«The inner meaning of history involves speculation

and an attempt to get at the truth»

—Ibn Khaldun

Bassem (باسم)
Hagia Sophia Mosque
Historian and researcher, administrator, editor and checkuser in Arabic Wikipedia. Administrator on Wikidata.
Member of the Wikimedians of the Levant user group.
He who controls others may be powerful, but he who has mastered himself is mightier still.

About me

I hold a PhD degree in Ottoman history. I'm well acquainted with Islamic history in general, though my knowledge in eras other than the Ottoman is not as deep and detailed. I'm also interested in medieval European history, the history of ancient Middle Eastern civilizations, and the Roman civilization. I do not claim familiarity with all aspects of Ottoman history, as we always discover new things through continuous research and review of various new sources, thus our view of some matters may change over time ﴾...And mankind have not been given of knowledge except a little﴿ [Al-Isra, verse 85].

As an Arab contributor, I strongly believe that Wikipedia could help preserve the Arabic Language from the challenges it faces in our time. I find no problem following the example of other language versions of Wikipedia, as long as any adaptation is modified so it can fit the cultural identity and concepts of the Arab and Middle Eastern users of ar.wiki. The Islamic civilization was built in such manner, and eventually produced one of the most beautiful human cultures.

My work

I'm an administrator, editor, and checkuser on Arabic Wikipedia as well as Wikidata and ar.Wikiquote. Most of my contributions are on ar.wiki, followed by Wikidata and Wikimedia commons. I do contribute on other sister projects every now and then.

I started editing on Arabic Wikipedia on 27 September 2007 (16 years, 5 months and 21 days). My early contributions were mostly restricted to nature and wildlife articles, usually through translation from en.wiki, as this subject is my other passion, alongside history. Later I started working on historical, geographical, and religious articles. As time passed my work became mostly restricted to historical topics, believing in the necessity for every person to work on topics that fall within the scope of his Academic specialization, which will increase the quality and reliability of Wikipedia. I still work every now and then on developing an article related to wildlife, usually in cooperation with my dear friend Abbad. As for historical topics, my preferred method is developing a series of sequential articles to come up eventually with an integrated topic.

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ar-N هذا المستخدم لغته الأم هي العربية.
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en-4 This user has near native speaker knowledge of English.
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fr-1 Cet utilisateur dispose de connaissances de base en français.
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tr-1 Bu kullanıcı temel düzeyde Türkçe bilir.
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