History

One of history's most controversial characters is Al Hakim Bi Amr Allah. Seen as God incarnate by some, as an eccentric "mad" ruler by others, and vilianised by yet others.

Al Hakim was a Caliph of the Fatimid dynasty of Egypt, North Africa, Palestine and Syria. Contrary to the majority of their subjects, who were Sunni, the Fatimids were Shia of the Ismaili branch. They engaged in missionary work to spread their sect's belief as wide as possible.

Jose Pardo Hidalgo, of Murcia, Spain writes to me by email:

Dear Sirs, Do you know if Iberia is coming of Ibrya=Hebrew,the Hebrew land of Spain and Portugal.Ivry is a Jewish surnames, Ivrya,may pe "Ladino", for femenine.. where Iberos semitic people, Assyrian tablets say even Celts were a tribe Lost of Israel, red.haired and blue eyes,losing his identity, not lost, only identity, Judah, benjamin, dan, etc... which is your opinion?.Thanks and peace,lover and friendships,Thank you.

I write back that this does not fit with the pattern of settlement of Iberia in pre-Roman times, before the Jewish diaspora, and I include a few links, such as:

One highly tenuous theory, is by Professor Kamal Salibi's of American University in Beirut. In his 1985 book Bible Came from Arabia,he compares place names in the Bible with names in Arabia today, andconcludes that Palestine had absolutely no histoical Hebrew presence,and rather South West Arabia is what the Bible refers to as Israel!Moreover, Moses and Pharoah were not in Egypt, but rather in Yemen!Egypt in the Bible is not today's Egypt, ...etc.

A common theme throughout the ages is that history is always written by the victor. Only the version of those who wins is heard, with the losers' version either lost, or relegated to the forgotten niches.Another theme is how nationalism impacts the point of view, with one nation's version of heroic history viewed as sheer propaganda and glorification of aggressiveness.These two themes can be seen today in how media coverage of the victor (USA) malignes rivals using organized propaganda to brain wash its citizens, or how one people's terrorist is another people's freedom fighter.

Many who are not familiar with Egypt's history and culture wonder why Egypt does not speak Egyptian today and not Arabic. This article tries to answer this question for those who ask it.

The New Kingdom: The Last Empire

Egypt's last purely Egyptian great empire, known as the New Kingdom, lasted from 1567 B.C. to 1085 B.C. During this period Egypt dominated a lot of its neighbors, such as Nubia, and Syria. This was achieved by various means, such as Thutmosis military campaigns, Ramses II's peace treaties, and Amenhotep III's diplomacy via marriage. The riches of Tut-Ankh-Amen are from this period, as well as the religious revolution of Akhnaten, the heretic monotheistic pharaoh.

Carly Fiorina, the architect of the merger of computer technology giants, Hewlett Packard and Compaq, has been forced to leave the company she helped shape, citing differences with the board of directors.The engineering community were not sympathetic to her departure, blaming her for wrecking two companies. One has to remember that Compaq swallowed Digital less than a decade ago, killing off the excellent DEC Alpha chip, and entire lines of computing as well. Compaq also swallowed Tandem and their NonStop line.

The Veiled al-Muqanna al-Kindi's name is Muhammad ibn Thufar ibn 'Umair ibn Abi Shammar al-Kindi al-Hadrami محمد بن ظفر بن عمير بن أبي شمر الكندي الحضرمي. A famed poet, died in 70 A.H.

The hexagram, or six sided star is known today as an exclusively Jewish symbol. This has not always been the case though. In this article, we discuss what other faiths and cultures it has represented over the millenia.

A few weeks ago, a Palestinian violinist trying to cross a West Bank checkpoint was forced to play his violin. The soldier ordered him to "play something sad".You can see the details at the BBC in Israel army forces violin recital and the Haaretz in Israeli soldiers force Palestinian to play violin at West Bank checkpoint.

Researchers of Iberian history often have to consult sources in Arabic and Castillian or Portuguese. Names can be confusing when referencing from one language to the other.