131-634: Kafr Kanna ( Arabic : كفر كنا , Kafr Kanā ; Hebrew : כַּפְר כַּנָּא ) is an Arab town in the Galilee , part of the Northern District of Israel . It is associated by Christians with the New Testament village of Cana , where Jesus turned water into wine . In 2022 its population was 24,108. It has a religiously mixed population of Muslims and Christians from different denominations. A Jewish village during antiquity, Kafr Kanna
262-503: A royal court where physical access to the ruler could wield great influence. Seemingly lowly domestic functions—such as making the ruler's bed, bathing him, cutting his hair, carrying him in his litter , or even relaying messages—could, in theory, give a eunuch "the ruler's ear" and impart de facto power on the formally humble but trusted servant. Similar instances are reflected in the humble origins and etymology of many high offices. Eunuchs supposedly did not generally have loyalties to
393-575: 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
524-435: 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
655-448: A desirable commodity for tributes . Eunuchs were the only males outside the royal family allowed to stay inside the palace overnight. Court records going back to 1392 indicate that the average lifespan of eunuchs was 70.0 ± 1.76 years, which was 14.4–19.1 years longer than the lifespan of non-castrated men of similar socioeconomic status. The Vietnamese adopted the eunuch system and castration techniques from China . Records show that
786-487: 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
917-463: A living by going uninvited to large ceremonies such as weddings, births, new shop openings and other major family events, and singing until they are paid or given gifts to go away. The ceremony is supposed to bring good luck and fertility, while the curse of an unappeased hijra is feared by many. Hijra often engage in prostitution and begging to earn money, with begging typically accompanied by singing and dancing. Some Indian provincial officials have used
1048-528: A market toll; a total of 56,303 akçe . At the time, Kafr Kanna was one of the few market villages in the Safed Sanjak (district of Safed) and the second largest after the city of Safed . It was also the only locality in the sanjak besides Safed to have a public bathhouse. A map from Napoleon's invasion of 1799 by Pierre Jacotin showed the place, named as Cana , and David Roberts ' The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt, and Nubia illustrated
1179-546: A means of gaining employment in the imperial service. Certain eunuchs, such as the Ming dynasty official Zheng He , gained immense power that occasionally superseded that of even the Grand Secretaries . Self-castration was a common practice, although it was not always performed completely, which led to it being made illegal. It is said that the justification for the employment of eunuchs as high-ranking civil servants
1310-690: 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
1441-400: A particular lover of fine food having "consumed his estate dining lavishly and at leisure every day on tuna and garlic-honey cheese paté like a Lampsacene eunoukhos. " The earliest surviving etymology of the word is from late antiquity . The 5th century (CE) Etymologicon by Orion of Thebes offers two alternative origins for the word eunuch: first, to tēn eunēn ekhein , "guarding
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#17327908270941572-401: A personal characteristic), Vossius ultimately sums up his argument in a different way, saying that the word "originally signified continent men" to whom the care of women was entrusted, and later came to refer to castration because "among foreigners" that role was performed "by those with mutilated bodies". Modern etymologists have followed Orion's first option. In an influential 1925 essay on
1703-546: A police officer shooting at the man while he was backing away. The mayor of the town is Mujahed Awadeh. The town is identified by Christians as the town of Cana , where Jesus performed a miracle at the Marriage at Cana (John 2:1–12). According to the Catholic Encyclopedia of 1914, the identification of Kafr Kanna with Cana dates back to at least the 8th century. However, the general view starting from
1834-423: A preceding example in the life of Muhammad himself, who used the eunuch Mabur as a servant in the house of his own slave concubine Maria al-Qibtiyya ; both of them slaves from Egypt. Eunuchs were for a long time used in relatively small numbers, exclusively inside harems, but the use of eunuchs expanded significantly when eunuchs started being used also for other offices within service and administration outside of
1965-500: A resident of Kafr Kanna, Muhammad Yusuf Taha, was one of six people killed by the Israeli army during Land Day demonstrations. In November 2014, there were clashes for some days because Israeli police killed one Israeli Arab, who attacked a police van with a knife. The police said that they had fired warning shots before shooting him but relatives said he was shot in "cold blood" and images from closed-circuit television (CCTV) showed
2096-462: 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",
2227-470: 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
2358-620: A stone-built village, containing 200 Christians and 200 Muslims. A population list from about 1887 showed that Kefr Kenna had about 830 inhabitants; "the greater part Christians." In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities , Kufr Kenna had a total population of 1,175; 672 Muslims and 503 Christians, of the Christians, 264 were Greek Orthodox , 82 Roman Catholics, 137 Melkites (Greek Catholics) and 20 Anglicans . The population had increased at
2489-458: A title that has been translated as Book of the Guide to [Divine] Benefits and Averting of [Divine] Vengeance and also as Book of Tutor of Graces and Annihilator of Misfortunes . In a chapter dedicated to eunuchs, Al-Subki made "the clear implication that 'eunuchness' is itself an office," Shaun Marmon explained, adding that al-Subki had specified occupational subgroups for the tawashiya [eunuchs]:
2620-507: 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
2751-507: 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
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#17327908270942882-591: A wide range of men who were seen to be physically unable to procreate . Hippocrates describes the Scythians as being afflicted with high rates of erectile dysfunction and thus "the most eunuchoid of all nations" (Airs Waters Places 22). In the Charlton T. Lewis, Charles Short, A Latin Dictionary , the term literally used for impotent males is spado but may also be used for eunuchs. Some men have falsified
3013-476: 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
3144-694: Is 4 leagues distant. During the Crusader period, the Persian traveler Ali of Herat wrote that one could see the Maqam of Jonas , and also the grave of his son, at Kafr Kanna. This was repeated by the Syrian geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi , although he only wrote of the tomb as being that of Jonas's father. The name Casale Robert was used by the Crusaders, beside variations of the Arab name. In August 1254 Julian ,
3275-769: Is a male who has been castrated . Throughout history, castration often served a specific social function. The earliest records for intentional castration to produce eunuchs are from the Sumerian city of Lagash in the 2nd millennium BCE. Over the millennia since, they have performed a wide variety of functions in many different cultures: courtiers or equivalent domestics , for espionage or clandestine operations , castrato singers, concubines or sexual partners, religious specialists, soldiers, royal guards, government officials, and guardians of women or harem servants. Eunuchs would usually be servants or slaves who had been castrated to make them less threatening servants of
3406-590: 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
3537-559: 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
3668-478: 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
3799-408: 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
3930-472: 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
4061-478: 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 is the third most widespread official language after English and French, one of six official languages of
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4192-464: Is mentioned in an extant 9th-century Islamic marble stele . Under Crusader rule, from the 12th to mid-13th centuries, it was a casale (country estate). Kafr Kanna had become a large village by 1300, during Mamluk rule. It flourished as one of the largest localities in Palestine and one of the two market towns of the Safed Sanjak under Ottoman rule in the 16th century, when its population
4323-574: 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
4454-906: 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
4585-777: 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 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
4716-590: 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
4847-413: 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
4978-524: 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
5109-445: 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
5240-421: The 1931 census to 1,378; 896 Muslims and 482 Christians, in a total of 266 houses. In the 1945 statistics , the population was 1,930; 1,320 Muslims and 610 Christians, while the total land area was 19,455 dunams , according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 1,552 were allocated for plantations and irrigable land, 11,642 for cereals, while 56 dunams were classified as built-up areas. During
5371-524: The 1948 Arab–Israeli War , Kafr Kanna was captured by units of Israel's 7th Brigade in the second half of Operation Dekel (July 15–18, 1948). On July 22, 1948, the two priests, Giuseppe Leombruni (Catholic) and Prochoros (Greek Orthodox), and the Christian mayor surrendered Kafr Kanna peacefully to the advancing Haganah troops, ensuring that the population could remain in the village. Kafr Kanna remained under martial law until 1966 . On 30 March 1976,
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5502-478: The Crusaders in 1099. The Persian traveler Nasir-i-Khusraw visited the village in 1047 CE and described the place in his diary: To the southward [of Kafar Kannah] is a hill, on the top of which they have built a fine monastery . It has a strong gate, and the tomb of the prophet Yunis ( Jonas ) [...] is shown within. Near the gate of the monastery is a well, and the water thereof is sweet and good. [...] Acre
5633-627: The Prophet's Tomb , maintaining borders between males and females where needed, and keeping order in the sacred spaces. They were highly respected in their time and remained there throughout the Ottoman Empire's control of the area and afterward. In the present day, it is reported that only a few remain. Eunuchs were an active component in the slave market of the Islamic world until the early 20th-century for service in harem as well as in
5764-801: The Trans-Saharan slave trade , the Red Sea slave trade or the Indian Ocean slave trade , who served the concubines and officials in the Harem together with chamber maidens of low rank. The white eunuchs were slaves from the Balkans or the Caucasus , either purchased in the slave markets or taken as boys from Christian families in the Balkans who were unable to pay the jizya tax. They served
5895-568: The Xth form , or جامعة jāmiʻah 'university', based on جمع jamaʻa 'to gather, unite'; جمهورية jumhūriyyah 'republic', based on جمهور jumhūr 'multitude'). An earlier tendency was to redefine an older word although this has fallen into disuse (e.g., هاتف hātif 'telephone' < 'invisible caller (in Sufism)'; جريدة jarīdah 'newspaper' < 'palm-leaf stalk'). Colloquial or dialectal Arabic refers to
6026-494: 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
6157-668: The second level in the past. Arabic language Arabic (endonym: اَلْعَرَبِيَّةُ , romanized : al-ʿarabiyyah , pronounced [al ʕaraˈbijːa] , or عَرَبِيّ , ʿarabīy , pronounced [ˈʕarabiː] or [ʕaraˈbij] ) 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
6288-403: The square Jewish script . An inscription on one of the panels commemorates "Yose son of Tanhum son of Botah," stating that he, along with his sons, made a donation for the creation of the inscribed panel. The other inscription may possibly mention the name Yeshu'a. Excavations under the same church also unearthed a round "discus" lamp dating from the second century AD, which includes a signature of
6419-545: The zimam watched over women, and the muqaddam al-mamalik over adolescent boys. Edmund Andrews of Northwestern University , in an 1898 article called "Oriental Eunuchs" in The American Journal of Medicine , refers to Coptic priests in "Abou Gerhè in Upper Egypt" castrating slave boys. Coptic castration of slaves was discussed by Peter Charles Remondino , in his book History of Circumcision from
6550-419: 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
6681-765: 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. Eunuch A eunuch ( / ˈ juː n ə k / YOO -nək )
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#17327908270946812-454: 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
6943-678: The 12th-century placed Cana at Khirbet Kana , a site 8.5 kilometres (5.3 mi) to the northwest of Kafr Kanna. Later, the traditional identification with Kafr Kanna reemerged strongly in the mid-14th-century and until the present day. Cana is also mentioned as the home town of the Apostle Bartholomew , as "Nathanael of Cana" in John 21:2. The main churches in Kafr Kanna are the Franciscan Wedding Church,
7074-571: The 4th to the 6th centuries, the Nabataean script evolved into the Arabic script recognizable from the early Islamic era. There are inscriptions in an undotted, 17-letter Arabic script dating to the 6th century CE, found at four locations in Syria ( Zabad , Jebel Usays , Harran , Umm el-Jimal ). The oldest surviving papyrus in Arabic dates to 643 CE, and it uses dots to produce the modern 28-letter Arabic alphabet. The language of that papyrus and of
7205-515: The 5th century AD, mentions Legio X Fretensis . It is today on display in the Hecht Museum on Haifa . Also unearthed in Kafr Kanna is a magic amulet from the 5th to 7th century, including a metal inscribed charm with 41 lines of Aramaic using the Jewish script. This amulet was designed to counter various fevers, referencing sacred names like Abraxas and the letter tsade (צ), symbolizing
7336-779: 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
7467-556: The Byzantine Empire, Imperial China, the Ottoman Empire, and various Middle Eastern cultures. They often held significant power and influence in these societies, particularly in royal courts and harems. Eunuch comes from the Ancient Greek word εὐνοῦχος ( eunoûkhos ), first attested in a fragment of Hipponax , the 6th century BCE comic poet and prolific inventor of compound words. The acerbic poet describes
7598-518: The Earliest Times to the Present , published in 1900. He refers to the "Abou-Gerghè" monastery in a place he calls "Mount Ghebel-Eter". He adds details not mentioned by Andrews such as the insertion of bamboo into the victim. Bamboo was used with Chinese eunuchs. Andrews states his information is derived from an earlier work, Les Femmes, les eunuques, et les guerriers du Soudan , published by
7729-564: The Greek Orthodox Church of St George and the Baptist Church. Near the two is the (usually closed) Roman Catholic Chapel of the Apostle Bartholomew (Nathanael). Kafr Kanna achieved local council status in 1968. In 2006, there were 18,000 residents, The population grew to 20,832 in the 2014 census. As of 2014, Christians formed about 11% of the population. As is the case with many other mixed Muslim-Christian towns in
7860-508: The King's court of advisers. Hijra, a Hindi term traditionally translated into English as "eunuch", actually refers to what modern Westerners would call transvestites or transgender women (although some of them reportedly identify as belonging to a third gender ). The history of this third sex is mentioned in the ancient Kama Sutra , which refers to people of a "third sex" ( tritiya-prakriti ). Some of them undergo ritual castration, but
7991-412: 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
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#17327908270948122-690: 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
8253-576: The Romance languages. Also, while it is comprehensible to people from the Maghreb , a linguistically innovative variety such as Moroccan Arabic is essentially incomprehensible to Arabs from the Mashriq , much as French is incomprehensible to Spanish or Italian speakers but relatively easily learned by them. This suggests that the spoken varieties may linguistically be considered separate languages. With
8384-567: 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 a result, many European languages have borrowed words from it. Arabic influence, mainly in vocabulary,
8515-487: The Vietnamese performed castration in a painful procedure by removing the entire genitalia with both penis and testicles being cut off with a sharp knife or metal blade. The procedure was agonizing since the entire penis was cut off. The young man's thighs and abdomen would be tied and others would pin him down on a table. The genitals would be washed with pepper water and then cut off. A tube would be then inserted into
8646-500: The assistance of hijras to collect taxes in the same fashion—they knock on the doors of shopkeepers, while dancing and singing, embarrassing them into paying. Recently, hijras have started to found organizations to improve their social condition and fight discrimination, such as the Shemale Foundation Pakistan. The eunuchs of Korea, called Korean : 내시, 內侍 , romanized : naesi , were officials to
8777-753: The bed", a derivation inferred from eunuchs' established role at the time as "bedchamber attendants" in the imperial palace, and second, to eu tou nou ekhein , "being good with respect to the mind", which Orion explains based on their "being deprived of intercourse ( esterēmenou tou misgesthai ), the things that the ancients used to call irrational ( anoēta , literally: 'mindless')". Orion's second option reflects well-established idioms in Ancient Greek, as shown by entries for transl. grc – transl. noos , eunoos and ekhein in Liddell and Scott 's Greek-English Lexicon, while
8908-434: The caliph resulted in his assassination in 1000 CE on the orders of al-Hakim. Since imams during this period ruled over a majority non-Shi'a population, the court eunuchs served an important informal role as ambassadors of the caliph, promoting loyalty and devotion to the Shi'a sect and the imam-caliph himself. The multicultural, multilingual eunuchs were able to connect to the commoners through shared cultural ground. During
9039-509: The conversion of Semitic mimation to nunation in the singular. It is best reassessed as a separate language on the Central Semitic dialect continuum. It was also thought that Old Arabic coexisted alongside—and then gradually displaced— epigraphic Ancient North Arabian (ANA), which was theorized to have been the regional tongue for many centuries. ANA, despite its name, was considered a very distinct language, and mutually unintelligible, from "Arabic". Scholars named its variant dialects after
9170-503: The corps of mostly African eunuchs, known as the Aghawat , who guarded the Prophet Muhammad's tomb in Medina and the Kaʿba in Mecca. Most slaves trafficked to Hijaz came there via the Red Sea slave trade . Small African boys were castrated before they were trafficked to the Hijaz, where they were bought at the slave market by the Chief Agha to become eunuch novices. It was noted that boys from Africa were still openly bought to become eunuch novices to serve at Medina in 1895. In Medina there
9301-429: The court in Thailand and advise them on court ritual since they held them in high regard. In Imperial China, eunuchs managed the imperial household and were involved in state affairs, often wielding significant political power. Sir Henry Yule saw many Muslims serving as eunuchs during the Konbaung dynasty period of Burma (modern Myanmar ) while on a diplomatic mission. In China, castration included removal of
9432-652: The emergence of Central Semitic languages, particularly in grammar. Innovations of the Central Semitic languages—all maintained in Arabic—include: There are several features which Classical Arabic, the modern Arabic varieties, as well as the Safaitic and Hismaic inscriptions share which are unattested in any other Central Semitic language variety, including the Dadanitic and Taymanitic languages of
9563-594: The entry from Orion, but stands by the first option, while attributing the second option to what "some say". In the late 12th century, Eustathius of Thessalonica ( Commentaries on Homer 1256.30, 1643.16) offered an original derivation of the word from eunis + okheuein , "deprived of mating". In translations of the Bible into modern European languages, such as the Luther Bible or the King James Bible ,
9694-728: 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
9825-607: 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
9956-549: The first option is not listed as an idiom under eunē in that standard reference work. However, the first option was cited by the late 9th century Byzantine emperor Leo VI in his New Constitution 98 banning the marriage of eunuchs, in which he noted eunuchs' reputation as trustworthy guardians of the marriage bed ( eunē ) and claimed that the very word eunuch attested to this kind of employment. The emperor also goes further than Orion by attributing eunuchs' lack of male–female intercourse specifically to castration, which he said
10087-510: 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
10218-742: 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
10349-893: The harem, a use which expanded gradually during the Umayyad Caliphate and had its breakthrough during the Abbasid Caliphate . During the Abbasid period, eunuchs became a permanent institution inside the Islamic harems after the model of the Abbasid harem , such as in the Fatimid harem , Safavid harem and the Qajar harem . For several centuries, Muslim Eunuchs were tasked with honored roles in Medina and Mecca . They are thought to have been instituted in their role there by Saladin , but perhaps earlier. Their tasks included caring for
10480-597: The inclusion of new words into their published standard dictionaries. They also publish old and historical Arabic manuscripts. In 1997, a bureau of Arabization standardization was added to the Educational, Cultural, and Scientific Organization of the Arab League . These academies and organizations have worked toward the Arabization of the sciences, creating terms in Arabic to describe new concepts, toward
10611-579: The institution of slavery in the Fatimid Caliphate . These eunuchs were normally purchased from slave auctions and typically came from a variety of Arab and non-Arab minority ethnic groups. In some cases, they were purchased from various noble families in the empire, which would then connect those families to the caliph. Generally, though, foreign slaves were preferred, described as the "ideal servants". Once enslaved, eunuchs were often placed into positions of significant power in one of four areas:
10742-659: The king and other royalty in traditional Korean society. The first recorded appearance of a Korean eunuch was in Goryeosa ("History of Goryeo"), a compilation about the Goryeo dynasty period. In 1392, with the founding of the Joseon dynasty , the naesi system was revised, and the department was renamed the "Department of Naesi ". The naesi system included two ranks, those of Korean : 상선, 尙膳 , romanized : Sangseon , lit. 'Chief of Naesi', who held
10873-613: The language. Software and books with tapes are an important part of Arabic learning, as many of Arabic learners may live in places where there are no academic or Arabic language school classes available. Radio series of Arabic language classes are also provided from some radio stations. A number of websites on the Internet provide online classes for all levels as a means of distance education; most teach Modern Standard Arabic, but some teach regional varieties from numerous countries. The tradition of Arabic lexicography extended for about
11004-604: The late 6th century AD, a relatively uniform intertribal "poetic koine" distinct from the spoken vernaculars developed based on the Bedouin dialects of Najd , probably in connection with the court of al-Ḥīra . During the first Islamic century, the majority of Arabic poets and Arabic-writing persons spoke Arabic as their mother tongue. Their texts, although mainly preserved in far later manuscripts, contain traces of non-standardized Classical Arabic elements in morphology and syntax. Abu al-Aswad al-Du'ali ( c. 603 –689)
11135-420: 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
11266-587: The lord of Sidon , sold it to the Knights Hospitaller . Around 1300, during Mamluk rule, Kafr Kanna was described as being a large village, in which lived the chiefs of various tribes. The head tribe is called Kais al-Hamra ("Kais the Red.") According to the chronicler al-Dimashqi , the district al-Batuf , called "the Drowned Meadow", belonged to the village. Al-Dimashqi further remarked that
11397-883: 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
11528-514: The military, the aristocracy, or a family of their own (having neither offspring nor in-laws, at the very least). They were thus seen as more trustworthy and less interested in establishing a private dynasty. Because their condition usually lowered their social status, they could also be easily replaced or killed without repercussion. In cultures that had both harems and eunuchs, eunuchs were sometimes used as harem servants. Eunuchs have been documented in several ancient and medieval societies, including
11659-827: The most powerful Chief Eunuchs was Beshir Agha in the 1730s, who played a crucial role in establishing the Ottoman version of Hanafi Islam throughout the Empire by founding libraries and schools. In the 16th century, an Englishman, Samson Rowlie , was captured and castrated to serve the Ottoman governor in Algiers. In the 14th century, the Muslim Egyptian religious scholar Taj-al-Din Abu Nasr 'Abdal-Wahhab al-Subki discussed eunuchs in his book Kitab Mu'id al-Ni'am wa Mubid al-Niqam ( Arabic : كتاب معيد النعم ومبيد النقم ),
11790-403: The name Sabaoth , as well as a Hebrew idiom. In the early 9th century, under Abbasid rule , Abu Salih Khayr al-Khadim, an eunuch of Caliph al-Mu’tazz b’illah , left all his property in Kafr Kanna and another Galilee village, Kfar Tavor (then called Kafr Tabaria ), to a waqf (religious endowment). The endowments were supposed to be eternal, but were presumably ended by the conquest of
11921-782: 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
12052-527: The official title of senior second rank, and Korean : 내관, 內官 , romanized : Naegwan , lit. 'Common official naesi', both of which held rank as officers. A total of 140 naesi served the palace in the Joseon dynasty period. They also took the exam on Confucianism every month. The naesi system was repealed in 1894 following Gabo reform . During the Yuan dynasty , eunuchs became
12183-424: 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
12314-651: The ones in direct service to the caliph and the royal household as chamberlains, treasurers, governors, and attendants. Their direct proximity to the caliph and his household afforded them a great amount of political sway. One eunuch, Jawdhar , became hujja to Imam-Caliph al-Qa'im , a sacred role in Shia Islam entrusted with the imam's choice of successor upon his death. There were several other eunuchs of high regard in Fatimid history, mainly being Abu'l-Fadi Rifq al-Khadim and Abu'l-Futuh Barjawan al-Ustadh . Rifq
12445-549: 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
12576-628: The penis as well as the testicles (see emasculation ). Both organs were cut off with a knife at the same time. Eunuchs existed in China from about 4,000 years ago, were imperial servants by 3,000 years ago, and were common as civil servants by the time of the Qin dynasty . From those ancient times until the Sui dynasty , castration was both a traditional punishment (one of the Five Punishments ) and
12707-643: The period of slavery in the Ottoman Empire , eunuchs were typically slaves imported from outside their domains. A fair proportion of male slaves were imported as eunuchs. The Ottoman court harem —within the Topkapı Palace (1465–1853) and later the Dolmabahçe Palace (1853–1909) in Istanbul —was under the administration of the eunuchs. These were of two categories: black eunuchs and white eunuchs. Black eunuchs were slaves from sub-Saharan Africa via
12838-608: The personal will of the Emperor, while the officials represented the alternative political will of the bureaucracy . The clash between them would thus have been a clash of ideologies or political agenda. The number of eunuchs in imperial employ fell to 470 by 1912, when the practice of using them ceased. The last imperial eunuch, Sun Yaoting , died in December 1996. Eunuchs were frequently employed in imperial palaces by some Muslim rulers as servants for female royalty, as guards of
12969-443: The population as 147 households, and by 1596 (or rather 1548) it grew to 475 Muslim taxpayers (426 households and 49 bachelors) and 96 Jewish taxpayers (95 households and 1 bachelor), making it the sixth most populous locality in Palestine at the time. The villagers paid a fixed tax-rate of 25% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, olive trees, fruit trees, cotton, goats and beehives, in addition to occasional revenues and
13100-476: The potter, named Iason. In 2023, a burial cave with decorated stone ossuaries that were used by Jews for secondary burial in the years following the Bar Kohkba revolt was discovered in Kafr Kanna. During excavations at Kerem er-Ras/Karm er-Ras, located on the western periphery of the village of Kafr Kanna, a fragment of a Latin burial inscription was discovered in 2001. This inscription, dating back to
13231-648: The recruits at the Palace School and were from 1582 prohibited from entering the Harem. An important figure in the Ottoman court was the Chief Black Eunuch ( Kızlar Ağası or Darüssaade Ağası ). In control of both the harem and a net of spies among the black eunuchs, the Chief Eunuch was involved in almost every palace intrigue and thereby could gain power over either the sultan or one of his viziers, ministers, or other court officials. One of
13362-410: 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
13493-664: The region, the Christians generally tend to live in the oldest part of town. In Kafr Kanna—and in Kafr Yasif and 'Abud , among others—there are two ancient nuclei in the town: the earlier one where Christians live, and another (also hundreds of years old) where Muslims live. Hapoel Kafr Kanna and F.C. Tzeirei Kafr Kanna plays in Liga Alef (the third tier). Beitar Kafr Kanna both play in Liga Bet (the fourth tier). Maccabi Kafr Kanna , which dissolved in 2014, have played at
13624-581: The royal harem, and as sexual mates for the nobles. Some of them attained high-status positions in society. An early example of such a high-ranking eunuch was Malik Kafur . Eunuchs in imperial palaces were organized in a hierarchy, often with a senior or Chief Eunuch (Urdu: Khwaja Saras ), directing junior eunuchs below him. Eunuchs were highly valued for their strength and trustworthiness, allowing them to live amongst women with fewer worries. This enabled eunuchs to serve as messengers, watchmen, attendants and guards for palaces. Often, eunuchs also doubled as part of
13755-617: The same in two separate lithographs. Edward Robinson 's 1841 Biblical Researches in Palestine wrote that "The monks of the present day, and all recent travellers, find the Cana of the New Testament, where Jesus converted the water into wine, at Kefr Kenna", however he argued that Cana's location was in fact at the ruins known as Kana el Jalil (Cana of Galilee). In the 1881 PEF 's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) , described it as
13886-458: 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
14017-437: The service of the emperor and virtuous Confucian officials is a familiar theme in Chinese history. In his History of Government , Samuel Finer points out that reality was not always that clear-cut. There were instances of very capable eunuchs who were valuable advisers to their emperor, and the resistance of the "virtuous" officials often stemmed from jealousy on their part. Ray Huang argues that in reality, eunuchs represented
14148-422: The service of the male members of the court; the service of the Fatimid harem , or female members of the court; administrative and clerical positions; and military service. For example, during the Fatimid occupation of Cairo, Egyptian eunuchs controlled military garrisons ( shurta ) and marketplaces ( hisba ), two positions beneath only the city magistrate in power. However, the most influential Fatimid eunuchs were
14279-458: 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
14410-563: The standardization of these new terms throughout the Arabic-speaking world, and toward the development of Arabic as a world language . This gave rise to what Western scholars call Modern Standard Arabic. From the 1950s, Arabization became a postcolonial nationalist policy in countries such as Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, and Sudan. Arabic usually refers to Standard Arabic, which Western linguists divide into Classical Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic. It could also refer to any of
14541-628: The status of their castration to gain entrance into the palace. Chinese eunuch Lao Ai , for instance, became the lover of the mother of Qin Shi Huang , who bore him two sons, before Lao Ai and his sons were executed after participating in a rebellion against Qin Shi Huang. In Siam (modern Thailand) Indian Muslims from the Coromandel Coast served as eunuchs in the Thai palace and court. The Thai at times asked eunuchs from China to visit
14672-640: The throne, as it seems to be the case for the Syro-Hittite state of Carchemish . Political eunuchism became a fully established institution among the Achaemenid Empire . Eunuchs (called Imperial Aramaic : סריס , romanized: səris , an Assyrian loanword) held powerful positions in the Achaemenid court. The eunuch Bagoas (not to be confused with Alexander's Bagoas ) was the vizier of Artaxerxes III and Artaxerxes IV , and
14803-501: 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
14934-541: The urethra to allow urination during healing. Many Vietnamese eunuchs were products of self castration to gain access to the palaces and power. In other cases they might be paid to become eunuchs. They served in many capacities, from supervising public works, to investigating crimes, to reading public proclamations. The four-thousand-year-old Egyptian Execration Texts threaten enemies in Nubia and Asia, specifically referencing "all males, all eunuchs, all women." Castration
15065-528: The vast majority do not. They usually dress in saris or shalwar kameez (traditional garbs worn by women in South Asia) and wear heavy make-up. They typically live on the margins of society and face discrimination. Hijra tend to have few options for earning a wage, with many turning to sex work and others performing ritualistic songs and dances. They are integral to several Hindu ceremonies, such as dance programs at marriage ceremonies. They may also earn
15196-621: The waters of the surrounding hills drained into the area, flooding it; as soon as the land was dried up grain was sown. Under the rule of the Ottoman Empire , the village flourished in the 16th century, as it lay on the western trade route between Egypt and Syria . High taxes of different kinds were levied on the busy market. Among other things it traded in cloths, produced in Galilee for international consumption. Public baths and ovens were also taxed. In 1533, Ottoman officials recorded
15327-572: The word eunuchs as found in the Latin Vulgate is usually rendered as an officer, official or chamberlain, consistent with the idea that the original meaning of eunuch was bed-keeper (Orion's first option). Modern religious scholars have been disinclined to assume that the courts of Israel and Judah included castrated men, even though the original translation of the Bible into Greek used the word eunoukhos . The early 17th-century scholar and theologian Gerardus Vossius therefore explains that
15458-496: The word eunuch and related terms, Ernst Maass suggested that Eustathius's derivation "can or must be laid to rest", and he affirmed the derivation from eunē and ekhein ("guardian of the bed"), without mentioning the other derivation from eunoos and ekhein ("having a well-disposed state of mind"). In Latin, the words eunuchus , spado (Greek: σπάδων spadon ), and castratus were used to denote eunuchs. The term eunuch has sometimes figuratively been used for
15589-516: The word originally designated an office, and he affirms the view that it was derived from eunē and ekhein (i.e. "bed-keeper"). He says the word came to be applied to castrated men in general because such men were the usual holders of that office. Still, Vossius notes the alternative etymologies offered by Eustathius ("deprived of mating") and others ("having the mind in a good state"), calling these analyses "quite subtle". Then, after having previously declared that eunuch designated an office (i.e., not
15720-451: 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
15851-594: Was a European eunuch during late Fatimid rule who gained power through his military and political savvy which brought peace between them and the Byzantine empire. Moreover, he squashed revolts in the Libya and the Levant. Given his reputation and power in the court and military he took the reins of the caliphate from his then student al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah ; then ruled as the de facto Regent 997 CE. His usurpation of power from
15982-695: Was a Jewish village. It was mentioned by the Roman-Jewish historian Josephus in his The Life of Flavius Josephus . On the outskirts of the modern town is the tomb of the Jewish sage, rabbi Simeon ben Gamliel , who became the Nasi (president) of the Sanhedrin in 50 CE. His tomb has remained a Jewish pilgrimage site over the centuries. Excavation beneath Kafr Kanna's Franciscan church uncovered mosaic floor panels with Aramaic donor inscriptions, using
16113-576: Was a part of town named Harat al-Aghawat (Neighborhood of the Aghas). The Red Sea slave trade became gradually more suppressed during the 20th-century, and Slavery in Saudi Arabia was abolished in 1962. In 1979, the last Agha was appointed. In 1990 seventeen eunuchs remained. In the Isma'ili Fatimid Caliphate (909–1171 CE), eunuchs played major roles in the politics of the caliphate's court within
16244-524: Was an African eunuch general who served as governor of the Damascus until he led an army of 30,000 men in a campaign to expand Fatimid control northeast to the city of Aleppo, Syria. He was noted for being able to unite a diverse group of Africans, Arabs, Bedouins, Berbers, and Turks into one coherent fighting force which was able to successfully combat the Mirdasids , Bedouins , and Byzantines. Barjawan
16375-441: Was due to the trust that certain jealous and suspicious foreign rulers placed in the loyalty of their eunuchized servants. Theophylact of Ohrid in a dialogue In Defence of Eunuchs also stated that the origin of the word was from eupnoeic and ekhein , "to have, hold", since they were always "well-disposed" toward the master who "held" or owned them. The 12th century Etymologicum Magnum (s.v. eunoukhos ) essentially repeats
16506-582: Was excavated adjacent to the perennial Kanna spring, overlaying a site dating to the Early Chalcolithic Period. A fortification wall indicates that the settlement was fortified. Kana was mentioned in the Amarna letters . In 2001, remains of a 4th-century BCE pottery kiln that produced everted rim storage jars were found adjacent to the Kanna spring. During the first century CE, Kafr Kanna
16637-616: Was mostly Muslim with a significant Jewish minority. By the 19th century, its population was roughly equal parts Muslim and Christian, a state which persisted through British Mandatory rule (1917–1948). Since 1948, it is a part of Israel. Archaeological excavations by the Israel Antiquities Authority uncovered remains dating from the Neolithic to the Mamluk periods. Evidence for a large Early Bronze Age settlement
16768-535: Was performed with the intention "that they will no longer do the things that males do, or at least to extinguish whatever has to do with desire for the female sex". The 11th century Byzantine monk Nikon of the Black Mountain , opting instead for Orion's second alternative, stated that the word came from eunoein ( eu "good" + nous "mind"), thus meaning "to be well-minded, well-inclined, well-disposed or favorable", but unlike Orion he argued that this
16899-688: Was sometimes punitive; under Assyrian law , homosexual acts were punishable by castration. Eunuchs were familiar figures in the Neo-Assyrian Empire ( Akkadian : ša rēš šarri izuzzū "the one who stands by the head of the king", often abbreviated as ša rēš ; c. 850 until 622 BCE) and in the court of the Egyptian pharaohs (down to the Lagid dynasty known as Ptolemies, ending with Cleopatra VII , 30 BCE). Eunuchs sometimes were used as regents for underage heirs to
17030-429: Was that, since they were incapable of having children, they would not be tempted to seize power and start a dynasty. In many cases, eunuchs were considered more reliable than the scholar-officials. As a symbolic assignment of heavenly authority to the palace system, a constellation of stars was designated as the Emperor's, and, to the west of it, four stars were identified as his "eunuchs." The tension between eunuchs in
17161-408: Was the primary power behind the throne during their reigns until he was killed by Darius III . Marmon (1995) writes " Mamluk biographies of the eunuchs often praise their appearance with adjectives such as jamil (beautiful), wasim (handsome), and ahsan (the best, most beautiful) or akmal (the most perfect)." The custom of using eunuchs as servants for women inside the Islamic harems had
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