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Bab El-Khemis (Marrakesh)
Bab el-Khemis () is the main northern gate of the medina (historic walled city) of Marrakesh, Morocco. Description The gate is located in the northern/northeastern corner of the city walls and dates back to around 1126 CE when the Almoravid emir Ali ibn Yusuf built the first walls of the city. It was originally known as Bab Fes ("Gate of Fes"), but this name was apparently lost during the Marinid era. The gate's current name (el-Khemis) refers to the souk or open-air market which historically took place here every Thursday (''al-Khamis'' in Arabic). Nowadays, the market continues almost all week right outside the gate, while a permanent flea market, ''Souk al-Khemis'', has been constructed a few hundred meters to the north. Also just outside the gate is a ''qubba'' (domed mausoleum) housing the tomb of a local marabout or Muslim saint. The gate's outer entrance is flanked on either side by square bastions. The gate's passage originally consisted of a bent entrance which eff ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Circa , a hotel in downtown Las Vegas
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Circa is a word of Latin origin meaning 'approximately'. Circa or CIRCA may also refer to: * CIRCA (art platform), art platform based in London * Circa (band), a progressive rock supergroup * Circa (company), an American skateboard footwear company * Circa (contemporary circus), an Australian contemporary circus company * Circa District, Abancay Province, Peru * Circa, a disc-binding notebook system * Circa Theatre, in Wellington, New Zealand * Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army, a UK activist group * Circa News, an online news and entertainment service * Circa Complex, twin skyscrapers in Los Angeles, California * ''Circa'' (album), an album by Michael Cain * Circa Resort & Casino Circa Resort & Casino is a casino and hotel resort in downtown Las Vegas, Nevada, on the Fremont Street Experience. The property was previously occupied by the Las Vegas Club hotel-casino, the Mermaids Casino, and the Glitter Gulch strip club. Ci ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston, 2011. Having emerged in the 1st century, it is named after the Arabs, Arab people; the term "Arab" was initially used to describe those living in the Arabian Peninsula, as perceived by geographers from ancient Greece. Since the 7th century, Arabic has been characterized by diglossia, with an opposition between a standard Prestige (sociolinguistics), prestige language—i.e., Literary Arabic: Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) or Classical Arabic—and diverse vernacular varieties, which serve as First language, mother tongues. Colloquial dialects vary significantly from MSA, impeding mutual intelligibility. MSA is only acquired through formal education and is not spoken natively. It is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bab Er-Rouah
Bab er-Rouah (also spelled Bab er-Ruwah or Bab Rouah) is a monumental gate in the Almohad-era ramparts of Rabat, Morocco. History It was built by the Almohad caliph Ya'qub al-Mansur in the late 12th century, as part of the monumental capital he started building here. The gate and its adjoining ramparts were finished by 1197. The Arabic name ''Bab ar-Ruwah'', meaning "Gate of the Winds", likely derives from the strong Atlantic winds which batter the city. The entrance archway of the gate today is smaller than it was originally because it has been partly filled-in with smaller stones. This reduction dates from the time of the Alaouite sultan Sidi Muhammad ibn Abdallah (second half of 18th century), who made similar adjustments to the Bab Agnaou gate in Marrakesh. Today the gate's interior has been converted into an art gallery. It was recently renovated in 2000–2001. Architecture The gate is notable for its defensive structure as well as for its rich stone-carved decorati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Right Angle
In geometry and trigonometry, a right angle is an angle of exactly 90 Degree (angle), degrees or radians corresponding to a quarter turn (geometry), turn. If a Line (mathematics)#Ray, ray is placed so that its endpoint is on a line and the adjacent angles are equal, then they are right angles. The term is a calque of Latin ''angulus rectus''; here ''rectus'' means "upright", referring to the vertical perpendicular to a horizontal base line. Closely related and important geometrical concepts are perpendicular lines, meaning lines that form right angles at their point of intersection, and orthogonality, which is the property of forming right angles, usually applied to Euclidean vector, vectors. The presence of a right angle in a triangle is the defining factor for right triangles, making the right angle basic to trigonometry. Etymology The meaning of ''right'' in ''right angle'' possibly refers to the Classical Latin, Latin adjective ''rectus'' 'erect, straight, upright, perp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gatehouse
A gatehouse is a type of fortified gateway, an entry control point building, enclosing or accompanying a gateway for a town, religious house, castle, manor house, or other fortification building of importance. Gatehouses are typically the most heavily armed section of a fortification, to compensate for being structurally the weakest and the most probable attack point by an enemy. There are numerous surviving examples in France, Austria, Germany, England and Japan. History Gatehouses made their first appearance in the early antiquity when it became necessary to protect the main entrance to a castle or town. Over time, they evolved into very complicated structures with many lines of defence. Strongly fortified gatehouses would normally include a drawbridge, one or more portcullises, machicolations, arrow loops and possibly even murder-holes where stones would be dropped on attackers. In some castles, the gatehouse was so strongly fortified it took on the function of a keep, som ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Almohad Caliphate
The Almohad Caliphate (; ar, خِلَافَةُ ٱلْمُوَحِّدِينَ or or from ar, ٱلْمُوَحِّدُونَ, translit=al-Muwaḥḥidūn, lit=those who profess the Tawhid, unity of God) was a North African Berbers, Berber Muslim empire founded in the 12th century. At its height, it controlled much of the Iberian Peninsula (Al Andalus) and North Africa (the Maghreb). The Almohad movement was founded by Ibn Tumart among the Berber Masmuda tribes, but the Almohad caliphate and its ruling dynasty were founded after his death by Abd al-Mu'min, Abd al-Mu'min al-Gumi. Around 1120, Ibn Tumart first established a Berber state in Tinmel in the Atlas Mountains. Under Abd al-Mu'min (r. 1130–1163) they succeeded in overthrowing the ruling Almoravid dynasty governing Morocco in 1147, when he conquered Marrakesh and declared himself caliph. They then extended their power over all of the Maghreb by 1159. Al-Andalus soon followed, and all of Muslim Iberia was under Almohad ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yusuf Ibn Tashfin
Yusuf ibn Tashfin, also Tashafin, Teshufin, ( ar, يوسف بن تاشفين ناصر الدين بن تالاكاكين الصنهاجي , Yūsuf ibn Tāshfīn Naṣr al-Dīn ibn Tālākakīn al-Ṣanhājī ; reigned c. 1061 – 1106) was leader of the Berber Almoravid empire. He co-founded the city of Marrakesh and led the Muslim forces in the Battle of Sagrajas. Yusuf ibn Tashfin came to Al-Andalus from the Maghreb to help the Muslims fight against Alfonso VI, eventually achieving victory in Sagrajas and promoting an Islamic system in the region. In 1061 he took the title “Amir al-Muslimeen” recognising the suzerainty of the Abbasid Caliphate. He was married to Zaynab an-Nafzawiyyah, whom he reportedly trusted politically. Succession to power Yusuf ibn Tashfin was a Berber from the Banu Turgut, a branch of the Lamtuna, a Tuareg tribe belonging to the Sanhaja group. The Sanhaja were linked by medieval Muslim genealogists with the Yemeni tribe of Himyar through semi-m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bent Entrance
A bent or indirect entrance is a defensive feature in medieval fortification.Adrian Boas, On a Necessary Vulnerability, https://www.adrianjboas.com/post/on-a-necessary-vulnerability In a castle with a bent entrance, the gate passage is narrow and turns sharply. Its purpose is to slow down attackers attempting to rush the gate and impede the use of battering rams against doors. It is often combined with means for an active defence, such as machicolations, in effect confining intruders to a narrow killing zone. Its defensive function is related to that of a barbican in front of the gate. Indirect entrances are typical of Arab and Armenian fortifications, as well as crusader castles. The Citadel of Aleppo is a good example of the former, with a massive gate tower enclosing a complicated passage. The most elaborate bent entrance among crusader castles is the turning entrance ramp at Crac des Chevaliers, which is defensible from several towers and via machicolations, but the indirect en ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bastion
A bastion or bulwark is a structure projecting outward from the curtain wall of a fortification, most commonly angular in shape and positioned at the corners of the fort. The fully developed bastion consists of two faces and two flanks, with fire from the flanks being able to protect the curtain wall and the adjacent bastions. Compared with the medieval fortified towers they replaced, bastion fortifications offered a greater degree of passive resistance and more scope for ranged defence in the age of gunpowder artillery. As military architecture, the bastion is one element in the style of fortification dominant from the mid 16th to mid 19th centuries. Evolution By the middle of the 15th century, artillery pieces had become powerful enough to make the traditional medieval round tower and curtain wall obsolete. This was exemplified by the campaigns of Charles VII of France who reduced the towns and castles held by the English during the latter stages of the Hundred Years War, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wali
A wali (''wali'' ar, وَلِيّ, '; plural , '), the Arabic word which has been variously translated "master", "authority", "custodian", "protector", is most commonly used by Muslims to indicate an Islamic saint, otherwise referred to by the more literal "friend of God in Islam, God".John Renard, ''Friends of God: Islamic Images of Piety, Commitment, and Servanthood'' (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008); John Renard, ''Tales of God Friends: Islamic Hagiography in Translation'' (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009), passim. When the Arabic definite article () is added, it refers to one of the names of God in Islam, Allah – (), meaning "the Helper, Friend". In the traditional Islamic understanding of saints, the saint is portrayed as someone "marked by [special] divine favor ... [and] holiness", and who is specifically "chosen by God and endowed with exceptional gifts, such as the ability to work Miracle worker, miracles".Radtke, B., "Saint", in: ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ''Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the Muhammad in Islam, main and final Islamic prophet.Peters, F. E. 2009. "Allāh." In , edited by J. L. Esposito. Oxford: Oxford University Press. . (See alsoquick reference) "[T]he Muslims' understanding of Allāh is based...on the Qurʿān's public witness. Allāh is Unique, the Creator, Sovereign, and Judge of mankind. It is Allāh who directs the universe through his direct action on nature and who has guided human history through his prophets, Abraham, with whom he made his covenant, Moses/Moosa, Jesus/Eesa, and Muḥammad, through all of whom he founded his chosen communities, the 'Peoples of the Book.'" It is the Major religious groups, world's second-largest religion behind Christianity, w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marabout
A marabout ( ar, مُرابِط, murābiṭ, lit=one who is attached/garrisoned) is a Muslim religious leader and teacher who historically had the function of a chaplain serving as a part of an Islamic army, notably in North Africa and the Sahara, in West Africa, and (historically) in the Maghreb. The marabout is often a scholar of the Qur'an, or religious teacher. Others may be wandering holy men who survive on alms, Sufi Murshids ("Guides"), or leaders of religious communities. The term "marabout" is also used for the mausolea of such religious leaders (cf. ''maqam'', ''mazar'', in Palestine also ''wali/weli''). West Africa Muslim religious teachers Muslim tariqah (Sufi religious brotherhoods) are one of the main organizing forms of West African Islam, and with the spread of Sufi ideas into the area, the marabout's role combined with local practices throughout Senegambia, the Niger River Valley, and the Futa Jallon. Here, Sufi believers follow a marabout, elsewhere know ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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