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Glossary Of Belly Dance Terms
The following are the special concepts and terminology of belly dance. As this dance has many forms and can be found in North Africa and the Middle East, a significant proportion of the terminology is in Arabic. Turkish or Turkish-loan words may also be encountered among belly dance terms. Assuit Assuit, also known as Tulle-bi-telli, is a textile marrying cotton or linen mesh with small strips of metal, with its origins dating to Ancient Egypt. The name translates roughly as "net with metal". It is frequently worn in Raqs Baladi. Baladi Baladi (Arabic: بلدي / ALA-LC: baladī; nisba-adjective meaning "native", "indigenous", "of the country", "rural", comparable to English "folk", with a lower-class connotation. It can be used in the pejorative meaning "hick/backwards". It can also refer to an Egyptian musical style, the folk style of Egyptian belly dance (Raqs Baladi). It is also sometimes spelled in English as 'beledi'. Chest Camel The chest camel is a movement which is made ...
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Belly Dance
Belly dance (Egyptian Arabic: رقص بلدي, translated: Dance of the Country/Folk Dance, romanized: Raks/Raas Baladi) is a dance that originates in Egypt. It features movements of the hips and torso. It has evolved to take many different forms depending on the country and region, both in costume and dance style; with the Egyptian styles and costumes being the most recognized worldwide due to Egyptian cinema. The Egyptian style with its traditional Egyptian rhymes is popular worldwide with many schools around the globe now practicing it. Names and terminology "Belly dance" is a translation of the French term ''danse du ventre''. The name first appeared in 1864 in a review of the Orientalist painting ''The Dance of the Almeh'' by Jean-Léon Gérôme. The first known use of the term "belly dance" in English is in reference to the Middle Eastern dancers who performed at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1893. The informal, social form of the dance is known as '' Raq ...
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Upper Egypt
Upper Egypt ( ar, صعيد مصر ', shortened to , , locally: ; ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the lands on both sides of the Nile that extend upriver from Lower Egypt in the north to Nubia in the south. In ancient Egypt, Upper Egypt was known as ''tꜣ šmꜣw'', literally "the Land of Reeds" or "the Sedgeland". It is believed to have been united by the rulers of the supposed Thinite Confederacy who absorbed their rival city states during the Naqada III period (c. 3200–3000 BC), and its subsequent unification with Lower Egypt ushered in the Early Dynastic period. Upper and Lower Egypt became intertwined in the symbolism of pharaonic sovereignty such as the Pschent double crown. Upper Egypt remained as a historical region even after the classical period. Geography Upper Egypt is between the Cataracts of the Nile beyond modern-day Aswan, downriver (northward) to the area of El-Ayait, which places modern-day Cairo in Lower Egypt. The northern (d ...
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Zills
Zills or zils (from Turkish 'cymbals'), also called finger cymbals, are small metallic cymbals used in belly dancing and similar performances. They are called () in Egypt. They are similar to Tibetan tingsha bells. In Western music, several pairs can be set in a frame to make a tambourine. Names in other languages include ''nuqaisāt'' (after the ''naqus'') in Arabic and used among Berbers, ''ṣunnūj ṣaghīra'' in Arabic, ''Zang-e sarangoshti'' (Persian, possibly related to the '' zang''), sanj angshati (سنج انگشتی) (Persian, related to Sanj), ''çeng'' in Turkish, ''p'eng chung'' in Chinese. History Zills, or finger cymbals, are part of a family of musical instruments known as ''clappers''. Clappers are musical instruments made of wood, bone, metal, and other substances that are played by being struck against each other. Clappers come in pairs and are often held in the hands, fastened together, or strapped to the performer's fingers. The clapper family also inc ...
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Middle East
The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (European part of Turkey), Egypt, Iran, the Levant (including Syria (region), Ash-Shām and Cyprus), Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq), and the Socotra Governorate, Socotra Archipelago (a part of Yemen). The term came into widespread usage as a replacement of the term Near East (as opposed to the Far East) beginning in the early 20th century. The term "Middle East" has led to some confusion over its changing definitions, and has been viewed by some to be discriminatory or too Eurocentrism, Eurocentric. The region includes the vast majority of the territories included in the closely associated definition of Western Asia (including Iran), but without the South Caucasus, and additionally includes all of Egypt (not just the Sina ...
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India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast, it shares land borders with Pakistan to the west; China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north; and Bangladesh and Myanmar to the east. In the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives; its Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Thailand, Myanmar, and Indonesia. Modern humans arrived on the Indian subcontinent from Africa no later than 55,000 years ago., "Y-Chromosome and Mt-DNA data support the colonization of South Asia by modern humans originating in Africa. ... Coalescence dates for most non-European populations average to between 73–55 ka.", "Modern human beings—''Homo sapiens''—originated in Africa. Then, int ...
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Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmenistan to the north, by Afghanistan and Pakistan to the east, and by the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf to the south. It covers an area of , making it the 17th-largest country. Iran has a population of 86 million, making it the 17th-most populous country in the world, and the second-largest in the Middle East. Its largest cities, in descending order, are the capital Tehran, Mashhad, Isfahan, Karaj, Shiraz, and Tabriz. The country is home to one of the world's oldest civilizations, beginning with the formation of the Elamite kingdoms in the fourth millennium BC. It was first unified by the Medes, an ancient Iranian people, in the seventh century BC, and reached its territorial height in the sixth century BC, when Cyrus the Great fo ...
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Somalia
Somalia, , Osmanya script: 𐒈𐒝𐒑𐒛𐒐𐒘𐒕𐒖; ar, الصومال, aṣ-Ṣūmāl officially the Federal Republic of SomaliaThe ''Federal Republic of Somalia'' is the country's name per Article 1 of thProvisional Constitution, (; ), is a country in the Horn of Africa. The country is bordered by Ethiopia to the west, Djibouti to the northwest, the Gulf of Aden to the north, the Indian Ocean to the east, and Kenya to the southwest. Somalia has the longest coastline on Africa's mainland. Its terrain consists mainly of plateaus, plains, and highlands. Hot conditions prevail year-round, with periodic monsoon winds and irregular rainfall. Somalia has an estimated population of around million, of which over 2 million live in the capital and largest city Mogadishu, and has been described as Africa's most culturally homogeneous country. Around 85% of its residents are ethnic Somalis, who have historically inhabited the country's north. Ethnic minorities are ...
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Sudan
Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Egypt to the north, Eritrea to the northeast, Ethiopia to the southeast, Libya to the northwest, South Sudan to the south and the Red Sea. It has a population of 45.70 million people as of 2022 and occupies 1,886,068 square kilometres (728,215 square miles), making it Africa's List of African countries by area, third-largest country by area, and the third-largest by area in the Arab League. It was the largest country by area in Africa and the Arab League until the 2011 South Sudanese independence referendum, secession of South Sudan in 2011, since which both titles have been held by Algeria. Its Capital city, capital is Khartoum and its most populated city is Omdurman (part of the metropolitan area of Khar ...
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Zār
In the cultures of the Horn of Africa and adjacent regions of the Middle East, ''Zār'' ( ar, زار, gez, ዛር) is the term for a demon or spirit assumed to possess individuals, mostly women, and to cause discomfort or illness. The so-called ''zār'' ritual or ''zār'' cult is the practice of exorcising such spirits from the possessed individual. ''Zār'' exorcism has become popular in the contemporary urban culture of Cairo and other major cities of the Islamic world as a form of women-only entertainment. ''Zār'' gatherings involve food and musical performances and they culminate in ecstatic dancing, lasting between three and seven nights. The '' tanbūra'', a six-string bowl lyre, is often used in the ritual. Other instruments include the '' manjur'', a leather belt sewn with many goat hooves, and various percussion instruments. History Scholarship in the early 20th century attributed Abyssinian (Ethiopian and Eritrean) origin to the custom, although there were also ...
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Baladi
Baladi ( ar, بلدي ' relative-adjective 'of town', 'local', 'rural', comparable to English ''folk'', with a lower-class connotation) can refer to an Egyptian musical style, the folk style of Egyptian bellydance (Raqs Baladi), or the Masmoudi Sogheir rhythm, which is frequently used in baladi music. It is also sometimes spelled in English as 'beledi' or 'baladee'. In Egypt, the term ''baladi'' does not only apply to local music and dance, and can also apply to many other things that are considered native, rural, rustic or traditional, for example ' baladi bread' or 'Aish Baladi". It is also applied to kinds of food and mostly to fruits and vegetables coming from rural villages. Baladi music and dance ''Baladi'' means 'of the country' and is a style of Egyptian folk dance from the early 20th century which is still very popular. Thus, ''Egyptian Beledi'' means 'of the country of Egypt'. It came about when farmers moved to the city and began dancing in small spaces. Egyptians ...
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Taqsim
''Taqsim'' ( ckb, تەقسیم, ar, تَقْسِيم / ALA-LC: ''taqsīm''; el, ταξίμι, translit=taksimi, tr, taksim) is a melodic musical improvisation that usually precedes the performance of a traditional Arabic, Kurdish, Greek, Middle Eastern, Azerbaijani or Turkish musical composition. ''Taqsim'' traditionally follows a certain melodic progression. Starting from the tonic of a particular Arabic maqam (or a Turkish ''makam''), the first few measures of the improvisation remain in the lower ajnas of the maqam, thereby introducing the maqam to the listener. After this introduction, the performer is free to move anywhere in the maqam, and even to modulate to other maqams, as long as they return to the original one. ''Taqsim'' is either a solo instrument performance, or one that is backed by a percussionist or other instrumentalist playing a drone on the tonic of the ''maqam''. See also * ''Layali'' * ''Zapin , image = Zapin.jpg , image_size = , ...
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Uzun Hava
Uzun may refer to: Places * Uzun, Iran, a village in Zanjan Province, Iran * Uzun, Tajikistan a Jamoat in Tajikistan * Uzun, Uzbekistan, a village in Uzbekistan * Uzun District in Uzbekistan * Uzun, Kuqa, a town in Kuqa, Aksu Prefecture, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China People * Ahmet Uzun, Turkish Cypriot politician * Mehmed Uzun (1953–2007), Turkish-Kurdish writer * Salih Uzun Mehmet Salih Uzun (b. 1970 Kocaeli, Turkey) is a Turkish politician and former and final leader of the Motherland Party (Anavatan Partisi, ANAP). Biography Uzun was born in the northwestern Anatolian town of Gölcük in Kocaeli Province. He ...
(born 1970), Turkish politician {{dab, surname ...
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