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153-653: Throughout the Islamic era and until the modern day, the Arabic name of the city was pronounced in a number of different ways by the inhabitants of the region as Maṣyaf , Maṣyat or Maṣyad . The Arabic name is a local pronunciation that evolved from the Assyrian name Manṣuate . The "nṣw" in Manṣuate correlates with the Arabic "nṣṣ", which means "to set up", according to orientalist scholar Edward Lipinsky . Moreover, Lipinsky suggests that

306-672: A lingua franca of the empire, rather than it being eclipsed by Akkadian. Texts written 'exclusively' in Neo-Assyrian disappear within 10 years of Nineveh 's destruction in 612 BC. Under the Achaemenids , Aramaic continued to prosper, but Assyrian continued its decline. The language's final demise came about during the Hellenistic period when it was further marginalized by Koine Greek , even though Neo-Assyrian cuneiform remained in use in literary tradition well into Parthian times. Similarly,

459-635: A voiced alveolar trill /r/ but its pattern of alternation with ⟨ ḫ ⟩ suggests it was a fricative (either uvular /ʁ/ or velar /ɣ/ ). In the Hellenistic period, Akkadian ⟨ r ⟩ was transcribed using the Greek ρ, indicating it was pronounced similarly as an alveolar sound (though Greeks may also have perceived a uvular trill as ρ). Several Proto-Semitic phonemes are lost in Akkadian. The Proto-Semitic glottal stop *ʔ , as well as

612-562: A bastion of Shia learning and politics. By 1000 they had become the chief political and ideological challenge to Sunni Islam and the Abbasids, who by this time had fragmented into several governorships that, while recognizing caliphal authority from Baghdad, remained mostly autonomous. The caliph himself was under 'protection' of the Buyid Emirs who possessed all of Iraq and Western Iran, and were quietly Shia in their sympathies. Outside Iraq, all

765-522: A carpet and trampled to death by horses on 20 February 1258. The caliph's immediate family was also executed, with the lone exceptions of his youngest son who was sent to Mongolia, and a daughter who became a slave in the harem of Hulagu. Similarly to how a Mamluk Army was created by the Abbasids, a Mamluk Army was created by the Egypt-based Ayyubid dynasty . These Mamluks decided to directly overthrow their masters and came to power in 1250 in what

918-616: A center for carpet weaving in 1965. The weaving workshops mostly employed women. In the 1960s, Masyaf's Ismaili community largely identified with the Nasserist movement, in contrast to the Alawites who dominated the surrounding villages who were mostly associated with the Baathists . In 1970, much of the town of Masyaf still remained within the confines of the city walls. However, by 1998, its population and urban space had expanded considerably outside

1071-461: A centre of learning. The Abbasid period was marked by the use of bureaucrats (such as the Barmakid family) for governing the territories as well as an increasing inclusion of non-Arab Muslims in the ummah (Muslim community). Despite this initial cooperation, the Abbasids of the late 8th century had alienated both non-Arab mawali (clients). The political power of the caliphs was limited with

1224-495: A coastal mountain range dotted with fortresses, including Masyaf. Following its capture, Masyaf served as the principal fortress for the Ismailis' chief da'i . Together with other fortresses acquired at around the same time, including al-Kahf , Khawabi , al-Qadmus and al-Rusafa , the Ismailis were able to carve an autonomous territory for themselves amid hostile Crusader states and local Muslim dynasties nominally affiliated with

1377-522: A collection of fantastical folk tales, legends and parables compiled primarily during the Abbasid era. The collection is recorded as having originated from an Arabic translation of a Sassanian-era Persian prototype, with likely origins in Indian literary traditions. Stories from Arabic , Persian , Mesopotamian, and Egyptian folklore and literature were later incorporated. The epic is believed to have taken shape in

1530-516: A comparison with other Semitic languages, and the resulting picture was gradually amended using internal linguistic evidence from Akkadian sources, especially deriving from so-called plene spellings (spellings with an extra vowel). According to this widely accepted system, the place of stress in Akkadian is completely predictable and sensitive to syllable weight . There are three syllable weights: light (ending in -V); heavy (ending in -V̄ or -VC), and superheavy (ending in -V̂, -V̄C or -V̂C). If

1683-643: A family native to Middle East , Arabian Peninsula , parts of Anatolia , parts of the Horn of Africa , North Africa , Malta , Canary Islands and parts of West Africa ( Hausa ). Akkadian is only ever attested in Mesopotamia and neighboring regions in the Near East. Within the Near Eastern Semitic languages, Akkadian forms an East Semitic subgroup (with Eblaite and perhaps Dilmunite ). This group differs from

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1836-449: A force of 4,000–5,000 soldiers to recapture the town. After three months of fighting, the Raslans surrendered Masyaf. Ismaili control over the town and its fortress was restored in 1810. Two years after the resettlement of Masyaf by the Ismailis, Johann Ludwig Burckhardt recorded an estimated population of 280 families, most of which were Ismaili and 30 were Christian . Burchardt noted that

1989-651: A fortification at Masyaf likely existed prior to the 11th century, it is probable that the Aleppo -based Hamdanid dynasty built a fort at Masyaf, due to its position as an outpost overlooking the mountain roads. At that time, the fortress was a part of Jund Qinnasrin (Chalcis Province) of the Fatimid Caliphate . In the autumn of 999, Basil II , the Byzantine emperor, destroyed the fortifications at Masyaf as part of his campaign to gain control of Antioch and its environs from

2142-461: A locative ending in -um in the singular and the resulting forms serve as adverbials . These forms are generally not productive, but in the Neo-Babylonian the um -locative replaces several constructions with the preposition ina . In the later stages of Akkadian, the mimation (word-final -m ) and nunation (dual final -n ) that occurred at the end of most case endings disappeared, except in

2295-533: A major stopping point on the Mamluk postal route and was controlled by a commander who answered directly to the sultan due to its strategic role as a frontier fortress. In 1320, the historian and Ayyubid emir of Hama, Abu'l Fida , noted that Masyaf was a "center of the Ismailian Doctrine" and that it was "beautiful" with gardens and a spring from which flowed a small stream. According to Ibn Battuta , who passed by

2448-810: A much more Persianate culture and statecraft. Only the central lands of Mesopotamia were under direct Abbasid control, with Palestine and the Hejaz often managed by the Tulunids. Byzantium, for its part, had begun to push Arab Muslims farther east in Anatolia . By the 920s, North Africa was lost to the Fatimid dynasty , a Shia sect tracing its roots to Muhammad's daughter Fatimah . The Fatimid dynasty took control of Idrisid and Aghlabid domains, advanced to Egypt in 969, and established their capital near Fustat in Cairo , which they built as

2601-480: A result. Other influential Abbasid philosophers include al-Jahiz , and Ibn al-Haytham (Alhacen). As power shifted from the Umayyads to the Abbasids, the architectural styles changed also, from Greco-Roman tradition (which features elements of Hellenistic and Roman representative style) to Eastern tradition which retained their independent architectural traditions from Mesopotamia and Persia. The Abbasid architecture

2754-403: A separate East Semitic language. Because Akkadian as a spoken language is extinct and no contemporary descriptions of the pronunciation are known, little can be said with certainty about the phonetics and phonology of Akkadian. Some conclusions can be made, however, due to the relationship to the other Semitic languages and variant spellings of Akkadian words. The following table presents

2907-491: A written language, adapting Sumerian cuneiform orthography for the purpose. During the Middle Bronze Age (Old Assyrian and Old Babylonian period), the language virtually displaced Sumerian, which is assumed to have been extinct as a living language by the 18th century BC. Old Akkadian, which was used until the end of the 3rd millennium BC, differed from both Babylonian and Assyrian, and was displaced by these dialects. By

3060-609: Is PaRiStum (< *PaRiS-at-um ). Additionally there is a general tendency of syncope of short vowels in the later stages of Akkadian. Most roots of the Akkadian language consist of three consonants, called the radicals, but some roots are composed of four consonants, so-called quadriradicals. The radicals are occasionally represented in transcription in upper-case letters, for example PRS (to decide). Between and around these radicals various infixes , suffixes and prefixes , having word generating or grammatical functions, are inserted. The resulting consonant-vowel pattern differentiates

3213-461: Is "the style of philosophy produced within the framework of Islamic culture". Islamic philosophy, in this definition is neither necessarily concerned with religious issues, nor is exclusively produced by Muslims. Their works on Aristotle were a key step in the transmission of learning from ancient Greeks to the Islamic world and the West. They often corrected the philosopher, encouraging a lively debate in

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3366-421: Is 45 kilometers to the east and Baniyas is 54 kilometers to the west. Hama is connected to the town via a road north of Masyaf which passes through al-Laqbah and Deir Shamil . Nearby villages include al-Rusafa to the southeast, al-Bayda to the south, al-Suwaydah to the southwest, Rabu to the west, Biqraqa to the northwest, Hurayf and Hayalin to the north, Zaynah to the northeast and al-Shiha to

3519-570: Is a fusional language with grammatical case . Like all Semitic languages, Akkadian uses the system of consonantal roots . The Kültepe texts , which were written in Old Assyrian , include Hittite loanwords and names, which constitute the oldest record of any Indo-European language . Akkadian belongs with the other Semitic languages in the Near Eastern branch of the Afroasiatic languages ,

3672-442: Is divided into several varieties based on geography and historical period : One of the earliest known Akkadian inscriptions was found on a bowl at Ur , addressed to the very early pre-Sargonic king Meskiagnunna of Ur ( c.  2485 –2450 BC) by his queen Gan-saman, who is thought to have been from Akkad. The Akkadian Empire , established by Sargon of Akkad , introduced the Akkadian language (the "language of Akkad ") as

3825-585: Is known as the Mamluk Sultanate . In 1261, following the devastation of Baghdad by the Mongols, the Mamluk rulers of Egypt re-established the Abbasid caliphate in Cairo . The first Abbasid caliph of Cairo was Al-Mustansir . The Abbasid caliphs in Egypt continued to maintain the presence of authority, but it was confined to religious matters. The Abbasid caliphate of Cairo lasted until the time of Al-Mutawakkil III , who

3978-458: Is marked by the Kassite invasion of Babylonia around 1550 BC. The Kassites, who reigned for 300 years, gave up their own language in favor of Akkadian, but they had little influence on the language. At its apogee, Middle Babylonian was the written language of diplomacy of the entire Ancient Near East , including Egypt ( Amarna Period ). During this period, a large number of loan words were included in

4131-502: Is preserved on clay tablets dating back to c.  2500 BC . It was written using cuneiform , a script adopted from the Sumerians using wedge-shaped symbols pressed in wet clay. As employed by Akkadian scribes, the adapted cuneiform script could represent either (a) Sumerian logograms ( i.e. , picture-based characters representing entire words), (b) Sumerian syllables, (c) Akkadian syllables, or (d) phonetic complements . In Akkadian

4284-560: Is situated along the foothills of the eastern slopes of the Jabal Ansariyah coastal mountain range. The average elevation of Masyaf is 485 meters. It is just west of the al-Ghab Plain . The area is marked by gardens, orchards and fields of wheat and barley which are cultivated by local residents. To the north and south of Masyaf flow seasonal streams which feed into a tributary of the Orontes River , called al-Sarout. The city of Hama

4437-496: Is then [awat+su] > /awatt͡su/ . In this vein, an alternative transcription of ⟨ š ⟩ is ⟨ s̱ ⟩, with the macron below indicating a soft (lenis) articulation in Semitic transcription. Other interpretations are possible. /ʃ/ could have been assimilated to the preceding /t/ , yielding /ts/ , which would later have been simplified to /ss/ . The rhotic ⟨ r ⟩ has traditionally been interpreted as

4590-661: Is traditionally seen as the approximate end of the Golden Age. Contemporary accounts state Mongol soldiers looted and then destroyed mosques, palaces, libraries, and hospitals. Priceless books from Baghdad's thirty-six public libraries were torn apart, the looters using their leather covers as sandals. Grand buildings that had been the work of generations were burned to the ground. The House of Wisdom (the Grand Library of Baghdad), containing countless precious historical documents and books on subjects ranging from medicine to astronomy,

4743-605: The Assassin's Creed games series (mainly in Assassin's Creed and Assassin's Creed: Revelations ). The village appears built on a rock, with the Masyaf fortress at the top. Akkadian language Akkadian ( / ə ˈ k eɪ d i ən / ə- KAY -dee-ən ; Akkadian: 𒀝𒅗𒁺𒌑(𒌝) , romanized:  Akkadû(m) ) is an extinct East Semitic language that was spoken in ancient Mesopotamia ( Akkad , Assyria , Isin , Larsa , Babylonia and perhaps Dilmun ) from

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4896-853: The Abbasid Caliphate . Masyaf served as the headquarters of the Ismaili da'i Rashid ad-Din Sinan and his elite unit of fida'i who were known as the Assassins . In the mid-1170s, the Ayyubid sultan Saladin set about conquering Syria, ousting the Crusaders and uniting the Muslim world under Sunni Islam. The Ismailis considered Saladin a more dangerous threat than the Crusaders and allied with Saladin's rival in Aleppo to defeat

5049-728: The An Lushan Rebellion against An Lushan . The Abbasids, or "Black Flags" as they were commonly called, were known in Tang dynasty chronicles as the hēiyī Dàshí , "The Black-robed Tazi" ( 黑衣大食 ) ("Tazi" being a borrowing from Persian Tāzī , the word for "Arab"). Al-Rashid sent embassies to the Chinese Tang dynasty and established good relations with them. After the war, these embassies remained in China with Caliph Harun al-Rashid establishing an alliance with China. Several embassies from

5202-549: The Golden Age of Islam . It was also during this period that Islamic manuscript production reached its height. Between the 8th and 10th centuries, Abbasid artisans pioneered and perfected manuscript techniques that became standards of the practice. This, in addition to housing several key academic institutions, including the House of Wisdom , as well as a multiethnic and multi-religious environment, garnered it an international reputation as

5355-487: The House of Wisdom in Baghdad, where both Muslim and non-Muslim scholars sought to translate and gather all the world's knowledge into Arabic . Many classic works of antiquity that would otherwise have been lost were translated into Arabic and Persian and later in turn translated into Turkish, Hebrew and Latin. During this period the Muslim world was a cauldron of cultures which collected, synthesized and significantly advanced

5508-663: The Islamic prophet Muhammad . It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib (566–653 CE ), from whom the dynasty takes its name. They ruled as caliphs for most of the caliphate from their capital in Baghdad in modern-day Iraq, after having overthrown the Umayyad Caliphate in the Abbasid Revolution of 750 CE (132  AH ). The Abbasid Revolution had its origins and first successes in

5661-672: The Mustansiriya School , in an attempt to eclipse the Seljuq-era Nizamiyya built by Nizam al Mulk . In 1206, Genghis Khan established a powerful dynasty among the Mongols of central Asia . During the 13th century, this Mongol Empire conquered most of the Eurasian land mass, including both China in the east and much of the old Islamic caliphate (as well as Kievan Rus' ) in the west. Hulagu Khan 's destruction of Baghdad in 1258

5814-534: The Northwest Semitic languages and South Semitic languages in its subject–object–verb word order, while the other Semitic languages usually have either a verb–subject–object or subject–verb–object order. Additionally Akkadian is the only Semitic language to use the prepositions ina and ana ( locative case , English in / on / with , and dative -locative case, for / to , respectively). Other Semitic languages like Arabic , Hebrew and Aramaic have

5967-458: The Old Babylonian period . The following table shows Proto-Semitic phonemes and their correspondences among Akkadian, Modern Standard Arabic and Tiberian Hebrew : The existence of a back mid-vowel /o/ has been proposed, but the cuneiform writing gives no good proof for this. There is limited contrast between different u-signs in lexical texts, but this scribal differentiation may reflect

6120-641: The Persian conquest of the Mesopotamian kingdoms contributed to the decline of Babylonian, from that point on known as Late Babylonian, as a popular language. However, the language was still used in its written form. Even after the Greek invasion under Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC, Akkadian was still a contender as a written language, but spoken Akkadian was likely extinct by this time, or at least rarely used. The last positively identified Akkadian text comes from

6273-555: The Samanids had begun the process of exercising independent authority in Transoxiana and Greater Khorasan , and the succeeding Saffarid dynasty of Iran. The Saffarids , from Khorasan, nearly seized Baghdad in 876, and the Tulunids took control of most of Syria. The trend of weakening of the central power and strengthening of the minor caliphates on the periphery continued. An exception

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6426-595: The consonants of the Akkadian language, as distinguished in Akkadian cuneiform. The reconstructed phonetic value of a phoneme is given in IPA transcription, alongside its standard ( DMG-Umschrift ) transliteration in angle brackets ⟨ ⟩ . Evidence from borrowings from and to Sumerian has been interpreted as indicating that the Akkadian voiceless non-emphatic stops were originally unaspirated, but became aspirated around 2000 BCE. Akkadian emphatic consonants are typically reconstructed as ejectives , which are thought to be

6579-625: The siege of Baghdad by the Mongols under Hulagu Khan and the execution of al-Musta'sim . The Abbasid line of rulers re-centred themselves in the Mamluk capital of Cairo in 1261. Though lacking in political power, with the brief exception of Caliph al-Musta'in , the dynasty continued to claim religious authority until a few years after the Ottoman conquest of Egypt in 1517, with the last Abbasid caliph being al-Mutawakkil III . The Abbasid caliphs were descended from Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib , one of

6732-400: The status absolutus (the absolute state ) and the status constructus ( construct state ). The latter is found in all other Semitic languages, while the former appears only in Akkadian and some dialects of Aramaic. The status absolutus is characterised by the loss of a noun's case ending (e.g. awīl < awīlum , šar < šarrum ). It is relatively uncommon, and is used chiefly to mark

6885-528: The third millennium BC until its gradual replacement in common use by Old Aramaic among Assyrians and Babylonians from the 8th century BC. Akkadian, which is the earliest documented Semitic language , is named after the city of Akkad , a major centre of Mesopotamian civilization during the Akkadian Empire ( c.  2334 –2154 BC). It was written using the cuneiform script , originally used for Sumerian , but also used to write multiple languages in

7038-573: The 10th century BC when the Assyrian kingdom became a major power with the Neo-Assyrian Empire . During the existence of that empire, however, Neo-Assyrian began to turn into a chancellery language, being marginalized by Old Aramaic . The dominance of the Neo-Assyrian Empire under Tiglath-Pileser III over Aram-Damascus in the middle of the 8th century led to the establishment of Aramaic as

7191-818: The 10th century and reached its final form by the 14th century; the number and type of tales have varied from one manuscript to another. All Arabian fantasy tales were often called "Arabian Nights" when translated into English, regardless of whether they appeared in The Book of One Thousand and One Nights . This epic has been influential in the West since it was translated in the 18th century, first by Antoine Galland . Many imitations were written, especially in France. Various characters from this epic have themselves become cultural icons in Western culture, such as Aladdin , Sinbad and Ali Baba . A famous example of Islamic poetry on romance

7344-607: The 1st century AD. The latest known text in cuneiform Babylonian is an astronomical almanac dated to 79/80 AD. However, the latest cuneiform texts are almost entirely written in Sumerian logograms. The Akkadian language began to be rediscovered when Carsten Niebuhr in 1767 was able to make extensive copies of cuneiform texts and published them in Denmark. The deciphering of the texts started immediately, and bilinguals, in particular Old Persian -Akkadian bilinguals, were of great help. Since

7497-637: The 2004 census. It is the administrative center of the Masyaf District and the Masyaf Subdistrict . The latter had a population of 68,184 in 2004. In the mid-1940s, its inhabitants were predominantly Ismailis . Today, it is a religiously mixed city of Ismailis and Alawites , with a Christian minority. Masyaf is featured as the base of operations of the Assassin Order during the Third Crusade in

7650-574: The 20th century BC, two variant dialectic forms of the same language were in use in Assyria and Babylonia, known as Assyrian and Babylonian respectively. The bulk of preserved material is from this later period, corresponding to the Near Eastern Iron Age . In total, hundreds of thousands of texts and text fragments have been excavated, covering a vast textual tradition of religious and mythological narrative, legal texts, scientific works, personal correspondence, political, civil and military events, economic tracts and many other examples. Centuries after

7803-399: The 21st century BC Babylonian and Assyrian, which were to become the primary dialects, were easily distinguishable. Old Babylonian, along with the closely related dialect Mariotic , is clearly more innovative than the Old Assyrian dialect and the more distantly related Eblaite language . For this reason, forms like lu-prus ('I will decide') were first encountered in Old Babylonian instead of

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7956-445: The 8th century BC. It later served as the administrative center of an Assyrian province by the same name in modern-day central Syria. Masyaf is also likely the site of Marsyas. Roman and Byzantine historians mentioned a city named "Marsyas" that governed the al-Ghab and Beqaa plains to the north and south of the site, respectively. Masyaf and its fortress were first mentioned by Crusader chroniclers in 1099. However, because

8109-424: The Abbasid Caliphs to the Chinese court have been recorded in the Old Book of Tang , the most important being those of al-Saffah, al-Mansur, and Harun al-Rashid. In 762, al-Mansur suppressed a rebellion in the Hejaz led by al-Nafs al-Zakiyya , a descendant from Ali ibn Abi Talib , whose challenge to the Abbasid claim to leadership was based on his Alid lineage and thus presented a serious political threat. He

8262-447: The Abbasids for the titular authority of the Islamic ummah . They commanded some support in the Shia sections of Baghdad (such as Karkh ), although Baghdad was the city most closely connected to the caliphate, even in the Buyid and Seljuq eras. The challenge of the Fatimids only ended with their downfall in the 12th century. Despite the power of the Buyid amirs, the Abbasids retained a highly ritualized court in Baghdad, as described by

8415-399: The Abbasids in Baghdad. When the dynasty began to weaken in the 12th century, the Abbasids gained greater independence once again. While the caliph al-Mustarshid was the first caliph to build an army capable of meeting a Seljuk army in battle, he was nonetheless defeated and assassinated in 1135. The caliph al-Muqtafi was the first Abbasid Caliph to regain the full military independence of

8568-448: The Alawite State. The latter merged with the rest of Syria in 1936. In 1939, Masyaf and its district was transferred from the Province of Hama to the Province of Latakia. Throughout the 1930s, rooms in the fortress were still being used by local residents. In 1947, a year after Syria became independent from France, 3,808 Ismailis were recorded to be living in Masyaf. The Syrian government under President Amin al-Hafiz established Masyaf as

8721-418: The Assyrian name was likely a configuration of the Assyrian word manṣuwatu which correlates with the Arabic word minaṣṣatu(n) , both of which translate as "raised platform". This translation is indicative of the promontory that the Masyaf fortress occupies which overlooks the rest of the city and the surrounding area. Masyaf is the most probable site of the ancient Aramean city of Mansuate that existed in

8874-414: The Ayyubid emir of Hama , Shihab al-Din Mahmud al-Harimi, Saladin's uncle. When the Crusaders were attempting to recapture Jerusalem through the Third Crusade , there was an attack on the headquarters of the Syrian Assassins , Masyaf , by the Knights Templar . Rashid was kidnapped on the orders of a rival chief nicknamed Haras the Crusader, but he was rescued and his captor murdered. A wall around

9027-403: The Ayyubids. Sinan's men launched two unsuccessful attempts to assassinate Saladin and in 1176, Saladin launched a punitive expedition against the Assassins in the strongly-defended fortress of Masyaf. Within a few days of the siege, Saladin withdrew due to an urgent need to redeploy against the Crusaders who were attacking Ayyubid territory in the Beqaa . He arranged a truce with Sinan mediated by

9180-403: The Barmakids, who had wielded administrative power on his behalf. During the same period, several factions began either to leave the empire for other lands or to take control of distant parts of the empire. Still, the reigns of al-Rashid and his sons were considered to be the apex of the Abbasids. Domestically, Harun pursued policies similar to those of his father Al-Mahdi. He released many of

9333-426: The Buyid bureaucrat Hilal al-Sabi' , and they retained a certain influence over Baghdad as well as religious life. As Buyid power waned with the rule of Baha' al-Daula , the caliphate was able to regain some measure of strength. The caliph al-Qadir , for example, led the ideological struggle against the Shia with writings such as the Baghdad Manifesto . The caliphs kept order in Baghdad itself, attempting to prevent

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9486-441: The Byzantines. Though his attempt to seize Constantinople failed when his fleet was destroyed by a storm, his military excursions were generally successful, culminating with a resounding victory in the Sack of Amorium . The Byzantines responded by sacking Damietta in Egypt, and Al-Mutawakkil responded by sending his troops into Anatolia again, sacking and marauding until they were eventually annihilated in 863. Even by 820,

9639-456: The Crusaders. Sometime later, Masyaf was controlled by the Mirdasid dynasty . In 1127, the Mirdasids sold it to the Shaizar -based Banu Munqidh family. In 1140, Masyaf was captured by the Nizari Ismailis , a sect of Ismaili Shia. The fortress was being defended by a Banu Munqidh mamluk (slave warrior) named Sunqur, who the Ismaili force managed to ambush and kill. The Ismailis had chosen Syria as their new home and successively settled in

9792-430: The Iron Age, during the Neo-Assyrian Empire when in the mid-eighth century BC Tiglath-Pileser III introduced Imperial Aramaic as a lingua franca of the Assyrian empire. By the Hellenistic period , the language was largely confined to scholars and priests working in temples in Assyria and Babylonia. The last known Akkadian cuneiform document dates from the 1st century AD. Mandaic spoken by Mandean Gnostics and

9945-400: The Mamluk sultan Baibars and some time after, the sultan had Masyaf's emir Najm al-Din Ismail replaced by Sarim al-Din Mubarak. Mubarak was later imprisoned in Cairo by Baibars and Najm ad-Din was briefly restored as emir before Masyaf was fully incorporated into the sultanate in 1270. Ismailis continued inhabiting it throughout Mamluk rule. Towards the end of the century, Masyaf became

10098-470: The Muslims. The area would later come under Seljuk rule, but in 1099, the Crusaders attempted to wrest control of Masyaf (and the more strategically important Rafania ) following their capture of Tripoli . The Seljuk atabeg of Damascus , Toghtekin , launched a military campaign to prevent the loss of the area and reached a short-lived accommodation with the Crusaders whereby Masyaf and Hisn al-Akrad would remain in Muslim hands, but have to pay tribute to

10251-416: The Persian faction known as the Buyids from Daylam swept into power and assumed control over the bureaucracy in Baghdad. According to the history of Miskawayh , they began distributing iqtas ( fiefs in the form of tax farms) to their supporters. This period of localized secular control was to last nearly 100 years. The loss of Abbasid power to the Buyids would shift as the Seljuks would take over from

10404-412: The Persians. At the end of the eighth century, the Abbasids found they could no longer keep together a polity from Baghdad, which had grown larger than that of Rome . In 793 the Zaydi -Shia dynasty of Idrisids set up a state from Fez in Morocco, while a family of governors under the Abbasids became increasingly independent until they founded the Aghlabid Emirate from the 830s. Al-Mu'tasim started

10557-468: The Syrian Directorate of Antiquities. In the Syrian Civil War after 2015, an alleged missile production facility in Masyaf and a base near the town, thought to be used by Iranian forces and militias, became repeatedly targets of airstrikes attributed to Israel. On 8 September 2024, Israel launched a series of airstrikes as well as a ground raid by the Shaldag unit , targeting an underground precision missile factory reportedly built by Iran. Masyaf

10710-410: The Umayyads and 'Alids his brother Al-Hadi had imprisoned and declared amnesty for all political groups of the Quraysh . Large scale hostilities broke out with Byzantium , and under his rule, the Abbasid Empire reached its peak. However, Harun's decision to split the succession proved to be damaging to the longevity of the empire. After Rashid's death, the empire was split by a civil war between

10863-434: The Umayyads at the Battle of Gorgan, the Battle of Nahavand and finally in the Battle of Karbala, all in the year 748. Ibrahim was captured by Marwan and was killed. The quarrel was taken up by Ibrahim's brother Abdallah, known by the name of Abu al-'Abbas as-Saffah , who defeated the Umayyads in 750 in the battle near the Great Zab and was subsequently proclaimed caliph . After this loss, Marwan fled to Egypt, where he

11016-411: The administrative changes needed to keep order of the political challenges created by the far-flung nature of the empire, and the limited communication across it. It was also during this early period of the dynasty, in particular during the governance of Al-Mansur, Harun al-Rashid, and al-Ma'mun , that its reputation and power were created. The position of wazir (vizier) developed in this period. It

11169-404: The archaeological evidence is typical of Anatolia rather than of Assyria, but the use both of cuneiform and the dialect is the best indication of Assyrian presence. Old Babylonian was the language of king Hammurabi and his code , which is one of the oldest collections of laws in the world. (see Code of Ur-Nammu .) Old Assyrian developed as well during the second millennium BC, but because it

11322-455: The autonomous provinces slowly took on the characteristic of de facto states with hereditary rulers, armies, and revenues and operated under only nominal caliph suzerainty, which may not necessarily be reflected by any contribution to the treasury, such as the Soomro Emirs that had gained control of Sindh and ruled the entire province from their capital of Mansura . Mahmud of Ghazni took

11475-472: The blood of Al-Musta'sim , a direct descendant of Muhammad's uncle Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib , and the last reigning Abbasid caliph in Baghdad, was spilled. The Shia of Persia stated that no such calamity had happened after the death of Husayn ibn Ali in the Battle of Karbala ; nevertheless, as a precaution and in accordance with a Mongol taboo which forbade spilling royal blood, Hulagu had Al-Musta'sim wrapped in

11628-565: The caliph al-Amin and his brother al-Ma'mun , who had the support of Khorasan. This war ended with a two-year siege of Baghdad and the eventual death of Al-Amin in 813. Al-Ma'mun ruled for 20 years of relative calm interspersed with a rebellion in Azerbaijan by the Khurramites , which was supported by the Byzantines. Al-Ma'mun was also responsible for the creation of an autonomous Khorasan, and

11781-579: The caliph al-Qa'im was unable to defeat him without outside help. Toghril Beg , the Seljuq sultan, restored Baghdad to Sunni rule and took Iraq for his dynasty. Once again, the Abbasids were forced to deal with a military power that they could not match, though the Abbasid caliph remained the titular head of the Islamic community. The succeeding sultans Alp Arslan and Malikshah , as well as their vizier Nizam al-Mulk , took up residence in Persia, but held power over

11934-454: The caliph al-Radi (934–941) was forced to acknowledge their power by creating the position of "Prince of Princes" ( amir al-umara ). In addition, the power of the Mamluks steadily grew, reaching a climax when al-Radi was constrained to hand over most of the royal functions to the non-Arab Muhammad ibn Ra'iq . Al-Mustakfi had a short reign from 944 to 946, and it was during this period that

12087-502: The caliphal court in Baghdad during the early 9th century, while others such as al-Mutanabbi received their patronage from regional courts. Under Harun al-Rashid, Baghdad was renowned for its bookstores, which proliferated after the making of paper was introduced. Chinese papermakers had been among those taken prisoner by the Arabs at the Battle of Talas in 751. As prisoners of war, they were dispatched to Samarkand , where they helped set up

12240-660: The caliphate were minimal while the Byzantine Empire was fighting Abbasid rule in Syria and Anatolia , with focus shifting primarily to internal matters; Abbasid governors exerted greater autonomy and, using this increasing power, began to make their positions hereditary. While Baghdad remained the official capital, Harun al-Rashid chose to reside in Raqqa from 796 until the end of his reign. In 803, for reasons that remain unclear, Harun al-Rashid turned on and imprisoned or killed most of

12393-529: The caliphate, with the help of his vizier Ibn Hubayra . After nearly 250 years of subjection to foreign dynasties, he successfully defended Baghdad against the Seljuqs in the siege of Baghdad (1157) , thus securing Iraq for the Abbasids. The reign of al-Nasir (d. 1225) brought the caliphate back into power throughout Iraq, based in large part on the Sufi futuwwa organizations that the caliph headed. Al-Mustansir built

12546-557: The caliphs were wary of the Alid sympathies in the city and did not always reside here. In 752, al-Saffah built a new city called al-Hashimiyya, at an uncertain location, most likely near Kufa. Later that same year, he moved to Anbar , where he built a new settlement for his Khurasani soldiers and a palace for himself. It was al-Saffah's successor, Abu Ja'far al-Mansur ( r.  754–775 ) who firmly consolidated Abbasid rule and faced down internal challenges. His uncle, Abdallah ibn Ali ,

12699-445: The capital from Damascus to Baghdad. The Abbasids were influenced by the Qur'anic injunctions and hadith , such as "the ink of a scholar is more holy than the blood of a martyr", stressing the value of knowledge. During this period the Muslim world became an intellectual center for science, philosophy, medicine and education as the Abbasids championed the cause of knowledge and established

12852-513: The cities of Aleppo and Damascus and the fortress of Banias , each time being persecuted and massacred by the authorities or mobs of local residents incited by clerics who accused the Ismailis of being heretics or causing problems. Consequently, the surviving Ismaili leadership decided that establishing bases in Syria's cities and thus relying on the goodwill of various umara (princes) was untenable. Instead, they chose to settle in Jabal Ansariyah ,

13005-566: The city of Raqqa , along the Euphrates . Finally, in 836, al-Mu'tasim moved the capital to a new site that he created along the Tigris, called Samarra. This city saw 60 years of work, with race-courses and game preserves to add to the atmosphere. Due to the dry remote nature of the environment, some of the palaces built in this era were isolated havens. Al-Ukhaidir Fortress is a fine example of this type of building, which has stables, living quarters, and

13158-422: The civil service. In 794, Jafa al-Barmak built the first paper mill in Baghdad, and from there the technology circulated. Harun required that paper be employed in government dealings, since something recorded on paper could not easily be changed or removed, and eventually, an entire street in Baghdad's business district was dedicated to selling paper and books. One of the common definitions for "Islamic philosophy"

13311-435: The continued repulsing of Byzantine forays. In the 9th century, the Abbasids created an army loyal only to their caliphate, composed of non-Arab origin people, known as Mamluks . This force, created by al-Ma'mun and his brother and successor al-Mu'tasim (833–842), prevented the further disintegration of the empire. The Mamluk army, though often viewed negatively, both helped and hurt the caliphate. Early on, it provided

13464-479: The dialects of Akkadian identified with certainty so far. Some researchers (such as W. Sommerfeld 2003) believe that the Old Akkadian variant used in the older texts is not an ancestor of the later Assyrian and Babylonian dialects, but rather a separate dialect that was replaced by these two dialects and which died out early. Eblaite , formerly thought of as yet another Akkadian dialect, is now generally considered

13617-402: The dialects spoken by the extant Assyrians ( Suret ) are three extant Neo-Aramaic languages that retain Akkadian vocabulary and grammatical features, as well as personal and family names. These are spoken by Assyrians and Mandeans mainly in northern Iraq , southeast Turkey , northeast Syria , northwest Iran , the southern Caucasus and by communities in the Assyrian diaspora . Akkadian

13770-525: The downward slide by using non-Muslim mercenaries in his personal army. Also during this period, officers started assassinating superiors with whom they disagreed, in particular the caliphs. By the 870s, Egypt became autonomous under Ahmad ibn Tulun . In the East, governors decreased their ties to the center as well. The Saffarids of Herat and the Samanids of Bukhara began breaking away around this time, cultivating

13923-401: The earlier stages of the language, the dual number is vestigial, and its use is largely confined to natural pairs (eyes, ears, etc.). Adjectives are never found in the dual. In the dual and plural, the accusative and genitive are merged into a single oblique case . Akkadian, unlike Arabic , has only "sound" plurals formed by means of a plural ending. Broken plurals are not formed by changing

14076-511: The east. Masyaf has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate ( Köppen climate classification Csa ). In winter there is much more rainfall in Masyaf than in summer. The average annual temperature in Masyaf is 17.6 °C (63.7 °F). About 1,049 mm (41.30 in) of precipitation falls annually. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics , Masyaf had a population of 22,508 in

14229-515: The easterly region of Khorasan , far from the Levantine center of Umayyad influence. The Abbasid Caliphate first centered its government in Kufa , modern-day Iraq, but in 762 the caliph al-Mansur founded the city of Baghdad, near the ancient Babylonian capital city of Babylon and Sassanid city of Ctesiphon . Baghdad became the center of science , culture , and invention in what became known as

14382-571: The fall of the Akkadian Empire, Akkadian, in its Assyrian and Babylonian varieties, was the native language of the Mesopotamian empires ( Old Assyrian Empire , Babylonia , Middle Assyrian Empire ) throughout the later Bronze Age, and became the lingua franca of much of the Ancient Near East by the time of the Bronze Age collapse c.  1150 BC . However, its gradual decline began in

14535-400: The first Arab paper mill. In time, paper replaced parchment as the medium for writing, and the production of books greatly increased. These events had an academic and societal impact that could be broadly compared to the introduction of the printing press in the West. Paper aided in communication and record-keeping, it also brought a new sophistication and complexity to businesses, banking, and

14688-478: The first major changes effected by Abbasid rule was the move of the caliphate's center of power from Syria to Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq). This was closer to the Persian mawali support base of the Abbasids and the move addressed their demand for reduced Arab dominance in the empire. However, no definitive capital was yet selected. In these early Abbasid years, Kufa generally served as the administrative capital, but

14841-420: The first one bears stress. A rule of Akkadian phonology is that certain short (and probably unstressed) vowels are dropped. The rule is that the last vowel of a succession of syllables that end in a short vowel is dropped, for example the declinational root of the verbal adjective of a root PRS is PaRiS- . Thus the masculine singular nominative is PaRS-um (< *PaRiS-um ) but the feminine singular nominative

14994-680: The fortress was being used as a poorhouse at the time. During the French Mandate over Syria, the French separated the Jabal Ansariyah range from the rest of Syria to form the Alawite State . Masyaf was made a part of the State of Damascus , but in 1929, a number of rural Alawite villages in its immediate vicinity, including al-Rusafa , al-Bayyadiyah , Akakir , Maryamin and Abu Qubays , were ceded to

15147-528: The fricatives *ʕ , *h , *ḥ are lost as consonants, either by sound change or orthographically, but they gave rise to the vowel quality e not exhibited in Proto-Semitic. The voiceless lateral fricatives ( *ś , *ṣ́ ) merged with the sibilants as in Canaanite , leaving 19 consonantal phonemes. Old Akkadian preserved the /*ś/ phoneme longest but it eventually merged with /*š/ , beginning in

15300-409: The government with a stable force to address domestic and foreign problems. However, creation of this foreign army and al-Mu'tasim's transfer of the capital from Baghdad to Samarra created a division between the caliphate and the people they claimed to rule. Al-Mu'tasim's reign marked the end of the strong caliphs. He strengthened his personal army with the Mamluks and promptly restarted the war with

15453-530: The knowledge gained from the Roman , Chinese, Indian , Persian , Egyptian , North African, Ancient Greek and Medieval Greek civilizations. According to Huff, "[i]n virtually every field of endeavor—in astronomy, alchemy, mathematics, medicine, optics and so forth—the Caliphate's scientists were in the forefront of scientific advance." The best-known fiction from the Islamic world is One Thousand and One Nights ,

15606-752: The language from Northwest Semitic languages and Hurrian . However, the use of these words was confined to the fringes of the Akkadian-speaking territory. From 1500 BC onwards, the Assyrian language is termed Middle Assyrian. It was the language of the Middle Assyrian Empire . However, the Babylonian cultural influence was strong and the Assyrians wrote royal inscriptions, religious and most scholarly texts in Middle Babylonian, whereas Middle Assyrian

15759-476: The languages as a Sprachbund . Akkadian proper names are first attested in Sumerian texts in the mid-3rd millennium BC, and inscriptions ostensibly written in Sumerian but whose character order reveals that they were intended to be read in East Semitic (presumably early Akkadian) date back to as early as c.  2600 BC . From about the 25th century BC, texts fully written in Akkadian begin to appear. By

15912-454: The last syllable is superheavy, it is stressed, otherwise the rightmost heavy non-final syllable is stressed. If a word contains only light syllables, the first syllable is stressed. It has also been argued that monosyllabic words generally are not stressed but rather function as clitics . The special behaviour of /V̂/ syllables is explained by their functioning, in accordance with their historical origin, as sequences of two syllables, of which

16065-404: The latter being used for long vowels arising from the contraction of vowels in hiatus. The distinction between long and short is phonemic , and is used in the grammar; for example, iprusu ('that he decided') versus iprusū ('they decided'). There is broad agreement among most Assyriologists about Akkadian stress patterns. The rules of Akkadian stress were originally reconstructed by means of

16218-434: The locative. Later, the nominative and accusative singular of masculine nouns collapsed to -u and in Neo-Babylonian most word-final short vowels were dropped. As a result, case differentiation disappeared from all forms except masculine plural nouns. However, many texts continued the practice of writing the case endings, although often sporadically and incorrectly. As the most important contact language throughout this period

16371-531: The older la-prus . While generally more archaic, Assyrian developed certain innovations as well, such as the "Assyrian vowel harmony ". Eblaite was even more so, retaining a productive dual and a relative pronoun declined in case, number and gender. Both of these had already disappeared in Old Akkadian. Over 20,000 cuneiform tablets in Old Assyrian have been recovered from the Kültepe site in Anatolia . Most of

16524-516: The oldest realization of emphatics across the Semitic languages. One piece of evidence for this is that Akkadian shows a development known as Geers's law , where one of two emphatic consonants dissimilates to the corresponding non-emphatic consonant. For the sibilants, traditionally ⟨ š ⟩ has been held to be postalveolar /ʃ/ , and ⟨ s ⟩, ⟨ z ⟩, ⟨ ṣ ⟩ analyzed as fricatives; but attested assimilations in Akkadian suggest otherwise. For example, when

16677-464: The original meaning of the root. The middle radical can be geminated, which is represented by a doubled consonant in transcription, and sometimes in the cuneiform writing itself. The consonants ʔ , w , j and n are termed "weak radicals" and roots containing these radicals give rise to irregular forms. Formally, Akkadian has three numbers (singular, dual and plural) and three cases ( nominative , accusative and genitive ). However, even in

16830-618: The outbreak of fitnas in the capital, often contending with the ayyarun . With the Buyid dynasty on the wane, a vacuum was created that was eventually filled by the dynasty of Oghuz Turks known as the Seljuqs . By 1055, the Seljuqs had wrested control from the Buyids and Abbasids, and took temporal power. When the amir and former slave Basasiri took up the Shia Fatimid banner in Baghdad in 1056–57,

16983-462: The possessive suffix -šu is added to the root awat ('word'), it is written awassu ('his word') even though šš would be expected. The most straightforward interpretation of this shift from tš to ss , is that ⟨ s, ṣ ⟩ form a pair of voiceless alveolar affricates /t͡s/ /t͡sʼ/ , ⟨ š ⟩ is a voiceless alveolar sibilant /s/ , and ⟨ z ⟩ is a voiced alveolar affricate or fricative /d͡z/~/z/ . The assimilation

17136-407: The predicate of a nominal sentence, in fixed adverbial expressions, and in expressions relating to measurements of length, weight, and the like. Abbasid Caliphate The Abbasid Caliphate or Abbasid Empire ( / ə ˈ b æ s ɪ d , ˈ æ b ə s ɪ d / ; Arabic : الْخِلَافَة الْعَبَّاسِيَّة , romanized :  al-Khilāfa al-ʿAbbāsiyya ) was the third caliphate to succeed

17289-518: The prepositions bi/bə and li/lə (locative and dative, respectively). The origin of the Akkadian spatial prepositions is unknown. In contrast to most other Semitic languages, Akkadian has only one non-sibilant fricative : ḫ [x] . Akkadian lost both the glottal and pharyngeal fricatives, which are characteristic of the other Semitic languages. Until the Old Babylonian period, the Akkadian sibilants were exclusively affricated . Old Akkadian

17442-474: The region also appear to have served as "capitals" under either al-Saffah or al-Mansur prior to the founding of Baghdad. Al-Mansur centralised the judicial administration, and later, Harun al-Rashid established the institution of Chief Qadi to oversee it. The Umayyad empire was mostly Arab; however, the Abbasids progressively became made up of more and more converted Muslims in which the Arabs were only one of many ethnicities. The Abbasids had depended heavily on

17595-413: The region including Eblaite , Hurrian , Elamite , Old Persian and Hittite . The influence of Sumerian on Akkadian went beyond just the cuneiform script; owing to their close proximity, a lengthy span of contact and the prestige held by the former, Sumerian significantly impacted Akkadian phonology, vocabulary and syntax. This mutual influence of Akkadian and Sumerian has also led scholars to describe

17748-508: The return of power to the family of Muhammad, the Hashemites , during the reign of Umar II . During the reign of Marwan II , this opposition culminated in the rebellion of Ibrahim al-Imam , the fourth in descent from Abbas. Supported by the province of Khorasan (Eastern Persia), even though the governor opposed them, and the Shia Arabs, he achieved considerable success, but was captured in

17901-591: The rise of the Iranian Buyids and the Seljuq Turks , who captured Baghdad in 945 and 1055, respectively. Although Abbasid leadership over the vast Islamic empire was gradually reduced to a ceremonial religious function in much of the caliphate, the dynasty retained control of its Mesopotamian domain during the rule of Caliph al-Muqtafi and extended into Iran during the reign of Caliph al-Nasir . The Abbasids' age of cultural revival and fruition ended in 1258 with

18054-483: The same syllable in the same text. Cuneiform was in many ways unsuited to Akkadian: among its flaws was its inability to represent important phonemes in Semitic, including a glottal stop , pharyngeals , and emphatic consonants . In addition, cuneiform was a syllabary writing system—i.e., a consonant plus vowel comprised one writing unit—frequently inappropriate for a Semitic language made up of triconsonantal roots (i.e., three consonants plus any vowels). Akkadian

18207-404: The script practically became a fully fledged syllabic script , and the original logographic nature of cuneiform became secondary , though logograms for frequent words such as 'god' and 'temple' continued to be used. For this reason, the sign AN can on the one hand be a logogram for the word ilum ('god') and on the other signify the god Anu or even the syllable -an- . Additionally, this sign

18360-456: The spirit of ijtihad . They also wrote influential original philosophical works, and their thinking was incorporated into Christian philosophy during the Middle Ages, notably by Thomas Aquinas . Three speculative thinkers, al-Kindi , al-Farabi , and Avicenna , combined Aristotelianism and Neoplatonism with other ideas introduced through Islam, and Avicennism was later established as

18513-407: The superimposition of the Sumerian phonological system (for which an /o/ phoneme has also been proposed), rather than a separate phoneme in Akkadian. All consonants and vowels appear in long and short forms. Long consonants are transliterated as double consonants, and inconsistently written as such in cuneiform. Long vowels are transliterated with a macron (ā, ē, ī, ū) or a circumflex (â, ê, î, û),

18666-520: The support of Persians in their overthrow of the Umayyads. Al-Mansur welcomed non-Arab Muslims to his court. While this helped integrate Arab and Persian cultures, it alienated many of their Arab supporters, particularly the Khorasanian Arabs who had supported them in their battles against the Umayyads. The Abbasid leadership had to work hard in the last half of the 8th century (750–800) under several competent caliphs and their viziers to usher in

18819-591: The texts contained several royal names, isolated signs could be identified, and were presented in 1802 by Georg Friedrich Grotefend . By this time it was already evident that Akkadian was a Semitic language, and the final breakthrough in deciphering the language came from Edward Hincks , Henry Rawlinson and Jules Oppert in the middle of the 19th century. In the early 21st century it was shown that automatic high-quality translation of Akkadian can be achieved using natural language processing methods such as convolutional neural networks . The following table summarises

18972-601: The title of sultan , as opposed to the "amir" that had been in more common usage, signifying the Ghaznavid Empire 's independence from caliphal authority, despite Mahmud's ostentatious displays of Sunni orthodoxy and ritual submission to the caliph. In the 11th century, the loss of respect for the caliphs continued, as some Islamic rulers no longer mentioned the caliph's name in the Friday khutba , or struck it off their coinage. The Isma'ili Fatimid dynasty of Cairo contested

19125-439: The town in 1355, Masyaf was the center of a district belonging to the province of Tripoli and containing the fortress villages of al-Rusafa, al-Kahf , al-Qadmus , al-Ulayqa and al-Maniqa . Masyaf was later separated from Tripoli and transferred to the authority of Damascus province. In the mid-15th century, under Sultan Barsbay , a road was built that connected Masyaf with Tripoli, but the postal route no longer passed through

19278-553: The town of Masyaf was built in 1249 by the Persian leader of the Ismailis, Taj al-Din Abu'l Futuh. In 1260, the Mongols under Hulagu conquered most of northern Syria and briefly occupied Masyaf. However, following the Mongols' rout at the Battle of Ain Jalut at the hand of the Bahri Mamluks later that year, they withdrew from Masyaf. In 1262, Masyaf's rulers were ordered to pay tribute to

19431-475: The town's citadel , many houses, the mosque and most other buildings were either heavily damaged or destroyed from previous fighting. Throughout the remainder of the 19th century, Masyaf's population continued to decrease. The Allied Powers captured Syria from the Ottomans in 1917, after which the residents largely abandoned the fortress of Masyaf. British general T. E. Lawrence rested in Masyaf and remarked that

19584-419: The town's Ismaili inhabitants were also killed, while many others, including the da'i (religious chief) of Masyaf, fled for Homs , Hama and other areas in central Syria, settling in those places temporarily. The Ismailis had already been in the process of being gradually expelled from Jabal Ansariyah by Alawite clans. The Ottoman governor of Damascus , Kunj Yusuf Pasha , intervened in the matter, dispatching

19737-536: The town. In 1446, the historian Khalil al-Zahiri described Masyaf as "a pleasant town, with an extensive countryside". Masyaf, along with the rest of Syria, was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1516–17 following the Ottoman victory over the Mamluks at the Battle of Marj Dabiq . Masyaf became a part of the liwa (district) of Homs , and along with the other Ismaili fortresses in its vicinity ( qala' al-da'wa ),

19890-542: The treaty, then fended off multiple incursions during the first decade of the 9th century. These attacks pushed into the Taurus Mountains , culminating with a victory at the Battle of Krasos and the massive invasion of 806 , led by Rashid himself. Rashid's navy also proved successful, taking Cyprus . Rashid decided to focus on the rebellion of Rafi ibn al-Layth in Khorasan and died while there. Military operations by

20043-585: The victor over the Umayyads at the Battle of the Zab, was the most serious potential rival for leadership and al-Mansur sent Abu Muslim, the Khurasani revolutionary commander, against him in 754. After Abu Muslim successfully defeated him, al-Mansur then turned to eliminate Abu Muslim himself. He arranged to have him arrested and executed in 755. On the western frontier, the Abbasids were unable to re-assert caliphal control over

20196-399: The walls. The fortress is situated in the northeastern part of Masyaf's old city. The walls remained in place, but the homes and gardens of local residents were built immediately alongside them. Within the walls is a mosque dating to the 12th century and according to local residents, is associated with Saladin. The fortress is considered a national monument and is directly under the authority of

20349-527: The western and central Maghreb, which the Umayyads had lost in the 740s. One member of the Umayyad dynasty, Abd ar-Rahman, also managed to escape the purge of his family and managed to establish independent in rule in al-Andalus (present-day Spain and Portugal) in 756, founding the Umayyad Emirate of Córdoba . In 756, al-Mansur had also sent over 4,000 Arab mercenaries to assist the Chinese Tang dynasty in

20502-434: The word stem. As in all Semitic languages, some masculine nouns take the prototypically feminine plural ending ( -āt ). The nouns šarrum (king) and šarratum (queen) and the adjective dannum (strong) will serve to illustrate the case system of Akkadian. As is clear from the above table, the adjective and noun endings differ only in the masculine plural. Certain nouns, primarily those referring to geography, can also form

20655-540: The year 747 and died, possibly assassinated, in prison. On 9 June 747 (15 Ramadan AH 129), Abu Muslim , rising from Khorasan, successfully initiated an open revolt against Umayyad rule, which was carried out under the sign of the Black Standard . Close to 10,000 soldiers were under Abu Muslim's command when the hostilities officially began in Merv. General Qahtaba followed the fleeing governor Nasr ibn Sayyar west defeating

20808-408: The youngest uncles of Muhammad and of the same Banu Hashim clan. The Abbasids claimed to be the true successors of Muhammad in replacing the Umayyad descendants of Banu Umayya by virtue of their closer bloodline to Muhammad. The Abbasids also distinguished themselves from the Umayyads by attacking their moral character and administration in general. According to Ira Lapidus , "The Abbasid revolt

20961-542: Was Layla and Majnun , an originally Arabic story which was further developed by Iranian , Azerbaijani and other poets in the Persian , Azerbaijani , and Turkish languages. It is a tragic story of undying love much like the later Romeo and Juliet . Arabic poetry reached its greatest height in the Abbasid era, especially before the loss of central authority and the rise of the Persianate dynasties. Writers like Abu Tammam and Abu Nuwas were closely connected to

21114-476: Was Aramaic , which itself lacks case distinctions, it is possible that Akkadian's loss of cases was an areal as well as phonological phenomenon. As is also the case in other Semitic languages, Akkadian nouns may appear in a variety of "states" depending on their grammatical function in a sentence. The basic form of the noun is the status rectus (the governed state), which is the form as described above, complete with case endings. In addition to this, Akkadian has

21267-454: Was a purely popular language — kings wrote in Babylonian — few long texts are preserved. It was, however, notably used in the correspondence of Assyrian traders in Anatolia in the 20th-18th centuries BC and that even led to its temporary adoption as a diplomatic language by various local Anatolian polities during that time. The Middle Babylonian period started in the 16th century BC. The division

21420-469: Was defeated by an Abbasid army led by Isa ibn Musa . It was after this victory, in 762, that al-Mansur finally established a proper Abbasid capital, Baghdad – officially called Madinat al-Salam ('City of Peace') – located on the Tigris River . Prior to this, he had continued to consider multiple sites for a capital, including al-Hashimiyya, which he used as a capital for a while. Various other sites in

21573-437: Was destroyed. Claims have been made that the Tigris ran red from the blood of the scientists and philosophers killed. Citizens attempted to flee, but were intercepted by Mongol soldiers who killed in abundance, sparing no one, not even children. The caliph Al-Musta'sim was captured and forced to watch as his citizens were murdered and his treasury plundered. Ironically, Mongols feared that a supernatural disaster would strike if

21726-509: Was initially akin to a secretary, but under the tenure of the Barmakids , an Iranian family close to the Abbasids, the position became powerful and Harun al-Rashid delegated state affairs to them for many years. This resulted in a more ceremonial role for many Abbasid caliphs relative to their time under the Umayyads; the viziers began to exert greater influence, and the role of the Caliph's aristocracy

21879-407: Was lost due to the ephemeral nature of the stucco and luster tiles. Another major development was the creation or vast enlargement of cities as they were turned into the capital of the empire, beginning with the creation of Baghdad in 762, which was planned as a walled city with four gates, and a mosque and palace in the center. Al-Mansur, who was responsible for the creation of Baghdad, also planned

22032-461: Was particularly influenced by Sasanian architecture , which in turn featured elements present since ancient Mesopotamia. The Christian styles evolved into a style based more on the Sasanian Empire , utilizing mud bricks and baked bricks with carved stucco. Other architectural innovations and styles were few, such as the four-centered arch , and a dome erected on squinches . Unfortunately, much

22185-558: Was responsible for paying a special tax. The town had a khan ( caravanserai ) which paid tolls to the Ottoman authorities. The tolls were abolished later in the mid-16th century. According to the Sufi traveler Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi , the emir of Masyaf in the early 1690s was a descendant of the Arab Tanukh tribe named Sulayman. In 1703, the Raslan clan, an Alawite tribe, took over Masyaf and controlled it for about eight years until it

22338-416: Was restored to the Ismailis following the intervention of the Ottoman authorities. In 1788, the emir of Masyaf, Mustafa ibn Idris, built a sabil ( ablutions fountain) and a house that would be used by himself and successive Ismaili emirs . In 1808, the Raslan clan led by Sheikh Mahmud Raslan attacked Masyaf, killing its Ismaili chief, Mustafa Milhim, and his son, and captured the fortress. About 300 of

22491-537: Was slowly replaced by a Baramkid bureaucracy. To the west, Harun al-Rashid agreed to grant the province of Ifriqiya (centered in present-day Tunisia) as a hereditary emirate to Ibrahim ibn al-Aghlab , who founded the Aghlabid dynasty there. Al-Mahdi restarted the fighting with the Byzantines , and his sons continued the conflict until Empress Irene pushed for peace. After several years of peace, Nikephoros I broke

22644-414: Was subsequently killed. The remainder of his family, barring one male, were also eliminated. Immediately after their victory, al-Saffah sent his forces to Central Asia , where his forces fought against Tang expansion during the Battle of Talas . Al-Saffah focused on putting down numerous rebellions in Syria and Mesopotamia . The Byzantines conducted raids during these early distractions. One of

22797-456: Was supported largely by Arabs, mainly the aggrieved settlers of Merv with the addition of the Yemeni faction and their Mawali ". The Abbasids also appealed to non-Arab Muslims, known as mawali , who remained outside the kinship-based society of the Arabs and were perceived as a lower class within the Umayyad empire. Muhammad ibn 'Ali , a great-grandson of Abbas, began to campaign in Persia for

22950-571: Was taken away as a prisoner by Selim I to Constantinople where he had a ceremonial role. He died in 1543, following his return to Cairo. The Abbasid historical period lasting to the Mongol conquest of Baghdad in 1258 CE is considered the Islamic Golden Age. The Islamic Golden Age was inaugurated by the middle of the 8th century by the ascension of the Abbasid Caliphate and the transfer of

23103-406: Was the 10-year period of Al-Mu'tadid 's rule ( r. 892–902). He brought parts of Egypt, Syria, and Khorasan back into Abbasid control. Especially after the " Anarchy at Samarra " (861–870), the Abbasid central government was weakened and centrifugal tendencies became more prominent in the caliphate's provinces. By the early 10th century, the Abbasids almost lost control of Iraq to various emirs , and

23256-441: Was used as a determinative for divine names. Another peculiarity of Akkadian cuneiform is that many signs do not have a well defined phonetic value. Certain signs, such as AḪ , do not distinguish between the different vowel qualities. Nor is there any coordination in the other direction; the syllable -ša- , for example, is rendered by the sign ŠA , but also by the sign NĪĜ . Both of these are often used for

23409-504: Was used mostly in letters and administrative documents. During the first millennium BC, Akkadian progressively lost its status as a lingua franca . In the beginning, from around 1000 BC, Akkadian and Aramaic were of equal status, as can be seen in the number of copied texts: clay tablets were written in Akkadian, while scribes writing on papyrus and leather used Aramaic. From this period on, one speaks of Neo-Babylonian and Neo-Assyrian . Neo-Assyrian received an upswing in popularity in

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