Tumgik
#8th c ce
paganimagevault · 4 months
Text
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
Art from the Sogdian city of Penjakent 5th-8th C. CE. The 3 people in the triple crescent crown may be Hephthalites. A lot more images on my blogspot, link below.
"The Sogdians’ keen interest in depicting the world around them (evidenced by the Hall of the Ambassadors at Afrasiab) and the mythological and supernatural worlds (in many of the Panjikent paintings just discussed) extended into portraying their own world. They did not, as Frantz Grenet points out, represent their mercantile activities, a major source of their wealth, but instead chose to show their enjoyment of it, such as the scenes of banqueting at Panjikent. In these paintings we see how the Sogdians saw themselves.
Chinese representations of Sogdians caricatured them (especially in grooms, musicians, and others of lower status) as having large noses and round eyes, and being heavy-set and generally comical or “barbaric” in appearance. In contrast, the Sogdians’ depictions of themselves show people with fine features—the men (unless rulers or nobles) usually clean-shaven, the women oval-faced and sloe-eyed."
-taken from The Smithsonian
278 notes · View notes
themuseumwithoutwalls · 9 months
Photo
Tumblr media
MWW Artwork of the Day (6/24/23) Umayyad Spain (Moorish, 8th-15th c.) Interior view: Great Mosque-Cathedral (8th c. CE) Córdoba, Spain
The building is most notable for its giant arches, with 856 columns of jasper, onyx, marble and granite. These were made from pieces of the Roman temple which had occupied the site previously, as well as other destroyed Roman buildings. The double arches, pictured above, were a new introduction to architecture, and helped support the tremendous weight of the higher ceilings. The double arches consist of a lower horseshoe arch and an upper semi-circular arch. The famous alternating black and white voussoirs of the arches were inspired by those in the Dome of the Rock. They resemble those of Aachen Cathedral, which were built almost at the same time.
102 notes · View notes
thecreaturecodex · 1 year
Text
The Master of Revels
Tumblr media
“Moonlight Satyr” © Matteo Parati, accessed at his ArtStation here
[Remember RPG Superstar? I did get into the Top Eight in 2012, but for several years before that entered an item annually, voted and debated on the Paizo forums, and even played along at home for challenges. That’s where this character comes from. My roommate, @canwefixitnoitsfucked​, placed a year (I want to say 2010?) where the challenge was to create a villain, first the concept and then the stat block. This was my “play-along-at-home” villain, who has been rewritten and revised, partially because I can’t find my original file for him. A word of caution: this may be one of the darkest Codex entries yet, with themes of torture and sex trafficking.
As a lighter aside, looking for art for this character was a pain. I learned that images of satyrs who were a) clothed, b) lean and c) male are rather slim pickings.]
Jepson Artemisia, Master of Revels CR 10 CE Fey This man has long horns, long ears and hooves for feet. He is dressed impeccably, and his eyes shine with malice.
Jepson Artemisia is a cleric of Calistria who has made a fortune on the backs of human misery. He is a drug dealer, pimp and slaver. Befitting his veneration of the goddess of revenge, he specializes in abducting and abusing people for hire. For an exorbitant fee, a cad can hire Artemisia to have one of his rivals abducted and have their mind and will broken, leaving them a perfect slave and trophy. Jepson accomplishes this psychological abuse through narcotics, mind-influencing magic, and old-fashioned torture. He especially relishes the servants of lawful gods as his victims, and every paladin who has renounced their oaths and lost their powers is a feather in his cap.
Artemisia spends most of the year traveling as he needs to for his cruel business, but does have a home base. Blackthorn Hall is his domain, a sprawling mansion overlooking an oak woodland. Here he hosts his annual Grand Revel, where his allies, business partners and sycophants engage in bacchanalian excess for an entire week. The Master of Revels employs many miscellaneous low-lives as his security, pushers, alchemists and jailers, but some of his allies are worth spotlighting. His majordomo is an ogre mage who accompanies him on his business trips. His housekeeper is a maenad who uses Blackthorn Hall for fatal feasts while her master is away. And Jepson maintains a stable of spider-eaters, which he uses as mounts, watchdogs and the perpetrators of one of his favorite tortures. Against especially willful victims, the Master of Revels has his spider-eaters sting them and lay eggs inside of them, paralyzing them. These victims he then poses as living statues, forcing them into humiliating postures while the eggs slowly incubate. Usually, victims of this torture are revived through magic and the spider-eaters do not come to term. Usually.
Jepson Artemisia              CR 10 XP 9,600 Satyr cleric of Calistria 9 CE Medium fey Init +5; Senses low-light vision, Perception +18 Defense AC 26, touch 18, flat-footed 20 (+5 Dex, +1 dodge, +5 natural, +3 armor, +2 deflection) hp 140 (8d6+9d8+68) Fort +12, Ref +13, Will +18 DR 5/cold iron Offense Speed 40 ft. Melee +1 deadly whip +16/+11 (1d3+2), gore +10 (1d6) Special Abilities anything to please, channel energy (5d6 negative, 10/day, Will DC 21 half), pipes Spell-like Abilities CL 8th, concentration +15 (+19 casting defensively) At will—charm person (DC 18), dancing lights, ghost sound (DC 17), sleep (DC 18), suggestion (DC 20) 9/day—copycat, dazing touch (9 HD) 1/day—fear (DC 21), summon nature’s ally III 9 rounds/day—master’s illusion (DC 23) Spells CL 9th, concentration +15 (+19 casting defensively) 5th—charm monster (DC 21) (D), greater command (DC 21), insect plague 4th—chaos hammer (DC 20), confusion (DC 20) (D), cure critical wounds (DC 20), freedom of movement 3rd—bestow curse (DC 19), dispel magic, nondetection (D), protection from energy, remove blindness/deafness 2nd—bear’s endurance, cure moderate wounds (DC 18, x2), hold person (DC 18), spiritual weapon, touch of idiocy (D), undetectable alignment 1st—bless, command (DC 17), comprehend languages, disguise self (DC 17) (D), divine favor, protection from law (DC 17), remove fear 0th—detect magic, mending, purify food and drink, stabilize (D)—domain spell (Charm [Lust subdomain], Trickery) Statistics Str 12, Dex 20, Con 18, Int 13, Wis 22, Cha 24 Base Atk +10; CMB +15 (+17 trip or disarm); CMD 27 (29 vs. disarm, trip) Feats Agile Manuevers, Combat Casting, Combat Expertise, Dodge, Improved Disarm, Improved Trip, Selective Channeling, Skill Focus (Bluff), Weapon Finesse Skills Bluff +18, Diplomacy +15, Disguise +15, Intimidate +12, Knowledge (arcana, local, nature, nobility, religion) +9, Linguistics +7, Perception +18, Perform (wind instruments) +19, Ride +10, Sense Motive +14, Spellcraft +9, Stealth +17. Survival +14; Racial Modifiers +4 Perception, +4 Perform, +4 Stealth Languages Abyssal, Common, Elven, Giant, Sylvan Gear +1 leather armor, +1 deadly whip, headband of mental prowess +2 (Wis, Cha), circlet of persuasion, cape of the mountebank, ring of protection +2, wand of remove paralysis (20 charges), wand of cure light wounds (50 charges), potion of invisibility, noble outfit, jewelry worth 100 gp, gold holy symbol of Calistria, masterwork panpipes, 10 pp, 4 gp SQ wealth and privilege Special Abilities Anything to Please (Su): Once per day, Jepson can compel a creature within 30 feet to attempt to please you as a standard action. The creature receives a DC 21 Will save to negate this affect. If the save fails, the creature attacks Jepson’s enemies for 1 round, gives him its most valuable item, or drops prone at his feet and grovels for 1d4 rounds (GM's choice). This is a mind-affecting effect and the save DC is Charisma based. Pipes (Su) Jepson can focus and empower his magic by playing haunting melodies on his panpipes. When he plays, all creatures within a 60-foot radius must make a DC 21 Will save or be affected by charm person, fear, sleep, or suggestion, depending on what tune he chooses. A creature that successfully saves against any of the pipes' effects cannot be affected by the same set of pipes for 24 hours, but can still be affected by Jepson’s other spell-like abilities as normal. Jepson’s use of his pipes does not count toward his uses per day of his spell-like abilities, and if separated from them he may continue to use his standard abilities. The pipes themselves are masterwork, and Jepson can craft a replacement with 1 week of labor. The save DC is Charisma-based. Wealth and Privilege (Ex) Jepson Artemesia’s statistics are built using 25 point buy, and he has gear equivalent to a 9th level PC. These advantages increase his CR by 1.
49 notes · View notes
wtfearth123 · 9 months
Text
The Evolution of the Alphabet: A Story of Human Ingenuity and Innovation 🤯
Tumblr media
How the Alphabet Changed the World: A 3,800-Year Journey
The evolution of the alphabet over 3,800 years is a long and complex story. It begins with the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, which were a complex system of pictograms and ideograms that could be used to represent words, sounds, or concepts. Over time, the hieroglyphs were simplified and adapted to represent only sounds, resulting in the first true alphabets.
The first alphabets were developed in the Middle East, and the Phoenician alphabet is considered to be the direct ancestor of the Latin alphabet. The Phoenician alphabet had 22 letters, each of which represented a single consonant sound. This was a major breakthrough, as it made it much easier to write and read.
The Phoenician alphabet was adopted by the Greeks, who added vowels to the system. The Greek alphabet was then adopted by the Romans, who made some further changes to the letters. The Latin alphabet, as we know it today, is essentially the same as the Roman alphabet, with a few minor modifications.
The English alphabet is derived from the Latin alphabet, but it has undergone some further changes over the centuries. For example, the letters "J" and "U" were added to the English alphabet in the Middle Ages, and the letter "W" was added in the 16th century.
The evolution of the alphabet has had a profound impact on human history. It has made it possible to record and transmit knowledge, ideas, and stories from one generation to the next. It has also helped to facilitate communication and trade between different cultures.
The alphabets are a fascinating invention that have revolutionized the way humans communicate and record information. The history of the alphabets spans over 3,800 years, tracing its origins from the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs to the modern English letters.
Tumblr media
Here is a brief overview of how the alphabets have evolved over time:
Egyptian hieroglyphs (c. 3200 BC): The earliest form of writing was the pictographic system, which used symbols to represent objects or concepts. The ancient Egyptians developed a complex system of hieroglyphs, which combined pictograms, ideograms, and phonograms to write their language. Hieroglyphs were mainly used for religious and monumental purposes, and were carved on stone, wood, or metal.
Proto-Sinaitic script (c. 1750 BC): Around 2000 BCE, a group of Semitic workers in Egypt adapted some of the hieroglyphs to create a simpler and more flexible writing system that could represent the sounds of their language. This was the first consonantal alphabet, or abjad, which used symbols to write only consonants, leaving the vowels to be inferred by the reader. This alphabet is also known as the Proto-Sinaitic script, because it was discovered in the Sinai Peninsula.
Phoenician alphabet (c. 1000 BC): A consonantal alphabet with 22 letters, each of which represented a single consonant sound. The Proto-Sinaitic script spread to other regions through trade and migration, and gave rise to several variants, such as the Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew, and South Arabian alphabets. These alphabets were used by various Semitic peoples to write their languages, and were also adopted and modified by other cultures, such as the Greeks, Etruscans, and Romans.
Greek alphabet (c. 750 BC): The Greek alphabet was the first to introduce symbols for vowels, making it a true alphabet that could represent any sound in the language. The Greek alphabet was derived from the Phoenician alphabet around the 8th century BCE, and added new letters for vowel sounds that were not present in Phoenician. The Greek alphabet also introduced different forms of writing, such as uppercase and lowercase letters, and various styles, such as cursive and uncial.
Latin alphabet (c. 500 BC): The Latin alphabet was derived from the Etruscan alphabet, which was itself derived from the Greek alphabet. 
Roman alphabet (c. 1 CE): The Roman alphabet is essentially the same as the Latin alphabet, as we know it today. The Latin alphabet was used by the Romans to write their language, Latin, and became the dominant writing system in Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire. The Latin alphabet was also adapted to write many other languages, such as Germanic, Celtic, Slavic, and Romance languages.
English alphabet (c. 500 AD): The English alphabet is derived from the Latin alphabet, but it has undergone some further changes over the centuries. For example, the letters "J" and "U" were added to the English alphabet in the Middle Ages, and the letter "W" was added in the 16th century. The English alphabet consists of 26 letters, but can represent more than 40 sounds with various combinations and diacritics. The English alphabet has also undergone many changes in spelling, pronunciation, and usage throughout its history.
The evolution of the alphabet is a remarkable example of human creativity and innovation that have enabled us to express ourselves in diverse and powerful ways. It is also a testament to our cultural diversity and interconnectedness, as it reflects the influences and interactions of different peoples and languages across time and space.
Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed the post about the evolution of the alphabet. If you did, please share it with your friends and family. 😊🙏
12 notes · View notes
Text
Tumblr media
The Jug of Jokhang 7th-8th C. CE. Central Asians (probably Sogdians) depicted on Tibetan art.
source: paganimagevault via age-of-wisdom-1111
11 notes · View notes
nanaboo-pumpkaboo · 7 months
Note
📰📰
OUR LAST ISSUE?
Beloved readers tha/k you for following Black City N/ws, We regret to inf/rm this up/oming /eptember 8th will be our las/ issue in physical print. We at Black Cit/ /ews however will continu/ to serve out all the latest /nformation o/ /ur new website at W//.////////.com Where we will continue being your fastest way to learn more about our beloved region. Black City News CEO/ 2020 Missi/g Persons The pol/ce are still on /he lookout for several fugitives, several members of Team /eo Plasma, 3 rogue trainers//ho are going around causing mayhem and Former /f//ce/ Si/as G///sh//. /hese individua/s have bee/ missing /or over two y/ars now and we hope to bring t/eir families clos/re and their victims Justic/.
//And because you sent two emoji's a bonus!
MAYOR /ALLS OFF POLICE CORON/TION IN RESPONSE TO SCAN//L.
Recent reports from an anonymo/s source have c/me out revealing a long hi/tory of corruption, acce/ting bribes, manipulation from large corporations and brutal tacti/s from the officers of Unova. Said officer/s have let us know that this information is not only false but an elaborate scheme to ruin their image. /ut is that the truth? We spoke to O//ic/r ///ms//aw who provided us with thi/ statement. "/y co//eagu/s and I feel the same about /his city, and this region, I personally will ensure that whate/er happens, th/ people of this region will know that /hey can count on me. there's a long long list of the wrong doings my team has /one and I won't /est until all wrongs have been righted." Au/ust 1st, 2018
Ask meme
4 notes · View notes
iwishiwasrichasfuck · 5 months
Text
First time writing anything, so pls be nice 🙏 Constructive criticism is more than welcome as long as it actually helps
enhypen!ot7 x fem!oc (not a xreader! So I will describe her appearance, but feel free to replace it with your own!), kinda Niki focused and I'm going to write from a 3rd person pov. Bold is korean, normal is English. 'This' means thoughts
"I THINK there's a man following me" Esmeralda told her mother on the other side of the line, navigating through the busy streets of Paris. She looked behind her again, just to be met with the same imposing figure that's been following her for the past 17 minutes and 35 seconds, clad in black and a mask. "Are you sure? Have you just noticed? Or has it been a long time? Maybe he's just going in the same direction." Her mother answered her. The woman sighed "At first I thought so as well, but it's been..." she looked at her watch "19 minutes and 2 seconds and he's still behind me even after all of those random turns I took to lose him". She heard her mother let out a "hmmmm" and the image of her frowning made her smile. "Go in one of the shops and stay there for awhile. If he's still there when you go out again, go back in and call the police, ok?" "OK, I'll hang up then". "I love you, call me back later". "I love you too, I will. Bye". She looked up from her phone to fine a decent shop, and gulped when all she saw were expensive looking restaurants. She forgot she was in the 8th arrondissement, the rich district. It's okay, just don't talk to anyone and it will be okay, its okay. She settled on a restaurant that looked less busy than the others and hid herself in a bathroom stall. Then she waited, thanking God for the clean seat. About ten minutes later, she went to take a peek outside, surprised to still see him there. She ran back to the stalls to lock herself in again and after a few minutes, called the police "Bonjour vous avez appelé le 17, quelle est votre urgence?"
"Good morning, 17 what's your emergency?"
Surprised by how fast the operator picked up, Esmeralda raised a brow. 'Guess they didn't have a lot of business today'.. "Oui bonjour, j'ai été suivie par un homme pendant 20 minutes au moins."
"I'm being followed by someone, I have been for at least 20 minutes"
"Est-ce que vous en êtes sûre? Où êtes vous à l'instant? Et comment vous appelez vous?"
"Are you sure? Where are you right now? And what's your name?"
"J'en suis certaine. J'ai pris au moins 5 intersections au hasard pour m'en assurer. Je suis dans un restaurant qui s'appelle L' Arôme, dans le 8ème, à l'étage, au-aux toilettes. Je suis entrée il y a un quart d'heure? et j'ai vérifié il y a 10 minutes qu'il était toujours là. Je m'appelle Esmeralda Adel"
"I'm positive. I took at least 5 random turns to make sure. I'm in a restaurant called L' Arôme, in the 8th district, in the bathroom stalls on the second level. I've been here for fifteen minutes and checked if he was still outside about 10 minutes ago. My name is Esmeralda Adel"
"Bien. Nous envoyons des agents pour l'appréhender. Pouvez vous le décrire?"
"OK. We're sending agents to take care of this. Can you describe him?"
"Il est plutôt grand et a une carrure assez imposante. Il est habillé tout en noir, avec un masque chirurgicale et une casquette. Je crois qu'il a une veste en cuire? Je n'ai pas vu son visage, mais je peux le voir des fenêtres de l'étage, alors j'ai pris une photo."
"He's on the tall side, and has an imposing figure. He's dressed in all black and has a surgical mask. I think he's wearing a leather vest? It's black as well. I didn't see his face, but I can spot him from the windows of the restaurant so I took a picture."
"Ce sera assez merci. Nous vous appellerons une fois sur les lieux."
"That'll be enough, thank you. We will call you once at your location."
With that, the police officer hung up. Relieved, Esmeralda stood up and washed her hands, because even if she didn't do her business, she was still in a public bathroom like come on, ew, gross. She went outside and took her phone to inform her mom of how things went, but was abruptly stopped by a tall body bumping into her.
♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤
In an airplane, a few hours ago
♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤
They debated and against responsible people's wishes, it was decided that they'd eat out. Their manager protested at first, but then gave in when he saw it was futile to argue and made a reservation for a restaurant. He sent them of with a van and a staff member to drive them. Surprisingly enough, the trip went well enough and soon the group were oooing and wowwing at the fancy looking dishes, rid of their hats and masks and laughing at other's jokes. Maybe they were laughing a little too hard, because Jungwon spilled some water on his seat mate. Riki, the target of his clumsiness stood up after some good natured teasing to dry the mess in the bathroom. He turned around at Jake's call "Hurry up or we'll finish your plate for you!" He replied with a smile "Don't you dare hyung!" and still chuckling, he turned and collided with a smaller object.
Riki yawned. Loudly. Next to him, Jay tapped his thigh. "Hang on, we'll be there in 20 minutes". The youngest nodded tiredly. He'd been sitting in this godforsaken plane for eleven hours, his limbs hurt, damn it. He couldn't wait to get out, stretch and eat. He'd been to France already, and everytime he couldn't help his awe at the gastronomy. He was excited for the concert too. When they went on a world tour, Enhypen mostly went to The United States, so he knew french engene would be happy with their presence. Hybe had conveniently decided to make their concert public last minute, so Enhypen could enjoy two weeks off for tourism and "vacations" without being bothered too much (well, as secretly as an internationally famous band could). Every one still thought they were in Korea, if all was well. On the other side of the private jet, Jungwon and Heeseung watched movies. Jake and Sunghoon were playing rock paper scissors and Sunoo was taking a nap. Riki thought he looked ridiculous with the face mask and pink unicorn headband, and discreetly took a picture for blackmail purposes. Like that, 20 minutes passed and soon all of the members were in Charles de Gaulle (the airport), leaving the plane. They thought the masks, caps and black coats weren't very subtle but it was better than their faces being in plain sight and fans finding out about their surprise too early. They arrived at their fancy hotel without much trouble, save for having to hide one way or another so that they wouldn't be seen. The agency had rented the whole level for them and the staff so they would be unbothered. Sunghoon and Jake shared a room, while the maknaes stayed together and Jay and Heeseung had a room to themselves. When they all settled down, they all reunited in Jay's room on the couch to decide what to do next. "I'm so hungry" Riki whined. "Hmmm" of agreements chimed in the room and Jake suggested they go eat in a restaurant instead of ordering takeout. "It's been a while since we've been here, I want to explore a bit". But Jungwon, always the responsible leader argued "How will we stay out of sight? Everyone will recognise us, and we can't even take our bodyguards"
♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤
Back to us :)
♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤
Esmeralda blinked. Once. Twice. The two stayed like that for a few seconds, just staring at the other. Her eyes examined the features of the man in front of her. They ran over his thick lashes and eyebrows, his dark brown eyes, the elegant slope of his nose amd his plump lips. She drank in his oh so gorgeous face, and the way his black hair fell in lazy waves and blonde highlights on his forehead, how the smooth strands framed his face. When her brain registered who she was looking at, her eyes widened and she started "You're-!" But her sentence was cut off by a big hand that pressed on her mouth to shush her. "Shhh" Riki whispered. "Who are you? What are you doing here? I thought manager-nim rented the whole restaurant for us!" The curly haired woman tried to pry the hand off and when the fucking international superstar complied, she answered in the same tone and to the Nishimura's surprise, in perfect korean "I was in the bathroom, you must've came in while I was still inside. What are you doing here? I thought Enhypen was in Korea!" Riki sighs, "We're having a concert in two weeks and came early without telling engene to have some time off. Since you recognised me, I suppose you're a fan?" Still stunned at the turn of events, Esmeralda nodded. "Yes... I guess I should leave you alone then. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone. I understand you need to relax." When he thanked her and just as she was going to leave, Riki stopped her "Wait!". She turned curiously. He nervously gulped. "What's your name..?" "Esmeralda" she replied with a pleasant smile. "Well, Esmerlada, umm, now that you know, will you come at the concert?" She chuckled. "Maybe, that depends on the price of the tickets" He sighed "Of course, yes... Um... Well... I hope to see you there!" And he turned and ran off to the bathroom. Still surprised, Esmeralda left the restaurant hastily to call her mother.
♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤
Riki's pov ;)
♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤
"Oof". He caught the poor thing before they could fall and stared down at what was in his arms. The woman had caramel skin and long curly hair. Long lashes framed pretty green eyes, and made way to a cute nose. Niki found himself counting her freckles, and staring at her plump lips, the way her cupids bow shaped them, and how her bottom lip slightly pouted out. He found himself looking at every little dent, every little detail of her face. He was mesmerised, like under a spell. She was... pretty. Really pretty. Beautiful really, but not necessarily conventionally pretty, at least not according to korean beauty standars. But her wide, slightly flat nose complemented her face so well, and her chubby cheeks were so adorable, he melted. Her beauty was refreshing. He couldn't help but want to hear her voice, he wondered if it was as stunning as her. Then suddenly he remembered where he was, and that Sejun-nim had rented the whole restaurant for them. It seemed that the beautiful girl recognised him at the same time, because she tried to talk "You're!" But he cut her off with his hand. He didn't want the hyungs to hear her, what if they thought she was a sasaeng? He'd interrogate her himself (he didn't want to admit he didn't want his hyungs to see her because he knew they'd fall under her charm like him) "Who are you? What are you doing here? I thought manager-nim rented the whole restaurant for us!" He let her answer, pleasantly surprised when she replied in korean "I was in the bathroom, you must've come in while I was still inside. What are you doing here? I thought enhypen was in Korea!" Riki sighed, "We're having a concert in two weeks and came early without telling engene to gave some time off. Since you recognised me, I suppose you're a fan?" When she nodded, he mentally cheered 'We have such a pretty fan'. "Yes... I guess I should leave you alone then. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone. I understand you need to relax." "Thank you". But then she turned to leave and Riki just wanted her to stay a bit more, to know her more, so he blurted out "Wait!" 'Shit, what do I say?..... Ask for her name you idiot!' "What's your name?" "Esmeralda" 'Wow... Even her name is gorgeous. She has a beautiful smile' "Well, Esmeralda, umm, now that you know, will you come at the concert?" She chuckled. "Maybe, that depends on the price of the tickets" He sighed "Of course, yes... Um... Well... I hope to see you there!" And he turned and ran off to the bathroom. 'Stupid, of course she can't come without a ticket!'. He looked at himself in the mirror and leaned on the sink. 'She was so pretty...' he blinked and held back a squeal 'A pretty girl talked to me! She's even an engene!!!' He smiled at himself, still dazed and lovestruck. He wanted to see her again. But he knew that if he did, it would be at the concert. And that meant that the other members would see him act like a teenager in love (which he was, but he had his own pride). He was reluctant for that to happen. And there was no way they would be immune to her charm, she was just too... everything. When Heeseung called him, asking if he was okay, he was reminded of why he went to the facilities in the first place and hastily wiped his shirt, yelling back an "I'm fine! I'll be there in a second!" When he returned, Sunoo hyung mentioned absently "I thought I saw a girl go downstairs a few minutes ago, do you know who that was?" Niki blushed and looked down, shaking his head. Sunghoon noticed and loudly teased him "Niki-aaah, do you have a cruuuush!?" Jake took it upon himself to help his friend embarrass their maknae "Wow, Niki, did you get her number". They all took turns teasing him, but he just rolled his eyes 'If only you had seen her, you wouldn't be laughing'.. The day ended and as he fell asleep back at the hotel, he could only dream about the beautiful girl with emerald eyes and a name to match.
2 notes · View notes
eagleoftheninth · 6 months
Text
Regret to announce that I went to the museum
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Left: Helleno-Parthian statue of Herakles, from Hatra, Iraq, c. 1st-2nd century CE. Right: Drinking horn (rhyton) from Daylam (Iranian Caspian Sea coast), c. 7th century BCE.
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Left: Hellenistic Buddha from Gandhara (modern Pakistan), c. 2nd-3rd century CE (Kushan Empire). Right: Ornamental pillar base from Kunduz, Afghanistan, also c. 2nd-3rd century CE (Kushan Empire).
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Left, right: Shang bronze vessels for ritual wine, from the royal capital/tomb site at Anyang, Henan, c. 1200-1000 BCE.
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Left: Western Zhou horse and chariot ornaments, c. 8th century BCE. Right: Qin casting mould for copper coins, c. 3rd century BCE.
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Left, right: Warring States period bronze weapons, c. 5th-4th century BCE.
Tumblr media
Tang wall scroll of a Buddhist sutra, from the Mogao Caves complex, Dunhuang, c. 9th century CE (note the Uyghur text to the sides).
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Left: Tang tomb guardians, from Chang'an (modern Xi'an), c. 8th century CE. Right: Seljuq/Khwarazmian bowl from Iran, c. 12th century CE.
6 notes · View notes
obaewankenope · 2 years
Note
'Goblins only existed because the France invaded, because written examples of Goblins only existed in that time' Cool, any sources or are we just gonna have it so that Tumblr makes shit up again, like the time we made up a Greek Goddess.
Well you could always use your brain cell and fingers in conjunction to Google goblins, read the sources yourself buuuuut that's too much to ask, naturally.
Anyway, I guess I'll do the work for you.
Any paragraph in a block quote is from external sources, like Wikipedia or reference sites. All references are at the bottom of this post under a readmore. Read them and weep, anon.
.
Goblins, folklore, devils, history of Jews in Europe, Not Fictional Tumblr Bullshit Sorry Not Sorry
The origins of goblin as a term, as a folklore creature, can be summed up below, with English records of the term goblin showing up in the 14th century and coming from earlier languages etc etc.
English goblin is first recorded in the 14th century and is probably from unattested Anglo-Norman *gobelin, [Hoad, 1993] similar to Old French gobelin, already attested around 1195 in Ambroise of Normandy's Guerre sainte, and to Medieval Latin gobelinus in Orderic Vitalis before 1141, [CNRTL: Du Cange et al, 1678] which was the name of a devil or daemon haunting the country around Évreux, Normandy. 
So, that's Wikipedia, yes, with the references there giving you the etymological origins of goblin, since you can't seem to search it up yourself. Now I'll give you the information about crusades in France, Jews in France at the time, and, of course, the fantastic fact that Jews existed looooong before goblins did. Aka a brief history of Jews in Europe. Enjoy.
Hellenistic Judaism, originating from Alexandria, was present throughout the Roman Empire even before the Jewish–Roman wars. Large numbers lived in Greece (including the Greek isles in the Aegean and Crete) as early as the beginning of the 3rd century BCE. The first recorded mention of Judaism in Greece dates from 300 to 250 BCE, on the island of Rhodes (The Foundation for the Advancement of Sephardic Studies and Culture, p. 3).
I think, good sir, we may now be sure Jews existed in Europe before many things did (which is kinda frickin obvious since Christianity is younger than it, showed up during Roman times, annnd had to spread across an existing population which, funnily enough, I learnt in primary school, tended to target and ostracise Jews as a result of precious Christianity spreading). But... You know, that whole "tumblr making shit up again" thing is waaaaay easier for you to believe than a two minute Google search.
Here's a big ol chunk of info with some references lobbed in which may help you understand just how extensive Jews were in Europe loooong before a bit of folklore was imagined by a French guy.
Persecution of Jews in Europe begins with the presence of Jews in regions that later became known as the lands of Latin Christendom (c. 8th century CE)[Cantor, 1993: Lewis & Wigen, 1997: Davies, 1996]  and modern Europe [Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopaedia, 2007].  Not only were Jewish Christians persecuted according to the New Testament, but also as a matter of historical fact anti-Jewish pogroms occurred not only in Jerusalem (325 CE), Persia (351 CE), Carthage (250 CE), Alexandria (415), but also in Italy (224 CE), Milan (379 CE) and Menorca (418CE), Antioch (489), Daphne-Antioch (506), Ravenna (519), amongst other places. Hostility between Christians and Jews grew over the generations under Roman sovereignty and beyond; eventually forced conversion, property confiscation, synagogue burning, expulsion, stake burning, enslavement and outlawing of Jews—even whole Jewish communities—occurred countless times in the lands of Latin Christendom [Laqueur, 2006, Grosser & Halperin, Grosser, Halperin, St. John, & Littell, 1979].
To fast forward to around the time goblin was introduced as a folklore creature (actually a name for a devil, not as a goblin™ yet) we jump to France, Crusades, and the Middle Ages. Like so.
Persecution of Jews in Europe increased in the High Middle Ages in the context of the Christian Crusades. In the First Crusade (1096), flourishing communities on the Rhine and the Danube were utterly destroyed; see German Crusade, 1096. In the Second Crusade, (1147) the Jews in France were subject to frequent massacres. The Jews were also subjected to attacks by the Shepherds' Crusades of 1251 and 1320. The Crusades were followed by expulsions, including in 1290 the banishing of all Jews from the Kingdom of England by King Edward I with the Edict of Expulsion. In 1394, 100,000 Jews were expelled from France. Thousands more were deported from Austria in 1421. Many of the expelled Jews fled to Poland (Holocaust Center of United Jewish Federation of Pittsburgh: Weinryb, 1973: Woodworth, ).
Sooooo... French crusades where Jews in France were target in 1100s onwards and a devil that developed into the modern goblin springing up in 1141... Eventually becoming a creature often described with a hooked nose, short stature, conniving, untrustworthy, and greedy, that is a danger to good (Christian) folk...
I don't see the connection at all. Honest. [S a R C a S M].
Now, honestly, I'm not actually saying ALL VERSIONS OF GOBLINS ARE ANTISEMITIC HONEST because that's just unlikely. Just like all versions of fae are unlikely to be from The Same Source, it's not tenable because ideas do develop over time and sometimes similar ideas reach the same conclusion from different start points. But goblins are, at the root, at the centre of a vast web of later folklore creatures which owe their origins to that Old French name for a devil. Are Rowling's goblins potentially based on some attributes that were ascribed to Jewish individuals at the time of goblin becoming a folklore creature? Possibly.
But here's the thing. Rowling's goblins are not the same as other goblins.
They're really not. Historically, later (post French name for a devil becomes a type of creature ala goblin) goblins varied in descriptions and in nature. Most of the stories either have them as Outright Evil or mischievous with a helping of malicious. Eventual influences from society and cultural shaped goblins into what we know them as today, and Rowling's own version of goblins Is Part Of That Reason.
Goblins could be tall, could be short, ugly, pretty, invisible etc. But goblins didn't traditionally have connections to gold and finances as much as Rowling made them in HP.
Almost two decades of HP being mainstream really does affect portrayals of goblins, it truly does.
Would you like to know why?
Because Rowling's goblins are more like knockers or the Coblynau from Welsh folklore than the goblins seen more in English folklore in terms of description, where they live, and what they do.
Now, the Welsh term derives, eventually, from the French term gobelin (which gives rise to the modern goblin):
The word Coblynau is related to the English word Goblin and may derive from a Germanic source akin to the German Kobold, via the French Gobelin (Franklin, 2002).
And, generally speaking, the idea of knockers, or Coblynau is that they're either deceased miners or Jewish ones forced to mine in the 11 and 12th century (MacKillop 2004). Whatever the origins are, these Coblynau are more like Rowling's goblins than the larger existing style of goblin that became popularised by Tolkien (based on earlier literature) and DnD (based on Tolkien).
Coblynau and knockers helped find unground veins of precious metals for miners, and since Jews were used as miners in the 11th and 12th century, it definitely isn't a coincidence that some of the descriptions of Coblynau are very... Suss.
The Cornish described the creature as a little person 2 ft 0 in (0.61 m) tall, with a disproportionately large head, long arms, wrinkled skin, and white whiskers.
Basically, Rowling's goblins. Knockers, in essence, are a subset, a subtype of goblins in folklore, more specific to Cornwall and Wales than the larger geography of Europe where 'goblin' tended to be more amoral, trickster like than the goblins of Rowling's universe.
.
Now, I'm done, and I'll even put all the references here, below a cut for you anon. Since I can't expect you to find them either when you can just whine about "tumblr making shit up again" to excuse your lack of knowledge.
[As an aside, the fake goddess thing was, from the outset, clearly a false goddess, based on initial posts that Made That Clear. The fact that you think a fake goddess that is the result of group thought where They Started On The Premise Of It Being Fake From The Outset is compatible to "so crusades that murdered Jewish people in France around same time a folklore creature started off and likely was used as an identifier for Jews because the creature itself was actually a name for a devil not a species first and Jews were often called devils by Christian folk lol lol" really is a you problem. Seriously.]
Anyway. Your references. Enjoy them.
T. F. Hoad, 1993, English Etymology, Oxford University Press, p. 196b.
CNRTL, Etymology of Gobelin, Online French, translated below:
It 1195 (Ambroise, Holy War, 8710 ds T.-L.), att. isolated (cf. again the lat. medieval. goblinus "id. ", av. 1141, Orderic Vital ds Of Cange); start xvies. gobellin (J . of Auton, Brown., ms. B.N. fr. 5082, fo28 rods Gdf., s.v. nuitin). Probably go back up, via the lat. chrét. * gobalus "Home genius", at the gr. κ ο ́ β α λ ο ς "sprite, evil genius", v. J. Brüch ds Z. rom. Philol. t. 52, 1932, pp. 340-341.
Du Cange et al, 1678, Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis ...(online French and Latin).
Norman F. Cantor, The Civilization of the Middle Ages, 1993, "Culture and Society in the First Europe", pp. 185ff.
Martin W. Lewis & Karen Wigen, 1997, The Myths of Continents: A Critique of Metageography, pp. 23–25, 27–28.
Norman Davies, 1996. Europe: A History, by Norman Davies. p. 8. ISBN 978-0-19-820171-7. Retrieved 23 August 2010.
Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopaedia, 2007. Europe. Archived from the original on 28 October 2009. Retrieved 27 December 2007.
Walter Laqueur (2006): The Changing Face of Antisemitism: From Ancient Times to the Present Day, Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-530429-2. pp. 46–48.
Grosser, P.E. and E.G. Halperin. "Jewish Persecution – History of AntiSemitism – Lesser Known Highlights of Jewish International Relations In The Common Era". simpletoremember.com. SimpleToRemember.com – Judaism Online. Retrieved 6 February 2015.
Paul E. Grosser & Edwin G. Halperin, foreword by St. Robert John, preface by Franklin H. Littell. (1979). Anti-Semitism: the causes and effects of a prejudice. Secaucus, N.J, Citadel Press. ISBN 0806507039. Retrieved 6 February 2015.
Why the Jews? Holocaust Center of the United Jewish Federation of Pittsburgh, accessed November 24, 2009.
Weinryb, Bernard Dov, 1973. The Jews of Poland. ISBN 978-0827600164. Retrieved 9 November 2013.
Woodworth, Cherie, 2010. "Where Did the East European Jews Come From?" (PDF). Yale University. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 October 2013. Retrieved 9 November 2013.
Franklin, Anna (2002). "Goblin", The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Fairies. London: Paper Tiger. ISBN 1-84340-240-8. p. 108.
James MacKillop, 2004, A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology, Oxford University Press.
34 notes · View notes
katrinastratford · 1 year
Text
Tumblr media Tumblr media
details of illuminations in the Lichfield Gospels, c. 8th century CE
5 notes · View notes
ohheyalex · 2 years
Note
Hey 👋🏾 girl just wanted to say hello and hope you’re doing good. 💜 I’ve stopped watching the flash I haven’t caught up since the second part of the crossover. Heard K*ller F*ost dies and I couldn’t be less bothered. I’m bummed their getting an 8th season… 😩🤦🏾‍♀️
Hey friend! 🥰
I’m alright, feeling better than I was yesterday. I stopped watching in S7 which I don’t even remember tbh I keep up with the Iris fans I follow who still watch which let me say they’re way stronger than me because that show is just terrible. Lmao yea she does and I saw the clips of DP’s horrible fake crying during that scene 😭
All I can say is that Er*c Wall*ce took this show and threw it into the dumpster ever since he came on to be the show runner.
Anyway how’s your week going? 💖
4 notes · View notes
paganimagevault · 4 months
Text
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
Sogdian wooden idol from Kuh-i-Surkh (Tajikistan) 5th-8th C. CE
"Head of a Sogdian carved wooden idol, found in a cave at Kuh-i-Surkh, Tajikistan. The idol was originally adorned with clothing, jewelry, a diadem, a sceptre, and an incense burner, and must have been hidden in a cave after the Arab conquest. In its heyday, the idol would have worn a crown, a long robe, boots, and carried a sceptre and a censer. At his feet were gifts donated by worshippers - swords, daggers, jewellery, armour, among other things."
-taken from Nadeem - Eran ud Turan's twitter
245 notes · View notes
Text
The Fake Texts of Ancient Greek 'Historians': the Behistun Inscription, Ctesias, Diodorus Siculus, Darius I the Great, and Semiramis
In a previous article published under the title 'Aristotle as Historical Forgery, the Western World’s Fake History & Rotten Foundations, and Prof. Jin Canrong’s Astute Comments', I wholeheartedly supported the position taken by the prominent Chinese Prof. Jin Canrong about Aristotle and I explained why Aristotle never existed as he is known today and most of his texts were not written by him, but by the pseudo-Christian Benedictine monks of Western Europe for the purpose of the ferocious imperial and theological battle that Rome carried out against New Rome-Constantinople and the Eastern Roman Empire. You can find the table of contents and a link to the publication at the end of the present article.   
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
Contents
Introduction
I. A fictional concept: the origin of the fraud
II. A construct based on posterior textual sources
III. The deceitful presentation
IV. 5th century BCE texts found in 15th c. CE manuscripts do not make 'History'.
V. Abundant evidence of lies and deliberate distortions attested in the manuscript transmission
VI. Darius I the Great, the Behistun inscription, and Ctesias
VII. The historical Assyrian Queen Shammuramat and the fictional Queen Semiramis of the 'Ancient Greek sources'
VIII. The malignant intentions of the Benedictine liars: from the historical Darius I the Great to the fictional Semiramis
IX. The vicious distortions of the Benedictine liars: from Ctesias to Herodotus
Tumblr media
The Behistun inscription
Introduction
In the present article, I will offer a typical example of text falsification carried out by the Catholic monks, who did not 'copy and preserve' manuscripts of ancient Greek and Latin texts, as it has been mendaciously said by Western European and North American academics and lying scholars, but they purposefully falsified, distorted, concealed, destroyed and/or contrived numerous texts.
This enormous forgery took place in Western Europe between the 2nd half of the 8th century and the 1st half of the 15th century; the colonial era was launched exactly afterwards. For this reason, few manuscripts with Ancient Greek and Roman texts date before the 8th c.; in fact, most of them have been either distorted and replaced or hidden in the vast libraries still owned, controlled and administered that the anti-Christian Roman Catholic Church.
The purpose of this devious and evil effort was the fabrication of a fake narrative about the forged antiquity and the supposed importance of the Western Europeans according to the needs of world conquest, prevalence and preponderance of the pseudo-Christian Roman Catholic Church; this bogus-historical dogma, as direct opposition to and ultimate rejection of Orthodox Christianity, would be initially imposed as the 'scientific discipline of History' in Western Europe and subsequently projected onto the rest of the world by means of colonial invasion, indigenous identity destruction, moral integrity demolition, cultural heritage disintegration, educational subordination, economic exploitation, military subjugation, and socio-political domination.  
In other words, the monastical scribes and copyists created an entirely fake Euro-centric past, which became the rotten foundation of Western Europe. This fallacy became known as Judeo-Christian world and Greco-Roman civilization. However, the decipherment of ancient languages (Egyptian hieroglyphic, Old Achaemenid Iranian, Assyrian-Babylonian, Sumerian, Hurrian, Hittite, Urartu, Ugaritic, etc) and the study of millions of original texts, which were not copies of earlier sources but contemporaneous to the events that they narrated, sounded the death knell of the era of history fabrication programs.
With the post-Soviet rise of the great continental powers (China, India, Russia, etc.), the economic-military-political-ideological-educational-academic-cultural tyranny of the Western World started being overthrown throughout the earlier colonized world. The historical forgery that the colonial rulers imposed collapsed, the falsehood of the Eurocentric dogma of World History started being revealed and rejected, and an overwhelming project of total de-Westernization appeared as a prerequisite for the liberation of the Mankind from the lies of the European Renaissance, the Western Humanities, the White Supremacism, the Western European colonialism and racism, as well as from the falsehood of numerous subsystems of the construct, such as Classicism, Hellenism, Orientalism, etc.  
In our days, it is imperative for anti-colonial scholars to unveil the distortions applied to Ancient Greek and Latin texts by the medieval monks. Consequently, historians from all over the world have to work together in order to denounce and obliterate the Western fraud and the fake History of the Western Man, which consists in arbitrarily taking 14th c. CE manuscripts as authentic narratives of Ancient History.
I. A fictional concept: the origin of the fraud
Apparently, the present brief article cannot be an exhaustive presentation of the Western fraud, and of the historical forgery that the Western monks, manuscript copyists, collectors, academics and propagandists attempted to impose worldwide through colonial conquests, massacres and tyrannies. However, I can still enumerate the major founding myths of the Western World.
Two thematic circles of historical distortions and fraudulent claims made by the Western academia revolve around the following two entirely fabricated entities, which have conventionally but erroneously been called
a) "the Greco-Roman world" and
b) "Biblical Israel" and "Judeo-Christian civilization".
These ahistorical entities never existed. The original concept of those notions is purely fictional, and it therefore remains always unquestioned in the fraudulent Western universities. In this regard, the sources that the Western academics evoke to support their claims are posterior, untrustworthy, forged and therefore worthless.
At times, some of those texts represent merely ancient authors' misperceptions of earlier texts and authors; however, more often, the ancient texts have been tampered with. On other occasions, ancient texts that refute the lies of other historical sources are hidden from the general public and conventionally discussed among the Western academic accomplices.  
II. A construct based on posterior textual sources
The entire construct hinges on the deceitful presentation of several types of material forged, collected, concealed, interpreted, contextualized, narrated, repeatedly but intentionally discussed, supposedly questioned, and selectively popularized; this was due to the fact that the said material was incessantly utilized for the colonial needs and targets of the Western European powers (England, France, Holland, Spain, Portugal, and more recently the US). In fact, the Western World's fake History was created as the ultimate support of all colonial claims.
This process happened within a system in which posterior textual sources (preserved in medieval manuscripts) have occupied the central position, whereas the ancient epigraphic material, which was contemporaneous to the historical events under study, has been deliberately disregarded.
All later discovered data and pieces of information were either adjusted to the construct or methodically hidden; this is how the original concept, pathetically believed almost as a religious dogma, remained totally unchallenged down to our days.
III. The deceitful presentation
The quintessence of the deceitful presentation involves a vicious trick; people (pupils and students, but also scholars and intellectuals, as well as the general public) are taught and made accustomed to care mainly about the absolutely insignificant dates of birth and death of historical persons (authors, rulers, etc.), and not about the dates of the manuscripts in which these individuals are mentioned as supposed authors; this situation turns readers, students and scholars into pathetic idiots. 
Subsequently, we cannot seriously afford to describe Herodotus as a 5th c. BCE writer, because there is no manuscript with texts attributed to him, dating before the 10th c. CE. In addition, if we take into account the enormous number of other ancient authors decrying, denigrating and rejecting Herodotus' absurdities and malignancy, we have to permanently and irrevocably obliterate Herodotus from the History of Mankind and consider his false, paranoid and racist texts as a double Crime against the Mankind:
first, with respect to the original narrative (to which we don't have access as it was distorted by medieval monastical scribes and copyists) because the author attempted to disparage the superior Iranian civilization and the majestic Achaemenid universalist empire, while undeservedly praising the South Balkan barbarians, and
second, as regards the currently available text, which was forged as per the discriminatory intentions of the monks who altered and distorted it in their effort to fabricate the fake, modern divide (or dichotomy) East-West, and to offer a shred of historicity to it.
IV. 5th century BCE texts found in 15th c.  CE manuscripts do not make 'History'.
People get therefore addicted to considering as a true and original 'work' (of an ancient author) the manuscript (or manuscripts) in which the specific treatise, essay or book was copied perhaps 10 or 15 centuries after the author composed it. Due to a long chain of intermediaries (namely library copyists, librarians, scholars, monks, collectors, purchasers and/or statesmen), the transmitted text may have been partly or totally changed.
There is absolutely no guarantee as regards the honesty, the good intentions, the unbiased attitude, and the benevolent character of the perhaps 5, 10, 20 or 50 persons who -living in different eras and without knowing one another- may have constituted the chain of (unknown to us) intermediaries between the hand of the author and that of the last copyist whose manuscript was preserved down to our times.
Example: very little matters today whether the ancient author Diodorus Siculus or Siceliotes (西西里的狄奧多羅斯) actually lived in the 1st c. BCE or in the 3rd c. CE; quite contrarily, what is important for history-writing is the fact that the earliest known manuscript of his famous 'Bibliotheca Historica' (世界史) dates back to the 10th c. CE.
Consequently, the first piece of information that should be stated after the name of any 'ancient' Anatolian, Macedonian, Thracian, Greek, Roman and other author is the date of the earliest extant manuscript of his works.
V. Abundant evidence of lies and deliberate distortions attested in the manuscript transmission
An extraordinarily high number of original sources excavated in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Anatolia, Canaan, Iran and elsewhere, and subsequently deciphered, can be dated with accuracy; example: the Annals of great Assyrian emperor Tiglath-pileser III (745-727 BCE) were written during his reign. They are contemporaneous and therefore original.
However, in striking contrast to them, almost all the manuscripts with the works of ancient Greek and Roman authors whose texts have formed the backbone of the fraudulent historical dogma of the Western academia are not contemporaneous but posterior by, at times, 1500 or 2000 years.
Even worse, numerous ancient Greek authors' texts were not preserved through a manuscript tradition at all; they were saved as references in posterior authors' works. This concerns, for instance, Ctesias (克特西亞斯), an Ancient Carian (Anatolian) physician and erudite scholar, who lived and worked in the court of the Achaemenid Iranian emperor Artaxerxes II in the 5th c. BCE.
Later, willing to offer potential guidebooks to Iran and India for the use of various peripheral peoples and tribes of the Balkan region, Ctesias elaborated in Ancient Ionian (愛奧尼亞希臘語) two treatises to describe the state of things in Iran and in India. To the Western academic bibliography, his works are known (in Latin) as 'Persica' and 'Indica'.
These texts were not saved integrally in manuscripts copied for the purpose of preserving Ctesias' works, but they were preserved in Diodorus Siculus' 'Bibliotheca Historica'. Although he is not known through authentic and contemporaneous Iranian sources, we can deduce that Ctesias certainly spoke fluently the official language of the Empire and read Old Achaemenid cuneiform. Eventually, he may have also studied and learned Babylonian and Elamite cuneiform, namely two ancient Mesopotamian cuneiform languages and writings the use of which was maintained by Iranian scribes.
Apparently, Ctesias had a firsthand insight, as he lived for many years in Parsa (Persepolis), the capital of the Achaemenid Empire and he also traveled extensively along with the Iranian emperor. But, unfortunately, the following ordeal was produced.  
VI. Darius I the Great, the Behistun inscription, and Ctesias
One century before Ctesias served Artaxerxes II, the empire of Iran was saved by Darius I the Great (大流士一世; reign: 522-486), who overthrew a usurper, namely the Mithraic (密特拉教祭司) magus Gaumata (高墨达), and by so doing, preserved on the throne a dynasty of faithful Zoroastrian (瑣羅亞斯德教徒) monarchs.
To commemorate his great victory and the consolidation of the his dynasty, Darius I the Great had an enormous rock relief and a monumental inscription (貝希斯敦銘文) engraved on the rocks of Mount Behistun (貝希斯頓山), at a distance of 150 km west of Hamadan (哈马丹; Ekbatana/埃克巴坦那) in Western Iran (15 m high by 25 m wide and 100 m up the cliff). As it can be easily understood, these events occurred after the assassination of Cambyses, at the very beginning of Darius I the Great's reign.
It goes without saying that the successors of Darius I the Great and the imperial Iranian administration knew perfectly well the historical details and were fully aware of the imperial inscription that immortalized the event, which had obviously become the cornerstone of the imperial education.    
VII. The historical Assyrian Queen Shammuramat and the fictional Queen Semiramis of the 'Ancient Greek sources'
However, one century later, when Ctesias lived in Iran, served the Iranian Emperor, and spoke Old Achaemenid Iranian (and if not, he was surrounded by the Empire's top interpreters and advisers), something disastrously odd 'happened'.
According to Diodorus Siculus, who explicitly stated that he extensively quoted from Ctesias' text (Bibliotheca Historica, II 13), the imperial Carian physician and author appears to have attributed the Behistun inscription and the rock reliefs to none else than the Assyrian Queen Shammuramat (薩穆-拉瑪特), who was the queen consort of the Assyrian Emperor Shamshi Adad V (沙姆什·阿達德五世; reign: 824-811) and co-regent (811-805) during the first years of reign of her son Adad Nirari III (阿达德尼拉里三世; reign: 811-783)!
Furthermore, in the 'Ancient Greek' text of Diodorus Siculus, the monumental inscription was said to be written in Assyrian cuneiform (Συρίοις γράμμασιν)! Even worse, in the same text (as preserved today), it was also stated that, in the rock relief, there was also a representation of the Assyrian queen!
Ctesias' text, as preserved by Diodorus Siculus, is truly abundant in information, but it is historically impossible and therefore entirely forged. Due to this and many other texts, an enormous chasm was unnecessarily formed between
a) the historical queen Shammuramat of Assyria, whose historicity is firmly undeniable, due to the existence of several contemporaneous cuneiform sources excavated in Assyria, and subsequently deciphered and published,
and
b) the purely fictional Assyrian queen Semiramis (沙米拉姆) of the posterior Ancient Greek textual sources that were supposedly 'preserved' (but in reality deliberately distorted and forged) in the Benedictine manuscripts of Western Europe's monasteries.
However, if we examine closely the facts, we will surely understand what truly occurred in this case; then, we will be able to fathom how the fake History of the Western world was fabricated.
The Behistun inscription is trilingual, as it was written in Old Achaemenid Iranian (the earliest form of written Iranian languages), Babylonian, and Elamite; this was a very common practice during the Achaemenid times (550-330 BCE). The main figure of the associated rock relief is Darius I the Great, evidently the representation of a male royal.
One way or another, with respect to the Behistun inscription and rock relief, Ctesias certainly knew everything that we know today after the successive decipherments of the Old Achaemenid, Babylonian and Elamite cuneiform writings, or perhaps even more, due to the then extant oral tradition.
VIII. The malignant intentions of the Benedictine liars: from the historical Darius I the Great to the fictional Semiramis  
The Behistun inscription is not Assyrian; the representation is not that of female royal; and the monument is totally unrelated to Shammuramat, who had lived 300 years before Darius I the Great and 400 years before Artaxerxes II's physician Ctesias. More importantly, by that time, the Assyrian Empire did not occupy the lands surrounding Behistun. Accompanied by Iranian imperial officers and his associates, Ctesias certainly learned all the details of the monumental inscription that we can now read in articles, courses, lectures, books and encyclopedias.
The narrative was a triumph for Darius I the Great and a spectacular rebuttal of the vicious Mithraic Magi who had supported the defeated evil sorcerer and villain Gaumata. Apparently, writing a guidebook for Iran to help marginal people of the Empire's Balkan periphery, Ctesias did not have any reason to say lies. Moreover, we don't have any reason to believe that Diodorus Siculus needed to distort the truth to that extent, when copying and thus preserving Ctesias' masterpiece for the posterity.
However, the transmission of the details about the Behistun inscription embarrassed the Benedictine copyists who wanted to denigrate Darius I the Great and to portray his great empire in a most derogatory manner. They had already proceeded in this manner, distorting other manuscripts, forging texts, and fabricating their pseudo-historical narratives at will.
That is why Ctesias' pertinent text, which had certainly been preserved in its original form within Diodorus Siculus' Bibliotheca Historica, was intentionally distorted by the Benedictine 'Holy Inquisition of Libraries', which fabricated the myths of today's Western world some time after the middle of the 8th c. CE. To be accurate, Ctesias' historical description was entirely replaced by a fictional and historically nonsensical account.
The unbelievable lies -invented and included in Diodorus Siculus' quotations from Ctesias- risked making of the fictional queen Semiramis a world ruler! Whereas the Assyrian Empire at the end of the 9th c. BCE did not control even the western half of today's Iranian territory, the unequivocally mythicized Semiramis had supposedly sent her armies up to India where those fictitious Assyrian soldiers were trampled by the elephants. This worthless narrative that replaced Ctesias' original text may very well have been invented as a 'historical' excuse for Alexander the Great's failure to advance deep inside India.
IX. The vicious distortions of the Benedictine liars: from Ctesias to Herodotus
But if the fictional Semiramis' Indian campaign is entirely false, so are then the preposterous narratives of Herodotus about Darius I the Great's and Xerxes I the Great's campaigns in the insignificant and barbarian circumference of South Balkans. These texts involved evil purposes, heinous anti-Iranian biases, fictional battles, racist discourses, vicious lies, incredibly large number of the Iranian armies, and absurdly high number of Iranian casualties.
The mendacious but idiotic Benedictine monks, who wrote those slander tales did not apparently expect that, sometime in the future, excavations would bring to light splendid Iranian antiquities, original cuneiform documentation, and trustworthy contemporaneous historical sources, whereas a systematic effort of decipherment would offer to people all over the world direct access to historical texts written in dead languages, thus irrevocably canceling Herodotus' nonsensical report and, even more importantly, the later distortions that the Benedictine monks made on their worthless manuscripts.
In any case, had those fictional campaigns against 'Greece' had a shred of truth to them, they would have certainly been documented one way or another in various Old Achaemenid, Babylonian, Elamite, Imperial Aramaic, Egyptian hieroglyphic or other sources; but they were not.
Even worse, the meaningless and ludicrous battles of Marathon, Thermopylae, Salamis, and their likes would have been commemorated by the Seleucids, the Ptolemies, and the Attalids all the way down to the Romans and the Eastern Romans. But we know quite well that the nonexistent, fictional past of the so-called Ancient Greek world was absolutely irrelevant to them: precisely because it had not yet been fabricated.
===================  
Aristotle as Historical Forgery, the Western World’s Fake History & Rotten Foundations, and Prof. Jin Canrong’s Astute Comments
Contents
I. Aristotle: a Major Founding Myth of the Western World
II. When, where and by whom was the Myth of Aristotle fabricated?
III. The Myth of Aristotle and its first Byproducts: Scholasticism, East-West Schism, the Crusades & the Sack of Constantinople (1204)
IV. Aristotelization: First Stage of the Westernization and the Colonization of the World
V. Aristotelization as Foundation of all the Western Forgeries: the so-called Judeo-Christian Heritage and the Fraud of Greco-Roman Civilization
VI. The Modern Western World as Disruption of History
VII. The Myth of Aristotle and the Monstrosity of Western Colonialism 
======================
Download the article in PDF:
1 note · View note
techstrendzzz · 3 months
Link
0 notes
harvest-moonie · 10 months
Text
cheese part 2 The word cheese comes from Latin caseus, from which the modern word casein is also derived. The earliest source is from the proto-Indo-European root *kwat-, which means "to ferment, become sour". That gave rise to cīese or cēse (in Old English) and chese (in Middle English). Similar words are shared by other West Germanic languages—West Frisian tsiis, Dutch kaas, German Käse, Old High German chāsi—all from the reconstructed West-Germanic form *kāsī, which in turn is an early borrowing from Latin.
The Online Etymological Dictionary states that "cheese" comes from:[6]
Old English cyse (West Saxon), cese (Anglian) ... from West Germanic *kasjus (source also of Old Saxon kasi, Old High German chasi, German Käse, Middle Dutch case, Dutch kaas), from Latin caseus [for] "cheese" (source of Italian cacio, Spanish queso, Irish caise, Welsh caws).
The Online Etymological Dictionary states that the word is of:[6]
unknown origin; perhaps from a PIE root *kwat- "to ferment, become sour" (source also of Prakrit chasi "buttermilk;" Old Church Slavonic kvasu "leaven; fermented drink," kyselu "sour," -kyseti "to turn sour;" Czech kysati "to turn sour, rot;" Sanskrit kvathati "boils, seethes;" Gothic hwaþjan "foam"). Also compare fromage. Old Norse ostr, Danish ost, Swedish ost are related to Latin ius "broth, sauce, juice."
When the Romans began to make hard cheeses for their legionaries' supplies, a new word started to be used: formaticum, from caseus formatus, or "molded cheese" (as in "formed", not "moldy"). It is from this word that the French fromage, standard Italian formaggio, Catalan formatge, Breton fourmaj, and Occitan fromatge (or formatge) are derived. Of the Romance languages, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian, Tuscan and Southern Italian dialects use words derived from caseus (queso, queijo, caș and caso for example). The word cheese itself is occasionally employed in a sense that means "molded" or "formed". Head cheese uses the word in this sense. The term "cheese" is also used as a noun, verb and adjective in a number of figurative expressions (e.g., "the big cheese", "to be cheesed off" and "cheesy lyrics")
Ancient Greece and Rome
Cheese in a market in Italy
Ancient Greek mythology credited Aristaeus with the discovery of cheese. Homer's Odyssey (8th century BCE) describes the Cyclops making and storing sheep's and goats' milk cheese (translation by Samuel Butler):
We soon reached his cave, but he was out shepherding, so we went inside and took stock of all that we could see. His cheese-racks were loaded with cheeses, and he had more lambs and kids than his pens could hold... When he had so done he sat down and milked his ewes and goats, all in due course, and then let each of them have her own young. He curdled half the milk and set it aside in wicker strainers.[14]
Columella's De Re Rustica (c. 65 CE) details a cheesemaking process involving rennet coagulation, pressing of the curd, salting, and aging. According to Pliny the Elder, it had become a sophisticated enterprise by the time the Roman Empire came into being.[15] Pliny the Elder also mentions in his writings Caseus Helveticus, a hard Sbrinz-like cheese produced by the Helvetii.[16][17] Cheese was an everyday food and cheesemaking a mature art in the Roman empire.[18] Pliny's Natural History (77  CE) devotes a chapter (XI, 97) to describing the diversity of cheeses enjoyed by Romans of the early Empire. He stated that the best cheeses came from the villages near Nîmes, but did not keep long and had to be eaten fresh. Cheeses of the Alps and Apennines were as remarkable for their variety then as now. A Ligurian cheese was noted for being made mostly from sheep's milk, and some cheeses produced nearby were stated to weigh as much as a thousand pounds each. Goats' milk cheese was a recent taste in Rome, improved over the "medicinal taste" of Gaul's similar cheeses by smoking. Of cheeses from overseas, Pliny preferred those of Bithynia in Asia Minor.
Post-Roman Europe
Cheese, Tacuinum sanitatis Casanatensis (14th century)
As Romanized populations encountered unfamiliar newly settled neighbors, bringing their own cheese-making traditions, their own flocks and their own unrelated words for cheese, cheeses in Europe diversified further, with various locales developing their own distinctive traditions and products. As long-distance trade collapsed, only travelers would encounter unfamiliar cheeses: Charlemagne's first encounter with a white cheese that had an edible rind forms one of the constructed anecdotes of Notker's Life of the Emperor.
The British Cheese Board claims that Britain has approximately 700 distinct local cheeses;[19] France and Italy have perhaps 400 each (a French proverb holds there is a different French cheese for every day of the year, and Charles de Gaulle once asked "how can you govern a country in which there are 246 kinds of cheese?").[20] Still, the advancement of the cheese art in Europe was slow during the centuries after Rome's fall. Many cheeses popular today were first recorded in the late Middle Ages or after—cheeses like Cheddar around 1500, Parmesan in 1597, Gouda in 1697, and Camembert in 1791.[21]
In 1546, The Proverbs of John Heywood claimed "the moon is made of a green cheese" (Greene may refer here not to the color, as many now think, but to being new or unaged).[22] Variations on this sentiment were long repeated and NASA exploited this myth for an April Fools' Day spoof announcement in 2006.[23]
Modern era
Cheese display in grocery store, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
Until its modern spread along with European culture, cheese was nearly unheard of in east Asian cultures and in the pre-Columbian Americas and had only limited use in sub-Mediterranean Africa, mainly being widespread and popular only in Europe, the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent, and areas influenced by those cultures. But with the spread, first of European imperialism, and later of Euro-American culture and food, cheese has gradually become known and increasingly popular worldwide.
The first factory for the industrial production of cheese opened in Switzerland in 1815, but large-scale production first found real success in the United States. Credit usually goes to Jesse Williams, a dairy farmer from Rome, New York, who in 1851 started making cheese in an assembly-line fashion using the milk from neighboring farms; this made cheddar cheese one of the first US industrial foods.[24] Within decades, hundreds of such commercial dairy associations existed.[25]
The 1860s saw the beginnings of mass-produced rennet, and by the turn of the century scientists were producing pure microbial cultures. Before then, bacteria in cheesemaking had come from the environment or from recycling an earlier batch's whey; the pure cultures meant a more standardized cheese could be produced.[26]
Factory-made cheese overtook traditional cheesemaking in the World War II era, and factories have been the source of most cheese in America and Europe ever since.[27] By 2012, cheese was one of the most shoplifted items from supermarkets worldwide.[28]
0 notes
severegardenerllama · 11 months
Text
Uyghur Khaganate
Abstract
The Uyghur Khaganate (Uygur, Uyğur, or Uighur Khaganate/Qaganate) or Empire (744–840) was among the largest states created in medieval Eurasia: at its height in the early decades of the 9th century it stretched from western central Asia to Korea. Established by the Turkic-speaking Uyghur pastoral nomads, it evolved into a rather complex pastoral nomadic state with many sedentary features, such as urbanism, agriculture, a number of written languages/alphabets, a form of currency, a fairly complex system of government, and a sophisticated religion (Manichaeism). Many of these sedentary elements entered the Uyghur state through Tang China and the central Asian Sogdians (Sogdians). To finance their empire, the Uyghurs used their close proximity and military leverage over the wealthy Tang state to obtain silks by various methods and dispatch them via Sogdian merchants westwards along the Silk Roads, one branch of which was controlled by the Uyghurs.
The Uyghur Khaganate (Uyğur, Uyghur, or Uighur Khaganate/Qaganate) or the Orxon Uyghur Empire (744–840), established and run politically by the Turkic-speaking Uyghur pastoral nomads, was one of the largest empires in medieval Eurasia and at its height stretched from the Fergana Valley in central Asia to eastern Mongolia. Like many other Inner Asian pastoral nomadic peoples, the Uyghurs derived from the Hsiung-nu political union (209 bce–c.100 ce). Part of the T'ieh-lê tribal union, as a result of conflicts with the Jou-Jan Khaganate (330–552), they were divided into two groups: one in the Orxon–Selenga River valleys (On Uyghur) and the other in the Altai-T'ien-shan range area (Toquz Uyghur). Together, they comprised a Toquz Oguz tribal confederation, at the head of which stood the Yaglaqar Uyghur charismatic clan. By the 8th century, the latter name developed into an ethnonym, applied to the Toquz Oguz tribes. When vassals of the Eastern Türk Khaganate (552–630), and for some time thereafter, the Uyghurs developed close contacts with Tang China (618–907) and appear to have accepted their overlordship. With the advent of the Second Türk Khaganate (682–742), the Uyghurs were again absorbed into the imperial Türk orbit. But, several years after the collapse of the Khaganate, thanks in large part to the Uyghurs, they took the imperial lead in eastern and central Eurasian politics by establishing their own Khaganate, the highest form of Turkic political organization (i.e., empire). Establishing their capital Ordu Baliq (Balıq) in the sacred Orxon lands and switching their ruler's title from Yabgu to Qagan, the Uyghurs made a clear statement of their political orientation toward the core Mongol territories formerly held by the eastern Türkic qagans and their aspirations to the imperial title.
On becoming masters of a huge territory stretching from the southern Gobi in the south, to western Manchuria in the east, to the Altai-Tuva region (nominally including the Kimek Irtysh and Qirgiz Yenisei territories) in the northwest, and eastern Turkestan to the borders of Qarluq country in the west, the Uyghurs found themselves in a key position to participate in major power politics in central and eastern Eurasia, which involved Tang China, the Tibetan Empire (618–842), and various other Turkic states and tribal confederations. With its heartlands situated in Mongolia, the Uyghur Khaganate was also ideally located for developing commercial ties with China to its south; the Bohai/P‘o-hai kingdom (698–926) of Manchuria–Russian Far East–North Korea to its east; Sogdia (Soġdia) and the Islamic civilization to its west; and, the various Uralic and Palaeo-Siberian hunter-gatherer tribes to its north.
Central and eastern Eurasia witnessed several major realignments in their commercial relations during the second half of the 8th century. As a prelude and most probably the cause of this reorientation was the An Lushan Rebellion in China that began in 755, which led China to begin its withdrawal from central Asia. Other regional powers came to replace the Tang in fulfilling the commercial transit role along the key central sectors of the Silk Roads that ran from China to central Asia via the Gansu Pass and the southern Tarim Basin in eastern Turkestan, namely the Tibetans and the newly established Uyghur Khaganate. Thus, the vital route stretching from Hami to the Gansu Corridor of the Jade Gate and the key regions of Dunhuang and Lop Nor and the cities of Besbaliq (Beiting/Tingzhou/Pei-t'ing), Kucha, Qoco, and Khotan were taken by the Tibetans from the Tang between 763 and the mid-790s. After 763, China had no direct contacts with central Asia. During these turbulent decades, trade along this traditional segment of the Silk Road appears to have declined.
During the reign of Qutlug Qagan (795–808), the Uyghurs took Turfan and extended their empire west to Fergana, including the earlier recapture of Bedbalıq in Turfan from the Tibetans in 792. Under the following qagan, Ay Tengride (808–821), the Uyghurs also captured Kuchâ, Qoco, and Kashgar. In the first quarter of the 9th century, Uyghur armies were operating on several occasions deep in Transoxiana, to as far west as the Syr Darya in Soġdia. However, for a number of decades of the latter half of the 8th century the Uyghurs had to find an alternative to the classic central section of the Silk Roads, a route that bypassed the Tibetan-held regions, that led to Soġdiana, their key trading partners in western central Asia. This route came to be known as the “Uyghur Road.” Its eastern branch passed from Tang territories northwest via the mid-Yellow River and the northern borders of the Ordos to the Uyghur capital of Ordu Balıq. From this city on the upper Orxon, its western branch ran southwest via Lake Barkul to the Uyghur-held town of Besbaliq. This city lay along a key east–west route that led westward to Sogdia; but, because Gansu and the southern Tarim Basin were held by the Tibetans for much of the second half of the 8th century, the road was re-routed northward into the steppe and traversed via it westward all the way to Mirki/Barki (the first Sogdian outpost in the northeast) and then by way of Isbijab and Ṭaraz/Talas to the key Sogdian city of Chach/al-Shash.
By establishing this route, the Uyghurs not only found a way to circumvent the Tibetan lands, but also sought to establish a monopoly on trade between China and the steppe. This last goal was initially made possible by their successful wars against the Qirgiz and their allied neighbors to the west in the late 740s and 750s. With the Uyghur destruction of the Qirgiz army of 50 000 in 758, the latter were cut off from China. However, the Qirgiz developed westerly commercial relations that connected them to the Qarluqs (who came to control the central Asian lands of the Western Türk Khaganate by 766), Tibet, and eastern Turkestan. Consequently, two alternative north–south routes were forged by the Qirgiz and their neighbors that linked with the central Silk Road: the “Qirgiz Road” that led from the Minusinsk Basin–upper Yenisei south through the Qarluq steppe to Kucha and Qoco, and the “Kimak Road” that ran from the Irtysh via the Qarluq steppe to Yabgi-Kent and then to Uđrar/Farab in Isbijab district of Sogdia. In this way, the Uyghurs were unable to hold on to their steppe-route monopoly for long.
Sogdian merchants played a key role in Uyghur trade with China, as is testified by their presence in a caravan traveling from China to the Uyghur capital alongside Uyghur merchants carrying 100 000 silks in 780. No doubt, Sogdians were also the ones who carried the millions of pieces of Chinese silk westward, obtained by the Uyghurs from the Tang over the course of the Khaganate's existence. While Uyghur–Chinese trade may have been initiated soon after the Khaganate was established in 744, it boomed after 760 when the Chinese came to dispatch silks by the hundreds of thousands to the Uyghurs yearly with very few disruptions until their collapse in 840. In the early 820s, the Tang annually forwarded half a million pieces of silk, if we are to believe Tamim b. Baḥr, the Arab emissary sent to the Khaganate in c.821.
To secure a steady and large volume of silks, the Uyghurs devised a number of methods for obtaining these textiles from the Middle Kingdom. One involved plunder and receiving payments for military services. Thus, between 757 and 763, the Uyghurs successfully assisted the Tang in their civil wars, which followed on the heels of the initial An Lushan Rebellion in 755. For their services of “liberating” the imperial cities, they were permitted to loot and pillage them (no doubt silks were the key commodity plundered). Under Bögü Qagan (759–779), the Uyghurs became the props of the Tang dynasty by becoming their guardians against rebellions and the Tibetans, which were secured by marital ties involving the dispatch of Chinese princesses to the Uyghurs. For their military services, they were paid in silks (e.g., 100 000 were given to them in 765).
Another method used to acquire silks was through forced trade. Being the military protectors of the Tang, beginning in 760 the Uyghurs used their position to systematically extort, behind the façade of trade, thousands of their horses (according to Chinese sources, not wanted and often decrepit nags) for Tang silks at 38–40 pieces per horse (e.g., in 780 100 000 pieces; in 827 200 000 or 500 000 pieces; in 829 230 000 pieces). To the horses may be added furs (sables), jade belts, camels, falcons, and other goods sent to the Tang. The Chinese chronicles wrote of these items as “tribute” from the Uyghurs who, in turn, viewed them as “gifts” that needed reciprocity, that is, forced trade. After 765, the Uyghurs living in the Tang capital also became economically prominent by acting as moneylenders, which most probably also added to their silk acquisitions, since silk in China at this time was used as currency. However, being wealthy “usurers,” combined with their image of extortionists and arrogant people due to their importance in propping up the Tang, caused much disdain for the Uyghurs and, indeed, helped fuel xenophobia in the Middle Kingdom by the early 9th century. This phenomenon ran contrary to the otherwise very cosmopolitan Tang culture, one that initially absorbed many nomadic elements, from ideologies, worldviews, and aesthetics to the appreciation of wearing furs, eating stewed camel humps, and women parading on horseback through the streets of the imperial capital wearing felt pants, kaftans, and boots.
To maintain and perpetuate trade relations with the outside world, the Uyghurs developed a well-run infrastructure and urbanism. Already in the mid-7th century at the request of the Uyghurs the Tang erected 16 stations along what developed into the eastern branch of the “Uyghur Road.” Soon after the advent of the Khaganate, Et-Etmish Bilge Qagan (747–759) constructed the capital Ordu Baliq in 757 and at about the same time “ordered” Sogdians and Chinese to build the city of Bay Baliq on the Selenga River. Indeed, ceramic roof tiles discovered in Tuva and Ordu Baliq are analogous to those crafted in Tang China, while the castles built in the Tuva region were constructed from typical bricks of the central and eastern central Asian tradition. The capital held temples, administrative buildings, market streets aligned by trades, 12 gates, and a central citadel where the Qagan's walled-in palace stood, atop of which the ruler's golden tent (which could hold 100 people) was located. Another city, Khökh Ordung, was located east of the Khangai Mountains in central Mongolia. More urban centers were erected west of the Eg River in north-central Mongolia. Further west was Tuva, which was taken by the Uyghurs in 750–751. This region functioned as the Khaganate's limes with their Qirgız neighbors. There the Uyghurs erected a strong line of fortifications made up of 17 brick-made castles and interconnecting wooden walls. These rectangular and square fortresses had thick, high walls with massive towers and gates that were surrounded by deep and wide moats.
The support mechanism for travelers and permanent residents of Uyghur castles and cities was well developed. The discovery of hand-turned grain mills, iron plowshares, and millet at Uyghur castles and burials indicates that agriculture was known in this pastoral nomadic empire. Tamim b. Baḥr reports that the capital of the Uyghurs was “a great town, rich in agriculture and surrounded by rustaqs full of cultivation and villages lying close together ….” Indeed, archaeological surveys of the city revealed a network of irrigation ditches that could have sustained agriculture in the Orxon plain. Linguistic evidence suggests that the Uyghurs borrowed the knowledge of making “wine from millet” (no doubt beer) from the Sogdians. Large numbers of horses, goats, sheep, camels, and cattle were also raised. Additional meat and raw materials for craft production were obtained through hunting red Siberian stags, wild rams, boar, fowl, bears, and other animals. Fishing also played a role in the economy. Craft production, whether in Uyghur or immigrant artisan's hands, involved: woodworking; horn, antler, and bone carving; pottery-making (handmade as well as wheel-turned); ironworking; copper-working (e.g., production of bronze mirrors); and cloth production.
Some products of the Khaganate were exported: items carved out of ivory (walrus or mammoth tusks) and heath-wood platters were carried to the Muslim lands. It is very likely that furs were also exported westward: the Arab writer al-Jaḥiẓ (d.869) noted in his work Tabassur that the best sables found in the Islamic world came from China, here most probably mistaking their Uyghur source for China. Indeed, since the Khaganate's northern territories were located at the edge of the Siberian forest zone, the Uyghurs had access to some of the finest furs available in Eurasia. Based on the finds of silks, beads, coins, and other imported objects north of the Tuva limes, western Baikal, and even deeper in Siberia, by way of trade the Uyghurs secured furs for their markets from the Uralic and Palaeo-Siberian hunter-gatherer peoples of the taiga. Thus, the “Uyghur Road” also served as a “Fur Road,” not a minor function in light of the great demand for this luxury item across Afro-Eurasia during this period.
But, horses were no doubt their largest export item. Aside from receiving silks in exchange for them from China, the Uyghurs also imported tea, which became the fad in Tang China at this time, as well as ceramic dishware and neo-porcelains, bronze mirrors, and coins. Beads of various types (paste, glass, rock-crystal, cornelian) were also imported to the Khaganate from across Eurasia. However, it is not clear what balanced out Uyghurs’ silk trade. It has been estimated that they received on average 300 000 rolls of raw silk per year from the Tang, in exchange for 7500 horses. Naturally, some part of this yearly silk intake was used by the Uyghurs themselves. Some they traded northward into Siberia. However, the majority of these textiles must have been exported westward by the Sogdians. What the Uyghurs received in return has not been documented in the written sources. Based on the discovery of various items made of gold and other non-ferrous metals in Uyghur burials, it can be assumed that they were, at least in part, paid with various luxury items. Presumably, another way the Sogdians compensated for the goods they acquired from the Uyghurs was by providing them with builders to construct and decorate their cities and castles, something that would have been very costly, but mutually beneficial.
Relying on the political mechanisms of their Türk predecessors and those imported by the Sogdians, the Uyghurs developed a relatively sophisticated sedentary and nomadic government, with a fairly well-developed bureaucratic system. Contributing to political stability was the adoption of a vertical succession from father to son, which was atypical for the nomadic linear system. Qagan's huge military also helped: in the capital alone he had a standing army of 12 000 at the imperial central inner city, and his 17 chieftains each provided 13 000 more men in the outer city. The Uyghurs also had a horse-relay system of communications (like the later Cinggisid jam) as well as fiat money in the form of leather pieces to which seals of the Qagan were attached as guarantee of tender. Writing also contributed to administration. In fact, the Uyghurs had three alphabets, all borrowed: a variation of Sogdian (itself based on Aramaeo-Syriac); a Runic script, based on Indic Brahmî (which entered via the Tocharians); and, a Tibetan-based alphabet (also Indic in origin). The elite appear to have been literate and it is quite possible that the urban population was as well. Uyghur literature is plentiful and diverse, mostly religious: Manichaean, Nestorian Christian, and Buddhist.
The multiple roles played by the Sogdians in the Uyghur state cannot be overemphasized. Indeed, they acted as tutors to the Uyghurs in regard to trade, diplomacy, politics, material culture, writing, and religion. In turn, the Khaganate's success brought Sogdians profit. In this way, this was a symbiotic relationship. But, the most important Sogdian contribution was the introduction and perpetuation of their Manichaean faith, a religion that was generally persecuted at the time elsewhere other than in Sogdia. In c.762, Bögü Qagan converted to Manichaeism and soon thereafter introduced the religion to the Khaganate, most members of which presumably practiced the traditional Turkic Tengri (sky-god) faith. While Manichaeism was not uncontested by the ruling elite, and it is not clear what portion of the population practiced this religion outside of the urban centers, the choice to convert to it made much sense: it offered not only a more sophisticated belief system, which was required for a developing complex state, but also one that was theologically and politically neutral in relation to the other major rival powers in the region that practiced Buddhism and Islam.
The Uyghur Khaganate began to disintegrate after the death of Külüg Bilge Qagan (832–839). That year brought heavy snows, epidemics, famine, and epizootics that led to the death of much of the empire's livestock, the backbone of the economy. These natural disasters most probably were interpreted as the loss (heaven's withdrawal or removal) of the qaganal political-military “charisma” or qut and put in question the viability of the Khaganate itself as a sacred polity. The following year, 840, with the invitation of a turncoat general, 100 000 Qirgiz attacked and destroyed the capital of Ordu Baliq, killed the last Qagan, Wu-tsung/Lu-chi Qasar (838–840), and hence ended the Uyghur Empire. These events aside, it should be observed that the Uyghurs were victims of their own success: by becoming increasingly urban luxury consumers and divided by socioeconomic-political differences, they turned away from the aspects of their culture that initially gave them strength – mobility, austerity, and a generally classless militarily powerful and united nomadic state. The collapse of the Khaganate also falls in line with the overall historical patterns of the other states in the region, as the Tibetan Empire crumbled two years afterward and the crippled Tang state limped on for two more generations. Hence, the fall of the Uyghur Khaganate has to be interpreted in the context of the much larger patterns of internal and external historical developments that occurred across central and eastern Eurasia in the period.
1 note · View note