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Islamic world
Islamic world, prehistory and history of the Islamic community.
Adherence to Islam is a global phenomenon: Muslims predominate in some 30 to 40 countries, from the Atlantic eastward to the Pacific and along a belt that stretches across northern Africa into Central Asia and south to the northern regions of the Indian subcontinent. Arabs account for fewer than one-fifth of all Muslims, more than half of whom live east of Karachi, Pak. Despite the absence of large-scale Islamic political entities, the Islamic faith continues to expand, by some estimates faster than any other major religion.
The Muslim religion and the life of the Prophet Muhammad are treated specifically in the article Islam. The literature, music, dance, and visual arts of Muslim peoples are treated in the article Islamic arts. Islam is also discussed in articles on individual countries or on regions in which the religion is a factor, such as Egypt, Iran, Arabia, and North Africa. See articles on individual branches or sects and concepts—for example, Islam, Nation of; Sunni; Shīʿite; Hadith.
A very broad perspective is required to explain the history of today's Islamic world. This approach must enlarge upon conventional political or dynastic divisions to draw a comprehensive picture of the stages by which successive Muslim communities, throughout Islam's 14 centuries, encountered and incorporated new peoples so as to produce an international religion and civilization.
In general, events referred to in this article are dated according to the Gregorian calendar, and eras are designated bce (before the Common Era or Christian Era) and ce (Common Era or Christian Era), terms which are equivalent to bc (before Christ) and ad (Latin: anno Domini). In some cases the Muslim reckoning of the Islamic era is used, indicated by ah (Latin: anno Hegirae). The Islamic era begins with the date of Muhammad's emigration (Hijrah) to Medina, which corresponds to July 16, 622 ce, in the Gregorian calendar.
The term Islamic refers to Islam as a religion. The term Islamicate refers to the social and cultural complex that is historically associated with Islam and the Muslims, even when found among non-Muslims. Islamdom refers to that complex of societies in which the Muslims and their faith have been prevalent and socially dominant.
Prehistory (c. 3000 bce–500 ce)
The prehistory of Islamdom is the history of central Afro-Eurasia from Hammurabi of Babylon to the Achaemenid Cyrus II in Persia to Alexander the Great to the Sāsānian emperor Nūshīrvān to Muhammad in Arabia; or, in a Muslim view, from Adam to Noah to Abraham to Moses to Jesus to Muhammad. The potential for Muslim empire building was established with the rise of the earliest civilizations in western Asia. It was refined with the emergence and spread of what have been called the region's Axial Age religions—Abrahamic, centred on the Hebrew patriarch Abraham, and Mazdean, focused on the Iranian deity Ahura Mazdā—and their later relative, Christianity. It was facilitated by the expansion of trade from eastern Asia to the Mediterranean and by the political changes thus effected. The Muslims were heirs to the ancient Egyptians, Babylonians, Persians, Hebrews, even the Greeks and Indians; the societies they created bridged time and space, from ancient to modern and from east to west.
The rise of agrarian-based citied societies
In the 7th century ce a coalition of Arab groups, some sedentary and some migratory, inside and outside the Arabian Peninsula, seized political and fiscal control in western Asia, specifically of the lands between the Nile and Oxus (Amu Darya) rivers—territory formerly controlled by the Byzantines in the west and the Sāsānians in the east. The factors that surrounded and directed their accomplishment had begun to coalesce long before, with the emergence of agrarian-based citied societies in western Asia in the 4th millennium bce. The rise of complex agrarian-based societies, such as Sumer, out of a subsistence agricultural and pastoralist environment, involved the founding of cities, the extension of citied power over surrounding villages, and the interaction of both with pastoralists.
This type of social organization offered new possibilities. Agricultural production and intercity trading, particularly in luxury goods, increased. Some individuals were able to take advantage of the manual labour of others to amass enough wealth to patronize a wide range of arts and crafts; of these, a few were able to establish territorial monarchies and foster religious institutions with wider appeal. Gradually the familiar troika of court, temple, and market emerged. The new ruling groups cultivated skills for administering and integrating non-kin-related groups. They benefited from the increased use of writing and, in many cases, from the adoption of a single writing system, such as the cuneiform, for administrative use. New institutions, such as coinage, territorial deities, royal priesthoods, and standing armies, further enhanced their power.
In such town-and-country complexes the pace of change quickened enough so that a well-placed individual might see the effects of his actions in his own lifetime and be stimulated to self-criticism and moral reflection of an unprecedented sort. The religion of these new social entities reflected and supported the new social environments. Unlike the religions of small groups, the religions of complex societies focused on deities, such as Marduk, Isis, or Mithra, whose appeal was not limited to one small area or group and whose powers were much less fragmented. The relationship of earthly existence to the afterlife became more problematic, as evidenced by the elaborate death rites of pharaonic Egypt. Individual religious action began to compete with communal worship and ritual; sometimes it promised spiritual transformation and transcendence of a new sort, as illustrated in the pan-Mediterranean mystery religions. Yet large-scale organization had introduced social and economic injustices that rulers and religions could address but not resolve. To many, an absolute ruler uniting a plurality of ethnic, religious, and interest groups offered the best hope of justice.
Cultural core areas of the settled world
By the middle of the 1st millennium bce the settled world had crystallized into four cultural core areas: Mediterranean, Nile-to-Oxus, Indic, and East Asian. The Nile-to-Oxus, the future core of Islamdom, was the least cohesive and the most complicated. Whereas each of the other regions developed a single language of high culture—Greek, Sanskrit, and Chinese, respectively—the Nile-to-Oxus region was a linguistic palimpsest of Irano-Semitic languages of several sorts: Aramaic, Syriac (eastern or Iranian Aramaic), and Middle Persian (the language of eastern Iran).
The Nile-to-Oxus region
In addition to its various linguistic groups, the Nile-to-Oxus region also differed in climate and ecology. It lay at the centre of a vast arid zone stretching across Afro-Eurasia from the Sahara to the Gobi; it favoured those who could deal with aridity—not only states that could control flooding (as in Egypt) or maintain irrigation (as in Mesopotamia) but also pastoralists and oasis dwellers. Although its agricultural potential was severely limited, its commercial possibilities were virtually unlimited. Located at the crossroads of the trans-Asian trade and blessed with numerous natural transit points, the region offered special social and economic prominence to its merchants.
The period from 800 to 200 bce has been called the Axial Age because of its pivotal importance for the history of religion and culture. The world's first religions of salvation developed in the four core areas. From these traditions—for example, Judaism, Mazdeism, Buddhism, and Confucianism—derived all later forms of high religion, including Christianity and Islam. Unlike the religions that surrounded their formation, the Axial Age religions concentrated transcendent power into one locus, be it symbolized theistically or nontheistically. Their radically dualistic cosmology posited another realm, totally unlike the earthly realm and capable of challenging and replacing ordinary earthly values. The individual was challenged to adopt the right relationship with that "other" realm, so as to transcend mortality by earning a final resting place, or to escape the immortality guaranteed by rebirth by achieving annihilation of earthly attachment.
In the Nile-to-Oxus region two major traditions arose during the Axial Age: the Abrahamic in the west and the Mazdean in the east. Because they required exclusive allegiance through an individual confession of faith in a just and judging deity, they are called confessional religions. This deity was a unique all-powerful creator who remained active in history, and each event in the life of every individual was meaningful in terms of the judgment of God at the end of time. The universally applicable truth of these new religions was expressed in sacred writings. The traditions reflected the mercantile environment in which they were formed in their special concern for fairness, honesty, covenant keeping, moderation, law and order, accountability, and the rights of ordinary human beings. These values were always potentially incompatible with the elitism and absolutism of courtly circles. Most often, as for example in the case of the Achaemenian Empire, the conflict was expressed in rebellion against the crown or was adjudicated by viewing kingship as the guarantor of divine justice.
Although modern Western historiography has projected an East-West dichotomy onto ancient times, Afro-Eurasian continuities and interactions were well established by the Axial Age and persisted throughout premodern times. The history of Islamdom cannot be understood without reference to them. Through Alexander's conquests in the 4th century bce in three of the four core areas, the Irano-Semitic cultures of the Nile-to-Oxus region were permanently overlaid with Hellenistic elements, and a link was forged between the Indian subcontinent and Iran. By the 3rd century ce, crosscutting movements like Gnosticism and Manichaeism integrated individuals from disparate cultures. Similarly organized large, land-based empires with official religions existed in all parts of the settled world. The Christian Roman Empire was locked in conflict with its counterpart to the east, the Zoroastrian-Mazdean Sāsānian empire. Another Christian empire in East Africa, the Abyssinian, was involved alternately with each of the others. In the context of these regional interrelationships, inhabitants of Arabia made their fateful entrance into international political, religious, and economic life.
The Arabian Peninsula
The Arabian Peninsula consists of a large central arid zone punctuated by oases, wells, and small seasonal streams and bounded in the south by well-watered lands that are generally thin, sometimes mountainous coastal strips. To the north of the peninsula are the irrigated agricultural areas of Syria and Iraq, the site of large-scale states from the 4th millennium bce. As early as the beginning of the 1st millennium bce the southwest corner of Arabia, the Yemen, also was divided into settled kingdoms. Their language was a South Arabian Semitic dialect, and their culture bore some affinity to Semitic societies in the Fertile Crescent. By the beginning of the Common Era (the 1st century ad in the Christian calendar), the major occupants of the habitable parts of the arid centre were known as Arabs. They were Semitic-speaking tribes of settled, semi-settled, and fully migratory peoples who drew their name and apparently their identity from what the camel-herding Bedouin pastoralists among them called themselves: ʿarab.
Until the beginning of the 3rd century ce the greatest economic and political power in the peninsula rested in the relatively independent kingdoms of the Yemen. The Yemenis, with a knowledge of the monsoon winds, had evolved an exceptionally long and profitable trade route from East Africa across the Red Sea and from India across the Indian Ocean up through the peninsula into Iraq and Syria, where it joined older Phoenician routes across the Mediterranean and into the Iberian Peninsula. Their power depended on their ability to protect islands discovered in the Indian Ocean and to control the straits of Hormuz and Aden as well as the Bedouin caravanners who guided and protected the caravans that carried the trade northward to Arab entrepôts like Petra and Palmyra. Participation in this trade was in turn an important source of power for tribal Arabs, whose livelihood otherwise depended on a combination of intergroup raiding, agriculture, and animal husbandry.
By the 3rd century, however, external developments began to impinge. In the early 3rd century, Ardashīr I founded the Sāsānian empire in Fars; within 70 years the Sāsānian state was at war with Rome, a conflict that was to last up to Islamic times. The reorganization of the Roman Empire under Constantine the Great, with the adoption of a new faith, Christianity, and a new capital, Constantinople, exacerbated the competition with the Sāsānian empire and resulted in the spreading of Christianity into Egypt and Abyssinia and the encouraging of missionizing in Arabia itself. There Christians encountered Jews who had been settling since the 1st century, as well as Arabs who had converted to Judaism. By the beginning of the 4th century the rulers of Abyssinia and Ptolemaic Egypt were interfering in the Red Sea area and carrying their aggression into the Yemen proper. In the first quarter of the 6th century the proselytizing efforts of a Jewish Yemeni ruler resulted in a massacre of Christians in the major Christian centre of Najrān. This event invited Abyssinian Christian reprisal and occupation, which put a virtual end to indigenous control of the Yemen. In conflict with the Byzantines, the Zoroastrian-Mazdean Sāsānians invaded Yemen toward the end of the 6th century, further expanding the religious and cultural horizons of Arabia, where membership in a religious community could not be apolitical and could even have international ramifications. The connection between communal affiliation and political orientations would be expressed in the early Muslim community and in fact has continued to function to the present day.
The long-term result of Arabia's entry into international politics was paradoxical: it enhanced the power of the tribal Arabs at the expense of the "superpowers." Living in an ecological environment that favoured tribal independence and small-group loyalties, the Arabs had never established lasting large-scale states, only transient tribal confederations. By the 5th century, however, the settled powers needed their hinterlands enough to foster client states: the Byzantines oversaw the Ghassānid kingdom; the Persians oversaw the Lakhmid; and the Yemenis (prior to the Abyssinian invasion) had Kindah. These relationships increased Arab awareness of other cultures and religions, and the awareness seems to have stimulated internal Arab cultural activity, especially the classical Arabic, or muḍarī, poetry, for which the pre-Islamic Arabs are so famous. In the north, Arabic speakers were drawn into the imperial administrations of the Romans and Sāsānians; soon certain settled and semi-settled Arabs spoke and wrote Aramaic or Persian as well as Arabic, and some Persian or Aramaic speakers could speak and write Arabic. The prosperity of the 5th and 6th centuries, as well as the intensification of imperial rivalries in the late 6th century, seems to have brought the Arabs of the interior permanently into the wider network of communication that fostered the rise of the Muslim community at Mecca and Medina.
Formation and orientation (c. 500–634)
The city of Mecca: centre of trade and religion
Although the 6th-century client states were the largest Arab polities of their day, it was not from them that a permanently significant Arab state arose. Rather, it emerged among independent Arabs living in Mecca (Makkah) at the junction of major north–south and west–east routes, in one of the less naturally favoured Arab settlements of the Hejaz (al-Ḥijāz). The development of a trading town into a city-state was not unusual, but, unlike many other western Arabian settlements, Mecca was not centred on an oasis or located in the hinterland of any non-Arab power. Although it had enough well water and springwater to provide for large numbers of camels, it did not have enough for agriculture; its economy depended on long-distance as well as short-distance trade.
Mecca under the Quraysh clans
Sometime after the year 400 ce Mecca had come under the control of a group of Arabs who were in the process of becoming sedentary; they were known as Quraysh and were led by a man remembered as Quṣayy ibn Kilāb (called al-Mujammiʿ, "the Unifier"). During the generations before Muhammad's birth in about 570, the several clans of the Quraysh fostered a development in Mecca that seems to have been occurring in a few other Arab towns as well. They used their trading connections and their relationships with their Bedouin cousins to make their town a regional centre whose influence radiated in many directions. They designated Mecca as a quarterly ḥaram, a safe haven from the intertribal warfare and raiding that was endemic among the Bedouin. Thus, Mecca became an attractive site for large trade fairs that coincided with pilgrimage (Arabic: ḥajj) to a local shrine, the Kaʿbah. The Kaʿbah housed the deities of visitors as well as the Meccans' supra-tribal creator and covenant-guaranteeing deity, called Allāh. Most Arabs probably viewed this deity as one among many, possessing powers not specific to a particular tribe; others may have identified this figure with the God of the Jews and Christians.
The building activities of the Quraysh threatened one non-Arab power enough to invite direct interference: the Abyssinians are said to have invaded Mecca in the year of Muhammad's birth. But the Byzantines and Sāsānians were distracted by internal reorganization and renewed conflict; simultaneously the Yemeni kingdoms were declining. Furthermore, these shifts in the international balance of power may have dislocated existing tribal connections enough to make Mecca an attractive new focus for supra-tribal organization, just as Mecca's equidistance from the major powers protected its independence and neutrality.
The Meccan link between shrine and market has a broader significance in the history of religion. It is reminiscent of changes that had taken place with the emergence of complex societies across the settled world several millennia earlier. Much of the religious life of the tribal Arabs had the characteristics of small-group, or "primitive," religion, including the sacralization of group-specific natural objects and phenomena and the multifarious presence of spirit beings, known among the Arabs as jinn. Where more-complex settlement patterns had developed, however, widely shared deities had already emerged, such as the "trinity" of Allāh's "daughters" known as al-Lāt, Manāt, and al-ʿUzzā. Such qualified simplification and inclusivity, wherever they have occurred in human history, seem to have been associated with other fundamental changes—increased settlement, extension and intensification of trade, and the emergence of lingua francas and other cultural commonalties, all of which had been occurring in central Arabia for several centuries.
New social patterns among the Meccans and their neighbours
The sedentarization of the Quraysh and their efforts to create an expanding network of cooperative Arabs generated social stresses that demanded new patterns of behaviour. The ability of the Quraysh to solve their problems was affected by an ambiguous relationship between sedentary and migratory Arabs. Tribal Arabs could go in and out of sedentarization easily, and kinship ties often transcended lifestyles. The sedentarization of the Quraysh did not involve the destruction of their ties with the Bedouin or their idealization of Bedouin life. Thus, for example, did wealthy Meccans, thinking Mecca unhealthy, often send their infants to Bedouin foster mothers. Yet the settling of the Quraysh at Mecca was no ordinary instance of sedentarization. Their commercial success produced a society unlike that of the Bedouin and unlike that of many other sedentary Arabs. Whereas stratification was minimal among the Bedouin, a hierarchy based on wealth appeared among the Quraysh. Although a Bedouin group might include a small number of outsiders, such as prisoners of war, Meccan society was markedly diverse, including non-Arabs as well as Arabs, slave as well as free. Among the Bedouin, lines of protection for in-group members were clearly drawn; in Mecca, sedentarization and socioeconomic stratification had begun to blur family responsibilities and foster the growth of an oligarchy whose economic objectives could easily supersede other motivations and values. Whereas the Bedouin acted in and through groups and even regularized intergroup raiding and warfare as a way of life, Meccans needed to act in their own interest and to minimize conflict by institutionalizing new, broader social alliances and interrelationships. The market-shrine complex encouraged surrounding tribes to put aside their conflicts periodically and to visit and worship the deities of the Kaʿbah; but such worship, as in most complex societies, could not replace either the particularistic worship of small groups or the competing religious practices of other regional centres, such as al-Ṭāʾif.
Very little in the Arabian environment favoured the formation of stable large-scale states. Therefore, Meccan efforts at centralization and unification might well have been transient, especially because they were not reinforced by any stronger power and because they depended almost entirely on the prosperity of a trade route that had been formerly controlled at its southern terminus and could be controlled elsewhere in the future, or exclude Mecca entirely. The rise of the Meccan system also coincided with the spread of the confessional religions, through immigration, missionization, conversion, and foreign interference. Alongside members of the confessional religions were unaffiliated monotheists, known as ḥanīfs, who distanced themselves from the Meccan religious system by repudiating the old gods but embracing neither Judaism nor Christianity. Eventually in Mecca and elsewhere a few individuals came to envision the possibility of effecting supra-tribal association through a leadership role common to the confessional religions, that is, prophethood or messengership. The only such individual who succeeded in effecting broad social changes was a member of the Hāshim (Hāshem) clan of Quraysh named Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib. One of their own, he accomplished what the Quraysh had started, first by working against them, later by working with them. When he was born, around 570, the potential for pan-Arab unification seemed nil, but after he died, in 632, the first generation of his followers were able not only to maintain pan-Arab unification but to expand far beyond the peninsula.
The Prophet Muhammad
Muhammad's years in Mecca
Spiritual awakening
Any explanation of such an unprecedented development must include an analysis not only of Muhammad's individual genius but also of his ability to articulate an ideology capable of appealing to multiple constituencies. His approach to the role of prophet allowed a variety of groups to conceptualize and form a single community. Muhammad was, according to many students of social behaviour, particularly well placed to lead such a social movement; in both ascribed and acquired characteristics he was unusual. Although he was a member of a high-status tribe, he belonged to one of its less well-placed clans. He was fatherless at birth; his mother and grandfather died when he was young, leaving him under the protection of an uncle. Although he possessed certain admirable personality traits to an unusual degree, his commercial success derived not from his own status but from his marriage to a much older woman, a wealthy widow named Khadījah. During the years of his marriage, his personal habits grew increasingly atypical; he began to absent himself in the hills outside Mecca to engage in the solitary spiritual activity of the ḥanīfs. At age 40, while on retreat, he saw a figure, whom he later identified as the angel Gabriel, who asked him to "recite" (iqraʾ), then overwhelmed him with a very strong embrace. Muhammad told the stranger that he was not a reciter. But the angel repeated his demand and embrace three times before the verses of the Qurʾān, beginning with "Recite in the Name of thy Lord, who created," were revealed. Although a few individuals, including his wife Khadījah, recognized his experience as that of a messenger of God, the contemporary religious life of most of the Meccans and the surrounding Arabs did not prepare them to share in this recognition easily.
Arabs did recognize several other types of intermediaries with the sacred. Some of the kings of the Yemen are said to have had priestly functions. Tribal leaders, sheikhs, in protecting their tribes' hallowed custom (sunnah), had a spiritual dimension. Tribal Arabs also had their kāhins, religious specialists who delivered oracles in ecstatic rhymed prose (sajʿ) and read omens. And they also had their shāʿirs, professionally trained oral poets who defended the group's honour, expressed its identity, and engaged in verbal duels with the poets of other groups. The power of the recited word was well established; the poets' words were even likened to arrows that could wound the unprotected enemy. Because Muhammad's utterances seemed similar, at least in form, to those of the kāhins, many of his hearers naturally assumed that he was one of the figures with whom they were more familiar. Indeed, Muhammad might not even have attracted attention had he not sounded like other holy men, but, by eschewing any source other than the one supreme being, whom he identified as Allāh ("God") and whose message he regarded as cosmically significant and binding, he was gradually able to distinguish himself from all other intermediaries. Like many successful leaders, Muhammad broke through existing restraints by what might be called transformative conservatism. By combining familiar leadership roles with a less familiar one, he expanded his authority; by giving existing practices a new history, he reoriented them; by assigning a new cause to existing problems, he resolved them. His personal characteristics fit his historical circumstances perfectly.
Public recitations
Muhammad's first vision was followed by a brief lull, after which he began to hear messages frequently, entering a special physical state to receive them and returning to normalcy to deliver them orally. Soon he began publicly to recite warnings of an imminent reckoning by Allāh that disturbed the Meccan leaders. Muhammad was one of their own, a man respected for his personal qualities. Yet weakening kinship ties and increasing social diversity were helping him attract followers from many different clans and also from among tribeless persons, giving all of them a new and potentially disruptive affiliation. The fundamentals of his message, delivered often in the vicinity of the Kaʿbah itself, questioned the very reasons for which so many people gathered there. If visitors to the Kaʿbah assumed, as so many Arabs did, that the deities represented by its idols were all useful and accessible in that place, Muhammad spoke, as had Axial Age figures before, of a placeless and timeless deity that not only had created human beings, making them dependent on him, but would also bring them to account at an apocalypse of his own making. In place of time or chance, which the Arabs assumed to govern their destiny, Muhammad installed a final reward or punishment based on individual actions. Such individual accountability to an unseen power that took no account whatsoever of kin relationships and operated beyond the Meccan system could, if taken seriously, undermine any authority the Quraysh had acquired. Muhammad's insistence on the protection of the weak, which echoed Bedouin values, threatened the unbridled amassing of wealth so important to the Meccan oligarchy.
Efforts to reform Meccan society
Yet Muhammad also appealed to the town dweller by describing the human being as a member of a polis (city-state) and by suggesting ways to overcome the inequities that such an environment breeds. By insisting that an event of cosmic significance was occurring in Mecca, he made the town the rival of all the greater cities with which the Meccans traded. To Meccans who believed that what went on in their town and at their shrine was hallowed by tribal custom, sunnah, Muhammad replied that their activities in fact were a corrupt form of a practice that had a very long history with the God of whom he spoke. In Muhammad's view, the Kaʿbah had been dedicated to the aniconic worship of the one God (Allāh) by Abraham, who fathered the ancestor of the Israelites, Isḥāq (Isaac), as well as the ancestor of the Arabs, Ismāʿīl (Ishmael). Muhammad asked his hearers not to embrace something new but to abandon the traditional in favour of the original. He appealed to his fellow Quraysh not to reject the sunnah of their ancestors but rather to appreciate and fulfill its true nature. God should be worshipped not through offerings but through prayer and recitation of his messages, and his house should be emptied of its useless idols.
In their initial rejection of his appeal, Muhammad's Meccan opponents took the first step toward accepting the new idea: they attacked it. For it was their rejection of him, as well as his subsequent rejection by many Jews and Christians, that helped to forge Muhammad's followers into a community with an identity of its own and capable of ultimately incorporating its opponents. Muhammad's disparate following was exceptionally vulnerable, bound together not by kinship ties but by a "generic" monotheism that involved being faithful (muʾmin) to the message God was sending through their leader. Their vulnerability was mitigated by the absence of formal municipal discipline, but their opponents within the Quraysh could apply informal pressures ranging from harassment and violence against the weakest to a boycott against Muhammad's clan, members of which were persuaded by his uncle Abū Ṭālib to remain loyal even though most of them were not his followers. Meanwhile, Muhammad and his closest associates were thinking about reconstituting themselves as a separate community in a less hostile environment. About 615 some 80 of his followers made an emigration (Hijrah) to Abyssinia, perhaps assuming that they would be welcome in a place that had a history of hostility to the Meccan oligarchy and that worshipped the same God who had sent Muhammad to them, but they eventually returned without establishing a permanent community. During the next decade, continued rejection intensified the group's identity and its search for another home. Although the boycott against Muhammad's clan began to disintegrate, the deaths of his wife and his uncle, about 619, removed an important source of psychological and social support. Muhammad had already begun to preach and attract followers at market gatherings outside Mecca; now he intensified his search for a more hospitable environment. In 620 he met with a delegation of followers from Yathrib, an oasis about 200 miles (320 km) to the northeast; in the next two years their support grew into an offer of protection.
Muhammad's emigration to Yathrib (Medina)
Like Mecca, Yathrib was experiencing demographic problems: several tribal groups coexisted, descendants of its Arab Jewish founders as well as a number of pagan Arab immigrants divided into two tribes, the Aws and the Khazraj. Unable to resolve their conflicts, the Yathribis invited Muhammad to perform the well-established role of neutral outside arbiter (ḥakam). In September 622, having discreetly sent his followers ahead, he and one companion, Abū Bakr, completed the community's second and final emigration, barely avoiding Quraysh attempts to prevent his departure by force. By the time of the emigration, a new label had begun to appear in Muhammad's recitations to describe his followers: in addition to being described in terms of their faithfulness (īmān) to God and his messenger, they were also described in terms of their undivided attention—that is, as muslims, individuals who assumed the right relationship to God by surrendering (islām) to his will. Although the designation muslim, derived from islām, eventually became a proper name for a specific historical community, at this point it appears to have expressed commonality with other monotheists: like the others, muslims faced Jerusalem to pray; Muhammad was believed to have been transported from Jerusalem to the heavens to talk with God; and Abraham, Noah, Moses, David, and Jesus, as well as Muhammad, all were considered to be prophets (nabīs) and messengers of the same God. In Yathrib, however, conflicts between other monotheists and the muslims sharpened their distinctiveness.
The forging of Muhammad's community
As an autonomous community, muslims might have become a tribal unit like those with whom they had affiliated, especially because the terms of their immigration gave them no special status. Yet under Muhammad's leadership they developed a social organization that could absorb or challenge everyone around them. They became Muhammad's ummah ("community") because they had recognized and supported God's emissary (rasūl Allāh). The ummah's members differed from one another not by wealth or genealogical superiority but by the degree of their faith and piety, and membership in the community was itself an expression of faith. Anyone could join, regardless of origin, by following Muhammad's lead, and the nature of members' support could vary. In the concept of ummah, Muhammad supplied the missing ingredient in the Meccan system: a powerful abstract principle for defining, justifying, and stimulating membership in a single community.
Muhammad made the concept of ummah work by expanding his role as arbiter so as to become the sole spokesman for all residents of Yathrib, also known as Medina. Even though the agreement under which Muhammad had emigrated did not obligate non-Muslims to follow him except in his arbitration, they necessarily became involved in the fortunes of his community. By protecting him from his Meccan enemies, the residents of Medina identified with his fate. Those who supported him as Muslims received special designations: the Medinans were called anṣār ("helpers"), and his fellow emigrants were distinguished as muhājirūn ("emigrants"). He was often able to use revelation to arbitrate.
Because the terms of his emigration did not provide adequate financial support, he began to provide for his community through caravan raiding, a tactic familiar to tribal Arabs. By thus inviting hostility, he required all the Medinans to take sides. Initial failure was followed by success, first at Nakhlah, where the Muslims defied Meccan custom by violating one of the truce months so essential to Meccan prosperity and prestige. Their most memorable victory occurred in 624 at Badr, against a large Meccan force; they continued to succeed, with only one serious setback, at Uḥud in 625. From that time on, "conversion" to Islam involved joining an established polity, the successes of which were tied to its proper spiritual orientation, regardless of whether the convert shared that orientation completely. During the early years in Medina a major motif of Islamic history emerged: the connection between material success and divine favour, which had also been prominent in the history of the Israelites.
The ummah's allies and enemies
During these years, Muhammad used his outstanding knowledge of tribal relations to act as a great tribal leader, or sheikh, further expanding his authority beyond the role that the Medinans had given him. He developed a network of alliances between his ummah and neighbouring tribes, and so competed with the Meccans at their own game. He managed and distributed the booty from raiding, keeping one-fifth for the ummah's overall needs and distributing the rest among its members. In return, members gave a portion of their wealth as zakāt, to help the needy and to demonstrate their awareness of their dependence on God for all of their material benefits. Like other sheikhs, Muhammad contracted numerous, often strategically motivated, marriage alliances. He was also more able to harass and discipline Medinans, Muslim and non-Muslim alike, who did not support his activities fully; he agitated in particular against the Jews, one of whose clans, the Banū Qaynuqāʿ, he expelled.
Increasingly estranged from nonresponsive Jews and Christians, he reoriented his followers' direction of prayer from Jerusalem to Mecca. He formally instituted the hajj to Mecca and fasting during the month of Ramadan as distinctive cultic acts, in recognition of the fact that islām, a generic act of surrender to God, had become Islam, a proper-name identity distinguished not only from paganism but from other forms of monotheism as well. As more and more of Medina was absorbed into the Muslim community and as the Meccans weakened, Muhammad's authority expanded. He continued to lead a three-pronged campaign—against nonsupporters in Medina, against the Quraysh in Mecca, and against surrounding tribes—and he even ordered raids into southern Syria. Eventually Muhammad became powerful enough to punish nonsupporters severely, especially those who leaned toward Mecca. For example, he had the men of the Qurayẓah clan of Jews in Medina executed after they failed to help him against the Meccan forces at the Battle of the Ditch in 627. But he also used force and diplomacy to bring in other Jewish and Christian groups. Because they were seen, unlike pagans, to have formed ummahs of their own around a revelation from God, Jews and Christians were entitled to pay for protection (dhimmah). Muhammad thus set a precedent for another major characteristic of Islamicate civilization, that of qualified religious pluralism under Muslim authority.
Muhammad's later recitations
During these years of warfare and consolidation, Muhammad continued to transmit revealed recitations, though their nature began to change. Some commented on Muhammad's situation, consoled and encouraged his community, explained the continuing resistance of the Meccans, and urged appropriate responses. Some told stories about figures familiar to Jews and Christians but cast in an Islamic framework. Though still delivered in the form of God's direct speech, the messages became longer and less ecstatic, less urgent in their warnings if more earnest in their guidance. Eventually they focused on interpersonal regulations in areas of particular importance for a new community, such as sexuality, marriage, divorce, and inheritance. By this time certain Muslims had begun to write down what Muhammad uttered or to recite passages for worship (ṣalāt) and private devotion. The recited word, so important among the Arab tribes, had found a greatly enlarged significance. A competitor for Muhammad's status as God's messenger even declared himself among a nonmember tribe; he was Musaylimah of Yamāmah, who claimed to convey revelations from God. He managed to attract numerous Bedouin Arabs but failed to speak as successfully as Muhammad to the various available constituencies.
Activism in the name of God, both nonmilitary as well as military, would become a permanent strand in Muslim piety. Given the environment in which Muhammad operated, his ummah was unlikely to survive without it; to compete as leader of a community, he needed to exhibit military prowess. (Like most successful leaders, however, Muhammad was a moderate and a compromiser; some of his followers were more militant and aggressive than he, and some were less so.) In addition, circumstantial necessity had ideological ramifications. Because Muhammad as messenger was also, by divine providence, leader of an established community, he could easily define the whole realm of social action as an expression of faith. Thus, Muslims were able to identify messengership with worldly leadership to an extent almost unparalleled in the history of religion. There had been activist prophets before Muhammad and there were activist prophets after him, but in no other religious tradition does the image of the activist prophet, and by extension the activist follower, have such a comprehensive and coherent justification in the formative period.
Islam at Muhammad's death
Muhammad's continuing success gradually impinged on the Quraysh in Mecca. Some defected and joined his community. His marriage to a Quraysh woman provided him with a useful go-between. In 628 he and his followers tried to make an Islamized hajj but were forestalled by the Meccans. At Al-Ḥudaybiyah, outside Mecca, Muhammad granted a 10-year truce on the condition that the Meccans would allow a Muslim pilgrimage the next year. Even at this point, however, Muhammad's control over his followers had its limits; his more zealous followers agreed to the pact only after much persuasion. As in all instances of charismatic leadership, persisting loyalty was correlated with continuing success. In the next year the Meccans allowed a Muslim hajj; and in the next, 630, the Muslims occupied Mecca without a struggle. Muhammad began to receive deputations from many parts of Arabia. By his death in 632 he was ruler of virtually all of it.
The Meccan Quraysh were allowed to become Muslims without shame. In fact, they quickly became assimilated to the actual muhājirūn, even though they had not emigrated to Yathrib themselves. Ironically, in defeat they had accomplished much more than they would have had they achieved victory: the centralization of all of Arabia around their polity and their shrine, the Kaʿbah, which had been emptied of its idols to be filled with an infinitely greater invisible power.
Because intergroup conflict was banned to all members of the ummah on the basis of their shared loyalty to the emissary of a single higher authority, the limitations of the Meccan concept of ḥaram, according to which the city quarterly became a safe haven, could be overcome. The broader solidarity that Muhammad had begun to build was stabilized only after his death, and this was achieved, paradoxically, by some of the same people who had initially opposed him. In the next two years one of his most significant legacies became apparent: the willingness and ability of his closest supporters to sustain the ideal and the reality of one Muslim community under one leader, even in the face of significant opposition. When Muhammad died, two vital sources of his authority ended—ongoing revelation and his unique ability to exemplify his messages on a daily basis. A leader capable of keeping revelation alive might have had the best chance of inheriting his movement, but no Muslim claimed messengership, nor had Muhammad unequivocally designated any other type of successor. The anṣār, his early supporters in Medina, moved to elect their own leader, leaving the muhājirūn to choose theirs, but a small number of muhājirūn managed to impose one of their own over the whole. That man was Abū Bakr, one of Muhammad's earliest followers and the father of his favourite wife, ʿĀʾishah. The title Abū Bakr took, khalīfah (caliph), meaning deputy or successor, echoed revealed references to those who assist major leaders and even God himself. To khalīfah he appended rasūl Allāh, so that his authority was based on his assistance to Muhammad as messenger of God.
Abū Bakr's succession
Abū Bakr soon confronted two new threats: the secession of many of the tribes that had joined the ummah after 630 and the appearance among them of other prophet figures who claimed continuing guidance from God. In withdrawing, the tribes appear to have been able to distinguish loyalty to Muhammad from full acceptance of the uniqueness and permanence of his message. The appearance of other prophets illustrates a general phenomenon in the history of religion: the volatility of revelation as a source of authority. When successfully claimed, it has almost no competitor; once opened, it is difficult to close; and, if it cannot be contained and focused at the appropriate moment, its power disperses. Jews and Christians had responded to this dilemma in their own ways; now it was the turn of the Muslims, whose future was dramatically affected by Abū Bakr's response. He put an end to revelation with a combination of military force and coherent rhetoric. He defined withdrawal from Muhammad's coalition as ingratitude to or denial of God (the concept of kufr); thus he gave secession (riddah) cosmic significance as an act of apostasy punishable, according to God's revealed messages to Muhammad, by death. He declared that the secessionists had become Muslims, and thus servants of God, by joining Muhammad; they were not free not to be Muslims, nor could they be Muslims, and thus loyal to God, under any leader whose legitimacy did not derive from Muhammad. Finally, he declared Muhammad to be the last prophet God would send, relying on a reference to Muhammad in one of the revealed messages as khatm al-anbiyāʾ ("seal of the prophets"). In his ability to interpret the events of his reign from the perspective of Islam, Abū Bakr demonstrated the power of the new conceptual vocabulary Muhammad had introduced.
Had Abū Bakr not asserted the independence and uniqueness of Islam, the movement he had inherited could have been splintered or absorbed by other monotheistic communities or by new Islam-like movements led by other tribal figures. Moreover, had he not quickly made the ban on secession and intergroup conflict yield material success, his chances for survival would have been very slim, because Arabia's resources could not support his state. To provide an adequate fiscal base, Abū Bakr enlarged impulses present in pre-Islamic Mecca and in the ummah. At his death he was beginning to turn his followers to raiding non-Muslims in the only direction where that was possible, the north. Migration into Syria and Iraq already had a long history; Arabs, both migratory and settled, were already present there. Indeed, some of them were already launching raids when ʿUmar I, Abū Bakr's acknowledged successor, assumed the caliphate in 634. The ability of the Medinan state to absorb random action into a relatively centralized movement of expansion testifies to the strength of the new ideological and administrative patterns inherent in the concept of ummah.
The fusion of two once separable phenomena, membership in Muhammad's community and faith in Islam—the mundane and the spiritual—would become one of Islam's most distinctive features. Becoming and being Muslim always involved doing more than it involved believing. On balance, Muslims have always favoured orthopraxy (correctness of practice) over orthodoxy (correctness of doctrine). Being Muslim has always meant making a commitment to a set of behavioral patterns because they reflect the right orientation to God. Where choices were later posed, they were posed not in terms of religion and politics, or church and state, but between living in the world the right way or the wrong way. Just as classical Islamicate languages developed no equivalents for the words religion and politics, modern European languages have developed no adequate terms to capture the choices as Muslims have posed them.


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Running in the heat requires caution, especially when it is also humid. With a heat wave in progress across the United States as I write this, I thought a few cautionary tips were in order!
Heat presents a danger to runners because, running in hot weather causes rather high amounts of electrolyte loss and can lead to dehydration, heat exhaustion, and heat stroke. To stay safe when it is hot out, follow these tips.
Running in The Heat
(1) Slow Down: A commonly cited set of figures is that, for every 5 degrees over 65, you should slow your pace by around 10 seconds per mile. There actually are some rather complex formulas on the exact amount of speed loss at certain temperatures, but the lesson for here is simply not to try to run fast in hot weather. Most likely your body will slow itself for you, making running at your normal higher paces very difficult. Don't try to fight that and take it slow and easy!
(2) Run Early in the Morning: By running early, you beat the hottest temperatures of the day and also avoid the most sun. If you can't run early, try running later after dark, or in shaded areas. Early morning is usually much cooler than after sunset during a heat wave.
(3) Wear Light Colored, Wicking Clothing: Now is not the time to wear cotton, which will simply soak up your sweat, become heavy, and hold moisture against your skin. You want light clothing that will wick the sweat away and help it evaporate, which in turns helps to cool your body. The same fabrics are not as uncomfortable and will work to evaporate liquid if you choose to wet them down with water to cool off. Road Runner Sports offers lots of great clothing options for hot weather.
(4) Bring Plenty of Fluids and Electrolyte Replacements: Drink water and bring Gatorade or other forms of electrolytes, with you. I love Nuun Tablets for easy carrying and for shorter runs where I don't want the sugar from Gatorade. GU is also an easy to carry solution for adding electrolytes, but be sure to take it with plenty of water to avoid stomach upset. When it is hot, I carry Gatorade in my Helium Fuel Belt (read previous Helium Fuel Belt review) and I plan a route that passes water fountains. If running long, I carry either Nunn Tabs or premeasured Gatorade powder with me and mix more up at the fountains.
(5) Wet Down Hats or Clothing: Another great reason to plan a course that goes near fountains is to be able to soak your hat or clothing with water to help cool yourself. The relief is often short lived, but rather welcome at the time! You can also try starting out with some ice cubs under your hat.
(6) Stop at Signs of Trouble: If you begin to feel lightheaded, dizzy, nauseous, or weak, STOP! Get yourself to a cool place and take in fluids and electrolytes. If you stop sweating, this is a medical emergency and you should seek help immediately.
(7) Run Indoors. As boring as it might be, during times of hot weather, often a run on the treadmill or an indoor track is the best option if that is available to you.
Stay safe and don't be a warrior in hot weather. Overdoing it will harm your training, not help it!

subset: commoncrawl


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During my time in Greece to cover the elections, one word I heard over and over again was: "Bild," as in the German newspaper/tabloid.
Bild is the most-read newspaper in Germany, and it's widely seen as reinforcing stereotypes about Greece, that it's filled with lazy workers and welfare-dependent, corrupt politicians.
On election eve, Bild published an inflammatory letter to the Greek people, that some thought might swing the dial towards the left-wing Alexis Tsipras (it didn't).
The newspaper also does stuff like go into hysterics over the slightest notion that Germany might allow a little more inflation.
Anyway, given the significance of the Euro crisis to the global economy, and given Germany's role in ending the crisis, and given Bild's influence within Germany, it's very easy to identify it as being the most powerful and influential newspaper in the world right now.
A Reuters article (via Ekathimerini) actually has a profile today with Bild editor Nikolas Blome.
"Greece is one of the most important issues we've dealt with in the last couple of years and because it affects the euro it's an issue that touches everyone,» said Blome, 48, who defends his conservative political views in a weekly TV talk show.
He bristled at the suggestion that Bild has tackled Greece harder than other newspapers in Germany. «It's not just a topic for Bild newspaper. It's a topic for every newspaper."
Bild began reporting extensively about Greece early, running heavy coverage two years ago that some analysts say reinforced the German government's initial reluctance to intervene in the country's meltdown.
The paper, he said, has a «clear editorial consensus that Greece is not going to be rescued the way this is going and that it should probably leave the eurozone at least for the time being. Greece needs a currency devaluation, a new currency, a new drachma. That's the fastest and best way to restore the country's competitiveness. That's a view shared by everyone at the paper."


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Home > News & Events > Wayland Press Release Archives > 2001 Press Releases > August 2001 > Wayland faculty discuss distinctive of integrating faith and learning
Wayland faculty discuss distinctive of integrating faith and learning
.The integration of faith and learning has always been a point of pride at Wayland Baptist University, a shortened mission statement that sums up the goal of Christian higher education.
But moving that statement from theory to practice is sometimes harder than it seems. On Thursday, as part of the annual Faculty/Staff Professional Development, Wayland faculty discussed that very issue while gearing up for the 2001-02 school year, which kicked off August 22.
Dr. Michael Beaty, professor of philosophy at Baylor University, opened the topic with a short lecture. To set background, Beaty began with a few assumptions about faculty and then stated the qualities of the ideal teacher at Wayland and any other Christian university.
"The ideal teacher is a mere Christian in C.S. Lewis' sense; would understand that all of us are pilgrims on a journey; is an active participant in a Christian community, that is a local church;, would be marked by gratitude to be able to use his or her gifts; would possess a high degree of competence in his or her discipline but still have a desire to learn; and would love to work with students and love his or her work," Beaty said in addressing the faculty. "The ideal teacher at Wayland loves the place and the people they find themselves around and does everything as a witness to Christ and not for any glory for themselves."
Beaty said some faculty members find integrating faith and learning difficult because their subject matter does not lend itself to the integration or they simply are not sure how to approach the issue. But he remained firm that it must be done, if not individually then at least as a communal body.
"If you leave (faith) out, it leaves us without a distinctive from any other college or university," Beaty explained. "But sometimes, he primary mode (in integration) is that you love your work, you love your God and students cannot leave your class without knowing that."
After defining both faith and learning and explaining the philosophical view of how faith indeed blends naturally with learning, Beaty participated in a panel discussion with three other faculty members about the issue.
Dr. Carol Green, dean of the Clovis, N.M. campus and assistant professor of history, began the discussion with comments about her own experience.
"We have a great luxury to be able to (mention God). We sometimes pray in our classrooms if the opportunity arises. We also try to incorporate an emphasis on values and ethics in each discipline we teach," Green said. "If you have a spirit of openness with what God wants you to do in a class, the He can even use (diversions) to reinforce Christianity."
Dr. Joel Boyd, a new assistant professor of chemistry in Plainview, had a different viewpoint.
"It's not a question of whether (integration) can be done, but that it must be done," he said. "I don't think you can teach any discipline without reflecting your own world views. The way you believe and feel comes out in what you say."
Dr. Peter Bowen, associate professor of psychology, led off the questions by asking Beaty what potential traps lay in integrating faith and learning.
"One trap is not being fair to alternative views. It becomes obvious to the students and your efforts are counterproductive," Beaty replied. "That suggests that you don't believe that Christianity can stand on its own two feet."
Beaty added that another danger was for professors to appear pious and awkward instead of genuine. Faith should bear out in all aspects of our lives, he said, not just when teaching a group of students. That fine line, then, should be walked carefully.
"We have an important task here: Our goal is for students to have a sophisticated faith and a faithful intellect," he said. "It is part of our task to create dissonance, and sometimes that's a good thing."


text:
Monday, November 30, 2009
Come to me! - A poem by H. H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Beyond the heaven is my abode
come to me. come to me.
Don't stop, come to me.
If you get stuck in the heaven,
you will return back from there to hell.
Don't stop in the heaven, come to me, come to me.
My abode is beyond heaven, far away from here.
Come to me, come to me
All the charming faces, boys and girls, eyes and noses,
hairs and dresses, cookies and sweets and chocolates,
pass them on.
Smiling and dancing, come to me, come to me.
My abode is beyond the heaven.
come to me.
Joyfully move in this direction, a thousand blessings on the way.
walk through them, don't get stuck.
Pass through them.
come to me.
Angels are ready to serve you, and crown you with the highest.
Don't stop before that.
Come to me, come to me...
39 comments:
wowwwwwwww simply profound as always........
thnx for postg it
- December 1, 2009 at 1:09 PM
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What a mind Mr Ravi Shankar has got,I praise him for this poem "Come to Me".The song is divine ,pure simply awesome.
- December 8, 2009 at 4:23 PM
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- December 16, 2009 at 11:53 AM
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H. H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is fantastic as always.His thoughts are so divine and pure.His poems are the reflection of himself.
- December 16, 2009 at 4:34 PM
- CORNISH HOLIDAY COTTAGE said...
My biggest rant about all of that is that she is somehow able to keep her stuff under control at school and she's able to get ready to go outside very quickly for recess and lunch recess so why is it like trying to tame a wild animal to get her out the door here at home?!
- December 18, 2009 at 2:22 PM
- Los Angeles Car Service said...
This is not simply a poem it has profound meaning. I am eager to meet Mr. Ravi Shankar. Anyway thanks for the poem.
- December 18, 2009 at 2:45 PM
Good one..! :)
- December 18, 2009 at 7:13 PM
- perfume said...
Its nice post and the poem is also awesome. I have read this and will wait for the next one.
- December 19, 2009 at 9:41 PM
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Take it out of the microwave and immediately shake the bag before opening. It always works for me, provided I don't get distracted. Which I frequently do.Once there are only pops every few seconds take it out.
- December 21, 2009 at 2:06 PM
- Baby Gifts said...
I learn some new stuff from it too, thanks for sharing your information. That sound great you should not leave the as it by the now have been the part of of your life.
- December 23, 2009 at 5:10 PM
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Whenever I hear Guruji speak, the mind becomes calm and I enjoy every bit of his talk/interview.Good one really...
- December 29, 2009 at 3:33 PM
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His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is a renowned spiritual leader and multi-faceted humanitarian whose mission of uniting the world into a violence-free family has inspired millions of people worldwide. The icon of non-violence and universal human values, Sri Sri seeks global peace through service and dialogue.
- January 4, 2010 at 12:13 PM
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My girlfriend is devoting a lot of time to this 'spiritual' movement and it is costing her a lot of money. I am concerned that her changes may have a negative impact on our relationship. I think she is becoming brainwashed. Is Sri Sri Ravi Shankar a god, or what? Should I be concerned that this is a cult of some sort?
- January 4, 2010 at 3:41 PM
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Very very divine poem by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.
- January 5, 2010 at 12:43 PM
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Very beautiful and heart touching poem.I really like it a lot. he is genius man.
- January 8, 2010 at 9:35 AM
- seo said...
Nice,i really enjoyed.thanks for sharing.
- January 9, 2010 at 10:58 AM
- consultant seo said...
Hello Every one ! if you get oppertunity to join sri sri ravishankar's course then dont waste time. it is difficult to counts the benifits. justjoin the course and feel difference in life
- January 10, 2010 at 12:18 AM
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I thought he was a musician. That's the only "renowned" Ravi Shankar I ever heard of.
- January 12, 2010 at 4:05 PM
- Journalists Blog said...
nice Poem, I like read your article make me get inspirations.
- January 12, 2010 at 6:38 PM
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Seems relax and enjoy when read and know the meanings.
- January 12, 2010 at 6:41 PM
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Great friends ..
Your poems is good, just "come to me " have many means.
- January 12, 2010 at 6:45 PM
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Very beautiful and nice poem I have ever seen.very beautiful words thanks man.
- January 13, 2010 at 2:19 PM
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Very inspiring poem.I really like it a lot.he is a genius really.keep posting.
- January 13, 2010 at 2:37 PM
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I really like the poem a lot...all words you used in this poem are all very good...
- January 19, 2010 at 10:02 AM
- Radha said...
I respect a lot Mr. Ravi Sankar and he is the man to whom lots of people learn the art of living. Thanks for the spiritual informations like the poem.
- January 19, 2010 at 12:05 PM
- Madhumita said...
I love this poem.
- January 19, 2010 at 12:05 PM
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Ravi shanker is a great poet to do something like that on. Another good poem is The Jabberwocky.
- January 25, 2010 at 4:26 PM
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The poem you shared with us is very beautiful and heart touching ....I just love this...
- January 25, 2010 at 4:26 PM
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What a beautiful and inspiring poem! I like it so much. Thanks for posting it here.
- January 26, 2010 at 10:10 AM
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- February 12, 2010 at 2:34 AM
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The icon of non-violence and universal human values, Sri Sri seeks global peace through service and dialogue.
- March 11, 2010 at 9:09 AM
guru ji ,i just love you. every alphabet is u in this poem .with love ; sarika
- March 15, 2010 at 5:58 PM
- anu said...
this poem the divine s written only for me...yipeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- May 22, 2010 at 1:03 PM
- NON DESTRUCTIVE TESTING said...
Great poem I like this person, thanks guruji
- January 7, 2012 at 9:47 PM
- Pankaj A. Desai said...
It is amazing that a search of this poem on Google leads me to you, Vivek!
Thanks for sharing and allow me to share this love on my space as well.
- October 7, 2012 at 1:03 AM
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- June 4, 2013 at 11:16 AM
- sanyu said...
Vivek,have been searching for this poem for last few years..Had heard in one of the advance courses recited by Meghal bhaiya.
Thank you.
- August 8, 2013 at 8:59 AM
thanx a lot coz it was a hw in yes 2 course to find dis poem n i couldn't hv found it quickly.
it is extremely beautiful n convincing as always.
v luv u guruji
jai gurudev
- June 5, 2014 at 7:33 PM
Beautiful poem. Thanks for sharing it Vivek. Until now I had not thought much about something beyond heaven. It just opened up new thoughts and possibilities for me to ponder.
- June 6, 2014 at 4:49 AM


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In celebration of the Lunar New Year, this year's 110th Golden Dragon Parade will be this Saturday, January 31, starting at 2 pm in Chinatown. Of all the parades in Los Angeles (Rose, Hollywood Christmas, Doo-Dah, etc.) the Golden Dragon Parade is my particular favorite to attend.
If crowds aren't to your liking, then this parade (and logically all others) should best be avoided and watched on TV. But if you don't mind the smell of a little sweat and shoving combined with amazing dragons in formation and smoky fireworks, this parade is for you. After you get your fill of pageant floats, confetti, and snacks from nearby vendors, shops and art galleries are all within walking distance.
One of the highlights of my trek to Chinatown is taking the LA Metro. Depending on where you're coming from, getting off at Union Station or the Chinatown stop on the Gold line is best to reach the parade. Plus, you can look at all the public art while waiting. My local stop is at Hollywood and Vine, where I can admire some of the work designed by Gilbert "Maju" Luján.
Luján, whose work was featured recently in LACMA's Los Angelenos/Chicano Painters of L.A. over the summer, has made an underground stop come alive with bright palm trees and low-rider benches. These, along with a ceiling of film reels, represent a fitting reflection of its title "Hooray for Hollywood."
With the economy's current condition and the passing of Measure R, time will only tell when we will have our "Subway to the Sea." But for now, public events are still accessible via public transportation and despite the subterranean location, art still flourishes below.


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Behind every nurse is a nurse educator. A nurse educator provides instructive and practical information to nursing students, as well as to faculty and administrators who attend nursing schools. Nurse educators focus primarily on teaching nursing theories and practices, and also designing, revising and evaluating nursing academic programs.
Many nurse educators have a specialty background and teach specific coursework, but a basic knowledge of the field is taught in all disciplines of nursing.
To advance as a faculty member, nurse educators are encouraged to complete a post-masters certificate in education.
Many nurse educators benefit from the school-year schedule, working nine months out of the year, with summers off. But there are ample summer opportunities available as well to teach and work.
Salaries are largely dependant on level of education, rank, and demand for nurses.


text:
David Jones' solitary strike lifted Wolves out of the relegation zone as his first Barclays Premier League goal of the season put a dent in Tottenham's hopes of taking back fourth place at Molineux.
The midfielder started the move which resulted in him side-footing home a cross from Matt Jarvis in the 27th minute and Wolves could also have had a penalty when Michael Dawson clipped Jarvis in the first half.
Tottenham's best chance fell to Niko Kranjcar before they had gone behind but he shot too close to goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann.
Harry Redknapp's side have now won just once in the last six matches and have scored three league goals in 2010 as a closer examination of their Champions League credentials has found them wanting - at least for now.
The result was huge for Wolves, with their first victory in seven league matches - and their second over Spurs this season - more than well deserved.
Jermain Defoe's pace looked like causing Wolves problems early on and on more than one occasion defenders had to resort to niggling fouls to halt his progress.
Spurs captain Dawson had the first half-chance in the 13th minute from Gareth Bale's corner but failed to connect properly with his header from seven yards.
Kevin Doyle went down claiming a penalty five minutes later but the challenge from Sebastien Bassong was more shoulder-to-shoulder and initial contact was outside the area.
Spurs went straight down the other end and Kranjcar should have scored after Defoe had back-heeled Eidur Gudjohnsen's pass into his path but he shot too close to Hahnemann and the goalkeeper deflected the ball for a corner with his legs.
Wolves had their best chance moments later when Doyle broke through on the right but his touch gave him too narrow an angle and as Dawson got across to challenge he fired a shot across the six-yard area which Bassong turned behind.
However, the hosts took the lead with the simplest of goals which came out of nowhere in the 27th minute.
Jones played the ball out to Jarvis on the left and continued his run to side-foot home the cross first time from 15 yards.
Wolves could have had a penalty two minutes later when Dawson clipped Jarvis as he ran into the area but referee Mark Clattenburg waved play on.
Jarvis almost added the second when he cut in on to his right foot and drilled in a shot which goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes turned around the near post.
Tottenham had lost the midfield battle in the first half and Redknapp responded by sending on Wilson Palacios for Jermaine Jenas immediately after the interval.
The visitors looked brighter and Kranjcar had a shot deflected just past the near post but Wolves still looked capable of getting a second and Doyle's lob from Stephen Ward's pass over the top beat Gomes but dropped wide of the target.
On the hour Wolves boss Mick McCarthy replaced left-back Ward with George Elokobi, while Peter Crouch came on for Gudjohnsen.
Elokobi was the first man to be booked, eight minutes after coming on when he body-checked David Bentley.
In a final throw of the dice Redknapp introduced Luka Modric for Kranjcar in an attempt to inject more creativity, while McCarthy strengthened central midfield with Michael Mancienne taking over from Guedioura.
Palacios was booked for going through the back of Jarvis as Tottenham's frustration began to grow.
The visitors stepped up the pressure in the final 10 minutes but Wolves soaked it all up to register back-to-back home clean sheets in the league for the first time in the campaign.


text:
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Seattle Century Link Football Stadium Fabric Ornament
Original photograph of the Century Link Football Stadium in Seattle where the Seahawks play printed onto cotton fabric to create this one-of-a-kind ornament. Each one is made by hand, so they vary a bit, but most are about 3x5 inches in size and have a red coordinating fabric on the back. A small grommet holds the black bakers twine that allows you to hang the ornament.
Original photograph by Samantha Barsky


text:
Education Minister Christopher Pyne has called on the opposition to condemn protesting students who jostled Foreign Minister Julie Bishop.
Protesting students who "jostled" and "abused" Foreign Minister Julie Bishop as she visited Sydney University are guilty of assault, Education Minister Christopher Pyne says.
Mr Pyne called on Opposition Leader Bill Shorten to join the government in strongly condemning the "incomprehensible" behaviour of the students who were protesting proposed cuts to higher education funding.
Ms Bishop was attending the university to announce a further 1000 students would be able to study overseas under new government funding when she was confronted by about 20 students.
"No cuts, no fees, no corporate universities," they shouted.
Amateur footage taken at the scene shows Ms Bishop being ushered through the scrum of students.
"Everyone is entitled to have a view - whether they like the government, whether they don't like the government; whether they like or dislike particular policies," Mr Pyne told reporters in Adelaide on Saturday.
"But the behaviour of the students yesterday at Sydney University was assault."
The opposition must not be seen to endorse such behaviour, he said.
"There is no room for Bill Shorten to have a muted response to this unacceptable, un-Australian and anti-democratic behaviour."
Opposition treasury spokesman Chris Bowen condemned the protests.
"There's no place for violent protest in Australia," he told reporters in Sydney.
"But violent protest is the fault of violent protesters.
"For Christopher Pyne and the Liberal party to try and make political points out of this is nothing short of pathetic.
"Of course the Labor party condemns violent protest."


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By MEGAN JAMES
MIDDLEBURY — A group of Middlebury College students hoping to overhaul the college's nearly 20-year-old sexual assault policy is finding the administration is also ready for change.
Junior Aki Ito has been working with students, faculty and administrators drawing up a proposal to update the school's policy, pushing for more preventative approaches to sexual violence and a more extensive support system for students who have experienced it.
"When you look at the handbook, it talks about what sexual assault is at Middlebury and how you can decide to proceed with a judicial proceeding, but it doesn't talk about what that specifically entails," Ito said. "What we want is every single step mapped out. We want a document that says if you're sexually assaulted, these are the things you want to do, and then list every single thing that's going to happen."
But Ito and her team want more than a chapter in the college handbook.
They are proposing everything from mandatory attendance to a freshman orientation show that looks at dating, sex and rape on college campuses, to implementing a system to anonymously report sexual assaults, to hiring a response team that would handle every aspect of a victim's recovery, including counseling and gathering evidence, should that person choose to press charges.
They are modeling their proposal after programs and policies they've found at other colleges, particularly Bowdoin College and Lewis and Clark College.
Last year the college's Department of Public Safety received two reports of forcible sex offenses and the year before it received four. But students say many more incidents go unreported. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, less than 5 percent of college student rapes are reported to authorities.
By JOHN FLOWERS
MIDDLEBURY — Leaders of the Vermont State Craft Center at Frog Hollow (VSCC) are working diligently on a plan to wipe red ink from the organization's ledger and put it on a strong financial foundation for the future.
Deidre Healy, recently hired as Frog Hollow's executive director, confirmed last week the 37-year-old, nonprofit arts organization is seeking to raise $200,000 within the next six months to shore up a budget deficit and help meet ongoing operating expenses. She added her board of directors later this year will announce a $1 million fund-raising campaign to invest in Frog Hollow's staff, educational resources, facilities and other measures to ensure the operation's future survival. The VSCC currently consists of galleries and a wide range of educational programs in Middlebury, Burlington and Manchester.
"Frog Hollow has had a challenging few years, and we are committed to restoring the organization," said Healy, who attributed the VSCC's current financial problems to a "perfect storm" of events — highlighted by a downturn in the economy that has seen revenues slump.
This revitalization effort will not come in time to save the VSCC's Manchester gallery, however. The VSCC established that gallery two years ago at 4716 Main St., but it has thus far failed to pay for itself. The gallery will soon close.
"The decision was a fiscal one," Healy explained. "Fiscally, it just wasn't performing. So we will focus our efforts in Middlebury and Burlington."
Healey stressed the VSCC's scheduled programs in Manchester will continue through the summer. The organization is working with other institutions to host some offerings, and has not ruled out re-establishing itself in Manchester in the future.
MIDDLEBURY — The fate of Middlebury Union High School's student newspaper hangs in the balance as organizers wait to see if journalism class will be offered at MUHS next year.
And even if journalism class does makes the cut for the 2008-2009 course lineup at MUHS, leaders of The Tigers' Print said they are apprehensive about putting out a newspaper they said is now carefully screened — posing the prospect of censorship — by school administrators before it is published.
"I think it's kind of up in the air," MUHS English teacher and journalism instructor Timothy O'Leary said of The Tigers' Print and the school's journalism program.
The Tigers' Print was reinvigorated two years ago, after a hiatus of a few years, by three local parents who restarted the paper as a high school club activity. They formed an alliance with the Addison Independent, which published the paper pro bono for that first year within its regular Thursday publication roughly once a month.
The effort was successful enough that the high school administration incorporated The Tigers' Print into a journalism class within the English department worthy of a full credit. The paper is written and assembled by about a dozen students in the class — mostly seniors — who usually spend one Sunday a month pulling it all together before the week of publication. It has continued to be published in the Independent this past school year on a monthly basis.
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text: This parameter determines how many complete calculations of the temperature and ionization structure of the model shell are made. Multiple passes are needed because there is no a priori knowledge of the optical depth of the shell in all the lines and continua, and these can affect the state of the gas in the interior of the shell. During the first pass the calculation proceeds through the shell, and assumes that all optical depths from points within the shell to the far edge of the shell are 0. If an integer greater than 1 is supplied as a parameter, XSTAR performs that number of iterations through the entire calculation, setting the optical depths to the far edge at the values calculated in the previous iteration. The odd numbered passes are made from the smallest to largest radius, while the even numbered passes are made in the inward direction. The emergent spectrum is not calculated accurately during the inward passes, so npass must be odd. Multi-pass calculations substantially improve the accuracy of the predictions made for shells with finite thickness, but they are much more time consuming than single-pass calculations. They also make use of temporary unformatted datasets, named 'xout_tmp.lis', 'xout_tmp2.lis', which can become quite large. The default value for this parameter is 1.


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A storm system moving up from the South will bring light snow to the Poconos on Tuesday.
A storm system moving up from the South will bring light snow to the Poconos on Tuesday.
The system appears weaker than forecasters initially thought, said Mike Murphy, a meteorologist with the Hackettstown-based Weather Works.
"It's definitely not a major storm," he said.
Precipitation is expected to start Tuesday morning and last through the early evening.
Murphy predicts most of the Poconos will see about a half-inch of snow.
Accuweather's forecast is calling for slightly more snow, predicting between 1 to 2 inches will fall.
Pocono weather expert Ben Gelber said the system will pass farther south of the Poconos than earlier models had suggested.
A moderate snowfall is still possible across southern Pennsylvania and New Jersey, but current forecasts are predicting only a few inches, at most, for the Poconos.
Christina Tatu


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Best of 2013: #17 – DynastySeries Spotlight: Tatu Baby @TATUBABY
Name: Tatu Baby
City: Miami
Measurements: 34-27-40
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/tatubaby
Ethnicity: Hispanic
How did you first get started in modeling?
I just took some pictures with one of my friends that was starting photography, OTB Photography.
What are your biggest assets as a model?
My tattoos, definetly sticks me out in a crowd of thousands.
Tell me what makes you sexy…
The way that i carry myself(swag) lol
What are some of the projects you've had a chance to be a part of?
I had an 8 page spread for Urban Ink Magazine and was featured in lil waynes music engineer mikebager.com website, I have also been 305hiphop.com july 2010 hard body of the month.
With all the shoots you've done, which ones have been your most memorable?
The shoot i did with otb for 305 hip hop hard body of the month. I got to show my body and my talent ..tattooing
What part of your body are you most complimented on?
My butt, people thinki it fake
What part do I need to compliment you on to have a chance?
My eyes, if you canread my eyes then you deserve a chance
What's the easiest thing a guy (hell even a girl..wink wink!) can do to get your attention? and keep it?
Not pay me no attention. lol i think we all desire what we can not have
Tell me the sexiest date I can take you on under $50…because we are in a recession lol?
Take me for a walk on the beach when the sun is setting
If there's one piece of advice you could give a guy before makes a move, what would it be?
Keep it real, if it look like you playing games ill shut u down then an d there
Tell us something about you your mom probably doesn't want to know..
I've got a fetich for lace . i love lace underwear lol
For 2011 to be the perfect year, what goals would you need to accomplish?
I want yo come out on a tattoo reality show and show kat von d she got competition ;)
What other projects will we be seeing you in coming soon?
Hopefully im getting casted for oxygens upcoming show best ink. also going to be featured in a couple more tattoo mags
And most importantly, how long are we going to have to wait to have you shoot for the dynasty series?
No wait at all …im ready
Best thing about your hometown is…the party life, if you want to have fun come to miami!
I can cook…really good colombian food
But i'd rather eat…seafood because of my diet
Favorite drink…cranbery and vodka
Favorite movie…menn of honor
Worst movie you've ever been forced to watch…eurotrip
Favorite album…alicias keys first album
Favorite cartoon as a kid…tom and jerry
Best memory from highschool…prom night. got wasted
Last time I saw someone naked was…2 months ago lol
If you had to rate yourself in bed you're a…10
If you kissed a girl…it'd be…on the cheek. dont go that way
Guilty pleasure…when they kiss my neck


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Tuesday, December 4, 2012
the everygirl's gift guide
You may have heard it's Holiday Week on The Everygirl and our gift guide is live! In typical Everygirl fashion, almost all of the 95 items in the gift guide are under $50, except for a few "splurge" favorites we couldn't leave out. We have a little something for everyone–the ladies, fellas, little ones, home, office, entertainer, and cook. And we've asked some of our favorite bloggers to share their picks under $30.
Have at it! We dare you not to buy at least one thing.
In other news, things have slowly gotten a little better for me this past week... the support from everyone - in my personal life and across the blogosphere - means more than you realize. Thank you.
Labels: affordable, holidays, the everygirl
8 comments:
I am loving the Everygirl gift Guide! It makes me so happy that most of the items are AFFORDABLE! I love those candle sticks from Crate & Barrel...I may have to buy them for myself for Christmas ;)ReplyDelete
I'm glad to hear that things are getting better ;)ReplyDelete
yesss i could always use more ideas for chirstmas gifts!ReplyDelete
- AnonymousDecember 4, 2012 at 3:26 PM
i love the gift guide and am so happy to hear things are getting even a little bit better.ReplyDelete
LOVED the gift guide, and glad things are looking up a bit more for you this week.ReplyDelete
i really like the candle sticks:)ReplyDelete
Great picks! I'm a big fan of the ikat dinnerware from C.Wonder, and those canine coasters are so cute!ReplyDelete
Alyssa @ www.ruffleandcurl.com
What happened? :/ReplyDelete
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Home > News & Events > Wayland Press Release Archives > 2007 News Releases > August 2007 > Wayland receives state approval to offer complete Nursing program in San Antonio, online programs for RNs to BSN available in fall
Wayland receives state approval to offer complete Nursing program in San Antonio, online programs for RNs to BSN available in fall
SAN ANTONIO – Wayland Baptist University recently received state approval for its new nursing program, enabling the school to provide a complete Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree from its San Antonio campus. This will be the third bachelor's degree program for nurses in San Antonio.
In addition, the university announced the online available beginning in the fall for the RN to BSN completion program, which allows registered nurses the opportunity to take nursing courses online to convert their nursing license into a Bachelor of Science in Nursing. Previously, the program had only been available on the San Antonio campus.
The new full nursing program will begin in San Antonio with approximately 15 students in the fall semester, and 15 more will be accepted in the spring of 2008. In the first year, Wayland plans to work out any wrinkles in the program, and then enroll more in the 2008-09 school year. According to Dr. James Antenen, campus dean in San Antonio, the local capacity for the program when all the classes are full will be up to 400.
The new program couldn't come at a better time. The nursing shortage is nationwide, and acute in Texas. Health Resources and Services Administration reports that the nursing shortage in Texas was just over 10,000 in 2005, and the gap is expected to increase to 52,000 by 2020.
"Right now, there are hundreds of nursing jobs open in San Antonio and across south Texas, but no nurses to fill them, which is why we needed to start this program," said Antenen.
This program has potential to grow nationwide. Wayland is uniquely positioned to be able to increase nursing education capacity not only in San Antonio, but across Texas and to five additional states where there are Wayland campuses.
"Soon, we will look at the possibility of offering the program at some of the additional 12 campuses of Wayland, including our main campus in Plainview," Antenen said.
Other Wayland campuses include Amarillo, Lubbock and Wichita Falls in Texas, and campuses in Oklahoma, Hawaii, Alaska, New Mexico and Arizona.
"When Wayland surveyed the need for this new program, we found that long lists of great students and qualified applicants had to be turned down from other local programs because of lack of space. As a result, the support from the other schools and hospitals in San Antonio has been tremendous," Dr. Diane Frazor, director of the nursing program said. "Everyone agrees that we need to increase capacity for nurse education."
"Wayland has a reputation for seeing a need and finding a way to meet it, whether it is providing degrees for the military, supplying flexible programs for working adults or helping meet the nursing shortage," Dr. Antenen said.
Wayland isn't new to nursing education. The new program is an expansion of the bridge program for registered nurses (RNs) to get their bachelor of science in nursing (BSN) degree that Wayland started last year, according to Dr. Frazor. The Texas Board of Nurse Examiners approval is in addition to the regional accreditation (through Southern Association of Colleges and Schools) that Wayland's nursing program received early in 2006.
"The RN to BSN program continues to grow, and the addition of the generic nursing program was next in our plan," Frazor said. "Now, any RN from anywhere in the world can get their BSN from Wayland through the online program."
The new nursing program, along with the growth in San Antonio has also led to Wayland's plans to expand its campus and offer even more programs in the near future.
"We have taken our first steps in a capital campaign for a new 65,000 square foot academic building, which will house new classrooms, a lecture hall and faculty offices," Becky Bridges, director of institutional advancement said. "The new facility is desperately needed because we are out of space, yet our enrollment continues to grow."
"To be out of space is a wonderful problem to have because it means we are helping provide more college degreed professionals for San Antonio. Everyone benefits from the economic boost of a well-educated workforce," Bridges said. "Wayland just needs to provide more space so we can keep up with the demand."
Wayland Baptist University has operated in San Antonio since 1984, and offers associate's, bachelor's and master's degree programs to more than 1,400 students each year. Since its inception, more than 8,000 students have graduated from the Wayland Baptist University - San Antonio campus.
For information on the programs at WBU San Antonio, call the campus at (210) 826-7595. For more information on the RN to BSN program online, contact the Plainview WBU Admissions office at (806) 291-3500 or toll free (800) 588-1928.


text:
£4,999 | Honda Jazz 1.4 i-DSI SE CVT-7 5drANOTHER SOLD@HAYDON WICK CARS
Key factsPrint summary
1 OWNER FROM NEW 6 MONTHS WARRANTY MOT FEB2020 PART EXCHANGE WELCOME FINANCE AVAILABLE 2 REMOTE KEYS ELECTRIC SUN ROOF JUST FITTED NEW REAR BRAKE PADS , 6 months warranty, Next MOT due 01/02/2020, Last serviced on 15/03/2019 at 37,125 miles, Full service history, Excellent bodywork, Grey Cloth interior - Excellent Condition, Tyre condition Excellent, Metallic Silver, 1 owner, MAJOR DEBIT/CREDIT CARDS TAKEN, Experian auto check clear, £4,999 p/x welcome
This car comes with
SUN ROOF, Manual Air Conditioning with Pollen Filter, 15in Alloy Wheels with Locking Wheelnuts, Power Windows (Front and Rear), Stereo CD Tuner with RDS
- 201902154975461
- 2006
- 06
- £4,999
- 500
- 37,125
- Cars
- EUrTnGrS+ME=
Technical specifications
Vehicle summary
|Body style
|Engine size
|1339 cc
|Fuel type
|Number of doors
|Number of seats
|Gearbox type
|Continuously Variable Transmission
|CO2 emissions
|139 g/km
|Insurance group
|Standard manufacturer's warranty (miles)
|90000 miles
|Standard manufacturer's warranty (years)
|3 years
|Standard paintwork guarantee
|3 years
Performance & economy
|Fuel consumption (urban)
|39.2 mpg
|Fuel consumption (extra urban)
|55.4 mpg
|Fuel consumption (combined)
|47.9 mpg
|0 - 60 mph
|14.5 seconds
|Top speed
|100 mph
|Engine power
|82 bhp
|Engine torque
|88.00 lbs/ft
|1525 mm
|Height inclusive of roof rails
|No details available
|3830 mm
|2450 mm
|1878 mm
|Width including mirrors
|No details available
|Fuel tank capacity
|42 litres
|Minimum kerb weight
|1082 kg
|Interior features
|Exterior features
|Drivers Seat Height Adjustment
|Side Impact Protection Beams
|Magic Seat Flexibility System
|15in Alloy Wheels with Locking Wheelnuts
|Power Windows (Front and Rear)
|Rear Wash/Wipe
|Remote Keyless Entry
|Spare Wheel Spacesaver
|Heated Rear Screen
|Body Colour Bumpers
|Manual Air Conditioning with Pollen Filter
|Stereo CD Tuner with RDS
|Upholstery - Cloth Upholstery
|Tilt Adjustable Steering Wheel
|Front and Rear Speakers
|Front Cupholders
|Centre Console
|Honda Superlocks (Deadlocks)
|Dual SRS Airbag for Driver
|Dual SRS Airbag for Front Passenger
|Front Seat Belt Pre - Tensioners
|Anti-Lock Braking System (ABS) and Emergency Brake Assist
|ISOFix Childseat Restraint Mechanism
|Electronic Brake Force Distribution (EBD)
|Power Assisted Steering
|Centre Rear Seat Belt
|Dual Side SRS Airbags
|Head Restraints Front/Rear
|High Level Rear Brake Light
|Rolling Code ECU Engine Immobiliser
Please note
This includes MPG figures which are calculated under European Standards, in test conditions, and will vary under normal driving conditions. The information displayed above describes the typical specification of the most recent model of this vehicle. It is not the exact specification for the actual vehicle being offered for sale which may vary. Specifications for older models may also vary. Please contact us prior to purchase to confirm the exact specification of this vehicle.
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text:
In this episode, Xena and Gabrielle rescue Pandora's granddaughter, also Pandora, from an angry mob while simultaneously rescuing a baby who, it is prophesied, will one day be a king. Unfortunately they end up being attacked on all side with only a few hours left to save the word from losing Hope forever (or not, as it turns out).
This is also the episode that features Xena posing as a veiled dancer, looking like a harem girl, which may be more memorable to some. The bit where they start throwing a baby around like a football, might, on the other hand, be the most memorable bit.
There are more dreams at the beginning of this episode, and a female soothsayer who seems to be mixing up half a dozen methods of divination at once – prayer to a god (Zeus), stones, dreams and some kind of vision (stones really could not give that much information). She prophesies that an infant orphan will one day rule instead of the king and the child is put in a Moses basket (very appropriate) and sent down river, only to be discovered by Xena and Gabrielle.
The idea of the prophecy that a baby will rule, followed by an attempt to kill or capture the baby, is very Classical, and Near Eastern, and Biblical. There are lots of stories of that nature, the most historical ones being those connected with the Persian monarchy that appear in Herodotus (Astyages dreamed that his infant grandson Cyrus would overthrow him and tried to have him killed, but as usual the general who was supposed to kill the child didn't want to, in this case because it meant killing a royal. Cyrus eventually overthrew Astyages). Gregor proves to be wiser than any of them by simply adopting the child as his heir, thus saving the kid the bother of usurping him at a later date.
The version of the Pandora story used here features a wooden box, rather than a jar, and includes the detail that Hope was trapped inside the box. However, here, the fact that Hope was trapped apparently means that we all still have hope, as opposed to all other desires, which are fleeting, rather than that everything is hopeless. My copy of Hesiod, in which this detail first appears, has an explanatory note saying that Hope remaining in the jar means men still have Hope, and Hesiod is just being inconsistent in his symbolic use of the jar, which would fit the interpretation here (though I have to confess, the tone of Works and Days being what it is, I wouldn't be surprised if Hesiod had had the more negative interpretation in mind). I have to admit as well that I was rather relieved when the box turned out to be empty. I know the whole point of Xena is to dramatise mythological stories, but this particular story really works better on a metaphorical level than a literal one.
Unfortunately, presumably in order to fill time, the episode gets more and more ridiculous as time goes one, with some bizarre and inexplicable use of slow motion (the director must have been getting bored) and Xena and Gabrielle literally throwing a baby around as if they were Jareth the Goblin King in Labyrinth.
Jareth, in the middle of throwing the baby around.
One final, random observation – the currency is apparently dinars. Interesting choice. I would have expected drachmas, sestercii or denarii, but I guess dinars is as good as anything else!


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Here we go! Web companies that offer you free services may have a good reason. They may not make money off of you using the service but they are making money by selling your content.
There is an article today that states how TwitPic may sell your pictures that you have uploaded. They may also come after people who use the picture commercially without Twitpics permission. You can read the article at Fine Print Blurs Who's in Control of Online Photos.
God, I hate linking to the NY Times. I'll probably get sued or blocked for linking to them (all the news papers have gone stupid).
Anyway, many big time users are turning away from using Twitpic anymore because of this. People want to have all the rights to the pics they take. Most don't mind sharing but, they don't want to be used and abused by such bullshit.
I guess, many of us know that when a site or service is free then there is a really good chance that at some point they will be making money off of it. We all know to read the agreements but, those can change so quickly (think Facebook). They also seem to have a long page of general Blah, blah, blah and just sneak in the stuff people would never agree to.
So will you keep using Twitpic?
Heck, will you go and delete your pics you already have on there?


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5 reasons to visit Tasmania in winter
Published June 30th, 2014
Read Article
Think of all those good, wintry things: roaring fires, crisp snowy landscapes, bone-warming whisky and hearty food. You can have all of them, every single one, on a trip to the Apple Isle in winter. Why not explore your own backyard this winter break?