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This article is about the capital of the Czech Republic. For other uses, see Prague (disambiguation).
"Praha" redirects here. For other uses, see Praha (disambiguation).
Prague
Praha
Capital city
Hlavní město Praha
Prague (/prɑːɡ/; Czech: Praha [ˈpraɦa] ( listen), German: Prag) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, the 14th largest city in the European Union[7] and also the historical capital of Bohemia. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its larger urban zone is estimated to have a population of 2.2 million.[8] The city has a temperate climate, with warm summers and chilly winters.
Prague has been a political, cultural and economic centre of central Europe complete with a rich history. Founded during the Romanesque and flourishing by the Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque eras, Prague was the capital of the kingdom of Bohemia and the main residence of several Holy Roman Emperors, most notably of Charles IV (r. 1346–1378).[9] It was an important city to the Habsburg Monarchy and its Austro-Hungarian Empire. The city played major roles in the Bohemian and Protestant Reformation, the Thirty Years' War and in 20th-century history as the capital of Czechoslovakia, during both World Wars and the post-war Communist era.[10]
Prague is home to a number of famous cultural attractions, many of which survived the violence and destruction of 20th-century Europe. Main attractions include the Prague Castle, the Charles Bridge, Old Town Square with the Prague astronomical clock, the Jewish Quarter, Petřín hill and Vyšehrad. Since 1992, the extensive historic centre of Prague has been included in the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites.
The city has more than ten major museums, along with numerous theatres, galleries, cinemas and other historical exhibits. An extensive modern public transportation system connects the city. Also, it is home to a wide range of public and private schools, including Charles University in Prague, the oldest university in Central Europe.[11]
Prague is classified as a "Beta+" global city according to GaWC studies[12] and ranked sixth in the Tripadvisor world list of best destinations in 2016.[13] Its rich history makes it a popular tourist destination and as of 2014, the city receives more than 6.4 million international visitors annually. Prague is the fifth most visited European city after London, Paris, Istanbul and Rome.[14]
History[edit]
Main articles: History of Prague and Timeline of Prague
During the thousand years of its existence, the city grew from a settlement stretching from Prague Castle in the north to the fort of Vyšehrad in the south, becoming the capital of a modern European country, the Czech Republic, a member state of the European Union.
Early history[edit]
The Prague astronomical clock was first installed in 1410, making it the third-oldest astronomical clock in the world and the oldest one still working.
The region was settled as early as the Paleolithic age.[15] Around the fifth and fourth century BC, the Celts appeared in the area, later establishing settlements including an oppidum in Závist, a present-day suburb of Prague, and giving name to the region of Bohemia, "home of the Boii".[15][16] In the last century BC, the Celts were slowly driven away by Germanic tribes (Marcomanni, Quadi, Lombards and possibly the Suebi), leading some to place the seat of the Marcomanni king Maroboduus on the southern Prague's site Závist.[17][18] Around the area where present-day Prague stands, the 2nd century map of Ptolemaios mentioned a Germanic city called Casurgis.[19]
In the late 5th century AD, during the great Migration Period following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, the Germanic tribes living in Bohemia moved westwards and, probably in the 6th century, the Slavic tribes (Venedi) settled Central Bohemian Region. In the following two centuries, the Czech tribes built several fortified settlements in the area, most notably in the Šárka valley, Butovice and later in Levý Hradec.[15]
The construction of what came to be known as the Prague Castle began near the end of the 9th century, with a fortified settlement already existing on the site in the year 800.[20] The first masonry under Prague Castle dates from the year 885 at the latest.[21] The other prominent Prague fort, the Přemyslid fort Vyšehrad, was founded in the 10th century, some 70 years later than Prague Castle.[22] Prague Castle is dominated by the cathedral, which was founded in 1344, but completed in the 20th century.
The legendary origins of Prague attribute its foundation to the 8th century Czech duchess and prophetess Libuše and her husband, Přemysl, founder of the Přemyslid dynasty. Legend says that Libuše came out on a rocky cliff high above the Vltava and prophesied: "I see a great city whose glory will touch the stars." She ordered a castle and a town called Praha to be built on the site.[15]
A 17th century Jewish chronicler David Solomon Ganz, citing Cyriacus Spangenberg, claimed that the city was founded as Boihaem in c. 1306 BC by an ancient king, Boyya.[18]
The region became the seat of the dukes, and later kings of Bohemia. Under Roman Emperor Otto II the area became a bishopric in 973. Until Prague was elevated to archbishopric in 1344, it was under the jurisdiction of the Archbishopric of Mainz.
Prague was an important seat for trading where merchants from all of Europe settled, including many Jews, as recalled in 965 by the Hispano-Jewish merchant and traveller Ibrahim ibn Ya'qub. The Old New Synagogue of 1270 still stands. Prague contained an important slave market.[23]
At the site of the ford in the Vltava river, King Vladislaus I had the first bridge built in 1170, the Judith Bridge (Juditin most), named in honour of his wife Judith of Thuringia. This bridge was destroyed by a flood in 1342. Some of the original foundation stones of that bridge remain.
In 1257, under King Ottokar II, Malá Strana ("Lesser Quarter") was founded in Prague on the site of an older village in what would become the Hradčany (Prague Castle) area. This was the district of the German people, who had the right to administer the law autonomously, pursuant to Magdeburg rights. The new district was on the bank opposite of the Staré Město ("Old Town"), which had borough status and was bordered by a line of walls and fortifications.
The era of Charles IV[edit]
Prague flourished during the 14th-century reign (1346–1378) of Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor and the king of Bohemia of the new Luxembourg dynasty. As King of Bohemia and Holy Roman Emperor, he transformed Prague into an imperial capital and it was at that time the third-largest city in Europe (after Rome and Constantinople).
He ordered the building of the New Town (Nové Město) adjacent to the Old Town and laid out the design himself. The Charles Bridge, replacing the Judith Bridge destroyed in the flood just prior to his reign, was erected to connect the east bank districts to the Malá Strana and castle area. On 9 July 1357 at 5:31 am, Charles IV personally laid the first foundation stone for the Charles Bridge. The exact time of laying the first foundation stone is known because the palindromic number 135797531 was carved into the Old Town bridge tower having been chosen by the royal astrologists and numerologists as the best time for starting the bridge construction.[24] In 1347, he founded Charles University, which remains the oldest university in Central Europe.
He began construction of the Gothic Saint Vitus Cathedral, within the largest of the Prague Castle courtyards, on the site of the Romanesque rotunda there. Prague was elevated to an archbishopric in 1344, the year the cathedral was begun.
The city had a mint and was a centre of trade for German and Italian bankers and merchants. The social order, however, became more turbulent due to the rising power of the craftsmen's guilds (themselves often torn by internal fights), and the increasing number of poor people.
The Hunger Wall, a substantial fortification wall south of Malá Strana and the Castle area, was built during a famine in the 1360s. The work is reputed to have been ordered by Charles IV as a means of providing employment and food to the workers and their families.
Charles IV died in 1378. During the reign of his son, King Wenceslaus IV (1378–1419), a period of intense turmoil ensued. During Easter 1389, members of the Prague clergy announced that Jews had desecrated the host (Eucharistic wafer) and the clergy encouraged mobs to pillage, ransack and burn the Jewish quarter. Nearly the entire Jewish population of Prague (3,000 people) perished.[25][26]
Jan Hus, a theologian and rector at the Charles University, preached in Prague. In 1402, he began giving sermons in the Bethlehem Chapel. Inspired by John Wycliffe, these sermons focused on what were seen as radical reforms of a corrupt Church. Having become too dangerous for the political and religious establishment, Hus was summoned to the Council of Constance, put on trial for heresy, and burned at the stake in Constanz in 1415.
Four years later Prague experienced its first defenestration, when the people rebelled under the command of the Prague priest Jan Želivský. Hus' death, coupled with Czech proto-nationalism and proto-Protestantism, had spurred the Hussite Wars. Peasant rebels, led by the general Jan Žižka, along with Hussite troops from Prague, defeated Emperor Sigismund, in the Battle of Vítkov Hill in 1420.
During the Hussite Wars when the City of Prague was attacked by "Crusader" and mercenary forces, the city militia fought bravely under the Prague Banner. This swallow-tailed banner is approximately 4 by 6 feet (1.2 by 1.8 metres), with a red field sprinkled with small white fleurs-de-lis, and a silver old Town Coat-of-Arms in the centre. The words "PÁN BŮH POMOC NAŠE" (The Lord is our Relief) appeared above the coat-of-arms, with a Hussite chalice centred on the top. Near the swallow-tails is a crescent shaped golden sun with rays protruding.
One of these banners was captured by Swedish troops in Battle of Prague (1648), when they captured the western bank of the Vltava river and were repulsed from the eastern bank, they placed it in the Royal Military Museum in Stockholm; although this flag still exists, it is in very poor condition. They also took the Codex Gigas and the Codex Argenteus. The earliest evidence indicates that a gonfalon with a municipal charge painted on it was used for Old Town as early as 1419. Since this city militia flag was in use before 1477 and during the Hussite Wars, it is the oldest still preserved municipal flag of Bohemia.
In the following two centuries, Prague strengthened its role as a merchant city. Many noteworthy Gothic buildings[28][29] were erected and Vladislav Hall of the Prague Castle was added.
Habsburg era[edit]
In 1526, the Bohemian estates elected Ferdinand I of the House of Habsburg. The fervent Catholicism of its members was to bring them into conflict in Bohemia, and then in Prague, where Protestant ideas were gaining popularity.[30] These problems were not pre-eminent under Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II, elected King of Bohemia in 1576, who chose Prague as his home. He lived in the Prague Castle, where his court welcomed not only astrologers and magicians but also scientists, musicians, and artists. Rudolf was an art lover too, and Prague became the capital of European culture. This was a prosperous period for the city: famous people living there in that age include the astronomers Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler, the painter Arcimboldo, the alchemists Edward Kelley and John Dee, the poet Elizabeth Jane Weston, and others.
In 1618, the famous second defenestration of Prague provoked the Thirty Years' War, a particularly harsh period for Prague and Bohemia. Ferdinand II of Habsburg was deposed, and his place as King of Bohemia taken by Frederick V, Elector Palatine; however his army was crushed in the Battle of White Mountain (1620) not far from the city. Following this in 1621 was an execution of 27 Czech leaders (involved in the uprising) in Old Town Square and the exiling of many others. The city suffered subsequently during the war under Saxon (1631) and Battle of Prague (1648).[31] Prague began a steady decline which reduced the population from the 60,000 it had had in the years before the war to 20,000. In the second half of the 17th century Prague's population began to grow again. Jews had been in Prague since the end of the 10th century and, by 1708, they accounted for about a quarter of Prague's population.[32]
In 1689, a great fire devastated Prague, but this spurred a renovation and a rebuilding of the city. In 1713–14, a major outbreak of plague hit Prague one last time, killing 12,000 to 13,000 people.[33]
In 1744 Frederick the Great of Prussia invaded Bohemia. He took Prague after a severe and prolonged siege in the course of which a large part of the town was destroyed.[34] In 1757 the Prussian Prussian bombardment[34] destroyed more than one quarter of the city and heavily damaged St. Vitus Cathedral. However a month later Frederick the Great was defeated and to retreat from Bohemia.
The economy of the city continued to improve during the 18th century. The population increased to 80,000 inhabitants by 1771. Many rich merchants and nobles enhanced the city with a host of palaces, churches and gardens full of art and music, creating a Baroque city renowned throughout the world to this day.
In 1784, under Joseph II, the four municipalities of Malá Strana, Nové Město, Staré Město, and Hradčany were merged into a single entity. The Jewish district, called Josefov, was included only in 1850. The Industrial Revolution had a strong effect in Prague, as factories could take advantage of the coal mines and ironworks of the nearby region. A first suburb, Karlín, was created in 1817, and twenty years later the population exceeded 100,000.
The revolutions in Europe in 1848 also touched Prague, but they were fiercely suppressed. In the following years the Czech National Revival began its rise, until it gained the majority in the town council in 1861. Prague had a German-speaking majority in 1848, but by 1880 the number of German speakers had decreased to 14% (42,000), and by 1910 to 6.7% (37,000), due to a massive increase of the city's overall population caused by the influx of Czechs from the rest of Bohemia and Moravia and also due to return of social status importance of the Czech language.
20th century[edit]
First Czechoslovak Republic[edit]
Main article: First Czechoslovak Republic
World War I ended with the defeat of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the creation of Czechoslovakia. Prague was chosen as its capital and Prague Castle as the seat of president Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk. At this time Prague was a true European capital with highly developed industry. By 1930, the population had risen to 850,000.
Second World War[edit]
Further information: German occupation of Czechoslovakia
Hitler ordered the German Army to enter Prague on 15 March 1939, and from Prague Castle proclaimed Bohemia and Moravia a German protectorate. For most of its history, Prague had been a multi-ethnic city with important Czech, German and (mostly native German-speaking) Jewish populations.[citation needed] From 1939, when the country was occupied by Nazi Germany, and during the Second World War, most Jews were deported and killed by the Germans. In 1942, Prague was witness to the assassination of one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany – Reinhard Heydrich – during Operation Anthropoid, accomplished by Czechoslovak national heroes Jozef Gabčík and Jan Kubiš. Hitler ordered bloody reprisals.
At the end of the war, Prague suffered several bombing raids by the US Army Air Forces. 701 people were killed, more than 1,000 people were injured and some of buildings, factories and historical landmarks (Emmaus Monastery, Faust House, Vinohrady Synagogue) were destroyed.[35] Many historic structures in Prague, however, escaped the destruction of the war and the damage was small compared to the total destruction of many other cities in that time. According to American pilots, it was the result of a navigational mistake.
On 5 May 1945, two days before Germany capitulated, an uprising against Germany occurred. Four days later, the 3rd Shock Army of the Red Army took the city, with fierce fighting until 11th May 1945. The majority (about 50,000 people) of the German population of Prague either fled or were expelled by the Beneš decrees in the aftermath of the war.
Cold War[edit]
Main article: History of Czechoslovakia (1948–89)
Prague was a city in the territory of military and political control of the Soviet Union (see Iron Curtain). The biggest Stalin Monument was unveiled on Letná hill in 1955 and destroyed in 1962. The 4th Czechoslovakian Writers' Congress held in the city in June 1967 took a strong position against the regime.[36] On 31 October 1967 students demonstrated at Strahov. This spurred the new secretary of the Communist Party, Alexander Dubček, to proclaim a new deal in his city's and country's life, starting the short-lived season of the "socialism with a human face". It was the Prague Spring, which aimed at the renovation of institutions in a democratic way. The other Warsaw Pact member countries, except Romania and Albania, reacted with the invasion of Czechoslovakia and the capital on 21 August 1968 by tanks, suppressing any attempt at reform. Jan Palach and Jan Zajíc committed suicide by self-immolation in January and February 1969 to protest against the "normalization" of the country.
After Velvet Revolution[edit]
In 1989, after the riot police beat back a peaceful student demonstration, the Velvet Revolution crowded the streets of Prague, and the Czechoslovak capital benefited greatly from the new mood. In 1993, after the split of Czechoslovakia, Prague became the capital city of the new Czech Republic. From 1995 high-rise buildings began to be built in Prague in large quantities. In the late 1990s, Prague again became an important cultural centre of Europe and was notably influenced by globalisation[clarification needed]. In 2000, IMF and World Bank summits took place in Prague. In 2002, Prague suffered from widespread floods that damaged buildings and its underground transport system.
Prague launched a bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics,[37] but failed to make the candidate city shortlist. In June 2009, as the result of financial pressures from the global recession, Prague's officials also chose to cancel the city's planned bid for the 2020 Summer Olympics.[38]
Name[edit]
See also: Names in different languages
The Czech name Praha is derived from an old Slavic word, práh, which means "ford" or "rapid", referring to the city's origin at a crossing point of the Vltava river.[39] The same etymology is associated with the Praga district of Warsaw.[40]
Another view to the origin of name is also related to the Czech word práh (in the mean of a threshold) and a legendary etymology connects the name of the city with princess Libuše, prophetess and a wife of mythical founder of the Přemyslid dynasty. She is said to have ordered the city "to be built where a man hews a threshold of his house". The Czech práh might thus be understood to refer to rapids or fords in the river, the edge of which could have acted as a means of fording the river – thus providing a "threshold" to the castle.
Another derivation of the name Praha is suggested from na prazě, the original term for the shale hillside rock upon which the original castle was built. At that time, the castle was surrounded by forests, covering the nine hills of the future city – the Old Town on the opposite side of the river, as well as the Lesser Town beneath the existing castle, appeared only later.[41]
The English spelling of the city's name is borrowed from French. Prague is also called the "City of a Hundred Spires", based on a count by 19th century mathematician Bernard Bolzano, today's count is estimated by Prague Information Service at 500.[42] Nicknames for Prague have also included: the Golden City, the Mother of Cities and the Heart of Europe.[43]
Geography[edit]
Prague is situated on the Vltava river, at 50°05"N and 14°27"E.[44] in the centre of the Bohemian Basin. Prague is approximately at the same latitude as Frankfurt, Germany;[45] Paris, France;[46] and Vancouver, Canada.[47]
Climate[edit]
Prague has a humid continental climate (Köppen Dfb). The winters are relatively cold with average temperatures at about freezing point, and with very little sunshine. Snow cover can be common between mid-November and late March although snow accumulations of more than 20 cm (8 in) are infrequent. There are also a few periods of mild temperatures in winter. Summers usually bring plenty of sunshine and the average high temperature of 24 °C (75 °F). Nights can be quite cool even in summer, though. Precipitation in Prague (and most of the Bohemian lowland) is rather low (just over 500 mm [20 in] per year) since it is located in the rain shadow of the Sudetes and other mountain ranges. The driest season is usually winter while late spring and summer can bring quite heavy rain, especially in form of thundershowers. Temperature inversions are relatively common between mid-October and mid-March bringing foggy, cold days and sometimes moderate air pollution. Prague is also a windy city with common sustained western winds and an average wind speed of 16 km/h (9.9 mph) that often help break temperature inversions and clear the air in cold months.
Culture[edit]
Historic Centre of Prague
Includes
Historic Centre of Prague and Průhonice Park
Criteria
Cultural: ii, iv, vi
Reference
616
Inscription
1992 (16th Session)
Area
1,106.36 ha
Buffer zone
9,887.09 ha
Prague Congress Centre has hosted the IMF-WBG meeting and NATO summit
The city is traditionally one of the cultural centres of Europe, hosting many cultural events. Some of the significant cultural institutions include the National Theatre (Národní Divadlo) and the Estates Theatre (Stavovské or Tylovo or Nosticovo divadlo), where the premières of Mozart's Don Giovanni and La clemenza di Tito were held. Other major cultural institutions are the Rudolfinum which is home to the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and the Municipal House which is home to the Prague Symphony Orchestra. The Prague State Opera (Státní opera) performs at the Smetana Theatre.
The city has many world-class museums, including the National Museum (Národní muzeum), the Museum of the Capital City of Prague, the Jewish Museum in Prague, the Alfons Mucha Museum, the African-Prague Museum, the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague, the Náprstek Museum (Náprstkovo Muzeum), the Josef Sudek Gallery and The Josef Sudek Studio, the National Library and the National Gallery, which manages the largest collection of art in the Czech Republic.
There are hundreds of concert halls, galleries, cinemas and music clubs in the city. It hosts music festivals including the Prague Spring International Music Festival, the Prague Autumn International Music Festival, the Prague International Organ Festival and the Prague International Jazz Festival. Film festivals include the Febiofest, the One World Film Festival and Echoes of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. The city also hosts the Prague Writers' Festival, the Prague Folklore Days, Prague Advent Choral Meeting the Summer Shakespeare Festival,[55] the Prague Fringe Festival, the World Roma Festival, as well as the hundreds of Vernissages and fashion shows.
Many films have been made at Barrandov Studios and at Prague Studios. Hollywood films set in Prague include Mission Impossible, xXx, Blade II, Alien vs. Predator, Doom, Chronicles of Narnia, Hellboy, Red Tails, Children of Dune and Van Helsing.[56] Other Czech films shot in Prague include Empties, EuroTrip, Amadeus and The Fifth Horseman is Fear. Also, the romantic music video "Never Tear Us Apart" by INXS, "Diamonds from Sierra Leone" by Kanye West was shot in the city, and features shots of the Charles Bridge and the Astronomical Clock, among other famous landmarks. Rihanna's "Don't Stop the Music" video was filmed at Prague's Radost FX Club. The city was also the setting for the film Dungeons and Dragons in 2000. The music video "Silver and Cold" by AFI, an American rock band, was also filmed in Prague. Many Indian films have also been filmed in the city including Yuvraaj, Drona and Rockstar. Early 2000's europop hit "Something" by "Lasgo" was filmed at the central train station in Prague.
With the growth of low-cost airlines in Europe, Prague has become a popular weekend city destination allowing tourists to visit its many museums and cultural sites as well as try its famous Czech beers and hearty cuisine.
The city has many buildings by renowned architects, including Adolf Loos (Villa Müller), Frank O. Gehry (Dancing House) and Jean Nouvel (Golden Angel).
Recent major events held in Prague:
•International Monetary Fund and World Bank Summit 2000
•NATO Summit 2002
•International Olympic Committee Session 2004
•IAU General Assembly 2006 (Definition of planet)
•EU & USA Summit 2009
•Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union 2009
•USA & Russia Summit 2010 (signing of the New START treaty)
Cuisine[edit]
In 2008 the Allegro restaurant received the first Michelin star in the whole of the post-Communist part of Central Europe. It retained its star until 2011. As of 2016 there are three Michelin-starred restaurants in Prague: Alcron, La Degustation, Bohême Bourgeoise, and Field.
In Malá Strana, Staré Město, Žižkov and Nusle there are hundreds of restaurants, bars and pubs, especially with Czech beer. Prague also hosts the Czech Beer Festival (Český pivní festival), which is the largest beer festival in the Czech Republic, held for 17 days every year in May. At the festival, more than 70 brands of Czech beer can be tasted.
Prague is home to many breweries including:
•Pivovary Staropramen (Praha 5)
•První novoměstský restaurační pivovar (Praha 1)
•Pivovar U Fleků (Praha 1)
•Klášterní pivovar Strahov (Praha 1)
•Pivovar Pražský most u Valšů (Praha 1)
•Pivovarský Hotel U Medvídků (Praha 1)
•Pivovarský dům (Praha 2)
•Jihoměstský pivovar (Praha 4)
•Sousedský pivovar U Bansethů (Praha 4)
•Vyukový a výzkumný pivovar – Suchdolský Jeník (Praha 6)
•Pivovar U Bulovky (Praha 8)
Economy[edit]
Prague's economy accounts for 25% of the Czech GDP[57] making it the highest performing regional economy of the country. According to the Eurostat, as of 2007, its GDP per capita in purchasing power standard is €42,800. Prague ranked the 5th best-performing European NUTS two-level region at 172 percent of the EU-27 average.[58]
The city is the site of the European headquarters of many international companies.[citation needed]
Prague employs almost a fifth of the entire Czech workforce, and its wages are significantly above average (~+25%). In December 2015, average salaries available in Prague reached 35,853 CZK, an annual increase of 3.4%, which was nevertheless lower than national increase of 3.9% both in nominal and real terms. (Inflation in Prague was 0.5% in December, compared with 0.1% nationally.)[58][59] Since 1990, the city's economic structure has shifted from industrial to service-oriented. Industry is present in sectors such as pharmaceuticals, printing, food processing, manufacture of transport equipment, computer technology and electrical engineering. In the service sector, financial and commercial services, trade, restaurants, hospitality and public administration are the most significant. Services account for around 80 percent of employment. There are 800,000 employees in Prague, including 120,000 commuters.[57] The number of (legally registered) foreign residents in Prague has been increasing in spite of the country's economic downturn. As of March 2010, 148,035 foreign workers were reported to be living in the city making up about 18 percent of the workforce, up from 131,132 in 2008.[60] Approximately one-fifth of all investment in the Czech Republic takes place in the city.
Almost one-half of the national income from tourism is spent in Prague. The city offers approximately 73,000 beds in accommodation facilities, most of which were built after 1990, including almost 51,000 beds in hotels and boarding houses.
From the late 1990s to late 2000s, the city was a popular filming location for international productions such as Hollywood and Bollywood motion pictures. A combination of architecture, low costs and the existing motion picture infrastructure have proven attractive to international film production companies.
The modern economy of Prague is largely service and export-based and, in a 2010 survey, the city was named the best city in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) for business.[61]
In 2005, Prague was deemed among the three best cities in Central and Eastern Europe according to The Economist's livability rankings.[62] The city was named as a top-tier nexus city for innovation across multiple sectors of the global innovation economy, placing 29th globally out of 289 cities, ahead of Brussels and Helsinki for innovation in 2010 in 2thinknow annual analysts Innovation Cities Index.[63] Na příkopě in New Town is the most expensive street in the whole of Central Europe.[64]
In the Eurostat research, Prague ranked fifth among Europe's 271 regions in terms of gross domestic product per inhabitant, achieving 172 percent of the EU average. It ranked just above Paris and well above the country as a whole, which achieved 80 percent of the EU average.[65][66]
Companies with highest turnover in the region in 2014:[67]
Name
Turnover, mld. Kč
ČEZ
200.8
Agrofert
166.8
RWE Supply & Trading CZ
146.1
Prague is also the site of some of the most important offices and institutions of the Czech Republic.
•President of the Czech Republic
•The Government and both houses of Parliament
•Ministries and other national offices (Industrial Property Office, Czech Statistical Office, National Security Authority etc.)
•Czech National Bank
•Czech Television and other major broadcasters
•Radio Free Europe – Radio Liberty
•Galileo global navigation project
•Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic
Three graphite pencils with red coatings leaning on a stack of thick hardcover encyclopedias. The writing instruments are casting parallel shadows on the books while appearing against a blue background.
Ipê Amarelo, Tabebuia [chrysotricha or ochracea].
Ipê-amarelo em Brasília (UnB), Brasil.
This tree is in Brasília, Capital of Brazil.
Text, in english, from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Trumpet tree" redirects here. This term is occasionally used for the Shield-leaved Pumpwood (Cecropia peltata).
Tabebuia
Flowering Araguaney or ipê-amarelo (Tabebuia chrysantha) in central Brazil
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Eudicots
(unranked): Asterids
Order: Lamiales
Family: Bignoniaceae
Tribe: Tecomeae
Genus: Tabebuia
Gomez
Species
Nearly 100.
Tabebuia is a neotropical genus of about 100 species in the tribe Tecomeae of the family Bignoniaceae. The species range from northern Mexico and the Antilles south to northern Argentina and central Venezuela, including the Caribbean islands of Hispaniola (Dominican Republic and Haiti) and Cuba. Well-known common names include Ipê, Poui, trumpet trees and pau d'arco.
They are large shrubs and trees growing to 5 to 50 m (16 to 160 ft.) tall depending on the species; many species are dry-season deciduous but some are evergreen. The leaves are opposite pairs, complex or palmately compound with 3–7 leaflets.
Tabebuia is a notable flowering tree. The flowers are 3 to 11 cm (1 to 4 in.) wide and are produced in dense clusters. They present a cupular calyx campanulate to tubular, truncate, bilabiate or 5-lobed. Corolla colors vary between species ranging from white, light pink, yellow, lavender, magenta, or red. The outside texture of the flower tube is either glabrous or pubescentThe fruit is a dehiscent pod, 10 to 50 cm (4 to 20 in.) long, containing numerous—in some species winged—seeds. These pods often remain on the tree through dry season until the beginning of the rainy.
Species in this genus are important as timber trees. The wood is used for furniture, decking, and other outdoor uses. It is increasingly popular as a decking material due to its insect resistance and durability. By 2007, FSC-certified ipê wood had become readily available on the market, although certificates are occasionally forged.
Tabebuia is widely used as ornamental tree in the tropics in landscaping gardens, public squares, and boulevards due to its impressive and colorful flowering. Many flowers appear on still leafless stems at the end of the dry season, making the floral display more conspicuous. They are useful as honey plants for bees, and are popular with certain hummingbirds. Naturalist Madhaviah Krishnan on the other hand once famously took offense at ipé grown in India, where it is not native.
Lapacho teaThe bark of several species has medical properties. The bark is dried, shredded, and then boiled making a bitter or sour-tasting brownish-colored tea. Tea from the inner bark of Pink Ipê (T. impetiginosa) is known as Lapacho or Taheebo. Its main active principles are lapachol, quercetin, and other flavonoids. It is also available in pill form. The herbal remedy is typically used during flu and cold season and for easing smoker's cough. It apparently works as expectorant, by promoting the lungs to cough up and free deeply embedded mucus and contaminants. However, lapachol is rather toxic and therefore a more topical use e.g. as antibiotic or pesticide may be advisable. Other species with significant folk medical use are T. alba and Yellow Lapacho (T. serratifolia)
Tabebuia heteropoda, T. incana, and other species are occasionally used as an additive to the entheogenic drink Ayahuasca.
Mycosphaerella tabebuiae, a plant pathogenic sac fungus, was first discovered on an ipê tree.
Tabebuia alba
Tabebuia anafensis
Tabebuia arimaoensis
Tabebuia aurea – Caribbean Trumpet Tree
Tabebuia bilbergii
Tabebuia bibracteolata
Tabebuia cassinoides
Tabebuia chrysantha – Araguaney, Yellow Ipê, tajibo (Bolivia), ipê-amarelo (Brazil), cañaguate (N Colombia)
Tabebuia chrysotricha – Golden Trumpet Tree
Tabebuia donnell-smithii Rose – Gold Tree, "Prima Vera", Cortez blanco (El Salvador), San Juan (Honduras), palo blanco (Guatemala),duranga (Mexico)
A native of Mexico and Central Americas, considered one of the most colorful of all Central American trees. The leaves are deciduous. Masses of golden-yellow flowers cover the crown after the leaves are shed.
Tabebuia dubia
Tabebuia ecuadorensis
Tabebuia elongata
Tabebuia furfuracea
Tabebuia geminiflora Rizz. & Mattos
Tabebuia guayacan (Seem.) Hemsl.
Tabebuia haemantha
Tabebuia heptaphylla (Vell.) Toledo – tajy
Tabebuia heterophylla – roble prieto
Tabebuia heteropoda
Tabebuia hypoleuca
Tabebuia impetiginosa – Pink Ipê, Pink Lapacho, ipê-cavatã, ipê-comum, ipê-reto, ipê-rosa, ipê-roxo-damata, pau d'arco-roxo, peúva, piúva (Brazil), lapacho negro (Spanish); not "brazilwood"
Tabebuia incana
Tabebuia jackiana
Tabebuia lapacho – lapacho amarillo
Tabebuia orinocensis A.H. Gentry[verification needed]
Tabebuia ochracea
Tabebuia oligolepis
Tabebuia pallida – Cuban Pink Trumpet Tree
Tabebuia platyantha
Tabebuia polymorpha
Tabebuia rosea (Bertol.) DC.[verification needed] (= T. pentaphylla (L.) Hemsley) – Pink Poui, Pink Tecoma, apama, apamate, matilisguate
A popular street tree in tropical cities because of its multi-annular masses of light pink to purple flowers and modest size. The roots are not especially destructive for roads and sidewalks. It is the national tree of El Salvador and the state tree of Cojedes, Venezuela
Tabebuia roseo-alba – White Ipê, ipê-branco (Brazil), lapacho blanco
Tabebuia serratifolia – Yellow Lapacho, Yellow Poui, ipê-roxo (Brazil)
Tabebuia shaferi
Tabebuia striata
Tabebuia subtilis Sprague & Sandwith
Tabebuia umbellata
Tabebuia vellosoi Toledo
Ipê-do-cerrado
Texto, em português, da Wikipédia, a enciclopédia livre.
Ipê-do-cerrado
Classificação científica
Reino: Plantae
Divisão: Magnoliophyta
Classe: Magnoliopsida
Subclasse: Asteridae
Ordem: Lamiales
Família: Bignoniaceae
Género: Tabebuia
Espécie: T. ochracea
Nome binomial
Tabebuia ochracea
(Cham.) Standl. 1832
Sinónimos
Bignonia tomentosa Pav. ex DC.
Handroanthus ochraceus (Cham.) Mattos
Tabebuia chrysantha (Jacq.) G. Nicholson
Tabebuia hypodictyon A. DC.) Standl.
Tabebuia neochrysantha A.H. Gentry
Tabebuia ochracea subsp. heteropoda (A. DC.) A.H. Gentry
Tabebuia ochracea subsp. neochrysantha (A.H. Gentry) A.H. Gentry
Tecoma campinae Kraenzl.
ecoma grandiceps Kraenzl.
Tecoma hassleri Sprague
Tecoma hemmendorffiana Kraenzl.
Tecoma heteropoda A. DC.
Tecoma hypodictyon A. DC.
Tecoma ochracea Cham.
Ipê-do-cerrado é um dos nomes populares da Tabebuia ochracea (Cham.) Standl. 1832, nativa do cerrado brasileiro, no estados de Amazonas, Pará, Maranhão, Piauí, Ceará, Pernambuco, Bahia, Espírito Santo, Goiás, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo e Paraná.
Está na lista de espécies ameaçadas do estado de São Paulo, onde é encontrda também no domínio da Mata Atlântica[1].
Ocorre também na Argentina, Paraguai, Bolívia, Equador, Peru, Venezuela, Guiana, El Salvador, Guatemala e Panamá[2].
Há uma espécie homônima descrita por A.H. Gentry em 1992.
Outros nomes populares: ipê-amarelo, ipê-cascudo, ipê-do-campo, ipê-pardo, pau-d'arco-do-campo, piúva, tarumã.
Características
Altura de 6 a 14 m. Tronco tortuso com até 50 cm de diâmetro. Folhas pilosas em ambas as faces, mais na inferior, que é mais clara.
Planta decídua, heliófita, xerófita, nativa do cerrado em solos bem drenados.
Floresce de julho a setembro. Os frutos amadurecem de setembro a outubro.
FloresProduz grande quantidade de sementes leves, aladas com pequenas reservas, e que perdem a viabilidade em menos de 90 dias após coleta. A sua conservação vem sendo estudada em termos de determinação da condição ideal de armazenamento, e tem demonstrado a importância de se conhecer o comportamento da espécie quando armazenada com diferentes teores de umidade inicial, e a umidade de equilíbrio crítica para a espécie (KANO; MÁRQUEZ & KAGEYAMA, 1978). As levíssimas sementes aladas da espécie não necessitam de quebra de dormência. Podem apenas ser expostas ao sol por cerca de 6 horas e semeadas diretamente nos saquinhos. A germinação ocorre após 30 dias e de 80%. As sementes são ortodoxas e há aproximadamente 72 000 sementes em cada quilo.
O desenvolvimento da planta é rápido.
Como outros ipês, a madeira é usada em tacos, assoalhos, e em dormentes e postes. Presta-se também para peças torneadas e instrumento musicais.
Tabebuia alba (Ipê-Amarelo)
Texto, em português, produzido pela Acadêmica Giovana Beatriz Theodoro Marto
Supervisão e orientação do Prof. Luiz Ernesto George Barrichelo e do Eng. Paulo Henrique Müller
Atualizado em 10/07/2006
O ipê amarelo é a árvore brasileira mais conhecida, a mais cultivada e, sem dúvida nenhuma, a mais bela. É na verdade um complexo de nove ou dez espécies com características mais ou menos semelhantes, com flores brancas, amarelas ou roxas. Não há região do país onde não exista pelo menos uma espécie dele, porém a existência do ipê em habitat natural nos dias atuais é rara entre a maioria das espécies (LORENZI,2000).
A espécie Tabebuia alba, nativa do Brasil, é uma das espécies do gênero Tabebuia que possui “Ipê Amarelo” como nome popular. O nome alba provém de albus (branco em latim) e é devido ao tomento branco dos ramos e folhas novas.
As árvores desta espécie proporcionam um belo espetáculo com sua bela floração na arborização de ruas em algumas cidades brasileiras. São lindas árvores que embelezam e promovem um colorido no final do inverno. Existe uma crença popular de que quando o ipê-amarelo floresce não vão ocorrer mais geadas. Infelizmente, a espécie é considerada vulnerável quanto à ameaça de extinção.
A Tabebuia alba, natural do semi-árido alagoano está adaptada a todas as regiões fisiográficas, levando o governo, por meio do Decreto nº 6239, a transformar a espécie como a árvore símbolo do estado, estando, pois sob a sua tutela, não mais podendo ser suprimida de seus habitats naturais.
Taxonomia
Família: Bignoniaceae
Espécie: Tabebuia Alba (Chamiso) Sandwith
Sinonímia botânica: Handroanthus albus (Chamiso) Mattos; Tecoma alba Chamisso
Outros nomes vulgares: ipê-amarelo, ipê, aipê, ipê-branco, ipê-mamono, ipê-mandioca, ipê-ouro, ipê-pardo, ipê-vacariano, ipê-tabaco, ipê-do-cerrado, ipê-dourado, ipê-da-serra, ipezeiro, pau-d’arco-amarelo, taipoca.
Aspectos Ecológicos
O ipê-amarelo é uma espécie heliófita (Planta adaptada ao crescimento em ambiente aberto ou exposto à luz direta) e decídua (que perde as folhas em determinada época do ano). Pertence ao grupo das espécies secundárias iniciais (DURIGAN & NOGUEIRA, 1990).
Abrange a Floresta Pluvial da Mata Atlântica e da Floresta Latifoliada Semidecídua, ocorrendo principalmente no interior da Floresta Primária Densa. É característica de sub-bosques dos pinhais, onde há regeneração regular.
Informações Botânicas
Morfologia
As árvores de Tabebuia alba possuem cerca de 30 metros de altura. O tronco é reto ou levemente tortuoso, com fuste de 5 a 8 m de altura. A casca externa é grisáceo-grossa, possuindo fissuras longitudinais esparas e profundas. A coloração desta é cinza-rosa intenso, com camadas fibrosas, muito resistentes e finas, porém bem distintas.
Com ramos grossos, tortuosos e compridos, o ipê-amarelo possui copa alongada e alargada na base. As raízes de sustentação e absorção são vigorosas e profundas.
As folhas, deciduais, são opostas, digitadas e compostas. A face superior destas folhas é verde-escura, e, a face inferior, acinzentada, sendo ambas as faces tomentosas. Os pecíolos das folhas medem de 2,5 a 10 cm de comprimento. Os folíolos, geralmente, apresentam-se em número de 5 a 7, possuindo de 7 a 18 cm de comprimento por 2 a 6 cm de largura. Quando jovem estes folíolos são densamente pilosos em ambas as faces. O ápice destes é pontiagudo, com base arredondada e margem serreada.
As flores, grandes e lanceoladas, são de coloração amarelo-ouro. Possuem em média 8X15 cm.
Quanto aos frutos, estes possuem forma de cápsula bivalvar e são secos e deiscentes. Do tipo síliqua, lembram uma vagem. Medem de 15 a 30 cm de comprimento por 1,5 a 2,5 cm de largura. As valvas são finamente tomentosas com pêlos ramificados. Possuem grande quantidade de sementes.
As sementes são membranáceas brilhantes e esbranquiçadas, de coloração marrom. Possuem de 2 a 3 cm de comprimento por 7 a 9 mm de largura e são aladas.
Reprodução
A espécie é caducifólia e a queda das folhas coincide com o período de floração. A floração inicia-se no final de agosto, podendo ocorrer alguma variação devido a fenômenos climáticos. Como a espécie floresce no final do inverno é influenciada pela intensidade do mesmo. Quanto mais frio e seco for o inverno, maior será a intensidade da florada do ipê amarelo.
As flores por sua exuberância, atraem abelhas e pássaros, principalmente beija-flores que são importantes agentes polinizadores. Segundo CARVALHO (2003), a espécie possui como vetor de polinização a abelha mamangava (Bombus morio).
As sementes são dispersas pelo vento.
A planta é hermafrodita, e frutifica nos meses de setembro, outubro, novembro, dezembro, janeiro e fevereiro, dependendo da sua localização. Em cultivo, a espécie inicia o processo reprodutivo após o terceiro ano.
Ocorrência Natural
Ocorre naturalmente na Floresta Estaciobal Semidecicual, Floresta de Araucária e no Cerrado.
Segundo o IBGE, a Tabebuia alba (Cham.) Sandw. é uma árvore do Cerrado, Cerradão e Mata Seca. Apresentando-se nos campos secos (savana gramíneo-lenhosa), próximo às escarpas.
Clima
Segundo a classificação de Köppen, o ipê-amarelo abrange locais de clima tropical (Aw), subtropical úmido (Cfa), sutropical de altitude (Cwa e Cwb) e temperado.
A T.alba pode tolerar até 81 geadas em um ano. Ocorre em locais onde a temperatura média anual varia de 14,4ºC como mínimo e 22,4ºC como máximo.
Solo
A espécie prefere solos úmidos, com drenagem lenta e geralmente não muito ondulados (LONGHI, 1995).
Aparece em terras de boa à média fertilidade, em solos profundos ou rasos, nas matas e raramente cerradões (NOGUEIRA, 1977).
Pragas e Doenças
De acordo com CARVALHO (2003), possui como praga a espécie de coleópteros Cydianerus bohemani da família Curculionoideae e um outro coleóptero da família Chrysomellidae. Apesar da constatação de elevados índices populacionais do primeiro, os danos ocasionados até o momento são leves. Nas praças e ruas de Curitiba - PR, 31% das árvores foram atacadas pela Cochonilha Ceroplastes grandis.
ZIDKO (2002), ao estudar no município de Piracicaba a associação de coleópteros em espécies arbóreas, verificou a presença de insetos adultos da espécie Sitophilus linearis da família de coleópteros, Curculionidae, em estruturas reprodutivas. Os insetos adultos da espécie emergiram das vagens do ipê, danificando as sementes desta espécie nativa.
ANDRADE (1928) assinalou diversas espécies de Cerambycidae atacando essências florestais vivas, como ingazeiro, cinamomo, cangerana, cedro, caixeta, jacarandá, araribá, jatobá, entre outras como o ipê amarelo.
A Madeira
A Tabebuia alba produz madeira de grande durabilidade e resistência ao apodrecimento (LONGHI,1995).
MANIERI (1970) caracteriza o cerne desta espécie como de cor pardo-havana-claro, pardo-havan-escuro, ou pardo-acastanhado, com reflexos esverdeados. A superfície da madeira é irregularmente lustrosa, lisa ao tato, possuindo textura media e grã-direita.
Com densidade entre 0,90 e 1,15 grama por centímetro cúbico, a madeira é muito dura (LORENZI, 1992), apresentando grande dificuldade ao serrar.
A madeira possui cheiro e gosto distintos. Segundo LORENZI (1992), o cheiro característico é devido à presença da substância lapachol, ou ipeína.
Usos da Madeira
Sendo pesada, com cerne escuro, adquire grande valor comercial na marcenaria e carpintaria. Também é utilizada para fabricação de dormentes, moirões, pontes, postes, eixos de roda, varais de carroça, moendas de cana, etc.
Produtos Não-Madeireiros
A entrecasca do ipê-amarelo possui propriedades terapêuticas como adstringente, usada no tratamento de garganta e estomatites. É também usada como diurético.
O ipê-amarelo possui flores melíferas e que maduras podem ser utilizadas na alimentação humana.
Outros Usos
É comumente utilizada em paisagismo de parques e jardins pela beleza e porte. Além disso, é muito utilizada na arborização urbana.
Segundo MOREIRA & SOUZA (1987), o ipê-amarelo costuma povoar as beiras dos rios sendo, portanto, indicado para recomposição de matas ciliares. MARTINS (1986), também cita a espécie para recomposição de matas ciliares da Floresta Estacional Semidecidual, abrangendo alguns municípios das regiões Norte, Noroeste e parte do Oeste do Estado do Paraná.
Aspectos Silviculturais
Possui a tendência a crescer reto e sem bifurcações quando plantado em reflorestamento misto, pois é espécie monopodial. A desrrama se faz muito bem e a cicatrização é boa. Sendo assim, dificilmente encopa quando nova, a não ser que seja plantado em parques e jardins.
Ao ser utilizada em arborização urbana, o ipê amarelo requer podas de condução com freqüência mediana.
Espécie heliófila apresenta a pleno sol ramificação cimosa, registrando-se assim dicotomia para gema apical. Deve ser preconizada, para seu melhor aproveitamento madeireiro, podas de formação usuais (INQUE et al., 1983).
Produção de Mudas
A propagação deve realizada através de enxertia.
Os frutos devem ser coletados antes da dispersão, para evitar a perda de sementes. Após a coleta as sementes são postas em ambiente ventilado e a extração é feita manualmente. As sementes do ipê amarelo são ortodoxas, mantendo a viabilidade natural por até 3 meses em sala e por até 9 meses em vidro fechado, em câmara fria.
A condução das mudas deve ser feita a pleno sol. A muda atinge cerca de 30 cm em 9 meses, apresentando tolerância ao sol 3 semanas após a germinação.
Sementes
Os ipês, espécies do gênero Tabebuia, produzem uma grande quantidade de sementes leves, aladas com pequenas reservas, e que perdem a viabilidade em poucos dias após a sua coleta. A sua conservação vem sendo estudada em termos de determinação da condição ideal de armazenamento, e tem demonstrado a importância de se conhecer o comportamento da espécie quando armazenada com diferentes teores de umidade inicial, e a umidade de equilíbrio crítica para a espécie (KANO; MÁRQUEZ & KAGEYAMA, 1978).
As levíssimas sementes aladas da espécie não necessitam de quebra de dormência. Podem apenas ser expostas ao sol por cerca de 6 horas e semeadas diretamente nos saquinhos. A quebra natural leva cerca de 3 meses e a quebra na câmara leva 9 meses. A germinação ocorre após 30 dias e de 80%.
As sementes são ortodoxas e há aproximadamente 87000 sementes em cada quilo.
Preço da Madeira no Mercado
O preço médio do metro cúbico de pranchas de ipê no Estado do Pará cotado em Julho e Agosto de 2005 foi de R$1.200,00 o preço mínimo, R$ 1509,35 o médio e R$ 2.000,00 o preço máximo (CEPEA,2005).
Chambers’s Encyclopaedia - a Dictionary of Universal Knowledge for the People. (1868).
Illustrated with Maps and numerous Wood Engravings..
Published by W. And R. Chambers, London. Half leather bound, 10 Vols total 8400 pages, 18cm x 26cm.
The new LEGO Character Encyclopedia is here and it has Mr. Gold in it!
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Presents Encyclopedia of Jazz on records . Vol. 3 The Forties and Vol. 4 The Fifties
Artie Shaw And His Orchestra–
I Get A Kick Out Of You
Arranged By – Gene Roland Soloist [Clarinet] – Artie Shaw Soloist [Guitar] – Jimmy Raney Soloist [Tenor Saxophone] – Al Cohn Written-By – Porter
Stan Kenton And His Orchestra–
Gambler's Blues
Alto Saxophone – Ted Romersa Baritone Saxophone – Bob Gioga Bass – Howard Rumsey Drums – Marvin George Guitar – Al Costi Piano – Ted Repay Soloist [Alto Saxophone] – Jack Ordean Soloist [Trumpet] – Chico Alvarez* Tenor Saxophone – Claude Lakey, Red Dorris Trombone – Dick Cole, Harry Forbes, Lorin Aaron Trumpet – Earl Collier, Frank Beach Written-By – Stan Kenton
King Cole Trio–
Honeysuckle Rose
Bass – Wesley Prince Guitar – Oscar Moore Piano – Nat King Cole Written-By – Razaf, Waller
Coleman Hawkins And His Orchestra–
How Deep Is The Ocean
Bass – Oscar Pettiford Clarinet – Andy Fitzgerald Drums – Shelly Manne Piano – Ellis Larkins Tenor Saxophone – Coleman Hawkins Trumpet – Bill Coleman (2) Written-By – I. Berlin
Jay McShann And His Orchestra–
Sepian Bounce
Alto Saxophone – Charlie Parker, John Jackson (7) Arranged By – Skipper Hall Baritone Saxophone – James Coe Bass – Gene Ramey Drums – Harold West Guitar – Leonard Enois Piano, Written-By – Jay McShann Tenor Saxophone – Bob Mabane, Freddy Culliver Trombone – Joe Baird, Lawrence "Frog" Anderson Trumpet – Bernard Anderson, Bob Merrill (2), Orville Minor
Roy Eldridge And His Orchestra–
The Gasser
Alto Saxophone – Andrew "Goon" Gardner, Joe Eldridge Bass – Ted Sturgis Drums – Harold "Doc" West Piano – Rozelle Gayle Tenor Saxophone – Ike Quebec, Tom Archia Trumpet, Written-By – Roy Eldridge
Art Tatum And His Band With Joe Turner* –
Wee Baby Blues
Bass – Billy Taylor Clarinet – Edmond Hall Drums – Eddie Dougherty Guitar – Johnny Collins Piano – Art Tatum Trumpet – Joe Thomas (4) Vocals, Written-By – Big Joe Turner
Billie Holiday with Toots Camarata And His Orchestra–
Lover Man
Bass – Haig Stephens Drums – Johnny Blowers Guitar – Carl Kress Piano – Dave Bowman Saxophone – Hymie Schertzer, Jack Cressey, Larry Binyon, Paul Ricci Trumpet – Russ Case, Toots Camarata Vocals – Billie Holiday Written-By – Davis, Sherman*, Ramirez
Eddie Condon And His Orchestra –
Somebody Loves Me
Baritone Saxophone – Ernie Caceres Bass – Bob Haggart Clarinet – Pee Wee Russell Drums – George Wettling Guitar – Eddie Condon Piano – Gene Schroeder Trombone, Vocals – Jack Teagarden Trumpet – Billy Butterfield, Bobby Hackett, Max Kaminsky Written-By – B. McDonald, B. G. Desylva, G. Gershwin*
Eddie Heywood And His Orchestra–
How High The Moon
Bass – John Simmons Clarinet – Aaron Sachs Drums – Shelly Manne Piano – Eddie Heywood Tenor Saxophone – Don Byas Violin, Trumpet – Ray Nance Written-By – Lewis, Hamilton
Lionel Hampton And His Orchestra–
Flying Home
Alto Saxophone – Marshall Royal, Ray Perry Baritone Saxophone – Jack McVea Bass – Vernon Alley Drums – George Jenkins Guitar – Irving Ashby Piano – Milt Buckner Tenor Saxophone – Dexter Gordon, Illinois Jacquet Trombone – Fred Beckett, Henry Sloan, Sonny Craven Trumpet – Ernie Royal, Joe Newman, Karl George Vibraphone, Written-By – Lionel Hampton Written-By – Goodman, Robin
Woody Herman And His Orchestra–
Perdido
Soloist [Alto Saxophone] – Johnny Hodges Soloist [Clarinet] – Woody Herman Soloist [Piano] – Ralph Burns Soloist [Tenor Saxophone] – Herbie Fields Soloist [Trombone], Written-by – Juan Tizol Written-By – Drake, Lengsfelder
Red Norvo Trio –
Good Bait
Bass – Red Mitchell Guitar – Tal Farlow Vibraphone – Red Norvo Written-By – Basie, Dameron*
Erroll Garner–
Sweet Lorraine
Piano – Erroll Garner Written-By – Burwell, Parish*
Charlie Ventura Septet –
I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles
Alto Saxophone – Boots Mussulli Bass – Kenny O'Brien Drums – Ed Shaughnessy Piano, Arranged By – Roy Kral Tenor Saxophone – Charlie Ventura Trombone – Benny Green Trumpet – Conte Candoli Written-By – J. Kenbrovin, J. W. Kellette
Louis Armstrong And The All Stars –
Whe The Saints Go Marching In
Bass – Arvell Shaw Clarinet – Barney Bigard Drums – Barrett Deems Piano – Billy Kyle Trombone – Trummy Young Trumpet, Vocals – Louis Armstrong
Jimmy McPartland And His Orchestra–
In A Mist
Arranged By – Dick Cary Bass – Sandy Block Bassoon – George Berg Clarinet – Bill Stegmeyer Drums – George Wettling Oboe – Romeo Penque Piano – Marian McPartland Tenor Saxophone – Bud Freeman Trombone – Cutty Cutshall Written-By – Bix Beiderbecke
Tony Scott –
Swootie Patootie
Bass – Percy Heath Clarinet, Written-By – Tony Scott Drums – Osie Johnson Piano – Dick Katz
Benny Green And His Orchestra –
Takin' My Time
Baritone Saxophone – Cecil Payne Bass – Tommy Potter Congas – Candido Drums – Osie Johnson Piano – Cliff Smalls Tenor Saxophone – Frank Wess Trombone, Written-By – Benny Green
Terry Gibbs Sextet–
Now's The Time
Bass – Kenny O'Brien Drums – Sid Bulkin Piano – Claude Noel Vibraphone – Don Elliott, Terry Gibbs Written-By – Charlie Parker
Elmer Bernstein And Orchestra –
Frankie Machine
Arranged By – Shorty Rogers Conductor, Written-By – Elmer Bernstein Drums – Shelly Manne Orchestrated By – Fred Steiner
Ralph Burns And His Orchestra–
Cool Cat On A Hot Tin Roof
Alto Saxophone – Davey Schildkraut Baritone Saxophone – Danny Bank Bass – Milt Hinton Drums – Osie Johnson French Horn – Jim Buffington Piano, Written-By – Ralph Burns Tenor Saxophone – Herbie Mann Trombone – Bill Byers Trumpet – Joe Newman Tuba – Bill Barber
John Graas–
Mulliganesque
Baritone Saxophone – Gerry Mulligan Bass – Red Mitchell Drums – Larry Bunker French Horn, Written-By – John Graas Guitar – Howard Roberts Piano – Marty Paich Trumpet – Don Fagerquist
Les Brown And His Band Of Renown–
One O'Clock Jump
Alto Saxophone – Ronnie Lang, Sal Libero Arranged By – Skip Martin Baritone Saxophone – Butch Stone Bass – Rolly Bundock Drums – Jack Sperling Guitar – Vernon Polk Piano – Geoff Clarkson Tenor Saxophone – Abe Aaron, Dave Pell Trombone – Dick Noel , Ray Sims, Bob Pring*, Stumpy Brown Trumpet – Don Fagerquist, Don Paladino, Stan Stout, Wes Hensel Written-By – Count Basie
. (Two page tinted engraving)
Map of The World (1868)
From the National Encyclopedia Atlas 1868.
Published by William Mackenzie London. 19cm x 29cm
(Open in Original: 4090 x 2920 pixels)
From the National Encyclopedia Atlas 1868.
Published by William Mackenzie London. 19cm x 29cm
Cléo de Mérode
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cléo de Mérode, 1903
Cléo de Mérode (September 27, 1875 - October 17, 1966) was a French dancer of the Belle Époque.
Born Cléopatra Diane de Mérode in Paris, France, she was the daughter of the Austrian landscape painter, Karl von Merode (1853-1909). The painter was an offspring of a famous Belgian noble family 'de Mérode'. Nicknamed Cléo, at age eight she was sent to study dance and made her professional debut at age eleven. She grew into a beautiful young woman, noted for her tiny waist which was accentuated by tightlacing that was popular with women at the time.
Cléo de Mérode became renowned for her glamour even more than for her dancing skills and her image began appearing on such things as postcards and playing cards. A particular new hairdo she choose to wear became the talk of Parisian women and was quickly adopted as a popular style for all. Her fame was such that Alexandre Falguière sculpted The Dancer in her image, which today can be seen in the Musée d'Orsay. In 1895, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec did her portrait, as would Charles Puyo and Alfredo Muller. Seen here, is her picture taken by one of the most illustrious photographers of the day, Félix Nadar.
In 1896, King Léopold II attended the ballet and saw Mérode dance. It is said that the 61-year-old Belgian King became enamoured with the 22-year-old ballet star and gossip started that she was his latest mistress. Because the King had had two children with a woman reputed to be a prostitute, Cléo de Mérode's reputation suffered and she had to live with it for the rest of her life. Nevertheless, Cléo de Mérode became an international star, performing across Europe and in the United States. At the peak of her popularity, she chose to dance at the Folies Bergères, taking the risk to do something other elites of the ballet had never done before. Her performance gained her a whole new following.
Very popular in her ancestral homeland of Austria as well as in Germany, she appeared in the 1926 German motion picture, Frauen der Leidenschaft. In Vienna her beauty caught the attention of painter Gustav Klimt whose primary focus was on female sexuality. Their story is retold in a film released in 2006 titled Klimt. In it, the American actor John Malkovich stars as Gustav Klimt and the British actress Saffron Burrows as Cléo de Mérode ("Lea de Castro").
Mérode continued to dance until her early fifties when she retired to the seaside resort of Biarritz in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques département of France. In 1955 she published her autobiography Le Ballet de ma vie.
Cléo de Mérode died in 1966 and was interred in the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Shalimar Gardens (Urdu: شالیمار باغ), sometimes written Shalamar Gardens, is a Persian garden and it was built by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in Lahore, modern day Pakistan. Construction began in 1641 A.D. (1051 A.H.) and was completed the following year. The project management was carried out under the superintendence of Khalilullah Khan, a noble of Shah Jahan's court, in cooperation with Ali Mardan Khan and Mulla Alaul Maulk Tuni.
Architecture
The Shalimar Gardens are laid out in the form of an oblong parallelogram, surrounded by a high brick wall, which is famous for its intricate fretwork. The gardens measure 658 meters north to south and 258 meters east to west. In 1981, Shalimar Gardens was included as a UNESCO World Heritage Site along with the Lahore Fort, under the UNESCO Convention concerning the protection of the world's cultural and natural heritage sites in 1972.
The three level terraces of the Gardens
The Gardens have been laid out from south to north in three descending terraces, which are elevated by 4-5 metres (13-15 feet) above one another.
410 fountains
From this basin, and from the canal, rise 410 fountains, which discharge into wide marble pools. The surrounding area is rendered cooler by the flowing of the fountains, which is a particular relief for visitors during Lahore's blistering summers, with temperature sometimes exceeding 120 degrees fahrenheit. It is a credit to the ingenuity of the Mughal engineers that even today scientists are unable to fathom how the fountains were operated originally. The distribution of the fountains is as follows:
The upper level terrace has 105 fountains.
The middle level terrace has 152 fountains.
The lower level terrace has 153 fountains.
All combined, the Gardens therefore have 410 fountains
From Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia.
Henry Seymour Berry, 1st Baron Buckland (17 September 1877 – 23 May 1928) was a Welsh financier and industrialist.
Background:
The eldest of three sons, all born in Merthyr Tydfil to solicitor John Mathias Berry (born 2 May 1847; died 9 January 1917) and his wife Mary Ann Rowe (died 6 June 1922). He was the elder brother of newspaper magnates William Berry, 1st Viscount Camrose and Gomer Berry, 1st Viscount Kemsley.
Business career:
Berry worked for his father's business before becoming a protégé of industrialist D. A. Thomas (later 1st Viscount Rhondda) in 1915. He took on more responsibility when Thomas joined the cabinet, and within three years he was a director of over 60 companies. He acquired John Lysaght Ltd with his brother William Berry, D. R. Llewellyn and Lady Rhondda and was chairman until it became part of Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds in 1920. He subsequently became chairman of GKN in 1927.
Invested as a Knight of Grace, Order of St. John of Jerusalem (K.G.St.J.), he held the office of High Sheriff of Brecknockshire in 1924. He was elevated to the peerage as Baron Buckland, of Bwlch in the County of Brecon, on 16 July 1926.
Personal life:
He died in 1928 in Bwlch, Brecknockshire, from head injuries following a fall from a horse. He was survived by his wife, Gwladys Mary whom he married on 5 September 1907, and their five daughters: Cecily Eveline; Joan Sybil; Gwladys Eileen; Mary Lorraine; Dorothy Margaret. With no male heir, the title became extinct upon his death.
Memorial:
A memorial in his memory was erected in Merthyr Tydfil, outside the library. In 2010, plaques in memorial to his brothers were also added.
Children's Encyclopedia, edited by Arthur Mee, and published in 10 volumes by the Educational Book Company, London. It was published from 1908 to 1964.
Created and folded by Glenn Sapaden out of 15 dollar bills (one for each volume, three for the book shelf)
Sarah Bernhardt
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sarah Bernhardt
Bernhardt around 1878, photograph by Paul Nadar (crop)
BornRosine Bernardt
ca. 22 October 1844[1]
Paris, France
DiedMarch 26, 1923 (aged 78)
Paris, France
Years active1862–1922
SpouseAmbroise Aristide Damala (m. 1882–1889)
Sarah Bernhardt (French pronunciation: [sa.ʁa bɛʁ.naːʁ]; c. 22/23 October 1844 — 26 March 1923) was a French stage and early film actress, and has been referred to as "the most famous actress the world has ever known".[2] Bernhardt made her fame on the stages of France in the 1870s, and was soon in demand in Europe and the Americas. She developed a reputation as a serious dramatic actress, earning the nickname "The Divine Sarah".
Contents [hide]
1 Early life
2 Stage career
3 Personal life
4 Silent film career
5 Later career
6 Books
7 Trivia
8 Selected roles
9 Filmography
10 Recordings
11 References
12 Further reading
13 External links
[edit]Early life
Bernhardt was born in Paris as Rosine Bernardt,[3] the daughter of Julie Bernardt (1821, Amsterdam – 1876, Paris) and an unknown father. Julie was one of six children of a widely traveling Jewish spectacle merchant, "vision specialist" and petty criminal, Moritz Baruch Bernardt, and Sara Hirsch (later known as Janetta Hartog; c. 1797–1829).[4] Julie's father remarried Sara Kinsbergen (1809–1878) two weeks after his first wife's death, and abandoned his family in 1835.[4] Julie left for Paris, where she made a living as a courtesan and was known by the name "Youle". Sara would add the letter "H" to both her first and last names. Sarah's birth records were lost in a fire in 1871, but in order to prove French citizenship, necessary for Légion d'honneur eligibility, she created false birth records, on which she was the daughter of "Judith van Hard" and "Edouard Bernardt" from Le Havre, in later stories either a law student, accountant, naval cadet or naval officer.[4][5]
Bernhardt photographed by Félix Nadar
Much of the uncertainty about Bernhardt's life arises because of her tendency to exaggerate and distort. Alexandre Dumas, fils described her as a notorious liar.[2]
[edit]Stage career
Bernhardt's stage career started in 1862 while she was a student at the Comédie-Française, France's most prestigious theater. She decided to leave France, and soon ended up in Belgium, where she became the mistress of Henri, Prince de Ligne, and gave birth to their son, Maurice, in 1864. After Maurice's birth, the Prince proposed marriage, but his family forbade it and convinced Bernhardt to refuse and end their relationship.[6]
However, she was not entirely successful at the conservatory and left to become a courtesan by 1865. During this time that she acquired her famous coffin, in which she often slept in lieu of a bed – claiming that doing so helped her understand her many tragic roles. She made her fame on the stages of Europe in the 1870s, and was soon in demand all over Europe and in New York.[7] She developed a reputation as a serious dramatic actress, earning the title "The Divine Sarah"; arguably, she was the most famous actress of the 19th century.[8] In 1872 she left the Odéon and returned to Comédie-Française. One of her remarkable successes there was in the title role of Voltaire's Zaïre (1874). She even traveled to Cuba and performed in the Sauto Theater, in Matanzas, in 1887. She coached many young women in the art of acting, including actress and courtesan Liane de Pougy.[citation needed]
[edit]Personal life
The Fool and Death, a bronze sculpture by Bernhardt depicting the character of Triboulet in Hugo's Le roi s'amuse
Bernhardt had an affair with a Belgian nobleman, Charles-Joseph Eugène Henri Georges Lamoral de Ligne (1837–1914), son of Eugène, 8th Prince of Ligne, with whom she had her only child, Maurice Bernhardt, in 1864. He married a Polish princess, Maria Jablonowska (see Jablonowski).
Sarah's close friends would include several artists, most notably Gustave Doré and Georges Clairin, and actors Mounet-Sully and Lou Tellegen, as well as the famous French author Victor Hugo. Alphonse Mucha based several of his iconic Art Nouveau works on her. Her friendship with Louise Abbéma (1853–1927), a French impressionist painter, some nine years her junior, was so close and passionate that the two women were rumored to be lovers. In 1990, a painting by Abbéma, depicting the two on a boat ride on the lake in the bois de Boulogne, was donated to the Comédie-Française. The accompanying letter stated that the painting was "Peint par Louise Abbéma, le jour anniversaire de leur liaison amoureuse."[9]
Sarah Bernhardt as Queen in Victor Hugo's Ruy Blas
Bernhardt also expressed strong interest in inventor Nikola Tesla, only to be disregarded as a distraction to his work.
She later married Greek-born actor Aristides Damala (known in France by the stage name Jacques Damala) in London in 1882, but the marriage, which legally endured until Damala's death in 1889 at age 34, quickly collapsed, largely due to Damala's dependence on morphine. During the later years of this marriage, Bernhardt was said to have been involved in an affair with the Prince of Wales, who later became Edward VII.[10]
Bernhardt once stated, "Me pray? Never! I'm an atheist."[11] However, she had been baptised a Roman Catholic, and accepted the last rites shortly before her death.[12]
[edit]Silent film career
Bernhardt was one of the pioneer silent movie actresses, debuting as Hamlet in the two minute long film Le Duel d'Hamlet in 1900 (Technically, this was not a silent film, as it had an accompanying Edison cylinder with sound effects).[13] She went on to star in eight motion pictures and two biographical films in all. The latter included Sarah Bernhardt à Belle-Isle (1912), a film about her daily life at home.
[edit]Later career
Bernhardt's grave at Père Lachaise cemetery
In 1905, while performing in Victorien Sardou's La Tosca in Rio de Janeiro, Bernhardt injured her right knee when jumping off the parapet in the final scene. The leg never healed properly. By 1915, gangrene had set in and her entire right leg was amputated; she was required to use a wheelchair for several months. Bernhardt reportedly refused a $10,000 offer by a showman to display her amputated leg as a medical curiosity (while P.T. Barnum is usually cited as the one to have made the offer, he had been dead since 1891). She continued her career often without using a wooden prosthetic limb; she had tried to use one but didn't like it. She carried out a successful tour of America in 1915, and on returning to France she played in her own productions almost continuously until her death. Her later successes included Daniel (1920), La Gloire (1921), and Régine Armand (1922). According to Arthur Croxton, the manager of London's Coliseum, the amputation was not apparent during her performances, which were done with the use of an artificial limb.[14] Her physical condition may have limited her mobility on the stage, but the charm of her voice, which had altered little with age, ensured her triumphs.[15]
Sarah Bernhardt died from uremia following kidney failure in 1923; she is believed to have been 78 years old.[16] She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1751 Vine Street.
Gollywogs - handmade.
Golliwogg
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Gollywog)
History
Upton's Golliwogg and friends in The Adventures of two Dutch Dolls And A Golliwogg, published in 1895. Described as "a horrid sight, the blackest gnome," he was for many children the introduction to black people.
Upton's Golliwogg and friends in The Adventures of two Dutch Dolls And A Golliwogg, published in 1895. Described as "a horrid sight, the blackest gnome," he was for many children the introduction to black people.
The "Golliwogg" (later "Golliwog") is a rag doll-like, children's literary character created by Florence Kate Upton in the late 19th century. The Golliwogg was inspired by a blackface minstrel doll Upton had as a child in America. Historically very popular in Europe, the doll has become the subject of a great deal of controversy — particularly with ever-increasing ethnic diversity of the resident European population — over whether it should be preserved and passed on as a cherished cultural artifact and childhood tradition, or retired as a relic of an earlier time when anti-black racism was as casual as it was blatant.
At least one European company, a leading jam manufacturer in Scotland, denied as recently as 2001 that there was any link between Golliwoggs and black people — in this case, in a statement, reported by the BBC, Virginia (Ginny) C Knox, who was a brand director for Robertson's, and is now Chief Operating Officer of the Culinary Brands Division of RHM, told the Herald Newspaper in Scotland in 2001 that the decision to remove the Golly (Golliwogg) symbol from Robertson's jam and marmalade jars was taken after research found that children were not familiar with the character, although it still appealed to the older generations.
She denied the Golliwogg symbol was being "retired" because it was an offensive image. "We sell 45 million jars of jam and marmalade each year and they have pretty much all got Golly on them," said Ms Knox. "We also sell 250,000 Golly badges to collectors and only get 10 letters a year from people who don't like the Golliwogg image".[1]
[edit] History
Cover of The Three Golliwogs, by Enid Blyton.
Cover of The Three Golliwogs, by Enid Blyton.
The child of English parents, Upton and her family moved to England when she was fourteen. There she spent several years drawing and developing her artistic skills. In order to afford tuition to art school, she illustrated a children's book entitled The Adventures of Two Dutch Dolls and a Golliwogg. The 1895 book included a character named the "Golliwogg", who was first described as "a horrid sight, the blackest gnome", but who quickly turned out to be a friendly character, and is later attributed with a "kind face". A product of the blackface minstrel tradition, the character was classic "darkie" iconography. The Golliwogg had jet black skin; bright, red lips; and wild, woolly hair. He sported red trousers, a shirt with a stiff collar, red bow-tie, and a blue jacket with tails — all traditional formal minstrel attire.
Upton's book and its many sequels were extremely successful in England, largely because of the popularity of the Golliwogg, which became the generic name for dolls and images of a similar type, spelt "golliwog". The golliwog doll became a popular children's toy throughout most of the 20th century, and was incorporated into many aspects of British commerce and culture; for instance, some of Enid Blyton's books feature them, once as a villain and at other times as heroes. Upton's Golliwogg was jovial and friendly, but some later golliwogs would be sinister or menacing characters. However, small boys in the 1950s, who would never dream of playing with sissy dolls, had no qualms about a big rag golly and as many golly badges as possible, so that actually meeting a real black man was cause for excitement rather than fear. "The Black and White Minstrel Show", a blackface musical show which ran for many seasons on UK television and stage, had performers of all races blacked up more as golliwogs, with white-ringed eyes, than in the original Minstrel show tradition.
The golliwog contributed enormously to the spread of darky iconography in Europe. It also made its way back across the Atlantic in the form of children's literature, dolls, children's china and other toys, ladies' perfume, and jewellery.
British jam manufacturer James Robertson & Sons used a golliwog called Golly as its mascot from 1910, after John Robertson apparently saw children playing with golliwog dolls in America. Robertson's started producing promotional Golliwog badges in the 1920s, which could be obtained in exchange for tokens gained from their products. In 1983, the company's products were boycotted by the Greater London Council as offensive, and in 1988 the character ceased to be used in television advertising. The company used to give away golliwog badges making up different sets, such as playing jazz instruments, or with sports equipment, or other such themes. After many generations of children, the promotion was dropped in 2001, and replaced with Roald Dahl characters. Robertson's claimed the decision to retire the Golliwog was simply a commercial decision and had nothing to do with accusations of racism. Today, Robertson's Golliwog badges remain highly collectable, with the very rarest sometimes selling for more than £1,000, and even comparatively common and recent badges being worth £2.00–£3.00.
In his 1947 novel, The Chequer Board, British novelist Nevil Shute depicted the children's doll as an influence on adult behavior:
Because he was uncertain what to do, he put his arms round her and kissed her... For a moment she yielded... then fear came to her, irrational, stark fear. When she was a little child, somebody had given her a golliwog, a black doll with staring white eyes and black curly hair, dressed in a blue coat with red trousers. It had terrified her; whenever she saw it she had screamed with fright so that it had been given to a less sensitive child. Now at the age of seventeen the same stark fear came back to her. What she had been subconsciously afraid of all her life had happened. The golliwog had got her.
After the publication of Upton's first book, the term "golliwogg" was used both as a reference to the children's toy and as a generic, racist term for blacks. In Britain and its colonies, the word "wog" became an ethnic slur applied to dark-skinned peoples worldwide, including Africans, Italians and other Mediterranean people, Native Americans, Middle Easterners, Hispanics, Aborigines, and Indians. [2] In the early 1980s, revised editions of Enid Blyton's Noddy books replaced Mr. Golly, the amiable golliwogg proprietor of the Toytown garage, with Mr. Sparks, to the outrage of many parents of a generation who thought that was retrograde iconoclasm.
The sixth movement of Claude Debussy's Children's Corner is titled "Golliwogg's Cakewalk".
Golliwog was also World War II British naval slang for a Gauloise cigarette, which had tobacco which was nearly black in colour.[3]
The American rock group Creedence Clearwater Revival was known as "The Golliwogs" and under this name they released a number of singles on the Fantasy label before they rose to prominence. Golliwog is also a Slovenian punkrock/hardcore band.
In American tall tales, the gollywogs were giant nocturnal salamanders of the swamps. The name is related to pollywog, a name for a tadpole.
Encyclopaedia londinensis, or, Universal dictionary of arts, sciences, and literature
London :Printed for the proprietor, by J. Adlard ..., sold at the Encyclopaedia Office ... by J. White ... and Champante and Whitrow ...,1810-1829.
A Christmas present. 20 volumes of photography encyclopedias. Any bets on how long it will take me to read them all?
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tatev monastery is located in Armenia Tatev monastery
Shown within Armenia
Basic information
LocationTatev, Syunik Province, Armenia
Geographic coordinates39.379367°N 46.250031°ECoordinates: 39.379367°N 46.250031°E
AffiliationArmenian Apostolic Church
Architectural description
Architectural styleArmenian
Groundbreaking8th century
The Tatev monastery (Armenian: Տաթևի վանք Tat'evi vank' ) is a 9th-century Armenian Apostolic monastery located on a large basalt plateau near the Tatev village in Syunik Province in southeastern Armenia. The term "Tatev" usually refers to the monastery. The monastic ensemble stands on the edge of a deep gorge of the Vorotan River. Tatev is known as the bishopric seat of Syunik and played a significant role in the history of the region as a center of economic, political, spiritual and cultural activity.
In the 14th and 15th centuries the monastery hosted one of the most important Armenian medieval universities, the University of Tatev, which contributed to the advancement of science, religion and philosophy, reproduction of books and development of miniature painting. Scholars of the Tatev University contributed to the preservation of Armenian culture and creed during one of its most turbulent periods in its history.
The monastery is the "best-known site" in Syunik. Wings of Tatev, a cableway from Tatev to Halidzor village was opened in October 2010.
It was included in the Guinness World Records as world's "longest non-stop double track cable car."
Harmsworth's Universal Encyclopedia, published, according to Wikipedia in the early 1920s. This is Vol. IV (CINQ - DRILL).
As a child these were our first point of call, but even then they were 40+ years out of date, and mentioned nothing of things like the Great Depression, World War II etc.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Marginally hardy exotics thrive in Nymans' sheltered microclimate
Nymans is an English garden in Handcross, Sussex. It was developed, starting in the late 19th century, by three generations of the Messel family, and was brought to renown by Leonard Messel.
In 1953 Nymans became a National Trust property. Nymans is the origin of many sports, selections and hybrids, both planned and serendipitous, some of which can be identified by the term nymansensis, "of Nymans". Eucryphia × nymansensis (E. cordifolia × E. glutinosa) is also known as E. "Nymansay". Magnolia × loebneri 'Leonard Messel', Camellia 'Maud Messel' and Forsythia suspensa 'Nymans', with its bronze young stems, are all familiar shrub to gardeners.
History[edit]
In the late 19th century, Ludwig Messel, a member of a German Jewish family, settled in England and bought the Nymans estate, a house with 600 acres on a sloping site overlooking the picturesque High Weald of Sussex. There he set about turning the estate into a place for family life and entertainment, with an Arts and Crafts-inspired garden room where topiary features contrast with new plants from temperate zones around the world. Messel's head gardener from 1895 was James Comber, whose expertise helped form plant collections at Nymans of camellias, rhododendrons, which unusually at the time were combined with planting heather (Erica) eucryphias and magnolias. William Robinson advised in establishing the Wild Garden.[2]
His son Colonel Leonard Messel succeeded to the property in 1915 and replaced the nondescript Regency house with the picturesque stone manor, designed by Sir Walter Tapper and Norman Evill in a mellow late Gothic/Tudor style. He and his wife Maud (daughter of Edward Linley Sambourne) extended the garden to the north and subscribed to seed collecting expeditions in the Himalayas and South America.
The garden reached a peak in the 1930s and was regularly opened to the public. The severe reduction of staff in World War II was followed in 1947 by a disastrous fire in the house, which survives as a garden ruin. The house was partially rebuilt and became the home of Leonard Messel's daughter[3] Anne Messel and her second husband the 6th Earl of Rosse. At Leonard Messel's death in 1953 it was willed to the National Trust with 275 acres of woodland, one of the first gardens taken on by the Trust. Lady Rosse continued to serve as Garden Director.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1967
History
United States
Name: USS Franklin D. Roosevelt
Namesake: Franklin D. Roosevelt
Builder: New York Naval Shipyard
Laid down: 1 December 1943
Launched: 29 April 1945
Commissioned: 27 October 1945
Decommissioned: 30 September 1977
Struck: 1 October 1977
Nickname(s):
"Swanky Franky"
"Foo-De-Roo"
"Rosie"
"Rusty Rosie"
Fate: Scrapped
General characteristics (as built)
Class & type: Midway-class aircraft carrier
Displacement: 45,000 tons
Length: 968 ft (295 m)
Beam: 113 ft (34 m)
Draft: 35 ft (10.7 m)
Speed: 33 knots (61 km/h)
Complement: 4,104 officers and men
Armament:
18 × 1 – 5"/54 caliber Mark 16 guns
21 × 4 – 40 mm Bofors /60 caliber guns
Aircraft carried: 137
USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CVB/CVA/CV-42) was the second of three Midway class aircraft carriers. To her crew, she was known as the "Swanky Franky," "Foo-De-Roo," or "Rosie," with the last nickname probably the most popular. Roosevelt spent most of her active deployed career operating in the Mediterranean Sea as part of the United States Sixth Fleet. The ship was decommissioned in 1977 and was scrapped shortly afterward.
Early career
Roosevelt at commissioning ceremonies in 1945
Franklin D. Roosevelt was laid down at New York Naval Shipyard on 1 December 1943. Sponsor Mrs. John H. Towers, wife of the Deputy Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Fleet, christened the ship Coral Sea at the 29 April 1945 launching. On 8 May 1945, President Harry S. Truman approved the Secretary of the Navy's recommendation to rename the ship Franklin D. Roosevelt in honor of the late president, who had died four weeks earlier.
Roosevelt was commissioned on Navy Day, 27 October 1945, at the New York Naval Shipyard. Capt. Apollo Soucek was the ship's first commanding officer. During her shakedown cruise, Roosevelt called at Rio de Janeiro from 1 to 11 February 1946 to represent the United States at the inauguration of Brazilian president Eurico Gaspar Dutra, who came aboard for a short cruise. During April and May, Roosevelt participated in Eighth Fleet maneuvers off the East Coast, the Navy's first major postwar training exercise.
On 21 July 1946, Roosevelt became the first American carrier to operate an all-jet aircraft under controlled conditions. Lieutenant Commander James Davidson, flying the McDonnell XFD-1 Phantom, made a series of successful take-offs and landings as Roosevelt lay off Cape Henry, Virginia.[1] Jet trials continued in November, when Lt. Col. Marion E. Carl, USMC, made two catapult launches, four unassisted take-offs, and five arrested landings in a Lockheed P-80A.
Fleet maneuvers and other training operations in the Caribbean preceded Roosevelt's first deployment to the Mediterranean, which lasted from August to October 1946. Roosevelt, flying the flag of Rear Admiral John H. Cassady, Commander, Carrier Division 1, led the U.S. Navy force that arrived in Piraeus on 5 September 1946.[2] This visit showed U.S. support for the pro-Western government of Greece, which was locked in a civil war with Communist insurgents. The ship received thousands of visitors during her calls to many Mediterranean ports.
Roosevelt returned to American waters and operated off the East Coast until July 1947, when she entered Norfolk Naval Shipyard for an extensive overhaul. At that time, her quad 40 mm Bofors anti-aircraft guns were replaced by 40 3 in (76 mm) Mark 22 guns in Mark 33 twin mountings.
USS Roosevelt
Roosevelt at Pier 91 in Seattle, 1953 or 1954
From September 1948 to January 1949, Roosevelt undertook a second tour of duty with U.S. Naval Forces, Mediterranean. In 1950, Roosevelt became the first carrier to take nuclear weapons to sea. In September and October 1952, she participated in Operation Mainbrace, the first major NATO exercise in the North Atlantic. Roosevelt operated with other major fleet units, including the aircraft carriers USS Midway, USS Wasp, and HMS Eagle, as well as the battleships USS Wisconsin and HMS Vanguard.
Roosevelt was reclassified CVA-42 on 1 October 1952. On 7 January 1954, she sailed for Puget Sound Naval Shipyard to undergo extensive reconstruction. Too large to pass through the Panama Canal, Roosevelt rounded Cape Horn and arrived at the shipyard on 5 March. She was temporarily decommissioned there for her refit on 23 April 1954.
Refit
Roosevelt in 1956, after SCB-110 reconstruction
Roosevelt was the first of her class to undergo the SCB-110 reconstruction, at a cost of $48 million. She received an enclosed "hurricane bow," one C-11-2 and two C-11-1 steam catapults, strengthened arresting gear, an enlarged bridge, a mirror landing system, and a 482 ft (147 m) angled flight deck. SPS-8 height finding radar and SPS-12 air search radar were mounted on a new tubular mast. The aft elevator was relocated to the starboard deck edge, the forward elevator was enlarged, and all elevators were uprated to 75,000 lb capacity. Aviation fuel bunkerage was increased from 350,000 to 450,000 gallons (1,320,000 to 1,700,000 L). Standard displacement rose to 51,000 tons, while deep load displacement rose to 63,400 tons. As weight compensation, several of the 5 inch (127 mm) Mark 16 anti-aircraft guns were landed, leaving only 10, and the 3,200 ton armor belt was removed. Hull blisters were also added to cope with the increased weight. Roosevelt recommissioned on 6 April 1956.
After post-refit trials, Roosevelt sailed for her new homeport of Mayport, Florida. In February 1957, Roosevelt conducted cold weather tests of catapults, aircraft, and the Regulus guided missile, in the Gulf of Maine. In July, she sailed for the first of three consecutive Sixth Fleet deployments. Her assignments in the Mediterranean added NATO exercises to her normal schedule of major fleet operations, and found her entertaining a distinguished list of guests each year.
A-4 Skyhawk of VA-172 aboard Roosevelt during her only Vietnam deployment between August 1966 and February 1967
During a 1958 mid-year overhaul, the 22 remaining 3-inch (76 mm) guns were removed.
On 24 October 1958, Roosevelt supported USS Kleinsmith (APD 134) in the evacuation of 56 American citizens and three foreign nationals from Nicara, Cuba, as the Cuban Revolution came to a climax.
In late 1960, the Control Instrument Company installed the first production Fresnel Lens Optical Landing System (FLOLS) onboard Roosevelt. She recorded her one hundred thousandth aircraft landing in March 1961. During a 1963 overhaul, six more 5-inch (127 mm) guns were removed.
While operating in the Eastern Mediterranean in the fall of 1964, Roosevelt lost a blade from one of her 20 ton propellers. She proceeded from Naples, Italy to New York with the number one shaft locked. After replacing the propeller at Bayonne, New Jersey, Roosevelt returned to the Mediterranean to complete her cruise.
From August 1966 to January 1967, Roosevelt made her only deployment to Southeast Asia, spending a total of 95 days "on the line." Her embarked airwing, Carrier Air Wing One, consisted mainly of F-4 Phantom IIs and A-4 Skyhawks. Roosevelt received one battle star for her service during the Vietnam War.
In January 1968, Italian actress Virna Lisi was invited by Roosevelt's crew to participate in the ship's twenty-second birthday celebrations. Lisi helped prepare 5,000 T-bone steaks at a large cook-out staged on the flight deck.[3]
Austere modernization
Roosevelt in 1970 after her austere 11-month refit of 1968-69.
Roosevelt was initially slated to undergo an extensive reconstruction (SCB 101.68) similar to that received by Midway from 1966 to 1970. This plan was derailed by massive cost overruns in Midway's reconstruction, which eventually totalled $202 million. Roosevelt was therefore limited to an austere $46 million refit, enabling her to operate the Grumman A-6 Intruder and LTV A-7 Corsair II.
In July 1968, Roosevelt entered Norfolk Naval Shipyard for her 11-month modernization program. The forward centerline elevator was relocated to the starboard deck edge forward of the island, the port waist catapult was removed, the crew spaces were refurbished, and two of the four remaining 5-inch (127 mm) anti-aircraft turrets were removed. Roosevelt also received a deck edge spray system using the new seawater compatible fire-fighting chemical, Light Water. She put to sea again on 26 May 1969.
From 1 August 1969, Roosevelt embarked Carrier Air Wing Six, which served as the ship's air wing for the next seven cruises.[4] In January 1970, Roosevelt returned to the Mediterranean for another Sixth Fleet deployment.
Roosevelt's twenty-first Sixth Fleet deployment was marked by indirect participation in the October 1973 Yom Kippur War, as she served as a transit "landing field" for aircraft being delivered to Israel. The Roosevelt battlegroup, Task Force 60.2, also stood by for possible evacuation contingencies.
From 1973 through 1975, VAW-121 operated aboard Roosevelt as one of the last Grumman E-1 Tracer squadrons in the fleet. Roosevelt received a multipurpose designation, CV-42, on 30 June 1975, but she did not operate any anti-submarine aircraft. In June 1976, Roosevelt embarked VMA-231 with 14 AV-8A Harrier attack aircraft.
The ship embarked Carrier Air Wing Nineteen for its final deployment, which lasted from October 1976 to April 1977.[5] VMA-231 was on board for this deployment, which demonstrated that VTOL aircraft could be successfully and seamlessly integrated into fixed wing air operations. On 12 January 1977, Roosevelt collided with the Liberian grain freighter Oceanus while transiting the Strait of Messina. Both ships were able to proceed to port under their own power.
Decommissioning and disposal
Roosevelt during her final Mediterranean cruise in 1976
By the late 1970s, Roosevelt was in poor material condition. Deprived of the upgrades that Midway and Coral Sea had received, Roosevelt was the least modern and least capable of the class. Furthermore, Roosevelt used General Electric turbines, which gave persistent problems and reduced speed compared to the Westinghouse units used on the other ships. The Navy therefore chose to decommission Roosevelt when the second Nimitz class carrier, Dwight D. Eisenhower, entered service in 1977. Roosevelt completed her final cruise in April 1977. She was officially decommissioned on 30 September 1977. The decommissioning ceremony was held on 1 October 1977 and the ship was stricken from the Navy List on the same day. Efforts to preserve Roosevelt as a museum ship in New York City failed.
Roosevelt's generally poor condition weighed against retaining her in the reserve fleet. Moreover, her low hangar height of 17 feet 6 inches (5.33 m) limited the aircraft types that she could handle. It was reasoned that existing Essex class carriers could handle the same types of aircraft at lower cost. Some admirals also feared that if Roosevelt were retained, the Carter Administration would use her reactivation as a reason to cancel future Nimitz class carriers.[citation needed]
On 1 April 1978, the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service sold the ship to River Terminal Development Company for $2.1 million. After usable equipment was removed from Roosevelt at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard's Inactive Ships Facility, the carrier was towed to Kearny, New Jersey. She arrived on 3 May 1978 and was scrapped that year.
Back in the 1980s, New Cavendish Publishing produced a lavish series of books covering all the products of Meccano Ltd., the company that was famously based in Binns Road, Liverpool. Priced at around £25-30 each at the time, the volumes were way beyond my budget, especially as I had just taken out a mortgage. Some 25 years later, my mortgage paid off, I finally added these coveted books to my library, thanks to EBay. The wait was worthwhile. This is the front cover of Volume 3, covering Hornby Dublo trains.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
History
Name: USS S-30
Builder: Union Iron Works
Laid down: 1 April 1918
Launched: 21 November 1918
Commissioned: 29 October 1920
Decommissioned: 9 October 1945
Struck: 24 October 1945
Fate: Sold for scrap
General characteristics
Class and type: S-class submarine
Displacement:
854 long tons (868 t) surfaced
1,062 long tons (1,079 t) submerged
Length: 219 ft 3 in (66.83 m)
Beam: 20 ft 8 in (6.30 m)
Draft: 15 ft 11 in (4.85 m)
Speed:
14.5 knots (16.7 mph; 26.9 km/h) surfaced
11 knots (13 mph; 20 km/h) submerged
Complement: 38 officers and men
Armament:
1 × 4 in (102 mm) deck gun
4 × 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes
Service record
Operations: World War II
Victories: 2 battle stars
USS S-30 (SS-135) was an S-class submarine of the United States Navy during World War II.
S-30 was laid down on 1 April 1918 by the Union Iron Works at San Francisco, California. She was launched on 21 November 1918 sponsored by Mrs. Edward S. Stalnaker, and commissioned on 29 October 1920 with Lieutenant Commander Stuart E. Bray in command.
Service history
Based at San Pedro, California, with her home yard at Mare Island, S-30 conducted tests and exercises off the California coast into the summer of 1921. Then, on 15 August, she was placed in ordinary. Recommissioned in full on 14 February 1922, she was ordered to New London, Connecticut, where she was placed in ordinary again on 21 June for engine alterations by the prime contractor, the Electric Boat Company.
Trials and exercises off the southern New England coast followed her recommissioning in full on 21 November; and, in January 1923, she moved south to the Caribbean Sea to participate in winter maneuvers and Fleet Problem I, conducted to test the defenses of the Panama Canal Zone. In April, she returned to California and resumed operations off that coast with her division, Submarine Division (SubDiv) 16. During the winter of 1924, she again participated in fleet exercises and problems in the Canal Zone and in the Caribbean and, in the winter of 1925, she prepared for transfer to the Asiatic Fleet.
S-30 departed Mare Island, with her division, in mid-April. During May, she conducted exercises and underwent upkeep in the Hawaiian Islands; and, on 16 June, she continued on to the Philippines. On 12 July, she arrived at the Submarine Base, Cavite, Luzon, whence she operated until 1932. Her division rotated between exercises and patrols in the Philippines during the winter and operations off the China coast during the summer. In 1932, her division was ordered back to the eastern Pacific Ocean; and, on 2 May, she departed Manila for Pearl Harbor, her home port until transferred back to the East Coast in 1937.
Sailing from Pearl Harbor on 19 May 1937, S-30 arrived at New London on 8 August. For the next year and one-half, she trained along the Atlantic Ocean seaboard. Then, in May 1939, she was placed in commission, in reserve. On 1 September 1940, she was returned to full commission.
World War II
As World War II began its second year, German U-boats were raiding shipping in the western Atlantic and the Caribbean. The American S-boats, designed in World War I, were assigned to Submarines, Patrol Force (Submarines, Atlantic Fleet after February 1941) and were carrying out multipurpose missions which involved training and development of tactical skills.
First, Second, and Third (Defensive) War Patrols
S-30, homeported at New London, operated along the mid-Atlantic and northeast coasts into the spring of 1941. She then served briefly in the Bermuda area; returned to New London; and, in early July, proceeded to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for overhaul. In September, she emerged from the yard; returned to New England; and resumed submarine and antisubmarine warfare training operations.
She continued those duties in the Long Island Sound, Narragansett Bay, Casco Bay, and Placentia Bay areas, until after the United States officially entered the war. With 1942, however defensive patrols were added to her duties, and her division, SubDiv 52, was reassigned to the Panama Canal Zone. Departing New London on 31 January, she hunted for enemy submarines along her route which took her via Bermuda and Mona Passage into the Caribbean Sea. On 16 February, she arrived at Coco Solo, whence she conducted two defensive patrols in the western approaches to the canal, from 10–31 March and from 14 April to 13 May, before she was ordered to California to prepare for service in the Aleutian Islands. Into July, she underwent repairs at San Diego, California; and, at mid-month, she started for Alaska. While en route, engine trouble forced her into Mare Island, and, on 1 August, she headed north again.
Fourth War Patrol (First Offensive)
On 12 August, S-30 departed the submarine base at Dutch Harbor, Unalaska, on her first offensive war patrol. Moving through fog, she arrived off Attu Island on 16 August; sighted only the hazy outline of Cape Wrangell; and continued on to patrol across the anticipated Japanese shipping lanes between that island and the northern Kuril Islands. On the afternoon of 7 September, she was attacked by three enemy destroyers some ten miles north of the cape and, in that two and one-half hour encounter, gained her first close experience with Japanese depth charges. Three days later, she turned for home.
Fifth War Patrol
On 24 September, S-30 got underway for her fifth war patrol, her second in the Aleutians. A cracked cylinder in her port engine forced her back to Dutch Harbor on 27 September; and, on 30 September, she again moved west. On 3 October, she entered her patrol area and commenced hunting enemy ships along traffic lanes west of Kiska; but, by 9 October, additional engineering casualties, cracks, and leaks had developed and forced her to return to Unalaska. From there, the submarine was ordered to San Diego for an overhaul. During her yard period, she received a fathometer, a new distilling unit, and more up-to-date radar equipment. Then, from mid-February 1943 into March, she provided training services to the West Coast Sound School. On 16 March, she sailed for Dutch Harbor.
Sixth War Patrol
Following the submarine's arrival in the Aleutians on 21 March, air compressor failure and malfunctioning of her fathometer delayed her departure until 13 April. She then headed for Attu. On 15 April, she crossed the 180th meridian and, keeping Dutch Harbor dates, arrived at her destination on 17 April. For the next few days, she reconnoitered and, when possible photographed the island's principal coves, bays, and harbors. On 26 April, she was ordered to the east of 176°E and south of 52°40'N, where she remained until after an Allied strike against Attu. The next afternoon, she returned to the island but was unable to determine the extent of damage inflicted.
Seventh War Patrol
On 2 May, S-30 departed the area; returned to Dutch Harbor for refit; and, on 24 May, sailed west again, this time for the northern Kurils. On 31 May (Dutch Harbor date), she entered her assigned area; and, on 5 June, off the Kamchatka peninsula, she attacked her first target, a large sampan. Her guns set the enemy vessel on fire; but, as it burned, a Japanese destroyer appeared on the horizon and began closing the surfaced submarine at high speed. Three minutes later, the destroyer opened fire on the diving S-boat.
S-30 commenced an approach on the destroyer, but just as she reached firing bearing, she lost depth control. A few seconds later, depth charging started. In the next 20 minutes, 33 "ashcans" were dropped by the destroyer. Others followed sporadically over the next five hours. S-30 was then able to clear the area. On 6 June, the ship's force repaired all minor damage and commenced efforts to remove two torpedoes which had been crushed in the number-three and number-four tubes. The one in the latter tube was removed on 7 June, but the one in the number-three tube remained until the completion of the patrol.
On 8 June, S-30 headed down the Paramushiro coast; approached Onekotan; then transited Onekotan Strait and set a course for Araito. During the next two days, she sighted four targets but was able to close only the last two, merchantmen in column, contacted on 10 June (the 11th local date). Fog closed in rapidly as she made her approach; then blanketed the area as she launched three torpedoes. Two explosions were heard, but nothing could be seen. Post-war examination of Japanese records revealed that she had sunk Jinbu Maru, a 5228-ton cargo ship.
During the ensuing depth charging, S-30 began to move out of the area. Within two and one-half hours, she had left the pinging of the searchers behind and had resumed her own hunting. On 12 June, she retransited Onekotan Strait. The following day, she fired on a convoy, but missed. On 14 June, she departed the area; and, on 22 June, she returned to Dutch Harbor to begin extracting the damaged torpedo and commence refitting.
Eighth War Patrol
On 5 July, S-30 got underway on her eighth war patrol, which took her back to the Kurils and into the Sea of Okhotsk. She patrolled on both sides of the island chain and across the traffic lanes leading to Soya Strait and to Yokosuka. She took periscope pictures of facilities on various islands. She sighted several targets, but was unable to close on most and was unsuccessful on those she attacked. On 20 July, she attacked what appeared to be an inter-island steamer, but which turned straight down the torpedo track and dropped six depth charges in quick succession. S-30 went deep, reloaded and prepared to reattack. The target, however, was lost in the fog.
S-30 continued her patrol. A week later, she sent three torpedoes against a Japanese merchantman estimated at 7000 tons. Two hits, breaking-up noises, and distant depth charging were reported by the sound operator, but the damage went unverified. Four days later, she attacked another cargoman under similar circumstances. One torpedo was reported to have hit. Screw noises from the target stopped, breaking-up noises were heard, and periscope observation showed no ship at the site of the attack. But any damage which might have been inflicted was never verified.
Ninth War Patrol
S-30 left the Kurils behind and headed east on 7 August. Two days later, she arrived in Massacre Bay, Attu, whence she conducted her last war patrol. On that patrol, from 26 August to 23 September, she again hunted in the shipping lanes along the eastern and western sides of the Kurils. Again, several targets were lost in fog; nevertheless, she took pictures of the islands. Then, in mid-September, she added a new dimension to her activities and attempted to shell the enemy garrison on Matsuwa. Fog had interfered with an earlier attempt to bombard that post, but cleared off early on the morning of 15 September (local date) as she neared the firing point with her crew at battle stations. But, when the order to fire was given, the gun failed to respond. A new firing pin was a fraction of an inch too short, and the effort had to be abandoned.
Retirement
The following day, S-30 was ordered home. En route, on 17 September she was sighted and bombed by a Japanese patrol plane. Failure of the port motor at that moment caused anxiety; but the submarine escaped serious damage. On 23 September, she arrived at Dutch Harbor. Within the week, she headed south to San Diego, where, with others of her class, she provided training services for the West Coast Sound School for the remainder of World War II. In mid-September 1945, she proceeded to Mare Island, where she was decommissioned on 9 October. Fifteen days later, her name was struck from the Naval Vessel Register, and, in December 1946, she was sold and delivered to the Salco Iron and Metal Company, San Francisco, for scrapping.
S-30 was awarded two battle stars for her World War II service.
References
This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
The depiction of the head in this 1868 engraving suggests the artist may have never seen a panda bear!
Wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_panda
Chambers’s Encyclopaedia - a Dictionary of Universal Knowledge for the People. (1868).
Illustrated with Maps and numerous Wood Engravings..
Published by W. And R. Chambers, London. Half leather bound, 10 Vols total 8400 pages, 18cm x 26cm.
At the back of the complex, southwest of the mosque, stands an L-shaped construction, consisting of Alauddin Khilji's tomb dating ca 1316 AD, and a madrasa, an Islamic seminary built by him. Khilji was the second Sultan of Delhi from Khilji dynasty, who ruled from 1296 to 1316 AD.
The central room of the building, which has his tomb, has now lost its dome, though many rooms of the seminary or college are intact, and since been restored. There were two small chambers connected to the tomb by passages on either side. Fergusson in his book suggested the existence, to the west of the tomb, of seven rooms, two of which had domes and windows. The remains of the tomb building suggest that there was an open courtyard on the south and west sides of the tomb building, and that one room in the north served as an entrance.
It was the first example in India, of a tomb standing alongside a madarsa. Nearby stands the Alai Minar, an ambitious tower, he started constructing to rival the Qutub Minar, though he died when only its first storey was built and its construction abandoned thereafter. It now stands, north of the mosque.
The tomb is in a very dilapidated condition. It is believed that Ala-ud-din's body was brought to the complex from Siri and buried in front of the mosque, which formed part of the madrasa adjoining the tomb. Firoz Shah Tughluq, who undertook repairs of the tomb complex, mentioned a mosque within the madrasa.
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MADRASA
Madrasa (Persian: مدرسة, madrasah, pl. مدارس, madāris, Turkish: Medrese) is the Arabic word for any type of educational institution, whether secular or religious (of any religion). The word is variously transliterated madrasah, madarasaa, medresa, madrassa, madraza, medrese, etc. In the West, the word usually refers to a specific type of religious school or college for the study of the Islamic religion, though this may not be the only subject studied. Not all students in madrasas are Muslims; there is also a modern curriculum.
DEFINITION
The word madrasah derives from the triconsonantal Semitic root د-ر-س D-R-S 'to learn, study', through the wazn (form/stem) مفعل(ة); mafʻal(ah), meaning "a place where something is done". Therefore, madrasah literally means "a place where learning and studying take place". The word is also present as a loanword with the same innocuous meaning in many Arabic-influenced languages, such as: Urdu, Bengali, Hindi, Persian, Turkish, Azeri, Kurdish, Indonesian, Malay and Bosnian / Croatian. In the Arabic language, the word مدرسة madrasah simply means the same as school does in the English language, whether that is private, public or parochial school, as well as for any primary or secondary school whether Muslim, non-Muslim, or secular. Unlike the use of the word school in British English, the word madrasah more closely resembles the term school in American English, in that it can refer to a university-level or post-graduate school as well as to a primary or secondary school. For example, in the Ottoman Empire during the Early Modern Period, madrasas had lower schools and specialised schools where the students became known as danişmends. The usual Arabic word for a university, however, is جامعة (jāmiʻah). The Hebrew cognate midrasha also connotes the meaning of a place of learning; the related term midrash literally refers to study or learning, but has acquired mystical and religious connotations.
However, in English, the term madrasah usually refers to the specifically Islamic institutions. A typical Islamic school usually offers two courses of study: a ḥifẓ course teaching memorization of the Qur'an (the person who commits the entire Qurʼan to memory is called a ḥāfiẓ); and an ʻālim course leading the candidate to become an accepted scholar in the community. A regular curriculum includes courses in Arabic, tafsir (Qur'anic interpretation), sharīʻah (Islamic law), hadiths (recorded sayings and deeds of Muhammad), mantiq (logic), and Muslim history. In the Ottoman Empire, during the Early Modern Period, the study of hadiths was introduced by Süleyman I. Depending on the educational demands, some madrasas also offer additional advanced courses in Arabic literature, English and other foreign languages, as well as science and world history. Ottoman madrasas along with religious teachings also taught "styles of writing, grammary, syntax, poetry, composition, natural sciences, political sciences, and etiquette."
People of all ages attend, and many often move on to becoming imams. The certificate of an ʻālim, for example, requires approximately twelve years of study. A good number of the ḥuffāẓ (plural of ḥāfiẓ) are the product of the madrasas. The madrasas also resemble colleges, where people take evening classes and reside in dormitories. An important function of the madrasas is to admit orphans and poor children in order to provide them with education and training. Madrasas may enroll female students; however, they study separately from the men.
EARLY HISTORY
The first institute of madrasa education was at the estate of Hazrat Zaid bin Arkam near a hill called Safa, where Hazrat Muhammad was the teacher and the students were some of his followers. After Hijrah (migration) the madrasa of "Suffa" was established in Madina on the east side of the Al-Masjid an-Nabawi mosque. Hazrat 'Ubada bin Samit was appointed there by Hazrat Muhammad as teacher and among the students. In the curriculum of the madrasa, there were teachings of The Qur'an, The Hadith, fara'iz, tajweed, genealogy, treatises of first aid, etc. There were also trainings of horse-riding, art of war, handwriting and calligraphy, athletics and martial arts. The first part of madrasa based education is estimated from the first day of "nabuwwat" to the first portion of the "Umaiya" caliphate.
Established in 859, Jāmiʻat al-Qarawīyīn (located in al-Qarawīyīn Mosque) in the city of Fas, Morocco, is considered the oldest university in the world by some scholars, though the existence of universities in the medieval Muslim world is debated. It was founded by Fāṭimah al-Fihrī, the daughter of a wealthy merchant named Muḥammad al-Fihrī. This was later followed by the establishment of al-Azhar in 959 in Cairo, Egypt.
During the late ʻAbbāsid period, the Seljuk vizier Niẓām al-Mulk created one of the first major official academic institutions known in history as the Madrasah Niẓāmīyah, based on the informal majālis (sessions of the shaykhs). Niẓām al-Mulk, who would later be murdered by the Assassins (Ḥashshāshīn), created a system of state madrasas (in his time they were called the Niẓāmiyyahs, named after him) in various ʻAbbāsid cities at the end of the 11th century.
During the rule of the Fatimid and Mamluk dynasties and their successor states in the medieval Middle East, many of the ruling elite founded madrasas through a religious endowment known as the waqf. Not only was the madrasa a potent symbol of status but it was an effective means of transmitting wealth and status to their descendants. Especially during the Mamlūk period, when only former slaves could assume power, the sons of the ruling Mamlūk elite were unable to inherit. Guaranteed positions within the new madrasas thus allowed them to maintain status. Madrasas built in this period include the Mosque-Madrasah of Sultan Ḥasan in Cairo.
Dimitri Gutas and the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy consider the period between the 11th and 14th centuries to be the "Golden Age" of Arabic and Islamic philosophy, initiated by al-Ghazali's successful integration of logic into the madrasah curriculum and the subsequent rise of Avicennism.
At the beginning of the Caliphate or Islamic Empire, the reliance on courts initially confined sponsorship and scholarly activities to major centres. Within several centuries, the development of Muslim educational institutions such as the madrasah and masjid eventually introduced such activities to provincial towns and dispersed them across the Islamic legal schools and Sufi orders. In addition to religious subjects, they also taught the "rational sciences," as varied as mathematics, astronomy, astrology, geography, alchemy, philosophy, magic, and occultism, depending on the curriculum of the specific institution in question. The madrasas, however, were not centres of advanced scientific study; scientific advances in Islam were usually carried out by scholars working under the patronage of royal courts. During this time,[when?] the Caliphate experienced a growth in literacy, having the highest literacy rate of the Middle Ages, comparable to classical Athens' literacy in antiquity but on a much larger scale. The emergence of the maktab and madrasa institutions played a fundamental role in the relatively high literacy rates of the medieval Islamic world.
The following excerpt provides a brief synopsis of the historical origins and starting points for the teachings that took place in the Ottoman madrasas in the Early Modern Period:
Taşköprülüzâde's concept of knowledge and his division of the sciences provides a starting point for a study of learning and medrese education in the Ottoman Empire. Taşköprülüzâde recognises four stages of knowledge - spiritual, intellectual, oral and written. Thus all the sciences fall into one of these seven categories: calligraphic sciences, oral sciences, intellectual sciences, spiritual sciences, theoretical rational sciences, and practical rational sciences. The first Ottoman medrese was created in İznik in 1331, when a converted Church building was assigned as a medrese to a famous scholar, Dâvûd of Kayseri. Suleyman made an important change in the hierarchy of Ottoman medreses. He established four general medreses and two more for specialised studies, one devoted to the ḥadīth and the other to medicine. He gave the highest ranking to these and thus established the hierarchy of the medreses which was to continue until the end of the empire.
ELEMENTARY EDUCATION
In the medieval Islamic world, an elementary school was known as a maktab, which dates back to at least the 10th century. Like madrasas (which referred to higher education), a maktab was often attached to an endowed mosque. In the 11th century, the famous Persian Islamic philosopher and teacher Ibn Sīnā (known as Avicenna in the West), in one of his books, wrote a chapter about the maktab entitled "The Role of the Teacher in the Training and Upbringing of Children," as a guide to teachers working at maktab schools. He wrote that children can learn better if taught in classes instead of individual tuition from private tutors, and he gave a number of reasons for why this is the case, citing the value of competition and emulation among pupils, as well as the usefulness of group discussions and debates. Ibn Sīnā described the curriculum of a maktab school in some detail, describing the curricula for two stages of education in a maktab school.
PRIMARY EDUCATION
Ibn Sīnā wrote that children should be sent to a maktab school from the age of 6 and be taught primary education until they reach the age of 14. During which time, he wrote, they should be taught the Qur'an, Islamic metaphysics, language, literature, Islamic ethics, and manual skills (which could refer to a variety of practical skills).
SECONDARY EDUCATION
Ibn Sīnā refers to the secondary education stage of maktab schooling as a period of specialisation when pupils should begin to acquire manual skills, regardless of their social status. He writes that children after the age of 14 should be allowed to choose and specialise in subjects they have an interest in, whether it was reading, manual skills, literature, preaching, medicine, geometry, trade and commerce, craftsmanship, or any other subject or profession they would be interested in pursuing for a future career. He wrote that this was a transitional stage and that there needs to be flexibility regarding the age in which pupils graduate, as the student's emotional development and chosen subjects need to be taken into account.
HIGHER EDUCATION
During its formative period, the term madrasah referred to a higher education institution, whose curriculum initially included only the "religious sciences", whilst philosophy and the secular sciences were often excluded. The curriculum slowly began to diversify, with many later madrasas teaching both the religious and the "secular sciences", such as logic, mathematics and philosophy. Some madrasas further extended their curriculum to history, politics, ethics, music, metaphysics, medicine, astronomy and chemistry. The curriculum of a madrasah was usually set by its founder, but most generally taught both the religious sciences and the physical sciences. Madrasas were established throughout the Islamic world, examples being the 9th century University of al-Qarawiyyin, the 10th century al-Azhar University (the most famous), the 11th century Niẓāmīyah, as well as 75 madrasas in Cairo, 51 in Damascus and up to 44 in Aleppo between 1155 and 1260. Many more were also established in the Andalusian cities of Córdoba, Seville, Toledo, Granada (Madrasah of Granada), Murcia, Almería, Valencia and Cádiz during the Caliphate of Córdoba.
In the Ottoman Empire during the early modern period, "Madrasas were divided into lower and specialised levels, which reveals that there was a sense of elevation in school. Students who studied in the specialised schools after completing courses in the lower levels became known as danişmends."
While "madrasah" can now refer to any type of school, the term madrasah was originally used to refer more specifically to a medieval Islamic centre of learning, mainly teaching Islamic law and theology, usually affiliated with a mosque, and funded by an early charitable trust known as waqf.
LAW SCHOOL
Madrasas were largely centred on the study of fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence). The ijāzat al-tadrīs wa-al-iftāʼ ("licence to teach and issue legal opinions") in the medieval Islamic legal education system had its origins in the 9th century after the formation of the madhāhib (schools of jurisprudence). George Makdisi considers the ijāzah to be the origin of the European doctorate. However, in an earlier article, he considered the ijāzah to be of "fundamental difference" to the medieval doctorate, since the former was awarded by an individual teacher-scholar not obliged to follow any formal criteria, whereas the latter was conferred on the student by the collective authority of the faculty. To obtain an ijāzah, a student "had to study in a guild school of law, usually four years for the basic undergraduate course" and ten or more years for a post-graduate course. The "doctorate was obtained after an oral examination to determine the originality of the candidate's theses", and to test the student's "ability to defend them against all objections, in disputations set up for the purpose." These were scholarly exercises practised throughout the student's "career as a graduate student of law." After students completed their post-graduate education, they were awarded ijazas giving them the status of faqīh 'scholar of jurisprudence', muftī 'scholar competent in issuing fatwās', and mudarris 'teacher'.
The Arabic term ijāzat al-tadrīs was awarded to Islamic scholars who were qualified to teach. According to Makdisi, the Latin title licentia docendi 'licence to teach' in the European university may have been a translation of the Arabic, but the underlying concept was very different. A significant difference between the ijāzat al-tadrīs and the licentia docendi was that the former was awarded by the individual scholar-teacher, while the latter was awarded by the chief official of the university, who represented the collective faculty, rather than the individual scholar-teacher.
Much of the study in the madrasah college centred on examining whether certain opinions of law were orthodox. This scholarly process of "determining orthodoxy began with a question which the Muslim layman, called in that capacity mustaftī, presented to a jurisconsult, called mufti, soliciting from him a response, called fatwa, a legal opinion (the religious law of Islam covers civil as well as religious matters). The mufti (professor of legal opinions) took this question, studied it, researched it intensively in the sacred scriptures, in order to find a solution to it. This process of scholarly research was called ijtihād, literally, the exertion of one's efforts to the utmost limit."
MEDICAL SCHOOL
Though Islamic medicine was most often taught at the bimaristan teaching hospitals, there were also several medical madrasas dedicated to the teaching of medicine. For example, of the 155 madrasa colleges in 15th century Damascus, three of them were medical schools. No medical degrees were granted to students, as there was no faculty that could issue them. Therefore, no system of examination and certification ever developed in the Islamic tradition, in contrast with medieval Europe.
In the Early Modern Period in the Ottoman Empire, "Suleyman I added new curriculums ['sic'] to the Ottoman medreses of which one was medicine, which alongside studying of the ḥadīth was given highest rank."
MADRASA AND UNIVERSITY
Note: The word jāmiʻah (Arabic: جامعة) simply means 'university'. For more information, see Islamic university (disambiguation).
There is disagreement whether madrasas ever became universities. Scholars like Arnold H. Green and Seyyed Hossein Nasr have argued that starting in the 10th century, some medieval Islamic madrasas indeed became universities. George Makdisi and others, however, argue that the European university has no parallel in the medieval Islamic world. Darleen Pryds questions this view, pointing out that madrasas and European universities in the Mediterranean region shared similar foundations by princely patrons and were intended to provide loyal administrators to further the rulers' agenda. Other scholars regard the university as uniquely European in origin and characteristics.
al-Qarawīyīn University in Fez, Morocco is recognised by many historians as the oldest degree-granting university in the world, having been founded in 859 by Fatima al-Fihri. While the madrasa college could also issue degrees at all levels, the jāmiʻahs (such as al-Qarawīyīn and al-Azhar University) differed in the sense that they were larger institutions, more universal in terms of their complete source of studies, had individual faculties for different subjects, and could house a number of mosques, madrasas, and other institutions within them. Such an institution has thus been described as an "Islamic university".
Al-Azhar University, founded in Cairo, Egypt in 975 by the Ismaʻīlī Shīʻī Fatimid dynasty as a jāmiʻah, had individual faculties for a theological seminary, Islamic law and jurisprudence, Arabic grammar, Islamic astronomy, early Islamic philosophy and logic in Islamic philosophy. The postgraduate doctorate in law was only obtained after "an oral examination to determine the originality of the candidate's theses", and to test the student's "ability to defend them against all objections, in disputations set up for the purpose." ‘Abd al-Laṭīf al-Baghdādī also delivered lectures on Islamic medicine at al-Azhar, while Maimonides delivered lectures on medicine and astronomy there during the time of Saladin. Another early jāmiʻah was the Niẓāmīyah of Baghdād (founded 1091), which has been called the "largest university of the Medieval world." Mustansiriya University, established by the ʻAbbāsid caliph al-Mustanṣir in 1233, in addition to teaching the religious subjects, offered courses dealing with philosophy, mathematics and the natural sciences.
However, the classification of madrasas as "universities" is disputed on the question of understanding of each institution on its own terms. In madrasas, the ijāzahs were only issued in one field, the Islamic religious law of sharīʻah, and in no other field of learning. Other academic subjects, including the natural sciences, philosophy and literary studies, were only treated "ancillary" to the study of the Sharia. For example, a natural science like astronomy was only studied (if at all) to supply religious needs, like the time for prayer. This is why Ptolemaic astronomy was considered adequate, and is still taught in some modern day madrasas. The Islamic law undergraduate degree from al-Azhar, the most prestigious madrasa, was traditionally granted without final examinations, but on the basis of the students' attentive attendance to courses. In contrast to the medieval doctorate which was granted by the collective authority of the faculty, the Islamic degree was not granted by the teacher to the pupil based on any formal criteria, but remained a "personal matter, the sole prerogative of the person bestowing it; no one could force him to give one".
Medievalist specialists who define the university as a legally autonomous corporation disagree with the term "university" for the Islamic madrasas and jāmi‘ahs because the medieval university (from Latin universitas) was structurally different, being a legally autonomous corporation rather than a waqf institution like the madrasa and jāmiʻah. Despite the many similarities, medieval specialists have coined the term "Islamic college" for madrasa and jāmiʻah to differentiate them from the legally autonomous corporations that the medieval European universities were. In a sense, the madrasa resembles a university college in that it has most of the features of a university, but lacks the corporate element. Toby Huff summarises the difference as follows:
From a structural and legal point of view, the madrasa and the university were contrasting types. Whereas the madrasa was a pious endowment under the law of religious and charitable foundations (waqf), the universities of Europe were legally autonomous corporate entities that had many legal rights and privileges. These included the capacity to make their own internal rules and regulations, the right to buy and sell property, to have legal representation in various forums, to make contracts, to sue and be sued."
As Muslim institutions of higher learning, the madrasa had the legal designation of waqf. In central and eastern Islamic lands, the view that the madrasa, as a charitable endowment, will remain under the control of the donor (and their descendent), resulted in a "spurt" of establishment of madrasas in the 11th and 12th centuries. However, in Western Islamic lands, where the Maliki views prohibited donors from controlling their endowment, madrasas were not as popular. Unlike the corporate designation of Western institutions of higher learning, the waqf designation seemed to have led to the exclusion of non-orthodox religious subjects such a philosophy and natural science from the curricula. The madrasa of al-Qarawīyīn, one of the two surviving madrasas that predate the founding of the earliest medieval universities and are thus claimed to be the "first universities" by some authors, has acquired official university status as late as 1947. The other, al-Azhar, did acquire this status in name and essence only in the course of numerous reforms during the 19th and 20th century, notably the one of 1961 which introduced non-religious subjects to its curriculum, such as economics, engineering, medicine, and agriculture. It should also be noted that many medieval universities were run for centuries as Christian cathedral schools or monastic schools prior to their formal establishment as universitas
scholarium; evidence of these immediate forerunners of the university dates back to the 6th century AD, thus well preceding the earliest madrasas. George Makdisi, who has published most extensively on the topic concludes in his comparison between the two institutions:
Thus the university, as a form of social organization, was peculiar to medieval Europe. Later, it was exported to all parts of the world, including the Muslim East; and it has remained with us down to the present day. But back in the middle ages, outside of Europe, there was nothing anything quite like it anywhere.
Nevertheless, Makdisi has asserted that the European university borrowed many of its features from the Islamic madrasa, including the concepts of a degree and doctorate. Makdisi and Hugh Goddard have also highlighted other terms and concepts now used in modern universities which most likely have Islamic origins, including "the fact that we still talk of professors holding the 'Chair' of their subject" being based on the "traditional Islamic pattern of teaching where the professor sits on a chair and the students sit around him", the term 'academic circles' being derived from the way in which Islamic students "sat in a circle around their professor", and terms such as "having 'fellows', 'reading' a subject, and obtaining 'degrees', can all be traced back" to the Islamic concepts of aṣḥāb ('companions, as of Muhammad'), qirāʼah ('reading aloud the Qur'an') and ijāzah ('licence [to teach]') respectively. Makdisi has listed eighteen such parallels in terminology which can be traced back to their roots in Islamic education. Some of the practices now common in modern universities which Makdisi and Goddard trace back to an Islamic root include "practices such as delivering inaugural lectures, wearing academic robes, obtaining doctorates by defending a thesis, and even the idea of academic freedom are also modelled on Islamic custom." The Islamic scholarly system of fatwá and ijmāʻ, meaning opinion and consensus respectively, formed the basis of the "scholarly system the West has practised in university scholarship from the Middle Ages down to the present day." According to Makdisi and Goddard, "the idea of academic freedom" in universities was also "modelled on Islamic custom" as practised in the medieval Madrasa system from the 9th century. Islamic influence was "certainly discernible in the foundation of the first deliberately planned university" in Europe, the University of Naples Federico II founded by Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor in 1224.
However, all of these facets of medieval university life are considered by standard scholarship to be independent medieval European developments with no tracable Islamic influence. Generally, some reviewers have pointed out the strong inclination of Makdisi of overstating his case by simply resting on "the accumulation of close parallels", but all the while failing to point to convincing channels of transmission between the Muslim and Christian world. Norman Daniel points out that the Arab equivalent of the Latin disputation, the taliqa, was reserved for the ruler's court, not the madrasa, and that the actual differences between Islamic fiqh and medieval European civil law were profound. The taliqa only reached Islamic Spain, the only likely point of transmission, after the establishment of the first medieval universities. In fact, there is no Latin translation of the taliqa and, most importantly, no evidence of Latin scholars ever showing awareness of Arab influence on the Latin method of disputation, something they would have certainly found noteworthy. Rather, it was the medieval reception of the Greek Organon which set the scholastic sic et non in motion. Daniel concludes that resemblances in method had more to with the two religions having "common problems: to reconcile the conflicting statements of their own authorities, and to safeguard the data of revelation from the impact of Greek philosophy"; thus Christian scholasticism and similar Arab concepts should be viewed in terms of a parallel occurrence, not of the transmission of ideas from one to the other, a view shared by Hugh Kennedy.
Tony Huff, in a discussion of Makdisi's hypothesis, concludes:
It remains the case that no equivalent of the bachelor's degree, the licentia docendi, or higher degrees ever emerged in the medieval or early modern Islamic madrasas.
FEMALE EDUCATION
Prior to the 12th century, women accounted for less than one percent of the world’s Islamic scholars. However, al-Sakhawi and Mohammad Akram Nadwi have since found evidence of over 8,000 female scholars since the 15th century.[64] al-Sakhawi devotes an entire volume of his 12-volume biographical dictionary al-Ḍawʾ al-lāmiʻ to female scholars, giving information on 1,075 of them. More recently, the scholar Mohammad Akram Nadwi, currently a researcher from the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, has written 40 volumes on the muḥaddithāt (the women scholars of ḥadīth), and found at least 8,000 of them.
From around 750, during the Abbasid Caliphate, women “became renowned for their brains as well as their beauty”. In particular, many well known women of the time were trained from childhood in music, dancing and poetry. Mahbuba was one of these. Another feminine figure to be remembered for her achievements was Tawaddud, "a slave girl who was said to have been bought at great cost by Hārūn al-Rashīd because she had passed her examinations by the most eminent scholars in astronomy, medicine, law, philosophy, music, history, Arabic grammar, literature, theology and chess".[68] Moreover, among the most prominent feminine figures was Shuhda who was known as "the Scholar" or "the Pride of Women" during the 12th century in Baghdad. Despite the recognition of women's aptitudes during the Abbasid dynasty, all these came to an end in Iraq with the sack of Baghdad in 1258.
Women played an important role in the foundations of many Islamic educational institutions, such as Fatima al-Fihri's founding of the University of Al Karaouine in 859. This continued through to the Ayyubid dynasty in the 12th and 13th centuries, when 160 mosques and madrasas were established in Damascus, 26 of which were funded by women through the Waqf (charitable trust) system. Half of all the royal patrons for these institutions were also women.
According to the Sunni scholar Ibn ʻAsākir in the 12th century, there were opportunities for female education in the medieval Islamic world, writing that women could study, earn ijazahs (academic degrees), and qualify as scholars and teachers. This was especially the case for learned and scholarly families, who wanted to ensure the highest possible education for both their sons and daughters. Ibn ʻAsakir had himself studied under 80 different female teachers in his time. Female education in the Islamic world was inspired by Muhammad's wives, such as Khadijah, a successful businesswoman. According to a hadith attributed to Muhammad, he praised the women of Medina because of their desire for religious knowledge:
How splendid were the women of the ansar; shame did not prevent them from becoming learned in the faith.
While it was not common for women to enroll as students in formal classes, it was common for women to attend informal lectures and study sessions at mosques, madrasas and other public places. While there were no legal restrictions on female education, some men did not approve of this practice, such as Muhammad ibn al-Hajj (d. 1336) who was appalled at the behaviour of some women who informally audited lectures in his time:
[Consider] what some women do when people gather with a shaykh to hear [the recitation of] books. At that point women come, too, to hear the readings; the men sit in one place, the women facing them. It even happens at such times that some of the women are carried away by the situation; one will stand up, and sit down, and shout in a loud voice. [Moreover,] her 'awra will appear; in her house, their exposure would be forbidden — how can it be allowed in a mosque, in the presence of men?
The term ʻawrah is often translated as 'that which is indecent', which usually meant the exposure of anything other than a woman's face and hands, although scholarly interpretations of the ʻawrah and ḥijāb have always tended to vary, with some more or less strict than others.
WIKIPEDIA
This head bears a uncanny resemblance to Charles Darwin!!
Also, the depiction of the head in this 1868 engraving suggests the artist may have never seen an Orang-Outang!
Chambers’s Encyclopaedia - a Dictionary of Universal Knowledge for the People. (1868).
Illustrated with Maps and numerous Wood Engravings..
Published by W. And R. Chambers, London. Half leather bound, 10 Vols total 8400 pages, 18cm x 26cm.