203-457: Djerba ( / ˈ dʒ ɜːr b ə , ˈ dʒ ɛər b ə / ; Arabic : جربة , romanized : Jirba , IPA: [ˈʒɪrbæ] ; Italian : Meninge, Girba ), also transliterated as Jerba or Jarbah , is a Tunisian island and the largest island of North Africa at 514 square kilometers (198 sq mi), in the Gulf of Gabès , off the coast of Tunisia . Administratively, it
406-890: A Buyid refugee who had fled an unsuccessful rebellion in Baghdad with his own contingent of Turkish soldiers, became the protector of Damascus. He allied with the Qarmatis and with Arab Bedouin tribes in Syria and invaded Palestine in the spring of 977. Jawhar, once again called into action, repelled their invasion and besieged Damascus. However he suffered a rout during the winter and was forced to hold out in Ascalon against Aftakin. When his Kutama soldiers mutinied in April 978, Caliph al-Aziz himself led an army to relieve him. Instead of returning to Damascus, Aftakin and his Turkish ghilman joined
609-602: A bird refuge . [REDACTED] This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). " Girba ". Catholic Encyclopedia . New York: Robert Appleton Company. 33°47′N 10°53′E / 33.783°N 10.883°E / 33.783; 10.883 Arabic language Arabic (endonym: اَلْعَرَبِيَّةُ , romanized : al-ʿarabiyyah , pronounced [al ʕaraˈbijːa] , or عَرَبِيّ , ʿarabīy , pronounced [ˈʕarabiː] or [ʕaraˈbij] )
812-683: A jurist of Palestinian origin, took and kept the office of vizier from 1050 to 1058. In the 1040s (possibly in 1041 or 1044), the Zirids declared their independence from the Fatimids and recognized the Sunni Abbasid caliphs of Baghdad, which led the Fatimids to launch the devastating Banū Hilal invasions of North Africa. Fatimid suzerainty over Sicily also faded as the Muslim polity there fragmented and external attacks increased. By 1060, when
1015-529: A truck bomb attack close to the famous synagogue, killing 21 people (14 German tourists, 5 Tunisians and 2 French nationals). Since the " Arab Spring ", the Tunisian government has extended its protection and encouraged Jewish life on the island of Djerba. Citing the long and unique Jewish history on Djerba, Tunisia has sought UNESCO World Heritage status for the island. There are currently 14 synagogues, 2 yeshivot and 3 kosher restaurants. A Jewish school on
1218-565: A Kutama general, Salman, to take Damascus, the Turkish ghulām Bultakīn finally succeeded in occupying the city for the Fatimids in 983, demonstrating the value of this new force. Another ghulām , Bajkūr, who appointed governor of Damascus at this time. That same year he tried and failed to take Aleppo, but he was soon able to conquer Raqqa and Rahba in the Euphrates valley (present-day northeast Syria ). Cairo eventually judged him to be
1421-483: A Turkish commander, with a force that defeated them in 1029 at the Battle of Uqḥuwāna near Lake Tiberias. In 1030 the new Byzantine emperor Romanos III broke a truce to invade northern Syria and forced Aleppo to recognize his suzerainty. His death in 1034 changed the situation again and in 1036 peace was restored. In 1038 Aleppo was directly annexed by the Fatimids state for the first time. Al-Zahir died in 1036 and
1624-575: 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
1827-435: 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
2030-427: A counter-offensive to secure coastal cities, such as Gaza and Ascalon, and later Tyre , Sidon , and Byblos further north in 1089. Badr made major reforms to the state, updating and simplifying the administration of Egypt. As he was of Armenian background, his term also saw a large influx of Armenian immigrants, both Christian and Muslim, into Egypt. The Armenian church , patronised by Badr, established itself in
2233-1081: 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
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#17327723266612436-500: A final invasion of Kairouan. The remaining Aghlabid army, led by an Aghlabid prince named Ibrahim Ibn Abi al-Aghlab, met them near al-Aribus on 18 March. The battle lasted until the afternoon, when a contingent of Kutama horsemen managed to outflank the Aghlabid army and finally caused a rout. When news of the defeat reached Raqqada, Ziyadat Allah III packed his valuable treasures and fled towards Egypt. The population of Kairouan looted
2639-512: A former finance official, at their head. Fatimid control in Syria was threatened during the 1020s. In Aleppo, Fatāk, who had declared his independence, was killed and replaced in 1022, but this opened the way for a coalition of Bedouin chiefs from the Banu Kilab, Jarrahids, and Banu Kalb led by Salih ibn Mirdas to take the city in 1024 or 1025 and to begin imposing their control on the rest of Syria. Al-Jarjarā'ī sent Anushtakin al-Dizbari ,
2842-669: A great uprising in Syria . The large-scale Abbasid reaction it precipitated and the attention it brought on him, forced Abdallah to abandon Salamiya for Palestine, Egypt, and finally for the Maghreb , where the dā'ī Abu Abdallah al-Shi'i had made great headway in converting the Kutama Berbers to the Isma'ili cause. Unable to join his dā'ī directly, Abdallah instead settled at Sijilmasa sometime between 904 and 905. Prior to
3045-487: 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
3248-516: A little too popular as governor of Damascus and he was forced to move to Raqqa while Munir, a eunuch in the caliph's household (like Jawhar before him), took direct control in Damascus on behalf of the caliph. Further north, Aleppo remained out of reach and under Hamdanid control. The incorporation of the Turkish troops into the Fatimid army had long-term consequences. On the one hand, they were
3451-690: 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
3654-687: A necessary addition to the military in order for the Fatimids to compete militarily with other powers in the region. The Fatimids began to recruit ghilmān much as the Abbasids had done before them. They were soon joined by recruited Daylamis (footmen from the Buyid homeland in Iran ). Black Africans from the Sudan (upper Nile valley) were also recruited afterward. In the short term the Kutama warriors remained
3857-513: A one-year truce with the caliph, which the Fatimids used to recruit and build new ships for their fleet. In 996 many of the ships were destroyed by a fire at al-Maqs, the port on the Nile near Fustat, further delaying the expedition. Finally, in August 996 al-Aziz died and the objective of Aleppo became secondary to other concerns. Before leaving for Egypt, al-Mu'izz had installed Buluggin ibn Ziri ,
4060-573: A part of Africa in 1574 and made it an Ottoman province, similar to what they did in the Central Maghreb in 1519-1520 and in Tripoli in 1551. However, this Tunisian province, which was formed at a later date, soon developed its political system before its Algerian and Tripolitan neighbors since the late 16th century. At that time, the rule of the Dey with sole authority appeared (in the first half of
4263-594: 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
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#17327723266614466-462: 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",
4669-580: A siege when local notables arranged to have the gates opened to them in May or June 907. This opened a hole in the wider defensive system of Ifriqiya and created panic in Raqqada. Ziyadat Allah III stepped up anti-Fatimid propaganda, recruited volunteers, and took measures to defend the weakly-fortified city of Kairouan. He spent the winter of 907–908 with his army in al-Aribus ( Roman -era Laribus, between present-day El Kef and Maktar ), expecting an attack from
4872-470: 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
5075-725: A strong response in Cairo. A major military campaign was prepared to impose Fatimid control over all of Syria. Along the way, Munir was arrested in Damascus and sent back to Cairo. Circumstances were favourable to the Fatimids as the Byzantine emperor Basil II was campaigning far away in the Balkans and the Hamdanid ruler Sa'd al-Dawla died in late 991. Manjūtakīn, the Turkish Fatimid commander, advanced methodically north along
5278-488: A third expedition to try and subdue the Kutama. They based themselves in Constantine and in the fall of 905, after receiving further reinforcements, set out to march against Abu Abdallah. However, they were surprised by Kutama forces on the first day of their march, which caused a panic and scattered their army. The Aghlabid general fled and the Kutama captured a large booty. Another Aghlabid military expedition organized
5481-507: 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
5684-507: 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
5887-476: 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
6090-592: A widespread messianic tradition in Islam concerning the appearance of a mahdī ("the Rightly Guided One") or qāʾim ("He Who Arises"), who would restore true Islamic government and justice and usher in the end times . This figure was widely expected – not just among the Shi'a – to be a descendant of Ali. Among Shi'a, however, this belief became a core tenet of their faith, and
6293-737: 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
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6496-590: 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
6699-559: 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
6902-478: 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
7105-408: 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
7308-472: 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
7511-669: Is growing because of large natural families despite emigration and a new Orthodox Jewish school for girls has recently been inaugurated on the Island to serve alongside the two boys yeshiva schools. According to The Wall Street Journal "Relations between Jews and Muslims are complex—proper and respectful, though not especially close. Jewish men work alongside Arab merchants in the souk , for example, and enjoy amicable ties with Muslim customers." The historical conflicts between Muslims and Jewish people have been largely absent in Djerba. This
7714-574: 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
7917-490: Is now northern Morocco occurred in 917 and 921 and were primarily aimed at the Principality of Nakur , which they subjugated on both occasions. Fez and Sijilmasa were also captured in 921. These two expeditions were led by Masala ibn Habus, who had been made governor of Tahert . Thereafter, the weakened Idrisids and various local Zenata and Sanhaja leaders acted as proxies whose formal allegiances oscillated between
8120-855: 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
8323-400: Is part of Medenine Governorate . The island had a population of 139,544 at the 2004 census, which rose to 163,726 at the 2014 census. Citing its long and unique history, Tunisia has sought UNESCO World Heritage status protections for the island, and, in 2023, Djerba was officially designated a World Heritage Site. Legend has it that Djerba was the island of the lotus-eaters where Odysseus
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8526-453: Is reportedly attributed due to all the people of the island being at some point Jewish, and therefore share similar practices in their ways of life. Some of these Jewish practices that can be seen in Muslim households in Djerba are the lighting of candles on Friday night, and the suspending of matzot on the ceiling from one spring to the next. The Jewish and Muslim communities have coexisted peacefully in Djerba despite political unrest regarding
8729-402: Is still in practice today. They eat koski, speak and write challah, and some people, especially in southern Tunisia, such as the mountains of Matmata and Doueirat, still use this language when communicating: it is a distinct language in itself, known from ancient times and frequent until now, and it has its own popular oral literature. Djerba was settled by different people in antiquity, first by
8932-572: 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
9135-590: 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
9338-413: 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
9541-401: Is uncertain whether an agreement was reached but it seems that the parties expected to reach a conclusion in Cairo. Al-Afdal took then advantage of the crusader victory at Antioch to reconquer Jerusalem in August 1098, possibly to be in a better position in the negotiations with the crusaders. The next time both parties met was at Arqah in April 1099 where an impasse was reached in regard to
9744-524: 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
9947-445: 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
10150-729: The Awliya' Allah ('Friends of God'), and to initiate them into Isma'ili doctrine. In 902, while the Aghlabid emir Ibrahim II was away on campaign in Sicily , Abu Abdallah struck the first significant blow against Aghlabid authority in North Africa by attacking and capturing the city of Mila for the first time. This news triggered a serious response from the Aghlabids, who sent a punitive expedition of 12,000 men from Tunis in October of
10353-539: The Dar al-'Ilm ("House of Knowledge"), a library for the study of the sciences, which was in line with al-Aziz's previous policy of cultivating this knowledge. For the general population, he was noted for being more accessible and willing to receive petitions in person, as well as for riding out in person among the people in the streets of Fustat. On the other hand, he was also known for his capricious decrees aimed at curbing what he saw as public improprieties. He also unsettled
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#173277232666110556-631: The Fatimid Empire , was a caliphate extant from the tenth to the twelfth centuries CE under the rule of the Fatimids , an Isma'ili Shia dynasty. Spanning a large area of North Africa and West Asia , it ranged from the western Mediterranean in the west to the Red Sea in the east. The Fatimids trace their ancestry to the Islamic prophet Muhammad 's daughter Fatima and her husband Ali ,
10759-716: The Italo-Norman Roger I began his conquest of the island (completed in 1091), the Kalbid dynasty, along with any Fatimid authority, were already gone. There was more success in the east, however. In 1047 the Fatimid dā'ī Ali Muhammad al-Ṣulayḥi in Yemen built a fortress and recruited tribes with which he was able to capture San'a in 1048. In 1060 he began a campaign to conquer all of Yemen, capturing Aden and Zabid . In 1062 he marched on Mecca, where Shukr ibn Abi al-Futuh 's death in 1061 provided an excuse. Along
10962-676: The Levant (including Transjordan), the Red Sea coast of Africa, Tihamah , Hejaz , Yemen , with its most remote territorial reach being Multan (in modern-day Pakistan) . Egypt flourished, and the Fatimids developed an extensive trade network both in the Mediterranean and in the Indian Ocean. Their trade and diplomatic ties, extending all the way to China under the Song Dynasty ( r. 960–1279 ), eventually determined
11165-599: The Mustansirite Hardship . Viziers came and went in flurry, the bureaucracy broke down, and the caliph was unable or unwilling to assume responsibilities in their absence. Declining resources accelerated the problems among the different ethnic factions, and outright civil war began, primarily between the Turks under Nasir al-Dawla ibn Hamdan , a scion of the Hamdanids of Aleppo, and Black African troops, while
11368-406: The Sulayhid dynasty which continued to rule Yemen as nominal vassals of the Fatimids after this. Events degenerated in Egypt and Syria, however. Starting in 1060, various local leaders began to break away or challenge Fatimid dominion in Syria. While the ethnic-based army was generally successful on the battlefield, it had begun to have negative effects on Fatimid internal politics. Traditionally
11571-399: The Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates, whom they considered usurpers. Instead, they believed in the exclusive right of the descendants of Ali through Muhammad's daughter Fatima , to lead the Muslim community. This manifested itself in a line of imams , descendants of Ali via al-Husayn , whom their followers considered as the true representatives of God on earth. At the same time, there was
11774-467: 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
11977-403: The Zagwe dynasty ) as vassals to the Fatimid state. The Juyushi Mosque ( Arabic : الجامع الجيوشي , lit. 'the Mosque of the Armies'), was commissioned by Badr and completed in 1085 under the patronage of the caliph. The mosque, identified as a mashhad , was also a victory monument commemorating vizier Badr's restoration of order for al-Mustansir. Between 1087 and 1092,
12180-423: The Zenata Berbers, the uprising spread through Ifriqiya, taking Kairouan and blockading al-Qa'im at al-Mahdiyya, which was besieged in January–September 945. Al-Qa'im died during the siege, but this was kept secret by his son and successor, Isma'il, until he had defeated Abu Yazid; he then announced his father's death and proclaimed himself imam and caliph as al-Mansur . While al-Mansur was campaigning to suppress
12383-494: 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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#173277232666112586-458: The palaces of the caliph and the official state mosque, Al-Azhar Mosque . In 988 the mosque also became an academic institution that was central in the dissemination of Isma'ili teachings. Until the last years of the Fatimid Caliphate, the economic centre of Egypt remained Fustat, where most of the general population lived and traded. Under the Fatimids, Egypt became the centre of an empire that included at its peak parts of North Africa, Sicily,
12789-414: The political quietism of their leadership and the recent disappearance of the twelfth imam. Missionaries ( dā'ī s) such as Hamdan Qarmat and Ibn Hawshab spread the network of agents to the area round Kufa in the late 870s, and from there to Yemen (882) and thence India (884), Bahrayn (899), Persia , and the Maghreb (893). In 899, Abdallah al-Akbar's great-grandson, Abdallah , became
12992-419: 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
13195-875: 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. Fatimid Caliphate The Fatimid Caliphate ( / ˈ f æ t ɪ m ɪ d / ; Arabic : ٱلْخِلَافَة ٱلْفَاطِمِيَّة , romanized : al-Khilāfa al-Fāṭimiyya ), also known as
13398-454: 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
13601-410: The 17th century), then a semi-monarchical hereditary system during the era of the Muradid Beys (1628-1702) and then the Husseinis (after 1705). These Husseinis succeeded in building the edifice of a state firmly established in the country and enjoying broad independence from external powers (Istanbul or the Dey of Algiers), especially during the reign of Hammuda Pasha (1782-1814). The two giant empires -
13804-462: 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
14007-603: 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
14210-423: The 950s, until the Fatimid general Jawhar , on behalf of Caliph Al-Mu'izz li-Din Allah , led another major expedition to Morocco in 958 and spent two years subjugating most of northern Morocco. He was accompanied by Ziri ibn Manad , the leader of the Zirids . Jawhar took Sijilmasa in September or October 958 and then, with the help of Ziri, his forces took Fez in November 959. He was unable, however, to dislodge
14413-427: The Aghlabid province of Sicily , which the Aghlabids had gradually conquered from the Byzantine Empire starting in 827. The conquest was generally completed when the last Christian stronghold, Taormina , was conquered by Ibrahim II in 902. However, some Christian or Byzantine resistance continued in some spots in the northeast of Sicily until 967, and the Byzantines still held territories in southern Italy, where
14616-464: The Aghlabid state's apparatus and allowed its former officials to continue working for the new regime. He established a new, Isma'ili Shi'a regime on behalf of his absent, and for the moment unnamed, master. He then led his army west to Sijilmasa, whence he led Abdallah in triumph to Raqqada, which he entered on 15 January 910. There Abdallah publicly proclaimed himself as caliph with the regnal name of al-Mahdī , and presented his son and heir, with
14819-413: The Aghlabids had also campaigned. This ongoing confrontation with the traditional foe of the Islamic world provided the Fatimids with a prime opportunity for propaganda, in a setting where geography gave them the advantage. Sicily itself proved troublesome, and only after a rebellion under Ibn Qurhub was subdued, was Fatimid authority on the island consolidated. For a large part of the tenth century
15022-462: The Berbers shifted alliance between the two sides. The Turkish faction under Nasir al-Dawla seized partial control of Cairo but their leader was not given any official title. In 1067–1068 they plundered the state treasury and then looted any treasures they could find in the palaces. The Turks turned against Nasir al-Dawla in 1069, but he managed to rally Bedouin tribes to his side, took over most of
15225-776: The Byzantine Empire in 1185 , the Almohad Caliphate , with its origins in the sandy deserts of Morocco , "woke up from its slumber and remembered that its enemy was sitting on a cherished piece of its soil. It prepared a large army in a huge fleet, forced the Frankish garrison to withdraw, and the island entered the rule of the Almohads." The control of the island later passed down to the Berber Hafsid dynasty by early 13th century. The Ottomans entered
15428-595: The Councils, of Carthage in 255 and 525". Djerba has a hot desert climate ( Köppen climate classification : BWh ) that borders on a hot semi-arid climate ( BSh ). Djerba Bin El Ouedian is a wetland and habitat for migratory birds. It is located at 33 ° 40 'N, 10 ° 55 'E. On 7 November 2007 the wetland was included on the list of Ramsar sites under the Ramsar Convention , due to its importance as
15631-468: The Egyptian population to adopt its religious beliefs. After the reigns of al-'Aziz and al-Hakim , the long reign of al-Mustansir entrenched a regime in which the caliph remained aloof from state affairs and viziers took on greater importance. Political and ethnic factionalism within the army led to a civil war in the 1060s, which threatened the empire's survival. After a period of revival during
15834-600: The Fatimid army and became a useful instrument in the Syrian effort. After Ibn Killis became vizier in 979, the Fatimids changed tactics. Ibn Killis was able to subjugate most of Palestine and southern Syria (the former Ikhshidid territories) by paying off the Qarmatis with an annual tribute and making alliances with local tribes and dynasties, such as the Jarrahids and the Banu Kilab . Following another failed attempt by
16037-597: The Fatimid rise to power, a large part of the Maghreb including Ifriqiya was under the control of the Aghlabids , an Arab dynasty who ruled nominally on behalf the Abbasids but were de facto independent. In 893 the dā'ī Abu Abdallah al-Shi'i first settled among the Banu Saktan tribe (part of the larger Kutama tribe) in Ikjan , near the city of Mila (in northwestern Algeria today). However, due to hostility from
16240-515: The Fatimids also engaged in a rivalry with the Umayyads of Cordoba —who ruled Al-Andalus and were hostile to the Fatimids' pretensions—in an effort to establish domination over the western Maghreb. In 911, Tahert , which had been briefly captured by Abu Abdallah al-Shi'i in 909, had to be retaken by the Fatimid general Masala ibn Habus of the Miknasa tribe. The first Fatimid expeditions to what
16443-557: The Fatimids faced a new external threat: the First Crusade . Although initially both sides intended to reach an agreement and an alliance against the Seljuk Turks, these negotiations would eventually break down. First contact seems to have been established by the crusaders who sent in May or June 1097, on suggestion of Byzantine Emperor Alexios Komnenos , an embassy to al-Afdal. In return the Fatimids dispatched an embassy to
16646-491: The Fatimids moved their capital to Cairo. The Sanhaji state went through two successive stages: an era of prosperity and an era of turmoil. In the first stage, Kairouan experienced prosperity for 78 years until the arrival of the Hilalids in the year 1049. As for the second stage, Djerba suffered many calamities due to the invasions it was exposed to. Perhaps the most prominent of these was when “ Rogar al-Narmandi ”, conquered
16849-611: The Greek and later by the Phoenicians in the 12th century BC. who came from Tyre and Sidon. During this period, trade flourished in Djerba, thus spreading the pottery industry and the manufacture of purple, which historians mentioned was comparable to, if not superior to, the purple of Tyre, and was sold at the highest prices. It seems clear that the Phoenicians were the ones who introduced the planting of olive trees, thus spreading
17052-681: The Hara Kabira ("the big quarter";Arabic:"الحاره الكبيرة") and the Hara Saghira ("the small quarter";Arabic:" الحاره الصّغيرة"). The Hara Saghira identified itself with Israel, while the Hara Kabira identified with Spain and Morocco. The next influx of Jewish people to the Island of Djerba occurred during the Spanish Inquisition, when the Iberian Jewish population was expelled. The Jewish population hit its peak during
17255-617: The Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The people of Djerba say that the two communities simply pray in different places, but are still able to converse. A Jewish leader once stated "We live together, We visit our friends on their religious holidays. We work together. Muslims buy meat from our butchers. When we are forbidden to work or cook on the Shabbat, we buy bread and kosher food cooking by Muslims. Our children play together". On 11 April 2002, Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for
17458-572: The Jewish priestly caste), direct patrilineal descendants of Aaron the first high priest from Mosaic times. Local tradition holds that when Nebuchadnezzar II levelled Solomon's temple and laid waste to Judah and the city of Jerusalem in the year 586 BC, the Kohanim who settled in Djerba were among the refugees who were able to avoid slavery. A key point in this oral history has been backed up by genetic tests for Cohen modal haplotype showing that
17661-400: The Kutama element of the army had the strongest sway over political affairs, but as the Turkish element grew more powerful, it began to challenge this. In 1062, the tentative balance between the different ethnic groups within the Fatimid army collapsed and they quarreled constantly or fought each other in the streets. At the same time, Egypt suffered a 7-year period of drought and famine known as
17864-464: The Kutama rebels, but he ended the expedition prematurely due to troubles at home arising from disputes over his succession. On 27 July 903 he was assassinated and his son Ziyadat Allah III took power in Tunis. These internal Aghlabid troubles gave Abu Abdallah the opportunity to recapture Mila and then go on to capture Setif, another fortified city, by October or November 904. In 905 the Aghlabids sent
18067-412: 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
18270-485: The Nile Delta region, and blocked supplies and food from reaching the capital from this region. Things degenerated further for the general population, especially in the capital, which relied on the countryside for food. Historical sources of this period report extreme hunger and hardship in the city, even to the point of cannibalism . The depredations in the Nile Delta may have also been a turning point that accelerated
18473-427: The Nile Delta region, which gave Jawhar time to organize a defense of Fustat and Cairo. The Qarmati advance was halted just north of the city and eventually routed. A Kalbid relief force arriving by sea secured the expulsion of the Qarmatis from Egypt. Ramla , the capital of Palestine , was retaken by the Fatimids in May 972, but otherwise the progress in Syria had been lost. Once Egypt was sufficiently pacified and
18676-497: The Orontes valley. He took Homs and Hama in 992 and defeated a combined force from Hamdanid Aleppo and Byzantine-held Antioch. In 993 he took Shayzar and in 994 he began the siege of Aleppo. In May 995, however, Basil II unexpectedly arrived in the region after a forced march with his army through Anatolia, forcing Manjūtakīn to lift the siege and return to Damascus. Before another Fatimid expedition could be sent, Basil II negotiated
18879-824: The Ottoman and the Spanish - took advantage of the weakness of the Hafsid state to intervene in Tunisia from 1534-1535. In addition to the island of Djerba, Darguth Pasha was able to occupy Gafsa in 1556 and Kairouan (the capital of the Almoravid Emirate of Chabia) in 1557, and the Bayler Bey (Supreme Commander) “Ali Pasha” or “Alaj Ali” entered the city of Tunisia. In 1569, before the Spanish evacuated him from it in 1573. The Ottoman Sultan Selim II decided to eradicate
19082-690: 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
19285-522: 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
19488-664: The Spaniards from Tunisia for strategic reasons (monitoring the southern bank of the Strait of Sicily), political reasons (completed the occupation of the countries of this bank from Egypt to the borders of the Far Maghreb), and religious reasons (jihad was one of the constants of Ottoman policy). With the help of the people, the Ottomans were able to storm the huge fortress of La Goulette, then seize Tunisia and completely eliminate
19691-514: The Spanish presence during the summer of 1574. The modern era opened with a deep crisis in all Moroccan countries, including Tunisia, which ended with the Ottomans’ accession there and its transformation into an Ottoman province. However, its political system quickly developed during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries into an independent “semi-national monarchy” with only formal ties of loyalty to Istanbul. They control (varyingly according to
19894-544: The State of Israel was established, and political unrest in the Middle East and North Africa was building up many Jewish people were expelled from Tunisia. Although the Jewish community of Tunisia was on the decline, the Jewish community of Hara Kebira witnessed an increase of population due to its traditional character. The community on Djerba remains one of the last remaining fully intact Jewish communities in an Arab majority country. The most traditionally observant Jewish community
20097-664: The Sunni anti-caliph, but the latter's death in 1013 led to their surrender. Despite his policies against Christians and his demolition of the church in Jerusalem, al-Hakim maintained a ten-year truce with the Byzantines that began in 1001. For most of his reign, Aleppo remained a buffer state that paid tribute to Constantinople. This lasted until 1017, when the Fatimid Armenian general Fatāk finally occupied Aleppo at
20300-588: The Umayyad garrisons in Sala , Sebta (present-day Ceuta) and Tangier , and this marked the only time that the Fatimid army was present at the Strait of Gibraltar . Jawhar and Ziri returned to al-Mansuriyya in 960. The subjugated parts of Morocco, including Fez and Sijilmasa, were left under the control of local vassals while most of the central Maghreb (Algeria), including Tahert, was given to Ziri ibn Manad to govern on
20503-557: The Umayyads or the Fatimids depending on the circumstances. As a result of the political instability in the western Maghreb, effective Fatimid control did not extend much beyond the former territory of the Aghlabids. Masala's successor, Musa ibn Abi'l-Afiya , captured Fez from the Idrisids again, but in 932 defected to the Umayyads, taking the western Maghreb with him. The Umayyads gained the upper hand again in northern Morocco during
20706-400: The abandoned palaces of Raqqada and resisted Ibn Abi al-Aghlab's calls to organise a last-ditch resistance. Upon hearing of the looting, Abu Abdallah sent an advance force of Kutama horsemen who secured Raqqada on 24 March. On 25 March 909 (Saturday, 1 Rajab 296), Abu Abdallah himself entered Raqqada and took up residence here. Upon assuming power in Raqqada, Abu Abdallah inherited much of
20909-598: The advance of the Sunni-aligned Seljuk Turks who had conquered much of the Middle East and had become the guardians of the Abbasid Caliphs as well as independent Turkmen groups. Atsiz ibn Uwaq , a Turkmen of the Nawaki tribe, conquered Jerusalem in 1073 and Damascus in 1076 before attempting to invade even Egypt itself. After defeating him at a battle close to Cairo, Badr was able to start
21112-482: The armies') who would dominate late Fatimid politics. In 1078 al-Mustansir formally abdicated responsibility for all state affairs to him. His de facto rule initiated a temporary and limited revival of the Fatimid state, although it was now faced with serious challenges. Badr reestablished Fatimid authority in the Hejaz (Mecca and Medina ) and the Sulayhids were able to hold on in Yemen. Syria, however, saw
21315-515: The arrival of an Islamic messiah . The origins of that movement and of the dynasty itself, are obscure prior to the late ninth century. The Fatimid rulers were Arab in origin, starting with its founder, the Isma'ili Shia caliph Abdallah al-Mahdi Billah . The caliphate's establishment was accomplished by Kutama Berbers from Little Kabylia , who converted to the Fatimid cause early and made up its original military forces. The Shi'a opposed
21518-532: The caliph's behalf. All this warfare in the Maghreb and Sicily necessitated the maintenance of a strong army, and a capable fleet as well. Nevertheless, by the time of al-Mahdi's death in 934, the Fatimid Caliphate "had become a great power in the Mediterranean". The reign of the second Fatimid imam-caliph, al-Qa'im, was dominated by the Kharijite rebellion of Abu Yazid . Starting in 943/4 among
21721-471: The caliphate. At its height, the caliphate included—in addition to Egypt—varying areas of the Maghreb , Sicily , the Levant , and the Hejaz . Between 902 and 909, the foundation of the Fatimid state was realized under the leadership of da'i (missionary) Abu Abdallah , whose conquest of Aghlabid Ifriqiya with the help of Kutama forces paved the way for the establishment of the Caliphate. After
21924-645: The communal area in the city in which Jews can freely carry objects between their homes and community buildings on Shabbat . Some traditions that are distinctive of the Jewish Djerba community is the kiddush prayer said on the eve of Passover and a few prophetic passages on certain Shabbats of the year. One of the community's synagogues, the El Ghriba synagogue , has been in continuous use for over 2,000 years. The Jews were settled in two main communities:
22127-461: The conquest, Abdallah al-Mahdi Billah was retrieved from Sijilmasa and then accepted as the Imam of the movement, becoming the first Caliph and founder of the dynasty in 909. In 921, the city of al-Mahdiyya was established as the capital. In 948, they shifted their capital to al-Mansuriyya , near Kairouan . In 969, during the reign of al-Mu'izz , they conquered Egypt , and in 973, the caliphate
22330-600: The control of the Ikhshidids , another regional dynasty whose formal allegiance was to the Abbasids. Al-Mu'izz had given Jawhar specific instructions to carry out after the conquest, and one of his first actions was to found a new capital named al-Qāhira ( Cairo ) in 969. The name al-Qāhirah ( Arabic : القاهرة ), meaning "the Vanquisher" or "the Conqueror", referenced the planet Mars , "The Subduer", rising in
22533-574: 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
22736-545: The country along with a clerical hierarchy. He commanded a large contingent of Armenian troops, many (if not all) of whom were also Christian. Badr also used his relations and influence with the Coptic Church for political advantage. In particular, he enlisted Cyril II ( Coptic Pope from 1078 to 1092 ) to secure the allegiance of the Christian kingdoms of Nubia (specifically Makuria ) and Ethiopia (specifically
22939-579: The countryside under his control, while the major cities remained under Aghlabid control. He established an Isma'ili theocratic state based in Tazrut, operating in a way similar to previous Isma'ili missionary networks in Mesopotamia but adapted to local Kutama tribal structures. He adopted the role of a traditional Islamic ruler at the head of this organization while remaining in frequent contact with Abdallah. He continued to preach to his followers, known as
23142-550: The crusading forces which arrived in February 1098 during their siege of Antioch , witnessing and congratulating the crusaders on their victory against the Seljuk emirs Ridwan of Aleppo and Sökmen of Jerusalem as well as stressing their friendly attitude towards Christians. The Fatimid embassy stayed for a month with the crusading forces before returning via the harbour of Latakia with gifts as well as Frankish ambassadors. It
23345-535: The dynasty named itself simply the 'Alid dynasty' ( al-dawla al-alawiyya ), but many hostile Sunni sources only refer to them as the Ubaydids ( Banu Ubayd ), after the diminutive form Ubayd Allah for the name of the first Fatimid caliph. The Fatimid dynasty came to power as the leaders of Isma'ilism , a revolutionary Shi'a movement "which was at the same time political and religious, philosophical and social," and which originally proclaimed nothing less than
23548-537: The east. The Qarmatis of Bahrayn, responding to the appeal of the recently defeated leaders of Damascus, had organized a large coalition of Arab tribesmen to attack him. Ja'far chose to confront them in the desert in August 971, but his army was surrounded and defeated and Ja'far himself was killed. A month later the Qarmati imam Hasan al-A'ṣam led the army, with new reinforcements from Transjordan , into Egypt, seemingly without opposition. The Qarmatis spent time occupying
23751-583: The economic course of Egypt during the High Middle Ages . The Fatimid focus on agriculture further increased their riches and allowed the dynasty and the Egyptians to flourish. The use of cash crops and the propagation of the flax trade allowed Fatimids to import other items from various parts of the world. The Fatimids built upon some of the bureaucratic foundations laid by the Ikhshidids and
23954-587: 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
24157-510: The entire area between the Sudan and the Roman Sea had been built up, as evidenced by the traces of construction in it, including monuments, building statues, and evidence of villages and homes.″ Their clothing consists of striped woolen fabric and a black robe. They wear a cordon and a robe. They shave their heads and do not cover them with anything, and they cover their faces with a sham, which
24360-728: 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
24563-607: 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
24766-521: The faithful, spread the word ( daʿwa , "invitation, calling"), and prepare his return. The head of this secret network was the living proof of the imam's existence, or "seal" ( ḥujja ). It is this role that the ancestors of the Fatimids are first documented. The first known ḥujja was a certain Abdallah al-Akbar ("Abdallah the Elder"), a wealthy merchant from Khuzestan , who established himself at
24969-407: The first Shia imam. The Fatimids were acknowledged as the rightful imams by different Isma'ili communities as well as by denominations in many other Muslim lands and adjacent regions. Originating during the Abbasid Caliphate , the Fatimids initially conquered Ifriqiya (roughly present-day Tunisia ). They extended their rule across the Mediterranean coast and ultimately made Egypt the center of
25172-510: 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
25375-414: The growing threat. He fortified Raqqada in 907. In early 907 another Aghlabid army marched eastwards again against Abu Abdallah, accompanied by Berber reinforcements from the Aurès Mountains . They were again scattered by Kutama cavalry and retreated to Baghaya , the most fortified town on the old southern Roman road between Ifriqiya and the central Maghreb. The fortress, however, fell to the Kutama without
25578-426: The harsh Abbasid persecution of the Alids, the Ismaili Imams went into hiding and neither Isma'il's nor Muhammad's lives are well known, and after Muhammad's death during the reign of Harun al-Rashid ( r. 786–809 ), the history of the early Isma'ili movement becomes obscure. While the awaited mahdī Muhammad ibn Isma'il remained hidden, however, he would need to be represented by agents, who would gather
25781-419: The help of their fleet. After 1107, a new rising star rose through the ranks of the regime in the form of Muḥammad ʿAlī bin Fatik, better known as al-Maʾmūn al-Baṭā'iḥī . He managed to carry out various administrative reforms and infrastructural projects in the later years of al-Afdal's term, including the construction of an astronomical observatory in 1119. Al-Afdal's was assassinated in 1121, an act blamed on
25984-420: 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
26187-412: The industry of olive pressing. After the Phoenicians came the Romans, and the island witnessed great prosperity during the Roman era, the urban effects of which still indicate it today. In the fifth century, the Vandals , a Germanic tribe who had emigrated to the Maghreb in 429 AD, conquered the island under the leadership of its king, Gaiseric . During the Early Muslim conquests by the Arabs, Djerba
26390-473: The intermediary between the caliph and the large bureaucratic state that he ruled. In 975 the Byzantine emperor John Tzimisces retook most of Palestine and Syria, leaving only Tripoli in Fatimid control. He aimed to eventually capture Jerusalem , but he died in 976 on his way back to Constantinople , thus staving off the Byzantine threat to the Fatimids. Meanwhile, the Turkish ghulām (plural: ghilmān , meaning soldiers recruited as slaves) Aftakin ,
26593-423: The invitation of a local commander who had expelled the Hamdanid ghulām ruler Mansur ibn Lu'lu' . After a year or two, however, Fatāk made himself effectively independent in Aleppo. Al-Hakim also alarmed his Isma'ili followers in several ways. In 1013 he announced the designation of two great-great-grandsons of al-Mahdi as two separate heirs: one, Abd al-Raḥīm ibn Ilyās, would inherit the title of caliphate as
26796-412: The island was firebombed during the national protests held in 2018 , while security forces in Djerba were reduced, being preoccupied with protection efforts elsewhere. This attack was among many other uprisings that were occurring throughout Tunisia at the time. On 9 May 2023, El Ghriba Synagogue was the target of a mass shooting on a large gathering of Jewish pilgrims that takes place every year at
26999-558: 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
27202-422: The last remnants of the revolt, a new palace city was being constructed for him south of Kairouan. Construction began around 946 and it was only fully completed under al-Mansur's son and successor, al-Mu'izz. It was named al-Mansuriyya (also known as Sabra al-Mansuriyya) and became the new seat of the caliphate. In 969 Jawhar launched a carefully-prepared and successful invasion of Egypt , which had been under
27405-550: 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)
27608-420: 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
27811-412: The local Aghlabid authorities and other Kutuma tribes, he was forced to leave Ikjan and sought the protection of another Kutama tribe, the Banu Ghashman, in Tazrut (two miles southwest of Mila). From there, he began to build support for a new movement. Shortly after, the hostile Kutama tribes and the Arab lords of the nearby cities (Mila, Setif , and Bilizma ) allied together to march against him, but he
28014-517: The long-term decline of the Coptic community in Egypt. By 1072, in a desperate attempt to save Egypt, al-Mustansir recalled general Badr al-Jamali , who was at the time the governor of Acre . Badr led his troops into Egypt, entered Cairo in January 1074, and successfully suppressed the different groups of the rebelling armies. As a result, Badr was made vizier, becoming one of the first military viziers ( Arabic : امير الجيوش , romanized : amīr al-juyūsh , lit. 'commander of
28217-883: 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
28420-425: The means of plundering . Others still lived in populous cities that they built, as proven by Ibn Khaldun and others. Ibn Khaldun says in the history of Ibn Khaldun, Part One. - 8 of 258: ″Africa and the Maghreb , when the Banu Hilal and Banu Sulaym crossed into it at the beginning of the fifth century (hijri) and invaded it for three hundred and fifty years, were destroyed and all of its areas returned to ruin, after
28623-417: The military officers at the further ends of the empire became semi-independent. Badr al-Jamali died in 1094 (along with Caliph al-Mustansir that same year) and his son Al-Afdal Shahanshah succeeded him in power as vizier. After al-Mustansir, the Caliphate passed on to al-Musta'li , and after his death in 1101 it passed to the 5-year-old al-Amir . Another of al-Mustansir's sons, Nizar , attempted to take
28826-402: The most important troops of the Caliph, but resentment and rivalry eventually grew between the different ethnic components of the army. Bajkūr, based in Raqqa, made another unsuccessful attempt against Aleppo in 991 which resulted in his capture and execution. That same year, Ibn Killis died and Munir was accused of conducting treasonous correspondence with Baghdad. These difficulties triggered
29029-400: The name Djerba was given to the area near Houmt Souk. An important Jewish community settled in Djerba following the demolition of the Temple of Jerusalem and the expulsion of the Jews in the first century BC, and their descendants still live in Houmt Souk. Then it was subjected to attacks by Ibrahim Pasha. It was also damaged as a result of Yunus Bey’s invasion of it in the year 1738 AD, and it
29232-624: 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
29435-437: The new capital was ready, Jawhar sent for al-Mu'izz in Ifriqiya. The caliph, his court, and his treasury, departed from al-Mansuriyya in fall 972, traveling by land but shadowed by the Fatimid navy sailing along the coast. After making triumphant stops in major cities along the way, the caliph arrived in Cairo on 10 June 973. Like other royal capitals before it, Cairo was constructed as an administrative and palatine city, housing
29638-407: The new fortified palace city, al-Mahdiyya , began in 916. The new city was officially inaugurated on 20 February 921, though construction continued after this. The new capital was removed from the Sunni stronghold of Kairouan, allowing for the establishment of a secure base for the Caliph and his Kutama forces without raising further tensions with the local population. The Fatimids also inherited
29841-421: The new head of the movement, and introduced a radical change in the doctrine: no longer was he and his forebears merely the stewards for Muhammad ibn Isma'il, but they were declared to be the rightful imams, and Abdallah himself was the awaited mahdī . Various genealogies were later put forth by the Fatimids to justify this claim by proving their descent from Isma'il ibn Ja'far, but even in pro-Isma'ili sources,
30044-419: The next year (906) failed when the soldiers mutinied. Around the same time or soon after, Abu Abdallah's forces besieged and captured the fortified cities of Tubna and Bilizma. The capture of Tubna was significant as it was the first major commercial center to come under Abu Abdallah's control. Meanwhile, Ziyadat Allah III moved his court from Tunis to Raqqada , the palace-city near Kairouan , in response to
30247-445: The nominal sphere of authority of the Abbasid Caliphate. The Fatimid dynasty claimed descent from Fatimah , the daughter of the Islamic prophet Muhammad . The dynasty legitimized its claim through descent from Muhammad by way of his daughter and her husband Ali , the first Shī'a Imām , hence the dynasty's name, fāṭimiyy ( Arabic : فَاطِمِيّ ), the Arabic relative adjective for "Fāṭima". Emphasizing its Alid descent,
30450-411: The north. However, Abu Abdallah's forces had been unable to capture the northerly city of Constantine and therefore they instead attacked along the southern road from Baghaya in early 908 and captured Maydara (present-day Haïdra). An indecisive battle subsequently occurred between the Aghalabid and Kutama armies near Dar Madyan (probably a site between Sbeitla and Kasserine ), with neither side gaining
30653-404: The old Abbasid imperial order. The office of the wazīr ( vizier ), which existed under the Ikhshidids, was soon revived under the Fatimids. The first to be appointed to this position was the Jewish convert Ya'qub ibn Killis , who was elevated to this office in 979 by al-Mu'izz's successor al-Aziz . The office of the vizier became progressively more important over the years, as the vizier became
30856-424: 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
31059-549: 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
31262-519: The palace. In 1021, while wandering the desert outside Cairo on one of his nightly excursions, he disappeared. He was purportedly murdered, but his body was never found. After al-Hakim's death his two designated heirs were killed, putting an end to his succession scheme, and his sister Sitt al-Mulk arranged to have his 15-year-old son Ali installed on the throne as al-Zahir . She served as his regent until her death in 1023, at which point an alliance of courtiers and officials ruled, with al-Jarjarā'ī ,
31465-412: The period of French rule, the people of the island had an effective contribution to the Tunisian national movement. Following independence, Djerba became one of the most prominent Tunisian tourist attractions and a destination for tourists from all over the world. Djerba was known as the island of Lytos in the time of the Greeks, and it was possible to locate one of its villages from the Qantara Tower, and
31668-438: The plurality of Egyptian society by imposing new restrictions on Christians and Jews, particularly on the way they dressed or behaved in public. He ordered or sanctioned the destruction of a number of churches and monasteries (mostly Coptic or Melkite ), which was unprecedented, and in 1009, for reasons that remain unclear, he ordered the demolition of the Church of the Holy Sephulchre in Jerusalem. Al-Hakim greatly expanded
31871-423: The pressure of the rising European expansionist powers, until the province stabilized in a comprehensive crisis that facilitated the French intervention in 1881. During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the island witnessed radical transformations, and perhaps the most prominent thing that distinguishes this era is the migration of its people to engage in trade in some Islamic cities and Tunisian cities. During
32074-399: The question of ownership over Jerusalem. Following this, the crusaders crossed into Fatimid territory and captured Jerusalem in July 1099 while al-Afdal was leading a relief army trying to reach the city. The two forces finally clashed in the Battle of Ascalon in which al-Afdal was defeated. Nevertheless, the initial negotiations were held against the Fatimids and Ibn al-Athir wrote that it
32277-428: The real power base of Fatimids in Ifriqiya was quite narrow, resting on the Kutama soldiery, later extended by the Sanhaja Berber tribes as well. The historian Heinz Halm describes the early Fatimid state as being, in essence, "a hegemony of the Kutama and Sanhaja Berbers over the eastern and central Maghrib". In 912, al-Mahdi began looking for the site of a new capital along the Mediterranean shore. Construction of
32480-418: The real target was Baghdad , the capital of the Fatimids' Abbasid rivals. The ambition to carry the revolution eastward had to be postponed after the failure of two successive invasions of Egypt, led by al-Qa'im, in 914–915 and 919–921 . In addition, the Fatimid regime was as yet unstable. The local population were mostly adherents of Maliki Sunnism and various Kharijite sects such as Ibadism , so that
32683-425: The recruitment of Black Africans into the army, who subsequently became another powerful faction to balance against the Kutama, Turks, and Daylamis. In 1005, during his early reign, a dangerous uprising led by Abu Rakwa was successfully put down but had come within striking distance of Cairo. In 1012 the leaders of the Arab Tayyi tribe occupied Ramla and proclaimed the sharif of Mecca , al-Ḥasan ibn Ja'far , as
32886-410: 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
33089-436: The region temporarily, until a final decisive Umayyad intervention in 984–985 put an end to further efforts. In 978 the caliph also gave Tripolitania to Buluggin to govern, though Zirid authority there was later replaced by the local Banu Khazrun dynasty in 1001. In 988 Buluggin's son and successor al-Mansur moved the Zirid dynasty's base from Ashir (central Algeria) to the former Fatimid capital al-Mansuriyya, cementing
33292-460: The regions and groups) a specific space that is different from the space of the neighbouring provinces. Then Tunisia fell into the trap of colonialism, as German Chancellor Bismarck declared to the French ambassador in Berlin (January 4, 1879): “The Tunisian pear has ripened and it is time for you to pick it...” Indeed, since the first third of the nineteenth century, the conditions of the Tunisian province have gradually deteriorated and worsened under
33495-523: The regnal name of al-Qa'im . Al-Mahdi quickly fell out with Abu Abdallah: not only was the dā'ī over-powerful, but he demanded proof that the new caliph was the true mahdī . The elimination of Abu Abdallah al-Shi'i and his brother led to an uprising among the Kutama, led by a child- mahdī , which was suppressed. At the same time, al-Mahdi repudiated the millenarian hopes of his followers and curtailed their antinomian tendencies. The new regime regarded its presence in Ifriqiya as only temporary:
33698-404: The role of political ruler, and the other, Abbās ibn Shu'ayb, would inherit the imamate or religious leadership. This was a serious departure from a central purpose of the Fatimid Imam-Caliphs, which was to combine these two functions in one person. In 1015 he also suddenly halted the Isma'ili doctrinal lectures of the majālis al-ḥikma ("sessions of wisdom") which had taken place regularly inside
33901-458: 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
34104-495: The same year. Abu Abdallah's forces were unable to resist this counterattack and after two defeats they evacuated Tazrut (which was largely unfortified) and fled to Ikjan, leaving Mila to be retaken. Ikjan became the new center of the Fatimid movement and the dā'ī reestablished his network of missionaries and spies. Ibrahim II died in October 902 while in southern Italy and was succeeded by Abdallah II . In early 903 Abdallah II set out on another expedition to destroy Ikjan and
34307-406: The sky at the time when the construction of the city started. The city was located several miles northeast of Fusṭāt , the older regional capital founded by the Arab conquerors in the seventh century. Control of Egypt was secured with relative ease and soon afterward, in 970, Jawhar sent a force to invade Syria and remove the remaining Ikhshidids who had fled there from Egypt. This Fatimid force
34510-489: The small town of Salamiya on the western edge of the Syrian Desert . Salamiya became the centre of the Isma'ili daʿwa , with Abdallah al-Akbar being succeeded by his son and grandson as the secret "grand masters" of the movement. In the last third of the ninth century, the Isma'ili daʿwa spread widely, profiting from the collapse of Abbasid power in the Anarchy at Samarra and the subsequent Zanj Revolt , as well as from dissatisfaction among Twelver adherents with
34713-458: 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
34916-536: The son of Ziri bn Manad (who died in 971), as his viceroy in the Maghreb. This established a dynasty of viceroys, with the title of "amir", who ruled the region on behalf of the Fatimids. Their authority remained disputed in the western Maghreb, where the rivalry with the Umayyads and with local Zenata leaders continued. After Jawhar's successful western expedition, the Umayyads returned to northern Morocco in 973 to reassert their authority. Buluggin launched one last expedition in 979–980 that reestablished his authority in
35119-498: 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
35322-484: The status of the Zirids as more or less de facto independent rulers of Ifriqiya, while still officially maintaining their allegiance to the Fatimid caliphs. Caliph al-Aziz accepted this situation for pragmatic reasons to maintain his own formal status as universal ruler. Both dynasties exchanged gifts and the succession of new Zirid rulers to the throne was officially sanctioned by the caliph in Cairo. After al-Aziz's unexpected death, his young son al-Mansur, 11 years old,
35525-415: The stronghold in 1135 in response to repeated piracy in the Mediterranean. After its subjugation, the town's women and children were sent to Sicily, despite the violent resistance shown by the pirate lords and local folk. Djerba remained under Norman occupation from 1135 to 1159. Over two decades later however, while the Normans and their ruler William I , were primarily focused on their massive invasion of
35728-467: The succession and names of imams differ, while Sunni and Twelver sources of course reject any Fatimid descent from the Alids altogether and consider them impostors. Abdallah's claim caused a rift in the Isma'ili movement, as Hamdan Qarmat and other leaders denounced this change and held onto the original doctrine, becoming known as the " Qarmatians ", while other communities remained loyal to Salamiya. Shortly after, in 902–903, pro-Fatimid loyalists began
35931-421: The succession was left open. Most of his followers followed al-Sadiq's son Musa al-Kazim down to a twelfth and final imam who supposedly went into occultation in 874 and would one day return as the mahdī . This branch is hence known as the "Twelvers". Others followed other sons, or even refused to believe that al-Sadiq had died, and expected his return as the mahdī . Another branch believed that Ja'far
36134-502: The synagogue. Five people were killed including: two jewish cousions, a Jewish-French tourist, and two Tunisian security guards. The city Girba in the Roman province of Tripolitania (mostly in modern Libya), which gave its name to the island, was important enough to become a suffragan bishop of its capital's archbishopric. Known Bishops of antiquity include: The 1909 Catholic Encyclopedia lists only two: "At least two bishops of Girba are known, Monnulus and Vincent, who assisted at
36337-529: The temple, the Kohanim, who were serving the temple at the time of destruction escaped from Jerusalem and found themselves on the island of Djerba. The legend claims the Kohanim carried the door and some stones from the Temple in Jerusalem which they then incorporated into the "marvelous synagogue", also known as Ghriba , which still stands in Djerba. The Jewish community differs from others in Djerba in their dress, personal names and accents. The Jewish rabbinate of Djerba have established an eruv , which establishes
36540-438: The tenure of the vizier Badr al-Jamali , the Fatimid caliphate declined rapidly during the late eleventh and twelfth centuries. In addition to internal difficulties, the caliphate was weakened by the encroachment of the Seljuk Turks into Syria in the 1070s and the arrival of the Crusaders in the Levant in 1097. In 1171, Saladin abolished the dynasty's rule and founded the Ayyubid dynasty , which incorporated Egypt back into
36743-432: The throne after his father's death and organized a rebellion in 1095, but he was defeated and executed that same year. Al-Afdal arranged for his sister to marry al-Musta'li and later for his daughter to marry al-Amir, hoping in this way to merge his family with that of the caliphs. He also attempted to secure the succession of his son to the vizierate as well, but this ultimately failed. During al-Afdal's tenure (1094–1121)
36946-456: The time that Tunisia was fighting for independence from France 1881–1956. In 1940, there were approximately 100,000 Jewish-Tunisians or 15% of the entire population of Tunisia. In the aftermath of World War II, the Jewish population on the island declined significantly due to emigration to Israel and France. As of 2011, the Jewish permanent resident community on the island numbered about 1,000, but many return annually on pilgrimage. However, once
37149-413: The time. Among other things, al-Hakim was known for executing his officials when unsatisfied with them, seemingly without warning, rather than dismissing them from their posts as had been traditional practice. Many of the executions were members of the financial administration, which may mean that this was al-Hakim's way of trying to impose discipline in an institution rife with corruption. He also opened
37352-501: 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
37555-418: The twenty-fifth Tunisian governorate, which did not resonate with Tunisian officials. According to their oral history, the Jewish minority has dwelled on the island continuously for more than 2,500 years. The first physical evidence that historians know of comes from the 11th century found in Cairo Geniza . This community is unique in the Jewish diaspora for its unusually high percentage of Kohanim (Hebrew;
37758-411: The upper hand. During the winter of 908–909 Abu Abdallah campaigned in the region around Chott el-Jerid , capturing the towns of Tuzur (Tozeur) , Nafta , and Qafsa (Gafsa) and taking control of the region. The Aghlabids responded by besieging Baghaya soon afterward in the same winter, but they were quickly repelled. On 25 February 909, Abu Abdallah set out from Ikjan with an army of 200,000 men for
37961-412: The vast majority of male Jews on Djerba claiming the family status of Cohen had a common ancient male ancestor which matches that of nearly all of both historically European and Middle Eastern Jewish males with a family history of patrilineal membership in the Jewish priestly caste. Thus, the island has been known by many Jews as the island of the Kohanim . According to the legend, during the destruction of
38164-420: The vizier also replaced the mudbrick walls of Cairo with new stone walls and slightly expanded the city. Three of its monumental gates still survive today: Bab Zuweila , Bab al-Futuh , and Bab al-Nasr . As the military viziers effectively became heads of state, the Caliph himself was reduced to the role of a figurehead. The reliance on the Iqta system also ate into Fatimid central authority, as more and more
38367-510: The way he forced the Zaydi Imam in Sa'da into submission. Upon arriving in Mecca, he installed Abu Hashim Muhammad ibn Ja'far as the new sharif and custodian of the holy sites under the suzerainty of the Fatimids. He returned to San'a where he established his family as rulers on behalf of the Fatimid caliphs. His brother founded the city of Ta'izz , while the city of Aden became an important hub of trade between Egypt and India , which brought Egypt further wealth. His rise to power established
38570-451: 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
38773-432: The year 1000, Barjawan was assassinated by al-Hakim, who now took direct and autocratic control of the state. His reign, which lasted until his mysterious disappearance in 1021, is the most controversial in Fatimid history. Traditional narratives have described him as either eccentric or outright insane, but more recent studies have tried to provide more measured explanations based on the political and social circumstances of
38976-414: Was able to move quickly and muster enough support from friendly Kutama to defeat them one by one before they were able to unite. This first victory brought Abu Abdallah and his Kutama troops valuable loot and attracted more support to the dā'ī 's cause. Over the next two years Abu Abdallah was able to win over most of the Kutama tribes in the region through either persuasion or coercion. This left much of
39179-419: Was among the places included in the Arab conquest at the hands of Ruwaifa bin Thabit Al-Ansari in the year 665 during the invasion of Tunisia by Muawiyah bin Hadij, in which the Ibadi sect prevailed. Then it became "Afriqiya" after its conquest under the rule of the governors, and their reign lasted for nearly a century from 716 to 800. The state went through several disturbances until the Aghlabid state , which
39382-443: Was applied to several Shi'a leaders who were killed or died; their followers believed that they had gone into " occultation " ( ghayba ) and would return (or be resurrected) at the appointed time. These traditions manifested themselves in the succession of the sixth imam, Ja'far al-Sadiq . Al-Sadiq had appointed his son Isma'il ibn Ja'far as his successor, but Isma'il died before his father, and when al-Sadiq himself died in 765,
39585-449: Was damaged by the epidemics of 1705 and 1706. 1809, 1864, and its economy was greatly damaged, then it suffered under the yoke of French colonialism in 1881 AD until it gained its independence in 1956 AD. The island of Djerba is administratively affiliated with the governorate of Medenine, but some people on the island have been demanding since the January 2011 revolution for secession from the governorate of Medenine and for Djerba to become
39788-422: Was followed by a seventh imam, who had gone into occultation and would one day return; hence this party is known as the "Seveners". The exact identity of that seventh imam was disputed, but by the late ninth century had commonly been identified with Muhammad , son of Isma'il and grandson of al-Sadiq. From Muhammad's father, Isma'il, the sect, which gave rise to the Fatimids, receives its name of "Isma'ili". Due to
39991-427: Was in dispute with the Rustumid state in Algeria. Djerba was sometimes subordinate to the Aghlabids and sometimes to the Rustamids, but it was always semi-independent, until the establishment of the Fatimid Caliphate , which controlled the area from 909 to 972. The island then became part of the possession of emir Bulukīn ibn Zīrī al-Sanhaji, whom al-Mu'izz li-Din Allah al-Fatimi appointed as ruler of Afriqiya after
40194-459: Was installed on the throne as al-Hakim . Hasan ibn Ammar, the leader of the Kalbid clan in Egypt, a military veteran, and one of the last remaining members of al-Mu'izz's old guard, initially became regent, but he was soon forced to flee by Barjawan, the eunuch and tutor of the young al-Hakim, who took power in his stead. Barjawan stabilized the internal affairs of the empire but refrained from pursuing al-Aziz's policy of expansion towards Aleppo. In
40397-399: Was led by a Kutama general named Ja'far ibn Falāḥ . This invasion was successful at first and many cities, including Damascus, were occupied that same year. Ja'far's next step was to attack the Byzantines, who had captured Antioch and subjugated Aleppo in 969 (around the same time as Jawhar was arriving in Egypt), but he was forced to call off the advance in order to face a new threat from
40600-403: Was moved to the newly founded Fatimid capital of Cairo . Egypt became the political, cultural, and religious centre of the empire and it developed a new and "indigenous Arabic culture". After its initial conquests, the caliphate often allowed a degree of religious tolerance towards non-Shia sects of Islam, as well as to Jews and Christians. However, its leaders made little headway in persuading
40803-457: Was said that the Fatimids had invited the crusaders to invade Syria. This defeat established the Kingdom of Jerusalem as a new regional rival and although many crusaders returned to Europe, having fulfilled their vows, the remaining forces, often aided by the Italian maritime republics , overran much of the coastal Levant, with Tripoli , Beirut , and Sidon falling to them between 1109 and 1110. The Fatimids retained Tyre, Ascalon, and Gaza with
41006-484: Was stranded on his voyage through the Mediterranean Sea . The Amazigh are the original inhabitants of North Africa . They inhabited the coasts and mountains and worked in cultivating the land. Their homes are caves and houses carved or built from stones and mud, or straw and tree branches in the form of huts on top of the mountains and plateaus . Others lived a nomadic lifestyle, traveling with their livestock, and they lived under tents. Some sects of them lived by
41209-429: Was succeeded by his son, al-Mustansir , who had the longest reign in Fatimid history, serving as caliph from 1036 to 1094. However, he remained largely uninvolved in politics and left the government in the hands of others. He was seven years old at his accession and thus al-Jarjarā'ī continued to serve as vizier and his guardian. When al-Jarjarā'ī died in 1045 a series of court figures ran the government until al-Yāzūrī ,
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