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Alawites
Alawites () are an Arab ethnoreligious group who live primarily in the Levant region in West Asia and follow Alawism, a sect of Islam that splintered from early Shia as a ''ghulat'' branch during the ninth century. Alawites venerate Ali ibn Abi Talib, the " first Imam" in the Twelver school, as a manifestation of the divine essence. It is the only ''ghulat'' sect still in existence today. The group was founded during the ninth century by Ibn Nusayr, who was a disciple of the tenth Twelver Imam, Ali al-Hadi, and of the eleventh Twelver Imam, Hasan al-Askari. For this reason, Alawites are also called ''Nusayris''. Surveys suggest Alawites represent an important portion of the Syrian population and are a significant minority in the Hatay Province of Turkey and northern Lebanon. There is also a population living in the village of Ghajar in the Golan Heights, where there had been two other Alawite villages ( Ayn Fit and Za'ura) before the Six-Day War. The Alawites for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alawism
Alawism (), also known as Nusayrism (), is an offshoot of early Shia Islam with influences from ancient Iranian, Christian, and Gnostic traditions. Its adherents, called the Alawites, are estimated to number around 4 million and are primarily concentrated in the Levant. Alawites venerate Ali ibn Abi Talib, the " first imam" in the Twelver school, as a manifestation of the divine essence. Alawite beliefs are centered in a divine Trinity, comprising three aspects of the one God, the (meaning), the (name), and the (door). These emanations are understood to have undergone reincarnation cyclically seven times in human form throughout history, the last seventh incarnation being that of Ali, Muhammad and Salman al-Farisi. Alawite practices include consecration of wine in the form of Mass, entombing the deceased in sarcophagi, observing cultural holidays such as Akitu, Christmas, Nowruz, Mawlid and Gazwela. Alawism originated in 9th-century Iraq as a sect that separated from Sh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hatay Province
Hatay Province (, ) is the southernmost province and metropolitan municipality of Turkey. Its area is , and its population is 1,686,043 (2022). It is situated mostly outside Anatolia, along the eastern coast of the Levantine Sea. The province borders Syria to its south and east, the Turkish province of Adana to the northwest, Osmaniye to the north, and Gaziantep to the northeast. It is partially situated on the Cilician Plain, a large fertile plain along the Cilicia region. Its administrative capital is Antakya (ancient Antioch), making it one of the three Turkish provinces not named after its administrative capital or any settlement. The second-largest city is İskenderun (formerly Alexandretta). Sovereignty over most of the province was disputed with neighbouring Syria, which claimed that the province had a demographic Arab majority, and has separated from its territory in violation of the terms of the French Mandate for Syria that was established on the heels of World ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Al-Khasibi
Abu Abd Allah al-Husayn ibn Hamdan al-Junbalani al-Khasibi (died 957 or 968), commonly known simply as al-Khasibi, was an Alawite religious leader and missionary. He originally from a village called ''Jonbalā'', between Kufa and Wasit in Iraq, which was the center of the Qarmatians. He was a member of a well-educated family with close ties to eleventh Twelver Imam Hasan al-Askari and a scholar of the Alawites, also known as Nusayris, which is now present in Syria, southern Turkey and northern Lebanon..; . The ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' cites 957 or 968 as two possible dates for his death. For a time, al-Khaṣībī was imprisoned in Baghdad, due to accusations of being a Qarmatian. According to the Alawites, after settling in Aleppo, under the rule of the Shia Hamdanid dynasty, he gained the support and aid of its ruler, Sayf al-Dawla, in spreading his teachings. He later dedicated his book ''Kitab al-Hidaya al-Kubra'' to his patron. He died in Aleppo and his tomb, which becam ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lebanon
Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west; Cyprus lies a short distance from the coastline. Lebanon has a population of more than five million and an area of . Beirut is the country's capital and largest city. Human habitation in Lebanon dates to 5000 BC. From 3200 to 539 BC, it was part of Phoenicia, a maritime civilization that spanned the Mediterranean Basin. In 64 BC, the region became part of the Roman Empire and the subsequent Byzantine Empire. After the seventh century, it Muslim conquest of the Levant, came under the rule of different Islamic caliphates, including the Rashidun Caliphate, Rashidun, Umayyad Caliphate, Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphate, Abbasid. The 11th century saw the establishment of Christian Crusader states, which fell ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shia
Shia Islam is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib () as both his political successor (caliph) and as the spiritual leader of the Muslim community (imam). However, his right is understood to have been usurped by a number of Muhammad's companions at the meeting of Saqifa where they appointed Abu Bakr () as caliph instead. As such, Sunni Muslims believe Abu Bakr, Umar (), Uthman () and Ali to be ' rightly-guided caliphs' whereas Shia Muslims only regard Ali as the legitimate successor. Shia Muslims assert imamate continued through Ali's sons Hasan and Husayn, after whom different Shia branches have their own imams. They revere the , the family of Muhammad, maintaining that they possess divine knowledge. Shia holy sites include the shrine of Ali in Najaf, the shrine of Husayn in Karbala and other mausoleums of the . Later events such as Husayn's martyrdom in the Battle of Karbala (680 CE) further influenced the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ibn Nusayr
Abu Shu'ayb Muhammad ibn Nusayr al-Numayri (died ), commonly known simply as Ibn Nusayr, was an Arab religious leader who is considered the founder of Alawism. He was a contemporary of Ali al-Hadi and Hasan al-Askari, the tenth and eleventh imams in Twelverism. Born in Basra to the Banu Numayr tribe, Ibn Nusayr is viewed by his followers as the (representative) of al-Askari and sometimes of Hujjat Allah al-Mahdi, during the Minor Occultation. A rival of his in claiming to be the Bāb (Door) to the Imams was Abu Yaqub Ishaq, founder of the Ishaqiyya. Ibn Nusayr claimed that Ali Al-Hadi held a "divine nature". The followers of Ibn Nusayr are known as the Nusayris () or, since the 1920s, the Alawites (). Ibn Nusayr was an Arab from the northern tribe of Banu Numayr (or of Persian origin) but was associated with the Arab al-Namir tribe. Schisms After the death of al‐Askari the Shia community was faced with the issue of who the Imam's successor was, some saying that al‐Askar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Twelver Shi'ism
Twelver Shi'ism (), also known as Imamism () or Ithna Ashari, is the largest branch of Shi'a Islam, comprising about 90% of all Shi'a Muslims. The term ''Twelver'' refers to its adherents' belief in twelve divinely ordained leaders, known as the Twelve Imams, and their belief that the last Imam, Imam al-Mahdi, lives in occultation (''ghayba'') and will reappear as "the awaited Mahdi" (''al-Mahdi al-muntazar''). Twelver Shi'as believe that the Twelve Imams are divinely appointed as both spiritual and political successors to the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and that they possess special knowledge and authority to guide the Muslim community. According to Twelver theology, the Twelve Imams are exemplary human individuals who rule over the Muslim community (''Ummah'') with justice, and are able to preserve and interpret the Islamic law (Sharia) and the esoteric meaning of the Qur'an. The words and deeds ('' sunnah'') of Muhammad and the Imams are a guide and model for the Musl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ghulat
The () were a branch of history of Shia Islam, early Shi'a Islam. The term mainly refers to a wide variety of List of extinct Shia sects, extinct Shi'i sects active in 8th- and 9th-century Kufa in Lower Mesopotamia, and who, despite their sometimes significant differences, shared several common ideas. These common ideas included the attribution of a Imamate in Shia doctrine, divine nature to the Imams, metempsychosis (the belief that souls can migrate between different human and non-human bodies), a particular gnosticism, gnostic creation myth involving pre-existent 'shadows' (''azilla'') whose fall from grace produced the material world, and an emphasis on taqiyya, secrecy and dissociation from outsiders. They were named ''ghulat'' by other Shi'i and Sunni Muslims for their purportedly "exaggerated" veneration of Muhammad (–632) and Ahl al-Bayt, his family, most notably Ali (–661) and his descendants, the Imamate in Shia doctrine, Imams. The ideas of the ''ghulat'' have at ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hasan Al-Askari
Hasan al-Askari (; ) was a descendant of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. He is regarded as the eleventh of the Twelve Imams, succeeding his father, Ali al-Hadi. Hasan Al-Askari was born in Medina in 844 and brought with his father to the garrison town of Samarra in 848, where the Abbasid caliphs held them under close surveillance until their deaths, even though neither were politically active. After the death of al-Hadi in 868, the majority of his following acknowledged his son, al-Askari, as their next Imam. Al-Askari's contact with the Shia population was restricted by the caliphs and instead, he communicated with his followers through a network of representatives. He died in Samarra in 873–874 at the age of about twenty-eight and was buried in the family home next to his father, which later developed into al-Askari shrine, a major center for Shia pilgrimage. Shia sources commonly hold the Abbasids responsible for the death of al-Askari and his father. A well-known early Shi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Golan Heights
The Golan Heights, or simply the Golan, is a basaltic plateau at the southwest corner of Syria. It is bordered by the Yarmouk River in the south, the Sea of Galilee and Hula Valley in the west, the Anti-Lebanon mountains with Mount Hermon in the north and Ruqqad, Wadi Raqqad in the east. It hosts vital water sources that feed the Hasbani River and the Jordan River. Two thirds of the area was Israeli occupation of the Golan Heights, occupied by Israel following the 1967 Six-Day War and then Golan Heights Law, effectively annexed in 1981 – an action unrecognized by the international community, which continues to consider it Israeli occupation, Israeli-occupied Syrian territory. In 2024 Israeli invasion of Syria, 2024, Israel occupied the remaining one third of the area. The earliest evidence of human habitation on the Golan dates to the Upper Paleolithic period. It was home to the biblical Geshur, and was later incorporated into Aram-Damascus,Michael Avi-Yonah (1979). ''The Hol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Levantine Arabic
Levantine Arabic, also called Shami (Endonym and exonym, autonym: or ), is an Varieties of Arabic, Arabic variety spoken in the Levant, namely in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel and southern Turkey (historically only in Adana Province, Adana, Mersin Province, Mersin and Hatay Province, Hatay provinces). With over 60 million speakers, Levantine is, alongside Egyptian Arabic, Egyptian, one of the two Prestige (sociolinguistics), prestige varieties of spoken Arabic comprehensible all over the Arab world. Levantine is not Official language, officially recognized in any state or territory. Although it is the majority language in Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria, it is predominantly used as a spoken vernacular in daily communication, whereas most written and official documents and media in these countries use the official Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), a form of Literary language, literary Arabic only Second-language acquisition, acquired through formal education tha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Levant
The Levant ( ) is the subregion that borders the Eastern Mediterranean, Eastern Mediterranean sea to the west, and forms the core of West Asia and the political term, Middle East, ''Middle East''. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is equivalent to Cyprus and a stretch of land bordering the Mediterranean Sea in Western AsiaGasiorowski, Mark (2016). ''The Government and Politics of the Middle East and North Africa''. p. 5: "... today the term ''Levantine'' can describe shared cultural products, such as Levantine cuisine or Levantine archaeology". .Steiner & Killebrew, p9: "The general limits ..., as defined here, begin at the Plain of 'Amuq in the north and extend south until the Wâdī al-Arish, along the northern coast of Sinai. ... The western coastline and the eastern deserts set the boundaries for the Levant ... The Euphrates and the area around Jebel el-Bishrī mark the eastern boundary of the northern Levant, as d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
