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143-756: The Kalbids descended from the Arab tribe of Banu Kalb , members of which frequently served as governors, administrators and high-ranking officials in Ifriqiya (central North Africa) during the Umayyad period ( c.  670s –750). During the rule of the Aghlabids in Ifriqiya (800–909), the fortunes of the Kalb declined as the rulers there favored the tribe's rivals from the Qays – Mudar group. When

286-510: A retaliatory expedition to Syria, which did not launch until soon after Muhammad's death in 632. Usama may have been chosen for the campaign because of his Kalbite descent. The majority of the Kalb remained outside the emerging Muslim state's authority at the time of Muhammad's death. While al-Asbagh remained loyal to the Medina -based Muslim state during the subsequent Ridda wars , when most Arab tribes broke off their allegiance, another faction of

429-596: A battle in which the Salihid phylarch , Dawud, was killed by Tha'laba ibn Amir of the Kalb and his ally Mu'awiya ibn Hujayr of the Namir, the Kalb's brother tribe, in the Golan. It is not clear if the conflict between Tha'laba ibn Amir and Dawud was a personal feud or part of a tribal conflict between the Kalb and the Salihids. Although the Kalb's role in 5th-century Arab tribal politics in

572-519: A branch of the Ghatafan. Because of its inclination toward sedentarism , through the 10th century, the Kalb gradually lost its dominant position in the Dumat al-Jandal and Wadi Sirhan regions to its Tayy allies, while those who remained nomadic either migrated to join their kinsmen in central Syria or kept a low profile in their traditional dwelling places. Military pressures also forced the Kalb to retreat from

715-470: A family of non-Kalbite priests for the pre-monotheistic Kalb's idol , Wadd , which was incorporated into the Kalb after the cult of Wadd spread to Dumat al-Jandal. The four prominent, 8th-century Kalbite scholars of Kufa, Muhammad ibn Sa'ib al-Kalbi , his son Hisham ibn al-Kalbi , al-Sharqi al-Qutami, and Awana ibn al-Hakam , all descended from the Banu Abd Wadd, and their works are the main sources for

858-458: A fleet of 10,000 men under the command of Asad ibn al-Furat . Palermo was conquered in 831 and became the new capital. Syracuse fell in 878 and in 902 the last Byzantine outpost, Taormina , was taken. At the same time various Muslim incursions into southern Italy occurred, with new Emirates being founded in Tropea , Taranto and Bari . During this period there were constant power struggles amongst

1001-566: A leading Kalbite family. According to the historian Andrew Marsham, the marriages between different families of the Umayyads and the Kalb "[reflected] competition both within Kalb and within the Umayyad kin-group". Amid the Umayyad succession crisis, a rival claimant to the caliphate, Ibn al-Zubayr of Mecca, had challenged Umayyad leadership and was gaining support in Syria. Ibn Bahdal, determined to preserve

1144-517: A massive invasion of Byzantine-held Syria , Phoenicia , Palestine and Egypt in 410, according to Shahîd. He posits that the invasion was related to the fall of the Kalb's Tanukhid allies and the latter's replacement as the Byzantine's main foederati by the Salihids , who also descended from Quda'a. In the closing years of the 5th century, tensions between the Kalb and the Salihids culminated in

1287-539: A place called 'Buss'; the Ghatafan's haram emulated the Ka'aba of Mecca , at the time a widely honored edifice containing pagan Arabian idols, which offended the powerful tribes of the area, including the Kalb. Zuhayr decisively defeated the Ghatafan and had their haram destroyed. Although the Ghassanids were the preeminent Arab tribal group of Byzantine Syria and presided over the Arab confederate tribes of Byzantium in

1430-487: A policy of Incastellamento in 967, a movement which profoundly transformed the social structure of the region. It forced a regrouping of all inhabitants in a small number of cities (one per district), each guarded by a castle and equipped with a Friday mosque , essential to ensure political fidelity and religious indoctrination . It was not just a question of bringing Islam into the Sicilian way of life, but also of conveying

1573-613: A revolt against Marwan II in Homs, but the Kalb and its Yamanite allies were defeated. The Kalb afterward reconciled with the caliph by 746. However, with the advent of the Abbasid Revolution in 749–750, the Kalb probably realized Umayyad rule was close to collapse. Thus, when Marwan II dispatched 2,000 Kalbite soldiers to reinforce the Umayyad governor of Basra , they instead defected to the Abbasids . The Kalb's role in Syria declined under

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1716-607: Is a calque of the Latin name, from μέσος ( mésos , "in the middle") and γήινος ( gḗinos , "of the earth"), from γῆ ( gê , "land, earth"). The original meaning may have been 'the sea in the middle of the earth', rather than 'the sea enclosed by land'. Ancient Iranians called it the "Roman Sea", and in Classical Persian texts , it was called Daryāy-e Rōm (دریای روم), which may be from Middle Persian form, Zrēh ī Hrōm (𐭦𐭫𐭩𐭤 𐭩 𐭤𐭫𐭥𐭬). The Carthaginians called it

1859-666: Is credited by an inscription. After the mid-11th century, the resurgent power of the Bedouin tribes of Syria and Iraq dissipated, precipitated by the invasion of the Turkish Seljuk Empire and its affiliates. With the exception of the Tayy under the Jarrahids' descendant branches and the Mazyadids of al-Hilla , the Bedouin tribes disappear from the political map of the region by the end of

2002-570: Is known as al-Baḥr [al-Abyaḍ] al-Mutawassiṭ ( البحر [الأبيض] المتوسط ) 'the [White] Middle Sea'. In Islamic and older Arabic literature, it was Baḥr al-Rūm ( بحر الروم ) or al- Baḥr al-Rūmī ( بحر الرومي ) 'the Sea of the Romans' or 'the Roman Sea' or Baḥr al-šām ( بحر الشام ) or al-Baḥr al-šāmī ( البحر الشامي ) ("the Sea of Syria"). At first, that name referred only to the eastern Mediterranean, but

2145-642: The Bahra' , was known as Umm al-Asbu ( lit.   ' mother of wild animals ' ) because all of her children were named after wild animals. The Kalb was part of the Quda'a tribal confederation, whose presence spanned the northern Hejaz through the northern Syrian steppe. The Kalb was the largest component in the northern half of the Quda'a's roaming areas. The origins of the Quda'a are obscure, with claims of Arab genealogists being contradictory. Some sources claimed that Quda'a

2288-657: The Battle of Hama in November 903. Attempts by the Qarmatian leaders to rouse the defeated chiefs of the Ullays were rejected and they submitted to the Abbasids at al-Rahba in 904. Nevertheless, within a short period, the Ullays reverted to the Qarmatian cause and suffered a damaging campaign by the Abbasids. Another deputy of Zakarawayh, Abu Ghanim, appealed to the Kalb of Palmyra. While most of

2431-557: The Black Sea . In Persian, the name was translated as Baḥr-i Safīd , which was also used in later Ottoman Turkish . Similarly, in 19th century Greek, the name was Άσπρη Θάλασσα ( áspri thálassa ; "white sea"). According to Johann Knobloch, in classical antiquity , cultures in the Levant used colours to refer to the cardinal points: black referred to the north (explaining the name Black Sea ), yellow or blue to east, red to south (e.g.,

2574-636: The Calypso Deep in the Ionian Sea . It lies between latitudes 30° and 46° N and longitudes 6° W and 36° E . Its west–east length, from the Strait of Gibraltar to the Gulf of Alexandretta , on the southeastern coast of Turkey , is about 4,000 kilometres (2,500 mi). The north–south length varies greatly between different shorelines and whether only straight routes are considered. Also including longitudinal changes,

2717-833: The Fatimids conquered Ifriqiya in 909, the Kalb, having been an important military and religious support for the Fatimids, were quick to attain high influence in the new regime. By this time, the Kalbids were allied with the Kutama Berbers , a mainstay of the Fatimid army . In 827, in the midst of internal Byzantine conflict, the Muslim conquest of Sicily began: the Aghlabids arrived at Mazara in Sicily , with

2860-676: The Ghouta gardens surrounding Damascus, as well as living a semi-nomadic existence in the Marj pasture grounds on the outskirts of the Ghouta. They also established themselves in and around Homs and Palmyra . A minor proportion of the tribe settled down in the garrison town and administrative center of Kufa in Iraq during the same period, while many Kalbite tribesmen established themselves in Muslim Spain as part of

3003-604: The Iberian Peninsula in Europe from Morocco in Africa —is only 14 km (9 mi) wide. The Mediterranean Sea encompasses a vast number of islands , some of them of volcanic origin. The two largest islands, in both area and population, are Sicily and Sardinia . The Mediterranean Sea has an average depth of 1,500 m (4,900 ft) and the deepest recorded point is 5,109 ± 1 m (16,762 ± 3 ft) in

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3146-701: The Italian Lakes (Po). While the Mediterranean watershed is bordered by other river basins in Europe, it is essentially bordered by endorheic basins or deserts elsewhere. The following countries are in the Mediterranean drainage basin while not having a coastline on the Mediterranean Sea: The following countries have a coastline on the Mediterranean Sea: Several other territories also border

3289-705: The Italian city-states like Amalfi and Genoa before the Crusades, according to the Cairo Geniza documents. A document dated 996 mentions Amalfian merchants living in Cairo . Another letter states that the Genoese had traded with Alexandria . The caliph al-Mustansir had allowed Amalfian merchants to reside in Jerusalem about 1060 in place of the Latin hospice . The Crusades led to

3432-722: The Messinian salinity crisis before being refilled by the Zanclean flood about 5.3 million years ago. The Mediterranean Sea covers an area of about 2,500,000 km (970,000 sq mi), representing 0.7% of the global ocean surface, but its connection to the Atlantic via the Strait of Gibraltar —the narrow strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and separates

3575-683: The Punic Wars in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC, the Roman Republic defeated the Carthaginians to become the preeminent power in the Mediterranean. When Augustus founded the Roman Empire , the Romans referred to the Mediterranean as Mare Nostrum ("Our Sea"). For the next 400 years, the Roman Empire completely controlled the Mediterranean Sea and virtually all its coastal regions from Gibraltar to

3718-569: The Red Sea ) and white to west. That would explain the Bulgarian Byalo More , the Turkish Akdeniz , and the Arab nomenclature described above, lit. "White Sea". Major ancient civilizations were located around the Mediterranean. The sea provided routes for trade, colonization, and war, as well as food (from fishing and the gathering of other seafood) for numerous communities throughout

3861-550: The Roman Empire , Mare Nostrum ("Our Sea"). The term Mare Mediterrāneum appears later: Solinus apparently used this in the 3rd century, but the earliest extant witness to it is in the 6th century, in Isidore of Seville . It means 'in the middle of land, inland' in Latin , a compound of medius ("middle"), terra ("land, earth"), and -āneus ("having the nature of"). The modern Greek name Μεσόγειος Θάλασσα ( mesógeios ; "inland")

4004-613: The Shiite message on which the dynasty is based. Under the Kalbid dynasty, Sicily, and especially Palermo, was an important economic centre of the Mediterranean . The Muslims introduced lemons, Seville oranges and sugar cane, as well as cotton and mulberries for sericulture, and built irrigation systems for agriculture. Sicily was also an important hub for trade between the Near East, North Africa and

4147-568: The Yaman coalition in opposition to the Qays. The Qays under Zufar ibn al-Harith al-Kilabi and the disaffected Umayyad commander Umayr ibn al-Hubab al-Sulami , who were based in the Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia), engaged the Kalb under Ibn Bahdal's brother, Humayd ibn Hurayth , in a series of raids and counter-raids ( ayyam ) during 686–689. The Kalb was frequently attacked by the Qays at its dwelling places in

4290-411: The "Syrian Sea". In ancient Syrian texts, Phoenician epics and in the Hebrew Bible , it was primarily known as the "Great Sea", הים הגדול HaYam HaGadol , ( Numbers ; Book of Joshua ; Ezekiel ) or simply as "The Sea" ( 1 Kings ). However, it has also been called the "Hinder Sea" because of its location on the west coast of the region of Syria or the Holy Land (and therefore behind a person facing

4433-478: The 11th century. From then on, various tribes receive occasional mention in the record as allies of the Turkish atabegs or as raiders of caravans. In 1084, the Kalb, including its Banu Ulaym branch, joined the Bedouin coalition assembled by the Uqaylid ruler of Aleppo, Muslim ibn Quraysh , to strengthen his position against his Seljuk overlords; he was slain two years later and Aleppo came under direct Turkish rule. The Kalb continued its shift to sedentarism into

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4576-421: The 12th century, especially in the Hauran. The Kalb there are recorded in 1131 as having captured the Mazyadid emir Dubays ibn Sadaqa on his way to Salkhad. The Kalb then transferred Dubays to the custody of the Turkish atabeg of Damascus, Taj al-Mulk Buri . A Kalbite family from the Kinana branch, the Banu Munqidh , which had established an emirate in the Orontes Valley in the 1020s, continued to operate under

4719-416: The 16th century and also maintained naval bases in southern France (1543–1544), Algeria and Tunisia. Barbarossa , the Ottoman captain is a symbol of this domination with the victory of the Battle of Preveza (1538). The Battle of Djerba (1560) marked the apex of Ottoman naval domination in the eastern Mediterranean. As the naval prowess of the European powers increased, they confronted Ottoman expansion in

4862-430: The 6th century, the Kalb had largely adopted Christianity and came under the authority of the Ghassanids , leaders of the Byzantines' Arab allies. During the lifetime of the Islamic prophet Muhammad , a few of his close companions were Kalbites, most prominently Zayd ibn Haritha and Dihya , but the bulk of the tribe remained Christian at the time of Muhammad's death in 632. They began converting in large numbers when

5005-417: The 7th century, and with it the religion of Islam , which soon swept across from the east; at its greatest extent, the Arabs, under the Umayyads , controlled most of the Mediterranean region and left a lasting footprint on its eastern and southern shores. A variety of foodstuffs, spices and crops were introduced to the western Mediterranean's Spain and Sicily during Arab rule, via the commercial networks of

5148-427: The 860s, Abbasid central control waned in the provinces, including Syria. In 864, the Kalb under Utayf ibn Ni'ma took leadership of an anti-Abbasid revolt in Homs in which the city's governor, al-Fadl ibn Qarin, was killed. The Kalb was afterward defeated by the Abbasid general Musa ibn Bugha , but soon linked up with a rebel Tanukhid chief in northern Syria, Yusuf ibn Ibrahim al-Fusays. In 866, Utayf refused to recognize

5291-460: The Anti-Lebanon and the Palmyrene steppe, high grain prices, and low caravan traffic had pushed the Kalb to rupture its relations with the Fatimids. However, while the Tayy and Kilab took control of Palestine and northern Syria, respectively, the Kalb failed to capture Damascus. Sinan's death in 1028 and the defection of his successor, Rafi ibn Abi'l-Layl , to the Fatimids scuttled the alliance, which unraveled with Salih's slaying by Rafi's warriors in

5434-499: The Arab strongman of Palestine in c.  866 –871. In the 10th century, the Kalb was one of the three largest Arab confederations of Syria, largely concentrated in the central parts of the region; the other two confederations were the Tayy in southern Syria and the Kilab in northern Syria. Unlike the Tayy and Kilab, who were relative newcomers, most of the long-established Kalb tribesmen were settled peasants who lost their traditional nomadic mobility by this time. At this point,

5577-421: The Bedouin tribes around Kufa but the Banu Ullays and some of the Banu al-Asbagh branches of the Kalb embraced Zakarawayh's son, al-Husayn , in 902. Later that year, the Kalbite converts under al-Husayn's brother, Yahya , defeated and killed the Abbasid garrison commander of Rusafa , Sabuk al-Daylami, then stormed the city, looting it and burning its mosque. The Kalb under Yahya proceeded toward Damascus, sacking

5720-413: The Byzantine Empire is clear, contemporary sources do not indicate how early the Kalb made contact with the Byzantines. By the early 6th century, the Salihids were supplanted by the Ghassanids as the supreme phylarchs of the Arab tribes in Byzantine territory. Like the Ghassanids, the Kalb embraced Monophysite Christianity . The Kalb was put under the Ghassanids' authority and, like other allied tribes,

5863-534: The Byzantine Empire's boundaries during the years of the Ghassanids' waning influence. From the days of the Islamic prophet Muhammad , in the 620s, the Muslims had attempted to ally with the Ghassanids, but without success. According to the historian Khalil Athamina, "the Muslims were therefore compelled to seek another ally in the area", the Kalb, "whose importance was rising". A few individual Kalbite tribesmen in Mecca converted to Islam, including Zayd ibn Haritha and Dihya al-Kalbi , Muhammad's purported emissary to

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6006-483: The Byzantine emperor, Heraclius . According to the historian Fred Donner , while there were notable converts among the Kalb, there are scarce details about contacts between Muhammad and the Kalb in general. As Byzantine foederati , the Kalb fought against Muslim advances in northern Arabia and Syria. The first confrontation was the 627/628 expedition against Dumat al-Jandal , in which the prominent companion of Muhammad, Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf , succeeded in converting

6149-449: The Christian chief of the Kalb there, al-Asbagh ibn Amr , to Islam. The pact between at least part of the Kalb, under al-Asbagh, and Muhammad was the first major step in the future alliance between the tribe and the Muslim state. The pact was sealed by the marriage of Abd al-Rahman to al-Asbagh's daughter, Tumadir, which represented the first marital link between the Kalb and the Quraysh , the tribe of Muhammad and Abd al-Rahman. Most of

6292-450: The Day of Nuhada, fought between the Abdallah ibn Kinana and Kinana ibn Awf divisions of the tribe around 570, the Day of Kahatin, and the Day of Siya'if between the Kalb and the Sasanian-allied Taghlib around the time of the Battle of Dhi Qar between the Sasanians and a coalition of Arab tribes. The two minor clashes were the Day of Ulaha against the Taghlib and the Day of Rahba against the Asad tribe. The best-known pre-Islamic chief of

6435-399: The Fatimid army at the Battle of al-Uqhuwana in 1029. By 1031, Rafi, having grown dissatisfied at the failure of the Fatimids to transfer Sinan's iqtas to him, resumed the Kalb's alliance with Hassan and the Tayy, who had been driven into the Palmyrene steppe by the Fatimids. Both the Kalb and the Tayy then relocated to Byzantine territory near Antioch after allying with Byzantium in

6578-416: The Fatimids over the next century. This was occasionally interrupted, most notably when the Kalb joined the Tayy and Kilab in a rebellion to split Syria among themselves in 1024–1025, during which the Kalb failed to capture Damascus . The Kalb continued transitioning to a settled existence into the 12th century, after which the tribe no longer appears in the historical record. Before Islam, the Kalb dominated

6721-413: The Homs area in the mid-10th century, its territory thereafter becoming restricted to the environs of Palmyra and Damascus. Nomadic sections of the Kalb continued to inhabit the desert east of Palmyra into the late 11th century. After that point, even these nomadic groups shifted to sedentarism and the Kalb's main area of concentration shifted from the stretch between Damascus and Palmyra southwestward to

6864-413: The Iraq-based Abbasids. The Yaman, including the Kalb, quickly became frustrated with Abbasid rule in Syria and joined the revolt of the Umayyad prince Abu Muhammad al-Sufyani and the Qaysite general Abu al-Ward in 750–751. Abu Muhammad was a descendant of the Kalb's former patron, Mu'awiya I, and he presented himself as a messianic figure known as the 'Sufyani', who many from Homs believed would restore

7007-492: The Islamic world. These include sugarcane, rice, cotton, alfalfa, oranges, lemons, apricots, spinach, eggplants, carrots, saffron and bananas. The Arabs also continued extensive cultivation and production of olive oil (the Spanish words for 'oil' and 'olive'— aceite and aceituna , respectively—are derived from the Arabic al-zait , meaning 'olive juice'), and pomegranates (the heraldic symbol of Granada) from classical Greco-Roman times. The Arab invasions disrupted

7150-408: The Italian maritime republics such as Amalfi , Pisa and Genoa . Banu Kalb The Banu Kalb ( Arabic : بنو كلب , romanized :  Banū Kalb ) was an Arab tribe which mainly dwelt in the desert and steppe of northwestern Arabia and central Syria . It was involved in the tribal politics of the Byzantine Empire 's eastern frontiers , possibly as early as the 4th century. By

7293-401: The Kalb and its tribal neighbors deemed a threat to their socio-economic interests and power in Syria. In 639, Umar appointed Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan , a member of the powerful Umayyad clan of the Quraysh, to the governorships of the Damascus and Jordan districts, which collectively corresponded with central Syria. From the beginning of his administration, Mu'awiya forged close ties with

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7436-448: The Kalb and other Bedouin tribes, but was defeated. The Kalb also participated in at least one of Sayf al-Dawla's campaigns against the Byzantines. At times, Sayf al-Dawla campaigned to protect the Kalb of Homs and at other times confronted them to reassert his authority in his domains, a situation which played out with the other Arab tribes. These tribes launched a massive uprising against him in 955, which he decisively suppressed, forcing

7579-417: The Kalb and the Asad defeated Ibn Hamdan, forcing him to flee to Aleppo. Later that year, Ibn Hamdan defeated the Kalb and its Tayy allies. The Kalb then raided places in the Samawa and attacked Hit . Al-Muktafi countered with an army led by Muhammad ibn Ishaq ibn Kundaj , which compelled the Kalb to betray the Qarmatians and kill Nasr, thereby avoiding punitive action by the authorities. "The final retreat of

7722-426: The Kalb and the Fatimids. Its numbers and power reduced from its historical highs in previous centuries and possessing a respect for order, the Kalb became among the first tribes to ally with the Fatimids and the tribe most often employed by the Fatimids in Syria. Ibn Ulayyan's brother, Sinan ibn Ulayyan , was emir of the Kalb by 992, when he participated in the struggle between the rival Fatimid military factions of

7865-449: The Kalb became a leading component of the Yaman faction against the Qays. The Kalb lost its political influence under the pro-Qaysite caliph Marwan II ( r.  744–750 ), a situation which continued under the Iraq-based Abbasid Caliphate (750–1258). From its footholds in the Ghouta and Palmyra oases, the tribe revolted against the Abbasids on several occasions in the 8th–10th centuries, at first in support of Umayyad claimants to

8008-486: The Kalb economically depended on tolls exacted from the caravans travelling between al-Rahba and Homs and Damascus, as well as taxes on the agricultural output from the Palmyra oasis and the Anti-Lebanon Mountains. Nomadic clans of the Kalb which controlled Palmyra and the Samawa found a strong patron in the Qarmatian movement, and became propagandists of this millenarian Isma'ili Shi'a sect. The Qarmatians under their leader Zakarawayh had failed to gain traction among

8151-428: The Kalb in Dumat al-Jandal, under the chief Wadi'a, rebelled, but was suppressed. The Ridda wars were largely concluded by 633 and the caliph (successor of Muhammad as leader of the Muslims) Abu Bakr launched the Muslim conquest of Byzantine Syria in late 633 or early 634. Despite their historical ties with Byzantium, Kalbite tribesmen remained largely neutral during the conquest. At least some Kalbites fought in

8294-441: The Kalb participated in the abortive Fatimid campaigns against the Mirdasid emir Mu'izz al-Dawla Thimal in 1048 and 1050. The Kalb again were dispatched by the Fatimids against the Mirdasids in 1060, this time at al-Rahba. In 1065, the Kalb entered a conflict against the Fatimid governor of Damascus, Badr al-Jamali , and bested the Fatimid troops dispatched against it, killing and capturing several soldiers and commanders. Among

8437-423: The Kalb probably remained Christian, despite the pact with al-Asbagh. Part of the tribe came under a Muslim agent, al-Asbagh's son Imru al-Qays, during the campaign against pro-Byzantine Arab tribes at Dhat al-Salasil in northwestern Arabia. After Zayd ibn Haritha was slain during a campaign against the Byzantines and their Arab allies at the Battle of Mu'ta in 629, Muhammad appointed Zayd's son, Usama , to head

8580-473: The Kalb provided crucial support to Mu'awiya. Bahdal's sons and grandsons served as commanders against Ali's partisans during the 657 Battle of Siffin , which ended in a stalemate. Ali was killed in 661 and months later, Mu'awiya became caliph. He continued his reliance on the Kalb to maintain his foothold in Syria. Bahdal secured for the Kalb and its allies in the Quda'a significant privileges from Mu'awiya, including consultation in all major caliphal decisions,

8723-412: The Kalb to abandon Homs. In 958, the Kalb and the Tayy launched an assault against the Hamdanid governor of Homs, Abu Wa'il Taghlib ibn Dawud. The Kalb had been considerably weakened during the 10th century as a result of the tribe's increasing sedentarism, its lack of control over urban settlements from which Bedouin tribes typically exacted tribute, its highly decentralized structure, and the defeat of

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8866-408: The Kalb was Zuhayr ibn Janab , who wielded significant influence among the Bedouins of northern Arabia. On behalf of Abraha , the mid-6th-century Aksumite ruler of South Arabia , Zuhayr led an expedition against the north Arabian tribes of Taghlib and Bakr . In the mid-6th century, the Kalb under Zuhayr fought the Ghatafan tribe over the latter's construction of a haram (sacred place) at

9009-423: The Kalb with its chiefs. From the Janab descended the Kalb's aristocratic family of the 6th and 7th centuries, the Banu Haritha ibn Janab, as well as other prominent lines, namely the Banu Ulaym and the Banu Ullays. Among the other main branches of the Kalb was the Kinana ibn Awf. From its subbranch, the Banu Awf ibn Kinana, descended the Banu Abd Wadd and the Banu Amir al-Aghdar. The latter may have originally been

9152-441: The Kalb's genealogy. Another major branch was the Banu Amir ibn Awf ibn Bakr, better known as the 'Banu Amir al-Akbar' to distinguish it from similarly named clans of the Kalb. Kalbite tribesmen may have arrived in Syria by the 4th century, though precise information about the tribe at that time is unavailable. The historian Irfan Shahîd speculates Mawiyya , a warrior queen of Arab tribesmen in southern Syria, likely belonged to

9295-425: The Kalb, one of the principal sources of military power in Syria. During the reign of his Umayyad kinsman, Caliph Uthman ( r.  644–656 ), Mu'awiya's governorship was gradually expanded to include the rest of Syria. The Kalb formed marital links with the Umayyads from this time. Uthman married a Kalbite noblewoman, Na'ila bint al-Furafisa , a paternal cousin of Tumadir bint al-Asbagh. Na'ila's sister, Hind,

9438-450: The Kalb, his wives being either Qurayshites or the daughters of Qaysite tribal chiefs. With the death, in 704, of Egypt 's powerful governor Abd al-Aziz, who was slated to succeed his brother Abd al-Malik, Marsham notes that "the Kalb's close kinship connection with the caliphate was severed". Nevertheless, several members of the tribe served key roles under Abd al-Malik and his successors. The most notable were Sufyan ibn al-Abrad , who led

9581-414: The Kalb. This would indicate that the Kalb was an ally of Mawiyya's principal force, the Tanukhids . The latter, like the Kalb, also traced their descent to the Quda'a tribal confederation. The Kalb's territory on the Byzantine Empire 's Limes Arabicus frontier straddled the Oriens , a collective term for the empire's eastern provinces. The Kalb may have been the unnamed tribe that launched

9724-482: The Kalbids into the 11th century, and in 982 a German army under Otto II was defeated by Abu'l-Qasim in the Battle of Stilo near Crotone in Calabria . The dynasty began a steady period of decline under the reign of Yusuf al-Kalbi (990–998) who entrusted the island to his sons and created space for interference from the Zirids of Ifriqiya. Under al-Akhal (1017–1037) the dynastic conflict intensified, with factions allying themselves variously with Byzantium and

9867-405: The Kalbites were opposed to the Qarmatian mission, Abu Ghanim won over remnants of the Ullays, many among the al-Asbagh, and brigands from other Kalb clans, such as the Banu Ziyad. In 906, they plundered Bosra , Adhri'at and Tiberias , and killed the deputy governor of the Jordan district. In response, al-Muktafi dispatched a punitive expedition led by Husayn ibn Hamdan against the Kalb, but

10010-411: The Levant, being the only state in history to ever do so, being given the nickname "Roman Lake". The Western Roman Empire collapsed around 476 AD. The east was again dominant as Roman power lived on in the Byzantine Empire formed in the 4th century from the eastern half of the Roman Empire . Though the Eastern Roman Empire would continue to hold almost all of the Mediterranean, another power arose in

10153-405: The Mediterranean Sea is the Nile , which takes its sources in equatorial Africa. The basin of the Nile constitutes about two-thirds of the Mediterranean drainage basin and encompasses areas as high as the Ruwenzori Mountains . Among other important rivers in Africa, are the Moulouya and the Chelif , both on the north side of the Atlas Mountains . In Asia, are the Ceyhan and Seyhan , both on

10296-503: The Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea without ship lock, because the water level is essentially the same. The westernmost point of the Mediterranean is located at the transition from the Alborán Sea to the Strait of Gibraltar, the easternmost point is on the coast of the Gulf of Iskenderun in southeastern Turkey. The northernmost point of the Mediterranean is on the coast of the Gulf of Trieste near Monfalcone in northern Italy while

10439-565: The Mediterranean towards East Africa and Asia. This led to a preference for the Mediterranean countries and their ports like Trieste with direct connections to Central and Eastern Europe experienced a rapid economic rise. In the 20th century, the 1st and 2nd World Wars as well as the Suez Crisis and the Cold War led to a shift of trade routes to the European northern ports, which changed again towards

10582-554: The Muslims made significant progress in the conquest of Byzantine Syria , in which the Kalb stayed neutral. As a massive nomadic tribe with considerable military experience, the Kalb was sought as a key ally by the Muslim state. The leading clans of the Kalb forged marital ties with the Umayyad family , and the tribe became the military foundation of the Syria -based Umayyad Caliphate (661–750) from

10725-476: The Muslims. Nominally the island was under rule of the Aghlabids and afterward their Fatimid successors. After successfully suppressing a revolt the Fatimid caliph appointed al-Hasan al-Kalbi (948–953) as Emir of Sicily, the first of the Kalbid dynasty. The Fatimids appointed the Kalbids as rulers via proxy before they shifted their capital from Ifriqiya to Cairo in 969. Raids into southern Italy continued under

10868-582: The Qarmatians. When the Isma'ili Fatimid Caliphate under the general Ja'far ibn Falah invaded Syria in 970, the emir of the Kalb's Palmyra-based Banu Adi clan, Ibn Ulayyan, captured the pro-Abbasid chief of the Damascus ahdath (urban militia) during his attempted escape to Palmyra. The Kalbite emir sent him to Ja'far for a large bounty, thereby inaugurating a century-long, mostly collaborative relationship between

11011-638: The Qays at the Battle of Marj Rahit in August 684. In the battle's aftermath, the Qays–Kalb feud intensified , while Marwan became completely dependent on the Kalb and its allies to maintain his rule. Syrian tribes envious of the Quda'a's privileges either opposed or sought to join it. The Judham of Palestine and the South Arabian tribes which dwelt in the Homs district defected to the Quda'a's side after Marj Rahit, forming

11154-409: The Qays tribes opposed Abu al-Umaytir. The Qaysite leader, Ibn Bayhas al-Kilabi , backed another Umayyad counter-caliph, Maslama ibn Ya'qub, and together defeated Abu al-Umaytir. By 813, Ibn Bayhas reverted to Abbasid allegiance, prompting the two Umayyad claimants to the caliphate to take refuge with the Kalb in its Ghouta villages of Mezzeh , Darayya and Beit Lihya until their natural deaths. In

11297-480: The Quda'a tribal confederation. In Athamina's opinion, the Muslim state's need to establish a defense network out of the militarily experienced, formerly Byzantine-allied Arab tribes of Syria drove it to strengthen ties with the Kalb, as well as with the old-established Judham and Lakhm tribes in the southern Syrian steppe. This need was pressing for the Muslims as they lacked a standing army and their tribal forces from Arabia had to be deployed to different fronts. In

11440-634: The Samawa and despite making retaliatory raids, the Kalbites were forced to leave the Samawa for the Jordan Valley . Humayd attacked the Qays in the Jazira around 690, but the Kalbites were dealt a heavy blow by the Qays at a place called Banat Qayn between 692 and 694, for which the caliph, Marwan's son Abd al-Malik ( r.  685–705 ), had the culpable Qaysite chiefs executed by the Kalb in revenge. This event marked

11583-563: The Syrian expeditionary forces sent there in the 8th century. At the time of the mid-10th-century geographer Ibn Hawqal , the diyar (tribal territories) of the Kalb extended from the area of Siffin near Raqqa , off the western bank of the Euphrates, to Tayma. This expanse excluded the area of al-Rahba and largely bordered the southern Syrian and northern Hejazi diyar of the Fazara tribe,

11726-516: The Syrian steppe throughout the 6th century, their influence began to wane in the 580s. They lost their powerful position and much of their prestige when the Sasanian Persians conquered Byzantine Syria in 613–614. The Byzantines recaptured the region in 628, but the Ghassanids remained weakened, divided into multiple subgroups, each headed by a different chief. The Kalb, though allied with the Ghassanids, had begun pushing into their territory within

11869-564: The Tayy under the Jarrahid emir Hassan ibn al-Mufarrij , and its traditional rivals, the Kilab under the Mirdasid emir Salih ibn Mirdas , formed an unprecedented Bedouin alliance to divide Syria among themselves. The three chiefs launched their war in 1025, taking over much of Syria. Bianquis speculates severe economic strain on the Kalb, probably emanating from years-long drought and reduced crop yields in

12012-573: The Turks under Manjutakin and the Berbers under al-Hasan ibn Ammar , the latter himself a scion of a ruling Kalbite family in Sicily . Throughout the 11th century, the Kalb was commissioned by the Fatimids on several occasions against the Mirdasid -led Kilab of northern Syria. As Fatimid control weakened in Syria after Caliph al-Hakim 's disappearance in 1021, Sinan and the chiefs of the Kalb's traditional ally,

12155-629: The Umayyad Caliphate. Abu al-Ward was killed by an Abbasid army while Abu Muhammad and the Kalb barricaded themselves in Palmyra, after which the revolt dissipated. The Kalb-led Yamanites were the chief backers of another Umayyad claimant to the caliphate, Abu al-Umaytir al-Sufyani , who took power in Damascus in 811, amid the Great Abbasid Civil War . Due to partisan acts in favor of the Yaman,

12298-553: The Zirids. Even though neither of these powers could establish themselves in Sicily permanently, under Hasan as-Samsam (1040–1053) the island fragmented into small fiefdoms. The Kalbids died out in 1053, and in 1061 the Normans of southern Italy arrived under Roger I of Sicily and began their conquest, which was completed in 1091. The Muslims were allowed to remain and played an important role in

12441-566: The [Qarmatians]" from Syria after their defeat in 970, left the Kalb "politically isolated", according to the historian Kamal Salibi . In 944–945, the Hamdanid emir Sayf al-Dawla established an emirate in Aleppo spanning much of northern Syria, with the southern parts controlled by the Egypt-based Ikshidids . In his attempt to capture Damascus from its Ikhshidid governor in 947, he rallied

12584-721: The administration, army and economy of the Norman kingdom until the 12th century. The Kalbites focused their efforts on the Islamization of Sicilian society, notably in 962 with a large ceremony, where fourteen thousand children were circumcised simultaneously; after a Byzantine offensive, crushed in 965 at the Battle of the Ditch or Rametta, the Fatimid Caliph Mu'izz had the Kalbite emir enacted

12727-523: The advantage and Mismar negotiated a large bribe for his neutrality, though this was not paid and the Fatimids used the respite to defeat the Damascenes, prompting the Kalb to withdraw into the Ghouta. According to the historian Werner Caskel , this event represents the last known military engagement of the Kalb. Mismar's son, Husayn, founded or rebuilt the fortress of Salkhad in the Hauran in 1073, for which he

12870-542: The aftermath of the Mirdasids' victory over the Byzantines at the Battle of Azaz . Nevertheless, by 1038, Rafi and the Kalb renewed their allegiance to the Fatimids, playing a key role in the army of Anushtakin al-Dizbari , the Fatimid governor of Syria, during his successful campaign against the Mirdasid emir of Aleppo, Shibl al-Dawla Nasr , near Homs. After Anushtakin's death and the return of Mirdasid rule to Aleppo in 1042,

13013-670: The ages. The earliest advanced civilizations in the Mediterranean were the Egyptians and the Minoans , who traded extensively with each other. Other notable civilizations that appeared somewhat later are the Hittites and other Anatolian peoples , the Phoenicians , and Mycenean Greece . Around 1200 BC the eastern Mediterranean was greatly affected by the Bronze Age Collapse , which resulted in

13156-515: The area as generic Mediterranean Sea, in the Western Basin. It does not recognize the label Sea of Sardinia . Note 2: Thracian Sea and Myrtoan Sea are seas that are part of the Aegean Sea . Note 3: The Black Sea is not considered part of it. The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Mediterranean Sea as follows: Stretching from the Strait of Gibraltar in

13299-476: The caliphate and later as key troops of the Qarmatians , whose suppression contributed to the Kalb's political isolation. The Kalb remained among the three largest tribes of Syria at the start of Fatimid rule in the late 10th century, but due to its increasing sedentarism , it was disadvantaged to the more numerous and nomadic Tayy and Kilab tribes. The Kalb's relative weakness encouraged its close alliance with

13442-456: The captives was the dignitary Ibn Manzu, who agreed to pay a substantial ransom and became a key client of the Kalb in Damascus. During the revolt of the Damascenes against the Fatimid garrison loyal to Badr in 1068, Ibn Manzu arranged for the Kalb, by that time led by Sinan's son Mismar and Hazim ibn Nabhan al-Qarmati, to back the Damascenes. The Kalb was unable to breach the city's defenses, but remained outside its walls. The Fatimid troops gained

13585-569: The central and southern parts of the region, at least not in large numbers. Mu'awiya's son and successor, Yazid I ( r.  680–683 ), who was born to Maysun, also married a Kalbite woman, and maintained the privileges granted to the Quda'a by his father. Mu'awiya chose Yazid instead of his elder son by a woman of the Quraysh, an indication of the Kalb's critical role as the foundation of Sufyanid power. The accession of Yazid's son Mu'awiya II ( r.  683–684 ), born to Yazid's Kalbite wife,

13728-527: The collections of pre-Islamic poems which serve as a source of history for the tribes of pre-Islamic Arabia , especially the battles and raids they were involved in. An exception is the Day of Ura'ir, where a Kalbite chief, Masad ibn Hisn ibn Masad, was slain by the Banu Abs . The Kalbite historical tradition formulated in 9th-century Kufa mentions five pre-Islamic confrontations involving the Kalb. The three major ones were

13871-606: The destruction of many cities and trade routes. The most notable Mediterranean civilizations in classical antiquity were the Greek city states and the Phoenicians , both of which extensively colonized the coastlines of the Mediterranean. Darius I of Persia , who conquered Ancient Egypt, built a canal linking the Red Sea to the Nile, and thus the Mediterranean. Darius's canal was wide enough for two triremes to pass each other with oars extended and required four days to traverse. Following

14014-425: The distance of its territory from the battle site, in the northern Jordan Valley region. The conversion of much of the tribe to Islam probably occurred after this battle, which shattered the Byzantine army in Syria and drove on the Muslim conquest of the region. The conquest was largely concluded by 638; by then, the Kalb dominated the steppes around Homs and Palmyra and was the leading and most powerful component of

14157-578: The east), which is sometimes translated as "Western Sea". Another name was the "Sea of the Philistines ", ( Book of Exodus ), from the people inhabiting a large portion of its shores near the Israelites . In Modern Hebrew , it is called הים התיכון HaYam HaTikhon 'the Middle Sea'. In Classic Persian texts was called Daryāy-e Šām (دریای شام) "The Western Sea" or "Syrian Sea". In Modern Standard Arabic , it

14300-594: The entire Mediterranean. Once, most of the trade between Western Europe and the East was passing through the region , but after the 1490s the development of a sea route to the Indian Ocean allowed the importation of Asian spices and other goods through the Atlantic ports of western Europe. The sea remained strategically important. British mastery of Gibraltar ensured their influence in Africa and Southwest Asia. Especially after

14443-649: The flourishing of trade between Europe and the outremer region. Genoa, Venice and Pisa created colonies in regions controlled by the Crusaders and came to control the trade with the Orient. These colonies also allowed them to trade with the Eastern world. Though the fall of the Crusader states and attempts at banning of trade relations with Muslim states by the Popes temporarily disrupted

14586-436: The immediate coastline on all sides of the Mediterranean tends to have strong maritime moderation. The sea was an important route for merchants and travellers of ancient times, facilitating trade and cultural exchange between the peoples of the region. The history of the Mediterranean region is crucial to understanding the origins and development of many modern societies. The Roman Empire maintained nautical hegemony over

14729-443: The intra-dynastic Third Muslim Civil War in 743–750. The Kalb's position in the Umayyad state began to deteriorate under the pro-Qaysite caliph al-Walid II ( r.  743–744 ), and collapsed under Caliph Marwan II ( r.  744–750 ), who relied almost entirely on the Qays for military and administrative support at the expense of Yamanite interests. In June 745, the Kalbite chief of Palmyra, al-Asbagh ibn Dhu'ala , led

14872-567: The last of the Qays–Kalb battles. The Kalb remained the backbone of the Umayyad army through the early part of Abd al-Malik's reign. After Abd al-Malik's reconciliation with Zufar in 691, which the Kalb had protested, the Qaysites were reintegrated into the army, ending the Kalb's monopoly of power there and beginning a policy by the caliphs of balancing Qaysite and Kalbite/Yamanite interests. Moreover, Abd al-Malik lacked ancestral or marital ties with

15015-683: The major ranges bordering Southern Europe. Total annual precipitation is significantly higher on the European part of the Mediterranean basin, especially near the Alps (the 'water tower of Europe') and other high mountain ranges. As a consequence, the river discharges of the Rhône and Po are similar to that of the Nile, despite the latter having a much larger basin. These are the only three rivers with an average discharge of over 1,000 m /s (35,000 cu ft/s). Among large natural fresh bodies of water are Lake Victoria (Nile basin), Lake Geneva (Rhône), and

15158-549: The mid-to-late 630s, Caliph Umar dismissed the Muslims' supreme commander in Syria, Khalid ibn al-Walid, and reassigned his forces, derived largely from the Mudar and Rabi'a tribal groups of Arabia, to the Sasanian front in Iraq . Athamina attributes this decision to the Kalb's probable opposition to the significant numbers of outside tribal soldiers and their families in Khalid's army, which

15301-512: The migrants and arrest the traffickers of immigrants. In 2015, more than one million migrants crossed the Mediterranean Sea into Europe. Italy was particularly affected by the European migrant crisis . Since 2013, over 700,000 migrants have landed in Italy, mainly sub-Saharan Africans. The Mediterranean Sea connects: The 163 km (101 mi) long artificial Suez Canal in the southeast connects

15444-485: The naval battles of Abukir (1799, Battle of the Nile ) and Trafalgar (1805), the British had for a long time strengthened their dominance in the Mediterranean. Wars included Naval warfare in the Mediterranean during World War I and Mediterranean theatre of World War II . With the opening of the lockless Suez Canal in 1869, the flow of trade between Europe and Asia changed fundamentally. The fastest route now led through

15587-401: The new Abbasid caliph and was captured and executed by the general Ahmad ibn al-Muwallad, but the Kalb of the Homs countryside continued to resist. Al-Fusays abandoned his alliance with the Kalb and assaulted the tribe. Although the Abbasids reconciled with al-Fusays, the fate of the Kalbite tribes of the Homs countryside is not known. The tribe later allied with Isa ibn al-Shaykh al-Shaybani ,

15730-537: The north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Europe , on the south by North Africa , and on the west almost by the Morocco–Spain border . The Mediterranean has played a central role in the history of Western civilization . Geological evidence indicates that around 5.9 million years ago, the Mediterranean was cut off from the Atlantic and was partly or completely desiccated over a period of some 600,000 years during

15873-428: The number of drowned refugees in the region as a direct result of the policies. An Azerbaijani official described the sea as "a burial ground ... where people die". Following the 2013 Lampedusa migrant shipwreck , the Italian government decided to strengthen the national system for the patrolling of the Mediterranean Sea by authorising " Operation Mare Nostrum ", a military and humanitarian mission in order to rescue

16016-510: The oasis of Tayma in the south to the wells of Quraqir in the northern Wadi Sirhan depression. The Kalb began to expand its grazing territories eastward toward the Euphrates River , following the retreat of the Taghlib tribe in c.  570 . The Kalb's tribal territory was bordered on the north by the powerful Tayy tribe, close allies of the Kalb. To the west, southeast, and east were

16159-519: The political and economic privileges the Kalb had acquired under the Sufyanids, gave his allegiance to Marwan in return for the continuation of these privileges and priority in Marwan's court. A former top aide of the Sufyanids, al-Dahhak ibn Qays al-Fihri , and the Kalb's main tribal rivals, the Qays, both supported Ibn al-Zubayr. Ibn Bahdal mobilized the Kalb and its tribal allies and routed al-Dahhak and

16302-510: The ranks of the Arab Christian tribes against Muslim forces led by Khalid ibn al-Walid at Ziza in Transjordan in 634. While Fück notes that individual Kalbite Muslims did not participate in the conquest, Athamina holds that "there are clear hints that one or more groups" of Kalbite tribesmen fought in the Muslim ranks from the initial phases of the invasion. A Kalbite, Alqama ibn Wa'il,

16445-596: The region when the Battle of Lepanto (1571) checked the power of the Ottoman Navy . This was the last naval battle to be fought primarily between galleys . The Barbary pirates of Northwest Africa preyed on Christian shipping and coastlines in the Western Mediterranean Sea. According to Robert Davis, from the 16th to 19th centuries, pirates captured 1 million to 1.25 million Europeans as slaves. The development of oceanic shipping began to affect

16588-507: The regions of al-Jawf and Wadi Sirhan , as well as the Samawa, the great desert expanse between Syria and Iraq. After the Muslim conquest, the tribe expanded its presence into Syria proper, taking the dominant position in the Golan Heights , the northern Jordan Valley , the Damascus area, and in and around Homs and Palmyra. As Fatimid rule progressed in the 11th century, the tribe's main concentration between Damascus and Palmyra shifted to

16731-471: The reign of Mu'awiya I ( r.  661–680 ) to the early reign of Abd al-Malik ( r.  685–705 ). During the Second Muslim Civil War , the Kalb routed its main rival, the Qays , in the Battle of Marj Rahit in 684, inaugurating a long-running blood feud , in which the Qays eventually gained the advantage. In the resulting tribal factionalism which came to dominate Umayyad politics,

16874-523: The right to propose and veto measures, and significant, annual hereditary stipends for 2,000 nobles of the Kalb and the Quda'a. With this, the Kalb became the most influential tribe during the Sufyanid period (661–684) of the Umayyad Caliphate . Mu'awiya was careful to keep the Kalb onside, ensuring that tribal newcomers to Syria from the Qays and Mudar groups did not settle in the Kalb's territories in

17017-465: The ruling family, Marwan ibn al-Hakam . The latter had forged links with the family of al-Asbagh by marrying his granddaughter, Layla bint Zabban, with whom he had his son Abd al-Aziz —the family of al-Asbagh represented the preeminent clan of the Kalb in northern Arabia, while that of Bahdal led the Kalb of the Syrian steppe. A third Umayyad contender for the succession was the son of Sa'id ibn al-As, Amr al-Ashdaq , who had also forged marital ties with

17160-468: The sea for centuries and is the only state to have ever controlled all of its coast. The countries surrounding the Mediterranean and its marginal seas in clockwise order are Spain , France , Monaco , Italy , Slovenia , Croatia , Bosnia and Herzegovina , Montenegro , Albania , Greece , Turkey , Syria , Lebanon , Israel , Palestine ( Gaza Strip ), Egypt , Libya , Tunisia , Algeria , and Morocco ; Cyprus and Malta are island countries in

17303-641: The sea. In addition, Northern Cyprus ( de facto state ) and two overseas territories of the United Kingdom ( Akrotiri and Dhekelia , and Gibraltar ) also have coastlines along the Mediterranean Sea. The drainage basin encompasses a large number of other countries, the Nile being the longest river ending in the Mediterranean Sea. The Ancient Egyptians called the Mediterranean Wadj-wr/Wadj-Wer/Wadj-Ur. This term (literally "great green")

17446-414: The settled areas between Damascus, the Anti-Lebanon Mountains , and the Hauran , especially the last region. Smaller groups of the Kalb moved north of Homs and the Nile Delta in Lower Egypt around this time. In the Arab genealogical tradition, the progenitor of the tribe was named Kalb, which means 'dog' in Arabic . Kalb's father was Wabara and his mother, Asma bint Duraym ibn al-Qayn ibn Ahwad of

17589-427: The settled areas between Damascus, the Hauran , and the Anti-Lebanon Mountains . The Kalb was a Bedouin (nomadic) tribe well known for raising camels. Before the advent of Islam in the 7th century, the tribe's grazing grounds were in northwestern Arabia. Its earliest known abode, during the Byzantine era (4th–7th centuries CE), was in the al-Jawf depression, including the oasis of Dumat al-Jandal . The tribe

17732-423: The shortest shipping route between the multinational Gulf of Trieste and the Libyan coastline of the Gulf of Sidra is about 1,900 kilometres (1,200 mi). The water temperatures are mild in winter and warm in summer and give name to the Mediterranean climate type due to the majority of precipitation falling in the cooler months. Its southern and eastern coastlines are lined with hot deserts not far inland, but

17875-400: The south side of the Taurus Mountains . In Europe, the largest basins are those of the Rhône , Ebro , Po , and Maritsa . The basin of the Rhône is the largest and extends up as far north as the Jura Mountains , encompassing areas even on the north side of the Alps . The basins of the Ebro, Po, and Maritsa, are respectively south of the Pyrenees , Alps, and Balkan Mountains , which are

18018-421: The southern ports through European integration, the activation of the Silk Road and free world trade. In 2013, the Maltese president described the Mediterranean Sea as a "cemetery" due to the large number of migrants who drowned there after their boats capsized. European Parliament president Martin Schulz said in 2014 that Europe's migration policy "turned the Mediterranean into a graveyard", referring to

18161-599: The southernmost point is on the coast of the Gulf of Sidra near the Libyan town of El Agheila . Large islands in the Mediterranean include: The Alpine arc , which also has a great meteorological impact on the Mediterranean area, touches the Mediterranean in the west in the area around Nice . The typical Mediterranean climate has hot, dry summers and mild, rainy winters. Crops of the region include olives , grapes , oranges , tangerines , carobs and cork . The Mediterranean Sea includes 15 marginal seas : Note 1: The International Hydrographic Organization defines

18304-403: The suppression of revolts in Iraq in the 690s, the brothers Hanzala ibn Safwan and Bishr ibn Safwan , frequent governors of Ifriqiya and Egypt in the 720s–740s, al-Hakam ibn Awana , the governor of Sind in 731–740, Sa'id ibn al-Abrash , an adviser of Caliph Hisham ( r.  724–743 ), Abu al-Khattar , the governor of Muslim Spain in 743–745, and Mansur ibn Jumhur , a major player in

18447-413: The suzerainty of Syria's Turkish atabegs until its demise in 1157. Mediterranean For other countries, click here . The Mediterranean Sea ( / ˌ m ɛ d ɪ t ə ˈ r eɪ n i ən / MED -ih-tə- RAY -nee-ən ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean , surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia , on

18590-440: The term was later extended to the whole Mediterranean, it was also called Baḥr al-Maghrib ( بحر المغرب ) ("the Sea of the West"). A name that was used mainly for the western basin. In Turkish , it is the Akdeniz 'the White Sea'; in Ottoman, ﺁق دڭيز , which sometimes means only the Aegean Sea . The origin of the name is not clear, as it is not known in earlier Greek, Byzantine or Islamic sources. It may be to contrast with

18733-508: The trade in western Europe and brought it to a halt. However, the Norsemen developed the trade from Norway to the White Sea , while also trading in luxury goods from Spain and the Mediterranean. The Byzantines in the mid-8th century retook control of the area around the north-eastern part of the Mediterranean. Venetian ships from the 9th century armed themselves to counter the harassment by Arabs while concentrating trade of Asian goods in Venice. The Fatimids maintained trade relations with

18876-487: The trade relations between Western and Eastern Europe while disrupting trade routes with Eastern Asian Empires. This, however, had the indirect effect of promoting trade across the Caspian Sea . The export of grains from Egypt was re-routed towards the Eastern world . Products from East Asian empires, like silk and spices, were carried from Egypt under the Arab rule to ports like Venice and Constantinople by sailors and Jewish merchants. The Viking raids further disrupted

19019-412: The trade with the Orient, it however continued. Europe started to revive, however, as more organized and centralized states began to form in the later Middle Ages after the Renaissance of the 12th century . Ottoman power based in Anatolia continued to grow, and in 1453 extinguished the Byzantine Empire with the Conquest of Constantinople . Ottomans gained control of much of the eastern part sea in

19162-437: The tribes of Balqayn , Ghatafan , and Anaza , respectively. The Kalb's domination of Wadi Sirhan and al-Jawf put its tribesmen is a good position to migrate northward into Syria. With the advent of Islam in the 630s, the Kalb began to enter Syria in large numbers, at first making their abodes in the Golan Heights , the northern Jordan Valley , and in and around Damascus . Its tribesmen eventually became major landowners in

19305-456: The villages along the way, before launching an abortive, seven-month siege on the city. The besiegers were dispersed and Yahya was killed by an army sent by the Tulunids , who ruled Egypt, nominally on behalf of the Abbasids. The Kalb then escaped Damascus with al-Husayn. The latter's Kalb-dominated army, led by the da'i and chief al-Nu'man of the Ullays, was devastated by the forces of the Abbasid caliph al-Muktafi ( r.  902–908 ) at

19448-540: The west to the entrances to the Dardanelles and the Suez Canal in the east, the Mediterranean Sea is bounded by the coasts of Europe, Africa, and Asia and is divided into two deep basins: The drainage basin of the Mediterranean Sea is particularly heterogeneous and extends much further than the Mediterranean region. Its size has been estimated between 4,000,000 and 5,500,000 km (1,500,000 and 2,100,000 sq mi), depending on whether non-active parts (deserts) are included or not. The longest river ending in

19591-404: Was a son of Ma'add , thus making the tribe northern Arabians, or a descendant of Himyar , the semi-legendary patriarch of the southern Arabs. With the exception of three small clans, all the branches of the Kalb descended from the line of Rufayda ibn Thawr ibn Kalb. The Kalb's most prominent branch was the Banu Abdallah ibn Kinana, especially its largest subbranch, the Banu Janab, which provided

19734-431: Was charged with guarding the Byzantines' eastern frontier against Sassanian Persia and the latter's Arab vassals in al-Hira , the Lakhmids . As a result of their firm incorporation in the Byzantine foederati system, the Kalb "became accustomed to military discipline and to law and order", according to the historian Johann Fück . There is scant record of the Kalb's activities in the so-called ayyam literature,

19877-401: Was entrusted with distributing the spoils of the decisive Muslim victory against the Byzantines and their Ghassanid allies at the Battle of Yarmouk , a particularly high-stakes assignment due to the Muslim army's composition of diverse and competing groups of Arab tribes. The greater part of the Kalb did not participate in that battle, whether to avoid entanglement with either side or because of

20020-400: Was largely due to the machinations of Bahdal's grandson, Hassan ibn Malik ibn Bahdal , who was commonly known as 'Ibn Bahdal'. Mu'awiya II died weeks into his rule, leaving the caliphate in disarray. Ibn Bahdal favored electing one of Yazid's other, younger sons as successor, while the influential, ousted governor of Iraq, Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad , favored an Umayyad from a different branch of

20163-418: Was mainly concentrated in this region, bordering the eastern frontiers of the Byzantine Empire. They seasonally migrated from there deep into the vast desert steppe between Syria and Mesopotamia , which the Arabic sources called the Samawa or Samawat Kalb , after the tribe, especially the southwestern part of this region. To the west of al-Jawf, the tribe's Banu Amir al-Akbar branch roamed between

20306-454: Was married to Uthman's Umayyad kinsman, the governor Sa'id ibn al-As . Mu'awiya married two Kalbite noblewomen, including Maysun , the daughter of Bahdal ibn Unayf , the Kalb's preeminent chieftain, who remained Christian until his death sometime before 657. The Kalb's marital ties with the Umayyads became a major source of their considerable political influence. During the conflict between Mu'awiya and Caliph Ali ( r.  656–661 ),

20449-609: Was the name given by the Ancient Egyptians to the semi-solid, semi-aquatic region characterized by papyrus forests to the north of the cultivated Nile delta, and, by extension, the sea beyond. The Ancient Greeks called the Mediterranean simply ἡ θάλασσα ( hē thálassa ; "the Sea") or sometimes ἡ μεγάλη θάλασσα ( hē megálē thálassa ; "the Great Sea"), ἡ ἡμετέρα θάλασσα ( hē hēmetérā thálassa ; "Our Sea"), or ἡ θάλασσα ἡ καθ’ ἡμᾶς ( hē thálassa hē kath’hēmâs ; "the sea around us"). The Romans called it Mare Magnum ("Great Sea") or Mare Internum ("Internal Sea") and, starting with

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