States
191-570: People Centers Other Nizari Isma'ilism ( Arabic : النزارية , romanized : al-Nizāriyya ) are the largest segment of the Ismaili Muslims, who are the second-largest branch of Shia Islam after the Twelvers . Nizari teachings emphasize independent reasoning or ijtihad ; pluralism—the acceptance of racial, ethnic, cultural and inter-religious differences; and social justice . Nizaris, along with Twelvers, adhere to
382-543: A sharif (tribal head related to the Islamic prophet Muhammad ), Qatada ibn Idris , seized power in Mecca and was recognized as the emir of the city by al-Adil. Al-Afdal attempted unsuccessfully to take Damascus his final time. Al-Adil entered the city in triumph in 1201. Thereafter, al-Adil's line, rather than Saladin's line, dominated the next 50 years of Ayyubid rule. However, az-Zahir still held Aleppo and al-Afdal
573-603: A Hereditary Imam (imam al-mustaqarr). This fact is clearly demonstrated in the recitation of the Nizari Ismailis’ daily prayers three times a day in which although Hassan bin Ali is revered as part of the Prophet's personal family (Ahl al-Bayt), his name is not included in the hereditary lineage from their first Imam, Imam Ali, to their 49th Imam Prince Karim al Hussaini. If Hassan bin Ali's name were to be included as one of
764-590: A Syrian invasion of Egypt, but Frederick refused. Al-Kamil's position was strengthened when al-Mu'azzam died in 1227 and was succeeded by his son an-Nasir Dawud . Al-Kamil continued negotiations with Frederick in Acre in 1228, leading to a truce signed in February 1229. The agreement gave the Crusaders control over an unfortified Jerusalem for over ten years, but also guaranteed Muslim control over Islamic holy places in
955-642: A bid to cause dissension within the Ayyubid family and thus undermining its position in Egypt. Nur al-Din satisfied Saladin's request that he be joined by his father Ayyub. However, Ayyub was sent primarily to ensure that Abbasid suzerainty was proclaimed in Egypt, which Saladin was reluctant to undertake due to his position as the vizier of the Fatimids. Although Nur al-Din failed to provoke the Ayyubids into rivalry,
1146-655: A branch of the large Hadhabani tribe. Ayyub's ancestors settled in the town of Dvin , in northern Armenia . The Rawadiya were the dominant Kurdish group in the Dvin district, forming part of the political-military elite of the town. Circumstances became unfavorable in Dvin when Turkish generals seized the town from its Kurdish prince . Shadhi left with his two sons Ayyub and Asad ad-Din Shirkuh . His friend Mujahid ad-Din Bihruz—the military governor of northern Mesopotamia under
1337-575: 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
1528-567: A common cause against Mamluk-dominated Egypt. By 1250, he took Damascus with relative ease and except for Hama and Transjordan, an-Nasir Yusuf's direct authority stood unbroken from the Khabur River in northern Mesopotamia to the Sinai Peninsula . In December 1250, he attacked Egypt after hearing of al-Mu'azzam Turan-Shah's death and the ascension of Shajar al-Durr. An-Nasir Yusuf's army was much larger and better-equipped than that of
1719-435: 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
1910-562: A critical position. He managed to cross the Nile to launch a surprise attack against Mansurah. Meanwhile, as-Salih Ayyub died, but Shajar al-Durr and as-Salih Ayyub's Bahri Mamluk generals, including Rukn al-Din Baybars and Aybak , countered the assault and inflicted heavy losses on the Crusaders. Simultaneously, Egyptian forces cut off the Crusader's line of supply from Damietta, preventing
2101-1081: A dialect of Arabic and written in the Latin alphabet . The Balkan languages, including Albanian, Greek , Serbo-Croatian, and Bulgarian , have also acquired many words of Arabic origin, mainly through direct contact with Ottoman Turkish . Arabic has influenced languages across the globe throughout its history, especially languages where Islam is the predominant religion and in countries that were conquered by Muslims. The most markedly influenced languages are Persian , Turkish , Hindustani ( Hindi and Urdu ), Kashmiri , Kurdish , Bosnian , Kazakh , Bengali , Malay ( Indonesian and Malaysian ), Maldivian , Pashto , Punjabi , Albanian , Armenian , Azerbaijani , Sicilian, Spanish, Greek, Bulgarian, Tagalog , Sindhi , Odia , Hebrew and African languages such as Hausa , Amharic , Tigrinya , Somali , Tamazight , and Swahili . Conversely, Arabic has borrowed some words (mostly nouns) from other languages, including its sister-language Aramaic, Persian, Greek, and Latin and to
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#17327799404732292-670: A hill near al-Shajara . On 4 July the Crusaders advanced toward the Horns of Hattin and charged against the Muslim forces, but were overwhelmed and defeated decisively . Four days after the battle, Saladin invited al-Adil to join him in the reconquest of Palestine , Galilee and Lebanese coast. On 8 July the Crusader stronghold of Acre was captured by Saladin, while his forces seized Nazareth and Saffuriya ; other brigades took Haifa , Caesarea , Sebastia and Nablus, while al-Adil conquered Mirabel and Jaffa . On 26 July, Saladin returned to
2483-487: 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
2674-526: A meeting of all the war generals and thus became commander-in-chief of the Egyptian forces. She ordered the fortification of Mansurah and then stored large quantities of provisions and concentrated her forces there. She also organized a fleet of war galleys and scattered them at various strategic points along the Nile River. Crusader attempts to capture Mansurah were thwarted and King Louis found himself in
2865-690: 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
3056-477: A quick peace before the Zengids suffered territorial losses at the hands of the Ayyubids. Al-Adil's son al-Mu'azzam took possession of Karak and Transjordan. Soon, however, Saladin's sons squabbled over the division of the empire. Saladin had appointed al-Afdal to the governorship of Damascus with the intention that his son should continue to see the city as his principal place of residence in order to emphasize
3247-594: 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
3438-462: 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",
3629-499: A second siege. An agreement was laid out, however, whereby Gumushtigin , the governor of Aleppo, and his allies at Hisn Kayfa and Mardin , would recognize Saladin as the sovereign of the Ayyubids' possessions in Syria, while Saladin allowed for Gumushtigin and as-Salih al-Malik to continue their rule over Aleppo. While Saladin was in Syria, his brother al-Adil governed Egypt, and in 1174–75, Kanz al-Dawla of Aswan revolted against
3820-457: A serious illness which caused Saladin to withdraw to Harran . Upon Abbasid encouragement, Saladin and Mas'ud negotiated a treaty in March 1186 that left the Zengids in control of Mosul, but had to cede the eastern region beyond lesser Zab to Shahrizor to direct Ayyubid control, and under the obligation to supply the Ayyubids with military support when requested. Saladin besieged Tiberias in
4011-470: 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
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#17327799404734202-543: A single power. However, when Turan-Shah was transferred from his governorship in Yemen in 1176, uprisings broke out in the territory and were not quelled until 1182 when Saladin assigned his other brother Tughtekin Sayf al-Islam as governor of Yemen. The Ayyubid na'ib (deputy governor) of Yemen, Uthman al-Zandjili, conquered the greater part of Hadramaut in 1180, upon Turan-Shah's return to Yemen. From Yemen, as from Egypt,
4393-507: 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
4584-507: 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
4775-476: 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
4966-550: A woman in Tikrit. The Abbasid court issued arrest warrants for both Ayyub and Shirkuh, but before the brothers could be arrested, they departed Tikrit for Mosul in 1138. When they arrived in Mosul, Zangi provided them with all the facilities they needed and he recruited the two brothers into his service. Ayyub was made commander of Ba'albek and Shirkuh entered the service of Zangi's son, Nur ad-Din . According to historian Abdul Ali, it
5157-590: 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
5348-559: 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
5539-575: Is a spiritual and mystical realization in the human soul and intellect called ma'rifah . In the Ismaili tariqah of Islam, the ma‘rifah of the tawhid of God is attained through the Imam of the Time. The perfect soul of the Imam of the Time always experiences the fullness of the ma‘rifah of God and his murids reach that recognition through the recognition of the Imam. Nizaris, like all Muslims, consider
5730-478: 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
5921-408: 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
Nizari Isma'ilism - Misplaced Pages Continue
6112-472: 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
6303-672: Is everlasting and its shade, that is the destination of those who are righteous (Qurʾān 13:35)” According to al-Sijistānī, the most important piece of knowledge to acquire is the recognition of the one who initiates the resurrection, whom he calls Ṣāḥib al-Qiyāmah (Lord of Resurrection). Al-Sijistānī writes in the Kitāb al-Yanābīʿ : فترى الناس على طبقتين : طبقة ممن آمنوا به وصدقوه وانتظروا ظهور، فهم بذلك النور مقتبسون، متنعمون ، مستبشرون . وطبقة ممن كذبوا به وغفلوا عن حده ۲ ، فهم بذلك النور ايضاً متحرقون ، معاقبون “ So you will see people divided into two classes: One class consists of those who believe in
6494-980: Is in the collection of the Aga Khan Museum ). In late 1095, Al-Afdal defeated Nizar's Alexandrian army and took Nizar prisoner to Cairo where he had Nizar executed. After Nizar's execution, the Nizari Ismailis and the Musta'li Ismailis parted ways in a bitterly irreconcilable manner. The schism finally broke the remnants of the Fatimid Empire, and the now-divided Ismailis separated into the Musta'li following (inhabiting regions of Egypt, Yemen, and western India) and those pledging allegiance to Nizar's son Al-Hadi ibn Nizar (living in regions of Iran and Syria ). The latter Ismaili following came to be known as Nizari Ismailism . The bewildered Henry asked Sinan
6685-480: Is inevitable that the human soul should return to the Universal Soul. The question only concerns the manner in which it will return...If, however, the return of the individual soul to its source is not in harmony, it will meet with suffering hardships whose painfulness is described by being placed in the midst of fire, the position which will never come to an end ” Thus, for Nāṣir-i Khusraw, all souls return to
6876-574: 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
7067-855: 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
7258-572: 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
7449-590: 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
7640-413: 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
7831-425: Is understood to be the presence of knowledge of real truths while Hellfire is understood to be ignorance. The Nizārī Ismāʿīlī philosopher-theologians, as can be seen in the passage quoted above, did not believe that Paradise and Hellfire were “places” that souls inhabit, rather – because the rewards and punishments are spiritual – they are something the soul directly experiences in itself. Al-Sijistānī explicitly says in
Nizari Isma'ilism - Misplaced Pages Continue
8022-524: 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
8213-445: 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
8404-702: 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
8595-576: The Almohads by 1185–1186. By this point, Qaraqush had also entered into alliance with the Banu Ghaniya , led by Ali ibn Ghaniya, another enemy of the Almohads. The Almohad caliph Yaqub al-Mansur reconquered Ifriqiya from 1187 to 1188, defeating both of them. The Ayyubids made no further attempts to intervene in the Maghreb after this. In 1173, Saladin sent Turan-Shah to conquer Yemen and
8786-735: The Ayyubid Sultanate , was the founding dynasty of the medieval Sultanate of Egypt established by Saladin in 1171, following his abolition of the Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt . A Sunni Muslim of Kurdish origin, Saladin had originally served the Zengid ruler Nur ad-Din , leading Nur ad-Din's army in battle against the Crusaders in Fatimid Egypt , where he was made Vizier . Following Nur ad-Din's death, Saladin
8977-641: The Battle of Jacob's Ford . In the campaign of 1182, he sparred with Baldwin again in the inconclusive Battle of Belvoir Castle in Kawkab al-Hawa . In May 1182, Saladin captured Aleppo after a brief siege; the new governor of the city, Imad al-Din Zangi II , had been unpopular with his subjects and surrendered Aleppo after Saladin agreed to restore Zangi II's previous control over Sinjar , Raqqa , and Nusaybin , which would thereafter serve as vassal territories of
9168-569: The Caliphate by having sovereignty over the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina . The conquests and economic advancements undertaken by Saladin effectively established Egypt's hegemony in the region. Although still nominally a vassal of Nur al-Din, Saladin adopted an increasingly independent foreign policy. This independence became more publicly pronounced after Nur al-Din's death in 1174. Thereafter, Saladin set out to conquer Syria from
9359-819: The European Union (EU), and private organizations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation . Governmental bodies the AKDN works with include the United States Agency for International Development , the Canadian International Development Agency , the United Kingdom 's Department for International Development , and Germany 's Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development . It's also known that
9550-534: The Hejaz . Muslim writers Ibn al-Athir and later al-Maqrizi wrote that the reasoning behind the conquest of Yemen was an Ayyubid fear that should Egypt fall to Nur al-Din, they could seek refuge in a faraway territory. In May 1174, Turan-Shah conquered Zabid and later that year captured Aden . Aden became the principal maritime port of the dynasty in the Indian Ocean and the principal city of Yemen, although
9741-650: The Jaʽfari school of jurisprudence . The Aga Khan , currently Aga Khan IV , is the spiritual leader and Imam of the Nizaris. The global seat of the Ismaili Imamate is in Lisbon , Portugal . Nizari Isma'ili history is often traced through the unbroken hereditary chain of guardianship, or walayah , beginning with Ali Ibn Abi Talib , whom Shias believe the prophet Muhammad declared his successor as Imam during
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#17327799404739932-574: The Lake Van region to the Ayyubids of Damascus . A Crusader military campaign was launched on 3 November 1217, beginning with an offensive towards Transjordan. Al-Mu'azzam urged al-Adil to launch a counter-attack, but he rejected his son's proposal. In 1218, the fortress of Damietta in the Nile Delta was besieged by the Crusaders. After two failed attempts, the fortress eventually capitulated on 25 August. Six days later al-Adil died of apparent shock at Damietta's loss. Al-Kamil proclaimed himself sultan in Cairo, while his brother al-Mu'azzam claimed
10123-559: The Quran , the central religious text of Islam, to be the word of God. Nizaris employ tafsir (the science of Quranic commentary) for zahir , or exoteric understanding, and tawil (the Quranic poetic metre), for batin , or esoteric understanding. For Nizaris, there exists a dialectic between revelation and human reasoning, based on a synergy of Islamic scripture and classical Greek philosophy, in particular Aristotelian reasoning and neoplatonic metaphysics. It seeks to extend an understanding of religion and revelation to identify
10314-436: The Seljuks —welcomed him and appointed him governor of Tikrit . After Shadhi's death, Ayyub succeeded him in governance of the city with the assistance of his brother Shirkuh. Together they managed the affairs of the city well, gaining them popularity from the local inhabitants. In the meantime, Imad ad-Din Zangi , the ruler of Mosul , was defeated by the Abbasids under Caliph al-Mustarshid and Bihruz. In his bid to escape
10505-467: The Xth form , or جامعة jāmiʻah 'university', based on جمع jamaʻa 'to gather, unite'; جمهورية jumhūriyyah 'republic', based on جمهور jumhūr 'multitude'). An earlier tendency was to redefine an older word although this has fallen into disuse (e.g., هاتف hātif 'telephone' < 'invisible caller (in Sufism)'; جريدة jarīdah 'newspaper' < 'palm-leaf stalk'). Colloquial or dialectal Arabic refers to
10696-402: The Zengids ; and on November 23 he was welcomed in Damascus by the governor of the city. By 1175, he had taken control of Hama and Homs but failed to take Aleppo after besieging it. Control of Homs was handed to the descendants of Shirkuh in 1179 and Hama was given to Saladin's nephew, al-Muzaffar Umar. Saladin's successes alarmed Emir Saif al-Din of Mosul , the head of the Zengids at
10887-411: The eunuch Badr al-Din Sawabi to act as his governor in Karak. In 1248, a Crusader fleet of 1,800 boats and ships arrived in Cyprus with the intent of launching a Seventh Crusade against the Muslims by conquering Egypt. Their commander, Louis IX , attempted to enlist the Mongols to launch a coordinated attack on Egypt, but when this failed to materialize, the Crusader force sailed to Damietta and
11078-494: 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
11269-419: 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
11460-876: The "purest," most eloquent form of Arabic—initiating a process of jamʿu‿l-luɣah ( جمع اللغة 'compiling the language') which took place over the 8th and early 9th centuries. Kitāb al-'Ayn ( c. 8th century ), attributed to Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi , is considered the first lexicon to include all Arabic roots ; it sought to exhaust all possible root permutations —later called taqālīb ( تقاليب ) — calling those that are actually used mustaʿmal ( مستعمَل ) and those that are not used muhmal ( مُهمَل ). Lisān al-ʿArab (1290) by Ibn Manzur gives 9,273 roots, while Tāj al-ʿArūs (1774) by Murtada az-Zabidi gives 11,978 roots. Ayyubid dynasty The Ayyubid dynasty ( Arabic : الأيوبيون , romanized : al-Ayyūbīyūn ; Kurdish : ئەیووبییەکان , romanized : Eyûbiyan ), also known as
11651-410: The 'State of the Kurds' or 'Kurdish regime' 'Kurdish Kings/Kingdom', or 'Ayyubid Kurdish State' by Taqi al-Din al-Subki ( Arabic : ملوک الأکراد ,دولة الأکراد,الدولة الأيوبية الکردية , romanized : Dawlat al-Akrād, Al-Dawlat Al-Ayyūbīya Al-Kurdīya, Mūlūk Al-Akrād ). The progenitor of the Ayyubid dynasty, Najm ad-Din Ayyub ibn Shadhi , belonged to the Kurdish Rawadiya tribe, itself
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#173277994047311842-454: 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
12033-463: The 48th Ismāʿīlī Imām – Sulṭān Muḥammad Shāh Āgā Khān III – who endorses a universalist position in regards to salvation and specifically states in his Memoirs that he prays “ that all may be reconciled in Heaven in a final total absolution ”. The position of Āgā Khān III can be said to be generally in line with classical Ismāʿīlī views, as well as the views of the falāsifa and Sunnī-Sufīs like Ibn ʿArabi (such as in his Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya ) and those of
12224-462: The 4th to the 6th centuries, the Nabataean script evolved into the Arabic script recognizable from the early Islamic era. There are inscriptions in an undotted, 17-letter Arabic script dating to the 6th century CE, found at four locations in Syria ( Zabad , Jebel Usays , Harran , Umm el-Jimal ). The oldest surviving papyrus in Arabic dates to 643 CE, and it uses dots to produce the modern 28-letter Arabic alphabet. The language of that papyrus and of
12415-603: The 8th century, knowledge of Classical Arabic had become an essential prerequisite for rising into the higher classes throughout the Islamic world, both for Muslims and non-Muslims. For example, Maimonides , the Andalusi Jewish philosopher, authored works in Judeo-Arabic —Arabic written in Hebrew script . Ibn Jinni of Mosul , a pioneer in phonology , wrote prolifically in the 10th century on Arabic morphology and phonology in works such as Kitāb Al-Munṣif , Kitāb Al-Muḥtasab , and Kitāb Al-Khaṣāʾiṣ [ ar ] . Ibn Mada' of Cordoba (1116–1196) realized
12606-415: The Aga Khan Development Network is funded by donations and offerings given by the followers of the Aga Khan. Arabic language Arabic (endonym: اَلْعَرَبِيَّةُ , romanized : al-ʿarabiyyah , pronounced [al ʕaraˈbijːa] , or عَرَبِيّ , ʿarabīy , pronounced [ˈʕarabiː] or [ʕaraˈbij] ) is a Central Semitic language of
12797-456: The Almohads, who had one of the largest navies in the Mediterranean. In 1189–1190, he sent letters to Yaqub al-Mansur requesting naval support in Palestine, which the Almohad caliph declined. Various explanations for this refusal have been suggest by historians, including the Almohads' focus on al-Andalus , ideological differences between the two Muslim states, and the distrust caused by Qaraqush's invasion of Ifriqiya . The Crusaders, now under
12988-422: The Asadiyya and Salahiyya, both of which Shirkuh and Saladin had purchased. The Salahiyya backed al-Adil in his struggles against al-Afdal. With their support, al-Adil conquered Cairo in 1200, and forced al-Afdal to accept internal banishment. He proclaimed himself Sultan of Egypt and Syria afterward and entrusted the governance of Damascus to al-Mu'azzam and al-Jazira to his other son al-Kamil . Also around 1200,
13179-405: The Ayyubid empire in jeopardy. Thus, in 1194, Uthman openly demanded the sultanate. Uthman's claim to the throne was settled in a series of assaults on Damascus in 1196, forcing al-Afdal to leave for a lesser post at Salkhad . Al-Adil established himself in Damascus as a lieutenant of Uthman, but wielded great influence within the empire. When Uthman died in a hunting accident near Cairo, al-Afdal
13370-430: The Ayyubid-Crusader truce. Al-Kamil's forces reached Damascus to enforce the proposed agreement in May 1229. The ensuing siege levied significant pressure on the inhabitants, but they rallied to an-Nasir Dawud, having been supportive of his father's stable rule and angered at the treaty with Frederick. After one month, an-Nasir Dawud sued for peace and was granted a new principality, centered around Karak, while al-Ashraf,
13561-404: The Ayyubids aimed to dominate the Red Sea trade routes which Egypt depended on and so sought to tighten their grip over the Hejaz, where an important trade stop, Yanbu , was located. To favor trade in the direction of the Red Sea, the Ayyubids built facilities along the Red Sea- Indian Ocean trade routes to accompany merchants. The Ayyubids also aspired to back their claims of legitimacy within
13752-625: The Ayyubids into conflict with the Almohads who ruled the Maghreb . In 1177, Saladin led a force of some 26,000 soldiers, according to Crusader chronicler William of Tyre , into southern Palestine after hearing that most of the Kingdom of Jerusalem 's soldiers were besieging Harem, Syria west of Aleppo. Suddenly attacked by the Templars under Baldwin IV of Jerusalem near Ramla , the Ayyubid army
13943-447: The Ayyubids marched south to Ascalon. Facing stubborn resistance from the Crusader garrison, an Egyptian flotilla was sent by as-Salih Ayyub to support the siege and on 24 October, Fakhr ad-Din's troops stormed through a breach in the walls and killed or captured the entire garrison. The city was razed and left deserted. As-Salih Ayyub returned to Damascus to keep an eye on developments in northern Syria. Al-Ashraf Musa of Homs had ceded
14134-458: The Ayyubids raided Samaria , burning down Nablus . Saladin returned to Damascus in September 1184 and a relative peace between the Crusader states and the Ayyubid empire subsequently ensued in 1184–1185. Saladin launched his last offensive against Mosul in late 1185, hoping for an easy victory over a presumably demoralized Mas'ud, but failed due to the city's unexpectedly stiff resistance and
14325-680: The Ayyubids with the intention of restoring Fatimid rule. His main backers were the local Bedouin tribes and the Nubians, but he also enjoyed the support of a multitude of other groups, including the Armenians . Coincidental or possibly in coordination, was an uprising by Abbas ibn Shadi who overran Qus along the Nile River in central Egypt. Both rebellions were crushed by al-Adil. For the rest of that year and throughout early 1176, Qaraqush continued his raids in western North Africa , bringing
14516-610: The Ayyubids, like their Fatimid predecessors, were discouraged from further southward expansion into Nubia due to the poverty of the region, but required Nubia to guarantee the protection of Aswan and Upper Egypt . The Ayyubid garrison in Ibrim withdrew to Egypt in 1175. Throughout the 1170s, the Ayyubids continued to push west as well. Sharaf al-Din Qaraqush , a commander under al-Muzaffar Taqi al-Din Umar, led most of these expeditions on
14707-472: The Ayyubids, whose control of it had been weakened due to their troubled situation in Yemen proper. Following Mas'ud ibn Kamil's death in 1229, Nur ad-Din Umar declared his independence and discontinued the annual tribute payment to the Ayyubids in Egypt. Under Frederick II , a Sixth Crusade was launched, capitalizing on the ongoing strife between al-Kamil of Egypt and al-Mu'azzam of Syria. Subsequently, al-Kamil offered Jerusalem to Frederick to help prevent
14898-486: The Ayyubids. Aleppo formally entered Ayyubid hands on 12 June. The day after, Saladin marched to Harim, near the Crusader-held Antioch and captured the city when its garrison forced out their leader, Surhak , who was then briefly detained and released by al-Muzaffar Umar. The surrender of Aleppo and Saladin's allegiance with Zangi II had left Izz al-Din al-Mas'ud of Mosul the only major Muslim rival of
15089-573: The Ayyubids. Mosul had been subjected to a short siege in the autumn of 1182, but after mediation by the Abbasid caliph an-Nasir , Saladin withdrew his forces. Mas'ud attempted to align himself with the Artuqids of Mardin , but they became allies of Saladin instead. In 1183, Irbil too switched allegiance to the Ayyubids. Mas'ud then sought the support of Pahlawan ibn Muhammad , the governor of Azerbaijan , and although he did not usually intervene in
15280-610: The Bahri Mamluks revolted against the sultan and killed him in April 1250. Aybak married Shajar al-Durr and subsequently took over the government in Egypt in the name of al-Ashraf II who became sultan, but only nominally. Intent on restoring the supremacy of Saladin's direct descendants within the Ayyubid family, an-Nasir Yusuf was eventually able to enlist the backing of all of the Syria-based Ayyubid emirs in
15471-619: The Crusader army could not be defeated in a direct fight. Prolonged campaigns also involved the difficulties of maintaining a coherent Muslim coalition. The trend under al-Adil was the steady growth of the empire, mainly through the expansion of Ayyubid authority in al-Jazira and incorporation of Shah-Armen domains (in eastern Anatolia ). The Abbasids eventually recognized al-Adil's role as sultan in 1207. By 1208 Kingdom of Georgia challenged Ayyubid rule in eastern Anatolia and besieged Khilat (possessions of al-Awhad). In response al-Adil assembled and personally led large Muslim army that included
15662-649: The Fatimid Court and Fatimid Dawa in Cairo , the capital city of the Fatimids, to endorse Musta'li, which they did, realizing that the army was behind the palace coup. In early 1095, Nizar fled to Alexandria , where he received the people's support and where he was accepted as the next Fatimid Caliph-Imam after Al-Mustansir, with gold dinars being minted in Alexandria in Nizar's name (one such coin, found in 1994,
15853-588: The Henrique de Mendonça Palace, located on Rua Marquês de Fronteira in Lisbon , as the " Diwan (seat) of the Ismaili Imamat " ( Portuguese : Divã do Imamato Ismaeli ). Including: Nizari Ismaili theology is the pre-eminent negative or apophatic theology of Islam because it affirms the absolute Oneness of God ( tawhid ) through negating all names, descriptions, conceptions, and limitations from God. The Ismaili theology of tawhid goes back to
16044-796: The Ismaili Imams in their prayer recitation then the present Imam Prince Karim of the Nizari Ismailis would have to be the 50th Imam and not the 49th Imam - the way he has identified himself and is known to the world. All Nizārī Ismā'īlīs now accept Prince Shah Karim Al-Husayni, the Aga Khan IV , as their Imām-i-Zaman (Imam of the Time). He is referred to in Persian as Khudawand (Lord of the Time), in Arabic as Maulana (Master) or Hāzar Imām (Present Imam). Karim succeeded his grandfather Sir Sultan Muhammad Shah Aga Khan III as Imām in 1957, when he
16235-587: The Ismaili community's economic prosperity lies an ethos of mutual support and help existing within the community and devotion to the Imam This can result in commercial cooperation and marriages within the community. The present Imam regularly bestows worldly and spiritual guidance to the community. Following an agreement with the Republic of Portugal in 2015, on 11 July 2018, the Aga Khan officially designated
16426-529: The Ismaili theology of tawhid using the strongest philosophical arguments of their time. Even in the present age, Imam Shah Karim al-Husayni Aga Khan IV, the present and 49th hereditary Imam of the Shi‘a Ismaili Muslims, continues to stress the absolute and utter transcendence of God. At the 1975 All-Ismailia Paris Conference, the Ismaili Imam endorsed and approved the following resolution concerning
16617-703: The Khwarizmids at Hirbiya , near Gaza. A large battle ensued , resulting in a major victory for as-Salih Ayyub and the virtual collapse of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. In 1244–1245, as-Salih Ayyub had seized the area approximate to the modern-day West Bank from an-Nasir Dawud; he gained possession of Jerusalem, then marched on to take Damascus, which fell with relative ease in October 1245. Shortly afterward, Sayf al-Din Ali surrendered his exposed principality of Ajlun and its fortress to as-Salih Ayyub. The rupture of
16808-588: The Lord of Resurrection, pronounce his Truth, and await his appearance. They are in that Light, acquiring knowledge, blessed, and rejoicing. The other class consists of those who deny him and ignore his rank. They are in the Light also, but are burned and punished ” Paradise and Hellfire in the Nizārī Ismāʿīlī tradition, thus, are not characterized by material forms, sensual pleasures, and physical burning, rather Paradise
16999-412: 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
17190-455: The Mongols, maintained the Ayyubid principality of Hama until deposing its last ruler in 1341. Despite their relatively short tenure, the Ayyubid dynasty had a transformative effect on the region, particularly Egypt. Under the Ayyubids, Egypt, which had previously been a formally Shi'a caliphate , became the dominant Sunni political and military force, and the economic and cultural centre of
17381-617: The Nizari Fidai themselves joined Saladin's forces to defeat the Crusaders in the last great battle between the two forces. Later on, when "the Nizaris faced renewed Frankish hostilities, they received timely assistance from the Ayyubids". The Fidais' apparent lack of fear of personal injury or even death could not be understood by the Crusaders, who propagated the black legends of the so-called Assassins . According to Daftary, these were "fictions ... meant to provide satisfactory explanations for behavior that would otherwise seem strange to
17572-747: The Nizari branch of Ismailism in the 14th and 15th centuries. Following the death of 28th Imam Shams al-Din Muhammad , the Nizari Isma'ili split was into two groups: the Mu'mini Nizari (or, Muhammad-Shahi Nizari) who considered his elder son Ala al-Din Mu'min Shah to be the next Imam followed by his son Muhammad Shah, and the Qasimi Nizari (or, Qasim-Shahi Nizari) who consider his younger son Qasim Shah to be
17763-581: The Platonic idea of a philosopher king . Over the many phases of Nizārī Ismāʿīlī history – pre-Fāṭimid, Fāṭimid, Alamūt, Post-Alamūt, Anjudan, etc., there has never been a single unified view of eschatology. While there are certainly eschatological ideas from the Pre-Fāṭimid period that have been carried unto the present day, particularly those of Abū Ya’qūb al-Sijistānī and his intellectual disciples, each phase has brought in original ideas and renewed those of
17954-639: 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
18145-522: The Romance languages. Also, while it is comprehensible to people from the Maghreb , a linguistically innovative variety such as Moroccan Arabic is essentially incomprehensible to Arabs from the Mashriq , much as French is incomprehensible to Spanish or Italian speakers but relatively easily learned by them. This suggests that the spoken varieties may linguistically be considered separate languages. With
18336-689: The Shīʿī ʿIrfān tradition, like Mullā Ṣadra (such as in his Tafsīr Sūrat al-Fātiḥa ). Unlike many other groups, inter-faith marriages are recognized by the community. In addition to the other Abrahamic faiths, the prevalence of Nizari Ismailis of South Asian descent has resulted in growing numbers married to those of Dharmic faiths , such as Hinduism , Buddhism , and Jainism , as well as other Indian religions, such as Sikhism and Zoroastrianism . The Aga Khan IV has said that he has no objection to increasingly-common mixed marriages, and has met non-Ismaili spouses and children during his various deedars throughout
18527-521: The abstention food, drink and sensual pleasure. The latter refers to the abstention from communicating the esoteric knowledge of revelation ( tanzīl ) and interpretation ( ta’wīl ) to those who are not ready to receive it. A third kind of fasting known as ḥaqīqī ṣawm (real fasting) is the abstention from anything (in thought, word, or deed) which is contrary to the Command of God. This kind is observed year-round. The Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN)
18718-573: The all-powerful Armenian Vizier and Commander of the Armies, wanted to assert, like his father before him, dictatorial rule over the Fatimid State. Al-Afdal engineered a palace coup , placing his brother-in-law, the much younger and dependent Al-Musta'li , on the Fatimid throne. Al-Afdal claimed that Al-Mustansir had made a deathbed decree in favour of Musta'li and thus got the Ismaili leaders of
18909-559: The alliance between the Khwarizmids and as-Salih Ayyub ended with the virtual destruction of the former by al-Mansur Ibrahim , the Ayyubid emir of Homs, in October 1246. With the Khwarizimid defeat, as-Salih Ayyub was able to complete the conquest of southern Syria. His general Fakhr ad-Din went on to subdue an-Nasir Dawud's territories. He sacked the lower town of Karak, then besieged its fortress. A stalemate followed with neither an-Nasir Dawud or Fakhr ad-Din strong enough to dislodge
19100-445: The alms-tax ( zakat ). The latter was to be collected from their livestock. In late 1172, Aswan was besieged by former Fatimid soldiers from Nubia and the governor of the city, Kanz al-Dawla —a former Fatimid loyalist—requested reinforcements from Saladin who complied. The reinforcements had come after the Nubians had already departed Aswan, but Ayyubid forces led by Turan-Shah advanced and conquered northern Nubia after capturing
19291-568: The arrangement and al-Aziz Uthman held Cairo, while his eldest son, al-Afdal retained Damascus, which also included Palestine and much of Mount Lebanon . Al-Adil then acquired al-Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia), where he held the Zengids of Mosul at bay. In 1193, Mas'ud of Mosul joined forces with Zangi II of Sinjar and together the Zengid coalition moved to conquer al-Jazira. However, before any major results could be achieved, Mas'ud fell ill and returned to Mosul, and al-Adil then compelled Zangi to make
19482-540: The arrival of reinforcements. As-Salih Ayyub's son and the newly proclaimed Ayyubid sultan al-Mu'azzam Turan-Shah reached Mansurah at this point and intensified the battle against the Crusaders. The latter ultimately surrendered at the Battle of Fariskur , and King Louis and his companions were arrested. Al-Mu'azzam Turan-Shah alienated the Mamluks soon after their victory at Mansurah and constantly threatened them and Shajar al-Durr. Fearing for their positions of power,
19673-507: The battlefield to Mosul via Tikrit, Zangi took shelter with Ayyub and sought his assistance in this task. Ayyub complied and provided Zangi and his companions boats to cross the Tigris River and safely reach Mosul. As a consequence for assisting Zangi, the Abbasid authorities sought punitive measures against Ayyub. Simultaneously, in a separate incident, Shirkuh killed a close confidant of Bihruz on charges that he had sexually assaulted
19864-688: The cause for the suicidal jump. Sinan pointed once again to the Fidai who had taken the place of the now dead Fidai. Again Sinan gave a signal to the Fidai to jump and the second Fidai also called out "allah hu akbar" and jumped to his death. Henry was visibly shaken by the experience of witnessing the two Fidais' total disregard for their own lives. He accepted Sinan's terms of peace on a non-tribute-paying basis. The Nizaris thus averted debilitating wars against them because of their Fidais' feats of self-sacrifice and assassinations of powerful enemy leaders to demonstrate
20055-643: The city, which fell in December 1246. By May 1247, as-Salih Ayyub was master of Syria south of Lake Homs , having gained control over Banyas and Salkhad. With his fellow Ayyubid opponents subdued, except for Aleppo under an-Nasir Yusuf , as-Salih Ayyub undertook a limited offensive against the Crusaders, sending Fakhr ad-Din to move against their territories in the Galilee. Tiberias fell on 16 June, followed by Mount Tabor and Kawkab al-Hawa soon thereafter. Safad with its Templar fortress seemed out of reach, so
20246-583: The city. Although the treaty held little military significance, an-Nasir Dawud used it as a pretext to provoke the sentiments of Syria's inhabitants. A Friday sermon by a popular preacher at the Umayyad Mosque "reduced the crowd to violent sobbing and tears". The settlement with the Crusaders was accompanied by a proposed redistribution of the Ayyubid principalities whereby Damascus and its territories would by governed by al-Ashraf, who recognized al-Kamil's sovereignty. An-Nasir Dawud resisted, incensed by
20437-489: The coast and received the surrender of Sarepta , Sidon , Beirut , and Jableh . In August, the Ayyubids conquered Ramla , Darum , Gaza , Bayt Jibrin , and Latrun . Ascalon was taken on 4 September. In September–October 1187, the Ayyubids besieged Jerusalem , taking possession of it on 2 October, after negotiations with Balian of Ibelin . Karak and Mont Real in Transjordan soon fell, followed by Safad in
20628-405: The community, annihilationist views have existed as well, specifically being introduced by Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī. Like both al-Sijistānī and Nāṣir-i Khusraw, Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī believed that paradise and hell were spiritual and mental states that the soul experiences and not physical places or sensual pains and desires. While Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī believed that the punishment of ignorant, damned souls
20819-638: The construction of a college for the Maliki school of jurisprudence of Sunni Islam in the city, and another for the Shafi'i school, to which he belonged, in al-Fustat . In 1171, al-Adid died and Saladin took advantage of this power vacuum, effectively taking control of the country. Upon seizing power, he switched Egypt's allegiance to the Baghdad -based Abbasid Caliphate which adhered to Sunni Islam. Saladin went to Alexandria in 1171–72 and found himself facing
21010-579: The contemporary Ismaili position on the concept of God: The absolute transcendence of God to be emphasized, and the Ismaili belief in God to be expounded in association with the general stress on the transcendence of God in the Qur’an, as exemplified particularly in the Surat al-Ikhlas. The Ismaili Concept of tawhid can be summarized as follows: The full recognition of tawhid, in a mode beyond human rational discourse,
21201-574: The conversion of Semitic mimation to nunation in the singular. It is best reassessed as a separate language on the Central Semitic dialect continuum. It was also thought that Old Arabic coexisted alongside—and then gradually displaced— epigraphic Ancient North Arabian (ANA), which was theorized to have been the regional tongue for many centuries. ANA, despite its name, was considered a very distinct language, and mutually unintelligible, from "Arabic". Scholars named its variant dialects after
21392-536: The dilemma of having many supporters in the city, but little money. A family council was held there by the Ayyubid emirs of Egypt where it was decided that al-Muzaffar Taqi al-Din Umar , Saladin's nephew, would launch an expedition against the coastal region of Barqa ( Cyrenaica ) west of Egypt with a force of 500 cavalry. In order to justify the raid, a letter was sent to the Bedouin tribes of Barqa, rebuking them for their robberies of travelers and ordering them to pay
21583-407: The early 1240s, as-Salih Ayyub carried out reprisals against those who supported al-Adil II, and he then quarreled with an-Nasir Dawud who had reconciled with as-Salih Ismail of Damascus. The rival sultans as-Salih Ayyub and Ismail attempted to ally with the Crusaders against the other. In 1244, the breakaway Ayyubids of Syria allied with the Crusaders and confronted the coalition of as-Salih Ayyub and
21774-455: The eastern Galilee on 3 July 1187 and the Crusader army attempted to attack the Ayyubids by way of Kafr Kanna . After hearing of the Crusaders' march, Saladin led his guard back to their main camp at Kafr Sabt , leaving a small detachment at Tiberias. With a clear view of the Crusader army, Saladin ordered al-Muzaffar Umar to block the Crusaders' entry from Hattin by taking a position near Lubya , while Gökböri and his troops were stationed at
21965-587: The emergence of Central Semitic languages, particularly in grammar. Innovations of the Central Semitic languages—all maintained in Arabic—include: There are several features which Classical Arabic, the modern Arabic varieties, as well as the Safaitic and Hismaic inscriptions share which are unattested in any other Central Semitic language variety, including the Dadanitic and Taymanitic languages of
22156-514: The emirs of Homs, Hama and Baalbek as well as contingents from other Ayyubid principalities to support al-Awhad. During the siege, Georgian general Ivane Mkhargrdzeli accidentally fell into the hands of the al-Awhad on the outskirts of Khilat and was released in 1210, only after the Georgians agreed to sign a Thirty Years' Truce . The truce ended the Georgian menace to Ayyubid Armenia, leaving
22347-807: The eschatology of the South Asian traditions of Nizārī Ismāʿīlism. The Ismāʿīlīs, like the falāsifa (Islamic Neoplatonic-Aristotelian philosophers), have understood resurrection, paradise, and hell through taʾwīl (esoteric interpretation) and, thus, have all argued that these are spiritual realities and not physical, material realities. On the rewards of Paradise, al-Sijistānī writes in the Kitāb al-Yanābīʿ : لما كان قصارى الثواب انما هي اللذة ، وكانت اللذة الحسية منقطعة زائلة ، وجب ان تكون التي ينالها المثاب ازلية غير فانية ، باقية غير منقطعة . وليست لذة بسيطة باقية على حالاتها غير لذة العلم . كان من هذا القول وجوب لذه العلم للمثاب في دار البقاء ، كما قال الله عز وجل : اكلها دائم وظلها تلك عقبى الذين اتقوا “ Because
22538-728: 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
22729-595: The extended Ayyubid family, particularly a number of local governors in Syria, did not entirely back Saladin. Saladin consolidated his control in Egypt after ordering Turan-Shah to put down a revolt in Cairo staged by the Fatimid army 's 50,000-strong Nubian regiments. After this success, Saladin began granting his family members high-ranking positions in the country and increased Sunni Muslim influence in Shia Muslim-dominated Cairo by ordering
22920-607: The fact that they participate in the innovations common to all forms of Arabic. The earliest attestation of continuous Arabic text in an ancestor of the modern Arabic script are three lines of poetry by a man named Garm(')allāhe found in En Avdat, Israel , and dated to around 125 CE. This is followed by the Namara inscription , an epitaph of the Lakhmid king Imru' al-Qays bar 'Amro, dating to 328 CE, found at Namaraa, Syria. From
23111-476: The first detailed catalogue of (Nizari and Fatimid) Ismaili works, citing some 700 separate titles attesting to the hitherto unknown richness and diversity of (Nizari and Fatimid) Ismaili literature and literary traditions". The Nizari Ismailis have since split from others, initially from the Qarmatians , Druze , Musta'li Ismailis, Muhammad Shahi Nizari Ismailis, and Satpanthis , the last two splitting from
23302-510: The fourth most useful language for business, after English, Mandarin Chinese , and French. Arabic is written with the Arabic alphabet , an abjad script that is written from right to left . Arabic is usually classified as a Central Semitic language . Linguists still differ as to the best classification of Semitic language sub-groups. The Semitic languages changed between Proto-Semitic and
23493-517: The frontier. He captured Siwa in 1172 and conquered Cyrenaica before 1174. He subsequently conquered Tripoli with an army of Turks and Kurds, joined by Arab troops from some of the region's Bedouin tribes. The exact date of Tripoli's capture is uncertain, but happened sometime in the 1170s or early 1180s. While some Ayyubid forces fought the Crusaders in the Levant, Qaraqush's forces went on to capture most of Ifriqiya (present-day Tunisia ) from
23684-579: The governor of Diyar Bakr, assumed the governorship of Damascus. Meanwhile, the Seljuks were advancing towards al-Jazira. The descendants of Qatada ibn Idris challenged Ayyubid rule in Mecca. The Rasulids took advantage of this to end Ayyubid suzerainty in the Hejaz and bring the region under their control, which they accomplished in 1238 when Nur al-Din Umar captured Mecca. Al-Ashraf's rule in Damascus
23875-494: The important stronghold of Salamiyah to as-Salih Ayyub the previous winter, perhaps to underline their patron-client relationship. This troubled the Ayyubids of Aleppo who feared it would be used as a base for a military take-over of their city. An-Nasir Yusuf found this intolerable and decided to annex Homs in the winter of 1248. The city surrendered in August and an-Nasir Yusuf's terms forced al-Ashraf Musa to hand over Homs, but he
24066-597: 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
24257-613: 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
24448-550: The late 6th century AD, a relatively uniform intertribal "poetic koine" distinct from the spoken vernaculars developed based on the Bedouin dialects of Najd , probably in connection with the court of al-Ḥīra . During the first Islamic century, the majority of Arabic poets and Arabic-writing persons spoke Arabic as their mother tongue. Their texts, although mainly preserved in far later manuscripts, contain traces of non-standardized Classical Arabic elements in morphology and syntax. Abu al-Aswad al-Du'ali ( c. 603 –689)
24639-420: 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
24830-597: The latter's final pilgrimage to Mecca , and continues in an unbroken chain to the current Imam, Shah Karim Al-Husayni, the Aga Khan . From early in his reign, the Fatimid Caliph-Imam Al-Mustansir Billah had publicly named his elder son Nizar as his heir to be the next Fatimid Caliph-Imam. Dai Hassan-i Sabbah , who had studied and accepted Ismailism in Fatimid Egypt, had been made aware of this fact personally by al-Mustansir. After Al-Mustansir died in 1094, Al-Afdal Shahanshah ,
25021-487: The life of his followers. The Aga Khan has encouraged Ismā'īlī Muslims settled in the industrialized world to contribute towards the progress of communities in the developing world through various development programs. The Economist noted that Isma'ili immigrant communities integrated seamlessly as immigrant communities and did better at attaining graduate and post-graduate degrees, "far surpassing their native, Hindu, Sikh, fellow Muslims, and Chinese communities". One aspect of
25212-420: The limit of reward is pleasure, and sensual pleasure is ephemeral, and it is necessary that the reward which is obtained be eternal and not ephemeral, everlasting and not discontinuous. And there is no simple, everlasting pleasure except the pleasure of knowledge. From this statement, it necessarily follows that the pleasure of knowledge is the reward in the hereafter, as God, glorified and sublime, said: “Its fruit
25403-431: The local population there fled as soon as they landed. When as-Salih Ayyub, who was in Syria at the time, heard of this, he rushed back to Egypt, avoiding Damietta, instead reaching Mansurah. There, he organized an army and raised a commando force which harassed the Crusaders. As-Salih Ayyub was ill and his health deteriorated further due to the mounting pressure from the Crusader offensive. His wife Shajar al-Durr called
25594-444: The location of the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina, he was the first ruler to be hailed as the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques , a title that would be held by all subsequent sultans of Egypt until the Ottoman conquest of 1517. Saladin's military campaigns in the first decade of his rule, aimed at uniting the various Arab and Muslim states in the region against the Crusaders , set the general borders and sphere of influence of
25785-883: 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
25976-411: The medieval Western mind". These black legends were then further popularized in the Western world by Marco Polo , the Venetian storyteller who had, in fact, never investigated Sinan, in contradiction to his claim that he had. Polo asserted that Sinan fed hashish to his drugged followers, the so-called Hashishins (Assassins), so as to fortify them with the type of courage to commit the assassinations of
26167-552: The most intrepid kind. This tale of the "Old Man of the Mountain" was assembled by Marco Polo and accepted by Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall , a 19th-century Austrian orientalist responsible for much of the spread of this legend. Until the 1930s, Hammer-Purgstall's retelling of Marco Polo's fiction served as the standard description of the Nizari Ismailis across Europe. "The Russian orientalist Vladimir Alexeyevich Ivanov ... gained access also to Nizari literature preserved in Central Asia, Persia, Afghanistan and elsewhere ... compiled
26358-624: The need for a lexical injection in Arabic, to suit concepts of the industrial and post-industrial age (such as sayyārah سَيَّارَة 'automobile' or bākhirah باخِرة 'steamship'). In response, a number of Arabic academies modeled after the Académie française were established with the aim of developing standardized additions to the Arabic lexicon to suit these transformations, first in Damascus (1919), then in Cairo (1932), Baghdad (1948), Rabat (1960), Amman (1977), Khartum [ ar ] (1993), and Tunis (1993). They review language development, monitor new words and approve
26549-415: The next Imam. The final known 40th Imam of the Mu'mini Nizari, Amir Muhammad al-Baqir ibn Haydar al-Mutahhar disappeared in 1796. The Mu'mini line has diminished today to a few thousand followers in Syria, while the Qasim-Shahi line has ended up representing most modern Isma'ilis, and is led today by the Aga Khans . The Nizaris regard Hassan bin (son of) Ali as a Trustee Imam (imam al-mustawda) as opposed to
26740-455: The next year, in 1193. Rather than establishing a centralized empire, Saladin had established hereditary ownership throughout his lands, dividing his empire among his kinsmen, with family members presiding over semi-autonomous fiefs and principalities. Although these princes ( emirs ) owed allegiance to the Ayyubid sultan, they maintained relative independence in their own territories. Upon Saladin's death, az-Zahir took Aleppo from al-Adil per
26931-449: The northeastern Galilee. By the end of 1187 the Ayyubids were in control of virtually the entire Crusader kingdom in the Levant with the exception of Tyre , which held out under Conrad of Montferrat . In December 1187, an Ayyubid army consisting of the garrisons of Saladin and his brothers from Aleppo, Hama, and Egypt besieged Tyre. Half of the Muslim naval fleet was seized by Conrad's forces on 29 December, followed by an Ayyubid defeat on
27122-399: The official capital of Ayyubid Yemen was Ta'iz . The advent of the Ayyubids marked the beginning of a period of renewed prosperity in the city which saw the improvement of its commercial infrastructure, the establishment of new institutions, and the minting of its own coins. Following this prosperity, the Ayyubids implemented a new tax which was collected by galleys . Turan-Shah drove out
27313-424: 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
27504-402: The other's forces. A settlement was eventually reached whereby an-Nasir Dawud would retain the fortress, but cede the remainder of his principality to as-Salih Ayyub. Having settled the situation in Palestine and Transjordan, Fakhr ad-Din moved north and marched to Bosra , the last place still held by Ismail. During the siege, Fakhr ad-Din fell ill, but his commanders continued the assault against
27695-428: The outwardly apparent ( zahir ), and also to penetrate to the roots, to retrieve and disclose that which is the inner underlying ( batin ). This process of discovery engages both the intellect ( 'aql ) and the spirit ( ruh ), generating an integral synergy to illuminate and disclose truths ( haqi'qat ) culminating in gnosis ( ma'rifat ). Parallels have also been noted between the Nizari version of Imamah and
27886-549: 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
28077-404: The passage above that both classes of people are exposed to same Light (فهم بذلك النور ايضاً), however one class experiences this Light as blessings whilst the other experiences it as burning. These states correspond not to location, but to the level of knowledge in the soul. Additionally, the most famous intellectual disciple of al- Sijistānī – Nāṣir-i Khusraw – writes in the Shish Fasl : “ [I]t
28268-454: The past. The academic field of Ismāʿīlī eschatology is one that has been rarely studied in western secondary literature, and the little work that has been done on Ismāʿīlī eschatology primarily surrounds the event of the proclamation of a qiyāmah during the Alamūt period. Otherwise, there have been zero studies published on the eschatologies of pre-Fāṭimid Ismāʿīlī thinkers and post-Alamūt Ismaili thinkers. Furthermore, no work done has been done on
28459-414: The primacy of the jihad (struggle) against the Crusader states. Al-Afdal, however, found that his attachment to Damascus contributed to his undoing. Several of his father's subordinate emirs left the city for Cairo to lobby Uthman to oust him on claims he was inexperienced and intended to oust the Ayyubid old guard. Al-Adil further encouraged Uthman to act in order prevent al-Afdal's incompetence putting
28650-474: The proclamation of younger brother al-Adil II as sultan in Cairo. As-Salih Ayyub eventually occupied Damascus in December 1238, but his uncle Ismail retrieved the city in September 1239. Ismail's cousin an-Nasir Dawud had Ismail detained in Karak in a move to prevent the latter's arrest by al-Adil II. Ismail entered into an alliance with Dawud who released him the following year, allowing him to proclaim himself sultan in place of al-Adil II in May 1240. Throughout
28841-406: The region by constructing numerous madrasas (Islamic schools of law) in their major cities. Even after being toppled by the Mamluks, the sultanate built by Saladin and the Ayyubids would continue in Egypt, the Levant and the Hijaz for another 267 years. Medieval Arab historians such as ibn ilyas , al-Khazrajî , al-Maqrizi , Ibn Taghribirdi and ibn khaldun referred to the Ayyubid dynasty as
29032-410: 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
29223-403: The region, a status that it would retain until it was conquered by the Ottomans in 1517. Throughout the sultanate, Ayyubid rule ushered in an era of economic prosperity, and the facilities and patronage provided by the Ayyubids led to a resurgence in intellectual activity in the Islamic world . This period was also marked by an Ayyubid process of vigorously strengthening Sunni Muslim dominance in
29414-490: The region, the possibility of Pahlawan's intervention made Saladin cautious about launching further attacks against Mosul. An arrangement was negotiated whereby al-Adil was to administer Aleppo in the name of Saladin's son al-Afdal , while Egypt would be governed by al-Muzaffar Umar in the name of Saladin's other son Uthman . When the two sons were to come of age they would assume power in the two territories, but if any died, one of Saladin's brothers would take their place. In
29605-422: The reinforcements from Europe. From 1189 to 1191, Acre was besieged by the Crusaders, and despite initial Muslim successes, it fell to Crusader forces. A massacre of 2,700 Muslim prisoners of war ensued, and the Crusaders then made plans to take Ascalon in the south. As the Ayyubids faced a Crusader naval blockade in Acre and a steady flow of Crusader reinforcements arriving by sea, Saladin sought assistance from
29796-431: The remaining Hamdanid rulers of Sana'a , conquering the mountainous city in 1175. With the conquest of Yemen, the Ayyubids developed a coastal fleet, al-asakir al-bahriyya , which they used to guard the sea coasts under their control and protect them from pirate raids. The conquest held great significance for Yemen because the Ayyubids managed to unite the previous three independent states (Zabid, Aden, and Sana'a) under
29987-411: The restoration of Palestine to the Kingdom of Jerusalem, with the exception of the forts of Mont Real and Karak. This was refused by the leader of the Fifth Crusade , Pelagius of Albano , and in 1221, the Crusaders were driven out of the Nile Delta after the Ayyubid victory at Mansura . In the east, the Khwarezemids under Jalal ad-Din Mingburnu captured the town of Khilat from al-Ashraf, while
30178-458: 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
30369-494: The same spiritual abode but those souls which are ignorant will experience pain, as if “ being placed in the midst of fire ”. While Nāṣir-i Khusraw suggests here the suffering is eternal, he has in another text – specifically the Wajh-i Dīn – indicated that the pains of Hell are temporary and that the Prophet will come on the Day of Resurrection to blow out the fires of Hell and rescue its inhabitants. While both infernalist and universalist positions have existed as legitimate views in
30560-453: The shoreline of the city. On 1 January 1188, Saladin held a war council where a withdrawal from Tripoli was agreed. Pope Gregory VIII called for a Third Crusade against the Muslims in early 1189. Frederick Barbarossa of the Holy Roman Empire , Philip Augustus of France, and Richard the Lionheart of England formed an alliance to reconquer Jerusalem. Meanwhile, the Crusaders and the Ayyubids fought near Acre that year and were joined by
30751-458: 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
30942-498: The standardization of these new terms throughout the Arabic-speaking world, and toward the development of Arabic as a world language . This gave rise to what Western scholars call Modern Standard Arabic. From the 1950s, Arabization became a postcolonial nationalist policy in countries such as Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, and Sudan. Arabic usually refers to Standard Arabic, which Western linguists divide into Classical Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic. It could also refer to any of
31133-456: The sultan in 1200. All of the later Ayyubid sultans of Egypt were his descendants. In the 1230s, the emirs of Syria attempted to assert their independence from Egypt and the Ayyubid realm remained divided until Sultan as-Salih Ayyub restored its unity by subduing most of Syria, except Aleppo , by 1247. By then, local Muslim dynasties had driven out the Ayyubids from Yemen, the Hijaz, and parts of Mesopotamia. After his death in 1249, as-Salih Ayyub
31324-424: The sultanate of Egypt for the almost three and a half centuries of its existence. Most of the Crusader states , including the Kingdom of Jerusalem , fell to Saladin after his victory at the Battle of Hattin in 1187. However, the Crusaders reconquered the coast of Palestine in the 1190s. After Saladin's death in 1193, his sons contested control of the sultanate, but Saladin's brother al-Adil ultimately became
31515-582: The summer of 1183, after ravaging eastern Galilee , Saladin's raids there culminated in the Battle of al-Fule in the Jezreel Valley between him and the Crusaders under Guy of Lusignan . The mostly hand-to-hand fighting ended indecisively. The two armies withdrew to a mile from each other and while the Crusaders discussed internal matters, Saladin captured the Golan Plateau , cutting the Crusaders off from their main supplies source. In October 1183 and then on 13 August 1184, Saladin and al-Adil besieged Crusader-held Karak , but were unable to capture it. Afterward,
31706-502: The teachings of the early Shi‘a Imams, especially Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib (d. 661), Imam Muhammad al-Baqir (d. 743), and Imam Ja‘far al-Sadiq (d. 765). Additionally, a number of eminent Ismaili Muslim philosophers — Abu Ya‘qub al-Sjistani (d. 971), Ja‘far ibn Mansur al-Yaman (d. 960), Hamid al-Din al-Kirmani (d. 1021), al-Mu’ayyad al-Din Shirazi (d. 1077), Nasir-i Khusraw (d. 1088), Abd al-Karim al-Shahrastani (d. 1153), Nasir al-Din al-Tusi (d. 1273) — consolidated and refined
31897-402: The throne in Damascus. Al-Kamil attempted to retake Damietta, but was forced back by John of Brienne . After learning of a conspiracy against him, he fled, leaving the Egyptian army leaderless. Panic ensued, but with the help of al-Mu'azzam, al-Kamil regrouped his forces. By then, however, the Crusaders had seized his camp. The Ayyubids offered to negotiate for a withdrawal from Damietta, offering
32088-581: The time, who regarded Syria as his family's estate and was angered that it was being usurped by a former servant of Nur al-Din. He mustered an army to confront Saladin near Hama. Although heavily outnumbered, Saladin and his veteran soldiers decisively defeated the Zengids. After his victory, Saladin proclaimed himself king and suppressed the name of as-Salih Ismail al-Malik (Nur al-Din's adolescent son) in Friday prayers and Islamic coinage, replacing it with his own name. The Abbasid caliph, al-Mustadi , graciously welcomed Saladin's assumption of power and gave him
32279-458: The title of "Sultan of Egypt and Syria". In the spring of 1176, another major confrontation occurred between the Zengids and the Ayyubids, this time at the Sultan's Mound , 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) from Aleppo. Saladin again emerged victorious, but Saif al-Din managed to narrowly escape. The Ayyubids proceeded to conquer other Syrian cities in the north, namely Ma'arat al-Numan , A'zaz , Buza'a, and Manbij , but failed to capture Aleppo during
32470-426: The town of Ibrim . Turan-Shah and his Kurdish soldiers temporarily lodged there. From Ibrim, they raided the surrounding region, halting their operations after being presented with an armistice proposal from the Makurian king . Although Turan-Shah's initial response was hawkish , he later sent an envoy to Dongola, who upon returning, described the poverty of the city and of Nubia in general to Turan-Shah. Consequently,
32661-501: 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
32852-449: The traditionally loyalist Rasulids began to encroach on Ayyubid holdings in Arabia . In 1222 the Ayyubids appointed the Rasulid leader Ali ibn Rasul as governor of Mecca. Ayyubid rule in Yemen and the Hejaz was declining and the Ayyubid governor of Yemen, Mas'ud ibn Kamil, was forced to leave for Egypt in 1223. He appointed Nur ad-Din Umar as his deputy governor while he was absent. In 1224 a local dynasty gained control of Hadramaut from
33043-405: The unified command of Richard, defeated Saladin at the Battle of Arsuf , allowing for the Crusader conquest of Jaffa and much of coastal Palestine, but they were unable to recover the interior regions. Instead, Richard signed a treaty with Saladin in 1192, restoring the Kingdom of Jerusalem to a coastal strip between Jaffa and Beirut. It was the last major war effort of Saladin's career, as he died
33234-422: The will and commitment of the community to live free from being a vassal to any Levantine power. The Fidai were some of the most feared assassins in the then known world. Sinan ordered assassinations against politicians and generals such as the great Kurdish general and founder of the Ayyubid dynasty , Saladin . A sleeping Saladin had a note from Sinan delivered to him by a Fidai planted in his entourage. The note
33425-451: 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
33616-489: The world. In fact, many members of his family, including his daughter Princess Zahra Aga Khan , have married non-Ismailis in inter-faith ceremonies. Child marriages are strictly prohibited. The Aga Khan IV also condemned polygamy , except in certain circumstances. Unlike the other branches of Islam, Nizari Isma'ilis divide the Ramadan fast into two separate, but closely related, kinds: ẓāhirī ṣawm (exoteric fasting) and bāṭinī ṣawm (esoteric fasting). The former refers to
33807-435: Was Nur al-Din's will that he remain. Over the course of several years, Shirkuh and Saladin defeated the combined forces of the Crusaders and Shawar's troops, first at Bilbais , then at a site near Giza , and in Alexandria , where Saladin would stay to protect while Shirkuh pursued Crusader forces in Lower Egypt . Shawar died in 1169 and Shirkuh became vizier, but he too died later that year. After Shirkuh's death, Saladin
33998-513: Was again made sultan (although Uthman's son al-Mansur was the nominal ruler of Egypt), al-Adil having been absent in a campaign in the northeast. Al-Adil returned and managed to occupy the Citadel of Damascus , but then faced a strong assault from the combined forces of al-Afdal and his brother az-Zahir of Aleppo. These forces disintegrated under al-Afdal's leadership and in 1200, al-Adil resumed his offensive. Upon Uthman's death, two clans of mamluks (slave soldiers) entered into conflict. They were
34189-542: Was allowed to retain nearby Palmyra and Tell Bashir in the Syrian Desert . As-Salih Ayyub sent Fakhr ad-Din to recapture Homs, but Aleppo countered by sending an army to Kafr Tab , south of the city. An-Nasir Dawud left Karak for Aleppo to support an-Nasir Yusuf, but in his absence, his brothers al-Amjad Hasan and az-Zahir Shadhi detained his heir al-Mu'azzam Isa and then personally went to as-Salih Ayyub's camp at al-Mansourah in Egypt to offer him control of Karak in return for holdings in Egypt. As-Salih Ayyub agreed and sent
34380-454: Was appointed vizier by the Fatimid caliph al-Adid because there was "no one weaker or younger" than Saladin, and "not one of the emirs obeyed him or served him", according to medieval Muslim chronicler Ibn al-Athir . Saladin soon found himself more independent than ever before in his career, much to the dismay of Nur al-Din who attempted to influence events in Egypt. He permitted Saladin's elder brother, Turan-Shah , to supervise Saladin in
34571-438: Was defeated at the Battle of Montgisard , with the majority of its troops killed. Saladin encamped at Homs the following year and a number of skirmishes between his forces, commanded by Farrukh Shah , and the Crusaders occurred. Undeterred, Saladin invaded the Crusader states from the west and defeated Baldwin at the Battle of Marj Ayyun in 1179. The following year, he destroyed the newly built Crusader castle of Chastellet at
34762-405: Was eternal, he believed this eternal punishment took the form of annihilation, i.e. permanent non-existence. He writes: “ There is also only one real Hell, and that is eternal punishment, everlasting disappointment and eternal non-existence; the meaning of all this is being outcast from God in every sense of the word ” The last most public eschatological view espoused by any Ismāʿīlī was written by
34953-452: Was given Samosata in Anatolia. Al-Adil redistributed his possessions between his sons: al-Kamil was to succeed him in Egypt, al-Ashraf received al-Jazira, and al-Awhad was given Diyar Bakr , but the latter territory shifted to al-Ashraf's domain after al-Awhad died. Al-Adil aroused open hostility from the Hanbali lobby in Damascus for largely ignoring the Crusaders, having launched only one campaign against them. Al-Adil believed that
35144-438: Was just 20 and still an undergraduate at Harvard University. He was referred to as "the Imam of the Atomic Age ". The period following his accession can be characterized as one of rapid political and economic change. Planning of programs and institutions became increasingly difficult due to the rapid changes in the newly emerging post-colonial nations where many of his followers resided. Upon becoming Imām, Karim's immediate concern
35335-421: Was pinned to his pillow with a dagger, and it informed Saladin that he had been spared this once and should give up his anti-Nizari militancy. A shaken Saladin quickly made a truce with Sinan. Subsequently, the Fidai aided the Muslim cause against the Christian Crusaders of the Third Crusade which included Richard the Lionheart of England. Saladin, having by now established a friendly relationship with Sinan,
35526-427: Was proclaimed as the first Sultan of Egypt by the Abbasid Caliphate , and rapidly expanded the new sultanate beyond the frontiers of Egypt to encompass most of the Levant (including the former territories of Nur ad-Din), in addition to Hijaz , Yemen , northern Nubia , Tarabulus , Cyrenaica , southern Anatolia , and northern Iraq , the homeland of his Kurdish family. By virtue of his sultanate including Hijaz,
35717-406: Was set up by the Imamate and the Ismaili community as a group of private, non-denominational development agencies that seek to empower communities and individuals, regardless of ethnicity or religious affiliation, and seek to improve living conditions and opportunities within the developing world. It has active working relationships with international organizations such as the United Nations (UN) and
35908-536: Was stable, but he and the other emirs of Syria sought to assert their independence from Cairo. Amid these tensions, al-Ashraf died in August 1237 after a four-month illness and was succeeded by his brother as-Salih Ismail . Two months later, al-Kamil's Egyptian army arrived and besieged Damascus, but as-Salih Ismail had destroyed the suburbs of the city to deny al-Kamil's forces shelter. In 1232, al-Kamil installed his eldest son as-Salih Ayyub to govern Hisn Kayfa, but upon al-Kamil's death in 1238, as-Salih Ayyub disputed
36099-450: Was succeeded in Egypt by his son al-Mu'azzam Turanshah . However, the latter was soon overthrown by his Mamluk generals who had repelled a Crusader invasion of the Nile Delta . This effectively ended Ayyubid power in Egypt. Attempts by the emirs of Syria, led by an-Nasir Yusuf of Aleppo, to wrest back Egypt failed. In 1260, the Mongols sacked Aleppo and conquered the Ayyubids' remaining territories soon after. The Mamluks, who expelled
36290-442: Was the preparation of his followers, wherever they lived, for the changes that lay ahead. This rapidly evolving situation called for bold initiatives and new programs to reflect developing national aspirations in the newly independent nations. In view of the importance that Islām places on maintaining a balance between the spiritual well-being of the individual and the quality of his life, the Imām's guidance deals with both aspects of
36481-549: Was under the care and patronage of Zangi that the Ayyubid family rose to prominence. In 1164, Nur al-Din dispatched Shirkuh to lead an expeditionary force to prevent the Crusaders from establishing a strong presence in an increasingly anarchic Egypt . Shirkuh enlisted Ayyub's son, Saladin , as an officer under his command. They successfully drove out Dirgham, the vizier of Egypt , and reinstated his predecessor Shawar . After being reinstated, Shawar ordered Shirkuh to withdraw his forces from Egypt, but Shirkuh refused, claiming it
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