Ahriman
Angra Mainyu is the Avestan-language name of Zoroastrianism's hypostasis of the "destructive spirit". The Middle Persian equivalent is Ahriman. Angra Mainyu is Ahura Mazda’s adversary. Avestan angra mainyu "seems to have been an original conception of Zoroaster's." In the Gathas, which are the oldest texts of Zoroastrianism and are attributed to the prophet himself, angra mainyu is not yet a proper name. In the one instance in these hymns where the two words appear together, the concept spoken of is that of a mainyu, angra. In this single instance—in Yasna 45.2—the "more bounteous of the spirits twain" declares angra mainyu to be its "absolute antithesis". A similar statement occurs in Yasna 30.3, where the antithesis is however aka mainyu, aka being the Avestan language word for "evil". Hence, aka mainyu is the "evil spirit" or "evil mind" or "evil thought," as contrasted with spenta mainyu, the "bounteous spirit" with which Ahura Mazda conceived of creation, which "was"; the aka mainyu epithet recurs in Yasna 32.5, when the principle is identified with the daevas that deceive humankind and themselves.
While in Zoroastrianism, the daevas are demons, this is not yet evident in the Gathas: Zoroaster stated that the daevas are "wrong gods" or "false gods" that are to be rejected, but they are not yet demons. Some have proposed a connection between Angra Mainyu and the sage Angiras of the Rigveda. If this is true, it could be understood as evidence of a religious schism between the deva-worshiping Vedic Indo-Aryans and early Zoroastrians. In Yasna 32.3, these daevas are identified as the offspring, not of Angra Mainyu, but of akem manah, "evil thinking". A few verses earlier it is however the daebaaman, "deceiver"—not otherwise identified but "probably Angra Mainyu"—who induces the daevas to choose achistem manah—"worst thinking." In Yasna 32.13, the abode of the wicked is not the abode of Angra Mainyu, but the abode of the same "worst thinking". "One would have expected to reign in hell, since he had created'death and how, at the end, the worst existence shall be for the deceitful'." Yasna 19.15 recalls that Ahura Mazda's recital of the Ahuna Vairya invocation puts Angra Mainyu in a stupor.
In Yasna 9.8, Angra Mainyu creates Aži Dahaka, but the serpent recoils at the sight of Mithra's mace. In Yasht 13, the Fravashis defuse Angra Mainyu's plans to dry up the earth, in Yasht 8.44 Angra Mainyu battles but cannot defeat Tishtrya and so prevent the rains. In Vendidad 19, Angra Mainyu urges Zoroaster to turn from the good religion by promising him sovereignty of the world. On being rejected, Angra Mainyu assails the prophet with legions of demons, but Zoroaster deflects them all. In Yasht 19.96, a verse that reflects a Gathic injunction, Angra Mainyu will be vanquished and Ahura Mazda will prevail. In Yasht 19.46ff, Angra Mainyu and Spenta Mainyu battle for possession of khvaraenah, "divine glory" or "fortune". In some verses of the Yasna, the two principles are said to have created the world, which contradicts the Gathic principle that declares Ahura Mazda to be the sole creator and, reiterated in the cosmogony of Vendidad 1. In that first chapter, the basis for the 9th–12th-century Bundahishn, the creation of sixteen lands by Ahura Mazda is countered by the Angra Mainyu's creation of sixteen scourges such as winter and vice.
"This shift in the position of Ahura Mazda, his total assimilation to this Bounteous Spirit, must have taken place in the 4th century BC at the latest. So Vendidad 19.47, but other passages in the same chapter have him dwelling in the region of the daevas, which the Vendidad asserts is in the north. There, Angra Mainyu is chief of the daevas; the superlative daevo.taema is however assigned to the demon Paitisha. In an enumeration of the daevas in Vendidad 1.43, Angra Mainyu appears first and Paitisha appears last. "Nowhere is Angra Mainyu said to be the creator of the daevas or their father." Zurvanism—a historical branch of Zoroastrianism that sought to theologically resolve a dilemma found in a mention of antithetical "twin spirits" in Yasna 30.3 -- developed a notion that Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainyu were twin brothers, with the former being the epitome of good and the latter being the epitome of evil. This mythology of twin brotherhood is only explicitly attested in the post-Sassanid Syriac and Armenian polemic such as that of Eznik of Kolb.
According to these sources the genesis saw Zurvan as an androgynous deity, existing alone but desiring offspring who would create "heaven and hell and everything in between." Zurvan sacrificed for a thousand years. Towards the end of this period, Zurvan began to doubt the efficacy of sacrifice and in the moment of this doubt Ohrmuzd and Ahriman were conceived: Ohrmuzd for the sacrifice and Ahriman for the doubt. Upon realizing that twins were to be born, Zurvan resolved to grant the first-born sovereignty over creation. Ohrmuzd perceived Zurvan's decision, which he communicated to his brother. Ahriman preempted Ohrmuzd by ripping open the womb to emerge first. Reminded of the resolution to grant Ahriman sovereignty, Zurvan conceded, but limited kingship to a period of 9000 years, after which Ohrmuzd would ru
Zoroaster
Zoroaster known as Zarathustra, Zarathushtra Spitama, or Ashu Zarathushtra, was an ancient Iranian prophet, spiritual leader and ethical philosopher who taught a spiritual philosophy of self-realization and realization of the Divine. His teachings challenged the existing traditions of the Indo-Iranian religion and developed into the religion of Mazdayasna or Zoroastrianism, he inaugurated a movement that became the dominant religion in Ancient Iran. He was a native speaker of Old Avestan and lived in the eastern part of the Iranian Plateau, but his exact birthplace is uncertain. There is no scholarly consensus on. However, approximating using linguistic and socio-cultural evidence allows for dating to somewhere in the second millennium BCE; this is done by estimating the period in which the Old Avestan language were spoken, the period in which the Proto-Indo-Iranian religion was practiced, correlation between the burial practice described in the Gathas with the archeological Yaz culture. Other scholars date him to the 7th and 6th century BCE as a near-contemporary of Cyrus the Great and Darius I.
Zoroastrianism became the official religion of Ancient Persia and its distant subdivisions from the 6th century BCE to the 7th century CE. Zoroaster is credited with authorship of the Gathas as well as the Yasna Haptanghaiti, hymns composed in his native dialect, Old Avestan, which comprise the core of Zoroastrian thinking. Most of his life is known from these texts. By any modern standard of historiography, no evidence can place him into a fixed period, the historicization surrounding him may be a part of a trend from before the 10th century that historicizes legends and myths. Zoroaster's name in his native language, was Zaraϑuštra, his English name, "Zoroaster", derives from a Greek transcription, Zōroastrēs, as used in Xanthus's Lydiaca and in Plato's First Alcibiades. This form appears subsequently in the Latin Zōroastrēs and, in Greek orthographies, as Ζωροάστρις Zōroastris; the Greek form of the name appears to be based on a phonetic transliteration or semantic substitution of Avestan zaraϑ- with the Greek ζωρός zōros and the Avestan -uštra with ἄστρον astron.
In Avestan, Zaraϑuštra is accepted to derive from an Old Iranian *Zaratuštra-. Reconstructions from Iranian languages—particularly from the Middle Persian Zardusht, the form that the name took in the 9th- to 12th-century Zoroastrian texts—suggest that *Zaratuštra- might be a zero-grade form of *Zarantuštra-. Subject to whether Zaraϑuštra derives from *Zarantuštra- or from *Zaratuštra-, several interpretations have been proposed. If Zarantuštra is the original form, it may mean "with old/aging camels", related to Avestic zarant-: "with angry/furious camels": from Avestan *zarant-, "angry, furious". "who is driving camels" or "who is fostering/cherishing camels": related to Avestan zarš-, "to drag". Mayrhofer proposed an etymology of "who is desiring camels" or "longing for camels" and related to Vedic Sanskrit har-, "to like", also to Avestan zara-. "with yellow camels": parallel to younger Avestan zairi-. The interpretation of the -ϑ- in Avestan zaraϑuštra was for a time itself subjected to heated debate because the -ϑ- is an irregular development: As a rule, *zarat- should have Avestan zarat- or zarat̰- as a development from it.
Why this is not so for zaraϑuštra has not yet been determined. Notwithstanding the phonetic irregularity, that Avestan zaraϑuštra with its -ϑ- was linguistically an actual form is shown by attestations reflecting the same basis. All present-day, Iranian-language variants of his name derive from the Middle Iranian variants of Zarϑošt, which, in turn, all reflect Avestan's fricative -ϑ-. In Middle Persian, the name is Zardušt, in Parthian Zarhušt, in Manichaean Middle Persian Zrdrwšt, in Early New Persian Zardušt, in modern, the name is زرتشت Zartosht. There is no consensus on the dating of Zoroaster; some scholars base their date reconstruction on the Proto-Indo-Iranian language and Proto-Indo-Iranian religion, thus it is considered to have been some place in northeastern Iran and some time between 1500 and 500 BCE. Some scholars such as Mary Boyce used linguistic and socio-cultural evidence to place Zoroaster between 1500 and 1000 BCE; the basis of this theory is proposed on linguistic similarities between the Old Avestan language of the Zoroastrian Gathas and the Sanskrit of the Rigveda, a collection of early Vedic hymns.
Both texts are considered to have a common archaic Indo-Iranian origin. The Gathas portray an ancient Stone-Bronze Age bipartite society of warrior-herdsmen and priests, thus it is implausible that the Gathas and Rigveda could have been composed more than a few centuries apart; these scholars suggest that Zoroaster lived in an isolated tribe or composed the Gathas before the 1200–1000 BCE migration by the Iranians from the s
Messiah
In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of moshiach, of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, in the Hebrew Bible. Messiahs were not Jewish: the Book of Isaiah refers to Cyrus the Great, king of the Achaemenid Empire, as a messiah for his decree to rebuild the Jerusalem Temple. Ha mashiach referred to as melekh mashiach, is to be a human leader, physically descended from the paternal Davidic line through King David and King Solomon, he is thought to accomplish predetermined things in only one future arrival, including the unification of the tribes of Israel, the gathering of all Jews to Eretz Israel, the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem, the ushering in of a Messianic Age of global universal peace, the annunciation of the world to come. In Christianity, the Messiah is called the Christ, from Greek: translit. Khristós, translating the Hebrew word of the same meaning; the concept of the Messiah in Christianity originated from the Messiah in Judaism.
However, unlike the concept of the Messiah in Judaism, the Messiah in Christianity is the Son of God. Christ became the accepted Christian designation and title of Jesus of Nazareth, because Christians believe that the messianic prophecies in the Old Testament were fulfilled in his mission and resurrection; these include the prophecies of him being descended from the Davidic line, being declared King of the Jews which happened on the day of his crucifixion. They believe that Christ will fulfill the rest of the messianic prophecies that he will usher in a Messianic Age and the world to come at his Second Coming. In Islam, Jesus was a prophet and the Masîḥ, the Messiah sent to the Israelites, he will return to Earth at the end of times, along with the Mahdi, defeat al-Masih ad-Dajjal, the false Messiah. In Ahmadiyya theology, these prophecies concerning the Mahdi and the second coming of Jesus have been fulfilled in Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the founder of the Ahmadiyya Movement, the terms'Messiah' and'Mahdi' are synonyms for one and the same person.
In Chabad messianism, Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, sixth Rebbe of Chabad Lubavitch, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, seventh Rebbe of Chabad, are Messiah claimants. Resembling early Christianity, the deceased Schneerson is believed to be the Messiah among some adherents of the Chabad movement. Messiah means "anointed one". In Hebrew, the Messiah is referred to as מלך המשיח The Greek Septuagint version of the Old Testament renders all thirty-nine instances of the Hebrew word for "anointed" as Χριστός; the New Testament records the Greek transliteration Μεσσίας, Messias twice in John.al-Masīḥ is the Arabic word for messiah. In modern Arabic, it is used as one of the many titles of Jesus. Masīḥ is used by Arab Christians as well as Muslims, is written as Yasūʿ al-Masih by Arab Christians or ʿĪsā al-Masīḥ by Muslims; the word al-Masīḥ means "the anointed", "the traveller", or the "one who cures by caressing". The literal translation of the Hebrew word mashiach is "anointed", which refers to a ritual of consecrating someone or something by putting holy oil upon it.
It is used throughout the Hebrew Bible in reference to a wide variety of objects. In Jewish eschatology, the term came to refer to a future Jewish king from the Davidic line, who will be "anointed" with holy anointing oil, to be king of God's kingdom, rule the Jewish people during the Messianic Age. In Judaism, the Messiah is not considered to be a pre-existent divine Son of God, he is considered to be a great political leader. That is why he is referred to as Messiah ben David, which means "Messiah, son of David"; the messiah, in Judaism, is considered to be a great, charismatic leader, well oriented with the laws that are followed in Judaism. He will be the one who will not "judge by what his eyes see" or "decide by what his ears hear". Belief in the eventual coming of a future messiah is a fundamental part of Judaism, is one of Maimonides' 13 Principles of Faith. Maimonides describes the identity of the Messiah in the following terms: And if a king shall arise from among the House of David, studying Torah and occupied with commandments like his father David, according to the written and oral Torah, he will impel all of Israel to follow it and to strengthen breaches in its observance, will fight God's wars, this one is to be treated as if he were the anointed one.
If he succeeded and built the Holy Temple in its proper place and gathered the dispersed ones of Israel together, this is indeed the anointed one for certain, he will mend the entire world to worship the Lord together, as it is stated: "For I shall turn for the nations a clear tongue, so that they will all proclaim the Name of the Lord, to worship Him w
Theophobos
Theophobos or Theophobus Nasir, Nasr, or Nusayr, was an Iranian commander of the Khurramites who converted to Christianity and entered Byzantine service under Emperor Theophilos. Raised to high rank and married into the imperial family, Theophobos was given command of his fellow Khurramites and served under Theophilos in his wars against the Abbasid Caliphate in 837–838. After the Byzantines' defeat at the Battle of Anzen, he was proclaimed emperor by his own men, but did not pursue this claim. Instead he peacefully submitted to Theophilos in the next year and was pardoned, until he was executed by the dying emperor in 842 to prevent a challenge to the accession of Michael III. Theophobos was born to a family belonging to the Iranian aristocracy, he was a member of the Khurramite sect in western Iran, being persecuted by the Abbasid Caliphate. In October/November 833, they were defeated by the armies of Caliph al-Mu'tasim under Ishaq ibn Ibrahim. Thus, in 834, Nasr with some fourteen thousand other Khurramites, crossed the Armenian highland and fled to the Byzantine Empire.
There, they converted to Christianity, were given widows from military families as wives, enrolled into the Byzantine army in the so-called "Persian tourma". Nasr, now baptized Theophobos, was placed at the head of these troops, raised to the rank of patrikios and given the hand of either Theophilos's sister or a sister of Empress Theodora in marriage; the addition of the "Persian" corps strengthened the Byzantine military: not only were its members implacable enemies of the Arabs, but they may have raised the number of effectives in the Byzantine army by as much as a sixth. In 837, Theophobos and the new Khurramite corps campaigned with Theophilos in his campaign in the region of the Upper Euphrates around Melitene, where they brutally sacked the city of Zapetra. In September of the same year, some 16,000 more Khurramites fled into the Byzantine Empire, following the final suppression of their movement by the Abbasid army. Theophobos participated in the campaign of 838 against al-Mu'tasim's retaliatory invasion.
He was present at the catastrophic Byzantine defeat at the Battle of Anzen, where he according to some accounts saved the emperor's life. In the aftermath of the battle, the "Persian" troops assembled at Sinope and declared Theophobos emperor, most against his will; the exact reason behind this move or the exact sequence of events are unclear. However, after the defeat at Anzen, the rumour had spread to Constantinople that Theophilos had been killed, it appears that Theophobos, an iconodule was suggested by some among the Byzantine Empire's elite as the new emperor. Despite being proclaimed and crowned—probably according to Sasanian ritual—by his men, Theophobos made no move against Theophilos, the "Persian" troops remained quiescent at Sinope. Instead, he engaged in secret negotiations with the emperor, who in 839 led an army against the rebels. Theophobos agreed to surrender and was restored to his high offices, while his men, numbering some 30,000, were split up into regiments of 2000 men and divided among the themata.
Theophobos was restored to his previous high position in the army. Islamic sources report that he died in battle in 839 or 840, but the Byzantine sources contain a different, more account: in 842, Theophilos in declining health and about to die, had Theophobos executed by his brother-in-law Petronas in order to secure the succession of his infant son and heir, Michael III
Iran
Iran called Persia, the Islamic Republic of Iran, is a country in Western Asia. With over 81 million inhabitants, Iran is the world's 18th most populous country. Comprising a land area of 1,648,195 km2, it is the second largest country in the Middle East and the 17th largest in the world. Iran is bordered to the northwest by Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan, to the north by the Caspian Sea, to the northeast by Turkmenistan, to the east by Afghanistan and Pakistan, to the south by the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, to the west by Turkey and Iraq; the country's central location in Eurasia and Western Asia, its proximity to the Strait of Hormuz, give it geostrategic importance. Tehran is the country's capital and largest city, as well as its leading economic and cultural center. Iran is home to one of the world's oldest civilizations, beginning with the formation of the Elamite kingdoms in the fourth millennium BCE, it was first unified by the Iranian Medes in the seventh century BCE, reaching its greatest territorial size in the sixth century BCE, when Cyrus the Great founded the Achaemenid Empire, which stretched from Eastern Europe to the Indus Valley, becoming one of the largest empires in history.
The Iranian realm fell to Alexander the Great in the fourth century BCE and was divided into several Hellenistic states. An Iranian rebellion culminated in the establishment of the Parthian Empire, succeeded in the third century CE by the Sasanian Empire, a leading world power for the next four centuries. Arab Muslims conquered the empire in the seventh century CE; the Islamization of Iran led to the decline of Zoroastrianism, by the country's dominant religion, Iran's major contributions to art and science spread within the Muslim rule during the Islamic Golden Age. After two centuries, a period of various native Muslim dynasties began, which were conquered by the Seljuq Turks and the Ilkhanate Mongols; the rise of the Safavids in the 15th century led to the reestablishment of a unified Iranian state and national identity, with the country's conversion to Shia Islam marking a turning point in Iranian and Muslim history. Under Nader Shah, Iran was one of the most powerful states in the 18th century, though by the 19th century, a series of conflicts with the Russian Empire led to significant territorial losses.
The Iranian Constitutional Revolution in the early 20th century led to the establishment of a constitutional monarchy and the country's first legislature. A 1953 coup instigated by the United Kingdom and the United States resulted in greater autocracy and growing Western political influence. Subsequent widespread dissatisfaction and unrest against the monarchy led to the 1979 Revolution and the establishment of an Islamic republic, a political system that includes elements of a parliamentary democracy vetted and supervised by a theocracy governed by an autocratic "Supreme Leader". During the 1980s, the country was engaged in a war with Iraq, which lasted for eight years and resulted in a high number of casualties and economic losses for both sides; the sovereign state of Iran is a founding member of the UN, ECO, NAM, OIC, OPEC. It is a major regional and middle power, its large reserves of fossil fuels – which include the world's largest natural gas supply and the fourth largest proven oil reserves – exert considerable influence in international energy security and the world economy.
The country's rich cultural legacy is reflected in part by its 22 UNESCO World Heritage sites, the third largest number in Asia and 11th largest in the world. Iran is a multicultural country comprising numerous ethnic and linguistic groups, the largest being Persians, Azeris and Lurs. Organizations including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have criticized Iran's women's rights record; the term Iran derives directly from Middle Persian Ērān, first attested in a third-century inscription at Rustam Relief, with the accompanying Parthian inscription using the term Aryān, in reference to the Iranians. The Middle Iranian ērān and aryān are oblique plural forms of gentilic nouns ēr- and ary-, both deriving from Proto-Iranian *arya-, recognized as a derivative of Proto-Indo-European *ar-yo-, meaning "one who assembles". In the Iranian languages, the gentilic is attested as a self-identifier, included in ancient inscriptions and the literature of the Avesta, remains in other Iranian ethnic names Alan and Iron.
Iran has been referred to as Persia by the West, due to the writings of Greek historians who referred to all of Iran as Persís, meaning "land of the Persians", while Persis itself was one of the provinces of ancient Iran, today defined as Fars. As the most extensive interaction the Ancient Greeks had with any outsider was with the Persians, the term persisted long after the Greco-Persian Wars. In 1935, Reza Shah requested the international community to refer to the country by its native name, effective March 22 that year; as The New York Times explained at the time, "At the suggestion of the Persian Legation in Berlin, the Tehran government, on the Persian New Year, March 21, 1935, substituted Iran for Persia as the official name of the country." Opposition to the name change led to the reversal of the decision, Professor Ehsan Yarshater, editor of Encyclopædia Iranica, propagated a move to use Persia and Iran interchangeably. Today, both Iran and Persia are used in cultural contexts, while Iran remains irreplaceab
Arabic
Arabic is a Central Semitic language that first emerged in Iron Age northwestern Arabia and is now the lingua franca of the Arab world. It is named after the Arabs, a term used to describe peoples living in the area bounded by Mesopotamia in the east and the Anti-Lebanon mountains in the west, in northwestern Arabia, in the Sinai Peninsula. Arabic is classified as a macrolanguage comprising 30 modern varieties, including its standard form, Modern Standard Arabic, derived from Classical Arabic; as the modern written language, Modern Standard Arabic is taught in schools and universities, is used to varying degrees in workplaces and the media. The two formal varieties are grouped together as Literary Arabic, the official language of 26 states, the liturgical language of the religion of Islam, since the Quran and Hadith were written in Arabic. Modern Standard Arabic follows the grammatical standards of Classical Arabic, uses much of the same vocabulary. However, it has discarded some grammatical constructions and vocabulary that no longer have any counterpart in the spoken varieties, has adopted certain new constructions and vocabulary from the spoken varieties.
Much of the new vocabulary is used to denote concepts that have arisen in the post-classical era in modern times. Due to its grounding in Classical Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic is removed over a millennium from everyday speech, construed as a multitude of dialects of this language; these dialects and Modern Standard Arabic are described by some scholars as not mutually comprehensible. The former are acquired in families, while the latter is taught in formal education settings. However, there have been studies reporting some degree of comprehension of stories told in the standard variety among preschool-aged children; the relation between Modern Standard Arabic and these dialects is sometimes compared to that of Latin and vernaculars in medieval and early modern Europe. This view though does not take into account the widespread use of Modern Standard Arabic as a medium of audiovisual communication in today's mass media—a function Latin has never performed. During the Middle Ages, Literary Arabic was a major vehicle of culture in Europe in science and philosophy.
As a result, many European languages have borrowed many words from it. Arabic influence in vocabulary, is seen in European languages Spanish and to a lesser extent Portuguese, Catalan, owing to both the proximity of Christian European and Muslim Arab civilizations and 800 years of Arabic culture and language in the Iberian Peninsula, referred to in Arabic as al-Andalus. Sicilian has about 500 Arabic words as result of Sicily being progressively conquered by Arabs from North Africa, from the mid-9th to mid-10th centuries. Many of these words relate to related activities; the Balkan languages, including Greek and Bulgarian, have acquired a significant number of Arabic words through contact with Ottoman Turkish. Arabic has influenced many languages around the globe throughout its history; some of the most influenced languages are Persian, Spanish, Kashmiri, Bosnian, Bengali, Malay, Indonesian, Punjabi, Assamese, Sindhi and Hausa, some languages in parts of Africa. Conversely, Arabic has borrowed words from other languages, including Greek and Persian in medieval times, contemporary European languages such as English and French in modern times.
Classical Arabic is the liturgical language of 1.8 billion Muslims, Modern Standard Arabic is one of six official languages of the United Nations. All varieties of Arabic combined are spoken by as many as 422 million speakers in the Arab world, making it the fifth most spoken language in the world. Arabic is written with the Arabic alphabet, an abjad script and is written from right to left, although the spoken varieties are sometimes written in ASCII Latin from left to right with no standardized orthography. Arabic is a Central Semitic language related to the Northwest Semitic languages, the Ancient South Arabian languages, various other Semitic languages of Arabia such as Dadanitic; the Semitic languages changed a great deal between Proto-Semitic and the establishment of the Central Semitic languages 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. There are several features which Classical Arabic, the modern Arabic varieties, as well as the Safaitic and Hismaic inscriptions share which are unattested in any other Central Semitic language variety, including the Dadanitic and Taymanitic languages of the northern Hejaz; these features are evidence of common descent from Proto-Arabic. The following features can be reconstructed with confidence for Proto-Arabic: negative particles m *mā.
Theophilos (emperor)
Theophilos was the Byzantine Emperor from 829 until his death in 842. He was the last emperor to support iconoclasm. Theophilos led the armies in his lifelong war against the Arabs, beginning in 831. Theophilos was the son of the Byzantine Emperor Michael II and his wife Thekla, the godson of Emperor Leo V the Armenian. Michael II crowned Theophilos co-emperor in 822, shortly after his own accession. Unlike his father, Theophilos received an extensive education from John Hylilas, the grammarian, was a great admirer of music and art. On 2 October 829, Theophilos succeeded his father as sole emperor. Theophilos continued in his predecessors' iconoclasm, though without his father's more conciliatory tone, issuing an edict in 832 forbidding the veneration of icons, he saw himself as the champion of justice, which he served most ostentatiously by executing his father's co-conspirators against Leo V after his accession. His reputation as a judge endured, in the literary composition Timarion Theophilos is featured as one of the judges in the Netherworld.
At the time of his accession, Theophilos was obliged to wage wars against the Arabs on two fronts. Sicily was once again invaded by the Arabs, who took Palermo after a year-long siege in 831, established the Emirate of Sicily, continued to expand across the island; the defence after the invasion of Anatolia by the Abbasid Caliph Al-Ma'mun in 830 was led by the Emperor himself, but the Byzantines were defeated and lost several fortresses. In 831 Theophilos retaliated by leading a large army into capturing Tarsus; the Emperor returned to Constantinople in triumph. Another defeat in the same province in 833 forced Theophilos to sue for peace, which he obtained the next year, after the death of Al-Ma'mun. During the respite from the war against the Abbasids, Theophilos arranged for the abduction of the Byzantine captives settled north of the Danube by Krum of Bulgaria; the rescue operation was carried out with success in c. 836, the peace between Bulgaria and the Byzantine Empire was restored. However, it proved impossible to maintain peace in the East.
Theophilos had given asylum including Nasr, a Persian. He baptized Theophobos, who became one of his generals; as relations with the Abbasids deteriorated, Theophilos prepared for a new war. In 837 Theophilos led a vast army of 70,000 men towards Mesopotamia and captured Melitene and Arsamosata; the Emperor took and destroyed Zapetra, which some sources claim as the birthplace of Caliph al-Mu'tasim. Theophilos returned to Constantinople in triumph. Eager for revenge, Al-Mu'tasim assembled a vast army and launched a two-pronged invasion of Anatolia in 838. Theophilos decided to strike one division of the caliph's army. On 21 July 838 at the Battle of Anzen in Dazimon, Theophilos led a Byzantine army of 25,000 to 40,000 men against the troops commanded by al-Afshin. Afshin withstood the Byzantine attack, counter-attacked, won the battle; the Byzantine survivors fell back in disorder and did not interfere in the caliph's continuing campaign. Al-Mu'tasim took Ancyra, al-Afshin joined him there; the full Abbasid army advanced against the cradle of the dynasty.
There was determined resistance. A Muslim captive escaped and informed the caliph where there was a section of the wall that had only a front facade. Al-Mu'tasim concentrated his bombardment on this section, the wall was breached. Having heroically held for fifty-five days, the city now fell to al-Mu'tasim on 12 or 15 August 838. In 838, in order to impress the Caliph of Baghdad, Theophilus had John the Grammarian distribute 36,000 nomismata to the citizens of Baghdad. Around 841, the Republic of Venice sent a fleet of 60 galleys to assist the Byzantines in driving the Arabs from Crotone, but it failed. During this campaign Al-Mu'tasim discovered that some of his top generals were plotting against him. Many of these leading commanders were arrested and some executed before he arrived home. Al-Afshin seems not to have been involved in this, but he was detected in other intrigues and died in prison in the spring of 841. Caliph al-Mu'tasim fell sick in October 841 and died on 5 January 842. In 836, following the expiration of the 20-year peace treaty between the Empire and Bulgaria, Theophilos ravaged the Bulgarian frontier.
The Bulgarians retaliated, under the leadership of Isbul they reached Adrianople. At this time, if not earlier, the Bulgarians annexed its environs. Khan Malamir died in 836; the peace between the Serbs, Byzantine foederati, the Bulgars lasted until 839. Vlastimir of Serbia united several tribes, Theophilos granted the Serbs independence; the annexation of western Macedonia by the Bulgars changed the political situation. Malamir or his successor may have seen a threat in the Serb consolidation and opted to subjugate them in the midst of the conquest of Slav lands. Another cause might have been that the Byzantines wanted to divert attention so that they could cope with the Slavic uprising in the Peloponnese, meaning they sent the Serbs to instigate the war, it is thought that the rapid extension of Bulgars over Slavs prompted the Serbs to unite into a state. Khan Presian I invaded Serbian territory in 839; the invasion led to a three-year war, in which
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