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Al-Karak
Al-Karak (), in English sources often simply Karak, is a city in Jordan known for its medieval castle, the Kerak Castle. The castle is one of the three largest castles in the region, the other two being in Syria. Al-Karak is the capital city of the Karak Governorate. Al-Karak lies to the south of Amman on the ancient King's Highway. It is situated on a hilltop about above sea level and is surrounded on three sides by a valley. Al-Karak has a view of the Dead Sea. A city of about 32,216 people (2005) grew up around castle. The town is built on a triangular plateau with the castle at its narrow southern tip. History Iron Age to Assyrian period Al-Karak has been inhabited since at least the Iron Age, and was an important city for the Moabites. In the Bible it is called ''Kir-haresh'', ''Kir-hareseth'' or Kir of Moab, and is identified as having been subject to the Neo-Assyrian Empire; in the Books of Kings () and Book of Amos (), it is mentioned as the place where the Ara ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kerak Castle
Kerak Castle () is a large medieval castle located in al-Karak, Jordan. It is one of the largest castles in the Levant. Construction began in the 1140s, under Pagan the Butler, Pagan and Fulk, King of Jerusalem. The Crusaders called it ''Crac des Moabites'' or "Karak in Moab", as it is referred to in history books. It was also colloquially referred to as ''Krak of the Desert''. History Crusader period Pagan the Butler was also Lord of Oultrejordain and Kerak Castle became the centre of his power, replacing the weaker castle of Montreal (Crusader castle), Montreal to the south. Because of its position east of the Dead Sea, Kerak Castle was able to control bedouin herders as well as the trade routes from Damascus to Egypt and Mecca. His successors, his nephew Maurice and Philip of Milly, added towers and protected the north and south sides with two deep rock-cut ditches (the southern ditch also serving as a cistern). The most notable Crusader architectural feature surviving is the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amman
Amman ( , ; , ) is the capital and the largest city of Jordan, and the country's economic, political, and cultural center. With a population of four million as of 2021, Amman is Jordan's primate city and is the largest city in the Levant region, the fifth-largest city in the Arab world, and the tenth-largest metropolitan area in the Middle East. The earliest evidence of settlement in Amman dates to the 8th millennium BC in 'Ain Ghazal, home to the world's oldest statues of the human form. During the Iron Age, the city was known as ''Rabat Aman'', the capital of the Ammonite Kingdom. In the 3rd century BC, the city was renamed ''Philadelphia'' and became one of the ten Greco-Roman cities of the Decapolis. Later, in the 7th century AD, the Rashidun Caliphate renamed the city Amman. Throughout most of the Islamic era, the city alternated between periods of devastation and periods of relative prosperity. Amman was largely abandoned during the Ottoman period from the 15 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Karak Governorate
Karak () is one of the governorates of Jordan, located south-west of Amman, Jordan's capital. Its capital is Al-Karak. It s bordered by Madaba Governorate, Madaba and the Amman Governorate, Capital governorates to the north, Ma'an Governorate to the east, Tafilah Governorate to the south, and the Dead Sea to the west. History Ancient history The land of Karak Governorate was the home of the Moab, Kingdom of Moab, during the first millennium BC. Their capital and stronghold is believed to be near the city of Al Karak, which was known as the Qir of Moab. For a brief period of time, the territory came under Persian rule, then the Nabateans took control of it, until the Ancient Rome, Romans invaded the Levant and occupied their capital, Petra. In the 4th century, a Roman legion, the Legio IV Martia, had a headquarter fortress at Betthorus (now el-Lejjun) in Karak. Around 530 the Byzantine Empire established a vassal state ruled by the Ghassanids. The city of Mu'tah was the site of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kir Of Moab
Kir of Moab is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible as one of the two main strongholds of Moab, the other being Ar. It is probably the same as the city called Kir-haresh (Isaiah 16:11, KJV), Kir-hareseth (; ), and Kir-heres (; ; , ). The word ''Kir'' alludes to a wall or fortress. By the 5th century BC, the city name had been adapted to the common language of the time, Aramaic, becoming Karak in Moab, and later the Roman and Byzantine periods, Charachmoba (H. E. Mayer pp. 119-120). The Arabic name until today is al-Karak. According to the second Book of Kings, after the death of Ahab, king of Israel, Mesha, the king of Moab (see Mesha Stele), threw off the allegiance to the king of Israel. Ahab's successor, Jehoram, in seeking to regain his supremacy over Moab, entered into an alliance with Jehoshaphat of Judah and with the king of Edom. The three kings led their armies against Mesha, who was driven back to seek refuge in Kir-haraseth. When the situation became desperate for the Moabi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of effective sole rule in 27 BC. The Western Roman Empire, western empire collapsed in 476 AD, but the Byzantine Empire, eastern empire lasted until the fall of Constantinople in 1453. By 100 BC, the city of Rome had expanded its rule from the Italian peninsula to most of the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and beyond. However, it was severely destabilised by List of Roman civil wars and revolts, civil wars and political conflicts, which culminated in the Wars of Augustus, victory of Octavian over Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC, and the subsequent conquest of the Ptolemaic Kingdom in Egypt. In 27 BC, the Roman Senate granted Octavian overarching military power () and the new title of ''Augustus (title), Augustus'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nabatean
The Nabataeans or Nabateans (; Nabataean Aramaic: , , vocalized as ) were an ancient Arab people who inhabited northern Arabia and the southern Levant. Their settlements—most prominently the assumed capital city of Raqmu (present-day Petra, Jordan)—gave the name ''Nabatene'' () to the Arabian borderland that stretched from the Euphrates to the Red Sea. The Nabateans emerged as a distinct civilization and political entity between the 4th and 2nd centuries BC, with their kingdom centered around a loosely controlled trading network that brought considerable wealth and influence across the ancient world. Described as fiercely independent by contemporary Greco-Roman accounts, the Nabataeans were annexed into the Roman Empire by Emperor Trajan in 106 AD. Nabataeans' individual culture, easily identified by their characteristic finely potted painted ceramics, was adopted into the larger Greco-Roman culture. They converted to Christianity during the Byzantine period. They ha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philip Khuri Hitti
Philip Khuri Hitti (; 22 June 1886 – 24 December 1978) was a Lebanese-American professor and scholar at Princeton and Harvard University, and authority on Arab and Middle Eastern history, Islam, and Semitic languages. He almost single-handedly created the discipline of Arabic studies in the United States. His grandniece was the now deceased NASA astronaut and schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe. Biography Early life Philip Khuri Hitti was born in the Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate, on 22 June 1886, into a Maronite Christian family, in the village of Shemlan some 25 km southeast from Beirut, up in Mount Lebanon. Education and academic career He was educated at an American Presbyterian mission school at Suq al-Gharb and then at the Syrian Protestant College. After graduating in 1908 he taught there before moving to Columbia University, where he earned his PhD in 1915 and taught Semitic languages. After World War I he returned to Lebanon and taught there until 1926. In Februar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aramaic Language
Aramaic (; ) is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language that originated in the ancient Syria (region), region of Syria and quickly spread to Mesopotamia, the southern Levant, Sinai Peninsula, Sinai, Southeastern Anatolia Region, southeastern Anatolia, and Eastern Arabia, where it has been continually written and spoken in different variety (linguistics), varieties for over three thousand years. Aramaic served as a language of public life and administration of ancient kingdoms and empires, particularly the Neo-Assyrian Empire, Neo-Babylonian Empire, and Achaemenid Empire, and also as a language of divine worship and religious study within Judaism, Christianity, and Gnosticism. Several Neo-Aramaic languages, modern varieties of Aramaic are still spoken. The modern Eastern Aramaic, eastern branch is spoken by Assyrian people, Assyrians, Mandaeans, Mandeans, and Mizrahi Jews.{{cite book , last1=Huehnergard , first1=John , author-link1=John Huehnergard , last2=Rub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Books Of Kings
The Book of Kings (, ''Sefer (Hebrew), Sēfer Malik, Məlāḵīm'') is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books (1–2 Kings) in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. It concludes the Deuteronomistic history, a history of ancient Israel also including the books of Book of Joshua, Joshua, Book of Judges, Judges, and Books of Samuel, Samuel. Biblical commentators believe the Books of Kings mixes legends, folktales, miracle stories and "fictional constructions" in with the annals for the purpose of providing a Theology, theological explanation for the Siege of Jerusalem (587 BC), destruction of the Kingdom of Judah by Babylon in c. 586 BC and to provide a foundation for a return from Babylonian captivity, Babylonian exile.Sweeney, p1/ref> The two books of Kings present a history of ancient Israel and Judah, from the death of King David to the release of Jehoiachin from imprisonment in Babylon—a period of some 400 years (). Scholars tend to treat the books as cons ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
El-Kerak Inscription
The Kerak Inscription, also known as the Kemoshyat inscription, was discovered in 1958 in Jordan, near Wadi el-Kerak. It is a basalt inscription fragment measuring high by wide. The inscription has been dated to the late ninth century BC. The inscription is known as KAI 306. The fragment shows a belt, a pleated skirt, and a navel; along the mid-line of the fragment are three lines of Canaanite inscription. The artifact is also known as the El-Kerak / Al-Karak / Karak Inscription. Discovery The stone was acquired by the Jordan Archaeological Museum in 1958. It was reportedly found by Falah Qaddur (or Fallah el-Baddour), a bedouin from the Tafilah Governorate. According to Reed and Winnett, Qaddur stated that he had found the stone "in a foundation trench that had been cut for the construction of a new building in Al Karak." A letter from Awni Dajani, then the head of antiquities at the Jordan Archaeological Museum, stated that the stone was found by Odeh Subh el-Khwalide ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Damascus
Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Known colloquially in Syria as () and dubbed, poetically, the "City of Jasmine" ( ), Damascus is a major cultural center of the Levant and the Arab world. Situated in southwestern Syria, Damascus is the center of a large metropolitan area. Nestled among the eastern foothills of the Anti-Lebanon mountain range inland from the eastern shore of the Mediterranean on a plateau above sea level, Damascus experiences an arid climate because of the rain shadow effect. The Barada, Barada River flows through Damascus. Damascus is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. First settled in the 3rd millennium BC, it was chosen as the capital of the Umayyad Caliphate from 661 to 750. Afte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Late Antiquity
Late antiquity marks the period that comes after the end of classical antiquity and stretches into the onset of the Early Middle Ages. Late antiquity as a period was popularized by Peter Brown (historian), Peter Brown in 1971, and this periodization has since been widely accepted. Late antiquity represents a cultural sphere that covered much of the Mediterranean world, including parts of Europe and the Near East.Brown, Peter (1971), ''The World of Late Antiquity (1971), The World of Late Antiquity, AD 150-750''Introduction Late antiquity was an era of massive political and religious transformation. It marked the origins or ascendance of the three major monotheistic religions: Christianity, rabbinic Judaism, and Islam. It also marked the ends of both the Western Roman Empire and the Sasanian Empire, the last Persian empire of antiquity, and the beginning of the early Muslim conquests, Arab conquests. Meanwhile, the Byzantine Empire, Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire became a milit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
