Portal:Saudi Arabia
The Saudi Arabia Portal – بوابة المملكة العربية السعودية
Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia and the Middle East. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about 2150000 km2 (830000 sq mi), making it the fifth-largest country in Asia and the largest in the Middle East. It is bordered by the Red Sea to the west; Jordan, Iraq, and Kuwait to the north; the Persian Gulf, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to the east; Oman to the southeast; and Yemen to the south. Bahrain is an island country off its east coast. The Gulf of Aqaba in the northwest separates Saudi Arabia from Egypt and Israel. Saudi Arabia is the only country with a coastline along both the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, and most of its terrain consists of arid desert, lowland, steppe, and mountains. The capital and largest city is Riyadh; the kingdom also hosts Islam's two holiest cities of Mecca and Medina. (Full article...) Selected article -
Battle of Badr took place in March 624 C.E., in the Arabian town of Badr between the Islamic prophet Muhammad-led Muslim army and a relief column of the Meccan Quraysh tribe. The latter had originally set out to protect their homeward-bound trade caravan that Muhammad was about to raid. Prior to this, Muhammad had ordered his followers to carry out several raids on Quraysh caravans, which, despite initial failures, finally succeeded in gaining their first plunder at Nakhla, when the Quraysh were observing a holy month forbidding them from shedding blood.
In addition to many smaller caravans, the Quraysh sent two major caravans each year. One of these was sent to Syria in the autumn of 623, led by Abu Sufyan and carrying the investments of all the Meccans. Muhammad tried to ambush it on its departure, but failed. On the caravan's return journey, Muhammad planned to raid it again. The caravan reportedly consisted of 1,000 camels and 50,000 dinars worth of goods. At Zarqa, Abu Sufyan got wind of Muhammad's intention and sent a messenger to Mecca for help. A relief column, said to have been 1,000 strong, under Abu Jahl then set out to protect the caravan. (Full article...)
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The siege of Mecca (Arabic: حصار مكة) occurred at the end of the Second Fitna in 692 when the forces of the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan besieged and defeated his rival, the caliph Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr in his center of power, the Islamic holy city of Mecca. After the death of Caliph Yazid in 683, Ibn al-Zubayr had been recognized as caliph in most of the provinces of the Caliphate, while the Umayyads, who had ruled the Caliphate since the end of the First Fitna, had been confined to their stronghold of Syria. There, the pro-Umayyad tribes elected Marwan ibn al-Hakam as caliph in 684; after his death in 685, his son and successor Abd al-Malik undertook the task of reasserting Umayyad authority across the Caliphate. After defeating his enemies in Syria and Iraq, he sent his general Hajjaj ibn Yusuf to Mecca to defeat Ibn al-Zubayr. To avoid bloodshed in the sanctuary, Hajjaj was ordered to besiege the city and starve out Ibn al-Zubayr. The siege started in March 692 and lasted for six to seven months. The city was bombarded with catapults and supplies were cut off, resulting in large scale desertions by the followers of Ibn al-Zubayr. He was killed along with his few remaining supporters in October 692. The siege brought an end to the decade-long civil war and the Caliphate was united under Abd al-Malik. The Ka'ba, which had been damaged by the bombardment, was rebuilt according to its original plan from the time of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. (Full article...)Selected pictureMore did you know
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