More jihad — allegedly more worrisome than the Islamic State. More gruesome than child beheadings, decapitated journalists, mass executions, mass gang-raping, ethnic cleansing, etc.? Khorāsān, also spelled Khurasan, is a historical region and realm comprising a vast territory now lying in northeastern Iran, southern Turkmenistan, and northern Afghanistan. (PLEASE SEE BELOW) The historical region extended, along the north, from the Amu Darya (Oxus River) westward to the Caspian Sea and, along the south, from the fringes of the central Iranian deserts eastward to the mountains of central Afghanistan. Arab geographers even spoke of its extending to the boundaries of India. Al Qaeda’s quiet plan to outdo ISIS and hit U.S.,” CBS News, September 18, 2014WASHINGTON – The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) may be dominating the headlines and stealing attention with its prolific propaganda, but CBS News’ Bob Orr reports, another group in Syria — one few have even heard of because information about it has been kept secret — is considered a more urgent concern. Sources tell CBS News that operatives and explosives experts from Osama bin Laden’s old al Qaeda network may again present an immediate threat to the U.S. homeland.
-CIA insider on threat posed by new Syrian terror group more dangerous than ISIS
At two dozen foreign airports, U.S.-bound passengers are undergoing enhanced security screening. Agents are searching for hidden explosives. Laptops and phones with dead batteries have been banned from flights.Great Britain raised its national terror threat level, and the FBI is tracking American jihadists who may return home. Sources say it’s due to the emerging threat in Syria, where hardened terrorists loyal to al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri are working on new, hard-to-detect bombs. In testimony Wednesday, the Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Matt Olsen — who warned that U.S. agencies are unable to effectively track Western jihadists inside Syria — seemed to make a vague reference to the threat.
“In Syria, we’ve seen veteran al Qaeda fighters travel from Pakistan to take advantage of the permissive environment there,” said Olsen. Sources confirm that the al Qaeda cell goes by the name “Khorasan.” Unlike ISIS, which is believed at present to be largely engulfed in its fight for territory. Khorasan is developing fresh plots to target U.S. aviation, and it’s trying to recruit Westerners who have flocked to the fight in Syria, some of whom have joined the al Qaeda franchise in the country, known as the al-Nusra Front. The fear is that U.S. and European passport holders could more easily smuggle explosives onto airplanes. Asked if there was anything about the threat he could reveal to lawmakers during the public testimony on Capitol Hill, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said discussions about “specific organizations… should be left to a classified setting.”Sources tell CBS News the group includes technicians trained by al Qaeda’s master bomb-builder, Ibrahim al-Asiri. The Yemen-based Asiri built the infamous but ultimately unsuccessful underwear bombs and two cargo bombs concealed in printer cartridges.
He is considered one of the most innovative bomb-builders in the jihadist world, and he’s still operating freely — at least for now. CIA chief John Brennan recently told Orr that U.S. officials were “doing what we can” to track Asiri down, and predicted that his “time will come.” At the moment, U.S. officials say there is no specific, credible threat to the homeland. But as information about Khorasan becomes available, it’s clear that al Qaeda remains obsessed with bombs, airplanes, and attacking the United States.
- See more at: http://pamelageller.com/2014/09/khorasan-al-qaedas-quiet-plan-to-outdo-the-islamic-state-and-hit-u-s.html/#sthash.9zlU2hBV.dpuf
The history of the area stretches back to very ancient times. It was part of the Achaemenid empire of the 6th and 5th centuries bce and the Parthian empire of the 1st century bce. (Khorāsān is sometimes loosely identified synonymously with Parthia.) Khorāsān was first named, however, by the Sāsānians(beginning in the 3rd century bce), who organized their empire into four quarters (named from the cardinal points), Khorāsān being literally the “Land of the Sun.” After the Arab conquest in 651–652ce, the name was retained both as the designation of a definite province and in a looser sense. At first the Arabs used the area as a march, or garrisoned frontier, but soon large colonies of Arabs moved in, especially around Merv, and a meld of Islamic and eastern Iranian cultures ensued. Later Khorāsān regained virtual independence under the Ṭāhirid, Ṣaffārid, and Sāmānid dynasties (821–999). Successively it formed part of the Ghaznavid, Seljuq, and Khwārezm-Shāh kingdoms but was overrun by Genghis Khan in 1220 and again by Timur (Tamerlane) about 1383. The Iranian Ṣafavid kings (1502–1736) fought over it against Uzbek invasions. It was occupied by the Afghans from 1722 to 1730. Nāder Shāh, born in Khorāsān, broke the Afghan supremacy and made Mashhad the capital of his Iranian empire. Ferdowsī, author of the Shāh-nāmeh (“Book of Kings”), and Omar Khayyam, the celebrated poet and sage, were born in the region. Khorāsān’s current Iranian frontiers were defined in 1881 and in a convention of July 8, 1893. This gave form to the modern Iranian province of Khorāsān, which was split into three smaller provinces in 2004.
Khorāsān, as a result of its troubled history, is peopled by a great variety of ethnic groups: Turkmenin the northwest; Kurds around Bojnūrd and Qūchān; Tīmūrīs and Jamshīdīs (Chahar Aimak) in the east, some of whom are still nomadic; farther southwest, Ḥeydarīs; and southeast, Baloch. The highlands in the south are home to a settled population of old Iranian stock. Here and there are found Berberis of Mongol origin, Arabs, Roma (Gypsies), and a few Jews in the towns. The largest cluster of settlements and cultivation stretches around the city of Mashhad northwestward, containing the important towns of Qūchān, Shīrvān, and Bojnūrd. The languages spoken in Khorāsān are Turkish, Persian, and Kurdish.
In its physical geography, the northern part of Iranian Khorāsān contains two parallel ranges: an eastern prolongation of the Elburz Mountains and an independent ridge, the Koppeh Dāgh. Limestones and igneous and metamorphic rocks prevail; peaks include Kūh-e Hazār Masjed (10,321 feet [3,146 metres]) and Kūh-e Bīnālūd (10,536 feet [3,211 metres]). A great salt desert, Dasht-e Kavīr, with quicksandlike marshes, enters Khorāsān from the west. Sand dunes are widespread. There are many oases, large and crowded in the north but small and isolated in the south. The southern highlands, which are known as Kūhestān, have peaks reaching 7,000–9,000 feet (2,100–2,700 metres). The climate is cool in the summer and cold in the winter. The north and northwest have sufficient rainfall for grasslands and scrub forests of alder, oak, juniper, and hornbeam; the south has little vegetation. Khorāsān’s only permanent rivers are the Atrak, the Kal-e Mūreh, the Rūd-e Shūr, and the Kashaf Rūd, all more or less salty in their lower courses.
Modern Iranian Khorāsān is largely agricultural, producing fruits, cereals, cotton, tobacco, oil plants, saffron, and some silk. Livestock are plentiful; wool, lambskins, and goat hair are exported, and poultry is also raised. The mineral products include turquoise, salt, iron, copper, lead, zinc, chromium, magnesite, and coal. Cement, processed foods, ginned cotton, carded wool, sugar, pharmaceuticals, animal fodder, and textiles are the manufactured products. Handicrafts include jewelry, rugs and carpets, furs, dolls, glassware, and handloomed cloth. A railway and roads link Mashhad, a thriving city, with Iran’s capital, Tehrān.
.jpg)
KHURASAN (also Khorasan), province of N.E. *Persia. The earliest mention of Jews living in Khurasan in the early fourth century appears in the Babylonian Talmud (Avodah Zarah 31b), where the present city of Merv is written in its older form MRGW'N. The Tang-e Azao inscription written in Hebrew script indicates the date 1064 Seleucid era/753–4C.E. It was found in the Gur region in eastern Khurasan. In the same period a commercial note, also written in Hebrew script, was also found in eastern Khurasan in the place called Dandan Uiliq. In the Middle Ages Khurasan also included *Afghanistan, Turkestan, and Transoxiana. Jewish history has a long association with Khurasan, which in some Hebrew sources was believed to be the dwelling place of the *Ten Lost Tribes. Reliable rabbinical, *Karaite, and Muslim sources testify to a widely spread Jewish settlement in Khurasan. The caliph Omar II (717–720) ordered his governor in the province "not to destroy any synagogues, but also not to allow new ones to be erected." Muslim sources also speak of Jewish jewelers and poets from Khurasan in the period of the *Abbasid caliphate (750–1258). An interesting Jewish figure from the ninth century known as *Hiwi al-Balkhi was the resident of the city of Balkh situated in the far eastern part of then Khurasan.
.jpg)
The Arab geographer al-Maqdisī (985) stated, "There are in Khurasan many Jews and only a few Christians." The Hebrew chronicle of *Nathan b. Isaac ha-Kohen ha-Bavli (10th century) and the parallel version of *Seder Olam Zuta deal with a dispute between the head of the academy in *Pumbedita and the exilarch *Ukba concerning jurisdiction over the Jews in Khurasan. The Jewish authorities in *Baghdad used Khurasan as a place of exile for undesirables. Geonic literature speaks of a special Khurasan custom in matters of the calendar, marriage laws, and other halakhic subjects, but the Jews of Khurasan were enjoined by the Jewish authorities in Babylonia to comply with the Babylonian minhag. According to *Benjamin of Tudela in the 12th century the authority of the Exilarch in Baghdad extended over the communities of Khurasan. The Jews lived in the cities of Sistan, *Nishapur, *Merv, Kabul, Kandahar, Ghazni (see *Afghanistan), *Balkh, and the region east of*Herat. During the 16th century, Jews from Khurasan arrived in *India. They settled mainly in Old Delhi, Lahore, Kashmir, Agra, and Fatehpur. Many Jewish communities in Afghanistan and Turkestan were later augmented by Jews from *Meshed fleeing after the forced conversion of 1839.
KHORASAN
The history of the area stretches back to very ancient times. It was part of the Achaemenid empire of the 6th and 5th centuries bce and the Parthian empire of the 1st century bce. (Khorāsān is sometimes loosely identified synonymously with Parthia.) Khorāsān was first named, however, by the Sāsānians(beginning in the 3rd century bce), who organized their empire into four quarters (named from the cardinal points), Khorāsān being literally the “Land of the Sun.” After the Arab conquest in 651–652ce, the name was retained both as the designation of a definite province and in a looser sense. At first the Arabs used the area as a march, or garrisoned frontier, but soon large colonies of Arabs moved in, especially around Merv, and a meld of Islamic and eastern Iranian cultures ensued. Later Khorāsān regained virtual independence under the Ṭāhirid, Ṣaffārid, and Sāmānid dynasties (821–999). Successively it formed part of the Ghaznavid, Seljuq, and Khwārezm-Shāh kingdoms but was overrun by Genghis Khan in 1220 and again by Timur (Tamerlane) about 1383. The Iranian Ṣafavid kings (1502–1736) fought over it against Uzbek invasions. It was occupied by the Afghans from 1722 to 1730. Nāder Shāh, born in Khorāsān, broke the Afghan supremacy and made Mashhad the capital of his Iranian empire. Ferdowsī, author of the Shāh-nāmeh (“Book of Kings”), and Omar Khayyam, the celebrated poet and sage, were born in the region. Khorāsān’s current Iranian frontiers were defined in 1881 and in a convention of July 8, 1893. This gave form to the modern Iranian province of Khorāsān, which was split into three smaller provinces in 2004.Khorāsān, as a result of its troubled history, is peopled by a great variety of ethnic groups: Turkmenin the northwest; Kurds around Bojnūrd and Qūchān; Tīmūrīs and Jamshīdīs (Chahar Aimak) in the east, some of whom are still nomadic; farther southwest, Ḥeydarīs; and southeast, Baloch. The highlands in the south are home to a settled population of old Iranian stock. Here and there are found Berberis of Mongol origin, Arabs, Roma (Gypsies), and a few Jews in the towns. The largest cluster of settlements and cultivation stretches around the city of Mashhad northwestward, containing the important towns of Qūchān, Shīrvān, and Bojnūrd. The languages spoken in Khorāsān are Turkish, Persian, and Kurdish.In its physical geography, the northern part of Iranian Khorāsān contains two parallel ranges: an eastern prolongation of the Elburz Mountains and an independent ridge, the Koppeh Dāgh. Limestones and igneous and metamorphic rocks prevail; peaks include Kūh-e Hazār Masjed (10,321 feet [3,146 metres]) and Kūh-e Bīnālūd (10,536 feet [3,211 metres]). A great salt desert, Dasht-e Kavīr, with quicksandlike marshes, enters Khorāsān from the west. Sand dunes are widespread. There are many oases, large and crowded in the north but small and isolated in the south. The southern highlands, which are known as Kūhestān, have peaks reaching 7,000–9,000 feet (2,100–2,700 metres). The climate is cool in the summer and cold in the winter. The north and northwest have sufficient rainfall for grasslands and scrub forests of alder, oak, juniper, and hornbeam; the south has little vegetation. Khorāsān’s only permanent rivers are the Atrak, the Kal-e Mūreh, the Rūd-e Shūr, and the Kashaf Rūd, all more or less salty in their lower courses.Modern Iranian Khorāsān is largely agricultural, producing fruits, cereals, cotton, tobacco, oil plants, saffron, and some silk. Livestock are plentiful; wool, lambskins, and goat hair are exported, and poultry is also raised. The mineral products include turquoise, salt, iron, copper, lead, zinc, chromium, magnesite, and coal. Cement, processed foods, ginned cotton, carded wool, sugar, pharmaceuticals, animal fodder, and textiles are the manufactured products. Handicrafts include jewelry, rugs and carpets, furs, dolls, glassware, and handloomed cloth. A railway and roads link Mashhad, a thriving city, with Iran’s capital, Tehrān.KHURASAN
KHURASAN (also Khorasan), province of N.E. *Persia. The earliest mention of Jews living in Khurasan in the early fourth century appears in the Babylonian Talmud (Avodah Zarah 31b), where the present city of Merv is written in its older form MRGW'N. The Tang-e Azao inscription written in Hebrew script indicates the date 1064 Seleucid era/753–4C.E. It was found in the Gur region in eastern Khurasan. In the same period a commercial note, also written in Hebrew script, was also found in eastern Khurasan in the place called Dandan Uiliq. In the Middle Ages Khurasan also included *Afghanistan, Turkestan, and Transoxiana. Jewish history has a long association with Khurasan, which in some Hebrew sources was believed to be the dwelling place of the *Ten Lost Tribes. Reliable rabbinical, *Karaite, and Muslim sources testify to a widely spread Jewish settlement in Khurasan. The caliph Omar II (717–720) ordered his governor in the province "not to destroy any synagogues, but also not to allow new ones to be erected." Muslim sources also speak of Jewish jewelers and poets from Khurasan in the period of the *Abbasid caliphate (750–1258). An interesting Jewish figure from the ninth century known as *Hiwi al-Balkhi was the resident of the city of Balkh situated in the far eastern part of then Khurasan.The Arab geographer al-Maqdisī (985) stated, "There are in Khurasan many Jews and only a few Christians." The Hebrew chronicle of *Nathan b. Isaac ha-Kohen ha-Bavli (10th century) and the parallel version of *Seder Olam Zuta deal with a dispute between the head of the academy in *Pumbedita and the exilarch *Ukba concerning jurisdiction over the Jews in Khurasan. The Jewish authorities in *Baghdad used Khurasan as a place of exile for undesirables. Geonic literature speaks of a special Khurasan custom in matters of the calendar, marriage laws, and other halakhic subjects, but the Jews of Khurasan were enjoined by the Jewish authorities in Babylonia to comply
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0012_0_11100.html
FOR EVEN MORE INFORMATION....AND AN INTERESTING CHRONOLOGY
Khorasan / Khwarazm (Transoxiana / Sogdia / Sogdiana)
http://www.historyfiles.co.uk/KingListsFarEast/AsiaKhwarazm.htm
No comments:
Post a Comment