LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Mecca
built 630 days ago
Mecca Management’s office hours are Monday-Friday from 8:00am to 5:00pm. The office is ... open on Saturdays from January thru May from 10:00am until 1:00pm. The office is not open during holidays and BGSU university breaks.
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Mecca was a central point on the caravan routes running over the Arabian peninsula at the time of Muhammad. Mecca was revered as a holy city even before the first revelations came to Muhammad. Today's pilgrimage in Mecca has many common traits with the pagan activities in the city. Mecca's importance as a centre of religious teaching must not be exaggerated. Very soon in the beginning of the Muslim expansion, religious teaching moved to other places in the Muslim world. Mecca is important in two points: Centre of the compulsory pilgrimage, as a part of five pillars, and a focal point for all Muslims.
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Located in an arid valley surrounded by rocky hills, Mecca has had religious and commercial significance for centuries. Muslims believe that one of the city’s sacred sites, the Kaaba, was built by the Old Testament patriarch Abraham and his son, Ishmael (to whom Arab people trace their descent), and that a nearby well, Zamzam, was used by Ishmael’s mother, Hagar. The city stood at the crossroads of two major trade routes: one connecting southern Arabia (present-day Yemen and Oman) with the lands of Egypt and Syria, and the other linking the Red Sea with the Persian Gulf coast and Mesopotamia (roughly present-day Iraq). By the time Muhammad was born in about 570, Mecca had become an important trading center; Muhammad himself came from a merchant family. After the spread of Islam and the growth of the Muslim community, the fortunes of Mecca rose and fell with the yearly ebb and flow of pilgrims. To this day, the economy of the city depends to a great extent on accommodating, feeding, transporting, and otherwise caring for large numbers of pilgrims.
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Mecca Management has a 24 hour on-call maintenance person, in case of emergencies. Examples of an emergency maintenance problem include no heat, lock out, flood, fire, etc. A maintenance request that is not considered an emergency will be handled during normal business hours.
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Mecca was never the capital of the Islamic empire; the first capital was Medina, some 250 miles (400 km) to the north. During the reign of the fourth caliph Ali, the capital was moved to Kufa. When the Umayyads took power they moved the capital to Damascus, and then the Abbasids moved the capital to Baghdad. The center of the Islamic empire remained at Baghdad for nearly 500 years, until the Mongols conquered the city in 1258, an event considered to be the single most catastrophic event in Islam. Soon after Baghdad, the Mongols ... conquered Damascus, and so center of Islamic power was moved to Cairo during the time of the Mamluks. When the Ottoman Empire came into prominence the capital was moved to Constantinople.
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Following two days of talks in Mecca, PA President Abbas and Hamas Political Bureau Chief Khaled Mashaal signed an agreement on a national unity government in a ceremony hosted by Saudi King Abdullah. President Abbas asked PA Prime Minister Haniyeh to form a national unity government and called on him to respect all past agreements. The agreement reaffirmed the importance of national unity as a basis for the achievement of the legitimate goals of the Palestinian people, and endorsed dialogue as the only language to solve political differences in the Palestinian arena. It announced the formation of a Palestinian national unity government according to a detailed formula approved by the two parties and an urgent start of constitutional measures to implement it. It envisaged further measures to develop and reform the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), and affirmed the principle of political partnership on the basis of laws adopted by the PA and agreements between the parties. It reaffirmed the commitment to achieve the Palestinian national goals: an end to the occupation, the restoration of [Palestinian people's] rights, and stressed the basic issues, particularly Al-Quds, refugees, Al-Aqsa Mosque, prisoners and detainees, the wall and the settlements. Prime Minister Haniyeh will reportedly retain his post.
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