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Ahuitzotl
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Ahuitzotl (, ) was the eighth Aztec ruler, the "Huey Tlatoani" of the city of Tenochtitlan, son of princess Atotoztli II. His name literally means "Water Thorny" and was also applied to the otter. It is also theorized that more likely, the animal called ahuitzotl is actually the water opossum, the hand symbolizing its prehensile tail, which otters notably lack.
Either Ahuitzotl or his predecessor Tizoc was the first "tlatoani" of Tenochtitlan to assume the title "Huey Tlatoani" ("supreme "tlatoani"") to make their superiority over the other cities in the Triple Alliance (Aztec Empire) clear. Ahuitzotl was responsible for much of the expansion of the Mexica domain, and consolidated the empire's power after emulating his predecessor. He took power as Emperor in the year 7 Rabbit (1486), after the death of his predecessor and brother, Tizoc.
He had two sons, the kings Chimalpilli II and Cuauhtémoc, and one daughter.
Biography.
Perhaps the greatest known military leader of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, Ahuizotl began his reign by suppressing a Huastec rebellion, and then swiftly more than doubled the size of lands under Aztec dominance. He conquered the Mixtec, Zapotec, and other peoples from Pacific Coast of Mexico down to the western part of Guatemala. Ahuizotl also supervised a major rebuilding of Tenochtitlan on a grander scale including the expansion of the Great Pyramid or Templo Mayor in the year 8 Reed (1487).
He presided over the introduction of the great-tailed grackle into the Valley of Mexico, the earliest documented case of human-mediated bird introduction in the Western Hemisphere.
Ahuizotl died in the year 10 Rabbit (1502) and was succeeded by his nephew, Moctezuma II.
Ahuizotl took his name from the animal ahuizotl, which the Aztecs considered to be a legendary creature in its own right rather than a mere mythical representation of the king.
In January 2021 the INAH proposed moving the statues of Ahuizotl and Itzcóatl, known as the "Indios Verdes," from the "Parque del Mestizaje" in Gustavo A. Madero, Mexico City to the Paseo de la Reforma. “The transfer means a reading of the urban space, recovering the historical discourse that gave rise to the formation of a set of monuments and roundabouts on Paseo de la Reforma, conceived at the end of the 19th century, with the idea of honoring the Reformation, a great transformation that it meant for Mexico, but to recover a historical reading that began precisely by underlining the Mexican splendor and the importance of the pre-Hispanic or Mesoamerican antecedents of our country”, Diego Prieto, director of INAH said.
In popular culture.
Under the name Teomitl, Ahuitzotl is a primary character in the "Obsidian and Blood" series by Aliette de Bodard, which are set in the last year of the reign of Axayacatl and the first years of the reign of Tizoc.
In the historical fiction novel "Aztec" by Gary Jennings, Ahuitzotl is a prominent character. Set in the time just before the arrival of the Spanish Conquistadors, it accounts his construction of the many expansions of Tenochtitlan, and wars of conquest, trade, and proclivities.
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Albinism in humans
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Albinism is a congenital condition characterized in humans by the partial or complete absence of pigment in the skin, hair and eyes. Albinism is associated with a number of vision defects, such as photophobia, nystagmus, and amblyopia. Lack of skin pigmentation makes for more susceptibility to sunburn and skin cancers. In rare cases such as Chédiak–Higashi syndrome, albinism may be associated with deficiencies in the transportation of melanin granules. This also affects essential granules present in immune cells, leading to increased susceptibility to infection.
Albinism results from inheritance of recessive gene alleles and is known to affect all vertebrates, including humans. It is due to absence or defect of tyrosinase, a copper-containing enzyme involved in the production of melanin. Unlike humans, other animals have multiple pigments and for these albinism is considered to be a hereditary condition characterised by the absence of melanin, in particular in the eyes, skin, hair, scales, feathers or cuticle. While an organism with complete absence of melanin is called an albino, an organism with only a diminished amount of melanin is described as leucistic or albinoid. The term is from the Latin "albus", "white".
Signs and symptoms.
There are two principal types of albinism: oculocutaneous, affecting the eyes, skin and hair, and ocular, affecting the eyes only.
There are different types of oculocutaneous albinism depending on which gene has undergone mutation. With some there is no pigment at all. The other end of the spectrum of albinism is "a form of albinism called rufous oculocutaneous albinism, which usually affects dark-skinned people".
According to the US National Organization for Albinism and Hypopigmentation, "With ocular albinism, the color of the iris of the eye may vary from blue to green or even brown, and sometimes darkens with age. However, when an optometrist or ophthalmologist examines the eye by shining a light from the side of the eye, the light shines back through the iris since very little pigment is present."
Because individuals with albinism have skin that entirely lacks the dark pigment melanin, which helps protect the skin from the sun's ultraviolet radiation, their skin can burn more easily from overexposure.
The human eye normally produces enough pigment to color the iris blue, green or brown and lend opacity to the eye. In photographs, those with albinism are more likely to demonstrate "red eye", due to the red of the retina being visible through the iris. Lack of pigment in the eyes also results in problems with vision, both related and unrelated to photosensitivity.
Those with albinism are generally as healthy as the rest of the population (but see related disorders below), with growth and development occurring as normal, and albinism by itself does not cause mortality, although the lack of pigment blocking ultraviolet radiation increases the risk of melanomas (skin cancers) and other problems.
Visual problems.
Development of the optical system is highly dependent on the presence of melanin. For this reason, the reduction or absence of this pigment in people with albinism may lead to:
Eye conditions common in albinism include:
The improper development of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), which in normal eyes absorbs most of the reflected sunlight, further increases glare due to light scattering within the eye. The resulting sensitivity (photophobia) generally leads to discomfort in bright light, but this can be reduced by the use of sunglasses or brimmed hats.
Genetics.
Oculocutaneous albinism is generally the result of the biological inheritance of genetically recessive alleles (genes) passed from both parents of an individual such as OCA1 and OCA2. A mutation in the human TRP-1 gene may result in the deregulation of melanocyte tyrosinase enzymes, a change that is hypothesized to promote brown versus black melanin synthesis, resulting in a third oculocutaneous albinism (OCA) genotype, "OCA3". Some rare forms are inherited from only one parent. There are other genetic mutations that are proven to be associated with albinism. All alterations, however, lead to changes in melanin production in the body.
The chance of offspring with albinism resulting from the pairing of an organism with albinism and one without albinism is low. However, because organisms (including humans) can be carriers of genes for albinism without exhibiting any traits, albinistic offspring can be produced by two non-albinistic parents. Albinism usually occurs with equal frequency in both sexes. An exception to this is ocular albinism, which it is passed on to offspring through X-linked inheritance. Thus ocular albinism occurs more frequently in males as they have a single X and Y chromosome, unlike females, whose genetics are characterized by two X chromosomes.
There are two different forms of albinism: a partial lack of the melanin is known as hypomelanism, or hypomelanosis, and the total absence of melanin is known as amelanism or amelanosis.
Enzyme.
The enzyme defect responsible for OCA1-type albinism is tyrosine 3-monooxygenase (tyrosinase), which synthesizes melanin from the amino acid tyrosine.
Evolutionary theories.
It is suggested that the early genus "Homo" (humans in the broader sense) started to evolve in East Africa around 3 million years ago. The dramatic phenotypic change from the ape-like "Australopithecus" to early "Homo" is hypothesized to have involved the extreme loss of body hair – except for areas most exposed to UV radiation, such as the head – to allow for more efficient thermoregulation in the early hunter-gatherers. The skin that would have been exposed upon general body hair loss in these early proto-humans would have most likely been non-pigmented, reflecting the pale skin underlying the hair of our chimpanzee relatives. A positive advantage would have been conferred to early hominids inhabiting the African continent that were capable of producing darker skin – those who first expressed the eumelanin-producing MC1R allele – which protected them from harmful epithelium-damaging ultraviolet rays. Over time, the advantage conferred to those with darker skin may have led to the prevalence of darker skin on the continent. The positive advantage, however, would have had to be strong enough so as to produce a significantly higher reproductive fitness in those who produced more melanin. The cause of a selective pressure strong enough to cause this shift is an area of much debate. Some hypotheses include the existence of significantly lower reproductive fitness in people with less melanin due to lethal skin cancer, lethal kidney disease due to excess vitamin D formation in the skin of people with less melanin, or simply natural selection due to mate preference and sexual selection.
When comparing the prevalence of albinism in Africa to its prevalence in other parts of the world, such as Europe and the United States, the potential evolutionary effects of skin cancer as a selective force due to its effect on these populations may not be insignificant. It would follow, then, that there would be stronger selective forces acting on albino individuals in Africa than on albinos in Europe and the US. In two separate studies in Nigeria, very few people with albinism appear to survive to old age. One study found that 89% of people diagnosed with albinism are between 0 and 30 years of age, while the other found that 77% of albinos were under the age of 20.
However, it has also been theorized that albinism may have been able to spread in some Native American communities, because albino males were culturally revered and assumed as having divine origins. The very high incidence of albinism among the Hopi tribe has been frequently attributed to the privileged status of albino males in Hopi society, who were not required to perform physical work outdoors, shielding them from the harmful effects of UV radiation. This privileged status of albino males in Hopi society allowed them to reproduce with large numbers of non-albino women, spreading the genes that are associated with albinism.
Diagnosis.
Genetic testing can confirm albinism and what variety it is, but offers no medical benefits, except in the case of non-OCA disorders. Such disorders cause other medical problems in conjunction with albinism, and may be treatable. Genetic tests are currently available for parents who want to find out if they are carriers of ty-neg albinism. Diagnosis of albinism involves carefully examining a person's eyes, skin and hairs. Genealogical analysis can also help.
Albinism can also be a feature of several syndromes:
Management.
Since there is no cure for albinism, it is managed through lifestyle adjustments. People with albinism need to take care not to get sunburnt and should have regular healthy skin checks by a dermatologist.
For the most part, treatment of the eye conditions consists of visual rehabilitation. Surgery is possible on the extra-ocular muscles to decrease strabismus. Nystagmus-damping surgery can also be performed, to reduce the "shaking" of the eyes back and forth. The effectiveness of all these procedures varies greatly and depends on individual circumstances.
Glasses (often with tinted lenses), low vision aids, large-print materials, and bright angled reading lights can help individuals with albinism. Some people with albinism do well using bifocals (with a strong reading lens), prescription reading glasses, hand-held devices such as magnifiers or monoculars or wearable devices like eSight
and Brainport.
The condition may lead to abnormal development of the optic nerve and sunlight may damage the retina of the eye as the iris cannot filter out excess light due to a lack of pigmentation. Photophobia may be ameliorated by the use of sunglasses which filter out ultraviolet light. Some use bioptics, glasses which have small telescopes mounted on, in, or behind their regular lenses, so that they can look through either the regular lens or the telescope. Newer designs of bioptics use smaller light-weight lenses. Some US states allow the use of bioptic telescopes for driving motor vehicles. (See also NOAH bulletin "Low Vision Aids".)
There are a number of national support groups across the globe which come under the umbrella of the World Albinism Alliance.
Epidemiology.
Albinism affects people of all ethnic backgrounds; its frequency worldwide is estimated to be approximately one in 17,000. Prevalence of the different forms of albinism varies considerably by population and is highest overall in people of sub-Saharan African descent. Today, the prevalence of albinism in sub-Saharan Africa is around 1 in 5,000, while in Europe and the US it is around 1 in 20,000 of the European-derived population. Rates as high as 1 in 1,000 have been reported for some populations in Zimbabwe and other parts of Southern Africa.
Certain ethnic groups and populations in isolated areas exhibit heightened susceptibility to albinism, presumably due to genetic factors. These include notably the Native American Guna, Zuni and Hopi nations (respectively of Panama, New Mexico and Arizona); Japan, in which one particular form of albinism is unusually common (OCA 4); and Ukerewe Island, the population of which shows a very high incidence of albinism.
Society and culture.
Special status of albinos in Native American culture.
In some Native American and South Pacific cultures, people with albinism have been traditionally revered, because they were considered heavenly beings associated with the sky. Among various indigenous tribes in South America, albinos were able to live luxurious lives due to their divine status. This special status was applied mainly to male albinos. It has been theorized that the very high level of albinism among some Native American tribes can be attributed to sexual privileges given to male albinos, which allowed them to reproduce with large numbers of non-albino women in their tribes, leading to the spread of genes that are associated with albinism.
Persecution of people with albinism.
Humans with albinism often face social and cultural challenges (even threats), as the condition is often a source of ridicule, discrimination, or even fear and violence. It is especially socially stigmatised in many African societies. A study conducted in Nigeria on albino children stated that "they experienced alienation, avoided social interactions and were less emotionally stable. Furthermore, affected individuals were less likely to complete schooling, find employment, and find partners". Many cultures around the world have developed beliefs regarding people with albinism.
In Africa, Albinism in Tanzania and Burundi, there has been an unprecedented rise in witchcraft-related killings of people with albinism in recent years, because their body parts are used in potions sold by witch doctors. Numerous authenticated incidents have occurred in Africa during the 21st century. For example, in Tanzania, in September 2009, three men were convicted of killing a 14-year-old albino boy and severing his legs in order to sell them for witchcraft purposes. Again in Tanzania and Burundi in 2010, the murder and dismemberment of a kidnapped albino child was reported from the courts, as part of a continuing problem. The US-based National Geographic Society estimated that in Tanzania a complete set of albino body parts is worth US$75,000. An overview of Albinism in Malawi further highlights similar incidents. People with albinism in Malawi face significant challenges, including discrimination and violence. Since 2014, over 170 attacks on people with albinism have been reported in Malawi. In 2022, a Malawian court convicted 12 individuals, including a police officer and a priest, for the murder of a 22-year-old man with albinism. In 2019, six individuals with albinism ran for parliamentary and local government positions in Malawi, aiming to combat stigma through political engagement. The United Nations has warned that people with albinism in Malawi are at risk of "systemic extinction" due to relentless attacks fueled by superstitions. Efforts have been made to integrate people with albinism into public service roles. In 2022, Malawi's police service welcomed its first officers with albinism, aiming to restore confidence in law enforcement.
Another harmful and false belief is that sex with an albinistic woman will cure a man of HIV. This has led, for example in Zimbabwe, to rapes (and subsequent HIV infection).
Albinism in popular culture.
Famous people with albinism include historical figures such as Oxford don William Archibald Spooner; actor-comedian Victor Varnado; musicians such as Johnny and Edgar Winter, Salif Keita, Winston "Yellowman" Foster, Brother Ali, Sivuca, Hermeto Pascoal, Willie "Piano Red" Perryman, his brother Speckled Red, Kalash Criminel; actor-rapper Krondon, and fashion models Connie Chiu, Ryan "La Burnt" Byrne and Shaun Ross. Emperor Seinei of Japan is thought to have albinism because he was said to have been born with white hair.
International Albinism Awareness Day.
International Albinism Awareness Day was established after a motion was accepted on 18 December 2014 by the United Nations General Assembly, proclaiming that 13 June would be known as International Albinism Awareness Day as of 2015. This was followed by a mandate created by the United Nations Human Rights Council that appointed Ms. Ikponwosa Ero, who is from Nigeria, as the first Independent Expert on the enjoyment of human rights by persons with albinism.
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Amr Diab
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Amr Abdel Basset Abdel Azeez Diab (, ; born 11 October 1961) is an Egyptian singer, composer and actor. He has established himself as a globally acclaimed recording artist and author. He is a Guinness World Record holder, the best selling Middle Eastern artist, a seven-times winner of World Music Awards and five-times winner of Platinum Records.
Early life.
Diab was born as Amr Abdel Basset Abdel Azeez Diab on 11 October 1961 in Port Said to a middle-class Egyptian Muslim family from the countryside of Menia Elamh in Sharqia Governorate. Diab graduated with a bachelor's degree in music from the Cairo Academy of Arts in 1986.
Music career.
Diab released his first album entitled ' in 1983. Diab's second album, ' (1984), was the first of a series of records he released with Delta Sound; including ' (1986), ' (1987), and ' (1988). His later releases include ' (1989), ' (1990), ' (1991), ' (1992), ' (1993), ' (1994), and ' (1995).
By 1992, he became the first Egyptian and Middle Eastern artist to start making high-tech music videos.
In 1996, Diab released his first album with Alam El Phan entitled ', and he won the World Music Award for the first time, which proved an international success and gained Diab recognition beyond the Arabic-speaking world. Diab recorded four more albums with Alam El Phan, including ' (1999). Diab also collaborated with Khaled (on the song "") and with Angela Dimitriou (on the song "Bahebak Aktar").
According to research by Michael Frishkopf, he has created a style in the song "", termed as "Mediterranean music", a blend of Western and Middle Eastern/Egyptian rhythms.
In the summer of 2004, Diab, having left Alam El Phan, released his first album with Rotana Records, "," which he followed up with the hugely successful ' (2005), and ' (2007).
was released for sale on the internet on 27 June 2009; however, the album was leaked online and was downloaded illegally amid complaints of slow download speed on the official site. Diab's fans initiated a massive boycott of the sites with the illegal copies.
On 18 October 2009, Diab won four 2009 African Music Awards in the categories of best artist, album, vocalist and song for ""; Diab had been nominated by the Big Apple Music Awards.
In February 2011, Diab released his hit single "" ("Egypt spoke"), followed by the release of his album ' in September, produced by Rotana. In 2012, Diab hosted the first Google Hangout in the Middle East during his performance in Dubai. In October 2014, Diab released his album ', which topped his last album ' (2013) and again became the best-selling album in Egypt on iTunes and peaked at No. 1 on the "Billboard" World Albums Charts, making him the first Egyptian and Middle Eastern performer to accomplish such a feat. In July 2015, Diab released a music video for his song " from his album '. In March 2016, he released ', his first album since he left Rotana Music. The album was produced by the record label Nay For Media. His new album ' was released in July 2017 with Nay Records.
In October 2018, he released a new album called '. In 2019, he released a mini-album, ', and in February 2020, he released his 30th album, ", which included 16 songs. In the same year, Amr Diab released another album, "Ya Ana Ya La," at the end of the year, December 31, 2020.
From April 2021 to July 2023, Amr Diab released a huge amount of singles, many of which topped the charts on digital listening platforms until his album release in 2023.
In February 2022, Anghami announced an exclusive partnership that will see the Diab's entire Nay Label audio and video catalogue and future releases available only on Anghami.
In December 2023, Amr Diab released an album called "Makanak" with 12 songs.
Then he released two singles called "El Kelma El Helwa", an advertisment for Vodafone Music (Egypt), and "Hekyatna Helwa" for Hyde Park, both on March 11, 2024.
In April 2024, Rolling Stone picked Tamally Maak to top the Best Arabic Pop Songs of the 21st Century. In July of that year, his exclusive contract with Anghami expired.
Musical style.
Diab is known as the "father of Mediterranean music". David Cooper and Kevin Dawe refer to his music as "the new breed of Mediterranean music". According to author Michael Frishkopf, Diab has produced a new concept of Mediterranean music, especially with his international hit, "". Diab is known as a composer, having composed more than 97 of his own songs.
Music videos.
Diab is one of the first singers to popularize music videos in the whole MENA region and is the first Egyptian singer to appear in music videos.
Film career.
Diab's fame in the music industry has led him to experiment with other forms of media, such as film. Diab played himself in his first film, ', which was released in 1989. It also starred Madiha Kamel. His second film was Hussein El-Imam's production "Ice Cream in Gleam" ('), in which Diab starred in 1992, was chosen as one of the best five Egyptian musical films by the University of California, Los Angeles (ULCA) School of Theater, Film and Television. The film was featured in the UCLA Film and Television Archive's new program "Music on the Nile: Fifty Years of Egyptian Musical Films" at James Bridges Theater at UCLA on 6, 8 and 10 April 1999. David Chute of the "LA Weekly" termed it "observant" and "a big leap". His third movie was released in 1993, and was named "" ("Laughter and Fun"). The film premiered in the Egyptian Film Festival in 1993. Diab played alongside international Egyptian movie star Omar Sharif ("Lawrence of Arabia", "Doctor Zhivago") and Yousra. Overall, Diab did not experience the same level of success in film that he had with his music career. Since 1993, Diab has focused on his singing career.
Amr Diab in movies.
Diab's songs have been used in several films, including:
Egyptian Revolution.
During the 2011 uprising, some protesters criticized Diab for staying silent, and for fleeing Egypt for London. A few days after former President Hosni Mubarak stepped down, Diab composed and sang a memorial song, " (Egypt Said), and released it in conjunction with a music video showing pictures of the martyrs who died in the uprising. He initiated a charity campaign " ("Truly Egyptian"). His online radio station Diab FM often presents talks and discussions about what the Diab FM team can offer to the community as well as applying it practically by being present in different sites across Egypt with a new humanitarian project each week.
Personal life.
Diab has an elder daughter from his first marriage to Egyptian actress Shereen Reda. In 1994, he was married to Saudi businesswoman Zeina Ashour. They have three children. In 2018, he went on to marry Egyptian actress, Dina El Sherbiny, after his relationship with Ashour ended. It is unknown whether they were separated or divorced. However, Diab and El Sherbiny separated in late 2020.
Awards.
He has been awarded the World Music Award for Best Selling Middle Eastern Artist four times: 1996 for album ', 2001 for album "Akter Wahed", 2007 for album "El Lillady" and 2013 for ' album. He has also won (Best Egyptian Artist, Best Male Arab Artist and World's Best Arab Male Artist Voted Online) at the World Music Awards 2014. Amr Diab is the only Middle Eastern artist to have received 7 World Music Awards. Five of his albums reached the top 10 of "Billboard"'s World Albums chart, with reaching No. 1 in 2014, the first for an Arabic performer. Alongside that accomplishment, two of his albums (2014's and 2016's ) both peaked at 29 and 14 respectively on Billboard's Heatseekers charts.
On 28 September 2016, Diab announced that he achieved a Guinness World Records title for "Most World Music Awards for Best Selling Middle Eastern Artist".
Program "Al-helm".
A program produced by Amr Afifi, consisting of 12 parts aired on Rotana Music, Rotana Cinema and Egyptian Channel 1 station. The program detailed the biography of Diab and was scheduled to be launched simultaneously with the release of Amr Diab's new album, but the album's release was postponed to a later date.
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Belgian hip-hop
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Belgian hip hop music has a few rappers stemming from Africa and Italy. Belgium, like France, controlled African countries like the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire), Rwanda, and Burundi until the early 1960s. Like in France, immigrants from these countries started to study and live in Belgium.
The Belgian hip hop scene started in the late 1980s with a U.S.-based techno/hip hop group called Technotronic. In the group was an emcee named Ya Kid K from the Democratic Republic of the Congo who later led the group into international fame with hits like "Pump up the Jam" and "Shake That Body". In 1990, she also joined the group Hi-Tek 3 who were heard on "".
However, the first major pop rapper from Belgium was Benny B, who had a very mainstream and commercial sound. According to the European Music Office's report on "Music in Europe", this was the first of many pop acts that helped inspire a backlash and the creation of an underground hip hop scene.
Also in the late 1980s in the Walloon south of the country, French speaking/rapping Starflam was the biggest name in hip hop. In the Flemish north Dutch speaking/rapping groups like 't Hof van Commerce, Krapoel In Axe, St Andries MC's, and ABN were popular, rapping in their regional dialects.
Today, the Belgian hip hop scene is growing. Rappers like Coely, Roméo Elvis and Damso are achieving commercial success in their country and abroad. Other contemporary rappers/formations are Stikstof, Woodie Smalls, L'Or Du Commun and .
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Dutch hip-hop
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Dutch hip hop or Nederhop ("Netherhop") is hip hop / rap music created by Dutch speaking musicians in the Netherlands and Flanders (Belgium). Although the first Dutch rappers in Europe typically wrote in the English language, this began to change when Osdorp Posse gained a big following of fans. They were the first to record and release hip hop in the Dutch language, perform for big crowds and to achieve chart success with their albums.
In 1995, the same year Osdorp Posse had a top 20 chart hit with their album "Afslag Osdorp", rapper Extince was the first Dutch rap artist to achieve a top 10 hit in the singles charts with "Spraakwater".
After rapper Def Rhymz was the first to reach the Dutch main chart with number 1 hits such as "Doekoe" (Sranan Tongo for 'money'; 1999), and "Schudden" ("Shake (it)"/"Shaking"; 2001) with a more pop, R&B and dance influenced sound, Dutchlanguage hip hop has grown into a staple of mainstream pop music in the Netherlands and Flanders in the 21st century.
In 2021, Netherlands music streaming charts were dominated by Dutch rap music artists like Boef, Josylvio, Broederliefde, Lil' Kleine, Snelle, and Sevn Alias.
History.
1980s.
Between 1980 and 1985 a few Dutch Hip Hop records had already been released, but in 1986 Dutch rap duo MC Miker G & DJ Sven had a top 10 hit in at least ten countries across Europe with their "Holiday Rap", which sampled Madonna's "Holiday". It caused notable financial disputes, four years ahead of Vanilla Ice's similar sampling troubles with Ice Ice Baby. That same year Dutch rapper Extince released his first record "Rap Around The Clock," and in 1987 he scored a modest hit with "The Milkshake Rap".
However, in the late 1980s Nederhop ("Netherhop") emerged, as artists began to rap in Dutch, such as Def Rhymz, Blonnie B, Alex and the CityCrew, Dynamic Rockers, and the Osdorp Posse. Though there is disagreement about who were the first, the pioneers' work was at first only experimental, except for the Osdorp Posse, a group from Osdorp, a "hood" in Amsterdam, who were first to "release" tracks in Dutch, for instance the single "Moordenaar" ("Murderer") in 1989, marking a beginning milestone of Nederhop. After their frontman, rapper Def P, began by literally translating English raps into Dutch, he started writing original work that still contained peculiar idioms that resulted from his earlier literal rewordings. The result was described by rapper Ali B as highly visual and captivating. Once Extince switched to Dutch in 1994, having rapped in English since 1984, both he and Osdorp Posse became highly influential in Nederhop in the 1990s and beyond.
Notable in the late 1980s were All Star Fresh of King Bee topping charts with: "Back by Dope Demand" in early 1990 and Rudeboy of Urban Dance Squad who, at the time, were arguably more widely known in New York City than in the Netherlands. DJ and Producer All Star Fresh turned professional as early as 1979. After winning the Dutch Mixing Championships (DMC) in 1988, he was invited for the World Mix Championships in the London Royal Hall and won third place among strong competition. He was invited by Dave Funkenklein to enter the lion's den in New York. He made history in the Big Apple of hiphop by being the first non-American to fly into the finals of the World Supremacy Battle of DJs. He gained the highly respected second place of this prestigious DJ contest. The impression that he made that year, resulted in many invitations to perform with artists like Public Enemy, Stetsasonic, Ice T and Ultra Magnetic MCs.
All Star Fresh. As performer and producer he is better known as KING BEE. With his second floor filler Back By Dope Demand he achieved one of his biggest hiphop hits. In the Netherlands it resulted in a Top 3 position, and best Dance Product by The Edison Awards in the Netherlands. (The Edison Awards is an award by the Dutch Music Industry.) This also meant that with this title, he was the first black artist to win this award in the Netherlands. After that he appeared as supporting act for Madonnas show in the Netherlands. All Star Fresh kept entering the dance floors. The last titles mentioned were also popular worldwide, selling over 2.4 million copies. He didn't only work within projects like King Bee or Capella, but also was featuring well known production teams like Snap (I Got the Power). This teamwork resulted in the single Lets Get Busy (Clubland Quarts feat Snap King Bee). This record ended up No. 1 in the Billboard Dance Charts (United States). Other productions in this line were Deepzone "It's Gonna Be All right", Kellee- my love, Ty Holden- you're my Inspiration and His Royal Freshness- They don't understand.
1990s.
Urban Dance Squad was a Dutch rap rock band formed after a jam session at a festival in Utrecht in 1986, including rapper/vocalist Rudeboy Remington and DJ DNA (DoNotAsk). The band's music is described as a blend of genres, including hard rock, funk, soul, hip hop, reggae, jazz and ska and is compared with Living Colour, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Fishbone. They are still known for their hit single "Deeper Shade of Soul", which charted at number 21 in the United States on Billboard Hot 100.
In 1989 Osdorp Posse formed, the first rap act solely in the Dutch language. They started out translating N.W.A songs to Dutch, but soon began writing their own rhymes. Dutch rap was still frowned up in general. Many hip hop listeners found it silly to hear raps in a different language than English and the radio and television didn't want to have anything to do with it at all.
Osdorp Posse overcame this, and gained a small crowd of followers. Indie label Djax Records from Eindhoven picked up on this and signed Osdorp Posse to their label. In 1992 they released their debut album "Osdorp Stijl", making it the first ever Dutch language hip hop album. Their beats, created by producer Seda on Amiga 500 with Protracker, had a heavy sound and was similar to U.S. old-school hip hop, while also embracing an own style by making use of samples from metal music. The lyrics were often focussed on social criticism, with frontman Def P describing it as hardcore rap. In Deventer they found their first following, and the first Dutch language hip hop scene was born. The first hip hop groups after Osdorp Posse were Zuid-Oost Posse and Maasstraat Mannen.
Dutch rap kept on reaching a bigger crowd, though it still could be considered as an underground genre. A year after the debut album of Osdorp Posse, they released 2 more albums, "Roffer Dan Ooit" and "Vlijmscherp". Paving the way like this, many Dutch rap acts popped up. In 1994 a breakthrough took place with the release of compilation record "De Posse: Nederhop Groeit ("meaning "Nederhop is growing"), presenting no less than 7 different new Dutch rap acts on one record. These groups performed all across the Netherlands, gaining even a bigger audience. By 1996, Djax Records released material by Ouderkerk Kaffers, White Wolf, West Klan, Dr. Doom, Spookrijders, Zuid Oost Posse, Klaas Vaak, Cut, Mach, Vuurwerk, Loco-Motief, Lijkenpikkers, Bitchez & Cream, Space Marines, Jesse, Neuk! and De Uitverkorenen.
The media still largely boycotted Dutch rap, while often expressing criticism on the harsh lyrics and lo-fi beats. Despite this, Osdorp Posse managed to build a large following of fans by 1995, resulting in nation-wide sold-out tours and big spots at Dutch festivals. They performed at the Lowlands Festival in 1995, with their popularity getting completely underestimated by the bookers, causing fans to even climb up lightning rigs and poles of the festival tent to be able to experience the set. In 1997 Osdorp Posse did two shows at the biggest festival of The Netherlands, the Pinkpop Festival. On the main day of the festival they performed at the main stage for a packed field of fans, resulting in the biggest Dutch rap show of the decade.
By that year the band had 2 albums which charted in the Dutch album charts, while still on an indie label and with virtually no airplay on radio and TV. In 1995 Afslag Osdorp, their fourth album, was the first Dutch language rap album to enter the Album Top 100, for a total of 14 weeks and even a ranking in the top 20. A unique achievement, with a peak position in the charts that would only be matched 7 years later by Brainpower.
By then, the band and Dutch rap in general got taken more seriously as well. After the undeniable success live on stage and in the album charts by Osdorp Posse, the lyrical content was getting cautious praise. By the mid-90's Def P collaborated with renowned and highly esteemed writers like Remco Campert and was often invited to recite his lyrics at poetry rap festivals like the Double Talk Festival at Paradiso.
At the same time a shift took place, when rapper Extince took rap in the Dutch language to a new commercial level and a different audience in 1995. While Osdorp Posse already had big chart successes with their albums, Extince's "Spraakwater" became the first single to make the mainstream pop single charts in the country. The song even made the top 10 of the singles charts and got airplay at the radio.
From then on there were two styles dominating the Dutch hip hop landscape. On one side the hardcore rap performers like Osdorp Posse, De Uitverkorenen, Casto and West Klan, who focussed on the content of their lyrics with social criticism, political subjects and knowledge, on often energetic and rough beats. With on the other side Extince, who was more of a storyteller with a slick flow and a knack for wordplay and metaphoric imagery, on funky and laidback beats.
A mix of these two styles gave birth to the Spookrijders, a three-man hip-hop group founded in 1996. With MCs Stefan and Clyde rapping about their personal lives and life in Amsterdam as a black man, the Spookrijders even gained respect from non-hip-hop musicians and fans. Most people admired the work of producer/DJ Cliff 'the Jazz' Nille after releasing Spookrijders debut album "De Echte Shit" ("The Real Shit"). In 1999, Spookrijders hit the charts twice with the hits "Klokkenluiders" and "Ik ben de man." Both these songs appeared on the second album, "Klokkenluiders van Amsterdam". After some personal arguments among the three crewmembers, Spookrijders split up in 2003, after releasing a third and final album "Hey... Spookies!!"
In 1999 The Postmen released their rap/reggae mix "De Bom" ("The Bom"), a top three hit-single. They were active across Europe from 1998 to 2003.
2000s.
From 2000 onward, Dutch language hiphop grew considerably, both in number of artists, as well as in popularity, both underground and mainstream.
In the early 2000s the MC fronted band Relax got much airplay, mainly impressing with their albums. Since 2002, they released four albums, the first three of which made the Dutch album top 40.
Def Rhymz, Spookrijders & Brainpower helped develop the art. Def Rhymz & Brainpower dropped multiple hit records. Described by Ali B. as "..a white library boy with glasses..", Brainpower made Dutch rapping accessible to a much greater demographic. With six Top 100 albums, Brainpower is one of the most commercially successful Dutch MC's to date.
By 2000, about 15 years after their founding, Osdorp Posse still did sold-out tours and still had big album chart success. They even scored a surprise hit song, when "Origineel Amsterdams" hit the top 10 of the single charts. By then, Dutch rap fully took over from Dutch artists rapping in English, and Osdorp Posse set up their own label to release Dutch rap artists. The same year they released their seventh album "Kernramp" as the first double album in Dutch rap, with the second disc containing up and coming Dutch rap artists. In the months following its release alone, 17,000 physical copies were sold, unique for Dutch language rap at the time. Having let a permanent mark on their fanbase, when the album was re-released on vinyl in 2019, it became the best-selling album on vinyl the week of release.
From the late 1990s, a flourishing underground scene in provincial town Zwolle included rappers Blaxtar, Jawat!, and Kubus, and centered around the group Opgezwolle. Formed in 1998 by rappers Sticky Steez and Phreaco Rico, together with DJ Delic, the band Opgezwolle (punning their town's name into "Swollen"), was a group making raw hiphop. They released three successful albums, in 2001, 2003, and 2006. "Eigen Wereld" ("Own World"), from 2006, achieved the highest notation of any Dutch-language rap album until then in the Dutch Album Top 100, reaching top 4.
In the same year, rapper Typhoon, also from Zwolle, and inspired by aforementioned peer Blaxtar, released his philosophical debut album "Tussen Licht en Lucht" ("Between Light and Air"). The successes of the Zwolle rappers crop boosted other Dutch artists' confidence and inspired them to be proud of their origins – whether local, foreign, or mixed. Rapper Typhoon pointed out, that band names of trailblazers like 'Osdorp Posse' and 'Opgezwolle' refer to their origins (Amsterdam Osdorp and Zwolle) for an important reason, and tied this to the shift from rapping in English to Dutch, making it more relatable and resonant with the audience. Instead of hard and angry, some 2000s releases stood out fragile and sensitive, for instance the single "Je moest waarschijnlijk gaan" ("I Guess You Had to Go"; 2001) by Brainpower, mourned the loss of his best friend; and the raps of Typhoon are called some of the most poetic.
Opgezwolle split up in 2007, but members Rico & Sticks formed a new group: Fakkelbrigade, with Typhoon, Mick 2dope Murray, MC James and beatmaker A.R.T. In 2009, they released the critically acclaimed album "Colucci Era".
From 2003 through 2006, Lange Frans & Baas B had four top-three hits in the Dutch Top 40, beside three more listings. "Zinloos", a sad commentary on senseless violence ("Zinloos Geweld"), and their patriotic yet introspective "Het Land van .." ("The Land of..") gave the duo two number-1 hits, in 2004 and 2005 respectively.
In the mid-2000s Cilvaringz, Ali B. Jerome XL and Raymzter were also commercially successful. Ali B featured on other artists' tracks, most significantly with Marco Borsato on the song "Wat zou je doen?" for the charity War Child. He first achieved solo success with "Ik ben je zat", featuring Brace, in 2003. Together with music artist Akon, and Ali's cousin Yes-R, Ali B made an internationally successful remix of Akon's track "Ghetto", including additional Dutch lyrics. Yes-R had six Dutch Top 40 hits from 2006 to 2012, including his debut single. Ali B. has sofar had fourteen Top 40 hit singles since 2003, including several top three listings. Jerome XL made a leap to the states in 2006 while recording with many international crews and their members like Jurassic 5, Dilated Peoples, Juice Crew and many others. This was a first for Dutch Hip Hop.
In 2005, De Jeugd van Tegenwoordig ("Kids These Days") were successful with "Watskeburt?!" ("Wuzhappenin?!"). Rapper Jawat won the "Grote Prijs van Nederland" 2006.
Another Dutch hip-hop duo are Pete Philly and Perquisite who are already well known in the Netherlands, Germany, and in Japan.
A famous Dutch rapper outside the Netherlands is Salah Edin. His album Nederlands Grootste Nachtmerrie (Biggest Nightmare of the Netherlands) won Best Album Award in 2007 and was fully produced by Dr. Dre's right-hand man Focus... He also shot three of the most expensive music videos in the history of Dutch Hip Hop, and through a management deal with Cilvaringz, performed in 34 countries worldwide.
2010s.
Social acceptance of rap / hip hop in the Netherlands was perhaps epitomized, when artist Typhoon performed for the Dutch royal family twice – both in 2013 and in 2016.
In 2015, a self-titled "New Wave" generation of 'social media' (em)powered artists broke through with their eponymous "New Wave" album, as a temporary collaboration, including , , , Lil' Kleine, Ronnie Flex, and .
Since 2014, rapper group Broederliefde released no less than seven albums, with the "worst one" topping at 13 in the charts — their debut album reached number 3, and their last five albums were consecutive top-2s, with three of them topping the chart. Their third album, "Hard Work Pays Off (II)" (2016), broke an all-time record by staying at number 1 for 14 weeks, beating a 2003 12-week record, held by Dutch A-list singer Frans Bauer. Nine of their singles also charted in the singles Top 40.
In 2016, album "WOP!" by Lil' Kleine was the first hip-hop album to reach number 1 on the Album Top 100. In the same year, Ali B's third album, "Een klein beetje geluk" ("ALittle Bit of Happiness"), proved his best yet, reaching number 7.
Starting 2016, rapper Sevn Alias released five consecutive top-10 albums, with his second reaching nr. 1, and the last three consistently reaching top-2 positions. He is highly productive, and is also enjoying extensive success with singles, collaborations, and other track releases.
Conflicts.
The Dutch hip-hop scene also saw many conflicts between rappers, followed by diss tracks. The following were among the biggest Dutch feuds in hip-hop:
Osdorp Posse vs. Extince, BrainPower vs. Extince, T.H.C vs. Negativ, Kempi vs. Nino, Yukkie B vs. Negativ, T.H.C. vs. Lexxxus, Baas B vs. Kimo, Kempi vs. Mini, Kempi vs. Bloedserieus, Heist Rockah vs. Negativ, and Regga vs. Lexxxus.
The feud between T.H.C. and Lexxxus resulted in a fistfight on a hip-hop event, when T.H.C. frontman Rocks got into an argument with Lexxxus and then started the fistfight.
Genres in Dutch hip hop.
Gangsta.
Dutch gangsta hip hop is currently a large scene together with underground hip-hop. Among the most notable acts and performers are THC, Heinek'n, Keizer, Kempi, Steen, Hef, Crooks, Adonis and Negativ. The rhythms are influenced by the American rap scene, and the lyrics are often about crime, drugs, money, women and other criminal things.
Often coming from Dutch ghettos, lyrics often include themes occurring in these areas.
Dutch gangsta hip hop mostly comes from the five largest cities: Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, Utrecht and Eindhoven.
Commercial success.
The commercial success of Dutch hip hop is largely made by Brainpower, Yes-R, Ali B, Lange Frans & Baas B and Extince. For a large part of the Dutch hip hop community Yes-R, Ali B and Lange Frans & Baas B are sometimes considered fake because they do a lot of work for children TV stations. Brainpower and Extince however both enjoy a great respect for bringing up hip hop in their native Dutch. Other commercial rappers are De Jeugd van Tegenwoordig, and one of the more popular artists in the Netherlands, Partysquad or The Partysquad. They are a 2-man group, having had success with hits such as "Stuk" (Broken), and "Dat is Die Shit" (That's the shit), with other popular songs in the background such as "Non Stop" ft. Brainpower, "We Gaan Los" (we're going crazy {because of highness or drunkenness}) with Kempi, and "Wat Wil Je Doen" (What do you want to do?).
Dutch oldskool.
The Dutch oldskool exists out of three primary artists, LTH, Osdorp Posse, Extince, Sugacane and Duvelduvel. Osdorp Posse make to what they themselves call hardcore rap and use beats that have much in common with N.W.A. Their lyrics are about racism, prostitution, police and other social subjects. Extince uses very different, more funky kind of beats than Osdorp Posse and uses a completely different rapstyle. Duvelduvel is known as a conceptual hip hop group.
Notable artists.
Notable Dutch hip hop artists, listed by locality include:
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Anaïs Nin
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Angela Anaïs Juana Antolina Rosa Edelmira Nin y Culmell ( ; ; February 21, 1903 – January 14, 1977) was a French-born American diarist, essayist, novelist, and writer of short stories and erotica. Born to Cuban parents in France, Nin was the daughter of the composer Joaquín Nin and the classically trained singer Rosa Culmell. Nin spent her early years in Spain and Cuba, about sixteen years in Paris (1924–1940), and the remaining half of her life in the United States, where she became an established author.
Nin wrote journals prolifically from age eleven until her death. Her journals, many of which were published during her lifetime, detail her private thoughts and personal relationships. Her journals also describe her marriages to Hugh Parker Guiler and Rupert Pole, in addition to her numerous affairs with men and women, including those with psychoanalyst Otto Rank and writer Henry Miller, both of whom profoundly influenced Nin and her writing.
In addition to her journals, Nin wrote several novels, critical studies, essays, short stories, and volumes of erotic literature. Much of her work, including the collections of erotica, was published posthumously amid renewed critical interest in her life and work. Nin spent her later life in Los Angeles, California, where she died of cervical cancer in 1977. She was a finalist for the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 1976.
Early life.
Anaïs Nin was born in Neuilly, France, to Joaquín Nin, a Cuban pianist and composer, and Rosa Culmell, a classically trained Cuban singer. Her father's grandfather had fled France during the French Revolution, going first to Saint-Domingue, then New Orleans, and finally to Cuba, where he helped build the country's first railway.
Nin was raised a Roman Catholic but left the church when she was 16 years old. She spent her childhood and early life in Europe. Her parents separated when she was two; her mother then moved Nin and her two brothers, Thorvald Nin and Joaquín Nin-Culmell, to Barcelona, and then to New York City, where she attended high school. Nin dropped out of high school in 1919 at age sixteen, and according to her diaries, "Volume One, 1931–1934", later began working as an artist's model. After being in the United States for several years, Nin had forgotten how to speak Spanish, but retained her French and became fluent in English.On March 3, 1923, in Havana, Cuba, Nin married her first husband, American Hugh Parker Guiler (1898–1985), a banker and artist from Boston, later known as "Ian Hugo", when he became an experimental filmmaker in the late 1940s. The couple moved to Paris the following year, where Guiler pursued his banking career and Nin began to pursue her interest in writing; in her diaries she also mentions having trained as a flamenco dancer in Paris in the mid-to-late 1920s with Francisco Miralles Arnau. Her first published work was a critical 1932 evaluation of D. H. Lawrence called "", which she wrote in sixteen days.
Nin became interested in psychoanalysis and studied extensively, first with René Allendy in 1932 and then with Otto Rank. Both men eventually became her lovers, as she recounts in her "Journal". On her second visit to Rank, Nin reflects on her desire to be reborn as a woman and artist. Rank, she observes, helped her move between what she could verbalize in her journals and what remained unarticulated. She discovered the quality and depth of her feelings in the wordless transitions between what she could and could not say. "As he talked, I thought of my difficulties with writing, my struggles to articulate feelings not easily expressed. Of my struggles to find a language for intuition, feeling, instincts which are, in themselves, elusive, subtle, and wordless."
In late summer 1939, when residents from overseas were urged to leave France due to the approaching war, Nin left Paris and returned to New York City with her husband (Guiler was, according to his own wishes, edited out of the diaries published during Nin's lifetime; his role in her life is therefore difficult to evaluate). During the war, Nin sent her books to Frances Steloff of the Gotham Book Mart in New York for safekeeping.
In New York, Nin rejoined Otto Rank, who had previously moved there, and moved into his apartment. She actually began to act as a psychoanalyst herself, seeing patients in the room next to Rank's. She quit after several months, however, stating: "I found that I wasn't good because I wasn't objective. I was haunted by my patients. I wanted to intercede." It was in New York that she met the Japanese-American modernist photographer Soichi Sunami, who went on to photograph her for many of her books.
Literary career.
Journals.
The spread of her fame grew in 1960 when she published her diaries, a work that is considered her first, given that she began keeping them at the age of 11. The published part of them - ten whole volumes - covers the years from 1934 to 1974, where her career as a woman and artist appears in relief, with a clarity and insight, in terms of analysis, that is admirable.
Nin's most studied works are her diaries or journals, which she began writing in her adolescence. The published journals, which span six decades, provide insight into her personal life and relationships. Nin was acquainted, often intimately, with a number of prominent authors, artists, psychoanalysts, and other figures, and wrote of them often, especially Otto Rank. Moreover, as a female author describing a primarily masculine group of celebrities, Nin's journals have acquired importance as a counterbalancing perspective. She initially wrote in French and did not begin to write in English until she was seventeen. Nin felt that French was the language of her heart, Spanish was the language of her ancestors, and English was the language of her intellect. The writing in her diaries is explicitly trilingual; she uses whichever language best expresses her thought.
In the second volume of her unexpurgated journal, "Incest", she wrote about her father candidly and graphically (207–15), detailing her incestuous adult sexual relationship with him.
Previously unpublished works were released in "A Café in Space, the Anaïs Nin Literary Journal", which includes "Anaïs Nin and Joaquín Nin y Castellanos: Prelude to a SymphonyLetters between a father and daughter".
So far sixteen volumes of her journals have been published. All but the last five of her adult journals are in expurgated form.
Erotic writings.
Nin is hailed by many critics as one of the finest writers of female erotica. She was one of the first women known to explore fully the realm of erotic writing, and certainly the first prominent woman in the modern West known to write erotica. Before her, erotica acknowledged to be written by women was rare, with a few notable exceptions, such as the work of Kate Chopin. Nin often cited authors Djuna Barnes and D. H. Lawrence as inspirations, and she states in "Volume One" of her diaries that she drew inspiration from Marcel Proust, André Gide, Jean Cocteau, Paul Valéry, and Arthur Rimbaud.
According to "Volume One" of her diaries, "1931–1934", published in 1966, Nin first came across erotica when she returned to Paris with her husband, mother and two brothers in her late teens. They rented the apartment of an American man who was away for the summer, and Nin came across a number of French paperbacks: "One by one, I read these books, which were completely new to me. I had never read erotic literature in America... They overwhelmed me. I was innocent before I read them, but by the time I had read them all, there was nothing I did not know about sexual exploits... I had my degree in erotic lore."
Faced with a desperate need for money, Nin, Henry Miller and some of their friends began in the 1940s to write erotic and pornographic narratives for an anonymous "collector" for a dollar a page, somewhat as a joke. (It is not clear whether Miller actually wrote these stories or merely allowed his name to be used.) Nin considered the characters in her erotica to be extreme caricatures and never intended the work to be published, but changed her mind in the early 1970s and allowed them to be published as "Delta of Venus" and "Little Birds". In 2016, a previously undiscovered collection of Nin's erotica, "Auletris", was published for the first time.
Nin was a friend, and in some cases lover, of many literary figures, including Miller, John Steinbeck, Antonin Artaud, Edmund Wilson, Gore Vidal, James Agee, James Leo Herlihy, and Lawrence Durrell. Her passionate love affair and friendship with Miller strongly influenced her both sexually and as an author. Claims that Nin was bisexual were given added circulation by the 1990 Philip Kaufman film "Henry & June" about Miller and his second wife June Miller. The first unexpurgated portion of Nin's journal to be published, "Henry and June", makes clear that Nin was stirred by June to the point of saying (paraphrasing), "I have become June", though it is unclear to what extent she consummated her feelings sexually. To both Anaïs and Henry, June was a femme fataleirresistible, cunning, and erotic. Nin gave June money, jewelry, and clothes, often leaving herself without money.
Novels and other publications.
In addition to her journals and collections of erotica, Nin wrote several novels, which critics frequently associated with the surrealist movement. Her first book of fiction, "House of Incest" (1936), contains heavily veiled allusions to a brief sexual relationship Nin had with her father in 1933: while visiting her estranged father in France, the then-30-year-old Nin had a brief incestuous sexual relationship with him. In 1944, she published a collection of short stories, "Under a Glass Bell", which was reviewed by Edmund Wilson.
Nin also wrote several works of nonfiction. Her first publication, written during her years studying psychoanalysis, was "" (1932), an assessment of the works of D. H. Lawrence. In 1968, she published "The Novel of the Future", which elaborated on her approach to writing and the writing process.
Personal life.
According to her diaries, "Vol. 1, 1931–1934", Nin shared a bohemian lifestyle with Henry Miller during her time in Paris. Her husband Guiler is not mentioned in the published edition of the 1930s parts of her diary (Vol. 1–2), though the opening of Vol. 1 makes clear that she is married, and the introduction suggests her husband declined to be included in the published diaries. The diaries edited by her second husband, after her death, say that her relationship with Miller was very passionate and physical, and that she believed that it was a pregnancy by him that was stillborn in 1934.
In 1947, at age 44, Nin met former actor Rupert Pole in a Manhattan elevator on her way to a party. The two began a relationship and traveled to California together; Pole was 16 years her junior. On March 17, 1955, while still married to Guiler, she married Pole at Quartzsite, Arizona, returning with him to live in California. Guiler remained in New York City and was unaware of Nin's second marriage until after her death in 1977, though biographer Deirdre Bair alleges that Guiler knew what was happening while Nin was in California but consciously "chose not to know".
Nin called her simultaneous marriages her "bicoastal trapeze". According to Deidre Bair:
In 1966, Nin had her marriage with Pole annulled due to the legal issues arising from both Guiler and Pole trying to claim her as a dependent on their tax returns, but she and Pole continued to live together as if married until her death. According to Barbara Kraft, Nin wrote to Guiler asking for his forgiveness. He responded by saying how meaningful his life had been because of her.
After Guiler's death in 1985, Pole commissioned the unexpurgated versions of Nin's journals. Six volumes have been published: "Henry and June", ', ', "Nearer the Moon", ', and '. Pole arranged for Guiler's ashes to be scattered in the same area where Nin's ashes were, Mermaid Cove in Santa Monica Bay. Pole died in 2006.
Nin once worked at Lawrence R. Maxwell Books, at 45 Christopher Street in New York City. In addition to her work as a writer, Nin appeared in the Kenneth Anger film "Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome" (1954) as Astarte; in the Maya Deren film "Ritual in Transfigured Time" (1946); and in "Bells of Atlantis" (1952), a film Guiler directed under the name "Ian Hugo" with a soundtrack of electronic music by Louis and Bebe Barron. In her later life, Nin worked as a tutor at the International College in Los Angeles.
Death.
Nin was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 1974. She had cancer for two years as it metastasized, and she underwent numerous surgical operations, radiation, and chemotherapy. Nin died of the cancer at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, on January 14, 1977.
Her body was cremated and her ashes scattered over Santa Monica Bay in Mermaid Cove. Her first husband, Hugh Guiler, died in 1985, and his ashes were scattered in the same cove. Rupert Pole was named Nin's literary executor, and he arranged to have new, unexpurgated editions of Nin's books and diaries published between 1985 and his death in 2006. Large portions of the diaries are still available only in expurgated form. The originals are in the UCLA Library.
Legacy.
The feminist movement in the 1960s gave feminist perspectives on Nin's writings of the past twenty years, which made Nin a popular lecturer at various universities; contrarily, Nin dissociated herself from the political activism of the movement. In 1973, prior to her death, Nin received an honorary doctorate from the Philadelphia College of Art. She was also elected to the United States National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1974, and in 1976 was presented with a "Los Angeles Times" Woman of the Year award. Although she was described as a narcissist, her feminist tendencies, along with her constant search for self-knowledge, made her an attractive speaker for lectures at American universities. Of course, she was never an activist in the feminist movement and never believed in changes in political systems, because: “Systems are perishable, so I feel that big changes will come from a big collective change in human consciousness”.
The Italian film "La stanza delle parole" (dubbed into English as "The Room of Words)" was released in 1989 based on the "Henry and June" diaries. Philip Kaufman directed the 1990 film "Henry & June" based on Nin's diaries published as "Henry and June: From the Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin". She was portrayed in the film by actress Maria de Medeiros.
In February 2008, poet Steven Reigns organized "Anaïs Nin at 105" at the Hammer Museum in Westwood, Los Angeles. Reigns said: "Nin bonded and formed very deep friendships with women and men decades younger than her. Some of them are still living in Los Angeles and I thought it'd be wonderful to have them share their experiences with [Nin]." Bebe Barron, an electronic music pioneer and longtime friend of Nin, made her last public appearance at this event. Reigns also published an essay refuting Bern Porter's claims of a sexual relationship with Nin in the 1930s. Reigns is the President of the Board of the non-profit organization devoted to Nin's legacy, the Anaïs Nin Foundation.
Cuban-American writer Daína Chaviano paid homage to Anaïs Nin and Henry Miller in her novel "Gata encerrada" (2001), where both characters are portrayed as disembodied spirits whose previous lives they shared with Melisa, the main character—and presumably Chaviano's alter ego—, a young Cuban obsessed with Anaïs Nin.
The Cuban poet and novelist Wendy Guerra, long fascinated with Nin's life and works, published a fictional diary in Nin's voice, "Posar desnuda en la Habana" ("Posing Nude in Havana") in 2012. She explained that "[Nin's] Cuban Diary has very few pages and my delirium was always to write an apocryphal novel; literary conjecture about what might have happened".
On September 27, 2013, screenwriter and author Kim Krizan published an article in "The Huffington Post" revealing she had found a previously unpublished love letter written by Gore Vidal to Nin. This letter contradicts Gore Vidal's previous characterization of his relationship with Nin, showing that Vidal did have feelings for Nin that he later heavily disavowed in his autobiography, "Palimpsest". Krizan did this research in the run up to the release of the fifth volume of Anaïs Nin's uncensored diary, "Mirages", for which Krizan provided the foreword.
In 2015, a documentary film directed by Sarah Aspinall called "The Erotic Adventures of Anais Nin" was released, in which Lucy Cohu portrayed Nin's character.
In 2019, Kim Krizan published "Spy in the House of Anaïs Nin", an examination of long-buried letters, papers, and original manuscripts Krizan found while doing archival work in Nin's Los Angeles home. Also that year, Routledge published the book "Anaïs Nin: A Myth of Her Own" by Clara Oropeza, that analyzes Nin's literature and literary theory through the perspective of mythological studies and depth psychology.
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AIM (software)
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AOL Instant Messenger (AIM, sometimes stylized as aim) was an instant messaging and presence information computer program created by AOL. It used the proprietary OSCAR instant messaging protocol and the TOC protocol to allow users to communicate in real time.
AIM was popular by the late 1990s; teens and college students were known to use the messenger's away message feature to keep in touch with friends, often frequently changing their away message throughout a day or leaving a message up with one's computer left on to inform buddies of their ongoings, location, parties, thoughts, or jokes. AIM's popularity declined during the 2000s and 2010s as AOL subscribers started decreasing and as Gmail's Google Talk, SMS, and Internet social networks, like Facebook gained popularity. Its fall has often been compared with other once-popular Internet services, such as Myspace.
In June 2015, AOL was acquired by Verizon Communications. In June 2017, Verizon combined AOL and Yahoo into its subsidiary Oath Inc. (now called Yahoo). The company discontinued AIM as a service on December 15, 2017.
History.
In May 1997, AIM was released unceremoniously as a stand-alone download for Microsoft Windows. AIM was an outgrowth of "online messages" in the original platform written in PL/1 on a Stratus computer by Dave Brown. At one time, the software had the largest share of the instant messaging market in North America, especially in the United States (with 52% of the total reported ). This does not include other instant messaging software related to or developed by AOL, such as ICQ and iChat.
During its heyday, its main competitors were ICQ (which AOL acquired in 1998), Yahoo! Messenger and MSN Messenger. AOL particularly had a rivalry or "chat war" with PowWow and Microsoft, starting in 1999. There were several attempts from Microsoft to simultaneously log into their own and AIM's protocol servers. AOL was unhappy about this and started blocking MSN Messenger from being able to access AIM. This led to efforts by many companies to challenge the AOL and Time Warner merger on the grounds of antitrust behaviour, leading to the formation of the OpenNet Coalition.
Official mobile versions of AIM appeared as early as 2001 on Palm OS through the AOL application. Third-party applications allowed it to be used in 2002 for the Sidekick. A version for Symbian OS was announced in 2003 as were others for BlackBerry and Windows Mobile
After 2012, stand-alone official AIM client software included advertisements and was available for Microsoft Windows, Windows Mobile, Classic Mac OS, macOS, Android, iOS, and BlackBerry OS.
Usage decline and product sunset.
Around 2011, AIM started to lose popularity rapidly, partly due to the quick rise of Gmail and its built-in real-time Google Chat instant messenger integration in 2011 and because many people migrated to SMS or iMessages text messaging and later, social networking websites and apps for instant messaging, in particular, Facebook Messenger, which was released as a standalone application the same year. AOL made a partnership to integrate AIM messaging in Google Talk, and had a feature for AIM users to send SMS messages directly from AIM to any number, as well as for SMS users to send an IM to any AIM user.
As of June 2011, one source reported AOL Instant Messenger market share had collapsed to 0.73%. However, this number only reflected installed IM applications, and not active users. The engineers responsible for AIM claimed that they were unable to convince AOL management that free was the future.
On March 3, 2012, AOL ended employment of AIM's development staff while leaving it active and with help support still provided. On October 6, 2017, it was announced that the AIM service would be discontinued on December 15; however, a non-profit development team known as Wildman Productions started up a server for older versions of AOL Instant Messenger, known as AIM Phoenix.
The "Running Man".
The AIM mascot was designed by JoRoan Lazaro and was implemented in the first release in 1997. This was a yellow stickman-like figure, often called the "Running Man". AIM's popularity in the late 1990s and the 2000s led to the “Running Man” becoming a familiar brand on the Internet. After over 14 years, the iconic logo disappeared as part of the AIM rebranding in 2011. However, in August 2013, the "Running Man" returned. It was used for other AOL services like AOL Top Speed and is still featured in a theme on AOL Mail.
In 2014, a "Complex" editor called it a "symbol of America". In April 2015, the Running Man was officially featured in the Virgin London Marathon, dressed by a person for the AOL-partnered Free The Children charity.
Protocol.
The standard protocol that AIM clients used to communicate is called Open System for CommunicAtion in Realtime (OSCAR). Most AOL-produced versions of AIM and popular third party AIM clients use this protocol. However, AOL also created a simpler protocol called TOC that lacks many of OSCAR's features, but was sometimes used for clients that only require basic chat functionality. The TOC/TOC2 protocol specifications were made available by AOL, while OSCAR is a closed protocol that third parties had to reverse-engineer.
In January 2008, AOL introduced experimental Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) support for AIM, allowing AIM users to communicate using the standardized, open-source XMPP. However, in March 2008, this service was discontinued. In May 2011, AOL started offering limited XMPP support. On March 1, 2017, AOL announced (via XMPP-login-time messages) that the AOL XMPP gateway would be desupported, effective March 28, 2017.
Privacy.
For privacy regulations, AIM had strict age restrictions. AIM accounts are available only for people over the age of 13; children younger than that were not permitted access to AIM.
Under the AIM Privacy Policy, AOL had no rights to read or monitor any private communications between users. The profile of the user had no privacy.
In November 2002, AOL targeted the corporate industry with Enterprise AIM Services (EAS), a higher security version of AIM.
If public content was accessed, it could be used for online, print or broadcast advertising, etc. This was outlined in the policy and terms of service: "... you grant AOL, its parent, affiliates, subsidiaries, assigns, agents and licensees the irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide right to reproduce, display, perform, distribute, adapt and promote this Content in any medium". This allowed anything users posted to be used without a separate request for permission.
AIM's security was called into question. AOL stated that it had taken great pains to ensure that personal information will not be accessed by unauthorized members, but that it cannot guarantee that it will not happen.
AIM was different from other clients, such as Yahoo! Messenger, in that it did not require approval from users to be added to other users' buddy lists. As a result, it was possible for users to keep other unsuspecting users on their buddy list to see when they were online, read their status and away messages, and read their profiles. There was also a Web API to display one's status and away message as a widget on one's webpage. Though one could block a user from communicating with them and seeing their status, this did not prevent that user from creating a new account that would not automatically be blocked and therefore able to track their status. A more conservative privacy option was to select a menu feature that only allowed communication with users on one's buddy list; however, this option also created the side-effect of blocking all users who were not on one's buddy list. Users could also choose to be invisible to all.
Chat robots.
AOL and various other companies supplied robots (bots) on AIM that could receive messages and send a response based on the bot's purpose. For example, bots could help with studying, like StudyBuddy. Some were made to relate to children and teenagers, like Spleak.
Others gave advice. The more useful chat bots had features like the ability to play games, get sport scores, weather forecasts or financial stock information. Users were able to talk to automated chat bots that could respond to natural human language. They were primarily put into place as a marketing strategy and for unique advertising options. It was used by advertisers to market products or build better consumer relations.
Before the inclusions of such bots, the other bots DoorManBot and AIMOffline provided features that were provided by AOL for those who needed it. ZolaOnAOL and ZoeOnAOL were short-lived bots that ultimately retired their features in favor of SmarterChild.
URI scheme.
AOL Instant Messenger's installation process automatically installed an extra URI scheme ("protocol") handler into some Web browsers, so URIs beginning with codice_1 could open a new AIM window with specified parameters. This was similar in function to the codice_2 URI scheme, which created a new e-mail message using the system's default mail program. For instance, a webpage might have included a link like the following in its HTML source to open a window for sending a message to the AIM user "notarealuser":
<a href="aim:goim?screenname=notarealuser">Send Message</a>
To specify a message body, the codice_3 parameter was used, so the link location would have looked like this:
aim:goim?screenname=notarealuser&message=This+is+my+message
To specify an away message, the message parameter was used, so the link location would have looked like this:
aim:goaway?message=Hello,+my+name+is+Bill
When placing this inside a URL link, an AIM user could click on the URL link and the away message "Hello, my name is Bill" would instantly become their away message.
To add a buddy, the addbuddy message was used, with the "screenname" parameter
aim:addbuddy?screenname=notarealuser
This type of link was commonly found on forum profiles to easily add contacts.
Vulnerabilities.
AIM had security weaknesses that have enabled exploits to be created that used third-party software to perform malicious acts on users' computers. Although most were relatively harmless, such as being kicked off the AIM service, others performed potentially dangerous actions, such as sending viruses. Some of these exploits relied on social engineering to spread by automatically sending instant messages that contained a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) accompanied by text suggesting the receiving user click on it, an action which leads to infection, "i.e.", a trojan horse. These messages could easily be mistaken as coming from a friend and contain a link to a Web address that installed software on the user's computer to restart the cycle.
Extra features.
iPhone application.
On March 6, 2008, during Apple Inc.'s iPhone SDK event, AOL announced that they would be releasing an AIM application for iPhone and iPod Touch users. The application was available for free from the App Store, but the company also provided a paid version, which displayed no advertisements. Both were available from the App Store. The AIM client for iPhone and iPod Touch supported standard AIM accounts, as well as MobileMe accounts. There was also an express version of AIM accessible through the Safari browser on the iPhone and iPod Touch.
In 2011, AOL launched an overhaul of their Instant Messaging service. Included in the update was a brand new iOS application for iPhone and iPod Touch that incorporated all the latest features. A brand new icon was used for the application, featuring the new cursive logo for AIM. The user-interface was entirely redone for the features including: a new buddy list, group messaging, in-line photos and videos, as well as improved file-sharing.
Version 5.0.5, updated in March 2012, it supported more social stream features, much like Facebook and Twitter, as well as the ability to send voice messages up to 60 seconds long.
iPad application.
On April 3, 2010, Apple released the first generation iPad. Along with this newly released device AOL released the AIM application for iPad. It was built entirely from scratch for the new version of iOS with a specialized user-interface for the device. It supported geolocation, Facebook status updates and chat, Myspace, Twitter, YouTube, Foursquare, and many other social networking platforms.
AIM Express.
AIM Express ran in a pop-up browser window. It was intended for use by people who are unwilling or unable to install a standalone application or those at computers that lack the AIM application. AIM Express supported many of the standard features included in the stand-alone client, but did not provide advanced features like file transfer, audio chat, video conferencing, or buddy info. It was implemented in Adobe Flash. It was an upgrade to the prior AOL Quick Buddy, which was later available for older systems that cannot handle Express before being discontinued. Express and Quick Buddy were similar to MSN Web Messenger and Yahoo! Web Messenger. This web version evolved into AIM.com's web-based messenger.
AIM Pages.
AIM Pages was a free website released in May 2006 by AOL in replacement of AIMSpace. Anyone who had an AIM user name and was at least 16 years of age could create their own web page (to display an online, dynamic profile) and share it with buddies from their AIM Buddy list.
Layout.
AIM Pages included links to the email and Instant Message of the owner, along with a section listing the owners "buddies", which included AIM user names. It was possible to create modules in a Module T microformat. Video hosting sites like Netflix and YouTube could be added to ones AIM Page, as well as other sites like Amazon.com. It was also possible to insert HTML code.
The main focus of AIM Pages was the integration of external modules, like those listed above, into the AOL Instant Messenger experience.
Discontinuation.
By late 2007, AIM Pages were discontinued. After AIM Pages shutdown, links to AIM Pages were redirected to AOL Lifestream, AOL's new site aimed at collecting external modules in one place, independent of AIM buddies. AOL Lifestream was shut down February 24, 2017.
AIM for Mac.
AOL released an all-new AIM for the Mac on September 29, 2008, and the final build on December 15, 2008. The redesigned AIM for Mac is a full universal binary Cocoa API application that supports both Tiger and Leopard — Mac OS X 10.4.8 (and above) or Mac OS X 10.5.3 (and above). On October 1, 2009, AOL released AIM 2.0 for Mac.
AIM real-time IM.
This feature was available for AIM 7 and allowed for a user to see what the other is typing as it is being done. It was developed and built with assistance from Trace Research and Development Centre at University of Wisconsin–Madison and Gallaudet University. The application provides visually impaired users the ability to convert messages from text (words) to speech. For the application to work users must have AIM 6.8 or higher, as it is not compatible with older versions of AIM software, AIM for Mac or iChat.
AIM to mobile (messaging to phone numbers).
This feature allows text messaging to a phone number (text messaging is less functional than instant messaging).
Discontinued features.
AIM Phoneline.
AIM Phoneline was a Voice over IP PC-PC, PC-Phone and Phone-to-PC service provided via the AIM application. It was also known to work with Apple's iChat Client. The service was officially closed to its customers on January 13, 2009. The closing of the free service caused the number associated with the service to be disabled and not transferable for a different service. AIM Phoneline website was recommending users switch to a new service named AIM Call Out, also discontinued now.
Launched on May 16, 2006, AIM Phoneline provided users the ability to have several local numbers, allowing AIM users to receive free incoming calls. The service allowed users to make calls to landlines and mobile devices through the use of a computer. The service, however, was only free for receiving and AOL charged users $14.95 a month for an unlimited calling plan. In order to use AIM Phoneline users had to install the latest free version of AIM Triton software and needed a good set of headphones with a boom microphone. It could take several days after a user signed up before it started working.
AIM Call Out.
AIM Call Out is a discontinued Voice over IP PC-PC, PC-Phone and Phone-to-PC service provided by AOL via its AIM application that replaced the defunct AIM Phoneline service in November 2007. It did not depend on the AIM client and could be used with only an AIM screenname via the WebConnect feature or a dedicated SIP device. The AIM Call Out service was shut down on March 25, 2009.
Security.
On November 4, 2014, AIM scored one out of seven points on the Electronic Frontier Foundation's secure messaging scorecard. AIM received a point for encryption during transit, but lost points because communications are not encrypted with a key to which the provider has no access, "i.e.", the communications are not end-to-end encrypted, users can't verify contacts' identities, past messages are not secure if the encryption keys are stolen, ("i.e.", the service does not provide forward secrecy), the code is not open to independent review, ("i.e.", the code is not open-source), the security design is not properly documented, and there has not been a recent independent security audit. BlackBerry Messenger (BBM), Ebuddy XMS, Hushmail, Kik Messenger, Skype, Viber, and Yahoo! Messenger also scored one out of seven points.
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Ackermann function
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In computability theory, the Ackermann function, named after Wilhelm Ackermann, is one of the simplest and earliest-discovered examples of a total computable function that is not primitive recursive. All primitive recursive functions are total and computable, but the Ackermann function illustrates that not all total computable functions are primitive recursive.
After Ackermann's publication of his function (which had three non-negative integer arguments), many authors modified it to suit various purposes, so that today "the Ackermann function" may refer to any of numerous variants of the original function. One common version is the two-argument Ackermann–Péter function developed by Rózsa Péter and Raphael Robinson. This function is defined from the recurrence relation formula_1 with appropriate base cases. Its value grows very rapidly; for example, formula_2 results in formula_3, an integer with 19,729 decimal digits.
History.
In the late 1920s, the mathematicians Gabriel Sudan and Wilhelm Ackermann, students of David Hilbert, were studying the foundations of computation. Both Sudan and Ackermann are credited with discovering total computable functions (termed simply "recursive" in some references) that are not primitive recursive. Sudan published the lesser-known Sudan function, then shortly afterwards and independently, in 1928, Ackermann published his function formula_4 (from Greek, the letter "phi"). Ackermann's three-argument function, formula_5, is defined such that for formula_6, it reproduces the basic operations of addition, multiplication, and exponentiation as
formula_7
and for formula_8 it extends these basic operations in a way that can be compared to the hyperoperations:
formula_9
In "On the Infinite", David Hilbert hypothesized that the Ackermann function was not primitive recursive, but it was Ackermann, Hilbert's personal secretary and former student, who actually proved the hypothesis in his paper "On Hilbert's Construction of the Real Numbers".
Rózsa Péter and Raphael Robinson later developed a two-variable version of the Ackermann function that became preferred by almost all authors.
The generalized hyperoperation sequence, e.g. formula_10, is a version of the Ackermann function as well.
In 1963 R.C. Buck based an intuitive two-variable variant formula_11 on the hyperoperation sequence:
formula_12
Compared to most other versions, Buck's function has no unessential offsets:
formula_13
Many other versions of Ackermann function have been investigated.
Definition.
Definition: as "m"-ary function.
Ackermann's original three-argument function formula_5 is defined recursively as follows for nonnegative integers formula_15 and formula_16:
formula_17
Of the various two-argument versions, the one developed by Péter and Robinson (called "the" Ackermann function by most authors) is defined for nonnegative integers formula_18 and formula_19 as follows:
formula_20
The Ackermann function has also been expressed in relation to the hyperoperation sequence:
formula_21
or, written in Knuth's up-arrow notation (extended to integer indices formula_22):
formula_23
or, equivalently, in terms of Buck's function F:
formula_24
By induction on formula_18, one can show that formula_26 for all formula_27.
Definition: as iterated 1-ary function.
Define formula_28 as the "n"-th iterate of formula_29:
formula_30
Iteration is the process of composing a function with itself a certain number of times. Function composition is an associative operation, so formula_31.
Conceiving the Ackermann function as a sequence of unary functions, one can set formula_32.
The function then becomes a sequence formula_33 of unary functions, defined from iteration:
formula_34
Computation.
Computation by LOOP program.
The functions formula_35 fit into the (finite-level) fast-growing hierarchy (FGH) of functions
formula_36
The following inequality holds:
formula_37
For fixed formula_38, the function formula_39 can be computed by a LOOP program of nesting depth formula_38:
LOOP n: # nesting depth: 1
LOOP n: # nesting depth: 2
LOOP n: # nesting depth: k
n += 1 #
The function formula_41 can also be computed by a LOOP-k program. (The program (schema) is not listed here.)
It is obvious that formula_42, not being a primitive recursive function see below, cannot be computed by a LOOP program.
Computation by TRS, based on 2-ary function.
The recursive definition of the Ackermann function can naturally be transposed to a term rewriting system (TRS).
The definition of the 2-ary Ackermann function leads to the obvious reduction rules
formula_43
Example
Compute formula_44
The reduction sequence is
To compute formula_45 one can use a stack, which initially contains the elements formula_46.
Then repeatedly the two top elements are replaced according to the rules
formula_47
Schematically, starting from formula_46:
WHILE stackLength <> 1
POP 2 elements;
PUSH 1 or 2 or 3 elements, applying the rules r1, r2, r3
The pseudocode is published in .
For example, on input formula_49,
Remarks
Computation by TRS, based on iterated 1-ary function.
The definition of the iterated 1-ary Ackermann functions leads to different reduction rules
formula_59
As function composition is associative, instead of rule r6 one can define
formula_60
Like in the previous section the computation of formula_61 can be implemented with a stack.
Initially the stack contains the three elements formula_62.
Then repeatedly the three top elements are replaced according to the rules
formula_63
Schematically, starting from formula_64:
WHILE stackLength <> 1
POP 3 elements;
PUSH 1 or 3 or 5 elements, applying the rules r4, r5, r6;
Example
On input formula_65 the successive stack configurations are
formula_66
The corresponding equalities are
formula_67
When reduction rule r7 is used instead of rule r6, the replacements in the stack will follow
formula_68
The successive stack configurations will then be
formula_69
The corresponding equalities are
formula_70
Remarks
Computation by TRS, based on hyperoperators.
As — or — showed explicitly, the Ackermann function can be expressed in terms of the hyperoperation sequence:
formula_76
or, after removal of the constant 2 from the parameter list, in terms of Buck's function
formula_77
Buck's function formula_78, a variant of Ackermann function by itself, can be computed with the following reduction rules:
formula_79
Instead of rule b6 one can define the rule
formula_80
To compute the Ackermann function it suffices to add three reduction rules
formula_81
These rules take care of the base case A(0,n), the alignment (n+3) and the fudge (-3).
Example
Compute formula_82
The matching equalities are
formula_84
formula_86
Remarks
Huge numbers.
To demonstrate how the computation of formula_98 results in many steps and in a large number:
formula_99
Table of values.
Computing the Ackermann function can be restated in terms of an infinite table. First, place the natural numbers along the top row. To determine a number in the table, take the number immediately to the left. Then use that number to look up the required number in the column given by that number and one row up. If there is no number to its left, simply look at the column headed "1" in the previous row. Here is a small upper-left portion of the table:
The numbers here which are only expressed with recursive exponentiation or Knuth arrows are very large and would take up too much space to notate in plain decimal digits.
Despite the large values occurring in this early section of the table, some even larger numbers have been defined, such as Graham's number, which cannot be written with any small number of Knuth arrows. This number is constructed with a technique similar to applying the Ackermann function to itself recursively.
This is a repeat of the above table, but with the values replaced by the relevant expression from the function definition to show the pattern clearly:
Properties.
Not primitive recursive.
The Ackermann function grows faster than any primitive recursive function and therefore is not itself primitive recursive.
Proof sketch:
Primitive recursive functions are built from basic functions using composition and primitive recursion, and all grow within a certain rate. We define, constructively, a hierarchy of total functions formula_119 by:
formula_120
where formula_121 denotes formula_19-fold iteration of formula_123 on input formula_19. This hierarchy grows strictly faster with increasing formula_38, and every primitive recursive function is eventually bounded above by some formula_126. This can be shown by structural induction on the definitions of primitive recursive functions.
However, the Ackermann function formula_45 eventually exceeds every formula_123; for every formula_38, there exists formula_18 such that formula_131 for sufficiently large formula_19. Thus, formula_133 grows faster than any primitive recursive function and is therefore not primitive recursive.
Inverse.
Since the function considered above grows very rapidly, its inverse function, "f", grows very slowly. This inverse Ackermann function "f"−1 is usually denoted by α. In fact, "α"("n") is less than 5 for any practical input size "n", since is on the order of formula_134.
This inverse appears in the time complexity of some algorithms, such as the disjoint-set data structure and Chazelle's algorithm for minimum spanning trees. Sometimes Ackermann's original function or other variations are used in these settings, but they all grow at similarly high rates. In particular, some modified functions simplify the expression by eliminating the −3 and similar terms.
A two-parameter variation of the inverse Ackermann function can be defined as follows, where formula_135 is the floor function:
formula_136
This function arises in more precise analyses of the algorithms mentioned above, and gives a more refined time bound. In the disjoint-set data structure, "m" represents the number of operations while "n" represents the number of elements; in the minimum spanning tree algorithm, "m" represents the number of edges while "n" represents the number of vertices. Several slightly different definitions of exist; for example, is sometimes replaced by "n", and the floor function is sometimes replaced by a ceiling.
Other studies might define an inverse function of one where m is set to a constant, such that the inverse applies to a particular row.
The inverse of the Ackermann function is primitive recursive, since it is graph primitive recursive, and it is upper bounded by a primitive recursive function.
Usage.
In computational complexity.
The Ackermann function appears in the time complexity of some algorithms, such as vector addition systems and Petri net reachability, thus showing they are computationally infeasible for large instances.
The inverse of the Ackermann function appears in some time complexity results. For instance, the disjoint-set data structure takes amortized time per operation proportional to the inverse Ackermann function, and cannot be made faster within the cell-probe model of computational complexity.
In discrete geometry.
Certain problems in discrete geometry related to Davenport–Schinzel sequences have complexity bounds in which the inverse Ackermann function formula_137 appears. For instance, for formula_19 line segments in the plane, the unbounded face of the arrangement of the segments has complexity formula_139, and some systems of formula_19 line segments have an unbounded face of complexity formula_141.
As a benchmark.
The Ackermann function, due to its definition in terms of extremely deep recursion, can be used as a benchmark of a compiler's ability to optimize recursion. The first published use of Ackermann's function in this way was in 1970 by Dragoș Vaida and, almost simultaneously, in 1971, by Yngve Sundblad.
Sundblad's seminal paper was taken up by Brian Wichmann (co-author of the Whetstone benchmark) in a trilogy of papers written between 1975 and 1982.
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Antarctic
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The Antarctic (, ; commonly ) is the polar region of Earth that surrounds the South Pole, lying within the Antarctic Circle. It is diametrically opposite of the Arctic region around the North Pole.
The Antarctic comprises the continent of Antarctica, the Kerguelen Plateau, and other island territories located on the Antarctic Plate or south of the Antarctic Convergence. The Antarctic region includes the ice shelves, waters, and all the island territories in the Southern Ocean situated south of the Antarctic Convergence, a zone approximately wide and varying in latitude seasonally. The region covers some 20 percent of the Southern Hemisphere, of which 5.5 percent (14 million km2) is the surface area of the Antarctica continent itself. All of the land and ice shelves south of 60°S latitude are administered under the Antarctic Treaty System.
Biogeographically, the Antarctic realm is one of eight biogeographic realms on Earth's land surface. Climate change in Antarctica is particularly important because the melting of the Antarctic ice sheet has a high potential to add to the global sea level rise. Further, this melting also disrupts the flow of Southern Ocean overturning circulation, which would have significant effects on the local climate and marine ecosystem functioning. There is no permanent country in Antarctica.
Geography.
As defined by the Antarctic Treaty System, the Antarctic region is everything south of the 60°S latitude. The Treaty area covers Antarctica and the archipelagos of the Balleny Islands, Peter I Island, Scott Island, the South Orkney Islands, and the South Shetland Islands. However, this area does not include the Antarctic Convergence, a transition zone where the cold waters of the Southern Ocean collide with the warmer waters of the north, forming a natural border to the region. Because the Convergence changes seasonally, the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources approximates the Convergence line by joining specified points along parallels of latitude and meridians of longitude. The implementation of the convention is managed through an international commission headquartered in Hobart, Australia, by an efficient system of annual fishing quotas, licenses, and international inspectors on the fishing vessels, as well as satellite surveillance.
The islands situated between 60°S latitude parallel to the south and the Antarctic Convergence to the north and their respective exclusive economic zones fall under the national jurisdiction of the countries that possess them: South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (United Kingdom), Bouvet Island (Norway), and Heard and McDonald Islands (Australia).
Kerguelen Islands (France; also an EU Overseas territory) are situated in the Antarctic Convergence area, while the Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego, Falkland Islands, Isla de los Estados, Hornos Island with Cape Horn, Diego Ramírez Islands, Campbell Island, Macquarie Island, Amsterdam and Saint Paul Islands, Crozet Islands, Prince Edward Islands, Gough Island, and Tristan da Cunha group remain north of the Convergence and thus outside the Antarctic region.
Ecology.
Antarctica.
A variety of animals live in Antarctica for at least some of the year, including:
Most of the Antarctica continent is permanently covered by ice and snow, leaving less than 1 percent of the land exposed. There are only two species of flowering plant, Antarctic hair grass and Antarctic pearlwort, but a range of mosses, liverworts, lichens and macrofungi.
Sub-Antarctic Islands.
Biodiversity among terrestrial flora and fauna is low on the islands: studies have theorized that the harsh climate was a major contributor towards species richness, but multiple correlations have been found with area, temperature, remoteness of islands, and food chain stability. For example, herbivorous insects are poor in number due to low plant richness, and likewise, indigenous bird numbers are related to insects, which are a major food source.
Conservation.
The Antarctic hosts the world's largest protected area comprising 1.07 million km2, the South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Marine Protection Area created in 2012. The latter exceeds the surface area of another vast protected territory, the Greenland National Park's . (While the Ross Sea Marine Protection Area established in 2016 is still larger at 1.55 million km2, its protection is set to expire in 35 years.) To protect the area, all Antarctic ships over 500 tonnes are subject to mandatory regulations under the Polar Code, adopted by the International Maritime Organization (in force since 1 January 2017).
Society.
People.
The first recorded sighting of Antarctica is credited to the Spaniard Gabriel de Castilla, who reported seeing distant southern snow-capped mountains in 1603. The first Antarctic land discovered was the island of South Georgia, visited by the English merchant Anthony de la Roché in 1675.
Although such myths and speculation about a "Terra Australis" ("Southern Land") date back to antiquity, the first confirmed sighting of the continent of Antarctica is commonly accepted to have occurred in 1820 by the Russian expedition of Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev on "Vostok" and "Mirny".
The Australian James Kerguelen Robinson (1859–1914) was the first human born in the Antarctic, on board the sealing ship "Offley" in the Gulf of Morbihan (Royal Sound then), Kerguelen Island on 11 March 1859. The first human born and raised on an Antarctic island was Solveig Gunbjørg Jacobsen born on 8 October 1913 in Grytviken, South Georgia.
Emilio Marcos Palma (born 7 January 1978) is an Argentine man who was the first documented person born on the continent of Antarctica at the Esperanza Base. His father, Captain Jorge Palma, was head of the Argentine Army detachment at the base. While ten people have been born in Antarctica since, Palma's birthplace remains the southernmost. In late 1977, Silvia Morella de Palma, who was then seven months pregnant, was airlifted to Esperanza Base, in order to complete her pregnancy in the base. The airlift was a part of the Argentine solutions to the sovereignty dispute over territory in Antarctica. Emilio was automatically granted Argentine citizenship by the government since his parents were both Argentine citizens, and he was born in the claimed Argentine Antarctica. Palma can be considered to be the first native Antarctican.
The Antarctic region had no indigenous population when first discovered, and its present inhabitants comprise a few thousand transient scientific and other personnel working on tours of duty at the several dozen research stations maintained by various countries. However, the region is visited by more than 40,000 tourists annually, the most popular destinations being the Antarctic Peninsula area (especially the South Shetland Islands) and South Georgia Island.
In December 2009, the growth of tourism, with consequences for both the ecology and the safety of the travellers in its great and remote wilderness, was noted at a conference in New Zealand by experts from signatories to the Antarctic Treaty. The definitive results of the conference were presented at the Antarctic Treaty states' meeting in Uruguay in May 2010.
Time zones.
Because Antarctica surrounds the South Pole, it is theoretically located in all time zones. For practical purposes, time zones are usually based on territorial claims or the time zone of a station's owner country or supply base.
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Albanians
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The Albanians are an ethnic group native to the Balkan Peninsula who share a common Albanian ancestry, culture, history and language. They are the main ethnic group of Albania and Kosovo, and they also live in the neighboring countries of North Macedonia, Montenegro, Greece, and Serbia, as well as in Italy, Croatia, Bulgaria, and Turkey. Albanians also constitute a large diaspora with several communities established across Europe and the other continents.
The language of the Albanians is an Indo-European language and the only surviving representative of the Albanoid branch, which belongs to the Paleo-Balkan group. Albanians have a western Paleo-Balkanic origin, and for obvious geographic and historical reasons most scholars maintain that they descended at least partially from the Illyrians, but besides the Illyrians which specific Paleo-Balkan group contributed to the ethnogenesis of the Albanians is still a matter of academic debate.
The first mention of the ethnonym "Albanoi" occurred in the 2nd century AD by Ptolemy describing an Illyrian tribe who lived around present-day central Albania. The first certain reference to Albanians as an ethnic group comes from 11th century chronicler Michael Attaleiates who describes them as living in the theme of Dyrrhachium.
The Shkumbin River roughly demarcates the Albanian language between Gheg and Tosk dialects. Christianity in Albania was under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome until the 8th century AD. Then, dioceses in Albania were transferred to the patriarchate of Constantinople. In 1054, after the Great Schism, the north gradually became identified with Roman Catholicism and the south with Eastern Orthodoxy. In 1190 Albanians established the Principality of Arbanon in central Albania with the capital in Krujë.
The Albanian diaspora has its roots in migration from the Middle Ages initially across Southern Europe and eventually across wider Europe and the New World. Between the 13th and 18th centuries, sizeable numbers migrated to escape various social, economic or political difficulties. Albanian population groups settled in Southern Greece between the 13th and 18th centuries and came to be known as Arvanites. Other Albanian population groups settled across Southern Italy and Sicily between the 11th and 18th centuries and came to be known as Arbëreshë. Albanians have also migrated to Romania since the late 16th century. In the 18th century smaller Albanian population groups settled in Southern Croatia (who came to be known as Arbanasi), and pockets of Southern Ukraine.
By the 15th century, the expanding Ottoman Empire overpowered the Balkan Peninsula, but faced successful rebellion and resistance by the League of Lezhë, a union of Albanian principalities led by Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg. By the 17th and 18th centuries, a substantial number of Albanians converted to Islam, which offered them equal opportunities and advancement within the Ottoman Empire. Thereafter, Albanians attained significant positions and culturally contributed to the broader Muslim world. Innumerable officials and soldiers of the Ottoman State were of Albanian origin, including more than 40 Grand Viziers, and under the Köprülü, in particular, the Ottoman Empire reached its greatest territorial extension. Between the second half of the 18th century and the first half of the 19th century Albanian Pashaliks were established by Kara Mahmud pasha of Scutari, Ali pasha of Yanina, and Ahmet Kurt pasha of Berat, while the Albanian wālī Muhammad Ali established a dynasty that ruled over Egypt and Sudan until the middle of the 20th century, a period in which Albanians formed a substantial community in Egypt.
During the 19th century, cultural developments, widely attributed to Albanians having gathered both spiritual and intellectual strength, conclusively led to the Albanian Renaissance. In 1912 during the Balkan Wars, Albanians declared the independence of their country. The demarcation of the new Albanian state was established following the Treaty of Bucharest and left about half of the ethnic Albanian population outside of its borders, partitioned between Greece, Montenegro and Serbia. After the Second World War up until the Revolutions of 1991, Albania was governed by a communist government under Enver Hoxha where Albania became largely isolated from the rest of Europe. In neighbouring Yugoslavia, Albanians underwent periods of discrimination and systematic oppression that concluded with the War of Kosovo and eventually with Kosovar independence.
Ethnonym.
The Albanians () and their country Albania () have been identified by many ethnonyms. The most common native ethnonym is "Shqiptar", plural "Shqiptarë"; the name "Albanians" (Byzantine Greek: "Albanoi/Arbanitai/Arbanites"; Latin: "Albanenses/Arbanenses") was used in medieval documents and gradually entered European Languages from which other similar derivative names emerged, many of which were or still are in use, such as English "Albanians"; Italian "Albanesi"; German "Albaner"; Greek "Arvanites", "Alvanitis" (Αλβανίτης) plural: "Alvanites" (Αλβανίτες), "Alvanos" (Αλβανός) plural: "Alvanoi" (Αλβανοί); Turkish "Arnaut", "Arnavut"; South Slavic languages "Arbanasi" (Арбанаси), "Albanci" (Албанци); Aromanian "Arbinesh" and so on.
The term "Albanoi" (Αλβανοί) is first encountered on the works of Ptolemy (2nd century CE) also is encountered twice in the works of Byzantine historian Michael Attaliates, and the term "Arvanitai" (Αρβανίται) is used once by the same author. He referred to the "Albanoi" as having taken part in a revolt against the Byzantine Empire in 1043, and to the "Arbanitai" as subjects of the Duke of Dyrrachium (modern Durrës). These references have been disputed as to whether they refer to the people of Albania. Historian E. Vranoussi believes that these "Albanoi" were Normans from Sicily. She also notes that the same term (as "Albani") in medieval Latin meant "foreigners".
The reference to "Arvanitai" from Attaliates regarding the participation of Albanians in a rebellion around 1078 is undisputed. In later Byzantine usage, the terms "Arbanitai" and "Albanoi" with a range of variants were used interchangeably, while sometimes the same groups were also called by the classicising name Illyrians. The first reference to the Albanian language dates to the latter 13th century (around 1285).
The national ethnonym "Albanian" and its variants are derived from "Albanoi", first mentioned as an Illyrian tribe in the 2nd century CE by Ptolemy with their centre at the city of Albanopolis, located in modern-day central Albania, somewhere in the hinterland of Durrës. Linguists believe that the "alb" part in the root word originates from an Indo-European term for a type of mountainous topography, from which other words such as "alps" are derived. Through the root word "alban" and its rhotacized equivalents "arban", "albar", and "arbar", the term in Albanian became rendered as "Arbëneshë/Arbëreshë" for the people and "Arbënia/Arbëria" for the country. The Albanian language was referred to as "Arbnisht" and "Arbërisht". While the exonym Albania for the general region inhabited by the Albanians does have connotations to Classical Antiquity, the Albanian language employs a different ethnonym, with modern Albanians referring to themselves as "Shqip(ë)tarë" and to their country as "Shqipëria". Two etymologies have been proposed for this ethnonym: one, derived from the etymology from the Albanian word for eagle (shqipe, var., shqiponjë). In Albanian folk etymology, this word denotes a bird totem, dating from the times of Skanderbeg as displayed on the Albanian flag. The other is within scholarship that connects it to the verb 'to speak' ("me shqiptue") from the Latin "excipere". In this instance the Albanian endonym like "Slav" and others would originally have been a term connoting "those who speak [intelligibly, the same language]". The words "Shqipëri" and "Shqiptar" are attested from 14th century onward, but it was only at the end of 17th and beginning of the early 18th centuries that the placename "Shqipëria" and the ethnic demonym "Shqiptarë" gradually replaced "Arbëria" and "Arbëreshë" amongst Albanian speakers. That era brought about religious and other sociopolitical changes. As such a new and generalised response by Albanians based on ethnic and linguistic consciousness to this new and different Ottoman world emerging around them was a change in ethnonym.
Historical records.
Little is known about the Albanian people prior to the 11th century, though a text compiled around the beginning of the 11th century in the Bulgarian language contains a possible reference to them. It is preserved in a manuscript written in the Serbo-Croatian Language traced back to the 17th century but published in the 20th century by Radoslav Grujic. The fragmented manuscript differentiated the world into 72 languages and three religious categories including Christians, half-believers and non-believers. Grujic dated it to the early 11th century. If his assessment were correct, it would be the earliest written document referring to the Balkan Albanians as a people or language group.
It can be seen that there are various languages on earth. Of them, there are five Orthodox languages: Bulgarian, Greek, Syrian, Iberian (Georgian) and Russian. Three of these have Orthodox alphabets: Greek, Bulgarian and Iberian (Georgian). There are twelve languages of half-believers: Alamanians, Franks, Magyars (Hungarians), Indians, Jacobites, Armenians, Saxons, Lechs (Poles), Arbanasi (Albanians), Croatians, Hizi and Germans.
Michael Attaleiates (1022–1080) mentions the term "Albanoi" twice and the term "Arbanitai" once. The term "Albanoi" is used first to describe the groups which rebelled in southern Italy and Sicily against the Byzantines in 1038–40. The second use of the term "Albanoi" is related to groups which supported the revolt of George Maniakes in 1042 and marched with him throughout the Balkans against the Byzantine capital, Constantinople. The term "Arvanitai" is used to describe a revolt of Bulgarians (Boulgaroi) and "Arbanitai" in the theme of Dyrrhachium in 1078–79. It is generally accepted that "Arbanitai" refers to the ethnonym of medieval Albanians. As such, it is considered to be the first attestation of Albanians as an ethnic group in Byzantine historiography. The use of the term "Albanoi" in 1038–49 and 1042 as an ethnonym related to Albanians have been a subject of debate. In what has been termed the "Vranoussi-Ducellier debate", Alain Ducellier proposed that both uses of the term referred to medieval Albanians. Era Vranoussi counter-suggested that the first use referred to Normans, while the second didn't have an ethnic connotation necessarily and could be a reference to the Normans as "foreigners" (aubain) in Epirus which Maniakes and his army traversed. This debate has never been resolved. A newer synthesis about the second use of the term "Albanoi" by Pëllumb Xhufi suggests that the term "Albanoi" may have referred to Albanians of the specific district of Arbanon, while "Arbanitai" to Albanians in general regardless of the specific region they inhabited.
Language.
Albanians speak the Albanian language, which is an Indo-European language and the only surviving representative of the Albanoid branch, which belongs to the Paleo-Balkan group. It had its formative core in the Western Balkans after the Indo-European migrations in the region from about 3000 to 2500 BCE.
The Albanian language is spoken today by approximately 5 million people throughout the Balkan Peninsula as well as by a more substantial number by communities around the Americas, Europe and Oceania. Numerous variants and dialects of Albanian are used as an official language in Albania, Kosovo and North Macedonia. The language is also spoken in other countries whence it is officially recognised as a minority language in such countries as Croatia, Italy, Montenegro, Romania and Serbia.
There are two principal dialects of the Albanian language traditionally represented by Gheg and Tosk. The ethnogeographical dividing line is traditionally considered to be the Shkumbin river, with Gheg spoken in the north of it and Tosk in the south. Dialects of linguistic minorities spoken in Croatia (Arbanasi and Istrian), Kosovo, Montenegro and northwestern North Macedonia are classified as Gheg, while those spoken in Greece, southwestern North Macedonia and Italy as Tosk.
The Arbëresh and Arvanitika dialects of the Albanian language, are spoken by the Arbëreshë and Arvanites in Southern Italy and Southern Greece, respectively. They retain elements of medieval Albanian vocabulary and pronunciation that are no longer used in modern Albanian; however, both varieties are classified as endangered languages in the UNESCO "Red Book of Endangered Languages". The Cham dialect is spoken by the Cham Albanians, a community that originates from Chameria in what is currently north-western Greece and southern Albania; the use of the Cham dialect in Greece is declining rapidly, while Cham communities in Albania and the diaspora have preserved it.
Most of the Albanians in Albania and the Former Yugoslavia are polyglot and have the ability to understand, speak, read, or write a foreign language. As defined by the Institute of Statistics of Albania, 39.9% of the 25 to 64 years old Albanians in Albania are able to use at least one foreign language including English (40%), Italian (27.8%) and Greek (22.9%).
The origin of the Albanian language remains a contentious subject that has given rise to numerous hypotheses. The hypothesis of Albanian being one of the descendant of the Illyrian languages (Messapic language) is based on geography where the languages were spoken however not enough archaeological evidence is left behind to come therefore to a definite conclusion. Another hypothesis associates the Albanian language with the Thracian language. This theory takes exception to the territory, since the language was spoken in an area distinct from Albania, and no significant population movements have been recorded in the period when the shift from one language to the other is supposed to have occurred.
History.
Late Antiquity.
The Komani-Kruja culture is an archaeological culture attested from late antiquity to the Middle Ages in central and northern Albania, southern Montenegro and similar sites in the western parts of North Macedonia. It consists of settlements usually built below hillforts along the Lezhë (Praevalitana)-Dardania and Via Egnatia road networks which connected the Adriatic coastline with the central Balkan Roman provinces. Its type site is Komani and its fort on the nearby Dalmace hill in the Drin river valley. Kruja and Lezha represent significant sites of the culture. The population of Komani-Kruja represents a local, western Balkan people which was linked to the Roman Justinianic military system of forts. The development of Komani-Kruja is significant for the study of the transition between the classical antiquity population of Albania to the medieval Albanians who were attested in historical records in the 11th century. Winnifrith (2020) recently described this population as the survival of a "Latin-Illyrian" culture which emerged later in historical records as Albanians and Vlachs (Eastern Romance-speaking people). In Winnifrith's narrative, the geographical conditions of northern Albania favored the continuation of the Albanian language in hilly and mountainous areas as opposed to lowland valleys.
Middle Ages.
The Albanian people maintain a very chequered and tumultuous history behind them, a fact explained by their geographical position in the Southeast of Europe at the cultural and political crossroad between the east and west, but they also have historically inhabited a hardly accessible mountainous region, which helped them preserve their peculiar culture and language. The issue surrounding the origin of the Albanian people has long been debated by historians and linguists for centuries. They have Paleo-Balkan origins, and for obvious geographic and historical reasons most scholars maintain that they descended at least partially from the Illyrians, but besides the Illyrians which specific Peleo-Balkan group contributed to the ethnogenesis of the Albanians is still a matter of academic debate.
The first certain attestation of medieval Albanians as an ethnic group is in Byzantine historiography in the work of Michael Attaleiates (1022–1080). Attaleiates mentions the term "Albanoi" twice and the term "Arbanitai" once. The term "Albanoi" is used first to describe the groups which rebelled in southern Italy and Sicily against the Byzantines in 1038–40. The second use of the term "Albanoi" is related to groups which supported the revolt of George Maniakes in 1042 and marched with him throughout the Balkans against the Byzantine capital, Constantinople. The term "Arvanitai" is used to describe a revolt of Bulgarians (Boulgaroi) and "Arbanitai" in the theme of Dyrrhachium in 1078–79. It is generally accepted that "Arbanitai" refers to the ethnonym of medieval Albanians. The use of the term "Albanoi" in 1038–49 and 1042 as an ethnonym related to Albanians have been a subject of debate. In what has been termed the "Ducellier-Vrannousi" debate, Alain Ducellier proposed that both uses of the term referred to medieval Albanians. Era Vrannousi counter-suggested that the first use referred to Normans, while the second didn't have an ethnic connotation necessarily and could be a reference to the Normans as "foreigners" (aubain) in Epirus which Maniakes and his army traversed. The debate has never been resolved. A newer synthesis about the second use of the term "Albanoi" by Pëllumb Xhufi suggests that the term "Albanoi" may have referred to Albanians of the specific district of Arbanon, while "Arbanitai" to Albanians in general regardless of the specific region they inhabited. The name reflects the Albanian endonym Arbër/n + esh which itself derives from the same root as the name of the Albanoi
Historically known as the "Arbër" or "Arbën" by the 11th century and onwards, they traditionally inhabited the mountainous area to the west of Lake Ochrida and the upper valley of the Shkumbin river. Though it was in 1190 when they established their first independent entity, the Principality of Arbër (Arbanon), with its seat based in Krujë. Immediately after the decline of the Progon dynasty in 1216, the principality came under Gregorios Kamonas and next his son-in-law Golem. Finally, the Principality was dissolved in ca. 1255 by the Empire of Nicea followed by an unsuccessful rebellion between 1257 and 1259 supported by the Despotate of Epirus. In the meantime Manfred, King of Sicily profited from the situation and launched an invasion into Albania. His forces, led by Philippe Chinard, captured Durrës, Berat, Vlorë, Spinarizza, their surroundings and the southern coastline of Albania from Vlorë to Butrint. In 1266 after defeating Manfred's forces and killing him, the Treaty of Viterbo of 1267 was signed, with Charles I, King of Sicily acquiring rights on Manfred's dominions in Albania. Local noblemen such as Andrea Vrana refused to surrender Manfred's former domains, and in 1271 negotiations were initiated.
In 1272 the Kingdom of Albania was created after a delegation of Albanian noblemen from Durrës signed a treaty declaring union with the Kingdom of Sicily under Charles. Charles soon imposed military rule, new taxes, took sons of Albanian noblemen hostage to ensure loyalty, and confiscated lands for Angevin nobles. This led to discontent among Albanian noblemen, several of whom turned to Byzantine Emperor Michael VIII. In late 1274, Byzantine forces helped by local Albanian noblemen capture Berat and Butrint. Charles' attempt to advance towards Constantinople failed at the Siege of Berat (1280–1281). A Byzantine counteroffensive ensued, which drove the Angevins out of the interior by 1281. The Sicilian Vespers rebellion further weakened the position of Charles, who died in 1285. By the end of the 13th century, most of Albania was under Byzantine Emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos. In 1296 Serbian king Stephen Milutin captured Durrës. In 1299 Andronikos II married his daughter Simonis to Milutin and the lands he had conquered were considered as dowry. In 1302, Philip I, Prince of Taranto, grandson of Charles, claimed his rights on the Albanian kingdom and gained the support of local Albanian Catholics who preferred him over the Orthodox Serbs and Greeks, as well as the support of Pope Benedict XI. In the summer of 1304, the Serbs were expelled from the city of Durrës by the locals who submitted themselves to Angevin rule.
Prominent Albanian leaders during this time were the Thopia family, ruling in an area between the Mat and Shkumbin rivers, and the Muzaka family in the territory between the Shkumbin and Vlorë. In 1279, Gjon I Muzaka, who remained loyal to the Byzantines and resisted Angevin conquest of Albania, was captured by the forces of Charles but later released following pressure from Albanian nobles. The Muzaka family continued to remain loyal to the Byzantines and resisted the expansion of the Serbian Kingdom. In 1335 the head of the family, Andrea II Muzaka, gained the title of Despot and other Muzakas pursued careers in the Byzantine government in Constantinople. Andrea II soon endorsed an anti-Byzantine revolt in his domains between 1335–1341 and formed an alliance with Robert, Prince of Taranto in 1336. In 1336, Serbian king Stefan Dušan captured Durrës, including the territory under the control of the Muzaka family. Although Angevins managed to recapture Durazzo, Dušan continued his expansion, and in the period of 1337–45 he had captured Kanina and Valona in southern Albania. Around 1340 forces of Andrea II defeated the Serbian army at the Pelister mountain. After the death of Stefan Dušan in 1355 the Serbian Empire disintegrated, and Karl Thopia captured Durrës while the Muzaka family of Berat regained control over parts of southeastern Albania and over Kastoria that Andrea II captured from Prince Marko after the Battle of Marica in 1371.
The kingdom reinforced the influence of Catholicism and the conversion to its rite, not only in the region of Durrës but in other parts of the country. A new wave of Catholic dioceses, churches and monasteries were founded, papal missionaries and a number of different religious orders began spreading into the country. Those who were not Catholic in central and northern Albania converted and a great number of Albanian clerics and monks were present in the Dalmatian Catholic institutions.
Around 1230 the two main centers of Albanian settlements were around Devoll river in what is now central Albania and the other around the region known as Arbanon. Albanian presence in Croatia can be traced back to the beginning of the Late Middle Ages. In this period, there was a significant Albanian community in Ragusa with a number of families of Albanian origin inclusively the Sorgo family who came from the Cape of Rodon in central Albania, across Kotor in eastern Montenegro, to Dalmatia. By the 13th century, Albanian merchants were trading directly with the peoples of the Republic of Ragusa in Dalmatia which increased familiarity between Albanians and Ragusans. The upcoming invasion of Albania by the Ottoman Empire and the death of Skanderbeg caused many Christian Albanians to flee to Dalmatia and surrounding countries.
In the 14th century a number of Albanian principalities were created. These included Principality of Kastrioti, Principality of Dukagjini, Princedom of Albania, and Principality of Gjirokastër. At the beginning of the 15th century these principalities became stronger, especially because of the fall of the Serbian Empire. Some of these principalities were united in 1444 under the anti-Ottoman military alliance called League of Lezha.
Albanians were recruited all over Europe as a light cavalry known as "stratioti". The stratioti were pioneers of light cavalry tactics during the 15th century. In the early 16th century heavy cavalry in the European armies was principally remodeled after Albanian stradioti of the Venetian army, Hungarian hussars and German mercenary cavalry units (Schwarzreitern).
Ottoman Empire.
Prior to the Ottoman conquest of Albania, the political situation of the Albanian people was characterised by a fragmented conglomeration of scattered kingdoms and principalities such as the Principalities of Arbanon, Kastrioti and Thopia. Before and after the fall of Constantinople, the Ottoman Empire continued an extended period of conquest and expansion with its borders going deep into the Southeast Europe. As a consequence thousands of Albanians from Albania, Epirus and Peloponnese escaped to Calabria, Naples, Ragusa and Sicily, whereby others sought protection at the often inaccessible Mountains of Albania.
Under the leadership of Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg, a former governor of the Ottoman Sanjak of Dibra, a prosperous and longstanding revolution erupted with the formation of the League of Lezhë in 1444 up until the Siege of Shkodër ending in 1479, multiple times defeating the mightiest power of the time led by Sultans Murad II and Mehmed II. Skanderbeg managed to gather several of the Albanian principals, amongst them the Arianitis, Dukagjinis, Zaharias and Thopias, and establish a centralised authority over most of the non-conquered territories and proclaiming himself the Lord of Albania ("Dominus Albaniae" in Latin). Skanderbeg consistently pursued the aim relentlessly but rather unsuccessfully to create a European coalition against the Ottomans. His unequal fight against them won the esteem of Europe and financial and military aid from the Papacy and Naples, Venice and Ragusa.
The Albanians, then predominantly Christian, were initially considered as an inferior class of people and as such were subjected to heavy taxes such as the "Devshirme" system that allowed the state to collect a requisite percentage of Christian adolescents from the Balkans and elsewhere to compose the Janissary. Since the Albanians were seen as strategically important, they made up a significant proportion of the Ottoman military and bureaucracy. They were therefore to be found within the imperial services as vital military and administrative retainers from Egypt to Algeria and the rest of the Maghreb.
In the late 18th century, Ali Pasha Tepelena created the autonomous region of the Pashalik of Yanina within the Ottoman Empire which was never recognised as such by the High Porte. The territory he properly governed incorporated most of southern Albania, Epirus, Thessaly and southwestern Macedonia region. During his rule, the town of Janina blossomed into a cultural, political and economic hub for both Albanians and Greeks.
The ultimate goal of Ali Pasha Tepelena seems to have been the establishment of an independent rule in Albania and Epirus. Thus, he obtained control of Arta and took control over the ports of Butrint, Preveza and Vonitsa. He also gained control of the pashaliks of Elbasan, Delvina, Berat and Vlorë. His relations with the High Porte were always tense though he developed and maintained relations with the British, French and Russians and formed alliances with them at various times.
In the 19th century, the Albanian wālī Muhammad Ali established a dynasty that ruled over Egypt and Sudan until the middle of the 20th century. After a brief French invasion led by Napoleon Bonaparte and the Ottomans and Mameluks competing for power there, he managed collectively with his Albanian troops to become the Ottoman viceroy in Egypt. As he revolutionised the military and economic spheres of Egypt, his empire attracted Albanian people contributing to the emergence of the Albanian diaspora in Egypt initially formed by Albanian soldiers and mercenaries.
Islam arrived in the lands of the Albanian people gradually and grew widespread between at least the 17th and 18th centuries. The new religion brought many transformations into Albanian society and henceforth offered them equal opportunities and advancement within the Ottoman Empire.
With the advent of increasing suppression on Catholicism, the Ottomans initially focused their conversions on the Catholic Albanians of the north in the 17th century and followed suit in the 18th century on the Orthodox Albanians of the south. At this point, the urban centers of central and southern Albania had largely adopted the religion of the growing Muslim Albanian elite. Many mosques and takyas were constructed throughout those urban centers and cities such as Berat, Gjirokastër, Korçë and Shkodër started to flourish. In the far north, the spread of Islam was slower due to Catholic Albanian resistance and the inaccessible and rather remote mountainous terrain.
The motives for conversion to Islam are subject to differing interpretations according to scholars depending on the context though the lack of sources does not help when investigating such issues. Reasons included the incentive to escape high taxes levied on non-Muslims subjects, ecclesiastical decay, coercion by Ottoman authorities in times of war, and the privileged legal and social position Muslims within the Ottoman administrative and political machinery had over that of non-Muslims.
As Muslims, the Albanians attained powerful positions in the Ottoman administration including over three dozen Grand Viziers of Albanian origin, among them Zagan Pasha, Bayezid Pasha and members of the Köprülü family, and regional rulers such as Muhammad Ali of Egypt and Ali Pasha of Tepelena. The Ottoman sultans Bayezid II and Mehmed III were both Albanian on their maternal side.
Areas such as Albania, western North Macedonia, southern Serbia, Kosovo, parts of northern Greece and southern Montenegro in Ottoman sources were referred to as "Arnavudluk" or Albania.
The Albanian people (both Muslim and Christian) had a great influence in the politics and events of the late 18th century and early 19th century Ottoman Empire, and in particular they played a key role in the Greek War of Independence, on both sides of the war. Pursuing their own interests, they acted after their own agenda, regardless of the Ottoman Porte's demands.
Albanian Renaissance.
The Albanian Renaissance characterised a period wherein the Albanian people gathered both spiritual and intellectual strength to establish their rights for an independent political and social life, culture and education. By the late 18th century and the early 19th century, its foundation arose within the Albanian communities in Italy and Romania and was frequently linked to the influences of the Romanticism and Enlightenment principles.
Albania was under the rule of the Ottoman Empire for almost five centuries and the Ottoman authorities suppressed any expression of unity or national conscience by the Albanian people. A number of thoroughly intellectual Albanians, among them Naum Veqilharxhi, Girolamo de Rada, Dora d'Istria, Thimi Mitko, Naim and Sami Frashëri, made a conscious effort to awaken feelings of pride and unity among their people by working to develop Albanian literature that would call to mind the rich history and hopes for a more decent future.
The Albanians had poor or often no schools or other institutions in place to protect and preserve their cultural heritage. The need for schools was preached initially by the increasing number of Albanians educated abroad. The Albanian communities in Italy and elsewhere were particularly active in promoting the Albanian cause, especially in education which finally resulted with the foundation of the Mësonjëtorja in Korçë, the first secular school in the Albanian language.
The Turkish yoke had become fixed in the nationalist mythologies and psyches of the people in the Balkans, and their march toward independence quickened. Due to the more substantial of Islamic influence, the Albanians internal social divisions, and the fear that they would lose their Albanian territories to the emerging neighbouring states, Serbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria and Greece, were among the last peoples in the Balkans to desire division from the Ottoman Empire.
The national awakening as a coherent political movement emerged after the Treaty of San Stefano, according to which Albanian-inhabited territories were to be ceded to the neighbouring states, and focused on preventing that partition. It was the impetus for the nation-building movement, which was based more on fear of partition than national identity. Even after the declaration of independence, national identity was fragmented and possibly non-existent in much of the newly proposed country. The state of disunity and fragmentation would remain until the communist period following Second World War, when the communist nation-building project would achieve greater success in nation-building and reach more people than any previous regime, thus creating Albanian national communist identity.
Communism in Albania.
Enver Hoxha of the Communist Party of Labour took power in Albania in 1946. Albania established an alliance with the Eastern Bloc which provided Albania with many advantages in the form of economic assistance and military protection from the Western Bloc during the Cold War.
The Albanians experienced a period of several beneficial political and economic changes. The government defended the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Albania, diversified the economy through a programme of industrialisation which led to a higher standard of living and followed improvements in areas such as health, education and infrastructure.
It subsequently followed a period wherein the Albanians lived within an extreme isolation from the rest of the world for the next four decades. By 1967, the established government had officially proclaimed Albania to be the first atheistic state in the world as they beforehand confiscated churches, monasteries and mosques, and any religious expression instantly became grounds for imprisonment.
Protests coinciding with the emerging revolutions of 1989 began to break out in various cities throughout Albania including Shkodër and Tirana which eventually lead to the fall of communism. Significant internal and external migration waves of Albanians to such countries as Greece and Italy followed.
Bunkerisation is arguably the most visible and memorable legacy of communism in Albania. Nearly 175,000 reinforced concrete bunkers were built on strategic locations across Albania's territory including near borders, within towns, on the seashores or mountains. These bunkers were never used for their intended purpose or for sheltering the population from attacks or an invasion by a neighbor. However, they were abandoned after the breakup of communism and have been sometimes reused for a variety of purposes.
Independence of Kosovo.
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia on 17 February 2008, after years of strained relations between the Serb and predominantly Albanian population of Kosovo. It has been officially recognised by Australia, Canada, the United States and major European Union countries, while Serbia refuse to recognise Kosovo's independence, claiming it as Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija under United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244.
The overwhelming majority of Kosovo's population is ethnically Albanian with nearly 1.7 million people. Their presence as well as in the adjacent regions of Toplica and Morava is recorded since the Middle Ages. As the Serbs expelled many Albanians from the wider Toplica and Morava regions in Southern Serbia, which the 1878 Congress of Berlin had given to the Principality of Serbia, many of them settled in Kosovo.
After being an integral section of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Kosovo including its Albanian population went through a period of discrimination, economic and political persecution. Rights to use the Albanian language were guaranteed by the constitution of the later formed Socialist Yugoslavia and was widely used in Macedonia and Montenegro prior to the dissolution of Yugoslavia. In 1989, Kosovo lost its status as a federal entity of Yugoslavia with rights similar to those of the six other republics and eventually became part of Serbia and Montenegro.
In 1998, tensions between the Albanian and Serb population of Kosovo culminated in the Kosovo War, which led to the external and internal displacement of hundreds of thousands of Kosovo Albanians. Serbian paramilitary forces committed war crimes in Kosovo, although the government of Serbia claims that the army was only going after suspected Albanian terrorists. NATO launched a 78-day air campaign in 1999, which eventually led to an end to the war.
Distribution.
Balkans.
Approximately five million Albanians are geographically distributed across the Balkan Peninsula with about half this number living in Albania, Kosovo, North Macedonia and Montenegro as well as to a more lesser extent in Croatia and Serbia. There are also significant Albanian populations in Greece.
Approximately 1.8 million Albanians are concentrated in Kosovo. They are geographically distributed south of the municipality of North Mitrovica and constitute the overall majority ethnic group of the territory.
In Montenegro, the Albanian population is currently estimated to be around 30,000 forming one of the constituent ethnic minority groups of the country. They predominantly live in the coastal region of Montenegro around the municipalities of Ulcinj and Bar but also Tuz and around Plav in the northern region as well as in the capital city of Podgorica in the central region.
In North Macedonia, there are more than approximately 500,000 Albanians constituting the largest ethnic minority group in the country. The vast majority of the Albanians are chiefly concentrated around the municipalities of Tetovo and Gostivar in the northwestern region, Struga and Debar in the southwestern region as well as around the capital of Skopje in the central region.
In Croatia, the number of Albanians stands at approximately 17.500 mostly concentrated in the counties of Istria, Split-Dalmatia and most notably in the capital city of Zagreb. The Arbanasi people who historically migrated to Bulgaria, Croatia and Ukraine live in scattered communities across Bulgaria, Croatia and Southern Ukraine.
In Serbia, the Albanians are an officially recognised ethnic minority group with a population of around 70,000. They are significantly concentrated in the municipalities of Bujanovac and Preševo in the Pčinja District. In Romania, the number of Albanians is unofficially estimated from 500 to 10,000 mainly distributed in Bucharest. They are recognised as an ethnic minority group and are respectively represented in Parliament of Romania.
Italy.
The Italian Peninsula across the Adriatic Sea has attracted Albanian people for more than half a millennium often due to its immediate proximity. Albanians in Italy later became important in establishing the fundamentals of the Albanian Renaissance and maintaining the Albanian culture. The Arbëreshë people came sporadically in several small and large cycles initially as "Stratioti" mercenaries in service of the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily and the Republic of Venice. Larger migration waves occurred after the death of Skanderbeg and the capture of Krujë and Shkodër by the Ottomans to escape the forthcoming political and religious changes.
Today, "Arbëreshë" constitute one of the largest ethnolinguistic minority groups and their language is recognized and protected constitutionally under the provisions of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. The total number of Arbëreshës is approximately 260,000 scattered across Sicily, Calabria and Apulia. There are Italian Albanians in the Americas especially in such countries as Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Canada and the United States.
After 1991, a mass migration of Albanians towards Italy occurred. Between 2015 and 2016, the number of Albanian migrants who held legal permits of residence in Italy was numbered to be around 480,000 and 500,000. Tuscany, Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna represent the regions with the strongest presence of the modern Albanian population in Italy. As of 2022, 433,000 Albanian migrants who held legal permits of residence lived in Italy and were the second largest migrant community in Italy after Romanians. As of 2018, an additional ca. 200,000 Albanian migrants have obtained Italian citizenship (children born in Italy not included).
As of 2012, 41.5% of the Albanian in Italy population were counted as Muslim, 38.9% as Christian including 27.7% as Roman Catholic and 11% as Eastern Orthodox and 17.8% as Irreligious.
Greece.
The Arvanites and Albanians of Western Thrace are a group descended from Tosks who migrated to southern and central Greece between the 13th and 16th centuries. They are Greek Orthodox Christians, and though they traditionally speak a dialect of Tosk Albanian known as Arvanitika, they have fully assimilated into the Greek nation and do not identify as Albanians. Arvanitika is in a state of attrition due to language shift towards Greek and large-scale internal migration to the cities and subsequent intermingling of the population during the 20th century.
The Cham Albanians were a group that formerly inhabited a region of Epirus known as Chameria, nowadays Thesprotia in northwestern Greece. Many Cham Albanians converted to Islam during the Ottoman era. Muslim Chams were expelled from Greece during World War II, by an anti-communist resistance group (EDES). The causes of the expulsion were multifaceted and remain a matter of debate among historians. Different narratives in historiography argue that the causes involved pre-existing Greek policies which targeted the minority and sought its elimination, the Cham collaboration with the Axis forces and local property disputes which were instrumentalized after WWII. The estimated number of Cham Albanians expelled from Epirus to Albania and Turkey varies: figures include 14,000, 19,000, 20,000, 25,000 and 30,000. According to Cham reports this number should be raised to c. 35,000.
Large-scale migration from Albania to Greece occurred after 1991. During this period, at least 500,000 Albanians have migrated and relocated to Greece. Despite the lack of exact statistics, it is estimated that at least 700,000 Albanians have moved to Greece during the last 25 years. The Albanian government estimates 500,000 Albanians in Greece at the very least without accounting for their children. The 2011 Greece census indicated that Albanians consisted the biggest group of migrants in Greece, numbered roughly 480,000, but taking into consideration the current population of Greece (11 million) and the fact that the census failed to account for illegal foreigners, it was estimated that Albanians consist of 5% of the population (at least 550,000). By 2005, around 600,000 Albanians lived in Greece, forming the largest immigrant community in the country. They are economic migrants whose migration began in 1991, following the collapse of the Socialist People's Republic of Albania. , in total, there might have been more than 500,000 Albanian-born migrants and their children who received Greek citizenship over the years. In recent years, many Albanian workers and their families have left Greece in search of better opportunities elsewhere in Europe. As of 2022, there c. 292,000 Albanian immigrants are holders of legal permits to live and work in Greece, down from c. 423,000 in 2021.
Albanians in Greece have a long history of Hellenisation, assimilation and integration. Many ethnic Albanians have been naturalised as Greek nationals, others have self-declared as Greek since arrival and a considerable number live and work across both countries seasonally hence the number of Albanians in the country has often fluctuated.
Diaspora.
Diaspora based Albanians may self identify as Albanian, use hybrid identification or identify with their nationality, often creating an obstacle in establishing a total figure of the population.
Europe.
During the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st centuries, the conflicts in the Balkans and the Kosovo War set in motion large population movements of Albanians to Central, Western and Northern Europe. The gradual collapse of communism in Albania triggered as well a new wave of migration and contributed to the emergence of a new diaspora, mainly in Southern Europe, in such countries as Greece and Italy.
In Central Europe, there are approximately 200,000 Albanians in Switzerland with the particular concentration in the cantons of Zürich, Basel, Lucerne, Bern and St. Gallen. The neighbouring Germany is home to around 250,000 to 300,000 Albanians while in Austria there are around 40,000 to 80,000 Albanians concentrated in the states of Vienna, Styria, Salzburg, Lower and Upper Austria.
In Western Europe, the Albanian population of approximately 10,000 people living in the Benelux countries is in comparison to other regions relatively limited. There are more than 6,000 Albanian people living in Belgium and 2,800 in the nearby Netherlands. The most lesser number of Albanian people in the Benelux region is to be found in Luxembourg with a population of 2,100.
Within Northern Europe, Sweden possesses the most sizeable population of Albanians in Scandinavia however there is no exact answer to their number in the country. The populations also tend to be lower in Norway, Finland and Denmark with more than 18,000, 10,000 and 8,000 Albanians respectively. The population of Albanians in the United Kingdom is officially estimated to be around 39,000 whiles in Ireland there are less than 2,500 Albanians.
Asia and Africa.
The Albanian diaspora in Africa and Asia, in such countries as Egypt, Syria or Turkey, was predominantly formed during the Ottoman period through economic migration and early years of the Republic of Turkey through migration due to sociopolitical discrimination and violence experienced by Albanians in Balkans.
In Turkey, the exact numbers of the Albanian population of the country are difficult to correctly estimate. According to a 2008 report, there were approximately 1.300,000 people of Albanian descent living in Turkey. As of that report, more than 500,000 Albanian descendants still recognise their ancestry and or their language, culture and traditions.
There are also other estimates that range from being 3 to 4 million people up to a total of 5 million in number, although most of these are Turkish citizens of either full or partial Albanian ancestry being no longer fluent in Albanian, comparable to the German Americans. This was due to various degrees of either linguistic and or cultural assimilation occurring amongst the Albanian diaspora in Turkey. Albanians are active in the civic life of Turkey.
In Egypt there are 18,000 Albanians, mostly Tosk speakers. Many are descendants of the Janissaries of Muhammad Ali Pasha, an Albanian who became Wāli, and self-declared Khedive of Egypt and Sudan. In addition to the dynasty that he established, a large part of the former Egyptian and Sudanese aristocracy was of Albanian origin. Albanian Sunnis, Bektashis and Orthodox Christians were all represented in this diaspora, whose members at some point included major Renaissance figures ("Rilindasit"), including Thimi Mitko, Spiro Dine, Andon Zako Çajupi, Milo Duçi, Fan Noli and others who lived in Egypt for a time. With the ascension of Gamal Abdel Nasser in Egypt and rise of Arab nationalism, the last remnants of Albanian community there were forced to leave. Albanians have been present in Arab countries such as Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, and for about five centuries as a legacy of Ottoman Turkish rule.
Americas and Oceania.
The first Albanian migration to North America began in the 19th and 20th centuries not long after gaining independence from the Ottoman Empire. However the Arbëreshë people from Southern Italy were the first Albanian people to arrive in the New World, many of them migrating after the wars that accompanied the Risorgimento.
Since then several Albanian migration waves have occurred throughout the 20th century as for instance after the Second World War with Albanians mostly from Yugoslavia rather than from Communist Albania, then after the Breakup of Communist Albania in 1990 and finally following the Kosovo War in 1998.
The most sizeable Albanian population in the Americas is predominantly to be found in the United States. New York metropolitan area in the State of New York is home to the most sizeable Albanian population of the United States. As of 2017, there are approximately 205,000 Albanians in the country with the main concentration in the states of New York, Michigan, Massachusetts and Illinois. The number could be higher counting the Arbëreshë people as well; they are often distinguishable from other Albanian Americans with regard to their Italianized names, nationality and a common religion.
In Canada, there are approximately 39,000 Albanians in the country, including 36,185 Albanians from Albania and 2,870 Albanians from Kosovo, predominantly distributed in a multitude of provinces such as Ontario, Quebec, Alberta and British Columbia. Canada's largest cities such as Toronto, Montreal and Edmonton were besides the United States a major centre of Albanian migration to North America. Toronto is home to around 17,000 Albanians.
Albanian immigration to Australia began in the late 19th century and most took place during the 20th century.
People who planned to immigrate chose Australia after the US introduced immigration quotas on southern Europeans. Most were from southern Albania, of Muslim and Orthodox backgrounds and tended to live in Victoria and Queensland, with smaller numbers in Western and Northern Australia.
Italy's annexation of Albania marked a difficult time for Albanian Australians as many were thought by Australian authorities to pose a fascist threat. Post-war, the numbers of Albanian immigrants slowed due to immigration restrictions placed by the communist government in Albania.
Albanians from southwestern Yugoslavia (modern North Macedonia) arrived and settled in Melbourne in the 1960s-1970s. Other Albanian immigrants from Yugoslavia came from Montenegro and Serbia. The immigrants were mostly Muslims, but also Catholics among them including the relatives of the Albanian nun and missionary Mother Teresa. Albanian refugees from Kosovo settled in Australia following the aftermath of the Kosovo conflict.
In the early twenty first century, Victoria has the highest concentration of Albanians and smaller Albanian communities exist in Western Australia, South Australia, Queensland, New South Wales and the Northern Territory. In 2016, approximately 4,041 persons resident in Australia identified themselves as having been born in Albania and Kosovo, while 15,901 persons identified themselves as having Albanian ancestry, either alone or in combination with another ancestry.
Albanian migration to New Zealand occurred mid twentieth century following the Second World War. A small group of Albanian refugees originating mainly from Albania and the rest from Yugoslavian Kosovo and Macedonia settled in Auckland. During the Kosovo crisis (1999), up to 400 Kosovo Albanian refugees settled in New Zealand. In the twenty first century, Albanian New Zealanders number 400-500 people and are mainly concentrated in Auckland.
Culture.
Traditions.
Tribal social structure.
The Albanian tribes () form a historical mode of social organization (farefisní) in Albania and the southwestern Balkans characterized by a common culture, often common patrilineal kinship ties tracing back to one progenitor and shared social ties. The fis (; commonly translated as "tribe", also as "clan" or "kin" community) stands at the center of Albanian organization based on kinship relations, a concept which can be found among southern Albanians also with the term farë (). Inherited from ancient Illyrian social structures, Albanian tribal society emerged in the early Middle Ages as the dominant form of social organization among Albanians. It also remained in a less developed system in southern Albania where large feudal estates and later trade and urban centres began to develop at the expense of tribal organization. One of the most particular elements of the Albanian tribal structure is its dependence on the "Kanun", a code of Albanian oral customary laws. Most tribes engaged in warfare against external forces like the Ottoman Empire. Some also engaged in limited inter-tribal struggle for the control of resources.
Until the early years of the 20th century, the Albanian tribal society remained largely intact until the rise to power of communist regime in 1944, and is considered as the only example of a tribal social system structured with tribal chiefs and councils, blood feuds and oral customary laws, surviving in Europe until the middle of the 20th century. Members of the tribes of northern Albania believe their history is based on the notions of resistance and isolationism. Some scholars connect this belief with the concept of "negotiated peripherality". Throughout history the territory northern Albanian tribes occupy has been contested and peripheral so northern Albanian tribes often exploited their position and negotiated their peripherality in profitable ways. This peripheral position also affected their national program which significance and challenges are different from those in southern Albania.
Kanun.
The Kanun is a set of Albanian traditional customary laws, which has directed all the aspects of the Albanian tribal society. For at least the last five centuries and until today, Albanian customary laws have been kept alive only orally by the tribal elders. The success in preserving them exclusively through oral systems highlights their universal resilience and provides evidence of their likely ancient origins. Strong pre-Christian motifs mixed with motifs from the Christian era reflect the stratification of the Albanian customary law across various historical ages. Over time, Albanian customary laws have undergone their historical development, they have been changed and supplemented with new norms, in accordance with certain requirements of socio-economic development. "Besa" and "nderi" (honour) are of major importance in Albanian customary law as the cornerstone of personal and social conduct. The Kanun is based on four pillars – Honour (), Hospitality (), Right Conduct () and Kin Loyalty ().
Besa.
Besa (pledge of honor) is an Albanian cultural precept, usually translated as "faith" or "oath", that means "to keep the promise" and "word of honor". The concept is based upon faithfulness toward one's word in the form of loyalty or as an allegiance guarantee. Besa contains mores toward obligations to the family and a friend, the demand to have internal commitment, loyalty and solidarity when conducting oneself with others and secrecy in relation to outsiders. The besa is also the main element within the concept of the ancestor's will or pledge ("amanet") where a demand for faithfulness to a cause is expected in situations that relate to unity, national liberation and independence that transcend a person and generations.
The concept of besa is included in the Kanun, the customary law of the Albanian people. The besa was an important institution within the tribal society of the Albanian tribes, who swore oaths to jointly fight against invaders, and in this aspect the besa served to uphold tribal autonomy. The besa was used toward regulating tribal affairs between and within the Albanian tribes.
Cuisine.
The traditional cuisine of the Albanians is diverse and has been greatly influenced by traditions and their varied environment in the Balkans and turbulent history throughout the course of the centuries. There is a considerable diversity between the Mediterranean and Balkan-influenced cuisines of Albanians in the Western Balkan nations and the Italian and Greek-influenced cuisines of the Arbëreshës and Chams. The enjoyment of food has a high priority in the lives of Albanian peoples especially when celebrating religious festivals such as Ramadan, Eid, Christmas, Easter, Hanukkah or Novruz
Ingredients include many varieties of fruits such as lemons, oranges, figs and olives, herbs such as basil, lavender, mint, oregano, rosemary and thyme and vegetables such as garlic, onion, peppers, potatoes and tomatoes. Albanian peoples who live closer to the Mediterranean Sea, Prespa Lake and Ohrid Lake are able to complement their diet with fish, shellfish and other seafood. Otherwise, lamb is often considered the traditional meat for different religious festivals. Poultry, beef and pork are also in plentiful supply.
Tavë Kosi is a national dish in Albania consisting of garlic lamb and rice baked under a thick, tart veil of yogurt. Fërgesë is another national dish and is made with peppers, tomatoes and cottage cheese. Pite is a baked pastry with a filling of a mixture of spinach and gjizë or mish. Desserts include Flia, consisting of multiple crepe-like layers brushed with crea; petulla, a traditionally fried dough, and Krofne, similar to Berliner.
Visual arts.
Painting.
The earliest preserved relics of visual arts of the Albanian people are sacred in nature and represented by numerous frescoes, murals and icons which has been created with an admirable use of color and gold. They reveal a wealth of various influences and traditions that converged in the historical lands of the Albanian people throughout the course of the centuries.
The rise of the Byzantines and Ottomans during the Middle Ages was accompanied by a corresponding growth in Christian and Islamic art often apparent in examples of architecture and mosaics throughout Albania. The Albanian Renaissance proved crucial to the emancipation of the modern Albanian culture and saw unprecedented developments in all fields of literature and arts whereas artists sought to return to the ideals of Impressionism and Romanticism.
Onufri, founder of the Berat School, Kolë Idromeno, David Selenica, Kostandin Shpataraku and the Zografi Brothers are the most eminent representatives of Albanian art. Albanians in Italy and Croatia have been also active among others the Renaissance influenced artists such as Marco Basaiti, Viktor Karpaçi and Andrea Nikollë Aleksi. In Greece, Eleni Boukouras is noted as being the first great female painter of post independence Greece.
In 1856, Pjetër Marubi arrived in Shkodër and established the first photography museum in Albania and probably the entire Balkans, the Marubi Museum. The collection of 150,000 photographs, captured by the Albanian-Italian Marubi dynasty, offers an ensemble of photographs depicting social rituals, traditional costumes, portraits of Albanian history.
The Kulla, a traditional Albanian dwelling constructed completely from natural materials, is a cultural relic from the medieval period particularly widespread in the southwestern region of Kosovo and northern region of Albania. The rectangular shape of a Kulla is produced with irregular stone ashlars, river pebbles and chestnut woods, however, the size and number of floors depends on the size of the family and their financial resources.
Literature.
The roots of literature of the Albanian people can be traced to the Middle Ages with surviving works about history, theology and philosophy dating from the Renaissance.
The earliest known use of written Albanian is a baptismal formula (1462) written by the Archbishop of Durrës Paulus Angelus. In 1555, a Catholic clergyman Gjon Buzuku from the Shestan region published the earliest known book written in Albanian titled "Meshari" (The Missal) regarding Catholic prayers and rites containing archaic medieval language, lexemes and expressions obsolete in contemporary Albanian. Other Christian clergy such as Luca Matranga in the Arbëresh diaspora published (1592) in the Tosk dialect while other notable authors were from northern Albanian lands and included Pjetër Budi, Frang Bardhi, and Pjetër Bogdani.
In the 17th century and onwards, important contributions were made by the Arbëreshë people of Southern Italy who played an influential role in encouraging the Albanian Renaissance. Notable among them was figures such as Demetrio Camarda, Gabriele Dara, Girolamo de Rada, Giulio Variboba and Giuseppe Serembe who produced inspiring nationalist literature and worked to systematise the Albanian language.
The Bejtexhinj in the 18th century emerged as the result of the influences of Islam and particularly Sufism orders moving towards Orientalism. Individuals such as Nezim Frakulla, Hasan Zyko Kamberi, Shahin and Dalip Frashëri compiled literature infused with expressions, language and themes on the circumstances of the time, the insecurities of the future and their discontent at the conditions of the feudal system.
The Albanian Renaissance in the 19th century is important both for its valuable poetic achievement and for its variety within the Albanian literature. It drew on the ideas of Romanticism and Enlightenment characterised by its emphasis on emotion and individualism as well as the interaction between nature and mankind. Dora d'Istria, Girolamo de Rada, Naim Frashëri, Naum Veqilharxhi, Sami Frashëri and Pashko Vasa maintained this movement and are remembered today for composing series of prominent works.
The 20th century was centred on the principles of Modernism and Realism and characterised by the development to a more distinctive and expressive form of Albanian literature. Pioneers of the time include Asdreni, Faik Konica, Fan Noli, Lasgush Poradeci, Migjeni who chose to portray themes of contemporary life and most notably Gjergj Fishta who created the epic masterpiece .
After World War II, Albania emerged as a communist state and Socialist realism became part of the literary scene. Authors and poets emerged such as Sejfulla Malëshova, Dritero Agolli and Ismail Kadare who has become an internationally acclaimed novelist and others who challenged the regime through various sociopolitical and historic themes in their works. Martin Camaj wrote in the diaspora while in neighbouring Yugoslavia, the emergence of Albanian cultural expression resulted in sociopolitical and poetic literature by notable authors like Adem Demaçi, Rexhep Qosja, Jusuf Buxhovi. The literary scene of the 21st century remains vibrant producing new novelists, authors, poets and other writers.
Performing arts.
Apparel.
The Albanian people have incorporated various natural materials from their local agriculture and livestock as a source of attire, clothing and fabrics. Their traditional apparel was primarily influenced by nature, the lifestyle and has continuously changed since ancient times. Different regions possesses their own exceptional clothing traditions and peculiarities varied occasionally in colour, material and shape.
The traditional costume of Albanian men includes a white skirt called Fustanella, a white shirt with wide sleeves, and a thin black jacket or vest such as the Xhamadan or Xhurdia. In winter, they add a warm woolen or fur coat known as Flokata or Dollama made from sheepskin or goat fur. Another authentic piece is called Tirq which is a tight pair of felt trousers mostly white, sometimes dark brown or black.
The Albanian women's costumes are much more elaborate, colorful and richer in ornamentation. In all the Albanian regions the women's clothing often has been decorated with filigree ironwork, colorful embroidery, a lot of symbols and vivid accessories. A unique and ancient dress is called Xhubleta, a bell shaped skirt reaching down to the calves and worn from the shoulders with two shoulder straps at the upper part.
Different traditional handmade shoes and socks were worn by the Albanian people. Opinga, leather shoes made from rough animal skin, were worn with Çorape, knitted woolen or cotton socks. Headdresses remain a contrasting and recognisable feature of Albanian traditional clothing. Albanian men wore hats of various designs, shape and size. A common headgear is a Plis and Qylafë, in contrast, Albanian women wore a Kapica adorned with jewels or embroidery on the forehead, and a Lëvere or Kryqe which usually covers the head, shoulders and neck. Wealthy Albanian women wore headdresses embellished with gems, gold or silver.
Music.
For the Albanian people, music is a vital component to their culture and characterised by its own peculiar features and diverse melodic pattern reflecting the history, language and way of life. It rather varies from region to another with two essential stylistic differences between the music of the Ghegs and Tosks. Hence, their geographic position in Southeast Europe in combination with cultural, political and social issues is frequently expressed through music along with the accompanying instruments and dances.
Albanian folk music is contrasted by the heroic tone of the Ghegs and the relaxed sounds of the Tosks. Traditional iso-polyphony perhaps represents the most noble and essential genre of the Tosks which was proclaimed a Masterpiece of the Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO. Ghegs in contrast have a reputation for a distinctive variety of sung epic poetry often about the tumultuous history of the Albanian people.
There are a number of internationally acclaimed singers of ethnic Albanian origin such as Ava Max, Bebe Rexha, Dua Lipa, Era Istrefi, Rita Ora, and rappers such as Action Bronson, Dardan, Gashi and Loredana Zefi. Notable singers of Albanian origin from the former Yugoslavia include Selma Bajrami and Zana Nimani.
In international competitions, Albania participated in the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time in 2004. Albanians have also represented other countries in the contest: Anna Oxa for Italy in 1989, Adrian Gaxha for North Macedonia in 2008, Ermal Meta for Italy in 2018, Eleni Foureira for Cyprus in 2018, as well as Gjon Muharremaj for Switzerland in 2020 and 2021. Kosovo has never participated, but is currently applying to become a member of the EBU and therefore debut in the contest.
Religion.
Many different spiritual traditions, religious faiths and beliefs are practised by the Albanian people who historically have succeeded to coexist peacefully over the centuries in Southeast Europe. They are traditionally both Christians and Muslims—Catholics and Orthodox, Sunnis and Bektashis and—but also to a lesser extent Evangelicals, Protestants and Jews, constituting one of the most religiously diverse peoples of Europe.
Christianity in Albania was under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome until the 8th century. Then, dioceses in Albania were transferred to the patriarchate of Constantinople. In 1054 after the schism, the north became identified with the Roman Catholic Church. Since that time all churches north of the Shkumbin river were Catholic and under the jurisdiction of the Pope. Various reasons have been put forward for the spread of Catholicism among northern Albanians. Traditional affiliation with the Latin Church and Catholic missions in central Albania in the 12th century fortified the Catholic Church against Orthodoxy, while local leaders found an ally in Catholicism against Slavic Orthodox states.
After the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans, Christianity began to be overtaken by Islam, and Catholicism and Orthodoxy continued to be practiced with less frequency.
During the modern era, the monarchy and communism in Albania as well as the socialism in Kosovo, historically part of Yugoslavia, followed a systematic secularisation of its people. This policy was chiefly applied within the borders of both territories and produced a secular majority of its population.
All forms of Christianity, Islam and other religious practices were prohibited except for old non-institutional pagan practices in the rural areas, which were seen as identifying with the national culture. The current Albanian state has revived some pagan festivals, such as the Spring festival () held yearly on 14 March in the city of Elbasan. It is a national holiday.
The communist regime which ruled Albania after World War II persecuted and suppressed religious observance and institutions, and entirely banned religion to the point where Albania was officially declared to be the world's first atheist state. Religious freedom returned to Albania following the regime's change in 1992. Albanian Sunni Muslims are found throughout the country, Albanian Orthodox Christians as well as Bektashis are concentrated in the south, while Roman Catholics are found primarily in the north of the country.
According to the 2011 Census, which has been recognised as unreliable by the Council of Europe, in Albania, 58.79% of the population adheres to Islam, making it the largest religion in the country. Christianity is practiced by 16.99% of the population, making it the second largest religion in the country. The remaining population is either irreligious or belongs to other religious groups. Before World War II, there was given a distribution of 70% Muslims, 20% Eastern Orthodox, and 10% Roman Catholics. Today, Gallup Global Reports 2010 shows that religion plays a role in the lives of only 39% of Albanians, and ranks Albania the thirteenth least religious country in the world.
For part of its history, Albania has also had a Jewish community. Members of the Jewish community were saved by a group of Albanians during the Nazi occupation. Many left for Israel –1992 when the borders were opened after the fall of the communist regime, but about 200 Jews still live in Albania.
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Association for Computing Machinery
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The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is a US-based international learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 and is the world's largest scientific and educational computing society. The ACM is a non-profit professional membership group, reporting nearly 110,000 student and professional members . Its headquarters are in New York City.
The ACM is an umbrella organization for academic and scholarly interests in computer science (informatics). Its motto is "Advancing Computing as a Science & Profession".
History.
In 1947, a notice was sent to various people:
On January 10, 1947, at the Symposium on Large-Scale Digital Calculating Machinery at the Harvard computation Laboratory, Professor Samuel H. Caldwell of Massachusetts Institute of Technology spoke of the need for an association of those interested in computing machinery, and of the need for communication between them.
After making some inquiries during May and June, we believe there is ample interest to start an informal association of many of those interested in the new machinery for computing and reasoning. Since there has to be a beginning, we are acting as a temporary committee to start such an association:<br>
<br>
E. C. Berkeley, Prudential Insurance Co. of America, Newark, N. J.
R. V. D. Campbell, Raytheon Manufacturing Co., Waltham, Mass.
, Bureau of Standards, Washington, D.C.
H. E. Goheen, Office of Naval Research, Boston, Mass.
J. W. Mauchly, Electronic Control Co., Philadelphia, Pa.
T. K. Sharpless, Moore School of Elec. Eng., Philadelphia, Pa.
R. Taylor, Mass. Inst. of Tech., Cambridge, Mass.
C. B. Tompkins, Engineering Research Associates, Washington, D.C.
The committee (except for Curtiss) had gained experience with computers during World War II: Berkeley, Campbell, and Goheen helped build Harvard Mark I under Howard H. Aiken, Mauchly and Sharpless were involved in building ENIAC, Tompkins had used "the secret Navy code-breaking machines", and Taylor had worked on Bush's Differential analyzers.
The ACM was then founded in 1947 under the name "Eastern Association for Computing Machinery", which was changed the following year to the Association for Computing Machinery. The ACM History Committee since 2016 has published the A.M.Turing Oral History project, the ACM Key Award Winners Video Series, and the India Industry Leaders Video project.
Activities.
ACM is organized into over 180 local professional chapters and 38 Special Interest Groups (SIGs), through which it conducts most of its activities. Additionally, there are over 680 student chapters. The first student chapter was founded in 1961 at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
Many of the SIGs, such as SIGGRAPH, SIGDA, SIGPLAN, SIGCSE and SIGCOMM, sponsor regular conferences, which have become famous as the dominant venue for presenting innovations in certain fields. The groups also publish a large number of specialized journals, magazines, and newsletters.
ACM also sponsors other computer science related events such as the worldwide ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC), and has sponsored some other events such as the chess match between Garry Kasparov and the IBM Deep Blue computer.
Services.
Publications.
ACM publishes over 50 journals including the prestigious "Journal of the ACM", and two general magazines for computer professionals, "Communications of the ACM" (also known as "Communications" or "CACM") and "Queue". Other publications of the ACM include:
Although "Communications" no longer publishes primary research and is not considered a prestigious venue, many of the great debates and results in computing history have been published in its pages.
ACM has made almost all of its publications available to paid subscribers online at its Digital Library and also has a Guide to Computing Literature. ACM also offers insurance, online courses, and other services to its members.
In 1997, ACM Press published "Wizards and Their Wonders: Portraits in Computing" (), written by Christopher Morgan, with new photographs by Louis Fabian Bachrach. The book is a collection of historic and current portrait photographs of figures from the computer industry.
Portal and Digital Library.
The ACM Portal is an online service of the ACM. Its core are two main sections: ACM Digital Library and the "ACM Guide to Computing Literature".
The ACM Digital Library was launched in October 1997. It is the full-text collection of all articles published by the ACM in its articles, magazines and conference proceedings. The Guide is a bibliography in computing with over one million entries. The ACM Digital Library contains a comprehensive archive starting in the 1950s of the organization's journals, magazines, newsletters and conference proceedings. Online services include a forum called Ubiquity and Tech News digest. There is an extensive underlying bibliographic database containing key works of all genres from all major publishers of computing literature. This secondary database is a rich discovery service known as The ACM Guide to Computing Literature.
ACM adopted a hybrid Open Access (OA) publishing model in 2013. Authors who do not choose to pay the OA fee must grant ACM publishing rights by either a copyright transfer agreement or a publishing license agreement.
ACM was a "green" publisher before the term was invented. Authors may post documents on their own websites and in their institutional repositories with a link back to the ACM Digital Library's permanently maintained Version of Record.
All metadata in the Digital Library is open to the world, including abstracts, linked references and citing works, citation and usage statistics, as well as all functionality and services. Other than the free articles, the full-texts are accessed by subscription. In addition, starting on April 7, 2022, ACM made its publications from 1951 to 2000 open access through the Digital Library in celebration of the 75th anniversary of the organization's founding.
In 2020, ACM launched a major push to become a fully open access publisher by 2026. ACM restructured its pricing for the ACM Digital Library on the basis of publishing activity by affiliated lead authors in ACM's journals, magazines, and conference proceedings. Under this model, termed "ACM Open," institutions pay set fees for full access to ACM Digital Library contents as well as unlimited open access publishing by their affiliated authors. Authors not affiliated with a participating institution will be expected to pay an article processing charge. As of May 2024, ACM reported that more than 1,340 institutions worldwide had signed on for ACM Open, putting ACM at just over halfway to meeting its target of 2,500 participating institutions by 2026.
Membership grades.
In addition to student and regular members, ACM has several advanced membership grades to recognize those with multiple years of membership and "demonstrated performance that sets them apart from their peers".
The number of Fellows, Distinguished Members, and Senior Members cannot exceed 1%, 10%, and 25% of the total number of professional members, respectively.
Fellows.
The ACM Fellows Program was established by Council of the Association for Computing Machinery in 1993 "to recognize and honor outstanding ACM members for their achievements in computer science and information technology and for their significant contributions to the mission of the ACM." There are 1,310 Fellows out of about 100,000 members.
Distinguished Members.
In 2006, ACM began recognizing two additional membership grades, one which was called Distinguished Members. Distinguished Members (Distinguished Engineers, Distinguished Scientists, and Distinguished Educators) have at least 15 years of professional experience and 5 years of continuous ACM membership and "have made a significant impact on the computing field". In 2006 when the Distinguished Members first came out, one of the three levels was called "Distinguished Member" and was changed about two years later to "Distinguished Educator". Those who already had the Distinguished Member title had their titles changed to one of the other three titles.
List of Distinguished Members of the Association for Computing Machinery
Senior Members.
Also in 2006, ACM began recognizing Senior Members. According to the ACM, "The Senior Members Grade recognizes those ACM members with at least 10 years of professional experience and 5 years of continuous Professional Membership who have demonstrated performance through technical leadership, and technical or professional contributions". Senior membership also requires 3 letters of reference
Distinguished Speakers.
While not technically a membership grade, the ACM recognizes distinguished speakers on topics in computer science. A distinguished speaker is appointed for a three-year period. There are usually about 125 current distinguished speakers. The ACM website describes these people as 'Renowned International Thought Leaders'. The distinguished speakers program (DSP) has been in existence for over 20 years and serves as an outreach program that brings renowned experts from Academia, Industry and Government to present on the topic of their expertise. The DSP is overseen by a committee
Chapters.
ACM has three kinds of chapters: Special Interest Groups, Professional Chapters, and Student Chapters.
, ACM has professional & SIG Chapters in 56 countries.
, there exist ACM student chapters in 41 countries.
Conferences.
ACM and its Special Interest Groups (SIGs) sponsors numerous conferences worldwide. Most of the SIGs also have an annual conference. ACM conferences are often very popular publishing venues and are therefore very competitive. For example, SIGGRAPH 2007 attracted about 30000 attendees, while CIKM 2005 and RecSys 2022 had paper acceptance rates of only accepted 15% and 17% respectively.
The ACM is a co–presenter and founding partner of the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (GHC) with the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology.
Some conferences are hosted by ACM student branches; this includes Reflections Projections, which is hosted by UIUC ACM. In addition, ACM sponsors regional conferences. Regional conferences facilitate increased opportunities for collaboration between nearby institutions and they are well attended.
For additional non-ACM conferences, see this list of computer science conferences.
Awards.
The ACM presents or co–presents a number of awards for outstanding technical and professional achievements and contributions in computer science and information technology.
Over 30 of ACM's Special Interest Groups also award individuals for their contributions with a few listed below.
Leadership.
The President of ACM for 2022–2024 is Yannis Ioannidis, Professor at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. He is successor of Gabriele Kotsis (2020–2022), Professor at the Johannes Kepler University Linz; Cherri M. Pancake (2018–2020), professor emeritus at Oregon State University and Director of the Northwest Alliance for Computational Science and Engineering (NACSE); Vicki L. Hanson (2016–2018), Distinguished Professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology and visiting professor at the University of Dundee; Alexander L. Wolf (2014–2016), Dean of the Jack Baskin School of Engineering at the University of California, Santa Cruz; Vint Cerf (2012–2014), American computer scientist and Internet pioneer; Alain Chesnais (2010–2012); and Dame Wendy Hall of the University of Southampton, UK (2008–2010).
ACM is led by a council consisting of the president, vice-president, treasurer, past president, SIG Governing Board Chair, Publications Board Chair, three representatives of the SIG Governing Board, and seven Members-At-Large. This institution is often referred to simply as "Council" in "Communications of the ACM".
Infrastructure.
ACM has numerous boards, committees, and task forces which run the organization:
l Practitioner Board
l Publications Board
SIG Governing BoarDEI Council
ACM Technology Policy Council
ACM Representatives to Other Organizations
Computer Science Teachers Association
ACM Council on Women in Computing.
ACM-W, the ACM council on women in computing, supports, celebrates, and advocates internationally for the full engagement of women in computing. ACM–W's main programs are regional celebrations of women in computing, ACM-W chapters, and scholarships for women CS students to attend research conferences. In India and Europe these activities are overseen by ACM-W India and ACM-W Europe respectively. ACM-W collaborates with organizations such as the Anita Borg Institute, the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT), and .
The ACM-W gives an annual Athena Lecturer Award to honor outstanding women researchers who have made fundamental contributions to computer science. This program began in 2006. Speakers are nominated by SIG officers.
Partner organizations.
ACM's primary partner has been the IEEE Computer Society (IEEE-CS), which is the largest subgroup of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). The IEEE focuses more on hardware and standardization issues than theoretical computer science, but there is considerable overlap with ACM's agenda. They have many joint activities including conferences, publications and awards. ACM and its SIGs co-sponsor about 20 conferences each year with IEEE-CS and other parts of IEEE. Eckert–Mauchly Award and Ken Kennedy Award, both major awards in computer science, are given jointly by ACM and the IEEE-CS. They occasionally cooperate on projects like developing computing curricula.
ACM has also jointly sponsored on events with other professional organizations like the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM).
Criticism.
In December 2019, the ACM co-signed a letter with over one hundred other publishers to President Donald Trump saying that an open access mandate would increase costs to taxpayers or researchers and hurt intellectual property. This was in response to rumors that he was considering issuing an executive order that would require federally funded research be made freely available online immediately after being published. It is unclear how these rumors started. Many ACM members opposed the letter, leading ACM to issue a statement clarifying that they remained committed to open access, and they wanted to see communication with stakeholders about the potential mandate. The statement did not significantly assuage criticism from ACM members.
The SoCG conference, while originally an ACM conference, parted ways with ACM in 2014 because of problems when organizing conferences abroad.
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Anabaptism
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Anabaptism (from Neo-Latin , from the Greek : 're-' and 'baptism'; , earlier also ) is a Christian movement which traces its origins to the Radical Reformation in the 16th century. Anabaptists believe that baptism is valid only when candidates freely confess their faith in Christ and request to be baptized. Commonly referred to as believer's baptism, it is opposed to baptism of infants, who are not able to make a conscious decision to be baptized.
The early Anabaptists formulated their beliefs in a confession of faith in 1527 called the Schleitheim Confession. Its author Michael Sattler was arrested and executed shortly afterward. Anabaptist groups varied widely in their specific beliefs, but the Schleitheim Confession represents foundational Anabaptist beliefs as well as any single document can.
Other Christian groups with different roots also practice believer's baptism, such as Baptists, but these groups are not Anabaptist, even though the Baptist tradition was influenced by the Anabaptist view of Baptism. The Amish, Hutterites and Mennonites are direct descendants of the early Anabaptist movement. Schwarzenau Brethren, River Brethren, Bruderhof and the Apostolic Christian Church are Anabaptist denominations that developed after the Radical Reformation, following their example. Though all Anabaptists share the same core theological beliefs, there are differences in the way of life among them; Old Order Anabaptist groups include the Old Order Amish, the Old Order Mennonites, Old Order River Brethren and the Old Order German Baptist Brethren. In between the assimilated mainline denominations (such as Mennonite Church USA and the Church of the Brethren) and Old Order groups are Conservative Anabaptist groups. Conservative Anabaptists such as the Dunkard Brethren Church, Conservative Mennonites and Beachy Amish have retained traditional religious practices and theology, while allowing for judicious use of modern conveniences and advanced technology.
Emphasizing an adherence to the beliefs of early Christianity, as a whole Anabaptists are distinguished by their keeping of practices that often include nonconformity to the world, "the love feast with feet washing, laying on of hands, anointing with oil, and the holy kiss, as well as turning the other cheek, no oaths, going the second mile, giving a cup of cold water, reconciliation, repeated forgiveness, humility, non-violence, and sharing possessions."
The name Anabaptist originated as an exonym meaning "one who baptizes again," referring to the practice of baptizing persons when they converted or declared their faith in Christ even if they had been baptized as infants, and many call themselves "Radical Reformers." Anabaptists require that baptismal candidates be able to make a confession of faith that is freely chosen and so rejected baptism of infants. The New Testament teaches to repent and then be baptized, and infants are not able to repent and turn away from sin to a life of following Jesus. The early members of this movement did not accept the name Anabaptist, claiming that infant baptism was not part of scripture and was therefore null and void. They said that baptizing self-confessed believers was their first true baptism:
Anabaptists were heavily persecuted by state churches, both Magisterial Protestants and Roman Catholics, beginning in the 16th century and continuing thereafter, largely because of their interpretation of scripture which put them at odds with official state church interpretations and local government control. Anabaptism was never established by any state and therefore never enjoyed any associated privileges. Most Anabaptists adhere to a literal interpretation of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5–7, which teaches against hate, killing, violence, taking oaths, participating in use of force or any military actions, and against participation in civil government. Anabaptists view themselves as primarily citizens of the kingdom of God, not of earthly governments. As committed followers of Jesus, they seek to pattern their life after his.
Some former groups who practiced rebaptism, now extinct, believed otherwise and complied with these requirements of civil society. They were thus technically Anabaptists, even though conservative Amish, Mennonites, Hutterites, and many historians consider them outside Anabaptism. Conrad Grebel wrote in a letter to Thomas Müntzer in 1524: "True Christian believers are sheep among wolves, sheep for the slaughter ... Neither do they use worldly sword or war, since all killing has ceased with them."
Lineage.
Medieval forerunners.
Anabaptists are considered to have begun with the Radical Reformation in the 16th century, but historians classify certain people and groups as their forerunners because of a similar approach to the interpretation and application of the Bible. For instance, Petr Chelčický, a 15th-century Bohemian reformer, taught most of the beliefs considered integral to Anabaptist theology. Medieval antecedents may include the Brethren of the Common Life, the Hussites, Dutch Sacramentists, and some forms of monasticism. The Waldensians also represent a faith similar to the Anabaptists.
Medieval dissenters and Anabaptists who held to a literal interpretation of the Sermon on the Mount share in common the following affirmations:
Zwickau prophets and the German Peasants' War.
On December 27, 1521, three "prophets" from Zwickau appeared in Wittenberg who were influenced by (and, in turn, influencing) Thomas MüntzerThomas Dreschel, Nicholas Storch, and Mark Thomas Stübner. They preached an apocalyptic, radical alternative to Lutheranism. Their preaching helped to stir the feelings concerning the social crisis which erupted in the German Peasants' War in southern Germany in 1525 as a revolt against feudal oppression.
Under the leadership of Müntzer, it became a war against all constituted authorities and an attempt to establish by revolution an ideal Christian commonwealth, with absolute equality among persons and the community of goods. The Zwickau prophets were not Anabaptists (that is, they did not practise "rebaptism"); nevertheless, the prevalent social inequities and the preaching of men such as these have been seen as laying the foundation for the Anabaptist movement. The social ideals of the Anabaptist movement coincided closely with those of leaders in the German Peasants' War. Studies have found a very low percentage of subsequent sectarians to have taken part in the peasant uprising.
Views on origins.
Research on the origins of the Anabaptists has been tainted both by the attempts of their enemies to slander them and by the attempts of their supporters to vindicate them. It was long popular to classify all Anabaptists as Munsterites and radicals associated with the Zwickau prophets, Jan Matthys, John of Leiden, and Müntzer. Those desiring to correct this error tended to over-correct and deny all connections between the larger Anabaptist movement and the most radical elements.
The modern era of Anabaptist historiography arose with Roman Catholic scholar Carl Adolf Cornelius' publication of ("The History of the Münster Uprising") in 1855. Baptist historian Albert Henry Newman, who Harold S. Bender said occupied "first position in the field of American Anabaptist historiography", made a major contribution with his "A History of Anti-Pedobaptism" (1897).
Three main theories on origins of the Anabaptists are the following:
Monogenesis.
Some scholars (e.g. Harold S. Bender, William Estep, Robert Friedmann) consider the Anabaptist movement to have developed from the Swiss Brethren movement. They generally argue that Anabaptism had its origins in Zürich and that the Anabaptism of the Swiss Brethren was transmitted to southern Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, and northern Germany, where it developed into its various branches. The monogenesis theory usually rejects the Münsterites and other radicals from the category of true Anabaptists. In the monogenesis view the time of origin is January 21, 1525, when Conrad Grebel baptized George Blaurock, and Blaurock in turn baptized several others immediately. These baptisms were the first "re-baptisms" known in the movement. This continues to be the most widely accepted date posited for the establishment of Anabaptism.
Polygenesis.
James M. Stayer, , and Klaus Deppermann disputed the idea of a single origin of Anabaptists in a 1975 essay entitled "From Monogenesis to Polygenesis", suggesting that February 24, 1527, at Schleitheim is the proper date of the origin of Anabaptism. On this date the Swiss Brethren wrote a declaration of belief called the Schleitheim Confession. The authors of the essay note the agreement among previous Anabaptist historians on polygenesis, even when disputing the date for a single starting point: "Hillerbrand and Bender (like Holl and Troeltsch) were in agreement that there was a single dispersion of Anabaptism …, which certainly ran through Zurich. The only question was whether or not it went back further to Saxony."
After criticizing the standard polygenetic history, the authors found six groups in early Anabaptism which could be collapsed into three originating "points of departure": "South German Anabaptism, the Swiss Brethren, and the Melchiorites". According to their polygenesis theory, South German–Austrian Anabaptism "was a diluted form of Rhineland mysticism", Swiss Anabaptism "arose out of Reformed congregationalism", and Dutch Anabaptism was formed by "Social unrest and the apocalyptic visions of Melchior Hoffman". As examples of how the Anabaptist movement was influenced from sources other than the Swiss Brethren movement, mention has been made of how Pilgram Marpeck's of 1542 was deeply influenced by the of 1533 by Münster theologian Bernhard Rothmann. Hoffman influenced the Hutterites when they used his commentary on the Apocalypse shortly after he wrote it.
Others who have written in support of polygenesis include and Walter Klaassen, who established links between Müntzer and Hans Hut. In another work, Gottfried Seebaß and Werner Packull show the influence of Müntzer on the formation of South German Anabaptism. Similarly, author Steven Ozment links Hut and Hans Denck with Müntzer, Sebastian Franck, and others. Author Calvin Pater shows how Andreas Karlstadt influenced Swiss Anabaptism in various areas, including his view of Scripture, doctrine of the church, and views on baptism.
Several historians, including Thor Hall, Kenneth Davis, and Robert Kreider, have also noted the influence of humanism on Radical Reformers in the three originating points of departure to account for how this brand of reform could develop independently from each other. Relatively recent research, begun in a more advanced and deliberate manner by Andrew P. Klager, also explores how the influence and a particular reading of the Church Fathers contributed to the development of distinctly Anabaptist beliefs and practices in separate regions of Europe in the early 16th century, including by Menno Simons in the Netherlands, Grebel in Switzerland, Müntzer in central Germany, Marpeck in the Tyrol, Peter Walpot in Moravia, and especially Balthasar Hubmaier in southern Germany, Switzerland, and Moravia.
Apostolic succession.
Baptist successionists have at times pointed to 16th-century Anabaptists as part of an apostolic succession of churches ("church perpetuity") from the time of Christ. This view is held by some Baptists, some Mennonites, and some "true church" movements. The opponents of the Baptist successionism theory emphasize that these non-Catholic groups clearly differed from each other, that they held some heretical views, or that the groups had no connection with one another and had origins that were separate both in time and in place.
A different strain of successionism is the theory that the Anabaptists are of Waldensian origin. Some hold the idea that the Waldensians are part of the apostolic succession, while others simply believe they were an independent group out of whom the Anabaptists arose. Ludwig Keller, Thomas M. Lindsay, Henry Clay Vedder, Delbert Grätz, John T. Christian and Thieleman J. van Braght (author of "Martyrs Mirror") all held, in varying degrees, the position that the Anabaptists were of Waldensian origin.
History.
Switzerland.
Anabaptism in Switzerland began as an offshoot of the church reforms instigated by Ulrich Zwingli. As early as 1522, it became evident that Zwingli was on a path of reform preaching when he began to question or criticize such Catholic practices as tithes, the mass, and even infant baptism. Zwingli had gathered a group of reform-minded men around him, with whom he studied classical literature and the scriptures. However, some of these young men began to feel that Zwingli was not moving fast enough in his reform. The division between Zwingli and his more radical disciples became apparent in an October 1523 disputation held in Zurich. When the discussion of the mass was about to be ended without making any actual change in practice, Conrad Grebel stood up and asked "what should be done about the mass?" Zwingli responded by saying the council would make that decision. At this point, Simon Stumpf, a radical priest from Höngg, answered saying, "The decision has already been made by the Spirit of God."
This incident illustrated clearly that Zwingli and his more radical disciples had different expectations. To Zwingli, the reforms would only go as fast as the city council allowed them. To the radicals, the council had no right to make that decision, but rather the Bible was the final authority of church reform. Feeling frustrated, some of them began to meet on their own for Bible study. As early as 1523, William Reublin began to preach against infant baptism in villages surrounding Zurich, encouraging parents to not baptize their children.
Seeking fellowship with other reform-minded people, the radical group wrote letters to Martin Luther, Andreas Karlstadt, and Thomas Müntzer. Felix Manz began to publish some of Karlstadt's writings in Zurich in late 1524. By this time the question of infant baptism had become agitated, and the Zurich council had instructed Zwingli to meet weekly with those who rejected infant baptism "until the matter could be resolved". Zwingli broke off the meetings after two sessions, and Manz petitioned the council to find a solution, since he felt Zwingli was too hard to work with. The council then called a meeting for January 17, 1525.
The council ruled in this meeting that all who continued to refuse to baptize their infants should be expelled from Zurich if they did not have them baptized within one week. Since Grebel had refused to baptize his daughter Rachel, born on January 5, 1525, the council decision was personal to him and others who had not baptized their children. Thus, when 16 of the radicals met on January 21, the situation seemed particularly dark. The "Hutterian Chronicle" records the event:
Afterwards Blaurock was baptized, and he in turn baptized others at the meeting. Even though some had rejected infant baptism before this date, these baptisms marked the first re-baptisms of those who had been baptized as infants and thus Swiss Anabaptism was born on that day.
Tyrol.
Anabaptism appears to have come to Tyrol through the labors of Blaurock. Similar to the German Peasants' War, the Gaismair uprising set the stage by producing a hope for social justice. Michael Gaismair had tried to bring religious, political, and economical reform through a violent peasant uprising, but the movement was quashed. Although little evidence exists of a connection between Gaismair's uprising and Tyrolian Anabaptism, at least a few of the peasants involved in the uprising later became Anabaptists. The common link was the desire for a radical change in the prevailing social injustices. Disappointed with the failure of armed revolt, Anabaptist ideals of an alternative peaceful, just society probably resonated on the ears of the disappointed peasants.
Before Anabaptism was introduced to South Tyrol, Protestant ideas had been propagated in the region by men such as Hans Vischer, a former Dominican. Some of those who participated in conventicles where Protestant ideas were presented later became Anabaptists. The population in general seemed to have a favorable attitude towards reform, be it Protestant or Anabaptist. Blaurock appears to have preached itinerantly in the Puster Valley region in 1527, which most likely was the first introduction of Anabaptist ideas in the area. Another visit through the area in 1529 reinforced these ideas, but he was captured and burned at the stake in Klausen on September 6, 1529.
Jacob Hutter was one of the early converts in South Tyrol and later became a leader among the Hutterites, who received their name from him. Hutter made several trips between Moravia and Tyrol, and most of the Anabaptists in South Tyrol ended up emigrating to Moravia because of the fierce persecution unleashed by Ferdinand I. In November 1535, Hutter was captured near Klausen and taken to Innsbruck where he was burned at the stake on February 25, 1536. By 1540 Anabaptism in South Tyrol was dying out, largely because of the emigration to Moravia of the converts because of incessant persecution.
Low Countries and northern Germany.
Melchior Hoffman is credited with the introduction of Anabaptist ideas into the Low Countries. Hoffman had picked up Lutheran and Reformed ideas, but on April 23, 1530, he was "re-baptized" at Strasbourg and within two months had gone to Emden and baptized about 300 persons. For several years Hoffman preached in the Low Countries until he was arrested and imprisoned at Strasbourg, where he died about 10 years later. Hoffman's apocalyptic ideas were indirectly related to the Münster rebellion, even though he was "of a different spirit".
Obbe and Dirk Philips had been baptized by disciples of Jan Matthijs but were opposed to the violence that occurred at Münster. Obbe later became disillusioned with Anabaptism and withdrew from the movement in about 1540, but not before ordaining David Joris, his brother Dirk, and Menno Simons. Joris and Simons parted ways, with Joris placing more emphasis on "spirit and prophecy", while Menno emphasized the authority of the Bible. For the Mennonite side, the emphasis on the "inner" and "spiritual" permitted compromise to "escape persecution", while to the Joris side, the Mennonites were under the "dead letter of the Scripture".
Because of expansion, some of the Low Country Mennonites emigrated to the Vistula delta, a region settled by Germans but under Polish rule until it became part of Prussia in 1772. There they formed the Vistula delta Mennonites integrating some other Mennonites mainly from northern Germany. In the late 18th century, several thousand of them migrated from there to Ukraine (which at the time was part of Russia) forming the so-called Russian Mennonites. Beginning in 1874, many of them emigrated to the prairie states and provinces of the United States and Canada. In the 1920s, the conservative faction of the Canadian settlers went to Mexico and Paraguay. Beginning in the 1950s, the most conservative of them started to migrate to Bolivia. In 1958, Mexican Mennonites migrated to Belize. Since the 1980s, traditional Russian Mennonites migrated to Argentina. Smaller groups went to Brazil and Uruguay. In 2015, some Mennonites from Bolivia settled in Peru. In 2018, there are more than 200,000 of them living in colonies in Central and South America.
Moravia, Bohemia and Silesia.
Although Moravian Anabaptism was a transplant from other areas of Europe, Moravia soon became a center for the growing movement, largely because of the greater religious tolerance found there. Hans Hut was an early evangelist in the area, with one historian crediting him with baptizing more converts in two years than all the other Anabaptist evangelists put together. The coming of Balthasar Hübmaier to Nikolsburg was a definite boost for Anabaptist ideas to the area. With the great influx of religious refugees from all over Europe, many variations of Anabaptism appeared in Moravia, with Jarold Zeman documenting at least ten slightly different versions.
Jacob Wiedemann appeared at Nikolsburg and began to teach the pacifistic convictions of the Swiss Brethren, on which Hübmaier had been less authoritative. This would lead to a division between the (sword-bearing) and the (staff-bearing). Wiedemann and those with him also promoted the practice of community of goods. With orders from the lords of Liechtenstein to leave Nikolsburg, about 200 withdrew to Moravia to form a community at Austerlitz.
Persecution in South Tyrol brought many refugees to Moravia, many of whom formed into communities that practised community of goods. Others came from Silesia, Switzerland, German lands, and the Low Countries. With the passing of time and persecution, all the other versions of Anabaptism would die out in Moravia leaving only the Hutterites. Even the Hutterites would be dissipated by persecution, with a remnant fleeing to Transylvania, then to Ukraine, and finally to North America in 1874.
South and central Germany, Austria and Alsace.
South German Anabaptism had its roots in German mysticism. Andreas Karlstadt, who first worked alongside Martin Luther, is seen as a forerunner of South German Anabaptism because of his reforming theology that rejected many Catholic practices, including infant baptism. However, Karlstadt is not known to have been "rebaptized", nor to have taught it. Hans Denck and Hans Hut, both with German mystical background (in connection with Thomas Müntzer) both accepted "rebaptism", but Denck eventually backed off from the idea under pressure. Hut is said to have brought more people into early Anabaptism than all the other Anabaptist evangelists of his time put together.
However, there may have been confusion about what his baptism (at least some of the times it was done by making the sign of the Tau on the forehead) may have meant to the recipient. Some seem to have taken it as a sign by which they would escape the apocalyptical revenge of the Turks that Hut predicted. Hut even went so far as to predict a 1528 coming of the kingdom of God. When the prediction failed, some of his converts became discouraged and left the Anabaptist movement. The large congregation of Anabaptists at Augsburg fell apart (partly because of persecution) and those who stayed with Anabaptist ideas were absorbed into Swiss and Moravia Anabaptist congregations. Pilgram Marpeck was another notable leader in early South German Anabaptism who attempted to steer between the two extremes of Denck's inner Holiness and the legalistic standards of the other Anabaptists.
Persecutions and migrations.
Roman Catholics and Protestants alike persecuted the Anabaptists, resorting to torture and execution in attempts to curb the growth of the movement. The Protestants under Zwingli were the first to persecute the Anabaptists, with Manz becoming the first Anabaptist martyr in 1527. On May 20 or 21, 1527, Roman Catholic authorities executed Michael Sattler. King Ferdinand declared drowning (called the "third baptism") "the best antidote to Anabaptism". The Tudor regime, even the Protestant monarchs (Edward VI of England and Elizabeth I of England), persecuted Anabaptists as they were deemed too radical and therefore a danger to religious stability.
The persecution of Anabaptists was condoned by the ancient laws of Theodosius I and Justinian I which were passed against the Donatists, and decreed the death penalty for anyone who practised rebaptism. "Martyrs Mirror", by Thieleman J. van Braght, describes the persecution and execution of thousands of Anabaptists in various parts of Europe between 1525 and 1660. Continuing persecution in Europe was largely responsible for the mass emigrations to North America by the Amish, Hutterites, and Mennonites. Unlike Calvinists, Anabaptists failed to gain recognition in the Peace of Westphalia of 1648, and as a result they continued to be persecuted in Europe long after that treaty was signed.
Anabaptism stands out among other groups of martyrs, in that Anabaptist martyrologies feature women more prominently, "making up thirty per cent of the martyr stories, compared to five to ten per cent in the other accounts."
Beliefs and practices.
Anabaptists view themselves as a separate branch of Christianity, not being a part of Catholicism, Protestantism, Oriental Orthodoxy or Eastern Orthodoxy. Anabaptist beliefs were codified in the Schleitheim Confession in 1527, which best represents the beliefs of the various denominations of Anabaptism (inclusive of Mennonites, Amish, Hutterites, Bruderhof, Schwarzenau Brethren, River Brethren and Apostolic Christians).
Anabaptist denominations, such as the Mennonites, teach "true faith entails a new birth, a spiritual regeneration by God's grace and power; 'believers' are those who have become the spiritual children of God." In Anabaptist theology, the pathway to salvation is "marked not by a forensic understanding of salvation by 'faith alone', but by the entire process of repentance, self-denial, faith rebirth, the heart having new love, which led to obedience." Those who wish to tarry this path receive baptism after the New Birth. Anabaptists heavily emphasize the importance of obedience in the salvation journey of a believer.
As a whole, Anabaptists emphasize an adherence to the beliefs of early Christianity and are thus distinguished by their keeping of practices that often include the observance of feetwashing, the holy kiss, and communion (with these three ordinances being practiced collectively in the lovefeast in the Schwarzenau Brethren and River Brethren traditions), Christian headcovering, nonconformity to the world, nonresistance, forgiveness, and sharing possessions, which in certain communities (as with the Bruderhof) takes on the form of communal living.
Types.
Different types exist among the Anabaptists, although the categorizations tend to vary with the scholar's viewpoint on origins. Estep claims that in order to understand Anabaptism, one must "distinguish between the Anabaptists, inspirationists, and rationalists". He classes the likes of Blaurock, Grebel, Hubmaier, Manz, Marpeck, and Simons as Anabaptists. He groups Müntzer and Storch as inspirationists, and anti-trinitarians such as Michael Servetus, Juan de Valdés, Sebastian Castellio, and Faustus Socinus as rationalists. Mark S. Ritchie follows this line of thought, saying, "The Anabaptists were one of several branches of 'Radical' reformers (i.e. reformers that went further than the mainstream Reformers) to arise out of the Renaissance and Reformation. Two other branches were Spirituals or Inspirationists, who believed that they had received direct revelation from the Spirit, and rationalists or anti-Trinitarians, who rebelled against traditional Christian doctrine, like Michael Servetus."
Those of the polygenesis viewpoint use "Anabaptist" to define the larger movement and include the inspirationists and rationalists as true Anabaptists. James M. Stayer used the term "Anabaptist" for those who "rebaptized" persons already "baptized" in infancy. Walter Klaassen was perhaps the first Mennonite scholar to define "Anabaptists" that way in his 1960 Oxford dissertation. This represents a rejection of the previous standard held by Mennonite scholars such as Bender and Friedmann.
Another method of categorization acknowledges regional variations, such as Swiss Brethren (Grebel, Manz), Dutch and Frisian Anabaptism (Menno Simons, Dirk Philips), and South German Anabaptism (Hübmaier, Marpeck). Historians and sociologists have made further distinctions between radical Anabaptists, who were prepared to use violence in their attempts to build a New Jerusalem, and their pacifist brethren, later broadly known as Mennonites. Radical Anabaptist groups included the Münsterites and the Batenburgers, who persisted in various guises as late as the 1570s.
Spirituality.
Charismatic manifestations.
Within the inspirationist wing of the Anabaptist movement, it was not unusual for charismatic manifestations to appear, such as dancing, falling under the power of the Holy Spirit, "prophetic processions" (at Zurich in 1525, at Munster in 1534 and at Amsterdam in 1535), and speaking in tongues. In Germany some Anabaptists, "excited by mass hypnosis, experienced healings, glossolalia, contortions and other manifestations of a camp-meeting revival". The Anabaptist congregations that later developed into the Mennonite and Hutterite churches tended not to promote these manifestations but did not totally reject the miraculous.
Marpeck, for example, wrote against the exclusion of miracles: "Nor does Scripture assert this exclusion ... God has a free hand even in these last days." Referring to some who had been raised from the dead, he wrote: "Many of them have remained constant, enduring tortures inflicted by sword, rope, fire and water and suffering terrible, tyrannical, unheard-of deaths and martyrdoms, all of which they could easily have avoided by recantation. Moreover one also marvels when he sees how the faithful God (Who, after all, overflows with goodness) raises from the dead several such brothers and sisters of Christ after they were hanged, drowned, or killed in other ways. Even today, they are found alive and we can hear their own testimony ... Cannot everyone who sees, even the blind, say with a good conscience that such things are a powerful, unusual, and miraculous act of God? Those who would deny it must be hardened men." The "Hutterite Chronicle" and the "Martyrs Mirror" record several accounts of miraculous events, such as when a man named Martin prophesied while being led across a bridge to his execution in 1531: "this once yet the pious are led over this bridge, but no more hereafter". Just "a short time afterwards such a violent storm and flood came that the bridge was demolished".
Holy Spirit leadership.
The Anabaptists insisted upon the "free course" of the Holy Spirit in worship, yet still maintained it all must be judged according to the Scriptures. The Swiss Anabaptist document titled "Answer of Some Who Are Called (Ana-)Baptists – Why They Do Not Attend the Churches". One reason given for not attending the state churches was that these institutions forbade the congregation to exercise spiritual gifts according to "the Christian order as taught in the gospel or the Word of God in 1 Corinthians 14". "When such believers come together, 'Everyone of you (note every one) hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation', and so on. When someone comes to church and constantly hears only one person speaking, and all the listeners are silent, neither speaking nor prophesying, who can or will regard or confess the same to be a spiritual congregation, or confess according to 1 Corinthians 14 that God is dwelling and operating in them through His Holy Spirit with His gifts, impelling them one after another in the above-mentioned order of speaking and prophesying."
Today.
Anabaptists.
In 2022, there were over 2.12 million baptized Anabaptists in 85 countries. Over 36% are found in Africa, another 30% in North America, 20% in Asia and the Pacific, 9% in Latin America and the Caribbean, and less than 3% in Europe.
The major branches of Anabaptist Christianity today include the Amish, Schwarzenau Brethren, River Brethren, Hutterites, Mennonites, Apostolic Christian Church, and Bruderhof. Within many of these traditions (Amish, Mennonite, Schwarzenau Brethren and River Brethren) are three subsets: (1) Old Order Anabaptists (2) Conservative Anabaptists and (3) Mainline Anabaptists; for example, among Schwarzenau Brethren are the Old Order German Baptist Brethren (who use horse and buggy for transportation and do not use electricity), the Dunkard Brethren (who adhere to traditional theological beliefs and wear plain dress but use modern conveniences), and the Church of the Brethren (who are largely a mainline group where members are indistinguishable in dress from the general population).
Although many see the more well-known Anabaptist groups (Amish, Hutterites and Mennonites) as ethnic groups, only the Amish and the Hutterites today are composed mainly of descendants of the European Anabaptists, while Mennonites come from diverse backgrounds, with only a minority being classed as ethnic Mennonites. Brethren groups have mostly lost their ethnic distinctiveness.
The Bruderhof Communities were founded in Germany by Eberhard Arnold in 1920, establishing and organisationally joining the Hutterites in 1930. The group moved to England after the Gestapo confiscated their property in 1933, and they subsequently moved to Paraguay in order to avoid military conscription, and after World War II they moved to the United States.
Groups which are derived from the Schwarzenau Brethren, often called German Baptists, while not directly descended from the 16th-century Radical Reformation, are considered Anabaptist because of their adherence to Anabaptist doctrine. The modern-day Brethren movement is a combination of Anabaptism and Radical Pietism.
Neo-Anabaptists.
Neo-Anabaptism is a late 20th and early 21st century theological movement within American evangelical Christianity which draws inspiration from theologians who are located within the Anabaptist tradition but are ecclesiastically outside it. Neo-Anabaptists have been noted for their "low church, counter-cultural, prophetic-stance-against-empire ethos" as well as for their focus on pacifism, social justice and poverty. The works of Mennonite theologians Ron Sider and John Howard Yoder are frequently cited as having a strong influence on the movement.
Relationship with Baptists.
Some similarities exist between Baptists and the Anabaptists, which is why some historians have advocated the view that General Baptists were influenced by Anabaptism. The similarities between these groups include baptism of believers only, religious freedom, similar perspectives on free will, predestination and original sin along with congregationalism. It is almost certain that the earliest Baptist church led by John Smyth and Thomas Helwys interacted with the Mennonites and that Smyth borrowed ideas from Anabaptism. However, it has been debated if influences from Anabaptism ever found their way to the English General Baptists.
Those who held closer views with the Anabaptists switched to the Mennonite movement along with Smyth, while those who identified as Baptists did so under Helwys who disagreed with Smyth and the Mennonites on multiple issues, denying Melchiorite Christology and Anabaptist views of the civil magistrate. These English General Baptists may have had secondary influences from Anabaptism, although it is a matter of debate among historians. Despite the existing similarities between these two groups, the relationship between Baptists and Anabaptists was strained in 1624 when five existing Baptist churches of London issued a condemnation of the Anabaptists. The theory that Anabaptism influenced Baptist theology has been believed by Philip Schaff, A.C. Underwood, and William R. Estep. Gourley wrote that among some contemporary Baptist scholars who emphasize the faith of the community over soul liberty, the Anabaptist influence theory is making a comeback.
Puritans of England and their Baptist branch arose independently, and although they may have been informed by Anabaptist theology, they clearly differentiate themselves from Anabaptists as seen in the London Confession of Faith 1644, "Of those Churches which are commonly (though falsely) called Anabaptists". Moreover, Baptist historian Chris Traffanstedt maintains that Anabaptists share "some similarities with the early General Baptists, but overall these similarities are slight and not always relational. In the end, we must come to say that this group of Christians does not reflect the historical teaching of the Baptists".
There have been some discussions whether Anabaptist theology influenced Particular Baptists in a limited sense. This theory proposes that there existed a native Anabaptist population in England that may have given rise to ideas held by Particular Baptist theologians. There exists some evidence of there being native English Anabaptists during this time, however many historians have rejected the idea that Anabaptist influences gave rise to the Particular Baptists, and there appears to be no concrete evidence of any Anabaptist influence in Particular Baptists. According to Barrington Raymond White, the relationship between the English Separatists and the Radical Reformers was that of people coming to similar conclusions from their reading of the Bible based on the context of a similar situation.
In practice, Anabaptists have maintained a more literal obedience to the Sermon on the Mount, while Baptists generally do not require nonresistance, non-swearing of oaths, and no remarriage if the first legitimate spouse is living. Traditional Anabaptists also require a head covering for women, modest apparel, practical separation from the world, and plain dress, which most Baptists no longer require. However, some Anabaptists and General Baptists have improved their relations and sometimes have worked together.
Influence on society.
Common Anabaptist beliefs and practices of the 16th century continue to influence modern Christianity and Western society.
The Anabaptists were early promoters of a free church and freedom of religion. When it was introduced by the Anabaptists in the 15th and 16th centuries, religious freedom which was independent from the state was unthinkable to both clerical and governmental leaders. Religious liberty was equated with anarchy; Kropotkin traces the birth of anarchist thought in Europe to these early Anabaptist communities.
According to Estep:
Anabaptist characters exist in popular culture, most notably Chaplain Tappman in Joseph Heller's novel "Catch-22;" James (Jacques) in Voltaire's novella "Candide;" Giacomo Meyerbeer's opera (1849); and the central character in the novel "Q", by the collective known as "Luther Blissett".
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Southeast Alaska
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Southeast Alaska, often abbreviated to southeast or southeastern, and sometimes called the Alaska(n) panhandle, is the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of Alaska, bordered to the east and north by the northern half of the Canadian province of British Columbia (and a small part of Yukon). The majority of southeast Alaska is situated in Tlingit Aaní, much of which is part of the Tongass National Forest, the United States' largest national forest. In many places, the international border runs along the crest of the Boundary Ranges of the Coast Mountains (see Alaska boundary dispute). The region is noted for its scenery and mild, rainy climate.
The largest cities in the region are Juneau, Sitka, and Ketchikan. This region is also home to Hyder, the easternmost town in Alaska.
Geography.
Southeast Alaska has a land area of , comprising much of the Alexander Archipelago. The largest islands are, from North to South, Chichagof Island, Admiralty Island, Baranof Island, Kupreanof Island, Revillagigedo Island and Prince of Wales Island. Major bodies of water of southeast Alaska include Glacier Bay, Lynn Canal, Icy Strait, Chatham Strait, Stephens Passage, Frederick Sound, Sumner Strait, and Clarence Strait.
The archipelago is the northern terminus of the Inside Passage, a protected waterway of convoluted passages between islands and fjords, beginning in Puget Sound in Washington state. This was an important travel corridor for Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian Native peoples, as well as gold-rush era steamships. In modern times it is an important route for Alaska Marine Highway ferries as well as cruise ships.
Demographics.
Southeast Alaska includes seven entire boroughs and two census areas, in addition to the portion of the Yakutat Borough lying east of 141° West longitude. Although it has only 6.14 percent of Alaska's land area, it is larger than the state of Maine, and almost as large as the state of Indiana. The southeast Alaskan coast is roughly as long as the west coast of Canada.
The 2010 census population of southeast Alaska was 71,616 inhabitants, representing approximately 10% of the state's total population. About 45% of residents in the southeast Alaska region were concentrated in the city of Juneau, the state capital. As of 2018, the number of settlements in southeast Alaska that have a population of at least 1,000 people has grown to nine.
Major cities and towns.
Populations are taken from the 2020 census.
National protected areas.
Southeast Alaska includes the Tongass National Forest (which manages Admiralty Island National Monument and Misty Fjords National Monument), Glacier Bay National Park, and Sitka National Historical Park. Glacier Bay is the sixth largest national park in the United States. On August 20, 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt established the Alexander Archipelago Forest Reserve, which formed the heart of the Tongass National Forest that covers most of the region.
Climate.
The climate of southeast Alaska is dominated by a mid-latitude oceanic climate (Köppen "Cfb") in the south, an oceanic, marine sub-polar climate (Köppen "Cfc") in the central region around Juneau, and a subarctic climate (Köppen "Dfc") to the far northwest and the interior highlands of the archipelago. Southeast Alaska is also the only region in Alaska where the average daytime high temperature is above freezing during the winter months, except for in the southern parts of the Aleutian islands such as Unalaska.
Ecology.
Southeast Alaska is a temperate rain forest within the Pacific temperate rain forest zone, as classified by the World Wildlife Fund's ecoregion system, which extends from northern California to Prince William Sound. The most common tree species are sitka spruce and western hemlock.
Wildlife includes brown bears, black bears, endemic Alexander Archipelago wolf packs, Sitka black-tailed deer, humpback whales, orcas, five species of salmon, bald eagles, harlequin ducks, scoters, and marbled murrelets.
The "Ecological Atlas of Southeast Alaska", published by Audubon Alaska in 2016, offers an overview of the region's landscape, birds, wildlife, human uses, climate change, and more, synthesizing data from agencies and a variety of other sources.
Culture.
This area is the traditional homeland of the Tlingit, and home of a historic settling of Haida as well as a modern settlement of Tsimshian. The region is closely connected to Seattle and the American Pacific Northwest economically and culturally.
Industry.
Major industries in southeast Alaska include commercial fishing and tourism (primarily the cruise ship industry).
Logging.
Logging has been an important industry in the past, but has been steadily declining with competition from other areas and the closure of the region's major pulp mills; the Alaska Forest Association described the situation as "desperate" in 2011. Its members include Alcan Forest Products (owned by Canadian Transpac Group, one of the top 5 log exporters in North America) and Viking Lumber, which is based in Craig, Alaska. Debates over whether to expand logging in the federally owned Tongass are not uncommon.
Mining.
Mining remains important in the northern area with the Juneau mining district and Admiralty mining district hosting active mines as of 2015. Gold was discovered in 1880 and played an important part in the early history of the region.
In the 2010s, mines increasingly began to be explored and eventually completed in neighboring British Columbia, upstream of important rivers such as the Unuk and the Stikine, which became known as the transboundary mining issue. In 2014, the dam breach at the Mount Polley mine focused attention on the issue, and an agreement between Canada and Alaska was drafted in 2015.
The proposed Kerr Sulphurets Mitchell exploration is upstream of the Unuk. Mines upstream of the Stikine include the Red Chris, which is owned by the same company (Imperial Metals) as the Mount Polley mine.
Healthcare.
Major hospitals include Bartlett Regional Hospital in Juneau and PeaceHealth Ketchikan Medical Center in Ketchikan. Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium runs healthcare facilities across 27 communities as of 2022, including hospitals in Sitka and Wrangell; although it originally served Native Americans only, it has expanded access and combined with other local facilities over time.
Shipbuilding.
Due to the fishing and ferries in the region, ship building and maintenance are economically significant.
Ketchikan hosts a shipbuilding yard owned by Vigor Industrial.
Tourism.
Tourists visit southeast Alaska primarily in the summer, and most visit via cruise ships, which run from April 15 to October 30. In 2019, around 1.3 million people visited Alaska by cruise ship.
The northbound Inside Passage cruise commonly starts from either Seattle or Vancouver, Canada and stops in various ports including Ketchikan, Juneau, and Skagway. One-way trips will end in Whittier or Seward.
An alternative Gulf of Alaska cruise starts in Whittier (Anchorage) and also passes through southeast Alaska's Inside Passage.
The cruise ship industry became prominent in the 1960s after cruise ship entrepreneur Stanley B. McDonald repurposed a transport ship named Princess Pat, founding Princess Cruises to do leisure cruises which expanded into southeast Alaska by 1969. The TV series "The Love Boat" was set on a Princess cruise and featured episodes in Alaska; it also helped to popularize cruising generally which helped it grow rapidly between 1977 and 1987.
Prior to Princess cruises, Chuck West created a tourism agency in 1947 under the name Arctic Alaska Tours which was renamed Westours, which originally arranged trips for travelers on steamships.
History.
The border between Alaska and the Canadian province of British Columbia was the subject of the Alaska boundary dispute, where the United States and the United Kingdom claimed different borderlines at the Alaskan panhandle. While the British foreign affairs were in favor of support of the Canadian argument, the event resulted in what was thought of as a betrayal, leading to alienation of the British from the new nation of Canada.
Transportation.
Due to the extremely rugged, mountainous nature of Southeastern Alaska, almost all communities (with the exception of Hyder, Skagway, and Haines) have no road connections outside of their locale, so aircraft and boats are the major means of transport. The Alaska Marine Highway passes through this region.
Air transportation.
Alaska Airlines is by far the largest air carrier in the region, with Juneau's Juneau International Airport serving as the aerial hub for all of southeast, and Ketchikan's Ketchikan International Airport serving as a secondary hub for southern southeast Alaska. Alaska's bush airlines and air taxis serve many of the smaller and more isolated communities and villages in the regions. Many communities are accessible by air only by floatplane, as proper runways are often difficult to construct on the steep island slopes.
Marine transportation.
Southeast Alaska is primarily served by the state-run Alaska Marine Highway, which links Skagway, Haines, Hoonah, Juneau, Sitka, Petersburg, Wrangell, Ketchikan and other outlying communities with Prince Rupert, BC and Bellingham, Washington; and secondarily by the Prince of Wales Island-based Inter-Island Ferry Authority, which provides the only scheduled passenger and auto ferry service to the island. A new Authority, the Rainforest Islands Ferry Authority, was created and in 2014 may possibly operate the North End route. The Authority would connect Coffman Cove with Wrangell and Petersburg. Small companies like Sitka-based Allen Marine and other independent operators in the Lynn Canal occasionally also offer marine passenger service. Ship traffic in the area is seasonally busy with cruise ships.
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Algemeen Nijmeegs Studentenblad
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The Algemeen Nijmeegs Studentenblad is an independent student magazine for the Radboud University Nijmegen. Founded in 1985 by members of the local student union AKKU, it is now published by the Stichting Multimedia.
Notable publications and controversies.
In 1989 ANS started to publish the monthly comic strip DirkJan, before it moved to SjoSji. The magazine has published controversial articles that attracted nation-wide media attention, such as on the benefits of marihuana consumption for studying. In 2010 the university refused to distribute the magazine among freshmen because it did not endorse the editorial.
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Interior Alaska
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Interior Alaska is the central region of Alaska's territory, roughly bounded by the Alaska Range to the south and the Brooks Range to the north. It is largely wilderness. Mountains include Denali in the Alaska Range, the Wrangell Mountains, and the Ray Mountains. The native people of the interior are Alaskan Athabaskans. The largest city in the interior is Fairbanks, Alaska's second-largest city, in the Tanana Valley. Other towns include North Pole, just southeast of Fairbanks, Eagle, Tok, Glennallen, Delta Junction, Nenana, Anderson, Healy, and Cantwell. The interior region has an estimated population of 113,154.
Climate.
Interior Alaska experiences extreme seasonal temperature variability. Winter temperatures in Fairbanks average −12 °F (−24 °C) and summer temperatures average +62 °F (+17 °C). Temperatures there have been recorded as low as −65 °F (−54 °C) in mid-winter, and as high as +99 °F (+37 °C) in summer. Both the highest and lowest temperature records for the state were set in the Interior, with 100 °F (38 °C) in Fort Yukon and −80 °F (−62 °C) in Prospect Creek. Temperatures within a given winter are highly variable as well; extended cold snaps of forty below zero can be followed by unseasonable warmth with temperatures above freezing due to chinook wind effects.
Summers can be warm and dry for extended periods creating ideal fire weather conditions. Weak thunderstorms produce mostly dry lightning, sparking wildfires that are mostly left to burn themselves out as they are often far from populated areas. The 2004 season set a new record with over burned.
The average annual precipitation in Fairbanks is 11.3 inches (287 mm). Most of this comes in the form of snow during the winter. Most storms in the interior of Alaska originate in the Gulf of Alaska, south of the state, though these storms often have limited precipitation due to a rain shadow effect caused by the Alaska Range.
On clear winter nights, the aurora borealis can often be seen in the sky. Like all subarctic regions, the months from May to July in the summer have no night, only a twilight during the night hours. The months of November to January have little daylight. Fairbanks receives an average 21 hours of daylight between May 10 and August 2 each summer, and an average of less than four hours of daylight between November 18 and January 24 each winter.
The interior of Alaska is largely underlined by discontinuous permafrost, which grades to continuous permafrost as the Arctic Circle is approached.
Alaska Natives.
While the vast majority of indigenous Native people of Interior Alaska are Athabaskan, large Yup'ik and Iñupiaq populations reside in Fairbanks.
The federally recognized tribes of Interior Alaska:
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And did those feet in ancient time
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"And did those feet in ancient time" is a poem by William Blake from the preface to his epic ', one of a collection of writings known as the Prophetic Books. The date of 1804 on the title page is probably when the plates were begun, but the poem was printed . Today it is best known as the hymn "Jerusalem", with music written by Sir Hubert Parry in 1916. The famous orchestration was written by Sir Edward Elgar. It is not to be confused with another poem, much longer and larger in scope and also by Blake, called '.
It is often assumed that the poem was inspired by the apocryphal story that a young Jesus, accompanied by Joseph of Arimathea, a tin merchant, travelled to what is now England and visited Glastonbury during his unknown years. However, according to British folklore scholar A. W. Smith, "there was little reason to believe that an oral tradition concerning a visit made by Jesus to Britain existed before the early part of the twentieth century". Instead, the poem draws on an older story, repeated in Milton's "History of Britain", that Joseph of Arimathea, alone, travelled to preach to the ancient Britons after the death of Jesus. The poem's theme is linked to the Book of Revelation ( and 21:2) describing a Second Coming, wherein Jesus establishes a New Jerusalem. Churches in general, and the Church of England in particular, have long used Jerusalem as a metaphor for Heaven, a place of universal love and peace.
In the most common interpretation of the poem, Blake asks whether a visit by Jesus briefly created heaven in England, in contrast to the "dark Satanic Mills" of the Industrial Revolution. Blake's poem asks four questions rather than asserting the historical truth of Christ's visit. The second verse is interpreted as an exhortation to create an ideal society in England, whether or not there was a divine visit.
Text.
The original text is found in the preface Blake wrote for inclusion with "Milton, a Poem", following the lines beginning "The Stolen and Perverted Writings of Homer & Ovid: of Plato & Cicero, which all Men ought to contemn: ..."
Blake's poem
Beneath the poem Blake inscribed a quotation from the Bible:
"Dark Satanic Mills".
The phrase "dark Satanic Mills", which entered the English language from this poem, is often interpreted as referring to the early Industrial Revolution and its destruction of nature and human relationships. That view has been linked to the fate of the Albion Flour Mills in Southwark, the first major factory in London. The rotary steam-powered flour mill, built by Matthew Boulton, assisted by James Watt, could produce 6,000 bushels of flour per week. The factory could have driven independent traditional millers out of business, but it was destroyed in 1791 by fire. There were rumours of arson, but the most likely cause was a bearing that overheated due to poor maintenance.
London's independent millers celebrated, with placards reading, "Success to the mills of Albion but no Albion Mills." Opponents referred to the factory as satanic, and accused its owners of adulterating flour and using cheap imports at the expense of British producers. A contemporary illustration of the fire shows a devil squatting on the building. The mill was a short distance from Blake's home.
Blake's phrase resonates with a broader theme in his works; what he envisioned as a physically and spiritually repressive ideology based on a quantified reality. Blake saw the cotton mills and collieries of the period as a mechanism for the enslavement of millions, but the concepts underpinning the works had a wider application:
Another interpretation is that the phrase refers to the established Church of England, which, in contrast to Blake, preached a doctrine of conformity to the established social order and class system. Stonehenge and other megaliths are featured in "Milton", suggesting they may relate to the supposedly oppressive power of priestcraft in general. Peter Porter observed that many scholars argue that the "[mills] are churches and not the factories of the Industrial Revolution everyone else takes them for". In 2007, the Bishop of Durham, N. T. Wright, explicitly recognised that element of English subculture when he acknowledged the view that "dark satanic mills" could refer to the "great churches". In similar vein, in 1967 the critic F. W. Bateson stated "the adoption by the Churches and women's organizations of this anti-clerical paean of free love is amusing evidence of the carelessness with which poetry is read".
An alternative theory is that Blake is referring to a mystical concept within his own mythology, related to the ancient history of England. Satan's "mills" are referred to repeatedly in the main poem, and are first described in words which suggest neither industrialism nor ancient megaliths, but rather something more abstract: "the starry Mills of Satan/ Are built beneath the earth and waters of the Mundane Shell...To Mortals thy Mills seem everything, and the Harrow of Shaddai / A scheme of human conduct invisible and incomprehensible".
"Chariots of fire".
The line from the poem "Bring me my Chariot of fire!" draws on the story of , where the Old Testament prophet Elijah is taken directly to heaven: "And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven." The phrase has become a byword for divine energy, and inspired the title of the 1981 film "Chariots of Fire", in which the hymn "Jerusalem" is sung during the final scenes. The plural phrase "chariots of fire" refers to .
"Green and pleasant land".
Blake lived in London for most of his life, but wrote much of "Milton" while living in a cottage, now Blake's Cottage, in the village of Felpham in Sussex. Amanda Gilroy argues that the poem is informed by Blake's "evident pleasure" in the Felpham countryside. However, local people say that records from Lavant, near Chichester, state that Blake wrote "And did those feet in ancient time" in an east-facing alcove of the Earl of March public house.
The phrase "green and pleasant land" has become a common term for an identifiably English landscape or society. It appears as a headline, title or sub-title in numerous articles and books. Sometimes it refers, whether with appreciation, nostalgia or critical analysis, to idyllic or enigmatic aspects of the English countryside. In other contexts it can suggest the perceived habits and aspirations of rural middle-class life. Sometimes it is used ironically, e.g. in the Dire Straits song "Iron Hand".
Revolution.
Several of Blake's poems and paintings express a notion of universal humanity: "As all men are alike (tho' infinitely various)". He retained an active interest in social and political events for all his life, but was often forced to resort to cloaking social idealism and political statements in Protestant mystical allegory. Even though the poem was written during the Napoleonic Wars, Blake was an outspoken supporter of the French Revolution, and Napoleon claimed to be continuing this revolution. The poem expressed his desire for radical change without overt sedition. In 1803 Blake was charged at Chichester with high treason for having "uttered seditious and treasonable expressions", but was acquitted. The trial was not a direct result of anything he had written, but comments he had made in conversation, including "Damn the King!".
The poem is followed in the preface by a quotation from "Numbers" 11:29: "Would to God that all the Lords people were prophets." Christopher Rowland has argued that this includes
everyone in the task of speaking out about what they saw. Prophecy for Blake, however, was not a prediction of the end of the world, but telling the truth as best a person can about what he or she sees, fortified by insight and an "honest persuasion" that with personal struggle, things could be improved. A human being observes, is indignant and speaks out: it's a basic political maxim which is necessary for any age. Blake wanted to stir people from their intellectual slumbers, and the daily grind of their toil, to see that they were captivated in the grip of a culture which kept them thinking in ways which served the interests of the powerful.
The words of the poem "stress the importance of people taking responsibility for change and building a better society 'in Englands green and pleasant land.
Popularisation.
The poem, which was little known during the century which followed its writing, was included in the patriotic anthology of verse "The Spirit of Man," edited by the Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, Robert Bridges, and published in 1916, at a time when morale had begun to decline because of the high number of casualties in World War I and the perception that there was no end in sight.
Under these circumstances, Bridges, finding the poem an appropriate hymn text to "brace the spirit of the nation [to] accept with cheerfulness all the sacrifices necessary," asked Sir Hubert Parry to put it to music for a Fight for Right campaign meeting in London's Queen's Hall. Bridges asked Parry to supply "suitable, simple music to Blake's stanzas – music that an audience could take up and join in", and added that, if Parry could not do it himself, he might delegate the task to George Butterworth.
The poem's idealistic theme or subtext accounts for its popularity across much of the political spectrum. It was used as a campaign slogan by the Labour Party in the 1945 general election; Clement Attlee said they would build "a new Jerusalem". It has been sung at conferences of the Conservative Party, at the Glee Club of the British Liberal Assembly, the Labour Party and by the Liberal Democrats.
Setting to music.
By Hubert Parry.
In adapting Blake's poem as a unison song, Parry deployed a two-stanza format, each taking up eight lines of Blake's original poem. He added a four-bar musical introduction to each verse and a coda, echoing melodic motifs of the song. The word "those" was substituted for "these" before "dark satanic mills".
Parry was initially reluctant to supply music for the campaign meeting, as he had doubts about the ultra-patriotism of Fight for Right; but knowing that his former student Walford Davies was to conduct the performance, and not wanting to disappoint either Robert Bridges or Davies, he agreed, writing it on 10 March 1916, and handing the manuscript to Davies with the comment, "Here's a tune for you, old chap. Do what you like with it." Davies later recalled,
Davies arranged for the vocal score to be published by Curwen in time for the concert at the Queen's Hall on 28 March and began rehearsing it. It was a success and was taken up generally.
But Parry began to have misgivings again about Fight for Right, and in May 1917 wrote to the organisation's founder Sir Francis Younghusband withdrawing his support entirely. There was even concern that the composer might withdraw the song from all public use, but the situation was saved by Millicent Fawcett of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS). The song had been taken up by the Suffragists in 1917 and Fawcett asked Parry if it might be used at a Suffrage Demonstration Concert on 13 March 1918. Parry was delighted and orchestrated the piece for the concert (it had originally been for voices and organ). After the concert, Fawcett asked the composer if it might become the Women Voters' Hymn. Parry wrote back, "I wish indeed it might become the Women Voters' hymn, as you suggest. People seem to enjoy singing it. And having the vote ought to diffuse a good deal of joy too. So they would combine happily".
Accordingly, he assigned the copyright to the NUWSS. When that organisation was wound up in 1928, Parry's executors reassigned the copyright to the Women's Institutes, where it remained until it entered the public domain in 1968.
The song was first called "And Did Those Feet in Ancient Time" and the early scores have this title. The change to "Jerusalem" seems to have been made about the time of the 1918 Suffrage Demonstration Concert, perhaps when the orchestral score was published (Parry's manuscript of the orchestral score has the old title crossed out and "Jerusalem" inserted in a different hand). However, Parry always referred to it by its first title. He had originally intended the first verse to be sung by a solo female voice (this is marked in the score), but this is rare in contemporary performances. Sir Edward Elgar re-scored the work for very large orchestra in 1922 for use at the Leeds Festival. Elgar's orchestration has overshadowed Parry's own, primarily because it is the version usually used now for the Last Night of the Proms (though Sir Malcolm Sargent, who introduced it to that event in the 1950s, always used Parry's version).
By Wallen.
In 2020 a new musical arrangement of the poem by Errollyn Wallen, a British composer born in Belize, was sung by South African soprano Golda Schultz at the Last Night of the Proms. Parry's version was traditionally sung at the Last Night, with Elgar's orchestration; the new version, with different rhythms, dissonance, and reference to the blues, caused much controversy.
Use as a hymn.
Although Parry composed the music as a unison song, many churches have adopted "Jerusalem" as a four-part hymn; a number of English entities, including the BBC, the Crown, cathedrals, churches, and chapels regularly use it as an office or recessional hymn on Saint George's Day.
However, some clergy in the Church of England, according to the BBC TV programme "Jerusalem: An Anthem for England", have said that the song is not technically a hymn as it is not a prayer to God; consequently, it is not sung in some churches in England. It was sung as a hymn during the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton in Westminster Abbey.
Many schools use the song, especially public schools in Great Britain (it was used as the title music for the BBC's 1979 series "Public School" about Radley College), and several private schools in Australia, New Zealand, New England and Canada. In Hong Kong, diverted version of "Jerusalem" is also used as the school hymn of St. Catherine's School for Girls, Kwun Tong and Bishop Hall Jubilee School. "Jerusalem" was chosen as the opening hymn for the London Olympics 2012, although "God Save the Queen" was the anthem sung during the raising of the flag in salute to the Queen.
It has been sung on BBC's "Songs Of Praise" for many years; in a countrywide poll to find the UK's favourite hymn in 2019, it was voted top, relegating previous favourite "How Great Thou Art" into second place.
Proposal as English anthem.
Upon hearing the orchestral version for the first time, King George V said that he preferred "Jerusalem" over the British national anthem "God Save the King". "Jerusalem" is considered to be England's most popular patriotic song; "The New York Times" said it was "fast becoming an alternative national anthem," and there have been calls to give it official status. England has no official anthem and uses the British national anthem "God Save the King", also unofficial, for some national occasions, such as before English international football matches. However, some sports, including rugby league, use "Jerusalem" as the English anthem. "Jerusalem" is the official hymn of the England and Wales Cricket Board, although "God Save the Queen" has been sung before England's games on several occasions, including the 2010 ICC World Twenty20, the 2010–11 Ashes series and the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup. Questions in Parliament have not clarified the situation, as answers from the relevant minister say that since there is no official national anthem, each sport must make its own decision.
As Parliament has not clarified the situation, Team England, the English Commonwealth team, held a public poll in 2010 to decide which anthem should be played at medal ceremonies to celebrate an English win at the Commonwealth Games. "Jerusalem" was selected by 52% of voters over "Land of Hope and Glory" (used since 1930) and "God Save the Queen".
In 2005 BBC Four produced "Jerusalem: An Anthem For England" highlighting the usages of the song/poem and a case was made for its adoption as the national anthem of England. Varied contributions come from Howard Goodall, Billy Bragg, Garry Bushell, Lord Hattersley, Ann Widdecombe and David Mellor, war proponents, war opponents, suffragettes, trade unionists, public schoolboys, the Conservatives, the Labour Party, football supporters, the British National Party, the Women's Institute, London Gay Men's Chorus, London Community Gospel Choir, Fat Les and naturists.
Cultural significance.
Enduring popularity.
The popularity of Parry's setting has resulted in many hundreds of recordings being made, too numerous to list, of both traditional choral performances and new interpretations by popular music artists. The song has also had a large cultural impact in Great Britain. It is sung every year by an audience of thousands at the end of the Last Night of the Proms in the Royal Albert Hall and simultaneously in the "Proms in the Park" venues throughout the country. Similarly, along with "The Red Flag", it is sung each year at the closing of the annual Labour Party conference. It is also often sung at the service at the Durham Miners' Gala.
The song was used by the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (indeed Parry transferred the copyright to the NUWSS in 1918; the Union was wound up in 1928 after women won the right to vote). During the 1920s many Women's Institutes (WI) started closing meetings by singing it, and this caught on nationally. Although it was never adopted as the WI's official anthem, in practice it holds that position, and is an enduring element of the public image of the WI.
A rendition of "Jerusalem" was included in the 1973 album "Brain Salad Surgery" by the progressive rock group Emerson, Lake & Palmer. The arrangement of the hymn is notable for its use of the first polyphonic synthesizer, the Moog Apollo. It was released as a single, but failed to chart in the United Kingdom.
An instrumental rendition of the hymn was included in the 1989 album "The Amsterdam EP" by Scottish rock band Simple Minds.
Iron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson incorporated the full text of the poem into his 6:42 track "Jerusalem" (co-written with Roy Z), a part of his William Blake inspired 1998 solo album "The Chemical Wedding". Dickinson performed the track live in 2023 as part of the "Jon Lord" "Concerto for Group and Orchestra" tour.
"Jerusalem" is traditionally sung before rugby league's Challenge Cup Final, along with "Abide with Me", and before the Super League Grand Final, where it is introduced as "the rugby league anthem". Before 2008, it was the anthem used by the national side, as "God Save the Queen" was used by the Great Britain team: since the Lions were superseded by England, "God Save the Queen" has replaced "Jerusalem". Since 2004, it has been the anthem of the England cricket team, being played before each day of their home test matches.
It was also used in the opening ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics held in London and inspired several of the opening show segments directed by Danny Boyle. It was included in the ceremony's soundtrack album, "".
Use in film, television and theatre.
"Bring me my Chariot of fire" inspired the title of the film "Chariots of Fire".
The hymn has featured in many other films and television programmes including "Four Weddings and a Funeral", "How to Get Ahead in Advertising", "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner", "Saint Jack", "Calendar Girls", Season 3: Episode 22 of ', "Goodnight Mister Tom", "Women in Love", "The Man Who Fell to Earth", "Shameless", "Jackboots on Whitehall", "Quatermass and the Pit", "Monty Python's Flying Circus", ', and "Collateral" (UK TV series).
An extract was heard in the 2013 "Doctor Who" episode "The Crimson Horror" although that story was set in 1893, i.e., before Parry's arrangement. A bawdy version of the first verse is sung by Mr Partridge in the third episode of Series 1 of "Hi-de-Hi!". A punk version is heard in Derek Jarman's 1977 film "Jubilee". In an episode of "Peep Show", Jez (Robert Webb) records a track titled "This Is Outrageous" which uses the first and a version of the second line in a verse. A modified version of the hymn, replacing the word "England" with "Neo", is used in "Neo Yokio" as the national anthem of the eponymous city state.
In the theatre it appears in "Jerusalem", "Calendar Girls" and in "Time and the Conways".
British band The Verve reworks lines from "Jerusalem" in their song "Love Is Noise", asking, "Will those feet in modern times/Walk on soles that are made in China?", and alludes to "bright prosaic malls". Another version of "Jerusalem" was produced by the British post-punk band The Fall in 1988.
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The Bush (Alaska)
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In Alaska, the Bush typically refers to any region of the state that is not connected to the North American road network and does not have ready access to the state's ferry system. A large proportion of Alaska Native populations live in the Bush, often depending on subsistence hunting and fishing.
Geographically, the Bush comprises the Alaska North Slope; Northwest Arctic; West, including the Baldwin and Seward Peninsulas; the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta; Southwest Alaska; Bristol Bay; Alaska Peninsula; and remote areas of the Alaska Panhandle and Interior.
Some of the hub communities in the bush, which typically can be reached by larger, commercial airplanes, include Bethel, Dillingham, King Salmon, Nome, Utqiagvik, Kodiak Island, Kotzebue, and Unalaska-Dutch Harbor.
Most parts of Alaska that are off the road or ferry system can be reached by small bush airplanes. Travel between smaller communities or to and from hub communities is typically accomplished by snowmobiles, boats, or ATVs.
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A Little Night Music
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A Little Night Music is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Hugh Wheeler. Inspired by the 1955 Ingmar Bergman film "Smiles of a Summer Night", it involves the romantic lives of several couples. Its title is a literal English translation of the German name for Mozart's Serenade No. 13, K. 525, "Eine kleine Nachtmusik". The musical includes the popular song "Send In the Clowns", written for Glynis Johns.
Since its original 1973 Broadway production, the musical has enjoyed professional productions in the West End, by opera companies, in a 2009 Broadway revival, and elsewhere, and it is a popular choice for regional groups. It was adapted for film in 1977, with Harold Prince directing and Elizabeth Taylor, Len Cariou, Lesley-Anne Down, and Diana Rigg starring.
Synopsis.
Act One.
The setting is Sweden, around the year 1900. One by one, the Quintet – five singers who comment like a Greek chorus throughout the show – enter, tuning up. Gradually, their vocalizing becomes an overture blending fragments of "Remember," "Soon," and "The Glamorous Life." The other characters enter waltzing, each uncomfortable with their partner ("Night Waltz"). After they drift back off, the aging and sardonic Madame Armfeldt, a wealthy former courtesan, and her solemn granddaughter, Fredrika, enter. Madame Armfeldt tells the child that the summer night "smiles" three times: first on the young, second on fools, and third on the old. Fredrika vows to watch the smiles occur.
Middle-aged, successful lawyer Fredrik Egerman has recently married an 18-year-old trophy wife, Anne, a naive girl who loves Fredrik but is not attracted to him. The two have been married for eleven months, and Anne still protects her virginity. Upon coming home from work, Fredrik surprises Anne with tickets to a play, starring Desiree Armfeldt, a glamorous actress whom Anne greatly admires. Anne giddily fantasizes about what it would be like to be as beautiful and beloved as Desiree, and starts talking at Fredrik about her day. Fredrik, distracted by his lust, considers various ways he might seduce his wife but ultimately rules each one out and elects to take a nap instead ("Now"). Meanwhile, his son Henrik, a seminary student a year older than his stepmother, is frustrated and ignored ("Later"). Anne promises her husband that shortly she will consent to have sex even though she can't help recoiling at his touch ("Soon"), and all three of them lament at once. The number concludes with Fredrik sighing Desiree's name in his sleep, which Anne overhears. Anne's maidservant Petra, an experienced and forthright girl, slightly older than the teen herself, offers her worldly but crass advice.
Desiree Armfeldt, although once prominent, is now a fading flower clinging onto what's left of her past fame. Desiree tours in small, obscure towns with her theatre troupe. Madam Armfeldt, Desiree's mother, has taken over the care of Desiree's daughter Fredrika. Fredrika misses her mother, but Desiree continually delays seeing her, preferring, somewhat ironically, her life on tour ("The Glamorous Life"). As Fredrik and Anne take their seats at Desiree's play, Anne's previous excitement quickly devolves into anxiety, suspicious that Fredrik and Desiree have a romantic history that he never disclosed to her. The play begins and Desiree immediately notices Fredrik in the audience, and the Quintet reveals their shared memories and passionate relationship ("Remember"). Desiree, ironically playing a sexually irresistible countess, exchanges amorous glances with Fredrik and delivers her lines in an overtly suggestive tone, confirming Anne's suspicions as true. Anne, upset and overwhelmed, demands that Fredrik take her home. Meanwhile, Petra tries to seduce a nervous and petulant Henrik.
That night, as Fredrik remembers his past with Desiree, he sneaks out to see her. The two have a happy but strained reunion, reflecting on their new lives. Desiree sarcastically boasts of her own adultery, as she has been seeing the married dragoon, Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm. Following, Fredrik tries to explain how much he loves Anne, fending off Desiree's interjecting quips, but he ultimately reveals his sexual frustration ("You Must Meet My Wife"). Upon learning that Fredrik has gone for eleven months without sex, she agrees to accommodate him as a favor for an old friend.
Madam Armfeldt offers advice to young Fredrika. The elderly woman reflects poignantly on her own checkered past and wonders what happened to prior refined styles of living ("Liaisons"). In Desiree's apartment, Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm proclaims his unannounced arrival in his usual booming tones. Fredrik and Desiree fool the Count with an innocent explanation for their disheveled appearance, but he is still suspicious. He boasts of his many duels and the various wounds he has suffered before demonstrating his skills in knife-throwing. Fredrik responds sarcastically, causing the dragoon to dislike him immediately. Carl-Magnus returns to his wife, Countess Charlotte. Charlotte knows of her husband's infidelity, but Carl-Magnus is too absorbed in his suspicions of Desiree to talk to her ("In Praise of Women"). When she persuades him to blurt out the whole story, a twist is revealed—Charlotte's little sister is a schoolfriend of Anne's.
Charlotte visits Anne and describes Fredrik's tryst with Desiree. Anne is shocked and saddened, but Charlotte explains that such is the lot of a wife, and love brings pain ("Every Day a Little Death"). Meanwhile, Desiree asks Madam Armfeldt to host a party for Fredrik, Anne, and Henrik. Madam Armfeldt reluctantly agrees and sends out a personal invitation; its receipt sends Anne into a frenzy, imagining Desiree further seducing Fredrik at the estate. Anne does not want to accept the invitation, but Charlotte convinces her to do so to heighten the contrast between the older Desiree and the young and beautiful teenager. Charlotte relates this to the Count, who (much to her chagrin) decides to visit the Armfeldts, uninvited, as well. Carl-Magnus plans to challenge Fredrik to a duel, while Charlotte hopes to seduce the lawyer to make her husband jealous and end his philandering. The act ends as all characters head to Madam Armfeldt's estate ("A Weekend in the Country").
Act Two.
Madam Armfeldt's country estate is bathed in the golden glow of perpetual summer sunset at this high latitude ("Night Waltz One and Two"). Everyone arrives, each with their own amorous purposes and desires—even Petra, who catches the eye of Armfeldt's fetching manservant, Frid. The women begin to quarrel with one another. Fredrik is astonished to learn the name of Desiree's daughter. Henrik meets Fredrika, and confesses to her he deeply loves Anne. Meanwhile, in the garden, Fredrik and Carl-Magnus reflect on the difficulty of being annoyed with Desiree, contrasting her immoral actions with her physical beauty ("It Would Have Been Wonderful"). Dinner is served, and the female Quintet singers comment on the characters’ suspense regarding the coming meal ("Perpetual Anticipation").
At dinner, Charlotte attempts to flirt with Fredrik and trades insults with Desiree. Soon, everyone is shouting and scolding everyone else, except for Henrik, who finally speaks up. He accuses the whole company of being amoral, and flees the scene. Stunned, everyone reflects on the situation and wanders away. Fredrika tells Anne of Henrik's secret love and the two dash off searching for him. Meanwhile, Desiree meets Fredrik and asks if he still wants to be "rescued" from his life. Fredrik answers honestly that he loves Desiree but cannot bring himself to hurt Anne. Hurt and bitter, Desiree can only reflect on the nature of her life and relationship with Fredrik ("Send In the Clowns"). Anne finds Henrik, who is attempting to commit suicide. The clumsy boy cannot complete the task, and Anne tells him she loves him, too. The pair begins to kiss, which leads to Anne's first sexual encounter. Meanwhile, not far away, Frid sleeps in Petra's lap. The maid imagines advantageous marriages but concludes that in the meantime, "a girl ought to celebrate what passes by" ("The Miller's Son"). Charlotte confesses her plan to Fredrik, and both watch Henrik and Anne, happy together, run away to start their new life. The two commiserate on a bench. Carl-Magnus, preparing to sleep with Desiree, sees this and challenges Fredrik to Russian Roulette; Fredrik nervously misfires and simply grazes his own ear. Feeling victorious, Carl-Magnus reaffirms his love for Charlotte, finally granting her wish.
After the Count and Countess leave, Fredrika and Madam Armfeldt discuss the recent chaotic turns of events. The elderly woman asks Fredrika a surprising question: "What is it all for?" Fredrika thinks about this and decides that love, for all of its frustrations, "must be worth it." Madam Armfeldt is surprised, ruefully noting that she rejected love for material wealth at Fredrika's age. She praises her granddaughter and remembers true love's fleeting nature.
Fredrik finally confesses his love for Desiree, acknowledging that Fredrika is his daughter, and the two promise to start a new life together ("Send in the Clowns" (Reprise)). Madam Armfeldt sits alone with Fredrika, who tells her grandmother that she has watched carefully but still has not seen the night smile. Madam Armfeldt laughs and points out that the night has indeed smiled twice: first on Henrik and Anne, the young, and second on Desiree and Fredrik, the fools. As the two wait for the "third smile... on the old", it occurs: Madam Armfeldt closes her eyes and dies peacefully with Fredrika beside her ("Last Waltz").
Musical numbers.
Stage:
Screen:
Productions.
Original Broadway production.
Subsequent to its January 23-February 10 tryout engagement at the Colonial Theatre (Boston),"A Little Night Music" opened on Broadway at the Shubert Theatre on February 25, 1973. It played there until September 15, 1973, then moved to the Majestic Theatre, on September 17, and closed there on August 3, 1974, after 601 performances and 12 previews. It was directed by Harold Prince with choreography by Patricia Birch and design by Boris Aronson. The cast included Glynis Johns (Desiree Armfeldt), Len Cariou (Fredrik Egerman), Hermione Gingold (Madame Armfeldt), Victoria Mallory (Anne Egerman), Judith Kahan (Fredrika Armfeldt), Mark Lambert (Henrik Egerman), Laurence Guittard (Carl-Magnus Malcolm), Patricia Elliott (Charlotte Malcolm), George Lee Andrews (Frid), and D'Jamin Bartlett (Petra). It won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award and the Tony Award for Best Musical.
Australian premiere.
The first international production opened at Her Majesty's Theatre in Sydney, Australia in November 1973, with a cast including Taina Elg, Bruce Barry, Jill Perryman, Doris Fitton, Anna Russell and Geraldine Turner. Australian revivals have been presented by the Sydney Theatre Company (featuring Geraldine Turner and a young Toni Collette) in 1990, Melbourne Theatre Company (featuring Helen Morse and John O'May) in 1997, Opera Australia (featuring Sigrid Thornton and Anthony Warlow as Fredrik Egerman) in 2009, and Victorian Opera (featuring Ali McGregor, Simon Gleeson and Verity Hunt-Ballard) in 2019.
United States tour.
A US national tour began on February 26, 1974, at the Forrest Theatre, Philadelphia, and ended on February 13, 1975, at the Shubert Theatre, Boston. Jean Simmons as Desiree Armfeldt, George Lee Andrews as Fredrik Egerman and Margaret Hamilton as Madame Armfeldt headed the cast.
West End premiere.
The musical premiered in the West End at the Adelphi Theatre on April 15, 1975, and starred Jean Simmons, Joss Ackland, David Kernan, Liz Robertson, and Diane Langton, with Hermione Gingold reprising her role as Madame Armfeldt. It ran for 406 performances. During the run, Angela Baddeley replaced Gingold, and Virginia McKenna replaced Simmons.
1989 West End revival.
A revival opened in the West End on October 6, 1989, at the Piccadilly Theatre, directed by Ian Judge, designed by Mark Thompson, and choreographed by Anthony Van Laast. It starred Lila Kedrova as Madame Armfeldt, Dorothy Tutin as Desiree Armfeldt, Peter McEnery as Fredrik, and Susan Hampshire. The production ran for 144 performances, closing on February 17, 1990.
1995 London revival.
A revival by the Royal National Theatre opened at the Olivier Theatre on September 26, 1995. It was directed by Sean Mathias, with set design by Stephen Brimson Lewis, costumes by Nicky Gillibrand, lighting by Mark Henderson and choreography by Wayne McGregor. It starred Judi Dench (Desiree), Siân Phillips (Madame Armfeldt), Joanna Riding (Anne Egerman), Laurence Guittard (Fredrik Egerman), Patricia Hodge (Countess Charlotte) and Issy van Randwyck (Petra). The production closed on August 31, 1996. Dench received the Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical.
2008 London revival.
The third London revival ran at the Menier Chocolate Factory from November 22, 2008, until March 8, 2009. The production was directed by Trevor Nunn, with musical supervision by Caroline Humphris, choreography by Lynne Page, sets and costumes by David Farley and new orchestrations by Jason Carr. The cast included Hannah Waddingham as Desiree, Alexander Hanson as Frederik, Jessie Buckley (Anne), Maureen Lipman (Madame Armfeldt), Alistair Robins (the Count), Gabriel Vick (Henrik), Grace Link (Fredrika) and Kasia Hammarlund (Petra). This critically acclaimed production transferred to the Garrick Theatre in the West End for a limited season, opening on March 28, 2009, and running until July 25, 2009. The production then transferred to Broadway with a new cast.
2009 Broadway revival.
The 2008 Menier Chocolate Factory production opened on Broadway at the Walter Kerr Theatre in previews on November 24, 2009, and officially on December 13, 2009, with the same creative team. The cast was led by Angela Lansbury as Madame Armfeldt and, in her Broadway debut, Catherine Zeta-Jones as Desiree. Also featured were Alexander Hanson as Frederik, Ramona Mallory (the daughter of original Broadway cast members Victoria Mallory and Mark Lambert) as Anne, Hunter Ryan Herdlicka as Henrik, Leigh Ann Larkin as Petra, Erin Davie as the Countess, Aaron Lazar as the Count, and Bradley Dean as Frid. Zeta-Jones received the award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical at the 64th Tony Awards.
Originally, Katherine Doherty and Keaton Whittaker played Fredrika in alternating performances, beginning with the November 2009 previews. The official show album, which was recorded in January 2010, features both Doherty and Whittaker as Fredrika (on different songs). However, Katherine McNamara replaced Doherty in February 2010. McNamara and Whittaker stayed with the production until it ended in January 2011.
When the contracts of Zeta-Jones and Lansbury ended, the production closed temporarily on June 20, 2010, and resumed on July 13, with new stars Bernadette Peters as Desiree Armfeldt and Elaine Stritch as Madame Armfeldt. In an interview, Peters said that Sondheim had "proposed the idea to her this spring and urged the producers of the revival to cast her." Trevor Nunn directed rehearsals with the two new stars, and the rest of the original cast remained. Peters and Stritch extended their contracts until January 9, 2011, when the production closed with 20 previews and 425 regular performances. Before the production closed, it recouped its initial investment.
Europe.
Zarah Leander played Madame Armfeldt in the original Austrian staging (in 1975) as well as in the original Swedish staging in Stockholm in 1978 (here with Jan Malmsjö as Fredrik Egerman). The successful Stockholm staging was directed by Stig Olin. In 2010 the musical was scheduled to return to Stockholm and the Stockholm Stadsteater. The cast included Pia Johansson, Dan Ekborg, Yvonne Lombard and Thérese Andersson.
The Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris production ran from February 15, 2010, through February 20, 2010. Lee Blakeley directed and Andrew George was the choreographer. Italian-born actress Greta Scacchi played Désirée, and Leslie Caron played Madame Armfeldt.
The Turku City Theatre staged the musical in 2011 with in the role as Désirée. directed and Jussi Vahvaselkä was musical director.
In 2019, the Nederlands Reisopera staged a version directed by Zack Winokur, with Susan Rigvava-Dumas playing Désirée.
Opera companies and concerts.
The musical has also become part of the repertoire of a few opera companies. Michigan Opera Theatre was the first major American opera company to present the work in 1983, and again in November 2009. Light Opera Works (Evanston, Illinois) produced the work in August 1983. New York City Opera staged it in 1990, 1991 and 2003, the Houston Grand Opera in 1999, the Los Angeles Opera in 2004, and Hartford Opera Theater in 2014. New York City Opera's production in August 1990 and July 1991 (a total of 18 performances) won the 1990 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Revival and was telecast on the PBS show "Live at Lincoln Center" on November 7, 1990. The cast included both stage performers: Sally Ann Howes and George Lee Andrews as Desiree and Frederik and opera regular Regina Resnik as Madame Armfeldt (in 1991). The 2003 production featured a young Anna Kendrick as Fredrika Armfeldt, alongside Jeremy Irons as Frederik, Juliet Stevenson as Desiree, Claire Bloom as Madame Armfeldt, Danny Gurwin as Henrik, Michele Pawk as Charlotte, Jessiva Boevers as Petra, Kristin Huxhold as Anne and Marc Kudisch as Carl-Magnus. The 2003 production was revived at Los Angeles Opera in July 2004. Kudish, Pawk, Gurwin and Boevers returned alongside Judith Ivey as Desiree, Zoe Caldwell as Madame Armfeldt, Victor Garber as Frederik, Laura Benanti as Anne and Kristen Bell as Fredrika.
Opera Australia presented the piece in Melbourne in May 2009, starring Sigrid Thornton as Desiree Armfeldt and Nancye Hayes as Madame Armfeldt. The production returned in 2010 at the Sydney Opera House with Anthony Warlow taking on the role of Fredrik Egerman. The production was directed by Stuart Maunder, designed by Roger Kirk, and conducted by Andrew Greene. Opera Theatre of Saint Louis performed the musical in June 2010. Designer Isaac Mizrahi directed and designed the production, with a cast that included Amy Irving, Siân Phillips, and Ron Raines as Fredrik Egerman.
The piece has also become a popular choice for amateur musical theatre and light opera companies. In 2017, the musical was performed by students at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.
In June 2024, there was a concert presentation at David Geffen Hall in Lincoln Center. The production starred star Susan Graham (Desiree Armfeldt), Cynthia Erivo (Petra), Ron Raines (Fredrik Egerman), Kerstin Anderson (Anne Egerman), Jonathan Christopher (Mr. Erlanson), Jason Gotay (Henrik Egerman), Ellie Fishman (Mrs. Nordstrom), Jin Ha (Frid), Addie Harrington (Fredrika Armfeldt), Shuler Hensley (Count Carl Magnus), Samantha Hill (Mrs. Segstrom), Andrea Jones-Sojola (Mrs. Anderson), Ross Lekites (Mr. Lindquist), Marsha Mason (Madam Armfeldt), and Ruthie Ann Miles (Countess Charlotte). The concert was produced by Jeff Berger, in association with
Doug and Stacey Meyer, David and Ryan Belenzon, and Michael Lamon.
Film adaptation.
A film version of "A Little Night Music" was released in 1977. Cariou, Gingold, and Guittard reprise their broadway roles alongside Elizabeth Taylor as Desiree, Lesley-Anne Down as Anne and Diana Rigg as Charlotte. The setting for the film was moved from Sweden to Austria. Sondheim wrote lyrics for the "Night Waltz" theme ("Love Takes Time") and wrote an entirely new version of "The Glamorous Life", which has been incorporated into several subsequent productions of the stage musical. However, other songs, including "In Praise of Women", "The Miller's Son" and "Liaisons", were cut and remain heard only as background orchestrations. The film marked Prince's second (and final) time as a motion picture director. Critical reaction to the film was mostly negative, with much being made of Taylor's wildly fluctuating weight from scene to scene. Some critics talked more positively of the film, with "Variety" calling it "an elegant looking, period romantic charade". There was praise for Diana Rigg's performance, and orchestrator Jonathan Tunick received an Oscar for his work on the score. A soundtrack recording was released on LP, and a DVD release was issued in June 2007.
Music analysis.
The score for "A Little Night Music" presents performance challenges more often seen in operetta or light opera pieces than in standard musical comedy. The demands made on the singing cast are considerable; although the vocal demands of the role of Desiree are rather small, most of the other singing roles require strong, legitimately trained voices with fairly wide ranges. Sondheim's liberal use of counterpoint extends to the vocal parts, including a free-structured round (the trio "Perpetual Anticipation") as well as songs in which characters engage in interior monologues or even overt dialogue simultaneously ("Now/Later/Soon", "A Weekend in the Country"). Critic Rex Reed noted that "The score of 'Night Music' ...contains patter songs, contrapuntal duets and trios, a quartet, and even a dramatic double quintet to puzzle through. All this has been gorgeously orchestrated by Jonathan Tunick; there is no rhythm section, only strings and woodwinds to carry the melodies and harmonies aloft."
Sondheim's engagement with threes extends to his lyrics. He organizes trios with the singers separated, while his duets are sung together, about a third person.
The work is performed as an operetta in many professional opera companies. For example, it was added to the New York City Opera Company repertoire in 1990.
time.
Most of the music in the show is written in waltz meter (time). Some parts adopt compound meter, with a time signature such as . Passages in "Overture", "Glamorous Life", "Liaisons", "Every Day A Little Death", and "The Miller's Son" are in duple meter.
Counterpoint and polyphony.
At several points, Sondheim has multiple performers each sing a different song simultaneously. This use of counterpoint maintains coherence even as it extends the notion of a round, familiar in songs such as the traditional "Frère Jacques", into something more complex. Sondheim said: "As for the three songs ... going together well, I might as well confess. In those days I was just getting into contrapuntal and choral writing...and I wanted to develop my technique by writing a trio. What I didn't want to do is the quodlibet method...wouldn't it be nice to have three songs you don't think are going to go together, and they do go together ... The trick was the little vamp on "Soon" which has five-and six-note chords." Steve Swayne comments that the "contrapuntal episodes in the extended ensembles ... stand as testament to his interest in Counterpoint."
"Send In The Clowns".
The show's best-known and Sondheim's biggest hit song was almost an afterthought, written several days before the start of out-of-town tryouts. Sondheim initially conceived Desiree as a role for a more or less non-singing actress. When he discovered that the original Desiree, Glynis Johns, was able to sing (she had a "small, silvery voice") but could not "sustain a phrase", he devised the song "Send in the Clowns" for her in a way that would work around her vocal weakness, e.g., by ending lines with consonants that made for a short cut-off. "It is written in short phrases in order to be acted rather than sung ... tailor-made for Glynis Johns, who lacks the vocal power to sustain long phrases."
In analyzing the text of the song, Max Cryer wrote that it "is not intended to be sung by the young in love, but by a mature performer who has seen it all before. The song remains an anthem to regret for unwise decisions in the past and recognition that there's no need to send in the clowns – they're already here."
Graham Wolfe has argued, "What Desirée is referring to in the famous song is a conventional device to cover over a moment when something has gone wrong on stage. Midway through the second Act she has deviated from her usual script by suggesting to Fredrik the possibility of being together seriously and permanently, and, having been rejected, she falters "as" a show-person, finds herself bereft of the capacity to improvise and wittily cover. If Desirée could perform at this moment – revert to the innuendos, one-liners and blithe self-referential humour that constitutes her normal character – all would be well. She cannot, and what follows is an exemplary manifestation of Sondheim’s musico-dramatic complexity, his inclination to write music that performs drama. That is, what needs to be covered over (by the clowns sung about in the song) is the very intensity, ragged emotion and utter vulnerability that comes forward through the music and singing itself, a display protracted to six minutes, wrought with exposed silences, a shocked Fredrik sitting so uncomfortably before Desirée while something much too real emerges in a realm where he – and his audience – felt assured of performance."
Influences.
There is a Mozart reference in the title—"A Little Night Music" is an occasionally used translation of "Eine kleine Nachtmusik", the nickname of Mozart's Serenade No. 13, K. 525. The elegant, harmonically-advanced music in this musical pays indirect homage to the compositions of Maurice Ravel, especially his "Valses nobles et sentimentales" (whose opening chord is borrowed for the opening chord of the song "Liaisons"); part of this effect stems from the style of orchestration that Jonathan Tunick used. There is also a direct quotation in 'A Weekend in the Country' (just as it moves to A major for the last time in the final section of the number) of Octavian's theme from Strauss' 'Der Rosenkavalier', another comedy of manners with partner-swapping at its heart.
Orchestration.
The original Broadway pit consisted of a 17 piece orchestra.
The 2008 revival of the show modified the orchestrations to an 8 piece pit, re-orchestrated by Jason Carr.
Cast recordings.
In addition to the original Broadway and London cast recordings, and the motion picture soundtrack (no longer available), there are recordings of the 1990 studio cast, the 1995 Royal National Theatre revival (starring Judi Dench), and the 2001 Barcelona cast recording sung in Catalan. In 1997 an all-jazz version of the score was recorded by Terry Trotter.
The 2009 Broadway revival with Catherine Zeta-Jones and Angela Lansbury recorded a cast album on January 4, 2010, which was released on April 6.
Critical response.
In his review of the original 1973 Broadway production, Clive Barnes in "The New York Times" called the musical "heady, civilized, sophisticated and enchanting." He noted that "the real triumph belongs to Stephen Sondheim...the music is a celebration of 3/4 time, an orgy of plaintively memorable waltzes, all talking of past loves and lost worlds...There is a peasant touch here." He commented that the lyrics are "breathtaking".
In its review of the 1989 London revival, the reviewer for "The Guardian" wrote that the "production also strikes me as infinitely superior to Harold Prince's 1975 version at the Adelphi. Mr Judge's great innovation is to transform the Liebeslieder Singers from the evening-dressed, after-dinner line-up into 18th century ghosts weaving in and out of the action...But Mr Judge's other great realisation is that, in Sondheim, the lyrics are not an adornment to a song but their very essence: understand them and the show will flow. Thus Dorothy Tutin as Desiree, the touring thesp eventually reunited with her quondam lover, is not the melting romantic of previous productions but a working mother with the sharpness of a hat-pin."
The "Independent" review of the 1995 National Theatre revival praised the production, writing "For three hours of gloriously barbed bliss and bewitchment, Sean Mathias's production establishes the show as a minor miracle of astringent worldly wisdom and one that is haunted by less earthy intimations." The review went on to state that "The heart of the production, in both senses, is Judi Dench's superb Desiree Armfeldt...Her husky-voiced rendering of "Send in the Clowns" is the most moving I've ever heard."
In reviewing the 2008 Menier Chocolate Factory production, the "Telegraph" reviewer wrote that "Sondheim's lyrics are often superbly witty, his music here, mostly in haunting waltz-time, far more accessible than is sometimes the case. The score positively throbs with love, regret and desire." But of the specific production, the reviewer went on to note: "But Nunn's production, on one of those hermetic sets largely consisting of doors and tarnished mirrors that have become such a cliché in recent years, never penetrates the work's subtly erotic heart. And as is often the case with this director's work, the pace is so slow and the mood so reverent, that initial enchantment gives way to bored fidgeting."
In his "New York Times" review of the 2009 Broadway production, Ben Brantley noted that "the expression that hovers over Trevor Nunn's revival...feels dangerously close to a smirk...It is a smirk shrouded in shadows. An elegiac darkness infuses this production." The production is "sparing on furniture and heavy on shadows", with "a scaled-down orchestra at lugubriously slowed-down tempos..." He goes on to write that "this somber, less-is-more approach could be effective were the ensemble plugged into the same rueful sensibility. But there is only one moment in this production when all its elements cohere perfectly. That moment, halfway through the first act, belongs to Ms. Lansbury, who has hitherto been perfectly entertaining, playing Madame Armfeldt with the overripe aristocratic condescension of a Lady Bracknell. Then comes her one solo, "Liaisons", in which her character thinks back on the art of love as a profession in a gilded age, when sex 'was but a pleasurable means to a measurable end.' Her face, with its glamour-gorgon makeup, softens, as Madame Armfeldt seems to melt into memory itself, and the wan stage light briefly appears to borrow radiance from her. It's a lovely example of the past reaching out to the present..."
Steven Suskin, reviewing the new Broadway cast for "Variety", wrote "What a difference a diva makes. Bernadette Peters steps into the six-month-old revival of "A Little Night Music" with a transfixing performance, playing it as if she realizes her character's onstage billing -- "the one and only Desiree Armfeldt"—is clichéd hyperbole. By figuratively rolling her eyes at the hype, Peters gives us a rich, warm and comedically human Desiree, which reaches full impact when she pierces the façade with a nakedly honest, tears-on-cheek 'Send in the Clowns.'"
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Dual wield
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Dual wielding or Macedonian shooting is the technique of using two weapons, one in each hand, for training or combat. It is not a common combat practice. Although historical records of dual wielding in war are limited, there are numerous weapon-based martial arts that involve the use of a pair of weapons. The use of a companion weapon is sometimes employed in European martial arts and fencing, such as a parrying dagger. Miyamoto Musashi, a Japanese swordsman and "ronin", was said to have conceived of the idea of a particular style of swordsmanship involving the use of two swords.
In terms of firearms, especially handguns, dual wielding is generally denounced by firearm enthusiasts due to its impracticality. Though using two handguns at the same time confers an advantage by allowing more ready ammunition, it is rarely done due to other aspects of weapons handling.
Dual wielding, both with melee and ranged weapons, has been popularized by fictional works (film, television, and video games).
History.
Dual wielding has not been used or mentioned much in military history, though it appears in weapon-based martial arts and fencing practices.
The dimachaerus was a type of Roman gladiator that fought with two swords. Thus, an inscription from Lyon, France, mentions such a type of gladiator, here spelled "dymacherus". The dimachaeri were equipped for close-combat fighting. A dimachaerus used a pair of siccae (curved scimitar) or gladius and used a fighting style adapted to both attack and defend with his weapons rather than a shield, as he was not equipped with one.
The use of weapon combinations in each hand has been mentioned for close combat in western Europe during the Byzantine, Medieval, and Renaissance era. The use of a parrying dagger such as a main gauche along with a rapier is common in historical European martial arts.
North American Indian tribes of the Atlantic northeast used a form involving a tomahawk in the primary hand and a knife in the secondary. It is practiced today as part of the modern Cree martial art Okichitaw.
All the above-mentioned examples, involve either one long and one short weapon, or two short weapons. An example of a dual wield of two sabres is the Ukrainian cossack dance hopak.
Asia.
During the campaign Muslim conquest in 6th to 7th century AD, Rashidun caliphate general Khalid ibn Walid was reported to favor wielding two broad swords, with one in each hand, during combat.
Traditional schools of Japanese martial arts include dual wield techniques, particularly a style conceived by Miyamoto Musashi involving the katana and wakizashi, two-sword kenjutsu techniques he called "Niten Ichi-ryū".
Eskrima, the traditional martial arts of the Philippines teaches "Doble Baston" techniques involving the basic use of a pair of rattan sticks and also Espada y daga or Sword/Stick and Dagger. Okinawan martial arts have a method that uses a pair of "sai".
Chinese martial arts involve the use of a pair of butterfly swords and hook swords.
Famed for his enormous strength, Dian Wei, a military general serving under the warlord Cao Cao in the late Eastern Han dynasty of China, excelled at wielding a pair of "ji" (a halberd-like weapon), each of which was said to weigh 40 "jin".
Chen An, a warlord who lived during the Jin dynasty (266–420) and Sixteen Kingdoms period, wielded a sword and a serpent spear in each hand, supposedly measuring at 7 "chi" and 1 "zhang" 8 "chi" respectively.
During Ran Wei–Later Zhao war, Ran Min, emperor of the short-lived Ran Wei empire of China, wielded two weapons, one in each hand, and fought fiercely, inflicting many casualties on the Xianbei soldiers while mounted on the famous horse Zhu Long ("Red Dragon").
Gatka, a weapon-based martial art from the Punjab region, is known to use two sticks at a time.
The Thailand weapon-based martial art Krabi Krabong involves the use of a separate "Krabi" in each hand.
Kalaripayattu teaches advanced students to use either two sticks (of various sizes) or two daggers or two swords, simultaneously.
Modern.
The use of a gun in each hand is often associated with the American Old West, mainly due to media portrayals. It was common for people in the era to carry two guns, but not to use them at the same time. The second gun served as a backup weapon, to be used only if the main one suffered a malfunction or was lost or emptied.
However, there were several examples of gunmen in the West who used two pistols at the same time in their gunfights:
Dual wielding two handguns has been popularized by film and television.
Effectiveness.
"MythBusters" compared many firing stances, including having a gun in each hand, and found that, compared to the two-handed single-gun stance as a benchmark, only the one-handed shoulder-level stance with a single gun was comparable in terms of accuracy and speed. The ability to look down the sights of the gun was given as the main reason for this. In an episode the following year, they compared holding two guns and firing simultaneously—rather than alternating left and right shots—with holding one gun in the two-handed stance, and found that the results were in favor of using two guns and firing simultaneously.
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Ariel Sharon
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Ariel Sharon ( ; also known by his diminutive Arik, ; 26 February 192811 January 2014) was an Israeli general and politician who served as the prime minister of Israel from March 2001 until April 2006.
Born in Kfar Malal in Mandatory Palestine to Russian Jewish immigrants, he rose in the ranks of the Israeli Army from its creation in 1948, participating in the 1948 Palestine war as platoon commander of the Alexandroni Brigade and taking part in several battles. Sharon became an instrumental figure in the creation of Unit 101 and the reprisal operations, including the 1953 Qibya massacre, as well as in the 1956 Suez Crisis, the Six-Day War of 1967, the War of Attrition, and the Yom-Kippur War of 1973. Yitzhak Rabin called Sharon "the greatest field commander in our history". Upon leaving the military, Sharon entered politics, joining the Likud party, and served in a number of ministerial posts in Likud-led governments in 1977–92 and 1996–99. As Minister of Defense, he directed the 1982 Lebanon War. An official enquiry found that he bore "personal responsibility" for the Sabra and Shatila massacre of Palestinian refugees, for which he became known as the "Butcher of Beirut" among Arabs. He was subsequently removed as defense minister.
From the 1970s through to the 1990s, Sharon championed construction of Israeli settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. He became the leader of the Likud in 1999, and in 2000, amid campaigning for the 2001 prime ministerial election, made a controversial visit to the Al-Aqsa complex on the Temple Mount, triggering the Second Intifada. He subsequently defeated Ehud Barak in the election and served as Israel's prime minister from 2001 to 2006. As Prime Minister, Sharon orchestrated the construction of the Israeli West Bank barrier in 2002–2003 and Israel's unilateral disengagement from the Gaza Strip in 2005. Facing stiff opposition to the latter policy within the Likud, in November 2005 he left Likud to form a new party, Kadima. He had been expected to win the next election and was widely interpreted as planning on "clearing Israel out of most of the West Bank", in a series of unilateral withdrawals. Following a stroke on 4 January 2006, Sharon remained in a permanent vegetative state until his death in 2014.
Sharon remains a highly polarizing figure in Middle Eastern history. Israelis almost universally revere Sharon as a war hero and statesman, whereas Palestinians and Human Rights Watch have criticized him as a war criminal, with the latter lamenting that he was never held accountable.
Early life and education.
Ariel (Arik) Scheinerman (later Sharon) was born in Kfar Malal, an agricultural moshav, then in Mandatory Palestine, to Shmuel Scheinerman (1896–1956) of Brest-Litovsk and Vera (née Schneirov) Scheinerman (1900–1988) of Mogilev. His parents met while at university in Tiflis (now Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia), where Sharon's father was studying agronomy and his mother was studying medicine. They immigrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1922 in the wake of the Russian Communist government's growing persecution of Jews in the region. In Palestine, Vera Scheinerman went by the name Dvora.
The family arrived with the Third Aliyah and settled in Kfar Malal, a socialist, secular community. (Ariel Sharon himself would remain proudly secular throughout his life.) Although his parents were Mapai supporters, they did not always accept communal consensus: "The Scheinermans' eventual ostracism ... followed the 1933 Arlozorov murder when Dvora and Shmuel refused to endorse the Labor movement's anti-Revisionist calumny and participate in Bolshevik-style public revilement rallies, then the order of the day. Retribution was quick to come. They were expelled from the local health-fund clinic and village synagogue. The cooperative's truck wouldn't make deliveries to their farm nor collect produce."
Sharon spoke both Hebrew and Russian.
Four years after their arrival at Kfar Malal, the Sheinermans had a daughter, Yehudit (Dita). Ariel was born two years later. At age 10, he joined the youth movement HaNoar HaOved VeHaLomed. As a teenager, he began to take part in the armed night-patrols of his moshav. In 1942 at the age of 14, Sharon joined the Gadna, a paramilitary youth battalion, and later the Haganah, the underground paramilitary force and the Jewish military precursor to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
Military career.
Battle for Jerusalem and 1948 War.
Sharon's unit of the Haganah became engaged in serious and continuous combat from the autumn of 1947, with the onset of the Battle for Jerusalem. Without the manpower to hold the roads, his unit took to making offensive hit-and-run raids on Arab forces in the vicinity of Kfar Malal. In units of thirty men, they would hit constantly at Arab villages, bridges and bases, as well as ambush the traffic between Arab villages and bases.
Sharon wrote in his autobiography: "We had become skilled at finding our way in the darkest nights and gradually we built up the strength and endurance these kind of operations required. Under the stress of constant combat we drew closer to one another and began to operate not just as a military unit but almost as a family. ... [W]e were in combat almost every day. Ambushes and battles followed each other until they all seemed to run together."
For his role in a night-raid on Iraqi forces at Bir Adas, Sharon was made a platoon commander in the Alexandroni Brigade. Following the Israeli Declaration of Independence and the onset of the War of Independence, his platoon fended off the Iraqi advance at Kalkiya. Sharon was regarded as a hardened and aggressive soldier, swiftly moving up the ranks during the war. He was shot in the groin, stomach and foot by the Jordanian Arab Legion in the First Battle of Latrun, an unsuccessful attempt to relieve the besieged Jewish community of Jerusalem. Sharon wrote of the casualties in the "horrible battle," and his brigade suffered 139 deaths.
Jordanian field marshal Habis Majali said that Sharon was among 6 Israeli soldiers captured by the Jordanian 4th battalion during the battle, and that Majali took them to a camp in Mafraq and the 6 were later traded back. Sharon denied the claims, but Majali was adamant. "Sharon is like a grizzly bear," he assured. "I captured him for 9 days, I healed his wounds and released him due to his insignificance." A few fellow high-ranking Jordanian officers testified in favour of his account." In 1994 and during the peace treaty signing ceremony with Jordan, Sharon wanted to get in touch with his former captor, but the latter determinedly refused to discuss the incident publicly.
After recovering from the wounds received at Latrun, he resumed command of his patrol unit. On 28 December 1948, his platoon attempted to break through an Egyptian stronghold in Iraq-El-Manshia. At about this time, Israeli founding father David Ben-Gurion gave him the Hebraized name "Sharon". In September 1949, Sharon was promoted to company commander (of the Golani Brigade's reconnaissance unit) and in 1950 to intelligence officer for Central Command. He then took leave to begin studies in history and Middle Eastern culture at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Sharon's subsequent military career would be characterized by insubordination, aggression and disobedience, but also brilliance as a commander.
Unit 101.
A year and a half later, on the direct orders of the Prime Minister, Sharon returned to active service in the rank of major, as the founder and commander of the new Unit 101, a special forces unit tasked with reprisal operations in response to Palestinian fedayeen attacks. The first Israeli commando unit, Unit 101 specialized in offensive guerrilla warfare in enemy countries. The unit consisted of 50 men, mostly former paratroopers and Unit 30 personnel. They were armed with non-standard weapons and tasked with carrying out special reprisals across the state's borders—mainly establishing small unit maneuvers, activation and insertion tactics. Training included engaging enemy forces across Israel's borders. Israeli historian Benny Morris describes Unit 101:
Unit 101 undertook a series of raids against Jordan, which then held the West Bank. The raids also helped bolster Israeli morale and convince Arab states that the fledgling nation was capable of long-range military action. Known for raids against Arab civilians and military targets, the unit is held responsible for the widely condemned Qibya massacre in October 1953. After a group of Palestinians used Qibya as a staging point for a fedayeen attack in Yehud that killed a Jewish woman and her two children in Israel, Unit 101 retaliated on the village. By various accounts of the ensuing attack, 65 to 70 Palestinian civilians, half of them women and children, were killed when Sharon's troops dynamited 45 houses and a school.
Facing international condemnation for the attack, Ben-Gurion denied that the Israeli military was involved. In his memoir, Sharon wrote that the unit had checked all the houses before detonating the explosives and that he thought the houses were empty. Although he admitted the results were tragic, Sharon defended the attack, however: "Now people could feel that the terrorist gangs would think twice before striking, now that they knew for sure they would be hit back. Kibbya also put the Jordanian and Egyptian governments on notice that if Israel was vulnerable, so were they."
A few months after its founding, Unit 101 was merged with the 890 Paratroopers Battalion to create the Paratroopers Brigade, of which Sharon would also later become commander. Like Unit 101, it continued raids into Arab territory, culminating with the attack on the Qalqilyah police station in the autumn of 1956.
Leading up to the Suez War, the missions Sharon took part in included:
During a payback operation in the Deir al-Balah refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, Sharon was again wounded by gunfire, this time in the leg. Incidents such as those involving Meir Har-Zion, along with many others, contributed to the tension between Prime Minister Moshe Sharett, who often opposed Sharon's raids, and Moshe Dayan, who had become increasingly ambivalent in his feelings towards Sharon. Later in the year, Sharon was investigated and tried by the Military Police for disciplining one of his subordinates. However, the charges were dismissed before the onset of the Suez War.
1956 Suez War.
Sharon commanded Unit 202 (the Paratroopers Brigade) during the 1956 Suez War (the British "Operation Musketeer"), leading the troop to take the ground east of the Sinai's Mitla Pass and eventually the pass itself against the advice of superiors, suffering heavy Israeli casualties in the process. Having successfully carried out the first part of his mission (joining a battalion parachuted near Mitla with the rest of the brigade moving on ground), Sharon's unit was deployed near the pass. Neither reconnaissance aircraft nor scouts reported enemy forces inside the Mitla Pass. Sharon, whose forces were initially heading east, away from the pass, reported to his superiors that he was increasingly concerned with the possibility of an enemy thrust through the pass, which could attack his brigade from the flank or the rear.
Sharon asked for permission to attack the pass several times, but his requests were denied, though he was allowed to check its status so that if the pass was empty, he could receive permission to take it later. Sharon sent a small scout force, which was met with heavy fire and became bogged down due to vehicle malfunction in the middle of the pass. Sharon ordered the rest of his troops to attack to aid their comrades. Sharon was criticized by his superiors and was damaged by allegations several years later made by several former subordinates, who claimed that Sharon tried to provoke the Egyptians and sent out the scouts in bad faith, ensuring that a battle would ensue.
Sharon had assaulted Themed in a dawn attack, and had stormed the town with his armor through the Themed Gap. Sharon routed the Sudanese police company, and captured the settlement. On his way to the Nakla, Sharon's men came under attack from Egyptian MIG-15s. On the 30th, Sharon linked up with Eytan near Nakla. Dayan had no more plans for further advances beyond the passes, but Sharon nonetheless decided to attack the Egyptian positions at Jebel Heitan. Sharon sent his lightly armed paratroopers against dug-in Egyptians supported by aircraft, tanks and heavy artillery. Sharon's actions were in response to reports of the arrival of the 1st and 2nd Brigades of the 4th Egyptian Armored Division in the area, which Sharon believed would annihilate his forces if he did not seize the high ground. Sharon sent two infantry companies, a mortar battery and some AMX-13 tanks under the command of Mordechai Gur into the Heitan Defile on the afternoon of 31 October 1956. The Egyptian forces occupied strong defensive positions and brought down heavy anti-tank, mortar and machine gun fire on the IDF force. Gur's men were forced to retreat into the "Saucer", where they were surrounded and came under heavy fire. Hearing of this, Sharon sent in another task force while Gur's men used the cover of night to scale the walls of the Heitan Defile. During the ensuing action, the Egyptians were defeated and forced to retreat. A total of 260 Egyptian and 38 Israeli soldiers were killed during the battle at Mitla. Due to these deaths, Sharon's actions at Mitla were surrounded in controversy, with many within the IDF viewing the deaths as the result of unnecessary and unauthorized aggression.
Six-Day War, War of Attrition and Yom Kippur War.
The Mitla incident hindered Sharon's military career for several years. In the meantime, he occupied the position of an infantry brigade commander and received a law degree from Tel Aviv University. However, when Yitzhak Rabin became Chief of Staff in 1964, Sharon again began to rise rapidly in the ranks, occupying the positions of Infantry School Commander and Head of Army Training Branch, eventually achieving the rank of Aluf (Major General).
In the Six-Day War, Sharon, in command of an armored division on the Sinai front, drew up his own complex offensive strategy that combined infantry troops, tanks and paratroopers from planes and helicopters to destroy the Egyptian forces Sharon's 38th Division faced when it broke through to the Kusseima-Abu-Ageila fortified area. Sharon's victories and offensive strategy in the Battle of Abu-Ageila led to international commendation by military strategists; he was judged to have inaugurated a new paradigm in operational command. Researchers at the United States Army Training and Doctrine Command studied Sharon's operational planning, concluding that it involved a number of unique innovations. It was a simultaneous attack by a multiplicity of small forces, each with a specific aim, attacking a particular unit in a synergistic Egyptian defense network. As a result, instead of supporting and covering each other as they were designed to do, each Egyptian unit was left fighting for its own life.
According to Sapir Handelman, after Sharon's assault of the Sinai in the Six-Day War and his encirclement of the Egyptian Third Army in the Yom Kippur War, the Israeli public nicknamed him "The King of Israel".
Sharon played a key role in the War of Attrition. In 1969, he was appointed the Head of IDF's Southern Command. As leader of the southern command, on 29 July Israeli frogmen stormed and destroyed Green Island, a fortress at the northern end of the Gulf of Suez whose radar and antiaircraft installations controlled that sector's airspace. On 9 September Sharon's forces carried out Operation Raviv, a large-scale raid along the western shore of the Gulf of Suez. Landing craft ferried across Russian-made tanks and armored personnel carriers that Israel had captured in 1967, and the small column harried the Egyptians for ten hours.
Following his appointment to the southern command, Sharon had no further promotions, and considered retiring. Sharon discussed the issue with Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, who strongly advised him to remain at his post. Sharon remained in the military for another three years, before retiring in August 1973. Soon after, he helped found the Likud ("Unity") political party.
At the start of the Yom Kippur War on 6 October 1973, Sharon was called back to active duty along with his assigned reserve armored division. On his farm, before he left for the front line, the Reserve Commander, Zeev Amit, said to him, "How are we going to get out of this?" Sharon replied, "You don't know? We will cross the Suez Canal and the war will end over there." Sharon arrived at the front, to participate in his fourth war, in a civilian car. His forces did not engage the Egyptian Army immediately, despite his requests. Under cover of darkness, Sharon's forces moved to a point on the Suez Canal that had been prepared before the war. In a move that again thwarted the commands of his superiors, Sharon's division crossed the Suez, effectively winning the war for Israel. He then headed north towards Ismailia, intent on cutting the Egyptian second army's supply lines, but his division was halted south of the Fresh Water Canal.
Abraham Adan's division passed over the bridgehead into Africa, advancing to within 101 kilometers of Cairo. His division managed to encircle Suez, cutting off and encircling the Third Army. Tensions between the two generals followed Sharon's decision, but a military tribunal later found his action was militarily effective.
Sharon's complex ground maneuver is regarded as a decisive move in the Yom Kippur War, undermining the Egyptian Second Army and encircling the Egyptian Third Army. This move was regarded by many Israelis as the turning point of the war in the Sinai front. Thus, Sharon is widely viewed as the hero of the Yom Kippur War, responsible for Israel's ground victory in the Sinai in 1973. A photo of Sharon wearing a head bandage on the Suez Canal became a famous symbol of Israeli military prowess.
Sharon's political positions were controversial, and he was relieved of duty in February 1974.
Bar Lev Line.
Following Israel's victory in the six-day war, the war of attrition at the Suez Canal began. The Egyptians began firing in provocation against the Israeli forces posted on the eastern part of the canal. Haim Bar Lev, Israel's chief of staff, suggested that Israel construct a border line to protect its southern border. A wall of sand and earth raised along almost the entire length of the Suez Canal would both allow observation of Egyptian forces and conceal the movements of Israeli troops on the eastern side. This line, named after the chief of staff Haim Bar Lev, became known as the Bar Lev Line. It included at least thirty strong points stretching over almost 200 kilometers.
Bar Lev suggested that such a line would defend against any major Egyptian assault across the canal, and was expected to function as a "graveyard for Egyptian troops". Moshe Dayan described it as "one of the best anti-tank ditches in the world." Sharon, and Israel Tal on the other hand, vigorously opposed the line. Sharon said that it would pin down large military formations that would be sitting ducks for deadly artillery attacks, and cited the opinion of Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, who explained him "the great military disaster such a line could bring." Notwithstanding, it was completed in spring 1970.
During the Yom Kippur War, Egyptian forces successfully breached the Bar Lev Line in less than two hours at a cost of more than a thousand dead and some 5,000 wounded. Sharon would later recall that what Schneerson had told him was a tragedy, "but unfortunately, that happened".
Early political career, 1974–2001.
Beginnings of political career.
In the 1940s and 1950s, Sharon seemed to be personally devoted to the ideals of Mapai, the predecessor of the modern Labor Party. However, after retiring from military service, he joined the Liberal Party and was instrumental in establishing Likud in July 1973 by a merger of Herut, the Liberal Party and independent elements. Sharon became chairman of the campaign staff for that year's elections, which were scheduled for November. Two and a half weeks after the start of the election campaign, the Yom Kippur War erupted and Sharon was called back to reserve service. On the heels of being hailed as a war hero for crossing the Suez in the 1973 war, Sharon won a seat to the Knesset in the elections that year, but resigned a year later.
From June 1975 to March 1976, Sharon was a special aide to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. He planned his return to politics for the 1977 elections; first, he tried to return to the Likud and replace Menachem Begin at the head of the party. He suggested to Simha Erlich, who headed the Liberal Party bloc in the Likud, that he was more able than Begin to win an election victory; he was rejected, however. He then tried to join the Labor Party and the centrist Democratic Movement for Change, but was rejected by those parties too. Only then did he form his own list, Shlomtzion, which won two Knesset seats in the subsequent elections. Immediately after the elections, he merged Shlomtzion with the Likud and became Minister of Agriculture.
When Sharon joined Begin's government, he had relatively little political experience. During this period, Sharon supported the Gush Emunim settlements movement and was viewed as the patron of the settlers' movement. He used his position to encourage the establishment of a network of Israeli settlements in the occupied territories to prevent the possibility of Palestinian Arabs' return to these territories. Sharon doubled the number of Jewish settlements on the West Bank and Gaza Strip during his tenure.
After the 1981 elections, Begin rewarded Sharon for his important contribution to Likud's narrow win, by appointing him Minister of Defense.
Under Sharon, Israel continued to build upon the unprecedented coordination between the Israel Defense Forces and the South African Defence Force, with Israeli and South African generals giving each other unfettered access to each other's battlefields and military tactics, and Israel sharing with South Africa highly classified information about its missions, such as Operation Opera, which had previously only been reserved for the United States. In 1981, after visiting South African forces fighting in Namibia for 10 days, Sharon argued that South Africa needed more weapons to fight Soviet infiltration in the region. Sharon promised that the relationship between Israel and South Africa would continue to deepen as they work to "ensure the National Defense of both our countries". The collaboration in carrying out joint-nuclear tests, in planning counter-insurgency strategies in Namibia and in designing security fences helped to make Israel, South Africa's closest ally in this period.
1982 Lebanon War and Sabra and Shatila massacre.
As Defense Minister, Sharon launched an invasion of Lebanon called Operation Peace for Galilee, later known as the 1982 Lebanon War, following the shooting of Israel's ambassador in London, Shlomo Argov. Although this attempted assassination was in fact perpetrated by the Abu Nidal Organization, possibly with Syrian or Iraqi involvement, the Israeli government justified the invasion by citing 270 terrorist attacks by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in Israel, the occupied territories, and the Jordanian and Lebanese border (in addition to 20 attacks on Israeli interests abroad). Sharon intended the operation to eradicate the PLO from its state within a state inside Lebanon, but the war is primarily remembered for the Sabra and Shatila massacre.
In a three-day massacre between 16 and 18 September, between 460 and 3,500 civilians, mostly Palestinians and Lebanese Shiites, in the Sabra neighborhood and the adjacent Shatila refugee camp were killed by the Phalanges— Lebanese Maronite Christian militias. Shatila had previously been one of the PLO's three main training camps for foreign terrorists and the main training camp for European terrorists; the Israelis maintained that 2,000 to 3,000 terrorists remained in the camps, but were unwilling to risk the lives of more of their soldiers after the Lebanese army repeatedly refused to "clear them out." The killings followed years of sectarian civil war in Lebanon that left 95,000 dead. The Lebanese army's chief prosecutor investigated the killings and counted 460 dead, Israeli intelligence estimated 700–800 dead, and the Palestinian Red Crescent claimed 2,000 dead. 1,200 death certificates were issued to anyone who produced three witnesses claiming a family member disappeared during the time of the massacre. Nearly all of the victims were men.
The Phalange militia went into the camps to clear out PLO fighters while Israeli forces surrounded the camps, blocking camp exits and providing logistical support. The killings led some to label Sharon "the Butcher of Beirut".
An Associated Press report on 15 September 1982 stated, "Defence Minister Ariel Sharon, in a statement, tied the killing of the Phalangist leader Bachir Gemayel to the PLO, saying 'it symbolises the terrorist murderousness of the PLO terrorist organisations and their supporters'." Habib Chartouni, a Lebanese Christian from the Syrian Socialist National Party confessed to the murder of Gemayel, and no Palestinians were involved.
Robert Maroun Hatem, Hobeika's bodyguard, stated in his book "From Israel to Damascus" that Phalangist commander Elie Hobeika ordered the massacre of civilians in defiance of Israeli instructions to behave like a "dignified" army. Hatem claimed "Sharon had given strict orders to Hobeika...to guard against any desperate move" and that Hobeika perpetrated the massacre "to tarnish Israel's reputation worldwide" for the benefit of Syria. Hobeika subsequently joined the Syrian occupation government and lived as a prosperous businessman under Syrian protection; further massacres in Sabra and Shatilla occurred with Syrian support in 1985.
The massacre followed intense Israeli bombings of Beirut that had seen heavy civilian casualties, testing Israel's relationship with the United States in the process. America sent troops to help negotiate the PLO's exit from Lebanon, withdrawing them after negotiating a ceasefire that ostensibly protected Palestinian civilians.
Legal findings.
After 400,000 Peace Now protesters rallied in Tel Aviv to demand an official government inquiry into the massacres, the official Israeli government investigation into the massacre at Sabra and Shatila, the Kahan Commission (1982), was conducted. The inquiry found that the Israeli Defense Forces were indirectly responsible for the massacre since IDF troops held the area. The commission determined that the killings were carried out by a Phalangist unit acting on its own, but its entry was known to Israel and approved by Sharon. Prime Minister Begin was also found responsible for not exercising greater involvement and awareness in the matter of introducing the Phalangists into the camps.
The commission also concluded that Sharon bore personal responsibility "for ignoring the danger of bloodshed and revenge [and] not taking appropriate measures to prevent bloodshed". It said Sharon's negligence in protecting the civilian population of Beirut, which had come under Israeli control, amounted to a dereliction of duty of the minister. In early 1983, the commission recommended the removal of Sharon from his post as defense minister and stated:
We have found ... that the Minister of Defense [Ariel Sharon] bears personal responsibility. In our opinion, it is fitting that the Minister of Defense draw the appropriate personal conclusions arising out of the defects revealed with regard to the manner in which he discharged the duties of his office—and if necessary, that the Prime Minister consider whether he should exercise his authority ... to ... remove [him] from office.
Sharon initially refused to resign as defense minister, and Begin refused to fire him. After a grenade was thrown into a dispersing crowd at an Israeli Peace Now march, killing Emil Grunzweig and injuring 10 others, a compromise was reached: Sharon agreed to forfeit the post of defense minister but stayed in the cabinet as a minister without portfolio.
Sharon's resignation as defense minister is listed as one of the important events of the Tenth Knesset.
In its 21 February 1983 issue, "Time" published an article implying that Sharon was directly responsible for the massacres. Sharon sued "Time" for libel in American and Israeli courts. Although the jury concluded that the "Time" article included false allegations, they found that the magazine had not acted with actual malice and so was not guilty of libel.
On 18 June 2001, relatives of the victims of the Sabra massacre began proceedings in Belgium to have Sharon indicted on alleged war crimes charges. Elie Hobeika, the leader of the Phalange militia who carried out the massacres, was assassinated in January 2002, several months before he was scheduled to testify trial. Prior to his assassination, he had "specifically stated that he did not plan to identify Sharon as being responsible for Sabra and Shatila."
Political downturn and recovery.
After his dismissal from the Defense Ministry post, Sharon remained in successive governments as a minister without portfolio (1983–1984), Minister for Trade and Industry (1984–1990), and Minister of Housing Construction (1990–1992). In the Knesset, he was member of the Foreign Affairs and Defense committee (1990–1992) and chairman of the committee overseeing Jewish immigration from the Soviet Union. During this period he was a rival to then prime minister Yitzhak Shamir, but failed in various bids to replace him as chairman of Likud. Their rivalry reached a head in February 1990, when Sharon grabbed the microphone from Shamir, who was addressing the Likud central committee, and famously exclaimed: "Who's for wiping out terrorism?" The incident was widely viewed as an apparent coup attempt against Shamir's leadership of the party.
Sharon unsuccessfully challenged Shamir in the 1984 Herut leadership election and the 1992 Likud leadership election.
In Benjamin Netanyahu's 1996–1999 government, Sharon was Minister of National Infrastructure (1996–98), and Foreign Minister (1998–99). Upon the election of the Barak Labor government, Sharon became the interim leader of the Likud party and subsequently won the September 1999 Likud leadership election.
Opposition to the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.
Ariel Sharon criticised the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999 as an act of "brutal interventionism". Sharon said both Serbia and Kosovo have been victims of violence. He said prior to the current Yugoslav campaign against Kosovo Albanians, Serbians were the targets of attacks in the Kosovo province. "Israel has a clear policy. We are against aggressive actions. We are against hurting innocent people. I hope that the sides will return to the negotiating table as soon as possible." During the crisis, Elyakim Haetzni said the Serbs should be the first to receive Israeli aid. "There are our traditional friends," he told Israel Radio." It was suggested that Sharon may have supported the Yugoslav position because of the Serbian population's history of saving Jews during the holocaust. On Sharon's death, Serbian minister Aleksandar Vulin stated: The Serbian people will remember Sharon for opposing the 1999 NATO bombing campaign against the former Yugoslavia and advocating respect for sovereignty of other nations and a policy of not interfering with their internal affairs.
Campaign for Prime Minister, 2000–2001.
On 28 September 2000, Sharon and an escort of over 1,000 Israeli police officers visited the Temple Mount complex, site of the Dome of the Rock and Qibli Mosque, the holiest place in the world to Jews and the third holiest site in Islam. Sharon declared that the complex would remain under perpetual Israeli control. Palestinian commentators accused Sharon of purposely inflaming emotions with the event to provoke a violent response and obstruct success of delicate ongoing peace talks. On the following day, a large number of Palestinian demonstrators and an Israeli police contingent confronted each other at the site. According to the U.S. State Department, "Palestinians held large demonstrations and threw stones at police in the vicinity of the Western Wall. Police used rubber-coated metal bullets and live ammunition to disperse the demonstrators, killing 4 persons and injuring about 200." According to the government of Israel, 14 policemen were injured.
Sharon's visit, a few months before his election as Prime Minister, came after archeologists claimed that extensive building operations at the site were destroying priceless antiquities. Sharon's supporters claim that Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian National Authority planned the Second Intifada months prior to Sharon's visit. They state that Palestinian security chief Jabril Rajoub provided assurances that if Sharon did not enter the mosques, no problems would arise. They also often quote statements by Palestinian Authority officials, particularly Imad Falouji, the P.A. Communications Minister, who admitted months after Sharon's visit that the violence had been planned in July, far in advance of Sharon's visit, stating the intifada "was carefully planned since the return of (Palestinian President) Yasser Arafat from Camp David negotiations rejecting the U.S. conditions". According to the Mitchell Report,
The Mitchell Report found that
In addition, the report stated,
The Or Commission, an Israeli panel of inquiry appointed to investigate the October 2000 events,
Prime Minister (2001–2006).
After the collapse of Barak's government, Sharon was elected Prime Minister on 6 February 2001, defeating Barak 62 percent to 38 percent. Sharon's senior adviser was Raanan Gissin. In his first act as prime minister, Sharon invited the Labor Party to join in a coalition with Likud. After Israel was struck by a wave of suicide bombings in 2002 amid the Second Intifada, Sharon launched Operation Defensive Shield, an extensive military operation in the West Bank during which the IDF launched incursions into major Palestinian cities to root out militant activity, as well as a series of targeted assassinations against Palestinian militants. His government also built the West Bank barrier. A survey conducted by Tel Aviv University's Jaffe Center in May 2004 found that 80% of Jewish Israelis believed that the Israel Defense Forces had succeeded in militarily countering the Al-Aqsa Intifada.
The election of the more pro-Russian Sharon, as well as the more pro-Israel Vladimir Putin, led to an improvement in Israel–Russia relations.
In September 2003, Sharon became the first prime minister of Israel to visit India, saying that Israel regarded India as one of the most important countries in the world. Some analysts speculated on the development of a three-way military axis of New Delhi, Washington, D.C., and Jerusalem.
On 20 July 2004, Sharon called on French Jews to emigrate from France to Israel immediately, in light of an increase in antisemitism in France (94 antisemitic assaults were reported in the first six months of 2004, compared to 47 in 2003). France has the third-largest Jewish population in the world (about 600,000 people). Sharon observed that an "unfettered anti-Semitism" reigned in France. The French government responded by describing his comments as "unacceptable", as did the French representative Jewish organization CRIF, which denied Sharon's claim of intense anti-Semitism in French society. An Israeli spokesperson later claimed that Sharon had been misunderstood. France then postponed a visit by Sharon. Upon his visit, both Sharon and French President Jacques Chirac were described as showing a willingness to put the issue behind them.
Unilateral disengagement.
In September 2001, Sharon stated for the first time that Palestinians should have the right to establish their own land west of the Jordan River. In May 2003, Sharon endorsed the Road Map for Peace put forth by the United States, the European Union and Russia, which opened a dialogue with Mahmud Abbas, and stated his commitment to the creation of a Palestinian state in the future.
He embarked on a course of unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, while maintaining control of its coastline and airspace. Sharon's plan was welcomed by both the Palestinian Authority and Israel's left wing as a step towards a final peace settlement. However, it was greeted with opposition from within his own Likud party and from other right wing Israelis, on national security, military, and religious grounds.
Disengagement from Gaza.
On 1 December 2004, Sharon dismissed five ministers from the Shinui party for voting against the government's 2005 budget. In January 2005, Sharon formed a national unity government that included representatives of Likud, Labor, and Meimad and Degel HaTorah as "out-of-government" supporters without any seats in the government (United Torah Judaism parties usually reject having ministerial offices as a policy). Between 16 and 30 August 2005, Sharon controversially expelled 9,480 Jewish settlers from 21 settlements in Gaza and four settlements in the northern West Bank. Once it became clear that the evictions were definitely going ahead, a group of conservative Rabbis, led by Yosef Dayan, placed an ancient curse on Sharon known as the Pulsa diNura, calling on the Angel of Death to intervene and kill him. After Israeli soldiers bulldozed every settlement structure except for several former synagogues, Israeli soldiers formally left Gaza on 11 September 2005 and closed the border fence at Kissufim. While his decision to withdraw from Gaza sparked bitter protests from members of the Likud party and the settler movement, opinion polls showed that it was a popular move among most of the Israeli electorate, with more than 80 percent of Israelis backing the plans. On 27 September 2005, Sharon narrowly defeated a leadership challenge by a 52–48 percent vote. The move was initiated within the central committee of the governing Likud party by Sharon's main rival, Benjamin Netanyahu, who had left the cabinet to protest Sharon's withdrawal from Gaza. The measure was an attempt by Netanyahu to call an early primary in November 2005 to choose the party's leader.
Founding of Kadima.
On 21 November 2005, Sharon resigned as head of Likud, and dissolved parliament to form a new centrist party called Kadima ("Forward"). November polls indicated that Sharon was likely to be returned to the prime ministership. On 20 December 2005, Sharon's longtime rival Netanyahu was elected his successor as leader of Likud. Following Sharon's incapacitation, Ehud Olmert replaced Sharon as Kadima's leader, for the nearing general elections. Likud, along with the Labor Party, were "Kadima"s chief rivals in the March 2006 elections.
Sharon's stroke occurred a few months before he had been expected to win a new election and was widely interpreted as planning on "clearing Israel out of most of the West Bank", in a series of unilateral withdrawals.
In the elections, which saw Israel's lowest-ever voter turnout of 64 percent (the number usually averages on the high 70%), Kadima, headed by Olmert, received the most Knesset seats, followed by Labor. The new governing coalition installed in May 2006 included Kadima, with Olmert as Prime Minister, Labor (including Amir Peretz as Defense Minister), the Pensioners' Party (Gil), the Shas religious party, and Israel Beytenu.
Alleged fundraising irregularities and Greek island affair.
During the latter part of his career, Sharon was investigated for alleged involvement in a number of financial scandals, in particular, the Greek island affair and irregularities of fundraising during the 1999 election campaign. In the Greek island affair, Sharon was accused of promising (during his term as Foreign Minister) to help Israeli businessman David Appel in his development project on a Greek island in exchange for large consultancy payments to Sharon's son Gilad. The charges were later dropped due to lack of evidence. In the 1999 election fundraising scandal, Sharon was not charged with any wrongdoing, but his son Omri, a Knesset member at the time, was charged and sentenced in 2006 to nine months in prison.
To avoid a potential conflict of interest in relation to these investigations, Sharon was not involved in the confirmation of the appointment of a new attorney general, Menahem Mazuz, in 2005.
On 10 December 2005, Israeli police raided Martin Schlaff's apartment in Jerusalem. Another suspect in the case was Robert Nowikovsky, an Austrian involved in Russian state-owned company Gazprom's business activities in Europe.
According to "Haaretz", "The $3 million that parachuted into Gilad and Omri Sharon's bank account toward the end of 2002 was transferred there in the context of a consultancy contract for development of kolkhozes (collective farms) in Russia. Gilad Sharon was brought into the campaign to make the wilderness bloom in Russia by Getex, a large Russian-based exporter of seeds (peas, millet, wheat) from Eastern Europe. Getex also has ties with Israeli firms involved in exporting wheat from Ukraine, for example. The company owns farms in Eastern Europe and is considered large and prominent in its field. It has its Vienna offices in the same building as Jurimex, which was behind the $1-million guarantee to the Yisrael Beiteinu party."
On 17 December, police found evidence of a $3 million bribe paid to Sharon's sons. Shortly afterwards, Sharon had a stroke.
Illness, incapacitation and death (2006–2014).
Sharon had been obese since the 1980s, and also had suspected chronic high blood pressure and high cholesterol – at tall, he was reputed to weigh . Stories of Sharon's appetite and obesity were legendary in Israel. He would often joke about his love of food and expansive girth. His staff car would reportedly be stocked with snacks, vodka, and caviar. In October 2004, when asked why he did not wear a bulletproof vest despite frequent death threats, Sharon smiled and replied, "There is none that fits my size." He was a daily consumer of cigars and luxury foods. Numerous attempts by doctors, friends, and staff to impose a balanced diet on Sharon were unsuccessful.
Sharon was hospitalized on 18 December 2005, following a minor ischemic stroke. During his hospital stay, doctors discovered a heart defect requiring surgery and ordered bed rest pending a cardiac catheterization scheduled for 5 January 2006. Instead, Sharon immediately returned to work and had a hemorrhagic stroke on 4 January. He was rushed to Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem. After two surgeries lasting 7 and 14 hours, doctors stopped the bleeding in Sharon's brain, but were unable to prevent him from entering into a coma. Subsequent media reports indicated that Sharon had been diagnosed with cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) during his December hospitalisation. Hadassah Hospital Director Shlomo Mor-Yosef declined to respond to comments that the combination of CAA and blood thinners after Sharon's December stroke might have caused his more serious subsequent stroke.
Ehud Olmert became Acting Prime Minister the night of Sharon's second stroke, while Sharon officially remained in office. Knesset elections followed in March, with Olmert and Sharon's Kadima party winning a plurality. The next month, the Israeli Cabinet declared Sharon permanently incapacitated and Olmert became Interim Prime Minister on 14 April 2006 and Prime Minister in his own right on 4 May.
Sharon underwent a series of subsequent surgeries related to his state. In May 2006, he was transferred to a long-term care facility in Sheba Medical Center. In July of that year, he was briefly taken to the hospital's intensive care unit to be treated for bacteria in his blood, before returning to the long-term care facility on 6 November 2006. Sharon would remain at Sheba Medical Center until his death. Medical experts indicated that his cognitive abilities had likely been destroyed by the stroke. His condition worsened from late 2013, and Sharon suffered from renal failure on 1 January 2014.
After spending eight years in a coma, Sharon died at 14:00 local time (12:00 UTC) on 11 January 2014. Sharon's state funeral was held on 13 January in accordance with Jewish burial customs, which require that interment take place as soon after death as possible. His body lay in state in the Knesset Plaza from 12 January until the official ceremony, followed by a funeral held at the family's ranch in the Negev Desert. Sharon was buried beside his wife, Lily.
Personal life.
Sharon was married twice, to two sisters, Margalit and Lily Zimmerman, who were from Romania. Sharon met Margalit in 1947 when she was 16, while she was tending a vegetable field, and married her in 1953, shortly after becoming a military instructor. Margalit was a supervisory psychiatric nurse. They had one son, Gur. Margalit died in a car accident in May 1962 and Gur died in October 1967, aged 11, after a friend accidentally shot him while the two children were playing with a rifle at the Sharon family home. After Margalit's death, Sharon married her younger sister, Lily. They had two sons, Omri and Gilad, and six grandchildren. Lily Sharon died of lung cancer in 2000.
Sharon's sister, Yehudit, known as "Dita", married Shmuel Mandel. In the 1950s, the couple permanently left Israel and emigrated to the United States. This caused a permanent rift in the family. Shmuel and Vera Scheinerman were greatly hurt by their daughter's choice to leave Israel. As a result, Vera Scheinerman willed only a small part of her estate to Dita, an act which enraged her. At one point, Dita decided to return to Israel, but after Vera was informed by the Israel Lands Administration that it would not be legally possible to split the family property between Ariel and Dita, and informed her that she would not be able to build a home there, Dita, believing she was being lied to, cut her family in Israel off and refused to attend the funerals of her mother and sister-in-law. She reestablished contact with the family after Sharon's stroke. Sharon's sister has rarely been mentioned in biographies of him: he himself rarely acknowledged her and only mentioned her twice in his autobiography.
Legacy.
A hugely consequential figure, Sharon remains a highly polarizing figure as well. While generally considered a great general and statesman among Israelis, Palestinians and numerous media and political sources revile Sharon as a war criminal. Human Rights Watch has contended that Sharon should have been held criminally accountable for his role in the Sabra and Shatila massacre, and other abuses.
The Ariel Sharon Park, an environmental park near Tel Aviv, is named for him.
In the Negev desert, the IDF is currently building its city of training bases, Camp Ariel Sharon. In total, a NIS 50 billion project, the city of bases is named after Ariel Sharon, the largest active construction project in Israel, it is to become the largest IDF base in Israel.
Overview of offices held.
Sharon served as prime minister (Israel's head of government) from 7 March 2001 through 14 April 2006 (with Ehud Olmert serving as "acting" prime minister beginning 4 January 2006, after Sharon slipped into a coma). As prime minister he led the 12th government during the 15th Knesset and the 13th government during the 16th Knesset.
Sharon served in the Knesset, first for several months in 1973, and later from 1977 through 2006. Sharon. From July 1999 through July 2000, Sharon served as the unofficial/honorary Knesset's opposition leader. Thereafter, from July 2000 through March 2001, he served as the first official designated Knesset opposition leader.
Sharon was the leader of the Shlomtzion party from its 1976 founding until its 1977 merger into Likud. Sharon served as leader of the Likud party from 1999 through 2005, leaving to create Kadima which he led from 2005 through early 2006 (when he fell into a coma).
In addition to these positions and his ministerial roles, Sharon also served as a special aide to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin from June 1975 through March 1976.
Electoral history.
2001 direct election for Prime Minister.
Party leadership elections.
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Romantic orientation
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Romantic orientation, also called affectional orientation, is the classification of the sex or gender which a person experiences romantic attraction towards or is likely to have a romantic relationship with. The term is used alongside the term "sexual orientation", as well as being used alternatively to it, based upon the perspective that sexual attraction is only a single component of a larger concept.
For example, although a pansexual person may feel sexually attracted to people regardless of gender, the person may experience romantic attraction and intimacy, for example, with women only.
For asexual people, romantic orientation is often considered a more useful measure of attraction than sexual orientation.
The relationship between sexual attraction and romantic attraction is still under debate. Sexual and romantic attractions are often studied in conjunction. Even though studies of sexual and romantic spectrums are shedding light onto this under-researched subject, much is still not fully understood.
Romantic identities.
People may or may not engage in purely emotional romantic relationships. The main identities relating to this are:
Relationship with sexual orientation and asexuality.
The implications of the distinction between romantic and sexual orientations have not been fully recognized, nor have they been studied extensively. It is common for sources to describe sexual orientation as including components of both sexual and romantic (or romantic equivalent) attractions. Publications investigating the relationship between sexual orientation and romantic orientation are limited. Challenges in collecting information result from survey participants having difficulty identifying or distinguishing between sexual and romantic attractions. Asexual individuals experience little to no sexual attraction (see gray asexuality); however, they may still experience romantic attraction. Lisa M. Diamond states that a person's romantic orientation can differ from whom the person is sexually attracted to. While there is limited research on the discordance between sexual attraction and romantic attraction in individuals, the possibility of fluidity and diversity in attractions have been progressively recognized. Researchers Bulmer and Izuma found that people who identify as aromantic often have more negative attitudes in relation to romance. While roughly 1% of the population identifies as asexual, 74% of those people reported having some form of romantic attraction.
A concept commonly used by people that experience discordant romantic and sexual attraction is the split attraction model, which tries to explain that romantic and sexual attractions are not exclusively tied together and is often used by people of the asexual and aromantic community to explain their differing romantic versus sexual orientations. The abbreviation aroace (or aro-ace) can be used for someone who is both aromantic ('aro') and asexual ('ace').
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Anoa
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Anoa, also known as dwarf buffalo and sapiutan, are two species of the genus "Bubalus", placed within the subgenus "Anoa" and endemic to the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia: the mountain anoa ("Bubalus quarlesi") and the lowland anoa ("Bubalus depressicornis"). Both live in undisturbed rainforests and are similar in appearance to miniature water buffaloes, weighing . 'Anoa' itself is Celebic in origin cognate to words in other related Philippine languages in the same Austronesian family that name the common water buffalo ("anwáng" in Tagalog, "nuáng" in Ilocano, nuwang in Ifugaw etc.).
Both species of anoa have been classified as endangered since the 1960s and the populations continue to decrease. Fewer than 5,000 animals of each species likely remain. Reasons for their decline include poaching for hides, horns, and meat by the local peoples and loss of habitat due to the advancement of settlement. Currently, poaching is the most serious factor in most areas.
Anoa are most closely allied to the larger Asian buffaloes, showing the same reversal of the direction of the hair on their backs. The horns are peculiar for their upright direction and comparative straightness, although they have the same triangular section as in other buffaloes. White spots are sometimes present below the eyes and there may be white markings on the legs and back; the absence or presence of these white markings may be indicative of distinct races. The horns of the cows are very small. The nearest allies of the anoa appear to be certain extinct Asian buffaloes, the remains of which have been found in the Siwalik Hills of northern India. Imagery of anoas may be present in the oldest rock art known as of 2024.
Both are found on the island of Sulawesi and the nearby island of Buton in Indonesia. They live singly or in pairs, rather than in herds like most cattle, except when the cows are about to give birth. Little is known about their life history as well. However, in captive individuals, they have a life expectancy of 20–30 years. The anoa take two to three years before they reach sexual maturity have one calf a year and have very rarely been seen to have more.
Skulls of anoa cannot be accurately identified as to species, and there is likely hybridizing and interbreeding between the two in the zoo population. It is questioned as to whether the two species were different due to them occurring together in many different areas, as well as some interbreeding. A study of the mtDNA of ten specimens from different localities found a high mitochondrial genetic diversity between individuals identified as one or the other species, indicating support for recognition as two species.
Distribution.
Both the lowland anoa ("Bubalus depressicornis") and the mountain anoa ("Bubalus quarlesi") are endemic to the islands of Sulawesi in Indonesia. Both species appear to occur in the same areas. Sulawesi is a unique area because roughly 61% of the species found there are endemic species, including both anoa species.
Habitat.
Traditionally, a key difference between the two species is the altitude at which they occur. The mountain anoa can be found at higher elevations than its lowland counterpart and is found in the forests. The lowland anoa was said to spend its time in the lower elevation areas and is also found in forests. Since 2005, however, these differences do not seem to be accurate, both species occur in the same areas in the same habitats.
Morphology.
The anoa have many physical characteristics of bovine relatives and are considered to be most closely related to the water buffalo, which was confirmed through DNA analysis.
The physical characteristics of the two species are similar. The anoa is the smallest of the wild cattle species. When anoa are born, they have a set of thick, woolly fur that comes in many color variations ranging from yellow to brown. In adults, the fur is typically brown or black, and males tend to have darker variations. Hair thickness varies slightly between the two species based on elevation and distribution. In both species of anoa, horns are present in both males and females and are typically straight protuberances. Another defining characteristic of the anoa is an extremely thick hide underneath the thick fur.
Conservation.
Both anoa species are endemic to the island of Sulawesi and are currently experiencing large declines in their populations. Knowledge of their decline has only recently been documented, however, and the villages and villagers lack the knowledge of how to help maintain or increase populations.
The leading cause of their population decline is hunting by local villagers for meat, with habitat loss also being significant. One benefit of the lack of knowledge about the legal status of what they are doing is that villagers are open to communication with researchers on their harvests and hunting practices; where awareness of conservation issues has penetrated, villagers will lie about their activities.
Logging is a large issue because both species prefer core forested habitats that are far away from humans and the influences that come with them. By logging, humans create much more fragmented habitats and, therefore, a decrease in the area where the anoa can breed and live. This habitat fragmentation also alters the natural mixing of populations of the anoa. This may lead to a loss in genetic diversity between the two species and, over time, could also lead to their decline.
External links.
DIET COMPOSITION OF ANOA ("Bubalus" sp.) STUDIED USING DIRECT OBSERVATION AND DUNG ANALYSIS METHOD IN THEIR HABITAT from https://ejournal.undip.ac.id/index.php/jitaa/article/view/7608/6259
Pujaningsih, R.i., et al. “DIET COMPOSITION OF ANOA ("Bubalus" sp.) STUDIED USING DIRECT OBSERVATION AND DUNG ANALYSIS METHOD IN THEIR HABITAT.” "Journal of the Indonesian Tropical Animal Agriculture", vol. 34, no. 3, 2009, doi:10.14710/jitaa.34.3.223-228.
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Agner Krarup Erlang
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Agner Krarup Erlang (1 January 1878 – 3 February 1929) was a Danish mathematician, statistician and engineer, who invented the fields of traffic engineering and queueing theory.
Erlang's 1909 paper, and subsequent papers over the decades, are regarded as containing some of most important concepts and techniques for queueing theory.
By the time of his relatively early death at the age of 51, Erlang had created the field of telephone networks analysis. His early work in scrutinizing the use of local, exchange and trunk telephone line usage in a small community to understand the theoretical requirements of an efficient network led to the creation of the Erlang formula, which became a foundational element of modern telecommunications network studies.
Life.
Erlang was born at Lønborg, near Tarm, in Jutland. He was the son of a schoolmaster, and a descendant of Thomas Fincke on his mother's side. At age 14, he passed the Preliminary Examination of the University of Copenhagen with distinction, after receiving dispensation to take it because he was younger than the usual minimum age. For the next two years he taught alongside his father.
A distant relative provided free board and lodging, and Erlang prepared for and took the University of Copenhagen entrance examination in 1896, and passed with distinction. He won a scholarship to the university and majored in mathematics, and also studied astronomy, physics and chemistry. He graduated in 1901 with an MA and over the next 7 years taught at several schools. He maintained his interest in mathematics, and received an award for a paper that he submitted to the University of Copenhagen.
He was a member of the Danish Mathematicians' Association (DMF) and through this met amateur mathematician Johan Jensen, the Chief Engineer of the Copenhagen Telephone Company (KTAS in Danish), an offshoot of the International Bell Telephone Company. Erlang worked for the Copenhagen Telephone Company from 1908 for almost 20 years, until his death in Copenhagen after an abdominal operation.
He was an associate of the British Institution of Electrical Engineers.
Contributions.
While working for the CTC, Erlang was presented with the classic problem of determining how many circuits were needed to provide an acceptable telephone service. His thinking went further by finding how many telephone operators were needed to handle a given volume of calls. Most telephone exchanges then used human operators and cord boards to switch telephone calls by means of jack plugs.
Out of necessity, Erlang was a hands-on researcher. He would conduct measurements and was prepared to climb into street manholes to do so. He was also an expert in the history and calculation of the numerical tables of mathematical functions, particularly logarithms. He devised new calculation methods for certain forms of tables.
He developed his theory of telephone traffic over several years. His significant publications include:
These and other notable papers were translated into English, French and German. His papers were prepared in a very brief style and can be difficult to understand without a background in the field. One Bell Telephone Laboratories researcher is said to have learned Danish to study them.
The British Post Office accepted his formula as the basis for calculating circuit facilities.
In 1946, the CCITT named the international unit of telephone traffic the "erlang". A statistical distribution and programming language listed below have also been named in his honour.
Erlang also made an important contribution to physiologic modeling with the
Krogh-Erlang capillary cylinder model describing oxygen supply to living tissue.
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Anyone Can Whistle
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Anyone Can Whistle is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a book by Arthur Laurents. Described as "a satire on conformity and the insanity of the so-called sane," the show tells a story of an economically depressed town whose corrupt mayor decides to create a fake miracle in order to attract tourists. The phony miracle draws the attention of an emotionally inhibited nurse, a crowd of inmates from a local asylum, and a doctor with secrets of his own.
Following a tryout period in Philadelphia, "Anyone Can Whistle" opened at the Majestic Theatre on Broadway on April 4, 1964. The show received widely varied reviews (including negative notices from the "New York Times" and the "New York Herald Tribune"), and closed after a run of twelve previews and nine performances. The show's original run marked the stage musical debut of Angela Lansbury.
In the decades since its closing, "Anyone Can Whistle" has seen relatively few productions compared to other Sondheim musicals; notable productions include a 1995 concert version at Carnegie Hall, a pair of stagings in London and Los Angeles in 2003 that incorporated revisions, and a 2010 concert staging for the Encores! program at New York City Center. However, its score has become acclaimed as a part of Sondheim's canon, and songs such as the title tune ("Anyone Can Whistle"), "Everybody Says Don't", and "There Won't Be Trumpets" have been performed widely.
Background.
The show was first announced in "The New York Times" on October 5, 1961: "For the winter of 1962, [Arthur Laurents] is nurturing another musical project, "The Natives Are Restless". The narrative and staging will be Mr. Laurent's handiwork; music and lyrics that of Stephen Sondheim. A meager description was furnished by Mr. Laurents, who refused to elaborate. Although the title might indicate otherwise, it is indigenous in content and contemporary in scope. No producer yet." No news of the show appeared until July 14, 1963, in an article in "The New York Times" about Kermit Bloomgarden, where it discussed the four shows he was producing for the coming season; two were maybes, two were definite. One of the latter was a Sondheim-Laurents musical (now named "Side Show"). In a letter to Bloomgarden, Laurents wrote, "I beg you not to mention the money problems or any difficulties to Steve anymore. It depresses him terribly and makes it terribly difficult for him to work...It is damn hard to concentrate...when all the atmosphere is filled with gloom and forebodings about will the show get the money to go on?...Spare him the gory details." This behavior was considered unusual for Laurents, who did not have a reputation for kindness. Sondheim discovered that Laurents hated doing backers' auditions and he took over that responsibility, playing and singing more than 30. They found 115 investors to back the $350,000 production, including Richard Rodgers and Sondheim's father.
Eager to work with both Laurents and Sondheim, Angela Lansbury accepted the lead role as Mayoress Cora Hoover Hooper, despite her strong misgivings about the script and her ability to handle the score. Also signed were Lee Remick as Nurse Fay Apple and Harry Guardino as Hapgood. Laurents had wanted Barbra Streisand for the role of Fay, but she turned it down to star in "Funny Girl". Following rehearsals in New York City, the company started pre-Broadway tryouts in Philadelphia from March 2 to 21, 1964. Laurents, ignoring criticism about the show's message being trite and its absurdist style difficult to comprehend, poured his energies into restaging rather than dealing with the crux of the problem.
The show suffered further setbacks when supporting actor Henry Lascoe, who played Comptroller Schub, suffered a heart attack during the show's out-of-town tryout, and was replaced by Gabriel Dell. According to Sondheim, "Lansbury was so insecure onstage, and unhappy with her performance, that we considered replacing her. Ironically, it soon became apparent that it had been Lascoe, an old pro...who had made her feel like an amateur. The minute his much less confident understudy took over, she felt free to blossom, which she spectacularly did." Sondheim called the reviews "humiliating" and the audiences "hostile."
Productions.
After multiple revisions, the show opened on Broadway on April 4, 1964, at the Majestic Theatre, where it closed after 9 performances and 12 previews, unable to overcome negative notices from major papers such as the "New York Times" and the "New York Herald Tribune". Scenic design was by William and Jean Eckart, costume design by Theoni V. Aldredge, and lighting design by Jules Fisher. Choreographer Herbert Ross received the show's sole Tony Award nomination.
The show became a cult favorite, and a truncated recording by the original cast released by Columbia Records sold well among Sondheim fans and musical theater buffs. "There Won't Be Trumpets," a song cut during previews, has become a favorite of cabaret performers.
On April 8, 1995, a staged concert was held at Carnegie Hall in New York City as a benefit for the Gay Men's Health Crisis. The concert was recorded by Columbia Records, preserving for the first time musical passages and numbers not included on the recording by the original Broadway cast. For example, the cut song "There's Always a Woman" was included at this concert. Lansbury served as narrator, with Madeline Kahn as Cora, Bernadette Peters as Fay, and Scott Bakula as Hapgood. Additional cast included Chip Zien, Ken Page, and Harvey Evans, the only cast member from the original show to reprise his role.
In 2003, Sony reissued the original Broadway cast recording on compact disc. Two revivals were staged that year: one in London at the Bridewell Theatre and one in Los Angeles at the Matrix Theatre.
The Ravinia Festival presented a staged concert on August 26 and 27, 2005, with Audra McDonald (Fay), Michael Cerveris (Hapgood) and Patti LuPone (Cora).
On January 11, 2008, Talk Is Free Theatre presented the Canadian professional premiere (in concert) at the Gryphon Theatre in Barrie, Ontario, with a fundraiser performance on January 13 at the Diesel Playhouse in Toronto, Ontario. It starred Adam Brazier as Hapgood, Kate Hennig as Cora, Blythe Wilson as Fay, and Richard Ouzounian as Narrator, who also served as director. Choreography was by Sam Strasfeld. Additional cast included Juan Chioran as Comptroller Schub, Jonathan Monro as Treasurer Cooley, and Mark Harapiak as Chief Magruder. Musical direction was provided by Wayne Gwillim.
Encores! presented a staged concert from April 8 through April 11, 2010, with Sutton Foster as Nurse Fay Apple, Donna Murphy as Mayoress Cora Hoover Hooper, and Raul Esparza as Hapgood, with direction and choreography by Casey Nicholaw. The production was the second most attended in "Encores!" history, and Stephen Sondheim was present at the post-matinee talkback on April 10.
A London production of "Anyone can Whistle" opened at the Jermyn Street Studio Theatre, London, in association with Primavera Productions, running from March 10, 2010, to April 17, 2010. The director is Tom Littler, with Musical Director Tom Attwood, and a cast that includes Issy van Randwyck (Mayoress), Rosalie Craig (Nurse Fay Apple) and David Ricardo-Pearce (Hapgood).
Porchlight Music Theatre presented "Anyone Can Whistle" in 2013 as a part of "Porchlight Revisits" series, in which it staged three forgotten musicals per year. It was directed by Christopher Pazdernik and music directed by Aaron Benham.
A new production directed by Phil Willmott opened at the Union Theatre in London, running from February 8 through March 11, 2017.
A concert presentation of the show was presented by MasterVoices, under the direction and baton of Ted Sperling, on March 10, 2022, at Carnegie Hall in New York City. This production featured Vanessa Williams (Cora Hoover Hooper), Santino Fontana (J. Bowden Hapgood), Elizabeth Stanley (Fay Apple), Douglas Sills (Comptroller Schub), Eddie Cooper (Treasurer Cooley), and Michael Mulheren (Police Chief Magruder). Joanna Gleason served as the narrator for the event
IN 2022, a new production of the show ran at the Southwark Playhouse in London under the direction of Georgie Rankcom, with musical direction by Natalie Pound and choreography by Lisa Stevens. The show's cast featured Alex Young as Cora Hoover Hooper, Chrystine Symone as Nurse Fay Apple, and Jordan Broatch as J. Bowden Hapgood. This production was the largest staged version of the show since its debut on Broadway in 1964.
Plot.
Act One.
The story is set in an imaginary American town that has gone bankrupt. (Its former major industry was an unidentified product that never wore out. Everyone has one now, and no one needs a replacement.) The only place in town doing good business is the local mental asylum, known as "The Cookie Jar", whose inmates look much healthier than the disgruntled townspeople ("I'm Like the Bluebird"). All the money is in the hands of Cora Hoover Hooper, the stylish, ruthless mayoress and her croniesComptroller Schub, Treasurer Cooley, and Police Chief Magruder. Cora appears carried in a litter by her backup singers, and admits that she can accept anything except unpopularity ("Me and My Town"). The scheming Comptroller Schub tells her that he has a plan to save her administration and the town, promising, "It's unethical." He tells her to meet him at the rock on the edge of town. At the rock, a local mother, Mrs. Schroeder, tries to tell her child, Baby Joan, to come down from the rock, when Baby Joan licks itand a spring of water begins flowing from it. The town instantly proclaims a miracle, and Cora and her council eagerly anticipate tourist dollars as they boast of the water's curative powers ("Miracle Song"). It is soon revealed to Cora that the miracle is a fake, controlled by a pump inside the rock. The only person in town who doubts the miracle is Fay Apple, a skeptical but idealistic young nurse from the Cookie Jar. She appears at the rock with all forty-nine of the inmates -- or "Cookies" -- in tow, intending to let them take some of the water. Schub realizes that if they drink the water and remain insane, people will discover the fraud. As he tries to stop Fay, the inmates mingle with the townspeople, until no one can guess who is who. Fay disappears and, hiding from the police, admits that she hopes for a hero to deliver the town from Cora and her lackeys ("There Won't Be Trumpets"). Cora arrives on the scene with the Cookie Jar's manager, Dr. Detmold, who says that Fay has taken the records to identify the inmates. He tells Cora that he is expecting a new assistant who might help them. At that moment a mysterious stranger, J. Bowden Hapgood, arrives asking for directions to the Cookie Jar. He is instantly taken for the new assistant. Asked to identify the missing Cookies, Hapgood begins questioning random people and sorting them into two groups, group A, and group one, without divulging which group is the sane one. The town council becomes suspicious, but Hapgood simply questions them until they begin to doubt their own sanity. Cora is too caught up with his logic to care ("Simple"). As the extended musical sequence ends, the lights black out except for a spotlight on Hapgood, who announces to the audience, "You are all mad!" Seconds later, the stage lights are restored, and the cast is revealed in theater seats, holding programs, applauding the audience, as the act ends.
Act Two.
The two groups are now in a bitter rivalry over which is the sane group ("A-1 March"). Another stranger, a French woman in a feathered coat appears. It is really Fay Apple in disguise. She introduces herself as the Lady from Lourdes, a professional Miracle Inspector, who has come to investigate the miracle. As Schub runs off to warn Cora, Fay seeks out Hapgood in his hotel, and the two seduce each other in the style of a French romantic film ("Come Play Wiz Me"). Fay tries to get Hapgood's help in exposing the miracle. Hapgood, however, sees through her disguise and wants to question her first. Fay refuses to take her wig off and confesses to him that this disguise, leftover from a college play, is the only way she can break out of her shell. She begins to hope, however, that Hapgood may be the one who can help her learn to be free ("Anyone Can Whistle"). Meanwhile, the two groups continue to march, and Cora, trying to give a speech, realizes that Hapgood has stolen her limelight ("A Parade in Town"). She and Schub plan an emergency meeting at her house. Back at the hotel, Hapgood comes up with an idea, telling Fay to destroy the Cookies' records, so both they and Fay can be free. When Fay is reluctant, Hapgood produces a record of his ownhe is her fiftieth Cookie. He is a practicing idealist who, after years of attempted heroism, is tired of crusading and has come to the Cookie Jar to retire. Inspired by his record, Fay begins to tear the records up. As she does, the Cookies appear and begin to dance ("Everybody Says Don't").
Act Three.
Cora is at her house with her council. Schub has put the miracle on hiatus but announces that they can easily pin the blame on Hapgood. The group celebrates their alliance ("I've Got You to Lean On"). A mob forms outside the hotel, and Hapgood and Fay, still disguised, take refuge under the rock. Discovering the fraud, Cora and the council confront them. At that moment, Cora receives a telegram from the governor warning that if the quota of 49 cookies is not filled, she will be impeached. Schub tells her that since Hapgood never said who is sane or not, they can arrest anyone at random until the quota is filled. Hapgood refuses to help Fay stop the Mayoress since he has given up crusading. Although she knows she still isn't out of her shell, Fay angrily swears to go it alone ("See What it Gets You"). As Cora and the police force begin rounding up Cookies, Fay tries to get the key to the wagon from the guards in an extended ballet sequence ("The Cookie Chase"). As it ends, Fay is captured, and Dr. Detmold recognizes her. Fay tells the townspeople about the fake miracle, but the town refuses to believe her. Detmold tells Cora that even without the records, Fay can identify the inmates from memory. Cora warns that she will arrest forty-nine people, normal or not, and Fay, helplessly, identifies all the Cookies, except Hapgood. She tells him the world needs people like him, and Hapgood can't turn himself in. He asks Fay to come with him, but she still can't bring herself to break free. They regretfully part ways ("With So Little to Be Sure Of"). Word comes of a new miracle from the town beyond the valley, of a statue with a warm heart, and the townspeople, including Magruder and Cooley, rush off to see if it is real. Soon the town is all but deserted, and Cora is alone again. Again, Schub has the answerthey can turn the entire town into one big Cookie Jar. Cora realizes she and Schub are meant for each other, and they dance off together. As Fay resumes work, Detmold's real new assistant Jane Borden Osgood arrives, and Fay is horrified to realize that she is even more rigid and disbelieving than Fay herself, and the new nurse marches the Cookies off to the next town to disprove the new miracle. Horrified at seeing what she might become, Fay returns to the rock calling for Hapgood. When he doesn't answer, she tries to whistleand succeeds in blowing a shrill, ugly whistle. Hapgood appears again, saying, "That's good enough for me." As they embrace, the water begins flowing from the rocka true miracle this time ("Finale").
Musical numbers.
Notes
Critical response.
Howard Taubman in his "The New York Times" review wrote that Laurents's "book lacks the fantasy that would make the idea work, and his staging has not improved matters. Mr. Sondheim has written several pleasing songs but not enough of them to give the musical wings. The performers yell rather than talk and run rather than walk. The dancing is the cream."
Steven Suskin wrote in his 2000 book about Broadway composers: The "fascinating extended musical scenes, with extended choral work... immediately marked Sondheim as the most distinctive theatre composer of his time. The first act sanity sequence... and the third act chase... are unlike anything that came before."
Stuart King writing for London Box Office (April 2022) noted: "Southwark Playhouse (with Guildford graduate Georgie Rankcom at the directorial helm for this gender-fluid production) has resurrected the piece for a short run — just in time for Easter! But the burning question on Press Night was whether or not the cult 60s show would need a miracle to find a new, modern fan base, OR, have the subjects of political corruption, sexual identity and mental wellbeing potentially given the fundamentally flawed piece new meaning for a young and previously unfamiliar audience? This reviewer’s answer would be that it will almost certainly depend entirely on who you are, how you identify (if indeed you bother with such matters), whether corruption in public office bothers you (why wouldn’t it?) and probably most significantly of all, whether you consider yourself a Sondheim purist/aficionado/devotee."
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Alcopop
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An alcopop (or cooler) is a category of mixed alcoholic beverages with relatively low alcohol content (e.g., 3–7% alcohol by volume), including:
The term "alcopop" (a portmanteau of the words "alcohol" and "pop") is used commonly in the United Kingdom and Ireland to describe these drinks. In English-speaking Canada, "cooler" is more common but "alcopop" may also be used. Other terms include flavored alcoholic beverage (FAB), flavored malt beverage (FMB), "pre-packaged" or "premium packaged" spirit (PPS). In Australia and New Zealand "premix" and ready to drink (RTD) are both commonly used terms. "Spirit cooler" is used in South Africa for distilled alcohol versions.
Hard seltzer is a related category of alcoholic drinks based on flavored seltzer water. Hard soda, meanwhile, is specifically related to soft drinks. Hard lemonade, which could be considered an alcopop, has been around for some time. Hard cider, on the other hand, is a fermented beverage similar to wine or beer.
Description.
There are a variety of beverages produced and marketed around the world as well as within each market which are described as coolers or alcopops. They tend to be sweet and served in small bottles (typically 355 ml (the normal size of a soda pop can) in the US, 275 ml in South Africa and Germany, 330 ml in Canada and Europe), and between 4% and 7% ABV. In Europe, Canada, and South Africa coolers tend to be pre-mixed spirits, including vodka (e.g. Smirnoff Ice) or rum (e.g. Bacardi Breezer). In the United States, on the other hand, alcopops often start out as un-hopped beers, depending on the state in which they are sold. Much of the malt (and alcohol) is removed (leaving mostly water), with subsequent addition of alcohol (usually vodka or grain alcohol), sugar, coloring and flavoring. Such drinks are legally classified as beers in virtually all states and can therefore be sold in outlets that do not or cannot carry spirit-based drinks. There are, however, stronger ones that "are" simply pre-mixed spirits (e.g. Bacardi Rum Island Iced Tea), often containing about 12.5% alcohol by volume, that can be sold only where hard liquor is available.
History.
Wine coolers gained popularity in the US market in the 1980s when Bartles and Jaymes began advertising their brand of wine coolers, which were followed by other brands, including when Bacardi introduced the Breezer. A growth in popularity occurred around 1993 with Two Dogs, DNA Alcoholic Spring Water, Hooper's Hooch and Zima, which was marketed under the title of "malternative beverage." Wine coolers were on the decline due to the increase in the US federal wine tax, and using a malt-beverage base became the new industry standard. Later, Mike's Hard Lemonade was released in the United States, with humorous commercials depicting what they called "violence against lemons". Smirnoff also came out with another citrus-flavored malt beverage in the United States in the late 1990s called Smirnoff Ice, which promoted itself with flashy commercials, usually involving trendy young people dancing in unlikely situations and places. (In the UK, Smirnoff Ice is marketed by Diageo as a PPS.)
Through its Alcopop-Free Zone® campaign, " Alcohol Justice has sought to ban alcopop sales entirely since the sweet and brightly colored alcoholic drinks may appeal to children. Many cooler advertising campaigns have been criticized as trying to make alcopops appeal to young drinkers. In the United Kingdom, a media outcry during the mid-1990s arose as the tabloid press associated alcopops with under-age drinking which damaged sales and led to British liquor stores withdrawing them from their shelves.
In response to a complaint from the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) conducted an extensive investigation in 2001. The agency "found no evidence of intent to target minors with FMB products, packaging, or advertising. Furthermore, after reviewing the consumer survey evidence submitted by CSPI in support of the proposition that FMBs were predominantly popular with minors, the FTC concluded that flaws in the survey's methodology limited the ability to draw conclusions from the survey data."
The Federal Trade Commission again in 2003 investigated FMB ads, product placement, and internal company marketing documents after a directive from the conferees of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees. "The Commission's investigation found no evidence of targeting underage consumers in the marketing of FMBs. Adults 21 to 29 appear to be the intended target of FMB marketing" and found that "the majority of FMB drinkers are over the age of 27."
In December 2003, Ireland raised the tax on flavored malt beverages to equal that of spirits, the second-highest in Europe. Germany has imposed an extra duty of 0.80 to 0.90 euro per bottle effective August 1, 2004. To circumvent higher taxation, some German producers have switched to wine coolers, which are being marketed the same way. Some bottles now carry a warning stating that they are not for consumption by people under the legal drinking age (under 18 in the UK and 21 in the United States). On May 11, 2008, the Australian Government increased the excise tax on alcopops by 70%, to bring it in line with the tax on spirits. There is the concern this tax will encourage consumers to buy straight spirits and mix the drinks themselves, possibly resulting in drinks with a higher alcohol concentration than the premixed alternatives. This tax was revoked during March 2009 meaning the government had to pay back the 290 million collected on the tax.
The Federal Trade Commission report states, "Further, industry-conducted research on consumers over the age of 21 who use FMBs shows that these consumers generally view the FMBs as substitutes for beer, ... This research also concludes that consumers are not likely to consume more than two or three FMBs on any occasion because of the products'
sweetness.
In March 2018, Coca-Cola announced it would be launching an alcopop product for the first time, a "chūhai" beverage in Japan.
Brands.
Brands of coolers are numerous and their alcoholic base vary greatly. Some notable brands include: VK, Smirnoff Ice, Mike's Hard Lemonade, Bacardi Breezer, Palm Bay, Skyy Blue, Jack Daniel's mixed with Coca-Cola and, in the UK, WKD Original Vodka. Garage is an alcopop produced by the Finnish brewery Sinebrychoff.
Health concerns.
Alcohol-based sugar-sweetened beverages like alcopop are closely linked to episodic drinking in adolescents.
Attempts to discourage.
Australia.
The Australian government increased the tax on these drinks under the 2008 budget to the same rate as spirits, volumetrically, in an effort to stop binge drinking. The tax was criticized by the opposition as a tax grab, and voted down in the Senate on March 18, 2009. Before its rejection, the tax had already raised at least A$290 million after April 2008. In April 2009, some Labor party MPs planned to resubmit the tax to the Senate, and it was finally approved in August 2009, increasing the tax on the drinks from $39.36 to $66.67 per litre of alcohol. A 2013 study concluded that the tax had no impact on binge drinking of the drinks by teenagers.
Germany.
On 1 July 2004 the German government increased the tax on mixed drinks based on spirits (e.g. vodka, rum) by roughly one Euro per 275-ml-bottle in order to discourage teenagers drinking excessively, although those drinks were already prohibited for those under the age of 18. This had two implications: The most common alcopops, such as Smirnoff Ice or Bacardi Breezer, were nearly taken off the market, while other manufacturers changed the recipes of their drinks to replace spirit alcohols with wine or beer, but with the same ABV, enabling these mixed drinks (which are not "alcopops" under German law) to be sold legally to minors 16 and 17 years of age.
Philippines.
In 2019, some senators including Pia Cayetano and former Special Assistant to the President Bong Go called for pullout of alcopops from the market due to "deceptive packaging that resembles fruit juices usually bought by young consumers". Alcopops also have seven percent alcohol content, which is slightly lower than that of local beer brand Red Horse Beer.
Sweden.
Systembolaget blocked the sale of alcoholic soft drinks in Sweden until mid-1996, when Alkoholsortimentsnämnden decided, with reference to Treaty of Rome Article 30, that Systembolaget could not refuse to sell certain products. This led to great debate, where the marketing of the alcoholic soft drink was considered to be aimed above all at young people. After initially great sales successes, the popularity has now declined, and many of the alcoholic drinks' market shares have been taken over by sweeter varieties of cider that share many characteristics with the soft drink but have been fermented to their alcoholic strength.
United Kingdom.
In June 1997, Co-op Food became the first major retailer to place an outright ban on the sale of alcopops in its shops. This has since been revoked.
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Alkali
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In chemistry, an alkali (; from the Arabic word , ) is a basic salt of an alkali metal or an alkaline earth metal. An alkali can also be defined as a base that dissolves in water. A solution of a soluble base has a pH greater than 7.0. The adjective alkaline, and less often, alkalescent, is commonly used in English as a synonym for basic, especially for bases soluble in water. This broad use of the term is likely to have come about because alkalis were the first bases known to obey the Arrhenius definition of a base, and they are still among the most common bases.
Etymology.
The word "alkali" is derived from Arabic "al qalīy" (or "alkali"), meaning (see calcination), referring to the original source of alkaline substances. A water-extract of burned plant ashes, called potash and composed mostly of potassium carbonate, was mildly basic. After heating this substance with calcium hydroxide ("slaked lime"), a far more strongly basic substance known as "caustic potash" (potassium hydroxide) was produced. Caustic potash was traditionally used in conjunction with animal fats to produce soft soaps, one of the caustic processes that rendered soaps from fats in the process of saponification, one known since antiquity. Plant potash lent the name to the element potassium, which was first derived from caustic potash, and also gave potassium its chemical symbol K (from the German name ), which ultimately derived from alkali.
Common properties of alkalis and bases.
Alkalis are all Arrhenius bases, ones which form hydroxide ions (OH−) when dissolved in water. Common properties of alkaline aqueous solutions include:
Difference between alkali and base.
The terms "base" and "alkali" are often used interchangeably, particularly outside the context of chemistry and chemical engineering.
There are various, more specific definitions for the concept of an alkali. Alkalis are usually defined as a subset of the bases. One of two subsets is commonly chosen.
The second subset of bases is also called an "Arrhenius base".
Alkali salts.
Alkali salts are soluble hydroxides of alkali metals and alkaline earth metals, of which common examples are:
Alkaline soil.
Soils with pH values that are higher than 7.3 are usually defined as being alkaline. These soils can occur naturally due to the presence of alkali salts. Although many plants do prefer slightly basic soil (including vegetables like cabbage and fodder like buffalo grass), most plants prefer mildly acidic soil (with pHs between 6.0 and 6.8), and alkaline soils can cause problems.
Alkali lakes.
In alkali lakes (also called "soda lakes"), evaporation concentrates the naturally occurring carbonate salts, giving rise to an alkalic and often saline lake.
Examples of alkali lakes:
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Ain't I a Woman? (book)
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Ain't I a Woman? Black Women and Feminism is a 1981 book by bell hooks titled after Sojourner Truth's "Ain't I a Woman?" speech. hooks examines the effect of racism and sexism on Black women, the civil rights movement, and feminist movements from suffrage to the 1970s. She argues that the convergence of sexism and racism during slavery contributed to Black women having the lowest status and worst conditions of any group in American society. White female abolitionists and suffragists were often more comfortable with Black male abolitionists such as Frederick Douglass, while southern segregationalists and stereotypes of Black female promiscuity and immorality caused protests whenever Black women spoke. Hooks points out that these white female reformers were more concerned with white morality than the conditions these morals caused Black Americans.
Further, she argues that the stereotypes that were set during slavery still affect Black women today. She argued that slavery allowed white society to stereotype white women as the pure goddess virgin and move Black women to the seductive whore stereotype formerly placed on all women, thus justifying the devaluation of Black femininity and rape of Black women. The work which Black women have been forced to perform, either in slavery or in a discriminatory workplace, that would be non-gender conforming for white women has been used against Black women as a proof of their emasculating behavior. hooks argues that Black nationalism was largely a patriarchal and misogynist movement, seeking to overcome racial divisions by strengthening sexist ones, and that it readily latched onto the idea of the emasculating Black matriarch proposed by Daniel Patrick Moynihan, whose theories bell hooks often criticizes.
Meanwhile, she says, the "feminist movement", a largely white middle and upper class affair, did not articulate the needs of poor and non-white women, thus reinforcing sexism, racism, and classism. She suggests this explains the low numbers of Black women who participated in the feminist movement in the 1970s, pointing to Louis Harris' Virginia Slims poll done in 1972 for Philip Morris that she says showed 62 percent of Black women supported "efforts to change women's status" and 67 percent "sympathized with the women's rights movement", compared with 45 and 35 percent of white women (also Steinem, 1972).
Reception.
Since its publication, "Ain't I a Woman" has been critically acclaimed as groundbreaking in the study of feminist theory for discussing the correlation between the history of oppression Black women have faced in the United States and its lingering effects in modern American society. "Ain't I a Woman" is praised for tackling the intersection of race and gender that marginalizes Black women. hooks' writing has also opened the door for other Black women to write and theorize about similar topics. The book is commonly used in gender studies, Black studies, and philosophy courses.
The work has led to some criticism of her being "ahistorical, unscholarly (there were many complaints about the absence of footnotes), and homophobic". She does not provide a bibliography for any of her work, making it difficult to find the editors and publication information for the pieces listed under the "notes" section of her work. In "Theory as Liberatory Practice," hooks explains that her lack of conventional academic format was "motivated by the desire to be inclusive, to reach as many readers as possible in as many different locations as possible".
In a book review of hooks' "Remembered Rapture: The Writer at Work," Nicole Abraham criticizes hooks' unconventional format rationalization. Abraham suggests that, if her rationalization for not providing footnotes and bibliographic information in her writing is that it will help her reach a broader, presumably less academic audience, hooks either assumes that the average person is uninterested in pursuing her sources and ideas or implies that her readers are too lazy or unsophisticated for proper endnotes.
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AMOS (programming language)
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AMOS BASIC is a dialect of the BASIC programming language for the Amiga computer. Following on from the successful STOS BASIC for the Atari ST, AMOS BASIC was written for the Amiga by François Lionet with Constantin Sotiropoulos and published by Europress Software in 1990.
The language was notable for its focus on media and game development capabilities, allowing users to easily create demanding multimedia software and games. It featured full structured code and numerous high-level functions for loading and manipulating images, animations, and sounds. These capabilities made it a popular choice among Amiga enthusiasts, particularly beginners, for creating video games (especially platformers and graphical adventures), multimedia applications, and educational software.
History.
AMOS competed on the Amiga platform with Acid Software's Blitz BASIC. Both BASICs differed from other dialects on different platforms, in that they allowed the easy creation of fairly demanding multimedia software, with full structured code and many high-level functions to load images, animations, sounds and display them in various ways.
The original AMOS was a BASIC interpreter which, whilst working fine, suffered the same disadvantages of any language being run interpretively. By all accounts, AMOS was extremely fast among interpreted languages, being speedy enough that an extension called AMOS 3D could produce playable 3D games even on plain 7 MHz 68000 Amigas. Later, an AMOS compiler was developed that further increased speed. AMOS could also run MC68000 machine code, loaded into a program's memory banks.
To simplify animation of sprites, AMOS included the AMOS Animation Language (AMAL), a compiled sprite scripting language which runs independently of the main AMOS BASIC program. It was also possible to control screen and "rainbow" effects using AMAL scripts. AMAL scripts in effect created CopperLists, small routines executed by the Amiga's Agnus chip.
After the original version of AMOS, Europress released a compiler (AMOS Compiler), and two other versions of the language: Easy AMOS, a simpler version for beginners, and AMOS Professional, a more advanced version with added features, such as a better integrated development environment, ARexx support, a new user interface API and new flow control constructs. Neither of these new versions was significantly more popular than the original AMOS.
AMOS was used mostly to make multimedia software, video games (platformers and graphical adventures) and educational software.
The language was mildly successful within the Amiga community. Its ease of use made it especially attractive to beginners.
One of AMOS BASIC's disadvantages, stemming from its Atari ST lineage, was its incompatibility with the Amiga's operating system functions and interfaces. Instead, AMOS BASIC controlled the computer directly, which caused programs written in it to have a non-standard user interface, and also caused compatibility problems with newer versions of hardware.
Today, the language has declined in popularity along with the Amiga computer for which it was written. Despite this, a small community of enthusiasts are still using it. The source code to AMOS was released around 2001 under a BSD style license by Clickteam, a company that includes the original programmer.
Software.
Software written using AMOS BASIC includes:
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Arcadia 2001
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The Arcadia 2001 is a second-generation 8-bit home video game console released by Emerson Radio in May 1982 for a price of US$99, several months before the release of ColecoVision. It was discontinued only 18 months later, with a total of 35 games having been released. Emerson licensed the Arcadia 2001 to Bandai, which released it in Japan. Over 30 Arcadia 2001 clones exist despite the system being a commercial failure.
The unrelated Arcadia Corporation, manufacturer of the Supercharger add-on for the Atari 2600, was sued by Emerson for trademark infringement. Arcadia Corporation then changed its name to Starpath.
Description.
The Arcadia is much smaller than its contemporary competitors and is powered by a standard 12 volt power supply so it can be used in a boat or a vehicle. It has two headphone jacks on the far left and right sides of the back.
The system came with two Intellivision-style controllers with a 12-button keypad and "fire" buttons on the sides. The direction pads have a removable joystick attachment. Most games came with BoPET overlays that can be applied to the controller's keypads. The console itself has five buttons: Power, Start, Reset, Option, and Select.
There are at least three different cartridge case styles and artwork, with variations on each. Emerson-family cartridges come in two different lengths (short and long) of black plastic cases.
Console variants and clones.
Many variants and clones of the Arcadia 2001 have been released by various companies in different countries. These systems are mostly compatible with each other. In 1982, the Bandai Arcadia was released only in Japan. Four exclusive games were released for the system.
Bandai Arcadia.
In 1982, the Bandai Arcadia, a variant of the Emerson Arcadia 2001, was licensed and distributed to Japan by Bandai for a price of 19,800 yen. There were four Japan-exclusive games released by Bandai.
Reception.
After seeing the Arcadia 2001 at the summer 1982 Consumer Electronics Show, Danny Goodman of "Creative Computing Video & Arcade Games" reported that its graphics were similar to the Atari 2600's, and that "our overall impression of the game play was favorable for a system in this price range, though no cartridge stands out as being an exciting original creation". He called the controller offering both Intellivision-like disc and joystick functionality "A great idea".
Games.
Emerson planned to launch the console with 19 games. Some Arcadia 2001 games are ports of lesser-known arcade games such as "Route 16", "Jungler", and "Jump Bug", which were not available on other home systems.
Emerson actually created many popular arcade titles including "Pac-Man", "Galaxian" and "Defender" for the Arcadia, but never had them manufactured as Atari started to sue its competitor companies for releasing games to which it had exclusive-rights agreements. Early marketing showed popular arcade games, but they were later released as clones. For instance, the Arcadia 2001 game "Space Raiders" is a clone of "Defender", and "Breakaway" is a clone of "Breakout".
Released games.
There are 47 games known to have been released for the Arcadia 2001 and its clones.
Bandai Arcadia Only.
See here
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Convex uniform honeycomb
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In geometry, a convex uniform honeycomb is a uniform tessellation which fills three-dimensional Euclidean space with non-overlapping convex uniform polyhedral cells.
Twenty-eight such honeycombs are known:
They can be considered the three-dimensional analogue to the uniform tilings of the plane.
The Voronoi diagram of any lattice forms a convex uniform honeycomb in which the cells are zonohedra.
History.
Only 14 of the convex uniform polyhedra appear in these patterns:
The icosahedron, snub cube, and square antiprism appear in some alternations, but those honeycombs cannot be realised with all edges unit length.
Names.
This set can be called the regular and semiregular honeycombs. It has been called the Archimedean honeycombs by analogy with the convex uniform (non-regular) polyhedra, commonly called Archimedean solids. Recently Conway has suggested naming the set as the Architectonic tessellations and the dual honeycombs as the Catoptric tessellations.
The individual honeycombs are listed with names given to them by Norman Johnson. (Some of the terms used below are defined in Uniform 4-polytope#Geometric derivations for 46 nonprismatic Wythoffian uniform 4-polytopes)
For cross-referencing, they are given with list indices from Andreini (1-22), Williams(1–2,9-19), Johnson (11–19, 21–25, 31–34, 41–49, 51–52, 61–65), and Grünbaum(1-28). Coxeter uses δ4 for a cubic honeycomb, hδ4 for an alternated cubic honeycomb, qδ4 for a quarter cubic honeycomb, with subscripts for other forms based on the ring patterns of the Coxeter diagram.
Compact Euclidean uniform tessellations (by their infinite Coxeter group families).
The fundamental infinite Coxeter groups for 3-space are:
There is a correspondence between all three families. Removing one mirror from formula_1 produces formula_2, and removing one mirror from formula_2 produces formula_3. This allows multiple constructions of the same honeycombs. If cells are colored based on unique positions within each Wythoff construction, these different symmetries can be shown.
In addition there are 5 special honeycombs which don't have pure reflectional symmetry and are constructed from reflectional forms with "elongation" and "gyration" operations.
The total unique honeycombs above are 18.
The prismatic stacks from infinite Coxeter groups for 3-space are:
In addition there is one special "elongated" form of the triangular prismatic honeycomb.
The total unique prismatic honeycombs above (excluding the cubic counted previously) are 10.
Combining these counts, 18 and 10 gives us the total 28 uniform honeycombs.
The C̃3, [4,3,4] group (cubic).
The regular cubic honeycomb, represented by Schläfli symbol {4,3,4}, offers seven unique derived uniform honeycombs via truncation operations. (One redundant form, the "runcinated cubic honeycomb", is included for completeness though identical to the cubic honeycomb.) The reflectional symmetry is the affine Coxeter group [4,3,4]. There are four index 2 subgroups that generate alternations: [1+,4,3,4], [(4,3,4,2+)], [4,3+,4], and [4,3,4]+, with the first two generated repeated forms, and the last two are nonuniform.
B̃3, [4,31,1] group.
The formula_2, [4,3] group offers 11 derived forms via truncation operations, four being unique uniform honeycombs. There are 3 index 2 subgroups that generate alternations: [1+,4,31,1], [4,(31,1)+], and [4,31,1]+. The first generates repeated honeycomb, and the last two are nonuniform but included for completeness.
The honeycombs from this group are called "alternated cubic" because the first form can be seen as a "cubic honeycomb" with alternate vertices removed, reducing cubic cells to tetrahedra and creating octahedron cells in the gaps.
Nodes are indexed left to right as "0,1,0',3" with 0' being below and interchangeable with "0". The "alternate cubic" names given are based on this ordering.
Ã3, [3[4]] group.
There are 5 forms constructed from the formula_3, [3[4]] Coxeter group, of which only the "quarter cubic honeycomb" is unique. There is one index 2 subgroup [3[4]]+ which generates the snub form, which is not uniform, but included for completeness.
Nonwythoffian forms (gyrated and elongated).
Three more uniform honeycombs are generated by breaking one or another of the above honeycombs where its faces form a continuous plane, then rotating alternate layers by 60 or 90 degrees ("gyration") and/or inserting a layer of prisms ("elongation").
The elongated and gyroelongated alternated cubic tilings have the same vertex figure, but are not alike. In the "elongated" form, each prism meets a tetrahedron at one triangular end and an octahedron at the other. In the "gyroelongated" form, prisms that meet tetrahedra at both ends alternate with prisms that meet octahedra at both ends.
The gyroelongated triangular prismatic tiling has the same vertex figure as one of the plain prismatic tilings; the two may be derived from the gyrated and plain triangular prismatic tilings, respectively, by inserting layers of cubes.
Prismatic stacks.
Eleven prismatic tilings are obtained by stacking the eleven uniform plane tilings, shown below, in parallel layers. (One of these honeycombs is the cubic, shown above.) The vertex figure of each is an irregular bipyramid whose faces are isosceles triangles.
The C̃2×Ĩ1(∞), [4,4,2,∞], prismatic group.
There are only 3 unique honeycombs from the square tiling, but all 6 tiling truncations are listed below for completeness, and tiling images are shown by colors corresponding to each form.
Enumeration of Wythoff forms.
All nonprismatic Wythoff constructions by Coxeter groups are given below, along with their alternations. Uniform solutions are indexed with Branko Grünbaum's listing. Green backgrounds are shown on repeated honeycombs, with the relations are expressed in the extended symmetry diagrams.
Examples.
The alternated cubic honeycomb is of special importance since its vertices form a cubic close-packing of spheres. The space-filling truss of packed octahedra and tetrahedra was apparently first discovered by Alexander Graham Bell and independently re-discovered by Buckminster Fuller (who called it the octet truss and patented it in the 1940s).
. Octet trusses are now among the most common types of truss used in construction.
Frieze forms.
If cells are allowed to be uniform tilings, more uniform honeycombs can be defined:
Families:
The first two forms shown above are semiregular (uniform with only regular facets), and were listed by Thorold Gosset in 1900 respectively as the "3-ic semi-check" and "tetroctahedric semi-check".
Scaliform honeycomb.
A scaliform honeycomb is vertex-transitive, like a "uniform honeycomb", with regular polygon faces while cells and higher elements are only required to be "orbiforms", equilateral, with their vertices lying on hyperspheres. For 3D honeycombs, this allows a subset of Johnson solids along with the uniform polyhedra. Some scaliforms can be generated by an alternation process, leaving, for example, pyramid and cupola gaps.
Hyperbolic forms.
There are 9 Coxeter group families of compact uniform honeycombs in hyperbolic 3-space, generated as Wythoff constructions, and represented by ring permutations of the Coxeter-Dynkin diagrams for each family.
From these 9 families, there are a total of 76 unique honeycombs generated:
Several non-Wythoffian forms outside the list of 76 are known; it is not known how many there are.
Paracompact hyperbolic forms.
There are also 23 paracompact Coxeter groups of rank 4. These families can produce uniform honeycombs with unbounded facets or vertex figure, including ideal vertices at infinity:
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Assassination
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Assassination is the willful killing, by a sudden, secret, or planned attack, of a personespecially if prominent or important. It may be prompted by political, ideological, religious, financial, or military motives.
Assassinations are ordered by both individuals and organizations, and are carried out by their accomplices. Acts of assassination have been performed since ancient times. A person who carries out an assassination is called an assassin.
Etymology.
"Assassin" comes from the Italian and French Assissini, believed to derive from the word "hashshashin" (), and shares its etymological roots with "hashish" ( or ; from ""). It referred to a group of Nizari Ismailis known as the Order of Assassins who worked against various political targets.
Founded by Hassan-i Sabbah, the Assassins were active in the Near East from the 11th to the 13th centuries. The group killed members of the Abbasid, Seljuk, Fatimid, and Christian Crusader elite for political and religious reasons.
Although it is commonly believed that members of the Order of Assassins were under the influence of hashish during their killings or during their indoctrination, there is debate as to whether these claims have merit, with many Eastern writers and an increasing number of Western academics coming to believe that drug-taking was not the key feature behind the name.
The term "assassinare" (assassin) was used in Medieval Latin from the mid 13th century.
The earliest known use of the verb "to assassinate" in printed English was by Matthew Sutcliffe in "A Briefe Replie to a Certaine Odious and Slanderous Libel, Lately Published by a Seditious Jesuite", a pamphlet printed in 1600, five years before it was used in "Macbeth" by William Shakespeare (1605).
Use in history.
Ancient to medieval times.
Assassination is one of the oldest tools of power politics. It dates back at least as far as recorded history.
The Egyptian pharaoh Teti, of the Old Kingdom Sixth Dynasty (23rd century BCE), is thought to be the earliest known victim of assassination, though written records are scant and thus evidence is circumstantial. Two further ancient Egyptian monarchs are more explicitly recorded to have been assassinated; Amenemhat I of the Middle Kingdom Twelfth Dynasty (20th century BCE) is recorded to have been assassinated in his bed by his palace guards for reasons unknown (as related in the "Instructions of Amenemhat"); meanwhile contemporary judicial records relate the assassination of New Kingdom Twentieth Dynasty monarch Ramesses III in 1155 BCE as part of a failed coup attempt. Between 550 BC and 330 BC, seven Persian kings of Achaemenid Dynasty were murdered. The Art of War, a 5th-century BC Chinese military treatise mentions tactics of Assassination and its merits.
In the Old Testament, King Joash of Judah was assassinated by his own servants; Joab assassinated Absalom, King David's son; King Sennacherib of Assyria was assassinated by his own sons; and Jael assassinated Sisera.
Chanakya (–283 BC) wrote about assassinations in detail in his political treatise "Arthashastra". His student Chandragupta Maurya, the founder of the Maurya Empire, later made use of assassinations against some of his enemies.
Some famous assassination victims are Philip II of Macedon (336 BC), the father of Alexander the Great, and Roman dictator Julius Caesar (44 BC). Emperors of Rome often met their end in this way, as did many of the Muslim Shia Imams hundreds of years later. Three successive Rashidun caliphs (Umar, Uthman Ibn Affan, and Ali ibn Abi Talib) were assassinated in early civil conflicts between Muslims. The practice was also well known in ancient China, as in Jing Ke's failed assassination of Qin king Ying Zheng in 227 BC. Whilst many assassinations were performed by individuals or small groups, there were also specialized units who used a collective group of people to perform more than one assassination. The earliest were the sicarii in 6 AD, who predated the Middle Eastern Assassins and Japanese shinobis by centuries.
In the Middle Ages, regicide was rare in Western Europe, but it was a recurring theme in the Eastern Roman Empire. Strangling in the bathtub was the most commonly used method. With the Renaissance, tyrannicide—or assassination for personal or political reasons—became more common again in Western Europe.
Modern history.
During the 16th and 17th centuries, international lawyers began to voice condemnation of assassinations of leaders. Balthazar Ayala has been described as "the first prominent jurist to condemn the use of assassination in foreign policy". Alberico Gentili condemned assassinations in a 1598 publication where he appealed to the self-interest of leaders: (i) assassinations had adverse short-term consequences by arousing the ire of the assassinated leader's successor, and (ii) assassinations had the adverse long-term consequences of causing disorder and chaos. Hugo Grotius's works on the law of war strictly forbade assassinations, arguing that killing was only permissible on the battlefield. In the modern world, the killing of important people began to become more than a tool in power struggles between rulers themselves and was also used for political symbolism, such as in the propaganda of the deed.
In Japan, a group of assassins called the Four Hitokiri of the Bakumatsu killed a number of people, including Ii Naosuke who was the head of administration for the Tokugawa shogunate, during the Boshin War. Most of the assassinations in Japan were committed with bladed weaponry, a trait that was carried on into modern history. A video-record exists of the assassination of Inejiro Asanuma, using a sword.
In 1895, a group of Japanese assassins killed the Korean queen (and posthumously empress) Myeongseong.
In the United States, from 1865 to 1963, four presidents—Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield, William McKinley and John F. Kennedy—died at the hands of assassins. There have been at least 20 known attempts on U.S. presidents' lives.
In Austria, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg was carried out in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914, by Gavrilo Princip, a Serbian nationalist. He is blamed for igniting World War I. Reinhard Heydrich died after an attack by British-trained Czechoslovak soldiers on behalf of the Czechoslovak government in exile in Operation Anthropoid, and knowledge from decoded transmissions allowed the United States to carry out a targeted attack, killing Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto while he was travelling by plane.
During the 1930s and 1940s, Joseph Stalin's NKVD carried out numerous assassinations outside of the Soviet Union, such as the killings of Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists leader Yevhen Konovalets, Ignace Poretsky, Fourth International secretary Rudolf Klement, Leon Trotsky, and the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (POUM) leadership in Catalonia. India's "Father of the Nation", Mahatma Gandhi, was shot to death on January 30, 1948, by Nathuram Godse.
The African-American civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968, at the Lorraine Motel (now the National Civil Rights Museum) in Memphis, Tennessee. Three years prior, another African-American civil rights activist, Malcolm X, was assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom on February 21, 1965.
Cold War and beyond.
Most major powers repudiated Cold War assassination tactics, but many allege that was merely a smokescreen for political benefit and that covert and illegal training of assassins continues today, with Russia, Israel, the U.S., Argentina, Paraguay, Chile, and other nations accused of engaging in such operations. After the Iranian Revolution of 1979, the new Islamic government of Iran began an international campaign of assassination that lasted into the 1990s. At least 162 killings in 19 countries have been linked to the senior leadership of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The campaign came to an end after the Mykonos restaurant assassinations because a German court publicly implicated senior members of the government and issued arrest warrants for Ali Fallahian, the head of Iranian intelligence. Evidence indicates that Fallahian's personal involvement and individual responsibility for the murders were far more pervasive than his current indictment record represents.
In India, Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and her son Rajiv Gandhi (neither of whom was related to Mahatma Gandhi, who had himself been assassinated in 1948), were assassinated in 1984 and 1991 in what were linked to separatist movements in Punjab and northern Sri Lanka, respectively.
In 1994, the assassination of Juvénal Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira during the Rwandan Civil War sparked the Rwandan genocide.
In Israel, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated on November 4, 1995, by Yigal Amir, who opposed the Oslo Accords. In Lebanon, the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri on February 14, 2005, prompted an investigation by the United Nations. The suggestion in the resulting "Mehlis report" that there was involvement by Syria prompted the Cedar Revolution, which drove Syrian troops out of Lebanon.
On 2 September 2022, a 35 year old Brazilian national attempted to assassinate the then vice-president of Argentina, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. However, the attempt was unsuccessful because the assassin's gun jammed.
United States government killing of citizens.
In 2012, "The New York Times" revealed that the Obama administration maintained a "kill list" containing terrorism suspects. The list is sometimes referred to as a "disposition matrix", and President Obama made a final decision on whether anyone listed would be killed, without court oversight and without trial. In September 2011, American citizens Anwar Al-Awlaki and Samir Khan were assassinated in Yemen by the United States government via drone strikes. Two weeks later, Awlaki's 16-year-old son, also an American citizen, was killed in a strike targeting Ibrahim al-Banna, a senior operative in Al-Qaeda. Al-Banna was not killed in the strike.
Further motivations.
As a military and foreign policy doctrine.
Assassination for military purposes has long been espoused: Sun Tzu, writing around 500 BC, argued in favor of using assassination in his book "The Art of War". Over 2000 years later, in his book "The Prince", Machiavelli also advises rulers to assassinate enemies whenever possible to prevent them from posing a threat. An army and even a nation might be based upon and around a particularly strong, canny, or charismatic leader, whose loss could paralyze the ability of both to make war.
For similar and additional reasons, assassination has also sometimes been used in the conduct of foreign policy. The costs and benefits of such actions are difficult to compute. It may not be clear whether the assassinated leader gets replaced with a more or less competent successor, whether the assassination provokes ire in the state in question, whether the assassination leads to souring domestic public opinion, and whether the assassination provokes condemnation from third-parties. One study found that perceptual biases held by leaders often negatively affect decision making in that area, and decisions to go forward with assassinations often reflect the vague hope that any successor might be better.
In both military and foreign policy assassinations, there is the risk that the target could be replaced by an even more competent leader, or that such a killing (or a failed attempt) will prompt the masses to contemn the killers and support the leader's cause more strongly. Faced with particularly brilliant leaders, that possibility has in various instances been risked, such as in the attempts to kill the Athenian Alcibiades during the Peloponnesian War. A number of additional examples from World War II show how assassination was used as a tool:
Use of assassination has continued in more recent conflicts:
As a tool of insurgents.
Insurgent groups have often employed assassination as a tool to further their causes. Assassinations provide several functions for such groups: the removal of specific enemies and as propaganda tools to focus the attention of media and politics on their cause.
The Irish Republican Army guerrillas in 1919 to 1921 killed many Royal Irish Constabulary Police intelligence officers during the Irish War of Independence. Michael Collins set up a special unit, the Squad, for that purpose, which had the effect of intimidating many policemen into resigning from the force. The Squad's activities peaked with the killing of 14 British agents in Dublin on Bloody Sunday in 1920.
The tactic was used again by the Provisional IRA during the Troubles in Northern Ireland (1969–1998). Assassination of unionist politicians and activists was one of a number of methods used in the Provisional IRA campaign 1969–1997. The IRA also attempted to assassinate British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher by bombing the Conservative Party Conference in a Brighton hotel. Loyalist paramilitaries retaliated by killing Catholics at random and assassinating Irish nationalist politicians.
Basque separatists ETA in Spain assassinated many security and political figures since the late 1960s, notably the president of the Francoist government of Spain, Luis Carrero Blanco, 1st Duke of Carrero-Blanco Grandee of Spain, in 1973. In the early 1990s, it also began to target academics, journalists and local politicians who publicly disagreed with it.
The Red Brigades in Italy carried out assassinations of political figures and, to a lesser extent, so did the Red Army Faction in Germany in the 1970s and the 1980s.
In the Vietnam War, communist insurgents routinely assassinated government officials and individual civilians deemed to offend or rival the revolutionary movement. Such attacks, along with widespread military activity by insurgent bands, almost brought the Ngo Dinh Diem regime to collapse before the US intervened.
Psychology.
A major study about assassination attempts in the US in the second half of the 20th century came to the conclusion that most prospective assassins spend copious amounts of time planning and preparing for their attempts. Assassinations are thus rarely "impulsive" actions.
However, about 25% of the actual attackers were found to be delusional, a figure that rose to 60% with "near-lethal approachers" (people apprehended before reaching their targets). That shows that while mental instability plays a role in many modern assassinations, the more delusional attackers are less likely to succeed in their attempts. The report also found that around two-thirds of attackers had previously been arrested, not necessarily for related offenses; 44% had a history of serious depression, and 39% had a history of substance abuse.
Techniques.
Modern methods.
With the advent of effective ranged weaponry and later firearms, the position of an assassination target was more precarious. Bodyguards were no longer enough to deter determined killers, who no longer needed to engage directly or even to subvert the guard to kill the leader in question. Moreover, the engagement of targets at greater distances dramatically increased the chances for assassins to survive since they could quickly flee the scene. The first heads of government to be assassinated with a firearm were James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, the regent of Scotland, in 1570, and William the Silent, the Prince of Orange of the Netherlands, in 1584. Gunpowder and other explosives also allowed the use of bombs or even greater concentrations of explosives for deeds requiring a larger touch.
Explosives, especially the car bomb, become far more common in modern history, with grenades and remote-triggered land mines also used, especially in the Middle East and the Balkans; the initial attempt on Archduke Franz Ferdinand's life was with a grenade. With heavy weapons, the rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) has become a useful tool given the popularity of armored cars (discussed below), and Israeli forces have pioneered the use of aircraft-mounted missiles, as well as the innovative use of explosive devices.
A sniper with a precision rifle is often used in fictional assassinations; however, certain pragmatic difficulties attend long-range shooting, including finding a hidden shooting position with a clear line of sight, detailed advance knowledge of the intended victim's travel plans, the ability to identify the target at long range, and the ability to score a first-round lethal hit at long range, which is usually measured in hundreds of meters. A dedicated sniper rifle is also expensive, often costing thousands of dollars because of the high level of precision machining and handfinishing required to achieve extreme accuracy.
Despite their comparative disadvantages, handguns are more easily concealable and so are much more commonly used than rifles. Of the 74 principal incidents evaluated in a major study about assassination attempts in the US in the second half of the 20th century, 51% were undertaken by a handgun, 30% with a rifle or shotgun, 15% used knives, and 8% explosives (the use of multiple weapons/methods was reported in 16% of all cases).
In the case of state-sponsored assassination, poisoning can be more easily denied. Georgi Markov, a dissident from Bulgaria, was assassinated by ricin poisoning. A tiny pellet containing the poison was injected into his leg through a specially designed umbrella. Widespread allegations involving the Bulgarian government and the KGB have not led to any legal results. However, after the fall of the Soviet Union, it was learned that the KGB had developed an umbrella that could inject ricin pellets into a victim, and two former KGB agents who defected stated that the agency assisted in the murder. The CIA made several attempts to assassinate Fidel Castro; many of the schemes involving poisoning his cigars. In the late 1950s, the KGB assassin Bohdan Stashynsky killed Ukrainian nationalist leaders Lev Rebet and Stepan Bandera with a spray gun that fired a jet of poison gas from a crushed cyanide ampule, making their deaths look like heart attacks. A 2006 case in the UK concerned the assassination of Alexander Litvinenko who was given a lethal dose of radioactive polonium-210, possibly passed to him in aerosol form sprayed directly onto his food.
Targeted killing.
Targeted killing is the intentional killing by a government or its agents of a civilian or "unlawful combatant" who is not in the government's custody. The target is a person asserted to be taking part in an armed conflict or terrorism, by bearing arms or otherwise, who has thereby lost the immunity from being targeted that he would otherwise have under the Third Geneva Convention. It is a different term and concept from that of "targeted violence", as used by specialists who study violence.
On the other hand, Gary D. Solis, a professor at Georgetown University Law Center, in his 2010 book "The Law of Armed Conflict: International Humanitarian Law in War", wrote, "Assassinations and targeted killings are very different acts." The use of the term "assassination" is opposed, as it denotes murder (unlawful killing), but the terrorists are targeted in self-defense, which is thus viewed as a killing but not a crime (justifiable homicide). Abraham D. Sofaer, former federal judge for the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, wrote on the subject:
Author and former U.S. Army Captain Matthew J. Morgan argued that "there is a major difference between assassination and targeted killing ... targeted killing [is] not synonymous with assassination. Assassination ... constitutes an illegal killing." Similarly, Amos Guiora, a professor of law at the University of Utah, wrote, "Targeted killing is ... not an assassination." Steve David, professor of international relations at Johns Hopkins University, wrote, "There are strong reasons to believe that the Israeli policy of targeted killing is not the same as assassination." Syracuse Law William Banks and GW Law Peter Raven-Hansen wrote, "Targeted killing of terrorists is ... not unlawful and would not constitute assassination." Rory Miller writes: "Targeted killing ... is not 'assassination. Eric Patterson and Teresa Casale wrote, "Perhaps most important is the legal distinction between targeted killing and assassination."
On the other hand, the American Civil Liberties Union also states on its website, "A program of targeted killing far from any battlefield, without charge or trial, violates the constitutional guarantee of due process. It also violates international law, under which lethal force may be used outside armed conflict zones only as a last resort to prevent imminent threats, when non-lethal means are not available. Targeting people who are suspected of terrorism for execution, far from any war zone, turns the whole world into a battlefield."
Yael Stein, the research director of B'Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, also stated in her article "By Any Name Illegal and Immoral: Response to 'Israel's Policy of Targeted Killing:
Targeted killing has become a frequent tactic of the United States and Israel in their fights against terrorism. The tactic can raise complex questions and lead to contentious disputes as to the legal basis for its application, who qualifies as an appropriate "hit list" target, and what circumstances must exist before the tactic may be used. Opinions range from people considering it a legal form of self-defense that decreases terrorism to people calling it an extrajudicial killing that lacks due process and leads to further violence. Methods used have included firing Hellfire missiles from Predator or Reaper drones (unmanned, remote-controlled planes), detonating a cell phone bomb, and long-range sniper shooting. Countries such as the US (in Pakistan and Yemen) and Israel (in the West Bank and Gaza) have used targeted killing to eliminate members of groups such as Al-Qaeda and Hamas. In early 2010, with President Obama's approval, Anwar al-Awlaki became the first US citizen to be publicly approved for targeted killing by the Central Intelligence Agency. Awlaki was killed in a drone strike in September 2011.
United Nations investigator Ben Emmerson said that US drone strikes may have violated international humanitarian law. "The Intercept" reported, "Between January 2012 and February 2013, U.S. special operations airstrikes [in northeastern Afghanistan] killed more than 200 people. Of those, only 35 were the intended targets."
Countermeasures.
Early forms.
One of the earliest forms of defense against assassins was employing bodyguards, who act as a shield for the potential target; keep a lookout for potential attackers, sometimes in advance, such as on a parade route; and putting themselves in harm's way, both by simple presence, showing that physical force is available to protect the target, and by shielding the target if any attack occurs. To neutralize an attacker, bodyguards are typically armed as much as legal and practical concerns permit.
Notable examples of bodyguards include the Roman Praetorian Guard or the Ottoman Janissaries, but in both cases, the protectors sometimes became assassins themselves, exploiting their power to make the head of state a virtual hostage or killing the very leaders whom they were supposed to protect. The loyalty of individual bodyguards is an important question as well, especially for leaders who oversee states with strong ethnic or religious divisions. Failure to realize such divided loyalties allowed the assassination of Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who was assassinated by two Sikh bodyguards in 1984.
The bodyguard function was often executed by the leader's most loyal warriors, and it was extremely effective throughout most of early human history, which led assassins to attempt stealthy means, such as poison, whose risk was reduced by having another person taste the leader's food first.
Modern strategies.
With the advent of gunpowder, ranged assassination via bombs or firearms became possible. One of the first reactions was simply to increase the guard, creating what at times might seem a small army trailing every leader. Another was to begin clearing large areas whenever a leader was present to the point that entire sections of a city might be shut down.
As the 20th century dawned, the prevalence and capability of assassins grew quickly, as did measures to protect against them. For the first time, armored cars or limousines were put into service for safer transport, with modern versions virtually invulnerable to small arms fire, smaller bombs and mines. Bulletproof vests also began to be used, but since they were of limited utility, restricting movement and leaving the head unprotected, they tended to be worn only during high-profile public events, if at all.
Access to famous people also became more and more restricted; potential visitors would be forced through numerous different checks before being granted access to the official in question, and as communication became better and information technology more prevalent, it has become all but impossible for a would-be killer to get close enough to the personage at work or in private life to effect an attempt on their life, especially with the common use of metal and bomb detectors.
Most modern assassinations have been committed either during a public performance or during transport, both because of weaker security and security lapses, such as with U.S. President John F. Kennedy and former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, or as part of a coup d'état in which security is either overwhelmed or completely removed, such as with Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba.
The methods used for protection by famous people have sometimes evoked negative reactions by the public, with some resenting the separation from their officials or major figures. One example might be traveling in a car protected by a bubble of clear bulletproof glass, such as the MRAP-like Popemobile of Pope John Paul II, built following an attempt at his life. Politicians often resent the need for separation and sometimes send their bodyguards away from them for personal or publicity reasons. US President William McKinley did so at the public reception in which he was assassinated.
Other potential targets go into seclusion and are rarely heard from or seen in public, such as writer Salman Rushdie. A related form of protection is the use of body doubles, people with similar builds to those they are expected to impersonate. These people are then made up and, in some cases, undergo plastic surgery to look like the target, with the body double then taking the place of the person in high-risk situations. According to Joe R. Reeder, Under Secretary of the Army from 1993 to 1997, Fidel Castro used body doubles.
US Secret Service protective agents receive training in the psychology of assassins.
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Optical audio disc
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An audio optical disc is an optical disc that stores sound information such as music or speech. It may specifically refer to:
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Alcoholism
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Alcoholism is the continued drinking of alcohol despite it causing problems. Some definitions require evidence of dependence and withdrawal. Problematic use of alcohol has been mentioned in the earliest historical records. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated there were 283 million people with alcohol use disorders worldwide . The term "alcoholism" was first coined in 1852, but "alcoholism" and "alcoholic" are considered stigmatizing and likely to discourage seeking treatment, so diagnostic terms such as alcohol use disorder and "alcohol dependence" are often used instead in a clinical context.
Alcohol is addictive, and heavy long-term alcohol use results in many negative health and social consequences. It can damage all the organ systems, but especially affects the brain, heart, liver, pancreas, and immune system. Heavy alcohol usage can result in trouble sleeping, and severe cognitive issues like dementia, brain damage, or Wernicke–Korsakoff syndrome. Physical effects include irregular heartbeat, an impaired immune response, liver cirrhosis, increased cancer risk, and severe withdrawal symptoms if stopped suddenly.
These health effects can reduce life expectancy by 10 years. Drinking during pregnancy may harm the child's health, and drunk driving increases the risk of traffic accidents. Alcoholism is also associated with increases in violent and non-violent crime. While alcoholism directly resulted in 139,000 deaths worldwide in 2013, in 2012 3.3 million deaths may be attributable globally to alcohol.
The development of alcoholism is attributed to both environment and genetics equally. The use of alcohol to self-medicate stress or anxiety can turn into alcoholism. Someone with a parent or sibling with an alcohol use disorder is three to four times more likely to develop an alcohol use disorder themselves, but only a minority of them do. Environmental factors include social, cultural and behavioral influences. High stress levels and anxiety, as well as alcohol's inexpensive cost and easy accessibility, increase the risk. People may continue to drink partly to prevent or improve symptoms of withdrawal. After a person stops drinking alcohol, they may experience a low level of withdrawal lasting for months. Medically, alcoholism is considered both a physical and mental illness. Questionnaires are usually used to detect possible alcoholism. Further information is then collected to confirm the diagnosis.
Treatment of alcoholism may take several forms. Due to medical problems that can occur during withdrawal, alcohol cessation should be controlled carefully. One common method involves the use of benzodiazepine medications, such as diazepam. These can be taken while admitted to a health care institution or individually. The medications acamprosate or disulfiram may also be used to help prevent further drinking. Mental illness or other addictions may complicate treatment. Various individual or group therapy or support groups are used to attempt to keep a person from returning to alcoholism. Among them is the abstinence based mutual aid fellowship Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). A 2020 scientific review found that clinical interventions encouraging increased participation in AA (AA/twelve step facilitation (AA/TSF))—resulted in higher abstinence rates over other clinical interventions, and most studies in the review found that AA/TSF led to lower health costs.
Many terms, some slurs and some informal, have been used to refer to people affected by alcoholism such as "tippler", "sot", "drunk", "drunkard", "piss ant", "dipsomaniac" and "souse".
Signs and symptoms.
The risk of alcohol dependence begins at low levels of drinking and increases directly with both the volume of alcohol consumed and a pattern of drinking larger amounts on an occasion, to the point of intoxication, which is sometimes called "binge drinking". Binge drinking is the most common pattern of alcoholism. It has different definitions and one of this defines it as a pattern of drinking when a male has five or more drinks on an occasion or a female has at least four drinks on an occasion.
Long-term misuse.
Alcoholism is characterized by an increased tolerance to alcohol – which means that an individual can consume more alcohol – and physical dependence on alcohol, which makes it hard for an individual to control their consumption. The physical dependency caused by alcohol can lead to an affected individual having a very strong urge to drink alcohol. These characteristics play a role in decreasing the ability to stop drinking of an individual with an alcohol use disorder. Alcoholism can have adverse effects on mental health, contributing to psychiatric disorders and increasing the risk of suicide. A depressed mood is a common symptom of heavy alcohol drinkers.
Warning signs.
Warning signs of alcoholism include the consumption of increasing amounts of alcohol and frequent intoxication, preoccupation with drinking to the exclusion of other activities, promises to quit drinking and failure to keep those promises, the inability to remember what was said or done while drinking (colloquially known as "blackouts"), personality changes associated with drinking, denial or the making of excuses for drinking, the refusal to admit excessive drinking, dysfunction or other problems at work or school, the loss of interest in personal appearance or hygiene, marital and economic problems, and the complaint of poor health, with loss of appetite, respiratory infections, or increased anxiety.
Physical.
Short-term effects.
Drinking enough to cause a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.03–0.12% typically causes an overall improvement in mood and possible euphoria (intense feelings of well-being and happiness), increased self-confidence and sociability, decreased anxiety, a flushed, red appearance in the face and impaired judgment and fine muscle coordination. A BAC of 0.09% to 0.25% causes lethargy, sedation, balance problems and blurred vision. A BAC of 0.18% to 0.30% causes profound confusion, impaired speech (e.g. slurred speech), staggering, dizziness and vomiting. A BAC from 0.25% to 0.40% causes stupor, unconsciousness, anterograde amnesia, vomiting (death may occur due to inhalation of vomit while unconscious) and respiratory depression (potentially life-threatening). A BAC from 0.35% to 0.80% causes a coma (unconsciousness), life-threatening respiratory depression and possibly fatal alcohol poisoning. With all alcoholic beverages, drinking while driving, operating an aircraft or heavy machinery increases the risk of an accident; many countries have penalties for drunk driving.
Long-term effects.
Having more than one drink a day for women or two drinks for men increases the risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, atrial fibrillation, and stroke. Risk is greater with binge drinking, which may also result in violence or accidents. About 3.3 million deaths (5.9% of all deaths) are believed to be due to alcohol each year. Alcoholism reduces a person's life expectancy by around ten years and alcohol use is the third leading cause of early death in the United States. Long-term alcohol misuse can cause a number of physical symptoms, including cirrhosis of the liver, pancreatitis, epilepsy, polyneuropathy, alcoholic dementia, heart disease, nutritional deficiencies, peptic ulcers and sexual dysfunction, and can eventually be fatal. Other physical effects include an increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease, malabsorption, alcoholic liver disease, and several cancers such as breast cancer and head and neck cancer. Damage to the central nervous system and peripheral nervous system can occur from sustained alcohol consumption. A wide range of immunologic defects can result and there may be a generalized skeletal fragility, in addition to a recognized tendency to accidental injury, resulting in a propensity for bone fractures.
Women develop long-term complications of alcohol dependence more rapidly than do men; women also have a higher mortality rate from alcoholism than men. Examples of long-term complications include brain, heart, and liver damage and an increased risk of breast cancer. Additionally, heavy drinking over time has been found to have a negative effect on reproductive functioning in women. This results in reproductive dysfunction such as anovulation, decreased ovarian mass, problems or irregularity of the menstrual cycle, and early menopause. Alcoholic ketoacidosis can occur in individuals who chronically misuse alcohol and have a recent history of binge drinking. The amount of alcohol that can be biologically processed and its effects differ between sexes. Equal dosages of alcohol consumed by men and women generally result in women having higher blood alcohol concentrations (BACs), since women generally have a lower weight and higher percentage of body fat and therefore a lower volume of distribution for alcohol than men.
Psychiatric.
Long-term misuse of alcohol can cause a wide range of mental health problems. Severe cognitive problems are common; approximately 10% of all dementia cases are related to alcohol consumption, making it the second leading cause of dementia. Excessive alcohol use causes damage to brain function, and psychological health can be increasingly affected over time. Social skills are significantly impaired in people with alcoholism due to the neurotoxic effects of alcohol on the brain, especially the prefrontal cortex area of the brain. The social skills that are impaired by alcohol use disorder include impairments in perceiving facial emotions, prosody, perception problems, and theory of mind deficits; the ability to understand humor is also impaired in people who misuse alcohol. Psychiatric disorders are common in people with alcohol use disorders, with as many as 25% also having severe psychiatric disturbances. The most prevalent psychiatric symptoms are anxiety and depression disorders. Psychiatric symptoms usually initially worsen during alcohol withdrawal, but typically improve or disappear with continued abstinence. Psychosis, confusion, and organic brain syndrome may be caused by alcohol misuse, which can lead to a misdiagnosis such as schizophrenia. Panic disorder can develop or worsen as a direct result of long-term alcohol misuse.
The co-occurrence of major depressive disorder and alcoholism is well documented. Among those with comorbid occurrences, a distinction is commonly made between depressive episodes that remit with alcohol abstinence ("substance-induced"), and depressive episodes that are primary and do not remit with abstinence ("independent" episodes). Additional use of other drugs may increase the risk of depression. Psychiatric disorders differ depending on gender. Women who have alcohol-use disorders often have a co-occurring psychiatric diagnosis such as major depression, anxiety, panic disorder, bulimia, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), or borderline personality disorder. Men with alcohol-use disorders more often have a co-occurring diagnosis of narcissistic or antisocial personality disorder, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, impulse disorders or attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Women with alcohol use disorder are more likely to experience physical or sexual assault, abuse, and domestic violence than women in the general population, which can lead to higher instances of psychiatric disorders and greater dependence on alcohol.
Social effects.
Serious social problems arise from alcohol use disorder; these dilemmas are caused by the pathological changes in the brain and the intoxicating effects of alcohol. Alcohol misuse is associated with an increased risk of committing criminal offences, including child abuse, domestic violence, rape, burglary and assault. Alcoholism is associated with loss of employment, which can lead to financial problems. Drinking at inappropriate times and behavior caused by reduced judgment can lead to legal consequences, such as criminal charges for drunk driving or public disorder, or civil penalties for tortious behavior. An alcoholic's behavior and mental impairment while drunk can profoundly affect those surrounding the user and lead to isolation from family and friends. This isolation can lead to marital conflict and divorce, or contribute to domestic violence. Alcoholism can also lead to child neglect, with subsequent lasting damage to the emotional development of children of people with alcohol use disorders. For this reason, children of people with alcohol use disorders can develop a number of emotional problems. For example, they can become afraid of their parents, because of their unstable mood behaviors. They may develop shame over their inadequacy to liberate their parents from alcoholism and, as a result of this, may develop self-image problems, which can lead to depression.
Alcohol withdrawal.
As with similar substances with a sedative-hypnotic mechanism, such as barbiturates and benzodiazepines, withdrawal from alcohol dependence can be fatal if it is not properly managed. Alcohol's primary effect is the increase in stimulation of the GABAA receptor, promoting central nervous system depression. With repeated heavy consumption of alcohol, these receptors are desensitized and reduced in number, resulting in tolerance and physical dependence. When alcohol consumption is stopped too abruptly, the person's nervous system experiences uncontrolled synapse firing. This can result in symptoms that include anxiety, Upset stomach or nausea, life-threatening seizures, delirium tremens, hallucinations, shakes and possible heart failure. Other neurotransmitter systems are also involved, especially dopamine, NMDA and glutamate.
Severe acute withdrawal symptoms such as delirium tremens and seizures rarely occur after 1-week post cessation of alcohol. The acute withdrawal phase can be defined as lasting between one and three weeks. In the period of 3–6 weeks following cessation, anxiety, depression, fatigue, and sleep disturbance are common. Similar post-acute withdrawal symptoms have also been observed in animal models of alcohol dependence and withdrawal.
A kindling effect also occurs in people with alcohol use disorders whereby each subsequent withdrawal syndrome is more severe than the previous withdrawal episode; this is due to neuroadaptations which occur as a result of periods of abstinence followed by re-exposure to alcohol. Individuals who have had multiple withdrawal episodes are more likely to develop seizures and experience more severe anxiety during withdrawal from alcohol than alcohol-dependent individuals without a history of past alcohol withdrawal episodes. The kindling effect leads to persistent functional changes in brain neural circuits as well as to gene expression. Kindling also results in the intensification of psychological symptoms of alcohol withdrawal. There are decision tools and questionnaires that help guide physicians in evaluating alcohol withdrawal. For example, the CIWA-Ar objectifies alcohol withdrawal symptoms in order to guide therapy decisions which allows for an efficient interview while at the same time retaining clinical usefulness, validity, and reliability, ensuring proper care for withdrawal patients, who can be in danger of death.
Causes.
A complex combination of genetic and environmental factors influences the risk of the development of alcoholism. Genes that influence the metabolism of alcohol also influence the risk of alcoholism, as can a family history of alcoholism. There is compelling evidence that alcohol use at an early age may influence the expression of genes which increase the risk of alcohol dependence. These genetic and epigenetic results are regarded as consistent with large longitudinal population studies finding that the younger the age of drinking onset, the greater the prevalence of lifetime alcohol dependence.
Severe childhood trauma is also associated with a general increase in the risk of drug dependency. Lack of peer and family support is associated with an increased risk of alcoholism developing. Genetics and adolescence are associated with an increased sensitivity to the neurotoxic effects of chronic alcohol misuse. Cortical degeneration due to the neurotoxic effects increases impulsive behaviour, which may contribute to the development, persistence and severity of alcohol use disorders. There is evidence that with abstinence, there is a reversal of at least some of the alcohol induced central nervous system damage. The use of cannabis was associated with later problems with alcohol use. Alcohol use was associated with an increased probability of later use of tobacco and illegal drugs such as cannabis.
Availability.
Alcohol is the most available, widely consumed, and widely misused recreational drug. Beer alone is the world's most widely consumed alcoholic beverage; it is the third-most popular drink overall, after water and tea. It is thought by some to be the oldest fermented beverage.
Gender difference.
Based on combined data in the US from SAMHSA's 2004–2005 National Surveys on Drug Use & Health, the rate of past-year alcohol dependence or misuse among persons aged 12 or older varied by level of alcohol use: 44.7% of past month heavy drinkers, 18.5% binge drinkers, 3.8% past month non-binge drinkers, and 1.3% of those who did not drink alcohol in the past month met the criteria for alcohol dependence or misuse in the past year. Males had higher rates than females for all measures of drinking in the past month: any alcohol use (57.5% vs. 45%), binge drinking (30.8% vs. 15.1%), and heavy alcohol use (10.5% vs. 3.3%), and males were twice as likely as females to have met the criteria for alcohol dependence or misuse in the past year (10.5% vs. 5.1%). However, because females generally weigh less than males, have more fat and less water in their bodies, and metabolize less alcohol in their esophagus and stomach, they are likely to develop higher blood alcohol levels per drink. Women may also be more vulnerable to liver disease.
Genetic variation.
There are genetic variations that affect the risk for alcoholism. Some of these variations are more common in individuals with ancestry from certain areas; for example, Africa, East Asia, the Middle East and Europe. The variants with strongest effect are in genes that encode the main enzymes of alcohol metabolism, "ADH1B" and "ALDH2". These genetic factors influence the rate at which alcohol and its initial metabolic product, acetaldehyde, are metabolized. They are found at different frequencies in people from different parts of the world. The alcohol dehydrogenase allele "ADH1B*2" causes a more rapid metabolism of alcohol to acetaldehyde, and reduces risk for alcoholism; it is most common in individuals from East Asia and the Middle East. The alcohol dehydrogenase allele "ADH1B*3" also causes a more rapid metabolism of alcohol. The allele ADH1B*3 is only found in some individuals of African descent and certain Native American tribes. African Americans and Native Americans with this allele have a reduced risk of developing alcoholism. Native Americans, however, have a significantly higher rate of alcoholism than average; risk factors such as cultural environmental effects (e.g. trauma) have been proposed to explain the higher rates. The aldehyde dehydrogenase allele "ALDH2*2" greatly reduces the rate at which acetaldehyde, the initial product of alcohol metabolism, is removed by conversion to acetate; it greatly reduces the risk for alcoholism.
A genome-wide association study (GWAS) of more than 100,000 human individuals identified variants of the gene "KLB", which encodes the transmembrane protein β-Klotho, as highly associated with alcohol consumption. The protein β-Klotho is an essential element in cell surface receptors for hormones involved in modulation of appetites for simple sugars and alcohol. Several large GWAS have found differences in the genetics of alcohol consumption and alcohol dependence, although the two are to some degree related.
DNA damage.
Alcohol-induced DNA damage, when not properly repaired, may have a key role in the neurotoxicity induced by alcohol. Metabolic conversion of ethanol to acetaldehyde can occur in the brain and the neurotoxic effects of ethanol appear to be associated with acetaldehyde induced DNA damages including DNA adducts and crosslinks. In addition to acetaldehyde, alcohol metabolism produces potentially genotoxic reactive oxygen species, which have been demonstrated to cause oxidative DNA damage.
Diagnosis.
Definition.
Because there is disagreement on the definition of the word alcoholism, it is not a recognized diagnosis, and the use of the term alcoholism is discouraged due to its heavily stigmatized connotations. It is classified as alcohol use disorder in the DSM-5 or alcohol dependence in the ICD-11. In 1979, the World Health Organization discouraged the use of "alcoholism" due to its inexact meaning, preferring "alcohol dependence syndrome".
Misuse, problem use, abuse, and heavy use of alcohol refer to improper use of alcohol, which may cause physical, social, or moral harm to the drinker. "The Dietary Guidelines for Americans", issued by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in 2005, defines "moderate use" as no more than two alcoholic beverages a day for men and no more than one alcoholic beverage a day for women. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) defines binge drinking as the amount of alcohol leading to a blood alcohol content (BAC) of 0.08, which, for most adults, would be reached by consuming five drinks for men or four for women over a two-hour period. According to the NIAAA, men may be at risk for alcohol-related problems if their alcohol consumption exceeds 14 standard drinks per week or 4 drinks per day, and women may be at risk if they have more than 7 standard drinks per week or 3 drinks per day. It defines a standard drink as one 12-ounce bottle of beer, one 5-ounce glass of wine, or 1.5 ounces of distilled spirits. Despite this risk, a 2014 report in the National Survey on Drug Use and Health found that only 10% of either "heavy drinkers" or "binge drinkers" defined according to the above criteria also met the criteria for alcohol dependence, while only 1.3% of non-binge drinkers met the criteria. An inference drawn from this study is that evidence-based policy strategies and clinical preventive services may effectively reduce binge drinking without requiring addiction treatment in most cases.
Alcoholism.
The term "alcoholism" is commonly used amongst laypeople, but the word is poorly defined. Despite the imprecision inherent in the term, there have been attempts to define how the word "alcoholism" should be interpreted when encountered. In 1992, it was defined by the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (NCADD) and ASAM as "a primary, chronic disease characterized by impaired control over drinking, preoccupation with the drug alcohol, use of alcohol despite adverse consequences, and distortions in thinking." MeSH has had an entry for "alcoholism" since 1999, and references the 1992 definition.
The WHO calls "alcoholism" "a term of long-standing use and variable meaning", and use of the term was disfavored by a 1979 WHO expert committee.
In professional and research contexts, the term "alcoholism" is not currently favored, but rather "alcohol abuse", "alcohol dependence", or "alcohol use disorder" are used. Talbot (1989) observes that alcoholism in the classical disease model follows a progressive course: if people continue to drink, their condition will worsen. This will lead to harmful consequences in their lives, physically, mentally, emotionally, and socially. Johnson (1980) proposed that the emotional progression of the addicted people's response to alcohol has four phases. The first two are considered "normal" drinking and the last two are viewed as "typical" alcoholic drinking. Johnson's four phases consist of:
DSM and ICD.
In the United States, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is the most common diagnostic guide for substance use disorders, whereas most countries use the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) for diagnostic (and other) purposes. The two manuals use similar but not identical nomenclature to classify alcohol problems.
Social barriers.
Attitudes and social stereotypes can create barriers to the detection and treatment of alcohol use disorder. This is more of a barrier for women than men. Fear of stigmatization may lead women to deny that they have a medical condition, to hide their drinking, and to drink alone. This pattern, in turn, leads family, physicians, and others to be less likely to suspect that a woman they know has alcohol use disorder. In contrast, reduced fear of stigma may lead men to admit that they are having a medical condition, to display their drinking publicly, and to drink in groups. This pattern, in turn, leads family, physicians, and others to be more likely to suspect that a man they know is someone with an alcohol use disorder.
Screening.
Screening is recommended among those over the age of 18. Several tools may be used to detect a loss of control of alcohol use. These tools are mostly self-reports in questionnaire form. Another common theme is a score or tally that sums up the general severity of alcohol use.
The CAGE questionnaire, named for its four questions, is one such example that may be used to screen patients quickly in a doctor's office.
The CAGE questionnaire has demonstrated a high effectiveness in detecting alcohol-related problems; however, it has limitations in people with less severe alcohol-related problems, white women and college students.
Other tests are sometimes used for the detection of alcohol dependence, such as the Alcohol Dependence Data Questionnaire, which is a more sensitive diagnostic test than the CAGE questionnaire. It helps distinguish a diagnosis of alcohol dependence from one of heavy alcohol use. The Michigan Alcohol Screening Test (MAST) is a screening tool for alcoholism widely used by courts to determine the appropriate sentencing for people convicted of alcohol-related offenses, driving under the influence being the most common. The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT), a screening questionnaire developed by the World Health Organization, is unique in that it has been validated in six countries and is used internationally. Like the CAGE questionnaire, it uses a simple set of questions – a high score earning a deeper investigation. The Paddington Alcohol Test (PAT) was designed to screen for alcohol-related problems amongst those attending Accident and Emergency departments. It concords well with the AUDIT questionnaire but is administered in a fifth of the time.
Urine and blood tests.
There are biological markers for the use of alcohol, one common test being that of blood alcohol content (BAC). Monitoring levels of gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT) is sometimes used to assess continued alcohol intake. But levels of GGT are elevated in only half of men with alcohol use disorder, and it is less commonly elevated in women and younger people. GGT levels remain persistently elevated for many weeks with continued drinking, with a half life of 2–3 weeks, making the GGT level a useful assessment of continued and chronic alcohol use. However, elevated levels of GGT may also be seen in non-alcohol related liver diseases, diabetes, obesity or overweight, heart failure, hyperthyroidism and some medications. Phosphatidylethanol is a biomarker that is present in the red blood cells for several weeks after drinking, with its levels grossly corresponding to amount of alcohol consumed, and a detection limit as long as 5 weeks, making it a useful test to assess continued alcohol use.
Ethyl glucuronide may be measured to assess recent alcohol intake, with levels being detected in urine up to 48 hours after alcohol intake. However, it is a poor measure of the amount of alcohol consumed. Measurement of ethanol levels in the blood, urine and breath are also used to assess recent alcohol intake, often in the emergency setting.
Other laboratory markers of chronic alcohol misuse include:
With regard to alcoholism, BAC is useful to judge alcohol tolerance, which in turn is a sign of alcoholism. Electrolyte and acid-base abnormalities including hypokalemia, hypomagnesemia, hyponatremia, hyperuricemia, metabolic acidosis, and respiratory alkalosis are common in people with alcohol use disorders.
However, none of these blood tests for biological markers are as sensitive as screening questionnaires.
Prevention.
The World Health Organization, the European Union and other regional bodies, national governments and parliaments have formed alcohol policies in order to reduce the harm of alcoholism.
Increasing the age at which alcohol can be purchased, and banning or restricting alcohol beverage advertising are common methods to reduce alcohol use among adolescents and young adults in particular, see Alcoholism in adolescence. Another common method of alcoholism prevention is taxation of alcohol products – increasing price of alcohol by 10% is linked with reduction of consumption of up to 10%.
Credible, evidence-based educational campaigns in the mass media about the consequences of alcohol misuse have been recommended. Guidelines for parents to prevent alcohol misuse amongst adolescents, and for helping young people with mental health problems have also been suggested.
Because alcohol is often used for self-medication of conditions like anxiety temporarily, prevention of alcoholism may be attempted by reducing the severity or prevalence of stress and anxiety in individuals.
Management.
Treatments are varied because there are multiple perspectives of alcoholism. Those who approach alcoholism as a medical condition or disease recommend differing treatments from, for instance, those who approach the condition as one of social choice. Most treatments focus on helping people discontinue their alcohol intake, followed up with life training and/or social support to help them resist a return to alcohol use. Since alcoholism involves multiple factors which encourage a person to continue drinking, they must all be addressed to successfully prevent a relapse. An example of this kind of treatment is detoxification followed by a combination of supportive therapy, attendance at self-help groups, and ongoing development of coping mechanisms. Much of the treatment community for alcoholism supports an abstinence-based zero tolerance approach popularized by the 12 step program of Alcoholics Anonymous; however, some prefer a harm-reduction approach.
Cessation of alcohol intake.
Medical treatment for alcohol detoxification usually involves administration of a benzodiazepine, in order to ameliorate alcohol withdrawal syndrome's adverse impact. The addition of phenobarbital improves outcomes if benzodiazepine administration lacks the usual efficacy, and phenobarbital alone might be an effective treatment. Propofol also might enhance treatment for individuals showing limited therapeutic response to a benzodiazepine. Individuals who are only at risk of mild to moderate withdrawal symptoms can be treated as outpatients. Individuals at risk of a severe withdrawal syndrome as well as those who have significant or acute comorbid conditions can be treated as inpatients. Direct treatment can be followed by a treatment program for alcohol dependence or alcohol use disorder to attempt to reduce the risk of relapse. Experiences following alcohol withdrawal, such as depressed mood and anxiety, can take weeks or months to abate while other symptoms persist longer due to persisting neuroadaptations.
Psychological.
Various forms of group therapy or psychotherapy are sometimes used to encourage and support abstinence from alcohol, or to reduce alcohol consumption to levels that are not associated with adverse outcomes. Mutual-aid group-counseling is an approach used to facilitate relapse prevention. Alcoholics Anonymous was one of the earliest organizations formed to provide mutual peer support and non-professional counseling, however the effectiveness of Alcoholics Anonymous is disputed. A 2020 Cochrane review concluded that Twelve-Step Facilitation (TSF) probably achieves outcomes such as fewer drinks per drinking day, however evidence for such a conclusion comes from low to moderate certainty evidence "so should be regarded with caution". Others include LifeRing Secular Recovery, SMART Recovery, Women for Sobriety, and Secular Organizations for Sobriety.
Manualized Twelve Step Facilitation (TSF) interventions (i.e. therapy which encourages active, long-term Alcoholics Anonymous participation) for Alcohol Use Disorder lead to higher abstinence rates, compared to other clinical interventions and to wait-list control groups.
Moderate drinking.
Moderate drinking amongst people with alcohol dependence—often termed 'controlled drinking'—has been subject to significant controversy. Indeed, much of the skepticism toward the viability of moderate drinking goals stems from historical ideas about 'alcoholism', now replaced with 'alcohol use disorder' or alcohol dependence in most scientific contexts. A 2021 meta-analysis and systematic review of controlled drinking covering 22 studies concluded controlled drinking was a 'non-inferior' outcome to abstinence for many drinkers.
Rationing and moderation programs such as Moderation Management and DrinkWise do not mandate complete abstinence. While most people with alcohol use disorders are unable to limit their drinking in this way, some return to moderate drinking. A 2002 US study by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) showed that 17.7% of individuals diagnosed as alcohol dependent more than one year prior returned to low-risk drinking. This group, however, showed fewer initial symptoms of dependency.
A follow-up study, using the same subjects that were judged to be in remission in 2001–2002, examined the rates of return to problem drinking in 2004–2005. The study found abstinence from alcohol was the most stable form of remission for recovering alcoholics. There was also a 1973 study showing chronic alcoholics drinking moderately again, but a 1982 follow-up showed that 95% of subjects were not able to maintain drinking in moderation over the long term. Another study was a long-term (60 year) follow-up of two groups of alcoholic men which concluded that "return to controlled drinking rarely persisted for much more than a decade without relapse or evolution into abstinence." Internet based measures appear to be useful at least in the short term.
Medications.
In the United States there are four approved medications for alcoholism: acamprosate, two methods of using naltrexone and disulfiram.
Several other drugs are also used and many are under investigation.
Evidence does not support the use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs), antipsychotics, or gabapentin.
Research.
Topiramate, a derivative of the naturally occurring sugar monosaccharide D-fructose, has been found effective in helping alcoholics quit or cut back on the amount they drink. Evidence suggests that topiramate antagonizes excitatory glutamate receptors, inhibits dopamine release, and enhances inhibitory gamma-aminobutyric acid function. A 2008 review of the effectiveness of topiramate concluded that the results of published trials are promising, however as of 2008, data was insufficient to support using topiramate in conjunction with brief weekly compliance counseling as a first-line agent for alcohol dependence. A 2010 review found that topiramate may be superior to existing alcohol pharmacotherapeutic options. Topiramate effectively reduces craving and alcohol withdrawal severity as well as improving quality-of-life-ratings.
Baclofen, a GABAB receptor agonist, is under study for the treatment of alcoholism. According to a 2017 Cochrane Systematic Review, there is insufficient evidence to determine the effectiveness or safety for the use of baclofen for withdrawal symptoms in alcoholism. Psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy is under study for the treatment of patients with alcohol use disorder.
Dual addictions and dependencies.
Alcoholics may also require treatment for other psychotropic drug addictions and drug dependencies. The most common dual dependence syndrome with alcohol dependence is benzodiazepine dependence, with studies showing 10–20% of alcohol-dependent individuals had problems of dependence and/or misuse problems of benzodiazepine drugs such as diazepam or clonazepam. These drugs are, like alcohol, depressants. Benzodiazepines may be used legally, if they are prescribed by doctors for anxiety problems or other mood disorders, or they may be purchased as illegal drugs. Benzodiazepine use increases cravings for alcohol and the volume of alcohol consumed by problem drinkers.
Benzodiazepine dependency requires careful reduction in dosage to avoid benzodiazepine withdrawal syndrome and other health consequences. Dependence on other sedative-hypnotics such as zolpidem and zopiclone as well as opiates and illegal drugs is common in alcoholics. Alcohol itself is a sedative-hypnotic and is cross-tolerant with other sedative-hypnotics such as barbiturates, benzodiazepines and nonbenzodiazepines. Dependence upon and withdrawal from sedative-hypnotics can be medically severe and, as with alcohol withdrawal, there is a risk of psychosis or seizures if not properly managed.
Epidemiology.
The World Health Organization estimates that there are about 380 million people with alcoholism worldwide (5.1% of the population over 15 years of age), with it being most common among males and young adults. Geographically, it is least common in Africa (1.1% of the population) and has the highest rates in Eastern Europe (11%).
in the United States, about 17 million (7%) of adults and 0.7 million (2.8%) of those age 12 to 17 years of age are affected. About 12% of American adults have had an alcohol dependence problem at some time in their life.
In the United States and Western Europe, 10–20% of men and 5–10% of women at some point in their lives will meet criteria for alcoholism. In England, the number of "dependent drinkers" was calculated as over 600,000 in 2019. Estonia had the highest death rate from alcohol in Europe in 2015 at 8.8 per 100,000 population. In the United States, 30% of people admitted to hospital have a problem related to alcohol.
Within the medical and scientific communities, there is a broad consensus regarding alcoholism as a disease state. For example, the American Medical Association considers alcohol a drug and states that "drug addiction is a chronic, relapsing brain disease characterized by compulsive drug seeking and use despite often devastating consequences. It results from a complex interplay of biological vulnerability, environmental exposure, and developmental factors (e.g., stage of brain maturity)." Alcoholism has a higher prevalence among men, though, in recent decades, the proportion of female alcoholics has increased. Current evidence indicates that in both men and women, alcoholism is 50–60% genetically determined, leaving 40–50% for environmental influences. Most alcoholics develop alcoholism during adolescence or young adulthood.
Prognosis.
Alcoholism often reduces a person's life expectancy by around ten years. The most common cause of death in alcoholics is from cardiovascular complications. There is a high rate of suicide in chronic alcoholics, which increases the longer a person drinks. Approximately 3–15% of alcoholics die by suicide, and research has found that over 50% of all suicides are associated with alcohol or drug dependence. This is believed to be due to alcohol causing physiological distortion of brain chemistry, as well as social isolation. Suicide is also common in adolescent alcohol abusers. Research in 2000 found that 25% of suicides in adolescents were related to alcohol abuse.
Among those with alcohol dependence after one year, some met the criteria for low-risk drinking, even though only 26% of the group received any treatment, with the breakdown as follows: 25% were found to be still dependent, 27% were in partial remission (some symptoms persist), 12% asymptomatic drinkers (consumption increases chances of relapse) and 36% were fully recovered – made up of 18% low-risk drinkers plus 18% abstainers. In contrast, however, the results of a long-term (60-year) follow-up of two groups of alcoholic men indicated that "return to controlled drinking rarely persisted for much more than a decade without relapse or evolution into abstinence...return-to-controlled drinking, as reported in short-term studies, is often a mirage."
History.
Historically the name "dipsomania" was coined by German physician C. W. Hufeland in 1819 before it was superseded by "alcoholism". That term now has a more specific meaning. The term "alcoholism" was first used by Swedish physician Magnus Huss in an 1852 publication to describe the systemic adverse effects of alcohol.
Alcohol has a long history of use and misuse throughout recorded history. Biblical, Egyptian and Babylonian sources record the history of abuse and dependence on alcohol. In some ancient cultures alcohol was worshiped and in others, its misuse was condemned. Excessive alcohol misuse and drunkenness were recognized as causing social problems even thousands of years ago. However, the defining of habitual drunkenness as it was then known as and its adverse consequences were not well established medically until the 18th century. In 1647 a Greek monk named Agapios was the first to document that chronic alcohol misuse was associated with toxicity to the nervous system and body which resulted in a range of medical disorders such as seizures, paralysis, and internal bleeding. In the 1910s and 1920s, the effects of alcohol misuse and chronic drunkenness boosted membership of the temperance movement and led to the prohibition of alcohol in many countries in North America and the Nordic countries, nationwide bans on the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages that generally remained in place until the late 1920s or early 1930s; these policies resulted in the decline of death rates from cirrhosis and alcoholism. In 2005, alcohol dependence and misuse was estimated to cost the US economy approximately 220 billion dollars per year, more than cancer and obesity.
Evolution.
Overview.
Alcoholism is an incredibly complex and difficult problem to understand and solve in our society. The evolutionary perspective is often overlooked but is a key perspective in understanding this disease. The evolution of alcoholism is thought to originate at the consumption of fermented fruits. Those that are able to find and successfully consume ripe fruit had an advantage because of the additional source of nutrients. This led to an association of ethanol (found in fermenting fruits) with energy. Ethanol is produced inside of ripening fruits which contain significant amounts of nutrients and high caloric value. Natural selection favoring primates attracted to alcohol, even if the benefits were not direct, is one hypothesis for why some people are more susceptible to alcoholism than others. This is an example of Darwinian medicine, and is part of the explanation for why some people may be more susceptible, the whole story about who is more susceptible to alcoholism also includes, genetics, environment, family background, and other stressors, all of which are important and tend to be studied more than the evolutionary aspect. Alcoholism is a disease of nutritional excess, similar to obesity. Early human consumption of ethanol was a byproduct as well as a source of nutrients, but in an where there is an excess amount of alcohol, this consumption can become a problem.
Fermented Fruit Consumption.
Early humans regularly ingested ethanol which was made from yeast-based fermentation of naturally occurring fruit sugars. The sugars found in fruit are an incentive for dispersers to consume and then eventually disperse seeds; the fruit pulp also serves as the base for ethanol production. The development of ethanol in fruits occurs during the ripening process which leaves fruits more available for consumption by dispersers. Unripe fruits contain seeds that have not matured, and if those seeds were to be eaten and dispersed it would be maladaptive. Unripe fruits are also less available to microbes to consume. The ripening of fruit can be seen as a race between dispersers and microbes.Ethanol inhibits the growth of microbes but it also typically makes fruit inedible to vertebrates as well. So, when an organism is able to consume alcohol, those fruits are available to them and not others. There is also an additional advantage to ethanol consumption which is the high caloric value of ethanol. The caloric value of ethanol is 7.1 kcal/g which is nearly twice that of carbohydrates which is 4.1 kcal/g.
Ancestral Ethanol Consumption.
Humans originate from a primarily frugivorous (fruit eater) lineage of primates. A large part of primate evolution occurred in warm equatorial climates where fruit fermentation occurred quickly and regularly. The ancestors of human and nonhuman primates were routinely exposed to low levels of ethanol through their fruit eating. This led to corresponding adaptation and preference for ethanol that has been preserved in modern humans.
Hormetic Effect.
The Hormetic effect or Hormesis is another aspect of the ancestral relationship humans have with alcohol. The Homertic effect is the idea that low concentrations to stressors, in this case ethanol, can be beneficial, but higher concentrations are stressful and cause harm. The evolutionary explanation for hormesis is based on the assumption that natural selection maximises relative fitness. This is an explanation for why organisms developed the metabolic machinery to consume ethanol in order to maximise its benefits. The Homertic effect in relation to alcohol consumption has not been studied thoroughly in humans but has in the fruit fly genus, "Drosophila." The longevity of "Drosophila" is enhanced at very low concentrations of ethanol but is decreased at higher concentrations. Additionally, the ability to produce an abundant amount of offspring increases in the low concentration presence of ethanol. Other organisms whose diet consists of fermenting fruit share these same characteristics and this may also include humans, seeing as we do have the ability and metabolic equipment to have hormetic advantages from ethanol at low concentrations.
Humans Frugivory.
Humans have a far reaching frugivorous dietary heritage. Frugivorous adaptations among primates is thought to have started at least 40 million years ago, though likely earlier. Our closest relatives, the chimpanzees, have a predominantly frugivorous diet which supports the idea of our common ancestor’s frugivorous dietary heritage. Additionally, gibbons and orangutans are almost exclusively frugivory, while gorillas which are partially frugivory. Because of this shared evolutionary history, nonhuman primates have been used as models to understand alcoholism. Researchers have used macaques to test whether natural selection supports genes for traits that lead to excessive alcohol consumption because these same traits may enhance fitness in other contexts. Because of our close lineages, this may be true as well for humans.
Modern Alcoholism.
In our prehistoric ancestry, there were advantages to our consumption of ethanol in fermenting fruits. But as the world changed and our living conditions turned to resemble our current modern industrial society, our access to ethanol changed as well. Similar to sugars and fats, ethanol was only found in very low concentrations and because of its tie to fruit sugars, our consumption of it was necessary. So, just like we crave sugar and fat because prehistorically they are only minimally obtainable and necessary for bodily functions, ethanol can also be craved and be over consumed. In our society sugar, fats and ethanol are readily available and in combination with our craving for it, both obesity and alcoholism can be considered diseases of nutritional excess.
Society and culture.
The various health problems associated with long-term alcohol consumption are generally perceived as detrimental to society; for example, money due to lost labor-hours, medical costs due to injuries due to drunkenness and organ damage from long-term use, and secondary treatment costs, such as the costs of rehabilitation facilities and detoxification centers. Alcohol use is a major contributing factor for head injuries, motor vehicle injuries (27%), interpersonal violence (18%), suicides (18%), and epilepsy (13%). Beyond the financial costs that alcohol consumption imposes, there are also significant social costs to both the alcoholic and their family and friends. For instance, alcohol consumption by a pregnant woman can lead to an incurable and damaging condition known as fetal alcohol syndrome, which often results in cognitive deficits, mental health problems, an inability to live independently and an increased risk of criminal behaviour, all of which can cause emotional stress for parents and caregivers.
Estimates of the economic costs of alcohol misuse, collected by the World Health Organization, vary from 1–6% of a country's GDP. One Australian estimate pegged alcohol's social costs at 24% of all drug misuse costs; a similar Canadian study concluded alcohol's share was 41%. One study quantified the cost to the UK of "all" forms of alcohol misuse in 2001 as £18.5–20 billion. All economic costs in the United States in 2006 have been estimated at $223.5 billion.
The idea of hitting rock bottom refers to an experience of stress that can be attributed to alcohol misuse. There is no single definition for this idea, and people may identify their own lowest points in terms of lost jobs, lost relationships, health problems, legal problems, or other consequences of alcohol misuse. The concept is promoted by 12-step recovery groups and researchers using the transtheoretical model of motivation for behavior change. The first use of this slang phrase in the formal medical literature appeared in a 1965 review in the "British Medical Journal", which said that some men refused treatment until they "hit rock bottom", but that treatment was generally more successful for "the alcohol addict who has friends and family to support him" than for impoverished and homeless addicts.
Stereotypes of alcoholics are often found in fiction and popular culture. The "town drunk" is a stock character in Western popular culture. Stereotypes of drunkenness may be based on racism or xenophobia, as in the fictional depiction of the Irish as heavy drinkers. Studies by social psychologists Stivers and Greeley attempt to document the perceived prevalence of high alcohol consumption amongst the Irish in America. Alcohol consumption is relatively similar between many European cultures, the United States, and Australia. In Asian countries that have a high gross domestic product, there is heightened drinking compared to other Asian countries, but it is nowhere near as high as it is in other countries like the United States. It is also inversely seen, with countries that have very low gross domestic product showing high alcohol consumption. In a study done on Korean immigrants in Canada, they reported alcohol was typically an integral part of their meal but is the only time solo drinking should occur. They also generally believe alcohol is necessary at any social event, as it helps conversations start.
Peyote, a psychoactive agent, has even shown promise in treating alcoholism. Alcohol had actually replaced peyote as Native Americans' psychoactive agent of choice in rituals when peyote was outlawed.
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Abstraction
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Abstraction is a process where general rules and concepts are derived from the use and classifying of specific examples, literal (real or concrete) signifiers, first principles, or other methods.
"An abstraction" is the outcome of this process — a concept that acts as a common noun for all subordinate concepts and connects any related concepts as a "group", "field", or "category".
Conceptual abstractions may be made by filtering the information content of a concept or an observable phenomenon, selecting only those aspects which are relevant for a particular purpose. For example, abstracting a leather soccer ball to the more general idea of a ball selects only the information on general ball attributes and behavior, excluding but not eliminating the other phenomenal and cognitive characteristics of that particular ball. In a type–token distinction, a type (e.g., a 'ball') is more abstract than its tokens (e.g., 'that leather soccer ball').
Abstraction in its secondary use is a material process, discussed in the themes below.
Origins.
Thinking in abstractions is considered by anthropologists, archaeologists, and sociologists to be one of the key traits in modern human behaviour, believed to have developed between 50,000 and 100,000 years ago. Its development is likely to have been closely connected with the development of human language, which (whether spoken or written) appears to both involve and facilitate abstract thinking. Max Müller suggests interrelationship between metaphor and abstraction in the development of thought and language.
History.
"Abstraction" involves induction of ideas or the synthesis of particular facts into one general theory about something. Its opposite, "specification", is the analysis or breaking-down of a general idea or abstraction into concrete facts. Abstraction can be illustrated by Francis Bacon's "Novum Organum" (1620), a book of modern scientific philosophy written in the late Jacobean era of England to encourage modern thinkers to collect specific facts before making any generalizations.
Bacon used and promoted induction as an abstraction tool; his induction complemented but was distinct from the ancient deductive-thinking approach that had dominated the Western intellectual world since the times of Greek philosophers like Thales, Anaximander, and Aristotle. Thales (–546 BCE) believed that everything in the universe comes from one main substance, water. He deduced or specified from a general idea, "everything is water," to the specific forms of water such as ice, snow, fog, and rivers.
Early-modern scientists used the approach of abstraction (going from particular facts collected into one general idea). Newton (1642–1727) derived the motion of the planets from Copernicus' (1473–1543) simplification, that the Sun is the center of the Solar System; Kepler (1571–1630) compressed thousands of measurements into one expression to finally conclude that Mars moves in an elliptical orbit about the Sun; Galileo (1564–1642) compressed the results of one hundred specific experiments into the law of falling bodies.
Themes.
Compression.
An abstraction can be seen as a compression process, mapping multiple different pieces of constituent data to a single piece of abstract data; based on similarities in the constituent data, for example, many different physical cats map to the abstraction "CAT". This conceptual scheme emphasizes the inherent equality of both constituent and abstract data, thus avoiding problems arising from the distinction between "abstract" and "concrete". In this sense the process of abstraction entails the identification of similarities between objects, and the process of associating these objects with an abstraction (which is itself an object).
For example, "picture 1 below" illustrates the concrete relationship "Cat sits on Mat".
Chains of abstractions can be construed, moving from neural impulses arising from sensory perception to basic abstractions such as color or shape, to experiential abstractions such as a specific cat, to semantic abstractions such as the "idea" of a CAT, to classes of objects such as "mammals" and even categories such as "object" as opposed to "action".
For example, "graph 1 below" expresses the abstraction "agent sits on location". This conceptual scheme entails no specific hierarchical taxonomy (such as the one mentioned involving cats and mammals), only a progressive exclusion of detail.
Instantiation.
Non-existent things in any particular place and time are often seen as abstract. By contrast, instances, or members, of such an abstract thing might exist in many different places and times.
Those abstract things are then said to be "multiply instantiated", in the sense of "picture 1", "picture 2", etc., shown below. It is not sufficient, however, to define "abstract" ideas as those that can be instantiated and to define "abstraction" as the movement in the opposite direction to instantiation. Doing so would make the concepts "cat" and "telephone" abstract ideas since despite their varying appearances, a particular cat or a particular telephone is an instance of the concept "cat" or the concept "telephone". Although the concepts "cat" and "telephone" are "abstractions", they are not "abstract" in the sense of the objects in "graph 1" below. We might look at other graphs, in a progression from "cat" to "mammal" to "animal", and see that "animal" is more abstract than "mammal"; but on the other hand "mammal" is a harder idea to express, certainly in relation to "marsupial" or "monotreme".
Perhaps confusingly, some philosophies refer to "tropes" (instances of properties) as "abstract particulars"—e.g., the particular redness of a particular apple is an "abstract particular". This is similar to qualia and sumbebekos.
Material process.
Still retaining the primary meaning of " or 'to draw away from', the abstraction of money, for example, works by drawing away from the particular value of things allowing completely incommensurate objects to be compared (see the section on 'Physicality' below).
The state (polity) as both concept and material practice exemplifies the two sides of this process of abstraction. Conceptually, 'the current concept of the state is an abstraction from the much more concrete early-modern use as the standing or status of the prince, his visible estates'. At the same time, materially, the 'practice of statehood is now constitutively and materially more abstract than at the time when princes ruled as the embodiment of extended power'.
Ontological status.
The way that physical objects, like rocks and trees, have being differs from the way that properties of abstract concepts or relations have being, for example the way the concrete, particular, individuals pictured in "picture 1" exist differs from the way the concepts illustrated in "graph 1" exist. That difference accounts for the ontological usefulness of the word "abstract". The word applies to properties and relations to mark the fact that, if they exist, they do not exist in space or time, but that instances of them can exist, potentially in many different places and times.
Physicality.
A physical object (a possible referent of a concept or word) is considered "concrete" (not abstract) if it is a "particular individual" that occupies a particular place and time. However, in the secondary sense of the term 'abstraction', this physical object can carry materially abstracting processes. For example, record-keeping aids throughout the Fertile Crescent included calculi (clay spheres, cones, etc.) which represented counts of items, probably livestock or grains, sealed in containers. According to , these clay containers contained tokens, the total of which were the count of objects being transferred. The containers thus served as something of a bill of lading or an accounts book. In order to avoid breaking open the containers for the count, marks were placed on the outside of the containers. These physical marks, in other words, acted as material abstractions of a materially abstract process of accounting, using conceptual abstractions (numbers) to communicate its meaning.
Abstract things are sometimes defined as those things that do not exist in reality or exist only as sensory experiences, like the color red. That definition, however, suffers from the difficulty of deciding which things are real (i.e. which things exist in reality). For example, it is difficult to agree to whether concepts like "God", "the number three", and "goodness" are real, abstract, or both.
An approach to resolving such difficulty is to use "predicates" as a general term for whether things are variously real, abstract, concrete, or of a particular property (e.g., "good"). Questions about the properties of things are then propositions about predicates, which propositions remain to be evaluated by the investigator. In the "graph 1" below, the graphical relationships like the arrows joining boxes and ellipses might denote predicates.
Referencing and referring.
Abstractions sometimes have ambiguous referents. For example, "happiness" can mean experiencing various positive emotions, but can also refer to life satisfaction and subjective well-being. Likewise, "architecture" refers not only to the design of safe, functional buildings, but also to elements of creation and innovation which aim at elegant solutions to construction problems, to the use of space, and to the attempt to evoke an emotional response in the builders, owners, viewers and users of the building. Architecture also refers to the __abstract__ arrangement, design of computer code to implement complex software systems .
Simplification and ordering.
Abstraction uses a strategy of simplification, wherein formerly concrete details are left ambiguous, vague, or undefined; thus effective communication about things in the abstract requires an intuitive or common experience between the communicator and the communication recipient. This is true for all verbal/abstract communication.
For example, many different things can be red. Likewise, many things sit on surfaces (as in "picture 1", to the right). The property of "redness" and the relation "sitting-on" are therefore abstractions of those objects. Specifically, the conceptual diagram "graph 1" identifies only three boxes, two ellipses, and four arrows (and their five labels), whereas the "picture 1" shows much more pictorial detail, with the scores of implied relationships as implicit in the picture rather than with the nine explicit details in the graph.
"Graph 1" details some explicit relationships between the objects of the diagram. For example, the arrow between the "agent" and "CAT:Elsie" depicts an example of an "is-a" relationship, as does the arrow between the "location" and the "MAT". The arrows between the gerund/present participle "SITTING" and the nouns "agent" and "location" express the diagram's basic relationship; "agent is SITTING on location"; "Elsie" is an instance of "CAT".
Although the description "sitting-on" (graph 1) is more abstract than the graphic image of a cat sitting on a mat (picture 1), the delineation of abstract things from concrete things is somewhat ambiguous; this ambiguity or vagueness is characteristic of abstraction. Thus something as simple as a newspaper might be specified to six levels, as in Douglas Hofstadter's illustration of that ambiguity, with a progression from abstract to concrete in "Gödel, Escher, Bach" (1979):
An abstraction can thus encapsulate each of these levels of detail with no loss of generality. But perhaps a detective or philosopher/scientist/engineer might seek to learn about something, at progressively deeper levels of detail, to solve a crime or a puzzle.
Thought processes.
In philosophical terminology, "abstraction" is the thought process wherein ideas are distanced from objects. But an idea can be symbolized.
As used in different disciplines.
In art.
Typically, "abstraction" is used in the arts as a synonym for abstract art in general. Strictly speaking, it refers to art unconcerned with the literal depiction of things from the visible world—it can, however, refer to an object or image which has been distilled from the real world, or indeed, another work of art. Artwork that reshapes the natural world for expressive purposes is called abstract; that which derives from, but does not imitate a recognizable subject is called nonobjective abstraction. In the 20th century the trend toward abstraction coincided with advances in science, technology, and changes in urban life, eventually reflecting an interest in psychoanalytic theory. Later still, abstraction was manifest in more purely formal terms, such as color, freedom from objective context, and a reduction of form to basic geometric designs.
In computer science.
Computer scientists use abstraction to make models that can be used and re-used without having to re-write all the program code for each new application on every different type of computer. They communicate their solutions with the computer by writing source code in some particular computer language which can be translated into machine code for different types of computers to execute. Abstraction allows program designers to separate a framework (categorical concepts related to computing problems) from specific instances which implement details. This means that the program code can be written so that code does not have to depend on the specific details of supporting applications, operating system software, or hardware, but on a categorical concept of the solution. A solution to the problem can then be integrated into the system framework with minimal additional work. This allows programmers to take advantage of another programmer's work, while requiring only an abstract understanding of the implementation of another's work, apart from the problem that it solves.
In general semantics.
Abstractions and levels of abstraction play an important role in the theory of general semantics originated by Alfred Korzybski. Anatol Rapoport wrote "Abstracting is a mechanism by which an infinite variety of experiences can be mapped on short noises (words)."
In history.
Francis Fukuyama defines history as "a deliberate attempt of abstraction in which we separate out important from unimportant events".
In linguistics.
Researchers in linguistics frequently apply abstraction so as to allow an analysis of the phenomena of language at the desired level of detail. A commonly used abstraction, the "phoneme", abstracts speech sounds in such a way as to neglect details that cannot serve to differentiate meaning. Other analogous kinds of abstractions (sometimes called "emic units") considered by linguists include morphemes, graphemes, and lexemes.
Abstraction also arises in the relation between syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. Pragmatics involves considerations that make reference to the user of the language; semantics considers expressions and what they denote (the designata) abstracted from the language user; and syntax considers only the expressions themselves, abstracted from the designata.
In mathematics.
Abstraction in mathematics is the process of extracting the underlying structures, patterns or properties of a mathematical concept or object, removing any dependence on real-world objects with which it might originally have been connected, and generalizing it so that it has wider applications or matching among other abstract descriptions of equivalent phenomena.
The advantages of abstraction in mathematics are:
The main disadvantage of abstraction is that highly abstract concepts are more difficult to learn, and might require a degree of mathematical maturity and experience before they can be assimilated.
In music.
In music, the term "abstraction" can be used to describe improvisatory approaches to interpretation, and may sometimes indicate abandonment of tonality. Atonal music has no key signature, and is characterized by the exploration of internal numeric relationships.
In neurology.
A recent meta-analysis suggests that the verbal system has a greater engagement with abstract concepts when the perceptual system is more engaged in processing concrete concepts. This is because abstract concepts elicit greater brain activity in the inferior frontal gyrus and middle temporal gyrus compared to concrete concepts which elicit greater activity in the posterior cingulate, precuneus, fusiform gyrus, and parahippocampal gyrus. Other research into the human brain suggests that the left and right hemispheres differ in their handling of abstraction. For example, one meta-analysis reviewing human brain lesions has shown a left hemisphere bias during tool usage.
In philosophy.
Abstraction in philosophy is the process (or, to some, the alleged process) in concept formation of recognizing some set of common features in individuals, and on that basis forming a concept of that feature. The notion of abstraction is important to understanding some philosophical controversies surrounding empiricism and the problem of universals. It has also recently become popular in formal logic under predicate abstraction. Another philosophical tool for the discussion of abstraction is thought space.
John Locke defined abstraction in "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding":
'So words are used to stand as outward marks of our internal ideas, which are taken from particular things; but if every particular idea that we take in had its own special name, there would be no end to names. To prevent this, the mind makes particular ideas received from particular things become general; which it does by considering them as they are in the mind—mental appearances—separate from all other existences, and from the circumstances of real existence, such as time, place, and so on. This procedure is called abstraction. In it, an idea taken from a particular thing becomes a general representative of all of the same kind, and its name becomes a general name that is applicable to any existing thing that fits that abstract idea.' (2.11.9)
In psychology.
Carl Jung's definition of abstraction broadened its scope beyond the thinking process to include exactly four mutually exclusive, different complementary psychological functions: sensation, intuition, feeling, and thinking. Together they form a structural totality of the differentiating abstraction process. Abstraction operates in one of these functions when it excludes the simultaneous influence of the other functions and other irrelevancies, such as emotion. Abstraction requires selective use of this structural split of abilities in the psyche. The opposite of abstraction is concretism. "Abstraction" is one of Jung's 57 definitions in Chapter XI of "Psychological Types".
In social theory.
Social theorists deal with abstraction both as an ideational and as a material process. Alfred Sohn-Rethel (1899–1990) asked: "Can there be abstraction other than by thought?" He used the example of commodity abstraction to show that abstraction occurs in practice as people create systems of abstract exchange that extend beyond the immediate physicality of the object and yet have real and immediate consequences. This work was extended through the 'Constitutive Abstraction' approach of writers associated with the Journal "Arena". Two books that have taken this theme of the abstraction of social relations as an organizing process in human history are "Nation Formation: Towards a Theory of Abstract Community" (1996)
and an associated volume published in 2006, "Globalism, Nationalism, Tribalism: Bringing Theory Back In".
These books argue that a nation is an abstract community bringing together strangers who will never meet as such; thus constituting materially real and substantial, but abstracted and mediated relations. The books suggest that contemporary processes of globalization and mediatization have contributed to materially abstracting relations between people, with major consequences for how humans live their lives.
One can readily argue that abstraction is an elementary methodological tool in several disciplines of social science. These disciplines have definite and different concepts of "man" that highlight those aspects of man and his behaviour by idealization that are relevant for the given human science. For example, is the man as sociology abstracts and idealizes it, depicting man as a social being. Moreover, we could talk about (the man who can extend his biologically determined intelligence thanks to new technologies), or (who is simply creative).
Abstraction (combined with Weberian idealization) plays a crucial role in economics - hence abstractions such as "the market"
and the generalized concept of "business".
Breaking away from directly experienced reality was a common trend in 19th-century sciences (especially physics), and this was the effort which fundamentally determined the way economics tried (and still tries) to approach the economic aspects of social life. It is abstraction we meet in the case of both Newton's physics and the neoclassical theory, since the goal was to grasp the unchangeable and timeless essence of phenomena. For example, Newton created the concept of the material point by following the abstraction method so that he abstracted from the dimension and shape of any perceptible object, preserving only inertial and translational motion. Material point is the ultimate and common feature of all bodies. Neoclassical economists created the indefinitely abstract notion of homo economicus by following the same procedure. Economists abstract from all individual and personal qualities in order to get to those characteristics that embody the essence of economic activity. Eventually, it is the substance of the economic man that they try to grasp. Any characteristic beyond it only disturbs the functioning of this essential core.
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Abelian group
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In mathematics, an abelian group, also called a commutative group, is a group in which the result of applying the group operation to two group elements does not depend on the order in which they are written. That is, the group operation is commutative. With addition as an operation, the integers and the real numbers form abelian groups, and the concept of an abelian group may be viewed as a generalization of these examples. Abelian groups are named after the Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel.
The concept of an abelian group underlies many fundamental algebraic structures, such as fields, rings, vector spaces, and algebras. The theory of abelian groups is generally simpler than that of their non-abelian counterparts, and finite abelian groups are very well understood and fully classified.
Definition.
An abelian group is a set formula_1, together with an operation ･ , that combines any two elements formula_2 and formula_3 of formula_1 to form another element of formula_5 denoted formula_6. The symbol ･ is a general placeholder for a concretely given operation. To qualify as an abelian group, the set and operation, formula_7, must satisfy four requirements known as the "abelian group axioms" (some authors include in the axioms some properties that belong to the definition of an operation: namely that the operation is "defined" for any ordered pair of elements of , that the result is "well-defined", and that the result "belongs to" ):
A group in which the group operation is not commutative is called a "non-abelian group" or "non-commutative group".
Facts.
Notation.
There are two main notational conventions for abelian groups – additive and multiplicative.
Generally, the multiplicative notation is the usual notation for groups, while the additive notation is the usual notation for modules and rings. The additive notation may also be used to emphasize that a particular group is abelian, whenever both abelian and non-abelian groups are considered, with some notable exceptions being near-rings and partially ordered groups, where an operation is written additively even when non-abelian.
Multiplication table.
To verify that a finite group is abelian, a table (matrix) – known as a Cayley table – can be constructed in a similar fashion to a multiplication table. If the group is formula_28 under the the entry of this table contains the product formula_29.
The group is abelian if and only if this table is symmetric about the main diagonal. This is true since the group is abelian iff formula_30 for all formula_31, which is iff the formula_32 entry of the table equals the formula_33 entry for all formula_31, i.e. the table is symmetric about the main diagonal.
Examples.
In general, matrices, even invertible matrices, do not form an abelian group under multiplication because matrix multiplication is generally not commutative. However, some groups of matrices are abelian groups under matrix multiplication – one example is the group of formula_53 rotation matrices.
Historical remarks.
Camille Jordan named abelian groups after the Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel, who had found that the commutativity of the group of a polynomial implies that the roots of the polynomial can be calculated by using radicals.
Properties.
If formula_37 is a natural number and formula_43 is an element of an abelian group formula_42 written additively, then formula_57 can be defined as formula_58 (formula_37 summands) and formula_60. In this way, formula_42 becomes a module over the ring formula_47 of integers. In fact, the modules over formula_47 can be identified with the abelian groups.
Theorems about abelian groups (i.e. modules over the principal ideal domain formula_47) can often be generalized to theorems about modules over an arbitrary principal ideal domain. A typical example is the classification of finitely generated abelian groups which is a specialization of the structure theorem for finitely generated modules over a principal ideal domain. In the case of finitely generated abelian groups, this theorem guarantees that an abelian group splits as a direct sum of a torsion group and a free abelian group. The former may be written as a direct sum of finitely many groups of the form formula_65 for formula_66 prime, and the latter is a direct sum of finitely many copies of formula_47.
If formula_68 are two group homomorphisms between abelian groups, then their sum formula_69, defined by formula_70, is again a homomorphism. (This is not true if formula_71 is a non-abelian group.) The set formula_72 of all group homomorphisms from formula_42 to formula_71 is therefore an abelian group in its own right.
Somewhat akin to the dimension of vector spaces, every abelian group has a "rank". It is defined as the maximal cardinality of a set of linearly independent (over the integers) elements of the group. Finite abelian groups and torsion groups have rank zero, and every abelian group of rank zero is a torsion group. The integers and the rational numbers have rank one, as well as every nonzero additive subgroup of the rationals. On the other hand, the multiplicative group of the nonzero rationals has an infinite rank, as it is a free abelian group with the set of the prime numbers as a basis (this results from the fundamental theorem of arithmetic).
The center formula_75 of a group formula_42 is the set of elements that commute with every element of formula_42. A group formula_42 is abelian if and only if it is equal to its center formula_75. The center of a group formula_42 is always a characteristic abelian subgroup of formula_42. If the quotient group formula_82 of a group by its center is cyclic then formula_42 is abelian.
Finite abelian groups.
Cyclic groups of integers modulo formula_37, formula_85, were among the first examples of groups. It turns out that an arbitrary finite abelian group is isomorphic to a direct sum of finite cyclic groups of prime power order, and these orders are uniquely determined, forming a complete system of invariants. The automorphism group of a finite abelian group can be described directly in terms of these invariants. The theory had been first developed in the 1879 paper of Georg Frobenius and Ludwig Stickelberger and later was both simplified and generalized to finitely generated modules over a principal ideal domain, forming an important chapter of linear algebra.
Any group of prime order is isomorphic to a cyclic group and therefore abelian. Any group whose order is a square of a prime number is also abelian. In fact, for every prime number formula_66 there are (up to isomorphism) exactly two groups of order formula_87, namely formula_88 and formula_89.
Classification.
The fundamental theorem of finite abelian groups states that every finite abelian group formula_42 can be expressed as the direct sum of cyclic subgroups of prime-power order; it is also known as the basis theorem for finite abelian groups. Moreover, automorphism groups of cyclic groups are examples of abelian groups. This is generalized by the fundamental theorem of finitely generated abelian groups, with finite groups being the special case when "G" has zero rank; this in turn admits numerous further generalizations.
The classification was proven by Leopold Kronecker in 1870, though it was not stated in modern group-theoretic terms until later, and was preceded by a similar classification of quadratic forms by Carl Friedrich Gauss in 1801; see history for details.
The cyclic group formula_91 of order formula_92 is isomorphic to the direct sum of formula_93 and formula_94 if and only if formula_40 and formula_37 are coprime. It follows that any finite abelian group formula_42 is isomorphic to a direct sum of the form
formula_98
in either of the following canonical ways:
For example, formula_104 can be expressed as the direct sum of two cyclic subgroups of order 3 and 5: formula_105. The same can be said for any abelian group of order 15, leading to the remarkable conclusion that all abelian groups of order 15 are isomorphic.
For another example, every abelian group of order 8 is isomorphic to either formula_106 (the integers 0 to 7 under addition modulo 8), formula_107 (the odd integers 1 to 15 under multiplication modulo 16), or formula_108.
See also list of small groups for finite abelian groups of order 30 or less.
Automorphisms.
One can apply the fundamental theorem to count (and sometimes determine) the automorphisms of a given finite abelian group formula_42. To do this, one uses the fact that if formula_42 splits as a direct sum formula_111 of subgroups of coprime order, then
formula_112
Given this, the fundamental theorem shows that to compute the automorphism group of formula_42 it suffices to compute the automorphism groups of the Sylow formula_66-subgroups separately (that is, all direct sums of cyclic subgroups, each with order a power of formula_66). Fix a prime formula_66 and suppose the exponents formula_117 of the cyclic factors of the Sylow formula_66-subgroup are arranged in increasing order:
formula_119
for some formula_120. One needs to find the automorphisms of
formula_121
One special case is when formula_122, so that there is only one cyclic prime-power factor in the Sylow formula_66-subgroup formula_124. In this case the theory of automorphisms of a finite cyclic group can be used. Another special case is when formula_37 is arbitrary but formula_126 for formula_127. Here, one is considering formula_124 to be of the form
formula_129
so elements of this subgroup can be viewed as comprising a vector space of dimension formula_37 over the finite field of formula_66 elements formula_132. The automorphisms of this subgroup are therefore given by the invertible linear transformations, so
formula_133
where formula_134 is the appropriate general linear group. This is easily shown to have order
formula_135
In the most general case, where the formula_117 and formula_37 are arbitrary, the automorphism group is more difficult to determine. It is known, however, that if one defines
formula_138
and
formula_139
then one has in particular formula_140, formula_141, and
formula_142
One can check that this yields the orders in the previous examples as special cases (see Hillar & Rhea).
Finitely generated abelian groups.
An abelian group is finitely generated if it contains a finite set of elements (called "generators") formula_143 such that every element of the group is a linear combination with integer coefficients of elements of .
Let be a free abelian group with basis formula_144
There is a unique group homomorphism
formula_145 such that
formula_146
This homomorphism is surjective, and its kernel is finitely generated (since integers form a Noetherian ring). Consider the matrix with integer entries, such that the entries of its th column are the coefficients of the th generator of the kernel. Then, the abelian group is isomorphic to the cokernel of linear map defined by . Conversely every integer matrix defines a finitely generated abelian group.
It follows that the study of finitely generated abelian groups is totally equivalent with the study of integer matrices. In particular, changing the generating set of is equivalent with multiplying on the left by a unimodular matrix (that is, an invertible integer matrix whose inverse is also an integer matrix). Changing the generating set of the kernel of is equivalent with multiplying on the right by a unimodular matrix.
The Smith normal form of is a matrix
formula_147
where and are unimodular, and is a matrix such that all non-diagonal entries are zero, the non-zero diagonal entries are the first ones, and is a divisor of for . The existence and the shape of the Smith normal form proves that the finitely generated abelian group is the direct sum
formula_148
where is the number of zero rows at the bottom of (and also the rank of the group). This is the fundamental theorem of finitely generated abelian groups.
The existence of algorithms for Smith normal form shows that the fundamental theorem of finitely generated abelian groups is not only a theorem of abstract existence, but provides a way for computing expression of finitely generated abelian groups as direct sums.
Infinite abelian groups.
The simplest infinite abelian group is the infinite cyclic group formula_47. Any finitely generated abelian group formula_1 is isomorphic to the direct sum of formula_151 copies of formula_47 and a finite abelian group, which in turn is decomposable into a direct sum of finitely many cyclic groups of prime power orders. Even though the decomposition is not unique, the number formula_151, called the rank of formula_1, and the prime powers giving the orders of finite cyclic summands are uniquely determined.
By contrast, classification of general infinitely generated abelian groups is far from complete. Divisible groups, i.e. abelian groups formula_1 in which the equation formula_156 admits a solution formula_157 for any natural number formula_37 and element formula_2 of formula_1, constitute one important class of infinite abelian groups that can be completely characterized. Every divisible group is isomorphic to a direct sum, with summands isomorphic to formula_161 and Prüfer groups formula_162 for various prime numbers formula_66, and the cardinality of the set of summands of each type is uniquely determined. Moreover, if a divisible group formula_1 is a subgroup of an abelian group formula_42 then formula_1 admits a direct complement: a subgroup formula_167 of formula_42 such that formula_169. Thus divisible groups are injective modules in the category of abelian groups, and conversely, every injective abelian group is divisible (Baer's criterion). An abelian group without non-zero divisible subgroups is called reduced.
Two important special classes of infinite abelian groups with diametrically opposite properties are "torsion groups" and "torsion-free groups", exemplified by the groups formula_170 (periodic) and formula_161 (torsion-free).
Torsion groups.
An abelian group is called periodic or torsion, if every element has finite order. A direct sum of finite cyclic groups is periodic. Although the converse statement is not true in general, some special cases are known. The first and second Prüfer theorems state that if formula_1 is a periodic group, and it either has a bounded exponent, i.e., formula_173 for some natural number formula_37, or is countable and the formula_66-heights of the elements of formula_1 are finite for each formula_66, then formula_1 is isomorphic to a direct sum of finite cyclic groups.
The cardinality of the set of direct summands isomorphic to formula_179 in such a decomposition is an invariant of formula_1. These theorems were later subsumed in the Kulikov criterion. In a different direction, Helmut Ulm found an extension of the second Prüfer theorem to countable abelian formula_66-groups with elements of infinite height: those groups are completely classified by means of their Ulm invariants.
Torsion-free and mixed groups.
An abelian group is called torsion-free if every non-zero element has infinite order. Several classes of torsion-free abelian groups have been studied extensively:
An abelian group that is neither periodic nor torsion-free is called mixed. If formula_1 is an abelian group and formula_185 is its torsion subgroup, then the factor group formula_186 is torsion-free. However, in general the torsion subgroup is not a direct summand of formula_1, so formula_1 is "not" isomorphic to formula_189. Thus the theory of mixed groups involves more than simply combining the results about periodic and torsion-free groups. The additive group formula_47 of integers is torsion-free formula_47-module.
Invariants and classification.
One of the most basic invariants of an infinite abelian group formula_1 is its rank: the cardinality of the maximal linearly independent subset of formula_1. Abelian groups of rank 0 are precisely the periodic groups, while torsion-free abelian groups of rank 1 are necessarily subgroups of formula_161 and can be completely described. More generally, a torsion-free abelian group of finite rank formula_151 is a subgroup of formula_196. On the other hand, the group of formula_66-adic integers formula_198 is a torsion-free abelian group of infinite formula_47-rank and the groups formula_200 with different formula_37 are non-isomorphic, so this invariant does not even fully capture properties of some familiar groups.
The classification theorems for finitely generated, divisible, countable periodic, and rank 1 torsion-free abelian groups explained above were all obtained before 1950 and form a foundation of the classification of more general infinite abelian groups. Important technical tools used in classification of infinite abelian groups are pure and basic subgroups. Introduction of various invariants of torsion-free abelian groups has been one avenue of further progress. See the books by Irving Kaplansky, László Fuchs, Phillip Griffith, and David Arnold, as well as the proceedings of the conferences on Abelian Group Theory published in "Lecture Notes in Mathematics" for more recent findings.
Additive groups of rings.
The additive group of a ring is an abelian group, but not all abelian groups are additive groups of rings (with nontrivial multiplication). Some important topics in this area of study are:
Relation to other mathematical topics.
Many large abelian groups possess a natural topology, which turns them into topological groups.
The collection of all abelian groups, together with the homomorphisms between them, forms the category formula_202, the prototype of an abelian category.
proved that the first-order theory of abelian groups, unlike its non-abelian counterpart, is decidable. Most algebraic structures other than Boolean algebras are undecidable.
There are still many areas of current research:
Moreover, abelian groups of infinite order lead, quite surprisingly, to deep questions about the set theory commonly assumed to underlie all of mathematics. Take the Whitehead problem: are all Whitehead groups of infinite order also free abelian groups? In the 1970s, Saharon Shelah proved that the Whitehead problem is:
A note on typography.
Among mathematical adjectives derived from the proper name of a mathematician, the word "abelian" is rare in that it is usually spelled with a lowercase a, rather than an uppercase A, the lack of capitalization being a tacit acknowledgment not only of the degree to which Abel's name has been institutionalized but also of how ubiquitous in modern mathematics are the concepts introduced by him.
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Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty
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The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, also known as the ABM Treaty or ABMT, was an arms control treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union on the limitation of the anti-ballistic missile (ABM) systems used in defending areas against ballistic missile-delivered nuclear weapons. It was intended to reduce pressures to build more nuclear weapons to maintain deterrence. Under the terms of the treaty, each party was limited to two ABM complexes, each of which was to be limited to 100 anti-ballistic missiles.
Signed in 1972, it was in force for the next 30 years. In 1997, five years after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, four former Soviet republics agreed with the United States to succeed the USSR's role in the treaty, with Russia assuming all rights and obligations as the successor state of the Soviet Union. Citing purported risks of nuclear blackmail, the United States unilaterally withdrew from the treaty in June 2002, leading to its termination.
Background.
Throughout the late 1950s and into the 1960s, the United States and the Soviet Union had been developing missile systems with the ability to shoot down incoming Intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) warheads. During this period, the US considered the defense of the US as part of reducing the overall damage inflicted in a full nuclear exchange. As part of this defense, Canada and the US established the North American Air Defense Command (now called North American Aerospace Defense Command).
By the early 1960s, US research on the Nike Zeus missile system had developed to the point where small improvements would allow it to be used as the basis of an operational ABM system. Work started on a short-range, high-speed counterpart known as Sprint to provide defense for the ABM sites themselves. By the mid-1960s, both systems showed enough promise to start development of base selection for a limited ABM system dubbed Sentinel. In 1967, the US announced that Sentinel itself would be scaled down to the smaller and less expensive Safeguard. Soviet doctrine called for development of its own ABM system and return to strategic parity with the US. This was achieved with the operational deployment of the A-35 ABM system and its successors, which remain operational to this day.
The development of multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle (MIRV) systems allowed a single ICBM to deliver as many as ten separate warheads at a time. An ABM defense system could be overwhelmed with the sheer number of warheads. Upgrading it to counter the additional warheads would be economically unfeasible: The defenders required one rocket per incoming warhead, whereas the attackers could place 10 warheads on a single missile at a reasonable cost. To further protect against ABM systems, the Soviet MIRV missiles were equipped with decoys; R-36M heavy missiles carried as many as 40. These decoys would appear as warheads to an ABM, effectively requiring engagement of five times as many targets and rendering defense even less effective.
ABM Treaty.
The United States first proposed an anti-ballistic missile treaty at the 1967 Glassboro Summit Conference during discussions between U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union Alexei Kosygin. McNamara argued both that ballistic missile defense could provoke an arms race, and that it might provoke a first-strike against the nation fielding the defense. Kosygin rejected this reasoning. They were trying to minimize the number of nuclear missiles in the world. Following the proposal of the Sentinel and Safeguard decisions on American ABM systems, the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks began in November 1969 (SALT I). By 1972 an agreement had been reached to limit strategic defensive systems. Each country was allowed two sites at which it could base a defensive system, one for the capital and one for ICBM silos.
The treaty was signed during the 1972 Moscow Summit on 26 May by the President of the United States, Richard Nixon and the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Leonid Brezhnev; and ratified by the U.S. Senate on 3 August 1972.
The 1974 Protocol reduced the number of sites to one per party, largely because neither country had developed a second site. The sites were Moscow for the USSR and the North Dakota Safeguard Complex for the US, which was already under construction.
Missiles limited by the treaty.
The Treaty limited only ABMs capable of defending against "strategic ballistic missiles", without attempting to define "strategic". It was understood that both ICBMs and SLBMs are obviously "strategic". Neither country intended to stop the development of counter-tactical ABMs. The topic became disputable as soon as most potent counter-tactical ABMs started to be capable of shooting down SLBMs (SLBMs naturally tend to be much slower than ICBMs), nevertheless both sides continued counter-tactical ABM development.
After the SDI announcement.
On 23 March 1983, Ronald Reagan announced the Strategic Defense Initiative, a research program into ballistic missile defense which he claimed would be "consistent with our obligations under the ABM Treaty". Reagan was wary of mutual deterrence with what he referred to as the "Evil Empire", and wanted to escape the traditional confines of mutual assured destruction. The project was a blow to Yuri Andropov's overtures for peace. Andropov said, "It is time Washington stopped thinking up one option after another in search of the best way of unleashing nuclear war in the hope of winning it. To do this is not just irresponsible. It is madness".
Regardless of the opposition, Reagan gave every indication that SDI would not be used as a bargaining chip and that the United States would do all in its power to build the system. The Soviets were alarmed because the Americans might have been able to make a nuclear first strike possible. In "The Nuclear Predicament," Beckman claims that one of the central goals of Soviet diplomacy was to terminate SDI. He went on to state that a surprise attack from the Americans would destroy much of the Soviet ICBM fleet, allowing SDI to defeat a "ragged" Soviet retaliatory response. The Soviets could not afford to ignore Reagan's new endeavour; therefore, their policy at the time was to enter negotiations with the Americans. By 1987, however, the USSR withdrew its opposition, concluding the SDI posed no threat and scientifically "would never work".
SDI research went ahead, although it did not achieve the hoped-for result. SDI research was cut back following the end of Reagan's presidency, and in 1995 it was reiterated in a presidential joint statement that "missile defense systems may be deployed... [that] will not pose a realistic threat to the strategic nuclear force of the other side and will not be tested to... [create] that capability." This was reaffirmed in 1997.
Theater Missile Defense negotiations.
The ABM Treaty prohibited "National Missile Defense" (NMD), but some interpreted it to allow more limited systems called "Theater Missile Defense" (TMD). This is because Article II of the treaty defined "ABM Systems" as those that "counter strategic missiles", which are typically defined as those with "intercontinental capability". Thus, TMD supporters argued, the treaty did not prohibit systems that defended against the countering of theatre ballistic missiles. The US had already developed and used such systems, including the Patriot Missile during the Gulf War.
The problem arose as TMD systems could also potentially be capable of countering strategic ballistic missiles, not just theatre ballistic missiles. The Clinton administration began negotiations with the Russian Government in 1993 to make amendments to the treaty. After much discussion, the American president, Bill Clinton, and his Russian counterpart, president Boris Yeltsin, signed an addendum to the treaty on September 9, 1997. According to these new agreements, the treaty permitted missile defense systems to have a velocity up to 5 km/s as long as it had not been tested against targets traveling faster than 5 km/s.
The 1997 agreement were eventually ratified by the Russian parliament on May 4, 2000 (along with START II treaty). However, it was opposed in the U.S. Senate by some Republican senators led by the hawkish anti-communist Jesse Helms. As a result, Clinton never submitted the agreement to Congress, fearing that Helms would stall their ratification or defeat it outright.
After the dissolution of the USSR; United States and Russia.
Although the Soviet Union ceased to exist in December 1991, in the view of the U.S. Department of State, the treaty continued in force. Russia was confirmed as the USSR's successor state in January 1992. Belarus and Ukraine were treated as successors at the ABM review conference in October 1993 and Kazakhstan was added as a successor shortly after. Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan became regular participants at ABM treaty meetings known as Standing Consultative Commissions. An additional memorandum of understanding was prepared in 1997, establishing Belarus, Kazakhstan, the Russian Federation, and Ukraine as successor states to the Soviet Union, for the purposes of the treaty. The US considered only extending the obligations to these countries, and not all, as only these ones had significant ABM assets. As the ABM treaty allowed for only a single ABM deployment, the State Department deemed that only a single ABM system would be collectively permitted among Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus.
In the United States, there was a debate on whether after the dissolution of the USSR, the ABM Treaty was still in effect. A month after the USSR's dissolution, President George H. W. Bush affirmed the ABM Treaty and regarded Russia as USSR's successor. Russia also accepted the ABM Treaty. Later on, President Clinton would affirm the validity of the treaty, as would President George W. Bush (before he terminated it). However, some Americans (mostly conservative Republicans) argued that the treaty was not in effect because the USSR had no successor state. This was deemed inconsistent, as Russia did indeed inherit the USSR's obligations (including its UNSC seat, its debts, its agreements on nonproliferation etc.). Former CIA director James Woolsey argued that in order for the treaty to remain in force, both the US and Russia had to accept it, and that President Clinton could not accept it without Congressional approval. According to Michael J. Glennon, Congress acknowledged the treaty in 1996, when it passed a law restricting President Clinton's ability to modify the treaty.
Unilateral United States withdrawal.
On 13 December 2001, George W. Bush gave Russia notice of the United States' unilateral withdrawal from the treaty, in accordance with the clause that required six months' notice before terminating the pact—the first time in recent history that the United States has withdrawn from a major international arms treaty. This led to the eventual creation of the American Missile Defense Agency.
Supporters of the withdrawal claimed that it was a necessity in order to test and build a limited National Missile Defense to protect the United States from nuclear blackmail by a rogue state. However, the withdrawal had many foreign and domestic critics, who said the construction of a missile defense system would lead to fears of a U.S. nuclear first strike, as the missile defense could blunt the retaliatory strike that would otherwise deter such a preemptive attack. John Rhinelander, a negotiator of the ABM treaty, predicted that the withdrawal would be a "fatal blow" to the Non-Proliferation Treaty and would lead to a "world without effective legal constraints on nuclear proliferation". Former U.S. Secretary of Defense William Perry also criticized the U.S. withdrawal as a very bad decision.
Russian response.
The then-newly elected Russian president, Vladimir Putin, responded to the withdrawal by ordering a build-up of Russia's nuclear capabilities, designed to counterbalance U.S. capabilities, although he noted there was no immediate danger stemming from the US withdrawal.
Russia and the United States signed the Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty in Moscow on 24 May 2002. This treaty mandates cuts in deployed strategic nuclear warheads, but without actually mandating cuts to total stockpiled warheads, and without any mechanism for enforcement.
On June 13, 2002, the US withdrew from ABM (having given notice 6 months earlier). The next day, Russia responded by declaring it would no longer abide by the START II treaty, which had not entered into force.
In interviews with Oliver Stone in 2017, Russian president Vladimir Putin said that in trying to persuade Russia to accept US withdrawal from the treaty, both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush had tried, without evidence, to convince him of an emerging nuclear threat from Iran.
On 1 March 2018, Russian president Vladimir Putin, in an address to the Federal Assembly, announced the development of a series of technologically new "super weapons" in response to U.S. withdrawal from the ABM Treaty. His statements were referred to by an anonymous US official under the Trump administration as largely "boastful untruths". He said that the U.S. decision triggered the Russian Government to order an increase in Russia's nuclear capabilities, designed to counterbalance U.S. ones.
In 2021, Putin cited U.S. withdrawal among his grievances against the West: "We tried to partner with the West for many years, but the partnership was not accepted, it didn't work," often citing it as one of America's great post-Cold War sins.
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Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military and diplomatic alliance, it consisted of two sovereign states with a single monarch who was titled both the Emperor of Austria and the King of Hungary. Austria-Hungary constituted the last phase in the constitutional evolution of the Habsburg monarchy: it was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 in the aftermath of the Austro-Prussian War, following wars of independence by Hungary in opposition to Habsburg rule. It was dissolved shortly after Hungary terminated the union with Austria in 1918 at the end of World War I.
Austria-Hungary was one of Europe's major powers, and was the second-largest country in Europe in area (after Russia) and the third-most populous (after Russia and the German Empire), while being among the 10 most populous countries worldwide. The Empire built up the fourth-largest machine-building industry in the world. With the exception of the territory of the Bosnian Condominium, the Empire of Austria and the Kingdom of Hungary were separate sovereign countries in international law.
At its core was the dual monarchy, which was a real union between Cisleithania, the northern and western parts of the former Austrian Empire, and Transleithania (Kingdom of Hungary). Following the 1867 reforms, the Austrian and Hungarian states were co-equal in power. The two countries conducted unified diplomatic and defence policies. For these purposes, "common" ministries of foreign affairs and defence were maintained under the monarch's direct authority, as was a third finance ministry responsible only for financing the two "common" portfolios. A third component of the union was the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia, an autonomous region under the Hungarian crown, which negotiated the Croatian–Hungarian Settlement in 1868. After 1878, Bosnia and Herzegovina came under Austro-Hungarian joint military and civilian rule until it was fully annexed in 1908, provoking the Bosnian crisis.
Austria-Hungary was one of the Central Powers in World War I, which began with an Austro-Hungarian war declaration on the Kingdom of Serbia on 28 July 1914. It was already effectively dissolved by the time the military authorities signed the armistice of Villa Giusti on 3 November 1918. The Kingdom of Hungary and the First Austrian Republic were treated as its successors "de jure", whereas the independence of the First Czechoslovak Republic, the Second Polish Republic, and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, respectively, and most of the territorial demands of the Kingdom of Romania and the Kingdom of Italy were also recognized by the victorious powers in 1920.
Name and terminology.
The realm's official name was the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy (, ; , ), though in international relations "Austria–Hungary" was used (; ). The Austrians also used the names () (in detail ; ) and "Danubian Monarchy" (; ) or "Dual Monarchy" (; ) and "The Double Eagle" (; ), but none of these became widespread either in Hungary or elsewhere.
The realm's full name used in internal administration was The Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of St. Stephen.
From 1867 onwards, the abbreviations heading the names of official institutions in Austria–Hungary reflected their responsibility:
Following a decision of Franz Joseph I in 1868, the realm bore the official name Austro-Hungarian Monarchy/Realm (; ) in its international relations. It was often contracted to the "Dual Monarchy" in English or simply referred to as "Austria".
Background and establishment.
Following Hungary's defeat against the Ottoman Empire in the Battle of Mohács of 1526, the Habsburg Empire became more involved in the Kingdom of Hungary, and subsequently assumed the Hungarian throne. However, as the Ottomans expanded further into Hungary, the Habsburgs came to control only a small north-western portion of the former kingdom's territory. Eventually, following the Treaty of Passarowitz in 1718, all former territories of the Hungarian kingdom were ceded from the Ottomans to the Habsburgs. In the revolutions of 1848, the Kingdom of Hungary called for greater self-government and later even independence from the Austrian Empire. The ensuing Hungarian Revolution of 1848 was crushed by the Austrian military with Russian military assistance, and the level of autonomy that the Hungarian state had enjoyed was replaced with absolutist rule from Vienna. This further increased Hungarian resentment of the Habsburg dominion.
In the 1860s, the Empire faced two severe defeats: its loss in the Second Italian War of Independence broke its dominion over a large part of Northern Italy (Lombardy, Veneto, Modena, Reggio, Tuscany, Parma and Piacenza) while defeat in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 led to the dissolution of the German Confederation (of which the Habsburg emperor was the hereditary president) and the exclusion of Austria from German affairs. These twin defeats gave the Hungarians the opportunity to remove the shackles of absolutist rule.
Realizing the need to compromise with Hungary in order to retain its great power status, the central government in Vienna began negotiations with the Hungarian political leaders, led by Ferenc Deák. The Hungarians maintained that the April Laws were still valid, but conceded that under the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713, foreign affairs and defence were "common" to Austria and Hungary. On 20 March 1867, the newly re-established Hungarian parliament at Pest started to negotiate the new laws to be accepted on 30 March. However, Hungarian leaders received word that the Emperor's formal coronation as King of Hungary on 8 June had to have taken place in order for the laws to be enacted within the lands of the Holy Crown of Hungary. On 28 July, Franz Joseph, in his new capacity as King of Hungary, approved and promulgated the new laws, which officially gave birth to the Dual Monarchy.
1866–1878: beyond Lesser Germany.
The Austro-Prussian War was ended by the Peace of Prague (1866) which settled the "German question" in favor of a Lesser German Solution. Count Friedrich Ferdinand von Beust, who was the foreign minister from 1866 to 1871, hated the Prussian chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, who had repeatedly outmaneuvered him. Beust looked to France for avenging Austria's defeat and attempted to negotiate with Emperor Napoleon III of France and Italy for an anti-Prussian alliance, but no terms could be reached. The decisive victory of the Prusso-German armies in the Franco-Prussian war and the subsequent founding of the German Empire ended all hope of re-establishing Austrian influence in Germany, and Beust retired.
After being forced out of Germany and Italy, the Dual Monarchy turned to the Balkans, which were in tumult as nationalistic movements were gaining strength and demanding independence. Both Russia and Austria–Hungary saw an opportunity to expand in this region. Russia took on the role of protector of Slavs and Orthodox Christians. Austria envisioned a multi-ethnic, religiously diverse empire under Vienna's control. Count Gyula Andrássy, a Hungarian who was Foreign Minister (1871–1879), made the centerpiece of his policy one of opposition to Russian expansion in the Balkans and blocking Serbian ambitions to dominate a new South Slav federation. He wanted Germany to ally with Austria, not Russia.
Government.
The Compromise of 1867 turned the Habsburg domains into a real union between the Austrian Empire ("Lands Represented in the Imperial Council", or Cisleithania) in the western and northern half and the Kingdom of Hungary ("Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen", or Transleithania) in the eastern half.
The government of Austria, which had ruled the monarchy until 1867, became the government of the Austrian part, and another government was formed for the Hungarian part. The common government (officially designated Ministerial Council for Common Affairs, or in German) formed for the few matters of common national security - the Common Army, Navy, foreign policy and the imperial household, and the customs union. Although the two halves shared a common monarch and both foreign relations and defense were managed jointly, all other state functions were to be handled separately as there was no common citizenship.
Hungary and Austria maintained separate parliaments, each with its own prime minister: the Diet of Hungary (commonly known as the National Assembly) and the Imperial Council () in Cisleithania. Each parliament had its own executive government, appointed by the monarch.
After 1878, Bosnia and Herzegovina came under Austro-Hungarian military and civilian rule until it was fully annexed in 1908, provoking the Bosnian crisis with the Great Powers and Austria-Hungary's Balkan neighbors, Serbia and Montenegro.
Relations during the half-century after 1867 between the two parts of the dual monarchy featured repeated disputes over shared external tariff arrangements and over the financial contribution of each government to the common treasury. These matters were determined by the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, in which common expenditures were allocated 70% to Austria and 30% to Hungary. This division had to be renegotiated every ten years. There was political turmoil during the build-up to each renewal of the agreement. By 1907, the Hungarian share had risen to 36.4%. The disputes culminated in the early 1900s in a prolonged constitutional crisis. It was triggered by disagreement over which language to use for command in Hungarian army units and deepened by the advent to power in Budapest in April 1906 of a Hungarian nationalist coalition. Provisional renewals of the common arrangements occurred in October 1907 and in November 1917 on the basis of the "status quo". The negotiations in 1917 ended with the dissolution of the Dual Monarchy.
Demographics.
In July 1849, the Hungarian Revolutionary Parliament proclaimed and enacted ethnic and minority rights (the next such laws were in Switzerland), but these were overturned after the Russian and Austrian armies crushed the Hungarian Revolution. After the Kingdom of Hungary reached the Compromise with the Habsburg Dynasty in 1867, one of the first acts of its restored Parliament was to pass a Law on Nationalities (Act Number XLIV of 1868). It was a liberal piece of legislation and offered extensive language and cultural rights. It did not recognize non-Hungarians to have rights to form states with any territorial autonomy.
Article 19 of the 1867 "Basic State Act" ("Staatsgrundgesetz"), valid only for the Cisleithanian (Austrian) part of Austria–Hungary, said:
The implementation of this principle led to several disputes, as it was not clear which languages could be regarded as "customary". The Germans, the traditional bureaucratic, capitalist and cultural elite, demanded the recognition of their language as a customary language in every part of the empire. German nationalists, especially in the Sudetenland (part of Bohemia), looked to Berlin in the new German Empire.
The Hungarian Minority Act of 1868 gave the minorities (Slovaks, Romanians, Serbs, et al.) individual (but not also communal) rights to use their language in offices, schools (although in practice often only in those founded by them and not by the state), courts and municipalities (if 20% of the deputies demanded it). Beginning with the 1879 Primary Education Act and the 1883 Secondary Education Act, the Hungarian state made more efforts to reduce the use of non-Magyar languages, in strong violation of the 1868 Nationalities Law. After 1875, all Slovak language schools higher than elementary were closed, including the only three high schools (gymnasiums) in Revúca (Nagyrőce), Turčiansky Svätý Martin (Turócszentmárton) and Kláštor pod Znievom (Znióváralja).
Language was, as a proxy for ethnicity, one of the most contentious issues in Austro-Hungarian politics. All governments faced difficult and divisive hurdles in deciding on the languages of government and of instruction. The minorities sought the widest opportunities for education in their own languages, as well as in the "dominant" languages—Hungarian and German. By the "Ordinance of 5 April 1897", the Austrian Prime Minister Count Kasimir Felix Badeni gave Czech equal standing with German in the internal government of Bohemia; this led to a crisis because of nationalist German agitation throughout the empire. The Crown dismissed Badeni.
Italian was regarded as an old "culture language" ("") by German intellectuals and had always been granted equal rights as an official language of the Empire, but the Germans had difficulty in accepting the Slavic languages as equal to their own. On one occasion Count A. Auersperg (Anastasius Grün) entered the Diet of Carniola carrying what he claimed to be the whole corpus of Slovene literature under his arm; this was to demonstrate that the Slovene language could not be substituted for German as the language of higher education.
The following years saw official recognition of several languages, at least in Austria. Since 1867, laws awarded Croatian equal status with Italian in Dalmatia. Beginning in 1882, there was a Slovene majority in the Diet of Carniola and in the capital Laibach (Ljubljana); they replaced German with Slovene as their primary official language. Galicia designated Polish instead of German in 1869 as the customary language of government.
As of June 1907, all public and private schools in Hungary were obliged to ensure that after the fourth grade, the pupils could express themselves fluently in Hungarian. This led to the further closing of minority schools, devoted mostly to the Slovak and Rusyn languages. The two kingdoms sometimes divided their spheres of influence. According to Misha Glenny in his book, "The Balkans, 1804–1999", the Austrians responded to Hungarian support of Czechs by supporting the Croatian national movement in Zagreb. In recognition that he reigned in a multi-ethnic country, Emperor Franz Joseph spoke (and used) German, Hungarian and Czech fluently, and Croatian, Serbian, Polish and Italian to some degree.
The language disputes were most fiercely fought in Bohemia, where the Czech speakers formed a majority and sought equal status for their language to German. The Czechs had lived primarily in Bohemia since the 6th century and German immigrants had begun settling the Bohemian periphery in the 13th century. The constitution of 1627 made the German language a second official language and equal to Czech. German speakers lost their majority in the Bohemian Diet in 1880 and became a minority to Czech speakers in the cities of Prague and Pilsen (while retaining a slight numerical majority in the city of Brno (Brünn)). The old Charles University in Prague, hitherto dominated by German speakers, was divided into German and Czech-speaking faculties in 1882.
At the same time, Hungarian dominance faced challenges from majority populated areas of Romanians, Slovaks and Serbs. The Romanians and the Serbs began to agitate for union with their fellow nationalists and language speakers in the newly founded states of Romania (1859–1878) and Serbia.
Hungary's leaders were generally less willing than their Austrian counterparts to share power with their subject minorities, but they granted a large measure of autonomy to Croatia in 1868. To some extent, they modeled their relationship to that kingdom on their own compromise with Austria of the previous year. In spite of nominal autonomy, the Croatian government was an economic and administrative part of Hungary, which the Croatians resented. In the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina many advocated the idea of a trialist Austro-Hungaro-Croatian monarchy; among the supporters of the idea were Archduke Leopold Salvator, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and emperor and king Charles I who during his short reign supported the trialist idea only to be vetoed by the Hungarian government and Count István Tisza. The count finally signed the trialist proclamation after heavy pressure from the king on 23 October 1918.
Ethnic relations.
In Istria, the Istro-Romanians, a small ethnic group composed by around 2,600 people in the 1880s, suffered severe discrimination. The Croats of the region, who formed the majority, tried to assimilate them, while the Italian minority supported them in their requests for self-determination. In 1888, the possibility of opening the first school for the Istro-Romanians teaching in the Romanian language was discussed in the Diet of Istria. The proposal was very popular among them. The Italian deputies showed their support, but the Croat ones opposed it and tried to show that the Istro-Romanians were in fact Slavs. During Austro-Hungarian rule, the Istro-Romanians lived under poverty conditions, and those living in the island of Krk were fully assimilated by 1875.
Around 1900, Jews numbered about two million in the whole territory of the Austro-Hungarian Empire; their position was ambiguous. The populist and antisemitic politics of the Christian Social Party are sometimes viewed as a model for Adolf Hitler's Nazism. Antisemitic parties and movements existed, but the governments of Vienna and Budapest did not initiate pogroms or implement official antisemitic policies. They feared that such ethnic violence could ignite other ethnic minorities and escalate out of control. The antisemitic parties remained on the periphery of the political sphere due to their low popularity among voters in the parliamentary elections.
In that period, the majority of Jews in Austria–Hungary lived in small towns ("shtetls") in Galicia and rural areas in Hungary and Bohemia; however, they had large communities and even local majorities in the downtown districts of Vienna, Budapest, Prague, Kraków and Lwów. Of the pre-World War I military forces of the major European powers, the Austro-Hungarian army was almost alone in its regular promotion of Jews to positions of command. While the Jewish population of the lands of the Dual Monarchy was about 5%, Jews made up nearly 18% of the reserve officer corps. Thanks to the modernity of the constitution and to the benevolence of emperor Franz Joseph, the Austrian Jews came to regard the era of Austria–Hungary as a golden era of their history. By 1910 about 900,000 religious Jews made up approximately 5% of the population of Hungary and about 23% of Budapest's citizenry. In the Austro-Hungarian Empire the generally fiercely patriotic Hungarian Jews were securing the tenuous Hungarian majority in the Kingdom of Hungary. Jews accounted for 54% of commercial business owners, 85% of financial institution directors and owners in banking, and 62% of all employees in commerce, 20% of all general grammar school students, and 37% of all commercial scientific grammar school students, 31.9% of all engineering students, and 34.1% of all students in human faculties of the universities. Jews accounted for 48.5% of all physicians, and 49.4% of all lawyers/jurists in Hungary. Note: The numbers of Jews were reconstructed from religious censuses. They did not include the people of Jewish origin who had converted to Christianity, or the number of atheists. Among many Hungarian parliament members of Jewish origin, the most famous Jewish members in Hungarian political life were Minister of Justice Vilmos Vázsonyi, Minister of War Samu Hazai, Minister of Finance János Teleszky, and ministers of trade and .
Education.
Universities in Cisleithania.
The first university in the Austrian half of the Empire (Charles University) was founded by Emperor Charles IV in Prague in 1347, the second oldest university was the Jagiellonian University established in Kraków by the King of Poland Casimir III the Great in 1364, while the third oldest (University of Vienna) was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365.
The higher educational institutions were predominantly German, but beginning in the 1870s, language shifts began to occur. These establishments, which in the middle of the 19th century were predominantly of German character, underwent in Galicia a conversion into Polish national institutions, in Bohemia and Moravia a separation into German and Czech ones. Thus Germans, Czechs and Poles were provided for. But the smaller nations also made their voices heard: the Ruthenians, Slovenes and Italians. The Ruthenians demanded at first, in view of the predominantly Ruthenian character of rural East Galicia, a national partition of the Polish University of Lwów. Since the Poles were at first unyielding, Ruthenian demonstrations and strikes of students arose, and the Ruthenians were no longer content with the reversion of a few separate professorial chairs, and with parallel courses of lectures. By a pact concluded on 28 January 1914 the Poles promised a Ruthenian university; but owing to the war the question lapsed. The Italians could hardly claim a university on grounds of population (in 1910 they numbered 783,000), but they claimed it all the more on grounds of their ancient culture. All parties were agreed that an Italian faculty of laws should be created; the difficulty lay in the choice of the place. The Italians demanded Trieste; but the government was afraid to let this Adriatic port become the centre of an irredenta; moreover the Southern Slavs of the city wished it kept free from an Italian university. Prime minister Richard von Bienerth in 1910 extended a compromise for it to be situated at once, provisionally in Vienna, and to be transferred within four years to Italian national territory. The German National Union (Nationalverband) agreed to the temporary hospitality for the Italian university in Vienna, but the Southern Slav Hochschule Club demanded a guarantee that a later transfer to the coast provinces should not be allowed, together with the simultaneous foundation of Slovene professorial chairs in Prague and Kraków, and preliminary steps towards the foundation of a Southern Slav university in Laibach (Ljubljana). But in spite of the constant renewal of negotiations for a compromise it was impossible to arrive at any agreement, until the outbreak of war left all the projects for a Ruthenian university at Lwów, a Slovene one in Laibach, and a second Czech one in Moravia, unrealized.
Universities in Transleithania.
In the year 1276, the university of Veszprém was destroyed by the troops of Peter I Csák and it was never rebuilt. A university was established by Louis I of Hungary in Pécs in 1367. Sigismund established a university at Óbuda in 1395. Another, Universitas Istropolitana, was established 1465 in Pozsony (Bratislava in Slovakia) by Mattias Corvinus. None of these medieval universities survived the Ottoman wars. Nagyszombat University was founded in 1635 and moved to Buda in 1777 where it is called Eötvös Loránd University. The world's first institute of technology was founded in Selmecbánya, Kingdom of Hungary (since 1920 Banská Štiavnica, Slovakia) in 1735. Its legal successor is the University of Miskolc in Hungary. The Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME) is considered the oldest institute of technology in the world with university rank and structure. Its legal predecessor the Institutum Geometrico-Hydrotechnicum was founded in 1782 by Emperor Joseph II.
The high schools included the universities, of which Hungary possessed five, all maintained by the state: at Budapest (founded in 1635), at Kolozsvár (founded in 1872), and at Zagreb (founded in 1874). Newer universities were established in Debrecen in 1912, and Pozsony university was reestablished after a half millennium in 1912. They had four faculties: theology, law, philosophy and medicine (the university at Zagreb was without a faculty of medicine). There were in addition ten high schools of law, called academies, which in 1900 were attended by 1,569 pupils. The Polytechnicum in Budapest, founded in 1844, which contained four faculties and was attended in 1900 by 1,772 pupils, was also considered a high school. There were in Hungary in 1900 forty-nine theological colleges, twenty-nine Catholic, five Greek Uniat, four Greek Orthodox, ten Protestant and one Jewish. Among special schools the principal mining schools were at Selmeczbánya, Nagyág and Felsőbánya; the principal agricultural colleges at Debreczen and Kolozsvár; and there was a school of forestry at Selmeczbánya, military colleges at Budapest, Kassa, Déva and Zagreb, and a naval school at Fiume. There were in addition a number of training institutes for teachers and a large number of schools of commerce, several art schools – for design, painting, sculpture, and music.
Economy.
The heavily rural Austro-Hungarian economy slowly modernised after 1867. Railroads opened up once-remote areas, and cities grew. Many small firms promoted capitalist way of production. Technological change accelerated industrialization and urbanization. The first Austrian stock exchange (the Wiener Börse) was opened in 1771 in Vienna, the first stock exchange of the Kingdom of Hungary (the Budapest Stock Exchange) was opened in Budapest in 1864. The central bank (Bank of issue) was founded as Austrian National Bank in 1816. In 1878, it transformed into Austro-Hungarian National Bank with principal offices in both Vienna and Budapest. The central bank was governed by alternating Austrian or Hungarian governors and vice-governors. Austria-Hungary also became the world's third-largest manufacturer and exporter of electric home appliances, electric industrial appliances, and power generation apparatus for power plants, after the United States and the German Empire, and it constructed Europe's second-largest railway network, after the German Empire. In 2000, a study estimated that GDP in constant national prices in 1913 was 19,140.8 million for Cisleithania and 10,971.6 million for Transleithania, a combined 30,112.4 million krone. According to a 2005 study, GDP (PPP) in 1913 was 105,515 million 1990 Int$, the fifth-largest in Europe.
The gross national product per capita grew roughly 1.76% per year from 1870 to 1913. That level of growth compared very favorably to that of other European nations such as Britain (1%), France (1.06%), and Germany (1.51%). However, in a comparison with Germany and Britain, the Austro-Hungarian economy as a whole still lagged considerably, as sustained modernization had begun much later. Like the German Empire, that of Austria–Hungary frequently employed liberal economic policies and practices. In 1873, the old Hungarian capital Buda and Óbuda (Ancient Buda) were officially merged with the third city, Pest, thus creating the new metropolis of Budapest. The dynamic Pest grew into Hungary's administrative, political, economic, trade and cultural hub. Many of the state institutions and the modern administrative system of Hungary were established during this period. Economic growth centered on Vienna and Budapest, the Austrian lands (areas of modern Austria), the Alpine region and the Bohemian lands. In the later years of the 19th century, rapid economic growth spread to the central Hungarian plain and to the Carpathian lands. As a result, wide disparities of development existed within the empire. In general, the western areas became more developed than the eastern ones. The Kingdom of Hungary became the world's second-largest flour exporter after the United States. The large Hungarian food exports were not limited to neighbouring Germany and Italy: Hungary became the most important foreign food supplier of the large cities and industrial centres of the United Kingdom. Galicia, which has been described as the poorest province of Austro-Hungary, experienced near-constant famines, resulting in 50,000 deaths a year. The Istro-Romanians of Istria were also poor, as pastoralism lost strength and agriculture was not productive.
However, by the end of the 19th century, economic differences gradually began to even out as economic growth in the eastern parts of the monarchy consistently surpassed that in the western. The strong agriculture and food industry of the Kingdom of Hungary with the centre of Budapest became predominant within the empire and made up a large proportion of the export to the rest of Europe. Meanwhile, western areas, concentrated mainly around Prague and Vienna, excelled in various manufacturing industries. This division of labour between the east and west, besides the existing economic and monetary union, led to an even more rapid economic growth throughout Austria–Hungary by the early 20th century. However, since the turn of the twentieth century, the Austrian half of the Monarchy could preserve its dominance within the empire in the sectors of the Industrial Revolution, but Hungary had a better position in the modern industries of the Second Industrial Revolution, in these modern sectors of the second industrial revolution (like machine building industry and electric industry) the Austrian competition could not become dominant.
Infrastructure.
Telecommunications.
Telegraph.
The first telegraph connection (Vienna—Brno—Prague) had started operation in 1847. In Hungarian territory the first telegraph stations were opened in Pressburg ("Pozsony", today's Bratislava) in December 1847 and in Buda in 1848. The first telegraph connection between Vienna and Pest–Buda (later Budapest) was constructed in 1850, and Vienna–Zagreb in 1850.
Austria subsequently joined a telegraph union with German states. In the Kingdom of Hungary, 2,406 telegraph post offices operated in 1884. By 1914 the number of telegraph offices reached 3,000 in post offices and further 2,400 were installed in the railway stations of the Kingdom of Hungary.
Telephone.
The first telephone exchange was opened in Zagreb (8 January 1881), the second was in Budapest (1 May 1881), and the third was opened in Vienna (3 June 1881). Initially telephony was available in the homes of individual subscribers, companies and offices. Public telephone stations appeared in the 1890s, and they quickly became widespread in post offices and railway stations. Austria–Hungary had 568 million telephone calls in 1913; only two Western European countries had more phone calls: the German Empire and the United Kingdom. The Austro-Hungarian Empire was followed by France with 396 million telephone calls and Italy with 230 million phone calls. In 1916, there were 366 million telephone calls in Cisleithania, among them 8.4 million long distant calls. All telephone exchanges of the cities, towns and larger villages in Transleithania were linked until 1893. By 1914, more than 2000 settlements had telephone exchange in Kingdom of Hungary.
Electronic audio broadcasting.
The Telefon Hírmondó (Telephone Herald) news and entertainment service was introduced in Budapest in 1893. Two decades before the introduction of radio broadcasting, people could listen to political, economic and sports news, cabaret, music and opera in Budapest daily. It operated over a special type of telephone exchange system.
Rail transport.
By 1913, the combined length of the railway tracks of the Austrian Empire and Kingdom of Hungary reached . In Western Europe only Germany had more extended railway network (); the Austro-Hungarian Empire was followed by France (), the United Kingdom (), Italy () and Spain ().
Railways in Transleithania.
The first Hungarian steam locomotive railway line was opened on 15 July 1846 between Pest and Vác. In 1890 most large Hungarian private railway companies were nationalized as a consequence of the poor management of private companies, except the strong Austrian-owned Kaschau-Oderberg Railway (KsOd) and the Austrian-Hungarian Southern Railway (SB/DV). They also joined the zone tariff system of the MÁV (Hungarian State Railways). By 1910, the total length of the rail networks of Hungarian Kingdom reached , the Hungarian network linked more than 1,490 settlements. Nearly half (52%) of the empire's railways were built in Hungary, thus the railroad density there became higher than that of Cisleithania. This has ranked Hungarian railways the 6th most dense in the world (ahead of Germany and France).
Electrified commuter railways: A set of four electric commuter rai lines were built in Budapest, the BHÉV: Ráckeve line (1887), Szentendre line (1888), Gödöllő line (1888), Csepel line (1912)
Tramway lines in the cities.
Horse-drawn tramways appeared in the first half of the 19th century. Between the 1850s and 1880s many were built : Vienna (1865), Budapest (1866), Brno (1869), Trieste (1876). Steam trams appeared in the late 1860s. The electrification of tramways started in the late 1880s. The first electrified tramway in Austria–Hungary was built in Budapest in 1887.
Electric tramway lines in the Austrian Empire:
Electric tramway lines in the Kingdom of Hungary:
Underground.
The Budapest Metro Line 1 (originally the "Franz Joseph Underground Electric Railway Company") is the second oldest underground railway in the world (the first being the London Underground's Metropolitan Line and the third being Glasgow), and the first on the European mainland. It was built from 1894 to 1896 and opened on 2 May 1896. In 2002, it was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The M1 line became an IEEE Milestone due to the radically new innovations in its era: "Among the railway's innovative elements were bidirectional tram cars; electric lighting in the subway stations and tram cars; and an overhead wire structure instead of a third-rail system for power".
Inland waterways and river regulation.
The first Danubian steamer company, Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaft (DDSG), was the world's largest inland shipping company until the collapse of Austria-Hungary.
In 1900 the engineer C. Wagenführer drew up plans to link the Danube and the Adriatic Sea by a canal from Vienna to Trieste. It was born from the desire of Austria–Hungary to have a direct link to the Adriatic Sea but was never constructed.
Lower Danube and the Iron Gates.
In 1831 a plan had already been drafted to make the passage navigable, at the initiative of the Hungarian politician István Széchenyi. Finally Gábor Baross, Hungary's "Iron Minister", succeeded in financing this project. The riverbed rocks and the associated rapids made the gorge valley an infamous passage for shipping. In German, the passage is still known as the Kataraktenstrecke, even though the cataracts are gone. Near the actual "Iron Gates" strait the Prigrada rock was the most important obstacle until 1896: the river widened considerably here and the water level was consequently low. Upstream, the Greben rock near the "Kazan" gorge was notorious.
Tisza River.
The length of the Tisza river in Hungary used to be . It flowed through the Great Hungarian Plain, which is one of the largest flat areas in central Europe. Since plains can cause a river to flow very slowly, the Tisza used to follow a path with many curves and turns, which led to many large floods in the area.
After several small-scale attempts, István Széchenyi organised the "regulation of the Tisza" (Hungarian: a Tisza szabályozása) which started on 27 August 1846, and substantially ended in 1880. The new length of the river in Hungary was ( total), with of "dead channels" and of new riverbed. The resultant length of the flood-protected river comprises (out of of all Hungarian protected rivers).
Shipping and ports.
The most important seaport was Trieste (today part of Italy), where the Austrian merchant marine was based. Two major shipping companies (Austrian Lloyd and Austro-Americana) and several shipyards were located there. From 1815 to 1866, Venice had been part of the Habsburg empire. The loss of Venice prompted the development of the Austrian merchant marine. By 1913, the commercial marine of Austria, comprised 16,764 vessels with a tonnage of 471,252, and crews numbering 45,567. Of the total in 1913, 394 were steamers (tonnage 422,368), and 16,370 were sailing vessels (tonnage 48,884) The Austrian Lloyd was one of the biggest ocean shipping companies of the time. Prior to the beginning of World War I, the company owned 65 middle-sized and large steamers. The Austro-Americana owned one third of this number, including the biggest Austrian passenger ship, the SS "Kaiser Franz Joseph I". In comparison to the Austrian Lloyd, the Austro-American concentrated on destinations in North and South America. The Austro-Hungarian Navy became much more significant than previously, as industrialization provided sufficient revenues to develop it. Pola (Pula, today part of Croatia) was especially significant for the navy.
The most important seaport for the Hungarian part of the monarchy was Fiume (Rijeka, today part of Croatia), where the Hungarian shipping companies, such as the Adria, operated. The commercial marine of the Kingdom of Hungary in 1913 comprised 545 vessels of a tonnage of 144,433, and crews numbering 3,217. Of the total number of vessels, 134 were steamers (tonnage 142,539), and 411 were sailing vessels (tonnage 1,894).
Military.
The Austro-Hungarian Army was under the command of Archduke Albrecht, Duke of Teschen (1817–1895), an old-fashioned bureaucrat who opposed modernization. The military system of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy was similar in both states, and rested since 1868 upon the principle of the universal and personal obligation of the citizen to bear arms. Its military force was composed of the Common Army; the special armies, namely the Austrian Landwehr, and the Hungarian "Honvéd", which were separate national institutions, and the Landsturm or levy-en masse. As stated above, the common army stood under the administration of the joint minister of war, while the special armies were under the administration of the respective ministries of national defence. The yearly contingent of recruits for the army was fixed by the military bills voted on by the Austrian and Hungarian parliaments and was generally determined on the basis of the population, according to the last census returns. It amounted in 1905 to 103,100 men, of which Austria furnished 59,211 men, and Hungary 43,889. Besides 10,000 men were annually allotted to the Austrian Landwehr, and 12,500 to the Hungarian Honved. The term of service was two years (three years in the cavalry) with the colours, seven or eight in the reserve and two in the Landwehr; in the case of men not drafted to the active army the same total period of service was spent in various special reserves.
The common minister of war was the head for the administration of all military affairs, except those of the Austrian Landwehr and of the Hungarian Honved, which were committed to the ministries for national defence of the two respective states. But the supreme command of the army was nominally vested in the monarch, who had the power to take all measures regarding the whole army. In practice, the emperor's nephew Archduke Albrecht was his chief military advisor and made the policy decisions.
The Austro-Hungarian Navy was mainly a coast defence force, and also included a flotilla of monitors for the Danube. It was administered by the naval department of the ministry of war.
1877–1914: Russo-Turkish War, Congress of Berlin, Balkan instability and the Bosnia Crisis.
Russian Pan-Slavic organizations sent aid to the Balkan rebels and so pressured the tsar's government to declare war on the Ottoman Empire in 1877 in the name of protecting Orthodox Christians. Unable to mediate between the Ottoman Empire and Russia over the control of Serbia, Austria–Hungary declared neutrality when the conflict between the two powers escalated into a war. With help from Romania and Greece, Russia defeated the Ottomans and with the Treaty of San Stefano tried to create a large pro-Russian Bulgaria.
This treaty sparked an international uproar that almost resulted in a general European war. Austria–Hungary and Britain feared that a large Bulgaria would become a Russian satellite that would enable the tsar to dominate the Balkans. British prime minister Benjamin Disraeli moved warships into position against Russia to halt the advance of Russian influence in the eastern Mediterranean so close to Britain's route through the Suez Canal. The Treaty of San Stefano was seen in Austria as much too favourable for Russia and its Orthodox-Slavic goals.
The Congress of Berlin rolled back the Russian victory by partitioning the large Bulgarian state that Russia had carved out of Ottoman territory and denying any part of Bulgaria full independence from the Ottomans. The Congress of Berlin in 1878 let Austria occupy (but not annex) the province of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a predominantly Slavic area. Austria occupied Bosnia and Herzegovina as a way of gaining power in the Balkans. Serbia, Montenegro and Romania became fully independent. Nonetheless, the Balkans remained a site of political unrest with teeming ambition for independence and great power rivalries. At the Congress of Berlin in 1878 Gyula Andrássy (Minister of Foreign Affairs) managed to force Russia to retreat from further demands in the Balkans. As a result, Greater Bulgaria was broken up and Serbian independence was guaranteed. In that year, with Britain's support, Austria–Hungary stationed troops in Bosnia to prevent the Russians from expanding into nearby Serbia. In another measure to keep the Russians out of the Balkans, Austria–Hungary formed an alliance, the Mediterranean Entente, with Britain and Italy in 1887 and concluded mutual defence pacts with Germany in 1879 and Romania in 1883 against a possible Russian attack. Following the Congress of Berlin the European powers attempted to guarantee stability through a complex series of alliances and treaties.
Anxious about Balkan instability and Russian aggression, and to counter French interests in Europe, Austria–Hungary forged a defensive alliance with Germany in October 1879 and in May 1882. In October 1882 Italy joined this partnership in the Triple Alliance largely because of Italy's imperial rivalries with France. Tensions between Russia and Austria–Hungary remained high, so Bismarck replaced the League of the Three Emperors with the Reinsurance Treaty with Russia to keep the Habsburgs from recklessly starting a war over Pan-Slavism. The Sandžak-Raška / Novibazar region was under Austro-Hungarian occupation between 1878 and 1909, when it was returned to the Ottoman Empire, before being ultimately divided between kingdoms of Montenegro and Serbia.
On the heels of the Great Balkan Crisis, Austro-Hungarian forces occupied Bosnia and Herzegovina in August 1878 and the monarchy eventually annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina in October 1908 as a common holding of Cisleithania and Transleithania under the control of the Imperial & Royal finance ministry rather than attaching it to either territorial government. The annexation in 1908 led some in Vienna to contemplate combining Bosnia and Herzegovina with Croatia to form a third Slavic component of the monarchy. The deaths of Franz Joseph's brother, Maximilian (1867), and his only son, Rudolf, made the Emperor's nephew, Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne. The Archduke was rumoured to have been an advocate for this trialism as a means to limit the power of the Hungarian aristocracy.
A proclamation issued on the occasion of its annexation to the Habsburg monarchy in October 1908 promised these lands constitutional institutions, which should secure to their inhabitants full civil rights and a share in the management of their own affairs by means of a local representative assembly. In performance of this promise a constitution was promulgated in 1910.
The principal players in the Bosnian Crisis of 1908–09 were the foreign ministers of Austria and Russia, Alois Lexa von Aehrenthal and Alexander Izvolsky. Both were motivated by political ambition; the first would emerge successful, and the latter would be broken by the crisis. Along the way, they would drag Europe to the brink of war in 1909. They would also divide Europe into the two armed camps that would go to war in July 1914.
Aehrenthal had started with the assumption that the Slavic minorities could never come together, and the Balkan League would never cause any damage to Austria. He turned down an Ottoman proposal for an alliance that would include Austria, Turkey, and Romania. However, his policies alienated the Bulgarians, who turned instead to Russia and Serbia. Although Austria had no intention to embark on additional expansion to the south, Aehrenthal encouraged speculation to that effect, expecting that it would paralyze the Balkan states. Instead, it incited them to feverish activity to create a defensive block to stop Austria. A series of grave miscalculations at the highest level thus significantly strengthened Austria's enemies.
In 1914, Slavic militants in Bosnia rejected Austria's plan to fully absorb the area; they assassinated the Austrian heir and precipitated World War I.
1914–1918: World War I.
Prelude of WW I.
The 28 June 1914 assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, excessively intensified the existing traditional religion-based ethnic hostilities in Bosnia. However, in Sarajevo itself, Austrian authorities encouraged violence against the Serb residents, which resulted in anti-Serb riots in Sarajevo, in which Catholic Croats and Bosnian Muslims killed two and damaged numerous Serb-owned buildings. Writer Ivo Andrić referred to the violence as the "Sarajevo frenzy of hate." Violent actions against ethnic Serbs were organized not only in Sarajevo but also in many other larger Austro-Hungarian cities in modern-day Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Austro-Hungarian authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina imprisoned and extradited approximately 5,500 prominent Serbs, 700 to 2,200 of whom died in prison. Four hundred sixty Serbs were sentenced to death and a predominantly Muslim special militia known as the "Schutzkorps" was established and carried out the persecution of Serbs.
Some members of the government, such as Minister of Foreign Affairs Count Leopold Berchtold and Army Commander Count Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf, had wanted to confront the resurgent Serbian nation for some years in a preventive war, but the Emperor and Hungarian prime minister István Tisza were opposed. The foreign ministry of Austro-Hungarian Empire sent ambassador László Szőgyény to Potsdam, where he inquired about the standpoint of the German emperor, Wilhelm II, on 5 July and received a supportive response.
The leaders of Austria–Hungary therefore decided to confront Serbia militarily before it could incite a revolt; using the assassination as an excuse, they presented a list of ten demands called the July Ultimatum, expecting Serbia would never accept. When Serbia accepted nine of the ten demands but only partially accepted the remaining one, Austria–Hungary declared war. Franz Joseph I finally followed the urgent counsel of his top advisers.
Over the course of July and August 1914, these events caused the start of World War I, as Russia mobilized in support of Serbia, setting off a series of counter-mobilizations. In support of his German ally, on Thursday, 6 August 1914, Emperor Franz Joseph signed the declaration of war on Russia. Italy initially remained neutral, despite its alliance with Austria–Hungary. In 1915, it switched to the side of the Entente powers, hoping to gain territory from its former ally.
Wartime foreign policy.
The Austro-Hungarian Empire played a relatively passive diplomatic role in the war, as it was increasingly dominated and controlled by Germany. The only goal was to punish Serbia and try to stop the ethnic breakup of the Empire, and it completely failed. Starting in late 1916 the new Emperor Karl removed the pro-German officials and opened peace overtures to the Allies, whereby the entire war could be ended by compromise, or perhaps Austria would make a separate peace from Germany. The main effort was vetoed by Italy, which had been promised large slices of Austria for joining the Allies in 1915. Austria was only willing to turn over the Trentino region but nothing more. Karl was seen as a defeatist, which weakened his standing at home and with both the Allies and Germany.
Homefront.
The heavily rural empire did have a small industrial base, but its major contributions were manpower and food. Nevertheless, Austria–Hungary was more urbanized (25%) than its actual opponents in the war, like the Russian Empire (13.4%), Serbia (13.2%) or Romania (18.8%). Furthermore, the Austro-Hungarian Empire had also more industrialized economy and higher GDP per capita than the Kingdom of Italy, which was economically the far most developed actual opponent of the Empire.
On the home front, food grew scarcer and scarcer, as did heating fuel. Hungary, with its heavy agricultural base, was somewhat better fed. The army conquered productive agricultural areas in Romania and elsewhere, but refused to allow food shipments to civilians back home. Morale fell every year, and the diverse nationalities gave up on the empire and looked for ways to establish their own nation states.
Inflation soared, from an index of 129 in 1914 to 1589 in 1918, wiping out the cash savings of the middle class. In terms of war damage to the economy, the war consumed about 20 percent of the gross domestic product. The dead soldiers amounted to about four percent of the 1914 labor force, and the wounded ones to another six percent. Compared to the major countries in the war, the death and casualty rates were toward the high end regarding the present-day territory of Austria.
By summer 1918, "Green Cadres" of army deserters formed armed bands in the hills of Croatia-Slavonia, and civil authority disintegrated. By late October, violence and massive looting erupted, and there were efforts to form peasant republics. However, the Croatian political leadership was focused on creating a new state (Yugoslavia) and worked with the advancing Serbian army to impose control and end the uprisings.
Theaters of operations.
The Austro-Hungarian Empire conscripted 7.8 million soldiers during the war. General von Hötzendorf was the Chief of the Austro-Hungarian General Staff. Franz Joseph I, who was much too old to command the army, appointed Archduke Friedrich von Österreich-Teschen as Supreme Army Commander (Armeeoberkommandant), but asked him to give Von Hötzendorf freedom to take any decisions. Von Hötzendorf remained in effective command of the military forces until Emperor Karl I took supreme command himself in late 1916 and dismissed Conrad von Hötzendorf in 1917. Meanwhile, economic conditions on the home front deteriorated rapidly. The empire depended on agriculture, and agriculture depended on the heavy labor of millions of men who were now in the army. Food production fell, the transportation system became overcrowded, and industrial production could not successfully handle the overwhelming need for munitions. Germany provided a great deal of help, but it was not enough. Furthermore, the political instability of the multiple ethnic groups within the empire now ripped apart any hope for national consensus in support of the war. Increasingly there was a demand for breaking up the empire and setting up autonomous national states based on historic, language-based cultures. The new emperor sought peace terms from the Allies, but his initiatives were vetoed by Italy.
Serbian front 1914–1916.
At the start of the war, the army was divided into two: the smaller part attacked Serbia, while the larger part fought against the formidable Imperial Russian Army. The invasion of Serbia in 1914 was a disaster: by the end of the year, the Austro-Hungarian Army had taken no territory, but had lost 227,000 out of a total force of 450,000 men. However, in the autumn of 1915, the Serbian Army was defeated by the Central Powers, which led to the occupation of Serbia. Near the end of 1915, in a massive rescue operation involving more than 1,000 trips made by Italian, French and British steamers, 260,000 Serb soldiers were transported to Brindisi and Corfu, where they waited for the chance of the victory of Allied powers to reclaim their country. Corfu hosted the Serbian government in exile after the collapse of Serbia and served as a supply base for the Greek front. In April 1916 a large number of Serbian troops were transported in British and French naval vessels from Corfu to mainland Greece. The contingent numbering over 120,000 relieved a much smaller army at the Macedonian front and fought alongside British and French troops.
Russian front 1914–1917.
On the Eastern front, the war started out equally poorly. The government accepted the Polish proposal of establishing the Supreme National Committee as the Polish central authority within the empire, responsible for the formation of the Polish Legions, an auxiliary military formation within the Austro-Hungarian Army. The Austro-Hungarian Army was defeated at the Battle of Lemberg and the great fortress city of Przemyśl was besieged and fell in March 1915. The Gorlice–Tarnów Offensive started as a minor German offensive to relieve the pressure of the Russian numerical superiority on the Austro-Hungarians, but the cooperation of the Central Powers resulted in huge Russian losses and the total collapse of the Russian lines and their long retreat into Russia. The Russian Third Army disintegrated. In summer 1915, the Austro-Hungarian Army, under a unified command with the Germans, participated in the successful Gorlice–Tarnów Offensive. From June 1916, the Russians focused their attacks on the Austro-Hungarian Army in the Brusilov Offensive, recognizing the latter's numerical inferiority. By the end of September 1916, Austria–Hungary mobilized and concentrated new divisions, and the successful Russian advance was halted and slowly repelled; but the Austrian armies took heavy losses (about 1 million men) and never recovered. Nevertheless, the huge losses in men and materiel inflicted on the Russians during the offensive contributed greatly to the Russian Revolution of 1917 and caused an economic crash in the Russian Empire.
The Act of 5 November 1916 was then proclaimed to the Poles jointly by the Emperors Wilhelm II of Germany and Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary. This act promised the creation of the Kingdom of Poland out of the territory of Congress Poland, envisioned by its authors as a puppet state controlled by the Central Powers, with the nominal authority vested in the Regency Council. The origin of that document was the dire need to draft new recruits from German-occupied Poland for the war with Russia. Following the Armistice of 11 November 1918 ending the World War I, in spite of the previous initial total dependence of the kingdom on its sponsors, it ultimately served against their intentions as the cornerstone proto state of the nascent Second Polish Republic, the latter composed also of territories never intended by the Central Powers to be ceded to Poland.
The Battle of Zborov (1917) was the first significant action of the Czechoslovak Legions, which fought for the independence of Czechoslovakia against the Austro-Hungarian Army.
Italian front 1915–1918.
In May 1915, Italy attacked Austria–Hungary. Italy was the only military opponent of Austria–Hungary which had a similar degree of industrialization and economic level; moreover, her army was numerous (≈1,000,000 men were immediately fielded), but suffered from poor leadership, training and organization. Chief of Staff Luigi Cadorna marched his army towards the Isonzo River, hoping to seize Ljubljana, and to eventually threaten Vienna. However, the Royal Italian Army were halted on the river, where four battles took place over five months (23 June – 2 December 1915). The fight was extremely bloody and exhausting for both sides.
On 15 May 1916, Austrian Chief of Staff Conrad von Hötzendorf launched the "Strafexpedition" ("punitive expedition"): the Austrians broke through the front and occupied the Asiago plateau. The Italians managed to resist and in a counteroffensive seized Gorizia on 9 August. Nonetheless, they had to stop on the Carso, a few kilometres away from the border. At this point, several months of indecisive trench warfare ensued (analogous to the Western front). As the Russian Empire collapsed as a result of the Bolshevik Revolution and the Russians ended their involvement in the war, Germans and Austrians were able to transfer much of their manpower to the Western and Southern fronts from the erstwhile Eastern fighting.
On 24 October 1917, Austrians (now enjoying decisive German support) attacked at Caporetto using new infiltration tactics; although they advanced more than in the direction of Venice and gained considerable supplies, they were halted and could not cross the Piave River. Italy, although suffering massive casualties, recovered from the blow, and a coalition government under Vittorio Emanuele Orlando was formed. Italy also enjoyed the support of the Entente: by 1918, large amounts of war materials and a few auxiliary American, British, and French divisions arrived in the Italian battle zone. Cadorna was replaced by General Armando Diaz; under his command, the Italians retook the initiative and won the decisive Second Battle of the Piave River (15–23 June 1918), in which some 60,000 Austrian and 43,000 Italian soldiers were killed. The final battle at Vittorio Veneto was lost by 31 October 1918 and the armistice was signed at Villa Giusti on 3 November.
Romanian front 1916–1917.
On 27 August 1916, Romania declared war against Austria–Hungary. The Romanian Army crossed the borders of eastern Hungary (Transylvania), but despite initial successes, by November 1916, the Austro-Hungarian, German, Bulgarian, and Ottoman armies had defeated the Romanian and Russian armies, and occupied the southern part of Romania (including Oltenia, Muntenia and Dobruja). Within three months of the war, the Central Powers approached Bucharest, the Romanian capital. On 6 December, Bucharest was captured, and part of the population moved to the unoccupied Romanian territory, in Moldavia, together with the Romanian government, royal court and public authorities, which relocated to Iași. In 1917, after several defensive victories (managing to stop the German-Austro-Hungarian advance), with Russia's withdrawal from the war following the October Revolution, Romania was forced to drop out of the war.
Role of Hungary.
Although the Kingdom of Hungary comprised only 42% of the population of Austria–Hungary, the thin majority more than 3.8 million soldiersof the Austro-Hungarian armed forces were conscripted from the Kingdom of Hungary during the First World War. Roughly 600,000 soldiers were killed in action, and 700,000 soldiers were wounded in the war.
Austria–Hungary held on for years, as the Hungarian half provided sufficient supplies for the military to continue to wage war. This was shown in a transition of power after which the Hungarian prime minister, Count István Tisza, and foreign minister, Count István Burián, had decisive influence over the internal and external affairs of the monarchy. By late 1916, food supply from Hungary became intermittent and the government sought an armistice with the Entente powers. However, this failed as Britain and France no longer had any regard for the integrity of the monarchy due to Austro-Hungarian support for Germany.
Analysis of defeat.
The setbacks that the Austrian army suffered in 1914 and 1915 can be attributed to a large extent by the incompetence of the Austrian high command. After attacking Serbia, its forces soon had to be withdrawn to protect its eastern frontier against Russia's invasion, while German units were engaged in fighting on the Western Front. This resulted in a greater than expected loss of men in the invasion of Serbia. Furthermore, it became evident that the Austrian high command had had no plans for possible continental war and that the army and navy were also ill-equipped to handle such a conflict.
In the last two years of the war the Austro-Hungarian armed forces lost all ability to act independently of Germany. As of 7 September 1916, the German emperor was given full control of all the armed forces of the Central Powers and Austria-Hungary effectively became a satellite of Germany. The Austrians viewed the German army favorably; on the other hand, by 1916 the general belief in Germany was that Germany, in its alliance with Austria–Hungary, was "shackled to a corpse". The operational capability of the Austro-Hungarian army was seriously affected by supply shortages, low morale and a high casualty rate, and by the army's composition of multiple ethnicities with different languages and customs.
1918: Demise, disintegration, dissolution.
By 1918, the economic situation had deteriorated and governmental failure on the homefront ended popular support for the war. The Austro-Hungarian monarchy collapsed with dramatic speed in the autumn of 1918. Leftist and pacifist political movements organized strikes in factories, and uprisings in the army had become commonplace. As the war went on, the ethnic unity declined; the Allies encouraged breakaway demands from minorities and the Empire faced disintegration. With apparent Allied victory approaching, nationalist movements seized ethnic resentment to erode social unity. The military breakdown of the Italian front marked the start of the rebellion for the numerous ethnicities who made up the multiethnic Empire, as they refused to keep on fighting for a cause that now appeared senseless. The Emperor had lost much of his power to rule, as his realm disintegrated.
On 14 October 1918, Foreign Minister Baron István Burián von Rajecz asked for an armistice based on President Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points and two days later Emperor Karl I issued a proclamation ("Imperial Manifesto of 16 October 1918") altering the empire into a federal union to give ethnic groups decentralization and representation. However, on 18 October, United States Secretary of State Robert Lansing replied that autonomy for the nationalities – the tenth of the Fourteen Points – was no longer enough. In fact, a Czechoslovak provisional government had joined the Allies on 14 October. The South Slavs in both halves of the monarchy had already declared in favor of uniting with Serbia in a large South Slav state in the 1917 Corfu Declaration signed by members of the Yugoslav Committee. The Croatians had begun disregarding orders from Budapest earlier in October. Lansing's response was, in effect, the death certificate of Austria–Hungary.
During the Italian battles, the Czechoslovaks and Southern Slavs declared their independence. With defeat in the war imminent after the Italian offensive in the Battle of Vittorio Veneto on 24 October, Czech politicians peacefully took over command in Prague on 28 October (later declared the birth of Czechoslovakia) and followed up in other major cities in the next few days. On 30 October, the Slovaks did the same. On 29 October, the Slavs in both portions of what remained of Austria–Hungary proclaimed the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs and declared that their ultimate intention was to unite with Serbia and Montenegro in a large South Slav state. On the same day, the Czechs and Slovaks formally proclaimed the establishment of Czechoslovakia as an independent state.
On 17 October 1918, the Hungarian Parliament voted in favour of terminating the union with Austria. The most prominent opponent of continued union with Austria, Count Mihály Károlyi, seized power in the Aster Revolution on 31 October. Charles was all but forced to appoint Károlyi as his Hungarian prime minister. One of Károlyi's first acts was to formally repudiate the compromise agreement on 31 October, effectively terminating the personal union with Austria and thus officially dissolving the Austro-Hungarian state.
By the end of October, there was nothing left of the Habsburg realm but its majority-German Danubian and Alpine provinces, and Karl's authority was being challenged even there by the German-Austrian state council. Karl's last Austrian prime minister, Heinrich Lammasch, concluded that Karl's position was untenable. Lammasch persuaded Karl that the best course was to relinquish, at least temporarily, his right to exercise sovereign authority. On 11 November, Karl issued a carefully worded proclamation in which he recognized the Austrian people's right to determine the form of the state and "relinquish(ed) every participation" in Austrian state affairs. On the day after he announced his withdrawal from Austrian politics, the German-Austrian National Council proclaimed the Republic of German Austria. Károlyi followed suit on 16 November, proclaiming the Hungarian Democratic Republic.
Successor states.
There were two legal successor states of the former Austro–Hungarian monarchy:
The 1919 Treaties of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (between the victors of World War I and Austria) and Trianon (between the victors and Hungary) regulated the new borders of Austria and Hungary, reducing them to small-sized and landlocked states. The Entente not only assumed without question that the minority peoples wished to leave Austria and Hungary, but allowed them to claim vast territories containing sizeable German- and Hungarian-speaking populations. With this in mind, in regard to areas without a decisive national majority, the Entente powers ruled in many cases in favour of the newly emancipated independent nation-states. The Republic of Austria lost roughly 60% of the old Austrian Empire's territory. It also had to drop its plans for union with Germany, as it was not allowed to unite with Germany without League approval. Hungary, however, was severely disrupted by the loss of 72% of its territory, 64% of its population and most of its natural resources. The Hungarian Democratic Republic was short-lived and was temporarily replaced by the communist Hungarian Soviet Republic. Romanian troops ousted Béla Kun and his communist government during the Hungarian–Romanian War of 1919.
In the summer of 1919, a Habsburg, Archduke Joseph August, became regent, but was forced to stand down after only two weeks when it became apparent the Allies would not recognise him. Finally, in March 1920, royal powers were entrusted to a regent, Miklós Horthy, who had been the last commanding admiral of the Austro-Hungarian Navy and had helped organize the counter-revolutionary forces. It was this government that signed the Treaty of Trianon under protest on 4 June 1920 at the Grand Trianon Palace in Versailles, France. The restored Kingdom of Hungary lost roughly 72% of the pre-war territory of the Kingdom of Hungary.
Habsburg banishment.
Austria had passed the "Habsburg Law", which both dethroned the Habsburgs and banished all Habsburgs from Austrian territory. While Karl was banned from ever returning to Austria again, other Habsburgs could return if they gave up all claims to the defunct throne. In March and again in October 1921, ill-prepared attempts by Karl to regain the throne in Budapest collapsed. The initially wavering Horthy, after receiving threats of intervention from the Allied Powers and the Little Entente, refused his cooperation. Soon afterward, the Hungarian government nullified the Pragmatic Sanction, effectively dethroning the Habsburgs. Subsequently, the British took custody of Karl and removed him and his family to the Portuguese island of Madeira, where he died the following year.
Territorial legacy.
Immediately after World War I.
The following states were formed, re-established or expanded at the dissolution of the former Austro–Hungarian monarchy:
The Principality of Liechtenstein, which had formerly looked to Vienna for protection and whose ruling house held sizable real estate in Cisleithania, formed a customs and defense union with Switzerland, and adopted the Swiss currency instead of the Austrian. In April 1919, Vorarlbergthe westernmost province of Austriavoted by a large majority to join Switzerland; however, both the Swiss and the Allies disregarded this result.
Present.
The following present-day countries and parts of countries were within the boundaries of Austria–Hungary when the empire was dissolved. Some other provinces of Europe had been part of the Habsburg monarchy at one time before 1867.
Empire of Austria (Cisleithania):
Kingdom of Hungary (Transleithania):
Austro-Hungarian Condominium
Other possessions of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy
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Abracadabra
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Abracadabra is a magic word, historically used as an apotropaic incantation on amulets and common today in stage magic. The actual origin is unknown, but one of the first appearances of the word was in a second-century work by Roman physician Serenus Sammonicus.
Etymology.
"Abracadabra" is of unknown origin, and is first attested in a second-century work of Serenus Sammonicus relating to a cure for a fever.
Some conjectural etymologies are: from phrases in Hebrew that mean "I will create as I speak", or Aramaic "I create like the word" (), to etymologies that point to similar words in Latin and Greek such as abraxas or to its similarity to the first four letters of the Greek alphabet (alpha-beta-gamma-delta or ΑΒΓΔ). However, "no documentation has been found to support any of the various conjectures".
The historian Don Skemer suggests that it might originate from the Hebrew phrase "ha brachah dabarah" (name of the blessed), said to be a magical phrase.
The Aramaic linguist Steve Caruso argues that "Abracadabra" can neither be Aramaic nor Hebrew, and suggests that the popularisation of the mistaken etymology is a result of an extended discussion on an early internet message board, which credits rabbi Lawrence Kushner with publishing a modern etymology.
History.
The first known mention of the word was in the second century AD in a book called (sometimes known as ) by Serenus Sammonicus, physician to the Roman emperor Caracalla, who in chapter 52 prescribed that malaria sufferers wear an amulet containing "Abracadabra" written in the form of a triangle.
The power of the amulet, he claimed, makes lethal diseases go away. Other Roman emperors, including Geta and Severus Alexander, were followers of the medical teachings of Serenus Sammonicus and may have used the incantation as well.
It was used as a magical formula by the Gnostics of the sect of Basilides in invoking the aid of beneficent spirits against disease and misfortune. It is found on Abraxas stones, which were worn as amulets. Subsequently, its use spread beyond the Gnostics.
To use it, when a person was sick and unhealthy they would wear an amulet around their neck that was made up of a piece of parchment inscribed with a triangular formula derived from this. It was believed that when it was written out this way that it acted like a funnel and drove the sickness out of the body.
A Jewish codex from 16th century Italy titled (The Tree of Knowledge) and described as a collection of magical spells contains the word "Abracadabra", referring to an amulet. It was described as a "cure from heavens" for "all sorts of fever[s]", consumption, and fire.
The Puritan minister Increase Mather dismissed the word as bereft of power. Daniel Defoe wrote dismissively about Londoners who posted the word on their doorways to ward off sickness during the Great Plague of London.
In the early 1800s, the word was used as an example of what magicians would say. "Abracadabra" is now more commonly used in the performance of stage magic as a magic word at the culmination of a trick.
Aleister Crowley adapted the word "Abracadabra" into the word Abrahadabra in "The Book of the Law", the central sacred text of Thelema.
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Acts of Union 1707
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The Acts of Union refer to two acts of Parliament, one by the Parliament of Scotland in March 1707, followed shortly thereafter by an equivalent act of the Parliament of England. They put into effect the international Treaty of Union agreed on 22 July 1706, which politically joined the Kingdom of England and Kingdom of Scotland into a single "political state" named Great Britain, with Queen Anne as its sovereign. The English and Scottish acts of ratification took effect on 1 May 1707, creating the new kingdom, with its parliament based in the Palace of Westminster.
The two countries had shared a monarch since the "personal" Union of the Crowns in 1603, when James VI of Scotland inherited the English throne from his cousin Elizabeth I to become (in addition) 'James I of England', styled James VI and I. Attempts had been made to try to unite the two separate countries, in 1606, 1667, and in 1689 (following the 1688 Dutch invasion of England, and subsequent deposition of James II of England by his daughter Mary and her husband William of Orange), but it was not until the early 18th century that both nations via separate groups of English and Scots Royal Commissioners and their respective political establishments, came to support the idea of an international "Treaty of political, monetary and trade Union", albeit for different reasons.
Political background.
Prior to 1603, England and Scotland had different monarchs, but when Elizabeth I died without children, she was succeeded as King of England by her distant relative, James VI of Scotland. After her death, the two Crowns were held in personal union by James (reigning as James VI and I), who announced his intention to unite the two realms.
The 1603 Union of England and Scotland Act established a joint Commission to agree terms, but the Parliament of England was concerned this would lead to an absolutist structure similar to that of Scotland. James was forced to withdraw his proposals, but used the royal prerogative to take the title "King of Great Britain".
Attempts to revive the project of union in 1610 were met with hostility. English opponents such as Sir Edwin Sandys argued that changing the name of England "were as to make a conquest of our name, which was more than ever the Dane or Norman could do". Instead, James set about creating a unified Church of Scotland and England, as the first step towards a centralised, Unionist state.
However, despite both being nominally Episcopal in structure, the two were very different in doctrine; the Church of Scotland, or kirk, was Calvinist in doctrine, and viewed many Church of England practices as little better than Catholicism. As a result, attempts to impose religious policy by James and his son Charles I ultimately led to the 1639–1651 Wars of the Three Kingdoms. The 1639–1640 Bishops' Wars confirmed the primacy of the Scots kirk, and established a Covenanter government in Scotland. The Scots remained neutral when the First English Civil War began in 1642, before becoming concerned at the impact on Scotland of an English Royalist victory. Presbyterian leaders like Argyll viewed union as a way to ensure free trade between England and Scotland, and preserve a Scots Presbyterian kirk.
Under the 1643 Solemn League and Covenant, the Scots Parliament agreed to provide military support to its English counterpart in return for a united Presbyterian church, but did not explicitly commit to political union. As the war progressed, Scots and English Presbyterians increasingly viewed the English Independents, and associated radical groups like the Levellers, as a bigger threat than the Royalists. Both Royalists and Presbyterians agreed monarchy was divinely ordered, but disagreed on the nature and extent of Royal authority over the church. When Charles I surrendered in 1646, an English pro-Royalist faction known as the Engagers allied with their former enemies to restore him to the English throne.
After defeat in the 1647–1648 Second English Civil War, Scotland was occupied by English troops, which were withdrawn once those whom Cromwell held responsible had been replaced by the Kirk Party. In December 1648, Pride's Purge paved the way for the Trial of Charles I in England by excluding MPs who opposed it. Following the execution of Charles I in January 1649, and establishment of the Commonwealth of England, the Scots Kirk Party proclaimed Charles II King of Scots and England and, in the 1650 Treaty of Breda, resolved to restore him to the English throne. Instead, defeat in the Anglo-Scottish War resulted in Scotland's incorporation into the Commonwealth in 1653, largely driven by Cromwell's determination to break the power of the Scots kirk. The 1652 Tender of Union was followed on 12 April 1654 by "An Ordinance by the Protector for the Union of England and Scotland," creating the Commonwealth of England and Scotland. It was ratified by the Second Protectorate Parliament on 26 June 1657, creating a single Parliament in Westminster, with 30 representatives each from Scotland and Ireland added to the existing English members.
1660–1707.
While integration into the Commonwealth established free trade between Scotland and England, the economic benefits were diminished by the costs of military occupation. Both Scotland and England associated union with heavy taxes and military rule; it had little popular support in either Country, and the union was dissolved after the Restoration of Charles II in 1660.
The Scottish economy was badly damaged by the (protectionist) English Navigation Acts of 1660 and 1663 and England's wars with the Dutch Republic, Scotland's major export market. An Anglo-Scots Trade Commission was set up in January 1668 but the English had no interest in making concessions, as the Scots had little to offer in return. In 1669, Charles II revived talks on "political union"; his motives may have been to weaken Scotland's commercial and political links with the Dutch, still seen as an enemy and complete the work of his grandfather James I and VI. On the Scottish side, the proposed union received parliamentary support, boosted by the desire to ensure free trade. Continued opposition meant these negotiations were abandoned by the end of 1669.
Following the 1688 invasion of England by a Dutch fleet and army led by Prince William of Orange and his wife Mary (daughter of James II), and their deposition of James II as King of England, a Scottish Convention of the Estates (a sister body to the Parliament of Scotland) met in Edinburgh in April 1689 to agree a new Constitutional settlement for Scotland. The Convention of the Estates issued an address to William and Mary "as both kingdomes are united in one head and soveraigne so they may become one body pollitick, one nation to be represented in one parliament", reserving "our church government, as it shall be established at the tyme of the union". William and Mary were supportive of the idea but it was opposed both by the Presbyterian majority in Scotland and the English Parliament. Episcopacy in Scotland was abolished in 1690, alienating a significant part of the political class; it was this element that later formed the bedrock of opposition to Union.
The 1690s were a time of economic hardship in Europe as a whole and Scotland in particular, a period now known as the Seven ill years which led to strained relations with England. In 1698, the Company of Scotland Trading to Africa and the Indies received a charter to raise capital through public subscription. The Company invested in the Darién scheme, an ambitious plan funded almost entirely by Scottish investors to build a colony on the Isthmus of Panama for trade with East Asia. The scheme was a disaster; the losses of over £150,000 severely impacted the Scottish commercial system.
Political motivations.
The International Treaty, and English and Scots acts of ratification of Union may be seen within a wider European context of increasing state centralisation during the late 17th and early 18th centuries, including the monarchies of France, Sweden, Denmark-Norway and Spain. While there were exceptions, such as the Dutch Republic or the Republic of Venice, the trend was clear.
The dangers of the monarch using one parliament against the other first became apparent in 1647 and 1651. It resurfaced during the 1679 to 1681 Exclusion Crisis, caused by English resistance to the Catholic James II (of England, VII of Scots) succeeding his brother Charles II. James was sent to Edinburgh in 1681 as Lord High Commissioner; in August, the Parliament of Scotland passed the Succession Act, confirming the divine right of kings, the rights of the natural heir "regardless of religion", the duty of all to swear allegiance to that king, and the Independence of the Scots Crown. It then went beyond ensuring James's succession to the Scots throne by explicitly stating the aim was to make his exclusion from the English throne impossible without "the fatall and dreadfull consequences of a civil war".
The issue reappeared during the 1688 Dutch invasion and (subsequently entitled as "the Glorious Revolution"). The English Convention Parliament generally supported replacing King James II with his Protestant daughter Mary, holding to their "legal fiction" that James, by fleeing to France, had abandoned his English subjects and "abdicated". They resisted, however, making her Dutch husband William of Orange joint ruler. They gave way "fearing the return of James" only when William threatened to take his troops and fleet and return to the Netherlands, and Mary refused to rule without him.
In Scotland, it became a Constitutional issue. The fact that James VII of Scots had not been present in the Scotland meant that the question of abdication need not arise. On 4 April 1689 a Convention of the Three Estates of Scotland (sister body to the Parliament of Scotland) declared that James VII "had acted irregularly" by assuming regal power (government) "without ever taking the Coronation Oath required by Scots Law". Thus, he had "FOREFALTED [forfeited] the Right to the Scots Crown, and the Scots Throne is become vacant". This was a fundamental difference; if the Parliament of Scotland could decide James VII had "Forfaulted" his Scots throne by actions having, in the words of the "Claim of Right" act 1689 "Invaded the fundamentall Constitution of the Kingdome and altered it from a legall limited monarchy To ane arbitrary despotick power". "Scots monarchs derived legitimacy from the Convention of the Estates", later declared a Parliament of Scotland, not God, thus ending the principle of divine right of kings.
Enshrined in the Union with England Act 1707:
Conflict over control of the kirk between Presbyterians and Episcopalians and William's position as a fellow Calvinist put him in a much stronger position. He originally insisted on retaining Episcopacy, and the Committee of the Articles, an unelected body that controlled what legislation Parliament could debate. Both would have given the Crown far greater control than in England but he withdrew his demands due to the 1689–1692 Jacobite Rising.
William's attempts to have the Claim of Right amended were directed through the "Court faction" which began arguing from 1699 onwards that:
A year and a half after William's death, the Parliament of Scotland "put a period on the end of that sentence" by passing an act which recognised the standing of the Convention of the Estates as a parliament in its own right and made it "high treason" to impugn its authority or to so much as suggest attempting to alter the Claim of Right.
Here is the Claim of Right understood and upheld for its secular constitutional provisions quite as much as for its religious provisions.
English perspective.
The English succession was provided for by the English Act of Settlement 1701, which ensured that the monarch of England would be a Protestant member of the House of Hanover. Until the union of parliaments, the Scottish throne might be inherited by a different successor after Queen Anne, who had said in her first speech to the English parliament that a union was "very necessary". The Scottish Act of Security 1704, however, was passed after the English parliament, without consultation with Scotland, had designated Electoress Sophia of Hanover (granddaughter of James I and VI) as Anne's successor, if Anne died childless. The Act of Security granted the Parliament of Scotland, the three Estates, the right to choose a successor and explicitly required a choice different from the English monarch unless the English were to grant free trade and navigation. Then the Alien Act 1705 was passed in the English parliament, designating Scots in England as "foreign nationals" and blocking about half of all Scottish trade by boycotting exports to England or its colonies, unless Scotland came back to negotiate a Union. To encourage a union, "honours, appointments, pensions and even arrears of pay and other expenses were distributed to clinch support from Scottish peers and MPs".
Scottish perspective.
The Scottish economy was severely impacted by privateers during the 1688–1697 Nine Years' War and the 1701 War of the Spanish Succession, with the Royal Navy focusing on protecting English ships. This compounded the economic pressure caused by the Darien scheme, and the seven ill years of the 1690s, when 5–15% of the population died of starvation. The Scottish Parliament was promised financial assistance, protection for its maritime trade, and an end to economic restrictions on trade with England.
The votes of the Court party, influenced by Queen Anne's favourite, James Douglas, 2nd Duke of Queensberry, combined with the majority of the Squadrone Volante, were sufficient to ensure passage of the treaty. Article 15 granted £398,085 and ten shillings sterling to Scotland, a sum known as The Equivalent, to offset future liability towards the English national debt, which at the time was £18 million, but as Scotland had no national debt, most of the sum was used to compensate the investors in the Darien scheme, with 58.6% of the fund allocated to its shareholders and creditors.
The role played by bribery has long been debated. £20,000 was distributed by David Boyle, 1st Earl of Glasgow, of which 60% went to the Duke of Queensberry, the Queen's Commissioner in Parliament. Another negotiator, John Campbell, 2nd Duke of Argyll was given an English dukedom.
Robert Burns is commonly quoted in support of the argument of corruption: "We're bought and sold for English Gold, Such a Parcel of Rogues in a Nation." As historian Christopher Whatley points out, this was actually a 17th-century Scots folk song; but he agrees money was paid, though suggests the economic benefits were supported by most Scots MPs, with the promises made for benefits to peers and MPs, even if it was reluctantly. Professor Sir Tom Devine agreed that promises of "favours, sinecures, pensions, offices and straightforward cash bribes became indispensable to secure government majorities".
As for representation going forwards, Scotland was, in the new united parliament, only to get 45 MPs, one more than Cornwall, and only 16 (unelected) peers in the House of Lords.
There were mixed opinions in Scotland about the prospect of a union with England. Sir George Lockhart of Carnwath, the only Scottish negotiator to oppose Union, noted "the whole nation appears against (it)". Another negotiator, Sir John Clerk of Penicuik, who was an ardent Unionist, observed it was "contrary to the inclinations of at least three-fourths of the Kingdom". As the seat of the Scottish Parliament, demonstrators in Edinburgh feared the impact of its loss on the local economy. Elsewhere, there was widespread concern about the independence of the kirk, and possible tax rises. Virtually all of the print discourses of 1699–1706 spoke against incorporating union, creating the conditions for wide spread rejection of the treaty in 1706 and 1707. In the wake of unionist proselytising in the autumn of 1706 and early 1707, many Scots were undecided about the prospect of a union. Rather, there was considerably more support in Scotland for a federal union with England than an incorporative one, similar to the devolved Scottish parliament that would be established within Britain nearly three centuries later.
As the treaty passed through the Parliament of Scotland, opposition was voiced by petitions from shires, burghs, presbyteries and parishes. The Convention of Royal Burghs claimed:
According to Scottish historian William Ferguson, the Acts of Union were a "political job" by England that was achieved by economic incentives, patronage and bribery to secure the passage of the Union treaty in the Scottish Parliament in order satisfy English political imperatives, with the union being unacceptable to the Scottish people, including both the Jacobites and Covenanters. The differences between Scottish were "subsumed by the same sort of patriotism or nationalism that first appeared in the Declaration of Arbroath of 1320." Ferguson highlights the well-timed payments of salary arrears to members of Parliament as proof of bribery and argues that the Scottish people had been betrayed by their Parliament. According to Christopher Whatley, however, calls for a union with England began in Scotland itself in the 1690s for the purpose of safeguarding the law, line of succession, and to improve the economy.
Ireland.
Ireland, though a kingdom under the same crown, was not included in the union. It remained a separate kingdom, unrepresented in Parliament, and was legally subordinate to Great Britain until the Renunciation Act 1783.
In July 1707 each House of the Parliament of Ireland passed a congratulatory address to Queen Anne, praying that "May God put it in your royal heart to add greater strength and lustre to your crown, by a still more comprehensive Union". The British government did not respond to the invitation and an equal union between Great Britain and Ireland was out of consideration until the 1790s. The union with Ireland finally came about on 1 January 1801.
Treaty and passage of the 1707 acts.
Deeper political integration had been a key policy of Queen Anne from the time she acceded to the throne in 1702. Under the aegis of the Queen and her ministers in both kingdoms, the parliaments of England and Scotland (the ) agreed to participate in fresh negotiations for a union treaty in 1705.
Both countries appointed 31 commissioners to conduct the negotiations. Most of the Scottish commissioners favoured union, and about half were government ministers and other officials. At the head of the list was the Duke of Queensberry, and the Lord Chancellor of Scotland, the Earl of Seafield. The English commissioners included the Lord High Treasurer, Sidney Godolphin, 1st Earl of Godolphin, the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, William Cowper, Baron Cowper, and a large number of Whigs who supported union. Tories were not in favour of union and only one was represented among the commissioners.
Negotiations between the English and Scottish commissioners took place between 16 April and 22 July 1706 at the Cockpit in London. Each side had its own particular concerns. Within a few days, and with only one face to face meeting of all 62 commissioners, England had gained a guarantee that the Hanoverian dynasty would succeed Queen Anne to the Scottish crown, and Scotland received a guarantee of access to colonial markets, in the hope that they would be placed on an equal footing in terms of trade.
After negotiations ended in July 1706, the acts had to be ratified by both Parliaments. In Scotland, about 100 of the 227 members of the Parliament of Scotland were supportive of the Court Party. For extra votes the pro-court side could rely on about 25 members of the Squadrone Volante, led by the James Graham, 4th Marquess of Montrose and John Ker, 1st Duke of Roxburghe. Opponents of the court were generally known as the Country party, and included various factions and individuals such as the James Hamilton, 4th Duke of Hamilton, John Hamilton, Lord Belhaven and Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun, who spoke forcefully and passionately against the union, when the Scottish Parliament began its debate on the act on 3 October 1706, but the deal had already been done. The Court party enjoyed significant funding from England and the Treasury and included many who had accumulated debts following the Darien Disaster.
The act ratifying the Treaty of Union was finally carried in the Parliament of Scotland by 110 votes to 69 on 16 January 1707, with a number of key amendments. News of the ratification and of the amendments was received in Westminster, where the Act was passed quickly through both Houses and received the royal assent on 6 March. Though the English Act was later in date, it bore the year '1706' while Scotland's was '1707', as the legal year in England began only on 25 March.
In Scotland, the Duke of Queensberry was largely responsible for the successful passage of the Union act by the Parliament of Scotland. In Scotland, he was greeted by stones and eggs but in England he was cheered for his action. He had personally received around half of the funding awarded by the Westminster Treasury. In April 1707, he travelled to London to attend celebrations at the royal court, and was greeted by groups of noblemen and gentry lined along the road. From Barnet, the route was lined with crowds of cheering people, and once he reached London a huge crowd had formed. On 17 April, the Duke was gratefully received by the Queen at Kensington Palace and the Acts came into effect on 1 May 1707. A day of thanksgiving was declared in England and Ireland but not in Scotland, where the bells of St Giles rang out the tune of "why should I be so sad on my wedding day".
Provisions.
The Treaty of Union, agreed between representatives of the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland in 1706, consisted of 25 articles, 15 of which were economic in nature. In Scotland, each article was voted on separately and several clauses in articles were delegated to specialised subcommittees. Article 1 of the treaty was based on the political principle of an incorporating union and this was secured by a majority of 116 votes to 83 on 4 November 1706. To minimise the opposition of the Church of Scotland, an Act was also passed to secure the Presbyterian establishment of the Church, after which the Church stopped its open opposition, although hostility remained at lower levels of the clergy. The treaty as a whole was finally ratified on 16 January 1707 by a majority of 110 votes to 69.
The two Acts incorporated provisions for Scotland to send representative peers from the Peerage of Scotland to sit in the House of Lords. It guaranteed that the Church of Scotland would remain the established church in Scotland, that the Court of Session would "remain in all time coming within Scotland", and that Scots law would "remain in the same force as before". Other provisions included the restatement of the Act of Settlement 1701 and the ban on Roman Catholics from taking the throne. It also created a customs union and monetary union.
The Act provided that any "laws and statutes" that were "contrary to or inconsistent with the terms" of the Act would "cease and become void".
Related acts.
The Scottish Parliament also passed the Protestant Religion and Presbyterian Church Act 1707 guaranteeing the status of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland. The English Parliament passed a similar Act, 6 Ann. c. 8.
Soon after the Union, the Act 6 Ann. c. 40later named the Union with Scotland (Amendment) Act 1707united the Privy Council of England and Privy Council of Scotland and decentralised Scottish administration by appointing justices of the peace in each shire to carry out administration. In effect it took the day-to-day government of Scotland out of the hands of politicians and into those of the College of Justice.
On 18 December 1707 the Act for better Securing the Duties of East India Goods was passed which extended the monopoly of the East India Company to Scotland.
In the year following the Union, the Treason Act 1708 abolished the Scottish law of and extended the corresponding English law across Great Britain.
Evaluations.
Scotland benefited, says historian G.N. Clark, gaining "freedom of trade with England and the colonies" as well as "a great expansion of markets". The agreement guaranteed the permanent status of the Presbyterian church in Scotland, and the separate system of laws and courts in Scotland. Clark argued that in exchange for the financial benefits and bribes that England bestowed, what it gained was
of inestimable value. Scotland accepted the Hanoverian succession and gave up her power of threatening England's military security and complicating her commercial relations ... The sweeping successes of the eighteenth-century wars owed much to the new unity of the two nations.
Despite initial opposition to the union by many Scots, there was paradoxically more protests from Scots in the eighteenth century over what they believed was the union being disregarded by the Westminster parliament, with Lord Deskford commenting to the Duke of Newcastle in 1755 on the "anxiety" among Scots about "any thing they conceive to be contrary to the union."
By the time Samuel Johnson and James Boswell made their tour in 1773, recorded in "A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland", Johnson noted that Scotland was "a nation of which the commerce is hourly extending, and the wealth increasing" and in particular that Glasgow had become one of the greatest cities of Britain.
Economic perspective.
According to the Scottish historian Christopher Smout, prior to the Union of the Crowns the Scottish economy had been flourishing completely independently of the English one, and that it only took a downturn in the wake of English wars, and what was believed to be English sabotage on Scottish economic ambitions. In the years leading to 1707, however, the Scottish economy was lagging behind not only from the impact of wars, but also because of chronic deflation and industrial underdevelopment. Scotland remained a predominantly agrarian society, and the lack of manpower caused by previous conflicts contributed to an underwhelming agricultural output, which intermittently escalated into local food shortages or famines. The Scottish Parliament attempted to combat the issue by attracting foreign investment; duty on ship building materials was lifted, taxes on new manufacturing stocks were cut, and customs on textile and linen goods were removed.
Scotland grew increasingly dependent on its linen industry, which became the biggest source of employment after agriculture and constituted one-third of Scottish industry. Continental linen industries could outcompete Scotland, and protectionist tariffs implemented by Scotland led to tariff wars as European countries closed their markets to Scotland. In this situation, England became the largest foreign market for Scottish linen; however, while the tariffs in place shielded Scotland from the much larger English industry, England also retaliated against them. This forced Scotland to seek economic alternatives. At the time, trade with colonies was rapidly growing in importance in Europe, and trade with colonies was very attractive to Scotland, given its pastoral economy. American colonies had a high demand of agricultural goods such as leather skins of goats and sheep, which would have provided Scotland a valuable source of income. Search for colonial trade, along with the frustration caused by economic and political rivalry with England, led to the Darien scheme – an unsuccessful attempt to establish a Scottish colony in the Gulf of Darién.
The scheme was sabotaged by England in various ways – it was seen as a threat to the privileged position of the East India Company, prompting England to ensure the plan's failure via political and diplomatic overtures to prevent the Netherlands and Hamburg from investing into the scheme and denying assistance. In what was dubbed the "affair of Hamburgh" in Scotland, William III of England persuaded European powers against buying stocks in the scheme; William commented on Darien:
English actions against the Darien scheme were also motivated by other factors – the decline in the East India Company's stock values, concerns of Darien causing a labour shortage in the Colony of Jamaica, and the scheme being seen as a threat to "the general peace of Christendom", as Catholic Spain laid a territorial claim to the area.
The failure of the Darien scheme led to a financial crisis in Scotland. The high cost of its project exacerbated the deflation in Scotland. The Bank of Scotland had dangerously low reserves, and in early 1700s a run on the bank occurred, along with temporary suspension of business. Ultimately, the Scottish bank managed to stay solvent, although the persisting deflation and low reserves largely contributed to the feeling of Scottish economy being in a precarious position. Economist Aida Ramos argues that the Darien scheme could have succeeded if it was to receive support from either England or Spain, and that it lacked the capability to create a threat to England or its interests. According to Ramos, the English intervention against the scheme was to meet the expansionary aims of England, as to ensure both its colonial dominance as well as the annexation of Scotland.
By 1703, much of the public along with members of the Scottish government were highly disillusioned with the union, and many believed that the only way to let the Scottish economy flourish was to separate from England. John Clerk of Eldin declared that "the Scots had become England's slaves, since they were denied not only their rights as fellow-Britons but their rights under the Law of Nations", and writer David Black wrote: "England affords us but little of what is necessary, yet they drain us more than any nation". The Scottish Parliament started adopting legislation to counter the English aggression – the first was the Act Anent Peace and War, which was to guarantee that the Scottish foreign policy would be independent of England. The Scottish economy was now facing a crisis, and the parliament was polarised into pro-union and anti-union factions, each arguing for economic upsides.
Ultimately, Scottish ministers voted in favour of the union, despite the lack of public support, with the overwhelming majority of the Scottish population at the time protesting vociferously against any union with England. Many Scots considered themselves to have been betrayed by their own elites, and that the union bill was able to pass only thanks to English bribery. In the first few decades after the union, England did not end up becoming the main trading partner of Scotland, as other European powers became the primary source of imported goods for Scotland. For at least the first 40 years after the union, Scotland persisted in its traditional trade patterns, and the economic situation of Scotland was not as dire as that described in the months leading up to the Acts of Union. By 1799, it was reported that the union of Scotland with England had not only benefitted the Scottish economy, but promoted
a "commercial prosperity" unknown to any people.
300th anniversary.
A commemorative two-pound coin was issued to mark the tercentennial—300th anniversary—of the Union, which occurred two days before the Scottish Parliament general election on 3 May 2007.
The Scottish Government held a number of commemorative events through the year including an education project led by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, an exhibition of Union-related objects and documents at the National Museums of Scotland and an exhibition of portraits of people associated with the Union at the National Galleries of Scotland.
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Admiralty (United Kingdom)
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The Admiralty was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom that was responsible for the command of the Royal Navy.
Historically, its titular head was the Lord High Admiral – one of the Great Officers of State. For much of its history, from the early 18th century until its abolition, the role of the Lord High Admiral was almost invariably put "in commission" and exercised by the Lords Commissioner of the Admiralty, who sat on the governing Board of Admiralty, rather than by a single person. The Admiralty was replaced by the Admiralty Board in 1964, as part of the reforms that created the Ministry of Defence and its Navy Department (later Navy Command).
Before the Acts of Union 1707, the Office of the Admiralty and Marine Affairs administered the Royal Navy of the Kingdom of England, which merged with the Royal Scots Navy and then absorbed the responsibilities of the Lord High Admiral of the Kingdom of Scotland with the unification of the Kingdom of Great Britain. The Admiralty was among the most important departments of the British Government, because of the Royal Navy's role in the expansion and maintenance of the English overseas possessions in the 17th century, the British Empire in the 18th century, and subsequently.
The modern Admiralty Board, to which the functions of the Admiralty were transferred in 1964, is a committee of the tri-service Defence Council of the United Kingdom. This Admiralty Board meets only twice a year, and the day-to-day running of the Royal Navy is controlled by a Navy Board (not to be confused with the historic Navy Board). It is common for the various authorities now in charge of the Royal Navy to be referred to as simply 'The Admiralty'.
The title of Lord High Admiral of the United Kingdom was vested in the monarch from 1964 to 2011. The title was awarded to Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh by Queen Elizabeth II on his 90th birthday and since his death in 2021 has reverted to the monarch. There also continues to be a Vice-Admiral of the United Kingdom and a Rear-Admiral of the United Kingdom, both of which are honorary offices.
History.
The office of Admiral of England (later Lord Admiral, and later Lord High Admiral) was created around 1400; there had previously been Admirals of the northern and western seas. King Henry VIII established the Council of the Marine—later to become the Navy Board—in 1546, to oversee administrative affairs of the naval service. Operational control of the Royal Navy remained the responsibility of the Lord High Admiral, who was one of the nine Great Officers of State. This management approach would continue in force in the Royal Navy until 1832.
King Charles I put the office of Lord High Admiral into commission in 1628, and control of the Royal Navy passed to a committee in the form of the Board of Admiralty. The office of Lord High Admiral passed a number of times in and out of commission until 1709, after which the office was almost permanently in commission (the last Lord High Admiral being the future King William IV in the early 19th century).
In this organization a dual system operated the Lord High Admiral (from 1546) then Commissioners of the Admiralty (from 1628) exercised the function of general control (military administration) of the Navy and they were usually responsible for the conduct of any war, while the actual supply lines, support and services were managed by four principal officers, namely, the Treasurer, Comptroller, Surveyor and Clerk of the Acts, responsible individually for finance, supervision of accounts, shipbuilding and maintenance of ships, and record of business. These principal officers came to be known as the Navy Board responsible for 'civil administration' of the navy, from 1546 to 1832.
This structure of administering the navy lasted for 285 years, however, the supply system was often inefficient and corrupt its deficiencies were due as much to its limitations of the times they operated in. The various functions within the Admiralty were not coordinated effectively and lacked inter-dependency with each other, with the result that in 1832, Sir James Graham abolished the Navy Board and merged its functions within those of the Board of Admiralty. At the time this had distinct advantages; however, it failed to retain the principle of distinctions between the Admiralty and supply, and a lot of bureaucracy followed with the merger.
In 1860 saw big growth in the development of technical crafts, the expansion of more admiralty branches that really began with age of steam that would have an enormous influence on the navy and naval thought. Between 1860 and 1908, there was no real study of strategy and of staff work conducted within the naval service; it was practically ignored. All the Navy's talent flowed to the great technical universities. This school of thought for the next 50 years was exclusively technically based. The first serious attempt to introduce a sole management body to administer the naval service manifested itself in the creation of the Admiralty Navy War Council in 1909.
Following this, a new advisory body called the Admiralty War Staff was then instituted in 1912, headed by the Chief of the War Staff who was responsible for administering three new sub-divisions responsible for operations, intelligence and mobilisation. The new War Staff had hardly found its feet and it continually struggled with the opposition to its existence by senior officers they were categorically opposed to a staff. The deficiencies of the system within this department of state could be seen in the conduct of the Dardanelles campaign. There were no mechanisms in place to answer the big strategic questions. A Trade Division was created in 1914. Sir John Jellicoe came to the Admiralty in 1916. He re-organized the war staff as following: Chief of War Staff, Operations, Intelligence, Signal Section, Mobilisation, Trade.
It was not until 1917 that the admiralty department was again properly reorganized and began to function as a professional military staff. In May 1917, the term "Admiralty War Staff" was renamed and that department and its functional role were superseded by a new "Admiralty Naval Staff"; in addition, the newly created office of Chief of the Naval Staff was merged in the office of the First Sea Lord. Also appointed was a new post, that of Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff, and an Assistant Chief of the Naval Staff; all were given seats on the Board of Admiralty. This for the first time gave the naval staff direct representation on the board; the presence of three senior naval senior members on the board ensured the necessary authority to carry through any operation of war. The Deputy Chief of Naval Staff would direct all operations and movements of the fleet, while the Assistant Chief of Naval Staff would be responsible for mercantile movements and anti-submarine operations.
The office of Controller would be re-established to deal with all questions relating to supply; on 6 September 1917, a Deputy First Sea Lord, was added to the Board who would administer operations abroad and deal with questions of foreign policy. In October 1917, the development of the staff was carried one step further by the creation of two sub-committees of the Board—the Operations Committee and the Maintenance Committee. The First Lord of the Admiralty was chairman of both committees, and the Operations Committee consisted of the First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff, the Deputy First Sea Lord, Assistant Chief of Naval Staff, and Fifth Sea Lord.
Full operational control of the Royal Navy was finally handed over to the Chief of Naval Staff (CNS) by an order in Council, effective October 1917, under which he became responsible for the issuing of orders affecting all war operations directly to the fleet. It also empowered the CNS to issue orders in their own name, as opposed to them previously being issued by the Permanent Secretary of the Admiralty in the name of the Board. In 1964, the Admiralty—along with the War Office and the Air Ministry—were abolished as separate departments of state, and placed under one single new Ministry of Defence. Within the expanded Ministry of Defence are the new Admiralty Board which has a separate Navy Board responsible for the day-to-day running of the Royal Navy, the Army Board and the Air Force Board, each headed by the Secretary of State for Defence.
Organizational structure.
In the 20th century the structure of the Admiralty Headquarters was predominantly organized into four parts:
Board of Admiralty
When the office of Lord High Admiral was in commission, as it was for most of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, until it reverted to the Crown, it was exercised by a Board of Admiralty, officially known as the "Commissioners for Exercising the Office of Lord High Admiral of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, &c." (alternatively of England, Great Britain or the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland depending on the period). The Board of Admiralty consisted of a number of Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. The Lords Commissioners were always a mixture of admirals, known as Naval Lords or Sea Lords and Civil Lords, normally politicians. The quorum of the Board was two commissioners and a secretary. The president of the Board was known as the First Lord of the Admiralty, who was a member of the Cabinet. After 1806, the First Lord of the Admiralty was always a civilian, while the professional head of the navy came to be (and is still today) known as the First Sea Lord.
Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty (1628–1964)
The Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty were the members of The Board of Admiralty, which exercised the office of Lord High Admiral when it was not vested in a single person. The commissioners were a mixture of politicians without naval experience and professional naval officers, the proportion of naval officers generally increasing over time.
Key Officials
First Lord of the Admiralty
The First Lord of the Admiralty or formally the Office of the First Lord of the Admiralty was the British government's senior civilian adviser on all naval affairs and the minister responsible for the direction and control of the Admiralty and Marine Affairs Office later the Department of Admiralty.(+) His office was supported by the Naval Secretariat.
First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff
The First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff was the Chief Naval Adviser on the Board of Admiralty to the First Lord and superintended the offices of the sea lords and the admiralty naval staff.
Navy Board
The Navy Board was an independent board from 1546 until 1628 when it became subordinate to, yet autonomous of the Board of Admiralty until 1832. Its principal commissioners of the Navy advised the board in relation to civil administration of the naval affairs. The Navy Board was based at the Navy Office.
Board of Admiralty civilian members responsible other important civil functions
Admiralty Naval Staff
It evolved from *Admiralty Navy War Council, (1909–1912) which in turn became the Admiralty War Staff, (1912–1917) before finally becoming the Admiralty Naval Staff in 1917. It was the former senior command, operational planning, policy and strategy department within the British Admiralty. It was established in 1917 and existed until 1964 when the department of the Admiralty was abolished, and the staff departments function continued within the Navy Department of the Ministry of Defence until 1971 when its functions became part of the new Naval Staff, Navy Department of the Ministry of Defence.
Offices of the Naval Staff
Admiralty Departments
The Admiralty Departments were distinct and component parts of the Department of Admiralty that were superintended by the various offices of the Sea Lords responsible for them; they were primarily administrative, research, scientific and logistical support organisations. The departments role was to provide the men, ships, aircraft and supplies to carry out the approved policy of the Board of Admiralty and conveyed to them during 20th century by the Admiralty Naval Staff.
Offices of the Sea Lords
Department of the Permanent Secretary
The Secretary's Department consisted of members of the civil service it was directed and controlled by a senior civil servant Permanent Secretary to the Board of Admiralty he was not a Lord Commissioner of the Admiralty, he functioned as a member of the board, and attended all of its meetings.
"Admiralty" as a metonym for "sea power".
In some cases, the term "admiralty" is used in a wider sense, as meaning "sea power" or "rule over the seas", rather than in strict reference to the institution exercising such power. For example, the well-known lines from Kipling's "Song of the Dead":
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Amphibian (disambiguation)
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An amphibian is a member of the class Amphibia of ectothermic, tetrapod vertebrates
Amphibian may also refer to:
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Amputation
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Amputation is the removal of a limb or other body part by trauma, medical illness, or surgery. As a surgical measure, it is used to control pain or a disease process in the affected limb, such as malignancy or gangrene. In some cases, it is carried out on individuals as a preventive surgery for such problems. A special case is that of congenital amputation, a congenital disorder, where fetal limbs have been cut off by constrictive bands. In some countries, judicial amputation is currently used to punish people who commit crimes. Amputation has also been used as a tactic in war and acts of terrorism; it may also occur as a war injury. In some cultures and religions, minor amputations or mutilations are considered a ritual accomplishment. When done by a person, the person executing the amputation is an amputator. The oldest evidence of this practice comes from a skeleton found buried in Liang Tebo cave, East Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo dating back to at least 31,000 years ago, where it was done when the amputee was a young child. A prosthesis or a bioelectric replantation restores sensation of the amputated limb.
Types.
Leg.
Lower limb amputations can be divided into two broad categories: minor and major amputations. Minor amputations generally refer to the amputation of digits. Major amputations are commonly below-knee- or above-knee amputations. Common partial foot amputations include the Chopart, Lisfranc, and ray amputations.
Common forms of ankle disarticulations include Pyrogoff, Boyd, and Syme amputations. A less common major amputation is the Van Nes rotation, or rotationplasty, i.e. the turning around and reattachment of the foot to allow the ankle joint to take over the function of the knee.
Types of amputations include:
Arm.
Types of upper extremity amputations include:
A variant of the trans-radial amputation is the Krukenberg procedure in which the radius and ulna are used to create a stump capable of a pincer action.
Other.
Genital modification and mutilation may involve amputating tissue, although not necessarily as a result of injury or disease.
Laryngectomy is the amputation of the larynx.
Self-amputation.
In some rare cases when a person has become trapped in a deserted place, with no means of communication or hope of rescue, the victim has amputated their own limb. The most notable case of this is Aron Ralston, a hiker who had amputated his own right forearm after it was pinned by a boulder in a hiking accident and he was unable to free himself for over five days.
Body integrity dysphoria is a rare condition in which an individual feels compelled to remove one or more of their body parts, usually a limb. In some cases, that individual may take drastic measures to remove the offending appendages, either by causing irreparable damage to the limb so that medical intervention cannot save the limb, or by causing the limb to be severed.
Urgent.
In surgery, a guillotine amputation is an amputation performed without closure of the skin in an urgent setting. Typical indications include catastrophic trauma or infection control in the setting of infected gangrene. A guillotine amputation is typically followed by a more time-consuming, definitive amputation such as an above or below knee amputation.
Causes.
Frostbite.
Frostbite is a cold-related injury occurring when an area (typically a limb or other extremity) is exposed to extreme low temperatures, causing the freezing of the skin or other tissues. Its pathophysiology involves the formation of ice crystals upon freezing and blood clots upon thawing, leading to cell damage and cell death. Treatment of severe frostbite may require surgical amputation of the affected tissue or limb; if there is deep injury autoamputation may occur.
Athletic performance.
Sometimes professional athletes may choose to have a non-essential digit amputated to relieve chronic pain and impaired performance.
Surgery.
Method.
Surgeons performing an amputation have to first ligate the supplying artery and vein, so as to prevent hemorrhage (bleeding). The muscles are transected, and finally, the bone is sawed through with an oscillating saw. Sharp and rough edges of bones are filed, skin and muscle flaps are then transposed over the stump, occasionally with the insertion of elements to attach a prosthesis.
Distal stabilisation of muscles is often performed. This allows effective muscle contraction which reduces atrophy, allows functional use of the stump and maintains soft tissue coverage of the remnant bone. The preferred stabilisation technique is myodesis where the muscle is attached to the bone or its periosteum. In joint disarticulation amputations tenodesis may be used where the muscle tendon is attached to the bone. Muscles are attached under similar tension to normal physiological conditions.
An experimental technique known as the "Ewing amputation" aims to improve post-amputation proprioception. Another technique with similar goals, which has been tested in a clinical trial, is Agonist-antagonist Myoneural Interface (AMI).
In 1920, Dr. Janos Ertl Sr. of Hungary, developed the Ertl procedure in order to return a high number of amputees to the workforce. The Ertl technique, an osteomyoplastic procedure for transtibial amputation, can be used to create a highly functional residual limb. Creation of a tibiofibular bone bridge provides a stable, broad tibiofibular articulation that may be capable of some distal weight bearing. Several different modified techniques and fibular bridge fixation methods have been used; however, no current evidence exists regarding comparison of the different techniques.
Post-operative management.
A 2019 Cochrane systematic review aimed to determine whether rigid dressings were more effective than soft dressings in helping wounds heal following transtibial (below the knee) amputations. Due to the limited and very low certainty of evidence available, the authors concluded that it was uncertain what the benefits and harms were for each dressing type. They recommended that clinicians consider the pros and cons of each dressing type on a case-by-case basis: rigid dressings may potentially benefit patients who have a high risk of falls; soft dressings may potentially benefit patients who have poor skin integrity.
A 2017 review found that the use of rigid removable dressings (RRD's) in trans-tibial amputations, rather than soft bandaging, improved healing time, reduced edema, prevented knee flexion contractures and reduced complications, including further amputation, from external trauma such as falls onto the stump.
Post-operative management, in addition to wound healing, considers maintenance of limb strength, joint range, edema management, preservation of the intact limb (if applicable) and stump desensitization.
Trauma.
Traumatic amputation is the partial or total avulsion of a part of a body during a serious accident, like traffic, labor, or combat.
Traumatic amputation of a human limb, either partial or total, creates the immediate danger of death from blood loss.
Orthopedic surgeons often assess the severity of different injuries using the Mangled Extremity Severity Score. Given different clinical and situational factors, they can predict the likelihood of amputation. This is especially useful for emergency physicians to quickly evaluate patients and decide on consultations.
Causes.
Traumatic amputation is uncommon in humans (1 per 20,804 population per year). Loss of limb usually happens immediately during the accident, but sometimes a few days later after medical complications. Statistically, the most common causes of traumatic amputations are:
Treatment.
The development of the science of microsurgery over the last 40 years has provided several treatment options for a traumatic amputation, depending on the patient's specific trauma and clinical situation:
Prevention.
Methods in preventing amputation, limb-sparing techniques, depend on the problems that might cause amputations to be necessary. Chronic infections, often caused by diabetes or decubitus ulcers in bedridden patients, are common causes of infections that lead to gangrene, which, when widespread, necessitates amputation.
There are two key challenges: first, many patients have impaired circulation in their extremities, and second, they have difficulty curing infections in limbs with poor blood circulation.
Crush injuries where there is extensive tissue damage and poor circulation also benefit from hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT). The high level of oxygenation and revascularization speed up recovery times and prevent infections.
A study found that the patented method called Circulator Boot achieved significant results in prevention of amputation in patients with diabetes and arteriosclerosis. Another study found it also effective for healing limb ulcers caused by peripheral vascular disease. The boot checks the heart rhythm and compresses the limb between heartbeats; the compression helps cure the wounds in the walls of veins and arteries, and helps to push the blood back to the heart.
For victims of trauma, advances in microsurgery in the 1970s have made replantation of severed body parts possible.
The establishment of laws, rules, and guidelines, and the employment of modern equipment help protect people from traumatic amputations.
Prognosis.
The individual may experience psychological trauma and emotional discomfort. The stump will remain an area of reduced mechanical stability. Limb loss can present significant or even drastic practical limitations.
A large proportion of amputees (from 50 to 80% to 80-100%, according to different studies) experience the phenomenon of phantom limbs; they feel body parts that are no longer there. These limbs can itch, ache, burn, feel tense, dry or wet, locked in or trapped or they can feel as if they are moving. Some scientists believe it has to do with a kind of neural map that the brain has of the body, which sends information to the rest of the brain about limbs regardless of their existence. Phantom sensations and phantom pain may also occur after the removal of body parts other than the limbs, e.g. after amputation of the breast, extraction of a tooth (phantom tooth pain) or removal of an eye (phantom eye syndrome).
A similar phenomenon is an unexplained sensation in a body part unrelated to the amputated limb. It has been hypothesized that the portion of the brain responsible for processing stimulation from amputated limbs, being deprived of input, expands into the surrounding brain, ("Phantoms in the Brain": V.S. Ramachandran and Sandra Blakeslee) such that an individual who has had an arm amputated will experience unexplained pressure or movement on his face or head.
In many cases, the phantom limb aids in adaptation to a prosthesis, as it permits the person to experience proprioception of the prosthetic limb. To support improved resistance or usability, comfort or healing, some types of stump socks may be worn instead of or as part of wearing a prosthesis.
Another side effect can be heterotopic ossification, especially when a bone injury is combined with a head injury. The brain signals the bone to grow instead of scar tissue to form, and nodules and other growth can interfere with prosthetics and sometimes require further operations. This type of injury has been especially common among soldiers wounded by improvised explosive devices in the Iraq War.
Due to technological advances in prosthetics, many amputees live active lives with little restriction. Organizations such as the Challenged Athletes Foundation have been developed to give amputees the opportunity to be involved in athletics and adaptive sports such as amputee soccer.
Nearly half of the individuals who have an amputation due to vascular disease will die within 5 years, usually secondary to the extensive co-morbidities rather than due to direct consequences of an amputation. This is higher than the five year mortality rates for breast cancer, colon cancer, and prostate cancer. Of persons with diabetes who have a lower extremity amputation, up to 55% will require amputation of the second leg within two to three years.
Etymology.
The word amputation is borrowed from Latin "amputātus," past participle of "amputāre" "to prune back (a plant), prune away, remove by cutting (unwanted parts or features), cut off (a branch, limb, body part)," from "am-," assimilated variant of "amb-" "about, around" + "putāre" "to prune, make clean or tidy, scour (wool)". The English word "Poes" was first applied to surgery in the 17th century, possibly first in Peter Lowe's "A discourse of the Whole Art of Chirurgerie" (published in either 1597 or 1612); his work was derived from 16th-century French texts and early English writers also used the words "extirpation" (16th-century French texts tended to use "extirper"), "disarticulation", and "dismemberment" (from the Old French "desmembrer" and a more common term before the 17th century for limb loss or removal), or simply "cutting", but by the end of the 17th century "amputation" had come to dominate as the accepted medical term.
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Anemometer
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In meteorology, an anemometer () is a device that measures wind speed and direction. It is a common instrument used in weather stations. The earliest known description of an anemometer was by Italian architect and author Leon Battista Alberti (1404–1472) in 1450.
History.
The anemometer has changed little since its development in the 15th century. Alberti is said to have invented it around 1450. In the ensuing centuries numerous others, including Robert Hooke
(1635–1703), developed their own versions, with some mistakenly credited as its inventor. In 1846, Thomas Romney Robinson (1792–1882) improved the design by using four hemispherical cups and mechanical wheels. In 1926, Canadian meteorologist John Patterson (1872–1956) developed a three-cup anemometer, which was improved by Brevoort and Joiner in 1935. In 1991, Derek Weston added the ability to measure wind direction. In 1994, Andreas Pflitsch developed the sonic anemometer.
Velocity anemometers.
Cup anemometers.
A simple type of anemometer was invented in 1845 by Rev. Dr. John Thomas Romney Robinson of Armagh Observatory. It consisted of four hemispherical cups on horizontal arms mounted on a vertical shaft. The air flow past the cups in any horizontal direction turned the shaft at a rate roughly proportional to the wind's speed. Therefore, counting the shaft's revolutions over a set time interval produced a value proportional to the average wind speed for a wide range of speeds. This type of instrument is also called a "rotational" anemometer.
Four cup.
With a four-cup anemometer, the wind always has the hollow of one cup presented to it, and is blowing on the back of the opposing cup. Since a hollow hemisphere has a drag coefficient of .38 on the spherical side and 1.42 on the hollow side, more force is generated on the cup that presenting its hollow side to the wind. Because of this asymmetrical force, torque is generated on the anemometer's axis, causing it to spin.
Theoretically, the anemometer's speed of rotation should be proportional to the wind speed because the force produced on an object is proportional to the speed of the gas or fluid flowing past it. However, in practice, other factors influence the rotational speed, including turbulence produced by the apparatus, increasing drag in opposition to the torque produced by the cups and support arms, and friction on the mount point. When Robinson first designed his anemometer, he asserted that the cups moved one-third of the speed of the wind, unaffected by cup size or arm length. This was apparently confirmed by some early independent experiments, but it was incorrect. Instead, the ratio of the speed of the wind and that of the cups, the "anemometer factor", depends on the dimensions of the cups and arms, and can have a value between two and a little over three. Once the error was discovered, all previous experiments involving anemometers had to be repeated.
Three cup.
The three-cup anemometer developed by Canadian John Patterson in 1926, and subsequent cup improvements by Brevoort & Joiner of the United States in 1935, led to a cupwheel design with a nearly linear response and an error of less than 3% up to . Patterson found that each cup produced maximum torque when it was at 45° to the wind flow. The three-cup anemometer also had a more constant torque and responded more quickly to gusts than the four-cup anemometer.
Three cup wind direction.
The three-cup anemometer was further modified by Australian Dr. Derek Weston in 1991 to also measure wind direction. He added a tag to one cup, causing the cupwheel speed to increase and decrease as the tag moved alternately with and against the wind. Wind direction is calculated from these cyclical changes in speed, while wind speed is determined from the average cupwheel speed.
Three-cup anemometers are currently the industry standard for wind resource assessment studies and practice.
Vane anemometers.
One of the other forms of mechanical velocity anemometer is the "vane anemometer". It may be described as a windmill or a propeller anemometer. Unlike the Robinson anemometer, whose axis of rotation is vertical, the vane anemometer must have its axis parallel to the direction of the wind and is therefore horizontal. Furthermore, since the wind varies in direction and the axis has to follow its changes, a wind vane or some other contrivance to fulfill the same purpose must be employed.
A "vane anemometer" thus combines a propeller and a tail on the same axis to obtain accurate and precise wind speed and direction measurements from the same instrument. The speed of the fan is measured by a revolution counter and converted to a windspeed by an electronic chip. Hence, volumetric flow rate may be calculated if the cross-sectional area is known.
In cases where the direction of the air motion is always the same, as in ventilating shafts of mines and buildings, wind vanes known as air meters are employed, and give satisfactory results.
Hot-wire anemometers.
Hot wire anemometers use a fine wire (on the order of several micrometres) electrically heated to some temperature above the ambient. Air flowing past the wire cools the wire. As the electrical resistance of most metals is dependent upon the temperature of the metal (tungsten is a popular choice for hot-wires), a relationship can be obtained between the resistance of the wire and the speed of the air. In most cases, they cannot be used to measure the direction of the airflow, unless coupled with a wind vane.
Several ways of implementing this exist, and hot-wire devices can be further classified as CCA (constant current anemometer), CVA (constant voltage anemometer) and CTA (constant-temperature anemometer). The voltage output from these anemometers is thus the result of some sort of circuit within the device trying to maintain the specific variable (current, voltage or temperature) constant, following Ohm's law.
Additionally, PWM (pulse-width modulation) anemometers are also used, wherein the velocity is inferred by the time length of a repeating pulse of current that brings the wire up to a specified resistance and then stops until a threshold "floor" is reached, at which time the pulse is sent again.
Hot-wire anemometers, while extremely delicate, have extremely high frequency-response and fine spatial resolution compared to other measurement methods, and as such are almost universally employed for the detailed study of turbulent flows, or any flow in which rapid velocity fluctuations are of interest.
An industrial version of the fine-wire anemometer is the thermal flow meter, which follows the same concept, but uses two pins or strings to monitor the variation in temperature. The strings contain fine wires, but encasing the wires makes them much more durable and capable of accurately measuring air, gas, and emissions flow in pipes, ducts, and stacks. Industrial applications often contain dirt that will damage the classic hot-wire anemometer.
Laser Doppler anemometers.
In laser Doppler velocimetry, laser Doppler anemometers use a beam of light from a laser that is divided into two beams, with one propagated out of the anemometer. Particulates (or deliberately introduced seed material) flowing along with air molecules near where the beam exits reflect, or backscatter, the light back into a detector, where it is measured relative to the original laser beam. When the particles are in great motion, they produce a Doppler shift for measuring wind speed in the laser light, which is used to calculate the speed of the particles, and therefore the air around the anemometer.
Ultrasonic anemometers.
Ultrasonic anemometers, first developed in the 1950s, use ultrasonic sound waves to measure wind velocity. They measure wind speed based on the time of flight of sonic pulses between pairs of transducers.
The time that a sonic pulse takes to travel from one transducer to its pair is inversely proportionate to the speed of sound in air plus the wind velocity in the same direction: formula_1 where formula_2 is the time of flight, formula_3 is the distance between transducers, formula_4 is the speed of sound in air and formula_5 is the wind velocity. In other words, the faster the wind is blowing, the faster the sound pulse travels. To correct for the speed of sound in air (which varies according to temperature, pressure and humidity) sound pulses are sent in both directions and the wind velocity is calculated using the forward and reverse times of flight: formula_6 where formula_7 is the forward time of flight and formula_8 the reverse.
Because ultrasonic anenometers have no moving parts, they need little maintenance and can be used in harsh environments. They operate over a wide range of wind speeds. They can measure rapid changes in wind speed and direction, taking many measurements each second, and so are useful in measuring turbulent air flow patterns.
Their main disadvantage is the distortion of the air flow by the structure supporting the transducers, which requires a correction based upon wind tunnel measurements to minimize the effect. Rain drops or ice on the transducers can also cause inaccuracies.
Since the speed of sound varies with temperature, and is virtually stable with pressure change, ultrasonic anemometers are also used as thermometers.
Measurements from pairs of transducers can be combined to yield a measurement of velocity in 1-, 2-, or 3-dimensional flow. Two-dimensional (wind speed and wind direction) sonic anemometers are used in applications such as weather stations, ship navigation, aviation, weather buoys and wind turbines. Monitoring wind turbines usually requires a refresh rate of wind speed measurements of 3 Hz, easily achieved by sonic anemometers. Three-dimensional sonic anemometers are widely used to measure gas emissions and ecosystem fluxes using the eddy covariance method when used with fast-response infrared gas analyzers or laser-based analyzers.
Acoustic resonance anemometers.
Acoustic resonance anemometers are a more recent variant of sonic anemometer. The technology was invented by Savvas Kapartis and patented in 1999. Whereas conventional sonic anemometers rely on time of flight measurement, acoustic resonance sensors use resonating acoustic (ultrasonic) waves within a small purpose-built cavity in order to perform their measurement.
Built into the cavity is an array of ultrasonic transducers, which are used to create the separate standing-wave patterns at ultrasonic frequencies. As wind passes through the cavity, a change in the wave's property occurs (phase shift). By measuring the amount of phase shift in the received signals by each transducer, and then by mathematically processing the data, the sensor is able to provide an accurate horizontal measurement of wind speed and direction.
Because acoustic resonance technology enables measurement within a small cavity, the sensors tend to be typically smaller in size than other ultrasonic sensors. The small size of acoustic resonance anemometers makes them physically strong and easy to heat, and therefore resistant to icing. This combination of features means that they achieve high levels of data availability and are well suited to wind turbine control and to other uses that require small robust sensors such as battlefield meteorology. One issue with this sensor type is measurement accuracy when compared to a calibrated mechanical sensor. For many end uses, this weakness is compensated for by the sensor's longevity and the fact that it does not require recalibration once installed.
Pressure anemometers.
The first designs of anemometers that measure the pressure were divided into plate and tube classes.
Plate anemometers.
These are the first modern anemometers. They consist of a flat plate suspended from the top so that the wind deflects the plate. In 1450, the Italian art architect Leon Battista Alberti invented the first such mechanical anemometer; in 1663 it was re-invented by Robert Hooke. Later versions of this form consisted of a flat plate, either square or circular, which is kept normal to the wind by a wind vane. The pressure of the wind on its face is balanced by a spring. The compression of the spring determines the actual force which the wind is exerting on the plate, and this is either read off on a suitable gauge, or on a recorder. Instruments of this kind do not respond to light winds, are inaccurate for high wind readings, and are slow at responding to variable winds. Plate anemometers have been used to trigger high wind alarms on bridges.
Tube anemometers.
James Lind's anemometer of 1775 consisted of a vertically mounted glass U tube containing a liquid manometer (pressure gauge), with one end bent out in a horizontal direction to face the wind flow and the other vertical end capped. Though the Lind was not the first, it was the most practical and best known anemometer of this type. If the wind blows into the mouth of a tube, it causes an increase of pressure on one side of the manometer. The wind over the open end of a vertical tube causes little change in pressure on the other side of the manometer. The resulting elevation difference in the two legs of the U tube is an indication of the wind speed. However, an accurate measurement requires that the wind speed be directly into the open end of the tube; small departures from the true direction of the wind causes large variations in the reading.
The successful metal pressure tube anemometer of William Henry Dines in 1892 utilized the same pressure difference between the open mouth of a straight tube facing the wind and a ring of small holes in a vertical tube which is closed at the upper end. Both are mounted at the same height. The pressure differences on which the action depends are very small, and special means are required to register them. The recorder consists of a float in a sealed chamber partially filled with water. The pipe from the straight tube is connected to the top of the sealed chamber and the pipe from the small tubes is directed into the bottom inside the float. Since the pressure difference determines the vertical position of the float this is a measure of the wind speed.
The great advantage of the tube anemometer lies in the fact that the exposed part can be mounted on a high pole, and requires no oiling or attention for years; and the registering part can be placed in any convenient position. Two connecting tubes are required. It might appear at first sight as though one connection would serve, but the differences in pressure on which these instruments depend are so minute, that the pressure of the air in the room where the recording part is placed has to be considered. Thus, if the instrument depends on the pressure or suction effect alone, and this pressure or suction is measured against the air pressure in an ordinary room in which the doors and windows are carefully closed and a newspaper is then burnt up the chimney, an effect may be produced equal to a wind of 10 mi/h (16 km/h); and the opening of a window in rough weather, or the opening of a door, may entirely alter the registration.
While the Dines anemometer had an error of only 1% at , it did not respond very well to low winds due to the poor response of the flat plate vane required to turn the head into the wind. In 1918 an aerodynamic vane with eight times the torque of the flat plate overcame this problem.
Pitot tube static anemometers.
Modern tube anemometers use the same principle as in the Dines anemometer, but using a different design. The implementation uses a pitot-static tube, which is a pitot tube with two ports, pitot and static, that is normally used in measuring the airspeed of aircraft. The pitot port measures the dynamic pressure of the open mouth of a tube with pointed head facing the wind, and the static port measures the static pressure from small holes along the side on that tube. The pitot tube is connected to a tail so that it always makes the tube's head face the wind. Additionally, the tube is heated to prevent rime ice formation on the tube. There are two lines from the tube down to the devices to measure the difference in pressure of the two lines. The measurement devices can be manometers, pressure transducers, or analog chart recorders.
Ping-pong ball anemometers.
A common anemometer for basic use is constructed from a ping-pong ball attached to a string. When the wind blows horizontally, it presses on and moves the ball; because ping-pong balls are very lightweight, they move easily in light winds. Measuring the angle between the string-ball apparatus and the vertical gives an estimate of the wind speed.
This type of anemometer is mostly used for middle-school level instruction, which most students make on their own, but a similar device was also flown on the Phoenix Mars Lander.
Effect of density on measurements.
In the tube anemometer the dynamic pressure is actually being measured, although the scale is usually graduated as a velocity scale. If the actual air density differs from the calibration value, due to differing temperature, elevation or barometric pressure, a correction is required to obtain the actual wind speed. Approximately 1.5% (1.6% above 6,000 feet) should be added to the velocity recorded by a tube anemometer for each 1000 ft (5% for each kilometer) above sea-level.
Effect of icing.
At airports, it is essential to have accurate wind data under all conditions, including freezing precipitation. Anemometry is also required in monitoring and controlling the operation of wind turbines, which in cold environments are prone to in-cloud icing. Icing alters the aerodynamics of an anemometer and may entirely block it from operating. Therefore, anemometers used in these applications must be internally heated. Both cup anemometers and sonic anemometers are presently available with heated versions.
Instrument location.
In order for wind speeds to be comparable from location to location, the effect of the terrain needs to be considered, especially in regard to height. Other considerations are the presence of trees, and both natural canyons and artificial canyons (urban buildings). The standard anemometer height in open rural terrain is 10 meters.
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Archaeopteryx
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Archaeopteryx (; ), sometimes referred to by its German name, "" ( "Primeval Bird") is a genus of bird-like dinosaurs. The name derives from the ancient Greek ("archaîos"), meaning "ancient", and ("ptéryx"), meaning "feather" or "wing". Between the late 19th century and the early 21st century, "Archaeopteryx" was generally accepted by palaeontologists and popular reference books as the oldest known bird (member of the group Avialae). Older potential avialans have since been identified, including "Anchiornis", "Xiaotingia", "Aurornis", and "Baminornis".
"Archaeopteryx" lived in the Late Jurassic around 150 million years ago, in what is now southern Germany, during a time when Europe was an archipelago of islands in a shallow warm tropical sea, much closer to the equator than it is now. Similar in size to a Eurasian magpie, with the largest individuals possibly attaining the size of a raven, the largest species of "Archaeopteryx" could grow to about in length. Despite their small size, broad wings, and inferred ability to fly or glide, "Archaeopteryx" had more in common with other small Mesozoic dinosaurs than with modern birds. In particular, they shared the following features with the dromaeosaurids and troodontids: jaws with sharp teeth, three fingers with claws, a long bony tail, hyperextensible second toes ("killing claw"), feathers (which also suggest warm-bloodedness), and various features of the skeleton.
These features make "Archaeopteryx" a clear candidate for a transitional fossil between non-avian dinosaurs and avian dinosaurs (birds). Thus, "Archaeopteryx" plays an important role, not only in the study of the origin of birds, but in the study of dinosaurs. It was named from a single feather in 1861, the identity of which has been controversial. That same year, the first complete specimen of "Archaeopteryx" was announced. Over the years, twelve more fossils of "Archaeopteryx" have surfaced. Despite variation among these fossils, most experts regard all the remains that have been discovered as belonging to a single species or at least genus, although this is still debated.
Most of these 14 fossils include impressions of feathers. Because these feathers are of an advanced form (flight feathers), these fossils are evidence that the evolution of feathers began before the Late Jurassic. The type specimen of "Archaeopteryx" was discovered just two years after Charles Darwin published "On the Origin of Species". "Archaeopteryx" seemed to confirm Darwin's theories and has since become a key piece of evidence for the origin of birds, the transitional fossils debate, and confirmation of evolution. "Archaeopteryx" was long considered to be the beginning of the evolutionary tree of birds. However, in recent years, the discovery of several small, feathered dinosaurs has created a mystery for palaeontologists, raising questions about which animals are the ancestors of modern birds and which are their relatives.
History of discovery.
Over the years, fourteen body fossil specimens of "Archaeopteryx" have been found. All of the fossils come from the limestone deposits, quarried for centuries, near , Germany. These quarries excavate sediments from the Solnhofen Limestone formation and related units. The initial specimen was the first dinosaur to be discovered with feathers.
The initial discovery, a single feather, was unearthed in 1860 or 1861 and described in 1861 by . It is now in the Natural History Museum of Berlin. Though it was the initial holotype, there were indications that it might not have been from the same animal as the body fossils. In 2019 it was reported that laser imaging had revealed the structure of the quill (which had not been visible since some time after the feather was described), and that the feather was inconsistent with the morphology of all other "Archaeopteryx" feathers known, leading to the conclusion that it originated from another dinosaur. This conclusion was challenged in 2020 as being unlikely; the feather was identified on the basis of morphology as most likely having been an upper major primary covert feather.
The first skeleton, known as the London Specimen (BMNH 37001), was unearthed in 1861 near , Germany, and perhaps given to local physician in return for medical services. He then sold it for £700 (roughly £83,000 in 2020) to the Natural History Museum in London, where it remains. Missing most of its head and neck, it was described in 1863 by Richard Owen as "Archaeopteryx macrura", allowing for the possibility it did not belong to the same species as the feather. In the subsequent fourth edition of his "On the Origin of Species", Charles Darwin described how some authors had maintained "that the whole class of birds came suddenly into existence during the eocene period; but now we know, on the authority of Professor Owen, that a bird certainly lived during the deposition of the upper greensand; and still more recently, that strange bird, the "Archaeopteryx", with a long lizard-like tail, bearing a pair of feathers on each joint, and with its wings furnished with two free claws, has been discovered in the oolitic slates of Solnhofen. Hardly any recent discovery shows more forcibly than this how little we as yet know of the former inhabitants of the world."
The Greek word () means 'ancient, primeval'. primarily means 'wing', but it can also be just 'feather'. Meyer suggested this in his description. At first he referred to a single feather which appeared to resemble a modern bird's remex (wing feather), but he had heard of and been shown a rough sketch of the London specimen, to which he referred as a "" ("skeleton of an animal covered in similar feathers"). In German, this ambiguity is resolved by the term which does not necessarily mean a wing used for flying. was the favoured translation of "Archaeopteryx" among German scholars in the late nineteenth century. In English, 'ancient pinion' offers a rough approximation to this.
Since then, twelve specimens have been recovered:
The Berlin Specimen (HMN 1880/81) was discovered in 1874 or 1875 on the Blumenberg near , Germany, by farmer Jakob Niemeyer. He sold this precious fossil for the money to buy a cow in 1876, to innkeeper Johann Dörr, who again sold it to Ernst Otto Häberlein, the son of K. Häberlein. Placed on sale between 1877 and 1881, with potential buyers including O. C. Marsh of Yale University's Peabody Museum, it eventually was bought for 20,000 Goldmark by the Berlin's Natural History Museum, where it now is displayed. The transaction was financed by Ernst Werner von Siemens, founder of the company that bears his name. Described in 1884 by Wilhelm Dames, it is the most complete specimen, and the first with a complete head. In 1897 it was named by Dames as a new species, "A. siemensii"; though often considered a synonym of "A. lithographica", several 21st century studies have concluded that it is a distinct species which includes the Berlin, Munich, and Thermopolis specimens.
Composed of a torso, the Maxberg Specimen (S5) was discovered in 1956 near Langenaltheim; it was brought to the attention of professor Florian Heller in 1958 and described by him in 1959. The specimen is missing its head and tail, although the rest of the skeleton is mostly intact. Although it was once exhibited at the Maxberg Museum in Solnhofen, it is currently missing. It belonged to Eduard Opitsch, who loaned it to the museum until 1974. After his death in 1991, it was discovered that the specimen was missing and may have been stolen or sold.
The Haarlem Specimen (TM 6428/29, also known as the "Teylers Specimen") was discovered in 1855 near , Germany, and described as a "Pterodactylus crassipes" in 1857 by Meyer. It was reclassified in 1970 by John Ostrom and is currently located at the Teylers Museum in Haarlem, the Netherlands. It was the very first specimen found, but was incorrectly classified at the time. It is also one of the least complete specimens, consisting mostly of limb bones, isolated cervical vertebrae, and ribs. In 2017 it was named as a separate genus "Ostromia", considered more closely related to "Anchiornis" from China.
The Eichstätt Specimen (JM 2257) was discovered in 1951 near Workerszell, Germany, and described by Peter Wellnhofer in 1974. Currently located at the Jura Museum in Eichstätt, Germany, it is the smallest known specimen and has the second-best head. It is possibly a separate genus ("Jurapteryx recurva") or species ("A. recurva").
The Solnhofen Specimen (unnumbered specimen) was discovered in the 1970s near Eichstätt, Germany, and described in 1988 by Wellnhofer. Currently located at the Bürgermeister-Müller-Museum in Solnhofen, it originally was classified as "Compsognathus" by an amateur collector, the same mayor Friedrich Müller after which the museum is named. It is the largest specimen known and may belong to a separate genus and species, "Wellnhoferia grandis". It is missing only portions of the neck, tail, backbone, and head.
The Munich Specimen (BSP 1999 I 50, formerly known as the "Solenhofer-Aktien-Verein Specimen") was discovered on 3 August 1992 near Langenaltheim and described in 1993 by Wellnhofer. It is currently located at the Paläontologisches Museum München in Munich, to which it was sold in 1999 for 1.9 million Deutschmark. What was initially believed to be a bony sternum turned out to be part of the coracoid, but a cartilaginous sternum may have been present. Only the front of its face is missing. It has been used as the basis for a distinct species, "A. bavarica", but more recent studies suggest it belongs to "A. siemensii".
An eighth, fragmentary specimen was discovered in 1990 in the younger Mörnsheim Formation at Daiting, Suevia. Therefore, it is known as the Daiting Specimen, and had been known since 1996 only from a cast, briefly shown at the Naturkundemuseum in Bamberg. The original was purchased by palaeontologist Raimund Albertsdörfer in 2009. It was on display for the first time with six other original fossils of "Archaeopteryx" at the Munich Mineral Show in October 2009. The Daiting Specimen was subsequently named "Archaeopteryx albersdoerferi" by Kundrat et al. (2018). After a lengthy period in a closed private collection, it was moved to the Museum of Evolution at Knuthenborg Safaripark (Denmark) in 2022, where it has since been on display and also been made available for researchers.
Another fragmentary fossil was found in 2000. It is in private possession and, since 2004, on loan to the Bürgermeister-Müller Museum in Solnhofen, so it is called the Bürgermeister-Müller Specimen; the institute itself officially refers to it as the "Exemplar of the families Ottman & Steil, Solnhofen". As the fragment represents the remains of a single wing of "Archaeopteryx", it is colloquially known as "chicken wing".
Long in a private collection in Switzerland, the Thermopolis Specimen (WDC CSG 100) was discovered in Bavaria and described in 2005 by Mayr, Pohl, and Peters. Donated to the Wyoming Dinosaur Center in Thermopolis, Wyoming, it has the best-preserved head and feet; most of the neck and the lower jaw have not been preserved. The "Thermopolis" specimen was described on 2 December 2005 "Science" journal article as "A well-preserved "Archaeopteryx" specimen with theropod features"; it shows that "Archaeopteryx" lacked a reversed toe—a universal feature of birds—limiting its ability to perch on branches and implying a terrestrial or trunk-climbing lifestyle. This has been interpreted as evidence of theropod ancestry. In 1988, Gregory S. Paul claimed to have found evidence of a hyperextensible second toe, but this was not verified and accepted by other scientists until the Thermopolis specimen was described. "Until now, the feature was thought to belong only to the species' close relatives, the deinonychosaurs." The Thermopolis Specimen was assigned to "Archaeopteryx siemensii" in 2007. The specimen is considered to represent the most complete and best-preserved "Archaeopteryx" remains yet.
The discovery of an eleventh specimen was announced in 2011; it was described in 2014. It is one of the more complete specimens, but is missing much of the skull and one forelimb. It is privately owned and has yet to be given a name. Palaeontologists of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich studied the specimen, which revealed previously unknown features of the plumage, such as feathers on both the upper and lower legs and metatarsus, and the only preserved tail tip.
A twelfth specimen had been discovered by an amateur collector in 2010 at the Schamhaupten quarry, but the finding was only announced in February 2014. It was scientifically described in 2018. It represents a complete and mostly articulated skeleton with skull. It is the only specimen lacking preserved feathers. It is from the Painten Formation and somewhat older than the other specimens.
A thirteenth specimen, SMNK-PAL 10,000, was published in January 2025, this one from the Mörnsheim Formation. It preserves the right forelimb, shoulder, and fragments of the other limbs, with various features of the shoulder and forelimb resembling "Archaeopteryx" more than any other avialan within the Mörnsheim Formation. However, due to the fragmentary nature of this specimen, it cannot be assigned to a specific species within "Archaeopteryx".
The existence of a fourteenth specimen (the Chicago specimen) was first informally announced in 2024 by the Field Museum in Chicago, US. One of two specimens in an institution outside Europe, the specimen was originally identified in a private collection in Switzerland, and had been acquired by these collectors in 1990, prior to Germany's 2015 ban on exporting "Archaeopteryx" specimens. The specimen was acquired by the Field Museum in 2022, and went on public display in 2024 following two years of preparation. In 2025, the paleornithologist Jingmai O'Connor and colleagues officially published a study describing this fourteenth specimen, reporting the first known tertials (specialized inner secondary flight feathers) and other novel features in "Archaeopteryx".
Authenticity.
Beginning in 1985, an amateur group including astronomer Fred Hoyle and physicist Lee Spetner, published a series of papers claiming that the feathers on the Berlin and London specimens of "Archaeopteryx" were forged. Their claims were repudiated by Alan J. Charig and others at the Natural History Museum in London. Most of their supposed evidence for a forgery was based on unfamiliarity with the processes of lithification; for example, they proposed that, based on the difference in texture associated with the feathers, feather impressions were applied to a thin layer of cement, without realizing that feathers themselves would have caused a textural difference. They also misinterpreted the fossils, claiming that the tail was forged as one large feather, when visibly this is not the case. In addition, they claimed that the other specimens of "Archaeopteryx" known at the time did not have feathers, which is incorrect; the Maxberg and Eichstätt specimens have obvious feathers.
They also expressed disbelief that slabs would split so smoothly, or that one half of a slab containing fossils would have good preservation, but not the counterslab. These are common properties of Solnhofen fossils, because the dead animals would fall onto hardened surfaces, which would form a natural plane for the future slabs to split along and would leave the bulk of the fossil on one side and little on the other.
Finally, the motives they suggested for a forgery are not strong, and are contradictory; one is that Richard Owen wanted to forge evidence in support of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, which is unlikely given Owen's views toward Darwin and his theory. The other is that Owen wanted to set a trap for Darwin, hoping the latter would support the fossils so Owen could discredit him with the forgery; this is unlikely because Owen wrote a detailed paper on the London specimen, so such an action would certainly backfire.
Charig "et al." pointed to the presence of hairline cracks in the slabs running through both rock and fossil impressions, and mineral growth over the slabs that had occurred before discovery and preparation, as evidence that the feathers were original. Spetner "et al." then attempted to show that the cracks would have propagated naturally through their postulated cement layer, but neglected to account for the fact that the cracks were old and had been filled with calcite, and thus were not able to propagate. They also attempted to show the presence of cement on the London specimen through X-ray spectroscopy, and did find something that was not rock; it was not cement either, and is most probably a fragment of silicone rubber left behind when moulds were made of the specimen. Their suggestions have not been taken seriously by palaeontologists, as their evidence was largely based on misunderstandings of geology, and they never discussed the other feather-bearing specimens, which have increased in number since then. Charig "et al." reported a discolouration: a dark band between two layers of limestone – they say it is the product of sedimentation. It is natural for limestone to take on the colour of its surroundings and most limestones are coloured (if not colour banded) to some degree, so the darkness was attributed to such impurities. They also mention that a complete absence of air bubbles in the rock slabs is further proof that the specimen is authentic.
Description.
Most of the specimens of "Archaeopteryx" that have been discovered come from the Solnhofen limestone in Bavaria, southern Germany, which is a , a rare and remarkable geological formation known for its superbly detailed fossils laid down during the early Tithonian stage of the Jurassic period, approximately 150.8–148.5million years ago.
"Archaeopteryx" was roughly the size of a raven, with broad wings that were rounded at the ends and a long tail compared to its body length. It could reach up to in body length and in wingspan, with an estimated mass of . "Archaeopteryx" feathers, although less documented than its other features, were very similar in structure to modern-day bird feathers. Despite the presence of numerous avian features, "Archaeopteryx" had many non-avian theropod dinosaur characteristics. Unlike modern birds, "Archaeopteryx" had small teeth, as well as a long bony tail, features which "Archaeopteryx" shared with other dinosaurs of the time.
Because it displays features common to both birds and non-avian dinosaurs, "Archaeopteryx" has often been considered a link between them. In the 1970s, John Ostrom, following Thomas Henry Huxley's lead in 1868, argued that birds evolved within theropod dinosaurs and "Archaeopteryx" was a critical piece of evidence for this argument; it had several avian features, such as a wishbone, flight feathers, wings, and a partially reversed first toe along with dinosaur and theropod features. For instance, it has a long ascending process of the ankle bone, interdental plates, an obturator process of the ischium, and long chevrons in the tail. In particular, Ostrom found that "Archaeopteryx" was remarkably similar to the theropod family Dromaeosauridae.
Archaeopteryx had three separate digits on each fore-leg each ending with a "claw". Few birds have such features. Some birds, such as ducks, swans, Jacanas ("Jacana" sp.), and the hoatzin ("Opisthocomus hoazin"), have them concealed beneath their leg-feathers.
Plumage.
Specimens of "Archaeopteryx" were most notable for their well-developed flight feathers. They were markedly asymmetrical and showed the structure of flight feathers in modern birds, with vanes given stability by a barb-barbule-barbicel arrangement. The tail feathers were less asymmetrical, again in line with the situation in modern birds and also had firm vanes. The thumb did not yet bear a separately movable tuft of stiff feathers.
The body plumage of "Archaeopteryx" is less well-documented and has only been properly researched in the well-preserved Berlin specimen. Thus, as more than one species seems to be involved, the research into the Berlin specimen's feathers does not necessarily hold true for the rest of the species of "Archaeopteryx". In the Berlin specimen, there are "trousers" of well-developed feathers on the legs; some of these feathers seem to have a basic contour feather structure, but are somewhat decomposed (they lack barbicels as in ratites). In part they are firm and thus capable of supporting flight.
A patch of pennaceous feathers is found running along its back, which was quite similar to the contour feathers of the body plumage of modern birds in being symmetrical and firm, although not as stiff as the flight-related feathers. Apart from that, the feather traces in the Berlin specimen are limited to a sort of "proto-down" not dissimilar to that found in the dinosaur "Sinosauropteryx": decomposed and fluffy, and possibly even appearing more like fur than feathers in life (although not in their microscopic structure). These occur on the remainder of the body—although some feathers did not fossilize and others were obliterated during preparation, leaving bare patches on specimens—and the lower neck.
There is no indication of feathering on the upper neck and head. While these conceivably may have been nude, this may still be an artefact of preservation. It appears that most "Archaeopteryx" specimens became embedded in anoxic sediment after drifting some time on their backs in the sea—the head, neck and the tail are generally bent downward, which suggests that the specimens had just started to rot when they were embedded, with tendons and muscle relaxing so that the characteristic shape (death pose) of the fossil specimens was achieved. This would mean that the skin already was softened and loose, which is bolstered by the fact that in some specimens the flight feathers were starting to detach at the point of embedding in the sediment. So it is hypothesized that the pertinent specimens moved along the sea bed in shallow water for some time before burial, the head and upper neck feathers sloughing off, while the more firmly attached tail feathers remained.
Colouration.
In 2011, graduate student Ryan Carney and colleagues performed the first colour study on an "Archaeopteryx" specimen. Using scanning electron microscopy technology and energy-dispersive X-ray analysis, the team was able to detect the structure of melanosomes in the isolated feather specimen described in 1861. The resultant measurements were then compared to those of 87modern bird species, and the original colour was calculated with a 95% likelihood to be black. The feather was determined to be black throughout, with heavier pigmentation in the distal tip. The feather studied was most probably a dorsal covert, which would have partly covered the primary feathers on the wings. The study does not mean that "Archaeopteryx" was entirely black, but suggests that it had some black colouration which included the coverts. Carney pointed out that this is consistent with what is known of modern flight characteristics, in that black melanosomes have structural properties that strengthen feathers for flight. In a 2013 study published in the "Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry", new analyses of "Archaeopteryx"s feathers revealed that the animal may have had complex light- and dark-coloured plumage, with heavier pigmentation in the distal tips and outer vanes. This analysis of colour distribution was based primarily on the distribution of sulphate within the fossil. An author on the previous "Archaeopteryx" colour study argued against the interpretation of such biomarkers as an indicator of eumelanin in the full "Archaeopteryx" specimen. Carney and other colleagues also argued against the 2013 study's interpretation of the sulphate and trace metals, and in a 2020 study published in "Scientific Reports" demonstrated that the isolated covert feather was entirely matte black (as opposed to black and white, or iridescent) and that the remaining "plumage patterns of "Archaeopteryx" remain unknown".
Classification.
Today, fossils of the genus "Archaeopteryx" are usually assigned to one or two species, "A. lithographica" and "A. siemensii", but their taxonomic history is complicated. Ten names have been published for the handful of specimens. As interpreted today, the name "A. lithographica" only referred to the single feather described by Meyer. In 1954 Gavin de Beer concluded that the London specimen was the holotype. In 1960, Swinton accordingly proposed that the name "Archaeopteryx lithographica" be placed on the official genera list making the alternative names "Griphosaurus" and "Griphornis" invalid. The ICZN, implicitly accepting De Beer's standpoint, did indeed suppress the plethora of alternative names initially proposed for the first skeleton specimens, which mainly resulted from the acrimonious dispute between Meyer and his opponent Johann Andreas Wagner (whose "Griphosaurus problematicus"—'problematic riddle-lizard'—was a vitriolic sneer at Meyer's "Archaeopteryx"). In addition, in 1977, the Commission ruled that the first species name of the Haarlem specimen, "crassipes", described by Meyer as a pterosaur before its true nature was realized, was not to be given preference over "lithographica" in instances where scientists considered them to represent the same species.
It has been noted that the feather, the first specimen of "Archaeopteryx" described, does not correspond well with the flight-related feathers of "Archaeopteryx". It certainly is a flight feather of a contemporary species, but its size and proportions indicate that it may belong to another, smaller species of feathered theropod, of which only this feather is known so far. As the feather had been designated the type specimen, the name "Archaeopteryx" should then no longer be applied to the skeletons, thus creating significant nomenclatorial confusion. In 2007, two sets of scientists therefore petitioned the ICZN requesting that the London specimen explicitly be made the type by designating it as the new holotype specimen, or neotype. This suggestion was upheld by the ICZN after four years of debate, and the London specimen was designated the neotype on 3 October 2011.
Below is a cladogram published in 2013 by Godefroit "et al."
Species.
It has been argued that all the specimens belong to the same species, "A. lithographica". Differences do exist among the specimens, and while some researchers regard these as due to the different ages of the specimens, some may be related to actual species diversity. In particular, the Munich, Eichstätt, Solnhofen, and Thermopolis specimens differ from the London, Berlin, and Haarlem specimens in being smaller or much larger, having different finger proportions, having more slender snouts lined with forward-pointing teeth, and the possible presence of a sternum. Due to these differences, most individual specimens have been given their own species name at one point or another. The Berlin specimen has been designated as "Archaeornis siemensii", the Eichstätt specimen as "Jurapteryx recurva", the Munich specimen as "Archaeopteryx bavarica", and the Solnhofen specimen as "Wellnhoferia grandis".
In 2007, a review of all well-preserved specimens including the then-newly discovered Thermopolis specimen concluded that two distinct species of "Archaeopteryx" could be supported: "A. lithographica" (consisting of at least the London and Solnhofen specimens), and "A. siemensii" (consisting of at least the Berlin, Munich, and Thermopolis specimens). The two species are distinguished primarily by large flexor tubercles on the foot claws in "A. lithographica" (the claws of "A. siemensii" specimens being relatively simple and straight). "A. lithographica" also had a constricted portion of the crown in some teeth and a stouter metatarsus. A supposed additional species, "Wellnhoferia grandis" (based on the Solnhofen specimen), seems to be indistinguishable from "A. lithographica" except in its larger size.
Synonyms.
If two names are given, the first denotes the original describer of the "species", the second the author on whom the given name combination is based. As always in zoological nomenclature, putting an author's name in parentheses denotes that the taxon was originally described in a different genus.
""Archaeopteryx" vicensensis" (Anon. "fide" Lambrecht, 1933) is a "nomen nudum" for what appears to be an undescribed pterosaur.
Phylogenetic position.
Modern palaeontology has often classified "Archaeopteryx" as the most primitive bird. However, it is not thought to be a true ancestor of modern birds, but rather a close relative of that ancestor. Nonetheless, "Archaeopteryx" was often used as a model of the true ancestral bird. Several authors have done so. Lowe (1935) and Thulborn (1984) questioned whether "Archaeopteryx" truly was the first bird. They suggested that "Archaeopteryx" was a dinosaur that was no more closely related to birds than were other dinosaur groups. Kurzanov (1987) suggested that "Avimimus" was more likely to be the ancestor of all birds than "Archaeopteryx". Barsbold (1983) and Zweers and Van den Berge (1997) noted that many maniraptoran lineages are extremely birdlike, and they suggested that different groups of birds may have descended from different dinosaur ancestors.
The discovery of the closely related "Xiaotingia" in 2011 led to new phylogenetic analyses that suggested that "Archaeopteryx" is a deinonychosaur rather than an avialan, and therefore, not a "bird" under most common uses of that term. A more thorough analysis was published soon after to test this hypothesis, and failed to arrive at the same result; it found "Archaeopteryx" in its traditional position at the base of "Avialae", while "Xiaotingia" was recovered as a basal dromaeosaurid or troodontid. The authors of the follow-up study noted that uncertainties still exist, and that it may not be possible to state confidently whether or not "Archaeopteryx" is a member of Avialae or not, barring new and better specimens of relevant species.
Phylogenetic studies conducted by Senter, "et al." (2012) and Turner, Makovicky, and Norell (2012) also found "Archaeopteryx" to be more closely related to living birds than to dromaeosaurids and troodontids. On the other hand, Godefroit "et al." (2013) recovered "Archaeopteryx" as more closely related to dromaeosaurids and troodontids in the analysis included in their description of "Eosinopteryx brevipenna". The authors used a modified version of the matrix from the study describing "Xiaotingia", adding "Jinfengopteryx elegans" and "Eosinopteryx brevipenna" to it, as well as adding four additional characters related to the development of the plumage. Unlike the analysis from the description of "Xiaotingia", the analysis conducted by Godefroit, "et al." did not find "Archaeopteryx" to be related particularly closely to "Anchiornis" and "Xiaotingia", which were recovered as basal troodontids instead.
Agnolín and Novas (2013) found "Archaeopteryx" and (possibly synonymous) "Wellnhoferia" to form a clade sister to the lineage including "Jeholornis" and Pygostylia, with Microraptoria, Unenlagiinae, and the clade containing "Anchiornis" and "Xiaotingia" being successively closer outgroups to the Avialae (defined by the authors as the clade stemming from the last common ancestor of "Archaeopteryx" and Aves). Another phylogenetic study by Godefroit, "et al.", using a more inclusive matrix than the one from the analysis in the description of "Eosinopteryx brevipenna", also found "Archaeopteryx" to be a member of Avialae (defined by the authors as the most inclusive clade containing "Passer domesticus", but not "Dromaeosaurus albertensis" or "Troodon formosus"). "Archaeopteryx" was found to form a grade at the base of Avialae with "Xiaotingia", "Anchiornis", and "Aurornis". Compared to "Archaeopteryx", "Xiaotingia" was found to be more closely related to extant birds, while both "Anchiornis" and "Aurornis" were found to be more distantly so.
Hu "et al". (2018), Wang "et al". (2018) and Hartman "et al". (2019) found "Archaeopteryx" to have been a deinonychosaur instead of an avialan. More specifically, it and closely related taxa were considered basal deinonychosaurs, with dromaeosaurids and troodontids forming together a parallel lineage within the group. Because Hartman "et al". found "Archaeopteryx" isolated in a group of flightless deinonychosaurs (otherwise considered "anchiornithids"), they considered it highly probable that this animal evolved flight independently from bird ancestors (and from "Microraptor" and "Yi"). The following cladogram illustrates their hypothesis regarding the position of "Archaeopteryx":
The authors, however, found that the "Archaeopteryx" being an avialan was only slightly less likely than this hypothesis, and as likely as Archaeopterygidae and Troodontidae being sister clades.
Palaeobiology.
Flight.
As in the wings of modern birds, the flight feathers of "Archaeopteryx" were somewhat asymmetrical and the tail feathers were rather broad. This implies that the wings and tail were used for lift generation, but it is unclear whether "Archaeopteryx" was capable of flapping flight or simply a glider. The lack of a bony breastbone suggests that "Archaeopteryx" was not a very strong flier, but flight muscles might have attached to the thick, boomerang-shaped wishbone, the platelike coracoids, or perhaps, to a cartilaginous sternum. The sideways orientation of the glenoid (shoulder) joint between scapula, coracoid, and humerus—instead of the dorsally angled arrangement found in modern birds—may indicate that "Archaeopteryx" was unable to lift its wings above its back, a requirement for the upstroke found in modern flapping flight. According to a study by Philip Senter in 2006, "Archaeopteryx" was indeed unable to use flapping flight as modern birds do, but it may well have used a downstroke-only flap-assisted gliding technique. However, a more recent study solves this issue by suggesting a different flight stroke configuration for non-avian flying theropods.
"Archaeopteryx" wings were relatively large, which would have resulted in a low stall speed and reduced turning radius. The short and rounded shape of the wings would have increased drag, but also could have improved its ability to fly through cluttered environments such as trees and brush (similar wing shapes are seen in birds that fly through trees and brush, such as crows and pheasants). The presence of "hind wings", asymmetrical flight feathers stemming from the legs similar to those seen in dromaeosaurids such as "Microraptor", also would have added to the aerial mobility of "Archaeopteryx". The first detailed study of the hind wings by Longrich in 2006, suggested that the structures formed up to 12% of the total airfoil. This would have reduced stall speed by up to 6% and turning radius by up to 12%.
The feathers of "Archaeopteryx" were asymmetrical. This has been interpreted as evidence that it was a flyer, because flightless birds tend to have symmetrical feathers. Some scientists, including Thomson and Speakman, have questioned this. They studied more than 70 families of living birds, and found that some flightless types do have a range of asymmetry in their feathers, and that the feathers of "Archaeopteryx" fall into this range. The degree of asymmetry seen in "Archaeopteryx" is more typical for slow flyers than for flightless birds.
In 2010, Robert L. Nudds and Gareth J. Dyke in the journal "Science" published a paper in which they analysed the rachises of the primary feathers of "Confuciusornis" and "Archaeopteryx". The analysis suggested that the rachises on these two genera were thinner and weaker than those of modern birds relative to body mass. The authors determined that "Archaeopteryx" and "Confuciusornis", were unable to use flapping flight. This study was criticized by Philip J. Currie and Luis Chiappe. Chiappe suggested that it is difficult to measure the rachises of fossilized feathers, and Currie speculated that "Archaeopteryx" and "Confuciusornis" must have been able to fly to some degree, as their fossils are preserved in what is believed to have been marine or lake sediments, suggesting that they must have been able to fly over deep water. Gregory Paul also disagreed with the study, arguing in a 2010 response that Nudds and Dyke had overestimated the masses of these early birds, and that more accurate mass estimates allowed powered flight even with relatively narrow rachises. Nudds and Dyke had assumed a mass of for the Munich specimen "Archaeopteryx", a young juvenile, based on published mass estimates of larger specimens. Paul argued that a more reasonable body mass estimate for the Munich specimen is about . Paul also criticized the measurements of the rachises themselves, noting that the feathers in the Munich specimen are poorly preserved. Nudds and Dyke reported a diameter of for the longest primary feather, which Paul could not confirm using photographs. Paul measured some of the inner primary feathers, finding rachises across. Despite these criticisms, Nudds and Dyke stood by their original conclusions. They claimed that Paul's statement, that an adult "Archaeopteryx" would have been a better flyer than the juvenile Munich specimen, was dubious. This, they reasoned, would require an even thicker rachis, evidence for which has not yet been presented. Another possibility is that they had not achieved true flight, but instead used their wings as aids for extra lift while running over water after the fashion of the basilisk lizard, which could explain their presence in lake and marine deposits (see Origin of avian flight).
In 2004, scientists analysing a detailed CT scan of the braincase of the London "Archaeopteryx" concluded that its brain was significantly larger than that of most dinosaurs, indicating that it possessed the brain size necessary for flying. The overall brain anatomy was reconstructed using the scan. The reconstruction showed that the regions associated with vision took up nearly one-third of the brain. Other well-developed areas involved hearing and muscle coordination. The skull scan also revealed the structure of its inner ear. The structure more closely resembles that of modern birds than the inner ear of non-avian reptiles. These characteristics taken together suggest that "Archaeopteryx" had the keen sense of hearing, balance, spatial perception, and coordination needed to fly. "Archaeopteryx" had a cerebrum-to-brain-volume ratio 78% of the way to modern birds from the condition of non-coelurosaurian dinosaurs such as "Carcharodontosaurus" or "Allosaurus", which had a crocodile-like anatomy of the brain and inner ear. Newer research shows that while the "Archaeopteryx" brain was more complex than that of more primitive theropods, it had a more generalized brain volume among Maniraptora dinosaurs, even smaller than that of other non-avian dinosaurs in several instances, which indicates the neurological development required for flight was already a common trait in the maniraptoran clade.
Recent studies of flight feather barb geometry reveal that modern birds possess a larger barb angle in the trailing vane of the feather, whereas "Archaeopteryx" lacks this large barb angle, indicating potentially weak flight abilities.
"Archaeopteryx" continues to play an important part in scientific debates about the origin and evolution of birds. Some scientists see it as a semi-arboreal climbing animal, following the idea that birds evolved from tree-dwelling gliders (the "trees down" hypothesis for the evolution of flight proposed by O. C. Marsh). Other scientists see "Archaeopteryx" as running quickly along the ground, supporting the idea that birds evolved flight by running (the "ground up" hypothesis proposed by Samuel Wendell Williston). Still others suggest that "Archaeopteryx" might have been at home both in the trees and on the ground, like modern crows, and this latter view is what currently is considered best supported by morphological characters. Altogether, it appears that the species was not particularly specialized for running on the ground or for perching. A scenario outlined by Elżanowski in 2002 suggested that "Archaeopteryx" used its wings mainly to escape predators by glides punctuated with shallow downstrokes to reach successively higher perches, and alternatively, to cover longer distances (mainly) by gliding down from cliffs or treetops.
In March 2018, scientists reported that "Archaeopteryx" was likely capable of a flight stroke cycle morphologically closer to the grabbing motion of maniraptorans and distinct from that of modern birds. This study on "Archaeopteryx"s bone histology identified biomechanical and physiological adaptations exhibited by modern volant birds that perform intermittent flapping, such as pheasants and other burst flyers.
Some researchers suggested that the feather sheaths of "Archaeopteryx" shows a center-out, flight related moulting strategy like modern birds. As it was a weak flier, this would have been extremely advantageous in preserving its maximum flight performance. Kiat and colleagues reinterpreted this purported moulting evidence to be problematic and equivocal at best, and considered that these structures more likely represents the calami traces of the fully grown feathers, though the original authors still remained by their conclusion.
Growth.
An histological study by Erickson, Norell, Zhongue, and others in 2009 estimated that "Archaeopteryx" grew relatively slowly compared to modern birds, presumably because the outermost portions of "Archaeopteryx" bones appear poorly vascularized; in living vertebrates, poorly vascularized bone is correlated with slow growth rate. They also assume that all known skeletons of "Archaeopteryx" come from juvenile specimens. Because the bones of "Archaeopteryx" could not be histologically sectioned in a formal skeletochronological (growth ring) analysis, Erickson and colleagues used bone vascularity (porosity) to estimate bone growth rate. They assumed that poorly vascularized bone grows at similar rates in all birds and in "Archaeopteryx". The poorly vascularized bone of "Archaeopteryx" might have grown as slowly as that in a mallard (2.5micrometres per day) or as fast as that in an ostrich (4.2micrometres per day). Using this range of bone growth rates, they calculated how long it would take to "grow" each specimen of "Archaeopteryx" to the observed size; it may have taken at least 970 days (there were 375 days in a Late Jurassic year) to reach an adult size of . The study also found that the avialans "Jeholornis" and "Sapeornis" grew relatively slowly, as did the dromaeosaurid "Mahakala". The avialans "Confuciusornis" and "Ichthyornis" grew relatively quickly, following a growth trend similar to that of modern birds. One of the few modern birds that exhibit slow growth is the flightless kiwi, and the authors speculated that "Archaeopteryx" and the kiwi had similar basal metabolic rate.
Daily activity patterns.
Comparisons between the scleral rings of "Archaeopteryx" and modern birds and reptiles indicate that it may have been diurnal, similar to most modern birds.
Palaeoecology.
The richness and diversity of the Solnhofen limestones in which all specimens of "Archaeopteryx" have been found have shed light on an ancient Jurassic Bavaria strikingly different from the present day. The latitude was similar to Florida, though the climate was likely to have been drier, as evidenced by fossils of plants with adaptations for arid conditions and a lack of terrestrial sediments characteristic of rivers. Evidence of plants, although scarce, include cycads and conifers while animals found include a large number of insects, small lizards, pterosaurs, and "Compsognathus".
The excellent preservation of "Archaeopteryx" fossils and other terrestrial fossils found at Solnhofen indicates that they did not travel far before becoming preserved. The "Archaeopteryx" specimens found were therefore likely to have lived on the low islands surrounding the Solnhofen lagoon rather than to have been corpses that drifted in from farther away. "Archaeopteryx" skeletons are considerably less numerous in the deposits of Solnhofen than those of pterosaurs, of which seven genera have been found. The pterosaurs included species such as "Rhamphorhynchus" belonging to the Rhamphorhynchidae, the group which dominated the ecological niche currently occupied by seabirds, and which became extinct at the end of the Jurassic. The pterosaurs, which also included "Pterodactylus", were common enough that it is unlikely that the specimens found are vagrants from the larger islands to the north.
The islands that surrounded the Solnhofen lagoon were low lying, semi-arid, and sub-tropical with a long dry season and little rain. The closest modern analogue for the Solnhofen conditions is said to be Orca Basin in the northern Gulf of Mexico, although it is much deeper than the Solnhofen lagoons. The flora of these islands was adapted to these dry conditions and consisted mostly of low () shrubs. Contrary to reconstructions of "Archaeopteryx" climbing large trees, these seem to have been mostly absent from the islands; few trunks have been found in the sediments and fossilized tree pollen also is absent.
The lifestyle of "Archaeopteryx" is difficult to reconstruct and there are several theories regarding it. Some researchers suggest that it was primarily adapted to life on the ground, while other researchers suggest that it was principally arboreal on the basis of the curvature of the claws which has since been questioned. The absence of trees does not preclude "Archaeopteryx" from an arboreal lifestyle, as several species of bird live exclusively in low shrubs. Various aspects of the morphology of "Archaeopteryx" point to either an arboreal or ground existence, including the length of its legs and the elongation in its feet; some authorities consider it likely to have been a generalist capable of feeding in both shrubs and open ground, as well as along the shores of the lagoon. It most likely hunted small prey, seizing it with its jaws if it was small enough, or with its claws if it was larger.
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Arthur Laurents
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Arthur Laurents (July 14, 1917 – May 5, 2011) was an American playwright, theatre director, film producer and screenwriter. With a career spanning seven decades he received numerous accolades including two Tony Awards, a Drama Desk Award, and nominations for two Academy Awards, two BAFTA Awards, and a Golden Globe Award.
After writing scripts for radio shows after college and then training films for the U.S. Army during World War II, Laurents turned to writing for Broadway, producing a body of work that includes "West Side Story" (1957), "" (1959), and "Hallelujah, Baby!" (1967), winning the Tony Award for Best Musical for the latter. He directed the musical "La Cage aux Folles" in 1983 and received the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical.
Laurents also worked as a screenwriter on Hollywood films such as Alfred Hitchcock's thriller "Rope" (1948), "Anastasia" (1956), "Bonjour Tristesse" (1958) and Sydney Pollack's romance "The Way We Were" (1973). He received two Academy Award nominations for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay for the Herbert Ross drama film "The Turning Point" (1977).
Early life.
Born Arthur Levine, Laurents was the son of middle-class Jewish parents, his father a lawyer and his mother a schoolteacher, who gave up her career when she married. He was born and raised in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, a borough of New York City, New York, the elder of two children, and attended Erasmus Hall High School. His sister Edith suffered from chorea as a child.
His paternal grandparents were Orthodox Jews, and his mother's parents, although born Jewish, were atheists. His mother kept a kosher home for her husband's sake, but was lax about attending synagogue and observing the Jewish holidays. His Bar Mitzvah marked the end of Laurents's religious education and the beginning of his rejection of all fundamentalist religions, although he continued to identify himself as Jewish. However, late in life he admitted to having changed his last name from Levine to the less Jewish-sounding Laurents, "to get a job."
After graduating from Cornell University, Laurents took an evening class in radio writing at New York University. William N. Robson, his instructor, a CBS Radio director/producer, submitted his script "Now Playing Tomorrow", a comedic fantasy about clairvoyance, to the network, and it was produced in the Columbia Workshop series on January 30, 1939, with Shirley Booth in the lead role. It was Laurents' first professional credit. The show's success led to him being hired to write scripts for various radio shows, among them "Lux Radio Theater". Laurents' career was interrupted when he was drafted into the U.S. Army in the middle of World War II. Through a series of clerical errors, he never saw battle, but instead was assigned to the U.S. Army Pictorial Service located in a film studio in Astoria, Queens, where he wrote training films and met, among others, George Cukor and William Holden. He later was reassigned to write plays for "Armed Service Force Presents", a radio show that dramatized the contributions of all branches of the armed forces.
Career.
Theatre.
According to John Clum, "Laurents was always a mirror of his times. Through his best work, one sees a staged history of leftist, gender, and gay politics in the decades after World War II." After graduating from Cornell University in 1937, Laurents, who was gay, went to work as a writer for radio drama at CBS in New York. His military duties during World War II, which consisted of writing training films and radio scripts for "Armed Service Force Presents", brought him into contact with some of the best film directors—distinguished director George Cukor directed his first script. Laurents's work in radio and film during World War II was an excellent apprenticeship for a budding playwright and screenwriter. He also had the good fortune to be based in New York City. His first stage play, "Home of the Brave", was produced in 1945. The sale of the play to a film studio gave Laurents the entrée he needed to become a Hollywood screenwriter though he continued, with mixed success, to write plays. The most important of his early screenplays is his adaptation of "Rope" for Alfred Hitchcock.
Soon after being discharged from the Army, Laurents met ballerina Nora Kaye, and the two became involved in an on-again, off-again romantic relationship. While Kaye was on tour with "Fancy Free", Laurents continued to write for the radio but was becoming discontented with the medium. In 1962, Laurents directed "I Can Get It for You Wholesale", which helped to turn then-unknown Barbra Streisand into a star. His next project was the stage musical "Anyone Can Whistle", which he directed and for which he wrote the book, but it proved to be an infamous flop. He later had success with the musicals "Hallelujah, Baby!" (written for Lena Horne but ultimately starring Leslie Uggams) and "La Cage Aux Folles" (1983), which he directed, however "Nick & Nora" was not successful.
In 2008, Laurents directed a Broadway revival of "Gypsy" starring Patti LuPone, and in 2009, he tackled a bilingual revival of "West Side Story", with Spanish translations of some dialogue and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda. While preparing "West Side Story", he noted, "The musical theatre and cultural conventions of 1957 made it next to impossible for the characters to have authenticity." Following the production's March 19 opening at the Palace Theatre, Ben Brantley of "The New York Times" called the translations "an only partly successful experiment" and added, "Mr. Laurents has exchanged insolence for innocence and, as with most such bargains, there are dividends and losses." The national tour (2011–2012) was directed by David Saint, who was Laurents' assistant director on the Broadway production. The Spanish lyrics and dialog were reduced from about 18% of the total to about 10%.
Hollywood.
Laurents' first Hollywood experience proved to be a frustrating disappointment. Director Anatole Litvak, unhappy with the script submitted by Frank Partos and Millen Brand for "The Snake Pit" (1948), hired Laurents to rewrite it. Partos and Brand later insisted the bulk of the shooting script was theirs, and produced carbon copies of many of the pages Laurents actually had written to bolster their claim. Having destroyed the original script and all his notes and rewritten pages after completing the project, Laurents had no way to prove most of the work was his, and the Writers Guild of America denied him screen credit. Brand later confessed he and Partos had copied scenes written by Laurents and apologized for his role in the deception. Four decades later, Laurents learned he was ineligible for WGA health benefits because he had failed to accumulate enough credits to qualify. He was short by one, the one he failed to get for "The Snake Pit".
Upon hearing 20th Century Fox executives were pleased with Laurents' work on "The Snake Pit", Alfred Hitchcock hired him for his next project, the film "Rope" starring James Stewart. Hitchcock wanted Laurents to Americanize the British play "Rope" (1929) by Patrick Hamilton for the screen. With his then-lover Farley Granger set to star, Laurents was happy to accept the assignment. His dilemma was how to make the audience aware of the fact the three main characters were homosexual without blatantly saying so. The Hays Office kept close tabs on his work, and the final script was so discreet that Laurents was unsure whether co-star James Stewart ever realized that his character was gay. In later years, Hitchcock asked him to script both "Torn Curtain" (1966) and "Topaz" (1969), However, Laurents, in both cases unenthused by the material, declined the offers.
Laurents also scripted "Anastasia" (1956) and "Bonjour Tristesse" (1958). "The Way We Were" (1973), in which he incorporated many of his own experiences, particularly those with the HUAC, reunited him with Barbra Streisand, and "The Turning Point" (1977), inspired in part by his love for Nora Kaye, was directed by her husband Herbert Ross. The Fox animated feature film "Anastasia" (1997) was based in part on his screenplay of the live-action 1956 film of the same title.
Blacklist.
Because of a casual remark made by Russel Crouse, Laurents was called to Washington, D.C., to account for his political views. He explained himself to the House Un-American Activities Committee, and his appearance had no obvious impact on his career, which at the time was primarily in the theatre. When the McCarran Internal Security Act, which prohibited individuals suspected of engaging in subversive activities from obtaining a passport, was passed in 1950, Laurents and Granger immediately applied for and received passports and departed for Paris with Harold Clurman and his wife Stella Adler. Laurents and Granger remained abroad, traveling throughout Europe and northern Africa, for about 18 months.
Years earlier, Laurents and Jerome Robbins had developed "Look Ma, I'm Dancin'!" (1948), a stage musical about the world of ballet that ran for 188 performances on Broadway, and starred Nancy Walker and Harold Lang. Laurents left the project, however, and the musical was ultimately produced with a book by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee. When Robbins approached Paramount Pictures about directing a screen version, the studio agreed as long as Laurents was not part of the package.
It was only then that Laurents learned he officially had been blacklisted, primarily because a review of "Home of the Brave" had been published in the "Daily Worker". He decided to return to Paris, but the State Department refused to renew his passport. Laurents spent three months trying to clear his name, and after submitting a lengthy letter explaining his political beliefs in detail, it was determined they were so idiosyncratic he could not have been a member of any subversive groups. Within a week his passport was renewed, and the following day he sailed for Europe on the "Ile de France". While on board, he received a cable from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer offering him a screenwriting assignment. The blacklisting had ended.
Memoirs.
Laurents wrote "Original Story By Arthur Laurents: A Memoir of Broadway and Hollywood", published in 2000. In it, he discusses his lengthy career and his many gay affairs and long-term relationships, including those with Farley Granger and Tom Hatcher (August 24, 1929 – October 26, 2006). Hatcher was an aspiring actor whom Gore Vidal suggested Laurents seek out at the Beverly Hills men's clothing store Hatcher was managing at the time. The couple remained together for 52 years until Hatcher's death on October 26, 2006.
Laurents wrote "Mainly on Directing: Gypsy, West Side Story and Other Musicals", published in 2009, in which he discussed musicals he directed and the work of other directors he admired.
His last memoir titled "The Rest of the Story" was published posthumously in September 2012.
Death.
Laurents died from complications of pneumonia at his home in Manhattan on May 5, 2011, aged 93. Following a long tradition, Broadway theatre lights were dimmed at 8 p.m. on May 6, 2011, for one minute in his memory. His ashes were buried alongside those of Tom Hatcher in a memorial bench in Quogue, Long Island, New York.
Accolades.
Legacy.
A new award was established in 2010, The Laurents/Hatcher Foundation Award. This is awarded annually "for an un-produced, full-length play of social relevance by an emerging American playwright." The Laurents/Hatcher Foundation will give $50,000 to the writer with a grant of $100,000 towards production costs at a nonprofit theatre. The first award will be given in 2011.
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Adrian Lamo
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Adrián Alfonso Lamo Atwood (February 20, 1981 – March 14, 2018) was an American threat analyst and hacker. Lamo first gained media attention for breaking into several high-profile computer networks, including those of "The New York Times", Yahoo!, and Microsoft, culminating in his 2003 arrest.
Lamo was best known for reporting U.S. soldier Chelsea Manning to Army criminal investigators in 2010 for leaking hundreds of thousands of sensitive U.S. government documents to WikiLeaks. Lamo died on March 14, 2018, at the age of 37.
Early life and education.
Adrian Lamo was born in Malden, Massachusetts. His father, Mario Ricardo Lamo, was
. Adrian Lamo attended high schools in Bogotá and San Francisco, from which he did not graduate, but received a GED and was court-ordered to take courses at American River College, a community college in Sacramento County, California. Lamo began his hacking efforts by hacking games on the Commodore 64 and through phone phreaking.
Activities and legal issues.
Lamo first became known for operating AOL watchdog site "Inside-AOL.com".
Security compromise.
Lamo was a grey hat hacker who viewed the rise of the World Wide Web with a mixture of excitement and alarm. He felt that others failed to see the importance of internet security in the Web's early days. Lamo broke into corporate computer systems but never damaged them. Instead, he would offer to fix the security flaws free of charge, and if the flaw was not fixed, he would alert the media. Lamo hoped to be hired by a corporation to attempt to break into systems and test their security, a practice that came to be known as red teaming. But by the time this practice was common, his felony conviction prevented him from being hired.
In December 2001, Worldcom praised Lamo for helping to fortify its corporate security. In February 2002, he broke into the internal computer network of "The New York Times", added his name to the internal database of expert sources, and used the paper's LexisNexis account to research high-profile subjects. "The New York Times" filed a complaint, and a warrant for Lamo's arrest was issued in August 2003 following a 15-month investigation by federal prosecutors in New York. At 10:15 a.m. on September 9, after spending a few days in hiding, he surrendered to the US Marshals in Sacramento, California. He surrendered to the FBI in New York City on September 11, and pleaded guilty to one felony count of computer crimes against Microsoft, LexisNexis, and "The New York Times" on January 8, 2004.
In July 2004, Lamo was sentenced to two years' probation with six months to be served in home detention and ordered to pay $65,000 in restitution. He was convicted of compromising security at "The New York Times", Microsoft, Yahoo!, and WorldCom.
When challenged for a response to allegations that he was glamorizing crime for the sake of publicity, he responded: "Anything I could say about my person or my actions would only cheapen what they have to say for themselves". When approached for comment during his criminal case, Lamo frustrated reporters with non-sequiturs, such as "Faith manages" and "It's a beautiful day."
At his sentencing, Lamo expressed remorse for the harm his intrusions had caused. The court record quotes him as adding: "I want to answer for what I have done and do better with my life."
He subsequently declared on the question-and-answer site Quora: "We all own our actions in fullness, not just the pleasant aspects of them." Lamo accepted that he had made mistakes.
DNA controversy.
On May 9, 2006, 18 months into a two-year probation sentence, Lamo refused to give the United States government a blood sample it had demanded to record his DNA in its CODIS system. According to his attorney at the time, Lamo had a religious objection to giving blood but was willing to give his DNA in another form. On June 15, 2006, Lamo's lawyers filed a motion citing the Book of Genesis as one basis for Lamo's religious opposition to giving blood.
On June 20, 2007, Lamo's legal counsel reached a settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice whereby Lamo would submit a cheek swab instead of a blood sample.
WikiLeaks and Chelsea Manning.
In February 2009, a partial list of the anonymous donors to the WikiLeaks website was leaked and published on the site. Some media sources indicated at the time that Lamo was among the donors on the list. Lamo commented on his Twitter page, "Thanks WikiLeaks, for leaking your donor list... That's dedication."
In May 2010, Lamo informed U.S. Army authorities that Chelsea Manning had claimed to have leaked a large body of classified documents, including 260,000 classified United States diplomatic cables. He said that Manning also "took credit for leaking" the video footage of the July 12, 2007, Baghdad airstrike, which has since come to be known as the "Collateral Murder" video.
Lamo said he would not have turned Manning in "if lives weren't in danger". He characterized her as "in a war zone and basically trying to vacuum up as much classified information as [she] could and just throwing it up into the air." WikiLeaks responded by denouncing Lamo and the author of the article as "notorious felons, informers & manipulators", and said: "journalists should take care."
Lamo was a volunteer "adversary characterization" analyst for Project Vigilant, a Florida-based government contractor, which encouraged him to inform the government about the alleged WikiLeaks source. The head of Project Vigilant, Chet Uber, claimed, "I'm the one who called the U.S. government... All the people who say that Adrian is a narc, he did a patriotic thing. He sees all kinds of hacks, and he was seriously worried about people dying."
The Taliban insurgency later announced its intention to execute Afghan nationals named in the leaks as having cooperated with the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan. By that time, the U.S. had received months of advance warning that their names were among the leaks. Manning was arrested and incarcerated in the U.S. military justice system and later sentenced to 35 years in confinement. President Barack Obama commuted the sentence to seven years, including time served. Lamo responded to the commutation with a post on Medium and an interview with "U.S. News & World Report".
Lamo characterized his decision to work with the government as morally ambiguous but objectively necessary, writing that "there were no right choices that day, only less wrong ones. It was cold, it was needful, and it was no one's to make except mine." Lamo was criticized by fellow hackers, such as those at the Hackers on Planet Earth conference in 2010, who labeled him a "snitch." Another told Lamo, following his speech during a panel discussion: "from my perspective, I see what you have done as treason."
Greenwald, Lamo, and "Wired" magazine.
Lamo's role in Manning's case drew criticism from Glenn Greenwald, who suggested that Lamo lied to Manning by turning her in and then lied after the fact to cover up the circumstances of her confessions. In an article about the case, Greenwald mentioned "Wired" reporter Kevin Poulsen's 1994 felony conviction for computer hacking and wrote that "over the years, Poulsen has served more or less as Lamo's personal media voice." In an article titled "The Worsening Journalistic Disgrace at Wired", Greenwald wrote that "Wired" was "actively conceal[ing] from the public, for months on end, the key evidence [the full Lamo–Manning chat logs] in a political story that has generated headlines around the world."
This drew a response from "Wired": "At his most reasonable, Greenwald impugns our motives, attacks the character of our staff and carefully selects his facts and sources to misrepresent the truth and generate outrage in his readership."
On July 13, 2011, "Wired" published the Lamo–Manning chat logs in full, stating: "The most significant of the unpublished details have now been publicly established with sufficient authority that we no longer believe any purpose is served by withholding the logs." Greenwald wrote that the logs validated his claim that "Wired" had concealed important evidence.
Film and television.
On August 22, 2002, Lamo was removed from a segment of "NBC Nightly News" when, after being asked to demonstrate his skills for the camera, he gained access to NBC's internal network. NBC was concerned that it broke the law by taping Lamo while he possibly broke the law. Lamo was a guest on "The Screen Savers" five times beginning in 2002.
"Hackers Wanted", a documentary film focusing on Lamo's life as a hacker, was produced by Trigger Street Productions and narrated by Kevin Spacey. Focusing on the 2003 hacking scene, the film features interviews with Kevin Rose and Steve Wozniak. The film has not been conventionally released. In May 2009, a video purporting to be a trailer for "Hackers Wanted" was allegedly leaked onto the Internet film site Eye Crave Network. In May 2010, an early cut of the film was leaked via BitTorrent. According to an insider, what was leaked on the Internet was very different from the newer version, which includes additional footage. On June 12, 2010, a director's cut version of the film was leaked onto torrent sites.
Lamo also appeared on "Good Morning America", Fox News, "Democracy Now!", "Frontline", and repeatedly on KCRA-TV News as an expert on netcentric crime and incidents. He was interviewed for the documentaries "" and "True Stories: WikiLeaks – Secrets and Lies". Lamo reconnected with Leo Laporte in 2015 as a result of a Quora article on the "dark web" for an episode of "The New Screen Savers".
Lamo wrote the book "Ask Adrian", a collection of his best Q&A drawn from over 500 pages of Quora answers.
Personal life and death.
Lamo was known as the "Homeless Hacker" for his reportedly transient lifestyle, claiming that he spent much of his travels couch-surfing, squatting in abandoned buildings, and traveling to Internet cafés, libraries, and universities to investigate networks, sometimes exploiting security holes. He usually preferred sleeping on couches, and when he did sleep on beds, he did not sleep under covers. He also often wandered through homes and offices in the middle of the night, by the light of a flashlight.
Lamo was bisexual and volunteered for the gay and lesbian media firm PlanetOut Inc. in the mid-1990s. In 1998, he was appointed to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Questioning Youth Task Force by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.
Lamo used a wide variety of supplements and drugs. His wife, Lauren Fisher, called his drug use "body hacking". One of Lamo's preferred supplements was 'kratom' (Mitragyna speciosa), which he used as a less-dangerous alternative to opioids. In 2001, he overdosed on prescription amphetamines. After he turned in Manning, his drug use escalated, but he later claimed that he was in recovery.
In a 2004 interview with "Wired", an ex-girlfriend of Lamo's called him "very controlling", alleging "he carried a stun gun, which he used on me". The same article claimed a court had issued a restraining order against Lamo; he disputed the claim, writing: "I have never been subject to a restraining order in my life".
Lamo said in a "Wired" article that, in May 2010, after he reported the theft of his backpack, an investigating officer noted unusual behavior and placed him under a 72-hour involuntary psychiatric hold, which was extended to a nine-day hold. Lamo said he was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome at the psychiatric ward.
For a period of time in March 2011, Lamo was allegedly "in hiding", claiming that his "life was under threat" after turning in Manning.
Lamo died on March 14, 2018, in Wichita, Kansas, at age 37. Nearly three months later, the Sedgwick County Regional Forensic Science Center reported that "Despite a complete autopsy and supplemental testing, no definitive cause of death was identified." Many bottles of pills were found in his home, some of which were known to cause severe health problems when combined with kratom. As a result, evidence points to an accidental death due to drug abuse.
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Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
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An associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States is a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, other than the chief justice of the United States. The number of associate justices is eight, as set by the Judiciary Act of 1869.
Article II, Section 2, Clause 2 of the Constitution of the United States grants plenary power to the president to nominate, and with the advice and consent (confirmation) of the Senate, appoint justices to the Supreme Court. Article III, Section 1 of the Constitution effectively grants life tenure to associate justices, and all other federal judges, which ends only when a justice dies, retires, resigns, or is impeached and convicted.
Each Supreme Court justice has a single vote in deciding the cases argued before it, and the chief justice's vote counts no more than that of any other justice; however, the chief justice leads the discussion of the case among the justices. Furthermore, the chief justice—when in the majority—decides who writes the court's opinion; otherwise, the senior justice in the majority assigns the writing of a decision. The chief justice also has certain administrative responsibilities that the other justices do not and is paid slightly more ($298,500 per year as of 2023, compared to $285,400 per year for an associate justice).
Associate justices have seniority in order of the date their respective commissions bear, although the chief justice is always considered to be the most senior justice. If two justices are commissioned on the same day, the elder is designated the senior justice of the two. Currently, the senior associate justice is Clarence Thomas. By tradition, when the justices are in conference deliberating the outcome of cases before the Supreme Court, the justices state their views in order of seniority. The senior associate justice is also tasked with carrying out the chief justice's duties when he is unable to, or if that office is vacant.
Current associate justices.
There are currently eight associate justices on the Supreme Court. The justices, ordered by seniority, are:
Retired associate justices.
An associate justice who leaves the Supreme Court after attaining the age and meeting the service requirements prescribed by federal statute () may retire rather than resign. After retirement, they keep their title, and by custom may also keep a set of chambers in the Supreme Court building, and employ law clerks. The names of retired associate justices continue to appear alongside those of the active justices in the bound volumes of Supreme Court decisions. Federal statute () provides that retired Supreme Court justices may serve—if designated and assigned by the chief justice—on panels of the U.S. courts of appeals, or on the U.S. district courts. Retired justices are not, however, authorized to take part in the consideration or decision of any cases before the Supreme Court (unlike other retired federal judges who may be permitted to do so in their former courts); neither are they known or designated as a "senior judge". When, after his retirement, William O. Douglas attempted to take a more active role than was customary, maintaining that it was his prerogative to do so because of his senior status, he was rebuffed by Chief Justice Warren Burger and admonished by the whole Court.
There are currently two living retired associate justices: Anthony Kennedy, retired July 31, 2018 and Stephen Breyer, retired June 30, 2022. Neither one has performed any judicial duties since retiring.
List of associate justices.
Since the Supreme Court was established in 1789, the following 104 persons have served as an associate justice:
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Alan Jay Lerner
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Alan Jay Lerner (August 31, 1918 – June 14, 1986) was an American lyricist and librettist. In collaboration with Frederick Loewe, and later Burton Lane, he created some of the world's most popular and enduring works of musical theatre both for the stage and on film. Lerner won three Tony Awards and three Academy Awards, among other honors.
Early life and education.
Lerner was born in New York City to a Jewish family. He was the son of Edith ( Adelson) and Joseph Jay Lerner, whose brother, Samuel Alexander Lerner, was founder and owner of the Lerner Stores, a chain of dress shops. One of Lerner's cousins was the radio comedian and television game show panelist Henry Morgan. Lerner was educated at Bedales School in England, The Choate School (now Choate Rosemary Hall) in Wallingford, Connecticut, (where he wrote "The Choate Marching Song") and Harvard. He attended both Camp Androscoggin and Camp Greylock. At both Choate and Harvard, Lerner was a classmate of John F. Kennedy; at Choate they had worked together on the yearbook staff. Like Cole Porter at Yale and Richard Rodgers at Columbia, his career in musical theater began with his collegiate contributions, in Lerner's case to the annual Harvard Hasty Pudding musicals. During the summers of 1936 and 1937, Lerner studied music composition at Juilliard. While attending Harvard, he lost his sight in his left eye due to an accident in the boxing ring. In 1957, Lerner and Leonard Bernstein, another of Lerner's college classmates, collaborated on "Lonely Men of Harvard", a tongue-in-cheek salute to their alma mater.
Career.
Owing to his eye injury, Lerner could not serve in World War II. Instead he wrote radio scripts, including "Your Hit Parade", until he was introduced to German-Austrian composer Frederick Loewe, who needed a partner, in 1942 at the Lamb's Club. While at the Lamb's, he also met Lorenz Hart, with whom he would also collaborate.
Lerner and Loewe's first collaboration was a musical adaptation of Barry Conners's farce "The Patsy" called "Life of the Party" for a Detroit stock company. The lyrics were mostly written by Earle Crooker, but he had left the project, with the score needing vast improvement. It enjoyed a nine-week run and encouraged the duo to join forces with Arthur Pierson for "What's Up?", which opened on Broadway in 1943. It ran for 63 performances and was followed two years later by "The Day Before Spring".
Their first hit was "Brigadoon" (1947), a romantic fantasy set in a mystical Scottish village, directed by Robert Lewis. It was followed in 1951 by the Gold Rush story "Paint Your Wagon". While the show ran for nearly a year and included songs that later became pop standards, such as "They Call the Wind Maria", it was less successful than Lerner's previous work. He later said of "Paint Your Wagon", it was "a success but not a hit."
Lerner worked with Kurt Weill on the stage musical "Love Life" (1948) and Burton Lane on the movie musical "Royal Wedding" (1951). In that same year Lerner also wrote the Oscar-winning original screenplay for "An American in Paris", produced by Arthur Freed and directed by Vincente Minnelli. This was the same team who would later join with Lerner and Loewe to create "Gigi".
In 1956, Lerner and Loewe unveiled "My Fair Lady". By this time, too, Lerner and Burton Lane were already working on a musical about Li'l Abner. Gabriel Pascal owned the rights to "Pygmalion", which had been unsuccessful with other composers who tried to adapt it into a musical. Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz first tried, and then Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II attempted, but gave up and Hammerstein told Lerner, ""Pygmalion" had no subplot". Lerner and Loewe's adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's "Pygmalion" retained his social commentary and added appropriate songs for the characters of Henry Higgins and Eliza Doolittle, played originally by Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews. It set box-office records in New York and London. When brought to the screen in 1964, the movie version won eight Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Rex Harrison.
Lerner and Loewe's run of success continued with their next project, a film adaptation of stories from Colette, the Academy Award-winning film musical "Gigi", starring Leslie Caron, Louis Jourdan and Maurice Chevalier. The film won all of its nine Oscar nominations, a record at that time, and a special Oscar for co-star Maurice Chevalier.
The Lerner-Loewe partnership cracked under the stress of producing the Arthurian "Camelot" in 1960, with Loewe resisting Lerner's desire to direct as well as write when original director Moss Hart suffered a heart attack in the last few months of rehearsals and died about a year after the show's Broadway premiere. Lerner was hospitalized with bleeding ulcers while Loewe continued to have heart troubles. "Camelot" was a hit nonetheless, and immediately following the assassination of John F. Kennedy, his widow told reporter Theodore H. White that JFK's administration reminded her of the "one brief shining moment" of Lerner and Loewe's "Camelot". As of the early 21st century, "Camelot" was still invoked to describe the idealism, romance, and tragedy of the Kennedy years.
Loewe retired to Palm Springs, California, while Lerner went through a series of musicals—some successful, some not—with such composers as André Previn ("Coco"), John Barry ("Lolita, My Love"), Leonard Bernstein ("1600 Pennsylvania Avenue"), Burton Lane ("Carmelina") and Charles Strouse ("Dance a Little Closer", based on the film, "Idiot's Delight", nicknamed "Close A Little Faster" by Broadway humorists because it closed on opening night). Most biographers blame Lerner's professional decline on the lack of a strong director with whom Lerner could collaborate, as Neil Simon did with Mike Nichols or Stephen Sondheim with Harold Prince. (Moss Hart, who had directed "My Fair Lady," died shortly after "Camelot" opened.) In 1965 Lerner collaborated again with Burton Lane on the musical "On a Clear Day You Can See Forever", which was adapted for film in 1970. At this time, Lerner was hired by film producer Arthur P. Jacobs to write a treatment for an upcoming film project, "Doctor Dolittle", but Lerner abrogated his contract after several non-productive months of non-communicative procrastination and was replaced with Leslie Bricusse. Lerner was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1971.
In 1973, Lerner coaxed Loewe out of retirement to augment the "Gigi" score for a musical stage adaptation. The following year they collaborated on a musical film version of "The Little Prince", based on the classic children's tale by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. This film was a critical and box office failure, but it has gained a modern following.
Lerner's autobiography, "The Street Where I Live" (1978), was an account of three of his and Loewe's successful collaborations, "My Fair Lady", "Gigi", and "Camelot", along with personal information. In the last year of his life, he published "The Musical Theatre: A Celebration", a well-reviewed history of the theatre, with personal anecdotes and humor. The "Los Angeles Times" reviewer wrote: "There are several reasons why this book makes a fine introduction to musical theater. One is that Lerner knows exactly what was new, and when and why...In "The Musical Theatre," one is privy to the judgment of a man... who expresses his opinions in a forthright, warm and personal manner." A book of Lerner's lyrics entitled "A Hymn To Him", edited by a British writer Benny Green, was published in 1987.
At the time of Lerner's death, he had been working with Gerard Kenny and Kristi Kane in London on a musical version of the film "My Man Godfrey". He had also received an urgent call from Andrew Lloyd Webber, asking him to write the lyrics to "The Phantom of the Opera". He wrote "Masquerade", but he then informed Webber that he wanted to leave the project because he was losing his memory (he had developed metastatic lung cancer) and Charles Hart replaced him. He had turned down an invitation to write the English-language lyrics for the musical version of "Les Misérables".
After Lerner's death, Paul Blake made a musical revue based on Lerner's lyrics and life entitled "Almost Like Being In Love", which featured music by Loewe, Lane, Previn, Strouse, and Weill. The show ran for 10 days at the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco.
Songwriting.
Lerner often struggled with writing his lyrics. He was uncharacteristically able to complete "I Could Have Danced All Night" from "My Fair Lady" in one 24-hour period. He usually spent months on each song and was constantly rewriting them. Lerner was said to have insecurity about his talent. He would sometimes write songs with someone in mind. For instance, he changed the rhymes in some lines of "I've Grown Accustomed To Her Face" to ones that Rex Harrison was more comfortable with.
Lerner said of writing:
In a 1979 interview on NPR's "All Things Considered", Lerner went into some depth about his lyrics for "My Fair Lady". Professor Henry Higgins sings, "Look at her, a prisoner of the gutters / Condemned by every syllable she utters / By right she should be taken out and hung / For the cold-blooded murder of the English tongue." Lerner said he knew the lyric used incorrect grammar for the sake of a rhyme. He was later approached about it by another lyricist:
Dramatists Guild.
Alan Jay Lerner was an advocate for writers' rights in theatre. He was a member of the Dramatists Guild of America. In 1960, he was elected as the twelfth president of the non-profit organization. He continued to serve as the Guild's president until 1964.
Personal life.
For nearly twenty years, Lerner was addicted to amphetamines; during the 1960s he was a patient of Max Jacobson, known as "Dr. Feelgood", who administered injections of "vitamins with enzymes" that were in fact laced with amphetamines. Lerner's addiction is believed to have been the result of Jacobson's practice.
Marriages and children.
Lerner married eight times: Ruth Boyd (1940–1947), singer Marion Bell (1947–1949), actress Nancy Olson (1950–1957), lawyer Micheline Muselli Pozzo di Borgo (1957–1965), editor Karen Gundersen (1966–1974), Sandra Payne (1974–1976), Nina Bushkin (1977–1981) and Liz Robertson (1981–1986 [his death]). Four of his eight wives — Olson, Payne, Bushkin, and Robertson — were actresses. His seventh wife, Nina Bushkin, whom he married on May 30, 1977, was the director of development at Mannes College of Music and the daughter of composer and musician Joey Bushkin. After their divorce in 1981, Lerner was ordered to pay her a settlement of $50,000. Lerner wrote in his autobiography (as quoted by "The New York Times"): "All I can say is that if I had no flair for marriage, I also had no flair for bachelorhood." All of this lent some irony to the lyrics for his song "Get Me to the Church on Time".
Lerner had four children — three daughters, Susan (by Boyd), Liza, and Jennifer (by Olson), and one son, screenwriter and journalist Michael Alan Lerner (by di Borgo).
Lerner's multiple divorces cost him much of his wealth. Still, he was primarily responsible for his financial ups and downs and was less than truthful about his financial fecklessness. It was claimed that his divorce settlement from Micheline Muselli Pozzo di Borgo (his fourth wife) cost him an estimated $1 million in 1965. This was untrue. Lerner's pattern of financial mismanagement continued until his death from cancer in 1986 when he reportedly owed the U.S. Internal Revenue Service over US$1 million in back taxes and was unable to pay for his final medical expenses.
Death.
On June 14, 1986, Lerner died of lung cancer in Manhattan at the age of 67. At the time of his death he was married to actress Liz Robertson, who was 36 years his junior. He lived in Center Island, New York. He has a memorial plaque in St Paul's Church, the Actors' Church in Covent Garden in London.
Works.
Films.
Source: TCM
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Al Capp
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Alfred Gerald Caplin (September 28, 1909 – November 5, 1979), better known as Al Capp, was an American cartoonist and humorist best known for the satirical comic strip "Li'l Abner", which he created in 1934 and continued writing and (with help from assistants) drawing until 1977. He also wrote the comic strips "Abbie an' Slats" (in the years 1937–45) and "Long Sam" (1954). He won the National Cartoonists Society's Reuben Award in 1947 for Cartoonist of the Year, and their 1979 Elzie Segar Award, posthumously for his "unique and outstanding contribution to the profession of cartooning".
Capp's comic strips dealt with urban experiences in the Northern United States until the year he introduced "Li'l Abner". Although Capp was from Connecticut, he spent 43 years writing about the fictional Southern town of Dogpatch, reaching an estimated 60 million readers in more than 900 American newspapers and 100 more papers in 28 countries internationally. M. Thomas Inge says Capp made a large personal fortune through the strip and "had a profound influence on the way the world viewed the American South".
Early life and education.
Capp was born in New Haven, Connecticut, of East European Jewish heritage. He was the eldest child of Otto Philip Caplin (1885–1964) and Matilda (Davidson) Caplin (1884–1948). Otto Caplin was a failed businessman and an amateur cartoonist; Al's brothers Elliot and Jerome were also cartoonists, and his sister Madeline was a publicist. Capp's parents were both natives of Latvia whose families had migrated to New Haven in the 1880s. "My mother and father had been brought to this country from Russia when they were infants", wrote Capp in 1978. "Their fathers had found that the great promise of America was true — it was no crime to be a Jew." The Caplins were indigent; Capp recalled stories of his mother going out in the night to sift through ash barrels for reusable bits of coal.
In August 1919, at age nine, Capp was run over by a trolley car and had his left leg amputated above the knee. According to his father Otto's unpublished autobiography, young Capp was not prepared for the amputation beforehand; having been in a coma for days, he suddenly awoke to discover that his leg had been removed. He was eventually given a prosthetic leg but only learned to use it by adopting a slow way of walking which became increasingly painful as he aged. The childhood tragedy of losing a leg likely helped shape Capp's cynical worldview, which was darker and more sardonic than that of most newspaper cartoonists. "I was indignant as hell about that leg," he revealed in a November 1950 interview in "Time" magazine.
"The secret of how to live without resentment or embarrassment in a world in which I was different from everyone else", Capp philosophically wrote, "was to be indifferent to that difference." The prevailing opinion among his friends was that Capp's Swiftian satire was, to some degree, a creatively channeled, compensatory response to his disability.
Capp's father introduced him to drawing as a form of therapy. He became quite proficient, advancing mostly on his own. Among his earliest influences were "Punch" cartoonist–illustrator Phil May and American comic strip cartoonists Tad Dorgan, Cliff Sterrett, Rube Goldberg, Rudolph Dirks, Fred Opper, Billy DeBeck, George McManus, and Milt Gross. At about this same time, Capp became a voracious reader. According to Capp's brother Elliot, Alfred had finished all of Shakespeare and George Bernard Shaw before he was 13 years old. Among his childhood favorites were Dickens, Smollett, Mark Twain, Booth Tarkington, and later, Robert Benchley and S. J. Perelman.
Capp spent five years at Bridgeport High School in Bridgeport, Connecticut, without receiving a diploma. He liked to joke about how he failed geometry for nine straight terms. His formal training came from a series of art schools in the Northeast. Attending three of them in rapid succession, the impoverished Capp was thrown out of each for nonpayment of tuition—the Boston Museum School of Fine Arts, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and Designers Art School in Boston—the last before launching his career. Capp already had decided to become a cartoonist. "I heard that Bud Fisher (creator of "Mutt and Jeff") got $3,000 a week and was constantly marrying French countesses", Capp said. "I decided that was for me."
In early 1932, Capp hitchhiked to New York City. He lived in "airless rat holes" in Greenwich Village and turned out advertising strips at $2 each while scouring the city hunting for jobs. He eventually found work at the Associated Press when he was 23 years old. By March 1932, Capp was drawing "Colonel Gilfeather", a single-panel, AP-owned property created in 1930 by Dick Dorgan. Capp changed the focus and title to "Mister Gilfeather" but soon grew to hate the feature. He left the Associated Press in September 1932. Before leaving, he met Milton Caniff and the two became lifelong friends. Capp moved to Boston and married Catherine Wingate Cameron, whom he had met earlier in art class. She died in 2006 at the age of 96.
Leaving his new wife with her parents in Amesbury, Massachusetts, he subsequently returned to New York in 1933, in the midst of the Great Depression. "I was 23, I carried a mass of drawings, and I had nearly five dollars in my pocket. People were sleeping in alleys then, willing to work at anything." There he met Ham Fisher, who hired him to ghost on "Joe Palooka". During one of Fisher's extended vacations, Capp's "Joe Palooka" story arc introduced a stupid, coarse, oafish mountaineer named "Big Leviticus", a crude prototype. (Leviticus was much closer to Capp's later villains Lem and Luke Scragg than to the much more appealing and innocent Li'l Abner.)
Also during this period, Capp was working at night on samples for the strip that eventually became "Li'l Abner". He based his cast of characters on the authentic mountain-dwellers he met (This would have been before the Tennessee Valley Authority Act of 1933 began the years-long process of bringing basic utilities like electricity and running water to the region.) Leaving "Joe Palooka", Capp sold "Li'l Abner" to United Feature Syndicate (later known as United Media). The feature was launched on Monday, August 13, 1934, in eight North American newspapers—including the "New York Mirror"—and was an immediate success. Alfred G. Caplin eventually became "Al Capp" because the syndicate felt the original would not fit in a cartoon frame. Capp had his name changed legally in 1949.
His younger brother, Elliot Caplin, also became a comic strip writer, best known for co-creating the soap opera strip "The Heart of Juliet Jones" with artist Stan Drake and conceiving the comic strip character "Broom-Hilda" with cartoonist Russell Myers. Elliot authored several off-Broadway plays, including "A Nickel for Picasso" (1981), which was based on and dedicated to his mother and his famous brother.
"Li'l Abner".
What began as a hillbilly burlesque soon evolved into one of the most imaginative, popular, and well-drawn strips of the twentieth century. Featuring vividly outlandish characters, bizarre situations, and equal parts suspense, slapstick, irony, satire, black humor, and biting social commentary, "Li'l Abner" is considered a classic of the genre. The comic strip stars Li'l Abner Yokum—the simple-minded, loutish but good-natured, and eternally innocent hayseed who lives with his parents—scrawny but superhuman Mammy Yokum, and shiftless, childlike Pappy Yokum.
"Yokum" was a combination of "yokel" and "hokum", although Capp established a deeper meaning for the name during a series of visits around 1965–1970 with comics historians George E. Turner and Michael H. Price:
The Yokums live in the backwater hamlet of Dogpatch, Kentucky. Described by its creator as "an average stone-age community", Dogpatch mostly consists of hopelessly ramshackle log cabins, pine trees, "tarnip" fields, and "hawg" wallows. Whatever energy Abner had went into evading the marital goals of Daisy Mae Scragg, his sexy, well-endowed, but virtuous girlfriend, until Capp finally gave in to reader pressure and allowed the couple to marry. This newsworthy event made the cover of "Life" on March 31, 1952.
Capp peopled his comic strip with an assortment of memorable characters, including Marryin' Sam, Hairless Joe, Lonesome Polecat, Evil-Eye Fleegle, General Bullmoose, Lena the Hyena, Senator Jack S. Phogbound (Capp's caricature of the anti-New Deal Dixiecrats), the "(shudder!)" Scraggs, Available Jones, Nightmare Alice, Earthquake McGoon, and a host of others. Especially notable, certainly from a G.I. point of view, are the beautiful, full-figured women — Daisy Mae, Wolf Gal, Stupefyin' Jones, and Moonbeam McSwine (a caricature of his wife Catherine, aside from the dirt) — all of whom found their way onto the nose art of bomber planes during World War II and the Korean War. Perhaps Capp's most popular creations were the Shmoos, creatures whose incredible usefulness and generous nature made them a threat to civilization as we know it.
Another famous character was Joe Btfsplk, who wants to be a loving friend but is "the world's worst jinx", bringing bad luck to all those nearby. Btfsplk (his name is "pronounced" by simply blowing a "raspberry" or Bronx cheer) always has an iconic dark cloud over his head.
Dogpatch residents regularly combat the likes of city slickers, business tycoons, government officials, and intellectuals with their homespun simplicity. Situations often take the characters to other destinations, including New York City, Washington, D.C., Hollywood, tropical islands, the moon, Mars, and some purely fanciful worlds of Capp's invention, including El Passionato, Kigmyland, The Republic of Crumbumbo, Skunk Hollow, The Valley of the Shmoon, Planets Pincus Number 2 and 7, and a miserable frozen wasteland known as Lower Slobbovia, a pointedly political satire of backward nations and foreign diplomacy that remains a contemporary reference.
According to cultural historian Anthony Harkins:
The strip's popularity grew from an original eight papers to eventually more than 900. At its peak, "Li'l Abner" was estimated to have been read daily in the United States by 60 to 70 million people (the U.S. population at the time was only 180 million), with adult readers far outnumbering children. Many communities, high schools, and colleges staged Sadie Hawkins dances patterned after the similar annual event in the strip.
Li'l Abner has one odd design quirk that has puzzled readers for decades: the part in his hair always faces the viewer, no matter which direction Abner is facing. In response to the question "Which side does Abner part his hair on?", Capp would answer: "Both." Capp said he finally found the right "look" for Li'l Abner with Henry Fonda's character Dave Tolliver in "The Trail of the Lonesome Pine" (1936).
In later years, Capp always claimed to have effectively created the miniskirt, when he first put one on Daisy Mae in the 1930s.
Parodies, toppers, and alternate strips.
"Li'l Abner" also features a comic strip-within-the-strip: "Fearless Fosdick" is a parody of Chester Gould's "Dick Tracy". It first appeared in 1942, and it proved so popular that it ran intermittently during the next 35 years. Gould was parodied personally in the series as cartoonist "Lester Gooch"—the diminutive, much-harassed and occasionally deranged "creator" of Fosdick. The style of the "Fosdick" sequences closely mimicks "Tracy", including the urban setting, the outrageous villains, the galloping mortality rate, the crosshatched shadows, and even the lettering style. In 1952, Fosdick was the star of his own short-lived puppet show on NBC, featuring the Mary Chase marionettes.
Besides "Dick Tracy", Capp parodied many other comic strips in "Li'l Abner"—including "Steve Canyon", "Superman" (at least twice; first as "Jack Jawbreaker" in 1947, and again in 1966 as "Chickensouperman"), "Mary Worth" as "Mary Worm", "Peanuts" (in 1968, with "Peewee", a parody of Charlie Brown, and "Croopy", a parody of Snoopy, drawn by "Bedley Damp", a parody of Charles Schulz), "Rex Morgan, M.D.", "Little Annie Rooney", and "Little Orphan Annie" (in which Punjab became "Punjbag", an oleaginous slob). "Fearless Fosdick"—and Capp's other spoofs such as "Little Fanny Gooney" (1952) and "Jack Jawbreaker"—were almost certainly an early inspiration for Harvey Kurtzman's "Mad Magazine", which began in 1952 as a comic book that specifically parodied other comics in the same distinctive style and subversive manner.
Capp also lampooned popular recording idols of the day, including Elvis Presley ("Hawg McCall", 1957), Liberace ("Loverboynik", 1956), the Beatles ("the Beasties", 1964)—and in 1944, Frank Sinatra. "Sinatra was the first great public figure I ever wrote about," Capp once said. "I called him 'Hal Fascinatra.' I remember my news syndicate was so worried about what his reaction might be, and we were all surprised when he telephoned and told me how thrilled he was with it. He always made it a point to send me champagne whenever he happened to see me in a restaurant..." (from "Frank Sinatra, My Father" by Nancy Sinatra, 1985). On the other hand, Liberace was "cut to the quick" over Loverboynik, according to Capp, and even threatened legal action—as would Joan Baez later, over "Joanie Phoanie" in 1967.
Capp was just as likely to parody himself; his self-caricature made frequent, tongue-in-cheek appearances in "Li'l Abner". The gag was often at his own expense, as in the above 1951 sequence showing Capp's interaction with "fans" (see excerpt), or in his 1955 Disneyland parody, "Hal Yappland". Just about anything could be a target for Capp's satire—in one storyline Li'l Abner is revealed to be the missing link between ape and man. In another, the search is on in Dogpatch for a pair of missing socks knitted by the first president of the United States.
In addition to creating "Li'l Abner", Capp also co-created two other newspaper strips: "Abbie an' Slats" with magazine illustrator Raeburn van Buren in 1937, and "Long Sam" with cartoonist Bob Lubbers in 1954, as well as the Sunday "topper" strips "Washable Jones", "Small Fry" (a.k.a. "Small Change"), and "Advice fo' Chillun".
Critical recognition.
According to comics historian Coulton Waugh, a 1947 poll of newspaper readers who claimed they ignored the comics page altogether revealed that many confessed to making a single exception: "Li'l Abner". "When "Li'l Abner" made its debut in 1934, the vast majority of comic strips were designed chiefly to amuse or thrill their readers. Capp turned that world upside-down by routinely injecting politics and social commentary into "Li'l Abner". The strip was the first to regularly introduce characters and story lines having nothing to do with the nominal stars of the strip. The technique—as invigorating as it was unorthodox—was later adopted by cartoonists such as Walt Kelly ["Pogo"] and Garry Trudeau ["Doonesbury"]", wrote comic strip historian Rick Marschall. According to Marschall, "Li'l Abner" gradually evolved into a broad satire of human nature. In his book "America's Great Comic Strip Artists" (1989), Marschall's analysis revealed a decidedly misanthropic subtext.
Over the years, "Li'l Abner" has been adapted to radio, animated cartoons, stage production, motion pictures, and television. Capp has been compared, at various times, to Mark Twain, Dostoevski, Jonathan Swift, Lawrence Sterne, and Rabelais. Fans of the strip ranged from novelist John Steinbeck—who called Capp "possibly the best writer in the world today" in 1953 and even earnestly recommended him for the Nobel Prize in literature—to media critic and theorist Marshall McLuhan, who considered Capp "the only robust satirical force in American life". John Updike, comparing Abner to a "hillbilly Candide", added that the strip's "richness of social and philosophical commentary approached the Voltairean". Charlie Chaplin, William F. Buckley, Al Hirschfeld, Harpo Marx, Russ Meyer, John Kenneth Galbraith, Ralph Bakshi, Shel Silverstein, Hugh Downs, Gene Shalit, Frank Cho, Daniel Clowes, and (reportedly) even Queen Elizabeth have confessed to being fans of "Li'l Abner".
"Li'l Abner" was also the subject of the first book-length scholarly assessment of an American comic strip ever published. "Li'l Abner: A Study in American Satire" by Arthur Asa Berger (Twayne, 1969) contained serious analyses of Capp's narrative technique, his use of dialogue, self-caricature, and grotesquerie, the place of "Li'l Abner" in American satire, and the significance of social criticism and the graphic image. "One of the few strips ever taken seriously by students of American culture," wrote Professor Berger, ""Li'l Abner" is worth studying ... because of Capp's imagination and artistry, and because of the strip's very obvious social relevance." It was reprinted by the University Press of Mississippi in 1994.
The 1940s and 1950s.
During World War II and for many years afterward, Capp worked tirelessly going to hospitals to entertain patients, especially to cheer recent amputees and explain to them that the loss of a limb did not mean an end to a happy and productive life. Making no secret of his own disability, Capp openly joked about his prosthetic leg his whole life. In 1946, Capp created a special full-color comic book, "Al Capp by Li'l Abner", to be distributed by the Red Cross to encourage the thousands of amputee veterans returning from the war. Capp also was involved with the Sister Kenny Foundation, which pioneered new treatments for polio in the 1940s. Serving in his capacity as honorary chairman, Capp made public appearances on its behalf for years, contributed free artwork for its annual fundraising appeals, and entertained disabled and paraplegic children in children's hospitals with inspirational pep talks, humorous stories, and sketches.
In 1940, an RKO movie adaptation starred Granville Owen (later known as Jeff York) as Li'l Abner, with Buster Keaton taking the role of Lonesome Polecat, and featuring a title song with lyrics by Milton Berle. A successful musical comedy adaptation of the strip opened on Broadway at the St. James Theater on November 15, 1956, and had a long run of 693 performances, followed by a nationwide tour. The stage musical, with music and lyrics by Gene de Paul and Johnny Mercer, was adapted into a Technicolor motion picture at Paramount in 1959 by producer Norman Panama and director Melvin Frank, with a score by Nelson Riddle. Several performers repeated their Broadway roles in the film, most memorably Julie Newmar as Stupefyin' Jones and Stubby Kaye as Marryin' Sam.
Other highlights of that decade included the 1942 debut of Fearless Fosdick as Abner's "ideel" (hero); the 1946 Lena the Hyena Contest, in which a hideous Lower Slobbovian gal was ultimately revealed in the harrowing winning entry (as judged by Frank Sinatra, Boris Karloff, and Salvador Dalí) drawn by noted cartoonist Basil Wolverton; and an ill-fated Sunday parody of "Gone With the Wind" that aroused anger and legal threats from author Margaret Mitchell, and led to a printed apology within the strip. In October 1947, Li'l Abner met Rockwell P. Squeezeblood, head of the abusive and corrupt Squeezeblood Comic Strip Syndicate. The resulting sequence, "Jack Jawbreaker Fights Crime!", was a devastating satire of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster's notorious exploitation by DC Comics over "Superman". It was later reprinted in "The World of Li'l Abner" (1953). (Siegel and Shuster had earlier poked fun at Capp in a "Superman" story in "Action Comics #55", December 1942, in which a cartoonist named "Al Hatt" invents a comic strip featuring the hillbilly "Tiny Rufe".)
In 1947, Capp earned a "Newsweek" cover story. That same year the "New Yorker's" profile on him was so long that it ran in consecutive issues. In 1948, Capp reached a creative peak with the introduction of the Shmoos, lovable and innocent fantasy creatures who reproduced at amazing speed and brought so many benefits that, ironically, the world economy was endangered. The much-copied storyline was a parable that was metaphorically interpreted in many different ways at the outset of the Cold War.
Following his close friend Milton Caniff's lead (with "Steve Canyon"), Capp had recently fought a successful battle with the syndicate to gain complete ownership of his feature when the Shmoos debuted. As a result, he reaped enormous financial rewards from the unexpected (and almost unprecedented) merchandising phenomenon that followed. As in the strip, Shmoos suddenly appeared to be everywhere in 1949 and 1950—including a "Time" cover story. A paperback collection of the original sequence, "The Life and Times of the Shmoo", became a bestseller for Simon & Schuster. Shmoo dolls, clocks, watches, jewelry, earmuffs, wallpaper, fishing lures, air fresheners, soap, ice cream, balloons, ashtrays, comic books, records, sheet music, toys, games, Halloween masks, salt and pepper shakers, decals, pinbacks, tumblers, coin banks, greeting cards, planters, neckties, suspenders, belts, curtains, fountain pens, and other Shmoo paraphernalia were produced. A garment factory in Baltimore turned out a whole line of Shmoo apparel, including "Shmooveralls". The original sequence and its 1959 sequel "The Return of the Shmoo" have been collected in print many times since, most recently in 2011, always to high sales figures. The Shmoos later had their own animated television series.
Capp followed this success with other allegorical fantasy critters, including the aboriginal and masochistic "Kigmies", who craved abuse (a story that began as a veiled comment on racial and religious oppression), the dreaded "Nogoodniks" (or "bad" shmoos), and the irresistible "Bald Iggle", a guileless creature whose sad-eyed countenance compelled involuntary truthfulness—with predictably disastrous results.
"Li'l Abner" was censored for the first time, but not the last, in September 1947 and was pulled from papers by Scripps-Howard. The controversy, as reported in "Time", centered on Capp's portrayal of the United States Senate. Edward Leech of Scripps said, "We don't think it is good editing or sound citizenship to picture the Senate as an assemblage of freaks and crooks ... boobs and undesirables." Capp criticized Senator Joseph McCarthy in 1954, calling him a "poet". "He uses poetic license to try to create the beautifully ordered world of good guys and bad guys that he wants," said Capp. "He seems at his best when terrifying the helpless and naïve."
Capp received the National Cartoonists Society's Billy DeBeck Memorial Award in 1947 for Cartoonist of the Year. (When the award name was changed in 1954, Capp also retroactively received a Reuben statuette.) He was an outspoken pioneer in favor of diversifying the NCS by admitting women cartoonists. Originally, the Society had disallowed female members. Capp briefly resigned his membership in 1949 to protest their refusal of admission to Hilda Terry, creator of the comic strip "Teena". According to Tom Roberts, author of "Alex Raymond: His Life and Art" (2007), Capp delivered a stirring speech that was instrumental in changing those rules. The NCS finally accepted female members the following year. In December 1952, Capp published an article in "Real" magazine entitled "The REAL Powers in America" that further challenged the conventional attitudes of the day: "The real powers in America are "women"—the wives and sweethearts behind the masculine dummies..."
Highlights of the 1950s included the much-heralded marriage of Abner and Daisy Mae in 1952, the birth of their son "Honest Abe" Yokum in 1953, and in 1954 the introduction of Abner's enormous, long-lost kid brother Tiny Yokum, who filled Abner's place as a bachelor in the annual Sadie Hawkins Day race. In 1952, Capp and his characters graced the covers of both "Life" and "TV Guide". The year 1956 saw the debut of Bald Iggle, considered by some "Abner" enthusiasts to be the creative high point of the strip, as well as Mammy's revelatory encounter with the "Square Eyes" Family—Capp's thinly-veiled appeal for racial tolerance. (This fable-like story was collected into an educational comic book called "Mammy Yokum and the Great Dogpatch Mystery!" and distributed by the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith later that year.) Two years later, Capp's studio issued "Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story", a biographical comic book distributed by the Fellowship of Reconciliation.
Often, Capp had parodied corporate greed—pork tycoon J. Roaringham Fatback had figured prominently in wiping out the Shmoos. But in 1952, when General Motors president Charles E. Wilson, nominated for a cabinet post, told Congress "...what was good for the country was good for General Motors and vice versa", he inspired one of Capp's greatest satires—the introduction of General Bullmoose, the robust, ruthless, and ageless business tycoon. The blustering Bullmoose, who seemed to own and control nearly everything, justified his far-reaching and mercenary excesses by saying "What's good for General Bullmoose is good for "the USA!"" Bullmoose's corrupt interests were often pitted against those of the pathetic Lower Slobbovians in a classic mismatch of "haves" versus "have-nots". This character, along with the Shmoos, helped cement Capp's favor with the Left, and increased their outrage a decade later when Capp, a former Franklin D. Roosevelt liberal, switched targets. Nonetheless, General Bullmoose continued to appear, undaunted and unredeemed, during the strip's final right-wing phase and into the 1970s.
Feud with Ham Fisher.
After Capp quit his ghosting job on Ham Fisher's "Joe Palooka" in 1934 to launch his own strip, Fisher badmouthed him to colleagues and editors, claiming that Capp had "stolen" his idea. For years, Fisher brought the characters back to his strip, billing them as "The ORIGINAL Hillbilly Characters" and advising readers not to be "fooled by imitations". (In fact, Fisher's brutish hillbilly character—Big Leviticus, created by Capp in Fisher's absence—bore little resemblance to Li'l Abner.) According to a November 1950 "Time" article, "Capp parted from Fisher with a definite impression, (to put it mildly) that he had been underpaid and unappreciated. Fisher, a man of Roman self esteem, considered Capp an ingrate and a whippersnapper, and watched his rise to fame with unfeigned horror."
"Fisher repeatedly brought Leviticus and his clan back, claiming their primacy as comics' first hillbilly family – but he was missing the point. It wasn't the setting that made Capp's strip such a huge success. It was Capp's finely tuned sense of the absurd, his ability to milk an outrageous situation for every laugh in it and then, impossibly, to squeeze even more laughs from it, that found such favor with the public," (from Don Markstein's "Toonopedia").
The Capp-Fisher feud was well known in cartooning circles, and it grew more personal as Capp's strip eclipsed "Joe Palooka" in popularity. Fisher hired away Capp's top assistant, Moe Leff. After Fisher underwent plastic surgery, Capp included a racehorse in "Li'l Abner" named "Ham's Nose-Bob". In 1950, Capp introduced a cartoonist character named "Happy Vermin"—a caricature of Fisher—who hired Abner to draw his comic strip in a dimly lit closet (after sacking his previous "temporary" assistant of 20 years, who had been cut off from all his friends in the process). Instead of using Vermin's tired characters, Abner inventively peopled the strip with hillbillies. A bighearted Vermin told his slaving assistant: "I'm proud of having created these characters!! They'll make millions for me!! And if they do – I'll get "you" a new light bulb!!"
Traveling in the same social circles, the two men engaged in a 20-year mutual vendetta, as described by the "New York Daily News" in 1998: "They crossed paths often, in the midtown watering holes and at National Cartoonists Society banquets, and the city's gossip columns were full of their snarling public donnybrooks." In 1950, Capp wrote a nasty article for "The Atlantic", entitled "I Remember Monster". The article recounted Capp's days working for an unnamed "benefactor" with a miserly, swinish personality, who Capp claimed was a never-ending source of inspiration when it came time to create a new unregenerate villain for his comic strip. The thinly-veiled boss was understood to be Ham Fisher.
Fisher retaliated, doctoring photostats of "Li'l Abner" and falsely accusing Capp of sneaking obscenities into his comic strip. Fisher submitted examples of "Li'l Abner" to Capp's syndicate and to the New York courts, in which Fisher had identified pornographic images that were hidden in the background art. However, the X-rated material had been drawn there by Fisher. Capp was able to refute the accusation by simply showing the original artwork.
In 1954, when Capp was applying for a Boston television license, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) received an anonymous packet of pornographic "Li'l Abner" drawings. The National Cartoonists Society (NCS) convened an ethics hearing, and Fisher was expelled for the forgery from the same organization that he had helped found; Fisher's scheme had backfired in spectacular fashion. Around the same time, his mansion in Wisconsin was destroyed by a storm. On December 27, 1955, Fisher committed suicide in his studio. The feud and Fisher's suicide were used as the basis for a lurid, highly fictionalized murder mystery, "Strip for Murder" by Max Allan Collins.
Another "feud" seemed to be looming when, in one run of Sunday strips in 1957, Capp lampooned the comic strip "Mary Worth" as "Mary Worm". The title character was depicted as a nosy, interfering busybody. Allen Saunders, the creator of the "Mary Worth" strip, returned Capp's fire with the introduction of the character "Hal Rapp", a foul-tempered, ill-mannered, and (ironically, as Capp was a teetotaler) inebriated cartoonist. Later, the "feud" was revealed to be a collaborative hoax that Capp and his longtime pal Saunders had cooked up together. The Capp-Saunders "feud" fooled both editors and readers, generated plenty of free publicity for both strips—and Capp and Saunders had a good laugh when all was revealed.
Production methods.
Like many cartoonists, Capp made extensive use of assistants (notably Andy Amato, Harvey Curtis, Walter Johnson, and Frank Frazetta). During the extended peak of the strip, the workload grew to include advertising, merchandising, promotional work, public service comics, and other specialty work—in addition to the regular six dailies and one Sunday strip per week. From the early 1940s to the late 1950s, there were scores of Sunday strip-style magazine ads for Cream of Wheat using the "Abner" characters, and in the 1950s, Fearless Fosdick became a spokesman for Wildroot Cream-Oil hair tonic in a series of daily strip-style print ads. The characters also sold chainsaws, underwear, ties, detergent, candy, soft drinks—including a licensed version of Capp's moonshine creation, Kickapoo Joy Juice—and General Electric and Procter & Gamble products, all requiring special artwork.
No matter how much help he had, Capp insisted on his drawing and inking the characters' faces and hands—especially of Abner and Daisy Mae—and his distinctive touch is often discernible. "He had "the touch,"" Frazetta said of Capp in 2008. "He knew how to take an otherwise ordinary drawing and really make it "pop". I'll never knock his talent."
As is usual with collaborative efforts in comic strips, his name was the only one credited— although, sensitive to his own experience working on "Joe Palooka", Capp frequently drew attention to his assistants in interviews and publicity pieces. A 1950 cover story in "Time" even included photographs of two of his employees, whose roles in the production were detailed by Capp. Ironically, this highly irregular policy (along with the subsequent fame of Frank Frazetta) has led to the misconception that his strip was "ghosted" by other hands. The production of "Li'l Abner" has been well documented, however. In point of fact, Capp maintained creative control over every stage of production for virtually the entire run of the strip. Capp originated the stories, wrote the dialogue, designed the major characters, rough penciled the preliminary staging and action of each panel, oversaw the finished pencils, and drew and inked the hands and faces of the characters. Frazetta authority David Winiewicz described the everyday working mode of operation in "Li'l Abner Dailies: 1954 Volume 20" (Kitchen Sink, 1994):
There was also a separate line of comic book titles published by the Caplin family-owned Toby Press, including "Shmoo Comics" featuring Washable Jones. Cartoonist Mell Lazarus, creator of "Miss Peach" and "Momma", wrote a comic novel in 1963 entitled "The Boss Is Crazy, Too" which was partly inspired by his apprenticeship days working with Capp and his brother Elliot at Toby. In a seminar at the Charles Schulz Museum on November 8, 2008, Lazarus called his experience at Toby "the five funniest years of my life". Lazarus went on to cite Capp as one of the "four essentials" in the field of newspaper cartoonists, along with Walt Kelly, Charles Schulz, and Milton Caniff.
Capp detailed his approach to writing and drawing the stories in an instructional course book for the Famous Artists School, beginning in 1956. In 1959, Capp recorded and released an album for Folkways Records (now owned by the Smithsonian) on which he identified and described "The Mechanics of the Comic Strip".
Frazetta, later famous as a fantasy artist, assisted on the strip from 1954 to December 1961. Fascinated by Frazetta's abilities, Capp initially gave him a free hand in an extended daily sequence (about a biker named "Frankie", a caricature of Frazetta) to experiment with the basic look of the strip by adding a bit more realism and detail (particularly to the inking). After editors complained about the stylistic changes, the strip's previous look was restored. During most of his tenure with Capp, Frazetta's primary responsibility—along with various specialty art, such as a series of "Li'l Abner" greeting cards—was tight-penciling the Sunday pages from studio roughs. This work was collected by Dark Horse Comics in a four-volume hardcover series entitled "Al Capp's Li'l Abner: The Frazetta Years". In 1961, Capp, complaining of declining revenue, wanted to have Frazetta continue with a 50% pay cut. "[Capp] said he would cut the salary in half. Goodbye. That was that. "I" said goodbye," (from "Frazetta: Painting with Fire"). However, Frazetta returned briefly a few years later to draw a public service comic book called "Li'l Abner and the Creatures from Drop-Outer Space", distributed by the Job Corps in 1965.
Personality.
Although he was often considered a difficult person, some acquaintances of Capp have stressed that the cartoonist also had a sensitive side. In 1973, upon learning that 12-year-old Ted Kennedy Jr., the son of his political rival Ted Kennedy Sr., had his right leg amputated, Capp wrote the boy an encouraging letter that gave candid advice about dealing with the loss of a limb, which Capp himself had experienced as a boy. One of Capp's grandchildren recalls that at one point, tears were streaming down the cartoonist's cheeks while he was watching a documentary about the Jonestown massacre. Capp gave money anonymously to charities and "people in need" at various points in his life.
Sexual harassment and assault claims.
Two biographies, one of Grace Kelly and the other of Goldie Hawn, describe Capp as trying to force the younger women to have sex with him.
While no firsthand allegation has ever surfaced regarding Kelly, in her autobiography, Hawn stated that Capp sexually propositioned her on a casting couch and exposed himself to her when she was 19 years old. When she refused his advances, Capp became angry and told her that she was "never gonna make anything in your life" and that she should "go and marry a Jewish dentist. You'll never get anywhere in this business."
In 1971, investigative journalist Jack Anderson wrote that Capp had exposed his genitals to four female students at the University of Alabama.
In 1972, after an incident at the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire, Capp was arrested. He pleaded guilty to a charge of attempted adultery, while charges of indecent exposure and sodomy were dropped. He was fined US$500 ().
In 2019, Jean Kilbourne was inspired by the MeToo movement to publish in "Hogan's Alley" her own experience of being groped and sexually solicited by Al Capp while doing freelance writing and research work for him in contemplation of a permanent job in 1967.
Public service works.
Capp provided specialty artwork for civic groups, government agencies, and charitable or nonprofit organizations, spanning several decades. The following titles are all single-issue, educational comic books and pamphlets produced for various public services:
In addition, Dogpatch characters were used in national campaigns for the U.S. Treasury, the Cancer Foundation, the March of Dimes, the National Heart Fund, the Sister Kenny Foundation, the Boy Scouts of America, Community Chest, the National Reading Council, Minnesota Tuberculosis and Health Association, Christmas Seals, the National Amputation Foundation, and Disabled American Veterans, among others.
Public figure.
In the Golden Age of the American comic strip, successful cartoonists received a great deal of attention; their professional and private lives were reported in the press, and their celebrity was often nearly sufficient to rival their creations. As "Li'l Abner" reached its peak years, and following the success of the Shmoos and other high moments in his work, Al Capp achieved a public profile that is still unparalleled in his profession, and arguably exceeded the fame of his strip. "Capp was the best known, most influential and most controversial cartoonist of his era," writes publisher (and leading Shmoo collector) Denis Kitchen. "His personal celebrity transcended comics, reaching the public and influencing the culture in a variety of media. For many years he simultaneously produced the daily strip, a weekly syndicated newspaper column, and a 500-station radio program..." He ran the Boston Summer Theatre with "The Phantom" cartoonist Lee Falk, bringing in Hollywood actors such as Mae West, Melvyn Douglas, and Claude Rains to star in their live productions. He even briefly considered running for a Massachusetts Senate seat. Vice President Spiro Agnew urged Capp to run in the Democratic Party Massachusetts primary in 1970 against Ted Kennedy, but Capp ultimately declined. (He did, however, donate his services as a speaker at a $100-a-plate fundraiser for Republican Congressman Jack Kemp.)
Besides his use of the comic strip to voice his opinions and display his humor, Capp was a popular guest speaker at universities, and on radio and television. He remains the only cartoonist to be embraced by television; no other comic artist to date has come close to Capp's televised exposure. Capp appeared as a regular on "The Author Meets the Critics" (1948–'54) and made regular, weekly appearances on "Today" in 1953. He was also a periodic panelist on ABC and NBC's "Who Said That?" (1948–'55), and co-hosted DuMont's "What's the Story?" (1953). Between 1952 and 1972, he hosted at least "five" television shows–three different talk shows called "The Al Capp Show" (1952 and 1968) and "Al Capp" (1971–'72), "Al Capp's America" (a live "chalk talk", with Capp providing a barbed commentary while sketching cartoons, 1954), and a CBS game show called "Anyone Can Win" (1953). He also hosted similar vehicles on the radio—and was a familiar celebrity guest on various other broadcast programs, including NBC Radio's long-running "Monitor" with its famous "Monitor" Beacon audio signature, as a commentator dubbed "An expert of nothing with opinions on everything."
His frequent appearances on NBC's "The Tonight Show" spanned three emcees (Steve Allen, Jack Paar, and Johnny Carson), from the 1950s to the 1970s. One memorable story, as recounted to Johnny Carson, was about his meeting with then-President Dwight D. Eisenhower. As Capp was ushered into the Oval Office, his prosthetic leg suddenly collapsed into a pile of disengaged parts and hinges on the floor. The President immediately turned to an aide and said, "Call Walter Reed (Hospital), or maybe Bethesda," to which Capp replied, "Hell no, just call a good local mechanic!" (Capp also spoofed Carson in his strip, in a 1970 episode called "The Tommy Wholesome Show".)
Capp portrayed himself in a cameo role in the Bob Hope film "That Certain Feeling", for which he also provided promotional art. He was interviewed live on "Person to Person" on November 27, 1959, by host Charles Collingwood. He also appeared as himself on "The Ed Sullivan Show", Sid Caesar's "Your Show of Shows", "The Red Skelton Show", "The Merv Griffin Show", "The Mike Douglas Show", and guested on Ralph Edwards' "This Is Your Life" on February 12, 1961, with honoree Peter Palmer (the actor who played Li'l Abner in the Paramount film). Capp also freelanced very successfully as a magazine writer and newspaper columnist, in a wide variety of publications including "Life", "Show", "Pageant", "The Atlantic", "Esquire", "Coronet", and "The Saturday Evening Post". Capp was impersonated by comedians Rich Little and David Frye. Although Capp's endorsement activities never rivaled Li'l Abner's or Fearless Fosdick's, he was a celebrity spokesman in print ads for Sheaffer Snorkel fountain pens (along with colleagues and close friends Milton Caniff and Walt Kelly), and—with an irony that became apparent later—a brand of cigarettes (Chesterfield).
Capp resumed visiting war amputees during the Korean War and Vietnam War. He toured Vietnam with the USO, entertaining troops along with Art Buchwald and George Plimpton. He served as chairman of the Cartoonists' Committee in President Dwight D. Eisenhower's People-to-People program in 1954 (although Capp had supported Adlai Stevenson for president in 1952 and 1956), which was organized to promote Savings bonds for the U.S. Treasury. Capp had earlier provided the Shmoo for a special Children's Savings Bond in 1949, accompanying President Harry S. Truman at the bond's unveiling ceremony. During the Soviet Union's blockade of West Berlin in 1948, the commanders of the Berlin airlift had cabled Capp, requesting inflatable shmoos as part of "Operation: Little Vittles". Candy-filled shmoos were air-dropped to hungry West Berliners by America's 17th Military Airport Squadron during the humanitarian effort. "When the candy-chocked shmoos were dropped, a near-riot resulted," (reported in "Newsweek"—October 11, 1948).
In addition to his public service work for charitable organizations for disabled people, Capp also served on the National Reading Council, which was organized to combat illiteracy. He published a column ("Wrong Turn Onto Sesame Street") challenging federally funded public television endowments in favor of educational comics—which, according to Capp, "didn't cost a dime in taxes and never had. I pointed out that a kid could enjoy "Sesame Street" "without" learning how to read, but he couldn't enjoy comic strips "unless" he could read; and that a smaller investment in getting kids to read by supplying them with educational matter in such "reading" form might make better sense."
Capp's academic interests included being one of nineteen original "Trustees and Advisors" for "Endicott, Junior College for Young Woman", located in Pride's Crossing (Beverly), Massachusetts, which was founded in 1939. Al Capp is listed in the 1942 Mingotide Yearbook, representing the first graduating class from what is now the 4-year school known as Endicott College. The yearbook entry includes his credential as a "Cartoonist for United Feature Syndicate" and a resident of New York City.
"Comics", wrote Capp in 1970, "can be a combination of the highest quality of art and text, and many of them are." Capp produced many giveaway educational comic books and public services pamphlets, spanning several decades, for the Red Cross, the Department of Civil Defense, the Department of the Navy, the U.S. Army, the Anti-Defamation League, the Department of Labor, Community Chest (a forerunner of United Way), and the Job Corps. Capp's studio provided special artwork for various civic groups and nonprofit organizations as well. Dogpatch characters were used in national campaigns for the Cancer Foundation, the March of Dimes, the National Heart Fund, the Boy Scouts of America, Minnesota Tuberculosis and Health Association, the National Amputation Foundation, and Disabled American Veterans, among others. They were also used to help sell Christmas Seals.
In the early 1960s, Capp regularly wrote a column entitled "Al Capp's Column" for the newspaper "The Schenectady Gazette" (currently "The Daily Gazette"). He was the "Playboy" interview subject in December 1965, in a conversation conducted by Alvin Toffler. In August 1967, Capp was the narrator and host of an ABC network special called "Do Blondes Have More Fun?" In 1970, he was the subject of a provocative NBC documentary called "This Is Al Capp".
The 1960s and 1970s.
Capp and his family lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts, near Harvard University, during the entire Vietnam War protest era. The turmoil that Americans were watching on their television sets was happening live—right in his own neighborhood. Campus radicals and "hippies" inevitably became one of Capp's favorite targets in the sixties. Alongside his long-established caricatures of right-wing, big business types such as General Bullmoose and J. Roaringham Fatback, Capp began spoofing counterculture icons such as Joan Baez (in the character of Joanie Phoanie, a wealthy folksinger who offers an impoverished orphanage ten thousand dollars' worth of "protest songs"). The sequence implicitly labeled Baez a limousine liberal, a charge she took to heart, as detailed years later in her 1987 autobiography, "And A Voice To Sing With: A Memoir". Another target was Senator Ted Kennedy, parodied as "Senator O. Noble McGesture", resident of "Hyideelsport". The town name is a play on Hyannisport, Massachusetts, where a number of the Kennedy clan have lived.
Capp became a popular public speaker on college campuses, where he reportedly relished hecklers. He attacked militant antiwar demonstrators, both in his personal appearances and in his strip. He also satirized student political groups. The Youth International Party (YIP) and Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) emerged in "Li'l Abner" as "Students Wildly Indignant about Nearly Everything!" (SWINE). In an April 1969 letter to "Time", Capp insisted, "The students I blast are not the dissenters, but the destroyers—the less than 4% who lock up deans in washrooms, who burn manuscripts of unpublished books, who make combination pigpens and playpens of their universities. The remaining 96% detest them as heartily as I do."
Capp's increasingly controversial remarks at his campus speeches and during television appearances cost him his semi-regular spot on the "Tonight Show". His contentious public persona during this period was captured on a late sixties comedy LP called "Al Capp On Campus". The album features his interaction with students at Fresno State College (now California State University, Fresno) on such topics as "sensitivity training", "humanitarianism", "abstract art" (Capp hated it), and "student protest". The cover features a cartoon drawing by Capp of wildly dressed, angry hippies carrying protest signs with slogans like "End Capp Brutality", "Abner and Daisy Mae Smoke Pot", "Capp Is Over [30, 40, 50—all crossed out] the Hill!!", and "If You Like Crap, You'll Like Capp!"
Highlights of the strip's final decades include the stories "Boomchik" (1961), in which America's international prestige is saved by Mammy Yokum, "Daisy Mae Steps Out" (1966), a female-empowering tale of Daisy's brazenly audacious "homewrecker gland", "The Lips of Marcia Perkins" (1967), a satirical, thinly-veiled commentary on venereal disease and public health warnings, "Ignoble Savages" (1968), in which the Mob takes over Harvard, and "Corporal Crock" (1973), in which Bullmoose reveals his reactionary cartoon role model, in a tale of obsession and the fanatical world of comic book collecting.
The cartoonist visited John Lennon and Yoko Ono at their 1969 Bed-In for Peace in Montreal, and their testy exchange later appeared in the documentary film ' (1988). Introducing himself with the words "I'm a dreadful Neanderthal fascist. How do you do?", Capp sardonically congratulated Lennon and Ono on their ' nude album cover: "I think that everybody owes it to the world to prove they have pubic hair. You've done it, and I tell you that I applaud you for it." Following this exchange, Capp insulted Ono ("Good God, you've gotta live with that?"), and was asked to "get out" by Lennon publicist Derek Taylor. Lennon allowed him to stay, however, but the conversation had soured considerably. On Capp's exit, Lennon sang an impromptu version of his song "The Ballad of John and Yoko" with a slightly revised, but nonetheless prophetic lyric: "Christ, you know it ain't easy / You know how hard it can be / The way things are goin' / They're gonna crucify "Capp!" "
Despite his political conservatism in the last decade of his life, Capp is reported to have been liberal in some particular causes; he supported gay rights, and did not tolerate any attempts at homophobic jokes. He is also said to have supported Martin Luther King Jr. and the fight for racial equality in American society, although he was very sceptical of the tactics of the Black Panthers and Malcolm X.
In 1968, a theme park called Dogpatch USA opened at Marble Falls, Arkansas, based on Capp's work and with his support. The park was a popular attraction during the 1970s, but was abandoned in 1993 due to financial difficulties. By 2005, the area once devoted to a live-action facsimile of Dogpatch (including a lifesize statue in the town square of Dogpatch "founder" General Jubilation T. Cornpone) had been heavily stripped by vandals and souvenir hunters, and was slowly being reclaimed by the surrounding Arkansas wilderness.
On April 22, 1971, syndicated columnist Jack Anderson reported allegations that in February 1968 Capp had made indecent advances to four female students when he was invited to speak at the University of Alabama. Anderson and an associate confirmed that Capp was shown out of town by university police, but that the incident had been hushed up by the university to avoid negative publicity.
The following month, Capp was charged in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, in connection with another alleged incident following his April 1 lecture at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Capp was accused of propositioning a married woman in his hotel room. Although no sexual act was alleged to have resulted, the original charge included "sodomy". As part of a plea agreement, Capp pleaded guilty to the charge of "attempted adultery" (adultery was a felony in Wisconsin), and the other charges were dropped. Capp was fined $500 and court costs. In a December 1992 article for "The New Yorker," Seymour Hersh reported that President Richard Nixon and Charles Colson had repeatedly discussed the Capp case in Oval Office recordings that had recently been made available by the National Archives. Nixon and Capp were on friendly terms, Hersh wrote, and Nixon and Colson had worked to find a way for Capp to run against Ted Kennedy for the U.S. Senate. "Nixon was worried about the allegations, fearing that Capp's very close links to the White House would become embarrassingly public", Hersh wrote. "The White House tapes and documents show that he and Colson discussed the issue repeatedly, and that Colson eventually reassured the president by saying that he had, in essence, fixed the case. Specifically, the president was told that one of Colson's people had gone to Wisconsin and tried to talk to the prosecutors." Colson's efforts failed, however. The Eau Claire district attorney, a Republican, refused to dismiss the attempted adultery charge. In passing sentence in February 1972, the judge rejected the D.A.'s motion that Capp agree to undergo psychiatric treatment.
The resulting publicity led to hundreds of papers dropping his comic strip, and Capp, already in failing health, withdrew from public speaking. Celebrity biographer James Spada has claimed that similar allegations were made by actress Grace Kelly. However, no firsthand allegation has ever surfaced.
"From beginning to end, Capp was acid-tongued toward the targets of his wit, intolerant of hypocrisy, and always wickedly funny. After about 40 years, however, Capp's interest in "Abner" waned, and this showed in the strip itself," according to Don Markstein's "Toonopedia". Although Capp had used assistants on the strip practically since the beginning, in the final years his own involvement in the strip decreased. His health issues made it increasingly difficult for Capp to work, recalled his assistants. On November 13, 1977, Capp retired with an apology to his fans for the recently declining quality of the strip, which he said had been the best he could manage due to declining health. "If you have any sense of humor about your strip—and I had a sense of humor about mine—you knew that for three or four years "Abner" was wrong. Oh hell, it's like a fighter retiring. I stayed on longer than I should have," he admitted, adding that he couldn't breathe anymore. "When he retired "Li'l Abner", newspapers ran expansive articles and television commentators talked about the passing of an era. "People magazine" ran a substantial feature, and even the comics-free "New York Times" devoted nearly a full page to the event", wrote publisher Denis Kitchen.
Capp's final years were marked by advancing illness and by family tragedy. In October 1977, one of his two daughters died; a few weeks later, a beloved granddaughter was killed in a car accident. A lifelong chain smoker, Capp died in 1979 from emphysema at his home in South Hampton, New Hampshire. Capp is buried in Mount Prospect Cemetery in Amesbury, Massachusetts. Engraved on his headstone is a stanza from Thomas Gray: "The plowman homeward plods his weary way / And leaves the world to darkness and to me" (from "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard", 1751).
Legacy.
"Neither the strip's shifting political leanings nor the slide of its final few years had any bearing on its status as a classic; and in 1995, it was recognized as such by the U.S. Postal Service", according to "Toonopedia". "Li'l Abner" was one of 20 American comic strips included in the Comic Strip Classics series of USPS commemorative stamps. Al Capp, an inductee into the National Cartoon Museum (formerly the International Museum of Cartoon Art), is one of only 31 artists selected to their Hall of Fame. Capp was also inducted into the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 2004.
Sadie Hawkins Day and double whammy are two terms attributed to Al Capp that have entered the English language. Other, less ubiquitous Cappisms include skunk works and Lower Slobbovia. The term shmoo also has entered the lexicon, defining highly technical concepts in no fewer than "four" separate fields of science, including the variations shmooing (a microbiological term for the "budding" process in yeast reproduction), and shmoo plot (a technical term in the field of electrical engineering). In socioeconomics, a "shmoo" refers to any generic kind of good that reproduces itself, (as opposed to "widgets" which require resources and active production). In the field of particle physics, "shmoo" refers to a high energy survey instrument, as used at the Los Alamos National Laboratory to capture subatomic cosmic ray particles emitted from the Cygnus X-3 constellation. Capp also had a knack for popularizing certain uncommon terms, such as druthers, schmooze, and nogoodnik, neatnik, etc. In his book "The American Language", H.L. Mencken credits the postwar mania for adding "-nik" to the ends of adjectives to create nouns as beginning—not with beatnik or Sputnik—but earlier, in the pages of "Li'l Abner".
Al Capp's life and career are the subjects of a new life-sized mural commemorating the 100th anniversary of his birth. Created by resident artist Jon P. Mooers, the mural was unveiled in downtown Amesbury on May 15, 2010. According to the "Boston Globe" (as reported on May 18, 2010), the town has renamed its amphitheater in the artist's honor, and is looking to develop an Al Capp Museum. Capp is also the subject of an upcoming WNET-TV "American Masters" documentary, "The Life and Times of Al Capp", produced by his granddaughter, independent filmmaker Caitlin Manning.
Since his death in 1979, Al Capp and his work have been the subject of more than 40 books, including three biographies. Underground cartoonist and "Li'l Abner" expert Denis Kitchen has published, co-published, edited, or otherwise served as consultant on nearly all of them. Kitchen is currently compiling a biographical monograph on Al Capp.
At San Diego Comic-Con in July 2009, IDW announced the upcoming publication of "Al Capp's Li'l Abner: The Complete Dailies and Color Sundays" as part of their ongoing The Library of American Comics series. The comprehensive series, a reprinting of the entire 43-year history of "Li'l Abner", spanning a projected 20 volumes, began on April 7, 2010.
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Ann Druyan
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Ann Druyan ( ; born June 13, 1949) is an American documentary producer and director specializing in the communication of science. She co-wrote the 1980 PBS documentary series ', hosted by Carl Sagan, whom she married in 1981. She is the creator, producer, and writer of the 2014 sequel, ' and its sequel series, "", as well as the book of the same name. She directed episodes of both series.
In the late 1970s, she became the creative director of NASA's Voyager Interstellar Message Project, which produced the golden discs affixed to both the "Voyager 1" and "Voyager 2" spacecraft. She also published a novel, "A Famous Broken Heart", in 1977, and later co-wrote several best selling non-fiction books with Sagan.
Early life and education.
Ann Druyan was born in Queens, New York, the daughter of Pearl A. () and Harry Druyan, who co-owned a knitwear firm. Her family was Jewish.
Druyan's early interest in math and science was, in her word, "derailed" when a junior high-school teacher ridiculed a question she asked about the universality of . "I raised my hand and said, 'You mean this applies to every circle in the universe?', and the teacher told me not to ask stupid questions. And there I was having this religious experience, and she made me feel like such a fool. I was completely flummoxed from then on until after college." Druyan characterized her three years at New York University as "disastrous", and it was only after she left school without graduating that she discovered the pre-Socratic philosophers and began educating herself, thus leading to a renewed interest in science.
Career.
In the late 1970s, Druyan became the creative director of NASA's Voyager Interstellar Message Project. As creative director, Druyan worked with a team to design a complex message, including music and images, for possible alien civilizations. These golden phonograph records affixed to the "Voyager 1" and "Voyager 2" spacecraft are now beyond the outermost planets of the Solar System, and "Voyager 1" has entered interstellar space. Both records have a projected shelf life of one billion years.
Druyan's role on the project was discussed on the July 8, 2018, 60 Minutes segment "The Little Spacecraft That Could". In the segment, Druyan explained her insistence that Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode" be included on the Golden Record, saying: "..."Johnny B. Goode", rock and roll, was the music of motion, of moving, getting to someplace you've never been before, and the odds are against you, but you want to go. That was Voyager." The segment also discussed Sagan's suggestion, in 1990, that "Voyager 1" turn its cameras back towards Earth to take a series of photographs showing the planets of the Solar System. The shots, showing Earth from a distance of 3.7 billion miles as a small point of bluish light, became the basis for Sagan's famous "Pale Blue Dot" passage, first published in " (1994).
During that time, Druyan also co-wrote (with Carl Sagan and Steven Soter) the 1980 PBS documentary series ", hosted by Carl Sagan. The thirteen-part series covered a wide range of scientific subjects, including the origin of life and a perspective of humans place in the universe. It was highly acclaimed, and became the most widely watched series in the history of American public television at that time. The series won two Emmys and a Peabody Award, and has since been broadcast in more than 60 countries and seen by over 500 million people. A book was also published to accompany the series. , it is still the most widely watched PBS series in the world. Several revised versions of the series were later broadcast; one version, telecast after Sagan's death, opens with Druyan paying tribute to her late husband and the impact of "Cosmos" over the years.
Druyan wrote and produced the 1987 PBS "NOVA" episode "Confessions of a Weaponeer" on the life of President Eisenhower's Science Advisor George Kistiakowsky.
In 2000, Druyan, together with Steve Soter, co-wrote "Passport to the Universe", the inaugural planetarium show for the Rose Center for Earth and Space at the American Natural History Museum's Hayden Planetarium. The attraction is narrated by Tom Hanks. Druyan and Soter also co-wrote "The Search for Life: Are We Alone", narrated by Harrison Ford, which also debuted at the Hayden's Rose Center.
In 2000, Druyan co-founded Cosmos Studios, Inc, with Joseph Firmage. As CEO of Cosmos Studios, Druyan produces science-based entertainment for all media. In addition to "", Cosmos Studios has produced "Cosmic Africa", "Lost Dinosaurs of Egypt", and the Emmy-nominated documentary "Cosmic Journey: The Voyager Interstellar Mission and Message". In 2009, she distributed a series of podcasts called "At Home in the Cosmos with Annie Druyan", in which she described her works, the life of her husband, Carl Sagan, and their marriage.
Druyan is credited, with Carl Sagan, as the co-creator and co-producer of the 1997 feature film "Contact".
In 2011, it was announced that Druyan would executive produce, co-write, and be one of the episodic directors for a sequel to ', to be called ', which began airing in March 2014. Episodes premiered on Fox and also aired on National Geographic Channel on the following night. At the time of its release, Fox gave the series the largest global rollout of a television series ever, debuting it in 180 countries. The premiere episode was shown across nine of Fox's cable properties in addition to the broadcast network in a "roadblock" style premiere. The series went on to become the most-watched series ever for National Geographic Channel International, with at least some part of the 13-episode series watched by 135 million people, including 45 million in the U.S.
In March 2020, a third season of "Cosmos", named "", for which Druyan was executive producer, writer, and director, premiered on National Geographic. Druyan also said: "I very much have season four in mind, and I know what it's going to be. And I even know some of the stories that I want to tell in it."
Writing.
Druyan's first novel, "A Famous Broken Heart", was published in 1977.
Druyan co-wrote six "New York Times" bestsellers with Carl Sagan, including: "Comet", "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors", and "The Demon-Haunted World". She is co-author, along with Carl Sagan, F. D. Drake, Timothy Ferris, Jon Lomberg and Linda Salzman Sagan, of "Murmurs Of Earth: The Voyager Interstellar Record". She also wrote the updated introduction to Sagan's book "The Cosmic Connection" and the epilogue of "Billions and Billions". She wrote the introduction to, and edited "The Varieties of Scientific Experience", published from Sagan's 1985 Gifford lectures.
In February 2020, Druyan published "Cosmos: Possible Worlds", a companion volume to , which premiered in March 2020.
Work in science.
Druyan is a fellow of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP).
Druyan served as program director of the first solar-sail deep-space mission, Cosmos 1, launched on a Russian ICBM in 2005.
Druyan is involved in multiple Breakthrough Initiatives. With Frank Drake, Druyan is the co-chair of Breakthrough Message and also a member of Breakthrough Starshot.
She is a member of the advisory board of The Carl Sagan Institute.
Activism.
Druyan has for many years been a vocal advocate for nuclear disarmament. She was arrested three times at the Mercury, Nevada nuclear test site during Mikhail Gorbachev's unilateral moratorium on underground nuclear testing, with which President Ronald Reagan did not cooperate. This included an arrest in June 1986, when she crossed a white painted line indicating the test site's boundary. Sagan, who attended the same protest with Druyan, was not arrested.
In the early 1990s, Druyan worked with Sagan and then-Senator Al Gore Jr. and a host of religious and scientific leaders to bring the scientific and religious worlds together in a unified effort to preserve the environment, resulting in the "Declaration of the 'Mission to Washington".
She was a founding director of the Children's Health Fund until the spring of 2004, a project that provides mobile pediatric care to homeless and disadvantaged children in more than half a dozen cities. She is currently a member of their advisory board.
She has been on the board of directors of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) for over 10 years and was its president from 2006 to 2010.
Honors.
An asteroid discovered in 1988 was named in Druyan's honor by its discoverer Eleanor F. Helin. In a 2020 interview with "Skeptical Inquirer", Druyan discussed 4970 Druyan and the asteroid named after her late husband, saying that 4970 Druyan is in a "wedding ring orbit" around the Sun with 2709 Sagan. Druyan was presented with a plaque on Sagan's sixtieth birthday, which is inscribed: "Asteroid 2709 Sagan in eternal companion orbit with asteroid 4970 Druyan, symbolic of their love and admiration for each other."
In November 2006, Druyan was a speaker at "".
In January 2007, she was a juror at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, responsible for selecting the winner of the Alfred P. Sloan Prize for films about science and technology.
In November 2007, Druyan was awarded the title of "Humanist Laureate" by the International Academy of Humanism.
In October 2019, the Center for Inquiry West opened the Carl Sagan–Ann Druyan Theater in Los Angeles.
Religious and philosophical views.
In an interview with Joel Achenbach of "The Washington Post", Druyan said that her early interest in science stemmed from a fascination with Karl Marx. Achenbach commented that "She had, at the time, rather vaporous standards of evidence", a reference to her belief in the ancient astronauts of Erich von Däniken and the theories of Immanuel Velikovsky pertaining to the solar system.
Concerning the death of her husband she stated:
When my husband died, because he was so famous and known for not being a believer, many people would come up to me—it still sometimes happens—and ask me if Carl changed at the end and converted to a belief in an afterlife. They also frequently ask me if I think I will see him again. Carl faced his death with unflagging courage and never sought refuge in illusions. The tragedy was that we knew we would never see each other again. I don't ever expect to be reunited with Carl.
Personal life.
Druyan and Sagan's working and resulting romantic relationship has been the subject of numerous treatments in popular culture, including the Radiolab episode "Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan's Ultimate Mix Tape", a segment of the Comedy Central program "Drunk History"s episode "Space", and the song "Sounds of Earth" by Jim Moray. The asteroid 4970 Druyan, which is in a companion orbit with asteroid 2709 Sagan named after Druyan's late husband, is named after Druyan. In 2015, it was announced that Warner Brothers was in development on a drama about Sagan and Druyan's relationship, to be produced by producer Lynda Obst and Druyan.
In 2020, Sagan and Druyan's daughter Sasha Sagan released a book "For Small Creatures Such As We: Rituals for Finding Meaning in our Unlikely World", which discusses life with her parents and her father's death when she was fourteen years old.
Druyan also gave Sasha a recurring role in "", where she played her own grandmother, including in the episode "Man of a Trillion Worlds", which featured the life of Carl Sagan.
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Analcime
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Analcime (; ) or analcite is a white, gray, or colorless tectosilicate mineral. Analcime consists of hydrated sodium aluminium silicate in cubic crystalline form. Its chemical formula is NaAlSi2O6 · H2O. Minor amounts of potassium and calcium substitute for sodium. A silver-bearing synthetic variety also exists (Ag-analcite). Analcime is usually classified as a zeolite mineral, but structurally and chemically it is more similar to the feldspathoids. Analcime is not classified as an isometric crystal, as although the crystal structure appears to be isometric, it is usually off only by a fraction of an angle. However, there are truly isometric samples of the mineral, which makes its classification even more difficult. Due to the differences between the samples being too slight, there's no merit from having multiple species names, so as a result analcime is a common example for minerals occurring in multiple crystal systems and space groups. It was first described by French geologist Déodat de Dolomieu, who called it zéolithe dure, meaning hard zeolite. It was found in lava in Cyclops, Italy. The mineral is IMA approved, and had been grandfathered, meaning the name analcime is believed to refer to a valid species til this day.
Properties.
Analcime crystals always look pseudocubic. Its common crystal forms include trapezohedron, truncated trapezohedron with cubic faces, and more rarely either as a truncated trapezohedron, or the crystals can take the shape of a truncated cube that is typical to bixbyites. The crystals can occur either individually, as interconnected, form groups on plates or even in druzy form. Crystal masses can also form veins sometimes. Individual crystals are euhedral, meaning they have well defined faces. When on a matrix, the mineral takes a granular habit, meaning the crystals become anhedral. The color of the mineral varies due to trace impurities. The mineral is weakly piezoelectric and pyroelectric, meaning it produces a weak electric charge when it's rubbed or heated, hence the name analcime. Other characteristics include the fact that the mineral can have a blueish white fluorescence when inspected under short UV light, and a creamy white-yellow one inspected under long UV light. It does not show any pleochroic or radioactive properties. Analyses regarding the mineral's symmetry vary in results, however the most prevalent one being tetragonal. The mineral usually has polysynthetic twins, which are only visible in thin sections when the specimen is inspected under polarized analyzed light. Analcime mainly consists of oxygen (50.87%), silicon (25.51%), aluminum (12.26%), sodium (10.44%) but otherwise has a negligible amount of hydrogen (0.92%) as well. The highest quality specimens take the form of a trapezohedron, and can reach up to 25 cm. These specimens are associated with serandite, aegyrine and natrolite, and can be found at Mont Saint-Hilaire, Quebec. Of the pinkish-white specimens, the mineral takes the shape of well-formed cubes which can exceed 10 cm, originating from several sites in Val di Fassa, Trentino, Italy.
Formation and associated minerals.
Analcime occurs as a primary mineral in analcime basalt and other alkaline igneous rocks. It also occurs as cavity and vesicle fillings associated with prehnite, calcite, and zeolites. Analcime forms in sedimentary rocks at temperatures below about , and so its presence indicates that the rock has experienced shallow diagenesis. Although it is common in igneous rocks (namely basalts and trachy-basalts), it is more rarely found in phonolites. Associations include zeolites, calcite and prehnite; however, it is also found in nepheline syenites and their pegmatites. It forms a series with pollucite.
Locations.
Well known locations for sourcing analcime include Croft Quarry in Leicestershire, UK; the Cyclopean Islands east off Sicily and near Trentino in northern Italy; Victoria in Australia; Kerguelen Island in the Indian Ocean; in the Lake Superior copper district of Michigan, Bergen Hill, New Jersey, Golden, Colorado, and at Searles Lake, California in the United States; and at Cape Blomidon, Nova Scotia and Mont Saint-Hilaire, Quebec in Canada; and in Iceland, and in Namibia. Siberian samples from Nidym and Toura provide us with white crystals of 18 cm. Samples of the Cyclopean Islands are known for their beautiful and clear crystals, just like the crystals of Kings Valley and Springfield in Oregon, which can reach up to 6 cm. Coleman, Alberta in Canada is known for producing beautiful red crystals.
Usage.
Other than its aesthetic values, analcime currently presents no use. Crystallized specimens are sought after by collectors, and the mineral is hardly ever made into jewelry. The crystals made into jewelries are uncut and handcrafted. It has lacking use as a microporous material. This is due to the fact that analcime has a compact structure and thus it has a strong resistance to diffusion of both molecules and cations. Analcime-bearing tuffs are sometimes used as building materials.
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Alexey Pajitnov
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Alexey Leonidovich Pajitnov (born April 16, 1955) is a Russian-American computer engineer and video game designer. He is best known for creating, designing, and developing "Tetris" in 1985 while working at the Dorodnitsyn Computing Centre under the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union (now the Russian Academy of Sciences). After "Tetris" was released internationally in 1987, he released a sequel in 1989, entitled "Welltris".
In 1991, he moved to the United States and later became a U.S. citizen. In 1996, Pajitnov founded The Tetris Company alongside Dutch video game designer Henk Rogers. Despite the game's high popularity, Pajitnov did not receive royalties from "Tetris" prior to this time; the Soviet Union had disintegrated by 1991.
Early life.
Pajitnov was born to Russian parents who were both writers. His father was an art critic and his mother was a journalist who wrote for both newspapers and a film magazine. It was through his parents that Pajitnov gained exposure to the arts, eventually developing a passion for cinema. He accompanied his mother to many film screenings, including the Moscow Film Festival. Pajitnov was also mathematically inclined, enjoying puzzles and problem solving.
In 1967, when he was 11 years old, Pajitnov's parents divorced. For several years, he lived with his mother in a one-bedroom apartment owned by the state. The two were eventually able to move into a private apartment at 49 Gertsen Street, when Pajitnov was 17. He later went on to study applied mathematics at the Moscow Aviation Institute.
Career.
In 1977, Pajitnov worked as a summer intern at the Soviet Academy of Sciences. Once he graduated in 1979, he accepted a job there working on speech recognition at the academy's Dorodnitsyn Computing Centre. When the Computing Centre received new equipment, its researchers would write a small program for it in order to test its computing capabilities. According to Pajitnov, this "became [his] excuse for making games". Computer games were fascinating to him because they offered a way to bridge the gap between logic and emotion, and Pajitnov held interests in both mathematics and puzzles, as well as the psychology of computing.
Searching for inspiration, Pajitnov recalled his childhood memories of playing pentominoes, a game in which the user creates pictures using its shapes. Remembering the difficulty he had in putting the pieces back into their box, Pajitnov felt inspired to create a game based on that concept. Using an Electronika 60 in the Computing Centre, he began working on what would become the first version of "Tetris". Building the first prototype in two weeks, Pajitnov spent longer playtesting and adding to the game, completing it on June 6, 1985. This primitive version did not have levels or a scoring system, but Pajitnov knew he had a potentially great game, since he could not stop playing it at work.
The game attracted the interest of coworkers like fellow programmer Dmitri Pevlovsky, who helped Pajitnov connect with Vadim Gerasimov, a 16-year-old intern at the Soviet Academy. Pajitnov wanted to make a color version of "Tetris" for the IBM Personal Computer, and enlisted the intern to help. Gerasimov created the PC version in less than three weeks, and with contributions from Pevlovsky, spent an additional month adding new features like scorekeeping and sound effects. The game, first available in the Soviet Union, received international releases through Mirrorsoft and Spectrum Holobyte in 1988.
Pajitnov created a sequel to "Tetris", entitled "Welltris", which has the same principle, but in a three-dimensional environment where the player sees the playing area from above.
"Tetris" was licensed and managed by Soviet company ELORG, which had a monopoly on the import and export of computer hardware and software in the Soviet Union, and advertised with the slogan "From Russia with Love" (on NES: "From Russia with Fun!"). Because he was employed by the Soviet Academy of Sciences, Pajitnov did not receive royalties.
Pajitnov, together with Vladimir Pokhilko, moved to the United States following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, and in 1996 founded The Tetris Company with Henk Rogers, which, in combination with the rights reverting to him in 1995 or 1996, finally allowed him to collect royalties from his game. He helped design the puzzles in the Super NES versions of "Yoshi's Cookie" and designed the game "Pandora's Box", which incorporates more traditional jigsaw-style puzzles. Pajitnov and Pokhilko founded the 3D software technology company AnimaTek, which developed the game / screensaver El-Fish.
He was employed by Microsoft from October 1996 until 2005. While there, he worked on the "", MSN Mind Aerobics and MSN Games groups. Pajitnov's new, enhanced version of "Hexic", "Hexic HD", was included with every new Xbox 360 Premium package.
In August 2005, WildSnake Software announced that Pajitnov would be collaborating with them to release a new line of puzzle games.
Personal life.
Pajitnov moved to the United States in 1991, was naturalized as a U.S. citizen and now lives in Clyde Hill, Washington. He has a wife, Nina, with whom he has two sons.
Political views.
After the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Pajitnov issued a statement condemning the war and stating that he was "sure that Putin and his hateful regime will fall down and the normal peaceful way of living will be restored in Ukraine and, hopefully, in Russia".
Awards and recognition.
In 1996, GameSpot named him as the fourth most influential computer game developer of all time. In March 2007, he received the Game Developers Choice Awards First Penguin Award. The award was given for pioneering the casual games market.
In June 2009, he received the honorary award at the LARA - Der Deutsche Games Award in Cologne, Germany. In 2012, IGN included Pajitnov on their list of 5 Memorable Video Game Industry One-Hit Wonders, calling him "the ultimate video game one-hit wonder." In 2015, Pajitnov won the Bizkaia Award at the Fun & Serious Game Festival.
Pajitnov was portrayed by Russian actor Nikita Yefremov in the 2023 movie "Tetris", a dramatised retelling of the licensing bidding war for Tetris in the late 1980s.
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ʻAbdu'l-Bahá
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ʻAbdu'l-Bahá (; Persian: , ;, 23 May 1844 – 28 November 1921), born ʻAbbás (, ), was the eldest son of Baháʼu'lláh, founder of the Bahá’í Faith, who designated him to be his successor and head of the Baháʼí Faith from 1892 until 1921. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá was later cited as the last of three "central figures" of the religion, along with Baháʼu'lláh and the Báb, and his writings and authenticated talks are regarded as sources of Baháʼí sacred literature.
He was born in Tehran to an aristocratic family. At the age of eight, his father was imprisoned during a government crackdown on the Bábí Faith and the family's possessions were looted, leaving them in virtual poverty. His father was exiled from their native Iran, and the family established their residence in Baghdad in Iraq, where they stayed for ten years. They were later called by the Ottoman state to Istanbul before entering another period of confinement in Edirne and finally the prison-city of ʻAkká (Acre). ʻAbdu'l-Bahá remained a prisoner there until the Young Turk Revolution freed him in 1908 at the age of 64. He then made several journeys to the West to spread the Baháʼí message beyond its middle-eastern roots, but the onset of World War I left him largely confined to Haifa from 1914 to 1918. Following the war, the openly hostile Ottoman authorities were replaced by the British Mandate over Palestine, during which time he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire for his help in averting famine following the war.
In 1892, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá was appointed in his father's will to be his successor and head of the Baháʼí Faith. His "Tablets of the Divine Plan" galvanized Baháʼís in North America to spread the Baháʼí teachings to new territories, and his Will and Testament laid the foundation for the current Baháʼí administrative order. Many of his writings, prayers and letters are extant, and his discourses with the Western Baháʼís emphasize the growth of the religion by the late 1890s.
ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's given name was ʻAbbás. Depending on context, he would have gone by either Mírzá ʻAbbás (Persian) or ʻAbbás Effendi (Turkish), both of which are equivalent to the English Sir ʻAbbás. During most of his time as head of the Bahá'í Faith, he used and preferred the title of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá ("servant of Bahá", a reference to his father). He is commonly referred to in Baháʼí texts as "The Master".
Early life.
ʻAbdu'l-Bahá was born in Tehran, Persia (now Iran) on 23 May 1844 (5th of Jamadiyu'l-Avval, 1260 AH), the eldest son of Baháʼu'lláh and Navváb. He was born on the same night on which the Báb declared his mission. Given the name ʻAbbás at birth, he was named after his grandfather Mírzá ʻAbbás Núrí, a prominent and powerful nobleman. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's early years were shaped by his father's prominent role within the Bábí community. As a child, he fondly recalled interactions with the Bábí, Táhirih, describing how she would take him on her knee, caress him, and engage in heartfelt conversations, leaving a lasting impression on him. His childhood was characterized by happiness and carefree moments. The family's residences in Tehran and the countryside were not only comfortable but also beautifully adorned. Alongside his younger siblings – a sister, Bahíyyih, and a brother, Mihdí – he experienced a life of privilege, joy, and comfort. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá loved playing in the gardens with his younger sister, fostering a strong bond between them. During his formative years, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá observed his parents' commitment to various charitable endeavors, including the conversion of part of their home into a hospital ward for women and children.
Due to a life largely marked by exile and imprisonment, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá had limited opportunities for formal schooling. In his youth, it was customary for children of nobility, including ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, not to attend conventional schools. Instead, noblemen typically received a brief education at home, focusing on subjects such as scripture, rhetoric, calligraphy, and basic mathematics, with an emphasis on preparing for life within royal courts.
ʻAbdu'l-Bahá spent only a short period at a traditional preparatory school at the age of seven for a single year. His mother and uncle took on the responsibility of his early education, but the primary source of his learning was his father. In 1890 Edward Granville Browne described ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, saying that "one more eloquent of speech, more ready of argument, more apt of illustration, more intimately acquainted with the sacred books of the Jews, the Christians, and the Muhammadans...could scarcely be found..."
According to contemporary accounts ʻAbdu'l-Bahá was an eloquent and charming child. At the age of seven, he faced a severe health challenge when he contracted tuberculosis, and his prognosis suggested death. Though the illness abated, this marked the beginning of a lifelong struggle with recurrent bouts of various illnesses that would persist throughout his life.
One event that affected ʻAbdu'l-Bahá greatly during his childhood was the imprisonment of his father when ʻAbdu'l-Bahá was eight years old; this circumstance led to a considerable decline in the family's economic standing, subjecting him to poverty and exposing him to hostility from other children in the streets. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá accompanied his mother to visit Baháʼu'lláh who was then imprisoned in the infamous subterranean dungeon the Síyáh-Chál. He described how "I saw a dark, steep place. We entered a small, narrow doorway, and went down two steps, but beyond those one could see nothing. In the middle of the stairway, all of a sudden we heard His [Baháʼu'lláh's]…voice: 'Do not bring him in here', and so they took me back".
Baghdad.
Baháʼu'lláh was eventually released from prison but was ordered into exile, and ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, then eight years old, joined his father on the journey to Baghdad in the winter (January to April) of 1853. During the journey ʻAbdu'l-Bahá suffered from frost-bite. After a year of difficulties, Baháʼu'lláh absented himself rather than continuing to face the conflict with Mirza Yahya and secluded himself in the mountains of Sulaymaniyah in April 1854, a month before ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's tenth birthday Due to mutual sorrow, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, his mother and sister becoming constant companions. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá was particularly close to both, and his mother took an active role in his education and upbringing. During the two-year absence of his father ʻAbdu'l-Bahá took up the duty of managing the affairs of the family, before his age of maturity (14 in Middle-Eastern society) and was known to be occupied with reading and, at a time of hand-copied scriptures being the primary means of publishing, was also engaged in copying the writings of the Báb. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá also took an interest in the art of horseback riding, and as he grew, he became a renowned rider.
In 1856, news of an ascetic engaging in discourses with local Súfí leaders reached family and friends, raising hopes that it could be Bahá’u’lláh. Immediately, they went to search for Baháʼu'lláh, and in March, brought him back to Baghdad. On seeing his father, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá fell to his knees and wept loudly "Why did you leave us?", and his mother and sister did the same. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá soon became his father's secretary and shield. During the sojourn in the city ʻAbdu'l-Bahá grew from a boy into a young man. He was noted as a "remarkably fine looking youth", and remembered for his charity. Having passed the age of maturity, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá was regularly seen in the mosques of Baghdad discussing religious topics and the scripture as a young man. Whilst in Baghdad, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá composed a commentary at the request of his father on the Muslim tradition of "I was a Hidden Treasure" for a Súfí leader named ʻAlí Shawkat Páshá. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá was fifteen or sixteen at the time and ʻAlí Shawkat Páshá regarded the more than 11,000-word essay as a remarkable feat for someone of his age. In 1863, in what became known as the Garden of Ridván, his father Baháʼu'lláh announced to a few companions that he was the manifestation of God and He whom God shall make manifest whose coming had been foretold by the Báb. On day eight of the twelve days, it is reported that ʻAbdu'l-Bahá was the first person to whom Baháʼu'lláh revealed his claim.
Istanbul/Adrianople.
In 1863, Baháʼu'lláh was summoned to Istanbul, and thus his family, including ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, then eighteen, accompanied him on his 110-day journey. The journey to Constantinople was another wearisome voyage, and ʻAbdu'l-Bahá helped feed the exiles. It was here that his position became more prominent amongst the Baháʼís. This was further solidified by Baháʼu'lláh's tablet of the Branch in which he constantly exalts his son's virtues and station. Bahá’u’lláh and his family were soon exiled to Adrianople, and on this journey ʻAbdu'l-Bahá again suffered from frostbite.
In Adrianople ʻAbdu'l-Bahá was regarded as the sole comforter of his family – in particular to his mother. At this point ʻAbdu'l-Bahá was known by the Baháʼís as "the Master", and by non-Baháʼís as ʻAbbás Effendi ("Effendi" signifies "Sir"). It was in Adrianople that Baháʼu'lláh referred to his son as "the Mystery of God". The title of "Mystery of God" symbolises, according to Baháʼís, that ʻAbdu'l-Bahá is not a manifestation of God but that in the "person of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá the incompatible characteristics of a human nature and superhuman knowledge and perfection have been blended and are completely harmonized". Baháʼu'lláh gave his son many other titles such as "G͟husn-i-Aʻzam" (meaning "Mightiest Branch" or "Mightier Branch"), the "Branch of Holiness", "the Center of the Covenant" and the apple of his eye. Upon learning of yet another exile of Bahá’u’llah, this time to Palestine, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá ("the Master") was devastated when hearing the news that he and his family were to be exiled separately from Baháʼu'lláh. It was, according to Baháʼís, through his intercession that the idea was reverted and the rest of the family were allowed to be exiled together.
ʻAkká.
At the age of 24, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá was clearly chief-steward to his father and an outstanding member of the Baháʼí community. In 1868 Baháʼu'lláh and his family were exiled to the penal colony of ʻAkká, Palestine where it was expected that the family would perish. Arrival in ʻAkká was distressing for the family and exiles when they were met by a hostile local population. When told that the women were to sit on the shoulders of the men to reach the shore, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá obtained chairs to carry the women to land. His sister and father fell dangerously ill. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá was able to procure some anesthetic and nursed the sick. The Baháʼís were imprisoned under horrendous conditions in a cluster of cells covered in excrement and dirt. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá himself fell dangerously ill with dysentery, and a sympathetic soldier permitted a physician to attend to him. The population shunned them, the soldiers treated them badly, and the behaviour of Siyyid Muhammad-i-Isfahani (an Azali) aggravated matters. Morale declined further with the accidental death of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's youngest brother Mírzá Mihdí at the age of 22. The grieving ʻAbdu'l-Bahá kept a night-long vigil beside his brother's body.
Later in ʻAkká.
Over time, he gradually assumed responsibility for the relationships between the small Baháʼí exile community and the outside world. It was through his interaction with the people of ʻAkká (Acre) that, they recognized the innocence of the Baháʼís, and thus the conditions of imprisonment were eased. Four months after the death of Mihdí the family moved from the prison to the House of ʻAbbúd. Gradually the respect of the local population for the Baháʼís increased, and in particular, for ʻAbdu'l-Bahá who soon became very popular in the penal colony. Myron Henry Phelps a wealthy New York lawyer described how "a crowd of human beings...Syrians, Arabs, Ethiopians, and many others", all waited to talk and receive ʻAbdu'l-Bahá. With the passage of time ʻAbdu'l-Bahá was able to rent alternative accommodations for the family, and eventually the family moved to the Mansion of Bahjí around 1879 when an epidemic caused its residents to flee.
ʻAbdu'l-Bahá undertook a history of the Bábí religion through publication of A Traveller's Narrative (Makála-i-Shakhsí Sayyáh) in 1886, later translated and published in translation in 1891 through Cambridge University through the agency of Edward Granville Browne.
Marriage and family life.
When ʻAbdu'l-Bahá was a young man, speculation was rife amongst the Baháʼís as to whom he would marry. Several young girls were seen as marriage prospects but ʻAbdu'l-Bahá seemed disinclined to marriage. On 8 March 1873, at the urging of his father, the twenty-eight-year-old ʻAbdu'l-Bahá married Fátimih Nahrí of Isfahán (1847–1938) a twenty-five-year-old from an upper-class family of the city. Her father was Mírzá Muḥammad ʻAlí Nahrí of Isfahan, an eminent Baháʼí with prominent connections. Fátimih was brought from Persia to ʻAkká after both Baháʼu'lláh and his wife Navváb expressed an interest that she marries ʻAbdu'l-Bahá. After a wearisome journey from Isfahán to Akka she finally arrived accompanied by her brother in 1872. The young couple were betrothed for about five months before the marriage itself commenced. In the meantime, Fátimih lived in the home of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's uncle Mírzá Músá. According to her later memoirs, Fátimih fell in love with ʻAbdu'l-Bahá on seeing him. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá himself had shown little inkling to marriage until meeting Fátimih; who was entitled Munírih by Baháʼu'lláh. Munírih is a title meaning "Luminous".
The marriage resulted in nine children. The first born was a son Mihdí Effendi who died aged about 3. He was followed by Ḍíyáʼíyyih K͟hánum, Fuʼádíyyih K͟hánum (who dies very young), Rúhangíz Khánum (d. 1893), Túbá Khánum, Husayn Effendi (d. 1887 aged 5), Túbá K͟hánum, Rúhá K͟hánum (mother of Munib Shahid), and Munnavar K͟hánum. The death of his children caused ʻAbdu'l-Bahá immense grief – in particular the death of his son Husayn Effendi came at a difficult time following the death of his mother and uncle. The surviving children (all daughters) were; Ḍíyáʼíyyih K͟hánum (mother of Shoghi Effendi) (d. 1951) Túbá K͟hánum (1880–1959) Rúḥá K͟hánum and Munavvar K͟hánum (d. 1971). Baháʼu'lláh wished that the Baháʼís follow the example of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá and gradually move away from polygamy. The marriage of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá to one woman and his choice to remain monogamous, from advice of his father and his own wish, legitimised the practice of monogamy to a people who hitherto had regarded polygamy as a righteous way of life.
Early years of his ministry.
After Baháʼu'lláh died on 29 May 1892, the Book of the Covenant of Baháʼu'lláh (his will) named ʻAbdu'l-Bahá as Centre of the Covenant, successor and interpreter of Baháʼu'lláh's writings.
Baháʼu'lláh designates his successor with the following verses:
In Baháʼu'lláh's will, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's half-brother, Muhammad ʻAlí, was mentioned by name as being subordinate to ʻAbdu'l-Bahá. Muhammad ʻAlí became jealous of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and set out to establish authority for himself as an alternative leader with the support of his brothers Badi’u'llah and Ḍíyáʼu'llah. He began correspondence with Baháʼís in Iran, initially in secret, casting doubts in others' minds about ʻAbdu'l-Bahá. While most Baháʼís followed ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, a handful followed Muhammad ʻAlí including such prominent Bahá’ís as Mirza Javad and Ibrahim George Kheiralla, an early Baháʼí missionary to America.
Muhammad ʻAlí and Mirza Javad began to openly accuse ʻAbdu'l-Bahá of assuming too much authority, suggesting that he believed himself to be a Manifestation of God, equal in status to Baháʼu'lláh. It was at this time that ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, to counter the accusations leveled against him, stated in tablets to the West that he was to be known as "ʻAbdu'l-Bahá" an Arabic phrase meaning the Servant of Bahá to make it clear that he was not a Manifestation of God, and that his station was only servitude. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá left a Will and Testament that established the framework of the administration of the Baháʼí Faith, the two highest institutions of which were the Universal House of Justice, and the Guardianship, for which he appointed his grandson Shoghi Effendi as the Guardian. With the exception of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi, Muhammad ʻAlí was supported by all of the remaining male relatives of Baháʼu'lláh, including Shoghi Effendi's father, Mírzá Hádí Shírází. However, in general the Bahá’ís experienced very little effect from the propaganda of Muhammad ʻAlí and his allies; in the ʻAkká area, the followers of Muhammad ʻAlí represented six families at most, had no common religious activities, and were almost wholly assimilated into Muslim society.
Religions in the past faced schism and doctrinal drift after the death of their prophet founders. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá however managed to preserve the unity and doctrinal integrity of the Baháʼí Faith, even in the face of serious threats from his half-brother's opposition. His success is especially notable given that even in the midst of these attacks his leadership brought about considerable expansion of the Baháʼí community beyond its initial cultural and geographic roots.
First Western pilgrims.
By the end of 1898, Western pilgrims started traveling to Akka on pilgrimage to visit ʻAbdu'l-Bahá; this group of pilgrims, including Phoebe Hearst, was the first time that Baháʼís raised up in the West had met ʻAbdu'l-Bahá. The first group arrived in 1898 and throughout late 1898 to early 1899 Western Baháʼís sporadically visited ʻAbdu'l-Bahá. The group was relatively young containing mainly women from high American society in their 20s. The group of Westerners aroused suspicion for the authorities, and consequently ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's confinement was tightened. During the next decade ʻAbdu'l-Bahá would be in constant communication with Baháʼís around the world, encouraging them to teach the religion; the group included Susan Moody, Lua Getsinger, Laura Clifford Barney, Herbert Hopper and May Ellis Bolles in Paris (all Americans); Englishman Thomas Breakwell; and Frenchman . It was Laura Clifford Barney who, by asking questions of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá over many years and many visits to Haifa, compiled what later became the book Some Answered Questions.
Ministry, 1901–1912.
During the final years of the 19th century, while ʻAbdu'l-Bahá was still officially a prisoner and confined to ʻAkka, he organized the transfer of the remains of the Báb from Iran to Palestine. He then organized the purchase of land on Mount Carmel that Baháʼu'lláh had instructed should be used to lay the remains of the Báb, and organized for the construction of the Shrine of the Báb. This process took another 10 years. With the increase of pilgrims visiting ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, Muhammad ʻAlí conspired with the Ottoman authorities to re-introduce stricter terms on ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's imprisonment in August 1901. By 1902, however, due to the support of the Governor of ʻAkka, the situation was greatly eased; while pilgrims were able to once again visit ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, he was still confined to the city. In February 1903, two followers of Muhammad ʻAlí, including Badiʻu'llah and Siyyid ʻAliy-i-Afnan, broke with Muhammad ʻAli and wrote books and letters giving details of Muhammad ʻAli's plots and noting that what was circulating about ʻAbdu'l-Bahá was fabrication.
From 1902 to 1904, even as ‘Abdu’l-Bahá directed the construction of the Shrine of the Báb, he initiated execution of two additional projects; the restoration of the House of the Báb in Shiraz, Iran and the construction of the first Baháʼí House of Worship in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá asked Aqa Mirza Aqa to coordinate the restoration of the house of the Báb to its state at the time of the Báb's declaration to Mulla Husayn in 1844; he also entrusted the work on the House of Worship to Vakil-u'd-Dawlih.
In his role as head of the Bahá’í Faith, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá would occasionally communicate with leaders of thought to offer commentary and guidance based on the Bahá’í teachings, and in defense of the Bahá’í community. During this period, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá communicated with a number of Young Turks, who sought to reform to the reign of Sultan Abdul Hamid II, including Namık Kemal, Ziya Pasha and Midhat Pasha. He emphasized Baháʼís "seek freedom and love liberty, hope for equality, are well-wishers of humanity and ready to sacrifice their lives to unite humanity" but on a more broad approach than the Young Turks. Abdullah Cevdet, one of the founders of the Committee of Union and Progress who considered the Baháʼí Faith an intermediary step between Islam and the ultimate abandonment of religious belief, would go on trial for defense of Baháʼís in a periodical he founded.
‛Abdu'l-Bahá also had contact with military leaders, including such individuals as Bursalı Mehmet Tahir Bey and Hasan Bedreddin. The latter, who in an earlier period was involved in the overthrow of Sultan Abdülaziz in 1876, is commonly known as Bedri Paşa or Bedri Pasha and is referred to in Persian Baháʼí sources as Bedri Bey (Badri Beg). He probably came to know ‘Abdu’l-Baha around 1898 when he served in the Ottoman administration in Akká. Persian sources cite him was a Baháʼí and he who translated ‛Abdu'l-Baha's works into French. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá continued to communicate with him for several years when he was governor of Albania.
ʻAbdu'l-Bahá also met Muhammad Abduh, one of the key figures of Islamic Modernism and the Salafi movement, in Beirut, at a time when the two men shared similar goals of religious reform. Rashid Rida asserts that during his visits to Beirut, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá would attend Abduh's study sessions. Regarding the meetings of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá and Muhammad ʻAbduh, Shoghi Effendi asserts that "His several interviews with the well-known Shaykh Muhammad ʻAbdu served to enhance immensely the growing prestige of the community and spread abroad the fame of its most distinguished member."
Due to Muhammad ʻAli's accusations against him, a Commission of Inquiry interviewed ʻAbdu'l-Bahá in 1905, almost resulting in exile to Fezzan. In response, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá wrote the sultan a letter protesting that his followers refrain from involvement in partisan politics and that his "tariqa" had guided many Americans to Islam. The next few years in ʻAkka were relatively free of pressures and pilgrims were able to come and visit ʻAbdu'l-Bahá. By 1909 the mausoleum of the Shrine of the Báb was completed.
Journeys to the West.
The 1908 Young Turks revolution liberated all political and religious prisoners in the Ottoman Empire, and ʻAbdu'l-Bahá was freed from imprisonment. His first action after his liberation was to visit the Shrine of Baháʼu'lláh in Bahji. While ʻAbdu'l-Bahá continued to live in ʻAkka immediately following the revolution, he soon moved to live in Haifa near the Shrine of the Báb. In 1910, with the freedom to leave the country, he embarked on a three-year journey to Egypt, Europe, and North America, spreading the Baháʼí message.
From August to December 1911, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá visited cities in Europe, including London, Bristol, and Paris. The purpose of these trips was to support the Baháʼí communities in the west and to further spread his father's teachings.
In the following year, he undertook a much more extensive journey to the United States and Canada to once again spread his father's teachings. He arrived in New York City on 11 April 1912, after declining an offer of passage on the RMS "Titanic", telling the Baháʼí believers, instead, to "Donate this to charity." He instead travelled on a slower craft, the RMS "Cedric", and cited preference of a longer sea journey as the reason. After hearing of the Titanic's sinking on 16 April he was quoted as saying "I was asked to sail upon the Titanic, but my heart did not prompt me to do so." While he spent most of his time in New York, he visited Chicago, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Washington, D.C.,Boston and Philadelphia. In August of the same year he started a more extensive journey to places including New Hampshire, the Green Acre school in Maine, and Montreal (his only visit to Canada). He then travelled west to Minneapolis, Minnesota; San Francisco; Stanford; and Los Angeles, California before returning east at the end of October. On 5 December 1912 he set sail back to Europe.
During his visit to North America he visited many missions, churches, and groups, as well as having scores of meetings in homes of Baháʼís, and offering innumerable personal meetings with hundreds of people. During his talks he proclaimed Baháʼí principles such as the unity of God, unity of the religions, oneness of humanity, equality of women and men, world peace and economic justice. He also insisted that all his meetings be open to all races.
His visit and talks were the subject of hundreds of newspaper articles. In Boston newspaper reporters asked ʻAbdu'l-Bahá why he had come to America, and he stated that he had come to participate in conferences on peace and that just giving warning messages is not enough. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's visit to Montreal provided notable newspaper coverage; on the night of his arrival the editor of the "Montreal Daily Star" met with him and that newspaper along with "The Montreal Gazette", "Montreal Standard", and among others reported on ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's activities. The headlines in those papers included "Persian Teacher to Preach Peace", "Racialism Wrong, Says Eastern Sage, Strife and War Caused by Religious and National Prejudices", and "Apostle of Peace Meets Socialists, Abdul Baha's Novel Scheme for Distribution of Surplus Wealth." The "Montreal Standard", which was distributed across Canada, took so much interest that it republished the articles a week later; the Gazette published six articles and Montreal's largest French language newspaper published two articles about him. His 1912 visit to Montreal also inspired humourist Stephen Leacock to parody him in his bestselling 1914 book "Arcadian Adventures with the Idle Rich". In Chicago one newspaper headline included "His Holiness Visits Us, Not Pius X but A. Baha," and ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's visit to California was reported in the "Palo Altan".
Back in Europe, he visited London, Edinburgh, Paris (where he stayed for two months), Stuttgart, Budapest, and Vienna. Finally, on 12 June 1913, he returned to Egypt, where he stayed for six months before returning to Haifa.
On 23 February 1914, at the eve of World War I, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá hosted Baron Edmond James de Rothschild, a member of the Rothschild banking family who was a leading advocate and financier of the Zionist movement, during one of his early trips to Palestine.
Final years (1914–1921).
During World War I (1914–1918) ʻAbdu'l-Bahá stayed in Palestine and was unable to travel. He carried on a limited correspondence, which included the "Tablets of the Divine Plan", a collection of fourteen letters addressed to the Baháʼís of North America, later described as one of three "charters" of the Baháʼí Faith. The letters assign a leadership role for the North American Baháʼís in spreading the religion around the planet.
Haifa was under real threat of Allied bombardment, enough that ʻAbdu'l-Bahá and other Baháʼís temporarily retreated to the hills east of ʻAkka.
ʻAbdu'l-Bahá was also under threats from Cemal Paşa, the Ottoman military chief who at one point expressed his desire to crucify him and destroy Baháʼí properties in Palestine. The swift Megiddo offensive of the British General Allenby swept away the Turkish forces in Palestine before harm was done to the Baháʼís, and the war was over less than two months later.
Post-war period.
The conclusion of World War I led to the openly hostile Ottoman authorities being replaced by the more friendly British Mandate, allowing for a renewal of correspondence, pilgrims, and development of the Baháʼí World Centre properties. It was during this revival of activity that the Baháʼí Faith saw an expansion and consolidation in places like Egypt, the Caucasus, Iran, Turkmenistan, North America and South Asia under the leadership of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá.
The end of the war brought about several political developments on which ʻAbdu'l-Bahá commented. The League of Nations formed in January 1920, representing the first instance of collective security through a worldwide organization. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá had written in 1875 for the need to establish a "Union of the nations of the world", and he praised the attempt through the League of Nations as an important step towards the goal. He also said that it was "incapable of establishing Universal Peace" because it did not represent all nations and had only trivial power over its member states. Around the same time, the British Mandate supported the ongoing immigration of Jews to Palestine. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá mentioned the immigration as a fulfillment of prophecy, and encouraged the Zionists to develop the land and "elevate the country for all its inhabitants... They must not work to separate the Jews from the other Palestinians...If the Zionists will mingle with the other races and live in unity with them, they will succeed. If not, they will meet certain resistance."
The war also left the region in famine. In 1901, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá had purchased about 1704 acres of scrubland near the Jordan river and by 1907 many Baháʼís from Iran had begun sharecropping on the land. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá received between 20 and 33% of their harvest (or cash equivalent), which was shipped to Haifa. With the war still raging in 1917, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá received a large amount of wheat from the crops, and also bought other available wheat and shipped it back to Haifa. The wheat arrived just after the British captured Palestine, and as such was widely distributed to allay the famine. For this service in averting a famine in Northern Palestine he received the honour of Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire at a ceremony held in his honor at the home of the British Governor on 27 April 1920. He was later visited by General Allenby, King Faisal (later King of Iraq), Herbert Samuel (High Commissioner for Palestine), and Ronald Storrs (Military Governor of Jerusalem).
Death and funeral.
ʻAbdu'l-Bahá died on Monday, 28 November 1921, sometime after 1:15 a.m. (27th of Rabi' al-awwal, 1340 AH).
Then Colonial Secretary Winston Churchill telegraphed the High Commissioner for Palestine, "convey to the Baháʼí Community, on behalf of His Majesty's Government, their sympathy and condolence." Similar messages came from Viscount Allenby, the Council of Ministers of Iraq, and others.
On his funeral, which was held the next day, Esslemont notes:
Among the talks delivered at the funeral, Shoghi Effendi records Stewart Symes (Governor of the Palestine North District) giving the following tribute:
He was buried in the front room of the Shrine of the Báb on Mount Carmel. His interment there is meant to be temporary, until his own mausoleum can be built in the vicinity of Riḍván Garden, known as the Shrine of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá.
Legacy.
ʻAbdu'l-Bahá left a "Will and Testament" that was originally written between 1901 and 1908 and addressed to Shoghi Effendi, who at that time was only 4–11 years old. The will appoints Shoghi Effendi as the first in a line of Guardians of the religion, a hereditary executive role that may provide authoritative interpretations of scripture. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá directed all Baháʼís to turn to him and obey him, and assured him of divine protection and guidance. The will also provided a formal reiteration of his teachings, such as the instructions to teach, manifest spiritual qualities, associate with all people, and shun Covenant-breakers. Many obligations of the Universal House of Justice and the Hands of the Cause were also elaborated. Shoghi Effendi later described the document as one of three "charters" of the Baháʼí Faith.
The authenticity and provisions of the will were almost universally accepted by Baháʼís around the world, with the exception of Ruth White and a few other Americans who tried to protest Shoghi Effendi's leadership.
In volumes of "The Baháʼí World" published in 1930 and 1933, Shoghi Effendi named nineteen Baháʼís as disciples of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá and heralds of the Covenant, including Thornton Chase, , John Esslemont, Lua Getsinger, and Robert Turner. No other statements about them have been found in Shoghi Effendi's writings.
During his lifetime there was some ambiguity among Baháʼís as to his station relative to Baháʼu'lláh, and later to Shoghi Effendi. Some American newspapers erroneously reported him to be a Baháʼí prophet or the return of Christ. Shoghi Effendi later formalized his legacy as the last of three "Central Figures" of the Baháʼí Faith and the "Perfect exemplar" of the teachings, also claiming that holding him on an equal status to Baháʼu'lláh or Jesus was heretical. Shoghi Effendi also wrote that during the anticipated Baháʼí dispensation of 1000 years there will be no equal to ʻAbdu'l-Bahá.
Appearance and personality.
ʻAbdu'l-Bahá was described as handsome, and bore striking resemblance to his mother. As an adult he reached medium height but he gave the impression of being taller. He had dark hair that flowed to his shoulders, grey coloured eyes, a fair complexion and an aquiline nose. In 1890, Orientalist Edward Granville Browne met him and wrote:
After the death of Bahá’u’lláh, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá began to visibly age. By the late 1890s his hair had turned snow-white and deep lines set on his face. As a young man he was athletic and enjoyed archery, horseback riding and swimming. Even later in his life ʻAbdu'l-Bahá remained active going for long walks in Haifa and Acre.
ʻAbdu'l-Bahá was a major presence for the Bahá’ís during his lifetime, and he continues to influence the Bahá’í community today. Bahá’ís regard ‘Abdu’l-Bahá as the perfect example of the teachings of his father and therefore strive to emulate him. Anecdotes about him are frequently used to illustrate particular points about morality and interpersonal relations. He was remembered for his charisma, compassion, philanthropy and strength in the face of suffering. John Esslemont reflected that "[‘Abdu’l-Bahá] showed that it is still possible, amid the whirl and rush of modern life, amid the self-love and struggle for material prosperity that everywhere prevail, to live the life of entire devotion to God and to the service of one's fellows."
Even ardent enemies of the Bahá’í Faith were on occasion taken by meeting him. Mírzá 'Abdu'l-Muḥammad Írání Mu'addibu's-Sulṭán, an Iranian, and Shaykh 'Alí Yúsuf, an Arab, were both newspaper editors in Egypt who had published harsh attacks on the Bahá’í Faith in their papers. They called on ‘Abdu’l-Bahá when he was in Egypt and their attitude changed. Similarly, a Christian clergyman, Rev. J.T. Bixby, who was the author of a hostile article on the Bahá’í Faith in the United States, felt compelled to witness Abdu'l-Bahá's personal qualities. The effect of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá on those who were already committed Bahá’ís was greater still.
ʻAbdu'l-Bahá was widely known for his encounters with the poor and dying. His generosity resulted in his own family complaining that they were left with nothing. He was sensitive to people’s feelings, and later expressed his wish to be a beloved figure of the Bahá’ís saying “I am your father...and you must be glad and rejoice, for I love you exceedingly.” According to historical accounts, he had a keen sense of humour and was relaxed and informal. He was open about personal tragedies such as the loss of his children and the sufferings he'd endured as a prisoner, further enhancing his popularity.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá directed the affairs of the Bahá’í community with care. He was inclined to allow a large range of personal interpretations of the Bahá’í teachings as long as these did not obviously contradict fundamental principles. He did, however, expel members of the religion he felt were challenging his leadership and deliberately causing disunity in the community. Outbreaks of persecution of the Bahá’ís affected him deeply. He wrote personally to the families of those who had been martyred.
Works.
The total estimated number of tablets that ʻAbdu'l-Bahá wrote are over 27,000 of which only a fraction have been translated into English. His works fall into two groups including first his direct writings and second his lectures and speeches as noted by others. The first group includes "The Secret of Divine Civilization" written before 1875, "A Traveller's Narrative" written around 1886, the Resāla-ye sīāsīya or "Sermon on the Art of Governance" written in 1893, the "Memorials of the Faithful", and a large number of tablets written to various people; including various Western intellectuals such as Auguste Forel which has been translated and published as the "Tablet to Auguste-Henri Forel". The "Secret of Divine Civilization" and the "Sermon on the Art of Governance" were widely circulated anonymously.
The second group includes "Some Answered Questions", which is an English translation of a series of table talks with Laura Barney, and "Paris Talks", "ʻAbdu'l-Baha in London" and "Promulgation of Universal Peace" which are respectively addresses given by ʻAbdu'l-Bahá in Paris, London and the United States.
The following is a list of some of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's many books, tablets, and talks:
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Ambrose of Alexandria
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Ambrose of Alexandria (before 212 – c. 250) was a friend of the Christian theologian Origen.
Life.
Ambrose was attracted by Origen's fame as a teacher, and visited the Catechetical School of Alexandria in 212. At first a gnostic Valentinian and Marcionist, Ambrose, through Origen's teaching, eventually rejected this theology and became Origen's constant companion, and was ordained deacon. He plied Origen with questions, and urged him to write his Commentaries (treating him as "" in "Commentary on John" V,1) on the books of the Bible, and, as a wealthy nobleman and courtier, he provided his teacher with books for his studies and secretaries to lighten the labor of composition.
He suffered during the persecution under the Roman emperor Maximinus Thrax in 235. He was later released and died a confessor. The last mention of Ambrose in the historical record is in Origen's "Contra Celsum," which the latter wrote at the solicitation of Ambrose.
Origen often speaks of Ambrose affectionately as a man of education with excellent literary and scholarly tastes. All of Origen's works written after 218 are dedicated to Ambrose, including his "On Martyrdom", "Contra Celsum", "Commentary on St. John's Gospel", and "On Prayer". Ambrose's letters to Origen (praised by Jerome) are lost, although part of one exists.
Veneration.
Ambrose is venerated as a saint by some branches of Christianity. His feast day in the Catholic Church falls on 17 March.
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Autonomous building
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An autonomous building is a hypothetical building designed to be operated independently from infrastructural support services such as the electric power grid, gas grid, municipal water systems, sewage treatment systems, storm drains, communication services, and in some cases, public roads. The literature mostly refers to housing, or the autonomous house.
Advocates of autonomous building describe advantages that include reduced environmental impacts, increased security, and lower costs of ownership. Some cited advantages satisfy tenets of green building, not independence per se (see below). Off-grid buildings often rely very little on civil services and are therefore safer and more comfortable during civil disaster or military attacks. For example, off-grid buildings would not lose power or water if public supplies were compromised.
History.
1970s.
In the 1970s, groups of activists and engineers were inspired by the warnings of imminent resource depletion and starvation. In the United States, a group calling themselves the New Alchemists were famous for the depth of research effort placed in their projects. Using conventional construction techniques, they designed a series of "bioshelter" projects, the most famous of which was The Ark bioshelter community for Prince Edward Island. They published the plans for all of these, with detailed design calculations and blueprints. The Ark used wind-based water pumping and electricity and was self-contained in food production. It had living quarters for people, fish tanks raising tilapia for protein, a greenhouse watered with fish water, and a closed-loop sewage reclamation system that recycled human waste into sanitized fertilizer for the fish tanks.
Around 1975–1977, Australian architect and lecturer at University of Sydney School of Architecture, Col James, in collaboration with urban designer, architect, artist, and university tutor Nick Hollo, designed and built an autonomous house on university grounds, in collaboration with students. This taught self-build sustainability to hundreds of students.
1990s.
The 1990s saw the development of Earthships, similar in intent to the Ark project, but organised as a for-profit venture, with construction details published in a series of three books by American architect Mike Reynolds. The building material is tires filled with earth. This makes a wall that has large amounts of thermal mass (see earth sheltering). Berms are placed on exposed surfaces to further increase the house's temperature stability. The water system starts with rain water, processed for drinking, then washing, then plant watering, then toilet flushing, and finally black water is recycled again for more plant watering. The cisterns are placed and used as thermal masses. Power, including electricity, heat and water heating, is from solar power.
Some 1990s architects such as William McDonough and Ken Yeang applied environmentally responsible building design to large commercial buildings, such as office buildings, making them largely self-sufficient in energy production. One major bank building (ING Group's Amsterdam headquarters) in the Netherlands was constructed to be autonomous and artistic as well.
2000s.
In 2002, British architects Brenda and Robert Vale wrote:It is quite possible in all parts of Australia to construct a 'house with no bills', which would be comfortable without heating and cooling, which would make its own electricity, collect its own water and deal with its own waste...These houses can be built now, using off-the-shelf techniques. It is possible to build a "house with no bills" for the same price as a conventional house, but it would be (25%) smaller.
Advantages.
As an architect or engineer becomes more concerned with the disadvantages of transportation networks, and dependence on distant resources, their designs tend to include more autonomous elements. The historic path to autonomy was a concern for secure sources of heat, power, water and food. A nearly parallel path toward autonomy has been to start with a concern for environmental impacts, which cause disadvantages.
Autonomous buildings can increase security and reduce environmental impacts by using on-site resources (such as sunlight and rain) that would otherwise be wasted. Autonomy often dramatically reduces the costs and impacts of networks that serve the building, because autonomy short-circuits the multiplying inefficiencies of collecting and transporting resources. Other impacted resources, such as oil reserves and the retention of the local watershed, can often be cheaply conserved by thoughtful designs.
Autonomous buildings are usually energy-efficient in operation, and therefore cost-efficient, for the obvious reason that smaller energy needs are easier to satisfy off-grid. But they may substitute energy production or other techniques to avoid diminishing returns in extreme conservation.
An autonomous structure is not always environmentally friendly. The goal of independence from support systems is associated with, but not identical to, other goals of environmentally responsible green building. However, autonomous buildings also usually include some degree of sustainability through the use of renewable energy and other renewable resources, producing no more greenhouse gases than they consume, and other measures.
Disadvantages.
First and fundamentally, independence is a matter of degree. For example, eliminating dependence on the electrical grid is relatively easy. In contrast, running an efficient, reliable food source can be a chore.
Living within an autonomous shelter may also require sacrifices in lifestyle or social opportunities. Even the most comfortable and technologically advanced autonomous homes could require alterations of residents' behavior. Some may not welcome the extra chores. The Vails described some clients' experiences as inconvenient, irritating, isolating, or even as an unwanted full-time job. A well-designed building can reduce this issue, but usually at the expense of reduced autonomy.
An autonomous house must be custom-built (or extensively retrofitted) to suit the climate and location. Passive solar techniques, alternative toilet and sewage systems, thermal massing designs, basement battery systems, efficient windowing, and the array of other design tactics require some degree of non-standard construction, added expense, ongoing experimentation and maintenance, and also have an effect on the psychology of the space.
Systems.
Water.
There are many methods of collecting and conserving water. Use reduction is cost-effective.
Greywater systems reuse drained wash water to flush toilets or to water lawns and gardens. Greywater systems can halve the water use of most residential buildings; however, they require the purchase of a sump, greywater pressurization pump, and secondary plumbing. Some builders are installing waterless urinals and even composting toilets that eliminate water usage in sewage disposal.
The classic solution with minimal life-style changes is using a well. Once drilled, a well-foot requires substantial power. However, advanced well-foots can reduce power usage by twofold or more from older models. Well water can be contaminated in some areas. The Sono arsenic filter eliminates unhealthy arsenic in well water. However drilling a well is an uncertain activity, with aquifers depleted in some areas. It can also be expensive.
In regions with sufficient rainfall, it is often more economical to design a building to use rainwater harvesting, with supplementary water deliveries in a drought. Rain water makes excellent soft washwater, but needs antibacterial treatment. If used for drinking, mineral supplements or mineralization is necessary.
Most desert and temperate climates get at least of rain per year. This means that a typical one-story house with a greywater system can supply its year-round water needs from its roof alone. In the driest areas, it might require a cistern of . Many areas average of rain per week, and these can use a cistern as small as .
In many areas, it is difficult to keep a roof clean enough for drinking. To reduce dirt and bad tastes, systems use a metal collecting-roof and a "roof cleaner" tank that diverts the first 40 liters. Cistern water is usually chlorinated, though reverse osmosis systems provide even better quality drinking water.
In the classic Roman house ("Domus"), household water was provided from a cistern (the "impluvium"), which was a decorative feature of the atrium, the house's main public space. It was fed by downspout tiles from the inward-facing roof-opening (the "compluvium"). Often water lilies were grown in it to purify the water. Wealthy households often supplemented the rain with a small fountain fed from a city's cistern. The impluvium always had an overflow drain so it could not flood the house.
Modern cisterns are usually large plastic tanks. Gravity tanks on short towers are reliable, so pump repairs are less urgent. The least expensive bulk cistern is a fenced pond or pool at ground level.
Reducing autonomy reduces the size and expense of cisterns. Many autonomous homes can reduce water use below per person per day, so that in a drought a month of water can be delivered inexpensively via truck. Self-delivery is often possible by installing fabric water tanks that fit the bed of a pick-up truck.
It can be convenient to use the cistern as a heat sink or trap for a heat pump or air conditioning system; however this can make cold drinking water warm, and in drier years may decrease the efficiency of the HVAC system.
Solar stills can efficiently produce drinking water from ditch water or cistern water, especially high-efficiency multiple effect humidification designs, which separate the evaporator(s) and condenser(s).
New technologies, like reverse osmosis can create unlimited amounts of pure water from polluted water, ocean water, and even from humid air. Watermakers are available for yachts that convert seawater and electricity into potable water and brine. Atmospheric water generators extract moisture from dry desert air and filter it to pure water.
Sewage.
Resource.
Composting toilets use bacteria to decompose human feces into useful, odourless, sanitary compost. The process is sanitary because soil bacteria eat the human pathogens as well as most of the mass of the waste. Nevertheless, most health authorities forbid direct use of "humanure" for growing food. The risk is microbial and viral contamination, as well as heavy metal toxicity. In a dry composting toilet, the waste is evaporated or digested to gas (mostly carbon dioxide) and vented, so a toilet produces only a few pounds of compost every six months. To control the odor, modern toilets use a small fan to keep the toilet under negative pressure, and exhaust the gasses to a vent pipe.
Some home sewage treatment systems use biological treatment, usually beds of plants and aquaria, that absorb nutrients and bacteria and convert greywater and sewage to clear water. This odor- and color-free reclaimed water can be used to flush toilets and water outside plants. When tested, it approaches standards for potable water. In climates that freeze, the plants and aquaria need to be kept in a small greenhouse space. Good systems need about as much care as a large aquarium.
Electric incinerating toilets turn excrement into a small amount of ash. They are cool to the touch, have no water and no pipes, and require an air vent in a wall. They are used in remote areas where use of septic tanks is limited, usually to reduce nutrient loads in lakes.
NASA's bioreactor is an extremely advanced biological sewage system. It can turn sewage into air and water through microbial action. NASA plans to use it in the crewed Mars mission. Another method is NASA's urine-to-water distillation system. A big disadvantage of complex biological sewage treatment systems is that if the house is empty, the sewage system biota may starve to death.
Waste.
Sewage handling is essential for public health. Many diseases are transmitted by poorly functioning sewage systems.
The standard system is a tiled leach field combined with a septic tank. The basic idea is to provide a small system with primary sewage treatment. Sludge settles to the bottom of the septic tank, is partially reduced by anaerobic digestion, and fluid is dispersed in the leach field. The leach field is usually under a yard growing grass. Septic tanks can operate entirely by gravity, and if well managed, are reasonably safe.
Septic tanks have to be pumped periodically by a vacuum truck to eliminate non reducing solids. Failure to pump a septic tank can cause overflow that damages the leach field, and contaminates ground water. Septic tanks may also require some lifestyle changes, such as not using garbage disposals, minimizing fluids flushed into the tank, and minimizing non-digestible solids flushed into the tank. For example, septic safe toilet paper is recommended. However, septic tanks remain popular because they permit standard plumbing fixtures, and require few or no lifestyle sacrifices.
Composting or packaging toilets make it economical and sanitary to throw away sewage as part of the normal garbage collection service. They also reduce water use by half, and eliminate the difficulty and expense of septic tanks. However, they require the local landfill to use sanitary practices.
Incinerator systems are quite practical. The ashes are biologically safe, and less than 1/10 the volume of the original waste, but like all incinerator waste, are usually classified as hazardous waste.
Traditional methods of sewage handling include pit toilets, latrines, and outhouses. These can be safe, inexpensive and practical. They are still used in many regions.
Storm drains.
Drainage systems are a crucial compromise between human habitability and a secure, sustainable watershed. Paved areas and lawns or turf do not allow much precipitation to filter through the ground to recharge aquifers. They can cause flooding and damage in neighbourhoods, as the water flows over the surface towards a low point.
Typically, elaborate, capital-intensive storm sewer networks are engineered to deal with stormwater. In some cities, such as the Victorian era London sewers or much of the old City of Toronto, the storm water system is combined with the sanitary sewer system. In the event of heavy precipitation, the load on the sewage treatment plant at the end of the pipe becomes too great to handle and raw sewage is dumped into holding tanks, and sometimes into surface water.
Autonomous buildings can address precipitation in a number of ways. If a water-absorbing swale for each yard is combined with permeable concrete streets, storm drains can be omitted from the neighbourhood. This can save more than $800 per house (1970s) by eliminating storm drains. One way to use the savings is to purchase larger lots, which permits more amenities at the same cost. Permeable concrete is an established product in warm climates, and in development for freezing climates. In freezing climates, the elimination of storm drains can often still pay for enough land to construct swales (shallow water collecting ditches) or water impeding berms instead. This plan provides more land for homeowners and can offer more interesting topography for landscaping. Additionally, a green roof captures precipitation and uses the water to grow plants. It can be built into a new building or used to replace an existing roof.
Electricity.
Since electricity is an expensive utility, the first step towards autonomy is to design a house and lifestyle to reduce demand. LED lights, laptop computers and gas-powered refrigerators save electricity, although gas-powered refrigerators are not very efficient. There are also superefficient electric refrigerators, such as those produced by the Sun Frost company, some of which use only about half as much electricity as a mass-market energy star-rated refrigerator.
Using a solar roof, solar cells can provide electric power. Solar roofs can be more cost-effective than retrofitted solar power, because buildings need roofs anyway. Modern solar cells last about 40 years, which makes them a reasonable investment in some areas. At a sufficient angle, solar cells are cleaned by run-off rain water and therefore have almost no life-style impact.
Many areas have long winter nights or dark cloudy days. In these climates, a solar installation might not pay for itself or large battery storage systems are necessary to achieve electric self-sufficiency. In stormy or windy climates, wind turbines can replace or significantly supplement solar power. The average autonomous house needs only one small wind turbine, 5 metres or less in diameter. On a 30-metre (100-foot) tower, this turbine can provide enough power to supplement solar power on cloudy days. Commercially available wind turbines use sealed, one-moving-part AC generators and passive, self-feathering blades for years of operation without service.
The main advantage of wind power is that larger wind turbines have a lower per-watt cost than solar cells, provided there is wind. Turbine location is critical: just as some locations lack sun for solar cells, many areas lack enough wind to make a turbine pay for itself. In the Great Plains of the United States, a 10-metre (33-foot) turbine can supply enough energy to heat and cool a well-built all-electric house. Economic use in other areas requires research, and possibly a site survey.
Some sites have access to a stream with a change in elevation. These sites can use small hydropower systems to generate electricity. If the difference in elevation is above 30 metres (100 feet), and the stream runs in all seasons, this can provide continuous power with a small, inexpensive installation. Lower changes of elevation require larger installations or dams, and can be less efficient. Clogging at the turbine intake can be a practical problem. The usual solution is a small pool and waterfall (a penstock) to carry away floating debris. Another solution is to utilize a turbine that resists debris, such as a Gorlov helical turbine or Ossberger turbine.
During times of low demand, excess power can be stored in batteries for future use. However, batteries need to be replaced every few years. In many areas, battery expenses can be eliminated by attaching the building to the electric power grid and operating the power system with net metering. Utility permission is required, but such cooperative generation is legally mandated in some areas (for example, California).
A grid-based building is less autonomous, but more economical and sustainable with fewer lifestyle sacrifices. In rural areas the grid's cost and impacts can be reduced by using single-wire earth return systems (for example, the MALT-system).
In areas that lack access to the grid, battery size can be reduced with a generator to recharge the batteries during energy droughts such as extended fogs. Auxiliary generators are usually run from propane, natural gas, or sometimes diesel. An hour of charging usually provides a day of operation. Modern residential chargers permit the user to set the charging times, so the generator is quiet at night. Some generators automatically test themselves once per week.
Recent advances in passively stable magnetic bearings may someday permit inexpensive storage of power in a flywheel in a vacuum. Research groups like Canada's Ballard Power Systems are also working to develop a "regenerative fuel cell", a device that can generate hydrogen and oxygen when power is available, and combine these efficiently when power is needed.
Earth batteries tap electric currents in the earth called telluric current. They can be installed anywhere in the ground. They provide only low voltages and current. They were used to power telegraphs in the 19th century. As appliance efficiencies increase, they may become practical.
Microbial fuel cells and thermoelectric generators allow electricity to be generated from biomass. The plant can be dried, chopped and converted or burned as a whole, or it can be left alive so that waste saps from the plant can be converted by bacteria.
Heating.
Most autonomous buildings are designed to use insulation, thermal mass and passive solar heating and cooling. Examples of these are trombe walls and other technologies as skylights.
Passive solar heating can heat most buildings in even the mild and chilly climates. In colder climates, extra construction costs can be as little as 15% more than new, conventional buildings. In warm climates, those having less than two weeks of frosty nights per year, there is no cost impact. The basic requirement for passive solar heating is that the solar collectors must face the prevailing sunlight (south in the Northern Hemisphere, north in the Southern Hemisphere), and the building must incorporate thermal mass to keep it warm in the night.
A recent, somewhat experimental solar heating system "Annualized geo solar heating" is practical even in regions that get little or no sunlight in winter. It uses the ground beneath a building for thermal mass. Precipitation can carry away the heat, so the ground is shielded with skirts of plastic insulation. The thermal mass of this system is sufficiently inexpensive and large that it can store enough summer heat to warm a building for the whole winter, and enough winter cold to cool the building in summer.
In annualized geo solar systems, the solar collector is often separate from (and hotter or colder than) the living space. The building may actually be constructed from insulation, for example, straw-bale construction. Some buildings have been aerodynamically designed so that convection via ducts and interior spaces eliminates any need for electric fans.
A more modest "daily solar" design is practical. For example, for about a 15% premium in building costs, the Passivhaus building codes in Europe use high performance insulating windows, R-30 insulation, HRV ventilation, and a small thermal mass. With modest changes in the building's position, modern krypton- or argon-insulated windows permit normal-looking windows to provide passive solar heat without compromising insulation or structural strength. If a small heater is available for the coldest nights, a slab or basement cistern can inexpensively provide the required thermal mass. Passivhaus building codes, in particular, bring unusually good interior air quality, because the buildings change the air several times per hour, passing it through a heat exchanger to keep heat inside.
In all systems, a small supplementary heater increases personal security and reduces lifestyle impacts for a small reduction of autonomy. The two most popular heaters for ultra-high-efficiency houses are a small heat pump, which also provides air conditioning, or a central hydronic (radiator) air heater with water recirculating from the water heater. Passivhaus designs usually integrate the heater with the ventilation system.
Earth sheltering and windbreaks can also reduce the absolute amount of heat needed by a building. Several feet below the earth, temperature ranges from in North Dakota to , in Southern Florida. Wind breaks reduce the amount of heat carried away from a building.
Rounded, aerodynamic buildings also lose less heat.
An increasing number of commercial buildings use a combined cycle with cogeneration to provide heating, often water heating, from the output of a natural gas reciprocating engine, gas turbine or stirling electric generator.
Houses designed to cope with interruptions in civil services generally incorporate a wood stove, or heat and power from diesel fuel or bottled gas, regardless of their other heating mechanisms.
Electric heaters and electric stoves may provide pollution-free heat (depending on the power source), but use large amounts of electricity. If enough electricity is provided by solar panels, wind turbines, or other means, then electric heaters and stoves become a practical autonomous design.
Water heating.
Hot water heat recycling units recover heat from water drain lines. They increase a building's autonomy by decreasing the heat or fuel used to heat water. They are attractive because they have no lifestyle changes.
Current practical, comfortable domestic water-heating systems combine a solar preheating system with a thermostatic gas-powered flow-through heater, so that the temperature of the water is consistent, and the amount is unlimited. This reduces life-style impacts at some cost in autonomy.
Solar water heaters can save large amounts of fuel. Also, small changes in lifestyle, such as doing laundry, dishes and bathing on sunny days, can greatly increase their efficiency. Pure solar heaters are especially useful for laundries, swimming pools and external baths, because these can be scheduled for use on sunny days.
The basic trick in a solar water heating system is to use a well-insulated holding tank. Some systems are vacuum- insulated, acting something like large thermos bottles. The tank is filled with hot water on sunny days, and made available at all times. Unlike a conventional tank water heater, the tank is filled only when there is sunlight. Good storage makes a smaller, higher-technology collector feasible. Such collectors can use relatively exotic technologies, such as vacuum insulation, and reflective concentration of sunlight.
Cogeneration systems produce hot water from waste heat. They usually get the heat from the exhaust of a generator or fuel cell.
Heat recycling, cogeneration and solar pre-heating can save 50–75% of the gas otherwise used. Also, some combinations provide redundant reliability by having several sources of heat.
Some authorities advocate replacing bottled gas or natural gas with biogas. However, this is usually impractical unless live-stock are on-site. The wastes of a single family are usually insufficient to produce enough methane for anything more than small amounts of cooking.
Cooling.
Annualized geo solar buildings often have buried, sloped water-tight skirts of insulation that extend from the foundations, to prevent heat leakage between the earth used as thermal mass, and the surface.
Less dramatic improvements are possible. Windows can be shaded in summer. Eaves can be overhung to provide the necessary shade. These also shade the walls of the house, reducing cooling costs.
Another trick is to cool the building's thermal mass at night, perhaps with a whole-house fan and then cool the building from the thermal mass during the day. It helps to be able to route cold air from a sky-facing radiator (perhaps an air heating solar collector with an alternate purpose) or evaporative cooler directly through the thermal mass. On clear nights, even in tropical areas, sky-facing radiators can cool below freezing.
If a circular building is aerodynamically smooth, and cooler than the ground, it can be passively cooled by the "dome effect." Many installations have reported that a reflective or light-colored dome induces a local vertical heat-driven vortex that sucks cooler overhead air downward into a dome if the dome is vented properly (a single overhead vent, and peripheral vents). Some people have reported a temperature differential as high as () between the inside of the dome and the outside. Buckminster Fuller discovered this effect with a simple house design adapted from a grain silo, and adapted his Dymaxion house and geodesic domes to use it.
Refrigerators and air conditioners operating from the waste heat of a diesel engine exhaust, heater flue or solar collector are entering use. These use the same principles as a gas refrigerator. Normally, the heat from a flue powers an "absorptive chiller". The cold water or brine from the chiller is used to cool air or a refrigerated space.
Cogeneration is popular in new commercial buildings. In current cogeneration systems small gas turbines or stirling engines powered from natural gas produce electricity and their exhaust drives an absorptive chiller.
A truck trailer refrigerator operating from the waste heat of a tractor's diesel exhaust was demonstrated by NRG Solutions, Inc. NRG developed a hydronic ammonia gas heat exchanger and vaporizer, the two essential new, not commercially available components of a waste heat driven refrigerator.
A similar scheme (multiphase cooling) can be by a multistage evaporative cooler. The air is passed through a spray of salt solution to dehumidify it, then through a spray of water solution to cool it, then another salt solution to dehumidify it again. The brine has to be regenerated, and that can be done economically with a low-temperature solar still. Multiphase evaporative coolers can lower the air's temperature by 50 °F (28 °C), and still control humidity. If the brine regenerator uses high heat, it also partially sterilises to the air.
If enough electric power is available, cooling can be provided by conventional air conditioning using a heat pump.
Food production.
Food production has often been included in historic autonomous projects to provide security.
Skilled, intensive gardening can support an adult from as little as 100 square meters of land per person,
possibly requiring the use of organic farming and aeroponics. Some proven intensive, low-effort food-production systems include urban gardening (indoors and outdoors). Indoor cultivation may be set up using hydroponics, while outdoor cultivation may be done using permaculture, forest gardening, no-till farming, and do nothing farming.
Greenhouses are also sometimes included. Sometimes they are also outfitted with irrigation systems or heat sink systems which can respectively irrigate the plants or help to store energy from the sun and redistribute it at night (when the greenhouses starts to cool down).
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Anubis
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Anubis (; ), also known as Inpu, Inpw, Jnpw, or Anpu in Ancient Egyptian (), is the god of funerary rites, protector of graves, and guide to the underworld in ancient Egyptian religion, usually depicted as a canine or a man with a canine head.
Like many ancient Egyptian deities, Anubis assumed different roles in various contexts. Depicted as a protector of graves as early as the First Dynasty (), Anubis was also an embalmer. By the Middle Kingdom (c. 2055–1650 BC) he was replaced by Osiris in his role as lord of the underworld. One of his prominent roles was as a god who ushered souls into the afterlife. He attended the weighing scale during the "Weighing of the Heart", in which it was determined whether a soul would be allowed to enter the realm of the dead. Anubis is one of the most frequently depicted and mentioned gods in the Egyptian pantheon; however, few major myths involved him.
Anubis was depicted in black, a color that symbolized regeneration, life, the soil of the Nile River, and the discoloration of the corpse after embalming. Anubis is associated with Wepwawet, another Egyptian god portrayed with a dog's head or in canine form, but with grey or white fur. Historians assume that the two figures were eventually combined. Anubis' female counterpart is Anput. His daughter is the serpent goddess Kebechet.
Name.
"Anubis" is a Greek rendering of this god's Egyptian name. Before the Greeks arrived in Egypt, around the 7th century BC, the god was known as "Anpu" or "Inpu." The root of the name in ancient Egyptian language means "a royal child." "Inpu" has a root to "inp", which means "to decay." The god was also known as "First of the Westerners," "Lord of the Sacred Land," "He Who is Upon his Sacred Mountain," "Ruler of the Nine Bows," "The Dog who Swallows Millions," "Master of Secrets," "He Who is in the Place of Embalming," and "Foremost of the Divine Booth." The positions that he had were also reflected in the titles he held such as "He Who Is upon His Mountain," "Lord of the Sacred Land," "Foremost of the Westerners," and "He Who Is in the Place of Embalming."
In the Old Kingdom (), the standard way of writing his name in hieroglyphs was composed of the sound signs inpw followed by a jackal over a "ḥtp" sign: i-n:p-w-C6 A new form with the jackal on a tall stand appeared in the late Old Kingdom and became common thereafter: i-n:p-w-E16
Anubis' name "jnpw" was possibly pronounced , based on Coptic "Anoup" and the Akkadian transcription () in the name <ri-a-na-pa> "Reanapa" that appears in Amarna letter EA 315. However, this transcription may also be interpreted as "rˁ-nfr", a name similar to that of Prince Ranefer of the Fourth Dynasty.
History.
In Egypt's Early Dynastic period (), Anubis was portrayed in full animal form, with a "jackal" head and body. A jackal god, probably Anubis, is depicted in stone inscriptions from the reigns of Hor-Aha, Djer, and other pharaohs of the First Dynasty. Since Predynastic Egypt, when the dead were buried in shallow graves, jackals had been strongly associated with cemeteries because they were scavengers which uncovered human bodies and ate their flesh. In the spirit of "fighting like with like," a jackal was chosen to protect the dead, because "a common problem (and cause of concern) must have been the digging up of bodies, shortly after burial, by jackals and other wild dogs which lived on the margins of the cultivation."
In the Old Kingdom, Anubis was the most important god of the dead. He was replaced in that role by Osiris during the Middle Kingdom (2000–1700 BC). In the Roman era, which started in 30 BC, tomb paintings depict him holding the hand of deceased persons to guide them to Osiris.
The parentage of Anubis varied between myths, times and sources. In early mythology, he was portrayed as a son of Ra. In the Coffin Texts, which were written in the First Intermediate Period (c. 2181–2055 BC), Anubis is the son of either the cow goddess Hesat or the cat-headed Bastet. Another tradition depicted him as the son of Ra and Nephthys. More commonly, however, he is recognized as the offspring of Osiris and Isis.In later periods, particularly during the Ptolemaic era, Anubis was sometimes described as the son of Isis and Serapis, a Hellenized form of Osiris designed to appeal to Egypt's growing Greek population. The Greek Plutarch (c. 40–120 AD) reported a tradition that Anubis was the illegitimate son of Nephthys and Osiris, but that he was adopted by Osiris's wife Isis:
George Hart sees this story as an "attempt to incorporate the independent deity Anubis into the Osirian pantheon." An Egyptian papyrus from the Roman period (30–380 AD) simply called Anubis the "son of Isis." In Nubia, Anubis was seen as the husband of his mother Nephthys.
In the Ptolemaic period (350–30 BC), when Egypt became a Hellenistic kingdom ruled by Greek pharaohs, Anubis was merged with the Greek god Hermes, becoming Hermanubis. The two gods were considered similar because they both guided souls to the afterlife. The center of this cult was in "uten-ha"/"Sa-ka"/ Cynopolis, a place whose Greek name means "city of dogs." In Book XI of "The Golden Ass" by Apuleius, there is evidence that the worship of this god was continued in Rome through at least the 2nd century. Indeed, Hermanubis also appears in the alchemical and hermetical literature of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
Although the Greeks and Romans typically scorned Egyptian animal-headed gods as bizarre and primitive (Anubis was mockingly called "Barker" by the Greeks), Anubis was sometimes associated with Sirius in the heavens and Cerberus and Hades in the underworld. In his dialogues, Plato often has Socrates utter oaths "by the dog" (Greek: "kai me ton kuna"), "by the dog of Egypt", and "by the dog, the god of the Egyptians", both for emphasis and to appeal to Anubis as an arbiter of truth in the underworld.
Roles.
Embalmer.
As "jmy-wt" (Imiut or the Imiut fetish) "He who is in the place of embalming", Anubis was associated with mummification. He was also called "ḫnty zḥ-nṯr" "He who presides over the god's booth", in which "booth" could refer either to the place where embalming was carried out or the pharaoh's burial chamber.
In the Osiris myth, Anubis helped Isis to embalm Osiris. Indeed, when the Osiris myth emerged, it was said that after Osiris had been killed by Set, Osiris's organs were given to Anubis as a gift. With this connection, Anubis became the patron god of embalmers; during the rites of mummification, illustrations from the "Book of the Dead" often show a wolf-mask-wearing priest supporting the upright mummy.
Protector of tombs.
Anubis was a protector of graves and cemeteries. Several epithets attached to his name in Egyptian texts and inscriptions referred to that role. "Khenty-Amentiu", which means "foremost of the westerners" and was also the name of a different canine funerary god, alluded to his protecting function because the dead were usually buried on the west bank of the Nile. He took other names in connection with his funerary role, such as "tpy-ḏw.f" (Tepy-djuef) "He who is upon his mountain" (i.e. keeping guard over tombs from above) and "nb-t3-ḏsr" (Neb-ta-djeser) "Lord of the sacred land", which designates him as a god of the desert necropolis.
The Jumilhac papyrus recounts another tale where Anubis protected the body of Osiris from Set. Set attempted to attack the body of Osiris by transforming himself into a leopard. Anubis stopped and subdued Set, however, and he branded Set's skin with a hot iron rod. Anubis then flayed Set and wore his skin as a warning against evil-doers who would desecrate the tombs of the dead. Priests who attended to the dead wore leopard skin in order to commemorate Anubis' victory over Set. The legend of Anubis branding the hide of Set in leopard form was used to explain how the leopard got its spots.
Most ancient tombs had prayers to Anubis carved on them.
Guide of souls.
By the late pharaonic era (664–332 BC), Anubis was often depicted as guiding individuals across the threshold from the world of the living to the afterlife. Though a similar role was sometimes performed by the cow-headed Hathor, Anubis was more commonly chosen to fulfill that function. Greek writers from the Roman period of Egyptian history designated that role as that of "psychopomp", a Greek term meaning "guide of souls" that they used to refer to their own god Hermes, who also played that role in Greek religion. Funerary art from that period represents Anubis guiding either men or women dressed in Greek clothes into the presence of Osiris, who by then had long replaced Anubis as ruler of the underworld.
Weigher of hearts.
One of the roles of Anubis was as the "Guardian of the Scales." The critical scene depicting the weighing of the heart, in the "Book of the Dead", shows Anubis performing a measurement that determined whether the person was worthy of entering the realm of the dead (the underworld, known as "Duat"). By weighing the heart of a deceased person against "ma'at", who was often represented as an ostrich feather, Anubis dictated the fate of souls. Souls heavier than a feather would be devoured by Ammit, and souls lighter than a feather would ascend to a heavenly existence.
Portrayal in art.
Anubis was one of the most frequently represented deities in ancient Egyptian art. He is depicted in royal tombs as early as the First Dynasty. The god is typically treating a king's corpse, providing sovereign to mummification rituals and funerals, or standing with fellow gods at the Weighing of the Heart of the Soul in the Hall of Two Truths. One of his most popular representations is of him, with the body of a man and the head of a jackal with pointed ears, standing or kneeling, holding a gold scale while a heart of the soul is being weighed against Ma'at's white truth feather.
In the early dynastic period, he was depicted in animal form, as a black canine. Anubis's distinctive black color did not represent the animal, rather it had several symbolic meanings. It represented "the discolouration of the corpse after its treatment with natron and the smearing of the wrappings with a resinous substance during mummification." Being the color of the fertile silt of the River Nile, to Egyptians, black also symbolized fertility and the possibility of rebirth in the afterlife. In the Middle Kingdom, Anubis was often portrayed as a man with the head of a jackal. The African jackal was the species depicted and the template of numerous Ancient Egyptian deities, including Anubis. An extremely rare depiction of him in fully human form was found in a chapel of Ramesses II in Abydos.
Anubis is often depicted wearing a ribbon and holding a "nḫ3ḫ3" "flail" in the crook of his arm. Another of Anubis's attributes was the "jmy-wt" or imiut fetish, named for his role in embalming. In funerary contexts, Anubis is shown either attending to a deceased person's mummy or sitting atop a tomb protecting it. New Kingdom tomb-seals also depict Anubis sitting atop the nine bows that symbolize his domination over the enemies of Egypt.
Worship.
Although he does not appear in many myths, he was extremely popular with Egyptians and those of other cultures. The Greeks linked him to their god Hermes, the god who guided the dead to the afterlife. The pairing was later known as Hermanubis. Anubis was heavily worshipped because, despite modern beliefs, he gave the people hope. People marveled in the guarantee that their body would be respected at death, their soul would be protected and justly judged.
Anubis had male priests who sported wood masks with the god's likeness when performing rituals. His cult center was at Cynopolis in Upper Egypt but memorials were built everywhere and he was universally revered in every part of the nation.
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Arthur Jensen
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Arthur Robert Jensen (August 24, 1923 – October 22, 2012) was an American psychologist and writer. He was a professor of educational psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. Jensen was known for his work in psychometrics and differential psychology, the study of how and why individuals differ behaviorally from one another.
He was a major proponent of the hereditarian position in the nature and nurture debate, the position that genetics play a significant role in behavioral traits, such as intelligence and personality. He was the author of over 400 scientific papers published in refereed journals and sat on the editorial boards of the scientific journals "Intelligence" and "Personality and Individual Differences".
Jensen was controversial, largely for his conclusions regarding the causes of race-based differences in IQ.
Early life and education.
Jensen was born August 24, 1923, in San Diego, California, the son of Linda Mary (née Schachtmayer) and Arthur Alfred Jensen, who operated and owned a lumber and building materials company. His paternal grandparents were Danish immigrants and his mother was of half-Polish Jewish and half-German descent.
As a child, Jensen was interested in herpetology and classical music, playing clarinet in the San Diego Symphony orchestra.
Jensen received a B.A. in psychology from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1945 and went on to obtain his M.A. in psychology in 1952 from San Diego State College. He earned his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Columbia University in 1956 under the supervision of Percival Symonds on the thematic apperception test. From 1956 through 1958, he did postdoctoral research at the University of London, Institute of Psychiatry with Hans Eysenck.
Upon returning to the United States, he became a researcher and professor at the University of California, Berkeley, where he focused on individual differences in learning, especially the influences of culture, development, and genetics on intelligence and learning. He received tenure at Berkeley in 1962. He concentrated on the learning difficulties of culturally disadvantaged students.
Jensen had a lifelong interest in classical music and was, early in his life, attracted by the idea of becoming a conductor himself. At 14, he conducted a band that won a nationwide contest held in San Francisco. Later, he conducted orchestras and attended a seminar given by Nikolai Sokoloff. Soon after graduating from Berkeley, he moved to New York, mainly to be near the conductor Arturo Toscanini. He was also deeply interested in the life and example of Gandhi, producing an unpublished book-length manuscript on his life. During Jensen's period in San Diego he spent time working as a social worker with the San Diego Department of Public Welfare.
IQ and academic achievement.
Jensen's interest in learning differences directed him to the extensive testing of school children. The results led him to distinguish between two separate types of learning ability. "Level I", or associative learning, may be defined as retention of input and rote memorization of simple facts and skills. "Level II", or conceptual learning, is roughly equivalent to the ability to manipulate and transform inputs, that is, the ability to solve problems.
Later, Jensen was an important advocate in the mainstream acceptance of the general factor of intelligence, a concept which was essentially synonymous with his "Level II" conceptual learning. The general factor, or "g", is an abstraction that stems from the observation that scores on all forms of cognitive tests correlate positively with one another.
Jensen claimed, on the basis of his research, that general cognitive ability is essentially an inherited trait, determined predominantly by genetic factors rather than by environmental conditions. He also contended that while associative learning, or memorizing ability, is equally distributed among the races, conceptual learning, or synthesizing ability, occurs with significantly greater frequency in some races than in others.
Jensen's most controversial work, published in February 1969 in the "Harvard Educational Review", was titled "How Much Can We Boost IQ and Scholastic Achievement?" It concluded, among other things, that Head Start programs designed to boost African-American IQ scores had failed, and that this was likely never to be remedied, largely because, in Jensen's estimation, 80% of the variance in IQ in the population studied was the result of genetic factors and the remainder was due to environmental influences.
The paper immediately prompted weeks of violent protest on the Berkeley campus, with additional protests occurring throughout the 1970s.
The work became one of the most cited papers in the history of psychological testing and intelligence research, although a large number of citations consisted of rebuttals of Jensen's work, or references to it as an example of a controversial paper.
Jensen was among the most frequent contributors to the German journal "Neue Anthropologie", a publication founded by the neo-Nazi Jürgen Rieger, and served alongside Rieger on this journal's editorial board.
In 1994 he was one of 52 signatories on "Mainstream Science on Intelligence," an essay written by Linda Gottfredson and published in "The Wall Street Journal", which declared the consensus of the signing scholars on the meaning and significance of IQ following the publication of the book "The Bell Curve". Jensen received $1.1 million from the Pioneer Fund,
an organization frequently described as racist and white supremacist in nature.
The fund contributed a total of $3.5 million to researchers cited in The Bell Curve's most controversial chapter "that suggests some races are naturally smarter than others" with Jensen's works being cited twenty-three times in the book's bibliography.
Death.
He died on October 22, 2012, at his home in Kelseyville, California, at age 89.
Assessment.
According to David Lubinski of Vanderbilt University, the "extent to which [Jensen's] work was either admired or reviled by many distinguished scientists is unparalleled."
After Jensen's death, James Flynn of the University of Otago, a prominent advocate of the environmental position, told "The New York Times" that Jensen was without racial bias and had not initially foreseen that his research would be used to argue for racial supremacy and that his career was "emblematic of the extent to which American scholarship is inhibited by political orthodoxy", though he noted that Jensen shifted towards genetic explanations later in life.
Support.
After psychologist Paul E. Meehl was honored by the APA in 1998, he wrote in the journal "Psychological Reports" that Jensen's "contributions, in both quality and quantity, certainly excelled mine" and that he was "embarrassed" that APA had not also honored Jensen, which Meehl claimed was due to political correctness.
Psychologist Sandra Scarr wrote in the journal "Intelligence" in 1998 that Jensen possessed an "uncompromising personal integrity" and set the standard for "honest psychological science". She described his critics as "politically driven liars, who distort scientific facts in a misguided and condescending effort to protect an impossible myth about human equality".
Steven J. Haggbloom, writing for "Review of General Psychology" in 2002, rated Jensen as one of the 100 most eminent psychologists of the 20th century, based on six different metrics chosen by Haggbloom.
In 1980 Jensen published a book in defense of the tests used to measure mental abilities, titled "Bias in Mental Testing". Reviewing this book, psychologist Kenneth Kaye endorsed Jensen's distinction between bias and discrimination, saying that he found many of Jensen's opponents to be more politically biased than Jensen was.
Criticism.
Melvin Konner of Emory University, wrote:
Lisa Suzuki and Joshua Aronson of New York University wrote that Jensen had largely ignored evidence which failed to support his position that IQ test score gaps represent genetic racial differences.
Paleontologist and evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould criticized Jensen's work in his 1981 book "The Mismeasure of Man". Gould writes that Jensen misapplies the concept of "heritability", which is defined as a measure of the variation of a trait due to inheritance "within" a population (Gould 1981: 127; 156–157). According to Gould, Jensen uses heritability to measure differences "between" populations. Gould also disagrees with Jensen's belief that IQ tests measure a real variable, "g", or "the general factor common to a large number of cognitive abilities" which can be measured along a unilinear scale. This is a claim most closely identified with Charles Spearman. According to Gould, Jensen misunderstood the research of L. L. Thurstone to ultimately support this claim; Gould, however, argues that Thurstone's factor analysis of intelligence revealed "g" to be an illusion (1981: 159; 13-314). Gould criticizes Jensen's sources including his use of Catharine Cox's 1926 "Genetic Studies of Genius", which examines historiometrically the IQs of historic intellectuals after their deaths (Gould 1981: 153–154).
Books.
"Bias in Mental Testing".
"Bias in Mental Testing" (1980) is a book examining the question of test bias in commonly used standardized tests. The book runs almost 800 pages and has been called "exhaustive" by three researchers who reviewed the field 19 years after the book's publication. It reviewed in detail the available evidence about test bias across major US racial/ethnic groups. Jensen concluded that "the currently most widely used standardized tests of mental ability -- IQ, scholastic aptitude, and achievement tests -- are, by and large, not biased against any of the native-born English-speaking minority groups on which the amount of research evidence is sufficient for an objective determination of bias, if the tests were in fact biased. For most nonverbal standardized tests, this generalization is not limited to English-speaking minorities." (p. ix). Jensen also published a summary of the book the same year which was a target article in the journal "Behavioral and Brain Sciences" to which 27 commentaries were printed along with the author's reply.
"Straight Talk about Mental Tests".
"Straight Talk about Mental Tests" (1981) is a book written about psychometrics for the general public. John B. Carroll reviewed it favorably in 1982, saying it was a useful summary of the issues, as did Paul Cline writing for the "British Journal of Psychiatry". In 2016, Richard J. Haier called it "a clear examination of all issues surrounding mental testing".
"The g Factor".
"" (1998) is a book on the general intelligence factor ("g"). The book deals with the intellectual history of g and various models of how to conceptualize intelligence, and with the biological correlates of g, its heritability, and its practical predictive power.
"Clocking the Mind".
"Clocking the Mind: Mental Chronometry and Individual Differences" (2006) deals with mental chronometry (MC), and covers the speed with which the brain processes information and different ways this is measured. Jensen argues mental chronometry represents a true natural science of mental ability, which is in contrast to IQ, which merely represents an interval (ranking) scale and thus possesses no true ratio scale properties.
Joseph Glicksohn wrote in a 2007 review for "Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology" that "The book should be perused with care in order to ensure the further profitable use of [reaction time] in both experimental and differential lines of research."
Douglas Detterman reviewed it in 2008 for "Intelligence", writing that "the book would make a good introduction to the field of the measurement of individual differences in cognitive tasks for beginning graduate students." Eric-Jan Wagenmakers and Han van der Maas, also writing for "Intelligence" in 2018, faulted the book for omitting the work by mathematical psychologists, advocating standardization of chronometric methods (which the authors consider problematic because it can hide method variance), and because it does not discuss topics such as the mutualism model of the "g-"factor and the Flynn effect. They describe the book's breadth as useful, despite its simplistic approach. Jensen was on the editorial board of "Intelligence" when these reviews were published.
Awards.
In 2003, Jensen was awarded the Kistler Prize for original contributions to the understanding of the connection between the human genome and human society. In 2006, the International Society for Intelligence Research awarded Jensen its Lifetime Achievement Award.
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A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
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A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart.
Inspired by the farces of the ancient Roman playwright Plautus (254–184 BC), specifically "Curculio", "Pseudolus", "Miles Gloriosus", and "Mostellaria", the musical tells the bawdy story of a slave named Pseudolus and his attempts to win his freedom by helping his young master woo the girl next door. The plot displays many classic elements of farce, including puns, the slamming of doors, cases of mistaken identity (frequently involving characters disguising themselves as one another), and satirical comments on social class. The title derives from a line often used by vaudeville comedians to begin a story: "A funny thing happened on the way to the theater".
The musical's original 1962 Broadway run won several Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Author (Musical). "A Funny Thing" has enjoyed several Broadway and West End revivals and was made into a successful film starring the original lead of the stage musical, Zero Mostel.
Productions.
Original Broadway.
"A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" opened on Broadway on May 8, 1962, at the Alvin Theatre, and then transferred to the Mark Hellinger Theatre and the Majestic Theatre, where the show closed on August 29, 1964, after 964 performances and 8 previews.
The show's creators sought Phil Silvers for the lead role of Pseudolus, but he turned them down, allegedly because he would have to perform onstage without his glasses, and his vision was so poor that he feared tripping into the orchestra pit. He is also quoted as turning down the role for being "Sgt. Bilko in a toga". (Silvers eventually played the role – wearing his glasses – in a 1972 revival. In the film, he played Marcus Lycus.) Milton Berle also passed on the role. Eventually, Zero Mostel was cast.
During out-of-town tryouts the show attracted little business and did not play well. Jerome Robbins, to whom the show had originally been offered but who turned it down, was called in to give advice and make changes. In the interim, Joshua Logan was invited to direct, but according to Sondheim was rejected "because he wanted too much male nudity." It was then offered to veteran director George Abbott, who found it to be difficult to handle alone. The biggest change Robbins made was adding a new opening number to replace "Love Is in the Air" and introduce the show as a bawdy, wild comedy. Stephen Sondheim wrote the song "Comedy Tonight" for this new opening. From that point on, the show was a success.
It was directed by George Abbott and produced by Hal Prince, with choreography by Jack Cole and uncredited staging and choreography by Robbins. The scenic and costume design was by Tony Walton. The wardrobe is on display at the Costume World Broadway Collection in Pompano Beach, Florida. The lighting design was by Jean Rosenthal. Along with Mostel, the musical featured a cast of seasoned performers, including Jack Gilford (Mostel's friend and fellow blacklist member), David Burns, John Carradine, Ruth Kobart, and Raymond Walburn. The young lovers were played by Brian Davies and Preshy Marker. Karen Black, originally cast as the ingenue, was replaced out of town.
The show won six Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Actor (Mostel), Best Supporting Actor (Burns), Best Book, and Best Director. The score, Sondheim's first Broadway production for which he wrote both music and lyrics, did not earn a nomination.
London.
The show was presented twice in London's West End. The 1963 production and its 1986 revival were staged at the Strand Theatre and the Piccadilly Theatre respectively, and starred Frankie Howerd as Pseudolus and Leon Greene as Miles Gloriosus in both. In the 1963 production, Kenneth Connor appeared as Hysterium, 'Monsewer' Eddie Gray as Senex and Jon Pertwee as Marcus Lycus. In the 1986 revival, Patrick Cargill was Senex with Ronnie Stevens as Hysterium and Derek Royle as Erronius.
In 2004 there was a limited-run revival at the Royal National Theatre, starring Desmond Barrit as Pseudolus, Philip Quast as Miles Gloriosus, Hamish McColl as Hysterium and Isla Blair as Domina (who had previously played Philia in the 1963 production). This production was nominated for the 2005 Olivier Award, Outstanding Musical Production.
Motion picture adaptation.
Both Mostel and Gilford re-created their Broadway roles for the 1966 musical film directed by Richard Lester. Leon Greene reprised his West End role (Miles Gloriosus), while Phil Silvers portrayed Lycus, Michael Crawford portrayed Hero, and Michael Hordern played Senex. Buster Keaton made his final film appearance in the role of Erronius.
Broadway revivals.
A revival opened on Broadway at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on April 4, 1972, and closed on August 12, 1972, after 156 performances. Directed by co-author Burt Shevelove the cast starred Phil Silvers as Pseudolus (later replaced by Tom Poston), Lew Parker as Senex, Carl Ballantine as Lycus and Reginald Owen as Erronius. Larry Blyden, who played Hysterium, the role created by Jack Gilford, also co-produced. "Pretty Little Picture" and "That'll Show Him" were dropped from the show, and were replaced with "Echo Song" (sung by Hero and Philia), and "Farewell" (added for Nancy Walker as Domina, as she and Senex depart for the country). "Echo Song" and "Farewell" had been added to a production staged in Los Angeles the previous year and were composed by Sondheim. They had to close soon after Phil Silvers suffered a stroke. The show won two Tony Awards, Best Leading Actor in a Musical for Silvers, and Best Featured Actor in a Musical for Blyden.
The musical was revived again with great success in 1996, opening at the St. James Theatre on April 18, 1996, and closing on January 4, 1998, after 715 performances. The cast starred Nathan Lane as Pseudolus (replaced by Whoopi Goldberg and later by David Alan Grier), Mark Linn-Baker as Hysterium, Ernie Sabella as Lycus, Jim Stanek as Hero, Lewis J. Stadlen as Senex, and Cris Groenendaal as Miles Gloriosus. The production was directed by Jerry Zaks, with choreography by Rob Marshall. Lane won the 1996 Tony Award for Best Leading Actor and the Drama Desk Award, Outstanding Actor in a Musical; the production was nominated for the 1996 Tony Award and Drama Desk Award, Revival of a Musical.
Every actor who has opened in the role of Pseudolus on Broadway (Zero Mostel, Phil Silvers, and Nathan Lane) has won a Best Leading Actor Tony Award for his performance. In addition, Jason Alexander, who performed as Pseudolus in one scene in "Jerome Robbins' Broadway", also won a Tony for Best Actor in a Musical.
Other productions.
The original Australian production with American actor Jack Collins as Pseudolus opened at the Theatre Royal in Sydney in July 1964, and toured other Australian cities through 1965.
A production was directed by Stephen R. Buss at Boise State University in 1995, starring James B. Fisk, Randy Davison, Karen Wennstrom and Daniel Taylor.
In 1998, Jon English starred as Pseudolus in Essgee Entertainment's production that opened New Year's Day at the State Theatre, Melbourne and toured Australia and New Zealand, closing September 1999.
The Stephen Sondheim Center for the Performing Arts produced a limited-run revival of the musical from January 11 to 27, 2008. The production was directed by Randal K. West, with Justin Hill as musical director and Adam Cates as choreographer. The cast featured Richard Kind as Pseudolus, Joel Blum as Senex, Stephen DeRosa as Marcus Lycus, Sean McCall as Hysterium, and Steve Wilson as Miles Gloriosus. It also featured Diana Upton-Hill, Ryan Gaffney, Stephen Mark Crisp, Jack Kloppenborg, and Margret Clair.
The Chung Ying Theatre Company in Hong Kong staged a Cantonese version of the musical at Kwai Tsing Theatre, to celebrate the company's 30th anniversary. It was directed by Chung King Fai and Ko Tin Lung and ran from March 14 to 21, 2009.
The Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ontario, Canada production ran from June 11 to November 7, 2009, with Des McAnuff directing and Wayne Cilento as choreographer. Bruce Dow originally performed the role of Pseudolus, but was forced to withdraw from the entire 2009 season due to an injury, and the role was then performed by Seán Cullen as of September 5, 2009. Stephen Ouimette played Hysterium. Mirvish Productions presented the earlier Stratford production at the Canon Theatre, Toronto, in December 2010 through January 2011. Bruce Dow and Sean Cullen were alternates in the lead role.
In October 2012 the play opened at Her Majesty's Theatre, Melbourne, Australia, with Geoffrey Rush as Pseudolus, Magda Szubanski as Domina and Shane Bourne as Senex.
"A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" was produced at the Two River Theater in Red Bank, New Jersey from November 14, 2015, to December 13, 2015, with an all-male cast (Paul Castree, Eddie Cooper, Kevin Isola, David Josefsberg, Max Kumangai, Graham Rowat, Manny Stark, Bobby Conte Thornton, David Turner, Michael Urie, Tom Deckman, and Christopher Fitzgerald).
In March 2024, the musical A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum premiered at Teatro Claro Mais in São Paulo, marking the first official Brazilian production of this Broadway classic. Starring Miguel Falabella as Pseudolus, the show features a prominent cast, including Edgar Bustamante, Ivan Parente, Giovanna Zotti, Carlos Capeletti, Mauricio Xavier, Lucas Colombo, and Luci Salutes.
Plot.
In ancient Rome, some neighbors live in three adjacent houses. In the center is the house of Senex, who lives there with wife Domina, son Hero, and several slaves, including head slave Hysterium and the musical's main character Pseudolus. A slave belonging to Hero, Pseudolus wishes to buy, win, or steal his freedom. One of the neighboring houses is owned by Marcus Lycus, who is a buyer and seller of beautiful women; the other belongs to the ancient Erronius, who is abroad searching for his long-lost children (stolen in infancy by pirates).
One day, Senex and Domina go on a trip and leave Pseudolus in charge of Hero. Hero confides in Pseudolus that he is in love with the lovely Philia, one of the courtesans in the House of Lycus who is nevertheless still a virgin. Pseudolus promises to help him win Philia's love in exchange for his own freedom. Unfortunately (as the two find out when they visit Lycus), Philia has been sold to the renowned warrior, Captain Miles Gloriosus, who is expected to claim her very soon. Pseudolus, an excellent liar, uses Philia's cheery disposition to convince Lycus that she has picked up a plague from Crete, which causes its victims to smile endlessly in its terminal stages. By offering to isolate her in Senex's house, he is able to give Philia and Hero some time alone together, and the two fall in love. But Philia insists that, even though she is in love with Hero, she must honor her contract with the captain, for "that is the way of a courtesan." To appease her, he tells her to wait ("that's what virgins do best, isn't it?") inside, and that he will have the captain knock three times when he arrives. Pseudolus comes up with a plan to slip Philia a sleeping potion. He will then tell Lycus that she has died of the Cretan plague and will offer to remove the body. Hero will stow away with Philia on a ship headed for Greece. Pseudolus steals Hysterium's book of potions and has Hero read him the recipe for the sleeping potion; the only ingredient he lacks is a cup of mare's sweat, and Pseudolus goes to search for it.
Unexpectedly, Senex returns home early from his trip, and knocks three times on his own door. Philia comes out of the house, and, thinking that Senex is the captain, offers herself up to him. Surprised but game, Senex instructs Philia to wait in the house for him, and she does. Hysterium arrives and nervously tells Senex that Philia is the new maid that he has hired. Pseudolus returns, having procured the mare's sweat; seeing that Senex has returned and grasping the need to keep him out of the way, Pseudolus discreetly sprinkles some of the horse-sweat onto him, then suggests that the road trip has left Senex in dire need of a bath. Taking the bait, Senex instructs Hysterium to draw him a bath in the long-empty house of Erronius. But while this is happening, Erronius returns home, finally having given up the search for his long-lost children. Hysterium, desperate to keep him out of the house where his master is bathing, tells the old man that his house has become haunted – a story seemingly confirmed by the sound of Senex singing in his bath. Erronius immediately determines to have a soothsayer come and banish the spirit from his house, and Pseudolus obligingly poses as one, telling Erronius that, in order to banish the spirit, he must travel seven times around the seven hills of Rome (thus keeping the old man occupied and out of the way for quite a while).
When Miles Gloriosus arrives to claim his courtesan-bride, Pseudolus hides Philia on the roof of Senex's house; told that she has "escaped", Lycus is terrified to face the captain's wrath. Pseudolus offers to impersonate Lycus and talk his way out of the mess but, his ingenuity flagging, he ends up merely telling the captain that Philia has disappeared, and that he, "Lycus", will search for her. Displeased and suspicious, Miles insists that his soldiers accompany Pseudolus, but the wily slave loses them in Rome's winding streets.
Complicating matters further, Domina returns from her trip early, suspicious that her husband Senex is "up to something low." She disguises herself in virginal white robes and a veil (much like Philia's) to try to catch Senex being unfaithful. Pseudolus convinces Hysterium to help him by dressing in drag and pretending to be Philia, "dead" from the plague. Unfortunately, it turns out that Miles Gloriosus has just returned from Crete, where there is of course no actual plague. With the ruse thus revealed, the main characters run for their lives, resulting in a madcap chase across the stage with both Miles and Senex pursuing all three "Philia"s (Domina, Hysterium, and the actual Philia – all wearing identical white robes and veils). Meanwhile, the courtesans from the house of Marcus Lycus, who had been recruited as mourners at "Philia"'s ersatz funeral, have escaped, and Lycus sends his eunuchs out to bring them all back, adding to the general pandemonium.
Finally, the captain's troops are able to round everyone up. His plot thoroughly unraveled, Pseudolus appears to be in deep trouble – but Erronius, completing his third circuit of the Roman hills, shows up fortuitously to discover that Miles Gloriosus and Philia are wearing matching rings which mark them as his long-lost children. Philia's betrothal to the captain is nullified by the unexpected revelation that he is her brother, and, as the daughter of a free-born citizen, she is freed from Marcus Lycus. Philia weds Hero with Erronius' blessing; Pseudolus gets his freedom and the lovely courtesan Gymnasia; Gloriosus receives twin courtesans to replace Philia; and Erronius is reunited with his children. A happy ending prevails for all – except for poor Senex, stuck with his shrewish wife Domina.
Songs.
Act I
Act II
Cut songs:
Notes:
"Pretty Little Picture" is frequently dropped from productions, and one verse of "I'm Calm" is also often trimmed. A song for Domina entitled "Farewell" was added for the 1972 revival as she and Senex depart for the country. "Echo Song" was reinstated in the same revival.
References.
Notes
Bibliography
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Aleuts
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Aleuts ( ; (west) or (east) ) are the Indigenous people of the Aleutian Islands, which are located between the North Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea. Both the Aleuts and the islands are politically divided between the US state of Alaska and the Russian administrative division of Kamchatka Krai. This group is also known as the Unangax̂ in Unangam Tunuu, the Aleut language. There are 13 federally recognized Aleut tribes in the Aleut Region of Alaska. In 2000, Aleuts in Russia were recognized by government decree as a small-numbered Indigenous people.
Etymology.
In the Aleut language, they are known by the endonyms Unangan (eastern dialect) and Unangas (western dialect); both terms mean "people". The Russian term "Aleut" was a general term used for both the native population of the Aleutian Islands and their neighbors to the east in the Kodiak Archipelago, who were also referred to as "Pacific Eskimos" or Sugpiat/Alutiit.
Language.
Aleut people speak Unangam Tunuu, the Aleut language, as well as English and Russian in the United States and Russia respectively. An estimated 150 people in the United States and five people in Russia speak Aleut. The language belongs to the Eskaleut language family and includes three dialects: Eastern Aleut, spoken on the Eastern Aleutian, Shumagin, Fox and Pribilof Islands; Atkan, spoken on Atka and Bering islands; and the now extinct Attuan dialect.
The Pribilof Islands has the highest number of active speakers of Unangam Tunuu. Most native elders speak Aleut, but it is rare for common people to speak the language fluently.
Beginning in 1829, Aleut was written in the Cyrillic script. From 1870, the language has been written in the Latin script. An Aleut dictionary and grammar have been published, and portions of the Bible were translated into Aleut.
Tribes.
Aleut (Unangan) dialects and tribes:
Population and distribution.
Aleuts historically lived throughout the Aleutian Islands, the Shumagin Islands, and the far western part of the Alaska Peninsula, with an estimated population of around 25,000 prior to European contact. In the 1820s, the Russian-American Company administered a large portion of the North Pacific during a Russian-led expansion of the fur trade. They resettled many Aleut families to the Commander Islands (within the Aleutsky District of the Kamchatka Krai in Russia) and to the Pribilof Islands (in Alaska). These continue to have majority-Aleut communities.
According to the 2000 census, 11,941 people identified as being Aleut, while 17,000 identified as having partial Aleut ancestry. Prior to sustained European contact, approximately 25,000 Aleut lived in the archipelago. The Encyclopædia Britannica Online states that more than 15,000 people have Aleut ancestry in the early 21st century. Aleuts suffered high fatalities in the 19th and early 20th centuries from Eurasian infectious diseases to which they had no immunity. In addition, the population suffered as their customary lifestyles were disrupted. Russian traders, and later Europeans, married Aleut women and had families with them.
History.
After contact with Russia.
After the arrival of Russian Orthodox missionaries in the late 18th century, many Aleuts became Christian. Of the numerous Russian Orthodox congregations in Alaska, most are majority Alaska Native or Native Alaskan in ethnicity. One of the earliest Christian martyrs in North America was Saint Peter the Aleut.
Russian traders "took Aleut women and children hostage" to force Aleut men to hunt foxes and sea otters so the Russians could have their pelts, and often additionally enslaved Aleut men.
Recorded uprising against the Russians.
In the 18th century, Russia "promyshlenniki" traders established settlements on the islands. There was high demand for the furs that the Aleuts provided from hunting. In May 1784, local Aleuts revolted on Amchitka against the Russian traders. (The Russians had a small trading post there.) According to the Aleuts, in an account recorded by Japanese castaways and published in 2004, otters were decreasing year by year. The Russians paid the Aleuts less and less in goods in return for the furs they made. The Japanese learned that the Aleuts felt the situation was at crisis. The leading Aleuts negotiated with the Russians, saying they had failed to deliver enough supplies in return for furs. Nezimov, leader of the Russians, ordered two of his men, Stephanov ( ) and Kazhimov ( ) to kill his mistress Oniishin ( ), who was the Aleut chief's daughter, because he doubted that Oniishin had tried to dissuade her father and other leaders from pushing for more goods.
After the four leaders had been killed, the Aleuts began to move from Amchitka to neighboring islands. Nezimov, leader of the Russian group, was jailed after the whole incident was reported to Russian officials. (According to , written by Katsuragawa Hoshū after interviewing Daikokuya Kōdayū.)
Aleut massacre against the Nicoleño Tribe in California.
According to Russian American Company (RAC) records which were translated and published in the "Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology", a 200-ton otter hunting ship named "Il’mena" with a mixed-nationality crew, including a majority Aleut contingent, was involved in conflict resulting in a massacre of the indigenous natives of San Nicolas Island.
In 1814, to obtain more of the commercially valuable otter pelts, a Russian company brought a party of conscripted Aleut hunters to the coastal island of San Nicolas, near the Alta California-Baja California border. The locally resident Nicoleño nation sought a payment from the Aleut hunters for the large number of otters being killed in the area. Disagreement arose, turning violent; an Aleut was killed, and in retaliation Aleuts killed a number of Nicoleño (the exact amount is unknown). In 1835, the remaining Nicoleños were removed from the island, except for one woman and possibly her child, who were left behind. In 1853 that woman, later christened Juana Maria, was found and taken to Santa Barbara. She may have been the last living Nicoleñan, as what happened to the others after they were brought to the mainland is unknown (Juana Maria, "the Lone Woman of San Nicolas").
Internment during World War II.
In June 1942, during World War II, Japanese forces occupied Kiska and Attu Islands in the western Aleutians. They later transported captive Attu Islanders to Hokkaido, where they were held as prisoners of war in harsh conditions. Fearing a Japanese attack on other Aleutian Islands and mainland Alaska, the U.S. government evacuated hundreds more Aleuts from the western chain and the Pribilofs, placing them in internment camps in southeast Alaska, where many died of measles, influenza and other infectious diseases which spread quickly in the overcrowded dormitories. In total, about 75 died in American internment and 22 died while prisoners of the Japanese. The Aleut Restitution Act of 1988 was an attempt by Congress to compensate the survivors. On June 17, 2017, the U.S. Government formally apologized for the internment of the Unangan people and their treatment in the camps.
The World War II campaign by the United States to retake Attu and Kiska was a significant component of the operations in the American and Pacific theaters.
Population's decline.
Before their way of life was changed by major influences from the outside world, approximately 25,000 Aleuts were located on the archipelago. Foreign diseases, harsh treatment and disruption of aboriginal society soon reduced the population to less than one-tenth this number. The 1910 Census count showed 1,491 Aleuts. In the 2000 Census, 11,941 people identified as being Aleut; nearly 17,000 said Aleuts were among their ancestors.
Culture.
Housing.
Aleuts constructed partially underground houses called "barabara". According to Lillie McGarvey, a 20th-century Aleut leader, "s" keep "occupants dry from the frequent rains, warm at all times, and snugly sheltered from the high winds common to the area". Aleuts traditionally built houses by digging an oblong square pit in the ground, usually or smaller. The pit was then covered by a roof framed with driftwood, thatched with grass, and then covered with earth for insulation. Inside trenches were dug along the sides, with mats placed on top to keep them clean. The bedrooms were at the back of the lodge, opposite the entrance. Several families would stay in one house, with their own designated areas. Rather than fireplaces or bonfires in the middle, lanterns were hung in the house.
Subsistence.
Aleuts survived by hunting and gathering. They fished for salmon, crabs, shellfish, and cod, as well as hunting sea mammals such as seal, walrus, and whales. They processed fish and sea mammals in a variety of ways: dried, smoked, or roasted. Caribou, muskoxen, deer, moose, whale, and other types of game were eaten roasted or preserved for later use. They dried berries. They were also processed as , a mixture of berries, fat, and fish. The boiled skin and blubber of a whale is a delicacy, as is that of walrus.
Today, many Aleut continue to eat customary and locally sourced foods but also buy processed foods from abroad, which is expensive in Alaska.
Ethnobotany.
A full list of their ethnobotany has been compiled, with 65 documented plant uses.
Visual arts.
Customary arts of the Aleuts include weapon-making, building of "baidarkas" (special hunting boats), weaving, figurines, clothing, carving, and mask making. Men as well as women often carved ivory and wood. Nineteenth century craftsmen were famed for their ornate wooden hunting hats, which feature elaborate and colorful designs and may be trimmed with sea lion whiskers, feathers, and walrus ivory. Andrew Gronholdt of the Shumagin Islands has played a vital role in reviving the ancient art of building the "chagudax" or bentwood hunting visors.
Aleut women sewed finely stitched, waterproof parkas from seal gut and wove fine baskets from sea-lyme grass ("Elymus mollis"). Some Aleut women continue to weave ryegrass baskets. Aleut arts are practiced and taught throughout the state of Alaska. As many Aleut have moved out of the islands to other parts of the state, they have taken with them the knowledge of their arts. They have also adopted new materials and methods for their art, including serigraphy, video art, and installation art.
Aleut carving, distinct in each region, has attracted traders for centuries, including early Europeans and other Alaska Natives. Historically, carving was a male art and leadership attribute whereas today it is done by both genders. Most commonly the carvings of walrus ivory and driftwood originated as part of making hunting weapons. Sculptural carvings depict local animals, such as seals and whales. Aleut sculptors also have carved human figures.
Aleuts also carve walrus ivory for other uses, such as jewelry and sewing needles. Jewelry is made with designs specific to the region of each people. Each clan would have a specific style to signify their origin. Jewelry ornaments were made for piercing lips (labrum), nose, and ears, as well as for necklaces. Each woman had her own sewing needles, which she made, and that often had detailed end of animal heads.
The main Aleut method of basketry was false embroidery (overlay). Strands of grasses or reeds were overlaid upon the basic weaving surface, to obtain a plastic effect. Basketry was an art reserved for women. Early Aleut women created baskets and woven mats of exceptional technical quality, using only their thumbnail, grown long and then sharpened, as a tool. Today, Aleut weavers continue to produce woven grass pieces of a remarkable cloth-like texture, works of modern art with roots in ancient tradition. Birch bark, puffin feathers, and baleen are also commonly used by the Aleuts in basketry. The Aleut term for grass basket is . One Aleut leader recognized by the State of Alaska for her work in teaching and reviving Aleut basketry was Anfesia Shapsnikoff. Her life and accomplishments are portrayed in the book "Moments Rightly Placed" (1998).
Masks were created to portray figures of their myths and oral history. The Atka people believed that another people lived in their land before them. They portrayed such ancients in their masks, which show anthropomorphic creatures named in their language. Knut Bergsland says their word means "like those found in caves." Masks were generally carved from wood and were decorated with paints made from berries or other natural products. Feathers were inserted into holes carved out for extra decoration. These masks were used in ceremonies ranging from dances to praises, each with its own meaning and purpose.
Tattoos and piercings.
The tattoos and piercings of the Aleuts demonstrated accomplishments as well as their religious views. They believed their body art would please the spirits of the animals and make any evil go away. The body orifices were believed to be pathways for the entry of evil entities. By piercing their orifices: the nose, the mouth, and ears, they would stop evil entities, , from entering their bodies. Body art also enhanced their beauty, social status, and spiritual authority.
Before the 19th century, piercings and tattoos were very common among Aleuts, especially among women. Piercings, such as the nose pin, were common among both men and women and were usually performed a few days after birth. The ornament was made of various materials, a piece of bark or bone, or an eagle's feather shaft. From time to time, adult women decorated the nose pins by hanging pieces of amber and coral from strings on it; the semi-precious objects dangled down to their chins.
Piercing ears was also common. The Aleuts pierced holes around the rim of their ears with dentalium shells (tooth shells or tusk shells), bone, feathers, dried bird wings or skulls and/or amber. Materials associated with birds were important, as birds were considered to defend animals in the spirit world. A male would wear sea lion whiskers in his ears as a trophy of his expertise as a hunter. Worn for decorative reasons, and sometimes to signify social standing, reputation, and the age of the wearer, Aleuts would pierce their lower lips with walrus ivory and wear beads or bones. The individual with the most piercings held the highest respect.
Tattooing for women began when they reached physical maturity, after menstruation, at about age 20. Historically, men received their first tattoo after killing their first animal, an important rite of passage. Sometimes tattoos signaled social class. For example, the daughter of a wealthy, famous ancestor or father would work hard at her tattoos to show the accomplishments of that ancestor or father. They would sew, or prick, different designs on the chin, the side of the face, or under the nose.
Aleut clothing.
Aleuts developed in one of the harshest climates in the world, and learned to create and protect warmth. Both men and women wore parkas that extended below the knees. The women wore the skin of seal or sea-otter, and the men wore bird skin parkas, the feathers turned in or out depending on the weather. When the men were hunting on the water, they wore waterproof parkas made from seal or sea-lion guts, or the entrails of bear, walrus, or whales. Parkas had a hood that could be cinched, as could the wrist openings, so water could not get in. Men wore breeches made from the esophageal skin of seals. Children wore parkas made of downy eagle skin with tanned bird skin caps. They called these parkas "," meaning 'rain gear' in the English language.
Sea-lions, harbor seals, and sea otters are the most abundant marine mammals. The men brought home the skins and prepared them by soaking them in urine and stretching them. The women undertook the sewing. Preparation of the gut for clothing involved several steps. The prepared intestines were turned inside out. A bone knife was used to remove the muscle tissue and fat from the walls of the intestine. The gut was cut and stretched, and fastened to stakes to dry. It was then cut and sewn to make waterproof parkas, bags, and other receptacles. On some hunting trips, the men would take several women with them. They would catch birds and prepare the carcasses and feathers for future use. They caught puffins ("Lunda cirrhata", "Fratercula corniculata"), guillemots, and murres.
It took 40 skins of tufted puffin and 60 skins of horned puffin to make one parka. A woman would need a year for all the labor to make one parka. Each lasted two years with proper care. All parkas were decorated with bird feathers, beard bristles of seal and sea-lion, beaks of sea parrots, bird claws, sea otter fur, dyed leather, and caribou hair sewn in the seams.
Women made needles from the wing bones of seabirds. They made thread from the sinews of different animals and fish guts. A thin strip of seal intestine could also be used, twisted to form a thread. The women grew their thumbnail extra long and sharpened it. They could split threads to make them as fine as a hair. They used vermilion paint, hematite, the ink bag of the octopus, and the root of a kind of grass or vine to color the threads.
Gender.
Russian travelers making early contact with the Aleuts mention traditional tales of two-spirits or third and fourth gender people, known as (male-bodied, 'man transformed into a woman') and (female-bodied, 'woman transformed into a man'), but it is unclear whether these tales are about historical individuals or spirits.
Hunting technologies.
Boats.
The interior regions of the rough, mountainous Aleutian Islands provided little in terms of natural resources for the Aleutian people. They collected stones for weapons, tools, stoves or lamps. They collected and dried grasses for their woven baskets. For everything else, the Aleuts had learned to use the fish and mammals they caught and processed to satisfy their needs.
To hunt sea mammals and to travel between islands, the Aleuts became experts of sailing and navigation. While hunting, they used small watercraft called "baidarkas." For regular travel, they used their large "s".
The was a large, open, walrus-skin-covered boat. Aleut families used it when traveling among the islands. It was also used to transport goods for trade, and warriors took them to battle.
The (small skin boat) was a small boat covered in sea lion skin. It was developed and used for hunting because of its sturdiness and maneuverability. Aleut resembles that of a Yup'ik kayak, but it is hydrodynamically sleeker and faster. They made the for one or two persons only. The deck was made with a sturdy chamber, the sides of the craft were nearly vertical and the bottom was rounded. Most one-man "s" were about long and wide, whereas a two-man was on average about long and wide. It was from the that Aleut men would stand on the water to hunt from the sea.
Weapons.
The Aleuts hunted small sea mammals with barbed darts and harpoons slung from throwing boards. These boards gave precision as well as some extra distance to these weapons.
Harpoons were also called throwing-arrows when the pointed head fit loosely into the socket of the foreshaft and the head was able to detach from the harpoon when it penetrated an animal, and remain in the wound. There were three main kinds of harpoon that the Aleuts used: a simple harpoon, with a head that kept its original position in the animal after striking, a compound (toggle-head) harpoon in which the head took a horizontal position in the animal after penetration, and the throwing-lance used to kill large animals.
The simple Aleut harpoon consisted of four main parts: the wooden shaft, the bone foreshaft, and the bonehead (tip) with barbs pointed backward. The barbed head was loosely fitted into the socket of the foreshaft so that when the animal was stabbed, it pulled the head away from the rest of the harpoon. The sharp barbs penetrated with ease, but could not be pulled out. The bone tip is fastened to a length of braided twine meanwhile; the hunter held the other end of the twine in his hand.
The compound harpoon was the most prevalent weapon of the Aleuts. Also known as the toggle-head spear, it was about the same size as the simple harpoon and used to hunt the same animals, however, this harpoon provided a more efficient and lethal weapon. This harpoon separated into four parts. The longest part was the shaft with the thicker stalk closer to the tip of the harpoon. The shaft was fitted into the socket of the fore shaft and a bone ring was then placed over the joint to hold the two pieces together, as well as, protecting the wooden shaft from splitting. Connected to the fore shaft of the harpoon is the toggle head spear tip. This tip was made of two sub shafts that break apart on impact with an animal. The upper sub shaft held the razor stone head and attached to the lower sub shaft with a small braided twine loop. Once the tip penetrates the animal the upper sub head broke off from the rest of the shaft, however, since it was still connected with the braided loop it rotated the head into a horizontal position inside the animal's body so that it could not get away from the hunter.
The throwing lance may be distinguished from a harpoon because all its pieces are fixed and immovable. A lance was a weapon of war and it was also used to kill large marine animals after it has already been harpooned. The throwing lance usually consisted of three parts: a wooden shaft, a bone ring or belt, and the compound head that was made with a barbed bonehead and a stone tip. The length of the compound head was equivalent to the distance between the planes of a man's chest to his back. The lance would penetrate the chest and pass through the chest cavity and exit from the back. The bone ring was designed to break after impact so that the shaft could be used again for another kill.
Burial practices.
They buried their dead ancestors near the village. Archeologists have found many different types of burials, dating from a variety of periods, in the Aleutian Islands. Aleuts developed burial styles that were accommodated to local conditions, and honored the dead. They have had four main types of burials: , cave, above-ground sarcophagi, and burials connected to communal houses.
burials are the most widely known type of mortuary practice found in the Aleutian Islands. The people created burial mounds, that tend to be located on the edge of a bluff. They placed stone and earth over the mound to protect and mark it. Such mounds were first excavated by archeologists in 1972 on Southwestern Unmak Island, and dated to the early contact period. Researchers have found a prevalence of these burials, and concluded it is a regional mortuary practice. It may be considered a pan-Aleutian mortuary practice.
Cave burials have been found throughout the eastern Aleutian Islands. The human remains are buried in shallow graves at the rear of the cave. These caves tend to be next to middens and near villages. Some grave goods have been found in the caves associated with such burials. For example, a deconstructed boat was found in a burial cave on Kanaga Island. There were no other major finds of grave goods in the vicinity.
Throughout the Aleutian Islands, gravesites have been found that are above-ground sarcophagi. These sarcophagi are left exposed, with no attempt to bury the dead in the ground. These burials tend to be isolated and limited to the remains of adult males, which may indicate a specific ritual practice. In the Near Islands, isolated graves have also been found with the remains, and not just the sarcophagus, left exposed on the surface. This way of erecting sarcophagi above ground is not as common as and cave burials, but it is still widespread.
Another type of practice has been to bury remains in areas next to the communal houses of the settlement. Human remains are abundant in such sites. They indicate a pattern of burying the dead within the main activity areas of the settlement. These burials consist of small pits adjacent to the houses and scattered around them. In these instances, mass graves are common for women and children. This type of mortuary practice has been mainly found in the Near Islands.
In addition to these four main types, other kinds of burials have been found in the Aleutian Islands. These more isolated examples in include mummification, private burial houses, abandoned houses, etc. To date, such examples are not considered to be part of a larger, unifying cultural practice. The findings discussed represent only the sites that have been excavated.
The variety of mortuary practices mostly did not include the ritual of including extensive grave goods, as has been found in other cultures. The remains so far have been mainly found with other human and faunal remains. The addition of objects to "accompany" the dead is rare. Archaeologists have been trying to dissect the absence of grave goods, but their findings have been ambiguous and do not really help the academic community to understand these practices more.
Not much information is known about the ritual parts of burying the dead. Archeologists and anthropologists have not found much evidence related to burial rituals. This lack of ritual evidence could hint at either no ritualized ceremony, or one that has not yet been revealed in the archaeological record. As a result, archaeologists cannot decipher the context to understand exactly why a certain type of burial was used in particular cases.
In popular culture.
In "Snow Crash", a science fiction novel by American writer Neal Stephenson, a central character named Raven is portrayed as an Aleut with incredible toughness and hunting skill. The story is about revenge due in part to perceived mistreatment of the Aleuts.
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Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act
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The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) was signed into law by President Richard Nixon on December 18, 1971, constituting what is still the largest land claims settlement in United States history. ANCSA was intended to resolve long-standing issues surrounding aboriginal land claims in Alaska, as well as to stimulate economic development throughout Alaska.
The settlement established Alaska Native claims to the land by transferring titles to twelve Alaska Native regional corporations and over 200 local village corporations. A thirteenth regional corporation was later created for Alaska Natives who no longer resided in Alaska. The act is codified in chapter 33 of title 43 of the US Code.
Background.
Alaskan statehood.
When Alaska became a state in 1959, section 4 of the Alaska Statehood Act provided that any existing Alaska Native land claims would be unaffected by statehood and held in status quo. Yet while section 4 of the act preserved Native land claims until later settlement, section 6 allowed for the state government to claim lands deemed vacant. Section 6 granted the state of Alaska the right to select lands then in the hands of the federal government, with the exception of Native territory. As a result, nearly from the public domain would eventually be transferred to the state. The state government also attempted to acquire lands under section 6 of the Statehood Act that were subject to Native claims under section 4, and that were currently occupied and used by Alaska Natives. The federal Bureau of Land Management began to process the Alaska government's selections without taking into account the Native claims and without informing the affected Native groups.
It was against this backdrop that the original language for a land claims settlement was developed.
A 9.2-magnitude earthquake struck the state in 1964. Recovery efforts drew the attention of the federal government. The Federal Field Committee for Development Planning in Alaska decided that Natives should receive $100 million and 10% of revenue as a royalty. Nothing was done with this proposal, however, and a freeze on land transfers remained in effect.
Founding of the Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN).
In 1966, Emil Notti called for a statewide meeting inviting numerous leaders around Alaska to gather and create the first meeting of a committee. The historic meeting was held October 18, 1966 - on the 99th anniversary of the transfer of Alaska from Russia. Notti presided over the three-day conference as it discussed matters of land recommendations, claims committees, and political challenges the act would have in getting through congress. Many respected politicians and businessmen attended the meeting and delegates were astonished at the attention which they received from well-known political figures of the state. The growing presence and political importance of Natives was evidenced when members were able to gain election to seven of the sixty seats in the legislature.
When the group met a second time early in 1967, it emerged with a new name, The Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN), and a new full-time President, Emil Notti. AFN went on to profoundly change the human rights and economic stability of the Alaska Native population.
Native Land Claims Task Force.
In 1967, Governor Walter Hickel summoned a group of Indigenous leaders and politicians to work out a settlement that would be satisfactory to Natives. The group met for ten days and asked for $20 million in exchange for requested lands. Among the other task force proposals were an outright grant of 1,000 acres per native village resident; a revenue-sharing program for state land claims and national mineral development projects; secured hunting and fishing rights on public lands; and a Native Commission to administrate state and federal compliance with the provisions of the claims settlement. They proposed receiving 10% of federal mineral lease revenue for ten years, once the freeze which had been placed on land patents to allow oil exploration was lifted.
Oil.
In 1968, the Atlantic-Richfield Company discovered oil at Prudhoe Bay on the Arctic coast, catapulting the issue of land ownership into headlines. In order to lessen the difficulty of drilling at such a remote location and transporting the oil to the lower 48 states, the oil companies proposed building a pipeline to carry the oil across Alaska to the port of Valdez. At Valdez, the oil would be loaded onto tankers and shipped to the contiguous states.
The plan had been approved, but a permit to construct the pipeline, which would cross lands involved in the land claims dispute, could not be granted until the Native claims were settled. Hearings were held for the first time before the United States House's Subcommittee on Indian Affairs in July 1968. Among those who attended the hearings were officials and legislators, as well as Laura Bergt, Roger Connor, Thoda Forslund, Cliff Groh, Barry Jackson, Flore Lekanof, Notti, and Morris Thompson.
Government negotiations and policy.
In 1969, President Nixon appointed Hickel as Secretary of the Interior. The Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN) protested against Hickel's nomination, but he was eventually confirmed. He worked with the AFN, negotiating with Native leaders and state government over the disputed lands. Offers went back and forth, with each rejecting the other's proposals. The AFN wanted rights to land, while then-Governor Keith Miller believed Natives did not have legitimate claims to state land in light of the provisions of the Alaska Statehood Act. On July 8, 1970, Nixon delivered a speech reversing the Indian termination policy in favor of allowing tribal self-determination. The following month, he established the National Council on Indian Opportunity, headed by Vice President Spiro Agnew, which included eight Native leaders: Frank Belvin (Choctaw), Bergt (Iñupiat), Betty Mae Jumper (Seminole), Earl Old Person (Blackfeet), John C. Rainer (Taos Pueblo), Martin Seneca Jr. (Seneca), Harold Shunk (Yankton-Sioux), and Joseph C. "Lone Eagle" Vasquez (Apache-Sioux).
During the state administration of Governor William A. Egan positions were staked out upon which the AFN and other stakeholders could largely agree. Native leaders, in addition to Alaska's congressional delegation and the state's newly elected Governor Egan, eventually reached the basis for presenting an agreement to Congress. Bergt attended a March 1971 conference of the National Congress of American Indians in Kansas City, Missouri and was able to persuade Agnew there to meet with national officials, herself, Christiansen, an Alaska State Senator; Al Ketzler, chair of the Tanana Chiefs Conference; and Don Wright, president of the Alaska Federation of Natives a week later. That meeting held on March 12, marked a turning-point in negotiations with the various parties. The proposed settlement terms faced challenges in both houses but found a strong ally in Senator Henry M. Jackson from Washington state. The most controversial issues that continued to hold up approval were methods for determining land selection by Alaska Natives and financial distribution.
With major petroleum dollars on the line, pressure mounted to achieve a definitive legislative resolution at the federal level. In 1971, the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act was signed into law by President Nixon. It abrogated Native claims to aboriginal lands except those that are the subject of the law. In return, Natives retained up to of land and were paid $963 million. The land and money were to be divided among regional, urban, and village tribal corporations established under the law, often recognizing existing leadership.
Alaskan officials were originally divided on the bill, though by 1970, with Interior Secretary Walter Hickel, Governor William Egan, Representative Nick Begich & Senators Ted Stevens & Mike Gravel all backing the bill, the opposition died down. Stevens was particularly strongminded, and was key in the bill's passage. Stevens, a freshman Senator for most of the fight, would later remark:
Effect of land conveyances.
In 1971, barely one million acres of land in Alaska were in private hands. ANCSA, together with section 6 of Alaska Statehood Act, which the new act allowed to come to fruition, affected ownership to about of land in Alaska once wholly controlled by the federal government. That is larger by than the combined areas of Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia.
When the bill passed in 1971, it included provisions that had never before been attempted in previous United States settlements with Native Americans. The newly passed Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act created twelve Native regional economic development corporations. Each corporation was associated with a specific region of Alaska and the Natives who had traditionally lived there. This innovative approach to native settlements engaged the tribes in corporate capitalism.
The idea originated with the AFN, who believed that the Natives would have to become a part of the capitalist system in order to survive. As stockholders in these corporations, the Natives could earn some income and stay in their traditional villages. If the corporations were managed properly, they could make profits that would enable individuals to stay, rather than having to leave Native villages to find better work. This was intended to help preserve Native culture.
Native and state land selection.
Alaska Natives had three years from passage of ANCSA to make land selections of the granted under the act. In some cases Native corporations received outside aid in surveying the land. For instance, Doyon, Limited (one of the 13 regional corporations) was helped by the Geophysical Institute of the University of Alaska. The Institute determined which land contained resources such as minerals and coal. NASA similarly provided satellite imagery to aid in Native corporations finding areas most suited for vegetation and their traditional subsistence culture. The imagery showed locations of caribou and moose, as well as forests with marketable timber. In total about were analyzed for Doyon. Natives were able to choose tens of thousands of acres of land rich with timber while Doyon used mineral analysis to attract businesses.
The state of Alaska to date has been granted approximately 85% or of the land claims it has made under ANCSA. The state is entitled to a total of under the terms of the Statehood Act. Originally the state had 25 years after passage of the Alaska Statehood Act to file claims under section 6 of the act with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Amendments to ANCSA extended that deadline until 1994, with the expectation that BLM would complete processing of land transfers subject to overlapping Native claims by 2009. Nonetheless, some Native and state selections under ANCSA remained unresolved as late as December 2014.
Criticism of ANCSA.
There was largely positive reaction to ANCSA, although not entirely. The act was supported by Natives as well as non-Natives, and likewise enjoyed bipartisan support. Natives were heavily involved in the legislative process, and the final draft of the act used many AFN ideas.
Some Natives have argued that ANCSA has hastened cultural genocide of Alaska Natives. Some Natives critiqued ANCSA as an illegitimate treaty since only tribal leaders were involved and the provisions of the act were not voted on by indigenous populations. One native described it as a social and political experiment. Critics have also argued that Natives so feared massacre or incarceration that they offered no resistance to the act.
Others have argued that the settlement was arguably the most generous afforded by the United States to a Native group. They note that some of the largest and most profitable corporations in the state are the twelve created by ANCSA. Other critics attacked the act as "Native welfare" and such complaints continue to be expressed.
The corporation system has been critiqued, as in some cases stockholders have sold land to outside corporations that have leveled forests and extracted minerals. But supporters of the system argue that it has provided economic benefits for indigenous peoples that outweigh these problems.
Selected provisions of ANCSA.
Alaska Native regional corporations.
The following thirteen regional corporations were created under ANCSA:
Additionally, most regions and some villages have created their own nonprofits providing social services and health care through grant funding and federal compacts. The objectives of these nonprofits are varied, but focus generally on cultural and educational activities. These include scholarships for Native students, sponsorship of cultural and artistic events, preservation efforts for Native languages, and protection of sites with historic or religious importance.
Alaska Native village and urban corporations.
ANCSA created about 224 village and urban corporations. Below is a representative list of village and urban corporations created under ANCSA:
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Adoptionism
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Adoptionism, also called dynamic monarchianism, is an early Christian nontrinitarian theological doctrine, subsequently revived in various forms, which holds that Jesus was adopted as the Son of God at his baptism, his resurrection, or his ascension. How common adoptionist views were among early Christians is debated, but it appears to have been most popular in the first, second, and third centuries. Some scholars see adoptionism as the belief of the earliest followers of Jesus, based on the epistles of Paul and other early literature. However, adoptionist views sharply declined in prominence in the fourth and fifth centuries, as Church leaders condemned it as a heresy.
Definition.
Adoptionism is one of two main forms of monarchianism (the other being modalism, which considers God to be one while working through the different "modes" or "manifestations" of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, without limiting his modes or manifestations). Adoptionism denies the eternal pre-existence of Christ, and although it explicitly affirms his deity subsequent to events in his life, many classical trinitarians claim that the doctrine implicitly denies it by denying the constant hypostatic union of the eternal Logos to the human nature of Jesus.
Under adoptionism, Jesus is divine and has been since his adoption although he is not equal to the Father per "my Father is greater than I" and as such is a kind of subordinationism. (However, the quoted scripture can be orthodoxically interpreted as the fact that in the Trinity the Father is the source without origin, while the Son eternally receives the divinity from the Father.) Adoptionism is sometimes but not always related to a denial of the virgin birth of Jesus.
History.
Early Christianity.
Adoptionism and high Christology.
Bart Ehrman claims that the New Testament writings contain two different Christologies, namely a "low" or adoptionist Christology, and a "high" or "incarnation Christology". The "low Christology" or "adoptionist Christology" is the belief "that God exalted Jesus to be his Son by raising him from the dead", thereby raising him to "divine status". The other early Christology is "high Christology," which is "the view that Jesus was a pre-existent divine being who became a human, did the Father's will on earth, and then was taken back up into heaven whence he had originally come," and from where he appeared on earth. The chronology of the development of these early Christologies is a matter of debate within contemporary scholarship.
According to the "evolutionary model" or evolutionary theories proposed by Bousset, followed by Brown, the Christological understanding of Christ developed over time, from a low Christology to a high Christology, as witnessed in the Gospels. According to the evolutionary model, the earliest Christians believed that Jesus was a human who was exalted, and thus adopted as God's Son, when he was resurrected, signaling the nearness of the Kingdom of God, when all dead would be resurrected and the righteous exalted. Adoptionist concepts can be found in the Gospel of Mark. As Daniel Johansson notes, the majority of scholars hold Mark's Jesus as "an exalted, but merely human figure", especially when read in the apparent context of Jewish beliefs. Later beliefs shifted the exaltation to his baptism, birth, and subsequently to the idea of his eternal existence, as witnessed in the Gospel of John. Mark shifted the moment of when Jesus became the son to the baptism of Jesus, and later still Matthew and Luke shifted it to the moment of the divine conception, and finally John declared that Jesus had been with God from the beginning: "In the beginning was the Word".
One notable passage that may have been cited by early adoptionists was what exactly God said at Jesus's baptism; three different versions are recorded. One of them, found in the Codex Bezae version of Luke 3:22, is "You are my son; today I have begotten you." This seems to be quoted in Acts 13:32–33 as well (in all manuscripts, not just Bezae) and in Hebrews 5:5. Quotes from second and third century Christian writers almost always use this variant as well, with many fourth and fifth century writers continuing to use it, if occasionally with embarrassment; Augustine cites the line, for example, but clarifies God meant an eternal "today". Ehrman speculates that Orthodox scribes of the fourth and fifth century changed the passage in Luke to align with the version in Mark as a defense against adoptionists citing the passage in their favor.
Since the 1970s, these late datings for the development of a "high Christology" have been contested, and a majority of scholars argue that this "high Christology" existed already before the writings of Paul. According to the "New ", or the Early High Christology Club, which includes Martin Hengel, Larry Hurtado, N. T. Wright, and Richard Bauckham, this "incarnation Christology" or "high Christology" did not evolve over a longer time, but was a "big bang" of ideas which were already present at the start of Christianity, and took further shape in the first few decades of the church, as witnessed in the writings of Paul. Some 'Early High Christology' proponents scholars argue that this "high Christology" may go back to Jesus himself.
According to Ehrman, these two Christologies existed alongside each other, calling the "low Christology" an "adoptionist Christology, and "the "high Christology" an "incarnation Christology". Conversely, Michael Bird has argued that adoptionism did not first emerge until the 2nd century as a result of later theological debates and other socio-religious influences on the reading of certain biblical texts.
New Testamental epistles.
Adoptionist theology may also be reflected in canonical epistles, the earliest of which pre-date the writing of the gospels. The letters of Paul the Apostle, for example, do not mention a virgin birth of Christ. Paul describes Jesus as "born of a woman, born under the law" and "as to his human nature was a descendant of David" in the Epistle to the Galatians and the Epistle to the Romans. Christian interpreters, however, take his statements in Philippians 2 to imply that Paul believed Jesus to have existed as equal to God before his incarnation.
Shepherd of Hermas.
The 2nd-century work Shepherd of Hermas may also have taught that Jesus was a virtuous man filled with the Holy Spirit and adopted as the Son. While the Shepherd of Hermas was popular and sometimes bound with the canonical scriptures, it did not retain canonical status, if it ever had it.
Theodotus of Byzantium.
Theodotus of Byzantium ( late 2nd century), a Valentinian Gnostic, was the most prominent exponent of adoptionism. According to Hippolytus of Rome ("Philosophumena", VII, xxiii) Theodotus taught that Jesus was a man born of a virgin, according to the Council of Jerusalem, that he lived like other men, and was most pious. At his baptism in the Jordan the "Christ" came down upon the man Jesus, in the likeness of a dove ("Philosophumena", VII, xxiii), but Jesus was not himself God until after his resurrection.
Adoptionism was declared heresy at the end of the 3rd century and was rejected by the Synods of Antioch and the First Council of Nicaea, which defined the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity and identified the man Jesus with the eternally begotten Son or Word of God in the Nicene Creed. The belief was also declared heretical by Pope Victor I.
Ebionites.
Adoptionism was also adhered to by the Jewish Christians known as Ebionites, who, according to Epiphanius in the 4th century, believed that Jesus was chosen on account of his sinless devotion to the will of God.
The Ebionites were a Jewish Christian movement that existed during the early centuries of the Christian Era. They show strong similarities with the earliest form of Jewish Christianity, and their specific theology may have been a "reaction to the law-free Gentile mission". They regarded Jesus as the Messiah while rejecting his divinity and his virgin birth, and insisted on the necessity of following Jewish law and rites. They used the Gospel of the Ebionites, one of the Jewish–Christian gospels; the Hebrew Book of Matthew starting at chapter 3; revered James the brother of Jesus (James the Just); and rejected Paul the Apostle as an apostate from the Law. Their name (, derived from , meaning or ) suggests that they placed a special value on voluntary poverty.
Distinctive features of the Gospel of the Ebionites include the absence of the virgin birth and of the genealogy of Jesus; an Adoptionist Christology, in which Jesus is chosen to be God's Son at the time of his Baptism; the abolition of the Jewish sacrifices by Jesus; and an advocacy of vegetarianism.
Spanish Adoptionism.
Iberian Adoptionism was a theological position which was articulated in Umayyad and Christian-held regions of the Iberian Peninsula in the 8th and 9th centuries. The issue seems to have begun with the claim of archbishop Elipandus of Toledo that – in respect to his human nature – Christ was "adoptive" Son of God. Another leading advocate of this Christology was Felix of Urgel. In the Iberian peninsula, adoptionism was opposed by Beatus of Liebana, and in the Carolingian territories, the Adoptionist position was condemned by Pope Hadrian I, Alcuin of York, Agobard, and officially in Carolingian territory by the Council of Frankfurt (794).
Despite the shared name of "adoptionism" the Spanish Adoptionist Christology appears to have differed sharply from the adoptionism of early Christianity. Spanish advocates predicated the term of Christ only in respect to his humanity; once the divine Son "emptied himself" of divinity and "took the form of a servant" (Philippians 2:7), Christ's human nature was "adopted" as divine.
Historically, many scholars have followed the Adoptionists' Carolingian opponents in labeling Spanish Adoptionism as a minor revival of "Nestorian" Christology. John C. Cavadini has challenged this notion by attempting to take the Spanish Christology in its own Spanish/North African context in his study, "The Last Christology of the West: Adoptionism in Spain and Gaul, 785–820".
Scholastic Neo-adoptionism.
A third wave was the revived form ("Neo-adoptionism") of Peter Abelard in the 12th century. Later, various modified and qualified Adoptionist tenets emerged from some theologians in the 14th century. Duns Scotus (1300) and Durandus of Saint-Pourçain (1320) admit the term in a qualified sense. In more recent times the Jesuit Gabriel Vásquez, and the Lutheran divines Georgius Calixtus and Johann Ernst Immanuel Walch, have defended adoptionism as essentially orthodox.
Modern adoptionist groups.
A form of adoptionism surfaced in Unitarianism during the 16th and 17th in Polish Brethren and the 18th century as denial of the virgin birth became increasingly common, led by the views of Joseph Priestley and others.
A similar form of adoptionism was expressed in the writings of James Strang, a Latter Day Saint leader who founded the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Strangite) after the death of Joseph Smith in 1844. In his Book of the Law of the Lord, a purported work of ancient scripture found and translated by Strang, he offers an essay entitled "Note on the Sacrifice of Christ" in which he explains his unique (for Mormonism as a whole) doctrines on the subject. Jesus Christ, said Strang, was the natural-born son of Mary and Joseph, who was chosen from before all time to be the Savior of mankind, but who had to be born as an ordinary mortal of two human parents (rather than being begotten by the Father or the Holy Spirit) to be able to truly fulfill his Messianic role. Strang claimed that the earthly Christ was in essence "adopted" as God's son at birth, and fully revealed as such during the Transfiguration. After proving himself to God by living a perfectly sinless life, he was enabled to provide an acceptable sacrifice for the sins of men, prior to his resurrection and ascension.
The Christian Community, an esoteric Christian denomination informed by the teachings of Rudolf Steiner, assumes a high adoptionist Christology that treats Jesus and God the Son as separate beings until they are joined at baptism. "Steiner's Christology is discussed as a central element of his thought in Johannes Hemleben, "Rudolf Steiner: A Documentary Biography," trans. Leo Twyman (East Grinstead, Sussex: Henry Goulden, 1975), pp. 96-100. From the perspective of orthodox Christianity, it may be said that Steiner combined a docetic understanding of Christ's nature with the Adoptionist heresy."
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Apollinarism
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Apollinarism or Apollinarianism is a Christological position proposed by Apollinaris of Laodicea that argues that Jesus had a human body and sensitive human soul, but a divine mind and not a human rational mind, the Divine Logos taking the place of the latter. It was deemed heretical by the First Council of Constantinople in 381 and virtually died out within the following decades.
History.
The Trinity had been recognized at the First Council of Nicaea in 325, but debate about exactly what it meant continued. A rival to the more common belief that Jesus Christ had two natures was monophysitism ("one nature"), the doctrine that Christ had only one nature. Apollinarism and Eutychianism were two forms of monophysitism. Apollinaris's rejection of Christ having a human mind was considered an over-reaction to Arianism and its teaching that Christ was a lesser god.
Theodoret charged Apollinaris with confounding the persons of the Godhead and giving in to the heretical ways of Sabellius. Basil of Caesarea accused him of abandoning the literal sense of the scripture, and taking it up wholly with the allegorical sense. His views were condemned in a Synod at Alexandria, under Athanasius of Alexandria, in 362, and later subdivided into several different heresies, the main ones of which were the Polemians and the Antidicomarianites.
Apollinaris, considering the rational soul and spirit as essentially liable to sin and capable, at its best, of only precarious efforts, saw no way of saving Christ's impeccability and the infinite value of Redemption, except by the elimination of the human spirit from Jesus' humanity, and the substitution of the Divine Logos in its stead. Apollinarism was declared to be a heresy in 381 by the First Council of Constantinople.
Neo-Apollinarianism.
Christian philosopher William Lane Craig has proposed a neo-Apollinarian Christology in which the divine Logos completes the human nature of Christ. Craig says his proposal is tentative and he welcomes critique and interaction from other scholars.
Craig also clarifies "what I called a Neo-Apollinarian Christological model" by stating that
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Acid–base reaction
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In chemistry, an acid–base reaction is a chemical reaction that occurs between an acid and a base. It can be used to determine pH via titration. Several theoretical frameworks provide alternative conceptions of the reaction mechanisms and their application in solving related problems; these are called the acid–base theories, for example, Brønsted–Lowry acid–base theory.
Their importance becomes apparent in analyzing acid–base reactions for gaseous or liquid species, or when acid or base character may be somewhat less apparent. The first of these concepts was provided by the French chemist Antoine Lavoisier, around 1776.
It is important to think of the acid–base reaction models as theories that complement each other. For example, the current Lewis model has the broadest definition of what an acid and base are, with the Brønsted–Lowry theory being a subset of what acids and bases are, and the Arrhenius theory being the most restrictive.
Acid–base definitions.
Historic development.
The concept of an acid–base reaction was first proposed in 1754 by Guillaume-François Rouelle, who introduced the word "base" into chemistry to mean a substance which reacts with an acid to give it solid form (as a salt). Bases are mostly bitter in nature.
Lavoisier's oxygen theory of acids.
The first scientific concept of acids and bases was provided by Lavoisier in around 1776. Since Lavoisier's knowledge of strong acids was mainly restricted to oxoacids, such as (nitric acid) and (sulfuric acid), which tend to contain central atoms in high oxidation states surrounded by oxygen, and since he was not aware of the true composition of the hydrohalic acids (HF, HCl, HBr, and HI), he defined acids in terms of their containing "oxygen", which in fact he named from Greek words meaning "acid-former" (). The Lavoisier definition held for over 30 years, until the 1810 article and subsequent lectures by Sir Humphry Davy in which he proved the lack of oxygen in hydrogen sulfide (), hydrogen telluride (), and the hydrohalic acids. However, Davy failed to develop a new theory, concluding that "acidity does not depend upon any particular elementary substance, but upon peculiar arrangement of various substances". One notable modification of oxygen theory was provided by Jöns Jacob Berzelius, who stated that acids are oxides of nonmetals while bases are oxides of metals.
Liebig's hydrogen theory of acids.
In 1838, Justus von Liebig proposed that an acid is a hydrogen-containing compound whose hydrogen can be replaced by a metal. This redefinition was based on his extensive work on the chemical composition of organic acids, finishing the doctrinal shift from oxygen-based acids to hydrogen-based acids started by Davy. Liebig's definition, while completely empirical, remained in use for almost 50 years until the adoption of the Arrhenius definition.
Arrhenius definition.
The first modern definition of acids and bases in molecular terms was devised by Svante Arrhenius. A hydrogen theory of acids, it followed from his 1884 work with Friedrich Wilhelm Ostwald in establishing the presence of ions in aqueous solution and led to Arrhenius receiving the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1903.
As defined by Arrhenius:
This causes the protonation of water, or the creation of the hydronium () ion. Thus, in modern times, the symbol is interpreted as a shorthand for , because it is now known that a bare proton does not exist as a free species in aqueous solution. This is the species which is measured by pH indicators to measure the acidity or basicity of a solution.
The Arrhenius definitions of acidity and alkalinity are restricted to aqueous solutions and are not valid for most non-aqueous solutions, and refer to the concentration of the solvent ions. Under this definition, pure and HCl dissolved in toluene are not acidic, and molten NaOH and solutions of calcium amide in liquid ammonia are not alkaline. This led to the development of the Brønsted–Lowry theory and subsequent Lewis theory to account for these non-aqueous exceptions.
The reaction of an acid with a base is called a neutralization reaction. The products of this reaction are a salt and water.
formula_1
In this traditional representation an acid–base neutralization reaction is formulated as a double-replacement reaction. For example, the reaction of hydrochloric acid (HCl) with sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solutions produces a solution of sodium chloride (NaCl) and some additional water molecules.
formula_2
The modifier (aq) in this equation was implied by Arrhenius, rather than included explicitly. It indicates that the substances are dissolved in water. Though all three substances, HCl, NaOH and NaCl are capable of existing as pure compounds, in aqueous solutions they are fully dissociated into the aquated ions and .
Example: Baking powder.
Baking powder is used to cause the dough for breads and cakes to "rise" by creating millions of tiny carbon dioxide bubbles. Baking powder is not to be confused with baking soda, which is sodium bicarbonate (). Baking powder is a mixture of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) and acidic salts. The bubbles are created because, when the baking powder is combined with water, the sodium bicarbonate and acid salts react to produce gaseous carbon dioxide.
Whether commercially or domestically prepared, the principles behind baking powder formulations remain the same. The acid–base reaction can be generically represented as shown:
formula_3
The real reactions are more complicated because the acids are complicated. For example, starting with sodium bicarbonate and monocalcium phosphate (), the reaction produces carbon dioxide by the following stoichiometry:
formula_4
A typical formulation (by weight) could call for 30% sodium bicarbonate, 5–12% monocalcium phosphate, and 21–26% sodium aluminium sulfate. Alternately, a commercial baking powder might use sodium acid pyrophosphate as one of the two acidic components instead of sodium aluminium sulfate. Another typical acid in such formulations is cream of tartar (), a derivative of tartaric acid.
Brønsted–Lowry definition.
The Brønsted–Lowry definition, formulated in 1923, independently by Johannes Nicolaus Brønsted in Denmark and Martin Lowry in England, is based upon the idea of protonation of bases through the deprotonation of acids – that is, the ability of acids to "donate" hydrogen cations () otherwise known as protons to bases, which "accept" them.
An acid–base reaction is, thus, the removal of a proton from the acid and its addition to the base. The removal of a proton from an acid produces its "conjugate base", which is the acid with a proton removed. The reception of a proton by a base produces its "conjugate acid", which is the base with a proton added.
Unlike the previous definitions, the Brønsted–Lowry definition does not refer to the formation of salt and solvent, but instead to the formation of "conjugate acids" and "conjugate bases", produced by the transfer of a proton from the acid to the base. In this approach, acids and bases are fundamentally different in behavior from salts, which are seen as electrolytes, subject to the theories of Debye, Onsager, and others. An acid and a base react not to produce a salt and a solvent, but to form a new acid and a new base. The concept of neutralization is thus absent. Brønsted–Lowry acid–base behavior is formally independent of any solvent, making it more all-encompassing than the Arrhenius model. The calculation of pH under the Arrhenius model depended on alkalis (bases) dissolving in water (aqueous solution). The Brønsted–Lowry model expanded what could be pH tested using insoluble and soluble solutions (gas, liquid, solid).
The general formula for acid–base reactions according to the Brønsted–Lowry definition is:
formula_5
where HA represents the acid, B represents the base, represents the conjugate acid of B, and represents the conjugate base of HA.
For example, a Brønsted–Lowry model for the dissociation of hydrochloric acid (HCl) in aqueous solution would be the following:
formula_6
The removal of from the produces the chloride ion, , the conjugate base of the acid. The addition of to the (acting as a base) forms the hydronium ion, , the conjugate acid of the base.
Water is amphoteric that is, it can act as both an acid and a base. The Brønsted–Lowry model explains this, showing the dissociation of water into low concentrations of hydronium and hydroxide ions:
formula_7
This equation is demonstrated in the image below:
Here, one molecule of water acts as an acid, donating an and forming the conjugate base, , and a second molecule of water acts as a base, accepting the ion and forming the conjugate acid, .
As an example of water acting as an acid, consider an aqueous solution of pyridine, .
formula_8
In this example, a water molecule is split into a hydrogen cation, which is donated to a pyridine molecule, and a hydroxide ion.
In the Brønsted–Lowry model, the solvent does not necessarily have to be water, as is required by the Arrhenius Acid–Base model. For example, consider what happens when acetic acid, , dissolves in liquid ammonia.
formula_9
An ion is removed from acetic acid, forming its conjugate base, the acetate ion, . The addition of an ion to an ammonia molecule of the solvent creates its conjugate acid, the ammonium ion, .
The Brønsted–Lowry model calls hydrogen-containing substances (like ) acids. Thus, some substances, which many chemists considered to be acids, such as or , are excluded from this classification due to lack of hydrogen. Gilbert N. Lewis wrote in 1938, "To restrict the group of acids to those substances that contain hydrogen interferes as seriously with the systematic understanding of chemistry as would the restriction of the term oxidizing agent to substances containing oxygen." Furthermore, and are not considered Brønsted bases, but rather salts containing the bases and .
Lewis definition.
The hydrogen requirement of Arrhenius and Brønsted–Lowry was removed by the Lewis definition of acid–base reactions, devised by Gilbert N. Lewis in 1923, in the same year as Brønsted–Lowry, but it was not elaborated by him until 1938. Instead of defining acid–base reactions in terms of protons or other bonded substances, the Lewis definition defines a base (referred to as a "Lewis base") to be a compound that can donate an "electron pair", and an acid (a "Lewis acid") to be a compound that can receive this electron pair.
For example, boron trifluoride, is a typical Lewis acid. It can accept a pair of electrons as it has a vacancy in its octet. The fluoride ion has a full octet and can donate a pair of electrons. Thus
formula_10
is a typical Lewis acid, Lewis base reaction. All compounds of group 13 elements with a formula can behave as Lewis acids. Similarly, compounds of group 15 elements with a formula , such as amines, , and phosphines, , can behave as Lewis bases. Adducts between them have the formula with a dative covalent bond, shown symbolically as ←, between the atoms A (acceptor) and D (donor). Compounds of group 16 with a formula may also act as Lewis bases; in this way, a compound like an ether, , or a thioether, , can act as a Lewis base. The Lewis definition is not limited to these examples. For instance, carbon monoxide acts as a Lewis base when it forms an adduct with boron trifluoride, of formula .
Adducts involving metal ions are referred to as co-ordination compounds; each ligand donates a pair of electrons to the metal ion. The reaction
formula_11
can be seen as an acid–base reaction in which a stronger base (ammonia) replaces a weaker one (water).
The Lewis and Brønsted–Lowry definitions are consistent with each other since the reaction
formula_12
is an acid–base reaction in both theories.
Solvent system definition.
One of the limitations of the Arrhenius definition is its reliance on water solutions. Edward Curtis Franklin studied the acid–base reactions in liquid ammonia in 1905 and pointed out the similarities to the water-based Arrhenius theory. Albert F.O. Germann, working with liquid phosgene, , formulated the solvent-based theory in 1925, thereby generalizing the Arrhenius definition to cover aprotic solvents.
Germann pointed out that in many solutions, there are ions in equilibrium with the neutral solvent molecules:
For example, water and ammonia undergo such dissociation into hydronium and hydroxide, and ammonium and amide, respectively:
formula_13
Some aprotic systems also undergo such dissociation, such as dinitrogen tetroxide into nitrosonium and nitrate, antimony trichloride into dichloroantimonium and tetrachloroantimonate, and phosgene into chlorocarboxonium and chloride:
formula_14
A solute that causes an increase in the concentration of the solvonium ions and a decrease in the concentration of solvate ions is defined as an "acid". A solute that causes an increase in the concentration of the solvate ions and a decrease in the concentration of the solvonium ions is defined as a "base".
Thus, in liquid ammonia, (supplying ) is a strong base, and (supplying ) is a strong acid. In liquid sulfur dioxide (), thionyl compounds (supplying ) behave as acids, and sulfites (supplying ) behave as bases.
The non-aqueous acid–base reactions in liquid ammonia are similar to the reactions in water:
formula_15
Nitric acid can be a base in liquid sulfuric acid:
formula_16
The unique strength of this definition shows in describing the reactions in aprotic solvents; for example, in liquid :
formula_17
Because the solvent system definition depends on the solute as well as on the solvent itself, a particular solute can be either an acid or a base depending on the choice of the solvent: is a strong acid in water, a weak acid in acetic acid, and a weak base in fluorosulfonic acid; this characteristic of the theory has been seen as both a strength and a weakness, because some substances (such as and ) have been seen to be acidic or basic on their own right. On the other hand, solvent system theory has been criticized as being too general to be useful. Also, it has been thought that there is something intrinsically acidic about hydrogen compounds, a property not shared by non-hydrogenic solvonium salts.
Lux–Flood definition.
This acid–base theory was a revival of the oxygen theory of acids and bases proposed by German chemist Hermann Lux in 1939, further improved by Håkon Flood and is still used in modern geochemistry and electrochemistry of molten salts. This definition describes an acid as an oxide ion () acceptor and a base as an oxide ion donor. For example:
formula_18
This theory is also useful in the systematisation of the reactions of noble gas compounds, especially the xenon oxides, fluorides, and oxofluorides.
Usanovich definition.
Mikhail Usanovich developed a general theory that does not restrict acidity to hydrogen-containing compounds, but his approach, published in 1938, was even more general than Lewis theory. Usanovich's theory can be summarized as defining an acid as anything that accepts negative species or donates positive ones, and a base as the reverse. This defined the concept of redox (oxidation-reduction) as a special case of acid–base reactions.
Some examples of Usanovich acid–base reactions include:
formula_19
Rationalizing the strength of Lewis acid–base interactions.
HSAB theory.
In 1963, Ralph Pearson proposed a qualitative concept known as the Hard and Soft Acids and Bases principle. later made quantitative with help of Robert Parr in 1984. 'Hard' applies to species that are small, have high charge states, and are weakly polarizable. 'Soft' applies to species that are large, have low charge states and are strongly polarizable. Acids and bases interact, and the most stable interactions are hard–hard and soft–soft. This theory has found use in organic and inorganic chemistry.
ECW model.
The ECW model created by Russell S. Drago is a quantitative model that describes and predicts the strength of Lewis acid base interactions, . The model assigned and parameters to many Lewis acids and bases. Each acid is characterized by an and a . Each base is likewise characterized by its own and . The and parameters refer, respectively, to the electrostatic and covalent contributions to the strength of the bonds that the acid and base will form. The equation is
formula_20
The term represents a constant energy contribution for acid–base reaction such as the cleavage of a dimeric acid or base. The equation predicts reversal of acids and base strengths. The graphical presentations of the equation show that there is no single order of Lewis base strengths or Lewis acid strengths.
Acid–base equilibrium.
The reaction of a strong acid with a strong base is essentially a quantitative reaction. For example,
formula_21
In this reaction both the sodium and chloride ions are spectators as the neutralization reaction,
formula_22
does not involve them. With weak bases addition of acid is not quantitative because a solution of a weak base is a buffer solution. A solution of a weak acid is also a buffer solution. When a weak acid reacts with a weak base an equilibrium mixture is produced. For example, adenine, written as AH, can react with a hydrogen phosphate ion, .
formula_23
The equilibrium constant for this reaction can be derived from the acid dissociation constants of adenine and of the dihydrogen phosphate ion.
formula_24
The notation [X] signifies "concentration of X". When these two equations are combined by eliminating the hydrogen ion concentration, an expression for the equilibrium constant, is obtained.
formula_25
Acid–alkali reaction.
An acid–alkali reaction is a special case of an acid–base reaction, where the base used is also an alkali. When an acid reacts with an alkali salt (a metal hydroxide), the product is a metal salt and water. Acid–alkali reactions are also neutralization reactions.
In general, acid–alkali reactions can be simplified to
formula_26
by omitting spectator ions.
Acids are in general pure substances that contain hydrogen cations () or cause them to be produced in solutions. Hydrochloric acid () and sulfuric acid () are common examples. In water, these break apart into ions:
formula_27
The alkali breaks apart in water, yielding dissolved hydroxide ions:
formula_28.
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Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani
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Ali ibn al-Husayn al-Iṣfahānī (), also known as Abul-Faraj, (full form: Abū al-Faraj ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥaytham al-Umawī al-Iṣfahānī) (897–967CE / 284–356AH) was a writer, historian, genealogist, poet, musicologist and scribe. He was of Arab-Quraysh origin and mainly based in Baghdad. He is best known as the author of "Kitab al-Aghani" ("The Book of Songs"), which includes information about the earliest attested periods of Arabic music (from the seventh to the ninth centuries) and the lives of poets and musicians from the pre-Islamic period to al-Isfahani's time. Given his contribution to the documentation of the history of Arabic music, al-Isfahani is characterised by George Sawa as "a true prophet of modern ethnomusicology".
Dates.
The commonly accepted dates of al-Isfahani's birth and death are 897–898 and 967, based on the dates given by al-Khatib al-Baghdadi which itself based its information on the testimony of al-Isfahani's student, Muhammad ibn Abi al-Fawaris. However, the credibility of these dates is to be treated with caution. No source places his death earlier than 967, but several place it later. These dates are at odds with a reference in the "Kitab Adab al-ghuraba" ("The Book of the Etiquettes of Strangers"), attributed to al-Isfahani, to his being in the prime of youth ("fi ayyam al-shabiba wa-l-siba") in 967. Calculation of the approximate dates of his birth and death through the life spans of his students and his direct informants suggests that he was born before 902 and died after 960.
Biography.
Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani was born in Isfahan, Persia (present-day Iran) but spent his youth and undertook his early studies in Baghdad (present-day Iraq). He was a direct descendant of the last of the Umayyad caliphs, Marwan II, and was thus connected with the Umayyad rulers in al-Andalus, and seems to have kept up a correspondence with them and to have sent them some of his works. He became famous for his knowledge of early Arabian antiquities.
His later life was spent in various parts of the Islamic world, including in Aleppo with its Hamdanid governor Sayf ad-Dawlah (to whom he dedicated the "Book of Songs"), and in Ray with the Buwayhid vizier Ibn 'Abbad.
Family.
The epithet, al-Isfahani, refers to the city, Isfahan, on the Iranian plateau. Instead of indicating al-Isfahani's birthplace, this epithet seems to be common to al-Isfahani's family. Every reference al-Isfahani makes to his paternal relatives includes the attributive, al-Isfahani. According to Ibn Hazm (994–1064), some descendants of the last Umayyad caliph, Marwan b. Muhammad (691–750), al-Isfahani's ancestor, settled in Isfahan. However, it has to be borne in mind that the earliest information available regarding al-Isfahani's family history only dates to the generation of his great-grandfather, Ahmad b. al-Ḥaytham, who settled in Samarra sometime between 835–6 and 847.
Based on al-Isfahani's references in the "Kitab al-Aghani" (hereafter, the "Aghani"), Ahmad b. al-Haytham seems to have led a privileged life in Sāmarrāʾ, while his sons were well-connected with the elite of the Abbasid capital at that time. His son, Abd al-Aziz b. Ahmad, was "one of the high ranking scribes in the days of al-Mutawakkil (r. 847–861) ("min kibār al-kuttāb fī ayyām al-Mutawakkil")". Another son, Muhammad b. Ahmad ("viz". al-Isfahani's grandfather), was associated with Abbasid officials, the vizier Ibn al-Zayyāt (d. 847), the scribe Ibrahim b. al-Abbas al-Ṣūlī (792–857), and the vizier Ubaydallah b. Sulayman (d. 901), along with the Ṭālibid notables, including al-Husayn b. al-Husayn b. Zayd, who was the leader of the Banu Hashim. The close ties with the Abbasid court continued with Muhammad's sons, al-Hasan and al-Husayn (al-Isfahani's father).
In various places in the "Aghani", al-Isfahani refers to Yahya b. Muhammad b. Thawaba (from the Al Thawaba) as his grandfather on his mother's side. It is often suggested that the family of Thawaba, being Shi'i, bequeathed their sectarian inclination to al-Isfahani. However, the identification of the Thawaba family as Shi'is is only found in a late source, Yaqut's (1178–1225) work. While many elite families working under the Abbasid caliphate were Shi'i-inclined, indeed allied with Alids or their partisans, there is no evidence that members of the Thawaba family embraced an extreme form of Shi'ism.
In summary, al-Isfahani came from a family well-entrenched in the networks of the Abbasid elite, which included the officials and the Alids. Despite the epithet, al-Isfahani, it does not seem that the Isfahani family had a strong connection with the city of Isfahan. Rather, the family was mainly based in Sāmarrāʾ, from the generation of Ahmad b. al-Ḥaytham, and then Baghdad.
In the seats of the caliphate, a few members of the al-Isfahani family worked as scribes, while maintaining friendship or alliance with other scribes, viziers and notables. Like many of the court elite, al-Isfahani's family maintained an amicable relationship with the offspring of Ali and allied with families, such as the Thawaba family, sharing their veneration of Ali and Alids. However, it is hard to pinpoint such a reverential attitude towards Alids in terms of sectarian alignment, given the scanty information about al-Isfahani's family and the fluidity of sectarian identities at the time.
Education and career.
The Isfahani family's extensive network of contacts is reflected in al-Isfahani's sources. Among the direct informants whom al-Isfahani cites in his works, are members of his own family, who were further connected to other notable families, the Al Thawaba, the Banū Munajjim, the Yazīdīs, the Ṣūlīs, the Banū Ḥamdūn, the Ṭāhirids, the Banū al-Marzubān and the Ṭālibids.
Given that al-Isfahani and his family very likely settled in Baghdad around the beginning of the tenth century, he interacted with a considerable number of the inhabitants of or visitors to that city, including: Jaḥẓa (d. 936), al-Khaffāf, Ali b. Sulaymān al-Akhfash (d. 927/8), and Muhammad b. Jarir al-Ṭabari (d. 922). Like other scholars of his time, al-Isfahani travelled in pursuit of knowledge. Although the details are insufficient to establish the dates of his journeys, based on the chains of transmission ("asānīd", sing. "isnād") al-Isfahani cites consistently and meticulously in every report, it is certain that he transmitted from ʿAbd al-Malik b. Maslama and ʿĀṣim b. Muhammad in Antakya; ʿAbdallāh b. Muhammad b. Ishaq in Ahwaz; and Yahya b. Aḥmad b. al-Jawn in Raqqa. If we accept the attribution of the "Kitab Adab al-ghuraba" to al-Isfahani, he once visited Baṣra as well as Ḥiṣn Mahdī, Mattūth, and Bājistrā. Yet, none of these cities seems to have left as much of an impact on al-Isfahani as Kūfa and Baghdad did. While al-Isfahani's Baghdadi informants were wide-ranging in their expertise as well as sectarian and theological tendencies, his Kūfan sources can be characterised as either Shi'i or keen on preserving and disseminating memories that favoured Ali and his family. For example, Ibn ʿUqda (d. 944), mentioned in both the "Aghānī" and the "Maqātil," was invariably cited for the reports about the Alids and their merits.
The journey in search for knowledge taken by al-Isfahani may not be particularly outstanding by the standard of his time, but the diversity of his sources' occupations and expertise is impressive. His informants can be assigned into one or more of the following categories: philologists and grammarians; singers and musicians; booksellers and copyists ("sahhafun" or "warraqun", sing. "sahhaf" or "Warraq"); friends; tutors ("muʾaddibūn", sing. "muʾaddib"); scribes ("kuttāb", sing. "kātib"); imams or preachers ("khuṭabāʾ", sing. "khaṭīb"); religious scholars (of the "ḥadīth", the Qurʾānic recitations and exegeses, or jurisprudence) and judges; poets; and "akhbārīs" (transmitters of reports of all sorts, including genealogical, historical, and anecdotal reports). The variety of the narrators and their narrations enriched al-Iṣfahānī's literary output, which covers a wide range of topics from amusing tales to the accounts of the Alids' martyrdom. His erudition is best illustrated by Abu Ali al-Muhassin al-Tanukhi's (941–994) comment: "With his encyclopaedic knowledge of music, musicians, poetry, poets, genealogy, history, and other subjects, al-Iṣfahānī established himself as a learned scholar and teacher."
He was also a scribe and this is not surprising, given his families’ scribal connections, but the details of his "kātib" activities are rather opaque. Although both al-Tanūkhī and al-Baghdādī refer to al-Isfahani with the attribute, "kātib", they mention nothing of where he worked or for whom. The details of his occupation as a scribe only came later, with Yaqut, many of whose reports about al-Isfahani prove problematic. For instance, a report from Yaqut claims that al-Isfahani was the scribe of Rukn al-Dawla (d. 976) and mentions his resentment towards Abū al-Faḍl b. al-ʿAmīd (d. 970). However, the very same report was mentioned by Abū Ḥayyān al-Tawḥīdī (active tenth century) in his "Akhlāq al-wazīrayn", where the scribe of Rukn al-Dawla is identified as Abū al-Faraj Ḥamd b. Muhammad, not Abū al-Faraj al-Isfahani. Thus, it is hard to know with certainty how and where al-Isfahani was engaged in his capacity as a "kātib". Nevertheless, al-Isfahani's association with the vizier, Abū Muḥammad al-Muhallabī (903–963), is well-documented. The friendship between the two began before al-Muhallabī's became vizier in 950. The firm relationship between them is supported by al-Isfahani's poetry collected by al-Thaʿālibī (961–1038): half of the fourteen poems are panegyrics dedicated to al-Muhallabī. In addition, al-Isfahani's own work, "al-Imāʾ al-shawāʿir" (“Enslaved Women Who Composed Poetry”), is dedicated to the vizier, presumably, al-Muhallabī. His no longer surviving "Manājīb al-khiṣyān" (“The Noble Eunuchs”), which addresses two castrated male singers owned by al-Muhallabī, was composed for him. His "magnum opus", the "Aghānī", was very likely intended for al-Muhallabī, as well. In return for his literary efforts, according to al-Tanūkhī, al-Isfahani frequently received rewards from the vizier. Furthermore, for the sake of their long-term friendship and out of his respect for al-Isfahani's genius, al-Muhallabī exceptionally tolerated al-Isfahani's uncouth manners and poor personal hygiene. The sources say nothing about al-Isfahani's fate after al-Muhallabī's death. In his last years, according to his student, Muhammad b. Abī al-Fawāris, he suffered from senility ("khallaṭa").
Personality, preferences, and beliefs.
As a friend, al-Isfahani was unconventional in the sense that he did not seem to have been bothered to observe the social decorum of his time, as noted by a late biographical source: with his uncleanliness and gluttony, he presented a counterexample to elegance ("ẓarf"), as defined by one of his teachers, Abu al-Ṭayyib al-Washshāʾ (d. 937). His unconformity to the social norms did not hinder him from being part of al-Muhallabī's entourage or participation in the literary assemblies, but, inevitably, it resulted in frictions with other scholars and detraction by his enemies. Although al-Isfahani appeared eccentric to his human associates, he was a caring owner of his cat, named Yaqaq (white): he treated Yaqaq's colic ("qulanj") with an enema ("al-ḥuqna").
In contrast to his personal habits, al-Isfahani's prose style is lucid, “in clear and simple language, with unusual sincerity and frankness”. Al-Isfahani's capacity as a writer is well illustrated by Abu Deeb, who depicts al-Isfahani as "one of the finest writers of Arabic prose in his time, with a remarkable ability to relate widely different types of "aḵbār" in a rich, lucid, rhythmic, and precise style, only occasionally exploiting such formal effects as "saǰʿ" (rhyming prose). He was also a fine poet with an opulent imagination. His poetry displays preoccupations similar to those of other urban poets of his time". His pinpoint documentation of "asānīd" and meticulous verification of information, provided in all his works, embody a truly scholarly character. Usually, in his treatment of a subject or an event, al-Isfahani lets his sources speak, but, occasionally, he voices his evaluation of poems and songs, as well as their creators. When dealing with conflicting reports, al-Isfahani either leaves his readers to decide or issues his judgement as to the most credible account. Yet, he frankly condemns sources whom he holds to be unreliable, for instance, Ibn Khurdādhbih on musicological information and Ibn al-Kalbī on genealogy. Indeed, al-Isfahani assesses his source material with a critical eye, while striving to present a more balanced view on his biographies, by focusing on their merits instead of elaborating on their flaws.
That said, al-Isfahani's personal preferences and sectarian partisanship are not absent from his works. In terms of music and songs, al-Isfahani favours Ishaq b. Ibrahim al-Mawsili (772–850). In al-Isfahani's view, Ishaq b. Ibrahim was a multi-talented man, who excelled in a number of subjects, but, most importantly, music. Ishaq b. Ibrahim, as a collector of the reports about poets and singers, is an important source in his "Aghānī". Besides being a mine of information, Ishaq b. Ibrahim's terminology for the description of the melodic modes is preferred over that of his opponent, Ibrahim ibn al-Mahdi (779–839), and adopted by al-Isfahani in his "Aghani". Furthermore, al-Isfahani embarked on the compilation of the "Aghānī" because he was commissioned by his patron to reconstruct the list of the exquisite songs selected by Ishaq. In other words, the "raison d’etre" of the "Aghānī" is partly related to al-Isfahani's idol, Ishaq b. Ibrahim, and its information about singers, songs and performance owes a tremendous amount to him. Al-Isfahani's admiration for scholars or men of letters can be detected from time to time, usually in the passing comments in the chains of transmission. Yet al-Isfahani outspokenly expresses his admiration, in some cases, such as that of Ibn al-Muʿtazz (862–909).
As an Umayyad by ancestry, al-Isfahani's later biographers mention his Shi'i affiliation with surprise. Yet, in the light of the history of the family's connections with the Abbasid elite of Shi'i inclination and the Ṭālibids, and of his learning experience in Kūfa, his Shi'i conviction is understandable. Al-Tusi (995–1067) is the only early source specifying the exact sect to which al-Isfahani belonged in the fluid Shi'i world: he was a Zaydī. Although al-Ṭūsī's view is widely accepted, its veracity is not beyond doubt. Al-Isfahani does not seem to have been informed of the latest Zaydī movements in Yemen and Ṭabaristān during his life, while his association with the Kūfan Zaydī community, which to some degree became less distinguishable from the Sunnīs, is yet to be studied in depth. It is clear, based on examination of how al-Isfahani amended the reports at his disposal, that he honoured Ali, who played a far more prominent role in his works than the first three caliphs, and some of his descendants, including Zaydi Shi'ism's eponym, Zayd ibn Ali (694–740), by presenting them positively, while, in some cases, leaving their enemies’ rectitude in question. In spite of that, al-Isfahani is neither keen to identify the imams in the past, nor discuss the qualities of an imam. As a matter of fact, he hardly uses the word, not even applying it to Zayd b. Ali. Furthermore, he does not unconditionally approve any Alid revolt and seems lukewarm towards the group he refers to as Zaydis. Taken together, al-Isfahani's Shi'i conviction is better characterised as moderate love for Ali without impugning the dignity of the caliphs before him.
Legacy.
Al-Isfahani authored a number of works, but only a few survive. Three of them are preserved through quotations: "al-Qiyan" ("The Singing Girls Enslaved by Men"), "al-Diyarat" ("The Monasteries"), and "Mujarrad al-aghani" (“The Abridgement of the Book of Songs”). A fragment of the "Mujarrad al-aghani" is found in Ibn Abi Uṣaybi'a's ʿ"Uyun al-anba' fi tabaqat al-atibba"ʾ, which quotes a poem by the caliph, al-Maʾmūn (r. 813–833), which was arranged as a song by Mutayyam. The first two have been reconstructed and published by al-ʿAtiyya, who collected and collateed the passages from later works that quote from al-Isfahani. The former, "al-Qiyān", is a collection of the biographies of the enslaved singing girls. In it, al-Isfahani provided the basic information about the biographical subjects, the men who enslaved them, and their interaction with poets, notables such as caliphs, and their admirers, with illustration of their poetic and/or musical talents. The latter, "al-Diyārāt", provides information related to monasteries, with the indication of their geographical locations and, sometimes, history and topographical characteristics. However, it is questionable to what extent the reconstructed editions can represent the original texts, since the passages, which quote al-Isfahani as a source for the given subject and are thus included by the editor, seldom identify the titles of the works.
Four works survive in manuscripts and have been edited and published: "Maqātil al-Ṭālibīyīn" ("The Ṭālibid Martyrs"), "Kitab al-Aghani" ("The Book of the Songs"), "Adab al-ghuraba" ("The Etiquettes of the Strangers"), and "al-Ima al-shawair" ("The Enslaved Women Who Composed Poetry"). As noted above, al-Isfahani's authorship of the "Adab al-ghurabaʾ" is disputed. The author, whoever he may have been, mentions in the preface his sufferings from the hardship of time and vicissitude of fate, and the solace which he seeks through the stories of bygone people. Hence, he collects in the "Adab al-ghuraba" the reports about the experiences of strangers; those away from their homes or their beloved ones. Some of the stories centre on the hardship which strangers, anonymous or not, encountered in their journey or exile, usually shown in the epigrams written on monuments, rocks, or walls. Others relate excursions to the monasteries for drinking.
The "al-Imāʾ al-shawāʿir" was composed at the order of the vizier al-Muhallabī, al-Isfahani's patron, who demanded the collection of the reports about the enslaved women who composed poetry from the Umayyad to the Abbasid periods. Al-Isfahani confesses that he could not find any noteworthy poetess in the Umayyad period, because the people at that time were not impressed with verses featuring tenderness and softness. Thus, he only records the Abbasid poetesses, with mention of the relevant fine verses or the pleasant tales, and arranges them in chronological order. There are 31 sections, addressing 32 poetesses, most of which are short and usually begin with al-Isfahani's summary of the subject.
The "Maqātil al-Ṭālibīyīn" is a historical-biographical compilation concerning the descendants of Abu Talib, who died by being killed, poisoned to death in a treacherous way, on the run from the rulers’ persecution, or confined until death. The "Maqātil" literature was rather common, particularly amongst Shi'is, before al-Isfahani and he used many works of this genre as sources for the "Maqātil al-Ṭālibīyīn". Al-Isfahani does not explain the motivation behind this compilation nor mention to whom they were dedicated, but according to the preface of this work, he sets out as a condition to recount the reports about the Ṭālibids who were “praiseworthy in their conduct and rightly guided in their belief ("maḥmūd al-ṭarīqa wa-sadīd al-madhhab")”.
Like the "al-Imāʾ", the work is structured in chronological order, beginning with the first Ṭālibī martyr, Jaʿfar b. Abī Ṭālib, and ends in the year of its compilation, August 925 (Jumādā I 313). For each biographical entry, al-Isfahani gives the full name, the lineage (sometimes adding the maternal side). Less often, he additionally gives the virtues and personal traits of the subject and other material he thinks noteworthy, for example the prophetic "ḥadīth" about, or transmitted by, the subject of the biography in question. Then, al-Isfahani gives the account of the death which, more often than not, constitutes the end of the entry. Sometimes poetry for or by the subject is attached. The "Maqātil" was used as a reliable source of information by many Shi'i and non-Shi'i compilers of the following centuries.
The "Kitab al-Aghani", al-Isfahanis best known work, is an immense compilation, including songs provided with musical indications (melodic modes and meters of songs), the biographies of poets and musicians of different periods in addition to historical material. As noted above, al-Isfahani embarks on compiling the "Aghani" first under the command of a patron, whom he calls "ra'is" (chief), to reconstruct the list of one hundred fine songs, selected by Ishaq b. Ibrahim. Due to an obscure report in Yaqut's "Mu'jam", this "raʾīs" is often assumed to be Sayf al-Dawla al-Ḥamdānī (r. 945–967), but recent studies suggest that a more plausible candidate for the dedication of the "Aghani" is the vizier al-Muhallabī.
The "Aghani" is divided into three parts: first, The Hundred Songs ("al-mi'a al-ṣawt al-mukhtara") and other song collections; second, the songs of the caliphs and of their children and grandchildren ("aghani al-khulafa wa-awladihim wa-awlad awladihim"); and third, al-Isfahanis selection of songs. The articles in each part are arranged based on different patterns, but it is mostly the song which introduces the articles on biographies or events. The "Kitab al-Aghani" is not the first book or collection of songs in Arabic, but it can be asserted that it is the most important one, for it "is a unique mine of information not only on hundreds of song texts with their modes and meters, but also on the lives of their poets and composers, and on the social context of music making in early Islam and at the courts of the caliphs in Damascus and Baghdad". Because of al-Isfahani's pedantic documentation of his sources, the "Kitab al-Aghani" can also be used to reconstruct earlier books of songs or biographical dictionaries on musicians that are otherwise lost.
As for the works that did not survive, based on their contents, as implied by their titles, they can be divided into the following categories:
The genealogical works: "Nasab Bani Abd Shams" ("The Genealogy of the Banu Abd Shams"), "Jamharat al-nasab" ("The Compendium of Genealogies"), "Nasab Bani Shayban" ("The Genealogy of the Banu Shayban"), and "Nasab al-Mahaliba" ("The Genealogy of the Muhallabids"), this last probably dedicated to his patron, the vizier al-Muhallabi.
The reports about specified or unspecified topics, such as "Kitab al-Khammarin wa-l-khammarat" ("The Book of Tavern-Keepers, Male and Female"), "Akhbar al-tufayliyin" ("Reports about Party Crashers"), "al-Akhbar wa-l-nawadir" ("The Reports and Rare Tales"), and "Ayyam al-arab" ("The Battle-Days of the Arabs"), which mentions 1700 days of the pre-Islamic tribal battles and was in circulation only in Andalusia.
The reports about music, musicians and singers: the aforementioned "Manajib al-khisyan" ("The Noble Eunuchs"), "Akhbzr Jahza al-Barmaki" ("The Reports concerning Jahza al-Barmaki"), "al-Mamalik al-shu'ara" ("The Slave Poets"), "Adab al-samz" ("The Etiquettes of Listening to Music"), and "Risala fi 'ilal al-nagham" ("The Treatise on the Rules of Tones").
There are two works, only mentioned by al-Tusi: "Kitab ma nazala min al-Qur'an fi amir al-mu'minīn wa-ahl baytih 'alayhim al-salam" ("The Book about the Qur'anic Verses Revealed regarding the Commander of the Faithful and the People of His Family, Peace upon Them") and "Kitab fihi kalam Fatima alayha al-salam fi Fadak" ("The Book concerning the Statements of Fāṭima, Peace upon Her, regarding Fadak"). Should the attribution of these two works to al-Isfahani be correct, together with the "Maqatil al-Talibiyin", they reveal al-Isfahani's Shi'i partisanship.
Works.
Al-Isfahani is best known as the author of "Kitab al-Aghani" ("The Book of Songs"), an encyclopaedia of over 20 volumes and editions. However, he additionally wrote poetry, an anthology of verses on the monasteries of Mesopotamia and Egypt, and a genealogical work.
The first printed edition, published in 1868, contained 20 volumes. In 1888 Rudolf Ernst Brünnow published a 21st volume being a collection of biographies not contained in the Bulāq edition, edited from manuscripts in the Royal Library of Munich.
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Alcobaça, Portugal
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Alcobaça () is a Portuguese city and municipality in the intermunicipal community Oeste and the region Oeste e Vale do Tejo, in the historical province of Estremadura, and in the Leiria District. The city grew along the valleys of the rivers Alcoa and Baça, from which it derives its name. The municipality population in 2011 was 56,693, in an area of . The city proper has a population of 15,800 inhabitants.
The city of Alcobaça became notable after the first king of Portugal, Afonso Henriques, decided to build a church to commemorate the Conquest of Santarém from the Moors in 1147. The church later evolved into the Monastery of Alcobaça, one of the most magnificent Gothic monuments in the country. In the church are the tombs of Pedro I of Portugal and his murdered mistress Inês de Castro. Over the centuries this monastery played an important role in shaping Portuguese culture.
A few kilometers to the north of Alcobaça is the Monastery of Batalha, another Gothic building constructed in memory of a different important battle, that of Aljubarrota. To the west of Alcobaça is the fishing village of Nazaré, now a popular resort town. To the south is the city of Caldas da Rainha and the medieval town of Óbidos. To the northeast is the town of Porto de Mós with its rebuilt castle.
History.
Alcobaça became notable in the 12th century, when it was chosen as the future site of Portugal's largest church. In March 1147, the young King Dom Afonso Henriques defeated the Moors by capturing the city of Santarém. As a tribute to his victory, he vowed to build a magnificent home for the Order of Cistercians. It took another 76 years before this task was completed. The monarchy continued to carry out further construction and 60 years later King Dinis built the main cloister. The monastery was consecrated in 1262.
The church contains the tombs of Pedro I of Portugal and his murdered mistress Inês de Castro. Pedro had married Constanza, the "Infanta" (princess) of Castile, but escaped with his mistress Inês and later lived in the city of Coimbra. His father, King Afonso IV, believing that the family of Inês was a threat to his kingdom, had her murdered. Shortly after the death of his father, Pedro declared that he had married Inês in a prior secret ceremony in Bragança, and took a gruesome revenge on the killers and exhumed her body. He presented the embalmed corpse at the court with a crown on her head and demanded that all his courtiers kneel and individually pay homage to her decomposed hand. Today, their ornate tombs face each other so that on Judgment Day his first sight would be of Inês.
During the following centuries, the monks from this monastery had a major influence on the development of Portuguese culture. Notably, in 1269 they were the first to give public lessons to their congregation, and later they produced the first authoritative history on Portugal in a series of books. In 1810, the invading French pillaged the abbey, taking with them most of its most important treasures, including the noteworthy library. The items that remained were later stolen in 1834 during an anti-clerical riot and the banning of religious orders in Portugal.
Climate.
Alcobaça has a Mediterranean climate (Köppen:"Csb") with warm, dry summers and mild, wet winters.
Parishes.
Administratively, the municipality is divided into 13 civil parishes ("freguesias"):
City information.
The main feature of the city is essentially the monastery that proudly presents a long and sombre façade with 18th-century embellishments. This austerity is further emphasized in the cloisters with its apt name of "Cloister of Silence". In contrast within the Abbey is the massive kitchen with a running stream specially diverted to pass through as a supply of fresh water. The open area of the kitchen chimney is large enough to take a whole ox for roasting. The surround to the sacristy doorway is an outstanding example of Manueline decoration. In 1794, Lord Beckford visited the Abbey and commented that he found some 300 monks "living in a very splendid manner"!
Nearby locations.
A few kilometers to the north of Alcobaça is another wondrous building constructed in memory of a different important battle, that of Aljubarrota in 1385, when King John I of Portugal defeated the Castilians and ensuring two hundred years of independence from the Castilian invaders. The construction of the Abbey at Batalha commenced in 1388 and was added to by various Portuguese Kings over these next two centuries. To the east of Batalha is the world-famous location of Fátima and a point of pilgrimage for the Roman Catholic religion due to the vision of the Virgin Mary in 1917 by three young children whilst tending their flock. To the west of Alcobaça is the well-known fishing village of Nazaré. Today, the village is now a small town and a popular holiday resort with most of its past and traditions having rapidly evaporated in the course of time. A very successful Portuguese feature film was made in the early 20th century that dramatically captured the primitive and dangerous life of these fishermen. Stoutly Catholic, the inhabitants have retained some of their past as can be still seen in their own particular style of costume. To the south is Caldas da Rainha and the quaint medieval town of Óbidos that is an attraction for any tourists that enjoys a true glimpse of the past. Also to the south is the town of Porto de Mós with its fanciful rebuilt castle. This town borders the Nature Reserve Parque Natural das Serras de Aire e Candeeiros. These 390 square kilometres of limestone-covered landscape is also known for its caverns. The best known being the Grutas de Mira de Aire can be visited and consists of tunnels, caverns with stalactites, stalagmites, lakes, and a music and light finale.
International relations.
Alcobaça is twinned with:
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Amphisbaena
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The amphisbaena (, , or , plural: amphisbaenae; ) is a mythological, ant-eating serpent with a head at each end. The name of the creature is alternatively written amphisbaina, amphisbene, amphisboena, amphisbona, amphista, amfivena, amphivena, or anphivena, and is also known as the "Mother of Ants". Its name comes from the Greek words ', meaning "both ways", and ', meaning "to go".
Mythology.
According to Lucan, the amphisbaena was spawned from the blood that dripped from the Gorgon Medusa's head as Perseus flew over the Libyan Desert with her head in his hand: in "Pharsalia" (IX, 719), the Roman poet names it along with other serpents that Cato's army encountered in Libya. Amphisbaena fed on the corpses left behind. Although it is a legendary creature, it has been referred to by various Greek and Latin authors, scientists as well as poets: Nicander, Lucan, Pliny the Elder, Isidore of Seville and later Thomas Browne, the last of whom debunked its existence ( book three chapter XV). Modern poets are John Milton, Alexander Pope, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Alfred Tennyson, Aimé Césaire, A. E. Housman and Allen Mandelbaum.
Appearance.
These early descriptions of the amphisbaena depict a venomous, dual-headed snakelike creature. However, medieval and later drawings often show it with two or more scaled feet, particularly chicken feet, and feathered wings. Some even depict it as a horned, dragon-like creature with a serpent-headed tail and small, round ears, while others have both "necks" of equal size so that it cannot be determined which is the rear head. Many descriptions of the amphisbaena say its eyes glow like candles or lightning, but the poet Nicander, the first to speak about it, described it as "always dull of eye". He also wrote: "From either end protrudes a blunt chin; each is far from each other." Nicander's account seems to be referring to a group of real lizards what is today called the Amphisbaenia, after the legendary creature, because their tail truncates in a manner that vaguely resembles the head.
Habitat.
The amphisbaena is said to make its home in the desert.
Folk medicine.
In ancient times, the supposedly dangerous amphisbaena had many uses in the art of folk medicine and other magical remedies. Pliny notes that expecting women wearing a live amphisbaena around their necks would have safe pregnancies ("Naturalis historia" XXX, 128); however, if one's goal was to cure ailments such as arthritis or the common cold, one should wear only its skin ("Naturalis historia" XXX, 85): lumberjacks suffering from cold weather on the job could nail its carcass or skin to a tree to keep warm, while in the process allowing the tree to be felled more easily.
By eating the meat of the amphisbaena, one could supposedly attract many lovers of the opposite sex, and slaying one during the full moon could give power to one who is pure of heart and mind. [primary reference needed]
Origins.
In "The Book of Beasts", T.H. White suggests that the creature derives from sightings of the worm lizards of the same name. But it is the other way around. These creatures are found in the Mediterranean countries where many of these legends originated.
The Códice Casanatense (), a Portuguese book describing the areas the Portuguese had visited, includes an illustration of the flora and fauna of India. One of the animals shown is a two-headed snake (conjoined twin snakes), with one head on each end, much like an amphisbaena. The image is captioned, "two headed snakes of India are harmless". It is possible a sighting of an animal like this was the origin of the amphisbaena, or that the Greek mythological creature is used, as well as others, to literarily embellish the description of an exotic country.
In literature and other media.
In Parmenides's poem there seems to be an allusion to the amphisbaena. Mortals are said to "stray two-headed, for perplexity in their own breasts directs their mind astray".
In Dante's "Inferno", the amphisbaena is listed as one of the types of reptiles that torment thieves in the seventh bolgia.
In John Milton's "Paradise Lost", after the Fall and the return of Satan to Hell, some of the fallen angelic host are transformed into the amphisbaena, to represent the animal by which the Fall was caused, i.e. a snake.
Amphisbaena appears in some editions of the tabletop roleplaying game "Dungeons & Dragons".
Amphisbaena has appeared in several video games as an enemy or boss monster, including "La-Mulana" and '. A creature called Amphisbaena appears in the games ' and "" but bears little resemblance to other renditions of the creature, appearing as an eyeless 4-legged reptile with the upper body of a human woman sprouting from its long tail instead of a double-headed serpent.
In the 1984 animated film "Gallavants", an amphisbaena (called a "Vanterviper" in the film) appears as a minor antagonist. The two heads, a red one named Edil and a blue one called Fice, frequently disagree and argue, and sing a song about their miserable plight.
The amphisbaena is mentioned in "The Last Wish", from "The Witcher" series by Andrzej Sapkowski, while protagonist Geralt of Rivia recalls past events. The amphisbaena was endangering the region of Kovir until the beast was slain by Geralt's hand.
Amphisbaena is referenced in "RWBY", an animated web series created by Monty Oum, in the form of an evil creature called Grimm. Of the different Grimm, the amphisbaena appears to be the King Taijitu, a two-headed snake or serpent. The king's name references the taijitu, a symbol or diagram in Chinese philosophy representing "Taiji" in both its monist and dualist aspects. The Grimm's coloration visually symbolizes the taijitu, with one head and body section black and the opposite side white.
The amphisbaena appears in the "Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" episode "Battle Nexus: New York". This version is one of the known champions of the Battle Nexus. Big Mama had Michelangelo and Meat Sweats compete to feed each of its heads in order to satisfy the amphisbaena. They managed to work together to pull it off.
Brandon Sanderson's novel "Skyward" has a character whose name is Arturo Mendez. His call sign is amphisbaena.
"Beyblade" has a character named Enrique whose bit beast (ancient spirits contained within spinning tops) is named Amphilyon. It takes the form of a medieval amphisbaena with bat wings.
The primary antagonist of "Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree", Messmer the Impaler, is conjoined with a winged amphisbaena.
Use as a Proverb.
The amphisbaena appears also in the saying "to the amphisbaena, Perseus is good" which can have various meanings depending in the connotation in which it is used. However, one main meaning lies in the connection between Perseus and the creation of the amphisbaena. Though created out of the violent murder of Medusa by Perseus, it shows that the creation will always see the creator in a positive light.
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Amyl alcohol
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Amyl alcohols are alcohols with the formula C5H11OH. Eight are known. A mixture of amyl alcohols (also called amyl alcohol) can be obtained from fusel alcohol. Amyl alcohol is used as a solvent and in esterification, by which is produced amyl acetate and other products. The name "amyl alcohol" without further specification applies to the normal (straight-chain) form, 1-pentanol.
Three of these alcohols, 2-methyl-1-butanol, 2-pentanol, and 3-methyl-2-butanol (methyl isopropyl carbinol), contain stereocenters, and are therefore chiral and optically active.
The most important amyl alcohol is isoamyl alcohol, the chief one generated by fermentation in the production of alcoholic beverages and a constituent of fusel oil. The other amyl alcohols may be obtained synthetically.
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Amyl nitrite
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Amyl nitrite is a chemical compound with the formula C5H11ONO. A variety of isomers are known, but they all feature an amyl group attached to the nitrite functional group. The alkyl group (the amyl in this case) is unreactive and the chemical and biological properties are mainly due to the nitrite group. Like other alkyl nitrites, amyl nitrite is bioactive in mammals, being a vasodilator, which is the basis of its use as a prescription medicine. As an inhalant, it also has a psychoactive effect, which has led to its recreational use, with its smell being described as that of old socks or dirty feet.
It was first documented in 1844 and came into medical use in 1867.
Nomenclature.
The term "amyl nitrite" encompasses several isomers. In older literature, the common non-systematic name amyl was often used for the pentyl group, where the amyl group is a linear or normal (n) alkyl group, and the resulting amyl nitrite would have the structural formula CH3(CH2)3CH2ONO, also referred to as n-amyl nitrite.
A common form of amyl nitrite is the isomer with the formula (CH3)2CHCH2CH2ONO, which may be more specifically referred to as isoamyl nitrite.
The similarly named amyl nitrate has very different properties. At the same time, isopropyl nitrite has a similar structure and similar uses (also called 'poppers') but with worse side-effects.
Amyl nitrite is sometimes referred to colloquially as "banapple gas".
Synthesis and reactions.
Alkyl nitrites are prepared by the reaction of alcohols with nitrous acid:
ROH + HONO → RONO + H2O, where R = alkyl group
The reaction is called esterification. Synthesis of alkyl nitrites is, in general, straightforward and can be accomplished in home laboratories. A common procedure includes the dropwise addition of concentrated sulfuric acid to a cooled mixture of an aqueous sodium nitrite solution and an alcohol. The intermediately-formed stoichiometric mixture of nitrogen dioxide and nitric oxide then converts the alcohol to the alkyl nitrite, which, due to its low density, will form an upper layer that can be easily decanted from the reaction mixture.
Isoamyl nitrite decomposes in the presence of base to give nitrite salts and the isoamyl alcohol:
C5H11ONO + NaOH → C5H11OH + NaNO2
Amyl nitrite, like other alkyl nitrites, reacts with carbanions to give oximes.
Amyl nitrites are also useful as reagents in a modification of the Sandmeyer reaction. The reaction of the alkyl nitrite with an aromatic amine in a halogenated solvent produces a radical aromatic species, this then frees a halogen atom from the solvent. For the synthesis of aryl iodides diiodomethane is used, whereas bromoform is the solvent of choice for the synthesis of aryl bromides.
Physiological effects.
Amyl nitrite, in common with other alkyl nitrites, is a potent vasodilator; it expands blood vessels, resulting in lowering of the blood pressure. Amyl nitrite may be used during cardiovascular stress testing in patients with suspected hypertrophic cardiomyopathy to cause vasodilation and thereby reduce afterload and provoke obstruction of blood flow towards the aorta from the ventricle by increasing the pressure gradient, thereby causing left ventricular outflow obstruction. Alkyl nitrites are a source of nitric oxide, which signals for relaxation of the involuntary muscles. Physical effects include decrease in blood pressure, headache, flushing of the face, increased heart rate, dizziness, and relaxation of involuntary muscles, especially the blood vessel walls and the internal and external anal sphincter. There are no withdrawal symptoms. Overdose symptoms include nausea, vomiting, hypotension, hypoventilation, shortness of breath, and fainting. The effects set in very quickly, typically within a few seconds and disappear within a few minutes. Amyl nitrite may also intensify the experience of synesthesia. Amyl nitrite, when given as a medication for patients with angina, can also be administered as an ampule. The ampule is put in a gauze pad and then inhaled by the patient during an angina attack and repeated every fifteen minutes. However, oral dosing of amyl nitrite is ineffective due to poor absorption and extensive hepatic metabolism. Amyl nitrite has been widely replaced by nitroglycerin for the treatment of acute angina.
Toxicity.
Although there are case reports of life-threatening toxicity involving unusually large amounts, typical inhaled doses of amyl nitrite are considered relatively safe. However, liquid amyl nitrite is highly toxic when ingested because of the dangerously high concentration it causes in the blood. Regardless of the form or route of administration, acute toxicity principally results when the nitrite oxidizes a significant proportion of hemoglobin in the blood without oxygen, forming methemoglobin, which cannot carry oxygen. Severe poisoning cases will progress to methemoglobinemia, characterized by a blue-brown discoloration under the skin which could be mistaken for cyanosis. Treatment with oxygen and intravenous methylene blue frustrates visual confirmation further as methylene blue itself is, as its name suggests, a blue dye; the patient's changes in different shades of blue notwithstanding, it is an effective antidote by way of catalyzing the production of the enzyme responsible for reducing the methemoglobin in the blood back to hemoglobin.
The discoloration does mean that regular near-infrared–based pulse oximetry becomes useless. More fundamentally, blood gas analysis on the whole has limited effectiveness, as the increased methemoglobin level increases the oxygen binding affinity of regular hemoglobin. Therefore, the measurement of actual ratios and levels of methemoglobin and hemoglobin must accompany any blood gas partial pressure sample in these cases.
In popular culture.
The "Columbo" episode titled "Troubled Waters" (1974–1975) features amyl nitrite inhaled by the antagonist Hayden Danziger – played by Robert Vaughn – to help him feign a heart attack for his alibi. However, the episode consistently refers to the substance incorrectly as amyl nitrate.
The 1978 Derek Jarman film "Jubilee" features a character credited as "Amyl Nitrite", although in the film itself the character is "Amyl Nitrate".
The title of the 1993 song "Animal Nitrate" by English band Suede is a pun on amyl nitrite, referencing its recreational use, although singer Brett Anderson has said the song has more to do with other drugs like ecstasy and cocaine.
In the 1999 film "Fight Club", the character Chloe, a terminally ill woman, mentions having a collection of amyl nitrite while openly discussing her unfulfilled desires at a cancer support group.
The punk band Amyl and the Sniffers reference recreational use of amyl nitrite in their name.
The Hunter S. Thompson book "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" sees amyl nitrite as one of the many drugs Raoul Duke packs for the trip to Las Vegas, taking about two dozen ampules of it with him and usually justifying its usage by him and Dr. Gonzo to other people around them by claiming it is for angina.
In Season 1, Episode 9 of "Bob's Burgers", "Spaghetti Western and Meatballs", Gene guesses amyl nitrite for the A in the ABS program near the end of the episode.
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Autumn
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Autumn, also known as fall (in US and Canada) or harvesttime, is one of the four temperate seasons on Earth. Outside the tropics, autumn marks the transition from summer to winter, in September (Northern Hemisphere) or March (Southern Hemisphere). Autumn is the season when the duration of daylight becomes noticeably shorter and the temperature cools considerably. Day length decreases and night length increases as the season progresses until the winter solstice in December (Northern Hemisphere) and June (Southern Hemisphere). One of its main features in temperate climates is the striking change in colour of the leaves of deciduous trees as they prepare to shed.
Date definitions.
Some cultures regard the autumnal equinox as "mid-autumn", while others with a longer temperature lag treat the equinox as the start of autumn. In the English-speaking world of high latitude countries, autumn traditionally began with Lammas Day and ended around Hallowe'en, the approximate mid-points between midsummer, the autumnal equinox, and midwinter. Meteorologists (and Australia and most of the temperate countries in the southern hemisphere) use a definition based on Gregorian calendar months, with autumn being September, October, and November in the northern hemisphere, and March, April, and May in the southern hemisphere.
In the higher latitude countries in the Northern Hemisphere, autumn traditionally starts with the September equinox (21 to 24 September) and ends with the winter solstice (21 or 22 December). Popular culture in the United States associates Labor Day, the first Monday in September, as the end of summer and the start of autumn. Certain summer traditions, such as wearing white, are discouraged after that date. As daytime and nighttime temperatures decrease, trees change colour and then shed their leaves. Persians celebrate the beginning of the autumn on Mehregan.
Under the traditional East Asian solar term system, autumn starts on or around 8 August and ends on or about 7 November. In Ireland, the autumn months according to the national meteorological service, Met Éireann, are September, October, and November. However, according to the Irish Calendar, which is based on ancient Gaelic traditions, autumn lasts throughout the months of August, September, and October, or possibly a few days later, depending on tradition. In the Irish language, September is known as ("middle of autumn") and October as ("end of autumn"). Late Roman Republic scholar Marcus Terentius Varro defined autumn as lasting from the third day before the Ides of Sextilis (August 11) to the fifth day before the Ides of November (November 9).
Etymology.
The word "autumn" () is derived from Latin "autumnus", archaic "auctumnus", possibly from the ancient Etruscan root "autu-" and has within it connotations of the passing of the year. Alternative etymologies include ) or ('dry').
After the Greek era, the word continued to be used as the Old French word ( in modern French) or in Middle English, and was later normalised to the original Latin. In the Medieval period, there are rare examples of its use as early as the 12th century, but by the 16th century, it was in common use.
Before the 16th century, "harvest" was the term usually used to refer to the season, as it is common in other West Germanic languages to this day (cf. Dutch , German , and Scots ). However, as more people gradually moved from working the land to living in towns, the word "harvest" lost its reference to the time of year and came to refer only to the actual activity of reaping, and "autumn", as well as "fall", began to replace it as a reference to the season.
The alternative word "fall" for the season traces its origins to old Germanic languages. The exact derivation is unclear, with the Old English or and the Old Norse all being possible candidates. However, these words all have the meaning "to fall from a height" and are clearly derived either from a common root or from each other. The term came to denote the season in 16th-century England, a contraction of Middle English expressions like "fall of the leaf" and "fall of the year". Compare the origin of "spring" from "spring of the leaf" and "spring of the year".
During the 17th century, English settlers began emigrating to the new North American colonies, and took the English language with them. While the term "fall" gradually became nearly obsolete in Britain, it became the more common term in North America.
The name "backend", a once common name for the season in Northern England, has today been largely replaced by the name "autumn".
Associations.
Harvest.
Association with the transition from warm to cold weather, and its related status as the season of the primary harvest, has dominated its themes and popular images. In Western cultures, personifications of autumn are usually pretty, well-fed females adorned with fruits, vegetables and grains that ripen at this time. Many cultures feature autumnal harvest festivals, often the most important on their calendars.
Still-extant echoes of these celebrations are found in the autumn Thanksgiving holiday of the United States and Canada, and the Jewish Sukkot holiday with its roots as a full-moon harvest festival of "tabernacles" (living in outdoor huts around the time of harvest). There are also the many festivals celebrated by indigenous peoples of the Americas tied to the harvest of ripe foods gathered in the wild, the Chinese Mid-Autumn or Moon festival, and many others. The predominant mood of these autumnal celebrations is a gladness for the fruits of the earth mixed with a certain melancholy linked to the imminent arrival of harsh weather.
This view is presented in English poet John Keats' poem "To Autumn", where he describes the season as a time of bounteous fecundity, a time of "mellow fruitfulness".
In North America, while most foods are harvested during the autumn, foods usually associated with the season include pumpkins (which are integral parts of both Thanksgiving and Halloween) and apples, which are used to make the seasonal beverage apple cider.
Melancholia.
Autumn, especially in poetry, has often been associated with melancholia. The possibilities and opportunities of summer are gone, and the chill of winter is on the horizon. Skies turn grey, the amount of usable daylight drops rapidly, and many people turn inward, both physically and mentally. It has been referred to as an unhealthy season.
Similar examples may be found in Irish poet W.B. Yeats' poem "The Wild Swans at Coole" where the maturing season that the poet observes symbolically represents his own ageing self. Like the natural world that he observes, he too has reached his prime and now must look forward to the inevitability of old age and death. French poet Paul Verlaine's "Chanson d'automne" ("Autumn Song") is likewise characterised by strong, painful feelings of sorrow. Keats' "To Autumn", written in September 1819, echoes this sense of melancholic reflection but also emphasises the lush abundance of the season. The song "Autumn Leaves", based on the French song "Les Feuilles mortes", uses the melancholic atmosphere of the season and the end of summer as a metaphor for the mood of being separated from a loved one.
Halloween.
Autumn is associated with Halloween (influenced by Samhain, a Celtic autumn festival), and with it a widespread marketing campaign that promotes it. The Celtic people also used this time to celebrate the harvest with a time of feasting. At the same time though, it was a celebration of death as well. Crops were harvested, livestock were butchered, and Winter was coming.
Halloween, 31 October, is in autumn in the northern hemisphere. Television, film, book, costume, home decoration, and confectionery businesses use this time of year to promote products closely associated with such a holiday, with promotions going from late August or early September to 31 October, since their themes rapidly lose strength once the holiday ends, and advertising starts concentrating on Christmas.
In the southern hemisphere Halloween takes place in Spring.
Other associations.
In some parts of the northern hemisphere, autumn has a strong association with the end of summer holiday and the start of a new school year, particularly for children in primary and secondary education. "Back to School" advertising and preparations usually occurs in the weeks leading to the beginning of autumn.
Thanksgiving Day is a national holiday celebrated in Canada, in the United States, in some of the Caribbean islands and in Liberia. Thanksgiving is celebrated on the second Monday of October in Canada, on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States (where it is commonly regarded as the start of the Christmas and holiday season), and around the same part of the year in other places. Similarly named festival holidays occur in Germany and Japan.
Television stations and networks, particularly in North America, traditionally begin their regular seasons in their autumn, with new series and new episodes of existing series debuting mostly during late September or early October (series that debut outside the autumn season are usually known as mid-season replacements). A sweeps period takes place in November to measure Nielsen Ratings.
American football is played almost exclusively in the autumn months; at the high school level, seasons run from late August through early November, with some playoff games and holiday rivalry contests being played as late as Thanksgiving. In many American states, the championship games take place in early December. College football's regular season runs from September through November, while the main professional circuit, the National Football League, plays from September through to early January.
Summer sports, such as association football (in Northern America, East Asia and South Africa), Canadian football, stock car racing, tennis, golf, cricket, and professional baseball, wrap up their seasons in early to late autumn; Major League Baseball's championship World Series is popularly known as the "Fall Classic". (Amateur baseball is usually finished by August.) Likewise, professional winter sports, such as ice hockey and basketball, and most leagues of association football in Europe, are in the early stages of their seasons during autumn; American college basketball and college ice hockey play teams outside their athletic conferences during the late autumn before their in-conference schedules begin in winter.
The Christian religious holidays of All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day are observed in autumn in the Northern hemisphere. Easter falls in autumn in the southern hemisphere.
The secular celebration of International Workers' Day also falls in autumn in the southern hemisphere.
Since 1997, Autumn has been one of the top 100 names for girls in the United States.
In Indian mythology, autumn is considered to be the preferred season for the goddess of learning Saraswati, who is also known by the name of "goddess of autumn" (Sharada).
In Asian mysticism, Autumn is associated with the element of metal, and subsequently with the colour white, the White Tiger of the West, and death and mourning.
Tourism.
Although colour change in leaves occurs wherever deciduous trees are found, coloured autumn foliage is noted in various regions of the world: most of North America, Eastern Asia (including China, Korea, and Japan), Europe, southeast, south, and part of the midwest of Brazil, the forest of Patagonia, eastern Australia and New Zealand's South Island.
Eastern Canada and New England are famous for their autumnal foliage, and this attracts major tourism (worth billions of US dollars) for the regions.
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Alameda, California
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Alameda ( ; ; Spanish for "tree-lined path") is a city in Alameda County, California, United States, located in the East Bay region of the Bay Area. The city is built on an informal archipelago in San Francisco Bay, consisting of Alameda Island, Bay Farm Island and Coast Guard Island, along with other smaller islands. As of the 2020 census, the city's population was 78,280.
History.
Ohlone era.
Alameda originally occupied a peninsula connected to Oakland. The area was low-lying and marshy, while higher ground was part of one of the largest coastal oak forests in the world. A local band of the Ohlone tribe inhabited the region for more than 3,000 years. They were present at the time of the arrival of the Spanish in the late 18th century. The Ohlone created numerous oyster shell mounds across the peninsula, some as large as 14 feet tall.
Spanish and Mexican eras.
Spanish colonists called the area "Encinal", meaning "forest of evergreen oak". What is now Alameda, and much of the East Bay was included in the vast Rancho San Antonio granted to Don Luis María Peralta by the Spanish king who claimed California. The grant was later confirmed by the Republic of Mexico after its independence in 1821 from Spain. Over time, the place became known as Bolsa de Encinal or Encinal de San Antonio.
Early California era.
The city of Alameda was founded on June 6, 1853, following the Mexican–American War of 1848 and the subsequent acquisition of California by the U.S.
The name "Alameda" is Spanish for "grove of poplar trees" or "tree-lined avenue" and was chosen in 1853 as city's official name by popular vote.
At the time, Alameda comprised three small settlements:
The borders of Alameda were expanded to include the entire island in 1872, incorporating Woodstock into Alameda.
In his autobiography, writer Mark Twain described Alameda as "The Garden of California."
The first post office opened in 1854. The first school, Schermerhorn School, was opened a year later in 1855 (eventually renamed as Lincoln School). The San Francisco and Alameda Railroad opened the Encinal station in 1864. The early formation of the Park Street Historic Commercial District (or downtown) was centered near the train lines. Encinal's own post office opened in 1876, was renamed West End in 1877, and closed in 1891.
On September 6, 1869, the Alameda Terminal made history; it was the site of the arrival of the first train via the First transcontinental railroad to reach the shores of San Francisco Bay, marking the first coast to coast transcontinental railroad in North America.
The Croll Building, on the corner of Webster Street and Central Avenue, was the site of Croll's Gardens and Hotel, used as training quarters for some of the most popular fighters in boxing from 1883 to 1914. Jack Johnson and several other champions all stayed and trained here.
The need for expanded shipping facilities and increased flow of current through the estuary led to the dredging of a tidal canal through the marshland between Oakland and Alameda. Construction started in 1874, but it was not completed until 1902, resulting in Alameda becoming an island.
Modern era.
In 1917, a private entertainment park called Neptune Beach was built in the area now known as Crab Cove, which became a major recreation destination in the 1920s and 1930s. It was sometimes referred to as the "Coney Island of the West". The popsicle was first sold to the public at Neptune Beach in 1923. The park closed down in 1939.
The Alameda Works Shipyard was one of the largest and best-equipped shipyards in the country. Together with other industrial facilities, it became part of the defense industry buildup before and during World War II, which attracted many migrants from other parts of the United States for the high-paying jobs. In the 1950s, Alameda's industrial and shipbuilding industries thrived along the Alameda Estuary.
In the early 21st century, the Port of Oakland, across the estuary, has become one of the largest ports on the West Coast. Its operators use shipping technologies originally experimented within Alameda. As of April 2006, Alameda is a "Coast Guard City", one of six then designated in the country (as of 2025, it is one of 34).
In addition to the regular trains running to the Alameda Mole, Alameda was also served by local steam commuter lines of the Southern Pacific (initially, the Central Pacific). Alameda was the site of the Southern Pacific's West Alameda Shops, where all the electric trains were maintained and repaired. These were later adapted as the East Bay Electric Lines. The trains ran to both the Oakland Mole and the Alameda Mole.
In the 1930s Pan American Airways established a seaplane port along with the fill that led to the Alameda Mole, the original home base for the China Clipper flying boat. In 1929, the University of California established the San Francisco Airdrome located near the current Webster Street tube as a public airport. The Bay Airdrome had its gala christening party in 1930. The Airdrome was closed in 1941 when its air traffic interfered with the newly built Naval Air Station Alameda (NAS Alameda).
In the late 1950s, the Utah Construction Company began a landfill beyond the "Old Sea Wall" and created "South Shore".
On February 7, 1973, a USN Vought A-7E Corsair II fighter jet on a routine training mission from Lemoore Naval Air Station suddenly caught fire above the San Francisco Bay, crashing into the Tahoe Apartments in Alameda. Eleven people including the pilot died in the crash and fire.
Geography.
Alameda's nickname is "The Island". Today, the city consists of three major sections:
The area of the former NAS is now known as "Alameda Point." The South Shore area is separated from the main part of Alameda Island by a lagoon; the north shore of the lagoon is located approximately where the original south shore of the island was. Alameda Point, Bay Farm Island, and South Shore are largely built on bay fill.
Not all of Alameda Island is part of the City of Alameda; a small portion of a dump site west of the former runway at Alameda Naval Air Station extends far enough into San Francisco Bay that it is over the county line and therefore part of the City and County of San Francisco. Ballena Isle, an even smaller island, is also part of Alameda.
Climate.
This region experiences warm (but not hot), dry summers, and cool (but not cold), wet winters. According to the Köppen climate classification system, Alameda has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate, abbreviated "Csb" on climate maps. Annual precipitation is about , all rain (snow is extremely rare at sea level in the San Francisco Bay Area).
Hazards.
The low-lying island has seen sea-level and groundwater level rise threaten its infrastructure and people not just through flooding events, but through the increased liquefaction risk from more saturated soils. The locations of increasing groundwater-induced risks and flooding risks may be most precise in private insurance company maps.
Demographics.
2020.
The 2020 United States census reported that Alameda had a population of 78,280. The population density was . The racial makeup of Alameda was 43.6% White, 5.9% African American, 0.6% Native American, 32.5% Asian, 0.5% Pacific Islander, 4.1% from other races, and 12.9% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 12.1% of the population.
The census reported that 98.0% of the population lived in households, 0.8% lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 1.2% were institutionalized.
There were 30,980 households, out of which 30.2% included children under the age of 18, 47.7% were married-couple households, 6.6% were cohabiting couple households, 28.7% had a female householder with no partner present, and 17.0% had a male householder with no partner present. 28.3% of households were one person, and 11.2% were one person aged 65 or older. The average household size was 2.48. There were 19,640 families (63.4% of all households).
The age distribution was 19.9% under the age of 18, 6.7% aged 18 to 24, 28.4% aged 25 to 44, 27.4% aged 45 to 64, and 17.5% who were 65years of age or older. The median age was 41.4years. For every 100 females, there were 91.2 males.
There were 33,009 housing units at an average density of , of which 30,980 (93.9%) were occupied. Of these, 48.3% were owner-occupied, and 51.7% were occupied by renters.
In 2023, the US Census Bureau estimated that 25.4% of the population were foreign-born. Of all people aged 5 or older, 65.4% spoke only English at home, 6.7% spoke Spanish, 6.6% spoke other Indo-European languages, 20.1% spoke Asian or Pacific Islander languages, and 1.2% spoke other languages. Of those aged 25 or older, 93.4% were high school graduates and 60.3% had a bachelor's degree.
The median household income in 2023 was $132,015, and the per capita income was $72,245. About 4.8% of families and 6.9% of the population were below the poverty line.
2010.
The 2010 United States census reported that Alameda had a population of 73,812. (2015 census estimates place the population at 78,630)
The population density was . The racial makeup of Alameda was 37,460 (50.8%) White, 23,058 (31.2%) Asian, 4,759 (6.4%) African American, 426 (0.6%) Native American, 381 (0.5%) Pacific Islander, 2,463 (3.3%) from other races, and 5,265 (7.1%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 8,092 persons (11.0%).
The Census reported that 72,316 people (98.0% of the population) lived in households, 857 (1.2%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 639 (0.9%) were institutionalized.
There were 30,123 households, out of which 9,144 (30.4%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 13,440 (44.6%) were opposite-sex married couples living together, 3,623 (12.0%) had a female householder with no husband present, 1,228 (4.1%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 1,681 (5.6%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 459 (1.5%) same-sex married couples or same-sex partnerships. 9,347 households (31.0%) were made up of individuals, and 2,874 (9.5%) had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.40. There were 18,291 families (60.7% of all households); the average family size was 3.06.
The age distribution of the population shows 15,304 people (20.7%) under the age of 18, 5,489 people (7.4%) aged 18 to 24, 21,000 people (28.5%) aged 25 to 44, 22,044 people (29.9%) aged 45 to 64, and 9,975 people (13.5%) who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40.7 years. For every 100 females, there were 91.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 88.5 males.
Per capita annual income (in 2013 dollars) in 2009–2013 was $41,340 per the US Census. Median household income in 2009–2013 was $74,606 per the US Census.
There were 32,351 housing units at an average density of , of which 30,123 were occupied, of which 14,488 (48.1%) were owner-occupied, and 15,635 (51.9%) were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.1%; the rental vacancy rate was 5.7%. 37,042 people (50.2% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 35,274 people (47.8%) lived in rental housing units.
There is a large Filipino community; and also a major Portuguese community, from which Tom Hanks' mother came and where Lyndsy Fonseca was raised for some time. Alameda also has a historic Japanese American community and had a small Japanese business district on a portion of Park Street before World War II, when the city's Japanese population was interned. A Japanese Buddhist church is one of the few remaining buildings left of Alameda's pre-war Japanese American community.
Economy.
According to the city's 2020 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top employers in the city are:
Naval Air Station Alameda (NAS), decommissioned in 1997, was turned over to the City of Alameda for civilian development, today known as Alameda Point.
A cluster of artisan distilleries, wineries, breweries and tasting rooms along Monarch Street at Alameda Point is now referred to by the City of Alameda as "Spirits Alley". Admiral Maltings also sits in this area, supplying craft brewers and whisky producers, and is the first craft malting house in California.
Arts and culture.
Arts.
Photo-realist Robert Bechtle has painted numerous Alameda subjects, including "Alameda Gran Torino", which was acquired by SFMOMA in 1974 and remains one of Bechtle's most famous works.
Theaters.
The landmark Alameda Theatre is an Art Deco movie theatre designed by architect Timothy L. Pflueger and opened up in 1932. The city restored and expand it to include a theater multiplex. The public opening was May 21, 2008.
The Altarena Playhouse, which performs comedies, dramas, and musicals, was founded in 1938 and is the longest continuously operating community theater in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Radium is a planned performing arts complex at the former naval air station and has seasonal shows in an outdoor theater.
Festivals.
The Fourth of July parade is advertised as the longest in the United States. It features homemade floats, classic cars, motorized living room furniture, fire-breathing dragons, and marching bands.
There are multiple major events when streets in Alameda's historic downtown district are closed to vehicular traffic. Park Street Art and Wine Faire is the biggest and takes place the last weekend of every July with more than 200 artists and vendors. Seasonal events like the spring and winter markets, as well as themed rum, whiskey and hot cocoa strolls are spread out through the year.
The annual Sand Castle and Sculpture Contest takes place in June at the Robert Crown Memorial State Beach, attracting hundreds of participants. The first contest was held in 1967.
Alameda Point Antiques Faire is held on the first Sunday of every month at the former Naval Air Station runways. It is the largest antiques and collectibles show in Northern California, attracting upwards of 10,000 visitors and featuring 800 dealer booths. The faire specializes in items 20 years or older, including furniture, decorations, clothing, jewelry, art, pottery, books, and collectibles.
Government.
Alameda is a charter city governed by a five-member City Council, including the Mayor, who are all elected at large. The city operates under a council-manager system defined by the City Charter, with a professional City Manager overseeing daily administration. The City Manager is responsible for city operations, budget administration, and implementing council policies, distinguishing Alameda from strong-mayor systems often in bigger cities. The City Attorney and City Clerk report directly to the council.
The budget for the city is greater than $310 million a year as of the 2023-25 biannual budgets planning cycle. The City Treasurer and City Auditor are independently elected. Residents appointed by the Mayor and City Council serve on a range of boards and commissions overseeing major components of the city (for example recreation and parks, library, transportation and planning).
Alameda's government is responsible for a range of municipal services, including public safety, transportation, parks, and land use planning. Rare to a city of its size, it operates its own city-wide electricity utility, Alameda Municipal Power, which has 100% clean electricity and as much as a 48% savings over comparable PG&E rates.
Alameda Free Library.
There are three library locations: the Main Library in downtown Alameda, the Bay Farm Island Library and the West End Library. Beyond books, services at the library include events and author talks, computer labs, home delivery of books, as well as e-book, streaming digital media, and audio book catalogs. Historical resources of Alameda's past include local newspaper and magazine archives, high school yearbooks, books by local authors and maps.
In 2000 voters authorized a bond measure to construct a new main library to replace the city's Carnegie Library, damaged during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. The city also received state funds for the new main library and opened the doors to the new facility in November 2006.
Education.
Public primary and secondary education in Alameda is the responsibility of the Alameda Unified School District (AUSD), which is legally separate from the City of Alameda government (as is common throughout California). More than 9,000 students are enrolled in the AUSD system across nine elementary, four middle, four high schools. The California Department of Education School Dashboard reports student performance is "green" and above state standards for English, math and college/career preparation.
The College of Alameda, a two-year community college is part of the Peralta Community College District. The city has numerous private primary schools, and one private high school, St. Joseph Notre Dame High School, a Catholic school.
Media.
The community is currently served by a non-profit online news outlet called the Alameda Post. Additionally, a weekly newspaper section of the East Bay Times, the Alameda Journal, is published by the Bay Area News Group, based in Walnut Creek, CA.
Alameda's first newspaper, the "Encinal", appeared in the 1860s. Following the "Encinal", several other papers appeared along geographic lines, and the "Daily Argus" eventually rose to prominence. Around 1900, the "Daily Argus" began to fade in importance and east and west papers "The Times" and "The Star" combined to take the leading role as the "Alameda Times-Star" in the 1930s. The "Times-Star" was sold to the Alameda Newspaper Group in the 1970s. In 1997, the Hills Newspaper chain was bought by Knight Ridder. Between 2001 and 2023, the "Alameda Sun" ran a local weekly print newspaper.
Transportation.
Alameda is well connected to the region via road, ferries and nearby rail and air connections.
Vehicle access to Alameda Island is via three bridges from Oakland (Park Street, Fruitvale Avenue, and High Street Bridges), as well as the two one-way Posey and Webster Street Tubes leading into Oakland's Chinatown. Alameda and Bay Farm Islands are connected via the Bay Farm Island Bridge, and the Bay Farm Island Bicycle Bridge (the only pedestrian/bicycle-only drawbridge in the United States).
California State Route 61 runs down city streets from the Posey and Webster Street Tubes, across the Bay Farm Island Bridge, and south to the Oakland Airport. The island is just minutes off Interstate 880 in Oakland. The speed limit for the city is 25 mph (40 km/h) on almost every road.
Transportation options include:
Sister cities.
The city has four active and formal sister city relations as well as inactive ones.
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Alpha helix
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An alpha helix (or α-helix) is a sequence of amino acids in a protein that are twisted into a coil (a helix).
The alpha helix is the most common structural arrangement in the secondary structure of proteins. It is also the most extreme type of local structure, and it is the local structure that is most easily predicted from a sequence of amino acids.
The alpha helix has a right-handed helix conformation in which every backbone N−H group hydrogen bonds to the backbone C=O group of the amino acid that is four residues earlier in the protein sequence.
Other names.
The alpha helix is also commonly called a:
Discovery.
In the early 1930s, William Astbury showed that there were drastic changes in the X-ray fiber diffraction of moist wool or hair fibers upon significant stretching. The data suggested that the unstretched fibers had a coiled molecular structure with a characteristic repeat of ≈.
Astbury initially proposed a linked-chain structure for the fibers. He later joined other researchers (notably the American chemist Maurice Huggins) in proposing that:
Although incorrect in their details, Astbury's models of these forms were correct in essence and correspond to modern elements of secondary structure, the α-helix and the β-strand (Astbury's nomenclature was kept), which were developed by Linus Pauling, Robert Corey and Herman Branson in 1951 (see below); that paper showed both right- and left-handed helices, although in 1960 the crystal structure of myoglobin showed that the right-handed form is the common one. Hans Neurath was the first to show that Astbury's models could not be correct in detail, because they involved clashes of atoms. Neurath's paper and Astbury's data inspired H. S. Taylor, Maurice Huggins and Bragg and collaborators to propose models of keratin that somewhat resemble the modern α-helix.
Two key developments in the modeling of the modern α-helix were: the correct bond geometry, thanks to the crystal structure determinations of amino acids and peptides and Pauling's prediction of "planar" peptide bonds; and his relinquishing of the assumption of an integral number of residues per turn of the helix. The pivotal moment came in the early spring of 1948, when Pauling caught a cold and went to bed. Being bored, he drew a polypeptide chain of roughly correct dimensions on a strip of paper and folded it into a helix, being careful to maintain the planar peptide bonds. After a few attempts, he produced a model with physically plausible hydrogen bonds. Pauling then worked with Corey and Branson to confirm his model before publication. In 1954, Pauling was awarded his first Nobel Prize "for his research into the nature of the chemical bond and its application to the elucidation of the structure of complex substances" (such as proteins), prominently including the structure of the α-helix.
Structure.
Geometry and hydrogen bonding.
The amino acids in an α-helix are arranged in a right-handed helical structure where each amino acid residue corresponds to a 100° turn in the helix (i.e., the helix has 3.6 residues per turn), and a translation of along the helical axis. Dunitz describes how Pauling's first article on the theme in fact shows a left-handed helix, the enantiomer of the true structure. Short pieces of left-handed helix sometimes occur with a large content of achiral glycine amino acids, but are unfavorable for the other normal, biological -amino acids. The pitch of the alpha-helix (the vertical distance between consecutive turns of the helix) is , which is the product of 1.5 and 3.6. The most important thing is that the N-H group of one amino acid forms a hydrogen bond with the C=O group of the amino acid "four" residues earlier; this repeated "i" + 4 → "i" hydrogen bonding is the most prominent characteristic of an α-helix. Official international nomenclature specifies two ways of defining α-helices, rule 6.2 in terms of repeating "φ", "ψ" torsion angles (see below) and rule 6.3 in terms of the combined pattern of pitch and hydrogen bonding. The α-helices can be identified in protein structure using several computational methods, such as DSSP (Define Secondary Structure of Protein).
Similar structures include the 310 helix ("i" + 3 → "i" hydrogen bonding) and the π-helix ("i" + 5 → "i" hydrogen bonding). The α-helix can be described as a 3.613 helix, since the "i" + 4 spacing adds three more atoms to the H-bonded loop compared to the tighter 310 helix, and on average, 3.6 amino acids are involved in one ring of α-helix. The subscripts refer to the number of atoms (including the hydrogen) in the closed loop formed by the hydrogen bond.
Residues in α-helices typically adopt backbone ("φ", "ψ") dihedral angles around (−60°, −45°), as shown in the image at right. In more general terms, they adopt dihedral angles such that the "ψ" dihedral angle of one residue and the "φ" dihedral angle of the "next" residue sum to roughly −105°. As a consequence, α-helical dihedral angles, in general, fall on a diagonal stripe on the Ramachandran diagram (of slope −1), ranging from (−90°, −15°) to (−70°, −35°). For comparison, the sum of the dihedral angles for a 310 helix is roughly −75°, whereas that for the π-helix is roughly −130°. The general formula for the rotation angle "Ω" per residue of any polypeptide helix with "trans" isomers is given by the equation
The α-helix is tightly packed; there is almost no free space within the helix. The amino-acid side-chains are on the outside of the helix, and point roughly "downward" (i.e., toward the N-terminus), like the branches of an evergreen tree (Christmas tree effect). This directionality is sometimes used in preliminary, low-resolution electron-density maps to determine the direction of the protein backbone.
Stability.
Helices observed in proteins can range from four to over forty residues long, but a typical helix contains about ten amino acids (about three turns). In general, short polypeptides do not exhibit much α-helical structure in solution, since the entropic cost associated with the folding of the polypeptide chain is not compensated for by a sufficient amount of stabilizing interactions. In general, the backbone hydrogen bonds of α-helices are considered slightly weaker than those found in β-sheets, and are readily attacked by the ambient water molecules. However, in more hydrophobic environments such as the plasma membrane, or in the presence of co-solvents such as trifluoroethanol (TFE), or isolated from solvent in the gas phase, oligopeptides readily adopt stable α-helical structure. Furthermore, crosslinks can be incorporated into peptides to conformationally stabilize helical folds. Crosslinks stabilize the helical state by entropically destabilizing the unfolded state and by removing enthalpically stabilized "decoy" folds that compete with the fully helical state. It has been shown that α-helices are more stable, robust to mutations and designable than β-strands in natural proteins, and also in artificially designed proteins.
Visualization.
The three most popular ways of visualizing the alpha-helical secondary structure of oligopeptide sequences are (1) a helical wheel, (2) a wenxiang diagram, and (3) a helical net. Each of these can be visualized with various software packages and web servers. To generate a small number of diagrams, Heliquest can be used for helical wheels, and NetWheels can be used for helical wheels and helical nets. To programmatically generate a large number of diagrams, helixvis can be used to draw helical wheels and wenxiang diagrams in the R and Python programming languages.
Experimental determination.
Since the α-helix is defined by its hydrogen bonds and backbone conformation, the most detailed experimental evidence for α-helical structure comes from atomic-resolution X-ray crystallography such as the example shown at right. It is clear that all the backbone carbonyl oxygens point downward (toward the C-terminus) but splay out slightly, and the H-bonds are approximately parallel to the helix axis. Protein structures from NMR spectroscopy also show helices well, with characteristic observations of nuclear Overhauser effect (NOE) couplings between atoms on adjacent helical turns. In some cases, the individual hydrogen bonds can be observed directly as a small scalar coupling in NMR.
There are several lower-resolution methods for assigning general helical structure. The NMR chemical shifts (in particular of the Cα, Cβ and C′) and residual dipolar couplings are often characteristic of helices. The far-UV (170–250 nm) circular dichroism spectrum of helices is also idiosyncratic, exhibiting a pronounced double minimum at around 208 and 222 nm. Infrared spectroscopy is rarely used, since the α-helical spectrum resembles that of a random coil (although these might be discerned by, e.g., hydrogen-deuterium exchange). Finally, cryo electron microscopy is now capable of discerning individual α-helices within a protein, although their assignment to residues is still an active area of research.
Long homopolymers of amino acids often form helices if soluble. Such long, isolated helices can also be detected by other methods, such as dielectric relaxation, flow birefringence, and measurements of the diffusion constant. In stricter terms, these methods detect only the characteristic prolate (long cigar-like) hydrodynamic shape of a helix, or its large dipole moment.
Amino-acid propensities.
Different amino-acid sequences have different propensities for forming α-helical structure. Alanine, uncharged glutamate, leucine, charged arginine, methionine and charged lysine have especially high helix-forming propensities, whereas proline and glycine have poor helix-forming propensities. Proline either breaks or kinks a helix, both because it cannot donate an amide hydrogen bond (because it has none) and because its sidechain interferes sterically with the backbone of the preceding turn inside a helix, which forces a bend of about 30° in the helix's axis. However, proline is often the "first" residue of a helix, presumably due to its structural rigidity. At the other extreme, glycine also tends to disrupt helices because its high conformational flexibility makes it entropically expensive to adopt the relatively constrained α-helical structure.
Table of standard amino acid alpha-helical propensities.
Estimated differences in free energy change, Δ(Δ"G"), estimated in kcal/mol per residue in an α-helical configuration, relative to alanine arbitrarily set as zero. Higher numbers (more positive free energy changes) are less favoured. Significant deviations from these average numbers are possible, depending on the identities of the neighbouring residues.
Dipole moment.
A helix has an overall dipole moment due to the aggregate effect of the individual microdipoles from the carbonyl groups of the peptide bond pointing along the helix axis. The effects of this macrodipole are a matter of some controversy. α-helices often occur with the N-terminal end bound by a negatively charged group, sometimes an amino acid side chain such as glutamate or aspartate, or sometimes a phosphate ion. Some regard the helix macrodipole as interacting electrostatically with such groups. Others feel that this is misleading and it is more realistic to say that the hydrogen bond potential of the free NH groups at the N-terminus of an α-helix can be satisfied by hydrogen bonding; this can also be regarded as set of interactions between local microdipoles such as .
Coiled coils.
Coiled-coil α helices are highly stable forms in which two or more helices wrap around each other in a "supercoil" structure. Coiled coils contain a highly characteristic sequence motif known as a heptad repeat, in which the motif repeats itself every seven residues along the sequence ("amino acid" residues, not DNA base-pairs). The first and especially the fourth residues (known as the "a" and "d" positions) are almost always hydrophobic; the fourth residue is typically leucine this gives rise to the name of the structural motif called a "leucine zipper", which is a type of coiled-coil. These hydrophobic residues pack together in the interior of the helix bundle. In general, the fifth and seventh residues (the "e" and "g" positions) have opposing charges and form a salt bridge stabilized by electrostatic interactions. Fibrous proteins such as keratin or the "stalks" of myosin or kinesin often adopt coiled-coil structures, as do several dimerizing proteins. A pair of coiled-coils a four-helix bundle is a very common structural motif in proteins. For example, it occurs in human growth hormone and several varieties of cytochrome. The Rop protein, which promotes plasmid replication in bacteria, is an interesting case in which a single polypeptide forms a coiled-coil and two monomers assemble to form a four-helix bundle.
Facial arrangements.
The amino acids that make up a particular helix can be plotted on a helical wheel, a representation that illustrates the orientations of the constituent amino acids (see the article for leucine zipper for such a diagram). Often in globular proteins, as well as in specialized structures such as coiled-coils and leucine zippers, an α-helix will exhibit two "faces" one containing predominantly hydrophobic amino acids oriented toward the interior of the protein, in the hydrophobic core, and one containing predominantly polar amino acids oriented toward the solvent-exposed surface of the protein.
Changes in binding orientation also occur for facially-organized oligopeptides. This pattern is especially common in antimicrobial peptides, and many models have been devised to describe how this relates to their function. Common to many of them is that the hydrophobic face of the antimicrobial peptide forms pores in the plasma membrane after associating with the fatty chains at the membrane core.
Larger-scale assemblies.
Myoglobin and hemoglobin, the first two proteins whose structures were solved by X-ray crystallography, have very similar folds made up of about 70% α-helix, with the rest being non-repetitive regions, or "loops" that connect the helices. In classifying proteins by their dominant fold, the Structural Classification of Proteins database maintains a large category specifically for all-α proteins.
Hemoglobin then has an even larger-scale quaternary structure, in which the functional oxygen-binding molecule is made up of four subunits.
Functional roles.
DNA binding.
α-Helices have particular significance in DNA binding motifs, including helix-turn-helix motifs, leucine zipper motifs and zinc finger motifs. This is because of the convenient structural fact that the diameter of an α-helix is about including an average set of sidechains, about the same as the width of the major groove in B-form DNA, and also because coiled-coil (or leucine zipper) dimers of helices can readily position a pair of interaction surfaces to contact the sort of symmetrical repeat common in double-helical DNA. An example of both aspects is the transcription factor Max (see image at left), which uses a helical coiled coil to dimerize, positioning another pair of helices for interaction in two successive turns of the DNA major groove.
Membrane spanning.
α-Helices are also the most common protein structure element that crosses biological membranes (transmembrane protein), presumably because the helical structure can satisfy all backbone hydrogen-bonds internally, leaving no polar groups exposed to the membrane if the sidechains are hydrophobic. Proteins are sometimes anchored by a single membrane-spanning helix, sometimes by a pair, and sometimes by a helix bundle, most classically consisting of seven helices arranged up-and-down in a ring such as for rhodopsins (see image at right) and other G protein–coupled receptors (GPCRs). The structural stability between pairs of α-Helical transmembrane domains rely on conserved membrane interhelical packing motifs, for example, the Glycine-xxx-Glycine (or small-xxx-small) motif.
Mechanical properties.
α-Helices under axial tensile deformation, a characteristic loading condition that appears in many alpha-helix-rich filaments and tissues, results in a characteristic three-phase behavior of stiff-soft-stiff tangent modulus. Phase I corresponds to the small-deformation regime during which the helix is stretched homogeneously, followed by phase II, in which alpha-helical turns break mediated by the rupture of groups of H-bonds. Phase III is typically associated with large-deformation covalent bond stretching.
Dynamical features.
Alpha-helices in proteins may have low-frequency accordion-like motion as observed by the Raman spectroscopy and analyzed via the quasi-continuum model. Helices not stabilized by tertiary interactions show dynamic behavior, which can be mainly attributed to helix fraying from the ends.
Helix–coil transition.
Homopolymers of amino acids (such as polylysine) can adopt α-helical structure at low temperature that is "melted out" at high temperatures. This helix–coil transition was once thought to be analogous to protein denaturation. The statistical mechanics of this transition can be modeled using an elegant transfer matrix method, characterized by two parameters: the propensity to initiate a helix and the propensity to extend a helix.
In art.
At least five artists have made explicit reference to the α-helix in their work: Julie Newdoll in painting and Julian Voss-Andreae, Bathsheba Grossman, Byron Rubin, and Mike Tyka in sculpture.
San Francisco area artist Julie Newdoll, who holds a degree in microbiology with a minor in art, has specialized in paintings inspired by microscopic images and molecules since 1990. Her painting "Rise of the Alpha Helix" (2003) features human figures arranged in an α helical arrangement. According to the artist, "the flowers reflect the various types of sidechains that each amino acid holds out to the world". This same metaphor is also echoed from the scientist's side: "β sheets do not show a stiff repetitious regularity but flow in graceful, twisting curves, and even the α-helix is regular more in the manner of a flower stem, whose branching nodes show the influence of environment, developmental history, and the evolution of each part to match its own idiosyncratic function."
Julian Voss-Andreae is a German-born sculptor with degrees in experimental physics and sculpture. Since 2001 Voss-Andreae creates "protein sculptures" based on protein structure with the α-helix being one of his preferred objects. Voss-Andreae has made α-helix sculptures from diverse materials including bamboo and whole trees. A monument Voss-Andreae created in 2004 to celebrate the memory of Linus Pauling, the discoverer of the α-helix, is fashioned from a large steel beam rearranged in the structure of the α-helix. The , bright-red sculpture stands in front of Pauling's childhood home in Portland, Oregon.
Ribbon diagrams of α-helices are a prominent element in the laser-etched crystal sculptures of protein structures created by artist Bathsheba Grossman, such as those of insulin, hemoglobin, and DNA polymerase. Byron Rubin is a former protein crystallographer now professional sculptor in metal of proteins, nucleic acids, and drug molecules many of which featuring α-helices, such as subtilisin, human growth hormone, and phospholipase A2.
Mike Tyka is a computational biochemist at the University of Washington working with David Baker. Tyka has been making sculptures of protein molecules since 2010 from copper and steel, including ubiquitin and a potassium channel tetramer.
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Accrington
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Accrington is a town in the Hyndburn borough of Lancashire, England. It lies about east of Blackburn, west of Burnley, east of Preston, north of Manchester and is situated on the culverted River Hyndburn. Commonly abbreviated by locals to "Accy", the town has a population of 35,456 according to the 2011 census. Accrington is the largest settlement and the seat of the Hyndburn borough council.
Accrington is a former centre of the cotton and textile machinery industries. The town is famed for manufacturing the hardest and densest building bricks in the world, "The Accrington NORI" (iron), which were used in the construction of the Empire State Building and for the foundations of Blackpool Tower and the Haworth Art Gallery which holds Europe's largest collection of Tiffany glass. The club is home to EFL club Accrington Stanley. The town played a part in the founding of the football league system, with a defunct club (Accrington F.C.) being one of the twelve original clubs of the English Football League.
History.
Etymology.
The name "Accrington" likely has Anglo-Saxon origins. The earliest known recording of the name is found in the Parish of Whalley records from 850, where it is written as "Akeringastun". In subsequent records, the name appears in various forms, including "Akarinton" in 1194, "Akerunton", "Akerinton", and "Akerynton" in 1258, "Acrinton" in 1292, "Ackryngton" in 1311, and "Acryngton" in 1324. The name may derive from the Old English words "æcern", meaning "acorn", and "tun", meaning "farmstead" or "village", thus possibly meaning "acorn farmstead". However, some sources argue that this interpretation is not definitive and that alternative explanations may exist.
New Accrington, the southern part of the town, was historically part of the Forest of Blackburnshire. The area's abundance of oak trees can be inferred from local place names such as Broad Oak and Oak Hill. Acorns, a product of oak trees, were once a crucial food source for swine, which may have led to the naming of a farmstead after this resource. In the Lancashire dialect, "acorn" is pronounced "akran", which might have influenced the name's development.
No known Old English personal name corresponds to the first element in "Accrington". Nevertheless, the Frisian names "Akkrum" and "Akkeringa", as well as the Dutch name "Akkerghem", are believed to derive from the personal name "Akker". This finding suggests the possibility of a related Old English name from which "Accrington" could have originated. It is also worth noting that "Ingas" is the Old Norse word for "tribe", which may be relevant to the name's origin.
Overall, the etymology of "Accrington" is complex and there are several theories about its origin. While the "acorn farmstead" interpretation is the most commonly accepted explanation, further research and analysis may be needed to confirm or refute this theory, or to identify alternative possibilities.
Early history.
There appears to be no mention of Accrington from the Roman period. The area typically appears to be heavily forested, with very few established settlements. According to folklore, a tall Danish tribal leader named Wada invaded the area between 760 and 798; who seems to have founded Waddington, Paddington (Padiham) and Akeringastun (Accrington). Descendants of the Wada held much of the lands until the sixteenth century. In 1442, the Waddingtons' hold leases on Berefeld (Bellfield), and in 1517 it is recorded that Thomas Waddington transferred the lands Scaytcliff (Scaitcliffe) and Peneworth (Pennyworth) to Nicholas Rishton and to his Son Geoffrey.
Accrington covers two townships which were established in 1507 following disafforestation; those of Old Accrington and New Accrington; which were merged in 1878 with the incorporation of the borough council. The William Yates map of The county Palatine of Lancaster printed in 1786 shows Old Accrington included the area of Oaklea and also the intersection of the Winburn River (now the River Hyndburn) and Warmden Brook. New Accrington included the area of Green Haworth and Broadfield. There have been settlements there since the medieval period, likely in the Grange Lane and Black Abbey area, and the King's Highway which passes above the town was at one time used by the kings and queens of England when they used the area for hunting when the Forest of Accrington was one of the four forests of the hundred of Blackburnshire.
Robert de Lacy gave the manor of Accrington to the monks of Kirkstall in the 12th century. The monks built a grange there; removing the inhabitants to make room for it. The locals got their revenge by setting fire to the new building, destroying its contents and in the process killing the three lay brothers who occupied it. An area of the town is named 'Black Abbey', a possible reference to the murders. Regardless of whatever happened, Accrington did not remain under monastic control for long before reverting to the de Lacys.
It is thought the monks of Kirkstall may have built a small chapel there during their tenure for the convenience of those in charge residing there and their tenants, but the records are uncertain. What is known is that there was a chapel in Accrington prior to 1553 where the vicar of Whalley was responsible for the maintenance of divine worship. However it did not have its own minister and it was served, when at all, by the curate of one of the adjacent chapels. In 1717 Accrington was served by the curate of Church, who preached there only once a month. St. James's Church was built in 1763, replacing the old chapel however it did not achieve parochial status until as late as 1870.
Industrial Revolution.
Until around 1830, visitors considered Accrington to be just a "considerable village". The Industrial Revolution, however, resulted in large changes and Accrington's location on the confluence of a number of streams made it attractive to industry and a number of mills were built in the town in the mid-18th century. Further industrialisation then followed in the late-18th century and local landowners began building mansions in the area on the outskirts of the settlement where their mills were located while their employees lived in overcrowded unsanitary conditions in the centre.
Industrialisation resulted in rapid population growth during the 19th century, as people moved from over North West England to Accrington, with the population increasing from 3,266 in 1811 to 10,376 in 1851 to 43,211 in 1901 to its peak in 1911 at 45,029.
This fast population growth and slow response from the established church allowed non-conformism to flourish in the town. By the mid-19th century, there were Wesleyan, Primitive Methodist, United Free Methodist, Congregationalist, Baptist, Swedenborgian, Unitarian, Roman Catholic and Catholic Apostolic churches in the town. The Swedenborgian church was so grand that it was considered to be the 'Cathedral' of that denomination.
For many decades the textiles industry, the engineering industry and coal mining were the central activities of the town. Cotton mills and dye works provided work for the inhabitants, but often in very difficult conditions. There was a regular conflict with employers over wages and working conditions. On 24 April 1826 over 1,000 men and women, many armed, gathered at Whinney Hill in Clayton-le-Moors to listen to a speaker from where they marched on Sykes's Mill at Higher Grange Lane, near the site of the modern police station and magistrates' courts, and smashed over 60 looms. These riots spread from Accrington through Oswaldtwistle, Blackburn, Darwen, Rossendale, Bury and Chorley. In the end, after three days of riots 1,139 looms were destroyed, 4 rioters and 2 bystanders shot dead by the authorities in Rossendale and 41 rioters sentenced to death (all of whose sentences were commuted).
In 1842 'plug riots' a general strike spread from town to town due to conditions in the town. In a population of 9,000 people as few as 100 were fully employed. From 15 August 1842 the situation boiled over and bands of men entered the mills which were running and stopped the machinery by knocking out the boiler plugs. This allowed the water and steam to escape shutting down the mill machinery. Thousands of strikers walked over the hills from one town to another to persuade people to join the strike in civil disturbances that lasted about a week. The strike was associated with the Chartist movement but eventually proved unsuccessful in its aims.
In the early 1860s the Lancashire cotton famine badly affected Accrington, although less so than the wider area due to its more diverse economy, with as many as half of the town's mill employees out of work at one time.
Conditions were such that a Local Board of Health was constituted in 1853 and the town itself incorporated in 1878 allowing the enforcement of local laws to improve the town.
Accrington Pals.
One well-known association the town has is with the 'Accrington Pals', the nickname given to the smallest home town battalion of volunteers formed to fight in the First World War. The Pals battalions were a peculiarity of the 1914-18 war: Lord Kitchener, the Secretary of State for War, believed that it would help recruitment if friends and work-mates from the same town were able to join up and fight together. Strictly speaking, the 'Accrington Pals' battalion is properly known as the '11th East Lancashire Regiment': the nickname is a little misleading, since of the four 250-strong companies that made up the original battalion only one was composed of men from Accrington. The rest volunteered from other east Lancashire towns such as Burnley, Blackburn and Chorley.
The Pals' first day of action, 1 July 1916, took place in Serre, near Montauban in the north of France. It was part of the 'Big Push' (later known as the Battle of the Somme) that was intended to force the German Army into a retreat from the Western Front, a line they had held since late 1914. The German defences in Serre were supposed to have been obliterated by sustained, heavy, British shelling during the preceding week; however, as the battalion advanced it met with fierce resistance. 235 men were killed and a further 350 wounded – more than half of the battalion – within half an hour. Similarly, desperate losses were suffered elsewhere on the front, in a disastrous day for the British Army (approximately 19,000 British soldiers were killed in a single day).
Later in the year, the East Lancashire Regiment was rebuilt with new volunteers – in all, 865 Accrington men were killed during World War I. All of these names are recorded on a war memorial, an imposing white stone cenotaph, which stands in Oak Hill Park in the south of the town. The cenotaph also lists the names of 173 local fatalities from World War II. The trenches from which the Accrington Pals advanced on 1 July 1916 are still visible in John Copse west of the village of Serre, and there is a memorial there made of Accrington brick.
After the war and until 1986, Accrington Corporation buses were painted in the regimental colours of red and blue with gold lining. The mudguards were painted black as a sign of mourning.
Demography.
The 2001 census gave the population of Accrington town as 35,200. The figure for the urban area was 71,220, increased from 70,442 in 1991. This total includes Accrington, Church, Clayton-le-Moors, Great Harwood and Oswaldtwistle.
The 2011 census gave a population of 35,456 for the Accrington built-up area subdivision (which includes Huncoat, Baxenden and Rising Bridge in Rossendale) and a population of 125,000 for the wider Accrington/Rossendale Built-up area. The area in 2001 was listed as , whereas in 2011 it was .
The borough of Hyndburn as a whole has a population of 80,734. This includes Accrington Urban Area and other outlying towns and villages such as; Altham, Rishton, part of Belthorn, and Knuzden and Whitebirk (considered suburbs of Blackburn).
Economy.
Historically, cotton and textile machinery were important industries in Accrington, with many mills and factories operating in the town during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The town was renowned for its production of cotton cloth, and several of its mills became famous for their high-quality fabrics, including the Victoria and Jubilee mills. However, like many other towns in Lancashire, the decline of the cotton industry in the mid-20th century led to a significant reduction in manufacturing activity in Accrington.
One notable industrial product associated with Accrington is NORI bricks, a type of iron-hard engineering brick that was produced in nearby Huncoat. The NORI brickworks were established in the 1860s, and their products were widely used in the construction of mills, factories, and other industrial buildings throughout the north of England, as well as Blackpool Tower and the Empire State Building. The brickworks closed in 2013 due to declining demand, but reopened in 2015 after being acquired by a local businessman.
Today, the town's economy is more diverse, with a range of businesses and services operating in the area. Many of the old mill and factory buildings have been repurposed as offices, workshops, and other facilities, providing space for a variety of enterprises. The town also has a number of retail and commercial areas, including the Arndale Centre and the Peel Centre, which are home to a range of shops, restaurants, and other businesses.
Accrington power station was a coal and refuse-fired electricity generating station that operated on Argyle Street adjacent to the gasworks between 1900 and 1958. The power station supplied electricity to Accrington, Haslingden, and the Altham and Clayton-le-Moors areas. The site is now a residential area.
Accrington remains a centre of business and industry in the region, with a rich history of manufacturing and innovation. The area benefits from its location close to major transport links, including the M65 motorway and the East Lancashire railway line, which connect Accrington to other parts of the county and beyond.
In recent years, the town has seen investment in new development projects, including the £60 million "Civic Quarter" regeneration scheme, which aims to revitalize the town center and create new jobs and opportunities for local people. The project includes the construction of a new public square, a state-of-the-art leisure center, and new office and retail spaces, as well as the refurbishment of existing buildings.
In addition to its commercial and industrial activities, Accrington is also home to a number of cultural and recreational amenities. The town has a rich sporting heritage, with Accrington Stanley Football Club, founded in 1968, representing the town in the English Football League. The town also has a strong tradition of brass band music, with several local bands competing at regional and national level. Other cultural attractions in the town include the Haworth Art Gallery, which houses a collection of British art and decorative arts, and the Accrington Market Hall, which runs events and activities.
Poverty, regeneration and investment.
Some areas of Accrington have high levels of poverty and deprivation. In one area of the town in 2020, 77% of children were living in poverty. Deprivation increased in Accrington from 2004 to 2010. The Accrington Town Centre Investment Plan 2022-2032 states "Accrington has severe pockets of deprivation – particularly around employment, income and living environment - which has been getting worse during the last 20 years".
The council has a regeneration plan in place, which will, according to the council, boost the local economy. The plan is to upgrade old shops and to build a bus station. A memorial for the Accrington Pals may be built outside the town hall.
The Hyndburn Borough Council plans to spend £10 million to refurbish the town centre, including:
Half of Blackburn Road is being refurbished and is now being made into a more attractive shopping street, upgrading shops, adding more trees, and repaving the pavements.
As of 2014, two new phases were being built: the first one called the Acorn Park, where new houses were being built with balconies and greener spaces, and Project Phoenix, which will also include new housing.
Geography.
Accrington is a hill town located at between the Pennines and the West Pennine Moors, within a bowl and largely encircled by surrounding hills to rising to a height of in the case of Hameldon Hill to the east. The River Hyndburn or Accrington Brook flows through the centre of the town. Hill settlements origins were as the economic foci of the district engaging in the spinning and weaving of woollen cloth. Wool, lead and coal were other local industries.
Geographical coordinates: 53° 46' 0" North, 2° 21' 0" West. Height above sea level: there is a spot height outside the Market Hall which is the benchmark on the side of the neighbouring Town Hall is . The highest height in the town is which is in Baxenden and the lowest at the town hall which is at . Accrington is lowering in elevation travelling northwards towards the Hyndburn. North of the river the elevation rises again, crossing over the watershed between Hyndburn and River Calder, both eventually leading into River Ribble via separate routes. The Hyndburn district further north eventually falls to the modest elevation of the Calder river banks.
Transport.
Railway.
Accrington railway station, located on the East Lancashire Line, provides strong local travel links. The station runs trains locally and from Blackpool to York. However, recent changes to the train timetables have increased the journey time to Preston by up to 1.5 hours, a vital link to London or Scotland. In 2015, a train service to Manchester via the Todmorden Curve opened, providing a new rail link south to Manchester.
Roads.
The town is served by junction seven of the M65 motorway and the A680 road, which runs from Rochdale to Whalley. The town is also linked from the A56 dual carriageway which briefly merges with the A680, connecting to the M66 motorway heading towards Manchester. The closest airports are Manchester Airport, Blackpool Airport, and Leeds Bradford Airport, all within 30 miles.
Bus.
Several bus companies provide services in the town, including Pilkington Bus, Holmeswood Coaches, Rosso, and Transdev Blazefield subsidiaries Blackburn Bus Company and Burnley Bus Company. Regular bus services connect Accrington to other towns in East Lancashire, including Blackburn, Oswaldtwistle, Rishton, Burnley, and Clitheroe. M&M Coaches provided services in the area until the company ceased business suddenly on 21 September 2016.
Cycleways and footpaths.
The trackbed from Accrington to Baxenden, which was once a rail link south to Manchester, is now a linear treelined cycleway/footpath. The cycleway/footpath is a popular route for cycling and walking, offering views
Public services.
Accrington Library, on St James Street was built in 1908 as a Carnegie library. It has a stained glass window by Gustav Hiller and was a place of inspiration for the young Jeanette Winterson.
Near the Tesco supermarket, there is Accrington Skate Park which is popular during the school holidays. On Broadway, Accrington Police Station serves the Borough of Hyndburn. In April 2003, Hyndburn Community Fire Station opened, also serving the Borough of Hyndburn.
Police services.
The town is served by the Lancashire Constabulary Police station on Broadway after moving into town from its previous location on Manchester Road as an effort to save money due to rising expenses and decreasing funding by the government. Crime is very low in Accrington compared to nearby towns.
Policing of the Railway station and railway-owned properties are served by the British Transport Police, nearest post in Preston.
Social.
Governance.
Accrington is represented in parliament as a part of the constituency of Hyndburn. The constituency boundaries do not align exactly with those of the district of the same name.
Accrington was first represented nationally after the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 after the 1885 general election by Accrington (UK Parliament constituency). This seat was abolished in the 1983 general election and replaced with the present constituency of Hyndburn (UK Parliament constituency).
Accrington became incorporated as a municipal borough in 1878. Under the Local Government Act 1972, since 1974, the town has formed part of the larger Borough of Hyndburn including the former Urban Districts of Oswaldtwistle, Church, Clayton-le-Moors, Great Harwood and Rishton.
Hyndburn consists of 16 wards, electing a total of 35 councillors. Due to its size Accrington is represented by a number of wards in the Borough of Hyndburn. The town largely consists of the Milnshaw, Peel, Central, Barnfield and Spring Hill wards, although some parts of those wards are in other towns in the borough.
Health.
The local hospital is Accrington Victoria Hospital however, as it only deals with minor issues, Accident and Emergency is provided by the Royal Blackburn Hospital. Other services are provided at the Accrington Pals Primary Health Care Centre and the Accrington Acorn Primary Health Care Centre.
Media.
Local radio stations are BBC Radio Lancashire, Heart North West, Smooth North West, Greatest Hits Radio Lancashire, Capital Manchester and Lancashire (formerly 2BR), and Central Radio North West.
Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC North West and ITV Granada. Television signals are received from the Winter Hill TV transmitter and one of the three local relay transmitters (Woodnook, Pendle Forest and Haslingden).
The town is served by the local newspaper, "Accrington Observer", which publishes on Fridays, and by the Lancashire Post and Lancashire Telegraph.
Accrington dialect.
The dialect spoken in Accrington is part of the broader Lancashire dialect, which belongs to the larger category of Northern English dialects. This dialect has its roots in the Old English and Middle English languages, with influences from Old Norse due to the Viking invasions in the region. Features of the Accrington dialect include pronunciations, vocabulary, and grammatical structures that distinguish it from other dialects in the Lancashire region.
Vocabulary specific to the Accrington dialect may include words such as "ginnel" (a narrow passage between buildings) or "snap" (referring to a packed lunch or a meal taken to work).
In terms of grammar, the Accrington dialect may exhibit features common to other Northern English dialects, such as the use of "thee" and "thou" for "you" and "were" instead of "was" in certain contexts. Additionally, the Accrington dialect might display non-standard verb conjugations and a preference for certain sentence structures or word order.
The Accrington dialect, like many local dialects, is subject to change and variation over time due to factors such as increased mobility, urbanization, and exposure to other dialects and languages. This may lead to a gradual loss or modification of certain dialect features and an increased convergence with more standardised forms of English.
History of Accrington dialect.
The history of the Accrington dialect is intertwined with the broader history of the Lancashire dialect, as well as the linguistic influences that have shaped the region over time. Although specific information about the Accrington dialect's history is limited, it is reasonable to assume that it has been impacted by similar historical events and linguistic developments as the wider Lancashire area.
Influence of Old English and Middle English.
The Accrington dialect has its roots in the Old English and Middle English languages that were spoken in England during the early and late medieval periods, respectively. These languages formed the basis for many dialects in the region, including those spoken in Accrington. As the dialect evolved over time, it retained some elements of these early linguistic influences, which can be observed in the pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar of the modern Accrington dialect.
Impact of Viking invasions and Old Norse.
The Viking invasions during the late 8th to 11th centuries introduced the Old Norse language to the north of England, including the Lancashire region. This contact between Old English and Old Norse speakers likely influenced the Accrington dialect and other Lancashire dialects, with some Old Norse words and grammatical features being incorporated into the local language. As a result, the Accrington dialect shares some common linguistic traits with other Northern English dialects that have been similarly impacted by the Old Norse influence.
Development and changes over time.
The Accrington dialect, like other regional dialects, has undergone various changes and developments throughout its history. Factors contributing to these changes may include the expansion and decline of local industries, increased mobility and migration, and exposure to other dialects and languages. Additionally, educational policies and the influence of mass media may have played a role in shaping the modern Accrington dialect, as people in the area increasingly adopt more standardized forms of English in formal settings. Despite these changes, the Accrington dialect continues to exhibit unique features that distinguish it from other dialects in the Lancashire region and reflects the town's rich linguistic heritage.
Pronunciation and phonetics.
The pronunciation and phonetics of the Accrington dialect are characterized by a few distinctive features that set it apart from other dialects in the Lancashire region. However, specific studies and resources focusing solely on the phonetics and pronunciation of the Accrington dialect are currently unavailable. The limited information available is largely based on the broader Lancashire dialect, which may encompass some of the features present in the Accrington dialect. The lack of specific studies or resources highlights a need for more research and documentation on the Accrington dialect to better understand its unique phonetic and pronunciation features.
Vowel shifts and variations.
One example of a vowel shift in the Accrington dialect is the pronunciation of the word "acorn" as "akran". This variation demonstrates a tendency in the Accrington dialect to alter vowel sounds compared to Standard English. Other examples of vowel shifts specific to Accrington are not well-documented, but the "akran" example suggests that similar variations may exist in other words and phrases.
Consonant changes.
Information on consonant changes specific to the Accrington dialect is scarce. However, based on the broader tendencies of Lancashire dialects and the limited available evidence, it is possible that the Accrington dialect exhibits consonant changes such as the pronunciation of "th" as "d" or "t" (e.g., "them" pronounced as "dem" or "tem") or the elision of certain consonants in some words. Further research is needed to identify and document specific consonant changes unique to the Accrington dialect.
Accent and stress patterns.
The accent and stress patterns of the Accrington dialect have not been thoroughly documented in linguistic research. It is difficult to provide specific examples or details about the stress patterns in the Accrington dialect without more comprehensive data. Further study of the Accrington dialect's pronunciation and phonetics is necessary to fully understand its unique accent and stress patterns.
In conclusion, while the Accrington dialect exhibits some unique features, such as the pronunciation of "acorn" as "akran", more research and documentation are needed to provide a comprehensive understanding of the dialect's specific vowel shifts, consonant changes, and accent and stress patterns. The lack of specific studies on the Accrington dialect highlights an opportunity for linguists and researchers to further explore this unique dialect and its pronunciation and phonetics.
Local and regional words.
"Ginnel" - A local term for a narrow passage or alleyway between buildings, commonly found in Accrington and other Lancashire towns.
"Mither" - A verb meaning to bother or annoy someone, or to be fussy or worried about something.
Industry and occupation-related terminology.
"Tackler" - A term referring to a skilled worker responsible for setting up and maintaining looms in the textile industry, which was used in Accrington during the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Landscape and geography-related vocabulary.
"Clough" - A term used in Accrington and other parts of Lancashire to describe a steep-sided, wooded valley or ravine, as in the case of Woodnook Clough.
"Brook" - A small stream or watercourse, such as the Hyndburn Brook, which runs through Accrington.
Ancient customs and traditions of Accrington.
Accrington, as a historic town, has been home to several ancient customs and traditions that have shaped its local culture and identity. While some of these customs may no longer be practised, they offer valuable insights into the town's past.
Rush-Bearing Festival.
One of the most notable ancient customs in Accrington was the rush-bearing festival. This annual event involved the gathering of rushes from nearby marshlands and meadows to be used as fresh flooring material in local churches. The rushes were then transported to the churches in decorative carts or wagons, accompanied by a festive procession, music, and dancing. This event was once widespread across Lancashire and the North of England, but its prevalence in Accrington is particularly noteworthy.
Wakes Week.
Another significant custom in Accrington was Wakes Week, a holiday period that took place in the town and surrounding areas. Typically, it occurred during the summer months and lasted for one week. During this time, local mills and factories closed, allowing workers to enjoy a much-needed break from their labor-intensive occupations. Wakes Week often featured various festivities, such as fairs, carnivals, and other communal events, which brought the community together in celebration.
Local sports and games.
In the past, Accrington was known for hosting traditional sports and games, which were enjoyed by the local community. Some of these sports included football, cricket, and quoits. These games not only provided entertainment but also fostered a sense of community spirit and camaraderie.
Sport.
Football team.
Accrington Stanley F.C., entered the Football League in 1921 with the formation of the old Third Division (North); after haunting the lower reaches of English football for forty years, they eventually resigned from the League in 1962, due to financial problems, and folded in 1965. The club was reformed three years later and then worked its way through the non-league divisions to reach the Nationwide Conference in 2003. In the 2005–06 season, Stanley, after winning against Woking with three matches to spare, secured a place back in the Football League and the town celebrated with a small parade and honours placed on senior executives of the team. One of the teams relegated— and thus being replaced by Stanley—were Oxford United, who was voted into the Football League to replace the previous Accrington Stanley. The football stadium is called the Crown Ground. Until the 2012–13 season, when Fleetwood Town entered the league, Accrington was the smallest town in England and Wales with a Football League club.
Accrington Stanley Football Club has had its own pub in the town, the Crown, since July 2007.
Team history.
An earlier club, Accrington F.C., was one of the twelve founder members of the Football League in 1888. However, their time in league football was even less successful and considerably briefer than that of Accrington Stanley: they dropped out of the league in 1893 and folded shortly afterwards due to financial problems. The town of Accrington thus has the unique "distinction" of having lost two separate clubs from league football. Accrington Stanley F.C. are currently placed in EFL League Two after being relegated from EFL League One in the 2022/23 season, having finished 23rd.
Cricket.
Accrington Cricket Club plays at Thorneyholme Road in the Lancashire League. Cricket is also played in parks. Schools nearby have shown major interest in cricket and have held cricket training and tournaments.
Other sports.
There are two sports centres, the main one being the Hyndburn Sports Centre, which recently renovated its swimming pool area and is situated near Lidl.
Education.
Accrington has the following primary schools:
The secondary schools serving Accrington are:
The college in the town centre is Accrington and Rossendale College; nearby universities include University Centre at Blackburn College, and the University of Central Lancashire in Preston.
Landmarks.
Haworth Art Gallery.
The Haworth Art Gallery is an art museum located in Accrington, Lancashire, England. The gallery is housed in a Tudor-style mansion, originally known as Hollins Hill, which was built in 1909 by William Haworth, a local cotton manufacturer. Upon his death in 1913, William Haworth bequeathed the mansion and its surrounding parkland to the people of Accrington. The gallery opened in 1921.
The Haworth Art Gallery holds the largest public collection of Tiffany glass in Europe, known as the Tiffany Glass Collection. The collection was donated by Joseph Briggs, an Accrington native who worked for the famous American artist and designer Louis Comfort Tiffany. In addition to the Tiffany Glass Collection, the gallery holds a range of artwork, including 19th and 20th-century oil paintings, watercolours, prints, and sculptures.
The Haworth Art Gallery also holds temporary exhibitions showing contemporary art by local and national artists.
The Viaduct.
The Viaduct is a bridge which has a railway line on it, it goes through the town and has many storage units and shop on sale by National Rail. The Viaduct ends at the Accrington Eco Station.
Town Hall.
Accrington Town Hall was built in memory of Sir Robert Peel and opened as the Peel Institute in 1858; it is also listed.
The Arcade.
The Arcade is a Victorian shopping centre with about 10-15 shops and restaurants.
Oak Hill Park.
Oak Hill Park is a large and old park with a view of Accrington. It has won awards, such as the Green Flag Award in 2024–25. It has also been awarded an Eco Award. It is on Manchester Road.
Haworth Park.
Haworth Park can be accessed from Manchester Road and is off Hollins Lane at the top of Harcourt Road. The Park was originally William Haworth's private residence. The Haworth Art Gallery holds the Tiffany Glass collection.
The Coppice and Peel Park.
Peel Park is a green space in the centre of Accrington. The park was opened by William Peel on 29 September 1909 and was originally called the Corporation Park. The park was renamed in honour of William Peel, the grandson of Sir Robert Peel, in recognition of his service as a Liberal MP for the town. The park covers an area of approximately 18 acres and includes a wide range of features, including a lake, flower gardens, a bandstand, and a bowling green.
The Coppice is a hill in the park, and provides a 2.2-mile scenic walk around the park, offering visitors views of the surrounding area. The Coppice has been part of the park since it was first opened, and there have been refurbishments to the paths and monuments at the top of the hill over the years.
In 2009, the people of Accrington celebrated the centenary of the Coppice being handed over to the town. The occasion was marked with a series of events and activities, including a refurbishment of the paths and monument at the top of the hill. Since then, there have been several revamps to the playground area of the park.
Events and festivals are held in the park throughout the year, including the annual Accrington Food and Drink Festival, which takes place in the summer.
Early landowners.
This section outlines the contributions of landowning families, including the de Lacy, Walmsley, Peel, Hargreaves and Haworth families, to the development of Accrington.
De Lacy family.
The de Lacy family were the first recorded landowners in Accrington, instrumental in the town's establishment as a regional center for agriculture and trade.
Walmsley family.
The Walmsley family acquired the manor of Accrington in the 16th century and owned several mills, contributing to the expansion of Accrington's textile industry.
Peel family.
The Peel family were key figures in the 18th and 19th centuries, with Sir Robert Peel, 1st Baronet, establishing textile mills in the area, significantly boosting Accrington's economy.
Hargreaves family.
The Hargreaves family built the Broad Oak Print Works in 1778, which became one of the largest textile printing establishments in the region.
Haworth family.
The Haworth family were prominent landowners in Accrington, with James Haworth establishing Haworth Mill in the early 1800s. The family's investments in local industry contributed to the town's economic development.
Peel, Yates and Co..
Peel, Yates and Co. was a partnership between the Peel family and the Yates family. The Peel family, led by Robert Peel (1750–1830), and the Yates family, led by William Yates (1769–1849), established Peel, Yates and Co. in 1795. The company owned and operated several cotton mills in Accrington, including the Woodnook Mill, which employed around 800 people during its peak operation.
Duckworth family.
The Duckworth family were landowners and industrialists in Accrington during the 19th century. They invested in the local textile industry, owning several mills, such as the Broad Oak Mill and the Spring Hill Mill. The Duckworth family's mills employed hundreds of workers.
Birtwistle family.
The Birtwistle family were involved in the cotton industry in Accrington, owning and operating cotton mills during the 19th century. Members of the family, including John Birtwistle (1807–1884), owned mills like the Church Bank Mill and the Wellington Mill, employing over 1,000 workers between the two establishments.
Holden family.
The Holden family contributed to Accrington's development through their involvement in various industries, such as coal mining and brick manufacturing. The family-owned Accrington Brick and Tile Company, established by Joseph Holden
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Armageddon
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Armageddon ( ; ; ; from ) is the prophesied gathering of armies for a battle during the end times, according to the Book of Revelation in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. Armageddon is variously interpreted as either a literal or a symbolic location, although the term has since become more often used in a generic sense to refer to any end-of-the-world scenario. In Islamic theology, Armageddon is also mentioned in Hadith as the Greatest Armageddon or Al-Malhama Al-Kubra (the great battle).
The "mount" of Megiddo in northern Israel is not actually a mountain, but a tell (a mound or hill created by many generations of people living and rebuilding at the same spot) on which ancient forts were built to guard the Via Maris, an ancient trade route linking Egypt with the northern empires of Syria, Anatolia and Mesopotamia. Megiddo was the location of various ancient battles, including one in the 15th century BC and one in 609 BC. The nearby modern Megiddo is a kibbutz in the Kishon River area.
Etymology.
The word "Armageddon" appears only once in the Greek New Testament, in Revelation 16:16. The word is a Greek transliteration of the Hebrew "har məgīddō" (). "Har" means "a mountain" or "a range of hills". This is a shortened form of "harar" meaning "to loom up; a mountain". "Məgīddō" refers to a fortification made by King Ahab that dominated the Plain of Jezreel. Its name means "place of crowds".
Adam Clarke wrote in his Bible commentary (1817) on Revelation 16:16:"Armageddon" – The original of this word has been variously formed, and variously translated. It is "har-megiddon", "the mount of the assembly;" or "chormah gedehon", "the destruction of their army;" or it is "har-megiddo", "Mount Megiddo."
Christianity.
Megiddo is mentioned twelve times in the Old Testament, ten times in reference to the ancient city of Megiddo, and twice with reference to "the plain of Megiddo", most probably simply meaning "the plain next to the city". None of these Old Testament passages describes the city of Megiddo as being associated with any particular prophetic beliefs. The one New Testament reference to the city of Armageddon found in makes no specific mention of any armies being predicted to one day gather in this city, either, but instead seems to predict only that "they (will gather) the kings together to ... Armageddon". The text does however seem to imply, based on the text from the earlier passage of Revelation 16:14, that the purpose of this gathering of kings in the "place called Armageddon" is "for the war of the great day of God, the Almighty". Because of the seemingly highly symbolic and even cryptic language of this one New Testament passage, some Christian scholars conclude that Mount Armageddon must be an idealized location. R. J. Rushdoony says, "There are no mountains of Megiddo, only the Plains of Megiddo. This is a deliberate destruction of the vision of any literal reference to the place." Other scholars, including C. C. Torrey, Kline and Jordan, argue that the word is derived from the Hebrew "moed" (), meaning "assembly". Thus, "Armageddon" would mean "Mountain of Assembly", which Jordan says is "a reference to the assembly at Mount Sinai, and to its replacement, Mount Zion".
Most traditions interpret this Bible prophecy to be symbolic of the progression of the world toward the "great day of God, the Almighty" in which God pours out his just and holy wrath against unrepentant sinners led by Satan, in a literal end-of-the-world final confrontation. 'Armageddon' is the symbolic name given to this event based on scripture references regarding divine obliteration of God's enemies. The hermeneutical method supports this position by referencing Judges 4 and 5 where God miraculously destroys the enemy of their elect, Israel, at Megiddo.
Christian scholar William Hendriksen writes:
Dispensationalism.
In his discussion of Armageddon, J. Dwight Pentecost has devoted a chapter to the subject, "The Campaign of Armageddon", in which he discusses it as a campaign and not a specific battle, which will be fought in the Middle East. Pentecost writes:
Pentecost then discusses the location of this campaign, and mentions the "hill of Megiddo" and other geographic locations such as "the valley of Jehoshaphat" and "the valley of the passengers", "Lord coming from Edom or Idumea, south of Jerusalem, when he returns from the judgment"; and Jerusalem itself.
Pentecost further describes the area involved:
Pentecost then outlines the biblical time period for this campaign to occur and with further arguments concludes that it must take place with the 70th week of Daniel. The invasion of Israel by the Northern Confederacy "will bring the Beast and his armies to the defense of Israel as her protector". He then uses Daniel to further clarify his thinking.
Again, events are listed by Pentecost in his book:
After the destruction of the Beast at the Second Coming of Jesus, the promised Kingdom is set up, in which Jesus and the saints will rule for a thousand years. Satan is then loosed "for a season" and goes out to deceive the nations, specifically Gog and Magog. The army mentioned attacks the saints in the New Jerusalem, they are defeated by a judgment of fire coming down from heaven, and then comes the Great White Throne judgment, which includes all of those through the ages and these are cast into the Lake of Fire, which event is also known as the "second death" and Gehenna, not to be confused with Hell, which is Satan's domain. Pentecost describes this as follows:
Jehovah's Witnesses.
Jehovah's Witnesses believe that Armageddon is the means by which God will fulfill his purpose for the Earth to be populated with happy healthy humans who will be free from sin and death. They teach that the armies of heaven will eradicate all who oppose the Kingdom of God, wiping out all wicked humans on Earth, only leaving righteous mankind.
They believe that the gathering of all of the nations of the earth refers to the uniting of the world's political powers, as a gradual process which began in 1914 and was later seen in manifestations such as the League of Nations and the United Nations following the First and Second World Wars. These political powers are said to be influenced by Satan and they are disgusting in that they stand in the place of God's kingdom before men as the only hope of mankind. Babylon the Great is interpreted as being the world empire of false religions, and it will be destroyed by the beast just prior to Armageddon. Witnesses believe that after all other religions have been destroyed, the governments of the world will turn their attention to destroying Jehovah's Witnesses, provoking God to intervene and precipitating Armageddon.
Jehovah's Witnesses teach that the armies of heaven, led by Jesus, will then destroy all forms of human government and then Jesus, along with a selected 144,000 humans, will rule Earth for 1,000 years. They believe that Satan and his demons will be bound for that period, unable to influence mankind. After the 1,000 years are ended, and the second resurrection has taken place, Satan is released and allowed to tempt the perfect human race one last time. Those who follow Satan will be destroyed, along with him, leaving the earth, and humankind at peace with God forever, free from sin and death.
The religion's current teaching on Armageddon originated in 1925 with former Watch Tower Society president J. F. Rutherford, who based his interpretations on passages that are found in the books of Exodus, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Psalms as well as additional passages that are found in the books of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles. The doctrine marked a further break from the teachings of the Watch Tower Society's founder Charles Taze Russell, who for decades had taught that the final war would be an anarchistic struggle for domination on earth. Tony Wills, the author of a historical study of Jehovah's Witnesses, wrote that Rutherford seemed to relish his descriptions of how completely the wicked would be destroyed at Armageddon, dwelling at great length on prophecies of destruction. He stated that towards the close of his ministry, Rutherford allocated about half the space that was available in "The Watchtower" magazines to discussions about Armageddon.
Seventh-day Adventist.
The teachings of the Seventh-day Adventist Church state that the terms "Armageddon", "Day of the Lord" and "The Second Coming of Christ" all describe the same event. Seventh-day Adventists further teach that the current religious movements taking place in the world are setting the stage for Armageddon, and they are concerned by an anticipated unity between spiritualism, American Protestantism and Roman Catholicism. A further teaching in Seventh-day Adventist theology is that the events of Armageddon will leave the earth desolate for the duration of the millennium. They teach that the righteous will be taken to heaven while the rest of humanity will be destroyed, leaving Satan with no one to tempt and effectively "bound". The final re-creation of a "new heaven and a new earth"; then follows the millennium.
Christadelphians.
For Christadelphians, Armageddon marks the "great climax of history when the nations would be gathered together 'into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon', and the judgment on them would herald the setting up of the Kingdom of God."
Baháʼí Faith.
From Baháʼí literature, a number of interpretations of the expectations surrounding the Battle of Armageddon may be inferred, three of them being associated with events surrounding the World Wars.
The first interpretation deals with a series of tablets written by Bahá'u'lláh, founder of the Baháʼí Faith, to be sent to various kings and rulers. The second, and best-known one, relates to events near the end of World War I involving General Allenby and the Battle of Megiddo (1918) wherein World Powers are said to have drawn soldiers from many parts of the world to engage in battle at Megiddo. In winning this battle Allenby also prevented the Ottomans from killing 'Abdu'l-Baha, then head of the Baháʼí Faith, whom they had intended to crucify. A third interpretation reviews the overall progress of the World Wars, and the situation in the world before and after.
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Athlon
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AMD Athlon is the brand name applied to a series of x86-compatible microprocessors designed and manufactured by Advanced Micro Devices. The original Athlon (now called Athlon Classic) was the first seventh-generation x86 processor and the first desktop processor to reach speeds of one gigahertz (GHz). It made its debut as AMD's high-end processor brand on June 23, 1999. Over the years AMD has used the Athlon name with the 64-bit Athlon 64 architecture, the Athlon II, and Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) chips targeting the Socket AM1 desktop SoC architecture, and Socket AM4 Zen (microarchitecture). The modern Zen-based Athlon with a Radeon Graphics processor was introduced in 2019 as AMD's highest-performance entry-level processor.
Brand history.
K7 design and development.
The first Athlon processor was a result of AMD's development of K7 processors in the 1990s. AMD founder and then-CEO Jerry Sanders aggressively pursued strategic partnerships and engineering talent in the late 1990s, working to build on earlier successes in the PC market with the AMD K6 processor line. One major partnership announced in 1998 paired AMD with semiconductor giant Motorola to co-develop copper-based semiconductor technology, resulting in the K7 project being the first commercial processor to utilize copper fabrication technology. In the announcement, Sanders referred to the partnership as creating a "virtual gorilla" that would enable AMD to compete with Intel on fabrication capacity while limiting AMD's financial outlay for new facilities. The K7 design team was led by Dirk Meyer, who had previously worked as a lead engineer at DEC on multiple Alpha microprocessors. When DEC was sold to Compaq in 1998 and discontinued Alpha processor development, Sanders brought most of the Alpha design team to the K7 project. This added to the previously acquired NexGen K6 team, which already included engineers such as Vinod Dham.
Original release.
The AMD Athlon processor launched on June 23, 1999, with general availability by August 1999. Subsequently, from August 1999 until January 2002, this initial K7 processor was the fastest x86 chip in the world. Wrote the "Los Angeles Times" on October 5, 1999: "AMD has historically trailed Intel’s fastest processors, but has overtaken the industry leader with the new Athlon. Analysts say the Athlon, which will be used by Compaq, IBM and other manufacturers in their most powerful PCs, is significantly faster than Intel’s flagship Pentium III, which runs at a top speed of 600MHz." A number of features helped the chips compete with Intel. By working with Motorola, AMD had been able to refine copper interconnect manufacturing about one year before Intel, with the revised process permitting 180-nanometer processor production. The accompanying die-shrink resulted in lower power consumption, permitting AMD to increase Athlon clock speeds to the 1 GHz range. The Athlon architecture also used the EV6 bus licensed from DEC as its main system bus, allowing AMD to develop its own products without needing to license Intel's GTL+ bus. By the summer of 2000, AMD was shipping Athlons at high volume, and the chips were being used in systems by Gateway, Hewlett-Packard, and Fujitsu Siemens Computers among others.
Later Athlon iterations.
The second-generation Athlon, the Thunderbird, debuted in 2000. AMD released the Athlon XP the following year, and the Athlon XP's immediate successor, the Athlon 64, was an AMD64-architecture microprocessor released in 2003. After the 2007 launch of the Phenom processors, the Athlon name was also used for mid-range processors, positioned above brands such as Sempron. The Athlon 64 X2 was released in 2005 as the first native dual-core desktop CPU designed by AMD, and the Athlon X2 was a subsequent family based on the Athlon 64 X2. Introduced in 2009, Athlon II was a dual-core family of Athlon chips.
A USD$55 low-power Athlon 200GE with a Radeon graphics processor was introduced in September 2018, sitting under the Ryzen 3 2200G. This iteration of Athlon used AMD's Zen-based "Raven Ridge" core, which in turn had debuted in Ryzen with Radeon graphics processors. With the release, AMD began using the Athlon brand name to refer to "low-cost, high-volume products", in a situation similar to both Intel's Celeron and Pentium Gold. The modern Athlon 3000G was introduced in 2019 and was positioned as AMD's highest-performance entry-level processor. AMD positions the Athlon against its rival, the Intel Pentium. While CPU processing performance is in the same ballpark, the Athlon 3000G uses Radeon Vega graphics, which are rated as more powerful than the Pentium's Intel UHD Graphics.
Generations.
Athlon Classic (1999).
The AMD Athlon processor launched on June 23, 1999, with general availability by August 1999. Subsequently, from August 1999 until January 2002, this initial K7 processor was the fastest x86 chip in the world. At launch it was, on average, 10% faster than the Pentium III at the same clock for business applications and 20% faster for gaming workloads. In commercial terms, the Athlon "Classic" was an enormous success.
The Athlon Classic is a cartridge-based processor, named Slot A and similar to Intel's cartridge Slot 1 used for Pentium II and Pentium III. It used the same, commonly available, physical 242-pin connector used by Intel Slot 1 processors but rotated by 180 degrees to connect the processor to the motherboard. The cartridge assembly allowed the use of higher-speed cache memory modules than could be put on (or reasonably bundled with) motherboards at the time. Similar to the Pentium II and the Katmai-based Pentium III, the Athlon Classic contained 512 KB of L2 cache. This high-speed SRAM cache was run at a divisor of the processor clock and was accessed via its own 64-bit back-side bus, allowing the processor to service both front-side bus requests and cache accesses simultaneously, as compared to pushing everything through the front-side bus.
The Argon-based Athlon contained 22 million transistors and measured 184 mm2. It was fabricated by AMD in a version of their CS44E process, a 250 nm complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) process with six levels of aluminium interconnect. "Pluto" and "Orion" Athlons were fabricated in a 180 nm process.
The Athlon's CPU cache consisted of the typical two levels. Athlon was the first x86 processor with a 128 KB split level-1 cache; a 2-way associative cache separated into 2×64 KB for data and instructions (a concept from Harvard architecture). SRAM cache designs at the time were incapable of keeping up with the Athlon's clock scalability, resulting in compromised CPU performance in some computers. With later Athlon models, AMD would integrate the L2 cache onto the processor itself, removing dependence on external cache chips. The Slot-A Athlons were the first multiplier-locked CPUs from AMD, preventing users from setting their own desired clock speed. This was done by AMD in part to hinder CPU remarking and overclocking by resellers, which could result in inconsistent performance. Eventually a product called the "Goldfingers device" was created that could unlock the CPU.
AMD designed the CPU with more robust x86 instruction decoding capabilities than that of K6, to enhance its ability to keep more data in-flight at once. The critical branch-predictor unit was enhanced compared to the K6. Deeper pipelining with more stages allowed higher clock speeds to be attained. Like the AMD K5 and K6, the Athlon dynamically buffered internal micro-instructions at runtime resulting from parallel x86 instruction decoding. The CPU is an out-of-order design, again like previous post-5x86 AMD CPUs. The Athlon utilizes the Alpha 21264's EV6 bus architecture with double data rate (DDR) technology.
AMD ended its long-time handicap with floating point x87 performance by designing a super-pipelined, out-of-order, triple-issue floating-point unit (FPU). Each of its three units could independently calculate an optimal type of instructions with some redundancy, making it possible to operate on more than one floating-point instruction at once. This FPU was a huge step forward for AMD, helping compete with Intel's P6 FPU. The 3DNow! floating-point SIMD technology, again present, received some revisions and was renamed "Enhanced 3DNow!" Additions included DSP instructions and the extended MMX subset of Intel SSE.
Athlon Thunderbird (2000–2001).
The second-generation Athlon, the Thunderbird or T-Bird, debuted on June 4, 2000. This version of the Athlon was available in a traditional pin-grid array (PGA) format that plugged into a socket ("Socket A") on the motherboard, or packaged as a Slot A cartridge. The major difference between it and the Athlon Classic was cache design, with AMD adding in 256 KB of on-chip, full-speed exclusive cache. In moving to an exclusive cache design, the L1 cache's contents were not duplicated in the L2, increasing total cache size and functionally creating a large L1 cache with a slower region (the L2) and a fast region (the L1), making the L2 cache into basically a victim cache. With the new cache design, need for high L2 performance and size was lessened, and the simpler L2 cache was less likely to cause clock scaling and yield issues. Thunderbird also moved to a 16-way associative layout.
The Thunderbird was "cherished by many for its overclockability" and proved commercially successful, as AMD's most successful product since the Am386DX-40 ten years earlier. AMD's new fab facility in Dresden increased production for AMD overall and put out Thunderbirds at a fast rate, with the process technology improved by a switch to copper interconnects. After several versions were released in 2000 and 2001 of the Thunderbird, the last Athlon processor using the Thunderbird core was released in 2001 in the summer, at which point speeds were at 1.4 GHz.
Athlon XP (2001–2003).
Overall, there are four main variants of the Athlon XP desktop CPU: the "Palomino", the "Thoroughbred", the "Thorton", and the "Barton". A number of mobile processors were also released, including the "Corvette" models, and the "Dublin" model among others.
"Palomino".
On May 14, 2001, AMD released the Athlon XP processor. It debuted as the Mobile Athlon 4, a mobile version codenamed "Corvette", with the desktop Athlon XP released in the fall. The third-generation Athlon, code-named "Palomino", came out on October 9, 2001, as the Athlon XP, with the suffix signifying "extreme performance" and unofficially referencing Windows XP. "Palomino's" design used 180 nm fabrication process size. The Athlon XP was marketed using a performance rating (PR) system comparing it to the Thunderbird predecessor core. Among other changes, "Palomino" consumed 20% less power than the Thunderbird, comparatively reducing heat output, and was roughly 10% faster than Thunderbird. "Palomino" also had enhanced K7's TLB architecture and included a hardware data prefetch mechanism to take better advantage of memory bandwidth. "Palomino" was the first K7 core to include the full SSE instruction set from the Intel Pentium III, as well as AMD's 3DNow! Professional. "Palomino" was also the first socketed Athlon officially supporting dual processing, with chips certified for that purpose branded as the Athlon MP (multi processing), which had different specifications. According to HardwareZone, it was possible to modify the Athlon XP to function as an MP.
"Thoroughbred".
The fourth-generation of Athlon was introduced with the "Thoroughbred" core, or "T-Bred", on April 17, 2002. The "Thoroughbred" core marked AMD's first production 130 nm silicon, with smaller die size than its predecessor. There came to be two steppings (revisions) of this core commonly referred to as "Tbred-A" and "Tbred-B". Introduced in June 2002, the initial A version was mostly a direct die shrink of the preceding "Palomino" core, but did not significantly increase clock speeds over the "Palomino". A revised "Thoroughbred" core, "Thoroughbred-B", added a ninth "metal layer" to the eight-layered "Thoroughbred-A", offering improvement in headroom over the A and making it popular for overclocking.
"Barton" / "Thorton".
Fifth-generation Athlon "Barton"-core processors were released in early 2003. While not operating at higher clock rates than "Thoroughbred"-core processors, they featured an increased L2 cache, and later models had an increased 200 MHz (400 MT/s) front side bus. The "Thorton" core, a blend of "Thoroughbred" and "Barton", was a later variant of the "Barton" with half of the L2 cache disabled. The "Barton" was used to officially introduce a higher 400 MT/s bus clock for the Socket A platform, which was used to gain some "Barton" models more efficiency. By this point with the "Barton", the four-year-old Athlon EV6 bus architecture had scaled to its limit and required a redesign to exceed the performance of newer Intel processors. By 2003, the Pentium 4 had become more than competitive with AMD's processors, and "Barton" only saw a small performance increase over the "Thoroughbred-B" it derived from, insufficient to outperform the Pentium 4. The K7-derived Athlons such as "Barton" were replaced in September 2003 by the Athlon 64 family, which featured an on-chip memory controller and a new HyperTransport bus.
Notably, the 2500+ Barton with 11× multiplier was effectively identical to the 3200+ part other than the FSB speed it was binned for, meaning that seamless overclocking was possible more often than not. Early Thortons could be restored to the full Barton specification with the enabling of the other half of the L2 cache from a slight CPU surface modification, but the result was not always reliable.
"Barton (130 nm)"
"Thorton (130 nm)"
Mobile Athlon XP.
The "Palomino" core debuted in the mobile market before the PC market in May 2001, where it was branded as Mobile Athlon 4 with the codename "Corvette". It distinctively used a ceramic interposer much like the "Thunderbird" instead of the organic pin grid array package used on all later "Palomino" processors. In November 2001, AMD released a 1.2 GHz Athlon 4 and a 950 MHz Duron. The Mobile Athlon 4 processors included the PowerNow! function, which controlled a laptop's "level of processor performance by dynamically adjusting its operating frequency and voltage according to the task at hand", thus extending "battery life by reducing processor power when it isn't needed by applications". Duron chips also included PowerNow! In 2002, AMD released a version of PowerNow! called Cool'n'Quiet, implemented on the Athlon XP but only adjusting clock speed instead of voltage.
In 2002 the Athlon XP-M (Mobile Athlon XP) replaced the Mobile Athlon 4 using the newer "Thoroughbred" core, with "Barton" cores for full-size notebooks. The Athlon XP-M was also offered in a compact microPGA socket 563 version. Mobile XPs were not multiplier-locked, making them popular with desktop overclockers.
Athlon 64 (2003–2009).
The immediate successor to the Athlon XP, the Athlon 64 is an AMD64-architecture microprocessor produced by AMD, released on September 23, 2003. A number of variations, all named after cities, were released with 90 nm architecture in 2004 and 2005. Versions released in 2007 and 2009 utilized 65 nm architecture.
Athlon 64 X2 (2005–2009).
The Athlon 64 X2 was released in 2005 as the first native dual-core desktop CPU designed by AMD using an Athlon 64. The Athlon X2 was a subsequent family of microprocessors based on the Athlon 64 X2. The original "Brisbane" Athlon X2 models used 65 nm architecture and were released in 2007.
Athlon II (2009–2012).
Athlon II is a family of central processing units. Initially a dual-core version of the Athlon II, the K-10-based "Regor" was released in June 2009 with 45-nanometer architecture. This was followed by a single-core version "Sargas", followed by the quad-core "Propus", the triple-core "Rana" in November 2009, and the "Llano" 32 nm version released in 2011.
Piledriver and Steamroller-based Athlon X4 (2013–2016).
Various Steamroller-based Athlon X4 and X2 FM2+ socketed processors were released in 2014 and the years after. The preceding Piledriver-based Athlon X4 and X2 processors were released before 2014, and are socket compatible with both FM2+ and FM2 mainboards.
Excavator-based Athlon X4 (2017).
The "Bristol Ridge" Athlon X4 lineup was released in 2017. It is based on the Excavator microarchitecture and uses 2 Excavator modules totalling 4 cores. It has a dual-channel DDR4-2400 memory controller with clock speeds up to 4.0 GHz. It runs on the new Socket AM4 platform that was later used for Zen 1 to Zen 3 CPUs.
Zen-based Athlon (2018–present).
The Zen-based Athlon with Radeon graphics processors was launched in September 2018 with the Athlon 200GE. Based on AMD's "Raven Ridge" core previously used in variants of the Ryzen 3 and Ryzen 5, the Athlon 200GE had half of the cores but left SMT enabled. It also kept the same 4 MiB L3 cache, but the L2 cache was halved to 1 MiB.
In addition, the number of graphics compute units was limited to 3 in the Athlon 200GE, and the chip was multiplier-locked. Despite its limitations, the Athlon 200GE performed competitively against the 5000-series Intel Pentium-G, displaying similar CPU performance but an advantage in GPU performance.
On November 19, 2019, AMD released the Athlon 3000G, with a higher 3.5 GHz core clock and 1100 MHz graphics clock compared to the Athlon 200GE, also with two cores. The main functional difference between the 200GE was the Athlon 3000G's unlocked multiplier, allowing the latter to be overclocked on B450 and X470 motherboards.
Zen 2-based Athlon with Radeon Graphics processors, codenamed "Mendocino", were released on September 20, 2022, for the entry-level laptop market, alongside the more powerful quad-core Ryzen 7020 mobile series under the same codename. Featuring two processing cores, with two threads on Athlon Silver and four threads on Athlon Gold models, Athlon 7020 series mobile processors are equipped with two compute units (CUs) of RDNA 2 graphics. These 7020U series models were followed by the release of Ryzen/Athlon 7020C series for Chromebooks on May 23, 2023. Unlike prior Athlon generations, AMD has not released desktop variants of Mendocino.
"Raven Ridge" (14 nm), "Picasso" (12 nm) "(see the list article for more details)"
"Mendocino" (6 nm) "(see the list article for more details)"
Supercomputers.
A number of supercomputers have been built using Athlon chips, largely at universities. Among them:
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Amnon
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Amnon ( "’Amnōn", "faithful") was, in the Hebrew Bible, the oldest son of King David and his second wife, Ahinoam of Jezreel. He was born in Hebron during his father's reign in Judah. He was the heir apparent to the throne of Israel until he was assassinated by his paternal half-brother Absalom to avenge the rape of Absalom's sister Tamar.
Biblical account.
Amnon's background.
Amnon was born in Hebron to Ahinoam and King David. As the presumptive heir to the throne of Israel, Amnon enjoyed a life of power and privilege.
Rape of Tamar.
Although he was the heir-apparent to David's throne, Amnon is best remembered for the rape of his paternal half-sister Tamar, daughter of David and Maachah. Despite the biblical prohibition on sexual relations between half siblings, Amnon had an overwhelming desire for her. He acted on advice from his cousin, Jonadab son of Shimeah, David's brother, to lure Tamar into his quarters by pretending to be sick and desiring her to cook a special meal for him. While in his quarters, and over her protests, he raped her, then had her expelled from his house. While King David was angry about the incident, he could not bring himself to punish his eldest son, while Absalom, Amnon's half-brother and Tamar's full brother, nursed a bitter grudge against Amnon for the rape of his sister.
According to the Babylonian Talmud: "And Thou should not associate with a sinner:... And so we find with Amnon, who associated with Jonadab, the son of Shim'ah, David's brother; and Jonadab was a very sensible man—sensible in wickedness, as it is written [Jer. Iv .22]: Wise are they to do evil." According to others, it is meant that one shall not associate with the wicked, even to study the Torah."
According to Rav, Tamar was not, by Biblical law, David's daughter, nor Amnon's sister. Tamar, was the earlier born daughter of David's wife, and thus not biologically related to David, nor Amnon. According to Michael D. Coogan's claims, however, it would have been perfectly all right for Amnon to have married his sister (he claims that the Bible was incoherent about prohibiting incest). According to the Torah, per Leviticus 18, "the children of Israel"—Israelite men and women alike—are forbidden from sexual relations between people who are "near of kin" (cf. verse 6). Siblings and half siblings (cf. verses 9 and 11). Relationships between these are particularly singled out for a curse in Deuteronomy 27, and they are of the only two kinds incestuous relationships that are among the particularly-singled-out relationships—with the other particularly-singled-out relationships, being ones of non-incestuous family betrayal (cf. verse 20) and bestiality (cf. verse 21). Incestuous relationships are considered so severe among c"hillul hashem", acts which bring shame to the name of God, as to be, along with the other forbidden relationships that are mentioned in Leviticus 18, punishable by death as specified in Leviticus 20. Those who committed incest were subject to two curses—one for committing incest and the second for breaking the Torah law. [27 Deuteronomy 22 and 26] and also the punishment of kareth.
Two years later, to avenge Tamar, Absalom invited all of David's sons to a feast at sheep-shearing time, then had his servants kill Amnon after he had become drunk with wine. As a result, Absalom fled to Geshur.
records that in time David came to terms with the death of Amnon, his first-born. Methodist founder John Wesley is critical of David: "He can almost find in his heart to receive into favour the murderer of his brother. How can we excuse David from the sin of Eli, who honoured his sons more than God?"
In rabbinic literature.
The sages of the Mishnah point out that Amnon's love for Tamar, his half-sister, did not arise from true affection, but from passion and lust, on which account, after having attained his desire, he immediately "hated her exceedingly." "All love which depends upon some particular thing ceases when that thing ceases; thus was the love of Amnon for Tamar" (Ab. v. 16). Amnon's love for Tamar was not, however, such a transgression as is usually supposed: for, although she was a daughter of David, her mother was a prisoner of war, who had not yet become a Jewess; consequently, Tamar also had not entered the Jewish community (Sanh. 21a). The incident of Amnon and Tamar was utilized by the sages as affording justification for their rule that a man must on no account remain alone in the company of a woman, not even of an unmarried one (Sanh. l.c. et seq.).
According to the Babylonian Talmud, Amnon hated Tamar because, as he raped her, Tamar tied one of her hairs around Amnon's penis and used it to castrate him. The Babylonian Talmud also asserts that Amnon's death was a punishment from the Lord for Amnon's "lewdness" and for his actions. As noted above those who committed incest are subject to two curses in the Torah and kareth; Amnon was said to be possibly consigned to the 2nd circle of Gehenna. For reasons of propriety, the Mishnah excludes the story from public reading in synagogue, whether in the original or in Aramaic translation (Meg. 4:10).
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Amu Darya
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The Amu Darya ( ; ), also shortened to Amu and historically known as the Oxus ( ), is a major river in Central Asia which flows through Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Afghanistan. Rising in the Pamir Mountains, north of the Hindu Kush, the Amu Darya is formed by the confluence of the Vakhsh and Panj rivers, in the Tigrovaya Balka Nature Reserve on the border between Afghanistan and Tajikistan, and flows from there north-westwards into the southern remnants of the Aral Sea. In its upper course, the river forms part of Afghanistan's northern border with Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan. In ancient history, the river was regarded as the boundary of Greater Iran with Turan, which roughly corresponded to present-day Central Asia. The Amu Darya has a flow of about 70 cubic kilometres per year on average.
Names.
In classical antiquity, the river was known as the in Latin and () in Greek — a clear derivative of Vakhsh, the name of the largest tributary of the river. In Sanskrit texts, the river is also referred to as (). The Brahmanda Purana refers to the river as which means 'an eye'. The Avestan texts too refer to the river as Yakhsha/Vakhsha (and Yakhsha Arta ('Upper Yakhsha'), referring to the Jaxartes/Syr Darya twin river to Amu Darya). In Middle Persian sources of the Sasanian period the river is known as ().
The name "Amu" is said to have come from the medieval city of "Āmul" (later Chahar Joy/Charjunow, and now known as Türkmenabat) in modern Turkmenistan, with "Daryā" being the Persian word for 'lake' or 'sea'.
Identification with the Gihon.
Medieval Arabic and Islamic sources call the river "Jeyhoun" (), which is derived from "Gihon", the biblical name for one of the four rivers of the Garden of Eden. The Amu Darya passes through one of the world's highest deserts.
As the river Gozan.
Western travelers in the 19th century mentioned that one of the names by which the river was known in Afghanistan was "Gozan", and that this name was used by Greek, Mongol, Chinese, Persian, Jewish, and Afghan historians. However, this name is no longer used.
"Hara (Bokhara) and to the river of Gozan (that is to say, the Amu, (called the Oxus by Europeans )) ..."
"the Gozan River is the River Balkh, i.e. the Oxus or the Amu Darya ..."
"... and were brought into Halah (modern day Balkh), and Habor (which is Pesh Habor or Peshawar), and Hara (which is Herat), and to the river Gozan (which is the Ammoo, also called Jehoon) ..."
Description.
The river's total length is and its drainage basin totals in area, providing a mean discharge of around of water per year. The river is navigable for over . All of the water comes from the high mountains in the south where annual precipitation can be over . Even before large-scale irrigation began, high summer evaporation meant that not all of this discharge reached the Aral Sea – though there is some evidence the large Pamir glaciers provided enough meltwater for the Aral to overflow during the 13th and 14th centuries.
Since the end of the 19th century, there have been four different claimants as the true source of the Oxus:
A glacier turns into the Wakhan River and joins the Pamir River about downstream. Bill Colegrave's expedition to Wakhan in 2007 found that both claimants 2 and 3 had the same source, the Chelab stream, which bifurcates on the watershed of the Little Pamir, half flowing into Lake Chamaktin and half into the parent stream of the Little Pamir/Sarhad River. Therefore, the Chelab stream may be properly considered the true source or parent stream of the Oxus. The Panj River forms the border of Afghanistan and Tajikistan. It flows west to Ishkashim where it turns north and then north-west through the Pamirs passing the Tajikistan–Afghanistan Friendship Bridge. It subsequently forms the border of Afghanistan and Uzbekistan for about , passing Termez and the Afghanistan–Uzbekistan Friendship Bridge. It delineates the border of Afghanistan and Turkmenistan for another before it flows into Turkmenistan at Atamurat. It flows across Turkmenistan south to north, passing Türkmenabat, and forms the border of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan from Halkabat. It is then split by the Tuyamuyun Hydro Complex into many waterways that used to form the river delta joining the Aral Sea, passing Urgench, Daşoguz, and other cities, but it does not reach what is left of the sea any more and is lost in the desert. Use of water from the Amu Darya for irrigation has been a major contributing factor to the shrinking of the Aral Sea since the late 1950s. Historical records state that in different periods, the river flowed into the Aral Sea (from the south), into the Caspian Sea (from the east), or both, similar to the Syr Darya (Jaxartes, in Ancient Greek). Partly based on such records, first Tsarist and later Soviet engineers proposed to divert the Amu Darya to the Caspian Sea by constructing the Transcaspian Canal.
Watershed.
The of the Amu Darya drainage basin include most of Tajikistan, the southwest corner of Kyrgyzstan, the northeast corner of Afghanistan, a narrow portion of eastern Turkmenistan and the western half of Uzbekistan. Part of the Amu Darya basin divide in Tajikistan forms that country's border with China (in the east) and Pakistan (to the south). About 61% of the drainage lies within Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, while 39% is in Afghanistan.
The abundant water flowing in the Amu Darya comes almost entirely from glaciers in the Pamir Mountains and Tian Shan,
which, standing above the surrounding arid plain, collect atmospheric moisture which otherwise would probably escape elsewhere. Without its mountain water sources, the Amu Darya would not exist—because it rarely rains in the lowlands through which most of the river flows. Of the total drainage area, only about actively contribute water to the river.
This is because many of the river's major tributaries (especially the Zeravshan River) have been diverted, and much of the river's drainage is arid. Throughout most of the steppe, the annual rainfall is about .
History.
The ancient Greeks called the Amu Darya the "Oxus". In ancient times, the river was regarded as the boundary between Greater Iran and Ṫūrān (). The river's drainage lies in the area between the former empires of Genghis Khan and Alexander the Great, although they occurred at very different times. When the Mongols came to the area, they used the water of the Amu Darya to flood Konye-Urgench. One southern route of the Silk Road ran along part of the Amu Darya northwestward from Termez before going westwards to the Caspian Sea.
According to the Quaternary International, it is possible that the Amu Darya's course across the Karakum Desert has gone through several major shifts in the past few thousand years. Much of the time – most recently from the 13th century to the late 16th century – the Amu Darya emptied into both the Aral and the Caspian Seas, reaching the latter via a large distributary called the Uzboy River. The Uzboy splits off from the main channel just south of the river's delta. Sometimes the flow through the two branches was more or less equal, but often most of the Amu Darya's flow split to the west and flowed into the Caspian.
People began to settle along the lower Amu Darya and the Uzboy in the 5th century, establishing a thriving chain of agricultural lands, towns, and cities. In about AD 985, the massive Gurganj Dam at the bifurcation of the forks started to divert water to the Aral. Genghis Khan's troops destroyed the dam in 1221, and the Amu Darya shifted to distributing its flow more or less equally between the main stem and the Uzboy. But in the 18th century, the river again turned north, flowing into the Aral Sea, a path it has taken since. Less and less water flowed down the Uzboy. When Russian explorer Bekovich-Cherkasski surveyed the region in 1720, the Amu Darya did not flow into the Caspian Sea anymore.
By the 1800s, the ethnographic makeup of the region was described by Peter Kropotkin as the communities of "the vassal Khanates of Maimene, Khulm, Kunduz, and even the Badakshan and Wahkran." An Englishman, William Moorcroft, visited the Oxus around 1824 during the Great Game period. Another Englishman, a naval officer called John Wood, came with an expedition to find the source of the river in 1839. He found modern-day Lake Zorkul, called it Lake Victoria, and proclaimed he had found the source. Then, the French explorer and geographer Thibaut Viné collected a lot of information about this area during five expeditions between 1856 and 1862.
The question of finding a route between the Oxus valley and India has been of concern historically. A direct route crosses extremely high mountain passes in the Hindu Kush and isolated areas like Kafiristan. Some in Britain feared that the Empire of Russia, which at the time wielded great influence over the Oxus area, would overcome these obstacles and find a suitable route through which to invade British India – but this never came to pass. The area was taken over by Russia during the Russian conquest of Turkestan.
The Soviet Union became the ruling power in the early 1920s and expelled Mohammed Alim Khan. It later put down the Basmachi movement and killed Ibrahim Bek. A large refugee population of Central Asians, including Turkmen, Tajiks, and Uzbeks, fled to northern Afghanistan. In the 1960s and 1970s the Soviets started using the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya to irrigate extensive cotton fields in the Central Asian plain. Before this time, water from the rivers was already being used for agriculture, but not on this massive scale. The Qaraqum Canal, Karshi Canal, and Bukhara Canal were among the largest of the irrigation diversions built. However, the Main Turkmen Canal, which would have diverted water along the dry Uzboy River bed into central Turkmenistan, was never built. In the course of the Soviet–Afghan War in the 1970s, Soviet forces used the valley to invade Afghanistan through Termez. The Soviet Union fell in the 1990s and Central Asia split up into the many smaller countries that lie within or partially within the Amu Darya basin.
During the Soviet era, a resource-sharing system was instated in which Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan shared water originating from the Amu and Syr Daryas with Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan in summer. In return, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan received Kazakh, Turkmen, and Uzbek coal, gas, and electricity in winter. After the fall of the Soviet Union this system disintegrated and the Central Asian nations have failed to reinstate it. Inadequate infrastructure, poor water management, and outdated irrigation methods all exacerbate the issue.
Siberian Tiger Introduction Project.
The Caspian tiger used to occur along the river's banks. After its extirpation, the Darya's delta was suggested as a potential site for the introduction of its closest surviving relative, the Siberian tiger. A feasibility study was initiated to investigate if the area is suitable and if such an initiative would receive support from relevant decision makers. A viable tiger population of about 100 animals would require at least of large tracts of contiguous habitat with rich prey populations. Such habitat is not available at this stage and cannot be provided in the short term. The proposed region is therefore unsuitable for the reintroduction, at least at this stage.
Resource extraction.
Since March 2022, the building of the 285 km Qosh Tepa Canal has been underway in northern Afghanistan to divert water from the Amu Darya. Uzbekistan has expressed concern that the canal will have an adverse effect on its agriculture. The canal is also expected to make the Aral Sea disaster worse, and in 2023 Uzbek officials held talks on the canal with the Taliban. The Taliban has made the canal a priority, with images supplied by Planet Labs demonstrate that from April 2022 to February 2023, more than 100 km of canal was excavated. According to the Taliban, the initiative is expected to convert 550,000 hectares of desert into farmland.
In January 2023, the Xinjiang Central Asia Petroleum and Gas Company (aka CAPEIC) signed a $720 million four-year investment deal with the Taliban government of Afghanistan for extraction on its side of the Amu Darya basin. The deal will see a 15% royalty given to the Afghan government over the course of its 25-year term. The Chinese see this basin as the third-largest potential gas field in the world.
Literature.
The Oxus river, and Arnold's poem, fire the imaginations of the children who adventure with ponies over the moors of the West Country in the 1930s children's book "The Far-Distant Oxus". There were two sequels, "Escape to Persia" and "Oxus in Summer".
Robert Byron's 1937 travelogue, "The Road to Oxiana", describes its author's journey from the Levant through Persia to Afghanistan, with the Oxus as his stated goal, "to see certain famous monuments, chiefly the Gonbad-e Qabus, a tower built as a mausoleum for an ancient king."
George MacDonald Fraser's "Flashman at the Charge" (1973), places Flashman on the Amu Darya and the Aral Sea during the (fictitious) Russian advance on India during The Great Game period.
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Muslim conquests of Afghanistan
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The Muslim conquests of Afghanistan began during the Muslim conquest of Persia as the Arab Muslims expanded eastwards to Khorasan, Sistan and Transoxiana. Fifteen years after the battle of Nahāvand in 642 AD, they controlled all Sasanian domains except in Afghanistan. Fuller Islamization was not achieved until the period between 10th and 12th centuries under Ghaznavid and Ghurid dynasties who patronized Muslim religious institutions.
Khorasan and Sistan, where Zoroastrianism was well-established, were conquered. The Arabs had begun to move towards the lands east of Persia in the 7th century. The Muslim frontier in modern Afghanistan had become stabilized after the first century of the Lunar Hijri calendar as the relative importance of the Afghan areas diminished. From historical evidence, it appears Tokharistan (Bactria) was the only area conquered by Arabs where Buddhism heavily flourished. Balkh's final conquest was undertaken by Qutayba ibn Muslim in 705.
The eastern regions of Afghanistan were at times considered politically as parts of India. Buddhism and Hinduism held sway over the region until the Muslim conquest. Kabul and Zabulistan which housed Buddhism and other Indian religions, offered stiff resistance to the early Muslim advance. Nevertheless, the Arab Umayyads regularly claimed nominal overlordship over the Zunbils and Kabul Shahis.
The expeditions of Caliph Al-Ma'mun (r. 813–833 AD) were the last by the Arabs on Kabul and Zabul. The king of Kabul was captured by him and converted to Islam. The last Zunbil was killed by Ya'qub bin al-Layth along with his former overlord Salih b. al-Nadr in 865. Meanwhile, the Hindu Shahi of Kabul were defeated under Mahmud of Ghazni. Indian soldiers were a part of the Ghaznavid army and the 14th-century Muslim scholar Ibn Battuta described the Hindu Kush as meaning "slayer of Indians", because large numbers of slaves brought from India died from its treacherous weather.
The geographer Ya'qubi states that the rulers of Bamiyan, called the "Sher", converted in the late 8th century. Ya'qub is recorded as having plundered its pagan idols in 870 while a much later historian Shabankara'i claims that Alp-Tegin obtained conversion of its ruler in 962. No permanent Arab control was established in Ghur and it became Islamised after Ghaznavid raids. By the time of Bahram-Shah, Ghur was converted and politically united.
The Pashtun habitat during their conquest by Mahmud was located in the Sulaiman Mountains in the south of Afghanistan. Prior to Pashtun settlement in the Kabul River valley, Tajiks formed the dominant population of Kabul, Nangarhar, Logar Valley and Laghman in east Afghanistan. The Pashtuns later began settling westward from Sulaiman Mountains in the south, and displaced or subjugated the indigenous populations such as Tajiks, Hazaras, the Farsiwanis, Nuristanis and Pashayi people before or during 16th and 17th centuries.
Before their conversion, the Nuristanis or "Kafir" people of Kafiristan practiced a form of ancient Hinduism infused with locally developed accretions. The region from Nuristan to Kashmir was host to a vast number of "Kafir" cultures. They remained politically independent until being conquered and converted under Afghan Amir Abdul Rahman Khan in 1895–1896.
Arab conquests and rule.
During the Muslim conquest of Persia, the Arabs were drawn eastwards from the Iraqi plains to central and eastern Persia, then to Media, into Khorasan, Sistan and Transoxiana. 15 years after the Battle of Nahāvand, the Arabs controlled all Sasanian domains except some parts of Afghanistan, Tabaristan and Makran. Nancy Dupree states that advancing Arabs carrying the religion of Islam easily took over Herat and Sistan, but the other areas often revolted and converted back to their old faiths whenever the Arab armies withdrew. The harshness of the Arab rule caused the native dynasties to revolt after the Arab power weakened like the Saffarids founded by the zealous Yaqub who conquered many cities of the region. Historian Cameron A. Petrie states that while the Arab expansion had both social and religious motives, it was their extraction of taxes from the subjugated people that invited the numerous local rebellions.
Medieval Islamic scholars divided modern-day Afghanistan into two regions – the provinces of Khorasan and Sistan. Khorasan was the eastern satrapy of the Sasanian Empire, containing Balkh and Herat. Sistan included a number of Afghan cities and regions including Ghazni, Zarang, Bost, Qandahar (also called al-Rukhkhaj or Zamindawar), Kabul, Kabulistan and Zabulistan.
Before Muslim rule, the regions of Balkh (Bactria or "Tokharistan"), Herat and Sistan were under Sasanian rule. Further south in Balkh region, in Bamiyan, indication of Sasanian authority diminishes, with a local dynasty apparently ruling from the late antiquity, probably Hepthalites subject to the Yabgu of Western Turks. While Herat was controlled by Sasanians, its hinterlands were controlled by northern Hepthalites who continued to rule the Ghurid mountains and river valleys. The Arab Umayyads regularly claimed nominal overlordship over the Zunbils and Kabul Shahis, and in 711 Qutayba ibn Muslim managed to force them to pay tribute. They would also be conquered by the Saffarids and Ghaznavids.
In Afghanistan, the frontier of the Islamic conquest had become more or less stationary by the end of the first century of Hijri calendar. One reason was that the relative importance of Sistan and Baluchistan had begun to diminish by the time of Mu'awiya I, when the conquests of Bactria and Transoxiana were undertaken. In addition, the conquest in the eastern direction was extended to Makran and Sind, with Muslim colonies becoming established there in 711–12.
Sistan.
The earlier Arabs called Sistan as "Sijistan", from the Persian word "Sagestan". It is a lowland region, lying round and eastwards from the Zarah lake, which includes deltas of Helmand and other rivers which drain into it. The Muslim conquest of Sistan began in 23 AH (643-644 AD) when Asim bin Amr and Abdallah ibn Amir invaded the region and besieged Zaranj. The Sistanis concluded a treaty with Muslims, mandating them to pay the kharaj.
The cash-strapped Sasanian king Yazdegerd III who had a large retinue, had fled to Kerman in 650. He had to flee from Kerman to Sistan after his arrogance angered the marzban of the place, eluding an Arab force from Basra which defeated and killed the marzban. Yazdegerd lost the support of governor of Sistan after demanding taxes from him and had to leave for Merv. It is not known whether this governor was a Sasanian prince or a local ruler at that time. The Arabs had campaigned in Sistan a few years earlier and Abdallah b. Amir had now gone in pursuit of Yazdegerd. He arrived in Kirman in 651 and sent a force under Rabi ibn Ziyad al-Harithi to Sistan.
Rabi crossed the desert between Kirman and Sistan, reaching the fortress of Zilaq which was within five farsangs of the Sistan frontier. The fort was surrendered by its dihqan. The fortress of Karkuya, whose fire temple is mentioned in the anonymously authored "Tarikh-e-Sistan", along with Haysun and Nashrudh, surrendered to Rabi. Rabi then encamped in Zaliq and projected the seizure of Zarang, which though had earlier submitted to Arabs, needed to be subdued again. Although its marzban Aparviz put up a strong resistance, he was forced to surrender.
The Zaranj forces had received heavy casualties during the battle with Arab forces and were driven back to the city. According to sources, when Aparviz appeared before Rabi to discuss the terms, he found the Arab general was sitting on a chair made out of two dead soldiers and his entourage had been instructed to make seats and bolsters in the same fashion. Aparviz was terrified into submission and wished to spare his people of this fate. A peace treaty was concluded with payment of heavy dues. The treaty mandated one million dirhams as annual tribute, in addition to 1,000 slave boys bearing 1,000 gold vessels. The city was also garrisoned by Rabi.
Rabi thus succeeded in gaining Zarang with considerable difficulty and remained at the place for several years. Two years later, the people of Zarang rebelled and expelled Rabi's lieutenant and garrison. Abdallah b. Amir sent 'Abd ar-Rahman b. Samura to take back the city, who also added Bust and Zabul to Arab gains. 'Abd ar-Rahman besieged Zaranj and after the marzban surrendered, the tribute was doubled. The tribute imposed on Zarang was 2 million dirhams and 2,000 slaves.
During the period of the first civil war in the Arab caliphate (656–661), rebels in Zarang imprisoned their governor while Arab bandits started raiding remote towns in Sistan to enslave people. They gave in to the new governor Rib'i, who took control of the city and restored law and order. 'Abdallah b. Amir was made the governor of Basra and its eastern dependencies again from 661 to 664. Samura was sent back to Sistan in 661. An expedition to Khorasan was sent under him that included reputed leaders like Umar b. 'Ubaydillah b. Ma'mar, 'Abdullah b. Khazim, Qatariyy b. al-Fuja'a and Al-Muhallab ibn Abi Sufra. Samura reconquered Zarang, while also conquering the region between Zarang and Kisht, Arachosia, Zamindawar, Bust and Zabul.
Ziyad ibn Abihi was appointed governor of Basra in 664 and was also made governor of Kufa and its dependencies in 670, making him the viceroy of the entire eastern half of the Islamic empire. He sent his kinsman Ubaydallah b. Abi Bakra to destroy the Zoroastrian fire temples in Fars and Sistan, confiscate their property and kill their priests. While the fire temple of Kariyan was destroyed, the one at Karkuya survived along with its herbad. Ziyad's son Abbad was appointed governor of Sijistan by Mu'awiya I in 673 and served until 681. During the course of his governorship, the province apparently remained stable and Abbad led an eastward expedition which brought Kandahar to the caliphate. Caliph Yazid I replaced Abbad with his brother Salm, who was already governor of Khurasan.
Khorasan.
There is general agreement among Arabic sources that Khorasan's conquest began in the reign of Uthman under Abdallah b. Amir, who had been appointed the governor of Basra (r. 649–655). Sayf's tradition however disagrees with this, dating it to 639 under the reign of Umar with Ahnaf ibn Qais leading the expedition. Al-Tabari meanwhile relates that Ahnaf's conquests occurred in 643. This could be because of confusion of Ahnaf's later activities under Ibn Amir and an attempt to magnify his role in Khorasan's conquest.
The conquest of southern Persia was completed by 23 AH with Khorasan remaining the only region remaining unconquered. Since the Muslims did not want any Persian land to remain under Persian rule, Umar ordered Ahnaf b. Qais to march upon it. After capturing the towns of Tabas and Tun, he attacked the region's easternmost city Herat. The Persians put up stiff resistance but were defeated and surrendered. A garrison was deployed in the city, while a column was detached which subjugated Nishapur and Tus. Umar had dispatched Ahnaf with 12,000 men from Kufa and Basra after Yazdegerd who had fled to Merv. After the Arabs arrived there, Yazdegerd fled to Marw al-Rudh from where he sent ambassadors to the Khakan of the Turks, the ruler of Soghd and the Chinese emperor, asking for their assistance. Yazdegerd later fled to Balkh, where he was defeated by the Arabs and fled across Oxus River.
Umar forbade Ahnaf from crossing the river as the land beyond it was unknown to Arabs and was very far for them. Yazdegerd proceeded to Soghd whose ruler supplied him with a large army. The Khaqan of Turks after assembling the troops from Ferghana, crossed the Oxus along with Yazdegerd and marched to Balkh. Ribi' b. Amir meanwhile retired with Kufan troops to Marw al-Rudh where he joined al-Ahnaf. The Sasanian king and the Khakan leading an army of 50,000 cavalry composed of men from Soghd, Turkestan, Balkh and Tokharistan, arrived at Marw al-Rudh. Ahnaf had an army of 20,000 men. The two sides fought each other from morning till evening for two months at a place called Deir al-Ahnaf.
The fighting at Deir al-Ahnaf went on until Ahnaf, after being informed of a Turkic chief inspecting the outposts, went there during a particular night and successively killed three Turkic chiefs during their inspection. After learning of their deaths, the Khakan became afflicted by it and withdrew to Balkh, then he withdrew across the river to Turkestan. Yazdegerd meanwhile left from Marw al-Rudh to Merv, from where he took his empire's wealth and proceeded to Balkh to join the Khakan. He told his officials that he wanted to hand himself to the protection of the Turks, but they advised him against it and asked him to seek protection from the Arabs which he refused. He left for Turkestan while his officials took away his treasures and gave them to Ahnaf, submitting to the Arabs and being allowed to go back to their respective homes.
Abdullah b. Amir went to Khorasan from Kerman in 650 and set out along with a vanguard of Tamimi Arabs and 1,000 asawira via Quhistan. The people of Tabasayn had broken their peace treaty and had allied with the Hepthalites of Herat. al-Ahnaf reconquered Quhistan and defeated Herat's Hepthalites at Nishapur. The kanarang or marzban of Tus asked the Arabs for assistance against the raiding Hepthalites of Herat and Badghis. He agreed to a peace agreement for 600,000 dinars.
The Hepthalite action prompted the Muslims undertaking military operation to secure their positions in Khorasan. After the fall of Tus, Ibn Amir sent out an army against Herat. The ruler (marzaban or "azim") of the place agreed to a peace treaty for Herat, Badghis and Pushang for a tribute of 1 million dirhams. The ruler who was known as "azim" or the "mighty one" in "Futuh al-Buldan", may have been a Hepthalite chief. The Rashidun Caliphs followed the earlier rule of Muhammad of imposing "jizya" on several bodies jointly and in some cases also imposed the condition that they host Muslims. This rule was followed in most Iranian towns, with the jizya not specified on per capita basis, but being left to the local rulers, though some Muslim commanders stressed the amount on the ability of the ruler to pay. The same wording can be seen in Ibn Amir's treaty.
In 652, Ibn Amir sent al-Ahnaf to invade Tokharistan with 4,000 Arabs and 1,000 Iranian Muslims (evidently the Tamimis and asawira), probably because of assistance of its ruler to Yazdegerd's son Peroz. While Marw al-Rudh's garrison agreed to a peace term for the entire district under 300,000 dirhams, the town itself remained besieged. It was the last major stronghold of Sasanians and fell to al-Ahnaf after a fierce battle. After bloody fighting, its marzaban agreed to a peace treaty for 60,000 or 600,000 dirhams as well as a mutual defence pact. He was also allowed to keep his ancestral lands, for the office of marzaban to be hereditary in his family, and to be exempt from taxes along with his whole family. Baladhuri quotes Abu Ubayda as stating that the Turks were supporting the inhabitants of the town. These Turks were Hepthalites, probably from Guzgan, which may explain the reason behind the Arabs next attacking Guzgan, Faryab and Talqan.
Al-Mada'ini specifically states that Ahnaf while leading the next expedition, did not want to ask for assistance from the non-Muslims of Marw al-Rudh, probably as he did not trust them. The Arabs camped at Qasr al-Ahnaf, a day's march to the north of Marw al-Rudh. The 30,000-strong army comprising troops of Guzgan, Faryab and Talqan, supported by the Chaghanian troops, advanced to meet them. The battle was inconclusive, but the opposing side dispersed with some remaining at Guzgan while the Arabs withdrew to Marw al-Rudh. Ahnaf sent an expedition, led by al-Aqra' b. Habis and apparently consisting exclusively of Tamimis, to Guzgan. The Arabs defeated Guzgan and entered it by force. Ahnaf meanwhile advanced towards Balkh, making peace treaties with Faryab and Taloqan along the way.
The permanent pacification of Khorasan was a protracted affair with the local potentates often rebelling and appealing to outside powers like the Hepthalites, Western Turks or Turgesh, Sogdians and the imperial Chinese who claimed a degree of suzerainty over Central Asia, for help. Within a year after Yazdegerd's death, a local Iranian notable named Qarin started a revolt against the Arabs in Quhistan. He gathered his supporters from Tabasayn, Herat and Badghis, assembling a reported army of 40,000 insurgents against Arabs in Khorasan. The Arabs made a surprise attack however, killing him and many of his people while many others were taken captive. It was expected that the recently subjugated people would revolt. However, in Khorasan, no all-out effort seems to have been undertaken to the expel the Arabs after Qarin's rebellion. Chinese sources state that there was an attempt to restore Peroz by Tokharistan's army, however this episode is not confirmed by Arab sources.
Peroz had settled among the Turks, took a local wife and had received troops from the king of Tokharistan. In 661, he established himself as king of Po-szu (Persia) with Chinese help in a place the Chinese called Ja-ling (Chi-ling), which is assumed to be Zarang. His campaigns are reflected in Muslim sources, which mention revolts in Zarang, Balkh, Badghis, Herat, Bushanj and also in Khorasan during the First Fitna period in reigns of Ali and Mu'awiya I. Though they do not mention Peroz, they do state that Ali's newly appointed governor of Khorasan had heard in Nishapur that governors of the Sasanian king had come back from Kabul and Khorasan had rebelled. However, the region was reconquered under Mu'awiya. Piroz went back to the Tang Empire's capital and was given a grandiose title as well as permission to build a fire temple in 677.
Yazid ibn al-Muhallab succeeded his father as governor of Khorasan in 702 and campaigned in Central Asia, but achieved little success apart from Nezak Tarkhan's submission at Badghis.
Tokharistan.
Tokharistan, roughly ancient Bactria, is today divided between Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. According to the most general usage of the name, Tokharistan is the wide valley around the upper Oxus river surrounded by mountains on three sides before the river moves into open plains. The major city was Balkh, one of the greatest urban centers of northeastern Iran. It was located upon crossroads and conduits of trade in many directions, enabling control of these routes if it was conquered. During the governorship of Abu 'l Abbas 'Abdallah b. Tahir (r. 828–845), a list of districts ("kuwar") of the region exists, including as far as Saghaniyan in the north and Kabul in the south. Other places listed are Tirmidh, Juzjan, Bamiyan, Rūb and Samanjan. Some Arab geographers used the name only for the southern part of Oxus valley.
Balkh was also a part of Khorasan along with other areas through varying extensions of time. Per al-Tabari, Yazdegerd fled from Marw-al Rudh to Balkh during Ahnaf's conquest of Khorasan in 643. He fortified himself but was defeated by the Arabs and fled across the Oxus River. Yazdegerd proceeded to Soghd, whose ruler supplied him a large army. The Khaqan of Turks after assembling the troops from Ferghana, crossed the Oxus along with Yazdegerd and marched to Balkh.
In 652, Ibn Amir sent al-Ahnaf to invade Tokharistan with 4,000 Arabs and 1,000 Iranian Muslims (evidently the Tamimis and asawira), probably because of assistance of its ruler to Yazdegerd's son Peroz. He approached Balkh after conquering Marw al-Rudh and fighting an inconclusive battle with a 30,000-strong force from Guzgan, Faryab and Talqan. After arriving at Balkh, he besieged the city, with its inhabitants offering a tribute of 400,000 or 700,000 dirhams. He deputed his cousin to collect the tribute and advanced to Khwarezm but returned to Balkh as winter approached. It was in Balkh in fall of 652 when the local people introduced his cousin Asid to gifting gold and silver to their governor during Mihrijan.
Ziyad b. Abi Sufyan reorganised Basra and Kufa, excluding many from the "diwan" and inspiring him to settle 50,000 families in Khorasan. Both Baladhuri and Mad'aini agree upon the number, though the latter states each half were from Basra and Kufa. Al-'Ali disagrees, stating the Kufans were 10,000. Ghalib had been unsuccessful in his expedition, and Rabi b. Ziyad al-Harithi, who was appointed governor of Khorasan in 671, led the settlement expedition. He advanced to Balkh and made a peace treaty with the locals who had revolted after al-Ahnaf's earlier treaty.
Qutayba ibn Muslim led the final conquest of Balkh. He was tasked with subduing the revolt in Lower Tokharistan. His army was assembled in the spring of 705 and marched through Marw al-Rudh and Talqan to Balkh. Per one version in Tarikh al-Tabari, the city was surrendered peacefully. Another version, probably to promote a Bahilite claim on the Barmakids, speaks of a revolt among the residents. The latter may be the correct version as Tabari describes the city as ruined four years later. The wife of Barmak, a physician of Balkh, was taken captive during the war and given to 'Abdullah, Qutayba's brother. She was later restored to her lawful husband after spending a period in 'Abdullah's harem. Khalid was thus born in 706 and Abdallah accepted the implications of paternity without disturbing Barmak's conventional responsibilities or affecting Khalid's upbringing.
In 708–709, the Ispahbadh, who was a local ruler, received a letter from the Hepthalite rebel Nezak Tarkhan, who was trying to unite the aristocracy of Tokharistan against Qutayba. The Arabs built a new military encampment called "Baruqan" two farsangs away from the city. In 725, the governor Asad ibn Abdallah al-Qasri had the city restored after a feud among Arab troops, with Barmak being employed as his agent for the task.
Early Arabs tended to treat Iran as a single cultural unit, however it was a land of many countries with distinct populations and cultures. From historical evidence, it appears that Tokharistan was the only area heavily colonized by Arabs where Buddhism flourished, and the only area incorporated into the Arab empire where Sanskrit studies were pursued up to the conquest. The grandson of Barmak was the "vizier" of the Arab empire and took personal interest in Sanskrit works and Indian religions. The eighth-century Korean traveller Hui'Chao records Hinayanists in Balkh under Arab rule. He visited the area around 726, mentioning that the true king of Balkh was still alive and in exile. He also describes all the inhabitants of the regions as Buddhists under Arab rule. Other sources indicate however that the Bactrians practiced many different religions.
Among Balkh's Buddhist monasteries, the largest was "Nava Vihara", later Persianized to "Naw Bahara" after the Islamic conquest of Balkh. It is not known how long it continued to serve as a place of worship after the conquest. Accounts of early Arabs offer contradictory narratives. Per al-Baladhuri, its stupa-vihara complex was destroyed under Mu'awiya in 650s. Tabari while reporting about the expedition in 650s, does not mention any tension around the temple, stating that Balkh was conquered by Rabi peacefully. He also states that Nizak went to pray at the site during his revolt against Qutayba in 709, implying it may not have been destroyed. Also, the tenth-century geographical treatise "Hudud al-'Alam" describes remaining royal buildings and Naw Bahara's decorations including painted image and wonderful works, probably secco or fresco murals and carvings on the temple's walls that survived into the author's time.
Sanskrit, Greek, Latin and Chinese sources from the 2nd century BC to the 7th century AD, identify a people called "Tukharas", in the country later called Tukharistan. Badakhshan was earlier the seat of the Tukharas. There is no precise date for the Arab conquest of Badakhshan nor any record of how Islam was introduced there. Al-Tabari too mentions this region only once. In 736, Asad ibn Abdallah al-Qasri sent an expedition into Upper Tokharistan and Badakhshan against the rebel Al-Harith ibn Surayj who had occupied the fortress of Tabushkhan. Juday' b. 'Ali al-Kirmani, who was sent on the expedition against al-Harith, captured Tabushkhan. Juday also had its captive defenders killed while its women and children were enslaved and sold in Balkh despite being of Arab origin. al-Harith later allied with the Turgesh and continued his rebellion until being pardoned by Caliph Yazid b. Walid in 744.
Taking advantage of the factional fighting among the Arabs, Transoxiana started rebelling and Asad b. 'Abdallah in response attacked Khuttal in 737. Armed forces of Soghd, Chach and many Turks, led by the Turkish Khagan Sulu, arrived to assist them. Asad fled leaving behind the baggage of plunder from Khuttal. When he returned with the main body of his troops, the Turks retired to Tokharistan and he returned to Balkh. In December 737, the Turgesh attacked Khulm but were repelled by the Arabs. Bypassing Balkh, they captured Guzgan's capital and sent out raiding parties. Asad mounted a surprise attack on the Turks at Kharistan, who only had 4,000 troops. The Turgesh suffered a devastating defeat and lost almost whole of their army. Sulu and al-Harith fled to the territory of Tokharistan's Yabghu, with Sulu returning to his territory in winter of 737–738.
The Zunbils.
The Zunbils in the pre-Saffarid period ruled in Zabulistan and Zamindawar, stretching between Ghazni and Bost, and had acted as a barrier against Muslim expansion for a long time. Zamindawar is known to have a shrine dedicated to the god Zun. It has been linked with the Hindu god Aditya at Multan, pre-Buddhist religious and kingship practices of Tibet, as well as Shaivism. The followers of the Zunbils were called Turks by the Arabic sources, however they applied the name to all their enemies in eastern fringes of Iran. They are described as having Turkish troops in their service by sources like Tabari and "Tarikh-e-Sistan".
The first time the title of Zunbil appears in Arabic sources, it does so along with that of the Kabul Shah and according to Tabari was the title of the brother of Kabul's king (either Barha Tegin or Tegin Shah). The Zunbil apparently broke away from the overlordship of Kabul around 680 AD and established his own kingdom in Zabulistan and al-Rukhkhaj.
The kingdom of Zabulistan (ar-Rukhkhaj) with its capital at Ghazni, where the king Zunbil or Rutbil resided, is mentioned by Chinese sources under the suzerainty of Jabghu of Turkestan. The significance for Arabs of the realm of Zun and its rulers was them preventing their early campaigns from invading the Indus Valley through eastern and southern Afghanistan. It was only under the early Saffarids that mass-Islamization took place unlike the plunder-raids or tribute levies of Arab rule. The expeditions under Caliph al-Ma'mun against Kabul and Zabul were the last ones and the long conflict ended with the dissolution of the Arab empire following soon thereafter.
Sakawand in Zabulistan was a major centre of Hindu pilgrimage.
7th century.
After appearing at Zarang, Abd al-Rahman ibn Samura and his force of 6,000 Arabs penetrated to the shrine of Zun in 653–654. He broke off a hand from the idol of Zun and plucked out the rubies used as its eyes to demonstrate to the marzban of Sistan that the idol could neither hurt nor benefit anyone. He also took Zabul by treaty by 656. In the shrine of Zoon in Zamindawar, it is reported that Samura "broke off a hand of the idol and plucked out the rubies which were its eyes in order to persuade the marzbān of Sīstān of the god's worthlessness." Samura explained to the marzbān: "my intention was to show you that this idol can do neither any harm nor good." Bost and Zabul submitted to the Arab invader by treaty in 656 CE. The Muslims soon lost these territories during the First Civil War (656–661).
In 665 CE, after being reappointed to Sistan under Mu'awiya, Samura defeated Zabulistan whose people had broken the earlier agreement. Samura was replaced as governor by Rabi b. Ziyad and died in 50 AH (670 AD), while the king of Zabul rebelled along with the Kabul Shah and the two together reconquered Zabulistan and Rukhkhaj according to al-Baladhuri.
Ar-Rabi, the Arab governor, however attacked the Zunbil at Bust and made him flee. He then pursued him to Rukhkhaj, where he attacked him and then subdued the city of ad-Dawar. Ziyad b. Abi Sufyan was appointed governor of Basra in 665, with Khorasan and Sistan coming under his mandate as well. He had first appointed Rabi to Sistan but replaced him later with 'Ubaydallah b. Abi Bakra. During this period, Zunbil's fierce resistance continued until he finally agreed to pay one million dirhams per Baladhuri and "Tarikh-e-Sistan". The Zunbil also negotiated for a peace treaty for both Zabul and Kabul.
Al-Baladhuri records that under Mu'awiya, Sistan's governor 'Abbad b. Ziyad b. Abihi raided and captured the city of Qandahar after bitter fighting. He also mentions the characteristic high caps of the people of the city. Though his text is somewhat ambiguous, it seems that 'Abbad had renamed the town as "'Abbadiya" after himself. The Muslim rule was probably toppled and the name is never heard after his governorship ended in 680–1, by 698 there was no Muslim-controlled region east of Bost. The city was ruled by Arab Muslims and Zunbils, and then later Saffarids and Ghaznavids. It is infrequently mentioned in the early Islamic sources.
In 681, Salm b. Ziyad was appointed the governor of Khorasan and Sistan by Yazid I. He appointed his brother Yazid b. Ziyad, apparently to lead a military expedition against the Zunbil of Zabulistan. The expedition however was disastrous, with Yazid being killed, his brother Abu-'Ubayda captured, while Arabs received heavy casualties. Salm sent an expedition by Talha b. 'Abdillah al-Khuzai to rescue his brother and pacify the region. The Arab captives were ransomed for half million dirhams and the region was pacified more through diplomacy than force.
After Talha's death in 683–684, a virtual anarchy was unleashed amongst Sistan's Arabs. His army refused allegiance to Yazid or Mu'awiya II and his son 'Abadallah had to abandon Zarang, which was left without any in charge. Many Arabs took over various quarters of Zarang and areas of Sistan. This prompted the Zunbil and his allies, who had already inflicted a humiliating defeat on the Arabs earlier, to intervene in the Arab affairs at Sistan and Bust. Baladhuri says of this period:
During the Second Fitna period, the Zunbil attacked Sistan in 685 but was defeated and killed by the Arabs.
Abdalmalik appointed Umayya ibn Abdallah ibn Khalid ibn Asid as governor of Khorasan in 74 AH (693-4 AD), with Sistan included under his governorship. Umayya sent his son Abdullah as head of the expedition in Sistan. Though initially successful, the new Zunbil was able to defeat them. Per some accounts, Abdullah himself was killed. Umayya was dismissed and Sistan was added to the governorship of al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf.
Under Al-Hajjaj.
Al-Hajjaj, who had become governor of Iraq and the East in 78 AH (697–98 AD), had appointed Ubaidallah, who was a "mawla," as his deputy in Sistan. The Zunbils, who had been left unchecked, had completely stopped paying the tribute. This provided a pretext to terminate the peace treaty between the two sides. Ubaidallah was appointed for an expedition against them in 698 and was ordered by Al-Hajjaj to "attack until he laid waste to Zunbil's territories, destroyed his strongholds, killed all his fighting men and enslaved his progeny". The ensuing campaign was called the "Army of Destruction" ("Jaish al-Fana"'). However, it ended disastrously for the Arabs.
Al-Baladhuri's account on the authority of Al-Mada'ini in "Futuh al-Buldan" and "Ansab al-Ashraf", is the fullest documentation of the campaign. Tabari's account runs parallel but is based on Abu Mikhnaf and does not include the poem of A'sha Hamdan included in "Ansab al-Ashraf". Ibn Qutaybah's "Kitab al-Ma'arif" only makes a bare mention. "Ta'rikh al-khulafa"' has a more detailed account and epitomises accounts of Tabari and Baladhuri. "Tarikh-e-Sistan" confuses the campaign with another one against the Khwarij of Zarang. The army consisted of Iraqis from Basra and Kufa, though Baladhuri mentions presence of some Syrians. Ubaidallah himself led the Basrans while the Tabi Shuraih b. Hani' al-Harithi ad-Dabbi led the Kufans.
They marched to Zamindawar or al-Rukhkhaj (the classical Arachosia) but found it barren and foodless. Their advance probably happened in summer of 698, as A'sha Hamdan's poem refers to the scorching heat they had to endure. In Zabulistan's regions of Ghazni and Gardiz, they plundered a significant amount of cattle and other animals, in addition to destroying various strongholds. The Zunbils, who were devastating the countryside whilst retreating, were luring the Arabs into a trap to an inhospitable and foodless terrain. "Futuh al-Buldan" states that the Muslims almost penetrated Kabul. Tabari meanwhile says that they came within 18 farsakhs of the summer capital of Zunbils in the Qandahar region.
The plan of the Zunbils worked and they trapped the Arabs into a valley. Ubaidallah realizing the gravity of the situation, offered 500,000 or 700,000 dirhams as well as his three sons along with some Arab leaders as hostages while promising not to raid again during his tenure as Sistan's governor. Shuraih, who had earlier advised retreat, felt a withdrawal would be dishonorable. He was joined by a group of people into the battle, and all but a handful of them were killed. The remnant of the Arab army withdrew back to Bust and Sistan, suffering from starvation and thirst. Many died in the "Desert of Bust", presumably the Registan Desert, with only 5,000 making it back to Bust. Many of those who survived died by gorging themselves on the food sent to them according to Tabari. Ubaidallah had arranged food for them after seeing their suffering and himself died, either from grief or an ear affliction.
Al-Hajjaj prepared another expedition in 699, reportedly of 40,000 troops from Kufa and Basra under Abdurrahman b. Muhammad b. al-Ash'ath. Though disguised as a military expedition, it was actually a forced migration of the elements from the two Iraqi cities troublesome to Hajjaj. It was equipped to the best standards and was called the "Army of Peacocks" because of the men included in its ranks. It included the proudest and most distinguished leaders of Iraq led by Ibn al-Ash'ath, grandson of Al-Ash'ath ibn Qays. It also included distinguished elders who served in the first armies of conquest as well as those who fought at Battle of Siffin. This Arab army arrived in Sistan in the spring of 699.
The Arabs advanced east into Zabulistan and won several victories. However the troops did not want to fight in this inhospitable region and started becoming restive. Al-Hajjaj instructed them to continue the advance into Zabulistan's heart no matter what it took, making it clear to them he wanted them to return to their homes. Ibn al-Ash'ath also made an agreement with the Zunbils, that no tribute would be demanded if he won and in case he lost, he would be sheltered to protect him from Al-Hajjaj. The troops mutinied against Hajjaj's enforced emigration and returned to Iraq but were crushed by the Syrian troops. They fled back to the east while Ibn al-Ash'ath fled to Sistan where he died in 704 AD.
When Ibn al-Ash'ath returned to Sistan in 702-703 AD, he wasn't allowed into Zarang and fled to Bust where he was abducted by Iyad b. Himyan al-Bakri as-Sadusi, whom he had appointed as the deputy over Bust, so Iyad could resecure favor of al-Hajjaj. The Zunbil however attacked the town and threatened to slaughter or enslave everyone there unless Ibn al-Ash'ath was handed over to him. Iyad set him free and he went to the Zunbil's territory along with his army. The Zunbil was however persuaded by Al-Hajjaj's representative to surrender him. His fate is however unclear. Per some accounts, he committed suicide, while according to others he was killed by the Zunbil, who sent his head to the Umayyads in Sistan. Following this, a truce was declared between Al-Hajjaj and the Zunbil, in return for the latter paying tribute in kind and in return, Al-Hajjaj promised not to attack him.
From 8th century.
Qutayba b. Muslim, the conqueror of Transoxiana, called Sijistan an "ill-omened front", and forced the Zunbils to pay tribute. Khalid al-Qasri in Iraq appointed Yazid b. al Ghurayf al-Hamdani as Sistan's governor, a Syrian from Jund al-Urdunn, in 725. Yazid resumed the campaign by sending an army under the command of Balal b. Abi Kabsha. They however did not obtain anything from the Zunbils.
The new governor of Sistan, al-Asfah b. 'Abd Allah al-Kalbi, a Syrian, embarked on an ambitious policy of campaigning against the Zunbils. The first one was carried out in 726. During the second one in late 727–728, he was warned by the Sijistanis who were with him to not campaign in winter, especially in the mountain defiles. Per Ya'qubi, his army was completely annihilated by the Zunbils. Per "Tarikh al-Sistani", al-Asfah managed to get back to Sistan where he died. The next two governors did not undertake any campaigns. The Zunbil was unable to take advantage of the annihilation of al-Asfah's army, but the defeat was a heavy one. It would become one in a series of blows for the caliphate.
The Sistan front remained quiet in the latter part of Abd al-Malik's reign except perhaps the Kharjite activity, with long tenures and blank records of 'Abd Allah b. Abi Baruda and Ibrahim b. 'Asim al-'Uqayli suggesting that the instability in the region had been controlled to an extent. It appears this was only possible because no more campaigns were undertaken against the Zunbils.
Al-Mansur sent Ma'n b. Zaida ash-Shabani to Sistan in response to the disturbances there. Ma'n along with his nephew Yazid b. Ziyad undertook an expedition against the Zunbil for making him obedient and restoring the tribute not paid since the time of al-Hajjaj. It is especially well-documented by al-Baladhuri. He ordered the Zunbil to pay the tribute and was offered camels, Turkish tents and slaves, but this did not placate him. Per al-Baldahuri, under the reign of al-Mansur, Hisham b. 'Amr al-Taghlibi after conquering Kandahar, destroyed its idol-temple and built a mosque in its place.
Ma'n and Yazid advanced into Zamindawar but the Zunbil had fled to Zabulistan. They nonetheless pursued and defeated him, taking 30,000 as captives, including Faraj al-Rukhkhaji, who would later become a secretary of the department of private estates of the Caliph under al-Ma'mun. Zunbil's deputy Mawand (who is recorded as his son-in-law Mawld in "Tarikh-e-Sistan") offered submission, which was requested, and was sent with 5,000 of their soldiers to Baghdad, where he was treated kindly and given pensions along with his chieftains per Baladhuri.
The tribute was paid by the Zunbils to "amils" of caliphs al-Mahdi and ar-Rashid, though rather irregularly. When the Caliph Al-Ma'mun (r. 813–833 AD) visited Khorasan, he was paid double the tribute by Rutbil, but was evidently left unmolested and the Arabs later subdued Kabul.
Kabulistan.
The area of Kabul was initially ruled by the Nezak Huns. Sometime after the defeat of their last king Ghar-ilchi at the hands of Samura, the Turkic Barha Tegin rebelled and assaulted Kabul. Ghar-ilchi was killed and Barha Tegin proceeded to proclaim himself as the king of Kabul, before taking Zabulistan in the south. The "Turk Shahi" dynasty established by him however split into two around 680 AD. The dynasty was Buddhist and were followed by a Hindu dynasty shortly before the Saffarid conquest in 870 AD.
Al-Ma'mun's expeditions were the last Arab conflict against Kabul and Zabul and the long-drawn conflict ended with the dissolution of the empire. Muslim missionaries converted many people to Islam; however, the entire population did not convert, with repetitive revolts from the mountain tribes in the Afghan area taking place. The Hindu Shahi dynasty was defeated by Mahmud of Ghazni (r. 998–1030), who expelled them from Gandhara and also encouraged mass-conversions in Afghanistan and India.
During the caliphate of Uthman, new popular uprisings had broken out in Persia and continued for five years from 644 to 649. The revolts were suppressed and Abdullah b. Amir, who was appointed governor of Basra, had captured many cities including Balkh, Herat and Kabul.
After Mu'awiya became the Caliph, he prepared an expedition under 'Abd ar-Rahman b. Samura to Khorasan. Per Baladhuri, after recapturing Zarang as well as conquering other cities, the Arabs besieged Kabul for a few months and finally entered it. Samura concluded a treaty and proceeded to attack Bost, al-Rukhkhaj and Zabulistan. The people of Kabul however rebelled and Samura was forced to recapture the city. The account of "Tarjuma-i Futuhat" however differs and states that Samura besieged the city for a year. After capturing it, he had all the soldiers massacred and their wives and children taken as captives. He also ordered the captured king Ghar-ilchi to be beheaded, but spared him when he converted. Around the same time according to al-Baladhuri, Al-Muhallab ibn Abi Sufra launched an attack on the Indian frontier, reaching up to Bannu and "al-Ahwaz" (Waihind). The historian Firishta states that while capturing Kabul in 664 AD, Samura had made converts of some 12,000 people.
The new king of Kabul Barha Tegin and the Zunbil campaigned against the Arabs after Samura's departure, recapturing Kabul, Zabulistan and al-Rukhkhaj. Rabi b. Ziyad attacked the Zunbil after becoming governor in 671 AD. His successor Ubayd Allah b. Abi Bakra continued the campaign in 673 AD, with the Zunbil negotiating for both Zabul and Kabul soon afterwards. About the time of death of Yazid I however, "the people of Kabul treacherously broke the compact". The Arab army sent to reimpose it was routed.
In about 680–683, the kingdom split into two with the Zunbil fleeing from his brother, the king of Kabul, and approaching Salm b. Ziyad at Amul in Khorasan. In return for him agreeing to acknowledge Salm as his overlord, the Zunbil was allowed to settle down in Amul. Soon he drove his brother out and established himself in Amul. The location of Amul mentioned by Tabari is not certain, Josef Markwart identified it with Zabul. Tabari however claims the Kabul Shah fled instead from the Zunbil and established himself as an independent king during the reign of Mu'awiya.
Abdur Rehman, who studied the descriptions of Tabari however stated that these events should be seen as having happened in Yazid's time since Salm was governor under his reign. In 152 AH (769 AD), Humayd ibn Qahtaba, the governor of Khorasan, raided Kabul. According to Ibn al-Athir, al-'Abbas b. Ja'far led an expedition against Kabul sent by his father Ja'far b. Muhamamad in 787–78, which Bosworth claims is the one attributed to Ibrahim b. Jibril by Al-Ya'qubi.
The only record of an event in early Abbasid period obviously related to the area south of the Hindu Kush, is the expedition against Kabul in 792-793 ordered by Al-Fadl ibn Yahya and led by Ibrahim b. Jibril. It is mentioned by al-Tabari's chronicle, the tenth century "Kitāb al-Wuzarā'wa al-Kuttāb" of al-Jahshiyari and by al-Ya'qubi. Per al-Jahshiyari, he conquered Kabul and acquired a lot of wealth. Al-Ya'qubi states that rulers and landlords of Tukharistan, including Bamiyan's king, joined this army, implying it crossed the Hindu Kush from the north. It also mentions the subjugation of "Ghurwand" (present-day Ghorband). He also mentions the "Pass of Ghurwand", which judging by the itinerary of the expedition from Tukharistan to Bamiyan to Ghorband valley, is identical to Shibar Pass. They then marched to Shah Bahar where an idol venerated by the locals was destroyed. The inhabitants of various towns then concluded peace treaties with Fadl, one of which was identified by Josef Markwart as Kapisa.
Al-Ma'mun (r. 813–833 AD) while visiting Khorasan, launched an attack on Kabul, whose ruler submitted to taxation. The king of Kabul was captured and he then converted to Islam. Per sources, when the Shah submitted to al-Ma'mun, he sent his crown and bejeweled throne, later seen by the Meccan historian al-Azraqi, to the Caliph who praised Fadl for "curbing polytheists, breaking idols, killing the refractory" and refers to his successes against Kabul's king and "ispahabad". Other near-contemporary sources however refer to the artifacts as a golden jewel-encrusted idol sitting on a silver throne by the Hindu Shahi ruler or by an unnamed ruler of "Tibet" as a sign of his conversion to Islam.
Qutayba's campaigns.
Qutayba b. Muslim was appointed the governor of Khorasan in 705 by al-Hajjaj b. Yusuf, the governor of Iraq and the East. He began his rule with the reconquest of western Tokharistan in the same year. Qutayba, who was tasked with subduing the revolt in Lower Tokharistan, led the final conquest of Balkh. His army was assembled in spring of 705 and marched to Balkh. Per one version of al-Tabari, the city was surrendered peacefully. Another version, speaks of a revolt among the residents. In 706, he received the submission of Nizak, the leader of Badghis. In 707, he marched on Bukhara oasis along with Nizak in his army but the campaign did not achieve any major objective.
According to Baldhuri, when Qutayba became the governor of Khorasan and Sistan, he appointed his brother 'Amr to Sistan. 'Amr asked the Zunbil to pay tribute in cash but he refused, prompting Qutayba to march against him. The campaign was also partially encouraged by his desire to eliminate the support of the southern Hepthalites, the Zabulites, for their northern brethren to revolt. Zunbil, who was surprised by this unexpected move and scared of Qutayba's reputation, quickly capitulated. Qutayba, realizing the real strength of the Zunbils, accepted it and returned to Merv, leaving only an Arab representative in Sistan.
Per Al-Mada'ini, Qutayba returned to Merv after conquering Bukhara in 709. The rebellion of the Hepthalite principalities from the region of Guzgan, including Taloqan and Faryab, led Qutayba to dispatch 12,000 men from Merv to Balkh in winter of 709. The rebellion was led and organized by Nezak Tarkhan and was supported by Balkh and Marw al-Rudh's dihqan Bādām. Nizak had realised that independence would not be possible if Arab rule was strengthened in Khorasan, and perhaps was also encouraged by Qutayba's attempts to achieve his objectives through diplomacy. The success of Zunbils may also have encouraged him.
Nizak wrote to the Zunblis asking for help. In addition, he also forced the weak Jābghū of Tokharistan to join his cause to persuade all princes of the Principalities of Tukharistan to do the same. His plan to stage the revolt in spring of 710 was however spoilt by Qutayba. Bādām fled when Qutayba advanced on Marw al-Rudh but his two sons were caught and crucified by him. Qutayba next marched to Taloqan, which was the only place in his campaign where the inhabitants were not given a complete amnesty, concerning which H.A.R. Gibb states the "traditions are hopelessly confused". Per one account, he executed and crucified a band of bandits there, though it is possible it was selected for this severity as it was the only place where there was an open revolt.
Faryab and Guzgan both submitted and their inhabitants were not harmed. From there, Qutayba went on to receive the submission of people of Balkh. Almost all of Nizak's princely allies had reconciled themselves with Qutayba and there were Arab governors in all towns of Tokharistan, spoiling his plans. He fled south to the Hindu Kush, hoping to reach Kabul and entrenched himself in an inaccessible mountain pass guarded by a fortress. The Arabs succeeded in gaining the fort with help of Ru'b Khan, ruler of Ru'b and Siminjan. Nizak fled along the modern road that leads from the Oxus valley to Salang Pass and holed up in an unidentified mountain refuge in a site of Baghlan Province. Qutayba caught up with him and besieged him for two months.
Sulaym al-Nasih (the counsellor), a "mawla" of Khorasan, helped in obtaining Nizak's surrender to Qutayba who promised a pardon. Nonetheless, he was executed along with 700 of his followers after orders from al-Hajjaj. The Jabghu of Tokharistan was sent as a valuable hostage to Damascus. Qutayba then went in pursuit of Juzjan's king, who requested amnesty and called for exchange of hostages as a precautionary measure. This was agreed upon and Habib b. 'Abd Allah, a Bahilite, was sent as prisoner by Qutayba while the king sent some of his family members in return. The peace treaty was agreed but the king died in Taloqan on his return journey. His subjects accused the Muslims of poisoning him and killed Habib, with Qutayba retaliating by executing Juzjan's hostages.
Other regions.
Ghur.
Tabari records that in 667 AD, Ziyad b. Abihi had sent Hakam b. 'Amr al-Ghafri to Khorasan as Amir. Hakam raided Ghur and Farawanda, bringing them to submission through force of arms and conquered them. He obtained captives and a large amount of plunder from them. A larger expedition was undertaken under Asad ibn Abdallah al-Qasri, the governor of Khorasan, who raided Gharchistan in 725, receiving its submission as well as the conversion of its king to Islam. He next attacked Ghur whose residents hid their valuables in an inaccessible cave, but he was able to plunder the wealth by lowering his men in crates.
Asad's success prompted him to undertake a second expedition in 108-109 AH against Ghur. The poet Thabit Qutna's eulogical poem of Asad recorded by Tabari called it a campaign against the Turks saying, "Groups of the Turks who live between Kabul and Ghur came to you, since there was no place in which they might find refuge from you." Bosworth states that this campaign may have actually taken place in Guzgan or Bamiyan rather than the purely-Iranian Ghur. He also states that no doubt further sporadic raids continued throughout the Umayyad rule, though not noted by historians. It is known that Nasr ibn Sayyar's commander Sulaiman b. Sul had raided Gharchistan and Ghur some time before 739 AD.
The early history of Ghor is unclear. Minhaj-i-Siraj in Tabaqat-i-Nasiri states that Shansab, who established the Ghurid dynasty, was converted by the Arab Caliph Ali which Mohammad Habib and K. A. Nizami dismissed as unlikely. He further adds that the Ghurid Amir Faulad assisted Abu Muslim in overthrowing the Umayyads during the Abbasid Revolution. He also recounts a legend about a dispute between two prominent families of the area. They sought the intercession of the Abbasids and the ancestor of the Shansabi family, Amir Banji, was subsequently confirmed as the ruler by Harun al-Rashid.
No permanent control was ever established on Ghur. According to Bosworth, its value was only for its slaves which could best be obtained in occasional temporary raids. Arab and Persian geographers never considered it important. In all sources it is cited as supplying slaves to slave markets in Khorasan, indicating it had a mostly "infidel" population. Istakhari called it a land of infidels ("dar al-kufr") annexed to Islamic domain because of its Muslim minority. However "Hudud al-'Alam" stated it had a mostly-Muslim population.
Ghazni.
The pre-Ghaznavid royal dynasty of Ghazni were the Lawiks. Afghan historian 'Abd al-Hayy Habibi Qandahari, who in 1957 examined a manuscript containing tales about miracles ("karamat") of "Shaikh" Sakhi Surur of Multan, who lived in the 12th century, concluded it dated to 1500. He recorded one of its anecdotes which records the history of Ghazni by the Indian traditionalist and lexicographer Radi ad-Din Hasan b. Muhammad al-Saghani (died 1252) from Abu Hamid az-Zawuli. According to it, a great mosque at Ghazni was earlier a great idol-temple built in honor of the Rutbils and Kabul-Shahs by Wujwir Lawik. His son Khanan converted to Islam and was sent a poem by the Kabul-Shah saying, "Alas! The idol of Lawik has been interred beneath the earth of Ghazni, and the Lawiyan family have given away [the embodiment of] their kingly power. I am going to send my own army; do not yourself follow the same way of the Arabs [ie., Islam]."
Habibi continues stating that Khanan later reconverted to the faith of the Hindu-Shahis. His grandson Aflah however upon assuming power demolished the idol-temple and built a mosque in its place. When the saint Surur arrived at the mosque, he is said to have found the idol of Lawik and destroyed it. The "Siyasatnama" of Nizam al-Mulk, the "Tabaqat-i Nasiri" of Juzjani and the "Majma' al-ansāb fī't-tawārīkh" of Muhammad Shabankara'i (14th century) mention Lawik. Juzjani gives the Lawik who was defeated by Alp-tegin the Islamic "kunya" of "Abu Bakr", though Shabankara'i claims he was a pagan. A variant of his name appears as Anuk in "Tabaqat-i Nasiri".
The Buddhist monastery of Tepe Sardar existed near Ghazni during the time Arabs were threatening the Ghazni region, and was destroyed by a fire possibly due to the first Muslim invasion of the region in 671–672 CE. It may have been the "Šāh Bahār" (temple of the king) mentioned as having been destroyed by Muslims in 795 CE in the "Kitab al-Buldan".
Bamyan.
Ya'qubi states that the lord of Bamyan called the "Shēr", was converted to Islam under Caliph Al-Mansur (d.775) by Muzahim b. Bistam, who married his son Abu Harb Muhammad to his daughter. However, in his history he changes it to the rule of Al-Mahdi (r. 775–785). Ya'qubi also states that Al-Fadl ibn Yahya made Hasn, Abu Harb Muhammad's son, as the new "Shēr" after his successful campaign in Ghorband. Ya'qubi states that the ruler of Bamiyan had accompanied an expedition dispatched by Al-Fadl ibn Yahya in 792–793 against the Kabul Shahi.
Later Shers remained Muslim and were influential at the Abbasid court. However, Muslim sources describe the Saffarid ruler Ya'qub ibn al-Layth al-Saffar looting Bamiyan's pagan idols. A much later historian Shabankara'i claims that Alp-Tegin obtained conversion of the Sher to Islam in 962. It seems there were lapses to Buddhism among some of the rulers as the Muslim influence grew weak. However, there is no evidence about the role of Buddhism during these periods or whether Buddhist monasteries remained the center of religious life and teaching.
Post-Arab rule.
Tahirids.
Khurasan was the base for early recruitment of Abbasid armies, especially the Abbasid takeover received support from Arab settlers aiming to undermine the important sections of non-Muslim aristocracy. The Abbasids succeeded in integrating Khorasan and the East into the central Islamic lands. The state was gradually Persianized through political influence and financial support of the "dihqans". Al-Ma'mun emerged as the victor in the Fourth Fitna with the help of Khorasani forces and appointed Tahir ibn Husayn as the governor. Later, he appointed Talha as the governor in 822 and Abdallah in 828. But after the Abbasid decline, Khorasan ended up turning into a virtually independent state under a Persian "mawla" who rose to favour under Al-Ma'mun.
According to Ibn Khordadbeh, the Shah of Kabul had to send 2,000 Oghuz slaves worth 600,000 dirhams as annual tribute to the governor of Khorasan Abdallah ibn Tahir (r. 828–845). In addition to the Oghuz slaves, he also had to pay an annual tribute of 1.5 million dirhams. Mid-9th century, one of their tributaries Abu Da'udid or the Banijurid Amir Da'ud b. Abu Da'ud Abbas, undertook an obscure campaign into eastern Afghanistan and Zabulistan that was profitable. It is recorded that in 864 Muhammad ibn Tahir sent two elephants captured at Kabul, idols and aromatic substances to the caliph.
Saffarids.
Ya'qub b. al-Layth.
The Tahirid rule was overthrown by Ya'qub ibn al-Layth al-Saffar of Sistan, the first independent Iranian ruler in the post-Islamic era. He also fought against the Abbasid Caliphate. He joined the 'ayyar band of Salih b. al-Nadr/Nasr, who was recognised as Bust's amir in 852. al-Nasr aimed at taking over whole of Sistan and drove out the Tahirid governor in 854, with Sistan ceasing to be under the direct control of the Caliphate. al-Nasr himself was overthrown by Dirham b. Nasr who was overthrown by Ya'qub in 861. Ya'qub and his brother Amr advanced as far as Baghdad and to Kabul itself in eastern Afghanistan with their dynamism, advancing along the historic route taken by the modern Lashkargah-Qandahar-Ghazni-Kabul road. Their eastern campaigns are documented by Arabic sources of Al-Masudi's "Murūj adh-dhahab", Ibn al-Athir's "al-Kāmil fi't-tā'rīkh" and "Tarikh-e-Sistan". The Persian historian Gardizi's "Zain al-akhbār" also mentions the Saffarid campaigns.
Salih fled to ar-Rukhkhaj or Arachosia, where he received the help of the Zunbil. Both Salih and the Zunbil were killed by Ya'qub in 865. Abu Sa'id Gardezi mentions that Ya'qub advanced from Sistan to Bust and occupied the city. From here he advanced to Panjway and Tiginabad (two of the chief towns of Arachosia), defeating and killing the Zunbil, though the date is not given. This account matches with that of "Tarikh-e-Sistan". Satish Chandra states that, "We are told that it was only in 870 AD that Zabulistan was finally conquered by one Yakub who was the virtual ruler of the neighbouring Iranian province of Siestan. The king was killed and his subjects were made Muslims."
Muhammad Aufi's "Jawami ul-Hikayat" meanwhile states that during his invasion of Zabul, Yaqub employed a ruse to surrender after being allowed to pay homage to the ruler along with his troops, lest they disperse and become dangerous to both sides. Yaqub's troops "carried their lances concealed behind their horses and were wearing coats of mail under their garments. The Almighty made the army of Rusal (probably Rutbil), blind, so that they did not see the lances. When Yaqub drew near Rusal, he bowed his head as if to do homage, but raised a lance and thrust it in the back of Rusal so that he died on the spot. His people also fell like lightning upon the enemy, cutting them down with their swords and staining the earth with the blood of the enemies of the religion. The infidels when they saw the head of Rusal upon the point of a spear took to flight and great bloodshed ensued. This victory, which he achieved, was the result of treachery and deception, such as no one had ever committed."
Ashirbadi Lal Srivastava states that after this victory by Yaqub over Zabul, the position of Lallya alias Kallar, the Brahmin minister who had overthrown the last Kshatriya king of Kabul Lagaturman, seems to have become untenable. He shifted his capital to Udhaband in 870 AD. Lallya, credited as an able and strong ruler by Kalhana in "Rajatarangini", was driven out by Ya'qub from Kabul within a year of his usurpation according to Srivastava.
Gardezi states that after defeating the Zunbil, Yaqub then advanced into Zabulistan and then Ghazni, whose citadel he destroyed and forced Abu Mansur Aflah b. Muhammad b. Khaqan, the local ruler of nearby Gardez, to tributary status. "Tarikh-e-Sistan" however in contrast states that he returned to Zarang after killing Salih. This campaign may be related to Gardizi's account of a later expedition in 870 where he advanced as far as Bamiyan and Kabul. Salih b. al-Hujr, described as a cousin of the Zunbil, was appointed as the Saffarid governor of ar-Rukhkhaj, but rebelled two years after Zunbil's death and committed suicide to avoid capture.
Ya'qub had captured several relatives of the Zunbil's family after defeating Salih b. al-Nasr. Zunbil's son escaped from captivity in 869 and quickly raised an army in al-Rukhkhaj, later seeking refuge with the Kabul-Shah. Per Gardizi, Ya'qub undertook another expedition in 870 which advanced as far as Kabul and Bamiyan. According to "Tarikh-e-Sistan", Bamiyan was captured in 871 and its idol-temple was plundered. Ya'qub defeated Kabul in 870 and again had to march there in 872 when the Zunbil's son took possession of Zabulistan. Ya'qub captured him from the fortress of Nay-Laman where he had fled. In 871, Ya'qub sent 50 gold and silver idols he gained by campaigning from Kabul to Caliph Al-Mu'tamid, who sent them to Mecca.
According to Tabaqat-i-Nasiri, Ghor, which was ruled by Amir Suri in the 9th century, entered into a war against Ya'qub, but escaped conquest due to its difficult and mountainous terrain.
Amr b. al-Layth.
After Ya'qub's death in 879, Al-Mu'tamid recognised his brother and successor 'Amr b. al-Layth (r. 879–902), as governor of Khorasan, Isfahan, Fars, Sistan and Sindh. The caliph however announced divesting him of all his governorships in 885 and reappointed Muhammad b. Tahir as the governor of Khorasan. He was reappointed governor of Khorasan in 892 by Al-Mu'tadid.
Amr led an expedition as far as Sakawand in the Logar Valley, between Ghazni and Kabul, described as a Hindu pilgrimage-centre. In 896, he sent idols captured from Zamindawar and the Indian frontier, including a female copper idol with four arms and two girdles of silver set with jewels and pulled on a trolley by camels, to Baghdad. Al-Baihaki mentions Sakawand as a pass from Kabul to India. It was situated at or near Jalalabad. The idol taken from somewhere in eastern Afghanistan by Amr was displayed for three days in Basra and then for three days in Baghdad. Jamal J. Elias states that it may have been of Lakshmi or Sukhavati at Sakawand. Al-Masudi emphasises the attention it received as a spectacle, with crowds gathering to gawk at it.
Aufi states that Amr had sent Fardaghan as the prefect over Ghazni and he launched the raid on Sakawand, which was a part of the territory of Kabul Shahi and had a temple frequented by Hindus. The Shah of Kabul at this time was Kamaluka, called "Kamalu" in Persian literature. Fardaghan entered it and succeeded in surprising Sakawand. Sakawand was plundered, and its temple destroyed.
Kamalu counter-attacked Fardaghan, who realising his forces were no match for his, resorted to spreading a false rumour that he knew his intentions and had organised a formidable army against him with 'Amr on the way to join him. The rumour had the desired effect and the opposing army slowed its advance, knowing that they could be ambushed and slaughtered if they advanced impetuously into the narrow defiles. Meanwhile, Fardaghan received reinforcements from Khorasan according to Aufi. According to Aufi, he cleverly averted the danger.
"Tarikh-e-Sistan" does not mention any attack by Fardaghan on Sakawand however, instead beginning with the attack by Kamalu. Per it, when Amr was in Gurgan, he heard that "Nasad Hindi" and "Alaman Hindi" had allied and invaded Ghazni. The Saffarid governor 'Fard 'Ali was defeated and fled.
Samanids.
The Samanids came to rule over areas including Khorasan, Sistan, Tokharistan and Kabulistan after Ismail (r. 892–907) in 900 AD had defeated the Saffarids, who had taken over Zabulistan and the Kabul region. The Turks were highly noted for their martial prowess by the Muslim sources and were in high demand as slave-soldiers ("ghulam", "mamluk") by the Caliphate in Baghdad and the provincial emirs. The slaves were acquired either in military campaigns or through trade. The Samanids were heavily involved in this trade of Turkish slaves from lands to the north and east of their state. As the enslavement was limited to non-Muslims and with the Turks increasingly adopting Islam beyond Samanid borders, they also entered Transoxiana as free men due to various causes.
The Ghaznavids arose indirectly from the atmosphere of disintegration, palace revolutions and succession putsches of the Samanid Empire. Abu-Mansur Sabuktigin was one of the Samanid slave guards who rose from the ranks to come under the patronage of the Chief "Hajib" Alp-Tegin. After the death of the Samanid Amir 'Abd al-Malik b. Nuh, the commander of forces in Khorasan Alp-Tegin along with the "vizier" Muhammad Bal'ami attempted to place a ruler of their choice on the throne. The attempt failed however and Alp-Tegin decided to withdraw to the eastern fringes of the empire. Per the sources, he wanted to flee to India to avoid his enemies and earn divine merit by raiding the Hindus. He did not intend to capture Ghazni, but was forced to take it when he was denied transit by its ruler.
Alp-Tegin proceeded with his small force of "ghulams" and "ghazis" (200 ghulams and 800 ghazis according to "Siyasatnama", while "Majma al-ansab" of Muhammad b. Ali al-Shabankara'i (d. 1358) states 700 ghulams and 2,500 Tajiks). En route, he subdued the Iranian "Sher" of Bamiyan and the Hindu-Shahi king of Kabul. He then came to Ghazni, whose citadel he besieged for four months and wrested the town from its ruler, Abu 'Ali or Abu Bakr Lawik or Anuk. The origin of this chief was Turkic, though it is not known if he was a Samanid vassal or an independent ruler. Josef Markwart suggests he was a late representative of the Zunbils. The Lawik dynasty of Ghazni was linked to the Hindu Shahi dynasty through marriage. Alp-Tegin was accompanied by Sabuktigin during the conquest of Ghazni.
Minhaj al-Siraj Juzjani states that Alp-Tegin had his position regularised by Amir Mansur b. Nuh through an investiture, however "Siyasatnama" mentions an expedition against Alp-Tegin from Bukhara which was defeated outside Ghazni. His ambiguous, semi-rebel status seems to be reflected in his coins, with two of his coins minted at Parwan mentioning his authority from the Samanids to mint coins only in an indirect way. He was succeeded by his son Abu Ishaq Ibrahim, who lost Ghazni to Abu Ali Lawik, the son of its expelled ruler. He recovered it however with Samanid help in 964–65.
Alp-Tegin's ghulams were reconciled with the Samanids in 965 but maintained their autonomy. After Ibrahim's death in 966, Bilge-Tigin was made the successor and he acknowledged the Samanids as his overlords. He died in 364 AH (974–975 AD) while besieging Gardez and was succeeded by Böritigin or Piri.
Piri's misrule led to resentment among the people who invited Abu Ali to take back the throne. The Kabul Shahis allied with him and the king, most likely Jayapala, sent his son to assist Lawik in the invasion. According to the "Majba al-Ansab", Sabuktigin managed to convince the Muslim Turks living in Ghazni, Gardez and Bamyan to participate in a jihad against the Hindus. When the allied forces reached near Charkh on Logar River, they were attacked by Sabuktigin who killed and captured many of them, while also capturing ten elephants. Lawik as well his ally were both killed in the battle. Piri was expelled and Sabuktigin became governor in 977 AD. The accession was endorsed by the Samanid ruler Nuh II.
Hudud al-'Alam states that Ghor was under the overlordship of Farighunids. Both Gardezi and Baihaqi state that in 379 AH (979–980 AD), the Samanid Amir Nuh b. Mansur dispatched an expedition under Abu Ja'far Zubaidi to conquer Ghur, but he had to return after capturing several forts. As the Samanid governor of Zabulistan and Ghazni, Sabuktigin attacked it several times. He was able to conquer eastern Ghur after initial set-backs and was acknowledged as a sovereign by Muhammad ibn Suri.
Ghaznavids.
Sabuktigin.
First war against Jayapala.
The Ghaznavid campaigns from the time of Sabuktigin are recorded as "jihad" against the people of "al-Hind" to destroy idolatry and replace it by expanding Islam. The Kabul Shahis only retained Lamghan in the Kabul-Gandhara area by the time of Alp-Tegin. According to Firishta, Sabuktigin had already begun raiding Multan and Lamghan under Alp-Tegin for slaves. This precipitated an alliance between the Shahi ruler Jayapala, Bhatiya and Sheikh Hamid Khan Lodi. He crossed the Khyber Pass many times and raided the territory of Jaipala.
Jayapala appointed Sheikh Hamid Khan Lodi as ruler over Multan and Lamghan, but Sabuktigin broke up this alliance after his accession through diplomatic means, convincing Lodi to acknowledge him as an overlord. Although Ferishta had identified Lodi and his family as Afghans, historian Yogendra Mishra pointed out that this was an error, since they were descended from the Qurayshite Usama ibn Lawi ibn Ghalib.
Sabuktigin plundered the forts in the outlying provinces of the Kabul Shahi and captured many cities, acquiring huge booty. He also established Islam at many places. Jaipal in retaliation marched with a large force into the valley of Lamghan (Jalalabad) where he clashed with Sabuktigin and his son. The battle stretched on several days until a snow storm affected Jaipala's strategies, forcing him to plead for peace. Sabuktigin was inclined to grant peace to Jayapala but his son Mahmud wanted total victory.
Jaypala upon hearing Mahmud's plans warned Sabuktigin, "You have seen the impetuosity of the Hindus and their indifference to death... If therefore, you refuse to grant peace in the hope of obtaining plunder, tribute, elephants and prisoners, then there is no alternative for us but to mount the horse of stern determination, destroy our property, take out the eyes of our elephants, cast our children into fire, and rush out on each other with sword and spear, so that all that will be left to you to conquer and seize is stones and dirt, dead bodies, and scattered bones." Knowing Jaipala could carry out his threat, Sabuktigin granted him peace in return for his promise of paying tribute and ceding some of his territory.
Second war against Jayapala.
After making peace with Sabuktigin, Jayapala returned to Waihind but broke the treaty and mistreated the amirs sent to collect the tribute. Sabuktigin launched another invasion in retaliation. While the mamluks remained the core of his army, he also hired the "Afghans", especially the Ghilji tribe, in his dominion. According to al-Utbi, Sabuktigin attacked Lamghan, conquering it and burning the residences of the "infidels", while also demolishing its idol-temples and establishing Islam. He proceeded to slaughter the non-Muslims, destroyed their temples and plundered their shrines. It is said that his forces even risked frostbite on their hands while counting the large booty.
To avenge the savage attack of Sabuktigin, Jayapala, who had earlier taken his envoys as hostage, decided to go to war again in revenge. According to al-Utbi, he assembled an army of 100,000 against Sabuktigin. The much later account of Ferishta states that it included troops from Kanauj, Ajmer, Delhi and Kalinjar. The two sides fought on an open battlefield in Laghman. Sabuktigin divided his army into packs of 500 who attacked the Indians in succession. After sensing that they were weakened, his forces mounted a concerted attack. The forces of Kabul Shahi were routed and those still alive were killed in the forest or drowned in the river.
The second battle that took place between Sabuktigin and Jayapala in 988 AD, resulted in the former capturing territory between Lamghan and Peshawar. Al-Utbi also states that the Afghans and Khaljis, living there as nomads, took the oath of allegiance to him and were recruited into his army. He helped Nuh II in expelling the rebel and heretic Abu Ali Simjur from Khorasan, resulting in its governorship being given to Sabuktigin who appointed Mahmud as his deputy there. He also appointed Ismail as the successor to his kingdom and died in 997. A succession war erupted between Ismail and Mahmud, with the latter gaining the throne in 998.
Mahmud.
The Samanid amir Mansur II appointed Bektuzun as Khorasan's governor after Sabuktigin's death. Mahmud however wished to reacquire the governorship after defeating his brother Ismail and his allies. Bektuzun and Fa'iq, the "de facto" power behind the Samanid throne, toppled Mansur II as they did not trust him, and replaced him with Abu'l Fawaris 'Abd al-Malik. Their forces were however defeated in 999 by Mahmud, who acquired all the lands south of Oxus, with even those to the north of the river submitting to him. The Samanid dynasty was later ended by the Karakhanids. In 1002, Mahmud also defeated the Saffarid Amir Khalaf ibn Ahmad and annexed Sistan.
Wars against Kabul Shahi.
Mahmud systemized plunder raids into India as a long-term policy of the Ghaznavids. The first raid was undertaken in September 1000, but was meant for reconnaissance and identifying the possible terrain and roads that could be used for future raids. He reached Peshawar by September 1001 and was attacked by Jayapala. The two sides clashed on 27–28 November 1001 and Jayapala was captured. Anandapala who was at Waihind, had to pay a heavy ransom to have his father and others released. Jayapala later self-immolated out of shame and Anandpala succeeded him. Mahmud attacked Anandpala later over his refusal to allow him passage during his attack on Multan, which was controlled by Fateh Daud. The two sides clashed in 1009 in the eastern side of Indus at Chhachh, with Mahmud defeating Anandapala and capturing the fort of Bhimnagar. He was allowed to rule as a feudatory in Punjab for some time.
An alliance between Anandpala's son, Trilochanpala, and Kashmiri troops was later defeated. During the warfare from 990–91 to 1015, Afghanistan, and later Punjab and Multan were lost to the Ghaznavids. Trilochanpala's rule was limited to eastern Punjab and he gained respite from the Muslim invasions with retreat to Sirhind. He allied with the Chandellas and in 1020-21 was defeated at a river called Rahib by Al-Utbi, while Firishta and Nizamuddin Ahmad identify it as Yamuna. He was killed in 1021 AD by his mutinous troops and succeeded by Bhimapala, who became the last ruler of the Kabul Shahi and was killed fighting the Ghaznavids in 1026 AD. The remnants of the royal family sought refuge with the Lohara dynasty of Kashmir and Punjab passed under the control of Muslim conquerors.
Mahmud used his plundered wealth to finance his armies which included mercenaries. The Indian soldiers, presumably Hindus, who were one of the components of the army, with their commander called "sipahsalar-i-Hinduwan", lived in their quarter of Ghazni while practicing their own religion. Indian soldiers under their commander Suvendhray remained loyal to Mahmud. They were also used against a Turkic rebel, with the command given to a Hindu named Tilak according to Baihaki.
The renowned 14th-century Moroccan Muslim scholar Ibn Battuta remarked that the Hindu Kush meant the "slayer of Indians", because the slaves brought from India who had to pass through there died in large numbers due to the extreme cold and quantity of snow. He states:
Invasions of Ghur.
The conversion of Ghur occurred over a long period and it was mostly pagan until the 10th century, which Mohammad Habib and Khaliq Ahmad Nizami say was probably a result of the missionary activities by the Karramiyya movement established in the region in 10th–11th centuries. Its imperfect conversion is visible by the fact that while the people of Ghur had Muslim names, they led the life of pagans. Muhammad b. Suri, who had acknowledged Sabuktigin as his sovereign, withheld tribute after his death, started plundering caravans and harassed the subjects of Mahmud. Rawżat aṣ-ṣafāʾ called him a pagan, and al-Utbi stated that he was a Hindu.
In 1011, Mahmud dispatched an expedition to conquer Ghur under Altuntash, governor of Herat, and Arslan Hajib, governor of Tus. Muhammad b. Suri, the king, placed himself in inaccessible hills and ravines. The Ghurids were however defeated and Suri was captured along with his son Shith. Abu Ali, who had remained on good terms with the Sultan, was made the ruler of Ghur by him. Eastern Ghur was brought under Ghaznavid control. In 1015, Mahmud attacked Ghur's southwestern district of Khwabin and captured some forts.
In 1020, Mahmud's son Ma'sud was dispatched to take Ghur's northwestern part called Tab. He was helped by Abul Hasan Khalaf and Shirwan, chieftains of the south-western and north-eastern regions respectively. He captured many forts, bringing the entire region of Ghur, except maybe the inaccessible interior, under Ghaznavid control. He also captured the stronghold of the chieftain Warmesh-Pat of Jurwas, levying a tribute of arms. Minhaj al-Siraj Juzjani praises Abu Ali for firmly establishing Islamic institutions in Ghur. The progress of Islam in this divided region after his death is however unknown.
Ghur remained a pagan enclave until the 11th century. Mahmud who raided it, left Muslim precepts to teach Islam to the local population. The region became Muslim by 12th century, though the historian Satish Chandra states that Mahayana Buddhism is believed to have existed until the end of the century. Neither Mahmud nor Ma'sud conquered the interior. Habib and Nizami say that the Ghurids were gradually converted by propagandists of new mystic movements. The Shansabani eventually succeeded in establishing their seniority in Ghor, if not its unification. By the time of Sultan Bahram, Ghur was converted and politically unified. According to Minhaj, both Ghiyasuddin and Mu'izzuddin were Karamis who later converted to Shafi‘i and Hanafi Islam respectively. "Tarikh-i guzida" however says that the Ghorids were only converted to Islam by Mahmud.
Conversion of Pashtuns.
The name "Afghanistan" was first used in a political sense by Saifi Herawi in the 14th century. It was even used during the height of the Durrani Empire. Only after the Durand line was fixed, did its modern usage for the land between it and the Oxus river became usual. The people who were mostly responsible for establishing the Afghan kingdom are referred to as "Pashtun", who were also called "Afghans". The name "Pashtun" (or "Pakthun") is the original and oldest name.
The tenth-century Persian geography "Hudud al-'Alam" is the earliest known mention of the Afghans. In "Discourse on the Country of Hindistan and Its Towns", it states that, "Saul, a pleasant village on a mountain. In it live Afghans." Ibn Battuta described Saul as being situated between Gardez and Husaynan along a common trade route, the exact location of Husaynan is unknown. Akhund Darweza states that their original homeland was Qandahar from where they immigrated in 11th century upon the request of Mahmud of Ghazni to assist him in his conquests gradually expanding Pashtun settlements. Afghan tradition considers "Kase Ghar" in Sulayman range as the homeland. "Hudud al-'Alam" also mentions that the king of Ninhar (Nangarhar) had many wives including "Moslem, Afghan and Hindu".
The Pashtun traditions speak of Islamization during Muhammad's time through Khalid ibn al-Walid. Qais Abdur Rashid, the presumed ancestor of the Afghans, is said to have led a delegation to Mecca from Ghor after being summoned by Khalid b. Walid and converted to Islam while also distinguishing himself in the service of Muhammad. He adopted the name Abdul Rashid, and his three sons – Saraban, Ghurghust, Baitan, and an adopted son Karlanri linked to Saranban, are considered to be the progenitors of the major Afghan divisions.
Ni'matullah's "Makhzan-i-Afghani" traces their history to an Israelite called Afghana who constructed the al-Aqsa mosque. Per it, under the time of King Suleiman, a figure named Bokhtnasser was responsible for "carrying away the Israelites, whom he settled in the mountainous districts of Ghor, Ghazneen, Kabul, Candahar, Koh Firozeh, and the parts lying within the fifth and sixth climates; where they, especially those descended of Asif and Afghana, fixed their habitations, continually increasing in number, and incessantly making war on the infidels around them." Qais traveled to Medina to receive Mohammed's blessings and fought against the Meccans. Muhammad himself conferred the title of "Pashtun" upon Qais and his people according to the tradition. They returned to Ghor to spread Islam and pledged loyalty to Mahmud. Per Ni'matullah, the Ghurid ruler Mu'izz al-Din had initiated their eastward migration (or settlements) into present-day north-west Pakistan, in course of his military campaigns.
The Arabs, at war with the Kabul Shah, had directed their campaigns in direction of Gandhara. By the time of Mu'awiya, Sistan's governorship was separated from Khorasan, with the governor looking after the region and keeping a check on Kabul Shah. Ahmed Hassan Dani considered that the Arab activities may have led to conversion of Afghans as well, and it may have been wholesale because of their tribal nature, i.e., all the Afghan tribes adopted Islam at once.
Quoting "Matla-al-Anwar", Ferishta states that a man named Khalid, son of Abdullah, stated by some to be a descendant of Khalid bin Walid or Abu Jahl, was for some time governor of Herat, Ghor, Gharjistan and Kabul. After being relieved of the charge, he took up residence in Koh Sulaiman, with the Lodis and Suris being the descendant of his daughter who married a converted Afghan.
Al-Utbi in "Tarikh-i-Yamini" states that the Afghans were enlisted by Sabuktigin and also Mahmud. During this period, the Afghan habitat was in the Sulaiman Mountains. After defeating Jayapala in 988 AD, Sabuktigin had acquired the territory between Laghman and Peshawar. Al-Utbi states that the Afghans and Khaljis, living there as nomads, took the oath of allegiance to him and were recruited into his army. Iqtidar Husain Siddiqui citing a 13th-century Persian translation, claims he mentions the "Afghans" were pagans given to rapine and rapacity, they were defeated and converted to Islam.
Writing in the 11th century AD, Al-Biruni in his "Tarikh al Hind" stated that the Afghan tribes lived in mountains west of India. He notes, "In the western frontier mountains of India there live various tribes of the Afghans and extend up to the neighbourhood of the Sindu valley." He earlier also noted about the mountains, "In marching from our country to Sindh we start from the country of Nimroz, i.e. the country of Sijistan, whilst marching to Hind or India proper we start from the side of Kabul... In the mountains which form the frontier of India towards the west there are tribes of the Hindus, or of people near akin to them – rebellious savage races – which extend as far as the farthermost frontiers of the Hindu race."
Mahmud had gone to war against pagan Afghans while campaigning in the Sulayman mountains. Firishta states that Afghans fought on both sides during the war between Mu'izz al-Din and Pithorai in 1192 AD, which Encyclopaedia of Islam says probably indicates that they were not completely converted yet.
In 1519, Babur mounted an attack on the fort of Bajaur and sent a Dilazak Afghan as an ambassador to the Gibri Sultan of Bajaur, Mir Haidar 'Ali, to surrender and enter his services. Gibri, a Dardic language of Bajaur, was also spoken by the royal family and nobility of the Swat Valley. The Gibris decided to resist and Babur's forces stormed it in two days. He ordered a general massacre of its inhabitants on the pretext that they had rebelled against Kabul's regime and were infidels who had forsaken Islam.
The westward movement of Pashtuns from Sulaiman mountains to Qandahar and Herat is thought to have begun in the 15th century. In the 16th century, the area around Qandahar formed a bone of contention between the Ghilzais and Abdalis. The latter gave in and moved towards Herat during the reign of Safavid Shah Abbas I. Their settlements displaced or subjugated the indigenous populations, especially the Tajiks who were also the dominant population in Kabul, Nangarhar and Laghman in east Afghanistan. Before the advent of Ghilzais of the Ahmadzai division in the late 16th century, Logar River was also a Tajik stronghold. The Pashtuns also displaced the original Kafirs and Pashayi people in Kunar Valley and Laghman Valley, located south of Kabul in east Afghanistan, to the infertile mountains. Regions to the south and east of Ghazni were the strongholds of Hazaras before the 16th century. They also lost Wardak to the tribe of the same name when the latter invaded in the 17th century. In Qandahar, the Farsiwanis, Hazaras, Kakars and Baloch people were subjugated.
Conquests of Kafiristan.
Kafiristan is a mountainous region of the Hindu Kush that was isolated and politically independent until the Afghan conquest of 1896. Before their conversion to Islam, the Nuristanis or Kafir people practiced a form of ancient Hinduism infused with locally developed accretions.
Kafiristan proper from west to east comprises basins of Alishang, Alingar, Pech or Prasun, Waigal and Bashgal. The region became a refuge of an old group of Indo-European people, probably mixed with an older substratum, as well as a refuge of a distinct Kafiri group of Indo-Iranian languages, forming part of the wider Dardic languages. The inhabitants were known as "kafirs" due to their enduring paganism, while other regions around them became Muslim. However, the influence from district names in Kafiristan of Katwar or Kator and the ethnic name Kati has also been suggested. The Kafirs were divided into Siyah-Posh, comprising five sub-tribes who spoke the Kamkata-vari language; while the others were called Safed-Posh, comprising Prasungeli, Waigeli, Wamai and Ashkun.
The Kafirs called themselves "Balor", a term that appeared in Chinese sources as early as the fifth century AD. In both the Chinese sources and Muslim sources like the 16th-century work of Kashmir's conqueror Mirza Muhammad Haidar Dughlat, the terms "Bolor" and "Boloristan" denote the area from the Kabul valley to Kashmir, Yarkand and Kashgar. The country is the most inaccessible part of Hindu Kush. The Muslim conquerors could not achieve a lasting success here.
The vast area extending from modern Nuristan to Kashmir contained a host of "Kafir" cultures and Indo-European languages that became Islamized over a long period. Earlier, it was surrounded by Buddhist areas. The Islamization of the nearby Badakhshan began in the 8th century and Kafiristan was completely surrounded by Muslim states in the 16th century with the Islamization of Baltistan. The Buddhist states temporarily brought literacy and state rule into the region. The decline of Buddhism resulted in it becoming heavily isolated.
There have been varying theories about the origins of the Kafirs. Oral traditions of some Nuristanis place themselves to be at confluence of Kabul and Kunar River a millennium ago, being driven off from Kandahar to Kabul to Kapisa to Kama with the Muslim invasion. They identify themselves as late arrivals here, being driven by Mahmud of Ghazni, who after establishing his empire, forced the unsubmissive population to flee. George Scott Robertson considered them to be part of the old Indian population of Eastern Afghanistan and stated that they fled to the mountains while refusing to convert to Islam after the Muslim invasion in the 10th century. The name Kator was used by Lagaturman, the last king of the Turk Shahi. The title "Shah Kator" was assumed by Chitral's ruler Mohtaram Shah who assumed it upon being impressed by the majesty of the erstwhile pagan rulers of Chitral. The theory of Kators being related to the Turki Shahis is based on the information of "Jami- ut-Tawarikh" and "Tarikh-i-Binakiti". The region was also named after its ruling elite. The royal usage may be the origin behind the name of Kator.
Mahmud of Ghazni.
In 1020–21, Mahmud of Ghazni led a campaign against Kafiristan and the people of the "pleasant valleys of Nur and Qirat" according to Gardizi. The Persian chronicles speak of Qirat and Nur (or Nardin), which H. M. Elliot on authority of Al-Biruni identifies with Nur and Kira tributaries of Kabul river. Ferishta wrongly calls these two valleys as "Nardin" and Qirat and confuses this conquest with the one against "Nardin" or Nandana. He also wrongly mentions that it took place after 412 AH. Alexander Cunningham identifies the places conquered as "Bairath" and "Narayanpura".
These people worshipped the lion. While Clifford Edmund Bosworth considers that Mahmud attacked "pagan Afghans", Joseph Theodore Arlinghaus of Duke University does not consider it correct because his source Gardizi simply calls them "pagan (kafiran)" and not "pagan Afghans", as they were not known to be pagan or live on borders of Nuristan in the 11th century. Mohammad Habib however considers that they might have been worshipping Buddha in the form of a lion ("Sakya Sinha"). Ramesh Chandra Majumdar states that they had a Hindu temple which was destroyed by Mahmud's general. Ram Sharan Sharma meanwhile states that they may have been Buddhist. Cunningham claims based on the reporting of Ferishta that the place was plundered by 'Amir Ali after being taken.
According to Gardizi, while returning from his recent invasion of India, Mahmud had heard about the Kafirs and the chief of Qirat surrendered without any struggle and accepted to convert, with the inhabitants converting as well. Nur however refused to surrender and his general 'Amir Ali led an attack on it, forcing its people to convert. According to Firshta, the rulers of both of them submitted and accepted Islam in 1022. He adds, "On breaking a great temple situated there, the ornamented figure of a lion came out of it, which according to the belief of the Hindus was four thousand years old."
However, no permanent conquest was attempted. "Iqbal namah-i-Jahangiri" stated that Kafirs still lived in Darrah-i-Nur which Mahmud of Ghazni had claimed to have converted. The Mughal Emperor Jahangir had received a delegation of these pure Kafirs in Jalalabad and had honoured them with gifts.
Timurids.
The campaigns of Timur are recorded by Zafarnama, written by Sharaf ad-Din Ali Yazdi, which is based on another work. On his way to India, Timur attacked the Siyah-Posh in 1398 AD after receiving complaints from the trading city of Andarab about the raids by the Kafirs. He penetrated Kafiristan from Khawak pass and restored an old fortress there. He personally proceeded against the Kator region, which extended from Kabul to Kashmir.
Timur sent a detachment of 10,000 soldiers against the Siyah-Poshas under Burhan Aglan and had the fort of Kator deserted by Kafirs destroyed, while the houses of the city were burnt. The Kafirs took refuge on top of a hill and many were killed in the ensuing clash. Some held out for three days but agreed to convert after Timur offered them the choice between death and Islam. They however soon apostatised and ambushed Muslim soldiers in the night. The Muslims repelled them and a number of the Kafirs were killed, with 150 being taken prisoner and later executed. Timur ordered his men "to kill all the men, to make prisoners of women and children, and to plunder and lay waste all their property." His soldiers carried out the order and he directed them to build a tower of skulls of the dead Kafirs.
Timur had his expedition engraved on a neighbouring hill in the month of Ramadan. His detachment sent against the Siyah-Poshas however met with disaster, with Aglan being routed and forced to flee. A small detachment of 400 men under Muhammad Azad was then sent and defeated the Kafirs, retrieving the horses and armour Aglan lost. Timur later captured a few more places, though nothing more is stated, presumably he left the Siyah-Poshas alone. He proceeded to exterminate the rebellious Afghan tribes and crossed the Indus River in September 1398.
The Timurid Sultan Mahmud Mirza is said to have raided Kafiristan twice by "Baburnama", which earned him the title of "ghazi".
Yarkand Khanate.
Mirza Muhammad Haidar Dughlat invaded Balor under orders of Sultan Said Khan in 1527-1528 AD, and was accompanied by Said's eldest son Rashid Khan. The expedition was an Islamic frontier raid called "ghaza". Dughlat undertook highly devastating plundering raids against the region.
Rashid Khan (r. 1533–1560) undertook further expeditions against Bolor (Kafiristan), which are recorded by "Tarikh-i-Kashgar" and "Bahr al-asar" of Mahmud b. Amir Wali. The Kashgari author mentions it briefly, though Wali goes into detail. The first campaign failed with a number of Kashgari captured and enslaved by the people of Bolor. A second invasion was successful and forced them to submit. "Tarikh-i-Kashgar" states that Bolor was governed by Shah Babur after Abdullah Khan's successful campaign in 1640.
Mughals.
Babur himself came to the region in the winter of 1507–1508 and had an inscription carved commemorating his transit. While fleeing to India to take refuge in the Afghan-Indian borderlands after Shibani Khan attacked Qandahar, which Babur had recently conquered, he marched from Kabul to Lamghan in September 1507. He eventually reached the Adinapur fort in Nangarhar district and commented that his men had to forage for food and raided the rice fields of the Kafirs in the Alishang district.
While writing in his memoirs, Babur noted that when he captured Chigha Sarai in 1514, the "Kafirs of Pech came to their assistance." He mentions some Muslim "nīmčas" or half-breeds, probably converted Kafirs, who married with the Kafirs and lived at Chigha Sarai, located at confluence of Kunar River and Pech River. In 1520, he mentions sending Haidar Alamdar to the Kafirs, who returned and met him under Bandpakht along with some Kafir chiefs who gifted him some wineskins.
The relationship between the Siahposh and the residents of Panjshir and Andarab remained the same even more than a century after Timur's expedition. Babur records about Panjshir that, "It lies upon the road, and is in the immediate vicinity of Kafiristan. The inroads of the robbers of Kafiristan are made through Panjshir. In consequence of their vicinity of the Kafirs – the inhabitants of this district are happy to pay them a fixed contribution. Since I last invaded Hindustan, and subdued it (in 1527), the Kafirs have descended into Panjshir, and returned after slaying a great number of people and committing extensive damages."
Per "Tabakat-i-Akbari", the Mughal Emperor Akbar had dispatched his younger brother Mirza Muhammad Hakim, who was a staunch adherent of the missionary-minded Naqshbandi Sufi order, against the Kafirs of Katwar in 1582. Hakim was a semi-independent governor of Kabul. The "Sifat-nama-yi Darviš Muhammad Hān-i Ğāzī" of Kadi Muhammad Salim who accompanied the expedition mentions its details and gives Hakim the epithet of "Darviš Khan Gazi".
Muhammad Darvish's religious crusade fought its way from Lamghan to Alishang, and is stated to have conquered and converted 66 valleys to Islam. After conquering Tajau and Nijrau valleys in Panjshir area, his forces established a fort at Islamabad, located at the confluence of Alishang and Alingar rivers. They continued the raid up to Alishang and made their last effort against the non-Muslims of Alingar, fighting up to Mangu, the modern border between Pashai and Ashkun-speaking areas.
The conquest does not seem to have had a lasting effect, as Henry George Raverty mentions that Kafirs still lived in upper part of Alishang and Tagau. "Khulasat al-ansab" of Hafiz Rahmat Khan stated that the Afghans and Kafirs of Lamghan were still fighting each other during the time of Jahangir.
Final subjugation.
Under Amir Sher Ali Khan, Afghanistan was divided into provinces ("wilayats") of Kabul, Kandahar, Herat and Afghan Turkestan. Uruzgan and Kafiristan were later incorporated into Kabul. Some parts of Kafiristan were already following Islam before its conquest. Amir Abdul Rahman Khan tried to persuade them to convert to Islam by deputing Kafir elders. The Kafirs were meanwhile poorly armed as compared to Afghans and numbered only 60,000. By 1895, the demarcation of nearby Chitral under indirect British rule, and the conquest of Pamirs by Russia, worried him about the endangerment of integration of Afghanistan through the independent Kafiristan. Afghan tribes meanwhile undertook slave raids in places like Kafiristan, Hazarajat, Badakhshan and Chitral.
The territory between Afghanistan and British India was demarcated between 1894 and 1896. Part of the frontier lying between Nawa Kotal in outskirts of Mohmand country and Bashgal Valley on outskirts of Kafiristan were demarcated by 1895 with an agreement reached on 9 April 1895. Abdur Rahman wanted to force every community and tribal confederation with his single interpretation of Islam due to it being the only uniting factor. After the subjugation of the Hazaras, Kafiristan was the last remaining autonomous part. Field marshal Ghulam Hayder Khan sent a message to Kafirs of Barikut which stated, "It is not the duty of the government to compel, force or impose on them to accept, or take the path of the religion of Islam. The obligation that does exist is this: they render obedience and pay their taxes. As long as they do not disobey their command, they will not incinerate themselves with the fire of "padishah's" [king's] wrath. In addition, they are not to block the building of the road [that was planned through their territory]."
Emir Abdur Rahman Khan's forces invaded Kafiristan in the winter of 1895–1896 and captured it in 40 days according to his autobiography. Columns invaded it from the west through Panjshir to Kullum, the strongest fort of the region. The columns from the north came through Badakhshan and from the east through Asmar. A small column also came from south-west through Laghman. The Kafirs were forcibly converted to Islam and resettled in Laghman, while the region was settled by veteran soldiers and other Afghans. Kafiristan was renamed as Nuristan. Other residents also converted to avoid the "jizya".
His victory was celebrated with the publishing of a poem in 1896 or 1897 and Faiz Mohammad Katib Hazara gave him the title of "Idol-Smasher". About 60,000 of the Kafirs became converts. Mullahs were deployed after the conquest to teach them about fundamentals of Islam. The large-scale conversion proved difficult however and complete Islamization took some time. Kafir elders are known to have offered sacrifices in their shrines upon hearing rumours of Rahman's death in 1901. Three main roads connecting Badakhshan with Kunar and Lamghan (Chigha Sirai-Munjan, Asmar-Badakhshan and Munjan-Laghman) were built after the conquest.
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Durrani Empire
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The Durrani Empire, colloquially known as the Afghan Empire, or the Saddozai Kingdom, was an Afghan empire founded by the Durrani tribe of Pashtuns under Ahmad Shah Durrani in 1747, which spanned parts of Central Asia, the Iranian plateau, and the Indian subcontinent. At its peak, it ruled over present-day Afghanistan, much of Pakistan, parts of northeastern and southeastern Iran, eastern Turkmenistan, and northwestern India. Next to the Ottoman Empire, the Durrani Empire is considered to be among the most significant Islamic empires of the second half of the 18th century.
Ahmad was the son of Muhammad Zaman Khan (an Afghan chieftain of the Abdali tribe) and the commander of Nader Shah Afshar. Following Afshar's death in June 1747, Ahmad secured Afghanistan by taking Kandahar, Ghazni, Kabul, and Peshawar. After his accession as the nation's king, he changed his tribal name from "Abdali" to "Durrani". In 1749, the Mughal Empire had ceded sovereignty over much of northwestern India to the Afghans; Ahmad then set out westward to take possession of Mashhad, which was ruled by the Afsharid dynasty under Shahrokh Shah, who also acknowledged Afghan suzerainty. Subsequently, Ahmad sent an army to subdue the areas north of the Hindu Kush down to the Amu Darya, and in short order, all of the different Afghan tribes began to join his cause. Under Ahmad, the Afghans invaded India on eight occasions, subjugating parts of Kashmir and the majority of Punjab. In early 1757, he sacked Delhi, but permitted Mughal emperor Alamgir II to remain in nominal control as long as he acknowledged Afghan suzerainty over the regions south of the Indus River, till Sutlej river.
Following Ahmad's death in 1772, his son Timur Shah Durrani became the next ruler of the Durrani dynasty. Under Timur, the city of Kabul became the new capital of the Durrani Empire while Peshawar served as its winter capital. However, the empire had begun to crumble by this time, and faced territorial losses of Peshawar, Multan and Kashmir to the Sikh Empire in the early 19th century. The dynasty would become heirs of Afghanistan for generations, up until Dost Muhammad Khan and the Barakzai dynasty deposed the Durrani dynasty in Kabul, leading to its supersession by the Emirate of Afghanistan. The Durrani Empire is considered to be the foundational polity of the modern nation-state of Afghanistan, with Ahmad being credited as its Father of the Nation.
History.
Reign of Ahmad Shah Durrani (1747–1772).
Foundation of the Afghan state.
In 1709, Mirwais Hotak chief of the Ghilji tribe of Kandahar Province, gained independence from the Safavid Persians. From 1722 to 1725, his son Mahmud Hotak briefly ruled large parts of Iran and declared himself as "Shah of Persia". However, the Hotak dynasty came to a complete end in 1738 after being toppled and banished by the Afsharids who were led by Nader Shah Afshar of Persia.
The year 1747 marks the definitive appearance of an Afghan political entity independent of both the Persian and Mughal empires. In June of that year a "loya jirga" (grand council) was called into session. The "jirga" lasted for nine days and two chief contestants emerged: Hajji Jamal Khan of the Mohammadzai lineage and Ahmad Khan of the Sadozai. Mohammad Sabir Khan, a noted "darwish" (holy man), who had earlier predicted that Ahmad Khan would be the leader of the Afghans, rose in the "jirga" and said
Ahmad Khan reputedly hesitated to accept the open decision of the "jirga", so Sabir Khan again intervened. He placed some wheat or barley sheaves in Ahmad Khan's turban, and crowned him "Badshah, Durr-i-Dauran" (Shah, Pearl of the Age). The "jirga" concluded near the city of Kandahar with Ahmad Shah Durrani being selected as the new leader of the Afghans, thus the Durrani dynasty was founded. Despite being younger than the other contenders, Ahmad Shah had several overriding factors in his favor. He belonged to a respectable family of political background, especially since his father had served as Governor of Herat who died in a battle defending the Afghans.
Early victories.
One of Ahmad Shah's first military actions was to capture Qalati Ghilji and Ghazni from the Ghilji, and wrest Kabul and Peshawar from Mughal-appointed governor Nasir Khan. In 1749, the Mughal Emperor Ahmad Shah Bahadur was induced to cede Sindh, the Punjab region and the important trans Indus River to Ahmad Shah Durrani in order to save his capital from Afghan attack. Having thus gained substantial territories to the east without a fight, Ahmad Shah turned westward to take possession of Mashhad, which was ruled by Nader Shah Afshar's grandson, Shahrukh Afshar. Ahmad Shah next sent an army to subdue the areas north of the Hindu Kush mountains. In short order, the powerful army brought under its control the Tajik, Hazara, Uzbek, Turkmen, and other tribes of northern Afghanistan. Ahmad Shah invaded the remnants of the Mughal Empire a third time, and then a fourth, consolidating control over the Kashmir and Punjab regions, with Lahore being governed by Afghans. He sacked Delhi in 1757 but permitted the Mughal dynasty to remain in nominal control of the city as long as the ruler acknowledged Ahmad Shah's suzerainty over Punjab, Sindh, and Kashmir. Leaving his second son Timur Shah to safeguard his interests, Ahmad Shah left India to return to Afghanistan.
Relations with China.
Fazil Biy, the ruler of Kokand, and other Kyrgyz chieftains pleaded to Ahmad Shah to aid them against Qing expansionism. Ahmad Shah, delighted to use a casus belli in the name of Islam, accepted, and occupied the regions between Tashkent and Kokand in 1763, though later withdrawing by 1764 as any alliance failed to be forged.
In 1763, Ahmad Shah had dispatched an embassy to the Qing. His aims in this are unknown, however, an embassy allowed Ahmad Shah to establish himself as an emperor. The letter he sent to the Qing emperor Qianlong is missing, but from the Qing reply, the letter was likely dedicated to his conquests and victory at Panipat, alongside Qing expansion.
The letter positioned Ahmad Shah's expansions as bringing order and stability to areas overrun with rebels and lawlessness (in reference to his campaigns in Iran and India). The battle of Panipat was strongly detailed in the letter, in what was likely a fath-nama, meaning a victory letter or declaration to celebrate a victory. The Qing emperor ignored the effective threat.
In the second part of the letter, Qianlong appeared much more defensive, justifying the Qing conquest of the Dzungars and the Altishahr Khojas. He accused them of causing devastation and laying false accusations against him. A report also suggested that Ahmad Shah considered the territories the Qing claimed belonged to the Muslims. In reality, Ahmad Shah possibly wanted to establish spheres of influence, which was similarly done with the Ottomans which divided Iran between them, and a treaty with Bukhara that had established the Amu Darya as the border.
When the Afghan embassy had arrived in Beijing, the chief envoy, Khwaja Mirhan, had refused to kowtow before the Qing emperor. The Qing officials, in shock, demanded he kowtow, to which Mirhan eventually acquiesced. This incident damaged the Qing-Afghan relations and Qianlong cut ties with the Afghans following this. No immediate consequence occurred, and the envoy was shown favor.
Mirhan's refusal likely came out of religious reasons, but the Qing received it as Ahmad Shah declaring himself equal to Qianlong. From Qianlong's view, he saw the Afghans as a significant power and attempted to impress the envoy and in contrast, Ahmad Shah, of the Qing empire. This was especially done in motivation of Altishahr's recent conquest and concerns over stability in the region.
Ahmad Shah's gifts to the Qing emperor included four horses, which were painted by the Qing court painter, Giuseppe Castiglione. Nonetheless, by the time of the envoy's return journey to Afghanistan, Qianlong made preparations to secure Qing territories.
In 1759, as the revolt of the Altishahr Khojas crumbled, two descendants of the Afaqi Sufi lineage crossed into Badakhshan, being pursued by the Qing forces. Fude, the Qing general of the expedition, demanded that Sultan Shah, the ruler of Badakhshan, to arrest the brothers. Sultan Shah accepted, likely wishing to receive Qing military aid against the Durrani Empire. Distrust occurred, however, due to the Afaqi descendants residing in Badakhshan for months, including Sultan Shah's initial refusal to hand them over, possibly intending to send them to Bukhara. Qianlong threatened invasion, which did not occur as one of the descendant's remains were sent to Yarkand.
The death of the Afaqi brothers spurned relations with the Afghans, causing Sultan Shah to plead to the Qing, claiming that Ahmad Shah intended to exact revenge for their deaths. No immediate Afghan invasion occurred. The Qing however, faced numerous frustrations with their tributaries in Central Asia, alongside a major insurrection in Uch-Turfan that required tremendous effort to defeat.
As a result, Qianlong adopted a policy of strict non-interference, realizing that Qing troops in Altishahr were significantly stretched and spread thin. The Afghans, however, seen as a threat, would show the weakness of Qing control in the region.
In August 1768, Qianlong was informed of the Afghan invasion of Badakhshan led by Shah Wali Khan in May, with Afghan forces seizing Sultan Shah's capital, Fayzabad. A Qing agent, Yunggui, held the position that the Qing should interfere in the conflict. Qianlong, however, affirmed that military intervention would irrational, and strictly forbade any military interference. Historians see this as surprising, as the invasion by the Afghans threatened the Qing Empire itself.
Qing sources affirm that the Afghans established Sarimsaq, a child of the Afaqi's who escaped to Badakhshan, in Kunduz. Qianlong was distraught, as another possible revolt could revolve around Sarimsaq, especially after reports came of Muslim travelers and funds being sent to Sarimsaq. This still did not convince Qianlong to act, and he refused to send any negative response to Ahmad Shah at all. During this, Sultan Shah defeated the Afghan governor and reoccupied his capital, but feared another Afghan invasion, sending desperate letters to the Qing in the winter of 1768 to ask for help, claiming that Ahmad Shah would invade next year.
Qianlong rebutted, blaming Sultan Shah for provoking the conflict with the Afghans and affirmed that he would only fight the Afghans if they actually invaded Qing territory. Sultan Shah wrote a letter to Emin Khoja in response in August 1769, expecting aid as he was a vassal, only to find himself abandoned. In December 1769, Sultan Shah wrote another letter that accused Qianlong of failing to uphold his duties. Qianlong rebuked him, and stated that under no circumstances would the Qing aid him.
Qianlong had initially considered the Afghans tributaries, but after the former incident, he no longer even sought the prospect of any form of Durrani submission. His reply to Sultan Shah effectively saw the Qing recognize the Afghans as a rival power to them, with Qianlong recognizing that the Afghans were unable to be treated like tributaries. Rather than aiding the ruler of Badakhshan as his initial policy implicated him to, Qianlong instead justified the Afghan invasion, prompted to by overextended armies, the distance, and stability. Instead, gambling on the difficult terrain between the Afghan and Qing realms for safety. Within the year, Ahmad Shah occupied Badakhshan and Sultan Shah was executed.
Third Battle of Panipat.
The Mughal power in northern India had been declining after the death of Emperor Aurangzeb, who died in 1707. In 1751–52, the "Ahamdiya" treaty was signed between the Marathas and Mughals, when Balaji Bajirao was the Peshwa. Through this treaty, the Marathas controlled virtually the whole of India from their capital at Pune and the Mughal rule was restricted only to Delhi (the Mughals remained the nominal heads of Delhi). Marathas were now straining to expand their area of control towards the Northwest of India. Ahmad Shah sacked the Mughal capital and withdrew with the booty he coveted. To counter the Afghans, Peshwa Balaji Bajirao sent Raghunathrao. He defeated the Rohillas and Afghan garrisons in Punjab and succeeded in ousting Timur Shah and his court from India and brought Lahore, Multan, Kashmir and other subahs on the Indian side of Attock under Maratha rule. Thus, upon his return to Kandahar in 1757, Ahmad was forced to return to India and face the formidable attacks of the Maratha Confederacy.
Ahmad Shah declared a jihad (or Islamic holy war) against the Marathas, and warriors from various Afghan tribes joined his army, including the Baloch people under the command of Khan of Kalat Mir Nasir I of Kalat. Suba Khan Tanoli (Zabardast Khan) was selected as army chief of all military forces. Early skirmishes were followed by victory for the Afghans against the much larger Maratha garrisons in Northwest India and by 1759 Ahmad Shah and his army had reached Lahore and were poised to confront the Marathas. Ahmad Shah Durrani was famous for winning wars much larger than his army. By 1760, the Maratha groups had coalesced into a big enough army under the command of Sadashivrao Bhau. Once again, Panipat was the scene of a confrontation between two warring contenders for control of northern India. The Third Battle of Panipat (14 January 1761), fought between largely Muslim and largely Hindu armies was waged along a twelve-kilometer front. There were rebellions in the north in the region of Bukhara. The Durranis decisively defeated the Marathas in the Third Battle of Panipat on 14 January 1761. The defeat at Panipat resulted in heavy losses for the Marathas, and was a huge setback for Peshwa Balaji Rao. He received the news of the defeat of Panipat on 24 January 1761 at Bhilsa, while leading a reinforcement force. Besides several important generals, he had lost his own son Vishwasrao in the Battle of Panipat. He died on 23 June 1761, and was succeeded by his younger son Madhav Rao I.
Final years.
The victory at Panipat was the high point of Ahmad Shah's—and Afghan—power. However, even prior to his death, the empire began to unravel. In 1762, Ahmad Shah crossed the passes from Afghanistan for the sixth time to subdue the Sikhs. From this time and on, the domination and control of the Empire began to loosen, and by the time of Durrani's death he had lost parts of Punjab to the Sikhs, as well as earlier losses of northern territories to the Uzbeks, necessitating a compromise with them.
He assaulted Lahore and, after taking their holy city of Amritsar, massacred thousands of Sikh inhabitants, destroyed their revered Golden Temple. Within two years, the Sikhs rebelled again and rebuilt their holy city of Amritsar. Ahmad Shah tried several more times to subjugate the Sikhs permanently, but failed. Durrani's forces instigated the Vaḍḍā Ghallūghārā when they killed thousands of Sikhs in the Punjab in 1762. Ahmad Shah also faced other
rebellions in the north, and eventually he and the Uzbek Emir of Bukhara agreed that the Amu Darya would mark the division of their lands. Ahmad Shah retired to his home in the mountains east of Kandahar, where he died in 1772. He had succeeded to a remarkable degree in balancing tribal alliances and hostilities, and in directing tribal energies away from rebellion. He earned recognition as Ahmad Shah Baba, or "Father" of Afghanistan.
Other Durrani rulers in the Empire (1772–1823).
Ahmad Shah's successors governed so ineptly during a period of profound unrest that within fifty years of his death, the Durrani empire "per se" was at an end, and Afghanistan was embroiled in civil war. Much of the territory conquered by Ahmad Shah fell to others in this half century. By 1818, the Sadozai rulers who succeeded Ahmad Shah controlled little more than Kabul and the surrounding territory within a 160-kilometer radius. They not only lost the outlying territories but also alienated other tribes and lineages among the Durrani Pashtuns.
Humayun Mirza (1772).
A few months before his death, Ahmad Shah summoned Timur Shah from Herat and publicly declared him heir to the Durrani Empire. Ahmad Shah made this decision without consulting with his tribal council, as a result the authority of the Durrani Emperor was put into question and created a growing rift that would toil the Durrani empire for years to come, as the tribal council had in majority, supported Ahmad Shah's eldest son and Timur Shah's brother, Sulaiman, the governor of Kandahar. Prominent figures in court who supported the Sulaiman faction were Shah Wali Khan, Ahmad Shah's Wazir, and military chief Sardar Jahan Khan. The court had attempted to urge Ahmad Shah to reconsider his decision, coinciding with the fact that the eldest son should ascend to the throne. Ahmad had ignored this, and quoted: "Timur Shah was infinitely more capable of governing you than his brother". As well as accusing Sulaiman of being "Violent without clemency", and out of favour with the Kandahari Durranis. Ahmad Shah's decision could have been influenced by his illness, which had affected his brain and his mental state. However, choosing Timur Shah as a successor was likely to restrict power of the Senior Generals and the Durrani Tribal Council, which he deemed as a threat to his dynasty in the future.
When Ahmad Shah was on his death bed, Sardar Jahan Khan had capitalized on Timur Shah's far proximity with him ruling over Herat, and poisoned the ear of the Shah. This had worked as Timur Shah was denied an by Ahmad Shah on his deathbed, as a result, Timur Shah had begun mobilizing his forces for the inevitable conflict with his brother. Timur Shah's plans were stalled, however, as a rebellion by Darwish Ali Khan under the Sunni Hazaras, likely instigated by the Sulaiman faction had risen up. Timur Shah had crushed this revolt quickly and Darwish Khan was imprisoned; however, he later escaped. Timur Shah had then lured him into Herat, offering pardon, where then Timur Shah had ordered his execution where his nephew, Muhammad Khan would be appointed in his place.
During the revolt of Darwish, Ahmad Shah had died of his illness in 1772. Shah Wali Khan and Sardar Jahan Khan kept the Shah's death a secret by placing the body on a palanquin covered by thick curtains. They had then left the King's mountain, taking as much treasure as they could and marched to Kandahar. Shah Wali Khan had also announced to everyone that the king was ill and had given orders to not disturb him except his trusted officials. To make the deception more believable, Ahmad Shah's chief eunuch, Yaqut Khan had brought food for the "Sick" Ruler. Shah wali Khan had then notified Sulaiman that Ahmad Shah was dead and proclaimed Sulaiman as king. However, many of the Amirs including Mahadad Khan had disliked Shah Wali's ambitions, and thus had fled to Timur's side, also notifying him of the ongoing situation at Kandahar. Timur Shah had then marched toward Kandahar to face Shah Humayun. Shah Wali, fearing of Timur's march had consulted with Shah Humayun, and had agreed on him marching out to Prince Timur Shah to welcome him. He left Kandahar with over 150 horsemen and had arrived at Prince Timur's force at Farah. Having not sent word, once Shah Wali had dismounted, Timur Shah ordered the killing of Shah Wali. Angu Khan Bamiza'i assassinated Shah Wali Khan and his two sons, including 2 of his sisters children. Shah Sulayman surrendered the throne to Timur Shah following this, and became a loyal follower of him according to the depiction of Amir Habibullah Khan. Timur Shah ascended the throne in November 1772.
Timur Shah (1772–1793).
After his father, Ahmad Shah Durrani's death, he fought his brother Humayun Mirza for the throne, with Humayun supported by Shah Wali Khan. Shah Wali was killed by Timur Shah as he attempted to ride into his camp and beg for peace and mercy. Timur Shah then marched to Kandahar, forcing Humayun to either flee or stay as a devout supporter for Timur Shah. With his throne secured, he began consolidating his power, with efforts to drive power away from the Durrani Pashtuns, and more toward the growing influential Qizilbash and Mongol guards consisted in his army. Timur Shah would also move the capital of the Durrani Realm from Kandahar to Kabul, as a better base of operation to combat any threat arriving from anywhere, as Kabul was essentially the heart of the empire. After consolidating his power, Timur Shah marched against the Sikh's in 1780 in a Jihad, and decisively defeated the Sikhs, forcing them to return Multan toward Durrani Suzerainty after it was seized after the death of Ahmad Shah Durrani. Timur Shah, having secured Punjab, also faced recurring rebellions against him, including an assassination attempt early in his reign at Peshawar. Timur Shah would encounter harsh resistance and rebellion, prominently those of Fayz Allah Khan, Azad Khan, and Arsalan Khan. Timur Shah in his reign also fought against Shah Murad, the ruler of Bukhara who attempted raids into Afghan Turkestan and Khorasan, often harassing the Durrani vassal of the Afsharid dynasty centred in Mashhad. In conclusion, Timur Shah spent most of his reign consolidating the empire, while also fighting off rebellion, he prove himself as a competent leader from holding the unstable empire apart. Timur Shah died on 20 May 1793, succeeded by his son, Zaman Shah Durrani
Zaman Shah (1793–1801).
After the death of Timur Shah, three of his sons, the governors of Kandahar, Herat and Kabul, contended for the succession. Zaman Shah, governor of Kabul, held the field by virtue of being in control of the capital, and became shah at the age of twenty-three. Many of his half-brothers were imprisoned on their arrival in the capital for the purpose, ironically, of electing a new shah. The quarrels among Timur's descendants that threw Afghanistan into turmoil also provided the pretext for the interventions of outside forces.
The efforts of the Sadozai heirs of Timur to impose a true monarchy on the truculent Pashtun tribes, and their efforts to rule absolutely and without the advice of the other major Pashtun tribal leaders, were ultimately unsuccessful. The Sikhs started to rise under the command of Sikh chief, Ranjit Singh, who succeeded in wresting power from Zaman's forces. Later, when Zaman was blinded by his brother, Ranjit Singh gave him asylum in Punjab.
Zaman's downfall was triggered by his attempts to consolidate power. Although it had been through the support of the Barakzai chief, Painda Khan Barakzai, that he had come to the throne, Zaman soon began to remove prominent Barakzai leaders from positions of power and replace them with men of his own lineage, the Sadozai. This upset the delicate balance of Durrani tribal politics that Ahmad Shah had established and may have prompted Painda Khan and other Durrani chiefs to plot against the shah. Painda Khan and the chiefs of the Nurzai and the Alizai Durrani clans were executed, as was the chief of the Qizilbash clan. Painda Khan's son fled to Iran and pledged the substantial support of his Barakzai followers to a rival claimant to the throne, Zaman's younger brother, Mahmud Shah. The clans of the chiefs Zaman had executed joined forces with the rebels, and they took Kandahar without bloodshed. Mahmud Shah had then proceeded to march to Kabul, where he met Zaman Shah and his army on the way from Ghanzi to Kabul, Zaman Shah was decisively defeated, including portions of his army fleeing to Mahmud Shah's cause. Mahmud Shah ordered the lancing of Zaman Shah's eyes, and had succeeded Zaman Shah on the throne of the Durrani Empire.
Mahmud Shah (first reign, 1801–1803).
Zaman Shah's overthrow in 1801 was not the end of civil strife in Afghanistan, but the beginning of even greater violence. Mahmud Shah's first reign lasted for only two years before he was replaced by Shuja Shah.
Shuja Shah (1803–1809 and 1839–1842).
Yet another of Timur Shah's sons, Shuja Shah (or Shah Shuja), ruled for only six years. On June 7, 1809, Shuja Shah signed a treaty with the British, which included a clause stating that he would oppose the passage of foreign troops through his territories. This agreement, the first Afghan pact with a European power, stipulated joint action in case of Franco-Persian aggression against Afghan or British dominions. Only a few weeks after signing the agreement, Shuja was deposed by his predecessor, Mahmud. Much later, he was reinstated by the British, ruling during 1839–1842. Two of his sons also ruled for a brief period in 1842.
Mahmud Shah (second reign, 1809–1818).
Mahmud's second reign lasted 9 years, where he had further attempted to consolidate power, but was deposed by his brother in 1818, Mahmud's reign was also disputed in 1810, while he was campaigning, another one of Timur Shah Durrani's sons had seized the throne, but was defeated by Shah Mahmud in 1810.
Abbas Mirza (1810).
While Mahmud Shah was campaigning in 1810, another one of Timur Shah's sons placed himself in rule at Kabul. Abbas Mirza ruled for a short period of time before being defeated by Mahmud Shah once he returned from campaign.
Sultan Ali Shah (1818–1819).
Ali Shah was another son of Timur Shah. He seized power for a brief period in 1818–1819. in 1818 or 1819, He was strangled by his brother, Isma'il.
Ayub Shah (1819–1823).
Ayub Shah was another son of Timur Shah, who took control of the Durrani Empire after the death of Ali Shah Durrani. The Durrani Empire lost its control over Kashmir to the Sikh Empire in the Battle of Shopian in 1819. Ayub Shah was himself later deposed, and presumably killed in 1823.
Shah Shuja and the First Anglo Afghan War (1839–1842).
In the 19th century as a whole, Britain and Russia were interlocked in a battle for influence in South Asia. Russian advance was trudging through Central Asia, while the British were landing in the masses on the Indian subcontinent. The "Army of the Indus", full of both British and Indian infantrymen and cavalrymen, was intent on restoring Shah Shuja Durrani, the deposed monarch to the throne of Afghanistan. By March 1839, the British had already crossed into the Emirate of Afghanistan.
Military.
The Durrani military was based on cavalry armed with flintlocks who performed hit-and-run attacks, combining new technology in firearms with Turco-Mongol tactics. The core of the Durrani army were the 10,000 "sher-bacha" (blunderbuss)-carrying mounted ghulams (slave-soldiers) of which a third were previously Shia soldiers (Qizilbash) of Nader Shah. Many others were also former troops of Nader Shah. The bulk of the army were Afghan irregular tribal cavalry armed with lance and broadsword. Mounted archers were still used but were uncommon due to the difficulty of training them. Infantry played a very small role in the Durrani army and, with the exception of light swivel guns mounted on camels, the Zamburak, so did artillery.
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Aimaq people
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The Aimaq, Aimaq Persians (), or Chahar Aimaq (), also transliterated as Aymaq, Aimagh, Aimak, and Aymak, are a collection of Sunni and mostly Persian-speaking nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes. They live mainly in the central and western highlands of Afghanistan, especially in Ghor and Badghis. Aimaqs were originally known as "chahar" ("four") Aymaqs: Jamshidi, Aimaq Hazara, Firozkohi, and Taymani. The Timuri, which is a separate tribe but is sometimes included among Aimaqs, which is known as "Aimaq-e digar" ("another Aimaq").
The Aimaq speak several subdialects of the Aimaq dialect of the Persian language, but some southern groups of Taymani, Firozkohi, and northeastern Timuri Aimaqs have adopted the Pashto language.
Etymology.
The word "Aimaq" is derived from the Turkic-Mongolic word "Oymaq" that means "tribe" and "group of tribes".
Origin.
The Aimaqs claim different origins based on their tribal background. Some claim to be descended from the troops of Genghis Khan. The Taymani and Firozkohi claim descent from Pashtun tribes.
Culture and society.
The Aimaq are largely nomadic to semi-nomadic goat and sheep herders. They also trade with villages and farmers during migrations for pastures for their livestock. The material culture and foodstuffs of the Aimaq include skins, carpets, milk, dairy products and more. They trade these products to settled peoples in return for vegetables, grains, fruits, nuts, and other types of foods and goods.
Religion.
Aimaqs are largely Sunni Muslim except for the Jamshidi who are mainly Isma'ili Shia Muslims.
Demographics.
In 2021, the Aimaq made up 4% of Afghanistan's population.
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Arcturus
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Arcturus is a red giant star in the northern constellation of Boötes, and the brightest star in the constellation. It has the Bayer designation α Boötis, which is Latinized to Alpha Boötis and abbreviated Alf Boo or α Boo. With an apparent visual magnitude of −0.05, it is the fourth-brightest star in the night sky and the brightest in the northern celestial hemisphere. Arcturus forms one corner of the Spring Triangle asterism.
Located relatively close at 36.7 light-years from the Sun, Arcturus is a red giant of spectral type K1.5III—an aging star around 7.1 billion years old that has used up its core hydrogen and evolved off the main sequence. It is about the same mass as the Sun, but has expanded to 25 times its size (around 35 million kilometers) and is around 170 times as luminous.
Nomenclature.
The traditional name "Arcturus" is Latinised from the ancient Greek "Ἀρκτοῦρος" (Arktouros) and means "Guardian of the Bear", ultimately from "ἄρκτος" ("arktos"), "bear" and "οὖρος" (ouros), "watcher, guardian". As "ἄρκτος" also came to mean "north", the name can also translate to "Guardian of the North".
The designation of Arcturus as "α Boötis" (Latinised to "Alpha Boötis") was made by Johann Bayer in 1603. In 2016, the International Astronomical Union organized a Working Group on Star Names (WGSN) to catalog and standardize proper names for stars. The WGSN's first bulletin of July 2016 included a table of the first two batches of names approved by the WGSN, which included "Arcturus" for α Boötis.
Observational history.
Arcturus and its distinctive red color have been mentioned since antiquity and medieval times; Ptolemy described it as "subrufa" ("slightly red"), and Geoffrey Chaucer referred to it as "Alramih" in "A Treatise on the Astrolabe" (1391).
In 1635, the French mathematician and astronomer Jean-Baptiste Morin observed Arcturus in the daytime with a telescope. This was the first recorded full daylight viewing for any star other than the Sun and supernovae.
Observation.
With an apparent visual magnitude of −0.05, Arcturus is the brightest star in the northern celestial hemisphere and the fourth-brightest star in the night sky, after Sirius (−1.46 apparent magnitude), Canopus (−0.72) and α Centauri (combined magnitude of −0.27). However, α Centauri AB is a binary star, whose components are each fainter than Arcturus. This makes Arcturus the third-brightest individual star, just ahead of α Centauri A (officially named "Rigil Kentaurus"), whose apparent magnitude . Arcturus has been seen at or just before sunset with the naked eye.
Arcturus is visible from both of Earth's hemispheres as it is located 19° north of the celestial equator. The star culminates at midnight on April 27, and at 9 p.m. on June 10 being visible during the late northern spring or the southern autumn. From the northern hemisphere, an easy way to find Arcturus is to follow the arc of the handle of the Big Dipper (or Plough in the UK). By continuing in this path, one can find Spica, "Arc to Arcturus, then spike (or speed on) to Spica". Together with the bright stars Spica and Regulus (or Denebola, depending on the source), Arcturus is part of the Spring Triangle asterism. With Cor Caroli, these four stars form the Great Diamond asterism.
Arcturus has a B-V color index of +1.23, roughly midway between Pollux (B-V +1.00) and Aldebaran (B-V +1.54).
η Boötis, or Muphrid, is only 3.3 light-years distant from Arcturus, and would have a visual magnitude −2.5, about as bright as Jupiter at its brightest from Earth, whereas an observer on the former system would find Arcturus with a magnitude -5.0, slightly brighter than Venus as seen from Earth, but with an orangish color.
Physical characteristics.
Based upon an annual parallax shift of 88.83 milliarcseconds, as measured by the Hipparcos satellite, Arcturus is from Earth. The parallax margin of error is 0.54 milliarcseconds, translating to a distance margin of error of ±. Because of its proximity, Arcturus has a high proper motion, two arcseconds a year, greater than any first magnitude star other than α Centauri. It is the second-closest giant star to Earth, after Pollux.
Arcturus is moving rapidly () relative to the Sun, and is now almost at its closest point to the Sun. Closest approach will happen in about 4,000 years, when the star will be a few hundredths of a light-year closer to Earth than it is today. (In antiquity, Arcturus was closer to the centre of the constellation.) Arcturus is thought to be an old-disk star, and appears to be moving with a group of 52 other such stars, known as the Arcturus stream.
With an absolute magnitude of −0.30, Arcturus is, together with Vega and Sirius, one of the most luminous stars in the Sun's neighborhood. It is about 110 times brighter than the Sun in visible light wavelengths, but this underestimates its strength as much of the light it gives off is in the infrared; total (bolometric) power output is about 180 times that of the Sun. With a near-infrared J band magnitude of −2.2, only Betelgeuse (−2.9) and R Doradus (−2.6) are brighter. The lower output in visible light is due to a lower efficacy as the star has a lower surface temperature than the Sun.
There have been suggestions that Arcturus might be a member of a binary system with a faint, cool companion, but no companion has been directly detected.
In the absence of a binary companion, the mass of Arcturus cannot be measured directly, but models suggest it is slightly greater than that of the Sun. Evolutionary matching to the observed physical parameters gives a mass of , while the oxygen isotope ratio for a first dredge-up star gives a mass of . The star, given its evolutionary state, is expected to have undergone significant mass loss in the past. The star displays magnetic activity that is heating the coronal structures, and it undergoes a solar-type magnetic cycle with a duration that is probably less than 14 years. A weak magnetic field has been detected in the photosphere with a strength of around half a gauss. The magnetic activity appears to lie along four latitudes and is rotationally modulated.
Arcturus is estimated to be around 6 to 8.5 billion years old, but there is some uncertainty about its evolutionary status. Based upon the color characteristics of Arcturus, it is currently ascending the red-giant branch and will continue to do so until it accumulates a large enough degenerate helium core to ignite the helium flash. It has likely exhausted the hydrogen from its core and is now in its active hydrogen shell burning phase. However, Charbonnel et al. (1998) placed it slightly above the horizontal branch, and suggested it has already completed the helium flash stage.
Spectrum.
Arcturus has evolved off the main sequence to the red giant branch, reaching an early K-type stellar classification. It is frequently assigned the spectral type of K0III, but in 1989 was used as the spectral standard for type K1.5III Fe−0.5, with the suffix notation indicating a mild underabundance of iron compared to typical stars of its type. As the brightest K-type giant in the sky, it has been the subject of multiple atlases with coverage from the ultraviolet to infrared.
The spectrum shows a dramatic transition from emission lines in the ultraviolet to atomic absorption lines in the visible range and molecular absorption lines in the infrared. This is due to the optical depth of the atmosphere varying with wavelength. The spectrum shows very strong absorption in some molecular lines that are not produced in the photosphere but in a surrounding shell. Examination of carbon monoxide lines show the molecular component of the atmosphere extending outward to 2–3 times the radius of the star, with the chromospheric wind steeply accelerating to 35–40 km/s in this region.
Astronomers term "metals" those elements with higher atomic numbers than helium. The atmosphere of Arcturus has an enrichment of alpha elements relative to iron but only about a third of solar metallicity. Arcturus is possibly a Population II star.
Oscillations.
As one of the brightest stars in the sky, Arcturus has been the subject of a number of studies in the emerging field of asteroseismology. Belmonte and colleagues carried out a radial velocity (Doppler shift of spectral lines) study of the star in April and May 1988, which showed variability with a frequency of the order of a few microhertz (μHz), the highest peak corresponding to 4.3 μHz (2.7 days) with an amplitude of 60 ms−1, with a frequency separation of c. 5 μHz. They suggested that the most plausible explanation for the variability of Arcturus is stellar oscillations.
Asteroseismological measurements allow direct calculation of the mass and radius, giving values of and . This form of modelling is still relatively inaccurate, but a useful check on other models.
Search for planets.
Hipparcos satellite astrometry suggested that Arcturus is a binary star, with the companion about twenty times dimmer than the primary and orbiting close enough to be at the very limits of humans' current ability to make it out. Recent results remain inconclusive, but do support the marginal "Hipparcos" detection of a binary companion.
In 1993, radial velocity measurements of Aldebaran, Arcturus and Pollux showed that Arcturus exhibited a long-period radial velocity oscillation, which could be interpreted as a "substellar companion". This substellar object would be nearly 12 times the mass of Jupiter and be located roughly at the same orbital distance from Arcturus as the Earth is from the Sun, at 1.1 astronomical units. However, all three stars surveyed showed similar oscillations yielding similar companion masses, and the authors concluded that the variation was likely to be intrinsic to the star rather than due to the gravitational effect of a companion. So far, no substellar companion has been confirmed.
Mythology.
One astronomical tradition associates Arcturus with the mythology around Arcas, who was about to shoot and kill his own mother Callisto who had been transformed into a bear. Zeus averted their imminent tragic fate by transforming the boy into the constellation Boötes, called Arctophylax "bear guardian" by the Greeks, and his mother into Ursa Major (Greek: Arctos "the bear"). The account is given in Hyginus's "Astronomy".
Aratus in his "Phaenomena" said that the star Arcturus lay below the belt of Arctophylax, and according to Ptolemy in the "Almagest" it lay between his thighs.
An alternative lore associates the name with the legend around Icarius, who gave the gift of wine to other men, but was murdered by them, because they had had no experience with intoxication and mistook the wine for poison. It is stated that Icarius became Arcturus while his dog, Maira, became Canicula (Procyon), although "Arcturus" here may be used in the sense of the constellation rather than the star.
Cultural significance.
As one of the brightest stars in the sky, Arcturus has been significant to observers since antiquity.
In ancient Mesopotamia, it was linked to the god Enlil, and also known as Shudun, "yoke", or SHU-PA of unknown derivation in the "Three Stars Each" Babylonian star catalogues and later MUL.APIN around 1100 BC.
In ancient Greek, the star is found in ancient astronomical literature, e.g. Hesiod's "Work and Days", circa 700 BC, as well as Hipparchus's and Ptolemy's star catalogs. The folk-etymology connecting the star name with the bears (Greek: ἄρκτος, arktos) was probably invented much later. It fell out of use in favour of Arabic names until it was revived in the Renaissance. Arcturus is also mentioned in Plato's "Laws" (844e) as a herald for the season of vintage, specifically figs and grapes.
In Arabic, Arcturus is one of two stars called "al-simāk" "the uplifted ones" (the other is Spica). Arcturus is specified as السماك الرامح "as-simāk ar-rāmiħ" "the uplifted one of the lancer". The term "Al Simak Al Ramih" has appeared in Al Achsasi Al Mouakket catalogue (translated into Latin as "Al Simak Lanceator"). This has been variously romanized in the past, leading to obsolete variants such as "Aramec" and "Azimech". For example, the name "Alramih" is used in Geoffrey Chaucer's "A Treatise on the Astrolabe" (1391). Another Arabic name is "Haris-el-sema", from "حارس السماء" "ħāris al-samā’" "the keeper of heaven". or "حارس الشمال" "ħāris al-shamāl’" "the keeper of north".
In Indian astronomy, Arcturus is called Swati or Svati (Devanagari स्वाति, Transliteration IAST svāti, svātī́), possibly 'su' + 'ati' ("great goer", in reference to its remoteness) meaning very beneficent. It has been referred to as "the real pearl" in Bhartṛhari's kāvyas.
In Chinese astronomy, Arcturus is called "Da Jiao" (), because it is the brightest star in the Chinese constellation called "Jiao Xiu" (). Later it became a part of another constellation "Kang Xiu" ().
The Wotjobaluk Koori people of southeastern Australia knew Arcturus as "Marpean-kurrk", mother of "Djuit" (Antares) and another star in Boötes, "Weet-kurrk" (Muphrid). Its appearance in the north signified the arrival of the larvae of the wood ant (a food item) in spring. The beginning of summer was marked by the star's setting with the Sun in the west and the disappearance of the larvae. The people of Milingimbi Island in Arnhem Land saw Arcturus and Muphrid as man and woman, and took the appearance of Arcturus at sunrise as a sign to go and harvest "rakia" or spikerush. The Weilwan of northern New South Wales knew Arcturus as "Guembila" "red".
Prehistoric Polynesian navigators knew Arcturus as "Hōkūleʻa", the "Star of Joy". Arcturus is the zenith star of the Hawaiian Islands. Using Hōkūleʻa and other stars, the Polynesians launched their double-hulled canoes from Tahiti and the Marquesas Islands. Traveling east and north they eventually crossed the equator and reached the latitude at which Arcturus would appear directly overhead in the summer night sky. Knowing they had arrived at the exact latitude of the island chain, they sailed due west on the trade winds to landfall. If Hōkūleʻa could be kept directly overhead, they landed on the southeastern shores of the Big Island of Hawaii. For a return trip to Tahiti the navigators could use Sirius, the zenith star of that island. Since 1976, the Polynesian Voyaging Society's "Hōkūleʻa" has crossed the Pacific Ocean many times under navigators who have incorporated this wayfinding technique in their non-instrument navigation. The crew's successful landing in Waitangi, New Zealand on December 1985 earned them iwihood under the name of (“Tribe of the Arcturus” in Māori).
Arcturus had several other names that described its significance to indigenous Polynesians. In the Society Islands, Arcturus, called "Ana-tahua-taata-metua-te-tupu-mavae" ("a pillar to stand by"), was one of the ten "pillars of the sky", bright stars that represented the ten heavens of the Tahitian afterlife. In Hawaii, the pattern of Boötes was called "Hoku-iwa", meaning "stars of the frigatebird". This constellation marked the path for Hawaiʻiloa on his return to Hawaii from the South Pacific Ocean. The Hawaiians called Arcturus "Hoku-leʻa". It was equated to the Tuamotuan constellation "Te Kiva", meaning "frigatebird", which could either represent the figure of Boötes or just Arcturus. However, Arcturus may instead be the Tuamotuan star called "Turu". The Hawaiian name for Arcturus as a single star was likely "Hoku-leʻa", which means "star of gladness", or "clear star". In the Marquesas Islands, Arcturus was probably called "Tau-tou" and was the star that ruled the month approximating January. The Māori and Moriori called it "Tautoru", a variant of the Marquesan name and a name shared with Orion's Belt.
In Inuit astronomy, Arcturus is called the Old Man ("Uttuqalualuk" in Inuit languages) and The First Ones ("Sivulliik" in Inuit languages).
The Miꞌkmaq of eastern Canada saw Arcturus as "Kookoogwéss", the owl.
Early-20th-century Armenian scientist Nazaret Daghavarian theorized that the star commonly referred to in Armenian folklore as "Gutani astgh" (Armenian: Գութանի աստղ; lit. star of the plow) was in fact Arcturus, as the constellation of Boötes was called "Ezogh" (Armenian: Եզող; lit. the person who is plowing) by Armenians.
In popular culture.
In Ancient Rome, the star's celestial activity was supposed to portend tempestuous weather, and a personification of the star acts as narrator of the prologue to Plautus' comedy "Rudens" (circa 211 BC).
The "Kāraṇḍavyūha Sūtra", compiled at the end of the 4th century or beginning of the 5th century, names one of Avalokiteśvaras meditative absorptions as "The face of Arcturus".
One of the possible etymologies offered for the name "Arthur" assumes that it is derived from "Arcturus" and that the late 5th to early 6th-century figure on whom the myth of King Arthur is based was originally named for the star.
In the Middle Ages, Arcturus was considered a Behenian fixed star and attributed to the stone jasper and the plantain herb. Cornelius Agrippa listed its kabbalistic sign under the alternate name "Alchameth".
Arcturus's light was employed in the mechanism used to open the 1933 Chicago World's Fair. The star was chosen as it was thought that light from Arcturus had started its journey at about the time of the previous Chicago World's Fair in 1893 (at 36.7 light-years away, the light actually started in 1896).
At the height of the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln observed Arcturus through a 9.6-inch refractor telescope when he visited the Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., in August 1863.
An Anacondrai general from Ninjago (TV series) is also named Arcturus.
In the Fallout 4 DLC Nuka-World, an in-game location which was built by Vault-Tec to demonstrate how Vaults might be used for space colonisation uses the name “Arcturus I”.
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Androphagi
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The Androphagi were an ancient Scythian tribe whose existence was recorded by ancient Greco-Roman authors.
The Androphagi were closely related to the Melanchlaeni and the Budini.
Name.
The name is a Latinisation of the ancient Greek name (), which meant "Man-Eaters." This name is a descriptive one based on this tribe's practice of cannibalism, and their own tribal name is unknown.
Location.
The Androphagi lived in the region to the east of the middle Dnipro river, especially in the valley of the Sula and some smaller rivers.
The neighbours of the Androphagi were the Neuri to the west and the Scythians to the south.
History.
Origin.
The Scythians originated in the region of the Volga-Ural steppes of Central Asia, possibly around the 9th century BC, as a section of the population of the Srubnaya culture containing a significant element originating from the Siberian Andronovo culture. The population of the Srubnaya culture was among the first truly nomadic pastoralist groups, who themselves emerged in the Central Asian and Siberian steppes during the 9th century BC as a result of the cold and dry climate then prevailing in these regions.
During the 9th to 8th centuries BC, a significant movement of the nomadic peoples of the Eurasian Steppe started when another nomadic Iranic tribe closely related to the Scythians from eastern Central Asia, either the Massagetae or the Issedones, migrated westwards, forcing the early Scythians to the west across the Araxes river.
Over the course of the 8th and 7th centuries BC, the Scythians migrated into the Caucasian and Caspian Steppes in several waves, becoming the dominant population of the region, where they assimilated most of the Cimmerians and conquered their territory, with this absorption of the Cimmerians by the Scythians being facilitated by their similar ethnic backgrounds and lifestyles, after which the Scythians settled in the area between the Araxes, the Caucasus and the Lake Maeotis. The section of the Scythians from whom the Androphagi originated participated in this migration, and had established itself in Ciscaucasia around .
From their base in the Caucasian Steppe, during the period of the 8th to 7th centuries BC itself, the Scythians conquered the Pontic and Crimean Steppes to the north of the Black Sea up to the Danube river, which formed the western boundary of Scythian territory onwards, with this process of Scythian takeover of the Pontic Steppe becoming fully complete by the 7th century BC.
Archaeologically, the westwards migration of the Early Scythians from Central Asia into the Caspian Steppe constituted the latest of the two to three waves of expansion of the Srubnaya culture to the west of the Volga. The last and third wave corresponding to the Scythian migration has been dated to the 9th century BC. The expansion of the Scythians into the Pontic Steppe is attested through the westward movement of the Srubnaya-Khvalynsk culture into Ukraine. The Srubnaya-Khvalynsk culture in Ukraine is referred to in scholarship as the "Late Srubnaya" culture.
Migration towards the forest steppe.
From the Caucasian steppe, the tribe of the Royal Scythians expanded to the south, following the coast of the Caspian Sea and arrived in the Ciscaucasian steppes, from where they settled in eastern Transcaucasia until the early 6th century BC.
The Royal Scythians were finally expelled from West Asia in the , after which, beginning in the later 7th and lasting throughout much of the 6th century BC, the majority of the Scythians migrated from Ciscaucasia into the Pontic Steppe, which became the centre of Scythian power.
The retreat of the Royal Scythians from West Asia into the Pontic steppe pushed a Scythian splinter group to the north, into the region of Donets-Kramatorsk, where they formed the Vorskla and Sula-Donets groups of the Scythian culture, of which the Donets group corresponded to the Melanchlaeni, the Sula group to the Androphagi, and the Vorskla group to the Budini, with all of these groups remaining independent from the Scythians proper. This splinter group arrived in the forest-steppe region in part from the Kuban region, but for the most from northern Ciscaucasia.
Of these groups, the Androphagi and the Melanchlaeni were closely related tribes.
The Persian invasion.
When the Persian Achaemenid king Darius I attacked the Scythians in 513 BC, the Scythian king Idanthyrsus summoned the kings of the peoples surrounding his kingdom to a meeting to decide how to deal with the Persian invasion. The kings of the Budini, Gelonians, and Sarmatians accepted to help the Scythians against the Persian attack, while the kings of the Agathyrsi, Androphagi, Melanchlaeni, Neuri, and Tauri refused to support the Scythians.
During the campaign, the Scythians and the Persian army pursuing them passed through the territories of the Melanchlaeni, Androphagi, and Neuri, before they reached the borders of the Agathyrsi, who refused to let the Scythian divisions to pass into their territories and find refuge there, thus forcing the Scythians to return to Scythia with the Persians pursuing them.
Society and culture.
The ancient Greek author Herodotus of Halicarnassus described the Androphagi as wearing Scythian-type clothing, and speaking a "peculiar language."
Lifestyle.
The Androphagi were largely engaged in agriculture and farming, and hunting was of lesser importance among them.
Language.
The "peculiar language" of the Androphagi might have been a dialect of Iranic language different from that of the Pontic Scythians. The Sula group of the Scythian culture which corresponded to the Androphagi was part of an area of Iranic toponymy and hydronymy.
Ritual cannibalism.
Herodotus of Halicarnassus claimed that the Androphagi were the only ones who practised cannibalism among the peoples living near Scythia, which seems to be confirmed by the intact and unbroken human bones of seventeen individuals which were found along with cut and broken animal bones in the kitchen refuse of seven Androphagi earthworks. However, traces of similar ritual cannibalism are recorded from seven earthworks of the Melanchlaeni and Budini, as well as in the Smiela kurgan 15, which was one of the earliest burials of the Tiasmyn group of the Scythian culture.
The Sauromatians who lived in the Urals and the lower Volga, and Massagetae and Issedones to the east of the Urals, practised similar ritual cannibalism, suggesting that the early Scythic peoples of the Central Asian steppe had customs and beliefs connected to ritual cannibalism.
Trade.
Trade relations between the Androphagi and the ancient Greek colonies on the northern shores of the Black Sea had been established in the 6th century BC.
Archaeology.
The Androphagi archaeologically belonged to the Scythian culture, and they corresponded to its Sula group, which was the largest Scythian culture group of the eastern European forest steppe zone.
The Donets, Sula and Vorskla groups of the Scythian culture, respectively corresponding to the Melanchlaeni, Androphagi, and Budini, are sometimes grouped the Zolnichnaya (that is "Ash-Mounds") culture because of the presence of several (), that is ash mounds containing refuse from kitchens and other sources, near dwellings. The three groups of the Zolnichnaya culture were closely related to each other, with the Vorskla group nevertheless exhibiting enough significant differences from the Sula and Donets groups that the latter two are sometimes grouped together as a Sula-Donets group distinct from the Vorskla group.
The earliest Scythians had belonged to the Srubnaya culture culture, and, like the Donets group of the Scythian culture which corresponds to the Melanchlaeni, the Sula group of the Scythian culture contained an important element of the Srubnaya culture in its substratum, although there were some differences between the Donets and Sula groups.
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Albert Brooks
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Albert Brooks (born Albert Lawrence Einstein; July 22, 1947) is an American actor, comedian, director and screenwriter. He received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the 1987 comedy-drama film "Broadcast News" and was widely praised for his performance in the 2011 action drama film "Drive". Brooks has also acted in films such as "Taxi Driver" (1976), "Private Benjamin" (1980), "Unfaithfully Yours" (1984), "Out of Sight" (1998), "My First Mister" (2001) and "Concussion" (2015). He has written, directed, and starred in several comedy films, such as "Modern Romance" (1981), "Lost in America" (1985), and "Defending Your Life" (1991). He is also the author of "2030: The Real Story of What Happens to America" (2011).
Brooks has also voiced several characters in animated films and television shows. His voice acting roles include Marlin in "Finding Nemo" (2003) and its sequel "Finding Dory" (2016), Tiberius in "The Secret Life of Pets" (2016), and several one-time characters in "The Simpsons", including Hank Scorpio in "You Only Move Twice" (1996) and Russ Cargill in "The Simpsons Movie" (2007).
Early life.
Brooks was born Albert Lawrence Einstein on July 22, 1947, into a Jewish show business family in Beverly Hills, California, to Thelma Leeds (née Goodman), an actress, and Harry Einstein, a radio comedian who performed on Eddie Cantor's radio program and was known as "Parkyakarkus". He is the youngest of three sons. His older brothers are the late comedic actor Bob Einstein (1942–2019), and Clifford Einstein (b. 1939), a partner and longtime chief creative officer at Los Angeles advertising agency Dailey & Associates. His older half-brother was Charles Einstein (1926–2007), a writer for such television programs as "Playhouse 90" and "Lou Grant". His grandparents emigrated from Austria and Russia. He grew up among show business families in Southern California, attending Beverly Hills High School with Richard Dreyfuss and Rob Reiner.
Career.
Brooks attended Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) in Pittsburgh (where his classmates included Michael McKean and David L. Lander), but dropped out after one year to focus on his comedy career. By the age of 19, he had changed his professional name to Albert Brooks, joking that "the real Albert Einstein changed his name to sound more intelligent". He quickly became a regular on variety and talk shows during the late 1960s and early 1970s, and was on the writing staff for the ill-fated ABC show "Turn-On", which was cancelled after one episode. In 1970–71, he also worked with college friends McKean and Lander (alongside Harry Shearer) as a writer/guest performer on some early material by radio and LP record comedy group The Credibility Gap. Brooks led a new generation of self-reflective baby-boomer comics appearing on NBC's "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson". His on-stage persona, that of an egotistical, narcissistic, nervous comic, an ironic showbiz insider who punctured himself before an audience by disassembling his mastery of comedic stagecraft, influenced other post-modern comedians of the 1970s, including Steve Martin, Martin Mull, and Andy Kaufman.
After two successful comedy albums, "Comedy Minus One" (1973) and the Grammy Award-nominated "A Star Is Bought" (1975), Brooks left the stand-up circuit to try his hand as a filmmaker. He had already made his first short film, "The Famous Comedians School", a satiric short and an early example of the mockumentary subgenre that was aired in 1972 on the PBS show "The Great American Dream Machine".
In 1975, Brooks directed six short films for the first season of NBC's "Saturday Night Live". In 1976, he appeared in his first mainstream film role, in Martin Scorsese's landmark "Taxi Driver"; Scorsese allowed Brooks to improvise much of his dialogue.
Brooks directed his first feature film, "Real Life", in 1979, which he co-wrote with Harry Shearer and Monica Johnson. The film, in which Brooks (playing a version of himself) films a typical suburban family in an effort to win both an Oscar and a Nobel Prize, was a sendup of PBS's "An American Family" documentary. It has also been viewed as foretelling the emergence of reality television. Brooks also appeared in the film "Private Benjamin" (1980), starring Goldie Hawn.
Through the 1980s and 1990s, Brooks co-wrote (with long-time collaborator Monica Johnson), directed and starred in a series of well-received comedies, playing variants on his standard neurotic and self-obsessed character. These include 1981's "Modern Romance", where Brooks played a film editor desperate to win back his ex-girlfriend (Kathryn Harrold). The film received a limited release and ultimately grossed under $3 million domestically. His best-received film, the satirical road movie "Lost in America" (1985), featured Brooks and Julie Hagerty as a couple who leave their yuppie lifestyle and drop out of society to live in a motor home as they have always dreamed of doing, meeting disappointment.
Brooks's "Defending Your Life" (1991) placed his lead character in the afterlife, put on trial to justify his human fears and determine his cosmic fate. Critics responded to the off-beat premise and the chemistry between Brooks and Meryl Streep, as his post-death love interest. His later efforts did not find large audiences, but still retained Brooks's touch as a filmmaker. He garnered positive reviews for "Mother" (1996), which starred Brooks as a middle-aged writer moving back home to resolve tensions between himself and his mother (Debbie Reynolds). 1999's "The Muse" featured Brooks as a Hollywood screenwriter who has "lost his edge", using the services of an authentic muse (Sharon Stone) for inspiration. In an interview with Brooks with regard to "The Muse", Gavin Smith wrote, "Brooks's distinctive film making style is remarkably discreet and unemphatic; he has a light, deft touch, with a classical precision and economy, shooting and cutting his scenes in smooth, seamless successions of medium shots, with clean, high-key lighting."
Brooks has appeared as a guest voice on "The Simpsons" seven times during its run (always under the name "A. Brooks"). He is described as the best guest star in the show's history by IGN, particularly for his role as supervillain Hank Scorpio in the episode "You Only Move Twice".
Brooks also acted in other writers' and directors' films during the 1980s and 1990s. He had a cameo in the opening scene of "", playing a driver whose passenger (Dan Aykroyd) has a shocking secret. In James L. Brooks's hit "Broadcast News" (1987), Albert Brooks was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for playing an insecure, supremely ethical television news reporter, who offers the rhetorical question, "Wouldn't this be a great world if insecurity and desperation made us more attractive?" He also won positive notices for his role in 1998's "Out of Sight", playing an untrustworthy banker and ex-convict.
Brooks received positive reviews for his portrayal of a dying retail store owner who befriends a disillusioned teenager (played by Leelee Sobieski) in "My First Mister" (2001). Brooks continued his voiceover work in Pixar's "Finding Nemo" (2003), as the voice of Marlin, one of the film's protagonists.
His 2005 film "Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World" was dropped by Sony Pictures due to their desire to change the title. Warner Independent Pictures purchased the film and gave it a limited release in January 2006; the film received mixed reviews and a low box office gross. As with "Real Life", Brooks plays a fictionalized "Albert Brooks", a filmmaker ostensibly commissioned by the US government to see what makes the Muslim people laugh, and sending him on a tour of India and Pakistan.
In 2006 he appeared in the documentary film "Wanderlust" as David Howard from "Lost in America". In 2007, he continued his long-term collaboration with "The Simpsons" by voicing Russ Cargill, the central antagonist of "The Simpsons Movie". He portrayed Lenny Botwin, Nancy Botwin's estranged father-in-law, during the 2008 season of the Showtime series "Weeds".
"2030: The Real Story of What Happens to America", his first novel, was published by St. Martin's Press on May 10, 2011.
Brooks co-starred as the vicious gangster Bernie Rose, the main antagonist in the 2011 film "Drive", alongside Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan. His performance received much critical praise and positive reviews. After receiving awards and nominations from several film festivals and critic groups, but not an Academy Award nomination, Brooks responded humorously on Twitter, "And to the Academy: 'You don't like me. You really don't like me'."
Brooks voiced Tiberius, a curmudgeonly red-tailed hawk, in the 2016 film "The Secret Life of Pets", and reprised the role of Marlin in "Finding Dory" the same year. In 2019, Brooks did not return to do the voice of Tiberius in "The Secret Life of Pets 2", because he was not available.
In early November 2023, a documentary about the comedian/filmmaker, "", directed by his friend Rob Reiner, was released on Max. The documentary includes interviews from David Letterman, Sharon Stone, Larry David, James L Brooks, Conan O'Brien, Sarah Silverman, Ben Stiller, and others. Later that month, on the podcast "WTF with Marc Maron", Brooks supplemented the biographical information in the documentary with additional stories from his life.
Personal life.
In 1997, Brooks married artist Kimberly Shlain, daughter of surgeon and writer Leonard Shlain. They have two children, Jacob and Claire and live in Santa Monica, California.
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Antares
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Antares is the brightest star in the constellation of Scorpius. It has the Bayer designation α Scorpii, which is Latinised to Alpha Scorpii. Often referred to as "the heart of the scorpion", Antares is flanked by σ Scorpii and τ Scorpii near the center of the constellation. Distinctly reddish when viewed with the naked eye, Antares is a slow irregular variable star that ranges in brightness from an apparent visual magnitude of +0.6 down to +1.6. It is on average the fifteenth-brightest star in the night sky. Antares is the brightest and most evolved stellar member of the Scorpius–Centaurus association, the nearest OB association to the Sun. It is located about from Earth at the rim of the Upper Scorpius subgroup, and is illuminating the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex in its foreground.
Classified as spectral type M1.5Iab-Ib, Antares is a red supergiant, a large evolved massive star and one of the largest stars visible to the naked eye. If placed at the center of the Solar System, it would extend out to somewhere in the asteroid belt. Its mass is calculated to be 14.5 ± 1.5 times that of the Sun. Antares appears as a single star when viewed with the naked eye, but it is actually a binary star system, with its two components called α Scorpii A and α Scorpii B. The brighter of the pair is the red supergiant, while the fainter is a hot main sequence star of magnitude 5.5. They have a projected separation of about .
Its traditional name "Antares" derives from the Ancient Greek , meaning "rival to Ares", due to the similarity of its reddish hue to the appearance of the planet Mars.
Nomenclature.
"α Scorpii" (Latinised to "Alpha Scorpii") is the star's Bayer designation. Antares has the Flamsteed designation 21 Scorpii, as well as catalogue designations such as HR 6134 in the Bright Star Catalogue and HD 148478 in the Henry Draper Catalogue. As a prominent infrared source, it appears in the Two Micron All-Sky Survey catalogue as 2MASS J16292443-2625549 and the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) Sky Survey Atlas catalogue as IRAS 16262–2619. It is also catalogued as a double star WDS J16294-2626 and CCDM J16294-2626. Antares is a variable star and is listed in the General Catalogue of Variable Stars, but as a Bayer-designated star it does not have a separate variable star designation.
Its traditional name "Antares" derives from the Ancient Greek , meaning "rival to Ares", due to the similarity of its reddish hue to the appearance of the planet Mars. The comparison of Antares with Mars was once thought to have its origin with early Mesopotamian astronomers. This is now considered an outdated speculation, because the name of this star in Mesopotamian astronomy has always been "heart of Scorpion" and it was associated with the goddess Lisin. Some scholars have speculated that the star may have been named after Antar, or Antarah ibn Shaddad, the Arab warrior-hero celebrated in the pre-Islamic poems Mu'allaqat. However, the name "Antares" is already proven in the Greek culture, e.g. in Ptolemy's Almagest and Tetrabiblos. In 2016, the International Astronomical Union organised a Working Group on Star Names (WGSN) to catalog and standardise proper names for stars. The WGSN's first bulletin of July 2016 included a table of the first two batches of names approved by the WGSN, which included "Antares" for the star α Scorpii A. It is now so entered in the IAU Catalog of Star Names.
Observation.
Antares is visible all night around May 31 of each year, when the star is at opposition to the Sun. Antares then rises at dusk and sets at dawn as seen at the equator.
For two to three weeks on either side of November 30, Antares is not visible in the night sky from mid-northern latitudes, because it is near conjunction with the Sun. In higher northern latitudes, Antares is only visible low in the south in summertime. Higher than 64° northern latitude, the star does not rise at all.
Antares is easier to see from the southern hemisphere due to its southerly declination. In the whole of Antarctica, the star is circumpolar as the whole continent is above 64° S latitude.
History.
Radial velocity variations were observed in the spectrum of Antares in the early 20th century, and attempts were made to derive spectroscopic orbits. It became apparent that the small variations could not be due to orbital motion, and they were actually caused by pulsation of the star's atmosphere. Even in 1928, it was calculated that the size of the star must vary by about 20%.
Antares was first reported to have a companion star by Johann Tobias Bürg during an occultation on April 13, 1819, although this was not widely accepted and dismissed as a possible atmospheric effect. It was then observed by Scottish astronomer James William Grant FRSE while in India on 23 July 1844. It was rediscovered by Ormsby M. Mitchel in 1846 and measured by William Rutter Dawes in April 1847.
In 1952, Antares was reported to vary in brightness. A photographic magnitude range from 3.00 to 3.16 was described. The brightness has been monitored by the American Association of Variable Star Observers since 1945, and it has been classified as an "LC" slow irregular variable star, whose apparent magnitude slowly varies between extremes of +0.6 and +1.6, although usually near magnitude +1.0. There is no obvious periodicity, but statistical analyses have suggested periods of 1,733 days or days. No separate long secondary period has been detected, although it has been suggested that primary periods longer than a thousand days are analogous to long secondary periods.
Research published in 2018 demonstrated that Ngarrindjeri Aboriginal people from South Australia observed the variability of Antares and incorporated it into their oral traditions as Waiyungari (meaning 'red man').
Occultations and conjunctions.
Antares is 4.57 degrees south of the ecliptic, one of four first magnitude stars within 6° of the ecliptic (the others are Spica, Regulus and Aldebaran), so it can be occulted by the Moon. The occultation of 31 July 2009 was visible in much of southern Asia and the Middle East. Every year around December 2 the Sun passes 5° north of Antares. Lunar occultations of Antares are fairly common, depending on the 18.6-year cycle of the lunar nodes. The current cycle began in 2023 and the last cycle ended in 2010. Shown at right is a video of a reappearance event, clearly showing events for both components.
Antares can also be occulted by the planets, e.g. Venus, but these events are rare. The last occultation of Antares by Venus took place on September 17, 525 BC; the next one will be November 17, 2400. Other planets have been calculated not to have occulted Antares over the last millennium, nor will they in the next millennium, as most planets stay near the ecliptic and pass north of Antares. Venus will be extremely near Antares on October 19, 2117, and every eight years thereafter through to October 29, 2157, it will pass "south" of the star.
Illumination of Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex.
Antares is the brightest and most evolved stellar member of the Scorpius–Centaurus association, the nearest OB association to the Sun. It is a member of the Upper Scorpius subgroup of the association, which contains thousands of stars with a mean age of 11 million years. Antares is located about from Earth at the rim of the Upper Scorpius subgroup, and is illuminating the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex in its foreground. The illuminated cloud is sometimes referred to as the Antares Nebula or is otherwise identified as VdB 107.
Stellar system.
α Scorpii is a double star that is thought to form a binary system. The best calculated orbit for the stars is still considered to be unreliable. It describes an almost circular orbit seen nearly edge-on, with a period of 1,218 years and a semi-major axis of about . Other recent estimates of the period have ranged from 880 years for a calculated orbit, to 2,562 years for a simple Kepler's Law estimate.
Early measurements of the pair found them to be about apart in 1847–49, or apart in 1848. More modern observations consistently give separations around . The variations in the separation are often interpreted as evidence of orbital motion, but are more likely to be simply observational inaccuracies with very little true relative motion between the two components.
The pair have a projected separation of about 529 astronomical units (AU) (≈ 80 billion km) at the estimated distance of Antares, giving a minimum value for the distance between them. Spectroscopic examination of the energy states in the outflow of matter from the companion star suggests that the latter is over beyond the primary (about 33 billion km).
Antares.
Antares is a red supergiant star with a stellar classification of M1.5Iab-Ib, and is indicated to be a spectral standard for that class. Due to the nature of the star, the derived parallax measurements have large errors, so that the true distance of Antares is approximately from the Sun.
The brightness of Antares at visual wavelengths is about 10,000 times that of the Sun, but because the star radiates a considerable part of its energy in the infrared part of the spectrum, the true bolometric luminosity is around 100,000 times that of the Sun. There is a large margin of error assigned to values for the bolometric luminosity, typically 30% or more. There is also considerable variation between values published by different authors, for example and published in 2012 and 2013.
The mass of the star has been calculated to be about , or . Comparison of the effective temperature and luminosity of Antares to theoretical evolutionary tracks for massive stars suggest a progenitor mass of and an age of 12 million years (MYr), or an initial mass of and an age of 11 to 15 MYr. Comparison of observations from antiquity to theoretical evolutionary tracks suggests an initial mass of , or the possibility that Antares is on a blue loop with an initial mass of (while excluding as a possible mass estimate). These correspond to ages from 11.8 to 17.3 MYr. These initial mass estimates mean that Antares may have once resembled massive blue stars like the members of the Acrux system, which have similar initial masses (both Antares and Acrux are members of the wider Scorpius–Centaurus association). Massive stars like Antares are expected to explode as supernovae.
Like most cool supergiants, Antares's size has much uncertainty due to the tenuous and translucent nature of the extended outer regions of the star. Defining an effective temperature is difficult due to spectral lines being generated at different depths in the atmosphere, and linear measurements produce different results depending on the wavelength observed. In addition, Antares pulsates in size, varying its radius by 19%. It also varies in temperature by 150 K, lagging 70 days behind radial velocity changes which are likely to be caused by the pulsations.
The diameter of Antares can be measured most accurately using interferometry or observing lunar occultations events. An apparent diameter from occultations 41.3 ± 0.1 milliarcseconds has been published. Interferometry allows synthesis of a view of the stellar disc, which is then represented as a limb-darkened disk surrounded by an extended atmosphere. The diameter of the limb-darkened disk was measured as in 2009 and in 2010. The linear radius of the star can be calculated from its angular diameter and distance. However, the distance to Antares is not known with the same accuracy as modern measurements of its diameter.
An estimate obtained by interferometry in 1925 by Francis G. Pease at the Mount Wilson Observatory gave Antares a diameter of , equal to approximately , making it the then largest star known. Antares is now known to be somewhat larger; for instance, the Hipparcos satellite's trigonometric parallax of with modern angular diameter estimates lead to a radius of about . Older radii estimates exceeding were derived from older measurements of the diameter, but those measurements are likely to have been affected by asymmetry of the atmosphere and the narrow range of infrared wavelengths observed; Antares has an extended shell which radiates strongly at those particular wavelengths. Despite its large size compared to the Sun, Antares is dwarfed by even larger red supergiants, such as VY Canis Majoris, KY Cygni, RW Cephei or Mu Cephei.
Antares, like the similarly sized red supergiant Betelgeuse in the constellation Orion, will almost certainly explode as a supernova, probably in million years. For a few months, the Antares supernova could be as bright as the full moon and be visible in daytime.
Antares B.
Antares B is a magnitude 5.5 blue-white main-sequence star of spectral type B2.5V; it also has numerous unusual spectral lines suggesting it has been polluted by matter ejected by Antares. It is assumed to be a relatively normal early-B main sequence star with a mass around , a temperature around , and a radius of about . As it falls short of the mass limit required for stars to undergo a supernova, it will likely expand into a red giant before dying as a massive white dwarf similar to Sirius B.
Antares B is normally difficult to see in small telescopes due to glare from Antares, but can sometimes be seen in apertures over . It is often described as green, but this is probably either a contrast effect, or the result of the mixing of light from the two stars when they are seen together through a telescope and are too close to be completely resolved. Antares B can sometimes be observed with a small telescope for a few seconds during lunar occultations while Antares is hidden by the Moon. Antares B appears a profound blue or bluish-green color, in contrast to the orange-red Antares.
Etymology and mythology.
In the Babylonian star catalogues dating from at least 1100 BCE, Antares was called GABA GIR.TAB, "the Breast of the Scorpion". In MUL.APIN, which dates between 1100 and 700 BC, it is one of the stars of Ea in the southern sky and denotes the breast of the Scorpion goddess Ishhara. Later names that translate as "the Heart of Scorpion" include ' from the Arabic . This had been directly translated from the Ancient Greek . ' was a calque of the Greek name rendered in Latin.
In ancient Mesopotamia, Antares may have been known by various names: Urbat, Bilu-sha-ziri ("the Lord of the Seed"), Kak-shisa ("the Creator of Prosperity"), Dar Lugal ("The King"), Masu Sar ("the Hero and the King"), and Kakkab Bir ("the Vermilion Star"). In ancient Egypt, Antares represented the scorpion goddess Serket (and was the symbol of Isis in the pyramidal ceremonies). It was called "the red one of the prow".
In Persia, Antares was known as one of the four "royal stars". In India, it with σ Scorpii and τ Scorpii were Jyeshthā (the eldest or biggest, probably attributing its huge size), one of the "nakshatra" (Hindu lunar mansions).
The ancient Chinese called Antares 心宿二 ("Xīnxiù'èr", "second star of the Heart"), because it was the second star of the mansion "Xin" (心). It was the national star of the Shang dynasty, and it was sometimes referred to as () because of its reddish appearance.
The Māori people of New Zealand call Antares "Rēhua", and regard it as the chief of all the stars especially the Matariki. Rēhua is father of "Puanga/Puaka" (Rigel), an important star in the calculation of the Māori calendar. The Wotjobaluk Koori people of Victoria, Australia, knew Antares as "Djuit", son of "Marpean-kurrk" (Arcturus); the stars on each side represented his wives. The Kulin Kooris saw Antares ("Balayang") as the brother of "Bunjil" (Altair).
The Hawaiian name of Antares is Hōkū-‘ula; it forms a line of three stars with Au-haele (σ Scorpii, Alniyat) and Paikauhale (τ Scorpii). In the Marshall Islands this star, with σ and τ Scorpii, is Tūṃur, the first of the ten sons of Lōktañūr (Capella).
In culture.
Antares appears in the flag of Brazil, which displays 27 stars, each representing a federated unit of Brazil. Antares represents the state of Piauí.
The 1995 Oldsmobile Antares concept car is named after the star.
Antares is one of the medieval Behenian fixed stars.
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Aldebaran
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Aldebaran () is a star in the zodiac constellation of Taurus. It has the Bayer designation α Tauri, which is Latinized to Alpha Tauri and abbreviated Alpha Tau or α Tau. Aldebaran varies in brightness from an apparent visual magnitude of 0.75 down to 0.95, making it the brightest star in the constellation, as well as (typically) the fourteenth-brightest star in the night sky. It is at a distance of approximately 67 light-years. The star lies along the line of sight to the nearby Hyades cluster.
Aldebaran is a red giant, meaning that it is cooler than the Sun with a surface temperature of , but its radius is about 45 times the Sun's, so it is over 400 times as luminous. As a giant star, it has moved off the main sequence on the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram after depleting its supply of hydrogen in the core. The star spins slowly and takes 520 days to complete a rotation.
Together with the star Alpha Tauri B (Aldebaran B), it makes a star system with an orbital separation of at least 680 astronomical units, or 680 times the average distance from Earth to the Sun. The companion has an apparent magnitude of 13.21, hence is 80,000 to 96,000 times fainter than Aldebaran.
Nomenclature.
The traditional name Aldebaran derives from the Arabic (), meaning , because it seems to follow the Pleiades. In 2016, the International Astronomical Union Working Group on Star Names (WGSN) approved the proper name "Aldebaran" for this star.
Aldebaran is the brightest star in the constellation Taurus, with the Bayer designation α Tauri, Latinised as Alpha Tauri. It has the Flamsteed designation 87 Tauri as the 87th star in the constellation of approximately 7th magnitude or brighter, ordered by right ascension. It also has the Bright Star Catalogue number 1457, the HD number 29139, and the Hipparcos catalogue number 21421, mostly seen in scientific publications.
It is a variable star listed in the General Catalogue of Variable Stars, but it is listed using its Bayer designation and does not have a separate variable star designation.
Aldebaran and several nearby stars are included in double star catalogues such as the Washington Double Star Catalog as WDS 04359+1631 and the Aitken Double Star Catalogue as ADS 3321. It was included with an 11th-magnitude companion as a double star as H IV 66 in the Herschel Catalogue of Double Stars and Σ II 2 in the Struve Double Star Catalog, and together with a 14th-magnitude star as β 550 in the Burnham Double Star Catalogue.
Observation.
Aldebaran is one of the easiest stars to find in the night sky, partly due to its brightness and partly due to being near one of the more noticeable asterisms in the sky. Following the three stars of Orion's belt in the direction opposite to Sirius, the first bright star encountered is Aldebaran.
It is best seen at midnight between late November and early December.
The star is, by chance, in the line of sight between the Earth and the Hyades, so it has the appearance of being the brightest member of the open cluster, but the cluster that forms the bull's-head-shaped asterism is more than twice as far away, at about 150 light years.
Aldebaran is 5.47 degrees south of the ecliptic and so can be occulted by the Moon. Such occultations occur when the Moon's ascending node is near the autumnal equinox. A series of 49 occultations occurred starting on 29 January 2015 and ending at 3 September 2018. Each event was visible from points in the northern hemisphere or close to the equator; people in e.g. Australia or South Africa can never observe an Aldebaran occultation since it is too far south of the ecliptic. A reasonably accurate estimate for the diameter of Aldebaran was obtained during the occultation of 22 September 1978. In the 2020s, Aldebaran is in conjunction in ecliptic longitude with the sun around May 30 of each year.
With a near-infrared J band magnitude of −2.1, only Betelgeuse (−2.9), R Doradus (−2.6), and Arcturus (−2.2) are brighter at that wavelength.
Observational history.
On 11 March AD 509, a lunar occultation of Aldebaran was observed in Athens, Greece. English astronomer Edmund Halley studied the timing of this event, and in 1718 concluded that Aldebaran must have changed position since that time, moving several minutes of arc further to the north. This, as well as observations of the changing positions of stars Sirius and Arcturus, led to the discovery of proper motion. Based on present day observations, the position of Aldebaran has shifted 7′ in the last 2000 years; roughly a quarter the diameter of the full moon. Due to precession of the equinoxes, 5,000 years ago the vernal equinox was close to Aldebaran. Between 420,000 and 210,000 years ago, Aldebaran was the brightest star in the night sky, peaking in brightness 320,000 years ago with an apparent magnitude of .
English astronomer William Herschel discovered a faint companion to Aldebaran in 1782; an 11th-magnitude star at an angular separation of 117″. This star was shown to be itself a close double star by S. W. Burnham in 1888, and he discovered an additional 14th-magnitude companion at an angular separation of 31″. Follow-on measurements of proper motion showed that Herschel's companion was diverging from Aldebaran, and hence they were not physically connected. However, the companion discovered by Burnham had almost exactly the same proper motion as Aldebaran, suggesting that the two formed a wide binary star system.
Working at his private observatory in Tulse Hill, England, in 1864 William Huggins performed the first studies of the spectrum of Aldebaran, where he was able to identify the lines of nine elements, including iron, sodium, calcium, and magnesium. In 1886, Edward C. Pickering at the Harvard College Observatory used a photographic plate to capture fifty absorption lines in the spectrum of Aldebaran. This became part of the Draper Catalogue, published in 1890. By 1887, the photographic technique had improved to the point that it was possible to measure a star's radial velocity from the amount of Doppler shift in the spectrum. By this means, the recession velocity of Aldebaran was estimated as (48 km/s), using measurements performed at Potsdam Observatory by Hermann C. Vogel and his assistant Julius Scheiner.
Aldebaran was observed using an interferometer attached to the Hooker Telescope at the Mount Wilson Observatory in 1921 in order to measure its angular diameter, but it was not resolved in these observations.
The extensive history of observations of Aldebaran led to it being included in the list of 33 stars chosen as benchmarks for the Gaia mission to calibrate derived stellar parameters. It had previously been used to calibrate instruments on board the Hubble Space Telescope.
Physical characteristics.
Aldebaran is listed as the spectral standard for type K5+ III stars. Its spectrum shows that it is a giant star that has evolved off the main sequence band of the HR diagram after exhausting the hydrogen at its core. The collapse of the center of the star into a degenerate helium core has ignited a shell of hydrogen outside the core and Aldebaran is now on the red giant branch (RGB).
The effective temperature of Aldebaran's photosphere is . It has a surface gravity of , typical for a giant star, but around 35 times lower than the Earth's and nearly a thousand times lower than the Sun's. Its metallicity is about half the Sun's.
Measurements by the Hipparcos satellite and other sources put Aldebaran around away. Asteroseismology has determined that it is about 16% more massive than the Sun, yet it shines with 439 times the Sun's luminosity due to the expanded radius. It is 45.1 times the diameter of the Sun, approximately 63 million kilometres. The angular diameter of Aldebaran has been measured many times. The value adopted as part of the Gaia benchmark calibration is .
Aldebaran is a slightly variable star, assigned to the slow irregular type "LB". The General Catalogue of Variable Stars indicates variation between apparent magnitude 0.75 and 0.95 from historical reports. Modern studies show a smaller amplitude, with some showing almost no variation. Hipparcos photometry shows an amplitude of only about 0.02 magnitudes and a possible period around 18 days. Intensive ground-based photometry showed variations of up to 0.03 magnitudes and a possible period around 91 days. Analysis of observations over a much longer period still find a total amplitude likely to be less than 0.1 magnitudes, and the variation is considered to be irregular.
The photosphere shows abundances of carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen that suggest the giant has gone through its first dredge-up stage—a normal step in the evolution of a star into a red giant during which material from deep within the star is brought up to the surface by convection. With its slow rotation, Aldebaran lacks a dynamo needed to generate a corona and hence is not a source of hard X-ray emission. However, small scale magnetic fields may still be present in the lower atmosphere, resulting from convection turbulence near the surface. The measured strength of the magnetic field on Aldebaran is . Any resulting soft X-ray emissions from this region may be attenuated by the chromosphere, although ultraviolet emission has been detected in the spectrum. The star is currently losing mass at a rate of (about one Earth mass in 300,000 years) with a velocity of . This stellar wind may be generated by the weak magnetic fields in the lower atmosphere.
Beyond the chromosphere of Aldebaran is an extended molecular outer atmosphere ("MOLsphere") where the temperature is cool enough for molecules of gas to form. This region lies at about 2.5 times the radius of the star and has a temperature of about . The spectrum reveals lines of carbon monoxide, water, and titanium oxide. Outside the MOLSphere, the stellar wind continues to expand until it reaches the termination shock boundary with the hot, ionized interstellar medium that dominates the Local Bubble, forming a roughly spherical astrosphere with a radius of around , centered on Aldebaran.
Companion.
Measurements by the Gaia spacecraft have identified a proper motion companion to Aldebaran a star sharing a similar distance and relative motion, which are seen as hints for a physical association between the components. , it has an angular separation of 33" from Aldebaran along a position angle of 117°. At its distance, the angular separation implies a physical projected separation of 680 astronomical units.
The companion star, named Alpha Tauri B or Aldebaran B, has an apparent magnitude of 13.2, which is 80,000 to 96,000 times fainter than Aldebaran. It is also much smaller than Aldebaran, with a radius 0.35 times that of the Sun and a mass 0.400 times that of the Sun. A spectral type of M2.5 has been published for the star.
Visual companions.
Four further stars at least as bright as B appear close to Aldebaran in the sky. These double star components were given upper-case Latin letter designations more or less in the order of their discovery, with the letter A reserved for the primary star. Some characteristics of these components, including their position relative to Aldebaran, are shown in the table.
Alpha Tauri CD is a binary system with the C and D component stars gravitationally bound to and co-orbiting each other. These co-orbiting stars have been shown to be located far beyond Aldebaran and are members of the Hyades star cluster. As with the rest of the stars in the cluster they do not physically interact with Aldebaran in any way.
Search for planets.
In 1993 radial velocity measurements of Aldebaran, Arcturus and Pollux showed that Aldebaran exhibited a long-period radial velocity oscillation, which could be interpreted as a substellar companion. The measurements for Aldebaran implied a companion with a minimum mass 11.4 times that of Jupiter in a 643-day orbit at a separation of in a mildly eccentric orbit. However, all three stars surveyed showed similar oscillations yielding similar companion masses, and the authors concluded that the variation was likely to be intrinsic to the star rather than due to the gravitational effect of a companion.
In 2015 a study led by Artie P. Hatzes showed stable long-term evidence for both a planetary companion and stellar activity. An asteroseismic analysis of the residuals to the planet fit has determined that Aldebaran b has a minimum mass of Jupiter masses, and that when the star was on the main sequence it would have given this planet Earth-like levels of illumination and therefore, potentially, temperature. This would have placed it and any of its moons in the habitable zone. However, a follow-up study in 2019 found that additional data weaken the evidence for a planetary companion. A two-planet solution fits the data better but would be unstable; the more likely explanation is that the radial velocity variations are caused by intrinsic stellar oscillations that mimic a planetary companion, as observed in Gamma Draconis and 42 Draconis. Based on the 2019 study, some subsequent studies of planet candidates around giant stars consider Aldebaran b doubtful or disproven, including a 2025 paper with Hatzes as the lead author.
Etymology and mythology.
Aldebaran was originally ( in Arabic), meaning , since it follows the Pleiades; in fact, the Arabs sometimes also applied the name to the Hyades as a whole. A variety of transliterated spellings have been used, with the current "Aldebaran" becoming standard relatively recently.
Mythology.
This easily seen and striking star in its suggestive asterism is a popular subject for ancient and modern myths.
In modern culture.
As the brightest star in a Zodiac constellation, it is given great significance within astrology.
Irish singer and composer Enya has a piece released on her eponymous album in 1986, which lyricist Roma Ryan titled Aldebaran after the star in Taurus.
The name Aldebaran or Alpha Tauri has been adopted many times, including
The star also appears in works of fiction such as "Far from the Madding Crowd" (1874) and "Down and Out in Paris and London" (1933). It is frequently seen in science fiction, including the "Lensman" series (1948–1954), "Fallen Dragon" (2001) and passingly in Kim Stanley Robinson's "Blue Mars" (1996). Aldebaran is associated with Hastur, also known as The King in Yellow, in the horror stories of Robert W. Chambers.
In the episode 'Relics', Montgomery Scott and Captain Jean-Luc Picard drink "Aldebaran whisky".
Aldebaran regularly features in conspiracy theories as one of the origins of extraterrestrial aliens, often linked to Nazi UFOs. A well-known example is the German conspiracy theorist Axel Stoll, who considered the star the home of the Aryan race and the target of expeditions by the "Wehrmacht".
The planetary exploration probe "Pioneer 10" is no longer powered or in contact with Earth, but its trajectory is taking it in the general direction of Aldebaran. It is expected to make its closest approach in about two million years.
The Austrian chemist Carl Auer von Welsbach proposed the name "aldebaranium" (chemical symbol Ad) for a rare earth element that he (among others) had found. Today, it is called ytterbium (symbol Yb).
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Altair
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Altair is the brightest star in the constellation of Aquila and the twelfth-brightest star in the night sky. It has the Bayer designation Alpha Aquilae, which is Latinised from α Aquilae and abbreviated Alpha Aql or α Aql. Altair is an A-type main-sequence star with an apparent visual magnitude of 0.77 and is one of the vertices of the Summer Triangle asterism; the other two vertices are marked by Deneb and Vega. It is located at a distance of from the Sun. Altair is currently in the G-cloud—a nearby interstellar cloud formed from an accumulation of gas and dust.
Altair rotates rapidly, with a velocity at the equator of approximately 286 km/s. This is a significant fraction of the star's estimated breakup speed of 400 km/s. A study with the Palomar Testbed Interferometer revealed that Altair is not spherical, but is flattened at the poles due to its high rate of rotation. Other interferometric studies with multiple telescopes, operating in the infrared, have imaged and confirmed this phenomenon.
Nomenclature.
"α Aquilae" (Latinised to "Alpha Aquilae") is the star's Bayer designation. The traditional name "Altair" has been used since medieval times. It is an abbreviation of the Arabic phrase "Al-Nisr Al-Ṭa'ir", "".
In 2016, the International Astronomical Union organized a Working Group on Star Names (WGSN) to catalog and standardize proper names for stars. The WGSN's first bulletin of July 2016 included a table of the first two batches of names approved by the WGSN, which included "Altair" for this star. It is now so entered in the IAU Catalog of Star Names.
Physical characteristics.
Along with β Aquilae and γ Aquilae, Altair forms the well-known line of stars sometimes referred to as the "Family of Aquila" or "Shaft of Aquila".
Altair is a type-A main-sequence star with about 1.8 times the mass of the Sun and 11 times its luminosity. It is thought to be a young star close to the zero age main sequence at about 100 million years old, although previous estimates gave an age closer to one billion years old. Altair rotates rapidly, with a rotational period of under eight hours; for comparison, the equator of the Sun makes a complete rotation in a little more than 25 days. Altair's rotation is similar to, and slightly faster than, those of Jupiter and Saturn. Like those two planets, its rapid rotation causes the star to be oblate; its equatorial diameter is over 20 percent greater than its polar diameter.
Satellite measurements made in 1999 with the Wide Field Infrared Explorer showed that the brightness of Altair fluctuates slightly, varying by just a few thousandths of a magnitude with several different periods less than 2 hours. As a result, it was identified in 2005 as a Delta Scuti variable star. Its light curve can be approximated by adding together a number of sine waves, with periods that range between 0.8 and 1.5 hours. It is a weak source of coronal X-ray emission, with the most active sources of emission being located near the star's equator. This activity may be due to convection cells forming at the cooler equator.
Rotational effects.
The angular diameter of Altair was measured interferometrically by R. Hanbury Brown and his co-workers at Narrabri Observatory in the 1960s. They found a diameter of 3milliarcseconds. Although Hanbury Brown et al. realized that Altair would be rotationally flattened, they had insufficient data to experimentally observe its oblateness. Later, using infrared interferometric measurements made by the Palomar Testbed Interferometer in 1999 and 2000, Altair was found to be flattened. This work was published by G. T. van Belle, David R. Ciardi and their co-authors in 2001.
Theory predicts that, owing to Altair's rapid rotation, its surface gravity and effective temperature should be lower at the equator, making the equator less luminous than the poles. This phenomenon, known as gravity darkening or the von Zeipel effect, was confirmed for Altair by measurements made by the Navy Precision Optical Interferometer in 2001, and analyzed by Ohishi et al. (2004) and Peterson et al. (2006). Also, A. Domiciano de Souza et al. (2005) verified gravity darkening using the measurements made by the Palomar and Navy interferometers, together with new measurements made by the VINCI instrument at the VLTI.
Altair is one of the few stars for which a resolved image has been obtained. In 2006 and 2007, J. D. Monnier and his coworkers produced an image of Altair's surface from 2006 infrared observations made with the MIRC instrument on the CHARA array interferometer; this was the first time the surface of any main-sequence star, apart from the Sun, had been imaged. The false-color image was published in 2007. The equatorial radius of the star was estimated to be 2.03 solar radii, and the polar radius 1.63 solar radii—a 25% increase of the stellar radius from pole to equator. The polar axis is inclined by about 60° to the line of sight from the Earth.
Etymology, mythology and culture.
The term "Al Nesr Al Tair" appeared in Al Achsasi al Mouakket's catalogue, which was translated into Latin as "Vultur Volans". This name was applied by the Arabs to the asterism of Altair, β Aquilae and γ Aquilae and probably goes back to the ancient Babylonians and Sumerians, who called Altair "the eagle star". The spelling "Atair" has also been used. Medieval astrolabes of England and Western Europe depicted Altair and Vega as birds.
The Koori people of Victoria also knew Altair as "Bunjil", the wedge-tailed eagle, and β and γ Aquilae are his two wives the black swans. The people of the Murray River knew the star as "Totyerguil". The Murray River was formed when "Totyerguil" the hunter speared "Otjout", a giant Murray cod, who, when wounded, churned a channel across southern Australia before entering the sky as the constellation Delphinus.
In Chinese astronomy, the asterism consisting of Altair, β Aquilae and γ Aquilae is known as "Hé Gǔ" (; lit. "river drum"). The Chinese name for Altair is thus "Hé Gǔ èr" (; lit. "river drum two", meaning the "second star of the drum at the river"). However, Altair is better known by its other names: "Qiān Niú Xīng" ( / ) or "Niú Láng Xīng" (), translated as the "cowherd star". These names are an allusion to a love story, "The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl", in which Niulang (represented by Altair) and his two children (represented by β Aquilae and γ Aquilae) are separated from respectively their wife and mother Zhinü (represented by Vega) by the Milky Way. They are only permitted to meet once a year, when magpies form a bridge to allow them to cross the Milky Way. In the Japanese version of this legend, celebrated in the Tanabata festival, Altair is known as "Hikoboshi" (彦星).
The people of Micronesia called Altair "Mai-lapa", meaning "big/old breadfruit", while the Māori people called this star "Poutu-te-rangi", meaning "pillar of heaven".
In Western astrology, the star was ill-omened, portending danger from reptiles.
This star is one of the asterisms used by Bugis sailors for navigation, called "bintoéng timoro", meaning "eastern star".
A group of Japanese scientists sent a radio signal to Altair in 1983 with the hopes of contacting extraterrestrial life.
NASA announced "Altair" as the name of the Lunar Surface Access Module (LSAM) on December 13, 2007. The Russian-made Beriev Be-200 Altair seaplane is also named after the star.
Visual companions.
The bright primary star has the multiple star designation WDS 19508+0852A and has several faint visual companion stars, WDS 19508+0852B, C, D, E, F and G. All are much more distant than Altair and not physically associated.
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Australian Broadcasting Corporation
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The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is Australia's principal public service broadcaster. It is funded primarily by grants from the federal government and is administered by a government-appointed board of directors. The ABC is a publicly-owned statutory organisation that is politically independent and accountable; for example, through its production of annual reports, and is bound by provisions contained within the Public Interest Disclosure Act 2013 and the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013, with its charter enshrined in legislation, the "Australian Broadcasting Corporation Act 1983". ABC Commercial, a profit-making division of the corporation, also helps generate funding for content provision.
The ABC was established as the Australian Broadcasting Commission on 1 July 1932 by an Act of Federal Parliament. It effectively replaced the Australian Broadcasting Company, a private company established in 1924 to provide programming for A-class radio stations. The ABC was given statutory powers that reinforced its independence from the government and enhanced its news-gathering role. Modelled after the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), which is funded by a television licence, the ABC was originally financed by licence fees on households with a broadcast receiver. However, the licence fees soon proved to be insufficient due to Australia's small population and the vast area to be serviced. In 1947 a proposal to increase the fee for a broadcast listeners' licence from £1 to £1/5/ was scotched, and in 1949 the Chifley government decided that the ABC would be directly funded by the taxpayer, with licence fees subsumed into general revenue. Later funding was supplemented with commercial activities related to its core broadcasting mission. The Australian Broadcasting Commission became the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in 1983.
The ABC provides radio, television, online, and mobile services throughout metropolitan and regional Australia. ABC Radio operates four national networks, a large number of ABC Local Radio stations, several digital stations, and the international service Radio Australia. ABC Television operates five free-to-air channels, as well as the ABC iview streaming service and the ABC Australia satellite channel. News and current affairs content across all platforms is produced by the ABC news division.
The postal address of the ABC in every Australian capital city is PO Box 9994, as a tribute to the record-breaking Test batting average of Australian cricketer Sir Donald Bradman.
History.
Origins.
After public radio stations were established independently in the state capitals from 1924, a licensing scheme administered by the Postmaster-General's Department was established, allowing certain stations (with "Class A" licences") government funding, albeit with restrictions placed on their advertising content. In 1928, the government established the National Broadcasting Service to take over the 12 A-Class licences as they came up for renewal, and contracted the Australian Broadcasting Company, a private company established in 1924, to supply programs to the new national broadcaster.
After it became politically unpopular to continue to allow the Postmaster-General to run the National Broadcasting Service, the government established the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) on 1 July 1932, under the "Australian Broadcasting Commission Act 1932". to take over the Australian Broadcasting Company and run the National Broadcasting Service.
The ABC became informally referred to as "Aunty", originally in imitation of the British Broadcasting Corporation's nickname. The structure and programming was broadly modelled on the British Broadcasting Corporation, and programs not created in Australia were mostly bought in from the BBC.
In 1940 one of the ABC Board's most prominent members, Dick Boyer, was appointed to the ABC, becoming chairman on 1 April 1945. Today known for the continuing series of Boyer Lectures initiated by him in 1959, he had a good but not too close working relationship with Sir Charles Moses (general manager 1935–1965), and remained chair until his retirement in 1961. He was determined to maintain the autonomy of the ABC.
1950–2000.
The ABC commenced television broadcasting in 1956. ABN-2 in Sydney was inaugurated by prime minister Robert Menzies on 5 November 1956, with the first broadcast presented by Michael Charlton, and James Dibble reading the first television news bulletin. Television relay facilities were not in place until the early 1960s, so news bulletins had to be sent to each capital city by teleprinter, to be prepared and presented separately in each city. In 1975, colour television was permanently introduced into Australia, and within a decade, the ABC had moved into satellite broadcasting, greatly enhancing its ability to distribute content nationally.
Also, in 1975 the ABC introduced a 24-hour-a-day AM rock station in Sydney, 2JJ (Double Jay), which was eventually expanded into the national Triple J FM network. A year later, a national classical music network was established on the FM band, broadcasting from Adelaide. It was initially known as ABC-FM (later ABC Classic FM) – referring both to its "fine music programming and radio frequency".
ABC budget cuts began in 1976 and continued until 1998, the largest cuts (calculated by the ABC as 25% in real terms) coming between 1985 and 1996.
The "Australian Broadcasting Corporation Act 1983" changed the organisation's name to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, effective 1 July 1983. Although funded and owned by the government, the ABC remains editorially independent as ensured by the 1983 Act. At the same time, the newly formed corporation underwent significant restructuring, including a split into separate television and radio divisions, and ABC Radio was restructured significantly again in 1985. Geoffrey Whitehead was the managing director of the ABC at this time. Following his resignation in 1986, David Hill (at the time chair of the ABC Board) took over his position and local production trebled from 1986 to 1991.
Live television broadcasts of selected parliamentary sessions started in 1990, and by the early 1990s, all major ABC broadcasting outlets operated 24 hours a day.
In 1991 the ABC helped launch Australian children's music band The Wiggles, under the ABC music label.
In 1991 the corporation's Sydney radio and orchestral operations moved to a new building, the ABC Ultimo Centre, in the inner-city suburb of Ultimo. In Melbourne, the ABC Southbank Centre was completed in 1994.
In 1992 Australian children's television series "Bananas in Pyjamas" first aired.
International television service ABC Australia was established in 1993, while at the same time Radio Australia increased its international reach. Reduced funding in 1997 for Radio Australia resulted in staff and programming cuts.
The ABC Multimedia Unit was established in July 1995 to manage the new ABC website, which was launched in August.
The ABC was registered on the Australian Business Register as a Commonwealth Government Entity on 1 November 1999.
2000s–2010s.
In 2001 digital television commenced (see Online, below). At the same time the ABC's multimedia division was renamed "ABC New Media", becoming an output division of the ABC alongside television and radio.
In 2002 the ABC launched ABC Asia Pacific, the replacement for the defunct Australia Television International operated previously by the Seven Network. A digital radio service, ABC DiG, was also launched in November that year.
On 8 February 2008 ABC TV was rebranded as ABC1, and a new channel for children, ABC3, was funded and announced by the Rudd government in June. A new online video-on-demand service launched in July of the same year, titled ABC iview.
ABC News 24, now known as ABC News, a channel dedicated to news, launched on 22 July 2010. On 20 July 2014, ABC1 reverted to its original name of ABC TV.
In November 2014 a cut of $254 million (4.6%) to funding over the following five years together with the additional unfunded cost of the news channel meant that the ABC would have to shed about 10% of its staff, around 400 people. There were several programming changes, with regional and local programming losing out to national programs, and the Adelaide TV production studio had to close.
In November 2016 the ABC announced that ABC News 24, ABC NewsRadio, as well as its online and digital news brands, would be rebranded under a unified ABC News brand, which was launched on 10 April 2017.
Michelle Guthrie took over from managing director Mark Scott, whose second five-year contract finished in April 2016. Between July 2017 and June 2018, the whole of the ABC underwent an organisational restructure, after which the Radio and Television Divisions were no longer separate entities each under a director, instead being split across several functional divisions, with different teams producing different genres of content for television, radio and digital platforms. The Entertainment & Specialist (E&S) team focussed on comedy, kids' programs, drama, Indigenous-related programs, music, other entertainment and factual content; the new ABC Specialist team created content across the arts, science, religion & ethics, education and society & culture; while the Regional & Local team focussed on regional and local content.
Around 23 September 2018 Guthrie was fired. A leadership crisis ensued after allegations arose that chair, Justin Milne, had, according to the MEAA, engaged in "overt political interference in the running of the ABC that is in clear breach of the ABC charter and the role of the chairperson" by interfering in editorial and staffing matters. After pressure for an independent inquiry or statement from Milne, or his resignation, following meetings by ABC staff in various locations, on 27 September Milne resigned.
In February 2019, after the roles of ABC chair and managing director had been vacant for more than four months, Ita Buttrose was named chair. Buttrose named David Anderson as managing director in May 2019.
On 5 June 2019 Australian Federal Police (AFP) raided the headquarters of the ABC looking for articles written in 2017 about alleged misconduct by Australian special forces in Afghanistan, later dubbed the Afghan Files. The raid was countered by lawyers for the ABC in litigation against the AFP, challenging the examination of over 9,200 documents, including internal emails. In February 2020 the case was dismissed by the federal court. In June 2020, the AFP sent a brief of evidence to the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions (CDPP), the federal public prosecutor, recommending charges be laid against journalist Dan Oakes for breaking the Afghan Files story, but in October 2020, the CDPP dropped the case.
2020s.
In June 2020 the ABC announced it needed to cut 229 jobs, a number of programs, and reduce its travel and production budgets after the Turnbull government's announcement of a freeze to indexation of its budget in 2018 this was estimated at the time to cost the ABC over three years, however the actual appropriation did not decrease and the ABC chair was quoted as saying it would actually increase "but by a reduced amount".
In all, over a five-year period, there were 737 redundancies, a further 866 resignations, and 203 retirements; but the total number of staff only fell by 313 due to the ABC hiring 650 staff over that period.
In June 2021 the ABC announced its plan to move around 300 staff to offices in Parramatta, in a plan which would see 75% of journalists and producers moving out of the Ultimo building by 2025 to reduce costs. Rental from some of the vacant space in the city centre would earn additional income to offset the ongoing effects of the significant funding cuts since 2014 and the recent indexation freeze.
In December 2021 the ABC announced that, in addition to the 83 additional positions already established, it was to create an additional "50-plus" new jobs in regional Australia as a result of commercial agreements with digital platforms flowing from the Morrison government's News Media Bargaining Code.
In May 2024 the ABC started moving from its Ultimo office to a new Parramatta office. The first program to be broadcast from the new studio in Parramatta was ABC Radio Sydney Mornings.
Lissajous curve logo.
The ABC logo is one of the most recognisable logos in Australia. In the early years of television, the ABC had been using Lissajous curves as fillers between programmes.
In 1961, prior to the adoption of an official corporate logo, the ABC commissioned Tasmanian artist George Davis to create a large mosaic mural for its new Hobart studios at 5–7 Sandy Bay Road. The abstract design, composed of more than 150,000 glass tiles and spanning , was prominently displayed on the building's façade. Observers and later commentators have noted similarities between the mural's sinuous linework and the ABC's eventual logo, with some suggesting it may have served as a visual influence.
In July 1963, the ABC conducted a staff competition to create a new logo for use on television, stationery, publications, microphone badges and ABC vehicles. In 1965, ABC graphics designer Bill Kennard submitted a design representing a Lissajous display, as generated when a sine wave signal is applied to the "X" input of an oscilloscope and another at three times the frequency at the "Y" input. The letters "ABC" were added to the design and it was adopted as the ABC's official logo. Kennard was presented with £25 (about AU$850 in 2024) for his design.
On 19 October 1974 the Lissajous curve design experienced its first facelift with the line thickened to allow for colour to be used. It would also be treated to the 'over and under' effect, showing the crossover of the line in the design. To celebrate its 70th anniversary on 1 July 2002, the ABC adopted a new logo, which was created by (Annette) Harcus Design in 2001. This logo used a silver 3D texture but the crossover design was left intact and was then used across the ABC's media outlets. After the on-air revival of the 1974 logo since 2014, the ABC gradually reinstated the classic symbol. The most recent change happened in February 2018, with a new logotype and brand positioning under its tagline, "Yours". The 2002 silver logo is no longer in use by the corporation.
Governance and structure.
The operations of the ABC are governed by a board of directors, consisting of a managing director, five to seven directors, and until 2006, a staff-elected director. The managing director is appointed by the board for a period of up to five years, but is eligible for renewal. The authority and guidelines for the appointment of directors is provided for in the "Australian Broadcasting Corporation Act 1983".
Appointments to the ABC Board made by successive governments have often resulted in criticism of the appointees' political affiliation, background, and relative merit. Past appointments have associated directly with political parties – five of fourteen appointed chairmen have been accused of political affiliation or friendship, include Richard Downing and Ken Myer (both of whom publicly endorsed the Australian Labor Party at the 1972 election), as well as Sir Henry Bland, David Hill was close to Neville Wran, while Donald McDonald was considered to be a close friend of John Howard.
From 2003 the Howard government made several controversial appointments to the ABC Board, including prominent ABC critic Janet Albrechtsen, Ron Brunton, and Keith Windschuttle.
During their 2007 federal election campaign Labor announced plans to introduce a new system, similar to that of the BBC, for appointing members to the board. Under the new system, candidates for the ABC Board would be considered by an independent panel established "at arm's length" from the Communications Minister. If the minister chose someone not on the panel's shortlist, they would be required to justify this to parliament. The ABC chairman would be nominated by the prime minister and endorsed by the leader of the opposition.
A new merit-based appointment system was announced on 16 October 2008, in advance of the new triennial funding period starting in 2009.
In 2013 the Coalition government introduced a merit-based system for appointing the board based on the recommendations of a nominations panel. However, the panel was ultimately only advisory, with almost all of the board members in 2018 directly appointed by the Communications minister, despite some being rejected by the panel or not being considered at all.
board members include:
Funding.
The ABC is primarily funded by the Australian government, in addition to some revenue received from commercial offerings and its retail outlets. The ABC's funding system is set and reviewed every three years.
Background to licence fees.
In the early 1920s there existed two forms of radio licences A and B. Those with 'A' licences were funded by listener fees and those with 'B' by commercial advertising. It was tied to 'sealed set' system in which listeners would purchase a radio receiver and then pay a subscription to continue to listen to it; its implementation was a cross between the BBC's licence fee and more commercially supported radio, such as those found in the US. This continued until the Report of the Royal Commission on Wireless together with appendices was published on the 5th of October, 1927, which recommended in its summary that it should issue no further A radio licences alongside pooling resources to improve programmes and secure an efficient service to the public.
The Australian government – also known as the Commonwealth government – decided in July 1928 against the recommendations in the Royal Commission and nationalised stations with A licences. By 1929 the government had nationalised the provision of transmission and contracted the delivery of programming to the conglomerate Australian Broadcasting Company. By 1932, 12 stations had been nationalised and in May of that year the Commonwealth government passed the Australian Broadcasting Commission Act 1932. Under the act a new public broadcaster was created, it was funded directly by listener fees until 1948 and run by a five-member commission with the Postmaster-General's Department responsible for the technical aspects. Amendments were also made to the Australian Broadcasting Act 1983 which meant the ABC would receive its funding directly from the federal government.
Proposed combined TV and radio licence.
From 1956 to 1974 a combined licence for TV and radio was required.
Abolition of licence fees.
Licence fees remained until 18 September 1974, when they were abolished by the Whitlam Labor government, on the basis that the licence fee represented a poll tax and in turn cost more for the less affluent. Its abolishment was introduced by Frank Crean in his 1974 budget speech.
It was also considered too costly to monitor compliance.
Reception to the abolishment of fees.
Journalist Jenny Hill of CTC 7 News interviewed a woman about the abolition of the licence fees for TV and radio, during the interview she exclaimed about the unfairness of the decision referencing those who had already paid annually.
Attempt to reinstate the TV licence.
In a letter to The Canberra Times on 16 January 1976, reader R. O. MEE Flynn wrote:
"Now it is rumoured that the TV licence fee might be introduced again, just as I was in the act of writing to the PMG (Postmaster General) to ask if it was possible for us to get paid for watching the box. I have no intention of wasting money on a colour TV until the programs improve or more overseas content is allowed. We have been brainwashed with the advertisement that Australia waited and chose the best colour system; it's a pity they did not choose the programs to go with it."
The Sydney Morning Herald reported on 10 February 1976, the federal cabinet was considering reintroducing the TV licence but not for radios.
The debate and its discussion continued, with one reader on 23 July 1978 to the Canberra Times stating "Sir, - The rumour is that reintroduction of TV licences is to occur shortly (no smoke without fire). Once again the ordinary hard-working people are expected to be able to pay - if as rumoured - S120 for a colour television set and S80 for a black-and-white set each year." they went onto to say "...People such as pensioners, the unemployed etc, who are not in any position to pay licences and need some form of entertainment or stimulation will be the hardest hit. As usual they bear the brunt of this Government's crushing tactics on them."
In 2014 the ABC absorbed $254 million in federal budget deficits.
In the 2018–19 budget handed down by then-Treasurer Scott Morrison, the ABC was subject to a pause of indexation of operation funding, saving the federal government a total of $83.7 million over 3 years. In fiscal year 2016–17, the ABC received $861 million in federal funding, which increased to $865 million per year from 2017 to 2018 to 2018–19, representing a cut in funding of $43 million over three years when accounting for inflation. In the 2019–20 federal budget funding was around $3.2 billion over three years ($1.06 billion per year) for the ABC. The "Enhanced Newsgathering Fund", a specialised fund for regional and outer-suburban news gathering set up in 2013 by the Gillard government, was $44 million over three years as of the 2019–20 budget, a reduction of $28 million per year since the 2016 Australian federal election. This came after speculation that the fund would be removed, to which Acting managing director David Anderson wrote to Communications Minister Mitch Fifield expressing concerns.
Despite the cuts made by Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull and the freeze introduced by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Communications Minister Mitch Fifield, the ABC itself has published financial data that shows an increase in the taxpayer appropriation to the ABC of 10% in real terms (i.e. above inflation) between 1998 and 2021.
In 2023, fulfilling one of Labor's election pledges, the ABC moved into a five instead of three-year funding term.
The term "where your 8 cents a day goes", coined in the late 1980s during funding negotiations, is often used in reference to the services provided by the ABC. It was estimated that the cost of the ABC per head of population per day was 7.1 cents a day, based on the corporation's 2007–08 "base funding" of .
Services.
Radio.
The ABC operates 54 local radio stations, in addition to four national networks and international service Radio Australia. In addition, DiG Radio (rebranded to Double J in 2014)) launched on digital platforms in 2002, and later spinning off ABC Country and ABC Jazz.
ABC Local Radio is the corporation's flagship radio station in each broadcast area. There are 54 individual stations, each with a similar format consisting of locally presented light entertainment, news, talk back, music, sport and interviews, in addition to some national programming such as "AM", "PM", "The World Today", sporting events and "Nightlife".
the ABC operates 15 radio networks, variously available on AM and FM as well as on digital platforms and the internet.
The ABC also operates several stations only available online and on digital platforms:
There is also ABC Radio Australia, the international radio station of the ABC (see below).
ABC Listen app.
The ABC Radio app was launched in 2012. This was replaced by the ABC Listen app in September 2017, which included 45 ABC radio stations and audio networks.
Television.
The ABC operates five national television channels:
Although the ABC's headquarters in Sydney serve as a base for program distribution nationally, ABC Television network is composed of eight state and territory based stations, each based in their respective state capital and augmented by repeaters:
The eight ABC stations carry opt outs for local programming. In addition to the nightly 7pm news, the stations also broadcast weekly state editions of "7.30" on Friday evenings (until 5 December 2014), state election coverage and in most areas, live sport on Saturday afternoons.
There is also ABC Australia, the international TV service of the ABC (see below).
Online and digital.
ABC Online is the name given to the online services of the ABC, which have evolved to cover a large network of websites including those for ABC News, its various television channels, ABC radio; podcasts; SMS, mobile apps and other mobile phone services; vodcasts and video-on-demand through ABC iView.
The official launch of ABC Online, then part of the ABC's Multimedia Unit, was on 14 August 1995, charged with developing policy for the ABC's work in web publishing. At first it relied upon funding allocation to the corporation's TV and radio operations, but later began to receive its own. The ABC provided live, online election coverage for the first time in 1996, and limited news content began to be provided in 1997. This unit continued until 2000, when the New Media division was formed, bringing together the ABC's online output as a division similar to television or radio. In 2001 the New Media division became New Media and Digital Services, reflecting the broader remit to develop content for digital platforms such as digital television, becoming an "output division" similar to Television or Radio. In addition to ABC Online, the division also had responsibility over the ABC's two digital television services, Fly TV and the ABC Kids channel, until their closure in 2003.
ABC TV Plus, a digital-only free-to-air television channel, launched on 7 March 2005, as ABC2. Unlike its predecessors the new service was not dependent on government funding, instead running on a budget of per year. Minister for Communications Helen Coonan inaugurated the channel at Parliament House three days later. Genre restrictions limiting the types of programming the channel could carry were lifted in October 2006 – ABC TV Plus (then ABC2) was henceforth able to carry programming classified as comedy, drama, national news, sport, and entertainment.
In conjunction with the ABC's radio division, New Media and Digital Services implemented the ABC's first podcasts in December 2004. By mid-2006 the ABC had become an international leader in podcasting with over fifty podcast programmes delivering hundreds of thousands of downloads per week, including trial video podcasts of "The Chaser's War on Everything" and jtv.
In February 2007 the New Media & Digital Services division was dissolved and divided up among other areas of the ABC. It was replaced by a new Innovation division, to manage ABC Online and investigate new technologies for the ABC.
In 2008 Crikey reported that certain ABC Online mobile sites in development were planned to carry commercial advertising. Screenshots, developed in-house, of an ABC Radio Grandstand sport page include advertising for two private companies. "Media Watch" later revealed that the websites were to be operated by ABC Commercial and distinguished from the main, advertising-free, mobile website by a distinct logo.
In 2015 the Innovation Division was replaced with the Digital Network Division. Angela Clark was head from 2012 until at least the end of financial year 2015/6, but by 2017 she was gone, and the Digital Network fell into the Technology division under the Chief Technology Officer.
In May 2017 Helen Clifton was appointed to the new role of Chief Digital and Information Officer. She retired from this role in 2022
In December 2019 a refreshed ABC homepage was launched. ABC News is one of Australia's largest and most-visited web sites; from its position as 11th most popular in the country in 2008, in recent years up to 2021 it has maintained its top position in the rankings.
In June 2023 the broadcaster released its five-year plan, outlining that it would move its resources away from radio and television, and instead dedicate these resources to improving and promoting its digital platforms.
International.
ABC International is responsible for its international operations, which include the internationally broadcast Radio Australia, the Asia-Pacific TV channel ABC Australia, and its ABC International Development (ABCID) branch.
In June 2012 Lynley Marshall, former head of ABC Commercial, was appointed CEO of ABC International, filling a role left empty by the retirement of Murray Green. At the time, it was intended that Radio Australia, ABC Australia and ABC News would work together more closely ABC International was at this time a division of the ABC, but it has not been represented as a separate division in the organisational structure of the ABC since 2016, after Marshall's departure in February 2017.
There were fears of job losses in the division after the huge budget cuts in 2014, as well as an earlier termination of a contract with the Department of Foreign Affairs, one year into the 10-year contract.
On 24 May 2021 Claire Gorman was appointed to an expanded role to manage both the International Strategy and the International Development teams.
ABC Australia is an international satellite television service operated by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, funded by advertising and grants from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Aimed at the Asia-Pacific region, the service broadcasts a mixture of English language programming, including general entertainment, sport, and current affairs.
Radio Australia is an international satellite and internet radio service with transmissions aimed at South-East Asia and the Pacific Islands, although its signals are also audible in many other parts of the world. It features programmes in various languages spoken in these regions, including Mandarin, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Khmer and Tok Pisin. Before 31 January 2017 Radio Australia broadcast short-wave radio signals. Radio Australia bulletins are also carried on WRN Broadcast, available via satellite in Europe and North America.
ABC International Development, or ABCID, is a media development unit that promotes public interest journalism and connects with local media in the region. ABCID employs local people in Papua New Guinea and many Pacific countries. The team "provides expertise, training, technical and program support to partner organisations", by working with a variety of organisations, including international development donors, for example through the Pacific Media Assistance Scheme (PACMAS).
Independence and impartiality.
Under the "Australian Broadcasting Corporation Act 1983", the ABC Board is bound to "maintain the independence and integrity of the Corporation" and to ensure that "the gathering and presentation by the Corporation of news and information is accurate and impartial according to the recognised standards of objective journalism".
The ABC's editorial policy on impartiality requires it to take "no editorial stance other than its commitment to fundamental democratic principles including the rule of law, freedom of speech and religion, parliamentary democracy and non-discrimination". The ABC follows the following "hallmarks of impartiality": "a balance that follows the weight of evidence, fair treatment, open-mindedness and opportunities over time for principal relevant perspectives on matters of contention to be expressed".
The editorial policy on diversity also requires the broadcaster "to present, over time, content that addresses a broad range of subjects from a diversity of perspectives reflecting a diversity of experiences, presented in a diversity of ways from a diversity of sources". However, it also notes that this "does not require that every perspective receives equal time, nor that every facet of every argument is presented".
ABC Commercial.
The commercial arm of the ABC was established in 1974 under the name Enterprises as a self-funding unit, marketing products relating to the ABC's activities. It was renamed in 2007 to ABC Commercial, The aim of ABC Commercial was "to create, market and retail high quality consumer products which reflect and extend the scope of the ABC's activities". At this time it comprised the ABC Shop, ABC Consumer Publishing and Content Sales, ABC Resource Hire, and ABC Content Services (Archives).
ABC Commercial was registered as a business name under Australian Broadcasting Corporation in April 2007 and continues to exist . It includes ABC Music, a leading independent record label; ABC Events, which stages concerts and other events; and publishing and licensing activities by ABC Books, ABC Audio, ABC Magazines and ABC Licensing.
ABC Shop Online was wound up at the end of 2018, along with the in-store ABC Centres. In early 2019, ABC Commercial split from the Finance division and became an independent business unit of the ABC.
In the financial year 2018–2019, ABC Commercial turned a profit of , which was invested in content production.
The ABC Studios and Media Production hires out some of the ABC studios and sound stages, operating as part of ABC Commercial. The studios for hire are in Sydney (Studios 21, 22, 16), Melbourne (31), Adelaide (51B) and Perth (61).
Orchestras.
Up until the installation of disc recording equipment in 1935, all content broadcast on the ABC was produced live, including music. For this purpose the ABC established broadcasting orchestras in each state, and in some centres also employed choruses and dance bands. This became known as the ABC Concert Music Division, which was controlled by the Federal Director of Music – the first of whom was W. G. James.
In 1997 the ABC divested all ABC orchestras from the Concerts Department of the ABC into separate subsidiary companies, allied to a service company known as Symphony Australia, and on 1 January 2007 the orchestras were divested into independent companies. The six state orchestras are:
ABC Friends.
ABC Friends, formerly Friends of the ABC (FABC), consists of independent organisations in each state and territory, under an umbrella organisation established in December 2016, ABC Friends National Inc. In 1976 three independent groups were formed: Aunty's Nieces and Nephews in Melbourne, Friends of the ABC (NSW) Inc. (now ABC Friends NSW & ACT) and Friends of the ABC (SA) (since 2007/2008, ABC Friends SA/NT). The groups were formed by citizens who were concerned about government threats to make deep cuts to the ABC's budget. Historian Ken Inglis wrote that "The Friends were in the line of those people who had affirmed over the years that the ABC was essential to the nation". Over the years, independent state organisations were established, run by committees, and in January 2014 the name of each was changed to ABC Friends.
The objectives of ABC Friends National are stated as follows:
Controversies.
Defamation.
In 2023 the ABC lost a defamation case against Heston Russell, where the corporation withdrew a truth defence and opted for the case to be heard under a public interest defence.
In the landmark ruling Justice Lee awarded Russell $390,000 in addition to interest and damages. Estimates of legal expenses ranged between $1.2 million and $3 million. The broadcaster did not take up an earlier settlement offer of $99,000 and removal of the published articles. The ABC managing director, David Anderson, who took home a six-figure pay rise shortly after the defamation case loss, outlined in senate estimates that he would not apologise to Russell for the false reporting.
Recordings of Mark Willacy's interviews that formed part of the defamation case were garnished as part of the legal discovery process. They were made available to Ben Fordham's 2GB radio program.
In December 2023 Antoinette Lattouf was hired for five days to fill in for Sarah Macdonald on ABC Radio Sydney and then sacked three days later after reposting a Human Rights Watch social media post regarding actions of Israeli soldiers in the Israel-Gaza war. Two days later Lattouf initiated law action with the Fair Work Commission against the ABC for alleged racial discrimination. ABC members of the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance voted no confidence in Anderson partly due to WhatsApp messages that had come to light from a pro-Israel lobby group known as "Lawyers for Israel". The next day the ABC Board voted unanimous confidence in Anderson.
In March 2024 the ABC aired a documentary titled "Ukraine's War: The Other Side," by Sean Langan which has been criticised by Ukrainian ambassador Vasyl Myroshnychenko as the "journalistic equivalent of a bowl of vomit" and seemed to repeat Russian justification for the War in Ukraine and structured in a way that seems to favor the Russian side. The ABC has defended its position with a spokesperson stating "we believe Australian audiences also have the right to watch it and make up their own minds."
Perceived bias.
External critics have complained in particular of left-wing political bias at the broadcaster, citing a prominence of Labor Party-connected journalists hosting masthead political programs or a tendency to favour "progressive" over "conservative" political views on issues such as immigration, asylum seekers, the republic, multiculturalism, Indigenous reconciliation, feminism, environmentalism, and same-sex marriage. Gerard Henderson has argued that the ABC is supportive of diversity in areas such as identity, race, gender and ethnicity, but not so strong on diversity of views.
In December 2013 former judge and ABC chair James Spigelman announced that four independent audits would be conducted each year in response to the allegations of bias in the reporting of news and current affairs. ABC Friends have observed that: "Most of the complaints about bias in the ABC have come from the government of the day – Labor or Liberal. Significantly both parties have been far less hostile to the ABC when in opposition".
Reviews and investigations.
Reviews of the ABC are regularly commissioned and sometimes not released.
Both internal and external research has been conducted on the question of bias at the ABC. These include the following:
The ABC has an Election Coverage Review Committee that supervises the allocation of available broadcasting time to political parties and checks broadcast content against their editorial policies. The ABC also has a Referendum Coverage Review Committee which performs similar functions to the Election Coverage Review Committee. These committees are convened when an electoral event is announced.
Relationships with government.
Labor prime minister Bob Hawke considered the ABC's coverage of the 1991 Gulf War to be biased. In 1996, conservative opposition leader John Howard refused to have Kerry O'Brien of the ABC moderate the television debates with Labor prime minister Paul Keating because Howard saw O'Brien as biased against the Coalition.
Liberal Prime Minister Tony Abbott perceived the ABC to be left wing and hostile to his government, while Malcolm Turnbull enjoyed better relations with the national broadcaster. Turnbull's successor, Scott Morrison, once again presided over "strained" relations between the government and the ABC. Under Morrison's leadership, an investigation was launched into the ABC and its complaints-handling process—a decision which was criticised by Ita Buttrose as "political interference". The inquiry was abandoned the following June.
Specific topics.
The Catholic Church and George Pell.
The ABC's coverage of the issue of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church received praise and criticism. The Melbourne Press Club presented the 2016 Quill for Coverage of an Issue or Event for the report "George Pell and Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church", and the 2016 Golden Quill award to Louise Milligan and Andy Burns for their extensive coverage of Cardinal George Pell's evidence given at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
The ABC "Media Watch" program of 20 April 2020 noted that the ABC had been accused of leading a "witch hunt" against Cardinal Pell. "Media Watch" reported that, following his acquittal, Pell said the ABC gave an "overwhelming presentation of one view and only one view". Media Watch also canvassed other criticisms including from "The Australian" newspaper's editor-at-large Paul Kelly, who charged the ABC with having run a "sustained campaign against Pell". Media Watch also offered criticism of its own, noting Louise Milligan and the "Four Corners" program had failed to canvass any of Pell's defence from the trial and "lined up witnesses condemning Pell", while social media commentary by Barrie Cassidy and Quentin Dempster had undermined the presumption of innocence. Margaret Simons similarly noted in "The Guardian" that "there has been some social media activity by ABC journalists that looks very much like lobbying against Pell..."
Environmentalism.
Planet Slayer was an ABC website run by scientist Bernie Hobbs to teach children about the environment in around 2008/09. It included a "Greenhouse Calculator" which aimed to help children to work out their carbon footprint by providing an estimate of the age a person needs to die if they are not to use more than their fair share of the Earth's resources. Victorian Liberal senator Mitch Fifield criticised a cartoon series on the site for portraying those who eat meat, loggers, and workers in the nuclear industry as "evil". ABC managing director Mark Scott said the site was not designed to offend anyone, but instead have children think about environmental issues.
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Alexandria
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Alexandria ( ; ) is the second largest city in Egypt and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile River Delta. Founded in 331 BC by Alexander the Great, Alexandria grew rapidly and became a major centre of Hellenic civilisation, eventually replacing Memphis, in present-day Greater Cairo, as Egypt's capital. Called the "Bride of the Mediterranean" and "Pearl of the Mediterranean Coast" internationally, Alexandria is a popular tourist destination and an important industrial centre due to its natural gas and oil pipelines from Suez.
The city extends about along the northern coast of Egypt and is the largest city on the Mediterranean, the second-largest in Egypt (after Cairo), the fourth-largest city in the Arab world, the ninth-largest city in Africa, and the ninth-largest urban area in Africa.
The city was founded originally in the vicinity of an Egyptian settlement named Rhacotis (that became the Egyptian quarter of the city). Alexandria grew rapidly, becoming a major centre of Hellenic civilisation and replacing Memphis as Egypt's capital during the reign of the Ptolemaic pharaohs who succeeded Alexander. It retained this status for almost a millennium, through the period of Roman and Eastern Roman rule until the Muslim conquest of Egypt in 641 AD, when a new capital was founded at Fustat (later absorbed into Cairo).
Alexandria was best known for the Lighthouse of Alexandria ("Pharos"), one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World; its Great Library, the largest in the ancient world; and the Catacombs of Kom El Shoqafa, one of the Seven Wonders of the Middle Ages. Alexandria was the intellectual and cultural centre of the ancient Mediterranean for much of the Hellenistic age and late antiquity. It was at one time the largest city in the ancient world before being eventually overtaken by Rome.
The city was a major centre of early Christianity and was the centre of the Patriarchate of Alexandria, which was one of the major centres of Christianity in the Eastern Roman Empire. In the modern world, the Coptic Orthodox Church and the Greek Orthodox Church of Alexandria both lay claim to this ancient heritage. By 641, the city had already been largely plundered and lost its significance before re-emerging in the modern era. From the late 18th century, Alexandria became a major centre of the international shipping industry and one of the most important trading centres in the world, both because it profited from the easy overland connection between the Mediterranean and Red Seas and the lucrative trade in Egyptian cotton.
Name.
Alexandria was located on the earlier Egyptian settlement, which was called Rhacotis (), the Hellenised form of Egyptian "r-ꜥ-qd(y)t". As one of many settlements founded by Alexander the Great, the city he founded on Rhacotis was called (), which some sources translated as "Alexandria by Egypt", as the city was, at that time, in the periphery of Egypt proper (the area beside the Nile). Some of the Alexandrian and Greek populaces, e.g., Hypsicles, also referred to the city as (, "Alexandria near Egypt"). In the course of Roman rule in Egypt, the city's name was Latinised as .
After the capture of Alexandria by the Rashiduns in AD 641, the name was Arabicised: initial "Al-" was re-analysed into the definite article; metathesis occurred on "x", from to ; and the suffix "-eia" was assimilated into the feminine adjectival suffix "-iyya" ().
History.
Ancient era.
Radiocarbon dating of seashell fragments and lead contamination show human activity at the location during the period of the Old Kingdom (27th–21st centuries BC) and again in the period 1000–800 BC, followed by the absence of activity after that. From ancient sources it is known there existed a trading post at this location during the time of Rameses the Great for trade with Crete, but it had long been lost by the time of Alexander's arrival. A small Egyptian fishing village named Rhakotis (Egyptian: , 'That which is built up') existed since the 13th century BC in the vicinity and eventually grew into the Egyptian quarter of the city. Just east of Alexandria (where Abu Qir Bay is now), there were in ancient times marshland and several islands. As early as the 7th century BC, there existed important port cities of Canopus and Heracleion. The latter was recently rediscovered underwater.
Alexandria was founded by Alexander the Great in April 331 BC as (), as one of his many city foundations. After he captured the Egyptian Satrapy from the Persians, Alexander wanted to build a large Greek city on Egypt's coast that would bear his name. He chose the site of Alexandria, envisioning the building of a causeway to the nearby island of Pharos that would generate two great natural harbours. Alexandria was intended to supersede the older Greek colony of Naucratis as a Hellenistic center in Egypt and to be the link between Greece and the rich Nile valley. A few months after the foundation, Alexander left Egypt and never returned to the city during his life.
After Alexander's departure, his viceroy Cleomenes continued the expansion. The architect Dinocrates of Rhodes designed the city, using a Hippodamian grid plan. Following Alexander's death in 323 BC, his general Ptolemy Lagides took possession of Egypt and brought Alexander's body to Egypt with him. Ptolemy at first ruled from the old Egyptian capital of Memphis. In 322/321 BC he had Cleomenes executed. Finally, in 305 BC, Ptolemy declared himself Pharaoh as Ptolemy I Soter ("Savior") and moved his capital to Alexandria.
Although Cleomenes was mainly in charge of overseeing Alexandria's early development, the and the mainland quarters seem to have been primarily Ptolemaic work. Inheriting the trade of ruined Tyre and becoming the centre of the new commerce between Europe and the Arabian and Indian East, the city grew in less than a generation to be larger than Carthage. In one century, Alexandria had become the largest city in the world and, for some centuries more, was second only to Rome. It became Egypt's main Greek city, with Greek people from diverse backgrounds.
The Septuagint, a Greek version of the Tanakh, was produced there. The early Ptolemies kept the city in order and fostered the development of its museum into the leading Hellenistic centre of learning (Library of Alexandria, which faced destruction during Caesar's siege of Alexandria in 47 BC), but were careful to maintain the distinction of its population's three largest ethnicities: Greek, Egyptian and Jewish. By the time of Augustus, the city grid encompassed an area of , and the total population during the Roman principate was around 500,000–600,000, which would wax and wane in the course of the next four centuries under Roman rule.
According to Philo of Alexandria, in the year 38 AD, disturbances erupted between Jews and Greek citizens of Alexandria during a visit paid by King Agrippa I to Alexandria, principally over the respect paid by the Herodian nation to the Roman emperor, which quickly escalated to open affronts and violence between the two ethnic groups and the desecration of Alexandrian synagogues. This event has been called the Alexandrian pogroms. The violence was quelled after Caligula intervened and had the Roman governor, Flaccus, removed from the city.
In 115 AD, large parts of Alexandria were destroyed during the Diaspora revolt, which gave Hadrian and his architect, Decriannus, an opportunity to rebuild it. In 215 AD, the emperor Caracalla visited the city and, because of some insulting satires that the inhabitants had directed at him, abruptly commanded his troops to put to death all youths capable of bearing arms. On 21 July 365 AD, Alexandria was devastated by a tsunami (365 Crete earthquake), an event annually commemorated years later as a "day of horror".
Islamic era.
In 619, Alexandria fell to the Sassanid Persians. The city was mostly uninjured by the conquest and a new palace called "Tarawus" was erected in the eastern part of the city, later known as Qasr Faris, "fort of the Persians". Although the Byzantine emperor Heraclius recovered it in 629, in 641 the Arabs under the general 'Amr ibn al-'As invaded it during the Muslim conquest of Egypt, after a siege that lasted 14 months. The first Arab governor of Egypt recorded to have visited Alexandria was Utba ibn Abi Sufyan, who strengthened the Arab presence and built a governor's palace in the city in 664–665.
In reference to Alexandria, Ibn Battuta speaks of a number of Muslim saints that resided in the city. One such saint was Imam Borhan Oddin El Aaraj, who was said to perform miracles. Another notable figure was Yaqut al-'Arshi, a disciple of Abu Abbas El Mursi. Ibn Battuta also writes about Abu 'Abdallah al-Murshidi, a saint that lived in the Minyat of Ibn Murshed. Although al-Murshidi lived in seclusion, Ibn Battuta writes that he was regularly visited by crowds, high state officials, and even by the Sultan of Egypt at the time, al-Nasir Muhammad. Ibn Battuta also visited the Pharos lighthouse on two occasions: in 1326 he found it to be partly in ruins and in 1349 it had deteriorated to the point that it was no longer possible to enter.
Throughout the late medieval period, Alexandria re-emerged as a major metropolis and the most important commercial port in Egypt and one of the most important in the Mediterranean. The jewish traveller Benjamin of Tudela even described it as “a trading market for all nations”. Indeed, Alexandria was the outlet for all goods coming from Arabia, such as incense, and from India and South-East Asia, such as spices (pepper, cloves, cinnamon, etc.), precious stones, pearls and exotic woods like brazilwood. But it was also the outlet for goods from Africa, such as ivory and precious woods. These goods arrived in Alexandria after passing through Aden on their way to the Red Sea, then headed up the Red Sea to be unloaded in the port of Aydhab. From Aydhab, a caravan took the goods to the Nile, probably to the town of Qus. From there, the goods sailed to Alexandria. These goods then found their way to the Alexandria market alongside Egyptian products.
This route was the cheapest and fastest in comparison with the land routes that reached the Mediterranean from Syria or Constantinople. Latin merchants (Venetians, Genoese, Pisans, Aragonese, Provençals, etc.) thus entered this market. As early as the 12th century, the major trading cities had funduqs and consuls in Alexandria. A funduq, in this context is an area, often fortified, within the city dedicated to the community of a trading nation under the authority of a consul. The consul was responsible for adjudicating disputes between merchants of his nation, and also when a subject of the sultan lodged a complaint against a merchant of their nation.The terms of this installation were often set out in treaties between the sultans and the consuls. These treaties were part of a policy pursued by the early Mamluk sultans, who encouraged the arrival of merchants from Europe in Alexandria, since this trade not only brought the sultan considerable revenue, but also enabled him to obtain supplies of wood and iron from Europe. Later, in the 14th century, the Latin trade in Alexandria was also important for the sultans, as it enabled them to obtain supplies of mameluks (slave-soldiers) often sold by Genoese merchants.
As this trade was very important to the sultans, they were keen to control the city's institutions. Indeed, in Alexandria, in addition to an Emir (governor), the sultan sent a customs inspector who answered directly to the "nazir al-khas" (person in charge of managing the sultan's patrimony). Customs was not only responsible for collecting customs duties, but also for the security of the port and its warehouses. Alexandria customs also played a role in commercial arbitration and was the preferred circuit for the sale of products brought in by the merchants, which took place at auction. These sales were set up to encourage the merchants to sell their products to or through the sultan, rather than selling them freely on the city's markets. Latin merchants also had jurisdictional privileges : in addition to being judged by their consul if a subject of the sultan lodged a complaint against them, Latin merchants could not be judged by the qadis (civil judges) but had to be judged by the mazalim (the sultan's courts).Alexandria lost much of its importance in international trade after Portuguese navigators discovered a new sea route to India in the late 15th century. This reduced the amount of goods that needed to be transported through the Alexandrian port, as well as the Mamluks' political power. After the Battle of Ridaniya in 1517, the city was conquered by the Ottoman Turks and remained under Ottoman rule until 1798. Alexandria lost much of its former importance to the Egyptian port city of Rosetta during the 9th to 18th centuries, and it only regained its former prominence with the construction of the Mahmoudiyah Canal in 1820.
Alexandria figured prominently in the military operations of Napoleon's expedition to Egypt in 1798. French troops stormed the city on 2 July 1798, and it remained in their hands until the arrival of a British expedition in 1801. The British won a considerable victory over the French at the Battle of Alexandria on 21 March 1801, following which they besieged the city, which fell to them on 2 September 1801. Muhammad Ali, the Ottoman governor of Egypt, began rebuilding and redevelopment around 1810 and, by 1850, Alexandria had returned to something akin to its former glory. Egypt turned to Europe in their effort to modernise the country. Greeks, followed by other Europeans and others, began moving to the city. In the early 20th century, the city became a home for novelists and poets.In July 1882, the city came under bombardment from British naval forces and was occupied.
In July 1954, the city was a target of an Israeli bombing campaign that later became known as the Lavon Affair. On 26 October 1954, Alexandria's Mansheya Square was the site of a failed assassination attempt on Gamal Abdel Nasser.
Europeans began leaving Alexandria following the 1956 Suez Crisis that led to an outburst of Arab nationalism. The nationalisation of property by Nasser, which reached its highest point in 1961, drove out nearly all the rest.
Geography.
Alexandria is located in the country of Egypt, on the southern coast of the Mediterranean. It is in the Far West Nile delta area. It is a densely populated city; its core areas belie its large administrative area. The city's geology constitutes of soil sediments, oolitic sand and clay, oolitic limestone (from the Middle Miocene), grey shelly dolomite, marly dolomite, oncolitic limestone and dolomite, and as well as shelly limestone.
Notes:
Climate.
Alexandria has a hot steppe climate (Köppen climate classification: "BSh"), virtually hot desert climate (Köppen climate classification: "BWh"). Like the rest of Egypt's northern coast, the prevailing north wind, blowing across the Mediterranean, gives the city a less severe climate than the desert hinterland. Rafah and Alexandria are the wettest places in Egypt; the other wettest places are Rosetta, Baltim, Kafr el-Dawwar, and Mersa Matruh. The city's climate is influenced by the Mediterranean Sea, moderating its temperatures, causing variable rainy winters and moderately hot and slightly prolonged summers that, at times, can be very humid; January and February are the coolest months, with daily maximum temperatures typically ranging from and minimum temperatures that could reach .
Alexandria experiences violent storms, rain and sometimes sleet and hail during the cooler months; these events, combined with a poor drainage system, have been responsible for occasional flooding in the city in the past though they rarely occur anymore. July and August are the hottest and driest months of the year, with an average daily maximum temperature of . The average annual rainfall is around but has been as high as
Port Said, Kosseir, Baltim, Damietta and Alexandria have the least temperature variation in Egypt.
The highest recorded temperature was on 30 May 1961, and the coldest recorded temperature was on 31 January 1994.
Climate change.
A 2019 paper published in PLOS One estimated that under Representative Concentration Pathway 4.5, a "moderate" scenario of climate change where global warming reaches ~ by 2100, the climate of Alexandria in the year 2050 would most closely resemble the current climate of Gaza City. The annual temperature would increase by , and the temperature of the warmest and the coldest month by and . According to Climate Action Tracker, the current warming trajectory appears consistent with , which closely matches RCP 4.5.
Due to its location on a Nile river delta, Alexandria is one of the most vulnerable cities to sea level rise in the entire world. According to some estimates, hundreds of thousands of people in its low-lying areas may already have to be relocated before 2030. The 2022 IPCC Sixth Assessment Report estimates that by 2050, Alexandria and 11 other major African cities (Abidjan, Algiers, Cape Town, Casablanca, Dakar, Dar es Salaam, Durban, Lagos, Lomé, Luanda and Maputo) would collectively sustain cumulative damages of US$65 billion for the "moderate" climate change scenario RCP 4.5 and US$86.5 billion for the high-emission scenario RCP 8.5, while RCP 8.5 combined with the hypothetical impact from marine ice sheet instability at high levels of warming would involve up to US$137.5 billion in damages. Additional accounting for the "low-probability, high-damage events" may increase aggregate risks to US$187 billion for the "moderate" RCP4.5, US$206 billion for RCP8.5 and US$397 billion under the high-end ice sheet instability scenario. In every single estimate, Alexandria alone bears around half of these costs. Since sea level rise would continue for about 10,000 years under every scenario of climate change, future costs of sea level rise would only increase, especially without adaptation measures. Recent studies published in Earth's Future by the American Geophysical Union indicate that rising sea levels are causing increases in coastal aquifer levels, reaching building foundations and accelerating their corrosion and potential collapse. The study predicts that in 2025, more than 7000 buildings in Alexandria will be at risk of collapse due to these groundwater processes.
Ancient layout.
Greek Alexandria was divided into three regions:
Rhakotis (from Coptic , "Alexandria") was the old city that was absorbed into Alexandria. It was occupied chiefly by Egyptians.
Brucheum was the Royal or Greek quarter and formed the most magnificent portion of the city. In Roman times, Brucheum was enlarged by the addition of an official quarter, making four regions in all. The city was laid out as a grid of parallel streets, each of which had an attendant subterranean canal.
The Jewish quarter was the northeast portion of the city.
Two main streets, lined with colonnades and said to have been each about wide, intersected in the centre of the city, close to the point where the Sema (or Soma) of Alexander (his Mausoleum) rose. This point is very near the present mosque of Nebi Daniel; the line of the great East–West "Canopic" street is also present in modern-day Alexandria, having only slightly diverged from the line of the modern Boulevard de Rosette (now Sharae Fouad). Traces of its pavement and canal have been found near the Rosetta Gate, but remnants of streets and canals were exposed in 1899 by German excavators outside the east fortifications, which lie well within the area of the ancient city.Alexandria consisted originally of little more than the island of Pharos, which was joined to the mainland by a mole and called the ("seven stadia"—a "stadium" was a Greek unit of length measuring approximately ). The end of this abutted on the land at the head of the present Grand Square, where the "Moon Gate" rose. All that now lies between that point and the modern "Ras al-Tin" quarter is built on the silt which gradually widened and obliterated this mole. The Ras al-Tin quarter represents all that is left of the island of Pharos, the site of the actual lighthouse having been weathered away by the sea. On the east of the mole was the Great Harbour, now an open bay; on the west lay the port of Eunostos, with its inner basin Kibotos, now vastly enlarged to form the modern harbour.
In Strabo's time (latter half of the 1st century BC), the principal buildings were as follows, enumerated as they were to be seen from a ship entering the Great Harbour.
The names of a few other public buildings on the mainland are known, but there is little information as to their actual position. None, however, are as famous as the building that stood on the eastern point of Pharos island. There, The Great Lighthouse, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, reputed to be high, was situated. The first Ptolemy began the project, and the second Ptolemy (Ptolemy II Philadelphus) completed it, at a total cost of 800 talents. It took 12 years to complete and served as a prototype for all later lighthouses in the world. The light was produced by a furnace at the top and the tower was built mostly with solid blocks of limestone. The Pharos lighthouse was destroyed by an earthquake in the 14th century, making it the second longest surviving ancient wonder, after the Great Pyramid of Giza. A temple of Hephaestus also stood on Pharos at the head of the mole.
In the 1st century, the population of Alexandria contained over 180,000 adult male citizens, according to a census dated from 32 AD, in addition to a large number of freedmen, women, children and slaves. Estimates of the total population range from 216,000 to 500,000, making it one of the largest cities ever built before the Industrial Revolution and the largest pre-industrial city that was not an imperial capital.
Cityscape.
Due to the constant presence of war in Alexandria in ancient times, very little of the ancient city has survived into the present day. Much of the royal and civic quarters sank beneath the harbour and the rest has been built over in modern times.
Pompey's Pillar.
"Pompey's Pillar", a Roman triumphal column, is one of the best-known ancient monuments still standing in Alexandria today. It is located on Alexandria's ancient acropolis—a modest hill located adjacent to the city's Arab cemetery—and was originally part of a temple colonnade. Including its pedestal, it is 30 m (99 ft) high; the shaft is of polished red granite, in diameter at the base, tapering to at the top. The shaft is high and made out of a single piece of granite. Its volume is and weight approximately 396 tons. Pompey's Pillar may have been erected using the same methods that were used to erect the ancient obelisks. The Romans had cranes, but they were not strong enough to lift something this heavy. Roger Hopkins and Mark Lehrner conducted several obelisk erecting experiments including a successful attempt to erect a 25-ton obelisk in 1999. This followed two experiments to erect smaller obelisks and two failed attempts to erect a 25-ton obelisk.
"Pompey's Pillar" is a misnomer, as it has nothing to do with Pompey, having been erected in 293 for Diocletian, possibly in memory of the rebellion of Domitius Domitianus. The structure was plundered and demolished in the 4th century when a bishop decreed that Paganism must be eradicated. Beneath the acropolis itself are the subterranean remains of the Serapeum, where the mysteries of the god Serapis were enacted and whose carved wall niches are believed to have provided overflow storage space for the ancient Library. In more recent years, many ancient artifacts have been discovered from the surrounding sea, mostly pieces of old pottery.
Catacombs of Kom El Shoqafa.
Alexandria's catacombs, known as "Kom El Shoqafa", are a short distance southwest of the pillar, consist of a multi-level labyrinth, reached via a large spiral staircase and featuring dozens of chambers adorned with sculpted pillars, statues, and other syncretic Romano-Egyptian religious symbols, burial niches, and sarcophagi, as well as a large Roman-style banquet room, where memorial meals were conducted by relatives of the deceased. The catacombs were long forgotten by the citizens until they were discovered by accident in 1900.
Kom El Deka.
The most extensive ancient excavation currently being conducted in Alexandria is known as Kom El Deka. It has revealed the ancient city's well-preserved theater, and the remains of its Roman-era baths.
Temple of Taposiris Magna.
The temple was built in the Ptolemy era and dedicated to Osiris, which finished the construction of Alexandria. It is located in Abusir, the western suburb of Alexandria in Borg el Arab city. Only the outer wall and the pylons remain from the temple. There is evidence to prove that sacred animals were worshiped there. Archaeologists found an animal necropolis near the temple. Remains of a Christian church show that the temple was used as a church in later centuries. Also found in the same area are remains of public baths built by the emperor Justinian, a seawall, quays and a bridge. Near the beach side of the area, there are the remains of a tower built by Ptolemy II Philadelphus. The tower was an exact scale replica of the destroyed Alexandrine Pharos Lighthouse.
Citadel of Qaitbay.
Citadel of Qaitbay is a defensive fortress located on the Mediterranean sea coast. It was established in 1477 AD (882 AH) by the mamluk Sultan Al-Ashraf Sayf al-Din Qa'it Bay. The Citadel is located on the eastern side of the northern tip of Pharos Island at the mouth of the Eastern Harbour. It was erected on the exact site of the famous Lighthouse of Alexandria, which was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It was built on an area of 17,550 square metres.
Excavation.
Persistent efforts have been made to explore the antiquities of Alexandria. Encouragement and help have been given by the local Archaeological Society and by many individuals. Excavations were performed in the city by Greeks seeking the tomb of Alexander the Great without success.
The past and present directors of the museum have been enabled from time to time to carry out systematic excavations whenever opportunity is offered; D. G. Hogarth made tentative researches on behalf of the Egypt Exploration Fund and the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies in 1895; and a German expedition worked for two years (1898–1899). But two difficulties face the would-be excavator in Alexandria: lack of space for excavation and the underwater location of some areas of interest.
Since the great and growing modern city stands immediately over the ancient one, it is almost impossible to find any considerable space in which to dig, except at enormous cost. Cleopatra VII's royal quarters were inundated by earthquakes and tsunami, leading to gradual subsidence in the 4th century AD. This underwater section, containing many of the most interesting sections of the Hellenistic city, including the palace quarter, was explored in 1992 and is still being extensively investigated by the French underwater archaeologist Franck Goddio and his team. It raised a noted head of Caesarion. These are being opened up to tourists, to some controversy. The spaces that are most open are the low grounds to northeast and southwest, where it is practically impossible to get below the Roman strata.
The most important results were those achieved by Dr. G. Botti, late director of the museum, in the neighbourhood of "Pompey's Pillar", where there is a good deal of open ground. Here, substructures of a large building or group of buildings have been exposed, which are perhaps part of the Serapeum. Nearby, immense catacombs and "columbaria" have been opened which may have been appendages of the temple. These contain one very remarkable vault with curious painted reliefs, now artificially lit and open to visitors.
The objects found in these researches are in the museum, the most notable being a great basalt bull, probably once an object of cult in the Serapeum. Other catacombs and tombs have been opened in Kom El Shoqafa (Roman) and Ras El Tin (painted).
The German excavation team found remains of a Ptolemaic colonnade and streets in the north-east of the city, but little else. Hogarth explored part of an immense brick structure under the mound of Kom El Deka, which may have been part of the Paneum, the Mausolea, or a Roman fortress.
The making of the new foreshore led to the dredging up of remains of the Patriarchal Church; and the foundations of modern buildings are seldom laid without some objects of antiquity being discovered.
Places of worship.
Islam.
The most famous mosque in Alexandria is Abu al-Abbas al-Mursi Mosque in Bahary. Other notable mosques in the city include Ali ibn Abi Talib mosque in Somouha, Bilal mosque, al-Gamaa al-Bahari in Mandara, Hatem mosque in Somouha, Hoda el-Islam mosque in Sidi Bishr, al-Mowasah mosque in Hadara, Sharq al-Madina mosque in Miami, al-Shohadaa mosque in Mostafa Kamel, Al Qa'ed Ibrahim Mosque, Yehia mosque in Zizinia, Sidi Gaber mosque in Sidi Gaber, Sidi Besher mosque, Rokay el-Islam mosque in Elessway, Elsadaka Mosque in Sidibesher Qebly, Elshatbi mosque and Sultan mosque.
Alexandria is the base of the Salafi movements in Egypt. Al-Nour Party, which is based in the city and overwhelmingly won most of the Salafi votes in the 2011–12 parliamentary election, supports the president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
Christianity.
Alexandria was once considered the third-most important see in Christianity, after Rome and Constantinople. Until 430, the Patriarch of Alexandria was second only to the bishop of Rome. The Church of Alexandria had jurisdiction over most of the continent of Africa. After the Council of Chalcedon in AD 451, the Alexandrian Church split between the Miaphysites and the Melkites. The Miaphysites went on to constitute what is known today as the Coptic Orthodox Church. The Melkites went on to constitute what is known today as the Greek Orthodox Church of Alexandria. In the 19th century, Catholic and Protestant missionaries converted some of the adherents of the Orthodox churches to their respective faiths.
Today the Patriarchal seat of the Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church is Saint Mark Cathedral (though in practice the Patriarch has long resided in Cairo). The most important Coptic Orthodox churches in Alexandria include Pope Cyril I Church in Cleopatra, Saint George's Church in Sporting, Saint Mark and Pope Peter I Church in Sidi Bishr, Saint Mary Church in Assafra, Saint Mary Church in Gianaclis, Saint Mina Church in Fleming, Saint Mina Church in Mandara and Saint Takla Haymanot's Church in Ibrahimeya.
The most important Eastern Orthodox churches in Alexandria are Agioi Anárgyroi Church, Church of the Annunciation, Saint Anthony Church, Archangels Gabriel and Michael Church, Taxiarchon Church, Saint Catherine Church, Cathedral of the Dormition in Mansheya, Church of the Dormition, Prophet Elijah Church, Saint George Church, Saint Joseph Church in Fleming, Saint Joseph of Arimathea Church, Saint Mark and Saint Nektarios Chapel in Ramleh, Saint Nicholas Church, Saint Paraskevi Church, Saint Sava Cathedral in Ramleh, Saint Theodore Chapel and the Russian church of Saint Alexander Nevsky in Alexandria, which serves the Russian speaking community in the city.
The Apostolic Vicariate of Alexandria in Egypt-Heliopolis-Port Said has jurisdiction over all Latin Catholics in Egypt. Member churches include Saint Catherine Church in Mansheya and Church of the Jesuits in Cleopatra. The city is also the nominal see of the Melkite Greek Catholic titular Patriarchate of Alexandria (generally vested in its leading Patriarch of Antioch) and the actual cathedral see of its Patriarchal territory of Egypt, Sudan and South Sudan, which uses the Byzantine Rite, and the nominal see of the Armenian Catholic Eparchy of Alexandria (for all Egypt and Sudan, whose actual cathedral is in Cairo), a suffragan of the Armenian Catholic Patriarch of Cilicia, using the Armenian Rite.
The Saint Mark Church in Shatby, founded as part of Collège Saint Marc, is multi-denominational and holds liturgies according to Latin Catholic, Coptic Catholic and Coptic Orthodox rites.
In antiquity Alexandria was a major centre of the cosmopolitan religious movement called Gnosticism (today mainly remembered as a Christian heresy).
Judaism.
Alexandria's Jewish community declined rapidly following the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, after which negative reactions towards Zionism among Egyptians led to Jewish residents in the city, and elsewhere in Egypt, being perceived as Zionist collaborators. Most Jewish residents of Egypt moved to the newly settled Israel, France, Brazil and other countries in the 1950s and 1960s. The community once numbered 50,000 but is now estimated at below 50. The most important synagogue in Alexandria is the Eliyahu Hanavi Synagogue.
Education.
Colleges and universities.
Alexandria has a number of higher education institutions. Alexandria University is a public university that follows the Egyptian system of higher education. Many of its faculties are internationally renowned, most notably its Faculty of Medicine & Faculty of Engineering. In addition, the Egypt-Japan University of Science and Technology in New Borg El Arab city is a research university set up in collaboration between the Japanese and Egyptian governments in 2010. The Arab Academy for Science, Technology & Maritime Transport is a semi-private educational institution that offers courses for high school, undergraduate level, and postgraduate students. It is considered the most reputable university in Egypt after the AUC American University in Cairo because of its worldwide recognition from board of engineers at UK & ABET in US. Université Senghor is a private French university that focuses on the teaching of humanities, politics and international relations, which mainly recruits students from the African continent. Other institutions of higher education in Alexandria include Alexandria Institute of Technology (AIT) and Pharos University in Alexandria.
In September 2023, The Greek University of Patras announced that it is opening a branch in Alexandria, in a first-of-its-kind move by a Greek higher education institution. The Greek university of Patras branch will operate two departments, one Greek-speaking and one English-speaking in the subjects of Greek culture, Greek language and Greek philosophy.
Schools.
Alexandria has a long history of foreign educational institutions. The first foreign schools date to the early 19th century, when French missionaries began establishing French charitable schools to educate the Egyptians. Today, the most important French schools in Alexandria run by Catholic missionaries include Collège de la Mère de Dieu, Collège Notre Dame de Sion, Collège Saint Marc, Écoles des Soeurs Franciscaines (four different schools), École Girard, École Saint Gabriel, École Saint-Vincent de Paul, École Saint Joseph, École Sainte Catherine, and Institution Sainte Jeanne-Antide. As a reaction to the establishment of French religious institutions, a secular (laic) mission established Lycée el-Horreya, which initially followed a French system of education, but is currently run by the Egyptian government. The only school in Alexandria that completely follows the French educational system is Lycée Français d'Alexandrie (École Champollion). It is usually frequented by the children of French expatriates and diplomats in Alexandria. The Italian school is the Istituto "Don Bosco".
English-language schools in Alexandria are the most popular; those in the city include: Riada American School, Riada Language School, Forsan American School, Forsan International School, Alexandria Language School, Future Language School, Future International Schools (Future IGCSE, Future American School and Future German school), Alexandria American School, British School of Alexandria, Egyptian American School, Pioneers Language School, Egyptian English Language School, Princesses Girls' School, Sidi Gaber Language School, Zahran Language School, Taymour English School, Sacred Heart Girls' School, Schutz American School, Victoria College, El Manar Language School for Girls (previously called Scottish School for Girls), Kawmeya Language School, El Nasr Boys' School (previously called British Boys' School), and El Nasr Girls' College (previously called English Girls' College).
There are only two German schools in Alexandria which are Deutsche Schule der Borromärinnen (DSB of Saint Charles Borromé) and Neue Deutsche Schule Alexandria, which is run by Frau Sally Hammam.
The Montessori educational system was first introduced in Alexandria in 2009 at Alexandria Montessori.
Women.
Around the 1890s, twice the percentage of women in Alexandria knew how to read compared to Cairo. As a result, specialist women's publications like "al-Fatāh" by Hind Nawal, the country's first women's journal, appeared.
Transport.
Airports.
The city's principal airport is currently Borg El Arab Airport, which is located about away from the city centre.
From late 2011, El Nouzha Airport (Alexandria International Airport) was to be closed to commercial operations for two years as it underwent expansion, with all airlines operating out of Borg El Arab Airport from then onwards, where a brand new terminal was completed there in February 2010. In 2017, the government announced that Alexandria International Airport will shut down permanently and will no longer reopen.
Port.
Alexandria has four ports; namely the Western Port also known as "Alexandria Port", which is the main port of the country that handles about 60% of the country's exports and imports, Dekhela Port west of the Western Port, the Eastern Port which is a yachting harbour, and Abu Qir Port at the northern east of the governorate. It is a commercial port for general cargo and phosphates.
Rail.
Alexandria's intracity commuter rail system extends from Misr Station (Alexandria's primary intercity railway station) to Abu Qir, parallel to the tram line. The commuter line's locomotives operate on diesel, as opposed to the overhead-electric tram.
Alexandria plays host to two intercity railway stations: the aforementioned Misr Station (in the older Manshia district in the western part of the city) and Sidi Gaber railway station (in the district of Sidi Gaber in the centre of the eastern expansion in which most Alexandrines reside), both of which also serve the commuter rail line. Intercity passenger service is operated by Egyptian National Railways.
Trams.
An extensive tramway network was built in 1860 and is the oldest in Africa. The network begins at the El Raml district in the west and ends in the Victoria district in the east.
Metro.
Construction of the Alexandria Metro was due to begin in 2020 at a cost of $1.05 billion.
Culture.
Libraries.
The Royal Library of Alexandria, in Alexandria, Egypt, was once the largest library in the world. It is generally thought to have been founded at the beginning of the 3rd century BC, during the reign of Ptolemy II of Egypt. It was likely created after his father had built what would become the first part of the library complex, the temple of the Muses—the Museion, Greek "Μουσείον" (from which the Modern English word "museum" is derived).
It has been reasonably established that the library, or parts of the collection, were destroyed by fire on a number of occasions (library fires were common and replacement of handwritten manuscripts was very difficult, expensive, and time-consuming). To this day, the details of the destruction (or destructions) remain a lively source of controversy.
The Bibliotheca Alexandrina was inaugurated in 2002, near the site of the old Library.
Museums.
The Alexandria National Museum was inaugurated 31 December 2003. It is located in a restored Italian style palace in Tariq El Horreya Street (formerly Rue Fouad), near the centre of the city. It contains about 1,800 artifacts that narrate the story of Alexandria and Egypt. Most of these pieces came from other Egyptian museums. The museum is housed in the old Al-Saad Bassili Pasha Palace, who was one of the wealthiest wood merchants in Alexandria. Construction on the site was first undertaken in 1926.
The Graeco-Roman Museum was the city's main archeological museum, focused on artifacts from its Greco-Roman period. It was opened in 1892 and was closed in 2005 for extensive renovations and expansion. The museum re-opened to the public in October 2023.
Other museums in the city include the Cavafy Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, and the Royal Jewelry Museum.
Theaters.
Alexandria Opera House hosts performances of classical music, Arabic music, ballet, and opera.
Poetry.
During the Hellenistic period, poets evolving in the court of Ptolemy II Philadelphus (Philiscus of Corcyra, Lycophron, Alexander Aetolus, Sositheus...) are currently known as the Alexandrian Pleiad.
In modern times, Constantine P. Cavafy, a major Greek poet who was born and lived in Alexandria used several themes associated with this city in his work: "Alexandrian Kings", "In Alexandria, 31 B.C.", "", "Kaisarion" and "The God Abandons Antony". In the latter, Alexandria becomes the symbol of the life whose forthcoming loss must be faced with dignity.
Sports.
The main sport that interests Alexandrians is football, as is the case in the rest of Egypt and Africa. Alexandria Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Alexandria, Egypt. It is currently used mostly for football matches and was used for the 2006 African Cup of Nations. The stadium is the oldest stadium in Egypt, being built in 1929. The stadium holds 20,000 people. Alexandria was one of three cities that participated in hosting the African Cup of Nations in January 2006, which Egypt won. Sea sports such as surfing, jet-skiing and water polo are practiced on a lower scale. The Skateboarding culture in Egypt started in this city. The city is also home to the Alexandria Sporting Club, which is especially known for its basketball team, which traditionally provides the country's national team with key players. The city hosted the AfroBasket, the continent's most prestigious basketball tournament, on four occasions (1970, 1975, 1983, 2003).
Alexandria has four stadiums:
Other less popular sports like tennis and squash are usually played in private social and sports clubs, like:
Alexandria is also known as the yearly starting point of Cross Egypt Challenge and a huge celebration is conducted the night before the rally starts after all the international participants arrive to the city. Cross Egypt Challenge is an international cross-country motorcycle and scooter rally conducted throughout the most difficult tracks and roads of Egypt.
Twin towns and sister cities.
Alexandria is twinned with:
References.
Citations.
1) El-Shahed, Ahmed. "The History and Architecture of Abu al-Abbas al-Mursi Mosque in Alexandria." Journal of Islamic Architecture, vol. 5, no. 2, 2018, pp. 87–102.
2) Hassan, Mahmoud. "The Legacy of Ali ibn Abi Talib Mosque: A Historical Analysis." International Journal of Architectural Research, vol. 12, no. 3, 2019, pp. 321–336.
3) Abdallah, Fatma. "The Cultural Significance of Bilal Mosque in Alexandria: A Study in Religious Architecture." Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, vol. 27, no. 4, 2020, pp. 45–60.
4) Ali, Mustafa. "Intellectual Centers of Islamic Learning in Medieval Alexandria." Alexandria Studies Journal, vol. 8, no. 1, 2015, pp. 123–140.
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Alexandria, Indiana
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Alexandria is a city in Monroe Township, Madison County, Indiana, United States. It is about northeast of Indianapolis. According to the 2020 census, its population was 5,149, nearly unchanged from 2010.
History.
Alexandria was platted in 1836, when it was certain that the Indiana Central Canal would be extended to that point. It was incorporated as a town in 1898.
In 1898, Indiana's first Interurban railway line began operating between Alexandria and Anderson.
Geography.
Alexandria is located in northern Madison County. Indiana State Road 9 passes through the east side of the city, leading south to Anderson, the county seat, and north to Marion. State Road 28 crosses the northern tip of Alexandria, leading west to Elwood and east to Albany.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Alexandria has a total area of , all land. Pipe Creek crosses the city south of its center, flowing southwest to join the White River at Perkinsville.
Demographics.
Alexandria is part of the Indianapolis–Carmel–Anderson metropolitan statistical area.
2010 census.
As of the census of 2010, there were 5,145 people, 2,113 households, and 1,362 families living in the city. The population density was . There were 2,507 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 97.4% White, 0.3% African American, 0.1% Native American, 0.2% Asian, 0.8% from other races, and 1.1% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino people of any race were 1.7% of the population.
Of the 2,113 households 33.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 42.2% were married couples living together, 15.7% had a female householder with no husband present, 6.6% had a male householder with no wife present, and 35.5% were non-families. 30.1% of households were one person and 12.8% were one person aged 65 or older. The average household size was 2.41 and the average family size was 2.95.
The median age was 38.2 years. 25.6% of residents were under the age of 18; 8.8% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 24.8% were from 25 to 44; 25.1% were from 45 to 64; and 15.6% were 65 or older. The gender makeup of the city was 47.8% male and 52.2% female.
2000 census.
As of the census of 2000, there were 6,260 people, 2,481 households, and 1,654 families living in the city. The population density was . There were 2,704 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 98.10% White, 0.46% Black or African American, 0.08% Native American, 0.11% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 0.43% from other races, and 0.80% from two or more races. 0.99% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.
Of the 2,481 households 33.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 49.0% were married couples living together, 12.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 33.3% were non-families. 28.9% of households were one person and 13.1% were one person aged 65 or older. The average household size was 2.48 and the average family size was 3.04.
The age distribution was 27.8% under the age of 18, 8.9% from 18 to 24, 28.0% from 25 to 44, 19.5% from 45 to 64, and 15.9% 65 or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females, there were 91.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 87.4 males.
The median household income was $35,359 and the median family income was $42,731. Males had a median income of $30,529 versus $23,384 for females. The per capita income for the city was $15,578. About 4.2% of families and 7.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 4.1% of those under age 18 and 15.0% of those age 65 or over.
Government.
The city council consists of seven members. Five members are elected from individual districts, and two are elected at large. The city is governed by a "strong" mayor system that appoints two council members and/or city residents to serve at the mayor's pleasure on the board of public works and safety. The chief financial officer is the clerk-treasurer. The clerk-treasurer and mayor are full-time elected officials.
Transportation.
Airport.
Alexandria Airport is a public use airport located southeast of the central business district of Alexandria.
Education.
It is in the Alexandria Community School Corporation.
The town has a lending library, the Alexandria-Monroe Public Library.
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Alexandria, Louisiana
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Alexandria is the ninth-largest city in the state of Louisiana and is the parish seat and largest city of Rapides Parish, Louisiana, United States. It lies on the south bank of the Red River in almost the exact geographic center of the state. It is the principal city of the Alexandria metropolitan area (population 153,922) which encompasses all of Rapides and Grant parishes. Its neighboring city is Pineville. In 2010, the population was 47,723, an increase of 3 percent from the 2000 census.
History.
Located along the Red River, the city of Alexandria was originally home to a community which supported activities of the adjacent French trader outpost of "Post du Rapides". The area developed as an assemblage of traders, Caddo people, and merchants in the agricultural lands bordering the mostly unsettled areas to the north and providing a link from the south to the El Camino Real and then larger settlement of Natchitoches, the oldest permanent settlement in the Louisiana Purchase.
Alexander Fulton, a businessman from Washington County, near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, received a land grant from Spain in 1762, and the first organized settlement was made at some point in the 1780s. In 1805, Fulton and business partner Thomas Harris Maddox laid out the town plan and named the town in Fulton's honor. The earliest deed that survives for an Alexandria resident is from June 24, 1801, when a William Cochren, who identifies himself as "Slave master of the Southern Americas", sold a tract of land across the Red River to a William Murrey.
That same year, Fulton was appointed coroner in Rapides Parish by territorial Governor William C.C. Claiborne. Alexandria was incorporated as a town in 1818 and received a city charter in 1832.
In 1942, Alexandria was the site of the Lee Street Riot, an incident of racial violence that occurred between mostly civilians and military police. Witnesses state that as many as 20 people may have been killed, however the official report indicates that 3 soldiers were critically injured, and does not mention any deaths.
Geography and climate.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which 26.4 square miles (68.4 km2) is land and 0.6 square mile (1.5 km2) (2.15%) is water.
Alexandria is on a level plain in the center of the Louisiana Longleaf Pine forests, in which pine is interspersed with various hardwoods. A number of small bayous, such as Bayou Rapides, Bayou Robert, and Hynson Bayou, meander throughout the city. In the immediate vicinity of the city, cotton, sugar, alfalfa, and garden vegetables are cultivated.
The climate is humid subtropical with some continental influence in the winter. Summers are consistently hot and humid, whereas winters are mild, with occasional cold snaps. On average, the first freeze occurs in early to mid November and the last freeze occurs in early to mid March. The area receives plentiful rainfall year-round, with thunderstorms possible throughout the year. Some storms can be severe, especially during the spring months. According to 'Cities Ranked and Rated' (Bert Sperling and Peter Sander), Alexandria reports an average of 69 days per year with thunder reported, which is nearly double the national average. Snowfall is rare, with measurable snow having occurred 27 times since 1895. The heaviest snowfall event took place February 12–13, 1960, when 9.1" of snow fell.
Tropical storms and hurricanes affect Alexandria from time to time, but rarely cause severe damage, unlike areas closer to the coast. In September 2005, Hurricane Rita moved inland and affected Alexandria and surrounding areas, causing widespread power outages and damaging the roofs of some structures. The most recent hurricane, Gustav in 2008, caused widespread flooding, knocked over trees and power lines leading to power outages, and damaged structures. Some low-lying Alexandria neighborhoods had substantial flooding from Gustav, leaving several feet of water in houses.
Demographics.
2020 census.
As of the 2020 United States census, there were 45,275 people, 17,920 households, and 10,933 families residing in the city.
2010 census.
As of the census of 2010, there were 47,723 people, 17,816 households, and 11,722 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,754.6/sq mi (677.5/km2). There were 19,806 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 38.32% White, 57.25% Black, 1.25% Native American, 1.85% Asian, 0.14% Pacific Islander, 1.03% from other races, and 1.09% from two or more races. 6.98% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.
There were 17,816 households, out of which 31.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 38.5% were married couples living together, 23.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 34.2% were non-families. 30.4% of all households were made up of individuals, and 12.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.50 and the average family size was 3.13.
In the city, the population was spread out, with 28.1% under the age of 18, 9.2% from 18 to 24, 26.2% from 25 to 44, 21.4% from 45 to 64, and 15.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females, there were 83.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 77.7 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $26,097, and the median income for a family was $31,978. Males had a median income of $29,456 versus $20,154 for females. The per capita income for the city was $16,242. About 23.2% of families and 27.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 37.7% of those under age 18 and 18.5% of those age 65 or over.
Religion.
Like many other southern cities, the largest single church denomination in the Alexandria area is Southern Baptist. Large congregations include the Emmanuel Baptist Church and Calvary Baptist Church. Alexandria is the headquarters of the Louisiana Baptist Convention. Alexandria also has a significant number of Methodists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, and Pentecostals.
A significant Catholic population is also present, a result of the large Catholic Acadian French population which resides in and around Alexandria, many from neighboring Avoyelles Parish. Alexandria is the headquarters for the Diocese of Alexandria.
Alexandria has a small, though active Jewish community which dates back to the mid-19th century. Jews have held positions in local government, civic organizations, education, and medicine. At one time, many large businesses in the downtown were Jewish-owned. The Jewish community in Alexandria maintains two synagogues, which are approximately two blocks apart: Congregation Gemiluth Chassodim (Reform) and B'nai Israel Traditional Synagogue (Conservative).
Annual cultural events and festivals.
Mardi Gras.
Though Alexandria is north of the Cajun cultural area, the city recognizes Mardi Gras as an official holiday. The annual Mardi Gras Krewes Parade – occurring on the Sunday before Mardi Gras – on Texas Avenue is a major cultural festivity in the area. It is featured as a family-oriented event, and parade goers can enjoy over 20 New Orleans style floats, high school and college marching bands, as well as appearances by local celebrities. In addition to the main Sunday parade, the College Cheerleaders & Classic Cars Parade, which was established in 2008, takes place downtown on the Friday before Mardi Gras, the Children's Parade takes place downtown on the Saturday before Mardi Gras, and the Krewe of Provine Parade is held on Fat Tuesday, processing along Coliseum Boulevard. All the events are organized by the Alexandria Mardi Gras Association (AMGA). The Krewe Parade can attract from 120,000 to 150,000; the Children's parade, up to 40,000 to 50,000, and the College Cheerleaders & Classic Cars, about 5,000 to 15,000 people.
Alex River Fête.
An annual three-day festival is held in downtown Alexandria around late April and early May. The festival, established in 2013, was created around a former successful stand-alone event, the Louisiana Dragon Boat Races. It features the race and other former stand-alone events such as Dinner on the Bricks and the ArtWalk (now Art Fête) along with various booth venues, food, and live music, as well as the Kids Fête and Classic Car Fête.
Alex Winter Fête.
An annual three day festival held in downtown Alexandria around early December. Launched in 2015, the festival first year drew about double the anticipated crowd of 15,000. The festival, like the Alex River Fête, feature booth venues, food, and live music but also features an ice rink. In January 2017, the Alex Winter Fête was voted Festival of the Year by the Louisiana Travel Promotion Association.
Former events.
Cenlabration.
Begun in the late 1980s, Cenlabration was one of the largest festivals in Central Louisiana (Cenla). The name comes from Central Louisiana ("LA") Celebration, and reflects local culture and heritage, as well as serving as a means of celebrating Labor Day as the end of summer.
As many as three stages support a particular type of music, including Cajun and zydeco, blues and jazz, and Country music. In addition there are arts and crafts booths for local artists to sell their wares. In the Children's Village, children can participate in arts and crafts, listen to storytellers, play games with clowns, or watch a play. The festival has plenty of carnival rides available as well. Cenlabration ends with a large fireworks display.
The festival ran for 20 years until cancellation due to finances. The city ended its annual support of $40,000 because of budget constraints.
RiverFest.
In 2002, representatives of local government, businesses, organizations, and community formed the nonprofit organization River Cities Cultural Alliance, Inc. to promote tourism and the arts through a celebration of Central Louisiana's diverse cultural heritage. The nonprofit served to organize and put on RiverFest: Heritage and Arts on the Red. More than ten thousand festival-goers attending the event.
RiverFest was held in downtown Alexandria and on the Alexandria and Pineville levees. The festival features the work of visual artists from across the South, food booths exemplifying southern cuisine, a variety of children's activities, three outdoor stages with a wide range of music, dance, and theatrical performances, and a literary component with readings and panel discussions by Louisiana authors and scholars.
RiverFest was canceled in 2007.
Que'in on the Red.
An annual barbecue festival launched in 2006, the festival was held on the levee near downtown Alexandria and was well known for its big-name entertainment. The event was cancelled in 2012 due to its high cost and the city deciding against continued support of $100,000 annually.
Museums.
The Alexandria Museum of Art was founded in 1977 and occupies an historic Rapides Bank Building on the banks of the Red River. The building was built c. 1898 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The museum opened to the public in March 1998. In 1998, the Alexandria Museum of Art expanded and constructed its grand foyer and offices as an annex to the Rapides Bank Building. In 1999, the Alexandria Museum of Art was honored as an Outstanding Arts Organization in the Louisiana Governor's Arts Awards. In 2007, the Alexandria Museum of Art entered into a collaborative endeavor agreement with Louisiana State University of Alexandria (LSUA). The Alexandria Museum of Art now also serves as a downtown campus for LSUA classes, and is host to multidisciplinary community events, including concerts and recitals, lectures, yoga classes, Second Saturday Markets, and Museum Afterhours.
The Louisiana History Museum is located downtown on the bottom floor of the former library. A small facility, it showcases the history of all Louisiana, with emphasis on the central portion of the state, Rapides Parish, and Alexandria. Major exhibit areas concern Native Americans, Louisiana geography, politics, health care, farming, and the impact of war.
The T.R.E.E. House Children's Museum and Arna Bontemps African American Museum are located within the Cultural Arts District.
The Kent Plantation House in Alexandria, completed by 1800, was located on a Spanish land grant. It is the oldest standing structure in Central Louisiana, one of only two buildings in the city to survive the burning of 1864 by Union troops fleeing after having been defeated at the Battle of Mansfield in DeSoto Parish. The house has been moved from its original location but is still located on part of the first land grant. It is open for tours daily except Sundays at 9, 10, and 11 a.m. and 1, 2, and 3 p.m. The tour is led by costumed docents and includes the house furnished in period pieces, some belonging to the original family, and all nine outbuildings, including an 1840-50s sugar mill, blacksmith shop, barn, two slave cabins, open-hearth kitchen, and milk house.
Performing arts.
The performing arts are centered in the Alexandria Cultural Arts District in the downtown. Located within a few blocks of each other are three performance venues: Coughlin-Saunders Performing Arts Center, the Hearn Stage, and the Riverfront Amphitheater.
The Coughlin-Saunders Performing Arts Center is the home of the Rapides Symphony Orchestra, which has performed in Alexandria since 1968. The center hosts the Performing Arts Series of the Arts Council of Central Louisiana, the Red River Chorale (an auditioned community chorus), and presentations of numerous local theater groups. The land for the center was donated by "The Alexandria Town Talk" newspaper, owned by the Gannett Company of McLean, Virginia.
Businesswoman Jacqueline Seagall Caplan (1935–2016) was the president of the Arts Council of Central Louisiana and the chairman of the group's executive committee when the Coughlin-Saunders Performing Arts Center opened in 2004. She predicted that Coughlin-Saunders would in time "provide a place people can point to and say it's theirs. ... [Until now], we've never had a performing arts center where every type of performing art can come."
The Hearn Stage is a black box theater for smaller productions. The Arts Council provides day-to-day management of both the Coughlin-Saunders Center and the Hearn Stage.
The Riverfront Amphitheater hosts each April a "Jazz on the River" music festival, sponsored by the Arna Bontemps African American Museum. The Rapides Symphony holds an annual fall Pops concert in the amphitheater. In recent years, the amphitheater has welcomed musical guests in conjunction with the springtime Dragonboat Races sponsored by the Alexandria Museum of Art.
The spring and fall seasons also feature Downtown Rocks, a free outdoor concert series in nearby Fulton Park.
Sports.
Alexandria was home to the Alexandria Aces, a summer college league baseball team. The Aces were champions in various leagues in 1997, 1998, 2006, and 2007. They played their home games at Bringhurst Field. Due to lack of repairs on the stadium, combined with the aging of it caused interest in the team to drop, with much of the wooden stands being barricaded. The remaining games of the 2013 season were canceled in mid-July because of low attendance, which averaged fewer than two hundred per game. The stadium's office and clubhouse were destroyed by a fire in 2014 and were subsequently torn down. In 2017, it was decided that the stadium would become a green space, open to the public and welcome news to those concerned about the building's future. The scoreboard and outfield walls have been removed, but most of the stadium is still intact. In 1974, a Little League team from Alexandria won the Louisiana state championship.
Alexandria had a minor league ice hockey team, the Alexandria Warthogs. They played their home games at the Rapides Parish Coliseum.
A professional indoor football team, the Louisiana Rangers, played their home games at the Rapides Parish Coliseum. They played in the Central District of the Southern American Football League, and the Southern Conference of the National Indoor Football League (NIFL). The team was owned by a Lafayette business group before moving in 2003 to Beaumont, Texas.
Soccer has also become a growing interest in the area. The Crossroads Soccer Association has had multiple youth teams achieve success in various travel soccer leagues. One of the earliest teams to do so was the then- U-14 Crossroads Pride soccer team, winning the 2012 Louisiana Soccer Association State Cup.
Also run by Crossroads is Alexandria's first amateur soccer team, Central Louisiana FC (formerly called Pool Boys FC and Alexandria Pool Boys FC). They are a founding member of the Gulf Coast Premier League, playing their games at Johnny Downs Sports Complex and Louisiana Christian University's Wildcat Stadium in neighboring Pineville. Central Louisiana FC runs both men's and women's amateur teams, as well as a developmental team that competes in the GCL2, the Gulf Coast Premier League's second division.
Nearby is Bringhurst Golf Course, popularly known as "the nation's oldest par-three course." A full-scale renovation was completed in mid-2010. In addition to Bringhurst, named for the late industrialist R.W. Bringhurst, Alexandria is home to four other golf courses: Oak Wing, The Links on the Bayou, at LSUA, and Alexandria Golf and Country Club.
Alexandria was also home to the Cenla Derby Dames, a roller derby team that operates under the Women's Flat Track Derby Association. The Dames played their home games at the Rapides Parish Coliseum.
Media.
Newspapers.
Established March 17, 1883, "The Alexandria Town Talk" is a daily newspaper for Alexandria-Pineville and the thirteen parishes which comprise central Louisiana. The newspaper was owned by the family of the late Jane Wilson Smith and Joe D. Smith, Jr., until March 1996, when it was sold to Central Newspapers. In August 2000, the Gannett Company acquired the Central Newspapers properties, including "The Town Talk". The name of the paper on its inaugural issue was the "Alexandria Daily Town Talk". Although it has since been shorted to the current "The Town Talk", it is still frequently referred to by long-time residents as the "Daily Town Talk".
Television.
Alexandria is served by local television stations KALB-TV (NBC / CBS/ The CW), WNTZ (Fox), KLAX-TV (ABC), KLPA (PBS/LPB), and KBCA (Heroes & Icons). KALB is the oldest television station in central Louisiana.
Parks and outdoor attractions.
Alexandria Zoological Park.
The Alexandria Zoological Park is a zoo first opened to the public in 1926. Owned by the City of Alexandria and operated by the Division of Public Works, it is home to about 500 animals and includes an award-winning Louisiana Habitat exhibit. The zoo is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) and takes part in about 20 Species Survival Plans (SSP) as part of its conservation efforts.
Cotile Lake Recreation Area.
Cotile Lake is a man-made impoundment located in the uplands approximately west-northwest of Alexandria, Louisiana. The lake is approximately in size and was completed in October 1965. The Louisiana Wild Life and Fisheries Commission stocked this impoundment with the proper species and number of game fish in 1965–66 shortly after its completion date. The recreational facilities include a large area cleared and zoned for swimming with complete bath house facilities nearby. There is a water skiing area that is cleared and snagged for safety of the skiers. The picnic and camping areas are modern and complete. There is also space available for campers.
Indian Creek Lake and Recreation Area.
Encompasses a lake, of developed recreation facilities and a primitive camping area all within the Alexander State Forest. The lake, located in central Louisiana, was constructed as a joint venture of the Louisiana Forestry Commission, the Rapides Parish Police Jury, and the Lower West Red River Soil and Water Conservation District as a reservoir for agricultural irrigation in times of need and for recreation purposes.
The recreation area camping area contains 109 campsites with conventional full utility hookups, 3 beaches for swimming, bath houses, a boat launch, and 75 picnic sites. A covered pavilion within the developed area provides for groups up to 100 people. The recreation area is open year-round and operates on user fees.
Kisatchie National Forest.
Alexandria sits in the middle of the Kisatchie National Forest. Ranger districts are north, northwest, west and southwest of the city. An abundance of large timberlands and forest nurseries, as well as lake and recreation areas, are within a short driving distance.
Military.
Louisiana National Guard.
Alexandria is home to both Headquarters and Company B of the 199th Brigade Support Battalion (BSB). The 199th BSB is the logistical component of the 256th Infantry Brigade that served in Operation Iraqi Freedom from October 2004 until September 2005. The 199th BSB provides supply and transportation (Company A), medical (Company C) and maintenance (Company B) support and services that keep the 256th Brigade operational. The battalion also has units located in Jonesboro, Winnfield, Colfax, and St. Martinville, Louisiana.
England Air Force Base.
Alexandria served as the home of England Air Force Base from its origins as an emergency airstrip for Esler Regional Airport until its closure. England AFB was officially closed on December 15, 1992, pursuant to the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Act (Public Law 101–510) and recommendations of the Defense Secretary's Commission on Base Realignment and Closure. The base now serves as Alexandria International Airport (see below).
Economy.
According to Census ACS 1-year survey for 2016, the per capita income of Alexandria was $23,962. This is $1,702 lower than the Louisiana average for per capita income in the same period. That figure is at $31,128 nationally. The Alexandria workforce consists of about 55,000 residents. Union Tank Car Company has recently located a plant northwest of Alexandria near the airport creating hundreds of jobs. Expansions at the Procter & Gamble plant and the construction of a PlastiPak plant in nearby Pineville have also created a number of new jobs for the area. Sundrop Fuels Inc., a Colorado-based biofuels start-up, plans to construct an over 1,200 acre plant just southwest of Alexandria in Rapides Station area. The facility will serve as the headquarters for the company because aside from the plant itself, Sundrop has also bought Cowboy Town, an abandon entertainment venue that sits inside the surrounding land that was purchased, to house their offices and their maintenance and fabrication operations.
In 2007, Inc. Magazine rated Alexandria as the 77th best place in which to conduct business out of the 393 U.S. cities ranked, a significant increase from its ranking as No. 276 in 2006. Among other Louisiana cities, Alexandria ranked second, following only Baton Rouge, which ranked 59th nationally.
Healthcare.
Alexandria is home to two major hospitals: Rapides Regional Medical Center, a former Baptist hospital is located downtown. Christus St. Frances Cabrini Hospital was opened in 1950 and is located at the corner of Masonic Drive and Texas Avenue. Both hospitals have undergone expansion.
Additionally, located just across the Red River in Pineville, the Veteran's Affairs Medical Center at Alexandria serves central Louisiana and surrounding areas.
Meanwhile, in 2013, the state allocated $15 million to move the medical services long provided at no or minimal charge at the Huey P. Long Medical Center in Pineville to the former hospital at England Park at the site of the closed England Air Force Base.
Port of Alexandria.
In the early 19th century, the Port of Alexandria brought goods to the area and shipped cotton and other local products to the rest of the country. A ferry connected the cities of Alexandria and Pineville until a bridge was built across the Red in 1900.
Today, Port facilities include: a 40-ton crane for off-loading, a warehouse, 13,600-ton bulk fertilizer warehouse, a 3,400-ton bulk fertilizer dome structure and a 5,000-ton dome which was added in January 2005.
The petroleum off-loading facility includes two tanks, one tank capable of handling two barges and five truck off-loading simultaneously. There is also a general cargo dock with access to rail and a hopper barge unloading dock with conveyor system.
Today's modern facilities and the Port's central location with its connection to the Mississippi River provide excellent opportunities for importers and exporters.
Alexandria International Airport.
Alexandria International Airport (AEX) is a regional airport, providing flights to Atlanta, Dallas/Ft. Worth, and Houston. In 2006 a new-state-of-the-art passenger terminal was dedicated. Alexandria is served by American and Delta.
Current military use.
Formerly known as England AFB until 1992, Alexandria International Airport additionally has numerous international charter airlines using the airport in the transport of military personnel attached to the United States Army base at Fort Johnson. A new military personnel terminal opened in 2007.
Government and politics.
Local government.
History.
Following the Civil War, all public records in Alexandria had been destroyed. On September 29, 1868, the city was granted a new charter with a government consisting of a Mayor, Treasurer, and Justice of the Peace. Nine aldermen represented the four wards of the city – two from each ward and one elected at-large.
In 1912, the Lawrason Act established Alexandria municipal government in a strong mayor format, where the mayor was also the Commissioner of Public Health and Safety (Police, Fire, Sanitation). There were separate Commissioners of Streets and Parks and Finance and Utilities, elected citywide. Those positions were discontinued in 1977.
Today.
Alexandria has a mayoral-council system of government. The Mayor serves as the executive branch of the local government.
The City Council serves as the legislative branch. The five districts of the city are represented on the council; in addition there are two council members elected to serve as at-large representatives of the city.
The Alexandria Court has a limited jurisdiction, consisting of the citizens of Wards 1, 2 and 8 in Rapides Parish. Within those boundaries the court has the power to hear and decide both criminal and civil cases, rule in civil cases and hand down judgment for punishment in criminal cases.
United States Congressional district.
From 1913 to 1993, Alexandria served as the seat of Louisiana's Eighth Congressional district. A Democratic seat, it was held by the Long family for nearly half of its existence, from 1953 to 1987, broken only by the two terms of Harold B. McSween and three terms of Republican Clyde Holloway of Forest Hill. The seat was removed after the 1990 census indicated Louisiana no longer had the population to support it. The district was split among the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Congressional districts. Alexandria is now in the Fifth district and was represented from 2003 to 2013 by Rodney Alexander, a Democrat-turned-Republican. From November 2013 to January 2015 the representative is Vance McAllister of Ouachita Parish. Since March 2021, the Fifth has been represented by Julia Letlow of Start in Richland Parish.
Education.
Colleges and universities.
Situated south of the city, Louisiana State University at Alexandria (LSUA) is a regional campus of the state's flagship university system, Louisiana State University. From its establishment in 1959, the campus offered only two-year degrees; students seeking baccalaureate degrees had to commute or move to the main campus in Baton Rouge in order to gain a four-year degree. After 1976, students could either commute or telecommute in order to attend upper-level courses, including graduate classes. In 2002, following approval by the Louisiana State University Board of Supervisors and the Louisiana Board of Regents the Louisiana Legislature passed legislation allowing LSUA to offer baccalaureate degrees.
A four-year degree is also attainable through Southern Baptist-affiliated Louisiana Christian University in Pineville, founded in 1906.
Two of Central Louisiana Technical Community College's campuses, including its main campus and administration, are located in Alexandria.
Primary and secondary schools.
Rapides Parish School Board operates public schools.
Alexandria has three public high schools: Bolton High School, Alexandria Senior High School, and Peabody Magnet High School. In addition, there are two private high schools: the Roman Catholic Holy Savior Menard Central High School, and Grace Christian.
Transportation.
Roads.
Alexandria serves as the crossroads of Louisiana. To reach either Shreveport or Monroe from the southern portion of the state, the easiest method of travel takes the driver through Alexandria. Likewise, if a visitor is to head from the northern portion of the state to the Cajun portions of the state (Lake Charles and Lafayette), or the greater metropolitan areas of either Baton Rouge or New Orleans, the easiest method of travel involves driving down Interstate 49 through Alexandria.
In addition to I-49, travelers can follow Louisiana 1 up to Alexandria from Baton Rouge and points south. Also, Highway 167 could be taken from Opelousas north to Ruston, crossing through Alexandria at one of the few bridges over the Red River in central Louisiana. Highways 165 and 71 also link Alexandria and points south with the northern and southern portions of the state via the Curtis-Coleman bridge.
There are talks about a 50-80 mile, 4 lane beltway to encircle Alexandria and Pineville, and an East-West Interstate (I14) connecting Natchez, MS and Jasper, TX called the Gulf Coast Strategic Highway. As of now, they are in the planning stages of development.
Bridges.
Three road bridges cross the Red River in the Alexandria area. They are:
Former bridges include:
There are two railroad bridges over the Red River in Alexandria. One is located near the Buhlow area north of the OK Allen bridge. The other is south of the Purple Heart Memorial Bridge.
Mass transit.
Regional mass transit is handled by ATRANS (Alexandria Transportation Authority).
For those leaving or arriving at the city by bus, Greyhound Lines has a terminal downtown.
Airports.
Alexandria is served by the Alexandria International Airport and the Esler Regional Airport in Pineville.
Rail.
Alexandria does not have Amtrak service, nor a commuter rail system. The Kansas City Southern ("Southern Belle") and the Missouri Pacific (since absorbed by Union Pacific) ("Louisiana Eagle" and "Louisiana Daylight") operated train stations in the area in the early part of the 20th century but passenger services ended in the 1960s and the stations have closed.
Surrounding cities and towns.
Rapides Parish
Grant Parish
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Alexandria Troas
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Alexandria Troas ("Alexandria of the Troad"; ; , "Old Istanbul") is the site of an ancient Greek city situated on the Aegean Sea near the northern tip of Turkey's western coast, the area known historically as Troad, a little south of Tenedos (modern Bozcaada). It is located southeast of modern Dalyan, a village in the Ezine district of Çanakkale Province. The site sprawls over an estimated ; among the few structures remaining today are a ruined bath, an odeon, a theatre, gymnasium complex and a recently uncovered stadion. The circuit of the old walls can still be traced.
History.
Hellenistic.
According to Strabo, this site was first called Sigia (Σιγία); around 306 BC Antigonus refounded the city as the much-expanded Antigonia Troas by settling the people of five other towns in Sigia, including the once influential city of Neandreia. It did not receive its name until its name was changed by Lysimachus to Alexandria Troas, in 301 BC, in memory of Alexander the Great of Macedon (Pliny merely states that the name changed from Antigonia to Alexandria). The city continued being called Alexandria Troas, as is stated in the 4th-5th c. AD Tabula Peutingeriana. As the chief port of north-west Asia Minor, the place prospered greatly in Roman times, becoming a "free and autonomous city" as early as 188 BC, and the existing remains sufficiently attest its former importance. In its heyday the city may have had a population of about 100,000. Strabo mentions that a Roman colony was created at the location in the reign of Augustus, named Colonia Alexandria Augusta Troas (called simply Troas during this period). Augustus, Hadrian and the rich grammarian Herodes Atticus contributed greatly to its embellishment; the aqueduct still preserved is due to the latter. Julius Caesar and Constantine considered making Troas the capital of the Roman Empire.
Roman.
In Roman times, it was a significant port for travelling between Anatolia and Europe. According to the account in the Acts of the Apostles, Paul of Tarsus sailed for Europe for the first time from Alexandria Troas and returned there from Europe (it was there that the episode of the raising of Eutychus occurred). Ignatius of Antioch also paused at this city before continuing to his martyrdom at Rome.
Byzantine.
Several of its later bishops are known: Marinus in 325; Niconius in 344; Sylvanus at the beginning of the 5th century; Pionius in 451; Leo in 787; Peter, friend of the Patriarch Ignatius, and adversary to Michael, in the ninth century. In the 10th century Troas is given as a suffragan of Cyzicus and distinct from the famous Troy (Heinrich Gelzer, "Ungedruckte ... Texte der Notitiae episcopatuum", 552; "Georgii Cyprii descriptio orbis romani", 64); it is not known when the city was destroyed and the diocese disappeared. The bishopric remains a titular see of the Catholic Church under the name Troas, vacant since 1971.
Troas is also a titular see of the Eastern Orthodox Church under the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Bishop Savas (Zembillas) of Troas served as hierarch from 2002 to 2011, and then became Metropolitan Savas (Zembillas) of Pittsburgh in the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.
Ottoman.
Karasid Turkomans settled in the area of the Troad in the 14th century. Their "beylik" was conquered by the Ottomans in 1336. The ruins of Alexandria Troas came to be known among the Turks as "Eski Stambul", the "Old City". The site's stones were much plundered for building material (for example Mehmed IV took columns to adorn his Yeni Valide Mosque in Istanbul). As of the mid-18th century the site served as "a lurking place for bandetti".
Modern.
By 1911, the site had been overgrown with Vallonea oaks and much plundered, but the circuit of the old walls could still be traced, and in several places they were fairly well preserved.
They had a circumference of about ten kilometres, and were fortified with towers at regular intervals.
Remains of an ancient bath and gymnasium complex can be found within this area; this building is locally known as "Bal Saray" (Honey Palace) and was originally endowed by Herodes Atticus in the year 135. Trajan built an aqueduct which can still be traced.
The harbour had two large basins, now almost choked with sand.
It is the subject of an early twenty-first century study by German archaeologists digging and surveying at the site.
Their excavation uncovered the remains of a large stadium dating to about 100 BC.
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Alexandria, West Dunbartonshire
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Alexandria (, ) is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland. The town is on the River Leven, north of Dumbarton and north-west of Glasgow.
Demographics.
In 2016, the estimated population of the town was 6,860. It is one of five towns in the Vale of Leven, the others being Balloch, Bonhill, Jamestown and Renton; their combined population is over 20,000.
Economy.
The town's traditional industries, most importantly cotton manufacturing, bleaching and printing, have been phased out. In the 1970s Alexandria was redeveloped, with a new town centre layout and traffic system. Local landmarks include Christie Park and the Category B listed Smollett Fountain in the town centre. Lomond Galleries on North Main Street is a former car factory with an impressive dome and an even more impressive marble entrance hall and staircase. It was originally built in 1906 as the Argyll Motor Works, for Argyll Motors Ltd. A carving above the entrance shows one of the company's cars. After the car production ceased in 1914, it was used by the Admiralty for the manufacture of torpedoes, which were test-fired in Loch Long, and in the early 1970s was the scene of the Plessey sit-in. The building now hosts a shopping mall but has retained many of its striking architectural features.
Major employers in the area were Westclox and Polaroid, both based in the Leven Industrial Estate; Aggreko based a major purpose-built factory in the estate from 2000 to 2010. The Ballantine's whisky distillery continues to operate in the estate.
Transport.
Alexandria sits on the former A82 main road between Glasgow and Loch Lomond. There are regular bus services on the route, and the town has a railway station on the rail line between Balloch and Glasgow Queen Street.
Alexandria is reputed to be the only town in the UK with a railway station, carnival (periodically Codona's travelling fair sets up in the car park) and a pub in the middle of a roundabout. A. J. Cronin's uncle owned a pub in Bridge Street. Alexandria Library is located on Gilmour Street.
Sport.
The town is home to Vale of Leven football club, who play at Millburn Park. The club was a dominant force in early Scottish football history, winning the Scottish Cup in 1877, 1878 and 1879, and were founder members of the Scottish Football League.
Gordon Reid, born in Alexandria, has won the Wimbledon Tennis Men's Wheelchair Doubles, with his partner Alfie Hewett, three times.
ROC Bunker.
Between 1961 and 1991, the village was the location of a Royal Observer Corps Master bunker, to be used in the event of a nuclear attack. It remains mostly intact.
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Alexandria, Romania
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Alexandria () is the capital city of the Teleorman County, Muntenia, Romania. It is located south-west of Bucharest, towards the Bulgarian border, and has over 40,000 inhabitants. The 44th parallel north passes just north of the city.
Geography.
Alexandria is situated in the middle of the Wallachian Plain, on the banks of the Vedea River. It is located in the central part of Teleorman County, at a distance of from Giurgiu and from Bucharest.
The city is traversed by the national road DN6, which links Bucharest to the Banat region in western Romania; the road is part of European route E70. The Alexandria train station serves the CFR Line 909, with service towards Roșiorii de Vede (to the northwest) and Zimnicea (to the south, on the Danube).
History.
Alexandria was named after its founder, Alexandru D. Ghica, Prince of Wallachia from April 1834 to 7 October 1842. Its population in 1900 was 1,675. Grain, which was Alexandria's main trade at the time, was dispatched both by rail to the Danubian port of Zimnicea and by river to Giurgiu.
In 1989, the city had over 63,000 inhabitants and more than six large factories. The 2021 census puts the population at 40,390.
Education.
There are four high schools in Alexandria: the Alexandru D. Ghica National College, the Alexandru Ioan Cuza Theoretical High School, the Mircea Scarlat National Pedagogical College and the Constantin Noica Theoretical High School.
In 1897, the Ștefan cel Mare School moved from its former location to 310 Libertății Street; a local entrepreneur, M. Frangulea, obtained the plot and hired renowned architect Alexandru Săvulescu to build the new boys' primary school for the city.
Religion.
The Diocese of Alexandria and Teleorman is a diocese of the Romanian Orthodox Church. Its see is in Alexandria and its ecclesiastical territory covers Teleorman County.
Sports.
CSM Alexandria is a football club founded in 1948; it plays in the Romanian Liga III. CS Universitatea Alexandria is a women's football club founded in 2012. Stadionul Municipal, which holds 5,000 people, is the home ground for both clubs; the stadium is currently undergoing reconstruction. The Alexandria women's basketball team plays in the Liga Națională.
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Angela Vincent
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Angela Vincent (born 1942) is a British neuroscientist who is emeritus professor at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Somerville College, Oxford.
Career and research.
Angela Vincent was born in 1942, the third child of Carmen and Joseph Molony (later KCVO). After St Mary's Convent, Ascot, she studied medicine at King's College London and Westminster Hospital School of Medicine (now merged with Imperial College School of Medicine). After one year as a junior doctor at St Steven's and St Charles' hospitals in London (1966–1967), she obtained an MSc in biochemistry from University College London. In 1967 she married Philip Morse Vincent and they have four children.
After the MSc, she spent three frustrating years trying to fractionate rat brain synaptosomes, until she was taken on by Ricardo Miledi FRS in the biophysics department to work on acetylcholine receptors. During her five years with Miledi, her medical background helped to establish a collaboration on myasthenia gravis with John Newsom-Davis (later FRS); together at the Royal Free Hospital, London, they created a neuroimmunology group that subsequently moved with Newsom-Davis to Oxford when he was appointed action research professor of neurology. After his retirement in 1998, Vincent led the group until 2016. During this time she was head of the department of clinical neurology (2005–2008) at the University of Oxford, president of the International Society of Neuroimmunology (2001–2004), and an associate editor of "Brain" (2004–2013). Her research group was initially located in the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine at the John Radcliffe Hospital, working on a wide range of biological disciplines encompassing molecular biology, biochemistry, cellular immunology and intracellular neurophysiology. The group's research focused on autoimmune and genetic disorders of the neuromuscular junction, peripheral nerves and more recently the exciting field of central nervous system diseases. The principal autoimmune diseases studied were myasthenia gravis, the Lambert–Eaton myasthenic syndrome, limbic encephalitis, other types of autoimmune encephalitis and acquired neuromyotonia.
Her contributions have been on the roles of antibodies directed against acetylcholine receptors and muscle specific kinase (MuSK) in myasthenia gravis, and glycine receptors or potassium channel-associated proteins LGI1, CASPR2 and Contactin-2 in CNS diseases.
She demonstrated that transfer of antibodies across the placenta from the pregnant woman to the fetus in utero can cause both acute and longer-term neuromuscular and neurodevelopmental abnormalities.
Since 2016 she has been emeritus Professor at Oxford University, emeritus Fellow of Somerville College, and holds an honorary appointment at UCL; she continues to work on neuromuscular disorders and advise young researchers. Her work in Oxford on brain disorders continues under Associate Professor Sarosh Irani and Dr Patrick Waters.
She is a strong supporter of Freedom from Torture (formerly The Medical Foundation for Treatment of Torture Victims) and a Patron of British Pugwash (that brings together scientists and others concerned with international affairs and disarmament).
Awards and honours.
In 2009, she presented the Leslie Oliver Oration at Queen's Hospital. In 2009, she received the medal of the Association of British Neurologists and in 2017, the World Federation of Neurology Scientific Contributions to Neurology award. In 2015, she was awarded the British Neuroscience Association Award for Outstanding Contribution to Neuroscience. In Cologne 2018, she was awarded with J Posner and J Dalmau, the International Prize for Translational Neuroscience of the Gertrud Reemtsma Foundation (formerly the Klaus Joachim Zülch Prize), and in Washington in 2019, the America Epilepsy Society Clinical Science Research Award (with J Dalmau). She received the Inaugural Distinguished Alumni Award, Imperial College, London, 2020 and the Life-time Award of the German Neurological Society (DGN) in 2021.
In 2002, she was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci) and in 2011, a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS).
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Arithmetic–geometric mean
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In mathematics, the arithmetic–geometric mean (AGM or agM) of two positive real numbers and is the mutual limit of a sequence of arithmetic means and a sequence of geometric means. The arithmetic–geometric mean is used in fast algorithms for exponential, trigonometric functions, and other special functions, as well as some mathematical constants, in particular, computing.
The AGM is defined as the limit of the interdependent sequences formula_1 and formula_2. Assuming formula_3, we write:formula_4These two sequences converge to the same number, the arithmetic–geometric mean of and ; it is denoted by , or sometimes by or .
The arithmetic–geometric mean can be extended to complex numbers and, when the branches of the square root are allowed to be taken inconsistently, it is a multivalued function.
Example.
To find the arithmetic–geometric mean of and , iterate as follows:formula_5The first five iterations give the following values:
The number of digits in which and agree (underlined) approximately doubles with each iteration. The arithmetic–geometric mean of 24 and 6 is the common limit of these two sequences, which is approximately .
History.
The first algorithm based on this sequence pair appeared in the works of Lagrange. Its properties were further analyzed by Gauss.
Properties.
Both the geometric mean and arithmetic mean of two positive numbers and are between the two numbers. (They are "strictly" between when .) The geometric mean of two positive numbers is never greater than the arithmetic mean. So the geometric means are an increasing sequence ; the arithmetic means are a decreasing sequence ; and for any . These are strict inequalities if .
is thus a number between and ; it is also between the geometric and arithmetic mean of and .
If then .
There is an integral-form expression for :formula_6where is the complete elliptic integral of the first kind:formula_7Since the arithmetic–geometric process converges so quickly, it provides an efficient way to compute elliptic integrals, which are used, for example, in elliptic filter design.
The arithmetic–geometric mean is connected to the Jacobi theta function formula_8 byformula_9which upon setting formula_10 givesformula_11
Related concepts.
The reciprocal of the arithmetic–geometric mean of 1 and the square root of 2 is Gauss's constant.formula_12In 1799, Gauss proved thatformula_13where formula_14 is the lemniscate constant.
In 1941, formula_15 (and hence formula_16) was proved transcendental by Theodor Schneider. The set formula_17 is algebraically independent over formula_18, but the set formula_19 (where the prime denotes the derivative with respect to the second variable) is not algebraically independent over formula_18. In fact,formula_21The geometric–harmonic mean GH can be calculated using analogous sequences of geometric and harmonic means, and in fact .
The arithmetic–harmonic mean is equivalent to the geometric mean.
The arithmetic–geometric mean can be used to compute – among others – logarithms, complete and incomplete elliptic integrals of the first and second kind, and Jacobi elliptic functions.
Proof of existence.
The inequality of arithmetic and geometric means implies thatformula_22and thusformula_23that is, the sequence is nondecreasing and bounded above by the larger of and . By the monotone convergence theorem, the sequence is convergent, so there exists a such that:formula_24However, we can also see that:formula_25
and so:
formula_26
Q.E.D.
Proof of the integral-form expression.
This proof is given by Gauss.
Let
formula_27
Changing the variable of integration to formula_28, where
formula_29
formula_30
formula_31
formula_32
formula_33
This yields
formula_34
gives
formula_35
Thus, we have
formula_36
The last equality comes from observing that formula_37.
Finally, we obtain the desired result
formula_38
Applications.
The number "π".
According to the Gauss–Legendre algorithm,
formula_39
where
formula_40
with formula_41 and formula_42, which can be computed without loss of precision using
formula_43
Complete elliptic integral "K"(sin"α").
Taking formula_44 and formula_45 yields the AGM
formula_46
where is a complete elliptic integral of the first kind:
formula_47
That is to say that this quarter period may be efficiently computed through the AGM,
formula_48
Other applications.
Using this property of the AGM along with the ascending transformations of John Landen, Richard P. Brent suggested the first AGM algorithms for the fast evaluation of elementary transcendental functions (, , ). Subsequently, many authors went on to study the use of the AGM algorithms.
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Akira Toriyama
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was a Japanese manga artist and character designer. He came to be regarded as one of the most influential and important authors in the history of manga, authoring highly influential and popular series, particularly "Dragon Ball".
Toriyama first achieved mainstream recognition for creating the manga series "Dr. Slump", for which he earned the 1981 Shogakukan Manga Award for best "shōnen"/"shōjo". Dr. Slump went on to sell over 35 million copies in Japan. It was adapted into an anime, with a second series created in 1997, 13 years after the manga ended.
From 1984 to 1995 he wrote and illustrated the "Dragon Ball" manga, serialized in "Weekly Shōnen Jump". It became one of the best-selling manga series of all time, with 260 million copies sold worldwide, and is considered a key work in increasing manga circulation to its peak in the mid-1980s and mid-1990s. Overseas, "Dragon Ball"s anime adaptations have been more successful than the manga and similarly boosted anime's general popularity.
Beside his manga works, Toriyama acted as a character designer for several video games such as the "Dragon Quest" series, "Chrono Trigger", and "Blue Dragon".
In 2019, Toriyama was decorated a "Chevalier" of the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for his contributions to the arts. In October 2024, Toriyama was posthumously inducted into the Harvey Awards Hall of Fame.
Early life.
Akira Toriyama was born in the town of Kiyosu, Aichi Prefecture, Japan. He had a younger sister. Toriyama drew pictures since a young age, mainly of the animals and vehicles that he was fond of. He remembered being blown away after seeing "One Hundred and One Dalmatians" (1961), and said he was drawn deeper into the world of illustration by hoping to draw pictures that good. He was shocked again in elementary school when he saw the manga collection of a classmate's older brother, and again when he saw a television set for the first time at a neighbor's house. He cited Osamu Tezuka's "Astro Boy" (1952–1968) as the original source for his interest in manga. Toriyama recalled that when he was in elementary school all of his classmates drew imitating anime and manga, as a result of not having many forms of entertainment. He believed that he began to advance above everyone else when he started drawing pictures of his friends. Despite being engrossed with manga in elementary school, Toriyama said he took a break from it in middle school, probably because he became more interested in films and TV shows. When asked if he had any formative experiences with "tokusatsu" entertainment, Toriyama said he enjoyed the "Ultraman" TV show and "Gamera" series of "kaiju" films.
Toriyama said it was a "no-brainer" that he would attend a high school focused on creative design, but admitted he was more interested in having fun with friends. Although he still did not read much manga, he would draw one himself every once in a while. Despite his parents' strong opposition, Toriyama was confident about going into the work force upon graduation instead of continuing his education. He worked at an advertising agency in Nagoya designing posters for three years. Although Toriyama said he adapted to the job quickly, he admitted that he was often late because he was not a "morning person" and got reprimanded for dressing casually. Resenting the routine, he became sick of the environment and quit.
Career.
Early work and "Dr. Slump" (1978–1983).
After quitting his job at the age of 23 and asking his mother for money while unemployed, Toriyama entered the manga industry by submitting a work to an amateur contest in Kodansha's "Weekly Shōnen Magazine", which he had randomly picked up in a coffee shop. The timing did not line up for that contest, but another manga magazine, "Weekly Shōnen Jump", accepted submissions for their Newcomer Award every month. Kazuhiko Torishima, who would become his editor, read and enjoyed Toriyama's manga, but it was not eligible to compete because it was a parody of "Star Wars" instead of an original work. Torishima sent the artist a telegram and encouraged him to keep drawing and sending him manga. This resulted in "Wonder Island", which became Toriyama's first published work when it appeared in "Weekly Shōnen Jump" in 1978. It finished last place in the readers survey. Toriyama later said that he had planned to quit manga after getting paid, but because "Wonder Island 2" (1978) was also a "flop", his stubbornness would not let him and he continued to draw failed stories for a year; claiming around 500 pages' worth, including the published "Today's Highlight Island" (1979). He said he learned a lot during this year and even had some fun. When Torishima told him to draw a female lead character, Toriyama hesitantly created 1979's "Tomato the Cutesy Gumshoe", which had some success. Feeling encouraged, he decided to draw another female lead and created "Dr. Slump".
"Dr. Slump", which was serialized in "Weekly Shōnen Jump" from 1980 to 1984, was a huge success and made Toriyama a household name. It follows the adventures of a perverted professor and his small but super-strong robot Arale. In 1981, "Dr. Slump" earned Toriyama the Shogakukan Manga Award for best "shōnen" or "shōjo" manga series of the year. An anime adaptation began airing that same year, during the prime time Wednesday 19:00 slot on Fuji TV. Adaptations of Toriyama's work would occupy this time slot continuously for 18 years—through "Dr. Slump"s original run, "Dragon Ball" and its two sequels, and finally a rebooted "Dr. Slump" concluding in 1999. By 2008, the "Dr. Slump" manga had sold over 35 million copies in Japan.
Although "Dr. Slump" was popular, Toriyama wanted to end the series within roughly six months of creating it, but publisher Shueisha would only allow him to do so if he agreed to start another serial for them shortly after. So he worked with Torishima on several one-shots for "Weekly Shōnen Jump" and the monthly "Fresh Jump". In 1981, Toriyama was one of ten artists selected to create a 45-page work for "Weekly Shōnen Jump"s Reader's Choice contest. His manga "Pola & Roid" took first place. Toriyama was selected to participate in the contest again in 1982 and submitted "Mad Matic". His one-shot "Pink" was published in the December issue of "Fresh Jump". Selected to participate in "Weekly Shōnen Jump"s Reader's Choice contest for a third time, Toriyama had the bad luck of drawing the first slot and had to work over New Year's on 1983's "Chobit". Angry that it was unpopular, he decided to try again and created "Chobit 2" (1983).
An official Toriyama fan club, , was established in 1982. Its newsletters were called "Bird Land Press" and were sent to members until the club closed in 1987. Toriyama founded Bird Studio in the early 1980s, which is a play on his name; meaning "bird". He began employing an assistant, mostly to work on backgrounds.
"Dragon Ball" and international success (1983–1997).
Torishima suggested that, as Toriyama enjoyed kung fu films, he should create a kung fu "shōnen" manga. This led to the two-part "Dragon Boy", published in the August and October 1983 issues of "Fresh Jump". It follows a boy, adept at martial arts, who escorts a princess on a journey back to her home country. "Dragon Boy" was well-received and evolved to become the serial "Dragon Ball" in 1984. But before that, "The Adventure of Tongpoo" was published in "Weekly Shōnen Jump"s 52nd issue of 1983 and also contained elements that would be included in "Dragon Ball".
Serialized in "Weekly Shōnen Jump" from 1984 to 1995 and having sold 159.5million "tankōbon" copies in Japan alone, "Dragon Ball" is one of the best-selling manga series of all time. It began as an adventure/gag manga but later turned into a martial arts fighting series, considered by many to be the "most influential "shōnen" manga". "Dragon Ball" was one of the main reasons for the magazine's circulation hitting a record high of 6.53 million copies (1995). At the series' end, Toriyama said that he asked everyone involved to let him end the manga, so he could "take some new steps in life". During that near-11-year period, he produced 519 chapters that were collected into 42 volumes. Moreover, the success of the manga led to five anime adaptations, several animated films, numerous video games, and mega-merchandise. Aside from its popularity in Japan, "Dragon Ball" was successful internationally as well, including Asia, Europe, and the Americas, with 300–350million copies of the manga sold worldwide.
While Toriyama was serializing "Dragon Ball" weekly, he continued to create the occasional one-shot manga. In 1986, "Mr. Ho" was published in the 49th issue of "Weekly Shōnen Jump". The following year saw publication of "Young Master Ken'nosuke", which had a Japanese "jidaigeki" setting. Toriyama published two "Weekly Shōnen Jump" one-shots in 1988; "The Elder" and "Little Mamejiro". "Karamaru and the Perfect Day" followed in issue #13 of 1989.
Also during "Dragon Ball"s serialization, Torishima recruited him to work as character designer for the 1986 role-playing video game "Dragon Quest". The artist admitted he was pulled into it without even knowing what an RPG was and that it made his already busy schedule even more hectic, but he was happy to have been a part after enjoying the finished game. Toriyama continued to work on every installment in the "Dragon Quest" series until his death. He also served as the character designer for the Super Famicom RPG "Chrono Trigger" (1995) and for the fighting games "Tobal No. 1" (1996) and "Tobal 2" (1997) for the PlayStation.
The September 23, 1988, festival film "Kosuke & Rikimaru: The Dragon of Konpei Island" marked the first time Toriyama made substantial contributions to an animation. He came up with the original story idea, co-wrote the screenplay with its director Toyoo Ashida, and designed the characters. It was screened at the Jump Anime Carnival, which was held to commemorate the 20th anniversary of "Weekly Shōnen Jump".
Short stories and other projects (1996–2011).
A third anime adaptation based on "Dragon Ball", entitled "Dragon Ball GT", began airing in 1996, though this was not based on Toriyama's manga directly. He was involved in some overarching elements, including the name of the series and designs for the main cast. Toriyama continued drawing manga in this period, predominantly one-shots and short (100–200-page) pieces, including "Cowa!" (1997–1998), "Kajika" (1998), and "Sand Land" (2000). On December 6, 2002, Toriyama made his only promotional appearance in the United States at the launch of "Weekly Shōnen Jump"s North American counterpart, "Shonen Jump", in New York City. Toriyama's "Dragon Ball" and "Sand Land" were published in the magazine in the first issue, which also included an in-depth interview with him. Toriyama also wrote a short self-parody of "Dragon Ball" entitled "Neko Majin", in the form of eight one-shots released sporadically from 1999 to 2005. The eight chapters were collected into a single volume and published in April 2005.
On March 27, 2005, CQ Motors began selling an electric car designed by Toriyama. The one-person QVOLT is part of the company's Choro-Q series of small electric cars, with only 9 being produced. It cost 1,990,000 yen (about $19,000 US), has a top speed of and was available in five colors. Toriyama stated that the car took over a year to design, "but due to my genius mini-model construction skills, I finally arrived at the end of what was a very emotional journey."
He worked on a 2006 one-shot called "Cross Epoch", in cooperation with "One Piece" creator Eiichiro Oda. The story is a short crossover that presents characters from both "Dragon Ball" and "One Piece". Toriyama was the character designer and artist for the 2006 Mistwalker Xbox 360 exclusive RPG "Blue Dragon", working with Hironobu Sakaguchi and Nobuo Uematsu, both of whom he had previously worked with on "Chrono Trigger". At the time, Toriyama felt the 2007 "Blue Dragon" anime might potentially be his final work in animation.
In 2008, he collaborated with Masakazu Katsura, his good friend and creator of "I"s" and "Zetman", for the "Jump SQ" one-shot "Sachie-chan Good!!". It was later published in North America in the free SJ Alpha Yearbook 2013, which was mailed out to annual subscribers of the digital manga magazine "Shonen Jump Alpha" in December 2012. The two worked together again in 2009, for the three-chapter one-shot "Jiya" in "Weekly Young Jump".
Toriyama was engaged by 20th Century Fox as a creative consultant on "Dragonball Evolution", an American live-action film adaptation of "Dragon Ball". The film was released in 2009 and failed both critically and financially. Toriyama later stated in 2013 that he had felt the script did not "capture the world or the characteristics" of his series and was "bland" and not interesting, so he cautioned them and gave suggestions for changes. But the Hollywood producers did not heed his advice, "And just as I thought, the result was a movie I cannot call "Dragon Ball"." Avex Trax commissioned Toriyama to draw a portrait of pop singer Ayumi Hamasaki, and it was printed on the CD of her 2009 single "Rule", which was used as the theme song to the film.
Toriyama drew a 2009 manga titled "Delicious Island's Mr. U" for Anjō's Rural Society Project, a nonprofit environmental organization that teaches the importance of agriculture and nature to young children. They originally asked him to do the illustrations for a pamphlet, but Toriyama liked the project and decided to expand it into a story. It is included in a booklet about environmental awareness that is distributed by the Anjō city government. As part of "Weekly Shōnen Jump"s "Top of the Super Legend" project, a series of six one-shots by famed "Jump" artists, Toriyama created "Kintoki" for its November 15, 2010, issue. He collaborated with "Weekly Shōnen Jump" to create a video to raise awareness and support for those affected by the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011.
Return to "Dragon Ball" (2012–2024).
In 2012, ' was announced to be in development, with Toriyama involved in its creation. The film marked the series' first theatrical film in 17 years, and the first time Toriyama had been involved in one as early as the screenwriting stages. The film opened on March 30, 2013. A special "dual ticket" that could be used to see both "Battle of Gods" and ' was created with new art by both Toriyama and Eiichiro Oda.
On March 27, 2013, the "Akira Toriyama: The World of "Dragon Ball"" exhibit opened at the Takashimaya department store in Nihonbashi, garnering 72,000 visitors in its first nineteen days. The exhibit was separated into seven areas. The first provided a look at the series' history, the second showed the 400-plus characters from the series, the third displayed Toriyama's manga manuscripts from memorable scenes, the fourth showed special color illustrations, the fifth displayed rare "Dragon Ball"-related materials, the sixth included design sketches and animation cels from the anime, and the seventh screened "Dragon Ball"-related videos. It was there until April 15, when it moved to Osaka from April 17 to 23, and ended in Toriyama's native Nagoya from July 27 to September 1.
To celebrate the 45th anniversary of "Weekly Shōnen Jump", Toriyama launched a new manga series in its July 13, 2013, issue titled "Jaco the Galactic Patrolman". Viz Media began serializing it in English in their digital "Weekly Shonen Jump" magazine, beginning just two days later. The final chapter reveals that the story is set before the events of "Dragon Ball" and features some of its characters. It would become the final manga that Toriyama wrote and illustrated himself.
The follow-up film to "Battle of Gods", ', released on April 18, 2015, features even more contributions from Toriyama, who personally wrote its original script. Toriyama provided the basic story outline and some character designs for "Dragon Ball Super", which began serialization in "V Jump" in June 2015 with an anime counterpart following in July. Although the anime ended in 2018, he continued to provide story ideas for the manga while Toyotarou illustrated it. ', released in theaters on December 14, 2018, and "", released on June 11, 2022, continued Toriyama's deep involvement with the films, the latter being his final complete work on the Dragon Ball franchise.
In January 2024, a logo Toriyama designed to celebrate the 20th anniversary of his hometown of Kiyosu was unveiled. Toriyama created a new story arc for the 2024 original net animation adaptation of his manga "Sand Land". He also created the story and character designs for the upcoming "Dragon Ball Daima" anime series. Toriyama's final contribution to "Dragon Ball" was directing Toyotarou to redraw the end of chapter 103 of "Dragon Ball Super", so that a departing Piccolo appears to wave back at the reader. A short tribute was included at the bottom of the page when it was published on March 28, 2024.
On October 11, 2024, the Harvey Awards announced that Toriyama was one of five comics creators to be inducted into the Harvey Awards Hall of Fame at the 36th annual Harvey Awards ceremony on October 18 at the New York Comic Con. Acknowledging the accolade for Toriyama, Bird Studio Co., Ltd. and Capsule Corporation Tokyo issued a statement saying, "We are very honored to receive the news that Akira Toriyama has been selected for the prestigious Harvey Award Hall of Fame. As a creator, he had always said that his work says it all. We are especially grateful to the American fans for their long-standing enthusiasm and dedicated support. We hope you will continue to support his work for many years to come as we continue to develop and expand upon his masterpieces."
Personal life and death.
Toriyama married Yoshimi Katō on May 2, 1982. She is a former manga artist from Nagoya under the pen name Nachi Mikami, and occasionally helped Toriyama and his assistant on "Dr. Slump" when they were short on time. They had two children: a son named Sasuke (born 1987) and a daughter named Kikka (born 1990). Toriyama lived in his home studio in Kiyosu. He was a well-known recluse, who avoided appearing in public or media. In an extension to his shyness, Toriyama had used an avatar called "Tori-Bot" since 1980 to represent himself in manga and interviews.
Toriyama had a love of cars and motorcycles, something he inherited from his father who used to race motorbikes and operated an auto repair business for a brief time, although he did not understand the mechanics himself. He was an animal lover, and had kept birds, dogs, cats, fish, lizards, and bugs as pets since childhood. Some were used as models for characters he created such as Karin and Beerus. Toriyama had a lifelong passion for plastic models, and designed several for the Fine Molds brand. He also collected autographs of famous manga artists, having over 30 including Yudetamago and Hisashi Eguchi, a hobby he gave to the character Peasuke Soramame.
Death.
On March 1, 2024, Toriyama died of an acute subdural hematoma, at the age of 68. A funeral was held privately with only his family in attendance. His death was announced by his production company Bird Studio one week later on March 8. According to sources close to Toriyama, he had planned to undergo surgery for a brain tumor in February 2024. The news of his death caused an outpouring of grief among admirers of his works, who took to social media to express their condolences and celebrate his legacy. On Twitter, the trending topics of Akira Toriyama and "Dragon Ball" surpassed United States President Joe Biden's State of the Union address, which was held at the same time the news of Toriyama's death was announced. Tributes to the artist were given by "One Piece" creator Eiichiro Oda, "Naruto" creator Masashi Kishimoto, "Bleach" creator Tite Kubo, "My Hero Academia" creator Kōhei Horikoshi, "Yu Yu Hakusho "and "Hunter × Hunter" creator Yoshihiro Togashi, "Video Girl Ai" creator Masakazu Katsura, and video game designer Yuji Horii, who worked with Toriyama on "Dragon Quest" and "Chrono Trigger". In Tokyo, fans publicly mourned while visiting a life-sized statue of "Dragon Ball" protagonist Goku located outside the headquarters of toy manufacturer Bandai. Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi credited Toriyama and his work with playing an "extremely important role in demonstrating Japan's soft power" around the world.
French President Emmanuel Macron shared a photo of an autographed illustration Toriyama gave him as a gift and paid tribute to him and his fans on social media. French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal also paid tribute and lamented that not even "the [Dragon Balls] and Shenron" could revive him. The foreign ministries of China and El Salvador issued statements of condolences over Toriyama's death. Justin Chatwin, who portrayed Goku in the live-action film "Dragonball Evolution", apologized for the quality of the film by posting on his Instagram story, "sorry we messed up that adaptation so badly". Several Mexican voice actors who dubbed "Dragon Ball" characters in Spanish for Latin America also lamented Toriyama's death via social media. A large gathering was held at the Plaza de la Constitución in Mexico City, where hundreds of fans did the Genki-dama hand motion (arms up, palm facing the zenith, pooling energy together) to honor the artist. During the 18th Seiyu Awards on March 9, a moment of silence was held for Toriyama and voice actress Tarako, who died on March 4, in recognition of their contributions to the anime industry. On March 10, in Argentina, thousands of fans gathered at the Obelisco monument to remember Toriyama. In Lima, Peru, over 40 artists led by "Peko" painted a mural tribute to Toriyama, which showcases characters from "Dragon Ball" as well as Toriyama himself, spanning six meters high and over 110 meters long.
Style.
Toriyama admired Osamu Tezuka's "Astro Boy" and was impressed by Walt Disney's "One Hundred and One Dalmatians", which he remembered for its high-quality animation. He was a fan of Hong Kong martial arts films, especially Bruce Lee films such as "Enter the Dragon" (1973) and Jackie Chan films such as "Drunken Master" (1978), which went on to have a large influence on his later work. He also cited the science fiction films "Alien" (1979) and "Galaxy Quest" (1999) as influences. Toriyama stated he was influenced by animator Toyoo Ashida and the anime television series adaptation of his own "Dragon Ball", from which he learned that separating colors instead of blending them makes the art cleaner and coloring illustrations easier.
It was Toriyama's sound effects in "Mysterious Rain Jack" that caught the eye of Kazuhiko Torishima, who explained that usually they are written in "katakana", but Toriyama used the Roman alphabet, which he found refreshing. Torishima has stated that Toriyama aimed to be a gag manga artist because the competitions that he submitted to early on required entries in the gag category to only be 15 pages long, compared to story manga entries which had to be 31. In his opinion, Toriyama excelled in black and white, utilizing black areas as a result of not having had the money to buy screentone when he started drawing manga. He also described Toriyama as a master of convenience and "sloppy, but in a good way." For instance, in "Dragon Ball", destroying scenery in the environment and giving Super Saiyans blond hair were done in order to have less work in drawing and inking. Torishima claimed that Toriyama drew what he found interesting and was not mindful of what his readers thought, nor did he get much inspiration from other comics, as he chose not to re-read previous works or read manga made by other artists, a practice that Torishima supported. Furthermore, the book "A History of Modern Manga" (2023) describes Toriyama as "a perfectionist at heart" who "didn't hesitate to redraw entire panels under the worried eye of his editor at "Jump"".
"Dr. Slump" is mainly a comedy series, filled with puns, toilet humor, and sexual innuendos. But it also contained many science fiction elements: aliens, anthropomorphic characters, time travel, and parodies of works such as Godzilla, "Star Wars," and "Star Trek". Toriyama also included many real-life people in the series, such as his assistants, wife, and colleagues (such as Masakazu Katsura), but most notably his editor Kazuhiko Torishima as the series' main antagonist, Dr. Mashirito. A running gag in "Dr. Slump" that utilizes feces has been reported as an inspiration for the Pile of Poo emoji.
When "Dragon Ball" began, it was loosely based on the classic Chinese novel "Journey to the West", with Goku being Sun Wukong and Bulma as Tang Sanzang. It was also inspired by Hong Kong martial arts films, particularly those of Jackie Chan, and was set in a fictional world based on Asia, taking inspiration from several Asian cultures including Japanese, Chinese, Indian, Central Asian, Arabic, and Indonesian cultures. Toriyama continued to use his characteristic comedic style in the beginning, but over the course of serialization this slowly changed, with him turning the series into a "nearly-pure fighting manga" later on. He did not plan out in advance what would happen in the series, instead choosing to draw as he went. This, coupled with him simply forgetting things he had already drawn, caused him to find himself in situations that he had to write himself out of.
Toriyama was commissioned to illustrate the characters and monsters for the first "Dragon Quest" video game (1986) in order to separate it from other role-playing games of the time. He worked on every installment in the series until he died. For each game Yuji Horii first sends rough sketches of the characters with their background information to Toriyama, who then re-draws them. Lastly, Horii approves the finished work. Toriyama explained in 1995 that for video games, because the sprites are so small, as long as they have a distinguishing feature so people can tell which character it is, he can make complex designs without concern of having to reproduce it like he usually would in manga. Besides the character and monster designs, Toriyama also does the games' packaging art and, for "Dragon Quest VIII", the boats and ships. In 2016, Toriyama revealed that because of the series' established time period and setting, his artistic options are limited, which makes every iteration harder to design for than the last. The series' Slime character, which has become a mascot for the franchise, is considered to be one of the most recognizable figures in gaming.
Manga critic Jason Thompson declared Toriyama's art influential, saying that his "extremely personal and recognizable style" was a reason for "Dragon Ball"'s popularity. He points out that the popular "shōnen" manga of the late 1980s and early 1990s had "manly" heroes, such as "City Hunter" and "Fist of the North Star", whereas "Dragon Ball" starred the cartoonish and small Goku, thus starting a trend that Thompson says continues to this day. Toriyama himself said he went against the normal convention that the strongest characters should be the largest in terms of physical size, designing many of the series' most powerful characters with small statures. Thompson concluded his analysis by saying that only Akira Toriyama drew like this at the time and that "Dragon Ball" is "an action manga drawn by a gag manga artist." James S. Yadao, author of "The Rough Guide to Manga", points out that an art shift does occur in the series, as the characters gradually "lose the rounded, innocent look that [Toriyama] established in "Dr. Slump" and gain sharper angles that leap off the page with their energy and intensity."
Legacy and accolades.
Patrick St. Michel of "The Japan Times" compared Toriyama to animator Walt Disney and Marvel Comics creator Stan Lee: "All three of these individuals, Toriyama included, had a personal artistic style that has become the shorthand for their respective media." Speaking of "Dragon Ball", David Brothers of ComicsAlliance wrote that: "Like Osamu Tezuka and Jack Kirby before him, Toriyama created a story with his own two hands that seeped deep into the hearts of his readers, creating a love for both the cast and the medium at the same time." Thompson stated in 2011 that ""Dragon Ball" is by far the most influential shonen manga of the last 30 years, and today, almost every "Shōnen Jump" artist lists it as one of their favorites and lifts from it in various ways." Patrick W. Galbraith, an associate professor at the School of International Communication at Senshu University, similarly said, "One can sense the DNA of Toriyama's work in all subsequent shōnen releases."
In a rare 2013 interview, commenting on "Dragon Ball"s global success, Toriyama admitted, "Frankly, I don't quite understand why it happened. While the manga was being serialized, the only thing I wanted as I kept drawing was to make Japanese boys happy." He had previously stated in 2010, "The truth is, I didn't like being a manga artist very much. It wasn't until relatively recently that I realized it's a wonderful job." Many artists have named Toriyama and "Dragon Ball" as influences, including "One Piece" author Eiichiro Oda, "Naruto" creator Masashi Kishimoto, "Fairy Tail" and "Rave" author Hiro Mashima, "" illustrator Mikio Ikemoto, "Venus Versus Virus" author Atsushi Suzumi, "Bleach" creator Tite Kubo, "Black Cat" author Kentaro Yabuki, and "Mr. Fullswing" author Shinya Suzuki. German comic book artist Hans Steinbach was strongly influenced by Toriyama, and Thai cartoonist Wisut Ponnimit cited Toriyama as one of his favorite cartoonists. St. Michel wrote that the impact Toriyama and "Dragon Ball" had extends beyond inspiring newer artists, "he influenced the style of anime as a whole and revealed new economic potential, as the comic series mutated into an anime, video games and infinite merchandise." Ian Jones-Quartey, a producer of the American animated series "Steven Universe", is a fan of both "Dragon Ball" and "Dr. Slump", and uses Toriyama's vehicle designs as reference for his own. He also stated that "We're all big Toriyama fans on ["Steven Universe"], which kind of shows a bit." French director Pierre Perifel cited Toriyama and "Dragon Ball" as influences on his DreamWorks Animation film "The Bad Guys".
In 2008, Oricon conducted a poll of people's favorite manga artists, with Toriyama coming in second, behind only "Nana" author Ai Yazawa. He was number one among male respondents and among those over 30 years of age. They held a poll on the Mangaka that Changed the History of Manga in 2010, "mangaka" being the Japanese word for a manga artist. Toriyama came in second, after only Osamu Tezuka, due to his works being highly influential and popular worldwide. Toriyama won the Special 40th Anniversary Festival Award at the 2013 Angoulême International Comics Festival, honoring his years in cartooning. He actually received the most votes for the festival's Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême award that year, though the selection committee chose Willem as the recipient. In a 2014 NTT Docomo poll for the manga artist that best represents Japan, Toriyama came in third place. That same year, entomologist Enio B. Cano named a new species of beetle, "Ogyges toriyamai", after Toriyama, and another, "Ogyges mutenroshii", after the "Dragon Ball" character Muten Roshi. Toriyama was decorated a "Chevalier" or "Knight" of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government on May 30, 2019, for his contributions to the arts. He was also a 2019 nominee for entry into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame. Toriyama was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2024 Tokyo Anime Awards Festival. Due to his video game design work, "IGN" named Toriyama number 74 on their list of the Top 100 Game Creators of All Time.
Works.
Besides "Dr. Slump" (1980–1984) and "Dragon Ball" (1984–1995), Toriyama predominantly drew one-shot manga and short (100–200-page) pieces, including "Pink" (1982), "Go! Go! Ackman" (1993–1994), "Cowa!" (1997–1998), "Kajika" (1998), "Sand Land" (2000) and "Jaco the Galactic Patrolman" (2013). Many of his one-shots were collected in his three-volume anthology series, "Akira Toriyama's Manga Theater" (1983–1997). He also collaborated with other manga artists, such as Katsura and Oda, to produce one-shots and crossover shorts.
Toriyama also created many character designs for various video games such as the "Dragon Quest" series (1986–2023), "Chrono Trigger" (1995), "Blue Dragon" (2006), and some "Dragon Ball" video games. He also designed several characters and mascots for various manga magazines property of Shueisha, his career-long employer and Japan's largest publishing company.
Besides manga-related works, Toriyama also created various illustrations, album and book covers, model kits, mascots and logos. For example, he sketched several versions of the "Dragon Ball Z" logo, which Toei Animation then refined into a definitive design.
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Alioth
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Alioth , also called Epsilon Ursae Majoris, is a star in the northern constellation of Ursa Major. The designation is Latinised from ε Ursae Majoris and abbreviated Epsilon UMa or ε UMa. Despite being designated "ε" (epsilon), it is the brightest star in the constellation and at magnitude 1.77 is the thirty-third brightest star in the sky.
It is the star in the tail of the bear closest to its body, and thus the star in the handle of the Big Dipper (or Plough) closest to the bowl. It is also a member of the large and diffuse Ursa Major moving group. Historically, the star was frequently used in celestial navigation in the maritime trade, because it is listed as one of the 57 navigational stars.
Physical characteristics.
According to "Hipparcos", Epsilon Ursae Majoris is from the Sun. Its spectral type is A1p; the "p" stands for "peculiar", as its spectrum is characteristic of an α2 Canum Venaticorum variable. Epsilon Ursae Majoris, as a representative of this type, may harbor two interacting processes: first, the star's strong magnetic field separating different elements in its hydrogen 'fuel'; second, a rotation axis at an angle to the magnetic axis may be spinning different bands of magnetically sorted elements into the line of sight between Epsilon Ursae Majoris and the Earth. The intervening elements react differently at different frequencies of light as they whip in and out of view, causing Epsilon Ursae Majoris to have very strange spectral lines that fluctuate over a period of 5.1 days. The "kB9" suffix to the spectral type indicates that the calcium K line is present and representative of a B9 spectral type even though the rest of the spectrum indicates A1.
Epsilon Ursae Majoris's rotational and magnetic poles are at almost 90 degrees to one another. Darker (denser) regions of chromium form a band at right angles to the equator.
It has long been suspected that Epsilon Ursae Majoris is a spectroscopic binary, possibly with more than one companion. A 2008 study suggested Alioth's 5.1-day variation may be due to a substellar object of about 14.7 Jupiter masses in an eccentric orbit (e=0.5) with an average separation of 0.055 astronomical units. It is now thought that the 5.1-day period is the rotation period of the star, and no companions have been detected using the most modern equipment. Observations of Alioth with the Navy Precision Optical Interferometer also did not detected a companion.
Epsilon Ursae Majoris has a relatively weak magnetic field for a variable of this type, 15 times weaker than α Canum Venaticorum, but it is still 100 times stronger than that of the Earth.
Name and etymology.
"ε Ursae Majoris" (Latinised to "Epsilon Ursae Majoris") is the star's Bayer designation.
The traditional name "Alioth" comes from the Arabic "alyat al-hamal" ("the sheep's fat tail"). In 2016, the International Astronomical Union organized a Working Group on Star Names (WGSN) to catalog and standardize proper names for stars. The WGSN's first bulletin of July 2016 included a table of the first two batches of names approved by the WGSN; which included "Alioth" for this star.
This star was known to the Hindus as "Añgiras", one of the Seven Rishis.
In Chinese, (), meaning "Northern Dipper", refers to an asterism equivalent to the Big Dipper. Consequently, the Chinese name for Epsilon Ursae Majoris itself is (, ) and (, ).
Namesakes.
The United States Navy's Crater class cargo ship was named after the star.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3095
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Amiga 500
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The Amiga 500, also known as the A500, was the first popular version of the Amiga home computer, "redefining the home computer market and making so-called luxury features such as multitasking and colour a standard long before Microsoft or Apple sold these to the masses." It contains the same Motorola 68000 as the Amiga 1000, as well as the same graphics and sound coprocessors, but is in a smaller case similar to that of the Commodore 128.
Commodore announced the Amiga 500 at the January 1987 winter Consumer Electronics Showat the same time as the high-end Amiga 2000. It was initially available in the Netherlands in April 1987, then the rest of Europe in May. In North America and the UK it was released in October 1987 with a list price. It competed directly against models in the Atari ST line.
The Amiga 500 was sold in the same retail outlets as the Commodore 64, as opposed to the computer store-only Amiga 1000. It proved to be Commodore's best-selling model, particularly in Europe. Although popular with hobbyists, arguably its most widespread use was as a gaming machine, where its graphics and sound were of significant benefit. It was followed by a revised version of the computer, the Amiga 500 Plus, and the 500 series was discontinued in 1992.
Releases.
In mid-1988, the Amiga 500 dropped its price from £499 to £399, and it was later bundled with the "Batman Pack" in the United Kingdom (from October 1989 to September 1990) which included the games "Batman", "F/A-18 Interceptor", "The New Zealand Story" and the bitmap graphics editor Deluxe Paint 2. Also included was the Amiga video connector which allows the A500 to be used with a conventional CRT television.
In November 1991, the enhanced Amiga 500 Plus replaced the 500 in some markets. It was bundled with the "Cartoon Classics" pack in the United Kingdom at £399, although many stores still advertised it as an 'A500'. The Amiga 500 Plus was virtually identical except for its new operating system, integrated 1MB of Chip memory, different 'trap-door' expansion slot and slightly different keyboard, and in mid-1992, the two were discontinued and effectively replaced by the Amiga 600. In late 1992, Commodore released the Amiga 1200, a machine closer in concept to the original Amiga 500, but with significant technical improvements. Despite this, neither the A1200 nor the A600 replicated the commercial success of its predecessor. By this time, the home market was strongly shifting to IBM PC compatibles with VGA graphics and the low-cost Macintosh Classic, LC, and IIsi models.
Description.
Outwardly resembling the Commodore 128 and codenamed "Rock Lobster" during development, the Amiga 500's base houses a keyboard and a CPU in one shell, unlike the Amiga 1000. The keyboard for Amiga 500s sold in the United States contains 94 keys, including ten function keys, four cursor keys, and a number pad. All European versions the keyboard have an additional two keys, except for the British variety, which still uses 94 keys. It uses a Motorola 68000 microprocessor running at in NTSC regions and in PAL regions. The CPU implements a 32-bit model and has 32-bit registers, but it has a 16-bit main ALU and uses a 16-bit external data bus and a 24-bit address bus, providing a maximum of 16 MB of address space. Also built in to the base of the computer is a -inch floppy disk drive. The user can also install up to three external floppy drives, either - or -inch, via the disk drive port. The second and third additional drives are installed by daisy-chaining them. Supported by these drives are double-sided disks with a capacity of 901,120 bytes, as well as 360- and 720-KB disks formatted for IBM PC compatibles.
The earliest Amiga 500 models use nearly the same Original Amiga chipset as the Amiga 1000. So graphics can be displayed in multiple resolutions and color depths, even on the same screen. Resolutions vary from 320×200 (up to 32 colors) to 640×400 (up to 16 colors) for NTSC (704×484 overscan) and 320×256 to 640×512 for PAL (704×576 overscan.) The system uses planar graphics, with up to five bitplanes (four in high resolution) allowing 2-, 4-, 8-, 16-, and 32-color screens, from a palette of 4096 colors. Two special graphics modes are also available: Extra HalfBrite, which uses a sixth bitplane as a mask to cut the brightness of any pixel in half (resulting in 32 arbitrary colors plus 32 more colors set at half the value of the first 32), and Hold-And-Modify (HAM) which allows all 4096 colors to be used on screen simultaneously. Later revisions of the chipset are PAL/NTSC switchable in software.
The sound chip produces four hardware-mixed channels, two to the left and two to the right, of 8-bit PCM at a sampling frequency up to . Each hardware channel has its own independent volume level and sampling rate, and can be designated to another channel where it can modulate both volume and frequency using its own output. With DMA disabled it's possible to output with a sampling frequency up to . There is a common trick to output sound with 14-bit precision that can be combined to output 14-bit sound.
The stock system comes with AmigaOS version 1.2 or 1.3 and of chip RAM (150 ns access time), one built-in double-density standard floppy disk drive that is completely programmable and can read IBM PC disks, standard Amiga disks, and up to using custom-formatting drivers.
Despite the lack of Amiga 2000-compatible internal expansion slots, there are many ports and expansion options. There are two DE9M Atari joystick ports for joysticks or mice, and stereo audio RCA connectors (1 V p-p). There is a floppy drive port for daisy-chaining up to three extra floppy disk drives via a DB23F connector. The then-standard RS-232 serial port (DB25M) and Centronics parallel port (DB25F) are also included. The power supply is (, ).
The system displays video in analog RGB PAL or NTSC through a proprietary DB23M connector and in NTSC mode the line frequency is HSync for standard video modes, which is compatible with NTSC television and CVBS/RGB video, but out of range for most VGA-compatible monitors, while a multisync monitor is required for some of the higher resolutions. This connection can also be genlocked to an external video signal. The system was bundled with an RF adapter to provide output on televisions with a coaxial RF input, while monochrome video is available via an RCA connector (also coaxial). On the left side, behind a plastic cover, there is a Zorro (Zorro I) bus expansion external edge connector with 86 pins. Peripherals such as a hard disk drive can be added via the expansion slot and are configured automatically by the Amiga's AutoConfig standard, so that multiple devices do not conflict with each other. Up to of so-called "fast RAM" (memory that can be accessed by the CPU only) can be added using the side expansion slot. This connector is electronically identical with the Amiga 1000's, but swapped on the other side.
The Amiga 500 has a "trap-door" slot on the underside for a RAM upgrade (typically ). This extra RAM is classified as "fast" RAM, but is sometimes referred to as "slow" RAM: due to the design of the expansion bus, it is actually on the chipset bus. Such upgrades usually include a battery-backed real-time clock. All versions of the A500 can have the additional RAM configured as chip RAM by a simple hardware modification, which involves fitting a later model (8372A) Agnus chip. Likewise, all versions of the A500 can be upgraded to chip RAM by fitting the chip and adding additional memory.
The Amiga 500 also sports an unusual feature for a budget machine, socketed chips, which allow easy replacement of defective chips. The CPU can be directly upgraded on the motherboard to a 68010; or to a 68020, 68030, or 68040 via the side expansion slot; or by removing the CPU and plugging a CPU expansion card into the CPU socket (this requires opening the computer and thus voided any remaining warranty). In fact, all the custom chips can be upgraded to the Amiga Enhanced Chip Set (ECS) versions.
The plastic case is made of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, or ABS. ABS degrades with time due to exposure to oxygen, causing a yellowing of the case. Other factors contributing to the degradation and yellowing include heat, shear, and ultraviolet light. The yellowing can be reversed by using an optical brightener, though without stabilizing agents or antioxidants to block oxygen, the yellowing will return.
Technical specifications.
Memory.
Using various expansion techniques, the A500's total RAM can reach up to 138 MB – 2 MB Chip RAM, 8 MB 16-bit Fast RAM, and 128 MB 32-bit Fast RAM.
Chip RAM.
The stock 512 KB Chip RAM can be complemented by 512 KB using a "trapdoor" expansion (Commodore A501 or compatible). While that expansion memory is connected to the chip bus, hardware limitations of early stock Agnus chip revisions prevent its use as Chip RAM, only the CPU can access it. Suffering from the same contention limitations as Chip RAM, that memory is known as "Slow RAM" or "Pseudo-fast RAM". Agnus revisions shipped with late A500 are ECS and allow use of trapdoor RAM as real Chip RAM for a total 1 MB.
Additionally, several third-party expansions exist with up to 2 MB on the trapdoor board. Using a Gary adapter, that memory will be mapped as either split on Chip RAM and Slow RAM or fully as Slow RAM, depending on configuration.
Furthermore, using an A3000 Agnus on an adapter board, it is possible to expand the Chip RAM to 2 MB, matching the A500+.
Fast RAM.
"Fast" RAM is located on the CPU-side bus. Its access is exclusive to the CPU and not slowed by any chipset access. The side expansion port allows for up to 8 MB of Zorro-style expansion RAM. Alternatively, a CPU adapter allows for internal expansion.
Accelerator RAM.
Internal or external CPU accelerators often include their own expansion memory. 16-bit CPUs are limited by the 24-bit address space but they can repurpose otherwise unused memory space for their included RAM. 32-bit CPU accelerators aren't limited by 24-bit addressing and can include up to 128 MB of Fast RAM (and potentially more).
Diagnostics.
When the computer is powered on a self-diagnostic test is run that will indicates failure with a specific colour:
The keyboard LED uses blink codes:
Measurements
Overall (base): 6.2 cm x 47.4 cm x 33 cm; 2 7/16 in x 18 11/16 in x 13 in.
Trap-door expansion 501.
A popular expansion for the Amiga 500 was the Amiga 501 circuit board that can be installed underneath the computer behind a plastic cover. The expansion contains RAM configured by default as "Slow RAM" or "trap-door RAM" and a battery-backed real-time clock (RTC).
The 512 KB trap-door RAM and 512 KB of original chip RAM will result in 1 MB of total memory. The added memory is known as "Slow RAM", as its access is impacted by chip-bus bandwidth contention, while the chipset is not actually able to address it.
Later revisions of the motherboard provide solder-jumpers to relocate the trap-door RAM to the chip memory pool, given the Agnus chip is the newer ECS version, shipped in later A500 motherboards. Newest (rev 8) A500s would share motherboard with A500+, and configure the expansion memory as CHIP by default.
Software.
Each time the Amiga 500 is booted, it executes code from the Kickstart ROM. The Amiga 500 initially came shipped with AmigaOS 1.2, but units since October 1988 had version 1.3 installed.
Reception and sales.
The Amiga 500 was the best-selling model in the Amiga family of computers. The German computer magazine "Chip" awarded the model the annual "Home Computer of the Year" title three consecutive times. At the European Computer Trade Show 1991, it also won the Leisure Award for the similar "Home Computer of the Year" title.
Owing to the inexpensive cost of the Amiga 500 in then price-sensitive Europe, sales of the Amiga family of computers were strongest there, constituting 85 percent of Commodore's total sales in the fourth quarter of 1990. The Amiga 500 was widely perceived as a gaming machine and the Amiga 2000 a computer for artists and hobbyists.
It has been claimed that Commodore sold as many as six million units worldwide. However, Commodore UK refuted that figure and said that the entire Amiga line sold between four and five million computers. Indeed, "Ars Technica" provides a year-by-year graph of the sales of all Amiga computers.
The machine is reported to have sold 1,160,500 units in Germany (including Amiga 500 Plus sales).
Amiga 500 Plus.
The Amiga 500 Plus (often A500 Plus or simply A500+) is a revised version of the original Amiga 500 computer. The A500+ featured minor changes to the motherboard to make it cheaper to produce than the original A500. It was notable for introducing new versions of Kickstart and Workbench, and for some minor improvements in the custom chips, known as the Enhanced Chip Set (or ECS).
Although officially introduced in 1992, some Amiga 500 units sold in late 1991 actually featured the revised motherboard used in the A500+. Although the Amiga 500+ was an improvement to the Amiga 500, it was minor. It was discontinued and replaced by the Amiga 600 in summer 1992, making it the shortest-lived Amiga model.
Compatibility problems.
Due to the new Kickstart v2.04, quite a few popular games (such as "Treasure Island Dizzy", "Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge", and "SWIV") failed to work on the Amiga 500+, and some people took them back to dealers demanding an original Kickstart 1.3 Amiga 500. This problem was largely solved by third parties who produced Kickstart ROM switching boards, that could allow the Amiga 500+ to be downgraded to Kickstart 1.2 or 1.3. It also encouraged game developers to use better programming habits, which was important since Commodore already had plans for the introduction of the next-generation Amiga 1200 computer. A program, Relokick, was also released (and included with an issue of CU Amiga) which loaded a Kickstart 1.3 ROM image into memory and booted the machine into Kickstart 1.3, allowing most incompatible software to run (the software did take up 512 KB of system memory, meaning that some 1 MB only games would now fail for lack of available memory). In some cases, updated compatible versions of games were later released, such as budget versions of Lotus 1 and SWIV, and an update to "Bubble Bobble". Double Dragon 2 by Binary Design received an update for ECS machines with the "Amiga phase-alternated linescan version 4.01/ECS". This solved compatibility issues with the graphics which appeared garbled on ECS machines, and it also slashed the in-game loading times from around 20 seconds to just over 6.
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Amiga 1000
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The Amiga 1000, also known as the A1000, is the first personal computer released by Commodore International in the Amiga line. It combines the 16/32-bit Motorola 68000 CPU which was powerful by 1985 standards with one of the most advanced graphics and sound systems in its class. It runs a preemptive multitasking operating system that fits into of read-only memory and was shipped with 256 KB of RAM. The primary memory can be expanded internally with a manufacturer-supplied 256 KB module for a total of 512 KB of RAM. Using the external slot the primary memory can be expanded up to
Design.
The A1000 has a number of characteristics that distinguish it from later Amiga models: It is the only model to feature the short-lived Amiga check-mark logo on its case, the majority of the case is elevated slightly to give a storage area for the keyboard when not in use (a "keyboard garage"), and the inside of the case is engraved with the signatures of the Amiga designers (similar to the Macintosh); including Jay Miner and the paw print of his dog Mitchy. The A1000's case was designed by Howard Stolz. As Senior Industrial Designer at Commodore, Stolz was the mechanical lead and primary interface with Sanyo in Japan, the contract manufacturer for the A1000 casing.
The Amiga 1000 was manufactured in two variations: One uses the NTSC television standard and the other uses the PAL television standard. The NTSC variant was the initial model manufactured and sold in North America. The later PAL model was manufactured in Germany and sold in countries using the PAL television standard. The first NTSC systems lack the EHB video mode which is present in all later Amiga models.
Because AmigaOS was rather buggy at the time of the A1000's release, the OS was not placed in ROM then. Instead, the A1000 includes a daughterboard with 256 KB of RAM, dubbed the "writable control store" (WCS), into which the core of the operating system is loaded from floppy disk (this portion of the operating system is known as the "Kickstart"). The WCS is write-protected after loading, and system resets do not require a reload of the WCS. In Europe, the WCS was often referred to as WOM (Write Once Memory), a play on the more conventional term "ROM" (read-only memory).
Technical information.
The preproduction Amiga (which was codenamed "Velvet") released to developers in early 1985 contained of RAM with an option to expand it to Commodore later increased the system memory to due to objections by the Amiga development team. The names of the custom chips were different; Denise and Paula were called Daphne and Portia respectively. The casing of the preproduction Amiga was almost identical to the production version: the main difference being an embossed Commodore logo in the top left corner. It did not have the developer signatures.
The Amiga 1000 has a Motorola 68000 CPU running at 7.15909 MHz on NTSC systems or 7.09379 MHz on PAL systems, precisely double the video color carrier frequency for NTSC or 1.6 times the color carrier frequency for PAL. The system clock timings are derived from the video frequency, which simplifies glue logic and allows the Amiga 1000 to make do with a single crystal. In keeping with its video game heritage, the chipset was designed to synchronize CPU memory access and chipset DMA so the hardware runs in real time without wait-state delays.
Though most units were sold with an analog RGB monitor, the A1000 also has a built-in composite video output which allows the computer to be connected directly to some monitors other than their standard RGB monitor. The A1000 also has a "TV MOD" output, into which an RF Modulator can be plugged, allowing connection to older televisions that did not have a composite video input.
The original 68000 CPU can be directly replaced with a Motorola 68010, which can execute instructions slightly faster than the 68000 but also introduces a small degree of software incompatibility. Third-party CPU upgrades, which mostly fit in the CPU socket, use faster 68020 or 68030 microprocessors and integrated memory, as well as provide support for a 68881 or 68882 FPU. Such upgrades often have the option to revert to 68000 mode for full compatibility. Some boards have a socket to seat the original 68000, whereas the 68030 cards typically come with an on-board 68000.
The original Amiga 1000 is the only model to have 256 KB of Amiga Chip RAM, which can be expanded to 512 KB with the addition of a daughterboard under a cover in the center front of the machine. RAM may also be upgraded via official and third-party upgrades, with a practical upper limit of about 9 MB of "fast RAM" due to the 68000's 24-bit address bus. This memory is accessible only by the CPU permitting faster code execution as DMA cycles are not shared with the chipset.
The Amiga 1000 features an 86-pin expansion port (electrically identical to the later Amiga 500 expansion port, though the A500's connector is inverted). This port is used by third-party expansions such as memory upgrades and SCSI adapters. These resources are handled by the Amiga Autoconfig standard. Other expansion options are available including a bus expander which provides two Zorro-II slots.
Retail.
Introduced on July 23, 1985, during a star-studded gala featuring Andy Warhol and Debbie Harry held at the Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center in New York City, machines began shipping in September with a base configuration of 256 KB of RAM at the retail price of . A analog RGB monitor was available for around , bringing the price of a complete Amiga system to US$1,595 (). Before the release of the Amiga 500 and Amiga 2000 models in 1987, the A1000 was marketed as simply the "Amiga", although the model number was there from the beginning, as the original box indicates.
In the US, the A1000 was marketed as "The Amiga from Commodore", with the Commodore logo omitted from the case. The Commodore branding was retained for the international versions.
Additionally, the Amiga 1000 was sold exclusively in computer stores in the US rather than the various non computer-dedicated department and toy stores through which the VIC-20 and Commodore 64 were retailed. These measures were an effort to avoid Commodore's "toy-store" computer image created during the Tramiel era.
Along with the operating system, the machine came bundled with a version of AmigaBASIC developed by Microsoft and a speech synthesis library developed by Softvoice, Inc.
Aftermarket upgrades.
Many A1000 owners remained attached to their machines long after newer models rendered the units technically obsolete, and it attracted numerous aftermarket upgrades. Many CPU upgrades that plugged into the Motorola 68000 socket functioned in the A1000. Additionally, a line of products called the "Rejuvenator" series allowed the use of newer chipsets in the A1000, and an Australian-designed replacement A1000 motherboard called "The Phoenix" utilized the same chipset as the A3000 and added an A2000-compatible video slot and on-board SCSI controller.
Reception and impact.
In its product preview, "Byte" magazine was impressed by the computer's multitasking capabilities and the quality of its graphics and sound systems. It also praised its text-to-speech library for voice output, and predicted that the Amiga would be successful enough to influence the personal computer industry.
The Amiga 1000 was released to positive reviews. "Compute!" lauded it as an inexpensive, truly general-purpose computer that might break preconceptions dividing the microcomputer marketplace. In this case, it was capable of outperforming most business, as well as arcade game machines and delivering sampled sound, making it suitable for offices, gamers, and digital artists. "Computer Gaming World" praised the machine's versatility without any obvious hardware shortcomings and stressed that it was ideal for game designers demanding fewer system constraints. "Creative Computing" magazine had only minor criticisms for what they otherwise called a "dream machine." These criticisms were directed toward its case quality, the disk drives slowing during certain operations, and not finding an codice_1 command in AmigaDOS, though the marketing vice president of Commodore, Clive Smith, assured the magazine that later production units would address most of its complaints. Months after the Amiga 1000 was released, "InfoWorld" offered a mixed review. It praised Intuition and the customizability of Workbench, but took issue with the operating system's bugs such as memory overflow and screen flickering of single lines as a result of their being interleaved when displayed in high resolution mode. It also criticized the sparseness of the software library preventing the publication from fully realizing the computer's potential.
In 1994, as Commodore filed for bankruptcy, "Byte" magazine called the Amiga 1000 "the first multimedia computer... so far ahead of its time that almost nobody—including Commodore's marketing department—could fully articulate what it was all about". In 2006, "PC World" rated the Amiga 1000 as the 7th greatest PC of all time. In 2007, it was rated by the same magazine as the 37th best tech product of all time. Also that year, IDG Sweden ranked it the 10th best computer of all time.
Joe Pillow.
"Joe Pillow" was the name given on the ticket for the extra airline seat purchased to hold the first Amiga prototype while on the way to the January 1984 Consumer Electronics Show. The airlines required a name for the airline ticket and Joe Pillow was born. The engineers (RJ Mical and Dale Luck) who flew with the Amiga prototype (codenamed "Lorraine") drew a happy face on the front of the pillowcase and even added a tie.
Joe Pillow extended his fifteen minutes of fame when the Amiga went to production. All fifty-three Amiga team members who worked on the project signed the Amiga case. This included Joe Pillow and Jay Miner's dog Michy who each got to "sign" the case in their own unique way.
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3107
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45687745
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3107
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Asymptote
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In analytic geometry, an asymptote () of a curve is a line such that the distance between the curve and the line approaches zero as one or both of the "x" or "y" coordinates tends to infinity. In projective geometry and related contexts, an asymptote of a curve is a line which is tangent to the curve at a point at infinity.
The word asymptote is derived from the Greek ἀσύμπτωτος ("asumptōtos") which means "not falling together", from ἀ priv. + σύν "together" + πτωτ-ός "fallen". The term was introduced by Apollonius of Perga in his work on conic sections, but in contrast to its modern meaning, he used it to mean any line that does not intersect the given curve.
There are three kinds of asymptotes: "horizontal", "vertical" and "oblique". For curves given by the graph of a function , horizontal asymptotes are horizontal lines that the graph of the function approaches as "x" tends to Vertical asymptotes are vertical lines near which the function grows without bound. An oblique asymptote has a slope that is non-zero but finite, such that the graph of the function approaches it as "x" tends to
More generally, one curve is a "curvilinear asymptote" of another (as opposed to a "linear asymptote") if the distance between the two curves tends to zero as they tend to infinity, although the term "asymptote" by itself is usually reserved for linear asymptotes.
Asymptotes convey information about the behavior of curves "in the large", and determining the asymptotes of a function is an important step in sketching its graph. The study of asymptotes of functions, construed in a broad sense, forms a part of the subject of asymptotic analysis.
Introduction.
The idea that a curve may come arbitrarily close to a line without actually becoming the same may seem to counter everyday experience. The representations of a line and a curve as marks on a piece of paper or as pixels on a computer screen have a positive width. So if they were to be extended far enough they would seem to merge, at least as far as the eye could discern. But these are physical representations of the corresponding mathematical entities; the line and the curve are idealized concepts whose width is 0 (see Line). Therefore, the understanding of the idea of an asymptote requires an effort of reason rather than experience.
Consider the graph of the function formula_1 shown in this section. The coordinates of the points on the curve are of the form formula_2 where x is a number other than 0. For example, the graph contains the points (1, 1), (2, 0.5), (5, 0.2), (10, 0.1), ... As the values of formula_3 become larger and larger, say 100, 1,000, 10,000 ..., putting them far to the right of the illustration, the corresponding values of formula_4, .01, .001, .0001, ..., become infinitesimal relative to the scale shown. But no matter how large formula_3 becomes, its reciprocal formula_6 is never 0, so the curve never actually touches the "x"-axis. Similarly, as the values of formula_3 become smaller and smaller, say .01, .001, .0001, ..., making them infinitesimal relative to the scale shown, the corresponding values of formula_4, 100, 1,000, 10,000 ..., become larger and larger. So the curve extends further and further upward as it comes closer and closer to the "y"-axis. Thus, both the "x" and "y"-axis are asymptotes of the curve. These ideas are part of the basis of concept of a limit in mathematics, and this connection is explained more fully below.
Asymptotes of functions.
The asymptotes most commonly encountered in the study of calculus are of curves of the form . These can be computed using limits and classified into "horizontal", "vertical" and "oblique" asymptotes depending on their orientation. Horizontal asymptotes are horizontal lines that the graph of the function approaches as "x" tends to +∞ or −∞. As the name indicates they are parallel to the "x"-axis. Vertical asymptotes are vertical lines (perpendicular to the "x"-axis) near which the function grows without bound. Oblique asymptotes are diagonal lines such that the difference between the curve and the line approaches 0 as "x" tends to +∞ or −∞.
Vertical asymptotes.
The line "x" = "a" is a "vertical asymptote" of the graph of the function if at least one of the following statements is true:
where formula_11 is the limit as "x" approaches the value "a" from the left (from lesser values), and formula_12 is the limit as "x" approaches "a" from the right.
For example, if ƒ("x") = "x"/("x"–1), the numerator approaches 1 and the denominator approaches 0 as "x" approaches 1. So
formula_13
formula_14
and the curve has a vertical asymptote at "x" = 1.
The function "ƒ"("x") may or may not be defined at "a", and its precise value at the point "x" = "a" does not affect the asymptote. For example, for the function
formula_15
has a limit of +∞ as , "ƒ"("x") has the vertical asymptote , even though "ƒ"(0) = 5. The graph of this function does intersect the vertical asymptote once, at (0, 5). It is impossible for the graph of a function to intersect a vertical asymptote (or a vertical line in general) in more than one point. Moreover, if a function is continuous at each point where it is defined, it is impossible that its graph does intersect any vertical asymptote.
A common example of a vertical asymptote is the case of a rational function at a point x such that the denominator is zero and the numerator is non-zero.
If a function has a vertical asymptote, then it isn't necessarily true that the derivative of the function has a vertical asymptote at the same place. An example is
formula_16 at formula_17.
This function has a vertical asymptote at formula_18 because
formula_19
and
formula_20.
The derivative of formula_21 is the function
formula_22.
For the sequence of points
formula_23 for formula_24
that approaches formula_25 both from the left and from the right, the values formula_26 are constantly formula_27. Therefore, both one-sided limits of formula_28 at formula_27 can be neither formula_30 nor formula_31. Hence formula_32 doesn't have a vertical asymptote at formula_25.
Horizontal asymptotes.
"Horizontal asymptotes" are horizontal lines that the graph of the function approaches as . The horizontal line "y" = "c" is a horizontal asymptote of the function "y" = "ƒ"("x") if
formula_34 or formula_35.
In the first case, "ƒ"("x") has "y" = "c" as asymptote when "x" tends to , and in the second "ƒ"("x") has "y" = "c" as an asymptote as "x" tends to .
For example, the arctangent function satisfies
formula_36 and formula_37
So the line is a horizontal asymptote for the arctangent when "x" tends to , and is a horizontal asymptote for the arctangent when "x" tends to .
Functions may lack horizontal asymptotes on either or both sides, or may have one horizontal asymptote that is the same in both directions. For example, the function has a horizontal asymptote at "y" = 0 when "x" tends both to and because, respectively,
formula_38
Other common functions that have one or two horizontal asymptotes include (that has an hyperbola as it graph), the Gaussian function formula_39 the error function, and the logistic function.
Oblique asymptotes.
When a linear asymptote is not parallel to the "x"- or "y"-axis, it is called an "oblique asymptote" or "slant asymptote". A function "ƒ"("x") is asymptotic to the straight line ("m" ≠ 0) if
formula_40
In the first case the line is an oblique asymptote of "ƒ"("x") when "x" tends to +∞, and in the second case the line is an oblique asymptote of "ƒ"("x") when "x" tends to −∞.
An example is "ƒ"("x") = "x" + 1/"x", which has the oblique asymptote "y" = "x" (that is "m" = 1, "n" = 0) as seen in the limits
formula_41
formula_42
formula_43
Elementary methods for identifying asymptotes.
The asymptotes of many elementary functions can be found without the explicit use of limits (although the derivations of such methods typically use limits).
General computation of oblique asymptotes for functions.
The oblique asymptote, for the function "f"("x"), will be given by the equation "y" = "mx" + "n". The value for "m" is computed first and is given by
formula_44
where "a" is either formula_31 or formula_30 depending on the case being studied. It is good practice to treat the two cases separately. If this limit doesn't exist then there is no oblique asymptote in that direction.
Having "m" then the value for "n" can be computed by
formula_47
where "a" should be the same value used before. If this limit fails to exist then there is no oblique asymptote in that direction, even should the limit defining "m" exist. Otherwise is the oblique asymptote of "ƒ"("x") as "x" tends to "a".
For example, the function has
formula_48 and then
formula_49
so that is the asymptote of "ƒ"("x") when "x" tends to +∞.
The function has
formula_50 and then
formula_51, which does not exist.
So does not have an asymptote when "x" tends to +∞.
Asymptotes for rational functions.
A rational function has at most one horizontal asymptote or oblique (slant) asymptote, and possibly many vertical asymptotes.
The degree of the numerator and degree of the denominator determine whether or not there are any horizontal or oblique asymptotes. The cases are tabulated below, where deg(numerator) is the degree of the numerator, and deg(denominator) is the degree of the denominator.
The vertical asymptotes occur only when the denominator is zero (If both the numerator and denominator are zero, the multiplicities of the zero are compared). For example, the following function has vertical asymptotes at "x" = 0, and "x" = 1, but not at "x" = 2.
formula_52
Oblique asymptotes of rational functions.
When the numerator of a rational function has degree exactly one greater than the denominator, the function has an oblique (slant) asymptote. The asymptote is the polynomial term after dividing the numerator and denominator. This phenomenon occurs because when dividing the fraction, there will be a linear term, and a remainder. For example, consider the function
formula_53
shown to the right. As the value of "x" increases, "f" approaches the asymptote "y" = "x". This is because the other term, 1/("x"+1), approaches 0.
If the degree of the numerator is more than 1 larger than the degree of the denominator, and the denominator does not divide the numerator, there will be a nonzero remainder that goes to zero as "x" increases, but the quotient will not be linear, and the function does not have an oblique asymptote.
Transformations of known functions.
If a known function has an asymptote (such as "y"=0 for "f"(x)="e""x"), then the translations of it also have an asymptote.
If a known function has an asymptote, then the scaling of the function also have an asymptote.
For example, "f"("x")="e""x"-1+2 has horizontal asymptote "y"=0+2=2, and no vertical or oblique asymptotes.
General definition.
Let be a parametric plane curve, in coordinates "A"("t") = ("x"("t"),"y"("t")). Suppose that the curve tends to infinity, that is:
formula_54
A line ℓ is an asymptote of "A" if the distance from the point "A"("t") to ℓ tends to zero as "t" → "b". From the definition, only open curves that have some infinite branch can have an asymptote. No closed curve can have an asymptote.
For example, the upper right branch of the curve "y" = 1/"x" can be defined parametrically as "x" = "t", "y" = 1/"t" (where "t" > 0). First, "x" → ∞ as "t" → ∞ and the distance from the curve to the "x"-axis is 1/"t" which approaches 0 as "t" → ∞. Therefore, the "x"-axis is an asymptote of the curve. Also, "y" → ∞ as "t" → 0 from the right, and the distance between the curve and the "y"-axis is "t" which approaches 0 as "t" → 0. So the "y"-axis is also an asymptote. A similar argument shows that the lower left branch of the curve also has the same two lines as asymptotes.
Although the definition here uses a parameterization of the curve, the notion of asymptote does not depend on the parameterization. In fact, if the equation of the line is formula_55 then the distance from the point "A"("t") = ("x"("t"),"y"("t")) to the line is given by
formula_56
if γ("t") is a change of parameterization then the distance becomes
formula_56
which tends to zero simultaneously as the previous expression.
An important case is when the curve is the graph of a real function (a function of one real variable and returning real values). The graph of the function "y" = "ƒ"("x") is the set of points of the plane with coordinates ("x","ƒ"("x")). For this, a parameterization is
formula_58
This parameterization is to be considered over the open intervals ("a","b"), where "a" can be −∞ and "b" can be +∞.
An asymptote can be either vertical or non-vertical (oblique or horizontal). In the first case its equation is "x" = "c", for some real number "c". The non-vertical case has equation , where "m" and formula_59 are real numbers. All three types of asymptotes can be present at the same time in specific examples. Unlike asymptotes for curves that are graphs of functions, a general curve may have more than two non-vertical asymptotes, and may cross its vertical asymptotes more than once.
Curvilinear asymptotes.
Let be a parametric plane curve, in coordinates "A"("t") = ("x"("t"),"y"("t")), and "B" be another (unparameterized) curve. Suppose, as before, that the curve "A" tends to infinity. The curve "B" is a curvilinear asymptote of "A" if the shortest distance from the point "A"("t") to a point on "B" tends to zero as "t" → "b". Sometimes "B" is simply referred to as an asymptote of "A", when there is no risk of confusion with linear asymptotes.
For example, the function
formula_60
has a curvilinear asymptote , which is known as a "parabolic asymptote" because it is a parabola rather than a straight line.
Asymptotes and curve sketching.
Asymptotes are used in procedures of curve sketching. An asymptote serves as a guide line to show the behavior of the curve towards infinity. In order to get better approximations of the curve, curvilinear asymptotes have also been used although the term asymptotic curve seems to be preferred.
Algebraic curves.
The asymptotes of an algebraic curve in the affine plane are the lines that are tangent to the projectivized curve through a point at infinity. For example, one may identify the asymptotes to the unit hyperbola in this manner. Asymptotes are often considered only for real curves, although they also make sense when defined in this way for curves over an arbitrary field.
A plane curve of degree "n" intersects its asymptote at most at "n"−2 other points, by Bézout's theorem, as the intersection at infinity is of multiplicity at least two. For a conic, there are a pair of lines that do not intersect the conic at any complex point: these are the two asymptotes of the conic.
A plane algebraic curve is defined by an equation of the form "P"("x","y") = 0 where "P" is a polynomial of degree "n"
formula_61
where "P""k" is homogeneous of degree "k". Vanishing of the linear factors of the highest degree term "P""n" defines the asymptotes of the curve: setting , if , then the line
formula_62
is an asymptote if formula_63 and formula_64 are not both zero. If formula_65 and formula_66, there is no asymptote, but the curve has a branch that looks like a branch of parabola. Such a branch is called a , even when it does not have any parabola that is a curvilinear asymptote. If formula_67 the curve has a singular point at infinity which may have several asymptotes or parabolic branches.
Over the complex numbers, "P""n" splits into linear factors, each of which defines an asymptote (or several for multiple factors). Over the reals, "P""n" splits in factors that are linear or quadratic factors. Only the linear factors correspond to infinite (real) branches of the curve, but if a linear factor has multiplicity greater than one, the curve may have several asymptotes or parabolic branches. It may also occur that such a multiple linear factor corresponds to two complex conjugate branches, and does not corresponds to any infinite branch of the real curve. For example, the curve has no real points outside the square formula_68, but its highest order term gives the linear factor "x" with multiplicity 4, leading to the unique asymptote "x"=0.
Asymptotic cone.
The hyperbola
formula_69
has the two asymptotes
formula_70
The equation for the union of these two lines is
formula_71
Similarly, the hyperboloid
formula_72
is said to have the asymptotic cone
formula_73
The distance between the hyperboloid and cone approaches 0 as the distance from the origin approaches infinity.
More generally, consider a surface that has an implicit equation
formula_74
where the formula_75 are homogeneous polynomials of degree formula_76 and formula_77. Then the equation formula_78 defines a cone which is centered at the origin. It is called an asymptotic cone, because the distance to the cone of a point of the surface tends to zero when the point on the surface tends to infinity.
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3110
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5234465
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3110
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Andrew S. Tanenbaum
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Andrew Stuart Tanenbaum (born March 16, 1944), sometimes referred to by the handle AST, is an American-born Dutch computer scientist and retired professor emeritus of computer science at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in the Netherlands.
He is the author of MINIX, a free Unix-like operating system for teaching purposes, and has written multiple computer science textbooks regarded as standard texts in the field. He regards his teaching job as his most important work. Since 2004 he has operated Electoral-vote.com, a website dedicated to analysis of polling data in federal elections in the United States.
Biography.
Tanenbaum was born in New York City on March 16, 1944, and grew up in suburban White Plains, New York, where he attended the White Plains High School. His paternal grandfather was born in Khorostkiv in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
He received his Bachelor of Science degree in physics from MIT in 1965 and his Doctor of Philosophy degree in astrophysics from the University of California, Berkeley in 1971.
As an undergraduate, he had obtained experience at computer programming, which helped him get a summer internship at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in West Virginia. After receiving his doctorate, he decided that he was more interested in programming. He became an assistant professor in Amsterdam based in part on his expertise in programming the university's new computer. He taught courses on Computer Organization and Operating Systems and supervised the work of PhD candidates at the VU University Amsterdam. On July 9, 2014, he announced his retirement. He is married to a Dutch woman, but retains his American citizenship.
Teaching.
Books.
Tanenbaum's textbooks on computer science include:
His book, "Operating Systems: Design and Implementation" and MINIX were Linus Torvalds' inspiration for the Linux kernel. In his autobiography "Just for Fun", Torvalds describes it as "the book that launched me to new heights".
Doctoral students.
Tanenbaum has had a number of PhD students who themselves have gone on to become widely known computer science researchers.
These include:
Dean of the Advanced School for Computing and Imaging.
In the early 1990s, the Dutch government began setting up a number of thematically oriented research schools that spanned multiple universities. These schools were intended to bring professors and PhD students from different Dutch (and later, foreign) universities together to help them cooperate and enhance their research.
Tanenbaum was one of the cofounders and first Dean of the Advanced School for Computing and Imaging (ASCI). This school initially consisted of nearly 200 faculty members and PhD students from the Vrije Universiteit, University of Amsterdam, Delft University of Technology, and Leiden University. They were especially working on problems in advanced computer systems such as parallel computing and image analysis and processing.
Tanenbaum remained dean for 12 years, until 2005, when he was awarded an Academy Professorship by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, at which time he became a full-time research professor.
Projects.
Amsterdam Compiler Kit.
The Amsterdam Compiler Kit is a toolkit for producing portable compilers. It was started sometime before 1981 and Andrew Tanenbaum was the architect from the start until version 5.5.
MINIX.
In 1987, Tanenbaum wrote a clone of UNIX, called MINIX (MINi-unIX), for the IBM PC. It was targeted at students and others who wanted to learn how an operating system worked. Consequently, he wrote a book that listed the source code in an appendix and described it in detail in the text. The source code itself was available on a set of floppy disks. Within three months, a Usenet newsgroup, comp.os.minix, had sprung up with over 40,000 subscribers discussing and improving the system. One of these subscribers was Linus Torvalds, who began adding new features to MINIX and tailoring it to his own needs. On October 5, 1991, Torvalds announced his own (POSIX-like) kernel, called Linux, which originally used the MINIX file system but is not based on MINIX code.
Electoral-vote.com.
In 2004, Tanenbaum created Electoral-vote.com, a web site analyzing opinion polls for the 2004 U.S. presidential election, using them to project the outcome in the Electoral College. He stated that he created the site as an American who "knows first hand what the world thinks of America and it is not a pretty picture at the moment. I want people to think of America as the land of freedom and democracy, not the land of arrogance and blind revenge. I want to be proud of America again." The site provided a color-coded map, updated each day with projections for each state's electoral votes. Through most of the campaign period Tanenbaum kept his identity secret, referring to himself as "the Votemaster" and acknowledging only that he personally preferred John Kerry. Mentioning that he supported the Democrats, he revealed his identity on November 1, 2004, the day before the election, and also stating his reasons and qualifications for running the website.
Through the site he also covered the 2006 midterm elections, correctly predicting the winner of all 33 Senate races that year.
For the 2008 elections, he got every state right except for Indiana, which he said McCain would win by 2% (Obama won by 1%) and Missouri, which he said was too close to call (McCain won by 0.1%). He correctly predicted all the winners in the Senate except for Minnesota, where he predicted a 1% win by Norm Coleman over Al Franken. After 7 months of legal battling and recounts, Franken won by 312 votes (0.01%).
In 2010, he correctly projected 35 out of 37 Senate races in the Midterm elections on the website. The exceptions were Colorado and Nevada.
Electoral-vote.com incorrectly predicted Hillary Clinton would win the 2016 United States presidential election. The website incorrectly predicted Clinton would win Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Florida. Electoral-vote.com did not predict a winner for Nevada, which Clinton would win. The website predicted the winners of the remaining 44 states and the District of Columbia correctly. Clinton however, won the popular vote, but lost the electoral vote.
Tanenbaum–Torvalds debate.
The Tanenbaum–Torvalds debate was a famous debate between Tanenbaum and Linus Torvalds regarding kernel design on Usenet in 1992.
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