General knowledge Flashcards
When was Muhammad born and when did he die?
567 and dies in 632
What does Umma means?
It refers to the muslim community
What does Jihad mean?
Jihad is an Arabic word which literally means “striving” or “struggling”, especially with a praiseworthy aim
What is Guraysh?
Gurashy is the tribe of Muhammad
When did the Arab Spring start?
17 of december 2010
What does Baou mean?
The house of Muhammad
What does Rashiduh mean?
It is the name of the first four caliphs
What was the Umayyad caliphate?
The Umayyad Caliphate was the second caliphate established after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. This caliphate also ruled the spanish territory
Where did the Arab Spring start?
In Sidi Arous, Tunisia
Who started the Arab Spring?
Mohamed Bouazizi
What is the public sphere according to the theory of communicative action?
The public sphere is the relationship between the media, politics and the public.
Who was the Egyptian President before the Arab Spring?’
Hosni Mubarak
What language does Iran speak?
Farsi
Who was Abu Bakr?
The first caliph of Islam and one of the closest companions of Prophet Muhammad. He succeeded the Prophet after his death and played a key role in the early expansion of Islam
Who were the four caliphs of Islam? (Rashiduh) in order!
- Abu Bakr
- Umar
- Uthman
- Ali
Who was Aisha?
The wife of the first prophet Muhammad
How big is the Shia population in %?
Ca 15%
What does Ulama mean?
is the body of Muslim religious scholars and chief religious authorities - they do not intervene between you and god
When did Ali die?
661
What is Isma’ilism?
Isma’ilism is a branch or sub-sect of Shia Islam. The Isma’ili get their name from their acceptance of Imam Jafar as the appointed spiritual successor, wherein they differ from the Twelver Shia.
Only believe in the first 6 imams
What do Shia muslims believe in?
Shia Muslims are a branch of Islam who believe in the leadership and succession of the Prophet Muhammad through his cousin and son-in-law, Ali, and his descendants, known as Imams. Shia Islam is the second-largest branch of Islam, and its followers hold a distinct religious and political identity, with various subgroups such as Twelvers being the most numerous
When did Imam Ali live?
600-661
Name of dictator in Libya
Moammar Qaddafi
Who was the leader in Yemen before the Arab Spring?
Ali Abdullah Saleh
Who was the leader in Syria before the Arab Spring?
Bashar al-Assad
Who was the leader in Bahrain before the Arab Spring?
King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa
Where is the first prophet Muhammed from?
Mecca
What is Hijra?
beginning of the islamic calendar, when the followers of Muhammad migrated to Medina
Who is the rightful successor to Muhammad in according to the Sunnis?
For Sunnits, Abu Bakr is the right successor
Who is the rightful successor to Muhammad in according to the Shia?
For the Shi’ist it was Muhammad’s cousin Ali
What are the 4 different types of Sunni muslims?
Hanafi
Hanbali
Maliki
Shafi’i
where does the Hanafi muslims mainly live?
Balkans, Turkey, Egypt, the Levant, Central Asia and South Asia
where does the Hanbali muslims live?
Saudi Arabia and Qatar
Where does the Maliki muslims live?
North african countries
Where does the Shafi’i muslims live?
Little bit all over, in Somalia and parts of East Africa, Parts of Egypt and Indonesia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Singapore and Thailand
What are the groups within Shia Islam?
Ismaili
Jafari
Zaidi
Where does Jafari muslims live?
Iran!
What is Ibadi islam?
A third branch of Islam, form the majority in Oman
Is Islam a centralized or decentralized religion?
it is very decentralized, in contrast to Catholics
What is a different word for twelver shiism?
Imāmiyya
Who coined the term Zionism in 1815?
Nathan Birnbaum
What does Zion mean?
Jerusalem
What was the “zionist solution” in simple terms:
To return to Zion (Jerusalem)
When did modern Zionism appear?
19th century
Who was the father of Zionism
Theodor Herzl - argued that Jews were a nation that needed a state
Herzl proposed two places for the blueprint of the Jewish state?
Palestine and Argentina
where was the first zionist congress?
Basel, Switzerland
Who ensured the british connection to zionism?
Chaim Weizmann
who was the first president of Israel?
Chaim Weizmann
what is synthetic zionism?
combination of practical and political zionism, Weizmann argued that these were two sides of the same coin
who founded revisionist zionism?
Ze’ev Jabotinsky
What was Betar?
Revisionist Zionist youth paramilitary organization founded in 1923
founded by Jabotisky
What was the Irgun?
The Irgun, or Etzel, was a Zionist paramilitary organisation that operated in Mandate Palestine and then Israel between 1931 and 1948. It was an offshoot of the older and larger Jewish paramilitary organization Haganah
What is Yishuv?
Jewish residents in Palestine prior to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948
Which zionist leader romanticised the west?
Jabotinsky, he idealised the west, and saw Israel as a western state, rejected the idea of the east
Who coined “the iron wall”
Jabotinsky
Difference between revisionist zionism and labour zionism?
use of force, labour zionists were reluctant to the use of force. Labour wanted to create israel through immigration
Who was the founder of the state of Israel?
David Ben-Gurion
What is Mapai?
Israeli labour party, formed by Ahduth Ha’avadoh and Hapoel Hatza’ir (two other political groups)
what is Histadrut?
generel federation of labour in palestine
When was the Arab Revolt?
1936
Who was Moshe Shertok?
Also called Sharett, the head of political department of the Jewish Agency. He became the foreign minister of Israel
What was Haganah?
paramilitary group, the military group of the Jewish settlers, later became the IDF
What does Haganah mean in english?
Defense
What was Lohamei Heirut Yisrael (Lehi)? Also called the Stern Gang
A more militant group that split from the Irgun. Very hostile to the birst, sought support from the Axis powers
When was the UN resolution on Palestine?
1947
What was al-Nakba
The name of Arabs use for the war of independence
What was plan D?
Military strategy to secure all areas allocated to Israel in the UN resolution, as well as jewish settlements outside it - to secure sovereignty by claiming territory
When did Israel declare its independence?
14th of May 1948
creation of the IDF:
Haganah evolved from a paramilitary group into the Israeli Defense Forces, Later the the Stern Gang and Irgun merged with the IDF
When was the Arab Cold War
1954 to 1963
What was Black September?
When Jordanian troops slaughtered Palestinians in jordan and expelled PLO from the kingdom
What was the Palestinian intifada?
series of protests and violent riots carried out by Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories and Israel
What was the Kefaya movement?
Egyptian political movement against dictator regime of Nasser
What was the Wafd party?
Egyptian political party, very nationalistic and challenged British colinial rule
What is the “twin toleration” concept?
democratic institutions need to make space for religious, this is twin toleration. An Islamic version of democracy is possible when combining the Islamic virtue of census and the Koranic injunction against compulsion in matters of religion
In political terms, what is a four player game?
Coalition of soft liners from the regime and the opposition, against regime hard liners and opposition hard liners
In political terms, what is a three player game? Name three examples of a countries with this model
coalition of opposition parties against hard liner regime
chile, indonesia and tunisia
Who was Rached Ghannouchi?
leader and political thinker of Ennahda, Ben Ali charged him with terrorism,
Ghannouchi focused on family code, women rights and removal of sharia law
What was Ennahda?
Islamist party in opposition to Ben Ali
Who was Moncef Marzouki?
Leader of the democratic opposition party of Ben Ali
What is the Hashemites?
The Hashemites, also House of Hashim, are the royal family of Jordan, which they have ruled since 1921, and were the royal family of the kingdoms of Hejaz, Syria, and Iraq
What is the idea of Pan-Arabism?
Pan-Arabism is a political movement emerging in the mid-to-late nineteenth century and reaching its acme in the 1960s, which advocated the political, cultural and socioeconomic unity of Arabs across the different states that emerged after decolonisation, from the Mashreq (Arab East) to the Maghreb (Arab West)
Name some important leaders or parties who fought for pan-arabism:
Nasser of Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood, the Ba’ath party
What was the Ba’ath party?
Political party or “ideology” that docused on pan-arabism, anti-colonialism, removal of royal families (anti-Hashemites) and had socialist oritations
Party in Iraq (Saddam Hussein was from the Ba’ath party) and Syria
