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Qasr Tuba
Qasr Tuba is an 8th-century Umayyad ''qasr'' or castle in the Amman Governorate of northern Jordan. History Qasr at-Tuba is the southernmost of the Umayyad desert castles in Jordan. Built in 743 CE by Caliph al-Walid II for his sons, al-Hakam and ‘Uthman, it was initially intended to consist of two roughly courtyard dwellings with projecting semicircular decorative towers, but the project was never completed. The structure appears to have been abandoned some time after the assassination of Caliph al Walid. The palace at Qasr at-Tuba might have been the residence or hunting lodge of the Caliph's sons, since hunting was a favoured pastime of the aristocracy. It also served as a caravanserai and was part of the Caliph's program to improve the routes to Hijaz, at a time when the number of caravans passing through the region had increased substantially. It lacks the imperial features associated with other desert castles, suggesting that it was used as a temporary or seasonal reside ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Sovereign States
The following is a list providing an overview of sovereign states around the world with information on their status and recognition of their sovereignty. The 205 listed states can be divided into three categories based on membership within the United Nations System: 193 member states of the United Nations, UN member states, two United Nations General Assembly observers#Current non-member observers, UN General Assembly non-member observer states, and ten other states. The ''sovereignty dispute'' column indicates states having undisputed sovereignty (188 states, of which there are 187 UN member states and one UN General Assembly non-member observer state), states having disputed sovereignty (15 states, of which there are six UN member states, one UN General Assembly non-member observer state, and eight de facto states), and states having a political status of the Cook Islands and Niue, special political status (two states, both in associated state, free association with New ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Czechs
The Czechs (, ; singular Czech, masculine: ''Čech'' , singular feminine: ''Češka'' ), or the Czech people (), are a West Slavs, West Slavic ethnic group and a nation native to the Czech Republic in Central Europe, who share a common Bohemia, ancestry, Czech culture, culture, History of the Czech lands, history, and the Czech language. Ethnic Czechs were called Bohemians in English language, English until the early 20th century, referring to the former name of their country, Bohemia, which in turn was adapted from the late Iron Age tribe of Celtic Boii. During the Migration Period, West Slavic Bohemians (tribe), tribes settled in the area, "assimilated the remaining Celtic and Germanic populations", and formed a principality in the 9th century, which was initially part of Great Moravia, in form of Duchy of Bohemia and later Kingdom of Bohemia, the predecessors of the modern republic. The Czech diaspora is found in notable numbers in the Czech American, United States, Germany ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Umayyad Palaces
The Umayyad Caliphate or Umayyad Empire (, ; ) was the second caliphate established after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and was ruled by the Umayyad dynasty. Uthman ibn Affan, the third of the Rashidun caliphs, was also a member of the clan. The family established dynastic, hereditary rule with Mu'awiya I, the long-time governor of Greater Syria, who became caliph after the end of the First Fitna in 661. After Mu'awiya's death in 680, conflicts over the succession resulted in the Second Fitna, and power eventually fell to Marwan I, from another branch of the clan. Syria remained the Umayyads' main power base thereafter, with Damascus as their capital. The Umayyads continued the Muslim conquests, conquering Ifriqiya, Transoxiana, Sind, the Maghreb and Hispania (al-Andalus). At its greatest extent (661–750), the Umayyad Caliphate covered , making it one of the largest empires in history in terms of area. The dynasty was toppled by the Abbasids in 750. Survivors ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Umayyad Architecture
Umayyad architecture developed in the Umayyad Caliphate between 661 and 750, primarily in its heartlands of Syria and Palestine. It drew extensively on the architecture of older Middle Eastern and Mediterranean civilizations including the Sassanian Empire and especially the Byzantine Empire, but introduced innovations in decoration and form. Under Umayyad patronage, Islamic architecture began to mature and acquire traditions of its own, such as the introduction of mihrabs to mosques, a trend towards aniconism in decoration, and a greater sense of scale and monumentality compared to previous Islamic buildings. The most important examples of Umayyad architecture are concentrated in the capital of Damascus and the Greater Syria region, including the Dome of the Rock, the Great Mosque of Damascus, and secular buildings such as the Mshatta Palace and Qusayr 'Amra. Historical background The Umayyad Caliphate was established in 661 after Ali, the son-in-law of Muhammad, was murdered ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jordanian Art
Jordanian art has a very Ancient history, ancient history. Some of the earliest figurines, found at Aïn Ghazal, near Amman, have been dated to the Neolithic period. A distinct Jordanian aesthetic in art and architecture emerged as part of a broader Islamic art tradition which flourished from the 7th-century. Traditional art and craft is vested in material culture including mosaics, ceramics, weaving, silver work, music, glass-blowing and calligraphy. The rise of colonialism in North Africa and the Middle East, led to a dilution of traditional aesthetics. In the early 20th-century, following the creation of the independent nation of Jordan, a contemporary Jordanian art movement emerged and began to search for a distinctly Jordanian art aesthetic that combined both tradition and contemporary art forms. Traditional art The first step Trans-Jordan took on the way of becoming an independent nation was in 1924. Prior to that, the area that is now Jordan had been subject to a number of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Islamic Architecture
Islamic architecture comprises the architectural styles of buildings associated with Islam. It encompasses both Secularity, secular and religious styles from the early history of Islam to the present day. The Muslim world, Islamic world encompasses a wide geographic area historically ranging from western Africa and Europe to eastern Asia. Certain commonalities are shared by Islamic architectural styles across all these regions, but over time different regions developed their own styles according to local materials and techniques, local dynasties and patrons, different regional centers of artistic production, and sometimes Islamic schools and branches, different religious affiliations. Early Islamic architecture was influenced by Roman architecture, Roman, Byzantine architecture, Byzantine, Iranian architecture, Iranian, and Architecture of Mesopotamia, Mesopotamian architecture and all other lands which the early Muslim conquests conquered in the seventh and eighth centuries.: "As ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Islamic Art
Islamic art is a part of Islamic culture and encompasses the visual arts produced since the 7th century CE by people who lived within territories inhabited or ruled by Muslims, Muslim populations. Referring to characteristic traditions across a wide range of lands, periods, and genres, Islamic art is a concept used first by Western culture, Western Art history, art historians in the late 19th century. Public Islamic art is traditionally non-Representation (arts), representational, except for the widespread use of plant forms, usually in varieties of the spiralling Arabesque (Islamic art), arabesque. These are often combined with Islamic calligraphy, Islamic geometric patterns, geometric patterns in styles that are typically found in a wide variety of media, from small objects in ceramic or metalwork to large decorative schemes in tiling on the outside and inside of large buildings, including mosques. Other forms of Islamic art include Islamic miniature painting, artefacts like I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Desert Castle
The desert castles or ''qasrs'' are often called Umayyad desert castles, since the vast majority of these fortified palaces or castles were built by the Umayyad dynasty in their province of Bilad ash-Sham, with a few Abbasid exceptions. The desert castles of Jordan represent a prominent part of this group of buildings, with most Umayyad "desert castles" being scattered over the semi-arid regions of north-eastern Jordan, with several more in Syria, Israel and the West Bank (Palestine), and just one Abbasid exception in Iraq. Name What is known in English as a "desert castle" is known in Arabic as ''qaṣr'' (singular), ''quṣur'' being the plural.Khouri, R.G., ''The Desert Castles: A Brief Guide to the Antiquities''. Al Kutba, 1988. pp 4-5 However, ''qasr'' is a widely-used Arabic word for palace, castle or fortress, so only a few of the buildings called ''quṣur'' are "desert castles". Historical background The Umayyads erected several characteristic palaces, some in the ci ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wadi
Wadi ( ; ) is a river valley or a wet (ephemerality, ephemeral) Stream bed, riverbed that contains water only when heavy rain occurs. Wadis are located on gently sloping, nearly flat parts of deserts; commonly they begin on the distal portions of alluvial fans and extend to inland sabkhas or dry lakes. Permanent channels do not exist, due to lack of continual water flow. Water percolates down into the stream bed, causing an abrupt loss of energy and resulting in vast deposition. Wadis may develop dams of sediment that change the stream patterns in the next flash flood. Wadis tend to be associated with centers of human population because sub-surface water is sometimes available in them. Nomadic and pastoral desert peoples will rely on seasonal vegetation found in wadis, even in regions as dry as the Sahara, as they travel in complex transhumance routes. The centrality of wadis to water – and human life – in desert environments gave birth to the distinct sub-field of wadi h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alois Musil
Alois Musil (30 June 1868 – 12 April 1944) was a Czech theologian, orientalist, explorer and bilingual Czech and German writer. Biography Musil was the oldest son born in 1868 into an poor farming family in Moravia (then Cisleithanian part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, today Czech Republic). His birthplace of Rychtářov was in an area surrounded by German-speakers, allowing him and his brothers to learn to read and write both German and Czech. He was a second cousin of Robert Musil, an Austrian writer. In the years 1887–1891 he studied Roman Catholic theology at the University of Olomouc, was consecrated as a priest in 1891 and received a doctorate in theology in 1895. In the years 1895–1898 he studied at the Dominican Biblical School in Jerusalem, in 1897-1898 at the Jesuit University of St. Joseph in Beirut, 1899 in London, Cambridge and Berlin. He travelled extensively throughout the Arab world and kept coming back to it until 1917, collecting a huge b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hejaz
Hejaz is a Historical region, historical region of the Arabian Peninsula that includes the majority of the western region of Saudi Arabia, covering the cities of Mecca, Medina, Jeddah, Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, Tabuk, Yanbu, Taif and Al Bahah, Al-Bahah. It is thus known as the "Western Province",Mackey, p. 101. "The Western Province, or the Hejaz[...]" and it is bordered in the west by the Red Sea, in the north by Jordan, in the east by the Najd, and in the south by Greater Yemen, Yemen. Its largest city is Jeddah, which is the second-largest city in Saudi Arabia, with Mecca and Medina, respectively, being the third- and fourth-largest cities in the country. As the location of the Holy city, holy cities of Mecca and Medina, respectively the first and second holiest sites in Islam, the Hejaz is significant in the Arabo-Islamic historical and political landscape. This region is the most populated in Saudi Arabia, and Arabic is the predominant language, as in the rest of Saudi Arabia, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Governorates Of Jordan
Jordan is divided into twelve historical regions (''muhafazah, almanatiq altaarikhia''), further subdivided into districts (''Liwa (Arabic), liwa''), and often into sub-districts (''qada (sub-district), qada''). 1994 reform In 1994, four new governorates were created as part of the administrative divisions system of the Ministry of Interior: Jerash Governorate, Jerash, Ajloun Governorate, Ajloun, Madaba Governorate, Madaba and Aqaba Governorate, Aqaba. Jerash Governorate and Ajloun Governorate were split from Irbid Governorate, Madaba Governorate was split from Amman Governorate and Aqaba Governorate was split from Ma'an Governorate. Geographical regions vs. metropolitan areas Geographically, the governorates of Jordan are located in one of three regions (aqalim): the North Region, Central Region and the South Region. The three geographical regions are not distributed by area or populations, but rather by geographical connectivity and distance among the population centres. The So ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
