Download or read book History of the Moorish Empire in Europe Complete written by Samuel Parsons Scott and published by Library of Alexandria. This book was released on with total page 2589 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Few countries of the globe present to the eye of the traveller so desolate, so forbidding an aspect as that vast and arid peninsula which, embracing an area of more than a million square miles, stretches away through twenty-four degrees of latitude, from the confines of the Syrian Desert to the shores of the Indian Ocean. Its surface, while far from possessing the monotonous character with which popular fancy is accustomed to invest it, is, for the greater part of its extent, destitute of those physical advantages which tempt either the cupidity or the enterprise of man. Its coasts are low and unhealthy. Its harbors are few and unsafe. Its mineral resources are to this day unexplored and unknown. Its impenetrable deserts, guarded by a fierce and martial population, have always set at defiance the best-matured plans of invasion and conquest. In the principality of Yemen, appropriately named The Happy, the cultivation of the soil has flourished from time immemorial, but in almost every other province the returns of agricultural labor are discouraging and unremunerative. Illimitable wastes of sand, over which sweeps the deadly blast of the simoom; mountains, bald, craggy, and volcanic, whose slopes are destitute of every trace of vegetable life; plains strewn with blocks of tufa and basalt; valleys dotted here and there with stunted shrubs, or encrusted with a saline deposit similar to that upon the shores of the Dead Sea; a soil impregnated with nitre; such are, and have been from prehistoric times, the physical features of the Arabian Peninsula. No stream worthy of the name of river, dispensing wealth and fertility in its winding course to the sea, flows through this dreary and inhospitable land. Wherever a spring was found, a permanent settlement arose, and the black tents of the Bedouin gave place to huts of sun-dried bricks, while the dignity of the sheik, who now aspired to the title of prince, was satisfied with a dwelling superior to those of his subjects only in point of size. The oasis, generally suggestive of shady groves and purling streams, is often, in reality, nothing more than the dry bed of a mountain torrent, along whose borders a little withered vegetation furnishes the hardy camel with pasture, and where a scanty supply of brackish water can, by laborious digging, be obtained. Overhead glitters a sky of brass, unflecked by a single cloud, and, morning and evening, the rays of the sun, mellowed and refracted by the vapors of the earth, clothe every elevation with scarlet, azure, and violet tints which, blended in exquisite harmony, rival the splendors of the rainbow; developing, under the effects of radiation, optical illusions and charming pictures of the mirage, attributed by superstitious ignorance to the influence of enchantment. The unbroken stillness of the Desert, the wide expanse of uninhabited territory, produce a sense of mental depression, accompanied by an apprehension of danger from the convulsions of nature and the violence of man, which no experience seems able to remove; affecting even the sturdy camel-driver, familiar with these solitudes from childhood, who shudders as he urges his string of panting beasts over the drifted sand-heaps and through the mountain fastness, the reputed haunt of evil genii and the vantage ground from whence the murderous banditti oft beset the caravan. So deeply-rooted and tenacious is this feeling that the Arab regards a journey successfully performed as just cause for congratulation, and indeed not inferior to a triumph, as is indicated by his familiar proverb, “Travel is a victory.”
Download or read book Mecca the Blessed Medina the Radiant Bilingual written by Seyyed Hossein Nasr and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 2015-11-24 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mecca the Blessed, Medina the Radiant is an unprecedented photographic exploration of the most holy cities of Islam and the Hajj, or annual pilgrimage during Ramadan, when more than a million faithful journey to Mecca's Great Mosque to commemorate the first revelation of the Qur'an (Koran). This book allows both Muslims and those unfamiliar with the Islamic faith complete access to the holiest sites of one of the world's major religions, practiced by a quarter of the world's population but often misunderstood in the West. Photographer Ali Kazuyoshi Namachi, a Muslim convert from Japan, garnered the full support of Saudi Arabian authorities--rarely given--to shoot in cities where photography is strictly controlled and non-Muslims are not allowed. An expansive work of photojournalism, Mecca the Blessed, Medina the Radiant includes: 140 full-color, never-before-seen photographs Mystical places and scenes of Islam Breathtaking aerial photographs of the Arabian terrain Vistas of teeming crowds of worshippers surrounding the Kacbah, Mecca's sacred center Intense portraits of faithful Muslims in prayer Magnificent architecture reflecting the faith of the believers Archival illustrations Text by Seyyed Hossein Nasr, one of the most highly regarded scholars of Islam, enhances the stunning Islamic holy city photographs to illuminate many aspects of Islamic belief that have remained enigma to non-Muslims--until now.
Download or read book The Day Kadi Lost Part of Her Life written by Kim Manresa and published by Spinifex Press. This book was released on 1998 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This photostory gives an account of the day Kadi undergoes the tradition of female circumcision. It follows her through the day as she goes about her daily chores before she is taken by the circumciser.
Download or read book Mauritania Oasis Development Project written by United States. Agency for International Development and published by . This book was released on 1980 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Merriam Webster s Geographical Dictionary written by Merriam-Webster, Inc and published by Merriam-Webster. This book was released on 1997 with total page 1402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive source of geographical, economic, historical, and political information. Over 54,000 entries and 250 maps. Includes information on continents, countries, regions, cities, historical sites, and natural features. Provides pronunciations and variant spellings.
Download or read book Women Power and Ethnicity written by Patricia S.E. Darlington and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-06-03 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Powerful women aren't just men walking around in dresses! As women continue to assume positions of social leadership in increasing numbers, the dynamics of the social construction of power need to be examined. Have women adopted traditionally male patterns of behavior in an effort to gain and maintain power in business, industry, politics, academics, etc.? And if not, what kind of power are women practicing? The authors of Women, Power, and Ethnicity: Working Toward Reciprocal Empowerment endeavored to find out by conducting a research study on how women from various racial and ethnic backgrounds compare and contrast the attributes associated with existing power paradigms (traditional, empowerment, personal authority) with an alternate model of power--reciprocal empowerment. Reciprocal empowerment is a discursive and behavioral style of interaction grounded in reciprocity initiated by people who feel a sense of personal authority. Reciprocal empowerment enables people with mutual self-interests to rise above obstacles based on social and political structures and to use personal authority to discuss and act on issues openly and honestly in order to effect change. Using a qualitative methodology, Women, Power, and Ethnicity includes the results of surveys and interviews with women from seven different ethnic groups in the United States to determine if the concept or reciprocal empowerment resonates with them. The answer: Yes! Women, Power, and Ethnicity is organized by surveys and interview findings on women from seven cultural groups living in the United States (African, Asian, Caribbean, European, Latin, Middle Eastern, Native American). Each chapter includes: analyses of ethnographic findings, surveys, and interviews concise historical information effects of immigration, where applicable tables and diagrams direct quotes and much more! Women, Power, and Ethnicity examines women's attitudes toward power in several social forums--home, job, religion, politics, and society in general. The book is an essential resource for teachers and students of communication studies, women studies, gender studies, ethnic studies, and social sciences.
Download or read book The Kingdom of Waalo written by Boubacar Barry and published by Diasporic Africa Press. This book was released on 2017-10-26 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Situated along the Senegal River, the Kingdom of Waalo was the smallest of the Wolof states of Senegal, but it illustrates the broader consequences of a shift from trans-Saharan to trans-Atlantic commerce during a time of competing European, Muslim, and indigenous African forces. From the establishment of a French trading post in 1659 to the early nineteenth century, the history of Waalo was closely tied to French interests in St. Louis, popular revolutionary Islamic movements, and internal rivalries between competing royal families and provincial leaders. Stimulating Waalo's socio-political changes were the devastations and fluctuations of the Atlantic slave trade, as well as the Muslim attack on its aristocracy. Torn by internal divisions, devastated by French and Berber incursions, Waalo's institutions and its economy declined. Residents of Waalo sought their own solutions only for external agents to ruin their efforts. By the nineteenth century, the French attempted to establish a plantation economy in Waalo, culminating in their military control of the state and the Senegal valley. This newly translated study is a vital tool in our understanding of Senegal's history, its place in the era of trans-Saharan and trans-Atlantic commerce, and its development into the present. The book should be of value to African studies scholars, anthropologists, and historians of Africa, colonialism, empire, and post-colonialism.
Download or read book Emerging Infectious Diseases written by and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 1154 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book National Geographic Family Reference Atlas of the World written by National Geographic Society (U.S.) and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2010 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive world atlas covering all aspects of the Earth with over 1000 maps and illustrations.
Download or read book Why Civil Resistance Works written by Erica Chenoweth and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2011-08-09 with total page 451 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For more than a century, from 1900 to 2006, campaigns of nonviolent resistance were more than twice as effective as their violent counterparts in achieving their stated goals. By attracting impressive support from citizens, whose activism takes the form of protests, boycotts, civil disobedience, and other forms of nonviolent noncooperation, these efforts help separate regimes from their main sources of power and produce remarkable results, even in Iran, Burma, the Philippines, and the Palestinian Territories. Combining statistical analysis with case studies of specific countries and territories, Erica Chenoweth and Maria J. Stephan detail the factors enabling such campaigns to succeed and, sometimes, causing them to fail. They find that nonviolent resistance presents fewer obstacles to moral and physical involvement and commitment, and that higher levels of participation contribute to enhanced resilience, greater opportunities for tactical innovation and civic disruption (and therefore less incentive for a regime to maintain its status quo), and shifts in loyalty among opponents' erstwhile supporters, including members of the military establishment. Chenoweth and Stephan conclude that successful nonviolent resistance ushers in more durable and internally peaceful democracies, which are less likely to regress into civil war. Presenting a rich, evidentiary argument, they originally and systematically compare violent and nonviolent outcomes in different historical periods and geographical contexts, debunking the myth that violence occurs because of structural and environmental factors and that it is necessary to achieve certain political goals. Instead, the authors discover, violent insurgency is rarely justifiable on strategic grounds.
Download or read book Essentials of Sociology written by George Ritzer and published by SAGE Publications. This book was released on 2016-01-12 with total page 1397 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Join the conversation with one of sociology’s best-known thinkers. Essentials of Sociology, Second Edition adapted from George Ritzer’s Introduction to Sociology, Third Edition, provides the same rock-solid foundation in a shorter and more streamlined format. Like the original Ritzer text, Essentials of Sociology illuminates traditional sociological concepts and theories, and focuses on some of the most compelling contemporary social phenomena: globalization, consumer culture, the Internet, and the “McDonaldization” of society. As technology flattens the globe, students are challenged to apply a sociological perspective to their world, and to see how “public” sociologists are engaging with the critical issues of today.
Download or read book Webster s New Geographical Dictionary written by and published by Springfield, Mass. : G. & C. Merriam Company. This book was released on 1972 with total page 1412 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Provides basic information on continents, countries, regions, and cities within alphabetical entries and accompanying maps.
Download or read book The Quarterly Index Islamicus written by and published by . This book was released on 1986 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Muslims beyond the Arab World written by Fallou Ngom and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016-06-01 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Muslims beyond the Arab World explores the vibrant tradition of writing African languages using the modified Arabic script ('Ajami) alongside the rise of the Muridiyya Sufi order in Senegal. The book demonstrates how the development of the 'Ajami literary tradition is entwined with the flourishing of the Muridiyya into one of sub-Saharan Africa's most powerful and dynamic Sufi organizations. It offers a close reading of the rich hagiographic and didactic written, recited, and chanted 'Ajami texts of the Muridiyya, works largely unknown to scholars. The texts describe the life and Sufi odyssey of the order's founder, Shaykh Ahmadu Bamba Mbakke (1853-1927),his conflicts with local rulers and Muslim clerics and the French colonial administration, and the traditions and teachings he championed that permanently shaped the identity and behaviors of his followers. Fallou Ngom evaluates prevailing representations of the Muridiyya movement and offers alternative perspectives. He demonstrates how the Mur?ds used their written, recited, and chanted 'Ajami materials as an effective mass communication tool in conveying to the masses Bamba's poignant odyssey, doctrine, the virtues he stood for and cultivated among his followers-self-esteem, self-reliance, strong faith, work ethic, pursuit of excellence, determination, nonviolence, and optimism in the face of adversity-without the knowledge of the French colonial administration and many academics. Muslims beyond the Arab World argues that this is the source of the resilience, appeal, and expansion of Muridiyya, which has fascinated observers since its inception in 1883.
Download or read book JPRS Report written by and published by . This book was released on 1991 with total page 100 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Trans Saharan Book Trade written by Graziano Krätli and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2011 with total page 441 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Concerned with the history of scholarly production, book markets and trans-Saharan exchanges in Muslim African (primarily western and northern Africa), as well as the creation of manuscript libraries, this book consists of a collection of twelve essays that examine these issues from an interdisciplinary perspective.
