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Kaaba Of Najran
The Kaaba of Najran was a religious building of the Christian community of Najran and one of the Kaabas of pre-Islamic Arabia, located close to the river Nuhairdān. The building appears to have been converted from an earlier ''Kaʾbatān'' dedicated to Dhu Samawi, the great god of the city of Najran from the polytheistic era. It was burned down by the Jewish Himyaritic king, Dhu Nuwas, as a part of his famous massacre of Najran's Christians. After Dhu Nuwas was then deposed by the Kingdom of Aksum, who installed a Christian ruler in the region, a martyrium was rebuilt over the site, which may be identical to another Christian building reported in the region, the Martyry of Arethas. The newly built Kaaba became a point of pilgrimage, and its custodians were from Banū ʿAbd al-Madān, the chief clan of the tribe of Balḥārith. As such, Najran became one of the holy cities of Eastern Christianity. Some historians believe that the names of both the Kaaba of Najran, and the Kaaba in M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ancient Site Of Al-Ukhdud, Najran, Saudi Arabia (52)
Ancient history is a time period from the beginning of writing and recorded human history through late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the development of Sumerian cuneiform script. Ancient history covers all continents inhabited by humans in the period 3000 BCAD 500, ending with the expansion of Islam in late antiquity. The three-age system periodises ancient history into the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age, with recorded history generally considered to begin with the Bronze Age. The start and end of the three ages vary between world regions. In many regions the Bronze Age is generally considered to begin a few centuries prior to 3000 BC, while the end of the Iron Age varies from the early first millennium BC in some regions to the late first millennium AD in others. During the time period of ancient history, the world population was exponentially increasing due to the Neolithic Revolution, which was in full progr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Book Of Idols
The ''Book of Idols'' ('), written by the Arab scholar Hisham ibn al-Kalbi (737–819), is the most popular Islamic work about the religion in pre-Islamic Arabia. Arabian religion before Muhammad is described as polytheistic and idolatrous. Ibn al-Kalbi portrays this state of religion as a degradation from the pure monotheism introduced by Abraham and his son Ishmael, only restored by the coming of Islam. Ibn al-Kalbi relied on Arab oral tradition to write his work. Historians agree that the Book of Idols is not a reliable source for Arabian religion before Islam. Overview The ''Book of Idols'' is essentially an itemized list of short descriptions of idols and sanctuaries in pre-Islamic Arabia. For each idol, he describes their geography and tribe. Sometimes Ibn al-Kalbi offers additional information, such as how the idol was destroyed in the Islamic era. In the primary manuscript, the text is 56 pages and each page contains 12 lines. The longest entry is about the goddess al-Uz ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ancient Near East Temples
Ancient history is a time period from the beginning of writing and recorded human history through late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the development of Sumerian cuneiform script. Ancient history covers all continents inhabited by humans in the period 3000 BCAD 500, ending with the expansion of Islam in late antiquity. The three-age system periodises ancient history into the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age, with recorded history generally considered to begin with the Bronze Age. The start and end of the three ages vary between world regions. In many regions the Bronze Age is generally considered to begin a few centuries prior to 3000 BC, while the end of the Iron Age varies from the early first millennium BC in some regions to the late first millennium AD in others. During the time period of ancient history, the world population was exponentially increasing due to the Neolithic Revolution, which was in full progr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pre-Islamic Arabia
Pre-Islamic Arabia is the Arabian Peninsula and its northern extension in the Syrian Desert before the rise of Islam. This is consistent with how contemporaries used the term ''Arabia'' or where they said Arabs lived, which was not limited to the peninsula. Pre-Islamic Arabia included both nomadic and settled populations. Several settled populations developed distinctive civilizations. From around the second half of the 2nd millennium BCE, South Arabia, Southern Arabia was the home to a number of kingdoms, such as the Sabaeans and the Minaeans, and Eastern Arabia was inhabited by Semitic-speaking peoples who presumably migrated from the southwest, such as the so-called Samad Late Iron Age, Samad population.Kenneth A. Kitchen The World of "Ancient Arabia" Series. Documentation for Ancient Arabia. Part I. Chronological Framework and Historical Sources p.110 From 106 CE to 630 CE, Arabia's most northwestern areas were controlled by the Roman Empire, which governed it as Arabia Petrae ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Architecture In Saudi Arabia
Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructing buildings or other Structure#Load-bearing, structures. The term comes ; ; . Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural symbols and as work of art, works of art. Historical civilizations are often identified with their surviving architectural achievements. The practice, which began in the Prehistory, prehistoric era, has been used as a way of expressing culture by civilizations on all seven continents. For this reason, architecture is considered to be a form of art. Texts on architecture have been written since ancient times. The earliest surviving text on architectural theory, architectural theories is the 1st century AD treatise by the Roman architect Vitruvius, according to whom a good bui ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Martyrdom Of Azqir
The ''Martyrdom of Azqīr'' or the ''Acts of Azqir'' (''Gadla Azqir'') is a short Christian hagiography of a preacher named Azqir living in the Himyarite city of Najran. Azqir lived in the second half of the fifth century, during the reign of the Jewish king Sharhabil Yakkuf. He was said to have been one of the first Christians of the city, and its first preacher. Ultimately, Azqir is executed by the king for his religious activities. The martyrdom of Azqir is the first report of a Christian being killed for their faith in South Arabia, part of the first wave of the persecution of the Christiani community of Najran, around 20–30 years after conversions began in the region. The martyrdom of Azqir and other Najranite Christians is commemorated by the Ethiopian church on the date of their calendar 24 Hedar, two days before the commemoration of the martyrdom of Arethas of Najran, who was killed during the great massacre of the Christians of Najran during the reign of Dhu Nuwas. Su ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kaaba Of Zoroaster
Ka'ba-ye Zartosht (), also called the Kaaba or Cube of Zoroaster, is a rectangular stepped stone structure in the Naqsh-e Rustam compound beside Zangiabad village in Marvdasht county in Fars, Iran. The Naqsh-e Rustam compound also incorporates memorials of the Elamites, the Achaemenids and the Sasanians. Architecturally, it is one of several Kaabas. The Ka'ba-ye Zartosht is from the mountain, situated exactly opposite Darius II's mausoleum. It is rectangular and has only one entrance door. The material of the structure is white limestone. It is about high, or if including the triple stairs, and each side of its base is about long. Its entrance door leads to the chamber inside via a thirty-stair stone stairway. The stone pieces are rectangular and are simply placed on top of each other, without the use of mortar; the sizes of the stones varies from to , and they are connected to each other by dovetail joints. Etymology The structure was built in the Achaemenid era and ther ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christianity In Pre-Islamic Arabia
Christianity was one of the major religions of pre-Islamic Arabia. It was likely introduced in the fourth century, during the period of Late Antiquity, and had achieved a large presence by the fifth century. Bishoprics were established in multiple areas in Eastern Arabia, as well as in Arabia Petraea, Najran, and Zafar. Churches, martyria and monasteries were constructed across the peninsula, allowing local leaders to display their benefaction in the region, communicate with locals and with local officials, and to establish points of contact with Byzantine representatives. Christian proselytism also happened throughout the peninsula, especially in its northwest and southwest. Northern proselytization was driven by Syrian Christian missionaries, and the south, by Ethiopian Christians in the aftermath of the Ethiopian conquest of the South Arabian Kingdom of Himyar. Many conversion stories of Arabs are found in Byzantine Christian literature, especially those with a Syrian ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yaqut Al-Hamawi
Yāqūt Shihāb al-Dīn ibn-ʿAbdullāh al-Rūmī al-Ḥamawī (1179–1229) () was a Muslim scholar of Byzantine ancestry active during the late Abbasid period (12th–13th centuries). He is known for his , an influential work on geography containing valuable information pertaining to biography, history and literature as well as geography. Life ''Yāqūt'' (''ruby'' or '' hyacinth'') was the '' kunya'' of Ibn Abdullāh ("son of Abdullāh"). He was born in Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire, called in Arabic al-Rūm, whence his '' nisba'' "al-Rūmi". Captured in war and enslaved, Yāqūt became " mawali" to ‘Askar ibn Abī Naṣr al-Ḥamawī, a trader of Baghdad, Iraq, the seat of the Abbasid Caliphate, from whom he received the '' laqab'' "al-Hamawī". As ‘Askar's apprentice, he learned about accounting and commerce, becoming his envoy on trade missions and travelling twice or three times to Kish in the Persian Gulf. In 1194, ‘Askar stopped his salar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Al-Bakri
Abū ʿUbayd ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Muḥammad ibn Ayyūb ibn ʿAmr al-Bakrī (), or simply al-Bakrī (c. 1040–1094) was an Arab Andalusian historian and a geographer of the Muslim West. Life Al-Bakri was born in Huelva, the son of the sovereign of a short-lived principality established there by his family when the Caliphate of Cordoba fell in 1031. Al-Bakri belonged to the Arab tribe of Bakr. When his father was deposed by al-Mu'tadid (1042–1069) of the ruler of Taifa of Seville, he then moved to Córdoba, where he studied with the geographer al-Udri and the historian Ibn Hayyan. He spent his entire life in Al-Andalus, most of it in Seville and Almeria. While in Seville, he was there when El Cid arrived to collect tributes from Alfonso VI. He died in Córdoba without ever having travelled to the locations of which he wrote. Works Al-Bakri wrote about Europe, North Africa, and the Arabian peninsula. Only two of his works have survived. His ''Mu'jam m� ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hisham Ibn Al-Kalbi
Hishām ibn al-Kalbī (), 737 – 819 CE / 204 AH, also known as Ibn al-Kalbi (), was an Arab historian. His full name was Abu al-Mundhir Hisham ibn Muhammad ibn al-Sa'ib ibn Bishr al-Kalbi. Born in Kufa, he spent much of his life in Baghdad. Like his father, he collected information about the genealogies and history of the ancient Arabs. He was considered unreliable by Hadith scholars. Ibn al-Kalbi's most famous work is the ''Book of Idols'' (''Kitab al-Asnam''), which aims to document the veneration of idols and pagan sanctuaries in different regions and among different tribes in pre-Islamic Arabia. In this work, Hisham posited a genealogical link between Ishmael and the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and put forth the idea that all Arabs were descended from Ishmael. He relied heavily on the ancient oral traditions of the Arabs, but also quoted writers who had access to Biblical and Palmyrene sources. According to the , he wrote 140 works. His account of the genealogies of the A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Al-A'sha
Al-A'sha () or Maymun Ibn Qays Al-A'sha (d.c. 570– 625) was an Arabic Jahiliyyah poet from Al-Yamama, Arabia. He claimed to receive inspiration from a jinni called ''Misḥal''. Although not a Christian himself, his poems prove familiarity with Christianity. He traveled through Mesopotamia, Syria, Arabia and Ethiopia. He was nicknamed al-A'sha which means "weak-sighted" or "night-blind" after he lost his sight. He continued to travel even after becoming blind, particularly along the western coast of the Arabian peninsula. It was then that he turned to the writing of panegyrics as a means of support. His style, reliant on sound effects and full-bodied foreign words, tends to be artificial. His love poems are devoted to the praise of Huraira, a black female slave. He is said to have believed in the Christian eschatological themes of Resurrection and Last Judgment, and to have been a monotheist. These beliefs may have been due to his interactions with the bishop of Najr� ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
