100th and final Post (for now, at least)

1987 to 2001 in the United Arab Emirates, the Middle East, Israel, the US and Lebanon

Chapter 19 concerns Fisk’s interest in the truth behind the 30 years of murder and mayhem he has witnessed in the Muslim world perpetrated against, and often by, Muslims – the economics of the international arms trade directed at the Islamic world, especially for the West. Fisk finally focuses on his investigation into the provenance of and responsibility for the use of the seven year old Boeing or Lockheed “Hellfire” anti-armour Air-to-Ground missile first deployed for use by US Marines in the 1991 Gulf War fired from an Israeli helicopter in 1996 into an ambulance full of civilians that killed two women and four children in southern Lebanon.

1975 to 2005 in the Middle East especially around his base of Beirut so Syria, Palestine and Jordan

Chapter 20 is a reflection on changes of the guard that have occurred in his thirty years of reporting in Northern Ireland, Yugoslavia and the Middle East. His parents died, king Hussein of Jordan died, president Hafez Assad died and he and his friends grew older and wiser and some died (but the oppressions of the Middle East, he argues, continue as if in a time warp).

1918 to 2001 in the Middle East, Libya, the USA and Afghanistan

Chapter 21 (Why?) is concerned, at bottom, with the ‘reasons’ for the 9/11 atrocity. It also asks why the US reacted as it did by repeating many of the mistakes already made so many times in the past century by ‘Western Powers’, especially the US and the UK.

2002 to 2003 in Afghanistan, the UN and Iraq

Chapter 22 is concerned with the “War on Terror” as it continued to affect Afghanistan in 2002 and began to affect Iraq beginning with Bush’s 12 September 2002 address to the UN General Assembly. Fisk intertwines the story of the “Tripartite Aggression” (or Suez Crisis) of 1956 as another example of the British will to war, deception and propaganda.

2003 in Iraq

Chapter 23 tells the story of the first 2003 bombardments and invasion of Iraq by the ‘Allies’.

2003 to 2006 in Iraq

Chapter 24 concludes the story of post-Saddam Iraq up until the Northern Summer of 2006. Fisk also notes the circumstances surrounding the death of his friends, including Rafiq al-Hariri virtually before his eyes on the Beirut Corniche, and of others. He also discusses the situation in Algeria, Israel, Lebanon, Afghanistan and the rest of the Middle East further before concluding that we may all inevitably be victims of the ‘history’ of our forefathers as our descendents will be victims of our ‘history’.

All in all, Fisk presents a slew of unpleasant facts that don’t exactly redound to the credit of Western ‘Allies’. He occasionally writes obtusely but also occasionally makes salient points about Middle Eastern history and current affairs. Most importantly, his contribution is of those facts that we must not ignore.

Part 4

c. 2000 to late 2002 in Israel/Palestine (Part III)

Chapter Thirteen continues the Palestinian story. The author professes to not be able to understand the mentality of either various Israeli Jews or various Palestinian Arabs. He also notes he can understand the general struggle but only as a vicious circle but that there are voices of reason among at least two Jewish women writing about and living in Gaza and Lebanon. As usual, he professes to regard Israeli settlements as illegal with the implication that they must end in order for peace to be possible. He notes the feeling he had soon before 9/11 that an Arab ‘explosion’ was imminent and concludes with the Sharon story including his use of that event as an excuse for his brutal reoccupation of the West bank in 2002. His comparison of Sharon's struggle with that of the French in Algeria leads to the author’s next chapter on Algeria.

1827 to 2004 in Algeria

Chapter Fourteen contains a map of northern Algeria. Fisk outlines the French pretext for occupation from 1830, the initial resistance, the story of the 1956 to 1962 war of independence and that of the ten year ‘holy’ war by FIS against the FLN government and the military that began in 1992 linking all the pieces together. The clearly brutal and genocidal (at a magnitude of 200,000 souls) Sunni-on-Sunni killing spree engaged in between the many Islamist and other elements including the various government factions for those ten years has apparently been appallingly followed, he notes, by recent cooperation between US Special Forces and the Government of Algeria.

1990 to 1991 in Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait

Chapter 15 concerns the lead up to, and events of, the 1991 US invasion of Iraq in the first Gulf War to secure the sovereignty of Kuwait. As usual, he reports the atrocities that occurred (up to Saddam’s surrender).

1991 in Iraq and surrounds following the events of Chapter 15

Chapter 16 tells the story of the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf War especially among the Kurds but also among the Shi’a and Marsh Arabs, Chaldeans, Armenians and Assyrians and their “Betrayal” by the Western and Arab ‘Allies’.

1991 to 1998 in Iraq

Chapter 17 analyses the ‘sanction years’ in Iraq especially from 1990 to around 1998.

1993 to c. 2000 in Iraq

Chapter 18 continues the analysis including of the effects of Depleted Uranium (DU) munitions used by the ‘Allies’ during both Gulf Wars (and between the wars especially in the mainly British and US imposed ‘no-fly zones’ in the north and south of Iraq from 1991 to 2003).

Part 3

1980 to 2004 in the Iran/Iraq War (the Original Gulf War (of modern times))

Fisk begins Chapter Six discussing his arrival at Basra, the Shatt al-‘Arab and the Fao Peninsula to report on the beginnings of the Iran-Iraq (or Gulf) War in September and October of 1980 (the official starting months). A map of the two countries together is included with many border and other localities shown. He notes that the sides were somewhat evenly matched (in the last chapter, I think) and the stalemated nature of the war he describes in the south of both countries with the Iraqis barely making any headway into Iran at all seems to bear this out. The first major town in the south to fall was Khorramshahr (al-Mohammorah to the local Arabs) in early October and Fisk notes his immediate visit with the invaders. At various times he also refers to visits to Amara, Amman and Kuwait and the region of Dezful in the early months and years of the war. He also refers to a 1980 interview with an Iranian Ayatollah Beheshti (who died before this war) and a 1982 visit to Tehran. Fisk stresses the focus of the Iraqis on Arabic-speaking Iranian areas in the south that were also the most strategically important areas for both countries and Saddam’s Nazi-like Arab nationalism that had also led to his earlier purging from Iraq of Iraqis of ‘Iranian origin’.

As the tide was turning in 1982 (Iranians eventually encroached on Iraq) Fisk appears to have become a guest of the Iranians at the fronts whereas he had initially been welcomed by the Iraqis in the other side’s ‘trenches’. He also discusses gassing of Iranians and the Kurds of Halabja which he followed up with Kurds in 1991 in the north of Iraq (which became virtually independent after the war to liberate Kuwait from Saddam) and in Baghdad in 2004. He also notes the apparent complicity of the West in whatever Saddam sought to do in order to defend his regime from the Iranians.

1984 to 2003 in the Iran/Iraq War (continued)

Chapter Seven begins with interviews in Baghdad in 2003 concerning an Iraqi air force firing in 1987 on the USS Stark which may have led to the US ending its support. His vantage points during the middle phase of the war evidently included at various times Beirut, Tehran, Baghdad, the front lines of both sides in both countries north and south, an NBC-hired helicopter, Iranian helicopters and the HMS Broadsword. Fisk also notes the 1987 press conference at which Rafsanjani discussed Iran Contra and discusses his own knowledge of the characters involved. He also discusses the sea war including the international war, Iraqi atrocities in Kurdistan and against Iranians, both civilians and soldiers, and the advance of the Iranians on Basra in which he participated.

1988 to c. 2003 in the Iran/Iraq War (part III)

Chapter Eight begins with Fisk’s eyewitness account of the aftermath of the US shooting-down of an Iranian civilian commercial Airbus flight in 1988. He then notes that the reluctant acceptance of the peace by the dying Khomeini (who was nevertheless still able to settle thousands of internal scores in the immediate aftermath) soon followed. Fisk suggests that the Lockerbie bombing may yet prove to be Iranian revenge for the US Navy shooting-down of the Iranian airliner. The remainder of the chapter concerns Fisk’s visits to war graves and memorials and interviews with old soldiers and relatives of victims of the war. He examines the attitude to death especially of the Iranians and notes that there are exceptions to the apparent arch welcoming of death expressed by many Iranians. This chapter examines the aftermath of war in both Iran and Iraq (and to an extent in the rest of the world, too).

1914 to 2005 in the First World War and its Aftermath

Chapter Nine explores ancient ‘Crusading’ linkages between the French town of Douai known to Fisk’s father (as one of its WWI liberators) and a Douaihy family in Lebanon. Perhaps more to the point, he argues that the arbitrary drawing of borders after that war and other effects of the war continue today to ruin the lives of many in the Middle East and elsewhere.

1919 to 2005 in Ottoman Turkey, Nazi Germany and Modern-Day Turkey

Chapter Ten explores one of the alleged results of the First World War: the so-called “Armenian Genocide”. He also explains the handing-over of the piece of the Armenia promised by the post-First World War Treaty of Sevres by France to Turkey in 1939 and discusses a smaller and roughly contemporaneous Iraqi genocide of Assyrians (arguably while Iraq was under British control in the 1930s). Incidentally, he notes that the perpetrators of much of the violence of both of these genocides were Kurds, now being (as they have also been for some time) subjected to their own repressions by Turkey, Iran and Iraq. He also regards the Armenian genocide, witnessed by many Germans and other Europeans, as a kind of prototype of the Jewish Holocaust and remarks that at least Germany had got over denial of the crimes of its 'patriots'. The chapter records work done by Fisk in Beirut, Syria, England and elsewhere in the Middle East and beyond finding bodies, reviewing records and interviewing survivors and scholars.

1897 to 1993 in Israel/Palestine

Chapter Eleven concerns Palestine viewed firstly from Fisk’s stationing in Beirut and then from his work around the world. It begins with a short essay on the life of the former Grand Mufti of Jerusalem al-Haj Mohamed Amin al-Husseini and ends with a discussion of Fisk's reservations with regard to the 1993 Oslo Peace Accord.

c. 1993 to c. 2000 in Israel/Palestine (continued)

Chapter Twelve continues the story roughly from Oslo and the end of the first intifada until the finally attempt at final status talks with Clinton and Sharon’s visit to the Temple Mount and the second intifada it provoked leading to the effective abandonment of Oslo. It focuses on the idea of the inherent injustice brought about by the Israeli ‘settlement’ communities and the dis-connect between reality and Western media reporting/public government attitudes.

More Fisk Precis

1980 in Afghanistan and Pakistan (continued)

Chapter Three continues the story as the author returns to Afghanistan gaining access only by bribing a border guard or guards, this time based in Jalalabad and Kabul at various times from late January or February of 1980. The climax of this second sojourn appears to be an epic journey to, and noteworthy stay in, Kandahar before returning to Kabul, Peshawar and finally his main base, war-torn Beirut. A theme seems to be developing in the work that a journalist is not a visionary. Most of the signs he notes that he missed are of major developments such as the break-up of the Soviet Union under the pressure of nationalist and religious rivalries between states and the advent of Arab involvement in major geo-political movements such as the one that produced the Soviet defeat and 9/11. He also refers briefly to a 48-hour flying visit a few months later to Kabul in the summer of 1980.

1978 to 1980 in Iran

Chapter Four turns to Iran where Fisk first covered the Iranian Revolution that ousted the last Shah two years before the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. A map is included. He begins by noting the British and US role in the anti-democratic coup and return of the Shah in the 1950s. He then details the venality and viciousness of the Shah’s subsequent regime and the rise of the opposition force, Ruhollah Khomeini. He intimates his pre-revolutionary experience of Iran and then records his meetings and activity in Tehran throughout 1979 and in 1980 as the US briefly sheltered the Shah and Iranians retaliated by attacking the embassy and visits to Qom, once when a revolutionary trial was occurring, to meet Hojatalislam Khalkhali, the ‘hanging judge’, several times and another time to meet Khomeini.

He also writes of learning from former Iranian internal spies of Western cooperation with the brutal security agencies and from Revolutionary government figures that cooperation continued between the countries. His discusses certain Iranian-published captured secret American embassy and other documents at length. He also refers to his extensive train travel specifically in the North West, especially in the troubled region of Kurdistan and to a small village. He deals at some length with Iran’s revolution’s issues with neighbours such as the USSR, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Late 1970s to 1985 in Iraq and the Middle East generally

In Chapter Five the author turns to Iraq and begins with a discussion of the British involvement from its First World War campaign. He discusses the British-French Sykes-Picot Agreement and also provides a map. He notes the history which followed the 'Great War' up until the ‘Confrontation Front Summit’ in Baghdad led by Saddam Hussein and his predecessor al-Bakr in the late 1970s which the author attended. He then recounts interviews with an Egyptian journalist and a ‘victim’ concerning the nature of Saddam’s rule, both of which took place outside Iraq. He goes on to note attending a 1980 Saddam press conference and making reports in that year from Iraq. He raises the fear felt by the regime at the time of the political Islam of the Shi’a majority inspired as it was by the revolution in Iran next-door and its reaction which involved the execution of Ayatollah Bakr Sadr (the chief of Khomeini’s supporters) at the Shi’a holy city of Najaf and the author’s 1980 visit to the city. He mentions another visit shortly after Rumsfeld’s now-famous 1983 visit to normalise relations (probably his 1985 visit which Saddam decided should be his last though the author notes he returned presumably after Saddam’s final downfall).

He then refers to US support of Iraq first in its opposition to Communists and then in its opposition to Iran. Fisk finally concludes this chapter with a review of this abominable period of the early 1980s in what he calls an arc of hate that stretched from Iraq through Iran to Afghanistan and notes he sees it as a prelude to the disastrous mutual agitation for what became the eight-year Iran-Iraq war. He suggests also that the arc extended at least to Lebanon and perhaps Chechnya.

Notes on "The Great War for Civilisation: the Conquest of the Middle East" (by Robert Fisk)

I found this work by Fisk fascinating so I'm sharing my notes on it in my last five posts before hanging up my blogging gloves indefinitely. That will make it 100 posts.

Fisk notes in the Preface to his 2006 revised edition his assessment of war as inherently the practice of powerful, relatively unaccountable and villainous figures and of his role as a journalist being to hold those arrogant powers to account. His personal attention in this work appears to have been paid to the following regions in the following periods for the following main stories (originally generally reported from his base in Beirut):

1975? to 1978 Beirut Lebanese Civil War

1979 to 1980 Iran Khomeini’s Islamic Revolution

1980 Afghanistan the Soviet Invasion and Occupation (and

making of Osama Bin Laden)

1980 to 1988 Iran/Iraq/Beirut the Iran/Iraq War (Gulf War), Lebanese Civil War

1986 Libya, Egypt American Attacks, Suez Anniversary story

1989 Beirut Lebanese Civil Wars and Hostage Crises

1990 to 1991 Iraq/Kuwait the 1990-1 War for Kuwait (Gulf War)

1992 Algeria the 1992 to 2002 Algerian Civil War

1993 to 2003 Israel/Palestine/Iraq the Israeli/Palestinian ‘Peace Process’

US (and sanctions against Iraq and war)

2001 Afghanistan/Pakistan the ‘Allied’ hunt for Bin Laden

2004 to 2006 Beirut, US and Iraq Unrest and Occupation

1993 to 1997 with Osama Bin Laden in the Middle East generally and in Sudan and Afghanistan

Chapter One gives an account of Fisk’s three interviews in 1993 in Sudan and in 1996 and 1997 in Afghanistan with Osama Bin Laden and Bin Laden’s history (in Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Sudan, the US and Afghanistan again), popularity and views. It follows a map of the Middle East which shows most of the places he mentions.

1980 in Afghanistan and Pakistan

Chapter Two first records the century of Russian and English interference in Afghanistan and includes a map (also showing relevant locations). It focuses next on his experience of the Soviet troops and Afghanistan in Kabul, Jalalabad, Ghazni, Salang and surrounds in January of 1980, shortly after the beginning of the Soviet occupation. He concludes the chapter with a description of finally leaving Afghanistan via the Khyber Pass by bus and arriving in the former Raj border city of Peshawar, now in Pakistan.

List showing the variety of Languages currently spoken

Aboriginal and Other Languages World Wide
Afar
Afghan Persian (Dari)
African Languages
Afrikaans
Akan
Albanian (Gheg and especially Tosk)
Alemannic Dialect
Alsatian
Amerindian Languages and Dialects
Amharic
Angaur
Antigua and Barbuda English Patois/Argot
Arabic
Aramaic
Argentinean Indian Languages
Armenian
Assamese
Assyrian
Australian Aboriginal Languages
Aymara
Aymará
Azerbaijani (Azeri)
Azeri (Azerbaijani)
Bahasa Indonesia
Bahasa Melayu
Balochi
Baluchi
Bambara
Bandjabi
Bangla (Bengali)
Bantu
Bapounou/Eschira
Basari
Basque
Beijing Dialect
Belarusian
Bemba
Bengali (Bangla)
Berber Dialects
Bhojpuri
Bichelama (Bislama – Pidgin)
Bicol
Bislama (Bichelama – Pidgin)
Bosnian
Brahui
Brazilero (Portunol – a Portuguese/Spanish blend)
Breton
Bubi
Bulgarian
Burmese
Burushaski
Cakchiquel
Cantonese (Yue)
Carib (Garifuna)
Carolinian
Castilian
Castilian Spanish
Catalan
Cebuano
Chamorro
Chichewa
Chinese (Putonghua/Mandarin/Standard Chinese)
Circassian
Colombian Indian Languages
Corsican
Creole
Creole Patois
Crioulo (Portuguese/West African blend)
Croatian
Cushitic Languages
Czech
Dagomba
Danish
Dari (Afghan Persian)
Dioula
Djerma
Dutch (Netherlands)
Dzongkha
East Inuit (Greenlandic)
English
English Creoles
Estonian
Ewe
Fang
Faroese (derived from Old Norse)
Farsi (Persian)
Fijian
Filipino
Finnish
Flemish
Fon
Foochow
French
French (Haitian) Creole
French Patois
Fula
Fulani
Futunian
Fuzhou (Minbei)
Ga
Gaelic (has Irish and Scottish forms)
Gagauz (a Turkish Dialect)
Galician
Gan
Ganda (Luganda)
Garifuna (Carib)
Georgian
German
Gheg (Albanian)
Greek
Greenlandic (an Inuit Dialect)
Greenlandic (East Inuit)
Guaragigna
Guarani
Gujarati
Hainan
Hakka
Hassaniya Arabic
Hausa
Hebrew
Herero
Hiligaynon (Ilonggo)
Hindi
Hindko
Hindu (Hindi?)
Hindustani
Hokkien
Hokkien-Taiwanese (Minnan)
Hungarian
Iban
Ibo (Igbo)
Icelandic (Islensk)
Igbo (Ibo)
I-Kiribati
Ilocan
Ilonggo (Hiligaynon)
Indian Dialects
Indigenous Languages and Vernaculars
Indonesian
Inuit Dialects
Irish (Gaelic)
Islensk (Icelandic)
Italian
Japanese
Javanese Local Dialect
Jola
Kabyè
Kadazan
Kannada
Kaonda
Kapingamarangi
Kashmiri
Kazakh (Qazaq)
Kekchi
Khalkha Mongol
Khmer
Kikongo
Kimbundu
Kingwana (Kiswahili or Swahili dialect)
Kinyarwanda
Kiribati
Kirundi
Kissi
Kiswahili
Kiunguju (Swahili)
Koniagi
Korean
Kosrean
Kpelle
Krio (English-Based Creole)
Kunama
Kurdish
Kyrgyz
Lao
Lapp
Latin
Latvian
Ligurian
Lingala
Lingua Franca Languages
Lithuanian
Loma
Lozi
Luganda (Ganda)
Lunda
Luri
Luvale
Luxembourgish
Macedonian
Malagasy
Malay
Malayalam
Malayo-Polynesian
Malayo-Polynesian Family Languages
Maldivian Dhivehi (dialect of Sinhala)
Malinké
Maltese
Mam (Marn?)
Mandarin (Putonghua/Chinese/Standard Chinese)
Mandinka
Maori
Marathi
Marn (Mam?)
Marshallese (two major dialects)
Mayan
Melanesian Pidgin
Melanesian-Polynesian Dialects
Mende
Min (Taiwanese)
Mina
Minbei (Fuzhou)
Minnan (Hokkien-Taiwanese)
Minor Languages
Miskito
Moldovan
Monégasque (French Provençal-Italian Ligurian hybrid)
Mon-Khmer
Monokutuba
Moroccan Arabic
Moshi-Dagomba
Motu
Mountain Area Languages
Myene
Nahua
Náhuatl
Nama
Nauruan
Ndebele (Sindebele)
Nepalese Dialects
Nepali
Netherlands (Dutch)
Niger-Congo Languages
Nilo-Hamitic Languages
Nilo-Saharan Languages
Nilotic Languages
Norwegian
Nubian
Nukuoro
Nyanja
Nzebe
Oriya
Oromigna
Oshivambo
Other Currently Used Languages
Pacific Island Languages
Palauan
Pampango
Pangasinense
Panjabi
Papiamento (Spanish/Portuguese/Dutch/English blend)
Pashai
Pashto
Pashtu
Patois English
Pedi
Persian (Farsi)
Pidgin English
Pohnpeian
Polish
Polynesian (Samoan)
Portuguese
Portuguese/West African blend (Crioulo)
Portunol (Brazilero – a Portuguese/Spanish blend)
Provencal
Provençal
Pulaar
Punjabi
Putonghua (Mandarin/Chinese/Standard Chinese)
Qazaq (Kazakh)
Quechua
Quiché
Romanian
Romansch
Russian
Sami
Samoan (Polynesian)
Sangho
Sanskrit
Sara
Scottish Gaelic
Serbian
Serbo-Croatian
Sesotho (Southern Sotho)
Setswana
Shanghaiese (Wu)
Shikomoro (Swahili/Arabic blend)
Shona
Sindebele (Ndebele)
Sindhi
Sinhala
Siraiki
Siswati
Slovak
Slovene
Slovenian
Somali
Soninke
Sonsorolese
Sotho
Southern Sotho (Sesotho)
Spanish
Sranang Tongo (Surinamese/Taki-Taki)
Standard Chinese (Putonghua/Chinese/Mandarin)
Sudanic African Languages
Sudanic Languages
Surinamese (Sranang Tongo/Taki-Taki)
Susu
Swahili (Kiunguju)
Swazi
Swedish
Ta-Bedawie
Tagalog
Tahitian
Taiwanese (Min)
Tajik
Taki-Taki (Sranang Tongo/Surinamese)
Tamil
Telugu
Temne
Tetum
Thai
Tibetan Dialects
Tigre
Tigrinya
Tobi
Tonga
Tongan
Tosk (official Albanian)
Trade Lingua Franca Languages
Tribal Dialects
Tribal Languages
Trukese
Tshiluba
Tsonga
Tswana
Turkic
Turkic Languages
Turkish
Turkmen
Tuvaluan
Ukrainian
Ulithian
Umbundu
Urdu
Uzbek
Venda
Vietnamese
Wallisian
Waray
Welsh
West African Languages
Woleaian
Wolof
Wu (Shanghaiese)
Xhosa
Xiang
Xinca
Yapese
Yoruba
Yue (Cantonese)
Zulu

Another Three Lists

Countries in which there is No legal Difference between Marriage between a Man and a Woman and Marriage between Two Men or Two Women:

Belgium
Canada
Netherlands
Norway
South Africa
Spain
Sweden

Update - as at April 2015 that list also includes:

Argentina
Brazil
Denmark
Finland
France
Iceland
Luxembourg
New Zealand
Portugal
Slovenia
Uruguay

Countries in which there is a Death Penalty nationwide for Homosexual Activity in Private between Consenting Adults:

Iran
Mauritania
Saudi Arabia
Sudan
United Arab Emirates
Yemen

Prisoners at Spandau Prison as a result of the Major post-WWII Nuremberg Trial:

Dönitz, Karl (Grand Admiral, Navy Commander-in-Chief, President (on Hitler's death))
Funk, Walther Emanuel (Minister for Economic Affairs, President of the Central Bank)
Heβ, Rudolf Walter Richard (Deputy Führer (before his mission to Britain))
Raeder, Erich Johann Albert (Navy Commander-in-Chief, Grand Admiral)
Speer, Berthold Konrad Hermann Albert (Minister of Armaments & War Production)
Von Neurath, Konstantin Freiherr (Baron, Foreign Minister, Protector of the Protectorate of
Bohemia & Moravia)
Von Schirach, Baldur Benedikt (Hitler Youth Leader, Governor of Vienna)

Arabic/Islamic Lists

The Five Daily Required Prayers

Fajr - just before dawn (ending with the coming of light)

Dhuhr/Zuhr - just after the sun reaches its zenith (or later if it is especially hot)

‘Aşr - while the sun is still hot in the afternoon

Maghrib - upon the setting of the sun

‘Ishā’/‘Atama - at some time after the Maghrib prayer

Components of the Required Prayers

(performed by a mu’adhdhin (muezzin))

Adhan - the call to prayer

(performed by the person praying)

Sunna Prayer - not compulsory

(performed by one of the congregation)

Iqama - the introduction to prayer

(performed by the person praying (or following an Imam if there is more than one person present))

Takbir - raising of hands, Allahu Akbar, Sami‘ Allahu, etc.

(performed by the person praying)

Sunna Prayer - not compulsory

(performed by the person praying (or following an Imam if there is more than one person present))

Surat al-Fatiha - the first Sura

Recitation - recitation of further parts of the Qur’an (not strictly compulsory) divided by bowings, Takbir, etc. Each additional part should begin with Surat

al-Fatiha

Final Bowing - (with

Takbir) until at ease

(then stand with Takbir)

Prostration - (with

Takbir) until at ease

(then sit)

Sitting - until at ease

Final Takbir - Allahu

Akbar, etc.

Tashahhud - a final

Islamic invocation and

witness

Amin - the final

benediction (completed

by Amin)

Taslim - Salaam

Alaikum, etc. (if in

congregation with one

or more others)

Dhikr - not compulsory

Nicknames of Various Notable Arabs/Muslims of Various Periods

The Trustworthy - Muhammad (as he was considered trustworthy from his youth)

Abu’l Qasim - Muhammad (as the father of a son, Qasim, who died in infancy)

Abu Bakr - Abu Bakr (as he was the father of Bakr)

As-Siddiq - Abu Bakr (as he was considered righteous)

Al-Farooq - ‘Umar (as he was considered a good judge of truth and falsehood)

Dhun Nurayn - ‘Uthman (“Possessor of Two Lights” – as he was married at various times to two daughters of Muhammad)

Asadullah - ‘Ali (“Lion of the God” – named by Muhammad after a battle)

The Months (presumably named when the calendar was solar) and the Place of the Two ‘Ids

Muharram ([the] Sacred [Month])

Safar ([the Month of] Departure [- for the procurement of corn])

Rabi’ ul-Awwal (the First [Month of the] Spring)

Rabi’ as-Sani (the Second [Month of the] Spring)

Jumad al-‘Ula (the First [Month of the] Dry)

Jumad as-Saniya (the Second [Month of the] Dry)

Rajab ([the Month of] Respect)

Sha’ban ([the Month of the] Budding [of Trees])

Ramadan ([the Month of] Heat)

Shawwāl ([the Month of] Junction) – 1 Shawwāl is the day of the ‘Id ul-Fitr that ends the Ramadan fasting period (begins the evening before)

Dhu’l Qa’da (the Month of Truce/Relaxation)

Dhu’l Hijja (the Month of Pilgrimage) – 10 Dhu’l Hijja is the day of the ‘Id al-Adha (Sacrifice) that commemorates the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son to the God (begins the evening before)

Arab Sub-division of the Months

1, 2, 3 Ghurar (Beginning – in effect beginning on the last evening of the previous lunar month (perhaps at the New Moon – hence Beginning) as, like the Jews, the Arabs begin their days at what we now tend in the West to think of as the sunset of the previous day)

4, 5, 6 Nufal (Increase – may refer to the increase of the moon in the lunar month on the way from “Beginning” (New) to “Gleaming” (Full))

7, 8, 9 Tūsa’ (Nines – because it has nine in it)

10, 11, 12 ‘Ushar (Tens – because it has ten in it)

13, 14, 15 Bīd (Gleaming – perhaps corresponding with the originally lunar Roman Full Moon signifier (Ides))

16, 17, 18 Not Sure

19, 20, 21 Not Sure

22, 23, 24 Not Sure

25, 26, 27 Not Sure

28, 29(?), 30(?) Not Sure