1.
Ethnologue
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Ethnologue, Languages of the World is a web-based publication that contains information about the 7,099 living languages in its 20th edition, which was released in 2017. The publication is well respected and widely used by linguists, Ethnologue is published by SIL International, a Christian linguistic service organization with an international office in Dallas, Texas. Ethnologue follows general linguistic criteria, which are based primarily on mutual intelligibility, shared language intelligibility features are complex, and usually include etymological and grammatical evidence that is agreed upon by experts. These lists of names are not necessarily complete, in 1984, Ethnologue released a three-letter coding system, called an SIL code, to identify each language that it described. This set of codes significantly exceeded the scope of other standards, e. g. ISO 639-1, the 14th edition, published in 2000, included 7,148 language codes. In 2002, Ethnologue was asked to work with the International Organization for Standardization to integrate its codes into an international standard. The 15th edition of Ethnologue was the first edition to use this standard and this standard is now administered separately from Ethnologue according to rules established by ISO, and since then Ethnologue relies on the standard to determine what is listed as a language. e. A language with which no-one retains a sense of ethnic identity, in December 2015, Ethnologue launched a soft paywall, users in high-income countries who want to refer to more than seven pages of data per month must buy a paid subscription. Ethnologues 18th edition describes 228 language families and six typological categories, in 1986, William Bright, then editor of the journal Language, wrote of Ethnologue that it is indispensable for any reference shelf on the languages of the world. In 2008 in the journal, Lyle Campbell and Verónica Grondona said, Ethnologue. has become the standard reference. However, he concluded that, on balance, Ethnologue is a comprehensive catalogue of world languages. Starting with the 17th edition, new editions of Ethnologue are to be published every year, linguasphere Observatory Register Glottolog Lists of languages List of language families Martin Everaert, Simon Musgrave, Alexis Dimitriadis, eds. The Use of Databases in Cross-Linguistic Studies, linguistic Genocide in Education-or Worldwide Diversity and Human Rights. Evaluating language statistics, the Ethnologue and beyond
2.
Sudan
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Sudan, also known as North Sudan since South Sudans independence and officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northern Africa. It is the third largest country in Africa, the River Nile divides the country into eastern and western halves. Before the Sudanese Civil War, South Sudan was part of Sudan, Sudan was home to numerous ancient civilizations, such as the Kingdom of Kush, Kerma, Nobatia, Alodia, Makuria, Meroë and others, most of which flourished along the Nile. During the pre-dynastic period Nubia and Nagadan Upper Egypt were identical, by virtue of its proximity to Egypt, the Sudan participated in the wider history of the Near East inasmuch as it was Christianized by the 6th century, and Islamized in the 15th. As a result of Christianization, the Old Nubian language stands as the oldest recorded Nilo-Saharan language, Sudan was the largest country in Africa and the Arab world until 2011, when South Sudan separated into an independent country, following an independence referendum. Sudan is now the third largest country in Africa and also the third largest country in the Arab world and its capital is Khartoum, the political, cultural and commercial centre of the nation. It is a representative democratic federal republic. The politics of Sudan are regulated by an organization called the National Assembly. The Sudanese legal system is based on Islamic law, the countrys place name Sudan is a name given to a geographical region to the south of the Sahara, stretching from Western Africa to eastern Central Africa. The name derives from the Arabic bilād as-sūdān, or the lands of the Blacks, during the fifth millennium BC migrations from the drying Sahara brought neolithic people into the Nile Valley along with agriculture. The population that resulted from this cultural and genetic mixing developed social hierarchy over the centuries become the Kingdom of Kush at 1700 BC. The Kingdom of Kush was an ancient Nubian state centered on the confluences of the Blue Nile and White Nile, and the Atbarah River and it was established after the Bronze Age collapse and the disintegration of the New Kingdom of Egypt, centered at Napata in its early phase. After King Kashta invaded Egypt in the eighth century BC, the Kushite kings ruled as pharaohs of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt for a century before being defeated and driven out by the Assyrians. At the height of their glory, the Kushites conquered an empire that stretched from what is now known as South Kordofan all the way to the Sinai, pharaoh Piye attempted to expand the empire into the Near East, but was thwarted by the Assyrian king Sargon II. Sennacheribs successor Esarhaddon went further, and invaded Egypt itself, deposing Taharqa, Taharqa fled back to his homeland where he died two years later. Egypt became an Assyrian colony, however, king Tantamani, after succeeding Taharqa, Esarhaddon died while preparing to leave the Assyrian capital of Nineveh in order to eject him. However, his successor Ashurbanipal sent an army into southern Egypt and routed Tantamani. During Classical Antiquity, the Nubian capital was at Meroë, in ancient Greek geography, the Meroitic kingdom was known as Ethiopia
3.
Egypt
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Egypt, officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia by a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. Egypt is a Mediterranean country bordered by the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Gulf of Aqaba to the east, the Red Sea to the east and south, Sudan to the south, and Libya to the west. Across the Gulf of Aqaba lies Jordan, and across from the Sinai Peninsula lies Saudi Arabia, although Jordan and it is the worlds only contiguous Afrasian nation. Egypt has among the longest histories of any country, emerging as one of the worlds first nation states in the tenth millennium BC. Considered a cradle of civilisation, Ancient Egypt experienced some of the earliest developments of writing, agriculture, urbanisation, organised religion and central government. One of the earliest centres of Christianity, Egypt was Islamised in the century and remains a predominantly Muslim country. With over 92 million inhabitants, Egypt is the most populous country in North Africa and the Arab world, the third-most populous in Africa, and the fifteenth-most populous in the world. The great majority of its people live near the banks of the Nile River, an area of about 40,000 square kilometres, the large regions of the Sahara desert, which constitute most of Egypts territory, are sparsely inhabited. About half of Egypts residents live in areas, with most spread across the densely populated centres of greater Cairo, Alexandria. Modern Egypt is considered to be a regional and middle power, with significant cultural, political, and military influence in North Africa, the Middle East and the Muslim world. Egypts economy is one of the largest and most diversified in the Middle East, Egypt is a member of the United Nations, Non-Aligned Movement, Arab League, African Union, and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. Miṣr is the Classical Quranic Arabic and modern name of Egypt. The name is of Semitic origin, directly cognate with other Semitic words for Egypt such as the Hebrew מִצְרַיִם, the oldest attestation of this name for Egypt is the Akkadian
4.
Nobiin language
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Nobiin, or Mahas, is a Northern Nubian language of the Nilo-Saharan phylum. ‘Nobiin’ is the form of Nòòbíí ‘Nubian and literally means ‘ of the Nubians. Another term used is Noban tamen, meaning ‘the Nubian language’, at least 2,500 years ago, the first Nubian speakers migrated into the Nile Valley from the southwest. Old Nubian is thought to be ancestral to Nobiin, the latter of which is a language with contrastive vowel. The basic word order is subject–object–verb, Nobiin is currently spoken along the banks of the Nile river in southern Egypt and northern Sudan by approximately 495,000 Nubians. Present-day Nobiin speakers are almost universally bilingual in local varieties of Arabic, many Nobiin-speaking Nubians were forced to relocate in 1963–1964 to make room for the construction of the Aswan High Dam at Aswan, Egypt and for the upstream Lake Nasser. There is no standardized orthography for Nobiin and it has been written in both Latinized and Arabic scripts, also, recently there have been efforts to revive the Old Nubian alphabet. This article adopts the Latin orthography used in the only published grammar of Nobiin, before the construction of the Aswan dam, speakers of Nobiin lived in the Nile valley between the third cataract in the south and Korosko in the north. About 60% of the territory of Nubia was destroyed or rendered unfit for habitation as a result of the construction of the dam, at least half of the Nubian population was forcibly resettled. Additionally, many Nubians have moved to cities like Cairo. In recent years, some of the resettled Nubians have returned to their traditional territories around Abu Simbel, practically all speakers of Nobiin are bilingual in Egyptian Arabic or Sudanese Arabic. For the men, this was noted as early as 1819 by the traveller Johann Ludwig Burckhardt in his Travels to Nubia, the forced resettlement in the second half of the twentieth century also brought more Nubians, especially women and children, into daily contact with Arabic. Chief factors in development include increased mobility, changes in social patterns such as women going more often to the market to sell their own products. In urban areas, many Nubian women go to school and are fluent in Arabic, they address their children in Arabic. In response to concerns about a language shift to Arabic. Rouchdy however notes that use of Nobiin is confined mainly to the circle, as Arabic is the dominant language in trade, education. Nobiin has been called Mahas, Mahas-Fiadidja, and Fiadicca in the past, Nobiin should not be confused with the Arabic-based creole Ki-Nubi. Nobiin is one of the few African languages to have a history that can be followed over the course of more than a millennium
5.
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
6.
Islam
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Islam is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion which professes that there is only one and incomparable God and that Muhammad is the last messenger of God. It is the worlds second-largest religion and the major religion in the world, with over 1.7 billion followers or 23% of the global population. Islam teaches that God is merciful, all-powerful, and unique, and He has guided mankind through revealed scriptures, natural signs, and a line of prophets sealed by Muhammad. The primary scriptures of Islam are the Quran, viewed by Muslims as the word of God. Muslims believe that Islam is the original, complete and universal version of a faith that was revealed many times before through prophets including Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses. As for the Quran, Muslims consider it to be the unaltered, certain religious rites and customs are observed by the Muslims in their family and social life, while social responsibilities to parents, relatives, and neighbors have also been defined. Besides, the Quran and the sunnah of Muhammad prescribe a comprehensive body of moral guidelines for Muslims to be followed in their personal, social, political, Islam began in the early 7th century. Originating in Mecca, it spread in the Arabian Peninsula. The expansion of the Muslim world involved various caliphates and empires, traders, most Muslims are of one of two denominations, Sunni or Shia. Islam is the dominant religion in the Middle East, North Africa, sizable Muslim communities are also found in Horn of Africa, Europe, China, Russia, Mainland Southeast Asia, Philippines, Northern Borneo, Caucasus and the Americas. Converts and immigrant communities are found in almost every part of the world, Islam is a verbal noun originating from the triliteral root s-l-m which forms a large class of words mostly relating to concepts of wholeness, submission, safeness and peace. In a religious context it means voluntary submission to God, Islām is the verbal noun of Form IV of the root, and means submission or surrender. Muslim, the word for an adherent of Islam, is the active participle of the verb form. The word sometimes has connotations in its various occurrences in the Quran. In some verses, there is stress on the quality of Islam as a state, Whomsoever God desires to guide. Other verses connect Islām and dīn, Today, I have perfected your religion for you, I have completed My blessing upon you, still others describe Islam as an action of returning to God—more than just a verbal affirmation of faith. In the Hadith of Gabriel, islām is presented as one part of a triad that also includes imān, Islam was historically called Muhammadanism in Anglophone societies. This term has fallen out of use and is said to be offensive because it suggests that a human being rather than God is central to Muslims religion
7.
Sunni Islam
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Sunni Islam is the largest group of Islam. Its name comes from the word Sunnah, referring to the behavior of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. According to Sunni tradition, Muhammad did not clearly designate a successor and this contrasts with the Shia view, which holds that Muhammad intended his son-in-law and cousin Ali ibn Abi Talib to succeed him. Political tensions between Sunnis and Shias continued with varying intensity throughout Islamic history and they have been exacerbated in recent times by ethnic conflicts, as of 2009, Sunni Muslims constituted between 87–90% of the worlds Muslim population. Sunni Islam is the worlds largest religious denomination, followed by Catholicism and its adherents are referred to in Arabic as ahl as-sunnah wa l-jamāʻah or ahl as-sunnah for short. In English, its doctrines and practices are sometimes called Sunnism, while adherents are known as Sunni Muslims, Sunnis, Sunnites, Sunni Islam is sometimes referred to as orthodox Islam. The Quran, together with hadith and binding juristic consensus form the basis of all traditional jurisprudence within Sunni Islam, sunnī, also commonly referred to as Sunnīism, is a term derived from sunnah meaning habit, usual practice, custom, tradition. The Muslim use of this term refers to the sayings and living habits of the prophet Muhammad, in Arabic, this branch of Islam is referred to as ahl as-sunnah wa l-jamāʻah, the people of the sunnah and the community, which is commonly shortened to ahl as-sunnah. One common mistake is to assume that Sunni Islam represents a normative Islam that emerged during the period after Muhammads death, and that Sufism and Shiism developed out of Sunni Islam. This perception is due to the reliance on highly ideological sources that have been accepted as reliable historical works. Both Sunnism and Shiaism are the end products of centuries of competition between ideologies. Both sects used each other to further cement their own identities and doctrines, the first four caliphs are known among Sunnis as the Rashidun or Rightly-Guided Ones. Sunni recognition includes the aforementioned Abu Bakr as the first, Umar who established the Islamic calendar as the second, Uthman as the third, Sunnis believe that the companions of Muhammad were the best of Muslims. Support for this view is found in the Quran, according to Sunnis. Sunnis also believe that the companions were true believers since it was the companions who were given the task of compiling the Quran, furthermore, narrations that were narrated by the companions are considered by Sunnis to be a second source of knowledge of the Muslim faith. A study conducted by the Pew Research Center in 2010 and released January 2011 found that there are 1.62 billion Muslims around the world, Islam does not have a formal hierarchy or clergy. Leaders are informal, and gain influence through study to become a scholar of Islamic law, according to the Islamic Center of Columbia, South Carolina, anyone with the intelligence and the will can become an Islamic scholar. During Midday Mosque services on Fridays, the congregation will choose a person to lead the service
8.
Sufism
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Sufism or Taṣawwuf, which is often defined as Islamic mysticism, the inward dimension of Islam, or the phenomenon of mysticism within Islam, is a mystical trend in Islam characterized. These orders meet for sessions in meeting places known as zawiyas, khanqahs. They strive for ihsan as detailed in a hadith, Ihsan is to worship Allah as if you see Him, if you cant see Him, Rumi stated, The Sufi is hanging on to Muhammad, like Abu Bakr. Sufis regard Muhammad as al-Insān al-Kāmil, the perfect man who exemplifies the morality of God. The orders largely follow one of the four madhhabs of Sunni Islam, classical Sufis were characterized by their asceticism, especially by their attachment to dhikr, the practice of repeating the names of God, often performed after prayers. According to William Chittick, In a broad sense, Sufism can be described as the interiorization, historically, Muslims have used the Arabic word taṣawwuf to identify the practice of Sufis. In this view, it is necessary to be a Muslim to be a true Sufi. However, Islamic scholars themselves are not by any means in agreement about the meaning of the word sufi, Sufis themselves claim that Tasawwuf is an aspect of Islam similar to Sharia, inseparable from Islam and an integral part of Islamic belief and practice. Classical Sufi scholars have defined Tasawwuf as a science whose objective is the reparation of the heart and turning it away from all else, two origins of the word sufi have been suggested. Commonly, the root of the word is traced to ṣafā. Another origin is ṣūf, wool in Arabic, referring to the simple cloaks the early Muslim ascetics wore, the two were combined by the Sufi al-Rudhabari, who said, The Sufi is the one who wears wool on top of purity. Scholars generally agree that ṣūf or wool is probably the word of Sufi. This term was given to them because they wore woollen garments, the term labisal-suf meant he clad himself in wool and applied to a person who renounced the world and became an ascetic. Others have suggested that the word comes from the term ahl aṣ-ṣuffah and these men and women who sat at al-Masjid an-Nabawi are considered by some to be the first Sufis. Al-Qushayri and Ibn Khaldun both rejected all other than ṣūf on linguistic grounds. Sufi orders are based on the bayah that was given to the Prophet Muhammad by his Sahaba, by pledging allegiance to the Prophet Muhammad, the Sahaba had committed themselves to the service of God. According to Islamic belief, by pledging allegiance to Prophet Muhammad and it is through the Prophet Muhammad that Sufis aim to learn about, understand and connect with God. Such a concept may be understood by the hadith, which Sufis regard to be authentic, in which Prophet Muhammad said, I am the city of knowledge, eminent Sufis such as Ali Hujwiri refer to Ali as having a very high ranking in Tasawwuf
9.
Sudanese Arabs
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Sudanese Arabs are the majority population of Sudan. They are predominantly Muslim and most of them speak the Sudanese Arabic dialect, the population of Sudan also includes various tribes who are genealogically Arab, such as the Shaigya, Jaalin, Shukria, Guhayna, etc. Additionally, other smaller Sudanese groups who have also been Arabized, or partially Arabized, but retain a separate, non-Arab identity, include the Nubians, Copts, and Beja. In addition, Western province tribes like the Baggara and Darfurians) speak Chadian Arabic, although they have great variation in cultural, in addition, a few Arabian tribes existed in Sudan prior to the advent of Islam. Nevertheless, most Arab tribes migrated into the Sudan in the 12th century and this, among other features, serves to distinguish the Arabic spoken in Sudan from that of its neighbor, Egypt. Most Sudanese Muslims are adherents of the Sunni branch of Islam, Sunni Islam in Sudan is not marked by a body of belief and practice. Some Muslims opposed aspects of Sunni orthodoxy, and rites having a non-Islamic origin were widespread, being accepted as if they were integral to Islam, or sometimes being recognized as separate. Moreover, Sunni Islam in Sudan has been characterized by the formation of orders or brotherhoods. Sunni Islam requires its adherents to follow the Five Pillars of Islam, the first pillar, the shahadah or profession of faith is the affirmation There is no god but God and Muhammad is his prophet. It is the first step in becoming a Muslim and a significant part of prayer, the second obligation is prayer at five specified times of the day. The fourth requires fasting during daylight hours in the month of Ramadan, the fifth requires a pilgrimage to Mecca for those able to perform it, to participate in the special rites that occur during the twelfth month of the lunar calendar. Most Sudanese Muslims are born to the faith and meet the first requirement, conformity to the second requirement is more variable. Many males in the cities and larger towns manage to pray five times a day, at dawn, noon, midafternoon, sundown, the well-to-do perform little work during Ramadan, and many businesses close or operate on reduced schedules. In the early 1990s, its observance appeared to be widespread, especially in urban areas, the pilgrimage to Mecca is less costly and arduous for the Sudanese than it is for many Muslims. Nevertheless, it takes time, and the ordinary Sudanese Muslim has generally found it difficult to accomplish, Some have joined pilgrimage societies into which members pay a small amount monthly and choose one of their number when sufficient funds have accumulated to send someone on the pilgrimage. A returned pilgrim is entitled to use the honorific title hajj or hajjih for a woman, another ceremony commonly observed is the great feast Id al Adha, representing the sacrifice made during the last days of the pilgrimage. The centerpiece of the day is the slaughter of a sheep, which is distributed to the poor, kin, neighbors, Islam imposes a standard of conduct encouraging generosity, fairness, and honesty towards other Muslims. Sudanese Arabs, especially those who are wealthy, are expected by their coreligionists to be generous, in accordance with Islamic law most Sudanese Muslims do not eat pork
10.
Nile
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The Nile is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It is generally regarded as the longest river in the world, in particular, the Nile is the primary water source of Egypt and Sudan. The Nile has two tributaries, the White Nile and Blue Nile. The White Nile is considered to be the headwaters and primary stream of the Nile itself, the Blue Nile, however, is the source of most of the water and silt. The White Nile is longer and rises in the Great Lakes region of central Africa and it flows north through Tanzania, Lake Victoria, Uganda and South Sudan. The Blue Nile begins at Lake Tana in Ethiopia and flows into Sudan from the southeast, the two rivers meet just north of the Sudanese capital of Khartoum. The northern section of the river flows north almost entirely through the Sudanese desert to Egypt, then ends in a large delta, Egyptian civilization and Sudanese kingdoms have depended on the river since ancient times. Most of the population and cities of Egypt lie along those parts of the Nile valley north of Aswan, in the ancient Egyptian language, the Nile is called Ḥpī or Iteru, meaning river. In Coptic, the words piaro or phiaro meaning the river come from the ancient name. The English name Nile and the Arabic names en-Nîl and an-Nîl both derive from the Latin Nilus and the Ancient Greek Νεῖλος, beyond that, however, the etymology is disputed. One possible etymology derives it from a Semitic Nahal, meaning river, the standard English names White Nile and Blue Nile, to refer to the rivers source, derive from Arabic names formerly applied only to the Sudanese stretches which meet at Khartoum. Above Khartoum, the Nile is also known as the White Nile, at Khartoum the river is joined by the Blue Nile. The White Nile starts in equatorial East Africa, and the Blue Nile begins in Ethiopia, both branches are on the western flanks of the East African Rift. The drainage basin of the Nile covers 3,254,555 square kilometers, the source of the Nile is sometimes considered to be Lake Victoria, but the lake has feeder rivers of considerable size. It is either the Ruvyironza, which emerges in Bururi Province, Burundi, or the Nyabarongo, the two feeder rivers meet near Rusumo Falls on the Rwanda-Tanzania border. Gish Abay is reportedly the place where the water of the first drops of the Blue Nile develop. The Nile leaves Lake Nyanza at Ripon Falls near Jinja, Uganda and it flows north for some 130 kilometers, to Lake Kyoga. For the remaining part it flows westerly through the Murchison Falls until it reaches the very northern shores of Lake Albert where it forms a significant river delta
11.
Cradles of civilization
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The cradle of civilization is a term referring to locations where, according to current archaeological data, civilization is understood to have emerged. Current thinking is that there was no single cradle, but several civilizations that developed independently, other civilizations arose in Asia among cultures situated along large river valleys, notably the Indus River in the Indian Subcontinent and the Yellow River in China. The extent to which there was significant influence between the early civilizations of the Near East and those of East Asia is disputed, scholars accept that the civilizations of Mesoamerica, mainly in modern Mexico, and Norte Chico in present-day Peru emerged independently from those in Eurasia. The concept cradle of civilization is the subject of much debate, the figurative use of cradle to mean the place or region in which anything is nurtured or sheltered in its earlier stage is traced by the OED to Spenser. Charles Rollins Ancient History has Egypt that served at first as the cradle of the holy nation, the phrase cradle of civilization plays a certain role in national mysticism. It has been used in Eastern as well as Western cultures, for instance, in Hindu nationalism, the terms also appear in esoteric pseudohistory, such as the Urantia Book, claiming the title for the second Eden, or the pseudoarchaeology related to Megalithic Britain. The earliest proto-urban settlements with several thousand inhabitants emerged in the Neolithic, the first cities to house several tens of thousands were Memphis and Uruk, by the 31st century BCE. Historic times are marked apart from times when records of the past begin to be kept for the benefit of future generations. A civilized way of life is linked to conditions coming almost exclusively from intensive agriculture. A traditional theory of the spread of civilization is that it began in the Fertile Crescent, scholars more generally now believe that civilizations arose independently at several locations in both hemispheres. They have observed that sociocultural developments occurred along different timeframes, sedentary and nomadic communities continued to interact considerably, they were not strictly divided among widely different cultural groups. Current scholarship generally identifies six sites where civilization emerged independently, Mesopotamia, the Nile River, the Indus River, the Yellow River, the Central Andes, one of the most notable PPNA settlements is Jericho in the Levant region, thought to be the worlds first town. In Mesopotamia, the convergence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers produced rich fertile soil, the civilizations that emerged around these rivers are among the earliest known non-nomadic agrarian societies. It is because of this that the fertile crescent region, the period known as the Ubaid period is the earliest known period on the alluvial plain although it is likely earlier periods exist obscured under the alluvium. It was during the Ubaid period that the movement towards urbanization began, eridu is the oldest Sumerian site settled during this period, around 5300 BCE, and the city of Ur also first dates to the end of this period. In the south, the Ubaid period had a long duration from around 6500 to 3800 BCE. Named after the Sumerian city of Uruk, this saw the emergence of urban life in Mesopotamia and, during its later phase. Proto-writing in the dates to around 3500 BCE, with the earliest texts dating to 3300 BCE
12.
History of ancient Egypt
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The history of ancient Egypt spans the period from the early prehistoric settlements of the northern Nile valley to the Roman conquest, in 30 BC. The Pharaonic Period is dated from the 32nd century BC, when Upper and Lower Egypt were unified, until the country fell under Macedonian rule, note For alternative revisions to the chronology of Egypt, see Egyptian chronology. Egypts history is split into different periods according to the ruling dynasty of each pharaoh. The dating of events is still a subject of research, the conservative dates are not supported by any reliable absolute date for a span of about three millennia. The following is the list according to conventional Egyptian chronology, traces of these early people appear in the form of artifacts and rock carvings along the terraces of the Nile and in the oases. To the Egyptians the Nile meant life and the desert meant death, evidence also indicates human habitation and cattle herding in the southwestern corner of Egypt near the Sudan border before the 8th millennium BC. Despite this, the idea of an independent bovine domestication event in Africa must be abandoned because subsequent evidence gathered over a period of thirty years has failed to corroborate this, the oldest-known domesticated cattle remains in Africa are from the Faiyum c.4400 BC. Continued desiccation forced the early ancestors of the Egyptians to settle around the Nile more permanently, however, the period from 9th to the 6th millennium BC has left very little in the way of archaeological evidence. The Nile valley of Egypt was basically uninhabitable until the work of clearing and irrigating the land along the banks was started, however it appears that this clearance and irrigation was largely under way by the 6th millennium. By that time, Nile society was already engaged in organized agriculture, at this time, Egyptians in the southwestern corner of Egypt were herding cattle and also constructing large buildings. Mortar was in use by the 4th millennium, the people of the valley and the Nile Delta were self-sufficient and were raising barley and emmer, an early variety of wheat, and stored it in pits lined with reed mats. They raised cattle, goats and pigs and they wove linen, prehistory continues through this time, variously held to begin with the Amratian culture. Between 5500 BC and the 31st century BC, small settlements flourished along the Nile, the Tasian culture was the next to appear, it existed in Upper Egypt starting about 4500 BC. This group is named for the burials found at Deir Tasa, the Tasian culture is notable for producing the earliest blacktop-ware, a type of red and brown pottery painted black on its top and interior. The Badari culture, named for the Badari site near Deir Tasa, followed the Tasian, however, the Badari culture continued to produce the kind of pottery called blacktop-ware, and was assigned the sequence dating numbers between 21 and 29. The Amratian culture is named after the site of el-Amreh, about 120 kilometres south of Badari, el-Amreh was the first site where this culture was found unmingled with the later Gerzeh culture. However, this period is attested at Nagada, and so is also referred to as the Naqada I culture. The Amratian period falls between S. D.30 and 39, newly excavated objects indicate that trade between Upper and Lower Egypt existed at this time
13.
Prehistoric Egypt
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This Predynastic era is traditionally equivalent to the final part of the Neolithic period beginning c.6000 BC and corresponds to the Naqada III period. The Predynastic period is divided into cultural periods, each named after the place where a certain type of Egyptian settlement was first discovered. The Late Paleolithic in Egypt started around 30,000 BC, the Nazlet Khater skeleton was found in 1980 and dated in 1982 from nine samples ranging between 35,100 and 30,360 years. This specimen is the only complete human skeleton from the earliest Late Stone Age in Africa. Excavation of the Nile has exposed early stone tools, the earliest of these lithic industries were located within the 100-foot terrace, and were Chellean, primitive Acheulean and an Egyptian form of the Clactonian. Within the 50-foot terrace was developed Acheulean, originally reported as Early Mousterian but since changed to Levalloisean, other implements were located in the 30-foot terrace. The 15- and 10-foot terraces saw a more developed version of the Levalloisean, finally, tools of the Egyptian Sebilian technology and an Egyptian version of the Aterian technology were also located. Some of the oldest known buildings were discovered in Egypt by archaeologist Waldemar Chmielewski along the border near Wadi Halfa. They were mobile structures—easily disassembled, moved, and reassembled—providing hunter-gatherers with semi-permanent habitation, Aterian tool-making reached Egypt c.40,000 BC. The Khormusan industry in Egypt began between 40,000 and 30,000 BC, khormusans developed advanced tools not only from stone but also from animal bones and hematite. They also developed small arrow heads resembling those of Native Americans, the end of the Khormusan industry came around 16,000 B. C. with the appearance of other cultures in the region, including the Gemaian. The Halfan culture flourished along the Nile Valley of Egypt and Nubia between 18,000 and 15,000 BC, though one Halfan site dates to before 24,000 BC, people survived on a diet of large herd animals and the Khormusan tradition of fishing. Greater concentrations of artifacts indicate that they were not bound to seasonal wandering and they are viewed as the parent culture of the Ibero-Maurusian industry, which spread across the Sahara and into Spain. The Halfan culture was derived in turn from the Khormusan, which depended on specialized hunting, fishing, the primary material remains of this culture are stone tools, flakes, and a multitude of rock paintings. Qadan peoples developed sickles and grinding stones to aid in the collecting and processing of plant foods prior to consumption. However, there are no indications of the use of these tools after around 10,000 BC, in Egypt, analyses of pollen found at archaeological sites indicate that the Sebilian culture were gathering wheat and barley. It has been hypothesized that the sedentary lifestyle used by farmers led to increased warfare, continued expansion of the desert forced the early ancestors of the Egyptians to settle around the Nile more permanently and adopt a more sedentary lifestyle. The period from 9000 to 6000 BC has left little in the way of archaeological evidence
14.
Wadi Halfa
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Wādī Ḥalfā is a city in the Northern state of Sudan on the shores of Lake Nubia. It is the terminus of a line from Khartoum and the point where goods are transferred from rail to ferries going down the lake. As of 2007, the city had a population of 15,725, the modern town of Wadi Halfa was founded in the 19th century, when it became a port on the Nile for steamers from Aswan, such as the Nubia. During the Turko-Egyptian conquest of 1820, Wadi Halfa was used as a point for troops headed south. Communications developed in the half of the 19th century, with a telegraph line to Egypt connected in 1866. In 1885, Wadi Halfa entered a period of turmoil after falling under the Mahdist War regime, conflicts frequently broke out on the border, and in 1889, Abd al-Rahman al-Mahdis army entered the town on the way to the Battle of Tushki. Wadi Halfa was briefly the headquarters of the British-led Egyptian and British forces under Kitchener seeking to defeat the forces of Muhammad Ahmad, the self-proclaimed Mahdi from 1895 to 1898. The rail line up the Nile was originally begun in 1897 to support this military buildup, it extends, via Atbara, to El Obeid and beyond into southern and western Sudan. A railroad hotel was built in the town during the 20th century, by 1956, the town had grown to a population of 11,000. The government was quick to suppress the agitation, placing Wadi Halfa under martial law, protests in Khartoum, mainly by students, led to the temporary closure of the Khartoum campus of Cairo University and about 50 arrests. The old town was destroyed after the construction of the Aswan High Dam due to flooding in 1964. Most of the town was relocated, and by 1965 the population of New Halfa was just 3,200, during the 1970s, the area was under intense scrutiny by archaeologists working to protect ancient Nubian monuments. Wadi Halfa was featured in part 4, entitled Shifting Sands, in 2005 a museum and interactive Nubian village were planned for Wadi Halfa but by 2014 nothing had been done. Wadi Halfa has a hot climate typical of the Nubian Desert. Wadi Halfa receives each year the highest mean amount of bright sunshine, in addition to this, the town receives a mean annual amount of rainfall of 0.5 mm and many years usually pass without any rainfall falling on the ground. Wadi Halfa experiences long, hot summers and short, warm winters, the annual mean temperature is about 27 °C. From May to September, inclusively, the averages highs exceed 40 °C, the annual mean rate of potential evaporation is also among the highest found throughout the world, with as much as 5,930 mm. Agriculture played an important role in local economy. The Chinese have invested in a processing plant in the town
15.
Nubia
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Nubia is a region along the Nile river located in what is today northern Sudan and southern Egypt. It was the seat of one of the earliest civilizations of ancient Africa, with a history that can be traced from at least 2000 B. C. onward, and was home to one of the African empires. Nubia was again united within Ottoman Egypt in the 19th century, the name Nubia is derived from that of the Noba people, nomads who settled the area in the 4th century following the collapse of the kingdom of Meroë. The Noba spoke a Nilo-Saharan language, ancestral to Old Nubian, Old Nubian was mostly used in religious texts dating from the 8th and 15th centuries AD. Before the 4th century, and throughout classical antiquity, Nubia was known as Kush, or, in Classical Greek usage, until at least 1970, the Birgid language was spoken north of Nyala in Darfur, but is now extinct. Nubia was divided into two regions, Upper and Lower Nubia, so called because of their location in the Nile river valley. Early settlements sprouted in both Upper and Lower Nubia, Egyptians referred to Nubia as Ta-Seti, or The Land of the Bow, since the Nubians were known to be expert archers. Modern scholars typically refer to the people from this area as the “A-Group” culture, fertile farmland just south of the Third Cataract is known as the “pre-Kerma” culture in Upper Nubia, as they are the ancestors. The Neolithic people in the Nile Valley likely came from Sudan, as well as the Sahara, by the 5th millennium BC, the people who inhabited what is now called Nubia participated in the Neolithic revolution. Saharan rock reliefs depict scenes that have been thought to be suggestive of a cult, typical of those seen throughout parts of Eastern Africa. Megaliths discovered at Nabta Playa are early examples of what seems to be one of the worlds first astronomical devices, around 3500 BC, the second Nubian culture, termed the A-Group, arose. It was a contemporary of, and ethnically and culturally similar to. The A-Group people were engaged in trade with the Egyptians and this trade is testified archaeologically by large amounts of Egyptian commodities deposited in the graves of the A-Group people. The imports consisted of gold objects, copper tools, faience amulets and beads, seals, slate palettes, stone vessels, and a variety of pots. Around 3300 BC, there is evidence of a kingdom, as shown by the finds at Qustul. The Nubian culture may have contributed to the unification of the Nile Valley. The earliest known depiction of the crown is on a ceremonial incense burner from Cemetery at Qustul in Lower Nubia. New evidence from Abydos, however, particularly the excavation of Cemetery U, around the turn of the protodynastic period, Naqada, in its bid to conquer and unify the whole Nile Valley, seems to have conquered Ta-Seti and harmonized it with the Egyptian state
16.
Ta-Seti
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Ta-Seti was the first nome of Upper Egypt, one of 42 nomoi in Ancient Egypt. Ta-Seti also marked the area towards Nubia. Every nome was ruled by a nomarch who answered directly to the pharaoh, the area of the district was about 2 cha-ta and about 10,5 iteru in length. The Niwt was Abu / Elephantine and among other cities were Paaleq / Philae, Sunet / Syene, every niwt had a Het net dedicated to the chief deity and a Heqa het. The districts main deity was Horus and among others major deities were Anuket, Arensnuphis, Hathor, Isis, Khnum, Mandulis, Satet, today the area is part of the Aswan Governorate. The Ta-Seti people and their identity is still trying to be deciphered, today from what is known they are believed to have spoken a Nilo-Saharan language. The following is a genealogy of the nomarchs of Ta-Seti during the 12th Dynasty. Helck, Wolfgang, Westendorf, Wolfhart, Lexikon der Ägyptologie, ISBN 3-447-01876-3 About the nomoi of Egypt Detailed map of the nomois Hieroglyphs of the nomoi
17.
Nome (Egypt)
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A nome was a subnational administrative division of Ancient Egypt. Todays use of the Greek νομή, nomé rather than the Egyptian term sepat came about during the Ptolemaic period, the availability of Greek records on Egypt influenced the adoption of Greek terms by later historians. The division of ancient Egypt into nomes can be traced back to the Predynastic Period and these nomes originally existed as autonomous city-states, but later began to unify. According to ancient tradition, the ruler Menes completed the final unification, not only did the division into nomes remain in place for more than three millennia, the areas of the individual nomes and their ordering remained remarkably stable. Some, like Xois in the Delta or Khent in Upper Egypt, were first mentioned on the Palermo stone, the names of a few, like the nome of Bubastis, appeared no earlier than the New Kingdom. Under the system that prevailed for most of pharaonic Egypts history, lower Egypt, from the Old Kingdom capital Memphis to the Mediterranean Sea, comprised 20 nomes. The first was based around Memphis, Saqqara, and Giza, the nomes were numbered in a more or less orderly fashion south to north through the Nile delta, first covering the territory on the west before continuing with the higher numbers to the east. Thus, Alexandria was in the Third Nome, Bubastis was in the Eighteenth, Upper Egypt was divided into 22 nomes. The first of these was centered on Elephantine close to Egypts border with Nubia at the First Cataract – the area of modern-day Aswan, from there the numbering progressed downriver in an orderly fashion along the narrow fertile strip of land that was the Nile valley. Waset was in the Fourth Nome, Amarna in the Fourteenth, some nomes were added or renamed during the Graeco-Roman occupation of Egypt. For example, the Ptolemies renamed the Crocodilopolitan nome to Arsinoe, hadrian created a new nome, Antinoopolites, for which Antinoopolis was the capital. The nomes survived into Roman times, under Roman rule, individual nomes minted their own coinage, the so-called nome coins, which still reflect individual local associations and traditions. The nomes of Egypt retained their importance as administrative units until the fundamental rearrangement of the bureaucracy during the reigns of Diocletian. From AD 307/8, their place was taken by units called pagi. Eventually powerful local officials arose who were called pagarchs, through whom all patronage flowed, the pagarchs essential role was as an organizer of tax-collection. Later the pagarch assumed some military functions as well, the pagarchs were often wealthy landowners who reigned over the pagi from which they originated. For most of the history, each nome was headed by a nomarch, the position of the nomarch was at times hereditary, while at others they were appointed by the pharaoh. Generally, when the government was stronger, nomarchs were the kings appointed governors
18.
Ancient Egypt
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Ancient Egypt was a civilization of ancient Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. It is one of six civilizations to arise independently, Egyptian civilization followed prehistoric Egypt and coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh Narmer. In the aftermath of Alexander the Greats death, one of his generals, Ptolemy Soter and this Greek Ptolemaic Kingdom ruled Egypt until 30 BC, when, under Cleopatra, it fell to the Roman Empire and became a Roman province. The success of ancient Egyptian civilization came partly from its ability to adapt to the conditions of the Nile River valley for agriculture, the predictable flooding and controlled irrigation of the fertile valley produced surplus crops, which supported a more dense population, and social development and culture. Its art and architecture were widely copied, and its antiquities carried off to far corners of the world and its monumental ruins have inspired the imaginations of travelers and writers for centuries. The Nile has been the lifeline of its region for much of human history, nomadic modern human hunter-gatherers began living in the Nile valley through the end of the Middle Pleistocene some 120,000 years ago. By the late Paleolithic period, the climate of Northern Africa became increasingly hot and dry. In Predynastic and Early Dynastic times, the Egyptian climate was less arid than it is today. Large regions of Egypt were covered in treed savanna and traversed by herds of grazing ungulates, foliage and fauna were far more prolific in all environs and the Nile region supported large populations of waterfowl. Hunting would have been common for Egyptians, and this is also the period when many animals were first domesticated. The largest of these cultures in upper Egypt was the Badari, which probably originated in the Western Desert, it was known for its high quality ceramics, stone tools. The Badari was followed by the Amratian and Gerzeh cultures, which brought a number of technological improvements, as early as the Naqada I Period, predynastic Egyptians imported obsidian from Ethiopia, used to shape blades and other objects from flakes. In Naqada II times, early evidence exists of contact with the Near East, particularly Canaan, establishing a power center at Hierakonpolis, and later at Abydos, Naqada III leaders expanded their control of Egypt northwards along the Nile. They also traded with Nubia to the south, the oases of the desert to the west. Royal Nubian burials at Qustul produced artifacts bearing the oldest-known examples of Egyptian dynastic symbols, such as the crown of Egypt. They also developed a ceramic glaze known as faience, which was used well into the Roman Period to decorate cups, amulets, and figurines. During the last predynastic phase, the Naqada culture began using written symbols that eventually were developed into a system of hieroglyphs for writing the ancient Egyptian language. The Early Dynastic Period was approximately contemporary to the early Sumerian-Akkadian civilisation of Mesopotamia, the third-century BC Egyptian priest Manetho grouped the long line of pharaohs from Menes to his own time into 30 dynasties, a system still used today
19.
Kingdom of Kush
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The Kingdom of Kush or Kush was an ancient Nubian kingdom situated on the confluences of the Blue Nile, White Nile and River Atbara in what is now Sudan and South Sudan. The Kushite era of rule in Nubia was established after the Bronze Age collapse and the disintegration of the New Kingdom of Egypt, during Classical antiquity, the Kushite imperial capital was at Meroe. In early Greek geography, the Meroitic kingdom was known as Aethiopia, by the 1st century AD, the Kushite capital had been captured by the Beja Dynasty, who tried to revive the empire. The Kushite kingdom with its capital at Meroe persisted until the 4th century AD, the Kushite capital was eventually captured and burnt to the ground by the Kingdom of Axum. It is also a term for the native population who initiated the kingdom of Kush. The term is also displayed in the names of Kushite persons, geographically, Kush referred to the region south of the first cataract in general. Kush also was the home of the rulers of the 25th dynasty, the name Kush, since at least the time of Josephus, has been connected with the biblical character Cush, in the Hebrew Bible, son of Ham. Ham had four sons named, Cush, Put, Canaan, according to the Bible, Nimrod, a son of Cush, was the founder and king of Babylon, Erech, Akkad and Calneh, in Shinar. The Bible also makes reference to someone named Cush who is a Benjamite, some modern scholars, such as Friedrich Delitzsch, have suggested that the biblical Cush might be linked to the Kassites of the Zagros Mountains. Mentuhotep II is recorded to have undertaken campaigns against Kush in the 29th and this is the earliest Egyptian reference to Kush, the Nubian region had gone by other names in the Old Kingdom. During the New Kingdom of Egypt, Nubia was an Egyptian colony, with the disintegration of the New Kingdom around 1070 BC, Kush became an independent kingdom centered at Napata in modern northern Sudan. The Kushites buried their monarchs along with all their courtiers in mass graves, archaeologists refer to these practices as the Pan-grave culture. This was given its due to the way in which the remains are buried. They would dig a pit and put stones around them in a circle, Kushites also built burial mounds and pyramids, and shared some of the same gods worshiped in Egypt, especially Ammon and Isis. With the worshiping of these gods the Kushites began to some of the names of the gods as their throne names. The Kush rulers were regarded as guardians of the religion and were responsible for maintaining the houses of the gods. Some scholars believe the economy in the Kingdom of Kush was a redistributive system, the state would collect taxes in the form of surplus produce and would redistribute to the people. Others believe that most of the society worked on the land and required nothing from the state, northern Kush seemed to be more productive and wealthier than the Southern area
20.
Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt
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The Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt, also known as the Nubian Dynasty or the Kushite Empire, was the last dynasty of the Third Intermediate Period of Ancient Egypt. The 25th dynasty was a line of rulers originating in the Nubian Kingdom of Kush – in present-day northern Sudan and southern Egypt – and they reigned in part or all of Ancient Egypt from 760 BCE to 656 BCE. The dynasty began with Kashtas invasion of Upper Egypt and culminated in several years of successful and unsuccessful war with the Mesopotamian based Assyrian Empire. The 25th Dynastys reunification of Lower Egypt, Upper Egypt, and they assimilated into society by reaffirming Ancient Egyptian religious traditions, temples, and artistic forms, while introducing some unique aspects of Kushite culture. It was during the 25th dynasty that the Nile valley saw the first widespread construction of pyramids since the Middle Kingdom, war with Assyria resulted in the end of Kushite power in Northern Egypt and the conquest of Egypt by Assyria. They were succeeded by the Twenty-sixth dynasty of Egypt, initially a puppet dynasty installed by and vassals of the Assyrians, the last native dynasty to rule Egypt before the Persian conquest. The known rulers, in the History of Egypt, for the dynasty are the following, The period starting with Kashta. The later Kings from the dynasty ruled over Napata, Meroe. The seat of government and the palace were in Napata during this period. The kings and queens were buried in El-Kurru and Nuri, alara, the first known Nubian king and predecessor of Kashta was not a 25th dynasty king since he did not control any region of Egypt during his reign. While Piye is viewed as the founder of the 25th dynasty, the twenty-fifth dynasty originated in Kush, or, which is presently in Northern Sudan. The city-state of Napata was the capital and it was from there that Piye invaded. Piye personally led the attack on Egypt and recorded his victory in a lengthy hieroglyphic filled stele called the Stele of Victory, Piye revived one of the greatest features of the Old and Middle Kingdoms, pyramid construction. An energetic builder, he constructed the oldest known pyramid at the burial site of El-Kurru. Although Manetho does not mention the first king, Piye, mainstream Egyptologists consider him the first Pharaoh of the 25th dynasty, Manetho also does not mention the last king, Tantamani, although inscriptions exist to attest to the existence of both Piye and Tantamani. Piye made various attempts to extend Egyptian influence in the Near East. In 720 BC he sent an army in support of a rebellion against Assyria in Philistia and Gaza, however Piye was defeated by Sargon II, Shabaka conquered the entire Nile valley, including Upper and Lower Egypt, around 710 BC. Shabaka had Bocchoris of the preceding Sais dynasty burned to death for resisting him, after conquering Lower Egypt, Shabaka transferred the capital to Memphis
21.
Khartoum
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Khartoum is the capital and second largest city of Sudan and the state of Khartoum. It is located at the confluence of the White Nile, flowing north from Lake Victoria, the location where the two Niles meet is known as al-Mogran. The main Nile continues to north towards Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea. The origin of the word, Khartoum, is uncertain, one theory argues that khartoum is derived from Arabic khurṭūm, probably referring to the narrow strip of land extending between the Blue and White Niles. Some scholars speculate that the word derives from the Nubian word, Agartum, other Beja scholars suggest Khartoum is derived from the Beja word, Hartoom. Additionally, the dream interpreting magicians in Genesis 41,8 are referred to as חַרְטֻמֵּ֥י, suggesting that in ancient times the word already existed. In 1821, Khartoum was established 24 kilometres north of the ancient city of Soba, by Ibrahim Pasha, the son of Egypts ruler, Muhammad Ali Pasha, who had just incorporated Sudan into his realm. Originally, Khartoum served as an outpost for the Egyptian Army and it also became a focal point for the slave trade. Later, it became the center of Sudan and official capital. On 13 March 1884, troops loyal to the Mahdi Muhammad Ahmad started a siege of Khartoum, the siege ended in a massacre of the Anglo-Egyptian garrison. On 26 January 1885, the damaged city fell to the Mahdists. On 2 September 1898, Omdurman was the scene of the bloody Battle of Omdurman, in 1973, the city was the site of an anomalous hostage crisis in which members of Black September held 10 hostages at the Saudi Arabian embassy, five of them diplomats. The US ambassador, the US deputy ambassador, and the Belgian chargé daffaires were murdered, a 1973 United States Department of State document, declassified in 2006, concluded, The Khartoum operation was planned and carried out with the full knowledge and personal approval of Yasser Arafat. In 1977, the first oil pipeline between Khartoum and the Port of Sudan was completed, throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Khartoum was the destination for hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing conflicts in neighboring nations such as Chad, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Uganda. Many Eritrean and Ethiopian refugees assimilated into society, while others settled in large slums at the outskirts of the city, since the mid-1980s, large numbers of refugees from South Sudan and Darfur fleeing the violence of the Second Sudanese Civil War and Darfur conflict have settled around Khartoum. In 1991, Osama bin Laden purchased a house in the affluent al-Riyadh neighborhood of the city and he lived there until 1996, when he was banished from the country. The destruction of the factory produced diplomatic tension between the U. S. and Sudan, the factory ruins are now a tourist attraction. The sudden death of SPLA head and vice-president of Sudan, John Garang, the riots finally died down after Southern Sudanese politicians and tribal leaders sent strong messages to the rioters
22.
Luxor
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Luxor is a city in Upper Egypt and the capital of Luxor Governorate. The population numbers 487,896, with an area of approximately 416 square kilometres, immediately opposite, across the River Nile, lie the monuments, temples and tombs of the West Bank Necropolis, which includes the Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens. Thousands of tourists from all around the world arrive annually to visit these monuments, the name Luxor comes from the Arabic al-ʾuqṣur, lit. the palaces, from the collective pl. of qaṣr, which may be a loanword from the Latin castrum fortified camp. Luxor was the ancient city of Thebes, the capital of Egypt during the New Kingdom. Montuhotep II who united Egypt after the troubles of the first intermediate period brought stability to the lands as the city grew in stature. The city attracted peoples such as the Babylonians, the Mitanni, the Hittites of Anatolia, the Canaanites of Ugarit, the Phoenicians of Byblos and Tyre, a Hittite prince from Anatolia even came to marry with the widow of Tutankhamun, Ankhesenamun. However, as the city of the god Amon-Ra, Thebes remained the capital of Egypt until the Greek period. The main god of the city was Amon, who was worshipped together with his wife, the Goddess Mut, and their son Khonsu, the God of the moon. With the rise of Thebes as the foremost city of Egypt and his great temple, at Karnak just north of Thebes, was the most important temple of Egypt right until the end of antiquity. Later, the city was attacked by Assyrian emperor Assurbanipal who installed the Libyan prince on the throne, the city of Thebes was in ruins and fell in significance. However, Alexander the Great did arrive at the temple of Amun, where the statue of the god was transferred from Karnak during the Opet Festival, Aswan and Luxor have the hottest summer days of any other city in Egypt. Aswan and Luxor have nearly the same climate, Luxor is one of the hottest, sunniest and driest cities in the world. Average high temperatures are above 40 °C during summer while average low temperatures remain above 22 °C, during the coldest month of the year, average high temperatures remain above 22.0 °C while average low temperatures remain above 5 °C. The climate of Luxor has precipitation levels lower than even most other places in the Sahara, the desert city is one of the driest ones in the world, and rainfall does not occur every year. The air is dry in Luxor but much more humid than in Aswan. There is a relative humidity of 39. 9%, with a maximum mean of 57% during winter. In addition, Luxor, Minya, Sohag, Qena and Asyut have the widest difference of temperatures between days and nights of any city in Egypt, with almost 16 °C difference. The hottest temperature recorded was on May 15,1991 which was 50 °C, the Coptic Catholic minority established on November 26,1895 an Eparchy of Luqsor alias Thebes, on territory split off from the Apostolic Vicariate of Egypt
23.
Aswan
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Aswan, formerly spelled Assuan, is a city in the south of Egypt, the capital of the Aswan Governorate. Aswan is a market and tourist centre located just north of the Aswan Dams on the east bank of the Nile at the first cataract. The modern city has expanded and includes the separate community on the island of Elephantine. Aswan is the ancient city of Swenett, which in antiquity was the town of Ancient Egypt facing the south. Swenett is supposed to have derived its name from an Egyptian goddess with the same name, the ancient name of the city also is said to be derived from the Egyptian symbol for trade, or market. The city stood upon a peninsula on the bank of the Nile, immediately below the first cataract of the flowing waters. Navigation to the delta was possible from this location without encountering a barrier, the stone quarries of ancient Egypt located here were celebrated for their stone, and especially for the granitic rock called Syenite. They lie on either bank of the Nile, and a road,6.5 km in length, was cut beside them from Syene to Philae, Swenett was equally important as a military station as a place of traffic. Under every dynasty it was a town, and here tolls. Around 330, the legion stationed here received a bishop from Alexandria, the city is mentioned by numerous ancient writers, including Herodotus, Strabo, Stephanus of Byzantium, Ptolemy, Pliny the Elder, Vitruvius, and it appears on the Antonine Itinerary. It also is mentioned in the Book of Ezekiel and the Book of Isaiah, the latitude of the city that would become Aswan – located at 24° 5′ 23″ – was an object of great interest to the ancient geographers. They believed that it was seated immediately under the tropic, and that on the day of the summer solstice and they noted that the suns disc was reflected in a well at noon. However, Eratosthenes used this information together with measurements of the length on the solstice at Alexandria to perform the first known calculation of the circumference of the Earth. The Nile is nearly 650 m wide above Aswan, from this frontier town to the northern extremity of Egypt, the river flows for more than 1,200 km without bar or cataract. The voyage from Aswan to Alexandria usually took 21 to 28 days in favourable weather, Aswan has a hot desert climate like the rest of Egypt. Aswan and Luxor have the hottest summer days of any city in Egypt, Aswan is one of the hottest, sunniest and driest cities in the world. Averages high temperatures are consistently above 40 °C during summer while averages low temperatures remain above 25 °C, summers are long, prolonged and extremely hot. Averages high temperatures remain above 23 °C during the coldest month of the year while averages low temperatures remain above 8 °C, winters are short, brief and extremely warm
24.
Nuba Mountains
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The Nuba Mountains, also referred to as the Nuba Hills, is an area located in South Kordofan, Sudan. The area is home to a group of ethnic groups known collectively as the Nuba peoples. In the 18th century, the Nuba Mountains became home to the kingdom of Taqali that controlled the hills of the mountains until their defeat by Mahdi Muhammad Ahmad, after the Mahdis defeat by the British, Taqali was restored as a client state. Infiltration of the Messiria tribe of Baggara Arabs has been influential in modern conflicts, the mountains cover an area roughly 64 km wide by 145 km long, and are 450 to 900 metres higher in elevation than the surrounding plain. The mountains stretch for some 48,000 square kilometres, the climate is semi-arid with under 800 mm of rain per year on average, but lush and green compared with most nearby areas. There are almost no roads in the Nuba Mountains, most villages there are connected by ancient paths that cannot be reached by motor vehicle, the rainy season extends from mid-May to mid-October, and annual rainfall ranges from 400 to 800 millimetres, allowing grazing and seasonal rain-fed agriculture. The region stayed under the control of the government and the Comprehensive Peace Agreement did not give the Nuba Mountains the right to join South Sudan in its vote for independence in 2011. Residents of the Nuba Mountains were required to hold ill-defined popular consultations to determine their future, not only the Nuba Mountains but the whole of South Kordofan state would be eligible to vote, essentially to accommodate the Messiria. Additionally, the Sudanese government maintained heavy military presence in the region, the ambiguous situation and fears of future communal violence invoked concerns that South Kordofan could be the next Darfur. As of June 2011, South Kordofans governor Ahmed Haroun had suspended the process of popular consultations, the capital is located in Juba. The Nuba Mountains are geographically in the north in the area called South Kordofan, the people of the Nuba Mountains (a five mountain chain rising from the desert to 1,000 metres were not aligned with the north under sharia law nor the Arabic language. This cultural dispute was in part the reason for people in Nuba being prosecuted by indiscriminate bombing, attacks on civilians, in exchange, the Sudan Peoples Liberation Army/SPLA agree not attack the south-north pipeline to Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast. One of the advisers/observers was Randy Hampton located in Kauda co-located with the SPLA command element, reports of indiscriminate bombing of civilians and mining entry points primarily for relief operation was reported and documents during this time. Abdel Aziz Adam El Hilu was at time, the governor of the Nuba Mountains. He is currently back in the Nuba Mountains supporting relief and security operations and it should be noted that President Bashir is an indicted war criminal at the International Criminal Court as a result of the genocidal activities of Sudan in Darfur. Human Rights Watch says that cluster bombs are used in the region, the ongoing war continues as the international community continues to debate a resolution to the issue of the Nuba Mountains. Nubawatch, Nuba Mountains, The Beginning January 9,2011
25.
South Kordofan
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South Kordofan is one of the 18 wilayat or provinces of Sudan. It has an area of 158,355 km² and a population of approximately 1,100,000 people. Kaduqli is the capital of the state and it is centered on the Nuba Hills. It was erroneously believed that South Kordofan is the state in Sudan that is producing oil. Oil has since been discovered in White Nile State in larger quantities, under the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, residents of South Kordofan were to hold popular consultations in 2011 to determine the constitutional future of the state. However, South Kordofan governor Ahmed Haroun suspended the process and violence followed, Haroun had previously been charged with war crimes against civilians and crime against humanity by the International Criminal Court. Although South Kordofan is part of Sudan, it is home to many pro South Sudan communities, especially in the Nuba Mountains, in 2009 and 2010 a series of conflicts between rival nomadic tribes in South Kordofan caused a large number of casualties and displaced thousands. On June 6,2011 armed conflict broke out between the forces of Northern and Southern Sudan, ahead of the independence of the South on July 9. This followed an agreement for both sides to withdraw from Abyei, on June 20, the parties agreed to demilitarize the contested area of Abyei where Ethiopian peacekeepers will be deployed
26.
Dongola
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Dongola, also spelled Dunqulah, and formerly known as Al Urdi, is the capital of the state of Northern in Sudan, on the banks of the Nile, and a former Latin Catholic bishopric. It should not be confused with Old Dongola, an ancient city located 80 km upstream on the opposite bank. Dongola was also a province of Upper Nubia on both sides of the Nile and a centre for Nubian civilization as manifested by its archaeological remains from the Makurian. The remains of the revered Baqt Treaty are to be found in Dongola and its first governor was Abidin Bey. Dongola was the scene of a victory by General Herbert Kitchener over the indigenous Mahdist Muslim tribes in 1896, Dongola Road in the Bishopston area of Bristol was named after this event. So was Dongola Road in Tottenham, North London which runs next to Kitchener Road, there is also a Dongola Road in Jersey. Dongola is a village in Union County, Illinois, United States which was out in 1857 and named after Dongola. The Latin Catholic Diocese of Dongola was established in 1330 and suppressed in 1350, the town is home to the University of Dongola, a public university. The Nile Expedition of 1884–1885 to relieve Gordon at Khartoum passed through the area, regiments were challenged to race up the river by boat, and this gave rise to the English regatta competition of dongola racing. Dongola has a hot desert climate, Dongola is located in one of the hottest, sunniest and driest regions in the world. An account of the Shaikiya tribes and of the history of Dongola Province from the XIVth to the XIXth century Dongola, Sudan, Climate, Global Warming, and Daylight Charts and Data
27.
Egyptian language
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The language spoken in ancient Egypt was a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. The earliest known complete sentence in the Egyptian language has been dated to about 2690 BCE, making it one of the oldest recorded languages known. Egyptian was spoken until the seventeenth century in the form of Coptic. The national language of modern Egypt is Egyptian Arabic, which gradually replaced Coptic as the language of life in the centuries after the Muslim conquest of Egypt. Coptic is still used as the language of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria. It has several hundred fluent speakers today, the Egyptian language belongs to the Afroasiatic language family. Of the other Afroasiatic branches, Egyptian shows its greatest affinities with Semitic, in Egyptian, the Proto-Afroasiatic voiced consonants */d z ð/ developed into pharyngeal ⟨ꜥ⟩ /ʕ/, e. g. Eg. Afroasiatic */l/ merged with Egyptian ⟨n⟩, ⟨r⟩, ⟨ꜣ⟩, and ⟨j⟩ in the dialect on which the language was based. Original */k g ḳ/ palatalize to ⟨ṯ j ḏ⟩ in some environments and are preserved as ⟨k g q⟩ in others, Egyptian has many biradical and perhaps monoradical roots, in contrast to the Semitic preference for triradical roots. Egyptian probably is more archaic in this regard, whereas Semitic likely underwent later regularizations converting roots into the triradical pattern, scholars group the Egyptian language into six major chronological divisions, Archaic Egyptian language Old Egyptian language Middle Egyptian language, characterizing Middle Kingdom. Demotic Coptic The earliest Egyptian glyphs date back to around 3300 BC and these early texts are generally lumped together under the general term Archaic Egyptian. They record names, titles and labels, but a few of them show morphological and syntactic features familiar from later, more complete, Old Egyptian is dated from the oldest known complete sentence, found in the tomb of Seth-Peribsen and dated to around 2690 BCE. It reads, dmḏ. n. f t3wj n z3. f nswt-bjt pr-jb. snj He has united the Two Lands for his son, extensive texts appear from about 2600 BCE. Demotic first appears about 650 BCE and survived as a written language until the fifth century CE and it probably survived in the Egyptian countryside as a spoken language for several centuries after that. Bohairic Coptic is still used by the Coptic Churches, Old, Middle, and Late Egyptian were all written using hieroglyphs and hieratic. Demotic was written using a script derived from hieratic, its appearance is similar to modern Arabic script and is also written from right to left. Coptic is written using the Coptic alphabet, a form of the Greek alphabet with a number of symbols borrowed from Demotic for sounds that did not occur in ancient Greek. Arabic became the language of Egypts political administration soon after the early Muslim conquests in the seventh century, today, Coptic survives as the sacred language of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria and the Coptic Catholic Church
28.
Kerma culture
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The Kerma Culture was an early civilization that flourished from around 2500 BCE to about 1500 BCE in Nubia, in Upper Egypt and northern Sudan, centered at Kerma, Sudan. It seems to have one of a number of Nile valley states during the Middle Kingdom of Egypt. In the Kingdom of Kermas latest phase, lasting from about 1700–1500 BCE, it absorbed the Sudanese kingdom of Sai and became a sizable, around 1500 BCE, it was absorbed into the New Kingdom of Egypt, but rebellions continued for centuries. By the eleventh century BCE, the more Egyptianized Kingdom of Kush emerged, possibly from Kerma, the primary site of Kerma that forms the heart of the Kingdom of Kerma includes both an extensive town and a cemetery consisting of large tumuli. The level of affluence at the site demonstrated the power of the Kingdom of Kerma, until recently, the Kerma civilisation was known only from the townsite and cemeteries of its metropolitan centre and smaller sites in Kerma, Sudan. However, recent survey and excavation work has identified many new sites south of Kerma, many located on channels of the Nile, now dry, which lay to the east of the modern course of the river. This pattern of settlement indicates a population and for the first time provides us with some sort of context in which we can place Kerma itself. Survey work in advance of the Merowe Dam at the Fourth Cataract has confirmed the presence of Kerma sites at least as far upriver as the Abu Hamad/Mograt Island area, Kerma was evidently a sizable political entity - Egyptian records speak of its rich and populous agricultural regions. Unlike Egypt, Kerma seems to have been highly centralized and it controlled the 1st to 4th Cataracts, which meant its domain was as extensive as ancient Egypt. Certain Kerma towns served to centralize agricultural products and direct trade and this parallels the importance of cattle as royal property in other parts of Africa at later times. Only the centres of Kerma and Sai seem to have had contained sizable urban populations, possibly further excavations will reveal other regional centres. Evidently, Kerma played an important intermediary role in the trade of items from the Central African interior to Egypt. During the First Intermediate Period, the Egyptian presence in Lower Nubia ceased, when at the beginning of the New Kingdom, Egyptian sources again mentioned the region of Kerma, they reported Kerma as being in control of both Upper and Lower Nubia. The long history of Egyptian military activity in Lower Nubia may indicate that Kerma was perceived as a threat to Pharaonic Egypt at varying times, principle Egyptian fortifications were built in the middle Nile Valley during the Middle Kingdom. These were to secure the Upper Egyptian border against raids from Kerma, both during the Middle and New Kingdoms, the resources Kerma possessed – gold, cattle, milk products, ebony, incense, ivory, etc. – were much coveted by Egypt. Its army were built around archers, during its zenith, Kerma formed a partnership with the Hyksos and tried to crush Egypt. Discoveries in 2003 at the Governor of El Kabs Tomb show that Kerma invaded deep into Egypt between 1575 and 1550 BC and it is believed that this was one of Egypts most humiliating defeats, which later pharaohs erased from the official historic records. Many royal statues and monuments were looted from Egypt and removed to Kerma, under Tuthmosis I, Egypt made several campaigns south
29.
Meroitic language
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The Meroitic language was spoken in Meroë and the Sudan during the Meroitic period and became extinct about 400 CE. It is poorly understood owing to the scarcity of bilingual texts, the classification of Meroitic is uncertain due to the scarcity of data and difficulty in interpreting it. Since the alphabet was deciphered in 1909, it has proposed that Meroitic is related to the Nubian languages. Claude Rilly is the most recent proponent of the Nilo-Saharan idea, he proposes that it is Eastern Sudanic, rowan, on the other hand, notes that the Meroitic sound inventory and phonotactics are similar to those of the Afroasiatic languages, and dissimilar from Nilo-Saharan languages. For example, very rarely does one find the sequence CVC and this is similar to consonant restrictions found throughout the Afroasiatic language family, suggesting that Meroitic might have been an Afroasiatic language like Egyptian. The issue is unresolved and most classifications list Meroitic either as questionably Nilo-Saharan or as unclassified, finally, Meroë was conquered by a Beja dynasty in the first century AD and the later cursive Meroitic script may represent a Nubian-Beja creole. Böhm, Gerhard, Die Sprache der Aithiopen im Lande Kusch in Beiträge zur Afrikanistik,34, Rilly, Claude and Alex de Voogt. The Meroitic Language and Writing System, Cambridge University Press,2012, Rilly, Claude The Linguistic Position of Meroitic, Sudan Electronic Journal of Archaeology and Anthropology. ———— La langue du Royaume de Meroe, ———— Meroitic - An Afroasiatic Language. SOAS Working Papers in Linguistics 14, 169–206, the Kingdom of Kush, 189-195, ISBN 071410986X. Meroitic 1 ROCZNIK ORIENTALISTYCZNY, T. LXIV, Z.2,2011, francis Breyer, Einführung in die Meroistik, LIT Verlag, Berlin 2014
30.
Aethiopia
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Its earliest mention is in the works of Homer, twice in the Iliad, and three times in the Odyssey. The Greek historian Herodotus specifically uses the appellation to refer to parts of Sub-Saharan Africa as were then known within the inhabitable world. In classical antiquity, Africa referred to what is now known as the Maghreb and south of the Libyan Desert and Western Sahara, including all the desert land west of the southern Nile river. Geographical knowledge of the continent gradually grew, with the first century AD Greek travelogue the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea describing areas as far south as Zimbabwe, Αἰθίοψ, meaning burnt-face, was used as a vague term for dark-skinned populations since the time of Homer. Homer is the first to mention Aethiopians, he mentions that they are to be found at the east and west extremities of the world, hesiod speaks of Memnon as the king of Aethiopia. In 515 BC, Scylax of Caryanda, on orders from Darius I of the Achaemenid Empire, sailed along the Indus River, Indian Ocean and Red Sea and he mentioned Aethiopians, but his writings on them have not survived. Hecataeus of Miletus is also said to have written a book about Aethiopia, in his Histories Herodotus presents some of the most ancient and detailed information about Aethiopia. He describes a capital at Meroë, adding that the deities worshipped there were Zeus and Dionysus. He relates that in the reign of Pharaoh Psamtik I, many Egyptian soldiers deserted their country, Herodotus tells us that king Cambyses II of the Achaemenid Empire sent spies to the Aethiopians who dwelt in that part of Libya which borders upon the southern sea. They found a strong and healthy people, although Cambyses then campaigned toward their country, by not preparing enough provisions for the long march, his army completely failed and returned quickly. In Book 3, Herodotus defines Aethiopia as the farthest region of Libya, Where the south declines towards the sun lies the country called Aethiopia. There gold is obtained in great plenty, huge elephants abound, with trees of all sorts, and ebony, and the men are taller, handsomer. The Egyptian priest Manetho listed Kushite dynasty, calling it the Aethiopian dynasty, agatharchides provides a relatively detailed description of the gold mining system of Aethiopia. His text was copied almost verbatim by virtually all subsequent ancient writers on the area, with regard to the Ethiopians, Strabo indicates that those who are in Asia, and those who are in Africa, do not differ from each other. Pliny in turn asserts that the place-name Aethiopia was derived from one Aethiop and he also writes that the Queen of the Ethiopians bore the title Kandake, and avers that the Ethiopians had conquered ancient Syria and the Mediterranean. The first century AD Greek travelogue known as the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea first describes the Horn of Africa littoral, the Periplus does not mention any dark-skinned Ethiopians among the areas inhabitants. They only later appear in Ptolemys Geographia, but in a far south. Subsequently, by the century, these original Azanians had been replaced by early waves of Bantu settlers
31.
Roman Empire
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Civil wars and executions continued, culminating in the victory of Octavian, Caesars adopted son, over Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC and the annexation of Egypt. Octavians power was then unassailable and in 27 BC the Roman Senate formally granted him overarching power, the imperial period of Rome lasted approximately 1,500 years compared to the 500 years of the Republican era. The first two centuries of the empires existence were a period of unprecedented political stability and prosperity known as the Pax Romana, following Octavians victory, the size of the empire was dramatically increased. After the assassination of Caligula in 41, the senate briefly considered restoring the republic, under Claudius, the empire invaded Britannia, its first major expansion since Augustus. Vespasian emerged triumphant in 69, establishing the Flavian dynasty, before being succeeded by his son Titus and his short reign was followed by the long reign of his brother Domitian, who was eventually assassinated. The senate then appointed the first of the Five Good Emperors, the empire reached its greatest extent under Trajan, the second in this line. A period of increasing trouble and decline began with the reign of Commodus, Commodus assassination in 192 triggered the Year of the Five Emperors, of which Septimius Severus emerged victorious. The assassination of Alexander Severus in 235 led to the Crisis of the Third Century in which 26 men were declared emperor by the Roman Senate over a time span. It was not until the reign of Diocletian that the empire was fully stabilized with the introduction of the Tetrarchy, which saw four emperors rule the empire at once. This arrangement was unsuccessful, leading to a civil war that was finally ended by Constantine I. Constantine subsequently shifted the capital to Byzantium, which was renamed Constantinople in his honour and it remained the capital of the east until its demise. Constantine also adopted Christianity which later became the state religion of the empire. However, Augustulus was never recognized by his Eastern colleague, and separate rule in the Western part of the empire ceased to exist upon the death of Julius Nepos. The Eastern Roman Empire endured for another millennium, eventually falling to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, the Roman Empire was among the most powerful economic, cultural, political and military forces in the world of its time. It was one of the largest empires in world history, at its height under Trajan, it covered 5 million square kilometres. It held sway over an estimated 70 million people, at that time 21% of the entire population. Throughout the European medieval period, attempts were made to establish successors to the Roman Empire, including the Empire of Romania, a Crusader state. Rome had begun expanding shortly after the founding of the republic in the 6th century BC, then, it was an empire long before it had an emperor
32.
Strabo
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Strabo was a Greek geographer, philosopher, and historian who lived in Asia Minor during the transitional period of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire. Strabo was born to an affluent family from Amaseia in Pontus, Strabos life was characterized by extensive travels. He journeyed to Egypt and Kush, as far west as coastal Tuscany and as far south as Ethiopia in addition to his travels in Asia Minor and the time he spent in Rome. Travel throughout the Mediterranean and Near East, especially for scholarly purposes, was popular during this era and was facilitated by the relative peace enjoyed throughout the reign of Augustus. He moved to Rome in 44 BC, and stayed there, studying and writing, in 29 BC, on his way to Corinth, he visited the island of Gyaros in the Aegean Sea. Around 25 BC, he sailed up the Nile until reaching Philae and it is not known precisely when Strabos Geography was written, though comments within the work itself place the finished version within the reign of Emperor Tiberius. Some place its first drafts around 7 BC, others around 17 or 18 AD, the latest passage to which a date can be assigned is his reference to the death in AD23 of Juba II, king of Maurousia, who is said to have died just recently. He probably worked on the Geography for many years and revised it steadily, on the presumption that recently means within a year, Strabo stopped writing that year or the next, when he died. The first of Strabos major works, Historical Sketches, written while he was in Rome, is completely lost. Strabo studied under several prominent teachers of various specialties throughout his life at different stops along his Mediterranean travels. His first chapter of education took place in Nysa under the master of rhetoric Aristodemus, Strabo was an admirer of Homers poetry, perhaps a consequence of his time spent in Nysa with Aristodemus. At around the age of 21, Strabo moved to Rome, where he studied philosophy with the Peripatetic Xenarchus, despite Xenarchuss Aristotelian leanings, Strabo later gives evidence to have formed his own Stoic inclinations. In Rome, he learned grammar under the rich and famous scholar Tyrannion of Amisus. Although Tyrannion was also a Peripatetic, he was more relevantly a respected authority on geography, the final noteworthy mentor to Strabo was Athenodorus Cananites, a philosopher who had spent his life since 44 BC in Rome forging relationships with the Roman elite. Athenodorus endowed to Strabo three important items, his philosophy, his knowledge, and his contacts, moreover, from his own first-hand experience, Athenodorus provided Strabo with information about regions of the empire which he would not otherwise have known. Strabo is most notable for his work Geographica, which presented a history of people. Although the Geographica was rarely utilized in its antiquity, a multitude of copies survived throughout the Byzantine Empire. It first appeared in Western Europe in Rome as a Latin translation issued around 1469, the first Greek edition was published in 1516 in Venice
33.
Senkamanisken
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Senkamanisken was a Nubian king who ruled from 640 to 620 BCE at Napata. He used titles based on those of the Egyptian pharaohs and he was married to Queen Nasalsa who bore him two sons, Anlamani and Aspelta. Both sons would ultimately assume the Nubian/Kushite throne after his death at Napata and his pyramid is Nu.3 in Nuri. Statues of Senkamanisken have been buried or hidden in the Jebel Barkal. A sphinx has also found which was inscribed with his name
34.
Kingdom of Aksum
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The Kingdom of Aksum or Axum, also known as the Aksumite Empire, was a Habasha trading nation in the modern-day area of Eritrea and the Tigray region of Ethiopia. It existed from approximately 100 AD to 940 AD, the Persian Prophet Mani regarded Axum as one of the four great powers of his time, alongside Persia, Rome, and China. The Axumites erected a number of stelae, which served a religious purpose in pre-Christian times. One of these columns is the largest such structure in the world. In the 7th century, early Muslims from Mecca sought refuge from Quraysh persecution by travelling to the kingdom and its ancient capital, also called Aksum, was in northern Ethiopia. The Kingdom used the name Ethiopia as early as the 4th century, tradition claims Axum as the alleged resting place of the Ark of the Covenant and the purported home of the Queen of Sheba. Aksum is mentioned in the 1st-century AD Periplus of the Erythraean Sea as an important market place for ivory, which was exported throughout the ancient world. It states that the ruler of Aksum in the 1st century AD was Zoskales and he is also said to have been familiar with Greek literature. They also cite evidence indicating that the Sabaean settlers resided in the region for more than a few decades. Over 95% of Aksum remains unexplored beneath the city and its surrounding area. The Kingdom of Aksum was an empire centered in Eritrea. It existed from approximately 100–940 AD, growing from the proto-Aksumite Iron Age period c. 4th century BC to achieve prominence by the 1st century AD, according to the Book of Aksum, Aksums first capital, Mazaber, was built by Itiyopis, son of Cush. The capital was moved to Aksum in northern Ethiopia. The Kingdom used the name Ethiopia as early as the 4th century, the Empire of Aksum at its height at times extended across most of present-day Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Sudan, Egypt, Yemen and Saudi Arabia. The capital city of the empire was Aksum, now in northern Ethiopia, today a smaller community, the city of Aksum was once a bustling metropolis, cultural and economic center. Two hills and two lie on the east and west expanses of the city, perhaps providing the initial impetus for settling this area. Along the hills and plain outside the city, the Aksumites had cemeteries with elaborate grave stones called stelae, other important cities included Yeha, Hawulti-Melazo, Matara, Adulis, and Qohaito, the last three of which are now in Eritrea. By the reign of Endubis in the late 3rd century, it had begun minting its own currency and was named by Mani as one of the four powers of his time along with Persia, Rome
35.
Ezana of Axum
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Ezana of Axum was ruler of the Kingdom of Aksum located in present-day Eritrea, Northern Ethiopia, Yemen, southern Saudi Arabia, northern Somalia, Djibouti, northern Sudan, and southern Egypt. He himself employed the style king of Saba and Salhen, Himyar, tradition states that Ezana succeeded his father Ella Amida while still a child and his mother, Sofya served as regent. Ezana was the first monarch of Axum to embrace Christianity, and the first after Zoskales to be mentioned by contemporary historians, munro-Hay to comment that he was the most famous of the Aksumite kings before Kaleb. He appointed his tutor, the Syrian Christian Frumentius, head of the Ethiopian Church. Ezana also launched military campaigns, which he recorded in his inscriptions. A pair of inscriptions in Geez have been found at Meroe, on some of the coins minted during Ezanas reign appears the motto in Greek TOYTOAPECHTHXWPA – May this please the people. Munro-Hay comments that this motto is a rather attractive peculiarity of Aksumite coinage, giving a feeling of concern and responsibility towards the peoples wishes. A number of coins minted bearing his name were found in the late 1990s at archeological sites in India, a remarkable feature of the coins is a shift from a pagan motif with disc and crescent to a design with a cross. Ezana is also credited for erecting several structures and obelisks, Ezana is unknown in the King Lists even though the coins bear this name. According to tradition, Emperors Abreha and Asbeha ruled Ethiopia when Christianity was introduced and it may be that these names were later applied to Ezana and his brother or that these were their baptismal names. Along with his brother, Seazana, Ezana is regarded as a saint by the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, Ezana Stone King Ezanas Stele Yuri M. Kobishchanov. University Park, Pennsylvania, University of Pennsylvania,1979, ancient and Medieval Ethiopian History to 1270. African Zion, the Sacred Art of Ethiopia
36.
Afroasiatic languages
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Afroasiatic, also known as Afrasian and traditionally as Hamito-Semitic, is a large language family of several hundred related languages and dialects. It comprises about 300 or so living languages and dialects, according to the 2009 Ethnologue estimate and it includes languages spoken predominantly in West Asia, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and parts of the Sahel. Afroasiatic languages have 350+ million native speakers, the fourth largest number of any language family, the phylum has six branches, Berber, Chadic, Cushitic, Egyptian, Omotic and Semitic. By far the most widely spoken Afroasiatic language is Arabic, including literary Arabic and it has around 200 to 230 million native speakers concentrated primarily in West Asia, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and Malta. Modern Aramaic, spoken by about 550,000 people worldwide and this is not just one language — It includes a number of subdivisions, with Assyrian Neo-Aramaic being the most spoken variety. In addition to languages spoken today, Afroasiatic includes several important ancient languages, such as Ancient Egyptian, Akkadian, Biblical Hebrew and it is uncertain when or where the original homeland of the Afroasiatic family existed. Proposed locations include North Africa, the Horn of Africa, the Eastern Sahara, the terms Hamitic and Semitic were etymologically derived from the Book of Genesis, which describes various Biblical tribes descended from Ham and Shem, two sons of Noah. By the 1860s, the constituent elements within the broader Afroasiatic family had been worked out. The scholar Friedrich Müller introduced the name Hamito-Semitic for the family in his Grundriss der Sprachwissenschaft. Maurice Delafosse later coined the term Afroasiatic, however, it did not come into general use until Joseph Greenberg formally proposed its adoption. In doing so, Greenberg sought to emphasize the fact that Afroasiatic spanned the continents of both Africa and Asia, individual scholars have also called the family Erythraean and Lisramic. The term Hamito-Semitic remains in use in the traditions of some European countries. Greenberg and others considered it a subgroup of Cushitic, whereas others have raised doubts about it being part of Afroasiatic at all, Harold Fleming proposes that Ongota constitutes a separate branch of Afroasiatic. Bonny Sands believes the most convincing proposal is by Savà and Tosco, Beja is sometimes listed as a separate branch of Afroasiatic but is more often included in the Cushitic branch, which has a high degree of internal diversity. Whether the various branches of Cushitic actually form a family is sometimes questioned. There is no consensus on the interrelationships of the five branches of Afroasiatic. This situation is not unusual, even among long-established language families, there are also many disagreements concerning the classification of the Indo-European languages. Meroitic has been proposed as an unclassified Afroasiatic language, because it shares the characteristic of the family
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