the Week of Proper 26 / Ordinary 31
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Bible Encyclopedias
Taenia
1911 Encyclopedia Britannica
or (Gr. Tacvia, ribbon, fillet), the term in architecture given to the projecting fillet which crowns the architrave of the Greek Doric order.
Tafilalt, or Tafilet (i.e. "The Country of the Filali," as its inhabitants are called, because descended from the Arabian tribe of Hilal, settled here in the ttth century), the most important oasis of the Moroccan Sahara, ten days' journey south of Fez, across the Atlas. It is celebrated for its large and luscious dates, to the successful cultivation of which, soon after the arrival of an ancestor of the reigning dynasty of Morocco (hence called the Filali Sharifs, i.e. descendants of Mahoniet) circ. A.D. 1250, this dynasty owes its rise to power. Since 1648 it has been the custom of Moorish sultans to despatch superfluous sons and daughters to Tafilalt, and as the males are all sharifs, the fanaticism against Europeans is comprehensible. Instead of living in towns its bellicose inhabitants occupy isolated fortified buildings, and are constantly at war. In Ifli, the central portion, formerly existed the town of Sagilmasa, founded by Miknasa Berbers in 757 B.C. It was on the direct caravan route from the Niger to Tangier, and attained a considerable degree of prosperity. It was destroyed at the end of the ith century, but its ruins still extend five miles along the river bank.
The first European to visit Tafilalt was Rene Caillie (1828), the next Gerhard Rohlfs (1864). A later visit to the oasis by W. B. Harris is described in his book Tafilet (London, 1895).
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Chisholm, Hugh, General Editor. Entry for 'Taenia'. 1911 Encyclopedia Britanica. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/bri/t/taenia.html. 1910.
