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Crusades

2013-02-17T15:22:00.003+05:30

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Crusades

Introduction About crusades

Crusades military expeditions, beginning in the late 11th century, that were organized by Western Christians in response to centuries of Muslim wars of expansion. Their objectives were to check the spread of Islam, to retake control of the Holy Land, to conquer pagan areas, and to recapture formerly Christian territories; they were seen by many of their participants as a means of redemption and expiation for sins. Between 1095, when the First Crusade was launched, and 1291, when the Latin Christians were finally expelled from their kingdom in Syria, there were numerous expeditions to the Holy Land, to Spain, and even to the Baltic; the Crusades continued for several centuries after 1291, usually as military campaigns intended to halt or slow the advance of Muslim power or to conquer pagan areas. Crusading declined rapidly during the 16th century with the advent of the Protestant Reformation and the decline of papal authority.

Approximately two-thirds of the ancient Christian world had been conquered by Muslims by the end of the 11th century, including the important regions of Palestine, Syria, Egypt, and Anatolia. The Crusades, attempting to check this advance, initially enjoyed success, founding a Christian state in Palestine and Syria, but the continued growth of Islamic states ultimately reversed those gains. By the 14th century the Ottoman Turks had established themselves in the Balkans and would penetrate deeper into Europe despite repeated efforts to repulse them.

The Crusades constitute a controversial chapter in the history of Christianity, and their excesses have been the subject of centuries of historiography. The Crusades also played an integral role in the expansion of medieval Europe.

The First Crusade and the establishment of the Latin states:History & Background

Although still backward when compared with the other civilizations of the Mediterranean basin, western Europe had become a significant power by the end of the 11th century. It was composed of several kingdoms loosely describable as feudal. While endemic private warfare, brigandage, and problems associated with vassalage and inheritance still existed, some monarchies were already developing better-integrated systems of government. At the same time, Europe was feeling the effects of population growth that had begun toward the end of the 10th century and would continue well into the 13th century. An economic revival was also in full swing well before the First Crusade; forestlands were being cleared, frontiers pushed forward, and markets organized. Moreover, Italian shipping was beginning to challenge the Muslim predominance in the Mediterranean. Especially significant for the Crusade was a general overhaul of the ecclesiastical structure in the 11th century, associated with the Gregorian Reform movement, which enabled the popes to assume a more active role in society. In 1095, for example, Urban II was in a position strong enough to convoke two important ecclesiastical councils, despite meeting resistance from Henry IV, the German emperor, who opposed papal reform policies.

Thus it was that in the closing years of the 11th century western Europe was abounding in energy and confidence. What is more, as is evident in achievements such as the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, Europeans possessed the capacity to launch a major military undertaking at the very time the Seljuq Turks, one of several tribes on the northeastern frontier of the Muslim world who had embraced Islam in the 11th century, were beginning to move south and west into Iran and beyond with all the enthusiasm of a new convert.

The effects of religion

The Crusades were also a development of popular religious life and feeling in the West. The social effect of religious belief at the time was complex: religion was moved by tales of signs and wonders, and it attributed natural disasters to supernatural intervention. At the same time, laypersons were not indifferent to reform movements, and on occasion they agitated against clergy whom they regarded as unworthy. A peace movement also developed, especially in France, under the leadership of certain bishops but with considerable popular support. Religious leaders proclaimed the Peace of God and the Truce of God, designed to halt or at least limit warfare and assaults during certain days of the week and times of the year and to protect the lives of clergy, travelers, women, and cattle and others unable to defend themselves against brigandage. It is particularly interesting to note that the Council of Clermont, at which Urban II called for the First Crusade (1095), renewed and generalized the Peace of God.

It may seem paradoxical that a council both promulgated peace and officially sanctioned war, but the peace movement was designed to protect those in distress, and a strong element of the Crusade was the idea of giving aid to fellow Christians in the East. Tied to this idea was the notion that war to defend Christendom was not only a justifiable undertaking but a holy work and therefore pleasing to God.

losely associated with this Western concept of holy war was another popular religious practice, pilgrimage to a holy shrine. Eleventh-century Europe abounded in local shrines housing relics of saints, but three great centres of pilgrimage stood out above the others: Rome, with the tombs of Saints Peter and Paul; Santiago de Compostela, in northwestern Spain; and Jerusalem, with the Holy Sepulchre of Christ's entombment. Pilgrimage, which had always been considered an act of devotion, had also come to be regarded as a more formal expiation for serious sin, even occasionally prescribed as a penance for the sinner by his confessor.

Yet another element in the popular religious consciousness of the 11th century, one associated with both Crusade and pilgrimage, was the belief that the end of the world was imminent. Some scholars have discovered evidence of apocalyptic expectations around the years 1000 and 1033 (the millennium of the birth and Passion of Jesus, respectively), and others have emphasized the continuance of the idea throughout the 11th century and beyond. Moreover, in certain late 11th-century portrayals of the end of all things, the “last emperor,” now popularly identified with the “king of the Franks,” the final successor of Charlemagne, was to lead the faithful to Jerusalem to await the Second Coming of Christ. Jerusalem, as the earthly symbol of the heavenly city, figured prominently in Western consciousness, and, as the number of pilgrimages to Jerusalem increased in the 11th century, it became clear that any interruption of access to the city would have serious repercussions.

By the middle of the 11th century, the Seljuq Turks had wrested political authority from the ʿAbbāsid caliphs of Baghdad. Seljuq policy, originally directed southward against the Fāṭimids of Egypt, was increasingly diverted by the pressure of Turkmen raids into Anatolia and Byzantine Armenia. A Byzantine army was defeated and Emperor Romanus IV Diogenes was captured at Manzikert in 1071, and Christian Asia Minor was thereby opened to eventual Turkish occupation. Meanwhile, many Armenians south of the Caucasus migrated south to join others in the region of the Taurus Mountains and to form a colony in Cilicia.

Seljuq expansion southward continued, and in 1085 the capture of Antioch in Syria, one of the patriarchal sees of Christianity, was another blow to Byzantine prestige. Thus, although the Seljuq empire never successfully held together as a unit, it appropriated most of Asia Minor, including Nicaea, from the Byzantine Empire and brought a resurgent Islam perilously close to Constantinople, the Byzantine capital. It was this danger that prompted the emperor, Alexius Comnenus, to seek aid from the West, and by 1095 the West was ready to respond.

The turmoil of these years disrupted normal political life and made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem difficult and often impossible. Stories of dangers and molestation reached the West and remained in the popular mind even after conditions improved. Furthermore, informed authorities began to realize that the power of the Muslim world now seriously menaced the West as well as the East. It was this realization that led to the Crusades.

Alexius's appeal came at a time when relations between the Eastern and Western branches of the Christian world were improving. Difficulties between the two in the middle years of the century had resulted in a de facto, though not formally proclaimed, schism in 1054, and ecclesiastical disagreements had been accentuated by Norman occupation of formerly Byzantine areas in southern Italy. A campaign led by the Norman adventurer Robert Guiscard against the Greek mainland further embittered the Byzantines, and it was only after Robert's death in 1085 that conditions for a renewal of normal relations between East and West were reasonably favourable. Envoys of Emperor Alexius Comnenus thus arrived at the Council of Piacenza in 1095 at a propitious moment, and it seems probable that Pope Urban II viewed military aid as a means toward restoring ecclesiastical unity.

The Council of Clermont

The Council of Clermont convoked by Urban on November 18, 1095, was attended largely by bishops of southern France as well as a few representatives from northern France and elsewhere. Much important ecclesiastical business was transacted, which resulted in a series of canons, among them one that renewed the Peace of God and another that granted a plenary indulgence (the remission of all penance for sin) to those who undertook to aid Christians in the East. Then in a great outdoor assembly the pope, a Frenchman, addressed a large crowd.

His exact words will never be known, since the only surviving accounts of his speech were written years later, but he apparently stressed the plight of Eastern Christians, the molestation of pilgrims, and the desecration of the holy places. He urged those who were guilty of disturbing the peace to turn their warlike energies toward a holy cause. He emphasized the need for penance along with the acceptance of suffering and taught that no one should undertake this pilgrimage for any but the most exalted of motives.

The response was immediate and overwhelming, probably far greater than Urban had anticipated. Cries of “Deus le volt” (“God wills it”) were heard everywhere, and it was decided that those who agreed to go should wear a cross. Moreover, it was not only warrior knights who responded; a popular element, apparently unexpected and probably not desired, also came forward.

The era of Clermont witnessed the concurrence of three significant developments: first, there existed as never before a popular religious fervour that was not without marked eschatological tendencies in which the holy city of Jerusalem figured prominently; second, war against the infidel had come to be regarded as a religious undertaking, a work pleasing to God; and finally, western Europe now possessed the ecclesiastical and secular institutional and organizational capacity to plan such an enterprise and carry it through.

Preparations for the Crusade

Following Pope Urban's speech, preparations began in both East and West. Emperor Alexius, who had doubtless anticipated the mustering of some sort of auxiliary force, apparently soon realized that he would have to provide for and police a much larger influx of warriors. In the West, as the leaders began to assemble their armies, those who took the cross sought to raise money, often by selling or mortgaging property, both for the immediate purchase of equipment and for the long-term needs of the journey.

As preparations were under way, several less-organized bands of knights and peasants, commonly known as the “People's Crusade,” set out across Europe. The most famous of these, brought together by a remarkable popular preacher, Peter the Hermit, and his associate Walter Sansavoir, reached Constantinople after having caused considerable disorder in Hungary and Bulgaria. Alexius received Peter cordially and advised him to await the arrival of the main Crusade force. But the rank and file grew unruly, and on August 6, 1096, they were ferried across the Bosporus. While Peter was in Constantinople requesting additional aid, his army was ambushed at Cibotus (called Civetot by the Crusaders) and all but annihilated by the Turks.

Peter the Hermit's preaching in Germany inspired other groups of Crusaders, who also failed to reach Jerusalem. One of these groups was led by the notorious Count Emicho and was responsible for a series of massacres of Jews in several Rhenish towns in 1096. Traditionally recognized as an important turning point in Jewish and Christian relations in the Middle Ages—in fact, it is often cited as a pivotal moment in the history of anti-Semitism—these attacks occurred first in Speyer and then with increasing ferocity in Worms, Mainz, and Cologne. The Jews of these towns often sought, and sometimes received, the protection of the bishop or futilely took refuge in local homes and temples. Forced by the Crusaders to convert or die, many Jews chose death. There are accounts of Jews' committing suicide and even killing their children rather than converting or submitting to execution by the Crusaders. Though zealotry of this nature is not unique to Christianity, these massacres did not go unnoticed even by fellow Christians. Indeed, some contemporary Christian accounts attributed the defeat of the People's Crusade to them. After the massacres, the Crusaders moved on to Hungary, where they were routed by the Hungarian king and suffered heavy losses. Emicho, who may not have participated in all the pogroms, escaped and returned home in disgrace.

The main Crusading force, which departed in August 1096 as Urban directed, consisted of four major contingents. A smaller, fifth force, led by Hugh of Vermandois, brother of King Philip I of France, left before the others but was reduced by shipwreck while crossing the Adriatic from Bari to Dyrrhachium (now Durrës, Albania). Godfrey of Bouillon, leader of the first large army to depart and duke of Lower Lorraine since 1087, was the only major prince from the German kingdom involved in the Crusade, though he and his associates largely spoke French. Joined by his brothers, Eustace and Baldwin, and a kinsman, Baldwin of Le Bourcq, Godfrey took the land route and crossed Hungary without incident. Markets and provisions were supplied in Byzantine territory, and, except for some pillaging, the army reached Constantinople without serious problems on December 23, 1096.

A second force was organized by Bohemond, a Norman from southern Italy. The son of Robert Guiscard, Bohemond was on familiar ground across the Adriatic, where he had fought with his father and was understandably feared by the Byzantines. However, he was 40 years old when he arrived at Constantinople on April 9, 1097, and determined to come to profitable terms with his former enemy.

The third and largest army was assembled by Raymond of Saint-Gilles, the count of Toulouse. At age 55, he was the oldest and most prominent of the princes on the Crusade, and he aspired and perhaps expected to become the leader of the entire expedition. He was accompanied by Adhémar, bishop of Le Puy, whom the pope had named as legate for the Crusade. Raymond led his followers, including a number of noncombatant pilgrims whom he supported at his own expense, across northern Italy, around the head of the Adriatic, and then southward into Byzantine territory. This large body caused considerable trouble in Dalmatia and clashed with Byzantine troops as it approached the capital, where Raymond arrived on April 21.

Meanwhile, the fourth army, under Robert of Flanders, had crossed the Adriatic from Brindisi. Accompanying Robert were his cousin Robert of Normandy (brother of King William II of England) and Stephen of Blois (the son-in-law of William the Conqueror). No king took part in the First Crusade, and the predominantly French-speaking participants came to be known by the Muslims as Franks.

The presence near Constantinople of massive military forces, numbering perhaps 4,000 mounted knights and 25,000 infantry, posed a serious problem for Alexius, and there was occasional disorder. Forced to consider imperial interests, which, it soon became evident, were different from the objective of the Crusaders, the emperor required each Crusade leader to promise under oath to restore to him any conquered territory that had belonged to the empire before the Turkish invasions and to swear loyalty to him while the Crusaders remained in his domain. Since there was never any plan for the Crusade to go beyond the far-flung borders of the old Roman Empire, this would effectively give all conquests to the emperor. Only Bohemond willingly took the emperor's oath. The others did so under duress, and Raymond swore only a lukewarm oath to respect the property and person of the emperor. Despite this, Raymond and Alexius became good friends, and Raymond remained the strongest defender of the emperor's rights throughout the Crusade.

From Constantinople to Antioch

Late in May 1097 the Crusaders and a contingent of Byzantine soldiers reached the capital of the Turkish sultanate, Nicaea (now İznik, Turkey), which surrendered to the Byzantines on June 19. The Crusade army left Nicaea for Antioch on June 26 and found crossing the arid and mountainous Anatolia difficult. At Dorylaeum on July 1, 1097, Turks attacked the advance column of the Crusader army. Despite the heat and a rain of arrows, the Crusaders held their ground, and, when the rest of the army drew up, the Turks were routed. A major victory in open warfare had been achieved by cooperation between the separate Western contingents and the Greeks.

Further advance across Anatolia was even more arduous, and it was only after suffering many casualties, especially in the region of the Taurus Mountains, that the Crusaders arrived near Antioch on October 20. Meanwhile, Godfrey's brother Baldwin left the main army to involve himself in Armenian politics and then became ruler of Edessa. The first of the Crusader states, the county of Edessa would provide a valuable buffer against Turkish attacks on Antioch and other Christian territories.

One of the great cities of the Levant and one of the patriarchal sees of Christianity, Antioch was surrounded by an enormous circle of walls studded with more than 400 towers. Despite reinforcements and supplies from Genoese and English ships and later from the patriarch of Jerusalem, then in Cyprus, the siege proved long and difficult, and many died of starvation or disease. Spring brought the threat of counterattack by a relief force under Kerbogha of Mosul. The situation seemed so hopeless that some Crusaders deserted and attempted to return home. Among these was Peter the Hermit, who was caught and returned to the host, where he was quietly forgiven. Another deserter was the French knight Stephen of Blois, who was cut off from the main body of the army by Kerbogha's forces and judged, not unreasonably, that the Crusaders were doomed. On his way home Stephen met Alexius, who was marching at the head of a Byzantine relief force, and convinced him that Antioch's cause was hopeless. The emperor's decision to turn back, however justified tactically, was a diplomatic blunder; when the Crusaders learned of the emperor's move, they felt free from any obligation to return the city to him.

Bohemond, meanwhile, proposed that the first to enter the city should have possession of it, provided the emperor did not make an appearance. The Norman had, in fact, already made contact with a discontented commander within, who proceeded to admit him over a section of the walls on June 3, 1098. The other Crusaders followed Bohemond into the dozing city and quickly captured it. Only the citadel held out.

Thus, Antioch was restored to Christian rule. The victory, however, was incomplete. Kerbogha arrived with an enormous Turkish army and completely invested the city, which was already very low on provisions. Once again the situation seemed hopeless. Disagreements between the leaders persisted and were accentuated by arguments over the validity of what had come to be called the Holy Lance, which a Provençal priest found below the cathedral and insisted was the lance that, according to the Gospels, had pierced the side of Jesus Christ when he hung on the cross. Nonetheless, on June 28 the Crusader army moved out of the city. The Turkish forces were not of high quality and had only tenuous loyalty to Kerbogha. When they saw the size of the Crusade forces and the resolve of the men, the Turks began to flee. With the evaporation of Kerbogha's army, the citadel finally surrendered to Bohemond, and its garrison was permitted to leave. Rejoicing was tempered by a devastating epidemic that took many lives, including that of the legate, Adhémar of Le Puy, who, as the spiritual leader of the Crusade, had been a wise counselor and a stabilizing influence whom the leaders could ill afford to lose.

The Crusade leaders then fell into violent disagreement over the final disposition of Antioch. Bohemond, who had been responsible for the capture of the city and then had led its defense, wanted it for himself. Raymond, however, insisted that it be returned to the emperor. Unable to come to terms on Antioch, Bohemond and Raymond refused to march to Jerusalem, which effectively stalled the Crusade. The leaders agreed to depart only after the rank and file threatened to tear down the walls of Antioch. On January 13, 1099, the army then set out for Jerusalem under the leadership of Raymond of Saint-Gilles. As they moved south, Tancred and Robert of Normandy and, later, Godfrey and Robert of Flanders joined them. Bohemond, ignoring his previous oaths, remained in Antioch.

The siege of Jerusalem

Not far from Beirut, the army entered the territory of the Fāṭimid caliphs of Cairo, who, as Shīʿite Muslims, were enemies of the Sunnite Seljuqs and the caliphs of Baghdad. In August 1098 the Fāṭimids had occupied Jerusalem. The final drive of the First Crusade, therefore, was against the Fāṭimids of Egypt, not the Seljuqs.

On June 7, 1099, the Christian army—by then considerably reduced to perhaps 1,200–1,500 cavalry and 12,000 foot soldiers—encamped before Jerusalem, whose governor was well supplied and confident that he could withstand a siege until a relief force arrived from Egypt. The Crusaders, on the other hand, were short of supplies and would be until six vessels arrived at Jaffa (Yafo) and managed to unload before the port was blockaded by an Egyptian squadron. On July 8 a strict fast was ordered, and, with the Muslims scoffing from the walls, the entire army, preceded by the clergy, marched in solemn procession around the city, thence to the Mount of Olives, where Peter the Hermit preached with his former eloquence.

Siege towers were carried up to the walls on July 13–14, and on July 15 Godfrey's men took a sector of the walls, and others followed on scaling ladders. When the nearest gate was opened, Tancred and Raymond entered, and the Muslim governor surrendered to the latter in the Tower of David. The governor, along with his bodyguard, was escorted out of the city. Tancred promised protection in the Aqṣā Mosque, but his orders were disobeyed. Hundreds of men, women, and children, both Muslim and Jewish, perished in the general slaughter that followed.

The Crusaders, therefore, attained their goal three long years after they had set out. Against the odds this struggling, fractious, and naive enterprise had made its way from western Europe to the Middle East and conquered two of the best-defended cities of the time. From a modern perspective, the improbability of the First Crusade's success is staggering. For medieval men and women, though, the agent of victory was God himself, who worked miracle after miracle for his faithful knights. It was this firm belief that would sustain centuries of Crusading.

The Crusader states

A successful surprise attack on the Egyptian relief army ensured the Crusaders' occupation of Palestine. Having fulfilled their vows of pilgrimage, most of the Crusaders departed for home, leaving the problem of governing the conquered territories to the few who remained. Initially, there was disagreement concerning the nature of the government to be established, and some held that the holy city should be ruled under ecclesiastical authority. As an interim measure, Godfrey was elected to govern and took the modest title of Defender of the Holy Sepulchre.

In December 1099, in the midst of this confused situation, Bohemond and Baldwin of Edessa arrived in Jerusalem to fulfill their Crusader vows. Accompanying Bohemond was Daimbert, the archbishop of Pisa, who was chosen patriarch and received the homage of both Godfrey and Baldwin. If Daimbert had ambitions to govern Jerusalem, they were thwarted when, on Godfrey's death, his brother Baldwin was summoned back to Jerusalem, where he assumed the title of king (November 11, 1100). Thus, there had come into being not a church state but a feudal kingdom of Jerusalem.

Securing the new Christian territories was now of utmost concern. The Crusade of 1101, for example, was organized by Pope Paschal II to reinforce Christian rule in the Holy Land, but it collapsed in Asia Minor. King Baldwin, however, profited nonetheless from the chronic rivalries of his Muslim neighbours. He was also able to extend his control along the coastline with the aid of Italians and in one instance of a Norwegian squadron that arrived under King Sigurd in 1110. By 1112 Arsuf, Caesarea, Acre, Beirut, and Sidon had been taken, and the entire coast except for Ascalon and Tyre was in Latin hands.

Meanwhile, castles had been built in Galilee, the frontier pushed southward, and Crusader states formed in the north. The county of Edessa, an ill-defined domain extending into the upper Euphrates region with a population consisting mainly of Armenians and Syrians, had already been established by Godfrey's brother Baldwin. When Baldwin left to become ruler of Jerusalem, he bestowed the county, under his suzerainty, on his cousin Baldwin of Le Bourcq.

Antioch had not been returned to the emperor, and Bohemond had consolidated his position there. The city was predominantly Greek in population, though there were also Syrians and Armenians, and the latent Greek-Latin friction was intensified when Bohemond replaced the Greek patriarch with a Latin one. When Bohemond was captured by the Muslims in 1100, his nephew Tancred became regent and expanded the frontiers of the principality to include the important port of Latakia, taken from the Byzantines in 1103. Not long after his release in 1103, Bohemond traveled to Europe, where he succeeded in winning over Pope Paschal II to the idea of a new Crusade. Whatever the original intention, there resulted not an expedition against Muslims but an attack on the Byzantine city of Dyrrhachium. Like its predecessor, the ill-fated campaign of 1082, the enterprise failed, and in 1108 Bohemond was forced to take an oath of vassalage to the emperor for Antioch and to return to Italy, where he died in 1111. Tancred, again in power, ignored his uncle's oath, and Antioch and its patriarchate remained a source of controversy.

A fourth Crusader state was established on the coast in the vicinity of Tripoli (Arabic Tarābulus) by Raymond of Saint-Gilles, who had been outmaneuvered in Jerusalem and had returned to Constantinople hoping for aid from the Byzantine emperor, to whom he had always been loyal. In 1102 he returned to Syria, took Tortosa (Ṭarṭūs), and began the siege of Tripoli. But he died in 1105, and it remained for his descendants to finish the task in 1109.

The establishment and protection of the frontier was, for the new states, a problem conditioned by geography and the politics of Levantine Islam. From Antioch south, the Crusaders held a narrow strip of coastland bounded by mountains to the north and by the Jordan Valley in the south. To the east beyond the Syrian desert lay the Muslim cities of Aleppo, Ḥamāh, Ḥimṣ, and Damascus. Though the Franks did push southward to Aylah (or Elim, modern Al-ʿAqabah), all attempts to move eastward failed, and it was necessary to erect castles at vulnerable points along the eastern frontier as well as along the coast and inland. Among the most famous of these were Krak de Montréal, in the Transjordan, and Krak des Chevaliers, in the county of Tripoli. Meanwhile, the hostility between Shīʿite Egypt and Sunnite Baghdad continued for some time. The emirates in between the two powers remained divided in their allegiance, and those in the north feared the Seljuqs of Iconium.

After Baldwin I's death in 1118, the throne passed to his cousin Baldwin of Le Bourcq (Baldwin II), who left Edessa to another cousin, Joscelin of Courtenay. In 1124 Tyre, the last great city north of Ascalon still in Muslim hands, was taken with the aid of the Venetians, who, as was customary, received a section of the city. Baldwin II was succeeded by Fulk of Anjou, a newcomer recommended by Louis VI of France. Fulk was married to Baldwin's daughter Melisende. In 1131 Baldwin and Joscelin both died. They were the last of the first generation of Crusaders, and with their passing the formative period in the history of the Crusader states came to an end.

Fulk's policies ended the pursuit of expansion and resulted in a stabilization of the frontiers of the Crusader states. This was a wise course, because his reign coincided with the rise of Zangī, atabeg (Turkish: “governor”) of Mosul, whose achievements earned him a reputation as a great champion of the jihad (holy war) against the Franks. When Zangī moved against Damascus, the Muslims of that city and the Christians of Jerusalem formed an alliance against their common enemy, a diplomatic initiative that was common among the second-generation Franks.

The northern Crusader states, however, were in great danger. The Byzantines had recovered their influence in Anatolia and were putting pressure on Armenia and Antioch. Emperor Manuel Comnenus forced Prince Raymond of Antioch to acknowledge imperial suzerainty. But the greater danger to both Antioch and Armenia was dramatically brought home by Zangī's capture of Edessa in 1144. Attempts at recovery failed, and the northernmost Crusader state was subsequently overrun.

The era of the Second and Third Crusades

The Second Crusade

It had long been apparent that Edessa was vulnerable, but its loss came as a shock to Eastern and Western Christians. Urgent pleas for aid soon reached Europe, and in 1145 Pope Eugenius III issued a formal Crusade bull, Quantum praedecessores (“How Much Our Predecessors”). It was the first of its kind, with precisely worded provisions designed to protect Crusaders' families and property and reflecting contemporary advances in canon law. The Crusade was preached by St. Bernard of Clairvaux in France and, with the aid of interpreters, even in Germany. Bernard revolutionized Crusade ideology, asserting that the Crusade was not merely an act of charity or a war to secure the holy places but a means of redemption. In his mercy, Christ offered the warriors of Europe a blessed avenue of salvation, a means by which they could give up all they had to follow him.

As in the First Crusade, many simple pilgrims responded. Unlike the First Crusade, however, the Second Crusade was led by two of Europe's greatest rulers, King Louis VII of France and Emperor Conrad III of Germany. Louis enthusiastically supported the Crusade, but Conrad was reluctant at first and was won over only by the eloquence of St. Bernard. The Second Crusade also differed from its predecessor in that there were three objectives instead of one. While the kings of Germany and France marched east to restore Edessa, other Crusaders went to Spain to fight Muslims or to the shores of the Baltic Sea to fight the pagan Wends.

The situation in the East was also different. Manuel Comnenus, the Byzantine emperor, was not pleased to discover another Crusade headed toward Constantinople. The Second Crusade wreaked havoc with his foreign policy, which included an alliance with Germany, Venice, and the pope against the Normans. It also complicated the emperor's peaceful relationship with the Turkish sultan of Rūm. Manuel made a truce with the sultan in 1146 to make certain that the Crusade would not cause the sultan to attack Byzantine lands in Asia. Although sound strategically, the emperor's move confirmed for many Western Christians the apostasy of the Greeks.

Conrad left in May 1147, accompanied by many German nobles, the kings of Poland and Bohemia, and Frederick of Swabia, his nephew and the future emperor Frederick I (Frederick Barbarossa). Conrad's poorly disciplined troops created tension in Constantinople, where they arrived in September. Conrad and Manuel, however, remained on good terms, and both were apprehensive about the moves of King Roger II of Sicily, who during these same weeks seized Corfu and attacked the Greek mainland.

Conrad, rejecting Manuel's advice to follow the coastal route around Asia Minor, moved his main force past Nicaea directly into Anatolia. On October 25 at Dorylaeum, not far from where the First Crusaders won their victory, his army, weary and without adequate provisions, was set upon by the Turks and virtually destroyed. Conrad, with a few survivors, retreated to Nicaea.

Louis VII, accompanied by his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, followed the land route across Europe and arrived at Constantinople on October 4, about a month after the Germans. A few of his more hotheaded followers, on hearing that Manuel had made a truce with the Turks of Iconium and totally misunderstanding his motives, accused the emperor of treason and urged the French king to join Roger in attacking the Byzantines. Louis preferred the opinion of his less-volatile advisers and agreed to restore any imperial possessions he might capture.

In November the French reached Nicaea, where they learned of Conrad's defeat. Louis and Conrad then started along the coastal route, with the French now in the vanguard, and reached Ephesus. Conrad became seriously ill and returned to Constantinople to the medical ministrations of Manuel. After recuperating, he eventually reached Acre by ship in April 1148.

The French passage from Ephesus to Antioch in midwinter was extremely harrowing. Supplies ran short, and the Byzantines were unjustly blamed. Manuel defended his cities against the angry Crusaders, which meant that the French spent more energy fighting Christians than Muslims. Louis concluded that the Greeks were trying to weaken the Crusade. He also had lost the bulk of his troops to Turkish attacks by the time he reached Antioch, which was ruled by Eleanor's uncle, Prince Raymond. The Crusade's original goal of recapturing Edessa was no longer feasible, because Nūr al-Dīn, the son and successor of Zangī, had massacred the city's Christian inhabitants, making it difficult to take and hold Edessa with the forces available. Raymond urged an attack on Aleppo, Nūr al-Dīn's centre of power. But King Louis, who resented Eleanor's open espousal of Raymond's project, left abruptly for Jerusalem and forced the queen to join him.

In Jerusalem, where Conrad had already arrived, many French and German notables assembled with Queen Melisende, her son Baldwin III, and the barons of Jerusalem to discuss how best to proceed. Despite the absence of the northern princes and the losses already suffered by the Crusaders, it was possible to field an army of nearly 50,000 men, the largest Crusade army so far assembled. After considerable debate, which revealed the conflicting purposes of Crusaders and Jerusalem barons, it was decided to attack Damascus.

How the decision was reached is not known. Damascus was undoubtedly a tempting prize. Its ruler, Unur, fearful of the expanding power of Nūr al-Dīn, was the one Muslim ruler most disposed to cooperating with the Franks. However, Unur was now forced to seek the aid of his former enemy to thwart them. And Nūr al-Dīn was not slow to move toward Damascus. Not only was the Crusader campaign poorly conceived, but it was badly executed. On July 28, after a four-day siege, with Nūr al-Dīn's forces nearing the city, it became evident that the Crusader army was dangerously exposed, and a retreat was ordered. It was a humiliating failure, attributable largely to the conflicting interests of the participants.

Conrad decamped for Constantinople, where he agreed to join the emperor against Roger of Sicily. Louis's reaction was different. His resentment against Manuel, whom he blamed for the failure, was so great that he accepted Roger's offer of ships to take him home and agreed to a plan for a new Crusade against Byzantium. Lacking papal support, the plan came to nothing, but the perception that the Byzantines were part of the problem rather than the solution became widespread in Europe.

The Second Crusade had been promoted with great zeal and had aroused high hopes. Its collapse caused deep dismay. Searching for an explanation, St. Bernard turned to Scripture and preached that the Crusade failed because of the sinfulness of Europe. Only through the purification and prayers of Christian men and women would God relent and bestow victory on his knights once more. This belief became central to Crusading ideology and an important impetus for movements of lay piety during the Middle Ages. The Muslims, on the other hand, were enormously encouraged by the collapse of the Second Crusade because they had confronted the danger of another major Western expedition and had triumphed.

The Crusader states to 1187

During the 25 years following the Second Crusade, the kingdom of Jerusalem was governed by two of its ablest rulers, Baldwin III (reigned 1143–62) and Amalric I (1163–74). In 1153 King Baldwin captured Ascalon, extending the kingdom's coastline southward, though this would be the Franks' last major conquest. Its possession was offset the next year by the occupation of Damascus by Nūr al-Dīn, one more stage in the encirclement of the Crusader states by a single Muslim power.

In 1160–61 the possibility that the Fāṭimid caliphate in Egypt, shaken by palace intrigues and assassinations, might collapse under the influence of Muslim Syria caused anxiety in Jerusalem. Thus, in 1164, when Nūr al-Dīn sent his lieutenant Shīrkūh to Egypt accompanied by his own nephew, Saladin, King Amalric decided to intervene. After some maneuvering, the armies of both Amalric and Shīrkūh withdrew, as they were to do again three years later.

Meanwhile, Amalric, realizing the necessity of Byzantine cooperation, had sent Archbishop William of Tyre as an envoy to Constantinople. In 1168, before the news of the agreement that William of Tyre had arranged reached Jerusalem, the king, for reasons unknown, set out for Egypt. The venture failed, and Shīrkūh entered Cairo. On his death (May 23, 1169), Saladin, then Nūr al-Dīn's deputy, was left to overcome the remaining opposition and assume control of Egypt.

When the Byzantine fleet and the army finally arrived in 1169, there was some delay, and both armies were forced by inadequate provisions and seasonal rains to retreat once again, each side blaming the other for the lack of confrontation. In 1171 Saladin obeyed Nūr al-Dīn's order to have the prayers in the mosques mention the caliph of Baghdad instead of the caliph of Cairo, whose health was failing. Thus ended the Fāṭimid caliphate and the great division in Levantine Islam from which the Latins had profited.

Ominous developments followed the deaths of both Amalric and Nūr al-Dīn in 1174. In 1176 the Seljuqs of Iconium defeated the armies of Emperor Manuel Comnenus at Myriocephalon. It was a shattering blow reminiscent of Manzikert a century earlier. When Manuel died in 1180, all hope of effective Byzantine-Latin cooperation vanished. Three years later Saladin occupied Aleppo, virtually completing the encirclement of the Latin states. In 1185 he agreed to a truce and left for Egypt.

In Jerusalem Amalric was succeeded by his son Baldwin IV, a 13-year-old boy suffering from leprosy. Despite the young king's extraordinary fortitude, his precarious health necessitated continuous regencies and created a problem of succession until his sister Sibyl bore a son, the future Baldwin V, to William of Montferrat. Her subsequent marriage in 1180 to Guy of Lusignan, a newcomer to the East and brother of Amalric, accentuated existing rivalries between the barons. A kind of “court party”—centring around the queen mother, Agnes of Courtenay, her daughter Sibyl, and Agnes's brother, Joscelin III of Edessa, and now including the Lusignans—was often opposed by another group comprising mostly the so-called native barons—old families, notably the Ibelins, Reginald of Sidon, and Raymond III of Tripoli, who through his wife was also lord of Tiberias. In addition to these internal problems, the kingdom was the most isolated ever. Urgent appeals to the West and the efforts of Pope Alexander III had brought little response.

Baldwin IV died in March 1185, leaving, according to previous agreement, Raymond of Tripoli as regent for the child king Baldwin V. But when Baldwin V died in 1186, the court party outmaneuvered the other barons and, disregarding succession arrangements that had been formally drawn up, hastily crowned Sibyl. She in turn crowned her husband, Guy of Lusignan.

In the midst of near civil war, Reginald of Châtillon, lord of Kerak and Montréal, broke the truce with the Muslims by attacking a caravan. Saladin replied by proclaiming jihad against the Latin kingdom. In 1187 he left Egypt, crossed the Jordan south of the Sea of Galilee, and took up a position close to the river. Near Sepphoris (modern Ẓippori) the Crusaders mobilized an army of perhaps 20,000 men, which included some 1,200 heavily armed cavalry. In a spot well chosen and adequately supplied with water and provisions, they waited for Saladin—who, by some estimates, had about 30,000 men, half of whom were light cavalry—to make the first move.

On July 2 Saladin blocked the main road to Tiberias and sent a small force to attack the town, hoping that Count Raymond's wife's presence there would lure the Crusaders into the open. It was Raymond, however, who initially persuaded the king not to fall into the trap. But, late that night, others, accusing the count of treason, prevailed upon the king to change his mind. This fateful decision would lead to the destruction of the Crusader army. On July 3 the Crusaders undertook an exhausting day's march, spent a terrible night without water, and were surrounded and constantly harassed. The following day they faced Saladin's forces at the Horns of Ḥaṭṭin and fought throughout the day, with smoke from grass fires set by the enemy pouring into their faces. When the infantry broke ranks, the essential coordination with the cavalry was shattered, and the Crusaders' fate was sealed. By the time Saladin's final charge ended the battle, most of the knights had been slain or captured. Only Raymond of Tripoli, Reginald of Sidon, Balian of Ibelin, and a few others escaped.

The king's life was spared, but Saladin killed Reginald of Châtillon and ordered the execution of some 200 Templars and Hospitallers (religio-military orders discussed below). Other captive knights were treated honourably, and most were later ransomed. Less fortunate were the foot soldiers, most of whom were sold into slavery. Virtually the entire military force of the kingdom of Jerusalem had been destroyed. To make matters worse, Saladin captured the relic of the True Cross, which he sent to Damascus, where it was paraded through the streets upside down.

Saladin quickly followed up his victory in the Battle of Ḥaṭṭin by taking Tiberias and moving toward the coast to seize Acre (ʿAkko). By September 1187 he and his lieutenants had occupied most of the major strongholds in the kingdom and all the ports south of Tripoli Jubayl and Botron (Al-Batrūn) in the county of Tripoli and Tyre in the kingdom. On October 2 Jerusalem, then defended by only a handful of men under the command of Balian of Ibelin, capitulated to Saladin, who agreed to allow the inhabitants to leave once they had paid a ransom. Though Saladin's offer included the poor, several thousand apparently were not redeemed and probably were sold into slavery. In Jerusalem, as in most of the cities captured, those who stayed were Syrian or Greek Christians. Somewhat later Saladin permitted a number of Jews to settle in the city.

Meanwhile, Saladin continued his conquests in the north, and by 1189 all of the kingdom was in his hands except Belvoir (modern Kokhov ha-Yarden) and Tyre. The county of Tripoli and the principality of Antioch were each reduced to the capital city and a few outposts. The majority of the 100-year-old Latin establishment in the Levant had been lost.

The institutions of the First Kingdom

The four principalities established by the Crusaders—three after the loss of Edessa in 1144—were loosely connected, and the king of Jerusalem's limited suzerainty over Antioch and Tripoli became largely nominal after mid century. Each state was organized into a pattern of lordships by the ruling Christian minority. The institutions of the kingdom of Jerusalem are best known, partly because its history figures more prominently in both Arab and Christian chronicles but especially because its documents were better preserved. In the 13th century the famous legal compilation the Assises de Jérusalem (Assizes of Jerusalem) was prepared in the kingdom. Though this collection reflects a later situation, certain sections and many individual enactments can be traced back to the 12th century, the period known as the First Kingdom.

In the first half of the 12th century, the kingdom presented the appearance of a typical European monarchy, with lordships owing military service and subject to fiscal exactions. There were, however, important differences, not only in the large subject population of diverse ethnic origins but also with respect to the governing minority. No great families with extensive domains emerged in the early years, and the typical noble did not, as in Europe, live in a rural castle or manor house. Although castles existed, they were garrisoned by knights and, increasingly as the century advanced, by the religio-military orders. Most barons in the kingdom lived in the fortified towns. The kings, moreover, possessed a considerable domain and retained extensive judicial rights, which made the monarchy a relatively strong institution in early Jerusalem.

Toward the middle of the century, this situation changed. Partly as a consequence of increased immigration from the West, the baronial class grew, and a relatively small group of magnates with large domains emerged. As individuals, they were less disposed to brook royal interference, and as a class and in the court of barons (Haute Cour, or High Court), they were capable of presenting a formidable challenge to royal authority. The last of the kings of Jerusalem to exercise effective power was Amalric I in the 12th century. In the final years of the First Kingdom, baronial influence was increasingly evident and dissension among the barons, as a consequence, more serious.

The military orders

Another serious obstacle to the king's jurisdiction, which did not exist in the same form in the West, was the extensive authority of the two religio-military orders. The Knights of the Hospital of St. John, or Hospitallers, was founded in the 11th century by the merchants of Amalfi to provide hospital care for pilgrims. The order never abandoned its original purpose, and, in fact, as its superb collection of documents reveals, the order's philanthropic activities expanded. But during the 12th century, in response to the military needs of the kingdom, the Hospitallers also became an order of knights, as did the Templars, the Poor Knights of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, so named because of their headquarters in the former temple of Solomon. The Templars originated as a monastic-military organization dedicated to protecting pilgrims on the way to Jerusalem, and their rule, composed by St. Bernard of Clairvaux, was officially sanctioned by the Council of Troyes (1128). Although the Templars and Hospitallers took monastic vows, their principal function was soldiering.

The orders grew rapidly and acquired castles at strategic points in the kingdom and in the northern states. They maintained permanent garrisons in these castles and supplemented the otherwise inadequate forces of the barons and king. Moreover, because they were soon established in Europe as well, they became international organizations. Virtually independent, sanctioned and constantly supported by the papacy, and exempt from local ecclesiastical jurisdiction, they aroused the jealousy of the clergy and constituted a serious challenge to royal authority.

The Crusaders introduced into the conquered lands a Latin ecclesiastical organization and hierarchy. The Greek patriarch of Antioch was removed, and all subsequent incumbents were Latin except in one brief period before 1170, when imperial pressure brought about the installation of a Greek. The Orthodox patriarch in Jerusalem left before the conquest and died soon after. All his successors were Latin.

Under Latin jurisdiction were the entire Latin population, as well as those natives who remained Orthodox—Greeks in Antioch and Greeks or Syrians (Melchites) in Jerusalem. Beyond that jurisdiction were a larger number of Monophysites (Jacobites or Armenians) and some few Nestorians, all adherents of doctrines that had deviated from the decisions of 5th-century ecumenical councils. A number of Maronites of the Lebanon region accepted the Latin obedience late in the 12th century. After some initial confusion, the native hierarchies were able to resume their functions.

As in the West, the church had its own courts and possessed large properties. But each ecclesiastical domain was required to furnish soldiers, and there were considerable charitable foundations. The hierarchy of the Latin states was an integral part of the church of the West. Papal legates regularly visited the East, and bishops from the Crusader states attended the third Lateran Council in 1179. Western monastic orders also appeared in the Crusader states.

In addition to the nobles and their families who had settled in the kingdom, a substantially larger number of persons were classified as bourgeois. A small number had arrived with the First Crusade; however, most were later immigrants from Europe, representing nearly every nationality but predominantly from rural southern France. In the East they became town dwellers, though a few were agriculturalists—proprietors of small estates, rarely themselves tillers of the soil, inhabiting the more modest towns. It appears some immigrants, perhaps poor pilgrims who remained, failed to obtain a reasonably settled status and could not afford the relatively small ransom offered by Saladin in 1187.

The townspeople of the First Kingdom did not, like their counterparts in Europe, aspire to political autonomy. There were no communal movements in the 12th century. The bourgeois were, therefore, subject to a king or seigneur. Some did military service as sergeants—i.e., mounted auxiliaries or foot soldiers. The bourgeois were recognized as a class in the more than 30 “courts of the bourgeois” according to procedures laid down in the Assises de la Cour des Bourgeois (Assizes of the Court of the Bourgeois), which, unlike other parts of the Assizes of Jerusalem, reflect the traditions of Roman law in southern France.

The Italians had acquired exceptional privileges in the ports because they supplied the indispensable naval aid and shipping essential to regular contact with Europe. These privileges usually included a quarter that they maintained as a virtually independent enclave. Its status was guaranteed by treaty between the kingdom and the “mother” city (Venice, Genoa, Pisa, etc.).

European settlers in the Crusader states, however, were only a small minority of the population. If the early Crusaders were ruthless, their successors, except for occasional outbursts during campaigns, were remarkably tolerant and flexible in dealing with the diverse sectors of the local population. Muslim town dwellers who had not fled were captured and put to menial tasks. Some, it is true, appeared in Italian slave marts, but royal and ecclesiastical ordinances at least restricted slave owners' actions. Baptism brought with it immediate freedom.

Few Muslims were slaves. Most of those who remained were peasants who for centuries had been a large part of the rural population and who were permitted to retain their holdings, subject to fiscal impositions not unlike those of the European serf and usually identical to those originally levied by their former proprietors on all non-Muslims. Muslim nomads, or Bedouin, who from time immemorial had moved their herds with the changing seasons, were granted their traditional rights of pasturage by the king.

Most mosques were appropriated during the conquest, but some were restored, and no attempt was made to restrict Muslim religious observance. Occasionally a mihrab (prayer niche) was retained for Muslim worshipers in a church that had formerly been a mosque. The tolerance of the Franks, noted by Arab visitors, often surprised and disturbed newcomers from the West.

Legal practices
Native Christians were governed according to the Assizes of the Court of the Bourgeois. Each national group retained its institutions. The Syrians, for example, maintained a court overseen by the rais (raʾīs), a chieftain of importance under the Frankish regime. An important element in the kingdom's army, the corps of Turcopoles, made up of lightly armed cavalry units, was composed largely of native Christians, including, apparently, converts from Islam. The principle of personality of law applied to all: the Jew took oath on the Torah, the Samaritan on the Pentateuch, the Muslim on the Qurʾān, and the Christian on the Gospels.
The Jewish community of Palestine, which had declined in the 11th century, was drastically reduced by the First Crusade. As the Latin kingdom settled into a routine of government, however, the situation improved. Indeed, there is reason to believe that the later, more stable regime made possible a not-inconsiderable Jewish immigration—not, it seems, as in earlier times, from the neighbouring lands of the Middle East but from Europe.
Thus, by the 1170s the Crusader states of Outremer, as the area of Latin settlement came to be called, had developed well-established governments. With allowance made for regional differences (e.g., Antioch in its early years under the Norman dynasty was somewhat more centralized), the institutions of the northern states resembled those of Jerusalem. The governing class of Franks was no longer made up of foreign conquerors but comprised local residents who had learned to adjust to a new environment and were concerned with administration. A few—such as Reginald of Sidon and William of Tyre, the archbishop and chancellor, respectively—were fluent in Arabic. Many others knew enough of the language to deal with the local inhabitants. Franks adopted native dress, ate native food, employed native physicians, and married Syrian, Armenian, or converted Muslim women.
But the Franks of Outremer, though they sometimes acquired a love of luxury and comfort, did not lose the will or ability to confront danger; nor did they “go native.” In fundamentals, they were Latin Christians who adhered to the traditions of their French forebears. The Assizes were in French, and other documents were drawn up in Latin. William of Tyre, born in the East but educated in Europe, wrote a celebrated Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum (History of Deeds Done Beyond the Sea) in the Latin style of the 12th century.
Artists and architects were influenced by Byzantine and Arab craftsmen, but Oriental motifs were usually limited to details, such as doorway carvings. A psalter for Queen Melisende in the 12th century, for example, shows certain Byzantine characteristics, and the artist may have lived in Constantinople, but the manuscript is in the then current tradition of French art. Castles followed Byzantine models and were often built on the old foundations, though Western ideas were also incorporated. New churches were built or additions made to existing structures, as, for example, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, in the Romanesque style of the homeland.
All in all, the Franks of the First Kingdom developed a distinctive culture and achieved a sense of identity. Until baronial dissensions weakened the monarchy in later years, the Latin kingdom showed remarkable vitality and ingenuity. It was one of the more sophisticated governmental achievements of the Middle Ages.

The Third Crusade
The news of the fall of Jerusalem reached Europe even before the arrival there of Archbishop Josius of Tyre, whom the Crusaders had sent with urgent appeals for aid. Pope Urban III soon died, shocked, it was said, by the sad news. His successor, Gregory VIII, issued a Crusade bull and called for fasting and penitence.
Before a new Crusade could be organized, however, a modest recovery had begun in the East. Scarcely two weeks after Ḥaṭṭin, Conrad of Montferrat, Baldwin V's uncle, had landed at Tyre with a small Italian fleet and a number of followers. He immediately established himself sufficiently to stave off an attack by Saladin. Conrad also refused to submit to King Guy when Saladin released the king at the end of 1188 as promised.
In a daring move to reestablish his authority, Guy suddenly gathered his few followers and besieged Acre, taking Saladin completely by surprise. When the Muslim leader finally moved his army toward the city, the Crusaders camped outside had begun to receive reinforcements from the West, many under the banner of Henry of Champagne. By the winter of 1190–91, neither side had made progress; Saladin could not relieve the city, but the Crusaders had suffered losses from disease and famine.
Among the victims of disease was Guy's wife, Sibyl, the source of his claims to the throne. Many of the older barons who had thus far supported him now turned to Conrad. The marriage of Sibyl's sister, Isabel, to Humphrey of Toron was forthwith annulled, and she was constrained to marry Conrad. But Guy refused to abandon his claim to the throne. Such was the situation in May 1191 when ships arrived off Acre bringing welcome supplies and news of the approach of the armies of the Third Crusade.
The first ruler to respond to the papal appeal was William II of Sicily, who immediately abandoned a conflict with Byzantium and equipped a fleet that soon left for the East, though William himself died in November 1189. English, Danish, and Flemish ships also departed. Meanwhile, Gregory VIII had sent a legation to the Holy Roman emperor and participant in the Second Crusade, Frederick Barbarossa, now nearly 70 years old and approaching the end of an eventful career. Although excommunicated by Pope Alexander III and a supporter of antipopes in the 1160s and '70s, Frederick had made peace with the church in 1177 and for some time had been genuinely desirous of going on Crusade again.
He set out in May 1189 with the largest Crusade army so far assembled and crossed Hungary into Byzantine territory. The Byzantine emperor, Isaac II Angelus, had made a secret treaty with Saladin to impede Frederick's progress through Greece, which he did quite effectively. Frederick responded by capturing the Byzantine city of Adrianople, returning it only when Isaac agreed to transport the Germans across the Hellespont into Turkey. In May 1190 Frederick reached Iconium after defeating a Seljuq army. His forces then crossed into Armenian territory. On June 10 Frederick, who had ridden ahead with his bodyguard, was drowned while attempting to swim a stream. His death broke the morale of the German army, and only a small remnant, under Frederick of Swabia and Leopold of Austria, finally reached Tyre. To Saladin and the Muslims, who had been seriously alarmed by Frederick's approach, the emperor's death seemed an act of God.
In Europe, Archbishop Josius had won over Philip II Augustus of France and Henry II of England, whose son and successor, Richard I (Richard the Lion-Heart), took up the cause when Henry died in 1189. The extensive holdings of the English Angevin kings in France and especially Philip's desire to recover Normandy, however, posed problems that were difficult to lay aside even during a common enterprise. Thus, it was not until July 4, 1190, three years after Ḥaṭṭin, that the English and French rulers met at Vézelay and prepared to move with their armies.
The two kings who finally led the Third Crusade were very different persons. Richard had opposed his father and was distrustful of his brothers. He could be lavishly generous even to his adversaries but often violent to anyone who stood in his way. His abilities lay not in administration, for which he had no talent, but in war, at which he was a genius. The favourite son of Eleanor of Aquitaine, Richard epitomized the chivalrous Crusader and personified the contemporary troubadour's view of war with all its aristocratic courtoisie. Richard could honour his noble Muslim opponents but be utterly ruthless to lowborn captives.
Unlike Richard, Philip II had been king for 10 years and was a skilled and unscrupulous politician. He had no love for ostentation. Though no warrior himself, he was adept at planning sieges and designing siege engines. But he was a reluctant Crusader whose real interests lay in the expansion of his own domains.
At the suggestion of King William II, Richard and Philip met at Messina, in Sicily, where they signed an agreement outlining their mutual obligations and rights on the Crusade. Philip arrived with the French fleet at Acre on April 20, 1191, and the siege was begun again in earnest.
After a stormy passage, Richard put in at Cyprus, where his sister Joan and his fiancée, Berengaria of Navarra, had been shipwrecked and held by the island's Byzantine ruler, a rebel prince, Isaac Comnenus. Isaac underestimated Richard's strength and attacked. Not only did Richard defeat and capture him, but he proceeded to conquer Cyprus, an important event in the history of the Crusades. The island would remain under direct Latin rule for the next four centuries and would be a vital source of supplies throughout the Third Crusade and beyond. Even after the fall of the Crusader states, Cyprus remained a Christian outpost in the East.
Richard left Cyprus and arrived on June 8 at Acre, where he reinvigorated the siege. A month later, after constant battering at the walls by siege engines and after Saladin's nephew had failed to fight his way into the city, the garrison surrendered in violation of Saladin's orders. The Muslim leader was shocked by the news but nevertheless ratified the surrender agreement. In exchange for the lives of the Muslim garrison, he agreed to return the True Cross, render 200,000 dinars, and release all his Christian prisoners—still more than 1,000 men.
As the Crusaders entered the city, disputes arose over the disposal of areas. Richard offended Leopold of Austria, and Philip, who felt that he had fulfilled his Crusader's vow and who was unwell, left for home in August. Though the English and French troops resented Philip's departure, it did leave Richard in control. When Saladin failed to pay the first installment of the ransom for the prisoners on schedule, Richard flew into a rage. He ordered that all 2,700 members of the Muslim garrison be marched outside the city and executed in view of Saladin and his army. Saladin responded by massacring most of his Christian hostages. Clearly, the deal was off.
The first and only pitched battle between the forces of Saladin and the Third Crusade occurred on September 7, 1191, at Arsuf. Richard's military brilliance won the day, forcing Saladin to retreat with heavy losses, while the English king's casualties were very light. After Arsuf, Saladin decided not to risk open battle with Richard again, who quickly recaptured Jaffa and established it as his base of operations. Richard next reestablished Christian control of the coast and refortified Ascalon to the south. Twice Richard led the Crusaders to Jerusalem, yet on both occasions he was forced to retreat after coming within sight of the holy city. Without control of the hinterland, the king knew that he could not hold Jerusalem for long. Although tactically sound, Richard's refusal to lay siege to the city was bitterly unpopular among the rank and file. As a result, his suggestion that the Crusade attack Saladin's power base in Egypt was rejected by most of the Crusaders.
After Philip returned to France, he preyed upon Richard's lands; though forbidden by the church, these actions were lucrative nonetheless. Richard received urgent messages from home requesting his return. Meanwhile, he had been in constant communication with Saladin and his brother al-ʿĀdil, and various peace proposals were made, which included marriage alliances. In fact, there seemed to be warm cordiality and considerable mutual respect between Richard and Saladin. Finally, on September 2, 1192, the two signed a three-year peace treaty. The coast from Jaffa north remained in Christian hands, but Ascalon was to be restored to Saladin after Richard's men demolished the fortifications that they had painstakingly built. Pilgrims were to have free access to the holy places. On October 9 Richard left. He was shipwrecked and finally fell into the hands of Leopold of Austria, who had not forgotten the slight at Acre.
The Third Crusade had failed to attain its main objective, the retaking of Jerusalem, but in every other way it was a great success. Most of Saladin's victories in the wake of Ḥaṭṭin were wiped away. Before he left, Richard consented to the request that Guy, who had lost the support of nearly all the barons, be deposed and Conrad immediately be accepted as king. No sooner was this done than Conrad was murdered by the Assassins, members of the Nazārī Ismāʿīlite sect of Islam. Isabel was persuaded to marry Henry of Champagne, and Guy was given the governorship of Cyprus, where his record was far more successful than his ill-starred career in Jerusalem. Although he had failed to recapture Jerusalem, Richard had put the Christians of the Levant back on their feet.

The Latin East after the Third Crusade
Saladin died on March 3, 1193, not long after the departure of the Third Crusade. One of the greatest Muslim leaders, a man devoutly religious and deeply committed to jihad against the infidel, he was, nevertheless, respected by his opponents. His death led once again to divisions in the Muslim world, and his Ayyūbid successors were willing to continue a state of truce with the Crusaders, which lasted into the early years of the 13th century. The truce was politically and economically advantageous for both sides, and the Italians were quick to make profitable trade connections in Egypt. The Franks were able to adjust to the new situation and to organize what in effect was a new titular kingdom of Jerusalem, centring on Acre and generally known as the Second Kingdom.
In 1194 Amalric of Lusignan succeeded his brother Guy as ruler of Cyprus, where he later accepted investiture as king from the chancellor of Emperor Henry VI. In 1197, following the death of Henry of Champagne, Amalric succeeded to the throne of Jerusalem-Acre, and in 1198 he married the thrice-widowed Isabel. He chose, however, to govern his two domains separately, and in Acre he proved to be an excellent administrator. The Livre au Roi (Book of the King), an important section of the Assizes of Jerusalem, dates from his reign. He also dealt wisely with Saladin's brother, al-ʿĀdil of Egypt. On Amalric's death in 1205, the kingdoms of Cyprus and Jerusalem-Acre were divided, and in 1210 the latter was given to John of Brienne, a French knight nominated by Philip, who went east and married Conrad's daughter, Mary.
There were also adjustments in the two northern states. When Raymond III of Tripoli died (1187), his county passed to a son of Bohemond III of Antioch, which thus united the two principalities. In general, Antioch-Tripoli followed the relatively independent course laid down by Bohemond III.
Armenia was more closely involved in Latin politics, partly as a result of marriage alliances with the house of Antioch-Tripoli. King Leo II of Armenia joined the Crusaders at Cyprus and Acre. Desirous of a royal crown, he approached both pope and emperor, and in 1198, with papal approval, royal insignia were bestowed by Archbishop Conrad of Mainz, in the name of Henry VI. At the same time, the Armenian church officially accepted a union with Rome, which, however, was never popular with the lower clergy and the general populace.

The Fourth Crusade and the Latin empire of Constantinople
Pope Innocent III was the first pope since Urban II to be both eager and able to make the Crusade a major papal concern. In 1198 he called a new Crusade through legates and encyclical letters. In 1199 a tax was levied on all clerical incomes—later to become a precedent for systematic papal income taxes—and Fulk of Neuilly, a popular orator, was commissioned to preach. At a tournament held by Thibaut III of Champagne, several prominent French nobles took the cross. Among them was Geoffrey of Villehardouin, author of one of the principal accounts of the Crusade; other important nobles joined later, and contact was made with Venice to provide transport.
Unfortunately, Thibaut of Champagne died before the Crusaders departed for Venice, and the barons turned to Boniface of Montferrat, whose involvement as leader of the Crusade proved to be fateful. He had close family ties with both the Byzantine Empire and the Crusader states. His brother, Conrad of Montferrat, had received the crown of Jerusalem only to be murdered by the Assassins shortly thereafter. Before going to the Holy Land, Conrad had married the sister of Emperor Isaac II Angelus and received the title of Caesar. Boniface was also the vassal of Philip of Swabia, who was a contender for the German throne and the son-in-law of Isaac II. In 1195 Isaac was blinded and deposed by his brother, who took the throne as Alexius III. Several years later Isaac's son, also named Alexius, escaped from Constantinople and fled to Philip's court. At Christmas 1201 Boniface, Philip, and the young Alexius discussed the possibility of using the Crusade to depose Alexius III and place the young man on the throne. Boniface sought the approval of the pope for the diversion, but Innocent refused to allow it. The young Alexius also journeyed to Rome but had no better luck with Innocent III. Despite the papal prohibition, Boniface and the Byzantine prince still hoped to find a way to move the Crusade toward Constantinople on its way to the Holy Land.
When the Crusade army arrived in Venice in the summer of 1202, it was only one-third of its projected size. This was a serious problem, since the French had contracted with the Venetians for a fleet and provisions that they now realized they neither needed nor could afford. The Venetians had incurred enormous expense for the French and were understandably upset by their inability to pay. The leader of Venice, Doge Enrico Dandolo, was a man of great sagacity and prudence who was in his 90s and completely blind by the time of the Crusade. Dandolo proposed that if the French would assist the Venetians in capturing the rebellious city of Zadar (now in Croatia), he would be willing to suspend the outstanding debt until it could be paid in captured booty. With few options, the Crusaders agreed, even though Zadar was a Christian city under the control of the king of Hungary, who had taken the Crusader's vow. Innocent was informed of the plan, but his veto was disregarded. In November 1202 the Crusaders captured Zadar and wintered there. Reluctant to jeopardize the Crusade, Innocent gave conditional absolution to the Crusaders, but not to the Venetians.
Meanwhile, envoys from Philip of Swabia arrived at Zadar with an offer from Alexius, the Byzantine prince. If the Crusaders would sail to Constantinople and topple the reigning emperor, Alexius would place the Byzantine church in submission to Rome, pay the Crusaders an enormous sum, and join the Crusade to Egypt (now the centre of Muslim power in the Levant) with a large army. It was a tempting offer for an enterprise that was short on funds. The Crusade leaders accepted it, but a great many of the rank and file wanted nothing to do with the proposal, and many deserted. The Crusade sailed to Corfu before arriving in Constantinople in late June 1203. After the Crusaders attacked the northeastern corner of the city and then set a destructive fire, the citizens of Constantinople turned against Alexius III, who then fled. The Byzantine prince was elevated to the throne as Alexius IV along with his blind father, Isaac II.
Although the new emperor tried to make good his promises to the Crusaders, he soon ran short of money. He also faced anti-Latin hatred in Constantinople, which had been endemic for decades and now reached a fever pitch. Alexius IV, who owed his throne to Latins, became bitterly unpopular and was finally toppled in a palace coup in late January 1204. The Crusaders, now cheated of their reward and disgusted at the treachery of the Byzantines, declared war on Constantinople, which fell to the Fourth Crusade on April 12, 1204. What followed was one of the most profitable and disgraceful sacks of a city in history. Despite their oaths and the threat of excommunication, the Crusaders ruthlessly and systematically violated the city's holy sanctuaries, destroying, defiling, or stealing all they could lay hands on. Many also broke their vows to respect the women of Constantinople and assaulted them. When Innocent III heard of the conduct of his pilgrims, he was filled with shame and strongly rebuked them.
Before the capture of the city, the Crusaders had decided that 12 electors (6 Venetians and 6 Franks) should choose an emperor who would rule one-fourth of the imperial domain. The other three-fourths was to be divided. The clergy of the party that did not include the emperor-elect were to oversee Hagia Sophia and choose a patriarch. A small amount of property was specifically designated to support the clergy, and the rest was divided as booty.
Once order had been restored, the Franks and the Venetians implemented their agreement; Baldwin of Flanders was elected emperor, and the Venetian Thomas Morosini was chosen patriarch. Various Latin-French lordships throughout Greece—in particular, the duchy of Athens and the principality of the Morea—did provide cultural contacts with western Europe and promoted the study of Greek. There was also a French impact on Greece. Notably, a collection of laws, the Assises de Romanie (Assizes of Romania), was produced. The Chronicle of the Morea appeared in both French and Greek (and later Aragonese) versions. Impressive remains of Crusader castles and Gothic churches can still be seen in Greece. Nevertheless, the Latin empire always rested on shaky foundations. Indeed, not all the Byzantine Empire was conquered by the Crusade. The imperial government continued in Nicaea, and the offshoot empire of Trebizond, at the eastern end of the Black Sea, lasted until 1461. The Byzantine despotate of Epirus was also established, and the Bulgarians remained hostile to the Crusaders. Finally, in 1261 a sadly diminished Constantinople was reconquered by Michael VIII Palaeologus with the aid of Genoa, the traditional rival of Venice. The city, however, would never be the same. For the remainder of its Christian history, it would remain poor, dilapidated, and largely abandoned.
The belief that the conquest of Constantinople would help Crusading efforts was a mirage. Indeed, the opposite was true, for the unstable Latin empire siphoned off much of Europe's Crusading energy. The legacy of the Fourth Crusade was the deep sense of betrayal the Latins had instilled in their Greek coreligionists. With the events of 1204, the schism between the Catholic West and Orthodox East was complete.

Crusades of the 13th century
The Albigensian Crusade
By the middle of the 12th century, control of Jerusalem and the Holy Land was no longer the only goal of the Crusades. Rather, Crusading became a special class of war called by the pope against the enemies of the faith, who were by no means confined to the Levant. Crusades continued in the Baltic region against pagans and in Spain against Muslims. Yet in the heart of Europe a more serious threat faced Christendom—heresy. In the medieval world, heresy did not represent benign religious diversity but was seen as a cancerous threat to the salvation of souls. It was held to be even more dangerous than the faraway Muslims, because it harmed the body of Christ from within.
The most vibrant heresy in Europe was Catharism, also known as Albigensianism for the Albi, a city in southern France where it flourished. A dualist belief, Catharism held that the universe was a battleground between good, which was spirit, and evil, which was matter. Human beings were believed to be spirits trapped in physical bodies. The leaders of the religion, the perfects, lived with great austerity, remaining chaste and avoiding all foods that came from sexual union.
The church had attempted for years to root out the heresy from southern France, where it remained popular, particularly among the nobility. St. Dominic, who was sent to the region to preach to the people and debate the Cathar leaders, formed his Order of Preachers (Dominicans) in response to the heresy. All efforts at eradication failed, however, largely because of the tolerance of the Cathari maintained by Raymond VI of Toulouse, the greatest baron of the area, and by most secular lords in the region. Shortly after his excommunication for abetting the heretics, Raymond was implicated in the murder of a papal legate sent to investigate the situation. For Pope Innocent III that was the final straw. In March 1208 he called for a Crusade against Raymond and the heretics of Languedoc, which began the following year.
The Albigensian Crusade was immensely popular in northern France because it gave pious warriors an opportunity to win a Crusade indulgence without traveling far from home or serving more than 40 days. During the first season the Crusaders captured Béziers in the heart of Cathar territory and—following the instructions of the papal legate who allegedly said, “Kill them all. God will know his own,” when asked how the Crusaders should distinguish the heretics from true Christians—massacred almost the entire population of the city. With the exception of Carcassonne, which held out for a few months, much of the territory of the Albigeois surrendered to the Crusaders. Command of the Crusade was then given to Simon, lord of Montfort and earl of Leicester, who had served during the Fourth Crusade. Abandoning the Crusade after it attacked the Christians at Zadar, Simon went to fight in the Holy Land.
The Albigensian Crusade dragged on for several years, with new recruits arriving each spring to assist Simon. By the end of the summer, however, they would all return home, leaving him with a skeleton force to defend his gains. By 1215, when the fourth Lateran Council met to consider the state of the church, Simon had captured most of the region, including Toulouse. The council gave the lands to Simon and then rescinded the Crusade indulgence for the war so that a new Crusade to the East could be organized.
A few years later a rebellion against the northerners that crystallized around Raymond and his son, Raymond VII, recaptured much lost territory. Simon was killed during a siege of Toulouse. The Albigensian Crusade was finally brought to a close by the French King Louis VIII. Although he died soon after his victory in the south, Louis restored northern control over the region in 1226 and dashed the hopes of Raymond's family for an independent Toulouse. In 1229 the younger Raymond accepted a peace through which all his ancestral lands would go to the royal house of the Capetians at his death. It was, therefore, the French crown, which came to the Crusade quite late, that was the ultimate victor.
For all of its violence and destruction, the Albigensian Crusade failed to remove the Cathar heresy from Languedoc. It did, however, provide a solid framework of new secular lords willing to work with the church against the heretics. Through the subsequent efforts of the Dominican inquisitors, Catharism was virtually eliminated in Languedoc within a century.

The Children's Crusade
The same strong feelings of piety and righteousness that led knights to take the cross and march to war also affected the common people, who lacked the wealth or training to do the same. The repeated failure of the organized Crusades to reclaim Jerusalem and the True Cross frustrated all Christians. This combination of frustration and strong religious enthusiasm led to frequent and sometimes bizarre manifestations of popular piety, such as the so-called Children's Crusade in 1212.
The Children's Crusade was neither a true Crusade nor made up of an army of children. The pope did not call for it—indeed, no one did. Instead, it was an unsanctioned popular movement, whose beginning and ending are hard to trace. It is known, however, that in early 1212 a young man named Nicholas from Cologne became the focal point for a popular movement that swept through the Rhineland. After having allegedly received divine instruction, Nicholas set out to rescue Jerusalem from the Muslims. He believed that when he reached the Mediterranean, God would dry up the waters so that he could walk across to Palestine. Hundreds and then thousands of children, adolescents, women, the elderly, the poor, parish clergy, and the occasional thief joined him in his march south. In every town the people hailed the “Crusaders” as heroes, although the educated clergy ridiculed them as deranged or deceived. In July 1212, despite the summer heat that had caused many to give up and return home, Nicholas and his followers crossed the Alps into Italy.
Word of Nicholas's Crusade spread across Europe, sparking similar “miracles” and popular movements, although usually on a much smaller scale. One such movement, which may actually have preceded the Rhineland Crusade, occurred in Cloyes, a small town in France, where Stephen, a 12-year-old shepherd, had a vision of Jesus, who appeared dressed as a pilgrim and asked for bread. After receiving some bread from the boy, Jesus gave him a letter for the king of France. Stephen then left for Paris and attracted hundreds of followers from the same constituency that Nicholas of Cologne did. As they marched toward Paris, they sang, “Lord God, exalt Christianity! Lord God, restore to us the True Cross!” When they reached the city, Stephen delivered the letter to Philip Augustus. The king thanked the boy for the letter, and then everyone cheered and went home. The letter's contents are not known with certainty, but it was probably an exhortation for the king to once again Crusade—something Philip had no intention of doing.
By late summer Nicholas's multitudes had reached Lombardy and entered various port cities. Nicholas himself arrived with a large gathering at Genoa on August 25. To the great disappointment of the “Crusaders,” the sea did not open for them, nor did it allow them to walk across its waves. At this point many probably returned home, while others remained in Genoa. It was said that some marched to Rome, where Innocent III praised their zeal but released them from their “vows.” The fate of Nicholas is also unclear. Some claimed that he joined the Fifth Crusade, others that he died in Italy.

The Teutonic Knights and the Baltic Crusades
Founded during the Third Crusade, the Teutonic Knights were a German military order modeled on the Hospitallers. By the 13th century the order had begun to shift its focus from the Holy Land to Europe. From 1211 to 1225 it waged war against pagans in Transylvania and effectively Christianized the region, but it was subsequently expelled by the king of Hungary. The grand master of the order, Hermann von Salza, then agreed to assist the Polish duke Conrad of Mazovia in his war against the pagan Prussians of the Baltic region. The emperor and the pope agreed that the Teutonic Knights should rule all pagan lands that they conquered, and during the 13th and 14th centuries the order conquered all of Prussia and the northern Baltic region, building a prosperous Christian state there. As rulers the Teutonic Knights played an important part in European history for many centuries.

The Fifth Crusade
The Children's Crusade revealed that, despite repeated failures, Europeans were still committed to recapturing Jerusalem and rescuing the True Cross. Almost immediately after the Fourth Crusade, Innocent III began planning for another expedition to the East. Although delayed by controversies involving the imperial succession and related matters, Innocent was ready to call the warriors of Christendom to fight for the restoration of Western rule in the Holy Land by 1213. Innocent learned from the mistakes of the Fourth Crusade and was determined that the new effort be controlled every step of the way by the church. He commissioned a new corps of Crusade preachers, who were specially trained and then dispatched strategically to garner warriors. Innocent also sent out legates to oversee recruitment and preparations. He wanted this new Crusade to be an inclusive effort. Those who could not physically march to the East were enjoined to help the Crusade through prayer and fasting. Those with sufficient funds could share in the Crusade indulgence by financing a Crusader who would otherwise be unable to go. At the fourth Lateran Council in 1215, the blueprints for the new campaign were drafted, and all of Europe was directed to take part. Innocent, however, died before the first Crusaders left, and his successor, Honorius III, would oversee the progress of the Fifth Crusade.
The first contingents of the Fifth Crusade, led by King Andrew of Hungary, reached Acre in the fall of 1217. Andrew accomplished little, however, before departing in January 1218. A large fleet of Frisian, German, and Italian Crusaders arrived in April and joined the remnants of Andrew's force. In May the combined army set out for Egypt under the leadership of John of Brienne (the titular king of Jerusalem from 1210). The idea of capturing Egypt in order to break Muslim power in the region before turning to Jerusalem had been endorsed by Richard the Lion-Heart during the Third Crusade. Although controversial then, by the time of the Fifth Crusade it was the accepted strategy among Crusade leaders. By August the Crusaders had captured a strategic tower at Damietta. In September the expedition organized under papal auspices and consisting mainly of French Crusaders arrived under the legate Cardinal-Legate Pelagius. Since Pelagius maintained that the Crusaders were under the jurisdiction of the church, he declined to accept the leadership of John of Brienne and often interfered in military decisions.
By February 1219 the Muslims were seriously alarmed and offered peace terms that included the cession of the kingdom of Jerusalem, including the holy city, as well as the return of the True Cross. King John and many of the Crusaders were eager to accept, but Pelagius, supported by the military orders and the Italians, refused. Damietta was finally taken on November 5, 1219, and for more than a year no further progress was made. Pelagius remained optimistic, still expecting the arrival of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II—who had promised to go on Crusade in 1215—and convinced of the imminent approach of a legendary Asian Christian “King David.” In July 1221 he ordered an advance on Cairo, which King John opposed but joined. Unfortunately, Pelagius, who knew nothing about the hydrography of the Nile, chose a campsite susceptible to the river's annual floods. Al-Malik al-Kāmil, the Egyptian sultan, opened the sluice gates, and the Crusade army was hopelessly bogged down and forced to surrender. In return for their lives, the Crusaders agreed to evacuate Damietta and leave Egypt. It was a bitter defeat, for, although Jerusalem had been at their fingertips throughout the Crusade, they were now forced to retreat with nothing.
Always on the verge of success, the Fifth Crusade failed largely because of divided leadership and the frequently unwise decisions of Pelagius. It might perhaps have succeeded if Frederick II had set out as promised, and it is significant that disillusioned critics blamed the emperor and the pope as well as Pelagius. All in all, it was a dreary episode, relieved only by the presence of Francis of Assisi, whom Pelagius reluctantly permitted to cross the lines, where he was courteously received by al-Malik al-Kāmil. However, despite Francis's heartfelt plea, the Muslim leader declined his offer to convert to Christianity.

The Crusade of Frederick II
The failure of the Fifth Crusade placed a heavy responsibility on Frederick II, whose motives as a Crusader are difficult to assess. A controversial figure, he has been regarded by some as the archenemy of the popes and by others as the greatest of emperors. His intellectual interests included Islam, and his attitude might seem to be more akin to that of the Eastern barons than the typical Western Crusader. Through his marriage to John of Brienne's daughter Isabella (Yolande), he established a claim first to the kingship and then, on Isabella's death in 1228, to the regency of Jerusalem (Acre). As emperor, he could claim suzerainty over Cyprus because his father and predecessor, Henry VI, was paid homage by the Cypriot king and bestowed a crown on him.
After being allowed several postponements by the pope to settle affairs in the empire, Frederick finally agreed to terms that virtually placed his expedition under papal jurisdiction. Yet his entire Eastern policy was inextricably connected with his European concerns: Sicily, Italy and the papacy, and Germany. Cyprus-Jerusalem became, as a consequence, part of a greater imperial design.
Most of his Crusade fleet left Italy in the late summer of 1227, but Frederick was delayed by illness. During the delay he received envoys from al-Malik al-Kāmil of Egypt, who, threatened by the ambitions of his Ayyūbid brothers, was disposed to negotiate. Meanwhile, Pope Gregory IX, less patient than his predecessor, rejected Frederick's plea that illness had hindered his departure and excommunicated the emperor. Thus, when Frederick departed in the summer of 1228 with the remainder of his forces, he was in the equivocal position of a Crusader under the ban of the church. He arrived in Cyprus on July 21.
In Cyprus, John of Ibelin, the leading member of the influential Ibelin family, had been named regent for the young Henry I. Along with most of the barons, he was willing to recognize the emperor's rights as suzerain in Cyprus. But because news of Isabella's death had arrived in Acre, the emperor could claim only a regency there for his infant son. John obeyed the emperor's summons to meet him in Cyprus but, despite intimidation, refused to surrender his lordship of Beirut and insisted that his case be brought before the high court of barons. The matter was set aside, and Frederick left for Acre.
In Acre, Frederick met more opposition. News of his excommunication had arrived, and many refused to support him. Dependent, therefore, on the Teutonic Knights and his own small contingent of German Crusaders, he was forced to attempt what he could by diplomacy. Negotiations, accordingly, were reopened with al-Malik al-Kāmil.
The treaty of 1229 is unique in the history of the Crusades. By diplomacy alone and without major military confrontation, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and a corridor running to the sea were ceded to the kingdom of Jerusalem. Exception was made for the Temple area, the Dome of the Rock, and the Aqṣā Mosque, which the Muslims retained. Moreover, all current Muslim residents of the city would retain their homes and property. They would also have their own city officials to administer a separate justice system and safeguard their religious interests. The walls of Jerusalem, which had already been destroyed, were not rebuilt, and the peace was to last for 10 years.
Nevertheless, the benefits of the treaty of 1229 were more apparent than real. The areas ceded were not easily defensible, and Jerusalem soon fell into disorder. Furthermore, the treaty was denounced by the devout of both faiths. When the excommunicated Frederick entered Jerusalem, the patriarch placed the city under interdict. No priest was present, and Frederick placed a crown on his own head while one of the Teutonic Knights read the ceremony. Leaving agents in charge, he hastily returned to Europe and at San Germano made peace with the pope (July 23, 1230). Thereafter his legal position was secure, and the pope ordered the patriarch to lift the interdict.
Jerusalem and Cyprus, however, were now plagued by civil war because Frederick's imperial concept of government was contrary to the well-established preeminence of the Jerusalem baronage. The barons of both Jerusalem and Cyprus, in alliance with the Genoese and a commune formed in Acre that elected John of Ibelin mayor, resisted the imperial deputies, who were supported by the Pisans, the Teutonic Knights, Bohemond of Antioch, and a few nobles. The clergy, the other military orders, and the Venetians stood aloof.
The barons were successful in Cyprus, and in 1233 Henry I was recognized as king. Even after John of Ibelin, the “Old Lord of Beirut,” died in 1236, resistance continued. In 1243 a parliament at Acre refused homage to Frederick's son Conrad, unless he appeared in person, and named Alice, queen dowager of Cyprus, regent.
Thus it was that baronial rule triumphed over imperial administration in the Levant. But the victory of the barons brought to the kingdom not strength but continued division, which was made more serious by the appearance of new forces in the Muslim world. The Khwārezmian Turks, pushed south and west by the Mongols, had upset the power balance and gained the support of Egypt. After the 10 years' peace had expired in 1239, the Muslims easily took back the defenseless Jerusalem. The Crusades of 1239 to 1241, under Thibaut IV of Champagne and Richard of Cornwall, brought about the return of the city as well as other lost territories through negotiation. However, in 1244 an alliance of Jerusalem and Damascus failed to prevent the capture and sack of Jerusalem by Khwārezmians with Egyptian aid. All the diplomatic gains of the preceding years were lost. Once again the Christians were confined to a thin strip of ports along the Mediterranean coast.

The Crusades of St. Louis
In June 1245, a year after the final loss of Jerusalem, Pope Innocent IV opened a great ecclesiastical council at Lyons. Although urgent appeals for help had come from the East, it is unlikely that the Crusade was uppermost in the pope's mind, for a combination of crises confronted the church: numerous complaints of clerical abuses, increasing troubles with Frederick II in Italy, and the advance of the Mongols into eastern Europe. Nevertheless, when King Louis IX of France announced his intention to lead a new Crusade, the pope gave it his support and authorized the customary levy on clerical incomes.
As a Crusader, Louis (who would be canonized in 1297) was the antithesis of Frederick. Possessed of a rare combination of religious devotion, firmness as a ruler, and bravery as a warrior, he seemed the very ideal of the Crusader. He was beloved by his subjects and respected abroad. He ardently believed the Crusade to be God's work, and he was far from sympathetic to the pope's use of Crusade propaganda against the emperor.
It was three years before Louis was ready to embark. Peace had to be arranged with England, transport had to be provided by Genoa and Marseilles, and funds had to be raised. When the king embarked in August 1248, he was accompanied by his queen; his brothers Robert of Artois and Charles of Anjou; many distinguished French nobles, including Jean, sire de Joinville, author of The Life of St. Louis (1309); and a small English contingent. His army was a formidable one, numbering perhaps 15,000. France was left in the experienced hands of the queen mother, Blanche of Castile.
The Crusade arrived at Cyprus in September, and it was again decided to attack Egypt. Since a winter campaign was not feasible and Louis rejected the suggestion that he attempt negotiations, it was not until May 1249 that an expedition of some 120 large and many smaller vessels got under way. Fortune favoured them at first, and Damietta was again in Christian hands by June. Shortly afterward the army was strengthened by the arrival of Louis's third brother, Alphonse of Poitiers. Sultan al-Ṣāliḥ Ayyūb's death was followed by confusion in Cairo, which, after some argument, had become the Crusaders' objective. In February 1250 Robert of Artois led a surprise attack on the Egyptian camp 2 miles (3 km) from Al-Manṣūrah, but, rejecting the advice of more-experienced campaigners and acting impetuously, he was trapped within the city. Many knights lost their lives. Louis soon arrived with the main army and won another victory, albeit a costly one, near Al-Manṣūrah. It was the last Crusader success.
Meanwhile, Tūrān-Shāh, the sultan's son, had returned from Diyarbakır (now in Turkey) to Cairo and temporarily dominated dissident factions there. Frankish supply ships from Damietta were intercepted, and before long the Crusaders were suffering from famine and disease. Louis, reluctant to abandon a work to which he had dedicated his very kingdom, perhaps delayed too long before ordering a retreat. Refusing the pleas of others to protect himself by fleeing, he remained to lead his soldiers and was captured with many of them as the Muslim forces closed in.
The king and nobles were held for ransom, but many nonnoble captives were killed. The queen, who had just given birth to a son sorrowfully named John Tristan, managed with great courage to secure sufficient food and to persuade the Genoese and Pisans not to evacuate Damietta until it could be ceded formally by treaty and the king's ransom arranged. On May 6, 1250, the king was released, and Damietta surrendered.
Despite the pleadings of his advisers, Louis did not return home immediately. He felt bound in conscience to negotiate the release of as many prisoners as possible, and he also improved the defenses of the kingdom by strengthening a number of fortifications before he left in April 1254. Thus, he atoned in some small measure for the failure of the Crusade and returned to France, determined to lead a life as a Christian king worthy of rescuing Jerusalem one day.
During these same years a group of Mongols under Hülegü overran Mesopotamia and in 1258 took Baghdad, thus ending the venerable ʿAbbāsid caliphate. In 1260 the Mamlūks of Egypt, a new dynasty that had arisen from the leaders of former slave bodyguards of the sultan, defeated the Mongols at ʿAyn Jālūd in Syria and halted their southward advance. The Muslim states of Syria were caught in the middle, and the Latin states were in grave danger. King Hayton of Armenia and his son-in-law Bohemond VI of Antioch-Tripoli allied themselves with the Mongols. But the barons at Acre were still more disposed to dealing with the Muslims, whom they knew, than with the terrifying and unknown Mongols.
In 1260, after murdering his predecessor, Baybars became sultan of Egypt. Though this famous Mamlūk sultan did not live to see the fall of the Latin states (he died in 1277), he had reduced them to a few coastal outposts. Baybars was ruthless, utterly lacking the generous chivalry that the Crusaders had admired in Saladin. Most of his conquests were followed by a general massacre of the inhabitants, often including the native Christians, especially when they had been in league with the Mongols. In 1265 he took Caesarea, Haifa, and Arsuf. The following year he conquered Galilee and devastated Cilician Armenia. In 1268 Antioch was taken and all the inhabitants slaughtered. The great Hospitaller fortress of Krak des Chevaliers fell three years later.
These disasters again brought pleas for aid from the West. King Louis once again took up the cross, but his second venture, the Eighth Crusade, never reached the East. The expedition instead went to Tunis, probably because of the influence of Louis's brother Charles of Anjou, who had recently been named by the papacy as the successor to the Hohenstaufens in Sicily. In 1268 he defeated Conradin, the last of the Hohenstaufen line, and he was soon involved in grandiose Mediterranean projects, which ultimately included even Byzantium.
Louis's new Crusade embarked from southern France in July 1270. Soon after the French landed in North Africa, disease struck the troops and claimed the lives of both Louis and his son John Tristan. Charles arrived with the Sicilian fleet in time to bargain for an indemnity to evacuate the remnants of the army. Thus, the Crusade ended in tragedy and brought no help to the East. Nevertheless, despite two failures, Louis IX became for all Christians the model of the selfless warrior of Christ. Although the expansion of Muslim power seemed increasingly unstoppable, Europeans continued to embrace the idea of the Crusades and to pray for their success.

The final loss of the Crusader states
By the end of the 13th century, Crusading had become more expensive. The time had passed when a Crusade army was made up of knights who served under a lord and paid their own way. Economic pressures caused many nobles to seek royal service. Royal armies, therefore, became more professional, and many knights as well as foot soldiers served for pay. Moreover, the rise of royal authority meant that great Crusades could no longer be cobbled together by feudal lords but were increasingly reliant on kings, who were by their nature easily distracted by events at home.
In the East chronic divisions, similar to those in Europe, were a major cause of the Crusader kingdom's downfall. From the time of Frederick II, the kingdom had been governed by absentee rulers; the Hohenstaufens were represented in the East at first by agents, after 1243 by regents of the Jerusalem dynasty chosen by the high court of barons. In 1268, on the death of the last Hohenstaufen, the crown was given to Hugh III of Cyprus, who returned to the island in 1276 thoroughly frustrated. Then in 1277 Charles of Anjou, as part of his attempt to create a Mediterranean-wide empire and with papal approval, bought the rights of the nearest claimant and sent his representative. Finally, after Charles's death in 1285, the barons once again chose a native ruler, Henry II of Cyprus.
Successive regents had failed to control the Jerusalem baronage, and this ultimately resulted in the disintegration of the entire structure of Outremer into separate parts. Antioch-Tripoli before its fall had been increasingly aloof and through intermarriage closely tied to Armenia. In Acre, the seat of government of the kingdom, there was a commune of barons and bourgeois. Immigration had ceased, and the barons were now reduced in numbers as old families had died out. Some resided in Cyprus, and others were nominal lords in Palestine of fiefs actually under Muslim control. The military orders, habitually in conflict, were virtually distinct entities with extensive connections in Europe. The bourgeois population had also considerably altered in composition during the 13th century. Many criminals and other undesirables had found their way to Acre. More important, the earlier French predominance in the region had given way to an Italian one. But the Italians of Outremer were as divided as they were in Italy. The Genoese-Venetian rivalry extended to the Levant and occasionally, as in Acre in 1256, resulted in outright war.
The papacy's concern for Outremer was not confined to efforts to enlist military aid. Papal financial support was continuous, and the popes exchanged diplomatic envoys with Eastern rulers, both Muslim and Mongol. Furthermore, the 13th-century patriarchs of Jerusalem, commonly named by the pope, were also papal legates. But no absentee king, pope, or patriarch-legate could bring to the Latin East the unity necessary for its survival.
The death of Baybars in 1277, therefore, brought only temporary respite for the Crusaders, who remained divided and isolated. In 1280 they again failed to join the Mongols, whom Sultan Qalāʾūn defeated in 1281. The ineffectiveness of the Jerusalem administration was becoming apparent even to Easterners, and the Il-Khan Abagha, the Mongol leader in Iran, sent his deputy Rabban Sauma to the kings of Europe and the pope to seek an alliance. The effort was fruitless. Tripoli fell in 1289, and Acre, the last Crusader stronghold on the mainland, was besieged in 1291. After a desperate and heroic defense, the city was taken by the Mamlūks, and the inhabitants who survived the massacres were enslaved. Acre and all the castles along the Mediterranean coast were systematically destroyed.
A growing sense of their isolation may have been the reason that the Franks of the 13th century did not develop further the distinctive culture of their predecessors. The remarkable palace of the Ibelins in Beirut, built early in the century, boasted Byzantine mosaics. But, partly because of King Louis's four-year stay in the kingdom, remains of churches and castles indicate a close following of adherence to French Gothic architectural style. Literary tastes were also distinctly French, and the production of manuscripts followed French traditions. At the coronation festivities for Henry II in 1286, in total disregard—or perhaps in chivalrous defiance—of the ruin surrounding them, the nobles amused themselves by acting out the romances of Lancelot and Tristan.
The greatest cultural achievement of the Second Kingdom was the collection of legal treatises, the Assizes of Jerusalem. The sections that were compiled in the middle years of the century and, therefore, in the atmosphere of the wars against the agents of Frederick II constitute a veritable charter of baronial rights. In fact, two of the authors were members of the Ibelin family, and a third, Philip of Novara, was a close associate. These sections indicate a shift from the earlier Book of the King, which more nearly reflects the attitudes of the 12th century. Nevertheless, the Assizes belong to medieval Europe's legal renaissance.

The later Crusades
Europe was dismayed by the disaster of 1291. Pope Nicholas IV had tried to organize aid beforehand, and he and his successors continued to do so afterward, but without success. France, which had always been the main bulwark of the Crusades, was in serious conflict with England, which led to the outbreak of the Hundred Years' War in 1337. Moreover, the continued decline of papal authority and rise of royal power meant that most of Europe's warriors were busy at home. The best that the church could do was to organize smaller Crusade expeditions with very limited goals.
In the East the military orders could no longer offer a standing nucleus of troops. In 1308 the Hospitallers took Rhodes and established their headquarters there. In 1344, with some assistance, they occupied Smyrna, which they held until 1402. Meanwhile, the Teutonic Knights had moved their operations to the Baltic area. The Templars were less fortunate. In 1308 the French Templars were arrested by Philip IV, and in 1312 the order was suppressed by Pope Clement V. Finally, in 1314, Jacques de Molay, the order's last grand master, was burned at the stake.
It is not surprising, therefore, that papal calls to Crusade were answered largely in the form of Crusade theories. For some years after 1291, various projects were proposed, all designed to avoid previous mistakes and explore new tactics. In 1305 the Franciscan missionary Ramon Llull, for example, in his Liber de fine (“Book of the End”), suggested a campaign of informed preaching as well as military force. At the beginning of the 14th century, Pierre Dubois submitted a detailed scheme for a Crusade to be directed by Philip IV of France, and in 1321 Marino Sanudo, in his Secreta fidelium crucis (“Secrets of the Faithful of the Cross”), produced an elaborate plan for an economic blockade of Egypt. But none of these or any other such schemes was put into effect.
King Peter I of Cyprus finally organized an expedition that in 1365 succeeded in the temporary occupation of Alexandria. After a horrible sack and massacre, the unruly Crusaders returned to Cyprus with immense booty. Peter planned to return, but no European aid was forthcoming, and after his murder in 1369 a peace treaty was signed.
With the failure of all attempts to regain a foothold on the mainland, Cyprus remained the sole Crusader outpost, and after 1291 it was faced with a serious refugee problem. It was in Cyprus that many of the institutions established by the Franks survived. Although Jerusalem and Cyprus normally had separate governments, through intermarriage and the exigencies of diplomacy, the histories of the two had become interwoven. Regents of one were often chosen from among relatives in the other. It has been noted that many Jerusalem barons resided in Cyprus. With suitable modifications, the Assizes of Jerusalem applied on the island, and on the mainland the French character of the Cypriot Latins is evident in the remains of Gothic structures.
In one respect Cyprus did differ from the mainland. Whereas the First Kingdom had established a modus vivendi with its native population, such was not the case in the island kingdom. Many Greek landholders had fled, and those who remained suffered a loss of status. All Greeks resisted the Latinizing efforts of the early 13th-century popes and their representatives. Innocent IV was more flexible, but tension persisted until the Turkish conquest in the 16th century.
As the Ottoman Turks expanded their power in the Levant, they took an increasingly larger role in Byzantine politics. During a civil war in 1348, Emperor John Cantacuzenus allowed the Turks to cross the Dardanelles into Greece. The gates to Europe, so long defended by Constantinople, were now opened to a powerful Muslim empire, and waves of Turks crossed over. By the end of the 14th century, they had conquered all of Bulgaria and most of Greece and had surrounded Constantinople. The rapid expansion of the Turks into Christian Europe changed the nature of the Eastern Crusades. No longer aimed at conquering faraway Palestine, they became desperate attempts to defend Europe itself.
One of the greatest efforts to repulse the Turkish advance was the Crusade of Nicopolis. Prompted by a plea from King Sigismund of Hungary in 1395, the Crusade was joined by powerful Burgundian and German armies who rendezvoused at Buda the following year. Although it was one of the largest Crusading forces ever assembled, it was crushed utterly by the army of Sultan Bayezid I. Hungary was left virtually defenseless, and the smashing defeat of the Crusade of Nicopolis led many to fear that all of Europe would soon succumb to the Muslim advance.
Shorn of its empire, Constantinople continued to hold out against the Turks, but it could not do so for long without aid. Emperor John VIII, the patriarch of Constantinople, and members of the Greek clergy traveled to the West in 1437 to attend the Council of Florence. The disputes that had separated the Latin and Greek churches were frankly debated at the council. The Latin side won out, however, because the Greeks desperately needed Western help to save Constantinople. Even though the emperor and patriarch accepted papal primacy and the reunification of the churches was solemnly declared, the Greek people refused to accept submission to Rome.
Shortly after the Council of Florence, Pope Eugenius IV organized a Crusade to relieve Constantinople. Recruits mainly from Poland, Walachia, and Hungary joined the so-called Crusade of Varna, which was led by Hunyadi János, the ruler of Transylvania, and King Władysław III of Poland and Hungary. In 1444 the force of some 20,000 men entered Serbia and captured Niš. Sultan Murad II offered Hungary a 10-year truce, which was ultimately refused. He then led his forces to Varna in Bulgaria, which the Crusaders were in the process of besieging, and destroyed the Christian army. The king of Hungary and the papal legate were killed in the carnage. Nine years later Constantinople at last fell to the Ottoman Turks. Riding triumphantly into the city, Sultan Mehmed II made it clear that he was determined to conquer Rome as well.
Mehmed almost made good on that threat. In 1480 he launched two major offensives against the Christians. The first, a massive siege of the Hospitallers on Rhodes, failed. The second, an invasion of Italy, met with more success. The city of Otranto was captured, which provided the Turks with a strategic beachhead on the peninsula. Panic broke out in Rome as people packed their bags and prepared to flee the city. Pope Sixtus IV issued a call for a Crusade to defend Italy, but only Italians took an interest. Fate stepped in, however, when the sultan died on May 3, 1481. Turkish attention shifted to a power struggle for the throne, and thus allowed a papal fleet to recapture Otranto.
Only in Spain did Crusades meet with regular success. The unification of Aragon and Castile under Ferdinand and Isabella in 1479 gave Christian knights the opportunity to take up the cross against the remaining Muslims in Iberia. The campaigns continued throughout the 1480s and led to the surrender of Grenada, the last Muslim stronghold, on January 12, 1492. Nearly 800 years after the first effort to expel the Muslims, the Reconquista was completed, and Christians across Europe rang church bells and marched in processions of thanksgiving.
Crusading came to an end in the 16th century, mainly because of changes in Europe brought on by the Protestant Reformation and not because the Muslim threat had diminished. Martin Luther and other Protestants had no use for Crusades, which they believed were cynical ploys by the papacy to grab power from secular lords. Protestants also rejected the doctrine of indulgence, central to the idea of Crusade. Despite the decline in the appeal of Crusading, the popes continued to call for peace in Europe so that Crusades could be launched against the Turks, and they often financed such wars in holy leagues with various states such as Venice or Spain. One holy league won a dramatic victory against the Ottoman fleet at Lepanto in 1571. The Battle of Lepanto, although not militarily decisive, did give new hope to Europeans, who saw for the first time that it was indeed possible to defeat the Turks.
A few last vestiges of the Crusading movement, however, survived its demise. The Hospitallers, ejected from Rhodes by Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent in 1522, moved to the island of Malta, where they continued to take part in holy leagues. They also remained true to their mission to care for the poor and sick and built a great hospital at Valletta on Malta that attracted patients from across Europe. The Hospitallers retained the island until 1798, when Napoleon expelled them. They then moved to Rome, where they became a government-in-exile. Known today as the Knights of Malta, they still issue passports and are recognized as a sovereign state by some countries. More important, around the world they continue to devote themselves to the care of the poor and sick.
The Teutonic Knights declined after they were defeated by Poland and Lithuania in 1410. In 1525 the grand master, under Protestant influence, dissolved the order in Prussia and took personal control of its lands as a vassal of the king of Poland. The order was officially dissolved in 1809. The Austrian emperor reestablished the Teutonic Order as a religious institution in 1834, headquartering it in Vienna, where it remains today doing charitable work and caring for the sick.

The results of the Crusades
The entire structure of European society changed during the 12th and 13th centuries, and there was a time when this change was attributed largely to the Crusades. Historians now, however, tend to view the Crusades as only one, albeit significant, factor in Europe's development. It is likely that the disappearance of old families and the appearance of new ones can be traced in part to the Crusades, but generalizations must be made with caution. It should, moreover, be remembered that, while some Crusaders sold or mortgaged their property, usually to ecclesiastical foundations, others bequeathed it to relatives. The loss of life was without doubt considerable; many Crusaders, however, did return to their homes.
The sectors acquired by burgeoning Italian cities in the Crusader states enabled them to extend their trade with the Muslim world and led to the establishment of trade depots beyond the Crusade frontiers, some of which lasted long after 1291. The transportation they provided was significant in the development of shipbuilding techniques. Italian banking facilities became indispensable to popes and kings. Catalans and Provençals also profited, and, indirectly, so did all of Europe. Moreover, returning Crusaders brought new tastes and increased the demand for spices, Oriental textiles, and other exotic fare. But such demands can also be attributed to changing lifestyles and commercial growth in Europe itself.
The establishment of the Franciscan and Dominican friars in the East during the 13th century made possible the promotion of missions within the Crusade area and beyond. Papal bulls granted special facilities to missionary friars, and popes sent letters to Asian rulers soliciting permission for the friars to carry on their work. Often the friars accompanied or followed Italian merchants, and, since the Mongols were generally tolerant of religious propaganda, missions were established in Iran, the Asian interior, and even China. But, since Islamic law rigidly prohibited propaganda and punished apostasy with death, conversions from Islam were few. The Dominican William of Tripoli had some success, presumably within the Crusaders' area; he and his colleague Riccoldo di Monte Croce both wrote perceptive treatises on Islamic faith and law. Other missionaries usually failed, and many suffered martyrdom. In the 14th century the Franciscans were finally permitted to reside in Palestine as caretakers for the holy places but not as missionaries.
The Crusades, especially the Fourth, so embittered the Greeks that any real reunion of the Eastern and Western churches was, as a result, out of the question. Nonetheless, certain groups of Eastern Christians came to recognize the authority of the pope, and they were usually permitted to retain the use of their own liturgies. Although the majority of the missions that grew out of the Crusades collapsed with the advance of the Ottoman Turks in the Middle East in the mid-14th century, some of the contacts that the Western church had made with its Eastern brethren remained.
Unlike Sicily and Spain, the Latin East did not, it seems, provide an avenue for the transmission of Arabic science and philosophy to the West. But the Crusades did have a marked impact on the development of Western historical literature. From the beginning there was a proliferation of chronicles, eyewitness accounts, and later more ambitious histories, in verse and in prose, in the vernacular as well as in Latin.
There can be little doubt that the Crusades slowed the advance of Islamic power, although how much is an open question. At the very least, they bought Europe some much-needed time. Without centuries of Crusading effort, it is difficult to see how western Europe could have escaped conquest by Muslim armies, which had already captured the rest of the Mediterranean world.

Crusade as metaphor
One of the most enduring though least-discussed results of the Crusades was the development of the word crusade (which first appeared in its Latin form in the late 12th or early 13th century) to denote any common endeavour in a worthy cause. The transformation of the idea of the Crusades from religio-military campaigns into modern metaphors for idealistic, zealous, and demanding struggles to advance the good (“crusades for”) and to oppose perceived evil (“crusades against”) occurred over several centuries and represents the culmination of a movement that began in the late 11th century. By the early 12th century, historiography was already contributing to the idea of Crusade as armed pilgrimage or holy war, which Bernard of Clairvaux in the mid-12th century and Pope Innocent III in the early 13th continued to elaborate. Receptive to chivalric as well as Christian ideals, Crusade ideology proved more durable than the stinging criticisms provoked by successive military defeats, culminating in the loss of the Holy Land in 1291.
The intermittent continuation of the movement during the later Middle Ages led to proposals for new Crusades. Some were grounded in strategic realities, others in Utopian or prophetic aspirations, which emphasized certain moral or political prerequisites as essential to regaining Jerusalem. European intellectuals thus began to reinvent the Crusades. In the early 14th century, Pierre Dubois devised a plan for the French king to seize control of Christendom from the pope and lead a victorious Crusade. Christopher Columbus imagined that a messianic Spanish ascendancy would reconquer Constantinople, then Jerusalem. Viewed as a solution to the woes of Europe, proposals for Crusades against the Ottoman Turks continued to be put forward from the Reformation to the age of Louis XIV.
Continuing interest in the Crusades meant that they never disappeared from public consciousness. During the Enlightenment, when medieval Crusading was perceived as irrational fanaticism, and in the Romantic era, when the Crusades were seen as an adornment of the faith and an embodiment of chivalry, the Crusades never ceased to attract the attention of historians, poets, novelists, composers, and encyclopaedists. Accordingly, the emergence of the Crusade metaphor by the latter half of the 18th century implies at least some knowledge of the historical Crusades. English dictionaries were slow to register the change, however. Neither the Dictionary of Samuel Johnson (1755) nor that of Noah Webster (1828, rev. 1845) includes a metaphoric definition of crusade. Anticipating later lexicographers, however, a future president of the United States was already using the Crusade metaphor in 1786. Writing to jurist George Wythe, Thomas Jefferson urged, “Preach, my dear Sir, a crusade against ignorance; establish and improve the law for educating the common people.” The source of Jefferson's positive use of the Crusade metaphor—to which Americans have ever since remained faithful—remains uncertain. Although he had histories of the Crusades by Louis Maimbourg (1682) and Voltaire (1756) in his well-stocked library, Jefferson would not have been inspired by these works, because of their negative attitude toward the Crusades. Marie-Jean-Antoine-Nicholas de Caritat Condorcet's progressivist interpretation of the Crusades in his Esquisse d'un tableau historique des progrès de l'esprit humain (1795; Sketch for a Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human Mind) postdates Jefferson's metaphor and cannot have been the inspiration. Whatever the origin of Jefferson's usage, the Crusade metaphor had become so well established in American usage by 1861 that E.G. de Fontaine was able to deploy it ironically against his enemies, the abolitionists, who, he sneered, “invited all men to join in the holy crusade” against slavery.
The titles of 20th-century English-language books demonstrate just how popular Crusade metaphors would become, encompassing crusades against tuberculosis, drink, crime, capital punishment, drug abuse, poverty, slavery, and terrorism, along with crusades for justice, education, total freedom, humanity, women's rights, and the environment. The metaphor was used by both sides in the Spanish Civil War and has also been applied to Billy Graham's campaign of evangelism. It also has been used to describe various U.S. government domestic and foreign policy initiatives. But perhaps the best-known use of the metaphor in the 20th century was by Dwight D. Eisenhower, whose 1948 memoir of World War II, Crusade in Europe, applied the term to the great struggle against the Nazis.
Metaphors empower language and thought; they also risk oversimplifying and distorting historical truth and trivializing their subject through repetition. Moreover, metaphors are culturally specific and often convey value judgments. While modern historians attempt to understand the Crusades by placing them in the context of medieval religion, culture, and society, popular metaphoric usage dehistoricizes the Crusades into ongoing, eternal, yet contemporary conflicts of good versus evil—against AIDS, drugs, poverty, terrorism, and so on. American crusades have been exclusively metaphoric, and nearly always, from Jefferson's day to the present, they have carried positive connotations. For Arabs and Muslims, however, the Crusades have highly negative associations of medieval Christian aggression and modern Western imperialism and colonialism. In other words, the ultimate power, significance, and meaning of Crusade and its usefulness as a metaphor depend, in the end, on one's cultural heritage and point of view.

Additional Reading
General works
A good bibliographic introduction to work on the Crusades, including sources, secondary studies, and journal articles, is found in H.E. Mayer and Joyce McLellan, “Select Bibliography of the Crusades,” in Kenneth M. Setton (ed.), A History of the Crusades, vol. 6 (1989), pp. 511–664. The best full-scale treatments of the Crusades in English are Steven Runciman, A History of the Crusades, 3 vol. (1951–54); Jonathan Riley-Smith, The Crusades: A Short History (1987); H.E. Mayer, The Crusades, 2nd ed. (1988); Jean Richard, The Crusades (1999); and Thomas F. Madden, A Concise History of the Crusades (1999). The long-neglected Muslim side of the story is examined by Carole Hillenbrand, The Crusades: Islamic Perspectives (2000). A multivolume collection, Kenneth M. Setton (ed.), A History of the Crusades, 2nd ed. (1969–89), is a cooperative work by a number of historians on a host of topics.
Useful selections of sources in English translation are James A. Brundage, The Crusades: A Documentary Survey (1962); Francesco Gabrieli (compiler), Arab Historians of the Crusades (1969, reissued 1992; originally published in Italian, 1957); Régine Pernoud, The Crusades (1962; originally published in French, 1960); and Louise Riley-Smith and Jonathan Riley-Smith, The Crusades: Idea and Reality, 1095–1274 (1981).
Crusades in the 11th and 12th centuries
The idea of Crusade is explored in Carl Erdmann, The Origin of the Idea of Crusade (1977; originally published in German, 1935), a classic in the history of the Crusades. Interpretations and factors are discussed in Paul Alphandéry, La Chrétienté et l'idée de croisade, 2 vol. (1954–59); James A. Brundage, Medieval Canon Law and the Crusader (1969); and Jonathan Riley-Smith, The First Crusade and the Idea of Crusading (1986).
The best works on the First Crusade are Riley-Smith's work cited above, as well as his The First Crusaders, 1095–1131 (1997). Studies that illuminate other factors in the Crusade are John France, Victory in the East: A Military History of the First Crusade (1994); and Marcus Bull, Knightly Piety and the Lay Response to the First Crusade (1993). The attacks on the Jews during the First Crusade are discussed in Robert Chazan, European Jewry and the First Crusade (1987, reissued 1996), and In the Year 1096: The First Crusade and the Jews (1996). A useful treatment of the Third Crusade can be found in John Gillingham, Richard I (1999).
Crusader states
There are many excellent studies on the history of the Crusader states. Among these are Dana C. Munro, The Kingdom of the Crusaders (1935, reprinted 1966); John L. LaMonte, Feudal Monarchy in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, 1100 to 1291 (1932, reprinted 1970); Jean Richard, The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, 2 vol. (1979; originally published in French, 1953); Joshua Prawer, The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem: European Colonialism in the Middle Ages (1973); Ralph-Johannes Lilie, Byzantium and the Crusader States, 1096–1204 (1993); Jonathan Phillips, Defenders of the Holy Land: Relations Between the Latin East and the West, 1119-1187 (1996); Ronnie Ellenblum, Frankish Rural Settlement in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem (1998); and Bernard Hamilton, The Leper King and His Heirs: Baldwin IV and the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem (2000).
Crusades in the 13th century
The Fourth Crusade is described by Donald E. Queller and Thomas F. Madden, The Fourth Crusade: The Conquest of Constantinople, 2nd ed. (1997); and, from the Byzantine perspective, in Charles M. Brand, Byzantium Confronts the West, 1180–04 (1968). The Fifth Crusade is discussed in James M. Powell, Anatomy of a Crusade, 1213–1221 (1986); and the older but still useful Joseph P. Donovan, Pelagius and the Fifth Crusade (1950). The best treatment of the Crusades of St. Louis can be found in Jean Richard, Saint Louis: Crusader King of France (1992). William Chester Jordan, Louis IX and the Challenge of the Crusade (1979), places the two Crusades within the framework of Louis's reign.
Later Crusades
The single best resource for the later Crusades is Kenneth M. Setton's magisterial The Papacy and the Levant (1204–1571), 4 vol. (1976–84). Also important are Norman Housley, The Avignon Papacy and the Crusades, 1305–1378 (1986), and The Later Crusades, 1274–1580: From Lyons to Alcazar (1992).
Crusades in the West
The Spanish Reconquista is covered in Derek W. Lomax, The Reconquest of Spain (1978); and Bernard F. Reilly, The Contest of Christian and Muslim Spain, 1031–1157 (1992). The best work on the Albigensian Crusade is Joseph R. Strayer, The Albigensian Crusades, with a new epilogue by Carol Lansing (1992).
Special topics
Military histories of the Latin East are available in R.C. Smail, Crusading Warfare, 1097–1193, 2nd ed. (1995); and Christopher Marshall, Warfare in the Latin East, 1192–1291 (1992). Art and architecture of the Latin East are discussed by T.S.R. Boase, Kingdoms and Strongholds of the Crusaders (1971); Hugh Kennedy, Crusader Castles (1994); and Jaroslav Folda, The Art of the Crusaders in the Holy Land (1995). Histories of the military orders are discussed in Malcolm Barber, The New Knighthood: A History of the Order of the Temple (1994); Jonathan Riley-Smith, The Knights of St. John in Jerusalem and Cyprus, c. 1050–1310 (1967); and Eric Christiansen, The Northern Crusades: The Baltic and Catholic Frontier, 1100–1525, 2nd ed. (1997).
Crusade as metaphor
The history of the metaphoric use of the term crusade is addressed in several works cited above. Other useful studies are Paul Rousset, Histoire d'une idéologie, la Croisade (1983); Giles Constable, “The Historiography of the Crusades,” in Angeliki E. Laiou and Roy Parviz Mottahedeh (eds.), The Crusades from the Perspective of Byzantium and the Muslim World (2001); and James A. Brundage (ed.), The Crusades: Motives and Achievements (1964). A thoughtful introduction to the use of metaphor is George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, Metaphors We Live By (1980).

Bedouin

2013-02-13T21:13:00.001+05:30

Bedouin also spelled Beduin, Arabic Badawi, plural Badw.

Arabic-speaking nomadic peoples of the Middle Eastern deserts, especially of Arabia, Iraq, Syria, and Jordan.

The Bedouin constitute only a small part of the total population of the Middle East but inhabit or utilize a large part of the land area. Most of them are animal herders who migrate into the desert during the rainy winter season and move back toward the cultivated land in the dry summer months. Although the Bedouin, as a matter of caste, traditionally despise agricultural work and other manual labour, many of them have become sedentary as a result of political and economic developments, especially since World War II. In the 1950s, Saudi Arabia and Syria nationalized Bedouin range lands, and Jordan severely limited goat grazing. Conflicts over land use between Bedouin herders on the one hand and settled agriculturists on the other have increased since then.

The traditional Bedouin can be classified according to the animal species that are the basis of their livelihood. First in prestige are the camel nomads, who occupy huge territories and are organized into large tribes in the Sahara, Syrian, and Arabian deserts. Beneath them in rank are the sheep and goat nomads, who stay mainly near the cultivated regions of Jordan, Syria, and Iraq. Cattle nomads are found chiefly in South Arabia and in The Sudan, where they are called Baqqārah (Baggara).

Following World War I the Bedouin tribes had to submit to the control of the governments of the countries in which their wandering areas lay. This also meant that the Bedouins' internal feuding and the raiding of outlying villages had to be given up, to be replaced by more peaceful commercial relations. Service in armed forces and even labour in construction became more common, especially after World War II. The tribal character of Bedouin society continued, however, as did the patriarchal order in their extended, patrilineal, endogamous and polygynous families. Among the Arabic-speaking tribes, the head of the family, as well as of each successively larger social unit making up the tribal structure, is called sheikh; the sheikh is assisted by an informal tribal council of male elders.

In addition to the “noble” tribes who trace their ancestry to either Qaysi (northern Arabian) or Yamani (southern Arabian) origin, traditional Bedouin society comprises scattered, “ancestorless,” vassal tribal splinter groups who shelter under the protection of the large noble tribes and make a living by serving them as blacksmiths, tinkers, artisans, entertainers, and other workers.

Silent Words

2013-02-13T21:06:00.002+05:30

Silent Letters In English

1.Silent B

-> B is not pronounced when following M at the end of a word.

Climb
Crumb
Dumb
Comb

-> The "b" is often silent when followed by a "t":

debt,
doubt.
But not always:
obtain
obstruct.

2. Silent C

-> C is not pronounced when word ends with “scle”

Muscle

-> The "c" is silent when preceded by an "s" followed by an 'e' or an 'i' at the beginning of a word:

scenic
scenario
science.

3. Silent D

-> D is not pronounced in following common words

Sandwich
Wednesday (The underlined d is not pronounced)
Handkerchief

4. Silent E

-> E is not pronounced at the end of words and usually makes the vowel long

Hope
Drive
Gave
Write
Site

5. Silent G

-> G is not often pronounced when followed by an N

Champagne (If you will notice H is also silent in this word)
foreign
sign
feign

6. Silent GH

-> GH is not pronounced before T and at the end of many words

Thought
Might
Right
Fight
Weigh
Weight
Though
Daughter
Light
Knight
night
bought.

7. Silent H

-> H is not pronounced when following W

White
Whale
Which

-> The "h" is silent when preceded by a "p":
shepherd.

-> The "h" is silent when preceded by a "g":
ghost.

-> The "h" is silent when it comes between two vowels:
vehicle.

-> The "h" is silent when followed by the letter 'r':
rhythm.

-> The "h" is silent when preceded by the letters 'ex':
exhausted

8. Silent K

-> K is not pronounced when followed by N at the beginning of a word

Know
Knock
Knowledge
Knight
Knife
Knee
knot

9. Silent L

-> L is often not pronounced before L, D, F, M, K

Calm
Half
Salmon
Talk
Walk
Would
Should
Tall
Ball
Call

10. Silent N

-> N is not pronounced following M at the end of a word

Autumn
Hymn
autumn
column

11. Silent P

-> P is not pronounced at the beginning of many words using the suffix “Psych” and “Pneu”

Psychiatric
Psychiatrist
Pneumonia
Psychological
Psychotherapy
Psychotic

12. Silent S

-> S is not pronounced before L in the following words

Island
Isle
aisle.

13. Silent T

-> T is not pronounced in these common words

Castle
Christmas
Fasten
Listen
Often
Whistle
Thistle

14. Silent U

-> U is not pronounced before after G and before a vowel

Guess
Guidance
Guitar
Guest

15. Silent W

-> W is not pronounced at the beginning of a word followed by an R

Wrap
Write
Wrong
Sword (In this word W is also silent)

Babylonian Exile

2013-02-13T20:26:00.000+05:30

Babylonian Exile
also called Babylonian Captivity.

The forced detention of Jews in Babylonia following the latter's conquest of the kingdom of Judah in 598/7 and 587/6 BC. The exile formally ended in 538 BC, when the Persian conqueror of Babylonia, Cyrus the Great, gave the Jews permission to return to Palestine. Historians agree that several deportations took place (each the result of uprisings in Palestine), that not all Jews were forced to leave their homeland, that returning Jews left Babylonia at various times, and that some Jews chose to remain in Babyloniaâ€”thus constituting the first of numerous Jewish communities living permanently in the Diaspora (q.v.).

Many scholars cite 597 BC as the date of the first deportation, for in that year King Jehoiachin was deposed and apparently sent into exile with his family, his court, and thousands of workers. Others say the first deportation followed the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadrezzar in 586; if so, the Jews were held in Babylonian captivity for 48 years. Among those who accept a tradition (Jeremiah 29:10) that the exile lasted 70 years, some choose the dates 608 to 538, others 586 to about 516 (the year when the rebuilt Temple was dedicated in Jerusalem).

Although the Jews suffered greatly and faced powerful cultural pressures in a foreign land, they maintained their national spirit and religious identity. Elders supervised the Jewish communities, and Ezekiel was one of several prophets who kept alive the hope of one day returning home. This was possibly also the period when synagogues were first established, for the Jews observed the Sabbath and religious holidays, practiced circumcision, and substituted prayers for former ritual sacrifices in the Temple. The degree to which the Jews looked upon Cyrus the Great as their benefactor and a servant of their God is reflected at several points in the Hebrew Bible, e.g., at Isaiah 45:1â€“3, where he is actually called God's
anointed.

Holocaust

2012-12-01T14:38:00.005+05:30

Holocaust

Introduction

Hebrew Shoʾah , Yiddish and Hebrew Ḥurban (“Destruction”)

Holocaust the systematic state-sponsored killing of six million Jewish men, women, and children and millions of others by Nazi Germany and its collaborators during World War II. The Germans called this “the final solution to the Jewish question.” The word Holocaust is derived from the Greek holokauston, a translation of the Hebrew word ʿolah, meaning a burnt sacrifice offered whole to God. This word was chosen because in the ultimate manifestation of the Nazi killing program—the extermination camps—the bodies of the victims were consumed whole in crematoria and open fires.

Nazi anti-Semitism and the origins of the Holocaust

Even before the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933, they had made no secret of their anti-Semitism. As early as 1919, Adolf Hitler had written, “Rational anti-Semitism, however, must lead to systematic legal opposition.…Its final objective must unswervingly be the removal of the Jews altogether.” In Mein Kampf (“My Struggle”; 1925–27), Hitler further developed the idea of the Jews as an evil race struggling for world domination. Nazi anti-Semitism was rooted in religious anti-Semitism and enhanced by political anti-Semitism. To this the Nazis added a further dimension: racial anti-Semitism. Nazi racial ideology characterized the Jews as Untermenschen (German: “subhumans”). The Nazis portrayed Jews as a race and not a religious group. Religious anti-Semitism could be resolved by conversion, political anti-Semitism by expulsion. Ultimately, the logic of Nazi racial anti-Semitism led to annihilation.

When Hitler came to power legally on January 30, 1933, as the head of a coalition government, his first objective was to consolidate power and to eliminate political opposition. The assault against the Jews began on April 1 with a boycott of Jewish businesses. A week later the Nazis dismissed Jews from the civil service, and by the end of the month, the participation of Jews in German schools was restricted by a quota. On May 10, thousands of Nazi students, together with many professors, stormed university libraries and bookstores in 30 cities throughout Germany to remove tens of thousands of books written by non-Aryans and those opposed to Nazi ideology. The books were tossed into bonfires in an effort to cleanse German culture of “un-Germanic” writings. A century earlier, Heinrich Heine—a German poet of Jewish origin—had said, “Where one burns books, one will, in the end, burn people.” In Nazi Germany, the time between the burning of Jewish books and the burning of Jews was eight years.

As discrimination against Jews increased, German law required a legal definition of a Jew and an Aryan. Promulgated at the annual Nazi Party rally in Nürnberg on September 15, 1935, the Nürnberg Laws—the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour and the Law of the Reich Citizen—became the centerpiece of anti-Jewish legislation and a precedent for defining and categorizing Jews in all German-controlled lands. Marriage and sexual relations between Jews and citizens of “German or kindred blood” were prohibited. Only “racial” Germans were entitled to civil and political rights. Jews were reduced to subjects of the state. The Nürnberg Laws formally divided Germans and Jews, yet neither the word German nor the word Jew was defined. That task was left to the bureaucracy. Two basic categories were established in November: Jews—those with at least three Jewish grandparents—and Mischlinge (“mongrels,” or “mixed breeds”)—people with one or two Jewish grandparents. Thus, the definition of a Jew was primarily based not on the identity an individual affirmed or the religion he practiced but on his ancestry. Categorization was the first stage of destruction.

Responding with alarm to Hitler's rise, the Jewish community sought to defend their rights as Germans. For those Jews who felt themselves fully German and who had patriotically fought in World War I, the Nazification of German society was especially painful. Zionist activity intensified. “Wear it with pride,” journalist Robert Wildest wrote in 1933 of the Jewish identity the Nazis had so stigmatized. Martin Buber led an effort at Jewish adult education, preparing the community for the long journey ahead. Rabbi Leo Baeck circulated a prayer for Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) in 1935 that instructed Jews how to behave: “We bow down before God; we stand erect before man.” Yet while few, if any, could foresee its eventual outcome, the Jewish condition was increasingly perilous and expected to get worse.

By the late 1930s there was a desperate search for countries of refuge. Those who could get visas and qualify under stringent quotas emigrated to the United States. Many went to Palestine, where the small Jewish community was willing to receive refugees. Still others sought refuge in neighbouring European countries. Most countries, however, were unwilling to receive large numbers of refugees.

Responding to domestic pressures to act on behalf of Jewish refugees, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt convened, but did not attend, the Évian Conference on resettlement, in Évian-les-Bains, France, in July 1938. In his invitation to government leaders, Roosevelt specified that they would not have to change laws or spend government funds; only philanthropic funds would be used for resettlement. The result was that little was attempted, and less accomplished.

From Kristallnacht to the “final solution”

On the evening of November 9, 1938, carefully orchestrated anti-Jewish violence “erupted” throughout the Reich, which since March had included Austria. Over the next 48 hours rioters burned or damaged more than 1,000 synagogues and ransacked and broke the windows of more than 7,500 businesses. The Nazis arrested some 30,000 Jewish men between the ages of 16 and 60 and sent them to concentration camps. Police stood by as the violence—often the action of neighbours, not strangers—occurred. Firemen were present not to protect the synagogues but to ensure that the flames did not spread to adjacent “Aryan” property. The pogrom was given a quaint name: Kristallnacht (“Crystal Night,” or “Night of Broken Glass”). In its aftermath, Jews lost the illusion that they had a future in Germany.

On November 12, 1938, Field Marshall Hermann Göring convened a meeting of Nazi officials to discuss the damage to the German economy from pogroms. The Jewish community was fined one billion Reichsmarks. Moreover, Jews were made responsible for cleaning up the damage. German Jews, but not foreign Jews, were barred from collecting insurance. In addition, Jews were soon denied entry to theatres, forced to travel in separate compartments on trains, and excluded from German schools. These new restrictions were added to earlier prohibitions, such as those barring Jews from earning university degrees, from owning businesses, or from practicing law or medicine in the service of non-Jews. The Nazis would continue to confiscate Jewish property in a program called “Aryanization.” Göring concluded the November meeting with a note of irony: “I would not like to be a Jew in Germany!”

Non-Jewish victims of Nazism

While Jews were the primary victims of Nazism as it evolved and were central to Nazi racial ideology, other groups were victimized as well—some for what they did, some for what they refused to do, and some for what they were.

Political dissidents, trade unionists, and Social Democrats were among the first to be arrested and incarcerated in concentration camps. Under the Weimar government, centuries-old prohibitions against homosexuality had been overlooked, but this tolerance ended violently when the SA (Storm Troopers) began raiding gay bars in 1933. Homosexual intent became just cause for prosecution. The Nazis arrested German and Austrian male homosexuals—there was no systematic persecution of lesbians—and interned them in concentration camps, where they were forced to wear special yellow armbands and later pink triangles. Jehovah's Witnesses were a problem for the Nazis because they refused to swear allegiance to the state, register for the draft, or utter the words “Heil Hitler.” As a result the Nazis imprisoned many of the roughly 20,000 Witnesses in Germany. The Nazis also singled out the Roma (Gypsies). They were the only other group that the Nazis systematically killed in gas chambers alongside the Jews.

In 1939 the Germans initiated the T4 Program—framed euphemistically as a “euthanasia” program—for the murder of mentally retarded, physically disabled, and emotionally disturbed Germans who departed from the Nazi ideal of Aryan supremacy. The Nazis pioneered the use of gas chambers and mass crematoria under this program.

Following the invasion of Poland, German occupation policy especially targeted the Jews but also brutalized non-Jewish Poles. In pursuit of Lebensraum (“living space”), Germany sought systematically to destroy Polish society and nationhood. The Nazis killed Polish priests and politicians, decimated the Polish leadership, and kidnapped the children of the Polish elite, who were raised as “voluntary Aryans” by their new German “parents.” Many Poles were also forced to perform hard labour on survival diets, deprived of property and uprooted, and interned in concentration camps.

Nazi expansion and the formation of ghettos

Paradoxically, at the same time that Germany tried to rid itself of its Jews via forced emigration, its territorial expansions kept bringing more Jews under its control. Germany annexed Austria in March 1938 and the Sudetenland (now in the Czech Republic) in September 1938. It established control over the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (now in the Czech Republic) in March 1939. When Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, the “Jewish question” became urgent. When the division of Poland between Germany and the Soviet Union was complete, more than two million more Jews had come under German control. For a time, the Nazis considered shipping the Jews to the island of Madagascar, off the southeast coast of Africa. But as the seas became a war zone and the resources required for such a massive deportation scarce, they discarded the plan as impractical.

On September 21, 1939, Reinhard Heydrich ordered the establishment of the Judenräte (“Jewish Councils”), comprising up to 24 men—rabbis and Jewish leaders. Heydrich's order made these councils personally responsible in “the literal sense of the term” for carrying out German orders. When the Nazis sealed the Warsaw Ghetto, the largest of German-occupied Poland's 400 ghettos, in the fall of 1940, the Jews—then 30 percent of Warsaw's population—were forced into 2.4 percent of the city's area. The ghetto's population reached a density of over 200,000 persons per square mile (77,000 per square km) and 9.2 per room. Disease, malnutrition, hunger, and poverty took their toll even before the first bullet was fired.

For the German rulers, the ghetto was a temporary measure, a holding pen for the Jewish population until a policy on its fate could be established and implemented. For the Jews, ghetto life was the situation under which they thought they would be forced to live until the end of the war. They aimed to make life bearable, even under the most trying circumstances. When the Nazis prohibited schools, they opened clandestine schools. When the Nazis banned religious life, it persisted in hiding. The Jews used humour as a means of defiance, so too song. They resorted to arms only late in the Nazi assault.

Historians differ on the date of the decision to murder Jews systematically, the so-called “final solution to the Jewish question.” There is debate about whether there was one central decision or a series of regional decisions in response to local conditions; but in either case, when Germany attacked the Soviet Union, its former ally, in June of 1941, the Nazis began the systematic killing of Jews.

The Einsatzgruppen

Entering conquered Soviet territories alongside the Wehrmacht (the German armed forces) were 3,000 men of the Einsatzgruppen (“deployment groups”), special mobile killing units. Their task was to murder Jews, Soviet commissars, and Roma in the areas conquered by the army. Alone or with the help of local police, native anti-Semitic populations, and accompanying Axis troops, the Einsatzgruppen would enter a town, round up their victims, herd them to the outskirts of the town, and shoot them. They killed Jews in family units. Just outside Kiev, Ukraine, in the valley of Baby Yar, an Einsatzgruppe killed 33,771 Jews on September 28–29, 1941. In the Rumbula Forest outside the ghetto in Riga, Latvia, 25,000–28,000 Jews died on November 30 and December 8–9. Beginning in the summer of 1941, Einsatzgruppen killed more than 70,000 Jews at Ponary, outside Vilna (now Vilnius) in Lithuania. They slaughtered 9,000 Jews, half of them children, at the Ninth Fort adjacent to Kovno (now Kaunas), Lithuania, on October 28.

The mass shootings continued unabated, with a first wave and then a second. When the killing ended in the face of a Soviet counteroffensive, special units returned to dig up the dead and burn their bodies to destroy the evidence of the crimes. It is estimated that the Einsatzgruppen killed more than one million people, most of whom were Jews.

Historians are divided about the motivations of the members of Einsatzgruppen. Christopher Browning describes them as ordinary men in extraordinary circumstances in which conformity, peer pressure, careerism, obedience to orders, and group solidarity gradually overcame moral inhibitions. Daniel Goldhagen sees them as “willing executioners,” sharing Hitler's vision of genocidal anti-Semitism and finding their tasks unpleasant but necessary. Both concur that no Einsatzgruppe member faced punishment if he asked to be excused. Individuals had a choice whether to participate or not. Almost all chose to become killers.

The extermination camps

On January 20, 1942, Reinhard Heydrich convened the Wannsee Conference at a lakeside villa in a Berlin suburb to organize the “final solution to the Jewish question.” Around the table were 15 men representing government agencies necessary to implement so bold and sweeping a policy. The language of the meeting was clear, but the meeting notes were circumspect: “Another possible solution to the [Jewish] question has now taken the place of emigration, i.e., evacuation to the east.…Practical experience is already being collected which is of the greatest importance in the relation to the future final solution of the Jewish question.” Participants understood “evacuation to the east” to mean deportation to killing centres.

In early 1942 the Nazis built extermination camps at Treblinka, Sobibor, and Belzec in Poland. The death camps were to be the essential instrument of the “final solution.” The Einsatzgruppen had traveled to kill their victims. With the extermination camps, the process was reversed. The victims traveled by train, often in cattle cars, to their killers. The extermination camps became factories producing corpses, effectively and efficiently, at minimal physical and psychological cost to German personnel. Assisted by Ukrainian and Latvian collaborators and prisoners of war, a few Germans could kill tens of thousands of prisoners each month. At Chelmno, the first of the extermination camps, the Nazis used mobile gas vans. Elsewhere, they built permanent gas chambers linked to the crematoria where bodies were burned. Carbon monoxide was the gas of choice at most camps. Zyklon-B, an especially lethal killing agent, was employed primarily at Auschwitz and later at other camps.

Auschwitz, perhaps the most notorious and lethal of the concentration camps, was actually three camps in one: a prison camp (Auschwitz I), an extermination camp (Auschwitz II–Birkenau), and a slave-labour camp (Auschwitz III–Buna-Monowitz). Upon arrival, Jewish prisoners faced what was called a Selektion. A German doctor presided over the selection of pregnant women, young children, the elderly, handicapped, sick, and infirm for immediate death in the gas chambers. As necessary, the Germans selected able-bodied prisoners for forced labour in the factories adjacent to Auschwitz where one German company, IG Farben, invested 700,000 million Reichsmarks in 1942 alone to take advantage of forced labour. Deprived of adequate food, shelter, clothing, and medical care, these prisoners were literally worked to death. Periodically, they would face another Selektion. The Nazis would transfer those unable to work to the gas chambers of Birkenau.

While the death camps at Auschwitz and Majdanek used inmates for slave labour to support the German war effort, the extermination camps at Belzec, Treblinka, and Sobibor had one task alone: killing. At Treblinka, a staff of 120, of whom only 30 were SS (the Nazi paramilitary corps), killed some 750,000 to 900,000 Jews during the camp's 17 months of operation. At Belzec, German records detail a staff of 104, including about 20 SS, who killed some 600,000 Jews in less than 10 months. At Sobibor, they murdered about 250,000. These camps began operation during the spring and summer of 1942, when the ghettos of German-occupied Poland were filled with Jews. Once they had completed their missions—murder by gassing, or “resettlement in the east,” to use the language of the Wannsee protocols—the Nazis closed the camps. There were six extermination camps, all in German-occupied Poland, among the thousands of concentration and slave-labour camps throughout German-occupied Europe.

The impact of the Holocaust varied from region to region, and from year to year in the 21 countries that were directly affected. Nowhere was the Holocaust more intense and sudden than in Hungary. What took place over several years in Germany occurred over 16 weeks in Hungary. Entering the war as a German ally, Hungary had persecuted its Jews but not permitted their deportation. After Germany invaded Hungary on March 19, 1944, this situation changed dramatically. By mid-April the Nazis had confined Jews to ghettos. On May 15, deportations began, and over the next 55 days, the Nazis deported some 438,000 Jews from Hungary to Auschwitz on 147 trains.

Policies differed widely among Germany's Balkan allies. In Romania it was primarily the Romanians themselves who slaughtered the country's Jews. Toward the end of the war, however, when the defeat of Germany was all but certain, the Romanian government found more value in living Jews who could be held for ransom or used as leverage with the West. Bulgaria permitted the deportation of Jews from neighbouring Thrace and Macedonia, but government leaders faced stiff opposition to the deportation of native Bulgarian Jews.

German-occupied Denmark rescued most of its own Jews by spiriting them to Sweden by sea in October 1943. This was possible partly because the German presence in Denmark was relatively small. Moreover, while anti-Semitism in the general population of many other countries led to collaboration with the Germans, Jews were an integrated part of Danish culture. Under these unique circumstances, Danish humanitarianism flourished.

In France, Jews under Fascist Italian occupation in the southeast fared better than the Jews of Vichy France, where collaborationist French authorities and police provided essential support to the understaffed German forces. The Jews in those parts of France under direct German occupation fared the worst. Although allied with Germany, the Italians did not participate in the Holocaust until Germany occupied northern Italy after the overthrow of the Fascist leader, Benito Mussolini.

Throughout German-occupied territory the situation of Jews was desperate. They had meagre resources and few allies and faced impossible choices. A few people came to their rescue, often at the risk of their own lives. Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg arrived in Budapest on July 9, 1944, in an effort to save Hungary's sole remaining Jewish community. Over the next six months, he worked with other neutral diplomats, the Vatican, and Jews themselves to prevent the deportation of these last Jews. Elsewhere, Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, a French Huguenot village, became a haven for 5,000 Jews. In Poland, where it was illegal to aid Jews and where such action was punishable by death, the Zegota (Council for Aid to Jews) rescued a similar number of Jewish men, women, and children. Financed by the Polish government in exile and involving a wide range of clandestine political organizations, the Zegota provided hiding places, financial support, and forged identity documents.

Some Germans, even some Nazis, dissented from the murder of the Jews and came to their aid. The most famous was Oskar Schindler, a Nazi businessman, who had set up operations using involuntary labour in German-occupied Poland in order to profit from the war. Eventually, he moved to protect his Jewish workers from deportation to extermination camps. In all occupied countries, there were individuals who came to the rescue of Jews, offering a place to hide, some food, or shelter for days, weeks, or even for the duration of the war. Most of the rescuers did not see their actions as heroic but felt bound to the Jews by a common sense of humanity. Israel later recognized rescuers with honorary citizenship and commemoration at Yad Vashem, Israel's memorial to the Holocaust.

Jewish resistance

It is often asked why Jews did not make greater attempts at resistance. Principally they had no access to arms and were surrounded by native anti-Semitic populations who collaborated with the Nazis or condoned the elimination of the Jews. In essence the Jews stood alone against a German war machine zealously determined to carry out the “final solution.” Moreover, the Nazis went to great lengths to disguise their ultimate plans. Because of the German policy of collective reprisal, Jews in the ghettos often hesitated to resist. This changed when the Germans ordered the final liquidation of the ghettos, and residents recognized the imminence of their death.

Jews resisted in the forests, in the ghettos, and even in the death camps. They fought alone and alongside resistance groups in France, Yugoslavia, and Russia. As a rule, full-scale uprisings occurred only at the end, when Jews realized the inevitability of impending death. On April 19, 1943, nine months after the massive deportations of Warsaw's Jews to Treblinka had begun, the Jewish resistance, led by 24-year-old Mordecai Anielewicz, mounted the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. In Vilna partisan leader Abba Kovner, recognizing the full intent of Nazi policy toward the Jews, called for resistance in December 1941 and organized an armed force that fought the Germans in September 1943. In March of that year, a resistance group led by Willem Arondeus, a homosexual artist and author, bombed a population registry in Amsterdam to destroy the records of Jews and others sought by the Nazis. At Treblinka and Sobibor uprisings occurred just as the extermination camps were being dismantled and their remaining prisoners were soon to be killed. This was also true at Auschwitz, where the Sonderkommando (“Special Commando”), the prisoner unit that worked in the vicinity of the gas chambers, destroyed a crematorium just as the killing was coming to an end in 1944.

By the winter of 1944–45, with Allied armies closing in, desperate SS officials tried frantically to evacuate the camps and conceal what had taken place. They wanted no eyewitnesses remaining. Prisoners were moved westward, forced to march toward the heartland of Germany. There were over 50 different marches from Nazi concentration and extermination camps during this final winter of Nazi domination, some covering hundreds of miles. The prisoners were given little or no food and water, and almost no time to rest or take care of bodily needs. Those who paused or fell behind were shot. In January 1945, just hours before the Red Army arrived at Auschwitz, the Nazis marched some 60,000 prisoners to Wodzisław and put them on freight trains to the camps at Bergen-Belsen, Gross-Rosen, Buchenwald, Dachau, and Mauthausen. Nearly one in four died en route.

In April and May of 1945, American and British forces en route to military targets entered the concentration camps in the west and caught a glimpse of what had occurred. Even though tens of thousands of prisoners had perished, these camps were far from the most deadly. Still, even for the battle-weary soldiers who thought they had already seen the worst, the sights and smells and the emaciated survivors they encountered left an indelible impression. At Dachau they came upon 28 railway cars stuffed with dead bodies. Conditions were so horrendous at Bergen-Belsen that some 28,000 inmates died after they were freed, and the entire camp had to be burned to prevent the spread of typhus. Allied soldiers had to perform tasks for which they were ill-trained: to heal the sick, comfort the bereaved, and bury the dead. As for the victims, liberation was not a moment of exultation. Viktor Frankl, a survivor of Auschwitz, recalled, “Everything was unreal. Unlikely as in a dream. Only later—and for some it was very much later or never—was liberation actually liberating.”

The Allies, who had early and accurate information on the murder of the Jews, made no special military efforts to rescue them or to bomb the camps or the railroad tracks leading to them. (See Sidebar: Why wasn't Auschwitz bombed?) They felt that only after victory could something be done about the Jewish situation. Warnings were issued, condemnations were made, plans proceeded to try the guilty after the war, but no concrete action was undertaken specifically to halt the genocide. An internal memo to U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau, Jr., from his general counsel in January 1944 characterized U.S. State Department policy as “acquiescence to the murder of the European Jews.” In response Morgenthau helped spur the creation of the War Refugee Board, which made a late and limited effort to rescue endangered Jews, mainly through diplomacy and subterfuge.

The aftermath

Although the Germans killed victims from several groups, the Holocaust is primarily associated with the murder of the Jews. Only the Jews were targeted for total annihilation, and their elimination was central to Hitler's vision of the “New Germany.” The intensity of the Nazi campaign against the Jews continued unabated to the very end of the war and at points even took priority over German military efforts.

When the war ended, Allied armies found between seven and nine million displaced persons living outside their own countries. More than six million people returned to their native lands, but more than one million refused repatriation. Some had collaborated with the Nazis and feared retaliation. Others feared persecution under the new communist regimes. For the Jews, the situation was different. They had no homes to return to. Their communities had been shattered, their homes destroyed or occupied by strangers, and their families decimated and dispersed. First came the often long and difficult physical recuperation from starvation and malnutrition, then the search for loved ones lost or missing, and finally the question of the future.

Many Jews lived in displaced-persons camps. At first they were forced to dwell among their killers because the Allies did not differentiate on the basis of religion, merely by nationality. Their presence on European soil and the absence of a country willing to receive them increased the pressure on Britain to resolve the issue of a Jewish homeland in British-administered Palestine. Both well-publicized and clandestine efforts were made to bring Jews to Palestine. In fact, it was not until after the establishment of the State of Israel in May 1948 and the liberalization of American immigration laws in 1948 and 1949 (allowing the admission of refugees from Europe) that the problem of finding homes for the survivors was solved.

Upon liberating the camps, many Allied units were so shocked by what they saw that they meted out spontaneous punishment to some of the remaining SS personnel. Others were arrested and held for trial. The most famous of the postwar trials occurred in 1945–46 at Nürnberg, the former site of Nazi Party rallies. There, the International Military Tribunal tried 22 major Nazi officials for war crimes, crimes against the peace, and a new category of crimes: crimes against humanity. This new category encompassed “murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, and other inhumane acts committed against any civilian population…persecution on political, racial, or religious grounds…whether or not in violation of the domestic laws of the country where perpetrated.” After the first trials, 185 defendants were divided into 12 groups, including physicians responsible for medical experimentation (but not so-called euthanasia), judges who preserved the facade of legality for Nazi crimes, Einsatzgruppe leaders, commandants of concentration camps, German generals, and business leaders who profited from slave labour. The defendants made up, however, a miniscule fraction of those who had perpetrated the crimes. In the eyes of many, their trials were a desperate, inadequate, but necessary effort to restore a semblance of justice in the aftermath of so great a crime. The Nürnberg trials established the precedent, later enshrined by international convention, that crimes against humanity are punishable by an international tribunal.

Over the ensuing half-century, additional trials further documented the nature of the crimes and had a public as well as a judicial impact. The 1961 trial in Jerusalem of Adolf Eichmann, who supervised the deportations of Jews to the death camps, not only brought him to justice but made a new generation of Israelis keenly aware of the Holocaust. The Auschwitz trials held in Frankfurt am Main, West Germany, between 1963 and 1976 increased the German public's knowledge of the killing and its pervasiveness. The trials in France of Klaus Barbie (1987) and Maurice Papon (1996–98) and the revelations of Franƈois Mitterrand in 1994 concerning his indifference toward Vichy France's anti-Jewish policy called into question the notion of French resistance and forced the French to deal with the issue of collaboration. These trials also became precedents as world leaders considered responses to other crimes against humanity in places such as Bosnia and Rwanda.

The defeat of Nazi Germany left a bitter legacy for the German leadership and people. Germans had committed crimes in the name of the German people. German culture and the German leadership—political, intellectual, social, and religious—had participated or been complicit in the Nazi crimes or been ineffective in opposing them. In an effort to rehabilitate the good name of the German people, the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) firmly established a democracy that protected the human rights of all its citizens and made financial reparations to the Jewish people in an agreement passed by parliament in 1953. West German democratic leaders made special efforts to achieve friendly relations with Israel. In the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), the communist leaders attempted to absolve their population of responsibility for the crimes, portraying themselves as the victims of the Nazis, and Nazism as a manifestation of capitalism. The first gesture of the postcommunist parliament of East Germany, however, was an apology to the Jewish people. At one of its first meetings in the newly renovated Reichstag building in 1999, the German parliament voted to erect a Holocaust memorial in Berlin. The first state visitor to Berlin after its reestablishment as capital of a united Germany was Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak.

At the beginning of the 21st century, the history of the Holocaust continued to be unsettling. The Swiss government and its bankers had to confront their role as bankers to the Nazis and in recycling gold and valuables taken from the victims. Under the leadership of German prime minister Gerhard Schröder, German corporations and the German government established a fund to compensate Jews and non-Jews who worked in German slave labour and forced labour programs during the war. Insurance companies were negotiating over claims from descendants of policyholders killed during the war—claims that the companies denied immediately after the war by imposing prohibitive conditions, such as the presentation of a death certificate specifying the time and place of death of the insured. In several eastern European countries, negotiations addressed Jewish property that the Nazis had confiscated during the war but that could not be returned under the region's communist governments. Artworks stolen during the war and later sold on the basis of dubious records were the subject of legal struggles to secure their return to the original owners or to their heirs. The German government continued to pay reparations—first awarded in 1953—to individual Jews and the Jewish people to acknowledge responsibility for the crimes committed in the name of the German people.

Artistic responses to the Holocaust

Artists the world over and camp survivors themselves have responded to the Holocaust through art. The very existence of Holocaust art can, however, create a sense of unease. Critic Irving Howe has asked, “Can imaginative literature represent in any profound or illuminating way the meanings of the Holocaust? Is ‘the debris of our misery' (as one survivor described it) a proper or manageable subject for stories and novels? Are there not perhaps extreme situations beyond the reach of art?” Similarly, philosopher Theodore Adorno has commented that writing poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric. Yet poetry has been written—moving poetry that seeks to come to terms with the tragedy even in the German language—in works by Nelly Sachs and Paul Celan, among others. Gripping work dealing with the horror, pain, and loss of the Holocaust has appeared in every literary genre and in music, film, painting, and sculpture.

Survivors of the Holocaust have produced powerful works that record or reflect on their experiences. Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl (originally in Dutch, 1947), Eli Wiesel's Night (originally in Yiddish, 1956), and works by Primo Levi are some of the most memorable in the field of literature. Paintings and drawings by survivors Samuel Bak, Alice Lok Cahana, and David Olère document the horrors that they experienced in ghettos and death camps. Holocaust survivors have also composed a wide variety of music, including street songs, which gave voice to life in the ghetto; resistance songs, such as Hirsh Glik's “Song of the Partisans” (composed and first performed 1943, published 1953); and classical compositions, such as Quartet for the End of Time (first performed 1941) by Olivier Messiaen and the opera Der Kaiser von Atlantis oder der Tod dankt ab (first performed 1943; “The Emperor of Atlantis or Death Abdicates”) by Victor Ullman.

Artists of all kinds, regardless of any firsthand experience with the Holocaust, have sought to grapple with this tragedy. George Segal's memorial sculpture, Holocaust, is but one notable example. Visual art in response to the Holocaust includes paintings by Holocaust refugees Marc Chagall and George Grosz and the illustrated story Maus (published in installments 1980–85) by Art Spiegelman, the son of a survivor. Notable musical responses to the Holocaust include Arnold Schoenberg's A Survivor from Warsaw (first performed 1947), Dmitri Shostakovich's 13th Symphony (first performed 1962), which used the text of the poem “Baby Yar” (1961) by Yevgeny Yevtushenko, and works by composers Charles Davidson, Michael Horvitz, and Oskar Morawetz.

Film, too, has been a prime medium for dealing with the Holocaust. Shortly after World War II, several eastern European filmmakers, including Aleksander Ford, Wanda Jakubowska, and Alfred Radok, attempted to capture the experience of Holocaust victims. Some of the most influential films since then include The Diary of Anne Frank (1959), directed by George Stevens; Il Giardino dei Finzi-Contini (1970, The Garden of the Finzi Continis), directed by Vittorio De Sica; the nine-hour documentary Shoah (1985), directed by Claude Lanzmann; Au Revoir les Enfants (1987, Goodbye, Children), directed by Louis Malle; Schindler's List (1993), directed by Steven Spielberg; La Vita è Bella (1997; Life Is Beautiful), directed by Roberto Benigni; and Bent (1997), directed by Sean Mathias and based on Martin Sherman's 1979 play about the Nazi persecution of homosexuals.

Conclusion

Today the Holocaust is viewed as the emblematic manifestation of absolute evil. Its revelation of the depths of human nature and the power of malevolent social and governmental structures has made it an essential topic of ethical discourse in fields as diverse as law, medicine, religion, government, and the military.

Many survivors report they heard a final plea from those who were killed: “Remember! Do not let the world forget.” To this responsibility to those they left behind, survivors have added a plea of their own: “Never again.” Never for the Jewish people. Never for any people. They hope that remembrance of the Holocaust can prevent its recurrence. In part because of their efforts, interest in the event has increased rather than diminished with the passage of time and in fact Holocaust Remembrance days are observed each year in many countries. More than half a century after the Holocaust, institutions, memorials, and museums continue to be built and films and educational curricula created to document and teach the history of the Holocaust to future generations.

Additional Reading

General references and histories

Israel Gutman (ed.), Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 4 vol. (1990, reissued 4 vol. in 2, 1995), is a comprehensive and authoritative reference work. A useful reference on the geographic extent of the Holocaust is the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Historical Atlas of the Holocaust (1996). Michael Berenbaum (ed.), Witness to the Holocaust (1997), contains 94 basic documents on 21 major themes, from the Nazi rise to power to the Nürnberg trials. Michael R. Marrus, The Holocaust In History (1987, reissued 1989), offers insights on a variety of historical debates surrounding the Holocaust. Michael Berenbaum, The World Must Know: The History of the Holocaust as Told in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (1993) is a non-technical, illustrated history of the Holocaust. Other general histories of the Holocaust include Martin Gilbert, The Holocaust: A History of the Jews of Europe During the Second World War (1986); Raul Hilberg, The Destruction of the European Jews, rev. and definitive ed., 3 vol. (1985); Leni Yahil, The Holocaust: The Fate of European Jewry, 1932–45 (1990; originally published in Hebrew, 1987); and Saul Friedländer, Nazi Germany and the Jews, vol. 1, The Years of Persecution, 1933–39 (1997), the first of two planned volumes.

The perpetrators

For first-hand accounts of the Holocaust from the viewpoint of perpetrators and bystanders, see Ernst Klee, Willi Dressen, and Volker Riess (eds.), “The Good Old Days”: The Holocaust as Seen by Its Perpetrators and Bystanders, trans. from German (1991; also published as “Those Were the Days”: The Holocaust through the Eyes of the Perpetrators and Bystanders, 1993). Helen Fein, Accounting for Genocide: National Responses and Jewish Victimization During the Holocaust (1979, reprinted 1984), presents a sociological account of genocide and the social forces that make it possible. Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust (1996), is a controversial work exploring the rise of anti-Semitism in Germany and the complicity of ordinary Germans in the Holocaust. For an account of the human impact of the killing process in one Einsatzgruppe, see Christopher R. Browning, Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland (1992, reissued 1998). Henry Friedlander, The Origins of Nazi Genocide: From Euthanasia to the Final Solution (1995), traces the development of genocidal policies and techniques in the Nazi T4 Program. Gitta Sereny, Into that Darkness (1974, reprinted 1991), offers a chilling account of prison interviews with Franz Stangl, commandant of Sobibor and Treblinka and a product of the German T4 camps. Robert Jay Lifton, The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide (1986), explores the role and psychology of Nazi physicians. Biographies of Nazi architects of the Holocaust include Richard Breitman, The Architect of Genocide: Himmler and the Final Solution (1991), and Alan Bullock, Hitler: A Study in Tyranny, completely rev. ed. (1962, reissued 1995), also published in an abridged ed. with the same title (1971, reissued 1991). John Lukacs, The Hitler of History (1997), is less a biography of Hitler and more a review of the way in which historians have treated him.

The victims

Isaiah Trunk, Judenrat: The Jewish Council in Eastern Europe under Nazi Occupation (1972, reissued 1996), describes the dilemma facing the Jewish Councils in the ghettos in their efforts to reconcile Jewish needs with Nazi demands. For an account of ghetto life and Jewish resistance to German aggression, see Lucy S. Dawidowicz, The War Against the Jews, 1933–1945, 10th anniversary ed. (1986, reissued 1990). Yisrael Gutman (Israel Gutman) and Michael Berenbaum (eds.), Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp (1994, reissued 1998), a collection of essays, considers Auschwitz in context, each of its victim groups, and the inner life of both perpetrators and victims. Terrence Des Pres, The Survivor: An Anatomy of Life in the Death Camps (1976, reissued 1980), considers the experience of extermination camp inmates from a psychological viewpoint. Lawrence L. Langer, Holocaust Testimonies: The Ruins of Memory (1991) explores the power of Holocaust survivors' testimonies and memories of their experience. Important firsthand accounts by Holocaust survivors include Primo Levi, If This Is a Man (1959; originally published in Italian, 1947; also published as Survival in Auschwitz, 1961, reissued 1996), and Elie Wiesel, Night (1960, reissued 1986; originally published in Yiddish, 1956).

Special topics

Edited volumes containing essays on different aspects of the Holocaust include John K. Roth and Michael Berenbaum (eds.), The Holocaust: Religious and Philosophical Implications (1989), on religious and philosophical issues related to the Holocaust; Lawrence L. Langer (ed.), Art from the Ashes (1995), presenting art and literature on the Holocaust; Carol Rittner and John K. Roth (eds.), Different Voices: Women and the Holocaust (1993), on the issue of gender and women's experience of the Holocaust. Works on U.S. government policy on the Holocaust include Henry L. Feingold, The Politics of Rescue: The Roosevelt Administration and the Holocaust, 1938–1945, expanded and updated ed. (1980), a careful historical review; and David S. Wyman, The Abandonment of the Jews (1984, reissued 1998), a more critical indictment. Tim Cole, Selling the Holocaust: From Auschwitz to Schindler, How History Is Bought, Packaged, and Sold (1999); and Norman G. Finkelstein, The Holocaust Industry: Reflection on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering (2000), deal with what some people see as the commercialization of Holocaust remembrance.

First Aid

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Save this Information and Save a Life during an Emergency

First Aid methods and procedures for Medical Emergency

First Aid consists of series of simple and in some cases, potentially life-saving techniques that an individual can be trained to perform with minimal equipment. While in many cases proper equipment and professional medical care will be necessary to save lives, when such help is not immediately available you will have to manage the situation to the best of your understanding. Therefore it is important for all of us to know simple facts of first aid under different emergency situations.

Here are a few First Aid methods for some of the most common Emergency situations.

When Someone Collapses

When a patient is not breathing or the heart has stopped beating Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation(CPR) is the standard procedure to follow.

Follow these steps in such a situation.

Tap and shout to see if the person responds. Check if the person is breathing.
If he/she is not responding and not breathing, send a bystander to call the ambulance.
Kneel at the side of the victim, position him on his back on a firm flat surface and begin chest compression.
To begin chest compression place your hands on your centre of the breastbone. With your hands in place, position yourself so that your shoulders are directly over your hands and your elbows are locked. Press the patient’s chest down to a depth of approximately 2 inches and then release it, keeping a smooth rhythm, Compress the patient’s chest at least 30 times.
Then tilt the head back, lift the chin, pinch the nose shut and give 2 slow breaths until the chest gently rises.
DO NOT tilt the head If you suspect a neck injury, in such a case place the thumb on one end of the jaw and the middle or ring finger on the other. Push the jaw forward. This opens the airway and helps to keep the tongue from covering from back of the throat.
Repeate 5 cycles of 30 breast compressions and 2 breaths over a periods of 2 minute. Continue this until medical help arrives or till you transport the patient to hospital.

Care for Choking/Blockage of Airway

Choking in conscious adult/child: If a Choking person is coughing, encourage coughing till the airway clears. If the person is unable to speak, cough or breathe but is conscious, the first aid is a procedure called Heimlich Maneuver. This is how its performed.

Stand behind that person and wrap your arms around his wrist.
Place the thumb on the side of your fist against the middle of his abdomen just above the naval.
Give quick, inward and upward thrusts, repeat these thrusts until the object in the airway is cleared. Stop the procedure immediately if the person becomes unconscious.

Choking in a conscious infant up to one year of age.

Support the head of the infant and place the head lower than trunk.
Give 5 blows with the palm of your hand on the back between the shoulder blades.
Then turn the infant face up. Place the two fingers on the breastbone between the nipples and give 5 chest thrusts. Continue 5 back blows and chest thrusts till the foreign body is expelled. Stop the procedure if the child becomes unconscious.

Choking in an unconscious adult, infant or child. If person becomes unconscious perform (CRP) till the foreign body the person is choking on is expelled into his mouth from his throat or till medical help arrives.

Care for Heart Attack

If a person has persistence chest pain is discomfort with breathing difficulty, palpitation or sweating he might be having a Heart Attack(Cardio vascular Arrest) in such a case:

Convence the victim to stop activity and help him to rest comfortably. If he has a know case of heart disease and if his doctor has prescribed medicine like aspirin or sorbitrate you can give it to him. Shift the patient to the hospital as soon as possible.
In case the patient stops breathing or his heart stops beating administer CPR as explained erlier.

Care for Stroke

A person who is having a Stroke will have a sudden onset of weakness in one or more parts of his body, slurred speech, facial asymmetry or facial droop. In such an emergency , proper medical care has to be provided within four hours of onset of symptoms of a stroke to be effective. So make sure to:

Shift the patient to a hospital as soon as possible.
Do a CT scan of the brain. Medication needs to be given to dissolve the clot in the brain if there is one.

Care for Diabetic Emergency

Patient with Diabetic sometimes land up with very high or very low blood sugar levels leading to altered levels of sensonrium.

If a Diabetic patient is feeling out of sorts or is drowsy first check the blood glucose level if you have a glucometer. In case you do not have a glucometer, assume that the patient has a low blood sugar level in case he is drowsy.
If he is conscious you can give him a sweetened drink, glucose or something sweet to eat. If this improves his condition then it means that his blood sugar level were low causing drowsiness.
In case the patient is unconscious then do not give him anything to eat or drink. Instead put some glucose under his lips and see if his condition improves. If his condition does not improves take him to a hospital as soon as possible.

Care for a Wound/Fracture

Profuse bleeding can occur with deep cuts and severed blood vessels, which could put the victim in grave danger. If the victim is bleeding.

help the victim to lie down or to get comfortable. Cover the wound with a sterile cloth. Apply firm pressure over the wound using a gauze bandage or dressing. Elevate the bleeding part, unless there is pain due to a fracture.
Splinting an injury prevents further movement of the injured part and hence provides pain relief. Splint an injury in the position you find it.
Splint the injury area and the joints above and below the injury.
Folded blankets, towels pillows and a triangular bandage tied as a sling or folded as a cravat can be used as soft splints.
Check for feeling, warmth and color before and after applying the splint.

Care for Electric Shock

Electric current may makes a victim faint and stop the breathing/heart beating. While the electric shock may only show minor burns injury usually one at entry and one at exit it may damage tissues and internal organs. These are the steps to follow if someone gets in contact with electric current:

Immedeately stop the current/main switch and remove the victim away from electric wire with the help of a wooden/rubber object. Be careful while dragging the victim away from the current as you also have the risk of getting the shock.
Examine the victim for breathing and beating heart.
If the heart is not beating or the victim is not breathing, perform CPR as explained earlier.

Care for Burns

In the 1^st degree burns, Only the external layer of the skin is affected, while internal layers get burnt in the 2^nd degree burns. In the 3^rd degree burns even the muscles under the skin get affected and the nerves may also be damaged causing severe pain and shock.

In the event of major fire, try to stop the fire with the help of a blanket or thick cloth to be covered on the victim.
Dont pour water over the victim as the generated steam creates more damage.
Remove the burnt cloths, shoes, socks, jewels etc. as their removal later shall cause more wounds.
For 1st degree burns. keep the affected part dip in cold water for up to an hour or till the burning sensation subsides.
Never break the blisters as it may cause infections.
Get hospital care in 2^nd/3^rd degree burns for further care.

FASCINATING FACTS AND FIGURES

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Facts and Figures

Bits & Bytes

Microelectronics

Telecommunications

Mobile Telecommunications

Books

Newspapers & Magazines

At the heart of the information technology revolution is digitalisation : a process of converting information in all forms into the 0/1 on/off digital language of the computer. Each 0 or 1 is known as a binary digit - or bit - a term first used by Claude Shannon in the July 1948 issue of "Bell System Technical Journal".
A byte is eight bits. The term was invented by Werner Buchholz in the 1950s. Originally it stood for the smallest amount of data from which a computer could make a calculation
A kilobyte (KB) is 1,024 bytes.
A megabyte (MB) is 1,024 kilobytes.
A gigabyte (GB) is 1,024 megabytes.
A terabyte (TB) is 1,024 gigabytes.
A petabyte (PB) is 1,024 terabytes.
A exabyte (EB) is 1,024 petabytes.
A zettabyte (ZB) is 1,024 exabytes.
Bandwidth - the amount of information which can be carried on an electronic transmission system - is measured in terms of bits a second (bps) or (the same thing) baud, a term derived from the scientist Emile Baudot.
A lot of information needs to be converted from analogue form to digital signals (modulation) before it can be transmitted digitally and then, at the end of the network, reconverted from digital to analogue (demodulation) and, for this purpose, a device called a modem is used.
In the same way that a bit is the basic element of information, so a pixel - a term which comes from the words picture and element - is the basic level of graphics
A typical screen with 1,000 x 1,000 pixels in full colour needs 24 million bits of memory.
In the American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII), the letter A is represented in binary terms as the number 65 which is expressed as 01000001.

MICROELECTRONICS

The transistor - the origin of the semi-conductor or microelectronics industry - was invented in 1947 by Bell Laboratory scientists William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain.
The silicon integrated circuit which is more commonly known as the chip - a device containing many interconnected transistors - was invented simultaneously in 1959 at Fairchild Semiconductor by Robert Noyce and at Texas Instruments by Jack Kilby.
Moore's Law - first conceived in 1965 by Gordon Moore, later co-founder of Intel - predicts that on average the number of transistors on a microchip will double every 18 months and so far the 'Law' has proved valid.
Moore's second law - much less quoted - is that the cost of chip manufacturing doubles with each generation of chip.
The microprocessor - a special kind of chip that includes the functions of the central processing unit (CPU) of a computer - was first made by Intel in 1971 from a design by Marcian Hoff.
The first microprocessor in 1971 had 2,300 transistors.
The 1978 Intel 8086 microprocessor had 29,000 transistors and ran at 5MHz.
The 2003 Intel Pentium 4 microprocessor has 55 million transistors and runs at 3GHz (which is more than 600 times faster than the 8086).
The physical limit to the addition of transistors on a chip is expected to be reached in about 2010.

TELECOMMUNICATIONS

The telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876. He called his assistant Thomas Watson in the next room and announced: "Mr. Watson, come here. I want to see you".
Bell disliked the telephone and refused to have one in his study; when he died in 1922, every telephone served by the Bell system in the USA and Canada was silent for one minute.
In 1876, a Western Union internal memo noted : "This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is of no value to us".
In 1879, W. H. Preece, then Post Office Assistant Engineer in Chief, testified to a House of Commons Committee that, whatever the situation in the USA, Britain had little use of the telephone because : "Here we have a superabundance of messengers, errand boys and things of that kind" .
The automatic exchange was invented in 1889 by Kansas undertaker Almon B. Strowger as a means of preventing telephone operators from advising his rivals of the death of local citizens.
Optical fibre was invented in 1966 by two British scientists called Charles Kao and George Hockham working for the British company Standard Telecommunication Laboratories ("Power of Speech", Peter Young, 1983).
Optical transmission systems use miniature lasers smaller than a grain of salt which generate signals which pass down glass fibre as fine as human hair and travel at the fastest speed known to physics, the speed of light which is 186,281 miles per second.
Most satellite communications systems utilise transponders circling in a geo-stationary orbit which is 22,240 miles above the earth's surface and, at this height, these satellites appear to be stationary above the earth's surface - such satellites can cost $60 million to build but only three of them are needed to cover all of the earth's surface.
The Samaritans' telephone service for potential suicides was introduced in 1953 following an article in "Picture Post" by the Rev Chad Varah on the subject of sex; a number of those who subsequently wrote to him wanted to end it all.
A "hotline" between the White House and the Kremlin was not instituted until 1963; even then, it was only a teleprinter link and not until 1984 was a telephone connection installed.
The NASDAQ stock exchange in the USA - a world centre of capitalism - was totally disabled in December 1987 when a squirrel burrowed through a telephone line.

MOBILE TELECOMMUNICATIONS

The mobile phone was invented by a team led by Martin Cooper at Motorola in 1973. It weighed two kilos and the battery life was a mere 20 minutes.
In 1998, for the first time worldwide the number of new mobile telephones exceeded the number of new fixed telephones.
Sometime in 2003, the total number of mobile telephones worldwide exceeded the total number of fixed telephones.
The first text message to be sent by mobile telephone was sent on 3 December 1992 when messaging engineer Neil Papworth of British technology company Sema sent the (premature) greeting "Merry Christmas" to Richard Jarvis, a director of mobile company Vodafone.
Each short message service (SMS) text can be up to 160 characters in length when Latin alphabets are employed and 70 characters when non-Latin alphabets such as Arabic and Chinese are used.

BOOKS

Before Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press in 1438, there were only about 30,000 books throughout the whole of Europe, nearly all Bibles or biblical commentary.
The printing press was introduced to Britain by William Caxton in 1468.
By 1500, there were more than 9 million books on all sorts of topics.
All material published prior to 1501 is known collectively as incunabula.
Today there are over 24 million books in the US Library of Congress alone.
The world's libraries now store well over 100 million original volumes.
Iceland publishes more books per head of population than any other country in the world.
The world's biggest book store is a virtual one : amazon.com holds some 2.5 million titles.
Jean-Dominique Bauby, a French journalist suffering from 'locked in syndrome', wrote the book "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" by blinking his left eyelid - the only part of his body that could move.
The temperature at which book paper catches fire and burns is 451°F or 233°C.
The printed version of the "Encyclopaedia Britannica" ran to 32 volumes weighing about 60 kilos and occupying 5 feet of shelf length, whereas the CD-ROM version consisted of two discs weighing 179 grams and occupying just 1 inch of shelf space - and it cost 1/7 of the price.
The "Encyclopaedia Britannica" - a word of 44 million words - used to be available in 32 volumes at around £3,000, then became available on two CD-ROMs for £99, and is now available on-line for free.
The Braille system, which enables blind people to read, is named after the Frenchman Louis Braille who was blind from the age of three and devised the six-dot embossed code on which the system is based.
The British system of Braille, which dates from 1868, only uses lower case and there is now a debate about introducing capitalisation which would add up to 10% to the length of documents and books.

NEWSPAPERS & MAGAZINES

Paper as we know it was invented in AD 185 by a Chinaman called Cai Lun who used the inner bark of the mulberry tree for fibre.
The most famous headline in the "New York Post" was "Headless Body Found In Topless Bar".
One celebrated copy of the "New York Times" contained 1,612 pages and 12 million words which is more data than a person living in the 17th century would have encountered in a lifetime.
An analysis of more than 2 million cuttings from all the main British national and regional daily newspapers found that there are 15 times more items of bad news than those of good news.
In a move described as changing journalism forever, the first case of a newspaper 'scooping' itself occurred on 28 February 1997 when the "Dallas Morning News" reported on the Internet - a full day before it appeared in print - that Timothy McVeigh, a suspect in the Oklahoma City bombing, had confessed to the crime ("Independent", 11.3.97).

MUSIC

Our current notational system for music was developed by Guido d'Arrezo in the 10th century.
The phonograph - the first machine that could both record and reproduce sound - was invented by Thomas Edison in 1877.
In 1896, the American Thaddeus Cahill filed a patent on the "art of and apparatus for generating and distributing music electronically" and until 1914 Cahill's Telharmoniums fed music signals down AT&T's telephone lines in New York.
The LP - long playing record - was invented when sound engineer Paul Goldmark perfected microgrooves in 1948.
The digital compact disc (CD) was launched in the UK in 1983.
Sales of CDs surpassed those of vinyl in the UK in 1988.
Sales of CDs exceeded 1.8 billion worldwide in 2002.
Sales of singles in the UK fell by 14% in 2003 to 65 million - hit by CDs and down-loads.
MP3 - short for Motion Picture Experts Group 1 Layer 3 - is a format for encoding and compressing music for electronic storage and distribution and provides a quality close to that of a CD.
According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, in January 2004 there were some 900M illegal MP3 music files available on the Net offered by 6.3M users of peer-to-peer software.
In the last week of 2004, UK downloads of singles exceeded CD and vinyl sales for the first time.

RADIO

Radio was invented by Guglielmo Marconi in 1896.
On 31 October 1938, the 23-year old actor Orson Welles caused consternation in the USA with his dramatic radio broadcast of the H G Wells novel "The War of the Worlds" - many Americans were convinced that Martians had landed.
The first commercial transister radio was the Regency TR1 which went on the market in the USA in 1954.
When Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic stopped the independent radio station B-92 from off-air broadcasting in December 1996, the station continued to advise the world on the anti-government demonstrations by providing digital broadcasts using audio Internet links and its Web site.

TELEVISION

The first man to show true television pictures was John Logie Baird in 1926.
Britain's television service was suspended for defence reasons in 1939, ending - without explanation - midway through a Mickey Mouse cartoon.
Britain's television service was resumed in 1946 when Leslie Mitchell - in typical English fashion - commented : "As I was saying before we were so rudely interrupted" .
In 1946, Daryl F. Zanuck, Head of 20th Century Fox, stated : "People will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night".
In the Kingdom of Bhutan, televisions were only allowed in 1999.
Today the world has three analogue television standards: the USA and Japan uses National Television Systems Committee (NTSC), most of the Europe uses Phase Alternating Line (PAL), and France uses SEquential Couleur Avec Memoire (SECAM).
In Britain, the largest public service broadcaster is the BBC which employs 27,000 people and has an annual turnover of more than £3 billion.

CINEMA

The first film presented publicly on screen was "La Sortie des Ouvriere des l'Usine Lumière" which was shown by Auguste and Louis Lumiere in Paris in 1895.
The first film to use sound was "The Jazz Singer" released in 1927 and the first words heard - spoken by Al Jolson - were: "Wait a minute, you ain't heard nothing yet".
There are now about 140,000 cinemas around the world.
Around 50% of the films made in the USA never achieve a cinema release.
India produces more films each year - around 800 or twice the output of Hollywood - than any other country.
The largest screen projection system in the world is the Canadian-pioneered IMAX system which uses 65mm film to project an image five storeys high.
Disney's "Toy Story" was the first-ever full-length animated feature created entirely by artists using computer technology - it lasted 77 minutes and cost $30 million.
The loudest film in cinema history was "Armageddon", the climax of which scored a record 110 decibels compared to the recommended maximum noise level in the US of 87.
The most expensive film ever made, James Cameron's "Titanic" which cost $200 million, was also the most successful, in the sense that it won 11 Academy Awards equalling "Ben Hur" in 1959. Later, "The Lord Of The Ring; The Return Of The King" also won 11 Oscars.
A complete feature film is at least 1.5 terabytes which makes it difficult to move around as a whole between different post-production houses, but some 30 companies have come together to develop a wide area network called Sohonet which uses asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) technology to link production houses in the Soho area, outside London, and in Hollywood.
The first film made for the Web was a $3 million 30-minute comedy called "Quantum Project" directed by Eugenio Zanetti in 2000.
The first film shot entirely on digital cameras was "Star Wars: Attack Of The Clones" directed by George Lucas in 2001.

ELECTRONIC GAMES

The first real electronic game - on a digital computer with a CRT - was called Spacewars and it was programmed in 1961 by Steve Russell at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The first video game arcade machine was called Computer Space (an arcade version of the previously-mentioned Spacewars) and it was bulit by Nolan Bushnell in 1971.
The first truly portable games console was the Nintendo Gameboy which has now sold more than 70 million copies worldwide.
The first-generation electronic game machines were 8-bit, the dominant console was the Japanese Nintendo Entertainment System, and the most popular character was Nintendo's mustachioed Italian plumber Mario.
The second-generation electronic game machines were 16-bit, the dominant console was the Japanese Sega Megadrive, and the most popular character was Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog.
The third-generation electronic game machines were 32-bit, the dominant console was the Japanese Sony Playstation, and the most popular character was Lara Croft from Eidos's Tomb Raider games which was not exclusive to the Playstation.
The fourth-generation electronic game machines were 64-bit and the dominant console was the Japanese Nintendo N64.
The fifth and latest generation electronic games machine is 128-bit and the rival consoles are Sony's Playstation 2, Nintendo's GameCube and Microsoft's Xbox.

COMPUTERS

In 1943, IBM chief Thomas Watson said there were would only ever be enough demand for five computers in the world.
The world's first computer was called Colossus and developed by the British Government during the Second World War. Design started in March 1943. By December 1943, all the various circuits were working and the 1,500 valve Mark 1 Colossus was dismantled, shipped up to Bletchley Park, and assembled in F Block over Christmas 1943. The Mark 1 was operational in January 1944 and successful on its first test against a real enciphered message tape. [For further information click here]
The world's first private electronic computer was completed in 1946 at the University of Pennsylvania and called the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator (ENIAC); in one second, it could make 5,000 additions, but it contained no less than 17,468 thermionic valves, it was 8 feet high by 80 feet long, and it weighed 30 tons.
The most famous computer in the world never existed: HAL 9000 in the 1968 Stanley Kubrick film "2001: A Space Odyssey".
Contrary to popular mythology, the name HAL was not derived by the one-letter displacement from IBM, but comes from Heuristic ALgorithmic.
"Time" magazine's "Man of the Year" for 1982 was not a man at all but a machine - the computer.
In late 2002, a 10-strong team of Japanese computer specialists ran a computer program which took five years to design for a a total of 400 hours at the top speed of two trillion calculations a second to work out the value of pi - the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. They calculated the value to 1.2411 trillion places, a figure that would stretch around the world 500 times.
In 2010, the world's fastest supercomputer was a Chinese machine called Tianhe-1A which was capable of 2.507 petaflops a second, that is 2,507 trillion calculations each second.
Every year, the $2,000 Loebner price is awarded to the computer system that can communicate most convincingly as a human. $100,000 is on offer to the first computer program that meets the Turing Test - named after the British cryptographer Alan Turing - which would be achieved if a computer could communicate with a human without the human knowing it is a machine.
The QWERTY keyboard - used by virtually all typewriters, word processors and computers- was invented in 1872 by the American James Densmore as a means of slowing down the speed of typing so that the rollers on early typewriters would not jam.
The mouse - the graphical input device for personal computers - was christened by Doug Englebart & English in 1965 in their book "Computer Aided Display".
Jane Alexander of the National Endowment of the Arts in the USA has argued that only a man would have called the device a mouse.
The correct German word for a mouse - the computer device and not the animal - is "rollkugeleingabegerat" which literally means 'roller-ball-entering device' ("Guardian", 5.2.98).
The first truly personal computer was invented in 1975.
In 1977, Ken Olson, President of the Digital Equipment Corporation, proclaimed : "There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in their home".
In 1986, the first ever computer virus ended up on a 5.25" floppy disk. The virus was called Brain and it was created by Basit and Amjad in Lahore, Pakistan.
In 1994, in the USA, sales of computers to homes exceeded sales of computers to businesses.
In 2002, the world computer industry shipped its one billionth PC.
Most computers use proprietary software where vendors provide to users only executable binary code and not the human readable source from which that code is derived.
More than 80% of the world's personal computers contain Microsoft's MS-DOS or Windows operating systems.
Open source software is software where the source code is freely distributed with the right to modify the code and on the condition that retribution is not restricted.
The defining moment for open source software was in October 1991 when Linus Torvalds, then a young student at the University of Helsinki, first released his propotype Linux software.

THE INTERNET

The Internet was originally called the ARPAnet because it began with the US Department of Defense's Advanced Research Projects Agency in 1969.
The Internet was born on 20 October 1969 with the first transmission of data (only two letters L and O - the system crashed when the G of LOGIN was entered from a computer at the University of California to another one at a research centre at Stanford near San Francisco.
Today's name, the Internet, comes from the two protocols which provide a common language for the inter-operation between computer networks: Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP).
The "Father of the Internet" is Vint Cerf who - together with Bob Kahn - published "A Protocol For Packet Network Internetworking" in 1974.
The Internet protocols TCP/IP came into operation on 1 January 1983.
The Internet protocols are available for anyone to use without a licence, payment or permission.
Nobody owns the Internet, runs it, maintains it, or acts as gatekeeper or regulator.
The first - temporary - Internet link outside the USA was to Brighton, England in 1973 for a conference on computing.
The UK connected to the Internet in 1989.
Arguably the Internet 'took off' in 1993 when its use doubled to more than 25 million people.
The invisible world inhabited by the Internet is often termed 'cyberspace', the origination of the word variously attributed to the writer Vernor Vinge in his 1981 novella "True Names" or to the writer William Gibson in his 1984 novel "Neuromancer".
The term "surfing the Internet" was coined by Jean Armour Polly in 1992.
"We've all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true". (Professor Robert Wilensky, quoted in "Observer", 28.12.97).
The first film to use a reference to the Internet in its title was "The Net", a thriller in which a computer programmer played by actress Sandra Bullock has her identity wiped out electronically.
The Vatican is considering making St Isidore of Seville - who created the world's first database 1,400 years ago - the patron saint of the Internet.
The UK has 700 Internet service providers.

ELECTRONIC MAIL

The first electronic mail was sent between two machines sometime in the Autumn of 1972 by Ray Tomlinson, chief engineer with Bolt Beranek & Newman Technologies and the content was probaly the single phrase "QWERTYUIOP" (the letters making up the top line of the standard keyboard).
The separation of the name of the user from the name of the machine on which the user is working by the @ sign in all e-mail addresses was the idea of Ray Tomlinson sometime in 1972.
The earliest known use of the @ sign - technically known as the amphora - was in a letter written by a Florentine merchant on 4 May 1536 when the sign represented a measure of capacity based on the terracotta jars used to transport grain and liquid in the ancient Mediterranean world.
The first instance of 'spam' (unsolicited e-mail) is believed to have been an announcement of a product presentation sent on 3 May 1978 by a Digital Equipment Corporation salesman to several hundred scientists and reseachers on the ARPAnet.
The first instance of the use of the word 'spam' to label such unsolicited e-mail occurred on 31 March 1993 when Usenet administrator Richard Depew inadvertently posted the same message 200 times to a discussion group and, adopting a term previously used in online text games, outraged Usenet users branded the excessive message posting 'spam'.
The idea of using "emoticons" - symbols that indicate certain emotions - in e-mail was made by Kevin MacKenzie in 1979.
The 1996 novel "E-Mail" by Stephanie D Fletcher consists entirely of e-mail communications between users of a fictional LuxNet Adult Topics Bulletin Board.
In 1996, for the first time, more messages were carried in America by e-mail than by the US Postal Service.
In the two weeks after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales in August 1997, 580,000 e-mail messages of sympathy - compared to 500,000 letters - were received by Buckingham Palace.

THE WORLD WIDE WEB

The word "hypertext" was coined well before the invention of the World Wide Web by Ted Nelson who first came up with the idea in an article written in 1965, before developing it in a book called "Literary Machines" in 1981 [I once met Ted Nelson at an Internet meeting in Paris].
BT claims to have invented hyperlinks - one of the building blocks of the World Wide Web - in the
1970s as part of its Prestel videotext system and originally sought patents in 1976, but it failed in an attempt to enforce this view in the US courts.
The World Wide Web - the graphical part of the Internet - was invented by a British scientist, Tim Berners-Lee in 1989 while he was working at the European Centre for Nuclear Research (CERN).
Web pages use a special language called Hypertext Markup Language (HTML).
The World Wide Web only took off in 1993 when Marc Andreessen, a 23 year old programmer, and his colleagues at the University of Illinois, came up with multi-media Web browser called Mosaic which is now commercialised as the Netscape Navigator.
In a similar way that Britain is the only country which does not place its name on its stamps because it invented the postage stamp, so most American Web sites do not carry an identifying country tag.
Around 80% of all the information on the World Wide Web is in the English language.
The wiki - a web page that can be written and edited by any Net user - was invented in 1995 by Ward Cunningham.
Wikipedia - the online encyclopaedia written and edited by Net users themselves - was invented in 2001 by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger.
The largest on-line auction site eBay started in 1995 when founder Pierre Omidyar posted for sale a broken laser printer and someone bid $15.
Google - easily the best search engine on the Web - was launched in September 1998 by two Stanford University PhD students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin.
Google takes its name from the word 'googol' which is the number represented by one followed by 100 zeros, a term coined by the American mathematician E. Kasner.
Google indexes six billion pages in 182 languages and conducts over 200 million searches a day.

THE INFORMATION AGE

The first use of the term "paperless office" appeared in a headline in 1973 in a trade publications for telephone companies.
Paper consumption continues to double every four years and, even in the USA, 95% of all information remains as paper with just 1% stored electronically.
Half of the 1,300 managers surveyed in the United States, Britain, Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore complained of information overload and more and more managers are suffering from "information fatigue syndrome" (IFS) which involves such symptoms as "paralysis of analytical capacity" ("Dying For Information?", Reuters Business Information).
Information overload is a particular problem for those who know English since this one language accounts for:
60% of all radio broadcasts
70% of addressed mail
80% of data transfers
85% of international telephone calls
The total number of English words on the official list of the game Scrabble - based on Chamber's dictionary - is 143,000; the vocabulary of an average educated British adult is estimated at 15,000 words; the vocabulary of American teenagers, as monitored on telephone conversations during US research, is 1,000 words or fewer.
By the beginning of the 1990s, a Hallmark greeting card embedded with a microchip allowing it to play "Happy Birthday" contained more computing power than existed on the entire planet in the early 1950s.
Today the modern living room contains more computing power than was used to land Neil Armstrong on the moon in 1969 but, unlike the Apollo 11, there is no co-ordination.
The most spectacular information superhighway robbery is believed in 1994, to be the electronic theft of $10.6 million from accounts at America's Citibank, the alleged perpetrator being a 29 year old Russian computer expert called Vladimir Levin who has never visited the USA and carried out the entire operation from his keyboard in St Petersburg.
In 1997, Richard Pryce, a 16 year-old English schoolboy studying computer studies, was said in US Congressional hearings to have done more damage to the Pentagon than the KGB because he hacked into military computers in the United States on at least 200 occasions using a £750 computer from his North London address.

Crying is not a solution

2012-04-06T01:02:00.002+05:30

Crying is not a solution for all problems, i want to tel you that u are best, yes keep this in your mind........!!!

I know y im writing this and i know why you are reading this..........!!! but if u dont know then dont proceed further..

Sometimes it so happens that you are alone at d time of failure and you tend to mingle with people u love so that you want to share your sorrow with them but its a big mistake, coz u love them but they wont love you....! Share only your Happiness not your Sorrow......
You must be a unique person, follow your own style even in time of your failure, Dont ask for solutions for your failures with your close ones, you analyse yourself...!! Trying is hard but dont give up, Even water has capacity to curl rock over a period of time...!! Time changes everything & you can do anything until u have interest in it...!!
Love what you do, do what u love...!!! everyone wont get chance to do what they wished and you may get into thing which u never liked, when your in this situation, you have to help yourself seeking to getting out of that as soon as possible and do what you liked, instead crying wont help you...!!

You may have plenty of friends but dont believe in anyone coz all are not same in all the times every one are Humans and each one have their own life and situation changes according to time and condition...!! Believe in yourself "ur urs best friend" unless u have a true caring heart to listen to your sorrow...!! (i dont need to tel what is caring heart means ~~lover~~ )

Life teaches u everything when u think alone, youl know who u are when u are alone, so y u want solutions from others who is not ready to be with you...????

Last ill tel u something, "do anything but do in your style", dont care for anyone do anything if u like... failure is not when u loose, it is when u cant come out of it..
Love till end but dont expect returns...Love your failure to make positive out of it...

Zoroastrianism

2012-04-04T23:48:00.000+05:30

I was collecting information(history) about Pre-Indians(Aryan's) who is basically people from central Asia, who later settled in northern part of India, but when i reading about them, i noticed some strange word Zoroastrianism, and then i red about Zoroastrian's, were many of them have no information about them, so i thought of sharing it, so it took nearly 10day's for me to write this article. if you have time and interest read else don't coz it's dry for some of them.........

Zoroastrian

Zoroastrianism
The ancient pre-Islamic religion of Iran that survives there in isolated areas and, more prosperously, in India, where the descendants of Zoroastrian Iranian (Persian) immigrants are known as Parsis, or Parsees. In India the religion is called Parsiism.
Founded by the Iranian prophet and reformer Zoroaster in the 6th century BC, the religion contains both monotheistic and dualistic features. It influenced the other major Western religons—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
The ancient Greeks saw in Zoroastrianism the archetype of the dualistic view of the world and of man's destiny. Zoroaster was supposed to have instructed Pythagoras in Babylon and to have inspired the Chaldean doctrines of astrology and magic. It is likely that Zoroastrianism influenced the development of Judaism and the birth of Christianity.
The Christians, following a Jewish tradition, identified Zoroaster with Ezekiel, Nimrod, Seth, Balaam, and Baruch, and even, through the latter, with Christ himself. On the other hand, Zoroaster, as the presumed founder of astrology and magic, could be considered the arch-heretic. In more recent times the study of Zoroastrianism has played a decisive part in reconstructing the religion and social structure of the Indo-European peoples.
Though Zoroastrianism was never, even in the thinking of its founder, as aggressively monotheistic as, for instance, Judaism or Islām, it does represent an original attempt at unifying under the worship of one supreme god a polytheistic religion comparable to those of the ancient Greeks, Latins, Indians, and other early peoples.

History
Pre-Zoroastrian Iranian religion
The religion of Iran before the time of Zoroaster is not directly accessible, for there are no reliable sources more ancient than the prophet himself. It has to be studied indirectly on the basis of later documents and by a comparative approach. The language of Iran is closely akin to that of northern India, and hence the people of the two lands probably had common ancestors—the Indo-Iranians, or Aryans. The religion of the latter has been reconstructed by means of common elements contained in the sacred books of Iran and India: mainly the Avesta and the Vedas. Both collections exhibit the same kind of polytheism, with many of the same gods, notably the Indian Mitra (the Iranian Mithra), the cult of fire, sacrifice by means of a sacred liquor (soma in India, in Iran haoma), and other parallels. There is, moreover, a list of Aryan gods in a treaty concluded about 1380 BC between the Hittite emperor and the king of Mitanni. The list includes Mitra and Varuṇa, Indra, and the two Nāsatyas. All of these gods also are found in the Vedas, but only the first one in the Avesta, except that Indra and Nāñhaithya appear in the Avesta as demons; Varuṇa may have survived under another name. Important changes, then, must have taken place on the Iranian side, not all of which can be attributed to the prophet.
The Indo-Iranians appear to have distinguished, from among their gods, the daiva (Indo-Iranian and Old Persian equivalent of Avestan daeva and Sanskrit deva, related to the Latin deus), meaning “heavenly,” and the asura, a special class with occult powers. This situation was reflected in Vedic India; later on, asura came to signify, in Sanskrit, a kind of demon, because of the baleful aspect of the asura's invisible power. In Iran the evolution must have been different: the ahuras were extolled, to the exclusion of the daevas, who were reduced to the rank of demons.

The reformation of Zoroaster
Zoroaster (Zarathushtra) was a priest of a certain ahura (Avestan equivalent of Sanskrit asura) with the epithet mazdā, “wise,” whom Zoroaster mentions once in his hymns with “the [other] ahuras.” Similarly, Darius I (522–486) and his successors worshipped Auramazda (Ahura Mazdā) “and the other gods who exist” or “Ahura Mazdā, the greatest god.” The two historically related facts are evidently parallel: on both sides the rudiments of monotheism are present, though in a more elaborate form with the prophet Zoroaster.
It has not yet been possible to place Zoroaster's hymns, the Gāthās, in their historical context. Not a single place or person mentioned in them is known from any other source. Vishtāspa, the prophet's protector, can only be the namesake of the father of Darius, the Achaemenid king. All that may safely be said is that Zoroaster lived somewhere in eastern Iran, far from the civilized world of western Asia, before Iran became unified under Cyrus II the Great. If the Achaemenids ever heard of him, they did not see fit to mention his name in their inscriptions nor did they allude to the beings who surrounded the great god and were later to be called the amesha spentas, or “bounteous immortals”—an essential feature of Zoroaster's doctrine.
Religion under the Achaemenids was in the hands of the Magi, whom Herodotus describes as a Median tribe with special customs, such as exposing the dead, fighting evil animals, and interpreting dreams. Again, the historical connection with Zoroaster—whom Herodotus also ignores—is a hazy one. It is not known when Zoroaster's doctrine reached western Iran, but it must have been before the time of Aristotle (384–322), who alludes to its dualism.
Darius, when he seized power in 522, had to fight a usurper, Gaumata the Magian, who pretended to be Bardiya, the son of Cyrus the Great and brother of the king Cambyses. This Magian had destroyed cultic shrines, āyadanas, which Darius restored. One possible explanation of these events is that Gaumata had adopted Zoroastrianism, a doctrine that relied on the allegiance of the common people, and therefore destroyed temples or altars to deities of the nobility. Darius, who owed his throne to the support of some noblemen, could not help favouring their cult, although he adopted Auramazda as a means of unifying his empire.
Xerxes, successor to Darius, mentioned in one of his inscriptions how at a certain (unnamed) place he substituted the worship of Auramazda for that of the daivas, which does not mean he opposed the daeva cult as such, as a true Zoroastrian would have done, but only that he eradicated somewhere—probably in Babylon—the cult of deities alien to the religion of the ahuras. It points to a change of attitude, compared with Cyrus' tolerance of alien religions, such as the Babylonian or the Jewish religions.
From Artaxerxes II (404–359/358) onward, the inscriptions mention, besides Auramazda, Mithra and the goddess Anahita (Anahit), which proves only a change of emphasis, not the appearance of new deities.

The Arsacid period
In consequence of Alexander's conquest, the Iranian religion was almost totally submerged by the wave of Hellenism. At Susa, for instance, which had been one of the capital cities of the Achaemenids but where the religion of Auramazda was not indigenous, the coinage of the Seleucid and Arsacid periods does not represent a single Iranian deity.
Then the Iranian religion gradually emerged again. In Commagene in the middle of the 1st century BC, gods bear combinations of Greek and Iranian names: Zeus Oromazdes, Apollo Mithra, Helios Hermes, Artagnes Herakles Ares. The first proof of the use of a Zoroastrian calendar, implying the official recognition of Zoroastrianism, is found some 40 years earlier at Nisa (near modern Ashkhabad in Soviet Turkmenistan). By then some form of orthodoxy must have been established in which Auramazda and the entities (powers surrounding him) adjoin other gods such as Mithra, the Sun, and the Moon.
In Persis (modern Fars), from the beginning of the Christian Era to the advent of the Sāsānians (early 3rd century AD), any allusion to the fire cult disappears. The coins seem to indicate, in not showing the fire altar, that the prince had lost interest in the Iranian religion.

The Sasanian period
With Ardashīr, the future founder of the Sāsānian dynasty, the situation was different; and this may suggest that his religious zeal—as a hereditary priest of Staxr (Istaxr)—may have helped him seize power in his native province, even before he started attacking his Arsacid suzerain, Artabanus V.
Two persons are recorded, in different sources, as helping to establish Zoroastrianism under the first Sāsānians: Kartēr and Tansar. Whereas Kartēr is known through contemporary inscriptions, most of which were written by himself, Tansar (or Tosar) is only remembered in later books. The latter tell us that Tansar, an ehrpat, or theologian, undertook the task, under Ardashīr's command, of collecting the sacred texts and fixing the canon. Kartēr, who was already active under Ardashīr I but more so under Shāpūr and his successors, recounted his brilliant career, which reflects the birth of a hierarchy. He was still an ehrpat under Shāpūr, as he restored the “Mazdean religion . . . in the land of non-Iran reached by the horses and men of the king of kings.” Under Hormizd he was made “magupat of Ormazd,” a term apparently created for him and meaning “chief of the Magians of Auramazda.” Under Bahrām I (AD 273–276), Mani, the founder of Manichaeism, who had enjoyed a degree of tolerance under the two preceding kings, was sacrificed to the interests of Zoroastrianism and died in prison. Bahrām II named Kartēr “Saviour of the Soul of Bahrām,” elevated him to the rank of the “grandees of the realm,” and gave him the additional titles of “judge of the empire,” “master of rites,” and “ruler of the fire of Anahit-Ardashīr at Staxr and of Anahit the Dame.” Promoted to the apex of his career, Kartēr persecuted “Jews, Buddhists, Brahmins, Nasoreans [Judeo-Christians?], Christians, Maktaks [Mandeans, Manichaeans?], and Zandīks [Mazdean heretics].” Narses (293–302), who began his struggle for power when Bahrām II was still on the throne, seems to have recovered the title of chief of the Staxr temple that his predecessor and adversary had surrendered to Kartēr. Under Shāpūr II, the high priest Aturpāt, at a council summoned to fix the text of the Avesta, proved the truth of his doctrine by submitting to the ordeal of molten metal poured on his breast and was victorious over all kinds of sectarians and heretics.
Under Bahrām V (420–438), presumably, the title magupatān magupat (chief magus of the chief magi) was created. Under Qobād (or Kavādh; 488–496 and 498/499–531), Iran traversed its gravest social and religious crisis under the impact of Mazdak. This reformer, whose doctrines were partly inspired by those of Mani, was granted an interview by Qobād—as Shāpūr I had received Mani a long time before, but with a more decisive success. Perhaps the King hoped that by abolishing property and the family he would reign over a docile mass. The Mazdakites favoured the abolition of all social inequalities, chiefly of private property, the main cause of all hatred. Everything was to be held in common, including women. These views directly threatened the rich as well as the Mazdean clergy, who soon understood this. Qobād was dethroned and replaced by his brother Jāmāsp. After two years in exile, Qobād recovered his throne, but he had been cured of his egalitarian views and decided to liquidate the Mazdakites.
Khosrow I continued the work of his father, Qobād, and thus the Mazdakite upheaval made way for a strong state and an established Mazdean Church. The religious books give Khosrow the unique title of Anōsharvan, “with the immortal soul,” probably for having crushed Mazdakism and for enabling the “good religion” to triumph.
Khosrow II (590/591–628) married a Christian woman and may have been a Christian himself. He was superstitious and dabbled in astrology.

Post-Islāmic Iranian Zoroastrianism
Islām won a decisive victory at al-Qādisīyah in 635 over the armies of Yazdegerd III, the last Sāsānid. Islām, in principle, tolerated the ancient religion, but conversions by persuasion or force were massive in many provinces. Zoroastrianism fomented rebellion and brought persecutions upon itself. There were pockets of survival, notably in Persis, the ancient centre of the Achaemenian and Sāsānian empires. Books were produced to save the essentials of the religion from a threatened disaster. The disaster did occur but exactly why and how is not known. Zoroastrians, called Gabars by the Muslims, survived in Iran as a persecuted minority in small enclaves at Yazd and Kerman.

The Parsis in India
From the 10th century onward, groups of Zoroastrians emigrated to India, where they found asylum in Gujarāt. Their connection with their coreligionists in Iran seems to have been almost totally broken until the end of the 15th century. Reestablished in 1477, the connection was kept up chiefly in the form of an exchange of letters until 1768. Under British rule, the Parsis, who previously had been humble agriculturists, started to enrich themselves through commerce, then through industry. They became a most prosperous and “modern” community, centred in Bombay. Formerly they had adopted the language (Gujarati) and the dress of their Hindu milieu. Later they adopted British customs, British dress, the education of girls, and the abolition of child marriage. In their enterprises as well as in their charities they followed the example of the West. From the 19th century on, they were able to help their less favoured brethren in Iran, either through gifts or through intervention with the government.
They also adapted themselves to their Indian culture by minimizing what was repugnant to the Hindus, namely, blood sacrifice; and they surrendered to some extent to the vogue of astrology and to theosophy. On the other hand, ever since they were attacked by Christian missionaries for their dualism, they have been emphasizing the monotheistic aspect of their doctrine.

Beliefs and mythology
Only the hymns, or Gāthās, are attributable to Zoroaster. They are written in various metres and in a dialect different from the rest of the Avesta, except for seven chapters, chiefly in prose, that appear to have been composed shortly after the prophet's demise. All these texts are embedded in the Yasna, which is one of the main divisions of the Avesta and is recited by the priests during the ceremony of the same name, meaning “sacrifice.” The Visp-rat (“All the Judges”) is a Yasna augmented here and there by additional invocations and offerings to the ratus (lords) of the different classes of beings. The Vidēvdāt, or Vendidad (“Law Rejecting the Daevas”), consists of two introductory sections recounting how the law was given to man, followed by 18 sections of rules. The Siroza enumerates the deities presiding over the 30 days of the month. The Yashts (hymns) are each addressed to one of 21 deities such as Mithra, Anahita, or Verethraghna. The Hadhoxt Nask (“Section Containing Sayings”) describes the fate of the soul after death. The Khūrda Avesta, or Small Avesta, is made up of minor texts.
The Avesta is, therefore, a collection of texts compiled in successive stages until it was completed under the Sāsānians. It was then about four times larger than what has survived. A summary of its 21 books, or Nasks (of which only one is preserved as such in the Vidēvdāt), is given in one of the main treatises written during the brief Zoroastrian renascence under Islām in the 9th century; the Dēnkart, the “Acts of the Religion.” It is written in Pahlavi, the language of the Sāsānians.
Other works in Pahlavi include, besides a translation and commentary on the Avesta, the Bundahishn (“Primal Creation”), a cosmology. Most Pahlavi books are anonymous, such as Mēnōk-i Khrat (“Spirit of Wisdom”), a lucid summary of a doctrine based on reason, and the Book of Artāy Virāf, which describes Virāf's descent into the netherworld as well as heaven and hell and the pleasures and pains awaiting the virtuous and the wicked. There are also a few signed works, such as those of the two brothers Zātspram and Mānushchihr, or Mardān-Farrukh's Shkand-Gumānīk Vichār (“Final Dispelling of Doubts”), an apology of the Mazdean religion directed against Manichaeism, Christianity, Judaism, and Islām.
Finally, there are Zoroastrian books written in Persian, either in verse or in prose. The latter include the correspondence exchanged between Zoroastrians of Iran and India and the treatise entitled ʾOlemā-ye Islām (“The Doctors of Islām”), with decidedly Zurvanite tendencies.

God
Zoroaster's silence on Mithra is not easy to interpret. Since this god was closely associated with Varuṇa in India and with Varuṇa's likely substitute in Iran, Zoroaster can hardly have ignored one-half of this divine pair without a definite purpose. Otherwise, it might be presumed that Mithra was included in the formula “Mazdā and the [other] ahuras”; however, Mithra is called in the Later Avesta (non-Gāthic) an ahura; so is Apām Napāt, a fire or brightness in the waters, corresponding to the Vedic Apām Napāt. As for Verethraghna (the entity or spirit of victory), it seems that since he took over the function of Indra, who was a daeva, he could not be called an ahura; but in order to mark his belonging to the world of ahuras he was called ahuradāta, “created by an ahura.”
It is in the framework of the religion of the ahuras, hostile to the cult of the daevas, that Zoroaster's message should be understood. He emphasized the central importance of his god, the wise Ahura, by portraying him with an escort of entities, the powers of all the other gods, in an array against the forces of evil.
The moral dualism expressed in the opposition Asha–Druj (truth–falsehood) goes back at least to Indo-Iranian times, for the Veda knows it too, as ṛta-druh, although the contrast is not as sharply defined as in the Avesta. Between these two principles, the Twin Spirits made an ominous choice, the Bounteous One becoming in thoughts, words, and deeds a partisan of Asha, ashavan, while the other became dregvant, partisan of the Druj. After them it was the daevas' turn; they all chose wrongly. Ever since, the daevas have tried to corrupt man's choice also.
To the army of the ashavans, headed by the Bounteous Spirit, was counterposed the host of the dregvants, under the Destructive Spirit, Angra Mainyu. Each combatant faced his exact counterpart: the Good Mind opposing the Bad Mind and Aramaiti being countered by Taromaiti.
In this battle, the whole material universe is, through the entities, potentially enrolled, the Bounteous Spirit being the patron of man, Asha of fire, the Good Mind of the Ox, the Dominion of the metals, Aramaiti of the earth, Integrity and Immortality of the waters and plants. Moreover, since the entities are at once divine and human (because both the spiritual and material qualities of man partake of divine), everyone faithful to the wise Ahura can commune with him.
After Zoroaster, considerable changes occurred in the theology he had professed. The entities were reduced to mere deities, which were even separated into male and female. Never again were their names used to designate human faculties. This is probably a consequence of the resurgence of the ancient gods.
It is not known to what extent Zoroaster's system was meant to be exclusively the cult of Ahura Mazdā. In the Later Avesta all the gods he had ignored emerged again, such as Mithra, Airyaman (whom he had replaced by Sraosha), Anahita, Apām Napāt, Verethraghna, and Vayu. This vast pantheon, still nominally headed by Ahura Mazdā, is similar to the compromise that Darius, according to the interpretation cited above, made between the cult of Auramazda and that of the gods of the nobility.
Not only did Zoroaster's theology thus lose its exclusive position, but an internal change also modified its equilibrium and even threatened its very essence. The Bounteous Spirit was almost completely reabsorbed into Ahura Mazdā. Whereas in a Yasht the two Spirits fought each other, in the Vidēvdāt Ahura Mazdā and the Destructive Spirit opposed each other by creating, respectively, the good and the bad things. This profoundly affected Zoroaster's system, for Ahura Mazdā could no longer be the father of the Twin Spirits; he now faced, on equal terms so to speak, a sort of antigod. This alteration probably dates back at least to the 4th century BC, for Aristotle said in the Peri philosophias (“On Philosophy”) that the Magi preached the existence of two principles, Oromasdes and Areimanios.

Cosmogony
In the cosmogony as expounded in the Bundahishn, Ormazd (Ahura Mazdā) and Ahriman are separated by the void. They seem to have existed from all eternity, when Ahriman's invidious attack initiates the whole process of creation. The question of their origin is ignored, but it was implied, ever since Ormazd had taken the place of his Bounteous Spirit in the struggle against the Destructive Spirit. Since Ahura Mazdā could no longer be the father of the two adversaries, the question of their origin was inevitable.
A solution was provided by Zurvanism; it is Zurvān (Time) who is the father of Ormazd and Ahriman. But this solution upset the very essence of Mazdaism and was therefore condemned as heretical. Zurvanism was widely accepted, however, perhaps even prevalent, in Sāsānian times. Traces of it are found in Mazdean orthodoxy, some features of which cannot otherwise be explained.
In Mazdean orthodoxy, when Ormazd created the material world, he first produced from Infinite Light a form of fire, out of which all things were to be born. This form of fire is “bright, white, round, and visible from afar.” Gayōmart, the Primal Man, was also conceived as spherical, in the image of the sky. Mānushchihr writes that “Ormazd, the lord of all things, produced from Infinite Light a form of fire whose name was that of Ormazd and whose light was that of fire.” This phrase can be accounted for only as a clumsy adaptation of a Zurvanite text that must have said, in effect, that Zurvān created Ormazd.
The Mazdean quaternity can hardly be explained except as an adaptation of the Zurvanite one. The latter is attested in several texts citing, besides Zurvān, three other names given as those of separate gods but that must be hypostases (essences) of the first one, also called in Manichaeism the god with four faces. Among the various forms under which the Zurvanite quaternity manifested itself, the one associating Zurvān with Light, Power, and Wisdom seems to be the origin of the Mazdean quaternity. Ormazd, in the Bundahishn, has three other names, namely Time, Space, and Religion. To obtain this quaternity, it was sufficient to replace Zurvān by Time, Light by Space, Wisdom by Religion, and Power by Ormazd and to put the latter at the end of the series.
The Mazdean quaternity is reflected in the calendar at Nisa in 90 BC. The Zurvanite speculation that preceded it probably dates back to the first centuries of the Arsacid period and thus was born in the wake of Hellenism and in connection with the spread of astrology.

Cosmology
In order to vanquish Ahriman, Ormazd created the world as a battlefield. He knew that this fight would be limited in time—it would last 9,000 years—and he offered Ahriman a pact to that effect. After they had created their respective material creations, Ahriman's first attack was defeated by Ormazd with the help of the Ahuna Vairya prayer (the most sacred Zoroastrian prayer), and he lay prostrate for another period of 3,000 years, the second in a total of four. He was then stirred up by the prostitute (Primal Woman) and went back to the attack, this time in the material universe. He killed the Primal Bull, whose marrow gave birth to the plants and whose semen was collected and purified in the moon, whence it would produce the useful animals. Ahriman then killed Gayōmart, the Primal Man, whose body produced the metals and whose semen was preserved and purified in the sun. A part of it would produce the rhubarb from which the first human couple would be born.
The first human couple were perverted by Ahriman, and it is only with the advent of Zoroaster, after 3,000 years, that Ahriman's supremacy came to an end. Ormazd and Ahriman then fight on equal terms until Ormazd, at the end of the last 3,000 years, finally will triumph.

Concepts of man
The idea of man as a microcosm, already illustrated in the cosmogony, is further developed in the Bundahishn .
As a result of the aggressor's attack, man is mortal. But he does not die altogether. There are five immortal parts in him: ahu (“life”), daēnā (“religion”), baodah (“knowledge”), urvan (“soul”), and fravashi (“preexistent souls”). The latter term seems literally to mean “preeminent hero.” The conception that caused this term to be applied to the “manes” (spirits) or pitarah of Iran is that of a defensive, protective power that continues to emanate from a chief even after death. This originally aristocratic notion seems to have been vulgarized in the same way as, in Greece, any dead person came to be considered a hero, or, in Egypt, an Osiris. Zoroaster ignored the fravashi, but he was familiar with the daēnā. The latter term meant “religion” in both its objective and subjective senses.
Indian and Iranian beliefs in the afterlife have many features in common, probably dating back to the Indo-Iranian period: a feminine encounter, a bridge with dogs watching it, a heavenly journey. In the ancient Indian texts, the Upaniṣads, the soul is welcomed in heaven by 500 apsaras (cloud maidens). In Iran the soul meets his own religion (daēnā) in the form of a beautiful damsel if he has lived justly; otherwise, he meets a hideous hag.
Either before this encounter or after, according to the various texts, the soul must cross a bridge. This, with the young girl and the gods, is attested in India in the Yajurveda and the Upaniṣads. In the Gāthās it is called the Bridge of the Requiter. It leads the good souls to paradise, but the bad ones fall into hell.
The soul has also to undergo a judgment; it appears before Mithra and his two companions, Sraosha and Rashnu. Finally it ascends through successive stages representing respectively his good thoughts (the stars), good words (the moon), and good deeds (the sun) to the paradise (of infinite lights). In the Veda it is said only that the sojourn of the good deed is beyond the path of the sun. In paradise the soul is led by Vohu Manah, the Good Mind, to the golden throneof Ormazd.
Hell also has, symmetrically, four levels. And there is, for the souls whose good actions exactly balance their evil ones, an intermediate place.

Eschatology
Zoroaster used to invoke saviours who, like the dawns of new days, would come to the world. He hoped himself to be one of them. After his death, the belief in coming saviours developed. Zarathushtra (Zoroaster) was expected to return, if not personally, at least in the form of his three sons who would be born, at intervals of a thousand years, from his semen. The last of these saviours, Astvat-ereta, or justice incarnate, was also simply called the Saviour (Saoshyans).
Only in the Pahlavi books is this theme systematically developed. It is dominated by the idea of a final return to the initial state of things. The first human couple had at first fed on water, then on plants, on milk, and at last on meat. The people in the last millennia will, at the advent of the three successive saviours, abstain in the reverse order from meat, milk, and plants to keep finally only water. The primeval combatants also have their counterparts at the end of time. The dragon that was killed in order to liberate the imprisoned waters will appear again at the resurrection to be killed by another hero. In the last great struggle, the host of good and the host of evil will vie with each other, and each soldier of Ormazd will defeat and kill his own special adversary. This will restore the state of peace that had prevailed initially. The wicked will then submit to an ordeal of molten metal and fire. Fire and Airyaman will cause the metals of the mountains to melt and to flow down as a river of fire. The whole of resuscitated mankind must traverse it; it will burn only the wicked, whereas to the just it will be as sweet as warm milk. The suffering of the wicked will last only three days, however, after which all mankind will enjoy much happiness. On the flattened earth (for the metal will fill in all the valleys), men and women, henceforth shadowless since they are sinless, will taste the bliss of family life. Hell will be sealed forever, and Ahriman will be either powerless or annihilated.

Practices and institutions
Although Herodotus wrote that the Persians had no temples, some have been found, in the shape of terraces or towers or square rooms. Chahārtāq s (sacred buildings with four gates or doors) are scattered over most of Iran. Permanent altars exist from the Sāsānian period and are depicted on coins with a burning fire.
The Farnbag, Gushnasp, and Burzen-Mihr fires were connected, respectively, with the priests, the warriors, and the farmers. The Farnbag fire was at first in Khwārezm, until in the 6th century BC, according to tradition, Vishtāspa, Zoroaster's protector, transported it to Kabulistan; then Khosrow in the 6th century AD transported it to the ancient sanctuary of Kariyan in Fars. The latter, however, has not yet been identified. The Gushnasp fire, located at Shiz, was the ancient fire of the Magi (in Media), but it came to be the symbol of the monarchic and religious unity. The Burzen-Mihr fire never ranked as high as the other two because the peasants, unlike the kings and the clergy, never possessed any sovereignty. Besides these individual designations, the fires were classified according to two categories: the Adurān, village fires; and the Varhrān, provincial and royal fires.

Priesthood
The Magians, though not originally Zoroastrian, apparently became acquainted with the prophet's teachings not later than the 4th century BC. They had the monopoly on religion at the Achaemenian court. The term magus was still used in the Arsacid period. Thereafter, under the Sāsānians, a hierarchy developed, with the creation of the magupat, or chief of magi, and of its superlative magupatān magupat (coined on the model of shāhanshāh, “king of kings”). The ehrpat, originally a religious teacher, was especially entrusted with the care of the fire. The modern equivalent of the word, herbad or ervad, designates a priest of the lower degree, who in the more important ceremonies only acts as the assistant priest. Above him is the mobed. Ranked above all of these functionaries is the dastūr, a kind of bishop, who directs and administers one or more important temples. Priesthood is hereditary, but all priests have to go through one or more ceremonies of investiture over and above those practiced by all the faithful.

Ceremonies
All young Parsis must be initiated when they reach the age of seven (in India) or 10 (in Persia). They receive the shirt (sadre) and the girdle (kusti), which they are to wear their whole life.
There are three types of purification, in order of increasing importance: the padyab, or ablution; the nahn, or bath; and the bareshnum, a complicated ritual performed at special places with the participation of a dog—whose left ear is touched by the candidate and whose gaze puts the evil spirits to flight—and lasting several days.
Penance entails reciting the patet, the firm resolve not to sin again, and the confession of sins to a dastūr or to an ordinary priest if a dastūr is not obtainable.
The chief ceremony, the Yasna, essentially a sacrifice of haoma (the sacred liquor), is celebrated before the sacred fire with recitation of large parts of the Avesta. There also are offerings of bread and milk and, formerly, of meat or animal fat.
The sacred fire must be kept burning continually and has to be fed at least five times a day. Prayers also are recited five times a day. The founding of a new fire involves a very elaborate ceremony. There are also rites for purification and for regeneration of a fire.

Burial rites
After death, a dog is brought before the corpse; it should preferably be a “four-eyed” dog (i.e., it should have a spot above each eye, as this is said to increase the efficacy of its look). The rite is repeated five times a day. After the first one, fire is brought into the room where it is kept burning until three days after the removal of the corpse to the Tower of Silence. The removal must be done during the daytime.
The interior of the Tower of Silence is built in three concentric circles, one each for men, women, and children. The corpses are exposed there naked. The vultures do not take long—an hour or two at the most—to strip the flesh off the bones, and these, dried by the sun, are later swept into the central well. Formerly the bones were kept in an ossuary, the astodān, to preserve them from rain and animals. The morning of the fourth day is marked by the most solemn observance in the death ritual, for it is then that the departed soul reaches the next world and appears before the deities who are to pass judgment over it.

Festivals
Festivals, in which worship is an essential part, are characteristic aspects of Zoroastrianism, a faith that enjoins on man the pleasant duty of being happy. The principal festivals in the Parsi year are the six seasonal festivals, Gahānbārs, and the days in memory of the dead at year's end. Also, each day of the month and each of the 12 months of the year is dedicated to a deity. The day named after the month is the great feast day of that particular deity.
The New Year festival, Nōrūz, is the most joyous and beautiful of Zoroastrian feasts, a spring festival in honour of Rapithwin, the personification of noonday and summer. The festival to Mithra, or Mehragān, was traditionally an autumn one, as honoured as the spring feast of Nōrūz.

Ethics
The precepts of Mazdean ethics focus upon the maintenance of life and the fight against evil. In order to maintain life one must earn one's living by means of cattle raising and agriculture, and one must procreate. To fight against evil is to combat the demons and whatever beings, men or animals, belong to them. The two points of view seem to coincide, considering that the forces of evil are the forces of death: good is opposed to evil as light is to darkness, as life is to nonlife. The life precepts can be transposed into fight precepts; for instance, eating and drinking are interpreted by Zātspram as a struggle against the she-demon Āz, “Concupiscence.” The two points of view, however, are also contradictory: how can man fight the forces of evil without suppressing certain lives, such as baleful animals? The second viewpoint prevails: Iran ignores, even in theory, the universal respect of life that is preached by Buddhism or that justifies the vegetarian diet of Brahmanic India.
Social reasons (e.g., the desire to maintain family privileges) apparently explain the development of consanguineous marriage, an acute form of endogamy.
Future life should be determined by the balance of the good and evil deeds, words, and thoughts of the whole life. This principle, however, is tempered to allow for human weakness. All faults do not have to be registered or weighed forever on the scales. There are two means of effacing them: confession and the transfer of supererogatory merits (the equivalent of the Roman Catholic “Treasury of Merits” of Christ and the saints). The latter is the justification for the prayers and ceremonies for the departed.

Iconography
There is no Zoroastrian art. Be it in the Achaemenid, Arsacid, or Sāsānian period, Iranian art was predominantly royal. Only one god is represented during the first period: Auramazda, as a winged disk hovering above the king. It is known, however, that Artaxerxes II introduced statues of Anahita into her temples, after the Greek fashion. In the Arsacid period, Greek models also served for the representations of Iranian gods ordered by the kings on reliefs or coins. In the Sāsānian period, deities were represented only in the giving of the royal investiture, as is the case with Ormazd and Anahita at Naqsh-e Rostam, or Ormazd and Mithra at Taq-e Bostan. The frequency of the bullman in Achaemenid and Sāsānid iconography may be due to the obviously royal character of this personage: on seals he wears a crown, and the Pahlavi text calls him Gopatshāh, “King of Gopat.”

Relation to other religions
The debt of Israel to its Eastern neighbours in religious matters is easy to demonstrate on a few precise points of minor importance but less so in other more important points, such as dualism, angelology, and eschatology.
Isaiah 40–48 offers striking parallels with the Gāthā 44:3–5, as has been shown by Morton Smith. Besides the common procedure of rhetorical questions, there is the notion of a god who has created the world and, notably, light and darkness. The very idea of a creator god may be common to all of the western part of the Semitic world. But the notion that God created light and darkness appears in both prophets. It is true that Zoroaster associates light and darkness only to waking and sleep and that no Iranian text says that God created good and evil. Nevertheless, the juxtaposition, in Isaiah, of light–darkness with good–evil sounds remarkably Iranian.
After the exile, the traditional hope in a messiah-king of the House of David who would reestablish Israel as an independent nation and make it triumph over all enemies gave way gradually to a concept at once more universal and more moral. The salvation of Israel was still essential, but it had to come about in the framework of a general renewal; the appearance of a saviour would mean the end of this world and the birth of a new creation; his judgment of Israel would become a general judgment, dividing mankind into good and evil. This new concept, at once universal and ethical, recalls Iran so strongly that many scholars attribute it to the influence of that country. John R. Hinnells has seen this influence especially in the saviour's defeat of the demons, his gathering of men for the judgment scene, his raising of the dead, and his administration of the judgment. The occasion of this influence, according to Hinnells, may be found in the contacts between the Jews and the Parthians that were initiated in the 2nd century BC but that reached a climax in the middle of the 1st century BC.
Although Pythagoras cannot have been a pupil of Zoroaster, there are striking similarities of doctrine between Iran and Greece. Anaximander's world picture corresponds to that of the Avesta. Heracleitus seems to have been impressed, in Ephesus, by the practices of the Magi, if not by their theory on the fiery nature of the soul. This would account for the emergence, in 5th-century Greece, of the belief in the heavenly fate of the soul.
The search for an Iranian background to Gnosticism must be placed in a new perspective if the recent view that Gnosticism is really a Christian heresy is accepted.

If you want more information refer below book's.

A wide-ranging introductory study is found in Cyrus R. Pangborn, Zoroastrianism: A Beleaguered Faith (1982). Other studies include Mary Boyce, A History of Zoroastrianism (1975– ), A Persian Stronghold of Zoroastrianism (1977, reprinted 1989), Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices (1979, reissued 1986), and Zoroastrianism: Its Antiquity and Constant Vigour (1992); Jacques Duchesne-Guillemin, “Zoroastrian Religion,” in The Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 3, part 2 (1983), chapter 23, pp. 866–906; and S.A. Nigosian, The Zoroastrian Faith: Tradition and Modern Research (1993). James Hastings (ed.), Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, 13 vol. (1908–26, reissued 1962); and Mircea Eliade (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Religion, 16 vol. (1987), contain many articles on Zoroastrianism. Geo Widengren, Die Religionen Irans (1965), is comprehensive. Mary Boyce (ed. and trans.), Textual Sources for the Study of Zoroastrianism (1984), is a compilation of translations.

Texts covering specific aspects of Zoroastrianism are J.R. Hinnells, “Zoroastrian Saviour Imagery and Its Influence on the New Testament,” in Numen, 16:161–185 (December 1969); Stanley Insler, The Gāthās of Zarathustra (1975); Simone Pétrement, “Sur le problème du gnosticisme,” in Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale, 85:145–177 (April–June 1980); P. Lecoq, “Ahura Mazdā ou Khvarnah,” in Acta Iranica, 23:301–326 (1984); and Jamsheed K. Choksy, Purity and Pollution in Zoroastrianism: Triumph Over Evil (1989), examining the Zoroastrian ritual of purity throughout history. Works dealing specifically with the Parsis of India include Eckehard Kulke, The Parsees in India: A Minority as Agent of Social Change (1974), which studies their history in the 19th and 20th centuries; and Jer D. Randeria, The Parsi Mind: A Zoroastrian Asset to Culture (1993).

3-D technology...

2012-03-23T13:15:00.001+05:30

3-D also called stereoscopic

3-D improve the illusion of reality in motion pictures has been stereoscopic, or three-dimensional, cinematography.

“3-D” films use two cameras or one camera with two lenses. The centres of the lenses are spaced 2 1/2 to 2 3/4 inches apart to replicate the displacement between a viewer's left and right eyes. Each lens records a slightly different view corresponding to the different view each eye sees in normal vision.

Motion-picture process that gives a three-dimensional quality to film images. It is based on the fact that humans perceive depth by viewing with both eyes. In the 3-D process, two cameras or a twin-lensed camera are used for filming, one representing the left eye and the other the right. The two lenses are spaced about 2 1/2 inches (6.3 cm) apart, the same as the separation between a person's eyes. The resulting images are simultaneously projected onto the screen by two synchronized projectors. The viewer must wear differently tinted or polarized glasses so that the left- and right-eye images are visible only to the eye for which they are intended. The viewer actually sees the images separately but perceives them in three dimensions because, for all practical purposes, the two slightly different images are fused together instantly by his mind.

Studios and independent producers experimented with 3-D throughout the 1920s and '30s. Many of the technical problems were later solved by the Natural Vision process, which used striated polarized lenses (with similarly striated viewing glasses for the audience) that made it possible to film in natural colour and correctly applied the convergence principle of the human eye in the filming. The first 3-D film in Natural Vision was Bwana Devil (1952), which was followed by several hastily shot action films. It is generally believed that the popularity of 3-D in the United States subsided after about a year because of the low quality of the films presented. Filmmakers in Italy, Germany, The Netherlands, Great Britain, and other countries experimented with 3-D at about the same time as did those in the United States, but its popularity in Europe soon faded when the illusion of depth was no longer a novelty. The process experienced a minor revival beginning in the 1970s.

The Polaroid system, used for commercial 3-D movies since the early 1950s, is based on a light-polarizing material developed by the American inventor Edwin H. Land in 1932. In this method, known as Natural Vision, two films are recorded with lenses that polarize light at different angles. The lenses on the glasses worn by spectators are similarly polarized so that each admits its corresponding view and blocks the other. Early versions of Polaroid 3-D used two interlocked projectors to synchronize the two pictures. A later system, revived in the 1970s and 1980s, stacked the left and right components vertically on half-frames two sprocket holes high. The images were converged by means of a mirror and/or prism..

Despite many efforts to create “3-D without glasses” (notably in the U.S.S.R., where a screen of vertical slats was used for many years), audience members have had to wear one of two types of special glasses to watch 3-D films. In the early anaglyph system, one lens of the glasses was red and the other green (later blue). The picture on the screen viewed without glasses appeared as two slightly displaced images, one with red lines, the other with green. Each lens of the glasses darkened its opposite colour so that each eye would see only the image intended for it...

Stereoscopy

2012-03-23T12:54:00.002+05:30

Science and technology dealing with two-dimensional drawings or photographs that when viewed by both eyes appear to exist in three dimensions in space. A popular term for stereoscopy is 3-D.

Stereoscopic pictures are produced in pairs, the members of a pair showing the same scene or object from slightly different angles that correspond to the angles of vision of the two eyes of a person looking at the object itself. Stereoscopy is possible only because of binocular vision, which requires that the left-eye view and the right-eye view of an object be perceived from different angles. In the brain the separate perceptions of the eyes are combined and interpreted in terms of depth, of different distances to points and objects seen. Stereoscopic pictures are viewed by some means that presents the right-eye image to the right eye and the left-eye image to the left. An experienced observer of stereopairs may be able to achieve the proper focus and convergence without special viewing equipment (e.g., a stereoscope); ordinarily, however, some device is used that allows each eye to see only the appropriate picture of the pair. To produce a three-dimensional effect in motion pictures (see 3-D), various systems have been employed, all involving simultaneous projection on the screen of left- and right-eye images distinguished by, for example, different colour or polarization and the use by the audience of binocular viewing filters to perceive the images properly. In holography the two eyes see two reconstructed images (light-interference patterns) as if viewing the imaged object normally, at slightly different angles...

Bald Eagle

2012-03-13T03:35:00.000+05:30

Bald Eagle scientific name Haliaeetus leucocephalus.(the only eagle solely native to North America, and the national bird of the United States.)

The bald eagle is actually a sea eagle (Haliaeetus species) that commonly occurs inland along rivers and large lakes. The adult male is about 90 cm (36 inches) long and has a wingspan of 2 metres (6.6 feet). Females, which grow somewhat larger than males, may reach 108 cm (43 inches) in length and have a wingspan of 2.5 metres (8 feet). Both sexes are dark brown, with a white head and tail. The bird is not actually bald; its name derives from the conspicuous appearance of its white-feathered head. The beak, eyes, and feet are yellow.

The bald eagle's nest is a large platform of sticks built atop a large, isolated tree or pinnacle of rock located within easy flight of water. Nests are usually about 1.5 metres (5 feet) wide, but old nests can be almost twice this size. The two or three eggs laid within take slightly longer than a month to hatch. Both parents share in the incubation and feeding of the young. The immature birds are brown with whitish tail and wing linings, but the pure white head and tail plumage do not appear until the birds are four to five years old.

Bald eagles pluck fish out of the water with their talons, and sometimes they follow seabirds as a means of locating fish . Bald eagles also rob ospreys of their fish. Besides live fish, bald eagles also prey on other birds, small mammals, snakes, turtles, and crabs, and they readily eat carrion.

Bald eagles may have numbered in the hundreds of thousands when they were declared the American national bird in 1782, but their numbers steadily declined over the next two centuries owing to human activities and persecution. The birds were hunted for sport, for bounties offered by state and federal governments, and because they were thought to menace livestock. In Alaska, where eagles perched on fish traps and scared away the salmon (an annoyance eventually overcome by fitting the traps with devices to discourage perching), Alaskan bounty hunters killed more than 100,000 eagles in the period 1917–52. The U.S. government's Bald Eagle Protection Act of 1940 made it illegal to kill bald eagles (Alaska was exempt), but the birds' numbers continued to decline, primarily because of the effects of the pesticide DDT, which came into widespread agricultural use after World War II. This pesticide accumulated in the birds' tissues and interfered with the formation of the shells of their eggs; the thin, weak shells laid by heavily contaminated birds were easily broken and fewer young were produced. By the early 1960s, the number of bald eagles in the coterminous United States had dropped to fewer than 450 nesting pairs.

In 1972 the use of DDT was banned in the United States, and in 1978 the U.S. government declared the bald eagle an endangered species in all but a few of the northernmost states. By the late 1980s, these measures had enabled the birds to replenish their numbers in the wild. The bald eagle was reclassified from endangered to threatened status in 1995, by which time there were an estimated 4,500 nesting pairs in the lower 48 states. By 2000 the population had increased to more than 6,300 pairs, and the species was being considered for removal from the U.S. list of endangered species.

Gaza Strip-not recognized by any country

2012-03-11T14:39:00.000+05:30

Arabic Qiṭāʿ Ghazzah , Hebrew Reẓuʿat ʿAzza

territory occupying 140 square miles (363 square km) along the Mediterranean Sea just northeast of the Sinai Peninsula. The Gaza Strip is unusual in being a densely settled area not recognized as a de jure part of any extant country.

After rule by the Ottoman Empire ended there in World War I (1914–18), the Gaza area became part of the League of Nations mandate of Palestine under British rule. Before this mandate ended, the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) in November 1947 accepted a plan for the Arab-Jewish partition of Palestine under which the town of Gaza and an area of surrounding territory were to be allotted to the Arabs. The British mandate ended on May 15, 1948, and on that same day the first Arab-Israeli war began. Egyptian forces soon entered the town of Gaza, which became the headquarters of the Egyptian expeditionary force in Palestine. As a result of heavy fighting in autumn 1948, the area around the town under Arab occupation was reduced to a strip of territory 25 miles (40 km) long and 4–5 miles (6–8 km) wide. This area became known as the Gaza Strip. Its boundaries were demarcated in the Egyptian-Israeli armistice agreement of February 24, 1949.
The Gaza Strip was under Egyptian military rule from 1949 to 1956 and again from 1957 to 1967. From the beginning, the area's chief economic and social problem was the presence of large numbers of Palestinian Arab refugees living in extreme poverty in squalid camps. The Egyptian government did not consider the area part of Egypt and did not allow the refugees to become Egyptian citizens or to migrate to Egypt or to other Arab countries where they might be integrated into the population. Israel did not allow them to return to their former homes or to receive compensation for their loss of property. The refugees were maintained largely through the aid of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). Many of the younger refugees became fedayeen (Arab guerrillas operating against Israel); their attacks on Israel were one of the causes precipitating the Sinai campaign during the Suez Crisis of 1956, when the strip was taken by Israel. The strip reverted to Egyptian control in 1957 following strong international pressures on Israel.

Israeli riot police being delivered by helicopter to forcibly evacuate Israeli settlers from a ynagogue roof, Kefar Darom, Gaza Strip, 2005

In the Six-Day War of June 1967, the Gaza Strip was again taken by Israel, which occupied the region for the next quarter century. In December 1987 rioting and violent street clashes between Gaza's Palestinians and occupying Israeli troops marked the birth of an uprising that came to be known as the intifāḍah (Arabic: “shaking off”). In 1994 Israel began a phased transfer of governmental authority in the Gaza Strip to the Palestinian Authority (PA) under the terms of the Oslo Accords that were signed by Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The fledgling Palestinian government, led by Yāsir ʿArafāt, struggled with such problems as a stagnant economy, divided popular support, stalled negotiations with Israel over further troop withdrawals and territoriality, and the threat of terrorism from militant Muslim groups such as Islamic Jihād and Ḥamās, which refused to compromise with Israel and were intent on derailing the peace process. Beginning in late 2000, a breakdown in negotiations between the PA and Israel was followed by a further, more extreme outbreak of violence, termed the second, or Aqṣā, intifāḍah. In an effort to end the fighting, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced in late 2003 a plan that centred on withdrawing Israeli soldiers and settlers from the Gaza Strip. In September 2005 Israel completed the pullout from the territory, and control of the Gaza Strip was transferred to the PA, although Israel continued to patrol its borders and airspace. The Gaza Strip was the site of escalating violence between leading Palestinian parties Ḥamās and Fatah in 2007; as a result of these clashes, Ḥamās took control of the Gaza Strip, while a Fatah-led emergency cabinet took control of the West Bank. Despite calls by PA Pres. Mahmoud Abbas for Ḥamās to relinquish its position in the Gaza Strip, the territory remained under Ḥamās control.

In fall 2007 Israel declared the Gaza Strip under Ḥamās a hostile entity and approved a series of sanctions that included power cuts, heavily restricted imports, and border closures. In January 2008, facing sustained rocket assaults into its southern settlements, Israel intensified its sanctions, completely sealing its border with the Gaza Strip and temporarily preventing fuel imports. Later that month, after nearly a week of the Israeli blockade, Ḥamās forces demolished portions of the barrier along the Gaza Strip–Egypt border (closed since Ḥamās's mid-2007 takeover), opening gaps through which, according to some estimates, hundreds of thousands of Gazans passed into Egypt to purchase food, fuel, and goods unavailable under the blockade. Egyptian Pres. Hosnī Mubārak temporarily permitted the breach to alleviate civilian hardship in Gaza before efforts could begin to restore the border.

Living conditions in the Gaza Strip are typically poor because of its dense and rapidly increasing population (the area's growth rate is one of the highest in the world); inadequate water, sewage, and electrical services; and high rates of unemployment. Agriculture is the economic mainstay of the employed population, and nearly three-fourths of the land area is under cultivation. The chief crop, citrus fruit, is raised on irrigated lands and is exported to Europe and other markets under arrangement with Israel. Truck crops, wheat, and olives also are produced. Light industry and handicrafts are centred in Gaza, the chief city of the area. In politically stable times, as much as one-tenth of the Palestinian population travels daily to Israel (where they are not allowed to stay overnight) to work in menial jobs. Political tension and outbreaks of violence have often led Israeli authorities to close the border for extended periods, putting many Palestinians out of work.
The first accurate census, conducted in September 1967, showed a population smaller than had previously been estimated by the UNRWA or by Egypt, with nearly half of the people living in refugee camps. Pop. (2006 est.) 1,444,000...

Flash (install Firmware) your Nokia Mobile

2012-03-11T01:46:00.002+05:30

Flashing your mobile means installing a fresh copy of software into your mobile erasing old software..
you might have spent hundreds of rupees to do so, and u may be thinking how good if you can flash your mobile manually.
After you read this article you are done with it, you can flash your mobile whenever your phone(nokia) software is damaged with virus and any other forms..

Step1:- Firstly you need following tools so click the below link to download that.

Step2:- Install Nokia Ovi suite

install ovi suite and backup your contents like contacts calender etc..In fact, just backup everything because prior to flashing your phone, we need to hard reset it and format your phone memory card to avoid any potential error later on. Hard reset will erase all your contacts, message, phone setting etc. So back them up using Nokia Ovi Suite.

Even if you don’t want to back up your phone, it is essential to install Nokia Ovi Suite for the driver purpose. Otherwise, JAF tool can’t see your mobile phone at later stage.

Step3:- Return Your Phone Software to Its Original State

Reset or format you nokia mobile, go to settings and do complete restoration(reset)

or

Hard Reset

It may happen that despite having restored your mobile to factory settings, the error still exists. In this case, it is recommended that you opt for a hard reset.
Enter the code: *#7370# and press Yes to confirm.
Important: You should back up any important information before doing this.
To perform a hard reset on a Nokia phone that won't turn on, press simultaneously these 3 buttons:
on/off + * + 3

or

Format your nokia mobile by dialling *#7370# from your handset. The device will request a security code, the default code is 12345 unless you have changed it. Formatting will delete all user data from the device memory so always make a back-up of your nokia handset before formatting it.

Dont worry if above method dint worked for you just read below articles because formatting mobile involves diff methods for diff handsets

How to reset Nokia

How to format Nokia mobile

Step4:- Download Your Phone's Original Firmware

Now we need to download your phone’s original firmware using NAVIFIRM(downloaded from step1). Originally, we flash our phone using Ovi Suite or PC Suite right. This suite automatically detects our phone hardware and software then downloads and installs the relevant firmware for our phone automagically. However, for this one we need to manually select and download the right firmware for our phone.

Extract and run NAVIFIRM. as shown below.

Choose your phone model correctly. As we can see here, there are 3 variant of Nokia 5800XM. The RM-356, RM-427 and RM-428. Different model number use different kind of hardware. So, do not download firmware for RM-427 or RM-428 if your phone model is RM-356. You can check your phone model by typing *#0000#. Look for Type.

‘Release’s is firmware version. Ensure that the firmware you are going to flash into your phone (the one you are about to download using NAVIFIRM now) is newer (or at least has same version number) than the one that already in your phone. Downgrading firmware will definitely brick your phone. You may check with your phone firmware by typing *#0000# too. As for my case, my current phone firmware is 51.0.6. So, I have to download ‘releases’ version 51.0.6 or later (in this case, 51.0.6 is the latest one).

Next, choose your phone variant from d list given in NAVIFIRM for your phone and choose your country market, ex:-APAC1 RED MALAYSIA (0570196) for Malaysia (If you choose country as Malaysia if your from India then your phone language may change to malai , so choose your desired country).

Finally for the files section. Just tick them all. And press “Download from FiRe” button. Save the files into “Your phone model number” folder. If your phone model is "RM-356" then save them into a folder name RM-356 on Desktop.

Copy the whole folder (model name if "RM-356") into “C:\Program Files\Nokia\Pheonix\Products” directory. Or if you are using 64 bit operating system, copy the whole (RM-356) folder into “C:\Program Files (x86)\Nokia\phoenix\products”. Refer screenshot below (omit the RM356-0570196… folder, it was automatically created by JAF when I did flash my phone previously).

Please note that the folder (that store our complete firmware) in “phoenix\products\”needs to be named exactly as your phone’s model number. (If your phone model is "RM-356" name folder as RM-356 ).

And for those who are already panic because they can’t find any phoenix folder in Nokia directory…don’t be. By default, there is none. I manually create the “phoenix” folder and “product” folder..

Step5:- Preparing JAF Tools

JAF Tools(downloaded from step1) is the software that we will use to transfer your complete firmware into your mobile phone. So, follow the steps below to prepare it. It consist of JAF installation and copy paste 2 files (ini file and PKEY emulator) into JAF installed directory.

Extract “Nokia Flash Tools.rar” (the one you download for JAF and PKey). You will find “JAFSetup_198.62.rar” file, “OGM_JAF_PKEY_Emulator_v 5.rar” and “(.INI FILE)(jaf_nok4models).rar” file. Extract all the 3 files.

Install “JAFSetup_1.98.62.exe” at its default location.

Copy “Jaf_nok4models.ini” and “OGM_JAF_PKEY_Emulator_v 5.exe” into “C:\Program Files\ODEON\JAF” or “C:\Program Files (x86)\ODEON\JAF” if you are using 64 bit operating system.

Then, make a shortcut for “OGM_JAF_PKEY_Emulator_v 5.exe” emulator to your desktop for easy access later on.

Step6:-Flash your phone(transfer firmware into your phone).

If you happen to use Windows Vista or Windows 7 (32 bit or 64bit), you have to change JAF PKey Emulator’s compatibility first. Right click on the JAF Pkey Emulator and choose properties. Click on Compatibility tab and set compatibility mode to Windows XP (Service Pack 3) and set privilege level as Run this program as an administrator as shown in the screenshot below:

Run the JAF Pkey Tool from your desktop.

Ensure the setting as in the screenshot above. Then click GO.

An error box will appear. Don’t worry, just click OK button.

Then, JAF will start. Click on BB5 tab.

Ensure that Manual Flash, Dead USB, Normal Mode and Use INI are checked. Uncheck CRT 308.

Then select your phone model. I have to choose RM-356 for mine. Next, click OK.

If you do everything correctly, your JAF will look like as the screenshot below.

All four green circles will light up (MCU, PPM, CNT, APE Variant(if this circle is not lighten up dont worry it depends on your mobile model not all circle will glow for all mobile)).

And ensure the path for the firmware (as in the marked red square) is right

Next, TURN OFF your phone and connect it to the computer USB. (It is recommended to shutdown OVI Suite completely. Right click OVI Suite icon in the tray (if you happen to run it before) and choose exit).

Click on FLASH button.

A warning dialog box will appear, click YES.

Then,(do this properly) press your phone’s “Power Button” for 1 second and release. Just 1 second. Not more. Else your phone will start up. WE DON’T WANT your phone to start up. We just want to allow JAF detect our phone.

Once the JAF could detect our phone, the flash job will start.

Note: Whenever JAF need to detect the phone, press your phone’s power button for 1 second.

Wait for a minute or two until the flashing process is totally completed (indicated by a series of ‘ting’ sound)...And your phone restarts after prosses completion..

OK…it’s done. Enjoy your “new” phone and happy installing new themes, software (unsigned hehehe) etc.

Conclusion

I realize that there are many tutorials around the web that are already cover this topic. I have no intention to repeat the very same things but I found most of the tutorial is not very (total) newbie friendly. Those tutorials are excellent. In fact, I learn how to do this from those tutorials as well. Only at certain part, the authors forgot to explain some basic things which make me sometime wonder…why on earth I have to this and that.

For what it’s worth, I do hope this tutorial would complement other tutorial (if not cover entirely) and prepare the complete firmware to start their journey in flashing their phone. Happy Flashing..

Windows8

2012-03-02T00:34:00.000+05:30

Windows 8 Consumer Preview

Earlier i had provided link for free downloading of "Windows8 Developer Preview" but that link's was removed by Microsoft. Now here is a new version ie windows 8 costomer preview, click below link for free downloads of Windows8 beta(costumer preview)..

Windows 8 description

Windows 8 is designed to be the first Windows client to support systems on a chip (SoC) architectures, including ARM, and since it will be pre-installed on a range of next generation devices, it will also feature Metro, a NUI + GUI interface on the surface combined with a new application platform under-the-hood designed to enable the creation of immersive experiences.

Requirements:

· 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor;
· 1 gigabyte (GB) RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit);
· 16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit);
· DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver.
· Taking advantage of touch input requires a screen that supports multi-touch

Limitations:

· Expires on 15 January 2013

Windows 8 Consumer Preview ISO

64-bit (x64) Download (3.3 GB)

32-bit (x86) Download (2.5 GB)

Product Key; xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx

You need product key to install this version of windows so i cant provide it here... Write me if you need product key...

2012-02-20T00:53:00.001+05:30

SORRY GUYS MICROSOFT HAS DELETED BELOW LINK YOU CAN'T ABLE TO DOWNLOAD ANYMORE ILL PROVIDE NEW LINK SHORTLYDownload Windows8 Developer Preview

Hi friends when it comes to operating system most of them prefer looks, style and latest version. Yes now its time shift to windows8, i know most of them are still happy using Win-xp but you guys dont know how powerful windows7 is to use and now its windows8(pre-release version).

See below i have provided link to download Windows8 for free.

The Windows 8 Developer Preview is a pre-beta version of Windows 8 for developers. These downloads include prerelease software that may change without notice. The software is provided as is, and you bear the risk of using it. It should not be used in a production environment as its a prerelease software. The features and functionality in the prerelease software may not appear in the final version. Some product features and functionality may require advanced or additional hardware, or installation of other software.

Note: You can't uninstall the Windows 8 Developer Preview. To go back to your previous operating system, you must reinstall it from restore or installation media.

System Requirements

Windows 8 Developer Preview works great on the same hardware that powers Windows Vista and Windows 7:

1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor

1 gigabyte (GB) RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit)

16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)

DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver

Taking advantage of touch input requires a screen that supports multi-touch To run Metro style Apps, you need a screen resolution of 1024 X 768 or greater

whole new features

Download for FREE

Windows 8 Developer Preview with developer tools English, 64-bit (x64)

DOWNLOAD (4.8 GB)
Click the above link to start download for free,
The following come on a disk image file (.iso) which contains,
64-bit Windows 8 Developer Preview
Windows SDK for Metro style apps
Microsoft Visual Studio 11 Express for Windows 8 Developer Preview
Microsoft Expression Blend 5 Developer Preview
28 Metro style apps including the BUILD Conference app
Note: This download include developer tools.

Windows 8 Developer Preview English, 64-bit (x64)

DOWNLOAD (3.6 GB)
Click the above link to start download for free, which Includes a disk image file (.iso) to install the Windows 8 Developer Preview and Metro style apps on a 64-bit PC.
Note: This download does not include developer tools.

Windows 8 Developer Preview English, 32-bit (x86)

DOWNLOAD (2.8 GB)
Click the above link to start download for free, which Includes a disk image file (.iso) to install the Windows 8 Developer Preview and Metro style apps on a 32-bit PC.
Note: This download does not include developer tools.

How to install the Windows 8 Developer Preview from an ISO image

The Windows 8 Developer Preview is downloads as an .iso image that must be converted into installation media stored on a DVD or a USB flash drive.
Note: The .iso file that contains the developer tools requires a large capacity DVD called a DVD-9, as well as a DVD burner that can handle dual-layer (DL) DVDs. Most modern burners should be able to handle this format.

Its just a preview

I recommend to install Windows 8 Developer Preview English, 32-bit (x86) coz its lite compared to other..

IMPORTANT: YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY INSTALLATION ERROR or CRASH

Why Do We Miss Someone?

2012-02-10T23:01:00.001+05:30

We always wonder that when we miss someone , is it because we love that person, we like that person or maybe it’s just an infatuation? We keep on fighting with ourselves that what’s the reason for missing that person? Some time we also miss people we hate. Many time we also miss people we fight all the time but when they are not around.
But, when you want to continue relationship with the person you keep on missing, you need to be clear with your intention. According to me there might be following reasons:
*. You also miss someone special when you are in love with that person
*. It might be infatuation ( just forfew days ).
*. You respect n love her/his qualities(Smile,Eyes,Hairs,Physic).
*. That person is always with you when you need someone to lean on.
Whatever may be the reason, I would say it’s very nice feeling to miss someone. You keep on thinking about that person whole day and night or if it’s worst you might start imagining him/her near you.
Many people feel that it’s the worst feeling to miss someone, but I totally disagree with this. I feel it’s the sweet pain and you can for sure enjoy missing someone. The only thing you need to remember is that you have to miss the golden moment you spend with each other. Please don’t ever miss bad times you spend with that person. Always try to cherish the good moments and it will surely bring a smile on your face.
Another thing which people do isto hide their feelings in front of person they are missing. You must keep your ego aside and convey your feelings to that person. Life is too short; if you love or you miss someone do let them know. If that person understands you, it would never ruin your relationship.
Love is missing someone whenever you’re apart, but somehow feeling warm inside because you’re close in heart.

Quotes

2012-01-22T20:36:00.000+05:30

Hi read this quotes....if you like dont forget to share is..

Be Good Stay Good...

Be Creative Don't Be Foolish.

Money is for man not man is for money...

Scholars are many but True knowledge less...:P

If you are strong everyone are closer to you, other wise they are your enemies...!!

No one can hide as many as secrets as children...

If god want's to destroy you, First he will destroy your  knowledge..

If you can do you'l do, other wise you would Advice ....!

If you want to leave then you must go along with Time...!!

An  ideal mother is greater than 100 teachers..

Good Behavior is more important to humans than Education..!!

There is no success in life when you don't have patience..!

Every disaster in this world is because of Fondness...

If you have patience and Wait till end you would get what you expected...

Goal is more important than Happiness and sad..

In darkness even a good heart would choose a wrong path...!!

A good book can be written only by a good reader...

Experience is the name given by everyone for their mistakes...

If situation is good, then your mind will also be good...

If you cry sitting if there is no sun, then you will miss a wonderful chance of seeing stars....

Your respect is in your tongue..

Your greatness can only be felt after your death..

The only enemy for our country is laziness...

Our anger wont kill others, first it kills us..

Knowledge and behavior is the two wings of heart

fear is present only when there is ignorance..

Science never lies, it always tell truth and truth always reforms....

Life is a mirror don't break it....

Love is magic and your lover is magician...!

Life becomes more difficult when you are surrounded by deaththiefs....!!

Windows tricks

2012-01-22T18:08:00.001+05:30

Windows tricks

Hi here is some of windows tricks, if any trick dint work leave a comment.....^_@

Try to LOCK ur folder wit out S/W method 1.

To hide a a folder name

"d:\game"
GO TO CMD PROMPT :
type in "d:\attrib game +s +h "
2 unlck the hide :
type in "d:\attrib game -s -h "

Try to LOCK ur folder wit out S/W method 2.

TRY to lock ur private folder
Suppose you want to lock the folder games in d: which has the path D:Games. In the same drive create a text file and type
ren games games.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}
Now save this text file as loc.bat

Create another text file and type in it
ren games.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D} games
Now save this text file as key.bat

Now you can see 2 batch files loc and key.Press loc and the folder games will change to control panel and you cannot view its contents.Press key and you will get back your original folder. try it out!!!!!!!

Important note:How to rename your text files as bat files?
Just go to my computer->tools->folder options->go to the view tab.
Now uncheck the 'Hide extensions for known file types'.Press apply.
Now rename ur text files as bat files.

Way to get XP product CODE from CD.

It really work
There is a way to get the xp product code from the cd
just explorer the cd then
open the folder I386
then open the file UNATTEND.TXT and
scroll down to the last line
and it goes to show what dumbasses Microsoft are u have a product code.
Have fun u never need to search for a product code for xp again...!!!!

YOU CANT DO THIS THING ....{* _"}

You cannot make any folder named any of the following :
TRY IT
CON, PRN, AUX, CLOCK$, NUL, COM1, COM2, COM3, COM4, COM5, COM6, COM7, COM8, COM9, LPT1, LPT2, LPT3, LPT4, LPT5, LPT6, LPT7, LPT8, LPT9
And many more...
Reason :
This is because these are windows inbuilt 'Reserved Device Names' .
Just avoid these words and name anything else !

Remove Security Alerts From System Tray

Are you bored of alerting that your automatic update is turned of or anitvirus program is not installed or out of date, everytime windows start up? It can be removes easily with the few following steps

1. Goto Start > Control Panel > Security Center.

In the left pane, click the Change the way Security Center alerts me link, located at the end of the column. In the new window that pops up, uncheck everything or what you don't want.

Create Your Own Logon Message.

1 Click start
click run
type regedit,
then click ok!

2 In The registry editor, drill down to the following key:
hklm\software\Microsoft\Windows NT\Current version\Winlogon.

3 Right click LegalNoticeCaption,
click modify,
Type: THIS IS NEXT TRICK,and then click ok!

4 Right click legalNoticeText,
click modify, and then Close your message!

5 Restart Your Computer.

6 The message will appear every time you logon!

Chat With Command Prompt.

If you want personal chat with a friend
you don't need to download any yahoo messenger
All you need is your friends IP address and Command Prompt.
Firstly, open Notepad and enter:
@echo off
:A
Cls
echo MESSENGER
set /p n=User:
set /p m=Message:
net send %n% %m%
Pause
Goto A
Now save this as "Messenger.bat". Open the .bat file and in Command
Prompt you should see:
MESSENGER
User:
After "User" type the IP address of the computer you want to contact.
After this, you should see this:
Message:
Now type in the message you wish to send.Before you press "Enter" it should look like this:
MESSENGER
User:27.196.391.193
Message: Hi
Now all you need to do is press "Enter", and start chatting!

Reverse the mouse buttons.

1) No context menu
What will you see when you right click on the desktop? You will see a context menu which says arrange icons, refresh,..and so on. Are you angry at your friend for not wishing you for you B'day? Do you wanna play a trick on a newbie in your family who is new to computers? This is a cool trick to play. By this tweak, you will be able to disable the right click on the desktop or any icons/files/folders/applications... But right click will work on taskbar of the start button and registry. So, dont worry!!!
Open your registry and you will see all unknown files like HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT....... and so on. Don't panic. Follow this path. HKEY_CURRENT_USER>SOFTWARE>MICROSOFT>WINDOWS>CURRENT VERSION>POLICIES>EXPLORER. On the right side of the registry, you will see two files(in general) named 'default' and 'NoDriveTypeAutoRun'. Right click on the empty space in the registry and goto New>DWORD VALUE and name it as "NoViewContextMenu". Remember, no spaces and N,V,C,M should be capitals. Right click on this and click modify. The default value will be 0. Change it to 1. Note: DONOT CHANGE THE HEXADECIMAL TO DECIMAL. Click OK. Close your registry and logout. Bingo!!! Once you login again, right click wont work. Your friend will be perplexed and the next thing he/she does is call the system administrator not knowing that not all system administrators will be knowing about registry. Now, to enable it again. follow the same path and set the value to 0. Logout and then login to see the effect.

2) Reverse the mouse buttons
This is a cool trick to play on newbies. Actually, there are two ways to do this. One is changing the settings in the Control panel and the other is through editing registry. You can do it either way. But I prefer the second way, which is challenging.
(i) Through Control Panel - goto Start> Control Panel> Printers and other hardware> Mouse. In Button configuration, enable the switch primary and secondary buttons option and click OK. But remember, you have just swapped the mouse buttons. So, for OK, you have to click the right mouse button. The newbie will be perplexed. Well, this trick is good for left handers.
(ii) Editing the registry - By default the left mouse button is the primary and the right is secondary. Open your registry and follow this path:
HLEY_CURRENT_USER>Control Panel>Mouse and on the right side of the registry, create this String value(REG_SZ): 'SwapMouseButtons' and set its value to 1. Bingo!!! You are done. Log out/Restart the computer.

You can try this: Combine tricks 1 and 2 and enjoy swapping of buttons.

ACCESS UR FOLDERS AS "DRIVES"

You can create Virtual Drives in your Computer. Now you can access your Favorite Folders as a drive in My Computer.

What you can do ?
** Access your folders as a Drive !
** Fool 'Computer Beginners' or your 'Friends' (Non-Expert) , as the drive will show Disk Space of the folder's drive so it seems that the disk space has increased !!!

Do The Follwing :
Start >> Run
Type cmd and hit Enter
This will open "Command Prompt"
Type subst Z: E:\folder and hit Enter key.
You can replace Z: with your desired New Drive Letter (Except existing Drive letters)!
You can replace E:\folder with the path of your favorite folder !
Now, type exit

This creates a new drive ! When you open this , it will open your folder !!!
Isn't it Awesome ?
-------------------------------------------------------------
But a Problem !On Restart the Virtual Drive Disappears !!! :P
-------------------------------------------------------------
Solution !
-------------------------------------------------------------We can make a batch file which will make the drive everytime on startup !

Here is how ?
Open Notepad
Type :
@ECHO OFF
subst Z: E:\folder
exit
File >> Save As...
Name it : Virtual Drive Emulator.bat
Start >> All Programs
Right Click on Startup >> Open
This open the Startup folder
Paste the Virtual Drive Emulator.bat file here !
That's all , now the drive will automatically be created when ever you start your pc

CREATE A HIDDEN USER ACCOUNT

Create A Hidden User Account
This tweak allows an account that is normally displayed on the Welcome screen to be hidden from view. To log on using the account it's necessary to use the Log On To Windows dialog box similar to the one in Windows 2000. #[Start] [Run] [Regedit]#Registry Key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList#Modify/Create the Value Data Type(s) and Value Name(s) as detailed below.#Data Type: REG_DWORD [Dword Value] // Value Name: Type Name of Account to be Hidden#Setting for Value Data: [0 = Account is Hidden / 1 = Enabled]#Exit Registry and Reboot...

While the account is hidden on the Welcome screen, note that the account profile will be visible in C:\Documents and Settings or wherever user profiles are stored as well as in Local Users and Groups

CHANGE / ADD RESTRICTIONS IN WINDOWS

1.Open RegEdit
2.Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\CurrentVersion\Policies
3.Go to the Explorer Key
4.Then right click on the right side pane and select "Create Dword".

Select appropriate value name from the list given below and enter 1 for enabling the value and 0 for disabling it
NoDeletePrinter - Disables Deletion of Printers
NoAddPrinter - Disables Addition of Printers
NoRun - Disables Run Command
NoSetFolders - Removes Folders from Settings on Start Menu
NoSetTaskbar - Removes Taskbar from Settings on Start Menu
NoFind - Removes the Find Command
NoDrives - Hides Drives in My Computers
NoNetHood - Hides the Network Neighborhood
NoDesktop - Hides all icons on the Desktop
NoClose - Disables Shutdown
NoSaveSettings - Don't save settings on exit
DisableRegistryTools - Disable Registry Editing Tools
NoRecentDocsMenu - Hides the Documents shortcut at the Start button
NoRecentDocsHistory- Clears history of Documents
NoFileMenu _ Hides the Files Menu in Explorer
NoActiveDesktop - No Active Desktop
NoActiveDesktopChanges- No changes allowed
NoInternetIcon - No Internet Explorer Icon on the Desktop
NoFavoritesMenu - Hides the Favorites menu
NoChangeStartMenu _ Disables changes to the Start Menu
NoFolderOptions _ Hides the Folder Options in the Explorer
ClearRecentDocsOnExit - Empty the recent Docs folder on reboot
NoLogoff - Hides the Log Off .... in the Start Men

All this tricks would work in windows (some may not work in win7) os..
@_0

Unfolding the Goddess Within(U)

2012-01-22T00:52:00.001+05:30

Unfolding the Goddess Within(U)

Hi there is an excellent book titled "Yogini - Unfolding the Goddess Within" by Shambhavi Lorain Chopra (Publisher: Wisdom Tree, New Delhi - Website ). Shambhavi means serenity (sham) and the beauty of being (bhava) that humans dream about. No wonder that her book is a playground of the immortals where earthly cares disappears like dust. She gathers the blossoms of divinity that live in the cusp of her deep being - her experiences with the play of Shakti arising as inner impulses or inspirations. She expresses her self-discovery in the unprocessed ore of her simple prose that enriches the mind in universality and becomes a compelling transformation of the riptide of the spiritual realm.

Contents of her excellent book include:
1. Anubhava, Inner Experience, Leads Me to Ma Tara
2. Shiva Brings Transcendence into My Life
3. Shakti Sadhana Creates My Scared Space
4. Bhakti Yoga: The Strains of Love
5. Tantric Rhythms of the Cosmos
6. Timelessness of Life and Death on the Ghats of Kashi
7. Angels, Devas and Higher Frequencies
8. Siddhas, Yogis and Sadhakas
9. Ma Kali, Mahaprakriti, the Beautiful Goddess
10. Jai Ma Guru
11. Kamakhya and Beyond

Her personal experiences in the book become the surging river of contemplation, when we resolve to cross the waters and abandon the limitations of physical existence so that now and then, here and beyond, become the purest of shadows in the harmony of body and mind, stillness and movement, you and me, and the Universe and me.(*_*)

There is an e-mail discussion group on Yahoo! specifically dedicated to "Shambhavi Lorain Chopra" with the objective to unfold the Goddess within.
To join the group, you just need to send a blank e-mail to
Shambhavi-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Details of the group are available at this site, you can also read group messages here:)

&_&

Shaktipata Spiritual Master

2012-01-21T22:36:00.002+05:30

Shri Shri Narayankaka Dhekane Maharaj

P.P. Shri Narayankaka Dhekane Maharaj was born in a devout religious family on 3rd July 1927, in the city of Dhule. He holds a degree of B.Sc. and the degree of B.E. (Civil). He was also conferred the degree of M.E. (P&H) by the University of Calcutta. He was superannuated as Superintending Engineer in Bombay. Prior to that he served in the State of Maharashtra in its water supply department and other various divisions. At Nasik he served "MERI" (Maharashtra Engineering Research Institute) Nasik, in which he held a high-ranking position. He was awarded a Gold Medal by the Institute of Engineers for conducting a research in the field of Water Analysis.

Shri Narayankaka Dhekane Maharaj is the chief organiser and chief Trustee of the said Trust.

Since his childhood Shri Narayankaka was attracted towards the study of Sanskrit, Indian Philosophy and Yoga. While he was undergoing college education in 1950, he was initiated into the Siddhayoga by P.P. Brahmalin Shri Loknath Tirth Swami Maharaj, who came from Bengal. Shri Narayankaka embraced celibacy, practiced devoutly the path of the Siddha Yoga and has achieved the unique status of a Spiritual Master.

The disciples of P.P. Shri Loknath Tirth Swami Maharaj are spread far and wide. Of them the foremost are P.P. Shri Gulawani Maharaj and P.P. Shri Narayankaka Dhekane Maharaj, who have initiated numerous aspirants into the path of awakening the serpent power (Kundalini) on a large scale. Thanks to this stupendous task! Their innumerable disciples are all over India and abroad. Some of them have also set up Siddhayoga centres in many cities and towns. Nursing a desire that everyone be a follower of Siddhayoga, Shri Narayankaka's efforts to propagate the knowledge and information of this path are being relentlessly continued. He delivered lectures on the Siddhayoga in the International Spiritual conferences held at Banglore, Pondicherry, Mumbai, Pune and several other places where the delegates were charmed by the path of Siddhayoga.

P.P. Shri Narayankaka Dhekane Maharaj is also the chief Trustee of Shri Vasudev Niwas Trust; Pune set up by P.P. Bramhaleen Gulavani Maharaj. He also received blessings from P.P. Bramhaleen Shri Dutt Maharaj Kavishwar. Aspirants irrespective of caste, creed, community, age and sex can be initiated by P.P. Narayankaka provided he or she is ready to observe the rules laid down by this path. Anybody in the world can receive initiation from him by sending a 'Prayer-letter'.

P.P.Narayankaka constantly imparts the knowledge of transmission of power (Shaktipata) to all disciples and seekers in the Maha Yoga Niwas Trust, set up at Nasik, where a meditation hall has been provided for all disciples to perform disciples daily. On Sundays, disciples take advantage of participating in a group meditation in the holy presence of P.P. Shri Narayankaka.

Enjoy typing in Kannada

2012-01-21T21:52:00.001+05:30

Hi if you want to enjoy typing in Kannada, first you need to install Kannada font( .TTF or .otf would be the file extension) you can download from this site.. After downloading just right click file and install and its all done..:) now enjoy typing kannada in all your desired places....^_^ Make sure ur changing default font from english to Kannada to enjoy typing in kannada...... and below are d keys associated with kannada font..

S=Shift.
ಅ=S+d ಆ=S+e ಇ=S+f ಈ=S+r ಉ=S+g ಊ=S+t
ಋ=S+= ಎ=S+z ಏ=S+S ಐ=S+w ಒ=S+~ ಓ=S+a
ಔ=S+q ಅಂ=S+dx ಅಃ=S+d-....
ಕ=k ಖ=S+k ಗ=i ಘ=S+i ಞ=S+]
ಚ=; ಛ=S+; ಜ=p ಝ=S+p ಙ=S+u
ಟ=' ಠ=S+' ಡ=[ ಢ=S+[ ಣ=S+c
ತ=L ಥ=S+L ದ=o ಧ=S+o ನ=v
ಪ=h ಫ=S+h ಬ=y ಭ=S+y ಮ=c
ಯ=? ರ=j ಲ=n ವ=b ಶ=S+m ಷ=S+, ಸ=m ಹ=u
ಳ=S+n ಕ್ಷ=S+7 ಜ್ಞ=S+5 ಸ್ರ(್ರ)=S+3 ವಾಲ್ಮೀಕಿ ರ್ಶ(ರ್)=4 ತ್ರ=S+6 ಶ್ರ=S+8...

Enjoy....
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