Mustansirite Hardship
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Mustansirite Hardship
The Mustansirite Hardship () was a political crisis in Fatimid Egypt which resulted in a seven-year famine that occurred between 1064 and 1071 CE. Around 40,000 people are estimated to have starved to death during that period. The crisis occurred during the reign of Caliph al-Mustansir Billah, after whom it is named. Causes For several years before the crisis, the Nile failed to flood as was required for crop irrigation, which lowered agricultural outputs. In 1066, a quarrel between Turkish Mamluk slave-mercenaries and Sudanese African slaves escalated into a full-blown civil war, with both sides vying for control over the weak Caliph al-Mustansir. The Caliph's mother, being an African slave herself, used her influence in favor of the African faction. The Turks were led by the general Nasir al-Dawla ibn Hamdan. Military engagement between the Turkish and African factions, including a siege of Cairo, led to further food shortages. Eventually, Nasir al-Dawla was able to rout the ...
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Fatimid Egypt
The Fatimid Caliphate (; ), also known as the Fatimid Empire, was a caliphate extant from the tenth to the twelfth centuries CE under the rule of the Fatimids, an Isma'ili Shi'a dynasty. Spanning a large area of North Africa and West Asia, it ranged from the western Mediterranean in the west to the Red Sea in the east. The Fatimids traced their ancestry to the Islamic prophet Muhammad's daughter Fatima and her husband Ali, the first Shi'a imam. The Fatimids were acknowledged as the rightful imams by different Isma'ili communities as well as by denominations in many other Muslim lands and adjacent regions. Originating during the Abbasid Caliphate, the Fatimids initially conquered Ifriqiya (roughly present-day Tunisia and north-eastern Algeria). They extended their rule across the Mediterranean coast and ultimately made Egypt the center of the caliphate. At its height, the caliphate included—in addition to Egypt—varying areas of the Maghreb, Sicily, the Levant, and the Hejaz ...
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Al-Maqrizi
Al-Maqrīzī (, full name Taqī al-Dīn Abū al-'Abbās Aḥmad ibn 'Alī ibn 'Abd al-Qādir ibn Muḥammad al-Maqrīzī, ; 1364–1442) was a medieval Egyptian historian and biographer during the Mamluk era, known for his interest in the Fatimid era, and the earlier periods of Egyptian history.Paul E. Walker, ''Exploring an Islamic Empire: Fatimid History and its Sources'' (London, I.B. Tauris, 2002), p. 164. The material for updating this article is taken from Walker's account of al-Maqrizi. He is recognized as the most influential historian of premodern Egypt. Life A direct student of Ibn Khaldun, al-Maqrīzī was born in Cairo to a family of Syrian origin that had recently relocated from Damascus. When he presents himself in his books he usually stops at the 10th forefather although he confessed to some of his close friends that he can trace his ancestry to al-Mu‘izz li-Dīn Allāh – first Fatimid caliph in Egypt and the founder of al-Qahirah – and even to Ali ibn ...
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Egypt Under The Fatimid Caliphate
Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip of Palestine and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south, and Libya to the west; the Gulf of Aqaba in the northeast separates Egypt from Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Cairo is the capital, largest city, and leading cultural center, while Alexandria is the second-largest city and an important hub of industry and tourism. With over 109 million inhabitants, Egypt is the third-most populous country in Africa and 15th-most populated in the world. Egypt has one of the longest histories of any country, tracing its heritage along the Nile Delta back to the 6th–4th millennia BCE. Considered a cradle of civilisation, Ancient Egypt saw some of the earliest developments of writing, agriculture, urbanisation, organised religion an ...
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11th Century In The Fatimid Caliphate
In music theory, an eleventh is a compound interval consisting of an octave plus a fourth. A perfect eleventh spans 17 and the augmented eleventh 18 semitones, or 10 steps in a diatonic scale. Since there are only seven degrees in a diatonic scale, the eleventh degree is the same as the subdominant (IV). The eleventh is considered highly dissonant with the major third. An eleventh chord is the stacking of five thirds in the span of an eleventh. In common practice tonality, it usually had subdominant function as minor eleventh chord on the second degree (supertonic) of the major scale. See also *Eleventh chord *Extended chord In music, extended chords are certain Chord (music), chords (built from third (chord), thirds) or triad (music), triads with notes ''extended'', or added, beyond the seventh (chord), seventh. Ninth chord, Ninth, Eleventh chord, eleventh, and T ... References Chord factors Fourths (music) Compound intervals {{music-theory-stub ...
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Famines In Egypt
A famine is a widespread scarcity of food caused by several possible factors, including, but not limited to war, natural disasters, crop failure, widespread poverty, an economic catastrophe or government policies. This phenomenon is usually accompanied or followed by regional malnutrition, starvation, epidemic, and increased mortality. Every inhabited continent in the world has experienced a period of famine throughout history. During the 19th and 20th centuries, Southeast and South Asia, as well as Eastern and Central Europe, suffered the greatest number of fatalities due to famine. Deaths caused by famine declined sharply beginning in the 1970s, with numbers falling further since 2000. Since 2010, Africa has been the most affected continent in the world by famine. As of 2025, Haiti and Afghanistan are the two states with the most catastrophic and widespread states of famine, followed by Palestine (confined to Gaza, as a result of the blockade of the Strip) and Sudan. Def ...
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Jacob
Jacob, later known as Israel, is a Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions. He first appears in the Torah, where he is described in the Book of Genesis as a son of Isaac and Rebecca. Accordingly, alongside his older fraternal twin brother Esau, Jacob's paternal grandparents are Abraham and Sarah and his maternal grandfather is Bethuel, whose wife is not mentioned. He is said to have bought Esau's birthright and, with his mother's help, deceived his aging father to bless him instead of Esau. Then, following a severe drought in his homeland Canaan, Jacob and his descendants migrated to neighbouring Egypt through the efforts of his son Joseph, who had become a confidant of the pharaoh. After dying in Egypt at the age of 147, he is supposed to have been buried in the Cave of Machpelah in Hebron. Per the Hebrew Bible, Jacob's progeny were beget by four women: his wives (and maternal cousins) Leah and Rachel; and his concubines Bilhah and Zilpah. His sons were, in orde ...
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Fustat
Fustat (), also Fostat, was the first capital of Egypt under Muslim rule, though it has been integrated into Cairo. It was built adjacent to what is now known as Old Cairo by the Rashidun Muslim general 'Amr ibn al-'As immediately after the Muslim conquest of Egypt in AD 641, and featured the Mosque of Amr, the first mosque built in Egypt. The city reached its peak in the 12th century, with a population of approximately 200,000.Williams, p. 37 It was the centre of administrative power in Egypt, until it was ordered burnt in 1168 by its own vizier, Shawar, to keep its wealth out of the hands of the invading Crusaders. The remains of the city were eventually absorbed by nearby Cairo, which had been built to the north of Fustat in 969 when the Fatimids conquered the region and created a new city as a royal enclosure for the Caliph. The area fell into disrepair for hundreds of years and was used as a rubbish dump. Today, Fustat is a suburb that lies within the modern district of O ...
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Al-Qata'i
Al-Qaṭāʾi () was the short-lived Tulunid capital of Egypt, founded by Ahmad ibn Tulun in the year 868 CE. Al-Qata'i was located immediately to the northeast of the previous capital, al-Askar, which in turn was adjacent to the settlement of Fustat. All three settlements were later incorporated into the city of Cairo, founded by the Fatimids in 969 CE. The city was razed in the early 10th century CE, and the only surviving structure is the Mosque of Ibn Tulun. History Each of the new cities was founded with a change in the governance of the Middle East: Fustat was the first Arab settlement in Egypt, founded by Amr ibn al-A'as in 642 following the Arab conquest of Egypt. Al-Askar succeeded Fustat as capital of Egypt after the move of the caliphate from the Umayyad dynasty in Damascus to the Abbasids in Baghdad around 750 CE. Al-Qata'i ("The Quarters") was established by Ahmad ibn Tulun when he was sent to Egypt by the Abbasid caliph to assume the governorship in 868 CE. Ibn ...
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Al-Askar
Al-‘Askar () was the capital of Egypt from 750–868, when Egypt was a province of the Abbasid Caliphate. History Background After the Early Muslim conquests, Muslim conquest of Egypt in 641, Fustat was established, just north of Coptic Cairo and the regional capital of Egypt was moved from Alexandria to the new city on the eastern side of the Nile. Abbasid regional capital (750-868) The Rashiduns were followed by the Umayyads, who ruled until they were overthrown by the Abbasids in 750, when the Umayyad regional capital of Fustat was replaced with an Abbasid city slightly north of it, al-‘Askar. Its full name was . Intended primarily as a city large enough to house an army, it was laid out in a grid pattern that could be easily subdivided into separate sections for various groups, such as merchants and officers. The peak of the Abbasid dynasty occurred during the reign of Harun al Rashid (r. 786-809), along with increased taxes on the Egyptians, who rose up in a peasant re ...
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Dirham
The dirham, dirhem or drahm is a unit of currency and of mass. It is the name of the currencies of Moroccan dirham, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates dirham, United Arab Emirates and Armenian dram, Armenia, and is the name of a currency subdivision in Jordanian dinar, Jordan, Libyan dinar, Libya, Qatari riyal, Qatar and Tajikistani somoni, Tajikistan. It was historically a silver coin. Unit of mass The dirham was a unit of mass used across North Africa, the Middle East, Persia and Ifat Sultanate, Ifat; later known as Adal Sultanate, Adal, with varying values. The value of Islamic dirham was 14 qirat. 10 dirham equals 7 mithqal (2.975 gm of silver). In the late Ottoman Empire (), the standard dirham was 3.207 gram, g; 400 dirhem equal one oka (measure), oka. The Ottoman dirham was based on the Sassanian, Sasanian drachm (in Middle Persian: 𐭦𐭥𐭦𐭭 ''drahm''), which was itself based on the Greek Ancient drachma, dram/drachma. In Egypt in 1895, it was equivalen ...
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Human Cannibalism
Human cannibalism is the act or practice of Human, humans eating the Meat, flesh or internal organs of other human beings. A person who practices cannibalism is called a cannibal. The meaning of "cannibalism" has been extended into zoology to describe animals consuming parts of individuals of the same species as food. Early modern human, Anatomically modern humans, Neanderthals, and ''Homo antecessor'' are known to have practised cannibalism to some extent in the Pleistocene. Cannibalism was occasionally practised in Egypt during ancient Egypt, ancient and Roman Egypt, Roman times, as well as later during severe famines. The Island Caribs of the Lesser Antilles, whose name is the origin of the word ''cannibal'', acquired a long-standing reputation as eaters of human flesh, reconfirmed when their legends were recorded in the 17th century. Some controversy exists over the accuracy of these legends and the prevalence of actual cannibalism in the culture. Reports describing cannib ...
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Treasury
A treasury is either *A government department related to finance and taxation, a finance ministry; in a business context, corporate treasury. *A place or location where treasure, such as currency or precious items are kept. These can be state or royal property, church treasure or in private ownership. The head of a treasury is typically known as a treasurer. This position may not necessarily have the final control over the actions of the treasury, particularly if they are not an elected representative. The adjective for a treasury is normally treasurial. The adjective "tresorial" can also be used, but this normally means pertaining to a ''treasurer''. History The earliest found artefacts made of silver and gold are from Lake Varna in Bulgaria dated 4250–4000 BC, the earliest of copper are dated 9000–7000 BC. The Greek term ''thêsauros'' (treasury) was first used in Classical times to describe the votive buildings erected to house gifts to the gods, such as ...
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