The Marrah Mountains or Marra Mountains ( Fur , Fugo Marra ; Arabic : جبل مرة , Jebel Marra ) are a range of volcanic peaks in a massif that rises up to 3,042 metres (9,980 ft). They are the highest mountains in Sudan .
104-452: The mountains are located in the center of the Darfur region of Sudan on the border of the states of South Darfur and Central Darfur , with a smaller part of the range in the state of North Darfur . The highest point is Deriba Caldera . The upper reaches of the massif is a small area of temperate climate with high rainfall and permanent springs of water amidst the dry savanna and scrub of
208-510: A topographic prominence of 2512 m, in the center of the region. The region's main towns are Al Fashir , Geneina , and Nyala . There are four main features of its physical geography. The whole eastern half of Darfur is covered with plains and low hills of sandy soils , known as goz , and sandstone hills. In many places the goz is waterless and can only be inhabited where there are water reservoirs or deep boreholes . While dry, goz may also support rich pasture and arable land . To
312-502: A circumference of about 910 metres (2,990 ft). Rising nearly vertically from the water's edge, the crater walls reached heights of around 120–210 metres (390–690 ft), except for the northern rim, which sloped gently. Like its counterpart, this lake exhibited a greenish hue and a faint sulphuric aroma. Since the first exploration by Hobbs and Gillan in 1918 (Gillan 1918, Hobbs 1918.), Jebel Marra has been visited by many geologists, botanists and zoologists. In 1964 an expedition made
416-575: 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
520-496: A conical funnel. Further investigation, including depth checks using a variety of methods, revealed evidence of significant water level rises in both lakes in relatively recent times. Clear evidence of former beach levels suggested abrupt rises, probably caused by large landslides on the unstable inner walls of the crater. Evidence from dead trees and comparison with historical maps and photographs revealed changes in lake dimensions and levels over time. The study concluded by suggesting
624-435: 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
728-1081: A dialect of Arabic and written in the Latin alphabet . The Balkan languages, including Albanian, Greek , Serbo-Croatian, and Bulgarian , have also acquired many words of Arabic origin, mainly through direct contact with Ottoman Turkish . Arabic has influenced languages across the globe throughout its history, especially languages where Islam is the predominant religion and in countries that were conquered by Muslims. The most markedly influenced languages are Persian , Turkish , Hindustani ( Hindi and Urdu ), Kashmiri , Kurdish , Bosnian , Kazakh , Bengali , Malay ( Indonesian and Malaysian ), Maldivian , Pashto , Punjabi , Albanian , Armenian , Azerbaijani , Sicilian, Spanish, Greek, Bulgarian, Tagalog , Sindhi , Odia , Hebrew and African languages such as Hausa , Amharic , Tigrinya , Somali , Tamazight , and Swahili . Conversely, Arabic has borrowed some words (mostly nouns) from other languages, including its sister-language Aramaic, Persian, Greek, and Latin and to
832-515: A large and complex civilization . But the Marrah Mountains offer plentiful water, and by the 12th century the Daju people , succeeding the semi-legendary Tora culture , created the first historical attestable kingdom . They were centered in the Marrah Mountains and left records of valuable rock engravings, stone architecture and a ( orally preserved ) list of kings. The Tunjur replaced
936-487: 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
1040-690: 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
1144-544: A peak elevation of 3,042 metres (9,980 ft), extends north-south for about 89 kilometres (55 mi), widens to 64 kilometres (40 mi), and continues north for another 97 kilometres (60 mi). The Tagabo Hills and the Meidob Plateau, to the north-east of the range, are thought to be of volcanic origin. The plateau rests on Archean rocks on an uplift between the Chad and Middle Nile basins and extends westwards to
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#17327650609681248-594: A result, many European languages have borrowed words from it. Arabic influence, mainly in vocabulary, is seen in European languages (mainly Spanish and to a lesser extent Portuguese , Catalan , and Sicilian ) owing to the proximity of Europe and the long-lasting Arabic cultural and linguistic presence, mainly in Southern Iberia, during the Al-Andalus era. Maltese is a Semitic language developed from
1352-462: 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",
1456-470: 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
1560-623: A steady rise in the level of the great lake due to the influx of sediment, which could lead to its eventual disappearance. During the War in Darfur , the Marrah Mountains came under the control of the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement/Army faction loyal to Abdul Wahid al Nur . The mountains remained one of the group's most important strongholds, housing several of its bases, as of 2021. Jebel Marra, an extinct late Tertiary volcanic massif with
1664-507: 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
1768-507: 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
1872-476: 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
1976-737: Is a Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world . The ISO assigns language codes to 32 varieties of Arabic , including its standard form of Literary Arabic, known as Modern Standard Arabic , which is derived from Classical Arabic . This distinction exists primarily among Western linguists; Arabic speakers themselves generally do not distinguish between Modern Standard Arabic and Classical Arabic, but rather refer to both as al-ʿarabiyyatu l-fuṣḥā ( اَلعَرَبِيَّةُ ٱلْفُصْحَىٰ "the eloquent Arabic") or simply al-fuṣḥā ( اَلْفُصْحَىٰ ). Arabic
2080-590: 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
2184-559: 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
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#17327650609682288-478: 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
2392-490: Is characterised by widespread surficial deposits of fluviatile and aeolian origin, with the Wadi 'Azum and its tributaries showing broad channels and terraces. The eastward and southeastward flowing rivers have sandy beds that change to silts within 48–80 kilometres (30–50 mi) of their sources. A large silt or clay plain north-east of Kutum is thought to be a playa, while a former erg, the qoz, retains dune relief, immobilised by
2496-408: 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
2600-472: 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
2704-432: Is divided into five federal states : Central Darfur , East Darfur , North Darfur , South Darfur and West Darfur . Because of the War in Darfur between Sudanese government forces and the indigenous population, the region has been in a state of humanitarian emergency and genocide since 2003. The factors include religious and ethnic rivalry, and the rivalry between farmers and herders. The first historical mention of
2808-498: Is dominated by the third feature, basement rock , sometimes covered with a thin layer of sandy soil. Basement rock is too infertile to be farmed, but provides sporadic forest cover that can be grazed by animals. The fourth and final feature are the Marrah Mountains and Daju Hills , volcanic plugs created by a massif , that rise up to a peak at Deriba crater where there is a small area of temperate climate , high rainfall and permanent springs of water. Remote sensing has detected
2912-574: 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
3016-855: Is official in Mali and recognized as a minority language in Morocco, while the Senegalese government adopted the Latin script to write it. Maltese is official in (predominantly Catholic ) Malta and written with the Latin script . Linguists agree that it is a variety of spoken Arabic, descended from Siculo-Arabic , though it has experienced extensive changes as a result of sustained and intensive contact with Italo-Romance varieties, and more recently also with English. Due to "a mix of social, cultural, historical, political, and indeed linguistic factors", many Maltese people today consider their language Semitic but not
3120-572: Is the third most widespread official language after English and French, one of six official languages of the United Nations , and the liturgical language of Islam . Arabic is widely taught in schools and universities around the world and is used to varying degrees in workplaces, governments and the media. During the Middle Ages , Arabic was a major vehicle of culture and learning, especially in science, mathematics and philosophy. As
3224-680: Is the largest in the world. Other UN agencies (such as the WFP ) might exit. During the existence of the Calais Jungle refugee camp, Darfur was listed as a major source of the camp's inhabitants. The Government of Sudan and the Sudan Liberation Movement of Minni Minnawi signed a Darfur Peace Agreement in 2006. Only one rebel group, the Sudan Liberation Movement, subscribed to the agreement;
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3328-590: 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
3432-413: 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
3536-524: 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
3640-445: 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
3744-571: The Atbarah River and attracting immigrants from Bornu and Bagirmi . During the mid-18th century conflict between rival factions wracked the country, and external war pitted Darfur against Sennar and Wadai . In 1875, the weakened kingdom was destroyed by the Egyptian ruler set up in Khartoum , largely through the machinations of Sebehr Rahma , a slave-trader, who was competing with
3848-556: The Daju , who migrated from Meroë c. 350 AD , and it was renamed Dartunjur (Arabic: دار تنجر , romanized: Dār Tunjur ) when the Tunjur ruled the area. Darfur was an independent sultanate for several hundred years until 1874, when it fell to the Sudanese warlord Rabih az-Zubayr . The region was later invaded and incorporated into Sudan by Anglo-Egyptian forces in 1916. As an administrative region, Darfur
3952-518: The Justice and Equality Movement planned further talks. The talks ended on December 19 without a new peace agreement, but participants agreed on basic principles, including a regional authority and a referendum on autonomy for Darfur. The possibility of a Darfuri Vice-President was also discussed. In January 2011, the leader of the Liberation and Justice Movement, Dr. Tijani Sese , stated that
4056-410: The Justice and Equality Movement rejected it, resulting in a continuation of the conflict. The agreement includes provisions for wealth-sharing and power-sharing and established a Transitional Darfur Regional Authority to help administer Darfur until a referendum could take place on the future of the region. The leader of the Sudan Liberation Movement, Minni Minnawi, was appointed Senior Assistant to
4160-783: The President of Sudan and Chairman of the transitional authority in 2007. In December 2010, representatives of the Liberation and Justice Movement , an umbrella organisation of ten rebel groups, formed in February of that year, started a fresh round of talks with the Sudanese Government in Doha , Qatar . A new rebel group, the Sudanese Alliance Resistance Forces in Darfur, was formed and
4264-629: The Sahel below. Apart from the Aïr Mountains in Niger which are on the border of the Sahara proper, the Marrah Mountains are the only major mountain range in the otherwise flat Sahel, rising up to 2,600 metres (8,500 ft) above the plain, but are relatively unknown owing to lack of development and political conflict in the region. The last eruption occurred around 1500 BC. The centre of activity
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4368-579: The Ta’isha tribe , demanded that the pastoralist tribes provide soldiers, several tribes rose up in revolt. Following the defeat of Abdallahi at Omdurman in 1899 by an Anglo-Egyptian expeditionary force, the new Anglo-Egyptian government recognized Ali Dinar as the sultan of Darfur and largely left the Dar to its own affairs except for a nominal annual tribute. In 1916, after the British government suspected that
4472-568: 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
4576-494: 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
4680-658: The " female ", lay in the northeast corner of the amphitheatre. It measured approximately 1,780 metres (5,840 ft) in length, 1,230 metres (4,040 ft) in width, and had a circumference of about 4.8 kilometres (3.0 mi). Its water, with a high salinity, appeared murky green and emitted an unpleasant odour. Although time constraints prevented soundings, it was inferred that the lake was shallow except in its northern part. The smaller lake, dubbed as "male", situated around 800 metres (2,600 ft) south, had fresher water. Its dimensions were approximately 1,420 metres (4,660 ft) in length, 820 metres (2,690 ft) in width, with
4784-419: 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
4888-454: 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
4992-571: 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
5096-834: The 8th century, knowledge of Classical Arabic had become an essential prerequisite for rising into the higher classes throughout the Islamic world, both for Muslims and non-Muslims. For example, Maimonides , the Andalusi Jewish philosopher, authored works in Judeo-Arabic —Arabic written in Hebrew script . Ibn Jinni of Mosul , a pioneer in phonology , wrote prolifically in the 10th century on Arabic morphology and phonology in works such as Kitāb Al-Munṣif , Kitāb Al-Muḥtasab , and Kitāb Al-Khaṣāʾiṣ [ ar ] . Ibn Mada' of Cordoba (1116–1196) realized
5200-590: The Archaean rocks are covered by Nubian sandstones, with evidence of a westward extension near El Geneina. Recent geological surveys suggest the extensive presence of Nubian sandstones southwest of El Fasher under wind-borne sands, challenging previous beliefs. Limestone near Zalingei, derived from calcareous waters from springs, is the only recorded sedimentary deposit within the Archaean outcrop. Andrew (1948) suggests that volcanic activity in Jebel Marra began in
5304-671: The Daju in the fourteenth century and the Daju established new headquarters in Abyei, Denga, Darsila and Mongo in the current Chad. The Tunjur sultans intermarried with the Fur and sultan Musa Sulayman (reigned c. 1667 – c. 1695 ) is considered the founder of the Keira dynasty . Darfur became a great power of the Sahel under the Keira dynasty, expanding its borders as far east as
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#17327650609685408-412: 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
5512-690: 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
5616-576: 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
5720-579: The Sudanese Government rejected the idea of a single region headed by a vice-president from the region. On 29 January, the leaders of the Liberation and Justice Movement and the Justice and Equality Movement issued a joint statement affirming their commitment to the Doha negotiations and agreement to attend the Doha forum on 5 February. The Sudanese government had not yet agreed to attend the forum on that date and instead favoured an internal peace process without
5824-645: The Sudanese border, forming an undulating peneplain called the Basement Complex, with elevations ranging from 1,100 metres (3,600 ft) in the east to 600 metres (2,000 ft) in the west. Isolated hills and ridges, such as the 1,413 metres (4,636 ft) Tebella Massif, possibly remnants of an older erosional surface, dot the peneplain. To the southeast and south of Jebel Marra, the plateau maintains an elevation of 600–700 metres (2,000–2,300 ft), revealing Archaean rocks beneath sand and clay deposits at distances of 24–113 kilometres (15–70 mi) from
5928-806: The Tebella massif, the Wadi Debarei basin appears to be a clinal trough intruded and occupied by foliated unfoliated granite. Geologists from the Sudan Geological Survey have recently carried out work near El Fasher and Nyala, but their results are not yet published. Jebel Nyala, the Dagu Jebels and the Wana Hills show granitic and gneissic compositions, while the areas between El Fasher and Nyala show predominantly quartzose rocks. About 160 kilometres (100 mi) east of Jebel Marra,
6032-468: The UN best estimate, and about 3,000,000 were forced into refugee camps." Over 2.8 million people have become displaced since 2003, many of whom were children (see Lost Boys of Sudan ). Many of these refugees have gone into camps where emergency aid has created conditions that, although extremely basic, are better than in the villages, which offer no protection against the various militias that operate in
6136-600: The Upper Tertiary (Miocene). The Deriba crater, thought to be a recent culmination, has a diameter of over 4.8 kilometres (3 mi) and contains two lakes with distinct saline characteristics. Lava peaks surround the crater, one of which may be the highest point in the range. The volcanic history shows periods of continuous lava eruption, erosion and explosive events that shaped the existing large crater. Outlying volcanic areas and an intrusive phase represented by dykes near Kutum remain topics for further study. The region
6240-433: The appearance of the sultans darkened correspondingly and they became known by the appellation of their subjects, Fūr . Darfur covers an area of 493,180 square kilometers (190,420 sq mi), approximately the size of mainland Spain . It is largely a semi-desert plateau with the Marrah Mountains ( Jebel Marra), a range of volcanic peaks rising up to 3,042 meters (9,980 ft) of elevation above sea level, and
6344-518: The base of the mountain. Similar features are observed in the west, including small plateaus and inselbergs such as the Dagu Hills and the Gennung at 1,200 metres (3,900 ft). The eastern and northern regions of Zalingei are dominated by acid crystalline schists and gneisses, while the western counterpart consists mainly of paraschists, calc-silicate gneisses and other rock formations. South of
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#17327650609686448-455: The beginning of the Darfur conflict , in which the resistance coalesced into a roughly cohesive rebel movement. In March 2004, human-rights groups and the UN came to regard the conflict as one of the worst humanitarian disasters in the world. Insurgency and counter-insurgency have led to 480,000 deaths (the Khartoum government disputes the numbers). This has been labeled as the Darfur genocide . "By 2010 about 300,000 had died, according to
6552-509: 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
6656-544: The dar over access to ivory in Bahr el Ghazal to the south of Darfur. The Darfuris were restive under Egyptian rule, but were no more predisposed to accept the rule of the self-proclaimed Mahdi , Muhammad Ahmad , when in 1882 his Emir of Darfur, who came from the Southern Darfur Arab Rizeigat tribe led by Sheikh Madibbo , defeated the Ottoman forces led by Slatin Pasha (that had just invaded Egypt earlier that year) in Darfur. When Ahmad's successor, Abdallahi ibn Muhammad , himself an Arab of Southern Darfur from
6760-412: 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
6864-728: 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
6968-447: 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
7072-419: The first biological survey of the streams and two Deriba lakes. The hydrobiological importance of Jebel Marra stems from the isolation of these waters near the geographical centre of the African continent, coupled with the known chemical differences between the various streams and lakes (Hunting Technical Services, 1958). During the five-week expedition, numerous samples were collected from various sites, including
7176-466: The following languages are spoken in Darfur according to Ethnologue . The region is divided into five federal states : Central Darfur , East Darfur , North Darfur , South Darfur and West Darfur . The Darfur Peace Agreement of 2006 established a Transitional Darfur Regional Authority as an interim authority for the region. The agreement stated that a referendum on the status of Darfur should be held no later than 2011. Minni Minnawi
7280-403: 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
7384-418: The ideology of Arab supremacy propagated by Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi (in power 1969–2011). A famine in the mid-1980s disrupted many societal structures and led to the first significant modern fighting amongst Darfuris. A low-level conflict continued for the next fifteen years, with the government co-opting and arming Arab Janjaweed militias against its enemies. The fighting reached a peak in 2003 with
7488-409: The imprint of a vast underground lake under Darfur. The potential water deposits are estimated at 49,500 km (19,110 sq mi). The lake, during epochs when the region was more humid, would have contained about 2,500 km (600 cubic miles) of water. It may have dried up thousands of years ago. Most of the region consists of a semi-arid plain and thus appears unsuitable for developing
7592-597: 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
7696-402: The involvement of rebel groups. Later in February, the Sudanese Government agreed to return to the Doha peace forum with a view to complete a new peace agreement by the end of that month. On 25 February, both the Liberation and Justice Movement and the Justice and Equality Movement announced that they had rejected the peace document proposed by the mediators in Doha. The main sticking points were
7800-714: The issues of a Darfuri vice-president and compensation for victims. The Sudanese government had not commented on the peace document. At the Doha Peace Forum in June, the Joint Mediators proposed a new Darfur Peace Agreement , which would supersede the Abuja Agreement of 2005 and if signed, would halt preparations for a Darfur status referendum. The proposal included provisions for a Darfuri Vice-President and an administrative structure that includes both
7904-613: 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
8008-604: 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)
8112-420: 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
8216-883: 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
8320-586: The movement had accepted the core proposals of the Darfur peace document proposed by the joint-mediators in Doha; the proposals included a $ 300,000,000 compensation package for victims of atrocities in Darfur and special courts to conduct trials of persons accused of human-rights violations. Proposals for a new Darfur Regional Authority were also included; this authority would have an executive council of 18 ministers and would remain in place for five years. The current three Darfur states and state governments would also continue to exist during this period. In February 2011
8424-782: 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
8528-443: The need for further investigation underline the complex nature of this region. Darfur Darfur ( / d ɑːr ˈ f ʊər / dar- FOOR ; Arabic : دار فور , romanized : Dār Fūr , lit. 'Realm of the Fur ') is a region of western Sudan . Dār is an Arabic word meaning "home [of]" – the region was named Dardaju (Arabic: دار داجو , romanized: Dār Dājū ) while ruled by
8632-485: The north the goz is overtaken by the desert sands of the Sahara . A second feature are the wadis , which range from seasonal watercourses that flood only occasionally during the wet season to large wadis that flood for most of the rains and flow from western Darfur hundreds of kilometres west to Lake Chad . Many wadis have pans of alluvium with rich heavy soil that are also difficult to cultivate. Western Darfur
8736-424: 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
8840-549: 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
8944-413: The plain and 1,463 m (4,804 feet) above sea level (modern measurements, however, indicate 2100 m). They were described as being located within a vast amphitheatre, approximately 4.8 to 6.4 km (3 to 4 miles) in diameter, formed by a continuous circular (or slightly oval) range of steeply sloping heights, varying from about 244 to 610 m (800 to 2,000 feet) above the surrounding area. The larger lake, known as
9048-698: The post on 20 September 2011. The regional authority was dissolved in July 2016 following a referendum , on the status of the Darfur region within Sudan. As part of the Sudanese transition to democracy , a Darfur Regional Government was created in August 2021 with Minni Minawi as Regional Governor. In 2008, Darfur's population was 7.5 million. This in an increase by nearly six times from 1973 (1.3 million). 52% are aged 16 years or younger. Darfur's budget
9152-458: The prevailing savannah. The W. Ibra conveys river runoff south of Jebel Marra, and the Qoz Dango continues the extension of the erg, with no western counterpart on the volcanic highlands. In summary, the geological and topographical features of Jebel Marra include its volcanic origin, diverse rock compositions, sedimentary deposits and history of volcanic activity. Ongoing geological surveys and
9256-410: 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
9360-479: The region. Nearly two-thirds of the population continues to struggle to survive in remote villages. Virtually no foreigners visit the region because of the fear of kidnapping, and only some non-governmental organizations continue to provide long-term grass-roots assistance. As of 2015 the United Nations is in discussion with the Government of Sudan over the withdrawal of UNAMID , the peacekeeping force , which
9464-458: 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
9568-458: 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
9672-563: 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
9776-686: The sultan was falling under the influence of the Ottoman government , an expedition was launched from Egypt to capture and annex Darfur into the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. The colonial government directed financial and administrative resources to the tribes of central Sudan near Khartoum - while the outlying regions such as Darfur remained mostly forgotten and ignored. K. D. D. Henderson was the last British governor of Darfur. A pattern of skewed economic development continued after Sudan achieved political independence in 1956. The governor at
9880-506: The three states and a strategic regional authority, the Darfur Regional Authority , to oversee Darfur as a whole. The new agreement was signed by the Government of Sudan and the Liberation and Justice Movement on 14 July. The Sudan Liberation Movement and the Justice and Equality Movement did not sign the new document at that time but had three months in which to do so if they wished. A comprehensive peace agreement
9984-519: The time of independence was Ali Abdallah Abu Sinn , who had joined the civil service in 1923 and served in Darfur since 1946 . In August 1958 he was succeeded by Ahmad Makki Abdo , who remained in power despite the coup d'état of that year, until he was finally dismissed in December 1959 and replaced by al-Tijani Sa'd . The proxy wars between Sudan , Libya and Chad added an element of political instability. Darfurians began to respond to
10088-501: 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
10192-462: The two saline crater lakes. Chemical analyses were conducted both in the field and at the University of Khartoum. The team also conducted the first bathymetric survey of the lakes, using a calibrated echo sounder and an inflatable rubber dinghy. The larger lake was found to be shallow, with a maximum depth of 11.6 metres (38 ft), while the smaller lake featured unique characteristics, including
10296-541: The word Fur occurs in 1664 in the account by J. M. Vansleb , a German traveler, of a visit to Egypt (Petermann (1862-3). Mitteilungen, Erganzungsband II). It is claimed that, like sūdān , fūr means "blacks", and was the name given by the early light-colored Berber sultans of Darfur to the original inhabitants of the country such as the Binga, Banda, etc. As the historic dynasty's physical appearance became more "Africanized" from intermarriage with black wives and concubines,
10400-451: 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
10504-437: Was Deriba Caldera, and involved caldera collapse following the eruption of pumice and pyroclastic flows which travelled over 30 kilometres (19 mi) from the volcano. The vegetation was described by Gerald Wickens . The two lakes at Deriba, as described by Hobbs' 1918 notes, were presumably the only two in Jebel Marra. Hobbs situated them at an altitude of approximately 518 m (1700 feet, as indicated in his note) above
10608-402: Was US$ 286 million in 2008. 13°00′N 25°00′E / 13.000°N 25.000°E / 13.000; 25.000 Arabic language Arabic (endonym: اَلْعَرَبِيَّةُ , romanized : al-ʿarabiyyah , pronounced [al ʕaraˈbijːa] , or عَرَبِيّ , ʿarabīy , pronounced [ˈʕarabiː] or [ʕaraˈbij] )
10712-451: Was signed on 31 August 2020 in Juba , South Sudan, between the Sudanese authorities and rebel factions to end armed hostilities. However, further tribal clashes have continued during 2021. Languages of Darfur include Daju , Erenga (or Sungor ), Fongoro , Fulbe (or Fulfulde ), Fur (thus the name of the region), Masalit , Sinyar , Tama , Midob , and Zaghawa . Other than Fur,
10816-585: Was the first chair of this authority, holding that office from April 2007 until December 2010, when he was succeeded by Shartai Jaafar Abdel Hakam . The peace agreement that was signed in July 2011 saw the Transitional Darfur Regional Authority reconstituted as the Darfur Regional Authority with executive and legislative functions. The chairperson of the Darfur Regional Authority, Tijani Sese , assumed
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