Those with a stated interest in heritage, like e.g.
@theSpurtle @NTBCC
may be interested to read our new section covering the extensive advice given to the Council & Developer by Historic Environment Scotland.

13 years ago, Imad Mughnieh was unlawfully assassinated in #Damascus. Both the CIA and the Mossad claimed credit. Haj Imad managed to survive for 25 years away from his killers (incl some Arab States) and transformed #Hezbollah to another level of deterrence against #Israel.+

He introduced changes within #Hezbollah structure and was known to be fair with all militants. He has created an innovation sector within Hezbollah and handsomely paid for any qualified person to materialise new ideas related to science, health and military fields.+

During the last year, around 2006-2007, Haj Imad became more visible domestically and regionally. He was the one meeting political and military leaders, including allies and his name became more known as the "assistant of the Jihadi council Leader (Sayyed Nasrallah) +

#Hezbollah has lost an important leader and a very close friend and companion to Sayyed Nasrallah. However, Hezbollah moved from domestic to regional power, operating in #Lebanon to defend the country from #Israel's intentions and imposed deterrence that Israel has lost. +

#Hezbollah moved to #Syria to the request of the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad & to #Iraq when Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki asked the help of Hezbollah against #ISIS and to #Yemen to the request of Sanaa' government to stand against a very large coalition led by US and Saudi.

1 So, today we turn to early Islamic Beirut. what do we know of the earliest times of #Beirut under early Islamic rule, starting with the #conquest. How and when did Beirut enter the emerging Muslim empire? -rm

2 Let’s start with traditional sources for the early Islamic period. Of those, only al-Balādhurī (d. ca. 892), the Abbasid scholar, is informative. Other Muslim and non-Muslim sources including al-Ṭabarī's Tārīkh are silent on the matter.-rm

3 In his small tome, Futūḥ al-Buldān, al-Balādhurī tells his readers: “After the conquest of Damascus, Yazīd came to Sidon, ʿArqa, Byblos, and Beirut which lie on the sea coast with his brother Muʿāwiya leading the van of the army.”-rm

4 Hence, the men who conquered Beirut were Yazīd b. Abī Sufyān (d. 639) and his half-brother and future caliph Mu‘āwiya (r. 661-680). The date of the conquest of the coast falls between 636 and 639 at the latest, the date of the death of Yazīd in the plague of Emmaus. -rm

5 Yazīd and the Muslim army likely took the coastal road to Beirut, a path taken by numerous armies before. They would have either swung from Damascus to Baalbek through the Hims gap to ‘Arqa, then Byblos, crossed the Dog River, and arrived at the eastern side of Beirut.

Did the Prophet Muḥammad follow an Arabian religion or religiosity before Islam, that is, before what Muslim accounts label the "Call to Prophecy"? A short thread based on notes for an article preparation 1/

Biographical information about the life of Muḥammad before the Call to Prophecy is seriously lacking - even in the literary imaginations of later Muslim sources. But there are useful and relevant starting points which, if read critically, can add to our existing knowledge 2/

The best clue is found in the famous accounts recorded in the Sīrat Rasūl Allāh (Biography of the Messenger of God ) by the famous biographer Ibn Isḥāq (d. 767) - translated with additional notes (from Ibn Hishām; died 883) by Alfred Guillaume 3/

Ibn Isḥāq (in Ibn Hishām's recension) informs the reader that before the Call to Prophecy, Muḥammad used to sojourn (يُجَاوِرُ) on Mount Ḥirāʾ for a period of 30 days every year. During his meditative seclusion, Muḥammad would feed the poor & needy when they called on him 4/

The operative word in Ibn Hishām's biography is taḥannuth (تحنث). The term remains contentious both among medieval Muslim authorities and Western Islamicists. I decided to prepare an article on the term and its links to Late Antique religiosities largely because...5/

NEW:
BBC has seen the official internal management data for the new post Brexit freight border - roll on roll off lorry outbound flows to EU now at 98% of last February - though was 73% in January... officials say “back to normal”...

That is reference to lorry flow rates - which is what Cabinet Office key committees most concerned about post Brexit in terms of knock on social impact for supplies of everything. Government now confident its “reasonable worst case scenario” of 7k lorries in kent won’t happen...

That is not same as saying trade has normalised - drawing on multiple sources - ferry manifests, Kent checks, french official data - the level of empty lorries on the short straits is around 50%, and was normally around 30%... ...

traffic here was 67% normal in Jan - 82% in feb

Combining those and you get to around 2000 fewer laden export trucks a day in January, still notable fall now. Officials say much was displaced into last year by stockpilers. On other hand French transport sources suggest the higher value Tunnel export empties more like 50-60%

Officials have been tracking the commodity codes on the ferry manifests and have distinguished between freight flows hit so far in 2021 by general COVID downturn - eg clothing and apparel, and post Brexit transition - agriculture, food and groupage