|
Zafar, Yemen
Ẓafār or Dhafar ( ar, ظفار) is an ancient Himyarite site situated in Yemen, some 130 km south-south-east of today's capital, Sana'a, and c. southeast of Yarim. Given mention in several ancient texts, there is little doubt about the pronunciation of the name. Despite the opinion of local patriots in Oman, this site in Yemen is far older than its namesake there. It lies in the Yemeni highlands at some 2800 m. Zafar was the capital of the Himyarites (110 BCE – 525 CE), which at its peak ruled most of the Arabian Peninsula. For 250 years the tribal confederacy and allies' combined territory extended past Riyadh to the north and the Euphrates to the north-east. History From an archaeological perspective, the settlement's beginnings are not well known. The main sources consist of Old South Arabian Musnad inscriptions dated as early as the 1st century BCE. It is mentioned by Pliny in his Natural History, in the anonymous Periplus of the Erythraean Sea (both 1st centu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yemen
Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, north and Oman to the Oman–Yemen border, northeast and shares maritime borders with Eritrea, Djibouti, and Somalia. Yemen is the second-largest Arabs, Arab sovereign state in the peninsula, occupying , with a coastline stretching about . Its constitutionally stated Capital city, capital, and largest city, is Sanaa. As of 2021, Yemen has an estimated population of some 30.4 million. In ancient times, Yemen was the home of the Sabaeans, a trading state that included parts of modern-day Ethiopia and Eritrea. Later in 275 AD, the Himyarite Kingdom was influenced by Judaism. Christianity arrived in the fourth century. Islam spread quickly in the seventh century and Yemenite troops were crucial in the early Islamic conquests. Several Dynasty, dynasties ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pliny's Natural History
The ''Natural History'' ( la, Naturalis historia) is a work by Pliny the Elder. The largest single work to have survived from the Roman Empire to the modern day, the ''Natural History'' compiles information gleaned from other ancient authors. Despite the work's title, its subject area is not limited to what is today understood by natural history; Pliny himself defines his scope as "the natural world, or life". It is encyclopedic in scope, but its structure is not like that of a modern encyclopedia. It is the only work by Pliny to have survived, and the last that he published. He published the first 10 books in AD 77, but had not made a final revision of the remainder at the time of his death during the AD 79 eruption of Vesuvius. The rest was published posthumously by Pliny's nephew, Pliny the Younger. The work is divided into 37 books, organised into 10 volumes. These cover topics including astronomy, mathematics, geography, ethnography, anthropology, human physiolog ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theophilos The Indian
Theophilos the Indian ( el, Θεόφιλος) (died 364), also called "the Ethiopian", was an Aetian or Heteroousian bishop who fell alternately in and out of favor with the court of the Roman emperor Constantius II. He is mentioned in the encyclopedia ''Suda''. Originally from Socotra or the island of Divus which could be the Maldive Islands in the Indian Ocean, or an island near the mouth of the Indus. He came to the court of Constantine I as a young man and was ordained a deacon under the Arian bishop Eusebius of Nicomedia. He was later exiled because Constantius believed him to be a supporter of Constantius' rebellious cousin Gallus. Famed for his ability as a healer, Theophilus was later recalled to court to heal Constantius' wife, the empress Eusebia, which he is reputed to have done successfully. Philostorgius. "Chapter 7." ''Ecclesiastical history/Epitome of book IV''. He was exiled again for his support of the disfavored theologian Aëtius whose Anomoean doctrin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ghumdan Palace
Ghumdan Palace, also Qasir Ghumdan or Ghamdan Palace, is an ancient palace and fortress in Sana'a, Yemen. It is the earliest known castle in the world. All that remains of the ancient site (Ar. ''khadd'') of Ghumdan is a field of tangled ruins opposite the first and second of the eastern doors of the Jami‘ Mosque (Great Mosque of Sana'a). This part of Sana'a forms an eminence which is known to contain the debris of ancient times. The place is located on the extreme southeastern end of Sana'a's old walled city, ''al-Qaṣr'', just west of where the Great Mosque of Sana'a was later built, and is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Old City of Sana'a. It is sometimes referred to as ''Ghumdan Tower''. According to Arab geographer and historian, Al-Hamdani (c. 893-945), the foundation stones of Ghumdan Palace were laid by Shem, the son of Noah, and finished by the Sabaean monarch Ilī-Sharḥa Yaḥḍib (ca. 8th century BCE), the father of Bilqis. Others say that it was bu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Armin Kirfel/Winfried Kockelmann/Paul Yule
Armin (Armyn) is a given name or surname, and is: * An ancient Indo-European name: ** a German/Dutch given name, *** a modern form of the name Arminius (18/17 BC–AD 21), a German prince who defeated a Roman army in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest (the name Arminius being itself a Latinized form of a Germanic name which may have been derived from the element ''ermen'' meaning "whole, universal"). ** a Persian given name. *** Son of Kai Kobad, a legendary character in Shahnameh, belonging to the mythical Kianian Dynasty in Persian literature and mythology; *** The and short name of Ariobarzanes of Persis (or Ariobarzan), a Persian general who fought against Alexander the Great; *** The of Ariobarzanes, meaning "exalting the Aryans" in ancient Persian. Surname * Robert Armin (–1615), English actor, member of the Lord Chamberlain's Men * Mohsen Armin (born 1954), Iranian politician * Jart Armin, cybersecurity expert Given name * Arminius, Germanic tribal leader who ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abū Muhammad Al-Hasan Al-Hamdānī
Abū Muḥammad al-Ḥasan ibn Aḥmad ibn Yaʿqūb al-Hamdānī (279/280-333/334 A.H. / c. 893-945 A.D; ar, أبو محمد الحسن بن أحمد بن يعقوب الهمداني) was an Arab Muslim geographer, chemist, poet, grammarian, historian, and astronomer, from the tribe of Banu Hamdan, western 'Amran, Yemen. He was one of the best representatives of Islamic culture during the last period of the Abbasid Caliphate. His work was the subject of extensive 19th-century Austrian scholarship. Biography The biographical details of al-Hamdani's life are scant, despite his extensive scientific work. He was held in high repute as a grammarian, wrote much poetry, compiled astronomical tables and is said to have devoted most of his life to the study of the ancient history and geography of Arabia. Before he was born his family had lived in al-Marashi (المراشي). Then they moved to Sana'a (صنعاء), where al-Hamdani was born in the year 893. His father had been a travel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pious Fraud
Pious fraud is used to describe fraud in religion or medicine. A pious fraud can be counterfeiting a miracle or falsely attributing a sacred text to a biblical figure due to the belief that the " end justifies the means", in this case the end of increasing faith by whatever means available. Use of the phrase The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' reports the phrase was first used in English in 1678. Edward Gibbon was particularly fond of the phrase, using it often in his monumental and controversial work ''The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'' in which he criticized the likelihood of some of the martyrs and miracles of the early Christian church. William W. Howells wrote that shamans know that their tricks are impostures, but that all who studied them agree that they really believe in their power to deal with spirits. According to Howells, their main purpose is an honest one and they believe that this justifies the means of hoodwinking his followers in minor technic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gregentios
Gregentios ( Greek: Γρηγέντιος) was the purported archbishop of Ẓafār, the capital of the kingdom of Ḥimyar, in the mid-6th century, according to a hagiographical dossier compiled in the 10th century. This compilation is essentially legendary and fictitious, although a few parts of it are of historical value. Written in Greek, it survives also in a Slavonic translation. The three works in the dossier are conventionally known as the ''Bios'' (Life), ''Nomoi'' (Laws) and ''Dialexis'' (Debate). The whole dossier is sometimes known as the ''Acts'' of Gregentios. Name The name Gregentios is unknown apart from the ''Bios'' and related texts. According to the ''Bios'', he received his name from a local holy man. Several later scribes, encountering an unheard of name, changed it to Gregorios (Gregory). This is the name that appears in all the Slavonic versions, as well as an Arabic translation of the ''Dialexis''. It also appears in the fresco depicting Gregentios in th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aksum
Axum, or Aksum (pronounced: ), is a town in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia with a population of 66,900 residents (as of 2015). It is the site of the historic capital of the Aksumite Empire, a naval and trading power that ruled the whole region from about 400 BCE into the 10th century. In 1980, UNESCO added Axum's archaeological sites to its list of World Heritage Sites due to their historic value. Axum is located in the Central Zone of the Tigray Region, near the base of the Adwa mountains. It has an elevation of and is surrounded by La'ilay Maychew, a separately administered woreda of the Tigray region. History Axum was the hub of the marine trading power known as the Aksumite Empire, which predated the earliest mentions in Roman-era writings. Around 356 CE, its ruler was converted to an Abyssinian variety of Christianity by Frumentius. Later, under the reign of the Emperor Kaleb, Axum was a quasi-ally of Byzantium against the Sasanian Empire which had adopted Zoroastria ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Old South Arabian
Old South Arabian (or Ṣayhadic or Yemenite) is a group of four closely related extinct languages spoken in the far southern portion of the Arabian Peninsula. They were written in the Ancient South Arabian script. There were a number of other Old South Arabian languages (e.g. Awsānian), of which very little evidence has survived, however. A pair of possible surviving Sayhadic languages is attested in the Razihi language and Faifi language spoken in far north-west of Yemen, though these varieties of speech have both Arabic and Sayhadic features, and it is difficult to classify them as either Arabic dialects with a Sayhadic substratum, or Sayhadic languages that have been restructured under pressure of Arabic. Classification issues It was originally thought that all four members of this group were dialects of one Old South Arabian language, but in the mid-twentieth century, linguist A.F.L. Beeston finally proved that they did in fact constitute independent languages. The Ol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
