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Results for Medina:

Deir el-Medina: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Settlement site on the west bank of the Nile opposite Luxor, situated in a bay in the cliffs midway between the Ramesseum and Medinet Habu. It is the site of the village of the workmen who built the tombs in the Valleys of the Kings during the New Kingdom. The inhabitants were stone cutters, masons, plasterers, scribes, draftsmen, and artists who excavated and adorned royal and private tombs in the Theban necropolis from the early 18th Dynasty until the end of the New Kingdom. The site produced a large number of documents, mainly on ostraka.
Herakleopolis Magna: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Ihnasya el-Medina; ancient Henen-nesw; Ninsu, Nen-nesut
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: An ancient Egyptian site that was the capital of the 20th nome of Upper Egypt and the cult center for the god Harsaphes. Its peak came when it was the capital of the 9th and 10th Dynasties of the First Intermediate Period (2181-2055 BC). The city was lost by the clan when Mentuhotpe II of the 11th Dynasty attacked in 2040 BC. There is an Old Kingdom shrine, temple of Harsaphes, and necropolis of Herakleopolis at Gebel Sedment.
Medina: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: ancient Yathrib
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: An oasis town in western Saudi Arabia, 447 km (278 miles) from Mecca, known as Yathrib before Muhammad's residence there. Medina is second only to Mecca as the holiest place of Muslim pilgrimage. It is venerated by all Muslims as the place to which the Prophet Muhammad fled from Mecca in 622. This event (the Hijrah / Hegira / higira) marks the beginning of the Islamic era and Muslim calendar. Muhammad built himself a house consisting of a walled compound containing a courtyard, living quarters, and a double portico. The Prophet and his followers worshipped here and the building, with its large courtyard and covered hall, became the prototype of congregational mosques, such as those at Samar-Ra. Soon afterward Muhammad drove out the Jews who had controlled the oasis. Thereafter known as Medina, the city prospered as the administrative capital of the steadily expanding Islamic state, a position it maintained until 661, when it was superseded in that role by Damascus. The House of the Prophet was rebuilt in 707-709 by the caliph al-Walid, who inserted a niche (the mihab) in the end wall of the portico to indicate the direction one must face while praying.
Córdoba: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A site in southern Spain that was probably Carthaginian in origin and was occupied by the Romans in 152 BC. It declined under the rule of the Visigoths from the 6th to the early 8th century AD. In 711 Córdoba was captured and largely destroyed by the Muslims. Its recovered under 'Abd ar-Rahman I, a member of the Umayyad family, who made Córdoba his capital in 756. 'Abd ar-Rahman I founded the Great Mosque of Córdoba, which was later enlarged and completed about 976. The city quickly rose to become one of the finest in Europe, rivaled only by Baghdad and Constantinople. In the 10th century, one of the rulers of Cordoba built a pleasure-city outside its walls known as Medina al Zahara; this is now an archaeological site.
Granada: CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Kingdom and city important from the 13th century in Spain. Although its origins go back to the early years of the Moorish occupation in the 8th century, Granada rose to importance after the mid-13th century when it became the capital of a new state founded by Muhammad I (1232-1273). The kingdom comprised, principally, the area of the modern provinces of Granada, Málaga, and Almería. The city was dominated by the fortified citadel and Alcazaba, Medinat-al-Hamra, now known as the Alhambra. The Alhambra was defended by a massive towered enceinte enclosing a series of magnificent palaces linked by courtyards and gardens, much of which still remains. Apart from the Alhambra, Granada also preserves many examples of Islamic architecture in the older quarters of the city. Granada was the site of an Iberian settlement, Elibyrge, in the 5th century BC and of the Roman Illiberis. As the seat of the Moorish kingdom of Granada, it was the final stronghold of the Moors in Spain, falling to the Roman Catholic monarchs Ferdinand II and Isabella I in 1492.
mosque: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Arabic: masjid
CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: Any house or open area of prayer in Islam. The earliest mosques were simple enclosures, imitating the courtyard of the Prophet Muhammad's house at Medina of the 7th century AD. Most mosques have large areas, partly covered and partly open, where the community meets for prayer. Mosques usually, but not always, face Mecca, the direction of which (qibla) is indicated by a niche (mihrab) at the center of the end wall. To the right, there is a stepped pulpit (minbar). Outside the mosque, the most prominent feature is the minaret(s) (manar), usually towers, from which the muezzin gives the call to prayer. Schools and libraries are frequently attached to mosques. In some cases a maktab (elementary school) is attached to a mosque, mainly for the teaching of the Qur'an, and informal classes in law and doctrine are given for people of the surrounding neighborhood.
ostrakon: SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: pl. ostraca; ostracon (pl. ostraka)
CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: A potsherd or, more rarely, a flake of stone, bearing an inscription in ink or paint. In Greece they were employed for voting; in Egypt for memoranda, business accounts, writing exercises, jottings, artist's sketches, and listmaking. They commonly consisted of personal jottings, letters, sketches, or scribal exercises, but also often inscribed with literary texts. They could also be fragments from inscribed jars (e.g. a wine jar inscribed with the details of a vintage). Ostraca are known from all periods, but 19th- and 20th-Dynasty examples are commonest (up to 20,000 have been found) in Egypt. Most of the Egyptian examples are in hieratic or demotic, but there are also cursive hieroglyphic texts and numerous pictures, including drafts of hieroglyphic inscriptions. The term is derived from the classical Greek voting practice of ostrakismos (ostracism), a 5th-century BC political move in which each citizen could write upon a potsherd the name of someone whom he wished to see banished. If sufficient votes were cast against one person (the number seems to have been 6,000), the person named would be banished for ten years. The usage of inscribed sherds seems to have spread to Egypt with the Greek conquest. Ostraca from the New Kingdom are especially numerous. Deir el-Medina's ostraca is a great source of evidence for the life of its workmen's village and community.

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