124-507: Rosetta ( / r oʊ ˈ z ɛ t ə / roh- ZET -ə ) or Rashid ( Arabic : رشيد , romanized : Rašīd , IPA: [ɾɑˈʃiːd] ; Coptic : ϯⲣⲁϣⲓⲧ , romanized: ti-Rashit ) is a port city of the Nile Delta , 65 km (40 mi) east of Alexandria , in Egypt 's Beheira governorate . The Rosetta Stone was discovered there in 1799. Founded around
248-440: A centre of civilization." The writing of historian Heinz Halm attempts to dispel "those distorted and hostile accounts, stating that the anti-Fatimid tradition tried to make a real monster of this caliph", while P.J. Vatikiotis writes that, "[al-Hakim's] persecution of Christians and Jews and the legislation enacted for that purpose between 1004 and 1020 seem to have been a policy with a justifiable purpose." Al-Hakim maintained
372-419: A civilized city with a market, merchants and workers, and it has farms, yields, wheat and barley, and it has many good words, and it has many palm trees and wet fruits, and it has whales and fish species from the salty sea and many indigo fish. Despite the similarity of Rashid and Damietta in their geographical and administrative position throughout the ages and as an important coastal city, Rashid did not play
496-514: A clear, influential role compared to Damietta's role in the beginnings of Arab Islamic rule, especially for Rashid's proximity to the location of Alexandria, which is the first coastal city in Egypt and primarily affected Rashid and its position. Likewise, the agricultural area in Rashid is very limited, and the spread of sand formations to the west of the city and its urbanization has a greater impact on
620-575: A collection of related dialects that constitute the precursor of Arabic, first emerged during the Iron Age . Previously, the earliest attestation of Old Arabic was thought to be a single 1st century CE inscription in Sabaic script at Qaryat al-Faw , in southern present-day Saudi Arabia. However, this inscription does not participate in several of the key innovations of the Arabic language group, such as
744-435: A corpus of poetic texts, in addition to Qur'an usage and Bedouin informants whom he considered to be reliable speakers of the ʿarabiyya . Arabic spread with the spread of Islam . Following the early Muslim conquests , Arabic gained vocabulary from Middle Persian and Turkish . In the early Abbasid period , many Classical Greek terms entered Arabic through translations carried out at Baghdad's House of Wisdom . By
868-1081: A dialect of Arabic and written in the Latin alphabet . The Balkan languages, including Albanian, Greek , Serbo-Croatian, and Bulgarian , have also acquired many words of Arabic origin, mainly through direct contact with Ottoman Turkish . Arabic has influenced languages across the globe throughout its history, especially languages where Islam is the predominant religion and in countries that were conquered by Muslims. The most markedly influenced languages are Persian , Turkish , Hindustani ( Hindi and Urdu ), Kashmiri , Kurdish , Bosnian , Kazakh , Bengali , Malay ( Indonesian and Malaysian ), Maldivian , Pashto , Punjabi , Albanian , Armenian , Azerbaijani , Sicilian, Spanish, Greek, Bulgarian, Tagalog , Sindhi , Odia , Hebrew and African languages such as Hausa , Amharic , Tigrinya , Somali , Tamazight , and Swahili . Conversely, Arabic has borrowed some words (mostly nouns) from other languages, including its sister-language Aramaic, Persian, Greek, and Latin and to
992-527: A fortress in 1262 to monitor any possible upcoming invasion. During the reign of Al-Nasir Muhammad , the Gulf of Alexandria was re-excavated, so the commercial movement flourished more in Alexandria and was uttered so much that it became the mouth of Egypt's most important commercial city after Cairo. This had a more negative impact on Rashid, to the point that Abu al-Fidaa noted in the thirteenth century that
1116-681: A keen interest in the organization and operation of the Fatimid Ismaili da'wa (preaching) centred in Cairo. Under his reign it was systematically intensified outside the Fatimid dominions, especially in Iraq and Persia . In Iraq, the da'is now concentrated their efforts on a number of local amirs and influential tribal chiefs with whose support they aimed to uproot the Abbasids . Foremost among
1240-487: A lesser extent and more recently from Turkish, English, French, and Italian. Arabic is spoken by as many as 380 million speakers, both native and non-native, in the Arab world, making it the fifth most spoken language in the world, and the fourth most used language on the internet in terms of users. It also serves as the liturgical language of more than 2 billion Muslims . In 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked Arabic
1364-690: A millennium before the modern period . Early lexicographers ( لُغَوِيُّون lughawiyyūn ) sought to explain words in the Quran that were unfamiliar or had a particular contextual meaning, and to identify words of non-Arabic origin that appear in the Quran. They gathered shawāhid ( شَوَاهِد 'instances of attested usage') from poetry and the speech of the Arabs—particularly the Bedouin ʾaʿrāb [ ar ] ( أَعْراب ) who were perceived to speak
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#17327764124891488-563: A new ally, in the person of the Kutama leader Jaysh ibn Samsam, governor of Tripoli , whom Ibn Falah dismissed and replaced with his own brother. Jaysh and Barjawan gathered a following of other dissatisfied Berber leaders, and launched an uprising in Cairo in October 997. Ibn Ammar was forced to flee, and Barjawan replaced him as wāsiṭa . During his predominance, Barjawan managed to balance
1612-593: A result of the concessions granted by the Ayyubids to Italian merchants, and before the Bay of Alexandria was re-cleared in 1013 in the Fatimid era by order of Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah , which contributed to linking Alexandria to the city of Fuwwah , south of Rashid and overlooking the Nile. And from it to Cairo and the rest of the cities of Egypt, and this led to the flourishing of the commercial activity of Fuwwah , which affected
1736-594: A result, many European languages have borrowed words from it. Arabic influence, mainly in vocabulary, is seen in European languages (mainly Spanish and to a lesser extent Portuguese , Catalan , and Sicilian ) owing to the proximity of Europe and the long-lasting Arabic cultural and linguistic presence, mainly in Southern Iberia, during the Al-Andalus era. Maltese is a Semitic language developed from
1860-462: A script derived from ASA attest to a language known as Hasaitic . On the northwestern frontier of Arabia, various languages known to scholars as Thamudic B , Thamudic D, Safaitic , and Hismaic are attested. The last two share important isoglosses with later forms of Arabic, leading scholars to theorize that Safaitic and Hismaic are early forms of Arabic and that they should be considered Old Arabic . Linguists generally believe that "Old Arabic",
1984-470: A single language, despite mutual incomprehensibility among differing spoken versions. From a linguistic standpoint, it is often said that the various spoken varieties of Arabic differ among each other collectively about as much as the Romance languages . This is an apt comparison in a number of ways. The period of divergence from a single spoken form is similar—perhaps 1500 years for Arabic, 2000 years for
2108-507: A type of Arabic. Cypriot Arabic is recognized as a minority language in Cyprus. The sociolinguistic situation of Arabic in modern times provides a prime example of the linguistic phenomenon of diglossia , which is the normal use of two separate varieties of the same language, usually in different social situations. Tawleed is the process of giving a new shade of meaning to an old classical word. For example, al-hatif lexicographically means
2232-507: A variety of regional vernacular Arabic dialects , which are not necessarily mutually intelligible. Classical Arabic is the language found in the Quran , used from the period of Pre-Islamic Arabia to that of the Abbasid Caliphate . Classical Arabic is prescriptive, according to the syntactic and grammatical norms laid down by classical grammarians (such as Sibawayh ) and the vocabulary defined in classical dictionaries (such as
2356-476: A wider audience." In the wake of the industrial revolution and European hegemony and colonialism , pioneering Arabic presses, such as the Amiri Press established by Muhammad Ali (1819), dramatically changed the diffusion and consumption of Arabic literature and publications. Rifa'a al-Tahtawi proposed the establishment of Madrasat al-Alsun in 1836 and led a translation campaign that highlighted
2480-737: Is a Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world . The ISO assigns language codes to 32 varieties of Arabic , including its standard form of Literary Arabic, known as Modern Standard Arabic , which is derived from Classical Arabic . This distinction exists primarily among Western linguists; Arabic speakers themselves generally do not distinguish between Modern Standard Arabic and Classical Arabic, but rather refer to both as al-ʿarabiyyatu l-fuṣḥā ( اَلعَرَبِيَّةُ ٱلْفُصْحَىٰ "the eloquent Arabic") or simply al-fuṣḥā ( اَلْفُصْحَىٰ ). Arabic
2604-650: Is a central figure in the history of the Druze religious sect, whose eponymous founder ad-Darazi proclaimed him as the incarnation of God in 1018. Hamza ibn Ali ibn Ahmad is considered the founder of the Druze and the primary author of the Druze manuscripts, he proclaimed that God had become human and taken the form of man, al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah. According to the religious scholar Nissim Dana, al-Hakim's relationship with other monotheistic religions can be divided into three separate stages. From 996 to 1006 when most of
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#17327764124892728-590: Is a minimum level of comprehension between all Arabic dialects, this level can increase or decrease based on geographic proximity: for example, Levantine and Gulf speakers understand each other much better than they do speakers from the Maghreb. The issue of diglossia between spoken and written language is a complicating factor: A single written form, differing sharply from any of the spoken varieties learned natively, unites several sometimes divergent spoken forms. For political reasons, Arabs mostly assert that they all speak
2852-559: Is a sister language rather than their direct ancestor. Arabia had a wide variety of Semitic languages in antiquity. The term "Arab" was initially used to describe those living in the Arabian Peninsula , as perceived by geographers from ancient Greece . In the southwest, various Central Semitic languages both belonging to and outside the Ancient South Arabian family (e.g. Southern Thamudic) were spoken. It
2976-478: Is believed that the ancestors of the Modern South Arabian languages (non-Central Semitic languages) were spoken in southern Arabia at this time. To the north, in the oases of northern Hejaz , 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. In eastern Arabia, inscriptions in
3100-408: Is credited with establishing the rules of Arabic prosody . Al-Jahiz (776–868) proposed to Al-Akhfash al-Akbar an overhaul of the grammar of Arabic, but it would not come to pass for two centuries. The standardization of Arabic reached completion around the end of the 8th century. The first comprehensive description of the ʿarabiyya "Arabic", Sībawayhi's al - Kitāb , is based first of all upon
3224-472: Is credited with standardizing Arabic grammar , or an-naḥw ( النَّحو "the way" ), and pioneering a system of diacritics to differentiate consonants ( نقط الإعجام nuqaṭu‿l-i'jām "pointing for non-Arabs") and indicate vocalization ( التشكيل at-tashkīl ). Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi (718–786) compiled the first Arabic dictionary, Kitāb al-'Ayn ( كتاب العين "The Book of the Letter ع "), and
3348-580: Is no evidence that the city's name comes from Egyptian , and the Coptic form ϯⲣⲁϣⲓⲧ is just a late transcription of the Arabic name. Some argue that it could be derived from Ancient Egyptian : rꜣ-šdı͗ , lit. 'dug up mouth (of the Nile)'; and that the name is ancient. Because of the ancient Greek proverbial phrase Βολβίτινον ἅρμα , researchers believe that Bolbitine was celebrated for its manufactory of chariots in antiquity. The city
3472-574: Is not present in the spoken varieties, but deletes Classical words that sound obsolete in MSA. In addition, MSA has borrowed or coined many terms for concepts that did not exist in Quranic times, and MSA continues to evolve. Some words have been borrowed from other languages—notice that transliteration mainly indicates spelling and not real pronunciation (e.g., فِلْم film 'film' or ديمقراطية dīmuqrāṭiyyah 'democracy'). The current preference
3596-855: Is official in Mali and recognized as a minority language in Morocco, while the Senegalese government adopted the Latin script to write it. Maltese is official in (predominantly Catholic ) Malta and written with the Latin script . Linguists agree that it is a variety of spoken Arabic, descended from Siculo-Arabic , though it has experienced extensive changes as a result of sustained and intensive contact with Italo-Romance varieties, and more recently also with English. Due to "a mix of social, cultural, historical, political, and indeed linguistic factors", many Maltese people today consider their language Semitic but not
3720-404: Is preferable to sleep", which followed fajr prayer , be stopped – he saw it as a Sunni addition. In its place he ordered that ḥayyi ʿalā khayr al-ʿamal "come to the best of deeds" should be said after the summons was made. He further forbade the use of two prayers – Salāt at-Tarāwih and Salāt ad-Duha as they were believed to have been formulated by Sunni sages. In 1004 al-Hakim decreed that
3844-572: Is the third most widespread official language after English and French, one of six official languages of the United Nations , and the liturgical language of Islam . Arabic is widely taught in schools and universities around the world and is used to varying degrees in workplaces, governments and the media. During the Middle Ages , Arabic was a major vehicle of culture and learning, especially in science, mathematics and philosophy. As
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3968-590: Is the variety used in most current, printed Arabic publications, spoken by some of the Arabic media across North Africa and the Middle East, and understood by most educated Arabic speakers. "Literary Arabic" and "Standard Arabic" ( فُصْحَى fuṣḥá ) are less strictly defined terms that may refer to Modern Standard Arabic or Classical Arabic. Some of the differences between Classical Arabic (CA) and Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) are as follows: MSA uses much Classical vocabulary (e.g., dhahaba 'to go') that
4092-413: Is to avoid direct borrowings, preferring to either use loan translations (e.g., فرع farʻ 'branch', also used for the branch of a company or organization; جناح janāḥ 'wing', is also used for the wing of an airplane, building, air force, etc.), or to coin new words using forms within existing roots ( استماتة istimātah ' apoptosis ', using the root موت m/w/t 'death' put into
4216-403: Is to what extent his conduct can be explained as rationally motivated and conditioned by the circumstances rather than as the inscrutable workings of an insane mind." The claim that al-Hakim was mad and the version of events around him is disputed as mere propaganda by some scholars, such as Willi Frischaue, who states: "His enemies called him the 'Mad Caliph' but he enhanced Cairo's reputation as
4340-524: Is used to denote concepts that have arisen in the industrial and post-industrial era , especially in modern times. Due to its grounding in Classical Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic is removed over a millennium from everyday speech, which is construed as a multitude of dialects of this language. These dialects and Modern Standard Arabic are described by some scholars as not mutually comprehensible. The former are usually acquired in families, while
4464-445: The Lisān al-ʻArab ). Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) largely follows the grammatical standards of Classical Arabic and uses much of the same vocabulary. However, it has discarded some grammatical constructions and vocabulary that no longer have any counterpart in the spoken varieties and has adopted certain new constructions and vocabulary from the spoken varieties. Much of the new vocabulary
4588-478: The Fatimid palace . The name majalis al-hikma is still used by the Druze, Nizari and Taiyabi Ismailis as the name of the building in which their religious assembly and worship is carried, often abbreviated as Majlis (session). He would allow women to attend the house of knowledge to study so they could teach other women and their children, learning a wide range of subjects from Islam to philosophy . Al-Hakim
4712-612: The Mokattam hills on the outskirts of Cairo but failed to return. A search found only his horse and bloodstained garments. His disappearance has remained a mystery. Modern historians have assessed whether al-Hakim's sister Sitt al-Mulk may have had a hand in his disappearance, but no historic evidence has emerged that would implicate her. Al-Mulk would lead moves to declare her nephew al-Zahir li-I'zaz Din Allah as his father's successor as imam-caliph. The heir al-Hakim had designated
4836-568: The Xth form , or جامعة jāmiʻah 'university', based on جمع jamaʻa 'to gather, unite'; جمهورية jumhūriyyah 'republic', based on جمهور jumhūr 'multitude'). An earlier tendency was to redefine an older word although this has fallen into disuse (e.g., هاتف hātif 'telephone' < 'invisible caller (in Sufism)'; جريدة jarīdah 'newspaper' < 'palm-leaf stalk'). Colloquial or dialectal Arabic refers to
4960-523: The mintaq or zunnar "belt" (Greek ζωνάριον) and imāmah "turban", both in black. In addition, Jews must wear a wooden calf necklace and Christians a heavy iron cross. In the public baths, Jews must replace the calf with a bell. In addition, women of the People of the Book had to wear two different coloured shoes, one red and one black. These remained in place until 1014 and were thematised and protested by
5084-494: The northern Hejaz . These features are evidence of common descent from a hypothetical ancestor , Proto-Arabic . The following features of Proto-Arabic can be reconstructed with confidence: On the other hand, several Arabic varieties are closer to other Semitic languages and maintain features not found in Classical Arabic, indicating that these varieties cannot have developed from Classical Arabic. Thus, Arabic vernaculars do not descend from Classical Arabic: Classical Arabic
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5208-523: The "holy family", thereby enhancing the political and doctrinal status they bestow upon al-Hakim. In 996, al-Ḥākim's father Caliph al-'Azīz began a trip to visit Syria (which was held by the Fatimids only by force of arms and was under pressure from the Byzantines). The Caliph fell ill at the beginning of the trip at Bilbeis and lay in sickbed for several days. He suffered from "stone with pains in
5332-419: The "learned" tradition (Classical Arabic). This variety and both its classicizing and "lay" iterations have been termed Middle Arabic in the past, but they are thought to continue an Old Higazi register. It is clear that the orthography of the Quran was not developed for the standardized form of Classical Arabic; rather, it shows the attempt on the part of writers to record an archaic form of Old Higazi. In
5456-1066: The "purest," most eloquent form of Arabic—initiating a process of jamʿu‿l-luɣah ( جمع اللغة 'compiling the language') which took place over the 8th and early 9th centuries. Kitāb al-'Ayn ( c. 8th century ), attributed to Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi , is considered the first lexicon to include all Arabic roots ; it sought to exhaust all possible root permutations —later called taqālīb ( تقاليب ) — calling those that are actually used mustaʿmal ( مستعمَل ) and those that are not used muhmal ( مُهمَل ). Lisān al-ʿArab (1290) by Ibn Manzur gives 9,273 roots, while Tāj al-ʿArūs (1774) by Murtada az-Zabidi gives 11,978 roots. Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah States People Centers Other Abu Ali al-Mansur ( Arabic : أبو علي المنصور , romanized : Abū ʿAlī al-Manṣūr ; 13 August 985 – 13 February 1021), better known by his regnal name al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah ( Arabic : الحاكم بأمر الله , romanized : al-Ḥākim bi-Amr Allāh , lit. 'The Ruler by
5580-696: The 'Mad Caliph' because of his many cruelties and eccentricities"; his persecution of Christians is seen as a contributing factor to the Crusades , as he not only forbade pilgrimage to the Holy Land but also ordered the demolishing of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem in 1009. The church was reconstructed by his son and successor al-Zahir , with historian Michael Bonner pointing out that
5704-454: The 11th and 12th centuries in al-Andalus , the zajal and muwashah poetry forms developed in the dialectical Arabic of Cordoba and the Maghreb. The Nahda was a cultural and especially literary renaissance of the 19th century in which writers sought "to fuse Arabic and European forms of expression." According to James L. Gelvin , " Nahda writers attempted to simplify the Arabic language and script so that it might be accessible to
5828-571: The 4th to the 6th centuries, the Nabataean script evolved into the Arabic script recognizable from the early Islamic era. There are inscriptions in an undotted, 17-letter Arabic script dating to the 6th century CE, found at four locations in Syria ( Zabad , Jebel Usays , Harran , Umm el-Jimal ). The oldest surviving papyrus in Arabic dates to 643 CE, and it uses dots to produce the modern 28-letter Arabic alphabet. The language of that papyrus and of
5952-834: The 8th century, knowledge of Classical Arabic had become an essential prerequisite for rising into the higher classes throughout the Islamic world, both for Muslims and non-Muslims. For example, Maimonides , the Andalusi Jewish philosopher, authored works in Judeo-Arabic —Arabic written in Hebrew script . Ibn Jinni of Mosul , a pioneer in phonology , wrote prolifically in the 10th century on Arabic morphology and phonology in works such as Kitāb Al-Munṣif , Kitāb Al-Muḥtasab , and Kitāb Al-Khaṣāʾiṣ [ ar ] . Ibn Mada' of Cordoba (1116–1196) realized
6076-507: The 9th century on the site of the ancient town of Bolbitine , Rosetta boomed with the decline of Alexandria following the Ottoman conquest of Egypt in 1517, only to wane in importance after Alexandria's revival. During the 19th century, it was a popular British tourist destination, known for its Ottoman mansions, citrus groves and relative cleanliness. The name of the town most likely comes from an Arabic name Rašīd (meaning "guide") and
6200-493: The Arab Christian poet Sulayman al-Ghazzi in his diwan . Following contemporary Shiite thinking, during this period al-Hakim also issued many other restrictive ordinances ( sijillat ). These sijillat included outlawing entrance to a public bath with uncovered loins, forbidding women from appearing in public with their faces uncovered, and closing many clubs and places of entertainment. From 1007 to 1012 "there
6324-534: The Caliph and his viziers (called wasīta s), and near the end of his reign, the Druze movement, a religious sect that deified al-Hakim as God manifest, began to form. Members of that sect were reported to address prayers to al-Hakim, whom they regarded as "a manifestation of God in His unity." Alarmed by the expansion of the Fatimid dominion, the 'Abbasid caliph al-Qadir of Baghdad adopted retaliatory measures to halt
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#17327764124896448-577: The Chinese emperor Zhenzong of Song gifts from his ruling Caliph, al-Hakim. This reestablished diplomatic relations between Egypt and China that had been lost during the collapse of the Tang dynasty in 907. In the final years of his reign, al-Hakim displayed a growing inclination toward asceticism and withdrew for meditation regularly. On the night of 12/13 February 1021 at the age of 35, al-Hakim left for one of his regular nocturnal meditation journeys to
6572-532: The Christians could no longer celebrate Epiphany or Easter . He also outlawed the use of wine ( nabidh ) and even other intoxicating drinks not made from grapes ( fuqa ) to both Muslims and non-Muslims alike. This produced a hardship for both Christians (who used wine in their religious rites ) and Jews (who used it in their religious festivals ). In 1005, al-Hakim ordered that Jews and Christians follow ghiyār "the law of differentiation" – in this case,
6696-509: The Crusader chronicler William of Tyre , claimed that al-'Azīzah was also the mother of Caliph al-Ḥākim, though most historians dismiss this. William of Tyre went so far as to claim that al-Ḥākim's destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in 1009 was due to his eagerness to disprove taunts that he was a Christian born of a Christian woman. By contrast, the chronicler al-Musabbihi recounts that in 981, al-Ḥākim's Muslim mother sought
6820-696: The Fatimid da'is of this period operating in the eastern provinces was Hamid al-Din Kirmani , the most accomplished Ismaili theologian-philosopher of the entire Fatimid period. The activities of Kirmani and other da'is soon led to concrete results in Iraq: in 1010 the ruler of Mosul , Kufa and other towns acknowledged the suzerainty of Hakim. The 16th Fatimid imam, caliph al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah (996–1021) ordered his da'i, Harun ibn Muhammad in Yemen, to give decisions in light of Da'a'im al-Islam only. In 1013 he completed
6944-598: The Ismaili communities there were attacked by Sunni fighters led by their influential Maliki jurists. Relations between the Fatimids and the Qarmatians also remained hostile. On the other hand, Hakim's Syrian policy was successful as he managed to extend Fatimid hegemony to the emirate of Aleppo . Al-Hakim upheld diplomatic relations between the Fatimid Empire and many different countries. Skillful diplomacy
7068-412: The Middle East and North Africa have become a badge of sophistication and modernity and ... feigning, or asserting, weakness or lack of facility in Arabic is sometimes paraded as a sign of status, class, and perversely, even education through a mélange of code-switching practises." Arabic has been taught worldwide in many elementary and secondary schools, especially Muslim schools. Universities around
7192-486: The Order of God'), was the sixth Fatimid caliph and 16th Ismaili imam (996–1021). Al-Hakim is an important figure in a number of Shia Ismaili sects, such as the world's 15 million Nizaris and 1–2 million Musta'lis , in addition to 2 million Druze . Histories of al-Hakim can prove controversial, as diverse views of his life and legacy exist. Historian Paul Walker writes "Ultimately, both views of him,
7316-690: The Qur'an is referred to by linguists as "Quranic Arabic", as distinct from its codification soon thereafter into " Classical Arabic ". In late pre-Islamic times, a transdialectal and transcommunal variety of Arabic emerged in the Hejaz , which continued living its parallel life after literary Arabic had been institutionally standardized in the 2nd and 3rd century of the Hijra , most strongly in Judeo-Christian texts, keeping alive ancient features eliminated from
7440-576: The Romance languages. Also, while it is comprehensible to people from the Maghreb , a linguistically innovative variety such as Moroccan Arabic is essentially incomprehensible to Arabs from the Mashriq , much as French is incomprehensible to Spanish or Italian speakers but relatively easily learned by them. This suggests that the spoken varieties may linguistically be considered separate languages. With
7564-471: The Umayyad caliphs (with the possible exception of Umar II ) were Nasibi who "are the hypocrites for whom hatred of ʿAlī is their religion...They don't just hate ʿAlī, but they worship Allah and seek closeness to Him by hating ʿAlī." After only two years of posting the curses, al-Hakim ended the practice. During this era, al-Hakim ordered that the inclusion of the phrase as-salāh khayr min an-nawm "prayer
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#17327764124897688-459: The age of eleven, on 14 October 996, with the caliphal title of al-Hakim Bi-Amr Allah . Al-Ḥākim is reported to have had blue eyes flecked with reddish gold. Al-Ḥākim was born on Thursday, 3 Rabi' al-awwal in AD 985 ( AH 375). His father, caliph al-'Azīz bil-Lāh, had two consorts. One was an umm al-walad who is only known by the title as-Sayyidah al-'Azīziyyah or al-'Azīzah (d. 385/995). She
7812-416: The aid of an imprisoned Islamic sage named ibn al-Washa and asked him to pray for her son who had fallen ill. The sage wrote the entire Qur'an in the inner surface of a bowl and bade her wash her son out of it. When al-Ḥākim recovered, she demanded the release of the sage in gratitude. Her request was granted and the sage and his associates were freed from prison. Druze sources claim that al-Ḥākim's mother
7936-724: The authority and terms of office of his wasitas and viziers, of whom there were more than 15 during the remaining 20 years of his caliphate. Al-Hakim's most rigorous and consistent opponent was the Abbasid Caliphate in Baghdad , which sought to halt the influence of Ismailism . This competition led to the Baghdad Manifesto of 1011, in which the Abbāsids claimed that the line al-Ḥākim represented did not legitimately descend from 'Alī. His diplomatic and missionary vehicle
8060-687: The bowels." When he felt that his end was nearing he charged Qadi Muhammad ibn an-Nu'man and General Abū Muhammad al-Hasan ibn 'Ammar to take care of al-Ḥākim, who was then only eleven. He then spoke to his son. Al-Ḥākim later recalled the event: "I found him with nothing on his body but rags and bandages. I kissed him, and he pressed me to his bosom, exclaiming: "How I grieve for thee, beloved of my heart," and tears flowed from his eyes. He then said: "Go, my master, and play, for I am well." I obeyed and began to amuse myself with sports such as are usual with boys, and soon after God took him to himself. Barjawan [the treasurer] then hastened to me, and seeing me on
8184-400: The church during the Easter Vigil. The chronicler Yahia noted that "only those things that were too difficult to demolish were spared." Processions were prohibited, and a few years later all of the convents and churches in Palestine were said to have been destroyed or confiscated. It was only in 1042 that the Byzantine Emperor Constantine IX undertook to reconstruct the Holy Sepulchre with
8308-449: The city and its agriculture; As a result, Rashid was deserted several times by its residents and they took refuge in Fuwwah , in the south. What is now known today as Rosetta was an Umayyad stronghold in 749, when it was sacked during the Bashmuric Revolt . In the 850s, the Abbasid caliph Al-Mutawakkil ordered a fort to be built on the site of the Ptolemaic city of Bolbitine , and the medieval city grew around this fort. Following
8432-453: The city was smaller than his mouth. Rashid contributed to the launching of the naval campaigns during Sultan Barbsay reign to invade the island of Cyprus and bring it under Egyptian control in 1426. Rashid also suffered from the attacks of the Christian knights who lived on the island of Rhodes during the reign of the sultan Sayf ad-Din Jaqmaq . Sultan Jaqamq sent a large garrison to protect Rashid's beach. and ordered its reinforcement in
8556-496: The construction of al-Jāmiʻ al-Anwar begun by his father. Commonly known as "Hākim's Mosque", over time it fell into ruin. In the 1970s, the Dawoodi Bohras , an Ismaili Shia sect, under the leadership of Mohammed Burhanuddin , restored the then-dilapidated mosque, using new building methods and materials while maintaining as many of the architectural and artistic features as possible. Their attempts received strong criticism from some academics, conservators, and art historians who saw
8680-509: The conversion of Semitic mimation to nunation in the singular. It is best reassessed as a separate language on the Central Semitic dialect continuum. It was also thought that Old Arabic coexisted alongside—and then gradually displaced— epigraphic Ancient North Arabian (ANA), which was theorized to have been the regional tongue for many centuries. ANA, despite its name, was considered a very distinct language, and mutually unintelligible, from "Arabic". Scholars named its variant dialects after
8804-503: The education of the Ismailis and the Fatimid da'i s a priority; in his time various study sessions ( majalis ) were established in Cairo. Hakim provided financial support and endowments for these educational activities. The private 'wisdom sessions' ( majalis al-hikma ) devoted to esoteric Ismaili doctrines and reserved exclusively for initiates, now became organized so as to be accessible to different categories of participants. Al-Hakim himself often attended these sessions which were held at
8928-624: The effort as constructing "a new building" rather than restoration. In the area of education and learning, one of Hakim's most important contributions was the founding in 1005 of the Dār al-ʿIlm (House of Knowledge) in Cairo. A wide range of subjects ranging from the Qur'an and hadith to philosophy and astronomy were taught at the Dār al-ʿIlm, which was equipped with a vast library. During his rule, al-Hakim provided paper, ink, pens and inkstands free of charge to all those who studied there Access to education
9052-652: The emergence of Central Semitic languages, particularly in grammar. Innovations of the Central Semitic languages—all maintained in Arabic—include: There are several features which Classical Arabic, the modern Arabic varieties, as well as the Safaitic and Hismaic inscriptions share which are unattested in any other Central Semitic language variety, including the Dadanitic and Taymanitic languages of
9176-520: The end." Appraisals of the more controversial accounts of al-Hakim's life and rule have earned him such monikers as "the Nero of Egypt", and "the Mad Caliph". Born in 985 CE in Cairo , Abu 'Ali al-Mansur was the first Fatimid ruler to have been born in Egypt. Abu 'Ali al-Mansur had been proclaimed as heir-apparent ( wali al-'ahd ) in 993 CE and succeeded his father Al-Aziz Billah (975–996) at
9300-480: The establishment of the Fatimid state in 969, and the establishment of the city of Cairo as the new capital of the country, foreign trade was active that was no longer limited to Alexandria only. Rather, Rashid and Damietta participated in it, especially in the beginnings of the Fatimid state, which made urbanism restart. In the era of the Ayyubid state, neighboring Alexandria witnessed extensive commercial activity as
9424-728: The eve of the conquests: Northern and Central (Al-Jallad 2009). The modern dialects emerged from a new contact situation produced following the conquests. Instead of the emergence of a single or multiple koines, the dialects contain several sedimentary layers of borrowed and areal features, which they absorbed at different points in their linguistic histories. According to Veersteegh and Bickerton, colloquial Arabic dialects arose from pidginized Arabic formed from contact between Arabs and conquered peoples. Pidginization and subsequent creolization among Arabs and arabized peoples could explain relative morphological and phonological simplicity of vernacular Arabic compared to Classical and MSA. In around
9548-568: The executive functions of the Khalif were performed by his advisors, the Shiite al-Hakim "behaved like the Shiite khalifs, who he succeeded, exhibiting a hostile attitude with respect to Sunni Muslims, whereas the attitude toward ' People of the Book ' – Jews and Christians – was one of relative tolerance, in exchange for the jizya tax." In 1005, al-Hakim ordered a public posting of curses against
9672-607: The fact that they participate in the innovations common to all forms of Arabic. The earliest attestation of continuous Arabic text in an ancestor of the modern Arabic script are three lines of poetry by a man named Garm(')allāhe found in En Avdat, Israel , and dated to around 125 CE. This is followed by the Namara inscription , an epitaph of the Lakhmid king Imru' al-Qays bar 'Amro, dating to 328 CE, found at Namaraa, Syria. From
9796-478: The first three Caliphs ( Abu Bakr , Umar and Uthman ) and against Aisha , wife of Muhammad , for denying the caliphate to Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law ʿAlī, who according to Shia beliefs, was the rightful prophetic successor. According to historian Nissîm Dānā, al-Hakim ordered that "curses were registered against the warrior Muawiyah I , founder of the Umayyad Caliphate , and against others in
9920-537: The following years. Then the throne came to Qaitbay and renewed the Rashid Towers in 1479 and renewed the castle, which was named after him so far, and built a wall to protect the city from raids. Generally, Rashid had a defensive role with a little commercial role. Under the Mamelukes , the city became an important commercial center, and remained so throughout Ottoman rule , until the eventual resurgence of
10044-455: The fourth most useful language for business, after English, Mandarin Chinese , and French. Arabic is written with the Arabic alphabet , an abjad script that is written from right to left . Arabic is usually classified as a Central Semitic language . Linguists still differ as to the best classification of Semitic language sub-groups. The Semitic languages changed between Proto-Semitic and
10168-614: The importance of Alexandria following the construction of the Mahmoudiyah canal in 1820. Rosetta witnessed the defeat of the British Fraser campaign , on 19 September 1807. The city is located 65 km (40 mi) east of Alexandria, in Egypt's Beheira governorate. Köppen-Geiger climate classification system classifies its climate as hot desert (BWh), but blowing winds from the Mediterranean Sea greatly moderate
10292-597: The inclusion of new words into their published standard dictionaries. They also publish old and historical Arabic manuscripts. In 1997, a bureau of Arabization standardization was added to the Educational, Cultural, and Scientific Organization of the Arab League . These academies and organizations have worked toward the Arabization of the sciences, creating terms in Arabic to describe new concepts, toward
10416-590: The influx of Turkish and Daylamite mercenaries from the Islamic East (the Mashāriqa , "Easterners"). They compelled the underage al-Hakim to dismiss the Christian vizier 'Īsa ibn Nestorius (who was executed shortly after) and appoint their leader Ibn Ammar to head the government, with the title of wāsiṭa ("intermediary") rather than full vizier. At the time the office of sifāra "secretary of state"
10540-683: The inner circle of Muhammad from the Sahabah - the compatriots of Muhammad in the way of Islam." This was in accordance with Shia practice, as laid out by Muslim scholar Ayatollah Haydari: "the followers of Ahl al-Bayt [Shias] say 'O Allah curse all of the Banu Umayya '." The Shia maintain that out of hatred for ʿAlī, Muʿawiyah ordered the Talbiyah not be said (as it was promoted by ʿAlī) and ordered people to curse him ( Saʿd ibn Abi Waqqas refused to do so). The Shia hold that Muʿawiyah and all of
10664-487: The interest of modern historians more than any other member of the Fatimid dynasty because: "His eccentric character, the inconsistencies and radical shifts in his conduct and policies, the extreme austerity of his personal life, the vindictive and sanguinary ruthlessness of his dealing with the highest officials of his government coupled with an obsession to suppress all signs of corruption and immorality in public life, his attempted annihilation of Christians and call for
10788-613: The language. Software and books with tapes are an important part of Arabic learning, as many of Arabic learners may live in places where there are no academic or Arabic language school classes available. Radio series of Arabic language classes are also provided from some radio stations. A number of websites on the Internet provide online classes for all levels as a means of distance education; most teach Modern Standard Arabic, but some teach regional varieties from numerous countries. The tradition of Arabic lexicography extended for about
10912-604: The late 6th century AD, a relatively uniform intertribal "poetic koine" distinct from the spoken vernaculars developed based on the Bedouin dialects of Najd , probably in connection with the court of al-Ḥīra . During the first Islamic century, the majority of Arabic poets and Arabic-writing persons spoke Arabic as their mother tongue. Their texts, although mainly preserved in far later manuscripts, contain traces of non-standardized Classical Arabic elements in morphology and syntax. Abu al-Aswad al-Du'ali ( c. 603 –689)
11036-420: The latter is taught in formal education settings. However, there have been studies reporting some degree of comprehension of stories told in the standard variety among preschool-aged children. The relation between Modern Standard Arabic and these dialects is sometimes compared to that of Classical Latin and Vulgar Latin vernaculars (which became Romance languages ) in medieval and early modern Europe. MSA
11160-431: The mad and despotic tyrant (like Germanic and Roman despots) irrationally given to killing those around him on a whim, and the ideal supreme ruler, divinely ordained and chosen, whose every action was just and righteous, were to persist, the one among his enemies and those who rebelled against him, and the other in the hearts of true believers, who, while perhaps perplexed by events, nonetheless remained avidly loyal to him to
11284-883: The many national or regional varieties which constitute the everyday spoken language. Colloquial Arabic has many regional variants; geographically distant varieties usually differ enough to be mutually unintelligible , and some linguists consider them distinct languages. However, research indicates a high degree of mutual intelligibility between closely related Arabic variants for native speakers listening to words, sentences, and texts; and between more distantly related dialects in interactional situations. The varieties are typically unwritten. They are often used in informal spoken media, such as soap operas and talk shows , as well as occasionally in certain forms of written media such as poetry and printed advertising. Hassaniya Arabic , Maltese , and Cypriot Arabic are only varieties of modern Arabic to have acquired official recognition. Hassaniya
11408-543: The movement of trade Rashid, so that in the era of the Mamluks Fuwwah became the base of the trade networks in the region. During the Seventh Crusade , Louis IX of France briefly occupied the town in 1249. Following the destruction of Damietta during the crusade, Al-Zahir Baybars built it again in 1250. However, due to the huge costs of protecting it with strong walls and an impenetrable castle, he built
11532-731: The need for a lexical injection in Arabic, to suit concepts of the industrial and post-industrial age (such as sayyārah سَيَّارَة 'automobile' or bākhirah باخِرة 'steamship'). In response, a number of Arabic academies modeled after the Académie française were established with the aim of developing standardized additions to the Arabic lexicon to suit these transformations, first in Damascus (1919), then in Cairo (1932), Baghdad (1948), Rabat (1960), Amman (1977), Khartum [ ar ] (1993), and Tunis (1993). They review language development, monitor new words and approve
11656-424: The one whose sound is heard but whose person remains unseen. Now the term al-hatif is used for a telephone. Therefore, the process of tawleed can express the needs of modern civilization in a manner that would appear to be originally Arabic. In the case of Arabic, educated Arabs of any nationality can be assumed to speak both their school-taught Standard Arabic as well as their native dialects, which depending on
11780-635: The other interest groups from power—not only the Turks and the other ethnic contingents of the army, but also the civilian bureaucracy , whose salary was cut—alienated not only the Mashāriqa , but alarmed Barjawan as well. Barjawan contacted the Fatimid governor of Damascus , the Turk Manjutakin , and invited him to march onto Egypt and depose Ibn Ammar. Manjutakin accepted, but was defeated by Ibn Ammar's troops under Sulayman ibn Ja'far ibn Falah at Ascalon and taken prisoner. Barjawan however soon found
11904-549: The overhaul of Arabic grammar first proposed by Al-Jahiz 200 years prior. The Maghrebi lexicographer Ibn Manzur compiled Lisān al-ʿArab ( لسان العرب , "Tongue of Arabs"), a major reference dictionary of Arabic, in 1290. Charles Ferguson 's koine theory claims that the modern Arabic dialects collectively descend from a single military koine that sprang up during the Islamic conquests; this view has been challenged in recent times. Ahmad al-Jallad proposes that there were at least two considerably distinct types of Arabic on
12028-578: The permission of al-Hakim's successor. Al-Hakim ultimately allowed the unwilling Christian and Jewish converts to Islam to return to their faith and rebuild their ruined houses of worship. Indeed, from 1012 to 1021 al-Hakim became more tolerant toward the Jews and Christians and hostile toward the Sunnis. Ironically he developed a particularly hostile attitude with regard to the Muslim Shiites. It
12152-410: The region may be mutually unintelligible. Some of these dialects can be considered to constitute separate languages which may have "sub-dialects" of their own. When educated Arabs of different dialects engage in conversation (for example, a Moroccan speaking with a Lebanese), many speakers code-switch back and forth between the dialectal and standard varieties of the language, sometimes even within
12276-458: The same sentence. The issue of whether Arabic is one language or many languages is politically charged, in the same way it is for the varieties of Chinese , Hindi and Urdu , Serbian and Croatian , Scots and English, etc. In contrast to speakers of Hindi and Urdu who claim they cannot understand each other even when they can, speakers of the varieties of Arabic will claim they can all understand each other even when they cannot. While there
12400-458: The sole example of Medieval linguist Abu Hayyan al-Gharnati – who, while a scholar of the Arabic language, was not ethnically Arab – Medieval scholars of the Arabic language made no efforts at studying comparative linguistics, considering all other languages inferior. In modern times, the educated upper classes in the Arab world have taken a nearly opposite view. Yasir Suleiman wrote in 2011 that "studying and knowing English or French in most of
12524-548: The spread of Ismailism within the very seat of his realm. In particular, in 1011 he assembled a number of Sunni and Twelver Shiite scholars at his court and commanded them to declare in a written document that Hakim and his predecessors lacked genuine descent from Ali and Fatima . This so-called Baghdad Manifesto was read out in Friday mosques throughout the 'Abbasid domains accusing the Fatimids of Jewish ancestry . In addition, because of al-Hakim's alleged Christian mother, he
12648-563: The standardization of these new terms throughout the Arabic-speaking world, and toward the development of Arabic as a world language . This gave rise to what Western scholars call Modern Standard Arabic. From the 1950s, Arabization became a postcolonial nationalist policy in countries such as Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, and Sudan. Arabic usually refers to Standard Arabic, which Western linguists divide into Classical Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic. It could also refer to any of
12772-563: The systematic destruction of all Christian holy places in the middle east culminating in the destruction of the most holy Church of the Resurrection in Jerusalem , his deification by a group of extremist Isma'ili missionaries who became the forerunners and founders of the Druze religion, [which] all combine to contrast his reign sharply with that of any of his predecessors and successors and indeed of any Muslim ruler.... The question
12896-654: The temperatures, typical to the Egypt's north coast , making its summers moderately hot and humid, with winters that are mild and moderately wet when sleet and hail are also common. Rafah , Alexandria , Abu Qir , Rosetta, Baltim , Kafr el-Dawwar and Mersa Matruh are the wettest places in Egypt . The population of Rosetta has increased since the 1980s, as follows: Arabic language Arabic (endonym: اَلْعَرَبِيَّةُ , romanized : al-ʿarabiyyah , pronounced [al ʕaraˈbijːa] , or عَرَبِيّ , ʿarabīy , pronounced [ˈʕarabiː] or [ʕaraˈbij] )
13020-574: The term is also used due to the dramatic difference between al-Hakim and his predecessors and successors and also points out that such persecution is an extreme rarity in Islam during this era. "In his capital of Cairo, this unbalanced (and, in the view of most, mad) caliph raged against the Christians in particular.... On the whole such episodes remained exceptional, like the episodes of forced conversion to Islam." Historian Michael Foss also notes this contrast: "For more than three hundred and fifty years, from
13144-675: The time when the Caliph Omar made a treaty with the Patriarch Sophronius until 1009, when mad al-Hakim began attacks on Christians and Jews, the city of Jerusalem and the Holy Land were open to the West, with an easy welcome and the way there was no more dangerous than a journey from Paris to Rome.... Soon [after al-Hakim] the panic was over. In 1037 al-Mustansir came to an amicable agreement with Emperor Michael IV ." As one prominent journal has noted, al-Hakim has attracted
13268-553: The title of Khalif." On the following day, he and his new court proceeded from Bilbays to Cairo, behind the camel bearing his father's body, and with the dead Caliph's feet protruding from the litter. They arrived shortly before evening prayer and his father was buried the next evening next to the tomb of his predecessor al-Mu'īzz. Al-Ḥākim was sworn in by Barjawan , a "white eunuch whom al-'Azīz had appointed as Ustad 'tutor'." Because it had been unclear whether he would inherit his father's position, this successful transfer of power
13392-457: The top of a sycamore tree, exclaimed: "Come down, my boy; may God protect you and us all." When I descended he placed on my head the turban adorned with jewels, kissed the ground before me, and said: "Hail to the Commander of the faithful, with the mercy of God and his blessing." He then led me out in that attire and showed me to all the people, who kissed the ground before me and saluted me with
13516-501: The towns where the inscriptions were discovered (Dadanitic, Taymanitic, Hismaic, Safaitic). However, most arguments for a single ANA language or language family were based on the shape of the definite article, a prefixed h-. It has been argued that the h- is an archaism and not a shared innovation, and thus unsuitable for language classification, rendering the hypothesis of an ANA language family untenable. Safaitic and Hismaic, previously considered ANA, should be considered Old Arabic due to
13640-504: The two factions, fulfilling the demands of the Mashāriqa while taking care of the Kutama as well. In this vein, he pardoned Ibn Ammar and restored him his monthly salary of 500 gold dinars . After Bajarwan's murder on 26 March 1000, however, Caliph al-Hakim assumed the reins of government and launched a purge of the Fatimid elites, during which Ibn Ammar and many of the other Kutama leaders were executed. To ensure his own power, Hakim limited
13764-451: The world have classes that teach Arabic as part of their foreign languages , Middle Eastern studies , and religious studies courses. Arabic language schools exist to assist students to learn Arabic outside the academic world. There are many Arabic language schools in the Arab world and other Muslim countries. Because the Quran is written in Arabic and all Islamic terms are in Arabic, millions of Muslims (both Arab and non-Arab) study
13888-518: Was a Melkite Christian whose two brothers were appointed patriarchs of the Melkite Church by Caliph al-'Azīz. Different sources say either one of her brothers or her father was sent by al-'Azīz as an ambassador to Sicily . Al-'Azīzah is considered to be the mother of Sitt al-Mulk , one of the most famous women in Islamic history, who had a stormy relationship with her half-brother al-Ḥākim and may have had him assassinated. Some, such as
14012-477: Was a demonstration of the stability of the Fatimid dynasty. Al-Hakim's father had intended the eunuch Barjawan to act as regent until al-Hakim was old enough to rule by himself. Ibn 'Ammar and Qadi Muhammad ibn Nu'man were to assist in the guardianship of the new caliph. Nevertheless, the Kutama Berbers seized the chance to recover their dominant position in the state, which had eroded under al-Aziz due to
14136-528: Was a notably tolerant attitude toward the Sunnis and less zeal for Shiite Islam, while the attitude with regard to the 'People of the Book' was hostile." On 18 October 1009, al-Hakim ordered the destruction of the Holy Sepulchre and its associated buildings, apparently outraged by what he regarded as the fraud practiced by the monks in the "miraculous" Descent of the Holy Fire , celebrated annually at
14260-614: Was accused of being over-sympathetic to non-Muslims, giving them more privileges than they should have been given under Islamic rule. Such accusations were manifested through poetry criticizing the Fatimids. Qadir also commissioned several refutations of Ismaili doctrines, including those written by the Mu'tazili 'Ali b. Sa'id al-Istakri (1013). Hakim confronted numerous difficulties and uprisings during his relatively long reign. While he did not lose any important territories in North Africa ,
14384-415: Was also combined within that office. Ibn 'Ammar then took the title of Amīn ad-Dawla "the one trusted in the empire". This was the first time that the term "empire" was associated with the Fatimid state. Ibn Ammar's rule quickly descended into a Berber tyranny: he immediately began staffing the government with Berbers, who engaged in a virtual pillaging of the state coffers. The Berbers' attempts to exclude
14508-401: Was during this period, in the year 1017, that the unique religion of the Druze began to develop as an independent religion based on the revelation ( Kashf ) of al-Hakim as divine. While it is clear that Hamza ibn Ali was the Caliph's chief dāʿī , there are claims that al-Hakim believed in his own divinity. Other scholars disagree with this assertion of direct divinity, particularly
14632-564: Was made available to the public and many Fatimid da'is received at least part of their training in this major institution of learning which served the Ismaili da'wa (mission) until the downfall of the Fatimid dynasty. For more than 100 years, Dār al-ʿIlm distinguished itself as a center of learning where astronomers, mathematicians, grammarians, logicians, physicians, philologists, jurists and others conducted research, gave lectures and collaborated. All were welcomed, and it remained unfettered by political pressures or partisan influences. Hakim made
14756-531: Was near the mouth of a branch of the Nile that was called the Bolbitine mouth (τὸ Βολβίτινον στόμα). Herodotus wrote that the Bolbitine mouth was not a natural but an excavated channel. Iban Haqal mentioned it and said that it is a city on the Nile, close to the salt sea from a crater known as Ashtum ( Ancient Greek : Στόμα "mouth, estuary"). Also mentioned in the Al-Mushtaq excursion, it was described as
14880-545: Was needed in establishing friendly, or at least neutral relations with the Byzantine Empire , which had expansionary goals in the early 11th century. The geographically farthest-reaching diplomatic mission of al-Hakim was to Song dynasty China. The Fatimid Egyptian sea captain known as Domiyat traveled to a Buddhist pilgrimage site in Shandong in AD 1008. It was on this mission that he sought to present to
15004-432: Was removed from court and al-Mulk was appointed regent for her 16-year-old nephew. After al-Zahir came of age, al-Mulk assumed positions within his administration until her death in 1023. In Western literature he has been referred to as the "Mad Caliph". This title is largely due to his erratic and oppressive behavior concerning religious minorities under his command, as historian Hunt Janin relates: al-Hakim "was known as
15128-637: Was the Ismā'īlī da'wah "Mission", with its organizational power center in Cairo . He founded the House of knowledge in 1004AD which competed with Baghdad’s House of wisdom and eventually surpassed it, becoming the number 1 in the world. Al-Hakim's reign was characterized by a general unrest. The Fatimid army was troubled by a rivalry between two opposing factions, the Turks and the Berbers . Tension grew between
15252-494: Was the daughter of 'Abdu l-Lāh, one of al-Mu'izz li-Din Allah 's sons and therefore al-'Azīz's niece. Historians such as Delia Cortese are critical of this claim: [I]t is more likely that this woman was in fact a wife of al-Hakim, rather than his mother. It could be argued that the Druzes' emphasis on al-Hakim's descent from an endogamic union served the doctrinal purpose of reinforcing the charisma genealogically transmitted with
15376-742: Was transcribed and corrupted in numerous ways – the name Rexi was used by the Crusaders in Middle Ages and Rosetta or Rosette ("little rose" in Italian and French respectively) was used by the French at the time of Napoleon Bonaparte 's campaign in Egypt . The latter lent its name to the Rosetta Stone ( French : Pierre de Rosette ), which was found by French soldiers at the nearby Fort Julien in 1799. Some scholars believe that there
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