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A woman has made history in the United Arab Emirates as the country’s first female astronaut.
Noura Al-Matrooshi is one of two new astronauts in the UAE’s Mohammed Bin Rashid (MBR) Space Centre astronaut program, UAE vice president and Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum announced on Twitter .
She was chosen with Mohammed Al-Mulla, two of over 4,000 candidates who applied to the program, Sheikh Mohammed, the ruler of Dubai, said.
In 2019, Maj. Hazzaa al-Mansoori became the UAE’s first astronaut in space, spending an eight-day mission aboard the International Space Station.
Ahmad bin Majid Al Sa’adi (aka) Ibn Majid (aka) Shihab ad-Din “Star of the Faith” and “The Lion of the Sea”. Poet and Writer of 44 books. Inventor of the Magnetic needle.
The manuscript is loaned from the Al Assad National Library in the Syrian Arab Republic.
The manuscript was loaned to the National Museum-Oman, for two years under the purpose of preservation and conservation and coordination was maintained with the National Records and Archives Authority, Oman – to restore this document to its original state, through the implementation of an integrated program for preservation, conservation, indexing and revision.
This manuscript was written in the 11th century AH / 16th century CE, under the ruling of Al Nabhani dynasty. It is compiled (175) sheets, (350) pages and (23) lines per page. Texts were written by “Naskh” script using black ink and headlines in red. The body of the manuscript is surrounded by two red frames.
This manuscript is one of few preserved copies of the manuscripts of Ahmed bin Majid Al Sa’adi around the world, the oldest among them is the one which is preserved in the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts in St. Petersburg Russia”.
This compiled collection includes the most important and best known of the works by Ahmad bin Majid`s. It is divided into three parts: al-Fawāid fī ilm al-bahr wa-alqawāid or (The Book of the Benefits of the Principles and Foundations of Seamanship), completed on 17 Rabi al-Thani 984 AH/ 13 July 1576. This part is dedicated to 18 benefits related to marine sciences and some proverbs. The second collections: Hāwīyat al-ikhtisār fī usūl ilm al-bihār, it is the longest section and includes 11 chapters.
The third collection consists of 14 proses, in addition to eight chapters in marine sciences.
Ahmad bin Majid Al Sa’adi was an Omani navigator and cartographer. Born in Julfar, he was educated in his early years by his father Majid bin Mohammed al-Sa’adi, who was a renowned marine captain and navigator.
Ibn Majid is one of the best-known navigators in the Indian Ocean and among the finest scholars of the art of navigation and its history among the Arabs.
He was the inventor of the magnetic needle (magnetic compass), which is used for navigation and orientation at sea.
He was also the author of nearly forty works of poetry and prose. Among his many books on oceanography, Fawā’id fī-Usūl Ilm al-Bahr wa-al-Qawāid or (The Book of the Benefits of the Principles and Foundations of Seamanship), which was compiled in the year (880-895 AH / 1475-1490 CE) at the end of his life, which is considered as one of his best.
He is remembered as Shihab ad-Din “Star of the Faith” and “The Lion of the Sea”.
Sarah Al Amiri, Minister of State for Advanced Technology and Chairwoman of the UAE Space Agency, has been named as one of Time’s 2021 list of the Next 100 Most Influential People in the World for successfully leading the UAE’s Hope Probe into Mars’ orbit, in the first-ever Arab interplanetary mission.
In addition to her work in sending the Arab world’s first spacecraft to Mars, Al Amiri is now ahead of bigger missions: to lead ambitious space and technology projects that contribute to the UAE’s bigger goal in establishing a knowledge-based economy. A lunar mission in 2024 and plans to build a human settlement on Mars by 2117 are among the ambitious projects that await the young minister who’s looking to promote research and development to create new industries as part of her role.
She took part in building the UAE’s first two satellites – DubaiSat-1 and DubaiSat-2, and the first entirely Emirati-made KhalifaSat.
She has been holding several responsibilities as the Chairwoman of the Emirates Scientists Council, Chairwoman of the Fourth Industrial Revolution Council and Chairwoman of the Dubai Future Academy Board of Trustees.
In 2017, she became the country’s first Minister of State for Advanced Sciences, a title that later changed in the latest cabinet reshuffle in August 2020 to the Minister of State for Advanced Technology. She was also then named the Chairwoman of the UAE Space Agency.
In 2015, the World Economic Forum honoured her as one of its 50 Young Scientists for her contributions to science, technology and engineering.
She was also invited by the World Economic Forum to speak at Davos 2019 and became the first Emirati citizen to speak at an international TED event in 2017.
Mostly recently, she was selected in the BBC’s 100 Women 2020, a documentary that highlighted women leading change and making a difference during last year’s turbulent times.
The inaugural UAE developed product is a Rugged Camera Module – Infrared, (RCAM-IR) which features an extremely rugged design for harsh and demanding environments to be launched at IDEX-2021.
RCAM-IR is available with a variety of different field of views making it optimal for both Driver Vision Enhancer System (DVE) as well as for Local Situational Awareness Systems (LSAS). The increased situational awareness due to RCAM-IR will be part of a self-protection suite designed to mitigate threats to crews and armoured vehicles.
To support the expansion, production and rollout of products in the UAE, Saab has developed a production line and testing facility, a support hub as well as a sales and marketing functions.
The launch of RCAM-IR is a result of Saab’s partnership with its local partners. In 2018, Saab set up its development and production centre in Abu Dhabi’s Tawazun Industrial Park.
Etihad Airways, the UAE national airline, has become the first airline in the world with all its operating pilots and cabin crew vaccinated to help curb the spread of COVID-19.
In January 2021, Etihad was awarded Diamond status for ensuring the highest standards of cleanliness and sanitisation in the inaugural ‘APEX Health Safety, powered by SimpliFlying’ audit.
This achievement was made possible through Etihad’s ‘Protected Together’ employee vaccination initiative which was formally launched in January this year.
Building on the UAE’s “Choose to Vaccinate” campaign, Protected Together is about helping staff take proactive, personal steps towards protecting themselves against COVID-19.
“If you ventured in pursuit of glory, don’t be satisfied with less than the stars.”
The Iraqi poet – Al Mutanabbi’s writings were chosen by Nasa to congratulate the Hope probe project team.
Those words were chosen by US space agency Nasa in a congratulatory tweet to the UAE Mars Mission team after its Hope probe successfully entered the Red Planet’s orbit on Tuesday, February 09th, 2021.
Nasa told the UAE: “Congratulations on arriving at Mars!” before using the words quoted above.
Who is the Arab poet Al Mutanabbi ?
The man behind the words is the 10th century Iraqi poet Al Mutanabbi, considered to be the greatest in the Arabic language.
Born into a distinguished family in Kufa in 915 AD, Abu Al Tayyib Ahmad ibn Al Husayn Al Mutanabbi received an education because of his poetic talents. He is remembered in the country of his birth. A street is named after him, which is a historic bookselling centre of Baghdad. A statue of him still stands in the Iraqi capital today
source: thenationalnews.com
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Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed and Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid personally thank staff from mission control in Dubai. / The National / pix: thenationalnews.com
The opening ceremony of the International Exhibition and Museum of the Life of the Prophet and Islamic Civilization took place in Madinah on February 02nd.
The International Exhibition and Museum of the Life of the Prophet and Islamic Civilization was launched under the supervision of the Muslim World League (MWL) and is the first in a series of Islamic museums scheduled to be constructed around the world under the organization’s umbrella.
Located next to the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah, the museum is open 24 hours a day, and is dedicated to the history of the Islamic world and the life of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).
The exhibition features dozens of paintings and interactive displays. At the moment, there are seven languages available to visitors — Arabic, English, Spanish, Urdu, French, Turkish and Indonesian. It also includes a 4DX theater, which screens a series of films about the Prophet’s life.
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FASTFACTS
The International Exhibition and Museum of the Life of the Prophet and Islamic Civilization
• Size: 5,000 square meters
• Location: Next to the Prophet’s Mosque, Madinah
• Number of floors: Two
• Exhibit and pavilion displays: 25 main pavilions
• 500 antique items from the Prophet’s era
• A main screen to feature the masterpieces found in the Qur’an and the Sunnah
• A movie theater showing a film about the Prophet’s life
• Virtual reality shows
• A special presentation of the Constitution of Madinah and the Makkah Document
• A presentation of the efforts of Saudi Arabia in serving the Qur’an and the Sunnah
His main science interests in space and planetary geophysics covers Mars, the Moon, icy satellites and Near Earth Objects.
A member of the several NASA and ESA missions science teams including the MARSIS instrument aboard the Mars Express orbiter (2003-present), the Mini-SAR experiment aboard Chandrayaan-1, the Mini-RF experiment on board the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (2008-present), the CONSERT radar experiment on board the Rosetta mission (2004-2015) and the RIME experiment Onboard JUICE mission for Jupiter Icy Satellites .
Heggy is the Principal Investigator of the NASA Earth Venture Mission Concept OASIS that aims to characterize groundwater in Hyper-Arid Environments .
Heggy served as a panel member for several NASA programs including the Planetary Instrument Definition and Development program, Planetary Geology and Geophysics program, Mars Data Analysis program, Astrobiology program and the Educational and Public Outreach program.
He also edited a special JGR-planets volume on terrestrial and planetary radars. He is on the editing board of Geosciences and National Geography and co-chaired several sessions in American Geophysical Union and other international meetings on planetary radars.
Education:
Ph.D – Astronomy and Planetary Science – Paris-Sorbonne University, Paris (2002)
Award/ Honours :
JPL/NASA Mariner Award
Served as Egyptian President Advisor for Scientific Affairs (2013-2014)
Founder Hajj Raghib Al-Khalidi preserved the rich collection of books and manuscripts his family had assembled over many generations.
The original building was built in 1389.
The library, known in Arabic as Al-Maktaba Al-Khalidiyya, was established in the Old City of Jerusalem in Tariq Bab Al-Silsilah near the Bab Al-Silsilah, one of the main gates to Al-Haram Al-Sharif — also known as Temple Mount — home of Al-Aqsa Mosque.
It contains one of the world’s biggest private collections of Arabic manuscripts (approximately 1,200 titles), the oldest of which is about 1,000 years old. Among them are about 200 extremely rare Islamic texts, many of them intricately decorated with geometric motifs in colored ink.
The Khalidis claim to trace their ancestry to the early Muslim conqueror Khalid ibn Al-Walid, who died in 642. A family called Khalidi was documented in Jerusalem in the 11th century. The best attested family lineage, however, dates back to the 14th and 15th centuries during the Mamluk Empire.
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KHALIDI LIBRARY MILESTONES
1389 – The Mamluk-era building is constructed.
1900 – Raghib Al-Khalidi establishes library.
1967 – East Jerusalem is annexed by Israel.
1989 – Friends of the Khalidi Library is incorporated.
source: Arab News (arabnews.com)
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The Khalidi Library in Jerusalem’s Old City. (Photos by Robert Dawson and Khalidi Library) / pix: arabnews.com
