Sublime

HTS publish new photographs of its leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, now going by his real name Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa, watching over what appears to be an Israeli air strike in the country he has just conquered. https://t.co/sWkF0C5hau

Transjordan became independent, and Abdullah was crowned in Amman on May 25, 1946. He was the only Arab ruler prepared to accept the United Nations’ partitioning of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states (1947). In the war with Israel in May 1948, his armies occupied the region of Palestine due west of the Jordan River, which came to be called the W... See more

Bolbol saw Hussein coming back, escorted by an agent waving his gun and gesturing to the rest of the family to get out of the van. Hussein stood next to Bolbol and whispered, “They’re going to arrest the body.” Bolbol assumed there must have been some mistake, but no, when the agent led them to a tiled, windowless room, opened the door, and pushed

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One account says that the little boy began to cry during the crowning ceremony. Nader asked those nearby whether they knew why he was crying. Prudently, they said Nader surely knew best himself. Nader said Abbas was crying because he wanted to rule over the Afghans of Kandahar and the Ottoman Sultan, and declared to general acclaim that to gratify

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Of course, Khomeini never likened himself to the Divine, nor did he ever explicitly claim the title of Mahdi—to have done so would have been political suicide. Rather, Khomeini consciously embraced the messianic charisma of the Mahdi, and allowed his followers to draw their own conclusions. Like all the Mahdis before him, Khomeini claimed descent f

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This martyrdom of Hosein and others of the Prophet’s closest descendants at Karbala was the defining moment in the early history of Shi‘a Islam. Ever since, the death of Hosein has been commemorated by Shi‘a Muslims each year, and they have nursed a sense of injustice and betrayal. Thereafter the Shi‘a Emams, as descendants of Ali and Hosein, were

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But the U.S. assistance came at a price. For months, the Bush White House had been pressuring Jordan to get behind its plan to topple Iraqi president Saddam Hussein. The squeeze had begun in the late summer, when the king met with Bush and his top deputies during an August 2, 2002, visit to the White House. The usually charming Texan was cool and s

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