Zanata
Zanata (Banu Zanata) (Zenata). Name given by the Arab historians of the Middle Ages to one of the two great confederations of the Berbers, the other being the Banu Sanhaja.
The Zenata were an ethnic group of North Africa, who were technically an Eastern Berber group and who are found in Tunisia, Algeria and the Rif mountains.
Zenata tribes entered in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia from the east of Northern Africa in pre-Islamic times and grouped themselves with the tribes of Maghrawa, Miknasa, and Banu Ifran.
According to Ibn Khaldun, an Arabic historian of the 14th century, there were Zenata tribes dispatched in all North Africa (current Morocco, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria), and some of them may have also lived in modern Egypt as well.
According to Ibn Khaldun, the Zenata are one of the main divisions of the medieval Berbers, along with Senhaja and Masmuda. He added that these tribes, traditionally nomads, were concentrated in the Middle Maghreb (part of the current Algeria). It is why he called the Middle Maghreb home of the Zenata.
The hypothesis of Ibn Khaldun about the origin of this Berber group or ethnicity is not widely accepted by modern historians.
Banu Zanata see Zanata
Zenata see Zanata
Zand
Zand. Short-lived Iranian dynasty (r. 1750/1751-1794) founded by Karim Khan Zand “the vakil” (“regent, deputy”; r. 1751-1779). Their main capital was Shiraz. The Zand were a tribe of the southern Iranian group of Kurds known as the Lak. Exiled to Khorasan by Nadir Shah in 1731, the Zand retreated under their leader, Muhammad Karim Khan Zand, into the southwest in 1747. Muhammad Karim Khan (1750-1779) occupied the whole of southern Iran and assumed the title Wakil (“representative”). Following the conquest of Mazandaran (in 1759) and Azerbaijan (in 1762), he developed a successful regime, led the country into great economic prosperity (involving trade with India, construction of irrigation channels, a fair tax policy), and made his court a cultural center. Following his death, the state disintegrated in the power struggle waged by pretenders, until the last Zand ruler was violently eliminated by the Qajars in Kerman in 1794.
Between 1750 and 1765, Karim Khan salvaged most of western Iran between Urmia and Bandar Abbas from the wreck of Nadir Shah’s empire. With his capital at Shiraz, Karim Khan established a degree of trust and cooperation between tribal armies, urban administrators, and the peasantry, and hence a measure of internal security that encouraged and stimulated trade and agriculture.
On Karim’s death in 1779 the internecine power struggle between his relatives destroyed most of what he had achieved. Even before his funeral, his half-brother Zaki slaughtered most of his rivals in Shiraz and ruled in the name of one of Karim’s incompetent sons. Ali Murad, of a different branch of the Zand tribe, seized Isfahan, but an attack by the Qajar chief Agha Muhammad Khan delayed Ali Murad and enabled Karim’s brother Sadiq, returning from his occupation of Basra, to seize Shiraz. In 1781, Ali Murad took Shiraz but again had to turn his attention to Qajar attackes from Mazandaran. His half brother Ja’far (son of Sadiq) marched on Isfahan, and Ali Murad died on his way to defending the city in February 1785.
Zand control of the Elburz and uppre Zagros mountain ranges was now relinquished to the Qajara. Killed in a palace coup in 1789, Ja’far was succeeded (after a brief reign by Said Murad Khan, a cousin of Ali Murad) by his popular son Lutf Ali Khan, whose energetic campaigns against Qajars and defecting vassals in the south and east briefly staved off the dynasty’s impending downfall. However, Haji Ibrahim, the powerful kalantar (mayor) of Shiraz, acting out of self-preservation (Lutf Ali had revealed his distrust by taking the son of the kalantar hostage) or out of a desire to end the destructive tribal warfare, gained control of the garrison and shut the gates of Shiraz against Luft Ali’s army. Robbed of a base, the young Zand chief retreated to Kerman and finally to the fortress of Bam. Here he was captured by Agha Muhammad Khan Qajar, who blinded, tortured, and finally executed him in November 1794 at Tehran.
The only material monuments of the Zand dynasty are Karim Khan’s mosque, fortress, and bazaar in Shiraz, which was sacked by the Qajar ruler before his return to the new capital of Tehran. None of Karim Khan’s successors aspired to the title of shah (which he had not assumed), or even to Karim’s title of vakil. The dynasty is remembered chiefly for its founder’s unusual humanity and unselfishness, which produced a quarter of a century of comparative peace and prosperity in the middle of Iran’s bloodiest century since the Mongol invasions.
Following the death of the Afsharid ruler Nader Shah (1747), Karim Khan Zand became one of the major contenders for power. By 1750 he had sufficiently consolidated his power to proclaim himself as vakil (regent) for the Ṣafavid Esmaʿil III. Karim Khan never claimed the title of shahanshah (“king of kings”). Instead, he maintained Esmaʿil as a figurehead. Karim Khan, with 30 years of benevolent rule, gave southern Iran a much-needed respite from continual warfare. He encouraged agriculture and entered into trade relations with Great Britain. His death in 1779 was followed by internal dissensions and disputes over successions. Between 1779 and 1789 five Zand kings ruled briefly. In 1789 Loṭf ʿAli Khan (ruled 1789–94) proclaimed himself as the new Zand king and took energetic action to put down a rebellion led by Agha Moḥammad Khan Qajar that had begun at Karim Khan’s death. Outnumbered by the superior Qajar forces, Loṭf ʿAli Khan was finally defeated and captured at Kerman in 1794. His defeat marked the final eclipse of the Zand dynasty, which was supplanted by that of the Qajars.
Zand. Short-lived Iranian dynasty (r. 1750/1751-1794) founded by Karim Khan Zand “the vakil” (“regent, deputy”; r. 1751-1779). Their main capital was Shiraz. The Zand were a tribe of the southern Iranian group of Kurds known as the Lak. Exiled to Khorasan by Nadir Shah in 1731, the Zand retreated under their leader, Muhammad Karim Khan Zand, into the southwest in 1747. Muhammad Karim Khan (1750-1779) occupied the whole of southern Iran and assumed the title Wakil (“representative”). Following the conquest of Mazandaran (in 1759) and Azerbaijan (in 1762), he developed a successful regime, led the country into great economic prosperity (involving trade with India, construction of irrigation channels, a fair tax policy), and made his court a cultural center. Following his death, the state disintegrated in the power struggle waged by pretenders, until the last Zand ruler was violently eliminated by the Qajars in Kerman in 1794.
Between 1750 and 1765, Karim Khan salvaged most of western Iran between Urmia and Bandar Abbas from the wreck of Nadir Shah’s empire. With his capital at Shiraz, Karim Khan established a degree of trust and cooperation between tribal armies, urban administrators, and the peasantry, and hence a measure of internal security that encouraged and stimulated trade and agriculture.
On Karim’s death in 1779 the internecine power struggle between his relatives destroyed most of what he had achieved. Even before his funeral, his half-brother Zaki slaughtered most of his rivals in Shiraz and ruled in the name of one of Karim’s incompetent sons. Ali Murad, of a different branch of the Zand tribe, seized Isfahan, but an attack by the Qajar chief Agha Muhammad Khan delayed Ali Murad and enabled Karim’s brother Sadiq, returning from his occupation of Basra, to seize Shiraz. In 1781, Ali Murad took Shiraz but again had to turn his attention to Qajar attackes from Mazandaran. His half brother Ja’far (son of Sadiq) marched on Isfahan, and Ali Murad died on his way to defending the city in February 1785.
Zand control of the Elburz and uppre Zagros mountain ranges was now relinquished to the Qajara. Killed in a palace coup in 1789, Ja’far was succeeded (after a brief reign by Said Murad Khan, a cousin of Ali Murad) by his popular son Lutf Ali Khan, whose energetic campaigns against Qajars and defecting vassals in the south and east briefly staved off the dynasty’s impending downfall. However, Haji Ibrahim, the powerful kalantar (mayor) of Shiraz, acting out of self-preservation (Lutf Ali had revealed his distrust by taking the son of the kalantar hostage) or out of a desire to end the destructive tribal warfare, gained control of the garrison and shut the gates of Shiraz against Luft Ali’s army. Robbed of a base, the young Zand chief retreated to Kerman and finally to the fortress of Bam. Here he was captured by Agha Muhammad Khan Qajar, who blinded, tortured, and finally executed him in November 1794 at Tehran.
The only material monuments of the Zand dynasty are Karim Khan’s mosque, fortress, and bazaar in Shiraz, which was sacked by the Qajar ruler before his return to the new capital of Tehran. None of Karim Khan’s successors aspired to the title of shah (which he had not assumed), or even to Karim’s title of vakil. The dynasty is remembered chiefly for its founder’s unusual humanity and unselfishness, which produced a quarter of a century of comparative peace and prosperity in the middle of Iran’s bloodiest century since the Mongol invasions.
Following the death of the Afsharid ruler Nader Shah (1747), Karim Khan Zand became one of the major contenders for power. By 1750 he had sufficiently consolidated his power to proclaim himself as vakil (regent) for the Ṣafavid Esmaʿil III. Karim Khan never claimed the title of shahanshah (“king of kings”). Instead, he maintained Esmaʿil as a figurehead. Karim Khan, with 30 years of benevolent rule, gave southern Iran a much-needed respite from continual warfare. He encouraged agriculture and entered into trade relations with Great Britain. His death in 1779 was followed by internal dissensions and disputes over successions. Between 1779 and 1789 five Zand kings ruled briefly. In 1789 Loṭf ʿAli Khan (ruled 1789–94) proclaimed himself as the new Zand king and took energetic action to put down a rebellion led by Agha Moḥammad Khan Qajar that had begun at Karim Khan’s death. Outnumbered by the superior Qajar forces, Loṭf ʿAli Khan was finally defeated and captured at Kerman in 1794. His defeat marked the final eclipse of the Zand dynasty, which was supplanted by that of the Qajars.
Zand, Karim Khan
Zand, Karim Khan (Karim Khan Zand) (b. c. 1705 - d. March 1779, Shiraz, Zand, Iran). Ruler of western Iran (1751-1779). Among the tribal contingents of Nadir Shah Afshar’s army that returned to their home ranges after Nadir’s assassination in 1747 were the Bakhtiyari, under Ali Mardan Khan, and the Zand, led by Karim Khan. The latter were seminomads of the Lakk people, related to both the Lurs and the Kurds, pasturing between Hamadan and Isfahan.
On the failure of the Afsharids to hold western Iran, these two chiefs in 1750 occupied the former Safavid capital of Isfahan in the name of a minor Safavid protégé styled Isma’il III, with Ali Mardan as vakil, or regent, and Karim as commander of the army. While Karim was campaigning in Kurdistan, Ali Mardan staged a coup and plundered the province of Fars. Karim Khan captured Isfahan and defeated his rival in battle. Three other contestants for power occupied all of the Zand leader’s energies for three more years. His campaigns ranged from the Persian Gulf to the Caspian coast and the foothills of the Caucasus. The Qajar chief Muhammad Hasan Khan was defeated and killed outside his fortress of Astarabad in 1759. Azad Khan the Afghan was routed by his erstwhile ally, the Afshar leader Fath Ali Khan, in 1760. He surrendered to Karim Khan and spent the rest of his life in Shiraz as a pensioner of the Zands. Fath Ali made a last stand with a tribal coalition in Azerbaijan, but the province fell to the Zands in 1762 and was thereafter administered for them by Najaf Quli Khan Dunbuli, of an eminent local family of turkicized Kurds.
In July 1765, having subdued all the Elburz and Zagros provinces, Karim Khan entered Shiraz and was not to leave for the remaining fourteen years of his life. This strategic southern city had come to be his refuge and capital during his early struggle for power against rivals based in northern Iran, and he now embellished it with a fortress-palace (arg), a mosque, a covered bazaar, and other buildings and gardens. During the next decade, he sent expeditions led by his relatives to secure the Persian Gulf littoral and its hinterland, the provinces of Lar, Yazd, and Kerman. He attempted to keep the Qajars in check -- with only moderate success -- by appointing a son of the late Muhammad Hasan Khan as governor of Damghan and keeping the eldest son, Agha Muhammad Khan, a hostage in Shiraz. Impoverished Khurasan he left in the hands of Nadir Shah’s grandson, Shahrukh Shah, as a buffer againstthe new Afghan monarchy of Ahmad Shah Durrani. North of the Aras River Iran’s former vassals, the Georgian kingdom and the Darband khanate, began to drift into the economic and political orbit of Russia.
In the Persian Gulf, the commercial centre of gravity moved from Bandar Abbas to Bushehr, the natural port of Shiraz, where the East India Company was granted facilities. In 1766, Karim Khan regained Kharg Island from the hands of the colorful pirate Mir Muhanna, who had earlier captured it from the Dutch East India Company. However, he was unable to bring Hormuz Island under his control or to intimidate the imam of Oman, his commercial rival in the lower gulf. Repeated expeditions against the Ka’b Arabs of Khuzistan -- even with the cooperation of the East India company and the Ottoman governor of Basra -- brought no more than fitful subservience until the death of their strong leader, Shaikh Salman, in 1768. Karim Khan exchanged embassies with Haidar Ali, ruler of the Deccan, and Indian merchants frequented Shiraz and the gulf ports. Armenian and Jewish merchants who had fled during the chaotic interregnum were encouraged to return to Iran, and commerce increased. Agricultural subsidies and rebuilding programs, both in Shiraz and the provinces (e.g., in Isfahan and Kashan, hit by an earthquake in 1778), helped to restorte Iran’s threadbare economic and social fabric.
Seeking to divert Persian Gulf trade to Bushehr, Karim Khan in 1776 besieged and occupied Basra. His death -- probably as a result of tuberculosis -- which occurred on March 2, 1779, when he was was about eighty years old, prompted an Iranian withdrawal Ironically, Basra’s trade was indeed largely diverted as a result of this war, but to Kuwait, rather than Bushehr. The internecine wars of succession following his death further undermined much of the prosperity he had restored.
Karim Khan’s virtues were universally acknowledged, even by his enemies. During his rise to power, he displayed prowess in the field, tenacity in adversity, and magnanimity in victory. As ruler he dressed and lived simply (although indulging a taste for wine and women) and never assumed the title shah. Even his title vakil (“representative”) he modified from vakil al-daula, “sovereign’s regent,” to vakil al-ra’aya, “people’s deputy,” which was the designation of a traditional provincial ombudsman appointed by the crown. Apocryphal tales of his justice, kindness, humility, sense of humor, and concern for the safety and prosperity of the common man testify to his continuing place in his countrymen’s affection.
Karim Khan was the first Zand ruler of Iran. He restored peace to the kingdom after the strife following the collapse of the Ṣafavid dynasty.
Of humble tribal origin, Karim Khan became one of the generals of his predecessor, Nader Shah. In the chaotic aftermath of Nader Shah’s assassination in 1747, Karim Khan became a major contender for power but was challenged by several adversaries. In order to add legitimacy to his claim, Karim Khan in 1757 placed on the throne the infant Shah Ismaʿil III, the grandson of the last official Ṣafavid king. Ismaʿil was a figurehead king, real power being vested in Karim Khan, who never claimed the title of shahanshah (“king of kings”) but used that of vakil (“regent”).
By 1760, Karim Khan had defeated all his rivals and controlled all of Iran except Khorasan, in the northeast, which was ruled by Shah Rokh, the blind grandson of Nader Shah. During Karim Khan’s rule, Iran recovered from the devastation of 40 years of war. He made Shiraz his capital, constructing many fine buildings. Moreover, he reorganized the fiscal system of the kingdom, removing some of the heavy burdens of taxation from the agricultural classes. An active patron of the arts, he attracted many scholars and poets to his capital.
Karim Khan also opened Iran to foreign influence by allowing the English East India Company to establish a trading post in Bushire, the Persian Gulf port (1763). In advancing his policy of developing trade, in 1775–76 he attacked and captured Basra, the Ottoman port at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, which had diverted much of the trade with India away from Iranian ports.
The civil war that followed Karim Khan’s death ended only with the final establishment of the Qajar dynasty in 1796.
Karim Khan Zand see Zand, Karim Khan
Zand, Karim Khan (Karim Khan Zand) (b. c. 1705 - d. March 1779, Shiraz, Zand, Iran). Ruler of western Iran (1751-1779). Among the tribal contingents of Nadir Shah Afshar’s army that returned to their home ranges after Nadir’s assassination in 1747 were the Bakhtiyari, under Ali Mardan Khan, and the Zand, led by Karim Khan. The latter were seminomads of the Lakk people, related to both the Lurs and the Kurds, pasturing between Hamadan and Isfahan.
On the failure of the Afsharids to hold western Iran, these two chiefs in 1750 occupied the former Safavid capital of Isfahan in the name of a minor Safavid protégé styled Isma’il III, with Ali Mardan as vakil, or regent, and Karim as commander of the army. While Karim was campaigning in Kurdistan, Ali Mardan staged a coup and plundered the province of Fars. Karim Khan captured Isfahan and defeated his rival in battle. Three other contestants for power occupied all of the Zand leader’s energies for three more years. His campaigns ranged from the Persian Gulf to the Caspian coast and the foothills of the Caucasus. The Qajar chief Muhammad Hasan Khan was defeated and killed outside his fortress of Astarabad in 1759. Azad Khan the Afghan was routed by his erstwhile ally, the Afshar leader Fath Ali Khan, in 1760. He surrendered to Karim Khan and spent the rest of his life in Shiraz as a pensioner of the Zands. Fath Ali made a last stand with a tribal coalition in Azerbaijan, but the province fell to the Zands in 1762 and was thereafter administered for them by Najaf Quli Khan Dunbuli, of an eminent local family of turkicized Kurds.
In July 1765, having subdued all the Elburz and Zagros provinces, Karim Khan entered Shiraz and was not to leave for the remaining fourteen years of his life. This strategic southern city had come to be his refuge and capital during his early struggle for power against rivals based in northern Iran, and he now embellished it with a fortress-palace (arg), a mosque, a covered bazaar, and other buildings and gardens. During the next decade, he sent expeditions led by his relatives to secure the Persian Gulf littoral and its hinterland, the provinces of Lar, Yazd, and Kerman. He attempted to keep the Qajars in check -- with only moderate success -- by appointing a son of the late Muhammad Hasan Khan as governor of Damghan and keeping the eldest son, Agha Muhammad Khan, a hostage in Shiraz. Impoverished Khurasan he left in the hands of Nadir Shah’s grandson, Shahrukh Shah, as a buffer againstthe new Afghan monarchy of Ahmad Shah Durrani. North of the Aras River Iran’s former vassals, the Georgian kingdom and the Darband khanate, began to drift into the economic and political orbit of Russia.
In the Persian Gulf, the commercial centre of gravity moved from Bandar Abbas to Bushehr, the natural port of Shiraz, where the East India Company was granted facilities. In 1766, Karim Khan regained Kharg Island from the hands of the colorful pirate Mir Muhanna, who had earlier captured it from the Dutch East India Company. However, he was unable to bring Hormuz Island under his control or to intimidate the imam of Oman, his commercial rival in the lower gulf. Repeated expeditions against the Ka’b Arabs of Khuzistan -- even with the cooperation of the East India company and the Ottoman governor of Basra -- brought no more than fitful subservience until the death of their strong leader, Shaikh Salman, in 1768. Karim Khan exchanged embassies with Haidar Ali, ruler of the Deccan, and Indian merchants frequented Shiraz and the gulf ports. Armenian and Jewish merchants who had fled during the chaotic interregnum were encouraged to return to Iran, and commerce increased. Agricultural subsidies and rebuilding programs, both in Shiraz and the provinces (e.g., in Isfahan and Kashan, hit by an earthquake in 1778), helped to restorte Iran’s threadbare economic and social fabric.
Seeking to divert Persian Gulf trade to Bushehr, Karim Khan in 1776 besieged and occupied Basra. His death -- probably as a result of tuberculosis -- which occurred on March 2, 1779, when he was was about eighty years old, prompted an Iranian withdrawal Ironically, Basra’s trade was indeed largely diverted as a result of this war, but to Kuwait, rather than Bushehr. The internecine wars of succession following his death further undermined much of the prosperity he had restored.
Karim Khan’s virtues were universally acknowledged, even by his enemies. During his rise to power, he displayed prowess in the field, tenacity in adversity, and magnanimity in victory. As ruler he dressed and lived simply (although indulging a taste for wine and women) and never assumed the title shah. Even his title vakil (“representative”) he modified from vakil al-daula, “sovereign’s regent,” to vakil al-ra’aya, “people’s deputy,” which was the designation of a traditional provincial ombudsman appointed by the crown. Apocryphal tales of his justice, kindness, humility, sense of humor, and concern for the safety and prosperity of the common man testify to his continuing place in his countrymen’s affection.
Karim Khan was the first Zand ruler of Iran. He restored peace to the kingdom after the strife following the collapse of the Ṣafavid dynasty.
Of humble tribal origin, Karim Khan became one of the generals of his predecessor, Nader Shah. In the chaotic aftermath of Nader Shah’s assassination in 1747, Karim Khan became a major contender for power but was challenged by several adversaries. In order to add legitimacy to his claim, Karim Khan in 1757 placed on the throne the infant Shah Ismaʿil III, the grandson of the last official Ṣafavid king. Ismaʿil was a figurehead king, real power being vested in Karim Khan, who never claimed the title of shahanshah (“king of kings”) but used that of vakil (“regent”).
By 1760, Karim Khan had defeated all his rivals and controlled all of Iran except Khorasan, in the northeast, which was ruled by Shah Rokh, the blind grandson of Nader Shah. During Karim Khan’s rule, Iran recovered from the devastation of 40 years of war. He made Shiraz his capital, constructing many fine buildings. Moreover, he reorganized the fiscal system of the kingdom, removing some of the heavy burdens of taxation from the agricultural classes. An active patron of the arts, he attracted many scholars and poets to his capital.
Karim Khan also opened Iran to foreign influence by allowing the English East India Company to establish a trading post in Bushire, the Persian Gulf port (1763). In advancing his policy of developing trade, in 1775–76 he attacked and captured Basra, the Ottoman port at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, which had diverted much of the trade with India away from Iranian ports.
The civil war that followed Karim Khan’s death ended only with the final establishment of the Qajar dynasty in 1796.
Karim Khan Zand see Zand, Karim Khan
Zangids
Zangids (Zengids). Dynasty of Turkish origin, which ruled in Mosul and Aleppo (r.1127-1222), and in Damasacus and Aleppo (r.1146-1181). Their main capital was Aleppo and Damascus in 1154. The founder of the dynasty was Aqsunqur, a Seljuk military slave and atabeg (tutor) to the Seljuk Tutush of Aleppo. His son, Imad al-Din Zangi (r. 1127-1146), became governor of Iraq (with Baghdad) in 1127 and conquered Mosul (in 1127), Aleppo (in 1128), and other Syrian towns. Through political skill and successful battles against the crusading nations, he acquired authority over Mesopotamia and large parts of Syria. While his son, Nur al-Din (r. 1146-1174), conquered Syria and occupied Damascus in 1154, his brother, Saif al-Din (r. 1146-1149), inherited Mesopotamia and established the Mosul dynastic branch (r. 1146-1262). Nur al-Din led Zangid rule to its apogee and was able to extend his sovereignty as far as Egypt (under the Fatimids) and over all branches of the family. His son, Isma‘il, was defeated in 1174 by the Ayyubids, under Saladin, who had risen in the service of the Zangids; the secondary dynastic branches in Sinjar (r. 1170-1220) and Jazira by the Ilkhanids in 1262.
The Zengid (or Zangid) dynasty was a Muslim dynasty of Turkic origin, which ruled parts of Syria and northern Iraq on behalf of the Seljuk Empire.
The dynasty was founded by Imad ed-Din Zengi (or Zangi), who became the Seljuk Atabeg (governor) of Mosul in 1127. He quickly became the chief Turkish potentate in Northern Syria and Iraq, taking Aleppo from the squabbling Ortoqid emirs in 1128, and capturing the County of Edessa from the Crusaders in 1144. This latter feat made Zengi a hero in the Muslim world, but he was assassinated by a slave two years later, in 1146.
On Zengi's death, his territories were divided, with Mosul and his lands in Iraq going to his eldest son Saif ad-Din Ghazi I, and Aleppo and Edessa falling to his second son, Nur ad-Din Mahmud. Nur ad-Din proved to be as competent as his father. In 1149 he defeated and killed Prince Raymond of Antioch in battle, and the next year conquered the remnants of the County of Edessa west of the Euphrates River. In 1154 he capped off these successes by his capture of Damascus from the Burid Emirs who ruled it.
Now ruling from Damascus, Nur ad-Din's success continued. Another Prince of Antioch, Raynald of Châtillon was captured, and the territories of that Principality were greatly reduced. In the 1160s, Nur ad-Din's attention was mostly held by a competition with the King of Jerusalem, Amalric I, for control of the Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt. Ultimately, Nur ed-Din's Kurdish general Shirkuh was successful in conquering Egypt in 1169, but Shirkuh's nephew and successor as Governor of Egypt, Saladin, rejected Nur ad-Din's control.
Nur ad-Din was preparing to invade Egypt to bring Saladin under control when he unexpectedly died in 1174. His son and successor As-Salih Ismail al-Malik was only a child, and was forced to flee to Aleppo, which he ruled until 1181, when he was murdered and replaced by his relation, the Atabeg of Mosul. Saladin conquered Aleppo two years later, ending Zengid rule in Syria.
Zengid princes continued to rule in Northern Iraq well into the 13th Century, ruling Mosul until 1234; their rule did not come finally to an end until 1250.
The Zengid Atabegs and Emirs of Mosul were:
* Imad ad-Din Zengi I 1127-1146
* Saif ad-Din Ghazi I 1146-1149
* Qutb ad-Din Mawdud 1149-1170
* Saif ad-Din Ghazi II 1170-1180
* Izz ad-Din Mas'ud 1180-1193
* Nur ad-Din Arslan Shah I 1193-1211
* Izz ad-Din Mas'ud II 1211-1218
* Nur ad-Din Arslan Shah II 1218-1219
* Nasir ad-Din Mahmud 1219-1234
The Zengid Emirs of Aleppo were:
* Imad ad-Din Zengi I 1128-1146
* Nur ad-Din Mahmud 1146-1174
* As-Salih Ismail al-Malik 1174-1181
* Imad ad-Din Zengi II 1181-1183
The Zengid Emirs of Damascus were:
* Nur ad-Din Mahmud 1154-1174
* As-Salih Ismail al-Malik 1174
The Zengid Emirs of Sinjar (in Northern Iraq) were:
* Imad ad-Din Zengi II 1171-1197
* Qutb ad-Din Muhammad 1197-1219
* Imad ad-Din Shahanshah 1219-1220
* Jalal ad-Din Mahmud 1219-1220
* Fath ad-Din Umar 1219-1220
The Zengid Emirs of Jazira (in Northern Iraq) were:
* Mu'izz ad-Din Sanjar Shah 1180-1208
* Mu'izz ad-Din Mahmud 1208-1241
* Mahmud Al-Malik Al-Zahir 1241-1250
After Zangī’s death in 1146, his sons divided the state between them, Syria falling to Nureddin (Nūr ad-Dīn Maḥmūd; r. 1146–74) and al-Jazīrah to Sayf ad-Dīn Ghāzī I (r. 1146–49). Nureddin’s expansionist policy led him to annex Damascus (1154), subjugate Egypt (1168), and present a broad and competent Muslim front against the crusaders, especially under such generals as Saladin, subsequent founder of the Ayyūbid dynasty of Egypt.
The Syrian branch of the Zangids was reunited with the Iraqi line in 1181 and was eventually absorbed into Saladin’s new empire. The Zangids held on to al-Jazīrah and successfully repulsed several attempts made by Saladin to capture Mosul (1182 and 1185). They were, however, forced to accept his suzerainty. The rise to power of Badr ad-Dīn Luʾluʾ, a former slave, as regent for the last Zangid, Nāṣir ad-Dīn Maḥmūd (reigned 1219–22), marked the end of the dynasty. Luʾluʾ ruled Mosul as atabeg from 1222 to 1259. Soon afterward the city fell to the Mongols.
A third branch of the Zangids had established themselves in Sinjār, west of Mosul, in 1170 and ruled there for about 50 years. The Ayyūbids completed several architectural works begun by the Zangids. The most noteworthy is the Great Mosque in Aleppo, completed in 1190. The building, a perfect continuation of the Zangid artistic tradition, demonstrates simplicity in decorative architecture. It is built around a large, open, marble-floored court, with a polychrome mihrab (prayer niche facing Mecca) and a tall, square minaret. Large areas of wall are left undecorated in contrast to the expressive but delicately carved marble inlay ornaments.
The Zangids are famous for their patronage of the 13th-century Mosul schools of metalwork and painting. Mosul produced the finest metal inlay pieces (usually bronze with silver inlay) in the Islāmic world at that time. Their craftsmen carried the technique to Aleppo, Damascus, Baghdad, Cairo, and Iran, influencing the metalwork of those areas for centuries following. The Mosul school of painting was rivaled in Iraq only by the Baghdad school. Stylistically, Mosul miniatures were based heavily on Seljuq traditions, but they had an iconography of their own. Of somewhat less importance were knotted carpets made by Zangid craftsmen, two-colored silks being the speciality.
Zengids see Zangids
Zangids (Zengids). Dynasty of Turkish origin, which ruled in Mosul and Aleppo (r.1127-1222), and in Damasacus and Aleppo (r.1146-1181). Their main capital was Aleppo and Damascus in 1154. The founder of the dynasty was Aqsunqur, a Seljuk military slave and atabeg (tutor) to the Seljuk Tutush of Aleppo. His son, Imad al-Din Zangi (r. 1127-1146), became governor of Iraq (with Baghdad) in 1127 and conquered Mosul (in 1127), Aleppo (in 1128), and other Syrian towns. Through political skill and successful battles against the crusading nations, he acquired authority over Mesopotamia and large parts of Syria. While his son, Nur al-Din (r. 1146-1174), conquered Syria and occupied Damascus in 1154, his brother, Saif al-Din (r. 1146-1149), inherited Mesopotamia and established the Mosul dynastic branch (r. 1146-1262). Nur al-Din led Zangid rule to its apogee and was able to extend his sovereignty as far as Egypt (under the Fatimids) and over all branches of the family. His son, Isma‘il, was defeated in 1174 by the Ayyubids, under Saladin, who had risen in the service of the Zangids; the secondary dynastic branches in Sinjar (r. 1170-1220) and Jazira by the Ilkhanids in 1262.
The Zengid (or Zangid) dynasty was a Muslim dynasty of Turkic origin, which ruled parts of Syria and northern Iraq on behalf of the Seljuk Empire.
The dynasty was founded by Imad ed-Din Zengi (or Zangi), who became the Seljuk Atabeg (governor) of Mosul in 1127. He quickly became the chief Turkish potentate in Northern Syria and Iraq, taking Aleppo from the squabbling Ortoqid emirs in 1128, and capturing the County of Edessa from the Crusaders in 1144. This latter feat made Zengi a hero in the Muslim world, but he was assassinated by a slave two years later, in 1146.
On Zengi's death, his territories were divided, with Mosul and his lands in Iraq going to his eldest son Saif ad-Din Ghazi I, and Aleppo and Edessa falling to his second son, Nur ad-Din Mahmud. Nur ad-Din proved to be as competent as his father. In 1149 he defeated and killed Prince Raymond of Antioch in battle, and the next year conquered the remnants of the County of Edessa west of the Euphrates River. In 1154 he capped off these successes by his capture of Damascus from the Burid Emirs who ruled it.
Now ruling from Damascus, Nur ad-Din's success continued. Another Prince of Antioch, Raynald of Châtillon was captured, and the territories of that Principality were greatly reduced. In the 1160s, Nur ad-Din's attention was mostly held by a competition with the King of Jerusalem, Amalric I, for control of the Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt. Ultimately, Nur ed-Din's Kurdish general Shirkuh was successful in conquering Egypt in 1169, but Shirkuh's nephew and successor as Governor of Egypt, Saladin, rejected Nur ad-Din's control.
Nur ad-Din was preparing to invade Egypt to bring Saladin under control when he unexpectedly died in 1174. His son and successor As-Salih Ismail al-Malik was only a child, and was forced to flee to Aleppo, which he ruled until 1181, when he was murdered and replaced by his relation, the Atabeg of Mosul. Saladin conquered Aleppo two years later, ending Zengid rule in Syria.
Zengid princes continued to rule in Northern Iraq well into the 13th Century, ruling Mosul until 1234; their rule did not come finally to an end until 1250.
The Zengid Atabegs and Emirs of Mosul were:
* Imad ad-Din Zengi I 1127-1146
* Saif ad-Din Ghazi I 1146-1149
* Qutb ad-Din Mawdud 1149-1170
* Saif ad-Din Ghazi II 1170-1180
* Izz ad-Din Mas'ud 1180-1193
* Nur ad-Din Arslan Shah I 1193-1211
* Izz ad-Din Mas'ud II 1211-1218
* Nur ad-Din Arslan Shah II 1218-1219
* Nasir ad-Din Mahmud 1219-1234
The Zengid Emirs of Aleppo were:
* Imad ad-Din Zengi I 1128-1146
* Nur ad-Din Mahmud 1146-1174
* As-Salih Ismail al-Malik 1174-1181
* Imad ad-Din Zengi II 1181-1183
The Zengid Emirs of Damascus were:
* Nur ad-Din Mahmud 1154-1174
* As-Salih Ismail al-Malik 1174
The Zengid Emirs of Sinjar (in Northern Iraq) were:
* Imad ad-Din Zengi II 1171-1197
* Qutb ad-Din Muhammad 1197-1219
* Imad ad-Din Shahanshah 1219-1220
* Jalal ad-Din Mahmud 1219-1220
* Fath ad-Din Umar 1219-1220
The Zengid Emirs of Jazira (in Northern Iraq) were:
* Mu'izz ad-Din Sanjar Shah 1180-1208
* Mu'izz ad-Din Mahmud 1208-1241
* Mahmud Al-Malik Al-Zahir 1241-1250
After Zangī’s death in 1146, his sons divided the state between them, Syria falling to Nureddin (Nūr ad-Dīn Maḥmūd; r. 1146–74) and al-Jazīrah to Sayf ad-Dīn Ghāzī I (r. 1146–49). Nureddin’s expansionist policy led him to annex Damascus (1154), subjugate Egypt (1168), and present a broad and competent Muslim front against the crusaders, especially under such generals as Saladin, subsequent founder of the Ayyūbid dynasty of Egypt.
The Syrian branch of the Zangids was reunited with the Iraqi line in 1181 and was eventually absorbed into Saladin’s new empire. The Zangids held on to al-Jazīrah and successfully repulsed several attempts made by Saladin to capture Mosul (1182 and 1185). They were, however, forced to accept his suzerainty. The rise to power of Badr ad-Dīn Luʾluʾ, a former slave, as regent for the last Zangid, Nāṣir ad-Dīn Maḥmūd (reigned 1219–22), marked the end of the dynasty. Luʾluʾ ruled Mosul as atabeg from 1222 to 1259. Soon afterward the city fell to the Mongols.
A third branch of the Zangids had established themselves in Sinjār, west of Mosul, in 1170 and ruled there for about 50 years. The Ayyūbids completed several architectural works begun by the Zangids. The most noteworthy is the Great Mosque in Aleppo, completed in 1190. The building, a perfect continuation of the Zangid artistic tradition, demonstrates simplicity in decorative architecture. It is built around a large, open, marble-floored court, with a polychrome mihrab (prayer niche facing Mecca) and a tall, square minaret. Large areas of wall are left undecorated in contrast to the expressive but delicately carved marble inlay ornaments.
The Zangids are famous for their patronage of the 13th-century Mosul schools of metalwork and painting. Mosul produced the finest metal inlay pieces (usually bronze with silver inlay) in the Islāmic world at that time. Their craftsmen carried the technique to Aleppo, Damascus, Baghdad, Cairo, and Iran, influencing the metalwork of those areas for centuries following. The Mosul school of painting was rivaled in Iraq only by the Baghdad school. Stylistically, Mosul miniatures were based heavily on Seljuq traditions, but they had an iconography of their own. Of somewhat less importance were knotted carpets made by Zangid craftsmen, two-colored silks being the speciality.
Zengids see Zangids
Zanj
Zanj (in plural form, Zunuj) (Zeng) (Zinj). Name of the black (African) tribes of the east coast of Africa. It was given by the Arab historians to the rebel slaves who, having previously rebelled in 694, for fifteen years (868-883) terrorized Lower Mesopotamia. They were led by a man called “the veiled”. They took al-Ubulla, now part of Basra; Abadan; Ahvaz, now the capital of Khuzistan; and finally Basra itself. They were in the end defeated by the ‘Abbasid regent al-Muwaffaq.
Zanj ("Land of the Blacks") was a name used by medieval Arab geographers to refer to both a certain portion of the coast of East Africa and its inhabitants. It is the origin of the place name Zanzibar.
The geographers divided the coast of East Africa at large into several regions based on each region's respective inhabitants. In northern Somalia was Barbara (around modern-day Berbera), which was the land of the Eastern Baribah or Barbaroi (Berbers), as Somalis were referred to by medieval Arab and ancient Greek geographers, respectively. In modern-day Ethiopia was al-Habash or Abyssinia, which was inhabited by the Habash or Abyssinians, who were the forbears of the Habesha.
Beyond the Abyssinian highlands and the Berber coast lay to the south Zanj (also transliterated as Zenj or Zinj), a land inhabited by Bantu-speaking peoples called the Zanj, which stretched from the area far south of present-day Mogadishu, to Pemba Island in Tanzania. South of Zanj lay the Land of Sofala in Mozambique, the northern limit of which may have been Pangani, opposite Pemba Island. And beyond Sofala was the obscure realm of Waq-Waq, also in Mozambique. The tenth century Arab historian and geographer Abu al-Hasan 'Alī al-Mas'ūdī describes Sofala as the furthest limit of the Zanj settlement and mentions its king's title as Mfalme (a Bantu word).
Arab writers used the term Zanj to refer to "Bantu-speaking Negroes" on the coast of East Africa and south of Barbara and Abyssinia. The Zanj traded extensively with Arabs, Persians and Indians, but only locally since they possessed no ocean-going ships. Through this trade, some Arabs intermarried with local Bantu women, which eventually gave rise to the Swahili culture and language -- both Bantu in origin but significantly influenced by foreign elements (e.g. clothing, loan words, etc.).
Prominent settlements of the Zanj coast included Shungwaya (Bur Gao), as well as Malindi, Gedi, and Mombasa. By the late medieval period, the area included at least 37 substantial Swahili trading towns, many of them quite wealthy. However, these communities never consolidated into a single political entity (the "Zanj Empire" being a late nineteenth century fiction).
The urban ruling and commercial classes of these Swahili settlements was occupied by Arab and Persian immigrants. The Bantu peoples inhabited the coastal regions, and were organized only as family groups. The term 'shenzi' used on the East African coast and derived from Swahili 'zanji' referred in a derogatory way to anything associated with rural blacks. An example of this would be the colonial term a 'shenzi' dog, referring to a native dog.
The Zanj were for centuries shipped as slaves by Arab traders to all the countries bordering the Indian Ocean. The Umayyad and Abbasid caliphs recruited many Zanj slaves as soldiers and, as early as 696, we learn of slave revolts of the Zanj against their Arab masters in Iraq. Ancient Chinese texts also mention ambassadors from Java presenting the Chinese emperor with two Seng Chi (Zanji) slaves as gifts, and Seng Chi slaves reaching China from the Hindu kingdom of Sri Vijaya in Java.
The term "Zanj" apparently fell out of use in the tenth century. However, after 1861, when the area controlled by the Arab Sultan of Zanzibar was forced by the British to split with the parent country of Oman, it was often referred to as Zanj. The sea off the south-eastern coast of Africa was known as the "Sea of Zanj" and included the Mascarene islands and Madagascar. During the anti-apartheid struggle it was proposed that South Africa should assume the name 'Azania' to reflect ancient Zanj.
The Zanj Rebellion (869–883) was a black-slave revolt against the ʿAbbasid caliphal empire. A number of Basran landowners had brought several thousand East African blacks (Zanj) into southern Iraq to drain the salt marshes east of Basra. The landowners subjected the Zanj, who generally spoke no Arabic, to heavy slave labor and provided them with only minimal subsistence. In September 869, ʿAli ibn Muhammad, a Persian claiming descent from ʿAli, the fourth caliph, and Fatimah, Muhammad’s daughter, gained the support of several slave-work crews—which could number from 500 to 5,000 men—by pointing out the injustice of their social position and promising them freedom and wealth. ʿAli’s offers became even more attractive with his subsequent adoption of a Kharijite religious stance: anyone, even a black slave, could be elected caliph, and all non-Kharijites were infidels threatened by a holy war.
Zanj forces grew rapidly in size and power, absorbing the well-trained black contingents that defected from the defeated caliphal armies, along with some disaffected local peasantry. In October 869 they defeated a Basran force, and soon afterward a Zanj capital, al-Mukhtarah (Arabic: the Chosen), was built on an inaccessible dry spot in the salt flats, surrounded by canals. The rebels gained control of southern Iraq by capturing al-Ubullah (June 870), a seaport on the Persian Gulf, and cutting communications to Basra, then seized Ahvaz in southwestern Iran. The caliphal armies, now entrusted to al-Muwaffaq, a brother of the new caliph, al-Muʿtamid (r. 870–892), still could not cope with the rebels. The Zanj sacked Basra in September 871, and subsequently defeated al-Muwaffaq himself in April 872.
Between 872 and 879, while al-Muwaffaq was occupied in eastern Iran with the expansion of the Ṣaffarids, an independent Persian dynasty, the Zanj seized Wasit (878) and established themselves in Khuzistan, Iran. In 879, however, al-Muwaffaq organized a major offensive against the black slaves. Within a year, the second Zanj city, al-Maniʿah (The Impregnable), was taken. The rebels were next expelled from Khuzistan, and, in the spring of 881, al-Muwaffaq laid siege to al-Mukhtārah from a special city built on the other side of the Tigris River. Two years later, in August 883, reinforced by Egyptian troops, al-Muwaffaq finally crushed the rebellion, conquering the city and returning to Baghdad with ʿAli’s head.
Zanj (in plural form, Zunuj) (Zeng) (Zinj). Name of the black (African) tribes of the east coast of Africa. It was given by the Arab historians to the rebel slaves who, having previously rebelled in 694, for fifteen years (868-883) terrorized Lower Mesopotamia. They were led by a man called “the veiled”. They took al-Ubulla, now part of Basra; Abadan; Ahvaz, now the capital of Khuzistan; and finally Basra itself. They were in the end defeated by the ‘Abbasid regent al-Muwaffaq.
Zanj ("Land of the Blacks") was a name used by medieval Arab geographers to refer to both a certain portion of the coast of East Africa and its inhabitants. It is the origin of the place name Zanzibar.
The geographers divided the coast of East Africa at large into several regions based on each region's respective inhabitants. In northern Somalia was Barbara (around modern-day Berbera), which was the land of the Eastern Baribah or Barbaroi (Berbers), as Somalis were referred to by medieval Arab and ancient Greek geographers, respectively. In modern-day Ethiopia was al-Habash or Abyssinia, which was inhabited by the Habash or Abyssinians, who were the forbears of the Habesha.
Beyond the Abyssinian highlands and the Berber coast lay to the south Zanj (also transliterated as Zenj or Zinj), a land inhabited by Bantu-speaking peoples called the Zanj, which stretched from the area far south of present-day Mogadishu, to Pemba Island in Tanzania. South of Zanj lay the Land of Sofala in Mozambique, the northern limit of which may have been Pangani, opposite Pemba Island. And beyond Sofala was the obscure realm of Waq-Waq, also in Mozambique. The tenth century Arab historian and geographer Abu al-Hasan 'Alī al-Mas'ūdī describes Sofala as the furthest limit of the Zanj settlement and mentions its king's title as Mfalme (a Bantu word).
Arab writers used the term Zanj to refer to "Bantu-speaking Negroes" on the coast of East Africa and south of Barbara and Abyssinia. The Zanj traded extensively with Arabs, Persians and Indians, but only locally since they possessed no ocean-going ships. Through this trade, some Arabs intermarried with local Bantu women, which eventually gave rise to the Swahili culture and language -- both Bantu in origin but significantly influenced by foreign elements (e.g. clothing, loan words, etc.).
Prominent settlements of the Zanj coast included Shungwaya (Bur Gao), as well as Malindi, Gedi, and Mombasa. By the late medieval period, the area included at least 37 substantial Swahili trading towns, many of them quite wealthy. However, these communities never consolidated into a single political entity (the "Zanj Empire" being a late nineteenth century fiction).
The urban ruling and commercial classes of these Swahili settlements was occupied by Arab and Persian immigrants. The Bantu peoples inhabited the coastal regions, and were organized only as family groups. The term 'shenzi' used on the East African coast and derived from Swahili 'zanji' referred in a derogatory way to anything associated with rural blacks. An example of this would be the colonial term a 'shenzi' dog, referring to a native dog.
The Zanj were for centuries shipped as slaves by Arab traders to all the countries bordering the Indian Ocean. The Umayyad and Abbasid caliphs recruited many Zanj slaves as soldiers and, as early as 696, we learn of slave revolts of the Zanj against their Arab masters in Iraq. Ancient Chinese texts also mention ambassadors from Java presenting the Chinese emperor with two Seng Chi (Zanji) slaves as gifts, and Seng Chi slaves reaching China from the Hindu kingdom of Sri Vijaya in Java.
The term "Zanj" apparently fell out of use in the tenth century. However, after 1861, when the area controlled by the Arab Sultan of Zanzibar was forced by the British to split with the parent country of Oman, it was often referred to as Zanj. The sea off the south-eastern coast of Africa was known as the "Sea of Zanj" and included the Mascarene islands and Madagascar. During the anti-apartheid struggle it was proposed that South Africa should assume the name 'Azania' to reflect ancient Zanj.
The Zanj Rebellion (869–883) was a black-slave revolt against the ʿAbbasid caliphal empire. A number of Basran landowners had brought several thousand East African blacks (Zanj) into southern Iraq to drain the salt marshes east of Basra. The landowners subjected the Zanj, who generally spoke no Arabic, to heavy slave labor and provided them with only minimal subsistence. In September 869, ʿAli ibn Muhammad, a Persian claiming descent from ʿAli, the fourth caliph, and Fatimah, Muhammad’s daughter, gained the support of several slave-work crews—which could number from 500 to 5,000 men—by pointing out the injustice of their social position and promising them freedom and wealth. ʿAli’s offers became even more attractive with his subsequent adoption of a Kharijite religious stance: anyone, even a black slave, could be elected caliph, and all non-Kharijites were infidels threatened by a holy war.
Zanj forces grew rapidly in size and power, absorbing the well-trained black contingents that defected from the defeated caliphal armies, along with some disaffected local peasantry. In October 869 they defeated a Basran force, and soon afterward a Zanj capital, al-Mukhtarah (Arabic: the Chosen), was built on an inaccessible dry spot in the salt flats, surrounded by canals. The rebels gained control of southern Iraq by capturing al-Ubullah (June 870), a seaport on the Persian Gulf, and cutting communications to Basra, then seized Ahvaz in southwestern Iran. The caliphal armies, now entrusted to al-Muwaffaq, a brother of the new caliph, al-Muʿtamid (r. 870–892), still could not cope with the rebels. The Zanj sacked Basra in September 871, and subsequently defeated al-Muwaffaq himself in April 872.
Between 872 and 879, while al-Muwaffaq was occupied in eastern Iran with the expansion of the Ṣaffarids, an independent Persian dynasty, the Zanj seized Wasit (878) and established themselves in Khuzistan, Iran. In 879, however, al-Muwaffaq organized a major offensive against the black slaves. Within a year, the second Zanj city, al-Maniʿah (The Impregnable), was taken. The rebels were next expelled from Khuzistan, and, in the spring of 881, al-Muwaffaq laid siege to al-Mukhtārah from a special city built on the other side of the Tigris River. Two years later, in August 883, reinforced by Egyptian troops, al-Muwaffaq finally crushed the rebellion, conquering the city and returning to Baghdad with ʿAli’s head.
Zunuj see Zanj
Zeng see Zanj
Zinj see Zanj
Zeng see Zanj
Zinj see Zanj
Zanjani, ‘Izz al-Din ‘Abd al-Wahhab al-
Zanjani, ‘Izz al-Din ‘Abd al-Wahhab al- (‘Izz al-Din ‘Abd al-Wahhab al- Zanjani) (al-‘Izzi). Arab grammarian of thirteenth century. Besides grammatical works, he wrote on the use of the astrolabe and made a collection of Arabic poems.
Zanjani, ‘Izz al-Din ‘Abd al-Wahhab al- (‘Izz al-Din ‘Abd al-Wahhab al- Zanjani) (al-‘Izzi). Arab grammarian of thirteenth century. Besides grammatical works, he wrote on the use of the astrolabe and made a collection of Arabic poems.
'Izz al-Din 'Abd al-Wahhab al-Zanjani see Zanjani, ‘Izz al-Din ‘Abd al-Wahhab al-
'Izzi, al- see Zanjani, ‘Izz al-Din ‘Abd al-Wahhab al-
'Izzi, al- see Zanjani, ‘Izz al-Din ‘Abd al-Wahhab al-
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