Middle East

Question 1

As the nephew of Saladin, Malik Al-Kamil was a devout Muslim and fierce military commander who ruled as the Sultan of Egypt. A break in hostilities during the Fifth Crusade led to one of the more odd pairings in history. What figure, visited Al-Kamil for a few days in 1219, in which he was received graciously and returned safely, though legend has it that this figure had requested a “trial by fire” to prove the Christian Gospel?

Answer 1

St. Francis of Assisi

Question 2

Founded in Syria by a group including Michel Aflaq and Salah al-Din al-Bitar, what political organization—whose name means “renaissance” or “resurrection”—ruptured into two branches in 1966 which would become highly antagonistic to one another? Only one of the branches survives as a political entity.

Answer 2

Ba’ath Party (Hizb Al-Ba’ath)

Question 3

Mada’in Saleh, in modern-day Saudi Arabia, was a major city of the Nabataean Kingdom conquered by the Romans at the start of the 2nd Century CE. What similarly well-preserved city in modern-day Jordan was the Nabataeans’ capital?

Answer 3

Petra

Question 4

In 1987, while he was delegated with the management of the Al-Anfal campaign, a man was quoted as saying the following in a meeting, referring to conversations he had just had with community leaders: “I said: ‘I cannot let your village stay. I will attack it with chemical weapons. Then you and your family will die. You must leave right now. I will not be able to warn you on the day I decide to attack with chemical weapons.’ I will kill them all with chemical weapons! Who is going to say anything? The international community? Fuck them!” Who is this man (feel free to give the 2-word nickname frequently used for him in the Anglophone world)?

Answer 4

Ali Hassan Al-Majid (Chemical Ali)

Question 5

In what nation did the ruling Khalifa family call in troops from allied Gulf Cooperation Council states to help put down a burgeoning protest movement, led largely by marginalized Shia citizens, in the capital in March 2011?

Answer 5

Bahrain

Question 6

Iranian Maryam Mirzakhani became the first woman to earn what prize for young academics (in a specific field) in 2014, breaking a run of 52 men since its creation? She was revered to such an extent that when she died tragically young of cancer in 2017, some Iranian newspapers published her recent portraits without a headscarf, a rare occurrence for an Iranian woman in domestic media.

Answer 6

Fields Medal (Math)

Question 7

If you only know Yemen exists from watching the Parade of Nations at the 2016 Olympics on NBC, you might not know about the devastating civil war that has been transpiring there for years. That’s because the hosts instead chose to discuss the “fun fact” that it’s the origin of a style of coffee named for what Red Sea port, which did indeed reach its apex in the 17th and 18th centuries as a renowned center of the coffee trade?

Answer 7

Mocha (Moka)

Question 8

Abducted in a raid into modern-day Ukraine and selected as a royal gift, what woman rose from slave to favorite wife of Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent? Equally unprecedented, she became his close advisor on domestic and foreign policy and was seen by many Ottomans as exerting strong authority over her husband’s actions.

Answer 8

Roxelana (Hurrem Sultan)

Question 9

When she married Asif Ali Zardari in Pakistan, about 100,000 of her supporters came to the reception.

Answer 9

Benazir Bhutto

Question 10

Despite pressure from Iraq and other governments, this people held a referendum on Sept. 25, 2017.

Answer 10

Kurds

Question 11

Kurdistan refers to the geo-cultural region of the Kurdish people that spans across these four countries.

Answer 11

Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran

Question 12

The Hegira is the name for Muhammad’s secret departure from Mecca in 622, with Abu Bakr, to live among the people of Yathrib, founding the first Muslim community. The city of Yathrib was later renamed what?

Answer 12

Medina

Question 13

This practice officially began in Pakistan in 1977, 44 years after an amendment ended it in the United States.

Answer 13

Prohibition

Question 14

This ancient kingdom, which thrived between the 13th and 8th centuries BC, was located primarily in modern-day Jordan as well as parts of Israel. Its capital was Selah, later known as Petra under the Nabateans.

Answer 14

Edom

Question 15

Notorious weapons dealer Adnan Khashoggi was a key figure in this 1986 scandal that saw 1,500 missiles head to Tehran.

Answer 15

Iran-Contra Scandal

Question 16

Name the man who ascended to the presidency of Egypt following the assassination of Anwar Sadat in 1981, and served in that position until his resignation during the Egyptian revolution of 2011.

Answer 16

Hosni Mubarak

Question 17

From what ancient and modern world capital city did the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid rule, at the height of the Islamic Golden Age?

Answer 17

Baghdad

Question 18

Ahmed Shah Massoud, who was assassinated two days before the attacks of September 11, 2001, was a military and political commander of the United Islamic Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan, an anti-Taliban association better known by what name?

Answer 18

Northern Alliance

Question 19

From its early days in the 18th century, through the formation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and into the present day, the House of Saud has maintained an allegiance to a Sunni Islam sect best known by what name, after the theologian and native of Central Arabia who founded it in the 1740s?

Answer 19

Wahhabism

Question 20

In the 10th century the hajj was suspended for some 20 years after the theft of the black stone from the Kaaba in this city

Answer 20

Mecca

Question 21

In 1258 Baghdad made the mistake of resisting these invaders who promptly sacked the city and slaughtered its inhabitants.

Answer 21

Mongols

Question 22

This first sultan of Egypt and Syria recaptured Jerusalem from the Christians in 1187 and held off Richard Lionheart’s attempts to win it back.

Answer 22

Saladin