Home About us Products Services Contact us Bookmark
:: wikimiki.org ::
1009

1009

Events


- February 14: First known mention of Lithuania, in the annals of the monastery of Quedlinburg.
- October 18: The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is destroyed by Caliph al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah.
- The Ly dynasty, Vietnam's first independent dynasty, is proclaimed.
- Sergius IV succeeds John XVIII as Pope.
- Sulayman succeeds Mohammed II as Caliph of Cordoba.
- Provinces of Goryeo (modern-day Korea) are redistributed.

Births


- December 14 - Emperor Go-Suzaku of Japan (d. 1045)

Deaths


- Bruno of Querfurt, missionary.
- June - Pope John XVIII Category:1009 ko:1009년

February 14

February 14 is the 45th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 320 days remaining, 321 in leap years.

Events


- 842 - Charles the Bald and Louis the German sign a treaty.
- 1014 - Pope Boniface I recognizes Henry of Bavaria as King of Germany.
- 1076 - Pope Gregory VII excommunicates Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor.
- 1556 - Thomas Cranmer is declared a heretic.
- 1575 - Henry III of France marries Louise de Lorraine-Vaudémont
- 1743 - Henry Pelham becomes British Prime Minister.
- 1779 - James Cook is killed by the natives of the Sandwich Islands.
- 1797 - John Jervis, 1st Earl of St Vincent & Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson led the British Royal Navy to victory over a Spanish fleet in the Battle of Cape St. Vincent near Gibraltar.
- 1803 - Chief Justice John Marshall declares that any act of U.S. Congress which conflicts with the Constitution is void.
- 1804 - Karadjordje leads the First Serbian Uprising against the Ottoman Empire.
- 1831 - Ras Marye of Yejju marches into Tigray and defeats and kills Dejazmach Sabagadis in the Battle of Debre Abbay.
- 1849 - In New York City, James Knox Polk becomes the first President of the United States to have his photograph taken.
- 1854 - Texas is linked by telegraph with the rest of the United States, when a connection between New Orleans and Marshall, Texas is completed.
- 1859 - Oregon is admitted as the 33rd U.S. state.
- 1876 - Alexander Graham Bell applies for a patent for the telephone,as does Elisha Gray.
- 1879 - The War of the Pacific breaks out when Chilean armed forces occupy the Bolivian port city of Antofagasta.
- 1895 - First performance of Oscar Wilde's last play The Importance of Being Earnest at the St James's Theatre in London).
- 1899 - Voting machines are approved by the U.S. Congress for use in federal elections.
- 1900 - Russia responds to international pressure to free Finland by tightening imperial control over the country.
- 1900 - Second Boer War: In South Africa, 20,000 British troops invade the Orange Free State.
- 1903 - The United States Department of Commerce and Labor is established (later split into Dept. of Commerce and Dept. of Labor).
- 1912 - Arizona is admitted as the 48th U.S. state.
- 1912 - In Groton, Connecticut, the first diesel-powered submarine is commissioned.
- 1918 - The movie Tarzan of the Apes is released.
- 1918 - The Soviet Union adopts the Gregorian calendar (1 February according to the Julian calendar).
- 1920 - The League of Women Voters is founded in Chicago, Illinois.
- 1924 - IBM corporation founded.
- 1929 - St. Valentine's Day Massacre: Seven gangster rivals of Al Capone are murdered in Chicago, Illinois.
- 1943 - World War II:Rostov, Russia is liberated.
- 1943 - World War II: The Battle of the Kasserine Pass - German General Erwin Rommel and his Afrika Korps launch an offensive against Allied defenses in Tunisia.
- 1944 - World War II: Anti-Japanese revolt on Java.
- 1945 - Bombing of Dresden in World War II: The British Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Force begin fire-bombing Dresden, the capital of the German state of Saxony.
- 1945 - Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay and Peru join the United Nations.
- 1945 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt meets with King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia aboard the USS Quincy, officially starting the US-Saudi diplomatic relationship.
- 1946 - The Bank of England is nationalized.
- 1946 - ENIAC (for "Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer"), the first general-purpose electronic computer, is unveiled at the University of Pennsylvania.
- 1949 - The Knesset (Israeli parliament) first convenes.
- 1949 - The Asbestos Strike begins in Canada. The strike marks the beginning of the Quiet Revolution in Quebec.
- 1952 - 1952 Winter Olympic Games open in Oslo, Norway.
- 1961 - Discovery of the chemical elements: Element 103, Lawrencium, is first synthesized at the University of California.
- 1962 - First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy takes television viewers on a tour of the White House.
- 1966 - Australian currency is decimalised.
- 1979 - In Kabul, Muslim extremists kidnap the American ambassador to Afghanistan, Adolph Dubs who is later killed during a gunfight between his kidnappers and police.
- 1980 - 1980 Winter Olympic Games open in Lake Placid, New York.
- 1980 - Walter Cronkite announces his retirement from CBS Evening News.
- 1985 - CNN reporter Jeremy Levin is freed from captivity in Lebanon.
- 1989 - Union Carbide agrees to pay $470 million to the Indian government for damages it caused in the 1984 Bhopal Disaster.
- 1989 - Iranian leader Ruhollah Khomeini issues a fatwa encouraging Muslims to kill the author of The Satanic Verses, Salman Rushdie.
- 1989 - The first of 24 satellites of the Global Positioning System is placed into orbit.
- 1998 - Authorities in the United States announce that Eric Robert Rudolph is a suspect in an Alabama abortion clinic bombing.
- 2000 - The spacecraft NEAR Shoemaker enters orbit around asteroid 433 Eros, the first spacecraft to orbit an asteroid.
- 2002 - The Tullaghmurray Lass sinks off the coast of Kilkeel, County Down, Northern Ireland killing three members of the same family on board.
- 2004 - In a suburb of Moscow, Russia, the roof of the Transvaal water park collapses, killing more than 25 people, and wounding more than 100 others.
- 2005 - Lebanon's former Prime Minister, Rafik Hariri, is assassinated, prompting the Cedar Revolution (Intifada of Independence).

Births


- 1404 - Leone Battista Alberti, Italian painter, poet, and philosopher (d. 1472)
- 1483 - Zahir al-Din Mohammed Babur Shah, founder of the Moghul dynasty (d. 1530)
- 1602 - Francesco Cavalli, Italian composer (d. 1676)
- 1680 - John Sidney, 6th Earl of Leicester, English privy councillor (d. 1737)
- 1692 - Pierre-Claude Nivelle de La Chaussée, French writer (d. 1754)
- 1701 - Enrique Florez, Spanish historian (d. 1773)
- 1763 - Jean Victor Marie Moreau, French general (d. 1813)
- 1766 - Thomas Malthus, English economist (d. 1834)
- 1812 - Alfred Thomas Agate, American artist (d. 1846)
- 1819 - Joshua A. Norton, Emperor Norton I of the United States of America and Protector of Mexico (d. 1880)
- 1847 - Anna Howard Shaw, American women's suffrage leader (d. 1919)
- 1848 - Benjamin Baillaud, French astronomer (d. 1934)
- 1856 - Frank Harris, Irish author and editor (d. 1931)
- 1869 - Charles Wilson, Scottish physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1959)
- 1884 - Hezekiah M. Washburn, missionary (d. 1972)
- 1890 - Nina Hamnett, Welsh artist (d. 1956)
- 1894 - Jack Benny, American actor and comedian (d. 1974)
- 1895 - Max Horkheimer, German philosopher and sociologist (d. 1973)
- 1898 - Fritz Zwicky, Swiss-American physicist and astronomer (d. 1974)
- 1903 - Stu Erwin, American actor (d. 1967)
- 1905 - Thelma Ritter, American actress (d. 1969)
- 1912 - Tibor Sekelj, Croatian explorer (d. 1988)
- 1913 - Mel Allen, American sports reporter (d. 1996)
- 1913 - Woody Hayes, American college football coach (d. 1987)
- 1913 - Jimmy Hoffa, American labor union leader (disappeared 1975)
- 1916 - Masaki Kobayashi, Japanese director
- 1916 - Edward Platt, American actor (d. 1974)
- 1917 - Herbert A. Hauptman, American mathematician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
- 1921 - Hugh Downs, American game show host
- 1927 - Lois Maxwell, Canadian actress
- 1929 - Vic Morrow, actor (d. 1982)
- 1931 - Brian Kelly, American actor (d. 2005)
- 1932 - Alexander Kluge, German actor and film director
- 1934 - Michel Corboz, Swiss conductor
- 1934 - Florence Henderson, American actress
- 1936 - Fanne Foxe, Argentine dancer
- 1936 - Andrew Prine, American actor
- 1941 - Donna Shalala, American politician, educator
- 1941 - Paul Tsongas, U.S. Senator (d. 1997)
- 1942 - Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of New York City
- 1943 - Maceo Parker, American musician (P-Funk)
- 1944 - Carl Bernstein, American journalist
- 1944 - Alan Parker, British film director and writer
- 1945 - Frank Welker, American actor
- 1946 - Bernard Dowiyogo, President of Nauru (d. 2003)
- 1946 - Gregory Hines, American dancer and actor (d. 2003)
- 1948 - Pat O'Brien, American sportscaster and television host
- 1948 - Teller, American magician (Penn and Teller)
- 1959 - Renee Fleming, Canadian soprano
- 1960 - Jim Kelly, American football player
- 1960 - Meg Tilly, Canadian actress
- 1962 - Kevyn Aucoin, American cosmetologist
- 1963 - Enrico Colantoni, Canadian actor
- 1963 - Zach Galligan, American actor
- 1967 - Manuela Maleeva, Bulgarian tennis player
- 1968 - Jules Asner, American model and television personality
- 1970 - Simon Pegg, English comedian, writer, and actor
- 1971 - Noriko Sakai, Japanese singer
- 1972 - Drew Bledsoe, American football player
- 1972 - Rob Thomas, American musician (matchbox twenty)
- 1973 - Steve McNair, American football player
- 1978 - Richard Hamilton, American basketball player
- 1979 - Antonio Chatman, American football player
- 1980 - Fatima Leyva, Mexican footballer
- 1985 - Philippe Senderos, Swiss footballer
- 1992 - Freddie Highmore, British actor
- 1994 - Paul Butcher, actor from Zoey 101

Deaths


- 1317 - Marguerite of France, queen of Edward I of England (b. 1282)
- 1400 - King Richard II of England (murdered) (b. 1367)
- 1405 - Timur, Mongol conqueror (b. 1336)
- 1523 - Pope Adrian VI
- 1676 - Abraham Bosse, French engraver and artist
- 1737 - Charles Talbot, 1st Baron Talbot of Hensol, Lord Chancellor of Great Britain (b. 1685)
- 1744 - John Hadley, inventor (b. 1682)
- 1779 - James Cook, British naval captain and explorer (b. 1728)
- 1780 - William Blackstone, English jurist (b. 1723)
- 1808 - John Dickinson, American lawyer and delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention (b. 1732)
- 1831 - Vincente Guerrero, Mexican revolutionary hero (b. 1782)
- 1831 - Henry Maudslay, English inventor (b. 1771)
- 1929 - Tom Burke, American runner (b. 1875)
- 1943 - Dora Gerson, German actress, cabaret singer, and Holocaust victim (b. 1899)
- 1943 - David Hilbert, German mathematician (b. 1862)
- 1959 - Baby Dodds, American jazz drummer (b. 1898)
- 1969 - Vito Genovese, American gangster (b. 1897)
- 1970 - Herbert Strudwick, English cricketer (b. 1880).
- 1974 - Stewie Dempster, New Zealand cricketer (b. 1903)
- 1975 - Julian Huxley, British biologist (b. 1887)
- 1975 - P. G. Wodehouse, English writer (b. 1881)
- 1979 - Adolph Dubs, American diplomat (b. 1920)
- 1983 - Lina Radke, German athlete (b. 1903)
- 1987 - Dmitri Borisovich Kabalevsky, Russian composer (b. 1904)
- 1988 - Frederick Loewe, Austrian-American composer (b. 1901)
- 1989 - James Bond, American ornithologist (b. 1900)
- 1994 - Andrei Chikatilo, Russian serial killer (executed) (b. 1936)
- 1994 - Michael Gazzo, American actor (b. 1923)
- 1999 - John Ehrlichman, American presidential advisor (b. 1925)
- 2002 - Nándor Hidegkuti, Hungarian footballer (b. 1922)
- 2003 - Dolly the sheep, first cloned mammal (b. 1996)
- 2003 - Johnny Longden, English jockey (b. 1907)
- 2004 - Marco Pantani, Italian cyclist (b. 1970)
- 2005 - Najai Turpin, American boxer
- 2005 - Rafik Hariri, Lebanese politician and billionaire businessman (b. 1944)

Holidays and observances


- Denmark - Gaekkebrev - gift exchange by school kids
- Mexico - Day of National Mourning (1831)
- Arizona - Admission Day (1912)
- Oregon - Admission Day (1859)
- Western World - Valentine's Day
- Catholicism - Feast day of Saint Valentine
- Catholicism - Feast day of Saints Cyril and Methodius

External links


- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/14 BBC: On This Day]
- [http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/20050214.html The New York Times: On This Day] ---- February 13 - February 15 - January 14 - March 14 -- historical anniversaries ko:2월 14일 ms:14 Februari ja:2月14日 simple:February 14 th:14 กุมภาพันธ์

Quedlinburg

] The city of Quedlinburg in the German Bundesland of Saxony-Anhalt has existed since at least the early ninth century, when a settlement known as Gross Orden existed at the site of the modern Quedlinburg. As such the city is first mentioned in 922, as part of a donation by Henry the Fowler. The records of this donation were collected at the abbey of Corvey. After Henry's death in 936, his widow St Mathilde founded a women's convent on what's called "Castle Hill" today, where daughters of the higher nobility were educated. The main task of this convent was to pray for the memory of king Henry and the rulers that came after him. The first abbess of the convent was Mathilde, granddaughter of Henry and St Mathilde. The Quedlinburg castle complex, founded by Otto I the Great in 936, was an imperial palatinate of the Saxon emperors. The palatinate was in the valley, where nowadays the Catholic church of St Wiperti is situated, while the convent worked on the castle hill. In 961 and 963 a Canon's monastery was established in St Wiperti south of the castle hill. It was abandoned in the 17th century, and at one time the church, which boasts a magnificent crypt from the 9th century, was even used as a barn and a pigsty before being restored in the 1950's. In 972 a Reichstag (Imperial Convention) was held at the court of emperor Otto I the Great where many nobles, including Mieszko, duke of Poland and Boleslav, duke of Bohemia, and even nobles from as far away as Byzantine, gathered to pay homage to the emperor. It was here that Otto the Great introduced his new daughter-in-law Theophanu, a Byzantine princess whose marriage to Otto II brought hope for recognition and continued peace between the rulers of the Eastern and Western empires. In 994 Otto III gives the right of market, tax and coining and established the first market place to the north of the castle hill. Between the upcoming town and the women's convent there was a struggle for power in the area that lasted the following centuries until the convent was finally abandoned in 1802. During Nazi reign the memory of Henry I became a sort of "cult", as Himmler saw himself as the reincarnation of the "most German of all German" rulers. The collegiate church and castle were to be turned into a shrine for Nazi Germany. After the 1945 take-over by the communists many buildings deteriorated. At one point the regime of the former GDR considered tearing down most of the inner town, as most buildings were declared too derelict to maintain. Thankfully there was not sufficient funding for this massive destruction. In the 1980's, restoration specialists from Poland were called in to carry out repairs on the old architecture, now one of the biggest selling points of the town. In the innermost parts of the town you find a wide selection of half-timbered buildings from at least five different centuries, while around the outer fringes of the old town there are wonderful examples of Art Nouveau buildings, mainly dating from the early 20th century. Since December 1994 the old town of Quedlinburg and the castle mount with the collegiate church are listed as one of UNESCO's World Heritage Sites.

External links


- [http://www.quedlinburg.de/ www.quedlinburg.de], the city's website (in German)
- [http://www.quedlinburg.co.uk/ www.quedlinburg.co.uk], private homepage, in English
- [http://www.quedlinburg.de/neu/englisch/Tourismus/unesco_e.shtml UNESCO page on Quedlinburg] Category:Towns in Saxony-Anhalt Category:World Heritage Sites in Germany ko:크베들린부르크 nb:Quedlinburg

Church of the Holy Sepulchre

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, called the Church of the Resurrection (Anastasis in Greek and Սուրբ Հարություն Surp Harutyun in Armenian) by Eastern Christians, is a Christian church now within the walled Old City of Jerusalem. The ground on which the church rests is venerated by most Christians as Golgotha, the Hill of Calvary, where the New Testament describes that Jesus was crucified. It also is said to contain the place where Jesus was reportedly buried (the sepulchre). The church has been an important pilgrimage destination since the 4th century. Today it serves as the headquarters of the Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem and the Catholic Arch-Priest of the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre.

History

Eusebius describes in his Life of Constantine [http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/NPNF2-01/Npnf2-01-29.htm#P7646_3165242] how the site of the Holy Sepulchre, originally a site of veneration for the Christian community in Jerusalem, had been covered with earth and a temple of Venus had been built on top. Although Eusebius does not say as much, this would probably have been done as part of Hadrian's reconstruction of Jerusalem as Aelia Capitolina in 135, following the destruction of the Jewish Revolt of 70 and Bar Kokhba's revolt of 132–135. Following his conversion to Christianity, Emperor Constantine ordered in about 325/326 that the site be uncovered, and instructed Saint Macarius, Bishop of Jerusalem, to build a church on the site. Socrates Scholasticus (born c. 380), in his Ecclesiastical History, gives a full description of the discovery [http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/NPNF2-02/Npnf2-02-06.htm#P394_149362] (that was repeated later by Sozomen and by Theodoret) that emphasizes the role played in the excavations and construction by Constantine's mother Helena, to whom is also credited the rediscovery of the True Cross. True Cross Constantine's church was built around the excavated hill of the Crucifixion, and was actually three connected churches built over the three different holy sites, including a great basilica (the Martyrium visited by the nun Egeria in the 380s), an enclosed colonnaded atrium (the Triportico) built around the traditional Rock of Calvary, and a rotunda, called the Anastasis ("Resurrection"), which contained the remains of the cave that Helena and Macarius had identified with the burial site of Jesus. The surrounding rock was cut away, and the Tomb was encased in a structure called the Edicule (Latin aediculum, small building) or the Kouvoulkion (Greek, shrine) in the center of the rotunda. The dome of the rotunda was completed by the end of the 4th century. This building was damaged by fire in 614 when the Persians under Khosrau II invaded Jerusalem and captured the Cross. In 630, Emperor Heraclius marched triumphantly into Jerusalem and restored the True Cross to the rebuilt Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Under the Muslims it remained a Christian church. The early Muslim rulers protected the city's Christian sites, prohibiting their destruction and their use as living quarters, but after a riot in 966, when the doors and roof were burnt, the original building was completely destroyed on October 18, 1009 by the "mad" Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, who hacked out the Church's foundations down to bedrock. The Edicule and the east and west walls and the roof of the cut-rock tomb it encased were destroyed or damaged (contemporary accounts vary), but the north and south walls were likely protected by rubble from further damage. However, a series of small chapels was erected on the site by Constantine IX Monomachos in 1048 under stringent conditions imposed by the caliphate. The rebuilt sites were taken by the knights of the First Crusade on July 15, 1099. The First Crusade was envisioned as an armed pilgrimage, and no crusader could consider his journey complete unless he had prayed as a pilgrim at the Holy Sepulchre. Crusader chief Godfrey of Bouillon, who became the first crusader monarch of Jerusalem, decided not to use the title "king" during his lifetime, and declared himself Advocatus Sancti Sepulchri, "Protector (or Defender) of the Holy Sepulchre." The chronicler William of Tyre reports on the reconstruction in the mid-12th century, when the crusaders began to renovate the church in a Romanesque style and added a bell tower. These renovations unified the holy sites and were completed during the reign of Queen Melisende in 1149. The church became the seat of the first Latin Patriarchs, and was also the site of the kingdom's scriptorium. The church was lost to Saladin, along with the rest of the city, in 1187, although the treaty established after the Third Crusade allowed for Christian pilgrims to visit the site. Emperor Frederick II regained the city and the church by treaty in the 13th century, while he himself was under a ban of excommunication, leading to the curious result of the holiest church in Christianity being laid under interdict. Both city and church were captured by the Khwarezmians in 1244. The church was an inspiration for churches in Europe like Santa Gerusalemme in Bologna. The Franciscan friars renovated it further in 1555, as it had been neglected despite increased numbers of pilgrims. A fire severely damaged the structure again in 1808, causing the dome of the Rotunda to collapse and smashing the Edicule's exterior decoration. The Rotunda and the Edicule's exterior were rebuilt in 1809–1810 by architect Komminos of Mytilene in the then current Turkish Baroque style. The fire did not reach the interior of the Edicule, and the marble decoration of the Tomb dates mainly to the 1555 restoration. The current dome dates from 1870. Extensive modern renovations began in 1959, including a restoration of the dome from 1994–1997. The cladding of red marble applied to the Edicule by Komminos has deteriorated badly and is detaching from the underlying structure; since 1947 it has been held in place with an exterior scaffolding of iron girders installed by the British Mandate. No plans have been agreed upon for its rennovation. Several jurisdictions cooperate, sometimes acrimoniously, in the administration and maintenance of the church and its grounds, under a fiat of status quo that was issued by the Sublime Porte in 1852, to end the violent local bickering. The three, first appointed when Crusaders held Jerusalem, are the Greek Orthodox, the Armenian Apostolic and Roman Catholic churches. These remain the primary custodians of the church. In the 19th century, the Coptic Orthodox, the Ethiopian Orthodox and the Syriac Orthodox acquired lesser responsibilities, which include shrines and other structures within and around the building. An agreement regulates times and places of worship for each Church. For centuries, two neutral neighbour Muslim families appointed by Saladin, the Nuseibeh and Joudeh families, were the custodians of the key to the single door. When a fire broke out in 1840, dozens of pilgrims were trampled to death. On June 20, 1999, all the Christian denominations who share control agreed in a decision to install a new exit door in the church. There was never any report of this door being completed.

Modern arrangement of the church

19991999The entrance to the church is through a single door in the south transept. The key to the entrance is held by the Muslim Nuseibeh family who were entrusted with guardianship by Saladin in 1192 to keep the peace between the various Christian factions. After periods of tension between the Nuseibeh family and the Ottoman authorities in the 18th century, the Ottoman authorities appointed the Joudeh family to assist the Nuseibeh's in their task. Today, the Joudeh family still assists the Nuseibeh's by bringing the key of the church to a member of the Nuseibeh family who unlocks and locks the door on a daily basis. Just inside the entrance is the Stone of Anointing, believed to be the spot where Jesus' body was prepared for burial. To the left, or west, is the Rotunda of the Anastasis beneath the larger of the church's two domes, in the center of which is the Educule of the Holy Sepulchre itself. Under the status quo the Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Armenian Apostolic Churches all have rights to the interior of the tomb, and all three communities celebrate the Divine Liturgy or Mass there daily. It is also used for other ceremonies on special occasions, such as the Holy Saturday ceremony of the Holy Fire celebrated by the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem. To its rear, within a chapel constructed of iron latticework upon a stone base semicircular in plan, lies the altar used by the Coptic Orthodox. Beyond that to the rear of the Rotunda is a very rough hewn chapel believed to be the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea in which the Syriac Orthodox celebrate their Liturgy on Sundays. To the right of the sepulchre on the southeastern side of the Rotunda is the Chapel of the Apparition which is reserved for Roman Catholic use. On the east side opposite the Rotunda is the Crusader structure housing the main altar of the Church, today the Greek Orthodox catholicon. The second, smaller dome sits directly over the center of the transept crossing of the choir where the compas, an omphalos once thought to be the center of the world, is situated. East of this is a large iconostasis demarcating the Greek Orthodox sanctuary before which is set the Patriarchal throne and a throne for visiting episcopal celebrants. On the south side of the altar via the ambulatory is a stairway climbing to the Chapel of Calvary, or Golgotha, believed to be the site of Jesus' crucifixion and the most lavishly decorated part of the church. The main altar there belongs to the Greek Orthodox, while the Roman Catholics have an altar to the side. Further to the east in the ambulatory are the stairs descending to the Chapel of St. Helena, belonging to the Armenians. From there, another set of stairs leads down to the Roman Catholic Chapel of the Invention of the Holy Cross, believed to be the place where the True Cross was found.

Authenticity

As noted above, both Eusebius and Socrates Scholasticus record that the tomb of Jesus was originally a site of veneration for the Christian community in Jerusalem and its location remembered by that community even when the site was covered by Hadrian's temple. Eusebius in particular notes that the uncovering of the tomb "afforded to all who came to witness the sight, a clear and visible proof of the wonders of which that spot had once been the scene" (Life of Constantine, Chapter XXVIII [http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/NPNF2-01/Npnf2-01-29.htm#P7655_3169703]). Archaeologist Martin Biddle of Oxford University has theorized that this "clear and visible proof" might have been grafitti to the effect of "This is the Tomb of Christ", scratched in the rock by Christian pilgrims before the construction of the Roman temple. Similar ancient grafitti are still visible in the Catacombs of Rome, indicating the tombs of especially venerated saints, or even (to give a modern, secular example) scratched on tombstones in Pére Lachaise Cemetery to direct Doors fans to the grave of Jim Morrison. From the time of its original construction in 335, and despite numerous renovations, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre has been venerated as the authentic site of Jesus's crucifixion and burial. Jim Morrison In the nineteenth century, a number of scholars disputed the identification of the Church with the actual site of Jesus's crucifixion and burial. They reasoned that the Church was inside the city walls, while early accounts (e.g., Hebrews 13:12) described these events as outside the walls. On the morning after his arrival in Jerusalem, General Gordon selected a rock-cut tomb in a cultivated area outside the walls as a more likely site for the burial of Jesus. This site is usually referred to as the Garden Tomb to distinguish it from the Holy Sepulchre, and it is still a popular pilgrimage site for those (usually Protestants) who doubt the authenticity of the Anastasis and/or do not have permission to hold services in the Church itself. However, it has since been determined that the site was indeed outside the city walls at the time of the crucifixion. The Jerusalem city walls were expanded by Herod Agrippa in 41–44, and only then enclosed the site of the Holy Sepulchre, at which time the surrounding garden mentioned in the Bible would have been built up as well. To quote the Israeli scholar Dan Bahat, former City Archaeologist of Jerusalem: : "We may not be absolutely certain that the site of the Holy Sepulchre Church is the site of Jesus' burial, but we have no other site that can lay a claim nearly as weighty, and we really have no reason to reject the authenticity of the site." (Bahat, 1986)

References


- Bahat, Dan (1986). "Does the Holy Sepulchre church mark the burial of Jesus?", Biblical Archaeology Review 12 (3) (May/June) 26–45.
- Biddle, Martin (1999). The Tomb of Christ. Phoenix Mill: Sutton Publishing. ISBN 0-7509-1926-4.
- Biddle, Martin; Avni, Gideon; Seligman, Jon & Winter, Tamar (text); Zabé, Michèl & Nalbandian, Garo (photos) (2000). The Church of the Holy Sepulchre. New York: Rizzoli. ISBN 0-8478-2282-6.

See also


- Order of the Holy Sepulchre, initiated by Godfrey of Bouillon
- Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem
- Temple Church in London
- Early Christian art and architecture

External links


- [http://www.custodia.org/indexSaf.html Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land]
- [http://www.trekker.co.il/english/church-holy-sepulchre.htm Photos of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre]
- [http://www.historychannel.com/classroom/unesco/jerusalem/about_sepulchre.html History Channel site]: Church of the Holy Sepulchre
- [http://home.infionline.net/~ddisse/egeria.html Egeria's description in the 380s]
- [http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Oracle/1631/cohs_history.html James E. Lancaster, "A brief history of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre"]
- [http://www.jerusalem-patriarchate.org/intro.asp The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem official site]
- [http://www.armenian-patriarchate.org/ Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem official site]
- [http://www.orthodoxwiki.org/Church_of_the_Holy_Sepulchre_%28Jerusalem%29 Church of the Holy Sepulchre] (OrthodoxWiki article)
- [http://www.holyfire.org/eng/index.htm Miracle of the Holy Fire]
- [http://www.jerusalemshots.com/cat_en63.html Jerusalem Photos] Portal — Church of the Holy Sepulchre
- [http://www.wildlife-photo.org/gallery/christian_photography?page=1 Pictures in Church of the Holy Sepulchre]
- [http://www.nuseibeh.org Nuseibeh Family Website — Muslim Custodians of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre] Category:Crusades Holy Sepulchre Category:Churches in Jerusalem

Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah

Hakim bi-Amr Allah (Arabic الحاكم بأمر الله, literally: "Ruler by God's Command"), known as the Mad Caliph, was the sixth Fatimid Caliph in Egypt, ruling from 996 to 1021. He was born in Egypt in 985 and succeeded his father Abu Mansur Nizar al-Aziz in 996 at the age of eleven in an initial demonstration of the Fatimid dynasty's stability, for the succession was not a foregone conclusion. Nevertheless, in his long reign as caliph he struggled with the Qarmatiyya rulers of Bahrain and extended Fatimid rule to the emirate of Aleppo. His diplomatic and missionary vehicle was the Ismaili da'wa with its organizational power center in Cairo. His most rigorous and consistent opponent was the Abbasid caliphate in Baghdad, which sought to halt the influence of Ismailism, culminating in the Baghdad Manifesto of 1011, which claimed that the line Hakim represented did not legitimately descend from Ali. Intrigues and tensions within the army, centered around opposing factions of Turks and Berbers, the tension between the caliph and his viziers (called wasitas), and near the end of his reign the first stirrings of the Druze movement, all characterize the unrest of Hakim's reign. Ismaili communities in North Africa were massacred by Sunni mobs led by their influential Maliki jurists. In 1005 he founded the Dar al-‘ilm ("House of Knowledge"), with its great public library; there philosophy and astronomy were taught in addition to purely Islamic studies of the Qur'an and Hadith. In 1013 he completed the mosque in Cairo begun by his father, the Masjid al-Hakim or "Al-Hakims Mosque - The Ruler's Mosque". In 1009, Hakim destroyed the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, then under Fatimid control, and persecuted the Christians and other dhimmis in Palestine. Although the church was rebuilt by Byzantine emperor Constantine IX in 1048, its destruction was remembered by Christians in Western Europe for the rest of the century. Though conditions for pilgrims and Christian inhabitants improved somewhat in the Holy Land under Hakim's successors in the 11th century, the destruction of the church was used to support the First Crusade; in 1096, after the Council of Clermont, there was even a forged letter published, supposedly written by Pope Sergius IV, calling for a Crusade in 1009. Towards the end of his reign he became increasingly erratic and feared by those around him - high ranking officials were executed frequently (including the Vizir Barjuwan), and a series of idiosyncratic laws were enacted, including the prohibition of Molokheya, a national dish in Egypt, as well as the prohibition of chess. Hakim disappeared in 1021; he never returned from a trip to the Muqattam Hills. Although he presumably died, a very small splinter sect of Ismailis, the Druzes, claimed he had been hidden away by God and began to worship him in the mountains of Lebanon. He was succeeded by his young son Ali az-Zahir, under the regency of his sister Sitt al-Mulk.

External links


- [http://www.ismaili.net/histoire/history05/history543.html Al-Hakim]
- [http://www.iis.ac.uk/research/encyclopaedias/hakim_bi_amr_allah.htm Institute of Ismaili Studies:] al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah. Category:985 births Category:1021 deaths Category:Fatimid caliphs Category:Druze ja:ハーキム

Vietnam

The Socialist Republic of Vietnam, or Vietnam (or Viet Nam), is a country in Southeast Asia. Situated in eastern Indochina, it borders countries such as China, Laos, Cambodia, as well as the South China Sea.

Terminology

The name of the country comes from the Vietnamese Việt Nam, which is in turn a reordering of Nam Việt, the name of an ancient kingdom from the ancestral Vietnamese that covered much of today's northern Vietnam.

History

Main article: History of Vietnam Vietnamese legends hold that native people populated and civilized the land more than 3,000 years ago. Chinese historical records tell of an indigenous people that existed about 2,500 years ago. Some historians, both in Asia and in the West, hold that the various peoples of today's Vietnam were brought together by a Qin Dynasty-era general who was fed up with the despotic rule of the Qin Shi Huang (first emperor of China proper) and escaped to the "southern Yue [Viet] mountains" to set up his own kingdom. He and his soldiers conquered the land and established a civilized society modeled after ancient Chinese customs. Interestingly -- and puzzlingly -- this Chinese general adopted the native language (which probably sounded similar to southern Chinese dialects anyway) and married local women, who gave birth to sons that inherited the kingdom. Whether this is indeed historically true or not is still subject to debate. What is known for sure is that for most of the period from 207 BC to the early 10th century, it was under the rule of successive dynasties of China. Sporadic independence movements were attempted, but were quickly extinguished by the Chinese. In 939, the Vietnamese conclusively defeated Chinese forces at the Bach Dang River and gained independence. They gained complete autonomy a century later. For much of its history, Vietnam has been influenced more or less by its much bigger northern neighbour, China. However, during the rule of the Tran Dynasty, it defeated three Mongol attempts of invasion by the Yuan Dynasty which had conquered much of China proper, most Asian territories and parts of Europe. Feudalism in Vietnam reached its zenith in the Le Dynasty 1400s, especially with the emperor Le Thanh Tong. The independent period ended in the mid-19th century, when the country was colonized by France. French rule continued until World War II, when Japan briefly occupied Vietnam and used the country as a base to launch attacks against the rest of Indochina and India. When the war ended, France attempted to re-establish control but ultimately failed, after they were defeated at Dien Bien Phu. The Geneva Accords subsequently divided the country into North Vietnam and South Vietnam, separated by a demilitarized zone. During the Cold War, the North was supported by China and the Soviet Union while the South was supported by United States and other Western countries. Tensions quickly escalated into the Vietnam War. The war continued even after the Paris Peace Accords on January 27, 1973, which formally recognized the sovereignty of both sides. 1973 American troops were withdrawn by March 29, 1973. By April 30, 1975, communist forces overtook South Vietnam and by 1976, Vietnam was officially unified under the North Vietnamese government as The Socialist Republic of Vietnam. After reunification, political and economic conditions deteriorated to near-famine conditions. Millions of Vietnamese became boat people over the next two decades. In late 1978, the Cambodian people, with the support of the Vietnamese Army, removed the Khmer Rouge from power. Only one month later, however, partially in retaliation, China launched a short-lived incursion into Vietnam: the Sino-Vietnamese War. In 1986, the Communist Party implemented economic reforms known as đổi mới (renovation). During much of the 1990s, economic growth was rapid, and Vietnam reintegrated into the international community. It reestablished diplomatic relations with the United States in 1995. US President Bill Clinton visited Vietnam in 2000, and Prime minister Phan Văn Khải visited the United States in 2005.

Politics

Main article: Politics of Vietnam The Socialist Republic of Vietnam is governed through a highly centralized system dominated by the Communist Party of Vietnam (Đảng Cộng Sản Việt Nam), which was formerly known as the Vietnamese Labor Party. The government is, in theory, independent from the party, but in practice it receives most of its directives from the party. Although there has been some effort to discourage membership in overlapping party and state positions, this practice continues. Senior Politburo members (Trần Đức Lương, Phan Văn Khải, Nguyễn Văn An, Nguyễn Tấn Dũng, Lê Hồng Anh and Phạm Văn Trà) concurrently hold high positions in the government. There are no legal opposition parties in Vietnam, although a number of opposition groups do exist scattered overseas among exile communities within countries such as France and the United States. These communities have supported demonstrations and civil disobedience against the government. The most prominent are the Vietnamese Constitutional Monarchist League, People's Action Party of Viet Nam, Montagnard Foundation Inc. and the Government of Free Vietnam. The Government of Free Vietnam has claimed responsibility for a number of guerilla raids into Vietnam, which the government has denounced as terrorism. Former political parties include the nationalist Viet Nam Quoc Dan Dang of Nguyen Thai Hoc, the Can Lao party of the Ngô Đình Diệm government and the Viet Nam Duy Tan Hoi of Phan Bội Châu during the colonial period. Vietnam is a member of the United Nations, La Francophonie, ASEAN, and APEC and has applied for membership to the World Trade Organization.

Provinces

Main article: Provinces of Vietnam Vietnam's capital (thủ đô, singular and plural) is Hanoi (Hà Nội). There are also four municipalities (thành phố trực thuộc Trung ương, singular and plural) existing at provincial level: Cần Thơ, Đà Nẵng, Hải Phòng, and Hồ Chí Minh City (Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh). Hồ Chí Minh City was formerly known as Saigon. Besides the five cities, the country is divided into fifty-nine provinces (tỉnh, singular and plural): An Giang, Bắc Giang, Bắc Cạn, Bạc Liêu, Bắc Ninh, Bà Rịa-Vũng Tàu, Bến Tre, Bình Định, Bình Dương, Bình Phước, Bình Thuận, Cà Mau, Cao Bằng, Đắk Lắk, Đắk Nông, Điện Biên, Đồng Nai, Đồng Tháp, Gia Lai, Hà Giang, Hải Dương, Hà Nam, Hà Tây, Hà Tĩnh, Hòa Bình, Hậu Giang, Hưng Yên, Khánh Hòa, Kiên Giang, Kon Tum, Lai Châu, Lâm Đồng, Lạng Sơn, Lào Cai, Long An, Nam Định, Nghệ An, Ninh Bình, Ninh Thuận, Phú Thọ, Phú Yên, Quảng Bình, Quảng Nam, Quảng Ngãi, Quảng Ninh, Quảng Trị, Sóc Trăng, Sơn La, Tây Ninh, Thái Bình, Thái Nguyên, Thanh Hóa, Thừa Thiên-Huế, Tiền Giang, Trà Vinh, Tuyên Quang, Vĩnh Long, Vĩnh Phúc, Yên Bái.

Geography

Yên Bái Main article: Geography of Vietnam The country is approximately 331,688 square kilometers (128,066 mi²) in area, which is slightly larger than New Mexico and slightly smaller than Germany. The topography consists of hills and densely forested mountains, with level land covering no more than 20 percent. Mountains account for 40 percent, hills 40 percent, and forests 75 percent. The northern part of the country consists of highlands and the Red River Delta. Phan Xi Păng, located in Lào Cai province, is the highest mountain in Vietnam at 3,143 m (10,312 ft). The south is divided into coastal lowlands, Dai Truong Son (central mountains) with high plateaus, and the Mekong River Delta. The climate is tropical and monsoonal; humidity averages 84 percent throughout the year. Annual rainfall ranges from 120 to 300 centimetres (47 to 118 inches), and annual temperatures vary between 5°C (41°F) and 37°C (99°F). Land boundaries: Total: 4,639 km (2,883 mi) Border countries: Cambodia 1,228 km (763 mi), China 1,281 km (796 mi), Laos 2,130 m (1,324 mi)

Economy

Main article: Economy of Vietnam In 1986, the Sixth Party Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam formally abandoned Marxist economic planning and began introducing market elements as part of a broad economic reform package called "đổi mới" ("Renovation"). In many ways, this followed the Chinese model and achieved similar results. On the one hand, Vietnam achieved around 8% annual GDP growth from 1990 to 1997 and continued at around 7% from 2000 to 2002, making it the world's second-fastest growing economy. Simultaneously, investment grew three-fold and domestic savings quintupled. On the other hand, urban unemployment has been rising steadily in recent years due to high numbers of migration from the countryside to the cities, and rural unemployment, estimated to be up to 35% during nonharvest periods, is already at critical levels. Layoffs in the state sector and foreign-invested enterprises combined with the lasting effects of a previous military demobilization further exacerbated the unemployment situation. The country is attempting to become a member of the WTO. Vietnam, however, is still a relatively poor country with GDP of US$227.2 billion (est., 2004). This translates to US$2700 per capita. Inflation rate is estimated at 14% per year in 2004. This figure has been scaled down by the Government to 9.5% per annum to avoid the ‘double digit’ classification. The spending power of the public has noticeably increased. The reason lies in the high property prices. In Hanoi, the capital, property prices can be as high as those in Tokyo or New York. This has amazed many people because GDP per capita of this city is around US$1,000 per annum. The booming prices have given the poor land owners the opportunity to sell their homes for inflated prices. Corruption, bribery and embezzlement committed by many government officials have pushed property prices even higher, as real estate investment is a popular form of money laundering. Tourism has become an increasingly important industry in Vietnam. Many of the over 3 million annual visitors are Vietnam war veterans.

Demographics

Vietnam war veterans] Main article: Demographics of Vietnam The Vietnamese government recognizes 54 distinct ethnic groups. The majority ethnic Vietnamese, also called Viet or Kinh, make up about 86 percent of the nation's population. They are concentrated largely in the alluvial deltas and in the coastal plains and have little in common with the minority peoples of the highlands, whom they have historically regarded as hostile and barbaric. A homogenous social group, the Viet exert influence on national life through their control of political and economic affairs and their role as purveyors of the dominant culture. By contrast, the ethnic minorities, except for the Khơ-me Crôm (Khmer Krom) and the Hoa (ethnic Han Chinese), are found mostly in the highlands that cover two-thirds of the national territory.

Religions

Han Chinese] According to the 1999 census, eighty percent of Vietnamese subscribe to no religion. The remainder are predominantly Confucian and Mahayana Buddhist (esp. Mainstream Pure Land schools and Zen-inspired syncretists); with Roman Catholic, Protestant, Cao Đài, and Hoa Hao minorities. The largest Protestant churches are the Evangelical Church of Vietnam and the Montagnard Evangelical Church. Membership to Sunni and Bashi Islam are usually accredited to the ethnic Cham minority, but there are also a few ethnic Vietnamese adherents to Islam in the southwest.

Minorities

According to official figures from the 1999 census of Vietnam, the largest ethnic minorities of Vietnam were: #Tày: 1,477,514 people # Thái (Thailand): 1,328,725 # : 1,137,515 # Khmer Krom: 1,055,174 # Hoa (Chinese): 862,371 The Tay people live primarily in the mountains and foothills of northern Vietnam. Their language is a member of the Tai languages, belonging to the Central Tai subgroup and closely related to the Zhuang language of southern China. Thái is a name used by Vietnamese authorities for a group of people also from the mountainous northern region of Vietnam and whom western linguists say actually speak separate languages: Tai Dam, Tai Dón, Tai Daeng, Tai Hang Tong, Tày Tac, and Tai Thanh. All these languages are closely related and belong to the Southwestern Tai subgroup of the Tai languages. This official "Thái" ethnicity should not be confused with the Thai people of Thailand. The Thai people of Thailand speak languages belonging to the Lao-Phutai branch of the Southwestern Tai subgroup, while the "Thái" of Vietnam speak languages belonging to the East Central branch of the Southwestern Tai subgroup. Although the Thái ethnicity is officially recognized in Vietnam, western linguistics do not recognize it and prefer to classify Tai Dam, Tai Dón, Tai Daeng, etc., as separate ethnic groups, in which case the minority moves to second largest minority of Vietnam, Khmer Krom move to third position, and Hoa to fourth position. The live in the mountains of north central Vietnam and speak a Mon-Khmer language closely related to the Vietnamese language. The Khơ-me Crôm (Khmer Krom) live in the fertile delta of the Mekong River in southern Vietnam and are ethnically the same as the Khmer people who make up the majority of the population of Cambodia. There is no consensus on the exact number of Khơ-me Crôm (Khmer Krom) living in Vietnam. The Vietnamese government reported 1,055,174 Khmer Krom at the 1999 census. Other estimates put the size of the Khmer Krom population at around 7 million (almost half as numerous as the Khmer living in Cambodia), although this is denied by the Vietnamese government. The Hoa (ethnic Han Chinese) are mainly lowlanders and, more specifically, urban dwellers. They speak predominantly Cantonese (known to the Vietnamese as Quảng Đông), but there are also speakers of Hakka (Khách Gia), Hokkien/Fujian (Phúc Kiến), Chaozhou, etc. Up to the 1979 Vietnamese census, the Hoa were the largest minority of Vietnam. However, since the North Vietnamese took over South Vietnam in 1975 many Hoa left Vietnam, especially in the 1980s, so that at the 1999 census the Hoa were only the fifth largest minority (or the fourth largest if the Thái are not considered as an homogenous ethnic group). Beyond these five largest ethnic minorities, there are 48 other minorities officially recognized by the Vietnamese government, giving a total of 53 minorities altogether. Many of these 53 minority groups only have a few thousand members or so. Vietnam also has a small number of racial Eurasians, people of Asian and Caucasian (white) parentage. Most of them are descendants of Vietnamese people mixed with either early French settlers or white American soldiers and personnel (or both), during the colonial period and Vietnam War. There are some who are racially mixed with blacks as well, another product during the Vietnam War from American soldiers. Mixed race individuals face the most discrimination in Vietnamese society and government, especially ones who are product of American soldiers (white or black) from the Vietnam War. Officially, the ethnic minorities are referred to as "national minorities". The French used the name Montagnard (plural Montagnards, meaning "mountain people") to call all the minorities (except the Khmer Krom and the Hoa), no matter what their actual language. The name Montagnard is still sometimes used today. Sometimes, the name Montagnard is used specifically for the ethnic group. Human Rights NGOs point out the Vietnamese government's poor record with respect to ethnic minorities. In particular, the large Khơ-me Crôm (Khmer Krom) minority of southern Vietnam is denied elementary human rights in an effort by the Vietnamese government to Vietnamize the Khmer Krom, or force them to leave their native land and relocate to Cambodia. The Vietnamese government is afraid that the large native Khmer Krom population in the Mekong delta could allow Cambodia to officially claim back the fertile areas of the delta that were annexed by Vietnam more than 200 years ago. On the other hand, some in the Vietnamese government still pursue the centuries old policy of colonizing Khmer land, and it was reported that in the 1980s and 1990s some local Vietnamese officials have pushed the Cambodian-Vietnamese border several kilometers inside Cambodian territory, annexing tens of Cambodian villages, in violation of international treaties, thus further increasing the ethnic Khmer population inside Vietnam. Further north, there have been reports of tensions with the Tày people due to the government sponsored relocation of ethnic Vietnamese from the lowlands to the highlands inhabited by the Tày and other minorities. Protests and demonstrations by highland minorities have been reported.

Percentage of ethnic Vietnamese

According to the 1999 census, ethnic Vietnamese (Kinh) numbered 65,795,718 and thus accounted for 86.2% of the total population of Vietnam. In terms of land area, the ethnic Vietnamese inhabit a little less than half of Vietnam, while the ethnic minorities inhabit the majority of Vietnam's land (albeit the least fertile parts of the country). The birth rate of the ethnic Vietnamese (and also the Hoa), which historically has been very high, decreased significantly since the 1980s and is now reaching much lower levels, comparable to the birth rates in Thailand or Malaysia. The birth rate of the minorities is still very high, comparable to birth rates in Cambodia or Laos. As a result, the ethnic minorities are now growing at a faster rate than the ethnic Vietnamese, which means that the percentage of ethnic Vietnamese in the total population is slowly decreasing year after year. According to official figures, at the 1979 census the ethnic Vietnamese accounted for 87.4% of the total population. The figure was down to 86.9% at the 1989 census, and 86.2% at the 1999 census.

Languages

According to official figures, 86.2% of the population speak Vietnamese as a native tongue. Various other languages are spoken by the several minority groups in Vietnam. The most spoken languages are: Tày (1.5 million), Muong (1.2 million), Khmer (1.05 million), Cantonese (870,000, this figure also includes speakers of other Chinese dialects), Nung (860,000), Hmong (790,000), and Tai Dam (700,000). French, a legacy of colonial rule, is spoken by some (mostly older) Vietnamese as a second language. Russian- and to a much lesser extent Czech or Polish- is often known among "baby-boomers" whose families had ties with the Soviet bloc. In recent years, English has become a more popular language to learn and is increasingly used in business, among other things. See also: List of ethnic groups in Vietnam

Culture

Main article: Culture of Vietnam In its early history, Vietnamese writing used Chinese characters. In the 16th century, the Vietnamese developed their own set of characters called Chữ Nôm. The celebrated epic Đoạn trường tân thanh (or Truyện Kiều) by Nguyễn Du is written in Chữ Nôm. During the French colonial period, Quốc Ngữ, the romanized Vietnamese alphabet representation of spoken Vietnamese, became popular and brought literacy to the masses. This had a profound effect on the political power in the country. Due to Vietnam's long association with China, Vietnamese culture remains strongly Confucian with its emphasis on familial duty and harmony. Education is highly prized. Historically, passing the imperial Mandarin exams was the only means for ambitious Vietnamese to socially advance themselves. In the modern era, Vietnamese are trying to reconcile traditional culture with Western ideas of individual freedom, distrust of authority, and consumer culture. The majority of Vietnamese are adherents to Mahayana Buddhism, influenced by Confucianism and Daoism, and with a strong emphasis on ancestor worship. Some critics say that the Vietnamese' second religion is superstition and fatalism, brought on by the decades of war. Vietnam's cuisine and music have three distinct flavors, related to Vietnam's three regions: Bac or North, Trung or Central, and Nam or South. Northern classical music is Vietnam's oldest and is traditionally more formal. Vietnamese classical music can be traced to the Mongol invasions, when the Vietnamese captured a Chinese opera troupe. Central classical music shows the influences of Champa culture with its melancholic melodies. Southern music exudes a lively laissez faire attitude, probably due to the region's relative prosperity. Vietnamese cuisine is based on rice, soy sauce, and fish sauce. Its characteristic flavor is sweet (sugar), spicy (serrano peppers), and flavored by a variety of mints. See also:
- Cuisine of Vietnam
- Music of Vietnam

Miscellaneous topics


- Communications in Vietnam
- Foreign relations of Vietnam
- Holidays in Vietnam
- List of Vietnam-related topics
- List of Vietnamese companies
- Military of Vietnam
- Transportation in Vietnam

External links


- [http://www.cpv.org.vn/index_e.html Communist Party of Vietnam]: the sole legal party
- [http://www.gso.gov.vn/default_en.aspx?tabid=491 General Statistics Office]
- [http://www.mofa.gov.vn/en/ Ministry of Foreign Affairs]
  - [http://www.mofa.gov.vn/en/tt_vietnam/ Information about Vietnam]
- [http://www.na.gov.vn/english/index.html National Assembly]: The Vietnamese legislative body
- [http://www.photo.com.vn Photos of Vietnam]
- [http://www.vietfirm.com Vietnam web hosting]
- [http://www.terragalleria.com/vietnam/ Pictures of Vietnam]
- [http://english.vietnamnet.vn/ Vietnam Net]: Largest Vietnamese portal
- [http://www.vietnamtourism.com/index/e_index.asp Vietnam Tourism]
- [http://www.asinah.org/travel-guides/vietnam.html Vietnam Travel Guide]
- [http://www.vnexpress.net/ VnExpress]: VietNam News Daily
- [http://www.vov.org.vn/Defaultv.htm VOV News]: National radio broadcaster
- [http://www.all.com.vn Vietnam Business Directory]
- [http://sticky-rice.com/essays.html Articles/Photos of Vietnam]
- [http://www.willgoto.com/398/1/categories.aspx Travel guide to Vietnam]
- [http://www.ianandwendy.com/OtherTrips/ChinaVietnamCambodia/Vietnam/?nosplash=true Pictures of Vietnam] Backpacker's pictures from a trip through Vietnam
- [http://www.artpoetryfiction.com/art/sang/index.html Tran Thanh Sang]: Award Winning Vietnamese Photographer .
- [http://www.unisdr.org/wcdr/preparatory-process/national-reports/Vietnam-report.pdf National Report on Disaster Reduction in Vietnam] Category:ASEAN member states Category:Southeast Asian countries Category:Communist states zh-min-nan:Oa̍t-lâm ko:베트남 ms:Vietnam ja:ベトナム simple:Vietnam th:ประเทศเวียดนาม

Pope John XVIII

John XVIII, né Fasanius (born at Rapagnano near Ascoli Piceno, died June 1009), the son of a Roman priest named Leo, was pope from 1003 to 1009, was, during his whole pontificate, allegedly subordinate to the head of the Crescentii clan who controlled Rome, the patricius (an aristocratic military leader) Johannes Crescentius III. The period was disturbed by the conflicts between the Ottonian Emperor Henry II and Arduin of Ivrea, who had styled himself King of Italy. Rome was wracked with bouts of plague, and Saracens operating freely out of Sardinia ravaged the Tyrrhenian coasts. As pope he occupied his time with details of ecclesiastical administration. He authorized a new see at Bamberg to serve as a base for missionary activity among the Slavs, a concern of Henry's. He adjudicated a squabble between the abbot of Fleury and the bishops of Sens and Orléans. Ultimately he abdicated and, according to one catalog of popes, retired to a monastery, where he died shortly afterwards. His successor was Sergius IV.

External link


- [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08429a.htm Catholic Encyclopedia]; Pope John XVIII John 18 John 18 John 18 ko:교황 요한 18세

Sulayman

Sulayman (Süleyman, Sulaiman, Suleyman, Suleiman) (: سليمان) is a prophet in the Qur'an. In the Bible he is known as King Solomon. He was a son of the prophet Daud (David). From his father he learned a lot, and was subsequently made a prophet by God, and given power over all creatures, including the jinns. He ruled a large kingdom that extended south into Yemen. He was known throughout the lands for his wisdom and fair judgements. A well known story of Sulayman involves his interactions with the Queen of Sheba or Bilqis. Bilqis was a wise ruler, but her people worshipped the sun and moon. Sulayman told her to stop, but instead she tried to flatter him with gifts. These only served to anger him more, and he set out for her lands with an army. On the way there, he passed through the Valley of Ants and heard them speak. He began to feel mercy for the Bilqis' people and decided not to harm them. By then, the Queen had got wind of what was happening. She set out to personally patch up relations. Sulayman ordered a jinn to bring one of her thrones to him. She was asked to identify it, and she did. Bilqis was so overwhelmed by the wisdom and power of Sulayman that she would eventually marry him and become his wife. Sulayman would complete the construction of the Temple Mount that was begun by his father Daud. Sulayman would go on to live for over eighty years. Upon his death, his son would take control of his empire, but his son was easily tempted by worldly things. His son's reign would end quickly, and would end the rule of Daud's lineage. Category:Islamic prophets

Mohammed II

Mehmed II, Mehmet II, or Muhammed II, (also known as el-Fatih, "the Conqueror", in Ottoman Turkish, or, in modern Turkish, Fatih Sultan Mehmed) (March 30, 1432 – May 3, 1481) was first the sultan of the Ottoman Empire for a short time from 1444 to 1446, and later from 1451 to 1481. He was also the first Ottoman ruler to claim the title of Caesar of the Roman Empire (supreme ruler of all Christians), besides such usual titles as king, sultan (ruler of a Muslim state), Khan (ruler of Turks), etc. He was born in Edirne (Adrianople, Jedreno), then a capital city of the Ottoman State, on March 30, 1432; his mother Huma Hatun was a daughter of Abd`Allah of Hum (a province encompassing SE part of modern day Bosnia and Hercegovina, NW part of Crna Gora / Montenegro and SW part of Serbia), Huma meaning a girl/woman from Hum. When Mehmed was 11 years old, as per the custom of Ottoman rulers before his time, he was sent to Amasya to govern and thus gain experience. During his first reign, seeing the upcoming Battle of Varna, Mehmed sent for his father, Murad II, asking him to claim the throne again to fight the enemy, only to be refused. Enraged at his father, who had long since retired to a contemplative life in southwestern Anatolia, Mehmed wrote: "If you are the sultan, come and lead your armies. If I am the sultan I hereby order you to come and lead my armies." It was upon this letter that Murad II led the Ottoman army in the Battle of Varna in 1444. It is also said that Murad's return was forced by Chandarli Khalil Pasha, the prime minister (sadrazam or grand vizier) of the time, who was not very fond of Mehmed's rule, since Mehmed's teacher (lala) was influential on him and did not like Chandarli. Chandarli was later executed by Mehmed during the siege of Istanbul on the grounds that he had been bribed by or had somehow helped the defenders. Two years after reclaiming the throne in 1451, Mehmed brought an end to the Byzantine Empire by capturing Constantinople in 1453 (during the well-known Siege of Constantinople), and other Byzantine cities left in Anatolia and the Balkans. During the siege of Constantinople he promised his men "the women and boys of the city." Upon is conquest, he ordered the 14 year old son of the Grand Duke Lucas Notaras be brought to him for his personal pleasure. When the father refused to render his son to such a fate he had them both decapitated on the spot. (Steven Runciman, The Fall of Constantinople 1453. Cambridge University Press) The invasion of Constantinople and successful campaigns against small kingdoms in the Balkans, Crimea, and Turkic territories in Anatolia bestowed immense glory and prestige on the country and the Ottoman State started to be recognized as an empire for the first time. However, Mehmed's advance toward the heart of Europe was stopped by the unsuccessful Siege of Nándorfehérvár in 1456, and in 1475, the Ottomans suffered their worst-ever defeat to that day, at the Battle of Vaslui, in Moldavia. His reign, mostly known for his capture of Constantinople, is also well known for the unusual tolerance with which he treated his subjects, especially among the conquered Byzantines. Within the vanquished city he established a millet or an autonomous religious community, and he appointed the former Patriarch as essentially governor of the city. However, his authority extended only unto the Orthodox Christians of the city, and this excluded the Genoese and Venetian settlements in the suburbs, and excluded the coming Muslim and Jewish settlers entirely. This method allowed for an indirect rule of the Christian Byzantines and allowed the occupants to feel relatively autonomous even as Mehmed began the Turkish remodeling of the city, eventually turning it into the Turkish capital, which it remained until the 1920s. Mehmed thought of himself as the heir to the throne of the Roman Empire - which, technically, he was after capturing Constantinople - and, as a result, adopted the title "Kayser-i-Rüm" (Roman Caesar) and invaded Italy in 1480. The intent of his invasion was to capture Rome and reunite the Roman Empire for the first time since 751, and, at first, looked like he might be able to do it with the easy capture of Otranto in 1480. However, a rebellion in Albania later in 1480 cut into his military links, allowing a massive force led by the Pope to defeat and evict his army in 1481. Administratively, Mehmed was better at continuing the old Byzantine ways, as he gathered Italian humanists and Greek scholars at his court, kept the Byzantine Church functioning, ordered the patriarch to translate the Christian faith into Turkish and called Gentile Bellini from