Arab history quiz...

[jumbo2002]

These quizzes are nice!
I think I'll move things to a different region of the world...

1. What father-mother-son trio are identified as the "founders" of the Arab people?
2. What is the object (now in Mecca) did the "founder" son receive and from whom did he receive it?
3. To where did Muhammad go in order to prepare to retake Mecca?
4. What was the cause of the Shi'ite/Sunni division in Islam?
5. What family was installed by the British as monarchs in Jordan and Iraq in 1921?
6. What Ottoman viceroy gained control of Egpyt in the first half of the nineteenth century?
7. The funding of what construction project provided the pretext for the Suez Crisis?
8. What countries border Iraq? How many of them share a body of water?
9. Who fired the first shot in the Six Day War?
10. What Arab states united to form the short lived United Arab Republic?

 

[Knight-Dragon]

1) From the Book of Nations? Can't remember the names though, so no idea.
2) The kaabah? From the archangel Gabriel?
3) Medinah.
4) Argument over who's the rightful successor to Muhammad, centering around Ali I think one of the early caliphs.
5) The Hashemites.
6) Pasha Muhammad?
7) The Suez Canal?
8) Kuwait, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey, Jordan. Kuwait, Iran and Saudi Arabia shared the Persian Gulf with Iraq.
9) The Egyptians?
10) Syria, Jordan and Egypt?

 

[jumbo2002]

SKM, you've got about 5 of them...with a couple being half right, and depending on whether "Pasha Muhammad" is alternate name for the guy. I think Pasha was his title, but he has something else after "Muhammad".

Edit: Quick grammar fix.

 

[Lefty Scaevola]

1. Isaac/Rebecka/Essau
4. the disputed succesion was between the companions of Mohamed (Sunni sect) & the descendants of Mohamed (****e sect)
6. Mehemet Ali
7. Nassar nationalized the Suez canal in order to uses the proceeds to pay for the Aswan dam.
9. Israel lauched a premtive Air strike.
10. Syria & Egypt

 

[jumbo2002]

SKM and Lefty together have all but #1 and #8...
As for #1, your answer is close Lefty, but that's the Hebrew line and one generation later.
SKM is close on #8, except Saudi Arabia doesn't directly share the Gulf - despite Saddam's wishes - and there are 2 bodies of water you probably know but forgot to mention.

Nice job!

 

[Knight-Dragon]

8) Lake Van? Shared betw Turkey, Iran and Iraq?

 

[G-Man]

1) I think it might be related to the jewish founders... Maybe Avraham...
8) The Persian gulf, shared by Iran, Kuwait and Saudi?

 

[Kublai-Khan]

I think it is Abraham
his egyptian slave and
their son Ismael.

 

[jumbo2002]

That's it...Abraham, Hagar, and Ishmael.

Also, as for #8...the bodies of water: Turkey and Iraq share the Tigris River, and Syria and Iraq share the Euphrates River!

Nice job!

 

[Knight-Dragon]

But I don't think rivers qualify as 'bodies of water'. I'm no geographer but when I think about bodies of water, I always think of open spaces filled by water i.e. sea, lakes, straits etc.

Anyway, to turn this into a cumulative quiz (as a way to learn more about Arab and Islamic history - very important nowadays considering what's happening in Afghanistan) : -

When the Abbasids overthrew the Umayyad Caliphate, one of the scions managed to escape and set up a new caliphate. In which country was this caliphate located?

 

[jumbo2002]

Originally posted by SKM
But I don't think rivers qualify as 'bodies of water'. I'm no geographer but when I think about bodies of water, I always think of open spaces filled by water i.e. sea, lakes, straits etc.

Oh well...I tend to think of them as bodies of water, considering their strategic importance. Good enough.

Anyway, to turn this into a cumulative quiz (as a way to learn more about Arab and Islamic history - very important nowadays considering what's happening in Afghanistan) : -

When the Abbasids overthrew the Umayyad Caliphate, one of the scions managed to escape and set up a new caliphate. In which country was this caliphate located?

Spain.

 

[Knight-Dragon]

That's a quick one. Of coz, you got it right. Next question's on you so you so choose.

 

[jumbo2002]

I guess it can be quick if we're both reading the boards at the same time.

Hmm...let's see...multipart question:

In 1975, Saddam Hussein predicted that the bipolar order of the Soviet Union and United States would fall. However, instead of the Soviet Union falling, he predicted that a French-led Europe, China, and newly militant Japan would rise to challenge the bipolar order.

1. How long did Saddam believe it would take for the bipolar order to be replaced by one with multiple centers of power?
2. [Interpretation Question - so no "truly correct" answer] Why is Saddam's incorrect prediction important?

 

[Knight-Dragon]

Jumbo, are you doing some kind of heavy studies in Middle-Eastern history and politics? I'll give it a try.

1) Really clueless. 10-20 years?
2) It led him to believe he could play off one great power against another. So far, he had the Americans backing him up against the Iranians. If there're more great powers, he could get more support (and could more easily manipulate the powers-that-be too). Led him into invading Iran eventually.

 

[Kublai-Khan]

Excuse me
my english sucks
and i tend to write those names in the spanish way
I am from Argentina.
Do you know someone here who speaks spanish?

 

[jumbo2002]

No problem, Kublai. I knew what you were saying.

SKM, yeah, my fall seminar this year is on Arab politics/foreign policy. It's the tradeoff of studying Political Science as opposed to History - more depth in those topics that I do study (Western and Southern Europe, Japan, the Middle East, and the US) but I know very little about most everywhere else (Africa, South America, continental Asia). Also, most of the focus is on modern, post-Thirty Years War history.

Anyway, I asked a bad question. I was trying to think of something relevant to current events, and it was the best I could come up with quickly.

The answer to part 1 is twenty years.

The answer to part 2 is that Saddam believed (correctly) that the rise of the multipolar order would give Iraq (and the Arab states in general) greater flexibility. in 1990, with the collapse of the Soviet bloc a near-inevitability, Saddam realized that his prediction had failed. Publicly (and everything Saddam says publicly must be taken with a rock of salt) Saddam still held to his twenty year (i.e., 1995) prediction for the multipolar order. However, Saddam viewed the next 5 years as extremely dangerous - a unipolar US would seek to dominate the Gulf region, and by controlling the world's energy resources, would be able to efficiently maintain its dominance.

(Here's where the interpretation comes in.) In 1990, Saddam used an oil price crisis with Kuwait and the UAE as a pretext for invading Kuwait. The conclusion is that Saddam viewed that a preemptive action was necessary to achieve dominance in the Arab world, before the US could move in. He gambled that the US would not expend resources and lives to fight Iraq - and he lost. In effect, his preemptive action brought the very situation he hoped to avoid: heavy US presence in the Gulf. By following the chain of events further, it is possible to argue that Saddam's personal ambition was a primary cause of the terrorist attacks on 9/11.

Anyway, a more factual question:
Who were the five members of the Baghdad Pact? (1955)
Hint: The Baghdad pact included non-Arab states.

 

[Knight-Dragon]

Wow, you actually study this stuff. Where I come from, the emphasis is on studying 'useful' degree courses - engineering, computer science, business, accountancy etc. Those who studied the arts or pure sciences were usually rejects who got the places cos no one else wanted those places, generally speaking. Makes us kinda shallow when it comes to political debate and philosophy.

Back to your question, obviously Iraq will be a part of it. And I think Jordan, Britain, France and the US?

 

[jumbo2002]

2 out of the 5 are right...and, of course, one of those is Iraq.

Hints regarding the other four:
One is a European nation
Two border Iraq
One does not border Iraq, but is predominantly Muslim.

Second hint: The US was not a member of the Pact, but strongly supported it.

 

[Knight-Dragon]

Hmmmm, Iraq, Syria, Turkey, Britain and Pakistan.

 

[jumbo2002]

Close enough. Replace Syria with Iran, and you've got it. The idea was that by creating this kind of alliance, the West could create a "line" of states that acted as a buffer against communism. After the Iraqi revolution a few years later, the organization was renamed the Central Treaty Organization and moved to Ankara. I'm not certain about its future from that point on, but I imagine that the Iranian Revolution would have been a serious threat to its existence.