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Rifq
Abū'l-Faḍl Rifq al-Khādim (c. 970 — 30 August 1049) was a black African eunuch in the court of the Fatimid caliph al-Mustansir (r. 1036–1094) and a commander of the Fatimid army. In 1024, during the reign of Caliph al-Zahir, Rifq led policing expeditions in the Egyptian countryside, earning him a reputation of loyalty. In 1049, he was appointed governor of Damascus in place of Nasir al-Dawla al-Hamdani, and headed a 30,000-strong expedition to assert Fatimid control over Aleppo, then held by the Mirdasid emir Thimal ibn Salih. His army consisted of Berbers, Turks, black Africans and, after it entered Syria, local Bedouin tribes. These diverse and often antagonistic factions quarreled frequently, weakening Rifq's army. After initial clashes with Thimal's troops outside Aleppo, many Bedouin defected and Rifq's officers ultimately deserted him for refusing their counsel. Rifq was captured, received a head injury and died in Mirdasid custody. Life Service with the Fatimi ...
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Eunuch
A eunuch ( ) is a male who has been castration, castrated. Throughout history, castration often served a specific social function. The earliest records for intentional castration to produce eunuchs are from the Sumerian city of Lagash in the 2nd millennium BCE. Over the millennia since, they have performed a wide variety of functions in many different cultures: courtiers or equivalent Domestic worker, domestics, for espionage or clandestine operations, Castrato, castrato singers, concubines, or sexual partners, religious specialists, soldiers, royal guards, government officials, and guardians of women or harem servants. Eunuchs would usually be servants or slavery, slaves who had been castrated to make them less threatening servants of a royal court where physical access to the ruler could wield great influence. Seemingly lowly domestic functions—such as making the ruler's bed, bathing him, cutting his hair, carrying him in his litter (vehicle), litter, or even relaying messag ...
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Mu'izz Al-Dawla Thimal
Abu Ulwan Thimal ibn Salih ibn Mirdas ( ar, أبو علوان ثمال بن صالح بن مرداس, Abū ʿUlwān Thimāl ibn Ṣāliẖ ibn Mirdās; died 1062), also known by his ''laqab'' (honorific epithet) Mu'izz al-Dawla ( ar, معز الدولة, Muʿizz al-Dawla), was the Mirdasid emir of Aleppo jointly with his elder brother Shibl al-Dawla Nasr in 1029–1030 and then solely in 1042–1057 and 1061–1062. The chosen successor of the Mirdasids' founder, his father Salih ibn Mirdas, Thimal was ousted from Aleppo by his brother Nasr in 1030, but retained the Jaziran (Upper Mesopotamian) half of the emirate from his seat in al-Rahba. When Nasr was slain by the Fatimid army of Anushtakin al-Dizbari in 1038, Thimal took control of Aleppo but quickly departed to avoid a Fatimid assault. He once again reverted to his Jaziran domains, which were reduced by Anushtakin's captures of Manbij and Balis. Nevertheless, he gained the Numayrid city of Raqqa after marrying Nasr's w ...
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Banu Kilab
The Banu Kilab ( ar, بنو كِلاب, Banū Kilāb) was an Arab tribe in the western Najd (central Arabia) where they controlled the horse-breeding pastures of Dariyya from the mid-6th century until at least the mid-9th century. The tribe was divided into ten branches, the most prominent being the Ja'far, Abu Bakr, Amr, Dibab and Abd Allah. The Ja'far led the Kilab and its parent tribe of Banu Amir, and, at times, the larger Hawazin tribal confederation from the time of the Kilab's entry into the historical record, , until the advent of Islam, , except for two occasions when the larger Abu Bakr was at the helm. Under the Ja'far's leadership the Kilab defeated rival tribes and the Lakhmid kings and eventually became guards of the Lakhmid caravans to the annual fair in the Hejaz (western Arabia). The killing of a Ja'far chief as he escorted one such caravan led to the Fijar War between the Hawazin and the Quraysh of Mecca. The Kilab, or at least its chief, Amir ibn al-Tufayl, ...
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Mirdasid Dynasty
The Mirdasid dynasty ( ar, المرداسيون, al-Mirdāsiyyīn), also called the Banu Mirdas, was an Arab dynasty which ruled an Aleppo-based emirate in northern Syria and the western Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia) more or less continuously from 1024 until 1080. History Dominance of the Kilab in northern Syria The Mirdasids were a family of the Bedouin (nomadic Arab) tribe of Banu Kilab. The Kilab's ancestral home was in central Arabia and its tribesmen first established themselves in northern Syria and the western Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia) in the years after the 630s– Muslim conquest. A second major wave of Kilabi tribesmen migrated to northern Syria from Arabia in the 9th century. The political vacuum and frequent revolts throughout the region during that period paved the way for the Kilab to strengthen their influence, becoming the predominant tribe in the region north of the Palmyrene steppe and west of the Euphrates River by the early to mid-10th century. A t ...
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Queiq River
The Queiq (Modern Standard Arabic: , ''Quwayq'', ; northern Syrian Arabic: ''ʾWēʾ'', ), with many variant spellings, known in antiquity as the Belus ( grc-gre, Βήλος, ''Bēlos''), Chalos and also known in English as the Aleppo River is a river and valley of the Aleppo Governorate, Syria and Turkey. It is a -long river that flows through the northern Syrian city of Aleppo. It arises from the southern Aintab plateau in southeastern Turkey. The Akpınar River in the Kilis plain is one of the headwaters of the Queiq. The former town of Qinnasrin lay on its banks. It partly flows along the western rim of the Matah Depression. The valley has been occupied for thousands of years and in ancient times the Queiq valley was noted for its flint industries and pottery. The river dried up completely in the late 1960s, due to irrigation projects on the Turkish side of the border Borders are usually defined as geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as o ...
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Hama
Hama ( ar, حَمَاة ', ; syr, ܚܡܬ, ħ(ə)mɑθ, lit=fortress; Biblical Hebrew: ''Ḥamāṯ'') is a city on the banks of the Orontes River in west-central Syria. It is located north of Damascus and north of Homs. It is the provincial capital of the Hama Governorate. With a population of 854,000 (2009 census), Hama is the fourth-largest city in Syria after Damascus, Aleppo and Homs. The city is renowned for its seventeen norias used for watering the gardens, which are locally claimed to date back to 1100 BC. Though historically used for purpose of irrigation, the norias exist today as an almost entirely aesthetic traditional show. Etymology The name "Hama" appears to stem from Phoenician ''khamat'', "fort." History The ancient settlement of Hamath was occupied from the early Neolithic to the Iron Age. Neolithic The stratigraphy is very generalized, which makes detailed comparison to other sites difficult. Level M ( thick) contained both white ware (lime-p ...
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Homs
ar, حمصي, Himsi , population_urban = , population_density_urban_km2 = , population_density_urban_sq_mi = , population_blank1_title = Ethnicities , population_blank1 = , population_blank2_title = Religions , population_blank2 = , population_density_blank1_km2 = , population_density_blank1_sq_mi = , timezone = EET , utc_offset = +2 , timezone_DST = EEST , utc_offset_DST = +3 , coordinates = , elevation_footnotes = , elevation_m = 501 , elevation_ft = , postal_code_type = , postal_code = , area_code = Country code: 963 City code: 31 , geocode = C2528 , blank_name = Climate , blank_info = Csa , blank1_name ...
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Banu Fazara
The Banu Fazara or Fazzara or Fezara or Fezzara () were an Arab tribe whose original homeland was Najd. Origins of the tribe According to Arab genealogical tradition, the progenitor of the Banu Fazara was Fazāra ibn Dhubyān ibn Baghīd ibn Rayth ibn Ghaṭafān. Thus the tribe belonged to the Dhubyan branch of the Ghatafan, making the Fazara a north Arabian tribe. Its ancestral pasture grounds were in the Wadi al-Rumma region of the Najd in central Arabia. In the modern day, the Fazara section of the Sudanese Arabs are camel-nomadic Arab tribes who live in the pastures of North Kordofan. They include the Shanabla, Majaneen, Bani-Jarrar, and Bani-Dhubian. Umm Qirfa Umm Qirfa Fatima was a leader of the Banu Fazara Arab tribe from Wadi Al-Qura. Ancient genealogies described Umm Qirfa as a member of the Banu Fazara. She married into the Banu Badr. According to Ibn Ishaq and al-Tabari, Umm Qirfa was wealthy. She was described as being an old woman with high social status and ...
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Banu Kalb
The Banu Kalb ( ar, بنو كلب) was an Arab tribe which mainly dwelt in the desert between northwestern Arabia and central Syria. The Kalb was involved in the tribal politics of the eastern frontiers of the Byzantine Empire, possibly as early as the 4th century. By the 6th century, the Kalb had largely adopted Christianity and came under the authority of the Ghassanids, the chief Arab federates of the Byzantines. During the lifetime of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, a number of his close companions were Kalbi tribesmen, most prominently Zayd ibn Haritha and Dihya al-Kalbi, but the bulk of the tribe remained Christian at the time of Muhammad's death in 632. They began converting in large numbers when the Muslims made significant progress in the conquest of Byzantine Syria, where the Kalb took a neutral stance. As a massive tribe with considerable military experience, the Kalb was sought after as a key ally by the Muslim state. The leading household of the tribe, the Banu Ja ...
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Banu Tayy
The Tayy ( ar, طيء/ALA-LC: ''Ṭayyi’''), also known as Ṭayyi, Tayyaye, or Taiyaye, are a large and ancient Arab tribe of the Middle East, among whose descendants today are the tribe of Shammar. The ''nisba (onomastics), nisba'' (patronymic) of Tayy is ''aṭ-Ṭāʾī'' (). In the 2nd century CE, they migrated to the northern Arabian Peninsula, Arabian mountain ranges of Aja Mountain, Jabal Aja and Salma Mountains, Jabal Salma, which then collectively became known as "Jabal Tayy" (later "Jabal Shammar"). The latter continues to be the traditional homeland of the tribe until the present day. They later established relations with the Sassanid Empire, Sassanid Persian and Byzantine Empire, Byzantine empires. Though traditionally allied with the Sassanids' Lakhmids, Lakhmid clients, the Tayy supplanted the Lakhmids as the rulers of Al-Hirah in the 610s. In the late 6th century, the Fasad War split the Tayy, with members of its Jadila branch converting to Christianity and migrati ...
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Abu'l-Barakat Al-Jarjara'i
Abu'l-Barakat al-Husayn ibn Muhammad al-Jarjara'i was a Fatimid official. He was the nephew of the long-serving vizier Ali ibn Ahmad al-Jarjara'i, and became vizier himself in 1048. He held the office for 19 months before being dismissed for his tyrannical behaviour in February 1050 and banished to Tyre Tyre most often refers to: * Tire, the outer part of a wheel * Tyre, Lebanon, a Mediterranean city Tyre or Tyres may also refer to: Other places Lebanon * Tyre District * See of Tyre, a Christian diocese *Tyre Hippodrome, a UNESCO World Heritag .... References Sources * * 11th-century deaths 11th-century Arabs 11th-century people from the Fatimid Caliphate Year of birth unknown Viziers of the Fatimid Caliphate {{gov-bio-stub ...
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Constantine IX
Constantine IX Monomachos ( grc-x-medieval, Κωνσταντῖνος Μονομάχος, translit=Kōnstantinos IX Monomachos; 1004 – 11 January 1055), reigned as Byzantine emperor from June 1042 to January 1055. Empress Zoë Porphyrogenita chose him as a husband and co-emperor in 1042, although he had been exiled for conspiring against her previous husband, Emperor Michael IV the Paphlagonian. The couple shared the throne with Zoë's sister Theodora Porphyrogenita. Zoë died in 1050, and Constantine continued his collaboration with Theodora until his own death five years later. Constantine waged wars against groups which included the Kievan Rus', the Pechenegs and, in the East, the rising Seljuq Turks. Despite the varying success of these campaigns, the Byzantine Empire largely retained the borders established after the conquests of Basil II, even expanding eastwards when Constantine annexed the wealthy Armenian kingdom of Ani. Constantine accordingly may be considered ...
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