Army of Mujahideen Syrian National Army
109-738: The Azadî Battalion ( Arabic : كتيبة آزادي ), also known as the Elite Battalion , is a Kurdish unit affiliated with the Free Syrian Army and reportedly loyal to Mustafa Cumma's Kurdish Freedom Party (also called Azadî Party). Founded in 2012 and led by Azad Shabo, the Azadî Battalion is opposed to the Democratic Union Party (PYD) and fights on the side of Turkey in the Syrian Civil War . Mustafa Cumma's Kurdish Freedom Party
218-732: A Women's Protection Units (YPJ) fighter they killed in the countryside near Kobanî , laughing while they did so. The SNA captured four unarmed people and promptly executed them on a road . On 15 September 2020, a report by the investigators of the UN's International Independent Commission on Syria denounced the atrocities committed against Kurdish populations by Syrian National Army forces: torture, rape, murder, systematic looting, rackets, forced displacement, forced appropriation of civilian property, arbitrary detentions and kidnappings. The 2023 Trafficking in Persons Report mentioned that factions of
327-462: A proxy force in conflicts from Libya to the south Caucasus . The SNA mostly consists of Arabs and Syrian Turkmen . The SNA, which includes at least 25,000 fighters, with some sources estimating it to be 70,000, mostly consists of Arabs and Turkmens . The number of Syrian Kurds among the SNA is much smaller. In January 2018, senior SNA commander Azad Shabo said that there were "dozens" among
436-677: A FSA flag in Azaz . The Ahrar al-Sham spokesman denied involvement and the incident sparked pro-FSA demonstrations in the city. On 14 November 2016, the Levant Front and the Sultan Murad Division clashed at the Azaz border gate with Kilis , Turkey. Ahrar al-Sham and the Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement, a former member of the Levant Front, joined the fighting after they said the Levant Front leaders
545-575: A Turkish flag patch on their uniforms at the inauguration ceremony on 24 January 2017. On 18 April 2018, the Raqqa Military Council, which consists of 6 groups, was announced in the city of Urfa in southeastern Turkey. The organization's first known engagement was a joint operation with the Turkish Armed Forces . In the first day, they took control of Jarabulus from ISIL. After this, they expanded northeast, meeting with units of
654-642: A bomb under his car, though the explosive device was found and destroyed before it could harm anyone. In early 2018, the Azadî Battalion participated in Operation Olive Branch , causing the pro-PYD Hawar News Agency to claim that Azad Shabo's men acted as "mercenaries" for the Kurdish National Council and Turkey. On the other side, Azad Shabo accused the YPG of being "agents of the Syrian regime" and said that
763-562: A collection of related dialects that constitute the precursor of Arabic, first emerged during the Iron Age . Previously, the earliest attestation of Old Arabic was thought to be a single 1st century CE inscription in Sabaic script at Qaryat al-Faw , in southern present-day Saudi Arabia. However, this inscription does not participate in several of the key innovations of the Arabic language group, such as
872-435: A corpus of poetic texts, in addition to Qur'an usage and Bedouin informants whom he considered to be reliable speakers of the ʿarabiyya . Arabic spread with the spread of Islam . Following the early Muslim conquests , Arabic gained vocabulary from Middle Persian and Turkish . In the early Abbasid period , many Classical Greek terms entered Arabic through translations carried out at Baghdad's House of Wisdom . By
981-1077: A dialect of Arabic and written in the Latin alphabet . The Balkan languages, including Albanian, Greek , Serbo-Croatian, and Bulgarian , have also acquired many words of Arabic origin, mainly through direct contact with Ottoman Turkish . Arabic has influenced languages across the globe throughout its history, especially languages where Islam is the predominant religion and in countries that were conquered by Muslims. The most markedly influenced languages are Persian , Turkish , Hindustani ( Hindi and Urdu ), Kashmiri , Kurdish , Bosnian , Kazakh , Bengali , Malay ( Indonesian and Malaysian ), Maldivian , Pashto , Punjabi , Albanian , Armenian , Azerbaijani , Sicilian, Spanish, Greek, Bulgarian, Tagalog , Sindhi , Odia , Hebrew and African languages such as Hausa , Amharic , Tigrinya , Somali , Tamazight , and Swahili . Conversely, Arabic has borrowed some words (mostly nouns) from other languages, including its sister-language Aramaic, Persian, Greek, and Latin and to
1090-797: A few weeks later that his unit included "100 Kurdish fighters affiliated with the FSA". The Azadî Battalion became part of the Syrian National Army in 2016 and took part in Operation Euphrates Shield against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant . In course of that campaign, it fought at Jarablus , Azaz and al-Bab . In March 2017, Azad Shabo stated that his militia was supporting the deployment of Peshmerga Roj to Syria. In September 2017, someone attempted to assassinate Azad Shabo by placing
1199-538: A fierce battle with the Kurdish-led People's Protection Units (YPG). In early March, the second phase of Operation Olive Branch was launched after successfully clearing the entire Afrin-Turkey border. On 3 March, after fierce fighting, the SNA captured the town of Rajo. On 8 March, the SNA captured Jinderes, meaning that they now have control over all major roads leading to the city of Afrin. On 13 March, SNA forces reached Afrin city and encircled it. On 18 March,
SECTION 10
#17330854245121308-400: A freelance journalist based in the region said that "These formations are only for show and they are not united in reality. Each faction still has its own leaders and members who do not take orders from the leaders of other factions. These formations only aim to protect themselves. Whenever factions feel threatened, they form new military bodies to protect themselves, but once the threat is gone,
1417-529: A joint attack on the Revolutionary Knights Brigade between Azaz and al-Rai and captured more than 20 of their fighters, in addition to killing and wounding at least 10. The FSA factions said the Revolutionary Knights Brigade was affiliated to the Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement and Tahrir al-Sham and partaking in smuggling , looting , extortion , and abuses of civilians. Between 4 and 15 June, heavy fighting broke out between TFSA factions led by
1526-483: A lesser extent and more recently from Turkish, English, French, and Italian. Arabic is spoken by as many as 380 million speakers, both native and non-native, in the Arab world, making it the fifth most spoken language in the world, and the fourth most used language on the internet in terms of users. It also serves as the liturgical language of more than 2 billion Muslims . In 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked Arabic
1635-677: A millennium before the modern period . Early lexicographers ( لُغَوِيُّون lughawiyyūn ) sought to explain words in the Quran that were unfamiliar or had a particular contextual meaning, and to identify words of non-Arabic origin that appear in the Quran. They gathered shawāhid ( شَوَاهِد 'instances of attested usage') from poetry and the speech of the Arabs—particularly the Bedouin ʾaʿrāb [ ar ] ( أَعْراب ) who were perceived to speak
1744-651: A new coalition of Syrian rebel groups, which included many former FSA fighters, in an effort to create a more cohesive and effective opposition force; following Operation Euphrates Shield , the Turkish government coordinated with the Syrian Interim Government to form a "National Army" to secure Turkish territorial gains . The official aims of the SNA are to create a "safe zone" in northern Syria , consolidate with other rebel factions, and combat both Syrian government forces and Islamists. Its presence expanded to
1853-533: A planned Turkish-led offensive against the YPG and SDF in the Afrin District and the Shahba region . Following the announcement, the group was attacked by multiple Turkish-backed groups, which captured the group's positions and warehouses with vehicles and equipment. On 14 July, Khallo himself was captured by the Levant Front , which said he was affiliated with both al-Qaeda and the Democratic Union Party (PYD), and
1962-576: A result, many European languages have borrowed words from it. Arabic influence, mainly in vocabulary, is seen in European languages (mainly Spanish and to a lesser extent Portuguese , Catalan , and Sicilian ) owing to the proximity of Europe and the long-lasting Arabic cultural and linguistic presence, mainly in Southern Iberia, during the Al-Andalus era. Maltese is a Semitic language developed from
2071-462: A script derived from ASA attest to a language known as Hasaitic . On the northwestern frontier of Arabia, various languages known to scholars as Thamudic B , Thamudic D, Safaitic , and Hismaic are attested. The last two share important isoglosses with later forms of Arabic, leading scholars to theorize that Safaitic and Hismaic are early forms of Arabic and that they should be considered Old Arabic . Linguists generally believe that "Old Arabic",
2180-465: A single language, despite mutual incomprehensibility among differing spoken versions. From a linguistic standpoint, it is often said that the various spoken varieties of Arabic differ among each other collectively about as much as the Romance languages . This is an apt comparison in a number of ways. The period of divergence from a single spoken form is similar—perhaps 1500 years for Arabic, 2000 years for
2289-503: A type of Arabic. Cypriot Arabic is recognized as a minority language in Cyprus. The sociolinguistic situation of Arabic in modern times provides a prime example of the linguistic phenomenon of diglossia , which is the normal use of two separate varieties of the same language, usually in different social situations. Tawleed is the process of giving a new shade of meaning to an old classical word. For example, al-hatif lexicographically means
SECTION 20
#17330854245122398-499: A variety of regional vernacular Arabic dialects , which are not necessarily mutually intelligible. Classical Arabic is the language found in the Quran , used from the period of Pre-Islamic Arabia to that of the Abbasid Caliphate . Classical Arabic is prescriptive, according to the syntactic and grammatical norms laid down by classical grammarians (such as Sibawayh ) and the vocabulary defined in classical dictionaries (such as
2507-470: A wider audience." In the wake of the industrial revolution and European hegemony and colonialism , pioneering Arabic presses, such as the Amiri Press established by Muhammad Ali (1819), dramatically changed the diffusion and consumption of Arabic literature and publications. Rifa'a al-Tahtawi proposed the establishment of Madrasat al-Alsun in 1836 and led a translation campaign that highlighted
2616-727: Is a Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world . The ISO assigns language codes to 32 varieties of Arabic , including its standard form of Literary Arabic, known as Modern Standard Arabic , which is derived from Classical Arabic . This distinction exists primarily among Western linguists; Arabic speakers themselves generally do not distinguish between Modern Standard Arabic and Classical Arabic, but rather refer to both as al-ʿarabiyyatu l-fuṣḥā ( اَلعَرَبِيَّةُ ٱلْفُصْحَىٰ "the eloquent Arabic") or simply al-fuṣḥā ( اَلْفُصْحَىٰ ). Arabic
2725-558: Is a long-standing rival of the Democratic Union Party (PYD) and strongly opposes its policies. In early 2012, members of the Kurdish Freedom Party came together in the village of Tel Aren, Afrin District , where they announced the formation of the Azadî Battalion under the leadership of Azad Shabo. Though considered "supporters of the Kurdish Freedom Party", the Azadî Battalion denied an affiliation to any party. It subsequently joined
2834-585: Is a minimum level of comprehension between all Arabic dialects, this level can increase or decrease based on geographic proximity: for example, Levantine and Gulf speakers understand each other much better than they do speakers from the Maghreb. The issue of diglossia between spoken and written language is a complicating factor: A single written form, differing sharply from any of the spoken varieties learned natively, unites several sometimes divergent spoken forms. For political reasons, Arabs mostly assert that they all speak
2943-542: Is a sister language rather than their direct ancestor. Arabia had a wide variety of Semitic languages in antiquity. The term "Arab" was initially used to describe those living in the Arabian Peninsula , as perceived by geographers from ancient Greece . In the southwest, various Central Semitic languages both belonging to and outside the Ancient South Arabian family (e.g. Southern Thamudic) were spoken. It
3052-469: Is believed that the ancestors of the Modern South Arabian languages (non-Central Semitic languages) were spoken in southern Arabia at this time. To the north, in the oases of northern Hejaz , Dadanitic and Taymanitic held some prestige as inscriptional languages. In Najd and parts of western Arabia, a language known to scholars as Thamudic C is attested. In eastern Arabia, inscriptions in
3161-408: Is credited with establishing the rules of Arabic prosody . Al-Jahiz (776–868) proposed to Al-Akhfash al-Akbar an overhaul of the grammar of Arabic, but it would not come to pass for two centuries. The standardization of Arabic reached completion around the end of the 8th century. The first comprehensive description of the ʿarabiyya "Arabic", Sībawayhi's al - Kitāb , is based first of all upon
3270-468: Is credited with standardizing Arabic grammar , or an-naḥw ( النَّحو "the way" ), and pioneering a system of diacritics to differentiate consonants ( نقط الإعجام nuqaṭu‿l-i'jām "pointing for non-Arabs") and indicate vocalization ( التشكيل at-tashkīl ). Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi (718–786) compiled the first Arabic dictionary, Kitāb al-'Ayn ( كتاب العين "The Book of the Letter ع "), and
3379-566: Is not present in the spoken varieties, but deletes Classical words that sound obsolete in MSA. In addition, MSA has borrowed or coined many terms for concepts that did not exist in Quranic times, and MSA continues to evolve. Some words have been borrowed from other languages—notice that transliteration mainly indicates spelling and not real pronunciation (e.g., فِلْم film 'film' or ديمقراطية dīmuqrāṭiyyah 'democracy'). The current preference
Azadî Battalion - Misplaced Pages Continue
3488-836: Is official in Mali and recognized as a minority language in Morocco, while the Senegalese government adopted the Latin script to write it. Maltese is official in (predominantly Catholic ) Malta and written with the Latin script . Linguists agree that it is a variety of spoken Arabic, descended from Siculo-Arabic , though it has experienced extensive changes as a result of sustained and intensive contact with Italo-Romance varieties, and more recently also with English. Due to "a mix of social, cultural, historical, political, and indeed linguistic factors", many Maltese people today consider their language Semitic but not
3597-559: Is the third most widespread official language after English and French, one of six official languages of the United Nations , and the liturgical language of Islam . Arabic is widely taught in schools and universities around the world and is used to varying degrees in workplaces, governments and the media. During the Middle Ages , Arabic was a major vehicle of culture and learning, especially in science, mathematics and philosophy. As
3706-584: Is the variety used in most current, printed Arabic publications, spoken by some of the Arabic media across North Africa and the Middle East, and understood by most educated Arabic speakers. "Literary Arabic" and "Standard Arabic" ( فُصْحَى fuṣḥá ) are less strictly defined terms that may refer to Modern Standard Arabic or Classical Arabic. Some of the differences between Classical Arabic (CA) and Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) are as follows: MSA uses much Classical vocabulary (e.g., dhahaba 'to go') that
3815-413: Is to avoid direct borrowings, preferring to either use loan translations (e.g., فرع farʻ 'branch', also used for the branch of a company or organization; جناح janāḥ 'wing', is also used for the wing of an airplane, building, air force, etc.), or to coin new words using forms within existing roots ( استماتة istimātah ' apoptosis ', using the root موت m/w/t 'death' put into
3924-516: Is used to denote concepts that have arisen in the industrial and post-industrial era , especially in modern times. Due to its grounding in Classical Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic is removed over a millennium from everyday speech, which is construed as a multitude of dialects of this language. These dialects and Modern Standard Arabic are described by some scholars as not mutually comprehensible. The former are usually acquired in families, while
4033-445: The Lisān al-ʻArab ). Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) largely follows the grammatical standards of Classical Arabic and uses much of the same vocabulary. However, it has discarded some grammatical constructions and vocabulary that no longer have any counterpart in the spoken varieties and has adopted certain new constructions and vocabulary from the spoken varieties. Much of the new vocabulary
4142-643: The Afrin Region on 7 March 2013. Both sides blamed each other for this incident that left four fighters dead. Sporadic fighting between the two groups continued, and Azadî Battalion fighters reportedly took part in attacks on the YPG-held Sheikh Maqsood neighborhood of Aleppo since September 2013. The group also fought with other rebels against the Syrian Army in Aleppo's Khan al-Asal and Rashidin. When
4251-542: The Coalition offensive on Raqqa . On 24 September 2017, the Hamza Division announced the opening of a military academy in the city of al-Bab . According to Abdullah Halawa, military commander of the group, 2,200 fighters will undergo two months of training in the academy, with the goal of forming a "Syrian National Army" in northern Syria. On 20 January 2018, Turkey launched a new operation in Afrin Region , against
4360-536: The Free Syrian Army ( FSA ) and also known as the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army ( TFSA ), is a coalition of armed Syrian opposition groups in the Syrian Civil War . Comprising various rebel factions that emerged at the start of the war in July 2011, it was officially established in 2017 under the auspices of Turkey , which provides funding, training, and military support. The SNA has its roots in
4469-518: The Free Syrian Army , a loose collection of armed opposition groups founded on 29 July 2011 by defected Syrian military officers . After Turkey formally condemned the regime of Bashar al-Assad in November 2011, it provided arms, training, and sanctuary to the FSA. Initially the principal opponent of the Syrian government, the FSA was gradually weakened by infighting , lack of funding, and rival Islamist groups . In August 2016, Turkey began assembling
Azadî Battalion - Misplaced Pages Continue
4578-665: The Kurdish Supreme Committee consequently started an investigation of the Azadî Battalion "for allegedly taking part in the attacks against West Kurdistan ". The Kurdish Institute of Brussels condemned the Azadî Battalion for the same reasons. Meanwhile, hardcore Islamist rebel groups accused the Azadî Battalion of working with the Kurdish Front. By 2016, the Azadî Battalion had joined the Army of Mujahideen . In May 2016, Azad Shabo gave an interview to Halab Today , claiming that
4687-532: The Levant Front attacked the Sham Legion near Azaz . The Levant Front said the Sham Legion was conspiring with the Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement , part of Tahrir al-Sham . The LF besieged the Sham Legion headquarters, captured a number of their fighters, and seized several ammunition dumps . Between 24 and 25 May, 5 FSA factions including the Levant Front, the Hamza Division , and the Sultan Murad Division conducted
4796-624: The National Front for Liberation joined the National Army's command structure, planning to become its 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th legions. Both NFL and SNA fighters were uninformed of the merger, which took place in a press conference in Urfa , southern Turkey, amid Turkish plans to launch an offensive against the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). According to a 2019 research paper published by
4905-621: The Syrian Democratic Forces north of Manbij . They successfully pushed the SDF out of the Jarablus area and captured all its settlements; the Euphrates river was used as a demarcation line, with forces on the opposing sides. On at least one occasion, American troops came to form a joint operation with Turkey; however after the TFSA's Ahrar al-Sharqiya Brigade's verbal attacks ("crusaders", "pigs") against them,
5014-561: The Xth form , or جامعة jāmiʻah 'university', based on جمع jamaʻa 'to gather, unite'; جمهورية jumhūriyyah 'republic', based on جمهور jumhūr 'multitude'). An earlier tendency was to redefine an older word although this has fallen into disuse (e.g., هاتف hātif 'telephone' < 'invisible caller (in Sufism)'; جريدة jarīdah 'newspaper' < 'palm-leaf stalk'). Colloquial or dialectal Arabic refers to
5123-493: The capture of Afrin a week earlier, clashes broke out between the Hamza Division and Ahrar al-Sharqiya in the city, resulting in the latter group capturing around 200 fighters from the former. A ceasefire agreement between the two groups was signed on the same day under the auspices of Turkey. On 18 November 2018, at least 25 militants were killed and dozens wounded in heavy clashes between Turkish-backed insurgent factions in
5232-494: The northern Hejaz . These features are evidence of common descent from a hypothetical ancestor , Proto-Arabic . The following features of Proto-Arabic can be reconstructed with confidence: On the other hand, several Arabic varieties are closer to other Semitic languages and maintain features not found in Classical Arabic, indicating that these varieties cannot have developed from Classical Arabic. Thus, Arabic vernaculars do not descend from Classical Arabic: Classical Arabic
5341-417: The "Kurdistan Workers’ Party." On 26 March 2016, Ahrar ash-Sham ordered the anti-YPG Kurdish FSA group Liwa Ahfad Saladin to remove the flag of Kurdistan from their posts and threatened military action if they did not. However, Liwa Ahfad Saladin's commander denied the incident ever occurred and stated Ahrar ash-Sham to be its ally. On 27 September 2016, several Ahrar al-Sham fighters publicly burned
5450-419: The "learned" tradition (Classical Arabic). This variety and both its classicizing and "lay" iterations have been termed Middle Arabic in the past, but they are thought to continue an Old Higazi register. It is clear that the orthography of the Quran was not developed for the standardized form of Classical Arabic; rather, it shows the attempt on the part of writers to record an archaic form of Old Higazi. In
5559-938: The "purest," most eloquent form of Arabic—initiating a process of jamʿu‿l-luɣah ( جمع اللغة 'compiling the language') which took place over the 8th and early 9th centuries. Kitāb al-'Ayn ( c. 8th century ), attributed to Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi , is considered the first lexicon to include all Arabic roots ; it sought to exhaust all possible root permutations —later called taqālīb ( تقاليب ) — calling those that are actually used mustaʿmal ( مستعمَل ) and those that are not used muhmal ( مُهمَل ). Lisān al-ʿArab (1290) by Ibn Manzur gives 9,273 roots, while Tāj al-ʿArūs (1774) by Murtada az-Zabidi gives 11,978 roots. Syrian National Army Western Libya Libyan Civil War (2014–2020) Nagorno-Karabakh conflict The Syrian National Army ( SNA ; Arabic : الجيش الوطني السوري , romanized : al-Jayš al-Waṭanī as-Sūrī ), previously
SECTION 50
#17330854245125668-454: The 11th and 12th centuries in al-Andalus , the zajal and muwashah poetry forms developed in the dialectical Arabic of Cordoba and the Maghreb. The Nahda was a cultural and especially literary renaissance of the 19th century in which writers sought "to fuse Arabic and European forms of expression." According to James L. Gelvin , " Nahda writers attempted to simplify the Arabic language and script so that it might be accessible to
5777-562: The 4th to the 6th centuries, the Nabataean script evolved into the Arabic script recognizable from the early Islamic era. There are inscriptions in an undotted, 17-letter Arabic script dating to the 6th century CE, found at four locations in Syria ( Zabad , Jebel Usays , Harran , Umm el-Jimal ). The oldest surviving papyrus in Arabic dates to 643 CE, and it uses dots to produce the modern 28-letter Arabic alphabet. The language of that papyrus and of
5886-812: The 8th century, knowledge of Classical Arabic had become an essential prerequisite for rising into the higher classes throughout the Islamic world, both for Muslims and non-Muslims. For example, Maimonides , the Andalusi Jewish philosopher, authored works in Judeo-Arabic —Arabic written in Hebrew script . Ibn Jinni of Mosul , a pioneer in phonology , wrote prolifically in the 10th century on Arabic morphology and phonology in works such as Kitāb Al-Munṣif , Kitāb Al-Muḥtasab , and Kitāb Al-Khaṣāʾiṣ [ ar ] . Ibn Mada' of Cordoba (1116–1196) realized
5995-595: The Azadî Battalion and the Saladin Ayubi Brigade began to decline. Meanwhile, Cumma's Kurdish Freedom Party left the Kurdish Supreme Committee , an attempted coalition government of pro- and anti-PYD parties for the Syrian Kurdish-held territories, in February 2013. Hostilities between the two parties consequently grew, and the Azadî Battalion clashed with the YPG at the villages of Burj Abdilla and Abdilla in
6104-413: The Azadî Battalion took part in the Turkish offensive into north-eastern Syria . The Azadî Battalion claims to fight for democracy and the liberation of all Syrians from the rule of the al-Assad family . It regards the PYD and YPG/YPJ as Ba'athist , chauvinist and racist proxies of the Kurdistan Workers' Party who are thought by the Azadî Battalion to be controlled by Iran and closely allied with
6213-454: The FSA units such as the Azadî Battalion , while Almodon Online reported about 500 Kurdish fighters overall, including in non-FSA formations such as Ahrar al-Sham , the Levant Front and the Army of Grandchildren. By February 2018, a SNA commander said that 350 Kurds were part of the Syrian National Army. By the end of June 2017, most Turkish-backed FSA groups reorganized themselves into three military blocs: Victory , Sultan Murad and
6322-405: The Kurdish-led Democratic Union Party (PYD) in Syria. The SNA conducted ground offensives against the YPG and SDF supported by and in conjunction with Turkish armed forces (TAF/TSK) air strikes, artillery, armored units, and special forces units. The first phase of the operation is to capture the entire Afrin-Turkey border. On 1 February, the SNA captured the strategic town of Bulbul after
6431-463: The Levant . A number of other groups remained independent. On 30 December 2017, the groups unified to form the National Army. By this time, three "legions" (corps) were established as part of the SNA: 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. On 15 March 2018, rebel factions in northern Homs Governorate formed the 4th Legion, though it later transferred to northern Aleppo. Factions also moved from Rif Dimashq Governorate and Damascus to northern Aleppo. On 4 October 2019,
6540-412: The Middle East and North Africa have become a badge of sophistication and modernity and ... feigning, or asserting, weakness or lack of facility in Arabic is sometimes paraded as a sign of status, class, and perversely, even education through a mélange of code-switching practises." Arabic has been taught worldwide in many elementary and secondary schools, especially Muslim schools. Universities around
6649-474: The Qur'an is referred to by linguists as "Quranic Arabic", as distinct from its codification soon thereafter into " Classical Arabic ". In late pre-Islamic times, a transdialectal and transcommunal variety of Arabic emerged in the Hejaz , which continued living its parallel life after literary Arabic had been institutionally standardized in the 2nd and 3rd century of the Hijra , most strongly in Judeo-Christian texts, keeping alive ancient features eliminated from
SECTION 60
#17330854245126758-413: The Romance languages. Also, while it is comprehensible to people from the Maghreb , a linguistically innovative variety such as Moroccan Arabic is essentially incomprehensible to Arabs from the Mashriq , much as French is incomprehensible to Spanish or Italian speakers but relatively easily learned by them. This suggests that the spoken varieties may linguistically be considered separate languages. With
6867-431: The SDF managed to ambush Turkish-backed forces, killing 30 fighters. Since 2020, Turkey has been hiring and transporting fighters from the Syrian National Army to support and bolster the manpower of the Libyan GNA . Several SNA member groups volunteered for the operation despite strong objections of the Syrian Interim Government. Up to 481 have died in combat. In September 2020, Turkey deployed 2,580 fighters from
6976-429: The SNA took full control of Afrin, marking their second big victory after Operation Euphrates Shield. Since the capture of Afrin city, SNA forces have been busy clearing the recently captured areas of mines and providing security and stability to the region. As of 13 June SNA forces have dismantled 240 mines and 1,231 IEDs. By 16 August, the SNA sent considerable reinforcements to the frontlines of Hama and Idlib, where
7085-427: The Sham Legion denied its fighters were involved. After the SNA captured the border town of Tell Abyad and its surroundings during the offensive in northern and eastern Syria in October 2019, Glory Corps fighters reportedly kidnapped several young men from Bîr Atwan village, west of Tell Abyad, and beat and humiliated them. On 22 October, fighters from the group trampled and mutilated the body of what appeared to be
7194-459: The Sultan Murad Division and Ahrar al-Sham and its allies in and near al-Bab. By 15 June, 33 people were killed and 55 injured in the infighting. On 8 June, between 60 and 70 TFSA fighters, including several Sultan Murad Division commanders, defected to the Syrian Army and the Syrian Democratic Forces during the clashes. On 3 July 2017, Mahmoud Khallo, commander of the Descendants of Saladin Brigade , declared that his unit would not participate in
7303-474: The Syrian Arab Army was launching an offensive against HTS and various rebel groups . Following this, rebel forces launched another heavy attack on the government-held village of Sukayk. On 9 October 2019, Turkish Armed Forces, together with the Syrian National Army, had launched what they called Operation Peace Spring against SDF to eradicate what Turkish President Erdogan called "the threat of terror" against Turkey. On 13 October, Peace Spring forces captured
7412-450: The Syrian National Army to fight in Nagorno-Karabakh , where according to SOHR, up to 541 have died in combat. In January 2024, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that Turkey had deployed SNA fighters to participate in the anti-ISIS campaign in Niger . By May 2024, an additional 250 members of the SNA's Sultan Murad Division had been dispatched to Niger by Turkey's National Intelligence Organization . In July 2024,
7521-428: The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that Turkey had deployed SNA fighters to participate in the Turkish-PKK conflict in Northern Iraq. According to SOHR sources, the number of Syrian fighters expected to join this mission is estimated to be nearly 400 mercenaries from "Al-Sulta Suleiman Shah," "Al-Hamzah" Divisions and "Al-Sultan Murad" Division. According to the sources, some SNA fighters have been captured by
7630-447: The Syrian government, not the FSA, was shelling Sheikh Maqsood, while also accusing the YPG forces in Sheikh Maqsood of being allied to the government. He also said that the YPG helped to break the Siege of Nubl and al-Zahraa , and that the PYD's rule over Afrin was a brutal, mismanaged dictatorship. Though the Azadî Battalion continued to fight against the YPG, its power reportedly dwindled over time, and pro-PYD media claimed that parts of
7739-471: The Syrian government. Furthermore, Azad Shabo has stated his belief that the "PYD was formed to fight Islam". The Azadî Battalion officially voiced support for the Kurdish National Council in 2017. Arabic language Arabic (endonym: اَلْعَرَبِيَّةُ , romanized : al-ʿarabiyyah , pronounced [al ʕaraˈbijːa] , or عَرَبِيّ , ʿarabīy , pronounced [ˈʕarabiː] or [ʕaraˈbij] )
7848-535: The Turkish armed forces lost 68. As of March 2017, the TFSA and the Turkish army were effectively blocked from moving further east by advances of the SAA. This occurred when the SDF's Manbij Military Council handed over some territory bordering the Turkish positions to the SAA, creating a buffer zone. As a result, the TFSA failed to achieve other stated goals, including capturing the SDF-held city of Manbij and participating in
7957-520: The US troops withdrew, being escorted from the area by US-backed units in the TFSA, including the Hamza Division and the al-Mu'tasim Brigade . A U.S. defense official confirmed the event, but said that U.S. soldiers were still deployed in the area. The joint forces pushed ISIL to the south. After this success, Turkey-backed FSA made contact near Mare with the SDF forces from the Afrin Canton . Contact between
8066-407: The al-Nusra Front and allied FSA units attacked and overran the Kurdish Front's positions at Tall Hasil and Tall Aran southeast of Aleppo International Airport , the Azadî Battalion was accused of having taken part in the fighting. The battalion itself denied this, while a FSA member declared that the Azadî Battalion had simply started policing the villages after their capture by the FSA. Nevertheless,
8175-585: The anti-PYD Free Syrian Army and the Aleppo Revolutionary Military Council, led by Abdul Jabbar al-Oqaidi ; the pro-PYD Hawar News Agency has accused the militia of directly working with the al-Nusra Front in Ras al-Ayn . After the formation of a PYD/YPG-aligned FSA group, named the Kurdish Front , at the end of 2012 and the beginning of 2013, the influence of other Kurdish FSA groups such as
8284-654: The armed opposition. Fourteen factions of the 28 were also recipients of the U.S.-supplied TOW anti-tank guided missiles." In April 2021, an additional military formation was made in Idlib, named 'al-Quwat al-Radifa' (Auxiliary Forces). By September 2021, groups under the Syrian National Army have coalesced into two main blocs: the Azm Operations Room and the Syrian Front for Liberation . Speaking of these blocs,
8393-524: The border town of tal Abyad. After the conclusion of the Second Battle of Ras al-Ayn on 20 October, SDF fighters retreated from the border town of Ras al Ain during the cease fire, which was brokered by the United States and Turkey. On 25 November, the operation was completed, after securing the territories between Ras al Ayn and Tal Abyad. On 2 December, Lebanon 's al-Akhbar newspaper reported that
8502-659: The campaign would not end before Afrin had been captured from the YPG. In another interview, he further stated that "Afrin will return to the arms of the Syrian revolution and will win back the rights of its people. The YPG is no different from Assad’s regime. They have both practiced tyranny and murder against Kurds. Operation Olive Branch will liberate Afrin's inhabitants." An Azadî Battalion commander accused Iran of increasing its presence through proxy militias in southeastern Aleppo in October 2018, claiming that said militias were lawless and not loyal to Syrian authorities. In late 2019,
8611-567: The conversion of Semitic mimation to nunation in the singular. It is best reassessed as a separate language on the Central Semitic dialect continuum. It was also thought that Old Arabic coexisted alongside—and then gradually displaced— epigraphic Ancient North Arabian (ANA), which was theorized to have been the regional tongue for many centuries. ANA, despite its name, was considered a very distinct language, and mutually unintelligible, from "Arabic". Scholars named its variant dialects after
8720-577: The emergence of Central Semitic languages, particularly in grammar. Innovations of the Central Semitic languages—all maintained in Arabic—include: There are several features which Classical Arabic, the modern Arabic varieties, as well as the Safaitic and Hismaic inscriptions share which are unattested in any other Central Semitic language variety, including the Dadanitic and Taymanitic languages of
8829-728: The eve of the conquests: Northern and Central (Al-Jallad 2009). The modern dialects emerged from a new contact situation produced following the conquests. Instead of the emergence of a single or multiple koines, the dialects contain several sedimentary layers of borrowed and areal features, which they absorbed at different points in their linguistic histories. According to Veersteegh and Bickerton, colloquial Arabic dialects arose from pidginized Arabic formed from contact between Arabs and conquered peoples. Pidginization and subsequent creolization among Arabs and arabized peoples could explain relative morphological and phonological simplicity of vernacular Arabic compared to Classical and MSA. In around
8938-593: The fact that they participate in the innovations common to all forms of Arabic. The earliest attestation of continuous Arabic text in an ancestor of the modern Arabic script are three lines of poetry by a man named Garm(')allāhe found in En Avdat, Israel , and dated to around 125 CE. This is followed by the Namara inscription , an epitaph of the Lakhmid king Imru' al-Qays bar 'Amro, dating to 328 CE, found at Namaraa, Syria. From
9047-680: The formations fall apart." The Free Syrian Army (FSA) was the Syrian rebel faction most aligned with the Turkish state since the beginning of the Turkish involvement in the Syrian Civil War . For the FSA, Turkey was a sanctuary and a source of supplies. In the aftermath of the Kurdish-Turkish conflict restarting in 2015 , the Turkish government became more influential throughout 2016, as other countries began to scale back their involvement and
9156-501: The fourth most useful language for business, after English, Mandarin Chinese , and French. Arabic is written with the Arabic alphabet , an abjad script that is written from right to left . Arabic is usually classified as a Central Semitic language . Linguists still differ as to the best classification of Semitic language sub-groups. The Semitic languages changed between Proto-Semitic and
9265-579: The inclusion of new words into their published standard dictionaries. They also publish old and historical Arabic manuscripts. In 1997, a bureau of Arabization standardization was added to the Educational, Cultural, and Scientific Organization of the Arab League . These academies and organizations have worked toward the Arabization of the sciences, creating terms in Arabic to describe new concepts, toward
9374-608: The language. Software and books with tapes are an important part of Arabic learning, as many of Arabic learners may live in places where there are no academic or Arabic language school classes available. Radio series of Arabic language classes are also provided from some radio stations. A number of websites on the Internet provide online classes for all levels as a means of distance education; most teach Modern Standard Arabic, but some teach regional varieties from numerous countries. The tradition of Arabic lexicography extended for about
9483-599: The late 6th century AD, a relatively uniform intertribal "poetic koine" distinct from the spoken vernaculars developed based on the Bedouin dialects of Najd , probably in connection with the court of al-Ḥīra . During the first Islamic century, the majority of Arabic poets and Arabic-writing persons spoke Arabic as their mother tongue. Their texts, although mainly preserved in far later manuscripts, contain traces of non-standardized Classical Arabic elements in morphology and syntax. Abu al-Aswad al-Du'ali ( c. 603 –689)
9592-420: The latter is taught in formal education settings. However, there have been studies reporting some degree of comprehension of stories told in the standard variety among preschool-aged children. The relation between Modern Standard Arabic and these dialects is sometimes compared to that of Classical Latin and Vulgar Latin vernaculars (which became Romance languages ) in medieval and early modern Europe. MSA
9701-883: The many national or regional varieties which constitute the everyday spoken language. Colloquial Arabic has many regional variants; geographically distant varieties usually differ enough to be mutually unintelligible , and some linguists consider them distinct languages. However, research indicates a high degree of mutual intelligibility between closely related Arabic variants for native speakers listening to words, sentences, and texts; and between more distantly related dialects in interactional situations. The varieties are typically unwritten. They are often used in informal spoken media, such as soap operas and talk shows , as well as occasionally in certain forms of written media such as poetry and printed advertising. Hassaniya Arabic , Maltese , and Cypriot Arabic are only varieties of modern Arabic to have acquired official recognition. Hassaniya
9810-529: The militia under Mahmut Hamo eventually split off and joined the Sultan Murad Division . The rest of the Azadî Battalion eventually joined the Elite Army while remaining under Azad Shabo's command. The unit thereafter came to call itself the "Elite Battalion", though also continued to use its old name. It is unclear how numerous the unit still is; Shabo said in late January 2018 that there were "dozens" of Kurds fighting with pro-Turkish forces in Syria, though claimed
9919-768: The need for a lexical injection in Arabic, to suit concepts of the industrial and post-industrial age (such as sayyārah سَيَّارَة 'automobile' or bākhirah باخِرة 'steamship'). In response, a number of Arabic academies modeled after the Académie française were established with the aim of developing standardized additions to the Arabic lexicon to suit these transformations, first in Damascus (1919), then in Cairo (1932), Baghdad (1948), Rabat (1960), Amman (1977), Khartum [ ar ] (1993), and Tunis (1993). They review language development, monitor new words and approve
10028-415: The neighboring Idlib Governorate during the Syrian government's 2019 northwestern offensive , after which it incorporated the National Front for Liberation on 4 October 2019. Closely aligned with the Turkish government, the SNA has been described as an auxiliary army of the Turkish Armed Forces and as " mercenaries " by their critics. Outside Syria, SNA fighters have been deployed by Turkey as
10137-466: The northwestern Syrian city of Afrin. The clashes primarily occurred in the Mahmudiya and Villat neighborhoods, killing 14 fighters from Ahrar al-Sharqiya and nine from the other groups. In September 2016, after their capture of Jarabulus from ISIL, Sultan Murad Division fighters published pictures of themselves torturing four YPG prisoners of war . In June 2017, the Kurdish National Council said
10246-424: The one whose sound is heard but whose person remains unseen. Now the term al-hatif is used for a telephone. Therefore, the process of tawleed can express the needs of modern civilization in a manner that would appear to be originally Arabic. In the case of Arabic, educated Arabs of any nationality can be assumed to speak both their school-taught Standard Arabic as well as their native dialects, which depending on
10355-831: The other was committing corruption . The Sultan Murad Division, the Hamza Division , and the Northern Hawks Brigade sided with the Sultan Suleyman Shah Brigade during the clashes. On 14 May 2017, two separate clashes in Jarabulus and Gandura pitted the Ahrar al-Sharqiya Brigade against the Sultan Murad Division and the Sham Legion . The fighting stopped after the intervention of the Turkish Army . On 22 May,
10464-549: The overhaul of Arabic grammar first proposed by Al-Jahiz 200 years prior. The Maghrebi lexicographer Ibn Manzur compiled Lisān al-ʿArab ( لسان العرب , "Tongue of Arabs"), a major reference dictionary of Arabic, in 1290. Charles Ferguson 's koine theory claims that the modern Arabic dialects collectively descend from a single military koine that sprang up during the Islamic conquests; this view has been challenged in recent times. Ahmad al-Jallad proposes that there were at least two considerably distinct types of Arabic on
10573-744: The pro-government Turkish think tank SETA , "Out of the 28 factions [in the Syrian National Army], 21 were previously supported by the United States , three of them via the Pentagon’s program to combat Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Eighteen of these factions were supplied by the CIA via the MOM Operations Room in Turkey, a joint intelligence operation room of the ‘Friends of Syria’ to support
10682-571: The rebel groups became more dependent on Turkish help. The Turkey-backed FSA's wages are paid for by the Turkish government, they operate alongside the Turkish Armed Forces. Injured Turkey-backed FSA troops have been treated in Turkey. The Free Police have more overt connections to Turkey, reportedly wearing Turkish police uniforms decorated with the word " Polis " ( Turkish for " Police "), while Special Forces wear distinctive light blue berets also worn by Turkish Gendarmerie . Some wore
10791-533: The rebel troops. On 3 October 2018, the Glory Corps attempted to seize 4 houses inhabited by displaced families from Arbin in Afrin city to use as headquarters, but were stopped by the Sultan Murad Division and the rebel military police. On 27 January 2019, Glory Corps and Sham Legion fighters kidnapped a doctor from his clinic in Afrin and tortured him, and said he was a member of the Democratic Union Party (PYD);
10900-613: The rebels kidnapped 55 Kurdish civilians and displaced hundreds of Yazidis in northern Aleppo. Several cases of Human rights violations have been reported by the Syrian Observatory for Human rights (SOHR). According to Kurdish sources, Kurdish local politician Hevrin Khalaf was executed near Qamishli by the Syrian National Army, her death was later confirmed by the SOHR . SOHR further reported that at least 9 civilians had been executed by
11009-410: The region may be mutually unintelligible. Some of these dialects can be considered to constitute separate languages which may have "sub-dialects" of their own. When educated Arabs of different dialects engage in conversation (for example, a Moroccan speaking with a Lebanese), many speakers code-switch back and forth between the dialectal and standard varieties of the language, sometimes even within
11118-458: The same sentence. The issue of whether Arabic is one language or many languages is politically charged, in the same way it is for the varieties of Chinese , Hindi and Urdu , Serbian and Croatian , Scots and English, etc. In contrast to speakers of Hindi and Urdu who claim they cannot understand each other even when they can, speakers of the varieties of Arabic will claim they can all understand each other even when they cannot. While there
11227-458: The sole example of Medieval linguist Abu Hayyan al-Gharnati – who, while a scholar of the Arabic language, was not ethnically Arab – Medieval scholars of the Arabic language made no efforts at studying comparative linguistics, considering all other languages inferior. In modern times, the educated upper classes in the Arab world have taken a nearly opposite view. Yasir Suleiman wrote in 2011 that "studying and knowing English or French in most of
11336-556: The standardization of these new terms throughout the Arabic-speaking world, and toward the development of Arabic as a world language . This gave rise to what Western scholars call Modern Standard Arabic. From the 1950s, Arabization became a postcolonial nationalist policy in countries such as Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, and Sudan. Arabic usually refers to Standard Arabic, which Western linguists divide into Classical Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic. It could also refer to any of
11445-501: The towns where the inscriptions were discovered (Dadanitic, Taymanitic, Hismaic, Safaitic). However, most arguments for a single ANA language or language family were based on the shape of the definite article, a prefixed h-. It has been argued that the h- is an archaism and not a shared innovation, and thus unsuitable for language classification, rendering the hypothesis of an ANA language family untenable. Safaitic and Hismaic, previously considered ANA, should be considered Old Arabic due to
11554-587: The two saw the group attack some SDF-held towns with Turkish artillery support. The attacks were repelled, with casualties on both sides. In February 2017, the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army and the Turkish Armed Forces advanced to besiege al-Bab . By 27 February, the group and Turkish Armed Forces seized al-Bab . As of February 2017, 470 fighters of the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army died in Operation Euphrates Shield, while
11663-451: The world have classes that teach Arabic as part of their foreign languages , Middle Eastern studies , and religious studies courses. Arabic language schools exist to assist students to learn Arabic outside the academic world. There are many Arabic language schools in the Arab world and other Muslim countries. Because the Quran is written in Arabic and all Islamic terms are in Arabic, millions of Muslims (both Arab and non-Arab) study
11772-432: Was tortured . The Levant Front then handed him over to Turkish security forces, who interrogated him. After being released soon after, Khallo protested against his unit's treatment and criticized that "Turkey was apparently only interested in using the Syrian militias to further its own strategic goals". He also said that Liwa Ahfad Saladin, now without weapons, would set up a political party. On 25 March 2018, following
11881-564: Was "acting like gangs". On 3 April 2017, Ahrar al-Sham reportedly attacked Liwa Ahfad Saladin in Qabasin and captured more than 8 of their fighters, including a commander. Hours later, the prisoners were released after negotiations, although tensions between the two groups remain. On 13 April 2017, clashes broke out between the Levant Front and the Sultan Suleyman Shah Brigade 100 kilometers north of Aleppo after both groups said
#511488