Zirid dynasty
The Zirid dynasty was a Sanhaja Berber dynasty from modern-day Algeria which ruled the central Maghreb from 972 to 1014 and Ifriqiya from 972 to 1148. Descendants of Ziri ibn Menad, a military leader of the Cairo-based Fatimid Caliphate and the eponymous founder of the dynasty, the Zirids were Emirs who ruled in the name of the Fatimids; the Zirids established their autonomy in Ifriqiya through military conquest until breaking with the Fatimids in the mid-11th century. The rule of the Zirid emirs opened the way to a period in North African history where political power was held by Berber dynasties such as the Almoravid dynasty, Almohad Caliphate, Zayyanid dynasty, Marinid dynasty and Hafsid dynasty. Continuing their conquests to Fez and much of modern-day Morocco in 980, the Zirids encountered resistance from the local Zenata Berbers, who gave their allegiance to the Caliphate of Cordoba. Various Zirid branches did however rule the central Maghreb; this branch of the Zirids, at the beginning of the 11th century, following various family disputes, broke away as the Hammadids and took control of the territories of the central Maghreb.
The Zirids proper were designated as Badicides and occupied only Ifriqiyah between 1048 and 1148. Part of the dynasty fled to al-Andalus and founded, in 1019, the Taifa of Granada on the ruins of the Caliphate of Cordoba; the Zirids of Granada were again defeated by the expansion of the Almoravids, who annexed their kingdom in 1090, while the Badicides and the Hammadids remained independent. Following the recognition of the Sunni Muslim Abbasid Caliphate and the assertion of Ifriqiya and the Central Maghreb as independent kingdoms of Sunni obedience in 1048, the Fatimids masterminded the migration of the Hilalians to the Maghreb. In the 12th century, the Hilalian invasions combined with the attacks of the Normans of Sicily on the littoral weakened Zirid power; the Almohad caliphate conquered the central Maghreb and Ifriqiya in 1152, thus unifying the whole of the Maghreb and ending the Zirid dynasties. The Zirids were Sanhaja Berbers originating from the area of modern Algeria. In the 10th century this tribe served as vassals of the Fatimid Caliphate, defeating the Kharijite rebellion of Abu Yazid, under Ziri ibn Manad.
Ziri was installed as the governor of central Maghreb and founded the gubernatorial residence of Ashir south-east of Algiers, with Fatimid support. When the Fatimids moved their capital to Egypt in 972, Ziri's son Buluggin ibn Ziri was appointed viceroy of Ifriqiya; the removal of the fleet to Egypt made the retention of Kalbid Sicily impossible, while Algeria broke away under the governorship of Hammad ibn Buluggin, Buluggin's son. The relationship with their Fatimid overlords varied - in 1016 thousands of Shiites lost their lives in rebellions in Ifriqiya, the Fatimids encouraged the defection of Tripolitania from the Zirids, but the relationship remained close. In 1049 the Zirids broke away by adopting Sunni Islam and recognizing the Abbasids of Baghdad as rightful Caliphs, a move, popular with the urban Arabs of Kairouan; the Zirid period of Tunisia is considered a high point in its history, with agriculture, industry and learning, both religious and secular, all flourishing in their capital, Kairouan.
Management of the area by Zirid rulers was neglectful as the agricultural economy declined, prompting an increase in banditry among the rural population. When the Zirids renounced Shia Islam and recognized the Abbasid Caliphate in 1048, the Fatimids sent the Arab tribes of the Banu Hilal and the Banu Sulaym to Ifriqiya; the Zirids were defeated, the land laid waste by the Bedouin conquerors. The resulting anarchy devastated the flourishing agriculture, the coastal towns assumed a new importance as conduits for maritime trade and bases for piracy against Christian shipping, as well as being the last holdout of the Zirids. After the loss of Kairouan the rule of the Zirids was limited to a coastal strip with Mahdia as the capital, while several Bedouin Emirates formed inland. Between 1146 and 1148 the Normans of Sicily conquered all the coastal towns, in 1152 the last Zirids in Algeria were superseded by the Almohad Caliphate; the Zirid period is a time of great economic prosperity. The departure of the Fatimids to Cairo, far from ending this prosperity, saw its amplification under the Zirid and Hammadid rulers.
Referring to the government of the Zirid Emir al-Mu'izz, the historian Ibn Khaldun describes: "It never seen by the Berbers of that country a kingdom more vast and more flourishing than his own." The northern regions produced wheat in large quantities, while the region of Sfax was a major hub of olive production and the cultivation of the date is an important part of the local economy in Biskra. Other crops such as sugar cane, cotton, sorghum and chickpea are grown; the breeding of horses and sheep was flourishing and fishing was active, providing plentiful food. The Mediterranean is an important part of the economy though it was, for a time, abandoned after the departure of the Fatimids when the priority of the Zirid Emirs turned to territorial and internal conflicts, their maritime policy enabled them to establish trade links, in particular for the importation of timber necessary for their fleet, enabled them to begin an alliance and close ties with the Kalbid Emirs of Sicily. They did, face blockade attempts by the Venetians and Normans who sought to reduce their wood supply and thus their dominance in the region.
The Arab chronicler Ibn Hawqal visited and described the city of Algiers under the Zirid er
History of science
The history of science is the study of the development of science and scientific knowledge, including both the natural and social sciences. Science is a body of empirical and practical knowledge about the natural world, produced by scientists who emphasize the observation and prediction of real-world phenomena. Historiography of science, in contrast, studies the methods employed by historians of science; the English word scientist is recent—first coined by William Whewell in the 19th century. Investigators of nature called themselves "natural philosophers". While empirical investigations of the natural world have been described since classical antiquity, the scientific method has been employed since the Middle Ages, modern science began to develop in the early modern period, in particular in the scientific revolution of 16th- and 17th-century Europe. Traditionally, historians of science have defined science sufficiently broadly to include those earlier inquiries. From the 18th through the late 20th century, the history of science of the physical and biological sciences, was presented as a progressive accumulation of knowledge, in which true theories replaced false beliefs.
More recent historical interpretations, such as those of Thomas Kuhn, tend to portray the history of science in terms of competing paradigms or conceptual systems within a wider matrix of intellectual, cultural and political trends. These interpretations, have met with opposition for they portray the history of science as an incoherent system of incommensurable paradigms, not leading to any actual scientific progress but only to the illusion that it has occurred. In prehistoric times and technique were passed from generation to generation in an oral tradition. For example, the domestication of maize for agriculture has been dated to about 9,000 years ago in southern Mexico, before the development of writing systems. Archaeological evidence indicates the development of astronomical knowledge in preliterate societies; the development of writing enabled knowledge to be stored and communicated across generations with much greater fidelity. Many ancient civilizations systematically collected astronomical observations.
Rather than speculate on the material nature of the planets and stars, the ancients charted the relative positions of celestial bodies inferring their influence on human society. This demonstrates how ancient investigators employed a holistic intuition, assuming the interconnectedness of all things, whereas modern science rejects such conceptual leaps. Basic facts about human physiology were known in some places, alchemy was practiced in several civilizations. Considerable observation of macroscopic flora and fauna was performed; the ancient Mesopotamians had no distinction between magic. When a person became ill, doctors prescribed magical formulas to be recited as well as medicinal treatments; the earliest medical prescriptions appear in Sumerian during the Third Dynasty of Ur. The most extensive Babylonian medical text, however, is the Diagnostic Handbook written by the ummânū, or chief scholar, Esagil-kin-apli of Borsippa, during the reign of the Babylonian king Adad-apla-iddina. In East Semitic cultures, the main medicinal authority was a kind of exorcist-healer known as an āšipu.
The profession was passed down from father to son and was held in high regard. Of less frequent recourse was another kind of healer known as an asu, who corresponds more to a modern physician and treated physical symptoms using folk remedies composed of various herbs, animal products, minerals, as well as potions and ointments or poultices; these physicians, who could be either male or female dressed wounds, set limbs, performed simple surgeries. The ancient Mesopotamians practiced prophylaxis and took measures to prevent the spread of disease; the ancient Mesopotamians had extensive knowledge about the chemical properties of clay, metal ore, bitumen and other natural materials, applied this knowledge to practical use in manufacturing pottery, glass, metals, lime plaster, waterproofing. Metallurgy required scientific knowledge about the properties of metals. Nonetheless, the Mesopotamians seem to have had little interest in gathering information about the natural world for the mere sake of gathering information and were far more interested in studying the manner in which the gods had ordered the universe.
Biology of non-human organisms was only written about in the context of mainstream academic disciplines. Animal physiology was studied extensively for the purpose of divination. Animal behavior was studied for divinatory purposes. Most information about the training and domestication of animals was transmitted orally without being written down, but one text dealing with the training of horses has survived; the Mesopotamian cuneiform tablet Plimpton 322, dating to the eighteenth century BC, records a number of Pythagorean triplets... hinting that the ancient Mesopotamians might have been aware of the Pythagorean theorem over a millennium before Pythagoras. In Babylonian astronomy, records of the motions of the stars and the moon are left on thousands of clay tablets created by scribes. Today, astronomical periods identified by Mesopotamian proto-scientists are still used in We
Planisphere
In astronomy, a planisphere is a star chart analog computing instrument in the form of two adjustable disks that rotate on a common pivot. It can be adjusted to display the visible stars for any date, it is an instrument to assist in learning how to recognize constellations. The astrolabe, an instrument that has its origins in Hellenistic astronomy, is a predecessor of the modern planisphere; the term planisphere contrasts with armillary sphere, where the celestial sphere is represented by a three-dimensional framework of rings. A planisphere consists of a circular star chart attached at its center to an opaque circular overlay that has a clear elliptical window or hole so that only a portion of the sky map will be visible in the window or hole area at any given time; the chart and overlay are mounted so that they are free to rotate about a common pivot point at their centers. The star chart contains the brightest stars and deep-sky objects visible from a particular latitude on Earth; the night sky that one sees from the Earth depends on whether the observer is in the northern or southern hemispheres and the latitude.
A planisphere window is designed for a particular latitude and will be accurate enough for a certain band either side of that. Planisphere makers will offer them in a number of versions for different latitudes. Planispheres only show the stars visible from the observer's latitude. A complete twenty-four-hour time cycle is marked on the rim of the overlay. A full twelve months of calendar dates are marked on the rim of the starchart; the window is marked to show the direction of the western horizons. The disk and overlay are adjusted so that the observer's local time of day on the overlay corresponds to that day's date on the star chart disc; the portion of the star chart visible in the window represents the distribution of stars in the sky at that moment for the planisphere's designed location. Users hold the planisphere above their head with the eastern and western horizons aligned to match the chart to actual star positions; the word planisphere was used in the second century by Ptolemy to describe the representation of a spherical Earth by a map drawn in the plane.
This usage continued into the Renaissance: for example Gerardus Mercator described his 1569 world map as a planisphere. In this article the word describes the representation of the star-filled celestial sphere on the plane; the first star chart to have the name "planisphere" was made in 1624 by Jacob Bartsch. Bartsch was the son-in-law of discoverer of Kepler's laws of planetary motion. Since the planisphere shows the celestial sphere in a printed flat, there is always considerable distortion. Planispheres, like all charts, are made using a certain projection method. For planispheres there are two major methods in use. One such method is the polar azimuthal equidistant projection. Using this projection the sky is charted centered on one of the celestial poles, while circles of equal declination lie equidistant from each other and from the poles; the shapes of the constellations are proportionally correct in a straight line from the centre outwards, but at right angles to this direction there is considerable distortion.
That distortion will be worse. If we study the famous constellation of Orion in this projection and compare this to the real Orion, we can see this distortion. One notable planisphere using azimuthal equidistant projection addresses this issue by printing a northern view on one side and the southern view on the other, thus reducing the distance charted from the center outward; the stereographic projection solves this problem while introducing another. Using this projection the distances between the declination circles are enlarged in such a way that the shapes of the constellations remain correct. In this projection the constellations on the edge become too large in comparison to constellations near the celestial pole: Orion will be twice as high as it should be. Another disadvantage is that, with more space for constellations near the edge of the planisphere, the space for the constellations around the celestial pole in question will be less than they deserve. For observers at moderate latitudes, who can see the sky near the celestial pole of their hemisphere better than that nearer the horizon, this may be a good reason to prefer a planisphere made with the polar azimuthal equidistant projection method.
The upper disc contains a "horizon", that defines the visible part of the sky at any given moment, half of the total starry sky. That horizon line is most of the time distorted, for the same reason the constellations are distorted; the horizon line on a stereographic projection is a perfect circle. The horizon line on other projections is a kind of "collapsed" oval; the horizon is designed for a particular latitude and thus determines the area for which a planisphere is meant. Some more expensive planispheres have several upper discs that can be exchanged, or have an upper disc with more horizon-lines, for different latitudes; when a planisphere is used in a latitude zone other than the zone for which it was designed, the user will either see stars that are not in the planisphere, or the planisphere will show stars that are not visible in that latitude zone's sky. To study the starry sky it may be necessary to buy a
Arabs
Arabs are a population inhabiting the Arab world. They live in the Arab states in Western Asia, North Africa, the Horn of Africa and western Indian Ocean islands, they form a significant diaspora, with Arab communities established around the world. The first mention of Arabs is from the mid-ninth century BCE as a tribal people in eastern and southern Syria and the north of the Arabian Peninsula; the Arabs appear to have been under the vassalage of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, the succeeding Neo-Babylonian, Achaemenid and Parthian empires. Arab tribes, most notably the Ghassanids and Lakhmids, begin to appear in the southern Syrian Desert from the mid 3rd century CE onward, during the mid to stages of the Roman and Sasanian empires. Before the expansion of the Rashidun Caliphate, "Arab" referred to any of the nomadic and settled Semitic people from the Arabian Peninsula, Syrian Desert, North and Lower Mesopotamia. Today, "Arab" refers to a large number of people whose native regions form the Arab world due to the spread of Arabs and the Arabic language throughout the region during the early Muslim conquests of the 7th and 8th centuries and the subsequent Arabisation of indigenous populations.
The Arabs forged the Rashidun, Umayyad and the Fatimid caliphates, whose borders reached southern France in the west, China in the east, Anatolia in the north, the Sudan in the south. This was one of the largest land empires in history. In the early 20th century, the First World War signalled the end of the Ottoman Empire; this resulted in the defeat and dissolution of the empire and the partition of its territories, forming the modern Arab states. Following the adoption of the Alexandria Protocol in 1944, the Arab League was founded on 22 March 1945; the Charter of the Arab League endorsed the principle of an Arab homeland whilst respecting the individual sovereignty of its member states. Today, Arabs inhabit the 22 Arab states within the Arab League: Algeria, Comoros, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Mauritania, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen; the Arab world stretches around 13 million km2, from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the east, from the Mediterranean Sea in the north to the Horn of Africa and the Indian Ocean in the southeast.
Beyond the boundaries of the League of Arab States, Arabs can be found in the global diaspora. The ties that bind Arabs are ethnic, cultural, identical, nationalist and political; the Arabs have their own customs, architecture, literature, dance, cuisine, society and mythology. The total number of Arabs are an estimated 450 million. Arabs are a diverse group in terms of religious practices. In the pre-Islamic era, most Arabs followed polytheistic religions; some tribes had adopted Christianity or Judaism, a few individuals, the hanifs observed monotheism. Today, about 93% of Arabs are adherents of Islam, there are sizable Christian minorities. Arab Muslims belong to the Sunni, Shiite and Alawite denominations. Arab Christians follow one of the Eastern Christian Churches, such as the Greek Orthodox or Greek Catholic churches. Other smaller minority religions are followed, such as the Bahá'í Faith and Druze. Arabs have influenced and contributed to diverse fields, notably the arts and architecture, philosophy, ethics, politics, music, cinema, medicine and technology in the ancient and modern history.
The earliest documented use of the word "Arab" to refer to a people appears in the Kurkh Monoliths, an Akkadian language record of the ninth century BCE Assyrian conquest of Aram, which referred to Bedouins of the Arabian Peninsula under King Gindibu, who fought as part of a coalition opposed to Assyria. Listed among the booty captured by the army of king Shalmaneser III of Assyria in the Battle of Qarqar are 1000 camels of "Gi-in-di-bu'u the ar-ba-a-a" or " Gindibu belonging to the Arab; the related word ʾaʿrāb is used to refer to Bedouins today, in contrast to ʿarab which refers to Arabs in general. The term Arab and ʾaʿrāb are mentioned around 40 times in pre-Islamic Sabaean inscriptions; the term Arab occurs in the titles of the Himyarite kings from the time of'Abu Karab Asad until MadiKarib Ya'fur. The term ʾaʿrāb is driven from the term Arab according to Sabaean grammar; the term is mentioned in Quranic verses referring to people who were living in Madina and it might be a south Arabian loan-word into Quranic language.
The oldest surviving indication of an Arab national identity is an inscription made in an archaic form of Arabic in 328 using the Nabataean alphabet, which refers to Imru' al-Qays ibn'Amr as "King of all the Arabs". Herodotus refers to the Arabs in the Sinai, southern Palestine, the frankincense region. Other ancient Greek historians like Agatharchides, Diodorus Siculus and Strabo mention Arabs living in Mesopotamia, in Egypt, southern Jordan, the Syrian steppe and in eastern Arabia. Inscriptions dating to the 6th century BCE in Yemen include the term "Arab"; the most popular Arab account holds that the word "Arab" came from an eponymous father called Ya'rub, the first to speak Arabic. A
York
York is a historic walled city in North Yorkshire, England. At the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss, it is the historic county town of the historic county of Yorkshire. York Minster and a variety of cultural and sporting activities make it a popular tourist destination; the city was founded by the Romans as Eboracum in 71 AD. It became the capital of the Roman province of Britannia Inferior, of the kingdoms of Deira, Northumbria and Jórvík. In the Middle Ages, York grew as a major wool trading centre and became the capital of the northern ecclesiastical province of the Church of England, a role it has retained. In the 19th century, York became a hub of the railway network and a confectionery manufacturing centre; the economy of York is now dominated by services. The University of York and National Health Service are major employers, whilst tourism has become an important element of the local economy; the City of York local government district includes rural areas beyond the old city boundaries.
In 2011, it had a population of 198,051. The word York is derived from the Brittonic name Eburākon, a combination of eburos "yew-tree" and a suffix of appurtenance *-āko "belonging to-, place of-" meaning either "place of the yew trees"; the name Eboracum became the Anglian Eoforwic in the 7th century: a compound of Eofor-, from the old name, -wic a village by conflation of the element Ebor- with a Germanic root *eburaz. When the Danish army conquered the city in 866, its name became Jórvík; the Old French and Norman name of the city following the Norman Conquest was recorded as "Everwic" in works such as Wace's Roman de Rou. Jórvík, meanwhile reduced to York in the centuries after the Conquest, moving from the Middle English Yerk in the 14th century through Yourke in the 16th century to Yarke in the 17th century; the form York was first recorded in the 13th century. Many company and place names, such as the Ebor race meeting, refer to the Latinised Brittonic, Roman name; the 12th‑century chronicler Geoffrey of Monmouth, in his fictional account of the prehistoric kings of Britain, Historia Regum Britanniae, suggests the name derives from that of a pre-Roman city founded by the legendary king Ebraucus.
The Archbishop of York uses Ebor as his surname in his signature. Archaeological evidence suggests that Mesolithic people settled in the region of York between 8000 and 7000 BC, although it is not known whether their settlements were permanent or temporary. By the time of the Roman conquest of Britain, the area was occupied by a tribe known to the Romans as the Brigantes; the Brigantian tribal area became a Roman client state, but its leaders became more hostile and the Roman Ninth Legion was sent north of the Humber into Brigantian territory. The city was founded in 71 AD, when the Ninth Legion conquered the Brigantes and constructed a wooden military fortress on flat ground above the River Ouse close to its confluence with the River Foss; the fortress, whose walls were rebuilt in stone by the VI legion based there subsequent to the IX legion, covered an area of 50 acres and was inhabited by 6,000 legionary soldiers. The site of the principia of the fortress lies under the foundations of York Minster, excavations in the undercroft have revealed part of the Roman structure and columns.
The Emperors Hadrian, Septimius Severus and Constantius I all held court in York during their various campaigns. During his stay 207–211 AD, the Emperor Severus proclaimed York capital of the province of Britannia Inferior, it is that it was he who granted York the privileges of a'colonia' or city. Constantius I died in 306 AD during his stay in York, his son Constantine the Great was proclaimed Emperor by the troops based in the fortress. In 314 AD a bishop from York attended the Council at Arles to represent Christians from the province. While the Roman colonia and fortress were located on high ground, by 400 AD the town was victim to occasional flooding from the Rivers Ouse and Foss, the population reduced. York declined in the post-Roman era, was taken and settled by the Angles in the 5th century. Reclamation of parts of the town was initiated in the 7th century under King Edwin of Northumbria, York became his chief city; the first wooden minster church was built in York for the baptism of Edwin in 627, according to the Venerable Bede.
Edwin ordered the small wooden church be rebuilt in stone. In the following century, Alcuin of York came to the cathedral school of York, he had a long career as a teacher and scholar, first at the school at York now known as St Peter's School, founded in 627 AD, as Charlemagne's leading advisor on ecclesiastical and educational affairs. In 866, Northumbria was in the midst of internecine struggles when the Vikings raided and captured York. Under Viking rule the city became a major river port, part of the extensive Viking trading routes throughout northern Europe; the last ruler of an independent Jórvík, Eric Bloodaxe, was driven from the city in 954 AD by King Eadred in his successful attempt to complete the unification
Samuel Baker
Sir Samuel White Baker, KCB, FRS, FRGS was an English explorer, naturalist, big game hunter, engineer and abolitionist. He held the titles of Pasha and Major-General in the Ottoman Empire and Egypt, he served as the Governor-General of the Equatorial Nile Basin between April 1869 and August 1873, which he established as the Province of Equatoria. He is remembered as the discoverer of Lake Albert, as an explorer of the Nile and interior of central Africa, for his exploits as a big game hunter in Asia, Africa and North America. Baker wrote a considerable number of published articles, he was a friend of King Edward VII, who as Prince of Wales, visited Baker with Queen Alexandra in Egypt. Other friendships were with explorers Henry Morton Stanley, Roderick Murchison, John H. Speke and James A. Grant, with the ruler of Egypt Pasha Ismail The Magnificent, Major-General Charles George Gordon and Maharaja Duleep Singh. Samuel White Baker was born on 8 June 1821 in London, as the offspring of a wealthy commercial family.
His father, Samuel Baker Sr. was a sugar merchant and ship owner from Thorngrove, Worcestershire with mercantile ties in the West Indies. His younger brother, Col. Valentine Baker, known as "Baker Pasha", was a British hero of the African Cape Colony, the Crimean War and the Balkans dishonoured by a civilian scandal. Valentine had sought fame in the Ottoman Empire, notably the Russian-Turkish War in the Caucasus and the War of Sudan from Egypt. Samuel's other siblings were: James, Mary "Min", Ellen and Anna Eliza Baker. Baker was educated at a private school at Rottingdean in Sussex, next at the College School, Gloucester privately at Tottenham, before completing his studies in Frankfurt, Germany in 1841, he graduated MA as Civil Engineer. While commissioned, at Constanța, where, as Royal Superintendent, he designed and planned railways and other structures across the Dobruja region, from the Danube to the Black Sea. On 3 August 1843 he married his first wife, Henrietta Ann Bidgood Martin, daughter of the rector of Maisemore, Gloucestershire.
Together, they had seven children: Agnes, Charles Martin, Edith, Jane & John Lindsay Sloan. His brother John Garland Baker married Henrietta's sister Eliza Heberden Martin and after a double wedding, the four moved to Mauritius, overseeing the family's plantation. After spending two years there the desire for travel took them in 1846 to Ceylon, where in the following year he founded an agricultural settlement at Nuwara Eliya, a mountain health-resort. Aided by his family, he brought emigrants from England, together with choice breeds of cattle, before long the new settlement was a success. During his residence in Ceylon he wrote and published The Rifle and the Hound in Ceylon and two years Eight Years' Wanderings in Ceylon. After twelve years of marriage, his wife, died of typhoid fever in 1855, leaving Samuel a widower at the age of thirty-four, his two sons and one daughter died young. Baker left his four surviving daughters in the care of his unmarried sister Mary "Min". After a journey to Constantinople and the Crimea in 1856, he went to Constanța, Romania and acted as Royal Superintendent for the construction of a railway and bridges across the Dobruja, connecting the Danube with the Black Sea.
After that project was completed he spent some months on a tour of south-eastern Europe and Asia Minor. While Baker was visiting the Duke of Atholl on his shooting estate in Scotland, he befriended Maharaja Duleep Singh and in 1858–1859, the two partnered an extensive hunting trip in central Europe and the Balkans, via Frankfurt, Berlin and Budapest. On the last part of the voyage and the Maharajah hired a wooden boat in Budapest, abandoned on the frozen Danube; the two continued into Vidin. There, Baker fell in love with a white slave girl, destined for the Ottoman Pasha of Vidin, he was outbid by the Pasha but bribed the girl's attendants and they ran away in a carriage together and she became his lover and wife and accompanied him everywhere he journeyed. They are reported to have married, most in Bucharest, before going to Dubrushka, but Sir Samuel promised that they would go through another ceremony on their return to England – where they had a family wedding in 1865, she was born 6 August 1841 in Nagyenyed, Austria-Hungary and was named Florenz Barbara Maria.
She said that her nurse helped her to a refugee camp in Bulgaria. It was there that she was adopted by an Armenian family with name Finnian, her nurse married and left her during the first Amnesty of 1857. She was abducted and sold to an Armenian slave merchant, who groomed her for the Harem. Baker and the girl fled to Bucharest and remained in Romania, Baker applying for the position of British Consul there but he was refused. In Constanța, he acted as the Royal Superintendent for the construction of a railway and bridges across the Dobruja, connecting the Danube with the Black Sea. After its completion he spent some months on a tour in south-eastern Asia Minor; the new consul issued Baker's companion with a British passport under the name Florence Barbara Maria Finnian, although she was British neither by birth nor yet by marriage. She was affectionately called "Flooey" by Baker and nicknamed Anyadwe or Daughter of the Moon in what is now northern Uganda by the Luo-speaking Acholi natives
Almohad Caliphate
The Almohad Caliphate was a Moroccan Berber Muslim movement and empire founded in the 12th century. The Almohad movement was founded by Ibn Tumart among the Berber Masmuda tribes of southern Morocco. Around 1120, the Almohads first established a Berber state in Tinmel in the Atlas Mountains, they succeeded in overthrowing the ruling Almoravid dynasty governing Morocco by 1147, when Abd al-Mu'min al-Gumi conquered Marrakesh and declared himself Caliph. They extended their power over all of the Maghreb by 1159. Al-Andalus soon followed, all of Islamic Iberia was under Almohad rule by 1172; the Almohad dominance of Iberia continued until 1212, when Muhammad III, "al-Nasir" was defeated at the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in the Sierra Morena by an alliance of the Christian princes of Castile and Navarre. Nearly all of the Moorish dominions in Iberia were lost soon afterwards, with the great Moorish cities of Cordova and Seville falling to the Christians in 1236 and 1248 respectively; the Almohads continued to rule in Africa until the piecemeal loss of territory through the revolt of tribes and districts enabled the rise of their most effective enemies, the Marinids, in 1215.
The last representative of the line, Idris al-Wathiq, was reduced to the possession of Marrakesh, where he was murdered by a slave in 1269. The Almohad movement originated with Ibn Tumart, a member of the Masmuda, a Berber tribal confederation of the Atlas Mountains of southern Morocco. At the time and much of the rest of North Africa and Spain, was under the rule of the Almoravids, a Sanhaja Berber dynasty. Early in his life, Ibn Tumart went to Spain to pursue his studies, thereafter to Baghdad to deepen them. In Baghdad, Ibn Tumart attached himself to the theological school of al-Ash'ari, came under the influence of the teacher al-Ghazali, he soon developed his own system. Ibn Tumart's main principle was a strict unitarianism, which denied the independent existence of the attributes of God as being incompatible with His unity, therefore a polytheistic idea. Ibn Tumart represented a revolt against, his followers would become known as the al-Muwahhidun. After his return to the Maghreb c.1117, Ibn Tumart spent some time in various Ifriqiyan cities and agitating, heading riotous attacks on wine-shops and on other manifestations of laxity.
He laid the blame for the latitude on the ruling dynasty of the Almoravids, whom he accused of obscurantism and impiety. He opposed their sponsorship of the Maliki school of jurisprudence, which drew upon consensus and other sources beyond the Qur'an and Sunnah in their reasoning, an anathema to the stricter Zahirism favored by Ibn Tumart, his antics and fiery preaching led fed-up authorities to move him along from town to town. After being expelled from Bejaia, Ibn Tumart set up camp in Mellala, in the outskirts of the city, where he received his first disciples - notably, al-Bashir and Abd al-Mu'min. In 1120, Ibn Tumart and his small band of followers proceeded to Morocco, stopping first in Fez, where he engaged the Maliki scholars of the city in debate, he went so far as to assault the sister of the Almoravid emir `Ali ibn Yusuf, in the streets of Fez, because she was going about unveiled, after the manner of Berber women. After being expelled from Fez, he went to Marrakesh, where he tracked down the Almoravid emir Ali ibn Yusuf at a local mosque, challenged the emir, the leading scholars of the area, to a doctrinal debate.
After the debate, the scholars concluded that Ibn Tumart's views were blasphemous and the man dangerous, urged him to be put to death or imprisoned. But the emir decided to expel him from the city. Ibn Tumart took refuge among his own people, the Hargha, in his home village of Igiliz, in the Sous valley, he retreated to a nearby cave, lived out an ascetic lifestyle, coming out only to preach his program of puritan reform, attracting greater and greater crowds. At length, towards the end of Ramadan in late 1121, after a moving sermon, reviewing his failure to persuade the Almoravids to reform by argument, Ibn Tumart'revealed' himself as the true Mahdi, a divinely guided judge and lawgiver, was recognized as such by his audience; this was a declaration of war on the Almoravid state. On the advice of one of his followers, Omar Hintati, a prominent chieftain of the Hintata, Ibn Tumart abandoned his cave in 1122 and went up into the High Atlas, to organize the Almohad movement among the highland Masmuda tribes.
Besides his own tribe, the Hargha, Ibn Tumart secured the adherence of the Ganfisa, the Gadmiwa, the Hintata, the Haskura, the Hazraja to the Almohad cause. Around 1124, Ibn Tumart erected the ribat of Tinmel, in the valley of the Nfis in the High Atlas, an impregnable fortified complex, which would serve both as the spiritual center and military headquarters of the Almohad movement. For the first eight years, the Almohad rebellion was limited to a guerilla war along the peaks and ravines of the High Atlas, their principal damage was in rendering insecure the roads and mountain passes south of Marrakesh – threatening the route to all-important Sijilmassa, the gateway of the trans-Saharan trade. Unabl
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