian, Sassanid, Roman, Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid, Ayyubid, Mongol, Safavid, Afsharid, and Ottoman empires. Iraqs modern borders were mostly demarcated in 1920 by the League of Nations when the Ottoman Empire was divided by the Treaty of Sèvres, Iraq was placed under the authority of the United Kingdom as the British Mandate of Mesopotamia. A monarchy was established in 1921 and the Kingdom of Iraq gained independence from Britain in 1932, in 1958, the monarchy was overthrown and the Iraqi Republic created. Iraq was controlled by the Arab Socialist Baath Party from 1968 until 2003, after an invasion by the United States and its allies in 2003, Saddam Husseins Baath Party was removed from power and multi-party parliamentary elections were held in 2005. The American presence in Iraq ended in 2011, but the Iraqi insurgency continued and intensified as fighters from the Syrian Civil War spilled into the country, the Arabic name العراق al-ʿIrāq has been in use since before the 6th century. There are several suggested origins for the name, one dates to the Sumerian city of Uruk and is thus ultimately of Sumerian origin, as Uruk was the Akkadian name for the Sumerian city of Urug, containing the Sumerian word for city, UR. An Arabic folk etymology for the name is rooted, well-watered. During the medieval period, there was a region called ʿIrāq ʿArabī for Lower Mesopotamia and ʿIrāq ʿajamī, for the region now situated in Central and Western Iran. The term historically included the south of the Hamrin Mountains. The term Sawad was also used in early Islamic times for the region of the plain of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. In English, it is either /ɪˈrɑːk/ or /ɪˈræk/, the American Heritage Dictionary, the pronunciation /aɪˈræk/ is frequently heard in U. S. media. Since approximately 10,000 BC, Iraq was one of centres of a Caucasoid Neolithic culture where agriculture, the following Neolithic period is represented by rectangular houses. At the time of the pre-pottery Neolithic, people used vessels made of stone, gypsum, finds of obsidian tools from Anatolia are evidences of early trade relations
5.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
6.
Mosque
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A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. There are strict and detailed requirements in Sunni jurisprudence for a place of worship to be considered a mosque, many mosques have elaborate domes, minarets, and prayer halls, in varying styles of architecture. Mosques originated on the Arabian Peninsula, but are now found in all inhabited continents, the mosque serves as a place where Muslims can come together for salat as well as a center for information, education, social welfare, and dispute settlement. The imam leads the congregation in prayer, the first mosque in the world is often considered to be the area around the Kaaba in Mecca now known as the Masjid al-Haram. Others regard the first mosque in history to be the Quba Mosque in present-day Medina since it was the first structure built by Muhammad upon his emigration from Mecca in 622. The Islamic Prophet Muhammad went on to another mosque in Medina. Built on the site of his home, Muhammad participated in the construction of the mosque himself and helped pioneer the concept of the mosque as the focal point of the Islamic city. The Masjid al-Nabawi introduced some of the still common in todays mosques, including the niche at the front of the prayer space known as the mihrab. The Masjid al-Nabawi was also constructed with a courtyard, a motif common among mosques built since then. Mosques had been built in Iraq and North Africa by the end of the 7th century, the Imam Husayn Shrine in Karbala is reportedly one of the oldest mosques in Iraq, although its present form – typical of Persian architecture – only goes back to the 11th century. The shrine, while operating as a mosque, remains one of the holiest sites for Shia Muslims, as it honors the death of the third Shia imam. The Mosque of Amr ibn al-As was reportedly the first mosque in Egypt, serving as a religious, like the Imam Husayn Shrine, though, nothing of its original structure remains. With the later Shia Fatimid Caliphate, mosques throughout Egypt evolved to include schools, hospitals and it was the first to incorporate a square minaret and includes naves akin to a basilica. Those features can also be found in Andalusian mosques, including the Grand Mosque of Cordoba, still, some elements of Visigothic architecture, like horseshoe arches, were infused into the mosque architecture of Spain and the Maghreb. The first mosque in East Asia was reportedly established in the 8th century in Xian, however, the Great Mosque of Xian, whose current building dates from the 18th century, does not replicate the features often associated with mosques elsewhere. Indeed, minarets were initially prohibited by the state, mosques in western China were more likely to incorporate elements, like domes and minarets, traditionally seen in mosques elsewhere. In turn, the Javanese style influenced the styles of mosques in Indonesias Austronesian neighbors—Malaysia, Brunei, Muslim empires were instrumental in the evolution and spread of mosques. Although mosques were first established in India during the 7th century, reflecting their Timurid origins, Mughal-style mosques included onion domes, pointed arches, and elaborate circular minarets, features common in the Persian and Central Asian styles
7.
Abbasid Caliphate
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The Abbasid Caliphate was the third of the Islamic caliphates to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. The Abbasid dynasty descended from Muhammads youngest uncle, Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib and they ruled as caliphs, for most of their period from their capital in Baghdad in modern-day Iraq, after assuming authority over the Muslim empire from the Umayyads in 750 CE. The Abbasid caliphate first centered its government in Kufa, but in 762 the caliph Al-Mansur founded the city of Baghdad, the political power of the caliphs largely ended with the rise of the Buyids and the Seljuq Turks. Although Abbasid leadership over the vast Islamic empire was reduced to a ceremonial religious function. The capital city of Baghdad became a center of science, culture, philosophy and this period of cultural fruition ended in 1258 with the sack of Baghdad by the Mongols under Hulagu Khan. The Abbasid line of rulers, and Muslim culture in general, though lacking in political power, the dynasty continued to claim authority in religious matters until after the Ottoman conquest of Egypt. The Abbasid caliphs were Arabs descended from Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib, one of the youngest uncles of Muhammad, the Abbasids claimed to be the true successors of Prophet Muhammad in replacing the Umayyad descendants of Banu Umayya by virtue of their closer bloodline to Muhammad. The Abbasids also distinguished themselves from the Umayyads by attacking their moral character, according to Ira Lapidus, The Abbasid revolt was supported largely by Arabs, mainly the aggrieved settlers of Marw with the addition of the Yemeni faction and their Mawali. The Abbasids also appealed to non-Arab Muslims, known as mawali, Muhammad ibn Ali, a great-grandson of Abbas, began to campaign for the return of power to the family of Prophet Muhammad, the Hashimites, in Persia during the reign of Umar II. During the reign of Marwan II, this culminated in the rebellion of Ibrahim the Imam. On 9 June 747, Abu Muslim successfully initiated a revolt against Umayyad rule. Close to 10,000 soldiers were under Abu Muslims command when the hostilities began in Merv. General Qahtaba followed the fleeing governor Nasr ibn Sayyar west defeating the Umayyads at the Battle of Nishapur, the Battle of Gorgan, after this loss, Marwan fled to Egypt, where he was subsequently assassinated. The remainder of his family, barring one male, were also eliminated, immediately after their victory, As-Saffah sent his forces to Central Asia, where his forces fought against Tang expansion during the Battle of Talas. Barmakids, who were instrumental in building Baghdad, introduced the worlds first recorded paper mill in Baghdad, As-Saffah focused on putting down numerous rebellions in Syria and Mesopotamia. The Byzantines conducted raids during these early distractions, the first change the Abbasids, under Al-Mansur, made was to move the empires capital from Damascus, in Syria, to Baghdad in Iraq. Baghdad was established on the Tigris River in 762, a new position, that of the vizier, was also established to delegate central authority, and even greater authority was delegated to local emirs. During Al-Mansurs time control of Al-Andalus was lost, and the Shiites revolted and were defeated a year later at the Battle of Bakhamra, the Abbasids had depended heavily on the support of Persians in their overthrow of the Umayyads
8.
Al-Mutawakkil
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Abu’l-Faḍl Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad al-Muʿtaṣim bi’llāh, better known by his regnal name al-Mutawakkil ʿAlā ’llāh was an Abbasid caliph who reigned in Samarra from 847 until 861. His assassination on 11 December 861 by the Turkish guard with the support of his son, al-Muntasir, the future al-Mutawakkil was born on February/March 822 to the Abbasid prince Abu Ishaq Muhammad and a slave concubine from Khwarazm called Shuja. His early life is obscure, as he played no role in political affairs until the death of his older half-brother, al-Wathiq, al-Wathiqs death was unexpected, and although he had a young son, he had not designated a successor. Ibn al-Zayyat initially proposed al-Wathiqs son Muhammad, but due to his youth he was passed over, and instead the council chose the 26-year-old Jafar, the officials obviously hoped that the new Caliph would prove a pliable puppet, like al-Wathiq. Al-Mutawakkils first target was the vizier Ibn al-Zayyat, against whom he harboured a grudge over the way he had disrespected him in the past. According to al-Tabari, when al-Wathiq had grown angry and suspicious at his brother, not only had Ibn al-Zayyat kept the Abbasid prince waiting until he finished going through his correspondence, but even mocked him, in the presence of others, for coming to him seeking assistance. Not only that, but when the prince left, Ibn al-Zayyat wrote to the Caliph to complain about his appearance, noting that he was dressed in effeminate fashion. As a result, al-Wathiq had his brother summoned to court, Al-Mutawakkil came in a brand-new court dress, hoping to mollify the Caliph, but instead al-Wathiq ordered that his hair be shorn off, and al-Mutawakkil be struck in the face with it. In later times, al-Mutawakkil confessed that he had never been so distressed by anything in his life than by public humiliation. Thus, on 22 September 847, he sent Itakh to summon Ibn al-Zayyat as if for an audience, instead, the vizier was brought to Itakhs residence, where he was placed under house arrest. His possessions were confiscated, and he was tortured to death, in 848, however, he was persuaded to go to the pilgrimage, and laid down his powers, only to be arrested on his return. His possessions were confiscated—reportedly, in his house alone the Caliphs agents found one million gold dinars and he died of thirst in prison on 21 December 849. One Mahmud ibn al-Faraj al-Nayshapuri arose claiming to be a prophet and he and some followers were arrested in Baghdad. He was imprisoned, beaten and on June 18,850 he died, in A. H.236 al-Mutawakkil issued a decree requiring all Christians and Jews in his realm including Jerusalem and Caesarea to wear a yellow hood and belt to distinguish them from Muslims. In A. H.237 Armenians rebelled and defeated and killed the Abbasid governor, Al-Mutawakkil sent his general Bugha al-Kabir to handle this. Bugha scored successes this year and the year he attacked and burned Tiflis. That year the Byzantines attacked Damietta, in A. H.240 the police chief in Homs killed a prominent person stirring an uprising. When the next year saw a revolt against this new police chief, as Christians had joined in the second round of disturbances, the caliph had Christians expelled from Homs
9.
Minaret
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A minaret, from Arabic, منارة manāra, lit. lighthouse, also known as Goldaste, is a distinctive architectural structure akin to a tower and typically found adjacent to mosques. Generally a tall spire with a conical or onion-shaped crown, usually either free-standing or taller than associated support structure, the basic form of a minaret includes a base, shaft, and gallery. Styles vary regionally and by period, minarets provide a visual focal point and are traditionally used for the Muslim call to prayer. The purpose of minarets in traditional Eastern region architecture is to serve as a system for a building in very hot climates. That buildings of middle eastern origins have such outstanding features is architecturally intentional, however in modern times, with the invention of the modern air conditioners, the purpose of minarets has changed to traditional symbol. The minaret would be equipped with a speaker that would call people to prayers in Muslim countries. In addition to providing a visual cue to a Muslim community, the call to prayer is issued five times each day, dawn, noon, mid-afternoon, sunset, and night. In most modern mosques, the adhān is called from the musallah via microphone to a system on the minaret. Around 80 years after Muhammads death, the first known minarets appeared, minarets have been described as the gate from heaven and earth, and as the Arabic language letter aleph. The massive minaret of the Great Mosque of Kairouan in Tunisia is the oldest standing minaret and its construction began during the first third of the 8th century and was completed in 836 CE. The imposing square-plan tower consists of three sections of decreasing size reaching 31.5 meters, considered as the prototype for minarets of the western Islamic world, it served as a model for many later minarets. The tallest minaret, at 210 metres is located at the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca, the tallest brick minaret is Qutub Minar located in Delhi, India. In some of the oldest mosques, such as the Great Mosque of Damascus, the basic form of minarets consists of three parts, a base, shaft, and a gallery. For the base, the ground is excavated until a foundation is reached. Gravel and other supporting materials may be used as a foundation, minarets may be conical, square, cylindrical, or polygonal. Stairs circle the shaft in a fashion, providing necessary structural support to the highly elongated shaft. The gallery is a balcony that encircles the upper sections from which the muezzin may give the call to prayer, styles and architecture can vary widely according to region and time period. Here are a few styles and the localities from which they derive, Tunisia Quadrangular, turkish 1,2,4 or 6 minarets related to the size of the mosque
10.
Hulagu Khan
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Hulagu Khan, also known as Hülegü or Hulegu, was a Mongol ruler who conquered much of Western Asia. Son of Tolui and the Keraite princess Sorghaghtani Beki, he was a grandson of Genghis Khan and brother of Ariq Böke, Möngke Khan, and Kublai Khan. Hulagus army greatly expanded the portion of the Mongol Empire, founding the Ilkhanate of Persia, a precursor to the eventual Safavid dynasty. Under Hulagus leadership, the siege of Baghdad destroyed the greatest center of Islamic power and also weakened Damascus, Hulagu was born to Tolui, one of Genghis Khans sons, and Sorghaghtani Beki, an influential Keraite princess. Sorghaghtani successfully navigated Mongol politics, arranging for all of her sons to become Mongol leaders and she was a Christian of the Church of the East and Hulagu was friendly to Christianity. Hulagus favorite wife, Doquz Khatun, was also a Christian, as was his closest friend and general and it is recorded however that he converted to Buddhism as he neared death, against the will of Doquz Khatun. The erection of a Buddhist temple at Ḵoy testifies his interest in that religion, Hulagu had at least three children, Abaqa Khan, Tekuder, and Taraqai. Abaqa was second Ilkhan of Iran from 1265–82, Teguder Ahmad was third Ilkhan from 1282–84, the order of birth is listed as Abaqa, Hyaxemet, Tandon, Teguder, then Taraqai. His daughter-in-law, Absh Khatun, was sent to Shiraz to reign in 1263, Hulagus brother Möngke Khan had been installed as Great Khan in 1251. In 1255, Möngke charged Hulagu with leading a massive Mongol army to conquer or destroy the remaining Muslim states in southwestern Asia, Möngke ordered Hulagu to treat kindly those who submitted and utterly destroy those who did not. Hulagu vigorously carried out the part of these instructions. Hulagu marched out with perhaps the largest Mongol army ever assembled – by order of Möngke and he easily destroyed the Lurs, and the Assassins surrendered their impregnable fortress of Alamut without a fight, accepting a deal that spared the lives of their people. Hulagus Mongol army set out for Baghdad in November 1257, once near the city he divided his forces to threaten the city on both the east and west banks of the Tigris. Hulagu demanded surrender, but the caliph, Al-Mustasim, refused, the caliphs army repulsed some of the forces attacking from the west but were defeated in the next battle. The attacking Mongols broke dikes and flooded the ground behind the caliphs army, much of the army was slaughtered or drowned. The Mongols under Chinese general Guo Kan laid siege to the city on January 29,1258, constructing a palisade, the battle was short by siege standards. By February 5 the Mongols controlled a stretch of the wall, the caliph tried to negotiate but was refused. The Mongols swept into the city on February 13 and began a week of destruction, the Grand Library of Baghdad, containing countless precious historical documents and books on subjects ranging from medicine to astronomy, was destroyed
11.
Mosque of Ibn Tulun
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The Mosque of Ahmad Ibn Ţūlūn is located in Cairo, Egypt. It is arguably the oldest mosque in the city surviving in its original form, the mosque was commissioned by Ahmad ibn Ţūlūn, the Turkic Abbassid governor of Egypt from 868–884 whose rule was characterized by de facto independence. The historian al-Maqrizi lists the construction start date as 876 AD. The mosque was constructed on a hill called Gebel Yashkur. One local legend says that it is here that Noahs Ark came to rest after the Deluge, the grand ceremonial mosque was intended as the focal point of Ibn Ţūlūns capital, al-Qatai, which served as the center of administration for the Tulunid dynasty. The mosque originally was backed by ibn Ţūlūns palace, and an adjacent to the minbar allowed him direct entry to the mosque. Al-Qatai was razed in the early 10th century, AD, the mosque was constructed in the Samarran style common with Abbasid constructions. The mosque is constructed around a courtyard, with one covered hall on each of the four sides, the original mosque had its ablution fountain in the area between the inner and outer walls. A distinctive sabil with a drum dome was added in the central courtyard at the end of the thirteenth century by the Sultan Lajīn. There is significant controversy over the date of construction of the minaret and it is also told that using these stairs one can climb up on a horse. When someone asked him what he was doing, he responded, embarrassed, architectural historian Doris Behrens-Abouseif asserts that Sultan Lajīn, who restored the mosque in 1296, was responsible for the construction of the current minaret. The mosque has been restored several times, Sultan Lajīns restoration of 1296 added several improvements. The mosque was most recently restored by the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities in 2004, during the medieval period, several houses were built up against the outside walls of the mosque. Most were demolished in 1928 by the Committee for the Conservation of Arab Monuments, however, the house, accessible through the outer walls of the mosque, is open to the public as the Gayer-Anderson Museum, named after the British general R. G. John Gayer-Anderson, who lived there until 1942, parts of the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me were filmed at the mosque. The mosque is featured in the game Serious Sam 3, BFE, history of Medieval Arabic and Western European domes Nicholas Warner. The Monuments of Historic Cairo, a map and descriptive catalogue, Cairo, American University in Cairo Press,2005. Islamic Architecture in Cairo, an Introduction Cairo, American University in Cairo Press,1989. utexas. edu
12.
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
13.
Sandstone
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Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earths crust, like sand, sandstone may be any color, but the most common colors are tan, brown, yellow, red, grey, pink, white, and black. Since sandstone beds often form highly visible cliffs and other topographic features, quartz-bearing sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure, usually related to tectonic compression within orogenic belts. They are formed from cemented grains that may either be fragments of a rock or be mono-minerallic crystals. The cements binding these grains together are typically calcite, clays, grain sizes in sands are defined within the range of 0.0625 mm to 2 mm. The formation of sandstone involves two principal stages, first, a layer or layers of sand accumulates as the result of sedimentation, either from water or from air. Typically, sedimentation occurs by the settling out from suspension. The most common cementing materials are silica and calcium carbonate, which are derived either from dissolution or from alteration of the sand after it was buried. Colours will usually be tan or yellow, a predominant additional colourant in the southwestern United States is iron oxide, which imparts reddish tints ranging from pink to dark red, with additional manganese imparting a purplish hue. Red sandstones are seen in the Southwest and West of Britain, as well as central Europe. The regularity of the latter favours use as a source for masonry, either as a building material or as a facing stone. These physical properties allow the grains to survive multiple recycling events. Quartz grains evolve from rock, which are felsic in origin. Feldspathic framework grains are commonly the second most abundant mineral in sandstones, Feldspar can be divided into two smaller subdivisions, alkali feldspars and plagioclase feldspars. The different types of feldspar can be distinguished under a petrographic microscope, below is a description of the different types of feldspar. Alkali feldspar is a group of minerals in which the composition of the mineral can range from KAlSi3O8 to NaAlSi3O8. Plagioclase feldspar is a group of solid solution minerals that range in composition from NaAlSi3O8 to CaAl2Si2O8. Lithic framework grains are pieces of ancient source rock that have yet to weather away to individual mineral grains, accessory minerals are all other mineral grains in a sandstone, commonly these minerals make up just a small percentage of the grains in a sandstone
14.
Mesopotamia
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In the Iron Age, it was controlled by the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Empires. The Sumerians and Akkadians dominated Mesopotamia from the beginning of history to the fall of Babylon in 539 BC. It fell to Alexander the Great in 332 BC, and after his death, around 150 BC, Mesopotamia was under the control of the Parthian Empire. Mesopotamia became a battleground between the Romans and Parthians, with parts of Mesopotamia coming under ephemeral Roman control. In AD226, eastern part of it fell to the Sassanid Persians, division of Mesopotamia between Roman and Sassanid Empires lasted until the 7th century Muslim conquest of Persia of the Sasanian Empire and Muslim conquest of the Levant from Byzantines. A number of primarily neo-Assyrian and Christian native Mesopotamian states existed between the 1st century BC and 3rd century AD, including Adiabene, Osroene, and Hatra, Mesopotamia is the site of the earliest developments of the Neolithic Revolution from around 10,000 BC. The regional toponym Mesopotamia comes from the ancient Greek root words μέσος middle and ποταμός river and it is used throughout the Greek Septuagint to translate the Hebrew equivalent Naharaim. In the Anabasis, Mesopotamia was used to designate the land east of the Euphrates in north Syria, the Aramaic term biritum/birit narim corresponded to a similar geographical concept. The neighbouring steppes to the west of the Euphrates and the part of the Zagros Mountains are also often included under the wider term Mesopotamia. A further distinction is made between Northern or Upper Mesopotamia and Southern or Lower Mesopotamia. Upper Mesopotamia, also known as the Jazira, is the area between the Euphrates and the Tigris from their sources down to Baghdad, Lower Mesopotamia is the area from Baghdad to the Persian Gulf and includes Kuwait and parts of western Iran. In modern academic usage, the term Mesopotamia often also has a chronological connotation and it is usually used to designate the area until the Muslim conquests, with names like Syria, Jazirah, and Iraq being used to describe the region after that date. It has been argued that these later euphemisms are Eurocentric terms attributed to the region in the midst of various 19th-century Western encroachments, Mesopotamia encompasses the land between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, both of which have their headwaters in the Armenian Highlands. Both rivers are fed by tributaries, and the entire river system drains a vast mountainous region. Overland routes in Mesopotamia usually follow the Euphrates because the banks of the Tigris are frequently steep and difficult. The climate of the region is semi-arid with a vast desert expanse in the north which gives way to a 15,000 square kilometres region of marshes, lagoons, mud flats, in the extreme south, the Euphrates and the Tigris unite and empty into the Persian Gulf. In the marshlands to the south of the area, a complex water-borne fishing culture has existed since prehistoric times, periodic breakdowns in the cultural system have occurred for a number of reasons. Alternatively, military vulnerability to invasion from marginal hill tribes or nomadic pastoralists has led to periods of trade collapse and these trends have continued to the present day in Iraq
15.
Ziggurat
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A ziggurat was a massive structure built in ancient Mesopotamia and the western Iranian plateau. It had the form of a step pyramid of successively receding stories or levels. Notable ziggurats include the Great Ziggurat of Ur near Nasiriyah, the Ziggurat of Aqar Quf near Baghdad, Ziggurats were built by the ancient Sumerians, Babylonians, Elamites, Akkadians, and Assyrians for local religions. Each ziggurat was part of a complex which included other buildings. The precursors of the ziggurat were raised platforms that date from the Ubaid period during the fourth millennium BCE, the earliest ziggurats began as a platform, the ziggurat was a pyramidal structure with a flat top. Sun-baked bricks made up the core of the ziggurat with facings of fired bricks on the outside, each step was slightly smaller than the step below it. The facings were often glazed in different colors and may have had astrological significance, kings sometimes had their names engraved on these glazed bricks. The number of floors ranged from two to seven, according to archaeologist Harriet Crawford, It is usually assumed that the ziggurats supported a shrine, though the only evidence for this comes from Herodotus, and physical evidence is nonexistent. It has also suggested by a number of scholars that this shrine was the scene of the sacred marriage. Herodotus describes the furnishing of the shrine on top of the ziggurat at Babylon, the god Marduk was also said to come and sleep in his shrine. The likelihood of such a shrine ever being found is sadly remote, erosion has usually reduced the surviving ziggurats to a fraction of their original height, but textual evidence may yet provide more facts about the purpose of these shrines. Access to the shrine would have been by a series of ramps on one side of the ziggurat or by a ramp from base to summit. The Mesopotamian ziggurats were not places for worship or ceremonies. They were believed to be dwelling places for the gods and each city had its own patron god, only priests were permitted on the ziggurat or in the rooms at its base, and it was their responsibility to care for the gods and attend to their needs. The priests were very powerful members of Sumerian society, one of the best-preserved ziggurats is Chogha Zanbil in western Iran. The Sialk ziggurat, in Kashan, Iran, is the oldest known ziggurat, Ziggurat designs ranged from simple bases upon which a temple sat, to marvels of mathematics and construction which spanned several terraced stories and were topped with a temple. An example of a simple ziggurat is the White Temple of Uruk, the ziggurat itself is the base on which the White Temple is set. Its purpose is to get the temple closer to the heavens, the Mesopotamians believed that these pyramid temples connected heaven and earth
16.
Sasanian Empire
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The Sasanian Empire was founded by Ardashir I, after the fall of the Parthian Empire and the defeat of the last Arsacid king, Artabanus V. According to a legend, the vexilloid of the Sasanian Empire was the Derafsh Kaviani, in many ways, the Sasanian period witnessed the peak of ancient Iranian civilization. Persia influenced Roman culture considerably during the Sasanian period, the Sasanians cultural influence extended far beyond the empires territorial borders, reaching as far as Western Europe, Africa, China and India. It played a prominent role in the formation of both European and Asian medieval art, much of what later became known as Islamic culture in art, architecture, music and other subject matter was transferred from the Sasanians throughout the Muslim world. Conflicting accounts shroud the details of the fall of the Parthian Empire, the Sassanid Empire was established in Estakhr by Ardashir I. Papak was originally the ruler of a region called Khir, however, by the year 200, he managed to overthrow Gochihr, and appoint himself as the new ruler of the Bazrangids. His mother, Rodhagh, was the daughter of the governor of Pars. Papak and his eldest son Shapur managed to expand their power all of Pars. The subsequent events are unclear, due to the nature of the sources. It is certain, however, that following the death of Papak, Ardashir, sources reveal that Shapur, leaving for a meeting with his brother, was killed when the roof of a building collapsed on him. By the year 208, over the protests of his brothers who were put to death. Once Ardashir was appointed shahanshah, he moved his capital further to the south of Pars, the city, well supported by high mountains and easily defendable through narrow passes, became the center of Ardashirs efforts to gain more power. The city was surrounded by a high, circular wall, probably copied from that of Darabgird, in a second attempt to destroy Ardashir, Artabanus V himself met Ardashir in battle at Hormozgan, where Artabanus V met his death. Following the death of the Parthian ruler, Ardashir I went on to invade the provinces of the now defunct Parthian Empire. Ardashir was aided by the geography of the province of Fars, in the next few years, local rebellions would form around the empire. Nonetheless, Ardashir I further expanded his new empire to the east and northwest, conquering the provinces of Sistan, Gorgan, Khorasan, Margiana, Balkh and he also added Bahrain and Mosul to Sassanids possessions. In the west, assaults against Hatra, Armenia and Adiabene met with less success, in 230, he raided deep into Roman territory, and a Roman counter-offensive two years later ended inconclusively, although the Roman emperor, Alexander Severus, celebrated a triumph in Rome. Ardashir Is son Shapur I continued the expansion of the empire, conquering Bactria, invading Roman Mesopotamia, Shapur I captured Carrhae and Nisibis, but in 243 the Roman general Timesitheus defeated the Persians at Rhesaina and regained the lost territories
17.
Pritzker Architecture Prize
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Founded in 1979 by Jay A. Pritzker and his wife Cindy, the award is funded by the Pritzker family and sponsored by the Hyatt Foundation. It is considered to be one of the premier architecture prizes. The prize is said to be awarded irrespective of nationality, race, creed, the recipients receive US$100,000, a citation certificate, and since 1987, a bronze medallion. Before 1987, a limited edition Henry Moore sculpture accompanied the monetary prize, any licensed architect can also make a personal application for the prize before 1 November every year. In 1988 Gordon Bunshaft nominated himself for the award and eventually won it, the jury, each year consisting of five to nine experts. Recognized professionals in their own fields of architecture, business, education, publishing, the prize Chair is 2002 winner, Glenn Murcutt, earlier chairs were J. Carter Brown, the Lord Rothschild, and the Lord Palumbo. Inaugural winner Philip Johnson was cited for 50 years of imagination and vitality embodied in a myriad of museums, theaters, libraries, houses, gardens, the 2004 laureate Zaha Hadid was the first female prize winner. Ryue Nishizawa became the youngest winner in 2010 at age 44, partners in architecture have shared the award. In 1988, Gordon Bunshaft and Oscar Niemeyer were both honored with the award. The most recent winners, in 2017, are the Spanish architects Rafael Aranda, Carme Pigem and this was the first time three architects shared the prize. A. a Roche was born in Ireland, C Gehry was born in Canada. D Hadid was born in Iraq, E Rogers was born in Italy. Driehaus Architecture Prize List of architecture prizes General Past laureates
18.
Philip Johnson
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In 1978 he was awarded an American Institute of Architects Gold Medal and in 1979 the first Pritzker Architecture Prize. Johnson was born in Cleveland, Ohio on July 8,1906 and he was descended from the Jansen family of New Amsterdam, and included among his ancestors the Huguenot Jacques Cortelyou, who laid out the first town plan of New Amsterdam for Peter Stuyvesant. In 1928 he met Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, who was at the time designing the German Pavilion for the 1929 Barcelona International Exposition. The meeting formed the basis for a relationship of both collaboration and competition In 1930, Johnson joined the architecture department of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. There he arranged for American visits by Gropius and Le Corbusier, in 1932, working with Hitchcock and Alfred H. Barr, Jr. and Henry-Russell Hitchcock, he organized the first exhibition on Modern architecture at the Museum of Modern Art in 1932. The show and their published book International Style, Modern Architecture Since 1922 played an important part in introducing modern architecture to the American public. When the rise of the Nazis in Germany forced the modernists Marcel Breuer and Mies van der Rohe to leave Germany, in 1936, in the depths of the Great Depression, he left the Museum of Modern Art for a brief venture into journalism and politics. In his 1994 biography of Johnson, Schultze wrote, In politics he proved to be a model of futility and he was never much of a political threat to anyone, still less an effective doer of either political good or political evil. In 1941, at the age of 35, Johnson abandoned politics and journalism and enrolled in the Harvard Graduate School of Design, in 1941, Johnson designed and actually built his first building, a house still existing at 9 Ash Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The house, strongly influenced by Mies van der Rohe, has a wall around the lot which merges with the structure, after the United States entered World War II in December 1941, Johnson enlisted in the Army. He spent his service during the war in the United States. In 1946, after he completed his service, Johnson returned to the Museum of Modern Art as a curator. At the same time, he began working to establish his architectural practice and he built a small house, in th style of Mies, in Saaponack, Long Island in 1946. This was followed by one of this most famous buildings, which he built for himself, the Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut, completed in 1949, which has become a landmark of modern architecture. Johnson had curated an exhibit of Mies van der Rohes at the Museum of Modern Art in 1947, the house is a 56 foot by 32 foot glass rectangle, sited at the edge of a crest on Johnsons estate overlooking a pond. The buildings sides are glass and charcoal-painted steel, the floor, of brick, is not flush with the ground, the interior is an open space divided by low walnut cabinets, a brick cylinder contains the bathroom and is the only object to reach floor to ceiling. The New York Times described it in 2005 as one of the 20th centurys greatest residential structures, Johnson continued to add to the Glass House estate during each period of his career. After completing the Glass House, he completed two more houses in New Canaan in a similar to that of Mies, the Hodgson House
19.
Thanks-Giving Square
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Thanks-Giving Square is a private park and public facility anchoring the Thanksgiving Commercial Center district of downtown Dallas, Texas. It was the first public-private partnership of its kind in Dallas, in 1964, four businessmen wanted the City of Dallas to be known not only for its worldly aspirations and economic accomplishments, but also for the enduring heart of its citizens. Researchers and spiritual leaders discovered a long history of giving and living thanks in Dallas, Thanksgiving, which is gratitude in action, was recognized as a human universal present in cultures and faith traditions around the world. The Thanks-Giving Foundation was started to create a space in the center of Dallas dedicated in gratitude to God and to this most ancient. Partnering with the City of Dallas, construction began in 1973, President Gerald Ford later recognized Thanks-Giving Square as a major national shrine. It welcomes people of all cultures and religions are welcome to celebrate values, thoughts, concurrent to private development, the City of Dallas constructed transportation infrastructure below the landscaped garden. The City of Dallas leases the land and subsurface from the Thanks-Giving Foundation, Thanks-Giving Square generally refers to the garden and facilities visible at street level, which are owned and operated by the non-profit Thanks-Giving Foundation. Pritzker Architecture Prize winner Philip Johnson was commissioned to bring the vision of Thanks-Giving Square to life, the Square is set fifteen feet below ground level with a four-foot wall blocking the sight of automobiles to create a serene, green island. Water plays a prominent role in the landscape, with active fountains masking city noise, overt Religious symbolism is intentionally absent from the decoration of Thanks-Giving Square. Granite markers include references from Scripture, and the 100th Psalm is featured prominently in quotes and messages as delineated by Hindu, Jewish, Christian, mosaic, stained glass, engraving, and graphic art adorn the walls and windows throughout Thanks-Giving Square. At the western end of the park is the Court of All Nations, the Ring of Thanks is a 14-foot diameter aluminum ring is covered in 23 carat gold leaf. Visitors can walk through the ring before passing under a 50-foot Bell Tower featuring three bronze bells designed in the form of the Liberty Bell, in the middle of the garden is the Center Court of Praise, which takes inspiration from public gathering spaces around the world. It is here that special events have celebrated “gratitude on the move” through speech, song, the aluminum and gold ring and nearby text reference this message found in Psalm 100. This area regularly holds events, memorial services, and citywide prayer vigils. The Grove is an area designed for meditation and contemplation. In 1991, President George H. W. Bush dedicated the Wall of Presidents, below the chapel is the Hall of Thanksgiving, which tells the story of the American Thanksgiving tradition. The Hall of Thanksgiving is the exhibition, meeting, and resource center for Thanks-Giving Square, the pillared hall receives dignitaries and provides a forum for lectures, interfaith meetings, and educational programming. Artifacts on display include the Book of Prayers and Presidential Proclamations, the Chapel of Thanksgiving is the spiritual center of Thanks-Giving Square open to visitors of all faiths
20.
Dallas
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Dallas is a major city in the U. S. state of Texas. It is the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the citys population ranks ninth in the U. S. and third in Texas after Houston and San Antonio. The citys prominence arose from its importance as a center for the oil and cotton industries. The bulk of the city is in Dallas County, of which it is the county seat, however, sections of the city are located in Collin, Denton, Kaufman, and Rockwall counties. According to the 2010 United States Census, the city had a population of 1,197,816, the United States Census Bureaus estimate for the citys population increased to 1,300,092 as of July 1,2015. In 2016 DFW ascended to the one spot in the nation in year-over-year population growth. In 2014, the metropolitan economy surpassed Washington, D. C. to become the fifth largest in the U. S. with a 2014 real GDP over $504 billion, as such, the metropolitan areas economy is the 10th largest in the world. As of January 2017, the job count has increased to 3,558,200 jobs. The citys economy is based on banking, commerce, telecommunications, technology, energy, healthcare and medical research. The city is home to the third-largest concentration of Fortune 500 companies in the nation. Located in North Texas, Dallas is the core of the largest metropolitan area in the South. Dallas and nearby Fort Worth were developed due to the construction of railroad lines through the area allowing access to cotton, cattle. Later, France also claimed the area but never established much settlement, the area remained under Spanish rule until 1821, when Mexico declared independence from Spain, and the area was considered part of the Mexican state of Coahuila y Tejas. In 1836, the Republic of Texas, with majority Anglo-American settlers, in 1839, Warren Angus Ferris surveyed the area around present-day Dallas. John Neely Bryan established a permanent settlement near the Trinity River named Dallas in 1841, the origin of the name is uncertain. The Republic of Texas was annexed by the United States in 1845, Dallas was formally incorporated as a city on February 2,1856. With construction of railroads, Dallas became a business and trading center and it became an industrial city, attracting workers from Texas, the South and the Midwest. The Praetorian Building of 15 stories, built in 1909, was the first skyscraper west of the Mississippi and it marked the prominence of Dallas as a city
21.
Firuzabad, Fars
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Firuzabad is a city in and the capital of Firuzabad County, Fars Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 58,210, Firuzabad is located south of Shiraz. The town is surrounded by a mud wall and ditch, Alexander of Macedonia destroyed the original city of Gōr. Centuries later, Ardashir I, founder of the Sassanid Dynasty, Firuzabad is situated in a low-lying area of the region, so Alexander was able to drown the city by directing the flow of a river into the city. The lake he created remained until Ardashir I built a tunnel to drain it and he founded his new capital city on this site. Ardashirs new city was known as Khor Ardashīr, Ardashīr Khurah and it had a circular plan so precise in measurement that the Persian historian Ibn Balkhi wrote it to be devised using a compass. It was protected by a trench 50 meters in width, and was 2 kilometers in diameter. The city had four gates, to the north was the Hormozd Gate, to the south the Ardashir Gate, to the east the Mithra Gate, the royal capitals compounds were constructed at the center of a circle 450 m in radius. At the center point of the city was a Zoroastrian fire temple 30 m high and spiral in design, the citys importance was revived again in the reign of Adud al-Dawla of the Buyid dynasty, who used the city as his frequent residence. It is at time that the old name of the city—Gōr, was abandoned in favor of the new. In New Persian, spoken at the time, Gōr had come to mean grave, king Adud al-Dawla, as the story goes, found it distasteful to reside in a grave. Per his instruction, the name was changed to Peroz-abad. Since then, the city has been known by variations of that name, among the attractions of the city are the Ghaleh Dokhtar, the Palace of Ardeshir, and the fire temple tower among the remains of Gōr. Bishapur Cities of the Ancient Near East Round city of Baghdad, modeled after Firuzabad Ernst Herzfeld Papers, Series 5, Drawings and Maps, Records of Firuzabad Collections Search Center, a guided tour of Firouzabad Palace, Ardeshirs Palace, YouTube
22.
Chogha Zanbil
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Chogha Zanbil is an ancient Elamite complex in the Khuzestan province of Iran. It is one of the few existent ziggurats outside of Mesopotamia and it lies approximately 30 km south-east of Susa and 80 km north of Ahvaz. It was built about 1250 BC by the king Untash-Napirisha, mainly to honor the great god Inshushinak and its original name was Dur Untash, which means town of Untash, but it is unlikely that many people, besides priests and servants, ever lived there. The complex is protected by three walls which define the main areas of the town. The inner area is taken up with a great ziggurat dedicated to the main god. The middle area holds eleven temples for lesser gods and it is believed that twenty-two temples were originally planned, but the king died before they could be finished, and his successors discontinued the building work. In the outer area are royal palaces, a funerary palace containing five subterranean royal tombs, the main building materials in Chogha Zanbil were mud bricks and occasionally baked bricks. The monuments were decorated with glazed baked bricks, gypsum and ornaments of faïence, ornamenting the most important buildings were thousands of baked bricks bearing inscriptions with Elamite cuneiform characters were all inscribed by hand. Glazed terracotta statues such as bulls and winged griffins guarded the entrances to the ziggurat, near the temples of Kiririsha and Hishmitik-Ruhuratir, kilns were found that were probably used for the production of baked bricks and decorative materials. It is believed that the ziggurat was built in two stages and it took its multi-layered form in the second phase. The ziggurat is considered to be the best preserved example in the world, in 1979, Chogha Zanbil became the first Iranian site to be inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Choga Zanbil was excavated in six seasons between 1951 and 1961 by Roman Ghirshman, petroleum exploration due to increased global demand threatens the foundations of the site, as various seismic tests have been undertaken to explore for reserves of petroleum. Digging for oil has been undertaken as close as 300 metres away from the ziggurat,1, pp. 112–113,1955 Roman Ghirshman, Cinquième campagne de fouilles à Tchoga-Zanbil, près Suse, rapport préliminaire, Comptes-rendus des séances de lAcadémie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, vol. 3, pp. 335–345,1956 Roman Ghirshman, Les fouilles de Tchoga-Zanbil, près de Suse, Comptes-rendus des séances de lAcadémie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, vol. 2, pp. 137–138,1956 Roman Ghirshman, VIe campagne de fouilles à Tchoga-Zanbil près de Suse, rapport préliminaire, Comptes-rendus des séances de lAcadémie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, vol. 3, pp. 231–241,1957 Roman Ghirshman, FouiIles de Tchoga-Zanbil près de Suse, complexe de quatre temples, Comptes-rendus des séances de lAcadémie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, vol. 1, pp. 74–76,1959 Roman Ghirshman, VIIe campagne de fouilles à Tchoga-Zanbil, près de Suse, rapport préliminaire, Comptes-rendus des séances de lAcadémie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, vol. 2, pp. 287–297,1959 P. Amiet, Marlik et Tchoga Zanbil, Revue dAssyriologie et dArchéologie Orientale, vol
23.
The Wonderful Barn
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The Wonderful Barn is a corkscrew-shaped building on the edge of Castletown House Estate of the Conolly family, which borders Leixlip and Celbridge, County Kildare, Ireland. It was built in 1743 on the Leixlip side of the Castletown Estate, flanked by two smaller dovecote towers, it was built with the stairs ascending around the exterior of the building. Several purposes are suggested for the unique structure, one theory is based on the custom in Georgian times of using doves as a delicacy when other game or animals were not in season, and suggest its use as a dovecote. The height of the structure would also lend itself to sport shooting, supporting another theory of its use as a shooting or gamekeepers tower, the tower is seen from the east windows of Castletown House, so it filled that vista, possibly as a folly. However, a hole through each of the floors supports the generally accepted theory of its use as a granary. The barn was built in the immediately following the famine of 1740-41. The Conollys owned Kilmacredock and rented it out, so the barn was also useful for their tenants, the construction project also likely served as a way to keep the local poor employed. In this, it is not unlike the Conolly Folly, which was built on the estate in 1740-41, a similar structure known as the Bottle Tower, built in imitation of the Wonderful Barn, is located in Churchtown, Dublin, close to Rathfarnham. The Bottle Tower The Minaret of Samarra
24.
Mehr News Agency
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The Mehr News Agency is an Iranian news agency headquartered in Tehran, owned by the Islamic Ideology Dissemination Organization. Established on 22 June 2003, MNA is the most multilingual news agency in the Islamic Republic of Iran and its CEO and Director General is Ali Asgari. MNA has five regional centers inside the country—northern, southern, central, eastern and it transmits news and photos in six languages of Persian, English, German, Arabic, Turkish, and Urdu. Employing more than 300 reporters and photographers dispatched in 30 provinces of the country, the news agency was accepted as the 40th member of the Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies at the 13th General Assembly held in Jakarta, Indonesia, in 2007. The agency was the host agency of the OANA 31st Executive Board Meeting and it had also actively participated in two international summits – the 2009 World Media Summit in Beijing, China, and the 2010 OANA Summit Congress in Seoul, South Korea. The agency was also a special guest of the III News Agencies’ World Congress in Argentina from 19 to 23 October 2010, MNA also actively participated in the Istanbul OANA General Assembly in November 2010 and the OANA 26th ETEG - 32nd EBM meetings in Ulan Bator in June 2011. MNA initiated the OANA flag, and the 50-year-old OANA adopted the flag, list of Iranian news agencies Media of Iran Official website IOS Application
25.
Abu Hanifa Mosque
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The Abu Hanifa Mosque or also known as is one of the most prominent Sunni mosques in Baghdad, Iraq. It is built around the tomb of Abu Hanifah an-Numan, often called the Great Imam and it is in the al-Adhamiyah district of northern Baghdad, which is named after Abu Hanifas by the name of. Abu Jafar al-Mansur offered Abu Hanifa to be Qazi al-quzat, the judge of judges, but he refused and he was lashed 110 lashes until he agreed. Al-Mansur ordered Abu Hanifa to make fatwas that expand the caliphs authority, while he was in prison, Abu Hanifa died in 150 AH /767 AD in Baghdad, either from being poisoned or from old age. He was buried in al-Khayzuran Cemetery, named after al-Khayzuran bint Atta that was buried in it,23 years after Abu Hanifa was and it was said that his funeral was attended by 50,000 people, and was attended by al-Mansur himself. During the Buwayhid rule of the Abbasid Caliphate, in 375 AH / 985–986 AD and it was said that Abu Jaafar al-Zammam built a hall inside of the mosque in 379 AH. Later, in 459 AH /1066 AD, the Grand Vizier of the Seljuk Emperor Alp Arslan, Abu Saad al-Khwarizmi or al-Mustawfi, built a shrine for Abu Hanifa in the mosque, along with a white Dome. Al-Khwarizmi also built a school near the mosque, named the Great Imam School, according to Ibn Khallikan, the school was opened on September 22,1067, therefore, the Great Imam school is the first school in Baghdad. It took four months and a half to build the school, after the invasion of Baghdad by the Safavid dynasty in 1508, Abu Hanifa mosque and school were destroyed and abolished, due to sectarian conflicts that the Safavids had. The Ottomans invaded Baghdad in 1534 and replaced the Shiite Safavid with the Sunni Ottoman rule, Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent first visited, after invading Iraq, Najaf and Karbala. And then, he visited the mosque of Abu Hanifa and ordered to rebuild it. They also built a fortress around the mosque and a watchtower. The fortress was armed with 150 soldiers with different military equipment, in 1638, the Ottomans re-invaded Baghdad, after it was recaptured by the Safavids in 1623. Sultan Murad IV turned to Adhamiyah and particularly, Abu Hanifa mosque, a luxurious dome was built on the mosque. He also brought some of the tribe to live in houses around the mosque to protect it. The sultan ordered to renew the school and appointed employees to manage the school, along with allowing celebrations, the mosque became at its greatest during the period of the rule of Sultan Murad IV. In 1080 AH /1669 AD, the brother of the vizier, Mohammed Bek Daftary, reconstructed old parts of the mosque, in 1090 AH /1689 AD, Omar Pasha reconstructed the mosque and made its garden one of the most wonderful gardens in Baghdad. In 1757, during the rule of the Mamluk dynasty in Iraq, the Vali of Baghdad, Suleiman Pasha, renewed the shrine and built a dome and a minaret
26.
Al-Kadhimiya Mosque
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The Al-Kādhimiya Mosque is a shrine located in the Kādhimayn suburb of Baghdad, Iraq. It contains the tombs of the seventh Twelver Shī‘ah Imām Mūsā al-Kādhim, also buried within this mosque are the famous historical scholars, Shaykh Mufīd and Shaykh Nasīr ad-Dīn Tūsi. Repairs to the structure of the main courtyard of the mosque. Once the inner structure was completed, the floors and walls were then plated in various kinds of marble, updates to the cooling units of the mosque began in late 2008, and new water filtration units were installed on November 28,2008. Construction work on the new entrance to the mosque began in late 2008. Among the earliest of repairs done to the mosque after the fall of the regime of Saddam Hussein, were repairs done to one of the gates of the mosque known as Bāb al-Qiblah. The gate and the wall had to be entirely refurbished because of the severe neglect they had withstood. The golden dome over the grave of Muhammad at-Taqī was re-gilded and unveiled to the public in March 2008, during the celebrations of Muhammad and his descendant. Repair work on the dome over the grave of Mūsā al-Kādhim began in early August 2008, during the ceremonies of Husayn ibn ‘Alī, ‘Abbās ibn ‘Alī. Holiest sites in Islam History of the Shrine at Kadhimayn
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Umm al-Qura Mosque
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The Umm al-Qura mosque in Baghdad is the citys largest place of worship for Sunni Muslims. Originally called the Umm al-Maarik mosque, it was designed to commemorate Saddam Husseins victory in the 1991 Gulf War and was intended to serve as a tribute to Saddam himself. It is located in the Sunni-populated al-Adel area of western Baghdad, costing $7.5 million to build, the mosques cornerstone was laid on Saddams 61st birthday on 28 April 1998. It was formally completed on 28 April 2001 in time for the anniversary of the Gulf War. Although never confirmed by his regime or himself during his lifetime, many architectural features of the mosque and the surrounding complex allude to either Saddam or the war. It has four minarets on its perimeter, each resembling a Kalashnikov rifle barrel and standing 43 metres high, around the dome are another four minarets, each in the shape of a Scud missile on its launchpad standing 37 metres high. The mosque was used to display a Quran written in Saddams blood. The 28 fountains of the lake, the four inner minarets, the building is constructed from white limestone with blue mosaic decorations, and red, white and black Iraqi flags are painted on the peaks of the inner minarets. Following the fall of Saddam Hussein in the aftermath of the 2003 invasion of Iraq and it became a recruiting site and propaganda centre for the early Iraqi insurgency. In 2007, the association was expelled by the Sunni Endowment, an agency responsible for Sunni mosques in Iraq. On 28 August 2011, the mosque was attacked by a bomber during prayers, killing at least 28 people. An Iraqi member of parliament was among the dead, List of mosques in Asia List of mosques in Iraq List of mosques in Baghdad
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Mosques and shrines of Mosul
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The mosques and shrines of Mosul, Iraq are of varied ages, the oldest being the Umayyad Mosque from 640 AD. The Umayyad Mosque was the first in the occupied by modern-day Iraq. It was built in 640 AD by Utba bin Farqad Al-Salami after he captured Mosul during the reign of Caliph Umar ibn Al-Khattab. The Great Mosque was originally built under Nur al-Din al-Zangi Atabeg of Damascus and it may have been a development of a previous Mosque. All that remains from this complex are the minaret, two mihrabs, a marble slab, and some stucco decoration. The elaborate 52′ brick minaret that leans like the Tower of Pisa is called Al-Hadba, the Great Mosque was built by Nuriddin Zanki in 1172 AD next to the Umayyad Mosque. Ibn Battuta found a marble fountain there and a mihrab with a Kufic inscription, on one of the two most prominent mounds of Ninevehs ruins, rose the Mosque of the prophet Jonah, the son of Amittai. The mosque, which earlier was an Assyrian Church, was believed to be the place of Jonah. It is also where the Assyrian King Esarhaddon had once built a palace and this shrine on the site of a Christian church was a stones throw from the built-up walls and gates of Nineveh. A whales tooth, appropriate to Jonahs well-known adventure at sea, was said to be preserved there and it was one of the most important mosques in Mosul and one of the few historic mosques in the east side of the city. On July 24,2014, the building was blown up by the Islamic State, a security source, who kept his identity anonymous, told the Iraq-based al-Sumaria News that ISIS militants seized control of the mosque completely. The militants then closed all doors and prevented worshipers from entering to pray and they then detonated explosives, destroying the mosque and damaging several nearby houses. They stated “the mosque had become a place for apostasy, not prayer. ”In March 2017, after ISIS was driven out, although all moveable items had been removed there were still Assyrian reliefs, structures and carvings along the walls. The Mujahidi Mosque dates back to 12th century AD, and is distinguished for its beautiful dome, the Mosque of Jerjis is believed by Muslims to be the burial place of Jerjis. It is made of marble with reliefs and was last renovated in 1393. The explorer Ibn Jubair mentioned it in the 12th century, the court of the ruler at the time of Ummaveet is thought to be not far from this mosque. On July 27,2014, the Jerjis Mosque was destroyed by Islamic State, on the right bank of the Tigris, it is known for its conical dome, decorative brickwork and calligraphy engraved in Mosul blue marble, 13th century. On July 23,2014, the Mashad Yahya Abul Kassem shrine was destroyed by Islamic State, qara Serai are the remnants of the 13th-century palace of Sultan Badruddin Lulu
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Great Mosque of al-Nuri (Mosul)
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The Great Mosque of al-Nuri is a historical mosque in Mosul, Iraq famous for its leaning minaret which gave the city its nickname the hunchback. Tradition holds that Nur ad-Din Zangi built the mosque in 1172-73, according to the chronicle of Ibn al-Athir, after Nur ad-Din took control of Mosul he ordered his nephew Fakhr al-Din to build the mosque, rode in person to its site and viewed it. He put the Sheikh Umar al-Malla in charge of the project, the properties were purchased from their owners at most substantial prices and the construction began, on which large sums were expended. The building was completed in the year 568, in 1511, this mosque was extensively renovated by the Safavid Empire. The mosque is known for its leaning minaret, known as al-Hadba’. Its attitude is that of a man bowing, when the cylindrical minaret was built it stood 45 metres high, with seven bands of decorative brickwork in complex geometric patterns ascending in levels towards the top. By the time the traveler Ibn Battuta visited in the 14th century it was listing and had acquired its nickname. According to local tradition, the minaret gained its tilt after the Prophet Muhammad passed overhead while ascending to heaven, the minaret bowed itself in reverence but could only regain its balance after its top joint had been kinked in the opposite direction. According to local Christian tradition, however, the tilt was due to its bowing towards the tomb of the Virgin Mary. Both the mosque and its madrasa were dismantled and reassembled in 1942 in a restoration undertaken by the Iraqi government. The minaret has remained unrestored, although attempts were made in 1981 by an Italian firm to stabilise it, the bombing of Mosul during the Iran–Iraq War in the 1980s broke underground pipes and caused leaks under the minaret that further undermined it. The lean has worsened by another 40 centimetres since then, in recent years cracks have proliferated along the base of the minaret, which now leans nearly 3 metres off the vertical. It has been listed by the World Monuments Fund as a site of concern due to the risk of collapse. The structure was targeted by ISIS militants who occupied Mosul on June 10,2014, however residents of Mosul incensed with the destruction of their cultural sites protected the mosque by forming a human chain and forming a resistance against ISIS. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi appeared during a Friday prayer in this mosque in 2014 to announce the formation of the new Caliphate
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