Sinai

This study of the Egyptian mountain widely believed to be Mount Sinai examines its geographical features, sacred sites, and the effects of rising tourism. Amid the high mountains of Egypt's southern Sinai Peninsula stands Jebel Musa, “Mount Moses,” which many Christians and Muslims revere as Mount Sinai. In this fascinating study, Joseph Hobbs draws on geography and archaeology, Biblical and Quranic accounts, and a wide array of personal experiences—from Christian monks to Bedouin shepherds, medieval Europeans, and casual tourists—to explore why this mountain came to be considered a sacred place. He also shows how that very perception now threatens its fragile ecology and inspiring solitude. After discussing the physical and geographic characteristics of Jebel Musa that suggest it as the most probable Mount Sinai, Hobbs fully describes all Christian and Muslim sacred sites around the mountain. He also views Mount Sinai from the perspectives of the Jabaliya Bedouins and the monks of the St. Katherine Monastery, both of whom have inhabited in the region for centuries. Hobbs concludes his account with the international debate over whether to build a cable car on Mount Sinai and with an unflinching description of the negative impact of tourism on the delicate desert environment. His book raises important, troubling questions for everyone concerned about the fate of the earth's wild and sacred places.

In this volume, six expert Egyptian scholars and two master photographers capture a lasting impression and a host of little known facts and history about this vital and strategic geographic entity. In Sinai - The Site & the History, they tackle aspects of Sinai that have been given scant attention in modern history.

This book is the first complete geo-based account about the High Mountains of Sinai Peninsula. A series of seventeen expeditions (Phase I: 2000-2008) were conducted to study the geography and human occupation development, providing exclusive highly detailed maps. Between 2010 and 2013 (Phase II), the study has undergone an extensive analysis/modeling process, supervised and sponsored by IMT Institute for Advanced Studies; scientifically collaborating with the EURAC - European Research Academy, towards a global perspective. It is a multidisciplinary geographical account which focuses on a local Bedouin community which inhabits a transitional mountain area of a rich and complex context, reflecting the socioeconomic and geopolitical paradoxes of the Middle East, the decade prior the revolutions of the Arab Spring. It presents a complete image for the local aspects in a keystone Arab state; a state of a significant share: 'the Egyptian National Reforms Revolution of January 25, 2011 CE'.

First established 150 years ago, Chicago Sinai is one of America’s oldest Reform Jewish congregations. Its founders were upwardly mobile and civically committed men and women, founders and partners of banks and landmark businesses like Hart Schaffner & Marx, Sears & Roebuck, and the giant meatpacking firm Morris & Co. As explicitly modern Jews, Sinai’s members supported and led civic institutions and participated actively in Chicago politics. Perhaps most radically, their Sunday services, introduced in 1874 and still celebrated today, became a hallmark of the congregation. In Sundays at Sinai, Tobias Brinkmann brings modern Jewish history, immigration, urban history, and religious history together to trace the roots of radical Reform Judaism from across the Atlantic to this rapidly growing American metropolis. Brinkmann shines a light on the development of an urban reform congregation, illuminating Chicago Sinai’s practices and history, and its contribution to Christian-Jewish dialogue in the United States. Chronicling Chicago Sinai’s radical beginnings in antebellum Chicago to the present, Sundays at Sinai is the extraordinary story of a leading Jewish Reform congregation in one of America’s great cities.

"Egypt is one of the two wings of the world, and the excellences of which it can boast are countless. Its metropolis is the dome of Islam, its river the most splendid of rivers."--Al-Muqaddasi, c. 1000 To travelers, Egypt is a place of dreams: a country whose lifeblood is a mighty river, flowing from the heart of Africa. Along the fertile fringe of its banks an astonishing civilization raised spectacular monuments that our modern minds can hardly encompass. For centuries this past dominated travelers' minds-yet the present and its great buildings too engaged their interest and admiration and ga.

Mount Sinai, where Moses received the ten commandments has been lost for about 2,500 years. Isaiah 2:2,3 tells us that in the last days Mount Sinai will be found. Many mountains have been proposed as the "real" Mount Sinai. However, do any meet the biblical clues? What route would the Israelites have taken? How would they obtain water for 600,000 in the desert? What time of year did they leave? What was the weather at that time? Where are the other proposed mountains? Where did Moses' father-in-law, Jethro live? Would Jethro speak Egyptian and would Moses be able to speak another language to have communicated with Jethro's daughter? These are some of the questions answered in this book.

An examination of the evidence that the Festival of Weeks was the occasion for the celebration of the renewal of the covenant in the Second Temple period, encompassing chapters on the Hebrew Bible, book of Jubilees, Qumran Scrolls, and the New Testament (Luke-Acts and Ephesians).

A mountain peak above Saint Catherine’s Monastery in Egypt, Mount Sinai is best known as the site where Moses received the Ten Commandments in the biblical Book of Exodus. Mount Sinai brings this rich history to light, exploring the ways in which the landscape of Mount Sinai’s summit has been experienced and transformed over the centuries, from the third century BCE to World War I. As an important site for multiple religions, Mount Sinai has become a major destination for hundreds of visitors per day. In this multifaceted book, George Manginis delves into the natural environment of Mount Sinai, its importance in the Muslim tradition, the cult of Saint Catherine, the medieval pilgrimage phenomenon, modern-day tourism, and much more. Featuring notes, a bibliography, and illustrations from nineteenth-century travelers’ books, this deft blend of historical analysis, art history, and archaeological interpretation will appeal to tourists and scholars alike.