Chroniques Du Manuscrit Au Yémen

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Chroniques Du Manuscrit Au Yémen Chroniques du Manuscrit au Yémen عدد ٢۵، يناير ٢٠١۸ N° 25 / Janvier 2018 Directrice de la Publication Anne REGOURD Contact Secrétariat [email protected] Comité de rédaction Tamon BABA (Prof. assistant, Université de Kyushu, Japon), Jan THIELE (Centro de Ciencias Humanas y Sociales, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Madrid), Anne REGOURD Revue de presse Maxim YOSEFI (Université de Göttingen) Conseil de rédaction Geoffrey KHAN (Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Université de Cambridge (GB)), Martha M. MUNDY (The London School of Economics and Political Science, Dépt d’anthropologie), Jan RETSÖ (Université de Gothenburg, Dépt de langues et littératures, Suède), Sabine SCHMIDTKE (Institute for Ad- vanced Study, Princeton) Correspondants Tamon BABA (Prof. assistant, Université de Kyushu, Japon), Deborah FREEMAN-FAHID (FRAS, Assistant Conservateur, Dir. de publication, The al-Sabah Collection, Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyyah, Koweït), Stéphane IPERT (Responsable Préservation & Conservation, Qatar National Library), Abdullah Yahya AL SURAYHI (Manuscrits, Université d’Abu Dhabi, Bibliothèque nationale, Abu Dhabi) Comité de lecture Hassan F. ANSARI (Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton), Anne K. BANG (Université de Bergen, Norvège), Marco DI BELLA (Indépendant, Conservation/restauration manuscrits arabes), Deborah FREEMAN- FAHID (FRAS, Assistant Conservateur, Dir. de publication, The al-Sabah Collection, Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyyah, Ko- weït), David HIRSCH (Charles E Young Research Library, UCLA), Michaela HOFFMANN-RUF (Université de Tübingen), Clifford B. MESSICK (Université de Columbia), Samer TRABOULSI (Université d’Asheville, Caroline du Nord) Mise en page Eugénie DE MARSAY [email protected] Webmaster Peter J. NIX [email protected] ISSN 2116–0813 Photo de couverture/Cover’s image : Grande mosquée/Great Mosque, Ibb, 08.06.2008 © Hélène David-Cuny Chroniques du manuscrit au Yémen 25 Nouvelle série 6 Janvier 2018 (prochain numéro juillet 2018) Chroniques du manuscrit au Yémen 25 Janvier 2018 Sommaire Éditorial ................................................................................................................................................... 1 Actualités ............................................................................................................................................... 2 Obituaire ........................................................................................................................................... 2 Yémen ................................................................................................................................................ 5 Arabie Saoudite ............................................................................................................................. 32 Kuweït ............................................................................................................................................. 33 Oman ............................................................................................................................................... 33 Péninsule arabique ...................................................................................................................... 35 Qatar ................................................................................................................................................ 35 Arab Press Review ........................................................................................................................36 Articles .................................................................................................................................................. 40 A Jewish marriage deed from nineteenth-century Yemen Amir Ashur (Ben Gurion University of the Negev) & Ben Outhwaite (Head of Asian and African Collections & Genizah Research Unit Cambridge University Library) ........................................................................................... 40 Mālikī imams of the Sacred Mosque and pilgrims from Takrūr Kaori Otsuya (PhD Student, Department of West Asian History, Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University) ................................................................................................ 53 The ǧinn of Poetry in Contemporary Yemen and Ancient Arabia: Parallels, Inconsistencies, and the Origins of an Ambivalent Attitude Towards Inspiration Maxim Yosefi (Georg-August Universität Göttingen) ................................................... 73 Éditorial Nous avons le plaisir d’annoncer l’ouverture d’une revue de presse arabe, assu- rée par Maxim Yosefi (Université de Göttingen). Centrée sur les manuscrits de la péninsule Arabique ou abordant les questions générales de catalogage, conservation, préservation ou sauvegarde, trafic illégal, elle est partie prenante des Actualités. La direction des CmY. CmY 25 (Jan. 2018) 1 Actualités Actualités (période de juillet 2017 à janvier 2018) Chroniques du manuscrit au Yémen = CmY OBITUAIRE Tareq Sayid Rajab 1934 (?) to 2016 Renowned Kuwaiti collector of Islamic art and manuscripts Tareq Sayed Rajab at the Failaka excavation site, circa 1961 Tareq Sayid Rajab, who died in June 2016, was an artist, architect, photographer, edu- cator and collector. Together with his wife, Jehan, who predeceased him in 2015, he founded an important collection of Islamic art and manuscripts that is housed in two museums in the neighbourhood of Jabriya where he resided in Kuwait. CmY 25 (Jan. 2018) 2 Actualités His year of birth is unclear as such information was not generally recorded outside of the family circle in early 20th century Kuwaiti society, but his mother recalled that he had been born in the sanat al-hadm (the “Year of Destruction” or 1934), when Kuwait was subjected to torrential rains that destroyed hundreds of houses. He was raised in an old part of Kuwait near the Seif Palace on the coast to a family of merchants and scholars. His grandfather was the principal of the Mubarakiyyah School, the first for- mal school in Kuwait, founded in 1911, and from an early age, Tareq displayed a love of learning and books. A solo excursion to Baghdad in 1951 as a teenager to acquire books and manuscripts, sponsored by some farsighted mentors, seems to have been the spur to a lifetime of travelling and collecting. After school, Tareq won a generous scholarship to study art in the UK, the first Kuwaiti to do so, and spent three years at the Eastbourne College of Art and Design on the south coast of the UK, where he was taught by the English printmaker Robert Tav- erner, who stimulated his interest in Islamic art. It was in Eastbourne that he met Tiki de Montfort Wellborne (Jehan Rajab), his future wife and lifelong partner. Tareq im- mersed himself in the creative arts, producing oil paintings and lithographs. Later, in the 1960s and 1970s, he became a prodigious photographer, recording the lives of the Marsh Arabs in southern Iraq and the vestiges of old Kuwait; a pilgrimage to Mecca in 1964 also resulted in the recording of old shrines and forts in Najd, and some unique images of the Hajj. Following a further year at Bristol University doing a teaching diploma, Tareq returned to Kuwait from the UK in 1958, followed shortly after by Jehan and their young family. He taught art in one of the new model schools for the first year, before joining the newly-created government Department of Antiquities and Museums. He was appoint- ed its Director in 1960, with responsibility for the establishment of the first National Museum of Kuwait in a mansion given by Sheikh Abdallah Al Jaber Al Sabah, the Min- ister for Culture and Education, and advisor to the Amir. In around 1959, the Minister invited the Danish archaeological mission, which had been excavating in Bahrain, to investigate the possibility of a related Dilmun civiliza- tion on the Kuwaiti island of Failaka. Tareq was closely involved with the excavations of both the Bronze Age and Hellenistic sites on Failaka during the 1960s. Both he and Jehan were present at the discovery of the Failaka stele—the stone tablet inscribed in ancient Greek which identified the island as Ikaros, a Greek colony dating to the 4th century BCE. A museum was constructed on the island to house the finds, and Tareq was closely involved with its design and building. He founded a second museum de- voted to ethnography nearby in the summer house of the late Amir, Sheikh Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah. These early achievements in archaeology and museology laid the foundations for such activities in Kuwait. In the late 1960s Tareq turned his attention to education, establishing the New English School in 1969, the first educational establishment to follow the English school curric- ulum in Kuwait. A purpose-built school was erected in the residential quarter of Jabri- ya in Kuwait in 1974, and it was in this neighbourhood that the Rajabs opened their first museum in 1980. The Tareq Rajab Museum still houses Islamic manuscripts and CmY 25 (Jan. 2018) 3 Actualités miniature paintings, ceramic vessels, metalwork, coins, fine Islamic-period jewellery, glass, musical instruments and arms and armour. Jehan was closely involved in all as- pects of the school and the collection. While many artefacts were acquired at auction or from dealers, the couple travelled extensively together by car through the Middle East, including Yemen, acquiring objects as they went. Jehan had a particular interest in costume, textiles and jewellery, and built a truly important collection of great
Recommended publications
  • United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ______
    Case: 08-3376 Document: 00617170790 Filed: 11/09/2009 Page: 1 RECOMMENDED FOR FULL-TEXT PUBLICATION Pursuant to Sixth Circuit Rule 206 File Name: 09a0390p.06 UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT _________________ ABDULMUNAEM ABDULLAH AL-GHORBANI X and SALAH ABDULLAH ALGHURBANI, - - Petitioners, - No. 08-3376 - > v. , - ERIC H. HOLDER, JR., Attorney General, - Respondent. - - N On Petition for Review from the Board of Immigration Appeals. Nos. A96 417 301; A96 417 292. Submitted: October 15, 2009 Decided and Filed: November 9, 2009 Before: GILMAN and GRIFFIN, Circuit Judges; STEEH, District Judge.* _________________ COUNSEL ON BRIEF: Richard A. Kulics, REZA ATHARI & ASSOCIATES, Murray, Utah, for Petitioners. David V. Bernal, Lance L. Jolley, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Washington, D.C., for Respondent. _________________ OPINION _________________ RONALD LEE GILMAN, Circuit Judge. Abdulmunaem Abdullah Al-Ghorbani (Abdulmunaem) and his brother, Salah Abdullah Motahar Alghurbani (Salah), arrived in the United States in 1999 with non-immigrant visas. They had fled their native country of Yemen after being threatened with death by Abdulmunaem’s father-in-law, * The Honorable George Caram Steeh, United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Michigan, sitting by designation. 1 Case: 08-3376 Document: 00617170790 Filed: 11/09/2009 Page: 2 No. 08-3376 Al-Ghorbani v. Holder Page 2 General Abu Taleb, a high-ranking military officer. The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) initiated removal proceedings against the brothers in 2003. At a hearing before an Immigration Judge (IJ), the brothers petitioned for a grant of asylum, the withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture (CAT).
    [Show full text]
  • Holy Coverings in the Tareq Rajab Museum the Origin of the Tradition of Covering the Ka'aba with Cloth Is Lost In
    About the journal Contents 02 18 April 2011 The Journey to the Centre Aly Gabr 09 9 May 2011 China and the Islamic World: The evidence of 12th and 13th century Northern Syria Martine Muller-Weiner 22 26 September 2011 Holy Coverings in the Tareq Rajab Museum Ziad T Alsayed Rajab 27 17 October 2011 A Brief History of the Ismaili D’awa Adel Salem al-Abdul Jader 31 28 November 2011 The Kingdom of Saba: Current Research by the German Archaeological Institute in South Arabia (Yemen) Iris Gerlach 38 5 December 2011 The Oriental Pearl in the Maritime Trade Annie Montigny 43 13 December 2011 Raili and Reima Pietilä Jarno Paltonen 49 9 January 2012 Islamic Heritage in Bosnia and Herzegovina Kenan Musić This publication is sponsored in part by: LNS 1785 J Fabricated from gold, worked in kundan technique and set with rubies and emeralds Height 9 mm; diameter 100 mm India, Mughal, c. 1st quarter 17th century AD Hadeeth ad-Dar 1 Volume 37 The Journey to the Centre be performed in congregation in a mosque although as opposed to a physical one, meaning that he the whole earth that we know is a potential place for employed his intuition with what he dealt with. the performance of that daily activity. This notion He saw himself as a tripartite being composed of makes the earth a potential vast mosque. body (jism), soul (nafs), and spirit (rouh). Without the union of these three parts he believed he/ I am sure that the question arises in some of she would be demeaned in his/her existence and your minds: does God really expects us to show unbalanced.
    [Show full text]
  • Coloured Dots and the Question of Regional Origins in Early Qur'ans: Part II', Journal of Qur’Anic Studies, Vol
    Edinburgh Research Explorer Coloured dots and the question of regional origins in early Qur'ans Citation for published version: George, A 2015, 'Coloured dots and the question of regional origins in early Qur'ans: Part II', Journal of Qur’anic Studies, vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 75-102. https://doi.org/10.3366/jqs.2015.0196 Digital Object Identifier (DOI): 10.3366/jqs.2015.0196 Link: Link to publication record in Edinburgh Research Explorer Document Version: Peer reviewed version Published In: Journal of Qur’anic Studies General rights Copyright for the publications made accessible via the Edinburgh Research Explorer is retained by the author(s) and / or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing these publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. Take down policy The University of Edinburgh has made every reasonable effort to ensure that Edinburgh Research Explorer content complies with UK legislation. If you believe that the public display of this file breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 26. Sep. 2021 Coloured dots and the question of regional origins in early Qurʾans: Part II Part I of the present article (Journal of Qurʾanic Studies, 17:1) began with a summary of remarks about regional patterns of vocalisation offered by the Andalusī scholar of the Qurʾan al-Dānī (371-444/982-1053), primarily in al-Muḥkam fī naqṭ al-maṣāḥif. These assertions were then confronted with extant manuscripts of the third to fourth/ninth to tenth centuries that can be ascribed to the broad region between Syria, Iraq and Iran.
    [Show full text]
  • KT 3-4-2014 Layout 1
    SUBSCRIPTION THURSDAY, APRIL 3, 2014 JAMADA ALTHANI 3, 1435 AH www.kuwaittimes.net Kuwait, Chileans Qatar emir Real overwhelm NATO to return homes visits Sudan Dortmund as strengthen after huge at time of Ronaldo equals cooperation5 quake kills7 6 Gulf15 tensions scoring20 record Commercial Bank votes to Max 22º become sharia-compliant Min 16º High Tide 02:27 & 13:46 Most shareholders approve conversion to Islamic banking Low Tide 08:16 & 20:53 40 PAGES NO: 16124 150 FILS KUWAIT: Commercial Bank of Kuwait (also known Basel III,” Mousa disclosed. conspiracy theories as Al-Tijari) announced yesterday it will convert On the financial results of 2013, Mousa affirmed from a conventional bank to a sharia-compliant the bank’s commitment to the principles of corpo- one. The decision was approved by a majority of 85 rate governance in all its policies and activities that It’s not a percent of the shareholders who attended ordi- are subject to constant revision. “The shareholders’ nary and extraordinary meetings of the general equity in the bank grew by 1.8 percent to KD 562 one-man show assembly, Board Chairman Ali Mousa Al-Mousa million compared to the previous year, the third announced. largest in Kuwait. The total value of assets grew by “Although the majority of the shareholders vot- 7.1 percent year on year to KD 3.9 billion, the fifth ed for the move which was on the top of the agen- largest in the country’s banking sector,” Mousa said. da of the ordinary meeting, the decision does not The bank’s operating and net profits hit KD 102 take effect immediately - it is just a first step in a million and KD 23.5 million respectively in 2013, By Badrya Darwish legal process involving several studies and he added.
    [Show full text]
  • Together… One World
    Volume No. 7 January - February 2016 Issue No. 1 From the Editor’s desk… Let’s contribute to making this world a peaceful and happy place. We have, as part of our journey in this endeavour, presented to you a brief on 25 countries (one from each alphabet, except X). We hope you learn more about the planet we live in. I thank all contributors from each of the Sanmartini teams in making this very special to us. When you’re down and out, there seems no hope at all But if you just believe there’s no way we can fall Let us realize that a change can only come When we stand together as one! Michael Jackson & Lionel Richie – ‘We Are The World’ Together… One World All the best for 2016. A American Samoa Capital: Pago Pago Currency: US Dollar Language: Samoan It’s a subconscious truth that the happiest moments of our life often reside in the minute and unrecognised things. It goes true for countries as well where some of the people still live by their Did You Know? values and cherish them but aren’t so recognised in the modern • The only animals on the islands world. One such country is American Samoa, home of a small are rats, snakes and a few birds. group of Polynesians residing in Samoan islands. American • In Samoa, young men are in Samoa consists of five main islands and two coral atolls. This charge of the food - including wonderful community (That’s right – the whole country is the gathering and the cooking.
    [Show full text]
  • Masterpieces from the Department of Islamic Art in the Metropolitan Museum of Art
    MASTERPIECES from the Department of Islamic Art in The Metropolitan Museum of Art EDITED BY Maryam D. Ekhtiar, Priscilla P. Soucek, Sheila R. Canby, and Navina Najat Haidar The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Distributed by Yale University Press, New Haven and London This catalogue is published in conjunction with the reopening of the Galleries for Copyright © 2011 by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York the Art of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and Later South Asia on November 1, 2011. First printing, 2011 This publication is made possible through the generous support of Sharmin and All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani. any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in Published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York writing from the publishers. Mark Polizzotti, Publisher and Editor in Chief Gwen Roginsky, Associate Publisher and General Manager of Publications The Metropolitan Museum of Art Peter Antony, Chief Production Manager 1000 Fifth Avenue Michael Sittenfeld, Managing Editor New York, New York 10028 Robert Weisberg, Assistant Managing Editor metmuseum.org Edited by Cynthia Clark and Margaret Donovan Distributed by Designed by Bruce Campbell Yale University Press, New Haven and London Bibliography by Penny Jones yalebooks.com/art Production by Jennifer Van Dalsen yalebooks.co.uk Map by Anandaroop Roy Floor plans by Brian Cha
    [Show full text]
  • Kuwait Fire Brigade Visits KNES 6:00 Pm to 8:30 Pm
    WHAT’S ON SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2014 Greetings rjun Renjith Pillai celebrated his fourth birthday on Feb 7. Happy belated birth- Aday wishes! Best wishes from Renjith, Smitha, Achachan, Ammamma, Achamma, Ammavan, Ammayi and Kannan Chettan. TIES Center - Where cultures meet n cooperation with the Albanian embassy, the TIES Center will be hosting an Albanian cultural day. The Iactivities will include a presentation about tourism and life in Albania, recitation of poetry related to the country’s rich traditions, a gallery of photos, and some delicious tra- ditional food. This event promises to be exciting, educa- tional, and entertaining. When? Thursday, February 13 from Kuwait Fire Brigade visits KNES 6:00 pm to 8:30 pm. he young children of Kuwait National English School (KNES) Early Years had a thrilling day when the Kuwait Fire Brigade visited recently. The children were excited all day and the distinguished visitors helped inform our young pupils of the safety precautions necessary to avert disaster. They were very patient with the Early Years children and showed them Liberation Village Tall the equipment used in their dangerous jobs as fire fighters. Our deepest thanks to the firemen that keep us safe and take the time to educate others. Festival at AUK he International Relations Club (IRC) at the American University of Kuwait (AUK) is organizing an event this Tweek titled “The Liberation Village”, during which lectures will be held over the three days of the event, where the subjects of Kuwaiti foreign policy, how the invasion changed Kuwaiti society, and the role of Kuwaiti women in Kuwaiti society will be addressed.
    [Show full text]
  • Mehri and Hobyot Spoken in Oman and in Yemen Marie-Claude Simeone-Senelle
    Mehri and Hobyot spoken in Oman and in Yemen Marie-Claude Simeone-Senelle To cite this version: Marie-Claude Simeone-Senelle. Mehri and Hobyot spoken in Oman and in Yemen. 2010. halshs- 00907743 HAL Id: halshs-00907743 https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00907743 Preprint submitted on 21 Nov 2013 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. MEHRI AND HOBYOT SPOKEN IN OMAN AND YEMEN Marie-Claude SIMEONE-SENELLE (CNRS. France) [email protected] INTRODUCTION In the South of the Arabian Peninsula in the Sultanate of Oman and in the Republic of the Yemen, live about 200,000 Arabs whose maternal tongue is not Arabic but one of the six so- 1 called Modern South Arabian Languages (= MSAL). Mehri, Harsusi [ħarsūsi], Bathari 2 [baṭħari], Hobyot [hōbyyt], Jibbali [ǧibbāli], and SoqoTri [sḳʌ́ṭri]. Only Mehri and Hobyot are spoken in the two countries. Except Soqotri spoken only in the Yemenite islands of Soqoṭra, ‘Abd-el-Kūri and Samħa, all others are spoken in Oman. The six MSAL within the Afro-Asiatic family belong, like Arabic, to the Western Semitic group. More precisely they are included in the Western Southern Semitic sub-group.
    [Show full text]
  • Groundwater Governance in the Middle East and North Africa
    This is an IWMI project publication – “Groundwater governance in the Arab World – Taking Stock and addressing the challenges” This publication was made possible through support provided by the Middle East Regional Platform, U.S. Agency for International Development, under the terms of Award AID-263- IO-13-00005. DISCLAIMER The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of IWMI, the U.S. Agency for International Development or the United States government. Cover photo credit: Wafa Ghazouani (Tunisia). 2 Table of contents Foreword ............................................................................................................................... 9 Section 1. Groundwater governance in the MENA region Part 1. Groundwater resources, use, and governance in the MENA region 1 Morocco ........................................................................................................................13 1.1 Groundwater resources and abstraction in Morocco .................................................... 13 1.2 Legislation to regulate groundwater abstraction in Morocco........................................ 16 1.3 Enforcement difficulties and perverse incentives .......................................................... 18 1.4 The 'Aquifer contract' as a groundwater regulatory tool in Morocco ........................... 20 1.5 Groundwater abstraction in the Souss Region, Morocco .............................................. 21 1.5.1 Groundwater management and the ‘contrat
    [Show full text]
  • An Analysis of Dubai's Socio
    AN ANALYSIS OF DUBAI’S SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES AND PERFORMANCE BETWEEN 1998 ----2008 DOCTOR OF LITERATURE AND PHILOSOPHY in the subject of DEVELOPMENT STUDIES at the UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA PROMOTER: Professor Sabelo J Ndlovu-Gatsheni NOVEMBER 2013 Declaration I, Paul Anthony Thompson, author of this thesis, do hereby declare that the work presented in this document entitled: “An ANALYSIS OF DUBAI’S SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES AND PERFORMANCE BETWEEN 1998 AND 2008”, is a result of my own research and independent work except where reference is made to published literature. I also hereby certify that the work embodied in this thesis has not already been submitted, either in whole or in part, for any other degree in this University or other institute of higher learning. ........................................... ………………………. PAUL A. THOMPSON DATE ……………………………….. ……………………. PROMOTER DATE i Acknowledgements First and foremost and above all, honour and glory to Lord Jesus for giving me the requisite knowledge, wisdom, and persistence needed to complete this thesis. I would also like to express my sincere thanks to my supervisor, Professor Sabelo J Ndlovu-Gatsheni for his constant professional insightful guidance and constructive comments on the quality of my work throughout the research project. I wish to also thank the many interviewees who consented to being interviewed and special gratitude goes out the librarian at the Dubai Chamber of Commerce for responding to my many emails and also speaking to me over the telephone without any reservation regarding the many thesis related questions I had. I also would like to acknowledge the kind assistance rendered to me by the librarian at the Dubai Statistics Centre.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 Jerome Jacobsen Mahtomedi High School Mahtomedi, MN Yemen
    Jerome Jacobsen Mahtomedi High School Mahtomedi, MN Yemen, Factor 2 Global Cooperative to Build Water Infrastructure in Yemen “Under a staircase, clinging to a wall of Sana'a's Grand Mosque, groups of women and children lug plastic canisters to the leaky spigots of a public fountain. Small children struggle with canisters as they weave slowly between the fountain and the pushcarts used to wheel the water back home (Time).” Whether in cities or rural villages throughout Yemen, this is how millions of Yemenis obtain their water supply. In a country where water is almost never available, free public fountains are the only option for most, as very few can afford to pay the sky-high price for water. Water scarcity is becoming a chronic and debilitating problem for all of Yemen. On average, each Yemeni has access to a mere 140 cubic meters of water per year for all of their needs. This is less than fifteen percent of the Middle East water access average (Time). The threat of Yemen running dry grows nearer and nearer with every passing day. Streams and aquifers are growing shallower. The water table has fallen far below sustainable levels. The capital city, Sana’a’s water table was thirty meters below the surface in the late 1970s; it has now fallen to below 1,200 meters below the surface in some areas (Time). Experts estimate that Yemenis are using water that fell to the earth over 8,000 years ago. Making the situation worse is the exploding population of Yemen. Sana’a has the fastest growing population of any capital city, growing at seven percent a year.
    [Show full text]
  • Pre-Islamic Arabia 1 Pre-Islamic Arabia
    Pre-Islamic Arabia 1 Pre-Islamic Arabia Pre-Islamic Arabia refers to the Arabic civilization which existed in the Arabian Plate before the rise of Islam in the 630s. The study of Pre-Islamic Arabia is important to Islamic studies as it provides the context for the development of Islam. Studies The scientific studies of Pre-Islamic Arabs starts with the Arabists of the early 19th century when they managed to decipher epigraphic Old South Arabian (10th century BCE), Ancient North Arabian (6th century BCE) and other writings of pre-Islamic Arabia, so it is no longer limited to the written traditions which are not local due to the lack of surviving Arab historians Nabataean trade routes in Pre-Islamic Arabia accounts of that era, so it is compensated by existing material consists primarily of written sources from other traditions (such as Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, etc.) so it was not known in great detail; From the 3rd century CE, Arabian history becomes more tangible with the rise of the Himyarite Kingdom, and with the appearance of the Qahtanites in the Levant and the gradual assimilation of the Nabataeans by the Qahtanites in the early centuries CE, a pattern of expansion exceeded in the explosive Muslim conquests of the 7th century. So sources of history includes archaeological evidence, foreign accounts and oral traditions later recorded by Islamic scholars especially pre-Islamic poems and al-hadith plus a number of ancient Arab documents that survived to the medieval times and portions of them were cited or recorded. Archaeological exploration in the Arabian Peninsula has been sparse but fruitful, many ancient sites were identified by modern excavations.
    [Show full text]