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Al-Rahba
Al-Rahba (/ALA-LC: ''al-Raḥba'', sometimes spelled ''Raḥabah''), also known as Qal'at al-Rahba, which translates as the "Citadel of al-Rahba", is a medieval Arab fortress on the west bank of the Euphrates River, adjacent to the city of Mayadin in Syria. Situated atop a mound with an elevation of , al-Rahba oversees the Syrian Desert steppe. It has been described as "a fortress within a fortress"; it consists of an inner keep measuring , protected by an enclosure measuring . Al-Rahba is largely in ruins today as a result of wind erosion. The original site, which was known as "Rahbat Malik ibn Tawk" after its Abbasid namesake and founder, was located along the Euphrates. It was viewed by Muslim armies, caravans and travelers as the key to Syria from Iraq and sometimes vice versa. Bedouin tribes often took control of it and used it as a launching point for invasions of northern Syria. Because of its strategic location, al-Rahba was frequently fought over by Muslim powers, inc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mayadin
Mayadin (/ALA-LC: ''al-Miyādīn'') is a town in eastern Syria. It is the capital of the Mayadin District, part of the Deir ez-Zor Governorate. Mayadin is about 44 kilometers southeast of Deir ez-Zor. The Euphrates River flows through the town. In the 2004 census, the population was 44,028, making it the second most populous town in the governorate. History Ancient era Mayadin has been identified to be the ancient Audattha known to Ptolemy, though some suggest Audattha was where Haditha now stands in Iraq. Middle Ages Mayadin is the successor of the medieval town and fortress of Rahbat Malik ibn Tawk, founded by the Abbasid lord and the original town's namesake, Malik ibn Tawk. Strategically located at a crossroads on the western bank of the Euphrates and considered the key to Syria from Iraq, control of the town was highly contested by the Muslim powers and Bedouin tribes of the region. It grew to become one of the major Muslim towns of the Euphrates valley and was an a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Deir Ez-Zor Governorate
Deir ez-Zor Governorate ( / ALA-LC: ''Muḥāfaẓat Dayr az-Zawr,'' Kurdish'':'' ''Parêzgeha Dêrezor'') is one of the fourteen governorates (provinces) of Syria. It is situated in eastern Syria, bordering Iraq. It has an area of 33,060 km2 (12,760 sq mi) and a population of 1,239,000 (2011 estimate). The capital is Deir ez-Zor. It is divided roughly equally from northwest to southeast by the Euphrates. Most of the territory on the river's left (northeast) bank is part of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, while that on the right (southwest) bank is controlled by the Syrian transitional government. Districts The governorate is divided into three districts ( manatiq). The districts are further divided into 14 sub-districts ( nawahi): * Deir ez-Zor District (7 sub-districts) ** Deir ez-Zor Subdistrict ** Al-Kasrah Subdistrict ** Al-Busayrah Subdistrict ** Al-Muhasan Subdistrict ** Al-Tabni Subdistrict ** Khasham Subdistrict ** Al-Suwar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Malik Ibn Tawk
Malik ibn Tawk ibn Malik ibn 'Attab at-Taghlibi () (died 873) was an Arab Abbasid official during the reigns of caliphs al-Wathiq (r. 842–847) and al-Mutawakkil (r. 847–861). He is best known as the founder of the fortress town of al-Rahba on the western banks of the Euphrates, part of the present-day Syrian town of Mayadin. Biography Malik ibn Tawk belonged to the Arab tribe of Banu Taghlib and traced his lineage to the 6th-century Taghlibi poet warrior Amr ibn Kulthum. His father, Tawk ibn Malik, served as governor of Diyar Rabi'a, the district of the eastern Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia) under the Abbasid caliph al-Ma'mun (r. 813–833). He also served as a general under al-Ma'mun's predecessor, Caliph Harun al-Rashid (r. 786–809), Some Muslim sources have often incorrectly made the son Malik ibn Tawk to have been the one in the service of Harun and al-Ma'mun instead of his father. Malik ibn Tawk served under the caliphs al-Wathiq (r. 842–847) and al-Mutawakkil (r. 847–86 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ibn Batuta
Ibn Battuta (; 24 February 13041368/1369), was a Maghrebis, Maghrebi traveller, explorer and scholar. Over a period of 30 years from 1325 to 1354, he visited much of Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the Iberian Peninsula. Near the end of his life, Ibn Battuta dictated an account of his journeys, titled ''A Gift to Those Who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and the Marvels of Travelling'', commonly known as ''The Rihla''. Ibn Battuta travelled more than any other explorer in pre-modern history, totalling around , surpassing Zheng He with about and Marco Polo with . Name "Ibn Battuta" is a patronymic, literally meaning 'son of a duckling'. His most common full name is given as Kunya (Arabic), Abu Abdullah (name), Abdullah Muhammad (name), Muhammad ibn Battuta. In his travel literature, travelogue, ''The Rihla'', he gives his full name as "Shams al-Din Abu ’Abdallah Muhammad ibn ’Abdallah ibn Muhammad ibn Ibrahim ibn Muhammad ibn Yusuf Laguatan, Lawati al-Tangier, Tanji ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Central Europe, between the early 16th and early 18th centuries. The empire emerged from a Anatolian beyliks, ''beylik'', or principality, founded in northwestern Anatolia in by the Turkoman (ethnonym), Turkoman tribal leader Osman I. His successors Ottoman wars in Europe, conquered much of Anatolia and expanded into the Balkans by the mid-14th century, transforming their petty kingdom into a transcontinental empire. The Ottomans ended the Byzantine Empire with the Fall of Constantinople, conquest of Constantinople in 1453 by Mehmed II. With its capital at History of Istanbul#Ottoman Empire, Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul) and control over a significant portion of the Mediterranean Basin, the Ottoman Empire was at the centre of interacti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ilkhanate
The Ilkhanate or Il-khanate was a Mongol khanate founded in the southwestern territories of the Mongol Empire. It was ruled by the Il-Khans or Ilkhanids (), and known to the Mongols as ''Hülegü Ulus'' (). The Ilkhanid realm was officially known as the Land of Iran or simply Iran. It was established after Hulegu Khan, Hülegü, the son of Tolui and grandson of Genghis Khan, inherited the West Asian and Central Asian part of the Mongol Empire after his brother Möngke Khan died in 1259. The Ilkhanate's core territory was situated in what is now the countries of Iran, Azerbaijan, and Turkey. At its greatest extent, the Ilkhanate also included parts of modern Iraq, Syria, Armenia, Georgia (country), Georgia, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Pakistan, part of modern Dagestan, and part of modern Tajikistan. Later Ilkhanid rulers, beginning with Ghazan in 1295, converted to Islam. In the 1330s, the Ilkhanate was ravaged by the Black Death. The last ilkhan, Abu Sa'id Bahadur Khan, died in 133 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mamluk Sultanate (Cairo)
The Mamluk Sultanate (), also known as Mamluk Egypt or the Mamluk Empire, was a state that ruled medieval Egypt, Egypt, the Levant and the Hejaz from the mid-13th to early 16th centuries, with Cairo as its capital. It was ruled by a military caste of mamluks (freed slave soldiers) headed by a sultan. The sultanate was established with the overthrow of the Ayyubid dynasty in Egypt in 1250 and was Ottoman–Mamluk War (1516–1517), conquered by the Ottoman Empire in 1517. Mamluk history is generally divided into the Turkic peoples, Turkic or Bahri Mamluks, Bahri period (1250–1382) and the Circassians, Circassian or Burji Mamluks, Burji period (1382–1517), called after the predominant ethnicity or corps of the ruling Mamluks during these respective eras. The first rulers of the sultanate hailed from the mamluk regiments of the Ayyubid sultan as-Salih Ayyub (), usurping power from his successor in 1250. The Mamluks under Sultan Qutuz and Baybars Battle of Ain Jalut, routed the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Al-Mujahid
Al Malik Al-Mujahid Asad ad-Din Shirkuh II or Shirkuh II, was the Kurdish Ayyubid emir of Homs from 1186 to 1240. He was the son of An-Nasir Muhammad ibn Shirkuh, grandson of Shirkuh and first cousin once removed of Saladin. His domains also included Palmyra and ar-Rahba. Al Mujahid became emir at the age of thirteen when his father died unexpectedly in Homs on 4 March 1186 (10 Dhu’l Hijja 581). Name The pronunciation and the meaning of Shirkuh is not quite clear: it could mean “the mountain lion” or possibly Shirguh (Sher-gue) in Kurdish “having the lion’s ear". Reign External threats Within the Ayyubid confederacy Hama was a marcher realm, bordering on the Crusader County of Tripoli and close to the great Hospitaller fortress of Krak des Chevaliers. The role of the emir of Hama was to prevent the Crusaders from raiding into northern Syria, despoiling the land, and threatening Aleppo or Damascus. Frequently Al-Mujahid worked together with his second cous ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saladin
Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub ( – 4 March 1193), commonly known as Saladin, was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Hailing from a Kurdish family, he was the first sultan of both Egypt and Syria. An important figure of the Third Crusade, he spearheaded the Muslim military effort against the Crusader states in the Levant. At the height of his power, the Ayyubid realm spanned Egypt, Syria, Upper Mesopotamia, the Hejaz, Yemen, and Nubia. Alongside his uncle Shirkuh, a Kurdish mercenary commander in service of the Zengid dynasty, Saladin was sent to Fatimid Egypt in 1164, on the orders of the Zengid ruler Nur ad-Din. With their original purpose being to help restore Shawar as the vizier to the teenage Fatimid caliph al-Adid, a power struggle ensued between Shirkuh and Shawar after the latter was reinstated. Saladin, meanwhile, climbed the ranks of the Fatimid government by virtue of his military successes against Crusader assaults and his personal closeness to al-Adid. A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ayyubid Dynasty
The Ayyubid dynasty (), also known as the Ayyubid Sultanate, was the founding dynasty of the medieval Sultan of Egypt, Sultanate of Egypt established by Saladin in 1171, following his abolition of the Fatimid Caliphate, Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt. A Sunni Muslim of Kurds, Kurdish origin, Saladin had originally served the Zengid dynasty, Zengid ruler Nur al-Din Zengi, Nur al-Din, leading the latter's army against the Crusader invasions of Egypt, Crusaders in Fatimid Egypt, where he was made vizier (Fatimid Caliphate), vizier. Following Nur al-Din's death, Saladin was proclaimed as the first Sultan of Egypt by the Abbasid Caliphate, and rapidly expanded the new sultanate beyond Lower Egypt, Egypt to encompass most of Syria (region), Syria, in addition to Hijaz, Southern Arabia, Yemen, northern Nubia, Tripolitania and Upper Mesopotamia. Saladin's military campaigns set the general borders and sphere of influence of the sultanate of Egypt for the almost 350 years of its existence. Mos ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zengid Dynasty
The Zengid or Zangid dynasty, also referred to as the Atabegate of Mosul, Aleppo and Damascus (Arabic: أتابكة الموصل وحلب ودمشق), or the Zengid State (Old Anatolian Turkish: , Modern Turkish: ; ) was initially an '' Atabegate'' of the Seljuk Empire created in 1127. It formed a Turkoman dynasty of Sunni Muslim faith, which ruled parts of the Levant and Upper Mesopotamia, and eventually seized control of Egypt in 1169. In 1174, the Zengid state extended from Tripoli to Hamadan and from Yemen to Sivas. Imad ad-Din Zengi was the first ruler of the dynasty. The Zengid ''Atabegate'' became famous in the Islamic world for its successes against the Crusaders, and for being the ''Atabegate'' from which Saladin originated. Following the demise of the Seljuk dynasty in 1194, the Zengids persisted for several decades as one of the "Seljuk successor-states" until 1250. History In 1127, following the murder of Aqsunqur al-Bursuqi, ''atabeg'' of Mosul, the Seljuk Empire ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1157 Hama Earthquake
After a year of foreshocks, an earthquake occurred on 12 August 1157 near the city of Hama, in west-central Syria (region), Syria (then under the Seljuk Empire, Seljuk rule), where the most casualties were sustained. In eastern Syria, near the Euphrates, the quake destroyed the predecessor of the citadel al-Rahba, subsequently rebuilt on the same strategic site. The earthquake also affected Christian monasteries and churches in the vicinity of Jerusalem. See also * Banu Munqidh * List of historical earthquakes * Shaizar * Timeline of Hama References {{Earthquakes in the Levant Earthquakes in the Levant, 1157 Hama 12th-century earthquakes, Hama earthquake 12th century in the Kingdom of Jerusalem 12th century in the Seljuk Empire 1157 in Asia, Hama Earthquake, 1157 History of Hama ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
