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Bahram Al-Da'i
Bahram al-Da'i ( ar, بهرام الداعي, "Bahram the '' da'i'' issionary) or Bahram of Astarabad was a 12th-century Persian Nizari Ismaili who was the Chief ''Da'i'' and leader of the Assassins in Syria from after 1113 through 1128. Although his attempt to establish a Nizari base in Damascus was unsuccessful, he had an important role in organizing Nizari presence in Northern and Southern Syria. Career Bahram was a nephew of a Nizari Isma'ili leader named Abu Ibrahim Asadabadi who was executed in Baghdad in midst of the massacres ordered by Seljuk sultan Barkiyaruq in 1101. Asadabadi had been an envoy of Barkiyaruq's.Richards, D. S., Editor (2010), ''The Chronicle of Ibn al-Athir for the Crusading Period from al-Kamil fi’l-Ta’rikh.  Part 1, 1097-1146.'', Ashgate Publishing, Farnham, UK, pp. 40-47 After the execution of his predecessor Abu Tahir al-Sa'igh and the uprooting of the Nizaris in Aleppo, Bahram was sent by Alamut Castle in an attempt to expand the Nizari base ...
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Gorgan
Gorgan ( fa, گرگان ; also romanized as ''Gorgān'', ''Gurgān'', and ''Gurgan''), formerly Esterabad ( ; also romanized as ''Astarābād'', ''Asterabad'', and ''Esterābād''), is the capital city of Golestan Province, Iran. It lies approximately to the north east of Tehran, some away from the Caspian Sea. In the 2006 census; its population was 269,226, in 73,702 families. History There are several archaeological sites near Gorgan, including Tureng Tepe and Shah Tepe, in which there are remains dating from the Neolithic and Chalcolithic eras. Some other important Neolithic sites in the area are Yarim Tepe, and Sange Chaxmaq. Also, the nearby Shahroud Plain has many such sites. The number of confirmed Neolithic sites on the Gorgan Plain now totals more than fifty. According to the Greek historian Arrian, Zadracarta was the largest city of Hyrcania and site of the "royal palace". The term means "the yellow city", and it was given to it from the great number of oranges, ...
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Ibn Al-Qalanisi
Abū Yaʿlā Ḥamzah ibn al-Asad ibn al-Qalānisī ( ar, ابو يعلى حمزة ابن الاسد ابن القلانسي; c. 1071 – 18 March 1160) was an Arab politician and chronicler in 12th-century Damascus. Biography Abu Ya‘la ('father of Ya‘la'), whose surname was al-Qalanisi ('the Hatter'), descended from the Banu Tamim tribe, and was among the well-educated nobility of the city of Damascus.Gibb (1932), p. 8, citing Ibn 'Asakir. He studied literature, theology, and law, and served firstly as a secretary in, and later the head of, the chancery of Damascus (the ''Diwan al-Rasa'il''). He served twice as ''ra'is'' of the city, an office equivalent to mayor. "Chronicle of Damascus" His chronicle, the ''Dhail'' or ''Mudhayyal Ta'rikh Dimashq'' ('Continuation of the Chronicle of Damascus') was an extension of the chronicle of Hilal bin al-Muhassin al-Sabi', covering the years 1056 to al-Qalanisi's death in 1160.Gibb (1932), "Introduction", pp. 7-14. This chronicle is one ...
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Mount Hermon
Mount Hermon ( ar, جبل الشيخ or جبل حرمون / ALA-LC: ''Jabal al-Shaykh'' ("Mountain of the Sheikh") or ''Jabal Haramun''; he, הַר חֶרְמוֹן, ''Har Hermon'') is a mountain cluster constituting the southern end of the Anti-Lebanon mountain range. Its summit straddles the border between Syria and Lebanon and, at above sea level, is the highest point in Syria. On the top, in the United Nations buffer zone between Syrian and Israeli-occupied territories, is the highest permanently manned UN position in the world, known as "Hermon Hotel", located at 2814 metres altitude. The southern slopes of Mount Hermon extend to the Israeli-occupied portion of the Golan Heights, where the Mount Hermon ski resort is located with a top elevation of 2,040 metres (6,690 ft). A peak in this area rising to 2,236 m (7,336 ft) is the highest elevation in Israeli-controlled territory. Geography Wider mountain range The Anti-Lebanon range, of which the Hermon ...
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Wadi Al-Taym
Wadi al-Taym ( ar, وادي التيم, Wādī al-Taym), also transliterated as Wadi el-Taym, is a wadi (dry river) that forms a large fertile valley in Lebanon, in the districts of Rachaya and Hasbaya on the western slopes of Mount Hermon. It adjoins the Beqaa valley running north to south towards the Jordan valley where it meets the northwest corner of Lake Huleh. Watered by the Hasbani river, the low hills of Wadi al-Taym are covered with rows of silver-green olive trees with the population in the area being predominantly Druze and Sunni, with a high number of Christians, mostly Greek Orthodox. Wadi al-Taym is generally considered the "birthplace of the Druze faith". History Wadi al-Taym is named after the Arab tribe of Taym Allat (later Taym-Allah) ibn Tha'laba. The Taym-Allat entered the Euphrates Valley and adopted Christianity in the pre-Islamic period before ultimately embracing Islam after the 7th-century Muslim conquests. A small proportion of the tribe took up abode in ...
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Ibn Al-Athir
Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ash-Shaybānī, better known as ʿAlī ʿIzz ad-Dīn Ibn al-Athīr al-Jazarī ( ar, علي عز الدین بن الاثیر الجزري) lived 1160–1233) was an Arab or Kurdish historian and biographer who wrote in Arabic and was from the Ibn Athir family. At the age of twenty-one he settled with his father in Mosul to continue his studies, where he devoted himself to the study of history and Islamic tradition. Biography Ibn al-Athir belonged to the Shayban lineage of the large and influential Arab tribe Banu Bakr, who lived across upper Mesopotamia, and gave their name to the city of Diyar Bakr. He was the brother of Majd ad-Dīn and Diyā' ad-Dīn Ibn Athir. Al-Athir lived a scholarly life in Mosul, often visited Baghdad and for a time traveled with Saladin's army in Syria. He later lived in Aleppo and Damascus. His chief work was a history of the world, ''al-Kamil fi at-Tarikh'' (''The Complete History''). He died i ...
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Banias
Banias or Banyas ( ar, بانياس الحولة; he, בניאס, label=Modern Hebrew; Judeo-Aramaic, Medieval Hebrew: פמייס, etc.; grc, Πανεάς) is a site in the Golan Heights near a natural spring, once associated with the Greek god Pan. It had been inhabited for 2,000 years, until it was abandoned and destroyed following the Six Day War.How modern disputes have reshaped the ancient city of Banias
: "In June 1967, the penultimate day of the Six Day War saw Israeli tanks storm into Banias in breach of a UN ceasefire accepted by Syria hours earlier. The Israeli general Moshe Dayan had decided to act u ...
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Battle Of Marj Al-Saffar (1126)
The Battle of Marj al-Saffar was fought on January 25, 1126 between a Crusader army led by King Baldwin II of Jerusalem and the Seljuk Emirate of Damascus, which was ruled by Toghtekin. The Crusaders defeated the Muslim army in the field but failed in their objective to capture Damascus. Background After winning the Battle of Azaz northeast of Antioch, Baldwin II led an army of Franks to attack Damascus in early 1126. Baldwin's army consisted of the usual mounted knights and men-at-arms supported by spearmen and bowmen on foot. At Marj al-Saffar, 30 kilometers outside Damascus,Burns, p 150 the Crusaders encountered the army of Damascus which offered battle. Toghtekin, founder of the Burid dynasty, ruled Damascus at that time. Battle Only a few details are known about the battle. The sources are not in agreement about tactical details, but they concur that the Crusaders failed to seize Damascus. The Franks lost many men to Turkish archery in a very close-fought engagement. "B ...
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Homs
Homs ( , , , ; ar, حِمْص / ALA-LC: ; Levantine Arabic: / ''Ḥomṣ'' ), known in pre-Islamic Syria as Emesa ( ; grc, Ἔμεσα, Émesa), is a city in western Syria and the capital of the Homs Governorate. It is Metres above sea level, above sea level and is located north of Damascus. Located on the Orontes River, Homs is also the central link between the interior cities and the Mediterranean coast. Before the Syrian Civil War, Homs was a major industrial centre, and with a population of at least 652,609 people in 2004, it was the third-largest city in Syria after Aleppo to the north and the capital Damascus to the south. Its population reflects Syria's general religious diversity, composed of Sunni and Alawite Muslims, and Eastern Christianity, Christians. There are a number of historic mosques and churches in the city, and it is close to the Krak des Chevaliers castle, a World Heritage Site. Homs did not emerge into the historical record until the 1st century BCE a ...
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Baldwin II Of Jerusalem
Baldwin II, also known as Baldwin of Bourcq or Bourg (; – 21August 1131), was Count of Edessa from 1100 to 1118, and King of Jerusalem from 1118 until his death. He accompanied his cousins Godfrey of Bouillon and Baldwin of Boulogne to the Holy Land during the First Crusade. He succeeded Baldwin of Boulogne as the second count of Edessa when he left the county for Jerusalem following his brother's death. He was captured at the Battle of Harran in 1104. He was held first by Sökmen of Mardin, then by Jikirmish of Mosul, and finally by Jawali Saqawa. During his captivity, Tancred, the Crusader ruler of the Principality of Antioch, and Tancred's cousin, Richard of Salerno, governed Edessa as Baldwin's regents. Baldwin was ransomed by his cousin, Joscelin of Courtenay, lord of Turbessel, in the summer of 1108. Tancred attempted to retain Edessa, but Bernard of Valence, the Latin patriarch of Antioch, persuaded him to restore the county to Baldwin. Baldwin allied with Jawali, ...
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Toghtekin
Toghtekin or Tughtekin (Modern tr, Tuğtekin; Arabicised epithet: ''Zahir ad-Din Tughtikin''; died February 12, 1128), also spelled Tughtegin, was a Turkic military leader, who was ''atabeg'' of Damascus from 1104 to 1128. He was the founder of the Burid dynasty of Damascus. Biography Toghtekin was a junior officer to Tutush I, Seljuq emir of Damascus and Syria. After the former's death in 1095, civil war erupted, and Toghtekin supported Tutush's son Duqaq as emir of the city against Ridwan, the emir of Aleppo. In the chaotic years which ensued Toghtekin was sent to reconquer the town of Jebleh, which had rebelled against the ''qadi'' of Tripoli, but he was unable to accomplish his task. On October 21, 1097, a Crusader army began the siege of Antioch. The local emir, Yaghi-Siyan, though nominally under Ridwan's suzerainty, appealed to Duqaq to send an armed force to their rescue. Duqaq sent Toghtekin, but on December 31, 1097, he was defeated by Bohemund of Taranto and Rob ...
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Burid Dynasty
The Burid dynasty was a dynasty of Turkish origin ''Burids'', R. LeTourneau, The Encyclopedia of Islam, Vol. I, ed. H.A.R. Gibb, J.H. Kramers, É. Lévi-Provençal and J. Schacht, (Brill, 1986), 1332. which ruled over the Emirate of Damascus in the early 12th century. History The first Burid ruler, Toghtekin, began as a servant to the Seljuk ruler of Damascus, Duqaq. Following Duqaq's death in 1104, he seized the city for himself. The dynasty was named after Toghtekin's son, Taj al-Muluk Buri. The Burids gained recognition from the Abbasid caliphate in return for considerable gifts. In return, the caliphate did not interfere in the emirate. The Burids ruled the city until 1154, when it was taken by the ruler of Aleppo, Nur ed-Din, founder of the Zengid dynasty.''Medieval Islamic Civilization: L-Z'', Ed. Josef W. Meri, Jere L. Bacharach, (Taylor & Francis, 2006), 568. The Burids lost to the Crusaders in the battle of Marj al-Saffar (1126) but were able to prevent the Seco ...
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Mardin
Mardin ( ku, Mêrdîn; ar, ماردين; syr, ܡܪܕܝܢ, Merdīn; hy, Մարդին) is a city in southeastern Turkey. The capital of Mardin Province, it is known for the Artuqid architecture of its old city, and for its strategic location on a rocky hill near the Tigris River that rises steeply over the flat plains. The old town of the city is under the protection of UNESCO, which forbids new constructions to preserve its façade. History Antiquity and etymology The city survived into the Syriac Christian period as the name of Mt. Izala (Izla), on which in the early 4th century AD stood the monastery of Nisibis, housing seventy monks. In the Roman period, the city itself was known as ''Marida'' (''Merida''), from a Neo-Aramaic language name translating to "fortress". Between c. 150 BC and 250 AD it was part of the kingdom of Osroene, ruled by the Abgarid dynasty. Medieval history During the early Muslim conquests, the Byzantine city was captured in 640 by the Musl ...
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