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Jeddah

Jeddah

:This article is about the Saudi Arabian city. For the Australian movie, see Jedda. Jedda Jedda Jeddah (also Jedda, Jiddah, or Juddah; جدّة Ǧiddah) is a city in western Saudi Arabia, on the Red Sea (). Founded as a fishing village over 2,500 years ago, it first achieved prominence in 647 A.D., when the Muslim caliph Uthman ibn Affan turned it into a port for pilgrims making a hajj to Mecca. The population of the city currently stands at over 3.4 million. =Etymology= There are two explanations for the etymology of the name 'Jeddah'. The name means "seashore", since Jeddah is located along the coast and is Saudi Arabia's most important port. The more common account has it that the name is derived from jaddah, the Arabic word for "grandmother". According to Arabic belief, the tomb of Eve, considered the grandmother of all humanity, is located in Jeddah. The supposed tomb was sealed with concrete by the religious authorities in 1975, as a result of Muslim pilgrims breaking Islamic tradition by praying to Eve. =Locations= The city has several popular beaches, including Durat Alarous, Alremal, Shums, Bait Albahar and Alnakil. Muslim Jeddah is renowned for its shopping malls, such as Jeddah mall, Tahlya mall, Lou mall, and Heraa mall. Muslim Muslim Muslim Jeddah is served by King Abdulaziz International Airport. More than 2 million people pass through this airport in the Al Hajj season. Culturally, Jeddah is far more liberal/tolerant of non-Saudis than Riyadh, due to the history of the Hejaz region. Hejaz Hejaz Hejaz Hejaz Hejaz Hejaz Hejaz Hejaz Hejaz =Foreign Policy= The British Foreign Office still insists on using the older spelling of Jedda, contrary to all other English-speaking usage - including other branches of the British government. =City of Art= Since the late 1960's there has been a focused effort on bringing modern art and sculpture to Jeddah's public areas. As a result, few cities in the world today contain as many modern open air sculptures and works of art as Jeddah. Sculptures in Jeddah include works by a variety of artists, ranging from obscure to international stars such as Jean Arp, Alexander Calder, Henry Moore, Joan Miro and Victor Vasarely.

References

- Shaker, Ammar H. : Local Culture: 7 Languages Sources Doc. Email: the_general775@mail.ru - 2005 , (9 Picture taken by own camera)
- Farsi, Hani M.S. ( Mohamed Said): Jeddah: city of art: the sculptures and monuments. London: Stacey International, 1991. ISBN 0905743660 Category:Coastal cities Category:Cities in Saudi Arabia

Jedda

:This article is about the Australian movie. For the Saudi Arabian city, see Jeddah. Jedda (1955) was the last movie made by Charles Chauvel, and the first to star two Aboriginal actors, (Robert Tudawali and Ngarla Kunoth), in the leading roles. Originally the movie was filmed on location in the Northern Territory in Australia. The last roll of negative was destroyed in a plane crash on its way for developing in England and the scenes were re-shot at Kanangra Falls in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney.

Plot

The Jedda of the title is a half-white/half aboriginal girl raised by a white family on a cattle ranch. When she runs of with an aboriginal man, a posse is sent after them to hunt them down. During the chase, it becomes clear that Jedda has gone willingly with the man but that does not prevent the pursuit which comes to an inevitably tragic end.

External links

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- [http://www.screensound.gov.au/Screensound/Screenso.nsf/0/79126A64BF99027DCA256EAE00237DAC?OpenDocument screen sound Australia] Category:1955 films Category:Australian films

Red Sea

:(Red Sea is also the name of a state in Sudan) Sudan The Red Sea (Arabic البحر الأحمر Baḥr al-Aḥmar, al-Baḥru l-’Aḥmar; Hebrew ים סוף Yam Suf; Tigrigna ቀይሕ ባሕሪ QeyH baHri) is a gulf or basin of the Indian Ocean between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb sound and the Gulf of Aden. In the north is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba and the Gulf of Suez (leading to the Suez Canal). The sea is roughly 1900 km long and at its widest is over 300 km. The sea floor has a maximum depth of 2,500 m in the central median trench and an average depth of 500 m, but it also has extensive shallow shelves, noted for their marine life and corals. The sea has a surface area of roughly 438,000 or 450,000 km². The sea is the habitat of over 1000 invertebrate species and 200 soft and hard corals. The sea occupies a part of the Great Rift Valley. The Red Sea is the world's most northern tropical sea.

Name

The sea was called the "Arabian Gulf" in most European sources up to the 20th century. This was derived from older Greek sources. Herodotus, Straban and Ptolemy all call the waterway "Arabicus Sinus", while reserving the term "Sea of Erythrias" (Red Sea) for the waters around the southern Arabian Peninsula, now known as Indian Ocean. The name of the sea does not indicate the colour of the water. It may signify the seasonal blooms of the red-coloured cyanobacteria Trichodesmium erythraeum near the water surface. Some suggest that it refers to the mineral-rich red mountains nearby which are called "הרי אדום" (harei edom). Edom, meaning "ruddy complexion", is also an alternative Hebrew name for the red-faced biblical character Esau (brother of Jacob), and the nation descended from him, the Edomites, which in turn provides yet another possible origin for Red Sea. There is also speculation that the name Red Sea came from a mistranslation of what should have been the Reed Sea in the Biblical story of the Exodus. The Sea of Reeds (in Hebrew Yâm-Sûph) is often mistranslated as the "Red Sea". One hypothesis is the name comes from the Himarites, a local group whose own name means "red." Another theory favored by some modern scholars is the name "red" is referring to the direction "south," the same way the Black Sea's name may refer to "north." The basis of this theory is that some Asiatic languages used color words to refer to points on the compass.

Physical properties

Black Sea Surface water temperatures remain relatively constant at 21-25°C and temperature and visibility remain good to around 200 m, but the sea is known for its strong winds and tricky local currents. The sea was created by the division of Africa from the Arabian peninsula, a movement which began around 30 million years ago. The sea is still widening and there are small volcanic features in the deeper parts, it is considered that the sea will become an ocean in time (as proposed in the model of Tuzo Wilson). Sometimes during the Tertiary period the Bab el Mandeb was closed and the Red Sea was an empty hot dry salt-floored sink.

Tourism

The sea is known for its spectacular dive sites such as Ras Mohammed, Elphinstone, The Brothers and Rocky Island in Egypt, and less known sites in Sudan such as Sanganeb, Abington, Angarosh and Shaab Rumi (see photo above). The Red Sea was "discovered" as a diving destination by Hans Hass in the 1950s, and by Jacques-Yves Cousteau later.

Bordering countries

Bordering countries are:
- Northern shore:
- Egypt
- Israel
- Jordan
- Western shore:
- Sudan
- Egypt
- Eastern shore:
- Saudi Arabia
- Yemen
- Southern shore:
- Djibouti
- Eritrea
- Somalia

Towns and cities

Towns and cities on the Red Sea coast include: Assab, Massawa, Hala'ib, Port Sudan, Port Safaga, Hurghada, El Suweis, Sharm el Sheikh, Eilat, Aqaba, Dahab, Jeddah, Al Hudaydah, Marsa Alam.

Uthman Ibn 'Affan

For other uses of the name, see Uthman (disambiguation). Uthman ibn Affan (Arabic: عثمان بن عفان) (c. 574 - June 17 656) was the third Caliph of the Ummah, and is regarded by the majority Sunni Muslims as one of the "Four Righteously Guided Caliphs". He reigned from 644 until 656.

Biography

Uthman was born into the wealthy Umayyad (Banu Umayya) clan of the Quraish tribe in Mecca, a few years after Muhammad. He was an early convert to Islam, and was well known for using his wealth to benefit charities. This put him into opposition to his powerful clan, which was Muhammad's greatest enemy. During the life of Muhammad, he was also part of the first Muslim emigration to the city of Axum in Ethiopia, and the later emigration from Mecca to Medina. He frequently served as Muhammad's secretary. Uthman became caliph after the assassination of Umar ibn al-Khattab (Caliph Umar) in 644. Prior to his death, Umar appointed a group of six men to choose his successor from among themselves. Included in this group were Uthman and Ali. The committee chose Uthman. Some accounts say that he was chosen because he promised to continue the policies of Abu Bakr and Umar, whereas Ali would make no such promise (Aslan, No God But God, 2005). He reigned for twelve years, and during his rule, all of Iran, most of North Africa, the Caucasus and Cyprus were added to the Islamic empire. In order to strengthen his control over the empire, Uthman appointed many of his kinsmen as governors. The kindest explanation for this reliance on his kin is that the Muslim empire had expanded so far, so fast, that it was becoming extremely difficult to govern, and that Uthman felt that he could trust his own kin not to revolt against him. However, many Muslims did not see this as prudence; they saw it as nepotism, and an attempt to rule like a king rather than as the first among equals. Many of his governors were accused of corruption and misrule. Some of his kinsmen were also involved in the murder of a son of Abu Bakr, the first caliph, which further alienated many influential Muslims. Abu Bakr's daughter Aisha, Muhammad's widow, was particularly vehement in her denunciations of Uthman. One of Uthman's actions, controversial at the time, is now the act for which he is remembered. He headed a committee that established the basic text of the Qur'an. Various Muslim centers, like Kufa and Damascus, had begun to develop their own traditions for reciting and writing down the Qur'an. Uthman feared that the nascent Islamic empire would fall apart in religious controversy if it did not have a sacred text recognized by everyone. Sometime during the end of his reign, the committee produced a text. Uthman had it copied and sent copies to each of the Muslim cities and garrison towns, commanding that variant versions of the Qur'an be destroyed, and only his version used. Many devout believers believed that his actions were high-handed and accused Uthman of tampering with the sacred book. (Note that John Wansbrough and some Western historians believe that the Qur'an was completed later than Uthman's time; theirs is a minority opinion. See the article on the Qur'an.) Anger at Uthman grew so general that soldiers from Egypt and Iraq traveled to Medina to address their grievances to Uthman directly. According to some accounts, Uthman is said to have promised to mend his ways, then, when the delegations had left, reneged on his promises. The soldiers returned and laid siege to his house for more than twenty days in 656. Despite the crowds outside his home, Uthman refused to shed Muslim blood, strictly observing Muhammad's commandments in this regard. The siege ended when some of the rebels broke into Uthman's house and killed the caliph as he sat reading the Qur'an. Uthman was eventually buried in Medina. He was succeeded by Ali, and then, after Ali had been assassinated in his turn, by Muawiyah I, Uthman's kinsman and the Umayyad governor of Syria. Some scholars therefore count Uthman as the first of the Umayyad dynasty, though the scholarly consensus is that Muawiyah is the first.

Sunni view of Uthman

According to the Sunni account of Uthman, he was married to two of Muhammad's daughters at separate times, earning him the name Dhun Nurayn or the "Posessor of Two Lights". In this he was supposed to outrank Ali ibn Abu Talib, who had married only one of Muhammad's daughters. However, some Western scholars have questioned this tradition, saying that the daughters were invented for polemic purposes. Nevertheless there is some early textual proof for Uthman's second marriage to Umm Kulthum. The Sunni also say Uthman was one of the ten people for whom it was witnessed that they were destined for Paradise; one of the six with whom Muhammad was pleased when he died.

Shi'a view of Uthman

As the Shi'a believe that Ali, Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law, should have been the first caliph, they regard Uthman as a usurper and an enemy of Ali (see Succession to Muhammad). They believe that he is guilty of all of which history accuses him: nepotism, corruption, double-dealing, and turning the empire over to Muhammad's old enemies, the Umayyads. Shi'a believe that Uthman, like many of the other early Muslims, was seduced by the pleasures of power and wealth, and strayed from the strict path of Islam as followed by Ali. They also question the tradition that Uthman married two of Muhammad's daughters, insisting that Ruqayyah and Umm Kulthum bint Muhammad were Muhammad's step-daughters. For more details, see Shia view on Uthman ibn Affan
One academic view
The doyen of Middle Eastern studies, Bernard Lewis, says of Uthman: : "Uthman, like Mu'awiya, was a member of the leading Meccan family of Ummaya and was indeed the sole representative of the Meccan patricians among the early companions of the Prophet with sufficient prestige to rank as a candidate. His election was at once their victory and their opportunity. That opportunity was not neglected. Uthman soon fell under the influence of the dominant Meccan families and one after another of the high posts of the Empire went to members of those families.
The weakness and nepotism of Uthman brought to a head the resentment which had for some time been stirring obscurely among the Arab warriors. The Muslim tradition attribute the breakdown which occurred during his reign to the personal defects of Uthman. But the causes lie far deeper and the guilt of Uthman lay in his failure to recognize, control or remedy them." (The Arabs in History, p 59, Oxford University Press, 2002)
See also

- Family tree of Uthman ibn Affan
- Caliph
- Sahaba
References
Levi Della Vida, G. and R.G. Khoury. "‘Uthmān b. ‘Affān." Encyclopaedia of Islam Online. Eds. P.J. Bearman et. al. 12 Vols. Brill, 2004. 30 Oct. 2005 .
External links
Views of various Islamic historians on Uthman:
- [http://www.witness-pioneer.org/vil/Articles/companion/60_uthman_bin_ghani.htm Uthman in History] Shi'a view of Uthman:
- [http://www.holynajaf.net/eng/html/nahjulbalaga/030.htm The assassination of `Uthman Ibn `Affan] Category:Muslims Category:Arab people Category:Caliphs Category:574 births Category:656 deaths ms:Uthman bin Afan ja:ウスマーン・イブン＝アッファーン

Pilgrim

A pilgrim is one who undertakes a religious pilgrimage, literally 'far afield'. This is traditionally a visit to a place of some religious significance; often a considerable distance is traveled. Examples include a Muslim visiting Mecca, or a Christian or Jew visiting Jerusalem. No religion has laid greater stress on the duty of a pilgrimage than Islam in the Hajj. A full account is at the entry Hajj. Some of the oldest destinations for pilgrimages are in India. On the sacred river Ganges lies Benares, the holy city of Brahminism. Buddhism offers four sites of pilgrimage: the Buddha's birthplace at Kapilavastu, the site where he first preached at Gaya, where the highest insight dawned on him at Benares, and where he achieved Nirvana at Kusinagara. In the kingdoms of Israel and Judah the visitation of certain ancient cult-centers was repressed in the 7th century BC, when the worship was restricted to Jahweh at the temple in Jersusalem. In Syria, the shrine of Astarte at the headwater spring of the river Adonis survived until it was destroyed by order of Emperor Constantine in the 4th century AD. In mainland Greece, a stream of individuals made their way to Delphi or the oracle of Zeus at Dodona, and once every four years, at the period of the Olympic games, the temple of Zeus at Olympia formed the goal of swarms of pilgrims from every part of the Hellenic world. When Alexander the Great reached Egypt, he put his whole vast enterprise on hold, while he made his way with a small band deep into the Libyan desert, to consult the oracle of Ammun. During the imperium of his Ptolemaic heirs, the shrine of Isis at Philae received many votive inscriptions from Greeks on behalf of their kindred far away at home. In the Middle Ages, even as early as the 4th century AD, Christian pilgrimage was regarded as a sacred obligation and a trial of one's faith, since travel was dangerous, expensive and time-consuming. A returning pilgrim was called a palmer, as they would wear two crossed palm leaves to show they had made the pilgrimage. The anonymous "Pilgrim of Bordeaux" has left an itinerary of a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 333. Empress Helena's discovery of the True Cross outside Jerusalem was the result of a pilgrimage. The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus attracted pilgrims, who left their graffiti in the catacomb. In the West, Saint Martin of Tours and Martial of Limoges inspired building projects and an industry catering to pilgrims' requirements, including, in Martial's case, elaborately faked pious documentation (see Adhemar of Chabannes). The shrine of Santiago de Compostela in Spain lay at the end of a long connected string of pilgrims' sites, as did the city of Rome. Popular destinations for pilgrimage in England included Bury St. Edmunds and Thomas Beckett's shrine at Canterbury, the destination of Chaucer's 14th century pilgrims in The Canterbury Tales. In the north, many pilgrims headed to the shrine of Saint Cuthbert of Lindisfarne. Pilgrims contributed an important element to long-distance trade before the modern era, and brought prosperity to successful pilgrimage sites, an economic phenomenon unequalled until the tourist trade of the 20th century. Encouraging pilgrims was a motivation for assembling (and sometimes fabricating) relics and for writing hagiographies of local saints, filled with inspiring accounts of miracle cures. Lourdes and other modern pilgrimage sites keep this spirit alive. Over the centuries the terms 'pilgrim' and 'pilgrimage' have come to have a somewhat devalued meaning, and are nowadays often applied in a secular context. For example, fans of Elvis Presley may choose to visit his home, Graceland, in Memphis, Tennessee. Similarly one may refer to a cultural center such as Venice as a "tourists' Mecca". The Pilgrims were a group of English 'Separatists', religious dissidents who exiled themselves first in the Netherlands, then sailed for Massachusetts, in the hope of setting up a colony where they could enjoy religious freedom. In this context, the term 'pilgrim' (first used of them in 1799) means only that they travelled a long way in order to practise their religion. Compare: Hajj Category:Pilgrimages Category:People known in connection with religion or philosophy

Hajj

The Hajj or Haj (Arabic: حَجّ Ḥaǧǧ) is the Pilgrimage to Mecca (or, "Makkah") and is the fifth of the "Five Pillars of Islam" in Sunni Islam and one of the ten Branches of Religion in Shi'a Islam. Every able-bodied Muslim who can afford to do so is obliged to make the pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in their lifetime. The government of Saudi Arabia issues special visas to foreigners for the purpose of the pilgrimage, which takes place during the Islamic month of Dhu al-Hijjah. Entrance to the city itself is forbidden to non-Muslims, and the entire city is considered a holy site to Islam.

Preparations

Many people go to Mecca in groups with their friends or family, or friends from the local mosque, in order to save money. Some airlines have special package holidays for Muslims going to Mecca. A woman is encourged to go to Mecca in the company of a male relative (father, husband, or brother), but the Saudi government permits an unaccompanied woman to go provided that she travels in a group with other women and has written permission to do so from a male relative. While in Mecca for the Hajj, male pilgrims are required to dress only in an ihram, a garment consisting of two sheets of white unhemmed cloth, the top draped over the torso and the bottom secured by a belt; plus a pair of sandals. The ihram is intended to show the equality of all pilgrims in the eyes of Allah, as there is no difference between a prince and a pauper when everyone is dressed equally. The ihram also symbolizes purity and absolution of sins. Many female pilgrims traditionally wear a simple white or black dress with a headcovering. While the pilgram is wearing the ihram, he may not shave, cut his nails, or wear jewelery. An invocation known as the talbiyah should be chanted as the pilgrim is donning the garment.

Performing the Hajj

Umrah

Upon arrival in Mecca, the pilgrim ('Hajji') performs a series of ritual acts symbolic of the life of the prophet Abraham (Ibrahim) and his wife Hagar (Hajarah), and of solidarity with Muslims worldwide. These acts of faith are:
- Perform a tawaf, which consists of circling the Kaaba four times at a hurried pace, followed by three times, more closely, at a leisurely pace, in a counter-clockwise direction.
- Rapidly walk seven times back and forth between the hills of Safa and Marwah. This is a re-enactment of Hagar's frantic search for water, before the Zamzam Well was revealed to her by Allah. These rituals complete the umrah, sometimes called the "lesser hajj". Although not a part of the ritual, most pilgrims drink water from the Well of Zamzam when the umrah is completed. At this point, the pilgrim can change from the ihram to regular clothes, that is known as Mut'ah of Hajj.

Optional journey to Medina

Though it is not required as part of the Hajj, after the Umrah, pilgrims often travel to visit the city of Medina and the Mosque of the Prophet. Muhammad's tomb is enclosed by the mosque, as are the tombs of Abu Bakr and 'Umar.

Completing the Hajj

After spending a night or more in Medina (Although this is not part of the Hajj ritual), the Hajj continues. The pilgrim dons the ihram once again and performs the final three acts of faith. This is known as the Al Hajjul Akbar, or "greater hajj." The duties of the greater hajj are:
- Journey to the hill of Arafat and spend an afternoon there. The journey usually takes three to five days for the full round trip. At the plain of Arafat, the pilgrim stays from afternoon until sundown. No specific rituals or prayers are required during the stay at Arafat, though many pilgrims spend the time praying, talking to Allah, and thinking about the course of their lives.
- Upon returning from Arafat, pilgrims travel to the city of Mina just outside of Mecca, and participate in the stoning of the devil. This requires collecting a number of pebbles from the ground on the plain of Muzdalifah (various Hajj accounts list the number of pebbles as between 49 and 70), and throwing the pebbles at the three pillars at Mina, which represent the devil. All three pillars represent the devil: the first and largest is where he tempted Abraham against sacrificing Ishmael, the second is where he tempted Abraham's wife Hagar to induce her to stop him, and the third is where he tempted Ishmael to avoid being sacrificed. He was rebuked each time, and the throwing of the stones symbolizes those rebukes.
- Perform a second tawaf around the Kaaba. This completes the requirements of the Hajj. After stoning the devil, many male pilgrims will then shave their head; women may cut off a lock of their hair. This is a symbol of rebirth, signifying that their sins have been cleansed by completion of the Hajj. The "lesser hajj" can be performed at any time of the year, but the "greater hajj" must take place during the month of Dhu al-Hijjah and is one of the five pillars of Sunni Islam. Most pilgrims will perform the "greater hajj" because of the difficulty and expense of traveling to the city of Mecca. For many pilgrims (especially ones who had difficulty travelling due to health or finances), the journey to Mecca is a once in a lifetime event.

Spiritual aspects of the Hajj

The pilgrimage structures the entire life of the sincere Muslim. A believer is required to make the pilgrimage at least once in his or her life time. A devout Muslim's whole life is directed towards this spiritual goal; all of life becomes a pilgrimage. The pilgrim, the haji, is honoured in his or her community. For some, this is an incentive to perform the Hajj. In some communities, a person that has done the hajj can be nicknamed "haajji" or "haajjaah" - which can be translated as "honorable pilgrim". Some Islamic teachers would say that this is a wrong incentive, as the Hajj should be an expression of devotion to God, not a means to gain social standing. The talbiyah prayer reflects this sentiment. The believer should be self-aware and examine his or her intentions in performing the pilgrimage. This should lead to constant striving for self-improvement. The Hajj rituals have a deep psychological significance for Muslims. The pilgrimage is usually a very profound experience for those who participate in it. When life is lived according to the precepts of the religion and the mind is in a suitable condition, the pilgrimage can spiritually transform the individual. In spite of the physical hardships for some, pilgrims who complete the Hajj consider it one of the greatest spiritual experiences of their lives. Many Muslims regard the Hajj as one of the great achievements of civilization, because it brings together people from one-fifth of the population of the entire world and focuses them upon a single goal: completing the Hajj.

Incidents during the Hajj

There are an estimated 1.3 billion Muslims living today. Modern jet travel also makes Mecca and the Hajj more accessible to pilgrims from all over the world. As a consequence, the Hajj has become increasingly crowded. During the month of the Hajj, the city of Mecca must cope with as many as four million pilgrims. City officials are consequently required to control large crowds and provide food, shelter, and sanitation for millions. Unfortunately, they have not always been able to prevent disasters. Some of the worst incidents include:

Failures in crowd control

Sometimes the surging crowds, trekking from one station of the pilgrimage to the next, stampede. Panic spreads, pilgrims jostle to avoid being trampled, and hundreds of deaths can result.
- On February 1, 2004 251 Muslim pilgrims were killed and another 244 injured in a stampede during the stoning of the jamaraat (pillars) ritual.
- On April 9, 1998, at least 118 pilgrims were trampled to death.
- On May 23, 1994 a stampede killed at least 270 pilgrims at the stoning of the jamaraat (pillars) ritual.
- On July 2, 1990 a stampede inside a pedestrian tunnel leading to the holy sites led to the deaths of 1,426 pilgrims.

Fires

- On April 15, 1997 343 pilgrims were killed and 1,500 injured in a tent fire.

Protests and violence

- On July 9, 1989 two bombs exploded, killing one pilgrim and wounding a further sixteen. Saudi authorities beheaded sixteen Kuwaiti Shiite Muslims for the bombings after originally blaming Iranian terrorists.
- On July 31, 1987 Iranian pilgrims rioted, causing the deaths of over 400 people.
- On November 20, 1979 a group of approximately 200 militant Muslims occupied Mecca's Grand Mosque. They were driven out by French commandos (allowed into the city under these special circumstances despite their being non-Muslims) after bloody fighting that left 250 people dead and 600 wounded.

Disease

Mingling of visitors from so many countries, can lead to the spread of epidemics. This was more of a problem in the past.

Official response

Critics say that the Saudi Arabian government should have done more to prevent such tragedies. The Saudi government insists that any such mass gatherings are inherently dangerous and difficult to handle, and that they have taken a number of steps to prevent problems. One of the biggest steps, one which is also controversial, is a new system of registrations, passports, and travel visas to control the flow of pilgrims. This system is designed to encourage and accommodate first-time visitors to Mecca, while imposing restrictions upon those who embark upon the trip multiple times. Pilgrims who have the means and desire to perform the Hajj several times have protested what they see as discrimination, but the Hajj Commission has stated that they see no alternative if further tragedies are to be prevented. Sources: [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3450333.stm] [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1204816.stm] [http://www.country-data.com/cgi-bin/query/r-11664.html] [http://www.nmhschool.org/tthornton/mehistorydatabase/war_in_lebanon.htm] [http://www.saudi-us-relations.org/newsletter2004/saudi-relations-interest-01-10.html]

Non-Muslims in Mecca

The second caliph, Umar, is believed by many Muslims to have expelled non-Muslims from Arabia. Non-Muslims were not to visit nor to live in the holy land. There is much evidence against this claim, at least so far as it relates to the early centuries of the Islamic empire, but it is well documented that by the 18th and 19th centuries, non-Muslims were emphatically unwelcome in most parts of Arabia. There were small colonies of merchants in various port and trading cities, as well as communities of Yemeni Jews, but ordinary travelers journeyed at risk of their lives. This was not so much imposed by the authorities as enforced by rioting crowds. The prohibition was most strictly enforced with regard to the Hijaz, and the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. As one might expect, the existence of "forbidden cities" and the mystery of the Hajj aroused intense curiosity in European travellers. A number of them pretended to be Muslims and entered the city of Mecca and then the Kaaba to experience the Hajj for themselves. The most famous account of a foreigner's journey to Mecca is A Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Mecca and Al-Madina, written by Sir Richard Francis Burton. Burton traveled as a Qadiri Sufi from Afghanistan; his name, as he signed it in Arabic below his frontispiece portrait for "The Jew, The Gypsy and al-Islam," was al-Hajj 'Abdullah. The prohibition on non-Muslims visiting Mecca still exists, and is enforced by Saudi Arabian law. However, the penalty is no longer death by rioting crowd. There is less curiosity these days, since photographs of Mecca, the Grand Mosque, and the Kaaba are easily available. However, some may still want to experience the events of the Hajj first-hand.

External links

- [http://www.al-islam.org/hajj/shariati/ Hajj]
- [http://www.soundvision.com/info/hajj/diary.asp A Hajj Diary]
- [http://www.world-federation.org/MAB/Articles/Health_+Hajj_Ziarat_2003.htm Protect Your Health during Hajj and Ziarat]
- [http://www.asinah.org/travel-guides/saudiarabiahajj.html The Hajj - Al Hajj - Haji]
- [http://www.islamfrominside.com/Pages/Articles/AroundtheKabba.html Description of and reflection on the tawaf around the Kaaba] Category:Islam Category:Five Pillars of Islam Category:Mecca Category:Pilgrimages ms:Haji th:ฮัจญ์

Mecca

:This article is about the holy city in Saudi Arabia. For other uses, see Mecca (disambiguation) Mecca or Makkah (in full: Makkah al-Mukarramah; ) is the capital city of Saudi Arabia's Makkah province, in the historic Hijaz region. It is located at , 73 kilometers inland from Jeddah, in the narrow sandy Valley of Abraham, 277 meters (909 feet) above sea level. 80 km from the Red Sea. It has a population of approximately one million. The city is revered as the holiest site of Islam, and a pilgrimage to it is required of all Muslims who can afford to go. Muslims regard the al-Masjid al-Haram (or 'The Sacred Mosque') as the holiest place on Earth. Both the mosque and the city itself are strictly off-limits to non-Muslims. The term 'Mecca' has come into common usage metaphorically to mean any all-important site for any particular group of people. In the 1980s the government of Saudi Arabia changed the official English transliteration of the city's name from 'Mecca', as it had been commonly spelled by westerners, to 'Makkah'. See below for the reasons.
The importance of Mecca
For Muslims, a pilgrimage to Mecca is required as one of the Five Pillars of the faith. In recent years, about two to three million have gathered for the major pilgrimage or Hajj, during the Muslim month of Dhu al-Hijjah, and many more perform the minor pilgrimage or Umrah, which may be performed at any time of year. Few non-Muslims have ever seen the rites and rituals of the Hajj as non-Muslims are strictly prohibited from entering Mecca and Medina. The focal point of Mecca is the Ka'bah, the "House of God" believed by Muslims to have been built by Abraham and his son Ishmael, and is covered in a gold-embroidered black fabric. The Pilgrims circle the Ka'bah seven times and may also try to touch or kiss its cornerstone, the Black Stone. Pilgrims then drink from the well of Zamzam. The water of Zamzam is believed to have special properties and is alleged to have health benefits. Few pilgrims return from the Hajj without a large plastic bottle of the Zamzam water. During the Hajj the pilgrims travel to Mina, a small village, where Iblis (the Devil), symbolised by stone columns, is ritually stoned. They then proceed to the Hill of Arafat (sometimes called the Mountain, but it is only 70 meters high), a site for prayers, where Muhammad is believed to have delivered his final Sermon. Hill of Arafat The importance of Mecca for Muslims is inestimable. All Muslims, wherever they are on the earth, are required to pray five times a day in the direction of the Ka'bah in Mecca (located at ). The direction of prayer is known as the qiblah. Muslims regard the al-Masjid al-Haram (or 'The Sacred Mosque') as the holiest place on Earth. Both the mosque and the city itself are strictly off-limits to non-Muslims.
Muhammad
Muhammad, the final prophet of Islam, was born in Mecca in 571 CE. When he was forty years old, he received the first revelation in a cave called Hira in Jabal al-Nour (Mountain of Light), approximately 2 miles from Mecca. In the year 622 CE, after an attempt on his life, he moved to Yathrib (now Madinah), which also became a holy city. Later, Muhammad led the Muslims and conquered Mecca from the pagans.
Non-Muslims and Mecca
Non-Muslims are not permitted to enter Mecca. Road blocks are stationed along roads leading to the city. The most celebrated case of a non-Muslim visiting Mecca was that of the British explorer Sir Richard Burton in 1853. Burton disguised himself as an Afghan Muslim to visit and write his Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al Madinah and Meccah.
Is Mecca the city of the Valley of Bakkah?
:See main article: Bakkah Some have identified Mecca as the ancient city Bakkah, the Biblical "valley of Baca" in Psalm 84, but this association is controversial. It is known that the name Bakkah was changed to Mecca at some time, which is the location identified in the Qur'an. Some Muslims also believe it is the same location as mentioned in the Old Testament, but this is contestable.
The spelling of the name
For most English-speakers, Mecca has long been the accepted spelling for the holy city. The word is a transliteration of the original Arabic, and has become part of the English language. In an effort to distinguish between the metaphorical and official references to the holy site, the Saudi Arabian government in the 1980s began promoting a new transliteration, 'Makkah al-Mukarramah', which is even closer to the original Arabic. This new usage has been adopted in many places and by certain organization, such as on the [http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/3584.htm U.S. Department of State] website, but it is not part of the active vocabulary of English-speakers at large.
See also

- Islamic architecture
- List of famous mosques
- List of holy cities
- Medina
- Mecca (disambiguation)
External links

-
- [http://haqaonline.lightuponlight.com/pg/index.php?cat=2 Pictures of Mecca]
- [http://www.irbs.com/lists/navigation/0008/0039.html Mention of the Kaaba's coordinates]
- [http://www.asinah.org/travel-guides/saudiarabiamecca.html Mecca Information]
- [http://peace-city.tripod.com/Glory_of_Makkah.html Is it the Glory of Mecca or Zion in Isaiah, Chapter 60?]
- [http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/b/burton/richard/b97p/chapter27.html Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al Madinah and Meccah, by Richard Burton] (opinionated)
- [http://www.3dkabah.com A 3D model of the Kaaba and Haraam. With Pictures and Videos] Category:Holy cities Category:Mecca Category:Pilgrimages Category:Arabic words ko:메카 ms:Makkah al-Mukarramah ja:マッカ simple:Mecca th:มักกะหฺ

Arabic language

The Arabic language (; , less formally, ) is the largest member of the Semitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family (classification: South Central Semitic) and is closely related to Hebrew and Aramaic. It is spoken throughout the Arab world and is widely studied and known throughout the Islamic world. Arabic has been a literary language since at least the 6th century and is the liturgical language of Islam.

Literary and Modern Standard Arabic

The term "Arabic" may refer either to literary Arabic, which no Arab speaks as a mother tongue, or Modern Standard Arabic or to the many spoken varieties of Arabic commonly called "colloquial Arabic." Arabs consider literary Arabic as the standard language and tend to view everything else as mere dialects. Literary Arabic, (Literally: "the most eloquent Arabic language" — ) refers both to the language of present-day media across North Africa and the Middle East and to the more archaic language of the Qur'an. (The expression media here includes most television and radio, and all written matter, including all books, newspapers, magazines, documents of every kind, and reading primers for small children.) "Colloquial" or "dialectal" Arabic refers to the many national or regional dialects/languages derived from Classical Arabic, spoken daily across North Africa and the Middle East, which constitute the everyday spoken language. These sometimes differ enough to be mutually incomprehensible. These dialects are not typically written, although a certain amount of literature (particularly plays and poetry) exists in many of them. They are often used to varying degrees in informal spoken media, such as soap operas and talk shows. Literary Arabic or classical Arabic, is the official language of all Arab countries and is the only form of Arabic taught in schools at all stages. The sociolinguistic situation of Arabic in modern times provides a prime example of the linguistic phenomenon of Diglossia -the normal use of two separate varieties of the same language, usually in different social situations. In the case of Arabic, educated Arabs of whatever nationality can be assumed to speak both their local dialect and their school-taught literary Arabic (to an equal or lesser degree). This diglossic situation facilitates code switching in which a speaker switches back and forth unaware between the two varieties of the language, sometimes even within the same sentence. In instances in which Arabs of different nationalities engage in conversation only to find their dialects mutually unintelligible (e.g. a Moroccan speaking with a Lebanese), both should be able to code switch into Literary Arabic for the sake of communication. Since the written Arabic of today differs from the written Arabic of the Qur'anic era, it has become customary in western scholarship and among non-Arab scholars of Arabic to refer to the language of the Qur'an as Classical Arabic and the modern language of the media and of formal speeches as Modern Standard Arabic. Arabs, on the other hand, often use the term to refer to both forms, thus placing greater emphasis on the similarities between the two. The difference between Arabic of the Qur'anic era and today's Classical Arabic is only in the degree of eloquance. The vocabulary, the syntatic and grammatical rules are the same. Quite a few English words are ultimately derived from Arabic, often through other European languages, especially Spanish, among them every-day vocabulary like sugar (sukkar), cotton (qutn) or magazine (). More recognizable are words like algorithm, algebra, alchemy, alcohol, azimuth, nadir, and zenith (see List of English words of Arabic origin). The Maltese language spoken on the Mediterranean island of Malta is the only surviving European language to derive primarily from Arabic (a North African dialect), though it contains a large number of Italian and English borrowings.

Arabic and Islam

It is sometimes difficult to translate Islamic concepts, and concepts specific to Arab culture, without using the original Arabic terminology. The Qur'an is expressed in Arabic and traditionally Muslims deem it impossible to translate in a way that would adequately reflect its exact meaning—indeed, until recently, some schools of thought maintained that it should not be translated at all. A list of Islamic terms in Arabic covers those terms which are too specific to translate in one phrase. While Arabic is strongly associated with Islam (and is the language of salah), it is also spoken by Arab Christians, Oriental (Sephardic) Jews, and smaller sects such as Iraqi Mandaeans. Even so, a majority of the world's Muslims do not actually speak Arabic, but only know some fixed phrases of Arabic, such as those used in Islamic prayer. However, to counteract this, there is great encouragement for non-Arabic-speaking Muslims to learn the language.

Dialects

See Varieties of Arabic for a fuller overview. "Colloquial Arabic" is a collective term for the spoken languages or dialects of people throughout the Arab world, which, as mentioned, differ radically from the literary language. The main dialectal division is between the Maghreb dialects and those of the Middle East, followed by that between sedentary dialects and the much more conservative Bedouin dialects. Maltese, though descended from Arabic, is considered a separate language. Speakers of some of these dialects are unable to converse with speakers of another dialect of Arabic; in particular, while Middle Easterners can generally understand one another, they often have trouble understanding Maghrebis (although the converse is not true, due to the popularity of Middle Eastern—especially Egyptian—films and other media). One factor in the differentiation of the dialects is influence from the languages previously spoken in the areas, which have typically provided a significant number of new words, and have sometimes also influenced pronunciation or word order; however, a much more significant factor for most dialects is, as among Romance languages, retention (or change of meaning) of different classical forms. Thus Iraqi aku, Levantine fiih, and North African kayen all mean "there is", and all come from Arabic (yakuun, fiihi, kaa'in respectively), but now sound very different. The major groups are:
- Egyptian Arabic (Egypt) Considered the most widely understood and used "second dialect"
- Maghreb Arabic (Algerian Arabic, Moroccan Arabic, Tunisian Arabic and western Libyan)
- Levantine Arabic (Western Syrian, Lebanese, Palestinian, and western Jordanian, Cypriot Maronite Arabic)
- Iraqi Arabic or Gulf Arabic (Iraqi, Eastern Syrian, Kuwaiti, Saudi Arabian, Persian Gulf coast from Iraq to Oman including much of Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province, and minorities on the other side) Other varieties include:
- (in Mauritania and Western Sahara)
- Andalusi Arabic (extinct, but important role in literary history)
- Maltese
- Sudanese Arabic (with a dialect continuum into Chad)
- Hijazi Arabic (West Cost of Saudi Arabia, Northern Saudi Arabia, eastern Jordan, Western Iraq)
- Najdi Arabic (Najd region of central Saudi Arabia)
- Yemeni Arabic (Yemen to southern Saudi Arabia)

Phonology

The consonant phonemes below reflect the pronunciation of Standard Arabic, which has only three vowels, in short and long variants, namely and . Naturally, considerable allophony occurs.

Consonants

Standard Arabic has 28 consonants: See Arabic alphabet for explanations on the IPA phonetic symbols found in this chart. # is pronounced as by some speakers. This is especially characteristic of the Egyptian and southern Yemeni dialects. In many parts of North Africa and in the Levant, it is pronounced as . # is pronounced only in , the name of God, i.e. Allah. # is usually a phonetic approximant. # In many varieties (if not most), are actually epiglottal (despite what is reported in many earlier works).

Emphatic Consonants

The consonants traditionally known as "emphatic" are either velarised or pharyngealised . In some transcription systems, emphasis is shown by capitalizing the letter e.g. is written ‹D›; in others the letter is underlined or has a dot below it e.g. ‹ḍ›.

Long Consonants

Vowels and consonants can be (phonologically) short or long. Long (geminate) consonants are normally written doubled in Latin transcription (i.e. bb, dd, etc.), reflecting the presence of the Arabic diacritic mark shaddah, which marks lengthened consonants. Such consonants are held twice as long as short consonants. This consonant lengthening is phonemically contrastive: e.g. qabala "he received" and qabbala "he kissed".

Syllable Shape

Arabic has two kinds of syllable: open syllables (CV) and (CVV) - and closed syllables (CVC), (CVVC) and (CVCC). Every syllable begins with a consonant - or else a consonant is borrowed from a previous word through elision – especially in the case of the definite article THE, al (used when starting an utterance) or _l (when following a word), e.g. baytu –l mudiir “house (of) the director”, which becomes bay-tul-mu-diir when divided syllabically. By itself, definite mudiir would be pronounced .

Word Stress

Although word stress is not phonemically contrastive in Standard Arabic, it does bear a strong relationship to vowel length and syllable shape, and correct word stress aids intelligibility. In general, "heavy" syllables attract stress (i.e. syllables of longer duration - a closed syllable or a syllable with a long vowel). In a word with a syllable with one long vowel, the long vowel attracts the stress (e.g. ki-'taab and ‘kaa-tib). In a word with two long vowels, the second long vowel attracts stress (e.g.ma-kaa-'tiib). In a word with a "heavy" syllable where two consonants occur together or the same consonant is doubled, the (last) heavy syllable attracts stress (e.g. ya-ma-’niyy, ka-'tabt, ka-‘tab-na, ma-‘jal-lah, ‘mad-ra-sah, yur-‘sil-na). This last rule trumps the first two: ja-zaa-i-‘riyy. Otherwise, word stress typically falls on the first syllable: ‘ya-man, ‘ka-ta-bat, etc. The Cairo (Egyptian Arabic) dialect, however, has some idiosyncrasies in that a heavy syllable may not carry stress more than two syllables from the end of a word, so that mad-‘ra-sah carries the stress on the second-to-last syllable, as does qaa-‘hi-rah.

Dialectical Phonologies

In some dialects, there may be more or fewer phonemes than those listed in the chart above. For example, non-Arabic is used in the Maghreb dialects as well in the written language mostly for foreign names. Semitic became extremely early on in Arabic before it was written down; a few modern Arabic dialects, such as Iraqi (influenced by Persian) distinguish between and . Interdental fricatives ( and ) are rendered as stops and in some dialects (principally Levantine and Egyptian) and as and in "learned" words from the Standard language. Early in the expansion of Arabic, the separate emphatic phonemes and coallesced into a single phoneme, becoming one or the other. Predictably, dialects without interdental fricatives use exclusively, while those with such fricatives use . Again, in "learned" words from the Standard language, is rendered as in dialects without interdental fricatives. Another key distinguishing mark of Arabic dialects is how they render Standard (a voiceless uvular stop): it retains its original pronunciation in widely scattered regions such as Yemen and Morocco (and among the Druze), while it is rendered in Gulf Arabic, Iraqi Arabic, Upper Egypt and less urban parts of the Levant (e.g. Jordan) and as a glottal stop in many prestige dialects, such as those spoken in Cairo, Beirut and Damascus. Thus, Arabs instantly give away their geographical (and class) origin by their pronunciation of a word such as qamar "moon": , or .

Grammar

See Arabic grammar

Alphabet

Arabic alphabet

Main article: Arabic alphabet The Arabic alphabet derives from the Aramaic script (which variety - Nabataean or Syriac - is a matter of scholarly dispute), to which it bears a loose resemblance like that of Coptic or Cyrillic script to Greek script. Traditionally, there were several differences between the Western (Maghrebi) and Eastern version of the alphabet—in particular, the fa and qaf had a dot underneath and a single dot above respectively in the Maghreb, and the order of the letters was slightly different (at least when they were used as numerals). However, the old Maghrebi variant has been abandoned except for calligraphic purposes in the Maghreb itself, and remains in use mainly in the Quranic schools (zaouias) of West Africa. Arabic, like other Semitic languages, is written from right to left.

Calligraphy

See Arabic calligraphy for a fuller overview. After the definitive fixing of the Arabic script around 786, by Khalil ibn Ahmad al Farahidi, many styles were developed, both for the writing down of the Qur'an and other books, and for inscriptions on monuments as decoration. Kufic font Arabic calligraphy has not fallen out of use as in the Western world, and is still considered by Arabs as a major art form; calligraphers are held in great esteem. Being cursive by nature, unlike the Latin alphabet, Arabic script is used to write down a verse of the Qur'an, a Hadith, or simply a proverb, in a spectacular composition. The composition is often abstract, but sometimes the writing is shaped into an actual form such as that of an animal. Two of the current masters of the genre are Hassan Massoudy and [http://arabworld.nitle.org/gallery.php?module_id=7 Khaled Al Saa’i].

Arabic using the Latin alphabet

See Arabic transliteration and Arabic Chat Alphabet for more information. There are a number of different standards of Arabic transliteration: methods of accurately and efficently representing Arabic with the Latin alphabet. The more scientific standards allow the reader to recreate the exact word using the Arabic alphabet. However, these systems are heavily reliant on diacritical marks, which may be difficult to pronounce at first sight. Other, less scientific, systems often use digraphs (like sh and kh), which are usually more simple to read, but sacrifice the definiteness of the scientific systems. During the last few decades and especially since the 1990s, Western-invented text communication technologies have become prevalent in the Arab world, such as personal computers, the World Wide Web, email, Bulletin board systems, IRC, instant messaging and mobile phone text messaging. Most of these technologies originally had the ability to communicate using the Latin alphabet only, and some of them still do not have the Arabic alphabet as an optional feature. As a result, Arabic speaking users communicated in these technologies by transliterating the Arabic text using the Latin script. To handle those Arabic letters that do not have an approximate equivalent in the Latin script, numerals and other characters were appropriated. E.g., the Latin numeral "3" is used to represent the Arabic letter "ع" ("ayn"). There is no universal name for this type of transliteration, but some have named it Arabic Chat Alphabet.

External links

- [http://arabic-media.com/ Arabic-Media] on-line access to Arabic newspapers, radio, and television
- [http://st-takla.org/Learn_Languages/01_Learn_Arabic-ta3leem-3araby/Learn-Arabic_00-index_El-Fehres.html Learn Arabic language online with audio pronunciation] from [http://St-Takla.org St. Takla Egyptian Church]
- [http://www.nicoweb.com/sirpus/learn%20arabic%20course%20mp3.htm Arabic Writing and Reading with MP3]. Arabic Writing and Reading Course Online with MP3 audio.
- [http://pince31.free.fr/lang/arabic/liens.htm Links to learn Arabic language with online course]
- [http://www.madinaharabic.com Arabic language learning course with audio]
- [http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=4&article_id=6173 "Antonyms in Arabic are a strange phenomenon" by Tamim al-Barghouti]
- [http://arabworld.nitle.org/texts.php?module_id=1&reading_id=17 "The Development of Classical Arabic" by Kees Versteegh]
- [http://arabworld.nitle.org/audiovisual.php?module_id=1&selected_feed=118 Wellesley College Professor of Arabic on the forms and dialects of the language]
- [http://www.uga.edu/islam/arabic_windows.html Multilingual Computing in Arabic with Windows, major word processors, web browsers, Arabic keyboards, and Arabic transliteration fonts]
- [http://www.gomideast.com/arabic/index.htm gomideast - Learning to Speak Arabic phrases]
- [http://language-directory.50webs.com/languages/arabic.htm List of online Arabic-related resources] Web references and examples:
- [http://transliteration.org/quran/Pronunciation/Letters/TashP.htm Arabic language pronunciation applet] with audio samples
- [http://www.sunna.info/teaching/ Learn Arabic]
- [http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1289272 E2 article]
- [http://www.sprachprofi.de.vu/english/ar.htm Sprachprofi]
- [http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/Arabic-english/ Arabic - English Dictionary]: from [http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org Webster's Online Dictionary] - the Rosetta Edition.
- [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=arb SIL's Ethnologue]
- [http://www.nitle.org/arabworld/texts.php?module_id=1&reading_id=113 Dialects of Arabic]
- [http://www.muftah-alhuruf.com Muftah-Alhuruf.com]: Write and send Arabic emails without having an Arabic keyboard or operating system. Arabic languages samples:
- [http://www.language-museum.com/a/arabic.php Arabic]
- [http://www.language-museum.com/a/arabic-chadian-spoken.php Arabic Chadian Spoken]
- [http://www.language-museum.com/a/arabic-judeo-iraqi.php Arabic Judeo Iraqi]
- [http://www.language-museum.com/a/arabic-north-levantine-spoken.php Arabic North Levantine Spoken]
- [http://arabworld.nitle.org/texts.php?module_id=1&reading_id=17 "The Development of Classical Arabic" by Kees Versteegh]
- Category:Arab ko:아랍어 ms:Bahasa Arab ja:アラビア語 simple:Arabic language th:ภาษาอาหรับ

Muslim

A Muslim (Arabic: مسلم) (sometimes also pronounced Moslem) is an adherent of Islam. Literally, the word means someone who has submitted/surrendered himself or herself to the will of God.

Definition

Most Muslims accept as a fellow Muslim anyone who has sincerely pronounced the Shahada, a ritual declaration of submission to God and assertion that Muhammad is the last prophet. Muslims describe many Biblical figures, such as Musa (Moses) and Isa (Jesus), as Muslims because they submitted completely to God.
- For a list of Muslims, see List of Muslims.
- For a list of different Muslim sects and divisions, see Divisions of Islam.

Etymology

The singular form of the word Muslim comes from the Arabic plural form 'Al-Muslimīn, from the tri-consonantal root SLM, also found in the words Islam and salām. The plural form is instanced in the Qur'an, 22:79, Al-Hajj.

Pronunciation and spelling

Until around the late 1980s, the word was commonly spelled Moslem. The spelling has since fallen into disuse. Muslims do not recommend this spelling because it is often pronounced "mawzlem," which sounds somewhat similar to an Arabic word for "oppressor" (Za'lem in Arabic). The word is pronounced "Mus"-lim in Arabic, but some English dictionaries allow both "Mus"-lim and "Muz"-lim. The word is written "Muslim".

Other words for Muslim

Many English-language writers used to call Muslims "Mohammedans" or "Mahometans," meaning "followers of Mohammed," but this terminology is considered incorrect and insulting, because Muslims believe it implies that they worship the prophet Muhammad, contrary to the fundamental principles of Islam itself. This terminology is seen as too similar to Christians as followers and worshippers of Christ. In addition, Muslims believe that the religion of submitting to God (Islām in Arabic) existed long before the birth of Muhammad, making all the prophets before him "Muslims." English writers of the 19th century and earlier sometimes used the words Mussulman, Musselman, or Mussulmaun. Variant forms of this word are still used by many Indo-European languages. These words are similar to the French, Spanish, and Italian words for "Muslim."

Disputes

The Ahmedi sect consider themselves Muslim, and an agnostic or atheist of Islamic background may refer to themselves as a cultural Muslim; however, most mainstream Muslims disagree with both these classifications, since they conflict with the conventional religious definition of Islam.

King Abdulaziz International Airport

King Abdulaziz International Airport is an aviation facility located in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Its IATA code is JED. Named after King Abdulaziz Al Saud, the airport is Saudi Arabia's largest air facility. Construction for the airport began in 1974. It was finalized in 1980. Finally, on May 31, 1981, the airport opened for services. Because of Jeddah's closeness to Makkah, the airport stands for one feature in particular: The Hajj Terminal is to be used only during the Hajj season, and it caters to Makkah bound passengers only. Airlines that have used the Hajj terminal, apart from those airlines from Islamic countries, include Air France and World Airways, the latter from the United States. The north terminal is used by the various international airlines that fly into this airport. The south terminal is reserved for Saudi Arabian Airlines flights only. A substantial part of that airline's international and domestic operations fly from King Abdulaziz International Airport's south terminal. The Hajj Terminal, the one used by Muslim pilgrims, is estimated to be, at five million square feet (465,000 m²), the world's largest air terminal. It sits over 100 acres (405,000 m²) of ground area, and it is known for its tent-shaped roof. Terminal 3's roof is not actually a tent, but a white colored fiberglass. This terminal has a mosque, and it can accommodate 80,000 travelers at the same time. Writer R.E.G. Davies, who called Riyadh's King Khaled International Airport "The World's Most Beautiful Airport", compared King Abdulaziz International Airport to the former airport architecture-wise. For a long period, Trans World Airlines was the only American airline to offer services to this airport; as of 2005, no major American airline offers services to King Abdulaziz International Airport.

Airlines serving airport

North Terminal

- Air Arabia (Sharjah)
- Air France (Paris CDG)
- Air India (Delhi, Mumbai)
- Ariana Afghan Airlines (Kabul)
- Biman Bangladesh (Dhaka)
- British Airways (London Heathrow)
- Cyprus Airways (Larnaca)
- Egyptair (Cairo)
- Emirates (Dubai)
- Ethiopian Airlines (Addis Abeba)
- Garuda Indonesia (Jakarta)
- Gulf Air (Muscat)
- Iran Air (Tehran)
- Kuwait Airways (Kuwait)
- Libyan Arab Airlines (Tripoli)
- Lufthansa (Frankfurt)
- Malaysia Airlines (Kuala Lumpur)
- Middle East Airlines (Beirut)
- Pakistan International Airlines (Karachi)
- Palestinian Airlines (Gaza)
- Qatar Airways (Doha)
- Royal Air Maroc (Casablanca)
- Royal Brunei (Bandar Seri Begawan)
- Royal Jordanian (Amman)
- Singapore Airlines (Dubai and Singapore)
- Somali Airlines
- Sudan Airways (Khartoum)
- Syrian Arab Airlines (Damascus)
- Swiss International Airlines (Zurich)
- Turkish Airlines (Istanbul)
- Tunisair (Tunis)
- Uzbekistan Airways (Tashkent)
- Yemenia (Sanaa)

South Terminal

- Saudi Arabian Airlines (Abha, Abu Dhabi, Addis Abeba, Alahsa, Al Baha, Alexandria, Algiers, Amman, Arar, Asmara, Athens, Bahrain, Bangkok, Beirut, Bisha, Cairo, Casablanca, Chennai, Colombo, Cochin, Dakar, Damascus, Dammam, Dawadmi, Doha, Dubai, Frankfurt, Gassim, Geneva, Gurayat, Hafr Albatin, Ha'il, Islamabad, Istanbul, Jakarta, Jizan, Johannesburg, Jouf, Karachi, King Khalid, Kuala Lumpur, Kuwait, Lahore, London Heathrow, Madinah, Malaga, Muscat, Najran, Nairobi, New York JFK, Nice, Paris CDG, Qaisumah, Rafha, Riyadh, Rome Fiumicino, Sanaa, Sharjah, Sharurah, Singapore, Tabuk, Taif, Tehran, Tunis, Turaif, Wadi ad Dawasir, Washington Dulles, Wedjh, Yanbu)

Hajj Terminal

Many airlines from the world use this terminal on a charter service, apart from Saudi Arabian, during the Hajj season.

External link

[http://www.pca.gov.sa/KAIA/kaia.php Saudi Arabian Aviation Authority's official page on King Abdulaziz International Airport] Category:Airports in Saudi Arabia

Riyadh

Riyadh ( ar-Riyāḍ) is the capital of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, located in the Najd region. It is situated in the centre of the Arabian peninsula on a large plateau and is home to over 3,500,000 people (14% of the nation's population). Riyadh covers more than 600 square miles (1,554 km²). The city lies in Saudi Arabia's 'central corridor' of development along with Buraydah and Al Kharj in the Ar Riyad administrative division. The other areas of concentrated population are two coastal areas - around Jiddah and Mecca on the Red Sea, and around Jubail and Dhahran on the Persian Gulf. Riyadh is located at 24°42'42" North, 46°43'27" East (24.711667, 46.724167). [http://earth-info.nga.mil/gns/html/cntry_files.html] The city is divided into 17 branch municipalities under the control of the Riyadh Municipality and the Riyadh Development Authority, chaired by Riyadh Province Governor Prince Salman Bin Abdul Aziz. Although in a highly arid area the city does receive some rainfall. Five dams store the runoff. There are also 96 wells and 290 miles (467 km) of pipe bringing huge volumes of water from desalination plants on the Persian Gulf.

History

In pre-Islamic times, the settlement at the site was called Hajar. The site is at the confluence of several rivers (now wadis) and much underground water is accessible at the site. The settlement was historically famous for its dates and orchards. Its name derives from the plural of the Arabic rowdhah (place of gardens). The modern name was first applied to only certain parts of the settlement where orchards predominated. Gradually the name was used for the entire settlement. By the end of the 18th century, Riyadh was part of the First Saudi State, with the capital at Diriyah. After the destruction of Diriyah in 1818 by the Turks, the capital moved to Riyadh. Portions of Diriyah, a city made of mud bricks, still exisits. The city was seized in 1902 by Abdul Aziz bin Abdul Rahman Al Saud. He went on to established the modern Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932, with Riyadh the capital of the nation. The diplomatic capital did not move until 1982 (from Jeddah). Recently the city has experienced very high rates of population growth, which is indicated by the poor quality of development since the 1970s.

Noted structures

- Riyadh TV Tower
- Al Faisaliah: Second tallest building in Saudi Arabia
- Kingdom Centre: Tallest building in Saudi Arabia
- King Khalid International Airport
- King Fahd Stadium
- Al Masmak Palace
- Sahah Al Hukom and Qasr-al-Hukm. Major areas include Olaya, in downtown, Dabab, near the Old Airport (King Fahd Airbase) and Batha, the old downtown part of the city.

Population

- 1862 - 7,500
- 1935 - 30,000
- 1960 - 150,000
- 1970 - 370,000
- 1972 - 500,000
- 1974 - 650,000
- 1988 - 1,500,000
- 1990 - 2,000,000
- 1997 - 2,800,000
- 2007 - 5,000,000
-
- 2020 - 8,900,000
-
- denotes estimates Between 1974 and 1992 the city grew by an average of 8.2% per year. Category:Cities in Saudi Arabia Category:Capitals in Asia
- ko:리아드 ja:リヤド

Hejaz

ŴHejaz (also Hijaz, Hedjaz; al-Ḥiǧāz) is a region in the northwest of present-day Saudi Arabia; its main city is Jeddah, but it is probably better-known for the holy city of Mecca. As a region, The Hijaz, as it is often referred to, because of being the site of Islam's holy places, has significance in the Arab and Islamic historical and political landscape. Islamic Under the control of regional powers such as Egypt or the Ottoman Empire through most of its history, Hejaz enjoyed a brief period of political independence in the early 20th century. It was one of several regions of the Ottoman Empire provoked into rebellion by T. E. Lawrence ("of Arabia") of the British during World War I. In 1916 its independence was proclaimed by Husain ibn Ali, the Sherif of Makkah. In 1924, however, ibn Ali's authority was usurped by ibn Saud of the neighboring nation of Nejd and became known as the Kingdom of Hijaz and Nejd and later the Saudi Arabian state.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

:The German foreign ministry is also formally known as the Foreign Office. Foreign Office The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, more commonly known as the Foreign Office (or the FCO), is the United Kingdom government department responsible for promoting the interests of the United Kingdom abroad. The head of the FCO is the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, which is commonly abbreviated to Foreign Secretary. This position is traditionally regarded as one of the three most prestigious appointments in the cabinet below that of Prime Minister, alongside those of Chancellor of the Exchequer and Home Secretary.

Current ministers

Ministers at the FCO, as of 22 September 2005, are as follows:
- Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs - The Rt Hon. Jack Straw, MP
- Minister of State for Europe - The Rt Hon. Douglas Alexander, MP
- Minister of State for Trade - Ian Pearson, MP
- Minister of State - Dr Kim Howells
- Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State - Lord Triesman of Tottenham The Permanent Under-Secretary and Head of the Diplomatic Service is presently Sir Michael Jay (a senior civil servant).

History of the department

The department's origins

civil servant The FCO was formed in 1968 out of the merger of the short-lived Commonwealth Office and the Foreign Office, the Commonwealth Office having been formed only in 1966 by the merger of the Commonwealth Relations Office and the Colonial Office. The Commonwealth Relations Office had been formed by the merger of the Dominions Office and the India Office in 1947, with the Dominions Office having been split from the Colonial Office in 1925. The Foreign Office was formed in March 1782 by combining the Southern and Northern Departments, each of which covered both foreign and domestic affairs in their respective geographical parts of the Kingdom. The two departments' foreign affairs responsibilities became the Foreign Office, whilst their domestic affairs responsibilities were assigned to the Home Office.

Recent developments

On December 2, 2003, the FCO [http://www.fco.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagename=OpenMarket/Xcelerate/ShowPage&c=Page&cid=1007029391629&aid=1068721705067 announced] eight strategic priorities for the next five to ten years, in its first [http://www.fco.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagename=OpenMarket/Xcelerate/PreviewPage&AssetType=Page&ResolvePageId=FCO_OBJ_StrategyMain strategy document]: # A world safer from global terrorism and weapons of mass destruction # Protection of the UK from illegal immigration, drug trafficking and other international crime. # An international system based on the rule of law, which is better able to resolve disputes and prevent conflicts. # An effective EU in a secure neighbourhood. # Promotion of UK economic interests in an open and expanding global economy. # Sustainable development, underpinned by democracy, good governance and human rights. # Security of UK and global energy supplies. # Security and good governance of the British Overseas Territories. In August 2005 a report by management consultant group Collinson Grant which criticised the management structure of the department was made public by Andrew Mackinlay. The report noted that:
- The Foreign Office could be "slow to act".
- Delegation is lacking within the management structure.
- Accountability was poor.
- 1200 jobs could be lost.
- At least £48 million could be saved annually. The Foreign Office commissioned the report to highlight areas which would help it achieve its pledge to reduce spending by £87 million pounds over three years. In response to the report being made public, the Foreign Office stated it had already implemented the report's recommendations. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4745467.stm]

History of the building

Andrew Mackinlay end.]] The Foreign and Commonwealth Office occupies a building which originally provided premises for four separate government departments: the Foreign, India, Colonial and Home Offices. Construction began in 1861 and finished in 1868. It was designed by the architect George Gilbert Scott in an Italianate style. He had wished it to be Gothic, but the Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston, insisted on a classical style. Over the years the offices became increasingly cramped due to staff numbers and much of the fine Victorian interior was covered over, especially after World War II. In the 1960s demolition was proposed, but due to a public outcry asserting its heritage value the building was retained and extensively refurbished. It is open to the public each year on Open House Weekend. The Foreign and Commonwealth is now also the main tenant of the Admiralty Extension building at the opposite end of Horse Guards Parade.

External links

- [http://www.fco.gov.uk Official website]
- [http://www.fcoservices.gov.uk Official website of FCO Services]
- [http://www.supply-solutions.org Official departmental website] Category:Foreign relations of the United Kingdom Category:Departments of the United Kingdom Government ja:外務英連邦省

Alexander Calder

Alexander Calder (July 22 1898 – November 11 1976), also known as Sandy Calder, was an American sculptor and artist most famous for inventing the mobile. In addition to mobile and stabile sculpture, Alexander Calder also created paintings, lithographs, and tapestry, and designed carpets.

Biography

Born in Lawton, Pennsylvania, Calder came from a family of sculptors, with both his father Alexander Stirling Calder and grandfather, the Scottish-born sculptor Alexander Milne Calder, sharing the same name. His mother, Nanette Lederer Calder was a painter. Although his parents encouraged his creativity as a child, they discouraged their children from becoming artists, knowing that it was an uncertain and financially difficult career. Calder initially trained as a mechanical engineer, receiving a degree from Stevens Institute of Technology in 1919. For the next several years he worked a variety of engineering jobs, such as assistant to a hydraulics engineer and engineer in a Canadian logging camp, but he wasn't content in any of the roles. In June 1922, Calder started work as a fireman in the boiler room of the passenger ship H. F. Alexander. While the ship sailed from San Francisco to New York, Calder woke early one morning and saw a sunrise with moon-set which deeply impressed him with the wonders of the universe, and set him on the path of becoming an artist. As he describes in his autobiography; :It was early one morning on a calm sea, off Guatemala, when over my couch — a coil of rope — I saw the beginning of a fiery red sunrise on one side and the moon looking like a silver coin on the other. New York] Having decided to become an artist, Calder moved to New York and enrolled at the Art Students' League. Whilst a student, Calder became fascinated with the circus, sketching a number of studies on circus themes and sculpting a number of wire frame circus animals and carnival performers. Upon graduating, Calder moved to Paris to continue his studies in art. He took his wire model circus with him, and gave elaborately improvised shows recreating the performance of a real circus. Soon, his Cirque Calder became popular with the Parisian avant-garde, and Calder was charging an entrance fee to see his two hour show of a circus that he could pack into suitcase. In 1928 Calder had his first solo show at the Weyhe Gallery in New York and he spent much of the next decade crossing the Atlantic to give shows in Europe and America. On one transatlantic steamer, he met his wife Louisa James. They married in 1931. Whilst in Paris, Calder met and became friends with a number of avant-garde artists including Joan Miró, Jean Arp and Marcel Duchamp. A visit to Piet Mondrian's studio in 1930 "shocked" him into embracing abstract art. abstract art The Cirque Calder can be seen as the start of Calder's interest in both wire modeling and kinetic art with an eye to the engineering balance of the sculptures. These were all the qualities required to develop mobiles, the name Duchamp gave to Calder's kinetic sculptures. He designed some of the characters in the circus to perform suspended from a thread. However, it was the mixture of his experiments to develop purely abstract sculpture following his visit with Mondrian that lead to his first truly kinetic sculptures which were manipulated by a means of cranks and pulleys. By the end of 1931 he had quickly moved on to more delicate sculptures which derived their motion from the air currents in the room, and true mobiles were born. At much the same time, Calder was also experimenting with self supporting, static, abstract sculptures, dubbed "stabiles" by Arp to differentiate them from mobiles. Calder and Louisa returned to America in 1933 to settle in a farmhouse they purchased in Roxbury, Connecticut, where they raised a family (first daughter, Sandra born 1935, second daughter, Mary, in 1939). Calder continued to give Cirque Calder performances, but also met Martha Graham and designed stage sets for her ballets with Erik Satie. During the World War II, Calder attempted to join up as a marine, but was rejected. Instead, he continued to sculpt, but a scarcity of metal lead to him producing work in carved wood. After the war, Calder had several major retrospective exhibitions, including one in the Museum of Modern Art, New York in 1943. In the 1950s, Calder increasingly concentrated his efforts on producing monumental sculptures. Notable examples are .125 for JFK Airport in 1957, and La Spirale for UNESCO in Paris 1958. Calder's largest sculpture at 20.5 m high, was El Sol Rojo constructed for the Olympic games in Mexico City. In 1966 Calder published his Autobiography with Pictures with the help of his son-in-law Jean Davidson. In 1973 Calder was hired by Braniff International Airways to paint a full-size DC-8-62 as a "flying canvas." Calder completed a second plane, a Boeing 727-227, in 1975 as a tribute to the U.S. Bicentennial. Calder died on November 11 1976, shortly following the opening of another major retrospective show at the Whitney Museum New York. Calder had been working on a third plane for Braniff, a "Tribute to Mexico," when he died. :Reporter: How do you know when its time to stop [working]? :Calder: When it's suppertime. ::::- From a television interview

Selected works

Braniff] Braniff, Washington, D.C.]]
- Dog (1909), folded brass sheet. Made as a present for Calder's parents.
- The Flying Trapeze (1925), oil on canvas, 36 x 42 in.
- Elephant (c. 1928), wire and wood, 11 1/2 x 5 3/4 x 29.2in. A figure in the Cirque Calder
- Aztec Josephine Baker (c. 1929), wire, 53" x 10" x 9". A performing figure in the Cirque Calder, and a representation of Josephine Baker the exuberant lead dancer from La Révue Nègre at the Folies Bergère.
- Untitled (1931), wire, wood, and motor. One of the first kinetic mobiles.
- Feathers (1931), wire, wood, and paint. First true m