Koumbi Saleh

Koumbi Saleh, sometimes Kumbi Saleh is the site of a ruined medieval town in south east Mauritania that may have been the capital of the Ghana Empire.

From the ninth century, Arab authors mention the Ghana Empire in connection with the trans-Saharan gold trade. Al-Bakri who wrote in eleventh century described the capital of Ghana as consisting of two towns 6 miles apart, one inhabited by Muslim merchants and the other by the king of Ghana. The discovery in 1913 of a 17th-century African chronicle that gave the name of the capital as Koumbi led French archaeologists to the ruins at Koumbi Saleh. Excavations at the site have revealed the ruins of a large Muslim town with houses built of stone and a congregational mosque but no inscription to unambiguously identify the site as that of capital of Ghana. Ruins of the king's town described by al-Bakri have not been found. Radiocarbon dating suggests that the site was occupied between the late 9th and the 14th centuries.

Arabic sources and the capital of the Ghana Empire

Saleh

Saleh (/ˈsɑːlə/) or Salih (/ˈsɑːli/; Arabic: صالح‎ Ṣāliḥ, meaning "Pious") was a prophet of ancient Arabia mentioned in the Qur'an, who prophesied to the tribe of Thamud. He is mentioned nine times throughout the Qur'an and his people are frequently referenced as a wicked community who, because of their sins, were ultimately destroyed. Saleh is sometimes equated with Salah, a figure from the Hebrew Bible, although the two have little in common save for their names. The preaching and prophecy of Saleh is linked to the famous Islamic story of the She-Camel, which was the gift given by God to the people of Thamud when they desired a miracle to confirm the truth of the message Saleh was preaching.

Historical context

Thamud people are believed to have been the successors to the ancient tribe of ʿĀd. Their ancestral descendant may have been Eber, the great-grandson of Noah and their location is likely to have been in the Northwest corner of Arabia, between Madinah and Syria. In later Islamic history, when Muhammad led his expedition to Tabuk against the Romans, on a reported Roman invasion from Syria, the prophet and his companions walked past the land of Thamud. With the advance of material civilization, the people of Thamud became materialistic and arrogant as well as godless. Thus, God sent the prophet and seer Saleh, to warn them about the impending doom they would face if they did not mend their sinful ways.

Saleh (name)

Saleh, Salih, Sahlay or Çalih and other variants (Arabic: صالح‎‎, [sˤɑːleħ] or [sˤɑːlɪħ]) is a male given name of Arabic origin.

Given name

Surname

See also

Mohammad Ahmed Abdullah Saleh Al Hanashi

Mohammad Ahmed Abdullah Saleh Al Hanashi (February 1, 1978 - June 1, 2009) was a citizen of Yemen, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. Al Hanashi's Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 78. The Department of Defense reports that Al Hanashi was born on February 1, 1978, in Al Habrub, Yemen.

On June 2, 2009, the Department of Defense reported that a 31-year-old Yemeni captive named "Muhammed Ahmad Abdallah Salih" committed suicide late on June 1, 2009. Camp officials did not allow journalists who were at the camp for Omar Khadr's Guantanamo military commission to report news of his death until they left Guantanamo.

June 2009 death

Ahmed was reported to have been found "unresponsive" in his cell late on the night of June 1, 2009. He is reported to have been held in Camp 5, and to have been held in the Guantanamo psychiatric ward. Like all the other men camp authorities claimed were suicides he was on a long term hunger strike, and, consequently, where he was being strapped twice a day into a restraint chair, for force-feeding. The Associated Press reports that his weight had, at one time, dropped to just 86 pounds.