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Fatimid

Fatimid

The Fatimids or Fatimid Caliphate (Arabic الفاطميون) is the Ismaili Shiite dynasty that ruled much of North Africa from A.D. 5 January 910 to 1171. The Fatimids had their origins in the Tunisia area ("Ifriqiya"), but after the conquest of Egypt ca. 970, they moved their capital there. Under the Fatimids, Egypt became the center of an empire that included at its peak North Africa, Sicily, Palestine, Syria, the Red Sea coast of Africa, the Yemen, and the Hejaz. Under the Fatimids Egypt flourished and developed an extensive trade network in both the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean which eventually determined the economic course of Egypt during the High Middle Ages. The term "Fatimite" is sometimes used to refer to citizens of the Empire/Caliphate. The name Fatimid is derived from the name of the daughter of the Prophet Muhammad, Fatima az-Zahra. The dynasty and its followers belonged to the Shiite branch of Islam and to a sect called Isma'ili. The dynasty was founded in 909 by Ubayd Allah al-Mahdi Billah. He legitimized his claim by his descent from the Prophet by way of the Prophet's daughter Fatima Zahra and her husband Ali ibn Abi Talib, the first Shiite Imam. Soon his control extended over all of central Maghreb, an area consisting of the modern countries of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya, which he ruled from a newly built capital in Tunisia, named Mahdia. The Fatimids entered Egypt in 972, conquering the Ikhshidid dynasty and founding a new capital at al-Qahira al-Mu'izziya (Cairo), meaning "The Victorious". They continued to conquer the surrounding areas until they ruled from Tunisia to Syria, and even crossed over into Sicily and southern Italy. Unlike other governments in the area, Fatimid advancement in state offices was based more on merit than on heredity. Members of other branches of Islam, like the Sunnis, were just as likely to be appointed to government posts as Shiites. Tolerance was extended even to non-Muslims, like Christians and Jews who occupied high levels in government based solely on ability (exceptions to this general attitude of tolerance include the "Mad Caliph" Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah). In the 1040s, the Zirids (governors of North Africa under the Fatimids) declared their independence from the Fatimids and their conversion to "orthodox" Sunni Islam, which led to the devastating Banu Hilal invasions. After about 1070, the Fatimid hold on the Levant coast and parts of Syria was challenged by first Turkish invasions, then the Crusades, so that Fatimid territory shrunk until it consisted only of Egypt. After the decay of the Fatimid political system in the 1160's, Nureddin joined Egypt to the Abbasid Caliphate in 1169 and Egypt returned to the Sunni branch of Islam, bringing the Fatimid dynasty to an end. A few years later, Nureddin's general Saladin founded the Ayyubid dynasty.

Fatimid Imams

The word "Imam" as used in Shiah Islam means a hereditary leader of the Muslim community in the direct line of Ali ibn Abi Talib. #Ubayd Allah al-Mahdi Billah (910-934; founded Fatimid dynasty) #Muhammad al-Qaim Bi-Amrillah (934-946) #Isma'il al-Mansur Bi-Nasrillah (946-952) #Ma'ad al-Muizz Li-Deenillah (952-975; Egypt is conquered during his reign) #Abu Mansoor Nizar al-Aziz Billah (975-996) #Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah (996-1021) #Ali az-Zahir (1021-1035) #Ma'ad al-Mustansir (1035-1094) #Ahmad al-Musta'li (1094-1101) Quarrels over his succession led to the Nizari split. #Mansur al-Amir Bi-Ahkamillah (1101-1130) The Fatimid rulers of Egypt after him are not recognized as Mustaali Taiyabi Imams (though they were declared to be Imams within Egypt at the time). #Taiyab abi al-Qasim the 21st Fatimid Imam in seclusion - see Mustaalis, Dawoodi Bohras.

External link


- [http://www.islamicarchitecture.org/architecture/alaqmarmosque.html Al-Aqmar Mosque - Fatimids Architectural Example]
- [http://www.islamicarchitecture.org/dynasties/fatimids.html Fatimids Dynasty] Shiite counter-caliphate ---- Category:History of the Maghreb Category:Caliphates Category:Ismailism Category:Jewish Islam topics ja:ファーティマ朝

Ismaili

The Isma'ili (Arabic الإسماعيليون, Persian: اسماعیلیان Esmâ'iliyân) branch of Islam is the second largest Shi'a community, after the Twelvers who are dominant in Iran.

Location

The Ismailis are found primarily in the Indian subcontinent, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, China, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and East Africa but have in recent years emigrated to Europe and North America. The Ismailis and Twelvers both accept the same initial Imams from the descendants of Muhammad through his daughter Fatima and therefore share much of their early history. However, a dispute arose on the succession of the Sixth Imam, Ja'far as-Sadiq. The Ismailis became those who accepted Ja'far's eldest son Ismail as the next Imam, whereas the Twelvers accepted a younger son, Musa al-Kazim. A branch of the Ismaili known as the Saaabiyin or Seveners held that Ismail's son, Muhammad, was the seventh and final Imam (a belief inaccurately but commonly ascribed to Ismailis as a whole). There is still a small Sevener Ismaili community in parts of Saudi Arabia to this date. In the face of persecution, the bulk of the Ismailis continued to recognize imams who secretly propagated their faith through missionaries (da'is) from their bases in Syria. However by the 10th century, an Ismaili Imam, Ubayd Allah al-Mahdi Billah (previously Sa'id bin Husayn), had emigrated to North Africa and had successfully established the new Fatimid state in Tunisia. His successors subsequently succeeded in conquering much of North Africa (including the prized Egypt) and parts of Arabia. The capital for the Fatimid state hence shifted to the newly founded city of Cairo. from which the Fatimid Caliph-Imams ruled for several generations. A group of followers of the 16th Imam, Hakim bi-Amr-Allah broke away from the mainstream Ismailis to form the Druze religion. A more fundamental split amongst the Ismaili occurred on the dispute of which son should succeed the 18th Imam, Mustansir. Mustaali, his younger son, was installed as Imam in Cairo with the help of Vizier Badr al-Jamali. However, Mustansir's elder son Nizar contested this claim and was imprisoned; he gained support from an Ismaili da'i based in Iran, Hasan as-Sabbah. Sabbah is noted by Western writers to be the leader of the legendary Assassins. The Fatimid state eventually collapsed after Mustaali's successor Amir was assassinated, but Mustaali Ismaili held that Amir had left a son named Tayyib who had gone into seclusion and that the imamate continued in his progeny during this time. They also regarded a succeeding chain of Yemeni da'is as representatives of the imam. In time, the seat for one chain of dais was transferred to India as the community split several times, each recognizing a different da'i. Today the Dawoodi Bohras, which constitute the majority of the Mustaali Ismailis accept Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin as the 52nd da'i. The Dawoodi Bohras are based in India. While lesser known and smallest in number, Alavi Bohras accept as the 44th "da'i" : Da'i-e-Mutlaq, H.H. Saiyedna Abu Haatim Taiyeb Ziyauddin Saheb (TUS). There has been, in recent years, a reapprochment between the Yemeni Mustaalis and the followers of the da'i based out of Mumbai. The Bohras are noted to be the more traditional of the two main groups of Ismaili, maintaining rituals such as prayer and fasting more consistently with other Muslim and Shi'a sects, although a reformist movement has emerged within the sect challenging the authoritarian Dawoodi Bohra clergy. The largest part of the Nizari Ismaili community today accepts Prince Karim Aga Khan IV as their 49th Imam. The 46th Imam, Aga Hasan Ali Shah, fled Iran to the Indian subcontinent in the 1840s after a failed coup against the Shah of the Qajar dynasty. Aga Hasan Ali Shah settled in Bombay in 1848. The Aga Khan was recognized as the legitimate Imam over Shia Ismaili Muslims in Bombay through a legal case at the Bombay high Court in 1866. The Judge in this case, Sir Joseph Arnold, ruled that the Khoja Muslim community was Ismaili (and not Sunni), that the Aga Khan was its leader, he was due the traditional tithes of the community and that community property belonged to his Imamate. The Aga Khans have been in contact with various Nizari Ismaili communities around the world and several have accepted them as their Hazar Imam or 'Present Imam'. Deputations came to Mumbai to receive the Imam's guidance from as far afield as Kashgar in China, Bokhara in Central Asia, and all parts of Iran and the Middle East.

History(accuracy questioned)

See History of Ismailism After the death of Uthman the Islamic state remained without a Caliph for three days. Ali refused to accept the Caliphate. But he was compelled by the people overwhelmingly to take the leadership to save them from disintegration. Mowla Ali was born on the thirteenth of Rajab twenty-two years before Hijra (A.D. 600) inside the sacred house of Ka'ba. No one else has been born in the House of Allah ever since its foundation by Prophet Ibra'hi'm (Abraham). His mother Fatima bint Assad (not to be confused with Fatima bint Muhammad, Ali's wife), daughter of Asad bin Ha'shem, said that he did not cry after birth, nor did he open his eyes. He refused to be fed until after three days when the Holy Prophet arrived and took him caressingly in his arms. He opened his eyes and smiled at the Holy Prophet who then gave his tongue into his mouth. Ali sucked the moisture of the tongue. Ever since they remained together in all walks of life only to be separated physically at the death of the Holy Prophet. Short in physical structure but robust, Ali was born bald with thick hair at the back of his head and at the temples. Thick eyebrows, over his large and heavy eyes, meeting together above his straight nose, and thin lips gave an impressive look no one could resist. The Holy Prophet said that to look at Ali's face was an act of worship. Ali was never defeated in a war or a combat throughout his life. His physical strenght was beyond human comprehension. He removed from the hinges the strong doors of the Khyber fort with a single jolt of his hand. Later, seven strong men with Abu Ra'fe', the famous strongman, could not lift even an inch from the ground one of the corners of the door. When asked about his wonderful display of strength, in removing the doors, Ali replied that it was his divine power.

Sub-sects


- Sulaimani, also part of the Mustaali group.
- Dawoodi Bohras, the largest Mustaali group.
- Alavi Bohras, the lesser known, the smallest Mustaali group.
- Nizari Ismailis, the largest Ismaili group today. (See next few headings for information this group and its beliefs).
- Carmathians

Mustaali groups: Dawoodi Bohras, Alavi Bohras

:See main articles at Dawoodi Bohras, Alavi Bohras.

History of the Nizari Ismaili community in the 20th century

Under the leadership of Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah, Aga Khan III, the first half of the twentieth century was a period of significant development for the Ismaili community. Numerous institutions for social and economic development were established on the Indian sub-continent and in East Africa. Ismailis have marked the Jubilees of their Imams with public celebrations, which are symbolic affirmations of the ties that link the Ismaili Imam and his followers. Although the Jubilees have no real religious significance, they serve to reaffirm the Imamat's world-wide commitment to the improvement of the quality of human life, especially in the developing countries. The Jubilees of Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah, Aga Khan III, are well remembered. During his 72 years of Imamat (1885-1957), the community celebrated his Golden (1937), Diamond (1946) and Platinum (1954) Jubilees. To show their appreciation and affection, the Ismailis weighed their Imam in gold, diamonds and, symbolically, in platinum, respectively, the proceeds of which were used to further develop major social welfare and development institutions in Asia and Africa. On the subcontinent of India and Pakistan, social development institutions were established, in the words of the late Aga Khan, "for the relief of humanity". They included institutions such as the Diamond Jubilee Trust and the Platinum Jubilee Investments Limited which in turn assisted the growth of various types of cooperative societies. Diamond Jubilee Schools for girls were established throughout the remote Northern Areas of what is now Pakistan. In addition, scholarship programmes, established at the time of the Golden Jubilee to give assistance to needy students, were progressively expanded. In East Africa, major social welfare and economic development institutions were established. Those involved in social welfare included the accelerated development of schools and community centres, and a modern, fully-equipped hospital in Nairobi. Among the economic development institutions established in East Africa were companies such as the Diamond Jubilee Investment Trust (now Diamond Trust of Kenya) and the Jubilee Insurance Company, which are quoted on the Nairobi Stock Exchange and have become major players in national development. Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah also introduced organisational forms that gave Ismaili communities the means to structure and regulate their own affairs. These were built on the Muslim tradition of a communitarian ethic on the one hand, and responsible individual conscience with freedom to negotiate one's own moral commitment and destiny on the other. In 1905 he ordained the first Ismaili Constitution for the social governance of the community in East Africa. The new administration for the Community's affairs was organised into a hierarchy of councils at the local, national, and regional levels. The constitution also set out rules in such matters as marriage, divorce and inheritance, guidelines for mutual cooperation and support among Ismailis, and their interface with other communities. Similar constitutions were promulgated in the Indian subcontinent, and all were periodically revised to address emerging needs and circumstances in diverse settings. Following the Second World War, far-reaching social, economic and political changes profoundly affected a number of areas where Ismailis resided. In 1947, British rule in the Indian subcontinent was replaced by the two sovereign, independent nations, of India and Pakistan, resulting in the migration of at least a million people and significant loss of life and property. In the Middle East, the Suez crisis of 1956 as well as the preceding crisis in Iran, demonstrated the sharp upsurge of nationalism, which was as assertive of the region's social and economic aspirations as of its political independence. Africa was also set on its course to decolonisation, swept by what Mr. Harold MacMillan, the then British Prime Minister, aptly termed the "wind of change". By the early 1960s, most of East and Central Africa, where the majority of the Ismaili population on the continent resided (including Tanganyika, Kenya, Uganda, Malagasy, Rwanda, Burundi and Zaire), had attained their political independence. This was the world in which the present Aga Khan acceded to the Imamat in 1957. The period following his accession can be characterised as one of rapid political and economic change. Planning of programmes and institutions became increasingly difficult due to the rapid changes in newly-emerging nations. Upon becoming Imam, the present Aga Khan's immediate concern was the preparation of his followers, wherever they lived, for the changes that lay ahead. This rapidly evolving situation called for bold initiatives and new programmes to reflect developing national aspirations. In Africa, Asia and the Middle East, a major objective of the Community's social welfare and economic programmes, until the mid-fifties, had been to create a broad base of businessmen, agriculturists, and professionals. The educational facilities of the Community tended to emphasise secondary-level education. With the coming of independence, each nation's economic aspirations took on new dimensions, focusing on industrialisation and modernisation of agriculture. The Community's educational priorities had to be reassessed in the context of new national goals, and new institutions had to be created to respond to the growing complexity of the development process. In 1972, under the regime of the then President Idi Amin, Ismailis and other Asians were expelled, despite being citizens of the country and having lived there for generations. The Aga Khan had to take urgent steps to facilitate the resettlement of Ismailis displaced from Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya and also from Burma. Owing to his personal efforts most found homes, not only in Asia, but also in Europe and North America. Most of the basic resettlement problems were overcome remarkably rapidly. This was due to the adaptability of the Ismailis themselves and in particular to their educational background and their linguistic abilities, as well as the efforts of the host countries and the moral and material support from Ismaili community programmes. Spiritual allegiance to the Imam and adherence to the Shia Imami Ismaili tariqah (persuasion) of Islam according to the guidance of the Imam of the time, have engendered in the Ismaili community an ethos of self-reliance, unity, and a common identity. The present Aga Khan continued the practice of his predecessor and extended constitutions to Ismaili communities in the US, Canada, several European countries, the Gulf, Syria and Iran following a process of consultation within each constituency. In 1986, he promulgated a Constitution that, for the first time, brought the social governance of the world-wide Ismaili community into a single structure with built-in flexibility to account for diverse circumstances of different regions. Served by volunteers appointed by and accountable to the Imam, the Constitution functions as an enabler to harness the best in individual creativity in an ethos of group responsibility to promote the common well-being.

The Nizari Ismaili community today

Like its predecessors, the present constitution is founded on each Ismaili's spiritual allegiance to the Imam of the time, which is separate from the secular allegiance that all Ismailis owe as citizens to their national entities. The guidance of the present Imam and his predecessor emphasised the Ismaili's allegiance to his or her country as a fundamental obligation. These obligations discharged not by passive affirmation but through responsible engagement and active commitment to uphold national integrity and contribute to peaceful development. In view of the importance that Islam places on maintaining a balance between the spiritual well-being of the individual and the quality of his life, the Imam's guidance deals with both aspects of the life of his followers. The Aga Khan has encouraged Ismaili Muslims, settled in the industrialised world, to contribute towards the progress of communities in the developing world through various development programmes. In recent years, Ismaili Muslims, who have come to the US, Canada and Europe, mostly as refugees from Asia and Africa, have readily settled into the social, educational and economic fabric of urban and rural centres across the two continents. As in the developing world, the Ismaili Muslim Community's settlement in the industrial world has involved the establishment of community institutions characterised by an ethos of self-reliance, an emphasis on education, and a pervasive spirit of philanthropy. From July 1982 to July 1983, to celebrate the present Aga Khan's Silver Jubilee, marking the 25th anniversary of his accession to the Imamat, many new social and economic development projects were launched, although there were no weighing ceremonies. These range from the establishment of the US$ 300 million international Aga Khan University with its Faculty of Health Sciences and teaching hospital based in Karachi, the expansion of schools for girls and medical centres in the Hunza region, one of the remote parts of Northern Pakistan bordering on China and Afghanistan, to the establishment of the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme in Gujarat, India, and the extension of existing urban hospitals and primary health care centres in Tanzania and Kenya. These initiatives form part of an international network of institutions involved in fields that range from education, health and rural development, to architecture and the promotion of private sector enterprise and together make up the Aga Khan Development Network. It is this commitment to man's dignity and relief of humanity that inspires the Ismaili Imamat's philanthropic institutions. Giving of one's competence, sharing one's time, material or intellectual wherewithal with those among whom one lives, for the relief of hardship, pain or ignorance is a deeply ingrained tradition which shapes the social conscience of the Ismaili Muslim community.

The "Hashishin" issue

Please read: The Assassin Legends: Myths of the Isma‘ilis by Farhad Daftary Daftary, Farhad, The Assassin Legends: Myths of the Ismailis. London: I. B. Tauris, 1994. ISBN: 1 85043 705 X (HB) ISBN: 1 85043 950 8 (PB) Synopsis Since the 12th century fantastical tales of the Assassins, their mysterious leader and their remote mountain strongholds in Syria and northern Iran have captured the European imagination. These legends first emerged when European Crusaders in the Levant came into contact with the Syrian branch of the Nizari Ismailis, who at the behest of their leader were sent on dangerous missions to kill their enemies. Elaborated over the years, the legends culminated in Marco Polo’s account according to which the Nizari leader, described as the ‘Old Man of the Mountain’, was said to have controlled the behaviour of his devotees through the use of hashish and a secret garden of paradise. So influential were these tales that the word ‘assassin’ entered European languages as a common noun for murderer, and the Nizari Ismailis were depicted not only in popular mythology but also in Western scholarship as a sinister order of ‘assassins’. In recent decades new scholarship on the history of the Ismailis has established the extent to which older Western accounts have confused fact and fantasy. In view of the very different picture of Ismaili history that has now emerged, Farhad Daftary’s book considers the origins of the mediaeval Assassin legends and explores the historical context in which they were fabricated and transmitted. How did they persist for so long, and in what form did they come to exert such a profound influence on European scholarship? Daftary’s fascinating account ultimately reveals the extent to which the emergence of such legends was symptomatic of both the complex political and cultural structures of the mediaeval Muslim world and of Europeans’ ignorance of that world. The book will be of great interest to all those concerned with Ismaili studies, the history of Islam and the Middle East, as well as the mediaeval history of Europe. Also included as an appendix is the first English translation of the French orientalist Silvestre de Sacy’s famous early 19th century “Memoir on the Assassins and the Etymology of their Name”.

External links


- [http://philtar.ucsm.ac.uk/encyclopedia/islam/shia/index.html Graphical illustration of the sects of Shi'a Islam]
- [http://www.amaana.org/history/history1.htm History of Imams from the "Nizari" point of view.]
- [http://www.iis.ac.uk Institute of Ismaili Studies]
- [http://www.mumineen.org Dawoodi Bohras]
- [http://www.akdn.org Aga Khan Development Network]
- [http://www.ismaili.net/html/ First Ismaili Electronic Library and Database]
- [http://www.alavibohra.org Alavi Bohra: The Smallest Sect of Ismaili Mustaali Faith]
- [http://www.ismailiconnect.com Ismaili Connect: Ismaili Information / Discussion / Community Site]

References


- The Ismailis: Their history and doctrines; Farhad Daftary; Cambridge University Press, 1990
- A Short History of the Ismailis: Traditions of a Muslim Community; Farhad Daftary; Edinburgh University Press, 1998 Category:Shi'a Islam Category:Ismailism ja:イスマーイール派



910

Events


- Foundation of the Benedictine monastery of Cluny
- Gabriel I of Alexandria becomes Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church

Births


- Hedwig of Saxony, mother of Hugh Capet

Deaths


- December 23 - Naum of Preslav, Bulgarian scholar
- King Alfonso III of Leon Category:910 ko:910년

Ifriqiya

In medieval history, Ifriqiya or Ifriqiyah (Arabic: إفريقية) was the area comprising the coastal regions of what are today western Libya, Tunisia, and eastern Algeria. This area included what had been the Roman province of Africa. Ifriqiya was bounded on the south by the semi-arid areas and salt marshes called el-Djerid. At various times, the rulers of this area also conquered Sicily and parts of mainland Italy, and the western boundary was in continual flux but usually went as far as Bejaia. Its capital was Qayrawan (Kairouan) in central Tunisia. In modern Arabic, the term simply means "Africa". It derives from the Latin term Africa of uncertain (either Berber, Punic, or Greek) origin.

See also


- Aghlabid
- Zirid
- Hafsid
- Maghreb
- Afariqa Category:History of the Maghreb Category:History of Tunisia ja:イフリーキヤ

Empire

:For alternative meanings, see Empire (disambiguation) An empire (also known technically, abstractly or disparagingly as an imperium, and with powers known among Romans as "imperium") comprises a set of regions locally ruled by governors, viceroys or client kings in the name of an emperor. By extension, one could classify as an empire any large, multi-ethnic state ruled from a single center. Like other states, an empire maintains its political structure at least partly by coercion. Land-based empires (such as Mongol or Achaemenid Persia) tend to extend in a contiguous area; sea-borne empires, also known as thalassocracies (the Athenian and British empires provide examples), may feature looser structures and more scattered territories. The actual political concept predates the Romans by several hundred years: empires began to appear soon after the first cities made the necessary administrative structures possible. The Akkadian Empire of Sargon of Akkad furnishes one of the earliest known examples. Compare the concept of "empire" with that of a federation, where a large, multi-ethnic state — or even an ethnically homogeneous one like Japan or a small area like Switzerland — relies on mutual agreement amongst its component political units. Also, one can compare physical empires with potentially more abstract or less formally structured hegemonies, which add cultural influences to their power repertory within their spheres of influence, compare empires with superpowers. superpower, from William R. Shepherd, Historical Atlas, 1911: compare Nation state]]

European Imperialism

The modern term "empire" derives from the Latin word imperium, a word coined in what became possibly the most famous example of this sort of political structure, the Roman Empire founded in 31 BC. The first empire, however, was the empire created by Sargon of Akkad in Mesopotamia. For many centuries, the term "Empire" in the West applied exclusively to states which considered themselves to be successors to the Roman Empire, such as the Byzantine Empire, the Holy Roman Empire, or, later, the Russian Empire. In 1204, when Constantinople was sacked during the Fourth Crusade, the Crusaders created a Latin Empire in Constantinople, while the descendents of the Byzantine Empire went to Asia Minor and established two smaller empires: the Empire of Nicaea and the Empire of Trebizond. These "empires" were short lived and the region was finally conquered by the Ottoman Empire in 1453. It would not be until Peter the Great's crowning in St. Petersburg as Tsar of Russia that Eastern Imperialism would resurface. Likewise, upon the fall of the Holy Roman Empire after the Napoleonic Wars, the Austrian Empire, later reshaped as Austria-Hungary, inherited western imperialism. There were two attempts by Napoleon I and Napoleon III to seize the Western Imperial claim for France. Western Imperialism would also be usurped in the period of 1878–1918 by the German Empire. Over time, other monarchies which viewed themselves as greater in size and power than mere kingdoms used the name or its translation. In 1056, King Ferdinand I of Leon, proclaimed himself "Emperor of Spain", beginning the Reconquista. Bulgaria furnishes another example. Europeans came to apply the term "empire" to large non-European monarchies, such as the Empire of China or the Mughal Empire, and to extend it to past policies. The word eventually came to apply loosely to any entity meeting the criteria, whether kings governed or not, even whether a monarchy or not. In some cases synonyms of empire such as tsardom, realm or reich occur. Empires can accrete around different types of state. They have traditionally originated as powerful monarchies under the rule of a hereditary (or in some cases, self-appointed) emperor, but the so-called empires of Athens, Britain and the United States developed under democratic auspices. Brazil leapt from colonial to self-declared empire status in 1822. France has twice made the transition from republic to empire. Historically, most empires came into being as the result of a militarily strong state conquering other states and incorporating them into a larger political union. Typically, a monarchy or an oligarchy rooted in the original core territory would continue to dominate this union. Many ancient empires maintained control of their subject peoples by controlling the supply of a vital resource, usually water; historians refer to such régimes as "hydraulic empires". The introduction of a common religion also often strengthened empires, as occurred (pace Edward Gibbon) with the adoption of Christianity under Constantine I of the Roman Empire. And cultural influence played a large part in the survival of the Chinese empire and of its semi-imperial sphere of influence. An empire can mutate into some other form of polity. Thus the Bernese empire of conquest no longer appears so imperial, but its territories have become absorbed into the canton of Bern or become cantons or parts of cantons elsewhere in the Swiss Confederation. The Holy Roman Empire, itself in a sense a re-constitution of the Roman Empire, underwent many transformations in its long history, fissuring extensively, experimenting with federalism and re-constituting itself as the Austrian Empire - vastly different in nature and in territory. The former second British Empire has spawned a loose multi-national Commonwealth of Nations, and the old French colonial empire has also left traces of its existence in cultural networks and associations. The Soviet Empire leaves behind it the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). An Emperor-based empire can readily become (say) a republic by means of a coup (Brazil, 1889; Central African Empire, 1979); or it can become a republic with its dominions reduced to a core territory (Germany (1918–1919), Ottoman Empire (1918–1923)). The breakup of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918 provides an example of a multi-ethnic superstate fissuring into multiple constituent or new parts: the republics, kingdoms or provinces of Austria, Hungary, Transylvania, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Czechoslovakia, Ruthenia, Galicia… The world's largest contiguous land empire was the Mongol Empire, created by Genghis Khan in 1206. It encompassed huge portion of Eurasia under Mongol rule. The Mongol Empire was governed by specific written code by Genghis Khan called Yasa. The Mongol Empire was governed by kurultai, and there was freedom of religion, tax exemption and extensive trade routes that were nurtured by the Khan. For example, the Mongol Empire provided political stability to the Silk Road. Other famous empires include the Persian empire. The Persians had numerous great empires, and are not usually known for a particular one, both pre and post islamic Persia had powerful empires. The Macedonians had one great empire, led by Alexander the Great.

Imperialism

The discovery of the New World provided an opportunity for many European states to embark upon programs of imperialism on a different model, colonization. Under this model (previously trialled in the Old World in the Canary Islands and in Ireland), subject states became de jure subordinate to the imperial state, rather than de facto as in earlier empires. This led to a good deal of resentment in the client states, and therefore probably to the demise of this system by the early- to mid-twentieth century. The heyday of imperialism, the 19th century, coincided with a boom in the setting up of empires: from Haiti, France and Austria through Mexico to India and Germany. In contrast, the 20th century saw many empires demolished or dismembered: for example those of Russia, Austria-Hungary, Germany, Italy, France, Britain and the Central African Empire. One might describe one problem with the European imperial model as gerrymandering. In the interest of expediency, an imperial power tended to carve out a client state based solely on convenience of geography, while ignoring extreme cultural differences in the resulting area. An example of the attendant problems occurred in the Indian sub-continent. Formerly part of the British Empire, when the sub-continent gained its independence it split along cultural/religious lines producing modern India and the two-part country of Pakistan, which later split yet again resulting in the independence of Bangladesh.

Overt ideologies of empire

Naked aggression and sadistic greed, no more than theoretical imperialism, provide little in the way of comforting justifications for the growth and continuation of empires. Geopolitical strategy does not always arouse popular enthusiasm. But more high-minded goals can help in building imperialistic solidarity, perceived in terms such as:
- Cultural superiority
- Exportation of revolution (violence) away from the homeland
- National self-determination
- Racial superiority
- Spreading the benefits of civilization

Modern "empires"

The concept of "empire" in the modern world, while still present politically, has begun to lose cohesion semantically. The only remaining country nominally ruled by an Emperor, Japan, comprises a constitutional monarchy with a population of approximately 99% ethnic Japanese. Just as monarchies (as opposed to constitutional monarchies) have largely fallen out of favor in modern times, the term "empire" itself may now become somewhat of an anachronism. The former Soviet Union had many of the criteria of an empire, but nevertheless did not claim to be one, nor was it ruled by a traditional hereditary "emperor" (see Soviet Empire). Nevertheless, historians still occasionally classify it as an empire, if only because of its similarities to empires of the past and its sway over a large multi-ethnic bloc of Eurasia. Most modern multi-ethnic states see themselves as voluntary federations (Switzerland, for example, or Belgium) or as unions (United Kingdom, Spain), and not as empires. Most have democratic structures, and operate under systems which share power through multiple levels of government that differentiate between areas of federal and provincial/state jurisdiction. Where separatist groups exist, internal and external observers may disagree on whether state action against them represents legitimate law-enforcement against a violent or non-violent fringe group, or state violence to control a broadly unwilling population. A list of multi-ethnic states with ongoing violence by and against separatists might swamp this article, although China, Russia, Indonesia and India distinguish themselves by sheer size. The United States of America, widely categorized as a federation, offers another example. The North used coercion to keep the Union together during the American Civil War, which made this characterization more ambiguous in the minds of many. In the aftermath of the Cold War, the United States has emerged as an unrivaled superpower, and although the country has not engaged in formal territorial expansion since the acquisitions of Hawaii, of the Philippines and of the Virgin Islands, many suggest its powerful military and economic influences allow it to exert a sort of informal neo-imperial hegemony on much of the modern world (see American Empire, corporate colonialism).

Historical empires (with approximate dates)


- Abyssinian Empire (–1974)
- Achaemenid Empire (commonly known as the Persian Empire) (c. 550–330 BC)
- American Empire (1898- )
- Akkadian Empire (c. 2350–2150 BC — the first historical empire ever)
- Assyrian Empire (c. 900–612 BC)
- Athenian Empire (c. 477–404 BC)
- Austro-Hungarian Empire (1867–1918)
- Austrian Empire (1804–1867)
- Axis Powers (1936–1945)
  - Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere (1940–1945)
  - Third German Reich (1933–1945)
- Aztec Empire (1375–1521)
- Belgian Empire (1865–1962)
- Brazilian Empire (1822–1889)
- British Empire (c. 1583— ) De jure
- Bulgarian Empire (681–1018; 1185–1396)
- Byzantine Empire (330–1453)
- Chinese Empire (221 BC–1912)
- Danish colonial empire
- Dutch colonial empire
- Egyptian Empire (1550–1070 BC)
- Elamite Empire
- French Empire
- Genoa Empire (c. 1100–1797)
- German Empire (1871–1918)
- Ghana Empire (c. 750–1240)
- Gupta Empire (c. 320–550)
- Haitian Empire (1804–1806, 1849–1859)
- Hittite Empire (c. 1460–1180 BC)
- Holy Roman Empire (843–1806)
- Inca Empire (1438–1533)
- Ilkhanate (c. 1256–1338)
- Islamicate Empire (c. 630–1924)
- Israeli Empire (c. 1000–922 BC)
- Italian Colonial Empire (1889–1943)
- Japanese Empire
- Khmer Empire (802–1462)
- Kongo Empire
- Korean Empire (1897–1910)
- Latin Empire (1204–1261)
- Macedonian Empire (c. 338 BC–309 BC)
- Magadhan Empire (c. 550–350 BC)
- Majapahit Empire (c. 1293–1500)
- Mali Empire (c. 1240–1541)
- Malinke Empire
- Maratha Empire (1674–1761)
- Mauryan Empire (321 BC–185 BC)
- Mexican Empire (1822–1823, 1864–1867)
- Mogul Empire (1526–1857)
- Mongol Empire (1206–1394)
- Nicaean Empire (1204–1261)
- Old Babylonian Empire (c. 1900–1600 BC)
- Portuguese Empire (1495–1975)
- Roman Empire (27 BC–476 AD)
- Russian Empire (1721–1917)
- Sassanian Empire (224–651)
- Serbian Empire (1345–1371)
- Seleucid Empire (323 BC–60 BC)
- Songhai Empire (1464–1591)
- Spanish Empire (1492–1975)
- Swedish Empire (1561–1878)
- Teotihuacano Empire
- Timurid Empire (1401–1505)
- Trapezuntine Empire (1204–1461)
- Tu'i Tonga Empire (950–1875?)
- Ur III Empire (c. 2100–2000 BC)
- Venetian Empire (c. 900–1797)
- Vietnamese Empire (1802–1883)
- Vijayanagara Empire (c. 1350–1700)

Notes

#The United Kingdom still has some overseas territories. The British monarch, Queen Elizabeth II can be described as head of state of the United Kingdom. She is also monarch of the other Commonwealth Realms; the constitutional role of the monarchy is identical to that of the United Kingdom, but the historical and cultural significance may differ. Queen Elizabeth is also head of The Commonwealth; this title, however, does not imply any political power over member nations, and is a non-hereditary title. # De facto, The British Empire ended in the 1960s.

External link


- [http://www.hostkingdom.net/earthrul.html To Rule the Earth...]: List of Great Empires

See also


- List of extinct countries, empires, etc.
- Trade bloc
- Global empire Category:Forms of government ja:帝国

Sicily

:Sicilian disambiguates here; see also Sicilian language or Sicilian Defence. Sicily (Sicilia in Italian) is an autonomous region of Italy and the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, with an area of 25,700 sq. km and 5 million inhabitants.

Towns and Cities

Sicily's principal cities include the regional capital Palermo, together with the other provincial capitals Catania, Messina, Syracuse (Siracusa in Italian), Trapani, Enna, Caltanissetta, Agrigento, Ragusa. Other famous Sicilian towns include Cefalù, Taormina, Bronte, Marsala, Corleone, Castellammare del Golfo Francavilla di Sicilia, and Abacaenum (now Tripi).

Flag

For more information, see Flag of Sicily. The regional flag of Sicily, recognized since January 2000, is also the historical one of the island, since 1282. It is divided diagonally yellow over red, with the trinacria symbol in the center. The trinacria symbol is used also by the Isle of Man.

Geography

Isle of Man This region is faced to Calabria over the Strait of Messina, and that's the only conterminous region. The volcano Etna, is situated close to Catania. Etna is 3,320 m (10,900 ft) high, making it the tallest volcano in Europe. It is also one of the world's most active volcanos. The Aeolian islands to the north are administratively a part of Sicily, as are the Aegadian Islands and Pantelleria Island to the west, Ustica Island to the north-west, and the Pelagian Islands to the south-west. Sicily has been noted for two millennia as a grain-producing territory: olives and wine are among its other agricultural products. The mines of the Caltanissetta district became a leading sulphur-producing area in the 19th century, but have declined since the 1950s.

Transport

Vehicles Most of Sicily's motorways (autostrade) run through the north of the region - the most important ones being A19 Palermo - Catania, A20 Palermo - Messina, A29 Palermo - Mazara del Vallo and the paid-for A18 Messina - Catania. Much of the motorway network is raised on columns due to the mountainous terrain. The road network in the south of the country consists of well maintained, yet not motorway-class roads. Train Sicily is connected to the Italian peninsula by the national railway company, Trenitalia, though trains are loaded onto ferries for the crossing from the mainland. Officially, the Stretto di Messina, S.p.A. schedules to the second half of 2006 the beginning of construction on the world's longest suspension bridge, The Strait of Messina Bridge Project. If and when completed, it will mark the first time in history that Sicily has been connected by a land link to Italy. Air Sicily is served by national and international flights (mainly European) from to Palermo International Airport and Catania-Fontanarossa Airport. There are also minor national airports in Trapani and small islands of Pantelleria and Lampedusa.

Arts

Lampedusa Sicily is well known as a country of art: many poets and writers were born on this region, starting from the Sicilian School in the early 13th century, which inspired much subsequent Italian poetry and created the first Italian standard. The most famous, however, are Luigi Pirandello, Giovanni Verga, Salvatore Quasimodo, Gesualdo Bufalino and the dialectal poet Ignazio Buttitta. Other Sicilian artists include the composers Sigismondo d'India (from Palermo), Vincenzo Bellini (from Catania), as well as the sculptor Tommaso Geraci. Noto and Ragusa contain some of Italy's best examples of Baroque architecture, carved in the local red sandstone. Caltagirone is renowned for its decorative ceramics. Palermo is also a major center of Italian opera. Its Teatro Massimo is the largest opera house in Italy and the third largest in the world, seating 1400. Sicily is also home to two prominent folk art traditions, both of which draw heavily on the island's Norman influence. Donkey carts are painted with intricate decorations of scenes from the Norman romantic poems, such as The Song of Roland. The same tales are told in traditional puppet theatres which feature hand-made wooden marionettes. The 1988 movie Nuovo Cinema Paradiso was about life in a Sicilian town following the Second World War.

History

The autochthonous peoples of Sicily, long absorbed into the population, were tribes known to Greek writers as the Elymians, the Sicani and the Siculi or Siceli. Of these, the last were clearly the latest to arrive on this land and were related to other tribes of southern Italy, such as the Italoi of Calabria, the Oenotrians, Chones, and Leuterni (or Leutarni), the Opicans, and the Ausones. Sicily was colonized by Phoenicians and Punic settlers from Carthage and by Greeks, starting in the 8th century BC. The most important colony was established at Syracuse in 734 BC. Other important Greek colonies were Gela, Acragas, Selinunte, Himera, and Zancle or Messene (modern-day Messina, not to be confused with the ancient city of Messene in Messenia, Greece). These city states were an important part of classical Greek civilization, which included Sicily as part of Magna Graecia - both Empedocles and Archimedes were from Sicily. Sicilian politics was intertwined with politics in Greece itself, leading Athens, for example, to mount the disastrous Sicilian Expedition during the Peloponnesian War. The Greeks came into conflict with the Punic trading communities with ties to Carthage, which was on the African mainland not far from the southwest corner of the region, and had its own colonies on Sicily. Palermo was a Carthaginian city, founded in the 8th century BC, named Zis or Sis ("Panormos" to the Greeks). Hundreds of Phoenician and Carthaginian grave sites have been found in necropoli over a large area of Palermo, now built over, south of the Norman palace, where the Norman kings had a vast park. In the far west, Lilybaeum (now Marsala) never was thoroughly Hellenized. In the First and Second Sicilian Wars, Carthage was in control of all but the eastern part of Sicily, which was dominated by Syracuse. In the 3rd century BC the Messanan Crisis motivated the intervention of the Roman Republic into Sicilian affairs, and led to the First Punic War between Rome and Carthage. By the end of war (242 BC) all Sicily was in Roman hands, becoming Rome's first province outside of the Italian peninsula. The initial success of the Carthaginians during the Second Punic War encouraged many of the Sicilian cities to revolt against Roman rule. Rome sent troops to put down the rebellions (it was during the siege of Syracuse that Archimedes was killed). Carthage briefly took control of parts of Sicily, but in the end was driven off. Many Carthaginian sympathizers were killed-- in 210 BC the Roman consul M. Valerian told the Roman Senate that "no Carthaginian remains in Sicily". For the next 6 centuries Sicily was a province of the Roman Empire. It was something of a rural backwater, important chiefly for its grainfields which were a mainstay of the food supply of the city of Rome. The empire did not make much effort to Romanize the region, which remained largely Greek. The most notable event of this period was the notorious misgovernment of Verres. In AD 440 Sicily fell to the Vandal king Geiseric. A few decades later it came into Ostrogothic hands, where it remained until it was conquered by the Byzantine general Belisarius in 535. But a new Ostrogoth king, Totila, drove down the Italian peninsula and then plundered and conquered Sicily in 550. He in turn was defeated and killed by the Byzantine general Narses in 552. Sicily was then ruled by the Byzantine Empire until the Arab conquest of AD 827-902. For a brief period (662 - 668) during Byzantine rule Syracuse was the imperial capital, until Constans II was assassinated. The cultural diversity and religious tolerance of the period of Muslim rule under the Kalbid dynasty, that made Palermo the capital city of Sicily, continued under the Normans who conquered Sicily in 1060-1090 (raising its status to that of a kingdom in 1130), and the south German Hohenstaufen dynasty which ruled from 1194, adopting as well Palermo as its principal seat from 1220. Conflict between the Hohenstaufen house and the Papacy led in 1266 to Sicily's conquest by Charles I, duke of Anjou: opposition to French officialdom and taxation led in 1282 to insurrection (the Sicilian Vespers) and successful invasion by king Peter III of Aragón. Ruled from 1479 by the kings of Spain, Sicily suffered a ferocious outbreak of plague (1656), followed by a damaging earthquake in the east of the region (1693). Periods of rule by the crown of Savoy (1713-20) and then the Austrian Habsburgs gave way to union (1734) with the Bourbon-ruled kingdom of Naples as the kingdom of the Two Sicilies. The scene in 1820 and 1848 of abortive revolutionary movements against Bourbon denial of constitutional government, Sicily was joined with the kingdom of Italy in 1860 following the expedition of Giuseppe Garibaldi. Before the unification Sicily was one of the most rich and developed regions of Italy, then its national treasure and its facilities were exploited to create the new industrial growth which transformed the poor urban areas of northern Italy into the large economic heart of the nation. In 1866 Palermo insurged against Italy. The city was soon bombed by the Italian navy, which disembarked on September 22, under the command of Raffaele Cadorna. Italian soldiers summarily executed the civilian insurgents, and took possession once again of the island. A long extensive guerrilla campaign against the unionists (1861-1871) took place throughout southern Italy, and in Sicily, inducing the Italian governments to a ferocious military repression. Ruled under martial law for many years Sicily (and southern Italy) was ravaged by the Italian army that summarily executed hundred thousands people, made tens of thousands prisoners, destroyed villages, and deported people. The Sicilian economy collapsed, leading to an unprecedented wave of emigration. In 1894 labour agitation through the radical Fasci dei lavoratori led once again to the imposition of martial law. The organised crime networks commonly known as the mafia extended their influence in the late 19th century (and many of its operatives also emigrated to other countries, particularly the United States); partly suppressed under the Fascist regime beginning in the 1920s, they recovered following the World War II Allied invasion of Sicily. An autonomous region from 1946, Sicily benefited to some extent from the partial Italian land reform of 1950-62 and special funding from the Cassa per il Mezzogiorno, the Italian government's indemnification Fund for the South (1950-84). Sicily returned to the headlines in 1992, however, when the assassination of two anti-mafia magistrates, Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino triggered a general upheaval in Italian political life.

Sicilian people

In the broadest sense of the term, Sicilians are those people who live in or whose ancestors lived in Sicily. Sicily has been long known as a "melting pot" of ancient cultures and peoples, and highly valued for its location. The inhabitants of this region are therefore descended from numerous peoples, mainly Greeks, peninsular Italians, Phoenicians, Saracen Arabs and the pre-colonial indigenous peoples known as Sicans/Sicani (generally residing in the west of Sicily and possibly an Iberian tribe), the Elymi, and the Sicels/Siculi (residing mostly in the eastern portion of the Sicilian territory and probably an Italic tribe). There is also the presence of Norman, Lombard, Provençal, Aragonese and Castilian blood in some Sicilians, due to either conquest of, or migration here. A common presumption about the peopling of Sicily has been as follows: ::Sicilians residing in the east, southeast, and northeast portions of the region are primarily of Greek (and probably Sicel) descent. Cities such as Syracuse (Sirakousa), Messina (Zankle), Agrigento (Akragas), and Taormina/Giardini-Naxos, were originally Greek settlements. In the southwest, west, and northwest of the region, the inhabitants are primarily of Phoenician/Arab and Sican descent. Cities such as Trapani and Palermo were Phoenician settlements. However, a recent genetic study (Department of Biology, University of Rome, Tor Vergata, Italy) rejects the above assertions: ::The genetic distance matrix used for identifying the main genetic barriers revealed no east-west differences within the region's population, at least at the provincial level. FST estimates proved that the population subdivision did not affect the pattern of gene frequency variation; this implies that Sicily is effectively one panmictic unit. The bulk of our results confirm the absence of genetic differentiation between eastern and western Sicilians, and thus we reject the hypothesis of the subdivision of an ancient population in two areas. The few Sicilians with Norman or Spanish blood are found mostly in the large northern cities such as Palermo and Cefalu. Sicilians of Lombard descent are to be found primarily in the centre and central-east of Sicily, in towns such as Piazza Amerina, Nicosia and Aidone, where a Gallic-Italic dialect is spoken to this day. There were also significant Lombard settlements in Randazzo and Paternó in the middle ages. San Fratello, in the Province of Messina, was the destination of a large contingent of mercenaries from Provence in the middle ages, and to this day, the San Fratellans speak a unique Provençal-Sicilian dialect. Sicilians are noted for having very dark and expressive eyes; "the eyes of Sicily".

Sicilian language

Main article: Sicilian language Many Sicilians are bilingual in both Italian and Sicilian, a separate Romance language, descended from Vulgar Latin, with Greek, Arabic, French, Provençal, German, Catalan and Spanish influences. It is important to note that Sicilian is not a derivative of Italian. Although thought by some to be a dialect, Sicilianu is a distinct language, with a rich history and a sizeable vocabulary (at least 250,000 words), due to the influence of the different conquerors of, and settlers to, this land. Sicilian dialects are also spoken in the southern and central sections of the Italian regions Calabria (Calabrese) and Puglia (Salentino); and had a significant influence on the Maltese Language, which was a part of the Kingdom of Sicily (in its various forms) until the late 18th century. With the predominance of Italian in Italian schools, the media, etc., Sicilian is no longer the first language of many Sicilians. Indeed, in urban centers in particular, one is more likely to hear standard Italian spoken rather than Sicilian, especially among the young. Sicilian generally uses the word ending for singular masculine nouns and adjectives, and for feminine. The plural is usually for both masculine and feminine. By contrast, in Italian masculine nouns and adjectives that end in in the singular pass to in the plural, while the feminine counterparts pass from to . The "-LL-" sound (in words of Latin origin, for example) manifests itself in Sicilian as a voiced retroflex plosive with the tip of the tongue curled up and back, a sound which is not part of Standard Italian. In Sicilian, this sound is written simply as "-dd-" although the sound itself is not but rather . For example, the Italian word bello is beddu in Sicilian. In numerous villages, the Arbëreshë dialect of the Albanian language has been spoken since a wave of refugees settled there in the 15th century. While it is spoken within the household, Italian is the official language and modern Greek is chanted in the local Byzantine liturgy. There are also several areas where dialects of the Lombard language of the Gallo-Italic family are spoken. Much of this population is also tri-lingual, being able to also speak one of the Sicilian dialects as well.

List of Sicilians


- Empedocles (c. 490 BC – 430 BC), scientist and philosopher
- Diodorus (1st century BC), historian
- Gorgias (c. 483 BC – 375 BC), sophist, philosopher, and rhetorician
- Archimedes (c. 287 BC – 212 BC), scientist
- Pope Leo II, Pope from 682 to 683
- Roger II of Sicily, King of Sicily 1130 – 1154
- William I of Sicily, King of Sicily 1154 – 1166
- William II of Sicily, King of Sicily 1166 – 1189
- Frederick II (1194 – 1250), Holy Roman Emperor and King of Sicily (Frederick I of Sicily)
- Vincenzo Bellini (1801 – 1835), opera composer
- Francesco Crispi (1819 – 1901), politician
- Giovanni Verga (1840 – 1922), novelist
- Vito Cascio Ferro (1862 – 1943), mafioso
- Luigi Pirandello (1867 – 1936), dramatist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature
- Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (1896 – 1957), writer, poet
- Ignazio Buttitta (1901 – 2000), poet
- Salvatore Quasimodo (1901 – 1968), poet, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature
- Andrea Camilleri (born 1925), novelist
- Giovanni Falcone (1939 – 1992), judge
- Paolo Borsellino (1940 – 1992), judge
- Salvatore Schillaci (born 1964), football player
- Maria Grazia Cucinotta (born 1969), actress
- Giovanni Meli, poet
- Nino Martoglio, poet

List of Sicilian-Americans


- Frank Capra (1897 – 1991), film director
- Vincent R. Impellitteri (1900 – 1987), politican
- Anthony T. Rossi (1900 – 1993), businessman
- Giuseppe Bonanno (1905 – 2002), mafioso
- Joe DiMaggio (1914 – 1999), professional baseball player
- Frank Sinatra (1915 – 1998), singer, actor
- Mario Puzo (1920 – 1999), writer
- Jack Valenti (born 1921), lobbyist
- Philip Zimbardo (born 1933), psychologist
- Salvatore Bono (1935 – 1998), entertainer, politician
- Antonin Scalia (born 1936), U.S Supreme Court Justice
- Sal Mineo (1939 – 1976), actor
- Al Pacino (born 1940), actor
- Frank Vincent Zappa (1940 – 1993), composer, guitarist, singer and satirist
- Martin Scorcese (born 1942), film director
- Cyndi Lauper (born 1953), pop singer
- Dan Frisa (born 1955), Congressman
- Mike Piazza (born 1963), professional baseball player

See also


- Sicilian language
- Sicilian School
- Cuisine of Sicily
- Category:People of Sicilian heritage
- Monarchs of Naples and Sicily
- Two Sicilies
- Normans
- Triskelion
- Sicilian music

Notes

# Category:Regions of Italy
- Category:Former countries in Europe Category:NUTS 2 Statistical Regions of Europe zh-min-nan:Sicilia ko:시칠리아 ja:シチリア島

Syria

The Syrian Arab Republic (Arabic: الجمهورية العربية السورية) or Syria (Arabic: سوريا) is a country in the Levant region of the Middle East. It borders Lebanon to the west, Israel to the southwest, Jordan to the south, Iraq to the east, and Turkey to the north. Israel occupies the Golan Heights in the southwest of the country, and the dispute with Turkey over the Hatay Province now seems to have subsided. The ancient region of Syria, also known as Greater Syria, has often been taken to include the territories of Lebanon, Israel, the Palestinian Territories, and parts of Jordan, but excluding the Jazira region in the north-east of modern Syria.

Name

The name Syria comes from the ancient Greek name for the land of Aram at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea between Egypt and Arabia to the south and Cilicia to the north, stretching inland to include Mesopotamia, and having an uncertain border to the northeast that Pliny the Elder describes as including from west to east Commagene, Sophene, and Adiabene, "formerly known as Assyria" (N.H. 5.66). By Pliny's time, however, this larger Syria had been divided into a number of provinces under the Roman Empire (but politically independent from each other): Judaea (or "Judea" and later renamed Palestine in 135 AD-the region corresponding to the modern states of Israel and Jordan and the Palestinian territories) in the extreme southwest, Phoenicia corresponding to Lebanon, with Damascena to the inland side of Phoenicia, Coele-Syria (or "Hollow Syria") south of the Eleutheris river, and Mesopotamia.

History

Main article: History of Syria Archaeologists have demonstrated that Syria was the center of one of the most ancient civilizations on earth. Around the excavated city of Ebla in north-eastern Syria, discovered in 1975, a great Semitic empire spread from the Red Sea north to Turkey and east to Mesopotamia from 2500 to 2400 B.C. The city of Ebla alone during that time had a population estimated at 260,000. Scholars believe the language of Ebla to be the oldest Semitic language. Other notable cities excavated include Mari, Ugarit and Dura Europos. Syria was occupied successively by Canaanites, Hebrews, Arameans, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Nabataeans, Byzantines, Arabs, and, in part, Crusaders before finally coming under the control of the Ottoman Turks. Syria is significant in the history of Christianity; Paul was converted on the road to Damascus and established the first organized Christian Church at Antioch in ancient Syria, from which he left on many of his missionary journeys. Damascus, a city that has been inhabited as early as 8,000 to 10,000 BC is known to be one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world (along with Aleppo and Jericho). It came under Muslim rule in A.D. 636. Immediately thereafter, the city's power and prestige reached its peak, and it became the capital of the Omayyad Empire, which extended from Spain to the borders of Central Asia from A.D. 661 to A.D. 750, when the Abbasid caliphate was established at Baghdad, Iraq. Damascus became a provincial capital of the Mameluke Empire around 1260. It was largely destroyed in 1400 by Tamerlane, the Mongol conqueror, who removed many of its craftsmen to Samarkand. Rebuilt, it continued to serve as a capital until 1516. In 1517, it fell under Ottoman rule. The Ottomans remained for the next 400 years, except for a brief occupation by Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt from 1832 to 1840.

French occupation

Ottoman control ended when the forces of the Arab revolt entered Damascus in 1918 towards the end of the First World War. An independent Arab Kingdom of Syria was established under King Faysal of the Hashemite family, who later became King of Iraq. However, his rule over Syria ended in July 1920 when French forces entered Syria to impose their League of Nations mandate. Following the Battle of Maysalun of 23 July between the Syrian army under Yusuf al-Azmeh and the French, the French army entered Damascus and Faisal was exiled. The period of the Mandate was marked by increasing nationalist sentiment and a number of brutally repressed revolts, but also by infrastructural modernisation and economic development. With the fall of France in 1940, Syria came under the control of the Vichy Government until the United Kingdom and Free French occupied the country in July 1941. Continuing pressure from Syrian nationalist groups forced the French to evacuate their troops in April 1946, leaving the country in the hands of a republican government that had been formed during the mandate.

Independence to 1970

Although rapid economic development followed the declaration of independence of April 17, 1946, Syrian politics from independence through the late 1960s were marked by upheaval. A series of military coups, begun in 1949, undermined civilian rule and led to army colonel Adib Shishakli's seizure of power in 1951. After the overthrow of President Shishakli in a 1954 coup, continued political maneuvering supported by competing factions in the military eventually brought Arab nationalist and socialist elements to power. Syria's political instability during the years after the 1954 coup, the parallelism of Syrian and Egyptian policies, and the appeal of Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser's leadership in the wake of the 1956 Suez crisis created support in Syria for union with Egypt. On February 1, 1958, the two countries merged to create the United Arab Republic, and all Syrian political parties ceased overt activities. The union was not a success, however. Following a military coup on September 28, 1961, Syria seceded, reestablishing itself as the Syrian Arab Republic. Instability characterized the next 18 months, with various coups culminating on March 8, 1963, in the installation by leftist Syrian Army officers of the National Council of the Revolutionary Command (NCRC), a group of military and civilian officials who assumed control of all executive and legislative authority. The takeover was engineered by members of the Arab Socialist Resurrection Party (Ba'ath Party), which had been active in Syria and other Arab countries since the late 1940s. The new cabinet was dominated by Ba'ath members. The Ba'ath takeover in Syria followed a Ba'ath coup in Iraq the previous month. The new Syrian Government explored the possibility of federation with Egypt and Ba'ath–controlled Iraq. An agreement was concluded in Cairo on April 17, 1963, for a referendum on unity to be held in September 1963. However, serious disagreements among the parties soon developed, and the tripartite federation failed to materialize. Thereafter, the Ba'ath regimes in Syria and Iraq began to work for bilateral unity. These plans floundered in November 1963, when the Ba'ath regime in Iraq was overthrown. In May 1964, President Amin Hafiz of the NCRC promulgated a provisional constitution providing for a National Council of the Revolution (NCR), an appointed legislature composed of representatives of mass organizations —labor, peasant, and professional unions—, a presidential council, in which executive power was vested, and a cabinet. On February 23, 1966, a group of army officers carried out a successful, intra-party coup, imprisoned President Hafiz, dissolved the cabinet and the NCR, abrogated the provisional constitution, and designated a regionalist, civilian Ba'ath government. The coup leaders described it as a "rectification" of Ba'ath Party principles. The defeat of the Syrians and Egyptians in the June 1967 war with Israel weakened the radical socialist regime established by the 1966 coup. Conflict developed between a moderate military wing and a more extremist civilian wing of the Ba'ath Party. The 1970 retreat of Syrian forces sent to aid the PLO during the "Black September" hostilities with Jordan reflected this political disagreement within the ruling Ba'ath leadership. On November 13, 1970, Minister of Defense Hafez al-Assad affected a bloodless military coup, ousting the civilian party leadership and assuming the role of prime minister.

1970 to 2000

Upon assuming power, Hafez al-Assad moved quickly to create an organizational infrastructure for his government and to consolidate control. The Provisional Regional Command of Assad's Arab Ba'ath Socialist Party nominated a 173-member legislature, the People's Council, in which the Ba'ath Party took 87 seats. The remaining seats were divided among "popular organizations" and other minor parties. In March 1971, the party held its regional congress and elected a new 21-member Regional Command headed by Assad. In the same month, a national referendum was held to confirm Assad as President for a 7-year term. In March 1972, to broaden the base of his government, Assad formed the National Progressive Front, a coalition of parties led by the Ba'ath Party, and elections were held to establish local councils in each of Syria's 14 governorates. In March 1973, a new Syrian constitution went into effect followed shortly thereafter by parliamentary elections for the People's Council, the first such elections since 1962. Later in 1973, the October War broke out, with Syria attacking the Golan Heights to try and reclaim it. Despite some initial successes, the end of the war resulted in Syria only getting back control of a small region of the Golan.

Involvement in Lebanon's Civil War

In early 1976, the Lebanese civil war was going poorly for the Maronite Christians. Syria sent 40,000 troops into the country to prevent them from being overrun, but soon became embroiled in the Lebanese Civil War, beginning the 30 year Syrian presence in Lebanon. Many see the Syrian Army's presence in Lebanon as an occupation, especially following the end of the civil war in 1990, after the Syrian-sponsored Taif Agreement. About one million Syrian workers came into Lebanon after the war ended to find jobs in the reconstruction of the country. Syrian workers were preferred over Palestinian and Lebanese workers because they could be paid lower wages. Lebanese scholar Habib C. Malik has called the influx of Syrian workers into Lebanon "nothing short of a movement toward Syrian colonization of Lebanon." in his book Between Damascus and Jerusalem: Lebanon and Middle East Peace (The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, 1997). In 1994, under pressure from Syria, the Lebanese government granted citizenship to over 200,000 Syrians resident in the country. Syrian nationals make up at least one-third of Lebanon's resident population.[http://www.meib.org/articles/0102_l1.htm] (For more on these issues, see also Demographics of Lebanon)

Challenges to the Assad regime

The authoritarian regime was not without its critics, though most were quickly dealt with. A serious challenge arose in the late 1970s, however, from fundamentalist Sunni Muslims, who reject the basic values of the secular Ba'ath program and object to rule by the Alawis, whom they consider heretical. From 1976 until its suppression in 1982, the archconservative Muslim Brotherhood led an armed insurgency against the regime. In response to an attempted uprising by the brotherhood in February 1982, the government crushed the fundamentalist opposition centered in the city of Hama, leveling parts of the city with artillery fire and causing many thousands of dead and wounded. Since then, public manifestations of anti-regime activity have been very limited. A challenge from within the regime came in 1984, when Hafez was hospitalized after a heart attack. His brother Rifaat then attempted to seize power using internal security forces under his control. Despite his poor health, Hafez managed to assert control and sent Rifaat into exile. Syria's 1991 participation in the U.S.-led multinational coalition aligned against Saddam Hussein marked a dramatic watershed in Syria's relations both with other Arab states and with the West. Syria participated in the multilateral Middle East Peace Conference in Madrid in October 1991, and during the 1990s engaged in direct, face-to-face negotiations with Israel. These negotiations failed, and there have been no further Syrian-Israeli talks since President Hafez Al-Assad's meeting with then President Bill Clinton in Geneva in March 2000. Hafez Al-Assad died on June 10, 2000, after 30 years in power. Within a few hours following Al-Assad's death, the Parliament amended the constitution, reducing the mandatory minimum age of the President from 40 to 34 years old, which allowed his son, Bashar al-Assad legally to be eligible for nomination by the ruling Ba'ath party. On July 10, 2000, Bashar Al-Assad was elected President by referendum in which he ran unopposed, supposedly garnering 97.29% of the vote.

2000 to 2005

In his inauguration speech delivered at the People's Council on July 17, 2000, Bashar Al-Assad promised political and democratic reform. Human rights activists and other civil society advocates, as well as some parliamentarians, became more outspoken during a period referred to as "Damascus Spring" (July 2000-February 2001). Enthusiasm faded quickly as the government cracked down on civil forums and reform activists, but there was still a notable liberalization compared to the totalitarianism of Hafez. The lifting of bans on Internet access, mobile telephones and the spread of computer technology has had a great impact on the previously isolated Syrian society, and the secret police's presence in society has been eased. Today there exists a small but growing number of dissident intellectuals, as well as several formally illegal opposition parties. However, government power rests firmly in the hands of the Ba'th, and police surveillance and occasional crackdowns keeps opposition activities limited. In the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Syrian government began limited cooperation with U.S. in the global war against terrorism. However, Syria opposed the Iraq war in March 2003, and bilateral relations with the U.S. swiftly deteriorated. In December 2003, President George W. Bush signed into law the Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act of 2003, which provided for the imposition of a series of sanctions against Syria if Syria did not end its support for