#the state of the ones entrusted to inherit the Library

[blackvahana]

it is actually funny to think that a big reason the twins didnt really like my micolash art was probably because they dont even like the character micolash

[mephinomaly]

[TL] Memories of a Doll/Chapter 7

Time: A few days later

Location: Library

Hajime: ♪~ ♪~

Today’s weather is lovely - perfect for cleaning~. I noticed a spot of dust on the top of these books, so I’ll get right to it.

Otogari-senpai’s book is due today, so I came here as soon as the school bell rang—

I wonder if he’s finished reading about animism. On our way home from the flea market, he said he was trying his hardest and was halfway through it.

I hope Otogari-senpai is enjoying it…

Adonis: Excuse me, Shino.

Hajime: Ah, speak of the devil… You’ve arrived.

Adonis: Devil? Have I done something hellish?

Hajime: Ah, no, I was just talking to myself about how today was the day that your book was due back. How was it?

Adonis: Good. I managed to finish it whilst using my Japanese dictionary to help. Though I have to give it back now, it was a very interesting read.

Because you showed me how others care for their things at the flea market, I was able to understand animism quickly as I read.

Hajime: Fufu. I might have to give it a read with everything you’re saying.

Well then, I’ll start with the process of returning the book. Please wait for a moment.

Adonis: Ah, thank you.

I have one more request, though.

Hajime: ? A request…?

Adonis: Yes. To be honest, I have decided what book I’d like to read next. I want to read a book about knitting.

Hajime: Animism to knitting…?

It sounds like a bit of a cheesy pun[1]. Why the change of heart?

Adonis: No, my heart changed on the day of the flea market.

Animism states that spirits reside in nature and objects. They believed that even in ancient Japan.

So I was thinking about that throughout the market.

That spirit that resides within, is what humans call “wanting to take care of something”— that affection, isn’t that simply kindheartedness?

Hajime: I see… I mean, that could be right.

I’m also worried about giving away things I’ve used for a while. I could put my unused items up for sale because I didn’t really have much attachment to them.

Adonis: I see. So in a sense, it is the person that gives things emotional value. Humans give objects their spirit.

Like how my mother found that doll and gave him to me. I think I can also entrust people with things I value, like my mother did to me.

That’s why I want to read a book about knitting.

My mother is far from here, so I cannot repay her now. I am thinking of giving a gift to someone I know first.

If I give Oogami something knitted, he might get angry and complain that it’s “stuffy-looking”…♪

Hajime: Fufu, I see. I think no matter what you give Oogami-senpai, he’ll take great care of it—

There’s a few books in the library about handcrafts. It will be good to give him something that fits his personality.

For example, how about this one? It’s about how to make silver jewellery…♪

Oogami-senpai usually wears silver, so I think he’ll be happy with that ♪

Adonis: That sounds good. As expected of a member of the library committee, you were able to find a book that I wanted to read rather quickly.

Then, I’ll borrow both the book on knitting and jewellery making. I hope there comes a day where I can thank you, Shino. I’m clumsy, but I’ll do my best.

Hajime: Of course. I’m cheering for you, Otogari-senpai.

This is just like how I took over from Aoba-senpai as a member of the library committee, and how I inherited his hopes. Otogari-senpai, please continue to share your wonderful mind…♪

prev

directory

this is the final chapter so there's no 'next' ^^

animism in japanese is “animizumu” and knitting is “amimono”. bit of a stretch but it works ig lol

[lewishamledger]

Leo the lionheart

Words by Hugo Greenhalgh

Images of Lionel de Jersey Harvard courtesy of Harvard University Archives

A rather surprising but once well-loved name appears on a grave near the Dissenters Chapel at Brockley and Ladywell Cemeteries.

Lionel de Jersey Harvard holds the distinction of being the first “Harvard” to attend Harvard University. Lionel’s story is one that helped to re-establish Harvard’s original ties to south London, and while he was killed in the First World War in March 1918, aged just 24, his legacy still survives on both sides of the Atlantic.

The story actually begins in Southwark, where John Harvard was born and raised over 400 years ago. Baptised at Southwark Cathedral, he attended school locally at St Saviour’s Grammar School and is arguably its most famous pupil.

Tragedy struck, when in 1625, the bubonic plague took the lives of John’s father and seven of his siblings. Suddenly in receipt of a large inheritance, which was shared with his mother, Katherine and his one surviving brother, Thomas, John was able to attend Emmanuel College, Cambridge where he completed a BA and an MA.

When Katherine and Thomas also passed away, John decided he would emigrate to New England in the summer of 1637, along with his wife Ann. The couple settled in Charlestown, Massachusetts, where John served as a clergyman. He died, childless, of consumption the following year.

On his deathbed, John bequeathed half of his estate and his personal library to the local New College in Massachusetts, which had been established to help train ministers. In 1639, it was renamed Harvard College in his honour.

That John left no children proved a source of fascination down the years. When a statue of Harvard was commissioned in the 1880s, sculptor Daniel Chester French was forced to deal with the conundrum that no physical description of what he looked like existed.

For his model, he used a student named Sherman Hoar, a descendent of Leonard Hoar, an English-born near-contemporary of John Harvard’s, and the fourth president of the College. “He has more of what I want than anyone I know”, French said of his model.

Not long after that statue was erected, back in south London, Lionel de Jersey Harvard was born on 3 June 1893 in Lewisham. His father Thomas was the youngest son of the Reverend John Harvard, who himself was a descendant of Thomas Harvard – the brother of the original John Harvard. Young Lionel attended St Olave’s and St Saviour’s Grammar School – a continuation of the same Southwark school John had attended in the 17th century.

Just like John, many of Lionel’s close family had studied at Emmanuel College. However, when it came to his turn, the family’s financial situation prohibited him and he instead began work with a marine insurance brokers.

News of this Harvard clan made its way back to New England by pure happenstance. In 1847, Edward Everett – then president of Harvard – had written a letter to an English minister George Bancroft, asking him to return some books to Lionel’s grandfather, the Reverend John Harvard.

Some years later Mark Antony De Wolfe Howe, a Bostonian editor, came across the letter in his efforts to compile an anthology of Bancroft’s own correspondence. Intrigued by the Harvard connection, he entrusted his friend Louis Holman to make some enquiries on a trip to England in 1908.

Holman began to exchange his letters with the Harvards and was invited into the family home at Queen Leaze, Forest Hill, not far from where the Horniman Museum had just opened. He was enamoured by the family and was shown genealogical records of the Harvard’s heritage.

Speaking to the Massachusetts weekly newspaper the Cambridge Chronicle in September 1911, Holman said, “If similarity of ideals can be construed as evidence of relationship, the Harvards of Forest Hill are true descendants of the family to which belonged the namegiver of Harvard university.”

He reported back the news of Lionel’s predicament around his future education and it did not take long for a group of Harvard alumni to offer to cover the cost of tuition to come and study at Harvard, which would make him the first Harvard to do so.

It was the opportunity of a lifetime, and Lionel jumped at the chance. “This wholly unexpected information filled the Harvard home in London with happiness”, stated the Cambridge Chronicle.

Lionel actually failed the entrance examinations at his first attempt, but that was perhaps to be forgiven due to the differences in English and American curriculums. Following a period of intensive tuition, he was able to get the grades he needed to be accepted by the Harvard examination board. In September 1911, he set sail from Liverpool on his transatlantic voyage on a steamship called the “Canadian” and was greeted in Boston Harbour by Louis Holman.

The sense of fanfare around his arrival can be gleaned from contemporary reports. “Harvard of Harvard here”, proclaimed the Boston Evening Transcript. The Cambridge Chronicle were even more gushing: “...the appearance of this manly young English boy in the freshman class at Harvard this fall is an incident worthy of note in the history of America's most ancient institution of learning.”

As a freshman, Lionel lived at Weld Hall, a towering redbrick dormitory off Harvard Yard and a stone’s throw from the statue of his heralded ancestor. He made the most of the privileges a student has on offer, joining members’ clubs such as the Signet Society and the Hasty Pudding Club, the oldest collegiate social club in America.

On arrival, Harvard was met with a barrage of questions around his sporting pedigree. “He has never played baseball,” the Chronicle reported.

“The only kind of football he has played is soccer —so he may yet qualify for a football team. He also plays tennis.” However, he recognised that he was principally there to get an education. “Harvard is just a good, wholesome, everyday boy, and apparently the one thing he doesn't wish is notoriety of any kind. He came to study.”

It would seem that once Lionel settled in, he flourished at Harvard. In his junior year, he won the Boylston Elocution Contest for a recital of Alfred Noyes’ The Highwayman, for which he was awarded $30.

He also appeared in annual Elizabethan theatricals as a member of a men's fraternity, performed with the Glee Club, and volunteered for the Harvard Christian Association. Lionel’s most notorious acting role was his portrayal of his own ancestor John, as part of the celebrations for the 150th anniversary of the Hollis Hall building.

“The part of John Harvard was well taken by Lionel de Jersey”, the Cambridge Chronicle reported. So striking was the performance that his classmates began to refer to him as ‘John’.

When graduation came in the summer of 1915, Lionel was given the honour of composing both the Class Poem and the Baccalaureate Hymn. He graduated cum laude in English, and 1915 turned out to be a good year for the arts at Harvard, with the poet EE Cummings, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer John P Marquand and composer Roger Sessions also finishing in the same year.

Harvard was widely regarded as a positive influence during his four years spent at Harvard and a fitting continuation of the legendary surname. In their write-up of his graduation, the Harvard Alumni Bulletin proclaimed, “Harvard has had good reason to be proud of her sons, but seldom more than of that son who bears her very name. Whatever may befall him, the romance and reality of his career must win him peculiar measure the Godspeed of his fellow alumni.”

Sadly, the fate to which this final line eluded to was met relatively swiftly. Just two days after graduation, Lionel returned to England to enlist in the Army. He joined the Grenadier Guards in September 1915 and left for France in March 1916.

Lionel was shot during the Battle of the Somme and spent months recovering before returning to the frontline. In March 1918 he was killed in action, whilst in command of Number One Company of the First Battalion.

Aged just 24, Lionel’s young life had only just been getting started. Harvard College were quick to honour his memory. They named a freshman dormitory Lionel Hall after him, which was funded personally by Harvard President Abbott Lawrence Lowell and completed in 1925.

Those who later resided in the hall included Peter Benchley, creator of the film series Jaws, and the author and screenwriter Erich Segal.

A scholarship was also set up in his name, which funds a year’s tuition for a student at Emmanuel College, where Lionel had once intended to study. Back in England, his name was added to the family stone at Brockley and Ladywell Cemeteries.

[magma-paint]

This... ref sheet... has been laying in my folder... since May... and I now decided to finish it before it drove me up the wall. But enough raging over how much work chewed up my time over the summer and that the double whammy of work and school is at play again and let’s talk about this. This is Alston, Claire and Porcia’s brother and Cuphead and Mugman’s uncle though he never got the chance to meet them proper. He is a cream pitcher that you would find in some tea sets.

Main Sketch: My inspirations for him were Milo Thatch from Atlantis, Vin from Jak II, and to some extent Klaus from A Series of Unfortunate Events. Unlike his sisters, he doesn’t exhibit much color-mixing so his main color is practically inherited straight from Edith without mixing in much blue from Percy.

A. He’s been wearing glasses since he was six because his myopia really messes with him. He’s practically blind without his glasses and can’t read anything unless he’s practically kissing the book.

B. (doing my best Allenborough impression) And here we see the middle child of Lynn Manor in his natural habitat, perusing books to his heart’s content. Spending nearly all day in the manor library, he pores over a great many volumes on a great many topics. He will stack each book into the ones he has yet to read in his selection or the ones he has just finished and has had a moment to process a summary of the one he has finally closed. It appears he’s going to be a while here, so we’ll leave him be in his state of absorbing information.

C. Side sketch. Though I wish I had a cream pitcher with me to get an idea of other angles to draw him from especially with his head tilted downward.

D. Don’t get me wrong, this guy absolutely loved his sisters. But after Porcia escaped from Hell and got married, it got a lot harder to keep in touch with her and Claire. In Claire’s case, it was because she was leaving her parents’ faction to start her own base of operations and was being very cryptic about where she was setting up shop as to not be tracked down and killed by Percy and Edith for disowning them. This was even something Porcia didn’t know about. And in Porcia’s case, she was starting a family of her own with Cerrel and communication got cramped what with trying to keep any information away from Percy and Edith and HOPING they don’t intercept their letters. Alston only knew about the existence of his nephews through Percy and Edith and finding out about them going out and harassing his sister.

E. Alston really warmed up to Cerrel in the time leading up to the wedding and the two would often discuss findings at rugged ridge and other family history quite frequently. Cerrel even entrusted his old journal to Alston for his research (”I think you might be able to use this. Here, it’ll be my gift to you.” --Cerrel) and Alston has endearingly referred to the journal as “The Sacred Texts”.

F. The last time he was ever seen before he got shot. After all the years of psyclogical (sometimes physical) abuse, after everything that happened because of his parents’ contract with the Devil, after his little sister and his brother in law were MURDERED and his nephews thought to have also lost their lives because of Percy and Edith, after all of that, Alston finally took a stand and snapped. He outed his parents for what they’ve done, disowned them, and fled the manor with his research to restart his life on Isle Two without any involvement in the mafia. He only made it as far as the connecting bridge before he was cornered by their soldiers and taken out.

Things will be clarified when I get around to writing those entries of Origins Series proper, but for now I’m just happy I got this thing done.

[aion-rsa]

George Takei Narrates Hope for the Future

https://ift.tt/2W0BFOA

George Takei has lived through cataclysmic times, but he’s never given up his hope for a better future. You can see this sense of hope in his choices of projects, whether it’s the vision of Gene Roddenbery in Star Trek or in his most recent project, narrating two stories by Ken Liu for Serial Box.

“Many of my friends are saying, ‘This is cataclysmic, what we’re living through. It’s dystopian, everything being destroyed, this is the end of the earth,’” he says. “I tell them, ‘No, we go through many cataclysms.’ And I tell them about my childhood.”

As a child during World War II, Takei’s family was taken to Japanese Internment Camps. At five, he thought living in the swamps of Arkansas, surrounded by barbed wire and guarded by soldiers, was a great adventure. For his parents, it was sheer cataclysm. Forced from their home at gunpoint, their assets frozen, their business taken away—the world had turned upside down, and the justice system had failed to live up to its central principles.

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, American citizens—and their government officials—were terrified, and they expressed that terror by enacting laws that called born citizens and children alien enemies. 

“The president who, during the 30s, said ‘There is nothing to fear but fear itself,��� pulled the nation out of that crushing Depression,” Takei says. “But when the nation was swept up in that hysteria, he was stampeded by that fear.” 

Takei’s memories of growing up in two internment camps is retold in the graphic novel They Called Us Enemy, which received the Eisner Award for Best Reality-Based Work. “That was a cataclysm I grew up in,” he says. “I saw my parents after the war work long days and long nights to get back on their feet.”

Takei also recalls the unrest of the 1960s, when he was in his twenties. The Civil Rights movement was met with violence and lynching; the Vietnam War divided the United States in half. Demonstrations were met with gunfire; the president, the attorney general, and Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King., Jr. were all assassinated. 

“It was a turbulent time,” he says. “Chaos. We survived that, too.”

Gene Rodenberry’s optimistic vision of the future was one of the things that Takei embraced about the original Star Trek series. “I love Gene Rodenberry,” he says. “He’s an artist, creator, and a dynamo that I admire. Anything that is inspired by the works of Gene Rodenberry, I would love to do again.” 

When asked if he’d be interested in continuing his voice work for a project like Star Trek: Lower Decks—or any other Star Trek project—he laughs. “I’ve been hoping ever since my last Star Trek,” he answers, even if he feels the more recent Star Trek projects haven’t quite lived up to Rodenberry’s vision. 

“The people who have inherited Star Trek as producers and writers really sometimes have not listened to Gene Rodenberry,” he says. “They’re more action-adventure in space, [where] Gene wanted to use sci-fi as a metaphor to comment on our society. He thought television was being wasted—it was a wonderful medium to communicate with a lot of people.”

In Takei’s most recent project as a narrator for two of Ken Liu’s science fiction stories, now available on Serial Box, he offers a sense of both hope—and resistance—in sharing Liu’s words.

The Star Trek legend was first contacted by Serial Box, through his agent, with the idea of having him narrate the pieces. “I loved the stories when he sent them over,” Takei says. Serial Box is known for pairing prose with audio productions that include voice, music, and sound effects. The stories were Takei’s first introduction to Liu’s work. 

“This has been a wonderful introduction for me,” he says. “I’m going to have to start catching up on my Ken Liu.”

Read more

TV

Exploring the Biggest Missing Gap in the Star Trek Timeline

By Ryan Britt

“Saboteur” is a tale about a trucker trying to fight against the automation of his job, resisting the encroaching technology with unexpected results. 

“Summer Reading” is about a girl interacting with a robot, discovering the joy of reading paper books. In both tales, Takei performs a number of voices, clearly distinguishing the characters for the listener. 

“The fun part, really, is the preparation, the trial and error,” he says. “You go through the fun of preparation. When you’re recording, time is limited. I had the chance to only read it twice—two stories, each read twice.” 

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Takei created his own “cubby hole” home studio for the recording, piling up couch cushions, and hanging a rug and a comforter, to absorb any external sounds. Once the recording is complete, “They pick and choose the sentence that’s better,” he explains, calling the whole process a collaboration, and particularly highlighting the work of Amanda Rose Smith, Head of Audio Production at Serial Box.

The Serial Box team adds sound effects after the fact, such as trucks along the highway in “Saboteur” and the sounds of the robot walking in “Summer Reading.” The latter he described as a “klump, klump—I didn’t quite expect my robot to be klumpy,” he jokes. “I expected him to be more aerodynamic. The klump is so old-fashioned.” 

They also added a reverberation to his delivery of the robot’s lines. “I didn’t know they were going to do that, but I thought, ‘Oh, how wonderful!’” 

Describing his experience as both a narrator and a reader, Takei says, “The two stories are wonderful complements of each other.” 

In the first, “It’s man against technology, and technology is encroaching on man’s turf, but man is also capable of defending his turf. Essentially he wins, but he also loses.” 

Where the main character of “Saboteur” wins at a great cost, the main character of “Summer Reading,” a robot who curates a library, knows the great cost it risks by entrusting something to a young girl.

“Technology, machines, have absorbed the essence of humanity, of respecting and treasuring heritage, compassion, and sharing. These are all essential human qualities,” Takei says. “The humans have become unfeeling consumers, but there’s a glimmer of hope in that young human, and the robot shares a little bit of that, and they connect. It fills the robot with joy, but it’s also mindful of the danger of sharing this precious heritage with this innocent and un-understanding young human. So it wins as this humanoid machine, but it knows that sometimes, it’s going to eventually lose…those two stories together are like the yin and yang.”

The stories have a distinct resonance to current events. Originally published in science fiction periodicals in 2012 and 2014, both stories feel remarkably relevant in an era where so many have lost jobs to the coronavirus pandemic, and where many children are attending school on screens, rather than in person. Readers and listeners might identify with the idea of resisting something that seems inevitable, as the main character does in “Saboteur.” They may also find hope in listening to the risk taken by the robot in “Summer Reading,” who believes humanity deserves a chance to remember its best values.

Like the robot, Takei is hopeful and optimistic that the current turmoil in the United States will have an ending. 

“I’ve lived through periods of incredible cataclysm. So I know that, as horrible as what we’re going through right now seems … we will survive,” he says. “We will reach another point where we have some order, some peace, creativity, advances in our society. Maybe two steps back after we’ve taken three steps forward. And then we’ll take more than three steps. That’s why I’m optimistic. When you are defeated by the chaos going on, you are defeated, because you can’t see beyond it. Pessimism, negativism means that you’ve already defeated yourself. But just like that robot in ‘Summer Reading’ … [it] connects with the possibility, with the glimmer of hope, the optimism, and [it] takes that risk.”

In listening to Takei narrate the risks of hope and resistance in Liu’s stories, perhaps readers can capture that glimmer of hope, too.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

“Saboteur” and Summer Reading” are available through the Serial Box app or at SerialBox.com. 

The post George Takei Narrates Hope for the Future appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3ldl58n

[mrdisha0]

History of the Mamluks in Egypt

History of the Mamluks in Egypt

Mamluk state or the Mamluk or Mamluk Sultanate state or the Mamluk Sultanate is one of the Islamic countries they have in Egypt during the end of the third Abbasid era, and extended its borders later to include Syria and the Hijaz, and as long as their King from the fall of the Ayubí 648 approved for the year 1250 e, until the Ottoman Empire reached the peak of its power Sultan Selim I annexed the Levantine and Egyptian houses to his state after the Mamluks were defeated in the battle of Ridania in 923 AH (1517 AD). Historians divide the Mamluk state into two or two branches: the state of the marine Mamluk and the status of the Mamluk tower. The rule of marine rompers from the year 648 AH corresponding to the year 1250 AD to the year 784 AH corresponding to the year 1382 AD, most of them were Turks and Mughals. The Mamluks ruled from 784 AH corresponding to 1382 AD until 923 AH corresponding to 1517 AD, and were Circassian.  The Mamluks, whose origins were slave warriors, were recruited by the first Abbasid caliphs of Turkestan, the Caucasus, etc., and made them their bodyguards and commanders of the Muslim armies, and the influence of the Mamluks increased over time until they dominated the caliphate and the decision-making center. These sultans and princes followed the caliphate in Baghdad, each with a group of powerful and militarily powerful Mamluks, and these Ayubi sultans who ruled Egypt and the Levant under Abbasid rule. When the last of the sultans of the children of Ayyub, the good king Najm al-Din Ayyub, died in 647 AH (1249 AD), his wife Shajr al-Durr hid his death until his son Turan Shah came from the island of Fratia to Cairo. Turan Shah tried to introduce his Mamluks who took him with him from the island. The Mamluks emerged as the savior of the Islamic world from loss and disappearance after the fall of Baghdad, the capital of the Abbasid state and the Islamic caliphate, to the Mongols under the leadership of Hulaku Khan, and the assassination of the last successor of the Abbasid Abu Ahmad Abdullah, who was the god of God. The Mongols marched to invade the Levant and threatened Egypt with a fate similar to Baghdad so that Islam would no longer exist. Mamluk Sultan Seif al-Din Qutz sent an army to Palestine to repel Mongol advance and protect the hearts of Islamic lands On the heels. In addition, the Mamluks inherited their determination to fight against the Crusaders and evacuate them from the East, so they almost finished fighting the Mongols until they went to fight the Crusaders.  The apparent king, Baybars, was the first to follow jihad against the Crusaders. His frank emirate has ceased to exist. Sultan Saif al-Din Qalawun completed the work of his predecessor, Baybars. Sultan Qalawun died in 1290 AD and was preparing a campaign to claim Acre. His fall, the main port of the Crusaders, aroused great anxiety and panic in them, and evacuated from other cities that were left in his hands, such as Tire, Sidon and Beirut, and boarded the sea back home, ending the Crusades after Nine hundred and four years. The Mamluks revived the Abbasid caliphate in Egypt after the fall of Baghdad, but it was a decorative figure that the Mamluk sultans intended to turn into a support for their sultanate and a spiritual support for him. The Mamluk era is the beginning of the role of decay in the history of Islamic civilization, but this does not mean that this era was quite inefficient, as it witnessed several scientific and intellectual achievements, but Islamic civilization began to decline in that period. In the field of science, Cairo, Damascus and Hama were one of the most important ophthalmology centers in the world. As for literature, history and religion, some of the greatest scholars and the most prolific Muslim authors have emerged, such as Ibn Khalikan, author of The Death of the Elders in the Seer, Abu Al-Fida, author of the Calendar from countries in geography, Al-Suyooti, ​​Ibn Khaldun and Al-Maqrizi, »They are one of the most famous Muslim historians. Some of the Mamluk sultans were famous for encouraging science and honoring academics and for generously spending money on establishing schools and libraries. The Carthaginian school in Tripoli, Syria. The Al-Azhar mosque in the Mamluk period also became an important university, teaching the doctrines of the Sunnis and the four communities along with other sciences. The economic situation in the Mamluk state worsened during the last era of the Tower due to the state of anxiety and instability caused by internal struggles and coups, the many wars fought by the Mamluks against the Mongols, the Crusaders and others, and for the interruption of trade with Europe due to the feelings of fear, hatred and distrust that Europeans left. Muslims, as well as the spread of hunger and epidemics, especially the plague epidemic that in 1348-1349 killed more than a million people, and finally due to the greed and selfishness that Iike made them direct economic policy of the State based on your personal interests. This was one of the factors that contributed to the acceleration of the fall of the state in the hands of the Ottomans, and the aspiration of the people of the Levant and Egypt to these saviors. State designation The designation of the Mamluk state or the Mamluk Sultanate is a relatively recent historical designation coined by contemporary scholars and historians.  Contemporary Arab references to the reign of the Mamluk era called this state "the state of the Turks" or "the state of the Turks" or the "Turkish state."  In the era of the Mamluk towers, the state was called the "Circassian State" or the "Turkish Circassian State", since the Circassian (Circassian) Mamluks spoke Turkish since they were brought to Egypt in the hands of the Turkish Mamluks.  Another nomenclature adopted by Muslim historians is also ancient, though rare: "maritime status" and "tower status," in each individual era, and these names are common in the current era to distinguish between the two Mamluk pacts. This state was also known as the "Mongolian state," during a brief period of his life, during the Sultanate of Adil Katbga being a Mongolian. During the reign of the Qalawun dynasty (678–784 AH / 1279–1382), the state was known as the “State of Bani Qalawun” or “the State of Qalawun,” as was previously known in the reign of Al-Zahir Baybars and his two sons, Al-Nasir al-Din Muhammad and Adil Badr al-Din Slamash. ». The origins of the Mamluks The Mamluk, compiled by the Mamluks, is the slave who was exiled and did not own his parents, and the slave was the king who possessed him and his parents. The slave is owned and sold.  The term soon took on a special terminology in Islamic history, from the time of the Abbasid caliph Abu al-'Abbas 'Abdullah al-Ma'mun (198 - 218 AH / 813 - 833 AD), then Abu Ishaq Muhammad al - Mu' tasim Billah (218-227 AH / 833-842 AD) A group of white slaves, the caliphs, the high-ranking leaders and the saints in the Abbasid Caliphate State bought them in the white slave markets to use as special military equipment, in order to trust them to consolidate their influence. Over time, the Mamluks became the only military tool in some Muslim countries. Its source was, then, a land beyond the river. The cities of Samarkand, Fergana, Asherusna, Gasa and Khwarizm were known as the main export sources for white slaves of Turkish origin. This was done in one of three ways: buying, capturing in wars or giving gifts to the provinces of countries beyond the river in the form of slaves for the caliph. It seems that the Caliph al-Mu'tasim is the first caliph that was based mainly on the Turkish element, due to its distinct combat capacity, so the Turkish Guard became a pillar of the caliphate during its reign, which has surpassed since I was a prince. Every year he sent to those who bought it, until about three thousand met him on safe days. The caliphate was carried out in conditions of violent conflict between the Arabs, on the one hand, and the Persians, on the other, in addition to the imbalance between the elements that formed the Abbasid caliphate. The protester did not trust the Persians due to the bad relationship between them and the Abbasis from the safe passage of Mero to Baghdad and the inability to reconcile the interests of both parties, and did not trust the Arabs due to the great volatility and turmoil and their actions against the caliphs, in addition to the fact that they lost a lot of time. . These data led the Caliph al-Mu'tasim to entrust his personal security to a division of the Turkish elements. He dedicated them to influence, imitated them to command armies, empowered them on earth and made them a superior center of politics. As soon as their power grew, they began to intervene in the affairs of the caliphate, until the Abbasid caliphate became their hands, doing what they wanted, isolating one caliph and taking control of another, so that some caliphs were killed As a result of their conspiracies. The Turkish element became an important pillar in Islamic society since the second Abbasid era (232-334 AH / 847-946 AD), and the independent states with Turkish and Persian origins were in the state of the Abbasid caliphate after the weakness of the dictatorship. Especially the workers and loyalists of the parties that The Mamluks in Egypt The use of the Mamluks in the army of the state of Egypt until the era of Tulunida, when he named the Abbasid caliph Abu Abbas Abbas dependent on God Ahmed bin Tolon, of Turkish origin, and governor of the Egyptian house in 263 AH corresponding to the year 877 AD, coveted this independence after it became all administrative and judicial military and financial work. To achieve his desire for independence in the government of Egypt, Ahmed bin Tulun saw that he supported his authority with a Mamluk army of Turks of his own race in addition to the Dilmi element.  Since then, the soldiers of Egypt and their rulers became Turkish Mamluks.  The Ikhshidid state, which succeeded the Tulunid state in Egypt, followed the latter's approach of relying on the Mamluks. The Mamluks of Muhammad ibn Tughj al-Ikhshid, the founder of the Ikhshidid state, had about 8,000 Turkish Rompers and dilims, and were said to have been sleeping with a thousand Mamluk guards.  When the Fatimids seized Egypt in 358 AH corresponding to the year 969 AD, their first successors, from the days of Abu Tamim, the Mu'izz of the religion of Allah, were based on various elements of Turkish, black, Berber and culpeptic. The Fatimid Caliph Abu Mansoor Nizar al-'Aziz Billah used the Turk in public and leadership positions in the state, and preferred them to other ethnicities. The influence of Turk Mamluks increased or decreased according to the direction of each Fatimid caliph separately. Original Mansour Anoushtekin. Al-Zahir took him to Damascus in 419 AH, corresponding to the year 1028. The Fatimids were concerned about the education of their little Mamluks according to a special system. In the year 567 AH corresponding to the year 1171 AD, the Fatimid state fell in Egypt and the Ayyubi state in its ruins, to open a new page in the history of the Near East and the Mamluks together. The Ayyubis, originally Kurds, were raised and their descendants grew up in the arms of the Turkish state of Seljuk and its monarchs, and transmitted many of their eastern Turkish customs and systems.  The Ayubis raised their Mamluks on the basis of the Mamluk-Samani Islamic system established by the Seljuk minister Nizam al-Malik and detailed in their book "Politics of Nam."  When Commander Assad al-Din Shirkuh went to Egypt to support the last Fatimid caliph Abu Muhammad Abdullah al-Adiid to the religion of God and to prevent the occupation of the country by the Crusaders, the majority of his army was made up of the Mamluks who They left the Cossacks, whose name was Asamal al-Asad.  After the death of Asad al-Din, the Mamluk Assadites supported their nephew Salah al-Din and supported him until he took office in Egypt.  The latter established for himself a special army, which was baptized by the Mamluk Assadites and Kurdish liberals, in addition to the Turkish Mamluks whom he bought for himself and called them "power" or "Nazareth," since his brother brother Abu Bakr He had a group of Mamluks called "Adil." Groups of Asian Mamluks, Salih and Adilites participated in the various battles that Saladin fought against Muslim princes in order to achieve Islamic unity and against the Crusaders with the aim of expelling them from the houses of Islam. In fact, the Mamluks at this stage amounted to a force, which led Saladin to consult them and go out at will often. The number increased in Egypt and the Levant after the death of Salah al-Din in 589 AH corresponding to the year 1193 AD, notably, and arose after the intensification of competition and conflict between his heirs of his sons and brothers and nephews who shared among them the Ayyubi legacy.  As the Mamluks strengthened as a result of strong dependence on Ayyubi princes, they began to intervene.

from Blogger https://ift.tt/2MRNAuQ via IFTTT

[denisemulvany18-blog]

WCQ: Cameroon Leave Nothing To Chance Against Eagles

Having read Prof. Ladipo Adamolekun’s illuminating autobiography, I Remember, I felt justified by my enthusiasm in accepting from the publishers, the privilege and challenge of bringing it to the attention of prospective readers via a review. There are not many individuals who approach life as if they have had a premonition that they could be important at some point in history. The culture of documenting events, be it in a diary or a notebook, requires exceptional discipline and commitment. Professor Adamolekun reveals that he has kept a diary since he was 19, and the foresight is a trait he might have inherited from his parents – both father and mother are said to have kept records in their own ways. This has resulted in a most authentically-documented personal history.

Adamolekun hardly requires an elaborate introduction. He is one of Nigeria’s most outstanding academics, a world-class scholar who once rejected a prominent political appointment in order not to truncate his drive towards the very top of his academic calling. He was a beneficiary of many scholarships and has won several awards, including the prestigious Nigeria National Order of Merit (NNOM), the country’s "highest national prize for academic and intellectual attainment." His academic discipline, "public administration", has more or less become synonymous with his name. His numerous academic publications, according to WorldCat Identities, enjoy close to 3,000 library holdings worldwide. There can hardly be any doubt that Adamolekun is truly an accomplished scholar.

Autobiographers share their experiences of both failures and triumphs. So, what factors or experiences have shaped the life of this autobiographer, and endeared him so much to a community of knowledgeable and decent people? The first influence in his life, as is the case with most individuals, is parental. He was lucky to have had parents who, even when they themselves did not have the privilege of formal education, encouraged education in the family. Young Ladipo Adamolekun, 14th in a family of 19 children, had the "good luck" of having to be guided or coached by older siblings who included the legendary Nathaniel Kolawole Adamolekun, who was the first indigenous Registrar of the University of Ibadan, Nigeria’s premier university.

The Adamolekun family, even though a polygamous one (Baba had 3 wives), enjoyed peace and harmony among its members. The autobiographer attributed what I once had cause to describe as "management polygamy" to "fairness" on the part of a father who never spared the rod. Of course, a background of strong Christian culture also contributed to the healthy co-existence in the family. Even when the patriarch of the family had sponsored the education of his children through hard-earned agricultural proceeds, children provided a helping hand to one another once they were in paid employment. So, the first important lesson in this autobiography is that of guidance and good home management by parents.

The role of parents can only be foundational; it would require a combination of talent and hard work for any individual to achieve as much as Ladipo Adamolekun has achieved in his academic career and other endeavours. He made a First in French at the highly competitive University of Ibadan in 1968. But it is in the field of Public Administration – his research interest at the University of Oxford – that the world of scholars now celebrates him.

Reading through his autobiography, it would appear that his engagements at Oyemekun Grammar School (Akure, Ondo State) where he first met his best friend, the equally famous Professor Kole Omotoso, had prepared him for that discipline. He was School Librarian and Senior Prefect and Head Boy in his penultimate and final years respectively. At the famous Christ School, Ado-Ekiti, where Adamolekun obtained his higher school certificate, he was also entrusted with leadership roles: he was a prefect and head of the school’s Literary and Debating Society. Dr Abiodun Adu, now a consultant gynaecologist in the UK and his junior at Christ School, talks about him, albeit with nostalgic admiration, "Oga was one smallish genius often seen with nothing but heavy books in his hands". Professor Adamolekun’s library, in his hometown, Ladipo Adamolekun Public Affairs Library, boasts of about 4,500 books.

The delicate frame and gentle disposition of Professor Adamolekun must not be taken for granted. Just as it is with many smart minds, Wole Soyinka and Gani Fawehinmi for instance, there is a stubborn or rebellious edge to his character. He is very strong-headed in matters of principle and conviction. Even at secondary school, he did not hesitate to tear up his examination sheet before a teacher who had awarded him marks in English which made a mockery of the high marks he had attained in a mock examination in which he came first in the class. As one political activist of the Awoist persuasion, he once risked his life by shouting at a convoy of ruinous NNDP politicians sometime in 1965. More significantly, when the Tribune newspaper, sometime in 1980, published an article which impugned his character and integrity, he successfully sued for libel. He would joyfully celebrate that victory with colleagues at the University of Ife Staff Club.

But it has not been all joy and celebration for Professor Adamolekun. The darkest moment in his life was when his beautiful and intelligent wife of more than 30 years, Dr Olukemi Adamolekun (nee Ajayi), was murdered by armed robbers at Ibadan on May 4th 2002. The narration of his years of nightmare is moving. A genuinely loving and devoted husband and father, it took many years of pleading and persuasion by family members and friends, for him to eventually remarry in 2007. His new wife, Olajumoke, is equally beautiful and intelligent. Both are warmly acknowledged in "I REMEMBER".

There is a saying that "the proof of the pudding is in the eating". Professor Adamolekun’s autobiography has some messages for all of us. His parental upbringing has a message for parents generally; his exploits as a student at school and university have a strong message for students. Of course, his experiences as an accomplished academic at various universities (Obafemi Awolowo University, in particular), and as a leading professional at the World Bank, should provide useful guidance to those who seek to operate at the highest level of professional calls. His description of academic standards at the University of Ibadan in the 1960s should forever shame those who have been responsible for the current decadence of educational standards in Nigeria.

Professor Adamolekun, even in retirement, has continued to project the highest ideals of a true academic determined, as he obviously is, to leave society better than he met it. His publisher, the charismatic Chief Joop Berkhout, enthused over Adamolekun as the quintessential professor and not the "Tokunbo" (half-baked) type – I agreed.

"I REMEMBER", the autobiography of Professor Ladipo Adamolekun, is an impressive and well-indexed 352-page publication of Safari Books Ltd. Ibadan. Adamolekun’s account of his life is a balanced narration, unlike the hagiographic sketches that are sometimes labelled as biographies or autobiographies. As expected, the style of presentation is fluent. Significantly, in my view, he did not insult or malign the character of another in a quest for self-promotion. The only missing links are his philanthropic gestures, known to this reviewer, which he might have chosen not to trumpet out of sheer modesty. A book that serves as a role model for generations, it is with great enthusiasm and a sense of professional honesty, that I recommend "I REMEMBER" to individuals and libraries worldwide.