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In my History of Islam classes there was some review of Pre-Islamic Arabia and a few things were covered, from my class notes we talked about: Arabia being a part of the major trade route along the Red Sea Coast, from southern Palestine to Yemen. Medina and Mecca were located along this route, Mecca was the more important city where caravans stopped and ...

Omar occurs also in the bible Genesis 36:11 The sons of Eliphaz: Teman, Omar, Zepho, Gatam and Kenaz. Genesis 36:15: These were the chiefs among Esau's descendants: The sons of Eliphaz the firstborn of Esau: Chiefs Teman, Omar, Zepho, Kenaz, Chronicles 1:36 - same as Genesis 36:11 The sons of Eliphaz: Teman, Omar, Zepho, Gatam and Kenaz;

In this web posting by Charles Kent Smith, former president of the American Names Society, he claims the popularity of Omar as the name of Americans in the 19th century (as in Omar Bradley) is due to the popularity of poems like the Rubaiyat. They are named after the famed poet Omar Khayyam, much the same way the names Homer or Milton or Virgil came into ...

From what I have been able to research, numerous sources such as this and this trace back rap to the griots of pre-colonial, western Africa. Griots were essentially poets and bards who communicated history and political messages through song. According to the article "Politics of Diaspora: Sahwari poets and postcolonial transformations of a trans-Saharan ...

Short answer Pre-Islamic Arabians were polytheistic, worshiping 360 gods; the chief god was the moon-god. They later became monotheistic because of Muhammad. Long answer In 1944, Gertrude Caton-Thompson (1888-1885), an influential English archaeologist, discovered a temple of the moon-god in southern Arabia. The symbols of the crescent moon and no less ...

There were sadly few writers of the Arab world who wrote in French until 1945. There were, however, lots of French writers who wrote about the Arab culture. My preferred one is René Guénon, also known as Shaykh `Abd al-Wahid Yahya. On the other side, the French culture influenced a lot of francophile writers. In Lebanon nowadays a lot of writers write in ...

I have recently written an answer to the question you have linked. There I explain in detail how, alongside preexisting polytheistic religions, the Arabic Peninsula was largely monopolized by Judaism and Christianity by the 5th century. The structure of religious belief was then not different from that of other countries of the time. By the 6th century, ...

This is a homework-style question and should be tagged as such. That said, comparing the wiki articles for the 2011 Egyptian Revolution and the Russian Revolution, we can come up with a few basic differences. One key difference is the scale and scope of the results. For instance, Wikipedia notes some of the concessions given in 2011: Ouster of President ...

While there are many similarities in the causes (high unemployment, poverty, a feeling of opression from the regime etc.), the mechanics are somewhat different. I would say that in the Russian revolution of 1917, the people had a leader, an elite, and an ideology of how the state should be after the revolution. While it is true, in hindsight, that the ...

I take your question as "just before the advent of Muhammad." Therefore I will not delve into ancient history, and limit the answer to late-antiquity and early Middle Ages. First of all we have to note that people in the Arabic Peninsula could (and can) be divided geographically between the (mostly) arid North (notwithstanding oases and narrow coastal ...

In Libya they completely ousted the regime and they are in an intermediate phase towards implementing democracy. In Egypt they namely ousted the official dictator, but de facto nothing changed: the military are still in power and are oppressing the people much more than before. The protesters must certainly hope to somehow remove the military from power.

The major causes of the Bolshevik revolution can be seen in their two most popular slogans "All power to the Soviets" and "Peace, Bread, and Land". The Russian revolution was in some ways a conclusion of previous revolutions in Russia (1898, 1905, the March 1917 revolution) in that the peasants still did not have control over their land and the industrial ...

The main difference is that we know more than 300% of information on the Russian revolution and its consequences. (Everything in 3 or more versions). And we know nothing about the Egyptian revolution and its consequences. Hmm.. One little problem. In Russia in 1917 there were two revolutions. Absolutely different, nothing in common. Which one are you ...

I'd put it down to zeal - the Rashidun Muslim armies were literally fearless and welcomed death. Any reference to Muslim armies of the period by Rome/Persia noted their fearlessness. There was a strong sense of camaraderie down command chain, in that the lower ranks of soldiers knew what they were fighting for. Compare this to the Persian system which ...

A good point of departure is the wiki page on the Rashidun Army, which gives an overview of early Islamic infantry and cavalry. Also, the Military Legacy section of the Khalid ibn al-Walid wiki entry has some great info on the organization and makeup of his armies. The "Mobile Guard" is especially famous - the exceptionally quick Islamic light cavalry.

Libya: Gaddafi was ousted from power and killed. Most of his sons (heirs) are in captivity or dead. Right now, the interim government is still trying to find its place. There are still conflicts going on. Libya is a tribal country, and there are reports of cells of Gaddafi loyalists still fighting on. The situation there is still very fragile and hard to ...