Tag Archives: History
The Inception of Dotting and Diacritics in Arabic Posted by Ibnulyemen اِبْنُ اليَمَن on Aug 17, 2017
During the early days of Islam, Arabic scripts had neither dots nor diacritics. As illustrated in the Table (1), a word with neither of these typographic features had multiple meanings. Figuring out what it meant depended primarily on Arabs’ intuition, memory, and the context. By the time of fourth Caliphate, Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib…
Graffiti of the Egyptian Revolution Posted by aziza on Apr 23, 2017
In a previous post, I wrote an introduction to the art of Arabic graffiti. In this post, I write about the relationship between graffiti and the Egyptian revolution. The Caption of this image says: There is a martyr inside me Due to the social and political nature of graffiti, it played a very important role in…
Is Syria’s History Beyond Saving? (2) Posted by jesa on Nov 21, 2015
Marhaba! I am certain all of you were as moved as I was after reading this article about the condition of ruins in Syria. It is very unfortunate that Syria’s most important ruins are being either destroyed or smuggled and sold in different black markets. How will our children ever be able to walk around…
Sibawayh Posted by aziza on Dec 19, 2014
In this post, we get to know a very famous grammarian of the Arabic language. He is the author of the first grammar of Arabic. Abū Bishr ʿAmr ibn ʿUthmān ibn Qanbar Al-Baṣrī (أبو بشر عمرو بن عثمان بن قنبر البصري), commonly known as Sībawayh (سيبويه), was an influential grammarian of the Arabic language. His seminal work…
What Should You Know about the Arab Spring? Posted by jesa on Oct 14, 2014
Marhaba! Millions of Arabs took to the streets and toppled what they viewed as authoritarian and unrepresentative regimes (أنظمة). With the plethora of news outlets reporting from Tunisia (تونس), Egypt (مصر), and Libya (ليبيا) during the high tide of the ongoing revolutions (ثورات), it is impossible not to have seen a glimpse of these protests…
A new state is being born Posted by aziza on Nov 30, 2012
Today, the UN General Assembly has voted to grant the Palestinians the status of non-member observer state (دولة مراقب غير عضو). 138 member states voted in favour (لصالح), while 9 voted against (ضد), with 41 nations abstaining (امتنعت). This is a great day for the Palestinian people, as it is a step forward on the way…
Alexandria – Olden Days Posted by aziza on Oct 12, 2010
In this post, I write about my home town. Alexandria (الإسكندرية) is the second-largest city in Egypt, and is the country’s largest seaport, serving approximately 80% of Egypt’s imports and exports. Alexandria is also an important tourist resort. Alexandria extends about 32 km along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in north-central Egypt. It is…