- published: 31 Jan 2012
- views: 3828
- author: WorldwideCollection
Vimeo results:
Youtube results:
..." width="225" height="168" class="playvideo1 gotop" onClick="activateTab('playlist1')" style="display: block;" />
Open Collage in a new Window
Email the Collage
- Loading...
Loading suggestions ...
- Abasan al-Kabera
- Abbasid Caliphate
- Abd al-Hadi Palace
- Above mean sea level
- Abu Dis
- Abu Ghosh
- Acre, Israel
- Ad-Dhahiriya
- Adly Yaish
- Afula
- Ajlun
- Al-Aqrabaniya
- Al-Badan
- Al-Badhan
- Al-Bireh
- Al-Eizariya
- Al-Ittihad (Nablus)
- Al-Khadra Mosque
- Al-Muqaddasi
- Al-Ram
- Al-Yamun
- Aleppo
- Aliyah
- Alkaline
- Amman
- Ammonas
- Ammuriya, Nablus
- An-Naqura
- An-Naseriya
- An-Nasr Mosque
- Anatolian Peninsula
- Angiogram
- Angioplasty
- Anglican
- Apache helicopter
- Aqraba
- Arab
- Arab world
- Arabian Desert
- Arabic language
- Arraba, Jenin
- Artemis
- As-Samu
- As-Sawiya
- Asira al-Qibliya
- Asira ash-Shamaliya
- Askar (camp)
- Asklepios
- Audala
- Autonomy
- Awarta
- Ayyubid
- Az-Zawayda
- Azmut
- Baghdad
- Baklawa
- Balata
- Balata al-Balad
- Balqa Governorate
- Bani Na'im
- Bani Suheila
- Barilla
- Bassam Shaka
- Battle of Nablus
- Battle of Yarmouk
- BBC News
- Bedouin
- Beit Dajan, Nablus
- Beit Furik
- Beit Hanoun
- Beit Hasan
- Beit Iba
- Beit Imrin
- Beit Jala
- Beit Lahia
- Beit Sahour
- Beit Ummar
- Beit Wazan
- Beita
- Beita, Nablus
- Beitunia
- Bethlehem
- Bible
- Bizziriya
- Burin, Nablus
- Burqa, Nablus
- Byzantine Empire
- Cairo
- Calico (fabric)
- Camel train
- Car bombing
- Carob
- Castile soap
- Chess
- Christianity
- Como
- Conscription
- Constantinople
- Copyright
- Cotton
- Council of Nablus
- Crete
- Crusade
- Crusades
- Cyprus
- Dabke
- Damascus
- Damietta
- Danny Rubenstein
- Deir al-Balah
- Deir al-Hatab
- Deir Sharaf
- Dhaher al-Omar
- District of Nablus
- Dublin
- Duma, Nablus
- Dunam
- Dundee
- Dura, Hebron
- Eastern Orthodox
- Edessa, Mesopotamia
- Egypt
- Ein Beit al-Ma'
- Ein Shibli
- Einabus
- Eleazar
- Episcopal see
- F-16 Fighting Falcon
- Far'a
- Fatah
- Fatimid
- Ficus
- First Intifada
- Flavius
- Florence
- Football (soccer)
- France
- Furush Beit Dajan
- Galilee
- Gaza
- Gaza Strip
- Gilad Shalit
- Grape
- Grid plan
- Gush Shalom
- Hadrian
- Haj Amin al-Husayni
- Hajj
- Halhul
- Hama
- Hamaam
- Hamas
- Hammam
- Hebrew language
- Hebron
- Hejaz
- Hejaz railway
- Henry Baker Tristram
- Highway 60 (Israel)
- Homs
- Hospital
- Humanities
- Huwara
- Huwwara Checkpoint
- Ibn Battuta
- Idhna
- Ijnisinya
- Islam
- ISO 259-3
- Israel
- Israeli settlement
- Italy
- Ithamar
- Jabalia
- Jacob's well
- Jacob's Well
- Jaffa
- Jalud
- Jamma'in
- Jenin
- Jericho
- Jerusalem
- Jesus
- Jew
- Jezzar Pasha
- Jordan
- Jordanian dinar
- Joseph's Tomb
- Judea
- Julianus ben Sabar
- Jurish
- Justin Martyr
- Justinian I
- Juvenal of Jerusalem
- Kafr Qaddum
- Kafr Qallil
- Kanafeh
- Khaled ibn al-Walid
- Khan Yunis
- Khasavyurt
- Kingdom of Jerusalem
- Leather tanning
- Levant
- Lille
- Linen
- Lod
- Loom
- Madama, Nablus
- Majdal Bani Fadil
- Mamluk
- Manara Clock Tower
- Manchester
- Mausoleum
- Mecca
- Medina
- Mediterranean
- Medlycott Baronets
- Minaret
- Monophysitism
- Morocco
- Mosque
- Mosul
- Mount Ebal
- Mount Gerizim
- Mulukhiyya
- Muqaddasi
- Muslim
- Nablus
- Nablus Governorate
- Nabulsi
- Nabulsi cheese
- Nabulsi soap
- Nahiya
- Naples
- Nasr Mosque
- Nazareth
- Norway
- Odala
- Old World
- Olive
- Olive oil
- Oncology
- Open heart surgery
- Orthodox Christian
- Osarin
- Oslo Accords
- Ottoman Empire
- Ottoman Syria
- Paganism
- Palaestina Prima
- Palestine
- Palestinian costumes
- Palestinian cuisine
- Palestinian culture
- Palestinian people
- Palestinian refugees
- Passover massacre
- Passover Seder
- Persian people
- Pescennius Niger
- Philip the Arab
- Phinehas
- Platonism
- Poland
- Polish language
- Pomegranate
- Poznań
- Qabalan
- Qabatiya
- Qalqilya
- Qalqilyah
- Qaryut
- Qusin
- Qusra
- Rabat
- Rafah
- Rafidia
- Ramallah
- Rashidun
- Rashidun army
- Republic of Ireland
- Roman Empire
- Royal domain
- Rujeib
- Russia
- Sa'ir
- Safad
- Sahl Arraba
- Saint
- Saladin
- Salfit
- Salim, Nablus
- Samaria
- Samaritan
- Samaritan Revolts
- Samaritans
- Sami Hadawi
- Sanjak
- Sarra, Nablus
- Sciences
- Sebastia, Nablus
- Sebastia, West Bank
- Second Intifada
- Septimius Severus
- Serapis
- Sharon plain
- Shechem
- Shopping mall
- Silk
- Sinai Peninsula
- Sister city
- Six Day War
- Six-Day War
- Souk
- Stavanger
- Sugar
- Suicide bombings
- Syria
- Syriac
- Talfit
- Talluza
- Tammun
- Tarqumiya
- Taxation
- Tel Aviv
- Tell (town)
- Tell, Nablus
- Templar Knights
- Toscana
- Touqan
- Town twinning
- Trebonianus Gallus
- Tubas
- Tubas Governorate
- Tulkarm
- Turkish bath
- Turkish culture
- Turkish people
- Umar
- Umayyad
- Umayyad Mosque
- United Kingdom
- United Nations
- Urif
- Vespasian
- Vilayet of Damascus
- West Bank
- West Bank closures
- Wikipedia Link rot
- World War I
- WP IPA for Arabic
- Ya'bad
- Yanun
- Yaqut al-Hamawi
- Yasid
- Yatma
- Yatta, Hebron
- Zawata
- Zeita Jamma'in
- Zeno (emperor)
- Zeus
-
Abasan al-Kabera
Abasan al-Kabera in (Arabic: عبسان الكبيرة) is a Palestinian city located in the Khan Yunis Governorate in the southern Gaza Strip. It is connected with Khan Yunis city by a local street that crosses other villages like Bani Suheila and Khuza'a. Abasan al-Kabera and the nearby village of Abasan al-Saghira, have in recent years been built up to each other so that they form a larger urban area around Khan Yunis.[citation needed]
The city's population was approximately 19,000 in 2006, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics and depends mostly on agriculture as the main source of income. Moreover, small industry is involved with producing construction supplies like bricks and agricultural implements, while some residents work in commerce. The society is strongly influenced by tribal structure so, there are many extended families such as, M'ssabih, Alshawaf, Abu Mustafa, Abu Tair, Abu Dagga, Abu Tabash, Abu subha and Abu Amer. The families generally turn to custom to solve disputes amongst themselves.
wn.com/Abasan_al-Kabera -
Abd al-Hadi Palace
The Abd al-Hadi Palace or Qasr Abd al-Hadi is a large palace located in the Qaryun quarter of the Old City of Nablus. It was built in the 19th century as a residence for the dominant Abd al-Hadi clan of the District of Nablus. It consists of three floors, arches, winding staircases, hidden courtyards, gardens, balconies, and built mainly of white limestone.
The building was designed by Mahmud ´Abd al-Hadi himself, who was the governor at the time. To Mary Rogers, the sister of the British vice-consul in Haifa, it seemed at the start of 1860's as
"the handsomest dwelling-house I had seen in Palestine. It is built of well-hewn fine limestone, and enriched with marble pavements, columns, and arches."
Today, it is still inhabited by some Abd al-Hadi families. In 2002 the Abd al-Hadi Palace was hit by mortar fire and damaged by explosions during the Israeli incursion into Nablus.
Coordinates: 32°13′04″N 35°15′33″E / 32.21778°N 35.25917°E / 32.21778; 35.25917
wn.com/Abd_al-Hadi_Palace -
Abu Dis
Abu Dis (Arabic: أبو ديس) is a Palestinian town in the Jerusalem Governorate of the Palestinian National Authority bordering Jerusalem. Since the 1995 Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, Abu Dis has been part of Area B, under joint Israeli and Palestinian control. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), Abu Dis had a population of 12,100 in mid- 2006.
Abu Dis was one of the most populous villages in the Sanjak of Jerusalem during the 16th century, with a population of several hundred. Wheat and barley formed the bulk of cash crops, but were supplemented by grapes, olives, fruit trees, beans, and products from goats and bees. Descendants of Saladin lived in the village and were entrusted one-third of the grain revenue by the Ottoman Empire. The adult males of the village paid a combined 6,250 akçe in annual taxes, a much more lower figure than other villages of the same size in the sanjak such as Beit Jala, Ein Karim, and Deir Dibwan. This could indicate that Abu Dis was less prosperous, alternatively it could be because it had fewer non-Muslims. In October 1553, Shaykh Sa'd al-Din al-Sharafi al-Maliki was appointed as the administrator of the waqf of the village, but was replaced in 1554 by Muhammad al-Fakhuri at the request of three prominent villagers who complained to the qadi of Jerusalem. He remained in this position until 1563.
wn.com/Abu_Dis -
Acre, Israel
Acre (Hebrew: עַכּוֹ, Akko; Arabic: عكّا, ʻAkkā), is a city in the Western Galilee region of northern Israel at the northern extremity of Haifa Bay. Acre is one of the oldest continuously inhabited sites in the country.
Historically, it was a strategic coastal link to the Levant. Acre is the holiest city of the Bahá'í Faith. In 2009, the population was 46,300. Acre is a mixed city, 72 percent Jewish and 28 percent Arab. The mayor is Shimon Lankri, who was re-elected in 2011.
The source of the name Akko is unknown. The Egyptians used it as long ago as the second millennium BC, but as it appears in the hieroglyphics as merely two consonants, its pronunciation is unknown.
In the Amarna letters, written in Akkadian, the letter "H" is used to signify the guttural Hebrew letters alef-heh-chet-ayin, and therefore it was possible to write the name of the city as if it were "Haca" or "Aca". Had the name not been preserved, we would not have been able to identify it with certainty with the name that appears in hieroglyphics. In Assyrian the name has been preserved with the spelling "AKK".
wn.com/Acre,_Israel -
Ad-Dhahiriya
ad-Dhahiriya (also az-Zahiriya) (Arabic: الظاهرية) is a Palestinian city in the Hebron Governorate, 23 km southwest of the city of Hebron in the southern West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, ad-Dhahiriya had a population of 28,776 in 2007.
According to Conder, Claude Reignier and H.H. Kitchener Ad-Dhahiriya was probably the site of the ancient biblical town of Debir.
In 1856, a Scottish clergyman, Horatius Bonar described the village and its ruined castle: "Suddenly, at an abrupt elbow of the ravine, we are relieved by seeing the old castle, perched on its rocky height well in the setting sun; the poor village, which seems to hang about it, with, with its square yellow huts, rather helps, at this distance, to improve its appearance, and to give dignity to its towers and broken ramparts. From this point it looks much bolder and substantial than it is; not so isolated as El-Aujeh, which we passed some days ago, but well-set upon yon craggy perch. Like most of its fellow castles in the east and border “peels” in the north, it has seen better days, and has at one time, been a noble stronghold for Romans, or Crusaders, or Turks…"
wn.com/Ad-Dhahiriya -
Afula
Afula (Hebrew: עֲפוּלָה; Arabic: العفولة, al-ʻAfūlaḧ) is a city in the North District of Israel, often known as the "Capital of the Valley", referring to the Jezreel Valley. The city had a population of 40,500 at the end of 2009.
Located in the Jezreel Valley, Afula is roughly halfway between Jenin and Nazareth. It is mentioned in the Books of Kings (2 Kings 5, 24) in connection with Elisha and the disciple of Elijah, who lived in the vicinity.
The 12th-century sultan Saladin founded an Arab village named al-Fulah on the site. In 1226, Syrian geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi mentioned it as being "a town in Jund Filastin," and formerly a Crusader castle between Zir'in and Nazareth. In 1799, during Napoleon's Syrian campaign, the Battle of Mount Tabor was fought around al-Fulah.
In 1909 or 1910, Yehoshua Hankin completed his first major purchase in the Jezreel Valley. He bought some 10,000 dunams (10 km²) of land in Al-Fuleh (now Afula), which became the home of Merhavia and Tel Adashim. This purchase also marked the start of bitter disputes between Arabs and Jews over the rights of tenant farmers who had been evicted, and regarding the employment of Jewish or Arab watchmen for the land.
wn.com/Afula -
Ajlun
Ajloun also written Ajlun (Arabic: عجلون, ‘Ajlūn) is the capital town of the Ajloun Governorate . A hilly town in the north of Jordan, located 76 kilometers (around 47 miles) north west of Amman. It is noted for its impressive ruins the 12th century castle which known nowadays as Ajlun Castle. The Ajlun Governorate has a population of over 142000 widespread in twenty seven villages and towns and area about 420 km2. The population of Ajlun Governorate is mainly composed of the following tribes:Al-Share, Al-Zghoul , Al-Qudah, Al-Momani , Al-smadi , Al-Shwayyat, Al-Freihat , Al-Khatatbah , and others. Haddad Owais and Rabadi are the main Christian tribes in Ajloun. although Christians are a minority in the governorate they form about the half of the population in Ajloun-City ,most of Christians resides in Ajloun-City along with Muslims of Al-smadi tribe, other tribes are distributed in the other districts of the governorate . Ajloun Governorate has four seats in the national parliament one of which is dedicated for the Christian minority.
wn.com/Ajlun -
Al-Badhan
al-Badhan (Arabic: البادان) is a Palestinian village in the Nablus Governorate in the North central West Bank, located 14 kilometers Northeast of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the village had a population of 2,422 inhabitants in mid-year 2006.
wn.com/Al-Badhan -
Al-Bireh
al-Bireh, al-Birah or el-Bira (Arabic: البيرة) is a Palestinian city adjacent to Ramallah in the central West Bank, 15 kilometers (9.3 mi) north of Jerusalem. It is situated on the central ridge running through the West Bank and is 860 meters (2,820 ft) above sea level, covering an area of 22.4 square kilometers (8.6 sq mi). Its name means “Water Well,” and is believed to be derived from the biblical Beeroth.
Because of its location al-Bireh served as an economic crossroad between the north and south, along the caravan route between Jerusalem and Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the town had a population of approximately 39,538 inhabitants in mid-year 2006.
Edward Robinson identified Al-Bireh as the biblical Be'eroth, although this has been challenged by other scholars. It is mentioned by Saint Jerome, who described it as "a large village on the way to Emmaus (Imwas), 7 miles from Jerusalem."
The Crusaders captured and named the town Birra. They built a castle, church and hospice there. The latter two buildings were built by the Templars in 1146 and belonged to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The Ayyubids under Saladin drove away the Crusaders from Birra when they reconquered interior Palestine after the Battle of Hittin in 1187, and completely demolished the town. Yaqut al-Hamawi mentions seeing the ruins a few times during his travels in the area. Nearing the end of Ayyubid rule, in 1280, the modern town of al-Bireh was an inhabited village. The Ayyubids built a mosque in the town dedicated to Umar ibn al-Khattab adjacent to the church ruins. Until 1917, the city served as a political and administrative center for the Ottoman Empire.[citation needed]
wn.com/Al-Bireh -
Al-Eizariya
Al-Eizariya or al-Izzariya (Arabic: العيزريه, lit. Place of Lazarus), sometimes referred to by its medieval name of Bethany, is a city in the West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, it is the second largest Palestinian city in the Jerusalem Governorate (not including disputed East Jerusalem), with a population of 17,606 inhabitants.
Located on the southeastern slope of the Mount of Olives, less than 2 miles (3.2 km) from Jerusalem, the city is commonly identified as the site of the Biblical village of Bethany. The name al-Eizariya refers to the New Testament figure Lazarus of Bethany, who according to the Gospel of John, was raised from the dead by Jesus. The purported site of the miracle, the Tomb of Lazarus, in the city is a traditional pilgrimage site. The sisters of Lazarus, Mary and Martha, are also well-known Biblical figures.
The site of al-Eizariya is believed to have been continuously inhabited from the 6th century BCE until the 14th century CE. In 1923-1924, American archaeologist William F. Albright identified the village with Ananiah (or 'Ananyab), one of the localities inhabited by the tribe of Benjamin after the return from the Babylonian Exile. (Edward Robinson and others, however, identified Ananiah with present-day Beit Hanina).
wn.com/Al-Eizariya -
Al-Ram
A-Ram or al-Ramm (Arabic: الرّام) is a Palestinian town which lies northeast of Jerusalem, just outside the city's municipal border. The village is part of the built-up urban area of Jerusalem, the Atarot industrial zone and Beit Hanina lie to the west, and Neve Ya'akov borders it on the south. with a built-up area of 3,289 dunums. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, a-Ram had a population of 25,595 in 2006. The head of a-Ram village council estimates that 58,000 people live there, more than half of them holding Israeli identity cards.
In 2006, the Israeli High Court of Justice rejected three petitions objecting to the construction of a security barrier separating a-Ram from Jerusalem. The route of the fence planned to encircle northern Jerusalem has been revised several times. The latest plan calls for a "minimalist" route that leaves the village of A-Ram east of the fence. According to the current plan, still subject to revision, the fence will approach A-Ram, near the Atarot airport and Qalandiyah.
wn.com/Al-Ram -
Al-Yamun
Al-Yamun (Arabic: اليامون) is a Palestinian town located nine kilometers west of Jenin in the Jenin Governorate, in the northern West Bank. Al-Yamun's land area consists of approximately 20,000 dunams, of which 1,300 dunams is built-up area.
According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the town had a population of 16,383 inhabitants in the 2007 census. The population is formed mainly of a number of families such as Frihat, Khamaysa, Samudi, Hushiya, Abu al-Hija, Samara 'Abahra, Zaid, Jaradat and Nawhda.
On October 29, 2008, Muhammad 'Abahra, a farmer in the town was killed by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). 'Abahra had a shotgun in his possession leading the IDF to believe he would fire at them. 'Abahra's son, however, alleged, that his father was guarding his sheep from suspected thieves.
wn.com/Al-Yamun -
Amman
Amman (Arabic: عمان
/ɑːˈmɑːn/; ʿAmmān; Rabat Ammon) is the capital and largest city of Jordan. It is the country's political, cultural and commercial centre and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. The Greater Amman area has a population of 2,842,629 as of 2010. The population of Amman is expected to jump from 2.8 million to almost 6.5 million by 2025 due to constant and rapid immigration. The recent economic growth experienced in Amman is unmatched by any other Arab city except those located in the Gulf. Amman is also the administrative seat of the homonymous governorate. Amman is also ranked a Gamma global city on the World city index.
Amman was named one of the MENA's best cities according to economic, labour, environmental, and socio-cultural factors. Amman is among the most popular locations for multinational corporations to set up their regional offices, alongside Doha and only behind Dubai. Furthermore, it is expected that in the next 10 years these three cities will capture the largest share of multinational corporation activity in the region. It is a major tourist destination in the region and the capital is especially popular among Gulf tourists. Amman is considered one of the richest and most Western-oriented cities in the Middle East.
wn.com/Amman -
An-Naqura
An Naqura (Arabic: الناقوره) is a Palestinian village in the Nablus Governorate in northern West Bank, located ten kilometers northwest of Nablus and adjacent to Shavei Shomron. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the village had a population of 1,658 inhabitants in mid-year 2006.
wn.com/An-Naqura -
An-Naseriya
an-Nassariya (Arabic: ?) is a Palestinian town in the Nablus Governorate in the North central West Bank, located 14 kilometers East of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the village had a population of 1,354 inhabitants in mid-year 2006. The healthcare facilities for the surrounding villages are based in an-Nassariya, the facilities are designated as MOH level 2.
wn.com/An-Naseriya -
An-Nasr Mosque
An-Nasr Mosque (Arabic: مسجد النصر Masjid an-Nasr translated as "Victory Mosque") is a mosque located in the Palestinian city of Nablus. It is situated in the central square of the Old City and is donned as the "symbol of Nablus". An-Nasr Mosque has a turquoise dome and its prayer room is located in the second floor of the building.
Originally, an-Nasr was a Byzantine church, and then the Templars constructed a small church which consisted of a circular building with a red dome during the Crusader rule of Palestine. The Crusaders lost Nablus in 1187 to the Ayyubids and by the 14th century Nablus was in Mamluk hands. The Mamluks transformed the Crusader church into the three-nave an-Nasr Mosque. The Ottomans built a government building adjacent to the mosque. An-Nasr was destroyed by an earthquake that struck Nablus in 1927.
The Supreme Muslim Council under Amin al-Husayni constructed the an-Nasr Mosque on the site with a completely different structural design in 1935. The reconstruction was supervised by Shaykh Amr Arafat, a resident of Nablus whose clan — the Fityanis — served as the mosque's waqf superintendents. The imam of the mosque is traditionally of the Hanafi fiqh. According to Islamic tradition, an-Nasr Mosque is built on the exact spot where Yaqub (Jacob) was brought the "bloody and tattered coat" of Yusuf (Joseph) by his sons.
wn.com/An-Nasr_Mosque -
Anatolian Peninsula
Coordinates: 39°N 32°E / 39°N 32°E / 39; 32
Anatolia (from Greek Ἀνατολή Anatolē — "east" or "(sun)rise"; also Asia Minor, from Greek: Μικρὰ Ἀσία Mikrá Asía "small Asia"; in modern Turkish: Anadolu) is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey. The region is bounded by the Black Sea to the north, the Mediterranean Sea to the south and the Aegean Sea to the west. The Sea of Marmara forms a connection between the Black and Aegean Seas through the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits, and separates Anatolia from Thrace on the European mainland. Traditionally, Anatolia is considered to extend in the east to a line between the Gulf of Iskenderun and the Black Sea, approximately corresponding to the western two-thirds of the Asian part of Turkey. However, since Anatolia is now often considered to be synonymous with Asian Turkey, its eastern and southeastern borders are widely taken to be the Turkish borders with the neighboring countries, which are Georgia, Armenia, Iran, Iraq and Syria, in clockwise direction.
wn.com/Anatolian_Peninsula -
Aqraba
Aqraba (Arabic: عقربة) is a Palestinian town in the Nablus Governorate, located eighteen kilometers southeast of Nablus in the northern West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), Aqraba had a population of approximately 8,180 inhabitants in 2007.
Nearby hamlets surrounding Aqraba for natural extensions of the town; they are the khirbets of al-Arama, al-Kroom, Abu al-Reisa, al-Rujman, Firas al-Din and Tel al-Khashaba. The total population of these hamlets is estimated to be 500. The prominent families of Aqraba are Bani Jaber, al-Mayadima, Bani Jame', Bani Fadel and al-Deili.
Aqraba is mentioned several times in the Bible as Akrabbim being at the southern boundary of the "Promised Land". Its Hebrew translation is "scorpions".
In the town is a mosque built of ancient stones with Greek inscriptions and contained a cross. According to local tradition and a number of British scholars believe the mosque was originally a Byzantine-era church. To the north of the village there is a fort called Qal'at al-Hosn consisting of a block of buildings put on the hill. The masonry is drafted with a rustic boss. A cistern exists within the enclosure which still holds water. A birkeh ("pool") stands in the middle of Aqraba near the hillside nearby are some kokhim tombs.
wn.com/Aqraba -
As-Sawiya
as-Sawiya (Arabic: الساويه) is a Palestinian town in the Nablus Governorate in northern West Bank, located 18 kilometers South of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the town had a population of 2,301 inhabitants in mid-year 2006.
As-Sawiya is entirely dependent on its agricultural land. Prior to the Second Intifada, about 250 of the village's residents worked in Israel, but in 2004 only three continued working there. The primary crops grown in as-Sawiya are wheat, olives, grapes, figs, and beans. The land is also used for grazing livestock. Some residents produce yoghurt from their cows and sell it. Local residents sell olive oil to nearby villages such as Lubban as well. Stone-cutting is the most important industry in the town after agriculture.
wn.com/As-Sawiya -
Asira al-Qibliya
’Asira al-Qibliya (Arabic: عصيرة القبلية)is a Palestinian town in the Nablus Governorate in the eastern West Bank, located 14 kilometers (8.7 mi) southwest of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the town had a population of 2,336 inhabitants in 2007.
Settler violence is a cause for concern. Settlers from the nearby Yitzhar also continue to enter the villages farmlands. From 2008 to 2011, there were numerous reported cases of both violence and arson in the village. As of 2012, Asira Al-Qibiliya and its inhabitants have been repeatedly attacked, targetted and threatened by settlers for which there have been few or no convictions .
In 2012 there were several reported incidents of settler violence. During one incident, on Saturday, May 19th, 2012, a man was shot while settlers from the nearby Yitzhar settlement entered into village grounds. They set fire to farm land in the village, threw stones and shot live ammunition at the buildings. Youth from the village went to defend the village and retaliated by throwing rocks. During this exchange the man was shot and several were injured.
wn.com/Asira_al-Qibliya -
Asira ash-Shamaliya
Asira ash-Shamaliya (Arabic: عصيرة الشماليّة)is a Palestinian town in the Nablus Governorate, located six kilometers north of Nablus in the northern West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the town had a population of approximately 7,556 inhabitants in 2007.
In Arabic, the word Asira means firewood due to the town's (and nearby Asira al-Qibliya's) abundance of forests which was used by residents to sell firewood.
Asira al-Shamaliya Municipality
wn.com/Asira_ash-Shamaliya -
Askar (camp)
Askar (Arabic: مخيم عسكر) is a Palestinian refugee camp. It is located on the outskirts of the West Bank city of Nablus and was established in 1950 on 209 dunums of land. In 1960 the camp was expanded onto a further 90 dumums. Residents of the camp refer to this as “New Askar”.
According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, the camps registered population is 31,629. Food rations are distributed to approximately 2086 families.
During the 2000 Intifada and 2002 Israeli Defence Force (IDF) incursions, camps such as Askar were a source of considerable resistance from Palestinian gunmen. IDF incursions are still common in Askar refugee camp and are generally conducted for the purposes of interrogating individuals or arresting suspected militants who Israeli authorities consider to be affiliated with listed terrorist organisations.
The UNRWA has several installations in Askar refugee camp including schools and health clinics. However, in addition to these the camp has several of its own community centers including the Center of Peace and Development located in New Askar. International volunteer work camps are run at the center annually which are hosted by the An-Najah National University.
wn.com/Askar_(camp) -
Audala
Odala (Arabic: اودلة) is a Palestinian town in the Nablus Governorate in northern West Bank, located 10 kilometers South of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the town had a population of 1,082 inhabitants in mid-year 2006.
wn.com/Audala -
Awarta
Awarta (Arabic: عورتا) is a Palestinian town located 8 kilometers (5.0 mi) southeast of Nablus, in the northern West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the town had a population of 5,623 inhabitants in 2007. Awarta's built-up area consists of 540 dunams and is governed by a village council.
Awarta has been inhabited since Biblical times and throughout Palestine's rule by the Byzantine Empire, the Islamic Caliphate and during Ottoman rule. Between the 4th and 12th centuries, the town was an important Samaritan center, being the location of one of their main synagogues.
The Hill of Phinehas related in the Bible is associated with the location of the town of Awarta. Three large monuments in the town are attributed to the priestly family of Aaron. According to tradition, they are the burial sites of his sons Ithamar and Eleazar. His grandson Phinehas is believed to be buried at the site alongside his son Abishua — the latter is especially revered by the Samaritans, who believe that he wrote the Torah. The seventy Elders are believed to be buried in a cave near Phinehas' tomb. On the western side of Awarta lies the tomb Muslims attribute to Nabi Uzeir, Ezra the scribe.
wn.com/Awarta -
Azmut
’Azmut (Arabic: عزموط)is a Palestinian town in the Nablus Governorate in the eastern West Bank, located five kilometers northeast of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the town had a population of 2,724 inhabitants in mid-year 2006.
wn.com/Azmut -
Baghdad
Baghdad (Arabic: بغداد, Baġdād, IPA: [bæɣˈdæːd]) is the capital of Republic of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Province. The population of Baghdad as of 2011 is approximately 7,216,040, making it the largest city in Iraq, the second largest city in the Arab World (after Cairo, Egypt), and the second largest city in Western Asia (after Tehran, Iran).
Located along the Tigris River, the city was founded in the 8th century and became the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate. Within a short time of its inception, Baghdad evolved into a significant cultural, commercial, and intellectual center for the Islamic World. This in addition to housing several key academic institutions (e.g. House of Wisdom) garnered the city a worldwide reputation as the "Center of Learning". Throughout the High Middle Ages, Baghdad was considered to be the largest city in the world with an estimated population of 1,200,000 people. The city was largely destroyed at the hands of the Mongol Empire in 1258, resulting in a decline that would linger through many centuries due to frequent plagues and multiple successive empires. With the recognition of Iraq as an independent state (formerly the British Mandate of Mesopotamia) in 1938, Baghdad gradually regained some of its former prominence as a significant center of Arabic culture.
wn.com/Baghdad -
Balqa Governorate
Balqa' (Arabic: البلقاء Al Balqā’) is one of the governorates of Jordan. It is located northwest of Amman, Jordan's capital.
The governorate has the fourth largest population of the 12 governorates of Jordan, and is ranked 10th by Area. It has the third highest population density in the kingdom after Irbid Governorate and Jerash Governorate.
The historical name Balqa' was applied to the entire area of the eastern plateau of the Jordan valley as early as the 7th century when Heraclius’ brother Theodore fought an early campaign against the Arabs on the approaches to southern Syria. During World War I, the British army led by General Allenby entered Salt on 24th of March 1918, in the Battles for Amman campaign, marking the end of a 500-year Ottoman rule.
On March 21, 1968, the town of Karameh near Shouna al-Janubiyya was the site of Battle of Karameh, between Israel and Jordan, which was one of the largest military confrontations in the period between the Six-day War in 1967, and Yom-Kippur War in 1973.
wn.com/Balqa_Governorate -
Bani Na'im
Bani Na'im (Arabic: بني نعيم, Banî Na‘îm) is a Palestinian town in the southern West Bank located 8 kilometers (5.0 mi) east of Hebron in the Hebron Governorate. The town had a population of 20,084 inhabitants in 2007. It is situated on a higher elevation than most localities in the area with an altitude of 951 meters (3,120 ft).
Known as Brekke in the pre-Roman era, it was later referred to as "Caphar Barucha" in the 4th-century CE, while Palestine was ruled by the Byzantine Empire. The town is best known as the burial place of Lot, a prophet in Islam and a righteous person in Judaism and Christianity. Following the Muslim conquest, its name was Arabicized as "Kafr al-Barik." The tomb of Lot became a Muslim edifice during Islamic rule and remained so while the town was under Crusader rule. Later, the Arab tribe of "Bani Nu'aym" settled the town and gave it its current name "Bani Na'im" which was first used by Muslim scholar Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi in 1690. Throughout its history, the tomb of Lot served a place of visitation for Muslim and Western travelers alike.
wn.com/Bani_Na'im -
Bani Suheila
Bani Suheila (Arabic: بني سهيلا) is a Palestinian city in the southern Gaza Strip's Khan Yunis Governorate. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics the population of Bani Suheila had grown from 8,220 in 1945 to 32,800 people in mid-year 2006. The city is currently under Hamas administration.
During the night of August 31, 1955, Israeli armed forces attacked Bani Suheila. On April 5, 1956 Israeli artillery shelled the town.
wn.com/Bani_Suheila -
Battle of Nablus
The Battle of Nablus was fought from April 5 to April 8, 2002 in the Palestinian city of Nablus in the West Bank between the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Palestinian forces, as part of Operation Defensive Shield in the Second Intifada. It resulted in an Israeli victory.
Of all the West Bank towns, the IDF General Staff was particularly concerned about the expected resistance in Nablus, and especially in its Casbah. Hamas and Fatah had launched dozens of suicide bombers. Despite a previous successful raid on Balata, the General Staff still estimated hundreds of armed men would be entrenched in the city, causing the IDF heavy casualties. Two days after the start of Defensive Shield, an extension of the operation north of Ramallah, to Nablus and Jenin, was approved. Originally, the mission was given to a reserve division, but was later transferred to the more experienced West Bank Division. The division's commander, Brigadier General Yitzhak Gershon, received two regular infantry brigades, the Paratroopers Brigade and the Golani Brigade, along with a reserve armored division. A private contractor allowed the commander of the Paratroopers 890th battalion to use a construction site for training for three days. There was a near-mutiny among one reserve armored platoon, who claimed they were not properly trained for urban warfare. High ranking armor officers eventually talked them into joining the operation.
wn.com/Battle_of_Nablus -
Beit Dajan, Nablus
Beit Dajan (Arabic: بيت دجن) is a Palestinian town in the Nablus Governorate in the north central West Bank, located 10 kilometers (6.2 mi) east of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, it had a population of approximately 3,589 in mid-year 2006.
wn.com/Beit_Dajan,_Nablus -
Beit Furik
Beit Furik (Arabic: بيت فوريك) is a Palestinian town located nine kilometers southeast of Nablus, in the Nablus Governorate in the northern West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the town had a population of 10,339 inhabitants in 2007. During the 19th century and mid-20th century, Beit Furik was the main supplier of lime to the Nabulsi soap industry based in Nablus.
wn.com/Beit_Furik -
Beit Hanoun
Beit Hanoun (Arabic: بيت حانون) is a city on the north-east edge of the Gaza Strip. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the town had a population of 32,187 in mid-year 2006. It is administered by the Hamas administration. It is located by the Hanoun stream, just 6 kilometers (3.7 mi) away from the Israeli town of Sderot.
According to a legend, Beit Hanoun was the capital of the Philistine King Hanoun, who fought the Assyrians in the 8th century BCE.
The Ayyubids defeated the Crusaders at a battle in Umm al-Nasser hill, just west of Beit Hanoun, and built the Umm al-Naser Mosque ("Mother of Victories Mosque") there in commemoration of the victory. A Mamluk post office was located in Beit Hanoun as well.
In the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, the vicinity of Beit Hanoun, and later Beit Hanoun itself, served as a tactical wedge (Beit Hanoun wedge), stuck by the Israel Defense Forces to disrupt the movement of the Egyptian army from Majdal to its forces to the south in the area that later became the Gaza Strip.
wn.com/Beit_Hanoun -
Beit Hasan
Beit Hasan (Arabic: بيت حسان) is a Palestinian town in the Nablus Governorate in the North central West Bank, located 14 kilometers East of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the village had a population of 891 inhabitants in mid-year 2006.
wn.com/Beit_Hasan -
Beit Iba
Beit Iba (Arabic: بيت إيبا) is a Palestinian town in the Nablus Governorate in the North central West Bank, located 7 kilometers Northwest of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the town had a population of 3,268 inhabitants in mid-year 2006.
wn.com/Beit_Iba -
Beit Imrin
Beit Imrin (Arabic: بيت امرين, transliterated as "House of Princes") is a Palestinian village in the Nablus Governorate in northern West Bank, located 18 kilometers northwest of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the village had a population of 2,821 inhabitants in 2007.
Beit Imrin is an agricultural village with the main products being pulses, grains, vegetables, olives, grapes, alonds and figs. There is a girls' primary school and a boys' secondary school in the village. Other public facilities include a health clinic, telephone and postal services.
Beit Imrin was founded by Arabs from nearby Burqa and the Bani Hassan tribe of eastern Jordan who also populated Qarawat Bani Hassan. The towns of Sebastiya is located to the southwest, the village of Ijnisinya to the south, Burqa to the northwest and Yasid to the east.
The Beit Imrin Village Council was established in 1966 with the first mayor being Ayad Youssef Abdel-Rahman Ahsan. The council consists of nine members including the mayor who currently is Basheer Samarah.
wn.com/Beit_Imrin -
Beit Jala
Beit Jala (Arabic: بيت جالا (help·info)) is an Arab Christian town in the Bethlehem Governorate of the West Bank. Beit Jala is located 10 km south of Jerusalem, on the western side of the Hebron road, opposite Bethlehem, at 825 meters (2,707 ft) altitude. In 1997, Beit Jala had 12,239 inhabitants, predominantly Christian Palestinians with a Muslim minority, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.
In 1952, following a Israel Defense Forces reprisal raid in Beit Jala in which seven civilians were killed, a complaint was lodged that Israel had violated the General Armistice agreement. The United Nations Truce Supervision Organisation issued a condemnation of Israel for breaching the agreement.
Beit Jala control was assumed by the Palestinian Authority, following the 1993 Oslo accords.
During the Second Intifada, Tanzim militants used Beit Jala as a base for launching launch sniper and mortar attacks on the Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo. Gilo is located on a hilltop across from Beit Jala, partially on the lands of Beit Safafa and Sharafat. The Israeli government built a concrete barrier and installed bulletproof windows in homes and schools facing Beit Jala. The gunmen positioned themselves in or near Christian homes and churches in the knowledge that a slight deviation in Israeli return fire would harm Christian buildings.
wn.com/Beit_Jala -
Beit Lahia
Beit Lahia (Arabic: بيت لاهيا) is a city located north of Jabalia, near Beit Hanoun and the 1949 Armistice Line with Israel. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the city had a population of 59,540 in mid-year 2006.Hamas, an Islamist party, took control of it during the 2005 municipal elections, and is still administring the city, together with the entire Gaza Strip.
The word “Lahia” is Syriac and means “desert” or “fatigue”. It is surrounded by sand dunes, some rise to 55 m (180 ft) above sea level. The area is renowned for its many large sycamore fig trees. The city is known for its fresh, sweet water, berries and citrus trees.
Beit Lahia has an ancient hill and nearby lay abandoned village ruins. A mihrab, or mosque alcove indicating the direction of salaah (prayer), is all that remains of an ancient mosque to the west of Beit Lahia dating to the end of the Fatamid period and beginning of the Ayyubid Dynasty of Saladin, and two other mosques dating to the Ottoman period.
wn.com/Beit_Lahia -
Beit Sahour
Beit Sahour (Arabic: بيت ساحور pronounced Bayt Saahoor (help·info)) (lit. Place of the Night Watch) is a Palestinian town east of Bethlehem under the administration of the Palestinian National Authority. The population of 12,367, is Christian and Muslim.
There are two enclosures in the eastern part of Beit Sahour which are claimed by different Christian denominations to be the actual 'Shepherds Field': one belonging to the Greek Orthodox Church and the other, the Catholic site, to the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land.
The name Beit Sahur belongs to two places in the vicinity: Beit Sahur al-Atiqah ("ancient Beit Sahur") and Beit Sahur an-Nasara ("Beit Sahur of the Christians"). 16th century Arab geographer Mujir al-Din mentions the former in a biography of a Muslim scholar Sha'ban bin Salim bin Sha'ban, who died in the town in 1483 at the age of 105. The former was noted by French geographer Guerin as being 40 minutes away from Jerusalem, a short distance south of the Qidron Valley.
Beit Sahur al-Atiqah surrounded the tomb of Sheikh Ahmad al-Sahuri, a local saint to whom the local Arab tribe of al-Sawahirah attribute their name. The Sawahirah originate from the Hejaz and entered Palestine through al-Karak. The Survey of Western Palestine describes the town as "Ruins of a village with wells and a mukam." The modern Beit Sahur was described by the same survey as "sort of a suburb of Bethlehem, situated on the same ridge, with the broad plateau east of it known as the 'shepherd's plain'".
wn.com/Beit_Sahour -
Beit Ummar
Beit Ummar (Arabic: بيت اُمّر) is an Arab town located eleven kilometers northwest of Hebron in the Hebron Governorate. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, in 2007, the town had a population of 13,348 inhabitants. Over 4,800 residents of the town are under the age of 18. Since the Second Intifada, unemployment ranges between 60 to 80 percent due mostly to the inability of residents to work in Israel and a depression in the Palestinian economy. A part of the city straddles Road 60 and due to this, several propositions of house demolition have occurred.
Beit Ummar is mostly agricultural and is noted for its many grape vines. This has a major aspect on their culinary tradition of stuffed grape leaves known as waraq al-'inib and a grape syrup called dibs. Beit Ummar also has cherry, plum, apple and olive orchards.
Beit Ummar is believed to be the site of Biblical village of Maarath. The modern town was named after the Islamic Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab who supposedly frequented the town. Many of the town's residents are descendants of Arab Christian families and the old city contains Christian ruins.
wn.com/Beit_Ummar -
Beit Wazan
Beit Wazan (Arabic: بيت وزن) is a Palestinian town in the Nablus Governorate in northern West Bank, located 4 kilometers northwest of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the town had a population of 1,120 inhabitants in mid-year 2006.
wn.com/Beit_Wazan -
Beita, Nablus
Beita (Arabic: بيتا, translation: "Home") is a Palestinian town in the Nablus Governorate in the northern West Bank located 13 kilometers (8.1 mi) southeast of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the town had a population of 9,709 in 2007. It consists of five clans which branch out to thirty families. There are many houses and prisons dating back to the Roman era. The current mayor that was elected in 2004 is Arab ash-Shurafa.
In 1952, Beita opened an elementary school (before, most teaching was done in mosques), which served the town and surrounding villages. In 1954, an elementary school for girls only was established and since then, four other schools have been built - including two secondary schools. The town contains four mosques and three clinics.
On April 6, 1988 twenty hikers from Elon Moreh, an Israeli settlement 10 kilometers (6.2 mi) north of Beita, led by Romam Aldubi were crossing village land in a show of strength when they came across Mousa Saleh Bani Shamseh, working his land. Haaretz and other newspapers reported that there was an encounter with youths throwing stones. Aldubi shot Shamseh dead. A rumour spread that the group wanted to poison the village's well. When the Israeli's entered Beita they were met by a crowd of villagers who had learned of the killing. After the Palestinians began throwing stones, Aldubi opened fire with his automatic weapon and killed Hatem Fayez Ahmad Al-Jaber and severely wounded several other villagers.
wn.com/Beita,_Nablus -
Beitunia
Beitunia (Arabic: بيتونيا) also Bitunya is a Palestinian town located 3 kilometers (1.9 mi) west of Ramallah and 14 kilometers (8.7 mi) north of Jerusalem. The town is in the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate in the central West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the town had a population of 19,761 in 2007, making it the third largest locality in its governorate after al-Bireh and Ramallah.
Beitunia's land area consists of 2, 617.4 hectares (26,174 dunams) of which 336.2 hectares is built-up area. The Israeli West Bank barrier separates the urban area from 66% of the town's lands, however most of the cut-off territory (Seam Zone) is made-up of forest and open spaces making it prime agricultural and grazing land.
Hussein Mahmoud 'Awad 'Alian (17 years old) was killed by IDF gunfire on 16 April 2004 during demonstrations against the barrier.
wn.com/Beitunia -
Bethlehem
Bethlehem (Arabic: بيت لحم Bayt Laḥm (help·info) or Bēt Laḥm, lit "House of Flesh"; Hebrew: בֵּית לֶחֶם Bēṯ Leḥem, Modern: Bet Leḥem, IPA: [bet ˈleχem], lit "House of Bread;" Greek: Βηθλεὲμ, Vithleém) is a Palestinian city located in the central West Bank and approximately 8 kilometers (5.0 mi) south of Jerusalem, with a population of about 30,000 people. It is the capital of the Bethlehem Governorate of the Palestinian National Authority and a hub of Palestinian culture and tourism. The Hebrew Bible identifies Bethlehem as the city David was from and the location where he was crowned as the king of Israel. The New Testament identifies Bethlehem as the birthplace of Jesus of Nazareth. The town is inhabited by one of the oldest Christian communities in the world, although the size of the community has shrunk due to emigration.
The city was sacked by the Samaritans in 529, but rebuilt by the Byzantine emperor Justinian I. Bethlehem was conquered by the Arab Caliphate of 'Umar ibn al-Khattāb in 637, who guaranteed safety for the city's religious shrines. In 1099, Crusaders captured and fortified Bethlehem and replaced its Greek Orthodox clergy with a Latin one. The Latin clergy were expelled after the city was captured by Saladin, the sultan of Egypt and Syria. With the coming of the Mamluks in 1250, the city's walls were demolished, and were subsequently rebuilt during the rule of the Ottoman Empire.
wn.com/Bethlehem -
Bizziriya
Bizziriya or Bazzariya (Arabic: بزاريا) is a Palestinian village in the West Bank, located 20 kilometers northwest of Nablus at the northernmost point of the Nablus Governorate. It is situated in a valley, having an altitude of 460 meters above sea level. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, Bizziriya had a population of over 2,252 inhabitants in 2007. In 1997, 7.3% of Bizziriya's residents were refugees. The village's prominent families are Hamad, Hassan, Awad and Salem.
wn.com/Bizziriya -
Burin, Nablus
Burin (Arabic: بورين) is a Palestinian village in the Nablus Governorate in northern West Bank, located 7 kilometers southwest of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the town had a population of 2,573 inhabitants in mid-year 2006.
The Israeli Police spokesperson said that Israeli police arrested Gilad Herman, a student at a Jewish seminary in the settlement of Yitzhar on 13 July 2008, after a failed rocket attack on Burin. On Thursday 24 July 2008, in response to Israeli police destroying a settler trailer home illegally parked at the Adei Ad outpost, some 20 people from the Israeli settlement of Yitzhar attacked the Palestinian village of Burin, smashing cars and windows and cutting electricity wires.
From mid-June 2008 to August 2008 the human rights group Yesh Din have registered at least nine attacks on Palestinian families living in Burin, allgedly carried out by settlers living in outposts near Yitzhar or the settlement of Bracha. The number of cases of "disturbances of the peace", the term used for harm caused by Israeli citizens to Palestinians and their property, increase in 2008 the data available indicates that there were 429 incidents in the first half of 2008, compared with 587 incidents in all of 2006 and 551 in 2007.
wn.com/Burin,_Nablus -
Burqa, Nablus
Burqa (Arabic: بُرقه) is a Palestinian town in the Nablus Governorate in northern West Bank, located 18 kilometers northwest of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the town had a population of 4,030 inhabitants in mid-year 2006.
mayor: Mohammed Issam Abu Issa
wn.com/Burqa,_Nablus -
Cairo
Cairo ( /ˈkaɪroʊ/ KYE-roh; Arabic: القاهرة al-Qāhira, literally "The Vanquisher" or "The Conqueror"), is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Located near the Nile Delta, it was founded in the year 969 A.D. making it 1,043 years old. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life. Cairo was founded by the Fatimid dynasty in the 10th century AD.; but the land composing the present-day city was the site of national capitals whose remnants remain visible in parts of Old Cairo. Cairo is also associated with Ancient Egypt due to its proximity to the ancient cities of Memphis, Giza and Fustat which are nearby to the Great Sphinx and the pyramids of Giza.
Egyptians today often refer to Cairo as Maṣr (Arabic: مصر), the Arabic pronunciation of the name for Egypt itself, emphasizing the city's continued role in Egyptian influence. Cairo has the oldest and largest film and music industries in the Arab World, as well as the world's second-oldest institution of higher learning, al-Azhar University. Many international media, businesses, and organizations have regional headquarters in the city, and the Arab League has had its headquarters in Cairo for most of its existence.
wn.com/Cairo -
Como
Como listen (help·info) (Lombard: Còmm; Latin: Comum) is a city and comune in Lombardy, Italy. It is the administrative capital of the Province of Como.
Its proximity to Lake Como and to the Alps has made Como a popular tourist destination and the city contains numerous works of art, churches, gardens, museums, theatres, parks and palaces: the Duomo (seat of Diocese of Como), the Basilica of Sant'Abbondio, the Villa Olmo, the public gardens with the Tempio Voltiano, the Teatro Sociale, the Broletto (the city’s medieval town hall) and the 20th century Casa del Fascio.
Como was the birthplace of many historically notable figures, including the (somewhat obscure) poet Caecilius who is mentioned by Catullus in the 1st century BCE, the far more substantial literary figures of Pliny the Elder and the Younger, Pope Innocent XI, the scientist Alessandro Volta, and Cosima Liszt, second wife of Richard Wagner and long-term director of the Bayreuth Festival.
The hills surrounding the current location of Como have been inhabited, since at least the Bronze Age, by a Celtic tribe known as the Orobii. Remains of settlements are still present on the wood covered hills to the South West of town.
wn.com/Como -
Constantinople
Constantinople (Greek: Κωνσταντινούπολις, Konstantinoúpolis; Latin: Constantinopolis; Ottoman Turkish: قسطنطینیه, Qostantiniyye; and modern Turkish: İstanbul) was the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, the Latin and the Ottoman Empires. It was founded in AD 330, at ancient Byzantium as the new capital of the Roman Empire by Constantine I, after whom it was named. The city was the largest and wealthiest European city of the Middle Ages, and shared the glories of the Byzantine Empire, which was eventually reduced to the city and its environs.
Although besieged on numerous occasions by various peoples, it was taken only in 1204 by the army of the Fourth Crusade, in 1261 by Michael VIII, and in 1453 by the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II. An inner wall was erected by Constantine I, and the city was surrounded by a triple wall of fortifications, begun during the 5th century by Theodosius II. The city was built on seven hills as well as on the Bosporus, and thus presented an impregnable fortress enclosing magnificent palaces, domes and towers. The Church of Hagia Sophia, the sacred palace of the emperors, the hippodrome, and the Golden Gate were among the largest of the many churches, public edifices, and monuments lining the arcaded avenues and squares.
wn.com/Constantinople -
Crete
Crete (Greek: Κρήτη; [kriti]) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits (such as its own dialect, poetry, and music). Crete was the centre of the Minoan civilization (c. 2700–1420 BC), the earliest civilization in Europe, comprising the first palaces in Europe.
The island is first referred to as Kaptara in texts from the Syrian city of Mari dating from the 18th century BC, repeated later in Neo-Assyrian records and the Bible (Caphtor). It was also known in ancient Egyptian as Keftiu, strongly suggesting some form similar to both was the Minoan name for the island.
The Mycenaean Greek name for Crete is unknown; it is not mentioned in extant Linear B texts. The name Crete (Κρήτη) first appears in Homer's Odyssey. Its etymology is unknown. One speculative proposal derives it from a hypothetical Luvian word *kursatta (cf. kursawar "island", kursattar "cutting, sliver"). In Latin, it became Creta.
wn.com/Crete -
Cyprus
Cyprus
i/ˈsaɪprəs/ (Greek: Κύπρος, Kýpros, IPA: [ˈcipɾos]; Turkish: Kıbrıs, IPA: [ˈkɯbɾɯs]), officially the Republic of Cyprus (Greek: Κυπριακή Δημοκρατία, Kypriakī́ Dīmokratía, IPA: [cipɾiaˈci ðimokɾaˈtia]; Turkish: Kıbrıs Cumhuriyeti, IPA: [ˈkɯbɾɯs dʒumhuɾijeˈti]), is an island country in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria, Lebanon, northwest of Israel and north of Egypt. Cyprus is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea and the Republic of Cyprus is a member state of the European Union.
The earliest known human activity on the island dates back to around the 10th millennium BC. Archaeological remains from this period include the well-preserved Neolithic village of Khirokitia, which has been declared a World Heritage Site with an "enhanced protection" status in the event of armed conflict by UNESCO, along with the archaeological sites of Paphos and the Painted Churches of the Troodos Region. Cyprus is home to some of the oldest water wells in the world.
wn.com/Cyprus -
Damascus
Damascus (Arabic: دِمَشق / ALA-LC: Dimashq; commonly known in Syria as al-Sham (Arabic: الشام / al-Shām), and as the City of Jasmine (Arabic: مدينة الياسمين / Madīnat al-Yāsmīn), is the capital and the second largest city of Syria. Both are part of the country's 14 governorates. In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major cultural and religious center of the Levant. The city has an estimated population of 1,711,000 (2009 est.).
Located in southwestern Syria, Damascus is the center of a large metropolitan area of 2.6 million people (2004). Geographically embedded on the eastern foothills of the Anti-Lebanon mountain range 80 kilometres (50 mi) inland from the eastern shore of the Mediterranean on a plateau 680 metres (2,230 ft) above sea-level, Damascus experiences a semi-arid climate due to the rain shadow effect. The Barada River flows through Damascus.
First settled in the 2nd millennium BC, it was chosen as the capital of the Umayyad Caliphate from 661 to 750. After the victory of the Abbasid dynasty, the seat of Islamic power was moved to Baghdad. Damascus saw a political decline throughout the Abbasid era, only to regain significant importance in the Ayyubid and Mamluk periods. During Ottoman rule, the city decayed completely while maintaining a certain cultural prestige. Today, it is the seat of the central government and all of the government ministries. Damascus was chosen as the 2008 Arab Capital of Culture.
wn.com/Damascus -
Damietta
Damietta (Arabic: دمياط Dumyāṭ), also known as Damiata, or Domyat, is a port and the capital of the Damietta Governorate in Egypt. It is located at the intersection between the Mediterranean Sea and the Nile, about 200 kilometres (120 mi) north of Cairo.
In Ancient Egypt, the city was known as Tamiat, but it became less important in the Hellenic period after the construction of Alexandria.
The Abbasids used Alexandria, Damietta, Aden and Siraf as entry ports to India and the Tang Empire of China. Damietta was an important naval base during the Abbasid, Tulunid and Fatimid periods. This led to several attacks by the Byzantine Empire, most notably the sack and destruction of the city in May 853.
Damietta was again important in the 12th and 13th centuries during the time of the Crusades. In 1169, a fleet from the Kingdom of Jerusalem, with support from the Byzantine Empire, attacked the port, but it was defeated by Saladin.
During preparations for the Fifth Crusade in 1217, it was decided that Damietta should be the focus of attack. Control of Damietta meant control of the Nile, and from there the crusaders believed they would be able to conquer Egypt. From Egypt they could then attack Palestine and recapture Jerusalem. When the port was besieged and occupied by Frisian crusaders in 1219, Francis of Assisi arrived to peaceably negotiate with the Muslim ruler. The siege devastated the population of Damietta. In October 1218 reinforcements arrived including the Legate Pelagius with the English earls Ranulf of Chester, Saer of Winchester, and William Aubigny of Arundel together with Odonel Aubigny, Robert Fitzwalter, John Lacy of Chester, William Harcourt and Oliver the illegitimate son of King John. In 1221 the Crusaders attempted to march to Cairo, but were destroyed by the combination of nature and Muslim defenses.
wn.com/Damietta -
Deir al-Balah
Deir al-Balah or Dayr al-Balah (Arabic: دير البلح) is a Palestinian city in the central Gaza Strip and capital or muhfaza ("seat") of the Deir el-Balah Governorate. It is located 14 kilometers south of Gaza City. According to an estimate by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the city had a population of 49,751 in 2006.
Well known for its beaches and date palms, recent archaeological excavations uncovered an Ancient Egyptian cemetery dating back to the Late Bronze Age. A monastery was built by Hilarion in the mid-4th-century CE in Deir al-Balah and is currently the site of a mosque dedicated al-Khidr or Saint George. During the Crusader-Ayyubid wars, Deir al-Balah was the site of a strategic coastal fortress known as "Darum" which was continuously dismantled and rebuilt by both sides until its final destruction in 1196. It grew to become a large village on the postal route during Mamluk rule from the 13th to 14th-centuries. Deir al-Balah became the first city to come under Palestinian self-rule in 1994.
wn.com/Deir_al-Balah -
Deir al-Hatab
Deir al-Hatab (Arabic: دير الحطب) is a Palestinian village in the Nablus Governorate in the northern West Bank, located east of Nablus. The village's built-up area consisted of 330 dunams in 2000. Prior to 1993, it was less than 200 dunams. The entire village is located in "Area B" which gives the Palestinian National Authority control over civil affairs, while Israel is responsible for security.
The Israeli settlement of Elon Moreh is established within Deir al-Hatab's jurisdiction, taking up nearly 2,000 dunams of the village's land.[citation needed]
Deir al-Hatab had a population of 234 residents in 1922 and according to a census by the British Mandate of Palestine government the village had 277 inhabitants in 1931. A survey by Sami Hadawi in 1945 recorded a population of 370. In 1987, 1,120 people were living in Deir al-Hatab.
According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, Deir al-Hatab had a population of over 2,213 inhabitants in 2007. Around 33% of households in the village have 1-5 members, 51% have 6-10 members and 17% have over 10 members. About 10% of the population over ten years of age is illiterate, women making up 78% of this statistic. In addition, 43% of the student population are females.
wn.com/Deir_al-Hatab -
Deir Sharaf
Deir Sharaf (Arabic: دير شرف) is a Palestinian town in the Nablus Governorate in northern West Bank, located 9 kilometers northwest of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the town had a population of 2,759 inhabitants in mid-year 2006.
wn.com/Deir_Sharaf -
Dublin
Dublin ( /ˈdʌblɨn/; locally /ˈdʊbᵊlən/; Irish: Baile Átha Cliath, meaning "town of the hurdled ford", pronounced [blʲaˈklʲiə] or Áth Cliath, [aː klʲiə], occasionally Duibhlinn) is the capital and most populous city of Ireland. The English name for the city is derived from the Irish name Dubhlinn, meaning "black pool". Dublin is situated near the midpoint of Ireland's east coast, at the mouth of the River Liffey and the centre of the Dublin Region.
Originally founded as a Viking settlement, it evolved into the Kingdom of Dublin and became the island's principal city following the Norman invasion. The city expanded rapidly from the 17th century; it was briefly the second largest city in the British Empire and the fifth largest in Europe. Dublin entered a period of stagnation following the Act of Union of 1800, but it remained the economic centre for most of the island. Following the partition of Ireland in 1922, the new parliament, the Oireachtas, was located in Leinster House. Dublin became the capital of the Irish Free State and later the Republic of Ireland.
wn.com/Dublin -
Duma, Nablus
Duma (Arabic: دوما) is Palestinian town in the Nablus Governorate in the northern West Bank, located 25 kilometers southeast of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the town had a population of 2,220 inhabitants in mid-year 2006. Duma's total land area consists of 17,351 dunams, about 200 of which are designated as built-up area.
Prior to the Six-Day War in 1967, nearly all of Duma's working male residents were farmers. Since then the number of farmers has been reduced since many residents have found work in construction in Israel or work in small businesses in the town. However, Duma's residents still mostly rely on irrigated crops, fruit orchards, olive groves and livestock for food. Water is provided to Duma by four springs: Fasayel to the west, Ein Duma and Rashash to the south and Umm Amir to the east. Fasayel, the largest spring is also used by Israeli authorities to distribute water to nearby Israeli settlements.
Duma has three schools for girls and boys and the town established a Mayo Clinic in 2002 with the help of the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
wn.com/Duma,_Nablus -
Dundee
Coordinates: 56°27′50″N 2°58′12″W / 56.464°N 2.970°W / 56.464; -2.970
Dundeei/dʌnˈdiː/ (Scottish Gaelic: Dùn Dè) is the fourth-largest city in Scotland and the 38th most populous settlement in the United Kingdom. It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firth of Tay, which feeds into the North Sea. Under the name of Dundee City, it forms one of the 32 council areas used for local government in Scotland.
The town developed into a burgh in Medieval times, and expanded rapidly in the 19th century largely due to the jute industry. This, along with its other major industries gave Dundee its epithet as the city of "jute, jam and journalism".
In mid-2008, the population of the City of Dundee was estimated to be 152,320. Dundee's recorded population reached a peak of 182,204 at the time of the 1971 census, but has since declined.
Today, Dundee is promoted as 'One City, Many Discoveries' in honour of Dundee's history of scientific activities and of the RRS Discovery, Robert Falcon Scott's Antarctic exploration vessel, which was built in Dundee and is now berthed in the city harbour. Biomedical and technological industries have arrived since the 1980s, and the city now accounts for 10% of the United Kingdom's digital-entertainment industry. Dundee has two universities—the University of Dundee and the University of Abertay Dundee. A £1,000,000,000 master plan to regenerate and to reconnect the Waterfront to the city centre which started in 2001 is expected to be completed within a 30 year period, with the Dundee Victoria & Albert Museum opening within 5.
wn.com/Dundee -
Dura, Hebron
Dura (Arabic: دورا) is a Palestinian town located eleven kilometers southwest of Hebron in the Hebron Governorate in the southern West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the town had a population of over 28,268 in 2007. The current mayor is Mustafa Khalil Rjoub.
According to the municipality, the name "Dura" is derived from a Canaanite word meaning house and not the Arabic word for corn.
Its ancient Canaanite name is Adoraim, and is mentioned in the Bible (2 Chronicles 11:9) as one of the cities fortified by Rehoboam.
The town was referred to as "Adora" during the classical period. Between the years 57 and 47 BCE, the region of Hasmonean kingdom of Judea was divided into five districts, or synedria, with Adora likely serving as the capital of eastern Idumaea. After this, Idumaea became attached to the district of Judaea to the north, and the once heavily Hellenized city became predominantly Jewish. It seems to have remained so until the spread of Christianity in the area in the Byzantine period (beginning in the late fourth century CE).
wn.com/Dura,_Hebron -
Edessa, Mesopotamia
Edessa (Ancient Greek: Ἔδεσσα; Classical Syriac: ܐܘܪܗܝ Urhay; Armenian: Եդեսիա) is the historical name of an ancient town in upper Mesopotamia, refounded on an ancient site by Seleucus I Nicator. For the modern history of the city, see Şanlıurfa.
The earliest name of the city was Adma (Aramaic: אדמא also written Adme, Admi, Admum) which first appeared in Assyrian cuneiforms in the 7th century BCE. A Hellenistic settlement was found on the location of the Assyrian town by Seleucus I Nicator in 304 B.C. The new settlment was named "Edessa" after the ancient capital of Macedonia, perhaps due to its abundant water, just like its Macedonian homonym. The native Syriac name of the city "Orhay" (Classical Syriac: ܐܘܪܗܝ) appears to correspond with the toponym Antiochia Kallirhoe "Antioch by the Kallirhoe" (Αντιόχεια η επί Καλλιρρόης), which is found on Edessan coins struck by Antiochus IV Epiphanes (175 - 164 B.C.). The same name appears also in Armenian as Ուռհա, transliterated Urha or Ourha, in Arabic it is الرُّهَا transliterated as Er Ruha or Ar-Ruha, commonly Urfa, and Riha in Kurdish, and in Turkish Urfa, Ourfa, Sanli Urfa, or Şanlıurfa ("Glorious Urfa"), its present name. During Byzantine rule it was named Justinopolis.
wn.com/Edessa,_Mesopotamia -
Egypt
Egypti/ˈiːdʒɪpt/ (Arabic: مصر, Miṣr, Egyptian Arabic: [mɑsˤɾ] ; Coptic: Ⲭⲏⲙⲓ, Kīmi ; Sahidic Coptic: ⲕⲏⲙⲉ, Kēme), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: جمهوريّة مصر العربيّة (help·info), is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world. Covering an area of about 1,010,000 square kilometers (390,000 sq mi), Egypt is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west.
Egypt is one of the most populous countries in Africa and the Middle East. The great majority of its over 81 million people live near the banks of the Nile River, in an area of about 40,000 square kilometers (15,000 sq mi), where the only arable land is found. The large areas of the Sahara Desert are sparsely inhabited. About half of Egypt's residents live in urban areas, with most spread across the densely populated centres of greater Cairo, Alexandria and other major cities in the Nile Delta.
wn.com/Egypt -
Ein Beit al-Ma'
'Ein Beit el Ma (Arabic: عين بيت الماء), also known as Camp No. 1 (مخيّم رقم1), is a Palestinian refugee camp established in the northern West Bank in 1950, adjacent to the city of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), 'Ein Beit el Ma Camp had a population of approximately 5,036 inhabitants in mid-year 2006. It currently houses 6,683 registered Palestinian refugees.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) supports two schools built with funds from the Saudi Arabia and Swedish Governments in 1997, close to the 'Ein Beit el Ma camp, on land donated by the Nablus municipality. The schools have approximately 1,268 pupils.
'Ein Beit el Ma, (No.1) Refugee Camp, west of Nablus city was established in 1950 on 45 dunums beside the main Nablus/Jenin road, and within the municipal boundaries of Nablus. Following the Israeli redeployment in 1995, the camp fell under Palestinian Authority control in "Area A". The camp is very cramped, there is serious overcrowding, and the narrow alleys are in desperate need of repair. During funerals, the deceased are usually passed through windows from one shelter to another in order to reach the camp's main street.
wn.com/Ein_Beit_al-Ma' -
Einabus
Einabus (Arabic: عينابوس) is a Palestinian village in the northern West Bank, located 12 kilometers south of Nablus and a part of the Nablus Governorate. Nearby towns include Huwara and Beita to the east and Jammain to the south.
Settlement at Einabus' site dates back to the Jebusite era, however the village's inhabitants are descended Arab tribes that migrated to the area during the Rashidun rule of Palestine.[citation needed] The village's old mosque was built during that time and is dedicated to Umar ibn al-Khattab. Until today, olives and figs remain primary sources of income for the residents of Einabus.
In 1596, Einabus appeared in Ottoman tax registers as being in the Nahiya of Jabal Qubal of the Liwa of Nablus. It had a population of 49 Muslim households and paid taxes on wheat, barley, summercrops, olives, and goats or beehives.
In 1922, Einabus had a population of 227 inhabitants which rose to 340 in 1967 amounted to 1200 in 1987. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the village had a population of 2,340 in 2007.
wn.com/Einabus -
Far'a
Far'a or al-Fari'ah (Arabic: مخيّم الفارعة) is a Palestinian refugee camp in the foothills of the Jordan Valley in the northwestern West Bank, located 12 kilometers south of Jenin and 2 kilometers south of Tubas , three kilometers northwest of Tammun and 17 kilometers northeast of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the camp had a population of 5,750 refugees in 2006, however, the UNRWA has recorded a population of 7,244 registered refugees.
Far'a was established in 1949 following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War on 255 dunams of land. It is one of the few camps in the West Bank that is supplied water by the nearby spring of Far'a, from which the camp receives its name. The camp was under Jordanian and Israeli occupation until November 1998, when it came under the complete control of the Palestinian National Authority, as a result of the Wye River Memorandum.
Most of the camp's labor force works in agriculture and some work in construction in the Israeli settlements of the Jordan Valley. In 1996, the UNRWA built two schools in Far'a with financial contributions from the European Union and by 2005 there were 1,794 pupils. In 2005, 863 families depended on UN food rations.
wn.com/Far'a -
Florence
Florence (Italian: Firenze [fiˈrɛntse] (
listen), alternate obsolete form: Fiorenza; Latin: Florentia) is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area.
Florence is famous for its history. A centre of medieval European trade and finance and one of the wealthiest cities of the time, Florence is considered the birthplace of the Renaissance, and has been called the Athens of the Middle Ages. A turbulent political history includes periods of rule by the powerful Medici family, and numerous religious and republican revolutions. From 1865 to 1870 the city was also the capital of the recently established Kingdom of Italy.
The historic centre of Florence attracts millions of tourists each year, and Euromonitor International ranked the city as the world's 72nd most visited in 2009, with 1,685,000 visitors. It was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1982. Due to Florence's artistic and architectural heritage, it has been ranked by Forbes as one of the most beautiful cities in the world, and the city is noted for its history, culture, Renaissance art and architecture and monuments. The city also contains numerous museums and art galleries, such as the Uffizi Gallery and the Pitti Palace, amongst others, and still exerts an influence in the fields of art, culture and politics.
wn.com/Florence -
France
France (Englishi/ˈfræns/ FRANSS or /ˈfrɑːns/ FRAHNSS; French: [fʁɑ̃s] ( listen)), officially the French Republic (French: République française [ʁepyblik fʁɑ̃sɛz]), is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. It is often referred to as l’Hexagone ("The Hexagon") because of the geometric shape of its territory. It is the largest western European country and it possesses the second-largest exclusive economic zone in the world, covering 11,035,000 km2 (4,260,000 sq mi), just behind that of the United States (11,351,000 km2 / 4,383,000 sq mi).
Over the past 500 years, France has been a major power with strong cultural, economic, military and political influence in Europe and around the world. During the 17th and 18th centuries, France colonised great parts of North America and Southeast Asia; during the 19th and early 20th centuries, France built the second largest colonial empire of the time, including large portions of North, West and Central Africa, Southeast Asia, and many Caribbean and Pacific Islands.
wn.com/France -
Furush Beit Dajan
Furush Beit Dajan (Arabic: فروش بيت دجن) is a Palestinian village in the northern West Bank, located 10 kilometers east of Nablus and a part of the Nablus Governorate. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the village had a population of approximately 1,160 inhabitants in 2006.
Most of Furush Beit Dajan's residents are Bedouins or descendants of Bedouins who migrated from the village of Yattir in the Negev desert after being evicted by Israeli authorities in 1952. Most have abandoned their nomadic lifestyle and have adapted to farming. However, many still herd sheep and goats to the north of the village where there is a natural grazing area. Furush Beit Dajan receives most of its water from springs in the southern part of the village.
wn.com/Furush_Beit_Dajan -
Gaza
Gaza (Arabic: غزة Ġazzah, Arabic pronunciation: [ˈɣazːa]), also referred to as Gaza City, is a Palestinian city in the Gaza Strip, with a population of about 450,000, making it the largest city in the Palestinian territories. Inhabited since at least the 15th-century BCE, Gaza has been dominated by several different peoples and empires throughout its history. The Philistines made it a part of their pentapolis after the Ancient Egyptians had ruled it for nearly 350 years. Under the Romans and later the Byzantines, Gaza experienced relative peace and its port flourished. In 635 CE, it became the first city in Palestine to be conquered by the Rashidun army and quickly developed into a centre of Islamic law. However, by the time the Crusaders invaded the city in the late 11th-century, it was in ruins. In later centuries, Gaza experienced several hardships—from Mongol raids to floods and locusts, reducing it to a village by the 16th-century when it was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire. During the first half of Ottoman rule, the Ridwan dynasty controlled Gaza and under them the city went through an age of great commerce and peace.
wn.com/Gaza -
Gaza Strip
The Gaza Strip (Arabic: قطاع غزة Qiṭāʿ Ġazzah, IPA: [qitˤaːʕ ɣazza]) lies on the Eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, within the Middle East (at 31 25 N, 34 20 E). The Strip borders Egypt on the southwest, 11km long, and Israel on the east and north, 51km long. It is about 41 kilometres (25 mi) long, and between 6 and 12 kilometres (4–7.5 mi) wide, with a total area of 360 square kilometres (140 sq mi). It has a 40 km coastline onto the Mediterranean Sea, but has no maritime claims due to Israeli administration. The territory takes its name from Gaza-city, its main city and administrative center.
The Gaza Strip has a temperate climate, with mild winters, and dry and hot summers, subject to drought. The terrain is flat or rolling, with dunes near the coast. The highest point is Abu 'Awdah (Joz Abu 'Auda), at 105 metres above sea level. Main resources are arable land (about a third of the strip is irrigated), and recently discovered natural gas. Environmental issues include desertification; salination of fresh water; sewage treatment; water-borne disease; soil degradation; and depletion and contamination of underground water resources.
wn.com/Gaza_Strip -
Halhul
Halhul (Arabic: حلحول, transliteration: Halhûl) is a Palestinian city located in the southern West Bank, 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) north of Hebron in the Hebron Governorate. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the city had a population of 22,108 mostly Muslim inhabitants in 2007.
According to the Bible, Halhul was a city in the tribal territory of Judah, located in the hill country near Beth-zur.Biblical scholar Edward Robinson identified the modern town with the "Halhul" mentioned in the Book of Joshua.John Kitto noted that the modern name is identical with the Hebrew given in the Bible, hence "the name has remained unchanged for more than 3,300 years."
Chronicler Ali of Herat documented in 1173 CE, that while Halhul was a part of the Kingdom of Jerusalem of the Crusaders, it was a village in which the tomb of Yunis ibn Matta (Jonah son of Amittai) was located. Under the Ayyubids in 1226, a mosque with a minaret was constructed in the town. That same year, Arab geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi visited Halhul, reporting that it lay between Hebron and Jerusalem and contained the tomb of Jonah. In the 14th-century, Jews were living in Halhul and Jewish traveler Isaac Chelo (1334) noted that the tomb of Gad the Seer was located there. For a time, the village served as a place of Jewish pilgrimage.
wn.com/Halhul -
Hama
Hama (Arabic: حماة Ḥamāh [ħaˈmaː], Biblical Ḥamāth, ("Fortress") is a city on the banks of the Orontes River in west-central Syria north of Damascus. It is the provincial capital of the Hama Governorate. With a population of 312,994 (2004 census), Hama is the fifth-largest city in Syria after Aleppo, Damascus, Homs and Latakia. The modern city is built on the site of the ancient city of Hamath ( /ˈheɪ.mʌθ/).
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.
In the last decades, the city of Hama has become known as a center of the anti-Ba'ath opposition in Syria, most notably the Muslim Brotherhood. The city was raided by the Syrian Army, beginning with the 1964 Islamic uprising, and becoming the scene of carnage during the Islamic uprising in Syria in April 1981 and especially in 1982, when some 25,000 people were killed in what became known as Hama massacre. The city was once again besieged by the Syrian military, as one of the main arenas of the 2011 uprising.
wn.com/Hama -
Hamaam
Hamaam (Arabic: حمام; Hebrew: חַמָּם), or Wadi Hamam, is a Bedouin village near the Sea of Galilee and Mount Arbel in northern Israel. It is the easternmost part of the al-Batuf Regional Council. It contains one fairly modern mosque and the trail head for the steep ascent of Mount Arbel. According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics the village had a population of 1,300 at the end of 2005.
wn.com/Hamaam -
Hebron
Hebron (Arabic: الخليل (help·info) al-Ḫalīl; Hebrew: חֶבְרוֹן (help·info), Standard Hebrew: Ḥevron, Tiberian: Ḥeḇrôn ISO 259-3: Ḥebron), is located in the southern West Bank, 30 km (19 mi) south of Jerusalem. Nestled in the Judean Mountains, it lies 930 meters (3,050 ft) above sea level. It is the largest city in the West Bank and home to an estimated 175,000 Palestinians, and over 500 Jewish settlers concentrated in and around the old quarter. The city is most notable for containing the traditional burial site of the biblical Patriarchs and Matriarchs and is therefore considered the second-holiest city in Judaism after Jerusalem. The city is also venerated by Muslims for its association with Abraham and was traditionally viewed as one of the "four holy cities of Islam."
Hebron is a busy hub of West Bank trade, responsible for roughly a third of the area's gross domestic product, largely due to the sale of marble from quarries. It is locally well known for its grapes, figs, limestone, pottery workshops and glassblowing factories, and is the location of the major dairy product manufacturer, al-Junaidi. The old city of Hebron is characterized by narrow, winding streets, flat-roofed stone houses, and old bazaars. The city is home to Hebron University and the Palestine Polytechnic University.
wn.com/Hebron -
Homs
Homs (Arabic: حمص Ḥimṣ), previously known as Emesa (Greek: Ἔμεσα, Emesa), is a city in western Syria and the capital of the Homs Governorate. It is 501 metres (1,644 ft) above sea level and is located 162 kilometres (101 mi) north of Damascus. Located on the Orontes River, Homs is also the central link between the interior cities and the Mediterranean coast.
Homs is a major industrial center, and with a population of at least 652,609 people (2004 census), it is the third largest city in Syria after Aleppo to the north and the capital Damascus to the south. Its population reflects Syria's general religious diversity, composed mostly of Arabic-speaking Sunni Muslims and Alawite and Christian minorities. The city boasts a number of historic mosques and churches and is close to the Krak des Chevaliers, a world heritage site.
Homs did not emerge into the historical record until the 1st-century BCE at the time of the Seleucids. It later became the capital of a kingdom ruled by the Emesani dynasty who gave the city its name. Originally a center of worship for the sun god El-Gabal, it later gained importance in Christianity under the Byzantines. Homs was conquered by the Muslims in the 7th-century and made capital of a district that bore its current name. Throughout the Islamic era, Muslim dynasties contending for control of Syria sought after Homs due to the city's strategic position in the area. Homs began to decline under the Ottomans and only in the 19th century did the city regain its economic importance when its cotton industry boomed. During French Mandate rule, the city became a center of insurrection and, after independence in 1946, a center of Baathist resistance to the first Syrian governments. Homs has played a central role in the ongoing Syrian uprising against the Baathist government and since May 2011 has been under siege by the Syrian Army.
wn.com/Homs -
Huwara
Huwara (Arabic: حُوّاره, ḥuwwarah, Arabic pronunciation (help·info)) is a Palestinian town located in the Nablus Governorate of the northern West Bank, 9 kilometres (6 mi) south of Nablus and forms an enclave between four Israeli settlements. It is approximately 4 miles (6 km) from Jacob's Well. As part of the West Bank Closures system, the town contains the main Israel Defense Forces checkpoint to enter the nearby city of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the town had a population of 5,800 in 2006.
In 1853, Huwara was engaged in a battle with the neighboring villages of Quza and Beita which left ten men and seven women dead.
At the time of the 1931 census, Huwara (together with the smaller location Bir Quza) had 240 occupied houses and a population of 955 Muslims.
The first elementary school was established in 1947, the school was converted in to secondary school in 1962, the first female elementary school was established in 1957. Huwara Elementary as well as secondary schools serves infants from neighboring villages up to the present time.
wn.com/Huwara -
Idhna
Idhna (Arabic: إذنا) is a Palestinian town in the southern West Bank, located in the Hebron Governorate, 13 kilometers west of Hebron and about one kilometer east of the Green Line. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the town had a population of approximately 19,012 inhabitants in 2007.
Idhna is physically divided into southern and northern parts by the Wadi al-Feranj. Idhna's primary source of income is agriculture and the town's total land area is 21,526 dunams (215km²), of which 2,809 dunams (28km²) are built up area. Idhna is governed by a municipal council of thirteen members and six departments.
Idhna's site was inhabited since Canaanite times (the Bronze Age), evident from ancient remains found in the town. The town is identified with the biblical city of Dannah, mentioned in Joshua 15:49.Hebrews, Byzantines and Arabs succeeded in gaining control of the town and coins, statues, tombs and pottery dating from these various rulers were found in the town.
Edward Robinson, who visited Idhna in 1838, recorded that the town's two parts were led by a sheikh and the inhabitants of each part followed and backed their respectable sheikh in internal quarrels. Adjacent to Idhna are the ruins of the original village which is totally covered by cultivable fields. Marble tesserae (mosaic stones) were found on the site.
wn.com/Idhna -
Ijnisinya
Ijnisinya (Arabic: اجنسنيا, ‘Ijnisinyâ ) is a Palestinian village located twelve kilometers northwest of Nablus in the Nablus Governorate. Most of the working-age inhabitants live as farmers. It has a population of about 560. Ijnisinya is governed by a village council. The village's history dates back to Byzantine rule in Palestine.
The Roman Empress Helena of Constantinople who temporarily resided in nearby Sebastiya (Sebastia) used to swim in the lake in Ijinsinya with her maids. The area at the time was a small lake surrounded by gardens. Men were forbidden from entering the area by Queen Helena in order to guarantee her and her maids privacy. The name Ijnisinya derives from Greek, translating as "the Eden of women" reflecting the original use of the village site.
Ijinsinya's mosque dates back to the days of Umar ibn al-Khattab and is currently part of the village school.
There is an Ancient Roman building named Sheikh Shu'la lies atop of a hill overlooking three villages, including Ijnisinya as well as, Sebastiya, and an-Naqura. The building is originally said to be a Roman monastery seven floors high. The remains of the monastery include stone closets, a prison, galleys, secret passageways, and several wells. Its name, Shu'leh is one of a number of Arabic words meaning "fire". The building was named thus because the Ayyubid sultan Saladin used it and similar buildings to transmit messages using fire.
wn.com/Ijnisinya -
Israel
Coordinates: 31°N 35°E / 31°N 35°E / 31; 35
Israel, officially the State of Israel ( /ˈɪzriːəl/ or /ˈɪzreɪəl/; Hebrew: מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, Medīnat Yisrā'el, IPA: [me̞diˈnät jisʁäˈʔe̞l] ( listen); Arabic: دَوْلَة إِسْرَائِيل, Dawlat Isrāʼīl, IPA: [dawlat ʔisraːˈʔiːl]), is a parliamentary republic in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan and the West Bank in the east, Egypt and the Gaza Strip on the southwest, and the Gulf of Aqaba in the Red Sea to the south, and it contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area. Israel is defined as a Jewish and Democratic State in its Basic Laws and is the world's only Jewish-majority state.
Following the adoption of a resolution by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 29 November 1947 recommending the adoption and implementation of the United Nations plan to partition Palestine, on 14 May 1948 David Ben-Gurion, the Executive Head of the World Zionist Organization and president of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, declared the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Israel, to be known as the State of Israel, a state independent from the British Mandate for Palestine. Neighboring Arab states invaded the next day in support of the Palestinian Arabs. Israel has since fought several wars with neighboring Arab states, in the course of which it has occupied the West Bank, Sinai Peninsula, Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights. Portions of these territories, including east Jerusalem, have been annexed by Israel, but the border with the neighboring West Bank has not yet been permanently defined.[neutrality is disputed] Israel has signed peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan, but efforts to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict have so far not resulted in peace.
wn.com/Israel -
Italy
Italyi/ˈɪtəli/ (Italian: Italia [iˈtaːlja]), officially the Italian Republic or the Republic of Italy (Italian: Repubblica italiana), is a unitary parliamentary republic in south-central Europe. To the north, it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia along the Alps. To the south, it consists of the entirety of the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Sardinia–the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea–and many other smaller islands. The independent states of San Marino and the Vatican City are enclaves within Italy, while Campione d'Italia is an Italian exclave in Switzerland. The territory of Italy covers some 301,338 km2 (116,347 sq mi) and is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. With 60.6 million inhabitants, it is the fifth most populous country in Europe, and the 23rd most populous in the world.
Rome, the capital of Italy, was for centuries a political and religious centre of Western civilisation as the capital of the Roman Empire and site of the Holy See. After the decline of the Roman Empire, Italy endured numerous invasions by foreign peoples, from Germanic tribes such as the Lombards and Ostrogoths, to the Byzantines and later, the Normans, among others. Centuries later, Italy became the birthplace of Maritime republics and the Renaissance, an immensely fruitful intellectual movement that would prove to be integral in shaping the subsequent course of European thought.
wn.com/Italy -
Jabalia
Jabalia also Jabalya (Arabic: جباليا) is a Palestinian city located 4 kilometers (2.5 mi) north of Gaza City. It is under the jurisdiction of the North Gaza Governorate, in the Gaza Strip. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, Jabalia had a population of 82,877 in mid-year 2006. The Jabalia refugee camp is adjacent to the city to the North. The city is currently ruled by a Hamas administration.
A large cemetery dating to the 8th century BC was found near Jabalia. The workmanship indicates that the Christian community in Gaza was still very much in existence in the early Islamic era of rule in Palestine, and capable of artistic achievements. The remains of the pavement spared by the iconoclasts show depictions of wild game, birds and country scenes. The late dating of the mosaic pavement proves that the intervention of the iconoclasts, after 750, is later than previously thought and is associated with Abbasid conservatives.
While working on the Salah ad-Din Road, laborers accidentally uncovered a monastery from the Byzantine period. The site was excavated by the Palestinian Department of Antiquities. Now the stunning Byzantine mosaics of the monastery are covered with sand to shield them from erosion caused by the direct impact of the winter rain.
wn.com/Jabalia -
Jacob's Well
Jacob's Well (Arabic: بئر يعقوب, Bir Ya'qub, Hebrew: באר יעקב; also spelled Jacob's fountain and Well of Sychar) is a deep well hewn of solid rock that has been associated in religious tradition with Jacob for roughly two millennia. It is situated a short distance from the archaeological site of Tell Balata, which is thought to be the site of biblical Shechem.
The well currently lies within the complex of an Eastern Orthodox monastery of the same name, in the Palestinian city of Nablus in the West Bank.
Jewish, Samaritan, Christian, and Muslim traditions all associate the well with Jacob. The well is not specifically mentioned in the Old Testament; the Book of Genesis (33:18f) states that when Jacob returned to Shechem from Paddan-aram, he camped "before" the city and bought the land on which he pitched his tent. Biblical scholars contend that plot of land is the same one upon which Jacob's Well was constructed.
Jacob's Well does appear by name in the New Testament's Book of John (4:5f), where it is recorded that Jesus "came to a city of Samaria, called Sychar, near the field which Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there." The Book of John goes on to describe a conversation between Jesus and a Samaritan woman (called Photina in Orthodox tradition), that took place while Jesus was resting at the well.
wn.com/Jacob's_Well -
Jacob's well
Jacob's Well (Arabic: بئر يعقوب, Bir Ya'qub, Hebrew: באר יעקב; also spelled Jacob's fountain and Well of Sychar) is a deep well hewn of solid rock that has been associated in religious tradition with Jacob for roughly two millennia. It is situated a short distance from the archaeological site of Tell Balata, which is thought to be the site of biblical Shechem.
The well currently lies within the complex of an Eastern Orthodox monastery of the same name, in the Palestinian city of Nablus in the West Bank.
Jewish, Samaritan, Christian, and Muslim traditions all associate the well with Jacob. The well is not specifically mentioned in the Old Testament; the Book of Genesis (33:18f) states that when Jacob returned to Shechem from Paddan-aram, he camped "before" the city and bought the land on which he pitched his tent. Biblical scholars contend that plot of land is the same one upon which Jacob's Well was constructed.
Jacob's Well does appear by name in the New Testament's Book of John (4:5f), where it is recorded that Jesus "came to a city of Samaria, called Sychar, near the field which Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there." The Book of John goes on to describe a conversation between Jesus and a Samaritan woman (called Photina in Orthodox tradition), that took place while Jesus was resting at the well.
wn.com/Jacob's_well -
Jaffa
Jaffa (English pronunciation: /ˈdʒæfə/, /ˈdʒɑːfə/;Hebrew: יָפוֹ, Yāfō (help·info); Arabic: يَافَا Yāfā (help·info); Latin: Joppe; also Japho, Joppa (transliteration from the Greek "Ιόππη") is an ancient port city believed[by whom?] to be one of the oldest in the world. Jaffa was incorporated with Tel Aviv in 1950 creating the city of Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel. Jaffa is famous for its association with the biblical story of the prophet Jonah.
The name of the city is mentioned in Egyptian sources and the Amarna Letters as Yapu. There are several legends about the origin of the name Jaffa. Some say it is named for Japheth, one of the sons of Noah, who built it after the Great Flood.[citation needed] The Hellenist tradition links the name to "Iopeia", which is Cassiopeia, the mother of Andromeda. An outcropping of rocks near the harbor is reputed to have been the place from which Andromeda was rescued by Perseus. Pliny the Elder associates the name with Jopa, the daughter of Aeolus, god of wind. The Arab geographer Al-Muqaddasi mentions it under the name Yaffa, which is used by Arabic speakers today.
wn.com/Jaffa -
Jamma'in
Jamma'in (Arabic: جمّاعين) is a Palestinian town in the northern West Bank located 16 kilometers (9.9 mi) southwest of Nablus, 6 kilometers (3.7 mi) northwest of Salfit and 40 kilometers (25 mi) north of Ramallah. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the town had a population of 6,227 in 2007.
The town has been inhabited since the mid-Islamic era of rule in Palestine and Saladin camped with his army in Jamma’in. The original inhabitants of the town were Bani Qadama or Salahea tribe from Damascus, but they returned to Damascus during early Ottoman rule in the 16th century. During their stay in the town, they constructed its first mosque.
In the 17th century, the Qasim family ruled Jamma'in and twenty nearby villages, including Awarta, Beit Wazan, Haris and Zeita Jamma'in. Jamma'in was the seat of the Jamma'in subdistrict of the District of Nablus. In 1834, when the Egyptians under Muhammad Ali conquered Palestine from the Ottomans, Ottoman-aligned Arab families in Samaria revolted under the leadership of Ahmad al-Qasim. The revolt, however, was crushed, and Ahmad al-Qasim and his two eldest sons were hanged. Along with the Qasim tribe, the Zeitawi tribe also settled in the town from Zeita Jamma'in in the 17th century.
wn.com/Jamma'in -
Jenin
Jenin (Arabic: جنين (help·info) Ǧanīn, Hebrew: ג'נין) is a Palestinian city in the northern West Bank. It serves as the administrative center of the Jenin Governorate and is a major agricultural center for the surrounding towns. In 2007, the city had a population of 39,004 Jenin is under the administration of the Palestinian Authority.
Jenin was known in ancient times as the village of "Ein-Jenin" or "Tel Jenin". Tell Jenin, is located at the center of what is today Jenin's business district. The word "'ayn" means "water spring" in Arabic and the word "Jenin" might be related to the Arabic word جنّة (janna), which means "garden".[citation needed] The arabicized name "Jenin" ultimately derives from this ancient name. The association of Jenin with the biblical city of Ein-Ganim was recognized by Ishtori Haparchi.[citation needed]
Jenin overlooks both the Jordan Valley to the east and the Jezreel Valley (known in Arabic as "Marj Ibn Amer") to the north, and from the south it connects to the Samaria mountains.
wn.com/Jenin -
Jericho
Jericho ( /ˈdʒɛrɪkoʊ/; Arabic: أريحا ʼArīḥā [ʔæˈriːħɑː] ( listen)); Hebrew: יְרִיחוֹ Yeriẖo [jeʁiˈħo] ( listen) is a city located near the Jordan River in the West Bank of the Palestinian territories. It is the capital of the Jericho Governorate and has a population of more than 20,000. Situated well below sea level on an east-west route 16 kilometres (10 mi) north of the Dead Sea, Jericho is the lowest permanently inhabited site on earth. It is also believed to be one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world.
Described in the Old Testament as the "City of Palm Trees", copious springs in and around Jericho have made it an attractive site for human habitation for thousands of years. It is known in Judeo-Christian tradition as the place of the Israelites' return from bondage in Egypt, led by Joshua, the successor to Moses. Archaeologists have unearthed the remains of more than 20 successive settlements in Jericho, the first of which dates back 11,000 years (9000 BCE), almost to the very beginning of the Holocene epoch of the Earth's history.
wn.com/Jericho -
Jerusalem
Jerusalem ( /dʒəˈruːsələm/; Hebrew: יְרוּשָׁלַיִם Yerushaláyim ; Arabic: القُدس al-Quds and/or أورشليم Ûrshalîm) is the capital of Israel, though not internationally recognized as such, and one of the oldest cities in the world. It is located in the Judean Mountains, between the Mediterranean Sea and the northern edge of the Dead Sea. If the area and population of East Jerusalem is included, it is Israel's largest city in both population and area, with a population of 801,000 residents over an area of 125.1 km2 (48.3 sq mi). Jerusalem is also a holy city to the three major Abrahamic religions—Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
During its long history, Jerusalem has been destroyed twice, besieged 23 times, attacked 52 times, and captured and recaptured 44 times. The oldest part of the city was settled in the 4th millennium BCE. In 1538, walls were built around Jerusalem under Suleiman the Magnificent. Today those walls define the Old City, which has been traditionally divided into four quarters—known since the early 19th century as the Armenian, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim Quarters. The Old City became a World Heritage site in 1981, and is on the List of World Heritage in Danger. Modern Jerusalem has grown far beyond its boundaries.
wn.com/Jerusalem -
Jordan
Jordan ( /ˈdʒɔr.dən/;Arabic: اَلأُرْدُنّ, Al-'Urdunn), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan (Arabic: اَلمَمْلَكَة اَلأُرْدُنِيَّة اَلهَاشِمِيَّة), Al-Mamlakah Al-Urdaniyyah Al-Hashimiyyah) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing control of the Dead Sea with the latter. Jordan's only port is at its south-western tip, at the Gulf of Aqaba, which is shared with Israel, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia. Over half of Jordan is covered by the Arabian Desert. However, the western part of Jordan is arable land and forests. Jordan is part of the Fertile Crescent. The capital city is Amman. According to the CIA World Factbook, Jordan has the second highest life expectancy in the Middle East, after Israel. The average life expectancy is one position behind the United Kingdom, although the age remains exactly the same (80.05 years).
The precursor to modern Jordan was founded in 1921 as the Hashemite Emirate, and it was recognized by the League of Nations as a state under the British mandate in 1922 known as The Emirate of Transjordan. In 1946, Jordan became an independent sovereign state officially known as the Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan. After capturing the West Bank area of Cisjordan during the 1948–49 war with Israel, Abdullah I took the title King of Jordan and Palestine, and he officially changed the country's name to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in April 1949.
wn.com/Jordan -
Jurish
Jurish (Arabic: جُريش) is a Palestinian town in the Nablus Governorate in northern West Bank, located 27 kilometers Southeast of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the town had a population of 1,384 inhabitants in mid-year 2006.
wn.com/Jurish -
Kafr Qaddum
Kafr Qaddum (Arabic: كفر قدّوم) is a Palestinian town in the northern West Bank, located 13 kilometers west of Nablus and 17 kilometers east of Qalqilya in the Qalqilya Governorate. Surrounding towns include Jit to the east and Hajjah to the south. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the town had a population of approximately 3,500 inhabitants in mid-year 2006.
Kafr Qaddum's total land area consists of nearly 19,000 dunams (about 8,000 under Palestinian civil administration and 11,000 under complete Israeli control). Its built-up area consists of 529 dunams. Olive groves make-up 80% of the remaining land, 15% is used for vegetation purposes, 5% are planted crops.
Prior to the Second Intifada, about 50% of the Kafr Qaddum's economy depended on work in Israel as the primary source of income, 20% depended on agriculture and animal raising, while 30% depended on jobs in private and public sectors. After 2002, over 75% of the population became jobless as business became the only other alternative for income generation. Emigration has registered a record level during the past two years ranging between 10-15 % of the total population. Since 2003 the road between Kafr Qaddum and Nablus is blocked thus elongating the travel distance by 14km. Since July 2011 weekly demonstrations are held in demand to re-open the road.
wn.com/Kafr_Qaddum -
Kafr Qallil
Kafr Qallil (Arabic: كفر قلّيل) is a Palestinian town in the Nablus Governorate in northern West Bank, located 4 kilometers South of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the town had a population of 2,421 inhabitants in mid-year 2006. Nearby cities: Nablus, Jerusalem, Amman
wn.com/Kafr_Qallil -
Khan Yunis
Khan Yunis - often spelt Khan Younis or Khan Yunnis - (Arabic: خان يونس; literally Jonah's Caravanserai) is a city and adjacent refugee camp in the southern part of the Gaza Strip. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics the city, its refugee camp, and its immediate surroundings had a total population of 180,000 in 2006. Although Khan Yunis lies only 4 kilometers from the Mediterranean Sea, its climate is semi-arid with temperature of 30 degrees C maximum in summer and 10 degree C maximum in winter, with an annual rainfall of approximately 260 mm.
The Constituency of Khan Yunis had five members on the Palestinian Legislative Council. Following the Palestinian legislative election, 2006, there were three Hamas members, including Yunis al-Astal; and two Fatah members, including Mohammed Dahlan. The city is now under Hamas administration of Gaza.
Before the 14th century, Khan Yunis was a village known as Salqah. To protect caravans, pilgrims and travelers a khan was constructed there by Yunus al-Nûzûri in 789 Hijri / 1387 CE according to an inscription on its main entrance, accounting for the new name of the growing town. (Yunis Ibn Abdallah an-Nawruzi ad-Dawadar was the executive Secretary, one of the high ranking officials of Sultan Barquq and the first Circassian Mamluk Sultan.)[citation needed] The town became an important center for trade and its weekly Thursday market drew traders from neighboring regions.[citation needed] The khan served as resting stop for couriers of the barid, the Mamluk postal network in Palestine and Syria.
wn.com/Khan_Yunis -
Khasavyurt
Khasavyurt (Russian: Хасавю́рт; Chechen: Хасу-Эвла, Xasu-Evla) is a city in the Republic of Dagestan, Russia. Population: 133,929 (2010 Census preliminary results); 121,817 (2002 Census); 70,514 (1989 Census).
It was founded in 1846 and granted town status in 1931.[citation needed]
Khasavyurt serves as the administrative center of Khasavyurtovsky District, although it is not administratively a part of it. Administratively, it is incorporated as the City of Khasavyurt—an administrative unit with the status equal to that of the districts.Municipally, the City of Khasavyurt is incorporated as Khasavyurt Urban Okrug.
The main local industries are food processing, brick making and garment making.
vep:Hasavürt
wn.com/Khasavyurt -
Lod
Lod (Hebrew: לוֹד; Arabic: الْلُدّ al-Ludd; Greco-Latin: Lydda, Diospolis) is a city 15 kilometers (9.3 mi) southeast of Tel Aviv in the Center District of Israel. At the end of 2011, it had a population of 74,000.
The name is derived from the Biblical city of Lod. When al-Ludd, as it was known by its Arab inhabitants was captured by Israel, the Arab inhabitants fled or were expelled and the city was settled by Jewish immigrants, most of them refugees from Arab countries. Of the former Arab population, only 1,056 inhabitants remained. It is today known as Lod, its biblical name.
Israel's main international airport, Ben Gurion International Airport (previously known as Lydda Airport, RAF Lydda, and Lod Airport) is located on the outskirts of the city.
The Hebrew name Lod appears in the bible as a town of Benjamin, founded by Shamed or Shamer (1 Chronicles 8:12; Ezra 2:33; Nehemiah 7:37; 11:35). In the New Testament it appears as its Greek form, Lydda. The city also finds reference in an Islamic Hadith, as the location of the battlefield where 'Dajjal' (the Anti-Christ) will be slayed before the Day of Judgment.
wn.com/Lod -
Majdal Bani Fadil
Majdal Bani Fadil (Arabic: مجدل بني فاضل) is a Palestinian town in the Nablus Governorate in northern West Bank, located 23 kilometers (14 mi) southeast of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the town had a population of 2,382 inhabitants in 2007.
Majdal Bani Fadil is under the local administration of a nine-member village council headed by Walid Othman. Most of the village's residents are from the Othman and Zayn ad-Din clans. The main economic activities are herding and agriculture, specifically olives, grapes, prunes and figs. The main road connecting Majdal Bani Fadil to Ramallah and Nablus and Nablus and Jericho has been closed off to the village since 2000 during the Second Intifada.
wn.com/Majdal_Bani_Fadil -
Manchester
Coordinates: 53°28′N 2°14′W / 53.467°N 2.233°W / 53.467; -2.233
Manchesteri/ˈmæntʃɛstər/ is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England with an estimated population of 498,800 in 2010. Manchester lies within one of the United Kingdom's largest urban areas; the Greater Manchester Urban Area which has a population of 2.2 million. The demonym of Manchester is Mancunian and the local authority is Manchester City Council.
Manchester is situated in the south-central part of North West England, fringed by the Cheshire Plain to the south and the Pennines to the north and east. The recorded history of Manchester began with the civilian settlement associated with the Roman fort of Mamucium, which was established in c. 79 AD on a sandstone bluff near the confluence of the rivers Medlock and Irwell. Historically, most of the city was a part of Lancashire, although areas south of the River Mersey were in Cheshire. Throughout the Middle Ages Manchester remained a manorial township, but it began to expand "at an astonishing rate" around the turn of the 19th century. Manchester's unplanned urbanisation was brought on by a boom in textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution, and resulted in it becoming the world's first industrialised city. An early 19th-century factory building boom transformed Manchester from a township into a major mill town and borough that was granted city status in 1853. In 1894 the Manchester Ship Canal was built, creating the Port of Manchester.
wn.com/Manchester -
Mecca
Mecca ( /ˈmɛkə/; Arabic: مكة, Makkah, pronounced [ˈmækːɐ]) is a city in the Hejaz and the capital of Makkah province in Saudi Arabia. The city is located 70 km (43 mi) inland from Jeddah in a narrow valley at a height of 277 m (909 ft) above sea level. Its resident population in 2012 was 2 million, although visitors more than triple this number every year during Hajj period held in the twelfth Muslim lunar month of Dhu al-Hijjah.
As the birthplace of Muhammad and a site of the composition of the Quran, Mecca is regarded as the holiest city in the religion of Islam and a pilgrimage to it known as the Hajj is obligatory upon all able Muslims. The Hijaz was long ruled by Muhammad's descendants, the sharifs, either as independent rulers or as vassals to larger empires. It was absorbed into Saudi Arabia in 1925. In its modern period, Mecca has seen tremendous expansion in size and infrastructure. Because of this Mecca has lost many thousand years old buildings and archaeological sites. Today, more than 15 million Muslims visit Mecca annually, including several million during the few days of the Hajj. As a result, Mecca has become one of the most cosmopolitan and diverse cities in the Muslim world, although non-Muslims remain prohibited from entering the city.
wn.com/Mecca -
Medina
Medina (/mɛˈdiːnə/; Arabic: اَلْمَدِينَة اَلْمَنَوَّرَة, al-Madīnah al-Munawwarah, “the radiant city” (officially), or اَلْمَدِينَة al-Madīnah; also transliterated as Madinah, or madinat al-nabi "the city of the prophet") is a city in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia, and serves as the capital of the Al Madinah Province. It is the second holiest city in Islam, and the burial place of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad. Medina is historically significant for being Muhammad's home after the Hijrah. Before the advent of Islam, the city was known as Yathrib, but was personally renamed by Muhammad.
Medina is home to the three oldest mosques in Islam, namely Al-Masjid an-Nabawi (The Prophet's Mosque), Quba Mosque (the first mosque in Islam's history), and Masjid al-Qiblatain (the mosque where the qibla was switched to Mecca).
Because of the Saudi government's religious policy and concern that historic sites could become the focus for idolatry, much of Medina's Islamic physical heritage has been destroyed since the beginning of Saudi rule.[citation needed]
wn.com/Medina -
Morocco
Morocco (Arabic: المغرب al-Maghrib ; Berber: ⵍⵎⴻⵖⵔⵉⴱ / ⴰⵎⴻⵔⵔⵓⴽElmeɣrib / Amerruk), officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of about 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², including the disputed region of the Western Sahara, seen by and mostly administered by Morocco as the Southern Provinces. Morocco is part of the Maghreb region, in addition to Tunisia, Algeria, Mauritania, and Libya, with which it shares cultural, historical and linguistic ties.
Morocco is a constitutional monarchy with an elected parliament. The King of Morocco holds vast executive powers, including the power to dissolve the parliament. Executive power is exercised by the government but more importantly by the king himself. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the two chambers of parliament, the Assembly of Representatives and the Assembly of Councillors. The king can also issue decrees called dahirs which have the force of law. The latest Parliamentary elections were held in November 25, 2011, and were considered by some neutral observers to be mostly free and fair. Voter turnout in these elections was estimated to be 43% of registered voters, but only about 25% of Moroccan adult citizens actually voted. The rest either chose not to vote or they were not registered as voters. The political capital is Rabat, but the largest city is Casablanca; other main cities include Marrakesh, Tetouan, Tangier, Salé, Fes, Agadir, Meknes, Oujda, Kenitra, and Nador.
wn.com/Morocco -
Mosul
Coordinates: 36°20′N 43°08′E / 36.34°N 43.13°E / 36.34; 43.13
Mosul (Arabic: الموصل al-Mawṣil; North Mesopotamian Arabic: el-Mōṣul; Syriac: ܢܝܢܘܐ Nînwe; Kurdish: Mûsil/Nînewe; Turkish: Musul), is a city in northern Iraq and the capital of the Nineveh Province, some 400 km (250 mi) northwest of Baghdad. The original city stands on the west bank of the Tigris River, opposite the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh on the east bank, but the metropolitan area has now grown to encompass substantial areas on both banks, with five bridges linking the two sides. The majority of its population is Arab (with Assyrians, Turcoman and Kurdish minorities). It is Iraq's third largest city after Baghdad and Basra.
The fabric Muslin, long manufactured here, is named after this city. Another historically important product of the area is Mosul marble.
In 1987, the city's population was 664,221 people; the 2002 population estimate was 1,740,000, and by 2008 was estimated to be 1,800,000. People from Mosul are called Maslawis.
wn.com/Mosul -
Mount Ebal
Mount Ebal (Arabic: جبل عيبال Jabal ‘Aybāl; Hebrew: הר עיבל Har ‘Eival) is one of the two mountains in the immediate vicinity of the Palestinian city of Nablus in the West Bank (biblical Shechem), and forms the northern side of the valley in which Nablus is situated, the southern side being formed by Mount Gerizim. The mountain is one of the highest peaks in the West Bank and rises to 3084 feet (940 meters) above sea level, some 194 feet (59 meters) higher than Mount Gerizim. Mount Ebal is approximately 6.5 square miles (18 square kilometers) in area, and is composed primarily of limestone. The slopes of the mountain contain several large caverns which were probably originally quarries, and at the base towards the north are several tombs.
In the masoretic text of Deuteronomy and the Septuagint version of the same, an instruction is given to build an altar on Mount Ebal, constructed from natural (rather than cut) stones, to place stones there and whiten them with lime, to make peace offerings on the altar, eat there, and write the words of this law on the stone. According to the Samaritan Pentateuch version of Deuteronomy, the instruction actually concerns Mount Gerizim, which the Samaritans view as a holy site; some scholars believe that the Samaritan version is probably more accurate in this respect, the compilers of the masoretic text and authors of the Septuagint being likely to be biased against the Samaritans.
wn.com/Mount_Ebal -
Mount Gerizim
Mount Gerizim ([pronunciation?]; Samaritan Hebrew Ar-garízim, Arabic جبل جرزيم Jabal Jarizīm, Tiberian Hebrew הַר גְּרִזִּים Har Gərizzîm, Standard Hebrew הַר גְּרִיזִּים Har Gərizzim) is one of the two mountains in the immediate vicinity of the West Bank city of Nablus (biblical Shechem), and forms the southern side of the valley in which Nablus is situated, the northern side being formed by Mount Ebal. The mountain is one of the highest peaks in the West Bank and rises to 2849 feet (881 m) above sea level, 228 feet (69.5 m) shorter than Mount Ebal. The mountain is particularly steep on the northern side, is sparsely covered at the top with shrubbery, and lower down there is a spring with a high yield of fresh water.
A Samaritan village (Kiryat Luza) and an Israeli settlement (Har Bracha) are situated on the mountain ridge.
The mountain is sacred to the Samaritans who regard it, rather than Jerusalem's Temple Mount, as having been the location chosen by Yahweh for a holy temple. The mountain continues to be the centre of Samaritan religion to this day, and over 90% of the worldwide population of Samaritans live in very close proximity to Gerizim, mostly in Kiryat Luza, the main village. The passover is celebrated by the Samaritans on Mount Gerizim, and it is additionally considered by them as the location of the near-sacrifice of Isaac (the masoretic, Septuagint and the Dead Sea Scroll versions of Genesis state that this happened on Mount Moriah which Jews traditionally identify as the Temple Mount). According to classical rabbinical sources, in order to convert to Judaism, a Samaritan must first and foremost renounce any belief in the sanctity of Mount Gerizim.
wn.com/Mount_Gerizim -
Nablus
Nablus (Arabic: نابلس Nāblus [næːblʊs] ( listen), Hebrew: שכם Šəḵem, Biblical Shechem ISO 259-3 Škem) is a Palestinian city in the northern West Bank, approximately 63 kilometers (39 mi) north of Jerusalem, with a population of 126,132. Located in a strategic position between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, it is the capital of the Nablus Governorate and a Palestinian commercial and cultural center.
Founded by the Roman Emperor Vespasian in 72 CE as Flavia Neapolis, Nablus has been ruled by many empires over the course of its almost 2,000-year-long history. In the 5th and 6th centuries, conflict between the city's Christian and Samaritan inhabitants climaxed in a series of Samaritan revolts against Byzantine rule, before their violent quelling in 529 CE drastically dwindled that community's numbers in the city. In 636, Neapolis, along with most of Palestine, came under the rule of the Islamic Arab Caliphate of Umar ibn al-Khattab; its name Arabicized to Nablus. In 1099, the Crusaders took control of the city for less than a century, leaving its mixed Muslim, Christian and Samaritan population relatively undisturbed. After Saladin's Ayyubid forces took control of the interior of Palestine in 1187, Islamic rule was reestablished, and continued under the Mamluk and Ottoman empires to follow.
wn.com/Nablus -
Nablus Governorate
The Nablus Governorate (Arabic: محافظة نابلس Muḥāfaẓat Nāblus) is an administrative district of the Palestinian National Authority located in the Central Highlands of the West Bank, 53km north of Jerusalem. It covers the area around the city of Nablus which serves as the muhfaza (seat) of the governorate. It is governed by Mahmoud Aloul.
The only city in the governorate is Nablus.
The following localities have populations over 4,000 and municipal councils of 11-15 members.
The following localities have populations above 1,000 and village councils of 3 to 9 members.
Coordinates: 32°14′26″N 35°17′13.50″E / 32.24056°N 35.287083°E / 32.24056; 35.287083
wn.com/Nablus_Governorate -
Naples
Coordinates: 40°50′42″N 14°15′30″E / 40.845°N 14.25833°E / 40.845; 14.25833
Naples (Italian: Napoli [ˈnaːpoli] ( listen), Neapolitan: Napule; Latin: Neapolis; Ancient Greek: Νεάπολις, meaning "new city") is the capital of Campania and the third-largest city in Italy, after Rome and Milan. As of 2012[update], around 960,000 people live within the city's administrative limits. The wider Naples urban area, covering 777 km2 (300 sq mi), has a population of over 3 million, and is the 10th-most populous urban area in the European Union. Between 4.1 and 4.4 million people live in the overall Naples metropolitan area, one of the largest European cities on the Mediterranean Sea.
Naples is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. Greek settlements were established on the island of Megaride in the Gulf of Naples as early as the 9th century BC. A larger mainland colony – initially known as Parthenope (Παρθενόπη) – developed around the 7th century BC, and was refounded as Neápolis (Νεάπολις) in the 5th century BC. Naples became a lynchpin of Magna Graecia and played a key role in the merging of Greek culture into Roman society, eventually becoming a cultural centre of the Roman Republic. Naples remained influential after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, serving as the capital city of the Kingdom of Naples between 1282 and 1816. Thereafter, in union with Sicily, it became the capital of the Two Sicilies until the unification of Italy in 1861. During the Neapolitan War of 1815, Naples strongly promoted Italian unification.
wn.com/Naples -
Nazareth
Nazareth ( /ˈnæzərəθ/; Hebrew: נָצְרַת, Natzrat or Natzeret; Arabic: اَلنَّاصِرَة an-Nāṣira or an-Naseriyye) is the largest city in the North District of Israel. Nazareth is known as "the Arab capital of Israel"; the population is made up predominantly of Arab citizens of Israel, the majority of whom are Muslim. In the New Testament, the city is described as the childhood home of Jesus, and as such is a center of Christian pilgrimage, with many shrines commemorating biblical events.
Nazareth is not mentioned in pre-Christian texts and appears in many different Greek forms in the New Testament. There is no consensus regarding the origin of the name. One theory holds that "Nazareth" is derived from the Hebrew noun ne·ṣer, נֵ֫צֶר, meaning branch.Ne·ṣer is not the common Hebrew word for "branch," but one understood as a messianic title based on a passage in the Book of Isaiah. Alternatively, the name may derive from the verb na·ṣar, נָצַר, "watch, guard, keep." The negative references to Nazareth in the Gospel of John suggest that ancient Jews did not connect the town's name to prophecy.
wn.com/Nazareth -
Norway
Norwayi/ˈnɔrweɪ/ (Norwegian: Norge (Bokmål) or Noreg (Nynorsk)), officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and the subantarctic Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of 385,252 square kilometres (148,747 sq mi) and a population of about 5 million. It is the second least densely populated country in Europe. The majority of the country shares a border to the east with Sweden; its northernmost region is bordered by Finland to the south and Russia to the east; in its south Norway borders the Skagerrak Strait across from Denmark. The capital city of Norway is Oslo. Norway's extensive coastline, facing the North Atlantic Ocean and the Barents Sea, is home to its famous fjords.
wn.com/Norway -
Odala
Odala (Arabic: اودلة) is a Palestinian town in the Nablus Governorate in northern West Bank, located 10 kilometers South of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the town had a population of 1,082 inhabitants in mid-year 2006.
wn.com/Odala -
Osarin
Osarin (Arabic: أُوصرين) is a Palestinian town in the Nablus Governorate in northern West Bank, located 16 kilometers southeast of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the town had a population of 1,630 inhabitants in mid-year 2006.
wn.com/Osarin -
Passover massacre
The Passover massacre was a suicide bombing carried out by Hamas at the Park Hotel in Netanya, Israel on 27 March 2002, during a Passover seder. Thirty civilians were killed in the attack and 140 were injured. It was the deadliest attack against Israelis during the Second Intifada.
During the Jewish holiday of Passover in 2002, Park Hotel in the Israeli coastal city of Netanya held its traditional annual Passover seder (festive religious meal) for its 250 guests, in the hotel dining room located at the ground floor of the hotel. During this holiday the hotel consisted many elderly Jews who didn't have family and relatives in Israel.
In the evening of 27 March 2002, a Palestinian suicide murderer disguised as a woman approached the hotel carrying a suitcase which contained powerful explosives. The suicide bomber managed to pass the security guard at the entrance to a hotel, then he walked through the lobby passing the reception desk and entered the hotel's crowded dining room. At 19:30 pm (GMT+2) the suicide bomber detonated the explosive device he was carrying. The force of the explosion instantly killed 28 civilians and injured about 140 people, of whom 20 were injured severely. Two of the injured later died from their wounds. Some of the victims were Holocaust survivors. Most of the victims were senior citizens (70 and over). The oldest victim was 90 and the youngest was 20 years old. A number of married couples were killed, as well as a father together with his daughter. One of the victims was a Jewish tourist from Sweden who was visiting Israel for Passover.
wn.com/Passover_massacre -
Poland
Polandi/ˈpoʊlənd/ (Polish: Polska), officially the Republic of Poland (Polish: Rzeczpospolita Polska; Kashubian: Pòlskô Repùblika; Silesian: Polsko Republika), is a country in Central Europe, bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north. The total area of Poland is 312,679 square kilometres (120,726 sq mi), making it the 69th largest country in the world and the 9th largest in Europe. Poland has a population of over 38 million people, which makes it the 34th most populous country in the world and the sixth most populous member of the European Union, being its most populous post-communist member. Poland is a unitary state made up of 16 voivodeships. Poland is a member of the European Union, NATO, the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), European Economic Area, International Energy Agency, Council of Europe, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, International Atomic Energy Agency, G6, Council of the Baltic Sea States, Visegrád Group, Weimar Triangle and Schengen Agreement.
wn.com/Poland -
Poznań
Poznań [ˈpɔznaɲ] ( listen) (Latin: Posnania; German: Posen; Yiddish: פוזנא or פּױזן Poyzn) is a city on the Warta river in west-central Poland, with a population of 556,022 in June 2009. It is among the oldest cities in Poland, and was one of the most important centres in the early Polish state, whose first rulers were buried at Poznań's cathedral. It is sometimes claimed to be the first capital of the kingdom of Poland.
Poznań is now Poland's fifth largest city. It is the historical capital of the Wielkopolska ("Greater Poland") region, and is currently the administrative capital of the province called Greater Poland Voivodeship.
Poznań is an important centre of trade, industry, and education, and hosts regular international trade fairs. It was the host city for the United Nations Climate Change Conference in December 2008, a key stage in the creation of a successor to the Kyoto Protocol. Poznań was a candidate city for European Capital of Culture in 2016. Poznań is currently bidding to host the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics. The local football team has been responsible for the spread of the eponymous goal celebration to Manchester City and to a lesser extent throughout the United Kingdom. Poznań is one of the host cities for UEFA Euro 2012.
wn.com/Poznań -
Qabalan
Qabalan (Arabic: قبلان) is a Palestinian town in the Nablus Governorate in the eastern West Bank, located 19 kilometers (12 mi) southeast of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the town had a population of 7,130 inhabitants in 2007.
wn.com/Qabalan -
Qalqilya
Qalqilya (Arabic: قلقيلية Qalqīlyaḧ; Hebrew קַלְקִילִיָה) is a Palestinian city in the West Bank. Qalqilyah serves as the administrative centre for the Qalqilya Governorate. In the official 2007 census it had a population of 41,739. Qalqilya is surrounded by the Israeli West Bank barrier with a narrow gap in the east controlled by the Israeli military and a tunnel to Hableh.
The region has been populated since prehistoric times, as attested to by the discovery of prehistoric flint tools.
In 1596, Qalqili appeared in Ottoman tax registers as a village in the Nahiya of Bani Sa'b in the Liwa of Nablus. It had a population of 13 Muslim households and paid taxes on wheat, barley, summercrops, olives, and goats or beehives.
In the early 1880s, Qalqilya was described as "A large somewhat straggling village, with cisterns to the north and a pool on the south-west. The houses are badly built."
Qalqilya became an independent local council in 1909.[citation needed] At the time of the 1931 census, Qalqilya had 796 occupied houses and a population of 3855 Muslims and 12 Christians.
wn.com/Qalqilya -
Qalqilyah
Qalqilya (Arabic: قلقيلية Qalqīlyaḧ; Hebrew קַלְקִילִיָה) is a Palestinian city in the West Bank. Qalqilyah serves as the administrative centre for the Qalqilya Governorate. In the official 2007 census it had a population of 41,739. Qalqilya is surrounded by the Israeli West Bank barrier with a narrow gap in the east controlled by the Israeli military and a tunnel to Hableh.
The region has been populated since prehistoric times, as attested to by the discovery of prehistoric flint tools.
In 1596, Qalqili appeared in Ottoman tax registers as a village in the Nahiya of Bani Sa'b in the Liwa of Nablus. It had a population of 13 Muslim households and paid taxes on wheat, barley, summercrops, olives, and goats or beehives.
In the early 1880s, Qalqilya was described as "A large somewhat straggling village, with cisterns to the north and a pool on the south-west. The houses are badly built."
Qalqilya became an independent local council in 1909.[citation needed] At the time of the 1931 census, Qalqilya had 796 occupied houses and a population of 3855 Muslims and 12 Christians.
wn.com/Qalqilyah -
Qaryut
Qaryout (Arabic: قريوت) is a Palestinian village of nearly 2,500 in the Nablus Governorate in the northern West Bank, located 28 kilometers (17 mi) southeast of Nablus. Western travelers identified Qaryut with the ancient Coreae.
According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), Qaryut had a population of 2,469 inhabitants in mid-year 2006.
wn.com/Qaryut -
Qusin
Qusin (Arabic: قوصين) is a Palestinian town in the Nablus Governorate in northern West Bank, located 8 kilometers West of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the town had a population of 1,734 inhabitants in mid-year 2006.
wn.com/Qusin -
Qusra
Qusra (Arabic: قُصرى) is a Palestinian town in the Nablus Governorate in the northern West Bank, located 28 kilometers Southeast of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the town had 674 households with a population of 4,377 inhabitants in 2007.
Under the terms of the Oslo Accords of 1993 between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, Qusra is located in Area "C" under full Israeli civil and security control.
The Israeli outpost settlement of Esh Kodesh (founded 1999) is located near the village of Qusra.
On the night of September 4-5, 2011, a group of presumably Israeli settlers entered the village at 3 a.m., vandalised the village's Al-Nurayn mosque and tried to set it on fire. They smashed windows, rolled burning tyres inside, and wrote “Muhammad is a pig” in Hebrew on its wall. The attack on the mosque came shortly after Israeli police officers had destroyed three illegal structures in the settlement outpost of Migron north of Jerusalem. According to Agence France Press, the graffiti also included a Star of David, and the name “Migron”. The attack, not the first of its kind, is viewed as part of the policy called “price tag” followed by a radical segment among the settlers, in which they respond to attempts by the Israeli security forces to demolish unauthorized Jewish settlements with attacks on Palestinians.
wn.com/Qusra -
Rabat
Rabat (Arabic الرباط; Amazigh ⵕⴱⴰⵟ, transliterated ar-Rabāṭ or ar-Ribāṭ or Rbat, literally "Fortified Place"; French Ville de Rabat; Spanish Ciudad de Rabat), is the capital and third largest city of the Kingdom of Morocco with a population of approximately 650,000 (2010). It is also the capital of the Rabat-Salé-Zemmour-Zaer region.
The city is located on the Atlantic Ocean at the mouth of the river Bou Regreg. On the facing shore of the river lies Salé, the city's main commuter town. Together with Temara the cities account for a combined metropolitan population of 1.8 million. Silting problems have diminished the Rabat's role as a port; however, Rabat and Salé still maintain important textile, food processing and construction industries. In addition, tourism and the presence of all foreign embassies in Morocco serve to make Rabat one of the most important cities in the country. Controversy surrounds sweatshop labour by major multinational corporations in the area (see Salé).
Rabat is accessible by train through the ONCF system and by plane through the nearby Rabat-Salé Airport.
wn.com/Rabat -
Ramallah
Ramallah (Arabic: رام الله (help·info) Rāmallāh) (literally "Height of God") is a Palestinian city in the central West Bank located 10 kilometers (6 miles) north of Jerusalem, adjacent to al-Bireh. It currently serves as the de facto administrative capital of the Palestinian National Authority. With a population of nearly 25,500, Ramallah was historically a Christian town, but today Muslims form the majority of the population, with a strong Christian minority.
Modern Ramallah was founded in the mid-16th century by the Haddadins, a Jordanian tribe of brothers descended from Ghassanid Christian Arabs. The Haddadins, led by Rashid Haddadin, arrived from east of the Jordan River near the Jordanian town of Shoubak. The Haddadin migration is attributed to fighting and unrest among clans in that area. According to modern living descendents of original Haddadin family members, Rashid's brother Sabra Haddadin was hosting Emir Ibn Kaysoom, head of a powerful Muslim clan in the region, when Sabra's wife gave birth to a baby girl. According to custom, the Emir proposed a betrothal to his own young son when they came of age. Sabra believed the proposal was in jest, as Muslim-Christian marriages were not customary, and gave his word. When the Emir later came to the Haddadins and demanded that they fulfill their promise, they refused. This set off bloody conflict between the two families. The Haddadins fled west and settled on the hilltops of Ramallah, where only a few Muslim families lived at the time. Today, a large community of people descended directly from the Haddadins live in the United States. The town is now predominately Muslim.
wn.com/Ramallah -
Republic of Ireland
Ireland (/ˈaɪərlənd/ or /ˈɑrlənd/; Irish: Éire, pronounced [ˈeːɾʲə] ( listen)) is a sovereign state in Europe occupying about five-sixths of the island of Ireland. Its capital is Dublin. The population of the state was 4.59 million in 2011. It is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy, with an elected president serving as head of state. In the 1937 constitution, the name of the state is given as simply "Ireland". The Constitution of Ireland (Article 4) and the Republic of Ireland Act 1948 provides that the "Republic of Ireland" (Irish: Poblacht na hÉireann) is "the description of the state".
Ireland is a member of the European Union, the Council of Europe, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organisation and the United Nations. A developed country with the seventh highest Human Development Index, Ireland is also highly ranked for press freedom, economic freedom and democracy and political freedom.
The modern Irish state was established in 1922 as the Irish Free State, a dominion within the British Empire, following the Anglo-Irish Treaty which brought an end to the Irish War of Independence. The partition of Ireland had already been provided for in previous British legislation in 1921 in response to opposition to Irish Home Rule or independence by Unionists, who formed a majority in the north-eastern part of the country. Six of the nine counties in the northern province of Ulster were established under that legislation as Northern Ireland, part of the United Kingdom, with which the Irish state shares its only land border. The state is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the Celtic Sea to the south, St George's Channel to the south east, and the Irish Sea to the east.
wn.com/Republic_of_Ireland -
Rujeib
Rujeib (Arabic: روجيب) is a Palestinian town in the Nablus Governorate in northern West Bank, located 3 kilometers southeast of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the town had a population of 3,915 inhabitants in mid-year 2006.
wn.com/Rujeib -
Russia
Russiai/ˈrʌʃə/ or /ˈrʊʃə/ (Russian: Россия, tr. Rossiya; IPA: [rɐˈsʲijə] ( listen)), also officially known as the Russian Federation (Russian: Российская Федерация, tr. Rossiyskaya Federatsiya; IPA: [rɐˈsʲijskəjə fʲɪdʲɪˈratsɨjə] ( listen)), is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects. From northwest to southeast, Russia shares borders with Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland (both via Kaliningrad Oblast), Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia, and North Korea. It also has maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, and the US state of Alaska by the Bering Strait. At 17,075,400 square kilometres (6,592,800 sq mi), Russia is the largest country in the world, covering more than one eighth of the Earth's inhabited land area. Russia is also the eighth most populous nation with 143 million people. It extends across the whole of northern Asia and 40% of Europe, spanning nine time zones and incorporating a wide range of environments and landforms. Russia has the world's largest reserves of mineral and energy resources and is the largest producer of oil and natural gas globally. Russia has the world's largest forest reserves and its lakes contain approximately one-quarter of the world's fresh water.
wn.com/Russia -
Sa'ir
Sa'ir (Arabic: سعير) is a Palestinian town in the Hebron Governorate in the southern West Bank located 8 kilometers (5.0 mi) northeast of Hebron. Nearby localities include Beit Fajjar and al-Arroub to the north, Beit Ummar to the northwest, Halhul to the west and Beit Einun and ash-Shuyukh to the south. The Dead Sea is just east of Sa'ir's municipal borders. In the 2007 census Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the town had a population of over 18,045.
It has municipal jurisdiction over 117,000 dunams, 6,000 of which is built-up area and 11,715 of which is cultivated. The main economic activities in Sa'ir are agriculture and the Israeli labor market, although the latter has been adversely affected as a result of the Israeli restrictions following the Second Intifada in 2000-04. Olives are the major cash crop.
During the Roman Empire-era of rule in Palestine, the town was known "Sior" which derived from the Aramaic word sar or "loftiness."
In the Palestine Exploration Fund's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) written in 1881 Sa'ir was described as "a village of moderate size, in a valley surrounded with cultivated ground." A maqam ("saintly person tomb") located in Sa'ir was believed by the local Muslims to house the tomb of Esau who they referred to as "Aisa." The SWP stated this identification was false and that Esau's tomb was in the Biblical-era town of Zior.
wn.com/Sa'ir -
Salfit
Salfit also spelled Salfeet (Arabic: سلفيت) is a Palestinian town in the central West Bank. Salfit is located at an altitude of 570 meters (1,870 ft) in the central Samarian highlands adjacent to the Israeli settlement of Ariel. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the City had a population of 8,796 in 2007. Salfit was given municipality status In 1955. It has been administered by the Palestinian Authority since the 1995 Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and has served as the district capital of the Salfit Governorate since then.
The word "Salfit" is a Canaanite word which means "basket of grapes" (Sal meaning "basket and fit meaning "grapes".) The historic city of Salfit has many monuments that link the modern town to a Canaanite, Israelite, Samaritan, Roman and Islamic heritage.
Salfit is a major administrative and commercial center for the dozens of villages surrounding it. However, the route for Palestinians from Salfit's northern dependencies has been sealed off by the Israel Defense Forces because of a bypass road for the settlement of Ariel crossing the main road. There are several governmental offices and institutions in the city. The educational of the Salfit's children is carried out in four modern schools for male and female in addition to Al-Quds Open University. Salfit is also a well-known area in the field of stone cutting and marble. An industrial zone was established on 200 dunums of land at the east end of Salfit.
wn.com/Salfit -
Salim, Nablus
Salim (Arabic: سالم) is a Palestinian town in the northern West Bank, located six kilometers east of Nablus and is a part of the Nablus Governorate. It is the site of the ancient Israelite capital city Shechem, situated in a well-watered valley between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim. Nearby towns include Deir al-Hatab to the northwest, Balata to the west and Beit Furik to the south. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), Salim had a population of approximately 5,100 inhabitants in 2006.
Salim dates back to the Middle Bronze Age. It was built on the site of the ancient Canaanite and later Israelite town of Shechem.
wn.com/Salim,_Nablus -
Samaria
Samaria ( /sə.ˈmɛr.iː.ə/), or the Shomron (Hebrew: שֹׁמְרוֹן, Standard Šoməron Tiberian Šōmərôn; Greek: Σαμάρεια; Arabic: سامريّون, Sāmariyyūn or السامرة, as-Samarah – also known as جبال نابلس, Jibal Nablus) is a mountainous region in the northern part of the geographical area to the west of the Jordan River, roughly corresponding to the northern part of the West Bank. The name derives from the ancient city Samaria, the capital of the Kingdom of Israel. During the 1967 Six-Day War, the entire West Bank was captured by Israel. Jordan ceded its claim to the area to the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in November 1988. In 1994, control of Areas 'A' and 'B' were transferred to the Palestinian Authority.
The name Samaria is of biblical origin, derived from the individual [or clan] Shemer, from whom Omri purchased the site. (1 Kings 16:24). It was the only name used for this area from ancient times until the Jordanian conquest of 1948, at which point the Jordanians coined the term West Bank.
wn.com/Samaria -
Sarra, Nablus
Sarra (Arabic: صره) is a Palestinian town in the Nablus Governorate in northern West Bank, located 11 kilometers southwest of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the town had a population of 2,892 inhabitants in mid-year 2006.
wn.com/Sarra,_Nablus -
Sebastia, Nablus
Sebastia (Arabic: سبسطية, Sebastiya; Greek: Σεβαστη, Sebastē Latin: Sebaste) is a Palestinian village of over 4,500 inhabitants, located in the Nablus Governorate of the West Bank some 12 kilometers northwest of the city of Nablus. The village's total area is 4,810 dunums, the built up area of which comprises 150 dunums. Much of the village lands (42%) are located in Area C under the Oslo Accords.
Sebastia is home to a number of important archaeological sites. The ancient site of Samaria-Sebaste is located just above the built up area of the modern day village on the eastern slope of the hill. The ruins dominate the hillside and comprise remains from six successive cultures dating back 10,000 years: Canaanite, Israelite, Hellenistic, Herodian, Roman and Byzantine.
The city was destroyed by Alexander the Great in 331 BCE, and was destroyed again by John Hyrcanus in 108 BCE.Pompey rebuilt the town in the year 63 BCE. In 27 ACE, Augustus Caesar gave it to Herod the Great. Herod expanded and renovated the city, and named it "Sebaste", meaning "Augustus", in the Emperor's honor. Herod the Great had his sons Alexander and Aristobulus brought to Sebaste, and strangled in 7 BCE after a trial in Berytus and getting permission from Caesar.
wn.com/Sebastia,_Nablus -
Sebastia, West Bank
Sebastia (Arabic: سبسطية, Sebastiya; Greek: Σεβαστη, Sebastē Latin: Sebaste) is a Palestinian village of over 4,500 inhabitants, located in the Nablus Governorate of the West Bank some 12 kilometers northwest of the city of Nablus. The village's total area is 4,810 dunums, the built up area of which comprises 150 dunums. Much of the village lands (42%) are located in Area C under the Oslo Accords.
Sebastia is home to a number of important archaeological sites. The ancient site of Samaria-Sebaste is located just above the built up area of the modern day village on the eastern slope of the hill. The ruins dominate the hillside and comprise remains from six successive cultures dating back 10,000 years: Canaanite, Israelite, Hellenistic, Herodian, Roman and Byzantine.
The city was destroyed by Alexander the Great in 331 BCE, and was destroyed again by John Hyrcanus in 108 BCE.Pompey rebuilt the town in the year 63 BCE. In 27 ACE, Augustus Caesar gave it to Herod the Great. Herod expanded and renovated the city, and named it "Sebaste", meaning "Augustus", in the Emperor's honor. Herod the Great had his sons Alexander and Aristobulus brought to Sebaste, and strangled in 7 BCE after a trial in Berytus and getting permission from Caesar.
wn.com/Sebastia,_West_Bank -
Sharon plain
The Sharon Plain (Hebrew: שרון) is the northern half of the coastal plain of Israel. Its largest city is Netanya.
The Plain lies between the Mediterranean Sea to the west and the Samarian Hills, 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) to the east. It stretches from Haifa and Mount Carmel in the north to the Yarkon River in the south, at the edge of the present city of Tel Aviv, about 90 kilometres (56 mi). Parts of the Plain are included in the Haifa, Center, and Tel Aviv Districts of Israel. In 2008 The Sharon Plain was home to 1,131,600 people, 965,300 of them (85.3%) are Jews, and 166,300 (14.6%) are Arabs.
The Plain of Sharon is mentioned in the Bible (1 Chron. 5:16, 27:29; Isaiah 33:9, 35:2, 65:10), including the famous reference to the enigmatic "Rose of Sharon" (Song of Solomon 2:1). In ancient times, the plain was particularly fertile and populous. Zionist immigrants arrived in the early 20th century, and populated the region with many settlements. In 2008, it was the most densely populated region of Israel.
wn.com/Sharon_plain -
Sinai Peninsula
The Sinai Peninsula or Sinai (Arabic: سيناء sīnā' ; Hebrew סיני) is a triangular peninsula in Egypt about 60,000 km2 (23,000 sq mi) in area. It is situated between the Mediterranean Sea to the north, and the Red Sea to the south, and is the only part of Egyptian territory located in Asia as opposed to Africa, effectively serving as a land bridge between two continents. The bulk of the peninsula is divided administratively into two of Egypt's 27 governorates (with three more straddling the Suez Canal area), and has a population of approximately 500,000 people. In addition to its formal name, Egyptians also refer to it affectionately as the "Land of Fayrouz", based on the Ancient Egyptian "Dumafkat", which has the same meaning.
The region has historically been the centre of conflict between various states, based largely on its strategic geopolitical location. In addition to periods of direct rule by Egyptian governments (including the Ayyubids, the Mamluks, the Muhammad Ali Dynasty, and the modern Egyptian republic), it was like the rest of Egypt, also occupied and controlled by the Ottoman Empire, and the United Kingdom (which occupied Egypt from 1882 until 1956). Israel invaded and occupied Sinai during the Suez Crisis (known in Egypt as the Tripartite Aggression) of 1956, and during the Six Day War of 1967. On 6 October 1973, Egypt launched the October War to liberate the peninsula, which was the site of fierce fighting between Egyptian and Israeli forces. In 1982, after the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty of 1979, Israel withdrew from the entirety of Sinai. Today, Sinai has become a tourist destination due to its natural setting, rich coral reefs, and biblical history. Mount Sinai is one of the most religiously significant places in Abrahamic faiths.
wn.com/Sinai_Peninsula -
Syria
Syria (/ˈsɪriə/ ( listen) SIRR-ee-ə; Arabic: سورية Sūriyya or سوريا Sūryā; Syriac: ܣܘܪܝܐ; Kurdish: Sûrî), officially the Syrian Arab Republic (Arabic: الجمهورية العربية السورية al-Jumhūriyyah al-‘Arabīyah as-Sūriyyah Arabic pronunciation (help·info)), is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest.
In English, the name Syria was formerly synonymous with the Levant, known in Arabic as Sham, while the modern state encompasses the sites of several ancient kingdoms and empires, including the Eblan civilization of the third millennium BC. In the Islamic era, its capital city, Damascus, the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world, was the seat of the Umayyad Caliphate, and a provincial capital of the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt.
The population of Syria is 74% Sunni, 12% Alawi, 10% Christian, and 3% Druze. Combined, 87% of the Syrian population is Muslim, while the other 10% is Christian, which includes mainly Arab Christians but also Assyrians and Armenians. Major ethnic minorities in Syria include Kurds (9%), Assyrians, Armenians, Turkmens and Circassians. The majority of the population is Arab (90%).
wn.com/Syria -
Talfit
Talfit (Arabic: تلفيت) is a Palestinian town in the Nablus Governorate in northern West Bank, located 21 kilometers southeast of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the town had a population of 2,991 inhabitants in mid-year 2006.
wn.com/Talfit -
Talluza
Talluza (Arabic: طلوزه) is a Palestinian village in the Nablus Governorate in northern West Bank, located 15 kilometers Northeast of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the town had a population of 2,680 inhabitants in mid-year 2006.
Historically the village of Talluza is linked to the village of Wadi al-Far'a as the Wadi al-Far'a land was previously owned by residents of Talluza, who used it as farmland. In the 1960s, residents from Talluza settled in Wadi al-Far'a and established a separate village. In 1996, Wadi al-Far'a was officially declared separate from Talluza and was granted its own village council under the Tubas Governorate.
The main families of the village are Al-Hashaykeh (which includes Al-Fares, Al-Awaysah, Al-Balateyyeh, Al-Badawi, Al-Abu Shehadeh), Al-Darawsheh, Al-Shanableh, As-Salahat, Al-Janajreh and Al-Barahmeh. Talluza contains three mosques and two separate secondary schools for boys and girls. The village receives water from seven springs.
wn.com/Talluza -
Tammun
Tammun (Arabic: طمّون) is a Palestinian town in the Tubas Governorate, located 23 kilometers northeast of Nablus and five kilometers south of Tubas in the northeastern West Bank. Tammun has a population of approximately 10,500 inhabitants.
Tammun is commonly identified as the Biblical town of Tabbath in Ephraim.
Tammun's modern history dates from the 15th century. The town was founded by a group of Bedouins from the Arabian Peninsula seeking to find a safe location in Palestine with a view of other nearby localities. Over the past four centuries, Arabs from the towns of Kafr Qaddum and Halhul have settled in the town. The town's name derives from the Arabic word tammen, meaning "quiet".
Tammun stands at an elevation of 332 meters above sea level. It is five kilometers south of Tubas, twenty-three kilometers northeast of Nablus, and bordered by Far'a and Wadi al-Far'a to the west and an-Naseriya to the south.
The town's total land area is about 81,000 dunams, accounting for more than 15% of the Tubas Governorate's jurisdiction. About 1,519 dunams are designated as 'built up' area, while 79,481 dunams are used for agricultural purposes, are covered by forests or are classified as closed-off areas controlled by the Israel Defense Forces.
wn.com/Tammun -
Tarqumiya
Tarqumiyah (Arabic: ترقوميا) is a Palestinian town located twelve kilometers northwest of Hebron.The town is in the Hebron Governorate Southern West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the town had a population of over 14,357 in 2007.
wn.com/Tarqumiya -
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv, officially Tel Aviv-Yafo (Hebrew: תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ; Arabic: تل أبيب), is the second most populous city in Israel. It has a population of 404,400 within city limits, on a land area of 52 km2 (20 sq mi). The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in central-west Israel. In 2010, it was the largest and most populous city in the Tel Aviv Metropolitan Area of 3,325,700 residents, known as Gush Dan. The city is governed by the Tel Aviv-Yafo municipality, headed by Ron Huldai. Residents of Tel Aviv are referred to as Tel Avivim.
Tel Aviv was founded in 1909 by the Jewish Community of Jaffa (Hebrew: יָפוֹ Yafo; Arabic: يافا Yāfā), on the outskirts of the ancient port city. The growth of Tel Aviv soon outpaced Jaffa, which had a majority Arab population at the time. Tel Aviv and Jaffa were merged into a single municipality in 1950, two years after the establishment of the State of Israel. Tel Aviv's White City, designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003, comprises the world's largest concentration of Bauhaus buildings.
wn.com/Tel_Aviv -
Tell (town)
Tell (Arabic: تلّ) is a Palestinian town in the Nablus Governorate in northern West Bank, located five kilometers southwest of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the town had a population of 4,334 inhabitants in 2007. Most of the town's potential labor work in agriculture, with figs and olives being the major source of income.
Dr Mohammad Shtayyeh, the famous Palestinian economist was born in Tell. He also served as minister of public works and housing as well as the President of the Palestinian Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction "PECDAR".[citation needed]
wn.com/Tell_(town) -
Tell, Nablus
Tell (Arabic: تلّ) is a Palestinian town in the Nablus Governorate in northern West Bank, located five kilometers southwest of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the town had a population of 4,334 inhabitants in 2007. Most of the town's potential labor work in agriculture, with figs and olives being the major source of income.
Dr Mohammad Shtayyeh, the famous Palestinian economist was born in Tell. He also served as minister of public works and housing as well as the President of the Palestinian Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction "PECDAR".[citation needed]
wn.com/Tell,_Nablus -
Tubas
Tubas or Toubas (Arabic: طوباس, Tûbâs) is a small Palestinian city in the northeastern West Bank, located 21 kilometers (13 mi) northeast of Nablus, a few kilometers west of the Jordan River. A city of over 16,000 inhabitants, it serves as the economic and administrative center of the Tubas Governorate. Its urban area consists of 2,271 dunams (227 hectares). It is governed by a municipal council of 15 members and most of its working inhabitants are employed in agriculture or public services. Jamal Abu Mohsin has been the mayor of Tubas since being elected in 2005.
Tubas has been identified as the ancient town of Thebez—a Canaanite town famous for revolting against King Abimelech. However, the modern town was founded in the late 19th century—during the Ottoman rule of Palestine—by Arab clans living in the Jordan Valley region and became major town in the District of Nablus, particularly known for its timber and cheese-making. It came under the British Mandate of Palestine in 1917, annexed by Jordan after their capture of the town in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and then occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War. The Palestinian National Authority has had complete control of Tubas since it was transferred to them in 1995.
wn.com/Tubas -
Tubas Governorate
The Tubas Governorate (Arabic: محافظة طوباس Muḥāfaẓat Ṭūbās) is an administrative district of the Palestinian National Authority in the northeastern West Bank. Its district capital or muhfaza is the city of Tubas. In 2007, the population was 50,267.
There are 23 localities located within the governorate's jurisdiction.
Coordinates: 32°19′26″N 35°29′11.5″E / 32.32389°N 35.486528°E / 32.32389; 35.486528
wn.com/Tubas_Governorate -
Tulkarm
Tulkarem or Tulkarm (Arabic: طولكرم, Ṭūlkarm; Hebrew: טול כרם) is a Palestinian city in the West Bank. It is located in the northern Samarian mountain range in the Tulkarm Governorate. The Israeli cities of Netanya and Haifa are to the west, the Palestinian Nablus and Jenin to the east. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, in 2007 Tulkarm had a population 0f 51,300 while its adjacent refugee camp had a population of 10,641.
"Tulkarem" means "the bountiful mountain." The Arabic name is derived from the Aramaic words "Toor Karma," meaning "mount of vineyards."
Tulkarm was founded by the Mamluks in the 13th century. It was established as a waqf to support al-Jawhariyya Madrasa, an Islamic religious school. The elite families of Tulkarm were the administrators of this trust, which granted them higher social and economic status. The population was increased through intermarriage with families fleeing clan violence and family feuds.
In 1596, Tulkarm appeared in Ottoman tax registers as being in the Nahiya of Qaqun of the Liwa of Nablus. The largest village in the nahiya, Tulkarm had a population of 176 Muslim households (roughly 968 persons) and paid taxes on wheat, barley, summer crops, olives, goats, beehives and a press for olives or grapes.
wn.com/Tulkarm -
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK, or Britain) is a sovereign state located off the north-western coast of continental Europe. The country includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border the UK is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel and the Irish Sea.
The United Kingdom is a unitary state governed under a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary system, with its seat of government in the capital city of London. It is a country in its own right and consists of four countries: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. There are three devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in Belfast, Edinburgh and Cardiff, the capitals of Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Associated with the UK, but not constitutionally part of it, are three Crown Dependencies. The United Kingdom has fourteen overseas territories. These are remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in 1922, encompassed almost a quarter of the world's land surface and was the largest empire in history. British influence can still be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former territories.
wn.com/United_Kingdom -
Urif
Urif (Arabic: عوريف) is a Palestinian town in the Nablus Governorate in northern West Bank, located 13 kilometers South of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the town had a population of 2,839 inhabitants in mid-year 2006.
wn.com/Urif -
West Bank
The West Bank (Arabic: الضفة الغربية aḍ-Ḍaffah l-Ġarbiyyah, Hebrew: הגדה המערבית, HaGadah HaMa'aravit also known as Hebrew: יהודה והשומרון Yehuda ve-Ha'Shomron (Judea and Samaria)) of the Jordan River is the landlocked geographical eastern part of the Palestinian territories located in Western Asia. To the west, north, and south, the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel. To the east, across the Jordan River, lies the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. The West Bank also contains a significant coastline along the western bank of the Dead Sea. Since 1967, most of the West Bank has been under Israeli military occupation and is referred to as Judea and Samaria Area by Israel. A smaller part of the West Bank is administered by the Israeli civilian authorities as part of Jerusalem District.
wn.com/West_Bank -
Ya'bad
Ya'bad (Arabic: يعبد) is a Palestinian town in the northern West Bank, 20 kilometers west of Jenin in the Jenin Governorate. It is a major agricultural town with most of its land covered with olive groves and grain fields. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the town had a population of 13,640 in 2007. Its mayor is Walid Abadi who was elected in 2005.
In the 17th-18th centuries, Ya'bad was well-known for producing the best cheese in Samaria. Politically it was ruled by the Qadri clan allied with the powerful Abd al-Hadi clan. In 1935, the Arab nationalist resistance leader Izz ad-Din al-Qassam and a few of his men were killed in a cave near Ya'bad by British forces.
A major charcoal mine in Fahima al-Jadida, is located near Ya'bad and most of its workers come from the city. Since the establishment of "closed-off areas" and the construction of the West Bank Barrier in the northern West Bank, Ya'bad and surrounding cities and towns have seen an increase in unemployment which reached to 88% in 2006. The annual average income has dropped "dramatically" by one-third according to the World Bank.
wn.com/Ya'bad -
Yanun
Yanun (Arabic: يانون, transliterated: Yânûn) is a Palestinian village in the Nablus Governorate in northern West Bank, located 12 kilometers (7.5 mi) southeast of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the village had a population of 102 in 2007. This was a decrease from 2004 when the PCBS recorded that Yanun had 145 inhabitants.. The residents of the village have to travel to Beit Furik for primary health care.
Yanun or Khirbet Yanun—ruins on a nearby hill to the northeast of the village—is considered by Biblical scholars to occupy the site of the ancient town of Janohah which belonged to the Tribe of Ephraim. Local farmers have lived in Yanun since the 18th century. They depended on animal husbandry and olive trees for their income.
In the 19th century, Yanun was settled by Bosnian Muslim soldiers who were sent to reinforce Ottoman rule in Palestine. They later moved to nearby Nablus and leased their farmlands to villagers from Aqraba who gradually left their village to settle in Yanun themselves.Edward Robinson visited Yanun in 1852. He wrote that the village was mostly in ruins and only a few houses were inhabited.
wn.com/Yanun -
Yasid
Yasid (Arabic: ياصيد) is a Palestinian town in the Nablus Governorate in northern West Bank, located 15 kilometers northeast of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the town had a population of 2,291 inhabitants in mid-year 2006.
wn.com/Yasid -
Yatma
Yatma (Arabic: يتما) is a Palestinian town in the Nablus Governorate in northern West Bank, located 15 kilometers South of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the town had a population of 2,981 inhabitants in mid-year 2006.
wn.com/Yatma -
Yatta, Hebron
Yatta or Yattah (Arabic: يطّا; Hebrew: יטה) is a Palestinian city located in the Hebron Governorate on a high approximately 8 km south of the city of Hebron in the West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics it had a population of 48,672 in 2007.
Yatta is located on the site of the Biblical town of Juttah. A Jewish burial complex dating to the 2nd century CE was found in the town in 1931.Eusebius (4th-cent.) wrote that Yatta was "a very large village of Jews eighteen miles south of Beit Guvrin."
In 1596 it was recorded as having a population of 127 Muslim families, and paid taxes on wheat, barley, olives, goats and bee-hives. In 1931 the population was counted as 4,034 Muslims. Today, some Palestinian-Arab residents believe they originate from the Jewish kingdom of Khaybar in the south-western Arabian peninsula and are descended from the Jewish tribes of Arabia. Research by Yitzhak Ben Zvi in 1928 also suggested that three out of the six extended families in Yatta belonged to the "Mehamra" group and possibly descended from an Arabian Jewish tribe.
wn.com/Yatta,_Hebron -
Zawata
Zawata (Arabic: زواتا) is a Palestinian town in the Nablus Governorate in northern West Bank, located 6 kilometers Northwest of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the town had a population of 1,900 inhabitants in mid-year 2006.
wn.com/Zawata -
Zeita Jamma'in
Zeita Jamma'in (Arabic: جمّاعين) is a Palestinian village in the Nablus Governorate in northern West Bank, located 16 kilometers southwest of Nablus. The village is located just north of Jamma'in, from which the village receives its name. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), Zeita Jamma'in had a population of 1,962 inhabitants in mid-year 2006.
wn.com/Zeita_Jamma'in -
Zeus
In the ancient Greek religion, Zeus ( /ˈzjuːs/ ZEWS;Ancient Greek: Ζεύς; Modern Greek: Δίας, Dias) is the "Father of Gods and men" (πατὴρ ἀνδρῶν τε θεῶν τε, patēr andrōn te theōn te) who rules the Olympians of Mount Olympus as a father rules the family. He is the god of sky and thunder in Greek mythology. His Roman counterpart is Jupiter and Etruscan counterpart is Tinia. His Hindu equivalent is Indra.
Zeus is the child of Cronus and Rhea, and the youngest of his siblings. In most traditions he is married to Hera, although, at the oracle of Dodona, his consort is Dione: according to the Iliad, he is the father of Aphrodite by Dione. He is known for his erotic escapades. These resulted in many godly and heroic offspring, including Athena, Apollo and Artemis, Hermes, Persephone (by Demeter), Dionysus, Perseus, Heracles, Helen of Troy, Minos, and the Muses (by Mnemosyne); by Hera, he is usually said to have fathered Ares, Hebe and Hephaestus.
As Walter Burkert points out in his book, Greek Religion, "Even the gods who are not his natural children address him as Father, and all the gods rise in his presence." For the Greeks, he was the King of the Gods, who oversaw the universe. As Pausanias observed, "That Zeus is king in heaven is a saying common to all men". In Hesiod's Theogony Zeus assigns the various gods their roles. In the Homeric Hymns he is referred to as the chieftain of the gods.
wn.com/Zeus
-
Aaron
In the Hebrew Bible and the Qur'an, Aaron ( /ˈærən/ or /ˈɛərən/;Hebrew: אַהֲרֹן Ahărōn, Arabic: هارون Hārūn, Greek (Septuagint): Ααρών ), who is often called "'Aaron the Priest"' (אֵהֲרֹן הֵכֹּהֵן) and once Aaron the Levite (אַהֲרֹן הַלֵּוִי) (Exodus 4:14), was the older brother of Moses, (Exodus 6:16-20, 7:7; Qur'an 28:34) and a prophet of God. He represented the priestly functions of his tribe, becoming the first High Priest of the Israelites. While Moses was receiving his education at the Egyptian royal court, and during his exile among the Midianites, Aaron and his sister Miriam remained with their kinsmen in the eastern border-land of Egypt (Goshen). There, Aaron gained a name for eloquent and persuasive speech, so that when the time came for the demand upon the Pharaoh to release Israel from captivity, Aaron became his brother’s nabi, or spokesman, to his own people (Exodus 7:1) and, after their unwillingness to hear, to the Pharaoh himself (Exodus 7:9). Various dates for his life have been proposed, ranging from approximately 1600 to 1200 BC.
wn.com/Aaron -
Adly Yaish
Adly Yaish (Arabic: عدلي يعيش, Oɑdlí Iɑoíś) is the mayor of the Nablus Municipality (Dec. 2005–present) in the central highlands of the West Bank under the Palestinian National Authority.
He is a known businessman working in automobiles trade
On 24 May 2007 he was arrested by Israeli forces. He spent 15 months in prison without being charged.
wn.com/Adly_Yaish -
Ammonas
Ammonas (Greek: Ἀμμώνας) or Amoun (Ἀμοῦν) was a 4th century Christian ascetic and the founder of one of the most celebrated monastic communities in Egypt. Pushed into marriage by his family, he managed to persuade his bride to take a vow of chastity together with him by the authority of St. Paul's Epistle to the Corinthians. They lived together this way for 18 years, when at her wish, they parted, and he retired to Scetis and Mt. Nitria, to the south of Lake Mareotis, where he lived 22 years, visiting his sister-wife twice a year. He died before St. Antony (from whom there is an epistle to him), that is, before the year 365, for the latter asserted that he "saw the soul of Amoun borne by angels to heaven", and as St. Athanasius's history of St. Antony preserves the order of time, he died perhaps about 320. There are generally seventeen or nineteen Rules of Asceticism (κεφάλαια) ascribed to him; the Greek original exists in manuscript; they were published in the Latin version of Gerardus Vossius.Twenty-two Ascetic Institutions of the same Amoun, or one bearing the same name, exist also in manuscript.
wn.com/Ammonas -
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs (Arabic: عرب, ʿarab), are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing an important part of Arab identity.
The word "Arab" has had several different, but overlapping, meanings over the centuries (and sometimes even today). In addition to including all Arabized people of the world (with language tending to be the acid test), it has also at times been used exclusively for bedouin (Arab nomads [although a related word, "`a-RAB," with the Arabic letter "alif" in the second syllable, once was sometimes used when this specific meaning was intended] and their now almost entirely settled descendants). It is sometimes used that way colloquially even today in some places. Townspeople once were sometimes called "sons of the Arabs." As in the case of other ethnicities or nations, people identify themselves (or are identified by others) as "Arabs" to varying degrees. This may not be one's primary identity (it tends to compete with country, religion, sect, etc.), and whether it is emphasized may depend upon one's audience.
wn.com/Arab -
Ayyubid
The Ayyubid dynasty (Arabic: الأيوبيون) was a Muslim dynasty of Kurdish origin, founded by Saladin and centered in Egypt. The dynasty ruled much of the Middle East during the 12th and 13th centuries CE. The Ayyubid family, under the brothers Ayyub and Shirkuh, originally served as soldiers for the Zengids until they supplanted them under Saladin, Ayyub's son. In 1174, Saladin proclaimed himself Sultan following the death of Nur al-Din. The Ayyubids spent the next decade launching conquests throughout the region and by 1183, the territories under their control included Egypt, Syria, northern Mesopotamia, Hejaz, Yemen, and the North African coast up to the borders of modern-day Tunisia. Most of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and beyond Jordan River fell to Saladin after his victory at the Battle of Hattin in 1187. However, the Crusaders regained control of Palestine's coastline in the 1190s.
After the death of Saladin, his sons contested control over the sultanate, but Saladin's brother al-Adil eventually established himself as Sultan in 1200. In the 1230s, the Ayyubid rulers of Syria attempted to assert their independence from Egypt and remained divided until Egyptian Sultan as-Salih Ayyub restored Ayyubid unity by taking over most of Syria, excluding Aleppo, by 1247. By then, local Muslim dynasties had driven out the Ayyubids from Yemen, the Hejaz, and parts of Mesopotamia. After repelling a Crusader invasion of the Nile Delta, as-Salih Ayyub's Mamluk generals overthrew al-Mu'azzam Turanshah who succeeded Ayyub as Sultan after his death in 1250. This effectively ended Ayyubid power in Egypt and a number of attempts by the rulers of Syria, led by an-Nasir Yusuf of Aleppo, to recover it failed. In 1260, the Mongols sacked Aleppo and wrested control of what remained of the Ayyubid territories soon after. The Mamluks, who forced out the Mongols after the destruction of the Ayyubid dynasty, maintained the Ayyubid principality of Hama until deposing its last ruler in 1341.
wn.com/Ayyubid -
Bani Na'im
Bani Na'im (Arabic: بني نعيم, Banî Na‘îm) is a Palestinian town in the southern West Bank located 8 kilometers (5.0 mi) east of Hebron in the Hebron Governorate. The town had a population of 20,084 inhabitants in 2007. It is situated on a higher elevation than most localities in the area with an altitude of 951 meters (3,120 ft).
Known as Brekke in the pre-Roman era, it was later referred to as "Caphar Barucha" in the 4th-century CE, while Palestine was ruled by the Byzantine Empire. The town is best known as the burial place of Lot, a prophet in Islam and a righteous person in Judaism and Christianity. Following the Muslim conquest, its name was Arabicized as "Kafr al-Barik." The tomb of Lot became a Muslim edifice during Islamic rule and remained so while the town was under Crusader rule. Later, the Arab tribe of "Bani Nu'aym" settled the town and gave it its current name "Bani Na'im" which was first used by Muslim scholar Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi in 1690. Throughout its history, the tomb of Lot served a place of visitation for Muslim and Western travelers alike.
wn.com/Bani_Na'im -
Bassam Shaka
Bassam Shakaa (Arabic: بسّام الشكعة, Bassām Shak’ā) (1930- ) was elected mayor of Nablus in 1976.
Bassam Shakaa is a member of one of the wealthiest and most distinguished families in Nablus. He joined Jordan's Ba'ath party in the early 1950s and as a consequence was wanted by Jordanian authorities, forcing him to flee to Syria. He was one of the fierce critics of Syria's independence from the United Arab Republic and after being jailed by the Syrian authorities following his resignation from the Ba'ath party because of the split. Following his release, he moved to Egypt until amnesty from the Jordanian government when he moved back to his home-town Nablus. In 1976 he was elected mayor of Nablus, a position he held until 1982, when all Palestinian mayors were replaced with Israeli local rulers. Shakaa had been a Palestine Liberation Organisation supporter and outspoken critic of the Camp David accords, and was subsequently issued with an expulsion order in 1979. Felicia Langer successfully defended him from the charges in the court, which was accompanied with large scale popular actions consisting of big demonstrations and the collective resignation of all West Bank mayors.
wn.com/Bassam_Shaka -
Danny Rubenstein
Daniel "Danny" Rubinstein (born 1937) is an Israeli journalist and author. He previously worked for Haaretz, where he was an Arab affairs analyst and a member of the editorial board.
Rubinstein was born in Jerusalem in 1937. He grew up in Neveh Bezalel, a small neighborhood between Nahlaot and the city center. He majored in Middle Eastern studies and sociology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
In 1967, during the Six-Day War, Rubinstein was a reserve soldier in a Jerusalem reconnaissance unit led by Yossi Langotsky. This unit was the first to cross the cease-fire line into the Jordanian-controlled West Bank.
He lives in Jerusalem's Beit Hakerem neighborhood.
From 1967 to 1990, Rubinstein worked as a columnist and Jerusalem bureau chief for the now-defunct newspaper Davar. From 1990-2008, he worked for Haaretz, where he was a member of the editorial board. He wrote regular columns on the Arab-Israeli conflict and Palestinian affairs. He now writes a weekly column on the Palestinian economy for Calcalist, an Israeli business daily published by Yediot Ahronoth.
wn.com/Danny_Rubenstein -
Eleazar
Eleazar (or Elazar; pronounced /ɛliˈeɪzə/), (Hebrew: אֶלְעָזָר, Modern Elʻazar Tiberian Elʻāzār ; "God has helped") was a priest in the Hebrew Bible, the second Kohen Gadol (High Priest) - succeeding his father Aaron. He was a nephew of Moses.
Eleazar fulfilled a number of functions over the course of the Wilderness wanderings, from creating the plating to the altar out of the firepans of Korah's assembly to performing the ritual of the Red Heifer. After the death of his older brothers Nadab and Abihu, he was appointed to the charge of the sanctuary. His wife, a daughter of Putiel, bore him Phinehas, who would eventually succeed him as Kohen Gadol.
On Mount Hor he was clothed with the sacred vestments, which Moses took from off his father Aaron and put upon him as successor to his father in the high priest's office, which he held for more than twenty years. He took part with Moses in numbering the people, and assisted at the inauguration of Joshua.
He assisted in the distribution of the land after the conquest. When he died, he "was buried at Gibeah, which had been allotted to his son Phinehas in the hill country of Ephraim". The Hill of Phinehas related in the Bible is associated with the location of the village of Awarta in the Samarian section of the current day West Bank. Due to the uncertain security situation, the Israel Defence Forces limit visits to the site by Jews to one annual night close to the 5th of Shevat (around January–February) on the Hebrew calendar.[citation needed].
wn.com/Eleazar -
Gilad Shalit
Gilad Shalit ( גלעד שליט (help·info), born 28 August 1986) is an Israeli soldier of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) who was abducted inside Israel by Hamas militants in a cross-border raid via underground tunnels near the Israeli border with Gaza on 25 June 2006. The Hamas militants held him for over five years, until his release on 18 October 2011 as part of a prisoner exchange deal.
During his captivity, Hamas turned down requests from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to be allowed to visit Shalit claiming that any such visit could betray Shalit's location. However, multiple human rights organizations criticize this stance, claiming that the conditions of Shalit's confinement were contrary to international humanitarian law. The Red Cross insisted, “The Shalit family have the right under international humanitarian law to be in contact with their son”. The United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict called for Shalit's release in its September 2009 report. In its 27 May 2011 Deauville Declaration, the G8 demanded the release of Gilad Shalit. Shalit's capture has been deemed a kidnapping and abduction by many sources. He was not granted any visits from the Red Cross and was not allowed to communicate with family members (to which he is entitled as a captured soldier under the Geneva Conventions), and a ransom, even if not of a monetary nature, was demanded for his return. The only contact between Shalit and the outside world after his capture and before his release were three letters, an audio tape, and a DVD that Israel received in return for releasing 20 female Palestinian prisoners.
wn.com/Gilad_Shalit -
Hadrian
Hadrian (Latin: Publius Aelius Traianus Hadrianus Augustus 24 January 76 – 10 July 138), was a Roman Emperor from 117 to 138. He is best known for building Hadrian's Wall, which marked the northern limit of Roman Britain. In Rome, he re-built the Pantheon and constructed the Temple of Venus and Roma. In addition to being emperor, Hadrian was a humanist and was philhellene in all his tastes. He was the third of the so-called Five Good Emperors.
Hadrian was born Publius Aelius Hadrianus to an ethnically Italian family in Italica near Seville. His predecessor Trajan was a maternal cousin of Hadrian's father. Trajan never officially designated an heir, but according to his wife Pompeia Plotina, Trajan named Hadrian emperor immediately before his death. Trajan's wife and his friend Licinius Sura were well-disposed towards Hadrian, and he may well have owed his succession to them.
wn.com/Hadrian -
Haj Amin al-Husayni
Haj Mohammed Effendi Amin el-Husseini (Arabic: محمد أمين الحسيني, Muhammad Amin al-Husayni; born between 1895 and 1897; died July 4, 1974) was a Palestinian Arab nationalist and Muslim leader in the Mandatory Palestine.
Al-Husseini was an ambitious Arab nationalist and following the end of the First World War positioned himself in Damascus, as a supporter of the Arab Kingdom of Syria. However, following the fiasco of the Franco-Syrian War, his positions on pan-Arabism shifted to a form of local nationalism for the Arabs of Palestine and he moved back to Jerusalem. From as early as 1920, in order to secure the independence of Palestine as an Arab state he actively opposed Zionism, and was implicated as a leader of a violent riot that broke out over the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine. From 1921 to 1937 al-Husseini was the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, using the position to promote Islam and rally Arab nationalism against Zionism.
His opposition to the British peaked during the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine. In 1937, evading an arrest warrant, he fled Palestine and took refuge in, successively, the French Mandate of Lebanon and the Kingdom of Iraq, until he established himself in Italy and finally Germany. During World War II he actively collaborated with both Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, meeting Adolf Hitler personally and asking him to back Arab independence. He requested, as part of the Pan-Arab struggle, Hitler's support to oppose the establishment in Palestine of a Jewish national home. He was promised the leadership of the Arabs after German troops had driven out the British. He helped recruit Muslims for the Waffen-SS. At war's end, he came under French protection, and managed to slip away to Cairo to avoid eventual prosecution.
wn.com/Haj_Amin_al-Husayni -
Henry Baker Tristram
The Reverend Henry Baker Tristram FRS (11 May 1822 – 8 March 1906) was an English clergyman, Biblical scholar, traveller and ornithologist.
Tristram was born at Eglingham vicarage, near Alnwick, Northumberland, and studied at Durham School and Lincoln College, Oxford. In 1846 he was ordained a priest, but he suffered from tuberculosis and was forced to live abroad for his health. He was secretary to the governor of Bermuda from 1847 to 1849. He explored the Sahara desert, and in 1858 visited Palestine, returning there in 1863 and 1872, and dividing his time between natural history observations and identifying localities mentioned in the Old and New Testaments. In 1873 he became canon of Durham Cathedral. In 1881 he travelled again to Palestine, the Lebanon, Mesopotamia, and Armenia. He also made a voyage to Japan to visit his daughter, Katherine Alice Salvin Tristram (1858–1948), who was a missionary and teacher in Osaka, where the famous Church Missionary Society (CMS) School for Girls was opened in 1879, and developed under her guidance between 1888 and 1925.
wn.com/Henry_Baker_Tristram -
Ibn Battuta
Abū ‘Abd Allāh Muḥammad ibn ‘Abd Allāh al-Lawātī al-Ţanjī ibn Baṭūṭah (Arabic: أبو عبد الله محمد بن عبد الله اللواتي الطنجي بن بطوطة), or simply Ibn Battuta (ابن بطوطة), also known as Shams ad-Din (February 25, 1304–1368 or 1369), was a Berber Muslim Moroccan explorer, known for his extensive travels, accounts of which were published in the Rihla (lit. "Journey"). Over a period of thirty years, he visited most of the known Islamic world as well as many non-Muslim lands; his journeys including trips to North Africa, the Horn of Africa, West Africa, Southern Europe and Eastern Europe in the West, and to the Middle East, South Asia, Central Asia, Southeast Asia and China in the East, a distance surpassing threefold his near-contemporary Marco Polo. Ibn Battuta is considered one of the greatest travellers of all time. He journeyed more than 75,000 miles (121,000 km), a figure unsurpassed by any individual explorer until the coming of the Steam Age some 450 years later.
All that is known about Ibn Battuta's life comes from the autobiographical information included in the account of his travels. Ibn Battuta was born into a Berber family of Islamic legal scholars in Tangier, Morocco, on 25 February 1304, during the reign of the Marinid dynasty. As a young man he would have studied at a Sunni Maliki madh'hab, (Islamic jurisprudence school), the dominant form of education in North Africa at that time. In June 1325, at the age of twenty-one, Ibn Battuta set off from his hometown on a hajj, or pilgrimage, to Mecca, a journey that would take sixteen months. He would not see Morocco again for twenty-four years.
wn.com/Ibn_Battuta -
Jesus
Jesus ( /ˈdʒiːzəs/; Greek: Ἰησοῦς; 7–2 BC/BCE to 30–36 AD/CE), also referred to as Jesus Christ or simply Christ, is the central figure of Christianity and most Christian denominations venerate him as God the Son incarnated. In Islam, Jesus (in Arabic: عيسى in Islamic usage, commonly transliterated as Isa) is considered one of God's important prophets.
Most modern historians agree that Jesus existed and was a Jewish teacher from Galilee in Roman Judaea, who was baptized by John the Baptist, and was crucified in Jerusalem on the orders of the Roman Prefect, Pontius Pilate. Scholars have offered competing descriptions and portraits of Jesus, which at times share a number of overlapping attributes, such as a rabbi, a charismatic healer, the leader of an apocalyptic movement, a self-described Messiah, a sage and philosopher, or a social reformer who preached of the "Kingdom of God" as a means for personal and egalitarian social transformation. Scholars have correlated the New Testament accounts with non-Christian historical records to arrive at an estimated chronology of Jesus' life.
wn.com/Jesus -
Jew
The Jews (Hebrew: יְהוּדִים ISO 259-3 Yhudim Israeli pronunciation [jehuˈdim]), also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and an ethnoreligious group, originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation.Converts to Judaism, whose status as Jews within the Jewish ethnos is equal to those born into it, have been absorbed into the Jewish people throughout the millennia.
In Jewish tradition, Jewish ancestry is traced to the Biblical patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the second millennium BCE. The modern State of Israel defines itself as a Jewish state in its Basic Laws, and Israel's Law of Return states: "Every Jew has the right to come to this country as an oleh." Israel is the only country where Jews are a majority of the population. Jews achieved political autonomy twice before in ancient history. The first of these periods lasted from 1350 to 586 BCE, and encompassed the periods of the Judges, the United Monarchy, and the Divided Monarchy of the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah, ending with the destruction of the First Temple. The second was the period of the Hasmonean Kingdom spanning from 140 to 37 BCE. Since the destruction of the First Temple, most Jews have lived in diaspora. A minority in every country in which they live (except Israel), they have frequently experienced persecution throughout history, resulting in a population that has fluctuated both in numbers and distribution over the centuries.
wn.com/Jew -
Jezzar Pasha
Ahmed al-Jazzar (Arabic أحمد الجزار, Turkish " Cezzar Ahmet Paşa" born 1720 (or in 1708) in Stolac in Bosnia, died 1804 in Acre, Damascus Wiliyah) was the Ottoman ruler of Acre and the Galilee from 1775 until his death.
Jazzar Pasha was a Christian slave boy from Bosnia who, escaping after committing a murder, sold himself to the slave-markets of Istanbul. There he was bought by an Egyptian ruler who converted him to Islam and used him as his chief executioner and hit-man. He began his rise as governor of Cairo but made his name defending Beirut against Catherine the Great´s navy. Beirut was honorably surrendered to the Russians after a long siege and the sultan rewarded al-Jazzar with promotion to Governor of Sidon, and sometimes also that of Damascus. He set up his capital in Acre after the fall of Dhaher al-Omar. He earned the nickname "the Butcher" for his cruelty and extortion of his subjects. He is reputed to have walked around with a mobile gallows in case anyone displeased him.
He led a ruthless 'holy war' (jihad) campaign against non-Muslims. Under his torture, Christians were forced to "accept" Islam. He oppressed Christians (who were massacred) and Jews, A.K.A. (Dhimmi)s. Minorities in Palestine fell victims.
wn.com/Jezzar_Pasha -
Joseph's Tomb
Joseph's Tomb (Hebrew: קבר יוסף, Qever Yosef, Arabic: قبر يوسف, Qabr Yūsuf) is a funerary monument located at the eastern entrance to the valley that separates Mounts Gerizim and Ebal, 325 yards northwest of Jacob's Well, on the outskirts of the West Bank city of Nablus, near Tell Balāṭa, the site of biblical Shechem. Biblical tradition identifies the general area of Shechem as the resting-place of the biblical patriarch Joseph, the eponymous ancestor of the northern kingdom of Israel, and his two sons Ephraim and Manasseh.
Joseph's tomb has been venerated throughout the ages by Jews, Samaritans, Christians and Muslims. Post-biblical records regarding the location of Joseph's Tomb at this site date from the beginning of the 4th-century AD. The present structure, a small rectangular room with a cenotaph, dates from 1868, and is devoid of any trace of ancient building materials. While some scholars, such as Kenneth Kitchen and James K. Hoffmeier still affirm the essential historicity of the biblical account of Joseph, many others, such as Donald B. Redford, argue that the story itself has ‘no basis in fact’.
wn.com/Joseph's_Tomb -
Julianus ben Sabar
Julianus ben Sabar (also known as Julian or Julianus ben Sahir and Latinized as Iulianus Sabarides) was a messianic leader of the Samaritans, who led a failed revolt against Byzantium during the early 6th century.
In 529 Julianus led a revolt against the Byzantine Empire ruled by Justinian I, because of legislation outlawing the Samaritan religion according to Procopius, though Cyril of Scythopolis claimed it was because of tension with Christians.
Julianus declared himself King of Israel, taking Jeroboam as his model, and led a Samaritan army to ravage the cities of Scythopolis, Caesarea Maritima, Neapolis, Bethlehem, and Emmaus. By 530 he had succeeded in capturing virtually all of Samaria. The revolt was marked by large scale slaughter of Christians and destruction of churches.
Justinian enlisted the help of the Ghassanids, and by 531 the rebellion had been put down. Julianus himself was beheaded according to Theophanes the Confessor. Tens of thousands of Samaritans were killed and enslaved and many were sold as slaves throughout the Middle East. Others were sold as far away as Sassanid Persia, where their descendants would be included in the Persian invasion of the Levant some 85 years later.[citation needed]
wn.com/Julianus_ben_Sabar -
Justin Martyr
Justin Martyr, also known as just Saint Justin (AD 100–165), was an early Christian apologist, and is regarded as the foremost interpreter of the theory of the Logos in the 2nd century. Most of his works are lost, but two apologies and a dialogue did survive. He is considered a saint by the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church.
Most of what is known about the life of Justin Martyr comes from his own writings. He was born at Flavia Neapolis (today Nablus) in Palestine into a pagan family, and defined himself as a Gentile. His grandfather, Bacchius, had a Greek name, while his father, Priscus bore a Latin name, which has led to speculations that his ancestors may have settled in Neapolis soon after its establishment or that they may have descended from a Roman 'diplomatic' community that had been sent there. He received a Greek education. He tells us (Dialogue 2-8) that he tried first the school of a Stoic philosopher, who was unable to explain God's being to him. He then attended a Peripatetic philosopher but was put off because the philosopher was too eager for his fee. Then he went to hear a Pythagorean philosopher, who demanded that he first learn music, astronomy and geometry, which he did not wish to do. Subsequently, he adopted Platonism after encountering a Platonist thinker who had recently settled in his city. Some time afterwards, he chanced upon an old man, possibly a Palestinian or Syrian Christian, in the vicinity of the seashore, who engaged him in a dialogue about God, and spoke of the testimony of the prophets as more reliable than the reasoning of philosophers. It was this argument which, Justin avers, kindled in him a love of Christ, and led him to embrace the Christian faith. He was influenced in this by the fearless conduct of the Christians facing execution (Apol. 2:12). His conversion is commonly assumed to have taken place at Ephesus, though it may have occurred anywhere on the road from Palestine to Rome.
wn.com/Justin_Martyr -
Justinian I
Justinian I ( /dʒʌˈstɪniən/) (Latin: Flavius Petrus Sabbatius Iustinianus Augustus, Ancient Greek: Φλάβιος Πέτρος Σαββάτιος Ἰουστινιανός) (c. 482 – 14 November 565), commonly known as Justinian the Great, was Byzantine Emperor from 527 to 565. During his reign, Justinian sought to revive the Empire's greatness and reconquer the lost western half of the classical Roman Empire.
One of the most important figures of Late Antiquity and the last Roman Emperor to speak Latin as a first language, Justinian's rule constitutes a distinct epoch in the history of the Eastern Roman Empire. The impact of his administration extended far beyond the boundaries of his time and domain. Justinian's reign is marked by the ambitious but only partly realized renovatio imperii, or "restoration of the Empire". This ambition was expressed by the partial recovery of the territories of the defunct Western Roman Empire. His general Belisarius swiftly conquered the Vandal Kingdom in North Africa, extending Roman control to the Atlantic Ocean. Subsequently Belisarius, Narses, and other generals conquered the Ostrogothic Kingdom, restoring Dalmatia, Sicily, Italy, and Rome to the Empire after more than half a century of barbarian control.
wn.com/Justinian_I -
Juvenal of Jerusalem
Saint Juvenal (Greek: Άγιος Ιουβενάλιος) was a bishop of Jerusalem from about 422. In 451, on the see of Jerusalem being recognised as a Patriarchate by the Council of Chalcedon, he became the first Patriarch of Jerusalem, an office he occupied until his death in 458.
Juvenal wanted to make Jerusalem into a primary see (a "Patriarchal see") by demotion of the Metropolitan see of Caesarea and the primary see of Antioch. In 431, he sided with Saint Cyril against Nestorius at the First Council of Ephesus. He argued that the bishop of Antioch should have taken his doctrine from the "apostolic see of Jerusalem", and expected Cyril to assist him in raising Jerusalem at the level of an independent patriarchate. Cyril even wrote a letter to Pope Leo I – then archdeacon in Rome – complaining about Juvenal’s opportunism (Leo, Ep. 119 ad Maximum Antiochenum episcopum in PL 54, 1041–46).
Juvenal was one of the leaders of the Second Council of Ephesus. When, later, Dioscorus was tried for violation of canonical law at the Council of Chalcedon, Juvenal voted for his condemnation. Perhaps in exchange for this vote against his old ally, the council gave Juvenal what he had sought: recognition of Jerusalem as a patriarchal see, ruling over all of Palestine. When he returned, however, monks who favored Dioscorus went into open revolt against him, and only the Imperial army allowed him to take his position.
wn.com/Juvenal_of_Jerusalem -
Khaled ibn al-Walid
Khālid ibn al-Walīd (Arabic: خالد بن الوليد; 592–642) also known as Sayf Allāh al-Maslūl (the Drawn Sword of God), was a companion of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. He is noted for his military tactics and prowess, commanding the forces of Medina under Muhammad and the forces of his immediate successors of the Rashidun Caliphate; Abu Bakr and Umar ibn Khattab. It was under his military leadership that Arabia, for the first time in history, was united under a single political entity, the Caliphate. He was victorious in over a hundred battles, against the forces of the Byzantine-Roman Empire, Sassanid-Persian Empire, and their allies, in addition to other Arab tribes. His strategic achievements include the conquest of Arabia, Persian Mesopotamia and Roman Syria within several years from 632 to 636. He is also remembered for his decisive victories at Yamamah, Ullais, and Firaz, and his tactical successes at Walaja and Yarmouk.
wn.com/Khaled_ibn_al-Walid -
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire or Turkish Empire or Sublime Ottoman State or sometimes also referred to as Turkey (Ottoman Turkish: دَوْلَتِ عَلِيّهٔ عُثمَانِیّه Devlet-i ʿAliyye-yi ʿOsmâniyye (also عثمانلى دولتى Osmanlı Devleti),Modern Turkish: Osmanlı Devleti or Osmanlı İmparatorluğu) was a Turkish empire which lasted from 27 July 1299 to 1 November 1922, when the Sultanate was abolished.
The Ottoman Empire was one of the largest and longest lasting empires in history; such that the Ottoman State, its politics, conflicts, and cultural heritage in a vast geography provide one of the longest continuous narratives. During the 16th and 17th centuries, in particular at the height of its power under the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent, the empire was one of the most powerful states in the world – a multinational, multilingual empire that stretched from the southern borders of the Holy Roman Empire to the outskirts of Vienna, Royal Hungary (modern Slovakia) and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the north to Yemen and Eritrea in the south; from Algeria in the west to Azerbaijan in the east; controlling much of southeast Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. At the beginning of the 17th century the empire contained 32 provinces and numerous vassal states, some of which were later absorbed into the empire, while others were granted various types of autonomy during the course of centuries.
wn.com/Ottoman_Empire -
Palestinian people
The Palestinian people, (Arabic: الشعب الفلسطيني, ash-sha‘b al-Filasṭīnī) also referred to as Palestinians (Arabic: الفلسطينيون, al-Filasṭīniyyūn), are descendants of the peoples who have lived in Palestine over the centuries. Today, Palestinians are largely culturally and linguistically Arab. Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one half of the world's Palestinian population continues to reside in the area encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and Israel. In this combined area, as of 2004, Palestinians constituted 49% of all inhabitants, encompassing the entire population of the Gaza Strip (1.6 million), the majority of the population of the West Bank (approximately 2.3 million versus close to 500,000 Jewish Israeli citizens which includes about 200,000 in East Jerusalem), and 16.5% of the population of Israel proper as Arab citizens of Israel.
Throughout the aforementioned combined area, many are Palestinian refugees or internally displaced Palestinians, including more than a million in the Gaza Strip, three-quarters of a million in the West Bank,, and about a quarter of a million in Israel proper. Of the Palestinian population who live abroad, making up what is known as the Palestinian diaspora, more than half of these are stateless refugees lacking citizenship in any country. About 2.6 million of the diaspora population live in neighboring Jordan where they make up approximately half the population, 1.5 million live between Syria and Lebanon, a quarter of a million in Saudi Arabia, with Chile's half a million representing the largest concentration outside the Arab world.
wn.com/Palestinian_people -
Persian people
The Persian people are part of the Iranian peoples who speak the modern Persian language and closely akin Iranian dialects and languages. The origin of the ethnic Iranian/Persian peoples are traced to the Ancient Iranian peoples, who were part of the ancient Indo-Iranians. The synonymous usage of Iranian and Persian has persisted over the centuries although some modern Western sources use Iranic/Iranian as a wider term that includes the term Persian as well as related Iranian languages and ethnic groups. However, these terms have been used both synonymously as well as in a complementary fashion since ancient times; as the Ancient Iranian peoples such as the Old Persians, Medes, Bactrians, Parthians and Avesta peoples considered themselves to be part of the greater Iranian ethnic stock.
The term Persian translates to "from or of Persis" which is a region north of the Persian Gulf located in Pars, Iran. It was from this region that Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Achaemenid empire, united all other Iranian empires (such as the Medes and the Elamites), and expanded the Persian cultural and social influences by incorporating the Babylonian empire, and the Lydian empire. Although not the first Iranian empire, the Achaemenid empire is the first Persian empire well recognized by Greek and Persian historians for its massive cultural, military and social influences going as far as Athens, Egypt, and Libya.
wn.com/Persian_people -
Pescennius Niger
Pescennius Niger (Latin: Gaius Pescennius Niger Augustus; c. 135 - 140–194) was a Roman usurper from 193 to 194 during the Year of the Five Emperors. He claimed the imperial throne in response to the murder of Pertinax and the elevation of Didius Julianus, but was defeated by a rival claimant, Septimius Severus and killed while attempting to flee from Antioch.
Although Niger was born into an old Italian equestrian family, around the year 135, he was the first member of his family to achieve the rank of Roman senator. Not much is known of his early career; it is possible that he held an administrative position in Egypt, and that he served in a military campaign in Dacia early in Commodus’ reign. During the late 180s, Niger was elected as a Suffect consul, after which Commodus made him imperial legate of Syria in 191.
He was still serving in Syria when news came through firstly of the murder of Pertinax, followed by the auctioning off of the imperial title to Didius Julianus. Niger was a well regarded public figure in Rome and soon a popular demonstration against Didius Julianus broke out, during which the citizens called out for Niger to come to Rome and claim the imperial title for himself. As a consequence, it is alleged that Julianus dispatched a centurion to the east with orders to assassinate Niger at Antioch.
wn.com/Pescennius_Niger -
Philip the Arab
Philip the Arab (Latin: Marcus Julius Philippus Augustus; c. 204 – 249), also known as Philip or Philippus Arabs, was Roman Emperor from 244 to 249. He came from Syria, and rose to become a major figure in the Roman Empire. He achieved power after the death of Gordian III, quickly negotiating peace with the Sassanid Empire. During his reign, Rome celebrated its millennium.
Among early Christian writers Philip had the reputation of being sympathetic to the Christian faith. It was even claimed that he converted to Christianity, becoming the first Christian emperor, but this is disputed. He supposedly tried to celebrate Easter with Christians in Antioch, but the bishop Babylas made him stand with the penitents. Philip and his wife received letters from Origen.
Philip was overthrown and killed following a rebellion led by his successor Decius.
Little is known about Philip's early life and political career. He was born in what is today Shahba, about 55 miles (89 km) southeast of Damascus, in the Trachonitis district, then in the Roman province of Arabia. Philip, who received the nickname "the Arab" because his family hailed from the Roman province of Arabia, was the son of a Julius Marinus, a local Roman citizen, possibly of some importance.
wn.com/Philip_the_Arab -
Phinehas
Phinehas (Hebrew: פִּינְחָס, Modern Pinəḥas Tiberian Pinchas) was a High Priest of Israel in the wilderness, the grandson of Aaron, and son of Eleazar the High Priest (Exodus 6:25), who distinguished himself as a youth at Shittim by his zeal against the Heresy of Peor: the immorality with which the Moabites and Midianites had successfully tempted the people (Numbers 25:1-9) to worship Baal-peor where Phineas personally executed an Israelite man and a Midianite woman while they were together in the man's tent, running a spear or lance through the man and the belly of the woman ending a plague said to have been sent by God to punish the Israelites for sexually intermingling with the Midianites. Phineas is commended for having stopped Israel's fall to idolatrous practices brought in by Midianite women, as well as for stopping the desecration of God's sanctuary. He is commemorated as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church on September 2.
The Oxford Guide to the Bible and Brown-Driver-Briggs' Hebrew and English Lexicon identify it as a variant of the Egyptian name Pa-nehasi. According to the former, "The Bible also uses Egyptian and Nubian names for the land and its people... For the Egyptians used to these color variations, the term for their southern neighbors was Nehesi, "southerner", which eventually also came to mean "the black" or "the Nubian". This Egyptian root (nhsj, with the preformative p' as a definite article) appears in Exodus 6.25 as the personal name of Aaron's grandson Phinehas (=pa-nehas)"The Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament interprets the name to mean "the bronze-colored one". Phinehas, like Moses and Nun lived in Egypt and their names were shared by the dominant culture there.
wn.com/Phinehas -
Rashidun
The Rightly Guided Caliphs or The Righteous Caliphs (الخلفاء الراشدون al-Khulafā’u r-Rāshidūn) is a term used in Sunni Islam to refer to the first four Caliphs who established the Rashidun Caliphate. The concept of "Rightly Guided Caliphs" originated with the Abbasid Dynasty. It is a reference to the Sunni tradition, "Hold firmly to my example (sunnah) and that of the Rightly Guided Caliphs" (Ibn Majah, Abu Dawood).
The first four Caliphs who ruled after the death of Muhammad are often quoted as the Khulafah Rashidun.
The Rashidun were either elected by a council (see The election of Uthman and Islamic democracy) or chosen based on the wishes of their predecessor. In the order of succession, the rashidun were:
Hasan ibn Ali was appointed as Caliph in 661 following the death of Ali and is also regarded as a righteous ruler by Sunni Muslims, although he was recognized by only half of the Islamic state and his rule was challenged and eventually ended by the Governor of Syria, Muawiyah ibn Abi Sufyan.
wn.com/Rashidun -
Saladin
Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb (Arabic: صلاح الدين يوسف بن أيوب, Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb, Kurdish: سهلاحهدین ئهیوبی, Selah'edînê Eyubî) (ca. 1138 – March 4, 1193), better known in the Western world as Saladin, was a KurdishMuslim, who became the first Sultan of Egypt and Syria, and founded the Ayyubid dynasty. He led Muslim opposition to the Franks and other European Crusaders in the Levant. At the height of his power, his sultanate included Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia, Hejaz, Yemen, and parts of North Africa.
Under his personal leadership, his forces defeated the Crusaders at the Battle of Hattin, leading the way to his re-capture of Palestine, which had been seized from the Fatimid Egyptians by the Crusaders 88 years earlier. Though the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem would continue to exist for a period, its defeat at Hattin marked a turning point in its conflict with the Muslims and Arabs. As such, Saladin is a prominent figure in Kurdish, Arab, and Muslim culture. Saladin was a strict adherent of Sunni Islam. His noble and chivalrous behavior was noted by Christian chroniclers, especially in the accounts of the Siege of Kerak, and despite being the nemesis of the Crusaders, he won the respect of many of them, including Richard the Lionheart; rather than becoming a hated figure in Europe, he became a celebrated example of the principles of chivalry.
wn.com/Saladin -
Samaritan
The Samaritans (Hebrew: שומרונים Shomronim, Arabic: السامريون as-Sāmariyyūn) are an ethnoreligious group of the Levant. Religiously the Samaritans are adherents of Samaritanism, an Abrahamic religion closely related to Judaism. Based on the Samaritan Torah, Samaritans claim their worship is the true religion of the ancient Israelites prior to the Babylonian Exile, preserved by those who remained in the Land of Israel, as opposed to Judaism, which they assert is a related but altered and amended religion brought back by those returning from exile.
Ancestrally, Samaritans claim descent from a group of Israelite inhabitants from the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh (the two sons of Joseph) as well as some descendants from the priestly tribe of Levi, who have connections to ancient Samaria from the period of their entry into the land of Canaan, while some suggest that it was from the beginning of the Babylonian Exile up to the Samaritan Kingdom of Baba Rabba. The Samaritans, however, derive their name not from this geographical designation, but rather from the Hebrew term Shamerim שַמֶרִים, "Keepers [of the Law]".
wn.com/Samaritan -
Samaritans
The Samaritans (Hebrew: שומרונים Shomronim, Arabic: السامريون as-Sāmariyyūn) are an ethnoreligious group of the Levant. Religiously the Samaritans are adherents of Samaritanism, an Abrahamic religion closely related to Judaism. Based on the Samaritan Torah, Samaritans claim their worship is the true religion of the ancient Israelites prior to the Babylonian Exile, preserved by those who remained in the Land of Israel, as opposed to Judaism, which they assert is a related but altered and amended religion brought back by those returning from exile.
Ancestrally, Samaritans claim descent from a group of Israelite inhabitants from the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh (the two sons of Joseph) as well as some descendants from the priestly tribe of Levi, who have connections to ancient Samaria from the period of their entry into the land of Canaan, while some suggest that it was from the beginning of the Babylonian Exile up to the Samaritan Kingdom of Baba Rabba. The Samaritans, however, derive their name not from this geographical designation, but rather from the Hebrew term Shamerim שַמֶרִים, "Keepers [of the Law]".
wn.com/Samaritans -
Sami Hadawi
Sami Hadawi (Arabic: سامي هداوي, March 6, 1904–April 22, 2004) was a Palestinian scholar and author. He is known for documenting the effects of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War on the Arab population in Palestine and published statistics for individual villages prior to Israel's establishment. Hadawi worked as a land specialist until he was exiled from Jerusalem after a fierce battle in his neighborhood between Israeli and Jordanian forces. He continued to specialize in documenting Palestine's lands and published several books about the 1948 War and the Palestinian refugees.
Hadawi was born in Jerusalem to Arab Christian parents. His father was a soldier in the army of the Ottoman Empire and died in combat during World War I. In 1915, after his father's death, Hadawi's family moved to Amman. Three years later he worked as an unofficial interpreter for the British Army and then moved back to Palestine the year after to work as a clerk for the Land Registration Office.
His interest in the structure of Arab villages began with his job there and then his job at the Land Settlement Department from 1920-27. Hadawi eventually became an inspector and land value assessor from 1938-48 and was the major contributor to the Village Statistics 1945: A Classification of Land and Area Ownership in Palestine which was a land and population census of the Arab localities in the British Mandate of Palestine. He lived in his grandfather's home in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City until 1948. In 1948, he, his wife Nora and their two children built a home for themselves in Katamon. That same year they were forced to leave with the advance of Israeli forces.
wn.com/Sami_Hadawi -
Septimius Severus
Septimius Severus (Latin: Lucius Septimius Severus Augustus; 11 April 145 – 4 February 211), also known as Severus, was Roman Emperor from 193 to 211. Severus was born in Leptis Magna in the province of Africa. As a young man he advanced through the customary succession of offices under the reigns of Marcus Aurelius and Commodus. Severus seized power after the death of Emperor Pertinax in 193 during the Year of the Five Emperors. After deposing and killing the incumbent emperor Didius Julianus, Severus fought his rival claimants, the generals Pescennius Niger and Clodius Albinus. Niger was defeated in 194 at the Battle of Issus in Cilicia. Later that year Severus waged a short punitive campaign beyond the eastern frontier, annexing the Kingdom of Osroene as a new province. Severus defeated Albinus three years later at the Battle of Lugdunum in Gaul.
After solidifying his rule over the western provinces, Severus waged another brief, more successful war in the east against the Parthian Empire, sacking their capital Ctesiphon in 197 and expanding the eastern frontier to the Tigris. Furthermore, he enlarged and fortified the Limes Arabicus in Arabia Petraea. In 202, he campaigned in Africa and Mauretania against the Garamantes; capturing their capital Garama and expanding the Limes Tripolitanus along the southern frontier of the empire. Late in his reign he traveled to Britain, strengthening Hadrian's Wall and reoccupying the Antonine Wall. In 208 he invaded Caledonia modern Scotland, but his ambitions were cut short when he fell fatally ill in late 210. Severus died in early 211 at Eboracum, succeeded by his sons Caracalla and Geta. With the succession of his sons, Severus founded the Severan dynasty, the last dynasty of the empire before the Crisis of the Third Century.
wn.com/Septimius_Severus -
Trebonianus Gallus
Trebonianus Gallus (Latin: Gaius Vibius Afinius Trebonianus Gallus Augustus; 206 – August 253), also known as Gallus, was Roman Emperor from 251 to 253, in a joint rule with his son Volusianus.
Gallus was born in Italy, in a family with respected ancestry of Etruscan senatorial background. He had two children in his marriage with Afinia Gemina Baebiana: Gaius Vibius Volusianus, later Emperor, and a daughter, Vibia Galla. His early career was a typical cursus honorum, with several appointments, both political and military. He was suffect consul and in 250 was nominated governor of the Roman province of Moesia Superior, an appointment that showed the confidence of Emperor Trajan Decius in him. In Moesia, Gallus was a key figure in repelling the frequent invasion attacks by the Gothic tribes of the Danube and became popular with the army, catered to during his brief Imperial rule by his official image: military haircut, gladiatorial physique, intimidating stance (illustration, left).
In June 251, Decius and his co-emperor and son Herennius Etruscus died in the Battle of Abrittus, at the hands of the Goths they were supposed to punish for raids into the empire. According to rumours supported by Dexippus (a contemporary Greek historian) and the Thirteenth Sibylline Oracle, Decius' failure was largely owing to Gallus who had conspired with the invaders. In any case, when the army heard the news, the soldiers proclaimed Gallus emperor, despite Hostilian, Decius' surviving son, ascending the imperial throne in Rome. This action of the army, and the fact that Gallus seems to have been on good terms with Decius' family, makes Dexippus' allegation improbable. Gallus did not back down from his intention to become emperor, but accepted Hostilian as co-emperor, perhaps to avoid the damage of another civil war.
wn.com/Trebonianus_Gallus -
Umar
Umar (Arabic: عمر ابن الخطاب, Transliteration: `Umar ibn Al-Khattāb, Umar Son of Al-Khittab, c. 586–590 CE– 7 November 644), also known as Omar, Farooq the Great was the most powerful of the four Rashidun Caliphs and one of the most powerful and influential Muslim rulers in history. He was a sahabi (companion) of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. He succeeded Caliph Abu Bakr (632–634) as the second Caliph of Rashidun Caliphate on 23 August 634. He was an expert jurist and is best known for his justice, that earned him the title Al-Farooq (The one who distinguishes between right and wrong). Under Umar the Islamic empire expanded at an unprecedented rate ruling the whole Sassanid Persian Empire and more than two thirds of the Eastern Roman Empire. His brilliantly coordinated multi-prong attacks against the Sassanid Persian Empire resulted in the conquest of the Persian empire in less than two years. His legislative abilities and firm political and administrative control over a rapidly expanding empire marked his reputation as a great political and military leader. It was Umar, who for the first time in 500 years since their expulsion from the Holy Land, allowed Jews to practice their religion freely and live inside Jerusalem.[citation needed]
wn.com/Umar -
Vespasian
Vespasian (Latin: Titus Flavius Caesar Vespasianus Augustus; 17 November 9 – 23 June 79) was Roman Emperor from AD 69 to AD 79. Vespasian was the founder of the Flavian dynasty, which ruled the Empire for a quarter century. Vespasian was descended from a family of equestrians, who rose into the senatorial rank under the Emperors of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Although he attained the standard succession of public offices, holding the consulship in AD 51, Vespasian became more reputed as a successful military commander, participating in the Roman invasion of Britain in 43, and subjugating Judaea during the Jewish rebellion of AD 66.
While Vespasian was preparing to besiege the city of Jerusalem during the latter campaign, emperor Nero committed suicide, plunging the empire into a year of civil war known as the Year of the Four Emperors. After the emperors Galba and Otho perished in quick succession, Vitellius became Emperor in April AD 69. In response, the armies in Egypt and Judaea declared Vespasian emperor on 1 July. In his bid for imperial power, Vespasian joined forces with Mucianus, the governor of Syria, and Primus, a general in Pannonia. Primus and Mucianus led the Flavian forces against Vitellius, while Vespasian gained control of Egypt. On 20 December, Vitellius was defeated, and the following day Vespasian was declared Emperor by the Roman Senate.
wn.com/Vespasian -
World War I
World War I (WWI), which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939 (World War II), and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918. It involved all the world's great powers, which were assembled in two opposing alliances: the Allies (based on the Triple Entente of the United Kingdom, France and Russia) and the Central Powers (originally centred around the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy; but, as Austria–Hungary had taken the offensive against the agreement, Italy did not enter into the war). These alliances both reorganised (Italy fought for the Allies), and expanded as more nations entered the war. Ultimately more than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history. More than 9 million combatants were killed, largely because of enormous increases in lethality of weapons, thanks to new technology, without corresponding improvements in protection or mobility. It was the sixth-deadliest conflict in world history, subsequently paving the way for various political changes such as revolutions in the nations involved.
wn.com/World_War_I -
Yaqut al-Hamawi
Yāqūt ibn-'Abdullah al-Rūmī al-Hamawī) (1179–1229) (Arabic: ياقوت الحموي الرومي) was an Islamic biographer and geographer renowned for his encyclopedic writings on the Muslim world. "al-Rumi" ("from Rûm") refers to his Greek (Byzantine) descent; "al-Hamawi" is taken, as usual with slaves, from the family name of his master after Hama, Syria, and ibn-Abdullah is a reference to his father's name, Abdullah. This is common among slaves who don't know the name of their fathers, to call him Abdullah. The word yāqūt means ruby or hyacinth.
Yaqut was a Greek sold as a slave to trader, Askar ibn Abi Nasr al-Hamawi, who lived in Baghdad, Iraq. His master taught him accounting and trading and sent him to trade on his behalf. He later freed him and that enabled Yagut to dedicate himself to his scholarly tasks. He was one of the last scholars who accessed to the libraries east of the Caspian Sea before Mongol invasion of Central Asia. He travelled to the peaceful scholarly city of ancient Merv in present-day Turkmenistan. There Yaqut spent two years in libraries, learning much of the knowledge he would later use in his works. Yaqut spend the last few years of life in Aleppo and died there.
wn.com/Yaqut_al-Hamawi -
Zeno (emperor)
Zeno ([pronunciation?]; Latin: Flavius Zeno Augustus; Greek: Ζήνων) (c. 425 – 9 April 491), originally named Tarasis, was Byzantine Emperor from 474 to 475 and again from 476 to 491. Domestic revolts and religious dissension plagued his reign, which nevertheless succeeded to some extent in foreign issues. His reign saw the end of the Western Roman Empire under Julius Nepos, but he contributed much to stabilizing the eastern Empire.
In ecclesiastical history, Zeno is associated with the Henotikon or "instrument of union", promulgated by him and signed by all the Eastern bishops, with the design of solving the monophysite controversy.
Zeno's original name was Tarasis. Tarasis was born in Isauria, at Rusumblada, later renamed Zenonopolis in Zeno's honour. His father was called Kodisa (as attested by his patronimic "Tarasicodissa"), his mother Lallis, his brother Longinus. Tarasis had a wife, Arcadia, whose name indicates a relationship with the Constantinopolitan aristocracy, and whose statue was erected near the Baths of Arcadius, along the steps that led to Topoi. According to a Near Eastern Christian legend, Zeno had two daughters, Hilaria and Thaopesta, who followed a religious life, but historical sources attest the existence of only one son by Arcadia, called Zenon. Tarasis was probably related to the Isaurian general Zeno, who had fought against Attila in 447 to defend Constantinople and had been consul the following year.
wn.com/Zeno_(emperor)
Send this Playlist by SMS
Email this Page
Faces of Nablus
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:09
- Updated: 18 Nov 2012
All Rights Reserved To Omar Nabulsi Who Made this short Film. I have Permission to upload this work. Faces Of Nablus , An Awesome Short From vimeo.com Hope you Enjoy it. Nablus , A Wonderful City In Palestine. WorldWideCollection , Where we Add Most of the Cool Stuff Around. Follow Us on : www.facebook.com Download the free Mp3 Relaxing Music here : www.mediafire.com
http://wn.com/Faces_of_Nablus
Nablus - West Bank
- Order:
- Duration: 1:44
- Updated: 17 Sep 2012
Israeli army forces clashes with Palestinian residents.
http://wn.com/Nablus_West_Bank
Travel Palestine - Nablus
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:15
- Updated: 13 Nov 2012
Nablus known as 'The Uncrowned Queen of Palestine' is one of the major commercial, industrial and agricultural centers in the West Bank and many historical and biblical sites are located in the region. Nablus is also renowned for its talented goldsmiths, its Nabulsi Soap and its tasty oriental pastery. The Mount Gerzim in Nablus is the home of the Samaritans, the smallest and oldest sect in the world.
http://wn.com/Travel_Palestine_Nablus
Nablus
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:43
- Updated: 19 Nov 2012
A weekend spent in Nablus.
http://wn.com/Nablus
Arrest of a young Palestinian man unconscious and brutally - Hawara - Nablus
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:29
- Updated: 19 Nov 2012
The usurping Zionist army proudly claims they hit more than 1100 targets (civilian homes) in Gaza since the beginning of their barbaric attack on Gaza and 130 of those were hit today. You can't "defend yourself" when you're militarily occupying someone else's land. That's not defense. Call it what you like, it's not defense." (Noam Chomsky). "Israeli aggression is possible only because of direct, affirmative, unstinting US diplomatic, financial and military support for Israel and everything it does" (Glenn Greenwald)
http://wn.com/Arrest_of_a_young_Palestinian_man_unconscious_and_brutally_Hawara_Nablus
Welcome To Project HOPE in Nablus - Palestine
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:07
- Updated: 20 Nov 2012
Welcome to projecthope in Nablus, Palestine Nablus@projecthope.ps www.projecthope.ps www.nablusguide.com
http://wn.com/Welcome_To_Project_HOPE_in_Nablus_Palestine
Tour of Nablus Palestine
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 9:02
- Updated: 13 Oct 2012
Students, Faculty and Community members from the West Bank city of Nablus gave a tour of the old city, including the cemetery, to a North American Delegation in June of 2011.
http://wn.com/Tour_of_Nablus_Palestine
nablus nablus downtown
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:22
- Updated: 14 May 2012
nablus the city of palestine , nothing like nablus but nablus
http://wn.com/nablus_nablus_downtown
Witness - Nablus: The Business of Occupation
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 44:49
- Updated: 17 Nov 2012
An old soap factory, a modern olive oil plant and two import-export agents struggle to do business in Nablus under the Israeli occupation.
http://wn.com/Witness_Nablus_The_Business_of_Occupation
Nablus Alternative Tour - Culture - Politics - People
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:26
- Updated: 11 Oct 2012
The Green Olive Tour of Nablus visits Jacob's Well, The Old City, Balata Refugee Camp, an olive oil soap factory, Mount Grizim and the samaritan village. Don't miss this outstanding experience and the opportunity to meet the people of Nablus, enjoy their city, and learn about life under Israeli Occupation.
http://wn.com/Nablus_Alternative_Tour_Culture_Politics_People
Hamas denies links to Nablus prison
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:13
- Updated: 17 Nov 2012
In the village of Orif, in the West Bank city of Nablus, there is a restaurant that looks from the outside like a normal and popular food place. From the inside, the 'restaurant's' restroom has a hole on the ground. The hole leads to what looks like a prison. The Palestinian security forces reported. They linked the place to the rival Gaza-based Hamas. It seems that this place was arranged to close this tunnel in case those who dug it had to close it again. There is a large amount of soil placed on wooden planks that are tightly tied with metallic wires. When the wires are cut, the planks would fall and subsequently the soil would collapse and close the tunnel. Maybe, this set-up would help those inside the tunnel to escape. We still have more than 25 meters until we get to the rooms they told us about. We arrived to a big room with a smaller room located in its corner containing two beds and a toilet, and which can be closed by an ironclad door. As for the bigger room, it has some basic survival equipment, in addition to advanced communication means. That was in the underground tunnel, but above it, there was a hiding place for military uniforms and arsenal, in addition to metal detectors; Ammunition and equipment that the Palestinian authorities said they belong to Hamas movement, but the latter denied the story. "This location was discovered after the confessions of several detainees to the Palestinian security forces. We went there and found this tunnel and ...
http://wn.com/Hamas_denies_links_to_Nablus_prison
Old City of Nablus
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:24
- Updated: 04 May 2012
http://wn.com/Old_City_of_Nablus
Nablus In 18.1.2012 .MOV
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:58
- Updated: 26 Oct 2012
http://wn.com/Nablus_In_1812012_MOV
Polska-Palestyna: Dzień z życia - Nablus(Napisy) / Poland-Palestine: Day of life - Nablus
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:17
- Updated: 04 Nov 2012
Project P consists in cooperation between two cities located in two different continents. Project P binds young volunteers from the organization Project Hope (based in Nabus, Palestinian National Authority) together with the inhabitants of Bialystok (Poland). You can also become a part of this project. Feel free to join us! Every week there will be recorded short videos regarding both cities, their inhabitants and every day life. You can become one of their main characters, directors, sciptwriters or film-makers. Everyone will find something of interest! Why are we engaged in this project? Because it is well worth it! It's worth getting to know one another, discover things that we have in common, find out about differences between life of the inhabitants of Palestine and Bialystok and become aware of other things that maybe you will discover yourself.
http://wn.com/Polska-Palestyna_Dzień_z_życia_NablusNapisy_Poland-Palestine_Day_of_life_Nablus
Street Jokes (2.17) - Nablus نكت شوارع - من نابلس
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 17:33
- Updated: 19 Nov 2012
صفحتنا على الفيسبوك www.facebook.com الحلقة السابعة عشرة من الموسم الثاني من البرنامج الكوميدي "نكت شوارع" الذي يقدمه الكوميديان محمد اللحام على فضائية رؤيا - الحلقة...
http://wn.com/Street_Jokes_217_Nablus_نكت_شوارع_من_نابلس
Polska-Palestyna: Moje ideały-Nablus(Napisy) / Poland-Palestine: My ideals-Nablus(Subtitles)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:24
- Updated: 09 Oct 2012
Project P consists in cooperation between two cities located in two different continents. Project P binds young volunteers from the organization Project Hope (based in Nabus, Palestinian National Authority) together with the inhabitants of Bialystok (Poland). You can also become a part of this project. Feel free to join us! Every week there will be recorded short videos regarding both cities, their inhabitants and every day life. You can become one of their main characters, directors, sciptwriters or film-makers. Everyone will find something of interest! Why are we engaged in this project? Because it is well worth it! It's worth getting to know one another, discover things that we have in common, find out about differences between life of the inhabitants of Palestine and Bialystok and become aware of other things that maybe you will discover yourself.
http://wn.com/Polska-Palestyna_Moje_ideały-NablusNapisy_Poland-Palestine_My_ideals-NablusSubtitles
Resistance Civile - Nablus,Palestine - Sous-titres français
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 15:02
- Updated: 10 Aug 2012
par Mustafa AZIZI et Dr Abraham WIZFIELD - 2011
http://wn.com/Resistance_Civile_Nablus,Palestine_Sous-titres_français
Polska-Palestyna: Sport to zdrowie-Nablus(Napisy "CC")/Poland-Palestine: Sport is good for health
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:39
- Updated: 11 Oct 2012
Project P consists in cooperation between two cities located in two different continents. Project P binds young volunteers from the organization Project Hope (based in Nabus, Palestinian National Authority) together with the inhabitants of Bialystok (Poland). You can also become a part of this project. Feel free to join us! Every week there will be recorded short videos regarding both cities, their inhabitants and every day life. You can become one of their main characters, directors, sciptwriters or film-makers. Everyone will find something of interest! Why are we engaged in this project? Because it is well worth it! It's worth getting to know one another, discover things that we have in common, find out about differences between life of the inhabitants of Palestine and Bialystok and become aware of other things that maybe you will discover yourself.
http://wn.com/Polska-Palestyna_Sport_to_zdrowie-NablusNapisy_CC_Poland-Palestine_Sport_is_good_for_health
Israeli troops raid Nablus in West Bank
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:09
- Updated: 06 Aug 2012
Israeli forces raided the city of Nablus in the West Bank using tear gas and sound grenades alongside bombing the house of Abdulla al Kharuf, totally destroying the house. This bombing followed clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces, which hospitalized 19 Palestinians, two of which were hit with stun grenades. Follow our Facebook on: www.facebook.com Follow our Twitter on: twitter.com
http://wn.com/Israeli_troops_raid_Nablus_in_West_Bank
Witness - Two Schools in Nablus - Part 2 - Hot Latest News
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 10:50
- Updated: 08 Aug 2012
Unpaid teachers, crowded classes and students at risk - a normal Palestinian school. - Hot Latest News - Watch more on fastlatestnews.com
http://wn.com/Witness_Two_Schools_in_Nablus_Part_2_Hot_Latest_News
Nablus, Palestine. Teknyc Video Blog 5.
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:28
- Updated: 15 Nov 2012
These are my kids in Nablus, Palestine who i worked with during our tour in the middle east with Rennie Harris Puremovement for our cultural exchange program thru the US Embassy in collaboration with BAM and Dance Motion USA. For more info in T.YO go to www.tomorrowsyouth.org "Choreography by Teknyc, Bboy Hannibal 360 & TYO Bboys" www.teknycmethodz.com Music by ASAMOV & James Brown. No copyright intended. I do NOT own the rights to the song in the clip
http://wn.com/Nablus,_Palestine_Teknyc_Video_Blog_5
Palestinian forces deployed to Nablus - 4 Nov 07 - Hot Latest News
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:07
- Updated: 08 Aug 2012
Palestinian security officers are patrolling the West Bank town of Nablus. It is the first stage of a fresh drive to crack down on gunmen and enforce the authority of Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president. Al Jazeera's Jacky Rowland has been watching the security build up and sent this report. - Hot Latest News - Watch more on fastlatestnews.com
http://wn.com/Palestinian_forces_deployed_to_Nablus_4_Nov_07_Hot_Latest_News
Witness - Witness - Nablus Restricted
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 23:06
- Updated: 29 Jul 2012
The frustrations and despair of two import-export agents battling to get their clients' goods in and out of Nablus.
http://wn.com/Witness_Witness_Nablus_Restricted
photo: AP / Pablo Martinez Monsivais
20 Nov 2012
Article by WN.com Correspondent Dallas Darling President Barack Obama's whirlwind tour of southeast Asia and meetings with dignitaries will have to walk a tightrope between either appearing to endorse military juntas or truly being committed to ongoing pro-democracy movements. Specifically at issue is Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi, a democratic advocate...(size: 5.0Kb)
photo: AP / Melanie Gouby
21 Nov 2012
Hundreds of government soldiers and police in the Democratic Republic of Congo have surrendered to rebels at a stadium in Goma, Al Jazeera's Nazanine Moshiri has reported from the scene. The M23 rebel group, believed to be backed by Rwanda seized the strategic, provincial capital of Goma in eastern Congo on Tuesday, home to more than 1 million...(size: 18.7Kb)
photo: AP / Sebastian D'souza
21 Nov 2012
MUMBAI, India - India executed the lone surviving gunman from the 2008 terror attack on Mumbai early Wednesday, India's home ministry said. Ajmal Kasab, a Pakistani citizen, was one of 10 gunmen who rampaged through the streets of India's financial capital in November 2008, killing 166 people. Kasab was hung at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday at a jail in...(size: 4.5Kb)
photo: AP / Hatem Moussa
19 Nov 2012
Gaza/Jerusalem - Israel bombed dozens of targets in the Gaza Strip on Monday and said that while it was prepared to step up its offensive by sending in troops, it preferred a diplomatic solution that would end Palestinian rocket fire. Mediator Egypt said a deal for a truce to end the fighting could be close. The leader of Hamas said it was up to...(size: 4.1Kb)
photo: AP / Emilio Morenatti
22 Nov 2012
A new battle is underway in Pakistan with its powerful military front-and-centre, but the fight is not against armed insurgents or ideological extremists - this opponent is a muscle-flexing Supreme Court. For the first time in decades, the military's iron grip over the South Asian country has been challenged, and it remains to be seen if it will...(size: 23.7Kb)
Huffington Post
22 Nov 2012
CAIRO -- The top leader of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood denounced peace efforts with Israel and urged holy war to liberate Palestinian territories on Thursday – one day after the country's president, who hails from the movement, mediated a cease-fire between Israelis and Palestinians to end eight days of fierce fighting....(size: 40.5Kb)
photo: WN / Ahmed Deeb
22 Nov 2012
By Dan Williams JERUSALEM, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Israel's Iron Dome interceptions of Palestinian rockets during eight days of Gaza fighting cost $25 million to $30 million, the government said on Thursday, arguing the U.S.-backed system was well worth the money....(size: 42.3Kb)
Huffington Post
22 Nov 2012
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Gaza residents cleared rubble and claimed victory on Thursday, just hours after an Egyptian-brokered truce between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers ended the worst cross-border fighting in four years....(size: 43.8Kb)
Huffington Post
22 Nov 2012
By Crispian Balmer JERUSALEM, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Just hours after a bomb exploded on a Tel Aviv bus, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to a truce with the very people his government blamed for the blast -- the Islamist Hamas rulers of Gaza....(size: 44.9Kb)
photo: WN / Ahmed Deeb
22 Nov 2012
JERUSALEM -- After eight days of the fiercest fighting in years, a cease-fire agreement between Israel and the Gaza Strip's Hamas rulers could usher in a new era of relations between the bitter foes. The renewed quiet on both home fronts raises questions about what those involved gained, and lost, from the fighting and its aftermath....(size: 47.2Kb)
CNN
22 Nov 2012
November 22, 2012 -- Updated 1029 GMT (1829 HKT) Palestinians celebrate news of the cease-fire with Israel in Gaza City on Wednesday, November 21. The cease-fire, announced Wednesday night in a joint news conference in Cairo with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr, took effect at 9 p.m. Israeli...(size: 32.6Kb)
CNN
22 Nov 2012
November 22, 2012 -- Updated 1225 GMT (2025 HKT) Palestinians celebrate news of the cease-fire with Israel in Gaza City on Wednesday, November 21. The cease-fire, announced Wednesday night in a joint news conference in Cairo with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr, took effect at 9 p.m. Israeli...(size: 38.3Kb)
CNN
22 Nov 2012
November 22, 2012 -- Updated 0746 GMT (1546 HKT) Palestinians celebrate news of the cease-fire with Israel in Gaza City on Wednesday, November 21. The cease-fire, announced Wednesday night in a joint news conference in Cairo with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr, took effect at 9 p.m. Israeli...(size: 41.0Kb)
Sun Sentinel
21 Nov 2012
RAMALLAH (Reuters) - Small clashes broke out between Palestinians and the Israeli army in multiple locations across the occupied West Bank on Wednesday in protests over the on-going conflict in the Gaza Strip. Medics said two Palestinians were shot in the legs by Israeli gunfire in a demonstration outside Ofer military prison near the West Bank...(size: 2.8Kb)
The Hindu
21 Nov 2012
Palestinians clashed with Israeli security forces in the occupied West Bank today as thousands marched demanding revenge for the killing of a protester the day before. Around 5,000 people rallied in the southern West Bank city of Hebron, denouncing the shooting yesterday of Hamdi Falah as he protested against Israel’s bombing...(size: 2.2Kb)
Huffington Post
21 Nov 2012
CAIRO -- The Gaza cease-fire deal reached Thursday marks a startling trajectory for Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi: an Islamist leader who refuses to talk to Israelis or even say the country's name mediated for it and finally turned himself into Israel's de facto protector....(size: 48.5Kb)
Huffington Post
21 Nov 2012
WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama is hailing a ceasefire agreement to end a week of fighting between Israel and Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip....(size: 20.2Kb)
Huffington Post
21 Nov 2012
This article is about the city of Nablus in the northern West Bank, and its predecessor, the Roman city of Flavia Neapolis. For the biblical city of Shechem, at the same location, see Shechem.
| Nablus | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Other transcription(s) | |||
| • Arabic | نابلس | ||
| • Also spelled | Nabulus (official) | ||
| • Hebrew | שכם | ||
 |
|||
|
|||
 Nablus
|
|||
| Coordinates: 32°13′13″N 35°16′44″E / 32.22028°N 35.27889°E / 32.22028; 35.27889Coordinates: 32°13′13″N 35°16′44″E / 32.22028°N 35.27889°E / 32.22028; 35.27889 | |||
| Governorate | Nablus | ||
| Founded | 72 CE | ||
| Government | |||
| • Type | City (from 1995) | ||
| • Head of Municipality | Adly Yaish | ||
| Area | |||
| • Jurisdiction | 28,564 dunams (28.6 km2 or 11.0 sq mi) | ||
| Population (2007)[1] | |||
| • Jurisdiction | 126,132 | ||
| Website | www.nablus.org | ||
Nablus (Arabic: نابلس Nāblus [næːblʊs] ( listen), Hebrew: שכם Šəḵem, Biblical Shechem ISO 259-3 Škem) is a Palestinian city in the northern West Bank, approximately 63 kilometers (39 mi) north of Jerusalem, with a population of 126,132.[1] Located in a strategic position between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, it is the capital of the Nablus Governorate and a Palestinian commercial and cultural center.
Founded by the Roman Emperor Vespasian in 72 CE as Flavia Neapolis, Nablus has been ruled by many empires over the course of its almost 2,000-year-long history. In the 5th and 6th centuries, conflict between the city's Christian and Samaritan inhabitants climaxed in a series of Samaritan revolts against Byzantine rule, before their violent quelling in 529 CE drastically dwindled that community's numbers in the city. In 636, Neapolis, along with most of Palestine, came under the rule of the Islamic Arab Caliphate of Umar ibn al-Khattab; its name Arabicized to Nablus. In 1099, the Crusaders took control of the city for less than a century, leaving its mixed Muslim, Christian and Samaritan population relatively undisturbed. After Saladin's Ayyubid forces took control of the interior of Palestine in 1187, Islamic rule was reestablished, and continued under the Mamluk and Ottoman empires to follow.
Following its incorporation into the Ottoman empire in 1517, Nablus was designated capital of the Jabal Nablus ("Mount Nablus") district. In 1657, after a series of upheavals, a number of Arab clans from the northern and eastern Levant were dispatched to the city to reassert Ottoman authority, and loyalty from amongst these clans staved off challenges to the empire's authority by rival regional leaders, like Dhaher al-Omar in the 18th century, and Muhammad Ali—who briefly ruled Nablus—in the 19th century. When Ottoman rule was firmly reestablished in 1841, Nablus prospered as a center of trade.
After the loss of the city to British forces during World War I, Nablus was incorporated into the British Mandate of Palestine in 1922, and later designated to form part of the Arab state of Palestine under the 1947 UN partition plan. The end of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War saw the city instead fall to Jordan, to which it was unilaterally annexed, until its occupation by Israel during the 1967 Six Day War.
Today, the population is predominantly Muslim, with small Christian and Samaritan minorities. Since 1995, the city has been governed by the Palestinian National Authority. In the Old City, there are a number of sites of archaeological significance, spanning the 1st to 15th centuries. The city is known for its kanafeh, a popular sweet throughout the Middle East, and soap industry.
Contents |
History[link]
Classical antiquity[link]
Further information: Samaritan Revolts and Samaria
Flavia Neapolis ("new city of the emperor Flavius") was founded in 72 CE by the Roman emperor Vespasian over an older Samaritan village, Mabartha ("the passage").[2] Located between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, the new city lay 2 kilometers (1.2 mi) west of the Biblical city of Shechem which was destroyed by the Romans that same year during the First Jewish-Roman War.[3][4] Holy places at the site of the city's founding include Joseph's Tomb and Jacob's Well. Due to the city's strategic geographic position and the abundance of water from nearby springs, Neapolis prospered, accumulating extensive territory, including the former Judean toparchy of Acraba.[3]
Insofar as the hilly topography of the site would allow, the city was built on a Roman grid plan and settled with veterans who fought in the victorious legions and other foreign colonists.[2] In the 2nd century CE, Emperor Hadrian built a grand theater in Neapolis that could seat up to 7,000 people.[5] Coins found in Nablus dating to this period depict Roman military emblems and gods and goddesses of the Greek pantheon such as Zeus, Artemis, Serapis, and Asklepios.[2] Neapolis was entirely pagan at this time.[2] Justin Martyr who was born in the city c. 100 CE, came into contact with Platonism, but not with Christians there.[2] The city flourished until the civil war between Septimius Severus and Pescennius Niger in 198–9 CE. Having sided with Niger, who was defeated, the city was temporarily stripped of its legal privileges by Severus, who designated these to Sebastia instead.[2]
In 244 CE, Philip the Arab transformed Flavius Neapolis into a Roman colony named Julia Neapolis. It retained this status until the rule of Trebonianus Gallus in 251 CE. The Encyclopaedia Judaica speculates that Christianity was dominant in the 2nd or 3rd century, with some sources positing a later date of 480 CE.[6] It is known for certain that a bishop from Nablus participated in the Council of Nicaea in 325 CE.[7] The presence of Samaritans in the city is attested to in literary and epigraphic evidence dating to the 4th century CE.[7] As yet, there is no evidence attesting to a Jewish presence in ancient Neapolis.[7]
Conflict amongst the Christian population of Neapolis emerged in 451. By this time, Neapolis was within the Palaestina Prima province under the rule of the Byzantine Empire. The tension was a result of Monophysite Christian attempts to prevent the return of the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Juvenal, to his episcopal see.[3] However, the conflict did not grow into civil strife.
As tensions among the Christians of Neapolis decreased, tensions between the Christian community and the Samaritans grew dramatically. In 484, the city became the site of a deadly encounter between the two groups, provoked by rumors that the Christians intended to transfer the remains of Aaron's sons and grandsons Eleazar, Ithamar and Phinehas. Samaritans reacted by entering the cathedral of Neapolis, killing the Christians inside and severing the fingers of the bishop Terebinthus. Terebinthus then fled to Constantinople, requesting an army garrison to prevent further attacks. As a result of the revolt, the Byzantine emperor Zeno erected a church dedicated to Mary on Mount Gerizim. He also forbade the Samaritans to travel to the mountain to celebrate their religious ceremonies, and confiscated their synagogue there. These actions by the emperor fueled Samaritan anger towards the Christians further.[3]
Thus, the Samaritans rebelled again under the rule of emperor Anastasius I, reoccupying Mount Gerizim, which was subsequently reconquered by the Byzantine governor of Edessa, Procopius. A third Samartian revolt which took place under the leadership of Julianus ben Sabar in 529 was perhaps the most violent. Neapolis' bishop Ammonas was murdered and the city's priests were hacked into pieces and then burned together with the relics of saints. The forces of Emperor Justinian I were sent in to quell the revolt, which ended with the slaughter of the majority of the Samaritan population in the city.[3]
Early Islamic era[link]
File:Nablus Great Mosque-cropped.JPG
Minaret and entrance of 10th century Great Mosque of Nablus, 1908
Neapolis, along with most of Palestine, was conquered by the Muslims under Khaled ibn al-Walid—a general of the Rashidun army of Umar ibn al-Khattab—in 636 after the Battle of Yarmouk.[3][4] The city's name was retained in its Arabicized form, Nabulus. The town prevailed as an important trade center during the centuries of Islamic Arab rule under the Umayyad, Abbasid and Fatimid dynasties. Under Muslim rule, Nablus contained a diverse population of Arabs and Persians, Muslims, Samaritans, Christians and Jews.[3] In the 10th-century, the Arab geographer al-Muqaddasi, described it as abundant of olive trees, with a large marketplace, a finely paved Great Mosque, houses built of stone, a stream running through the center of the city, and notable mills.[8] He also noted that it was nicknamed "Little Damascus."[5][8] At the time, the linen produced in Nablus was of well-known throughout the Old World.[9]
Crusader period[link]
The city was captured by Crusaders in 1099, under the command of Prince Tancred, and renamed Naples.[3] Though the Crusaders extorted many supplies from the population for their troops who were en route to Jerusalem, they did not sack the city, presumably because of the large Christian population there.[10] Nablus became part of the royal domain of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. The Muslim, Eastern Orthodox Christian, and Samaritan populations remained in the city, and were joined by some Crusaders who settled therein to take advantage of the city's abundant resources. In 1120, the Crusaders convened the Council of Nablus out of which was issued the first written laws for the kingdom.[3] They converted the Samaritan synagogue in Nablus into a church.[10] The Samaritan community built a new synagogue in the 1130s.[11]
During the second half of Crusader reign in Nablus, Muslim forces launched incursions to regain control of the city. In 1137, Arab and Turkish troops stationed in Damascus raided Nablus, killing many Christians and burning down the city's churches. However, they were unsuccessful in retaking the city.[3] Queen Melisende of Jerusalem resided in Nablus from 1150 to 1161, after she was granted control over the city in order to resolve a dispute with her son Baldwin III. Crusaders began building Christian institutions in Nablus, including a church dedicated to the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus, and in 1170 they erected a hospice for pilgrims.[3]
Ayyubid and Mamluk rule[link]
Crusader rule came to an end in 1187, when the Ayyubids led by Saladin captured the city. According to a liturgical manuscript in Syriac, Latin Christians fled Nablus, but the original Eastern Orthodox Christian inhabitants remained. Syrian geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi (1179–1229), wrote that Ayyubid Nablus was a "celebrated city in Filastin (Palestine)... having wide lands and a fine district." He also mentions the large Samaritan population in the city.[12]
After its recapture by the Muslims, the Great Mosque of Nablus, which had become a church under Crusader rule, was restored as a mosque by the Ayyubids, who also built a mausoleum in the old city.[6] In 1242, the Great Mosque was burnt by the Templar Knights during a three-day raid in which they killed 1,000 people and took many women and children who were then sold in the slave markets of Acre.[13][14] The Samaritan synagogue, built in 362 CE by the high priest Akbon and converted into a church by the Crusaders, was converted into al-Khadra Mosque in 1244; and two other Crusader churches became the an-Nasr Mosque and al-Masakim Mosque during that century.[3][10]
The Mamluk dynasty gained control of Nablus in 1260 and during their reign, they built numerous mosques and schools.[4] Under Mamluk rule, Nablus possessed running water, many Turkish bathes and exported olive oil and soap to Egypt, Syria, the Hejaz, several Mediterranean islands, and the Arabian Desert. The city's olive oil was also used in the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus. Ibn Battuta, the Arab explorer, visited Nablus in 1355, and described it as a city "full of trees and streams and full of olives." He noted that the city grew and exported carob jam to Cairo and Damascus.[12]
Ottoman era[link]
Nablus came under the rule of the Ottoman Empire in 1517, along with the whole of Palestine. The Ottomans divided Palestine into six sanjaqs ("districts"): Safad, Jenin, Jerusalem, Gaza, Ajlun and Nablus, all of which were part of Ottoman Syria. These five sanjaqs were subdistricts of the Vilayet of Damascus. Sanjaq Nablus was further subdivided into five nahiya (subdistricts), in addition to the city itself. The Ottomans did not attempt to restructure the political configuration of the region on the local level such that the borders of the nahiya were drawn to coincide with the historic strongholds of certain families. Nablus was only one among a number of local centers of power within Jabal Nablus, and its relations with the surrounding villages, such as Beita and Aqraba, were partially mediated by the rural-based chiefs of the nahiya.[15] During the 16th-century, the population was predominantly Muslim, with Jewish, Samaritan and Christian minorities.[3][16][17]
After decades of upheavals and rebellions mounted by Arab tribes in the Middle East, the Ottomans attempted to reassert centralized control over the Arab vilayets. In 1657, they sent an expeditionary force of local Ottoman-aligned Arab families based in various Syrian cities to pacify Nablus. In return for their services, the families were granted agricultural lands around the villages of Jabal Nablus. The Ottomans, fearing that the new Arab land holders would establish independent bases of power, dispersed the land plots to separate and distant locations within Jabal Nablus to avoid clusters of clans. The 1657 campaign succeeded and the Syrian Arab families began to have a foothold in Nablus' affairs. The largest family were the Nimrs, who originated from villages surrounding Hama and Homs. The other two prominent families were the Jarrars from Balqa and the Touqans from northern Syria. Eventually gaining the role of nahiya chiefs, they began intermarrying with local merchant and leading religious families. Thus, these new families were integrated into Nablus' population. Under an arrangement in 1723, the Touqans and the Nimrs shared and trade leadership of Nablus, and the Jarrars became the chiefs of the nahiya of Jabal Nablus.[15]
In the mid-18th-century, Dhaher al-Omar, a Bedouin ruler of the Galilee and Acre become a dominant figure in northern Palestine. In order to build up his army, he strove to gain a monopoly over the cotton and olive oil trade of the Levant, which Jabal Nablus fueled. In 1771, during the Mamluk invasion of Syria, al-Omar aligned himself with the Mamluks and besieged Nablus, but did not succeed in taking the city. In 1773, he tried again without success. Nevertheless, from a political perspective, the sieges led to a decline in the importance of the city in favor of Acre. Al-Omar's successor, Jezzar Pasha, maintained Acre's dominance over Nablus. After his reign ended in 1804, Nablus regained its autonomy, and the Touqans, who represented a principal opposing force, rose to power.[19]
Egyptian rule and Ottoman revival[link]
After Egypt declared independence from Ottoman rule under the leadership of Muhammad Ali, they went on to conquer Palestine in 1831–32. A repressive policy of conscription and taxation was instituted which led to a revolt launched by the a'ayan (prominent) Arab clans of Nablus, Hebron and the Jerusalem-Jaffa area. On May 19, 1834, the clans, led by Qasim al-Ahmad—the chief of nahiya Jamma'in—initiated a Palestinian Arab revolt when he notified Egyptian officials that Palestinian families would no longer supply the Egyptian army with troops. Governor Ibrahim Pasha responded by sending Egyptian forces into the rebelling cities, thus triggering armed conflict with the clans. Nablus sent hundreds of rebels to attack Jerusalem, aided by the Abu Ghosh clan, and they conquered the city on May 31, but were routed out by Ibrahim's forces the next month. The Egyptians then forced the heads of the Nablus clans to leave for nearby villages,[20] and executed Qasim al-Ahmad and his two eldest sons.[19]
The Egyptian occupation of Palestine resulted in the destruction of Acre and thus, the political importance of Nablus increased. The Ottomans wrested back control of Palestine from the Egyptians in 1840–41. As a result, the Abd al-Hadi clan, who originated in Arrabah in the Sahl Arraba region in northern Samaria, rose to prominence. Loyal allies of Jezzar Pasha and the Touqans, they gained the governorship of Jabal Nablus and other sanjaqs.[19]
Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, Nablus was the principal trade and manufacturing center in Ottoman Syria. Its economic activity and regional leadership position surpassed that of Jerusalem and the coastal cities of Jaffa and Acre. Olive oil was the primary product of Nablus and fueled other related industries such as soap-making and basket weaving.[21] The city also was the top producer of cotton in the Levant, topping the production from northern cities such as Damascus.[22] Jabal Nablus enjoyed a greater degree of autonomy than other sanjaqs under Ottoman control, probably because the city was the capital of a hilly region, in which there were no "foreigners" who held any military or bureaucratic posts. Thus, Nablus remained outside the direct "supervision" of the Ottoman government.[21]
Twentieth century[link]
File:Nablus 1918.jpg
Nablus in 1918
The Jordan Valley earthquake of 1927 destroyed many of the Nablus' historic buildings, including the an-Nasr mosque.[23] Though they were subsequently rebuilt by Haj Amin al-Husayni's Supreme Muslim Council in the mid-1930s, their previous "picturesque" character was lost. During British rule, Nablus emerged as a site of local resistance and the Old City quarter of Qaryun was demolished by the British during the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine.[24]
Jewish immigration did not significantly impact the demographic composition of Nablus, and it was slated for inclusion in the Arab state envisioned by the United Nations General Assembly's 1947 partition plan for Palestine.[25]
After Israel declared its independence in May 1948, Transjordan occupied Nablus. Thousands of Palestinian Arabs, fleeing towns captured by Israel, settled in refugee camps around Nablus and in Nablus itself. Three such camps still located within the city limits today are Ein Beit al-Ma', Balata and Askar. The Jordanian rule lasted until the 1967 war. The Six-Day War ended in a swift Israeli victory and the occupation of Nablus. Many Israeli settlements were built around Nablus during the 1980s and early 1990s.
Palestinian control[link]
Jurisdiction over the city was handed over to the Palestinian National Authority on December 12, 1995, as a result of the Oslo Accords Interim Agreement on the West Bank.[26]
Nablus was a central flashpoint of violence between the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Palestinian militant groups. The level of violence dramatically increased from 2000 at the start of the Second Intifada. The city and the refugee camps of Balata and Askar constituted the center of "knowhow" for the production and operation of the rockets in the West Bank.[27]
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 522 residents of Nablus and surrounding refugee camps, including civilians, were killed and 3,104 injured during IDF military operations against militants during the Second Intifada from 2000 to 2005. Israeli soldiers and settlers have also been killed by Palestinian militants from Nablus.[6] In April 2002, following the Passover massacre — an attack by Palestinian militants that killed 30 Israeli civilians attending a seder dinner at the Park Hotel in Netanya — Israel launched Operation Defensive Shield, a major military operation in which Nablus was one of the main targets. At least 80 Palestinians were killed in Nablus during the operation and several houses were destroyed or severely damaged. The IDF also imposed a curfew on Nablus lasting between April 4 and April 22. IDF forces reentered Nablus during Operation Determined Path in June 2002, remaining inside the city until the end of September. Over those three months, there had been more than 70 days of full 24-hour curfews.[28]
According to Gush Shalom, IDF bulldozers caused damage to al-Khadra Mosque, the Great Mosque, al-Satoon Mosque and Greek Orthodox Church in 2002. Some 60 houses were destroyed, and parts of the stone-paving in the old city were damaged. The al-Shifa hammam was hit by three rockets from Apache helicopters. The eastern entrance of the Khan al-Wikala (old market) and three soap factories were destroyed in F-16 bombings. The cost of the damage was estimated at $80 million US.[29]
Geography[link]
Nablus lies in a strategic position at a junction between two ancient commercial roads; one linking the Sharon coastal plain to the Jordan valley, the other linking Nablus to the Galilee in the north, and the biblical Judea to the south through the mountains.[30] The city stands at an elevation of around 550 meters (1,800 ft) above sea level,[31] in a narrow valley running roughly east-west between two mountains: Mount Ebal, the northern mountain, is the taller peak at 940 meters (3,080 ft), while Mount Gerizim, the southern mountain, is 881 meters (2,890 ft) high.
Nablus is located 42 kilometers (26 mi) east of Tel Aviv, Israel, 110 kilometers (68 mi) west of Amman, Jordan and 63 kilometers (39 mi) north of Jerusalem.[31] Nearby cities and towns include Huwara and Aqraba to the south, Beit Furik to the southeast, Tammun to the northeast, Asira ash-Shamaliya to the north and Kafr Qaddum and Tell to the west.[32]
Old City[link]
See also: Syro-Palestinian archaeology#Nablus
In the center of Nablus lies the old city, composed of six major quarters: Yasmina, Gharb, Qaryun, Aqaba, Qaysariyya and Habala. Habala is the largest quarter and its population growth led to the development of two smaller neighborhoods: al-Arda and Tal al-Kreim. The old city is densely populated and prominent families include the Nimrs, Touqans, and Abd al-Hadis. The large fortress-like compound of the Abd al-Hadi Palace built in the 19th century is located in Qaryun. The Nimr Hall and the Touqan Palace are located in the center of the old city. There are several mosques in the Old City: The Great Mosque of Nablus, an-Nasr Mosque, al-Tina Mosque, al-Khadra Mosque, al-Hanbali, al-Anbia, Ajaj, etc.[5]
There are six hamaams (Turkish baths) in the Old City, the most prominent of them being al-Shifa and al-Hana. Al-Shifa Hamaam was built by the Touqans in 1624. Al-Hana in Yasmina, was the last hamaam built in the city in the 19th century. It was closed in 1928 but restored and reopened in 1994.[5] Several leather tanneries, souks, pottery and textile workshops line the Old City streets.[31][33] There are a number of historic monuments in the old city including the Khan al-Tujjar and the al-Manara Clock Tower built in 1906.[31]
Climate[link]
The relatively temperate Mediterranean climate brings hot, dry summers and cool, rainy winters to Nablus. Spring arrives around March–April and the hottest months in Nablus are July and August with the average high being 28.9 °C (84 °F). The coldest month is January with temperatures usually at 3.9 °C (39 °F). Rain generally falls between October and March, with annual precipitation rates being approximately 23.2 inches (589 mm).[31]
| Climate data for Nabulus | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Average high °C (°F) | 11.7 (53) |
13.3 (56) |
16.1 (61) |
21.1 (70) |
25.0 (77) |
27.8 (82) |
28.9 (84) |
28.9 (84) |
27.8 (82) |
25.0 (77) |
18.9 (66) |
13.9 (57) |
21.53 (70.8) |
| Average low °C (°F) | 3.9 (39) |
4.4 (40) |
6.1 (43) |
9.4 (49) |
12.2 (54) |
15.0 (59) |
17.2 (63) |
17.2 (63) |
16.1 (61) |
13.9 (57) |
9.4 (49) |
5.6 (42) |
10.87 (51.6) |
| Precipitation mm (inches) | 142.2 (5.6) |
114.3 (4.5) |
99.1 (3.9) |
30.5 (1.2) |
2.5 (0.1) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
22.9 (0.9) |
68.6 (2.7) |
109.2 (4.3) |
589 (23.2) |
| Source: The Weather Channel[34] | |||||||||||||
Demographics[link]
| Year | Population |
|---|---|
| 1596 | 4,300[17] |
| 1849 | 20,000[35] |
| 1860 | 15,000[36] |
| 1922 | 15,947[37] |
| 1931 | 17,498[37] |
| 1945 | 23,250[38] |
| 1961 | 45,773[39] |
| 1987 | 93,000[40] |
| 1997 | 100,034[41] |
| 2007 | 126,232[1] |
In 1596, the population consisted of 806 Muslim households, 20 Samaritan households, 18 Christian households, and 15 Jewish households.[17] Local Ottoman authorities recorded a population of around 20,000 residents in Nablus in 1849.[35] In 1867 American visitors found the town to have a population of 4,000 'the chief part of whom are Mohammedans', with some Jews and Christians and 'about 150 Samaritans'.[42] In the 1922 British census of Palestine, there was a total of 15,947 inhabitants, rising to 17,498 at the 1931 census of Palestine.[37]
According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), Nablus had a population of 126,232 in 2007.[1] In the PCBS's 1997 census, the city had a population of 100,034, including 23,397 refugees, accounting for about 24% of the city's residents.[43] Nablus' Old City had a population of 12,000 in 2006.[5] The population of Nablus city comprises 40% of its governorate's inhabitants.[1]
Approximately half of population is under 20 years old. In 1997, the age distribution of the city's inhabitants was 28.4% under the age of 10, 20.8% from 10 to 19, 17.7% from 20–29, 18% from 30 to 44, 11.1% from 45 to 64 and 3.7% above the age of 65. The gender distribution was 50,945 males (50.92%) and 49,089 females (49.07%).[44]
Religion[link]
In 891 CE, during the early centuries of Islamic rule, Nablus had a religiously diverse population of Samaritans, local Muslims and Christians. Arab geographer Al-Dimashqi, recorded that under the rule of the Mamluk Dynasty (Muslim Dynsaty based in Egypt), local Muslims, Samaritans, Orthodox Christians, Catholics and Jews populated the city.[12] At the 1931 census, the population was counted as 16,483 Muslims, 533 Christians, 6 Jews, 7 Druses and 160 Samaritans.[45]
The majority of the inhabitants today are Muslim, but there are small Christian and Samaritan communities as well. Much of the local Palestinian Muslim population of Nablus is believed to be descended from Samaritans who converted to Islam. Certain Nabulsi family names are associated with Samaritan ancestry – Muslimani, Yaish, and Shakshir among others.[46] According to the historian Fayyad Altif, large numbers of Samaritans converted due to persecution and because the monotheistic nature of Islam made it easy for them to accept it.[47]
In 1967, there were about 3,500 Christians of various denominations in Nablus, but that figure dwindled to about 650 in 2008.[48] Of the Christian populace, there are seventy Orthodox Christian families, about thirty Catholic (Roman Catholic & Eastern Melkite Catholic) families and thirty Anglican families. Most Christians used to live in the suburb of Rafidia in the western part of the city.[5]
There are seventeen Islamic monuments and eleven mosques in the Old City.[6][49] Nine of the mosques were established before the 15th century.[6] In addition to Muslim houses of worship, Nablus contains an Orthodox church dedicated Saint Justin Martyr,[5] built in 1898 and the ancient Samaritan synagogue, which is still in use.[49]
Economy[link]
Historic[link]
Beginning in the early 16th century, trade networks connecting Nablus to Damascus and Cairo were supplemented by the establishment of trading posts in the Hejaz and Gulf regions to the south and east, as well as in the Anatolian Peninsula and the Mediterranean islands of Crete and Cyprus. Nablus also developed trade relations with Aleppo, Mosul, and Baghdad.[33]
The Ottoman government ensured adequate safety and funding for the annual pilgrimage caravan (qafilat al-hajj) from Damascus to the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina. This policy benefited Nablus economically. Pilgrimage caravans became the key factor in the fiscal and political relationship between Nablus and the central government. For a brief period in the early 17th century, the governor of Nablus, Farrukh Pasha Ibn Abdullah, was appointed leader of the pilgrimage caravan (amir al-hajj), and he constructued a large commercial compound in Nablus for that purpose.[33]
In 1882, there were 32 soap factories and 400 looms exporting their products throughout the Middle East.[5][50] Nablus exported three-fourths of its soap — the city's most important commodity — to Cairo by caravan through Gaza and the Sinai Peninsula, and by sea through the ports of Jaffa and Gaza. From Egypt, and particularly from Cairo and Damietta, Nablus merchants imported mainly rice, sugar, and spices, as well as linen, cotton, and wool textiles. Cotton, soap, olive oil, and textiles were exported by Nablus merchants to Damascus, from whence silks, high-quality textiles, copper, and a number luxury items, such as jewellery were imported.[33]
With regard to the local economy, agriculture was the major component. Outside of the city limits, there were extensive fields of olive groves, fig and pomegranate orchards and grape vineyards that covered the area's slopes. Crops, such as tomatoes, cucumbers, melons and mulukhiyya were grown in the fields, vegetable gardens, and grain mills scattered across central Samaria.[33] Nablus was also the largest producer of cotton in the Levant, producing over 225,000 kilograms of the product by 1837.[22]
Modern era[link]
Nablus has a bustling modern commercial center with restaurants, and a shopping mall.[51] Traditional industries continue to operate in Nablus, such as the production of soap, olive oil, and handicrafts. Other industries include furniture production, tile production, stone quarrying, textile manufacturing and leather tanning. The city is also a regional trading center for live produce. Most of these industries are centered in the old city.[31]
The Vegetable Oil Industry Co. is a Nablus factory that produces refined vegetable oils, especially olive oil, and vegetable butter from the factory is exported to Jordan.[31] The al-Huda Textiles factory is also located in Nablus. In 2000, the factory produced 500 pieces of clothing daily; however, production plummeted to 150–200 pieces daily in 2002. Al-Huda mainly imports textiles from China and exports finished products to Israel.[6] There are eight restaurants in the city and four hotels — the largest being al-Qasr and al-Yasmeen.[52] Nablus' once thriving soap industry has been largely isolated due to difficult transportation conditions stemming from West Bank closures and IDF incursions. Today, there are only two soap factories still operating in the city.[53]
Before 2000, 13.4% of Nablus' residents worked in Israel, with the figure dropping to 4.7% in 2004. The city's manufacturing sector made up 15.7% of the economy in 2004, a drop from 21% in 2000. Since 2000, most of Nablus' workforce has been employed in agriculture and local trade.[6] The city's unemployment rates have increased dramatically in recent years, rising from 14.2% in 1997 to an estimate of 60% in 2004. Unemployment in the old city and in the refugee camps is estimated to be as high as 80%. Due to the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Nablus has been closed off by the IDF. The city's encirclement with checkpoints is cited by the United Nations as a reason for high unemployment and a "devastated" economy.[54] Many businesses have either moved from or have been established outside Nablus, beyond the tight ring of closures around the city.[55]
Nablus is home to the Palestine Securities Exchange (PSE) — the only securities exchange in the Palestinian territories — and the al-Quds Financial Index. They are housed in the al-Qasr building in the Rafidia suburb of the city. The PSE's first trading session took place on February 19, 1997. In 2007, the capitalization of the PSE topped 3.5 million Jordanian dinars.[5]
Education[link]
According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), in 1997, 44,926 were enrolled in schools (41.2% in primary school, 36.2% in secondary school, and 22.6% in high school). About 19.8% of high school students received bachelor diplomas or higher diplomas.[56] In 2006, there were 234 schools and 93,925 students in the Nablus Governorate; 196 schools are run the by Education Ministry of the Palestinian National Authority, 14 by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and 24 are private schools.[57]
Nablus is also home to an-Najah National University, the largest Palestinian university in the West Bank. Founded in 1918 by the an-Najah Nabulsi School, it became a college in 1941 and a university in 1977. An-Najah was closed down by Israeli authorities during the First Intifada, but reopened in 1991. Today, the university has three campuses in Nablus with over 16,500 students and 300 professors. The university's faculties include seven in the humanities and nine in the sciences.[58]
Health care[link]
There are six hospitals in Nablus, the four major ones being al-Ittihad, St. Lukes, al-Watani(the National) and the Rafidia Surgery Hospital. The latter, located in Rafidia, a suburb in western Nablus, is the largest hospital in the city. Al-Watani Hospital specializes in oncology services.[6] The Anglican St. Lukes hospital and the National Hospital were built in 1900 and 1910 respectively.[31][59] In addition to hospitals, Nablus contains the al-Rahma and at-Tadamon clinics, the al-Razi medical center, the Amal Center for Rehabilitation and 68 pharmacies.[59] In addition to that, in 2001, Nablus Speciality Hospital was built, in which it is specialized in open heart surgery, angiograms and angioplasties.
Culture and arts[link]
Nablus and its culture enjoy a certain renown throughout the Palestinian Territories and the Arab world with significant and unique contributions to Palestinian culture, cuisine and costume. Nabulsi, meaning "from Nablus", is used to describe items such as handicrafts (e.g. Nabulsi soap) and food products (e.g. Nabulsi cheese) that are made in Nablus or in the traditional Nablus style.
Traditional costume[link]
Main article: Palestinian costumes
Nablus costume was of a distinctive style that employed colorful combinations of various fabrics. Due to its position as important trade center with a flourishing souk ("market"), in late 19th century, there was a large choice of fabrics available in the city, from Damascus and Aleppo silk to Manchester cottons and calicos. Similar in construction to the garments worn in the Galilee, both long and short Turkish style jackets were worn over the thob ("robe"). For daily wear, thobs were often made of white cotton or linen, with a preference for winged sleeves. In the summer, costumes often incorporated interwoven striped bands of red, green and yellow on the front and back, with appliqué and braidwork popularly decorating the qabbeh ("square chest piece").[60]
Cuisine[link]
Nablus is one of the Palestinian cities that sustained elite classes, fostering the development of a culture of "high cuisine", such as that of Damascus or Baghdad. The city is home to a number of food products well-known throughout the Levant, the Arab world and the former provinces of the Ottoman Empire.
Kanafeh is the most famed Nabulsi sweet. Originating in Nablus during the 15th century, by 1575, its recipe was exported throughout the Ottoman Empire — which controlled Palestine at the time. Kanafeh is made of several fine shreds of pastry noodles with honey-sweetened cheese in the center. The top layer of the pastry is usually dyed orange with food coloring and sprinkled with crushed pistachios. Though it is now made throughout the Middle East, to the present day, kanafeh Nabulsi enjoys continued fame, partly due to its use of a white-brine cheese called jibneh Nabulsi. Boiled sugar is used as a syrup for kanafeh.[61]
Other sweets made in Nablus include baklawa, "Tamriya", mabrumeh and ghuraybeh,[62] a plain pastry made of butter, flour and sugar in an "S"-shape, or shaped as fingers or bracelets.[63]
Cultural centers[link]
There are three cultural centers in Nablus. The Child Cultural Center (CCC), founded in 1998 and built in a renovated historic building, operates an art and drawing workshop, a stage for play performances, a music room, a children's library and a multimedia lab.[64] The Children Happiness Center (CHC) was also established in 1998. Its main activities include promoting Palestinian culture through social events, dabke classes and field trips. In addition to national culture, the CHC has a football and chess team.[65] The Nablus municipal government established its own cultural center in 2003, called the Nablus Municipality Cultural Center (NMCC) aimed at establishing and developing educational facilities.[66]
Soap production[link]
Main article: Nabulsi soap
Nabulsi soap or sabon nabulsi is a type of castile soap produced only in Nablus[67] and made of three primary ingredients: virgin olive oil, water, and a sodium[68] compound.[69] Since the 10th century, Nabulsi soap has enjoyed a reputation for being a fine product,[70] and has been exported across the Arab world and to Europe.[69] Though the number of soap factories decreased from a peak of thirty in the 19th century to only two today, efforts to preserve this important part of Palestinian and Nabulsi cultural heritage continue.[69][70]
Made in a cube-like shape about 1.5 inches (3.8 cm) tall and 2.25 by 2.25 inches (5.7 by 5.7 cm) wide, the color of Nabulsi soap is like that of "the page of an old book."[70] The cubes are stamped on the top with the seal of the factory that produces it.[71] The soap's sodium compound came from the barilla plant. Prior to the 1860s, in the summertime, the barilla would be placed in towering stacks, burned, and then the ashes and coals would be gathered into sacks, and transported to Nablus from the area of modern-day Jordan in large caravans. In the city, the ashes and coals were pounded into a fine natural alkaline soda powder called qilw.[70] Today, qilw is still used in combination with lime.
Local government[link]
The city of Nablus is the muhfaza (seat) of the Nablus Governorate, and is governed by a municipal council made up of fifteen elected members, including the mayor.[72]
The two primary political parties in the municipal council are Hamas and Fatah. In the 2005 Palestinian municipal elections, the Reform and Change list representing the Hamas faction won 73.4% of the vote, gaining the majority of the municipal seats (13). Palestine Tomorrow, representing Fatah, gained the remaining two seats with 13.0% of the vote. Other political parties, such as the Palestinian People's Party and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine failed to gain any seats in the council, though they each received over 1,000 votes.[73]
Elected Candidates of the Nablus municipal elections of 2005[72]
| Rank | List | Candidate name |
| 1 | Reform and Change (Hamas) | Adly Yaish |
| 2 | Reform and Change (Hamas) | Hafez Shaheen |
| 3 | Reform and Change (Hamas) | Nihad Masri |
| 4 | Reform and Change (Hamas) | Mahdi Hanbali |
| 5 | Palestine Tomorrow (Fatah) | Yahya Arafat |
| 6 | Reform and Change (Hamas) | Kholood Masri |
| 7 | Reform and Change (Hamas) | Majeda Fadda |
| 8 | Reform and Change (Hamas) | Rula Kanaan |
| 9 | Reform and Change (Hamas) | Husam Eddine Kataloni |
| 10 | Reform and Change (Hamas) | Anan Ghazal |
| 11 | Reform and Change (Hamas) | Ghassan Johari |
| 12 | Reform and Change (Hamas) | Mazen al-Sharif |
| 13 | Reform and Change (Hamas) | Fayyad Aghbar |
| 14 | Reform and Change (Hamas) | Abdel Jabbar Adel Musa "Dweikat" |
| 15 | Palestine Tomorrow (Fatah) | Sa’id Hindiyyeh |
Mayors[link]
Main article: List of mayors of Nablus
Modern mayorship in Nablus began in 1869 with the appointment of Sheikh Mohammad Tuffaha by the Ottoman governor of Syria/Palestine. On July 2, 1980, Bassam Shaka, then mayor of Nablus, lost both of his legs as a result of a car bombing carried out by Israeli militants affiliated with the Gush Emunim Underground movement.[74]
The current mayor, Adly Yaish, a Hamas member, was arrested by the Israel Defense Forces in May 2007, during Operation Summer Rains, launched in retaliation for the kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit by Hamas.[75] Municipal council members Abdel Jabbar Adel Musa "Dweikat", Majida Fadda, Khulood El-Masri, and Mahdi Hanbali were also arrested.[72] He spent 15 months in prison without being charged.[76]
Elections for local council in Nablus are overdue, as the four year term of the council expired in December 2009. While elections in the West Bank were scheduled for 17 July 2010, they were canceled due to Fatah's lack of agreement on list of candidates. Nablus was one of the most important municipalities where Fatah failed to resolve internal conflict that could have resulted in two competing Fatah lists: one headed by Bassam Shaka and one headed by Amin Maqboul.[77]
Municipal services[link]
In 1997, 99.7% of Nablus' 18,003 households were connected to electricity through a public network. Prior to its establishment in 1957, electricity came from private generators. Today, the majority of the inhabitants of 18 nearby towns, in addition to the city's inhabitants, are connected to the Nablus network.[78]
The majority of households are connected to a public sewage system (93%), with the reminaing 7% connected through cesspits.[79] The sewage system, established n the early 1950s, also connects the refugee camps of Balata, Askar and Ein Beit al-Ma'.[80] Pipe water is provided for 100% of the city's households, primarily through a public network (99.3%), but some residents receive water through a private system (0.7%).[79] The water network was established in 1932 by the British authorities and is fed by water from four nearby wells: Deir Sharaf, Far'a, al-Badan and Audala.[80]
Fire department[link]
Nablus is one of the few cities in the West Bank to have a fire department, which was founded in 1958. At that time, the "fire brigade" (as it was called) was composed of five members and one extinguishing vehicle. In 2007, the department had seventy members and over twenty vehicles. Until 1986, It was responsible for the all of the northern West Bank, but today it only covers the Nablus and Tubas Governorates. From 1997 to 2006, Nablus' fire department has extinguished 15,346 fires.[81]
Transportation[link]
In the early 20th century, Nablus was the southernmost station of a spur from the Jezreel Valley railway's Afula station, itself a spur from the Hejaz railway. The extension of the railway to Nablus was built in 1911–12.[82] During the beginning of the British Mandate, one weekly train was operated from Haifa to Nablus via Afula and Jenin. The railway was destroyed during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War and never rebuilt.
The main Beersheba–Nazareth road running through the middle of the West Bank ends in Nablus. The city is connected to Tulkarm, Qalqilya and Jenin through western offshoots from the main road. Until 2011, Israel maintained checkpoints, such as Huwwara Checkpoint, at the outskirts of Nablus to prevent suicide bombings and smuggling of arms into Israel. [83] The checkpoints were established by Israel after the signing of the Oslo Accords, which gave Palestinians complete authority over the city and its vicinity. From January 2002, buses, taxis, trucks and private citizens required a permit from the Israeli military authorities to leave and enter Nablus.[6]
The nearest airport is the Ben Gurion International Airport in Lod, Israel, but because of restrictions governing the entry of Palestinians to Israel, residents often travel to Amman, Jordan to use the Queen Alia International Airport. Taxis are the main form of public transportation within Nablus and the city contains 28 taxi offices and garages.[84]
Sports[link]
The Nablus football stadium has a capacity of 8,000.[85] The stadium is home to the city's football club al-Ittihad, which is in the main league of the Palestinian Territories.[86] The club participated in the Middle East Mediterranean Scholar Athlete Games in 2000.[87]
International relations[link]
Twin towns and sister cities[link]
Nablus is twinned, or has sister city relationships with:[88]
See also[link]
References[link]
- ^ a b c d e 2007 Locality Population Statistics. Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS).
- ^ a b c d e f Negev and Gibson, 2005, p. 175.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m "Neapolis – (Nablus)". Studium Biblicum Franciscanum – Jerusalem. 19 December 2000. http://www.christusrex.org/www1/ofm/mad/discussion/035discuss.html. Retrieved 2008-04-19.
- ^ a b c "History of Nablus". Dundee–Nablus Twinning Association. http://www.dundee-nablus.org.uk/nablushistory.html. Retrieved 2008-04-24.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Semplici, Andrea and Boccia, Mario. – Nablus, At the Foot of the Holy Mountain Med Cooperation, p.6.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i "Nablus after Five Years of Conflict" (PDF). United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. http://www.humanitarianinfo.org/opt/docs/UN/OCHA/OCHAoPt_NblsRprt05_En.pdf. Retrieved 2008-04-27.
- ^ a b c Negev and Gibson, 2005, p. 176.
- ^ a b Muqaddasi, p. 55.
- ^ Runciman, Steven (1987). A History of the Crusades: The Kingdom of Acre and the later Crusades (Reprint, illustrated ed.). CUP Archive. p. 353. ISBN 978-0-521-34772-3. http://books.google.ca/books?id=mrw8AAAAIAAJ.
- ^ a b c Anderson, Robert T.; Giles, Terry (2002). The Keepers: an introduction to the history and culture of the Samaritans (Illustrated ed.). Hendrickson Publishers. p. 72. ISBN 1-56563-519-1, 9781565635197. http://books.google.ca/books?id=TIcWAoiRhgAC.
- ^ Riley-Smith, Jonathan (2005). The crusades: a history (2nd, illustrated ed.). Continuum International Publishing Group. p. 70. ISBN 0-8264-7270-2, 9780826472700. http://books.google.ca/books?id=Y-noOrtrox4C.
- ^ a b c Le Strange, 1890, pp.511–515.
- ^ Pringle, Denys (1993). The Churches of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem: A Corpus. Cambridge University Press. p. 98. ISBN 0-521-39037-0. http://books.google.com/?id=2Y0tA0xLzwEC&pg=RA1-PA3&lpg=RA1-PA3&dq=Lajjun+village.
- ^ Humphreys, R. Stephen (1977). From Saladin to the Mongols: the Ayyubids of Damascus, 1193–1260. SUNY Press. p. 271. ISBN 0-87395-263-4, 9780873952637. http://books.google.com/?id=JfXl5kvabhoC&pg=PA271&dq=nablus+templar+raid+1,000&cd=2#v=onepage&q=nablus%20templar%20raid%201%2C000.
- ^ a b Doumani, 1995, Chapter: The 1657 Campaign.
- ^ B. Lewis, Studies in the Ottoman Archives—I, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. 16, No. 3 (1954), 469–501.
- ^ a b c Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p.5.
- ^ H. B. Tristram: The Land of Israel: Travels in Palestine, p. 142, 1865
- ^ a b c Doumani, 1995, Chapter: Egyptian rule, 1831–1840.
- ^ Isseroff, Ami. "The Growth of Palestinian Arab Identity". MidEastWeb. http://www.mideastweb.org/palrevolt.htm. Retrieved 2008-04-24.
- ^ a b Doumani, 1995, Chapter: Introduction.
- ^ a b Doumani, 1995, Chapter: Cotton Production in Jabal Nablus.
- ^ Damage Caused By Landslides During the Earthquakes of 1837 and 1927 in the Galilee Region, By D. Wachs and D. Levitte, MINISTRY OF ENERGY AND INFRASTRUCTURE, Report HYDRO/5/78 – Jerusalem – June 1978 [1]
- ^ Doumani, 1995, Chapter: Family, Culture, and Trade.
- ^ "United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181: The Arab State". The Avalon Project at Yale Law School. http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/un/res181.htm. Retrieved 2008-04-20.
- ^ "Palestine Facts 1994–1995". Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs (PASSIA). http://www.passia.org/palestine_facts/chronology/19941995.htm. Retrieved 2008-04-24.
- ^ "The Terrorist Infrastructure in Nablus – Results and Forecast". Terrorisminfo.org. http://www.intelligence.org.il/eng/bu/Nablus/chapt.htm. Retrieved 2008-04-24.
- ^ "Israel and the Occupied Territories Shielded from scrutiny: IDF violations in Jenin and Nablus: Nablus". Amnesty International. Archived from the original on April 14, 2008. http://web.archive.org/web/20080414193044/http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE15/143/2002/en/dom-MDE151432002en.html. Retrieved 2008-04-24.
- ^ Report on the Destruction to Palestinian Institutions in Nablus and Other Cities (Except Ramallah) Caused by IDF Forces Between March 29 and April 21, 2002: Nablus. Gush Shalom. April 22, 2002. Retrieved 2008-04-25.
- ^ "Nablus". AsiaRooms. http://www.asiarooms.com/travel-guide/israel/israel-popular-destinations/-nablus.html. Retrieved 2008-04-24.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "History". Nablus.ps. Archived from the original on November 12, 2007. http://web.archive.org/web/20071112051126/http://www.nablus.ws/nablus/history.htm. Retrieved 2008-04-24.
- ^ "Detailed Map of the West Bank". http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9b/Thameenmap3.jpg. Retrieved 2008-04-24.
- ^ a b c d e Doumani, 1995, Chapter: The City of Nablus.
- ^ "Monthly Averages for Nabulus, West Bank". The Weather Channel. http://adstest.weather.com/outlook/travel/businesstraveler/wxclimatology/monthly/graph/WEXX0003?from=weekend_bottomnav_business. Retrieved 2008-04-20.
- ^ a b Doumani, Beshara. Counts in Ottoman Palestine: Nablus, circa 1850 Cambridge University Press.
- ^ Sabbagh, Karl. (2008) Palestine: History of a Lost Nation Grove Press.
- ^ a b c Welcome to Nablus Palestine Remembered. 1922 and 1931 results obtained from British records.
- ^ Hadawi, Sami. "Village Statistics of 1945: A Classification of Land and Area ownership in Palestine". Palestine Liberation Organization – Research Center. http://www.palestineremembered.com/download/VillageStatistics/Table%20I/Nablus/Page-060.jpg.
- ^ Census by Kingdom of Jordan
- ^ Census by Israel Central Bureau of Statistics
- ^ "Summary of Final Results: Population, Housing and Establishment Census-1997". Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS). 1997. http://www.pcbs.gov.ps/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabID=3820&lang=en. Retrieved 2008-04-24.
- ^ Ellen Clare Miller, 'Eastern Sketches – notes of scenery, schools and tent life in Syria and Palestine'. Edinburgh: William Oliphant and Company. 1871. Page 171: 'Nablous'.
- ^ "Palestinian Population by Locality and Refugee Status". Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS). http://www.pcbs.gov.ps/Portals/_pcbs/phc_97/nab_t6.aspx. Retrieved 2008-04-24.
- ^ "Palestinian Population by Locality, Sex and Age Groups in Years". Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. http://www.pcbs.gov.ps/Portals/_pcbs/phc_97/nab_t1.aspx. Retrieved 2008-04-24.
- ^ E. Mills, Census of Palestine, 1931, Population of Villages, Towns and Administrative Areas, p63.
- ^ The Political History of the Samaritans
- ^ Sean Ireton (2003). "The Samaritans – A Jewish Sect in Israel: Strategies for Survival of an Ethno-religious Minority in the Twenty First Century". Anthrobase. http://www.anthrobase.com/Txt/I/Ireton_S_01.htm. Retrieved 2007-11-29.
- ^ Corillet, Joel (February 2008). ""We Need Justice," Says Father Yousef Sa’adah, a Melkite Priest in Nablus". Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. http://www.wrmea.com/archives/Jan_Feb_2008/0801050.html. Retrieved 2008-04-24.
- ^ a b Places in Nablus Nablus Website.
- ^ ""Little Damascus": Nablus City, West Bank". Islam Online. Archived from the original on 2008-04-13. http://web.archive.org/web/20080413023559/http://www.islamonline.net/English/In_Depth/PalestineInFocus/Thepeople/former/1967/WestBank/04.shtml. Retrieved 2008-04-24.
- ^ "Nablus shopping festival brightens up West Bank," Mohammed Assadi, July 18, 2009, Malaysia Star.
- ^ Kim Lee, 2003, p. 354.
- ^ "Restaurants In Nablus". http://www.nablus.org/en/htm/guide/Restaurant.htm. "Hotels In Nablus". Nablus Municipality. Archived from the original on February 17, 2008. http://web.archive.org/web/20080217044108/http://www.nablus.org/en/htm/guide/Hotels.htm. Retrieved 2008-04-24.
- ^ "Bio Data – Nablus" (PDF). United Nation Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. http://www.humanitarianinfo.org/opt/OCHA_Body-ASP_Files/Coordination_Sec/OCHA-oPt_FCU_BIOs_PDFs/OCHA-oPt_Nablus-FCU_Bio_Data-22Nov04.pdf. Retrieved 2008-04-24.
- ^ OCHA Commercial crossings 22 January 2008
- ^ "Palestinian Population (10 Years and Over) by Locality, Sex and Educational Attainment". Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS). 1997. http://www.pcbs.gov.ps/Portals/_pcbs/phc_97/nab_t3.aspx. Retrieved 2008-04-24.
- ^ "Statistics About General Education in Palestine" (PDF). Education Minister of the Palestinian National Authority. Archived from the original on October 14, 2006. http://web.archive.org/web/20061014122612/http://www.mohe.gov.ps/downloads/pdffiles/statisticE.pdf. Retrieved 2008-04-24.
- ^ "About An-Najah". An-Najah National University Official Website. Archived from the original on April 16, 2008. http://web.archive.org/web/20080416155403/http://www2.najah.edu/nnu_portal/index.php?page=56&lang=en. Retrieved 2008-04-24.
- ^ a b Pharmacies and Hospitals Nablus Municipality Guides.
- ^ "Palestine costume before 1948: by region". Palestine Costume Archive. Archived from the original on 2006-10-24. http://web.archive.org/web/20061024053919/http://www.palestinecostumearchive.org/regional.htm. Retrieved 2008-08-01.
- ^ "Cuisine". Institute for Middle East Understanding. 16 January 2006. http://imeu.net/news/article008132.shtml. Retrieved 2008-04-24.
- ^ "Nablus, Holy Land". Atlas Travel and Tourist Agency. http://www.atlastours.net/holyland/nablus.html. Retrieved 2008-04-24.
- ^ "Nabulsi Sweets". Nablus the Culture. http://nablusculture.ps/nablus,sweets.htm. Retrieved 2008-04-24.
- ^ "Child Cultural Center". Nablus Municipality. http://www.nablus.org/en/htm/cult_centers/child_cult_center.htm. Retrieved 2008-04-24. [dead link]
- ^ "Children Happiness Center". Nablus Municipality. Archived from the original on March 28, 2007. http://web.archive.org/web/20070328210701/http://www.nablus.org/en/htm/cult_centers/child_happienies_center.htm. Retrieved 2008-04-24.
- ^ "Nablus Municipality Cultural Center "Future Kids"". Nablus Municipality. http://www.nablus.org/en/htm/cult_centers/hamdy_manko.htm. Retrieved 2008-04-24. [dead link]
- ^ "Palestinian Industries". Piefza.com. http://www.piefza.org/a_pal_industries.htm. Retrieved 2008-03-28. [dead link]
- ^ Posted by TravelZone (2010-07-12). "NajisSoap". Najissoap.blogspot.com. http://najissoap.blogspot.com. Retrieved 2010-07-19. [dead link]
- ^ a b c Michael Phillips (March 11, 2008). "Nablus' olive oil soap: a Palestinian tradition lives on". Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU). http://imeu.net/news/article008132.shtml. Retrieved 2008-03-27.
- ^ a b c d "Nablus Soap: Cleaning Middle Eastern Ears for Centuries". Suburban Emergency Management Project. 20 September 2006. http://www.semp.us/publications/biot_reader.php?BiotID=402. Retrieved 2008-03-27.
- ^ Rawan Shakaa (March 2007). "Natural ... Traditional ... Chunky!". This Week in Palestine. http://www.thisweekinpalestine.com/details.php?id=2078&ed=138&edid=138. Retrieved 2008-03-27.
- ^ a b c "Nablus Municipal Council". Nablus Municipality. http://www.nablus.org/en/htm/aboutus/municipal_council.htm. Retrieved 2008-04-24. [dead link]
- ^ "2005 Palestinian Local Elections, round 4". Higher Commission for Local Elections. http://www.elections.ps/admin/pdf/Municipal_Elections_Results_EN_(4).pdf. Retrieved 2010-08-21.
- ^ Rubenstein, Danny. "Fighting words/Far from the madding crowd". Haaretz. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=600596. Retrieved 2008-04-24.
- ^ Waked, Ali (24 May 2007). "Palestinians report IDF forces raid Nablus overnight in arrest operation, taking 33 Hamas leaders into custody, including PA minister of education, mayors of Nablus, Qalqiliya". Ynet News. Yedioth Internet. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3403756,00.html. Retrieved 2008-04-24.
- ^ "CIC Scene » Globe & Mail’s Patrick Martin on the Booming West Bank". www.cicweb.ca. http://www.cicweb.ca/scene/2009/07/globe-mails-patrick-martin-on-the-booming-west-bank/. Retrieved 2010-02-02.
- ^ "A Palestinian election is aborted, again". Daily Star. http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=5&article_id=117616#axzz0xEaOeWPj. Retrieved 2010-08-21.
- ^ "Electricity Department Statistics". Nablus Municipality. http://www.nablus.org/en/content.php?id_itemcontent=245. Retrieved 2008-04-24.
- ^ a b Occupied Housing Units by Locality and Connection to Electricity Network in Housing Unit
Occupied Housing Units by Locality and Connection to Sewage System in Housing Unit
Occupied Housing Units by Locality and Connection to Water Network in Housing Unit Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. Statistic from a 1997 census. - ^ a b "Water and Waste Water Department". Nablus Municipality. Archived from the original on October 25, 2007. http://web.archive.org/web/20071025013846/http://www.nablus.org/en/htm/services/water_depart/water_introduction.htm#Statistics_. Retrieved 2008-04-24.
- ^ "Fire Brigade". Nablus Municipality. http://www.nablus.org/en/content.php?id_itemcontent=256&id_csub=279. Retrieved 2008-04-24.
- ^ The Hejaz Railroad Nabataea.
- ^ Palestinians: More barriers to be removed
- ^ "Taxi offices". Nablus Municipality. Archived from the original on February 17, 2008. http://web.archive.org/web/20080217044118/http://www.nablus.org/en/htm/guide/Taxi.htm. Retrieved 2008-04-24.
- ^ "Hamas holds mass wedding ceremony". BBC News (BBC MMVIII). 29 July 2005. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4727291.stm. Retrieved 2008-06-10.
- ^ "Ittihad Nablus". National Football Teams. http://www.national-football-teams.com/v2/club.php?id=3144. Retrieved 2008-06-04.
- ^ "2000 Middle East/Mediterranean Scholar-Athlete Games". Institute for International Sport c/o International Scholar-Athlete Hall of Fame. 6 June 2000. Archived from the original on 2008-05-17. http://web.archive.org/web/20080517120702/http://www.internationalsport.com/sa-hist/2000med.cfm. Retrieved 2008-06-04.
- ^ "Twinning with Palestine". Britain – Palestine Twinning Network. http://www.twinningwithpalestine.net/groupsinternational.html. Retrieved 2008-04-24.
- ^ "Lile Facts & Figures". Mairie-Lille.fr. http://www.mairie-lille.fr/sections/site-en/Menu_horizontal_haut/discovering-lille/lille-facts-figures/lille-facts-figures. Retrieved 2007-12-17. [dead link]
- ^ "Poznań Official Website – Twin Towns".
(in Polish) © 1998–2008 Urząd Miasta Poznania. http://www.poznan.pl/mim/public/publikacje/pages.html?co=list&id=19&ch=20&instance=1017&lang=pl. Retrieved 2008-11-29. - ^ "Twinned Cities". Nablus Municipality. Archived from the original on January 3, 2008. http://web.archive.org/web/20080103103930/http://www.nablus.org/en/htm/International_cooporation/twin_cities.htm. Retrieved 2008-04-24.
Bibliography[link]
- Doumani, Beshara (1995). Rediscovering Palestine, Merchants and Peasants in Jabal Nablus, 1700–1900. University of California Press. http://content.cdlib.org/xtf/view?docId=ft896nb5pc&chunk.id=s2.1.3&toc.depth=1&toc.id=s1.1.6&brand=eschol. Retrieved 2008-04-24
- Kim Lee, Risha (2003). Let's Go 2003: Israel and the Palestinian territories. Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-312-30580-2. http://books.google.com/?id=T-nF9A44QeIC&pg=PP1&dq=al-Omari+Mosque+of+Gaza+Mamluk
- Le Strange, Guy (1890). Palestine under the Moslems
- Muqaddasi (c. 985 (Reprinted 1886)). Description of Syria, Including Palestine. Guy Le Strange. London: Palestine Pilgrims' Text Society. http://www.archive.org/stream/cu31924028534265#page/n83/mode/2up/search/neapolis.
- Negev, Avraham; Gibson, Shimon (2005). Archaeological Encyclopedia of the Holy Land. Continuum International Publishing Group. ISBN 0-8264-8571-5, 9780826485717
- Hütteroth, Wolf-Dieter; Abdulfattah, Kamal (1977). Historical Geography of Palestine, Transjordan and Southern Syria in the Late 16th Century. Erlanger Geographische Arbeiten, Sonderband. Erlangen, Germany: Vorstand der Fränkischen Geographischen Gesellschaft
External links[link]
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Nablus |
- Nablus Municipal Website
- A site explaining the reasons for the devastated Palestinian economy
- Nablus the Culture, reviving cultural life in Nablus
- Nablus after Five Years of Conflict December 2005 report by OCHA (PDF).
- Archaeological Remains Found in Nablus
- Picture showing Nablus from east (Panorama)
- Picture showing east region of Nablus (Panorama) – The picture taken from Askar
- Bahjat Sabri, "Urban Aspects in the City of Nablus in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century" An-Najah University Journal for Research - Humanities, Volume 6 (1992)
|
|||||||||||
http://wn.com/Nablus
Related pages:
http://it.wn.com/Nablus
http://cs.wn.com/Nábulus
http://id.wn.com/Nablus
http://es.wn.com/Nablus
http://ru.wn.com/Наблус
http://nl.wn.com/Nablus
http://pl.wn.com/Nablus
http://fr.wn.com/Naplouse
http://de.wn.com/Nablus
http://pt.wn.com/Nablus
This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nablus
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
Project HOPE (Health Opportunities for People Everywhere) is an international health care organization founded in the United States in 1958. Its most visible aspect was the SS HOPE, the first peacetime hospital ship (converted from the USS Consolation (AH-15)). The SS HOPE was retired in 1974, after sailing to Indonesia, South Vietnam, Peru, Ecuador, Guinea, Nicaragua, Colombia, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Tunisia, Jamaica, and Brazil. On these voyages doctors, nurses, and technical staff provided medical care and training to people in each country visited. The SS HOPE was not replaced, and emphasis switched entirely to land-based operations. Today there are organizations in Germany and the United Kingdom, in addition to the original organization in the United States. Project HOPE helps different developing countries in efforts to eradicate infectious diseases like HIV/AIDS, and tuberculosis. They also help educate parents on how to prevent and treat diseases for their children and themselves, and also train health professionals. Project HOPE also sets up village health banks, which give small loans to women so they can improve their health and family's health. The village health banks also educate women on health.
Contents |
Mission[link]
Project HOPE works to achieve sustainable advances in health care around the world by implementing health education programs and providing humanitarian assistance in areas of need. Project HOPE is unique among international organizations in that we have always worked across the health spectrum in a wide variety of settings, from the family and community levels to the tertiary care level, training traditional birth attendants and community health volunteers where resources are limited and cardiac surgeons and biomedical engineers where technology is appropriate. Project HOPE addresses infectious diseases, health professional education, women's and children's health, humanitarian assistance, and the need for health systems and facilities.
Sites[link]
Project HOPE has programs in the following countries:
Africa[link]
- Malawi
- Mozambique
- Namibia
- South Africa
Latin America and the Caribbean[link]
- Dominican Republic
- El Salvador
- Guatemala
- Haiti
- Honduras
- Mexico
- Nicaragua
- Peru
Asia and the Pacific[link]
- China
- India
- Indonesia
- Thailand
Central and Eastern Europe[link]
- Bosnia
- Czech Republic
- Georgia
- Hungary
- Lithuania
- Macedonia
- Poland
- Romania
- Ukraine
Middle East[link]
- Egypt
- Gaza
- Iraq
- Jordan
- Lebanon
- Oman
Russia/Eurasia[link]
- Armenia
- Kazakhstan
- Kyrgyzstan
- Russia
- Tajikistan
- Turkmenistan
- Uzbekistan
Navy Missions 2009[link]
- Antigua
- Colombia
- Dominican Republic
- El Salvador
- Ghana
- Haiti
- Kiribati
- Liberia
- Marshall Islands
- Nicaragua
- Panama
- Tonga
- Solomon Islands
- Western Samoa
- Vietnam
Recent events[link]
- 2005 — When Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, HOPE sent volunteer medical response teams to the area, where they provided nursing care to people in need.
- 2006 — HOPE continues to provide aid to the people on the Gulf Coast who were hit by Hurricane Katrina. In the spring of 2006, they helped staff the U.S. Navy hospital ship, known as the Mercy, with volunteer physicians and nurses to South Asia.
- 2008 — Project HOPE's Chief Operations Officer, C. William Fox Jr., BG, USA (Ret.), was injured by an IED in Basra where the organization was assisting in building a new Children's Hospital.[3]
- 2010 — In response to the January earthquake in Haiti, Project HOPE helped to coordinate volunteer medical staffers to fill out the complement of the USNS Comfort.[4]
External links[link]
- Project HOPE web page
- Project HOPE: Forty Years of American Medicine Abroad
- Parade Magazine article
- Charity Navigator Profile of Project HOPE
References[link]
http://wn.com/Project_HOPE
This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_HOPE
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
