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Al-Qatta'i
Al-Qaṭāʾi () was the short-lived Tulunid capital of Egypt, founded by Ahmad ibn Tulun in the year 868 CE. Al-Qata'i was located immediately to the northeast of the previous capital, al-Askar, which in turn was adjacent to the settlement of Fustat. All three settlements were later incorporated into the city of Cairo, founded by the Fatimids in 969 CE. The city was razed in the early 10th century CE, and the only surviving structure is the Mosque of Ibn Tulun. History Each of the new cities was founded with a change in the governance of the Middle East: Fustat was the first Arab settlement in Egypt, founded by Amr ibn al-A'as in 642 following the Arab conquest of Egypt. Al-Askar succeeded Fustat as capital of Egypt after the move of the caliphate from the Umayyad dynasty in Damascus to the Abbasids in Baghdad around 750 CE. Al-Qata'i ("The Quarters") was established by Ahmad ibn Tulun when he was sent to Egypt by the Abbasid caliph to assume the governorship in 868 CE. Ibn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fustat
Fustat (), also Fostat, was the first capital of Egypt under Muslim rule, though it has been integrated into Cairo. It was built adjacent to what is now known as Old Cairo by the Rashidun Muslim general 'Amr ibn al-'As immediately after the Muslim conquest of Egypt in AD 641, and featured the Mosque of Amr, the first mosque built in Egypt. The city reached its peak in the 12th century, with a population of approximately 200,000.Williams, p. 37 It was the centre of administrative power in Egypt, until it was ordered burnt in 1168 by its own vizier, Shawar, to keep its wealth out of the hands of the invading Crusaders. The remains of the city were eventually absorbed by nearby Cairo, which had been built to the north of Fustat in 969 when the Fatimids conquered the region and created a new city as a royal enclosure for the Caliph. The area fell into disrepair for hundreds of years and was used as a rubbish dump. Today, Fustat is a suburb that lies within the modern district of O ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Al-Askar
Al-‘Askar () was the capital of Egypt from 750–868, when Egypt was a province of the Abbasid Caliphate. History Background After the Early Muslim conquests, Muslim conquest of Egypt in 641, Fustat was established, just north of Coptic Cairo and the regional capital of Egypt was moved from Alexandria to the new city on the eastern side of the Nile. Abbasid regional capital (750-868) The Rashiduns were followed by the Umayyads, who ruled until they were overthrown by the Abbasids in 750, when the Umayyad regional capital of Fustat was replaced with an Abbasid city slightly north of it, al-‘Askar. Its full name was . Intended primarily as a city large enough to house an army, it was laid out in a grid pattern that could be easily subdivided into separate sections for various groups, such as merchants and officers. The peak of the Abbasid dynasty occurred during the reign of Harun al Rashid (r. 786-809), along with increased taxes on the Egyptians, who rose up in a peasant re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cairo
Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of largest cities in the Arab world, the Arab world, and List of largest metropolitan areas of the Middle East, the Middle East. The Greater Cairo metropolitan area is List of largest cities, one of the largest in the world by population with over 22.1 million people. The area that would become Cairo was part of ancient Egypt, as the Giza pyramid complex and the ancient cities of Memphis, Egypt, Memphis and Heliopolis (ancient Egypt), Heliopolis are near-by. Located near the Nile Delta, the predecessor settlement was Fustat following the Muslim conquest of Egypt in 641 next to an existing ancient Roman empire, Roman fortress, Babylon Fortress, Babylon. Subsequently, Cairo was founded by the Fatimid Caliphate, Fatimid dynasty in 969. It ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tulunid
The Tulunid State, also known as the Tulunid Emirate or The State of Banu Tulun, and popularly referred to as the Tulunids () was a Mamluk dynasty of Turkic origin who was the first independent dynasty to rule Egypt, as well as much of Syria, since the Ptolemaic dynasty. They were independent from 868, when they broke away from the central authority of the Abbasid Caliphate, to 905, when the Abbasids restored the Tulunid domains to their control. Tulunid State emerged during a period marked by the growing power of the Turkic within the Abbasid Caliphate. This was a time when the Turkish guard exerted control over the empire's affairs, and when ethnic Shu'ubiyya and separatist tendencies began to emerge among the various peoples and governors of the vast Abbasid territories. The establishment of the Tulunid State was one of the inevitable outcomes of this growing sentiment. In the late 9th century, internal conflict amongst the Abbasids made control of the outlying areas of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mosque
A mosque ( ), also called a masjid ( ), is a place of worship for Muslims. The term usually refers to a covered building, but can be any place where Salah, Islamic prayers are performed; such as an outdoor courtyard. Originally, mosques were simple places of prayer for the early Muslims, and may have been open spaces rather than elaborate buildings. In the first stage of Islamic architecture (650–750 CE), early mosques comprised open and closed covered spaces enclosed by walls, often with minarets, from which the Adhan, Islamic call to prayer was issued on a daily basis. It is typical of mosque buildings to have a special ornamental niche (a ''mihrab'') set into the wall in the direction of the city of Mecca (the ''qibla''), which Muslims must face during prayer, as well as a facility for ritual cleansing (''wudu''). The pulpit (''minbar''), from which public sermons (''khutbah'') are delivered on the event of Friday prayer, was, in earlier times, characteristic of the central ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ogive
An ogive ( ) is the roundly tapered end of a two- or three-dimensional object. Ogive curves and surfaces are used in engineering, architecture, woodworking, and ballistics. Etymology The French Orientalist Georges Séraphin Colin gives as the term's origin the Arabic ''al-ġubb'' () 'cistern', pronounced ''al-ġibb'' () in vernacular Iberian Arabic, through the Spanish ''aljibe'' or archaically ''algibe.'' The earliest use of the word ''ogive'' is found in the 13th-century sketchbook of Villard de Honnecourt, from Picardy in northern France. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' considers the French term's origin obscure; it might come from the Late Latin , the feminine perfect passive participle of , meaning the one who has met or encountered the other. However, Merriam-Webster's dictionary says it is from the "Middle English stone comprising an arch, from Middle French diagonal arch". According to Wiktionary, the French term comes "from Vulgar Latin augīvus, from Latin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Al-Maqrizi
Al-Maqrīzī (, full name Taqī al-Dīn Abū al-'Abbās Aḥmad ibn 'Alī ibn 'Abd al-Qādir ibn Muḥammad al-Maqrīzī, ; 1364–1442) was a medieval Egyptian historian and biographer during the Mamluk era, known for his interest in the Fatimid era, and the earlier periods of Egyptian history.Paul E. Walker, ''Exploring an Islamic Empire: Fatimid History and its Sources'' (London, I.B. Tauris, 2002), p. 164. The material for updating this article is taken from Walker's account of al-Maqrizi. He is recognized as the most influential historian of premodern Egypt. Life A direct student of Ibn Khaldun, al-Maqrīzī was born in Cairo to a family of Syrian origin that had recently relocated from Damascus. When he presents himself in his books he usually stops at the 10th forefather although he confessed to some of his close friends that he can trace his ancestry to al-Mu‘izz li-Dīn Allāh – first Fatimid caliph in Egypt and the founder of al-Qahirah – and even to Ali ibn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Friday Prayer
Friday prayer, or congregational prayer (), is the meeting together of Muslims for communal prayer and service at midday every Friday. In Islam, the day itself is called ''Yawm al-Jum'ah'' (shortened to ''Jum'ah''), which translated from Arabic means "Day of Meeting", "Day of Assembly" or "Day of Congregation". On this day, all Muslim men are expected to meet and participate at the designated place of meeting and prostration / mosque, with certain exceptions due to distance and situation. Women and children can also participate but do not fall under the same obligation that men do. In many Muslim countries, the Workweek and weekend, weekend is inclusive of Fridays, and in others, Fridays are half-days for schools and some workplaces. It is one of the most exalted Islamic rituals and one of its confirmed obligatory acts. Service The meeting services consists of several parts including ritual washing, chants, recitation of scripture and prayer, and sermons or discussions. Ritual ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maristan
A bimaristan (; ), or simply maristan, known in Arabic also as ("house of healing"; in Turkish), is a hospital in the historic Islamic world. Its origins can be traced back to Sassanian Empire prior to the Muslim conquest of Persia. The word "bimaristan" is still used in the dialect of Persian spoken in Iran for hospitals. Etymology ''Bimarestān'' is a New Persian word inherited from , from ''wēmār'' "sick, ill person" plus the suffix '' -stan'' "place, location." In English literature, the term designates institutions of medicine in the medieval Islamic world. It is still used sometimes in languages of Persianate societies to refer to modern hospitals or specific types of medical institutions. History Many centers of health in antiquity helped shape the ways Muslim scholars would pursue the study and advancement of medical science. Mobile hospitals were the first version of the bimaristans. These mobile hospitals carried medications, food, and water, and trave ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Minbar
A minbar (; sometimes romanized as ''mimber'') is a pulpit in a mosque where the imam (leader of prayers) stands to deliver sermons (, ''khutbah''). It is also used in other similar contexts, such as in a Hussainiya where the speaker sits and lectures the congregation. Etymology The word is a derivative of the Arabic root ''n-b-r'' ("to raise, elevate"); the Arabic plural is ''manābir'' (). Function and form The minbar is symbolically the seat of the imam who leads prayers in the mosque and delivers sermons. In the early years of Islam, this seat was reserved for the Islamic prophet Muhammad and later for the caliphs who followed him, each of whom was officially the imam of the whole Muslim community. It eventually became standard for all Friday mosques and was used by the local imam, but it retained its significance as a symbol of authority. While minbars are roughly similar to church pulpits, they have a function and position more similar to that of a church lectern ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aqueduct (water Supply)
An aqueduct is a watercourse constructed to carry water from a source to a distribution point far away. In modern engineering, the term ''aqueduct'' is used for any system of pipes, ditches, canals, tunnels, and other structures used for this purpose. The term ''aqueduct'' also often refers specifically to aqueduct (bridge), a bridge carrying an artificial watercourse. Aqueducts were used in ancient Greece, the ancient Near East, Roman aqueduct, ancient Rome, Chapultepec aqueduct, ancient Aztec, and Inca aqueducts, ancient Inca. The simplest aqueducts are small ditches cut into the earth. Much larger channels may be used in modern aqueducts. Aqueducts sometimes run for some or all of their path through tunnels constructed underground. Modern aqueducts may also use pipelines. Historically, agricultural societies have constructed aqueducts to irrigate crops and supply large cities with drinking water. Etymology The word ''aqueduct'' is derived from the Latin words (''water'') a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
