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Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden (March 10, 1957 – May 2, 2011) was the founder of al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets. He was a member of the wealthy Saudi bin Laden family, and an ethnic Yemeni.<br/><br/> On May 2, 2011, bin Laden was shot and killed inside a private residential compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, by U.S. Navy SEALs and CIA operatives in a covert operation ordered by U.S. President Barack Obama. Shortly after his death, bin Laden's body was buried at sea. Al-Qaeda acknowledged his death on May 6, 2011.<br/><br/> Ayman Mohammed Rabie al-Zawahiriī (June 19, 1951 - July 31, 2022), was an Egyptian and former leader of al-Qaeda. He was killed in a US drone strike on his apartment in Kabul, Afghanistan on July 31, 2022.
Surrounded by the Holy Mosque, al-Masjid al-Haram, stands the cubic Kaaba. Shortly after they arrive in Mecca, pilgrims first walk around the Kaaba seven times and then walk back and forth between two hills, al-Safa and al-Marwa. They carry out a large number of rituals in the following days in both Mecca and its environs. On the 10th day of the month of Dhu al-Hijja, they begin the great feast of Eid al-Adha to commemorate Abraham’s willingness to serve God by sacrificing his son. Ritual sacrifices of sheep and goats are made on this occasion throughout the Islamic world. In conclusion, pilgrims drink or are sprinkled with water from the Zamzam Well in the courtyard of the holy mosque.
Sir Wilfred Patrick Thesiger, CBE, DSO, FRAS, FRGS (3 June 1910 – 24 August 2003) was a British explorer and travel writer born in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia.<br/><br/> In 1933 Thesiger mounted an expedition, funded in part by the Royal Geographical Society, to explore the course of the Awash River. During this expedition, he became the first European to enter the Aussa Sultanate and visit Lake Abbe.<br/><br/> Afterwards, in 1935, Thesiger joined the Sudan Political Service stationed in Darfur and the Upper Nile. He served in several desert campaigns with the Sudan Defence Force (SDF) and the Special Air Service (SAS) with the rank of major.<br/><br/> In World War II, Thesiger fought with Gideon Force in Ethiopia during the East African Campaign. He was awarded the DSO for capturing Agibar and its garrison of 2,500 Italian soldiers. Afterwards, Thesiger served in the Long Range Desert Group during the North African Campaign.<br/><br/> In 1945, Thesiger worked in Arabia with the Desert Locusts Research Organisation. Meanwhile, from 1945 to 1949, he explored the southern regions of the Arabian peninsula and twice crossed the Empty Quarter. His travels also took him to Iraq, Persia (now Iran), Kurdistan, French West Africa, Pakistan and Kenya. He returned to England in the 1990s and was knighted in 1995.
Mada'in Saleh (Arabic: مدائن صالح, madāʼin Ṣāliḥ), also called Al-Hijr or Hegra (so in Greek and Latin, e.g. by Pliny, is a pre-Islamic archaeological site located in the Al-Ula sector, within the Al Madinah Region of Saudi Arabia. A majority of the vestiges date from the Nabatean kingdom (1st century CE). The site constitutes the kingdom's southernmost and largest settlement after Petra, its capital. Traces of Lihyanite and Roman occupation before and after the Nabatean rule, respectively, can also be found in situ, while accounts from the Qur’an tell of an earlier settlement of the area by the tribe of Thamud in the 3rd millennium BCE. According to the Islamic text, the Thamudis, who would carve out homes in the mountains, were punished by Allah for their persistent practice of idol worship and for conspiring to kill Saleh (an Arab prophet mentioned in the Qu'ran), the non-believers being struck by an earthquake and lightning blasts. In 2008, for its well-preserved remains from late antiquity, especially the 131 rock-cut monumental tombs, with their elaborately ornamented façades, of the Nabatean kingdom, UNESCO proclaimed Mada'in Saleh as a site of patrimony, becoming Saudi Arabia's first World Heritage Site.
Rigobert Bonne's 1771 decorative map of the Arabian Peninsula. Covers from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean and from the Red Sea to the Persian Gulf. Includes the modern day nations of Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq, Yemen, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain.<br/><br/> It names Mt. Sinai, Mecca and Jerusalem as well as many other cities and desert oases and also notes numerous offshore shoals, reefs, and other dangers in the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. There is a large decorative title cartouche in the upper right hand quadrant. Drawn by R. Bonne in 1771 for issue as plate no. A 25 in Jean Lattre's 1776 issue of the Atlas Moderne.
The 6 year expedition to Egypt and Yemen funded by the King of Denmark in 1761 was the stuff of romantic legend. Filled with death, womanising and general intrigue, Carsten Niebuhr - the only survivor - recorded a dispassionate account of the journey in 'Beschreibung von Arabien' in 1772 - an historical classic in terms of informinnng Europe about the Middle East.
Nezami-ye Ganjavi (1141—1209) is considered the greatest romantic epic poet in Persian literature, who brought a colloquial and realistic style to the Persian epic. His heritage is widely celebrated and shared in Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran and Tajikistan. Nezami is best known for his five long narrative poems, the ‘Panj Ganj’ or ‘Khamsa’ (Persian: Five Jewels), which are written in the Masnavi style (double-rhymed verses).
The Qur’an (literally “the recitation”) is the main religious text of Islam. Muslims believe the Qur’an to be the verbal divine guidance and moral direction for mankind. Muslims also consider the original Arabic verbal text to be the final revelation of God. Muslims believe that the Qur’an was revealed from God to Muhammad through the angel Gabriel from 610 to 632 CE, the year of the Prophet’s death. Muhammad recited the Qur’an to his thousands of followers, who recited it until they had memorized it. He also dictated it to his scribes (Muhammad is said to have been illiterate) who wrote down its verses during his life. Shortly after Muhammad's death the Qur’an was established textually into a single book form by the order of the first Caliph Abu Bakr.
Representations of the Prophet Muhammad are controversial, and generally forbidden in Sunni Islam (especially Hanafiyya, Wahabi, Salafiyya). Shia Islam and some other branches of Sunni Islam (Hanbali, Maliki, Shafi'i) are generally more tolerant of such representational images, but even so the Prophet's features are generally veiled or concealed by flames as a mark of deep respect.
The Qur’an (literally “the recitation”) is the main religious text of Islam. Muslims believe the Qur’an to be the verbal divine guidance and moral direction for mankind. Muslims also consider the original Arabic verbal text to be the final revelation of God. Muslims believe that the Qur’an was revealed from God to Muhammad through the angel Gabriel from 610 to 632 CE, the year of the Prophet’s death. Muhammad recited the Qur’an to his thousands of followers, who recited it until they had memorized it. He also dictated it to his scribes (Muhammad was illiterate) who wrote down its verses during his lifetime. Shortly after Muhammad's death the Qur’an was established textually into a single book form by the order of the first Caliph Abu Bakr.
In this 1753 map of the Ottoman Empire. Vaugondy maps the empire at its height, with territory spanning from the Black Sea to the southernmost extension of Arabia and west, inclusive of Persia, as far as the Mongol Empire of India.<br/><br/> This includes the modern day nations of Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Yemen, the United Arab Emirates, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and parts of Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Uzbekistan, and Greece. Vaugondy employs all of the latest geographical information of the time incorporating both French and transliterations Arabic place names.<br/><br/> Drawn by Robert de Vaugondy in 1753 and published in the 1757 issue of his Atlas Universal.
The ruins of Thaj can be seen about 80 km west of Al-Jubail. It is a small village situated beside a dry lakebed. The archaeological excavations undertaken by the Danish Mission in 1967 and those carried out by the Saudi Deputy Ministry of Antiquities in 1985 revealed Thaj as a complete buried city surrounded by a strong wall.<br/><br/> Much of the wall is damaged, but one section of about 900 meters is in good condition. Several mounds, walls, housing foundations, pottery shards, glass, necklaces and earrings, decorative objects, clay pots and figurines have been recovered from the site. It is possible that Thaj was established during the Greek Seleucid period, possibly around early third-century BCE.
King Abdul-Aziz of Saudi Arabia (1876 – 9 November 1953) (Arabic: عبد العزيز آل سعود‎ ‘Abd al-‘Azīz Āl Su‘ūd) was the first monarch of Saudi Arabia, the third Saudi State. He was usually called Ibn Saud in English-speaking countries.<br/><br/> Beginning with the reconquest of his family's ancestral home city of Riyadh in 1902, he consolidated his control over the Najd in 1922, then conquered the Hijaz in 1925. Having conquered almost all of central Arabia, he united his dominions into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932. As King, he presided over the discovery of petroleum in Saudi Arabia in 1938 and the beginning of large-scale oil exploitation after World War II.