Sublime

The missions enabled JSOC to build a detailed picture of the network that moved jihadists from Aleppo and Damascus airports through the Syrian section of the Euphrates River Valley until they crossed into Iraq near Al Qaim. After several years, one name stood out as Zarqawi’s master facilitator in Syria: Abu Ghadiya. The United States tried to brin

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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

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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