Saturday, December 15, 2018

Middle East

Terminology
-  [m&p]middle east (arabia, gulf, persia(iran)/mesopotamia(iraq) and afghanistan, asharq al-aswat in arabic) is a modern english term for most ancient region of human civilisation. Before and during ww1, near east (comprised turkey and balkans, levant and egypt) was more commonly used. After ww1 and fall of ottoman empire, middle east gradually encompass both areas. This was reinforced during ww2 when entire region was seen as a strategic unit in struggle against axis powers. Egypt was allies' middle east supply centre. After the war, cairo became headquarters of arab league. Turkish republic scarcely belonged to middle east any more.The term is eurocentric. Arab world excludes israel and iran but include north african maghreb states.  Fertile crescent connects egypt with anatolia(central turkey), later called levant (today comprises lebanon, israel and western parts of syria and jordan), contains the oldest continuously inhabited towns on earth such as jericho and byblos (jubail), was the birthplace of judaism and christianity.


Arabian sea
- The Arabian Sea historically and geographically has been referred to by many different names by Arab travellers and European geographers, that include Indian Sea, Persian Sea, Sindhu Sagar, Erythraean Sea, Sindh Sea,[citation needed] and Akhzar Sea.
- 包括澳洲在內的三十二個國家，均有派出船艦在中東海域巡航，確保航行安全、打擊海上恐怖主義及不法活動。http://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/china_world/20180106/00180_024.html

Edom (/ˈiːdəm/  or /ˈiː.dʌm/; Hebrew: אֱדוֹם, Modern Edom, Tiberian ʼĔḏôm; , lit.: "red"; Assyrian: Udumi; Syriac: ܐܕܘܡ) was a country in Transjordan, between Ammon to the north, the Dead Sea and the Arabah to the west, and the Arabian desert to the south and east.[3]. Most of its former territory is now divided between Israel and Jordan. Edom appears in written sources relating to the late Bronze Age and to the Iron Age in the Levant, such as the Hebrew Bible and Egyptian and Mesopotamian records. In classical antiquity, the cognate name Idumea was used for a smaller area in the same general region.The Edomites first established a kingdom ("Edom") in the southern area of modern Jordan and later migrated into southern parts of the Kingdom of Judah ("Idumea", or modern southern Israel/Negev) when Judah was first weakened and then destroyed by the Babylonians, in the 6th century BC.Once pushed out of their territory, the Edomites settled during the Persian period in an area comprising the southern hills of Judea down to the area north of Be'er Sheva. The people appear under a Greek form of their old name, as Idumeans or Idumaeans, and their new territory was called Idumea or Idumaea (Greek: Ἰδουμαία, Idoumaía; Latin: Idūmaea), a term that was used in New Testament times.The Hebrew word Edom means "red", and is derived from the name of its founder, Esau, the elder son of the Hebrew patriarch Isaac, because he was born "red all over".

The Kingdom of Ormus (also known as Ohrmuzd, Hormuz, and Ohrmazd; Portuguese Ormuz) was a 10th- to 17th-century kingdom located within the Persian Gulf and extending as far as the Strait of Hormuz. The Kingdom was established by Arab princes in the 10th century who in 1262 came under the suzerainty of Persia, before becoming a client state of the Portuguese Empire. The kingdom received its name from the fortified port city which served as its capital. It was one of the most important ports in the Middle East at the time as it controlled seaway trading routes through the Persian Gulf to India and East Africa. This port was probably located on Hormuz Island,[citation needed] which is located near the modern city of Bandar-e Abbas. The Strait of Hormuz is a narrow, strategically important waterway between the Gulf of Oman in the southeast and the Persian Gulf in the southwest. On the north coast is Iran and on the south coast is the United Arab Emirates and Musandam, an exclave of Oman. The city-state of Ormus dates back to the 13th century when it controlled the slave market from Africa and Arabia[citation needed] to Khorasan in Persia. At its zenith in 13th to 14th century, Ormus (or Ormuz) was a powerful naval state with a large and active trading fleet and a powerful navy. Petrashevsky reports the size of the fleet to be up to 500 fighting ships[citation needed]. These ships were not armed with cannons. The original city of Hormuz was situated on the mainland in the province of Mogostan of the province of Kirman. It was destroyed, date uncertain, either by one of the princes of the Kirman Seljuk, or by the Mongols. At this time (c. 1301) the inhabitants moved to the neighbouring island of Jerun. There are three periods in the history of the Kingdom OF Ormus: First Mohammed Diramku migrated from Oman to the Iranian coast in the eleventh century. The capital was transferred to the island of Hormuz in the fourteenth century. In the second period, the island of Hormuz eclipsed the commercial power of the island of Kish. Hormuz become the greatest emporium in the Persian gulf. The last period begin with the attack of the portuguese of Alfonso of Albuquerque. 

The Muhammad Ali dynasty (Arabic: أسرة محمد علي‎‎ Usrat Muhammad 'Ali; Albanian:Dinastia e Muhamed (Mehmet) Ali Pashës;Turkish: Mehmet Ali Paşa Hanedanı,Kavalalılar Hanedanı) was the ruling dynasty of Egypt and Sudan, from the 19th to the mid-20th Century. It is named after its progenitor, Muhammad Ali Pasha, regarded as the founder of modern Egypt. It was also more formally known as theAlawiyya dynasty (Arabic: الأسرة العلوية‎‎ al-Usra al-'Alawiyya). Because a majority of the rulers from this dynasty bore the titleKhedive, it was often referred to by contemporaries as the 'Khedival dynasty'.

  • Fuad I (Arabic: فؤاد الأول‎‎ Fu’ād al-Awwal,Turkish: I. Fuad or Ahmed Fuad Paşa; 26 March 1868 – 28 April 1936) was theSultan and later King of Egypt and Sudan, Sovereign of Nubia, Kordofan, and Darfur. The ninth ruler of Egypt and Sudan from the Muhammad Ali dynasty, he became Sultan of Egypt and Sudan in 1917, succeeding his elder brother SultanHussein Kamel. He substituted the title of King for Sultan when the United Kingdomrecognised Egyptian independence in 1922. His name is sometimes spelledFouad.

The 1949 Armistice Agreements are a set of armistice agreements signed during 1949 between Israel and neighboring Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria to formally end the official hostilities of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and establish armistice lines between Israeli forces and Jordanian-Iraqi forces, also known as the Green Line.  The United Nations established supervising and reporting agencies to monitor the established armistice lines. In addition, discussions related to the armistice enforcement, led to the signing of the separate Tripartite Declaration of 1950 between the United States, Britain, and France. In it, they pledged to take action within and outside the United Nations to prevent violations of the frontiers or armistice lines. It also outlined their commitment to peace and stability in the area, their opposition to the use or threat of force, and reiterated their opposition to the development of an arms race. These lines held until the 1967 Six-Day War.

The United Arab Republic (UAR; Arabic: الجمهورية العربية المتحدة‎ al-Jumhūrīyah al-'Arabīyah al-Muttaḥidah) was a state, and between 1958 and 1961, a short-lived political union between Egypt and Syria. The union began in 1958 and existed until 1961, when Syria seceded from the union after the 1961 Syrian coup d'état. In 1971 the UAR was renamed the Arab Republic of Egypt. The president was Gamal Abdel Nasser. The UAR was a member of the United Arab States, a loose confederation with North Yemen, which was dissolved in 1961. Established on 1 February 1958, as a first step towards a larger pan-Arab state, the UAR was created when a group of political and military leaders in Syria proposed a merger of the two states to Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser.Pan-Arab sentiment traditionally was very strong in Syria, and Nasser was a popular hero-figure throughout the Arab world following the Suez War of 1956. There was thus considerable popular support in Syria for union with Nasser's Egypt. The Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party was the leading advocate of such a union.


The Six-Day War (Hebrew: מלחמת ששת הימים, Milhemet Sheshet Ha Yamim; Arabic: النكسة, an-Naksah, "The Setback" or حرب ۱۹٦۷, Ḥarb 1967, "War of 1967"), also known as the June War, 1967 Arab–Israeli War, or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between June 5 and 10, 1967 by Israel and the neighboring states of Egypt (known at the time as the United Arab Republic), Jordan, and Syria. Israel seized control of the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan, and the Golan Heights from Syria. 

United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 (S/RES/242) was adopted unanimously by the UN Security Council on November 22, 1967, in the aftermath of theSix-Day War. It was adopted under Chapter VI of the UN Charter.[1] The resolution was sponsored by British ambassador Lord Caradon and was one of five drafts under consideration. The preamble refers to the "inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war and the need to work for a just and lasting peace in the Middle East in which every State in the area can live in security."


Yom Kippur War, Ramadan War, orOctober War (Arabic: حرب أكتوبر‎‎ Ḥarb ʾUktōbar, or حرب تشرين Ḥarb Tišrīn; Hebrew:מלחמת יום הכיפורים‎‎ Milẖemet Yom HaKipurim or מלחמת יום כיפור Milẖemet Yom Kipur), also known as the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, was a war fought by the coalition of Arab states led by Egypt andSyria against Israel from October 6 to 25, 1973. The fighting mostly took place in theSinai and the Golan Heights, territories that had been occupied by Israel since the Six-Day War of 1967. Egyptian PresidentAnwar Sadat wanted also to reopen theSuez Canal. 

The three-line United Nations Security Council Resolution 338, adopted on October 22, 1973, called for a ceasefire in the Yom Kippur War in accordance with a joint proposal by the United States and theSoviet Union. The resolution stipulated a cease fire to take effect within 12 hours of the adoption of the resolution. The "appropriate auspices" was interpreted to mean American or Soviet rather than UN auspices. This third clause helped to establish the framework for the Geneva Conference (1973) held in December 1973.

The Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty (Arabic: معاهدة السلام المصرية الإسرائيلية‎‎, Mu`āhadat as-Salām al-Misrīyah al-'Isrā'īlīyah; Hebrew: הסכם השלום בין ישראל למצרים‎‎, Heskem HaShalom Bein Yisrael LeMitzrayim) was signed in Washington, D.C., United States on 26 March 1979, following the 1978 Camp David Accords. The Egypt–Israel treaty was signed by Egyptian president Anwar Sadat and Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin, and witnessed by United States president Jimmy Carter.
The 1982 Lebanon War (Hebrew: מלחמת לבנון הראשונה‎‎, Milhemet Levanon Harishona, "the first Lebanon war"), called Operation Peace for Galilee (Hebrew: מבצע שלום הגליל, or מבצע של"ג‎‎ Mivtsa Shlom HaGalil or Mivtsa Sheleg;by Israel, and later known in Israel as the Lebanon War and First Lebanon War, and Arabic: الاجتياح‎‎, Al-ijtiyāḥ, "the invasion") by the Arabs, began on 6 June 1982, when the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) invaded southern Lebanon, after repeated attacks and counter-attacks between the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) operating in southern Lebanon and the IDF that had caused civilian casualties on both sides of the border.[15][16][17] The military operation was launched after gunmen from Abu Nidal's organization attempted to assassinate Shlomo Argov, Israel's ambassador to the United Kingdom. Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin blamed Abu Nidal's enemy, the PLO, for the incident,[18][19] and treated the incident as a casus belli for the invasion. After attacking the PLO – as well as Syrian, leftist, and Muslim Lebanese forces – the Israeli military, in cooperation with the Maronite allies and the self-proclaimed Free Lebanon State, occupied southern Lebanon, eventually surrounding the PLO and elements of the Syrian Army. Surrounded in West Beirut and subjected to heavy bombardment, the PLO forces and their allies negotiated passage from Lebanon with the aid of United States Special Envoy Philip Habib and the protection of international peacekeepers. The PLO, under the chairmanship of Yasser Arafat, had relocated its headquarters to Tripoli in June 1982. By expelling the PLO, removing Syrian influence over Lebanon, and installing a pro-Israeli Christian government led by PresidentBachir Gemayel, Israel hoped to sign a treaty which Menachem Begin promised would give Israel "forty years of peace". Following the assassination of Gemayel in September 1982, Israel's position in Beirut became untenable and the signing of a peace treaty became increasingly unlikely. Outrage following Israel's role in the Phalangist-perpetrated Sabra and Shatila massacre, of mostly Palestinians and Lebanese Shiites, and Israeli popular disillusionment with the war would lead to a gradual withdrawal from Beirut to the areas claimed by the self-proclaimed Free Lebanon State in southern Lebanon (later to become the South Lebanon security belt), which was initiated following the 17 May Agreement and Syria's change of attitude towards the PLO. After Israeli forces withdrew from most of Lebanon, the War of the Camps broke out between Lebanese factions, the remains of the PLO and Syria, in which Syria fought its former Palestinian allies. At the same time, Shi'a militant groups began consolidating and waging a low-intensity guerrilla war over the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon, leading to 15 years of low-scale armed conflict. The Lebanese Civil War would continue until 1990, at which point Syria had established complete dominance over Lebanon.



The Oslo I Accord or Oslo I, officially called the Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements or short Declaration of Principles (DOP), was an attempt in 1993 to set up a framework that would lead to the resolution of the ongoing Israeli–Palestinian conflict. It was the first face-to-face agreement between the government of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Negotiations concerning the agreement, an outgrowth of the Madrid Conference of 1991, were conducted secretly in Oslo, Norway, hosted by the Fafo institute, and completed on 20 August 1993; the Oslo Accords were subsequently officially signed at a public ceremony in Washington, D.C., on 13 September 1993, in the presence of PLO chairman Yasser Arafat, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and U.S. President Bill Clinton. The documents themselves were signed by Mahmoud Abbas for the PLO, foreign Minister Shimon Peres for Israel, U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher for the United States and foreign minister Andrei Kozyrev for Russia. The Accord provided for the creation of a Palestinian interim self-government, the Palestinian National Authority (PNA). The Palestinian Authority would have responsibility for the administration of the territory under its control. The Accords also called for the withdrawal of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) from parts of the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
- The Gaza–Jericho Agreement, officially called Agreement on the Gaza Strip and the Jericho Area, was a follow-up treaty to the Oslo I Accord in which details of Palestinian autonomy were concluded. The agreement is commonly known as the 1994 Cairo Agreement. It was signed on 4 May 1994 by Yasser Arafat and the then Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. The Treaty provided for limited Palestinian self-rule in West Bank and Gaza Strip within five years. Pursuant to the Agreement, Israel promised to withdraw partly from the Jericho region in the West Bank and partly from the Gaza Strip, within three weeks from the date of the signing.[2] The Palestinian Authority was created (Article III, Transfer of Authority), of which Yasser Arafat became the first president on 5 July 1994 upon the formal inauguration of the PA. Other parts of the agreement were the Protocol on Economic Relations (Paris Protocol) and the establishment of the Palestinian Civil Police Force. The Paris Protocol regulates the economic relationship between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, but in effect integrates the Palestinian economy into the Israeli one. The agreement was incorporated into and superseded by the Oslo II Accord, formally known as the Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip of 24 and 28 September 1995 (Oslo II, Article XXXI, Final Clauses).

The 2006 Lebanon War, also called the 2006 Israel–Hezbollah War and known in Lebanon as the July War (Arabic: حرب تموز‎‎, Ḥarb Tammūz) and in Israel as the Second Lebanon War (Hebrew: מלחמת לבנון השנייה‎‎, Milhemet Levanon HaShniya), was a 34-day military conflict in Lebanon, Northern Israel and the Golan Heights. The principal parties were Hezbollah paramilitary forces and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The conflict started on 12 July 2006, and continued until a United Nations-brokered ceasefire went into effect in the morning on 14 August 2006, though it formally ended on 8 September 2006 when Israel lifted its naval blockade of Lebanon. Due to unprecedented Iranian military support to Hezbollah before and during the war, some consider it the first round of the Iran–Israel proxy conflict, rather than a continuation of the Arab–Israeli conflict.On 11 August 2006, the United Nations Security Council unanimously approved United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 (UNSCR 1701) in an effort to end the hostilities. The resolution, which was approved by both the Lebanese and Israeli governments the following days, called for disarmament of Hezbollah, for withdrawal of the IDF from Lebanon, and for the deployment of the Lebanese Armed Forces and an enlarged United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in the south. UNIFIL was given an expanded mandate, including the ability to use force to ensure that their area of operations was not used for hostile activities, and to resist attempts by force to prevent them from discharging their duties.[68] The Lebanese Army began deploying in Southern Lebanon on 17 August 2006. The blockade was lifted on 8 September 2006.[69] On 1 October 2006, most Israeli troops withdrew from Lebanon, although the last of the troops continued to occupy the border-straddling village of Ghajar.[70]In the time since the enactment of UNSCR 1701 both the Lebanese government and UNIFIL have stated that they will not disarm Hezbollah.[71][72][73] The remains of the two captured soldiers, whose fates were unknown, were returned to Israel on 16 July 2008 as part of a prisoner exchange.



Paris peace conference jan 2017
- Britain prevented on Monday afternoon an EU Foreign Affairs Council decision adopting the closing statement of Sunday's peace conference in Paris, European and Israeli diplomats told Haaretz. British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson didn't participate in the conference, and neither did Britain's ambassador to Paris. Instead, the Britons sent a low-level functionary, expressing their displeasure with the French move. Britain, which had an observer status at the conference, did not back the final communique by 70 countries, which reaffirmed that only a two-state solution could resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and warned they would not recognize any unilateral steps by either side that could prejudge negotiations. Britain said it had reservations about the outcome of the peace conference, saying it risked "hardening positions."
read more: http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.765399



Size of public sector
- http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21660539-regions-people-are-turning-private-sector-bare


Trade
- ft supplement on new trade routes 29jul15

Infrastructure
- http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21694542-public-transport-all-rage-region-more-desperately-needed-lets-go Public-transport systems are in vogue across the region. Doha, the capital of tiny Qatar, will open its metro a year after Saudi Arabia. Oman is building railways. And it is not just the Gulf: Algeria is also constructing railways. Morocco is interested in trams. Lebanon is looking into a rapid bus system—a bus and metro hybrid with its own lanes—for the areas around Beirut. This trend is relatively new. Many Middle Eastern countries started to invest in buses only around a decade ago, but public networks are still limited; private minibuses abound. Dubai was the first place to operate a mass transit system when it opened its metro in 2009. In the few countries with railways, they are often out of use. Instead, governments have tended to build new roads. Amman and Beirut have no transport other than buses. Metro systems in Cairo and Tehran have failed to keep pace with urban expansion. Mostly, public transport in the region remains “really very bad”, says Ziad Nakat of the World Bank. Demand for ways to get around has grown rapidly since the 1970s. Populations have exploded. The region is one of the most urbanised in the world: some 60% of Middle Eastern people live in cities. Poor urban planning means towns often sprawl in every direction. Greater Cairo boasts a population of some 20m people.

Alternative to suez canal
- Construction of a navigable channel linking the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf is underway. It is expected the project will be completed in the 2020s. The project is particularly interesting for Russia due to the cold spell with Turkey, but European and post-Soviet states will also benefit from it. But it seems the US is worried about this alternative to the Suez Channel. "The West and Turkey have directly or indirectly tried to block the waterway [from being created]. As a matter of fact, the United States imposed sanctions" on companies that have been involved in the project, economic analyst Alexei Chickin wrote.
Read more: http://sputniknews.com/cartoons/20160326/1036972409/iran-persian-gulf-caspian-sea.html#ixzz445X1jfjM

Arish or El Arīsh (Arabic: العريش‎‎ El ʿArīš  Egyptian Arabic pronunciation: [elʕæˈɾiːʃ], Coptic: ϩⲣⲓⲛⲟⲕⲟⲣⲟⲩⲣⲁ Hrinokorura) is the capital and largest city (with 114,900 inhabitants as of 2002) of the Egyptian governorate of North Sinai, as well as the largest city on the entire Sinai Peninsula. The city grew around a Bedouin settlement near the ancient Ptolemaic Dynasty outpost of Rhinocolura. In the Middle Ages, pilgrims misidentified the site as the Sukkot of the Bible. ʻArīsh means "palm huts" in Literary Arabic. New fortifications were constructed at the original site by the Ottoman Empire in 1560. During the Napoleonic Wars, the French laid siege to the fort, which fell after 11 days on February 19, 1799. During World War I, the fort was destroyed by British bombers. It was later the location of the 45th Stationary Hospital which treated casualties of the Palestine campaign. The remains of those who died there were later moved to Kantara Cemetery. Theodor Herzl, the founder of Zionism, proposed Arish as a Jewish homeland since neither the Sultan nor the Kaiser supported settlement in Palestine. In 1903, Joseph Chamberlain, the British colonial secretary, agreed to consider Arish, and Herzl commissioned the lawyer David Lloyd George a charter draft, but his application was turned down once an expedition, led by Leopold Kessler had returned and submitted a detailed report to Herzl, which outlined a proposal to divert some of the Nile waters to the area for the purpose of settlement.[2] On December 8, 1958, an air battle occurred between Egyptian and Israeli air forces over Arish.[3] Arish was under military occupation by Israel briefly in 1956 and again from 1967 to 1979. It was returned to Egypt in 1979 after the signing of the Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty.



Bilad al-Sham (Arabic: بلاد الشام‎‎, "the country of Syria") was a Rashidun,Umayyad and later Abbasid Caliphateprovince in the region of Syria. It incorporated former Byzantine territories of the Diocese of the East, organized soon after the Muslim conquest of Syria in the mid-7th century, which was completed at the decisive Battle of Yarmouk.


Jerusalem
- After quelling the Jewish rebellion, the Romans burned Jerusalem and razed it to the ground (other than the western wall of the temple mount). about 70 years later, emperor Hadrian built a pagan city (in which Jews were banned from entering) in its place and named it Aelia Capitolina. 500 years later still, when the Arabs conquered it during their imperialist conquest of the entire middle east, the Arabs kept only the first part of the name Aelia. Having no ‘e’ sound in Arabic, they pronounced it as “Iliya”. https://www.quora.com/Why-do-Medieval-Arabic-sources-refer-to-the-City-of-Jerusalem-as-Iliya
- The Tower of David (Hebrew: מגדל דוד‎, Migdal David, Arabic: برج داود‎, Burj Daud), also known as the Jerusalem Citadel, is an ancient citadel located near the Jaffa Gate entrance to western edge of the Old City of Jerusalem. The citadel that stands today dates to the Mamluk and Ottoman periods. It was built on the site of an earlier ancient fortification of the Hasmonean, Herodian-era, Byzantine and Early Muslim periods, after being destroyed repeatedly during the last decades of Crusader presence in the Holy Land by Ayyubid and Mamluk rulers.[1] It contains important archaeological finds dating back over 2,000 years including a quarry dated to the First Temple period, and is a popular venue for benefit events, craft shows, concerts, and sound-and-light performances.
- twelve gates http://www.agapebiblestudy.com/documents/The%20Gates%20of%20Jerusalem.htm
- The Temple Mount (Hebrew: הַר הַבַּיִת‎‎, Har HaBáyit, "Mount of the House [of God, i.e. the Temple]"), known to Muslims as the Haram esh-Sharif (Arabic: الحرم الشريف‎‎, al-Ḥaram al-Šarīf, "the Noble Sanctuary", or الحرم القدسي الشريف, al-Ḥaram al-Qudsī al-Šarīf, "the Noble Sanctuary of Jerusalem"), a hill located in theOld City of Jerusalem, is one of the most important religious sites in the world. It has been venerated as a holy site for thousands of years by Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The present site is dominated by three monumental structures from the early Umayyad period: theal-Aqsa Mosque, the Dome of the Rock and theDome of the Chain, as well as four minarets.Herodian walls and gates with additions dating back to the late Byzantine and early Islamic periods cut through the flanks of the Mount. Currently it can be reached through eleven gates, ten reserved for Muslims and one for non-Muslims, with guard posts of Israeli policein the vicinity of each.

  • http://www.israel-a-history-of.com/gates-of-jerusalem.html
  • to keep in view the western wall/Wailing Wall/Kotel/known in Islam as the Buraq Wall
- 以色列文物局表示，考古學家在耶路撒冷著名景點哭牆廣場和隧道附近發現該地下室，它位於通往哭牆隧道入口大廳的建築群遺迹下方，並封閉於一座拜占庭時期的大型建築遺迹地板下。地下室包括一個天井，以及兩間分布在三個層級、上下相連的房間，房間之間由岩石鑿成的樓梯連接。當局目前已在地下室開展挖掘工作，挖掘人員還在附近發現炊具、油燈燈芯和一隻石杯，另外還有一個用來裝水的石頭盆，相信是猶太教宗教儀式用品。研究人員推測，耶路撒冷居民在早羅馬時期曾使用地下室所在的建築群，揭示猶太人與耶路撒冷之間的深厚聯繫。
https://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/china_world/20200525/00180_040.html
- orthodox church
  •  https://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-palestinians-religion/palestinians-attack-car-of-greek-patriarch-in-protest-against-land-deals-idUSKBN1EV0H2?il=0 Palestinian Christians on Saturday pummeled the car of the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem during a visit to the occupied West Bank in protest against the church’s decision to sell land to Jewish groups. The Greek Orthodox church is one of the biggest private landowners in the Holy Land and in recent years has stirred controversy both among Israelis and Palestinians by trying to sell prime assets to private investors.
- israel
  • Israel's parliament passed a law on Tuesday that bars ceding any part of Jerusalem to a foreign power without the approval of a supermajority of lawmakers, a move that threatens to further hinder prospects of peace between Israel and the Palestinians. ft 3jan17
 - palestine


  • According to the Hebrew Bible, the Jebusites (/ˈdʒɛbjəˌsaɪts/; Hebrew: יְבוּסִי‬, Modern Yevusi, Tiberian Yəḇûsî ISO 259-3 Ybusi) were a Canaanite tribe who inhabited Jerusalem prior to its conquest by Joshua (11:3 and 12:10) or King David (2 Samuel 5:6-10). The Books of Kingsstate that Jerusalem was known as Jebus prior to this event. The politicians Yasser Arafat[38] and Faisal Husseini[39] among others have claimed that Palestinian Arabs are descended from the Jebusites, in an attempt to argue that Palestinians have a historic claim to Jerusalem that precedes the Jewish one, similar to the more common Palestinian Arab claim that they are descended from the Canaanites. 
  • http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201805/09/WS5af24ffaa3105cdcf651ccb6.html Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas has urged Latin American countries not to emulate the controversial US decision to move its Israeli embassy to Jerusalem.
- representations of foreign countries

  • Several countries, mainly African and Latin American, have previously had their ambassadors based in Jerusalem and some are expected to return.  After the 1973 Yom Kippur war, Ivory Coast, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) and Kenya severed relations with Israel in protest and closed the doors of their embassies in Jerusalem.They later renewed relations but moved their missions to Tel Aviv.In 1980 Israel enacted a law declaring Jerusalem, including the mainly Palestinian eastern zone, its “complete and united” capital. The United Nations Security Council branded the move illegal and adopted a resolution calling on “those states that have established diplomatic missions at Jerusalem to withdraw such missions”.The Netherlands, Haiti and several Latin American countries complied. Costa Rica and El Salvador returned to Jerusalem in 1984, but left again in 2006. Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales has said his country’s embassy will move to Jerusalem on May 16, and Paraguay’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday it would follow suit.Romania’s government, supported by the speaker of its parliament, has adopted a draft proposal to move its embassy, which would make it the first European Union member to do so.Czech President Milos Zeman has said he too would like to see his country’s embassy transferred to Jerusalem.http://www.scmp.com/news/world/middle-east/article/2146058/us-isnt-first-country-open-embassy-jerusalem-and-it-wont-be 
  • Brazil’s far-right president-elect Jair Bolsonaro has said he plans to move his country’s embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The change would follow the Trump administration’s decision to relocate the US embassy to Jerusalem, effectively recognising the city as the Israeli capital in a symbolic gesture which has angered Palestinians.https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/jair-bolsonaro-brazil-embassy-israel-tel-aviv-jerusalem-middle-east-palestine-a8614066.html
  •  uncertainty continues to swirl over the future of the Indonesian Free Trade Agreement which has been negotiated but which Indonesia will not sign until Australia rules out relocating its Israeli embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.https://www.afr.com/news/australia-hong-kong-finalise-free-trade-deal-20181112-h17trh 
  • Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has confirmed that his government will recognise West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. However, he said Australia's embassy would not move from Tel Aviv, until a peace settlement was achieved. He added Australia also recognised the aspirations of the Palestinians to a state with a capital in East Jerusalem.https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-46576716
  •  https://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-australia-mahathir-reax/malaysias-mahathir-says-no-rights-to-recognize-jerusalem-as-israeli-capital-idUSKBN1OF09O Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on Sunday criticized Australia’s move to recognise West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, saying countries had “no rights” to do so.



Red sea bridge
- https://www.facebook.com/SaudiGazette/photos/pcb.1010212262400957/1010211805734336/ Saudi Arabia,Egypt agree to build bridge over Red Sea connecting the two countries.Saudi Arabia and Egypt sign 17 agreements worth $ 1.7 billion. Egyptian president presents "Order of the Nile" medal to King Salman



The Golan Heights (Arabic: هضبة الجولان‎Haḍbatu 'l-Jawlān or مرتفعات الجولانMurtafaʻātu l-Jawlān, Hebrew: רמת הגולן‎,Ramat ha-Golan), or simply theGolan or the Syrian Golan, is a region in the Levant. The exact region defined as the Golan Heights is different in different disciplines:
The earliest evidence of human habitation dates to the Upper Paleolithic period. According to the Bible, an AmoriteKingdom in Bashan was conquered by Israelites during the reign of King Og.Throughout the Old Testament period, the Golan was "the focus of a power struggle between the Kings of Israel and the Aramaeans who were based near modern-day Damascus." The Itureans, an Arab orAramaic people, settled there in the 2nd century BCE and remained until the end of the Byzantine period.[7][8][9] Organized Jewish settlement in the region came to an end in 636 CE when it was conquered by Arabs under Umar ibn al-Khattāb. In the 16th century, the Golan was conquered by the Ottoman Empire and was part of the Vilayet of Damascus until it was transferred to French control in 1918. When the mandate terminated in 1946, it became part of the newly independent Syrian Arab Republic. Internationally recognized as Syrian territory, the Golan Heights has been occupied and administered by Israel since 1967. It was captured during the 1967 Six-Day War, establishing the Purple Line. On 19 June 1967, the Israeli cabinet voted to return the Golan to Syria in exchange for a peace agreement, although this was rejected after the Khartoum Resolution of September 1, 1967. In the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, in which Syria tried but failed to recapture the Golan, Israel agreed to return about 5% of the territory to Syrian civilian control. This part was incorporated into a demilitarised zone that runs along the ceasefire line and extends eastward. This strip is under the military control of UNDOF. Construction of Israeli settlements began in the remainder of the territory held by Israel, which was under military administration until Israel passed the Golan Heights Law extendingIsraeli law and administration throughout the territory in 1981. This move was condemned by the United Nations Security Council in UN Resolution 497, which said that "the Israeli decision to impose its laws, jurisdiction and administration in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights is null and void and without international legal effect." Israel states it has a right to retain the Golan, citing the text of UN Resolution 242, which calls for "safe and recognised boundaries free from threats or acts of force". However, the international community reject Israeli claims to title to the territory and regards it as sovereign Syrian territory. That said, the atrocities of the Syrian Civil War and the rise of the so-called Islamic Stategroup, which at times has controlled what was the Syrian-administered Golan have added a new twist to the issue. In 2015, it was reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked US President Barack Obama to recognize Israeli claims to the territory because of these recent ISIS actions and the fact that modern Syria has likely "disintegrated" beyond the point of reunification. The White House dismissed Netenyahu's suggestion, stating that the president continues to support UN resolutions 242 and 497, and any alterations of this policy could strain American alliances with western-backed Syrian rebel groups. Historically, Israeli Prime Ministers Yitzhak Rabin, Ehud Barak, and Ehud Olmert each stated that they were willing to exchange the Golan for peace with Syria. Later, in 2010, Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman told Syria to abandon its dreams of recovering the Golan Heights. Approximately 10% of Syrian Golan Druze have accepted Israeli citizenship. According to the CIA World Factbook, as of 2010, "there are 41 Israeli settlements and civilian land use sites in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights."
- アラビア語でレバノン東部山脈（Jibal lubnan esh-Sharqiya）   The Anti-Lebanon Mountains (Arabic: جبال لبنان الشرقية‎, Jibāl Lubnān ash-Sharqiyyah, lit. "Eastern Mountains of Lebanon"; Lebanese Arabic: جبال الشرقية, Jbel esh-Shar'iyyeh, "Eastern Mountains") are a southwest-northeast-trending mountain range that forms most of the border between Syria and Lebanon. The border is largely defined along the crest of the range. Most of the range lies in Syria. Its Western name Anti-Lebanon comes from the Greek and Latin Antilibanus, derived from its position opposite and parallel to the Mount Lebanon range. It ends in the south with Mount Hermon, which borders on the Golan Heights; the Golan Heights are a different geological and geomorphological entity, but geopolitically they are often regarded together with the southern slopes of Mount Hermon, both being part of the Israeli-controlled Golan region. To the west of the Anti-Lebanon lie valleys that separate it from Mount Lebanon in central Lebanon: Beqaa Valley in the north and the Hasbani River valley in the south. To the east, in Syria, lies the Eastern Plateau, location of the city of Damascus.

  • Mount Hermon (Arabic: جبل الشيخ or جبل حرمون‎ / ALA-LC: Jabal al-Shaykh ("Mountain of the Sheikh") or Jabal Haramun; Hebrew: הַר חֶרְמוֹן‎, Har Hermon) is a mountain cluster constituting the southern end of the Anti-Lebanon mountain range.
    • chinese translation -黑門山https://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/china_world/20210223/00180_012.html
    • El Monte Hermón fue llamado Senir por los amorreos y Sirión por los fenicios (Deuteronomio 3:9; Salmos 29:6; 1 Crónicas 5:23; Cantares 4:8; Ezequiel 27:5). La montaña se consideró el límite septentrional de Israel que sirve de frontera entre Israel, el Líbano y Siria y recibe el nombre de "Monte Ba'al Hermón" (Jueces 3:3). También es llamado “Monte Sirión”4​ (Dt. 4:48, *RV, Reina-Valera, 1989) ó “Monte Siryón”5​ (*BCJ, Biblia Corona de Jerusalén).Algunas Biblias vierten: “El monte de Sión, que es Hermón” (Deuteronomio 4:48 *RV, Reina-Valera, 1909), *RV, Reina-Valera, llamada La Biblia del Oso, 1569; *RVA, Reina-Valera Antigua, 1602; *TA, Torres Amat, 1825; *JSe, Jünemann Septuaginta en español, 1928; *BSe, Septuaginta al español; *RV, Reina-Valera, 1862; 1865; 1909; 1960; 1990; 1995; 2000; 2004; *RVG, Reina-Valera-Gómez, 2010; *RVC, Reina-Valera Contemporánea, 2011; *BSO, Biblia Siglo de Oro, de Biblia Castilla, 2003; *NBLH, Nueva Biblia Latinoamericana de Hoy, 2005; *BTX3, Biblia Textual 3ª Ed., Sociedad Bíblica Iberoamericana; *NBLH, Nueva Biblia de Los Hispanos; *SSE, Spanish Sagradas Escrituras; etc.)Le mont Hermon possède plusieurs appellations selon le pays qui en contrôle les versants : tandis qu'en Israël, il se nomme Har Hermon (en hébreu : הר חרמון), il est désigné au Liban et en Syrie par l'expression Djabal-ech-Sheikh (en arabe : جبل الشيخ). Néanmoins, au Liban, il est aussi généralement fait usage de la dénomination biblique Hermon, ou de sa transcription arabe Haramoun. Le mont Hermon possède plusieurs appellations dans la Bible : Sihon, Shanir et Sirion. En arabe, il est aussi appelé Jabal el-Sheikh (« le vieux »), en raison de sa couverture neigeuse. Le nom Hermon vient de la racine hébraïque hrm signifiant « lieu sacré ».
  • Since 1981, when the Golan Heights Law was passed, the Israeli-occupied portion of the Golan Heights has been governed under Israeli law. Mount Hermon hosts the only ski resort in territory held by Israel, including a wide range of ski trails at novice, intermediate, and expert levels. It also offers additional winter family activities such as sledding and Nordic skiing. Those who operate the Hermon Ski area live in the nearby Israeli settlement of Neve Ativ and the Druze town of Majdal Shams. The ski resort has a ski school, ski patrol, and several restaurants located at either the bottom or peak of the area.[citation needed]

  • In 2005, the Syrian government had plans to develop a 15-billion-dollar ski resort on the slopes of the mountain.
- usa

  • 美國總統特朗普周四（21日）再挑動中東神經，在以色列總理內塔尼亞胡訪美前投下震撼彈，單方面承認以色列對有爭議的戈蘭高地（Golan Heights）享有主權，一改華府拒絕承認強行吞併領土的做法。內塔尼亞胡讚揚特朗普創造歷史，但伊朗及俄羅斯譴責美國，敍利亞聲言將解放戈蘭高地。https://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/china_world/20190323/00180_001.html
- israel
  • Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has unveiled a new settlement in the occupied Golan Heights, named after US President Donald Trump. At a naming ceremony on Sunday, Mr Netanyahu said Trump Heights honoured Mr Trump for his decision to recognise Israeli sovereignty over the territory. Building work has yet to begin but a sign bearing Mr Trump's name and US and Israeli flags was unveiled. Critics called the move a publicity stunt with no legal authority. Israel seized the Golan from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war. In March, the US became the first country to recognise Israeli sovereignty over the area since Israel effectively annexed it in 1981.https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-48656431
  • 伊朗革命衞隊聖城旅指揮官蘇萊曼尼遭美軍炸死，以色列總理內塔尼亞胡周五縮短在希臘的外訪，提前回國應對事態。他對於美軍的空襲表示歡迎，並對於美國總統特朗普迅速地、有力地及果斷地行動而功不可沒。以色列軍又指，當美國對巴格達發動空襲後，國家一直處於高度戒備狀態，並關閉戈蘭高地黑門山一滑雪場。https://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/china_world/20200104/00180_006.html
- japan
  • Daimaru store said it withdrew its offer for Naturael, a Tokyo-based importer specialising in wine from the Golan – highly valued among connoisseurs – to participate in a fair in May. Naturael said the wine is produced and imported legally and that Daimaru’s decision could lead to anti-Israel sentiment. Daimaru said the decision did not reflect any political stance and was only for the May 9-15 “Mediterranean gourmet and wine fair” at its Tokyo store. It said wine from elsewhere in Israel was sold at the fair and that Daimaru has no policy against Israeli products in general.http://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/2148965/japan-department-store-diamaru-removes-israeli-wine-importer
The Gulf of Aden (Arabic: خليج عدن‎‎ Ḫalīǧ ʻAdan, Somali: Gacanka Cadmeed) is a gulf located in the Arabian Sea between Yemen, on the south coast of the Arabian Peninsula, and Somaliland and Somalia in the Horn of Africa. In the northwest, it connects with the Red Sea through the Bab-el-Mandeb strait, which is more than 20 miles (32 kilometres) wide. It shares its name with the port city of Aden in Yemen, which forms the northern shore of the gulf. Historically, the Gulf of Aden was known as "The Gulf of Berbera", named after the ancient Somali port city of Berbera on the south side of the gulf. However, as the city of Aden grew during the colonial era, the name of "Gulf of Aden" was popularised.
- The name of the Gulf was inspired by the former British Crown Colony city of Aden, now part of Yemen. The Somali names are Gacanka Cadmeed or Gacanka Saylac.
- In earlier history, the city of Crater, located just south of the modern city of Aden, was an important port in regional trade. Crater was the principal harbor of the pre-Islamic kingdom of Awsan, and after its annexation by the kingdom of Saba at the end of the 5th century, played a significant role in connecting Africa with Arabia.


Gulf of aqaba
- Trade across the Red Sea between Thebes port of Elim and Elat at the head of the gulf is documented as early as the Fourth Dynasty of Egypt. Expeditions crossing the Red Seaand heading south toPunt are mentioned in the fifth, the sixth, the eleventh, thetwelfth and the eighteenth dynasties of Egypt, when Hatshepsut built a fleet to support the trade and journeyed south to Punt in a six-month voyage. Thebes used Nubiangold or Nub from her conquests south into Kush to facilitate the purchase of frankincense,myrrh, bitumen, natron, juniper oil, linen, and copper amulets for the mummification industry at Karnak. Egyptian settlements near Timna at the head of the gulf date to the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt. At the northern edge, the ancient city of Ayla (in present-day Aqaba) was a commercial hub for the Nabateans. The Romans built the Via Traiana Nova, which joined the King's Highway at Aqaba and connected Africa to Asia and the Levant and Red Sea shipping. Aqaba was a major Ottoman port, connected to Damascus and Medina by the Hejaz railway. During World War I, the Battle of Aqaba was the key battle that ended a 500-year Ottoman rule over Greater Syria.
  • Midian (/ˈmɪdiən/; Hebrew: מִדְיָן‎), Madyan (Arabic: مَـدْيَـن‎‎), or Madiam (Greek: Μαδιάμ) is a geographical place and the Midianites a people mentioned in the Torahand Qur’an. Scholars generally consider it to have been located in the "northwest Arabian Peninsula, on the east shore of the Gulf of Aqaba on the Red Sea", and have long associated it with the region of Modiana reported in that same area by Ptolemy. According to Genesis, the Midianites were the descendants of Midian, who was a son of Abraham and his wife Keturah: "… again Abraham took a wife, and her name was Keturah. And she bare him Zimran, and Jokshan, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah" (Genesis 25:1–2, King James Version). The Midianites are also thought to be related to the Qenites (or Kenites), since the terms are used interchangeably in the Hebrew Bible. Moses' brother-in-law or father-in-law was a Qenite. The Midianites through their apparent religio-political connection with the Moabites are thought to have worshipped a multitude of gods, including Baal-peor and the Queen of Heaven, Ashteroth. The Midianites may have worshiped Yahweh, the god whom according to the Bible Moses encountered at the burning bush at the far end of Midian's wilderness. It is uncertain, however, which deities the Midianites worshiped.
- egypt closed the gulf of aqaba (israel's southern outlet to the sea) on 22may1967



      Taba


    The Sinai Peninsula or simply Sinai (/ˈsaɪnaɪ/; Arabic: سيناء‎‎ Sīnāʼ ; Egyptian Arabic: سينا‎‎ Sīna, IPA: [ˈsiːnæ]; Hebrew: סיני‎‎ Sinai) is a peninsula in Egypt, situated between the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Red Sea to the south, serving as a land bridge between Asia and Africa. It is the only part of Egyptian territory located in Asia. Sinai has a land area of about 60,000 km2 (23,000 sq mi) and a population of approximately 1,400,000 people. The bulk of the peninsula is divided administratively into two of Egypt's 27 governorates (with three more straddling the Suez Canal area). The Sinai Peninsula has been a part of Egypt from the First Dynasty of ancient Egypt (c. 3100 BC) until the 21st century. This comes in stark contrast to the region north of it, the Levant (present-day territories of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and Palestine), which, due largely to its strategic geopolitical location and cultural convergences, has historically been the centre of conflict between Egypt and various states of Mesopotamia and Asia Minor. In periods of foreign occupation, the Sinai was, like the rest of Egypt, also occupied and controlled by foreign empires, in more recent history the Ottoman Empire (1517-1867) and the United Kingdom (1882-1956). Israel invaded and occupied Sinai during the Suez Crisis (known in Egypt as the Tripartite Aggression due to the simultaneous coordinated attack by the UK, France and Israel) of 1956, and during the Six-Day War of 1967. On 6 October 1973, Egypt launched the Yom Kippur War to retake the peninsula, which was the site of fierce fighting between Egyptian and Israeli forces. By 1982, as a result of the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty of 1979, Israel had withdrawn from all of the Sinai Peninsula except the contentious territory of Taba, which was returned after a ruling by a commission of arbitration in 1989.
    - Saint John Climacus (Greek: Ἰωάννης τῆς Κλίμακος; Latin: Ioannes Climacus), also known as John of the Ladder, John Scholasticus and John Sinaites, was a 6th-7th-century Christianmonk at the monastery on Mount Sinai. He is revered as a saint by the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic churches.

    • codex climaci rescriptus was in syriac and contains two works from 500sad by john climacus. During 800s, a scribe recycled parts of 8 previously used manuscripts. Two of these contain greek texts preserving portions of old testament and of the gospels  (variations from standard gospels). The other six recycled manuscriots contain texts in christian palestinian aramaic. Also preserves earliest account of last supper in aramaic
     - Saint Catherine's Monastery (Arabic: دير القدّيسة كاترين‎; Greek: Μονὴ τῆς Ἁγίας Αἰκατερίνης), officially "Sacred Monastery of the God-Trodden Mount Sinai" (Greek: Ιερά Μονή του Θεοβαδίστου Όρους Σινά), lies on the Sinai Peninsula, at the mouth of a gorge at the foot of Mount Sinai, near the town of Saint Catherine, Egypt. The monastery is controlled by the autonomous Church of Sinai, part of the wider Eastern Orthodox Church, and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Built between 548 and 565, the monastery is one of the oldest working Christian monasteries in the world.[2] The site contains the world's oldest continually operating library, possessing many unique books including the Syriac Sinaiticus and, until 1859, the Codex Sinaiticus (preserves approximately half of old testament (650 years earlier than the earliest surviving complete hebrew old testament) and complete new testament in greek (mid-300s ad, speculated to be commissioned by roman emperor constantine after his conversion to christianity, forms the basis of new testament for modern translations of the bible)).
    -Sinaia (Romanian pronunciation: [siˈnaja]) is a town and a mountain resort in Prahova County, Romania. It is situated in the historical region of Muntenia. The town was named after the Sinaia Monastery of 1695, around which it was built. The monastery in turn is named after the Biblical Mount Sinai. 




    The Hijaz (Hejaz, Hedjaz), the holy land of Islam, is a geographical region that comprises most of the western part of modern-day Saudi Arabia and is centered on the two holiest Muslim cities—Mecca (also Makka, Makkah) and Madina (Medina, al-Madinah). Mecca is where the Prophet Muhammad was born and raised and is the location of the Ka’ba, which is also associated with the Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham), while Madina is the location of the first Muslim state and the burial site of Muhammad. God’s revelations to the Prophet Muhammad, the origins of Islam as a faith, and many of the institutions and customs associated with Islam such as the pilgrimage to Mecca are all associated historically with the Hijaz and its two holy cities. As a result, the Hijaz has been highly influential throughout the Muslim world, particularly in the 7th century and then again much later, following the development of Saudi Arabia’s vast oil resources in the 20th century. Inside western Arabia, Islam has played a predominant role in politics, society, and the economy. Briefly in the early 19th century and then from the 1920s onward, the Hijaz has been ruled by the Saudi royal family and its allies the Wahhabi ulama (religious scholars). 
    - The Vilayet of the Hejaz (Arabic:ولاية الحجاز) (Ottoman:ولايت حجاز)refers to the Hejaz region of Arabia when it was administered as a first-level province (vilayet) of the Ottoman Empire. (1872–1916) Despite its lack of natural resources, the region had great political importance as the cradle of Islam and was a source of legitimacy for the Ottomans' rule. Subsidies provided by the state and zakat were the main source of income for the population of the two holy cities, but trade generated by the hajj was also an important source of revenue.
    - The Hejaz (or Hedjaz) Railway (Turkish: Hicaz Demiryolu) (Spelled as Hijaz in Saudi arabian publications) was a narrow gauge railway (1,050 mm/​3 ft 5 11⁄32 in track gauge) that ran from Damascus to Medina, through the Hejaz region of Saudi Arabia, with a branch line to Haifa on the Mediterranean Sea. It was a part of the Ottoman railway network and was built to extend the line from the Haydarpaşa Terminal in Kadikoy beyond Damascus to the holy city of Mecca. It got no further than Medina, 400 kilometres (250 mi) short of Mecca, due to the interruption of the construction works caused by the outbreak of World War I. Damascus to Medina is 1,300 kilometres (810 mi). The main purpose of the railway was to establish a connection between Constantinople, the capital of the Ottoman Empire and the seat of the Islamic Caliphate, and Hejaz in Arabia, the site of the holiest shrines of Islam and the holy city of Mecca, the destination of the Hajj annual pilgrimage. Another important reason was to improve the economic and political integration of the distant Arabian provinces into the Ottoman state, and to facilitate the transportation of military forces. A railway had been suggested in 1864 to relieve the suffering of the hajis on their 40-day journey through the wilderness of Midian, the Nafud, and the Hejaz Mountains. The railway was started in 1900 at the behest of the Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II and was built largely by the Ottomans, with advice and support from the German Empire. A public subscription was opened throughout the Islamic world to fund construction. The railway was to be a waqf, an inalienable religious endowment or charitable trust. Before the construction, German military adviser in Constantinople Auler Pasha estimated that the transportation of soldiers from Constantinople to Mecca would be reduced to 120 hours. The Berlin to Baghdad Railway was built in the same time. The railways were interrelated and aimed to strengthen the authority of the Empire over Arab provinces. Another intention was to protect Hejaz and other Arab provinces from British invasion. Other than the Haydarpasa-Izmit line, the Hejaz Railway was the only railway the Empire built itself in its existence. Due to its reliance on charitable donation to cover costs, and mounting pressure from competing Britain and France, construction stalled, ending up taking significantly longer to finish than anticipated.
    - according to Saudi Commission for tourism and antiquities, the railway enters the kingdom of saudi arabia through tabuk province in the north and continues through madain saleh and al-ula before reaching al-madinah al-munawwarah.  The final sement of the line to makkah al-mukarramah was never built.
    - similar names
    • Senai International Airport, formerly known as Sultan Ismail International Airport[3] (IATA: JHB, ICAO: WMKJ) (Malay: Lapangan Terbang Antarabangsa Senai; Jawi: لاڤڠن تربڠ انتارابڠسا سناي;Chinese: 士乃国际机场) is an international airport in the town of Senai, Kulai District, Johor, Malaysia serving Johor Bahru and the southernmost region of Peninsular Malaysia. The airport is located approximately 32 km north-west of the Johor Bahru city centre. Opened in 1974, the airport is managed and operated by Senai Airport Terminal Services Sdn Bhd which took over the operations from (MAHB) in 2003. 


    Tiran and sanafir
    - http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/11/egypt-saudi-arabia-tiran-sanafir-red-sea-islands-transfer Egypt’s president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, has been criticised at home and abroad for agreeing to transfer two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia that have been controlled directly from Cairo for more than 60 years. The deal on Tiran and Sanafir paves the way for the construction of a bridgelinking Saudi Arabia to Sharm el-Sheikh, at the tip of the Sinai peninsula. It was announced at the weekend during a visit by King Salman of Saudi Arabia. The agreement, which the government said had been negotiated over six years, immediately became embroiled in the polarised politics of Egypt and the geopolitical rivalries of a bitterly divided Middle East.

    Mount carmel in northern israel
    - to kiv

    Garden of ridvan
    - The Garden of Ridván (lit. garden of paradise) orNajibiyyih Garden was a wooded garden in what is now Baghdad's Rusafa District, on the banks of the Tigris river. It is notable as the location whereBahá'u'lláh, founder of the Bahá'í Faith, stayed for twelve days from April 21 to May 2, 1863, after theOttoman Empire exiled him from Baghdad and before commencing his journey toConstantinople. During his stay in this garden, Bahá'u'lláh announced to his followers that he was the messianic figure of He whom God shall make manifest, whose coming had been foretold by the Báb. These events are celebrated annually during the Festival of Ridván.

    Edirne
    - irne (Turkish pronunciation: [eˈdiɾne]), historically known as Adrianople, is a city in the northwestern Turkish province ofEdirne, in the region of East Thrace, close to Turkey's borders with Greece andBulgaria. Edirne served as the third capital city of the Ottoman Empire from 1363 to 1453, before Constantinople (present-day Istanbul) became the empire's fourth and final capital. At present, Edirne is the capital of Edirne Province in Turkish Thrace. The city's estimated population in 2014 was 165,979.The city was founded as Hadrianopolis (Aδριανούπολις in Greek), named for the Roman Emperor Hadrian. This name is still used in the Modern Greek (Αδριανούπολη). The nameAdrianople was used in English, until the Turkish adoption of Latin alphabet in 1928 made Edirne the internationally recognized name. 

    Mount Judi (Arabic: الجوديّ‎‎ al-Ǧūdiyy, Aramaic: קרדו‎‎ Qardū, Kurdish: Cûdî‎, Syriac: ܩܪܕܘ‎ Qardū, Turkish: Cudi), according to very Early Christian and Islamictradition (based on the Qur'an, Hud:44), is Noah's apobaterion or "Place of Descent", the location where the Ark came to rest after the Great Flood. The Quranic tradition is similar to the Judeo-Christian legend. The identification of Mount Judi as the landing site of the ark persisted in Syriac and Armenian tradition throughout Late Antiquity but was abandoned for the tradition equating the biblical location with the highest mountain of the region, Mount Ararat. Jewish Babylonian, Syriac, and Islamic traditions identify Mount Judi or Qardu as a peak near the town of Jazirat ibn Umar (modern Cizre), at the headwaters of the Tigris, near the modern Syrian–Turkish border. Arab historian Al-Masudi (d. 956), reported that the spot where the ark came to rest could be seen in his time. Al-Masudi locates Jabal Judi at 80 parasangs from the Tigris. Mount Judi was historically located in the province of Corduene, in northern Mesopotamia.

    international politics
    - 波斯灣爆發軍事衝突的危機持續增加。伊朗與中國、俄羅斯三國舉行的首次聯合軍事演習，周五（27日）起一連四日在阿曼灣展開。由於美軍杜魯門號航空母艦亦位處區內水域，五角大樓稱將監視中俄伊朗的軍演。日本政府同日宣布，派遣海上自衞隊到中東，執行為期一年的護航行動。消息傳出後，隨即有三百名日本反戰人士到首相安倍晉三的官邸外集會。這是伊朗自一九七九年伊斯蘭革命四十年來，首度與中俄聯合軍演。名為「海上安全地帶」的演習，包括保護海上交通線，打擊海上恐怖主義活動。中國派出052D型導彈驅逐艦西寧號，俄羅斯則派出一艘不懼級護衞艦及兩艘支援艦參加。https://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/china_world/20191228/00180_008.html
    - 中東的國界原由英、法在戰後劃分，上世紀六十年代開始美國接替，主力扶助以色列與沙特阿拉伯，也以伊拉克和伊朗作為屏障。一九七九年伊朗回教革命打亂了美國的布局，美國先以伊拉克攻擊伊朗，打不垮伊朗反而使伊拉克叛離。後來藉訛稱有化武侵略伊拉克，推翻薩達姆政權，反倒讓什葉派勢力崛起，並與伊朗合作，伊拉克新政權隨時會叛逆反抗。二○○六年美軍方訂重劃中東國界的計劃，要把大國分裂為小國，便於分而治之。但面對伊朗、伊拉克、敍利亞計劃聯手建油氣管道往歐洲，勢必打擊沙特阿拉伯，也助長伊朗聲勢，因而美國扶助伊斯蘭國，在敍利亞掀起內戰，以滅絕巴沙爾‧阿薩德政權。可是，伊朗和俄羅斯參戰，局勢扭轉，伊斯蘭國失敗，美國扶持的庫爾德族及其他叛軍失敗，美國在中東的布局全盤失敗，美軍被迫撤軍（包括敍利亞和伊拉克）。本來以色列可以協助美國，但是在二○○六年被黎巴嫩的真主黨打敗，再不敢貿然出兵，只是轟炸伊朗在敍利亞、伊拉克的據點，起不了遏阻作用，沙特阿拉伯也敗於也門。美國敗走敍利亞，一是揚言制裁任何國家之協助敍利亞戰後重建；二是用金融制裁和圍堵來阻止敍利亞通黎巴嫩往國際，並企圖困死黎巴嫩，用顏色革命推翻當地民選政府與打擊真主黨的力量。本來，俄羅斯已承諾協助敍利亞重建，然而財力不足，在當地的戰爭消耗太大，重建主力只能靠中國。但中國政治上遲疑，也過於迷信企業行為，重建與援助還主要在談判與規劃中。不過，重建的計劃一是擴建電廠，改變當地缺電問題；二是建交通通道，改變地區隔阻；三是利用黎巴嫩北部港口的黎波里作為中國一帶一路在東地中海區域的重要港口，北與希臘諸港口，南與從以色列租借的海法港相連，接上蘇彝士運河而來的海運，打通從東歐進入歐洲的通道，打擊西北歐港口的樞紐，戰略意義重大。而協助黎巴嫩重建，便與敍利亞、伊拉克重建同步，更是開展中東西亞基建大發展，帶來雙贏局面，也便把美國及其西歐盟國驅逐出去，讓阿拉伯的什葉派世界有復興的機會。這樣的戰略，美國不會不明白，但現時都策動不了以色列和沙特阿拉伯的協力，獨力難以抗衡，餘下的策略便只是破壞，當前便集中破壞黎巴嫩以打擊敍利亞，阻遏伊朗與中國、俄羅斯的擴展，不惜戰爭和圍堵帶來死人無數。https://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/news/20200814/00184_001.html

    The Bedouin (/ˈbɛdu.ɪn/; Arabic: بَدَوِي badawī) is a recent term in the Arabic language that is used commonly to refer to the people (Arabs and non-Arabs) who live, or have descended from tribes who lived, stationary or nomadic lifestyles outside cities and towns. The term contrasts against 'Hathar' ("حضر") which refers to the city or town dwellers in the Arabic language. Bedouin means "Badiyah dwellers" in the Arabic language, as 'Badyah' means literally the visible land (the desert). The Bedouins identify themselves as Arabs or by the names of their tribes. City dwellers in Arabia who descended from known tribes refer to themselves as Bedouins to recognize their native origin to Arabia. The term has lost exact meaning; it is sometimes used in racial profiling, and it is commonly mixed with another term "A-araab" "" which is mentioned in Quran in reference to unruly tribesmen who do not follow the lifestyle codes of bedouin tribes or city dwellers. Bedouin territory stretches from the vast deserts of North Africa to the rocky sands of the Middle East. They are traditionally divided into tribes, or clans (known in Arabic as ʿashāʾir; عَشَائِر) and share a common culture of herding camels and goats. The Bedouin form a part of, but are not synonymous with, the modern concept of the Arabs. Bedouins have been referred to by various names throughout history, including Qedarites in the Old Testament and Arabaa by the Assyrians (ar-ba-a-a being a nisba of the noun Arab, a name still used for Bedouins today). They are referred to as the Araab (أعراب) in the Koran. While many Bedouins have abandoned their nomadic and tribal traditions for modern urban lifestyle, they retain traditional Bedouin culture with concepts of belonging to ʿašāʾir, traditional music, poetry, dances (like Saas), and many other cultural practices. Urbanised Bedouins also organise cultural festivals, usually held several times a year, in which they gather with other Bedouins to partake in, and learn about, various Bedouin traditions—from poetry recitation and traditional sword dances, to classes teaching traditional tent knitting and playing traditional Bedouin musical instruments. Traditions like camel riding and camping in the deserts are also popular leisure activities for urbanised Bedouins who live within close proximity to deserts or other wilderness areas.


    People
    - https://www.quora.com/Are-Egyptian-Lebanese-Algerian-Tunisian-Jordanian-etc-originally-Arabs
    - semitic

    • hkej 23jul18 shum article
    • kiv irano-semitic (閃族) {mentioned in Hodgson's book}
    •  The other Semitic people of Iran are the Assyrians, a Christian group that speaks modern dialects of Assyrian, an Aramaic language that evolved from old Syriac. Language and religion provide a strong cohesive force and give the Assyrians a sense of identity with their coreligionists in Iraq, in other parts of the Middle East, and also in the United States. Most Assyrians adhere to the Assyrian Church of the East (sometimes referred to as the Chaldean Church or Nestorian Church). Many theologians regard this church as the oldest in Christendom. In the nineteenth century, Protestant and Roman Catholic missionaries proselytized among the Assyrians and converted many of them. There were about 32,000 Assyrians in Iran at the time of the 1976 census. Many of them emigrated after the Revolution in 1979, but at least 20,000 were estimated still to be living in Iran in 1987. The traditional home of the Assyrians in Iran is along the western shore of Lake Urmia. During World War I virtually the entire Assyrian population fled the area, which had become a battleground for opposing Russian and Turkish armies. Thousands of Assyrians perished on the overland flight through the Zagros to the safety of British-controlled Iraq. Eventually, many of the Iranian Assyrians settled among the Assyrian population of Iraq or emigrated to the United States. During the reign of Reza Shah, Assyrians were invited back to Iran to repopulate their villages. A few thousand did return, but, since the 1940s, most young Assyrians have migrated to Tehran and other urban centers. http://countrystudies.us/iran/44.htm

    • language
    • https://www.quora.com/Which-modern-Semitic-language-dialect-is-closest-to-proto-Semitic

    - The Quraysh (Arabic: قريش‎‎) were a mercantile tribe that historically inhabited and controlled Mecca and its Ka'aba. The Islamic prophet Muhammad was born into the Banu Hashim clan of the Quraysh tribe. The Quraysh staunchly opposed Muhammad until converting to Islam en masse in 630 CE. Afterward, leadership of the Muslim community traditionally passed to a member of the Quraysh as was the case with the Rashidun, Umayyad, and Abbasid caliphs.
    • Ḥamzah ibn ‘Abdul-Muṭṭalib (Arabic: حمزة ابن عبد المطّلب‎) (c.570[1]–625)[2]:4 was a companion and paternal uncle of the Islamic Nabī (نَبي, Prophet) Muhammad. His kunyas were "Abū Umārah"[2]:2 (أَبُو عُمَارَةَ) and "Abū Ya‘lā"[2]:3 (أَبُو يَعْلَى). He had the by-names Asad Allāh[2]:2 (أسد الله, "Lion of God") and Asad al-Jannah (أسد الجنّة, "Lion of the Paradise"), and Muhammad gave him the posthumous title Sayyid ash-Shuhadā’ (سَيِّدُ الشُّهَدَاء, "Chief of the Martyrs").
    - Lihyan (Arabic: لحيان‎) (Greek: Lechienoi) or Dadan or Dedan was a powerful and highly organized ancient Arabian kingdom that played a vital cultural and economic role in the north-western region of the Arabian Peninsula.[2] The Lihyanites ruled over large domain from Yathrib in the south and parts of the Levant in the north.[3] In antiquity, Gulf of Aqaba used to be called Gulf of Lihyan. A testimony to the extensive influence that Lihyan acquired.[4] Dedanite is used for the older phase of the history of this kingdom since their capital name was Dedan (see Biblical Dedan), which is now called Al-`Ula oasis located in northwestern Arabia, some 110 km southwest of Teima. The Lihyanites later became the enemies of the Nabataeans. The Romans invaded the Nabataeans and destroyed their kingdom in 106 AD. This encouraged the Lihyanites to establish an independent kingdom to manage their country. This was headed by the King Han'as, one of the former royal family, which governed Al-Hijr before the Nabataean invasion. The Arab genealogies consider the Banu Lihyan to be descended from the Ishmaelite Arabs from Ishmael. The descendants of Lihyan founded the Arab kingdom of Lihyan, and presently live in the desert between Mecca and Jeddah.
    - ‘Amr ibn al-‘As (Arabic: عمرو بن العاص‎‎; c. 585 – January 6, 664) was an Arabmilitary commander who is most noted for leading the Muslim conquest of Egypt in 640. A contemporary of Muhammad, and one of the Sahaba ("Companions"), who rose quickly through the Muslim hierarchy following his conversion to Islam in the year 8 AH (629). He founded the Egyptiancapital of Fustat and built the Mosque of Amr ibn al-As at its center. ʻAmr belonged to the Banu Sahm clan of the Quraysh. Assuming he was over eighty years old when he died, he was born before 592. 'Amr ibn al-'As was born in Arabia in the city ofMecca and died in Egypt.
    - The Druze (/druːz/;[18] Arabic: درزي‎ darzī or durzī, plural دروز durūz; Hebrew: דְּרוּזִי drūzī plural דְּרוּזִים, druzim) are Arabic-speaking esoteric ethnoreligious group[19] originating in Western Asia who self-identify as The People of Monotheism (Al-Muwaḥḥidūn).[20] Jethro of Midian is considered an ancestor of Druze, who revere him as their spiritual founder and chief prophet.[21][22][23][24][25] It is a monotheistic and Abrahamic religion based on the teachings of Hamza ibn Ali ibn Ahmad and the sixth Fatimid caliph, al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, and Ancient Greek philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, Pythagoras, and Zeno of Citium.[26][27]The Epistles of Wisdom is the foundational text of the Druze faith.[28] The Druze faith incorporates elements of Isma'ilism, a branch of Shia Islam,[29] Gnosticism,[30][31] Hinduism,[32][33] Christianity,[30][31] Neoplatonism,[30][31] Pythagoreanism,[34][33] and other philosophies and beliefs, creating a distinct and secretive theology, based on an esoteric interpretation of scripture, which emphasises the role of the mind and truthfulness.[20][33] Druze believe in theophany and reincarnation or the transmigration of the soul.[35] Druze believe that at the end of the cycle of rebirth, which is achieved through successive reincarnations, the soul is united with the Cosmic Mind (al-ʻaql al-kullī)
    • [susie hodge]the druze who numbered around 106000, follow a religion similar to islam, although they broke away from mainstream islam some 800 years ago.  This provoked persecution from other muslims, so they moved to hidden places in the mountains where they still live today. 




    Language
    - https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-10-most-common-languages-spoken-in-the-Middle-East
    - Kufic is the oldest calligraphic form of the various Arabic scripts and consists of a modified form of the old Nabataean script. Kufic developed around the end of the 7th century in Kufa, Iraq, from which it takes its name, and other centres.Kufic is commonly seen on Seljuk coins and monuments and on early Ottoman coins. Its decorative character led to its use as a decorative element in several public and domestic buildings constructed prior to the Republican period in Turkey. The current flag of Iraq (2008) includes a kufic rendition of the takbir. Similarly, the flag of Iran (1980) has the takbir written in white square kufic script a total of 22 times on the fringe of both the green and red bands. Square or geometric Kufic is a very simplified rectangular style of Kufic widely used for tiling. In Iran sometimes entire buildings are covered with tiles spelling sacred names like those of God, Muhammad and Ali in square Kufic, a technique known as banna'i. "Pseudo-Kufic", also "Kufesque",[citation needed] refers to imitations of the Kufic script, made in a non-Arabic context, during the Middle Ages or the Renaissance: "Imitations of Arabic in European art are often described as pseudo-Kufic, borrowing the term for an Arabic script that emphasizes straight and angular strokes, and is most commonly used in Islamic architectural decoration".
    - Aramaic (אַרָמָיָא Arāmāyā, Syriac: ܐܪܡܝܐ‎) is a language or group of languages belonging to the Semitic subfamily of the Afroasiatic language family. More specifically, it is part of the Northwest Semitic group, which also includes the Canaanite languages such as Hebrew and Phoenician. The Aramaic alphabet was widely adopted for other languages and is ancestral to the Hebrew, Syriac and Arabic alphabets. During its approximately 3000 years of history, Aramaic has served variously as a language of administration of empires and as a language of divine worship. It became the lingua franca of the Neo-Assyrian Empire (911–605 BC), Neo-Babylonian Empire (605–539 BC), the Achaemenid Empire (539–323 BC), the Parthian Empire (247 BC–224 AD), and the Sasanian Empire (224–651), of the states of Assur, Adiabene, Osroene, Beth Nuhadra, Beth Garmai and Hatra; the state of Palmyra, and the day-to-day language of Yehud Medinata and of Roman Judaea (539 BC – 70 AD). It was the language of Jesus, who spoke a Western Aramaic language during his public ministry, as well as the language of large sections of the biblical books of Daniel and Ezra, and also the main language of the Talmud. Aramaic was also the original language of the Bahrani people of Eastern Arabia, and of the Mandaeans and their gnostic religion, Mandaeism, as well as the language of the once widespread but now extinct religion of Manichaeism. The major Aramaic dialect Syriac is the liturgical language of Syriac Christianity, in particular the Assyrian Church of the East, the Chaldean Catholic Church, the Saint Thomas Christian Churches in India, the Syriac Orthodox Church, the Assyrian Pentecostal Church, Assyrian Evangelical Church, Ancient Church of the East, Syriac Catholic Church and the Maronite Church.

    • https://www.quora.com/Does-the-Aramaic-alphabet-look-the-same-as-the-Hebrew-alphabet
    •  according to mcgrath, aramaic is an international language widely used in diplomacy of ancienct near east.
    • [john stephens] in lord's prayer, jesus addressed god with aramaic term abba (translated as daddy in english)
    • [kung kao po 30nov19 issue] maranatha means 主，快来
    • origin, development
      • Aramaic is an entire region called Aram. There are several Arams.
        1. Aram Naharayim, is the region where Abraham the 1st Hebrew man originated. Nahar in Hebrew is a river. And Naharayim is between the rivers of the Euphrates and the Tigris River. Today's Iraq.
        2. Aram Tzova, today the area of north west Syria, is associated with Aleppo.
        3. Aram Damesek. Today's Damascus.
        4. Padan Aram - Padan-aram was an early Aramean kingdom in Mesopotamia. Paddan Aram in Aramaic means the field of Aram. The name may correspond to the Hebrew "sedeh Aram," or "field of Aram."
        Hence, Aramaic was a widely international spoken language (or lingua franca). Hebrew, was spoken amongst the Israelite Hebrew people only. They are both sisters languages. However, Aramaic was spoken widely before 3,500 years ago, whereas the Hebrew language wasn't spoken then; the Hebrew nation had not yet been established. Much Jewish literature was written in Aramaic. The Book of Daniel and the vast giant Jewish study, the Babylonian Talmud, was written in Aramaic as it originated in Babylon which is in the area of modern Baghdad, Iraq.https://www.quora.com/Why-was-Aramaic-language-named-that-Isn-t-it-a-continuation-of-Hebrew

    - in early centuries ad it developed into syriac script, used for the dialect of near east christians, and into varieties used by pagan kingdoms of palmrya and nabatene. Syriac, palmyrene and nabataean are all characterised by the fact that the custom had developed of linking many of the letters together within the boundaries of a single word by 'ligatures', as in our modern handwriting forms.
    • https://www.quora.com/If-there-had-been-no-Arab-influence-on-Lebanon-what-language-would-Lebanese-people-be-speaking-today

    - azeri and turkish

    • https://www.quora.com/How-different-are-the-Azeri-and-Turkish-languages Their mutual intelligibility is lower than some totally distinct languages and I always went for the definition “Language is a dialect with an army and navy.” Lately, I have realized that grammar of two languages are almost same. It is vocabulary or to be more precise, changes in vocabulary in different direction that alienates them. Languages with most influence on Azerbaijani are Persian, Arabic, and Russian. With Turkish they are French and Arabic. While Azerbaijani got rid of most Persian and Arabic elements, Turkish retains Arabic influence more clearly, thus widening the gap.

    - common terms
    Amir (also spelled Ameer or Emir, Arabic: أمير‎‎, Turkish: Emir, Persian: امير‎‎, Hebrew: אמיר‎‎, pronounced [aːmˈiːr]) is a masculine name with three meanings, one is Arabic/Hebraic origin derived from the three letters AMR which means 'to give orders' or a "Prince". The title Emir in Arabic, which is essentially the same word as Amir, therefore means: "one who gives orders". It also means summit of a tree in Hebrew or a pile of harvested wheat (עמיר);[citation needed] and other one in Persian is pronounced in the same way but it has a different meaning, it consists of two parts; "A" which means "Un" and "mir" which is the root of the verb "Mordan" (to die), so Amir in Persian means "the one who [his spirit and his memory] will never die".

    aviation
    - https://www.ft.com/content/c8334df6-8da8-11e7-a352-e46f43c5825d They have been the great aviation disrupters of the 21st century. Over the past decade, Dubai’s Emirates, Etihad Airways of Abu Dhabi and Qatar Airways have quadrupled the number of passengers they fly each year. They have tempted travellers with competitive pricing, superior service and luxurious premium cabins and turned the Gulf into the stopover destination in global air travel. In the process they even earned themselves a nickname: the “superconnectors”. But after years of what seemed like unstoppable growth, the three Middle Eastern airline upstarts are experiencing their own period of disruption.

    Garment
    - A kaftan or caftan (Arabic: قفطان‎ qafṭān) is a variant of therobe or tunic, versions of which have been worn by several cultures around the world for thousands of years. The kaftan is often worn as a coat or overdress, usually reaching to the ankles, with long sleeves. It can be made of wool, cashmere, silk, or cotton, and may be worn with asash. The caftan is of ancient Mesopotamian origin, and was worn by many middle-eastern ethnic groups. Through its dissemination and evolution, the kaftan has acquired different styles, purposes, and names depending on the culture. In many regions with a warm climate, the kaftan is worn as a light-weight, loose-fitting garment. The kaftan has served as a symbol of royalty in some cultures
    - A thawb or thobe (Arabic: ثَوب‎ / ALA-LC: thawb), dishdasha(دِشداشَة / dishdāshah), kandura (كَندورَة / kandūrah), khamis(Somali: khamiis / khamīs) in Somalia[1] or jalabiyyah inLibya, is an ankle-length Arab garment, usually with long sleeves, similar to a robe. It is commonly worn in theArabian Peninsula, Iraq and neighbouring Arab countries. An izaar is typically donned underneath.
    - Jubba (Persian: جُبّه‎‎; Turkish: Cübbe), is an ankle-length, robe-like garment, usually with long sleeves, similar to a kaftan. The jubba is especially worn in Middle East.[1] It is synonymous to the Arabic thawb. In Islamic societies, jubbas are worn by clerics, judges, barristers, dervishes, and professors.

    Beer
    - http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21701520-obstacles-faced-craft-beers-arent-only-what-you-think-brewers-and

    cosmetics
    - spc middle east report https://content.yudu.com/web/fiqy/0A3zhan/spcapril20/html/index.html?page=26&origin=reader

    deity
    - Astaroth (also Ashtaroth, Astarot and Asteroth), in demonology, is the Great Duke of Hell in the first hierarchy with Beelzebub and Lucifer; he is part of the evil trinity. He is a male figure most likely named after the Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar.The name Astaroth was ultimately derived from that of 2nd millennium BCE Phoenician goddess Astarte,[1] an equivalent of the Babylonian Ishtar, and the earlier Sumerian Inanna. She is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible in the forms Ashtoreth (singular) and Ashtaroth (plural, in reference to multiple statues of her). This latter form was directly transliterated in the early Greek and Latin versions of the Bible, where it was less apparent that it had been a plural feminine in Hebrew. The pseudepigraphal work Testament of Solomon, attributed to King Solomon of Israel, but thought to date to the early centuries CE, mentions "Asteraoth" (in Greek) as an angel, who is opposed to the demon of power (cf. 1 Kings 11:4–5).
    - Baal (/ˈbeɪ.əl/),[1][a] properly Baʿal,[b] was a title and honorific meaning "lord" in the Northwest Semitic languages spoken in the Levantduring antiquity. From its use among people, it came to be applied to gods.[7] Scholars previously associated the theonym with solar cultsand with a variety of unrelated patron deities, but inscriptions have shown that the name Baʿal was particularly associated with the stormand fertility god Hadad and his local manifestations. The Hebrew Bible, compiled and curated over a span of centuries, includes early use of the term in reference to God (known to them as Yahweh), generic use in reference to various Levantine deities, and finally pointed application towards Hadad, who was decried as a false god. That use was taken over into Christianity and Islam, sometimes under the opprobrious form Beelzebub in demonology.The spelling "Baal" derives from the Greek Báal (Βάαλ), which appears in the New Testament[9] and Septuagint,[10] and from its Latinizedform Baal, which appears in the Vulgate.[10] These forms in turn derive from the vowel-less Northwest Semitic form BʿL. The word's Biblical senses as a Phoenician deity and false gods generally were extended during the Protestant Reformation to denote any idols, icons of the saints, or the Catholic Church generally.[11] In such contexts, it follows the anglicized pronunciation and usually omits any mark between its two As.[1] In close transliteration of the Semitic name, the ayin is represented, as Baʿal. In the Northwest Semitic languages—Ugaritic, Phoenician, Hebrew, Amorite, and Aramaic—the word baʿal signified "owner" and, by extension, "lord",[10] a "master", or "husband".[12][13] Cognates include the Akkadian Bēlu (𒂗),[c] Amharic bal (ባል),[14] and Arabic baʿl (بعل). Báʿal (בַּעַל) and baʿl still serve as the words for "husband" in modern Hebrew and Arabic respectively. They also appear in some contexts concerning the ownership of things or possession of traits. In Levantine Arabic, baʿl also serves as an adjective describing farming that relies on rainwater alone. The feminine form is baʿalah (Hebrew: בַּעֲלָה‎;[16] Arabic: بعلـة‎), meaning "mistress" in the sense of a female owner or lady of the house[16]and still serving as a rare word for "wife".[17] The plural form is baʿalim.

    Jinn (Arabic: الجن‎, al-jinn), also Romanized as djinn or Anglicized as genies (with the more broad meaning of spirits or demons, depending on source),[1][2] are supernatural creatures in early pre-Islamic Arabian and later Islamic mythology and theology. Since jinn are neither innately evil nor innately good, Islam was able to adapt spirits from other religions during its expansion.[3]Jinn are not a strictly Islamic concept; rather, they may represent several pagan beliefs integrated into Islam. Besides the jinn, Islam acknowledges the existence of demons (Shayāṭīn). The lines between demons and jinn are blurred, since malevolent jinn are also called shayāṭīn.[6][7] However both Islam and non-Islamic scholarship generally distinguishes between angels, jinn and demons (shayāṭīn) as three different types of spiritual entities in Islamic traditions.[8][9] The jinn are distinguished from demons in that they can be both evil and good, while genuine demons are exclusively evil.[10] Some academic scholars assert that demons are related to monotheistic traditions and jinn to polytheistic traditions. In an Islamic context, the term jinn is used for both a collective designation for any supernatural creature and also to refer to a specific type of supernatural creature.Jinn is an Arabic collective noun deriving from the Semitic root jnn (Arabic: جَنّ / جُنّ‎, jann), whose primary meaning is "to hide" or "to conceal". Some authors interpret the word to mean, literally, "beings that are concealed from the senses".[13] Cognates include the Arabic majnūn ("possessed", or generally "insane"), jannah ("garden", also “heaven”), and janīn ("embryo").[14] Jinn is properly treated as a plural, with the singular being jinnī. The origin of the word Jinn remains uncertain.[2] Some scholars relate the Arabic term jinn to the Latin genius, as a result of syncretism during the reign of the Roman empire under Tiberius Augustus,[15] but this derivation is also disputed.[16] Another suggestion holds that jinn may be derived from Aramaic "ginnaya" (Classical Syriac: ܓܢܬܐ‎) with the meaning of "tutelary deity",[17] or also "garden". Others claim a Persianorigin of the word, in the form of the Avestic "Jaini", a wicked (female) spirit. Jaini were among various creatures in the possibly even pre-Zoroastrian mythology of peoples of Iran.[18][19]The Anglicized form genie is a borrowing of the French génie, from the Latin genius, a guardian spirit of people and places in Roman religion. It first appeared[20] in 18th-century translations of the Thousand and One Nights from the French,[21] where it had been used owing to its rough similarity in sound and sense and further applies to benevolent intermediary spirits, in contrast to the malevolent spirits called demon and heavenly angels, in literature.[22] In Assyrian art, creatures ontologically between humans and divinities are also called genie.  鎮尼（genie，阿拉伯文复数為جن ǧinn，单数جني ǧinnī，也可音译為精靈、巨靈、傑尼）是伊斯兰教對於超自然存在的統稱，由阿拉用無煙之火造成。鎮尼有善有惡，可以助人也可以害人，還能任意改變形體，有時也被視為惡魔的一种。

    Mandaeism or Mandaeanism (Arabic: مَنْدَائِيَّة‎, Mandāʾīyah), also known as Sabaeanism(Arabic: صَابِئِيَّة‎, Ṣābiʾīyah), is a monotheistic and gnostic religion[1]:4 with a strongly dualistic cosmology. Its adherents, the Mandaeans, revere Adam, Abel, Seth, Enos, Noah, Shem, Aram, and especially John the Baptist. The Mandaeans have been counted among the Semites and speak a dialect of Eastern Aramaic known as Mandaic. The name 'Mandaean' is said to come from the Aramaic manda meaning "knowledge", as does Greek gnosis.[2][3] Within the Middle East, but outside of their community, the Mandaeans are more commonly known as the Arabic: صُبَّة‎ Ṣubba (singular: Ṣubbī) or Sabians. The term Ṣubba is derived from the Aramaic root related to baptism, the neo-Mandaic is Ṣabi.[4] Occasionally, Mandaeans are called "Christians of Saint John". In the Quran, the "Sabians" (Arabic: الصَّابِئُون‎, aṣ-Ṣābiʾūn) are mentioned three times alongside Jews and Christians. Most critical scholars today believe this term refers to the Manichaeans/Elkaisaites, an Abrahamic religious group that followed Jesus and was unrelated to the gnostic Mandaeans (who rejected Jesus). Confusion of the two occurs primarily among non-Arabic speakers, to whom the Quranic word aṣ-Ṣābiʾūn (from the root ص ب أ) seems similar to the word Ṣubba (from the root ص ب ب). According to most scholars, Mandaeaism originated sometime in the first three centuries AD, in either southwestern Mesopotamia or the Syro-Palestinian area.[6] However, some scholars take the view that Mandaeanism is older and dates from pre-Christian times.The religion has been practised primarily around the lower Karun, Euphrates and Tigris and the rivers that surround the Shatt-al-Arab waterway, part of southern Iraq and Khuzestan Province in Iran. There are thought to be between 60,000 and 70,000 Mandaeans worldwide.[8] Until the Iraq War, almost all of them lived in Iraq.[9] Many Mandaean Iraqis have since fled their country because of the turmoil created by the 2003 invasion of Iraq and subsequent occupation by U.S. armed forces, and the related rise in sectarian violence by Muslim extremists.[10] By 2007, the population of Mandaeans in Iraq had fallen to approximately 5,000.
    - new zealand
    • [tv series both worlds] iraqi mandeans promoting her culture in nz
    Mount Qaf, or Qaf-Kuh, also spelled Cafcuh and Kafkuh (Persian: قاف‌کوه‎), or Jabal Qaf, also spelled Djebel Qaf (Arabic: جبل قاف‎), or Koh-i-Qaf, also spelled Koh-Qaf and Kuh-i-Qaf or Kuh-e Qaf (Classical Persian: کوہ قاف) is a legendary mountain in the popular mythology of the Middle East. Note different interpretation in iranian, arabic and sufi traditions.

    music
    - economist 15jun19 "the sultan's song" culture in the middle east

    festival
    - nakba

    • palestinian version

    • jewish version
    • A Palestinian girl wears earrings bearing the number 68 and a hair slide in the shape of a key to commemorate Nakba https://www.theguardian.com/news/gallery/2016/may/15/photo-highlights-of-the-day-the-flying-scotsman-and-an-art-installation-in-the-nevada-desert
    "indigenous people"
    - https://www.quora.com/If-Palestinians-are-an-ancient-indigenous-people-why-did-the-Romans-need-to-change-the-name-of-Judea-to-Palaestina

    assyrians
    - [m&p]Assyrians had their capital at nineveh near mosul in modern iraq, first appeared in syria in about 1100bc,  but it was their king shalamaneser iii (859-824bc) who founded the assyrian empire (lasted for more than 2 centuries and finally conquered egypt).Assyrians were defeated and overthrown by chaldean dynasty of babylon. The empire was short-lived. Further east in present day iran, a new state was formed by uniting medes and persians, with king cyrus ii reigned from 559-530bc. In 525bc successors of cyrus conquered egypt with little difficulty, it could be said that for egyptians 2000 years of foreign rule had begun.

    turks and arabs
    - https://www.quora.com/Turks-and-Arabs-are-brothers-They-have-the-same-people-and-goals-Why-is-there-hostility-between-them We aren't brothers because they think we blocked their development because of Ottoman reign and we are pissed at them since they betrayed us by siding with British and French people in WW1- these are the historical reasons. Culturally, I think Turkey and Gulf countries have some differences, whereas I feel North African Muslims are closer to Turks. 

    Things to note
    - according to "how to read islamic carpets" published by the met, "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" is a time-honored and still current middle east practice

    示巴王國（Sheba，/ˈʃiːbə/;吉茲語: ሳባ, Saba；古蘭經中稱為塞伯邑（Sabaʾ）Sheba features in Jewish, Muslim, and Christian, particularly Ethiopian Christian, traditions. It was the home of the biblical "Queen of Sheba", who is left unnamed in the Bible, but receives the names Makeda in Ethiopian and Bilqīs in Arabic tradition.

    The predominant scholarly view is that the biblical narrative about the kingdom of Sheba was based on the ancient civilization of Saba in South Arabia,[1] in contradiction to several local traditions from different countries. Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman write that "the Sabaean kingdom began to flourish only from the eighth century BCE onward" and that the story of Solomon and Sheba is "an anachronistic seventh-century set piece meant to legitimize the participation of Judah in the lucrative Arabian trade".[2] The British Museumstates that there is no archaeological evidence for such a queen but that the kingdom described as hers was Saba, "the oldest and most important of the South Arabian kingdoms".[3] Kenneth Kitchen dates the kingdom to between 1200 BCE and 275 CE with its capital, Ma'rib.[4] The kingdom fell after a long but sporadic civil war between several Yemenite dynasties claiming kingship,[5][full citation needed][6][verification needed] resulting in the rise of the late Himyarite Kingdom.The two names Sheba (spelled in Hebrew with shin) and Seba (spelled with samekh) are mentioned several times in the Bible with different genealogy. For instance, in the Generations of Noah[7] Seba, along with Dedan, is listed as a descendant of Noah's son Ham(as sons of Raamah, son of Cush). Later on in the Book of Genesis,[8] Sheba and Dedan are listed as names of sons of Jokshan, son of Abraham. Another Sheba is listed in the Table of Nations[9] as a son of Joktan, another descendant of Noah's son Shem.

    There are several possible reasons for this confusion. One theory is that the Sabaean established many colonies to control the trade routes and the variety of their caravan stations confused the ancient Israelites, as their ethnology was based on geographical and political grounds and not necessarily racial.[10] Another theory suggests that the Sabaeans hailed from the southern Levant and established their kingdom on the ruins of the Minaeans.

    -Sie werden aus Saba alle kommen (They will all come forth out of Sheba),[1] BWV 65, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed it in 1724 in Leipzig for Epiphanyand first performed it on 6 January 1724 as part of his first cantata cycle.




    usa
    - ft 1jul2020 america's four pillars in middle east (israel, turkey, saudi arabia and egypt) are crumbling

    nordic/scandinavia
    - https://www.quora.com/Why-is-Finland-pro-Israel-while-Sweden-is-pro-Palestine

    Russia
    - http://rbth.com/international/2015/08/19/high-level_iranian_and_saudi_visits_to_moscow_raise_speculation_48607.html Recent visits to Moscow by the Iranian and Saudi foreign ministers, alongside talks with representatives of the Syrian opposition, have raised speculation that Russia could be acting as a mediator between Iran and Saudi Arabia as the lifting of sanctions on Tehran leave the situation in the Middle East in a state of flux.
    - https://www.ft.com/content/5417e004-13a4-11e7-80f4-13e067d5072c Russia’s Rosneft will this week take custody of its first independently sourced cargo of Kurdish crude oil from Turkey’s port of Ceyhan, a key step in its strategic push into Middle East energy markets and its attempts to expand trading. The world’s largest listed oil company by output has spent the past four months trumpeting agreements to buy oil from Egypt, Libya and Iraqi Kurdistan, drilling exploration wells in southern Iraq and mulling opportunities in Lebanon, as it chases deals to fuel its fledgling international expansion. Controlled by the Russian state and historically focused on domestic assets, the company’s foray into the Middle East has coincided with the Kremlin’s efforts to position itself as a powerbroker in the region, through its military intervention in the war in Syria that tilted that conflict in favour of the Assad regime and its active role in Libya’s transition from civil war.
    - 中東外交有一條潛規則：萬大事要問過俄羅斯人。雖然美伊衝突及以巴問題都與俄羅斯國家利益無直接關係，但各涉事國都不約而同加以拉攏，再次證明普京的中東策略比美國穩健和優秀。敍利亞內戰就是極好例子，美軍以攻打恐怖分子為名，行推翻阿薩德政權之實，最終反讓俄軍有藉口進駐大馬士革，獲得一塊中東的立足點。由此可見，美國這部戰爭機器善戰而不善治，普京則懂得火中取栗，漁人得利。https://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/china_world/20190626/00192_001.html


    uk
    - people
    • Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell, CBE (14 July 1868 – 12 July 1926) was an English writer, traveller, political officer, administrator, and archaeologist who explored, mapped, and became highly influential to British imperial policy-making due to her knowledge and contacts, built up through extensive travels in Greater Syria, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, and Arabia. Along with T. E. Lawrence, Bell helped support the Hashemite dynasties in what is today Jordan as well as in Iraq. She played a major role in establishing and helping administer the modern state of Iraq, utilising her unique perspective from her travels and relations with tribal leaders throughout the Middle East. During her lifetime she was highly esteemed and trusted by British officials and exerted an immense amount of power. She has been described as "one of the few representatives of His Majesty's Government remembered by the Arabs with anything resembling affection".Bell was born on 14 July 1868 in Washington New Hall, County Durham, England – now known as Dame Margaret Hall – to a family whose wealth ensured her education and enabled her travels. Her personality was characterised by energy, intellect, and a thirst for adventure which shaped her path in life. Her grandfather was the ironmaster Sir Isaac Lowthian Bell, an industrialist and a LiberalMember of Parliament, in Benjamin Disraeli's second term. 
    •  After British troops took Baghdad on 10 March 1917, Bell was summoned by Cox to Baghdad[7]:274–276 and given the title of "Oriental Secretary." As the dismantling of the Ottoman Empire was finalised by the end of the war in late January 1919, Bell was assigned to conduct an analysis of the situation in Mesopotamia. Due to her familiarity and relations with the tribes in the area she had strong ideas about the leadership needed in Iraq. She spent the next ten months writing what was later considered a masterly official report, "Self Determination in Mesopotamia". The British Commissioner in Mesopotamia, Arnold Wilson, had different ideas of how Iraq should be run, preferring an Arab government to be under the influence of British officials who would retain real control, as he felt, from experience, that Mesopotamian populations were not yet ready to govern and administer the country efficiently and peacefully. On 11 October 1920, Percy Cox returned to Baghdad and asked her to continue as Oriental Secretary, acting as liaison with the forthcoming Arab government. Gertrude Bell essentially played the role of mediator between the Arab government and British officials. Bell often had to mediate between the various groups of Iraq including a majority population of Shias in the southern region, Sunnis in central Iraq, and the Kurds, mostly in the northern region, who wished to be autonomous. Keeping these groups united was essential for political balance in Iraq and for British imperial interests. Iraq not only contained valuable resources in oil but would act as a buffer zone, with the help of Kurds in the north as a standing army in the region to protect against Turkey, Persia (Iran), and Syria. British officials in London, especially Churchill, were highly concerned about cutting heavy costs in the colonies, including the cost of quashing tribal infighting. Another important project for both the British and new Iraqi rulers was creating a new identity for these people so that they would identify themselves as one nation.
    • hkej monthly sept2016 shum article
    turkey
    - economist 1aug2020 "ottoman redux" in ever more places turkey is showing its strength

    saudi arabia
    - https://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-philippines-flights/philippine-airlines-seeks-saudi-overfly-permit-for-direct-route-to-israel-idUSKCN1OW12U The Philippines has requested permission for its flag carrier [PHL.UL] to overfly Saudi Arabia en route to Israel, the company president said, seeking to become the second airline to win such rights after a decades-long ban by Riyadh.Should Philippine Airlines get an overflight permit, which would save on flight time and costs, it could launch direct service to Tel Aviv within six months, airline president Jaime Bautista said on Wednesday.Last March, Saudi Arabia opened its airspace for the first time to a commercial flight to Israel for an Air India route between New Delhi and Tel Aviv.

    oman
    - https://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-palestinians-plan-oman/oman-to-open-embassy-in-palestinian-territories-west-bank-foreign-ministry-idUSKCN1TR0XE Oman has long been to the Middle East what neutral Switzerland is to global diplomacy. The country helped to mediate secret U.S.-Iran talks in 2013 that led to the historic nuclear deal signed in Geneva two years later.

    israel
    - Israeli settlements are civilian communities[i] inhabited by Israeli citizens, almost exclusively of Jewish ethnicity,[1][2] built on lands occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War.[3] Israeli settlements currently exist in the Palestinian territory of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and in the Syrian territory of the Golan Heights, and had previously existed within the Egyptian territory of the Sinai Peninsula, and within the Palestinian territory of the Gaza Strip; however, Israel evacuated and dismantled the 18 Sinai settlements following the 1979 Egypt–Israel peace agreement and all of the 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip, along with four in the West Bank, in 2005 as part of its unilateral disengagement from Gaza.[4] The international community considers the settlements to be illegal under international law,[5] and the United Nations has repeatedly upheld the view that Israel's construction of settlements constitutes a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

    • Settlements range in character from farming communities and frontier villages to urban suburbs and neighborhoods. The four largest settlements, Modi'in Illit, Ma'ale Adumim, Beitar Illit and Ariel, have achieved city status. Ariel has 18,000 residents, while the rest have around 37,000 to 55,500 each.
    • usa
    • The US has shifted its position on Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, no longer viewing them as inconsistent with international law.US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the status of the West Bank was for Israelis and Palestinians to negotiate.Israel welcomed the move - a reversal of the US stance under President Donald Trump's predecessor, Barack Obama.https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-50468025


    japan
    - 波斯灣局勢持續緊張，日本政府周五表示，首相安倍晉三要求討論派自衞隊到中東為商船護航。雖然美國拉攏盟友組建國際海上護航聯盟，但日媒指日方不會加入。https://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/china_world/20191019/00180_004.html
    • Japan sent a naval destroyer to the Middle East on Sunday for a rare overseas mission to ensure the safety of its ships amid lingering tension between Iran and the US.The vessel left the Yokosuka naval base, south of Tokyo, for an information gathering mission in the Gulf of Oman, northern parts of the Arabian Sea and parts of the Gulf of Aden.Japan earlier decided not to take part in the US-led Operation Sentinel to protect shipping routes in the region.   https://www.france24.com/en/20200202-japan-destroyer-heads-to-middle-east-as-iran-us-tension-lingers
    • 美國傳統盟友日本早前決定派遣自衞隊至中東地區，以保護日本商船。至上周四，海上自衞隊護衞艦高波號在阿曼灣進行的情報收集任務已滿一個月。有關海域目前未發現不測事態；惟自衞隊正加緊戒備，以防船員感染蔓延中東的新冠肺炎。https://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/china_world/20200329/00180_030.html

    south korea
    - 中東局勢不穩之下，南韓國防部周二宣布，暫時將海軍部隊作戰範圍擴至霍爾木茲海峽。南韓外交消息同日透露，政府在上周末通知伊朗相關決定，伊朗表示憂慮https://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/china_world/20200123/00180_009.html

    philippines
    - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered the military to prepare to deploy its aircraft and ships “at any moment’s notice” to evacuate thousands of Filipino workers in Iraq and Iran should violence break out, reflecting Asia’s growing fears for its citizens in the increasingly volatile Middle East.“We, Filipinos, are really in grave peril,” Duterte said in a televised speech on Monday. “I am nervous. Iran seems to be bent on a retaliation which I think will come. It’s a matter of time.”
    The Middle East is the Philippines’ largest destination for land-based workers with deployment at more than 1 million annually, according to latest government data. The region also is the second-largest source of cash remittances from overseas Filipinos, based on central bank data. https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3044904/duterte-braces-evacuate-philippine-workers-middle-east-us

    China
    - history

    • 中國深鑽技術，於11世紀中葉發明，大約在11世紀末或12世紀初傳入西方，並首先傳入歐洲，成功地鑽出了第一批自流井。李約瑟博土在《中國與西方在科學史上的交往》中述道：「在古代四川，從有些鑽孔湧出的天然氣已被用來煮熬從別的鑽孔抽出或流出的滷水。沒有跡象表明1000年中這項技術傳到其他文化中。後來阿拉伯作家才有一兩處記載，緊接着歐洲12世紀又成功地打出了第一批自流井。……這必然是由阿拉伯海員從海路傳去的。可能是通過摩爾人統治的西班牙傳開的。」
      原文網址：https://kknews.cc/history/gmz4lb9.html

    - 楊宇軍介紹，2008年12月，經聯合國 授權，中國海軍派出首批艦艇編隊，赴亞 丁灣、索馬里海域執行護航任務。截至目 前，已經先後派出26批護航編隊，共安全 護送了6000餘艘中外船舶，其中半數以上 為外國船舶或世界糧食計劃署船舶。 今年以來，亞丁灣、索馬里海域的海 盜活動強力反彈，襲船事件大幅度增多。 4月9日，中國海軍 「玉林艦」成功解救了 1艘遭海盜劫持的圖瓦盧籍貨船，保證了 19名船員的安全。4月15日，中國海軍 「 衡陽艦」查證驅離疑似海盜，成功營救了 1艘巴拿馬籍商船。http://paper.takungpao.com/resfile/PDF/20170428/PDF/a6_screen.pdf
    - automotive

    • 天津公司借助中東的W Motors，以意大利等設計工藝技術為主，從超級跑車切入純電能商用車，且已獲得中東的大訂單。http://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/news/20170409/00184_001.html
    - e-commerce
    • JollyChic is not a Saudi Arabian online shopping site; rather, it is an online retailer operated by a Chinese e-commerce company named Jolly Information Technology Co Ltd based in China's eastern city of Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. JollyChic is so popular that it has become the top e-commerce company in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia, with more than 35 million registered users by the end of 2017.http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201810/08/WS5bbab42ca310eff303280f73.html
    •  https://www.scmp.com/business/china-business/article/3019473/how-chinese-e-commerce-unicorn-jollychic-plans-defend-its
      - investors from China

      • http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2016-03/01/content_23693913.htm A 67-year-old Muslim entrepreneur in Northwestern China's Ningxia Hui autonomous region isfinding new opportunities for his family clothing business along the Silk Road Economic Belt.  Yang Faxiang started his company in the 1990s with a few dozen sewing machines, makingethnic costumes and clothing for Hui people. Later, as cross-cultural exchanges and tradingincreased between China and the Middle East, he found a welcoming foreign market for hisproducts. His company, Wuzhong Wantini Ethnic Clothing Co, established its first overseas store in SaudiArabia in 2012.  "The store functions as a wholesale headquarters for the company in the Middle East, sincetraders from other countries in the region go there to restock. It also helps us to brand ourcompany, showing our designs for Muslim clothes," Yang said.Ma Jun, a senior manager at the company who is in charge of foreign marketing, said thecompany is considering opening stores in Sudan and Qatar.  Yang chose Wuzhong, a city in central Ningxia, for his business because it is one of the majorsettlements in China for people of the Hui ethnic group. More than 55 percent of Wuzhong'spopulation is Muslim, and many companies have located Muslim clothing businesses there. In November, Ningxia Hengfeng Group, a clothing company with an investment of 150 millionyuan, was established in Wuzhong. The company is expected to provide 2,000 jobs when itbegins production by the end of the year. The company foresees an annual production capacity of 5 million robes for Muslims, and itintends to export them to Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.
      • http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2016-04/11/content_24427763.htm Saudi Arabia is not the only overseas market for Wengfu. The introduction of theBelt and Road Initiative provides significant growth potential for dozens ofcountries along the route to integrate with the global economy. Wengfu has grabbed the opportunities to carry out cooperation projects with manycompanies in the West Asian and African markets, including Oman, Jordan, Iran,Tunisia, Kenya and Kazakhstan.guizhou wengfu in saudi and 
      taiwan
      - 郭台銘是應日本電訊商軟銀始創人孫正義的邀請，周三起前往中東考察三天。期間郭曾與當地基金公司、能源廠商代表見面，亦拜訪了沙特阿拉伯皇室特別顧問及商務部長。郭台銘昨早返台後在機場表示，這次行程見過沙特七名部長及部長級官員，對方對台灣的電子、半導體、精密機械工業相當感興趣，希望有機會合作。https://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/china_world/20190831/00178_001.html

      Hong Kong
      - association
      • hong kong middle east chamber of businessmen香港中東業務人協會有限公司  http://hkarab.com/en/
      • 為了 推廣 「一帶一路」倡議中帶來的中東商機 ，香港中東業務人協會將於明年1月15日在 港舉辦 「一帶一路：中東機會高峰會」。 該協會主席梅智傑透露，屆時阿聯酋高層 官員將出席，講述該國的機遇。http://paper.takungpao.com/resfile/PDF/20171109/PDF/a18_screen.pdf
        - delegation from HK
        • visit to UAE (re. hong kong middle east chamber of businessmen's newsletter issue 8 2014) and signing of MOU on cooperation
        - investors from HK
        • 唔少港產名牌早已衝出海外，有時裝品牌進駐中東國家開店、有旅行社老闆就親自帶團遊歷伊朗，即使係傳統餅店亦搞搞新意思開拓客源，絕對唔會故步自封。衝出香港嘅仲有時裝品牌堡獅龍（Bossini），代表領獎嘅羅氏針織後人羅穎怡（Wendy）話，該品牌進駐中東多年，杜拜、阿聯酋首都阿布扎比都有品牌蹤影。至於獲頒「卓越名牌」嘅奇華餅家，其品牌第三代後人兼執董黃嘉信（Karlson）就話，唔進駐中東，都可以喺傳統食品上諗花招，絕對唔老套。http://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/news/20150204/00176_110.html
        •  喺珠寶界有「中東王子」之稱嘅香港珠寶製造業廠商會榮譽主席沈運龍，儘管只懂得二百多個阿拉伯文嘅生字，但都足以令佢擺脫險境，逢凶化吉。https://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/news/20190722/00176_077.html
        • gordon lui 呂德麟, general manager, 威德 welldone shoes company 
        • spoke at seminar on latest development in middle east consumer market on 18sep19
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