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Wadi Butnan
Dhahab River or Dhahab Valley ( ar, نهر الذهب or وادي الذهب ''Gold River'' or ''Gold Valley''), also in medieval times known as Wadi Butnan ( ar, وادي بطنان, Wadī Buṭnān) or Butnan Habib, is an intermittent river and valley in northern Syria. The principal towns in the valley are al-Bab, Bizaah and Tadef. The river is located on the Aleppo plateau in the eastern part of Aleppo Governorate, 30 km east of Aleppo. It drains the heights north of al-Bab and runs from north to south for about 50 km before terminating at Sabkhat al-Jabbul. History During the early Muslim period the Arabic sources referred to the valley as Wadi Butnan (the lowland valley) or Butnan Habib (the lowlands of Habib), after the Muslim commander Habib ibn Maslama al-Fihri, who conquered the area during the early Muslim conquests (630s–640s). The region, located about east of Aleppo, was part of Jund Qinnasrin (the military district of northern Syria). The Umayyad calip ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It is a unitary republic that consists of 14 governorates (subdivisions), and is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east and southeast, Jordan to the south, and Israel and Lebanon to the southwest. Cyprus lies to the west across the Mediterranean Sea. A country of fertile plains, high mountains, and deserts, Syria is home to diverse ethnic and religious groups, including the majority Syrian Arabs, Kurds, Turkmens, Assyrians, Armenians, Circassians, Albanians, and Greeks. Religious groups include Muslims, Christians, Alawites, Druze, and Yazidis. The capital and largest city of Syria is Damascus. Arabs are the largest ethnic group, and Mu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Umayyad
The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE; , ; ar, ٱلْخِلَافَة ٱلْأُمَوِيَّة, al-Khilāfah al-ʾUmawīyah) was the second of the four major caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. The caliphate was ruled by the Umayyad dynasty ( ar, ٱلْأُمَوِيُّون, ''al-ʾUmawīyūn'', or , ''Banū ʾUmayyah'', "Sons of Umayya ibn Abd Shams, Umayyah"). Uthman ibn Affan (r. 644–656), the third of the Rashidun caliphs, was also a member of the clan. The family established dynastic, hereditary rule with Mu'awiya I, Muawiya ibn Abi Sufyan, long-time governor of Syria (region), Greater Syria, who became the sixth caliph after the end of the First Fitna in 661. After Mu'awiyah's death in 680, conflicts over the succession resulted in the Second Fitna, and power eventually fell into the hands of Marwan I from another branch of the clan. Greater Syria remained the Umayyads' main power base thereafter, with Damascus serving as their capital. The Umayyads c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John II Komnenos
John II Komnenos or Comnenus ( gr, Ἱωάννης ὁ Κομνηνός, Iōannēs ho Komnēnos; 13 September 1087 – 8 April 1143) was Byzantine emperor from 1118 to 1143. Also known as "John the Beautiful" or "John the Good" (), he was the eldest son of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos and Irene Doukaina and the second emperor to rule during the Komnenian restoration of the Byzantine Empire. As he was born to a reigning emperor, he had the status of a . John was a pious and dedicated monarch who was determined to undo the damage his empire had suffered following the Battle of Manzikert, half a century earlier. John has been assessed as the greatest of the Komnenian emperors. In the course of the quarter-century of his reign, John made alliances with the Holy Roman Empire in the west, decisively defeated the Pechenegs, Hungarians and Serbs in the Balkans, and personally led numerous campaigns against the Turks in Asia Minor. John's campaigns fundamentally changed th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joscelin I, Count Of Edessa
Joscelin of Courtenay (or Joscelin I) (died 1131), Prince of Galilee and Lord of Turbessel (1115–1131) and Count of Edessa (1119–1131), ruled over the County of Edessa during its zenith, from 1118 to 1131. Captured twice, Joscelin continued to expand his county, even participating in the Battle of Azaz in 1125. Gravely injured during the collapse of a sapper mine, Joscelin marched his army to relieve the besieged fortress of Kaysun, and died soon after. Biography Joscelin was the son of Joscelin I, Lord of Courtenay, and Elizabeth, daughter of Guy I of Montlhéry. He arrived in the Holy Land during the Crusade of 1101, and entered first into the service of his cousin Count Baldwin II of Rethel (in the army of Godfrey of Bouillon), who invested him with the lordship of Turbessel. Later Joscelin would serve in the army of Stephen of Blois. In 1104, he was captured at the Battle of Harran. After passing into the hands of Ilghazi, ruler of Mardin, Joscelin was ransomed for 20, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tell Bashir
Turbessel ( syr, Tel Bshir, ar, Tell Bāshir or , hy, Թլպաշար, translit=Tʿlpašar, tr, Tilbeşar or ) is a fortress and Bronze Age tumulus in south-eastern Turkey, near the village of Gündoğan in the district of Oğuzeli, within Gaziantep Province. History Bronze Age The site was occupied at the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC through the end of the 17th century BC, after which it was abandoned. It was located 50 km west of Carchemish. Early Bronze By 2600 BC (EBIIIA) the site was about 56 hectares. It had burials showing the emergence of an elite class. By 2450 BC (EBIIIB) it was a planned city. First Intermediate Period In the EBIV, the city saw heavy destruction, but it was never abandoned. Middle Bronze In the MBI, the city was rebuilt in a smaller scale. In the MBII, the city saw major construction work. Byzantine Period While the site had been occupied since the Bronze Age, the fort gained importance during the Byzantine Empire and came under control of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
First Crusade
The First Crusade (1096–1099) was the first of a series of religious wars, or Crusades, initiated, supported and at times directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The objective was the recovery of the Holy Land from Islamic rule. While Jerusalem had been under Muslim rule for hundreds of years, by the 11th century the Seljuk takeover of the region threatened local Christian populations, pilgrimages from the West, and the Byzantine Empire itself. The earliest initiative for the First Crusade began in 1095 when Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos requested military support from the Council of Piacenza in the empire's conflict with the Seljuk-led Turks. This was followed later in the year by the Council of Clermont, during which Pope Urban II supported the Byzantine request for military assistance and also urged faithful Christians to undertake an armed pilgrimage to Jerusalem. This call was met with an enthusiastic popular response across all social classes in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Isma'ilism
Isma'ilism ( ar, الإسماعيلية, al-ʾIsmāʿīlīyah) is a branch or sub-sect of Shia Islam. The Isma'ili () get their name from their acceptance of Imam Isma'il ibn Jafar as the appointed spiritual successor (imām) to Ja'far al-Sadiq, wherein they differ from the Twelver Shia, who accept Musa al-Kadhim, the younger brother of Isma'il, as the true Imām. Isma'ilism rose at one point to become the largest branch of Shia Islam, climaxing as a political power with the Fatimid Caliphate in the 10th through 12th centuries. Ismailis believe in the oneness of God, as well as the closing of divine revelation with Muhammad, whom they see as "the final Prophet and Messenger of God to all humanity". The Isma'ili and the Twelvers both accept the same six initial Imams; the Isma'ili accept Isma'il ibn Jafar as the seventh Imam. After the death of Muhammad ibn Isma'il in the 8th century CE, the teachings of Ismailism further transformed into the belief system as it is known ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mirdasid Dynasty
The Mirdasid dynasty ( ar, المرداسيون, al-Mirdāsiyyīn), also called the Banu Mirdas, was an Arab dynasty which ruled an Aleppo-based emirate in northern Syria and the western Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia) more or less continuously from 1024 until 1080. History Dominance of the Kilab in northern Syria The Mirdasids were a family of the Bedouin (nomadic Arab) tribe of Banu Kilab. The Kilab's ancestral home was in central Arabia and its tribesmen first established themselves in northern Syria and the western Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia) in the years after the 630s–Muslim conquest. A second major wave of Kilabi tribesmen migrated to northern Syria from Arabia in the 9th century. The political vacuum and frequent revolts throughout the region during that period paved the way for the Kilab to strengthen their influence, becoming the predominant tribe in the region north of the Palmyrene steppe and west of the Euphrates River by the early to mid-10th century. A thir ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sabiq Ibn Mahmud
Abūʾl-Faḍāʾil Sābiq ibn Mahmūd ( ar, سابق أبوالفضائل بن محمود) was the Mirdasid emir of Aleppo from 1076–1080. Rule Following the death of Sabiq's older brother, the emir of Aleppo Nasr, the latter's influential adviser Sadid al-Mulk Ali of the Banu Munqidh, arranged for Sabiq to be installed as his successor. Sabiq, who lived in Aleppo city, had to be hoisted over the walls of Aleppo's citadel by a rope to assume the emirate as he had been drunkenly immobile at the time. Sabiq's ''laqab'' (regnal title) was ''Izz al-Mulk, Abu'l-Fada'il'' (Glory of the Kingship, Father of Merits). According to the historian Mariam Yared-Riachi, contrary to his title, Sabiq was considered by the 13th-century Aleppine chronicler Ibn al-Adim as one of the most backward Mirdasid emirs. At the start of his rule Sabiq released the chief of Aleppo's Turkmen mercenaries, Ahmad Shah, who had been imprisoned by Nasr for unknown reasons. Ahmad Shah's Turkmens had killed Nas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tutush I
Abu Sa'id Taj al-Dawla Tutush (; died 25 February 1095) or Tutush I, was the Seljuk emir of Damascus from 1078 to 1092, and sultan of Damascus from 1092 to 1094. Years under Malik Shah Tutush was a brother of the Seljuk sultan Malik-Shah I. In 1077, Malik-Shah appointed him to take over the governorship of Syria. Later that year, Tutush reached Aleppo, then ruled by the Mirdasid emir Sabiq ibn Mahmud, and began a three-month-long siege of the city. In 1078/9, Malik-Shah sent him to Damascus to help Atsiz ibn Uvaq, an independent Turkish warlord who had taken the city in 1076, who was being besieged by the Fatimid forces. After the siege had ended, Tutush had Atsiz executed and installed himself in Damascus. He later expanded his realm by annexing Sidon, Gibelacar, Tiberias, Ramla, Jaffa and Jerusalem, which he granted to Artuk Bey, another Seljuk commander. He later returned to besieging Aleppo and called for reinforcements from Malik-Shah, yet his reinforcements were ambushed a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Banu Kilab
The Banu Kilab ( ar, بنو كِلاب, Banū Kilāb) was an Arab tribe in the western Najd (central Arabia) where they controlled the horse-breeding pastures of Dariyya from the mid-6th century until at least the mid-9th century. The tribe was divided into ten branches, the most prominent being the Ja'far, Abu Bakr, Amr, Dibab and Abd Allah. The Ja'far led the Kilab and its parent tribe of Banu Amir, and, at times, the larger Hawazin tribal confederation from the time of the Kilab's entry into the historical record, , until the advent of Islam, , except for two occasions when the larger Abu Bakr was at the helm. Under the Ja'far's leadership the Kilab defeated rival tribes and the Lakhmid kings and eventually became guards of the Lakhmid caravans to the annual fair in the Hejaz (western Arabia). The killing of a Ja'far chief as he escorted one such caravan led to the Fijar War between the Hawazin and the Quraysh of Mecca. The Kilab, or at least its chief, Amir ibn al-Tufayl, wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nikephoros II Phokas
Nikephoros II Phokas (; – 11 December 969), Latinized Nicephorus II Phocas, was Byzantine emperor from 963 to 969. His career, not uniformly successful in matters of statecraft or of war, nonetheless included brilliant military exploits which contributed to the resurgence of the Byzantine Empire during the 10th century. In the east, Nikephoros completed the conquest of Cilicia and even retook the islands of Crete and Cyprus, thus opening the path for subsequent Byzantine incursions reaching as far as Upper Mesopotamia and the Levant; these campaigns earned him the sobriquet "pale death of the Saracens". Meanwhile in the west, he inflamed conflict with the Bulgarians and saw Sicily completely turn over to the Muslims, while he failed to make any serious gains in Italy following the incursions of Otto I. At home, Nikephoros' administrative policies caused controversy. He financed his wars with increased taxes both on the people and on the church, while maintaining unpopular th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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