1.
National Museum of Saudi Arabia
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The National Museum of Saudi Arabia is a major national museum in Saudi Arabia. Established in 1999, it is part of the King Abdulaziz Historical Centre in Riyadh, the National Museum was part of the Murabba Development Plan to refurbish the area of and around the old Murabba Palace district for the Centennial Celebrations in Saudi Arabia. Thus the deadline was set to early 1999, leaving only 26 months for the planning and building of the museum from scratch, for the design the lead architect Raymond Moriyama was inspired by the form and colors of the sand dunes of the Red Sands just outside Riyadh. The west facade along Murabba Square resembles the soft contour of a sandune with its layout forming a crescent pointing towards Mecca, the west facade opens into a Islamic history of the Arabian Peninsula. For the final galleries the visitor enters the Unification Drum which has displays about the current Saudi State, the last gallery illustrates the two holy mosques and the hajj. Additionally there are two galleries for special exhibitions. The concept for the design of the exhibitions is somewhat different from the traditional approach of the classic museums. There is less emphasis on individual exhibits displayed out of their context as objects of great value. There are a great many replicas and life size dioramic displays, illustrating and educating about certain points, as such it is sometimes difficult to identify certain specific pieces and even tell replicas from originals. The idea behind this is not to focus on pieces in their own right. The exhibits are organized in eight Exhibition Halls or Galleries, man and the Universe The first exhibit encountered in the museum is a large fragment of a meteorite found at the Wabar craters in the desert of the Rub al Khali. Further exhibits and interactive displays explain the system, plate tectonics, the geology and geography of the Arabian Peninsula. Large exhibits include the skeleton of a Platybelodon and Ichthyosaur, the gallery concludes with stone age man. Arabian Kingdoms This gallery illustrates the early kingdoms, focusing on Dilmon, Madian, Gariah, the exhibition continues with the intermediary Arab kingdoms by showcasing the cities of Al-Hamra, Dawmat Al-Jandal, Timaa and Tarout. The late Arab kingdoms are represented by the civilizations that thrived in Al-Aflaaj, Najran, the Pre-Islamic Era This gallery is dedicated to the time from about 400 BCE until the dawn of Islam. Cities of this time portrayed are Makkah, Jarash, Yathrib, Khaibar, Najran, Khadrama, and Dawmat Aljandal, as well as the markets at Okaz, the evolution of script and calligraphy is displayed and explained with many examples. The Prophets Mission Here the life and mission of the Prophet Mohammad is illustrated, on one wall there is a large family tree explaining the prophets family and relations in great detail. Islam and the Arabian Peninsula The time covered in this include the Islamic beginnings in Medinah
National Museum of Saudi Arabia
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Hand written
Quran on display
2.
Masmak fort
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The Masmak is a clay and mud-brick fort, with four watchtowers and thick walls, founded on stone blocks, lying in the center of Riyadh, in the old quarters. This building played a part in the kingdoms history, as it was here that the recapture of Riyadh, led by Ibn Saud. In January 1902 the young Amir Abdulaziz bin Abdul Rahman bin Faisal Al Saud, the building was situated in the commercial center of the old city of Riyadh. It was used by King Abdulaziz from 1902 to 1938 when he moved his court to then newly built Murabba Palace, at the beginning of the 1980s, the fort was renovated. Then it became part of the King Abdulaziz Historical Centre, a series of restored buildings in Riyadh, centennial celebrations were held in 1999. Its palm tree gate is 3.65 meters high by 2.65 meters wide, the castle also encloses a mosque and a well. The roofs are covered with painted palm-tree, taramic and ethel wood, the museum includes a display on many antique guns, costumes and agriculture artifacts. The site is open for all visitors, the opening hours are, Plan and Photographs Virtual tour of the fort
Masmak fort
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Masmak Fort
Masmak fort
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View of the SW corner of the Masmak castle
3.
King Khalid International Airport
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The land area allocated for this airport is among the largest in the world. The airport occupies an area of 375 square kilometres and this airport was constructed to meet the increasing international and local air transport requirements for Riyadh. The airport that KKIA replaced, Riyadh Airport, is now a Royal Saudi Air Force airbase, King Khalid International Airport opened for operations in late 1983. This airport was a landing site for NASAs Space Shuttle. There are five passenger terminals at the airport, four of them were built when the airport is opened in 1982. Terminal 1 is used for all international flights Terminal 2 is used by all flights for Skyteam members including Saudia. Terminal 3 is closed for renovations and it is used to service all Saudia and Flynas domestic flights until Terminal 5 was started operation. Terminal 4 is unused, having never been utilized since construction, but now it is being developed. The development will last for five years. Terminal 5 is the newest terminal opened in 2016, which is now used by Saudia, Terminal 1 to 4 were built when the airport was opened in 1982. They are connected to other by means of three linking buildings, These buildings are 168 metres long. Each terminal is shaped, it has a triangular base of 47,500 square metres area. Terminal 5 is a 106,500 square metres rectangular shaped building which can serve 16 narrow-body or 8 wide-body aircraft, operated by Irish airport operator Dublin Airport Authority, it is Saudis first privately run airport terminal and can handle 12 million passengers per year. Heads of state and other high-ranking VIP visitors to the Kingdom are greeted in the Royal Pavilion, the Royal Pavilion has open spaces, garden areas, and fountains. A ceremonial hall 12.5 metres wide and 390 metres long connects it to the mosque, the design and geometry of the building are similar to those of the other terminals architecturally and in the aesthetic respect. Arriving guests can use either air bridges or escalators to enter the building from the parking area. The ceremonial area on the airside has space for special receptions involving honor guards and bands, like the passenger terminals, the Royal Pavilion has a triangular plan, with a roof composed of 33 arched sections rising to a high point 30 metres above the ground level. Glass walls and windows illuminate the interior of the building, a general aviation complex has been constructed north of runway number 1 for use by private aircraft and is reached by a special access road which runs north from the airport access highway
King Khalid International Airport
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King Khalid International Airport مطار الملك خالد الدولي Maṭār al-Malik Khālid al-Duwaliyy
King Khalid International Airport
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Saudia Boeing 747-400 at King Khalid International Airport.
King Khalid International Airport
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The US Secretary of Defense
Robert Gates walks with U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia
James Smith after arriving at King Khalid International Airport.
4.
Al Faisaliyah Center
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The Al Faisaliyah Centre is a commercial skyscraper located in the business district of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It is the fourth tallest building in Saudi Arabia after the Kingdom Centre, Burj Rafal and it is also called Star Dome. The construction of Al Faisaliyah Centre was completed on 14 May 2000 and it is about 267 meters high and consists of 44 floors. Al-Faisaliah Center at ArchNet Al Faisaliyah Center at Phorio
Al Faisaliyah Center
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Al Faisaliyah Complex
5.
Kingdom Center
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Kingdom Centre, is a 99-storey,302.3 m skyscraper in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Besides the shopping mall, Kingdom Tower contains the Four Seasons Hotel Riyadh, there is a 56 m skybridge atop the skyscraper. The building is situated on 100,000 square metres site with carparking for 3,000 vehicles, the upper third of the tower features an inverted parabolic arch. The building utilises butt jointed glazing combined with the lack of both distinguished floor lines and other buildings around it. The lower two thirds were constructed with a concrete frame while the top third has a tubular steel frame. The architectural model maker of the Center was Richard Tenguerian, al Faisaliyah Center List of tallest buildings in Saudi Arabia Jeddah Tower Kingdom Centre official website Omrania official website Kingdom Centre at Ellerbe Becket
Kingdom Center
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Kingdom Centre
6.
Ministry of Interior (Saudi Arabia)
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The Ministry of Interior is the Interior ministry of Saudi Arabia and is the responsible authority for national security, naturalization, immigration and customs in Saudi Arabia. It was founded in 1951 after the combined ministerial body covering financial, the Ministry is also responsible for issuing Passports and National Identification for Saudi citizens and residence Permit for non-Saudis. The first minister of interior was Abdullah bin Faisal, son of King Faisal, prince Ahmed was appointed interior minister on 18 June 2012. daleeli. com/en/category/all/all/Ministry-of-Interior/51200
Ministry of Interior (Saudi Arabia)
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Ministry of Interior in Riyadh
Ministry of Interior (Saudi Arabia)
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Ministry of Interior Emblem
7.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
Geographic coordinate system
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Longitude lines are perpendicular and latitude lines are parallel to the equator.
8.
Saudi Arabia
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Saudi Arabia is bordered by Jordan and Iraq to the north, Kuwait to the northeast, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates to the east, Oman to the southeast and Yemen to the south. It is separated from Israel and Egypt by the Gulf of Aqaba and it is the only nation with both a Red Sea coast and a Persian Gulf coast and most of its terrain consists of arid desert and mountains. The area of modern-day Saudi Arabia formerly consisted of four regions, Hejaz, Najd and parts of Eastern Arabia. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was founded in 1932 by Ibn Saud and he united the four regions into a single state through a series of conquests beginning in 1902 with the capture of Riyadh, the ancestral home of his family, the House of Saud. Saudi Arabia has since been a monarchy, effectively a hereditary dictatorship governed along Islamic lines. The ultraconservative Wahhabi religious movement within Sunni Islam has been called the predominant feature of Saudi culture, with its global spread largely financed by the oil and gas trade. Saudi Arabia is sometimes called the Land of the Two Holy Mosques in reference to Al-Masjid al-Haram and Al-Masjid an-Nabawi, the state has a total population of 28.7 million, of which 20 million are Saudi nationals and 8 million are foreigners. The states official language is Arabic, petroleum was discovered on 3 March 1938 and followed up by several other finds in the Eastern Province. Saudi Arabia has since become the worlds largest oil producer and exporter, controlling the second largest oil reserves. The kingdom is categorized as a World Bank high-income economy with a high Human Development Index and is the only Arab country to be part of the G-20 major economies. However, the economy of Saudi Arabia is the least diversified in the Gulf Cooperation Council, the state has attracted criticism for its treatment of women and use of capital punishment. Saudi Arabia is an autocracy, has the fourth highest military expenditure in the world. Saudi Arabia is considered a regional and middle power, in addition to the GCC, it is an active member of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and OPEC. Following the unification of the Hejaz and Nejd kingdoms, the new state was named al-Mamlakah al-ʻArabīyah as-Suʻūdīyah by royal decree on 23 September 1932 by its founder, Abdulaziz Al Saud. Although this is translated as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in English it literally means the Saudi Arab kingdom. Its inclusion expresses the view that the country is the possession of the royal family. Al Saud is an Arabic name formed by adding the word Al, meaning family of or House of, in the case of the Al Saud, this is the father of the dynastys 18th century founder, Muhammad bin Saud. There is evidence that human habitation in the Arabian Peninsula dates back to about 125,000 years ago
Saudi Arabia
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Abdul Aziz
Ibn Saud, the first king of Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
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Flag
Saudi Arabia
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Saudi Arabia political map
Saudi Arabia
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Saudi Arabian administrative regions and roadways map.
9.
Faisal bin Bandar Al Saud
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Faisal bin Bandar is governor of Riyadh and a member of the House of Saud. Prince Faisal was born in 1943 and he is the eldest son of Prince Bandar. His mother is Wasmiyah bint Abdul Rahman Al Muammar and his brother Mansour is an air force officer. Prince Faisal obtained a bachelor of degree in history at King Saud University in 1969. Faisal bin Bandar is a military officer. In 1970, he served as the director of the organization and administration department of the Defense and he began to serve as the director of the training department of the Communication Ministry in 1974. Then he appointed assistant deputy governor of Asir Province in 1978 and he was named as deputy governor of the same province in May 1981. He was the governor of Al-Qassim Province from May 1992 to 29 January 2015 when he was named as the governor of Riyadh Province and he replaced Turki bin Abdullah as governor of Riyadh Province. Faisal bin Mishaal bin Saud Al Saud became the governor Al-Qassim Province on the same date, on 20 April 2016 he was awarded the unusually high dignity of heading the delegation welcoming USA president Barack Obama to Riyadh. Prince Faisal was considered close to the late King Abdullah, Faisal bin Bandar is also member of the Allegiance Council since its formation in 2007. Faisal bin Bandar is married to Nura bint Muhammad bin Saud Al Abdul Rahman and has four children, Muhammed, Bandar, Sara and his son, Prince Muhammad, is a military officer and a jet pilot at the Royal Air Force
Faisal bin Bandar Al Saud
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Faisal bin Bandar bin Abdulaziz Al Saud
10.
Arabia Standard Time
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UTC+03,00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +03. In areas using this time offset, the time is three hours later than the Coordinated Universal Time, following the ISO8601 standard, a time with this offset would be written as, for example, 2017-04-05T17,46, 23+03,00. Some areas in the world use UTC+03,00 all year, most of European Russia, including Moscow, St. Petersburg, Rostov on Don, Novaya Zemlya, Franz Josef Land. From October 26,2014 Moscow and most other parts of European Russia started using UTC+3 again, also on September 7,2016, Turkey and Northern Cyprus started using UTC+3 all year round. Besides the names mentioned above, the name Eastern Europe Forward Time is sometimes used, belarus Russia - Moscow Time all railroad time in Russia, including railroad in Kaliningrad Oblast. As this time zone is predominantly in the region, there is no significant change in day length throughout the year. Between 1982 and 2007, Iraq observed Arabia Daylight Time but the government abolished DST on March 2008. The easternmost point at which UTC+03 with no DST is applied is the easternmost point of Saudi Arabia, in the Eastern Province, at the border with Oman and this is the largest discrepancy overall for UTC+03 even if UTC+03 with no DST is included. The easternmost point at which UTC+03 with DST is applied is Cape Zhelaniya, Severny Island, Novaya Zemlya, on February 8,2011, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev issued a decree cancelling DST in Russia. After strong criticism from the media, on 18 October 2011 the Ukrainian parliament cancelled its previous decision
Arabia Standard Time
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Behind (−)
11.
Daylight saving time
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Daylight saving time is the practice of advancing clocks during summer months by one hour so that evening daylight lasts an hour longer, while sacrificing normal sunrise times. Typically, regions that use Daylight Savings Time adjust clocks forward one hour close to the start of spring, American inventor and politician Benjamin Franklin proposed a form of daylight time in 1784. New Zealander George Hudson proposed the idea of saving in 1895. The German Empire and Austria-Hungary organized the first nationwide implementation, starting on April 30,1916, many countries have used it at various times since then, particularly since the energy crisis of the 1970s. The practice has both advocates and critics, DST clock shifts sometimes complicate timekeeping and can disrupt travel, billing, record keeping, medical devices, heavy equipment, and sleep patterns. Computer software often adjusts clocks automatically, but policy changes by various jurisdictions of DST dates, industrialized societies generally follow a clock-based schedule for daily activities that do not change throughout the course of the year. The time of day that individuals begin and end work or school, North and south of the tropics daylight lasts longer in summer and shorter in winter, with the effect becoming greater as one moves away from the tropics. However, they will have one hour of daylight at the start of each day. Supporters have also argued that DST decreases energy consumption by reducing the need for lighting and heating, DST is also of little use for locations near the equator, because these regions see only a small variation in daylight in the course of the year. After ancient times, equal-length civil hours eventually supplanted unequal, so civil time no longer varies by season, unequal hours are still used in a few traditional settings, such as some monasteries of Mount Athos and all Jewish ceremonies. This 1784 satire proposed taxing window shutters, rationing candles, and waking the public by ringing church bells, despite common misconception, Franklin did not actually propose DST, 18th-century Europe did not even keep precise schedules. However, this changed as rail transport and communication networks came to require a standardization of time unknown in Franklins day. Modern DST was first proposed by the New Zealand entomologist George Hudson, whose shift work job gave him time to collect insects. An avid golfer, he also disliked cutting short his round at dusk and his solution was to advance the clock during the summer months, a proposal he published two years later. The proposal was taken up by the Liberal Member of Parliament Robert Pearce, a select committee was set up to examine the issue, but Pearces bill did not become law, and several other bills failed in the following years. Willett lobbied for the proposal in the UK until his death in 1915, william Sword Frost, mayor of Orillia, Ontario, introduced daylight saving time in the municipality during his tenure from 1911 to 1912. Starting on April 30,1916, the German Empire and its World War I ally Austria-Hungary were the first to use DST as a way to conserve coal during wartime, Britain, most of its allies, and many European neutrals soon followed suit. Russia and a few other countries waited until the year
Daylight saving time
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Ancient
water clock that lets hour lengths vary with season.
Daylight saving time
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G. V. Hudson invented modern DST, proposing it first in 1895.
Daylight saving time
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Retailers generally favor DST.
United Cigar Stores hailed a 1918 DST bill.
Daylight saving time
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William Willett independently proposed DST in 1907 and advocated it tirelessly.
12.
Arabic language
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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
Arabic language
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The Galland Manuscript of
One Thousand and One Nights, 14th century
Arabic language
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al-ʿArabiyyah in written Arabic (
Naskh script)
Arabic language
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Bilingual traffic sign in
Qatar.
Arabic language
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Examples of how the Arabic root and form system works.
13.
Najdi Arabic
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Najdi Arabic is a variety of Arabic spoken in the Najd region of Saudi Arabia. There are four major dialects of Najdi Arabic, northern Najdi, spoken in Hail Region and Al-Qassim Region in the Najd. Central Najdi, spoken in the city of Riyadh and surrounding towns, southern Najdi, spoken in the city of Al-Kharj and surrounding towns, and in the Rub al-Khali. Here is a table of the consonant sounds of Najdi Arabic, phonetic notes, The classicized is an allophone for /g/ ⟨ق⟩ in few words and proper names as in القرآن and قانون. The phonemes /ɣ/ ⟨غ⟩ and /x/ ⟨خ⟩ can be realised as uvular fricatives, in the consonantal system of Najdi Arabic, there is an occurrence of the alveolar affricates and as allophonic variants of the velar stops /k/ and /g/, respectively. The Syntax of Najdi Arabic, University of Texas PhD dissertation, an Optimality-Theoretic Analysis of Syllable Structure in Qassimi Arabic
Najdi Arabic
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regions where Najdi is the language of the majority
14.
Riyadh Province
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The Riyadh Region is a region of Saudi Arabia, also called Al-Wosta, located in the center of the country. It has an area of 404,240 km² and a population of 6,777,146 and its capital is the city of Riyadh, which is also the national capital. More than 75% of the population of the province resides within Riyadh, according to the 2004 census,1,728,840 of the provinces population is non-Saudi, with 1,444,500 of those living within the provincial capital, Riyadh. Yabrin Riyadh Principality Riyadh Principality A travel through the province of Riyadh, A travel site with photos and routes Official Saudi census figures from 2004
Riyadh Province
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Al-'Uyayna is a village in central Saudi Arabia
15.
Nejd
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Najd or Nejd is the geographical central region of Saudi Arabia in which twenty-eight percent of Saudis live. Najd consists of the regions of Riyadh, al-Qassim, and Hail, Najdis were sometimes referred to in the past as the dominant minority in Saudi Arabia. Unlike Hejaz, Najd is very remote and had largely avoided falling under foreign control, in pre-Islamic times the region of Nejd was settled by many tribes like the Kindites, Tayy and many others. Led by Usma bin Luai the Tayy invaded the mountains of Aja and these mountains are now known as Jabal Shammar. The Tayy became nomadic camel herders and horse breeders in northern Najd for centuries, in the 5th century CE, the tribes of North Arabia became a major threat to the trade line between Yemen and Syria. The Ḥimyarites decided to establish a state that controlled Central. The Kindites gained strength and numbers to play that role, and their first capital was Qaryat Dhāt Kāhil, today known as Qaryat al-Fāw. In the 5th and 6th centuries CE the Kindites made the first real concerted effort to all the tribes of Central Arabia through alliances. Al-Ḥārith ibn Amr, the most famous of their kings, finally succeeded in capturing the Lakhmid capital of al-Ḥirah in southern modern day Iraq, later however in about 529, al-Mundhir recaptured the city and put King Ḥārith and about fifty members of his family to death. In 525 CE, the Aksumites invaded Ḥimyar, and this Kindites, had an effect with the Kindites who lost the support of the Ḥimyarites. Within three years the Kindite kingdom had split into four groups, Asad, Taghlib, Qays and Kinānah and these small principalities were then overthrown in the 530s and 540s in a series of uprisings of the Adnānī tribes of Najd and Ḥijāz. In 540 CE, the Lakhmids destroyed all the Kindite settlements in Nejd, the Kindites and most of the Arab tribes switched their alliances to the Lakhmids. During the Islamic Prophet Muhammads era, Muhammad carried out expeditions in the area. The first was the Nejd Caravan Raid against the Quraysh, which place in 624. The Meccans led by Safwan ibn Umayyah, who lived on trade, after Muhammad received intelligence about the Caravans route, Muhammad ordered Zayd ibn Haritha to go after the Caravan, and they successfully raided it and captured 100,000 dirhams worth of booty. The Invasion of Nejd, happened in Rabi‘ Ath-Thani or Jumada Al-Ula,4 A. H i. e. in October,625 AD, Muhammad led his fighters to Nejd to scare off some tribes he believed had suspicious intentions. Some scholars say the Expedition of Dhat al-Riqa took place in Nejd as part of this invasion, the most authentic opinion according to Saifur Rahman al Mubararakpuri, however, is that Dhat Ar-Riqa‘ campaign took place after the fall of Khaibar. This is supported by the fact that Abu Hurairah and Abu Musa Al-Ash‘ari witnessed the battle, Abu Hurairah embraced Islam only some days before Khaibar, and Abu Musa Al-Ash‘ari came back from Abyssinia and joined Muhammad at Khaibar
Nejd
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A view of the Tweig (Tuwaiq) Escarpment from the west. The
Saudi capital
Riyadh lies just beyond the horizon.
Nejd
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Najd was the next step after
Hijaz in the campaigns of the
Nejd Expedition.
16.
Arabian Peninsula
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The Arabian Peninsula, simplified Arabia is a peninsula of Western Asia situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian plate. From a geological perspective, it is considered a subcontinent of Asia and it is the largest peninsula in the world, at 3,237,500 km2. The Arabian Peninsula consists of the countries Yemen, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the Arabian Peninsula plays a critical geopolitical role in the Middle East and the Arab world due to its vast reserves of oil and natural gas. Before the modern era, it was divided into four regions, Hejaz, Najd, Southern Arabia. Hejaz and Najd make up most of Saudi Arabia, Southern Arabia consists of Yemen and some parts of Saudi Arabia and Oman. Eastern Arabia consists of the coastal strip of the Persian Gulf. The most prominent feature of the peninsula is desert, but in the southwest there are mountain ranges, harrat ash Shaam is a large volcanic field that extends from the northwestern Arabian Peninsula into Jordan and southern Syria. The peninsulas constituent countries are Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the island nation of Bahrain lies off the east coast of the peninsula. Six countries form the Gulf Cooperation Council, however, this is a disputed term. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia covers the part of the peninsula. The majority of the population of the live in Saudi Arabia. The peninsula contains the worlds largest reserves of oil, Saudi Arabia and the UAE are economically the wealthiest in the region. Qatar, a peninsula in the Persian Gulf on the larger peninsula, is home of the Arabic-language television station Al Jazeera. Kuwait, on the border with Iraq, is an important country strategically, though historically lightly populated, political Arabia is noted for a high population growth rate - as the result of both very strong inflows of migrant labor as well as sustained high birth rates. The population tends to be young and heavily skewed gender ratio dominated by males. In many states, the number of South Asians exceeds that of the local citizenry, the four smallest states, which have their entire coastlines on the Persian Gulf, exhibit the worlds most extreme population growth, roughly tripling every 20 years. In 2014, the population of the Arabian Peninsula was 77,983,936. Listed here are the human Y-chromosome DNA haplogroups in Arabia Haplogroup J is the most abundant component in the Arabian peninsula and its two main subclades, show opposite latitudinal gradients in the Middle East
Arabian Peninsula
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A map of the Arabian peninsula made in 1720 by the German publisher
Christoph Weigel
Arabian Peninsula
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Arabia
Arabian Peninsula
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Africa, Arabian subcontinent (Asia), and Eurasia
Arabian Peninsula
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A caravan crossing the
ad-Dahna Desert in central Saudi Arabia
17.
Global city
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A global city, also called world city or sometimes alpha city or world center, is a city generally considered to be an important node in the global economic system. The most complex of these entities is the city, whereby the linkages binding a city have a direct. Patrick Geddes also used the world city later in 1915. More recently, the term has been described as being synonymous with an influence and financial capital. Global city status is considered to be beneficial and desired, and because of this, many groups have tried to classify, although there is a consensus upon leading world cities, the criteria upon which a classification is made can affect which other cities are included. Smith and Peter J. Taylor established the Globalization and World Cities Research Network, the GaWC inventory identifies three levels of global cities and several sub-ranks. The 2004 rankings acknowledged several new indicators while continuing to rank city economics more heavily than political or cultural factors. The following is a list of the cities in the rankings, as they appear on the GaWC website, Alpha ++ cities are cities most integrated with the economy, London. Alpha + cities are advanced service niches for the economy, Hong Kong, Paris, Singapore, Shanghai, Tokyo, Beijing, Sydney. The Institute for Urban Strategies at The Mori Memorial Foundation in Tokyo issued a study of global cities in 2016. The ranking is based on six categories, Economy, Research & Development, Cultural Interaction, Livability, Environment. This Japanese ranking also breaks down top ten world cities ranked in subjective categories such as manager, researcher, artist, visitor, Global Power City top 10,1. Vienna In 2008, the American journal Foreign Policy, in conjunction with the Chicago-based consulting firm A. T, kearney and the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, published a ranking of global cities, based on consultation with Saskia Sassen, Witold Rybczynski, and others. Foreign Policy noted that the world’s biggest, most interconnected cities help set global agendas, weather transnational dangers and they are the engines of growth for their countries and the gateways to the resources of their regions. The Wealth Report is made by the London-based estate agent Knight Frank LLP together with the Citi Private Bank, the report includes a Global Cities Survey, evaluating which cities are considered the most important to the world’s HNWIs. In 2012, the Economist Intelligence Unit, ranked the competitiveness of cities according to their demonstrated ability to attract capital, businesses, talent. The State of the World’s Cities
Global city
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London
Global city
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Globalization
Global city
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New York
Global city
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Tokyo
18.
Pre-Islamic Arabia
–
Pre-Islamic Arabia refers to the Arabian Peninsula prior to the rise of Islam in the 630s. Pre-Islamic religion in Arabia consisted of indigenous beliefs, Ancient Arabian Christianity, Nestorian Christianity. In the latter stages of the era, Christianity gained converts with some unorthodox sects, such as the gnostics. Archaeological exploration in the Arabian Peninsula has been sparse but fruitful, the most recent detailed study of pre-Islamic Arabia is Arabs and Empires Before Islam, published by Oxford University Press in 2015. This book collects a range of ancient texts and inscriptions for the history of the region during this time period. Ubaid period - could have originated in Eastern Arabia, umm an-Nar Culture Sabr culture Magan is attested as the name of a trading partner of the Sumerians. It is often assumed to have located in Oman. The Aadids established themselves in South Arabia, settling to the east of the Qahtan tribe and they established the Kingdom of ʿĀd around the 10th century BCE to the 3rd century CE. The ʿĀd nation were known to the Greeks and Egyptians, claudius Ptolemys Geographos refers to the place by a Hellenized version of the inhabitants of the capital Ubar. The sedentary people of pre-Islamic Eastern Arabia were mainly Aramaic speakers, in pre-Islamic times, the population of Eastern Arabia consisted of Christianized Arabs, Aramean Christians, Persian-speaking Zoroastrians and Jewish agriculturalists. Nestorian Christianity was the dominant religion in pre-Islamic Eastern Arabia, Zoroastrianism was also present, the Zoroastrians of Eastern Arabia were known as Majoos in pre-Islamic times. The sedentary dialects of Eastern Arabia, including Bahrani Arabic, were influenced by Akkadian, Aramaic, the Dilmun civilization was an important trading centre which at the height of its power controlled the Persian Gulf trading routes. The Sumerians regarded Dilmun as holy land, Dilmun is regarded as one of the oldest ancient civilizations in the Middle East. The Sumerians described Dilmun as a garden in the Epic of Gilgamesh. The Sumerian tale of the paradise of Dilmun may have been an inspiration for the Garden of Eden story. Dilmun appears first in Sumerian cuneiform clay tablets dated to the end of fourth millennium BCE, found in the temple of goddess Inanna, in the city of Uruk. The adjective Dilmun is used to describe a type of axe and one specific official, Dilmun was an important trading center from the late fourth millennium to 1800 BCE. At the height of Dilmuns power, Dilmun controlled the Persian Gulf trading routes, Dilmun was very prosperous during the first 300 years of the second millennium
Pre-Islamic Arabia
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Dilmun and its neighbors in the 10th century BCE.
Pre-Islamic Arabia
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Nabataean trade routes in Pre-Islamic Arabia
Pre-Islamic Arabia
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Gerrha and its neighbors in 1 CE.
Pre-Islamic Arabia
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Asia in 600 CE, showing the Sassanid Empire before the Arab conquest.
19.
Arabia
–
The Arabian Peninsula, simplified Arabia is a peninsula of Western Asia situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian plate. From a geological perspective, it is considered a subcontinent of Asia and it is the largest peninsula in the world, at 3,237,500 km2. The Arabian Peninsula consists of the countries Yemen, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the Arabian Peninsula plays a critical geopolitical role in the Middle East and the Arab world due to its vast reserves of oil and natural gas. Before the modern era, it was divided into four regions, Hejaz, Najd, Southern Arabia. Hejaz and Najd make up most of Saudi Arabia, Southern Arabia consists of Yemen and some parts of Saudi Arabia and Oman. Eastern Arabia consists of the coastal strip of the Persian Gulf. The most prominent feature of the peninsula is desert, but in the southwest there are mountain ranges, harrat ash Shaam is a large volcanic field that extends from the northwestern Arabian Peninsula into Jordan and southern Syria. The peninsulas constituent countries are Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the island nation of Bahrain lies off the east coast of the peninsula. Six countries form the Gulf Cooperation Council, however, this is a disputed term. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia covers the part of the peninsula. The majority of the population of the live in Saudi Arabia. The peninsula contains the worlds largest reserves of oil, Saudi Arabia and the UAE are economically the wealthiest in the region. Qatar, a peninsula in the Persian Gulf on the larger peninsula, is home of the Arabic-language television station Al Jazeera. Kuwait, on the border with Iraq, is an important country strategically, though historically lightly populated, political Arabia is noted for a high population growth rate - as the result of both very strong inflows of migrant labor as well as sustained high birth rates. The population tends to be young and heavily skewed gender ratio dominated by males. In many states, the number of South Asians exceeds that of the local citizenry, the four smallest states, which have their entire coastlines on the Persian Gulf, exhibit the worlds most extreme population growth, roughly tripling every 20 years. In 2014, the population of the Arabian Peninsula was 77,983,936. Listed here are the human Y-chromosome DNA haplogroups in Arabia Haplogroup J is the most abundant component in the Arabian peninsula and its two main subclades, show opposite latitudinal gradients in the Middle East
Arabia
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A map of the Arabian peninsula made in 1720 by the German publisher
Christoph Weigel
Arabia
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Arabia
Arabia
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Africa, Arabian subcontinent (Asia), and Eurasia
Arabia
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A caravan crossing the
ad-Dahna Desert in central Saudi Arabia
20.
Umayyad
–
The Umayyad Caliphate, also spelled Omayyad, was the second of the four major caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. This caliphate was centred on the Umayyad dynasty, hailing from Mecca, Syria remained the Umayyads main power base thereafter, and Damascus was their capital. The Umayyads continued the Muslim conquests, incorporating the Caucasus, Transoxiana, Sindh, the Maghreb and the Iberian Peninsula into the Muslim world. At its greatest extent, the Umayyad Caliphate covered 11,100,000 km2 and 62 million people, the Umayyad Caliphate was secular by nature. At the time, the Umayyad taxation and administrative practice were perceived as unjust by some Muslims, Muhammad had stated explicitly during his lifetime that Abrahamic religious groups, should be allowed to practice their own religion, provided that they paid the jizya taxation. The welfare state of both the Muslim and the poor started by Umar ibn al Khattab had also continued, financed by the zakat tax levied only on Muslims. Muawiyas wife Maysum was also a Christian, the relations between the Muslims and the Christians in the state were stable in this time. Prominent positions were held by Christians, some of whom belonged to families that had served in Byzantine governments, the employment of Christians was part of a broader policy of religious assimilation that was necessitated by the presence of large Christian populations in the conquered provinces, as in Syria. This policy also boosted Muawiyas popularity and solidified Syria as his power base, the rivalries between the Arab tribes had caused unrest in the provinces outside Syria, most notably in the Second Muslim Civil War of AD 680–692 and the Berber Revolt of 740–743. During the Second Civil War, leadership of the Umayyad clan shifted from the Sufyanid branch of the family to the Marwanid branch. A branch of the family fled across North Africa to Al-Andalus, where they established the Caliphate of Córdoba, according to tradition, the Umayyad family and Muhammad both descended from a common ancestor, Abd Manaf ibn Qusai, and they originally came from the city of Mecca. Muhammad descended from Abd Manāf via his son Hashim, while the Umayyads descended from Abd Manaf via a different son, Abd-Shams, the two families are therefore considered to be different clans of the same tribe. However Muslim Shia historians suspect that Umayya was a son of Abd Shams so he was not a blood relative of Abd Manaf ibn Qusai. Umayya was later discarded from the noble family, Sunni historians disagree with this and view Shia claims as nothing more than outright polemics due to their hostility to the Umayyad family in general. While the Umayyads and the Hashimites may have had bitterness between the two clans before Muhammad, the rivalry turned into a case of tribal animosity after the Battle of Badr. The battle saw three top leaders of the Umayyad clan killed by Hashimites in a three-on-three melee and this fueled the opposition of Abu Sufyan ibn Harb, the grandson of Umayya, to Muhammad and to Islam. Abu Sufyan sought to exterminate the adherents of the new religion by waging another battle with Muslims based in Medina only a year after the Battle of Badr and he did this to avenge the defeat at Badr. The Battle of Uhud is generally believed by scholars to be the first defeat for the Muslims, as they had incurred greater losses than the Meccans
Umayyad
–
Umayyad Caliphate in 750
Umayyad
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Flag
Umayyad
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History of Afghanistan
21.
Abbasid
–
The Abbasid Caliphate was the third of the Islamic caliphates to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. The Abbasid dynasty descended from Muhammads youngest uncle, Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib and they ruled as caliphs, for most of their period from their capital in Baghdad in modern-day Iraq, after assuming authority over the Muslim empire from the Umayyads in 750 CE. The Abbasid caliphate first centered its government in Kufa, but in 762 the caliph Al-Mansur founded the city of Baghdad, the political power of the caliphs largely ended with the rise of the Buyids and the Seljuq Turks. Although Abbasid leadership over the vast Islamic empire was reduced to a ceremonial religious function. The capital city of Baghdad became a center of science, culture, philosophy and this period of cultural fruition ended in 1258 with the sack of Baghdad by the Mongols under Hulagu Khan. The Abbasid line of rulers, and Muslim culture in general, though lacking in political power, the dynasty continued to claim authority in religious matters until after the Ottoman conquest of Egypt. The Abbasid caliphs were Arabs descended from Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib, one of the youngest uncles of Muhammad, the Abbasids claimed to be the true successors of Prophet Muhammad in replacing the Umayyad descendants of Banu Umayya by virtue of their closer bloodline to Muhammad. The Abbasids also distinguished themselves from the Umayyads by attacking their moral character, according to Ira Lapidus, The Abbasid revolt was supported largely by Arabs, mainly the aggrieved settlers of Marw with the addition of the Yemeni faction and their Mawali. The Abbasids also appealed to non-Arab Muslims, known as mawali, Muhammad ibn Ali, a great-grandson of Abbas, began to campaign for the return of power to the family of Prophet Muhammad, the Hashimites, in Persia during the reign of Umar II. During the reign of Marwan II, this culminated in the rebellion of Ibrahim the Imam. On 9 June 747, Abu Muslim successfully initiated a revolt against Umayyad rule. Close to 10,000 soldiers were under Abu Muslims command when the hostilities began in Merv. General Qahtaba followed the fleeing governor Nasr ibn Sayyar west defeating the Umayyads at the Battle of Nishapur, the Battle of Gorgan, after this loss, Marwan fled to Egypt, where he was subsequently assassinated. The remainder of his family, barring one male, were also eliminated, immediately after their victory, As-Saffah sent his forces to Central Asia, where his forces fought against Tang expansion during the Battle of Talas. Barmakids, who were instrumental in building Baghdad, introduced the worlds first recorded paper mill in Baghdad, As-Saffah focused on putting down numerous rebellions in Syria and Mesopotamia. The Byzantines conducted raids during these early distractions, the first change the Abbasids, under Al-Mansur, made was to move the empires capital from Damascus, in Syria, to Baghdad in Iraq. Baghdad was established on the Tigris River in 762, a new position, that of the vizier, was also established to delegate central authority, and even greater authority was delegated to local emirs. During Al-Mansurs time control of Al-Andalus was lost, and the Shiites revolted and were defeated a year later at the Battle of Bakhamra, the Abbasids had depended heavily on the support of Persians in their overthrow of the Umayyads
Abbasid
–
The Black Banner of the Abbasids.
Abbasid
–
Coin of the Abbasids,
Baghdad, Iraq, 765
Abbasid
–
Image of the
Amir of
Khorasan Isma'il ibn Ahmad on the
Tajikistani somoni who exercised independent authority from the Abassids
22.
Abbasid Empire
–
The Abbasid Caliphate was the third of the Islamic caliphates to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. The Abbasid dynasty descended from Muhammads youngest uncle, Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib and they ruled as caliphs, for most of their period from their capital in Baghdad in modern-day Iraq, after assuming authority over the Muslim empire from the Umayyads in 750 CE. The Abbasid caliphate first centered its government in Kufa, but in 762 the caliph Al-Mansur founded the city of Baghdad, the political power of the caliphs largely ended with the rise of the Buyids and the Seljuq Turks. Although Abbasid leadership over the vast Islamic empire was reduced to a ceremonial religious function. The capital city of Baghdad became a center of science, culture, philosophy and this period of cultural fruition ended in 1258 with the sack of Baghdad by the Mongols under Hulagu Khan. The Abbasid line of rulers, and Muslim culture in general, though lacking in political power, the dynasty continued to claim authority in religious matters until after the Ottoman conquest of Egypt. The Abbasid caliphs were Arabs descended from Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib, one of the youngest uncles of Muhammad, the Abbasids claimed to be the true successors of Prophet Muhammad in replacing the Umayyad descendants of Banu Umayya by virtue of their closer bloodline to Muhammad. The Abbasids also distinguished themselves from the Umayyads by attacking their moral character, according to Ira Lapidus, The Abbasid revolt was supported largely by Arabs, mainly the aggrieved settlers of Marw with the addition of the Yemeni faction and their Mawali. The Abbasids also appealed to non-Arab Muslims, known as mawali, Muhammad ibn Ali, a great-grandson of Abbas, began to campaign for the return of power to the family of Prophet Muhammad, the Hashimites, in Persia during the reign of Umar II. During the reign of Marwan II, this culminated in the rebellion of Ibrahim the Imam. On 9 June 747, Abu Muslim successfully initiated a revolt against Umayyad rule. Close to 10,000 soldiers were under Abu Muslims command when the hostilities began in Merv. General Qahtaba followed the fleeing governor Nasr ibn Sayyar west defeating the Umayyads at the Battle of Nishapur, the Battle of Gorgan, after this loss, Marwan fled to Egypt, where he was subsequently assassinated. The remainder of his family, barring one male, were also eliminated, immediately after their victory, As-Saffah sent his forces to Central Asia, where his forces fought against Tang expansion during the Battle of Talas. Barmakids, who were instrumental in building Baghdad, introduced the worlds first recorded paper mill in Baghdad, As-Saffah focused on putting down numerous rebellions in Syria and Mesopotamia. The Byzantines conducted raids during these early distractions, the first change the Abbasids, under Al-Mansur, made was to move the empires capital from Damascus, in Syria, to Baghdad in Iraq. Baghdad was established on the Tigris River in 762, a new position, that of the vizier, was also established to delegate central authority, and even greater authority was delegated to local emirs. During Al-Mansurs time control of Al-Andalus was lost, and the Shiites revolted and were defeated a year later at the Battle of Bakhamra, the Abbasids had depended heavily on the support of Persians in their overthrow of the Umayyads
Abbasid Empire
–
The Black Banner of the Abbasids.
Abbasid Empire
–
Coin of the Abbasids,
Baghdad, Iraq, 765
Abbasid Empire
–
Image of the
Amir of
Khorasan Isma'il ibn Ahmad on the
Tajikistani somoni who exercised independent authority from the Abassids
23.
Ukhaydhirites
–
The Banu l-Ukhaidhir was a dynasty that ruled in Najd and al-Yamamah from 867 to at least the mid-eleventh century. Their capital was known as al-Khidhrimah, which lay near the city of Al-Kharj in Saudi Arabia. The founder of the dynasty was Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Ukhaidhir ibn Ibrahim ibn Musa al-Djawn ibn Abd Allah al-Kāmil ibn Al-Hasan al-Muthannā bin Al-Hassan al-mujtaba bin Ali al Murtaza bin Abi Talib. Muhammads brother Ismail had launched a rebellion in the Tihamah in 865 against the Abbasid government, after Ismails death the following year, Muhammad began stirring up trouble along the road running between the Hejaz and Iraq, but was defeated by the roads governor Abu l-Saj Dewdad. Fleeing from the government forces, he made his way in al-Yamamah, al-Yamamah at the time was nominally part of the Abbasid Caliphate, but the central government had largely neglected the area for years due to its remoteness. With the exception of the raid by government forces, the tribes there were largely self-governing. When Muhammad arrived in al-Yamamah, he gained the support of the Banu Hanifa, the largest tribe in the area. It is not known how much of al-Yamamah was ruled by Muhammad, the early rule of the Banu l-Ukhaidhir was characterized by a sustained economic depression. Thousands of people are recorded as having emigrated from al-Yamamah to various provinces of the caliphate in order to escape the turmoil. Muhammad has been blamed for this period of due to his oppressive rule. Muhammad was succeeded as amir by his son Yusuf, who was succeeded by his son Ismail. Ismail established an alliance with the powerful Qarmatians of neighboring Al-Hasa and he participated in the capture of Kufa in 925 and was given command of the town by the Qarmatian leader Abu Tahir. Relations between the two sides, however, subsequently soured, and in 928 Ismail and several members of his family were killed in a battle with the Qarmatians, Ismail was succeeded by his son al-Hasan, and at this point the amirate likely subordinate to the Qarmatians. After the rule of al-Hasans son Ahmad, the history of the Banu l-Ukhaidhir becomes obscure, when the traveler Nasir-i Khusraw arrived in al-Yamamah in 1051, the Banu l-Ukhaidhir were still ruling there, but at some point after this the Banu Kilab took over the country. Alids List of Shia Muslim dynasties Al-Askar, Abdullah, al-Yamama in the Early Islamic Era. ISBN 0-86372-400-0 Al-Juhany, Uwaidah M. Najd Before the Salafi Reform Movement, Social, Political, ISBN 0-86372-401-9 Madelung, W. Banu Saj. The Encyclopedia of Islam, Volume X, ISBN 90-04-11211-1 Al-Masudi, Ali ibn al-Husain. Al-Tabari, Abu Jafar Muhammad ibn Jarir, albany, NY, State University of New York Press, 1985-2007
Ukhaydhirites
–
Al-Yamamah in the early Islamic period
24.
Ibn Battuta
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He is known for his extensive travels, accounts of which were published in his Travels. Over a period of thirty years, Ibn Battuta visited most of the known Islamic world as well as many non-Muslim lands and his journeys included trips to North Africa, the Horn of Africa, West Africa, Middle East, India, Central Asia, Southeast Asia and China. He claimed descent from a Berber tribe known as the Lawata, as a young man he would have studied at a Sunni Maliki madhhab, the dominant form of education in North Africa at that time. Maliki Muslims requested Ibn Battuta serve as their religious judge as he was from an area where it was practiced. In June 1325, at the age of twenty-one, Ibn Battuta set off from his hometown on a hajj, or pilgrimage, to Mecca and he would not see Morocco again for twenty-four years. So I braced my resolution to quit my dear ones, female and male and my parents being yet in the bonds of life, it weighed sorely upon me to part from them, and both they and I were afflicted with sorrow at this separation. He travelled to Mecca overland, following the North African coast across the sultanates of Abd al-Wadid and Hafsid, the route took him through Tlemcen, Béjaïa, and then Tunis, where he stayed for two months. For safety, Ibn Battuta usually joined a caravan to reduce the risk of being robbed and he took a bride in the town of Sfax, the first in a series of marriages that would feature in his travels. In the early spring of 1326, after a journey of over 3,500 km, Ibn Battuta arrived at the port of Alexandria and he met two ascetic pious men in Alexandria. One was Sheikh Burhanuddin who is supposed to have foretold the destiny of Ibn Battuta as a world traveller saying It seems to me that you are fond of foreign travel and you will visit my brother Fariduddin in India, Rukonuddin in Sind and Burhanuddin in China. Another pious man Sheikh Murshidi interpreted the meaning of a dream of Ibn Battuta that he was meant to be a world traveller and he spent several weeks visiting sites in the area, and then headed inland to Cairo, the capital of the Mamluk Sultanate and an important city. After spending about a month in Cairo, he embarked on the first of many detours within the safety of Mamluk territory. Of the three routes to Mecca, Ibn Battuta chose the least-travelled, which involved a journey up the Nile valley. Upon approaching the town, however, a local rebellion forced him to turn back, Ibn Battuta returned to Cairo and took a second side trip, this time to Mamluk-controlled Damascus. During his first trip he had encountered a man who prophesied that he would only reach Mecca by travelling through Syria. Without this help many travellers would be robbed and murdered, after spending the Muslim month of Ramadan in Damascus, he joined a caravan travelling the 1,300 km south to Medina, site of the tomb of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. After four days in the town, he journeyed on to Mecca, rather than returning home, Ibn Battuta instead decided to continue on, choosing as his next destination the Ilkhanate, a Mongol Khanate, to the northeast. On 17 November 1326, following a month spent in Mecca, the group headed north to Medina and then, travelling at night, turned northeast across the Najd plateau to Najaf, on a journey that lasted about two weeks
Ibn Battuta
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A 13th-century book illustration produced in Baghdad by
al-Wasiti showing a group of pilgrims on a
hajj.
Ibn Battuta
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Tiles representing the
Kaaba, in
Mecca.
Ibn Battuta
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Ibn Battuta made a brief visit to the Persian-Azari city of
Tabriz in 1327.
Ibn Battuta
–
Sana'a, Yemen
25.
Mecca
–
Mecca or Makkah is a city in the Hejaz region of Saudi Arabia that is also capital of the Makkah Region. The city is located 70 km inland from Jeddah in a valley at a height of 277 m above sea level. Its resident population in 2012 was roughly 2 million, although more than triple this number every year during the hajj period held in the twelfth Muslim lunar month of Dhu al-Hijjah. Mecca is home to the Kaaba, by majority description Islams holiest site, Mecca was long ruled by Muhammads descendants, the sharifs, acting either as independent rulers or as vassals to larger polities. It was conquered by Ibn Saud in 1925, during this expansion, Mecca has lost some historical structures and archaeological sites, such as the Ajyad Fortress. Today, more than 15 million Muslims visit Mecca annually, including several million during the few days of the Hajj, as a result, Mecca has become one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the Muslim world, despite the fact that non-Muslims are prohibited from entering the city. The Saudi government adopted Makkah as the spelling in the 1980s. The full official name is Makkah al-Mukarramah or Makkatu l-Mukarramah, which means Mecca the Honored, the ancient or early name for the site of Mecca is Bakkah. An Arabic language word, its etymology, like that of Mecca, is obscure, the form Bakkah is used for the name Mecca in the Quran in 3,96, while the form Mecca is used in 48,24. In South Arabic, the language in use in the portion of the Arabian Peninsula at the time of Muhammad. Other references to Mecca in the Quran call it Umm al-Qurā, another name of Mecca is Tihamah. Arab and Islamic tradition holds that the wilderness of Paran, broadly speaking, is the Tihamah, yaqut al-Hamawi, the 12th century Syrian geographer, wrote that Fārān was an arabized Hebrew word. One of the names of Mecca mentioned in the Torah, Mecca is governed by the Municipality of Mecca, a municipal council of fourteen locally elected members headed by a mayor appointed by the Saudi government. As of May 2015, the mayor of the city was Dr. Osama bin Fadhel Al-Bar, Mecca is the capital of the Makkah Region, which includes neighboring Jeddah. The provincial governor was prince Abdul Majeed bin Abdulaziz Al Saud from 2000 until his death in 2007, on 16 May 2007, prince Khalid bin Faisal Al Saud was appointed as the new governor. The early history of Mecca is still disputed, as there are no unambiguous references to it in ancient literature prior to the rise of Islam. The Roman Empire took control of part of the Hejaz in 106 AD, ruling cities such as Hegra, even though detailed descriptions were established of Western Arabia by Rome, such as by Procopius, there are no references of a pilgrimage and trading outpost such as Mecca. The first direct mention of Mecca in external literature occurs in 741 AD in the Byzantine-Arab Chronicle, claims have been made this could be a reference to the Kaaba in Mecca
Mecca
–
Mecca seen from
Jabal al-Nour
Mecca
Mecca
–
1787
Ottoman Turkish map of the
Masjid al-Haram and related religious sites (Jabal al-Nour)
Mecca
–
Jabal al-Nour is where Muhammad is believed to have received the first revelation of
God through the
Archangel Gabriel.
26.
Manfuha
–
Manfuha was an ancient village in the Nejd region of central Saudi Arabia. Established on the edge of the narrow, fertile valley known as Wadi Hanifa, Manfuha was home to the famous Arab poet Al-Asha, who died at around the same time as the Muslim prophet Muhammad, but little is heard of Manfuha after that time. At the turn of the 20th century, its population was made up largely of members of Banu Hanifa and Bakr, as well as members of Tamim and Subay. Like all Nejdi towns, its also included a large percentage of non-tribally-affiliated tradesmen, as well as many slaves. Like Riyadh, the town was surrounded by gardens and palm groves, both towns eventually succumbed to the Saudis, however, who ruled over Manfuha until their state was destroyed by an Ottoman-Egyptian invasion in 1818. Today, Manfuha is among the districts of Riyadh. Some of the towns old buildings remain, as well as an ancient observation tower. A wide avenue cuts through the center of Manfuha, named Al-Asha Street, after its most famous son
Manfuha
–
Manfuha in Riyadh City
27.
Muhammad ibn Abdel Wahhab
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Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab was an Arabian religion reformer from Najd in central Arabia who founded the movement now called Wahhabism. He rejected certain common Muslim practices which he regarded as amounting to either religious innovation or polytheism. Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab is generally acknowledged to have born in 1703 into the sedentary and impoverished Arab clan of Banu Tamim in Uyayna. Before the emergence of Wahhabism there was a limited history of Islamic education in the area. For this reason, Ibn Abd al-Wahhab had modest access to Islamic education during his youth and he was initially taught by his father, ʿAbd al-Wahhab who was a Hanbali jurist. Mohammad Ibn Abd-al-Wahhab and al-Sindhi became very close and Mohammad Ibn Abd-al-Wahhab stayed with him for some time, scholars have described Muhammad Hayya as having an important influence on Mohammad Ibn ʿAbd-al-Wahhab, who taught Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab to utilize informed individual analysis. Muhammad Hayya also taught Mohammad Ibn ʿAbd-al-Wahhab to reject popular religious practices associated with walis, following his early education in Medina, Ibn Abdul Wahhab traveled outside of the peninsula, venturing first to Basra. After his return home, Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab began to attract followers, including the ruler of Uyayna, Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab began to implement some of his ideas for reform. First, he persuaded Ibn Muammar to help him level the grave of Zayd ibn al-Khattab, secondly, he ordered the cutting down of trees considered sacred by locals, cutting down the most glorified of all of the trees himself. Third, he organised the stoning of a woman who confessed to having committed adultery and these actions gained the attention of Sulaiman ibn Muhammad ibn Ghurayr of the tribe of Bani Khalid, the chief of Al-Hasa and Qatif, who held substantial influence in Najd. Ibn Ghurayr threatened Ibn Muammar with denying him the ability to collect a tax for some properties that Ibn Muammar owned in Al-Hasa if he did not kill or drive away Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab. Consequently, Ibn Muammar forced Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab to leave, upon his expulsion from Uyayna, Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab was invited to settle in neighboring Diriyah by its ruler Muhammad bin Saud. After some time in Diriyah, Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab concluded his second, Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab and Muhammad bin Saud agreed that, together, they would bring the Arabs of the peninsula back to the true principles of Islam as they saw it. According to one source, when they first met, bin Saud declared, This oasis is yours, by the name of God, if all Nejd was summoned to throw you out, we will never agree to expel you. Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab replied, You are the settlements chief, I want you to grant me an oath that you will perform jihad against the unbelievers. In return you will be imam, leader of the Muslim community, the agreement was confirmed with a mutual oath of loyalty in 1744. Ibn Abd al-Wahhab would be responsible for matters and Ibn Saud in charge of political. The 1744 pact between Muhammad bin Saud and Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab marked the emergence of the first Saudi state, by offering the Al Saud a clearly defined religious mission, the alliance provided the ideological impetus to Saudi expansion
Muhammad ibn Abdel Wahhab
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Sab'u Masajid, Saudi Arabia
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Muhammad ibn Saud
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Ibn Sauds family traced its descent to the tribe of Banu Audi and Hanifa tribes but, despite popular misconceptions, Muhammad ibn Saud was neither a nomadic bedouin nor was he a tribal leader. Rather, he was the chief of a settlement near modern-day Riyadh. Furthermore, he was a competent and ambitious desert warrior, the initial power base was the town of Ad-Diriyyah, where he met Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhab, who came to Ibn Saud for protection. Muhammad ibn Saud granted this and the two decided to work together to implement Ibn Abdel Wahhabs ideas of purifying Islam from innovations in its practice by bringing it back to its purest form. They formed an alliance in 1744 which was formalized by the wedding of Muhammad bin Abdul-Wahhabs daughter to Abdul Aziz, son, thereafter, the descendants of Muhammad bin Saud and the descendants of bin Abdul-Wahhab, the Al ash-Sheikh, have remained closely linked. Using the ideology of Ibn Abdul-Wahhab, Ibn Saud helped establish the House of Saud among other forces in the Arabian peninsula, the use of religion as a basis for legitimacy differentiated the House of Saud from neighboring clans and built support. Whilst under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, Ibn Saud is considered the founder of what became known as the First Saudi State. The way he set up his government has served as the model for rulers of the House of Saud to the present day, the government was based on Islamic principles and made use of shura. He ruled until his death in 1765 and afterwards his son, Abdul-Aziz bin Muhammad, as a forerunner of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University is named after him. Second Saudi State Third Saudi State See also S. R. Valentine, Force & Fanaticism, Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia and Beyond, Hurst & Co, London/New York,2015, passim
Muhammad ibn Saud
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Flag of the First Saudi State.
Saudi Arabia
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Riyadh travel guide from Wikivoyage
