User talk:Zozo2kx

君が代は

千代に八千代に
さざれ石の
いわおとなりて

こけの生すまで

Near East Archaeology

Hi Yazan, thanks for your messages. It's great to collaborate with you on these projects. I have several other big Syrian archaeological sites planned that I will let you know about, but wondered if you could also lend me a hand with some Lebanese ones - Jebal Saaidé, Nachcharini and Moukhtara could all use your touch of professionalism and Arabic tweaking. I'm working on a really big (possibly the biggest) project after carrying out an initial survey of what I believe is a massive PPNB agricultural site near Rashaya, Lebanon in 2009 - very near the border of Syria. Your help getting all these nearby sites updated on here is hugely valuable promoting knowledge and ecouraging further investigation of this area for both countries. Shoukran! Paul Bedson (talk) 16:13, 23 February 2011 (UTC)

Thank you

		The Tireless Contributor Barnstar
		Seems to be the best-fitting barnstar I could give you my friend. This is for your tireless efforts at creating high-quality Syria-related articles and continously improving existing ones. Keep up the great work! Al Ameer son (talk) 05:27, 24 February 2011 (UTC)

DYK for Niqmepa

The DYK project (nominate) 06:02, 24 February 2011 (UTC)

DYK for Tell Ramad

Materialscientist (talk) 12:04, 24 February 2011 (UTC)

DYK nomination of Al-Rawda

Hello! Your submission of Al-Rawda at the Did You Know nominations page has been reviewed, and there still are some issues that may need to be clarified. Please review the comment(s) underneath your nomination's entry and respond there as soon as possible. Thank you for contributing to Did You Know! Peter I. Vardy (talk) 17:37, 24 February 2011 (UTC)

DYK for Tell Mashnaqa

Materialscientist (talk) 18:03, 24 February 2011 (UTC)

Removing "archaeological sites in Syria" cat

Hello. Adding new cats for bronze age etc to articles is fine, and I realize that technically "archaeological sites in Syria" is included in those. The problem is that when the current cat is removed, it no longer appears at the bottom of the article for people to click if they want to see more sites in Syria (and not just the Stone Age or whatever sites).Ploversegg (talk) 21:34, 24 February 2011 (UTC)

I am not so sure whether adding cats like Iron Age sites in Syria etc. is such a good idea. First of all, I already noticed that in some cases the category Archaeological sites in Syria had been replaced by Iron Age sites in Syria, even though the site is also occupied in the Bronze Age. Second, I think that a category like Stone Age sites in Syria should be replaced by Neolithic sites in Syria and (Epi)palaeolithic sites in Syria (if such categories are used at all). The term Stone Age is quite old fashioned nowadays. Third, in some cases, a site has been added to the wrong category (ie Mozan to Neolithic sites). Finally, multi-period sites like Tell Brak or Tell Halaf would end up with a long list of categories (Stone Age, Chalcolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Hellenistic, Roman, etc) where first they had only 1 category. To me, this is a little bit like overcategorization. But that's just my two cents... -- Zoeperkoe (talk) 00:17, 25 February 2011 (UTC)

EDIT I just noticed that the category Neolithic sites in Syria already exists, in which case it is better to rename Stone Age sites into Palaeolithic sites, to avoid confusion. That still leaves the Natufian/Epipalaeolithic undefined, though. -- Zoeperkoe (talk) 01:09, 25 February 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for your input. What I was trying to do was to reorganize the archaeology category in a similar fashion to the one in Greece (see Category:Archaeological_sites_in_Greece, the sites are split into period and region sub cats. While the parent category only has the more important places (Mari, Ebla, Ugarit, etc.).

One solution to the categorization overkill, would be to mention only the earlies (or most important level). Which is not the best of ideas, but it's one anyway. Yazan (talk) 04:06, 25 February 2011 (UTC)

The organization you suggest might not be such a bad idea, actually. You would have to find a good organization in periods, and preferably one that you could apply to other ANE countries as well (although that will probably be difficult). Anyway, I'll think about it. -- Zoeperkoe (talk) 04:16, 25 February 2011 (UTC)

(indent) My suggestion for the period subcats would be:

• Paleolithic
• Epipalaeolithic
• Neolithic
• Bronze Age
• Iron Age
• Persian
• Hellenistic
• Roman/Byzantine
• Middle Ages

Yazan (talk) 07:19, 25 February 2011 (UTC)

Not bad. Although, strictly speaking, Middle Ages/medieval doesn't apply to the Near East. Wouldn't Islamic be better? And it might be useful to add a category Ottoman as well. And a category Chalcolithic. Just a suggestion. -- Zoeperkoe (talk) 14:22, 25 February 2011 (UTC)

I agree about the Islamic and Chalcolithic. But I'm not sure about the Ottoman. I don't know many Ottoman sites (if any) that are of "archaeological" importance. Most of Ottoman Syria is studied in strict architectural sense, and is categorized as such. I might be wrong, and I'm in no way an expert on the subject, but what exactly would constitute an Ottoman site in Syria?

Also, what about populating these categories. What do we do with epoch-spanning sites, like Hama for example, it has been settled since at least the early Neolithic. Should we list it in all these categories, up to now? (I would actually go for that, because it makes it easy for someone to discover the chronology of the region by sifting through the categories, but input would be appreciated). Yazan (talk) 17:41, 25 February 2011 (UTC)

The reason why there are so few Ottoman sites is because it is a neglected area in ANE archaeology, and especially in Syria. The continuity of settlement up to the present is one of the characterizing elements of ANE archaeology; leaving out Ottoman occupation in such a sequence (and Ottoman occupation of tells is, for example, very prominent in NE Syria where many modern villages on top of tells go back to that time) would make that element invisible. But I agree, it is not really important and could be left out to keep the number of categories limited. Why don't you past your suggestion in a few WPs such as WP Syria, WP ANE or WP Archaeology and get some feedback? It might also be of use to categorize sites in Iraq or Jordan or elsewhere in the ANE and it would be great to get some standardization in that field, since ANE related articles are generally in such a mess. I would also definitely put the Greece example with it, that shows very good how it could work.

I myself have been thinking about putting together some suggestions for organising articles on tells (along the lines of History of research, The site and its environment and Occupation history, as that seems to work very well for many tells) and post that on these WPs for feedback, but I want to think about that a little bit more. -- Zoeperkoe (talk) 17:52, 25 February 2011 (UTC)

Something else I just thought of, might it be an idea to organize the chronological categories not per country, but for the ANE as a whole? My idea is that people who are interested in Bronze Age sites are probably looking for sites of that period in Jordan, Syria, Iraq alike, rather than in Syria alone, since Syria as a country doesn't have any relevance for old sites. And if they are looking for sites in Syria, they can use the category per country. But maybe that's pushing it too far. -- Zoeperkoe (talk) 18:11, 25 February 2011 (UTC)

Please see this tentative suggestion (feel free to edit). Yazan (talk) 18:41, 25 February 2011 (UTC)

Tentative suggestion

Zoeperkoe and I have been having a discussion on how best to categorize and organize archaeological sites in the Ancient Middle East, so that they'd be easily, and more intuitively accessible and navigable. We would like any feedback from participants, to come with some sort of a standard. It seems to make sense to categorize the sites by the different epochs during which they were occupied. So far the main epochs we could agree on were the following:

• Paleolithic
• Epipalaeolithic
• Neolithic
• Chalcolithic
• Bronze Age
• Iron Age
• Persian
• Hellenistic
• Roman/Byzantine (Sassanid for Mesopotamia)
• Islamic
• Ottoman

For an applied example of how this would look like, please see the main/parent category for archaeological sites in Greece, Category:Archaeological sites in Greece.

Nevertheless, this method leaves us with two main problems.

1. Some sites have spanned many different epochs (Hama has been first settled in the Neolithic, and has been continuously inhabited since), should we include the site in all the categories (and would that lead to too many categories in some articles)? Should we only include it in the category when occupation started and/or important epochs in its history.
2. Should this categorization be ANE-wide, or country-centric. Example, should it be Category:Neolithic sites in Syria or Category:Neolithic sites in the Ancient Near East? (The first would preserve the territorial/historical integrity of the area, and might better serve those who are interested in the study of ANE as one. The second would make it easier to focus on certain countries in the region)

I think this is an excellent text. I already expect comments on the use of this in Iraq, since Bronze/Iron Age is generally not used there in favour of ED/Akkadian/Old Babylonian etc. and I guess there might be similar problems in Iran, so in the end the suggestion to do this ANE-wide might just not work. But I say, post it anyway and we just see what kind of responses we get.

Yes I was thinking about that while writing it down. I am not sure about Egypt either. But if we can get a standard for the Levant/Turkey, that would be something in itself. I started the thread on WP:ANE and will link to it from relevant WikiProjects so we can have a centralized discussion. Yazan (talk) 19:04, 25 February 2011 (UTC)

Al-Rawda

Thanks for starting the article! It was on my to-do list but I just never found the time to do it. It is a very impressive site that definitely should be on Wikipedia; too bad I have never had the opportunity to visit it. Oh well, maybe in a few years... Oh, I also suggested an alt2 for dyk, but if you don't like it, just cross it out. -- Zoeperkoe (talk) 04:01, 25 February 2011 (UTC)

It is an impressive site indeed. Thanks for greatly expanding the article. ALT2 is much better. I tweaked it a bit to remove the parenthesis. Yazan (talk) 04:17, 25 February 2011 (UTC)

DYK for Bab Sharqi

The DYK project (nominate) 18:02, 27 February 2011 (UTC)

DYK for Bab al-Jabiyah

The DYK project (nominate) 18:02, 27 February 2011 (UTC)

Damascus

Hi there. I've made a Template:Location map Syria Damascus which you may find useful for pinning landmarks in the city.♦ Dr. Blofeld 12:08, 28 February 2011 (UTC)

Thanks, that's wonderful. It might make sense to make a special one for Old Damascus, maybe with less colors, so it won't be distracting. I'll see if that's possible! But thanks, this should be quite useful. Yazan (talk) 12:30, 28 February 2011 (UTC)

Sure I'll make one for Old Damascus too in a closer scale. I know the colours are not the best but if the wiki foundation had listened to my proposal for our own mapping project we'd probably have many decent maps by now.. BTW I've nominated Citadel of Damascus for GA. I think with a bit of work it could pass.♦ Dr. Blofeld 12:33, 28 February 2011 (UTC)

Thanks. You might want to notify User:Zoeperkoe about Damascus citadel, he's the one who was doing most of the work and I think he's still working on it. Cheers! Yazan (talk) 12:35, 28 February 2011 (UTC)

OK. I've made a map of Old Damascus in use in Citadel of Damascus. I did a recolour job to improve its appearance.♦ Dr. Blofeld 12:42, 28 February 2011 (UTC) I've also made Template:Location map Syria Aleppo.♦ Dr. Blofeld 13:11, 28 February 2011 (UTC)

DYK for Al-Rawda

The DYK project (nominate) 00:03, 1 March 2011 (UTC)

Fadl ibn Salih

Marhaba Yazan. I just started the aforementioned article (actually a stub) on the Abbasid governor of Syria who erected the Umayyad Mosque's Bayt al-Mal. I couldn't find much info about him in English sources. Do you know where we could find the date of his death? I have his birth year already. About the mosque article, do you have any sources available for the Umayyad period? --Al Ameer son (talk) 01:27, 1 March 2011 (UTC)

Most Arabic sources give his name as al-Fadl ibn Salih. His date of death is given by (Khayr al-Din Zirakly) as 172 Hijri (aged 50 years) = 788/789 and considering your sources of his return to Syria date it should be 789. I will look for more sources later though. Yazan (talk) 04:55, 1 March 2011 (UTC)

I nominated the article just now. I'm too lazy to archive my talk page man... maybe tomorrow ;) Btw, thank you for those sources. They contain tons of info.--Al Ameer son (talk) 05:34, 2 March 2011 (UTC)

DYK for Tell Ghoraifé

The DYK project (nominate) 06:03, 1 March 2011 (UTC)

Citadel of Damascus

The copy-editing is neat. It's always good - although sometimes a little but confrontating as well ;) - to get comments on your writing. The history parts are complete as far as I am concerned, all that has to be finished now is the architecture section, and the lead needs to be rewritten as a more concise summary. I'll see if I can do the architecture this weekend; the sources on that are primarily French so I need some time for that, and I need to get them from the library. -- Zoeperkoe (talk) 04:55, 2 March 2011 (UTC)

Well, you've done some fantastic work on it already, and it will be a well-deserved GA. On another note, we're collaborating on the Umayyad Mosque now as well (care to join?) and it would be great if you could pass any refs that you came by while writing the article about the citadel. There's plenty resources on the architecture, but the history ones seem scarce. Anyway, good luck! Yazan (talk) 14:38, 2 March 2011 (UTC)

Oh, and FYI, I should start working on this soon as well, you might be interested! Cheers. Yazan (talk) 14:39, 2 March 2011 (UTC)

Ah, I was already surprised there's still no article on that site. I have to respectfully decline your offer on the Umayyad Mosque, as my next project is getting Euphrates to GA and after that it will be either getting Citadel of Damascus to A-status at MilHist (and who knows, maybe even FA, as I think it could potentially make it), or getting Tigris or History of Mesopotamia to GA. But if I can help with Sabi Abyad, let me know. I happen to know the excavators quite well and I have access to a lot of scientific literature on it. I could set up a dropbox or other fileshare to share some of them with you, if you like, or per email but I am not sure whether I enabled that in WP. Same goes for articles on the Umayyad Mosque, of course. -- Zoeperkoe (talk) 16:35, 2 March 2011 (UTC)

No worries, and Good luck on the Citadel, it would be great to see it on the main page. It would help a lot if I have access to some scholarly work on the site (Sabi Abyad), most of the sources I got are overviews, not very detailed. Dropbox would be great, if it's not too much of an imposition. You can email me through Wikipedia, I have mine set up. Thanks. Yazan (talk) 17:01, 2 March 2011 (UTC)

That should not be a problem. I have a few papers that you should definitely include in Sabi Abyad with some nice DYK material. I see what I can do, but it has to wait until the weekend. I also have to write papers in real life... ;)

That's great, thanks. Good luck in your research, I know the feeling. Cheers, Yazan (talk) 07:23, 3 March 2011 (UTC)

I'[m not sure where the walls area. Feel free to use Microsoft Paint or whatever package you have to outline it, nothing too prominent though..♦ Dr. Blofeld 14:43, 3 March 2011 (UTC)

DYK Stats & Mobilization of the Bulgarian Army in 1915

Hi, regarding this edit of yours: as I see it, Mobilization of the Bulgarian Army in 1915 appeared on the Main Page here at 18:00, 28 February 2011 (UTC) and was removed 6 hours later at midnight (UTC) here. It did not feature on the Main Page on 1 March. The entry of 00:00, 1 March 2011 (UTC) in Wikipedia:Recent additions#1 March 2011 is when it was archived after having appeared on the Main Page. Please correct me if I'm wrong. —Bruce1ee^talk 14:38, 2 March 2011 (UTC)

Yes, you're absolutely right. I didn't realize it was the time the hooks were taken off the main page, my mistake! Apologies. Self-reverted. Yazan (talk) 14:46, 2 March 2011 (UTC)

No problem :) —Bruce1ee^talk 15:38, 2 March 2011 (UTC)

Falafel

Thanks for the kind comments!!! -- nsaum75 ^{!Dígame¡‎} 14:51, 2 March 2011 (UTC)

You're welcome. Yazan (talk) 15:29, 2 March 2011 (UTC)

May I ask

...what this use of rollback was all about? NW (Talk) 05:59, 4 March 2011 (UTC)

Dear god, what happened there? Well, I saw a comment being removed from the user's talkpage, I read the comment quickly and I didn't see anything offending, the user linked to a Wiki Signpost (hardly outing), so I rolled back. In hindsight I probably should've undoed rather than rollback, but am I missing something? Yazan (talk) 07:27, 4 March 2011 (UTC)

Yeah, but it's probably not the trouble to explain it. It's no big deal, really, but in the future, it's best to leave things be in cases where the user claims outing and contact an admin. NW (Talk) 14:41, 4 March 2011 (UTC)

Will do, thanks. Yazan (talk) 08:04, 5 March 2011 (UTC)

DYK nomination of Murad Pasha Mosque

Hello! Your submission of Murad Pasha Mosque at the Did You Know nominations page has been reviewed, and there still are some issues that may need to be clarified. Please review the comment(s) underneath your nomination's entry and respond there as soon as possible. Thank you for contributing to Did You Know! Peter I. Vardy (talk) 16:41, 5 March 2011 (UTC)

Thank you!

Thank you for fixing the image! It was really nice of you. Best wishes.--Mbz1 (talk) 14:07, 6 March 2011 (UTC)

You're welcome. Yazan (talk) 14:39, 6 March 2011 (UTC)

DYK for Al-Fadl ibn Salih

—HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 10:02, 7 March 2011 (UTC)

GAN Citadel of Damascus

Hi, I more or less finished Citadel of Damascus and asked Reaper Eternal to start the review. The architecture section is more or less complete (there are some minor elements missing but the architecturel history of the citadel is so complex that I had to make some choices on what to leave out and what not) and I rewrote the lead. It was all done in a little bit of hurry, and I wasn't really completely focused on this topic at the moment (which is why I wasn't 100% happy with the early nomination), so it would be great if you could have another read on the architecture and lead as well and see if it all makes sense. I'll try to do that tomorrow as well, and also have another look at the comments by Diannaa. -- Zoeperkoe (talk) 05:14, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

Will do. A quick skim through it though, it looks more than ready for GA. Fantastic work, truly! Yazan (talk) 05:55, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for the c/e! I hope it will pass without too much adjustment. After writing this, I think I have had enough of Ottomans, Mamluks and Ayyubids for a while. I think I'll go and write articles on some truly prehistoric sites instead ;) -- Zoeperkoe (talk) 15:04, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

Umayyad Mosque work

Marhaba Yazan. Just wanted to tell you I haven't forgotten about the Umayyad Mosque article and will be working on it tomorrow. I started to edit the architecture section somewhat, but then decided it would be better to finish the History section first. Also, how do you think we should structure the religious significance section? The mosque is important to a more diverse group of religions and religious sects than any other mosque in the region. I hope that's not an ignorant statement. On another note, I want to thank you for working on Dayr al-Shaykh. If it passes DYK it will be a result of your efforts at fixing any POV issues that may exist. --Al Ameer son (talk) 06:45, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

I haven't forgotten about it either, but I'm finding it very difficult to look up sources on its history. Nothing but snippets about the fires that ravaged it. The religious significance section; that's certainly not an ignorant statement, it's actually very true. I guess the best way would be to provide a subsection for each, Christianity/Shia Islam/Sunni Islam. If we come with other info on other sects, we could added in a general subsection. A little introduction to the overall importance of the place and some parts could be used as well (considered the forth holiest place in Islam, Minaret of Jesus, etc.). On another note, it's really wonderful to see WPSyria revived again by some fantastic editors like yourself and Zoeperkoe (See above, the citadel of Damascus was turned from this to this, and should pass GA anytime now). Anyway, I really hope this little storm in a cup over Dayr al-Shaykh could abate now, this deserves to be featured on the main page! Yazan (talk) 13:52, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

I found some decent info on the Mamluk history (a great deal of it is actually from your sources in the drop-box). I'll begin expanding the Ottoman section tomorrow or the day after. We should try to start an article on Tankiz, the Mamluk governor of Damascus, soon. There should be a good amount of info on him. As for the citadel, I was reading the it yesterday before I got your message. It's very informative and reads very well too. Truly an interesting article. Kudos to Zoeperkoe and yourself! WP Syria is finally getting the attention it has always deserved. --Al Ameer son (talk) 05:38, 9 March 2011 (UTC)

Yes, was thinking it was odd that Tankiz was a redlink. On another note; I think we should have a Legacy section as well. There's a quite a bit written about the mosque's influence on later mosques (Like the Great Mosque of Aleppo, and the Mezquita in Cordoba, etc.) Yazan (talk) 05:53, 9 March 2011 (UTC)

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BTW

I do not know, if you believe me or not, and I do not really care, if you do or you do not, but my review of your DYK a month or so ago was done because I did not associate you with the user, who used to hound me a year ago. I simply forgot your user name. See, I am completely missing a bad memory :-) I needed to review an article to add the diff for my own DYK nomination, and your article seemed to be a good choice, easy to review. If I remembered your user name, I would have never reviewed your article ever. Of course my review was done in a good faith, actually in a very good faith. I only wanted to help to make the article to be sourced better. As I've already told you, if somebody would have offered a new sources for one of my articles, I would have been very grateful to this editor. In any case I'll try to remember your user name, and promise to avoid you in the feature, except of course I need some more help with Arabic :-) Regards.--Mbz1 (talk) 06:09, 9 March 2011 (UTC)

Sigh. I'll make this short; (1) I didn't wikihound you, I have more important things to do with my time, but then again I'm an evil marxist. (2) You're welcome to ask if you need any help with Arabic script, or if you need translation from Arabic sources. Best. Yazan (talk) 06:25, 9 March 2011 (UTC)

sabi abyad

Thanks for the nice barnstar; I'll have to edit some more Syria-related pages to truly deserve it ;) Anway, I had a look at the books you have for Sabi Abyad. Some more papers are here, here, here and here. They had some nice discoveries over the last few years that should definitely make some nice DYK material. I have to set up email for WP, but if you're willing to give your email in a PM I can send you these papers, in case you can't access them and if you're interested. -- Zoeperkoe (talk) 18:11, 9 March 2011 (UTC)

Hello, Zozo2kx. Please check your email; you've got mail!
It may take a few minutes from the time the email is sent for it to show up in your inbox. You can at any time by removing the {{You've got mail}} or {{ygm}} template.

El Kowm

Hi Yazan! I've started work on the most important prehistoric site in the Middle East at El Kowm. It's a massive site with loads of documentation I'm wading through to put up discoveries such as a giant camel that should make for good DYK? material. Any help you can provide most welcome, it's really important for Syria. Cheers! Paul Bedson (talk) 17:24, 10 March 2011 (UTC)

DYK for Murad Pasha Mosque

—HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 09:14, 12 March 2011 (UTC)

Re:Wiki-break

Marhaba Yazan. Good luck with your efforts brother. The disaster in Japan is truly unbelievable and I could only hope that the tens of thousands missing there are found alive and found soon. Take however much time you need helping out. I've had a pretty slow week on wiki myself. I'll try to edit the mosque more in the coming days. Anyway, hope to see you here soon akh. Salam... --Al Ameer son (talk) 21:56, 14 March 2011 (UTC)

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DYK for Chapter 2 of the Syrian Constitution

Materialscientist (talk) 08:03, 18 March 2011 (UTC)

DYK for Preamble and Chapter 1 of the Syrian Constitution

—HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 00:03, 19 March 2011 (UTC)

Chapter 3 of the Syrian Constitution DYK approval

First off, excellent work on the articles relating to the Syrian Constitution. It is very refreshing to see articles on topics that are often vastly under-represented on the English Wikipedia. I went ahead and gave an AGF approval for the Chapter 3 article but I did have some caveat comments. I think Thelma's confusion over the apparent discontinuity in the lead was valid and a confusion that other readers may also experience. Your explanation on the T:TDYK pages cleared things up beautifully but that clarity needs to find it ways into the article somehow. As a WP:WINE editor, I know that sometimes I take for granted what readers know about a subject and can miss seeing things that don't come across as clear to all readers as it may to me. I suspect it is the same case here. That one small point as well as some minor MOS clean up on the section headings are my only concerns about the article. But again, great work! Agne^Cheese/^Wine 02:26, 21 March 2011 (UTC)

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DYK for Chapter 3 of the Syrian Constitution

Thanks from me and the wiki Victuallers (talk) 08:03, 26 March 2011 (UTC)

Are you going?

You said before at my talkpage: "if there were any "such" protests, I'd be the first to board a plane and join them"

Are you going? --Supreme Deliciousness (talk) 01:08, 28 March 2011 (UTC)

I can't leave Japan at the moment, but I'm doing what I can, IRL. Yazan (talk) 05:40, 29 March 2011 (UTC)

Lets say democracy/free elections will occur, what is the likelihood of an Islamic state? --Supreme Deliciousness (talk) 11:51, 29 March 2011 (UTC)

For now, watch out for Friday. Today's speech means blood will be spilled. I almost can't believe it, but I'm not sure what more could you expect from such a regime. Yazan (talk) 19:41, 30 March 2011 (UTC)

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DYK for Jafr alien invasion

The DYK project (nominate) 16:04, 1 April 2011 (UTC)

Updates

Salam Yazan! I haven't been editing the Umayyad Mosque's history section lately, but I've started working on the Architecture section which I will be focusing on for the next few days. We need some sources that talk about the dome and minaret. The Necipoglu book gives great detail about the mosaics and the fine art of the mosque which we should definitely have a section for, but not much info is provided on the architecture of the domes and minarets. Also, on another note I've recently created articles on the al-Daraj and al-Atatra neighborhoods of Gaza and on a famous Palestinian fighter, Abu Ali Iyad. I was wondering if you could provide the article with Arabic scripts, especially the latter since I nominated it for DYK.

Btw, I read your blog on recent events in Syria. Hope the Assad regime could deliver, but let's face it they (our dictators) never do. Ten years ago he promised reforms and nothing much has changed. This might be a difficult question that you don't have to answer, but do you think protests in Syria could really turn into revolutions like in Egypt and Tunisia and hopefully Yemen and Libya soon? Or at least pose a compelling challenge to the regime forcing it to deliver real democratic change and reform? --Al Ameer son (talk) 22:06, 1 April 2011 (UTC)

Marhaba Ameer. I don't know what to tell you ya Ameer. I am not optimistic in the least. I had the slight hope that they might've learned a lesson from their predecessors, but, evidently No. I can't tell whether it will evolve into a full blown revolution. I hope so, but I don't think it will happen. The country is deeply divided along economic, sectarian, ethnic lines. The brave people who have been on the streets for the past two weeks have not been able to get real popular support, at most sympathy for those killed. I've always believed that if given a real shot, the people will overcome their sectarian divide, and especially the Alawites (my family is). But no, what I've seen was a truly disgusting entrenchment behind a regime that has been using them for 40 years now. Their immediate response might've been clumsy, but their behind-the-scenes maneuvering was so successful, it was obvious in his arrogant smirk in that fateful speech. They sidelined all the minorities (watch out for the next cabinet, every seat in there will have been a present to someone or some group), and they sidelined the middle class Sunni establishment. So what you have on the streets (outside of Daraa), are a handful of activists, a handful of Salafis, and very few others. But like I said, even if it fails in the short term, it has made a serious dent into the regime, and Syria won't be the same again. Personally, though, I don't know if I will ever want to go back to that place after it revealed its face. My generation (like that of father's) has certainly noted its first defeat.

Will get back to editing soon. I have a few personal affairs to look after for now. Arabic scripts are done. Best Yazan (talk) 08:23, 2 April 2011 (UTC)

You are welcome

Giving you the DYK credit was my way to thank you for your help with the image that is very much appreciated.

I'd like to use the opportunity and to say that my heart is going out to peoples of Japan and Syria one of whom is fighting a horrible disaster and another is fighting an oppressive regime.

Happy editing to you too.--Mbz1 (talk) 17:06, 2 April 2011 (UTC)