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183-687: Oxyrhynchus lies west of the main course of the Nile on the Bahr Yussef , a branch that terminates in Lake Moeris and the Faiyum oasis . In ancient Egyptian times, there was a city on the site called Per -Medjed , named after the medjed , a species of elephantfish of the Nile worshipped there as the fish that ate the penis of Osiris . It was the capital of the 19th Upper Egyptian Nome . After

366-505: A Mamluk era historian, also writing the history of Bahnasa conquest in his book, Al Duhur fi madaa al 'Ayaam wa al shuhur The Muslims army settled in the town for three years as their base after the conquest, while launching occasional raids on the black and the coasts. Al-Qa`qa` bin Amr, Hashem, Abu Ayyub al-Ansari and Uqba ibn Nafi Al-Fihri, the future conqueror of Maghreb, and went with two thousand of Persians convert who now fight under

549-801: A raid on her house during the succession crisis. The descendants of Hasan and Husayn are known as the Hasanids and the Husaynids , respectively. As the progeny of Muhammad, they are honored in Muslim communities by nobility titles such as sharif and sayyid . Ali and Fatima also had two daughters, Zaynab and Umm Kulthum . After Fatima's death in 632, Ali remarried multiple times and had more children, including Muhammad al-Awsat and Abbas ibn Ali . In his life, Ali fathered seventeen daughters, and eleven, fourteen, or eighteen sons, among whom, Hasan, Husayn, and Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyya played

732-433: A Turkish officer, Selim Bimbashi, were made between 1839 and 1842, and two got to the point about 30 kilometres (20 miles) beyond the present port of Juba , where the country rises and rapids make navigation very difficult. Lake Victoria was first sighted by Europeans in 1858 when British explorer John Hanning Speke reached its southern shore while traveling with Richard Francis Burton to explore central Africa and locate

915-716: A distance of 20 days' journey till it reaches the nearest Ethiopians." Modern exploration of the Nile basin began with the conquest of the northern and central Sudan by the Ottoman viceroy of Egypt, Muhammad Ali , and his sons from 1821 onward. As a result of this, the Blue Nile was known as far as its exit from the Ethiopian foothills and the White Nile as far as the mouth of the Sobat River. Three expeditions under

1098-468: A factor of 15 at Aswan. Peak flows of over 8,212 m /s (290,000 cu ft/s) occurred during late August and early September, and minimum flows of about 552 m /s (19,500 cu ft/s) occurred during late April and early May. The Bahr al Ghazal and the Sobat River are the two most important tributaries of the White Nile in terms of discharge. The Bahr al Ghazal's drainage basin

1281-678: A failed arbitration process that alienated some of Ali's supporters. These formed the Kharijites , who later terrorized the public and were crushed by Ali in the Battle of Nahrawan in 658. Ali was assassinated in 661 by the Kharijite dissident Ibn Muljam , which paved the way for Mu'awiya to seize power and found the dynastic Umayyad Caliphate . Ali is revered for his courage, honesty, unbending devotion to Islam, magnanimity, and equal treatment of all Muslims. For his admirers, he has thus become

1464-683: A group of the Ansar (Medinan natives, lit.   ' helpers ' ) gathered at the Saqifa to discuss the future of Muslims or to retake control of their city, Medina. Abu Bakr and Umar were among the few representatives of the Muhajirun (Meccan converts, lit.   ' migrants ' ) at the Saqifa. The case of Ali was unsuccessfully brought up at the Saqifa in his absence, and, ultimately, those present there appointed Abu Bakr to leadership after

1647-541: A hadith about prophetic inheritance , the authenticity of which has been doubted partly because it contradicts Quranic injunctions. In the absence of popular support, Ali eventually accepted the temporal rule of Abu Bakr, probably for the sake of Muslim unity. In particular, Ali turned down proposals to forcefully pursue the caliphate. He nevertheless viewed himself as the most qualified candidate for leadership by virtue of his merits and his kinship with Muhammad. Evidence suggests that Ali further considered himself as

1830-462: A heated debate that is said to have become violent. Clan rivalries at the Saqifa played a key role in favor of Abu Bakr, and the outcome may have been different in a broad council ( shura ) with Ali as a candidate. In particular, the Quraysh tradition of hereditary succession strongly favored Ali, even though his youth weakened his case. By contrast, the succession (caliphate) of Abu Bakr

2013-511: A historical role. Descendants of Ali are known as the Alids . Mu'awiya succeeded Ali in 661 and founded the dynastic Umayyad Caliphate, during which Alids were severely persecuted. After Ali, his followers ( shi'a ) recognized his eldest son Hasan as their imam. When he died in 670, likely poisoned at the instigation of Mu'awiya, the Shia community followed Hasan's younger brother Husayn, who

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2196-645: A layer." The classical author who has most benefited from the finds at Oxyrhynchus is the Athenian playwright Menander (342–291 BC), whose comedies were very popular in Hellenistic times and whose works are frequently found in papyrus fragments. Menander's plays found in fragments at Oxyrhynchus include Misoumenos , Dis Exapaton , Epitrepontes , Karchedonios , Dyskolos and Kolax . The works found at Oxyrhynchus have greatly raised Menander's status among classicists and scholars of Greek theatre . There

2379-428: A mere statement of friendship and rapport. When Muhammad died in the same year, a group of Muslims met in the absence of Ali and appointed Abu Bakr ( r.  632–634 ) as their leader. Ali later relinquished his claims to leadership and resigned from public life during the reigns of Abu Bakr and his successor, Umar ( r.  634–644 ). Even though his advice was occasionally sought, the conflicts between Ali and

2562-463: A new, much smaller, Syria campaign. But he postponed the expedition, and instead marched to Nahrawan with his army, when he learned that the Kharijites were interrogating and executing civilians. They killed many, apparently not even sparing women. Ali convinced many of the Kharijites to separate from their army, leaving about 1,500–1,800, or 2,800, out of about 4,000 fighters. The rest of

2745-468: A peace treaty with Muhammad. The envoy also debated with Muhammad the nature of Jesus , human or divine. Linked to this episode is verse 3:61 of the Quran, which instructs Muhammad to challenge his opponents to mubahala ( lit.   ' mutual cursing ' ), perhaps when their debate had reached a deadlock. Even though the delegation ultimately withdrew from the challenge, Muhammad appeared for

2928-413: A restraining influence on Uthman. Some supporters of Ali were part of the opposition movement, joined in their efforts by Talha and Zubayr, both senior companions of Muhammad, and by his widow Aisha . Among such supporters of Ali were Malik al-Ashtar and other religiously learned qurra ( lit.   ' Quran readers ' ). These supporters wanted to see Ali as the next caliph but there

3111-475: A second time when they intercepted an official letter ordering their punishment. They demanded the caliph's abdication but he refused and maintained his innocence about the letter, for which Marwan is often blamed in the early sources. Ali also sided with Uthman, but the caliph apparently accused him about the letter. This is probably when Ali refused to further intercede for Uthman, who was assassinated soon afterward by Egyptian rebels. Ali played no role in

3294-541: A similar religious authority in the Quran as the latter. In Medina, Ali acted as Muhammad's secretary and deputy. He was also one of the scribes tasked with committing the Quran to writing. In 628, Ali wrote down the terms of the Treaty of al-Hudaybiya , the peace treaty between Muslims and Meccan pagans. In 630, divine orders pushed Muhammad to replace Abu Bakr with Ali for a key Quranic announcement in Mecca, according to

3477-498: A state register ( diwan ) to distribute excess state revenues according to Islamic precedence, but Ali held that those revenues should be equally distributed among Muslims, following the practice of Muhammad and Abu Bakr. Ali was also absent from the strategic meeting of notables near Damascus . Ali did not participate in Umar's military expeditions, although he does not seem to have publicly objected to them. Umar likely opposed

3660-485: A successful boycott on the Banu Hashim, who eventually abandoned their support for Ali. Most likely, Ali himself did not pledge his allegiance to Abu Bakr until Fatima died within six months of her father, Muhammad. In Shia sources, the death (and miscarriage) of the young Fatima are attributed to an attack on her house to subdue Ali by the order of Abu Bakr. Sunnis categorically reject these reports, but there

3843-604: A unique cemetery consisting of one room built with glazed limestone dating back to the 26th Dynasty (so-called the El-Sawi era). Archaeologists also uncovered bronze coins, clay seals, Roman tombstones and small crosses. In February 2023, 16 individual tombs and 6 funerary complex from the Persian, Roman and Coptic periods and 2 deposited frogs were discovered by the Egyptian-Spanish archaeological mission. Majority of

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4026-905: Is a famous place known as the Dome of Seven Maidens. Among the most notable tombs were allegedly belong to the Muslim martyrs were the tombs of the children of Aqil bin Ali bin Abi Talib (brother of Ali , fourth Rashidun Caliph ), Ziyad bin Abi Sufyan bin Abdul Muttalib (son of Abu Sufyan ibn Harb ), Aban ibn Uthman bin Affan , Muhammad ibn Abi Abd al-Rahman bin Abi Bakr al-Siddiq (grandson of Abu Bakar ), and Hassan al-Salih ibn Zayn al-Abidin bin al-Hussein (great-grandson of Ali). Ibn Taghribirdi ,

4209-471: Is a major destination for Shia pilgrimage. The legacy of Ali is collected and studied in numerous books, the most famous of which is Nahj al-balagha . Ali was born in Mecca to Abu Talib ibn Abd al-Muttalib and his wife Fatima bint Asad around 600 CE . His date of birth is possibly 13 Rajab , which is the occasion celebrated annually by Shia Muslims . Ali may have been the only person born inside

4392-499: Is a non-extant collection of prophetic sayings gathered by Ali. The book may have concerned matters of lawfulness ( halal ) and unlawfulness ( haram ), including a detailed penal code. Kitab Ali is also often linked to al-Jafr , which is said to contain the esoteric teachings of Muhammad for his household. Copies of Kitab Ali were likely available until the early eighth century, and parts of it have survived in later Shia and Sunni works. The Du'a' Kumayl

4575-515: Is a popular Shia supplication attributed to Ali, transmitted by his companion, Kumayl ibn Ziyad . Also attributed to Ali is Kitab al-Diyat on Islamic law, fully quoted in the Shia hadith collection Man la yahduruhu al-faqih . The judicial decisions and executive orders of Ali during his caliphate have also been recorded. Other extant works attributed to Ali are collected in Kitab al-Kafi and other Shia sources. The standard recitation of

4758-465: Is an archaeological site located in alluvial deposits formed by an ancient channel of the Nile in the Affad region of southern Dongola Reach , Sudan. There are two theories about the age of the integrated Nile. One is that the integrated drainage of the Nile is of young age and that the Nile basin was formerly broken into series of separate basins, only the most northerly of which fed a river following

4941-520: Is an on-line table of contents briefly listing the type of contents of each papyrus or fragment. Since the 1930s, work on the papyri has continued. For many years it was under the supervision of Professor Peter Parsons of Oxford . Eighty large volumes of the Oxyrhynchus Papyri have been published. Since the days of Grenfell and Hunt, the focus of attention at Oxyrhynchus has shifted. Modern archaeologists are interested in learning about

5124-642: Is approximately 1,218 m /s (43,000 cu ft/s) in October and minimum flow is about 609 m /s (21,500 cu ft/s) in April. This fluctuation is caused by the substantial variation in the flow of the Sobat, which has a minimum flow of about 99 m /s (3,500 cu ft/s) in March and a peak flow of over 680 m /s (24,000 cu ft/s) in October. During the dry season (January to June)

5307-467: Is evidence in their early sources that a mob entered Fatima's house by force and arrested Ali, an incident that Abu Bakr regretted on his deathbed. Likely a political move to weaken the Banu Hashim, Abu Bakr had earlier confiscated from Fatima the rich lands of Fadak, which she considered her inheritance (or a gift) from her father. The confiscation of Fadak is often justified in Sunni sources with

5490-432: Is his mawla ." Musnad Ibn Hanbal , a canonical Sunni source, adds that Muhammad repeated this statement three or four more times and that Umar congratulated Ali after the sermon, "You have now become the mawla of every faithful man and woman." Muhammad had earlier alerted Muslims about his impending death. Shia sources describe the event in greater detail, linking the announcement to verses 5:3 and 5:67 of

5673-755: Is in Egypt. Below the Aswan Dam , at the northern limit of Lake Nasser, the Nile resumes its historic course. North of Cairo , the Nile splits into two branches (or distributaries) that feed the Mediterranean: the Rosetta Branch to the west and the Damietta to the east, forming the Nile Delta . The annual sediment transport by the Nile in Egypt has been quantified. Below the confluence with

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5856-437: Is no evidence that he coordinated with them. Ali also rejected the requests to lead the rebels, although he probably sympathized with their grievances. He was therefore considered a natural focus for the opposition, at least morally. As their grievances mounted, provincial dissidents poured into Medina in 656. The Egyptian opposition sought the advice of Ali, who urged them to negotiate with Uthman. Ali similarly asked

6039-541: Is often justified on the basis that he led some of the prayers in Muhammad's final days, but the veracity and political significance of such reports have been questioned. While the appointment of Abu Bakr was met with little resistance in Medina, the Banu Hashim and some companions of Muhammad soon gathered in protest at Ali's house. Among them were Zubayr and Muhammad's uncle Abbas . These protestors held Ali to be

6222-467: Is that Muhammad had already designated Ali as his successor. When tipped off about an assassination plot in 622, Muhammad escaped to Yathrib, now known as Medina , but Ali stayed behind as his decoy. That Ali risked his life for Muhammad is said to be the reason for the revelation of the Quranic passage, "But there is also a kind of man who gives his life away to please God." This emigration marks

6405-572: Is the largest of any of the Nile's sub-basins, measuring 520,000 square kilometers (200,000 sq mi) in size, but it contributes a relatively small amount of water, about 2 m /s (71 cu ft/s) annually, because tremendous volumes of water are lost in the Sudd wetlands. The Sobat River, which joins the Nile a short distance below Lake No, drains about half as much land, 225,000 km (86,900 sq mi), but contributes 412 cubic meters per second (14,500 cu ft/s) annually to

6588-545: Is traditionally considered to be the headwaters stream. However, the Blue Nile is the source of most of the water of the Nile downstream, containing 80% of the water and silt . The White Nile is longer and rises in the Great Lakes region. It begins at Lake Victoria and flows through Uganda and South Sudan. The Blue Nile begins at Lake Tana in Ethiopia and flows into Sudan from the southeast. The two rivers meet at

6771-635: The qurra , were likely disillusioned with the arbitration process. Their slogan was, "No judgment but that of God," highlighting their rejection of arbitration (by men) in reference to the Quranic verse 49:9. Ali called this slogan a word of truth by which the seceders sought falsehood because he viewed the ruler as indispensable in the conduct of religion. The two arbitrators met together in Dumat al-Jandal , perhaps in February 658. There they reached

6954-788: The Abbasids , who toppled the Umayyads in 750. Some of the Alids thus revolted, while some established regional dynasties in remote areas. In particular, through imprisonment or surveillance, the Abbasids removed the imams of the Imamites from public life, and they are thought to be responsible for the imams' deaths. Mainstream Imamites were the antecedents of the Twelvers , who believe that their twelfth and final imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi ,

7137-644: The Democratic Republic of the Congo , Tanzania , Burundi , Rwanda , Uganda , Kenya , Ethiopia , Eritrea , South Sudan , Sudan , and Egypt . In particular, the Nile is the primary water source of Egypt, Sudan and South Sudan. The Nile is an important economic driver supporting agriculture and fishing. The Nile has two major tributaries : the White Nile and the Blue Nile . The White Nile

7320-502: The Euphrates River , numbering perhaps at 100,000 and 130,000, respectively. Many of Muhammad's companions were present in Ali's army, whereas Mu'awiya could only boast a handful. The two sides negotiated for a while, to no avail, after which the main battle took place from Wednesday, 26 July 657, until Friday or Saturday morning. Ali probably refrained from initiating hostilities, and later fought alongside his men on

7503-523: The Expedition of Tabuk in 630, during which Ali was left behind in charge of Medina. The hadith of the position is linked to this occasion, "Are you not content, Ali, to stand to me as Aaron stood to Moses , except that there will be no prophet after me?" This statement appears in the canonical Sunni sources Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim , among others. For the Shia, this hadith signifies Ali's usurped right to succeed Muhammad. In

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7686-532: The Iraqi opposition to refrain from violence, which they heeded. He also repeatedly mediated between Uthman and the dissidents, to address their economical and political grievances. In particular, Ali negotiated and guaranteed the agreement that ended the first siege. He then convinced Uthman to publicly repent, but the caliph soon retracted his statement, possibly pressed by his secretary Marwan ibn al-Hakam . Egyptian rebels laid siege to Uthman's residence for

7869-566: The Ka'ba , the holiest site of Islam , which is located in Mecca. Ali's father was a leading member of the Banu Hashim , a clan within the Meccan tribe of Quraysh . Abu Talib also raised his nephew Muhammad after his parents died. Later, when Abu Talib fell into poverty, Ali was taken in at the age of about five and raised by Muhammad and his wife Khadija . Aged about eleven, Ali was among

8052-651: The Paleogene and Neogene Periods (66 million to 2.588 million years ago) a series of separate closed continental basins each occupied one of the major parts of the Sudanese Rift System: Mellut rift , White Nile rift , Blue Nile rift , Atbara rift and Sag El Naam rift . The Mellut Basin is nearly 12 kilometers (7.5 mi) deep at its central part. This rift is possibly still active, with reported tectonic activity in its northern and southern boundaries. The Sudd swamp which forms

8235-787: The River Nile or Nile River ) is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa . It flows into the Mediterranean Sea . The Nile is the longest river in Africa. It has historically been considered the longest river in the world , though this has been contested by research suggesting that the Amazon River is slightly longer. Of the world's major rivers, the Nile is one of the smallest, as measured by annual flow in cubic metres of water. About 6,650 km (4,130 mi) long, its drainage basin covers eleven countries:

8418-456: The discharge at any given point along the main stem depends on many factors including weather, diversions, evaporation and evapotranspiration , and groundwater flow. Upstream from Khartoum (to the south), the river is known as the White Nile , a term also used in a limited sense to describe the section between Lake No and Khartoum. At Khartoum, the river is joined by the Blue Nile . The White Nile starts in equatorial East Africa, and

8601-430: The dry season ) an appreciable incoming surface flow for many kilometres upstream, and found a new source, giving the Nile a length of 6,758 km (4,199 mi). The White Nile leaves Lake Victoria at Ripon Falls near Jinja, Uganda , as the "Victoria Nile." It flows north for some 130 kilometers (81 mi) to Lake Kyoga . The last part of the approximately 200 kilometers (120 mi) river section starts from

8784-524: The Abbasids, that is, the descendants of Muhammad's uncle Abbas. On the other hand, the Imamites were led by quiescent descendants of Husayn, through his only surviving son, Ali Zayn al-Abidin ( d.  713 ). An exception was Ali's son Zayd , who led a failed uprising against the Umayyads around 740. For his followers, known as the Zaydites , any learned Hasanid or Husaynid who rose against tyranny qualified as imam. Alids were also persecuted under

8967-502: The Bahr al Jabal at a small lagoon called Lake No , after which the Nile becomes known as the Bahr al Abyad , or the White Nile, from the whitish clay suspended in its waters. When the Nile floods it leaves a rich silty deposit which fertilizes the soil. The Nile no longer floods in Egypt since the completion of the Aswan Dam in 1970. An anabranch river, the Bahr el Zeraf , flows out of

9150-564: The Battle of Khaybar has been attributed to his courage, where he is said to have torn off the iron gate of the enemy fort. Ali also defeated the pagan champion Amr ibn Abd Wudd in the Battle of the Trench in 627. According to al-Tabari, Muhammad reported hearing a divine voice at Uhud, "[There is] no sword but Zulfiqar [Ali's sword], [there is] no chivalrous youth ( fata ) but Ali." Ali and another companion, Zubayr , apparently oversaw

9333-400: The Battle of Nahrawan, Ali could not muster enough support for a second Syria campaign. Perhaps his soldiers were demoralized, or perhaps they were recalled by their tribal leaders, many of whom had been bribed and swayed by Mu'awiya. By contrast, Ali did not grant any financial favors to tribal chiefs as a matter of principle. At any rate, the secession of so many of the qurra and

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9516-470: The Battle of Nahrawan. Ali died from his wounds about two days later, aged sixty-two or sixty-three. By some accounts, he had long known about his fate by premonition or through Muhammad. Before his death, Ali requested either a meticulous application of lex talionis to Ibn Muljam or his pardon. At any rate, Ibn Muljam was later executed by Hasan, the eldest son of Ali. Fearing that his body might be exhumed and profaned by his enemies, Ali's burial place

9699-652: The Blue Nile begins in Ethiopia. Both branches are on the western flanks of the East African Rift . The source of the Blue Nile is Lake Tana in the Gish Abay region in the Ethiopian Highlands . The source of the White Nile, even after centuries of exploration, remains in dispute. The most remote source that is indisputably a source for the White Nile is the Kagera River ; however,

9882-569: The Blue Nile the only major tributary is the Atbarah River , also known as the Red Nile. Roughly halfway to the sea, it originates in Ethiopia north of Lake Tana , and is around 800 kilometers (500 mi) long. The Atbarah flows only while there is rain in Ethiopia and dries very rapidly. During the dry period of January to June, it typically dries up north of Khartoum . The Blue Nile ( Amharic : ዓባይ , ʿĀbay ) springs from Lake Tana in

10065-419: The Congo, but the Nile is not a border river at this point. After leaving Lake Albert, the river continues north through Uganda and is known as the Albert Nile . The White Nile flows into South Sudan just south of Nimule , where it is known as the Bahr al Jabal ("Mountain River" ). Just south of the town is the confluence with the Achwa River . The Bahr al Ghazal , 716 kilometers (445 mi) long, joins

10248-431: The Delta, and would have been pronounced ni-lo-he in the area around Memphis in the 8th century BCE. Hesiod at his Theogony refers to Nilus (Νεῖλος) as one of the Potamoi (river gods), son of Oceanus and Tethys . Another derivation of Nile might be related to the term Nil ( Sanskrit : नील , romanized :  nila ; Egyptian Arabic : نيلة ), which refers to Indigofera tinctoria , one of

10431-414: The Ethiopian rainy season when rainfall is especially high in the Ethiopian Highlands ; the rest of the year, the great rivers draining Ethiopia into the Nile have a weaker flow. In harsh and arid seasons and droughts, the Blue Nile dries out completely. The flow of the Blue Nile varies considerably over its yearly cycle and is the main contribution to the large natural variation of the Nile flow. During

10614-444: The Ethiopian Highlands, satellite imagery was used to identify dry watercourses in the desert to the west of the Nile. A canyon, now filled by surface drift, represents the Eonile that flowed during 23–5.3 million years before present. The Eonile transported clastic sediments to the Mediterranean; several natural gas fields have been discovered within these sediments. During the late- Miocene Messinian salinity crisis , when

10797-436: The Ethiopian Highlands. The Blue Nile flows about 1,400 kilometres to Khartoum, where the Blue Nile and White Nile join to form the Nile. Ninety percent of the water and ninety-six percent of the transported sediment carried by the Nile come from the Atbarah and Blue Nile, both of which originate in Ethiopia, with fifty-nine percent of the water coming from the Blue Nile. The erosion and transportation of silt only occurs during

10980-432: The Ghadir Khumm as the investiture of Ali with Muhammad's religious and political authority, while Sunnis regard it as a statement about the rapport between the two men, or that Ali should execute Muhammad's will. Shias point to the extraordinary nature of the announcement, give Quranic and textual evidence, and argue to eliminate other meanings of mawla in the hadith except for authority, while Sunnis minimize

11163-412: The Kagera has tributaries that are in contention for the farthest source of the White Nile. Two start in Burundi: the Ruvyironza River (also known as the Luvironza) and the Rurubu River . In addition, in 2010, an exploration party in Rwanda went to a place described as the source of the Rukarara tributary, and by hacking a path up steep jungle-choked mountain slopes in the Nyungwe Forest found (in

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11346-408: The Kharijites then attacked and were crushed by Ali's army of about 14,000 men. The battle took place either on 17 July 658, or in 657. Ali has been criticized by some for killing his erstwhile allies, many of whom were outwardly pious Muslims. For others, subduing the Kharijites was necessary, for they were violent and radicalized rebels who posed a danger to Ali's base in Kufa. Following

11529-414: The Mediterranean Sea was a closed basin and evaporated to the point of being empty or nearly so, the Nile cut its course down to the new base level until it was several hundred metres below world ocean level at Aswan and 2,400 m (7,900 ft) below Cairo. This created a very long and deep canyon which was filled with sediment after the Mediterranean was recreated. At some point the sediments raised

11712-464: The Middle East and Africa, and described being told of the source of the Nile in Abyssinia (Ethiopia). Later in the 15th and 16th centuries, travelers to Ethiopia visited Lake Tana and the source of the Blue Nile in the mountains south of the lake. Supposedly, Paolo Trevisani ( c.  1452 –1483), a Venetian traveller in Ethiopia, wrote a journal of his travels to the origin of the Nile that has since been lost. Although James Bruce claimed to be

11895-450: The Muslim armies under ' Amr ibn al-As and now venerated for their effort in the conquest of the city. As the town of al-Bahnasa now contained thousands of historical structures in memoir of the conquests, including the 5,000 graves of companions of the prophet and Tabi'un martyrs of the battle of Bahnasa, the town are regarded by locals as " al-Baqi ' of Egypt", which became the point of interest for many foreign tourists particularly from

12078-427: The Muslim armies under Khalid ibn al-Walid entered Bahnasa in 639, besieging the town for months before they can subdue the 50,000 Byzantine and Beja Sudanese garrison defenders. Before it was renamed as "al-Bahnasa", Oxyrynchus were renamed as "Al-Qays town", by Maqrizi or "town of martyrs" in honor to one of the Muslim commander that participated in the conquest of Oxyrynchus. Ali Pasha Mubarak mentioned it in

12261-432: The Muslim civil war, Ali forbade his soldiers from looting, and instead paid them from tax revenues. He also pardoned his enemies in victory. Both of these practices were later enshrined in Islamic law . Ali also advised his commander al-Ashtar not to reject any calls to peace, not to violate any agreements, and ordered him not to commence hostilities. Ali similarly barred his troops from disturbing civilians, killing

12444-537: The Muslim community but also as its exclusive religious authority. He thus laid claim to the religious authority to interpret the Quran and Sunna . Some supporters of Ali indeed held him as their divinely-guided leader who deserved the same type of loyalty that Muhammad did. They felt an absolute and all-encompassing bond of spiritual loyalty ( walaya ) to Ali that transcended politics. For instance, many of them publicly offered Ali their unconditional support circa 658. They justified their absolute loyalty to Ali on

12627-506: The Muslim majority country. In 1882, Egypt, while still nominally part of the Ottoman Empire , came under effective British rule, and British archaeologists began the systematic exploration of the country. Because Oxyrhynchus was not considered an Ancient Egyptian site of any importance, it was neglected until 1896, when two young excavators, Bernard Pyne Grenfell and Arthur Surridge Hunt , both fellows of The Queen's College, Oxford , began to excavate it. "My first impressions on examining

12810-407: The Nile near the southern point of the Great Bend. The Nile has been the lifeline of civilization in Egypt since the Stone Age , with most of the population and all of the cities of Egypt developing along those parts of the Nile valley lying north of Aswan. However, the Nile used to run much more westerly through what is now Wadi Hamim and Wadi al Maqar in Libya and flow into the Gulf of Sidra . As

12993-411: The Nile since ancient times. A tune, Hymn to the Nile , was created and sung by the ancient Egyptian peoples about the flooding of the Nile River and all of the miracles it brought to Ancient Egyptian civilization. Water buffalo were introduced from Asia, and the Assyrians introduced camels in the 7th century BCE. These animals were raised for meat and were domesticated and used for ploughing—or in

13176-454: The Nile valley north of the Aswan Dam . Nearly all the cultural and historical sites of Ancient Egypt developed and are found along river banks. The Nile is, with the Rhône and Po , one of the three Mediterranean rivers with the largest water discharge . The standard English names "White Nile" and "Blue Nile" refer to the river's source, derived from Arabic names formerly applied to only

13359-523: The Nile's Bahr al Jabal section and rejoins the White Nile. The flow rate of the Bahr al Jabal at Mongalla is almost constant throughout the year and averages 1,048 m /s (37,000 cu ft/s). After Mongalla, the Bahr Al Jabal enters the enormous swamps of the Sudd region. More than half of the Nile's water is lost in this swamp to evaporation and transpiration . The average flow rate of

13542-595: The Nile. When in flood the Sobat carries a large amount of sediment, adding greatly to the White Nile's color. The Yellow Nile is a former tributary that connected the Ouaddaï highlands of eastern Chad to the Nile River Valley c.  8000 to c.  1000 BCE . Its remains are known as the Wadi Howar . The wadi passes through Gharb Darfur near the northern border with Chad and meets up with

13725-415: The Quran has been traced back to Ali, and his written legacy is dotted with Quranic commentaries. Ibn Abbas , a leading early exegete, credited Ali with his interpretations of the Quran. Ali also related several hundred prophetic hadiths. He is further credited with the first systematic evaluations of hadiths, and is often considered a founding figure for hadith sciences. Ali is also regarded by some as

13908-450: The Quran on their lances, shouting, "Let the Book of God be the judge between us." Since Mu'awiya had for long insisted on battle, this call for arbitration suggests that he now feared defeat. By contrast, Ali exhorted his men to fight, telling them that raising Qurans was for deception, but to no avail. Through their representatives, the qurra and the ridda tribesmen of Kufa,

14091-420: The Quran, "They wish that thou might compromise and that they might compromise." Some instead suggest that Ali's decisions were actually justified on a practical level. For instance, the removal of unpopular governors was perhaps the only option available to Ali because injustice was the main grievance of the rebels. As evident from his public speeches, Ali viewed himself not only as the temporal leader of

14274-545: The Quran. The authenticity of the Ghadir Khumm is rarely contested, as its "among the most extensively acknowledged and substantiated" reports in classical Islamic sources. However, mawla is a polysemous Arabic word and its interpretation in the context of the Ghadir Khumm is split along sectarian lines. Shia sources interpret mawla as 'leader', 'master', and 'patron', while Sunni sources interpret it as love or support for Ali. Shias, therefore, view

14457-427: The Quraysh similarly turned against Ali, who even withheld public funds from his relatives, whereas his archenemy Mu'awiya readily offered bribes. Ali instructed his officials to collect tax payments on a voluntary basis and without harassment, and to prioritize the poor when distributing public funds. A letter attributed to Ali directs his governor to pay more attention to land development than taxation. During

14640-423: The Quraysh, two camps opposed Ali: the Umayyads, who believed that the caliphate was their right after Uthman, and those who wished to restore the caliphate of Quraysh on the same principles laid by Abu Bakr and Umar. This second group was likely the majority within the Quraysh. Ali was indeed vocal about the divine prerogative of Muhammad's kin to leadership, which would have jeopardized the political ambitions of

14823-600: The Sudanese capital of Khartoum . The northern section of the river flows north almost entirely through the Nubian Desert to Cairo and its large delta , and the river flows into the Mediterranean Sea at Alexandria . Egyptian civilization and Sudanese kingdoms have depended on the river and its annual flooding since ancient times. Most of the population and cities of Egypt lie along those parts of

15006-425: The Sudanese stretches that meet at Khartoum . In the ancient Egyptian language , the Nile is called Ḥꜥpy (Hapy) or Jtrw (Iteru), meaning "river". In Coptic , the word ⲫⲓⲁⲣⲟ , pronounced piaro ( Sahidic ) or phiaro ( Bohairic ), means "the river" (lit. p(h).iar-o "the.canal-great"), and comes from the same ancient name. In Nobiin , the river is called Áman Dawū , meaning "the great water". In Luganda ,

15189-554: The Sudd wetlands of South Sudan, the upper reaches of the White Nile remained largely unknown to the ancient Greeks and Romans. Vitruvius thought that source of the Nile was in Mauritania, on the "other" (south) side of the Atlas Mountains . Various expeditions failed to determine the river's source. Agatharchides records that in the time of Ptolemy II Philadelphus , a military expedition had penetrated far enough along

15372-408: The White Nile at the tails of the swamps is about 510 m /s (18,000 cu ft/s). From here it meets with the Sobat River at Malakal . On an annual basis, the White Nile upstream of Malakal contributes about 15% of the total outflow of the Nile. The average flow of the White Nile at Lake Kawaki Malakal, just below the Sobat River, is 924 m /s (32,600 cu ft/s); the peak flow

15555-512: The White Nile contributes between 70% and 90% of the total discharge from the Nile. Below Renk , the White Nile enters Sudan, it flows north to Khartoum and meets the Blue Nile. The course of the Nile in Sudan is distinctive. It flows over six groups of cataracts , from the sixth at Sabaloka just north of Khartoum northward to Abu Hamad . The tectonic uplift of the Nubian Swell diverts

15738-403: The absence of Muhammad, Ali commanded the expedition to Fadak in 628. Ali was renowned for his bravery on the battlefield, and for his magnanimity towards his defeated enemies. He was the standard-bearer in the Battle of Badr (624) and the Battle of Khaybar (628). He vigorously defended Muhammad in the Battle of Uhud (625) and the Battle of Hunayn (630), and Muslims' victory in

15921-606: The afterlife. The east was thought of as a place of birth and growth, and the west was considered the place of death, as the god Ra , the Sun, underwent birth, death, and resurrection each day as he crossed the sky. Thus, all tombs were west of the Nile, because the Egyptians believed that in order to enter the afterlife, they had to be buried on the side that symbolized death. As the Nile was such an important factor in Egyptian life,

16104-450: The agreement strengthened Mu'awiya's position, who was now an equal contender for the caliphate. Some of Ali's men left him in protest to the arbitration agreement. Many of them eventually rejoined Ali, while the rest gathered in the town of al-Nahrawan . They became known as the Kharijites ( lit.   ' seceders ' ), who later took up arms against Ali in the Battle of Nahrawan . The Kharijites, many of whom belonged to

16287-482: The ancient calendar was even based on the three cycles of the Nile. These seasons, each consisting of four months of thirty days each, were called Akhet , Peret , and Shemu . Akhet, which means inundation, was the time of the year when the Nile flooded, leaving several layers of fertile soil behind, aiding in agricultural growth. Peret was the growing season, and Shemu, the last season, was the harvest season when there were no rains. Owing to their failure to penetrate

16470-646: The antecedents of the Isma'ilites , who found political success at the turn of the tenth century, as the Fatimid Caliphate in Egypt and the Qarmatians in Bahrain . Most of the works attributed to Ali were first delivered as speeches and later committed to writing by others. There are also supplications, such as Du'a Kumayl , which he may have taught others. Nahj al-balagha ( lit.   '

16653-520: The archetype of uncorrupted Islam and pre-Islamic chivalry. Sunni Muslims regard him as the last of the rashidun ( lit.   ' rightly-guided ' ) caliphs, while Shia Muslims venerate him as their first imam , that is, the rightful religious and political successor to Muhammad. Ali's place is said to be second only to Muhammad in Shia Muslim culture . The shrine of Ali in Najaf , Iraq,

16836-479: The basis of his merits, precedent in Islam, his kinship with Muhammad, and also the announcement by the latter at the Ghadir Khumm. Many of these supporters also viewed Ali as the rightful successor to Muhammad after his death, as evidenced in the poetry from that period, for instance. Ali opposed centralized control over provincial revenues. He equally distributed excess taxes and booty among Muslims, following

17019-684: The beginning of the Islamic calendar (AH). Ali too escaped Mecca after returning the goods entrusted to Muhammad there. Later in Medina, Muhammad selected Ali as his brother when he paired Muslims for fraternity pacts . Around 623–625, Muhammad gave his daughter Fatima to Ali in marriage, aged about twenty-two at the time. Muhammad had earlier turned down marriage proposals for Fatima by some of his companions , notably, Abu Bakr and Umar . A Christian envoy from Najran , located in South Arabia , arrived in Medina circa 632 and negotiated

17202-566: The bodies preserved with decorated shrouds were revealed alongside the pottery vessels and lamps. The Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities expressed their interest in a project to restore the tombs of the Al-Bahnasa, an ancient city, in which many papyri dating back to the Greco-Roman era were found, as well as a number of tombs for the companions of Muhammad. In 2021, Egypt's head of Islamic, Coptic, Jewish antiquities sector followed up on

17385-400: The caliphate of Ali in return for Syria and Egypt, which Ali rejected. Mu'awiya then formally declared war, charging Ali with regicide, demanding his removal, and a Syrian council thereafter to elect the next caliph. Contemporary authors tend to view Mu'awiya's call for revenge as a pretext for a power grab. In the summer of 657, the armies of Ali and Mu'awiya camped at Siffin, west of

17568-399: The caliphate, also gave their pledges to Ali, most likely willingly, but later broke their oaths. Ali probably did not force anyone to pledge, and there is little evidence of any violence, even though many broke with Ali later, claiming that they had pledged under duress. At the same time, the supporters, who were in majority in Medina, might have intimidated others. Ali thus filled

17751-411: The caliphate, and raided the border of Barqa . Today, there are many structures in Al-Bahnasa erected in honor of various Muslim conquerors who are regarded as heroes by the locals. For example, the mosque of Hasan al-Salah was built in honor of a man (the great-grandson of Ali ) who participated in the conquest of Al-Bahnasa. It is the only mosque in Egypt that has two mihrabs . Other examples include

17934-411: The camels' case, carriage. Water was vital to both people and livestock. The Nile was also a convenient and efficient means of transportation for people and goods. The Nile was also an important part of ancient Egyptian spiritual life. Hapi was the god of the annual floods, and both he and the pharaoh were thought to control the flooding. The Nile was considered to be a causeway from life to death and

18117-707: The canonical Sunni source Sunan al-Nasa'i . Ali also helped ensure that the Conquest of Mecca in 630 was bloodless and later destroyed the idols housed in Ka'ba. In 631, Ali was sent to preach Islam in Yemen , as a consequence of which the Hamdanids peacefully converted. Ali also peacefully resolved a blood feud between Muslims and the Banu Jadhima . Ali accompanied Muhammad in all of his military missions except

18300-479: The central part of the basin may still be subsiding. The White Nile Rift system, although shallower than the Bahr el Arab rift , is about 9 kilometers (5.6 mi) deep. Geophysical exploration of the Blue Nile Rift System estimated the depth of the sediments to be 5–9 kilometers (3.1–5.6 mi). These basins were not interconnected until their subsidence ceased, and the rate of sediment deposition

18483-521: The city as " Al-Baqi' of Egypt", as the city was known for having 5,000 Sahaba buried in it. The large number of fallen Muslim soldiers buried in this city was due to major battles against the Roman army and their fortifications in this area. Various early Islamic chroniclers, such as Al-Waqidi in his F̣utūh al-Bahnasā , and Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Mu"izz in The Conquest of Bahnasa , reported that

18666-621: The city. Oxyrhynchus remained a prominent, though gradually declining, town in the Roman and Byzantine periods. During the Diaspora Revolt of 115–117 CE, fighting spread to the nome of Oxyrhynchus. This uprising ultimately led to the near-total expulsion and annihilation of Jews from Egypt, with papyrological evidence of a festival commemorating this victory still observed in Oxyrhynchus eighty years later. Jewish communities in

18849-594: The city. Among the Egyptians, Talha enjoyed some support, but the Iraqis and most of the Ansar supported Ali. The majority of the Muhajirun, and key tribal figures also favored Ali at this time. The caliphate was offered by these groups to Ali, who, after some hesitation, publicly took the oath of office. Malik al-Ashtar might have been the first to pledge his allegiance to Ali. Talha and Zubayr, who both aspired to

19032-620: The combination of prophethood and caliphate in the Banu Hashim, and he thus prevented Muhammad from dictating his will on his deathbed, possibly fearing that he might expressly designate Ali as his successor. Nevertheless, perhaps realizing the necessity of Ali's cooperation in his collaborative scheme of governance, Umar made some limited overtures to Ali and the Banu Hashim during his caliphate. For instance, Umar returned Muhammad's estates in Medina to Ali, but kept Fadak and Khayber. By some accounts, Umar also insisted on marrying Ali's daughter Umm Kulthum , to which Ali reluctantly agreed when

19215-475: The compromise plans that it was a city that had great fame and its flat was about 1000 acres and the golden curtains were working and the length of the curtains was 30 cubits and its territory included 120 villages other than the plantations and the hamlets. The northern is Kandous, the western is the mountain, the tribal is Touma, and the eastern is the sea. Each gate had three towers, and there were forty ribats, palaces, and many mosques, and at its western end there

19398-686: The conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great in 332 BC, the city was reestablished as a Hellenistic town called Oxyrrhynchoupolis ( Koinē Greek : Ὀξυρρύγχου Πόλις , romanized:  town of the sharp-snouted fish ). In the Hellenistic period , Oxyrhynchus was a prosperous regional capital, the third-largest city in Egypt . After Egypt was Christianized , it became famous for its many churches and monasteries . Saints Sirenos, Philoxenos and Ioustos were venerated and had shrines dedicated to them in

19581-527: The continuation of prophetic teachings. Ali is known by many honorifics in the Islamic tradition, some of which are especially used by Shias. His main kunya (teknonym) was ʾAbū al-Ḥasan ("father of al-Hasan"). His titles include al-Murtaḍā ( lit.   ' one with whom [God] is pleased ' or ' one who is chosen and contented ' ), Asad Allāh ( lit.   ' lion of God ' ), Ḥaydar ( lit.   ' lion ' ,

19764-551: The coolness of the tribal leaders weakened Ali. Ali consequently lost Egypt to Mu'awiya in 658. Mu'awiya also began dispatching military detachments, which targeted civilians along the Euphrates river, near Kufa, and most successfully, in the Hejaz and Yemen. Ali could not mount a timely response to these assaults. He eventually found sufficient support for a second Syria offensive, set to commence in late winter 661. His success

19947-534: The course of the Blue Nile to determine that the summer floods were caused by heavy seasonal rainstorms in the Ethiopian Highlands, but no European of antiquity is known to have reached Lake Tana. The Tabula Rogeriana depicted the source as three lakes in 1154. Europeans began to learn about the origins of the Nile in the 14th century when the Pope sent monks as emissaries to Mongolia who passed India,

20130-411: The deadly attack, and his son Hasan was injured while guarding Uthman's besieged residence at the request of Ali. He also convinced the rebels to deliver water to Uthman's house during the siege. When Uthman was assassinated in 656 by Egyptian rebels, the potential candidates for caliphate were Ali and Talha. The Umayyads had fled Medina, leaving the provincial rebels and the Ansar in control of

20313-536: The designated successor of Muhammad. Unlike Muhammad's lifetime, Ali retired from public life during the caliphates of Abu Bakr and his successors, Umar and Uthman . Ali did not participate in the Ridda wars and the early Muslim conquests , though he remained an advisor to Abu Bakr and Umar on government and religious matters., However, their conflicts with Ali is also well-documented, but largely ignored in Sunni sources. These tensions were epitomized during

20496-492: The development of Egyptian civilization. Because the river overflowed its banks annually and deposited new layers of silt, the surrounding land was very fertile. The Ancient Egyptians cultivated and traded wheat, flax , papyrus and other crops around the Nile. Wheat was a crucial crop in the famine-plagued Middle East. This trading system secured Egypt's diplomatic relationships with other countries and contributed to economic stability. Far-reaching trade has been carried on along

20679-402: The dry season the natural discharge of the Blue Nile can be as low as 113 m /s (4,000 cu ft/s), although upstream dams regulate the flow of the river. During the wet season, the peak flow of the Blue Nile often exceeds 5,663 m /s (200,000 cu ft/s) in late August (a difference of a factor of 50). Before the placement of dams on the river the yearly discharge varied by

20862-466: The emperor. During the era of Rashidun Caliphate , the town of Oxyrhinchus was invaded and conquered by Rashidun army under the leadership of Khalid ibn al-Walid . At first, the Rashidun sent emissary of Al-Mughira to negotiate with the garrison commander of the city named Batlus, however, as the negotiation ended badly, the Rashidun forces then sent their troops to attack Bahnasa. At that point,

21045-410: The etymology is disputed. Homer called the river Αἴγυπτος , Aiguptos , but in subsequent periods, Greek authors referred to its lower course as Neilos ; this term became generalized for the entire river system. Thus, the name may derive from Ancient Egyptian expression n ꜣ r ꜣ w-ḥ ꜣ w(t) (lit. 'the mouths of the front parts'), which referred specifically to the branches of the Nile transversing

21228-508: The first European to have visited the headwaters, modern writers give the credit to the Jesuit Pedro Páez . Páez's account of the source of the Nile is a long and vivid account of Ethiopia. It was published in full only in the early 20th century, although it was featured in works of Páez's contemporaries, including Baltazar Téllez, Athanasius Kircher and Johann Michael Vansleb . Europeans had been resident in Ethiopia since

21411-406: The first to accept Muhammad's teachings and profess Islam. Ali did so either after Khadija or after Khadija and Muhammad's successor, Abu Bakr . While, the precise order here is debated among Shia and Sunni scholars, the earliest sources place Ali before Abu Bakr. Muhammad's call to Islam in Mecca lasted from 610 to 622, during which Ali assiduously supported the small Muslim community, especially

21594-534: The first two caliphs are epitomized by his refusal to follow their practices. This refusal cost Ali the caliphate to the benefit of Uthman ( r.  644–656 ), who was thus appointed to succeed Umar by the electoral council. Ali was also highly critical of Uthman, who was widely accused of nepotism and corruption. Yet Ali also repeatedly mediated between the caliph and the provincial dissidents angered by his policies. Following Uthman's assassination in June 656, Ali

21777-477: The former enlisted public support for his demand. Before his death in 644, Umar tasked a small committee with choosing the next caliph among themselves. Ali and Uthman were the strongest candidates in this committee, whose members were all early companions of Muhammad from the Quraysh tribe. Another member, Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf , was given the deciding vote either by the committee or by Umar. After deliberations, Ibn Awf appointed his brother-in-law Uthman as

21960-522: The founder of Islamic theology , and his sayings contain the first rational proofs of the unity of God ( tawhid ) in Islam. In later Islamic philosophy , Ali's sayings and sermons were mined for metaphysical knowledge. In particular, Nahj al-balagha is a vital source for Shia philosophical doctrines, after the Quran and Sunna. As a Shia imam, statements and practices attributed to Ali are widely studied in Shia Islam, where they are viewed as

22143-425: The frontline, whereas Mu'awiya led from his pavilion, and rejected a proposal to settle the matters in a personal duel with Ali. Among those killed fighting for Ali was Ammar. In canonical Sunni sources, a prophetic hadith predicts Ammar's death at the hands of al-fi'a al-baghiya ( lit.   ' rebellious aggressive group ' ) who call to hellfire. Fighting stopped when some Syrians raised pages of

22326-459: The great lakes. Believing he had found the source of the Nile on seeing this "vast expanse of open water" for the first time, Speke named the lake after Queen Victoria . Burton, recovering from illness and resting further south on the shores of Lake Tanganyika , was outraged that Speke claimed to have proven his discovery to be the true source of the Nile when Burton regarded this as still unsettled. A quarrel ensued which sparked intense debate within

22509-412: The illegible papyrus are taken using different filters, finely tuned to capture certain wavelengths of light. Thus, researchers can find the optimum spectral portion for distinguishing ink from paper in order to display otherwise completely illegible papyri. The amount of text potentially to be deciphered by this technique is huge. A selection of the images obtained during the project and more information on

22692-488: The importance of the Quran and his ahl al-bayt ( lit.   ' people of the house ' , his family). Taking Ali by the hand, Muhammad then asked if he was not awla ( lit.   ' have more authority over ' or ' closer to ' ) the believers than themselves, this is evidently a reference to verse 33:6 of the Quran. When they affirmed, Muhammad then declared, "He whose mawla I am, Ali

22875-398: The importance of the Ghadir Khumm by casting it as a simple response to earlier complaints about Ali. During his caliphate , Ali is known to have asked Muslims to come forward with their testimonies about the Ghadir Khumm, presumably to counter challenges to his legitimacy. Muhammad died in 632 when Ali was in his early thirties. As he and other close relatives prepared for the burial,

23058-474: The incumbent governor of Syria, was deemed corrupt and unfit by Ali, who wrote to and removed him from his post. In turn, Mu'awiya, as Uthman's cousin, launched a propaganda campaign across Syria, blaming Ali for the regicide and calling for revenge. Mu'awiya also joined forces with Amr ibn al-As , a military strategist, who pledged to back the Umayyads against Ali in return for life-long governorship of Egypt. Yet Mu'awiya also secretly offered to recognize

23241-572: The killing of the Banu Qurayza men for treachery in 626–627, though the historicity of this account has been doubted. On his return trip from the Hajj pilgrimage in 632 , Muhammad halted the large caravan of pilgrims at the Ghadir Khumm and addressed them after the congregational prayer . After the prayer, Muhammad delivered a sermon to a large number of Muslims in which he emphasized

23424-431: The lake's northern shore. Ali Ali ibn Abi Talib ( Arabic : عَلِيُّ بْن أَبِي طَالِب , romanized :  ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib ; c.  600–661  CE ) was the cousin and son-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad , and was the fourth Rashidun caliph who ruled from 656  CE to 661, as well as the first Shia imam . Born to Abu Talib ibn Abd al-Muttalib and Fatima bint Asad , young Ali

23607-463: The largest bloc in Ali's army, both threatened Ali with mutiny if he did not answer the Syrians' call. Facing strong peace sentiments in his army, Ali accepted the arbitration proposal, most likely against his own judgment. Mu'awiya now proposed that representatives from both sides should find a Quranic resolution. Mu'awiya was represented by his ally Amr, whereas, despite Ali's opposition,

23790-609: The late 15th century, and one of them may have visited the headwaters even earlier without leaving a written trace. The Portuguese João Bermudes published the first description of the Tis Issat Falls in his 1565 memoirs, compared them to the Nile Falls alluded to in Cicero 's De Republica . Jerónimo Lobo describes the source of the Blue Nile, visiting shortly after Pedro Páez. Telles also uses his account. The White Nile

23973-617: The latest discoveries has been provided on the project's website. On June 21, 2005, the Times Literary Supplement published the text and translation of a newly reconstructed poem by Sappho , together with discussion by Martin L. West . Part of this poem was first published in 1922 from an Oxyrhynchus papyrus, no. 1787 (fragment 1). Most of the rest of the poem has now been found on a papyrus kept at Cologne University . In May 2020, an Egyptian-Catalan archaeological mission headed by Esther Pons and Maite Mascort revealed

24156-403: The latter marched on Iraq with a large force. Mu'awiya thus founded the dynastic Umayyad Caliphate . Throughout his reign, he persecuted the family and supporters of Ali, and mandated regular public cursing of Ali . The first marriage of Ali was to Fatima, who bore him three sons, Hasan, Husayn, and Muhsin . Muhsin either died in infancy, or Fatima miscarried him when she was injured in

24339-580: The main Nile during the 70,000–80,000 years B.P. wet period. The White Nile system in Bahr El Arab and White Nile Rifts remained a closed lake until the connection of the Victoria Nile to the main system some 12,500 years ago during the African humid period . The Greek historian Herodotus wrote that "Egypt was the gift of the Nile". An unending source of sustenance, it played a crucial role in

24522-504: The majority in his camp pressed for the neutral Abu Musa, the erstwhile governor of Kufa. The arbitration agreement was written and signed on 2 August 657, stipulating that the two representatives should meet on neutral territory, adhere to the Quran and Sunna, and restore peace. Both armies left the battlefield after the agreement. The arbitration agreement thus divided Ali's camp, as many did not support his negotiations with Mu'awiya, whose claims they considered fraudulent. By contrast,

24705-546: The most eloquent Arabic, Nahj al-balagha has significantly influenced the Arabic literature and rhetoric. Numerous commentaries have been written about the book, including the comprehensive work of the Mu'tazilite scholar Ibn Abil-Hadid ( d.  1258 ). Ghurar al-hikam wa durar al-kalim ( lit.   ' exalted aphorisms and pearls of speech ' ) was compiled by Abd al-Wahid al-Amidi ( d.  1116 ), who

24888-485: The name initially her mother gave him), Amīr al-Muʾminīn ( lit.   ' commander of the faithful' or 'prince of the faithful ' ), and Imām al-Muttaqin ( lit.   ' leader of the God-fearing ' ). In particular, Twelvers consider the title of Amir al-Mu'minin to be unique to Ali. He is also referred to as Abū Turāb ( lit.   ' father of dust ' ), which might have initially been

25071-625: The next caliph, when the latter promised to follow the precedent of the first two caliphs. By contrast, Ali rejected this condition, or gave an evasive answer. The Ansar were not represented in the committee, which was evidently biased toward Uthman. Both of these factors worked against Ali, who could have not been simply excluded from the proceedings. Uthman was widely accused of nepotism, corruption, and injustice. Ali too criticized Uthman's conduct, including his lavish gifts for his kinsmen. Ali also protected outspoken companions, such as Abu Dharr and Ammar , and overall acted as

25254-403: The occasion of mubahala , accompanied by Ali, his wife Fatima, and their two sons, Hasan and Husayn . The inclusion of these four by Muhammad in the mubahala ritual, as his witnesses and guarantors, likely raised their religious rank within the community. If the word 'ourselves' in the verse is a reference to Ali and Muhammad, as Shia authors argue, then the former naturally enjoys

25437-513: The original sources of indigo dye . Another may be Nymphaea caerulea , known as "The Sacred Blue Lily of the Nile", which was found scattered over Tutankhamun 's corpse when it was excavated in 1922. Another possible etymology derives from the Semitic term Nahal , meaning "river". Old Libyan has the term lilu , meaning water (in modern Berber ilel ⵉⵍⴻⵍ means sea ). With a total length of about 6,650 km (4,130 mi) between

25620-968: The path of eloquence ' ) is an eleventh-century collection of sermons, letters, and sayings, all attributed to Ali, compiled by Sharif al-Radi ( d.  1015 ), a prominent Twelver scholar. Because of its sometimes sensitive content, the authenticity of Nahj al-balagha has long been polemically debated. However, by tracking its content in earlier sources, recent academic research has attributed most of Nahj al-balagha to Ali. The book, particularly its letter of instructions addressed at al-Ashtar, has served as an ideological basis for Islamic governance. The book also includes detailed discussions about social responsibilities, emphasizing that greater responsibilities result in greater rights. Nahj al-balagha also contains sensitive material, such as sharp criticism of Ali's predecessors in its Shaqshaqiya sermon , and disapproval of Aisha, Talha, and Zubayr, who had revolted against Ali. Celebrated as an example of

25803-428: The poor. Some three years after his first revelation, Muhammad gathered his relatives for a feast , invited them to Islam, and asked for their assistance. Aged about fourteen, Ali was the only relative there who offered his support, after which Muhammad told his guests that Ali was his brother and his successor, according to the Sunni historian al-Tabari ( d.  923 ). The Shia interpretation of this episode

25986-456: The power vacuum created by the regicide. His election, irregular and without a council, faced little public opposition in Medina, but the rebels' support for him left him exposed to accusations of complicity in Uthman's assassination. Even though underprivileged groups readily rallied around Ali, he had limited support among the powerful Quraysh, some of whom aspired to caliphate. Within

26169-575: The precedent of Muhammad and Abu Bakr. In comparison, Umar had distributed the state revenues according to perceived Islamic merit, and Uthman was widely accused of nepotism and corruption. The strictly egalitarian policies of Ali earned him the support of underprivileged groups, including the Ansar, the qurra , and the late immigrants to Iraq. By contrast, Talha and Zubayr were both Qurayshite companions of Muhammad who had amassed immense wealth under Uthman. They both revolted against Ali when he refused to grant them favors. Some other figures among

26352-638: The present course of the Nile in Egypt and Sudan. Rushdi Said postulates that Egypt supplied most of the waters of the Nile during the early part of its history. The other theory is that the drainage from Ethiopia via rivers equivalent to the Blue Nile, the Atbara and the Takazze flowed to the Mediterranean via the Egyptian Nile since well back into Tertiary times. Salama suggests that during

26535-410: The pretext of revenge for Uthman. Among them was Mu'awiya , the incumbent governor of Syria . Ali has therefore been criticized by some for political naivety and excessive rigorism, and praised by others for righteousness and lack of political expediency. His supporters identify similar decisions of Muhammad, and argue that Islam never allows for compromising on a just cause, citing verse 68:9 of

26718-426: The proceedings of the electoral council in 644 when Ali refused to be bound by the precedence of the first two caliphs. In contrast, Shia sources view Ali's pledge to Abu Bakr as a (coerced) act of political expediency ( taqiya ). The conflicts with Ali are probably magnified in Shia sources. Before his death in 634, Abu Bakr designated Umar as his successor. Ali was not consulted about this appointment, which

26901-558: The progress of the restoration. In March 2020, archeological researchers from the Antiquities Inspection of Al-Bahnasa District located archaeological evidence of the encampment of Khalid ibn al-Walid and 10,000 soldiers under him, including 70 veterans of the Battle of Badr . The excavators said the Muslim armies' encampments were located in the current location of the village of Beni Hilal, Minya District , west of Bahnasa. Nile The Nile (also known as

27084-442: The region did not re-emerge until the third century. A papyrus dated 291 CE documents the presence of an active synagogue in Oxyrhynchus and identifies one of its officials as originating from Palestine , indicating the renewed presence of Jewish communities in the region. From 619 to 629, during the brief period of Sasanian Egypt , three Greek papyri from Oxyrhynchus include references to large sums of gold that were to be sent to

27267-462: The region of Lake Victoria and the Mediterranean Sea , the Nile is among the longest rivers on Earth. The drainage basin of the Nile covers 3,254,555 square kilometers (1,256,591 sq mi), about 10% of the area of Africa. Compared to other major rivers, though, the Nile carries little water (5% of that of the Congo River , for example). The Nile basin is complex, and because of this,

27450-496: The rest of the Quraysh. The caliphate of Ali was characterized by his strict justice. He implemented radical policies to restore his vision of prophetic governance, and dismissed nearly all of Uthman's governors, whom he considered corrupt. Ali also distributed the treasury funds equally among Muslims, following the practice of Muhammad, and is said to have shown zero tolerance for corruption. Some of those affected by Ali's egalitarian policies soon revolted against him under

27633-401: The rightful successor to Muhammad, probably in reference to the Ghadir Khumm. Among others, al-Tabari reports that Umar then led an armed mob to Ali's residence and threatened to set the house on fire if Ali and his supporters did not pledge their allegiance to Abu Bakr. The scene soon grew violent, but the mob retreated after Ali's wife, Fatima, pleaded with them. Abu Bakr later placed

27816-632: The river is called Kiira or Kiyira . In Runyoro , it is called Kihiira . In Egyptian Arabic , the Nile is called en-Nīl , while in Standard Arabic it is called an-Nīl . In Biblical Hebrew , it is הַיְאוֹר ‎, Ha-Ye'or or הַשִׁיחוֹר ‎, Ha-Shiḥor . The English name Nile and the Arabic names en-Nîl and an-Nîl both derive from the Latin Nilus and the Ancient Greek Νεῖλος . Beyond that, however,

27999-618: The river south-west for over 300 km, following the structure of the Central African Shear Zone embracing the Bayuda Desert . At Al Dabbah it resumes its northward course towards the first cataract at Aswan forming the S-shaped Great Bend of the Nile mentioned by Eratosthenes . In the north of Sudan, the river enters Lake Nasser (known in Sudan as Lake Nubia), the larger part of which

28182-585: The riverbed sufficiently for the river to overflow westward into a depression to create Lake Moeris . Lake Tanganyika drained northwards into the Nile until the Virunga Volcanoes blocked its course in Rwanda. The Nile was much longer at that time, with its furthest headwaters in northern Zambia. The currently existing Nile first flowed during the former parts of the Würm glaciation period. Affad 23

28365-407: The scientific community and interest by other explorers keen to either confirm or refute Speke's discovery. British explorer and missionary David Livingstone pushed too far west and entered the Congo River system instead. It was ultimately Welsh-American explorer Henry Morton Stanley who confirmed Speke's discovery, circumnavigating Lake Victoria and reporting the great outflow at Ripon Falls on

28548-588: The sea level rose at the end of the most recent ice age , the stream which is now the northern Nile captured the ancestral Nile near Asyut . This change in climate also led to the current extents of the Sahara desert, around 3400 BCE. The Giza pyramid complex originally overlooked a branch of the Nile that no longer exists. This branch was highest during the African Humid Period . The existing Nile has five earlier phases: Flowing north from

28731-411: The site were not very favourable," wrote Grenfell. "The rubbish mounds were nothing but rubbish mounds." However, they very soon realized what they had found. The unique combination of climate and circumstance had left at Oxyrhynchus an unequalled archive of the ancient world. "The flow of papyri soon became a torrent," Grenfell recalled. "Merely turning up the soil with one's boot would frequently disclose

28914-620: The social, economic, and political life of the ancient world. This shift in emphasis had made Oxyrhynchus, if anything, even more important, for the very ordinariness of most of its preserved documents makes them most valuable for modern scholars of social history. Many works on Egyptian and Roman social and economic history and on the history of Christianity rely heavily on documents from Oxyrhynchus. A joint project with Brigham Young University using multi-spectral imaging technology has been extremely successful in recovering previously illegible writing. With multi-spectral imaging , many pictures of

29097-419: The stage, however, he deposed Ali and appointed Mu'awiya as his successor. The Kufan delegation reacted furiously to Abu Musa's concessions, and the common view is that the arbitration failed, or was inconclusive. It nevertheless strengthened the Syrians' support for Mu'awiya and weakened the position of Ali. After the arbitration, Mu'awiya received the Syrians' pledge as caliph. Ali then organized

29280-507: The succession crisis. Some early Shia traditions also suggest differences with the standard Uthmanid codex , although now the prevalent Shia view is that Ali's recension matches the Uthmanid codex, save for the order of its content. Ali's codex is said to be in the possession of Muhammad al-Mahdi, who would reveal the codex (and its authoritative commentary by Ali) when he reappears. Kitab Ali ( lit.   ' book of Ali ' )

29463-742: The tomb of Sidi Fath al-Bab, the mosque of Sidi Ali al-Jamam,and a large cemetery in which many people that participated in the Arab conquest of Egypt are buried. There are also many domes in Bahnasa which are attributed to soldiers such as Muhammad bin Uqbah bin Amer Al-Juhani and Ubadah bin Al-Samit. There was also a particular mosque called Dome of Seven Maidens, which allegedly was built to honor seven Oxyrhynchus Coptic girls who defected and helped

29646-470: The town's name was changed to Al-Bahnasa. The town subsequently contained a cemetery of 5,000 companions of the Islamic prophet Muhammad who had participated in the conquest of Oxyrhynchus. After the Muslim conquest of Egypt in 641, the canal system on which the town depended fell into disrepair, and Oxyrhynchus was abandoned. Today the town of el Bahnasa occupies part of the ancient site. The Arabs called

29829-516: The triumvirate had stirred up public opinion. The opposition failed to gain enough traction in Hejaz , and instead captured Basra in Iraq, killing many there. Ali raised an army from nearby Kufa , which formed the core of Ali's forces in the coming battles. The two armies soon camped just outside of Basra, both probably numbered around ten thousand men. After three days of failed negotiations,

30012-455: The two sides readied for battle. The battle took place in December 656. The rebels commenced hostilities, and Aisha was present on the battlefield, riding in an armored palanquin atop a red camel, after which the battle is named. Talha was soon killed by another rebel, Marwan, the secretary of Uthman. Zubayr, an experienced fighter, deserted shortly after the battle had begun, but

30195-448: The verdict that Uthman had been killed wrongfully and that Mu'awiya had the right to seek revenge. They could not agree on anything else. Rather than a judicial ruling, this was a political concession by Abu Musa, who probably hoped that Amr would later reciprocate this gesture. Ali denounced the conduct of the two arbitrators as contrary to the Quran and began organizing a second Syria campaign. Solely an initiative of Mu'awiya, there

30378-425: The western shores of the lake and flows at first to the west until just south of Masindi Port , where the river turns north, then makes a great half circle to the east and north to Karuma Falls . For the remaining part, it flows westerly through the Murchison Falls until it reaches the northern shores of Lake Albert where it forms a significant river delta. Lake Albert is on the border of the Democratic Republic of

30561-423: The wounded and those who fled, mutilating the dead, entering homes without permission, looting, and harming women. He prevented the enslavement of women in victory, even though some protested. Before the Battle of Siffin with Mu'awiya, Ali did not retaliate and allowed his enemies to access drinking water when he gained the upper hand. Aisha publicly campaigned against Ali immediately after his accession. She

30744-428: Was acknowledged as the next caliph in Kufa. As Ali's legatee, Hasan was the obvious choice for the Kufans, especially because Ali was vocal about the exclusive right of Muhammad's kin to leadership. Most surviving companions of Muhammad were in Ali's army, and they also pledged their allegiance to Hasan, but overall the Kufans' support for Hasan was likely weak. Hasan later abdicated in August 661 to Mu'awiya when

30927-402: Was also a second meeting in Udhruh . The negotiations there also failed, as the two arbitrators could not agree on the next caliph: Amr supported Mu'awiya, while Abu Musa nominated his son-in-law Abd Allah ibn Umar, who stood down. At its closure, Abu Musa publicly deposed both Mu'awiya and Ali and called for a council to appoint his successor per earlier agreements with Amr. When Amr took

31110-418: Was born around 868, but was hidden from the public in 874 for fear of persecution. He remains in occultation by divine will until his reappearance at the end of time to eradicate injustice and evil. The only historic split among the Imamites happened when their sixth imam, Ja'far al-Sadiq , died in 765. Some claimed that his designated successor was his son Isma'il , who had predeceased al-Sadiq. These were

31293-429: Was built by the Safavid monarch Safi ( r.  1629–1642 ), near which lies an immense cemetery for Shias who wished to be buried next to their imam . Najaf is also home to top religious colleges and prominent Shia scholars. Other sites for Ali's burial are claimed to be Baghdad , Damascus , Medina , Ray while a minority of Shias believe it be somewhere in the city of Kufa . When Ali died, his son Hasan

31476-423: Was either a Shafi'i jurist or a Twelver scholar. The book contains thousands of short sayings of Ali on piety and ethics. These aphorisms and other works attributed to Ali have considerably influenced the Islamic mysticism . Mushaf of Ali is a recension of the Quran compiled by Ali, who was one of its first scribes. By some Shia accounts, this codex ( mushaf ) of Ali was rejected for official use during

31659-448: Was elected caliph in Medina. He immediately faced two separate rebellions, both ostensibly to avenge Uthman: The triumvirate of Talha , Zubayr , both companions of Muhammad, and his widow Aisha captured Basra in Iraq but were defeated by Ali in the Battle of the Camel in 656. Elsewhere, Mu'awiya , whom Ali had just removed from the governorship of Syria , fought against Ali the inconclusive Battle of Siffin in 657, which ended in

31842-456: Was enough to fill and connect them. The Egyptian Nile connected to the Sudanese Nile, which captures the Ethiopian and Equatorial headwaters during the current stages of tectonic activity in the Eastern, Central and Sudanese Rift systems. The connection of the different Niles occurred during cyclic wet periods. The Atbarah overflowed its closed basin during the wet periods that occurred about 100,000 to 120,000 years ago. The Blue Nile connected to

32025-430: Was even less understood. The ancients mistakenly believed that the Niger River represented the upper reaches of the White Nile. For example, Pliny the Elder writes that the Nile had its origins "in a mountain of lower Mauretania ", flowed above ground for "many days" distance, then went underground, reappeared as a large lake in the territories of the Masaesyli , then sank again below the desert to flow underground "for

32208-438: Was in part due to the public outrage over Syrian raids. However, plans for a second campaign were abandoned after the assassination of Ali . Ali was assassinated during the morning prayer on 28 January 661 (19 Ramadan 40 AH) at the Great Mosque of Kufa . The other given dates are 26 and 30 January. He was struck over his head by the Kharijite dissident Ibn Muljam with a poison-coated sword, in revenge for their defeat in

32391-430: Was initially resisted by some senior companions. Ali himself did not press any claims this time and kept aloof from public affairs during the caliphate of Umar, who nevertheless consulted Ali in certain matters. For instance, Ali is credited with the idea of adopting the migration to Medina ( hijra ) as the beginning of the Islamic calendar. Yet Ali's political advice was probably ignored. For example, Umar devised

32574-451: Was joined in Mecca by her close relatives, Talha and Zubayr, who thus broke their earlier oaths of allegiance to Ali. This opposition demanded the punishment of Uthman's assassins, and accused Ali of complicity in the assassination. They also called for the removal of Ali from office and for a Qurayshite council to appoint his successor. Their primary goal was likely the removal of Ali, rather than vengeance for Uthman, against whom

32757-411: Was kept a secret and remains uncertain. Several sites are mentioned as containing Ali's remains, including the shrine of Ali in Najaf and the shrine of Ali in Mazar . The former site was identified during the reign of the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid ( r.  786–809 ) and the town of Najaf developed around it, which has become a major destination for Shia pilgrimage. The present shrine

32940-475: Was killed by Umayyad forces in the Battle of Karbala in 680, alongside many of his relatives. To revenge the Karbala massacre, soon followed in 685 the Shia uprising of al-Mukhtar , who claimed to represent Ibn al-Hanafiyya. The main movements that followed this uprising were the now-extinct Kaysanites and the Imamites. The Kaysanites mostly followed Abu Hashim , the son of Ibn al-Hanafiya. When Abu Hashim died around 716, this group largely aligned itself with

33123-443: Was pursued and killed. His desertion suggests he had serious moral misgivings about their cause. Ali won the day, and Aisha was respectfully escorted back to Hejaz. Ali then announced a public pardon, setting free all war prisoners, even Marwan, and prohibiting the enslavement of their women. Their seized properties were also returned. Ali then stationed himself in Kufa, which thus became his de facto capital. Mu'awiya,

33306-416: Was raised by his elder cousin Muhammad and was among the first to accept his teachings. Ali played a pivotal role in the early years of Islam when Muslims were severely persecuted in Mecca . After immigration ( hijra ) to Medina in 622, Muhammad gave his daughter Fatima to Ali in marriage and swore a pact of brotherhood with him. Ali served as Muhammad's secretary and deputy in this period, and

33489-411: Was the flag bearer of his army. Numerous sayings of Muhammad praise Ali, the most controversial of which was uttered in 632 at the Ghadir Khumm , "Whoever I am his mawla , this Ali is his mawla ." The interpretation of the polysemous Arabic word mawla is disputed: For Shia Muslims , Muhammad thus invested Ali with his religious and political authority, while Sunni Muslims view this as

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