Umm el-Marra

Umm el-Marra, Arabic: أم المرّا‎, east of modern Aleppo in the Jabbul Plain of northern Syria, was one of the ancient Near East's oldest cities, located on a crossroads of two trade routes northwest of Ebla, in a landscape that was much more fertile than it is today. Possibly this is the city of Tuba mentioned in Egyptian inscriptions listing cities that were defeated or destroyed in the Pharaoh Thutmose III's north Syrian campaign. The city of Tuba is also mentioned in epigraphic remains from Ebla, Mari, and Alalakh.

History

Umm el-Marra probably had three to five thousand inhabitants between 2800 BCE and about 2100/2000 BCE, when Tuba and other cities in the Jabbul Plain experienced a mysterious collapse of central authority that lasted about 200 years. Partial answers to the question, why these early centers were so brittle, may lie in the effects of sustained drought on overstressed primitive agriculture. Dr Glenn Schwartz of Johns Hopkins, who has been doing field archaeology at Umm el-Marra, suggested in 1994 that "they placed extensive demands on their environments, continually intensifying their agriculture to feed more people. The added stress from a few dry years may have been the straw that broke the camel's back." Simple daily life went on in Tuba, for the site was never completely abandoned, but at the renaissance of the city in 1800 BCE, Amoritic names were now in control. Tuba went on to enjoy a second period of prosperity and power, as a "subsidiary capital" of the still shadowy kingdom of Yamkhad.

UMM

UMM may refer to:

Urban Male Magazine

Urban Male Magazine (a.k.a. UMM) is a Canadian's men's interest magazine created and operated by Abbis Mahmoud, an Ontario entrepreneur that also operates several nightclubs like Lobby, Mansion, Tila Tequila, Buddha Bar, Tequila Jacks and the Brunswick House. The magazine was launched in 1998 and is published on a bimonthly basis. The headquarters is in Ottawa.

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UMM (União Metalo-Mecânica)

UMM (Portuguese: União Metalo-Mecânica, pronounced: [uniˈɐ̃w̃ mɨˈtalu mɨˈkɐnikɐ]) is a Portuguese metal works factory and ex-automobile manufacturer based in Lisbon, Portugal. It was founded in 1977 with the purpose of manufacturing four-wheel drive vehicles for agricultural, industrial and utility applications.

History

The UMM 4x4 design is derived from a prototype created by the French engineering firm Cournil, called Entrepreneur. The Cournil Entrepreneur's building rights were acquired by the Portuguese company União Metalo-Mecânica, part of the Mocar group and were renamed as UMM.

They became known for their durability, especially when in a Paris-Dakar rally the team was able to finish with all the cars that started. Many UMMs are still in use by utilities in Spain, Portugal, Cape Verde (in use by the national army) and France and also by the "Guarda Nacional Republicana" (Portuguese Gendarmerie), fire service and military, although the majority of their customers were private individuals. Around 700 UMMs are still in service in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Zaire). They are also popular in France and Angola.

Marrah Mountains

The Marrah Mountains or Marra Mountains or Fugo Marra (In fur language) or (Jebel Marra, Arabic: جبل مرة‎ bad mountains) is a range of volcanic peaks created by a massif that rises up to 3,000 m. It is located in the center of the Darfur region of Sudan, specifically within Dar Fur and neighboring areas. The highest point is Deriba Caldera. The upper reaches of the massif is a small area of temperate climate with high rainfall and permanent springs of water.

The last eruption occurred around 1500 BC. The centre of activity was Deriba Caldera, and involved caldera collapse following the eruption of pumice and pyroclastic flows which travelled over 30 kilometres (19 mi) from the volcano. The most prominent feature of the vast Jebel Marra volcanic field, located in the Darfur province of western Sudan, is the youthful Deriba caldera. The 5-km-wide, steep-walled caldera, located at the southern end of the volcanic field, was formed about 3500 years ago at the time of the eruption of voluminous airfall pumice and pyroclastic flows that traveled more than 30 km from the volcano. The Jebel Marra volcanic field covers a broad area of the Marra Mountains and contains early basaltic lava flows overlain by thick sequences of pyroclastic-flow deposits. The northern part of the volcanic field displays trachytic lava plugs and spines forming residual inselbergs and young basaltic scoria cones and lava flows. Ash eruptions at Deriba caldera may have continued into early historical time (Burton and Wickers, 1966), and fumarolic activity has been observed on the flanks of a small pyroclastic cone within the caldera.

Marrano

Marranos were originally Jews living in Iberia who converted or were forced to convert to Christianity, some of whom may have continued to practice Judaism in secret. The term came into later use in 1492 with the Castilian Alhambra Decree, reversing protections originally in the Treaty of Granada (1491).

The converts were also known as cristianos nuevos (Spanish) or cristãos-novos (Portuguese), meaning "New Christians", or conversos (converted ones). In Hebrew the terms anusim ("forced ones") and Zera Yisrael ("seed of [the people of] Israel") are sometimes used.

Etymology

The term marrano derives from Arabic مُحَرّمٌ muḥarram; meaning "forbidden, anathematized". Marrano in 15th-century Spanish first meant "dirty", "unclean", "swine", "pig", from the ritual prohibition against eating pork, practiced by both Jews and Muslims.

In Portuguese the word marrano (from Spanish) generally refers to "crypto-Jews", although it also means a type of swine (dialectally), "filthy" or "dirty" (sujo), and "outcast" (maldito, excomungado); while the related terms marrão [mɐˈʁɐ̃w] and marrancho [mɐˈʁɐ̃ʃu] mean only the animal: "pig" or "swine".