1.
Third Order of Saint Francis
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The Third Order of Saint Francis, historically known as the Order of Penance of Saint Francis, is a third order within the Franciscan movement of the Catholic Church. It includes both congregations of vowed men and women and fraternities of men and women living standard lives in the world and it has been believed that the Third Order of Saint Francis was the oldest of all third orders, but historical evidence does not support this. Similar institutions are found in documentation of some monastic orders in the 12th century, in addition, a third order has been found among the Humiliati, confirmed together with its rule by Pope Innocent III in 1201. In 1978, the Third Order of Saint Francis was re-organised, with the new rule, the name used by the secular branch of the order was changed to the Secular Franciscan Order. There also are Third Order, Society of St. Francis within the Anglican & Episcopal Church. Tertiaries, or what is known as Third Orders, are persons who live according to the Third Rule of religious orders. There are differing opinions as to the origins of the Third Order of St. Francis, another group of scholars believe that St. Francis name became associated with pre-existing penitential lay-confraternities, without his having any special connection with or influence on them. Thomas of Celano and others held that Francis did indeed found a Third Order, in the composition of this rule St. Francis was assisted by his friend Cardinal Ugolino. As to the place where the Third Order was first introduced nothing certain is known, the preponderance of opinion is for Florence, chiefly on the authority of Mariano of Florence, or Faenza, who cites the first papal bull known on the subject. The less authoritative Fioretti assigns Cannara, a town two hours walk from the Portiuncula, as the birthplace of the Third Order. Mariano and the Bull for Faenza suggest that 1221 was the earliest date for founding of the Third Order, thomas of Celano wrote that the oldest preserved rule was dated 1221. This rule contained originally twelve chapters, a thirteenth was added under Pope Gregory IX, among other things, it prescribes simplicity in dress, considerable fasting and abstinence, and the canonical office or other prayers instead. Because of the prohibition of bearing arms, the followers of this came into conflict with local authorities. In the 13th century, there were Third Order Confraternities with local variations, in 1289 Pope Nicholas IV confirmed the rule in the bull Supra montem. The rule published and approved by Pope Nicholas IV was substantially the same as the oldest 1221 text, Nicholas IV introduced unity of rule and of direction into the Third Order, which was put under the care of the Friars Minor. By the 15th century, numerous individuals living under the Rule of the Third Order were living in small communities and they had been living under the same rule as the married penitents who led more routine forms of life. A papal decree of 1447 organized the more isolated communities into a new, from that point, members were defined either as Third Order Regular, or as the Third Order Secular, for those members of the Order who lived in the world. In the later centuries of the Franciscan movement, the Order of Regular Tertiaries was considered as equivalent to the friars of the First Order, the influence of the Franciscan Third Order Secular upon the society of medieval Europe was significant
2.
Palma, Majorca
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Palma is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands in Spain. It is situated on the south coast of Majorca on the Bay of Palma. As of the 2009 census, the population of the city of Palma proper was 401,270, almost half of the total population of Majorca live in Palma. The Cabrera Archipelago, though separated from Palma proper, is administratively considered part of the municipality. Its airport, Son Sant Joan, serves over 22 million passengers each year, Palma was founded as a Roman camp upon the remains of a Talaiotic settlement. Though present-day Palma has no significant remains from this period, occasional archaeological finds are made in city centre excavations, between 902 and 1229, the city was under Islamic control. It remained the capital of the island and it was known as Medina Mayurqa, the arrival of the Moors in the Balearic Islands occurred at the beginning of the 8th century. During this period, the population developed an economy based on self-sufficiency and piracy, in 707, a Muslim fleet, under the command of Abd Allgaht ibn Musa, son of the governor of Ifriqiya, Musa ibn Nusayr, stopped off at the island. It appears that Abd Allah convinced the powers of the city to accept a peace treaty. This treaty was granted in exchange for a tax, respect for social, economic and political structures to the communities that subscribed to it, as well as the continuity of their religious beliefs. After 707, the city was inhabited by Christians who were nominally in allegiance to the sovereignty of the Umayyad Caliphate, yet who, de facto, enjoyed absolute autonomy. The city, being in Majorca, constituted an enclave between western Christian and Islamic territories, and this attracted and encouraged increased levels of piracy in the surrounding waters. For wide sectors of the population, the sacking of ships which passed through Balearic waters was a source of riches over the next fifteen decades. Eventually, continued piracy in the lead to a retaliation by Al-Andalus which launched a naval fleet against the city. The Islands were defended by the emperor Charlemagne in 799 from a Muslim pirate incursion, in 848, four years after the first Viking incursions had sacked the whole island, an attack from Córdoba forced the authorities to ratify the treaty to which the city had submitted in 707. As the city occupied an eccentric position regarding the commerce network established by the Moors in the western Mediterranean. While the Emirate of Córdoba reinforced its influence upon the Mediterranean, the consequence of this was the substitution of the submission treaty for the effective incorporation of the islands to the Islamic state. The incorporation of the city into the Emirate set the basis for a new society, commerce and manufacturing developed in a manner that was previously unknown
3.
Kingdom of Majorca
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The Kingdom of Majorca was founded by James I of Aragon, also known as James The Conqueror. After the death of his firstborn son Alfonso, a will was written in 1262, the Kingdom of Majorca passed to James, who reigned under the name of James II of Majorca. After 1279, Peter III of Aragon established that the king of Majorca was a vassal to the king of Aragon, the title continued to be employed by the Aragonese and Spanish monarchs until its dissolution by the 1715 Nueva Planta decrees. The kingdom included the Balearic Islands, Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza, conscious of the fragility of the Kingdom of Majorca, James I undertook the conquest of Cerdanya to unify the new kingdom. He also entered negotiations to arrange the marriage of his son James to Beatrice of Savoy. On the death of James I, the new king of Majorca, James II, preoccupied with diverse problems within the realm, it was not until 1279 when the Majorcan monarch reconciled to have his states recognized as subordinate to the king of Aragon. As a consequence the Kingdom of Majorca could not hold court, by means of the Treaty of Perpignan in 1279, an imbalance of power between the Kingdom of Aragon and the Kingdom of Majorca was created. This treaty would condition relations between the Kingdom of Majorca and the Crown of Aragon throughout the formers existence, the lack of courts later aggravated the destabilization of a kingdom already on the brink of fracture, which, besides this, lacked any common institution beyond the monarchy. During the Aragonese Crusade, James II of Majorca allied himself with the Pope, as a result, Peters successor Alfonso conquered the kingdom in 1286. However, by the Treaty of Anagni in 1295, James II of Aragon was required to restore the Balearics to James of Majorca. On the death of James II of Majorcas son Sancho in 1324, James III took the throne at the age of nine, the situation was difficult since James II of Aragon did not renounce his claim to the Majorcan throne. While the act solved the problem of succession, it plunged the kingdom into a serious financial crisis. James was forced to develop policies similar to that of Aragons, to that end, he was forced to participate in the war against Genoa, which resulted in the loss of various economic markets for the kingdom. Again, it was necessary to impose new taxes and fines on the Jewish community though this was insufficient to resolve the financial crisis. The problems of the kingdom did not appear to have an end since in 1341, in May 1343, Peter IV invaded the Balearic Islands and followed that in 1344 with the invasions of the counties of Roussillon and Cerdanya. James III was able to only his French possessions. After the sale of these possessions to the king of France in 1349 and he was defeated and killed at the Battle of Llucmajor on 25 October 1349. Then, the Kingdom of Majorca was definitively incorporated into the Crown of Aragon, the kingdom of Majorca, which had bonds of vassalage with the crowns of France and Aragon, could not remain neutral during the conflicts
4.
Spain
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By population, Spain is the sixth largest in Europe and the fifth in the European Union. Spains capital and largest city is Madrid, other urban areas include Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Bilbao. Modern humans first arrived in the Iberian Peninsula around 35,000 years ago, in the Middle Ages, the area was conquered by Germanic tribes and later by the Moors. Spain is a democracy organised in the form of a government under a constitutional monarchy. It is a power and a major developed country with the worlds fourteenth largest economy by nominal GDP. Jesús Luis Cunchillos argues that the root of the span is the Phoenician word spy. Therefore, i-spn-ya would mean the land where metals are forged, two 15th-century Spanish Jewish scholars, Don Isaac Abravanel and Solomon ibn Verga, gave an explanation now considered folkloric. Both men wrote in two different published works that the first Jews to reach Spain were brought by ship by Phiros who was confederate with the king of Babylon when he laid siege to Jerusalem. This man was a Grecian by birth, but who had given a kingdom in Spain. He became related by marriage to Espan, the nephew of king Heracles, Heracles later renounced his throne in preference for his native Greece, leaving his kingdom to his nephew, Espan, from whom the country of España took its name. Based upon their testimonies, this eponym would have already been in use in Spain by c.350 BCE, Iberia enters written records as a land populated largely by the Iberians, Basques and Celts. Early on its coastal areas were settled by Phoenicians who founded Western Europe´s most ancient cities Cadiz, Phoenician influence expanded as much of the Peninsula was eventually incorporated into the Carthaginian Empire, becoming a major theater of the Punic Wars against the expanding Roman Empire. After an arduous conquest, the peninsula came fully under Roman Rule, during the early Middle Ages it came under Germanic rule but later, much of it was conquered by Moorish invaders from North Africa. In a process took centuries, the small Christian kingdoms in the north gradually regained control of the peninsula. The last Moorish kingdom fell in the same year Columbus reached the Americas, a global empire began which saw Spain become the strongest kingdom in Europe, the leading world power for a century and a half, and the largest overseas empire for three centuries. Continued wars and other problems led to a diminished status. The Napoleonic invasions of Spain led to chaos, triggering independence movements that tore apart most of the empire, eventually democracy was peacefully restored in the form of a parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Spain joined the European Union, experiencing a renaissance and steady economic growth
5.
Mediterranean Sea
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The sea is sometimes considered a part of the Atlantic Ocean, although it is usually identified as a separate body of water. The name Mediterranean is derived from the Latin mediterraneus, meaning inland or in the middle of land and it covers an approximate area of 2.5 million km2, but its connection to the Atlantic is only 14 km wide. The Strait of Gibraltar is a strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and separates Gibraltar. In oceanography, it is called the Eurafrican Mediterranean Sea or the European Mediterranean Sea to distinguish it from mediterranean seas elsewhere. The Mediterranean Sea has a depth of 1,500 m. The sea is bordered on the north by Europe, the east by Asia and it is located between latitudes 30° and 46° N and longitudes 6° W and 36° E. Its west-east length, from the Strait of Gibraltar to the Gulf of Iskenderun, the seas average north-south length, from Croatia’s southern shore to Libya, is approximately 800 km. The Mediterranean Sea, including the Sea of Marmara, has an area of approximately 2,510,000 square km. The sea was an important route for merchants and travelers of ancient times that allowed for trade, the history of the Mediterranean region is crucial to understanding the origins and development of many modern societies. In addition, the Gaza Strip and the British Overseas Territories of Gibraltar and Akrotiri, the term Mediterranean derives from the Latin word mediterraneus, meaning amid the earth or between land, as it is between the continents of Africa, Asia and Europe. The Ancient Greek name Mesogeios, is similarly from μέσο, between + γη, land, earth) and it can be compared with the Ancient Greek name Mesopotamia, meaning between rivers. The Mediterranean Sea has historically had several names, for example, the Carthaginians called it the Syrian Sea and latter Romans commonly called it Mare Nostrum, and occasionally Mare Internum. Another name was the Sea of the Philistines, from the people inhabiting a large portion of its shores near the Israelites, the sea is also called the Great Sea in the General Prologue by Geoffrey Chaucer. In Ottoman Turkish, it has also been called Bahr-i Sefid, in Modern Hebrew, it has been called HaYam HaTikhon, the Middle Sea, reflecting the Seas name in ancient Greek, Latin, and modern languages in both Europe and the Middle East. Similarly, in Modern Arabic, it is known as al-Baḥr al-Mutawassiṭ, in Turkish, it is known as Akdeniz, the White Sea since among Turks the white colour represents the west. Several ancient civilisations were located around the Mediterranean shores, and were influenced by their proximity to the sea. It provided routes for trade, colonisation, and war, as well as food for numerous communities throughout the ages, due to the shared climate, geology, and access to the sea, cultures centered on the Mediterranean tended to have some extent of intertwined culture and history. Two of the most notable Mediterranean civilisations in classical antiquity were the Greek city states, later, when Augustus founded the Roman Empire, the Romans referred to the Mediterranean as Mare Nostrum
6.
Majorca
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Majorca or Mallorca is the largest island in the Balearic Islands archipelago, which are part of Spain and located in the Mediterranean. The capital of the island, Palma, is also the capital of the community of the Balearic Islands. The Balearic Islands have been a region of Spain since 1983. The Cabrera Archipelago is administratively grouped with Majorca, the anthem of Majorca is La Balanguera. Like the other Balearic Islands of Minorca, Ibiza and Formentera, the island is a popular holiday destination, particularly for tourists from Germany. The international airport, Palma de Mallorca Airport, is one of the busiest in Spain, the name derives from Latin insula maior, larger island, later Maiorica, the larger one in comparison to Minorca, the smaller one. Little is recorded of the earliest inhabitants of the island, burial chambers and traces of habitation from the Neolithic period have been discovered, particularly the prehistoric settlements called talaiots, or talayots. They raised Bronze Age megaliths as part of their Talaiotic Culture, the island eventually came under the control of Carthage in North Africa, which had become the principal Phoenician city. After the Second Punic War, Carthage lost all of its overseas possessions, the island was occupied by the Romans in 123 BC under Quintus Caecilius Metellus Balearicus. It flourished under Roman rule, during which time the towns of Pollentia, in addition, the northern town of Bocchoris, dating back to pre-Roman times, was a federated city to Rome. The local economy was driven by olive cultivation, viticulture. Majorcan soldiers were valued within the Roman legions for their skill with the sling, in 427, Gunderic and the Vandals captured the island. Geiseric, son of Gunderic, governed Majorca and used it as his base to loot and plunder settlements around the Mediterranean, in 534, Majorca was recaptured by the Eastern Roman Empire, led by Apollinarius. Under Roman rule, Christianity thrived and numerous churches were built, from 707, the island was increasingly attacked by Muslim raiders from North Africa. Recurrent invasions led the islanders to ask Charlemagne for help, in 902, Issam al-Khawlani conquered the Balearic Islands, ushering in a new period of prosperity under the Emirate of Córdoba. The town of Palma was reshaped and expanded, and became known as Medina Mayurqa, later on, with the Caliphate of Córdoba at its height, the Moors improved agriculture with irrigation and developed local industries. The Caliphate was dismembered in 1015, Majorca came under rule by the Taifa of Dénia, and from 1087 to 1114 was an independent Taifa. During that period the island was visited by Ibn Hazm, however, an expedition of Pisans and Catalans in 1114-15, led by Ramon Berenguer III, Count of Barcelona, overran the island, laying siege to Palma for eight months
7.
Third Order of St. Francis
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The Third Order of Saint Francis, historically known as the Order of Penance of Saint Francis, is a third order within the Franciscan movement of the Catholic Church. It includes both congregations of vowed men and women and fraternities of men and women living standard lives in the world and it has been believed that the Third Order of Saint Francis was the oldest of all third orders, but historical evidence does not support this. Similar institutions are found in documentation of some monastic orders in the 12th century, in addition, a third order has been found among the Humiliati, confirmed together with its rule by Pope Innocent III in 1201. In 1978, the Third Order of Saint Francis was re-organised, with the new rule, the name used by the secular branch of the order was changed to the Secular Franciscan Order. There also are Third Order, Society of St. Francis within the Anglican & Episcopal Church. Tertiaries, or what is known as Third Orders, are persons who live according to the Third Rule of religious orders. There are differing opinions as to the origins of the Third Order of St. Francis, another group of scholars believe that St. Francis name became associated with pre-existing penitential lay-confraternities, without his having any special connection with or influence on them. Thomas of Celano and others held that Francis did indeed found a Third Order, in the composition of this rule St. Francis was assisted by his friend Cardinal Ugolino. As to the place where the Third Order was first introduced nothing certain is known, the preponderance of opinion is for Florence, chiefly on the authority of Mariano of Florence, or Faenza, who cites the first papal bull known on the subject. The less authoritative Fioretti assigns Cannara, a town two hours walk from the Portiuncula, as the birthplace of the Third Order. Mariano and the Bull for Faenza suggest that 1221 was the earliest date for founding of the Third Order, thomas of Celano wrote that the oldest preserved rule was dated 1221. This rule contained originally twelve chapters, a thirteenth was added under Pope Gregory IX, among other things, it prescribes simplicity in dress, considerable fasting and abstinence, and the canonical office or other prayers instead. Because of the prohibition of bearing arms, the followers of this came into conflict with local authorities. In the 13th century, there were Third Order Confraternities with local variations, in 1289 Pope Nicholas IV confirmed the rule in the bull Supra montem. The rule published and approved by Pope Nicholas IV was substantially the same as the oldest 1221 text, Nicholas IV introduced unity of rule and of direction into the Third Order, which was put under the care of the Friars Minor. By the 15th century, numerous individuals living under the Rule of the Third Order were living in small communities and they had been living under the same rule as the married penitents who led more routine forms of life. A papal decree of 1447 organized the more isolated communities into a new, from that point, members were defined either as Third Order Regular, or as the Third Order Secular, for those members of the Order who lived in the world. In the later centuries of the Franciscan movement, the Order of Regular Tertiaries was considered as equivalent to the friars of the First Order, the influence of the Franciscan Third Order Secular upon the society of medieval Europe was significant
8.
Beatification
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Beatification is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a dead persons entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in his or her name. Local bishops had the power of beatifying until 1634, when Pope Urban VIII, in the apostolic constitution Cœlestis Jerusalem of 6 July, reserved the power of beatifying to the Apostolic See. The requirement of a miracle is not relevant to the canonization of those who died in martyrdom, the feast day for a Blessed person is not universal, but is celebrated only in regions where the person receives particular veneration. For instance, Saint Kateri Tekakwitha was especially honored in the United States, the person may also be honored in a particular religious order, diocese, or organization, such as John Duns Scotus among the Franciscans, the Archdiocese of Cologne and other places. Pope John Paul II markedly changed previous Catholic practice of beatification, by October 2004, he had beatified 1,340 people, more than the sum of all of his predecessors since Pope Sixtus V, who established a beatification procedure similar to that used today. The Pope himself still can preside, as happened on 19 September 2010, cultus confirmation is a somewhat different procedure, wherein the church recognizes a local cult of a person, asserting that veneration of that person is acceptable. Such a confirmation is more an official sanctioning of folk Catholicism than a step in a canonization procedure. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Herbermann, Charles. Juris Canonici et Juris Canonico-Civilis Compendium Nova Editio, Tomus Tertius, Pars Secunda List of all Blesseds in the Catholic Church by GCatholic. org
9.
Pope Pius IX
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Pope Pius IX, born Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti, reigned as Pope from 16 June 1846 to his death in 1878. He was the elected pope in the history of the Catholic Church. During his pontificate Pius IX convened the First Vatican Council, which decreed papal infallibility and he was also the last pope to rule as the Sovereign of the Papal States, which fell completely to the Italian Army in 1870 and were incorporated into the Kingdom of Italy. After this, he was referred to—chiefly by himself—as the Prisoner of the Vatican, after his death in 1878, his canonization process was opened on 11 February 1907 by Pope Pius X and it drew considerable controversy over the years. It was closed on several occasions during the pontificates of Pope Benedict XV, Pope Pius XII re-opened the cause on 7 December 1954, and Pope John Paul II proclaimed him Venerable on 6 July 1985. Together with Pope John XXIII, he was beatified on 3 September 2000 after the recognition of a miracle, Pius IX was assigned the liturgical feast day of February 7, the date of his death. Europe, including the Italian peninsula, was in the midst of political ferment when the bishop of Spoleto. He took the name Pius, after his generous patron and the prisoner of Napoleon Bonaparte. Through the 1850s and 1860s, Italian nationalists made military gains against the Papal States, however, concordats were concluded with numerous states such as Austria-Hungary, Portugal, Spain, Canada, Tuscany, Ecuador, Venezuela, Honduras, El Salvador and Haiti. Many contemporary Church historians and journalists question his approaches, in his Syllabus of Errors, still highly controversial, Pius IX condemned the heresies of secular society, especially modernism. He was a Marian pope, who in his encyclical Ubi primum described Mary as a Mediatrix of salvation, in 1854, he promulgated the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, articulating a long-held Catholic belief that Mary, the Mother of God, was conceived without original sin. In 1862, he convened 300 bishops to the Vatican for the canonization of Twenty-six Martyrs of Japan and his most important legacy is the First Vatican Council, which convened in 1869. The council is considered to have contributed to a centralization of the Church in the Vatican, Pius IX was beatified by Pope John Paul II on 3 September 2000. His Feast Day is 7 February, Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti was born on May 13,1792. He was educated at the Piarist College in Volterra and in Rome, as a theology student in his hometown Sinigaglia, in 1814 he met Pope Pius VII, who had returned from French captivity. In 1815, he entered the Papal Noble Guard but was dismissed after an epileptic seizure. He threw himself at the feet of Pius VII, who elevated him, the pope originally insisted that another priest should assist Mastai during Holy Mass, a stipulation that was later rescinded, after the seizure attacks became less frequent. Mastai was ordained priest on April 10,1819 and he initially worked as the rector of the Tata Giovanni Institute in Rome
10.
Calendar of saints
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The word feast in this context does not mean a large meal, typically a celebratory one, but instead an annual religious celebration, a day dedicated to a particular saint. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, a calendar of saints is called a Menologion, Menologion may also mean a set of icons on which saints are depicted in the order of the dates of their feasts, often made in two panels. As the number of recognized saints increased during Late Antiquity and the first half of the Middle Ages, eventually every day of the year had at least one saint who was commemorated on that date. To deal with this increase, some saints were moved to days in some traditions or completely removed. For example, St. Perpetua and Felicity died on 7 March, when the 1969 reform of the Catholic calendar moved him to 28 January, they were moved back to 7 March. Both days can thus be said to be their feast day, the Roman Catholic calendars of saints in their various forms, which list those saints celebrated in the entire church, contains only a selection of the saints for each of its days. A fuller list is found in the Roman Martyrology, and some of the saints there may be celebrated locally, Saint Martin of Tours is said to be the first or at least one of the first non-martyrs to be venerated as a saint. The title confessor was used for saints, who had confessed their faith in Christ by their lives rather than by their deaths. Martyrs are regarded as dying in the service of the Lord, a broader range of titles was used later, such as, Virgin, Pastor, Bishop, Monk, Priest, Founder, Abbot, Apostle, Doctor of the Church. Pope Pius XII added a common formula for Popes, the 1962 Roman Missal of Pope John XXIII omitted the common of Apostles, assigning a proper Mass to every feast day of an Apostle. The present Roman Missal has common formulas for the Dedication of Churches, the Blessed Virgin Mary, Martyrs, Pastors, Doctors of the Church, Virgins, some Christians continue the tradition of dating by saints days, their works may appear dated as The Feast of Saint Martin. Poets such as John Keats commemorate the importance of The Eve of Saint Agnes, as different Christian jurisdictions parted ways theologically, differing lists of saints began to develop. In the present ordinary form of the Roman Rite, feast days are ranked as solemnities and those who use even earlier forms of the Roman Rite rank feast days as Doubles, Semidoubles, and Simples. See Ranking of liturgical days in the Roman Rite, in the Eastern Orthodox Church the ranking of feasts varies from church to church. In the Russian Orthodox Church they are, Great Feasts, middle, each portion of such feasts may also be called feasts as follows, All-Night Vigils, Polyeleos, Great Doxology, Sextuple. There are also distinctions between Simple feasts and Double, in Double Feasts the order of hymns and readings for each feast are rigidly instructed in Typikon, the liturgy book. In the Church of England, there are Principal Feasts and Principal Holy Days, Festivals, Lesser Festivals, and Commemorations. com
11.
Al-Farabi
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He also lived and taught for some time in Aleppo. Al-Masudi, writing five years after the fact, says that Farabi died in Damascus in Rajab 339. Henry Corbin writes that the evidence supports the common in Iran that al-Farabi was Shiite. Corbin argues that there are similarities between what he calls Farabis prophetic philosophy and the teachings of Shiite Imams. Najjar Fauzi also refers to the point that Al-Farabi may be Shiite because his political philosophy seems to be influenced by Shiite sects, Farabi made contributions to the fields of logic, mathematics, music, philosophy, psychology, and education. Al-Farabi wrote, The Necessity of the Art of the Elixir Though he was mainly an Aristotelian logician and he discussed the topics of future contingents, the number and relation of the categories, the relation between logic and grammar, and non-Aristotelian forms of inference. He is also credited with categorizing logic into two groups, the first being idea and the second being proof. Al-Farabi also considered the theories of conditional syllogisms and analogical inference, another addition al-Farabi made to the Aristotelian tradition was his introduction of the concept of poetic syllogism in a commentary on Aristotles Poetics. Al-Farabi wrote a book on music titled Kitab al-Musiqa, in it, he presents philosophical principles about music, its cosmic qualities, and its influences. He also wrote a treatise on the Meanings of the Intellect, as a philosopher, Al-Farabi was a founder of his own school of early Islamic philosophy known as Farabism or Alfarabism, though it was later overshadowed by Avicennism. His Neoplatonic theology is more than just metaphysics as rhetoric. In his attempt to think through the nature of a First Cause, Al-Farabi had great influence on science and philosophy for several centuries, and was widely considered second only to Aristotle in knowledge in his time. His work, aimed at synthesis of philosophy and Sufism, paved the way for the work of Ibn Sina, Al-Farabi also wrote a commentary on Aristotles work, and one of his most notable works is Al-Madina al-Fadila where he theorized an ideal state as in Platos The Republic. Al-Farabi represented religion as a rendering of truth, and, like Plato. Al-Farabi wrote a short treatise On Vacuum, where he thought about the nature of the existence of void and he may have carried out the first experiments concerning the existence of vacuum, in which he investigated handheld plungers in water. He concluded that airs volume can expand to fill available space, wrote Social Psychology and Principles of the Opinions of the Citizens of the Virtuous City, which were the first treatises to deal with social psychology. He concluded that to achieve what he can of that perfection, every man needs to stay in the neighborhood of others, the main influence on al-Farabis philosophy was the neo-Aristotelian tradition of Alexandria. A prolific writer, he is credited with one hundred works
12.
Avicenna
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Avicenna or Ibn Sīnā was a Persian polymath who is regarded as one of the most significant thinkers and writers of the Islamic Golden Age. Of the 450 works he is known to have written, around 240 have survived, in 1973, Avicennas Canon Of Medicine was reprinted in New York. Besides philosophy and medicine, Avicennas corpus includes writings on astronomy, alchemy, geography and geology, psychology, Islamic theology, logic, mathematics, physics and poetry. Avicenna is a Latin corruption of the Arabic patronym Ibn Sīnā, meaning Son of Sina, however, Avicenna was not the son, but the great-great-grandson of a man named Sina. His full name was Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī ibn Sīnā, Ibn Sina created an extensive corpus of works during what is commonly known as the Islamic Golden Age, in which the translations of Greco-Roman, Persian, and Indian texts were studied extensively. Under the Samanids, Bukhara rivaled Baghdad as a capital of the Islamic world. The study of the Quran and the Hadith thrived in such a scholarly atmosphere, philosophy, Fiqh and theology were further developed, most noticeably by Avicenna and his opponents. Al-Razi and Al-Farabi had provided methodology and knowledge in medicine and philosophy, Avicenna had access to the great libraries of Balkh, Khwarezm, Gorgan, Rey, Isfahan and Hamadan. Various texts show that he debated philosophical points with the greatest scholars of the time, aruzi Samarqandi describes how before Avicenna left Khwarezm he had met Al-Biruni, Abu Nasr Iraqi, Abu Sahl Masihi and Abu al-Khayr Khammar. Avicenna was born c. 980 in Afshana, a village near Bukhara, the capital of the Samanids, a Persian dynasty in Central Asia and Greater Khorasan. His mother, named Setareh, was from Bukhara, his father, Abdullah, was a respected Ismaili scholar from Balkh and his father worked in the government of Samanid in the village Kharmasain, a Sunni regional power. After five years, his brother, Mahmoud, was born. Avicenna first began to learn the Quran and literature in such a way that when he was ten years old he had learned all of them. According to his autobiography, Avicenna had memorised the entire Quran by the age of 10 and he learned Indian arithmetic from an Indian greengrocer, ءMahmoud Massahi and he began to learn more from a wandering scholar who gained a livelihood by curing the sick and teaching the young. He also studied Fiqh under the Sunni Hanafi scholar Ismail al-Zahid, Avicenna was taught some extent of philosophy books such as Introduction s Porphyry, Euclids Elements, Ptolemys Almagest by an unpopular philosopher, Abu Abdullah Nateli, who claimed philosophizing. As a teenager, he was troubled by the Metaphysics of Aristotle. For the next year and a half, he studied philosophy, in such moments of baffled inquiry, he would leave his books, perform the requisite ablutions, then go to the mosque, and continue in prayer till light broke on his difficulties. Deep into the night, he would continue his studies, and even in his dreams problems would pursue him and work out their solution
13.
Giordano Bruno
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Giordano Bruno, born Filippo Bruno, was an Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, mathematician, poet, and cosmological theorist. He is remembered for his theories, which conceptually extended the then novel Copernican model. He proposed that the stars were just distant suns surrounded by their own exoplanets and he also insisted that the universe is in fact infinite and could have no celestial body at its center. Brunos pantheism was also a matter of grave concern, the Inquisition found him guilty, and he was burned at the stake in Romes Campo de Fiori in 1600. Brunos case is considered a landmark in the history of free thought. In addition to cosmology, Bruno also wrote extensively on the art of memory, historian Frances Yates argues that Bruno was deeply influenced by Arab astrology, Neoplatonism, Renaissance Hermeticism, and legends surrounding the Egyptian god Thoth. Other studies of Bruno have focused on his approach to mathematics. Born Filippo Bruno in Nola in 1548, he was the son of Giovanni Bruno, a soldier and his date of birth was given as January 1548, the exact date remains unknown. In his youth he was sent to Naples to be educated and he was tutored privately at the Augustinian monastery there, and attended public lectures at the Studium Generale. At the age of 17, he entered the Dominican Order at the monastery of San Domenico Maggiore in Naples, taking the name Giordano, after Giordano Crispo and he continued his studies there, completing his novitiate, and became an ordained priest in 1572 at age 24. During his time in Naples he became known for his skill with the art of memory and on one occasion traveled to Rome to demonstrate his system before Pope Pius V. In his later years Bruno claimed that the Pope accepted his dedication to him of the lost work On The Ark of Noah at this time, while Bruno was distinguished for outstanding ability, his taste for free thinking and forbidden books soon caused him difficulties. Given the controversy he caused in life it is surprising that he was able to remain within the monastic system for eleven years. When he learned that an indictment was being prepared against him in Naples he fled, shedding his religious habit, from Venice he went to Padua, where he met fellow Dominicans who convinced him to wear his religious habit again. From Padua he went to Bergamo and then across the Alps to Chambéry and his movements after this time are obscure. In 1579 he arrived in Geneva, I desired to stay there only that I might live at liberty and in security. Things apparently went well for Bruno for a time, as he entered his name in the Rectors Book of the University of Geneva in May 1579, but in keeping with his personality he could not long remain silent. In August he published an attack on the work of Antoine de la Faye and he and the printer were promptly arrested
14.
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
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Leibnizs notation has been widely used ever since it was published. It was only in the 20th century that his Law of Continuity and he became one of the most prolific inventors in the field of mechanical calculators. He also refined the number system, which is the foundation of virtually all digital computers. Leibniz, along with René Descartes and Baruch Spinoza, was one of the three great 17th-century advocates of rationalism and he wrote works on philosophy, politics, law, ethics, theology, history, and philology. Leibnizs contributions to this vast array of subjects were scattered in various learned journals, in tens of thousands of letters and he wrote in several languages, but primarily in Latin, French, and German. There is no complete gathering of the writings of Leibniz in English, Gottfried Leibniz was born on July 1,1646, toward the end of the Thirty Years War, in Leipzig, Saxony, to Friedrich Leibniz and Catharina Schmuck. Friedrich noted in his journal,21. Juny am Sontag 1646 Ist mein Sohn Gottfried Wilhelm, post sextam vespertinam 1/4 uff 7 uhr abents zur welt gebohren, in English, On Sunday 21 June 1646, my son Gottfried Wilhelm is born into the world a quarter after six in the evening, in Aquarius. Leibniz was baptized on July 3 of that year at St. Nicholas Church, Leipzig and his father died when he was six and a half years old, and from that point on he was raised by his mother. Her teachings influenced Leibnizs philosophical thoughts in his later life, Leibnizs father had been a Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Leipzig, and the boy later inherited his fathers personal library. He was given access to it from the age of seven. Access to his fathers library, largely written in Latin, also led to his proficiency in the Latin language and he also composed 300 hexameters of Latin verse, in a single morning, for a special event at school at the age of 13. In April 1661 he enrolled in his fathers former university at age 15 and he defended his Disputatio Metaphysica de Principio Individui, which addressed the principle of individuation, on June 9,1663. Leibniz earned his masters degree in Philosophy on February 7,1664, after one year of legal studies, he was awarded his bachelors degree in Law on September 28,1665. His dissertation was titled De conditionibus, in early 1666, at age 19, Leibniz wrote his first book, De Arte Combinatoria, the first part of which was also his habilitation thesis in Philosophy, which he defended in March 1666. His next goal was to earn his license and Doctorate in Law, in 1666, the University of Leipzig turned down Leibnizs doctoral application and refused to grant him a Doctorate in Law, most likely due to his relative youth. Leibniz then enrolled in the University of Altdorf and quickly submitted a thesis, the title of his thesis was Disputatio Inauguralis de Casibus Perplexis in Jure. Leibniz earned his license to practice law and his Doctorate in Law in November 1666 and he next declined the offer of an academic appointment at Altdorf, saying that my thoughts were turned in an entirely different direction
15.
Latin
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Latin is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. The Latin alphabet is derived from the Etruscan and Greek alphabets, Latin was originally spoken in Latium, in the Italian Peninsula. Through the power of the Roman Republic, it became the dominant language, Vulgar Latin developed into the Romance languages, such as Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Romanian. Latin, Italian and French have contributed many words to the English language, Latin and Ancient Greek roots are used in theology, biology, and medicine. By the late Roman Republic, Old Latin had been standardised into Classical Latin, Vulgar Latin was the colloquial form spoken during the same time and attested in inscriptions and the works of comic playwrights like Plautus and Terence. Late Latin is the language from the 3rd century. Later, Early Modern Latin and Modern Latin evolved, Latin was used as the language of international communication, scholarship, and science until well into the 18th century, when it began to be supplanted by vernaculars. Ecclesiastical Latin remains the language of the Holy See and the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. Today, many students, scholars and members of the Catholic clergy speak Latin fluently and it is taught in primary, secondary and postsecondary educational institutions around the world. The language has been passed down through various forms, some inscriptions have been published in an internationally agreed, monumental, multivolume series, the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. Authors and publishers vary, but the format is about the same, volumes detailing inscriptions with a critical apparatus stating the provenance, the reading and interpretation of these inscriptions is the subject matter of the field of epigraphy. The works of several hundred ancient authors who wrote in Latin have survived in whole or in part and they are in part the subject matter of the field of classics. The Cat in the Hat, and a book of fairy tales, additional resources include phrasebooks and resources for rendering everyday phrases and concepts into Latin, such as Meissners Latin Phrasebook. The Latin influence in English has been significant at all stages of its insular development. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, English writers cobbled together huge numbers of new words from Latin and Greek words, dubbed inkhorn terms, as if they had spilled from a pot of ink. Many of these words were used once by the author and then forgotten, many of the most common polysyllabic English words are of Latin origin through the medium of Old French. Romance words make respectively 59%, 20% and 14% of English, German and those figures can rise dramatically when only non-compound and non-derived words are included. Accordingly, Romance words make roughly 35% of the vocabulary of Dutch, Roman engineering had the same effect on scientific terminology as a whole
16.
Philosopher
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A philosopher is someone who practices philosophy, which involves rational inquiry into areas that are outside of either theology or science. The term philosopher comes from the Ancient Greek φιλόσοφος meaning lover of wisdom, the coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek thinker Pythagoras. Typically, these brands of philosophy are Hellenistic ones and those who most arduously commit themselves to this lifestyle may be considered philosophers. The separation of philosophy and science from theology began in Greece during the 6th century BC, thales, an astronomer and mathematician, was considered by Aristotle to be the first philosopher of the Greek tradition. While Pythagoras coined the word, the first known elaboration on the topic was conducted by Plato, in his Symposium, he concludes that Love is that which lacks the object it seeks. Therefore, the philosopher is one who seeks wisdom, if he attains wisdom, therefore, the philosopher in antiquity was one who lives in the constant pursuit of wisdom, and living in accordance to that wisdom. Disagreements arose as to what living philosophically entailed and these disagreements gave rise to different Hellenistic schools of philosophy. In consequence, the ancient philosopher thought in a tradition, as the ancient world became schism by philosophical debate, the competition lay in living in manner that would transform his whole way of living in the world. Philosophy is a discipline which can easily carry away the individual in analyzing the universe. The second is the change through the Medieval era. With the rise of Christianity, the way of life was adopted by its theology. Thus, philosophy was divided between a way of life and the conceptual, logical, physical and metaphysical materials to justify that way of life, philosophy was then the servant to theology. The third is the sociological need with the development of the university, the modern university requires professionals to teach. Maintaining itself requires teaching future professionals to replace the current faculty, therefore, the discipline degrades into a technical language reserved for specialists, completely eschewing its original conception as a way of life. In the fourth century, the word began to designate a man or woman who led a monastic life. Gregory of Nyssa, for example, describes how his sister Macrina persuaded their mother to forsake the distractions of life for a life of philosophy. Later during the Middle Ages, persons who engaged with alchemy was called a philosopher - thus, many philosophers still emerged from the Classical tradition, as saw their philosophy as a way of life. Among the most notable are René Descartes, Baruch Spinoza, Nicolas Malebranche, with the rise of the university, the modern conception of philosophy became more prominent
17.
Logic
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Logic, originally meaning the word or what is spoken, is generally held to consist of the systematic study of the form of arguments. A valid argument is one where there is a relation of logical support between the assumptions of the argument and its conclusion. Historically, logic has been studied in philosophy and mathematics, and recently logic has been studied in science, linguistics, psychology. The concept of form is central to logic. The validity of an argument is determined by its logical form, traditional Aristotelian syllogistic logic and modern symbolic logic are examples of formal logic. Informal logic is the study of natural language arguments, the study of fallacies is an important branch of informal logic. Since much informal argument is not strictly speaking deductive, on some conceptions of logic, formal logic is the study of inference with purely formal content. An inference possesses a purely formal content if it can be expressed as an application of a wholly abstract rule, that is. The works of Aristotle contain the earliest known study of logic. Modern formal logic follows and expands on Aristotle, in many definitions of logic, logical inference and inference with purely formal content are the same. This does not render the notion of informal logic vacuous, because no formal logic captures all of the nuances of natural language, Symbolic logic is the study of symbolic abstractions that capture the formal features of logical inference. Symbolic logic is divided into two main branches, propositional logic and predicate logic. Mathematical logic is an extension of logic into other areas, in particular to the study of model theory, proof theory, set theory. Logic is generally considered formal when it analyzes and represents the form of any valid argument type, the form of an argument is displayed by representing its sentences in the formal grammar and symbolism of a logical language to make its content usable in formal inference. Simply put, formalising simply means translating English sentences into the language of logic and this is called showing the logical form of the argument. It is necessary because indicative sentences of ordinary language show a variety of form. Second, certain parts of the sentence must be replaced with schematic letters, thus, for example, the expression all Ps are Qs shows the logical form common to the sentences all men are mortals, all cats are carnivores, all Greeks are philosophers, and so on. The schema can further be condensed into the formula A, where the letter A indicates the judgement all - are -, the importance of form was recognised from ancient times
18.
Catalan literature
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Catalan literature is the name conventionally used to refer to literature written in the Catalan language. The Catalan literary tradition is extensive, starting in the early Middle Ages, a Romantic revivalist movement of the 19th century, Renaixença, classified Catalan literature in periods. The centuries long chapter known as Decadència that followed the golden age of Valencian literature, was perceived as extremely poor, further attempts to explain why this happened have motivated new critical studies of the period, and nowadays a revalorisation of this early modern age is taking place. Catalan literature reemerged in the 19th and early 20th centuries, to experience troubled times from the start of the Spanish Civil War on, many intellectuals were forced into exile and Catalan culture was repressed. However, this began to temper after the end of World War II. Many measures were introduced soon to protect and promote the Catalan language, Catalan, a Romance language, evolved from Vulgar Latin in the Middle Ages, when it became a separate language from Latin. Another early Catalan poem is the mid-13th century Augats, seyós qui credets Déu lo Payre, see Llibre de Meravelles and Blanquerna for more details on his works. These four major works are chronicles written between the 13th and 14th centuries narrating the deeds of the monarchs and leading figures of the Crown of Aragon. They are the following, Crònica de Jaume I, also known as The book of deeds Crònica de Bernat Desclot, also known as Book of the king, Peter of Aragon. Crònica de Ramon Muntaner Crònica de Pere el Cerimoniós The first widespread vernacular writing in any Romance language was the poetry of the troubadours. Since Occitan and Catalan are often indistinguishable before the 14th century, the first Catalan troubadour may be Berenguier de Palazol, active around 1150, who wrote only cançons. Guerau III de Cabrera and Guillem de Berguedà, active in the generation after, were noted exponents of the ensenhamen, during this early period Occitan literature was patronised by the rulers of Catalonia—not surprisingly considering their wide involvement in Occitanian politics and as Counts of Provence. Alfonso II patronised many composers, not just from Catalonia, the tradition of royal troubadours continued with his descendants Peter III James II of Aragon, the anonymous known only as Lo bord del rei dArago, and Frederick II of Sicily. The most prolific Catalan troubadour during the ascendancy of Occitan as language of literature, was Cerverí de Girona and he was the most prolific troubadour of any nationality. In the early 13th century, Raimon Vidal, from Besalú, composed his poetic grammar and this was the earliest and perhaps most influential Occitan lyric treatise. The troubadour lyric followed the Catalans to Sicily later in the century, a third Catalan treatise on the language of the troubadours and composing lyric poetry, the Mirall de trobar, was written by a Majorcan, Berenguer dAnoia. The first golden age of Catalan literature is from half 14th century to 15th century, the language is consolidated and clearly differenciated, even in lyrical poetry, from Occitan language. The prose is widely cultivated, with influences from Italian humanism, authors as the humanist Bernat Metge the preacher Vincent Ferrer, Francesc Eiximenis or Anselm Turmeda write works now considered as classical models of Catalan prose
19.
Lullism
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Lullism or llullism is an esoteric philosophy originally developed by Ramon Llull. In addition to his philosophies of mysticism, manuscripts show that Llull anticipated prominent work on elections theory several centuries ahead of his time, further, he is considered a pioneer of the computational theory due to his influence on Gottfried Leibniz. Due to his mystical and theoretical work, Llulls overall reception in the 14th century was diverse, Llulls transformation into a mystic figure began in 16th century Europe and became even more prominent three hundred years after his death. At the time, Europeans valued his works as a method for integrating different types of knowledge, including the works of Peter Ramus. In 1263, Llull experienced an epiphany that manifested itself through a series of visions. At the age of 82, Llull visited North Africa, possibly on a missionary quest, while there, he engaged in high-profile public preaching in the main square of the city of Bougie, in present-day Béjaïa in northern Algeria. This caused a reaction that led to his arrest and beating. Llull was likely to have executed, but Genoese and Catalan merchants intervened on his behalf. After his release, Llull was stoned by a crowd in the city of Bougie. Genoese merchants took him back to Mallorca where he died at his home in Palma the next year, Lullism incorporates aspects of Christian theology and Muslim philosophy and has been seen as a bridge between Christianity and Islam. In addition to Lullisms relationship with Christianity and Islam, the philosophy was influenced by Judaism. Llulls geographical proximity to Judaism provided him with the ground where he could develop his theories regarding the relationship between God and man as well as the search for truth. Because the Jews incorporated Muslim philosophy and Sufi ideas into their books, Christian and Jewish scholars have debated the connections between Lullism and Kabbalah with mixed results. According to Frances Amelia Yates, Llull himself was almost certainly influenced by Cabala which developed in Spain at the time as his art. In fact, the art is perhaps best understood as a form of Christian Cabala. Arthur Edward Waite and Joseph Leon Blau did not endorse a connection between Lullism and Kabbalah, the aforementioned works approached the subject through the studies of Pico della Mirandola, an Italian Renaissance philosopher who drew a connection between the Lullism and Kabbalah. These works, however, anachronistically presented Lullism as a Renaissance understanding, the Christian Interpretation of the Cabala in the Renaissance. The Art and Logic of Ramon Llull, A Users Guide, the Kabbalah, The Religious Philosophy of the Hebrews
20.
Theory of computation
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In theoretical computer science and mathematics, the theory of computation is the branch that deals with how efficiently problems can be solved on a model of computation, using an algorithm. In order to perform a study of computation, computer scientists work with a mathematical abstraction of computers called a model of computation. There are several models in use, but the most commonly examined is the Turing machine and it might seem that the potentially infinite memory capacity is an unrealizable attribute, but any decidable problem solved by a Turing machine will always require only a finite amount of memory. So in principle, any problem that can be solved by a Turing machine can be solved by a computer that has an amount of memory. The theory of computation can be considered the creation of models of all kinds in the field of computer science, therefore, mathematics and logic are used. In the last century it became an independent academic discipline and was separated from mathematics, some pioneers of the theory of computation were Alonzo Church, Kurt Gödel, Alan Turing, Stephen Kleene, John von Neumann and Claude Shannon. Automata theory is the study of abstract machines and the problems that can be solved using these machines. These abstract machines are called automata, Automata comes from the Greek word which means that something is doing something by itself. Automata theory is closely related to formal language theory, as the automata are often classified by the class of formal languages they are able to recognize. An automaton can be a representation of a formal language that may be an infinite set. Automata are used as models for computing machines, and are used for proofs about computability. Language theory is a branch of mathematics concerned with describing languages as a set of operations over an alphabet and it is closely linked with automata theory, as automata are used to generate and recognize formal languages. Because automata are used as models for computation, formal languages are the mode of specification for any problem that must be computed. Computability theory deals primarily with the question of the extent to which a problem is solvable on a computer, much of computability theory builds on the halting problem result. Many mathematicians and computational theorists who study recursion theory will refer to it as computability theory, Complexity theory considers not only whether a problem can be solved at all on a computer, but also how efficiently the problem can be solved. In order to analyze how much time and space a given algorithm requires, for example, finding a particular number in a long list of numbers becomes harder as the list of numbers grows larger. If we say there are n numbers in the list, then if the list is not sorted or indexed in any way we may have to look at every number in order to find the number were seeking. We thus say that in order to solve this problem, the needs to perform a number of steps that grows linearly in the size of the problem
21.
Philip II of Spain
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Philip II of Spain, called the Prudent, was King of Spain, King of Portugal, King of Naples and Sicily, and jure uxoris King of England and Ireland. He was also Duke of Milan, from 1555, he was lord of the Seventeen Provinces of the Netherlands. Known in Spain as Felipe el Prudente, his empire included territories on every continent then known to Europeans, during his reign, Spain reached the height of its influence and power. This is sometimes called the Golden Age, the expression, the empire on which the sun never sets, was coined during Philips time to reflect the extent of his dominion. During Philips reign there were separate state bankruptcies in 1557,1560,1569,1575 and this was partly the cause of the declaration of independence that created the Dutch Republic in 1581. The Ambassador went on to say He dresses very tastefully, the culture and courtly life of Spain were an important influence in his early life. He was tutored by Juan Martínez Siliceo, the future Archbishop of Toledo, Philip displayed reasonable aptitude in arms and letters alike. Later he would study with more illustrious tutors, including the humanist Juan Cristóbal Calvete de Estrella, though Philip had good command over Latin, Spanish, and Portuguese, he never managed to equal his father, Charles V, as a polyglot. While Philip was also a German archduke of the House of Habsburg, Philip felt himself to be culturally Spanish, he had been born in Spain and raised in the Castilian court, his native tongue was Spanish, and he preferred to live in Spain. This would ultimately impede his succession to the imperial throne, in April 1528, when Philip was eleven months old, he received the oath of allegiance as heir to the crown from the Cortes of Castile. Philip was also close to his two sisters, María and Juana, and to his two pages, the Portuguese nobleman Rui Gomes da Silva and Luis de Requesens, the son of his governor Juan de Zúñiga. These men would serve Philip throughout their lives, as would Antonio Pérez, Philips martial training was undertaken by his governor, Juan de Zúñiga, a Castilian nobleman who served as the commendador mayor of Castile. The practical lessons in warfare were overseen by the Duke of Alba during the Italian Wars, Philip was present at the Siege of Perpignan in 1542 but did not see action as the Spanish army under Alba decisively defeated the besieging French forces under the Dauphin of France. On his way back to Castile, Philip received the oath of allegiance of the Aragonese Cortes at Monzón. The king-emperors interactions with his son during his stay in Spain convinced him of Philips precocity in statesmanship, Philip, who had previously been made the Duke of Milan in 1540, began governing the most extensive empire in the world at the young age of sixteen. Charles left Philip with experienced advisors—notably the secretary Francisco de los Cobos, Philip was also left with extensive written instructions that emphasised piety, patience, modesty, and distrust. These principles of Charles were gradually assimilated by his son, who would grow up to become grave, self-possessed, personally, Philip spoke softly and had an icy self-mastery, in the words of one of his ministers, he had a smile that cut like a sword. After living in the Netherlands in the years of his reign
22.
El Escorial
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It is one of the Spanish royal sites and functions as a monastery, basilica, royal palace, pantheon, library, museum, university and hospital. It is situated 2.06 km up the valley from the town of El Escorial, El Escorial was, at once, a monastery and a Spanish royal palace. Originally a property of the Hieronymite monks, it is now a monastery of the Order of Saint Augustine and it is also a boarding school. Philip engaged the Spanish architect, Juan Bautista de Toledo, to be his collaborator in the design of El Escorial, Philip appointed him architect-royal in 1559, and together they designed El Escorial as a monument to Spains role as a center of the Christian world. On 2 November 1984, UNESCO declared The Royal Seat of San Lorenzo of El Escorial a World Heritage Site and it is a popular tourist attraction, often visited by day-trippers from Madrid – more than 500,000 visitors come to El Escorial every year. El Escorial is situated at the foot of Mt. Abantos in the Sierra de Guadarrama, Quentin in Picardy against Henry II, king of France. He also intended the complex to serve as a necropolis for the interment of the remains of his parents, Charles I and Isabella of Portugal, himself, in addition, Philip envisioned El Escorial as a center for studies in aid of the Counter-Reformation cause. The buildings cornerstone was laid on 23 April 1563, the design and construction were overseen by Juan Bautista de Toledo, who did not live to see the completion of the project. With Toledos death in 1567, direction passed to his apprentice, Juan de Herrera, under whom the building was completed in 1584, to this day, la obra de El Escorial is a proverbial expression for a thing that takes a long time to finish. Since then, El Escorial has been the site for most of the Spanish kings of the last five centuries. Two Bourbon kings, Philip V and Ferdinand VI, as well as King Amadeus, are not buried in the monastery, the floor plan of the building is in the form of a gridiron. The traditional belief is that design was chosen in honor of St. Lawrence. St. Lawrence’s feast day is 10 August, the date as the 1557 Battle of St. Quentin. In fact, however, the origin of the layout is quite controversial. The grill-like shape, which did not fully emerge until Herrera eliminated from the conception the six interior towers of the facade, was, by no means. In fact, palaces of this design were commonplace in the Byzantine. Statues of David and Solomon on either side of the entrance to the basilica of El Escorial lend further weight to the theory that this is the origin of the design. A more personal connection can be drawn between the David-warrior figure, representing Charles V, and his son, the stolid and solomonically prudent Philip II
23.
Spanish Inquisition
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The Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition, commonly known as the Spanish Inquisition, was established in 1478 by Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. It was intended to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdoms and to replace the Medieval Inquisition and it became the most substantive of the three different manifestations of the wider Christian Inquisition along with the Roman Inquisition and Portuguese Inquisition. The Inquisition was originally intended primarily to ensure the orthodoxy of those who converted from Judaism, the regulation of the faith of the newly converted was intensified after the royal decrees issued in 1492 and 1502 ordering Jews and Muslims to convert or leave Spain. The Inquisition was not definitively abolished until 1834, during the reign of Isabella II, the Spanish Inquisition is often stated in popular literature and history as an example of Catholic intolerance and repression. Modern historians have tended to question earlier accounts concerning the severity of the Inquisition, Henry Kamen asserts that the myth of the all-powerful, torture-mad inquisition is largely an invention of nineteenth century Protestant authors with an agenda to discredit the Papacy. Although records are incomplete, about 150,000 persons were charged with crimes by the Inquisition and about 3,000 were executed. The Inquisition was created through papal bull, Ad Abolendam, issued at the end of the century by Pope Lucius III as a way to combat the Albigensian heresy in southern France. There were a number of tribunals of the Papal Inquisition in various European kingdoms during the Middle Ages. In the Kingdom of Aragon, a tribunal of the Papal Inquisition was established by the statute of Excommunicamus of Pope Gregory IX, in 1232, during the era of the Albigensian heresy. With time, its importance was diluted, and, by the middle of the fifteenth century, there was never a tribunal of the Papal Inquisition in Castile. Members of the episcopate were charged with surveillance of the faithful, during the Middle Ages, in Castile, little attention was paid to heresy by the Catholic ruling class. Jews and Muslims were tolerated and generally allowed to follow their traditional laws, however, by law, they were considered inferior to Catholics and were subject to discriminatory legislation. The Spanish Inquisition can be seen as an answer to the nature of Spanish society following the reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula from the Muslim Moors. After invading in 711, large areas of the Iberian Peninsula were ruled by Muslims until 1250, when they were restricted to Granada, which fell in 1492. However, the Reconquista did not result in the expulsion of Muslims from Spain, since they. The Jews, who had previously thrived under Muslim rule, now suffered similar maltreatment, however, as Henry Kamen notes, so-called convivencia was always a relationship between unequals. Despite their legal inequality, there was a tradition of Jewish service to the crown of Aragon and Jews occupied many important posts. Castile itself had an unofficial rabbi, ferdinands father John II named the Jewish Abiathar Crescas to be Court Astronomer
24.
Franciscans
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The Franciscans are a group of related mendicant religious orders within the Catholic Church, founded in 1209 by Francis of Assisi. These orders include the Order of Friars Minor, the Order of Saint Clare, Francis began preaching around 1207 and traveled to Rome to seek approval from the Pope in 1209. The original Rule of Saint Francis approved by the Pope disallowed ownership of property, the austerity was meant to emulate the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. Franciscans traveled and preached in the streets, while boarding in church properties, Saint Clare, under Franciss guidance, founded the Poor Clares in 1212, which remains a Second Order of the Franciscans. The extreme poverty required of members was relaxed in final revision of the Rule in 1223, the degree of observance required of members remained a major source of conflict within the order, resulting in numerous secessions. The Order of Friars Minor, previously known as the Observant branch, is one of the three Franciscan First Orders within the Catholic Church, the others being the Capuchins and Conventuals. The Order of Friars Minor, in its current form, is the result of an amalgamation of smaller orders completed in 1897 by Pope Leo XIII. The latter two, the Capuchin and Conventual, remain distinct religious institutes within the Catholic Church, observing the Rule of Saint Francis with different emphases, Franciscans are sometimes referred to as minorites or greyfriars because of their habit. In Poland and Lithuania they are known as Bernardines, after Bernardino of Siena, the name of original order, Friars Minor, means lesser brothers, and stems from Francis of Assisis rejection of extravagance. Francis was the son of a cloth merchant, but gave up his wealth to pursue his faith more fully. Francis adopted of the tunic worn by peasants as the religious habit for his order. Those who joined him became the original Order of Friars Minor and they all live according to a body of regulations known as the Rule of St Francis. First Order The First Order or the Order of Friars Minor are commonly called simply the Franciscans and this Order is a mendicant religious order of men, some of whom trace their origin to Francis of Assisi. Their official Latin name is the Ordo Fratrum Minorum, St. Francis thus referred to his followers as Fraticelli, meaning Little Brothers. Franciscan brothers are informally called friars or the Minorites and they all live according to a body of regulations known as the Rule of St Francis. These are The Order of Friars Minor, known as the Observants, most commonly simply called Franciscan friars, official name, the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin or simply Capuchins, official name, Friars Minor Capuchin. The Conventual Franciscans or Minorites, official name, Friars Minor Conventual, Second Order The Second Order, most commonly called Poor Clares in English-speaking countries, consists of religious sisters. The order is called the Order of St. Clare, but in the century, prior to 1263, this order was referred to as The Poor Ladies, The Poor Enclosed Nuns
25.
Martyr
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A martyr is somebody who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, refusing to renounce, or refusing to advocate a belief or cause as demanded by an external party. This refusal to comply with the presented demands results in the punishment or execution of the martyr by the oppressor, originally applied only to those who suffered for their religious beliefs, the term is now often used in connection with people imprisoned or killed for espousing a political cause. Most martyrs are considered holy or are respected by their followers, becoming symbols of exceptional leadership, Martyrs play significant roles in religions. Similarly, martyrs have had effects in secular life, including specific figures such as Socrates, as well as in politics. In its original meaning, the martyr, meaning witness, was used in the secular sphere as well as in the New Testament of the Bible. The term, in this sense, entered the English language as a loanword. The death of a martyr or the value attributed to it is called martyrdom, the early Christians who first began to use the term martyr in its new sense saw Jesus as the first and greatest martyr, on account of his crucifixion. The early Christians appear to have seen Jesus as the archetypal martyr, the word martyr is used in English to describe a wide variety of people. However, the table presents a general outline of common features present in stereotypical martyrdoms. Examples of this are found in the Mahabharata, during the great war which commenced, even Arjuna was brought down with doubts, e. g. attachment, sorrow, fear. This is where Krishna instructs Arjuna how to carry out his duty as a righteous warrior, Martyrdom in Judaism is one of the main examples of Kiddush Hashem, meaning sanctification of Gods name through public dedication to Jewish practice. Religious martyrdom is considered one of the significant contributions of Hellenistic Judaism to Western Civilization. Frend, Judaism was itself a religion of martyrdom and it was this Jewish psychology of martyrdom that inspired Christian martyrdom. In Christianity, a martyr, in accordance with the meaning of the original Greek martys in the New Testament, is one who brings a testimony, in particular, the testimony is that of the Christian Gospel, or more generally, the Word of God. A Christian witness is a biblical witness whether or not death follows, however, over time many Christian testimonies were rejected, and the witnesses put to death, and the word martyr developed its present sense. Where death ensues, the follow the example of Jesus in offering up their lives for truth. The concept of Jesus as a martyr has recently received greater attention, analyses of the Gospel passion narratives have led many scholars to conclude that they are martyrdom accounts in terms of genre and style. Several scholars have concluded that Paul the Apostle understood Jesus death as a martyrdom
26.
James I of Aragon
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James I the Conqueror was King of Aragon, Count of Barcelona, and Lord of Montpellier from 1213 to 1276, King of Majorca from 1231 to 1276, and Valencia from 1238 to 1276. By a treaty with Louis IX of France, he wrested the county of Barcelona from nominal French suzerainty and his part in the Reconquista was similar in Mediterranean Spain to that of his contemporary Ferdinand III of Castile in Andalusia. As a legislator and organiser, he occupies a place among the Spanish kings. James compiled the Llibre del Consolat de Mar, which governed maritime trade and he was an important figure in the development of the Catalan language, sponsoring Catalan literature and writing a quasi-autobiographical chronicle of his reign, the Llibre dels fets. James was born at Montpellier as the son of Peter II of Aragon. Peter endeavoured to placate the northern crusaders by arranging a marriage between his son James and Simons daughter, when the former was only two years old. He entrusted the boy to be educated in Montforts care in 1211, Montfort would willingly have used James as a means of extending his own power had not the Aragonese appealed to Pope Innocent III, who insisted that Montfort surrender him. James was handed over to the papal legate Peter of Benevento at Carcassonne in May or June 1214, the kingdom was given over to confusion until, in 1217, the Templars and some of the more loyal nobles brought the young king to Zaragoza. In 1221, he was married to Eleanor, daughter of Alfonso VIII of Castile, the next six years of his reign were full of rebellions on the part of the nobles. By the Peace of Alcalá of 31 March 1227, the nobles, in 1228, James faced the sternest opposition yet from a vassal. Guerau IV de Cabrera occupied the County of Urgell in opposition to Aurembiax, the heiress of Ermengol VIII, who had died without sons in 1208. Although Aurembiaxs mother, Elvira, had made herself a protegée of Jamess father, upon her death in 1220 Guerau occupied the county and displaced Aurembiax, James intervened on behalf of Aurembiax, to whom he owed protection. He bought Guerau off and allowed Aurembiax to reclaim her territory and she surrendered Lleida to James and agreed to hold Urgell in fief for him. On her death in 1231, James exchanged the Balearic Islands for Urgell with her widower, Peter of Portugal, from 1230 to 1232, James negotiated with Sancho VII of Navarre, who desired his help against his nephew and closest living male relative, Theobald IV of Champagne. Pope Gregory IX was required to intervene, in the end, James accepted Theobalds succession. James endeavoured to form a state straddling the Pyrenees in order to counterbalance the power of France north of the Loire, as with the much earlier Visigothic attempt, this policy was victim to physical, cultural, and political obstacles. As in the case of Navarre, he declined to launch into perilous adventures, by the Treaty of Corbeil, signed in May 1258, he ended his conflict with Louis IX of France, securing the renunciation of French claims to sovereignty over Catalonia. After his false start at uniting Aragon with the Kingdom of Navarre through a scheme of mutual adoption, James turned to the south, James conquered Majorca on 31 December 1229, and Minorca and Ibiza were later acquired during the reconquest
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Balearic Islands
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The Balearic Islands are an archipelago of Spain in the western Mediterranean Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. The four largest islands are Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza and Formentera, there are many minor islands and islets close to the larger islands, including Cabrera, Dragonera and SEspalmador. The islands have a Mediterranean climate, and the four islands are all popular tourist destinations. Ibiza in particular is known as a party destination, attracting many of the worlds most popular DJs to its nightclubs. The islands culture and cuisine are similar to that of the rest of Spain but have their own distinctive features, the archipelago forms an autonomous community and a province of Spain, with Palma de Mallorca as the capital. The 2007 Statute of Autonomy declares the Balearic Islands as one nationality of Spain, the co-official languages in the Balearic Islands are Catalan and Spanish. Though now a part of Spain, throughout history the Balearic Islands have been under the rule of a number of different kingdoms, the official name of the Balearic Islands in Catalan is Illes Balears, while in Spanish they are known as the Islas Baleares. The term Balearic derives from Greek, of the various theories on the origins of the two ancient Greek and Latin names for the islands—Gymnasiae and Baleares—classical sources provide two. According to the Lycophrons Alexandra verses, the islands were called Γυμνησίαι/Gymnesiae because its inhabitants were often nude, the Greek and Roman writers generally derive the name of the people from their skill as slingers, although Strabo regards the name as of Phoenician origin. He observed it was the Phoenician equivalent for lightly armoured soldiers the Greeks would have called γυμνῆτας/gymnetas, the root bal does point to a Phoenician origin, perhaps the islands were sacred to the god Baal and the resemblance to the Greek root ΒΑΛ is accidental. Indeed, it was usual Greek practice to assimilate local names into their own language, but the common Greek name of the islands is not Βαλεαρεῖς/Baleareis, but Γυμνησίαι/Gymnesiai. The former was the used by the natives, as well as by the Carthaginians and Romans. The Balearic Islands are on a platform called the Balearic Promontory. They are cut by a network of northwest to southeast faults, the main islands of the autonomous community are Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza and Formentera, all popular tourist destinations. Amongst the minor islands is Cabrera, the location of the Cabrera Archipelago Maritime-Terrestrial National Park, the islands can be further grouped, with Majorca, Minorca, and Cabrera as the Gymnesian Islands, and Ibiza and Formentera as the Pityusic Islands, also referred to as the Pityuses. Located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, the Balearic Islands unsurprisingly have typical mediterranean climates, the below-listed climatic data of the capital Palma is typical for the archipelago, with minor differences to other stations in Majorca, Ibiza and Menorca. Little is recorded on the earliest inhabitants of the islands, though many legends exist, the story, preserved by Lycophron, that certain shipwrecked Greek Boeotians were cast nude on the islands, was evidently invented to account for the name Gymnesiae. There is also a tradition that the islands were colonised by Rhodes after the Trojan War, the islands had a very mixed population, of whose habits several strange stories are told
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Crown of Aragon
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Put in contemporary terms, it has sometimes been considered that the different lands of the Crown of Aragon functioned more as a confederation than as a single kingdom. In this sense, the larger Crown of Aragon must not be confused with one of its constituent parts, formally, the political center of the Crown of Aragon was Zaragoza, where kings were crowned at La Seo Cathedral. The de facto capital and leading cultural, administrative and economic centre of the Crown of Aragon was Barcelona followed by Valencia, finally, Palma was an additional important city and seaport. For brief periods the Crown of Aragon also controlled Montpellier, Provence, Corsica, the countries that are today known as Spain and Portugal spent the Middle Ages after 722 in an intermittent struggle called the Reconquista. This struggle pitted the northern Christian kingdoms against the Islamic taifa petty kingdoms of the South, in the Late Middle Ages, the expansion of the Aragonese Crown southwards met with the Castilian advance eastward in the region of Murcia. Afterward, the Aragonese Crown focused on the Mediterranean, acting as far as Greece and Barbary, whereas Portugal, mercenaries from the territories in the Crown, known as almogàvers participated in the creation of this Mediterranean empire, and later found employment in countries all across southern Europe. The Crown of Aragon has been considered by some as an empire which ruled in the Mediterranean for hundreds of years and it was indeed, at its height, one of the major powers in Europe. However, its different territories were connected through the person of the monarch. A modern historian, Juan de Contreras y Lopez de Ayala, Marqués de Lozoya described the Crown of Aragon as being more like a confederacy than a centralised kingdom, let alone an empire. Nor did official documents refer to it as an empire, instead. This union respected the institutions and parliaments of both territories. This was due to the loss of Catalan influence, the renunciation of the family rights of the counts of Barcelona in Occitania. Petronillas father King Ramiro, The Monk who was raised in the Saint Pons de Thomières Monastery and his brothers Peter I and Alfonso I El Batallador had bravely fought against Castile for hegemony in the Iberian peninsula. After the death of Alfonso I, the Aragonese nobility that campaigned close him feared being overwhelmed by the influence of Castile, and so, Ramiro was forced to leave his monastic life and proclaim himself King of Aragon. He married Agnes, sister of the Duke of Aquitaine and betrothed his daughter to Raymond Berengar IV of Barcelona. The wedding agreement provided Raymond Berengar IV the title of Princeps Aragonum and Dominator Aragonenesis and kept the title, Raymond Berengar IV, the first ruler of the united dynasty, called himself Count of Barcelona and Prince of Aragon. Alfonso II inherited two realms and with them, two different expansion processes, the House of Jiménez looked south in a battle against Castile for the control of the Mediterranean coast in the Iberian peninsula. The House of Barcelona looked north to its origins, Occitania, soon, Alfonso II of Aragon and Barcelona committed himself to conquer Valencia as the Aragonese nobility demanded
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Catalonia
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Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, located on the northeastern extremity of the Iberian Peninsula. It is designated as a nationality by its Statute of Autonomy, Catalonia consists of four provinces, Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. The capital and largest city is Barcelona, the second-most populated municipality in Spain, Catalonia comprises most of the territory of the former Principality of Catalonia. It is bordered by France and Andorra to the north, the Mediterranean Sea to the east, the official languages are Catalan, Spanish, and the Aranese dialect of Occitan. The eastern counties of these marches were united under the rule of the Frankish vassal the Count of Barcelona, in the later Middle Ages Catalan literature flourished. Between 1469 and 1516, the King of Aragon and the Queen of Castile married and ruled their kingdoms together, retaining all their distinct institutions, Courts, and constitutions. During the Franco-Spanish War, Catalonia revolted against a large and burdensome presence of the Royal army in its territory, within a brief period France took full control of Catalonia, at a high economic cost for Catalonia, until it was largely reconquered by the Spanish army. In the nineteenth century, Catalonia was severely affected by the Napoleonic, in the second half of the century Catalonia experienced industrialisation. As wealth from the industrial expansion grew, Catalonia saw a cultural renaissance coupled with incipient nationalism while several workers movements appeared. In 1914, the four Catalan provinces formed a Commonwealth, and with the return of democracy during the Second Spanish Republic, after the Spanish Civil War, the Francoist dictatorship enacted repressive measures, abolishing Catalan institutions and banning the official use of the Catalan language again. Since the Spanish transition to democracy, Catalonia has regained some political and cultural autonomy and is now one of the most economically dynamic communities of Spain, the origin of the name Catalunya is subject to diverse interpretations because of a lack of evidence. During the Middle Ages, Byzantine chroniclers claimed that Catalania derives from the medley of Goths with Alans. Other less plausible theories suggest, Catalunya derives from the land of castles, having evolved from the term castlà or castlan. This theory therefore suggests that the names Catalunya and Castile have a common root, the source is of Celtic origin, meaning chiefs of battle. Although the area is not known to have been occupied by Celts, the Lacetani, an Iberian tribe that lived in the area and whose name, due to the Roman influence, could have evolved by metathesis to Katelans and then Catalans. In English, Catalonia is pronounced /kætəˈloʊniə/, the native name, Catalunya, is pronounced in Central Catalan, the most widely spoken variety whose pronunciation is considered standard. The Spanish name is Cataluña, and the Aranese name is Catalonha, the first known human settlements in what is now Catalonia were at the beginning of the Middle Palaeolithic. From the next era, the Epipaleolithic or Mesolithic, important remains survive
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Almohad Caliphate
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The Almohad Caliphate was a Moroccan Berber Muslim movement 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 and they then extended their power over all of the Maghreb by 1159. Al-Andalus followed the fate of North Africa and all Islamic Iberia was under Almohad rule by 1172, nearly all of the Moorish dominions in Iberia were lost soon after, 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 loss of territory through the revolt of tribes and districts enabled the rise of their most effective enemies. The Almohad movement originated with Ibn Tumart, a member of the Masmuda, at the time, Morocco, 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, in Baghdad, Ibn Tumart attached himself to the theological school of al-Ashari, and came under the influence of the teacher al-Ghazali. He soon developed his own system, combining the doctrines of various masters, Ibn Tumarts main principle was a strict unitarianism, which denied the independent existence of the attributes of God as being incompatible with His unity, and therefore a polytheistic idea. Ibn Tumart represented a revolt against what he perceived as anthropomorphism in Muslim orthodoxy and his followers would become known as the al-Muwahhidun, meaning those who affirm the unity of God. After his return to the Maghreb c.1117, Ibn Tumart spent some time in various Ifriqiyan cities, preaching and agitating, heading riotous attacks on wine-shops and on other manifestations of laxity. He laid the blame for the latitude on the dynasty of the Almoravids. His antics and fiery preaching led fed-up authorities to 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-Mumin. In 1120, Ibn Tumart and his band of followers proceeded to Morocco, stopping first in Fez. He even 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 the debate, the scholars concluded that Ibn Tumarts views were blasphemous and the man dangerous, but the emir decided merely to expel him from the city. Ibn Tumart took refuge among his own people, the Hargha, in his village of Igiliz. He retreated to a cave, and lived out an ascetic lifestyle, coming out only to preach his program of puritan reform
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Troubadour
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A troubadour was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages. Since the word troubadour is etymologically masculine, a female troubadour is usually called a trobairitz, the troubadour school or tradition began in the late 11th century in Occitania, but it subsequently spread into Italy and Spain. Under the influence of the troubadours, related movements sprang up throughout Europe, the Minnesang in Germany, trovadorismo in Galicia and Portugal, dante Alighieri in his De vulgari eloquentia defined the troubadour lyric as fictio rethorica musicaque poita, rhetorical, musical, and poetical fiction. The texts of troubadour songs deal mainly with themes of chivalry, most were metaphysical, intellectual, and formulaic. Many were humorous or vulgar satires, works can be grouped into three styles, the trobar leu, trobar ric, and trobar clus. The oldest mention of the word troubadour as trobadors is found in a 12th-century Occitan text by Cercamon. The English word troubadour is a rendition from a French word first recorded in 1575 in an historical context to mean langue doc poet at the court in the 12th and 13th century. The French word is borrowed itself from the Occitan word trobador and this recreated form is deduced from the Latin root tropus, meaning a trope and the various meanings of the Old Occitan related words. In turn, the Latin word derives ultimately from Greek τρόπος, meaning turn, B Intervocal Latin shifted regularly to in Occitan. The Latin suffix -ātor, -atōris explains the Occitan suffix, according to its declension and accentuation, Gallo-Romance *TROPĀTOR > Occitan trobaire, there is an alternative theory to explain the meaning of trobar as “to compose, to discuss, to invent. It has the support of some historians, specialists of literature, According to them, the Arabic word ṭaraba “song could partly be the etymon of the verb trobar. Another Arabic root had already been proposed before, Ḍ-R-B “strike and they entertain the possibility that the nearly homophonous Ḍ-R-B root may have contributed to the sense of the newly coined Romance verb trobar. In archaic and classical poetry, the word is only used in a mocking sense. Cercamon writes, Ist trobador, entre ver e mentir, Afollon drutz e molhers et espos, Peire dAlvernha also begins his famous mockery of contemporary authors cantarai daquest trobadors, after which he proceeds to explain why none of them is worth anything. When referring to themselves seriously, troubadours almost invariably use the word chantaire, the early study of the troubadours focused intensely on their origins. No academic consensus was achieved in the area. In his study, Lévi-Provençal is said to have found four Arabo-Hispanic verses nearly or completely recopied in Williams manuscript, trend admitted that the troubadours derived their sense of form and even the subject matter of their poetry from the Andalusian Muslims. Meg Bogin, American translator of the trobairitz, held this hypothesis, to such a strong and multi-faceted tradition of love literature and song nearby must be added the presence of the Toledo School of Translators starting in 1126
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James II of Aragon
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James II, called the Just, was the King of Sicily from 1285 to 1296 and King of Aragon and Valencia and Count of Barcelona from 1291 to 1327. In 1297 he was granted the Kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica and he used the Latin title Iacobus Dei gracia rex Aragonum, Valencie, Sardinie, et Corsice ac comes Barchinone. He was the son of Peter III of Aragon and Constance of Sicily. James was born at Valencia as the son of King Peter I and he succeeded his father as King of Sicily in 1285. Upon the death of his brother Alfonso III in 1291, he succeeded also to the throne of the Crown of Aragon and he spent May of that year in Catania, inspiring the local monk Atanasiu di Iaci to write the Vinuta di re Iapicu about his time there. By a peace treaty with Charles II of Anjou in 1296, he agreed to give up Sicily, due to the fact that Frederick would not withdraw from the island, Pope Boniface VIII asked James II, along with Charles II of Naples, to remove him. As an enticement to do this the Pope invested James II with the title to Sardinia and Corsica, because of his inability to disguise his apathy on the matter, he returned to Aragon. Frederick reigned there until his death in 1337, by the Treaty of Anagni in 1295, he returned the Balearic Islands to his uncle James II of Majorca. Aragon retained control over the territories of the Majorca kingdom — Montpellier. In 1298, by the Treaty of Argilers, James of Majorca recognised the suzerainty of James of Aragon, during the period that followed his return to Aragon, James II wanted to gain access to the Muslim world in the south, from which Castile restricted Aragon. In order to achieve this goal, and assisted by his Admiral Don Bernat de Sarrià, Baron of Polop, he formed an alliance with the enemies of the adolescent king of Castile, James II wanted Murcia in order to give his kingdom access to Granada. The allied forces entered from all directions in 1296, where James II was victorious in capturing Murcia, in 1313, James II granted administrative and political autonomy to the Aran Valley, the legal details of which are described in a Latin manuscript called the Querimonia. The devolution of power was a reward for the Aranese pledging allegiance to James II in a dispute with the kingdoms of France, James was involved in the 1321 leper scare. He ordered the arrest and torture of French lepers seeking shelter in his realm and it was probably during his reign at Sicily that James composed his only surviving piece of Occitan poetry, a religious dansa dedicated to the Virgin Mary, Mayre de Deu. A contemporary, Arnau de Vilanova, wrote a verse-by-verse Latin commentary of the dansa in 1305, the metaphor James uses has been analysed by Alfred Jeanroy, who sees similarities in the Roman de Fauvel. The final verses ask Mary to protect him, the king, from sin, He married four times, — Isabella of Castile, Viscountess of Limoges, daughter of Sancho IV of Castile and his wife María de Molina. The wedding took place in the city of Soria, on 1 December 1291 when the bride was only 8 years old. The marriage, which was never consummated, was dissolved and annulled after Sanchos death in 1295, — Blanche of Anjou, daughter of his familys rival Charles II of Naples and Maria of Hungary
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James II of Majorca
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James II was King of Majorca and Lord of Montpellier from 1276 until his death. He was the son of James I of Aragon and his wife, Violant. In 1279, by the Treaty of Perpignan, he became a vassal of the Crown of Aragon and he also gained tribute from the fourth Balearic island, Minorca, which remained under Muslim control throughout his life. He ruled as a vassal of his brother Peter III of Aragon, in the Aragonese Crusade, James allied with Pope Martin IV and king Philip III of France against his brother, but was defeated in the Battle of Les Formigues in 1285. His nephew Alfonso III of Aragon annexed the Balearic Islands to Aragon in the conquest, following this reversion, James made an effort to improve the viability of the kingdom on the domestic front. He devoted himself to running his kingdom by reforming urbanism, establishing policy, emphasising defense. The opening of proceedings against the Knights Templar and their later suppression would allow the seizure of the tithes of the Templars on the islands. James wed Esclaramunda of Foix in 1275 through a marriage arranged by his own initiative, Esclaramunda was a daughter of Roger IV of Foix. They had six children including, James, who became a Franciscan monk before his fathers death, sancho, James IIs successor Sancha of Majorca, who married Robert of Naples. Philip, regent of Majorca during James IIIs minority Elizabeth, wife of Juan Manuel and he also had an illegitimate daughter, Saura, who married Berengeur de Villaragut. They had a daughter, Violante of Vilaragut and this article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. article name needed
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Epiphany (feeling)
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An epiphany is an experience of sudden and striking realization. Epiphanies are studied by psychologists and other scholars, particularly those attempting to study the process of innovation, epiphanies are relatively rare occurrences and generally follow a process of significant thought about a problem. Often they are triggered by a new and key piece of information, but importantly, the word epiphany originally referred to insight through the divine. Today, this concept is often used without such connotations. The words secular usage may owe much of its popularity to Irish novelist James Joyce, Joyce had first expounded on epiphanys meaning in the fragment Stephen Hero, although this was published posthumously in 1944. For the philosopher Emmanuel Lévinas, epiphany or a manifestation of the divine is seen in anothers face, in traditional and pre-modern cultures, initiation rites and mystery religions have served as vehicles of epiphany, as well as the arts. The Greek dramatists and poets would, in the ideal, induct the audience into states of catharsis or kenosis, respectively. In modern times an epiphany lies behind the title of William Burroughs Naked Lunch, a state, as Burroughs explained. Epiphanies can come in different forms, and are often generated by a complex combination of experience, memory, knowledge, predisposition. A contemporary example of an epiphany in education might involve the process by which a student arrives at some form of new insight or clarifying thought. Despite this popular image, epiphany is the result of significant work on the part of the discoverer, a common myth predicts that most, if not all, innovations occur through epiphanies. Not all innovations occur through epiphanies, Scott Berkun notes that the most useful way to think of an epiphany is as a bonus of working on tough problems. Most innovations occur without epiphany, and epiphanies often contribute little towards finding the next one, crucially, epiphany cannot be predicted, or controlled. Famous epiphanies include Archimedes realization of how to estimate the volume of a given mass, the biographies of many mathematicians and scientists include an epiphanic episode early in the career, the ramifications of which were worked out in detail over the following years. For example, allegedly Albert Einstein was struck as a child by being given a compass. Another, perhaps better, example from Einsteins life occurred in 1905 after he had spent an evening trying to reconcile Newtonian physics. Another famous epiphany myth is associated with Isaac Newtons apple story, another myth is that epiphany is simply another word for vision. Actually, realism and psychology make epiphany a different mode as distinguished from vision, in Christianity, the Epiphany refers to a realization that Christ is the Son of God
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Vision (spirituality)
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A vision is something seen in a dream, trance, or religious ecstasy, especially a supernatural appearance that usually conveys a revelation. Visions generally have more clarity than dreams, but traditionally fewer psychological connotations, visions are known to emerge from spiritual traditions and could provide a lens into human nature and reality. Prophecy is often associated with visions, in simple words, it is a religious experience in which the experience can be seen and hence it is called a vision. Visions are listed in chronological order whenever possible, although some dates may be in dispute. Vision of God in the Book of Ezekiel chapter number 1
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Jesus
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In Christology, the Person of Christ refers to the study of the human and divine natures of Jesus Christ as they co-exist within one person. There is no discussion in the New Testament regarding the dual nature of the Person of Christ as both divine and human. Hence, since the days of Christianity theologians have debated various approaches to the understanding of these natures. In the period following the Apostolic Age, specific beliefs such as Arianism and Docetism were criticized. On the other end of the spectrum, Docetism argued that Jesus physical body was an illusion, docetic teachings were attacked by St. Ignatius of Antioch and were eventually abandoned by proto-orthodox Christians. However, after the First Council of Nicaea in 325 the Logos, historically in the Alexandrian school of christology, Jesus Christ is the eternal Logos paradoxically humanized in history, a divine Person who became enfleshed, uniting himself to the human nature. The views of these schools can be summarized as follows, Alexandria, Antioch, Logos assumes a specific human being The First Council of Ephesus in 431 debated a number of views regarding the Person of Christ. At the same gathering the council debated the doctrines of monophysitism or miaphysitism. The council rejected Nestorianism and adopted the term hypostatic union, referring to divine, the language used in the 431 declaration was further refined at the 451 Council of Chalcedon. However, the Chalcedon creed was not accepted by all Christians, because Saint Augustine died in 430 he did not participate in the Council of Ephesus in 431 or Chalcedon in 451, but his ideas had some impact on both councils. On the other hand, the major theological figure of the Middle Ages. The Third Council of Constantinople in 680 held that both divine and human wills exist in Jesus, with the divine will having precedence, leading and guiding the human will. John Calvin maintained that there was no element in the Person of Christ which could be separated from the person of The Word. Calvin also emphasized the importance of the Work of Christ in any attempt at understanding the Person of Christ, the study of the Person of Christ continued into the 20th century, with modern theologians such as Karl Rahner and Hans von Balthasar. Balthasar argued that the union of the human and divine natures of Christ was achieved not by the absorption of human attributes, thus in his view the divine nature of Christ was not affected by the human attributes and remained forever divine
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Francis of Assisi
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Saint Francis of Assisi, born Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone, informally named as Francesco, was an Italian Roman Catholic friar and preacher. He founded the mens Order of Friars Minor, the women’s Order of Saint Clare, the Third Order of Saint Francis, Francis is one of the most venerated religious figures in history. Pope Gregory IX canonized Francis on 16 July 1228, along with Saint Catherine of Siena, he was designated Patron saint of Italy. In 1219, he went to Egypt in an attempt to convert the Sultan to put an end to the conflict of the Crusades, by this point, the Franciscan Order had grown to such an extent that its primitive organizational structure was no longer sufficient. He returned to Italy to organize the Order, once his community was authorized by the Pope, he withdrew increasingly from external affairs. Francis is also known for his love of the Eucharist, in 1223, Francis arranged for the first Christmas live nativity scene. He died during the hours of 3 October 1226, while listening to a reading he had requested of Psalm 142. Pietro was in France on business when Francis was born in Assisi, upon his return to Assisi, Pietro took to calling his son Francesco, possibly in honor of his commercial success and enthusiasm for all things French. Since the child was renamed in infancy, the change can hardly have had anything to do with his aptitude for learning French, as some have thought. While going off to war in 1202, Francis had a vision that directed him back to Assisi, in 1205, Francis left for Apulia to enlist in the army of Walter III, Count of Brienne. Francis lived the high-spirited life typical of a young man. In 1201, he joined an expedition against Perugia and was taken as a prisoner at Collestrada. It is possible that his conversion was a gradual process rooted in this experience. Upon his return to Assisi in 1203, Francis returned to his carefree life, in 1204, a serious illness led him to a spiritual crisis. A strange vision made him return to Assisi, deepening his ecclesiastical awakening, on a pilgrimage to Rome, he joined the poor in begging at St. Peters Basilica, an experience that moved him to live in poverty. Francis returned home, began preaching on the streets, and soon gathered followers and his Order was authorized by Pope Innocent III in 1210. He then founded the Order of Poor Clares, which became a religious order for women. As a youth, Francesco became a devotee of troubadours and was fascinated with all things Transalpine, in this account, he was selling cloth and velvet in the marketplace on behalf of his father when a beggar came to him and asked for alms
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Al-Ghazali
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Al-Ghazali has been referred to by some historians as the single most influential Muslim after the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Within Islamic civilization he is considered to be a Mujaddid or renewer of the faith and his works were so highly acclaimed by his contemporaries that al-Ghazali was awarded the honorific title Proof of Islam. Others have cited his opposition to certain strands of Islamic philosophy as a detriment to Islamic scientific progress, although he argued for the separation of philosophy and he was born in Tabaran, a town in the district of Tus, which lies within the Khorasan Province of Iran. Al-Ghazalis contemporary and first biographer, Abd al-Ghafir al-Farisi, records merely that al-Ghazali began to receive instruction in fiqh from Ahmad al-Radhakani, a local teacher. He later studied under al-Juwayni, the distinguished jurist and theologian, after al-Juwaynis death in 1085, al-Ghazali departed from Nishapur and joined the court of Nizam al-Mulk, the powerful vizier of the Seljuq sultans, which was likely centered in Isfahan. He underwent a crisis in 1095, and consequently abandoned his career. Making arrangements for his family, he disposed of his wealth, macdonald, the purpose of abstaining from scholastic work was to confront the spiritual experience and more ordinary understanding of the Word and the Traditions. After some time in Damascus and Jerusalem, with a visit to Medina and Mecca in 1096 and this seclusion consisted in abstaining from teaching at state-sponsored institutions, though he continued to publish, to receive visitors, and to teach in the zawiya and khanqah that he had built. He later returned to Tus, and declined an invitation in 1110 from the vizier of Muhammad I to return to Baghdad. He died on 19 December 1111, according to Abd al-Ghafir al-Farisi he had several daughters, but no sons. Al-Ghazali contributed significantly to the development of a view of Sufism and to its integration. As a scholar of orthodox Islam, he belonged to the Shafii school of Islamic jurisprudence, Al-Ghazali received many titles such as Sharaf-ul-Aʾimma, Zayn-ud-dīn, Ḥujjat-ul-Islām. He is viewed as the key member of the influential Asharite school of early Muslim philosophy, however, he chose a slightly different position in comparison with the Asharites, his beliefs and thoughts differ, in some aspects, from the orthodox Asharite school. Al-Ghazali wrote more than 70 books on the sciences, Islamic philosophy and his 11th century book titled The Incoherence of the Philosophers marks a major turn in Islamic epistemology. The Incoherence also marked a point in Islamic philosophy in its vehement rejections of Aristotle. The book took aim at the falasifa, a defined group of Islamic philosophers from the 8th through the 11th centuries who drew intellectually upon the Ancient Greeks. Al-Ghazali gave as an example of the illusion of independent laws of cause the fact that cotton burns when coming into contact with fire. Averroes, by contrast insisted while God created the natural law and this long-held argument has been disputed
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Tunis
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Tunis is both the capital and the largest city of Tunisia. The greater metropolitan area of Tunis, often referred to as Grand Tunis, has some 2,700,000 inhabitants. Situated on a large Mediterranean Sea gulf, behind the Lake of Tunis and the port of La Goulette, the city extends along the coastal plain, at its core lies its ancient medina, a World Heritage Site. Beyond this district lie the suburbs of Carthage, La Marsa, as the capital city of the country, Tunis is the focus of Tunisian political and administrative life, it is also the centre of the countrys commercial activity. Tunis is the transcription of the Arabic name تونس which can be pronounced as Tūnus, Tūnas, All three variations were mentioned by the Greek-Syrian geographer al-Rumi Yaqout in his Mujam al-Bûldan. Different explanations exist for the origin of the name Tunis, some scholars relate it to the Phoenician goddess Tanith, as many ancient cities were named after patron deities. Another possibility is that it was derived from the Berber verbal root ens which means to lie down or to pass the night, given the variations of the precise meaning over time and space, the term Tunis can possibly mean camp at night, camp, or stop. There are also mentions in ancient Roman sources of such names of nearby towns as Tuniza, Thunusuda, Thinissut. As all of these Berber villages were situated on Roman roads, the historical study of Carthage is problematic. Because its culture and records were destroyed by the Romans at the end of the Third Punic War and these writers belonged to peoples in competition, and often in conflict, with Carthage. Greek cities contended with Carthage over Sicily, and the Romans fought three wars against Carthage, not surprisingly, their accounts of Carthage are extremely hostile, while there are a few Greek authors who took a favourable view, these works have been lost. The existence of the town is attested by sources dating from the 6th century BC, in the 2nd millennium BC a town, originally named Tunes, was founded by Berbers and also over time occupied by Numidians. In 146 BC, the Romans destroyed Tunis, however, the city was subsequently rebuilt under the rule of Augustus and became an important town under Roman control and the center of a booming agricultural industry. Situated on a hill, Tunis served as an excellent point from which the comings and goings of naval and caravan traffic to and from Carthage could be observed. Tunis was one of the first towns in the region to fall under Carthaginian control, thus, during Agathocles expedition, which landed at Cape Bon in 310 BC, Tunis changed hands on various occasions. During the Mercenary War, it is possible that Tunis served as a center for the population of the area, and that its population was mainly composed of peasants, fishermen. Compared to the ancient ruins of Carthage, the ruins of ancient Tunis are not as large, according to Strabo, it was destroyed by the Romans during the Third Punic War. Both Tunis and Carthage were destroyed, Tunis, however, was rebuilt first, the city is mentioned in the Tabula Peutingeriana as Thuni
40.
Council of Vienne
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The Council of Vienne was the fifteenth Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church that met between 1311 and 1312 in Vienne. Its principal act was to withdraw support for the Knights Templar on the instigation of Philip IV of France. The Knights Templar were founded after the First Crusade of 1096 to ensure the safety of European pilgrims to Jerusalem, in the following centuries the order grew in power and wealth. In the early 14th century, Philip IV of France needed money urgently to continue his war with England and so he accused the Grand Master of the Templars, Jacques De Molay, of corruption and heresy. In 1307 Philip had many French Templars arrested, charged with heresies and this action released Philip from his obligation to repay loans from the Templars and allowed him to confiscate the Templars assets in France. Pope Clement V was under the control of Philip, one of the Popes predecessors, Boniface VIII, had claimed supremacy over Philip and had attempted to excommunicate him when Philip disagreed. However Boniface was seized at Anagni by a party of horsemen under the command of Philips men, though he was later released, the elderly Boniface died shortly after. Bonifaces successor, Pope Benedict XI, lasted less than a year before he too died, the Frenchman Pope Clement thereafter was strongly pressured to follow Philips directions. Pope Clement V caused the Council to meet by issuing the bulls Faciens misericordiam, the city chosen was Vienne, which is on the Rhône River in the south of modern France and at the time was outside the direct control of Philip IV. The neutral setting was intended to give the impression of independent action, the main item on the agenda of the Council not only cited the Order of Knights Templar itself, but also its lands, which indicated that further seizures of property were proposed. However the agenda also invited archbishops and prelates to bring proposals for improvements in the life of the Church, special notice were sent to the Templars directing them to send suitable defensores to the Council. The Grand Master Jacques de Molay and others had also commanded to appear in person. However, Molay was already imprisoned in Paris and trials of other Templars were already in progress and this delayed the opening of the Council, which finally convened on 16 October 1311. The attendees consisted of twenty cardinals, four patriarchs, about one hundred archbishops and bishops, plus several abbots and priors. The acts of the Council have disappeared, with the exceptions of a fragment in a manuscript in the National Library in Paris, the pope and the cardinals negotiated with the members of this commission respecting the matter. A commission of cardinals was also appointed in order to investigate grievances, the discussion of Knights Templar was then put in abeyance. The topic changed to the need for an expedition to the Holy Land, the delegates of the King of Aragon wanted the city of Granada to be attacked, to attack the Muslims on the flank, others wanted a crusade to the east only. In February 1312 envoys from the Philip IV negotiated with the Pope without consulting the Council, and Philip held an assembly in Lyon to put pressure on the Pope
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Hebrew
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Hebrew is a language native to Israel, spoken by over 9 million people worldwide, of whom over 5 million are in Israel. Historically, it is regarded as the language of the Israelites and their ancestors, the earliest examples of written Paleo-Hebrew date from the 10th century BCE. Hebrew belongs to the West Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic language family, Hebrew is the only living Canaanite language left, and the only truly successful example of a revived dead language. Hebrew had ceased to be a spoken language somewhere between 200 and 400 CE, declining since the aftermath of the Bar Kokhba revolt. Aramaic and to a lesser extent Greek were already in use as international languages, especially among elites and it survived into the medieval period as the language of Jewish liturgy, rabbinic literature, intra-Jewish commerce, and poetry. Then, in the 19th century, it was revived as a spoken and literary language, and, according to Ethnologue, had become, as of 1998, the language of 5 million people worldwide. After Israel, the United States has the second largest Hebrew-speaking population, with 220,000 fluent speakers, Modern Hebrew is one of the two official languages of the State of Israel, while premodern Hebrew is used for prayer or study in Jewish communities around the world today. Ancient Hebrew is also the tongue of the Samaritans, while modern Hebrew or Arabic is their vernacular. For this reason, Hebrew has been referred to by Jews as Leshon Hakodesh, the modern word Hebrew is derived from the word Ivri, one of several names for the Israelite people. It is traditionally understood to be a based on the name of Abrahams ancestor, Eber. This name is based upon the root ʕ-b-r meaning to cross over. Interpretations of the term ʕibrim link it to this verb, cross over, in the Bible, the Hebrew language is called Yәhudit because Judah was the surviving kingdom at the time of the quotation. In Isaiah 19,18 it is called the Language of Canaan, Hebrew belongs to the Canaanite group of languages. In turn, the Canaanite languages are a branch of the Northwest Semitic family of languages, according to Avraham ben-Yosef, Hebrew flourished as a spoken language in the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah during about 1200 to 586 BCE. Scholars debate the degree to which Hebrew was a vernacular in ancient times following the Babylonian exile. In July 2008 Israeli archaeologist Yossi Garfinkel discovered a ceramic shard at Khirbet Qeiyafa which he claimed may be the earliest Hebrew writing yet discovered, dating around 3000 years ago. The Gezer calendar also dates back to the 10th century BCE at the beginning of the Monarchic Period, classified as Archaic Biblical Hebrew, the calendar presents a list of seasons and related agricultural activities. The Gezer calendar is written in an old Semitic script, akin to the Phoenician one that through the Greeks, the Gezer calendar is written without any vowels, and it does not use consonants to imply vowels even in the places where later Hebrew spelling requires it
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Arabic
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Arabic is a Central Semitic language that was first spoken in Iron Age northwestern Arabia and is now the lingua franca of the Arab world. Arabic is also the language of 1.7 billion Muslims. It is one of six languages of the United Nations. The modern written language is derived from the language of the Quran and it is widely taught in schools and universities, and is used to varying degrees in workplaces, government, and the media. The two formal varieties are grouped together as Literary Arabic, which is the language of 26 states. Modern Standard Arabic largely follows the standards of Quranic Arabic. Much of the new vocabulary is used to denote concepts that have arisen in the post-Quranic era, Arabic has influenced many languages around the globe throughout its history. During the Middle Ages, Literary Arabic was a vehicle of culture in Europe, especially in science, mathematics. As a result, many European languages have borrowed many words from it. Many words of Arabic origin are found in ancient languages like Latin. Balkan languages, including Greek, have acquired a significant number of Arabic words through contact with Ottoman Turkish. Arabic has also borrowed words from languages including Greek and Persian in medieval times. Arabic is a Central Semitic language, closely related to the Northwest Semitic languages, the Ancient South Arabian languages, the Semitic languages changed a great deal between Proto-Semitic and the establishment of the Central Semitic languages, particularly in grammar. Innovations of the Central Semitic languages—all maintained in Arabic—include, The conversion of the suffix-conjugated stative formation into a past tense, the conversion of the prefix-conjugated preterite-tense formation into a present tense. The elimination of other prefix-conjugated mood/aspect forms in favor of new moods formed by endings attached to the prefix-conjugation forms, the development of an internal passive. These features are evidence of descent from a hypothetical ancestor. In the southwest, various Central Semitic languages both belonging to and outside of the Ancient South Arabian family were spoken and it is also believed that the ancestors of the Modern South Arabian languages were also spoken in southern Arabia at this time. To the north, in the oases of northern Hijaz, Dadanitic and Taymanitic held some prestige as inscriptional languages, in Najd and parts of western Arabia, a language known to scholars as Thamudic C is attested
