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Qenneshre
Qenneshre (also ''Qēnneshrē'' or ''Qennešre'', Syriac for "eagle's nest"; Arabic ''Qinnisrī'') was a large West Syriac monastery between the 6th and 13th centuries. It was a centre for the study of ancient Greek literature and the Greek Fathers, and through its Syriac translations it transmitted Greek works to the Islamic world. It was "the most important intellectual centre of the Syriac Orthodox ... from the 6th to the early 9th century", when it was sacked and went into decline. Location Qenneshre was in the region of Upper Mesopotamia. According to Yāqūt, it was four ''parasang''s from Mabbug and seven from Serugh. In the 1990s, Spanish archaeologists discovered a large monastic site on the western bank of the Euphrates River near its confluence with the Sajur. They identified it as Qenneshre. In 2005–2006, however, the Syrian archaeologist Yousef al-Dabte excavated a monastic site on the eastern bank of the Euphrates across from Jirbās (ancient Europos), iden ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
John Bar Aphtonia
John bar Aphtonia (c.480–537) was a Syriac monk of the Miaphysite persuasion who founded around 530 the monastery of Saint Thomas in Qenneshre ("Eagle's Nest"), located on the eastern side of the Euphrates in present northern Syria. A key figure in the transmission of Greek thought and literary culture into a Syriac milieu, his monastery became the intellectual centre of the West Syriac world for the next three centuries. John was born in Edessa and raised by his mother, Aphtonia. (His surname means "son of Aphtonia".) His father was a rhetor, that is, a lawyer. According to Pseudo-Zacharias Rhetor, John was also a former lawyer, but this is uncertain. John himself was bilingual in both the Syriac language and Greek. At the age of fifteen he was sent to the monastery of Saint Thomas in Seleucia Pieria near Antioch. Sometime between 528 and 531, he left with several other Miaphysite-leaning monks facing persecution from the pro-Chalcedonian imperial authorities. They established ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Miaphysite
Miaphysitism () is the Christological doctrine that holds Jesus, the Incarnate Word, is fully divine and fully human, in one nature (''physis'', ). It is a position held by the Oriental Orthodox Churches. It differs from the Dyophysitism of the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Churches, the Church of the East and the major Protestant denominations, which holds that Jesus is one "person" of two "natures", a divine nature and a human nature, as defined by the Council of Chalcedon in 451. While historically a major point of controversy within Christianity, some modern declarations by both Chalcedonian and miaphysite () churches claim that the difference between the two Christological formulations does not reflect any significant difference in belief about the nature of Christ. Other statements from both Chalcedonian and miaphysite churches claim that such difference is indeed theological although "widened by non-theological factors" Terminology The word ''miaphysite'' derives f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
John Psaltes
John Psaltes was the abbot of Qenneshre in the late 6th century. He wrote hymns in Greek that were translated by Paul of Edessa into Syriac, probably while Paul was on Cyprus in the 620s. The Syriac translation was revised in 675 by Jacob of Edessa. Around 600, John wrote a hymn in honour of the martyrs of Najran. He may have relied on the Syriac '' Book of the Himyarites'', since the hymn's brief introduction gives the name of Dhū Nuwās, the persecutor of Najran, as Masrūq, a name otherwise only attested in the ''Book''. The hymn has been translated into English by Ernest Walter Brooks Ernest Walter Brooks, FBA (30 August 1863 – 26 March 1955) was an English ancient historian and scholar of Syriac. The son of a priest, he was educated at Eton College (as a King's Scholar) and then at King's College, Cambridge, where he read .... Notes Works cited * * *{{cite book , first=Jack B. , last=Tannous , title=The Making of the Medieval Middle East: Religion, Society, and Si ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Justin I
Justin I (; ; 450 – 1 August 527), also called Justin the Thracian (; ), was Roman emperor from 518 to 527. Born to a peasant family, he rose through the ranks of the army to become commander of the imperial guard and when Emperor Anastasius I Dicorus died, he out-maneouvered his rivals and was elected as his successor, in spite of being around 68 years old. His reign is significant for the founding of the Justinian dynasty that included his nephew, Justinian I, and three succeeding emperors. His consort was Empress Euphemia. Justin was noted for his strongly Chalcedonian Christian views. This facilitated the ending of the Acacian schism between the churches of Rome and Constantinople, resulting in good relations between Justin and the papacy. Throughout his reign, he stressed the religious nature of his office and passed edicts against various Christian groups seen at the time as non-Orthodox. In foreign affairs, he used religion as an instrument of state. He endeavour ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Ibn Al-Adim
Kamāl al-Dīn Abū ʾl-Ḳāsim ʿUmar ibn Aḥmad ibn Hibat Allāh Ibn al-ʿAdīm (1192–1262; ) was an Arab biographer and historian from Aleppo. He is best known for his work ''Bughyat al-Talab fī Tārīkh Ḥalab'' (; ''Everything Desirable about the History of Aleppo''), a multi-volume collection of biographies of famous men from Aleppo, introduced with a volume on the geography and traditions of the region. It is saved in part in manuscripts in the library of sultan Ahmed III in Topkapi Palace. He also published a chronicle version of the work, ''Zubdat al-Halab fi ta'arikh Halab'' (; ''The Cream of the History of Aleppo''), a copy of which reached the library of Jean-Baptiste Colbert and then the Bibliothèque nationale de France, and selections of which were published with Latin translation by Georg Freytag in 1819. His historical sources are various, some oral and some written, and two of the more famous are Usama ibn Munqidh and Ibn al-Qalanisi (Lewis 1952). Another ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Sayf Al-Dawla
ʿAlī ibn ʾAbū'l-Hayjāʾ ʿAbdallāh ibn Ḥamdān ibn Ḥamdūn ibn al-Ḥārith al-Taghlibī (, 22 June 916 – 8 February 967), more commonly known simply by his honorific of Sayf al-Dawla (, ), was the founder of the Emirate of Aleppo, encompassing most of northern Syria and parts of the western Jazira. The most prominent member of the Hamdanid dynasty, Sayf al-Dawla originally served under his elder brother, Nasir al-Dawla, in the latter's attempts to establish his control over the weak Abbasid government in Baghdad during the early 940s CE. After the failure of these endeavours, the ambitious Sayf al-Dawla turned towards Syria, where he confronted the ambitions of the Ikhshidids of Lower Egypt to control the province. After two wars with them, his authority over northern Syria, centred at Aleppo, and the western Jazira, centred at Mayyafariqin, was recognized by the Ikhshidids and the Abbasid caliph. A series of tribal rebellions plagued Sayf al-Dawla's realm unti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Hārūn Al-Rashīd
Abū Jaʿfar Hārūn ibn Muḥammad ar-Rāshīd (), or simply Hārūn ibn al-Mahdī (; or 766 – 24 March 809), famously known as Hārūn al-Rāshīd (), was the fifth Abbasid caliph of the Abbasid Caliphate, reigning from September 786 until his death in March 809. His reign is traditionally regarded to be the beginning of the Islamic Golden Age. His epithet ''al-Rashid'' translates to "the Just", "the Upright", or "the Rightly-Guided". Harun established the legendary library Bayt al-Hikma ("House of Wisdom") in Baghdad in present-day Iraq, and during his rule Baghdad began to flourish as a world center of knowledge, culture and trade. During his rule, the family of Barmakids, which played a deciding role in establishing the Abbasid Caliphate, declined gradually. In 796, he moved his court and government to Raqqa in present-day Syria. Domestically, Harun pursued policies similar to those of his father Al-Mahdi. He released many of the Umayyads and 'Alids his brother Al-Had ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Fourth Fitna
The Fourth Fitna, Fourth Muslim Civil War, or Great Abbasid Civil War resulted from the conflict between the brothers al-Amin and al-Ma'mun over the succession to the throne of the Abbasid Caliphate. Their father, Caliph Harun al-Rashid, had named al-Amin as the first successor, but had also named al-Ma'mun as the second, with Khurasan granted to him as an appanage. Later a third son, al-Qasim ibn Harun al-Rashid, al-Qasim, had been designated as third successor. After Harun died in 809, al-Amin succeeded him in Baghdad. Encouraged by the Baghdad court, al-Amin began trying to subvert the autonomous status of Khurasan, and al-Qasim was quickly sidelined. In response, al-Ma'mun sought the support of the provincial élites of Khurasan and made moves to assert his own autonomy. As the rift between the two brothers and their respective camps widened, al-Amin declared his own son Musa as his heir and assembled a large army. In 811, al-Amin's troops marched against Khurasan, but al-Ma'mu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Thumama Ibn Al-Walid
Thumāma ibn al-Walīd ibn Qa‘qā al-‘Absi‘ () was an Arab general of noble lineage from Syria, who served the Abbasid Caliphate. He belonged to a family of the Banu Abs, part of the old Arab tribal nobility (''ashraf''), which became affiliated with the Umayyad dynasty when Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan (r. 685–705) married a cousin of Thumama's grandfather Qa'qa' ibn Khulayd al-'Absi. His father al-Walid served the Umayyads as general and governor of Qinnasrin, but was tortured to death along with Thumama's uncle Abd al-Malik and other family members when the two brothers opposed the accession of al-Walid II (r. 743–744). Thumama survived the purge and served the Abbasids, who overthrew the Umayyads, as general against the Byzantine Empire.Crone (1980), p. 106 He led the annual summer raids into Byzantine Asia Minor in 777 and in 778, when he was defeated by the Byzantine general Michael Lachanodrakon. He was also placed in charge of the expedition in 779, but accordi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Dionysios Of Tel Maḥre
The name Dionysius (; ''Dionysios'', "of Dionysus"; ) was common in classical and post-classical times. Etymologically it is a nominalized adjective formed with a -ios suffix from the stem Dionys- of the name of the Greek god, Dionysus, parallel to Apollon-ios from Apollon, with meanings of Dionysos' and Apollo's, etc. The exact beliefs attendant on the original assignment of such names remain unknown. Regardless of the language of origin of Dionysos and Apollon, the -ios/-ius suffix is associated with a full range of endings of the first and second declension in the Greek and Latin languages. The names may thus appear in ancient writing in any of their cases. Dionysios itself refers only to males. The feminine version of the name is Dionysia, nominative case, in both Greek and Latin. The name of the plant and the festival, Dionysia, is the neuter plural nominative, which looks the same in English from both languages. Dionysiou is the masculine and neuter genitive case of the Gree ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Nasr Ibn Shabath Al-Uqayli
Nasr ibn Shabath al-Uqayli () was the leader of a rebellion of the Qays tribe in the Jazira against the central Abbasid government during the civil war of the Fourth Fitna. Life Nasr appears in 811/812, when Caliph al-Amin () sent his general, Abd al-Malik ibn Salih, to Syria to recruit troops for the civil war against his brother, al-Ma'mun (). The Syrians heeded Abd al-Malik's call and assembled at Raqqa, but soon a fierce and bloody conflict broke out between the Abbasid regular troops, the , and a group known in the sources by the term , probably Qaysi brigands, when a soldier of the discovered one of the riding his own stolen horse. The bulk of the Syrian levies left Raqqa, but Nasr led an attack by the against the Abbasid army, which was defeated with heavy losses for the . As the civil war continued, the Abbasid government's hold on the region of Syria, the Jazira and other provinces collapsed, with local magnates taking hold of the cities and districts as autonomous ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Arabs
Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years. In the 9th century BCE, the Assyrians made written references to Arabs as inhabitants of the Levant, Mesopotamia, and Arabia. Throughout the Ancient Near East, Arabs established influential civilizations starting from 3000 BCE onwards, such as Dilmun, Gerrha, and Magan, playing a vital role in trade between Mesopotamia, and the Mediterranean. Other prominent tribes include Midian, ʿĀd, and Thamud mentioned in the Bible and Quran. Later, in 900 BCE, the Qedarites enjoyed close relations with the nearby Canaanite and Aramaean states, and their territory extended from Lower Egypt to the Southern Levant. From 1200 BCE to 110 BCE, powerful kingdoms emerged such as Saba, Lihyan, Minaean, Qataban, Hadhramaut, Awsan, and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
